Speaker 1: You are listening waiting on reparations the production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. What's what's happening? My name is Dope Knife
Speaker 1: lingle Franca and we are waiting on reparations? Are you
Speaker 1: waiting on me? Were waiting? Yeah? I was like glancing
Speaker 1: at un We're gonna get it. We're gonna get It's
Speaker 1: like super weird. It's like we have like five months
Speaker 1: of being in perfect synergy and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden we fell off and we can't y yo, we
Speaker 1: on some Simone bile ship. It was just like at
Speaker 1: the top of our game, invented moves. Ain't nobody ever
Speaker 1: see him before? And then you get up there, tokyo,
Speaker 1: get the twisties a little bit, and then you just
Speaker 1: gotta you just gotta be like yeo, I gotta take
Speaker 1: a step back. You know. I know I'm the greatest,
Speaker 1: but this should happen sometimes. Bro, Michael Jordan's took two
Speaker 1: years off to go chill. Well, he played baseball, but
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, it had whatever the jim
Speaker 1: during that time. No, I don't think so he made
Speaker 1: space jam. I think like after he came back with
Speaker 1: the year after some like um what's going on with you?
Speaker 1: How you doing? I'm great, I am thriving. Uh I
Speaker 1: am uh. I'm not excited about this eviction moratory. I'm expiring.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about a little bit more in a bit,
Speaker 1: but um, from a local perspective, my colleague, my comrade,
Speaker 1: Commissioner Tim Denson, has been working on eviction protection program
Speaker 1: that actually protects both renters and landlords. He's working on
Speaker 1: it since last December, and the moderates on them he
Speaker 1: foresaw it coming. Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's alwayould coming
Speaker 1: away away and he's been working on it since December. Uh,
Speaker 1: the moderates on the commission who just hate the left
Speaker 1: because we are young and like socialists or whatever. To
Speaker 1: stone waled it, stone waled it, stone walded for months
Speaker 1: and now we got you know, like forty I think
Speaker 1: compending evictions in the magistrate court at least not including
Speaker 1: all the ones that are about to get filed now.
Speaker 1: And it's just like y'all think this isn't a game.
Speaker 1: You'all think this is a game. This is not a game,
Speaker 1: live man. So is there is there any chance of
Speaker 1: us of people like fighting for to get it? Just
Speaker 1: kind of like permanently in place in some manner for him,
Speaker 1: because I feel like we've been talking about this coming
Speaker 1: up and then it got extended, and then it's coming
Speaker 1: up again. It seems like, you know, we're in an
Speaker 1: economic state where we might need that to kind of
Speaker 1: be indefinite until further notice type of Well, what we
Speaker 1: need to do is a federal house and guarantee and
Speaker 1: just you know, it would be far cheaper probably for
Speaker 1: us to just house everyone then to like fund the
Speaker 1: magistrate courts, operation of eviction proceedings and like and and
Speaker 1: pay for you know, the like substance abuse issues of
Speaker 1: the homeless, because one day somebody loses a job and
Speaker 1: they lose their car, then they lose their house and
Speaker 1: now they're living in a camp somewhere. You know. I yes,
Speaker 1: we would be knowpe if there was just like let's
Speaker 1: maybe not big people, but you have to balance out
Speaker 1: the private market with public forces. I think, I mean
Speaker 1: in a mixed economy like ours. And so did you
Speaker 1: make it so like you know, are you contributing it
Speaker 1: all to well Holm he's working on as far as
Speaker 1: the Oh yeah, I mean I've been, I've been, I've
Speaker 1: attended you know, meetings with the folks and other municipalities
Speaker 1: that have pilot of similar programs. Program works the um like,
Speaker 1: if you get an eviction proceeding fought against you and
Speaker 1: magised to court, magised to court, since you a letter
Speaker 1: and says, yo, there's this program you can get said
Speaker 1: you can like take part in. We call it Project Reset,
Speaker 1: where we'll pay off part of your back rent if
Speaker 1: your landlord agrees not to kick you out. And it
Speaker 1: works out for both parties because the landlord and an
Speaker 1: eviction proceeding, they don't get shipped. They get to legally
Speaker 1: kick you out of the house, but they don't get
Speaker 1: any they don't get any money back. And so obviously
Speaker 1: we're trying to keep renter's house. And so if you're
Speaker 1: a landlord, like, okay, my option start keep this person
Speaker 1: out and get no money or let this person stay
Speaker 1: and get like eighty percent of what I'm owed back,
Speaker 1: and who knows, maybe you might get it all maybe
Speaker 1: you get it all back. Yeah, and so and so
Speaker 1: people who were like, oh, what about the landlord's Like,
Speaker 1: I personally don't like about the lords like for the
Speaker 1: most part, but we were we're looking at for that too,
Speaker 1: and so we didn't always work to make it happen,
Speaker 1: and it's still like, you know, we just gotta it's
Speaker 1: still like popping. It's really annoyingly annoying. But anyway, that's what.
Speaker 1: That's what's going on in my world. We'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about those an other current events. Surely,
Speaker 1: what's popping in your world? What's good? How's the studio? Oh,
Speaker 1: the studio is fine. I have been practically sleeping in
Speaker 1: there for the past week, cooking up some stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's always it's always weird to talk about
Speaker 1: my like musical stuff after you know, you're actually helping
Speaker 1: people and doing things real stuff like that. I barely
Speaker 1: even wrap on the show half the time. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean mixed up. The big thing right now is the
Speaker 1: show with Afroman coming up on Wednesday at Victory North
Speaker 1: and Savannah, Georgia. But yeah, you know, just doing that,
Speaker 1: trying to promote it, getting back in the promotion games.
Speaker 1: I kind of had to slow down on some of
Speaker 1: the booking that I had been doing just because I
Speaker 1: just want to see where COVID's that. I got a
Speaker 1: little too excited when stuff started open. I know, it
Speaker 1: really hit me this week that I was like, for
Speaker 1: a couple of months, maybe it's pretty much since I
Speaker 1: got vaccinateded back in April or whatever. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's a whole new and like very like, and then
Speaker 1: it was like and this week it really hit me,
Speaker 1: like yeah, because Savannah, actually they all just got a
Speaker 1: mask mandate. Yeah, we got we got a mask mandate
Speaker 1: in place. Um, I guess it's Georgia a hotspot at
Speaker 1: this point, fucking practice probably. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: pretty I had, Um, I had a some sort of
Speaker 1: show at least once, you know, for for eat, for
Speaker 1: at least once of the next you know, three months,
Speaker 1: I had at least one show booked in Savannah, And
Speaker 1: now you know, I'm just looking down the line. I
Speaker 1: have no idea what's going to happen with those. So
Speaker 1: I was just like, skirt, stop booking anymore and just
Speaker 1: kind of try to wait it out. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: you know, I got this new studio, so I am
Speaker 1: definitely wearing it the funk out. I think I need
Speaker 1: to get a new one for real. But um, we
Speaker 1: have a pretty exciting show for you guys. Today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about a couple of different topics, but
Speaker 1: it's all going to be capped off with an interview
Speaker 1: with who we're talking to, UM, colleague of mine, a
Speaker 1: colleague in the movement. We don't like, not office mates
Speaker 1: or anything, but like kindred spirits as organizers. UM. By
Speaker 1: the end of Jasmine, who is a organizer with the
Speaker 1: defund Atlanta what's it called? Sorry, I said, that's right,
Speaker 1: defund ap D, refund communities like working group within the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Democrats Socialists in America. So pretty much these are
Speaker 1: the like the defund people of Atlanta, UM, like their
Speaker 1: main bitch on the show to chop chat with us
Speaker 1: about their campaign to stop cops City. This whole thing
Speaker 1: I sort of got, like it feels like when we
Speaker 1: even talked about it last time we talked, it sounds
Speaker 1: like a movie, Like it's like cartoonitially villainish, villain the
Speaker 1: villainous what they're trying to do. And actually you said
Speaker 1: it actually was a movie one time like this. There's
Speaker 1: a movie, uh, nineteen nine seven's called Copland. It's with
Speaker 1: Sylvester Stallone, Robert de Niro. It's got a bunch of
Speaker 1: those you know, like white actor dudes in it. It's
Speaker 1: it's a really good movie. But it's about a town
Speaker 1: that is populated by a local police department. So it's
Speaker 1: like they owned busin this is there. They all have
Speaker 1: houses there. It's like a suburb that's hidden away and
Speaker 1: it's kind of closed off from the rest of the city.
