Speaker 1: What's up. Family, it's your girl to meeke A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your and we're your hosts of street
Speaker 1: politicians the place. And we've got our good old orange
Speaker 1: T shirts on today which represent Gun Violence Awareness Month.
Speaker 1: This is the first week of g v a M,
Speaker 1: which is a time in New York City where anti
Speaker 1: violence organizations, advocates, partners, families, people who have been impacted
Speaker 1: on either side of a gun, the shooter and or
Speaker 1: the victim all come together to focus on, UH, the
Speaker 1: anti violence movement, to bring attention, awareness, UM and support
Speaker 1: to the movement. UH and really to uh just to
Speaker 1: put some some attention and on the fact that there
Speaker 1: are models that work. UH. And in New York City,
Speaker 1: we have a model which we've you know, we'll be
Speaker 1: talking much more about, called the crisis Management system. And
Speaker 1: we know that over many years, the number of violent
Speaker 1: crimes and violent incidents have been reduced by the work
Speaker 1: of so many folks. UM. You all will see and
Speaker 1: hear the footage of the press conference that happened today
Speaker 1: where hundreds of anti violence activists, experts, organizers. UH. We're
Speaker 1: at City Hall with UM, the city officials, City Council
Speaker 1: members and other government officials, and of course UM, the
Speaker 1: mayor of New York City, UM, and you know, standing
Speaker 1: there announcing some important things that we'll talk about later
Speaker 1: on this show. We have been doing this for a
Speaker 1: long time, and history is going to show that the
Speaker 1: first crisis management funding came from an idea I had
Speaker 1: in the State Senate called snug gun spelled backwards first,
Speaker 1: allocation of money first, and it has moved into the
Speaker 1: movement you see behind us. And so when people believe
Speaker 1: that folks of color want to normalize gun violence in
Speaker 1: their community, they are wrong. They are wrong. This is
Speaker 1: a real issue that we want to attack head on.
Speaker 1: But what we don't want to do is minimize the
Speaker 1: complete picture that must be addressed. By the time a
Speaker 1: person picks up a gun, we've already failed, We've already
Speaker 1: felt Now. I said this over and over again. There
Speaker 1: many rivers that feed the seed of violence, and it's
Speaker 1: time the damn every river, not just one with law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Damning every river is what we're going to do. The
Speaker 1: epidemic of gun violence is not a New York problem.
Speaker 1: It's not a Democrat Republican problem. Tulsa is a red state.
Speaker 1: The shooting that took place, there was a rest state.
Speaker 1: Just an announcement came over just a few minutes ago
Speaker 1: of a sixteen year old attempting to recruit others in
Speaker 1: Berkeley to go in and shoot up a school. Every
Speaker 1: day we're hearing about this. It's breaking our hearts, breaking
Speaker 1: our bodies, and breaking our communities. When a bullet hits
Speaker 1: the target, the physical bullet stops, but the emotional trauma
Speaker 1: rips a path apart the anatomy of our entire community.
Speaker 1: And there have been more mass shootings, think about the
Speaker 1: for a moment, More mass shooters in America than days
Speaker 1: of the years. Unbelievable. And we've normalized it. We say
Speaker 1: it's okay, and I think we often dismiss it because
Speaker 1: the victim of handguns violence for the most part of
Speaker 1: black and brown and in the inner cities all across America.
Speaker 1: So we've normalized it and stated that that is just
Speaker 1: the way it has to be. And we're saying today,
Speaker 1: your damn right is not going to be that way.
Speaker 1: We could turn it around and make it happen. And yes,
Speaker 1: instead of g U and S, let me get you
Speaker 1: another four letters, how about J. O. B. S. Let's
Speaker 1: get our children jobs. Let's put them on a pathway
Speaker 1: of employment. That's why we have a hundred thousand summer
Speaker 1: youth jobs, first time in the city history. Thank you
Speaker 1: Jermanni Williams for pushing this for years. That's why we're
Speaker 1: pushing the tell corporate America we want to one paid
Speaker 1: internship program throughout the school year leading into our force
Speaker 1: to care children, to give them the support they need
Speaker 1: so they don't age out at one, give them mentors
Speaker 1: and to the All of these things are gonna help
Speaker 1: us deal with this issue in a real way. Time
Speaker 1: to take our city upstream and build real partnership with
Speaker 1: people who are tired, as I am, of pulling people
Speaker 1: out of the river downstream. This is our moment. You
Speaker 1: do not elect me to do what everyone has done
Speaker 1: in the past. You wanted a different outcomes and you
Speaker 1: picked a different mayor. And trust me, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of noise out there. Everybody's gonna critique us. Everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: start telling why don't you pick this one, why don't
Speaker 1: you pick that? Because I'm the mayor and we're gonna
Speaker 1: make the decisions now to save our children. With the
Speaker 1: level of urgency that we deserve today. What you'll see
Speaker 1: behind us, it's not just the government made it happen,
Speaker 1: because to be clean there, we were told no every
Speaker 1: time that we asked for resources. When we first started,
Speaker 1: we met with the mayor at the time and he
Speaker 1: looked Erica Ford and not dead in the face and said,
Speaker 1: there is no proof that what you're trying to do
Speaker 1: will work. But we proved it. They sent us back.
Speaker 1: They told us to get data. And all that Erica
Speaker 1: has mentioned in terms of how many days, weeks, years,
Speaker 1: months went by without shootings in this city, we did
Speaker 1: that together. Now, once the pandemic came, it changed a
Speaker 1: lot for everybody. So stop trying to act like in
Speaker 1: media who you are here, if you have any moral conscious,
Speaker 1: tell the true story. Violence is up everywhere. In fact,
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, Malcolm X got in big trouble
Speaker 1: for saying something that we see today much is that
Speaker 1: the chickens are coming home to rules. As we see
Speaker 1: shootings happening across this nation, shootings of all types, mass shootings,
Speaker 1: violence everywhere. Remember that this group we told you, we
Speaker 1: told you what would happen. We gave you the forecast
Speaker 1: of what would happen to this nation if we did
Speaker 1: not deal with mental health, if we did not deal
Speaker 1: with the lack of jobs and resources, if we did
Speaker 1: not address food, deserts and other concerning issues in our community.
Speaker 1: We already told you that today would come, and so
Speaker 1: if we are to go forward and this nation is
Speaker 1: to be better, this group is an example of what
Speaker 1: must come together in order to address those concerns. The
Speaker 1: police force cannot do it alone. If they could have,
Speaker 1: c mess would have never been needed. The government cannot
Speaker 1: do it alone. Half the time, they can't figure out
Speaker 1: from one side to the other what to do. It
Speaker 1: takes all of us. But the main thing is that
Speaker 1: the people must be centered. I'm I'm a part of
Speaker 1: a very robust route of advocates that I'm very proud
Speaker 1: to be a member of and a lot of us
Speaker 1: know each other respectfully. But thank you the man Adams
Speaker 1: for naming me to be the Gun Violence Preventions are
Speaker 1: in New York City. There's a new title. It's the
Speaker 1: first ever, and it should be. As he mentioned, we
Speaker 1: should want some things that are different. We've been dealing
Speaker 1: with this issue for far too long, and we've been
Speaker 1: using the same tactics over and over again, and we've
Speaker 1: been getting the same results. So so so no one
Speaker 1: should have a problem with us trying something different. Give
Speaker 1: us a chance to prove our self work. We are
Speaker 1: the people who are closest to the problem, so quite
Speaker 1: naturally we have the answers to those problems. There's nobody
Speaker 1: that wants gonna balanced in more than the young people
Speaker 1: that come from the neighborhoods and the people who live
Speaker 1: in this community every single day. And so this is
Speaker 1: a community driven approach. When you hear about the state
Speaker 1: or the FEDS and now the city, now include the community.
Speaker 1: That's the fourth flag of the chair that you're sitting on, Marsha.
Speaker 1: The community that we represent can create, as you heard
Speaker 1: mentioned at this podium, solutions for themselves. And we're going
Speaker 1: to work hand in sync with that community to make
Speaker 1: sure that we deliver the things that they say that
Speaker 1: they need, the things that they said that they want,
Speaker 1: and these men and women behind me are trained to
Speaker 1: deliver those resources into those neighborhoods where other people cannot go.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm proud because I was one of
Speaker 1: the first, very very few. There was three of us
Speaker 1: who were the main leaders and no more than maybe
Speaker 1: six or seven in the room at any given time
Speaker 1: who put the crisis management system together. Architects. We were
Speaker 1: the architects of this movement. Erica Ford was really the brainchild.
Speaker 1: She threw all of her thoughts on the board. UM.
Speaker 1: And Richard gupp Glover, who at the time I think
Speaker 1: was at Columbia I think he was at Columbia UM.
Speaker 1: He was a professor. He worked to help organize her thoughts.
Speaker 1: We did the advocacy work. Our brother A. T. Mitchell
Speaker 1: and myself we worked together with Erica pulling it and
Speaker 1: putting it and focusing and molding it to make the
Speaker 1: crisis management system a real thing. And here we are
Speaker 1: over a decade later. Um. You know, and the christ
Speaker 1: and the Gun Violence Awareness Month came along later where
Speaker 1: we decided that we had to have a month that
Speaker 1: really every single day there'll be educational opportunities and other
Speaker 1: moments for people to get together. So I was happy
Speaker 1: to be in the hot sun today with all our
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters. Yeah, I was definitely happy to be there. UM.
Speaker 1: Our brother A. T. As you mentioned he was. He
Speaker 1: was announced to be the Tzar of Gun Violence and
Speaker 1: Prevention of New York. So that was a big thing.
Speaker 1: You know, just he's somebody that a t I think
Speaker 1: his mannerisms, the way they carried itself, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's just somebody that I look up to a call
Speaker 1: for advice a lot, and he's been a mentor, you know,
Speaker 1: he's been doing this work long way longer than I have.
Speaker 1: And he's um and he also respects my leadership at
Speaker 1: a lot of times, and we just have a beautiful relationship.
