Speaker 1: People. I'm riding with us is we continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop
Speaker 1: weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's job.
Speaker 2: He is Rams's job.
Speaker 3: I h I can still be c today. All right,
Speaker 3: I've been working on I need some Q I'll be
Speaker 3: you today, all right, I need.
Speaker 1: That, Okay, all right, Well, please stay tuned if you
Speaker 1: missed out. On the first part of the show, we
Speaker 1: were discussing how increases in police spending don't translate to
Speaker 1: decreases in crime rates. And we're going to spend this
Speaker 1: part of the show discussing some headlines, some some stories
Speaker 1: of police corruption, overreach, brutality, what have you that we
Speaker 1: haven't been able to get to the past few weeks,
Speaker 1: just because we've been tackling other issues. So a lot
Speaker 1: to stick around for and we hope that you do.
Speaker 1: But before we get to the meat and potatoes, we
Speaker 1: are going to discuss b A b A becoming a
Speaker 1: better ally BABA. Today's BABA comes courtesy of Friends of
Speaker 1: the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter
Speaker 1: wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses and
Speaker 1: allied businesses as well as make an impact with your spending. Again,
Speaker 1: that's fotmglobal dot com and today I am sharing from
Speaker 1: Black Enterprise. This is a fantastic example of becoming a
Speaker 1: better ally. Livingstone College has a very wealthy secret admirer.
Speaker 1: The North Carolina HBCU, that is historically black college or university,
Speaker 1: has now received its third anonymous donation of a million dollars.
Speaker 1: The three donations were given in less than a six
Speaker 1: month period by the same anonymous party, has announced by
Speaker 1: the school's president, doctor Anthony J. Davis, on March eleventh.
Speaker 1: They are as soon to have been donated by a
Speaker 1: member of its extended community and are the largest ever
Speaker 1: received anonymously by Livingstone. The Christian based HBCU received the
Speaker 1: first of the unrestricted donations in October of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: as shared by the president during its homecoming festivities. The
Speaker 1: owner sent the money with the message quote I trust
Speaker 1: you will address the needs of the college unquote. According
Speaker 1: to the Star of Zion, President Davis noted that its
Speaker 1: unrestricted nature will allow the school to address multiple needs
Speaker 1: quote thank you. This type of contribution allows the college
Speaker 1: to allocate funds strategically by enhancing academic programs, expanding scholarship opportunities,
Speaker 1: and investing in innovative facilities and technologies. So there's no
Speaker 1: two ways about it. Money money shapes outcomes. On this show,
Speaker 1: we talk about police, we talk about political disenfranchise when
Speaker 1: we talk about a ton of things that affect marginalized communities,
Speaker 1: But the primary driver behind all of these is economic
Speaker 1: empowerment money. The importance of money cannot be understated. If
Speaker 1: you are in a position to donate, please donate because
Speaker 1: money moves the needle.
Speaker 2: I already said one time for refreiation, on time reparation.
Speaker 1: Listen talk to him. Q, all right, first up, how
Speaker 1: about this? I'll read these. You give me what you got.
Speaker 1: Let's do it that way. Do all right? All of
Speaker 1: these are from the Black Information Network. For those who
Speaker 1: don't know, you can check out me and Q on
Speaker 1: the Black Information Network. During the week. We talk about
Speaker 1: obviously topics like these, but we talk about other topics
Speaker 1: as well. Q knows a lot of stuff, and I'm
Speaker 1: always in awe of his brilliance.
Speaker 2: I try to keep up. I hope you guys don't
Speaker 2: listen around this book. Nurse talking like this anyway, anyway,
Speaker 2: it's all true anyway, all right.
Speaker 1: First up, a Louisiana police officer was caught on video
Speaker 1: putting an unarmed black man in an illegal chokehold at
Speaker 1: a Boldine festival. According to attorneys, and according to KADN,
Speaker 1: Anthony Wayne Babino Junior was waiting for a friend to
Speaker 1: bring him money to get into the Scott Bodine Festival
Speaker 1: earlier this month when an officer put him in a
Speaker 1: cardioid hole. Civil rights attorney Harry M. Daniels and Harry L.
