Speaker 1: What's her family? I'm to meet A D. Mallory. This
Speaker 1: your and we are your hosts of street politicians the
Speaker 1: place me what's up nice? How are you today? I
Speaker 1: am blessing Holly fav and Queen how are you doing
Speaker 1: to that? So we are just returning from trade weekend.
Speaker 1: I said trade week because I feel like I was
Speaker 1: there for a long time. In fact, when we take
Speaker 1: one of the interviews that's coming up in the show today,
Speaker 1: I was actually on my way to the airport and
Speaker 1: the only time that Mayor Ross Baraka had was right
Speaker 1: in that moment, and so we just stopped and got
Speaker 1: on and did the interview with him. And I'm glad
Speaker 1: you did that and now and we'll be showing folks
Speaker 1: in a few moments um what took place in that interview.
Speaker 1: But Trade weekend was I'm really proud of you. You know,
Speaker 1: I was there before you and so you were not
Speaker 1: there for the very first event, which I thought was
Speaker 1: just so I mean, it moved me and it kind
Speaker 1: of set the tone for the rest of the weekend
Speaker 1: from my perspective because I was there when they did
Speaker 1: a ribbon cutting, which was actually a rope cutting at
Speaker 1: how the homemade ice cream. It is a Houston based business.
Speaker 1: I think it is Houston base, but certainly, UM, we
Speaker 1: were at a Houston location and a large part of
Speaker 1: their employee base are people who have disabilities, and so
Speaker 1: all of the employees UM who have who are who
Speaker 1: have different issues, they were coming out. They were so
Speaker 1: happy to see Trade there. UM hundreds of people showed
Speaker 1: up to get free ice cream. The mayor was there
Speaker 1: supporting Trade, UM and I and this partnership gives Pimity
Speaker 1: opportunity to bring more people, people who look like us
Speaker 1: to the work force and UM and to this partnership
Speaker 1: with how the homemade ice cream. And I think it
Speaker 1: was just a real example of who he is and
Speaker 1: setting the tone for what the life of traded truth means.
Speaker 1: I don't think that he is going to receive his
Speaker 1: full acknowledgement and flowers until much later on in life,
Speaker 1: because the best is yet to come. But at this point,
Speaker 1: if tomorrow, which you know it won't happen, of course,
Speaker 1: but if tomorrow Trade just said, um, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to to another country on finished for whatever reason. Uh,
Speaker 1: He's done a lot. He's done a lot of great work,
Speaker 1: and the the the I guess the example of that
Speaker 1: or the roots of the work, the the evidence of
Speaker 1: his work was all over an entire weekend, several days
Speaker 1: of individuals showing up to support him, to show their love.
Speaker 1: A Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee being in the building, she
Speaker 1: always saw a supports Trade Rihanna Taylor's mother to meet
Speaker 1: the palmer. Who else did George Floyd's family supported him?
Speaker 1: Of course, you know his George Floyd's cousin two d
Speaker 1: is what we call her. She was with us all weekend,
Speaker 1: but you know, her mom and her aunts and others
Speaker 1: just being there to let Trade know that he is
Speaker 1: he is loved and appreciated. And of course attorney he married,
Speaker 1: who is going to be the next Attorney General of
Speaker 1: the State of Texas. And you know, until Freedom was
Speaker 1: in the building. So it just was a great weekend
Speaker 1: and I'm really glad that we took the time to
Speaker 1: spend with our brother Trade. To Trude, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Just just Trade stamina is just amazing
Speaker 1: to me. It's not like he was just present. You know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to just come and be present, but to
Speaker 1: be directing, to be organized in every event for four
Speaker 1: days streight where it is probably about an hour two
Speaker 1: in between each event. You know, he's full driving, hands on,
Speaker 1: making sure that everybody who came there with him was
Speaker 1: taking care of He's checking on you every five seconds.
Speaker 1: You're good, everything is good, you know, And understanding being
Speaker 1: an organizer, being an organizer, being that plane doing all
Speaker 1: those things, and understanding how wanted two events. I have
Speaker 1: you exhausted, But to watch this man constantly do that
Speaker 1: for four days straight without rest, which is phenomenal man.
Speaker 1: And he had so many different artists, you know, Trades
Speaker 1: first and foremost, he's a rap artist and he least
Speaker 1: he's real passionate about it's his music. So a lot
Speaker 1: of artists came out and show love. Yet you know, Davies,
Speaker 1: you had Herbo, you have my Boy to Rest, to Sean,
Speaker 1: you had um um so many I can't even you,
Speaker 1: said Chappelle. There was a lot of people the way.
Speaker 1: It was just so many people that just came up
Speaker 1: the show love for Trade Man and being his brother.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm proud just to be able to say
Speaker 1: I know Somebney like Trade is just phenomenal. So so
Speaker 1: if you haven't been to Trade aides slash trade weekend
Speaker 1: slash Trade week You're missing a big thing. Man. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a phenomenal event. So shout out to
Speaker 1: brother Yes, shout out to our brothers. So and you know,
Speaker 1: the other thing that I was really proud of is
Speaker 1: that throughout the entire weekend, you know, I didn't see
Speaker 1: many violent outbursts or people who were, you know, so
Speaker 1: frustrated in the heat that you know, we can get,
Speaker 1: we can get really really like frustrated, and it could
Speaker 1: be a lot of tension. You couldn't really see that
Speaker 1: because I think that Trade sets intention uh to be
Speaker 1: a person who folks know that what he's about is
Speaker 1: extremely positive. That doesn't mean in any way, shape or
Speaker 1: for him, and he won't chat because he will Uh.
Speaker 1: He's definitely a man's man. But Um, there's something about
Speaker 1: the energy of people around that they know this is
Speaker 1: not the time. And there's certain people who I how
Speaker 1: I noticed school who I think would never come around
Speaker 1: because it's not the type of environment that they are
Speaker 1: looking to foster. And it just kind of brings me to, um,
Speaker 1: what I've been seeing you talk about over the last days.
Speaker 1: Although UM, I am always cautious and concerned whenever I
Speaker 1: feel like you are engaged in conflict with people who
Speaker 1: I think are um, you know, real extra sensitive people
Speaker 1: who can't take a lot of UM critique. UM. You
Speaker 1: take a lot of people who have so much to
Speaker 1: say about what you should do, what you did, what
Speaker 1: you didn't do, what happening your younger ears, people talking
Speaker 1: about your life, your career, um, and you deal with it.
Speaker 1: And even though at times I'm sure it's frustrating, it's
Speaker 1: when people say things that's just not true, especially people
Speaker 1: who you actually know. But you do deal with it
Speaker 1: and and and really brush so much of it all.
Speaker 1: But not everybody has the same ability to do that.
Speaker 1: And what I know is from a lot of people,
Speaker 1: but particularly a lot of cowardly men, is that their
Speaker 1: response to dealing with someone that puts a mirror up
Speaker 1: to them is not always safe, it's not always good.
Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of the people who
Speaker 1: you particularly challenge are individuals who have already proven themselves
Speaker 1: to be, uh, you know, to be to be folks
Speaker 1: who are not They're not they're not they're not, in
Speaker 1: my judgment, really, they have no real care about community.
Speaker 1: They're not really trying to save lives. They're not really
Speaker 1: invested in anything that would bring positivity or change or
Speaker 1: uplift man. I mean even some of them will challenge
Speaker 1: you like, well, why haven't you done this or that?
Speaker 1: But they've never done it. They never would, they never
Speaker 1: participate and invest in those things. And so I'm always like,
Speaker 1: why do we even waste side time talking to these individuals?
Speaker 1: And I guess there's a method to your strategy of
Speaker 1: making sure that you provide alternative um message to our youth,
Speaker 1: But it just gets frustrated to watch sometimes because I
Speaker 1: don't feel like those individuals that you're talking to or
Speaker 1: about are ever really gonna change, because it seems like
Speaker 1: they've been sent here by somebody or something to do
Speaker 1: exactly what they're doing, which is to cause disruption. Disruption
Speaker 1: I think for me, if you don't know, if you
Speaker 1: allow negativity and allies to be louder and the truth,
Speaker 1: if you allowed those who are dismissing misleading our youth
Speaker 1: to be front and center, to have all promotion, to
Speaker 1: utilize every platform they can to deliver their message, but
Speaker 1: you don't utilize We don't utilize our voices and our
Speaker 1: own platforms to deliver the counter message that can actually
Speaker 1: save our kids lives, then we're just as guilty as
Speaker 1: they are. You know, if if we're just sitting that
Speaker 1: back watching these people spread these lives and say a
Speaker 1: bunch of bullshit, as I say, that really ain't true,
Speaker 1: you know, and advocate for a lifestyle that's detrimental to
Speaker 1: these kids lives, to promote certain things that are detrimental
Speaker 1: to the survival, and and and and leading the culture
Speaker 1: into a direction that is ultimately a dead end. Then
Speaker 1: what do what? What? What is the work for for me? Right?
Speaker 1: If for me the people say you're you above this? Myself?
Speaker 1: If I'm from this community, right and I know that
Speaker 1: there are people peopalize their platforms that have a real
Speaker 1: stronghold on my community, right, and I because I left
Speaker 1: because I'm able, I've I've been blessed enough to be
Speaker 1: able to afford a different basic residents. Do I'm not
Speaker 1: kid that kids that come from where I come from
Speaker 1: or being misled and misguided or being forts and said
Speaker 1: that I know it's not real? Then what is my work? Right? Who?
Speaker 1: Who am I actually here to say? Well? Am I
Speaker 1: just because then at that point you would call me
Speaker 1: a cloud chair. You could say that I'm an ambulance chase.
Speaker 1: And I'm just doing this because I've left the real work.
Speaker 1: The real work is cheering form. And these young kids
Speaker 1: that thought, just like I did at sixteen and fifteen
Speaker 1: and fourteen, that that you know, whoever was gangster was
Speaker 1: one who was causing all the trouble. And if you
Speaker 1: pulled out your gun and you talk all of the
Speaker 1: piling stuff and you was rougher, tougher than everybody, then
Speaker 1: that made you real, That made you a man. If
Speaker 1: I leave the community that at fourteen and thirteen and fifteen,
Speaker 1: that was my mentality. And because I don't have to
Speaker 1: deal with that no more, and I transformed and I
Speaker 1: understand something different, and I don't come back and give
Speaker 1: real understandings about that to these kids, then what exactly
Speaker 1: what I'm What exactly am I doing? How am I
Speaker 1: How am I doing any work? What is the work
Speaker 1: I'm doing? I'm going to talk to the quiet to
Speaker 1: preach all the people that know you're the anti violence organizations.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the rooms with the anti violence organization,
Speaker 1: people who who already know that where the money is,
Speaker 1: who already know about violence who already changed their lives.
