Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to bokay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Brooklyn Bunker. Folks, Yesterday,
Speaker 1: I found myself needing to turn the news off because
Speaker 1: I'd burst into tears. And I find that this is just,
Speaker 1: you know, par for the course of what it means
Speaker 1: to live in a devolving country, a regressive country, a
Speaker 1: dangerous country that you can no longer trust your elected officials,
Speaker 1: your government agencies to actually care about the people of
Speaker 1: this nation. I'd never really realized because I'd never had
Speaker 1: to experience that. We've never had to experience what the
Speaker 1: emotional toll is of living in countries that are regressive,
Speaker 1: that are dangerous, that hate women, that hate queer people,
Speaker 1: that hate black people, and what that toll is. And
Speaker 1: for me, as I was sitting at my kitchen table
Speaker 1: watching the news, I burst into tears at new reporting
Speaker 1: on the young man Jalen Walker, who was murdered by
Speaker 1: police and acron Ohio shot sixty times. I listened to
Speaker 1: white people once again make comments on social media, well
Speaker 1: he shouldn't have run from the cops, fuck you, because
Speaker 1: guests who also ran from the cops oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: The fucking murderer, Robert Crimose who killed was a known
Speaker 1: fucking assailant, armed and dangerous, who ran from police, and
Speaker 1: guess what, was taken into custody without fucking harm. What
Speaker 1: does it say about a country that every single time
Speaker 1: that we hear a report from media say the assailant
Speaker 1: was taken into custody without harm, that everyone knows that
Speaker 1: that person is white, right, and we just think that, well,
Speaker 1: that's just what it means to live in America. No,
Speaker 1: it's not, and it shouldn't be fucking acceptable, but it
Speaker 1: is because this country is built on white supremacy, is
Speaker 1: built on racism, is built on the blood, sweat and
Speaker 1: tears of indigenous people. This is who America is. But
Speaker 1: the new reporting about Jalen Walker is even more depraved
Speaker 1: and disturbing than the sixty rounds if you can possibly
Speaker 1: wrap your mind around that. It is the fact that
Speaker 1: the police brought him to the coroner in motherfucking handcuffs.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't enough that you riddled his body probably unwrecked, ignizable,
Speaker 1: with sixty rounds, but then you turned around and handcuffed
Speaker 1: a dead man and brought him to the medical examiner.
Speaker 1: What kind of depraved fucking human beings do that. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting to me that when you listen to
Speaker 1: the media talk about these mass shooters, and they talk
Speaker 1: about them with such fucking empathies such oh, we just
Speaker 1: want to understand, and no, there's nothing to fucking understand. Right.
Speaker 1: The only difference between a Robert Cremos and a fucking
Speaker 1: police officer, an Akron or Uvaldi is a badge, right,
Speaker 1: that's it. They have the same intent in their heart
Speaker 1: to cause harm. Right, It's just so that the police
Speaker 1: officers largely don't cause harm against other white people. But
Speaker 1: that's not why they went to the force, right. It
Speaker 1: was to extend their power of white supremacy and act
Speaker 1: as overlords and slave catchers, right, that's their fucking goal.