Speaker 1: Daniels the third said, citing video of the incident, officers
Speaker 1: are prohibited from using cardioid holds or restraints where the
Speaker 1: two main arteries that carry blood to the head and
Speaker 1: neck are restricted in the state of Louisiana, unless authorities
Speaker 1: believe they or another person are at risk of harm.
Speaker 1: According to the attorneys, Babino was in clear physical distress
Speaker 1: and on the verge of passing out while placed in
Speaker 1: the cardioid hold. Attorneys identified the officer as Lieutenant Bruin Laverne.
Speaker 2: And that's the carotid artery is what gets blocked when
Speaker 2: you're being choked out.
Speaker 1: I told you he knows Q knows this stuff. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm just doing my desk, all right. Daniel suggested the
Speaker 1: incident reflects a pattern of excessive force by Louisiana police.
Speaker 1: I'd go along with that given the amount of stories
Speaker 1: that we cover out of Louisiana. Quote. The insult to
Speaker 1: injury to this is that the guy is a training officer,
Speaker 1: Daniel said in a statement. Goes on to say, he's
Speaker 1: a lieutenant, he's an officer, he's over the division, and
Speaker 1: he's responsible for the training of the officers. If he
Speaker 1: isn't in fact engaging in these matters, and this is
Speaker 1: not a one off event, you can imagine how he's
Speaker 1: training the subordinates under him and what type of product
Speaker 1: is on the street in the city of Scott. Quote.
Speaker 1: If this is the kind of reckless brutality he's teaching
Speaker 1: to the younger officers, then this problem goes a lot deeper,
Speaker 1: the Attorney's added for News One. Scott Police Chief Chad
Speaker 1: Ledger declined to comment on the video, but noted an
Speaker 1: investigation into the incident would launch on April fifteen. All right,
Speaker 1: both barrels.
Speaker 2: Ki, So the Scott Police are going to launch an
Speaker 2: investigation into the Scott Police to see if the Scott
Speaker 2: police be tripping and if there should be any consequence
Speaker 2: or punitive damages for said tripping. Is that what I'm understand.
Speaker 1: That's basically what.
Speaker 2: The chief statement was. No comment, but we're gonna look
Speaker 2: into ourselves. You said something to see if we be tripping.
Speaker 1: You said something before, you said, we have a clip
Speaker 1: on our social media follow us at cif except what
Speaker 1: you said, the police police, what do you say? The
Speaker 1: police police?
Speaker 2: The police, police police, and the police is crazy because
Speaker 2: like even internal affairs is the police, right. So my
Speaker 2: uncle retired from the Detroit Police Department Inspector Harold Scott,
Speaker 2: Chief Inspector Internal Affairs, Detroit Police Department. He was Detroit policeman.
Speaker 2: He was Detroit Police officer, Harold Scott. He wasn't independent
Speaker 2: Communal Investigation Services officer Harold Scott, no community police officer
Speaker 2: Harold Scott. And his job was to investigate the Detroit Police.
Speaker 2: I think my uncle is incredible, but he was the
Speaker 2: police and his job was to investigate the police. There's
Speaker 2: a conflict there and that's just he my uncle. He's
Speaker 2: actually the most honorable man probably in my whole life
Speaker 2: growing up but as I say that out loud, it
Speaker 2: sound crazy, It sounds so obviously in conflict. So there's
Speaker 2: this thing that we figured out a way.
Speaker 1: To do ramses.
