All In with Chris Hayes, Transcript 03/20/15

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST (voice-over): Tonight on ALL IN: An incredibly racist fake movie trailer made by police officers in Ft. Lauderdale. FRANK ADDERLEY, CHIEF OF POLICE, FORT LAUDERDALE: There is someone with a hood, KKK, in the video. HAYES: Tonight, three officers are fired, another quits. How deep into the department does this go? Then, as the president reaches out directly to Iran -- BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To everyone celebrating Nowruz -- Nowruz Mubarak. HAYES: -- he gets slammed for his treatment of Israel. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: He has such an extraordinary sense of identity, with sympathy for many of the other Middle Eastern nation. HAYES: Plus, the ban on the words "climate change" under Florida Governor Rick Scott. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we wanted to keep our jobs, we better not use those terms. HAYES: Tonight, another worker says he was punished for his environmental views. He joins me live. And disturbing allegations from fraternities around the country, prompting new questions about whether the Greek system is completely broken. ALL IN starts right now. (END VIDEOTAPE) HAYES: (AUDIO GAP) New York. I`m Chris Hayes. Stunning video tonight out of Ft. Lauderdale`s Police Department, as officials announced the firing of three police officers and the resignation of another for racist text messages and the video. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADDERLEY: All four officers` conduct involved racist text messages exchanged between themselves and a former officer, Alex Alvarez, created a video that was racially biased. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: The text messages include comment such as, "get that N-word out from under that wagon," and quote, "We are coming and drinking all of your beer and killing" -- and the n-word again. As to the video, it is in the form of a movie trailer and suggests that, quote, "the hoods are coming after African-Americans." Here is the first 23 seconds of the video which includes offensive language. (VIDEO CLIP PLAYS) HAYES: The video goes on to show a KKK hood, an image of President Obama with a gold grill in his mouth and the gold necklace, a reference to a runaway slave, and an image of a black man on the ground as he is bitten by a dog. Police Chief Frank Adderley said the video was brought to the department`s attention by the ex-fiancee of one of the four officers and that it was seen by other members of the department. He said the offending officers claimed the video was a joke and that every Ft. Lauderdale police officer will now have to attend a, quote, "human diversity class on an annual basis." Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler insisted at today`s press conference the four officers do not reflect the department as a whole. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACK SEILER, MAYOR OF FORT LAUDERDALE: It`s a department of over 500 sworn police officers. You`re dealing with about 1 percent of the police department. That is not a reflection in my mind of a problem within the police department. It`s a reflection of a few bad apples in a bunch. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Joining me now, Dan Krauth, investigative reporter with WTVJ in South Florida, who was at today`s press conference. Dan, tell me a little bit more about how this all came to light. DAN KRAUTH, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, WTVJ-TV: Good evening, Chris, this all started with an estranged fiancee of a rookie 23-year-old police officer who made that video, that you just showed to your viewers here. She came here to the police chief, showed him the racist video and text messages. And that started the five-month long internal investigation which ended today, with the termination of three officers, and that rookie officer who actually resigned back in January before that investigation could end. HAYES: What kind of questions, and what kind of reaction was there in that press conference today. Obviously, this is pretty incendiary stuff. It`s coming on the heels of high profile cases of demonstrated racial bias in police departments. What kind of questions was the chief facing? KRAUTH: Well, I can tell you that a member of the Dream Defenders organization watched the video with me. She came her to the police department after she saw the press conference to the NBC News. She called the video hurtful, and she says this is deeply disturbing. And she says this all comes down to a problem of trust. They are unable to trust the members of a law enforcement community when something like this happens. I asked the police chief, what do these officers say in their defense? They said this was all a big joke, but obviously, no one is laughing here tonight. So, leaders are calling this despicable, deplorable, and quite frankly, very, very racist. HAYES: Yes. I mean, obviously, the police chief, as you can see there, is an African-American man. That said, you`ve got to ask if a video like this was created and this wasn`t just thrown together. I mean, there was some thought put into this. Presumably it was disseminated, presumably officers other than the officers who created it saw it and they didn`t say anything if, in fact, it was the ex-fiancee who`s the one who blew the whistle. KRAUTH: This could have went on and on, Chris. It is deeply disturbing because this was the first African-American police chief in the city of Fort Lauderdale. He started back in 2008. He was born and raised in this community. So, this behavior of his officers is very disturbing. This video was made on an iPhone app or iMovie. Now, we talked about the video, but there are a lot of disturbing text messages. I`ve been reading to 50 pages of text messages, very disturbing comment. The officers were back and forth over a few month period of time, used the N-word repeatedly, especially when talking about suspects