Speaker 1: Podcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am
Speaker 1: your host, Ramses job is Ramsy's job.
Speaker 2: I am q Ward. You are listening to Civic Cipher
Speaker 2: as you.
Speaker 1: Are, and this is a special episode. This is something
Speaker 1: that has been a long time coming. We've wanted to
Speaker 1: include stories that we can't get to on the radio
Speaker 1: for a long time, and the past few weeks have
Speaker 1: been crazy for us. We've been all over the country,
Speaker 1: you know, doing our best to do good work, and
Speaker 1: you know, we haven't really been able to be in
Speaker 1: the studio as much as we like. But also because
Speaker 1: of the election season, we have had a lot of
Speaker 1: our airtime dedicated to interviews and and other things, and
Speaker 1: so there are stories that historically we haven't been able
Speaker 1: to get to and we just kind of chalked it up.
Speaker 1: But now that we have this relationship with I Hearten
Speaker 1: and the capacity to podcast as often as we like,
Speaker 1: we are committing to leaving less on the cutting room floor.
Speaker 1: So today we are going to talk about a story
Speaker 1: that we've been wanting to get to for some time,
Speaker 1: and we know we won't be able to get to.
Speaker 1: On our next episode, we're going to talk about a
Speaker 1: gentleman named Tyron MacAlpin. You may have seen his apprehension
Speaker 1: and arrest on social media. The video has been circulating.
Speaker 1: It is a violent and immediate arrest for those of
Speaker 1: you who have a modicum of empathy for your fellow
Speaker 1: human beings who likely will have been appalled and disgusted
Speaker 1: by the video. But for those who have not seen it,
Speaker 1: we are definitely going to tell you about it. Our
Speaker 1: hope is that this gives you some insight into some
Speaker 1: of the things that we are trying to say on
Speaker 1: this show that might feel maybe unbelievable. I know that
Speaker 1: if you listen to this show, you have a propensity
Speaker 1: toward trying to learn, trying to believe things. But I
Speaker 1: know that some things might still be beyond your grasp
Speaker 1: or your reality. Our show deals a lot with data.
Speaker 1: Our show deals a lot with journalistically, in journalistic integrity
Speaker 1: and not simply our own opinions. However, data doesn't always
Speaker 1: tell the story. I think that today's story will indeed
Speaker 1: tell the story that the data is trying to tell.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share a bit from ABC fifteen. The
Speaker 1: writer of this article is Dave Biskobing. This comes again
Speaker 1: from Phoenix, Arizona. A black man who is deaf and
Speaker 1: has cerebral palsy is facing felony, aggravated assault, and resisting
Speaker 1: arrest charges after he was repeatedly punched and tasered by
Speaker 1: a pair of Phoenix police officers. The violent and rapid
Speaker 1: arrest of Tyrone MacAlpin raises serious questions and could serve
Speaker 1: as a test case for Phoenix and the Department of Justice,
Speaker 1: as the two battle over whether the Phoenix Police Department
Speaker 1: it's federal oversight. The violent arrests thems from a morning
Speaker 1: call from Circle K employees who reported that a white
Speaker 1: man was causing problems and wouldn't leave the store. Record
Speaker 1: show while being trespassed, the white man claimed he was
Speaker 1: assaulted by a black man and pointed across the street
Speaker 1: at McAlpin. Officers Harris and Sue took the man's claims
Speaker 1: at face value and left him to go after McAlpin.
Speaker 1: The man's assault claim was later refuted by store employees
Speaker 1: and surveillance video record show. I'm going to pause right
Speaker 1: here just to bring up to speed in cases a
Speaker 1: little hard to follow. A white man was being trespassed
Speaker 1: from a circle K. It was causing problems in a
Speaker 1: circle K. The employees wanted him gone. Police showed up.