Speaker 1: So if I'm just talking to y'all, oh dad, I'm
Speaker 1: in those rooms and ain't none of these kids I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say, if I'm not on the platforms where
Speaker 1: you got academics and whacking them talking this dumb ship,
Speaker 1: I want to bring six knine of life and try
Speaker 1: to make it seem like the lifestyle that he chose,
Speaker 1: and then the decisions that he chose are what you
Speaker 1: should be doing, because that's that's not an alternative to
Speaker 1: street life. Of God, right, if people are making people
Speaker 1: think that what's six nine did is something to be celebrated, Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't want to talk about street life. No,
Speaker 1: we don't want to talk about criminals. You know, we
Speaker 1: don't advocate for street life. But letting kids believe that
Speaker 1: you can put hit to the people, you can cause violence,
Speaker 1: you can run around in the streets and cause violence
Speaker 1: and get people shot at, you can tell people to
Speaker 1: shoot other people. And then when you're being held accountable
Speaker 1: for the crimes and the life stide that you chose,
Speaker 1: when the police come to you and say hey, you
Speaker 1: did this and this and this and this is what
Speaker 1: the consequences are for that unless you tell on somebody else. Right,
Speaker 1: And when you decide that, you know what, I don't
Speaker 1: want to deal with my own consequences, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make sure that somebody else deals with the consequences today actions,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to deal with mine. Right. Not
Speaker 1: only do you lack of techrity, but you give a
Speaker 1: false narrative to these kids who in the streets that say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I could keep doing crime because all
Speaker 1: I gotta do is tell on somebody else and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna go to jail. There's no real consequences to
Speaker 1: what happens, right, So people think that's not a way
Speaker 1: to stop crime and stop shooting the violence in our community.
Speaker 1: The way is to say, hey, listen, the consequences in
Speaker 1: the street life is jail or death. You can't escape it. Right.
Speaker 1: So when when you let them think that, then a person,
Speaker 1: a logical person, says, I really don't want to go
Speaker 1: to jail and I don't want to die, so I
Speaker 1: want to choose something different. And that's the reality of
Speaker 1: what it is. So when people trying to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you you want to be in the streets, No, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be in the streets. I don't want
Speaker 1: nobody to be in the streets. But I don't want
Speaker 1: us to celebrate coward behavior. I don't want us to
Speaker 1: out advertise and and continue to perpetuate and uplift people
Speaker 1: who are just cowards. I just that's not what it is.
Speaker 1: And it's not about street like that's in every aspect
Speaker 1: of the world in and it's the movement that we
Speaker 1: would we have cowards who would sell us out immediately
Speaker 1: because they don't want to deal with key there ride
Speaker 1: with you all the time and be with you, and
Speaker 1: then something come back and it's a little bit of
Speaker 1: heat on you. They separate you, they self from you,
Speaker 1: They tell what you said, Oh, this person is doing
Speaker 1: this is a coward mentality. So it has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with criminology or the streets. It's about integrity. So
Speaker 1: unfortunately this is my job, and I know it's my
Speaker 1: job to because because every time these things happened, my
Speaker 1: spirit is not at rest right. I can't be quiet
Speaker 1: when I see things like this. I'm immediately drawn to
Speaker 1: say it might you have to say, I don't care
Speaker 1: how quiet I try to be. My spirit is not
Speaker 1: okay with it, and if if if I was supposed
Speaker 1: to be quiet, then I would be able to just
Speaker 1: rub it off and be like, you don't bother me,
Speaker 1: It don't matter to me. But everybody has a different
Speaker 1: role play, and I believe that my role is really
Speaker 1: transforming the street minded individual who've been lied to to
Speaker 1: understand the realities that what's really going on the streets
Speaker 1: and what's going on in life and how it's going
Speaker 1: to affect you ultimately. You know, I respect what you're saying,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it that applies to so many
Speaker 1: places in our lives. Um. You know, I feel that
Speaker 1: we are living in a time when they're so much
Speaker 1: happening all around us, and we all have to home
Speaker 1: in on the thing things that we can influence, how
Speaker 1: we can use our voices to be more impactful and
Speaker 1: not more harmful. UM. And I think our use are
Speaker 1: really crying out for people to help find another way
Speaker 1: and to show them that there is a better way
Speaker 1: to go about into approach uh the lifestyle that they're
Speaker 1: trying to live. But there are voices out there that
Speaker 1: drown out, UM, the sounds of anything positive. There are
Speaker 1: people who see an opportunity of paycheck right They see
Speaker 1: not just a paycheck, but they also see their own
Speaker 1: fame being wrapped up in just getting in where they
Speaker 1: fitted and flowing what the with the the current culture
Speaker 1: and climate, and that's really dangerous because our children get
Speaker 1: caught up in that, um and they're you know, over
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, I've really been deeply reflecting on
Speaker 1: how will we address the issues externally but really have
Speaker 1: a double down focus on issues that are happening happening internally.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what I do. You're saying, so
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's it's not easy, um, And
Speaker 1: certainly it will come with a lot of criticism and
Speaker 1: a lot of people who feel like, you know, they
Speaker 1: tell us all the time we should we we we
Speaker 1: shouldn't be fighting polices or or fighting with government, that
Speaker 1: we should just focus on building in the community. But no,
Speaker 1: we have to call out injustice, we have to call
Speaker 1: for righteousness, and it's hard work. So we all have
Speaker 1: across to there, we all have, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think for me, you know, whatever, I speak to women's
Speaker 1: rights and try to talk about the support that women need,
Speaker 1: the support that we're not getting, and the ways in
Speaker 1: which we are often abused and harmed by our own men.
Speaker 1: Those are moments when people say to me, well, why
Speaker 1: do you have to talk about that? You know, just
Speaker 1: stick with this other thing. Don't focus on that because
Speaker 1: it makes people feel like I'm being divisive. But the
Speaker 1: truth is the truth, and we have to tell it
Speaker 1: in order for things to get better. So that's the deal. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. I guess for me, the thought of the
Speaker 1: day today is wrapped around this concept that. And it's
Speaker 1: so funny as you were saying what you were saying
Speaker 1: about how you know you you just your spirit won't rest.
Speaker 1: I was listening to Dick Gregory speaking and he said,
Speaker 1: when the universe chooses you to where the glasses and
Speaker 1: you put them on, there's rules that come with wearing
Speaker 1: the glasses. And he said that once you have them on,
Speaker 1: you can't see things as people would want you to
Speaker 1: see them. You actually see them as they offer. And
Speaker 1: therefore you are burden with the responsibility to talk about
Speaker 1: and to speak truth to power. And at that point,
Speaker 1: when you're doing that, it's hard. It's hard. And I
Speaker 1: think my thought of the day today is around me,
Speaker 1: around what Dick Gregory is saying that some of us
Speaker 1: have the glasses on and we can see things that
Speaker 1: just need to be addressed, um, even though it's really
Speaker 1: really an uncomfortable place to be. So that's my feelings
Speaker 1: for today, and it leads us sort of into what
Speaker 1: we've been talking about for these episodes. I think we're
Speaker 1: up to episode four where we're really focusing on violence, intervention,
Speaker 1: and awareness because what we don't want to see is
Speaker 1: that because of all this tension and beefs and every thing,
Speaker 1: it's in the music, it's in the culture, it's an
Speaker 1: outside people, stressed out, people, got ment to health issues.
Speaker 1: You see so much happening. We don't want there to
Speaker 1: be an excuse made to take us back to the
Speaker 1: nineties crime bill, um, where you know, our people are
Speaker 1: just being locked up because folks are so frustrated that
Speaker 1: they and so afraid that they just starting the fall
Speaker 1: for more police and more punitive measures to deal with
Speaker 1: real serious community crises. UM. So you know, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm walking around with a little bit of burden on
Speaker 1: me today. I get it to make it a lot man,
Speaker 1: and I walk around with that burden. We both we
Speaker 1: both have very heavy loads to bear, you know. And
Speaker 1: I guess that's why God chose us to do this
Speaker 1: work together. So you know, I appreciate you for the
Speaker 1: work you do. And I know sometimes my voice, you know,
Speaker 1: at times it is a little scary, not really scary,
Speaker 1: but it it's like you wish that I had I
Speaker 1: didn't have to say that. Sometimes I wish I didn't
Speaker 1: have to say a lot of things I do. But
Speaker 1: I know, coming from this hip hop culture, understanding the
Speaker 1: impact that it has on the madge of these kids.
Speaker 1: You know, when I when I went and talked and
Speaker 1: in these precincts and I went to different detention centers
Speaker 1: and wrikers outland, I sat down with these sixteen and
Speaker 1: seventeen year old understanding how the people that they follow
Speaker 1: in this culture musically and everything impacts the decisions that
Speaker 1: they need to actually put them in prison. Understanding that,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like I have a higher you know,
Speaker 1: calling I have a responsibility because I understand how serious
Speaker 1: that is. I understand how your favorite artists and people
Speaker 1: you respect can literally dictate the outcome of your life,
Speaker 1: especially when you when when you just in these streets
Speaker 1: and in this culture. You know, so my moral compass
Speaker 1: is never gonna allow me too sit back and watch
Speaker 1: people intentionally just mislead these kids. Like you said, I
Speaker 1: got the glasses on, so I'm gonna have to call
Speaker 1: it how I see it. So that brings us into
Speaker 1: this episode, which is gonna be a very informative episode.
Speaker 1: Two people that we love who are on the front
Speaker 1: line doing this work. We have the esteemed Honorable Mayor
Speaker 1: of Newark, Ross J. Baracca, and we also have someone
Speaker 1: who we works very close with. She is the director
Speaker 1: of the New York Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery Center
Speaker 1: in Newark, and she's gonna bring to you all of
Speaker 1: the efforts that are being done together. There should be
Speaker 1: a dope show. I'm interested to hear them once again.
Speaker 1: These are two our friends, because we have friends do
Speaker 1: dope work. So I'm definitely looking forward to this episode.
Speaker 1: Let's get into so first, before we get started, usually
Speaker 1: for our Streets is Talking segment, we have our brand expert,
Speaker 1: Miss LaToya Bond to come and showcase a small business
Speaker 1: and we certainly want to keep that going and so
Speaker 1: we'll be back to that in the next episode. Before today,
Speaker 1: we want to show you a video about the work
Speaker 1: that is happening in Newark. It's actually a click um
Speaker 1: that the media has done an interview on the work
Speaker 1: that's happening to prevent violence in Newark, New Jersey. So
Speaker 1: we want to watch it together so that as we're
Speaker 1: talking to Mayor Baraca and also Miss Lakeisha Juri, who
Speaker 1: works for the mayor, and it's really, as my son
Speaker 1: has said, she is managing the violence intervention and trauma
Speaker 1: worked for the mayor on his hat. Before we talk
Speaker 1: to them, let's watch this video and just get a
Speaker 1: real understanding of what it is that they're doing a
Speaker 1: real hands on way on the ground in Newark, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: In the wake of George Floyd's murder last year, new
Speaker 1: Or Mayor Robs Baraka announced the city would divert five
Speaker 1: percent of its police budget to community based anti violence programs.