Speaker 1: But you know, kind of kind of in line with
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. Obviously, it's got some ust just
Speaker 1: alone in it. So stuff starts blowing up and people
Speaker 1: start getting shot. But you know, that might not be
Speaker 1: too far away from the reality of the reality of
Speaker 1: Cops City. But yeah, we're gonna talk to Jasmine Dark
Speaker 1: about what's going on with the stop Cops City movement
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. We're also going to talk about the men's
Speaker 1: fencing team in the Olympics, the Olympics in general, and
Speaker 1: yeah stuff, yea, all god stuff. After the jump. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we are back and the first topic we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about it's a topic that I don't think
Speaker 1: either one of us really wants to talk about because
Speaker 1: I don't think we really care about this ship that much.
Speaker 1: I don't like, I hate giving any kind of air
Speaker 1: oxygen to dumb shit. Yeah, you know, and I don't
Speaker 1: really take a lot of joy in participating in pylons
Speaker 1: on people that aren't like lawmakers, Like if you're just
Speaker 1: to think of that, just make raps like you know,
Speaker 1: I'll let you live. So we're talking about the baby.
Speaker 1: The North Carolina rap Sensation has been a little bit
Speaker 1: of trouble this past few days or is it a
Speaker 1: week or weeks? I don't even fucking no. Anyway, this
Speaker 1: nigger was performing at Rolling Loud, got on stage and
Speaker 1: went on a huge homophobic rant against the l g
Speaker 1: B t Q and HIV AIDS community. One of his
Speaker 1: fashion collaborators, Booho Man Men's Clothing, has stated that they
Speaker 1: won't be working with him anymore or in the future.
Speaker 1: And after for brushing it aside, Oh I forgot, he
Speaker 1: also was dropped from performing at the park Life Festival.
Speaker 1: It's going to go down in September. Yeah, he got.
Speaker 1: He got dropped from Lollapalooza from Day in Vegas, like
Speaker 1: Governor's Ball in New York. He got. You gotta from
Speaker 1: a ton of different ship. Oh you can ball if
Speaker 1: you want to, but but so um. After brushing it
Speaker 1: aside and the backlash and then even doubling down for
Speaker 1: a little bit. He has since formally apologized. That was
Speaker 1: today he issued the statement, I want to apologize to
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community lgbt Q plus community for the hurtful
Speaker 1: and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for the
Speaker 1: misinformed comments about HIV AIDS. I know education on this
Speaker 1: is important. So yeah, in the in the interim in
Speaker 1: between his initial statement, in that latter statement, he tried
Speaker 1: to like cover his ask by saying that his my
Speaker 1: gay fans aren't junkies like the rest of the gay community.
Speaker 1: Like he kind of he doubled down in a weird
Speaker 1: way where he was like trying to cover trying to
Speaker 1: cover his ass, but just kept saying work and then
Speaker 1: and then his Papa says, clearly wrote this apology statement
Speaker 1: for him, because I don't believe for a fucking second
Speaker 1: these He like sat down with his journal in the
Speaker 1: moonlight and was like in the depth of his soul, like,
Speaker 1: I mean we were talking before we started recording with us,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know why these just celebrities or like
Speaker 1: famous figures go the route of the the pr statement Instagram,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, you might as well just get on
Speaker 1: camera and say some shing. It's like people might still
Speaker 1: not even believe you. You know, you might be a
Speaker 1: bad liar, bad actor, or maybe just people have something
Speaker 1: against you and they don't take your word for it
Speaker 1: or whatever. But it's more believable than just some statement
Speaker 1: that you clearly and write, you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I guess I mean better than him speaking from
Speaker 1: the heart, apparently, because everything to speaks from the herd's true.
Speaker 1: He added, social media moves fast, and social media moves
Speaker 1: so fast that people want to demolish you before you
Speaker 1: even had the opportunity to grow, educate, and learn from
Speaker 1: your mistakes. As a man who had to make his
Speaker 1: way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly
Speaker 1: work against me knowing that what I needed was education
Speaker 1: on these topics and guidance has been challenging, to which
Speaker 1: I say, this dude is twenty nine years old, nigger
Speaker 1: us an adult, Like I mean, like we're not talking
Speaker 1: about We're not talking about like the fucking square root
Speaker 1: of some ship, you know what I mean? Like this
Speaker 1: is just I don't know. These guys are funny. If
Speaker 1: if you listen to do his music and then like
Speaker 1: you're shocked, you know what I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: pass any judgment or anything. It's not passing any judgment,
Speaker 1: but it's just like this all kind of seems in
Speaker 1: line with this ship that he does, you know, So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I do think there it does
Speaker 1: speak to a lack of education around HIV and AIDS
Speaker 1: in the in the in the in the community at large.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of misconceptions and myths that
Speaker 1: still circulate to this day, though medicine has made it
Speaker 1: such that for some floths of the populace impacted by
Speaker 1: UM the disease, like, you know, it's it's manageable, it's
Speaker 1: we some of some of the early, you know, early
Speaker 1: stigmas around it have faded away with some sorts of education.
Speaker 1: But like like, but there's still a lot of people stuff.
Speaker 1: There is still a lot of stuff that people don't
Speaker 1: understand about it, and a lot of a lot more
Speaker 1: awareness ray thing to be done. That means that just
Speaker 1: keep the mouth shut about you don't know about it's
Speaker 1: that's even I think that's given the benefit of the doubt,
Speaker 1: or not given the benefit of the doubt. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say that's what you're doing, but it's just
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't I don't want to take
Speaker 1: I don't want to take it that easy on them,
Speaker 1: because it's like the way I look at it is,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have gone if there was some crew there
Speaker 1: that you like, he just they're just he wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gone on there and just said that about any old body,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like he picked those
Speaker 1: communities because he thought that he could say some ship
Speaker 1: and get away with it, which you can. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's still rich, he's still doing the ship. He still
Speaker 1: has his fans and the people who dig him. But
Speaker 1: like you can't use Oh, I wasn't educated about HIV
Speaker 1: and AIDS in the LGBT community enough to know that
Speaker 1: I shouldn't get on stage in front of like twenty
Speaker 1: people and just like this motherfucker's you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Or if you want to do it, then be about it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah, I'd be a little
Speaker 1: bit right if that's the case. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But enough of these funny style niggas. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: this is a crazy amount of cancel culture cascading down
Speaker 1: on this man. Though I was almost comically so I
Speaker 1: mean ends on what your definition of cancel culture, because
Speaker 1: I defined it as consequences. This is just what should
Speaker 1: happen to you if you're dumbass in public. Um. But
Speaker 1: I mean people don't remember an examina their example that
Speaker 1: was like this in recent memory. I guess, I guess
Speaker 1: you know what the difference is. We haven't had music
Speaker 1: festivals in a year and a half. I mean people
Speaker 1: to get pulled off the lineup. I forget the dude's name.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like looking it up. But there was
Speaker 1: a country singer guy like not too long ago, just
Speaker 1: a few months ago, who they TMZ caught him saying
Speaker 1: the N word going into his his driveway. This wasn't
Speaker 1: at like a concert in front of twenty people. He
Speaker 1: was saying the N word going into his driveway. They
Speaker 1: took a ship off the Spotify. They fucking canceled the ship.