Speaker 1: They approached the white man. The white man says, hey,
Speaker 1: I was having a problem with that black man over there,
Speaker 1: and the police say, oh, really, and then they leave
Speaker 1: him and then go to the black man. All right,
Speaker 1: let's continue. After handcuffing MacAlpin, his girlfriend arrived at the
Speaker 1: arrest and told the officers that he was deaf and
Speaker 1: had cerebral palsy. According to body camera footage, none of
Speaker 1: the officers at the scene included any information about MacAlpin's
Speaker 1: disabilities in their reports. Body camera video shows officers unexpectedly
Speaker 1: go after Macalpen, punch him in the head at least
Speaker 1: ten times, taser him four times, and wrap their arms
Speaker 1: around his neck. Phoenix police officials did not answer specific
Speaker 1: questions about the arrest, but confirmed it is under internal investigation,
Speaker 1: but Phoenix Police and Maricopa County prosecutors continued to pursue
Speaker 1: a criminal case against Macalpen. During a recent preliminary hearing,
Speaker 1: Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nixconey found there was probable
Speaker 1: cause for his August nineteen, twenty twenty four arrest. Macalpen
Speaker 1: was arrested by officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue, and
Speaker 1: their police reports and court testimony, the two officers stated
Speaker 1: Macwpen was going to run, took a fighting stance through
Speaker 1: repeated punches, and wouldn't comply with commands. MacAlpin's attorney said
Speaker 1: body camera video and surveillance footage showed the officer's claims
Speaker 1: are false and said there's an obvious explanation for why
Speaker 1: he couldn't comply. Quote. The answer is easy. He's deaf,
Speaker 1: he couldn't understand what they were doing, and he had
Speaker 1: done nothing wrong, Shoe Walter said. Goes on to say,
Speaker 1: everything I see in that video is tyrone just trying
Speaker 1: to avoid being harmed by these officers, and that only
Speaker 1: makes them increase the escalation and the violence they're using.
Speaker 1: The arrest happened two months after the Department of Justice
Speaker 1: released a Historic and Severe report outlining a long list
Speaker 1: of systemic failures within Phoenix Police and q's going to
Speaker 1: have a little bit more on that a little bit later.
Speaker 1: For those that do listen to the show. You may
Speaker 1: recall us doing an episode where we were discussing some
Speaker 1: insights into police departments around the country, Phoenix being one
Speaker 1: of them. Uh, you know where we don't have to
Speaker 1: provide opinions or build bridges mental bridges for you, our listener.
Speaker 1: We don't, and this is one such instance where we
Speaker 1: did that. It was a report from the Department of Justice.
Speaker 1: We took the article from the Associated Press, and we
Speaker 1: gave insight into the Phoenix Police's discriminatory policing practices, and
Speaker 1: then this story happens. So before we get there, Q,
Speaker 1: I want you to kind of talk us through what
Speaker 1: you saw when you first saw the video, because you
Speaker 1: know it reads differently than it feels. And I remember
Speaker 1: when we first saw the video and we had a
Speaker 1: conversation about it, just kind of when you talk me
Speaker 1: through it, I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: I think it's important to always point out that a
Speaker 2: crime being committed should not render you being assaulted by
Speaker 2: law enforcement. And we know that's how they feel as well,
Speaker 2: because we have seen multiple now white male mass shooters
Speaker 2: not only safely apprehended with no violence at all, but
Speaker 2: treated with dignity and respect and even care by law
Speaker 2: enforcement officers after their arrest. Are you okay? Are you thirsty?
Speaker 2: Are you hungry? Let's get you something to eat. So
Speaker 2: what I saw in the video, with no context, not
Speaker 2: having read anything, was a black man walking down the
Speaker 2: street or through a parking lot it's hard to tell
Speaker 2: from the angle of the camera, a police vehicle swerving
Speaker 2: in front of him, him noticing, okay, a vehicle is
Speaker 2: in front of me now, and trying to walk to
Speaker 2: avoid walking into this vehicle that seemed to very intentionally
Speaker 2: cut him off, and an officer exiting the vehicle to
Speaker 2: beat him up. The vehicle's door opened, the officer jumps
Speaker 2: out of the vehicle and attacks the man. There is
Speaker 2: no in between the door opens, he attacks him, and
Speaker 2: a man who looks like someone being attacked, trying to
Speaker 2: prevent himself from being struck, trying to break his fall,
Speaker 2: and then trying to stop his face from being smashed
Speaker 2: into the pavement. Another officer arrives and joins in on
Speaker 2: the fight. So you get to watch two officers beat
Speaker 2: a man up, chase him, and beat him up some more.