Speaker 1: News Twelves Brian Dona Hue got the first look at
Speaker 1: a summer program created as part of that initiative. But
Speaker 1: I've been working and trying to get myself together on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk outside the small Wellness center in the Newark
Speaker 1: neighborhood battered by drug violence and hardship. The stories pour
Speaker 1: forth of a torrent of trauma. There's Todd Carter, who's
Speaker 1: been shot twenty times, just recently home in Newark after
Speaker 1: an eight year federal prison sentence for dealing drugs. So
Speaker 1: now they put you back in the world. They expect
Speaker 1: for you to be this new person, for him to
Speaker 1: go get a job, to change your life, and you stuck.
Speaker 1: You don't know how to do that. Takia Reeves was
Speaker 1: shot twice at a nightclub in Seen and nearly died.
Speaker 1: I ended up in the hospital on lifestupp board. Um
Speaker 1: you know, I code it like about seven times Norman's
Speaker 1: Seven Operations. And Carlo Smith is trying to find his
Speaker 1: footing after losing his job at Walmart weeks before his
Speaker 1: twentieth birthday and he was something negative, always havous to
Speaker 1: me around my birthday. All three were recently hired by
Speaker 1: the City of Newark for a unique summer job getting
Speaker 1: their lives back on track. So it's a it's an
Speaker 1: urn and learn type of a program. It's called the
Speaker 1: Safe Summer Academy. This is what I see for myself right,
Speaker 1: this is where I want to go. At four sights
Speaker 1: in the city's toughest neighborhoods, A hundred and twenty people
Speaker 1: aged fourteen and up are paid fifteen dollars an hour
Speaker 1: to attend workshops and classes and things like overcoming trauma,
Speaker 1: managing finances, and starting businesses. Each team to the case
Speaker 1: workers social worker to help them through. The way that
Speaker 1: we approach this is from a public health lens, and
Speaker 1: we understand that people have social emotional issues, mental health issues.
Speaker 1: Um that depression and stress and all lit those things
Speaker 1: are real areas and real places that our people are
Speaker 1: struggling with, and so we need to put some supports
Speaker 1: around them. Okay, okay, nobody else, Okay, we've had that
Speaker 1: builds Resilious program is part of the Office of Violence Preventions,
Speaker 1: started by Mayor Ross Baraka in the wake of the
Speaker 1: George Floyd murder and funded with the diversion of five
Speaker 1: per cent of the police Department's budget. With so much
Speaker 1: debate over the phrase defund the police, Newark is providing
Speaker 1: this first glimpse at what that actually looks like. We
Speaker 1: don't say that we are a defunding the police. We
Speaker 1: are refunding the people. One part of the program that's
Speaker 1: not on any syllabus is the hope and inspiration participants
Speaker 1: can get from each other, like reeves for example, who,
Speaker 1: after recovering from being shot, went on to earn first
Speaker 1: her Associates degree and then her bachelor's and criminal justice
Speaker 1: from Rutgers. When I go see the doctors, their faces
Speaker 1: be like, you know, like wow, You're not supposed to
Speaker 1: be here, but I am supposed to be here, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I have a story, I have a testimony. We
Speaker 1: all do. We've all been through tragic stuff. I really
Speaker 1: just wanted to take what happened to me and and
Speaker 1: you know, turn into something good, something great, something better.
Speaker 1: So that's why this program is really helping me. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be You're gonna be running this program some day.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be, I hope. So I'm Brian, Donny you.
Speaker 1: That's positivity New Jersey. So, as I mentioned at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the show, this was a pre recorded component
Speaker 1: of today's episode because Mayor Baracca, who is a very
Speaker 1: very busy man, only had a very specific amount of
Speaker 1: time and while I was on my way to the
Speaker 1: airport to travel to Houston for a trade a weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: we just had to get on and do the interview.
Speaker 1: So now we're gonna be joined by Mayor Cross Barrocca,
Speaker 1: who is the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, but he
Speaker 1: also was a very star Wars individual in the community.
Speaker 1: Mayor Baraca is well known for his community efforts. He's
Speaker 1: the type of mayor that we need, the type of
Speaker 1: mayor that comes from the people, that is of the people,
Speaker 1: but is able to turn his passion for organizing and
Speaker 1: for community basis, UM for for community based approaches to
Speaker 1: addressing a myriad of issues. He's able to turn that
Speaker 1: into real work on the ground and hour and it's
Speaker 1: making significant changes. Um. I see the changes when I'm visiting.
Speaker 1: You are of where communities were torn down, and he
Speaker 1: is rebuilding and doing so much work. He's a friend
Speaker 1: of the show. He's a friend of ours, UM, and
Speaker 1: of course he's done a lot of work with my son, UM.
Speaker 1: I watched the two. If you get together for many
Speaker 1: events and mediations, people don't know about the things that
Speaker 1: you all have done that is off camera, when you've
Speaker 1: actually been sitting down with the mayor and other men
Speaker 1: working out tension and confusion and conflict in our communities.
Speaker 1: And so let's hear from me and Ross Baracca. Let's
Speaker 1: listen to this interview that we did and please excuse
Speaker 1: that I looked like a crazy woman in the car.
Speaker 1: But I think what he's saying is more important than
Speaker 1: the aesthetics of the interview. The reason why I think
Speaker 1: it's it's so important to have you on today, Man Baracca,
Speaker 1: and why my son and I really wanted to have
Speaker 1: you as a part of this six episode series that
Speaker 1: we're doing about gun violence is because you are approaching
Speaker 1: it exactly as um. You know, we support what we believe,
Speaker 1: and that is that you could put all the police
Speaker 1: you want on the streets, but if you don't invest
Speaker 1: in the people, Uh, you would never be able to
Speaker 1: produce gun violence and to save lives. So we just
Speaker 1: wanted to hear from you today to hear more about
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Um. You know, I I the program
Speaker 1: and what you have been doing in Newark is really innovative.
Speaker 1: Our sister Humility Davis Dr. Davis is constantly telling us
Speaker 1: that as she's on the ground a new work, she
Speaker 1: sees real change happening in real time. So, uh, you
Speaker 1: want to know my son if you want to say something,
Speaker 1: But we'd love to hear from you, and I know
Speaker 1: you have short time to be here just to let
Speaker 1: us know what it is that you're doing and what's
Speaker 1: the approach you're taking. Yeah, we I mean thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm on a to be on. First of all. Uh,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you having me on. You know, we just
Speaker 1: in the middle of of of of hard work. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talk, a lot of stuff going
Speaker 1: on around the country. We are just really trying to
Speaker 1: lay one brick out of time and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's hard, as I was expressing earlier, you know, in
Speaker 1: an environment you know where we're trying to create opportunity
Speaker 1: for social justice opportunities for people in our community and
Speaker 1: deal with gun violence. Uh that's escalating, uh in our neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: you know. And one of the biggest critics of all
Speaker 1: of the things that you're gonna have to deal with
Speaker 1: in terms of trying to do this work are people
Speaker 1: that live in these neighborhoods, mothers, grandmothers, you know, folks
Speaker 1: that are raising kids in these communities that are that
Speaker 1: are you know, experiencing hard high levels of violence. And
Speaker 1: just to put it in perspective, like eight percent of
Speaker 1: the neighborhoods and Newark do not experience violent crime at all, Right,
Speaker 1: so that looks like that sounds like a good number. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we got this from Rutgers when they did their study.
Speaker 1: But that means that of the community is experiencing of
Speaker 1: the violence, right uh. And so if you're in the
Speaker 1: then you're like, oh, it's all good. But if you're
Speaker 1: in of those neighborhoods uh, then you have a real
Speaker 1: serious problem, a dramatic problem. Uh. And so we we
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to deal with both of
Speaker 1: those things, like how to create an atmosphere where we
Speaker 1: make the police respect our constitutional rights UH, where social
Speaker 1: justice is at the forefront of everything that we do
Speaker 1: uh and and and and reducing violence and crime. And
Speaker 1: so we think that public safety is not just the
Speaker 1: role of the police. Public safety is the role of
Speaker 1: all of us in this community. Uh. And so we
Speaker 1: need to give give resources to other people in other
Speaker 1: areas where it is needed to help us reduce violence
Speaker 1: and crime and trauma uh that has been incurred in
Speaker 1: our community over decades. Uh. And so the police can't
Speaker 1: deal with those issues. And so that speaks directly to
Speaker 1: the idea of removing some funding and moving in another
Speaker 1: places to help, uh, you know, stabilize the community. So
Speaker 1: if violence is down, the need for police is down.
Speaker 1: Over policing in those communities is down, and and and
Speaker 1: that's really how we're approaching it. Violence is a public
Speaker 1: health issue. We created an Office of Violence Prevention and
Speaker 1: Trauma Recovery. Keeper Uria is doing an outstanding job trying
Speaker 1: to put this together. And she's building it, you know,
Speaker 1: actually going you know, pulling community partners together, have a
Speaker 1: lot of consultants trying to figure out how to get
Speaker 1: this done, pulling all of the street organizations that do
Speaker 1: all of the violence intervention and prevention work together everybody,
Speaker 1: and UH trying to get data UH and making sure
Speaker 1: that we UH tackle hot spots in areas, deal with trauma,
Speaker 1: do with intervention and kids lives and helping families from
Speaker 1: domestic violence to shooting victims, UH, everything that they're involved
Speaker 1: in right now this summer, I think what Jamilla is
Speaker 1: talking about, we UH as a part of our youth
Speaker 1: development program, we hired and even some adults now over
Speaker 1: one hundred maybe hundred and forty. I think UH folks
Speaker 1: who are directly involved with the legal with the legal system,
Speaker 1: UH were directly involved in terms of shootings or shooting victims.
Speaker 1: UH we we created our own program. We pay them
Speaker 1: uh to go listen to speakers, to go to forums,
Speaker 1: to to deal with trauma, training too, to face the
Speaker 1: issues they're dealing with in their lives, to prepare them
Speaker 1: uh to to stop the violence that they're involved in
Speaker 1: the community, and help them get employment. And that's that's
Speaker 1: what we're working on uh this summer, amongst a myriad
Speaker 1: of other things. Wow, that's that's amazing, man. Once again,
Speaker 1: I truly appreciate the work that you always do, man,
Speaker 1: in the way that you so community based in everything
Speaker 1: that you do. I just want to know because there's
Speaker 1: so many different perspectives, like what would you think is
Speaker 1: contributing to the the rash of just higher violent crimes
Speaker 1: and what would you think of it? The main two
Speaker 1: or three things that you see are really the major factors.
