WEBVTT - Is Our Safety Being Short Changed? | Angela Rye SoloPod 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.640 Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:11.200 with Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home. Everyone, 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.200 it has been a little while I missed you. It's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.120 been a lot going on. I have been working diligently 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.080 with some amazing, amazing partners on the local, state and 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.640 national level on our State of the People Power Tour, 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.120 and that has made it so my travel days of 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:34.000 interview interfere with this podcast is solo Pod, and I 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.200 just really appea, I appreciate your patience. Today we're talking 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.560 about something that I've learned a lot more about from 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.320 being on the ground and from working with some amazing people. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.600 One of them is Pastor Mike McBride, who has become 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.640 a fast brother to me. He runs an organization called 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:57.200 Live Free USA. He's the executive director, partnering with folks 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:02.280 all over the country on community violence intervention programs, and 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.840 just the other day we were in Detroit, Michigan, at 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.759 a juvenile detention center facility where we got to speak 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.720 to some young folks who have been impacted by programs 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.680 just like Pastor Mike's, and I know that they could 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.360 certainly benefit from access to resources like the ones that 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.280 Pastor Mike and Liftfree provide every single day. So I 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.880 am doing this elongated intro because I am waiting to 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.600 see his face and I'm wondering if there's a technical 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:37.840 issue there. He is, Hey, Pastor Mike, how are you brother? 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.040 You know? Glad to be talking to the Northwest wonder? 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:47.319 Oh? You guys, just know that I thought that I 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.440 was bad at geography. I really did, and then I 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.240 met Pastor Mike. For some reason, he doesn't believe that 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.760 I get to throw my doves up and I don't 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.720 underd why. And my gums have to be up north. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.160 You gotta put it, you gotta put it. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.640 I don't know either way. I'm not a y n 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:13.320 and I'm not gonna wrap the Northwest Coast or the Pacific, 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.440 this West Coast all day, baby. And since he's deal 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.280 in Hope, I know he's not gonna troll me with that. 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:25.520 Today it's to talk to the West Coast wonder w 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:26.120 c W. 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:30.320 I'll take it. But we have gotten to do so 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.120 much more together, and I just feel like, you know, 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.239 every time I see my good brother, I'm like he 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.720 been all my life, But he's been busy doing the 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.760 work of the Lord in the streets beyond the four 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.600 walls of the sanctuary, and it is it is really, 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.840 really a pleasure to have gotten the journey with you 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:47.960 thus far. I can I can't wait to see what 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.200 else God has in store. But first we're gonna fight 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:52.760 for these programs. So this is what I want to 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.000 talk to you about. I saw, as the Bible would say, 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:58.480 your counting is drop. 0:02:59.840 --> 0:02:59.880 It. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.040 I think we were in were we in New Orleans? 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.240 When did you first learn? Okay, so we learned about 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.320 these cuts in New Orleans, and Pastor Mike, I want 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:12.360 you to help people understand community violence. Intervention work is 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.440 the thing that saves our young people more than any 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.520 law enforcement officer ever could nine point five I say 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.240 nine point nine times out of ten. It is the 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.400 work that puts, you know, the Ray Lewis's and the 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.560 skills and the tefts in front of whatever was going 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.239 to come between one young person and another. It is 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.600 conflict resolution. It is telling people your own heroing stories. 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.120 It is helping people to understand the importance that life does, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.080 in fact matter. We have young people nowadays, even in 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.520 my own community of Seattle, Sewer Park is we have 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.160 the loop. Some kids just got shot at Sewer Park 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.280 the other day, so this work is so important. Can 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.040 you talk about the work that you all have been 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.760 getting funded through the federal government and how you plan 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:03.080 to pivot now. 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:05.360 Well, it's great to be with you, Angela, and thanks 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.800 so much for the opportunity to hang out with you 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.360 and the homies as part of your Native Land podcast Family. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:17.080 I'll just quickly say that the scripture says blessed are 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.119 the peacemakers, where they shall be called the children of God. 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:26.000 And often we think of peace as the absence of 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.200 conflict or violence, but it is also has to be 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.400 considered the presence of justice. Both of them have to 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.960 be together. People want safety and they want justice. People 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.880 don't want to be criminalized in their own communities as 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.120 a price to pay to achieve some false sense of safety, 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.719 which has largely been the experience of most black folks 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.000 in this country. What has now become known as community 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.160 violence intervention. In the past, it may have been known 0:04:54.520 --> 0:05:01.200 in Shorthand as ceasefire, as focused atturrens, as cure violence. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.520 It has now kind of largely been described as community 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.159 violence intervention, and it is a menu if you will, 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.359 a rising sector, a rising labor force and workforce of 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:18.800 trained individuals who are skilled in public health interventions that 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:24.680 interrupt lethal conflicts that are a result of interpersonal violence, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.640 largely with guns. And this has become now in our 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:34.120 say third or fourth decade of or working and organizing, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.120 one of the best, if not the best evaluated public 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:42.719 safety community safety set of interventions. And thankfully in the 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.560 last four or five six years, they started to scale 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.520 all across the country. It is our life's work when 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.760 I say, I'm talking about all of the peacemakers, all 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.280 the violence interrupters, all of the community based organization senior executives, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.640 folks who've been doing this work for decades large without 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.159 renunration or public appreciation. Community vised intervention is here to 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.080 stay if we can organize to keep it so. And 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:08.680 it's righteous work for sure. 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.000 I want to ask you this because I think so 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.600 often on the policy making side, and I think you've 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.839 heard me talk about this on the tour. I feel 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:25.360 like there's something that happens where your advocacy could be fierce. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.400 You can be so intentional about you know, what you're 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.279 doing every single day, but there's a disconnect that happens 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.400 along the road of strategy between strategy and like the 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.680 folks on the ground, And this tour has brought me 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.320 a lot closer to that. I'm like, oh, I did 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.279 have some gaps, I did have some blind spots. I 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.440 know these programs need to be funded, but there's something 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.839 I think that happens when a policy maker or a 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.960 strategist or even like a bill author has to come 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.680 face to face with some of the victims or the 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:03.359 victim's family member. So can you talk about how you 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.080 got into this work and why it's so important to 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.640 you now? Like what keeps you rooted and grounded in 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:10.080 this work? 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.720 Pastor Mike two quick stories. I was a youth pastor 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:18.560 in San Jose, California, in the ninety nine two thousand era. 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.680 I got beat up by some cops while I was 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.680 a youth pastor down there, physically sexually assaulted in the 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.080 course of an arrest. A number of my young people 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.120 said to me, you know, Pastor Mike, this happens to 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.760 us all the time. I said, why you never said 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:33.840 anything to me? They said, because we didn't expect the 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.320 church to respond to this. And I heard God speak 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.120 to me and say, what is it about the ministry 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.800 you're creating where these children and their families will trust 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.440 you with the salvation of their souls but not the 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:49.520 safety of their bodies. These children were experiencing violence at 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.160 the hands of police and in their own communities, and 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.080 the church was not being responsive. I went to Douke, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.320 came home, started to do more community work, particularly around 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.840 this I was introduced to this work by you, Jean Rivers, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.000 Reverend Jeff Brown, Tenny Gross, folks who came out of 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:08.080 the Boston experience of this work and began to do 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.440 some of this work here in Berkeley, Oakland, and had 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.800 to bury a teenager. Over five hundred young people attended 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:16.880 the funeral. I asked, how many if you've been to 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:18.840 more than one funeral? All of the young people raise 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.440 their hands. These are teenagers. Five funerals. All the young 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.280 people still had their hands up. I got as high 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.720 as ten, asking how many have been to ten funerals? 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.240 Half of their children had their hands lifted while they 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.680 were weeping, and I was reminded that whatever work I'm 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.360 doing is not adequate. If the young people in my 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.680 community are teenagers and they've been to more than ten funerals. 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.480 Whatever I'm doing, whether it's preaching, whether it's volunteering in 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.960 the schools, whether it's getting people jobs, is not adequate 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.840 because our children are not safe. Either they're dying or 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:57.360 they're dealing with perpetual grief. And I found myself being 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.680 challenged to not only be a proclaimer of peace, but 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.920 also as much as I can, a maker, a creator 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.520 of peace. And these strategies were the best way to 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.400 do so in a structured manner. And it forced us 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:16.000 to organize people like the Larry's and the others all 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.800 across the country, in my own neighborhood, to be face 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:24.679 to face with elected officials, law enforcement leaders, preachers, and 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:28.160 respectable black people in every city across the country where 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.640 we work, and declare that our story of violence and 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:36.360 trauma is not something that can be solved by arrest alone, 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:41.280 that we need a radical intervention that is public health driven, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.559 that is people centered, and more importantly, that is results based. 