Speaker 2: That's what the video shows.
Speaker 1: Now, when we talk about videos like this, we don't
Speaker 1: talk about them so that you can know every single
Speaker 1: individual instance of police violence in the country. What we
Speaker 1: do is we try to give you insight into what
Speaker 1: police violence looks like and the and the implifica, the
Speaker 1: implications and ramifications sorry of police violence and how it
Speaker 1: shapes outcomes for black people in this country. But as
Speaker 1: often as we can, we point this back to the data,
Speaker 1: to the prevalence of how this disproportionately happens to black
Speaker 1: and brown people and less so to white people. We
Speaker 1: continue to make our case that we are dealing with
Speaker 1: a different set of circumstances that affect us differently. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about ramses, I'm not talking about que I'm
Speaker 1: talking about our people. And this interaction gives full insight
Speaker 1: into what it must be like to be a black
Speaker 1: person living in most every city with a police department.
Speaker 1: This gives insight into why we have a deep seated
Speaker 1: distrust borderline fear of police. This gives insight into why
Speaker 1: the strained relationship between black communities and police departments is
Speaker 1: hard to repair. And the truth is this just gives
Speaker 1: insight into our reality. Now again, I'm not speaking as
Speaker 1: an individual in this moment. I could I can tell
Speaker 1: you my own stories of my own police interactions. I've
Speaker 1: done it on this show many times. But imagine you're
Speaker 1: walking as Q mentioned a police it was a police
Speaker 1: truck for those that want to check out the video,
Speaker 1: pulls in front of you into almost into a parking spot.
Speaker 1: The ready assumption for me, Ramses would be, well, he's
Speaker 1: pulling up here, he's obviously got to run into the circle. Ka.
Speaker 1: That has nothing to do with me or into whatever story.
Speaker 1: That original location was a circle, was not a circle car.
Speaker 1: So he's but he's a parking lot, it looks like.
Speaker 1: So he pulls in and nearly into a parking spot,
Speaker 1: so clearly he's going in there to figure something out,
Speaker 1: and he's in a rush. Let me not get in
Speaker 1: his way. As soon as the door opens, you couldn't
Speaker 1: count it two. As soon as the door opens, that
Speaker 1: officer was barreling toward him. And what do you do
Speaker 1: when someone is running towards you. You instinctively put your
Speaker 1: hands up. Okay, this is an instinct. This isn't resisting arrest,
Speaker 1: this isn't complying, This isn't you know he was trying
Speaker 1: to fight me. This isn't anything like that, anything with
Speaker 1: a nervous system will either fight or flight or prepare
Speaker 1: to be overwhelmed. I mean, if a car is barreling
Speaker 1: towards you, if someone is on a bike and they're
Speaker 1: riding towards you, you're going to put your hands up
Speaker 1: to kind of brace yourself. And this is almost what
Speaker 1: Tyron was able to do. But we'll find out later
Speaker 1: that the police are actually using that against him to
Speaker 1: justify their assault of him. And that's what gives the
Speaker 1: judge what the judge needs to say, Well, there's enough
Speaker 1: here to prosecute Tyron. So the officer, as Q mentioned,
Speaker 1: jumps out. Two seconds later, it's a full on beat down.
Speaker 1: The officers are kneeling on him. Comply, stop resisting, put
Speaker 1: your hands behind your back, and he can't. You know,
Speaker 1: that nervous system will cause you to maybe cover your
Speaker 1: face or whatever. This isn't what happening in the video,
Speaker 1: but you understand what I'm trying to say. But also
Speaker 1: he can't hear. And the officers didn't take a moment
Speaker 1: to extend a modicum of grace to this human being
Speaker 1: as he was walking down the street. He took they
Speaker 1: took the word of a white guy that was lying
Speaker 1: ran up and beat him up in a parking lot.