Speaker 1: Just the emotional stress and deterioration that's happened in our
Speaker 1: community right now, particularly Look, it's happening in everybody's community
Speaker 1: under COVID. The pressure emotional uh stress is caused UH
Speaker 1: this kind of responsive really aggressiveness UH that's going on. H.
Speaker 1: The fact that people aren't making uh on all levels,
Speaker 1: even the black market or say, the white market, the
Speaker 1: aren't aren't making the kind of money that that you
Speaker 1: know that they were because of what's going on. I'll
Speaker 1: hear people out where in the house. They're coming outside
Speaker 1: and fighting over territory and position and and and and
Speaker 1: all these other kind of things. And it's it's difficult
Speaker 1: for people, uh to be able to navigate all of
Speaker 1: the social services that existed before most of those things
Speaker 1: shut down. Uh. The social services shut down, the court
Speaker 1: shut down, everything shut down, and so people out here
Speaker 1: really fending for themselves. Uh. And and you know, there's
Speaker 1: a court system up top that people do it. And
Speaker 1: then there's the kind of course system that take place
Speaker 1: in the streets that unfortunately uh involves violence. Uh. And
Speaker 1: if there's no social services, no intervention, no folks involved
Speaker 1: employed any here, it makes it more difficult. Wow. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was I was having this conversation today,
Speaker 1: and it seems to me as if these shooters quote
Speaker 1: unquote are getting so much younger, absolutely and and and
Speaker 1: and that's that's really dangerous to me. It's like there's
Speaker 1: a mind state to where they the lack of value
Speaker 1: for life. I I've attributed it to the Internet. That's right.
Speaker 1: I've attributed because the the visuals of these kids constantly
Speaker 1: seeing you know, violence and then they seeing it being celebrated. Right,
Speaker 1: Because as a young kids, you're very impressionable. And I
Speaker 1: remember when I was, like I said all the time,
Speaker 1: my first vision of success wasn't a lawyer. I didn't
Speaker 1: live next door to a lawyer. I lived next to
Speaker 1: it to a drug dealer. So I wanted to be
Speaker 1: like the drug deal the girl I wanted to carb
Speaker 1: wanting all the things I wanted was this was the
Speaker 1: person I've seen it. So when you see it on
Speaker 1: it in this internet and you're seeing these young kids
Speaker 1: are seeing you know, grown people being celebrated for violence
Speaker 1: and you know, be getting uplifted, you know, it has
Speaker 1: a toll and it really just molds them. What do
Speaker 1: you think about that? I have a real life story.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's real what you're saying. I know
Speaker 1: a guy that I grew up with who's a lawyer,
Speaker 1: and I used to tell him, I said, look, I
Speaker 1: always knew you was gonna be a lawyer. You're very smart.
Speaker 1: He said, I didn't know I was gonna I was
Speaker 1: gonna be a lawyer. That's all I knew my father
Speaker 1: was a lawyer. He took me to his trials. I
Speaker 1: law briefs on the coffee table in the kitchen. I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't know nothing else. And when people used to
Speaker 1: ask me what I want to do when I grew up,
Speaker 1: I would always say lawyer because I didn't know what
Speaker 1: else to say, And ultimately it just drove me towards
Speaker 1: being a lawyer. Not imagine you come home, it's not
Speaker 1: law briefs on the table, right, there's other stuff on
Speaker 1: the table. And and the job they've taken you to
Speaker 1: is not the courtroom or the clerk for some judge,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's the block or the wanna And
Speaker 1: so when people ask you what you want to be
Speaker 1: when you grow up, it's natural response, unfortunately, is the
Speaker 1: things that you see in front of you. And now
Speaker 1: they're paying these kids, you know, money that they you know,
Speaker 1: it's small money, but they're paying the money out here
Speaker 1: in a very difficult economy to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And they think, and like you said, it's being celebrated,
Speaker 1: so they think this is okay and they don't have
Speaker 1: anybody intervening. And look, the data tells us if you
Speaker 1: grow up in a household where your siblings or parents
Speaker 1: have been inconsubrated, you're more likely to being conserrated yourself.
Speaker 1: You grew up in a household where you've been a
Speaker 1: victim or perpetrator violence, you're more likely to be a
Speaker 1: victim perpetrator violence yourself. So we identify, we know who
Speaker 1: these kids are like, we can identify the social services system,
Speaker 1: know the law enforcement system, know the community, know it's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's less than two of the people
Speaker 1: in the community that's committing nine of the violence that's
Speaker 1: going on. So we know where they are, we know
Speaker 1: how to identify, and we know what the atmosphere that's
Speaker 1: gonna create them. So we have to intervene immediately. We
Speaker 1: know what's getting ready to go down to watch it happen.
Speaker 1: Almost makes us co conspirators in it. That's makes us
Speaker 1: co conspirators. It's it's it's so true because you know,
Speaker 1: our expectation is that what you're doing should be happening
Speaker 1: all across the nation, and it's not. And in fact,
Speaker 1: there are mayors, governors and others who have pushed back
Speaker 1: against UM having UH community based program. And in fact,
Speaker 1: when we started the crisis, management system in New York City,
Speaker 1: UH with Erica Ford and A. T. Mitchell and others
Speaker 1: that you know very well. Mayor Bloomberg was one percent
Speaker 1: against and in fact he was a thousand percent against it.
Speaker 1: He believed that legislation and policing were the only ways
Speaker 1: to address violence. UM. And now to see what you're doing,
Speaker 1: it would seem to me that other mayors, you know,
Speaker 1: and since be just in a different place in society,
Speaker 1: that people would pick up your model and use it.
Speaker 1: But that is not actually what's happening. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you about the A are P funds the funds that
Speaker 1: are have come down or there they have been sent
Speaker 1: to many of the cities, which is a part of
Speaker 1: the COVID relief plan. Are you using much of those
Speaker 1: funds or a part of those funds to address these issues?
Speaker 1: And do you believe that other mayors should be using
Speaker 1: funds out of the COVID relief to address violence? And
Speaker 1: because some people may not see that there's a connection
Speaker 1: between the two, absolutely you should. And a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: the the White House was suggesting that we people do
Speaker 1: that in terms of UH just the idea of hiring
Speaker 1: more youth UH in the summertime, dealing with the spike
Speaker 1: and youth violence. So all of those UH ways to
Speaker 1: use the RP dollars. So we are using some of
Speaker 1: the money around Safe Summer Initiative, hiring people UH in
Speaker 1: the summer, increasing the summer jobs, but also creating opportunities
Speaker 1: for UH you know, grassroots organization and nonprofit organizations to
Speaker 1: make a little money while servicing young people throughout the summer. UH.
Speaker 1: And that's important because now you put these businesses back
Speaker 1: when their feet, you put these nonprofits, you give them
Speaker 1: resources and and money and opportunity to put back into
Speaker 1: the economy. So you are servicing your economy and lifting
Speaker 1: your economy up by taking care of small businesses, grassroots organizations,
Speaker 1: nonprofits that are out here service and young people with
Speaker 1: little and no resources at all, so you can use
Speaker 1: the opportunity to give them the resources that they need
Speaker 1: well giving them jobs that we think is a critical
Speaker 1: part of this piece. And I know that the you know,
Speaker 1: the you have talked about the resources that you all
Speaker 1: are giving to young people. That there's there's a gentleman
Speaker 1: UM I can't remember his name, it escapes me now,
Speaker 1: but he is from UH New Work and I was
Speaker 1: told by others that he actually started this idea of
Speaker 1: paying people, not necessarily paying them, but um giving people
Speaker 1: resources who were considered to be shooters, um and or
Speaker 1: problematic in society. They have issues, they've been in and
Speaker 1: out of the system, and so you all are targeting
Speaker 1: focused on that particular population as a as a central
Speaker 1: component of this work. Absolutely. Like I said earlier, you
Speaker 1: we know who they are. So the police department gave
Speaker 1: us the top fifty young people that we needed to
Speaker 1: engage it and me, and so we went after those.
Speaker 1: They know that's that's the point. They know who the issue,
Speaker 1: who has the issues, They know who where the problems are,
Speaker 1: and you are taking them instead of encouraging them to
Speaker 1: be locked up. You're trying to give them a second chance. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wrote a letter to all of their parents, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write another one to the to the parents
Speaker 1: of the new kids that are here now, just telling them, look,
Speaker 1: we we know your kid is involved in this and
Speaker 1: involved in that, and before they either wind up in
Speaker 1: jail or dead, here's a series of programs that you
Speaker 1: can put your kids in right now. And as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, if you want to speak about this further.
Speaker 1: Here's our phone number, our address. Please come down and
Speaker 1: meet with us in person to talk about how we
Speaker 1: can service your child. Mm hmm. And that's and that's
Speaker 1: the work that needs to be done. We were just
Speaker 1: sitting here talking about how, you know, all the social
Speaker 1: justice work that's been done over the past year and
Speaker 1: in all of the strides, and how just this violence
Speaker 1: is something that the structure can utilize against us to
Speaker 1: try to pull back all of the work that we've done.
Speaker 1: So that's why I really commend when you you you're
Speaker 1: taking a proactive approach. You know a lot of these
Speaker 1: destructures would would like to take these kids and see
Speaker 1: them and prepare jails for them. You know, they look
Speaker 1: at these these kids and say, Okay, these are the
Speaker 1: kids that are eventually gonna go to jail. They're not
Speaker 1: redirecting them. They're not seeing that and getting in front
Speaker 1: of that and giving them resources and giving them different
Speaker 1: ways to direct their energy. They're just preparing to be
Speaker 1: able to lock them up. But you're taking an approach
Speaker 1: that we all should be taking our community, that we
Speaker 1: see these kids and we can identify that they have
Speaker 1: some issues and they have problems, and we gotta figure
Speaker 1: out whether it's mental issues, whether it's just too much
Speaker 1: energy where they're hanging around the wrong crowds. We're giving
Speaker 1: them opportunities. I mean, you're giving them opportunities to redirect
Speaker 1: and be on a different path. And and by the way,
Speaker 1: that just like they have issues, they also have talents.
Speaker 1: And who's going to help them to develop that? And um,
Speaker 1: I think that Uh you know, obviously I call you Ross,
Speaker 1: but Mayor Baraka, Um, you know, it's it's really commendable.
Speaker 1: And we're not just saying it because you're on the
Speaker 1: show and because we love you as a dear friend
Speaker 1: and brother. But it's commendable because who's gonna save our children?