Speaker 2: And this is not even really specific to this topic,
Speaker 2: but the thing that bugs me the most, and it
Speaker 2: makes me the most fearful and the most hopeless and
Speaker 2: the most discouraged about this time and history and this
Speaker 2: time in our lives because I still remember what the
Speaker 2: eighties nineties were like. The lack of empathy and humanity
Speaker 2: in society at large is really, really, really heartbreaking because
Speaker 2: a lot of these stories, be it politics, be it
Speaker 2: you know, geopolitical, be it war, be it law enforcement,
Speaker 2: it's really just people saying, look, man, my na ain't Bennet,
Speaker 2: and I ain't in it. That ain't my name is Paul,
Speaker 2: And yeah, that ain't my son, that ain't my house,
Speaker 2: that ain't my money. So that ain't my problem. So
Speaker 2: I kind of don't care about everything, right because some
Speaker 2: of the stuff that we're covering. Man, Like I leave
Speaker 2: here sick to my stomach and sad and discouraged and
Speaker 2: like I said, hopeless, because there is no solution. There
Speaker 2: is no hope for a solution because so many people
Speaker 2: don't care anymore. Right, when we were young, what you
Speaker 2: used to be able to do to somebody that was
Speaker 2: tripping was shame them. You know, when I talk about
Speaker 2: our former president, that's the thing that went away with
Speaker 2: him the most. You were ashamed to be outed as
Speaker 2: a racist once upon a time.
Speaker 1: Now you get a platform to naw you.
Speaker 2: The truth, right like the the the the other party,
Speaker 2: And we pay attention to this most in more than
Speaker 2: most of the world because this is what we do.
Speaker 2: They're not even how do I say this, They're not
Speaker 2: even campaigning on any policy, like none, They're campaigning on
Speaker 2: division and hate. They're just pointing at groups and encouraging
Speaker 2: you to hate.
Speaker 1: Are you afraid of them? Are you fearful us too? Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's click up vote for me.
Speaker 2: It's like, wow, you're not even like you're not even
Speaker 2: being politicians anymore. It's like full fear, hate mongering all
Speaker 2: the time. So it's like, I don't man, I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: watching empathy and humanity just deteriorate and go away, and
Speaker 2: we talk about stories like this. You know you shouldn't
Speaker 2: do that to that man, because you know someone shouldn't
Speaker 2: do that to you. Like, it's not more complicated than that.
Speaker 2: You shouldn't be okay with that officer doing that to
Speaker 2: that man, because you wouldn't be okay with him doing
Speaker 2: it to you or your wife or your kids. You
Speaker 2: wouldn't be. You know, you wouldn't be. But because the
Speaker 2: person he's doing it too looks like me, and you've
Speaker 2: decided that I'm worth less than you and that i'm
Speaker 2: by nature or criminal anyway, then I probably deserved it.
Speaker 2: Like that's nuts.
Speaker 1: Well, save some of that optimism that I hear in
Speaker 1: your voice for these other two stories. Man, you heard
Speaker 1: no optimism for me. Just be it funny for those
Speaker 1: that might be newer to the show. Q's historically a
Speaker 1: little bit more realistic in his approach, and I tend
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more. We'll make it. I
Speaker 1: do believe that, and I know that we wouldn't make
Speaker 1: this show if we didn't on some level, on some
Speaker 1: cellular level, think that we can all live in a
Speaker 1: better society at some point.
Speaker 2: See Rams's hopes.
Speaker 1: I wish I wish that, which people knew the other
Speaker 1: the end of that statement, that's a that's a very
Speaker 1: very uh. That was a black moment in radio right now,
Speaker 1: becus inside inside. It's a community inside joke. I wish
Speaker 1: I could tell the rest of it, but anyway, all right,
Speaker 1: next up. It's also from the Black Information Network. Body
Speaker 1: camera footage shows the moments surrounding a black man dying
Speaker 1: in police custody at a Dallas hospital in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Per CBS News, Kenneth Knotts, age forty one, was driving
Speaker 1: from Houston Dallas with a woman and two of his
Speaker 1: children on November twenty nine, two when his tire blew
Speaker 1: out in Hutchins, Texas. According to a complaint filed by
Speaker 1: attorney Jeff Henley, the situation calls Knots to have a
Speaker 1: mental breakdown, his mom said, sighting an account of from
Speaker 1: the female passenger, police found Knots holding an infant on
Speaker 1: top of a vehicle at a convenience store on Interstate
Speaker 1: forty five. Knots was arrested and taken to ut Southwestern
Speaker 1: Medical Center for a psych evaluation. Body camera footage, which
Speaker 1: was released to the public last week, begins after Notts
Speaker 1: attempted to escape the hospital. In the footage, Knots pleaded
Speaker 1: for water as multiple officers held him down on a
Speaker 1: hospital dead I can't breathe, the man said. At one
Speaker 1: point during the struggle, Knots body went completely still. No pulse,
Speaker 1: no pulse. Medical staff can be heard yelling in the video.