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.920 And this is the strategy. There is no strategy that 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.320 comes close to these menu of strategies. We have found 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.240 a lot of elected officials and a lot of law 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.920 enforcement leaders at the time were not familiar with these strategies, 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.400 and we had to do organizing filling community centers, churches, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.920 mayor's offices, and congressional representatives offices. We had to build 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:16.000 organizing power to push our leaders to champion resource scale 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.080 these strategies, and that work is still ongoing quite frankly, 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.559 but we're in a good place historically. Now we just 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:23.400 got to keep it cooking. 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:31.520 So CBI funding was cut by this administration one hundred 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.240 and fifty million dollars in federal grants right through the 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.319 Department of Justice. What was the grant program program I 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:39.400 can't remember the name of the. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.920 Grand well, it was all in the Office of Justice 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.440 programs and a lot of those were the Burns, the 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:49.800 Burns Justice grants, you know, things that we were able 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:54.120 to through lots of organizing advocacy our whole field get 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:59.360 resources that were put into the Safer Communities Act, which 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:05.120 the Biden administration champion and signed. That those dollars were 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.880 cut and it's been devastating, and it's it's important to 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.320 acknowledge that that was just our little part of the cuts, 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.440 but all the other kind of resources in the Department 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:20.040 of Justice that deal with victims services and juvenile justice, 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.160 and child protection and substance abuse. That all comes to 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:28.040 evaluation of almost eight hundred and twenty million dollars were cut, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.600 and it's devastating. It's devastating to all those who care 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.480 about safety and justice. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.480 Well, I want to bring in Wesley Moore, who runs 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:45.320 an organization called Our Brothers Keepers and High West. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.480 How are you pretty good by yourself? 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.720 Very good? Thank you. You look like you're ready for 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:52.240 customer service. That's good. That's the field y'all are in. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.600 Let's go. So I want to I want to ask 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.960 you what the impacts of these federal cuts have meant 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.839 to your program? Because so often we talk about this, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.040 at least for me, let me own my stuff. I 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.040 talk about this in numbers and data and the names 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.880 of the programs, but we don't necessarily see the direct impact. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.000 What did these cuts mean to your programs like yours, 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:17.240 Our Brothers Keepers? 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:24.280 It affected our program tremendously, from US housing over fifty 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.520 to sixty homeless use. I was a victim of homeless 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.600 use that got me into drugs and violence, and so 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.080 I know that the direction that it can take you, 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.480 and also it affects us by every summer that we 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.640 are if ages fourteen to seventeen years old jobs opportunity 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.920 and teach them some type of job work skill that 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.600 they can grab on and still grabbing a gun, grabbing drugs, 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.040 stay in survival mode. So this year we're not able 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.040 to give out that type of service. We just paying 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.640 on fifteen dollars an hour to keep them away from 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.960 the street. We all know that if these kids came 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.440 get into a program to give them a better outcome 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.800 in life, they gonna tend to go to the left 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.040 side to where somebody else can put something in their 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.840 hands to help feed their family, help take care of bills. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.880 We noticed last year a lot of our students have 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.760 not committed a crime in eighteen months. They had the 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.400 group down here called Kia Boys on christ shores around 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.880 the whole United States, but we had seven in our 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.520 program have not stole a car in eighteen months because 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:34.240 we gave them an outlook in life to point their 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.640 directions towards something that can help make them a productive 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.080 person into life. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.079 How did you get into involved in this work was 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:44.760 what was your story attached to this. 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.680 I've been homeless all my life started at the age 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.400 of twelve thirteen years old. My mom was on drugs, 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.240 my father was in and out my life. And I'm 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.720 the oldest of my brothers and sister forty nine years old. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.600 So I was forced to be a father at thirteen 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.000 years old, taking care of my brothers and sisters and stuff. 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.200 And I tended to the streets and stuff to be 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.400 able to keep our lives on. Give some food onto 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.920 my brothers and sisters and stuff, and my young My 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.720 other brother underneath me, who helped me, also started this program. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.480 He's assistant director, Mark Moore. We hit the streets and 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:21.640 next thing you know, I was able to take care 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.360 of my family. But I also was hurting my family 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.680 because at age eighteen years old, I was sentenced to 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.720 twenty years. I was sentenced to twenty years and then 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.080 I came back home when I was thirty three years old, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.720 did fifteen years and stuff. So when I got out, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.680 I vowed to come back to my community to give 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.840 them an opportunity to don't go down the road I 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.520 went to, and I'm doing that. Of course, I learned 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.360 how to start remodeling homes, doing electric plummies and stuff 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.040 like that. And me and my brother had bought this 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.120 property and we was rehaving it. Our whole goal was 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:57.720 to rehab it and put it back on to the 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.520 market and sell it. But we know we had a 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.080 lot of at risk use. And I don't like to 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:04.720 call him at risk us. I like to say we 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:06.400 don't want this at risk and not loving them and 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.720 showing them the right direction. But we noticed they was 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.080 homeless and stuff, so we start teaching them the type 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.320 of trade and start paying them. They were the age fourteen, fifteen, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.680 sixteen years old. So as that went, we end up 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.080 start opening up the program which became Our Brother's Keeper, 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:26.200 the Game of Outlook and life to take a different direction. 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.320 And I noticed by looking at them saying kids, it 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.400 was a reflection of myself, and I seen that they 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:38.720 had no parents inside the house. One had a child 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.240 when he was fourteen old, which I had my first 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.360 son when I was fourteen years old. So I seen 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.560 the reflection of where they head into. And now it's 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.680 five years later and with this funding's being cut. I 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.280 just noticed over the weekend we have our city was 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:02.040 praising how the violence is down. Within this month we 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.320 done had ten to twelve homicides. Over the weekend, we 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.520 just had some more homicide last night we just had 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.840 another homicide. But these is now the schools is getting out, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.400 so now we really about to see the risks of homicide, robberies, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.600 breaking in cars, still in cars, and stuff like that 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.200 because they cutting so many of these programs funding, these 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:23.480 kids don't have nowhere to go. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:37.160 Yeah, I'm curious to know. And we actually got a 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:41.360 question in from Adrian Jordan. Pastor mac, I want to 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.480 come to you on this first. You know, when this 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.640 we first heard about this, my natural default is like, Okay, 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.280 how do we fix this? And so we talked about 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.880 city funding and state funding, but someone named Adrian Jordan 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.840 asked if these can be privately funded, if you all 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.960 could raise your own resources to be able to make 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.840 an impact, to have the similar impact that you've been having, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:04.560 and then the type of impact I know you want 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.000 to see, Pastor right, you talked about all those hands 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.320 going up at a funeral. I know you wish that 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.040 there were no hands that could go up and hopefully 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.959 not even be at the funeral. So what types of 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.320 resources can you raise privately? What do you need to 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.640 see from the state and local government to be able 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.479 to make up for this huge gap? 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.719 Yeah, let me let me just try to contextualize it, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.439 like it's super important for people to understand that in 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.600 your city, all the data research has shown us that 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.400 less than one percent some cities numbers are less than 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.280 half of one percent of your whole city's population is 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.000 driving or caught up in about sixty to seventy percent 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.960 of the lethal gun violence conflicts. Which just is to say, 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.600 if you have one hundred shootings in your city, it's 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.720 not because of one hundred people shooting each other. It's 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.240 likely a small number of individuals who are caught in 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.920 lethal conflicts and they are repeat their volume of fits. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.800 Those individuals are the individuals the lion's share of these 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.720 resources from the federal, state and local should be targeting 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.560 when we're talking about reducing gun violence. These strategies CBI 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.520 aren't necessarily attempting to reduce everything else. Although you will 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.360 find that a number of folks who are engaged in robberies, 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.480 who are engaged in other kind of violent offenses are 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.600 also some of these individuals. Why is that important. It's 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.000 important to say that because these are targeted resources that 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:36.840 should impact targeted individuals or networks in our communities. And 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.960 I often find that we think the problem is much 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.200 bigger than it is, so our brains can't get wrapped 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:48.480 around how vitally important this kind of investment is. Now, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.320 