Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Sidher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: rams is Jah.
Speaker 2: The name is Ward Quentin J. But my friends call
Speaker 2: me Q. Yes.
Speaker 1: Indeed, a lot to talk about on today's episode.
Speaker 2: We've been doing a lot of.
Speaker 1: We've been doing our job, and unfortunately the job is
Speaker 1: sometimes overwhelming, and because we have an hour per week
Speaker 1: with you, we don't get to touch on everything that
Speaker 1: deserves to be touched on. And so today what we're
Speaker 1: going to do is take a moment. We're going to
Speaker 1: catch up with at least the things that have happened
Speaker 1: in the past maybe six or eight days, and really
Speaker 1: give some context and give our thoughts and you know,
Speaker 1: figure out what we're going to do now. At this point,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to pretend like this is going to be,
Speaker 1: you know, my favorite show, you know, the happiest show
Speaker 1: I've done. I'm talking about things that have already happened,
Speaker 1: things that I have no control over. We're going to
Speaker 1: be talking about people who've lost their lives at the
Speaker 1: hands of we'll call it what it is, white supremacy.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about people who've lost their lives at the
Speaker 1: hands of a criminal justice system top to bottom in
Speaker 1: its entirety that stomps on the necks of black and
Speaker 1: brown bodies. It chews us up and it spits us out.
Speaker 1: And now it's our responsibility to discuss that.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: You know, I might be in rare form, but you know,
Speaker 1: this is what I signed up for. Qu this is
Speaker 1: what you signed up for, So you have to forgive me.
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be mentally prepared for
Speaker 1: when these mics turned on, but it feels like kind
Speaker 1: of tough to get out of the blocks here. It's
Speaker 1: a little sticky, but you know what, here we go.
Speaker 1: The thing that happened this week that was the most
Speaker 1: historic was, of course, the verdict in the Derek Chavin trial.
Speaker 1: You know, we were hoping for there to be some justice,
Speaker 1: you know, for the life of George Floyd that we
Speaker 1: saw taken on video. And I don't think I'm wrong
Speaker 1: in saying that we didn't expect for there to be justice.
Speaker 1: We expected this guy to go home and continue living
Speaker 1: his life. Because that happens.
Speaker 2: What was it? What was the statistic you quoted Q
Speaker 2: seven and fifteen thousand, Okay, explain that and the last
Speaker 2: fifteen thousand cases of people murdered. Let me pause people
Speaker 2: killed by police officers. Seven of those police officers have
Speaker 2: been charged and convicted.
Speaker 1: Now I worry that you're saying fifteen hundred and it's
Speaker 1: coming out fifteen thousand.
Speaker 2: I'm worried that I'm saying fifteen thousand, and it's more.
Speaker 2: I can try to do some research before the end
Speaker 2: of the show to confirm that that's accurate. But I'm
Speaker 2: more nervous that I'm saying a number that's too small.
Speaker 1: And in either case, it shows that the odds are
Speaker 1: stacked against us in the pursuit of justice when it
Speaker 1: comes to these sorts of things. And I know a
Speaker 1: lot of folks that are on the other side of this,
Speaker 1: they're thinking, is you know, why make such a big
Speaker 1: deal out of what the police do when there's so
Speaker 1: much crime and there's so many murders that have black
Speaker 1: people on both sides of it, neither of which are
Speaker 1: police officers, wears their reaction to those murders. And you know,
Speaker 1: and I've mentioned this before on the show, it's that,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody is happy when someone loses their life.
Speaker 1: We all, as human beings, at least in theory, should
Speaker 1: recognize that our life is precious. In the lives of
Speaker 1: those around us are precious. Our fellow man, our countrymen,
Speaker 1: our brothers, and our sisters that we share this planet with.
Speaker 1: And if someone you know, takes a life, the expectation
Speaker 1: is that that person will be held accountable for that.
Speaker 1: They'll stand trial, they'll be judged, you know, and a
Speaker 1: sentence or a punishment will be handed down if they're
Speaker 1: found guilty. And the thing is, when the police do it,
Speaker 1: there's never any accountability. The police almost always get off.
Speaker 1: And that's why there's such a big reaction to police killings,
Speaker 1: because it's a blatant disregard for black life, almost exclusively.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that that helps frame the gravity
Speaker 1: of this verdict and why it was so important for
Speaker 1: all of us that had to watch it. We sat
Speaker 1: around and wait for the verdict, and we had no
Speaker 1: faith in the criminal justice system, and we shouldn't have.
Speaker 1: The criminal justice system has never been very fair, very
Speaker 1: I shouldn't even use that word. Has never been fair
Speaker 1: period to black people in mass You know, you might
Speaker 1: find a couple of examples where somebody had made out okay,
Speaker 1: but you know, for the most part, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like the healthcare system and a lot of the other
Speaker 1: white supremacist based systems and institutions where there it doesn't
Speaker 1: inspire a lot of confidence from black people because for
Speaker 1: the most part, it exists to serve one group of
Speaker 1: people and everyone else is just there to feed it
Speaker 1: money and there's really no respect. But in this instance, yes,
Speaker 1: the verdict was guilty on all three counts, and you
Speaker 1: might be thinking, well, why don't you sound happier, Ramses,
Speaker 1: that's what you wanted, Ramses. Where everything is moving in
Speaker 1: the right direction, Ramses. But it might have been two
Speaker 1: hours after that verdict that Q you told me about a.
Speaker 2: Fifteen year old that was killed, So tell that story.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the idea of being prepared when the mics
Speaker 2: came on today, and I text you in the wake
Speaker 2: of the announcement of the verdict that when we got together,
Speaker 2: I was going to be nervous driving to you every
Speaker 2: time I saw a squad car, a police car. And
Speaker 2: if any of you are listening and wondering, why listen
Speaker 2: to the show? More right, the number of examples that
Speaker 2: we've given you know, in case you in case you
Speaker 2: just honestly aren't you know, tapped getting in that way
Speaker 2: and paying attention in that way. The reasons why are
Speaker 2: incredibly obvious. And as we sat and waited for that
Speaker 2: verdict to be announced with nots in our stomachs because
Speaker 2: a murder that we watched on television, a murder that
Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of people have seen, we still weren't
Speaker 2: sure that the person that committed the murder would be
Speaker 2: convicted of it because our law enforcement gets to operate
Speaker 2: in that space with impunity and complete and utter disregard
Speaker 2: for the lives of people that look like us, very specifically.