Speaker 1: Knots was later pronounced dead. I saw this video and
Speaker 1: it was a lot more sad than this account really
Speaker 1: would suggest. You could see a man that was clearly
Speaker 1: in distress, and you see a human being lose his life,
Speaker 1: clearly afraid. At one moment, he's trying to move and
Speaker 1: trying to leave and trying to he's asking for water
Speaker 1: and he's just panic.
Speaker 2: It's important to note he's trying to not die.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not. He's not fighting anywhere. He's not like
Speaker 1: wrestling or.
Speaker 2: Even if he's fighting. I can't breathe, and you won't
Speaker 2: let me breathe. So I'm going to try to do
Speaker 2: anything I can to keep it not pass away right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then in the next I mean, I think
Speaker 1: there's a cut in the video, but just a couple
Speaker 1: of I mean, the immediate next frame in the video
Speaker 1: is them you know when they do they pump your
Speaker 1: chest and they're saying out loud one, two, three, So
Speaker 1: it's just it's kind of a sad result of the video.
Speaker 1: You would think, Okay, let's get him some water, let's
Speaker 1: calm him down, let's get him restrained, or whatever is
Speaker 1: going on there.
Speaker 2: But it's not. He's he's sub human. Yeah, he's bad
Speaker 2: by nature, he's criminal by nature. He's beneath me. Does
Speaker 2: not matter that he can't breathe, It does not matter
Speaker 2: that he needs water. It does not matter if he
Speaker 2: doesn't survive this, because I'm going to be fine. I
Speaker 2: might get reassigned, i might get paid time off, i
Speaker 2: might have to be an officer at a different agency
Speaker 2: after this, but I'm going to be fine. And this
Speaker 2: is how I feel like treating him right now. So
Speaker 2: this is how I'm going to treat him right now.
Speaker 2: And Ramsas and Q and you, sir or ma'am, can
Speaker 2: be as upset as you want. But I'm protected. I
Speaker 2: have qualified immunity. I have a very strong union, and
Speaker 2: worst case scenario, I'll get a slap on the wrists,
Speaker 2: or even if I lose my job, I won't there
Speaker 2: won't be any real accountability or real penalty, And most
Speaker 2: likely I'll go over to the next city or the
Speaker 2: next county. I can get a job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's what happened with the guy that
Speaker 1: ended up.
Speaker 2: So why not treat people that I see as beneath
Speaker 2: me and not human and less than my dog anyway,
Speaker 2: why not treat them terribly?
Speaker 1: You know what's funny.
Speaker 2: It's going to happen if I do.
Speaker 1: You know it's funny. I'm glad you mentioned them. Oh
Speaker 1: real quick, you mentioned officers going from on county over
Speaker 1: to the next county. I believe that's what happened with
Speaker 1: the officer. We covered a story recently. You may have
Speaker 1: heard of this story either on the shore or elsewhere,
Speaker 1: but we covered a story where an acorn fell off
Speaker 1: of a tree and landed on top of a police
Speaker 1: suv and the officer pulled out his gun and just
Speaker 1: emptied his clip into the gun, thinking that the handcuffed
Speaker 1: black man in the back seat had shot at him.
