WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S4/Bonus Ep 4: A Girlfriends Guide to Making a Change 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.760 Hi, This is Rafara and the producer of The girl 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:07.040 Friends Untouchable. In this episode, we'll be exploring the lens 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.880 the authorities when to try and fight corruption in Kansas City. 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.440 While there's a lot of hope in this episode, as 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:14.640 well as stories of how people push back against a 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.840 broken system, there will also be some discussion of murder 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.840 and sexual assault. If you or someone you love has 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:23.959 been affected by any of the themes that come up 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.640 in this episode, we've left some links in the description 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:33.800 that offer resources and support. Take care of yourself. Okay, 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.839 let's address the elephant in the room. You are not 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.199 hearing the dulcet tones of Nicki Bridgardson or Kadija Hardaway. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.640 As you can probably tell, I don't even have an 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.839 American accent, but as the producer of this series, I 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.760 spent the past year having hours worth of conversations with 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.320 people from Kansas City about Roger Glubski and the corruption 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:58.400 his story exposed. However, Kansas City isn't an outlier. Police 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.840 corruption and institutional racist is an international problem that often 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.640 affects black and marginalized people the most. Stories like these 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.280 shake our trusts in the institutions designed to protect us. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.240 But we can't just sit by and despair. If we 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.560 want to see real change, It's up to us, the people, 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.280 to speak truth to power and hold these institutions to account. 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.280 In this series, we've had two different approaches to change 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.600 in the system. One group of people want to change 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.080 things from the ground up by challenging those institutions, like 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:40.240 Nikki and Khadija. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.200 You know me and you didn't go into this to 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.640 make friends, right. We went in there to do the 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:46.080 right thing. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.280 And we've also heard from people who want to change 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.480 the system from within, like Mark Debris, the first black 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.000 district attorney in Windot County's history, who came into public 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.000 service after a life of community activism. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:06.160 Lord pushed me into this to tackle injustice from the 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:07.400 inside out. 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.400 Given what people in Wye Dot County have been through, 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.480 it's not surprising that different groups have strong feelings about 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.239 how to move forward. Both are trying to change the 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.880 system for the better, but which method is more effective? 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.320 If you are really looking to change the system, you 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:24.960 can't do it by working within it. 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.640 I can sleep at night knowing that I did my 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.480 part bringing justice to this community. 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:46.360 Oh God, God, God, I'm refarra Masaruvera from the teens 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.120 at novel and I Hot podcasts. This is the Girlfriend's Untouchable. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.320 You Big. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:15.280 Bonus, Episode four, The Government's Guide to Making a Change. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.080 Mark Dupree is a man who's taken on various different 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.480 roles in his community. He's a pastor, a lawyer, an activist, 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.840 and a politician, and he believes that the systems checkered 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.040 past is exactly why good folks must get involved and 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:38.760 shake it up from the inside. 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.840 I was born and raised here in Kansas City, Kansas, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.840 in the Inner City. My parents were Pentecostal pastors, so 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.520 we did a lot of ministry work, dealing with gangs 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.320 and trying to help our community in ministry. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.720 Du Preden only want to get into law to fight 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.840 against injustice because was the right thing to do. One 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:03.680 of the reasons he wanted to get into the justice 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.760 system was because he belongs to the group most likely 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.840 to be racially profiled and mistreated by the police. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.120 As a black man in America, it was very clear 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.840 that the system had biases and still does and as 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.680 a black man in this country, growing up, I had 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.760 to learn how to adjust. I had to learn how 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.599 not to be a victim, and so I was taught 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.880 by my parents, right, if you're driving as a young 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.840 black man, to always have your wallet on the dashboard 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.280 and never to make any such movements. 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:41.880 He also knew that if a black man like him 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.800 became the victim of a crime, he couldn't necessarily trust 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.360 the cops to come to his rescue. 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.680 There was often victims of crime in my community and 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:55.880 we would see the perpetrator not be arrested, justice wouldn't come. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.880 That's why I became a criminal defense lawyer and see 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.680 the victimization of my community members in the system not 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.200 working to help them. It was at the age of 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.640 fourteen where I had an opportunity to meet an African 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.719 American judge and I went down to the courthouse and 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.680 I walked into the courthouse and that one day shadow 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:25.719 experience turned into a seven year mentor mentee relationship. He 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.080 taught me that I can do more than pray, that 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.000 I could be involved in the criminal justice system, and 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.160 that led me to go into law and graduate from 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:41.200 law school and worked for judge and then I did 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.800 public defense work for some years. 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.080 Growing up in the nineteen nineties, topre belonged to the 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.719 generation the felt the promise of the civil rights movement 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.400 had not been realized. The cracker cane epidemic and so 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.640 called war on drugs had devastated black communities across the 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.760 States in the late eighties and the early nineties saw 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.800 a of public unrests when the brutal beating of Rodney 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:07.440 King at the hands of police officers sparked the La riots. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.280 Coming out of the civil rights movement. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.080 We're trying to get into fairness and equality and that 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:18.520 everyone has a right, black, brown, broke everyone. We're all equal. Well, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.440 not everyone agreed with that. You have people who were 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.920 in authority and who could police those black and brown communities, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.800 but still have their same old school mentality that you 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.280 do what I say because I can make you do it. 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.159 Do pre went into practicing law with an air of optimism. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:40.720 He was ready to fight for justice and make a 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.479 difference in his community, but he quickly realized that the 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.080 actions of the courts and the law of prosecutorial incentives 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.400 could sometimes get in the way of justice. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:57.640 As a prosecutor, the old school mindset was the more 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:03.159 cases I win, the more convictions I get, the more 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.080 notches that come onto my belt and what you find 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:13.800 historically again across the country is you have forty six 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:21.720 percent of all wrongful convictions are due to prosecutorial misconduct. 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:28.240 The police were the ones who was given the authority 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:33.600 to keep everyone safe, while at the same time their 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:39.400 biases as human beings came through. Because of that a 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:44.080 culture that allowed that authority to go to some folks' heads, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.520 and if you were the badge at that time, you 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.520 got to do pretty much whatever you wanted to do. 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.760 And so how does something like this happen? I think 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.160 it's the lack of text and balances that was there. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.840 I think it absolutely was discrimination and racism that was occurring, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.680 and then the lack of accountability. Now, we later find 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.480 that in the eighties and in the nineties that that 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.480 police department was being investigated by the Department and Justice, 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.760 and was being investigated by others, but none of those 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.440 things were able to stick to the point that records 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.160 were shredded. 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.000 That's not the story of just that department. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.880 That's the story of this country specifically during that time. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.320 It was in light of these facts the Marketer Priest 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.520 set his sights on the District Attorney's office. 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:39.079 I decided to run for DA twenty fourteen. I ran 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.880 as the DA to make change, to hold people accountable, 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.960 to hear the community, and to be in the community. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:50.440 And that's what I did. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.719 And so the citizens of this community wanted to get 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.040 rid of all of those allegations of corruption, and quite frankly, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.080 many of those folks had experience and had been touched 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.800 by the system and the flaws that were in it. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:12.240 The community still believes in making these changes and holding 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.839 people accountable, not just those outside the system, but holding 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.400 people accountable inside the system. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.960 Mark Duprix was elected in twenty sixteen, taking office as 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.319 Kansas's first black DA in twenty seventeen. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:30.079 I am the only African American elected DA in. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:31.440 The entire state of Kansas. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.600 In twenty seventeen, I was, and I still am. Before me, 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.640 everyone who sat in this chief Law Enforcement official seat 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.520 at the DA was not a person of color, and 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:48.640 across the country to this day, ninety two percent of 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.000 those who are sitting in elected DA seats are white men. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.600 As soon as the assumed office, the people of Wyandot 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.959 County started knocking on his door, sending emails a mail 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.839 calls because the community was desperate for change. One of 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.840 Dupre's first major breakthroughs was the exoneration of Lamont McIntyre, 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:10.760 But that was just the start. 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.679 After we finished with Lamont's case, I had seen too 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.320 much information that said, you know what, I can't just 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.600 sit silent, right And many people said, well, Dupre, just 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:21.400 leave it alone. 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:22.640 You don't want to get into it. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.280 He's been a dedicated officer for all these years, you know, 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:26.960 just leave it up. 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.480 Well, that's that good old boy mentality. 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.200 I scratched your back, you scratched mind, and I felt 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.959 like that, Yes, McIntyre had an injustice done to him, 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.880 but quite frankly, for forty years this individual had been 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.160 on the force, and I dare not say that he 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.560 was the only one doing this type of foolishness. 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.880 Dupre had heard rumors that prosecutors, police officers, and people 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.880 working in positions of authority had abused their power, but 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.640 he was about to find out that that corruption ran 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.120 even deeper, realization that would force him to push back 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:11.600 against the very office he'd assumed. After the break, we'll 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:13.960 hear what Mark Deprix has been able to achieve and 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:35.640 explore some of the limits to his agenda for reform. 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:27.920 And go you, You, and God You. 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:35.680 After McIntyre was exonerated in twenty seventeen, Wyin Dot County's 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.840 first black DA, Mark Duprix got to work addressing the 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.959 issues he saw when it came to the way the 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.280 justice system treated people in his community. 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.480 Doing this work, I came to the conclusion that it 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:52.200 was not just about protecting those who are outside the system, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.800 but it is about making sure that the system itself 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.360 is doing what is right and what is just. It's 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.160 about doing justice and making sure that the victims of 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.720 all races are taken care of. And you don't just 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.520 win by any means necessary. You win based off of 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.000 the law, and if you lose based off of the law, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.719 guess what. The law still did its job. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.240 But he saw that the DA's office hadn't always made 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.720 fairness and justice to priority when it came to how 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.800 they treated people. In fact, he was kind of horrified 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.280 when he saw how elements within his new office had 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.760 operated in the past. He believed there had been miscarriages 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.079 of justice, threatening of witnesses, and a failure to take 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.520 a stand against sexual violence. Law enforcement wasn't just protecting 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.760 and serving his community the way they were supposed to 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.560 on some occasions they were actively harming them, and the 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.040 District Attorney's office hadn't been doing enough to challenge them. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.920 I'll tell you, I think it's important to note. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:13:00.600 It's one thing to know corruption exists, right, or you 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.280 you can feel they're not treating us right. It's something 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.520 to know that on the outside of the system looking in. 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:15.960 It's a whole other thing when you're actually in the 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.480 system and you're the DA and you. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:25.920 Actually have the evidence to show I wasn't dripping. This 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.560 was real. I knew they were biased. 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.080 I was like, oh, wow, really. 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:38.800 And so how did that make me feel? 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:44.320 It made me feel like, uh, you know, despite me 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.439 not ever wanting to be the prosecutor, I now see why. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.120 I see why I'm here. I believe the Lord pushed 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.160 me into this, and it was for a greater cause. 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.680 The system was broken. Wyandot County needed change and that 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.760 could only come with a real, true reckoning. Sir Mark 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.920 Dupre pushed for Prosecutor Tara Moorehead to be held to account, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.920 but going up against people in positions of power like 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:15.439 Morehead isn't easy. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.600 Tera Moore hit, who was a seasoned prosecutor who had 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.160 a desire to make sure she'd climbed the letter, but. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.880 Dupre looking into the mcintie case put a spotlight on 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.080 Tara Moorehead's history of alleged misconduct, an investigation that led 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.440 to her being called before a panel at the Kansas 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.480 Board for Discipline of Attorneys and surrendering her license to 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:42.400 practice law. The Kansas Supreme Court formerly dispired her in 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:48.080 April twenty twenty four, but one official facing scrutiny wasn't enough. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.120 The mcintie case had revealed a culture of intimidating witnesses 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.760 and failing to protect victims, a pattern that could only 0:14:55.840 --> 0:15:00.320 thrive in an office that lacked accountability. So duprisa to 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.880 try and create safeguards to protect victims and witnesses and 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.640 ensure the integrity of the justice process. 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.080 The law has changed quite a bit, right, you can't 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:10.920 threaten a witness. 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.040 That's the biggest thing. You can't threat witnesses. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:18.360 But more importantly, there are offices in place where now 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:23.920 those individuals have the ability to report when it happens, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:29.359 so that prosecutors who are going rogue, can get penalized, 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.760 can lose their license, not just their job, but their 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:37.280 license to practice law. So there's been huge change in 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.800 what I would say in reform into accountability for not 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.480 just prosecutors, but for lawyers and law enforcement alike. 