Speaker 2: So there's no such thing as being ready right to
Speaker 2: discuss the things that we have to discuss today. But
Speaker 2: we kind of knew what we had in front of us.
Speaker 2: But before before I could get from sending that text
Speaker 2: and getting in my car and coming to the studio
Speaker 2: and us having our pre show conversation about the things
Speaker 2: that we knew we had to discuss, we learned that
Speaker 2: a young lady in Columbus, Ohio. And please forgive me
Speaker 2: if I pronounced this this young queen's name incorrectly, but
Speaker 2: I think it's Macaiah Bryant of Columbus, Ohio called nine
Speaker 2: one one out of the fear of being assaulted, she
Speaker 2: had a knife to protect herself, and when the officers arrived,
Speaker 2: without question, without de escalation, without conversation, four shots to
Speaker 2: the chest, and murdered this fifteen year old girl. So
Speaker 2: if you ask why, in the wake of guilty on
Speaker 2: all three counts, our voices don't sound more celebratory, the
Speaker 2: first explanation would be because someone being convicted of a
Speaker 2: murder that they did on TV should not call for celebration.
Speaker 2: It should be the very obvious outcome. It should be
Speaker 2: the absolute minimum we could ask or hope for. It
Speaker 2: shouldn't be some triumphant moment in American history that a
Speaker 2: man that murdered someone in front of the world was
Speaker 2: convicted for that murder. However, a lot of us knew
Speaker 2: even while this was being announced, and there was a
Speaker 2: little bit of relief of that ans in those knots
Speaker 2: in our stomach, that this wasn't some huge victory because
Speaker 2: the whole time this trial was going on, men, we're
Speaker 2: being murdered by police officers on video, and not just
Speaker 2: black men, black babies, black children, and brown babies and
Speaker 2: brown children. You guys may have heard me say this
Speaker 2: to rams this more than once. It is very very
Speaker 2: difficult for me to be hopeful about where this country's going,
Speaker 2: about how the world our children become adults and will
Speaker 2: look and how they will be looked at. And it's
Speaker 2: very very hard for me to be hopeful because every
Speaker 2: piece of evidence presented to me tells me a different
Speaker 2: story at their most scrutinized moment of their lives. I'm
Speaker 2: speaking of necessarily all of law enforcement in this country.
Speaker 2: They're under the most scrutiny, most of them, of their
Speaker 2: entire careers, and on their own cameras they're murdering us,
Speaker 2: not just the camera phones that we pull out, So
Speaker 2: they don't even pretend they didn't say, oh my god,
Speaker 2: everybody's looking. Let us at least pretend to be just, oh,
Speaker 2: you guys are looking. Let us show you what we're
Speaker 2: willing about. So it's really really difficult to look at
Speaker 2: my son, to hold him and kiss him and say Babe,
Speaker 2: I'll be back, and actually one hundred percent believe it,
Speaker 2: because I have to hope that for whatever reason they
Speaker 2: dic side, I don't get pulled over, and that if
Speaker 2: I do, that they're in a good enough mood to
Speaker 2: not kill me. As I'm being as submissive as possible
Speaker 2: to assure this outcome. I feel like.
Speaker 1: There's something that we haven't done on this show. And
Speaker 1: if you're listening to my voice, I would appreciate your input.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of folks listen on the radio,
Speaker 1: a lot of folks download the podcast, you know, folks
Speaker 1: watch you know on YouTube. You know, however, you get
Speaker 1: the show. But everyone has access to us. This is
Speaker 1: all of our show. Q and I are just the curators,
Speaker 1: I suppose, but this this show is for all of us.
Speaker 1: Even if you're a part of the white supremacist system,
Speaker 1: this is your show too. This is so you can
Speaker 1: learn how to be better to your brothers and sisters. Originally,
Speaker 1: when we sat down and you know, wanted to do
Speaker 1: this show, that we had this idea that.
Speaker 2: We were going to.
Speaker 1: Provide a stage and be able to have some dialogue,
Speaker 1: to create an environment where folks can come and sit
Speaker 1: and we can learn about each other. And obviously there's
Speaker 1: a voice that has not been in the room, and
Speaker 1: that's the voice of law enforcement. You know, we haven't
Speaker 1: had any police or any any officers up on the
Speaker 1: show yet. And I've gone back and forth with you know,
Speaker 1: should we because we're looking at this and we're trying
Speaker 1: to make sense of it, and you know, my impulse,
Speaker 1: my gut impulse, is to say, yes, we should. And
Speaker 1: I've had conversations with some and it may still happen,
Speaker 1: and I'd love your input. But there are some times
Speaker 1: when I'll find some information and it'll be from the
Speaker 1: officer's point of view, and it's very officer like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very black and white. The nuance, the you know,
Speaker 1: the context, it's very much lacking, and oftentimes it's based
Speaker 1: in fear. And one of the things that I've learned
Speaker 1: is that fear begets fear, you know, And if you
Speaker 1: use fear, because it's a primal component of who we are,
Speaker 1: you can tell yourself and perhaps even convince other people
Speaker 1: of some stuff that will really overshadow what the root
Speaker 1: of the problem is, you know. And I've really gone
Speaker 1: back and forth, but I really do want your input.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to our voices, you know, should we
Speaker 1: open up the lines of communication and and sit down
Speaker 1: with some officers and really talk to them about all
Speaker 1: of this stuff, because I'm not sure what else we're
Speaker 1: going to do, you know, I'm I'm really glad that
Speaker 1: you hold fast to the idea of fear in this climate,
Speaker 1: in this space, with these interactions, because you know, I
Speaker 1: push back on it. Yeah, right, like the idea that
Speaker 1: you're afraid of the person that's running away from you,
Speaker 1: so you kill them. I have a very hard time
Speaker 1: digesting that, right. But the more you say it, the
Speaker 1: more I hear how a person could internally weaponize that
Speaker 1: fear and then blend it with the hate that they
Speaker 1: already have. But it looks like fear everyone else, and
Speaker 1: so then they're like, well, of course he was afraid,
Speaker 1: and it's like, we're not dealing with the rid of
Speaker 1: the problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's And you've even mentioned to me the idea
Speaker 2: of having someone from law enforcement on the show, and
Speaker 2: I feel the same way as you. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's necessary. I I just wrestle with it. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: we're still in it, Like we're still we're still dealing
Speaker 2: like it, Like you're talking about fear. I have it now.