Speaker 1: So seeing him, you know, appointing to this position, knowing
Speaker 1: that it's in the right hands. He's somebody who definitely
Speaker 1: takes this work serious, sleep and wakes up with this work,
Speaker 1: who calls me, you know, and whenever something that's going on,
Speaker 1: it's like, what are we gonna do? Like that's this
Speaker 1: is what we need to do. He comes up with strategy. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I was happy to see that. And then
Speaker 1: there was so plethora of other individuals that I've known
Speaker 1: throughout the years through different channels, some just being in
Speaker 1: the streets, some from hip hop, some from just different channels,
Speaker 1: and just seeing that they've invested their lives in this work,
Speaker 1: and I've seen them really transitioned with something good to
Speaker 1: see and and just our family, you know, we've been
Speaker 1: doing this work for so long. All of our friends
Speaker 1: and family was out there in the sweltering heat, you
Speaker 1: know so much all the way across the bridge. We
Speaker 1: didn't make it to the full bridge march. But I
Speaker 1: also see the young kids that I worked with at
Speaker 1: Van Sickly Middle School. Um, they were there at the
Speaker 1: march we put together. They actually put together this dope
Speaker 1: um anti gun violence song that they allowed me to
Speaker 1: feature on that were actually gonna be shooting the video
Speaker 1: for in the next couple of days. So that's something
Speaker 1: that you know, it was happy to see. And the principal,
Speaker 1: principal camp was there. You know. They have a beautiful
Speaker 1: program and which Wednesdays is like career day everywhere you
Speaker 1: able to every Wednesday for the first two hours, the
Speaker 1: first two periods you go to either music program, uh
Speaker 1: video program, any kind of program that you want to
Speaker 1: do and you want to invest your time. And they
Speaker 1: take the first two periods of every Wednesday and then
Speaker 1: it's after school component until when you can go to
Speaker 1: after school. But these people have the state of the
Speaker 1: art studio. When I tell you, their studio is better
Speaker 1: than the studio that I work like. They had a
Speaker 1: full kids got a great studient day's studio in that school.
Speaker 1: It was just amazing. I never I'd be like, I've
Speaker 1: seen different music rooms and they have a little mic
Speaker 1: here and there set up, but this is a full
Speaker 1: fledged studio. So shout out to in Sectra Middle School
Speaker 1: in Principal Kemp, who who really invests in those children,
Speaker 1: Like you can see and you can see the investment
Speaker 1: playing off because they're happy to be there. You know,
Speaker 1: they're happy to come. They really are enthusiday doing something
Speaker 1: they like. They're not just learning in this mundane setting
Speaker 1: you know too where it's born. They're looking at the chalkboard.
Speaker 1: They're doing something that they like to do. So shout
Speaker 1: out to them. Yeah, that's great. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: the evolution, if you will, of different entities within education
Speaker 1: and community and government in and what have you beginning
Speaker 1: to know that there has to be a different way
Speaker 1: to educate our children, a different way to bring our
Speaker 1: young people along and help them be successful. That's that's happening.
Speaker 1: But it's low, it's a slug rid, but happening, Like
Speaker 1: you said, a career day every single week. That's very
Speaker 1: different because in the past it's just once a year
Speaker 1: I put in your career day is not just them
Speaker 1: talking about careers in courses and classes, to where it's
Speaker 1: just creativity, it's music, it's arts, is cooking, and hands on,
Speaker 1: ends on, and you just end that for for two
Speaker 1: periods of the day. For the beginning of the day.
Speaker 1: You start your day off with something that you like
Speaker 1: to do. You're not just going into a classroom and listen,
Speaker 1: and you're starting your day of doing an activity that
Speaker 1: you've chosen that you want to be a part of,
Speaker 1: and you're learning, you're creating, and it's just dope, that's great,
Speaker 1: it's great. It's great. So there's a lot of when
Speaker 1: we were talking about youth, we're talking about violence, we're
Speaker 1: talking about you know, getting ourselves organizing. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of really really dangerous and serious things happening um where
Speaker 1: I think we It's probably one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: the evolution is such a slow drip, because it's like
Speaker 1: you're moving forward and there are people who are pushing
Speaker 1: to change the culture and to uh, you know really
Speaker 1: sort of I really want to be intentional about my point.
Speaker 1: There are people who are really fighting to get the
Speaker 1: government to come out of its old and and sort
Speaker 1: of archaic ways of thinking about educating youth about dealing
Speaker 1: with mental health and other issues. Right there, you you,
Speaker 1: you know, you are one of those people that constantly
Speaker 1: talks about how no one can just sit you down
Speaker 1: for two hours and just talk to you. Want back
Speaker 1: and forth about your issues. To help you with your needs.
Speaker 1: You need people from a therapeutic perspective. Yes, you can
Speaker 1: sit down and talk to them sometimes, but also that
Speaker 1: they may be able to come into your world, see
Speaker 1: what you're doing, work with you from a very hands
Speaker 1: on perspective. Now, maybe the fact that we're now in
Speaker 1: our forties we could sit still a little bit different.
Speaker 1: But certainly a young child will not be able to
Speaker 1: learn the same way that other communities learned. We know
Speaker 1: that and to be uh, you know, to receive therapeutic
Speaker 1: services and other things in those ways. And so with
Speaker 1: that being said, there are folks who are sort of
Speaker 1: pushing to change the culture. But when you have such
Speaker 1: traumatic events like what we see happening across this country
Speaker 1: going on, it takes us back. So even if you
Speaker 1: go forward, you go back because people get afraid, People
Speaker 1: get you know, traumatized. It's a lot. You've got four
Speaker 1: people killed here, just you know, in the last four
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Obviously we're taping this show, so when
Speaker 1: people hear it, it will be a week old. And
Speaker 1: that's a thing that it's a week old by the time,
Speaker 1: you know, several days passes, we're like, well, that happened
Speaker 1: a week ago. Buffalo shooting happened, you know now, I
Speaker 1: don't know, probably fifteen sixteen days ago. It's not a
Speaker 1: long time, but in media time, the cycle just keeps changing.
Speaker 1: Four people shot in a medical center. Then you have
Speaker 1: the police doing what police do, uh, shooting an unarmed
Speaker 1: black woman who was suspected to be in a stolen car.
Speaker 1: She was with a guy, allegedly the guy I ran uh,
Speaker 1: and the woman when they told her to get on
Speaker 1: the ground, try to explain that she was pregnant and
Speaker 1: that she could not lay down, and the police shot
Speaker 1: her multiple times. She wasn't in a pocket, she wasn't
Speaker 1: None of the witnesses have said she grabbed for anything
Speaker 1: or did anything that should have caused her to be
Speaker 1: shot as a pregnant woman. But again, uh, police will
Speaker 1: be police, and so that happened. And then you have
Speaker 1: a situation where other governments are catching on quicker than us,
Speaker 1: because in a place like Canada, they are banning or
Speaker 1: at least there are new regulations that will ban the
Speaker 1: sale of purchases for certain types of handguns, right um
Speaker 1: or maybe all handguns. So people are like, yo, we're
Speaker 1: seeing what's going on in America, and we're not gonna
Speaker 1: sit by and allow our nation to be riddle with
Speaker 1: the same types of watunate traumas. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the hell they're doing in Washington, d C. We ultimately
Speaker 1: have no choice but to to fight for and find
Speaker 1: for ourselves. Actually, you know, and and and now I'm
Speaker 1: hearing that there's going to be legislation passed in New
Speaker 1: York City will be an opencare state. I mean New
Speaker 1: York State. I apologize New York State. That's even worse
Speaker 1: like when we when we look and see that gun
Speaker 1: violence is up, and then we're gonna make it more
Speaker 1: easy to access guns. I don't even understand how we
Speaker 1: don't realize that's a recipe for disaster, you know, to
Speaker 1: the reality of situation is everybody shouldn't have a gun,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's what the problem is. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: guns are getting into the hands of people who shouldn't
Speaker 1: have guns. When you look at these mass shootings, these
Speaker 1: aren't you know, cultable, you know culpable ready, you know
Speaker 1: informed people it would have packed the background check and
Speaker 1: should be able to have guns. So when we understand
Speaker 1: that something is not working, why do we continue to
Speaker 1: exacerbate the mistake. It doesn't really make sense to me.
Speaker 1: You know, New York is on fire will gun violence.
Speaker 1: People who don't are getting illegal So now you're gonna
Speaker 1: make it a lot easier for somebody who shouldn't have
Speaker 1: a going to get it. I just understand the logic.
Speaker 1: Just don't. Yeah, we don't need people on the trains
Speaker 1: in New York that are already it's suffering from like
Speaker 1: all types of trauma. I don't even know what it's
Speaker 1: called that's going on to go on the train. Who's
Speaker 1: sick man? People fucked up people? Yeah, people, peoples by
Speaker 1: a gun. People fucked up out here yet. And the
Speaker 1: thing is, you we look at our police, who supposedly
Speaker 1: are trained to deal with situations, and they say they
Speaker 1: fear for their and they make mistakes and they shoot.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna give guns to people where've got nothing
Speaker 1: near with the police, got in hope that in situation
Speaker 1: stuff as road rage when somebody cuts you off and
Speaker 1: they get out and they got a gun named blowing
Speaker 1: your head. You see. We literally seen sick people driving
Speaker 1: on the highway and shoot that cars because they are arguing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but I mean your point is so valid,
Speaker 1: my son, because when you think of the fact that
Speaker 1: young kids sat in the classroom for over an hour,
Speaker 1: some shot, some almost dying, others who I've been told
Speaker 1: was shot a second time because there was so much
Speaker 1: room for additional horror. Um you know, sack there for
Speaker 1: all and out. And now, I mean, I don't even
Speaker 1: know how you talk about kids babies who for one second,
Speaker 1: if your baby is lost from you in a crowd
Speaker 1: for one second, it can turn into a complete meltdown
Speaker 1: and break down for a child. So imagine people bloody
Speaker 1: uh you know, big boom, sounds of shots going off,
Speaker 1: and there was no help. So these police officers who
Speaker 1: stood they said at least nineteen officers were in the
Speaker 1: hallway standing there. If they didn't do anything to deal
Speaker 1: with the shooter, why are we now all of a
Speaker 1: sudden so convinced that a resource officer it's gonna do something.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, then fucking fire the police officers,
Speaker 1: exactly if you're giving us all guns to tell us
Speaker 1: protect ourselves, and what what is the police officers doing
Speaker 1: that we can't do ourselves one hours in percent, I
Speaker 1: don't know, nobody's explained that to me. So just thinking
Speaker 1: about so much stuff that's happening. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be a conspiracy theorist, as they say, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if theorist is a word, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to be a conspiracy theorist person. But I'm really just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out because there's so much to process,
Speaker 1: And the last few weeks, I've been like, I don't
Speaker 1: even want to post anything on socials because I gotta
Speaker 1: like think before I gotta like gather my thoughts and
Speaker 1: gather myself before I speak. But I've been noticing over
Speaker 1: the last few weeks that while we're dealing with like
Speaker 1: all this trauma in terms of like how what type
Speaker 1: of horrific incidents are happening, there's also mad had health challenges.
Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to figure out if when you get
Speaker 1: old allergies come on. I mean, I'm really I know
Speaker 1: this is totally off topic. It's a real thing because
Speaker 1: I never had no damn allergies to like, last I
Speaker 1: didn't even know what no allergies was. Like, I would
Speaker 1: sneeze a little bit. But now I feel like I
Speaker 1: got I can't breathe, I feel like my eyes is
Speaker 1: always itching, I gotta something in my throat is like
Speaker 1: cotton balls and my nose. It's like, Yo, this is
Speaker 1: the worship I've ever felt. And it just started happening.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, when did all this you just started happening.