who are captured, who are still on the loose. They referred to one as giving the noose to tie around their neck, and another text message, he said, we want to go into their community, drink their beer, and kill them. It talks about black people and how they also have the death penalty, very deeply and hurtful messages in those text messages that were released to us just a few hours ago. HAYES: Investigative reporter Dan Krauth, thank you very much. The news out of Fort Lauderdale comes on the heels of news that a Ferguson police officer was fired and two others were suspended after racist emails were uncovered by the U.S. justice department. Part of what the DOJ said was a pattern of racial discrimination in the department, which leads with the question -- if you were to do a department by department audit of thousands of police departments in this country, what exactly would you find lurking beneath the surface? Joining me now, Philip Atiba Goff. He`s co-founder and president of Center for Policing Equity, works with police departments on diversity training and racial equity throughout the country. What`s your reaction to that question as we see this really -- I mean, if you`ve got a change to look at the text messages, which are online, they`re genuinely despicable. I mean, they`re bragging about someone, almost dying in their care, it`s casual throwing around the N-word. I mean, what are we to make of this with the mayor`s testimony this is only four people out of 100? PHILLIP ATIBA GOFF, CENTER FOR POLICING EQUITY: Well, I think the thing we have to make of it is when you have these things that are sort of barroom or locker room behavior and there is a badge and a gun behind it, that the keyword is exactly is what the Dream Defenders said, the key word is trust. It`s not about the character of the four officers and whether or not we have a character problem. It`s about there`s an actual harm that`s being done when communities learn that this is what police officers are doing in their spare time, sometimes on social media, sometimes in videos spread around. And that harm to the community isn`t just hurt feelings. It`s a desire to call the police or not when something terrible has happened, which if they don`t call the police, puts the entire community in greater peril. It endangers public safety. HAYES: It`s really striking to me that the way this comes out is that the ex-fiancee of one of the officers brings the tape forward, because I got to think that it wasn`t not just the four officers who saw the video, it wasn`t just the four officers who heard them use the N-word. I mean, presumably there was folks around them who kind of knew what these guys thought and how they talked and that didn`t trip any wires. GOFF: Yes, and the question there is, well, what other sorts of behaviors were they doing on the job that should have been, right? So, it leaves a great doubt in all of our minds, because it`s possible that you got these people that think these incredibly hateful, vile, and disgusting things, and yet, they`re going along and doing their jobs fairly well. But that`s the seed of doubt that`s in all of the community`s members` minds at this point, right? That is not happening that way. HAYES: That is extremely charitable. GOFF: Right. HAYES: Let me just says, it`s deeply implausible to me that anyone with the kind of views expressed in these text messages or expressed in the video. And again, we showed you the part we can show you because the other parts are so patently offensive, we can`t show them to you. That these are just straight up stone cold, anti-black, racist -- with racist messages, that these folks can go in communities which we know from the press conference today were predominantly black communities interact with people there and do their job in a lot of -- with a modicum of professionalism. GOFF: That`s exactly right. And so, the possibility, I leave it out there, because I`m a scientist and we have to allow for that to be possible. But there is nobody in any black community that feels under siege by law enforcement that doesn`t feel like this is a kind of little vindication. Like maybe these are the e-mails that my officers are going through, and that`s the damage. That`s the absolute power, not just in Fort Lauderdale, but everywhere. And that`s I think what law enforcement has to take up as a mantle for change in this. You ask about an audit all nationwide, I`m hearing constantly from community members that says, you know what? Let`s get access to all the emails, let`s get access to all the text messages, because I am so concerned with what I see on television and what I`m seeing in my community, that I no longer trust that law enforcement not only shares my values, but that law enforcement sees me as fully human. That`s the thing that we`ve got to fix. When you`re saying, well, it`s a systematic problem in the department, if it`s seen that way, not just in your department but nationwide, then we got to do better than to say, well, this is an isolated event. HAYES: Yes, my mind went back to one nugget in the Cleveland Police Department, Department of Justice report which found pattern and practice of racial bias, in which there was a sign in one police precinct that refer to it as a forward operating base, which is a term from the U.S. Army, from the Marines, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. This idea of being in enemy territory, which I think is a view that you hear a fair amount from police officers if you frequent police message board and things like that, and shows up in this video. GOFF: That`s exactly right, and that`s when police are doing training, and that`s why we`ve been talking about training throughout the country, when we do the training in defensive tactics, it`s really important that their diversity training and that their community-oriented policing training isn`t separate from that, right? When they`re doing defensive tactics, the best defensive tactic they can do again is building community