Speaker 2: Of course I hate saying that out loud, but I
Speaker 2: have real life fear. You know when I when I
Speaker 2: text you, I text our producer Ryan. I'm not joking
Speaker 2: when I say when I get in my car to
Speaker 2: come here that I'm uncomfortable because I've watched people who
Speaker 2: were not in some criminal activity. Right. Yeah, our young
Speaker 2: brother got pulled over because he had an Air Force
Speaker 2: rushener hanging from his rear view mirror. He's gone. And
Speaker 2: then after the fact, you can be whatever person they
Speaker 2: say you were. You read the the I just saw
Speaker 2: the police report from the initial police report from George
Speaker 2: Floyd's murder. They can paint you to be paranoid, drug induced, panicked, enraged, aggressive, strong,
Speaker 2: and try to justify whatever the outcome is when the
Speaker 2: only witnesses them. So this space really sucks. The obvious
Speaker 2: answer to your question is yes, we need to have
Speaker 2: someone right that We've said to each other a hundred times.
Speaker 2: This cannot be an echo chamber, and there's no point
Speaker 2: in having this show if we don't get to hear
Speaker 2: from people whose ideas and believes are different than ours.
Speaker 2: Somebody's got to go first. But man, like I when
Speaker 2: you initially asked me about that, I remember you presented
Speaker 2: the idea to me and I'm like, yeah, definitely, And
Speaker 2: then I thought about it for five seconds and I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: and that will came from fear apprehension, discomfort. I really
Speaker 2: wish that wasn't the case, and I wish that wasn't true, man,
Speaker 2: But you can only absorb so much trauma and so
Speaker 2: much obvious hate.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's so Another thing that happened this
Speaker 1: past week is you know, I didn't get any of
Speaker 1: these people's names, but there was a video. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we have it up on one of our sites, so
Speaker 1: if you want to follow us, we're at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 2: On all platforms. But there was children. They were riding
Speaker 2: their bikes. Yeah, in New Jersey, in New Jersey, right,
Speaker 2: and there's a video of this and the officers. You
Speaker 2: know it.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to imagine the same story playing out
Speaker 1: if those are white kids.
Speaker 2: It's hard to imagine because it doesn't happen. You have
Speaker 2: no your mind doesn't have a baseline for that. It
Speaker 2: has no there's no content up there in your imagination.
Speaker 2: It's never seen anything like that. We've seen superheroes. We
Speaker 2: haven't seen that. A kid getting arrested because he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a bike license, arrested, bike taken, put in handcuffs,
Speaker 2: put in the back of a police car, not cited,
Speaker 2: not giving a warning, not having a conversation, but seven
Speaker 2: eight squad cars pull up on five or six kids
Speaker 2: on bicycles, and the crime they've committed is they don't
Speaker 2: have bicycle licenses, which I've never heard of in my life.
Speaker 2: I spent my entire childhood on a bike. It's a.
Speaker 1: Sad reality that you know, and we've learned this ourselves,
Speaker 1: that you don't really have to do anything wrong because oftentimes,
Speaker 1: as you and I both know and have experienced while
Speaker 1: in each other's presence, because it happened to both of
Speaker 1: us that again in our personal experience. We're not generalizing here,
Speaker 1: this actually happened to me.
Speaker 2: This is not this is not anecdotal that you know.
Speaker 1: It is very possible and perhaps probable.
Speaker 2: That they will.
Speaker 1: They meaning law enforcement, will pick and choose which laws
Speaker 1: apply and the ones that you can refute immediately. They'll
Speaker 1: they may see them to you and pick a few others.
Speaker 2: You know. We have a We have a good friend
Speaker 2: who was pulled over.
Speaker 1: He actually recorded this interaction and police were talking about
Speaker 1: he had his he turned his brights on on his uh,
Speaker 1: I think he had a newer range rover, and he
Speaker 1: says to the police, well, this car turns the brights
Speaker 1: on automatically. I didn't turn them on. I was pulling
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 2: Again, the headlights are on auto, yeah.
Speaker 1: And so it doesn't He's like, I didn't touch it.
Speaker 1: And the officer's like, well, you ran a stop sign,
Speaker 1: you know, And he's like, I didn't run a stop
Speaker 1: sign or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whatever, whatever it was. And so you know, these
Speaker 2: these kids on past that car, that car passed me, well,
Speaker 2: and you see, and then and in our and our
Speaker 2: personal experience, obviously we've seen the same thing happen, and
Speaker 2: so I don't think it surprises me. It's just sad
Speaker 2: that you know things like this will happen, and that
Speaker 2: it's so difficult to imagine it happening to anyone else,
Speaker 2: anyone else, you know, you think of the It's so
Speaker 2: funny because if you're not black, if you're not Hispanic,
Speaker 2: there's a good chance that you grow up thinking that
Speaker 2: the police are the good guys, they're the heroes that
Speaker 2: come and help out. And it is literally the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: For me.
Speaker 1: I've never there's never been a time in my life
Speaker 1: when the police have been anywhere near me, and it's
Speaker 1: made me happier. And I've lived thirty eight years. I'll
Speaker 1: be thirty nine soon. And I get that in principle,
Speaker 1: Like I watch movies, you know, I see it. You know,
Speaker 1: the cop movies. You want the cop to win. You know,
Speaker 1: I've seen you know, Bad Boys and all. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Obviously bad Boys, you're looking at mart
Speaker 1: Lawrence and Will Smith, so you definitely want them to win.
Speaker 1: But you get what I'm saying here. It could be
Speaker 1: a I don't know, pick another cop movie, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: but you get that in theory, the police are the
Speaker 1: good guys. But in the real world it feels very
Speaker 1: close to well, it feels like when they show up,
Speaker 1: I have to immediately prove to them that I'm not
Speaker 1: the person that they're looking for.
Speaker 2: Or immediately vacate the premises.
Speaker 1: Or that, or as as you mentioned, I have to
Speaker 1: be as non threatening and I have to like fully submissive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that feels you know, it's doable. It lacks dignity,
Speaker 1: as we've stated, you know, but it's very doable, and
Speaker 1: perhaps that's the reason why I've had less in the
Speaker 1: way of issues overall.
Speaker 2: But it's still.
Speaker 1: One of those things that just kind of comes with
Speaker 1: the territory, and so we're going to talk about how
Speaker 1: that applies to a few more examples, uh in just
Speaker 1: a few moments. But first, if you're just tuning in
Speaker 1: to Civic Sipherarmy host Rams's.