Speaker 1: The last two years I have been experiencing allergies. Last
Speaker 1: year wasn't as bad. This year. I literally had several incidents,
Speaker 1: like different periods where I could not breathe, my throat
Speaker 1: was hurting, I was feeling exhausted. I almost felt like
Speaker 1: I had a flu, but I didn't because you know,
Speaker 1: I get a COVID test very often, and you're not
Speaker 1: the COVID. How about that you could have the flu? No, No,
Speaker 1: no COVID tests that I get they test for the flu. Also,
Speaker 1: That's why they flabbed me a little deeper because they
Speaker 1: go for the flu as well. You know, you should
Speaker 1: learn how to get you some of those good no
Speaker 1: thinking me I do, but I feel like, wow, like
Speaker 1: what what? I don't understand it. And people have been
Speaker 1: saying like the environment is not what it should be.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, like, is it is? Can allergies be
Speaker 1: caused by the environment? Even today at the press conference?
Speaker 1: But then how is pollen we need like a medical expert,
Speaker 1: Like how is a an environmentalist? How is poll pollen
Speaker 1: impacted by like global warming and all of that. I
Speaker 1: feel like it could be. I mean, what happens is
Speaker 1: trees of growing, and the more the woman gets I
Speaker 1: guess trees are going fast and they're probably producing more poling.
Speaker 1: I can't really give you. I'm just that was just
Speaker 1: some ship I thought about. But when you drive around now,
Speaker 1: you're literally seeing clogs of pollen everywhere. Like I was
Speaker 1: driving on the highway and I could just see the ship.
Speaker 1: I had to close my window. I couldn't even reath
Speaker 1: because it was so much pollen that started coming inside
Speaker 1: of my car. So like I see, like I guess
Speaker 1: being sick when you when something ails you and you
Speaker 1: know you know it's the cause of your sickness. And
Speaker 1: you see it, you get real. So I'm very aware
Speaker 1: of piling that. Yeah, I mean, you know, we pay
Speaker 1: attention to coughing. Anybody cought. Everybody's like, what's why are
Speaker 1: you coughing? And I noticed today at the press conference
Speaker 1: that in the middle of the mayor speaking he had
Speaker 1: to keep breaking to cough. It's allergies. Probably, of course
Speaker 1: I didn't ask him, but everywhere I go I noticed
Speaker 1: that more people are like, yo, I'm really dealing with it.
Speaker 1: I'm scratching, you know, people are are experiencing the side
Speaker 1: effects of uh, I guess an allergy to polling, as
Speaker 1: you said, And I'm just like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do conspiracies because I don't know. But it's like all
Speaker 1: these things are happening at the same time, and it's
Speaker 1: really weird out with the flu, that's just you know,
Speaker 1: this variant everybody's allergies is acting up. The football players
Speaker 1: is dying suddenly, like it's just it's like every time
Speaker 1: I turn, every time I opened my Instagram, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: somebody to die. And I'm noticing football players, basketball players
Speaker 1: like or at least the former or current there. They
Speaker 1: just checking out. It's a car accident. It's a hard
Speaker 1: issue rappers of course, so entertainers. It's like the energy
Speaker 1: I saw on um John Gray, Reverend John Gray's page.
Speaker 1: He said, we need a revival of the soul, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was the most powerful thing that I
Speaker 1: have read in a long time. We need a revival
Speaker 1: of the soul because this text and right, and I
Speaker 1: feel like white supremacy amplifies all of this ship exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like you've got a cold, you gotta allergies, and
Speaker 1: you've got white supremacy. Well, because they don't want to acknowledge,
Speaker 1: you know not they but the system has failed to
Speaker 1: correct or address environmental issues. There's not even an acknowledgement
Speaker 1: from UH, from the Republican Party in particular around the
Speaker 1: fact that global warming is an issue and that we're
Speaker 1: having climate change. So that's one thing policing is out
Speaker 1: of control. Also something that would be and fought tooth
Speaker 1: and nail on um everything. So that's the deal. So
Speaker 1: to day, Yes, we are being joined by two women
Speaker 1: who we talked about gun violence awareness longth There's two
Speaker 1: women who were instrumental in helping us to get this
Speaker 1: this month off the ground and for the last several
Speaker 1: years we've all worked together in different capacities to refine
Speaker 1: it and to continue to work of the crisis management
Speaker 1: system in different ways. You've got within, Uh, well, we'll
Speaker 1: let them talk about what CMS looks like and all
Speaker 1: the types of folks that work within the network, um
Speaker 1: Ms Risa Napper Williams of Not Another Child, and also
Speaker 1: our dear system Ms E Faith Charles, who has been
Speaker 1: in the trenches with me for a real long time
Speaker 1: and she has been a strategist in this movement, working
Speaker 1: in the Bronx and working in different organizations, but now
Speaker 1: she's actually working on um, you know, changing the culture
Speaker 1: within the court system in New York, which is a
Speaker 1: part of it. That's what the network is supposed to
Speaker 1: be all about, holistic work. So let's bring them on. So,
Speaker 1: as has been mentioned, we're being joined during Gun Violence
Speaker 1: Awareness Month in New York by two really really important
Speaker 1: individuals on this show, my son. We always have our friends, friends,
Speaker 1: friends and more friends, but we do know some incredible
Speaker 1: people who do incredible work, and Gun Violence Awareness Month
Speaker 1: is important, uh, really special to me because we started
Speaker 1: it with these individuals some years ago. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: working to try to make sure that the City of
Speaker 1: New York is really focused on the people doing the
Speaker 1: work and the people who are truly impacted. And and
Speaker 1: the two people that we're joined with today two black women,
Speaker 1: by the way. Uh. And you can't say, oh, we
Speaker 1: only have black women on this show that do things,
Speaker 1: because we've been having a lot of black men lately,
Speaker 1: So don't even try it. But uh, ms Oresa Napper
Speaker 1: Williams of Not Another Child. Uh. And also miss E
Speaker 1: Faith Charles, who is she has a big title. First
Speaker 1: of all, she worked with People and Culture Center for
Speaker 1: Court Innovation, so she's in the system transforming the system,
Speaker 1: but also is the immediate past leader, if you will,
Speaker 1: of anti violence projects and initiatives in New York City. Um.
Speaker 1: She has been working in the Bronx coordinating and organizing
Speaker 1: all of us for some time. Ms. Orresa is actually
Speaker 1: a mother who lost her son un um two gun violence.
Speaker 1: And so we're dealing with two people who are very
Speaker 1: very close to both of you. I think also, UM,
Speaker 1: I f a, you lost the child as well, and
Speaker 1: my I didn't. My son did not die from gun violence.
Speaker 1: But I've lost the sun. Yeah, okay, but you lost
Speaker 1: the sun, so that in and of itself. So we're
Speaker 1: we're we're we're talking with two individuals today and my
Speaker 1: son and I have just been really trying to get
Speaker 1: into this whole idea of shootings happening across the country
Speaker 1: and what it means. Some of it, of course, is
Speaker 1: racially incentivized or or at least racially motivated. Others are
Speaker 1: mental health situations, you have other things that you know,
Speaker 1: our poverty, UH motivated. So there's shootings happening and people
Speaker 1: are noticing it. And one of the things that I
Speaker 1: said today when I spoke at and of course we
Speaker 1: were taping this show today UM for UH an upcoming
Speaker 1: UM show UH excuse me, an upcoming episode of Street Politicians.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that I said today is
Speaker 1: that we as in this group, the CMS group, which
Speaker 1: is the Crisis Management System in New York UM, as
Speaker 1: well as individual organizers around the city of New York,
Speaker 1: have sounded the alarm. And I talked about how in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, UM Malcolm X said that the chickens
Speaker 1: were coming home to rooties, UM, and here we are
Speaker 1: watching it happen happen across the nation where people like you,
Speaker 1: Miss Risa and e Fay have been out there hitting
Speaker 1: the pavement, telling the government, officials, corporations, community members that
Speaker 1: if we did not stop to deal with this issue,
Speaker 1: we are going to experience an insurmountable UH level of
Speaker 1: violence across the nation. And here we are. People are afraid,
Speaker 1: there able to leave their homes. We've got shootings at
Speaker 1: grocery stores. We've got shootings in hospitals, we've got shootings
Speaker 1: just in general and schools of children. And yet here
Speaker 1: we come to a place where everybody's saying what to do.
Speaker 1: And yet we have laid out of blueprint years and
Speaker 1: years and years and years and years. So we want
Speaker 1: to talk about that blueprint today and my son, let
Speaker 1: me kick it to you to invite these two wonderful
Speaker 1: ladies to be a part of our conversation. Well, thank you,
Speaker 1: quite thank you. As you just mentioned, we just left
Speaker 1: um UH press conference in which we spoke about gun
Speaker 1: Violence Awareness Month, which is the start of the gun
Speaker 1: violence Awareness Month. But if you see these shirts, this
Speaker 1: is the gun violence awareness movement because for us who
Speaker 1: do this work, it's just not about a month, it's
Speaker 1: not about the day. It's all the time. And we
Speaker 1: go to sleep and we wake up with this work,
Speaker 1: and we've been joined by two phenomenal women, Black women
Speaker 1: who have been on the forefront of this work for
Speaker 1: a long time. So I just want to start with
Speaker 1: I f A, who right now is You know, she
Speaker 1: has elevated and involved into she's inside the system now
Speaker 1: and you know she's able to attack it that way.
Speaker 1: But she's always been a frontline worker, you know, like
Speaker 1: you said, she's been in the Bronx organizing and putting
Speaker 1: together some of the best crisis management systems and organizations
Speaker 1: that we have. So I f A, you know, we
Speaker 1: look at this influx of violence, right and like like
Speaker 1: Tamka said, the chickens coming home to roost, and we've
Speaker 1: been saying what was gonna happen? What do you think
Speaker 1: is the major cause? And what should how should they
Speaker 1: be attacking it? Well, first of all, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to salute to you, sister Tomica, and to my
Speaker 1: brother my son. You know, when you sit back here
Speaker 1: and in spaces with the both of you, there is
Speaker 1: a conscious awareness that I hold onto from both of
Speaker 1: you guys, right because it's a consistency in the way
Speaker 1: that you do this work. Um, to my sisters BURRISA
Speaker 1: always salute you, says, um, just for what you're doing now,
Speaker 1: because I think as you talked about that when Malcolm
Speaker 1: talked about the chickens coming home to roots, we are
Speaker 1: are hair now right, we're hand hands deep, and you
Speaker 1: know the rooster's growing, right. That's what's going on right now.