Speaker 1: And so you know, this country is just so fucked
Speaker 1: up these days that like, you can't go through a day,
Speaker 1: you can't get through an hour without just feeling sick
Speaker 1: to your stomach. I was watching video that is now
Speaker 1: circulating around as well with regard to the mass shooting
Speaker 1: that took place in Philadelphia. You see these images up
Speaker 1: above of the fireworks going off and people scattering below
Speaker 1: running for their fucking lives because there is a shooting
Speaker 1: that is happening. If that is not the perfect video,
Speaker 1: along along with right the other images coming out of
Speaker 1: Highland Park with turned over strollers and empty picnic chairs
Speaker 1: and toys and the makings of what would have been
Speaker 1: a parade in celebration scattered on an empty main street
Speaker 1: in America filled now with police, police tape, and empty
Speaker 1: bullet cartridges. Because this is the country that Republicans in
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court want us to live in. This is
Speaker 1: what they think is normal. They think it's normal that
Speaker 1: a toddler is now orphaned. And now we can turn
Speaker 1: all the people who have donated over two million dollars
Speaker 1: at this point to help what alleviate the trauma that
Speaker 1: this child and their family is going to now have
Speaker 1: to live under for the rest of their lives. But
Speaker 1: we turn those people, those average people, into heroes. They
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to be, because we shouldn't live in a
Speaker 1: country where a toddler is walking around a road aimlessly
Speaker 1: and alone because both of their parents were gunned down
Speaker 1: in an instant by an aar fucking fifteen just another
Speaker 1: day in America. So whether you have the police shooting
Speaker 1: black people in using them as target practice, as was
Speaker 1: found by the Boy Scouts who were on a tour
Speaker 1: to the police department in Detroit. You have multiple mass
Speaker 1: shootings that happened over the celebration of independence, which I
Speaker 1: have no idea what the fuck this country is celebrating
Speaker 1: these days, because independence for whom? Freedom for who? And
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden you have white people getting
Speaker 1: him to the idea that they didn't want to celebrate
Speaker 1: the fourth of July. Well, guess what, Black people haven't
Speaker 1: been celebrating the fourth of July for a really long time, because,
Speaker 1: much like I had said on July fourth, as I
Speaker 1: was reciting Frederick Douglas's speech, what to the slave is
Speaker 1: the fourth of July? You tell me what the difference
Speaker 1: is in the things that he said, in the call
Speaker 1: outs to Republicans into the absolute just debasement of what
Speaker 1: it means to be free that we continue to witness
Speaker 1: in this country. Tell me the difference other than the
Speaker 1: fact that currently slavery is no longer legal. But give
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court time, because I'm sure that they have
Speaker 1: it on their docket for the October session. And if
Speaker 1: all of this isn't enough. If all of this, If
Speaker 1: all of this isn't enough, our friend doctor Jonathan Metxo
Speaker 1: will tell us in today's show as he is recovering
Speaker 1: from COVID which he got while he was on his
Speaker 1: way back from Scandinavia, is that the two new variants
Speaker 1: that have come out of Europe are guess what, guys,
Speaker 1: really fucking bad because they are now going back to
Speaker 1: working into people's lungs. So you are going to see
Speaker 1: over the next couple of weeks hospitalizations rise, and guess what,
Speaker 1: our second fucking vaccine shots not going to stand up
Speaker 1: to this new variant. Welcome to what will be our
Speaker 1: fall and winter again. I wish some days that there
Speaker 1: was good news to offer. There isn't. Because the longer
Speaker 1: that I sit here, folks, and the more that I read,
Speaker 1: and the more that I'm waiting for Democrats to act
Speaker 1: as if there is some sense of urgency, to act
Speaker 1: like they give a fuck, to act like the people
Speaker 1: gave them power, and not to do what the Vice
Speaker 1: president did the other day, which was just throw up
Speaker 1: her hands and say what do you want us to do?
Speaker 1: Do what exactly? For Joe Biden to stand up It's
Speaker 1: been almost two weeks since women lost the right to
Speaker 1: bodily autonomy and people with uterus has lost the right
Speaker 1: to bodily autonomy, and there is no fucking urgent action
Speaker 1: being taken by this administration on things that can actually
Speaker 1: be done. You can't even get that motherfucker to utter
Speaker 1: the word abortion, but he's supposed to be somehow standing
Speaker 1: with women and people with uteruses. Bitch, sit down, Sit down,
Speaker 1: because if this is what it looks like to stand
Speaker 1: with us, then please go away. I don't know who
Speaker 1: the fuck Democrats think that they are asking people for
Speaker 1: their votes for and what it is that they're going
Speaker 1: to show that they are doing. But right now, let
Speaker 1: me tell you something. Miss me with your fucking fund
Speaker 1: raising emails, miss me with your fucking prayer vigils, you
Speaker 1: have power, But instead you want to go ahead and
Speaker 1: make backdoor deals with Mitch McConnell to put in another
Speaker 1: forced birth fucking judge on the courts? Are you fucking
Speaker 1: kidding me? Oh my god, every day, every day feels
Speaker 1: worse than the next. It's not sustainable. Don't ask me
Speaker 1: what it is that we do, but this ship is
Speaker 1: not sustainable. Coming up next, my conversation with our friend,
Speaker 1: our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzo. It's no secret
Speaker 1: that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's
Speaker 1: The Bituation Room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca
Speaker 1: Freer and Tini for a lighter take on the heavy stuff.
Speaker 1: Each week, The Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts,
Speaker 1: and activists to break down the issues in a way
Speaker 1: that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket.