Speaker 1: If not us, then who And and and it's it
Speaker 1: requires a certain love for our people to understand that
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to fight the people that you're trying
Speaker 1: to help, right, They're gonna I know you do. If
Speaker 1: you work with black if you work with black people,
Speaker 1: you fight every single day of your life. Let gonna
Speaker 1: tell you a quick story. We was just at one
Speaker 1: of these events, and so the man's in the back
Speaker 1: and the guys in the front, and he's piste off
Speaker 1: with the man saying, you ain't give me a job.
Speaker 1: And he said, the man didn't give me a job.
Speaker 1: He didn't hire me. So I said, saying nothing, he
Speaker 1: came he and then he comes to the front and
Speaker 1: he gives a um a speech and he's talking. He said, well,
Speaker 1: everybody is being paid to be here. So I actually
Speaker 1: I did hire you know, everyone in this building that
Speaker 1: was here, Like, you're literally being paid to come to
Speaker 1: this program. Uh, and we can't give all the research sometimes,
Speaker 1: he said, if I hired you, there's somebody who's actually
Speaker 1: been doing something else and and and took a few
Speaker 1: more steps to get the job that you're looking for.
Speaker 1: It's not that I don't want to hire you, but
Speaker 1: if I don't hire you, and then I don't hire them.
Speaker 1: And they said, oh, well, I need to get in
Speaker 1: trouble to get a job. So he said, it's it's
Speaker 1: we damned that were doing We damned that we don't.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is we're still gonna do the work,
Speaker 1: and we know you gotta go, and we appreciate you. Man,
Speaker 1: if you don't want to get punched in the face,
Speaker 1: don't get in the ring. Brother. That's that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: You know you gotta deal with all of the blows
Speaker 1: that's gonna come out you. You just gotta do the
Speaker 1: work that you know you're supposed to do. That's it.
Speaker 1: Trust me. We we know all so well about that.
Speaker 1: We get punched in the face all day, all night.
Speaker 1: But we appreciate you. Man. We know you're busy, and
Speaker 1: you appreciate you taking your time out. The work that
Speaker 1: you're doing is commendable. Hopefully we'll get some more officials
Speaker 1: that follow this model, man and invest in our kids
Speaker 1: future and not in prison anytime. Many time you need me,
Speaker 1: I'm here for your brother. Thank you, Thank you to
Speaker 1: make up definitely, thank you. I love you so much, brother.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Thanks for being with us, and we
Speaker 1: have to invite you back as we continue to go
Speaker 1: through this series to have more dialogue about the steps
Speaker 1: that need to be taken because people will act like
Speaker 1: they don't know what to do. Well, you're a shining
Speaker 1: example of how to get it done. Thank you. Alright, Alright,
Speaker 1: that was a dope, you know could he's an amazing
Speaker 1: guy because he shows you how coming from an organizing
Speaker 1: you know, he was once just a community organizer. Then
Speaker 1: he went to being a principal and then counsel and
Speaker 1: that then to the mayor, and the effect and the
Speaker 1: respect that he had in his community is what it
Speaker 1: what it is. And that's what I say about community
Speaker 1: based organizations having people from the community. You know, the
Speaker 1: alternative to the presence in our community is about having
Speaker 1: people from the community who are respected and loved and
Speaker 1: you can transform it. And that's the way that he
Speaker 1: approaches being the mayor. He approaches being the mayor from
Speaker 1: the lens of being someone who actually loves and kids
Speaker 1: for the community. So that shows you when you act
Speaker 1: to care about your community and you come from that community,
Speaker 1: you are more likely you want to do that for
Speaker 1: the Yeah, and I think I think I agree with
Speaker 1: you might say, you know what I think, Um, there
Speaker 1: should be more of this that's happening within our society
Speaker 1: that you can't just show up to run from mayor.
Speaker 1: You know, where people are saying, well, why were you
Speaker 1: so against Andrew Yang running for mayor? UM? And while
Speaker 1: Eric Adams and I know, I've known him for a
Speaker 1: long time, UM, and I have a lot of respect
Speaker 1: for Eric, I'm still in disagreement with him about a
Speaker 1: few of the issues that I care about in terms
Speaker 1: of how he intends to leave the city yet and
Speaker 1: still I'm happy to say that he has a background
Speaker 1: in doing work within our communities. He actually was very,
Speaker 1: very involved, heavily involved and addressing policing issues within New
Speaker 1: York City's and YPD. He did that. He worked with
Speaker 1: the blacks and law enforcement and they were out there
Speaker 1: challenging police oh all the time. And he knows the communities.
Speaker 1: Even Ray McGuire, he wasn't. He's not you know, he's
Speaker 1: not a and he is not the typical mayoral candidate
Speaker 1: because clearly he has a lot of wealth and he
Speaker 1: has been in UM and private practice. But he's from
Speaker 1: the community. Andrew A unfortunately is not period. I actually
Speaker 1: have never seen him. And if Ray McGuire, one thing
Speaker 1: I can say, many of the community events that we've done,
Speaker 1: he's been there. That's why I know it. I know
Speaker 1: him from being out there is showing up at events, um,
Speaker 1: you know, donating resources. Same thing with the Maya WiDi.
Speaker 1: These are people we've actually seen. Whether or not we agree,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about agreeing with them on everything. Even
Speaker 1: Scott Stringer, these are people we've seen. They've been on
Speaker 1: the issues at one point or another, they've been engaged
Speaker 1: in some way. Don't have to agree with everything, don't
Speaker 1: have to support all their policies. But someone who just
Speaker 1: shows up from absolutely nowhere and decides that because of
Speaker 1: a message of you know, giving people a thousand dollars
Speaker 1: or whatever, they can become mayor when unfortunately they have
Speaker 1: not been engaged on a day to day basis or
Speaker 1: on any level in our communities. I just didn't think
Speaker 1: that that was okay, And not to mention the things
Speaker 1: that he said while running from mayor gave me a
Speaker 1: clear understanding of why I felt the way that I
Speaker 1: felt inside. When they asked him about street vendors and
Speaker 1: he said, there has to be more enforcement and basically
Speaker 1: locking up people who are out there selling lucy cigarettes
Speaker 1: because and I know those are not necessarily street vendors,
Speaker 1: but you get my point. These are people out there
Speaker 1: selling bottle water, they're selling you know, different things, hats
Speaker 1: or whatever. Instead of him saying that we need to
Speaker 1: get them in the pipeline so that they can get
Speaker 1: the types of certificates that they need to do the work,
Speaker 1: he went straight to law enforcement and policing. And I
Speaker 1: thought to myself. This is not a good idea, So
Speaker 1: you know, there are people who didn't like it, but
Speaker 1: again the glasses so we know, man. So I'm just
Speaker 1: happy that we understand and hopefully we can give some
Speaker 1: understanding to anybody that's paying attention. Like if you can't,
Speaker 1: there's nothing about us without us, man, you can't be
Speaker 1: in our communities, and you ain't from our communities. You
Speaker 1: don't have a post on what's going on in the streets.
Speaker 1: You don't have a post that what's going on in
Speaker 1: the in the communities that you're trying to government that
Speaker 1: how can you govern or do anything for them? Correct facts.
Speaker 1: So we just spoke to Mayor Ross Baraka and he
Speaker 1: spoke to us about this person that we're about to
Speaker 1: interview right now. She is Lakisha Yuri. She is the
Speaker 1: executive director of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery in New Ork,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. She does all the work because Ross rock
Speaker 1: the is the Mayor of New Ork and he has
Speaker 1: so much on his plate. She is the go to
Speaker 1: person for all everything violence prevention and intervention inside of
Speaker 1: New New Jersey. She had handled so much I've worked
Speaker 1: with up. She is a phenomenal sister Lakeisha Yuri. How
Speaker 1: you doing today, Clean? I am good. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me on the show today. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, so thank you. I just want to say hi,
Speaker 1: so good to see you any every time I see
Speaker 1: we're working. So it's good to give you an opportunity
Speaker 1: to tell people what it is that you do every
Speaker 1: day and how much you make the efforts of Mayor
Speaker 1: Baraka Um make it real in Newark, New Jersey. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. We know that these front lines are
Speaker 1: certainly front lines, UM, and we certainly showed it. So
Speaker 1: UM showed that the show that So it's good to
Speaker 1: see you. It's good to see my song, and it's
Speaker 1: good to be on the show. Street politicians, right, that's
Speaker 1: who we are, right, So give us give the people
Speaker 1: telling people what it is that you exactly do, what
Speaker 1: is your position entail? So under Mayor Ross J. Baraca Um,
Speaker 1: maybe a year ago in the wakening cries of George
Speaker 1: Floyd in the protest, there was this rally and cry
Speaker 1: around defunding of the police, and so the City of
Speaker 1: New York ultimately reallocated five percent of its police department
Speaker 1: budget to violence prevention programs. So I was already doing
Speaker 1: some work out of the Health Department, and so what
Speaker 1: we did was we put domestic violence, sexual soul, and
Speaker 1: community violence under one umbrella. And so we're building out
Speaker 1: domestic BOUM not just domestic violence, but community violence, but
Speaker 1: putting it in a place where we are approaching it
Speaker 1: from a public health place. So we're marrying public safety
Speaker 1: and public health, and we're having our own community based
Speaker 1: public safety where the police don't have to respond to everything,
Speaker 1: where the people are allowed to have a voice in
Speaker 1: public safety. And so we are getting a police precinct.
Speaker 1: So the city of north has seven police precincts and
Speaker 1: one of the precincts is going to be designated to
Speaker 1: the Office of Violence Prevention. So we're building out this
Speaker 1: office UM and we're building a museum. So in this precinct,
Speaker 1: we're going to have a Conflict Resolution Museum UM and
Speaker 1: that music m is going to tell the history of
Speaker 1: the city of Nuke's policing from the sixties seven rebellion
Speaker 1: up through today to where we see changes that are
Speaker 1: happening in law enforcement and in the police department in
Speaker 1: the City of Newark. So my office is going to
Speaker 1: be responsible for the social services aspect, the mental health aspect. UM.
Speaker 1: We have a um Brick City Peace Collective, which consists
Speaker 1: of about sixteen community based organizations that's going to collaborate
Speaker 1: and come together and coordinate strategies to be able to
Speaker 1: combat some of the crime and valance in the city.