Speaker 1: And now the judge says that the guy that got
Speaker 1: beat up in the parking lot, they didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 1: There's there's enough evidence for the case to proceed that
Speaker 1: he assaulted the officers and that he was guilty of
Speaker 1: resisting arrest. Again he can't hear.
Speaker 2: And again was being arrested for something that did not happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think that we should take a moment
Speaker 1: and talk numbers, talk findings, talk fact, talk journalism so
Speaker 1: that this doesn't just feel like Qwan Rams' opinion on this.
Speaker 1: So what we're going to do is share a little
Speaker 1: bit from of our notes from an older episode, and
Speaker 1: we employee to go check that out. I believe it
Speaker 1: was maybe early August when we did this one, but
Speaker 1: we do have our notes from that and this is
Speaker 1: indeed about the same police department we're discussing today, the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Police Department and the Department of Justice's findings. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Q There's been noted that the Phoenix Police Department has
Speaker 2: been under investigation by the United States Justice Department, essentially
Speaker 2: under the suspicion of civil rights violations. This is no
Speaker 2: longer a suspicion. This has been confirmed. This from the
Speaker 2: Associated Press. Phoenix police discriminate against black, Hispanic and Native
Speaker 2: American people, unlawfully detain homeless people, and use excessive force,
Speaker 2: including justified deadly force, according to a sweeping federal civil
Speaker 2: rights investigation of law enforcement in the nation's fifth largest city.
Speaker 2: These are findings facts statements from the United States Justice Department.
Speaker 2: Report release says that investigators found stark racial disparities in
Speaker 2: how officers in Phoenix enforce certain laws, including low level
Speaker 2: drug and traffic offenses. Investigators found that Phoenix officers shoot
Speaker 2: at people who do not pose an inherent threat, fire
Speaker 2: their weapons after threats have been eliminated, and routinely delay
Speaker 2: medical care for people injured in encounters with officers. I
Speaker 2: think some people that listen to our show, I think
Speaker 2: some people in general, and I don't. I'm saying I
Speaker 2: think this like it's an opinion. No. I've heard people
Speaker 2: say that black peace people have a victim mentality, that
Speaker 2: we race bait, that we create this victim narrative where
Speaker 2: we're somehow always under the boot. This is not something
Speaker 2: that we have created. Again, these are statistics. And information
Speaker 2: from the United States Justice Department, not the NAACP, not
Speaker 2: RAMSI's JA, not any legacy civil rights organization that's sole
Speaker 2: purposes to highlight wrongdoings done to black people. These are
Speaker 2: findings that we now know are fact. I gave you
Speaker 2: some statements. Let me give you some numbers. Black people
Speaker 2: in the city of Phoenix are three and a half
Speaker 2: times more likely than white people, for example, to be
Speaker 2: cited or arrested for not signaling before turning Hispanic drivers
Speaker 2: more than fifty percent more likely than white drivers to
Speaker 2: be cited or arrested for speeding near school zones. Native
Speaker 2: American people are forty four times and to drive that
Speaker 2: home even further a still equivalent to four hundred percent
Speaker 2: more likely than white people on a per capital basis
Speaker 2: to be cited or arrested for possessing and consuming alcohol.
Speaker 2: Officers investigating drug related offenses stated to twenty seven percent
Speaker 2: more likely to release a white person within thirty minutes
Speaker 2: or less. Native Americans accused of the same offenses were
Speaker 2: detained longer. Native Americans were fourteen percent more likely to
Speaker 2: be booked for trespass, while officers release white people accused
Speaker 2: of the same offense. I truly wish that people would
Speaker 2: adopt a position of ignorance or naivete instead of wrongfully assuming,
Speaker 2: even asserting what they perceived to be instances of non compliance.
Speaker 2: He would have just listened to the officers. Everything would
Speaker 2: have been okay. These are not our opinions, This is
Speaker 2: not how we feel. This is what is actually happening.