Speaker 1: Get The Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and
Speaker 1: streaming on YouTube and Twitch. Hey there, I want to
Speaker 1: tell you about another podcast I think you'll love. The
Speaker 1: Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Gohler,
Speaker 1: the president of Emerge BGG, is the one stop shop
Speaker 1: for women of color who want to hear and talk
Speaker 1: about the world of politics. Join a Shanty this season
Speaker 1: as she talks to incredible women of color who are
Speaker 1: changing the face of politics and tackling some of the
Speaker 1: most important issues basing the United States, from reproductive justice
Speaker 1: to voting rights, to climate change and more. Tune in
Speaker 1: every Tuesday. We're ever you get your podcasts. Folks, You
Speaker 1: know that I love when we have our in house doctor,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel, join us on Woke F two. You know, really, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: I guess at this point, which is to remind us
Speaker 1: what we all seem to not know, which is that
Speaker 1: COVID is still around and happening. People are still getting infected.
Speaker 1: And I want you to tell us where we are
Speaker 1: with the latest, because I'll say I have been out.
Speaker 1: I was out for the holiday weekend. I'm not celebrating
Speaker 1: this country, just out having a good time with friends
Speaker 1: and family, and it does not look like from the
Speaker 1: outside that there is still a pandemic happening. So explain
Speaker 1: to us where we are right now. Uh well, I
Speaker 1: feel like we're having grownhog Day honestly right now. I
Speaker 1: mean I realized there's so many things happening right now,
Speaker 1: and it's July fourth, and it's summer, and the country's
Speaker 1: falling apart. So this could be like our last fun summer.
Speaker 1: But I have to say I'm worried again for the
Speaker 1: first time in quite some time about this. There's a
Speaker 1: new set of Subbariant's B A four and B A
Speaker 1: five that are coming from Europe. As you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just recovering from them myself. But the issue is we're
Speaker 1: seeing dramatic rises in infections in places where this has
Speaker 1: become dominant. It's much more transmissible than the big oh
Speaker 1: that we had last year, And I think the most
Speaker 1: concerning thing for me is that there are reports that
Speaker 1: people are having lung involvement. The thing about omicron and
Speaker 1: why people could almost let their guard down a little
Speaker 1: bit was that it was an upper respiratory infection, but
Speaker 1: it didn't enter the lungs. But we're hearing more and
Speaker 1: more reports from other countries and from lab studies here
Speaker 1: that BA five has lung involvement, which is the thing
Speaker 1: that remember got people into ICUs on restaurant. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so if that's the case, if we're going to have
Speaker 1: a much more transmissible and also more dangerous subvariant, then
Speaker 1: I think, as we've said, for what is it like
Speaker 1: the thirty five years of the pandemic now, the virus
Speaker 1: kind of sets the narrative despite all the other crap
Speaker 1: we have going on. But really, if this subvariant is
Speaker 1: as transmissible as people are saying, and it has the
Speaker 1: possibility of making people sick, then I think we're going
Speaker 1: to see a wave that's going to be here longer
Speaker 1: than other waves we've seen and leading into the fall also,
Speaker 1: So I think now is a time. I mean, I
Speaker 1: believe me, I know how hard this is. I try
Speaker 1: to convince my parents of this and my brothers to
Speaker 1: like start masking inside again. I know that sounds ridiculous,
Speaker 1: but I would say if there's a time to not
Speaker 1: get this, now would be that time, because there's our
Speaker 1: possibility at least a lot of people are going to
Speaker 1: get sick pretty soon here. But this is this following
Speaker 1: I mean, this is our third year, right, Like we're
Speaker 1: either headed into our third year or this No, we're
Speaker 1: headed into our third year. So this is our second
Speaker 1: summer dealing with COVID, right, And my question is this
Speaker 1: is the same pattern that it has always shown that
Speaker 1: as the summer progresses there is a new variant that
Speaker 1: happens in the summer. Things get very dramatic in the
Speaker 1: fall and in the winter, and then it subsides again.
Speaker 1: This is the same I mean, tell me how what
Speaker 1: you are seeing in terms of patterns, So I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about intensity of the illness and where it's going yet,
Speaker 1: just in terms of patterns of how it rocks like
Speaker 1: this seems to be similar to omicron and delta. This
Speaker 1: thing is so much more spreadable than anything we've seen before.
Speaker 1: Um and so I and you're probably hearing this people
Speaker 1: like me who have been super careful for years now
Speaker 1: have covid um and and maybe I let my guard down.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I did. Also, I've went on an airplane.