Speaker 2: Jah, the name is Ward Quentin J. Ram just likes
Speaker 2: to I like that one.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that we did get to
Speaker 1: talk about last week, which I want to I want
Speaker 1: to do a quick shout out to Shelley who came
Speaker 1: up on the show and we discussed, you know, the
Speaker 1: Stop Asian Hate initiative and all the things that she's doing.
Speaker 2: Shella, thank you so much for being a fantastic guest
Speaker 2: and for offering us a point of view and some
Speaker 2: insight that we couldn't possibly offer on our own exactly.
Speaker 1: Please check that show out if you missed it, at
Speaker 1: Civiccipher dot com. But during that show, we didn't really
Speaker 1: get a chance to really dig too deep into what
Speaker 1: happened with Dante Wright, which is the gentleman, the young
Speaker 1: man who's twenty years old who got pulled over because
Speaker 1: of either an air freshener or expired tags, whatever the
Speaker 1: case is, and then ultimately lost his life. And I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if we got to go cover this. But
Speaker 1: one thing I do want to say while we're here is,
Speaker 1: you know, when I say that a lot of the
Speaker 1: the police reports and all those sorts of things, they
Speaker 1: lack context, lack nuance. What I mean is, you know,
Speaker 1: if you grow up poor in an impoverished environment because
Speaker 1: of socioeconomic factors and because of historic you know, factors
Speaker 1: that have caused you and your family and the people
Speaker 1: that look like you in your town to live in
Speaker 1: a certain part of town and to not have as
Speaker 1: much wealth as other folks. You know, and these are
Speaker 1: all things that you can research. Google is super free.
Speaker 1: You understand that a lot of the wealth, if not
Speaker 1: all of it, it is in some way connected to
Speaker 1: a slave field in this country. And a lot of
Speaker 1: the modern wealth is a result of you know, redlining.
Speaker 1: Please look those things up if you're not familiar with them.
Speaker 1: But those economic conditions create environments where there is and scarcity.
Speaker 1: You know, you find more crime in areas where there's
Speaker 1: less to go around. That's just a fact of life.
Speaker 1: It's the fact of the human condition. So you know,
Speaker 1: black and brown children can be born into impoverished communities
Speaker 1: because you know, that's what allows a lot of the
Speaker 1: white folks in this country to live as well as
Speaker 1: they do or have the opportunities that they do.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm not.
Speaker 1: Trying to start nothing, but I'm just calling it what
Speaker 1: it is. It's a spade, and those environments are rough,
Speaker 1: and in those environments, people often try to figure out
Speaker 1: ways to increase the likelihood that they'll make it home,
Speaker 1: that they'll survive, et cetera, and on and on and
Speaker 1: on and so it is not the strangest thing in
Speaker 1: the world that someone who lives in that environment might
Speaker 1: have a gun to protect himself, which is exactly what
Speaker 1: happened with Dante Wright in my belief. But you know,
Speaker 1: the way the stereotypes are is that, well, if he's
Speaker 1: black and he has a gun, he's a gang banger
Speaker 1: and he's up to no good.
Speaker 2: And I think.
Speaker 1: People forget that, you know, these are people that are
Speaker 1: trying to survive the environment that they're in. If every
Speaker 1: person with a gun was a gang banger, then I
Speaker 1: think that we'd be in way worse shape.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like that that statement where if black
Speaker 1: people were looking for revenge, you know, it's a whole
Speaker 1: different conversation they're just trying to get by, trying to
Speaker 1: get on equal footing.
Speaker 2: And it's such a strange piece of context to even
Speaker 2: inject into these stories in their way right because to
Speaker 2: mention the presence of a gun. Sure, if you're telling
Speaker 2: me the kid had the gun, he did not know,
Speaker 2: I don't mean you. I mean in all of these cases,
Speaker 2: there was a present, there was a knife, there was
Speaker 2: a gun that we thought his phone was a gun.
Speaker 2: We know are certain because this is on video as well,
Speaker 2: and we see this in the news as well. When
Speaker 2: our white brothers and sisters, our white brothers more specifically,
Speaker 2: are in the midst of murdering people with assault rifles,
Speaker 2: then our law enforcement agents know how to behave and
Speaker 2: take them down and experts at de escalation, apprehension safely
Speaker 2: without a scratch. And not only let let's make sure
Speaker 2: you're comfortable. Are you hungry man, because you're probably tired
Speaker 2: from all of this murdering, Let's get you a sandwich.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think that again with context, if
Speaker 1: someone does have a gun or some way of protecting
Speaker 1: themselves in their environment, if they believe that's protection, I
Speaker 1: personally don't call guns protection, but you know, I get that.
Speaker 1: That's how fear is sold. You know, the person that
Speaker 1: wants to sell you a gun is going to make
Speaker 1: you afraid. You know, actually that person wants to sell
Speaker 1: two guns. You're going to make the people you're afraid
Speaker 1: of afraid of you as well. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think that once you know that, then the gun seems
Speaker 1: less like, oh, this person's going to use this to
Speaker 1: harm me, and it seems more like, well, of course
Speaker 1: this person has it. Obviously I need to address that immediately,
Speaker 1: and I need to protect myself. But it's not the
Speaker 1: strangest thing in the world that someone who lives in
Speaker 1: this environment where they're scraping for everything they get and
Speaker 1: anything they have can be taken from of at any
Speaker 1: moment would have this with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But even then, you know the champions of the
Speaker 2: Second Amendment, right, Yeah, no, they're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2: And you're arriving with a gun yourself. Yeah, so I
Speaker 2: don't get to feel threatened as you come to me
Speaker 2: with a gun, but you do, how dare I have one?
Speaker 2: Then you need to protect yourself. But I don't even have.
Speaker 1: That right as we saw with Filando, And you know,
Speaker 1: a card carrying a gun owner executed not for brandishing
Speaker 1: the weapon, but for saying, yes, I do have a
Speaker 1: weapon in the car, but I just I like to
Speaker 1: offer that up to folks who are quick to pass judgment.
Speaker 1: And the reason why that was important is because with
Speaker 1: the Daunte Wright incident, the reason that they were arresting
Speaker 1: him was because he had a warrant I believe for
Speaker 1: his arrest due to him running from the police before,
Speaker 1: which I have said on the on the show before
Speaker 1: that it's it is not unreasonable for anything any creature
Speaker 1: endowed with consciousness to seek their customary freedom. But he
Speaker 1: also was he had a warrant for having a weapon,
Speaker 1: and those things immediate. When you're black, those things immediately
Speaker 1: make you criminal and make you dangerous. Add that to
Speaker 1: your black skin, and then it's like, oh, this person
Speaker 1: is going to murder me, so I need to murder them.