Speaker 2: And police are so emboldened and get to operate with
Speaker 2: such impunity that, while being investigated by the United States
Speaker 2: and found guilty of civil rights violations without hesitation, these officers,
Speaker 2: at the pointed finger of a guilty white man, pursued, assaulted,
Speaker 2: beat up, arrested a deaf black man with cerebral palsy
Speaker 2: who had done nothing except be in close proximity to
Speaker 2: a white man who felt like accusing a black man
Speaker 2: of something and new that he could weaponize the police
Speaker 2: against that man, freeing himself of any wrongdoing that he
Speaker 2: actually did do. Well, Sir, this is America, and this
Speaker 2: is the city of Phoenix, Arizona, where we currently reside.
Speaker 2: There's a reason why our hearts beat faster when encountering
Speaker 2: police in regular, everyday traffic. Is not because we are
Speaker 2: inherently dangerous or inherently criminal. Our genes and chromosomes, as
Speaker 2: our former president has said recently, do not make us
Speaker 2: more inept, more prone to, or more by the nature
Speaker 2: of our ethnicity criminal. But they have found a way
Speaker 2: to take black and brown skin and make that the
Speaker 2: crime you've committed. So all it takes is not even
Speaker 2: an afraid white person, a white person who's in trouble
Speaker 2: for having done something to point to you black man,
Speaker 2: who have done nothing at all, get you assaulted, taste
Speaker 2: and arrested. And then the video showing all of this
Speaker 2: goes before a judge in court, and that judge says, yes,
Speaker 2: that was a rightful arrest and there is probable cause
Speaker 2: to pursue an investigation into a criminal charge. Now for
Speaker 2: the black victim of this crime, now, let's talk about
Speaker 2: that because the police.
Speaker 1: Report, they lied on the police report, of course they did.
Speaker 1: They said that he adopted a fighting stance and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And you know, please watch the video. You'll
Speaker 1: see that there is no fighting stance. But the police,
Speaker 1: we're on the stand making a case that he did.
Speaker 1: The best that he did was you could see his
Speaker 1: body sort of clench as though he was going to
Speaker 1: be tackled because the officer was already running at him, parked,
Speaker 1: the truck started running at him, didn't walk, didn't hey, man,
Speaker 1: can I talk to you for none of that? Running
Speaker 1: out of the door, the door flung open. The officer
Speaker 1: said that he bit them, and they tried to show
Speaker 1: a mark on the officer's arm, and the mark was
Speaker 1: more consistent with as the officer was trying to put
Speaker 1: him in the chokehold, he scraped his arm on Tyrone's teeth.
Speaker 2: Or maybe the ground, whether they were him on pavement.
Speaker 1: This man, this, this was not a fight. There was
Speaker 1: no fight. Watch the video. It's not a fight at all.
Speaker 1: And so and the officers are lying very very clearly, but.
Speaker 2: They get to lie straight faced while the video of
Speaker 2: them assaulting him is playing in court in front of everyone,
Speaker 2: and the judge says, yep.
Speaker 1: So when we black folks say, hey, this criminal justice
Speaker 1: system is stacked against us. When we say hey, you know,
Speaker 1: we can be innocent of anything, and the criminal justice
Speaker 1: system in this country can ruin our life, and other
Speaker 1: people say, well, I mean, just comply, just keep your
Speaker 1: nose clean, and we don't literally don't have to do
Speaker 1: anything and die it's dangerous, and even if it doesn't
Speaker 1: affect us individually, it affects our community, affects our fathers,
Speaker 1: our brothers, it affects our fiscal prospects. It affects so much.