Speaker 1: I ate the meal for ten minutes. That's probably what happened. Um.
Speaker 1: And it was a crappy ass meal also um um.
Speaker 1: But but I would say that again, this is just me.
Speaker 1: I worry that we could have a longer wave than
Speaker 1: we've had before. And and I'm a I'm a doomsdayer, right,
Speaker 1: that's what. Oh, you're not a doomsdayer, you you you
Speaker 1: do not. You're not the bearer of bad news. You're
Speaker 1: the bearer of reality for woke af and for every
Speaker 1: other place that you speak in. I'm looking closely at
Speaker 1: the data now, and and I'm saying that there are
Speaker 1: two things that worry me. Number one is that prior
Speaker 1: infection is not protecting people from this new variant. So
Speaker 1: this is different, and that's bad. So it shows that
Speaker 1: this new variant can escape, can escape the kinds of
Speaker 1: protection we had from vaccines and from infections, and so
Speaker 1: that's number one, and the number two, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: worried about the cumulative effects. Like people are like, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to go out and get it and then
Speaker 1: I'll have immunity. But I think, actually, COVID is not
Speaker 1: letting us do that narrative very well. I think the
Speaker 1: narrative that we're seeing, unfortunately, is the more you get COVID,
Speaker 1: the more cumulative bad effects you have in your body.
Speaker 1: And so people who are now going to get it
Speaker 1: for the second or third or four time are just
Speaker 1: going to be at greater risk. It's not like your
Speaker 1: immune system is ready and that kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: the reason I say that again anecdotally, is people who
Speaker 1: are getting at the second or third time or at
Speaker 1: least from what I'm reading, potentially getting more serious cases
Speaker 1: than the first time they got it. And for me,
Speaker 1: just as somebody who tries to pay attention to this stuff,
Speaker 1: that's that's an alarm. So again I realize, you know,
Speaker 1: we have the fallow democracy, We have bullets in the
Speaker 1: air as much as virus particles. We have everything going
Speaker 1: on right now. But I would also say that in
Speaker 1: the middle of all that, it maybe is time for
Speaker 1: people to play it safe the way they did earlier
Speaker 1: on about indoor space just right now, because again there's
Speaker 1: this new variant that's very, very spreadable, and we just
Speaker 1: don't know what it does quite yet. But I'd say
Speaker 1: the early reports of what's happening are not are not uplifting.
Speaker 1: So what steps are being taken right now across the
Speaker 1: pond in terms of how they are dealing with this
Speaker 1: and talking about it, because again, I'll be honest, we
Speaker 1: have not, at least that I have seen on the
Speaker 1: news as of late, had any serious conversations, any serious
Speaker 1: segments dedicated to COVID that we were having six months ago.
Speaker 1: So and that's that's what happens. The coverage wanes, the
Speaker 1: conversations wanes, the restrictions you know, go away, and we
Speaker 1: have all decided that this is done. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing in terms of the precautions that
Speaker 1: they're taking in Europe? Who is dealing with this right now?
Speaker 1: I would say the one thing for the United States
Speaker 1: that is the most alarming is that the Republicans in
Speaker 1: Congress blocked any kind of COVID funding and so vaccine
Speaker 1: roll out, vaccine update, testing, regiment rapid tests, all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. There's no funding for it right now,
Speaker 1: and so hopefully again I'm wrong and it's no big deal.
Speaker 1: But if I'm right, like, let's let's see where we
Speaker 1: are in two weeks. Basically, if this is a non issue,
Speaker 1: I was wrong. If this is an issue, then we're
Speaker 1: really in big trouble because we are prepared for what's coming.
Speaker 1: And I would say that's not the case in other places. Certainly.
Speaker 1: I was just in Europe before. I can guarantee you
Speaker 1: I got this on an airline on the way back,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent chance, and so I would just say,
Speaker 1: over there, I mean, it's not like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they're doing the one thing that's like social distancing or masking.
Speaker 1: It's that over there they have a robust health infrastructure,
Speaker 1: so people have access to healthcare, so they don't like
Speaker 1: wait till they're super sick and super infectious and then
Speaker 1: go into the doctor. And so would they have beyond
Speaker 1: any immediate thing, right, I mean, hopefully, you know, we're
Speaker 1: going to see an updated version of the of the
Speaker 1: vaccine here pretty soon, and hopefully hopefully you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff will be improving for our immediate treatment.