Speaker 2: The idea of people that look like us having weapons
Speaker 2: is scary. White people actually have a firing assault rifles
Speaker 2: is not. I've seen the videos. I have to watch them.
Speaker 2: So and this person, go ahead, did you see the
Speaker 2: the in the wake of Dante's murder, because it happened
Speaker 2: during the murder trial of Derek Schoulvin. There was a
Speaker 2: meme produced right we interrupt the trial for the murder
Speaker 2: of George Floyd to report on the murder of Dante Wright,
Speaker 2: and that's been interrupted by another school shooting. Did you
Speaker 2: see that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Have you followed up on the school shooting, because I have,
Speaker 2: and it is just as unfortunate as everything else we're
Speaker 2: talking about. Because when you read about a school shooting
Speaker 2: and the police arrive and subdue and kill the shooter,
Speaker 2: and that's a pretty heroic story, and you might even
Speaker 2: give them a round of applause until you find out
Speaker 2: the suspected shooter was a black kid, And of course
Speaker 2: he doesn't get to survive even if he's an active shooter, right,
Speaker 2: because that logic should apply across the board. If active
Speaker 2: shooters deserve to be murdered at the scene of the crime,
Speaker 2: then that shouldn't be the case with every active shooter,
Speaker 2: not just the seventeen year old black kid. Except you
Speaker 2: further look into the story and there was no active shooter.
Speaker 2: What seventeen year old kid I need to look up
Speaker 2: his name, gets into an argument with his girlfriend, their
Speaker 2: high school students, and Anthony Thompson is his name. The
Speaker 2: girlfriend's mother and her boyfriend or husband hear about the
Speaker 2: fight that the kids get into, and the girl's father
Speaker 2: or stepfather or whatever position he's the father in her
Speaker 2: life is gonna go teach this kid a lesson again.
Speaker 2: So apparently these kids have gotten into a disagreement before,
Speaker 2: and the gentleman who plays the father in her story
Speaker 2: has beat this kid up. So when this guy tells
Speaker 2: this kid, this grown man tells this kid, I'm coming
Speaker 2: up to that school and I'm gonna do something to you.
Speaker 2: The kid finds a weapon to protect himself from being
Speaker 2: beat up again by his girlfriend's father figure. The girlfriend's
Speaker 2: mother finds out and calls the police. The police arrive
Speaker 2: immediately and age the kid. They get into a tussle.
Speaker 2: One of the officers shoots himself, the kid does not
Speaker 2: shoot him. The officers then proceed to kill the kid.
Speaker 2: I hate it here, seventeen year old kid murdered by
Speaker 2: the police. The girlfriend's mother now regrets having called the
Speaker 2: cops in the first place, because she should have just
Speaker 2: told her boyfriend, husband whatever, to not go beat up
Speaker 2: the kid who hurt my daughter's feelings.
Speaker 1: Well, unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me you know, obviously I've
Speaker 1: known of people that have lost their life for less.
Speaker 1: There's just a very aggressive behavior pattern of behavior with
Speaker 1: respect to the police when they engage black and brown bodies.
Speaker 1: And you know that that qualified immunity that they can
Speaker 1: operate with impunity is just kind of an unwritten rule
Speaker 1: that they can and do. They can take out all
Speaker 1: the aggression that they have instead of beating their wives
Speaker 1: and beat up on us and kill us, and you know,
Speaker 1: they'll have each other's backs and so forth.
Speaker 2: We have each other's backs to the end. Bro it is.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to that. It's cult like. I'm
Speaker 2: going to get to that, it's zell it like.
Speaker 1: And when I was referring to Dante Wright and kind
Speaker 1: of trying to give some context to that, you know,
Speaker 1: and you do recognize that if you're in trouble with
Speaker 1: the police and the criminal justice system doesn't treat you
Speaker 1: fair and you can't give new It's like, listen, I
Speaker 1: live in a rough neighborhood. That's why I have a
Speaker 1: gun that you know, you never know what's waiting for me,
Speaker 1: and that is a deterrent. I can shoot in the
Speaker 1: air and maybe live another whatever you don't get to
Speaker 1: tell that story in front of a judge that is
Speaker 1: dead set on sending you away. I mean, we saw
Speaker 1: the stories this past week as well about the judge
Speaker 1: who was caught using the N word when she was
Speaker 1: texting her lover, and you know how she's like one
Speaker 1: of those all lives matter people, and you know it
Speaker 1: is not really able to make an impartial decision. And
Speaker 1: the thing is, we know obviously that that's kind of
Speaker 1: you got a hope. You know, it might be fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty that you won't get one of those judges
Speaker 1: if you go in front of a judge, might even
Speaker 1: be more. But for a kid to try to run
Speaker 1: away from the police that are arresting him, and they're
Speaker 1: now going to introduce him into a system where he's
Speaker 1: not a bad person with a bad heart. He's not
Speaker 1: a horrible, evil human being, a mass murderer, nothing like that.
Speaker 1: Is a person's trying to thrive in his environment. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm humanizing him without knowing him. But I know this story.
Speaker 1: I know people with good hearts.
Speaker 2: This isn't the first time you've heard this story.
Speaker 1: That's why, yeah, exactly, And I've made a conscious decision
Speaker 1: to not you know, carry a gun in the same
Speaker 1: way that I've made a conscious decision to never drink
Speaker 1: alcohol and to never do any drugs, and to do
Speaker 1: those things so that I can say it, but not
Speaker 1: because I didn't think about it, because having a gun
Speaker 1: certainly makes life feel a little bit more settled. Hold on,
Speaker 1: I would be willing to bet that I've gotten more
Speaker 1: death threats and everybody listening to my voice put together.
Speaker 2: No, and I'm certain and the reason why. And this
Speaker 2: is gonna be strange for you to hear this from
Speaker 2: me that I'm even gonna push back on what you
Speaker 2: just said. Say one of these officers arrives at my
Speaker 2: home and he's decided he's killing me tonight, and in defense,
Speaker 2: I kill him.
Speaker 1: Oh man, they're gonna If they don't kill you, he'll
Speaker 1: put you under for jail.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no no, there's no under the jail.
