Speaker 1: Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Rams this job.
Speaker 2: He is Rams this job. I am q Ward. You
Speaker 2: are tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes, indeed, and stay tuned
Speaker 2: because we've got some more to talk about. If you've
Speaker 2: been paying attention to the news, you might know the
Speaker 2: name Luigi Mangioni. And normally this isn't something that we
Speaker 2: you know, it's well covered in the news.
Speaker 1: But we've made some interesting connections Q in particular, and
Speaker 1: we thought this was worth worth discussing because you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes things look a little funny and you know, we're
Speaker 1: in the position and we've been empowered to speak up
Speaker 1: and so we will. So stay tuned because we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about obviously who he is if you don't know,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna present the way he's being framed in
Speaker 1: a decidedly black lens and you you know, take from
Speaker 1: it what you will, but we we think there might
Speaker 1: be something worth pondering there, so stay tuned for that
Speaker 1: and so much more. Before we get there, though, it's
Speaker 1: time to discuss Baba becoming a better ally Baba. On
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Speaker 1: change world together, all right. Luigi gi Mengioni, you know
Speaker 1: we work at the Black Information Network. Man, we talk
Speaker 1: about the news. You know, we we we're supposed to
Speaker 1: consume and discuss the news with a black perspective. You
Speaker 1: and I have been black our whole lives since the eighties,
Speaker 1: and it's not impossible that we might connect some dots
Speaker 1: that the mainstream news sources might not connect. Even if
Speaker 1: we worked at those mainstream news sources, we would connect
Speaker 1: the dots that those other folks might not connect. And
Speaker 1: this story has been sort of confusing at different points
Speaker 1: because I'm like, Okay, is this what's happening here? Like
Speaker 1: this a class warriors? Is this guy one of us?
Speaker 1: Is this guy one of them? You know? And I
Speaker 1: don't even know who us and them is? But you know,
Speaker 1: you get what I'm trying to say. How you process
Speaker 1: the details as the story it continues to unfold. So
Speaker 1: if you're like me and you are still just kind
Speaker 1: of watching it all unfold, stay tuned. But if if
Speaker 1: you're not like me, and you're not like you, and
Speaker 1: you're not in a newsroom, you know, six days a
Speaker 1: week consuming all the news that exists, this might be
Speaker 1: news to you. So allow us to just paint a
Speaker 1: brief picture for you, all right. This from the Associated Press,
Speaker 1: The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of United
Speaker 1: Healthcare wrote quick backstory. There was a video that came out.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you all saw it, but for those that hadn't,
Speaker 1: it's just a man who's walks up to the CEO
Speaker 1: as he's walking down the street, shoots him in cold
Speaker 1: blood and gets on a bike and rides away. Okay,
Speaker 1: it appeared to be a targeted attack. There was no robbery,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. He's out in front of a hotel,
Speaker 1: walks up to the guy, shoots him. He falls on
Speaker 1: the ground, then he bounces to the ounce. All right.
Speaker 1: So that man pleaded not guilty on Monday to state
Speaker 1: murder and terror charges, while his attorney complained that comments
Speaker 1: coming from New York's mayor could make it tough to
Speaker 1: create and receive a fair trial. Luigi Mangioni, aged twenty six,
Speaker 1: was shackled and seated in Manhattan court when he leaned
Speaker 1: over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan
Speaker 1: District Attorney charged him last week with multiple counts of murder,
Speaker 1: including murder of as an act of terrorism, in a
Speaker 1: state case that will run alongside his federal prosecution. His
Speaker 1: initial appearance in New York State trial court was preempted
Speaker 1: by federal prosecutors bringing their own charges over the shooting.
Speaker 1: The federal judges could sorry the federal charges could carry
Speaker 1: the possibility of the death penalty, while the maximum sentenced
Speaker 1: for the state charges is life in prison without parole.
Speaker 1: When a Mangioni's attorneys told a judge that government officials,
Speaker 1: including New York Mayor Eric Adams, have turned Mangioni into
Speaker 1: a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a
Speaker 1: defendant by tainting the jury pool. Maggioni was arrested in
Speaker 1: a Pennsylvania McDonald's after a five day search, carrying a
Speaker 1: gun that matched the one used in a shooting and
Speaker 1: a fake ID. Police said he was also carrying a
Speaker 1: notebook expressing hostility towards the health care, health insurance industry
Speaker 1: and especially wealthy executives. According to federal prosecutors and Ivy League.