Speaker 1: But I would say that our healthcare systems falling apart,
Speaker 1: and that to me is what isn't fallen up, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: Like in all honesty, I mean, we're going to make
Speaker 1: the transition in a moment because I want to talk
Speaker 1: about all of the mass shootings that happened over this
Speaker 1: you know holiday that's supposed to celebrate freedom, and you know,
Speaker 1: the reality is is one Democrats or don't have any
Speaker 1: type of conversation or push back to the fact that
Speaker 1: it is Republicans that want to make sure that Americans
Speaker 1: are as unsafe and that is including with COVID, that's
Speaker 1: including with guns, that's including with everything as unsafe as possible. Right,
Speaker 1: And so whether we're voting against people's healthcare, we're voting
Speaker 1: against vaccine rollout and protection in a pandemic, you're voting for,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone to be able to have an a
Speaker 1: R fifteen Like that's where we are. And so with
Speaker 1: this iteration again of COVID, which everyone is emotionally, physically,
Speaker 1: spiritually exhausted from, how do you foresee ringing the alarm
Speaker 1: or is it just that we'll just wait for it
Speaker 1: to be as stage fucking five fire the way that
Speaker 1: it it has been and flared up over the last
Speaker 1: two years. I mean, it's in the United States. It's
Speaker 1: at tension between people's ability to ignore that this is
Speaker 1: happening and the virus is really excellent ability to get
Speaker 1: our attention, and so if it happens, it's not like
Speaker 1: it's going to be super avoidable. I mean again, like
Speaker 1: in the worst case scenario, people are going to really
Speaker 1: see it because they're going to start getting sick. And
Speaker 1: so I think that's I think that's it now. I
Speaker 1: hope I'm wrong. I hope this is just a rise
Speaker 1: of mild infection that is the last gasp of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I don't know. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 1: At this point. Let me just I just want to
Speaker 1: articulate for everyone who has been listening to Jonathan over
Speaker 1: the past two years on this show, you haven't been wrong,
Speaker 1: so the idea. So it's like I would love to
Speaker 1: be wrong too about the fall of democracy, Like I'd
Speaker 1: love for somebody to be like Danielle, this is absolutely
Speaker 1: not going to happen, right, But the fact is is
Speaker 1: that we've been having these conversations because we're not wrong
Speaker 1: and trying to avoid as much pain and fear and
Speaker 1: anxiety and sickness as possible, right, Like, that's the point
Speaker 1: of the work that we're doing at this ederation. And
Speaker 1: I just you know, you're right. Every time that we
Speaker 1: turn our back on COVID, COVID taps us on the
Speaker 1: shoulder and it's like, no, no, I'm still here. And well,
Speaker 1: I mean, if if people want to do something to
Speaker 1: keep informed, follow hospitalization rates in Israel, like that to
Speaker 1: me is the canary in the coal mine. I realize
Speaker 1: it's exactly like the movie World War Z, but but
Speaker 1: I feel like that that's the country that has the
Speaker 1: one of the higher natural immunities, and when their hospitalizations
Speaker 1: start going up, then that means that this virus is
Speaker 1: breaking breaking through in a way. And so um, I
Speaker 1: mean there are other countries like that. I was just
Speaker 1: in Scandinavia. It's like ninety something percent vaccinated, and so
Speaker 1: I would just say, there are places where we can look.
Speaker 1: And it's not like I have any more information than
Speaker 1: anybody else. I just kind of I'm a non denialist.