Speaker 2: There's no version of that where I survive unless I
Speaker 2: like flee and hide and put in some type of
Speaker 2: compound with a military style guard watching me. I know
Speaker 2: what you're saying. I know what you're saying. Even if
Speaker 2: he's absolutely wrong and he absolutely just made the decision
Speaker 2: because he's angry about today's verdict. For instance, that I'm
Speaker 2: the victim today because you said before the chances that
Speaker 2: somebody pulls their gun on you and you even get
Speaker 2: to yours are low. But in the event that I
Speaker 2: do in defensive myself from this person murdering me, I
Speaker 2: don't even reserve that right because I look like this
Speaker 2: wrap me.
Speaker 1: So your own destines, so this entire.
Speaker 2: System, and this is why again Rams just spoke on
Speaker 2: this when the show started. You don't hear celebration and
Speaker 2: relief in our voices today because we are constantly reminded
Speaker 2: that the country that we live in, fight for, pay
Speaker 2: taxes in, and love actually have stars and stripes on me.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not, I've seen a tattoo, right. The
Speaker 2: genesis of this country is capitalism infused with white supremacy,
Speaker 2: and the ground on which it stands is our backs.
Speaker 1: And next and real quick, I want to give a
Speaker 1: shout out to our native brothers and sisters, because in
Speaker 1: terms of the literal ground, talk about it as we
Speaker 1: stand talk about it, we know who it really belongs to,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah that that story doesn't even exist without them.
Speaker 1: So but with all this said, you know, I just
Speaker 1: want to mention that it it's just another black eye
Speaker 1: on the police in this country to know that, you know,
Speaker 1: the memorial that was erected for Dante Wright was taken
Speaker 1: down by an officer and we were able to see
Speaker 1: that video. You know, there's it's like it's almost like
Speaker 1: the trump ism, the fanatics. They're they're just right at
Speaker 1: all costs, even when they're wrong, and everyone knows that
Speaker 1: it's on.
Speaker 2: Full display for the whole world.
Speaker 1: They're still right and they're and the thing is they
Speaker 1: have guns and impunity and every down and it's the
Speaker 1: most arrogant thing. And this is why I wrestle with,
Speaker 1: you know, should we have one of these people up here,
Speaker 1: because I don't want it to seem like I'm playing
Speaker 1: both sides, you know, but I do recognize that again,
Speaker 1: somebody has to go for these people exist, so for
Speaker 1: me to pretend like they don't, and it's the conversation
Speaker 1: is necessary. The problem is we have to all start
Speaker 1: with the same facts. Yeah, if the facts are the
Speaker 1: same and our respective opinions, because if you guys listen
Speaker 1: to us, Ramses and I are not monolith, no, none
Speaker 1: at all. But our facts are the same, right, so
Speaker 1: if the conversation starts with you stole the election, Okay,
Speaker 1: now we can't even have the conversation anymore.
Speaker 2: You're dealing with different facts than me. Sure you have
Speaker 2: a different truth than I do. And you can't have
Speaker 2: now removed the idea that anything is true or that
Speaker 2: nothing is true unless it's coming from the mouth of
Speaker 2: someone you've appointed the authority.
Speaker 1: There's a an interesting thing about you know, that cult
Speaker 1: like dedication to policing and and you know, I want
Speaker 1: to say just to us, but really to anybody who's
Speaker 1: really looked into what white supremacy is, it looks just
Speaker 1: like white supremacy. You know, even even the black officers,
Speaker 1: because black people can be white supremacist too, if they
Speaker 1: believe that this system benefits them. It's called white supremacy because.
Speaker 2: Some of them aren't aware of it, surescribed to it
Speaker 2: because it benefits them. Yeah, they believe that it does, absolutely,
Speaker 2: and that that's what Shella you was talking about last
Speaker 2: week when she was saying some of the older, you know,
Speaker 2: Asian parents from a different time, they feel like they
Speaker 2: benefit from a white supremacist system. So they you know,
Speaker 2: find themselves being trump boats and being you know, right
Speaker 2: leaning sort of individuals. But more recently they've learned that,
Speaker 2: you know, white supremacy really benefits white people. You know,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, you know, we can
Speaker 2: take along some extra stragglers here and there, but for
Speaker 2: the most part, at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 2: like prison mentality or something. But speaking to that cult
Speaker 2: like dedication, you know. And you know, we mentioned the
Speaker 2: judge earlier in the show that it was texting or
Speaker 2: lover about you know these in words and you know
Speaker 2: whatever else she was saying, who knows, But you know,
Speaker 2: I read a story this past week about an executive.
Speaker 2: This guy was in Virginia's the executive Office of Internal
Speaker 2: Affairs or the police department. Right, so this guy is
Speaker 2: the officer that investigates.
Speaker 1: The police, the bad police police do something wrong. In
Speaker 1: other words, if a police officer takes the life of
Speaker 1: someone who is black or brown or whatever, and that
Speaker 1: officer is then reported to internal affairs or maybe not
Speaker 1: takes the life but maybe just abuses, harms, whatever, or
Speaker 1: a suspective of doing so, sure the person charged with
Speaker 1: investigating that crime is a police officer himself, which is
Speaker 1: part of what black lives matter. Was advocating for that
Speaker 1: we need, you know, a unity oversight instead of police
Speaker 1: policing police, because then who's going to be guilty? And
Speaker 1: I think a glowing example of how that doesn't work
Speaker 1: is the man who again was the executive officer of
Speaker 1: Internal Affairs in Virginia, who donated to Kyle Rittenhouse's defense.
Speaker 1: Now Kyle Rittenhouse, if you don't remember the name, is
Speaker 1: the guy who was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing people who
Speaker 1: were protesting.
Speaker 2: Drove across state lines with a gun that he illegally
Speaker 2: possessed and murdered people. He was young.
Speaker 1: Now he had a gun, and Dante Wright had a gun.
Speaker 1: But you know who's alive and getting donations from the police.
Speaker 1: Murdered someone, one of them was. The other one was
Speaker 1: involved in a traffic stop. And I think I'm going
Speaker 1: to say it this way too. One of them was
Speaker 1: murdered by the police, and the other one is getting
Speaker 1: donations from the.
Speaker 2: Celebrated by the police, supported by the police, upheld, uplifted,
Speaker 2: protected sure by the police.