Speaker 1: He lost this, he lost that, and it happened. And
Speaker 1: the whole lesson of it is say what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1: But people are allowed to react how they can react.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. No nobody's locking the baby in jail, nobody.
Speaker 1: Nobody is saying, hey, you're not allowed to make music anymore.
Speaker 1: The venues that still want to funk with you, we'll
Speaker 1: funk with you. The fans that still want to funk
Speaker 1: with you, we'll funk with you. And the people that
Speaker 1: don't won't. If that number of people that no longer
Speaker 1: want to funk with you is greater than the people
Speaker 1: that do you want to funk with you, then sorry,
Speaker 1: but you lost them, don't. That's just when it comes
Speaker 1: down to, that's just how would be out here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, let's talk about more important things. Let's talk
Speaker 1: on more important things. Let's move on to look at
Speaker 1: another kind of backlash that another dumbass is facing. Black
Speaker 1: voting rights leaders are getting fed up with President Joe
Speaker 1: Biden's failure to deliver on the John Lewis Voting Rights
Speaker 1: Act and other pieces of legislation which crucially hinge upon
Speaker 1: abolition of the filibuster so um. Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright,
Speaker 1: both founders of the Black Voters Matter Organization, have spoken
Speaker 1: out against Biden given their the you know, his his
Speaker 1: failure to just fucking buck up and scare the ship
Speaker 1: out of people like Cinema and Mansion that like just
Speaker 1: are standing in the way right. So Latasha Brown said,
Speaker 1: there's always this air that in some way that Black
Speaker 1: Americans are supposed to wait. Oftentimes when we're engaged in
Speaker 1: this process, it's an urgency of what we need when
Speaker 1: there's an election, but then once there's a result, it
Speaker 1: seems that our issues are always put on the back burner.
Speaker 1: Cliff Albright went on to say, and these are both
Speaker 1: um reported by NPR that Biden lied when he said
Speaker 1: he would have the backs of black Americans, and I
Speaker 1: laughed because it's like, yeah, nigga's surprised. I don't like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you I don't know what you
Speaker 1: guys thought was gonna happen on some of these issues.
Speaker 1: I think I'm kind of two minds, and I think
Speaker 1: one of them might be a bit opposed to what
Speaker 1: you're you're thinking is on this I want to see,
Speaker 1: But I don't think that this is comparable to like
Speaker 1: Obama having the House in the Senate and the White
Speaker 1: House and not getting shipped done or using what Republican
Speaker 1: obstruction there was to make excuses to not move because
Speaker 1: the Democrats are kind of Republican light and don't want
Speaker 1: to do certain ship anyway, I think this is I mean,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I think all of that can
Speaker 1: still be going on. But as far as like obstruction,
Speaker 1: I think the Republicans are on crack with their ship
Speaker 1: right now. And obviously Cinema and Mansion aren't helping. That's obvious.
Speaker 1: But I just, I just I just don't think it
Speaker 1: can be overlooked, especially this early on in the presidency.
Speaker 1: And I know, you know, there was an MPR article
Speaker 1: that you know, we had that we read for some
Speaker 1: of the background for the story, and um, you know
Speaker 1: you had. Al Sharpton made a pretty good point where
Speaker 1: it's like, it's obviously it's hard to I'm paraphrasing. He
Speaker 1: was saying, obviously it's hard to make a judgment on
Speaker 1: something like the six months into a presidency. But the
Speaker 1: next thing you know, it'll be eight months. The next
Speaker 1: thing you know, it'll be ten months, the next thing
Speaker 1: you know, it'll be the midttern. Will it be a
Speaker 1: fair to criticize totally understanding I'm not even I'm not
Speaker 1: sitting here saying that no one should criticize or even advocating,
Speaker 1: you know, like giving them the benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: or understanding. You know, I'm just saying that me surveying
Speaker 1: the ship. That's just the aspect of it that I
Speaker 1: personally can't overlook or downplay to any degree. You know,
Speaker 1: that the Republicans have completely lost the plot. A poll
Speaker 1: came out recently that over six the percent of these
Speaker 1: motherfucker's are like ready to give up democracy, Like six
Speaker 1: of them believe that voting is a privilege that can
Speaker 1: be taken away. You know what I'm saying, Like they're
Speaker 1: they're just you know, and we're not We're talking about
Speaker 1: from the tippy top of the party down to like
Speaker 1: the mom and pop voter. They're just the majority of
Speaker 1: them have lost all interest in the American project. And
Speaker 1: because of that, I'm at the very least understanding to
Speaker 1: the predicament that the Democrats are in with trying to
Speaker 1: get some stuff done before the mid terms so people
Speaker 1: have a reason to come back out. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 1: I mean, we all do what we was within our
Speaker 1: power to do, and so as organizers on the ground,
Speaker 1: because this whole thing has come out of particularly a
Speaker 1: sense that you know, and I think the particular statement
Speaker 1: that Washington insiders had made people into the White House
Speaker 1: when asked what are we gonna do about voting rights.
Speaker 1: They're responsive, Oh well, we can just outorganize them, like
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris the Democratic Party, it's gonna donate million dollars
Speaker 1: towards like voter outreach or production efforts or whatever, and
Speaker 1: kind of admitting that like, yeah, we're not going to
Speaker 1: actually change any of the laws like we said we
Speaker 1: would when we asked you to vote for us, but
Speaker 1: we'll put it back on y'all to keep on knocking
Speaker 1: on doors and making phone calls and like doing your
Speaker 1: voter registration drive. And maybe we did that to get
Speaker 1: you in there because you were gonna take We're gonna
Speaker 1: pass the baton to you and you're gonna fix the
Speaker 1: ship the rest of the way. And they're just like
Speaker 1: psy y'all gonna keep you in the work, right um,
Speaker 1: And so uh, there's a little frustration with that, but
Speaker 1: we all douted the power, you know, as organizers on
Speaker 1: the ground. We knock on doors, and we give volunteer
Speaker 1: stock on doors, and we you know, put the little
Speaker 1: flyers and oh no, oh no, I think we'll no,
Speaker 1: this's what I'm gonna This what I'm saying. I think
Speaker 1: we've hit our capacity as like having like worked the
Speaker 1: runoffs here in Georgia like last you know, in January,
Speaker 1: like I don't think there's anything more we can do.
Speaker 1: And and beyond that, I think everybody who bust their
Speaker 1: ass to make it happen. Half those kids, half those
Speaker 1: people are burnt out and won't be coming back next
Speaker 1: time regardless because they gave their souls to the initiation,
Speaker 1: to the initiative of you know, taking back the sign.