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.600 As well as championing more community focused policing. The DA 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.400 set out to change the culture in his own office. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.440 I came in and I had to release I believe 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.760 six or nine prosecuting attorneys. It left me with very 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:02.520 few and I had to hurry up and hire a 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:03.600 whole bunch of new ones. 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.960 It's important to note that the Italese Daye pre released 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.560 are not publicly accused of or implicated in any wrongdoing. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.360 According to our reporting, Debrie's reforms drew a hard line, 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.440 which made him enemies the old God who were used 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.560 to being in power. We're not about to vanish withou 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:20.360 putting up a fight. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.640 It was tough, you know, all kinds of things. I 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.080 received death threats. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:31.520 All of this stuff happened because we wanted real justice 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:36.040 from the inside out. My children had to grow up 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.920 in a way that I didn't. They had to experience, unfortunately, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.760 teachers who were married to law enforcement who talk bad 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.240 about their father. Teachers would come to my kids and 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.960 tell them that your father hates police. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.280 But Dupre remained seidfast. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.480 I think the best thing that can happen for this 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:03.920 community is that they see accountability, that no one is 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:04.640 above the law. 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.080 Dupries started working with the FBI. He took them around 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.360 the community and they began digging around. 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.399 They sent it over to the US Attorney's Office for 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.360 actual prosecution, at which point then the question became, how 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.920 do we get some of these witnesses who may have 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:26.560 been victimized by this detective Dupries. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.360 Changes over the past few years have been wide ranging. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.240 Oh School prosecutors have been phased out, bad prosecutors have 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.520 been taken out of commission, and the police department's culture 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.800 has started to change, while some residents are still unhappy 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.840 about what they perceive as a lack of real measurable change. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.960 The way dupreputs it, why Dot County is moving forward. 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.679 We have a new police chief, an African American police 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.880 chief who grew up here in this community. As many 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.920 of those officers and detectives during that era has retired 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.919 moved on, and so we have a police department who 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.520 is really focused on justice and every community, and our 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:12.080 crime rate has gratefully decreased over twenty seven percent, and 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.040 where community based. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:15.800 We're focused on the community. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.120 What we've done in our office is made sure from 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.879 the top that training is known. We've also made it 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.480 very clear that witnesses and victims of crime are our partners. 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.400 They are not to simply do what we say when 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.639 we say it. It was normal practice for threats to 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.280 be made, and if prosecutors approach them as you need 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:39.960 to do what I tell you to do because I 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.400 need to close this case, then that's where the culture 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:49.360 of threatening witnesses, the culture of creating evidence, the culture 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:54.040 of withholding evidence, the culture of winning by any means, 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.480 that's where that culture is formed. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.359 So again, there's been great reform. We're focused on the 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.280 community and seeing. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.480 That they have individuals righting wrongs, built that trust that says, 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.600 maybe my grandmother couldn't trust them, but right now we 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.960 have the ability to trust in a law enforcement and 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:17.800 in a DA who really cares. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.119 When I initially talked to DA Dupree, I got the 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.840 sense that change was actually happening, that Kansas City and 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.639 the rest of Wine Dot County were about to transform. 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.399 Duprez are compelling talker. He knows the right points to 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.840 tana journalist, and hearing him speak sometimes felt like being 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.080 in a Sunday morning Salmon I was buying into the 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.439 vision he was laying out, and it felt like he 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.040 really did believe that you can change the system from 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.960 the inside. But there are people like our girl friends 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.960 Nicki and Kadija who believe that the most effective way 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.360 to create change is to challenge the systems of authority 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:03.240 and speak truth to which we'll hear more about after the. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:21.320 Break and you glad you and God you. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.359 Marked depres. Making history by becoming Kansas's first black district 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.840 attorney is something that Nikki and Kadija respect, But making 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.719 history doesn't make you immune to criticism. Each time I've 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.280 spoken to them, I've gotten this sense that there's still 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.840 a lot of unfinished business in wyan Dot County search 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:46.800 for justice. Some people feel that Dupree's administration hasn't gone 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.040 far enough when it comes to supporting the victims and 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.200 survivors who spoke up but haven't gotten justice yet. 