there's several things that we have to acknowledge. First of all, 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.399 the federal dollars were so important to us because many 0:18:55.600 --> 0:19:01.840 local mayor city council members, county boards of of supervisors, 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:06.640 or governors, their state legislatures would not fund these strategies 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.760 with the tax base of the local or the state, 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.080 and so we had to go to the federal to 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:17.720 almost be an innovation like catalyst for these strategies. Now, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.800 we've always depended on philanthropy to kind of bridge some 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.480 of our gaps. But just like a police department would 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:30.480 never ask philanthropy to fund their police budgets, we're trying 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.199 to get to a place in a moment where no 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:38.600 philanthropy is being expected to fund public safety and community safety. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.159 This should be a bill a cost that the local 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:47.359 municipality and the state legislatures should fund themselves. And so 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.280 yes to your person's question, we got to organize locally 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.560 now that we know for well over a decade, particularly 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.800 with the federal dollars that were infused into this post COVID. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:02.639 Now we know these strategies, we now need local mayors 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.439 and local city council members to take local dollars and 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:11.359 fund the local ecosystems of these strategies. It would be 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.879 great to continue to have federal funding, and we're gonna 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:18.359 keep working to have federal funding, but every municipality is 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:24.200 the richest institution in every city. More than philanthropy, more 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:28.920 than a fortune five hundred company. Every local municipality can 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.159 support these strategies. What we have to do is organize people, 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.240 organize the stories, the ideas, and we have to push 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.240 in their local municipal budgets to fund it. In the meantime, 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.520 if you're a philanthropic partner, if you are an individually 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.679 wealthy person, someone with high resources, and you're trying to 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.480 put dollars on the ground now to make our summers 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.680 less bloody and less lethal, then yes, you should find 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.760 an organization like our good brother here on the call, 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.639 or you can visit us and live for USA. We 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.879 can plug you into all kinds of organizations locally that 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.640 you can support in every city we're talking about all 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.080 across the country. But resources are needed, and they're needed now. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.720 What is the number. And I'm going to come to 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:15.800 you too, Wes, But like, what is the number? You're like, 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.640 in order to get through this summer, this is what 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.720 we need, whether it's from you know, well, let's wait 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.440 on city and state, but let's say that, like if 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.560 people could donate, Like, what's the number that you're like, 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:30.000 this is what I know we need. 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.040 Oh man, I mean I think you have to go 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.080 city by city. If you imagine that half of five 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.680 hundred million dollars were cut, you know, I think that 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:42.440 that number is a real number. 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:43.320 I mean, man, and. 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.840 That's over forty fifty cities. We're talking about two hundred 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.840 and twenty organizations we're receiving those dollars. Let me just 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:52.720 use Oakland as an example, because I know I have 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.000 my hands wrapped around that number. We're serving well over 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.639 two hundred individuals in Oakland who are at the highest 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.960 risk of shooting or being shot, extending to them about 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.600 forty to fifty thousand dollars worth of services for mental 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.360 health support. They all have a case manager, an individual 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.280 person who literally case manages them so they do not 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.800 fall back into lethal conflicts. They get some resources on 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:22.400 the side to help them with some job training and reintegration. 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:25.399 And so in Oakland, if your times that by two hundred, 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.440 that's about four to five six million dollars just for 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.960 a quarter, right, And so it's just really important to 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.639 appreciate that the tax base has to fund this individually. 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:42.800 Wealthy people can help provide gaps and bridges for individual organizations. 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:45.359 But if you really care about this work, and you 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:49.160 care about anchoring this work, then we need everybody I'm 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.840 talking about from the pastor to the CEO, to the teacher, 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.600 to the nurse, to the parent, to the elected official 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.400 to the police. Everybody has to get on one accord 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.920 and and insistent. We will invest in peace making in 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.280 our communities. We will fund peace We will make sure 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:11.080 that the resources needed for brothers programs, but also case 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:15.680 managers and intervention specialists and violence interruptors that work will 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.480 not be shortened because of an administration change at the local, 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:20.480 state and federal level. 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:24.040 Yeah, that's good, Wes. I want to ask you for 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:27.360 your organization and the network of organizations that you're connected 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:31.959 to in Columbus, Ohio, what do you see as the 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.520