Speaker 1: And so it's like if they don't, there's no like, oh,
Speaker 1: we'll does give you more money. It's like money to
Speaker 1: train who like you. You killed off half the organizers
Speaker 1: that we had out here on the ground, like emotionally
Speaker 1: like emotionally dead into them, psychologically scarred them with how
Speaker 1: hard we worked to get the Senate and then y'all
Speaker 1: didn't do anything with it. And so I say this
Speaker 1: because we all do what we can, we do the
Speaker 1: best best we can. Organizers here in Georgia with a
Speaker 1: Senate runoff for electing ass ofphomore not blusted ass. I
Speaker 1: would I mean, I would inspect your Biden to like
Speaker 1: try to scare your mansion a little harder, Like I
Speaker 1: want every I want all my supporters to show up
Speaker 1: at his office in West Virginia and like, let let
Speaker 1: him know that you know, this is not like put
Speaker 1: a little bit of fear in his heart. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean something like go ahead and find recruit and like
Speaker 1: and like fond of an opponent or something, just to
Speaker 1: scare the ship out of him a little bit instead
Speaker 1: of just like what whoops. They definitely don't think we
Speaker 1: can do. They definitely are posty footing about with that ship,
Speaker 1: especially with this particular issue, the voting rights issue, because
Speaker 1: I mean, the shaving of the margins is gonna matter.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, It's like every vote is
Speaker 1: going to count. I've been I've been pretty vocal on
Speaker 1: this podcast, is saying I don't think that the Republicans
Speaker 1: can be allowed to have power again. So you know,
Speaker 1: the like the if if we just kind of if
Speaker 1: the Democrats kind of just go about the ship with
Speaker 1: this las fair attitude. It seems like they have. I mean,
Speaker 1: the lip service is good, but the actions aren't really
Speaker 1: matching what Biden is saying in terms of how some
Speaker 1: of these voting restriction bills that they're passing in the
Speaker 1: States is gonna have an effect on the next election.
Speaker 1: But that ship's coming and with that, I you know
Speaker 1: that that that's the things that's the thing that makes
Speaker 1: me have two minds about this whole situation because all
Speaker 1: this being scared of the filibuster because what if we
Speaker 1: do this, because then if the Republicans get power, then
Speaker 1: they're going to do that. Or what if we do
Speaker 1: X and Republicans get power, then they're going to do that.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do that ship anyway, They're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: don't matter what, mark my words. The Republicans will they
Speaker 1: will kill the filibuster the second that they have the
Speaker 1: chance to, they will. They have power and then y'all
Speaker 1: and they're going to get it because y'all and did
Speaker 1: ship the Supreme Court. So stop. But what they're gonna do,
Speaker 1: they're gonna do the worst thing that you are fear.
Speaker 1: So just chill, Just do what you gotta do to
Speaker 1: get yours. We gotta play dirty sometimes, but you know,
Speaker 1: as it is, we're gonna have to move through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this next story kind of quickly so we can not
Speaker 1: have a crazy time. So there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: thoughts on the Olympics and stories emerging the Olympics that
Speaker 1: have swirled about and piqued the interest of the masses.
Speaker 1: Everything from you know with happen with some of the
Speaker 1: files before the Olympics, which are Cary Richardson, I think
Speaker 1: Raven Saunders. There's like this new controversy about this. I
Speaker 1: don't even know a score. She's in this fucked up
Speaker 1: but she's badass, wants some ship. Got up on the
Speaker 1: podium and threw up an X to represent the what
Speaker 1: was it the place where the was the oppression? We're
Speaker 1: all oppressed. People's like struggles intersect or something. Real fucking cool.
Speaker 1: Does the thing where they throw the metal ball, Dan,
Speaker 1: Don't I sound like a stoner right now? She does
Speaker 1: the thing where they throw the metal ball. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like you're just quitting out strippers in the club.
Speaker 1: Like she got the thing where she throws the battle bomb.
Speaker 1: They got the heavy battle ball and then put it
Speaker 1: to the shot but shot, but shot. That's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I'm playing with you well soon.
Speaker 1: Indition to this, a story that I found interesting this
Speaker 1: week from the Olympics um was that the US men's
Speaker 1: fencing team wore pink face masks to protest their own
Speaker 1: teammates UM earlier this week. So he was used of
Speaker 1: sexual assault for a two thousand, fifteen, two thousand thirteen incidents.
Speaker 1: And I guess this all came to light immediately after
Speaker 1: he was announced to the Olympic team, and so this
Speaker 1: is the rest teammates went. Weren't fucking with it? So
Speaker 1: UM at their opening match? Yes, sorry, no, he he
Speaker 1: was suspended. Before we get into that, he was suspended UM,
Speaker 1: but I guess it was over. The suspension was overturned,
Speaker 1: so he was allowed to go back. But due to
Speaker 1: the protests of his teammates, they were certain sessions that
Speaker 1: were made. So for example, he's not allowed to stay
Speaker 1: in Olympic village. He has to stay in a hotel
Speaker 1: that's nearby. He can't be alone with any female members
Speaker 1: or team members, and I guess he's like separated just
Speaker 1: generally from the rest of the team. But he, like
Speaker 1: you know, he denies the allegations and appeals suspension that
Speaker 1: would have kept him with the U S team. Bro,
Speaker 1: why would you put yourself through this? Just go home.
Speaker 1: This is worse embarrassment than if you'd just been like I, yeah,
Speaker 1: I fucked up, MB, And now the whole point that
Speaker 1: he's like trying that they were trying to make where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, well he earned this Olympic right and
Speaker 1: ship like that was like, now the whole thing is
Speaker 1: about you and not about the team or you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, what you guys are there to represent,
Speaker 1: So you're sucking it up either way. Ridiculous. But shout
Speaker 1: out to the US men's fencing team for holding down
Speaker 1: for for women in a show of solidarity. They ended
Speaker 1: up coming in ninth place and loss. But why does
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm delivering the news. That's what happened. That's
Speaker 1: what they get. Well, that's what you get. Nah, But
Speaker 1: y'all do the right thing right, the right thing, practice
Speaker 1: on the practice on the skills and also whatever. You
Speaker 1: don't even know what shot put is talking about, telling them,
Speaker 1: telling them, tell them world class fencers to practice all
Speaker 1: their skills all right. Um, for for reference, they're the
Speaker 1: ones that have the notza pointing swords, A yeah in
Speaker 1: in when they when they got h competitive rapping in
Speaker 1: the Olympics. My old ask is going to be there
Speaker 1: and then I can be an Olympian as well, and
Speaker 1: their judging be elite at what I do wraps all
Speaker 1: in the mind. It's not a physical thing. It's all
Speaker 1: in the mind. Tell them all right, all right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a little break when we when we come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking with Jasmine from Dark after the jump.
Speaker 1: So this week I'm very excited a chat with Jasmine,
Speaker 1: who is a member of Dark stands for defund ap
Speaker 1: D Atlanta Police Department Refund Communities. It's a campaign run
Speaker 1: by the Democratic Socialists of America chapter in Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: they are part of a coalition of people who have
Speaker 1: been fighting to stop Cops City. So we're gonna find
Speaker 1: out what cops City is, why it sucks, and how
Speaker 1: they've been organizing to uh to you know, fight you know,
Speaker 1: to fight back against city council and what is I
Speaker 1: think pretty unequivvocally into terrible proposal. Horrible First and foremost, Jasmine,
Speaker 1: how are you today? I'm good, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm fantastic. I'm super excited talking about this.
Speaker 1: I think it's such a fascinating campaign. UM, but to
Speaker 1: start out to tell us what cops City is? Yes, So,
Speaker 1: cops City is a proposal introduced by um Joyce Shepherd,
Speaker 1: who's a city council person for District twelve, which is
Speaker 1: in southwest Atlanta. UM. She has proposed that the City
Speaker 1: of Atlanta give away over three hundred acres of city
Speaker 1: owned land UM that is currently a forest, to the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Foundation so that they can clear the land
Speaker 1: and build an eighty million dollar police training facility UM,
Speaker 1: which would include a shooting range, explosives testing, basically a
Speaker 1: place for them to practice urban warfare tactics which we
Speaker 1: know will be used against black people, brown people, and
Speaker 1: poor people here in the city. UM. It's a direct
Speaker 1: response to the protests and the uprisings that happened last summer. UM.