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:59.119 In the case of Nico, her story was riddled with abuse, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.400 sexual rare meant by Gelupski, prosecutorial misconduct by Terror Moorehead. 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.080 Her story was not used to charge those people with 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.480 any crimes or look in and investigate into any of that. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:18.080 Nobody listened to her beyond exonerating Lamont McIntyre, and so 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.080 that left NKO feeling very used. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.280 The women has shared that stories put themselves out on 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.520 the line, and some of them aren't sure it was why. 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.240 That a lot of the pathways of justice was wrapped 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.119 up in that federal trial, and when Gulupski committed suicide, 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.199 that pretty much ended that pathway. We were working with 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:44.920 the Department of Justice on creating new pathways of systemic 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.800 change for wind Dot County to resolve some of these issues, 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.560 but the external factor of the Trump administration has completely 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:53.080 broken down that relationship. 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.479 When I spoke to Depris, it almost seemed as if 0:21:56.520 --> 0:22:00.320 he was describing an idealized version of Windot County. But 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.639 Nikki thinks this outlook missus the mock because she feels 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:05.560 like the old God still calls the shots. 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:11.040 The corruption, the nepotism, the lack of care about people 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.760 who don't look like you, or who are marginalized, or 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.280 who have a harder life, those biases really have seeped 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.919 their way into the culture of our local government and 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.720 it has really shaped the policies that have been made 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:25.560 over the years, and. 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.639 According to Niki, there are some straightforward changes that d 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.679 Dupree could push FORULL to improve the lives of people 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:32.560 in the community. 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.919 Mark dupri has every ability in his elected position to 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.600 do a lot more than what he is doing. I 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:45.680 strongly feel that Wandotte County should be decriminalized for marijuana use. 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.440 They use marijuana possession to target black and brown people, specifically, 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.880 especially in the East area. And he could just make 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.000 the decision that in his office he is not going 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.879 to prosecute marijuana possession, and then that d in Sient 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:04.240 advises the police department from even looking at marijuana possession, 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:07.159 and that protects his community. And that is something he 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:09.440 has the entire authority to do and he doesn't need 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.120 anybody else to do it. But he's not doing it. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.639 Policing the black and brown community is a part of 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.320 the system that upholds his job. Right, How can you 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:22.840 not try to do something more or at least be 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:24.720 more vocal about it in the public. 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:27.760 But Nicki and Kadija don't see it as just to 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.760 depreach you. It's an issue with power itself. 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:36.000 Can you really change the system by just working within it, 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:38.399 and there's a lot in you. You've got to have 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.400 more than just him, and then he's got whole thats 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:42.520 got to change the whole thing. 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:45.760 But while they were hesitant to work with the authorities, 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.119 they've seen the impact that being persistent can have on 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.320 creating change within the system, for example. And that's sup 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:56.800 pole of the Conviction Integrity Unit to presopp it was 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:00.000 an initiative to empower the community to challenge law and force. 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:03.960 It later became the Community Integrity Unit and now gives 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:07.520 the community even more powers to scrutinize and challenge law 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:11.480 enforcement in Wine Dot County, a sign that's sometimes working 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.600 together can be the most effective way to change things. 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:20.080 Unless the community rallied around Mark depri for an initiative, 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:23.480 he doesn't have much he can do without the backing 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.600 of community. That's how we got the Conviction Integrity Unit. 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:30.160 He would not have been able to do that had 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:34.000 we not supported that. If there was no grassroots organization 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:37.560 in Wine Dot County, this would not be happening. And 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.439 so every community does need to establish some sort of 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:47.920 grassroots organization that holds these government institutions accountable. What will 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.120 always work is fellowship and engagement, and as long as 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:57.879 we are continuing to build together and collectively sharing our 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:03.000 stories and collectively doing work, we outnumber them. And I 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:06.080 think being able to have avenues where the community can 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:09.440 actually see what's really going on behind the curtain would 0:25:09.600 --> 0:25:12.119 go a long way to make sure that there are 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:16.439 accountability measures in place, but also build trust. 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:20.479 Wyan Dot County and Kansas City, Kansas still have a 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:23.679 long way to go, but the Gallupski story made people 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:26.960 realize that nobody is above the law and a lot 0:25:26.960 --> 0:25:29.439 of progress can be made when a community comes together 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:37.560