Speaker 1: And so in my experience and in my work, and
Speaker 1: I go back to brother A. T. Mitchell, who when
Speaker 1: we started doing some stuff way back and we had
Speaker 1: the sights that would being evaluated and research to come
Speaker 1: up with systems to address gun violence. I think the
Speaker 1: way that my brain always works about this is their
Speaker 1: compot realization of what's act happening. There's two pieces of this, right.
Speaker 1: You have this national piece where gun laws need to
Speaker 1: be changed, policies need to be uplifted, um, you know,
Speaker 1: marginalization of people needs to be definitely destroyed. And then
Speaker 1: you have on a local level where there's a need
Speaker 1: for involvement. So when we just talked about my song,
Speaker 1: when you talked about the that we've been doing or
Speaker 1: researching you and and to making a bunch of other folks,
Speaker 1: it's about consistency. It's about consistency in the way that
Speaker 1: you lead. It's about consistency in the way that you
Speaker 1: address problems. Too often what we do as a city
Speaker 1: is we run for the newest and latest thing, right,
Speaker 1: not looking at what has worked really in the past
Speaker 1: and sticking with it. You can't have a cookie cutter
Speaker 1: approach to gun violence. You cannot, right because the levels
Speaker 1: to this madness. Like I say this, I tell them
Speaker 1: to make the last Night, it's levels to this ship.
Speaker 1: If I can cuttle, can I can? I say, customers,
Speaker 1: this ltts right, it's it's my acronym that I made
Speaker 1: up the levels to this ship. And so too often
Speaker 1: what happens is that you know, you have people who
Speaker 1: who who want to be in the front, but there's
Speaker 1: work that needs to be done behind. And I think
Speaker 1: when we talk about what's the approaches and what we
Speaker 1: need to do, I think we need to seriously evaluate
Speaker 1: who's doing work right under standard. We will each have
Speaker 1: a role in this work. There is something that's gonna
Speaker 1: fight from a macro level, and there's those that are
Speaker 1: going to fight from the inside on the street level,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of what CMS is doing. But
Speaker 1: addressing it comes from both angles. It just can't be
Speaker 1: one solution, and I think that's what people are trying
Speaker 1: right now, is just one approach. And and and I
Speaker 1: think Malcolm's quote of the chicken comings home to roost,
Speaker 1: we would be roosting for quite some time if we
Speaker 1: don't look at the multiple levels two gun violence and
Speaker 1: so Risa, you know what, what do you think we
Speaker 1: need to do? How do you think we should be attacking?
Speaker 1: And what do you think you know is the most
Speaker 1: sustainable strategy? After being in this movement for so many
Speaker 1: years and seeing what's work, seeing was failed understanding after
Speaker 1: we just heard the mayor and his speech about how
Speaker 1: he plans to go about it, what is your pion?
Speaker 1: So first, thank you Mice and make Up for inviting
Speaker 1: me today. It is a simply a pleasure to be
Speaker 1: here with you guys. Um, and thank you for always
Speaker 1: seeing me as more than a parent, more than a
Speaker 1: mother that lost the child. Um. And I really think
Speaker 1: the way that CMS has always moved forward where we
Speaker 1: always moved together, and before you go forward, because I
Speaker 1: think we keep saying CMS and we have not explained us,
Speaker 1: so folks will say, well, what are they talking about?
Speaker 1: I don't tell us what you are part of in
Speaker 1: New York. So it is the New York City crisis
Speaker 1: management system. UM. Several models was looked at from over
Speaker 1: the country, and we know that, uh, the biggest model,
Speaker 1: I would say at that time that actually had the
Speaker 1: data that it worked was pure balanced, which was balanced
Speaker 1: interruptors and outreach workers. But um Coe, the co architects
Speaker 1: in New York, you know, you guys A t. Aerica
Speaker 1: to Meka f all of you pioneers from years ago,
Speaker 1: saw that that was not enough for our city and
Speaker 1: what we need. And you guys are the are the pioneers.
Speaker 1: So let me know if I got the history right.
Speaker 1: But you know, you guys knew that it was more
Speaker 1: that after you took the gun out of her hand,
Speaker 1: after you gave a job, therapeutic support was still needed,
Speaker 1: professional mental health services was still needed. Employment opportunities, you know,
Speaker 1: was still needed. And so the system comprises of not
Speaker 1: just the balance interruptors and the outreach workers as the anchor,
Speaker 1: but also the wraparound services which is greatly needed. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of models do not reflect the mental instability
Speaker 1: that comes along um with gun balance. It does not
Speaker 1: reflect the layers of drama that is a leading cause
Speaker 1: of gun balance. And CMS does. And so I think,
Speaker 1: going back to my question, you know, that's what we
Speaker 1: need to do is expand on that. Right now, CMS
Speaker 1: is only in and if a correct me, if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: I believe it's thirties something maybe forty sites um and
Speaker 1: about sixteen catchment areas or something to that effect. But
Speaker 1: it needs to be expanded on. The other thing that
Speaker 1: was spoken of today was the interconnecting with city agencies.
Speaker 1: You know, no longer should we be working in silos
Speaker 1: where um, I never forget. I have a parent that
Speaker 1: I was with and her son was murdered. She was
Speaker 1: at his house visiting him for his birthday, which was
Speaker 1: two days prior. She heard some organs. She went out
Speaker 1: to the steps and he was like, mom, good, I'm
Speaker 1: good when it next thing she heard was gunshots and
Speaker 1: came out and saw her child rolling down the steps.
Speaker 1: When we went back a day later, his blood still
Speaker 1: laid on the ground. And so we need sanitation to
Speaker 1: be a partly to be even given a time constraint
Speaker 1: of no. Twelve to twenty four hours, this blood should
Speaker 1: be off of our streets. Our parents should not be
Speaker 1: and family members should not be retraumatized to come back
Speaker 1: and see the blood of their loved ones there. And
Speaker 1: so I think having someone in um in the position
Speaker 1: of the czar, you know which he is from the
Speaker 1: streets and know the needs from there to be able
Speaker 1: to come back and implement it with the health and
Speaker 1: the support of the city agencies is dope, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think I think it was the faith that
Speaker 1: said a little while ago, you know that we just
Speaker 1: always do as comfortable, We do the same things over
Speaker 1: and over. This is a major monumental like this has
Speaker 1: never happened before. So I'm looking forward to the success
Speaker 1: with it. Well so for folks who are listening, um,
Speaker 1: and for those who may not understand, because we're so
Speaker 1: close to it that when we speak of it, we
Speaker 1: speak as if everybody knows and they should and they should.
Speaker 1: But today, um, well, let let me go back before
Speaker 1: before that, over a decade ago, a number of us
Speaker 1: came together to work on building the crisis management system.
Speaker 1: We were told no by previous administrations because the purpose
Speaker 1: of the crisis management system and our fight was to
Speaker 1: get resources for formally incarcerated individuals, youth families whether they
Speaker 1: be victims, and or the families of victims. To be advocates,
Speaker 1: people to work in hospitals, people uh to be there
Speaker 1: with therapeutic services, people to deal specifically with you know,
Speaker 1: extreme mental health issues, jobs, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: That was the model that we came together to create,
Speaker 1: and through that model we created CMS and the first
Speaker 1: and I think Mayor Bloomberg was the mayor who told
Speaker 1: us no. But it happened to be that at that
Speaker 1: time there was a a mayoral election and all the
Speaker 1: candidates wanted our support because we had organized ourselves around
Speaker 1: the city to be a force, and gun violence numbers
Speaker 1: were up, and so people were looking for our support.
Speaker 1: And to her credit, Christine Quinn was the speaker of
Speaker 1: the city council but also running for mayor. And um
Speaker 1: of course, Jimani Williams was a city council person at
Speaker 1: that time, along with a brother, Finandal. Finandal He's was
Speaker 1: the city councilperson. And so we worked with them outside
Speaker 1: of near Bloomberg to get the first five million dollars
Speaker 1: distributed to grassroots groups one million dollars per borrow five
Speaker 1: boroughs in New York so that they could do gun
Speaker 1: violence intervention work. What we learned was that the major
Speaker 1: thing that they would focus on was data. And so
Speaker 1: we learned that, and we knew we had to provide
Speaker 1: data that shows the shootings were down. Shootings dicked tremendously
Speaker 1: and as a result, now crisis management, the crisis management
Speaker 1: system is up to over a hundred million dollars that
Speaker 1: goes to individuals who are former who are organizing and
Speaker 1: employing formally incarcerated folks and you know, and others. A T. Mitchell,
Speaker 1: who's one of those in the beginning, is now the
Speaker 1: new Tsar. I've been saying Caesar, but anyways, are uh Tzar?
Speaker 1: I was saying, Okay, So he got a title, y'all,
Speaker 1: he got a title, got a violent intervention and prevention
Speaker 1: in New York City. Today was announced by our mayor.
Speaker 1: This to me once again, and if that you you know,
Speaker 1: jump in here. But once again, we're setting an example,
Speaker 1: we're setting the tone again. After more than a decade,
Speaker 1: we're finding new ways to revitalize our movement for UH
Speaker 1: to fight violence in our city. Very similar to relationships.
Speaker 1: Every now and then, when you with a man or
Speaker 1: a woman, you've got to set evaluated, you got to
Speaker 1: evaluated relationship. And and and that's and I think. I
Speaker 1: think that's what we're doing as a city is there's
Speaker 1: an evolution is happening, right. People are evolving, and I
Speaker 1: think there was a point in this movement where we
Speaker 1: were standing still, right, and we'll be dependent upon the funding.
Speaker 1: What I've seen with the movement, there's this innovation that
Speaker 1: is happening, right, there's this different thinking process. This's the
Speaker 1: way that we're moving around the city. And so you're
Speaker 1: right to me, good if any relationship that you had
Speaker 1: have you've got to grow, right, do either grow up
Speaker 1: or you grow out. I think what's happening right now
Speaker 1: we're seeing in the city this need because this is
Speaker 1: what I say about gun violence, there's a cross pollination
Speaker 1: of the effects of gun violence. Right. So what just
Speaker 1: happened in Buffalo, which just happened in in in in
Speaker 1: New Valley, in Texas, what's happening right here in the city.
Speaker 1: This is heading home for everybody, right. It is no
Speaker 1: longer isolated. It's no longer saying well, it's only happening
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn and in best eyeing in rons only the
Speaker 1: black and brown communities. This is happening nationally. And the
Speaker 1: I think now what you have is the support of
Speaker 1: folks like the president, like a mayn that's saying, okay,
Speaker 1: so we have a model, we know that aspects of
Speaker 1: this model works. Let's use it, but then build upon it, right,
Speaker 1: and let's take someone who's had the experience. Because I
Speaker 1: tell people all the time, this work is not for
Speaker 1: the faint at heart. If you want to do gun
Speaker 1: violence work, you have to breathe it, sleep bit. You
Speaker 1: also have to sometimes step away from it. Like I
Speaker 1: told to make it yesterday. It just doesn't fit into
Speaker 1: my spirit because just the death of people consistently could
Speaker 1: be traumatizing. So when Cistisa starts talking about the trauma
Speaker 1: in the past, that wasn't even a part of the picture. Right.