Speaker 1: There's a ripple effect to this. And this is not
Speaker 1: the only battle we're fighting. But the toughest part is
Speaker 1: being black and living your truth in the middle of
Speaker 1: a country that blindly enthusiastically supports the police, even when
Speaker 1: they know that they're lying. They give the police the
Speaker 1: best possible optics all the time. The reason that there
Speaker 1: is a modicum of plausible deniability is because they know
Speaker 1: that the people will accept it. The people will take that,
Speaker 1: but society at large, so watch this. Our feeling often
Speaker 1: enough is that police consequences is an oxymoron. There's a
Speaker 1: lot about police that is an oxymoron. Why is it
Speaker 1: that we call the police brave when they're always scared
Speaker 1: of nothing? Watch the testimony. The officer says, well, he
Speaker 1: put his hands up, and I assumed that that was
Speaker 1: a fighting stance, and I feared that he was going
Speaker 1: to strike me, so I pummeled him into the ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also often run toward things. I'm afraid of you.
Speaker 2: See what I'm saying, I can express my bravery.
Speaker 1: So how is it that again, oxymon? How are you
Speaker 1: brave and scared at the same time? Like, I don't
Speaker 1: get it. But you know the only reason that they
Speaker 1: can keep that brave thing going perpetually is because we
Speaker 1: have this obsession with violence, and the police feed that
Speaker 1: obsession using black and bodies often enough. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about police consequences because that's the oxymoron I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to. I'm gonna get back to this article. Both
Speaker 1: Harris and Sue were called to testify during a preliminary
Speaker 1: hearing on October first, twenty twenty four. Harris testified that
Speaker 1: he immediately went heads on with macalpen within a second.
Speaker 1: Thought it was two seconds. There's only one second because
Speaker 1: he believed he was going to run and was going
Speaker 1: to fight.
Speaker 2: Was he going to run or was he going to fight?
Speaker 2: You believed he was going to do both.
Speaker 1: I read it. I read it the same as you.
Speaker 1: That's what it says, Quote, he raised his hands in
Speaker 1: a manner that he was going to strike me. Unquote,
Speaker 1: Harris said during cross examination. Quote what that communicated to
Speaker 1: me is that I was about to get assaulted and
Speaker 1: that someone was giving up, not sorry, not that someone
Speaker 1: was giving up unquote. Harris also testified he didn't know
Speaker 1: if it was possible that Macalpen raised his hands to
Speaker 1: protect himself from Harris's sudden punches. In response to a
Speaker 1: question from the prosecution, Harris said everything could have been
Speaker 1: avoided if Macalpen had just indicated he was deaf. Let
Speaker 1: me go back up. How many seconds was that? Cue?
Speaker 2: One second?
Speaker 1: Okay, let me go back down here, So the officer says,
Speaker 1: everything could have been avoided if Macalpen just indicated he
Speaker 1: was deaf within one second. Okay, there we go, all right. Quote,
Speaker 1: I would have had him sit down, made motions with
Speaker 1: my hand to have him sit down, and then I
Speaker 1: would have gotten a pin. Harris testified. As for Officer Sue,
Speaker 1: he also testified that he saw Macalpen throw punches and
Speaker 1: claimed that he was bitten on the wrist during the arrest.
Speaker 1: Officer Sue's body cam fell off at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the arrest and only shows the ground convenient when asked
Speaker 1: to pinpoint the moment on Officer Harris's body camera footage
Speaker 1: when the bite occurred, Sue stopped when the camera was
Speaker 1: pointed upward and Macalpen was not in frame. How convenient
Speaker 1: we call this lying, and this is the plausible deniability.
Speaker 1: Defense attorneys asked Sue if it was possible he scraped
Speaker 1: his wrist on the ground or MacAlpin's open mouth as
Speaker 1: they punched, choked, and tasered him, but Sue said no
Speaker 1: and denied using a choke called on MacAlpin. In a
Speaker 1: bizarre moment, to refute the defense's claim about this the
Speaker 1: cause of the scrape on Sue's wrist, the prosecution asked
Speaker 1: him to stick his hand in his mouth and rub
Speaker 1: it on his teeth. When Commissioner Secone ruled he had
Speaker 1: found probable cause for the felony charges to move forward,
Speaker 1: he did not give an explanation. So we can talk
Speaker 1: around this all we want, but what we really want
Speaker 1: you to do, if you haven't done so yet, is
Speaker 1: watch this video. Whatever it is you need to do
Speaker 1: to put yourself in that position, but not just what
Speaker 1: you're seeing in the video. Imagine the fallout of that,
Speaker 1: and again imagine how it can shape outcomes. Tyron. And
Speaker 1: now in this thought experiment, you just walking minding your
Speaker 1: own business. Someone else blames you, weaponizes the police against you,
Speaker 1: and you're already a target, and you've lived your life
Speaker 1: like this. This sort of thing can happen at any
Speaker 1: point in time and can just affect the trajectory of
Speaker 1: your life, so you live in a perpetual state of
Speaker 1: I don't want to call it fear, but concern, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes to the police. Actively avoid the police.