Speaker 1: But it was, of course the acorn. It fell from
Speaker 1: the tree. So he had his video. You know, the
Speaker 1: ticks forever for those videos to come out, just because
Speaker 1: police try to play those close to the chest and
Speaker 1: hope they'd fly under the radar anyway, right before they
Speaker 1: found their conclusions, he resigned so he didn't technically get fired.
Speaker 1: So I suspect someone tipped him off. They're probably going
Speaker 1: to come down fire you, So you should quit tonight
Speaker 1: so that it doesn't say that you're fired, and then
Speaker 1: you can get employed elsewhere. And I think he ended
Speaker 1: up getting employed elsewhere. The other thing I was going
Speaker 1: to say had to do with this thing that I
Speaker 1: saw on this show that I used to watch a
Speaker 1: long time ago. I was watching a rerun recently show
Speaker 1: called Community, and there's a scene where they start talking
Speaker 1: about they're talking about like racism on the campus or
Speaker 1: in life or something like that, and then the subject
Speaker 1: switches to like someone was being cruel to an animal.
Speaker 1: And there was a white woman on the show, she's
Speaker 1: one of the characters. She goes, Hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at
Speaker 1: animal cruelty. And then the black woman in the scene
Speaker 1: she goes, you can excuse racism, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And everyone has this moment. So shout out to the
Speaker 1: writers for but I think, real quick, and I want
Speaker 1: you to jump back in, but real quick, I think
Speaker 1: that for those that actually do watch this video again,
Speaker 1: Kenneth not. You can find the video on the Black
Speaker 1: Information Network's website. I don't recommend it. You're going to
Speaker 1: see a human being losers life. But for those that
Speaker 1: watch that video and think, yeah, he deserved it or
Speaker 1: whatever it is you think, just imagine if this was
Speaker 1: happening to a dog, how would you feel and why
Speaker 1: you don't feel that way about it happening to a
Speaker 1: black man. And I think that you'll see Q's point
Speaker 1: in that moment, But.
Speaker 2: You're saying that just kind of I don't know if
Speaker 2: triggered is the right word, but kind of made me
Speaker 2: relapse to a moment in my own kind of subconscious
Speaker 2: conversation that I had to have with people close to
Speaker 2: me after our former president became president and during his presidency,
Speaker 2: when people that I know and cared about would check
Speaker 2: me in his defense, there's a determination where you hear
Speaker 2: people say out loud, yes, I know he's a bigoted, sexist,
Speaker 2: racist jerk. Yeah, I know he's an awful human being.
Speaker 2: And you know that after they say all that, they're
Speaker 2: going to give you some type of qualifier to explain
Speaker 2: why he still has their support. And it's funny that
Speaker 2: you said that because xenophobia, white supremacist, white nationalists, racist bigot,
Speaker 2: you know sexist. I'm trying to find more offensive things
Speaker 2: to say about them, which are all true, and none
Speaker 2: of them are disqualifiers for so many people, people that
Speaker 2: we know, people that we've come in contact with, people
Speaker 2: who we've had conversations with. It is a really, really
Speaker 2: troubling thing. That's some close to one hundred million Americans
Speaker 2: proudly wear this man's name on their clothes, post pictures
Speaker 2: and flags of them on their houses and their cars.
Speaker 2: This identity politics with this person. They found such a
Speaker 2: strong and fitrial connection with It's scary man and he's
Speaker 2: on he's what how many indictments?
Speaker 1: Now? Man, I lost camp and none of those things
Speaker 1: qualify him. He's on criminal trial now being well.
Speaker 2: You say former president, but he's the he's the leader
Speaker 2: in the clubhouse now to be the next president.