trust. HAYES: Right, having a relationship, viewing people as people, is part of actually the tactic of doing good policing and keeping your people safe. Phillip Atiba Goff, thank you very much. GOFF: Thanks for having me, Chris. HAYES: All right. We have a update on breaking news we reported last night, the investigation of a death of a African-American whose body was found hanging in a tree near Port Gibson, Mississippi. Authorities today confirmed that his name was Otis James Byrd. He was 54-years-old and had been missing for two weeks. There were no signs of a struggle, but while NBC News reports investigators are leaning towards suicide, officials say it is too early to say what happened. The FBI, the Justice Department civil rights division, the U.S. attorney`s office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are all still on the scene investigating. Primary autopsy results are expected next week. We`ll keep following the story and bring you the very latest as it develops. We`ll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Let me quickly correct something I said just a moment ago, the Department of Justice found a pattern of excessive force in Cleveland, not racial bias, in their report. OK. There`s nothing like a field trip to the statehouse to crush the spirits of a bunch of 9 and 10-year-old children. A group of fourth graders from Lincoln H. Ackerman School in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, put together a bill and got it introduced in the statehouse to name the red-tailed hawk as the official state raptor of New Hampshire. When Mr. Cutting`s fourth grade class arrived in the house gallery to watch their bill come up for a vote, they were greeted by enthusiastic applause from all around. The welcoming spirit was short lived, and Mr. Cutting`s fourth graders soon learned their elected representatives are not there to make friends. The arguments against their bill were many. The legislator has more important things to do. New Hampshire doesn`t really need a state raptor. More than one lawmaker questions the children`s choice of the red tailed hawk over other more deserving raptors. But perhaps the lowest blow came from Republican State Rep. Warren Groen who accused the children`s beloved red-tailed hawk of being pro- choice. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STATE REP. WARREN GROEN (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: It mostly likes field mice and small rodents, but it grasps them with its talons and then uses its razor-sharp beak to rip its victims to shreds and to basically tear it apart limb by limb. And I guess the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Kids, it`s never too early to learn about the pervasiveness of anti-abortion politics apparently. The bill ultimately failed. The children went home disappointed and according to their principal, asking questions about Planned Parenthood. No word on whether they`re looking for a new candidate for state raptor with stronger anti-abortion credentials. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: President Obama`s latest outreach to the Iranian people is bringing accusations he is selling out the U.S. and its closest ally. A new video message in honor of Nowruz, the Iranian new year, the president called on the people of Iran to speak up in the favor of piece. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: Our negotiations made progress but gaps remain. And there are people on both our countries and beyond who oppose a diplomatic resolution. My message to you, the people of Iran, is that together, we have to speak up for the future we seek. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: The message was not received well by conservatives here in the U.S. who oppose a nuclear deal and who accuse President Obama of renouncing Israel in favor of Iran. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unusual in American history -- a president addressing a serious adversary, an enemy of the U.S., where the leader leads chants of "Death to America" and in the midst of it, he takes a swipe at the most loyal ally in the region. Obviously, he was referring to Israel. If only he would address as warmly the Israelis as he does the Iranians and their leaders. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, likely presidential candidate, made a similar argument, while defending Israel in the Senate floor. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: They deserve to be treated with more respect, not less, than the respect this president and the White House is giving the supreme leader of Iran. For he would not dare say the things about the supreme leader of Iran now that he is saying about the prime minister of Israel, because he would not want to endanger his peace deal or his arms deal that he`s working out with them. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: According to Rush Limbaugh, the president was speaking directly to his people, the Iranians. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What in the world is going on here? So, the president of the United States addresses his people, the Iranians. Netanyahu wins in a landslide, and Barack Obama is so ticked off, he decides that Israel is not worthy of friendship any more because this victory of Netanyahu is such a diss that he`s going to side up to the Iranians? (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: That echoed an argument made earlier this week by Mike Huckabee, another potential 2016 candidate, that President Obama has a kind of natural allegiance with the model east. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) HUCKABEE: He has such an extraordinary sense of identity with and sympathy for many of the other Middle Eastern natures. I think he resents the strength of Israel. I think he resents very much the strength of Benjamin Netanyahu. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Meanwhile, John Boehner announced today that he`s planning to visit Israel and meet with Netanyahu, the man he invited to come lobby Congress after the president`s potential nuclear deal. The trip -- get this -- is scheduled to happen this month, just in time for the March 31st deadline for negotiations. Now, imagine the scenario if a deal actually comes through, with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives hold a joint press conference with a foreign leader to condemn a foreign policy breakthrough by his own president? That certainly would be unprecedented. All this comes as the nuclear negotiations enter a critical phase. Talks in Switzerland adjourning today. Secretary of State John Kerry travels to London tomorrow to meet with his counterparts for Britain, France and Germany, and try to solve the remaining issues. I spoke earlier with NBC`s Ann Curry and Hooman Majd who were reporting from Switzerland for an update of where the talks stand. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANN CURRY, NBC NEWS: They`re not resolved when it comes to the system, the plan, of sanctions relief. This, of course, would be about the sanctions that the world has imposed on Iran to try to limit its responsibilities involving nuclear development. And specifically one of the most important places that sanctions have come from is the United Nations. So, what`s going on is that, of course, Iran wants a pretty quick release of those sanctions once it agrees to all of the requirements in this deal. However, it`s very clear that the United States and many others who are in these talks want to prevent Iran from having too many sanctions relieved too soon. HAYES: Hooman, I`m curious how you think the letter by the Republican senators, authored by Tom Cotton, and the victory of Netanyahu and the pressure he`s placing on it, how the kind of access of resistance to this deal has affected the desirability or getability of a deal? HOOMAN MAJD, NBC NEWS: Well, I think the desirability hasn`t changed very much. Getability is perhaps a little affected. It has been reported that Iran has brought up both the letter and Netanyahu and even Congressman Boehner and other people involved in the resistance to the deal. That may be a negotiating tactic, to use that as a negotiating tactic to try to get concessions from the Obama administration that they might not ordinarily have gotten, but I don`t think it has been the single biggest factor for Iran. (END VIDEOTAPE) HAYES: While opponents of the deal may have failed thus far to sabotage the talks, you can bet they won`t let up with the deadline looming. In the minds of many conservatives, both in the U.S. and Israel, the Iran deal has come to stand in for their worst darkest fears about President Obama. It advances a narrative that`s been around since he first ran for president. Barack is illegitimate, his allegiances are fundamentally foreign, and aligned against the U.S. He is essentially a Manchurian candidate working for our enemies. And according to that world view, when it comes to these so-called clashes of civilization playing out between the West and Muslim world, President Obama is on the wrong side. Joining me now, Matt Duss, president of Foundation for Middle East Peace. And, Matt, I`m amazed at how quickly we have coalesced on this talking point across the board, Barack Obama is choosing Iran over Israel. MATT DUSS, FOUNDATION FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE: Right. I mean, there is a couple things you have to take here. First, on these criticisms of President Obama and his Nowruz message -- I mean, this is something he has done every year -- HAYES: Every year. DUSS: -- every year since he took office. And I think it`s a very smart tactic. And if you talk to actual Iranians, especially Iranian human rights and democracy activists, they recognize this is a very effective tactic. He is saying to the people of Iran, listen, the propaganda that you`re hearing is false. The United States does not hate you. We have a problem with the policies of your government but we want a peaceful relationship with you. Obama`s critics on the other hand want to tell the people of Iran, listen, your leaders are right, we hate you -- I just don`t get this. HAYES: That`s a really good point. There`s also the fact that, you know, the resistance that we`re seeing now, with the sort of digging in resistance but probably hate as much if not more than Tom Cotton or Netanyahu represents the fact that we could be in the precipice of a massive reordering of the geopolitics of the region, something akin to Nixon going to China, if that`s not too grandiose a precedent. DUSS: Well, I think at this point, it may be -- that may be a bit too far. I think President Obama`s goals here are a bit more moderate. He is saying let`s deal with this nuclear issue and if we can close this file and establish some measure of trust on this really outstanding issue, it might create the opportunity to move beyond this nuclear issue, into other issues, or we might be able to find common goals. It`s not to say that the U.S. and Iran will be the closest of friends despite what many conservatives would like us to believe. It`s just to say that we can kind of dial down the tension that has defined the U.S.