Speaker 1: But the police pull up. From your perspective, they're clearly
Speaker 1: not there for you because you've done nothing wrong, and
Speaker 1: you keep walking. You don't hear their commands because you're deaf,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really matter all that much because you're
Speaker 1: still walking away, and within one second, as we've established,
Speaker 1: they jump out of the car, rush towards you, and
Speaker 1: start attacking you. Watch the video, of course, read what
Speaker 1: the officers wrote, look at their testimony, but watch the
Speaker 1: video for yourself. You can see that they're lining how
Speaker 1: they're exploiting the only gaps that they can find to
Speaker 1: make their version of the story slightly plausible. They're using
Speaker 1: every single thing that they can possibly use against this
Speaker 1: man against him, and he's done nothing wrong, and the
Speaker 1: judge is on the side of the police. Imagine living
Speaker 1: in that world, Imagine having to pay fines. Imagine if
Speaker 1: he gets convicted. And of course that may not happen
Speaker 1: here because of the high profile that this story has.
Speaker 1: But these are things that happen every day, and I
Speaker 1: don't need to convince you of that, because again this
Speaker 1: is a data driven show. Imagine what it's like to
Speaker 1: miss work because something happened to you and you didn't
Speaker 1: do anything wrong, and now you've missed out on employment.
Speaker 1: So now you're looking for a job again, maybe even
Speaker 1: with a record. Now, imagine getting into the the carceral
Speaker 1: system and you need to come up with bail money
Speaker 1: to get out, to fight your case from a position
Speaker 1: of power, from a position of strength, And if you
Speaker 1: don't have that money, your chances are diminished. And if
Speaker 1: you do have that money, it goes somewhere where you
Speaker 1: never anticipated. You are just living your life. And if
Speaker 1: you have a family and your income is compromised and
Speaker 1: your presence is compromised, what happens to your family? And
Speaker 1: then if your family in turn is compromised, what happens
Speaker 1: to your community? And if your community is compromised, and
Speaker 1: society at large looks at you and points the finger
Speaker 1: and says, what's wrong with those people without looking at themselves,
Speaker 1: without looking at the system that benefits and protects them
Speaker 1: and actively harms the rest of us. Then I think
Speaker 1: you'll start to understand a lot of what we talk
Speaker 1: talk about on this show. Sit with it, watch the video.
Speaker 1: I think you're going to come to the same conclusions
Speaker 1: that we come to. And if not, again, Google is free.
Speaker 1: The data is all there. You don't have to take
Speaker 1: Rams's word for it, norques. You can check out the FBI,
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice, you know, any government agency that
Speaker 1: you deem appropriate and look at the data. And now
Speaker 1: that you have another story to explain the data, the
Speaker 1: real world implications of the data, how it really affects
Speaker 1: real human beings, and I think you're a little bit
Speaker 1: further along on the journey, so we'll leave this one
Speaker 1: right here. Thank you as always for checking us out.
Speaker 1: Once again, I am your host, Ramsey's job. Big shout
Speaker 1: out to qboard and do us a find us on
Speaker 1: all social media at Civic Cipher. Of course, you can
Speaker 1: hit the website civiccipher dot com and download all of
Speaker 1: our previous episodes if you're new to the show, and
Speaker 1: you can also interact with us, let us know if
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Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on YouTube if you're not
Speaker 1: doing that already, And until next time, y'all peace,