Speaker 1: And so we you know, we see that city council
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta is more committed to giving more resources
Speaker 1: to the police department, supporting capitalism and anti blackness and
Speaker 1: not really responding to community needs. So this is just
Speaker 1: one kind of major timely example of their focus on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting that out of the uprising
Speaker 1: last summer, for folks that weren't like directly engaged in it,
Speaker 1: it seems like the demands were muddled. There's like hall
Speaker 1: from from like their safe distance and they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: suburban home or whatever, like it's people think policing should
Speaker 1: be better, but we're not sure how, Like oh, maybe
Speaker 1: we need to attract better officers and like let them
Speaker 1: blow up bombs in a fake city and this and
Speaker 1: this and like the heart of Atlanta that used to
Speaker 1: be a forest, um to like make them happy so
Speaker 1: that policing will be better. When I was like, no, man,
Speaker 1: we were like pretty clear about We were like pretty
Speaker 1: clear if y'all have been out in street so those
Speaker 1: y'all want to hurt, Like we were not really playing around.
Speaker 1: And the way that that, you know, gets even the
Speaker 1: ideas like reimagining public safety like get twisted to the
Speaker 1: to be like what's into whatever you want, whatever justifications
Speaker 1: you need for expanding the you know, military police, prison
Speaker 1: industrial stay that we live in. And we're seeing, you know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like we're seeing the same thing happen again here. UM.
Speaker 1: So they're very sorry, go ahead, and I asou to say,
Speaker 1: they're very good at co opting leftist language. So changing
Speaker 1: what reimagining public safety should mean, which is abolishing policing
Speaker 1: as an institution and creating you know, community controlled community
Speaker 1: lead UM, methods of community safety that center restorative and
Speaker 1: transformative justice, not putting pops on bikes and communities. Um.
Speaker 1: And we've had this conversation both in the streets and
Speaker 1: through public comment and in personal conversations with city council
Speaker 1: people here in Atlanta, and many of them fain understanding
Speaker 1: over the phone and then get right back into their
Speaker 1: offices and continue to cause chaos. So I yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not lending them any ignorance anymore, because we've explained it
Speaker 1: multiple times and very clear language. They're just politically opposed
Speaker 1: to the concepts at this point, Yeah, very clearly, and
Speaker 1: even in opposed to not only the concepts, but like
Speaker 1: the with the community engagement aspect. That's been very interesting
Speaker 1: to watch from a distance. So what has um Well,
Speaker 1: I guess tell us a little bit about what your
Speaker 1: y'all's organizing has looked like, and then we'll get into, um,
Speaker 1: how the little city council has responded. So what So
Speaker 1: for dark, what has organizing around this? And I guess
Speaker 1: the broad there's a broad coalition of people under the
Speaker 1: Defend the Atlanta Forest Banner doing this work. So for
Speaker 1: y'all or whatever coalitions you've been working with what has
Speaker 1: organizing UM looks like. Yeah, So for Dark specifically, we
Speaker 1: entered the month of June really focused on UM a
Speaker 1: not our budget campaign, pushing for city council to divest
Speaker 1: UM policing and adopt a set of demands that would
Speaker 1: you know, create a pathway towards abolition here in the city.
Speaker 1: And on the same day that city Council actually voted
Speaker 1: to increase the police budget, once again ignoring demands and
Speaker 1: ignoring what residents have been asking for. UM. That same
Speaker 1: day is when Joyce Shepard introduced that ordinance. So we
Speaker 1: quickly kind of pivoted to figuring out how to organize
Speaker 1: around this new Cops City UM, and we're fortunate to
Speaker 1: find a number of similarly minded organizations here in Atlanta UM.
Speaker 1: So we are focused primarily on ensuring that Cops City
Speaker 1: is not built, but also centering demands around land back
Speaker 1: so the Muscogee Creek. They're the original kind of stewards
Speaker 1: of that land which was stolen from them. UM, reparative
Speaker 1: justice for the former laborers who were on the prison farm,
Speaker 1: which is what what used to be located on that land.
Speaker 1: So essentially black laborers were sold into indangured servitude on
Speaker 1: at farm and they were forced to labor there. UM.
Speaker 1: So we want to center restorative justice for the living
Speaker 1: folks who work that land and their descendants UM and
Speaker 1: also think through in a democratic process on like city council,
Speaker 1: how the land could be used to actually address the
Speaker 1: needs of existing community members, things like affordable housing, grocery stores,
Speaker 1: you know, real kind of public goods UM. And so
Speaker 1: we've been working with Sunrise Movement and they focus a
Speaker 1: lot on the environmental justice side of things, because again,
Speaker 1: this is a forest UM and we know that their
Speaker 1: implications for when they do these explosives and weapons testing
Speaker 1: that toxins will impact the residence of the surrounding community
Speaker 1: in ways that would lead to long term health damage.
Speaker 1: We've been working with Community Movement Builders. They are a
Speaker 1: UM black organization in Pittsburgh really rooted in building liberated
Speaker 1: and self sustaining Black communities UM. And they are in
Speaker 1: the district where Joyce Shephard UM apparently is supposed to
Speaker 1: be representing the interests but it's not, yeah, exactly, UM
Speaker 1: Black Alliance for Peace and um D s A at large.
Speaker 1: And so we've all been working together to primarily raise
Speaker 1: awareness about what's going on, and we do a lot
Speaker 1: of canvasing, and most of the folks we talked to
Speaker 1: are like, we've never we didn't know that this was happening.
Speaker 1: Even the people who live in the neighborhood surrounding where
Speaker 1: cops city would be never heard of it. UM So
Speaker 1: raising awareness, really putting pressure on city Council to recognize,
Speaker 1: even if only for their own political interests, that this
Speaker 1: is not what community wants, so they should prepare to
Speaker 1: vote no on it when um it comes up for
Speaker 1: vote on August sixte and then we'll be having a
Speaker 1: series of just community events um So. The first one,
Speaker 1: we'll be having a town hall UM in about a
Speaker 1: week and a half to combat the open forum session
Speaker 1: that happened a couple of weeks ago where the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Police Foundation essentially brought folks together to give a presentation
Speaker 1: but called it a community meeting, but nobody was allowed
Speaker 1: to speak, nobody was allowed to give actual input. So
Speaker 1: we'll be having our own town hall to show what
Speaker 1: democracy is actually supposed to look like. UM And we'll
Speaker 1: also be having a teaching in a barbecue just to
Speaker 1: bring community together talk about the kind of historic context
Speaker 1: of the land and what it means UM in this
Speaker 1: current moment, as we fight against police brutality and as
Speaker 1: we fight for abolition UM and Yeah, we'll have a
Speaker 1: bunch of series of events essentially just to bring awareness
Speaker 1: to the topic and to yeah, make it plain that
Speaker 1: this is not what we want and that there will
Speaker 1: be repercussions and consequences for those who aren't on our side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the broad covolition that's kind of
Speaker 1: come together to fight you know, UM on their on
Speaker 1: their own turfs, like with Sunrise sort of focus on
Speaker 1: the environmental justice aspect of it UM as well as
Speaker 1: the variety of kinds of events that have been put
Speaker 1: on under this band or to send the Atlanta forests.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like there's a lot of joy in
Speaker 1: this movement, Like there's a lot of les barbecues, and
Speaker 1: there's like people's hanging out in the forest having a
Speaker 1: good dime and join the forest while it's here. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it doesn't go anywhere, but UM as a part of
Speaker 1: just raising awareness about what it gives to the city
Speaker 1: and its inherent value and with land back and with
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about atonement and restorative justice around UM
Speaker 1: slavery and the relationships with slavery and our modern day
Speaker 1: prison industrial complex. There's just so much packed into this,
Speaker 1: into this fight that's so interesting. Um, there's also there's
Speaker 1: also like a Hollywood component, if it might not mistaken,
Speaker 1: Is that still going on and can speak to that,
Speaker 1: because I was very curious that, like, yeah, it could
Speaker 1: just tell us about that part. Yes, So Black Hall
Speaker 1: Studios they are, I guess, a Hollywood studio that was
Speaker 1: planning to build UM a facility in the same Entrenchman
Speaker 1: Creek Park, the same location they've are, you destroyed a
Speaker 1: number of acres of land, but then realized that the
Speaker 1: land that they destroyed was would not be suitable for
Speaker 1: what they wanted to build. So they're also looking now
Speaker 1: to destroy another two hundred acres to build a sound stage. UM.