Speaker 1: And that includes mediating some of these conclutes directly. UM
Speaker 1: And So the office also has social workers, case managers,
Speaker 1: victim advocates, Anti racism and hate Crimes unit where people
Speaker 1: can come and report if they feel discriminated against based
Speaker 1: on race and ethnicity. UM. And we also have clinicians
Speaker 1: and therapists and a hospital based violence intervention program. So
Speaker 1: it's a gamut of a bunch of things happening under
Speaker 1: this office. UM. And yes, it has been entrusted to
Speaker 1: me to to run it, developed the strategies UM. But
Speaker 1: ultimately because I come from the community, born and raised
Speaker 1: in the city of North and we've sold it together
Speaker 1: with Mayor Rocket before he was the mayor, before he
Speaker 1: was the councilman, when he was the principal of a school,
Speaker 1: and so we know that community based efforts work when
Speaker 1: the people know the community they come from the community,
Speaker 1: the outcomes are inevitable. So you all, now, Mayor Rocket
Speaker 1: was telling us that, Um, the police and I guess
Speaker 1: in conjunction with your office and others, have identified those
Speaker 1: people who are crisis there in crisis, so they, you know,
Speaker 1: our folks who would have been identified as the troublemakers,
Speaker 1: the potential shooters, and you all are working with them.
Speaker 1: And I know you say the office that you have
Speaker 1: said that, the office you're working on. Um, it's in progress.
Speaker 1: This work is already happening. It's just that at some
Speaker 1: point you guys are gonna have a center which I
Speaker 1: hope will become a national model even an international model
Speaker 1: for how do you bring violence down and hype work
Speaker 1: directly with the community. But every day at this point,
Speaker 1: you're you're doing this work, working with these young people,
Speaker 1: trying to get them employed and to keep them off
Speaker 1: the streets in mind. Is that correct? That's correct. So
Speaker 1: what we find is the data says that four percent
Speaker 1: and sometimes even ten percent of the population experienced the
Speaker 1: most crime and violence, or the small amount of people
Speaker 1: are committing the most crime and violence. And so rather
Speaker 1: than coming up with this approach where we are blanket,
Speaker 1: you know, doing strategies, it's focused, determined, right, we go
Speaker 1: right directly to the people who are committing the crime
Speaker 1: violence and talking with them and seeing what is it
Speaker 1: that you need? Why are you robbing people? Why are
Speaker 1: you shooting people? Why did you join the game that
Speaker 1: you're a part of, why are you, you know, stealing cars,
Speaker 1: and just really trying to ask those questions and figure
Speaker 1: out what is it that we can do to get
Speaker 1: to the underlying portions of it. We have UM people,
Speaker 1: so the police do have a list, and they have
Speaker 1: a lot of intelligence around who people are, what's happening,
Speaker 1: and what they're doing. And their strategy is just to
Speaker 1: arrest them. That's the only strategy. But we're saying no,
Speaker 1: that that's not enough because we have this cycle of
Speaker 1: violence that continues to happen if we just keep arresting
Speaker 1: people UM, because they're doing things from behind the wall,
Speaker 1: inside the wall, outside the wall, and so we want
Speaker 1: to find out what is going on. So we are
Speaker 1: UM implementing. So right now, I have a summer program
Speaker 1: UM and we're gonna extend it beyond the summer UM
Speaker 1: and it's called the Safe Summer Academy. Where we went
Speaker 1: after and recruited those people that we know are creating
Speaker 1: the most crimon violence in the city, and we employed them.
Speaker 1: So I currently have a hundred and twenty individuals UM
Speaker 1: fourteen to seventeen, eighteen to twenty four, and then a
Speaker 1: twenty five and over UM groups I have about fourth sight.
Speaker 1: And these are the people that we know are creating
Speaker 1: the crime and violence or have been victims of and
Speaker 1: we are trying to intervene so that they don't become
Speaker 1: the perpetrators of And many of them have mental health
Speaker 1: issues issues, have been incarcerated, have dropped out of school,
Speaker 1: and so we're very intentional about this population. And we
Speaker 1: recognize some of the issues, and we recognize trauma and
Speaker 1: so many of the staff for trauma informed trains and
Speaker 1: so we know what it takes to be able to
Speaker 1: engage them. So so let me just ask you, first
Speaker 1: of all, what is the success rate at this point?
Speaker 1: And then the other thing is or maybe you could
Speaker 1: answer this first and then talk about the success rate,
Speaker 1: but what type of work do you have these young
Speaker 1: people doing when you employ them? Um? You know, what
Speaker 1: are you what are you giving them as opportunities and
Speaker 1: are they learning a skill a trade? Um? How would
Speaker 1: you speak to the actual opportunities. And then what at
Speaker 1: this point do you think is UM, How do you
Speaker 1: think or efforts are paying out? So the UM what
Speaker 1: I would say is that they are UM earning to
Speaker 1: learn right so as to earn and learn program. So
Speaker 1: many of them, they are learning skills around UM social
Speaker 1: emotional right, anger management, conflict resolution, They're getting financial literacy,
Speaker 1: money management, entrepreneurship skills UM. They're doing vision boards, they're
Speaker 1: presenting their business ideas. The program is going to fund
Speaker 1: UM their business idea. We're going to give each of
Speaker 1: the participants a thousand dollars to get started their own business,
Speaker 1: and that may be something as small as a T
Speaker 1: shirt business, to socks, t shirts, whatever it is, so
Speaker 1: that they can flip the game right, so they can
Speaker 1: flict their hust to the ones that may be hustling
Speaker 1: and selling drugs in the community, so that they don't
Speaker 1: have to steal cars to sell aparts to make money.
Speaker 1: So we're trying to show them better ways to be
Speaker 1: able to make money, how to UM look at their
Speaker 1: skills and really flip it into something more positive so
Speaker 1: that they don't have to go to jail. They're getting
Speaker 1: UM UM public speaking skills, um, you know, so they're
Speaker 1: doing electrical carpentry, welding, you know, so hands on kinds
Speaker 1: of things, Ocean thirty certifications so that they can go
Speaker 1: on construction sites so UM CDL licenses. So it just
Speaker 1: depends on the age range. But we're giving them some
Speaker 1: hands on skills that they can take that's transferable um
Speaker 1: to wherever they go. In terms of the success, I
Speaker 1: would say that every day that they show up as
Speaker 1: a success. Every day that we keep them for eight
Speaker 1: hours off the street is a day that they get
Speaker 1: to live again, that they are not committing crimes and violence.
Speaker 1: So we have them on a forty hour work week
Speaker 1: schedule um And in those forty hours a week, we
Speaker 1: have kept the city safe. And so I would say
Speaker 1: that those are our small victories, but those are victories,
Speaker 1: and we have a hundred and twenty of them. So
Speaker 1: we have stopped a hundred and twenty people a day
Speaker 1: from being incarcerated or being hurt in ets. So I
Speaker 1: would say that the victory and the success rate isn't that.
Speaker 1: But we are gathering data. We are gathering u information
Speaker 1: to see really where the impact is and what the
Speaker 1: real outcomes are going to be. When it's over. So
Speaker 1: for the young people, we can't keep them past the
Speaker 1: end of the summer because they're going back to school.
Speaker 1: But for the adults who are disengaged, we can keep
Speaker 1: them through the end of the year. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: extend it out um and we'll find um job sites
Speaker 1: for them to go on. They are. They went to
Speaker 1: the Mayor's director meeting and all of the directors throughout
Speaker 1: the whole city introduced themselves to tell them who they are,
Speaker 1: and they ultimately offered many of them internships. So, you know,
Speaker 1: really trying to find some tangible things that makes sense
Speaker 1: that they can really network and get something tangible out
Speaker 1: of it. I think I just want to know, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's the work is First of all, I want
Speaker 1: to congratulate you. It's phenomenal. A lot of times people
Speaker 1: try to, you know, diminish the defund police strategy and
Speaker 1: you actually utilize the word that you know, a phrase
Speaker 1: that I use is refunding the community. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I want to know, what do you think, like based
Speaker 1: on the data that you've been doing, what do you
Speaker 1: think it's like two of the most central causes of
Speaker 1: the crime and violence in our community. UM. I would say,
Speaker 1: as we're talking to them, we're asking them like, what
Speaker 1: makes you cause you know, what's causing you to go out?
Speaker 1: And for many of them it's UM, it's the culture, right,
Speaker 1: the culture of violence is popular, UM and it's normal.
Speaker 1: And many of them, well, my father did it, my
Speaker 1: brother did it, people with my family did it. And
Speaker 1: I saw them, you know, come up and you know,
Speaker 1: we ultimately know that. Um. The ultimate you know is poverty, right,
Speaker 1: money a lot of times, but then I find that
Speaker 1: when they do get money, they don't know how to
Speaker 1: manage it, right. They don't have a plan for the money.
Speaker 1: Even if they do have it, there's no plan. Um.
Speaker 1: And for other people, we're finding that stress, being overwhelmed um.
Speaker 1: The culture in the inner city, right, people feeling disrespected,
Speaker 1: self worth, self confident, self esteem, all of those things
Speaker 1: are underdeveloped. UM. And when you have that, then people
Speaker 1: lash out in ways that that's violent, Like they don't
Speaker 1: know another way, right, lack of coping skills, lack of
Speaker 1: UM conflict resolution skills, that they don't know that there's
Speaker 1: another way to resolve conflict, that violence is not the
Speaker 1: only way to do it. Domestic violence is up UM.
Speaker 1: In the city of north we have over four thousand
Speaker 1: cases a year UM domestic violence, UM, sexual assault. You know,
Speaker 1: many of it. We don't even touch sexual assault because
Speaker 1: it's so taboo UM sexual violence that's happening, and we
Speaker 1: ultimately really attack the community violence. Being at the shooting seems,
Speaker 1: being at the hospitals, helping the families, and those seems
Speaker 1: to be the things that we are grinding all the
Speaker 1: time for UM. But if we can get to a
Speaker 1: place at healing right and knowing that there is resolved,
Speaker 1: that we don't have to, you know, always resort to violence,
Speaker 1: that there are other options, other alternatives, and so I
Speaker 1: think that we don't know the other alternatives. I think
Speaker 1: for me is that we have so many kids, Like
Speaker 1: the ages of the shooters is getting younger. To me,
Speaker 1: it's like when you have twelve and thirty. I was
Speaker 1: having a conversation with Erica four yesterday and she was
Speaker 1: giving me until that thirteen old kid was killing the
Speaker 1: romps and he was killed by fifteen, you know, so
Speaker 1: it's like wow, Like at thirteen and fifteen, I wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking about taking nobody's life, right, I was playing basketball,
Speaker 1: you know, there was it was certain things that kept
Speaker 1: my attention. Even though there was violence in the community.
Speaker 1: Violence has always especially in poverished communities, Violence has always
Speaker 1: occurred and been visible. But at thirteen and fourteen and fifteen,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't the central part of the culture.
Speaker 1: And this this coaches it seems so engulfed and it's
Speaker 1: just like me, it's just really hard, Like what what
Speaker 1: did you think? I bet surprised you most like when
Speaker 1: you you see and it's like wow, like because we
Speaker 1: come from pretty much the same error, Like what are
Speaker 1: the things that really shocked you that you've seen here
Speaker 1: in this culture? Like you said, the age range is
Speaker 1: getting younger. So our youth house is phil of killers.