Speaker 1: And this is not the only officer. There's been plenty
Speaker 1: of officers that have donated to him. I think the
Speaker 1: message from this one the officer said, you know, you
Speaker 1: did the right thing, you know, keep your head up,
Speaker 1: something like that. And again, so for us looking at it,
Speaker 1: there's no other way than to say, Okay, there's a
Speaker 1: problem with the police. This is wrong, this has to change,
Speaker 1: This has to stop. And you know, we're doing our
Speaker 1: part by talking about it, by bringing attention to it
Speaker 1: on these airwaves of these radio stations that are not
Speaker 1: able to often have these long form dialogues about these things.
Speaker 1: But they're just as necessary because on this station, whatever
Speaker 1: you're listening to, this station is using black culture to
Speaker 1: sell commercials. This station is using black culture to generate
Speaker 1: a profit. But this station has made a commitment to
Speaker 1: the black community that we're going to have this show
Speaker 1: called Civic Cipher to at least ensure that there are
Speaker 1: some long form dialogue that we're we recognize that you
Speaker 1: guys don't just party and rap and make music and dance.
Speaker 2: And wear cool clothes and all that.
Speaker 1: You are also thinkers and philosophers and brilliant minds and
Speaker 1: can be self determined. We're going to allow the space
Speaker 1: for that on our airwaves. We're gonna give up some money,
Speaker 1: or we're gonna whatever the case is. So We're using
Speaker 1: that space to point out what is very obvious to us,
Speaker 1: which is this is white supremacy if I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: It, ask your question, Rams. Sure. I saw someone tweet yesterday, man,
Speaker 2: if this was white kids and white men being murdered
Speaker 2: by the police, that we'd have some real change. And
Speaker 2: I scoffed when I heard it, because that's a very
Speaker 2: naive way of thinking, right, And this isn't apples to apples.
Speaker 2: This is probably apples and orangers, or even apples and now,
Speaker 2: but Sandy hook happened. Yeah, white children gunned down. Our
Speaker 2: I laugh to keep from screaming. I laugh to keep
Speaker 2: from crying. I laughed to exhale, just to not be angry.
Speaker 2: Our gun control laws did not become more strict after that.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. This white supremacist system will not be bullied
Speaker 2: by us and has no problem sacrificing its own so
Speaker 2: that it can continue to exist and to thrive. Once
Speaker 2: I saw white children gunned down, and the people that
Speaker 2: those kids' parents sent to Washington, d C. To essentially
Speaker 2: be rich for the rest of their lives, did nothing
Speaker 2: to address that, to make those people feel more protected,
Speaker 2: more safe. I understood that that system had no qualms
Speaker 2: with eating and devouring its own so that it could
Speaker 2: remain intact. And people have the nerve to be offended
Speaker 2: when they hear the word defund. That's the strata broke
Speaker 2: the camel's back. That was that's when it went too far. Well, I.
Speaker 1: Think that your question answers itself. You know, we got
Speaker 1: a much bigger problem here. You know that I was
Speaker 1: around for that. You know, I went and took my
Speaker 1: son out of school that day, so that was definitely
Speaker 1: a heartbreaking day around here as well. But I guess
Speaker 1: it's one foot in front of the other, so you know,
Speaker 1: up next, you know, there's more we have to talk about.
Speaker 1: So if you're just tuning in a civic side from
Speaker 1: my host Rams's job, they call me q Ward Adam
Speaker 1: Toledo in Chicago. Goodness, I want to talk craationis man.
Speaker 1: I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about this.
Speaker 1: So if you if you haven't seen this video, yeah
Speaker 1: it's heavy. I haven't seen the video, but I did
Speaker 1: read the police officers a police officer's account of his
Speaker 1: watching of the video, and this is why I had
Speaker 1: such a tough time. Should we even have an officer
Speaker 1: up here too, because they have a way of making
Speaker 1: things seem like it's okay. And even if you can't
Speaker 1: reason with them, even if you see it different than
Speaker 1: they do, it doesn't feel like anything would be accomplished.
Speaker 1: You're just giving them a platform to say whatever they're
Speaker 1: going to say. It'd be like having I know it's
Speaker 1: not the same, but similar to having the Ku Klux
Speaker 1: clan up here. It's like, all I'm doing is giving
Speaker 1: them a platform, and is that morally right to do?
Speaker 2: So? I digress.
Speaker 1: The officer says that Adam Toledo, if you haven't seen
Speaker 1: the video, please watch it because this will make sense.
Speaker 1: I don't, unfortunately, have time to explain the whole video,
Speaker 1: but in short, he's just running as a kid. He's
Speaker 1: a Hispanic kid running away from the police. Last moment
Speaker 1: he turns around, hands up, no gun in his hands,
Speaker 1: get shot.
Speaker 2: He advised, it's graphic. I almost threw up when I sat.
Speaker 1: But an officer's account of what happened, He says, well
Speaker 1: in the longer video, mind you that the police didn't
Speaker 1: want any of this out. They wrote the story wrong,
Speaker 1: bled about it, everything like that. Please please investigate it
Speaker 1: because you'll see that this is exactly what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: This the police. How long ago did it happen, because
Speaker 2: it didn't just happen. The video is just not a
Speaker 2: week ago. A video just became Oh yeah, it happened December, Yeah,
Speaker 2: right right. They did a lot to try to cover
Speaker 2: this up exactly so it hits the light of day.
Speaker 2: They released a video anyway, an officer's account of what happens.
Speaker 2: This officer looks at the long form of the video.
Speaker 2: Apparently there were two people in the video, both of
Speaker 2: whom had guns. One of them is the thirteen year.
Speaker 1: Old Adam Toledo. Both had guns, they both run when
Speaker 1: the police show up, right, And for people that say
Speaker 1: just comply, it's the weirdest thing because those are the
Speaker 1: same people who have never been in an environment where
Speaker 1: you got it coming from you from all sides. You know,
Speaker 1: I know what that's like. You know what that's like.
Speaker 1: You're from Detroit, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Where Look, man, if I don't run into the police,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run into the people that live here. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, And you know I've said it
Speaker 1: on the show. I've heard it a lot of hip
Speaker 1: hop songs that you know. I'd rather be caught with
Speaker 1: it than caught without it, because with it, I at
Speaker 1: least have a fighting chance. Without it, I'm dead in
Speaker 1: the water. Right anyway, So please pull up. These two
Speaker 1: both have guns us. Adam Toledo's gun is visible in
Speaker 1: the long form of the video. Right, so he did
Speaker 1: have a gun.