Speaker 1: So as we evolved now in the city, looking at
Speaker 1: different aspects and different tools to address gun violence, this
Speaker 1: holistic approach we talked about it. You can do this
Speaker 1: work unless you think about the entire group of people
Speaker 1: a nation to people, right, that's who we have to
Speaker 1: think about. And so I think the way that we're
Speaker 1: moving now in the city where we're addressing to make it.
Speaker 1: My son, you knew this like ten fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: mental health issue wasn't discussed with gun violence. It was
Speaker 1: never said simultaneously that it exists in the same house,
Speaker 1: and now they were thinking about it. We're looking at
Speaker 1: aspects as a reason. Just talked about the trauma that happens,
Speaker 1: like people are literally talking about how trauma affect individuals
Speaker 1: and not only the individuals who are victims or those
Speaker 1: who are perpetrators of crimes. We're talking about the network, right,
Speaker 1: this idea of community. So for me, when I think
Speaker 1: about it, we have evolved. We started off with five millions,
Speaker 1: now over a hundred plus. We have over thirty something
Speaker 1: sites in the city. The mayor is specifically looking at
Speaker 1: ways to broaden this aspect, not just through CMS, but
Speaker 1: in other avenues. To me, a multi layer approach to
Speaker 1: addressing gun violence is what's needed. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what we're doing, and it is my hope and we
Speaker 1: have to remember this. I'll say this and I'll pass
Speaker 1: it on. This can be resolved overnight. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a long term investment, right, you know, like when you
Speaker 1: put your little dollar in the bank, if you think
Speaker 1: you're getting three point three percent interest and it's gonna grow.
Speaker 1: This takes a while, but it takes a while with
Speaker 1: people who are committed in its consistency. And again I
Speaker 1: will say this, because we're brown and black, the money
Speaker 1: has to match the value of the human life. And
Speaker 1: too often when we're talking about blank and brown and
Speaker 1: black communities and marginal lives communities, we always want to
Speaker 1: just give a little bit, right. We don't want to
Speaker 1: open the pot fully, and that is problematic because that's
Speaker 1: not where equity is right. Because when we think about
Speaker 1: our others who have been injured, laws, policies, investment changes
Speaker 1: have been made and it's time for that to happen.
Speaker 1: And I think with under Mayor Adams and others um
Speaker 1: that that potentially could happen. So I'm optimistic. I really
Speaker 1: am optimistic. I'm optimistic as well. You know when I
Speaker 1: was sitting there listening and I was just, you know,
Speaker 1: just just looking at how the crisis management system has grown, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing a lot of guys that I know,
Speaker 1: people who've been formally incarcerated, Guys that I've watched completely
Speaker 1: changed their lives, changed their mind states that are really
Speaker 1: inside the communities who used to be doing harm in
Speaker 1: those communities, who have invested the same and not more
Speaker 1: energy into transforming the mind state of the young kids
Speaker 1: who had the same mindset that they have, and they're
Speaker 1: invested in it, right. So when I understand that they're
Speaker 1: invested in it without really having the monetary things that
Speaker 1: they want, just because their heart ist into it. Right.
Speaker 1: So when we start to incentivize that change and we
Speaker 1: start to you know, we start to reward that change,
Speaker 1: and people start to realize that, you know what, I
Speaker 1: can actually make a living, I can be successful, and
Speaker 1: I can be changing my community. I could be something
Speaker 1: positive because negativity and violence is is um incentivized in
Speaker 1: our culture. You know, when we look at all of
Speaker 1: the negative artists and hip hop and all of the things,
Speaker 1: they making millions of dollars. So when these kids see them,
Speaker 1: right and the comparing them to you who telling them
Speaker 1: to stop the violence? And you don't look like you successful,
Speaker 1: you don't look like you have anything, who are they
Speaker 1: really gonna listen to? And that's what I try to
Speaker 1: say it. If you want us to heat with the violence,
Speaker 1: then you gotta give us the resources and give us
Speaker 1: the ability to compete, give us the same stages, and
Speaker 1: give us the same platforms, and give us the same
Speaker 1: resources that you give the counterparts. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: very optimistic. At this point, it seems as Mayor Um
Speaker 1: Williams said that he wants to not only the Adams
Speaker 1: Man Adams Man Adams apologize. Matt Adams said that he
Speaker 1: didn't just want to make this you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: separate entity. He wanted to make this a part of
Speaker 1: the first another leg of government. He's saying that this
Speaker 1: is the fourth lag you know, and and this and
Speaker 1: this and and it's it really is common sense for me.
Speaker 1: It's like when you have a community and people who
Speaker 1: are in that community every day, who know the people
Speaker 1: every day, who have relationships, who build relationships over years,
Speaker 1: who have respect and all those things, and those people
Speaker 1: are incentivized to stop the violence and utilize that respect
Speaker 1: and you lives, all of the things that they've gained
Speaker 1: over their lives to make sure that negativity doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: in opposed to just having a police system that comes
Speaker 1: in when there's the violence is happening and comes in
Speaker 1: as an after, you know, as a response, no, you
Speaker 1: know you have I think that when you combine both
Speaker 1: of those things, because there will be things that you
Speaker 1: some at some point, it will get to a level
Speaker 1: that we might have to call police, but I think
Speaker 1: more often than not, if you give us those resources,
Speaker 1: that will be able to intervene and stop a lot
Speaker 1: of violence in the community. So I'm really hopeful and
Speaker 1: looking forward to what the future has. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be an overnight thing. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: be it's gonna have to be invested in. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a process. It's gonna be a long haul. But
Speaker 1: you will see the narrative shift. You will see the
Speaker 1: culture start to shift. You will see the people who
Speaker 1: are celebrated for doing positivity will start to give people
Speaker 1: those same platforms and will say it's accolades in the
Speaker 1: same everything else that negativity has gotten for the last
Speaker 1: couple of decades, Mr Resa, what exactly as a mother?
Speaker 1: I know you said that you obviously, you know you
Speaker 1: do a lot more than just focusing on grief as
Speaker 1: a mom um, which in and of itself is a lot.
Speaker 1: But what exactly do you do? I watched you today,
Speaker 1: as you know, some of our people would talking when
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have been, you know, doing things that you
Speaker 1: know we always need, you always have to have mothers
Speaker 1: of the movement. Um and I watched you today facilitating
Speaker 1: everything from process to behavior to you know, everything, decorum,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. What exactly is it that um that
Speaker 1: that not another child does? And also you specifically, how
Speaker 1: do you see your role in this movement? Yeah? You know,
Speaker 1: they they I'm the smallest one, but I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: mother of all day today. And so you know, we
Speaker 1: started off with just a basketball tournament because one of
Speaker 1: the young men that played guilty to my son's murder
Speaker 1: was fifteen UM and it was in the middle of
Speaker 1: the summer, August seven, and a mother when this happens,
Speaker 1: when this experience happens, they always want to scream out
Speaker 1: so that everybody will know their hurt and how they feel.
Speaker 1: And and that's where I was at, you know, but
Speaker 1: I wanted to scream out to youth, you know, fifteen
Speaker 1: year old. I wanted after two year old, to know
Speaker 1: what your choices and the consequences and decisions was doing
Speaker 1: the people and how they was hurting people. And I
Speaker 1: started out with what they love for basketball, game and food,
Speaker 1: you know, and set that platform to be heard. But
Speaker 1: as the years went by, more parents kept showing up,
Speaker 1: you know, from both sides of the gun to really
Speaker 1: get that support, you know, on how can I identify
Speaker 1: if my son is really into something like this or
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just trying to get through the pain
Speaker 1: of losing my child, you know. And so we grew
Speaker 1: into more of a therapeutic organization. I would like to
Speaker 1: say that everything that we do has a therapeutic basis.
Speaker 1: So you know, we grew into peer support sessions for
Speaker 1: parents of homicide victims, um because you know, if it's
Speaker 1: left up to us, nobody knows how we feel. Nobody,
Speaker 1: but that's just us. Don't be offended if one of
Speaker 1: us say it to you. You know, that's just don't
Speaker 1: nobody know how I feel. Actually somebody may know, but
Speaker 1: you know, just those support sessions so that we can
Speaker 1: support each other, you know, without the assistance of a
Speaker 1: counselor and different things like that. And so that's our
Speaker 1: our family support aspect. The peer support sessions, the retreats
Speaker 1: where we go away, you know, um, just different things
Speaker 1: we do with the parents, helping them two or providing
Speaker 1: therapy for them, unconventional therapeutic support. We just went to
Speaker 1: Hatches and Hops, which is an event space where you
Speaker 1: throw hatchets, you know, and so we made it where
Speaker 1: that's a place for them to relieve you know, anger
Speaker 1: and things. And they also had to be you know,
Speaker 1: just looking straightforward at what they were trying to target.
Speaker 1: So we do different events and things like that for them. Um,
Speaker 1: even with our basketball tournament now that my son actually
Speaker 1: came to one year when we first came up to Harlem.
Speaker 1: The therapeutic aspect of that is the teams bring pictures
Speaker 1: of loved ones that they have lost the gun balance
Speaker 1: and we hang them all around the park so that
Speaker 1: they're playing in memory of them and you know, hoping
Speaker 1: that that will differ or deter retaliation, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: We have other youth groups out the hood where we
Speaker 1: take kids out of their neighborhood. You know, We've taken
Speaker 1: them to Wild Club John Studio showed them you don't
Speaker 1: have to be a rapper to be in the industry,
Speaker 1: you know, exposing them to various cultures and careers. We
Speaker 1: have um Buds, which is the brother's, uncle's, dad's and
Speaker 1: sons mentorship program. And we have Brown Boys book Club.
Speaker 1: So we do you know, we do cleanups I'll call it,
Speaker 1: you know, after child, after loved one is murdered, to
Speaker 1: me because you know, you call me plenty of days
Speaker 1: with a parent with a wife, you know, to provide
Speaker 1: support to them, but also trying to at here our
Speaker 1: children from going either either side of the gun, you know, um,
Speaker 1: And that is what we do do do the other
Speaker 1: youth programs that we have, you know. And when I
Speaker 1: hear Resa speak like, my mind is always blown at
Speaker 1: the way that we have evolved. Right That the idea
Speaker 1: of what therapy has been because a lot of time
Speaker 1: is brown and blacks. The way that we heal in
Speaker 1: the way that we deal with things have not been mainstream.