Speaker 1: Our youth house of phill of shooters um and they
Speaker 1: don't have the emotional piece right where it seems heartless.
Speaker 1: It seems emotionless, it seems careless, and it seems almost
Speaker 1: business as usual. And one of the people who worked
Speaker 1: for me at sharif UM's when I outreach worked as
Speaker 1: then a couple of months ago, his daughter was shot
Speaker 1: and killed. She was kidnapped and murdered in South Carolina,
Speaker 1: but she's here from New Jersey. The mother moved down there,
Speaker 1: and she's fifteen years old and she was kidnapped and
Speaker 1: killed by other young people who did that to her. Um,
Speaker 1: And it was her friend, a person who she thought
Speaker 1: was her friend, who lured her out and her friend
Speaker 1: boyfriend killed her and they shot her eleven times and
Speaker 1: and and bury her in a shallow grave. And I
Speaker 1: just thought that it was just heinous and and and
Speaker 1: we went to court and saw him being arranged and
Speaker 1: he was like, yes, sir, judge, no sir. And I
Speaker 1: was like, what is this? Like, how could you kill, kidnap, kill,
Speaker 1: and shoot in all of these things and there's no
Speaker 1: sense of remorse. Um, the girl was sixteen, he was eighteen,
Speaker 1: she was fifteen, and the other boy was sixteen, and
Speaker 1: just to see that their lives are just forever changed
Speaker 1: as a result of decisions that they make. So I
Speaker 1: think that I'm always surprised at the hainous nous and
Speaker 1: how many times one people, oh, one of the guys
Speaker 1: in the program got shot nine times, one person got
Speaker 1: shot twenty times, the girl got shot four times. And
Speaker 1: I just find that it is overkill. But I'm always wondering, like,
Speaker 1: what makes it so that tre like that you can
Speaker 1: do that to somebody? What did they do? And what
Speaker 1: I'm shocked about is that it is a little to
Speaker 1: nothing over disrespect or when you said something, or when
Speaker 1: you posted a video, or when you said it's gonna
Speaker 1: wrap song, or you stow this car and said you
Speaker 1: can drive better than me. So we have these young
Speaker 1: people now in a battle over who can steal the
Speaker 1: most cars and who's the better drivers, and they're they're
Speaker 1: battling in neighborhoods over over stolen cars and killing each
Speaker 1: other over I'm the better driver. I'm shocked at that.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised over that. Dude, what is your skill set?
Speaker 1: Because the other thing, um, you know, I and I
Speaker 1: probably focus a little bit too much on the naysayers,
Speaker 1: but um, in my life, while there are many times
Speaker 1: when people try to challenge us and say that you know,
Speaker 1: we are not um, you know, doing great work or
Speaker 1: good work or any work at all, when you hear
Speaker 1: the critics at times, and I'm never as disturbed by
Speaker 1: the critics um as much as I am when they
Speaker 1: say that we don't work on this issue or that
Speaker 1: people don't care about the violence that's happening in our communities.
Speaker 1: Because I know there are people who are on the ground,
Speaker 1: and I certainly for uh you know, since my son's
Speaker 1: father has been deceased, which was uh twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: I've been deeply engaged in this work, um and trying
Speaker 1: to support others. And so maybe because some folks just
Speaker 1: don't see it. Obviously, the media does not give us
Speaker 1: the same attention as they do when a police officer
Speaker 1: kills someone. And to be clear, UM, the police have
Speaker 1: a different responsibility than young Johnny who lives in a
Speaker 1: community at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. UM. A police
Speaker 1: officer who has been trained, who has resources, UM you know,
Speaker 1: who has family um themselves, that knows that should have
Speaker 1: the emotional intelligence to know that taking another life, especially
Speaker 1: without just cause, UM, is not right. It's and and
Speaker 1: and it's something that has to be people have to
Speaker 1: be held accountable for it as far as I'm concerned. UM.
Speaker 1: But when we do that work, folks pay attention and
Speaker 1: they give us um some of the media at times
Speaker 1: UM that we need in order to really bring to
Speaker 1: awareness to the problems between community and police. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to gun violence, we often are the messaging,
Speaker 1: the marching, the protesting, UM, the begging for funds, the
Speaker 1: organizing people who are out there stopping shootings that goes
Speaker 1: without notice, m even by some of our own communities.
Speaker 1: And so it's it's really a place for me that's
Speaker 1: very sensitive. And when I hear people saying the work
Speaker 1: is not being done, nobody's focused on that. I think
Speaker 1: about people like Ukisha, and I think about, um, how
Speaker 1: you said you got started a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: you've been with May of Barrock since he was a principle,
Speaker 1: which is many, many years ago. And so what I'm
Speaker 1: wondering is what is your skills set so that people
Speaker 1: will know this is what you can do. And here's
Speaker 1: where I started and where I am today. So my
Speaker 1: skill set is is an organizer. Right I started on
Speaker 1: the grounds many years ago. Um I organized. I'm a
Speaker 1: chair for the North Anti Violence Covolition. But before that,
Speaker 1: right I was in the New Black Panther Party and
Speaker 1: before that, you know, so organizing people in the community
Speaker 1: has has been um my passion. But by trade and
Speaker 1: by education, I'm a social worker. I'm a licensed clinical
Speaker 1: social work. I have a master's degree in social work.
Speaker 1: But my heart and my passion is organizing people. So
Speaker 1: then they say is say the work is not being done.
Speaker 1: I tell them that's not true, because we've got people
Speaker 1: who are on the front lines all the time. People
Speaker 1: know sleep because people don't understand what it takes to
Speaker 1: organize people. They don't understand that the phone calls have
Speaker 1: to happen, that we at the hospitals with people, were
Speaker 1: at the funerals with people, were organizing the funerals, we're doing,
Speaker 1: we're calling the mayors, and we're doing all of the things.
Speaker 1: Um that the behind the scenes that it takes to
Speaker 1: get in front of the cameras or to make the
Speaker 1: awareness happen. So when I first joined the North Anti
Speaker 1: Violence Coalition, the way that we brought attention to violence
Speaker 1: was by going into the streets and stopping the traffic.
Speaker 1: And so we stopped the traffic for a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty five weeks in the raw, rain, sleeps now, no
Speaker 1: matter the weather condition to bring awareness to it for
Speaker 1: families who wasn't our own families. And so as as
Speaker 1: we're out there and we're saying we can't have business
Speaker 1: as usual, there are women being killed, their children being killed,
Speaker 1: the police of brutalizing people, and we can't let it
Speaker 1: be swept under the rug. These were not our families
Speaker 1: per se, but we we we stepped in the gap
Speaker 1: for people, um. And so they were thankful because there
Speaker 1: was another voice to help them to uplift the voices
Speaker 1: of their the voice list that that was there, um.
Speaker 1: But the work is being done. The work has always
Speaker 1: been done, um and and people have to join in, right,
Speaker 1: and they don't join in until it lands on their
Speaker 1: door steps. And so our people, I would say, have
Speaker 1: to be more compassionate and aware of what happens behind
Speaker 1: the scenes and what it takes um in order to
Speaker 1: organize to get some things done. We were policy changes, right,
Speaker 1: We try to get policies changed. And so had I
Speaker 1: known about policy change fifteen years ago, then I would
Speaker 1: certainly be a bit better off than than I am now.
Speaker 1: And so we don't learn. There's there's no training, there's
Speaker 1: no school that you go to to teach you how
Speaker 1: to be an organizer, to teach you how to be
Speaker 1: an activist. And they see activism as people who are troublemakers.
Speaker 1: And we're not troublemakers, but we have to be in
Speaker 1: order to have our voices heard. And so unless it's aggressive,
Speaker 1: people don't always understand it. Don't always have to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: or when you see it, it's because there has been
Speaker 1: UM a dismissal happening long and so now then we
Speaker 1: have to meet aggression with aggression sometimes. And so people
Speaker 1: don't understand activism. People don't understand civics, people don't understand law,
Speaker 1: people don't understand order UM. And so when they see
Speaker 1: the ones of us who are out there who are
Speaker 1: flying from city to city UM helping other people who
Speaker 1: are UM who don't get to the divisions and get
Speaker 1: the media, and it's hard because I certainly know that
Speaker 1: you catch backlash. I know that people catch backlash when
Speaker 1: they feel like you're benefiting right from the movement, or
Speaker 1: you're you're getting a little bit of something, or you're
Speaker 1: being paid or whatever it is. But it's like, you
Speaker 1: don't know the cost that I paid to have to
Speaker 1: get on the flight, to get the hotel, to get
Speaker 1: the rental cars, you know, to do all of those things.
Speaker 1: So when the guy who I just told you about
Speaker 1: daughter got shot and killed in in South Carolina, we
Speaker 1: went down there, and it called right for us to
Speaker 1: be down here. The missing person flyers. We're knocking on doors,
Speaker 1: we we were there for weeks, she was she was
Speaker 1: missing for twenty five days. Right, we have to push
Speaker 1: the police, and we're going from county to county and
Speaker 1: police department to police department, and those things take. It
Speaker 1: takes skill, it takes ingenuity, it takes energy, it takes sleep,
Speaker 1: it takes resources. It takes all of those things to
Speaker 1: be able to bring about change. And so I don't
Speaker 1: want people to dismiss the skills that it takes for
Speaker 1: those things to happen, but the energy and the passion
Speaker 1: because many of us this has been on our doorsteps
Speaker 1: and we're trying to stop it from landing on other
Speaker 1: people's doorsteps. Let me just ask this this last question,
Speaker 1: and of course my son don't have anything else, but
Speaker 1: I think this is uh an important question. My son
Speaker 1: asked you earlier. What shocks me? And I want to
Speaker 1: know what are you most proud of? Of all the
Speaker 1: things that you're you you're doing at this time, what
Speaker 1: are you most proud of? It? It makes you go
Speaker 1: to sleep at night saying or what No matter what
Speaker 1: happens out there, I know, I try, so what makes
Speaker 1: me most proud is knowing and then I speak even
Speaker 1: for for the mayor. On one side of this is
Speaker 1: that we've lost parents, right, So he's lost his father.
Speaker 1: I lost my mom and my dad, And I know
Speaker 1: that our um passion that keeps us doing this work
Speaker 1: is that we stand on the shoulders of people before us,
Speaker 1: that we have to make proud, that people who are
Speaker 1: proud of us, that we can't let down and we
Speaker 1: can't embarrass them. And so what makes me proud is
Speaker 1: knowing that my mother and father is proud of the
Speaker 1: decisions that I make. My brother Um is in jail now,
Speaker 1: and he's been shot by the police, he's been shot
Speaker 1: by community people, and he's probably even been the shooter.