Speaker 1: And again they moved similarly to city council UM pretending
Speaker 1: that they were having all of these public comment sessions
Speaker 1: but really just kind of bull dozing forward with their
Speaker 1: plans for development. UM. It's yeah, it's there's a lot
Speaker 1: going on. There's a lot of capitalism involved in the
Speaker 1: studio project as well as the UM the actual what
Speaker 1: would be the cop City facility UM, which we know
Speaker 1: is being funded by the Atlanta Police Foundation, which UM
Speaker 1: a private entity that receives a lot of money from
Speaker 1: top companies here in the city of Atlanta and foundations
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, and then that actually that I
Speaker 1: think itself has some times to UM. The Atlanta Police
Speaker 1: Foundation has sometimes the way that this UM movement against
Speaker 1: Cops City as being or or or the discussion around
Speaker 1: Cops City is being portrayed in the media. Isn't there
Speaker 1: some sort of link between like the Atlanta Police planoundation
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta Gurtal Constitution or something like that. So yes,
Speaker 1: I believe that. Um. So the facility is also supported
Speaker 1: by the Atlanta Committee for Progress, which that yeah, the
Speaker 1: cos Enterprises, which owns the a C which has been
Speaker 1: shaping the way. Yeah, so like the biggest newspaper in
Speaker 1: the state of Georgia is also somewhat complicit in shaping
Speaker 1: the narrative around whose you know, whose voices matter in
Speaker 1: the conversation around Cops City. I'm I'm shocked that it's
Speaker 1: not more coverage of of just the work that y'all
Speaker 1: are doing, and it's been focused primarily on the debate
Speaker 1: in city Hall or lack thereof given how loath to
Speaker 1: actually attend and be present, you know, like be like
Speaker 1: conscious and consciously present for pulblic comment. A lot of
Speaker 1: the City council folks seemed to be Yeah a j
Speaker 1: C has a history of blocking activists on Twitter when
Speaker 1: they've been called out about I feel like that should
Speaker 1: be illegal or something that's nuts. Yo, you would think, yeah,
Speaker 1: what what anyway? UM how speaking of you know, the
Speaker 1: folks on City Council, how f at all do you
Speaker 1: see this fight kind of playing into the races for
Speaker 1: mayor and City Council and City Council president that we
Speaker 1: are in the throes of right now. Um, in regards
Speaker 1: to like how people are positioning themselves, the rhetoric people
Speaker 1: are using around crime generally and things like that, so
Speaker 1: that that's a huge component of I think the transition
Speaker 1: out of Keisha Lance Bottoms and administration and into whatever
Speaker 1: this new one looks like. Everyone's been very critical of,
Speaker 1: um Keisha Lance Bottoms for rising crime here in the city,
Speaker 1: which largely is a lot of myth making. Um In
Speaker 1: the crime that you do see is a direct result
Speaker 1: obviously of exploitation and need um given the context of
Speaker 1: this global pandemic UM where folks receive very little support
Speaker 1: from the government. People are you know, housing insecure, food insecure,
Speaker 1: all of these mechanisms that lead to whatever we consider
Speaker 1: crime to be. UM. And so they're using that as
Speaker 1: kind of talking points for why we need a cop facility,
Speaker 1: why we need more police. We know Joyce Shepherd, the
Speaker 1: council person that introduced this legislation, has a history of
Speaker 1: calling the police on people in her own community. UM.
Speaker 1: So there's very little i think hope on the left
Speaker 1: that the folks that are currently on city council will
Speaker 1: actually um be different or do anything different. Even the
Speaker 1: ones that consider themselves on the left, like Antonio Brown,
Speaker 1: are perpetuating this idea of public safety that includes cops
Speaker 1: on bicycles or police training and want to a tribute
Speaker 1: brutality to bad apples or bad culture of policing UM,
Speaker 1: even though they've been in dialogue with many activists who
Speaker 1: have explained the direct um focus of policing is to
Speaker 1: subjugate black and brown bodies, is to protect capitalism and
Speaker 1: those who benefit from it. UM. So we don't have
Speaker 1: any faith in anyone who is currently on city Council
Speaker 1: to actually respond to what it is that community needs,
Speaker 1: and so we UM are. Part of our campaign is
Speaker 1: to amplify that truth, to let people know what their
Speaker 1: city council members are actually voting on, and how they
Speaker 1: are voting, and how oftentimes their plans don't actually match
Speaker 1: the words that they say UM when they're speaking with community,
Speaker 1: And to offer candidates who are running against those folks
Speaker 1: the opportunity to state, UM, what side they fall on, UM,
Speaker 1: so that we can amplify them if or their platform
Speaker 1: rather UM, if they're you know, on the right side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple of months left. Election season always sucks. So
Speaker 1: we'll see how A guy I saw polling this morning.
Speaker 1: They had Cassim Read in the lead, which just I
Speaker 1: don't get here. It hurt me. I was like, y'all
Speaker 1: playing like, how do we get back here? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: anything here. Atlanta politics highlights that representation is not liberation.
Speaker 1: Just because you have black people in power does not
Speaker 1: mean that they're fighting for your interests. We have to
Speaker 1: build people power such that these city council institutions become
Speaker 1: irrelevant and aren't able to actually dictate our lives. We
Speaker 1: can't rely on individuals UM to actually speak for our interests,
Speaker 1: because if they're successful, it's likely that they're tied to
Speaker 1: capitalists and moneyed interests and not community right right, right right,
Speaker 1: in order they have to play the game in order
Speaker 1: to even be sitting sitting at that table, which means
Speaker 1: like being beholden to to corporate power, to capital, etcetera. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to maintain your integrity and your grounded
Speaker 1: nous even if you come out of social movement, like
Speaker 1: once you enter that space ideals that all the times
Speaker 1: in like the official just like not losing my way
Speaker 1: because like, yeah, we got developers being like hey, what's up,
Speaker 1: trying to you know, like etcetera. Um and so, um,
Speaker 1: let's see what happened. We covered a ton of stuff already,
Speaker 1: didn't not take long. Surprised. Um, So let's see. Oh,
Speaker 1: can you speak some to the Buckhead city hood movement
Speaker 1: and how city Council is leveraging the voices of that
Speaker 1: movement to push for cops city. Yes. So again with
Speaker 1: this narrative of crime, crime being such a huge issue
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, talking about crime instead of talking about social
Speaker 1: issues like poverty. Um So, Buckhead is a wealthy community
Speaker 1: in North Atlanta. Um, it's home to Atlantic small fis plaza,
Speaker 1: very bougie areas that are just meant to attract people
Speaker 1: who are very wealthy. Um. And so for decades UM
Speaker 1: they've been living in their own enclave of rich whiteness.
Speaker 1: And again due to the deprivation caused by the pandemic
Speaker 1: that has been increased, um social prime. I guess you
Speaker 1: could call it whatever crime means. We you know, capitalism
Speaker 1: defines crime, not actually you know what is bad for society.