Speaker 1: And the evolution of us as a city to recognize
Speaker 1: nontraditional therapeutic services and say that all in the same sentence,
Speaker 1: that's growth for us as city, right because and before
Speaker 1: you know, you pushed the traditional and and and no
Speaker 1: disrespect to white folks who are clinicians, but we pushed
Speaker 1: the traditional white is m of therapy on people of color,
Speaker 1: totally not engaging religion, totally not engage in the village
Speaker 1: that we have as people of color, totally not engaging
Speaker 1: the way that the research just speak about parents and
Speaker 1: getting mothers together. So the fact that we have now
Speaker 1: been able to recognize that nontraditional support for families is
Speaker 1: under the city and has talked about in city documents
Speaker 1: as non traditional. That is growth. But again this idea
Speaker 1: around uplifting and bringing cultural competency to the fact that
Speaker 1: we grieve differently. That is recognition by the city. Right.
Speaker 1: Like I told Resent this before. I remember when my
Speaker 1: son passed, he died from an illness, and when I
Speaker 1: was going through my feelings of loss and depression, I
Speaker 1: was told, go to God, right, go to church. You know,
Speaker 1: that's what you do. What we change now, which is
Speaker 1: not bad because that's what we do as people of
Speaker 1: color back from slavery. You know, we pray to the
Speaker 1: same oppressed lists or we go to be oppressist to
Speaker 1: relieve us from stuff that we're going through. But what
Speaker 1: we have seen in the city right now is a
Speaker 1: mayor recognize in the fact that which you consider to
Speaker 1: be traditional for some communities, you can't not do for
Speaker 1: other communities. And that recognition right there in itself, to
Speaker 1: me is an advancement in the way that we're approaching
Speaker 1: the work and the way that we're approaching leadership in
Speaker 1: the support that's needed. So just aresa talking about and
Speaker 1: I think Theresa has done it. She has put moms
Speaker 1: um in the city on the local level at a
Speaker 1: higher platform because before parents of victims were not really
Speaker 1: given the opportunity that's right within the process of healing.
Speaker 1: Has done in the past two years, I think has
Speaker 1: made it a much more vocal point that people recognize
Speaker 1: there is a need to support parents and loved one
Speaker 1: right not just through victims services, but through the the
Speaker 1: the collective village that we'll grow into CMS. Let me
Speaker 1: go ahead, my son. You know what I was gonna
Speaker 1: say is I think what you test on something that
Speaker 1: was so important, you know, and its cultural relevancy is
Speaker 1: is the way that we do things. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've been I've always every government official I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: critical of. I'm not gonna just let you pass because
Speaker 1: you've got black skin, because we went to sleep before,
Speaker 1: you know. And I've been critical of some of the
Speaker 1: things that man Adams has said, you know, and I've
Speaker 1: and i've i've held him to it, you know. But
Speaker 1: today he said some really powerful things, you know, and
Speaker 1: he spoke as a black man, he didn't speak as
Speaker 1: a politician, and he spoke to people and said and
Speaker 1: basically said, you don't understand us. You don't understand what
Speaker 1: it is that we go through in our communities. You
Speaker 1: don't understand how we grieve. You might not understand our lingo.
Speaker 1: Everybody here you looking at you saying what are they
Speaker 1: doing here? But the bottom line is we know, we
Speaker 1: know what we're doing. We know we got this boogaloo
Speaker 1: thing that we do that works for us, that our community.
Speaker 1: There's people in this and that's in this crowd right
Speaker 1: now that can talk with gunning out of somebody's hands
Speaker 1: way different than you can. And you're gonna go there
Speaker 1: with your textbook theory of how it's supposed to go.
Speaker 1: And these people right here have been shooters, have known
Speaker 1: what it is to be shoot has been around, and
Speaker 1: they't know exactly what to do. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: give them the opportunity to do what they've been doing
Speaker 1: their whole life, and we're gonna make sure that it's
Speaker 1: recognized as someone who does first responsory. And that was
Speaker 1: really important for me. It wasn't just the regular old
Speaker 1: conversation that the politicians have and we want to do.
Speaker 1: He really he really spoke to that and making a
Speaker 1: t mit you Bisarre, someone who I know very personal,
Speaker 1: and I know how he does this work. I know
Speaker 1: the relationships that he has in communities. I know his background,
Speaker 1: I know the people around him background, I know how
Speaker 1: engaged and serious he is about this work, and I
Speaker 1: know how he's going to bring more people who have
Speaker 1: that same vigor, who have that same background, who have
Speaker 1: that same intention into this work and the people he's
Speaker 1: already connected with, and and I'm just I'm just really excited, man,
Speaker 1: I'm very excited. Excited, mind, you know, I really because
Speaker 1: it's gonna be culturally it's gonna be culturally relevant. Work
Speaker 1: is not going to look like what people think it is. Well,
Speaker 1: he's saying a t and and the thing that I
Speaker 1: respect is that he said the fact that we we
Speaker 1: didn't make him part of government because we wanted him
Speaker 1: to have his autonomy to do the work the way
Speaker 1: he does it, to walk into communities the way that
Speaker 1: he does, and still have be connected to the community,
Speaker 1: but just an extension of a different level of government.
Speaker 1: And that that is something that I've never seen done before,
Speaker 1: because he's respected, has lived and learned experience, right, because
Speaker 1: too often what we equate is that you have to
Speaker 1: have multiple degrees in order to execute. And what he
Speaker 1: is saying is that they are lived and learned experiences.
Speaker 1: And I and I listen. I'm all push about education
Speaker 1: because it shows that you can stick with something that's
Speaker 1: continuous behavi and practice the theories around that, but there's
Speaker 1: also theories about someone who has had to live and
Speaker 1: learned experience. What I like about what's happening now is
Speaker 1: that we're not glorifying our past mistakes, right and at
Speaker 1: that's when we talk about the way this movement is.
Speaker 1: There's too many they want to highlight, Oh, I was this,
Speaker 1: I was that. I think to shift minds on it.
Speaker 1: Something you always say, even when you're talking about when
Speaker 1: I've been following my own on I G and he's
Speaker 1: talking about the rappers and all that stuff. The reality
Speaker 1: is that you're talking grown folks business, right, You're not
Speaker 1: talking the fact that I am sick me and talking
Speaker 1: I was a shooter, I'm this gangster, I'm that person
Speaker 1: I got destroyed. You're saying that was a part of me.
Speaker 1: But I've evolved because I understand the impact of my
Speaker 1: own violence to myself, my community, and now I need
Speaker 1: to shift right And so there's a shift in the
Speaker 1: mind state that you're talking about, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what you're seeing. That is a mare that recognizes the
Speaker 1: fact that you don't have to have multiple degrees to
Speaker 1: have impact. Right, There's a Meredith saying, let's invest and
Speaker 1: use non traditional approaches to also aid in gun violence.
Speaker 1: There's a Meredith saying, there are people that's been doing
Speaker 1: this work who have evidence based in research data. Because
Speaker 1: you know how our Sissy City is and how people
Speaker 1: are Show me the data, show me that it's been researched,
Speaker 1: that it's been able to do that, and you have
Speaker 1: a mayor that is committed and know that it takes
Speaker 1: consistency to make change. That in itself is evolution, right,
Speaker 1: That is yourself is innovation for us, it is it is,
Speaker 1: It is innovation. It is certainly I believe in it
Speaker 1: because I believe in a t and in many ways, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I believe in Eric also, the Mayor Adams, Right,
Speaker 1: I believe in him because I know him since I
Speaker 1: was a young child, and I know that he loves
Speaker 1: black people. However, I do feel that the one trap
Speaker 1: that that Mayor Adams may fall into that could potentially
Speaker 1: be a trap for us as a movement and for
Speaker 1: the entire city is the trap of believing that and
Speaker 1: an investment and a continued stroke of the ego of
Speaker 1: NYPD is going to somehow be the other side, the
Speaker 1: other balance, if you will, of addressing gun violence, certainly
Speaker 1: he said today, which of course he's gonna he he's
Speaker 1: a former police officer. He believes in the police and
Speaker 1: what you know and and and he believes in the
Speaker 1: police and the police right. And he said today that
Speaker 1: thirty of the shootings are down, um, and that you
Speaker 1: know that he named the number of things, the highest
Speaker 1: arrest rates of people with firearms, illegal firearms. He talked
Speaker 1: about those things. He's going to tout that he's also
Speaker 1: the mayor, which means he has to talk about the
Speaker 1: success of all his agencies, including the police department. But
Speaker 1: the thing that I realize and I hope and that
Speaker 1: he also understands, is that we've also added more jobs.
Speaker 1: So you've got more people back to work, right, you
Speaker 1: have more folks out in the world post COVID, visiting
Speaker 1: other individuals out doing their work, getting their mental health
Speaker 1: services back on track. And so while yes, I think
Speaker 1: the police have one role that in and of itself
Speaker 1: is not and has never been, this solution or the
Speaker 1: turn key way to address the needs of the community.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I I see how policing is important, but
Speaker 1: the budget is extremely inflated for policing and there is
Speaker 1: not enough money going to the services and the other
Speaker 1: areas that I just mentioned. We know that police are
Speaker 1: funded more than any other agency, so education is not
Speaker 1: funded in the same way. Um you know, foods, food services,
Speaker 1: to our community housing, all those things are suffering tremendously
Speaker 1: and I really do hope that as a part of
Speaker 1: what Mayor Adams does and what he is focused on,
Speaker 1: that he realizes that there has to be a shift.
Speaker 1: And that's why, whether it frustrates people and it pisces
Speaker 1: people off and whatever, we say, defund the police, not
Speaker 1: that we want to take all the resources and completely
Speaker 1: get rid of police, but we believe that police funding
Speaker 1: needs to go down and the funding for our organizations,
Speaker 1: um our, our networks and our services needs to increase.
Speaker 1: So let's see how that goes. Um you know, I
Speaker 1: support the work I can be whether they say it's
Speaker 1: no permanent friends, it's it's only permanent interests or something
Speaker 1: like that. So we're not enemies. You know. I tell
Speaker 1: Eric directly how I feel about some of the things
Speaker 1: he says, and that there's no he knows clearly. We
Speaker 1: speak about it um when we see each other at
Speaker 1: professional and door social events. I have said many times
Speaker 1: I thought what you said on this is wrong or
Speaker 1: it's right. But I do think that the fact that
Speaker 1: he was there today, that he's made the investment, and
Speaker 1: that he named our brother the czar of gun violence
Speaker 1: Intervention and Prevention is putting us on the right track
Speaker 1: and once again, the people will save the city. That's
Speaker 1: really what we're about online. That's the bottom line, you know.
Speaker 1: I I'm with you on that. I don't you know
Speaker 1: when they started talking about defunct police, I've always been like,
Speaker 1: the language has always been, you know, as a as
Speaker 1: a as a mediator, as a certified mediator, someone who's media.