Speaker 1: Graduate from a prominent Maryland family, Mangioni appeared to have
Speaker 1: cut himself off from family and friends in recent months.
Speaker 1: He posted frequently online about his struggles with back pain.
Speaker 1: He was never a United Healthcare client, according to the insurer.
Speaker 1: The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at
Speaker 1: US health insurers, with Mangioni serving as a stand in
Speaker 1: for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. It
Speaker 1: is also sent shockwaves through the corporate world, rattling executives
Speaker 1: who say they've received a spike in terror threats. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Q, I know that you've connected some dots there.
Speaker 1: We have a little bit more to share, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to open up the Florida you to jump in,
Speaker 1: just because I know that there was a reason that
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about this guy.
Speaker 2: It came from I think that I have more questions
Speaker 2: than connected dots.
Speaker 1: And that's fair. That's fair.
Speaker 2: There's some things that we just have to assume to
Speaker 2: be true because we're not investigative reporters in this manner.
Speaker 2: And maybe it's just inconsistencies in the information that was provided.
Speaker 2: But when there was a suspect at large before this
Speaker 2: young man was arrested and you know, paraded across our
Speaker 2: TVs and had a movie style super villain type perp walk,
Speaker 2: we just saw photos photos of a young man, face covered, hoodie, jacket, backpack.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure I'm not the only person that noticed
Speaker 2: that the hoodie, the jacket, the mask, and the backpack
Speaker 2: are different. And a lot of the photos that were present,
Speaker 2: which could be intentionally confusing, could be unintentionally confusing, could
Speaker 2: be presented by sources without proper vetting. All these different
Speaker 2: things can lead to all these different versions of the
Speaker 2: information being presented to the public. And then you get
Speaker 2: to public sentiment because many may have noticed a lot
Speaker 2: of people weren't really angry about what happened. And then
Speaker 2: I have to press pause because I'm a father and
Speaker 2: I have children, right, and the idea that it should
Speaker 2: be okay too because a system has failed you take
Speaker 2: out a gun and walk up and take someone's life
Speaker 2: on the street should be ridiculous to everyone. However, circumstances
Speaker 2: and a person's potential mind state might make you at
Speaker 2: least say, oh, he shouldn't have done it that way.
Speaker 2: I don't agree that he did it that way. I
Speaker 2: absolutely condemn how he did it. Didn't think what he
Speaker 2: did was wrong, but I understand why he felt like that.
Speaker 2: And as a black person in this country, it's not
Speaker 2: difficult to mentally take yourself to the point where you
Speaker 2: do not agree, do not condone, but understand that when
Speaker 2: it feels like every system that is in places against
Speaker 2: you and has failed you repeatedly, which you think wouldn't
Speaker 2: be the case for this young man in this country,
Speaker 2: you have to pause for a second and try to
Speaker 2: figure out how come so many people in the public
Speaker 2: are tattooing this man's face, and he's got his own
Speaker 2: little cult following of fans and fangirls and people that
Speaker 2: want to write letters, and he's become a sort of
Speaker 2: pseudo celebrity in that way, not just a purp and
Speaker 2: a heinous crime. The intention in the video, if you've
Speaker 2: watched it, there are other people present. I thought it
Speaker 2: very interesting that the word terrorism or terrorist was included
Speaker 2: in the charges brought against this man who took out
Speaker 2: a gun and shot one person, did not attempt to
Speaker 2: shoot anyone else, did not disarm his weapon or i'm sorry,
Speaker 2: discharge his weapon in the direction of anyone else. It's
Speaker 2: very very premeditated, I'll take but interesting to call it
Speaker 2: an act of terrorism when we've had people like Kyle
Speaker 2: Rittenhouse and or name the mass shooter who didn't kill
Speaker 2: a rich white American and that word was never brought up.
Speaker 2: That word was never used, even when they killed an
Speaker 2: even when they killed mass people. You know why, though,
Speaker 2: It's because it's white on white crime, white on rich
Speaker 2: white crime, which is an entirely different thing. And you know,
Speaker 2: all of it just it gives you pause. It makes
Speaker 2: you like, yo, something's off here. Yeah, because if you
Speaker 2: read the story, it sounds straightforward. A guy walked down
Speaker 2: the street, took out a gun, killed someone, got arrested,
Speaker 2: and it's going to jail. Nothing to talk about here.