Speaker 1: Can I add something? Watch this one of the things
Speaker 1: that I never really understood. And for the art, because
Speaker 1: we do have a handful of conservative listeners and Republican
Speaker 1: voters that that listen to our show every week. One
Speaker 1: of the things I never understood, And anybody who's hearing
Speaker 1: my voice, feel free to help me out. I have
Speaker 1: never in my life heard of a ku klux Klansman
Speaker 1: voting or Democrat. Not in modern history, right, I've never
Speaker 1: heard of this version of the Democratic Party. And I've
Speaker 1: never heard of an Aryan nation or skinhead or a
Speaker 1: Nazi voting for a Democrat. All of those people and
Speaker 1: the people that are they don't they don't technically fit
Speaker 1: into those groups, but they feel a lot of the
Speaker 1: ways that they feel basically racist people. They don't vote
Speaker 1: this way, they vote that way. In other words, conservativism
Speaker 1: encompasses all of these hate groups, hate.
Speaker 2: Magnan and encompasses it more.
Speaker 1: So watch this. So watch what I'm gonna say me, Ramses.
Speaker 1: If I had to cast a vote and I knew
Speaker 1: that I was under the same umbrella as those people,
Speaker 1: I would seriously reevaluate how I want to be remembered
Speaker 1: in the world. Am I shaping a world that benefits
Speaker 1: people like that? Like it's just I'm voting with and
Speaker 1: like them. But I think that, you know, because sometimes
Speaker 1: we'll say, you know, there are some Republican people, and
Speaker 1: a lot of Republican people and a lot of conservative pople.
Speaker 1: They're good people, but at a point you have to
Speaker 1: reconcile that. I'd imagine real quick I'm going to get
Speaker 1: this last one off before we go. I'm just going
Speaker 1: to read it real quick. This last one comes from
Speaker 1: the Black Information Network, of course. A Tallyhouseie, Florida police
Speaker 1: officer appeared to be caught on camera opening a sealed
Speaker 1: bottle of alcohol and planting it as evidence to charge
Speaker 1: a black man with a dui per our. Tallahassee Calvin
Speaker 1: Riley Senior, age fifty six, was pulled over for a
Speaker 1: routine traffic stop in May twenty twenty three when police
Speaker 1: discovered he was driving with a suspended license, and Florida
Speaker 1: officers can decide whether the ticket or rest somebody driving
Speaker 1: with a suspended license. According to our Tallehassee, however, they
Speaker 1: discovered a second If they discover a second offense, police
Speaker 1: are required to conduct an arrest. Body camera footage shows
Speaker 1: Tallahassee Police Department officer Kirsten Oliver speaking to Riley before
Speaker 1: calling another for backup on suspicion that he smelt like marijuana.
Speaker 1: Police then asked the man to perform a voluntary sobriety test,
Speaker 1: to which he refused. Officers detained the man and put
Speaker 1: him back in the police car while searching his car
Speaker 1: authorities found no marijuana, but Oliver discovered a sealed bottle
Speaker 1: of liquor. The officer proceeded to break the sealed, dump
Speaker 1: the liquor out on the street, and then plant the
Speaker 1: empty bottle back in the car. Video shows Oliver suggesting
Speaker 1: the bottle was already opened and the man had the
Speaker 1: alcohol cup in a cup in his vehicle, So we
Speaker 1: can't react to that one, of course, So save your
Speaker 1: thoughts Q or maybe share them online and the people
Speaker 1: will get it. But we have to leave it right there.
Speaker 1: But that's it for us today on Civic Cipher. So
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in and hopefully growing a little
Speaker 1: bit with us here today. Once again, I've been your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's job.
Speaker 2: Rams I'm trying to keep hope alive and I am
Speaker 2: struggling to do so.
Speaker 1: That's why we're a team. Man, redo it together. It's okay.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I have those moments and you're there for me.
Speaker 1: So and you know what, we have a ton of
Speaker 1: really amazing listeners that are there for us as well.
Speaker 1: And if you want to become one of those listeners,
Speaker 1: become a better listener and better supporter while we try
Speaker 1: to do this good work. You can do so online
Speaker 1: throughout the week. Please subscribe to our YouTube. It's at
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher. All of our social media is at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Our website civiccipher dot com. You can make a donation again,
Speaker 1: money moves the Needle. You can also suggest topics or
Speaker 1: submit comments or whatever, and we'll be back next week.
Speaker 1: But until then, y'all peace,