Speaker 1: But there's a perception that in Buckhead crime has increased
Speaker 1: and the white people there are upset with it. And
Speaker 1: so as city council does often they acquiesced to the
Speaker 1: demands of what rich people want. And so they are
Speaker 1: in the process of funding this kind of additional policing
Speaker 1: unit safe safety unit in Buckhead um and are again
Speaker 1: using the rhetoric around crime to justify why these additional
Speaker 1: police forces would need a place to train. Um. And
Speaker 1: that's connected directly to cops city. So again just relaying
Speaker 1: the same language that we hear time and time again
Speaker 1: that poor people are causing problems and we need police
Speaker 1: officers who can stop them. Um. And despite the evidence,
Speaker 1: despite all of the conversations that activists have had with
Speaker 1: city council members around this issue, UM acknowledging and presenting
Speaker 1: data that more policing does not actually lower crime. UM
Speaker 1: they refused to listen because they know that the wealthy
Speaker 1: people want something and that's who their constituents are, no
Speaker 1: matter what district they're in. UM. Joyce Shepherd is in
Speaker 1: a primarily black area UM and still feels the need
Speaker 1: to acquiesce to these demands. So and I recall seeing
Speaker 1: UM the Atlanta the official Atlanta City Council Twitter reet.
Speaker 1: I think it was like Fox CBS forty six, Fox
Speaker 1: News somebody. But they were talking about how Atlanta homeowners
Speaker 1: were calling for UM cops City to sort of like
Speaker 1: contrast that like the four hours of public comment they
Speaker 1: had received at the last meeting largely against cops City,
Speaker 1: like didn't count because its people were probably ters or
Speaker 1: interlopers or something like that. But this homeowner and Buckhead
Speaker 1: said that they were this, this person owns property and
Speaker 1: so like they you know, have rights and a voice.
Speaker 1: UM was scared about crime, and like the center the
Speaker 1: centering that UH perspective to sort of like blanket over
Speaker 1: the very loud and broad chorus of people that were
Speaker 1: against against the measure? Right, how how how many renters
Speaker 1: does it take the equal one homeowner? Yeah? Exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And the comment about homeowners being more active citizens than
Speaker 1: renters is just misguided UM and a way to elevate
Speaker 1: property owners UM again tend to be obviously wealthier, UM
Speaker 1: wider UM, and their their desires over what the broad
Speaker 1: vast majority of residents actually want. UM. And we know
Speaker 1: that the city council people they wouldn't know if a
Speaker 1: homeowner or a renter are called because they don't listen
Speaker 1: to our public comment. They don't even do, they've already
Speaker 1: made their minds up. Yeah. And then and I think
Speaker 1: there was an incident where Joyce Shepherd some people went
Speaker 1: to her house, correct because she called the police, well,
Speaker 1: I mean people because she wasn't listening to the public
Speaker 1: comment in the meetings. And then, if I recall correctly
Speaker 1: as well, during the public comment at a subsequent meeting,
Speaker 1: she left to hold a press conference about not being
Speaker 1: scared the protest. Yes? Is that? Is that? Is that correct?
Speaker 1: Is that what happened? She held an entire press conference
Speaker 1: about how she wasn't scared and she was going to
Speaker 1: move forward with her plans, despite the fact that she
Speaker 1: was scared enough apparently to call the police, but when
Speaker 1: peaceful folks showed up to her house to demand what
Speaker 1: it is that they want, which is the whole point
Speaker 1: I thought of being an elected official was to actually
Speaker 1: um elevate the needs of the folks that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to be representing. But city coun so doesn't have the
Speaker 1: same definition of democracy. So I mean, like, just given
Speaker 1: that you know, those these blows, these what must be
Speaker 1: like setback for what feels like being stonewalled? Like what
Speaker 1: how do you all keep moving forward? Like does that
Speaker 1: inform a shift in tactics or strategy? Um? And how
Speaker 1: do and how do you all keep it faith in
Speaker 1: the face of that kind of stonewalling? I think a
Speaker 1: major revelation UM, for I think a lot of organizers
Speaker 1: here in the city is like I said before, city
Speaker 1: council is not They're not changing their minds, right. So
Speaker 1: once you learn that lesson, it's easy to adapt to
Speaker 1: an alternative strategy. Our fight is not going to be
Speaker 1: one through electoral politics, um again, because the people who
Speaker 1: enter that space have already decided that they have different
Speaker 1: priorities than actually upholding what it is that residents want.
Speaker 1: And so our main mission is to build people power
Speaker 1: around these ideas, to build a collective of communities that
Speaker 1: are organized and committed to abolition, getting rid of policing,
Speaker 1: creating community centered institutions for public safety UM that aren't
Speaker 1: centered around violence and retribution UM so that we can
Speaker 1: make these other institutions obsolete. And obviously we are going
Speaker 1: to have to in the meantime try to fight on
Speaker 1: the electoral front, because that's currently how decisions are made.
Speaker 1: You know, we need currently a process to close the
Speaker 1: Atlanta City Detention Center, and that's something that the mayor
Speaker 1: will have control over. So it doesn't mean giving up
Speaker 1: on the electoral fight, but it means that our our
Speaker 1: vision should be broader than the people who currently sit
Speaker 1: on city Council so that we have enough power to
Speaker 1: supersede and ignore the decisions that they make in isolation
Speaker 1: outside of community UM. And then like he like we
Speaker 1: talked about before, we like to have community events like
Speaker 1: this work can be very draining obviously if you're not
Speaker 1: seeing the type of winds that you know your energy
Speaker 1: has um poured into. And so yeah, we have barbecues
Speaker 1: we have community meetings. We really just want to build
Speaker 1: relationships with one another so that we can have enough
Speaker 1: sustained energy to keep moving, because this is not something
Speaker 1: that's gonna even if we are successful in getting city
Speaker 1: Council to vote no on Cops City, the fight to
Speaker 1: abolish to the Atlanta Police Department is not going to
Speaker 1: be over just because of that. So we're like batting
Speaker 1: down all these things that like are popping up while
Speaker 1: also trying to plan for a longer term vision for
Speaker 1: the city. Yeah, and so where where is um? Where
Speaker 1: is cops? Where's Cops City at right now? What are
Speaker 1: y'all's planning, What are y'all's next moves looking like with
Speaker 1: regards to yes. So we are we are in turbo
Speaker 1: mode right now because the the vote is on the
Speaker 1: six of August currently scheduled for that. We understand that
Speaker 1: am I get pushed back again because city a lot
Speaker 1: of city council people may not want to be on
Speaker 1: the record either way because of these elections that are
Speaker 1: coming up in November. But we are prepared in the
Speaker 1: event that they decide that they do want to vote
Speaker 1: on it on the sixteenth, So in preparation for that,
Speaker 1: We will be having a people's town hall on August five,
Speaker 1: from six thirty to nine pm at the Neighborhood Church
Speaker 1: in Candler Park, and again that's going to be an
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to counter the fake listening session that
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Police Foundation had on the fifteenth. People can
Speaker 1: come out talk about how they feel about pop City
Speaker 1: UM and will also be inviting city council members to attend,
Speaker 1: so if they choose, they can have another opportunity to
Speaker 1: hear what it is that residents actually want. We are
Speaker 1: also encouraging people to call city council members, particularly Westmoreland Eyed,
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown, Andre Dickens, Parokee, and Archibald, people who have
Speaker 1: previously been crib like, how would you describe their? People
Speaker 1: who are movable whatever that means, right, People who are
Speaker 1: not Joy Shepherd, who are actively championing pretty much UM
Speaker 1: want call them, you know, let them know that this
Speaker 1: is not what we want. They like to pretend that
Speaker 1: there are all these other people calling them saying the opposite. UM.