Speaker 1: I feel like, if it's happening in places that people
Speaker 1: know what's happening and they're prepared, it's probably going to
Speaker 1: happen here, and so that's that's kind of why I'm
Speaker 1: trying to spread the word of caution right now. If
Speaker 1: anybody's listening, I would just say, for the next two
Speaker 1: weeks until we know what this is, enjoy your summer,
Speaker 1: but wear a mask inside. You know. That would be
Speaker 1: that would be my main advice right now. Okay, So Jonathan,
Speaker 1: let's switch gears with a few minutes that we have
Speaker 1: left to talk about the escalation in um mass shootings
Speaker 1: and gun violence that we've seen over the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. There was a once again a black man
Speaker 1: gunned down in acron, Ohio, Jaln Walker, who I have
Speaker 1: gone on MSNBC to discuss the absolutely heinous and absurd
Speaker 1: use of force with eight officers in a traffic stop
Speaker 1: that ends in a hail of more than ninety rounds
Speaker 1: being released and sixty of them ending up in the
Speaker 1: body of a young black man. You have that where
Speaker 1: there has been, of course protests in Ohio because when
Speaker 1: black and brown people protest, we are protesting to not
Speaker 1: be shot dead and to have the same assumptions of
Speaker 1: safety and protection as white people do, which we know
Speaker 1: does not happen in this country. Then there was a
Speaker 1: shooting at a Fourth of July parade in a suburb
Speaker 1: in Chicago, twenty miles twenty miles away from Chicago, halfway
Speaker 1: through the parade, hail of bullets. It's been caught on
Speaker 1: TikTok video. By bystandards, I believe at this point, when
Speaker 1: the last time I saw it was six people that
Speaker 1: were dead, I think that now it may be eight
Speaker 1: or nine. And I believe that the shooter was finally caught,
Speaker 1: which means that they were white. And then there was
Speaker 1: another shooting in Sacramento. Jonathan, what are you making of
Speaker 1: all of this? Are we covering all of this more?
Speaker 1: Or is it increased violence? It's ink, Well, we certainly
Speaker 1: have more mass shootings. That's there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: We have more shootings. I trace everything back to unconscionably
Speaker 1: horrific and shitty gun policy. There are many more guns
Speaker 1: on the street, and there's no avenue for people to
Speaker 1: do anything about it right now, And I think it
Speaker 1: links all the narratives that you just told me. I
Speaker 1: certainly think, of course that there is horrific police violence
Speaker 1: against communities of color. But I also know from having
Speaker 1: researches for a long time that when the police don't
Speaker 1: know who has a gun, they're in shoot first mode
Speaker 1: all the time. And there have been cases where I
Speaker 1: believed or not police unions have come out for tighter
Speaker 1: gun policy. Now, this is not about racism. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is about racism also, obviously, But I'm saying, you
Speaker 1: know the places where so, so I would just say
Speaker 1: that I bet we're going to see more of that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, because as as there are many more guns,
Speaker 1: it's just people aren't. It's not like, so is this
Speaker 1: a case where I should call mental health or something
Speaker 1: like that. Now, in this case it was. It was
Speaker 1: a murder, obviously, But I would also say that I
Speaker 1: just don't see how we I just don't see how.
Speaker 1: I feel like the police violence problem is many things,
Speaker 1: but it's also connected to the gun problem in a
Speaker 1: certain kind of way. I mean absolutely. I mean, but
Speaker 1: here's the thing. When you have a Supreme Court that
Speaker 1: essentially says that everyone in this country has a right
Speaker 1: to a right to conceal and carry, and then you
Speaker 1: set up the laws in such a way that that
Speaker 1: is going to be the case. Police officers no longer
Speaker 1: have a fucking leg to stand on, in my humble opinion,
Speaker 1: to say, oh, we thought they had a gun, because
Speaker 1: you have now a right to have a gun, right,
Speaker 1: a right to have a gun wherever you are. That's
Speaker 1: what the Supreme Court has said, that's what the Republican
Speaker 1: Party has wanted, right, and so for then for cops
Speaker 1: to turn around and say, well, I thought so and
Speaker 1: so had a gun. So right, so like tell me how,
Speaker 1: like how we're not just going to see an escalation,
Speaker 1: but like there is no responsibility to police officers because
Speaker 1: we have qualified immunity, so they can say, I fear
Speaker 1: for my life they had a gun. But yet we
Speaker 1: live in a country that tells you that you can
Speaker 1: have a gun, just not if you're black. As you know,
Speaker 1: I'm writing a book about this topic right now. It's
Speaker 1: very complex, it's not there's no one easy answer. I
Speaker 1: can tell you that there are more police shootings and
Speaker 1: places where there are more guns for whatever reason, however
Speaker 1: you want to interpret that. I can also tell you
Speaker 1: that there are many examples of police unions trying to
Speaker 1: push back for better gun policy and so it's not
Speaker 1: like police are automatically Republican. New York police were strongly
Speaker 1: against the Supreme Court decision. The police union came out
Speaker 1: against m NRA action on kevlar piercing bullets. Campus police
Speaker 1: across the country came out against campus Kerry. Their argument
Speaker 1: was always, we get to a scene, we don't know
Speaker 1: who's armed, and we don't know who the shooter is.