Speaker 1: The case is a lot of cases in my time.
Speaker 1: The reality for me is that when we start using language,
Speaker 1: it is toxic that can inflate and that can actually
Speaker 1: create problems. You're right to me that I get it.
Speaker 1: They have a overwhemen amount of budget. I do think
Speaker 1: it's an opportunity to shift some of that money to
Speaker 1: other resources, right, And I'm hoping that Eric does that.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that Maya adams Um does that across this
Speaker 1: city because there is a balance, and that's what we've
Speaker 1: been talking about, the balance. All we know is police, right,
Speaker 1: We've grown up only known police to resolve our situations.
Speaker 1: When we look at Switzerland as a Switzerland and suite
Speaker 1: and they have guns, they have a number of guns,
Speaker 1: their gun crime stats are so dog gone low, right
Speaker 1: for a place that owns guns and people use guns.
Speaker 1: All we know in our country is police. And so
Speaker 1: that's the first thing that we turned to resolve in
Speaker 1: all issues, whether domestic violence, whether you have your you
Speaker 1: hit your big toe, whether your enable playing music too loud,
Speaker 1: we call police. I think the shift that we're gonna
Speaker 1: see right now. And I'm not saying that we don't
Speaker 1: need police. I'm hoping at one point in our lives
Speaker 1: we don't have to have police resolve in everything. But
Speaker 1: the one thing that I would say is that I
Speaker 1: hope that Eric, as a former police officer, understand that
Speaker 1: you can do and I'm and him do this, is
Speaker 1: that you have other ways to resolve community safety, invest
Speaker 1: in community, allow people to have community sustainability practice and
Speaker 1: plans allow young people. Change the way that we educate
Speaker 1: our children in schools. We've taken away trade from the schools.
Speaker 1: Right we automatically say that folks must go to college.
Speaker 1: We don't give people another opportunity to be invested in
Speaker 1: the arts, to invest in sports and other areas. Like
Speaker 1: I think for him right now, this is a great
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to reinvent the city, and I believe
Speaker 1: with the right people in place, he can do that. Well,
Speaker 1: we will, uh, you know, we we we want to
Speaker 1: keep the conversation going. We're about to start a whole
Speaker 1: uh sort of reinvite track of bringing back all the
Speaker 1: folks that we have talked to over time to follow
Speaker 1: up on where people are. Um. I think what's important
Speaker 1: about this conversation today is we really kind of are
Speaker 1: hoping folks who are sitting at home saying they either
Speaker 1: want to get started or they already have grassroots organizations.
Speaker 1: What does that look like? What does the relationship look
Speaker 1: like to work with the mayor who you may have
Speaker 1: issues with on one hand, but on the other hand,
Speaker 1: they have the resources you need to deal with certain
Speaker 1: things in the community. There's many different layers to this,
Speaker 1: and I think in New York City, while we may
Speaker 1: not have figured it all out, we certainly have a
Speaker 1: good model for the nation. Um and miss or Resa,
Speaker 1: I would say to you that your spirit and your
Speaker 1: leadership UM not just being again a grieving mother, which
Speaker 1: in and of itself is important, but taking that and
Speaker 1: turning it into leadership is so important because you keep
Speaker 1: us all centered, you keep us no bad. I don't
Speaker 1: know anybody that has a problem with this or reason.
Speaker 1: We all have issues with one another, were fighting each
Speaker 1: other everywhere. I don't speak to this one, this one
Speaker 1: don't speak over here, and the third, but we not.
Speaker 1: None of us have that issue with you. And it's
Speaker 1: important that we have mother. That's right. We need mothers
Speaker 1: and fathers. That's because she comes with a pure spirit.
Speaker 1: To me, I'm gonna say that all the time. I
Speaker 1: tell people that all the time. You gotta have that.
Speaker 1: We can't hear you, miss it. You gotta have a
Speaker 1: pure spirit. And I'm giving your posies, you gotta have
Speaker 1: a pure spirit. Fool with her. Because she has a
Speaker 1: pure spirit. My motive and intent is pure. I just
Speaker 1: wanna amplify. I don't want another mother to be where
Speaker 1: I am, I really really don't. And so whatever I
Speaker 1: have to do, I know everybody's staff, Like I mean
Speaker 1: A t brought me in and when my mind goes
Speaker 1: back to that first time that I met him, like
Speaker 1: that's almost like twelve thirteen years ago. But I know
Speaker 1: everybody's staff, I just because I know the important work
Speaker 1: that they do, you know, and so pure heart you
Speaker 1: do with a pure hearts you do have a pure
Speaker 1: heart lies and organized has just come to the forefront
Speaker 1: a lot more, you know, giving this platform to be
Speaker 1: able to do so. And because this is so important
Speaker 1: to me, like shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge today, No, no,
Speaker 1: like like it was shut down I know to me
Speaker 1: because you saw it. I know. My but coming from
Speaker 1: the other way after going over the Brooklyn Bridge all
Speaker 1: my life, always that stands still, always caused to see
Speaker 1: it was like we was everybody's at a standstill, just
Speaker 1: looking and bringing awareness to gun balance. And what's important
Speaker 1: about that is today was one of several times over
Speaker 1: the history of this thing. Now, as we were building it,
Speaker 1: we bought caskets over. Yes, I think we gotta for
Speaker 1: helping us to bring this thing to fruition, and now
Speaker 1: it's time for us. You know, sometimes in the movement
Speaker 1: we get a little comfortable. People, you know, your numbers down,
Speaker 1: you know, you you you're trying to just keep things
Speaker 1: afloat a little contracts exactly. But now we gotta put
Speaker 1: the eight team eighteen plus the newcomers back in the
Speaker 1: in the mix and on the grind, and we can
Speaker 1: save our communities. We can work with the community to
Speaker 1: save our communities. And so that's what we're gonna focus on.
Speaker 1: We love you both, um, you know, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your leadership. People need to be you know,
Speaker 1: we in New York have to teach the rest of
Speaker 1: the country, uh, in pockets where they don't have models
Speaker 1: like ours, how to do this work. My son, you
Speaker 1: want to take us out. I just want to say, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, bow down to your beautiful black queens. You know,
Speaker 1: thank you for all the work that you do, thank
Speaker 1: you for the energy that you bring, thank you for
Speaker 1: your smile. Thank you for cussing themselves. Sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: reason because we'll be needing it, you know. But I
Speaker 1: just want to say, hands on church mama, like a
Speaker 1: recent and she'd be laying hands and got the holy look,
Speaker 1: let them do. That's not me. You need it needed.
Speaker 1: But I just want to say I love you all
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you part of you guys. Man, we
Speaker 1: are just like you know when you think about the
Speaker 1: baton being passed and the new generation of folks. Yo, bro,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say this to you, my son. I
Speaker 1: got nothing but love for you, y'all. Always in my prayer.
Speaker 1: To Mika, you already now I feel about you. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day. It is just great to
Speaker 1: see the both of y'all where you bomb. I continue
Speaker 1: to lift you all up. And every conversation. Thank you, Queen.
Speaker 1: I know happy, but I know his birthday and all
Speaker 1: that good stuff. They did. The episode airs on my
Speaker 1: birthday next on on June eight. Yeah, geminis Taurist though
Speaker 1: it ain't a Taurus season, but I'm what is yours?
Speaker 1: What is doing was made sixteen I'm mad sex Okay, alright, listen,
Speaker 1: I knew it was something. I knew that tourist thing. Night.
Speaker 1: Love y'all, y'all, Okay, thank you, y'all, thank you. I
Speaker 1: love Missa, miss Orisa, and I love me. They just
Speaker 1: two of the baddest black queens that you know, and
Speaker 1: they both do different things in their perspective ways, but
Speaker 1: they are so effective man. So I think what's important
Speaker 1: about that two of them is that you know, there's
Speaker 1: different sides to this. There's the you know, the trauma side,
Speaker 1: which miss which both of them can speak to because
Speaker 1: Fay has been working in it and miss Orresa actually
Speaker 1: is living it um. And then there is the side
Speaker 1: of the organization. How do you actually put one foot
Speaker 1: in front of the other and lead people in this
Speaker 1: work so that people can be effective and so that
Speaker 1: a movement can really grow and so we can actually
Speaker 1: help to save lives. That is what today is about.
Speaker 1: Listening to them talking about leadership qualities, vetting individuals who
Speaker 1: are working in the movement, A lot of people jump
Speaker 1: up and say they're gonna work in the movement. Everybody
Speaker 1: shows up. I'm an anti violence participating I can do this.
Speaker 1: I'm a leader, and you find out that they have
Speaker 1: more mental health issues than the kids that are out
Speaker 1: there shooting than the people who are out there being
Speaker 1: problematic and so vetting the workers, I hope people don't
Speaker 1: miss some of what they've been talking about. Having mothers
Speaker 1: of the movement that can help to deal with the
Speaker 1: internal conflict because you have much of that at that
Speaker 1: comes up in all movements spaces, but in this anti
Speaker 1: violence work, having so many people who are passionate and
Speaker 1: yet they come from the streets, you got a lot
Speaker 1: of egos and a lot of bravado that even exists
Speaker 1: within some of the women, um within the work, and
Speaker 1: so that is necessary working together, being unified. First thing
Speaker 1: on this shirt, unity, all of us coming together. We
Speaker 1: have boycott Black Murder and until freedom. You also have
Speaker 1: life Camp. You have Man Up. You have uh not
Speaker 1: not another child, you have Harlem mother Saved. You have
Speaker 1: row as exactly. Uh guns up, Life down, Um, guns down,
Speaker 1: Life up. Excuse me, guns down, Life Up. You have
Speaker 1: so many organizations in the city that's doing this work.