-Iranian relationship for over 30 years. HAYES: I have been struck to another talking point we`ve seen emerged. General Petraeus saying that Iran is a bigger threat, a bigger enemy of the U.S. than ISIS. This comes on a day when a horrific, murderous attack, mosque in Yemen. It`s unclear who has done it. Though, some media are, ISIS is claiming credit for this, hundreds are dead, right? And I`ve seen already in last week, I saw a few different people, Tom Friedman in a column in "The New York Times", General Petraeus, Michael Oren, former ambassador to Israel, earlier, last year, basically saying, look, maybe if it`s between ISIS and Iran, maybe ISIS is actually the lesser of two evils. DUSS: That makes absolutely no sense to me, you know? I mean, let`s just look at what ISIS is doing, burning people alive, just beheading people all over the place. I mean, this just seems crazy to me. Listen, I don`t -- I`m not defending the Iranian regime. I don`t think anyone will. They`ve done countless bad things. They say horrible things. They have supported terrorism. But Iran, at the end of the day, is a state actor. We have cooperated with them in the past, in Afghanistan very productively until that was cut short by President Bush`s axis of evil speech. And while we`re on President Bush, I mean, if we`re calling someone, these critics suggesting that Obama loves Iran, let`s look at how Iran benefitted from the Iraq war. By that standard, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush are both sleeper Iranian agents. HAYES: Yes. Also, I should say that President Obama today calling for the release of a "Washington Post" reporter who is being held in Iran right now. DUSS: Also something he`s done in the past, criticizing Iran on their imprisoning of dissidents. HAYES: Jason Rezaian who has been held by the Iranian authorities, President Obama calling for his release and his colleagues. Matt Duss, thank you very much. DUSS: Thanks. HAYES: All right. We told you last week that officials in Florida`s Department of Environmental Protection were banned from saying the word "climate change" in official reports and communications. Now, an employee, current employee, says he was suspended for doing so. And that exclusive interview with him is ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HAYES (voice-over): Alice Groves`s daughter was found dead in this abandoned warehouse on Chicago`s west side of July of 2013. The police report indicates the body of Tiara Groves was found naked and decomposing with evidence suggesting she`d been bound and gagged. She was just 20 years old. The Cook County medical examiners office could not determine a specific cause so they determined of Tiara Groves a homicide by unspecified means. A copy of the death certificate obtained by All In through Chicago Magazine also noted recent heroin and alcohol use, which it said contributed to what was not an underlying cause of, her death. One homicide in a city where every year there are hundreds. (END VIDEOTAPE) HAYES: We`ve got an update on a story we first brought you last summer involved in the case of 20-year-old Tiara Groves of Chicago. Groves`s death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner and was later reclassified by the Chicago by the Chicago police department from a homicide to a noncriminal death investigation. Last week two people were charged with concealing her death, not with murder. The two charged were identified as 30-year-old Leondra Martin, a friend and neighbor of Groves, and 39-year-old Desmond Collins, a convicted sex offender. They could face up to three years in prison if convicted. Chicago Tribune reports Collins told police that Tiara Groves overdosed on heroin at a local hotel and he and Martin later wrapped her body in a sheet, carried it to a car and ultimately hid it in a warehouse. Chicago police spokesman said the two staged the scene to make it look like Groves had been killed inside that warehouse. The Groves case was highlighted in an investigative series by Chicago magazine alleging the Chicago police department under reported the number of homicides in the city in 2013 by reclassifying certain cases as death investigations. We went to Chicago to look into the story and spoke with the Groves family. Here is what Tiara`s mother Alice told me last year. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: So you lost your daughter and you`re told it`s a homicide. Is there any point where the police come back to you, the detective come back and say actually we have determined that we don`t have sufficient evidence to determine this is a homicide. We`re reclassifying this as a death investigation. Do they ever say that to you? ALICE GROVES, TIARA GROVES` MOTHER: No. No one never... HAYES: No one ever comes to you and says this is not a homicide. We`re so sorry. But we don`t have enough, we just can`t do it. They don`t come to you? GROVES: Nobody come tell me nothing, nothing at all. It was like she was a piece of trash just throwed away. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Alice Groves now tells the Chicago Tribune that charging two people with concealing Tiara`s death is not justice. Quote, "they got away with murder." Tiara`s sister Kenyatta Groves (ph) told All In this week her family found the charges devastating and believe it`s all about the numbers for the Chicago police department. Tiara was, as Kenyatta (ph) told us, the backbone of our family. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: New developments tonight on a story we first brought you last week from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting that officials in Florida`s Department of Environmental Protection were banned from using the words climate change in official reports and communications and that this unwritten policy began in 2011 after Rick Scott, an established climate change denier, came into office. Now we spoke to Christopher Byrd, a former senior assistant general counsel for Florida Department of Environmental Protection. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTOPHER BYRD, FRM. COUNSEL, FLORIDA DEP: Shortly after Rick Scott was elected in 2010 and was inaugurated at the beginning of the next year, 2011, the general counsel`s office called a staff meeting with all of the lawyers to warm us that things were going to change a under the new administration. And within those changes were certain policies that would prohibit us from using these terms: climate change, global warming, sustainability and even sea level rise. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Now, Governor Rick Scott denied this reporting. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, were you aware that scientists were being told not to speak about climate change? And will scientists in the future be able to speak about climate change in their studies? RICK SCOTT, GOV. OF FLORIDA: First off, that is untrue. At our Department of Environmental Protection -- looks there`s lots of conversations about this issue. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: OK, that`s untrue he says. But despite that official denial, straight from the governor`s lips, further reporting from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting indicates the ban is widespread across multiple government agencies, not just the DEP. And in fact just yesterday we got to see what that looked like as a real life example in action. At a Florida Senate subcommittee hearing, Governor Scott`s chief of emergency management Bryan Koon seemed so determined not to say or even repeat the words climate change that lawmakers in the hearing created a running joke about it. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDE CLIP) BRYAN KOON, FLORIDA CHIEF OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: What were those words you were using? SATE SEN. JEFF CLEMENS, (D) FLORIDA: I used climate change. But I`m suggesting as a state we use atmospheric reemployment. That might be something that the governor could get behind. So... KOON: So -- but my understanding is at this point is that we will require that future versions of our mitigation plan will be required to have language discussing that issue. CLEMENS: What issue is that? KOON: The issue that you mentioned earlier regarding... CLEMENS: I`m going to turn the chair back over -- well, maybe I shouldn`t right now. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: All right, now on top of all of this, there is a current Department of Environmental Protection employee who says he was suspended from his job for sharing his views on the Keystone XL pipeline and climate change during a coastal managers forum in Tallahassee. DEP officials say he`s on leave. And that man joins me now. Bart Bibler, an employee of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Mr. Bibler, tell me what happened. BART BIBLER, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: I participated in a conference call. And one of the agenda items on the Florida coastal managers forum conference call was a report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission regarding habitat and wildlife adaptation to sea level rise. The next agenda item was agency updates where several other agencies said that they did have some plans regarding sea level rise, or climate change. And as I was introduced, I first said that I was glad to see that the subject was being discussed in land management plans. My role at DEP is coordination of all state land management plans. And yet that I personally had a strong position on stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, because to me it is the litmus test of whether we`re going to deal with climate change or not. HAYES: OK, so you said that in this conference call, which seems maybe slightly off topic, but not a huge violation, what happened next? BIBLER: The conference call moderator was very shocked by my statements, asked me whether that was my personal opinion or the position of my division of state lands. I made clear it was my personal position. She also said she was concerned whether the Florida Coastal Managers Forum would be allowed to continue having conference calls as though I had done something that crossed the line. HAYES: And then what happened next? BIBLER: I -- after the conference call, I typed up my notes about the different reports by different agencies regarding sea level rise and climate change and I sent I sent it to my boss and her boss, the division director, as well as the conference call moderator. HAYES: And how did they respond? BIBLER: Well, the moderator was concerned because the way I typed up my notes was using her word document of the agenda, and just adding those reports. And she thought that I was trying to make it look like her agenda had these reports with the words climate change and sea level rise in them. So she called my boss who then directed me to revise the document so that I removed the word agenda and showed that this was a meeting summary, partial meeting summary, which I did. And I resent the document. HAYES: And then you were ordered to seek psychiatric evaluation? BIBLER: Well first, I was given a reprimand, and told to take two days of annual leave, and not come to the office. At the end of the second day of annual leave my boss delivered to me a letter stating I was to be on compulsory lead indefinitely until I got a doctor to state that I was fit to return and conduct my job responsibilities. HAYES: Wait. OK. And this is all because you said you thought the Keystone pipeline was a bad idea, it was your personal opinion and then wrote up notes in a way that made the conference moderator fear you were imputing to her an official agenda that dared to use the terms global warming, climate change, sea level rise? BIBLER: That is correct. HAYES: So what -- now are you still an employee? BIBLER: I am still an employee, but I`m must obtain a psychiatrist to essentially to sign these release forms stating that I am fit to return to my job. HAYES: You have to get someone to say you`re sane because you spoke up about the fact that Florida is going to be swallowed by sea level rise is what you are saying. BIBLER: Essentially yes. HAYES: This is remarkable. Well, we`re going to stay on this story. We`d love to get some official response. Governor Scott, if you or any of your people are watching this, anyone from the DEP, we would to talk to you, get your account of this. Bart Bibler, currently an employee of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as it stand now. Thank you very much. BIBLER: Thank you. HAYES: Can you -- all right. Here is a question, should fraternities be banned permanently everywhere? We`re going to talk about that ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Well, file this one under too good to check, there is a delicious rumor swirling around the internet today