Speaker 1: But I'm proud to know that I didn't let those
Speaker 1: things change my heart, to know to do what's right,
Speaker 1: regardless of in the face of um, in the face
Speaker 1: of change, in the face of adversity, and so I
Speaker 1: drive to do what's best for the people after me
Speaker 1: and to be able to be an example. So that's
Speaker 1: what makes me proud that I think that my parents
Speaker 1: and people who poured into me. I have people from
Speaker 1: my neighborhood who poured into me, who taught me UM,
Speaker 1: and so that's what keeps me going That's what inspires
Speaker 1: me and motivates me, is that I have people who
Speaker 1: depend on me, and every decision that I make their
Speaker 1: life depends on it as well, and so I make
Speaker 1: decisions based on their lives. Well, I'm proud to say
Speaker 1: that I know you and that I work with you,
Speaker 1: and you're amazing person. It's good to understand. It's good
Speaker 1: to know that we have people like you that that
Speaker 1: do the work for the same reason we do it.
Speaker 1: You know, all the backlash, all in that whatever in
Speaker 1: the world would not stop me from doing this work
Speaker 1: because I understand that our people need this work done
Speaker 1: and whatever you know, and most of our leaders will
Speaker 1: criticize and receive backlash if you're not you know, I say,
Speaker 1: if you know, if you didn't do real work, if
Speaker 1: you haven't been ostracized or criticized for the work that
Speaker 1: you do, if you you're not doing anything that's life changing,
Speaker 1: and you know, on the cusp of something that's new,
Speaker 1: you know, when you do new work and you take
Speaker 1: new strategies and you decide, you know, I'm gonna following
Speaker 1: my heart and do this way, they're gonna be people
Speaker 1: that are they says, So I just want to say
Speaker 1: that we are glad to have you on the front
Speaker 1: lines and have you on street politicians. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: you back up here one time, especially when we get
Speaker 1: when we say we do it on in person, we
Speaker 1: gotta have you come to the studio man and just
Speaker 1: get you know, and we just want to say we
Speaker 1: appreciate your work man, keep doing what you do. Man.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Titia. We appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1: And it feels good to be able to highlight your
Speaker 1: work because I know that you wear it on your sleeve. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, I have to be the one to
Speaker 1: say because I think it's important, and I think the
Speaker 1: mayor would say as well. With all that he's trying
Speaker 1: to do and the fact that he's folding a million directions.
Speaker 1: As my son said, um, you know when when we
Speaker 1: first bought you on uh, he has he has responsibility
Speaker 1: that are beyond violence prevention and intervention. And to have
Speaker 1: a strong black woman sitting in this seat helping to
Speaker 1: coordinate and organized people. I know it makes the mayor
Speaker 1: proud as well. That's why he mentioned you during his interview.
Speaker 1: And we want to do it that we can to
Speaker 1: support you and to make sure that you are able
Speaker 1: to keep the santama and the energy to keep going.
Speaker 1: And so thanks again, thanks for talking with us and
Speaker 1: know that we are here. The show is here, but
Speaker 1: we are also here personally to support you. Absolutely. I
Speaker 1: thank you so much for for bringing me on. I
Speaker 1: think the mayor for the opportunity. I think that when
Speaker 1: he first presented that he was going to do Office
Speaker 1: of Violence Prevention and he presented it to all the directors,
Speaker 1: nobody raised their hands and wanted the job, and they
Speaker 1: said give it to Keisha. So I think so I
Speaker 1: think that Um, that it was just for me, Um,
Speaker 1: and we know that was for us is for us,
Speaker 1: and so I thank you so much for being partners
Speaker 1: in this work, Um, and for holding a line. So
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, Hey care, thank you. You know.
Speaker 1: I think what was interesting about Keisha and what she
Speaker 1: was saying, and you know, we didn't get a chance
Speaker 1: to go back to it, but she talked about how
Speaker 1: the new work that they're doing in terms of taking
Speaker 1: one of the precincts and turning it into a violence
Speaker 1: intervention and prevention space where they will have all the
Speaker 1: services and people can actually walk in and access the
Speaker 1: things that they need like mental health services and job
Speaker 1: placement and what have you. She said that that came
Speaker 1: about as a result of the defund police movement. Now
Speaker 1: you know, you can't miss that because she was talking
Speaker 1: about the George Floyd protests. Therefore, what we all know
Speaker 1: is that people started calling for the police to be
Speaker 1: defunded across the nation where we can take some of
Speaker 1: the resources. And as you entitled it UH some time ago,
Speaker 1: and I see many people are picking it up and
Speaker 1: using the title refunding the community, refund the people. And
Speaker 1: so as a direct connection between the movement for UH
Speaker 1: for police accountability, there has been this work to prevent
Speaker 1: violence in our communities and we have, unfortunately those who
Speaker 1: try their best for many different reasons. I think some
Speaker 1: people just don't know and don't understand, but others are
Speaker 1: perfectly trying to UH make you know, create a different narrative.
Speaker 1: But if you really focus and pay attention to the progress,
Speaker 1: the natural progression the police accountability movement in many places
Speaker 1: has turned into folks doing more to support community efforts
Speaker 1: which will ultimately bring down by So I was happy
Speaker 1: to hear her talk about that, and I think it
Speaker 1: is it is an example of how our movements connect
Speaker 1: and why we as people who are frustrated, especially who
Speaker 1: don't necessarily sendally see the changes that we're looking for.
Speaker 1: How we need to um, you know, we need to
Speaker 1: understand that there is that In no way should be
Speaker 1: be looking at one part of the movement and believing
Speaker 1: that it is not connected to the entire pie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't get it. That's why I don't get it
Speaker 1: you pretty much. I don't get how people just don't
Speaker 1: get the fund the police. I don't get how you
Speaker 1: don't see the direct correlation between poverty and violence. I
Speaker 1: don't get how you don't understand if you don't put
Speaker 1: resources in communities, and you don't give kids access to
Speaker 1: opportunities and things that keep them out of the streets.
Speaker 1: If you don't put basketballs in their hands, you don't
Speaker 1: put computers in their hands, if you don't give them
Speaker 1: skill sets, if you don't provide them with different opportunities,
Speaker 1: then you actually literally putting guns in there. In So,
Speaker 1: I don't get how this doesn't make sense to people.
Speaker 1: I don't get how you can look at communities where
Speaker 1: people are well to do all over this country, whether
Speaker 1: it's black people, white people, or ethnicities. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what your ethnicity is. When you're in a community that
Speaker 1: is thriving, there is less crime and violence, and there's
Speaker 1: less police participation. There's less police um presence inside of
Speaker 1: communities where people are well to do. So this is
Speaker 1: a this is common sense, but people want to act
Speaker 1: like they don't get it. Because what happens is this
Speaker 1: economy that we live in is built off crime, is
Speaker 1: built of violence. The whole injustice system has to run.
Speaker 1: If you don't have anybody to lock up and there's
Speaker 1: no crime, then they're not able to make these billions
Speaker 1: of dollars in industries that they make that are based
Speaker 1: on the fact that crime is being committed. So they
Speaker 1: have to have impoverished communities. They have to have kids
Speaker 1: who don't have opportunities who see violence and crime is
Speaker 1: the only way out. Two things. They have to create
Speaker 1: cultures of violence, Like teachers said, that's one of the things.
Speaker 1: The culture. They had to create, the culture of violence.
Speaker 1: They had to make that violence um utilize as a
Speaker 1: way out of your circumstances. When I talked about this
Speaker 1: old time, we talked about the music. People say the
Speaker 1: music and this and that. The music is what it
Speaker 1: is because people see that you are celebrated for violence.
Speaker 1: They're only giving record deals. And I said it again
Speaker 1: and I said before, they're only giving record deals to
Speaker 1: those people who are active in the streets, who are
Speaker 1: really the shooters, who are really the robbers. You don't
Speaker 1: even have to have a skill set, but if you're
Speaker 1: talking about a real crime that actually was committed, and
Speaker 1: you put that on a track they promoted right so
Speaker 1: that people see why real crime and real active street
Speaker 1: mess is what's gonna get me out of my circumstances,
Speaker 1: gonna get me out of hood, which is a short
Speaker 1: lived strategy because ut is usually it's what's been happening lately.
Speaker 1: As soon as they are getting these record deals and
Speaker 1: they get out the community, they get lots up for
Speaker 1: the crimes that they talked about when they get shot
Speaker 1: and killed by the person who they shot, brother or
Speaker 1: cousin or family member or somebody who sees them as
Speaker 1: an opt So you know, we gotta really understand what
Speaker 1: it is that we're dealing. Man. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: full fledged, multi prong process to stop violence in our communities.
Speaker 1: And and it seems like I agree with you everything
Speaker 1: you said, and I and it seems that uh Maya
Speaker 1: Baraca has the right strategy. H. He has the right
Speaker 1: idea of what has to take place in order to
Speaker 1: ensure that UM we're not looking at locking more people
Speaker 1: up and or having police violence, UM be the strategy
Speaker 1: for addressing issues that's happened in our community. UM. When
Speaker 1: I hear Keisha talking about mental health support, we know
Speaker 1: that our young people need that because if for no
Speaker 1: other reason, they must be traumatized by what they see
Speaker 1: in the palm of their hands on their cell phones
Speaker 1: every single day, whether it be violence, whether it be
Speaker 1: issues that's happening in the community, whether it be a
Speaker 1: lack of hopelessness. And then, of course, as may Baracca
Speaker 1: said coming out of uh the the pandemic, UM, we
Speaker 1: know that people are in a real dire situation mentally, physically, emotionally,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 1: And I think Lakeisha Yuri having her as the woman
Speaker 1: that is behind the man may and Ross Barrocca, Newark
Speaker 1: is going to quickly become an example of what can
Speaker 1: be done to strengthen communities and how we in violence
Speaker 1: not by being more violent, but actually by providing people
Speaker 1: with the services and resources that they need in order
Speaker 1: to feel whole. And with that being said, that brings
Speaker 1: us to another episode Street Politicians and other powerful episodes.
Speaker 1: I want to think our guests for being here. You know,
Speaker 1: the work that they're doing needs to be highlighted. We
Speaker 1: talked about what our communities need and we need leadership
Speaker 1: like we see today. So once again, tune in if
Speaker 1: you have any episodes or ideas for topics that you
Speaker 1: want us to discuss that you haven't heard. If you
Speaker 1: don't like something about me, if I pitched you off,
Speaker 1: send us, send us everything you know. I could take it.
Speaker 1: My skin is thick, you know. But once again, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna always be right. This Mega Mallery is not
Speaker 1: gonna always be wrong, but most of the times she
Speaker 1: will be. But we will both always and I mean
Speaker 1: always be or the true number one show in the world,
Speaker 1: Number one