Speaker 2: Right. He takes off running from the police. Right.
Speaker 1: Police is shouting at him the whole time, drop your weapon,
Speaker 1: put your hands up, you know, all that sort of
Speaker 1: stuff that they do. Right, But this guy's running away
Speaker 1: with his back turn. Adam Toledo running away with his
Speaker 1: back turn. He's right at the last moment, he realizes,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get away from this officer. You know,
Speaker 1: it's probably better for me to stop. Whatever is going
Speaker 1: through his Head's probably better for me to stop. Drops
Speaker 1: the weapon, has both hands up, turns around, bang. He
Speaker 1: does as he's instructed. That's exactly what I was going
Speaker 1: to say. Why in the world would you ask him
Speaker 1: to drop his weapon and put his hands up and
Speaker 1: then not expect him to do that to be what
Speaker 1: he's doing. If you're expecting that he's not going to
Speaker 1: do it? Why not just shoot him in the back.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get off either way, you know, right, You're
Speaker 1: a police officer, so I would would posit, and this
Speaker 1: will the officer said. The officer said he had nine
Speaker 1: tenths of a second to decide if his hands were
Speaker 1: empty or not. And when the adrenaline is pumping, and
Speaker 1: this and that and the third we already knew he
Speaker 1: had a weapon. He's running away and you know he's
Speaker 1: about to duck through a fence, and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And he explains it all the way and it sounds
Speaker 1: very good if you're given to fear and you want
Speaker 1: the officer to be innocent, right For me, I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure that justice has served for this child.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily want the officer to be guilty, but
Speaker 1: there's some accountability that needs to take place. Because I
Speaker 1: have a son who was just thirteen not too long ago,
Speaker 1: and I have a son that's knocking on thirteen in
Speaker 1: the next couple of years, so this is relevant to me.
Speaker 1: I need to figure out what's going on, what did
Speaker 1: they do, what can they do, how can we learn
Speaker 1: from this whatever?
Speaker 2: Because you know it's and it's relevant even if you
Speaker 2: don't have any children. Sure, of course, it just it
Speaker 2: just hits different when you do exactly and so.
Speaker 1: You know, the officers try to explain it away. But
Speaker 1: you know, for a person like me and a person
Speaker 1: like you, I would not shout, so I wouldn't tell
Speaker 1: you to stop and put your hands up and then
Speaker 1: not expect that that would be what you're doing.
Speaker 2: I'm now asking you what am I supposed to do? Officers,
Speaker 2: you're dead, do exactly what you say. I'm dead.
Speaker 1: Nothing, There's nothing you can do. And this is why
Speaker 1: we're talking about it, and this is why we're having
Speaker 1: these conversations so that we all can talk about it,
Speaker 1: our listeners and allies and so forth, so we can
Speaker 1: understand that it doesn't just feel like it. It is
Speaker 1: a system we're trapped in that it's supposed to protect us.
Speaker 1: In theory, it's really supposed to protect wealth. But you know,
Speaker 1: the modern belief is that it's supposed to protect us,
Speaker 1: and it absolutely does not. In fact, it actively works
Speaker 1: against you if you have a little bit of melanin
Speaker 1: in your body. And there's one more story I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to and I'm just going to talk about it.
Speaker 1: It's not a police story, but I think that it
Speaker 1: does kind of illuminate what this last week is really about,
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks really in terms of things that
Speaker 1: have come across our desk, or this last few hundred years.
Speaker 2: However you want to look at it.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, Now, I don't know where this happened. I
Speaker 1: don't know anybody's names in this video. And if you've
Speaker 1: seen it, maybe it'll make sense. And if not, you
Speaker 1: can check Q's Instagram. Your instagram is at imq Ward. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: you can check mine at Ramsy's job. I'm sure I
Speaker 1: don't have it, but it might be on Civic Cipher's,
Speaker 1: which again is at Civic Cipher. There's a white male
Speaker 1: who is clearly has some sort of military background, and
Speaker 1: he's yelling at a younger black man. My belief and
Speaker 1: my estimation based on the video for walking in a
Speaker 1: neighborhood right in a walk, broad daylight, kids are playing,
Speaker 1: folks are riding the bike.
Speaker 2: This guy's just taking a walk, right.
Speaker 1: We saw this with Ahmad Aubrey where he was walking
Speaker 1: slash jogging. And you know, someone who believes that they
Speaker 1: have even a modicum of authority chooses to execute that
Speaker 1: over black bodies. Had this person been I loved using
Speaker 1: this example, sixty five year old privileged corporate executive. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I don't have a great day, sir, Hello neighbor. What
Speaker 1: brings you around these parts and whatever?
Speaker 2: But you know, had had he been a seventeen year
Speaker 2: old from another state carrying an assault rifle and white,
Speaker 2: that white skin is like white superpower man, he'd also
Speaker 2: have been fine.
Speaker 1: Sure, but be black. And you know, the video speaks
Speaker 1: for itself. There's just a lot of aggressive behavior. And
Speaker 1: you know, the video, of course went viral. If you
Speaker 1: look any of these videos up we're talking about today,
Speaker 1: of course, you'll be able to.
Speaker 2: Draw your own conclusions.
Speaker 1: And it's not our it's not our desire to influence
Speaker 1: you how you think or anything like that. We're just
Speaker 1: people who have lived in black skin, our whole lives
Speaker 1: in this country, our whole lives, and are able to
Speaker 1: articulate quite a bit. And because we're broadcasters and we
Speaker 1: have this platform and felt like this was necessary. You know,
Speaker 1: we're doing what we believe is right to contribute to,
Speaker 1: you know, the world becoming a little bit better place.
Speaker 1: I obviously have a little bit more belief in that
Speaker 1: outcome than you does.
Speaker 2: But either way, we're gonna get to where we're gonna
Speaker 2: get to. I'm trying, man, you know, Hey man, sometimes
Speaker 2: that's all we need.
Speaker 1: But I think that's it for us today on Civic
Speaker 1: Cipher once again, I'm your host rams is Jah.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our producer DJ Swirl aka Ryan for
Speaker 1: making it all happen and uh, if you haven't done so,
Speaker 1: please hit civicxcipher dot com download this and all previous shows.
Speaker 1: Please submit questions topics, let us know how you feel
Speaker 1: about us inviting the police up. If you want to donate,
Speaker 1: donations are appreciate that you can do so at the website. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and until next week, y'all.
Speaker 2: Peace