that President Obama may have bought the Hawaiian estate used in the filming of Magnum P.I., the 1980s detective series starring Tom Selleck. TOM SELLECK, ACTOR: What`s going on? No, no, not my house. HAYES: Also possibly he`s going to buy those shorts. Magnum P.I. of course, lived in the guest house on the beachfront estate known as Robin`s Nest. The estate, the real one, was listed by Sotheby`s International Realty, sold for $8.7 million. It looks like a pretty nice place. So, did President Obama buy it? We got the answer today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sale of a well known home in Hawaii, once again, sparked rumors that the president has personally may have purchased property apparently was bought by a Chicago attorney that has ties to the first family. Any truth to this? Are the Obamas behind this purchase? JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They are not. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: So who did buy the estate? According to the associated press, it was a close friend of the presidents, one of his best friends, a man by the name of Marty Nesbitt who didn`t have any partners or co-investors in the deal. Nesbitt is a businessman from Chicago who was treasurer for President Obama`s run and is chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation which will build the president`s future library. Still unclear is whether the house will come with the two lads (ph). (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The slightest variation from their routine could result in unpredictable and dangerous mood swings. SELLECK: We certainly wouldn`t want that, would we? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Tonight All In can report that North Carolina State University has temporarily suspended all social activities, including alcohol, for the school`s fraternity community. That move comes less than 24 hours after the administration put Pi Kappa Phi on interim suspension after what appears to be their pledge book surfaced filled with racist and sexually violent handwritten notes. North Carolina TV station WRAL obtained the book, which had comments like, quote, "dude if she`s hot enough she doesn`t need a pulse." "The tree is so perfect for lynching." "It will be short and painful just like when I rape you." And quote, "You can never trust an [n-word] as far as you can throw them." We have not been able to independently verify the contents of the book, which had been condemned by both NC State and the fraternity`s national organization. It`s the second suspension of a fraternity at the school in just a month. Alpha Tau Omega was suspended several weeks ago after drug and sexual assault allegations surfaced. Meanwhile at Pennsylvania State University, revelations the fraternity kappa Kappa Delta Ro kept a private Facebook page with 144 active members that posted photographs of hazing, drugs and naked, unconscious women. The chapter has since been suspended and a criminal investigation is underway. Earlier this month, video emerged of members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the Univeristy of Oklahoma singing a racist song. The university expelled the two students in the video, the Oklahoma SAE chapter has been shut down. There is ample evidence, though, these incidents are not isolated. SAE itself has said, quote, several other incidents with chapters or members have been brought to the attention of headquarters staff and people are continuing to come forward with their experiences with the Greek system. In a fantastic piece titled "A Black Girl`s History with South Frat Racism," Buzzfeed`s Tracy Clayton talked about, among other things, arriving at Transylvania College in Kentucky freshman year to find a confederate flag in every window on the second floor one of the boy`s dorms. She would later find out the floor with the Confederate flags in the windows was inhabited by the men of Kappa Alpha Order, known as KA. We`re going to speak to the author of that piece next and ask the question are we looking at a few bad chapters at a few schools or an entirely broken system? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: All right joining me now Tracy Clayton, the aforementioned staff writer at Buzzfeed who wrote the essay "A Black Girl`s History With South Frat Racism" about her time at Transylvania University, not college, I got that wrong; and Mike Peska, host of the Slate daily podcast The Gist, contributor at NPR and a former member of AE Pi at Emory University... MIKE PESKA, SLATE: That is correct. HAYES: And some bigwig at the Inter Greek Council. PESKA: I was the vice president of the IFC. I was also softball official of the year, but that`s the first was probably more to the point. HAYES: Oh, that`s for Monday`s final block is on software. PESKA: Right. We`re doing to the infield fly rule. HAYES: Your story was, first of all it was a great story. It was very powerful. Just tell me a little bit about what your experience was like out at Transylvania. TRACEY CLAYTON, BUZZFEED: Long story short, it was kind of a mess, sort of. I like to say that I got two very great educations. I got a great education inside the classroom, because it a really, really good, really, really distinguished school. They like to call themselves the Harvard of the south. I figure everybody likes to call themselves the Harvard of something. HAYES: Of someplace, right. CLAYTON: You know, but I also got a really great social education outside the classroom. Transylvania is a very small, very white liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky. I`m from Louisville, Kentucky about an hour-and-a-half away. And when I started I think we had like ten black students either on campus or in the class, I`m actually not too school, but it was a school record. The school was founded in 1780 just to put that in perspective. So it had taken like that long to get ten black students in one space at Transy. And you just really feel the pressure of being "the only one" in a situation