Speaker 1: Somehow those people are never on the record, So we're
Speaker 1: encouraging folks to UM to call them. We also have
Speaker 1: a website, Stop cop City dot org where folks can
Speaker 1: go to sign our petition, just again to put on
Speaker 1: the record how many people are against this. UM. You
Speaker 1: can follow dark a t L on Instagram where you
Speaker 1: can keep up with all of our canvassing events. We
Speaker 1: are canvasing Joy Shepherd's District this weekend, UM, and you'll
Speaker 1: get be able to get more information on the teaching
Speaker 1: that we are planning as well UM for the weekend
Speaker 1: right before the vote this. It's important to know about
Speaker 1: the movement in Atlanta, about lessons that people can take
Speaker 1: away to other places or anything. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: would say obviously, I think any movement for liberation, for
Speaker 1: socialism in general, abolition should be centering the most impacted UM,
Speaker 1: black people, brown people, poor people. If you're if your
Speaker 1: movement doesn't have anybody who meets that criteria in it,
Speaker 1: you might want to think about forming coalition. UM. This
Speaker 1: fight is going to be long and so UM again,
Speaker 1: it's important to build community with people that you can
Speaker 1: sustain the fight alongside. UM. And we know for Atlanta
Speaker 1: specifically that this fight is far beyond cops City. UM.
Speaker 1: We have an entire kind of cultural and material shift
Speaker 1: that we have to make away from punitive justice away
Speaker 1: from policing, UM for us to actually be safe. UM.
Speaker 1: And we know that folks and community know this when
Speaker 1: we canvass people talk about the fact that the cops
Speaker 1: have never helped them, UM, that they don't feel safe
Speaker 1: around police officers. UM. And so we need to be
Speaker 1: creating alternative systems as we work to um demolish the
Speaker 1: ones that are currently in place. And it's important for
Speaker 1: us and for our own mental health not to believe
Speaker 1: that city Council is going to be the ones to
Speaker 1: help us in that sight, um, but but rather they
Speaker 1: are currently oppositional forces and will be called out and
Speaker 1: treated as such. And so any of them who are
Speaker 1: listening to this who are running for mayor or running
Speaker 1: for reelection, like, please know that we will be actively
Speaker 1: opposing you and making your campaign very unsuccessful if you're
Speaker 1: not on the right side here tell them, put them
Speaker 1: put the fear in their hearts, right and right like
Speaker 1: all these businesses who want to put out ads about
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion but are behind the scenes funding cops.
Speaker 1: City like, we're coming for you to so just be unnoticed. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we really appreciated Jasmine in her time, particularly you know
Speaker 1: as an elected official to speak with people that organize
Speaker 1: in a very different realm than I do. Like, I
Speaker 1: do believe that we can accomplish things through policy through
Speaker 1: like tooralism, obviously because I've made it my life's work. Um.
Speaker 1: But what struck me most in our conversation was her
Speaker 1: idea and the idea of many about building power outside
Speaker 1: of the state of just like building strong communities, building
Speaker 1: community networks of care and of safety. That so that
Speaker 1: you don't need the you don't need policymakers to like
Speaker 1: legislate the way your your neighborhood is kept safe or
Speaker 1: is run or resource um And so that was dope,
Speaker 1: doctor is real, dope. What can What do you think
Speaker 1: people can do to help to the cause. So, if
Speaker 1: you're in the Alanta area, uh August seven, this weekend,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be um canvassing um to Stockhop City from
Speaker 1: ten am to one pm, starting at south Side Park Trail.
Speaker 1: They're also calling on people to call the Atlanta City Council.
Speaker 1: It looks like that was yesterday, So maybe not don't
Speaker 1: do maybe don't do that, Maybe don't do that. But
Speaker 1: then they also, yeah, they got another candide see like
Speaker 1: lit them up and follow them. Yeah, yeah, you can
Speaker 1: follow dark A t L on Instagram and Twitter and
Speaker 1: just kind of keep up with what they're doing. And
Speaker 1: you know, just uh, I think beyond getting involved this
Speaker 1: cause if you're not local, thinking about the intersection between uh,
Speaker 1: criminal justice and other forms of justice struggle, like you know,
Speaker 1: environmental justice, racial justice, the ways. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I find really intriguing about this campaign it is
Speaker 1: the way it's brought together such a diverse coalition of
Speaker 1: people who you got like Sunrise Movement on the one
Speaker 1: hand that are and all these people that are like
Speaker 1: I love the forest, save the forest because they like
Speaker 1: live in Ferngali or whatever, and the people that hate
Speaker 1: the police, and they're like yeah, like look the police,
Speaker 1: and like it's a it's a weird uh. It's like, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I try to think of like a duo,
Speaker 1: like like a classic duo that that doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: coming together, the odd couple. It's like the odd couple. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like I don't know who that is, but our
Speaker 1: times Okay, that sounds like it sounds like indeed, I
Speaker 1: believe that, but yeah, um matching out to them. And
Speaker 1: then this week we were gonna have maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit of discussion about hip hop addressing environmental issues, since
Speaker 1: there is that intersection within the campaign that we're discussing. However,
Speaker 1: we actually have a whole episode on the topic of
Speaker 1: like eco hip hop that we can't wait to show you,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna save some of those gyms for that week,
Speaker 1: So stay tuned. Next week we're gonna be talking about
Speaker 1: the results of the Ohio election. Oh my god, Nina
Speaker 1: Turners and that other ladies are head another bitch. So yeah,
Speaker 1: by the time you hear this, we will know who
Speaker 1: has won the Ohio eleventh special election for Congress to
Speaker 1: fill Marcia Fudge his seat, which I'm personally very jazzed about.
Speaker 1: We'll see who fingers crossed. And then after that, we're
Speaker 1: going to have that eco rap episode for you, and
Speaker 1: we'll have a whole episode dedicated to music. What the
Speaker 1: funk were we're supposed to do? We're supposed to find
Speaker 1: like a rap about Olympic ship and then also like
Speaker 1: a rap about black voters being mad at the president,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, yeah, we can find them, or we
Speaker 1: could wrap them ourselves exactly correct them. An Tho Joel speaking,
Speaker 1: can you drop a beat please, Oh dope, yo yo,
Speaker 1: it's waiting on reparations. I admit we submissfits that one
Speaker 1: dude really got to skip the Olympics. The baby fucking
Speaker 1: round out on everybody's shipless find and take it too long.
Speaker 1: You really need to fix it. Jump the topic to topic.
Speaker 1: Out of my pocket. You wint holding my jock. You
Speaker 1: did properly drop it. I'm hot doggy dog and the
Speaker 1: unknown style like crowd, do flips like Simone Biles. Whow
Speaker 1: I tried? I could rock while spe knife on the mic.
Speaker 1: How do you like me now? Laura and Fain the
Speaker 1: lust of in nature then make up the last gap
Speaker 1: of three acres, the same ones that came forwards to
Speaker 1: your gas and taste us. They want to erase it,
Speaker 1: bulldoze and display it so they can arrect you. Even
Speaker 1: ranges practice their tactics that fameless poison the soil with lead.
Speaker 1: Contentment nation that runs through the rivers with children might
Speaker 1: play yet, but we ain't gonna take it. We organized
Speaker 1: in formation campus and calling them making the statement to
Speaker 1: Joyson declared that a mirror andre that the forest is
Speaker 1: stake were to epsking to stay. I'm dope knife Lingua franca.
Speaker 1: We are waiting on reparation. You next week, Winning on
Speaker 1: Reparations the production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from
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Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.