Speaker 1: But today we didn't go out as individual organizations. We
Speaker 1: went out as one and all of those things. Working
Speaker 1: with a mayor, working with your city officials, looking at
Speaker 1: your budgets, the budgets, increasing the budgets, maintaining data right
Speaker 1: to show your numbers in terms of how you're impact
Speaker 1: and communities. Bringing people who are from the streets of
Speaker 1: the streets, you know, dealing with folks who are on
Speaker 1: both sides of the gun. All of those things are
Speaker 1: strategies for building real movements. And you know, and I
Speaker 1: think that both of these women have a lot that
Speaker 1: they can share on what that looks like from being
Speaker 1: in this and on the outskirts. Yes they do. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just like, once again, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a very big opportunity, you know, and we always say
Speaker 1: we need something different, and this is one of those
Speaker 1: moments where I think something different is actually happening. I
Speaker 1: always say that culturally relevance and and us doing things
Speaker 1: that fits within our culture, fits within our DNA, isn't
Speaker 1: or you know, we've been we've been foot fit into
Speaker 1: this cookie cutter system and the structure of way things
Speaker 1: supposed to happen, you know, just regular police and doesn't
Speaker 1: really work in our communities. It doesn't. It hasn't stopped violence,
Speaker 1: is you know, it hasn't stopped crime. It hasn't really
Speaker 1: done anything. It's locked more people up, but it hasn't
Speaker 1: been a solution to crime. You know, it has a
Speaker 1: solution to non violence. So I think having people who
Speaker 1: are invested in the community because they actually come from there,
Speaker 1: because their mothers lived there, their sisters did, did their cousins,
Speaker 1: their own children lived there, and then speaking energy into
Speaker 1: the community, then bringing peaceful energy and non violent energy,
Speaker 1: providing opportunities and resources, being able to employ people from
Speaker 1: their community, and saying, hey, you don't have to be
Speaker 1: out here with no gun. We're gonna give you a check,
Speaker 1: and we just need you to make sure that The
Speaker 1: Parkers say, we just need you to make sure that
Speaker 1: you you know you you intervene. Like if we started
Speaker 1: centivizing that, you imagine if somebody got paid a couple
Speaker 1: of dollars every time they broke up a fight or
Speaker 1: got in the middle of some conflict, people would love
Speaker 1: to do it. People like, I ain't get in the
Speaker 1: middle of that. I ain't getting paid for that. That's
Speaker 1: not my job. So when we started centivizing those things
Speaker 1: and people start realizing there's a level of honor that
Speaker 1: comes with that, there's gonna be a celebration for someone
Speaker 1: who's able to you know, diffuse in um in de
Speaker 1: escalate situation and communities, we're gonna see the whole shift
Speaker 1: in the culture. So you know, the problem is, but
Speaker 1: the problem is that a lot of people want to
Speaker 1: do it, but they don't realize that once it's a job,
Speaker 1: there's actual training that goes into it, and that's what
Speaker 1: we have to focus on. You also have to do
Speaker 1: internal work, right, Like I talked about the thing is,
Speaker 1: I say it all the time. It's like it's like anything, right,
Speaker 1: It's like being a basketball player. There's a natural talent
Speaker 1: that you have and then there's coach. When you're coach.
Speaker 1: Once you have that natural talent and you want to
Speaker 1: be good, the it's just just refines the talent that
Speaker 1: you have. They are mediators who just have a natural
Speaker 1: gift to media, right, and they don't have they haven't
Speaker 1: been taught to certain skills. So when you give these
Speaker 1: natural mediators the skill set and you tell them, hey,
Speaker 1: these are these are the things, and most of the
Speaker 1: times when you look at it and you when you
Speaker 1: and you're a natural person at it, you already apod
Speaker 1: most of those things. But you didn't. What happens is
Speaker 1: you understand that you have to make sure that you
Speaker 1: fit into a forming, that you fit into a structure,
Speaker 1: that there's a way to go about it. But you
Speaker 1: also implement your natural ability into everything. So yes, there's
Speaker 1: training it comes, but that training is welcome when it's
Speaker 1: insensivized that training has come is welcome when it's when
Speaker 1: it's celebrated. So, you know, I think there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a different time, I see, because I, like I said,
Speaker 1: there were so many quote unquote forming gangsters that was
Speaker 1: in there, people that know was in the streets that
Speaker 1: have come home and they've actually really changed their lives.
Speaker 1: You know. I know dudes that was notorious ten years
Speaker 1: ago that I looked at that was locked up with
Speaker 1: and they and they got these young kids and they
Speaker 1: put in you know, they got him on the right path,
Speaker 1: and they really invested in changing the mind states and
Speaker 1: in changing the trajectory are these kids. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm really happy for that. Man, I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to I'm looking forward to it as well. And
Speaker 1: and a t also, um you know as a leader,
Speaker 1: he he doesn't play around, so that's a good thing
Speaker 1: as well. So with that being said, what is your
Speaker 1: I don't get it for today, because I'm sure you
Speaker 1: have one. Well, my my only I don't get it
Speaker 1: right was, you know, since we're gonna we're on this topic,
Speaker 1: and you know, for me, it was the media. You know,
Speaker 1: the media decided that rather than celebrate something, they wanted
Speaker 1: to try to make negative and speak about our background,
Speaker 1: to speak about a t or how is he vetted?
Speaker 1: And you know, do you know that he had this investigation?
Speaker 1: Did you know that? From for you? You only have
Speaker 1: one gun? I said for me? For me, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the one thing that I didn't get was
Speaker 1: how the media wanted to spend something that was so
Speaker 1: monumental and so positive into talking about negativity, right, and
Speaker 1: immediately went to well, how was this person vetted? And
Speaker 1: did you know about this investigation? And all of these things?
Speaker 1: And we're gonna have a past, you know, and and
Speaker 1: they wanted to focus on that, and they wanted to
Speaker 1: say what is the timeline? And how do you notice?
Speaker 1: And it's like, what is the timeline for the police? Right?
Speaker 1: We we gotta hold we we've been giving billions of
Speaker 1: dollars to the police, and what is the timeline that
Speaker 1: says that they're doing their job? Right? Because gun violence
Speaker 1: goes up, it goes down, violence crime goes up, it
Speaker 1: goes down. There's no timeline, right. There just has to
Speaker 1: be multiple strategies implemented. And I don't know why when
Speaker 1: it comes to things that we're doing as a community
Speaker 1: based especially black and brown people, they always has to
Speaker 1: be this negative connotation that's around it. They always have
Speaker 1: to be the debbut downer that always has to be well,
Speaker 1: how do you know it works? How does this why
Speaker 1: we always have to go through those things? Man? I
Speaker 1: just don't get you know how the media constantly spends
Speaker 1: those things. And and that's why violence is perpetuated, right
Speaker 1: because the picture of a mass killer is all over
Speaker 1: the TV and it gives some level of infamy. It
Speaker 1: gives some level of fame, and people see this and
Speaker 1: these other people who just a sick who dealing with
Speaker 1: those same issues want that picture on the screen. But
Speaker 1: you don't give the picture of someone like a t
Speaker 1: who just was giving the gun violence all you know,
Speaker 1: that's not put all over every news channel, right, that's
Speaker 1: not we don't celebrate the person who is doing the
Speaker 1: gun violence is not class it all over every channel,
Speaker 1: not doing the gun violence, the person who's doing the work,
Speaker 1: the work to the that's right, you're right, And it's
Speaker 1: important because people want to emulate that. People want to
Speaker 1: say they want to follow something that they see celebrated.
Speaker 1: You know, So I just don't get why we don't
Speaker 1: celebrate the positivity more while we always want to focus
Speaker 1: on the negative and try to defame and discredit and
Speaker 1: devalue things that are so positive, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to black and around communities. Yeah, no, I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't have anything to say. You already said it.
Speaker 1: They began to ask all kinds of questions today to
Speaker 1: try to create negative narratives. They're gonna write a bunch
Speaker 1: of trash. We already know that, and I think that
Speaker 1: our responsibility. I said today while being interviewed by someone
Speaker 1: that if a T fails, we all failed together. That's
Speaker 1: the bottom line for us. We have to work with
Speaker 1: thou brother and help him and provide him with the
Speaker 1: resources and the support, and also allow him to leave
Speaker 1: without all of us thinking we know better, and therefore
Speaker 1: we could try to get in the way of what
Speaker 1: it is that he feels, what he's led, what he's
Speaker 1: motivated to do, and how he wants to leave. That's
Speaker 1: our responsibility, because we already know, based upon the line
Speaker 1: of questioning that you spoke of, that these reporters began
Speaker 1: to ask today that they don't want to see him win,
Speaker 1: that they don't They want to be able to use
Speaker 1: the failure of the news are and the crisis management
Speaker 1: system in in in total with a hundred plus million
Speaker 1: dollars going to formally incarcerated individuals, they want to use
Speaker 1: that to say it didn't work, it was a waste
Speaker 1: of money. And let's go back to policing and government
Speaker 1: and the processes of all the things that we know
Speaker 1: does not in and of itself work to solve our
Speaker 1: issues in our community. And so it's our responsibility to
Speaker 1: make it work. We've got to be innovative, we've got
Speaker 1: to put our strategy out there. And we also which
Speaker 1: is why I'm glad that a t also doesn't work
Speaker 1: for uh the government so to speak, that he's not
Speaker 1: an employee of the Mayor's office and it's not an
Speaker 1: un agency that is inside UM the administration. Because guess what,
Speaker 1: we also have the challenge and push the administration. And
Speaker 1: he said today when asked by one reporter what resources
Speaker 1: do you need, he said, we need the cooperation of
Speaker 1: all of the agencies within the city. And that's a
Speaker 1: fact because sanitation, as miss or research just talked about,
Speaker 1: they need to know you cannot leave a community shot
Speaker 1: up from some incident with blood splattered everywhere, because that
Speaker 1: is very similar to bodies hanging from trees, from lynchings,
Speaker 1: that you're leaving the trauma behind. That normalizes um the behavior,
Speaker 1: and it normalizes the unfortunate sort of discomfort of the
Speaker 1: people who live in communities. We have to accept the
Speaker 1: example by keeping our communities clean, by focusing on taking
Speaker 1: care of those people um who because again, as has
Speaker 1: been said, most people are not shooting. Most people in
Speaker 1: the communities, the overwhelming majority they want to live in safe,
Speaker 1: clean communities. Unfortunately, we have some that enuckleheads and others
Speaker 1: who are traumatized and challenge and whatever that is. We've
Speaker 1: got to do the work. So that's that for me.
Speaker 1: I think, uh, you know, New York City is pointing
Speaker 1: in the right direction on at least this one issue.
Speaker 1: And now it's up to all of us to get
Speaker 1: in there and do the work, you know, and and
Speaker 1: I'll ended us and you know, as much work and
Speaker 1: as much as you know, each individual I mean, each
Speaker 1: of these entities are doing, each organization is doing. We
Speaker 1: as individuals have to take pride and take a declaration
Speaker 1: that we're gonna do something in our community, especially as
Speaker 1: black men, you know, knowing that black men are are
Speaker 1: dying in this gun violence crisis that we're faced with,
Speaker 1: We're dying at un alarming rates. And as a black
Speaker 1: man who comes from marginalized communities, who has a level
Speaker 1: of influence in those same communities, you know, I declare
Speaker 1: that I will be front line and center dealing with
Speaker 1: these young men and and and trying to steer them
Speaker 1: away from those streets. So with that said, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna always be right. Miss Timmiga Mallory is not gonna
Speaker 1: always be wrong, but we were both always and I
Speaker 1: mean always, the authoring Peace two. Listen to Street Politicians
Speaker 1: on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio, and
Speaker 1: catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of
Speaker 1: Street Politicians on I Women Dot Tv