Speaker 1: It just makes the outcome a lot worse. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to but but I'm saying that I just
Speaker 1: think that it's it's actually not true to say that
Speaker 1: all police are automatically Republicans and they and they are
Speaker 1: supporting what's happening. I just I can give plenty of
Speaker 1: examples where that's not the case. And I do just
Speaker 1: think that adding more guns to any situation just increase
Speaker 1: is the chance of their being a shooting in that situation. Again,
Speaker 1: when you compound it with all the other factors involved,
Speaker 1: including you know, bias and brutality and all those kind
Speaker 1: of factors. But I would say that I certainly think
Speaker 1: we are going to see more of these kind of
Speaker 1: shootings for this exact reason. Because the other point that
Speaker 1: I'm kind of making in the work I'm doing now
Speaker 1: is that police literally can't stop anybody until they fire
Speaker 1: a trigger. Now, obviously that didn't stop them last week.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, there were de escalation tactics that
Speaker 1: police used when they saw an armed person that are
Speaker 1: literally now unconstitutional because everybody has a right to carry
Speaker 1: a gun in public, and so the kind of de
Speaker 1: escalation tactics that were used before, for better or worse,
Speaker 1: I mean obviously a lot of worse are not allowable
Speaker 1: under the Supreme Court rule before you literally have to
Speaker 1: shoot your gun to be in violation of of a law.
Speaker 1: And so in a way, I just think it's it's
Speaker 1: such a toxic, horrible mix, and it's it's just I
Speaker 1: don't know. I when I'm not met about COVID and
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about puppies and springtime and the love,
Speaker 1: my love of daffodils, I'm thinking how the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: decision about guns was among a week of horrible decisions,
Speaker 1: like we're going to it's just going to be in
Speaker 1: our soil for the rest of our country, for our
Speaker 1: lives in a way, and so in a way, just
Speaker 1: these kind of situations are going to escalate and what
Speaker 1: I'm telling you is also true not just a police
Speaker 1: but also a course of road rage and partner violence
Speaker 1: and all these things like when when you don't know
Speaker 1: if the other person has a gun or you assume
Speaker 1: they do have a gun, it changes, it changes the
Speaker 1: outcome of that interaction. And so I'm not even talking
Speaker 1: about mess shootings. I'm just saying like everyday kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: The fact that every single person has a right to
Speaker 1: own a gun, and we all have as there are
Speaker 1: firecrackers and cars backfire and everybody whips out there gun
Speaker 1: now and stuff like that. So I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just what the Supreme Court did. We're so I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to use the word I'm thinking, but
Speaker 1: I'll just say it was so unconformable on lovel of
Speaker 1: humanity in a way, because I think we're going to
Speaker 1: see much more stuff like this. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: just you know, I honestly I think that we are
Speaker 1: living in and I keep saying this because I have
Speaker 1: no point of reference. This has got to be one
Speaker 1: of the most dangerous times in that that this country
Speaker 1: has seen where there is just a confluence. It's like
Speaker 1: the perfect tsunami of like violence, of pandemic, of climate change,
Speaker 1: of scarcity, of inflation, of guns, like of racism. It's like,
Speaker 1: you couldn't get worse if I think that if you tried,
Speaker 1: right like this, this is where we are, and I'm
Speaker 1: not quite sure how people continue to keep themselves safe
Speaker 1: and to stay safe when the Supreme Court literally took
Speaker 1: away any aspect of safety we thought that we would have,
Speaker 1: which is maybe live in a state that doesn't have
Speaker 1: access to guns in that way, and now you have
Speaker 1: no choice but to be surrounded by them. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of life that we have set up here in
Speaker 1: this country. And then tell us we need classrooms with
Speaker 1: more doors. Doctor Jonathan mepzol As always, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking the time to be with us, to
Speaker 1: remind us of the importance and the danger that COVID
Speaker 1: still presents, and to kind of walk us through this um,
Speaker 1: this mayhem that we're living in. We appreciate you. Stay safe, everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll keep talking and we'll just we'll get through this.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but sure, Hey, I'm David. Plots of
Speaker 1: slights political gabfest. As another election season accelerates, it can
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Speaker 1: Each week on the gap Fest, John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon
Speaker 1: and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, and
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Speaker 1: is it for me today, Dear friends on Woke a app.
Speaker 1: As always, Power to the people and to all the
Speaker 1: people power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.