like that. And as if being like the only black person wasn`t enough, we had just so much Confederate regalia and pageantry all around the campus. And every day was just going to class passing rows of Confederate flags. HAYES: Particularly this fraternity Kappa Alpha, which sort of occupied this floor in one of the dorms that sort of just had Confederate flags up, had like southern heritage history days where people kind of dress up like they were in the 1850s. CLAYTON: Well, sill some background, the actual dorm is named after Jefferson Davis who was an alumni of Transylvania. Just to jog your memory, he was the president of the Confederacy. So the second floor of Davis Hall, which is where the fraternities lived, there was -- the first thing I saw when I got to campus to move in was a Confederate flag in each and every window on what I think was the second floor. It could have been the third. And it turns out that those flags were there, because it was one of the unofficial emblems of the KA fraternity. HAYES: The KA fraternity who takes as their spiritual founder Robert Lee. CLAYTON: Yes. Robert E. Lee is their spiritual founder who, of course, was Robert E. Lee. HAYES: So let me just sort of pause there, right. So obviously this is something that isn`t necessarily a story particularly about fraternities, because it`s more about sort of southern institutions, but fraternities are part of that. We saw that with SAE obviously in Oklahoma, right? Like southern racism -- it doesn`t need fraternities to exist, but there is a connection insofar as the institution of Greek Life is coming from a time where a bunch of basically white dudes got around and broed down with each other in a way that maybe when that`s continued into 2015 like has a lot of reactionary aspects to it. PESKA: The history of fraternities are interesting. And they were founded as a reaction to strictures in society, and they kind of waned during the Vietnam War when the whole culture became the counter culture. Now they`re coming back. Great guys, but for their formal would dress up as Confederate generals, and the girls would rent outfits as southern bells. That was -- now to be fair, this was 1890s, no it wasn`t it wasn`t it was the 1990s. But you know, the president -- I told you I was vice president of the IFC, the president was a Jewish guy from Long Island who was also a KA. Does that make sense? So, the symbols, though offensive, I don`t even think -- I don`t even know that they knew necessarily how offensive they were and I think that has changed. And I`m not here to defend the KAs who are great guys to bro down with, but definitely weren`t doing the right thing at Transylvania. HAYES: Well, but then here`s the question, why -- so let`s start from ground -- like should we have -- why should we keep them? PESKA: I think... HAYES: Why should there be Greek? PESKA: I`m not here to defend the excesses, the bad ones. I`m also not going to do the thing the few bad apples and there are racist grocers and there are racist toll collectors, there are racists in all walks of life. I think it`s complicated. I think that society has a little bit of an issue with men of the ages of 18 to 22 when we used to make them warriors and now what do do with them? And we see from time to time when they`re in the military, sometimes there are problems. When they`re on sports teams sometimes there are problems. When you get a bunch of young men together of that age, sometimes there are problems. I got great stuff out of my fraternity. My best friends from life were in many fraternity. I wouldn`t want to throw that away. I would also say without a fraternity, I might be great friends with a bunch of good guys, sure. HAYES: If you go back and you rerun your experience at Transylvania and you take away Greek life, do you think your experience both as a student, as a black student improves? CLAYTON: Yes. I would have immediately felt more welcome. And I would have felt safer. I really can`t -- it was -- it kind of blew my mind that I had to explain to people that seeing these Confederate flags do not make me feel physically safe, seeing people walking around draped in these Confederate flags do not make me feel safe. And it`s a distraction to me as I`m on this campus spending a bunch of money trying to get an education. So without like the trinkets of the Confederacy just strewn all about campus, I would have had more energy to focus on what I was there to do. It still would have been hard, because I still would have been one of ten, 20 black students, but it would have been... HAYES: But that institution was a place, was a kind of -- a focus, a central point for that kind of nostalgia and that kind of sort of celebration of this white supremacist past. CLAYTON: Yes, it was. And Transylvania in particular from what I have been told, what I know, is sort of run by a lot of old Confederate money. Like there were a lot of old distinguished families in life and then they gave a lot of land and a lot of money to the school. HAYES: Can fraternities change in sort of meaningful ways, right. I mean, there`s something you`re pointing to which is profound, which is like 18 and 22-year-old men are like kind of a problem as a generalization. Can they change? PESKA: Yeah, and I think they are. And I think I would fault the school as much as the fraternity. The fraternity takes its cues from what`s allowed. And I think just being in that hot house environment, in that that ecosystem you can make mistakes. I think about the story you told about the N.C. State kids, like on the one hand it`s a terrible thing, on the other hand is it a national story? We all said stupid things. Though the racism does really bother me. HAYES: We didn`t institutionalize and passing it down in this kind of pattern and practice, that to me is the problem, yeah. PESKA: And it`s good that they`re getting a come uppance. HAYES: Tracy Clayton, Mike Peska, thank you. That`s All In for this evening. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END