Speaker 2: But like you said, if you watch the news, or
Speaker 2: if you're on social media, or if you've been paying
Speaker 2: attention to this story at all, it has from the
Speaker 2: very onset felt different. Something was different. And this system
Speaker 2: that in any other place in the world would be
Speaker 2: regarded as a scam. And that's literally insurance in the
Speaker 2: United States, of all forms. You pay into this fund
Speaker 2: right in case something bad happens, in case something bad
Speaker 2: happens to you.
Speaker 1: And if nothing bad happens.
Speaker 2: If nothing bad happens, that you don't get a rebate,
Speaker 2: you don't get a refund, nothing. And when something bad happens,
Speaker 2: they don't say, oh, here's the money we promised. Nope.
Speaker 2: They then start to investigate you for having made a claim.
Speaker 2: Even if your claim is just, you now have to
Speaker 2: pay them more money the next time around to continue
Speaker 2: to cover you, or they can determine your claim isn't
Speaker 2: just and do nothing for you. And that's legal, and
Speaker 2: in most cases that insurance is required, as in to
Speaker 2: operate a motor vehicle. If you are found to not
Speaker 2: have coverage, you will be fined. But if somebody sign
Speaker 2: swipes you and keeps going and you're not hurt that bad,
Speaker 2: they can decide we'll fix some of it. You've been
Speaker 2: paying us without accident for twenty years, we'll fix some
Speaker 2: of it. Maybe you've been paying us without incident for
Speaker 2: twenty years.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: I think they said something recently. If you're on an
Speaker 2: under anesthesia too long, we won't pay for all of it.
Speaker 2: If you have a preexisting condition, we won't cover you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have coverage, but not for that thing that you
Speaker 2: thought you did. And people die because these billion dollar
Speaker 2: corporations that they pay to ensure them, to protect them
Speaker 2: in the event that something happens to them, decide we
Speaker 2: don't want to And when tens of thousands or hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands or millions of people have to see their
Speaker 2: loved ones die because the company they paid to ensure
Speaker 2: them decided they didn't feel like it, over and over again,
Speaker 2: because their corporation is not people. It's like these oppressive,
Speaker 2: racist systems that we brought up before. They're not held
Speaker 2: to the same level of scrutiny or the same level
Speaker 2: of accountability. That corporation, by inactivity killed someone by the thousands,
Speaker 2: by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions. And they
Speaker 2: still get their pension, their bonuses, their vacation, their PTO,
Speaker 2: their checks every month, every week, every other week, i'm sorry,
Speaker 2: every year, profits, record breaking profits, and they get to
Speaker 2: decide whether you live or die, and no one turns
Speaker 2: and no one cares. So in this case, this young
Speaker 2: man cared a lot, and his action may have zero impact.
Speaker 2: Right It might start a conversation briefly, but we are
Speaker 2: so callous as a nation and as human beings right
Speaker 2: now we'll move on and we won't care. We have
Speaker 2: fully accepted that this is just the way things are
Speaker 2: across everything, politics, life, humanity. We live in a world now,
Speaker 2: quite literally, where the rich are saying let them eat cake,
Speaker 2: lining their pockets at the expense of our well being
Speaker 2: and have convinced half of us to support them while
Speaker 2: they do it. It's masterful, it's masterful, but it's diabolical.
Speaker 2: All right, Listen, I want to say something just because
Speaker 2: I feel led on this show we have to have
Speaker 2: conversations about race. Such as the nature of the conversations
Speaker 2: that we have on this show, we don't broach these subjects.
Speaker 2: We don't do any healing when we talk about race.
Speaker 2: We talk about things in general terms. And I want
Speaker 2: to just put a note in here that we understand
Speaker 2: and recognize and respect that individuals are individuals. Individuals are
Speaker 2: smart individuals or beautiful. Individuals are compassionate, individuals are wonderful,
Speaker 2: but groups of people tend to be really ugly. We
Speaker 2: also specifically talk about white men quite a bit.
Speaker 1: On this show, and I want to affirm on behalf
Speaker 1: of myself and Q for those who might just be
Speaker 1: coming to this conversation, we love white men the same
Speaker 1: as any other human being on this planet. It is
Speaker 1: the nature of my very being to love. I got
Speaker 1: one setting, that's it. Do I get frustrated, yes, but
Speaker 1: there is no hate in my heart. Okay, So when
Speaker 1: we talk about white men in general terms. We are
Speaker 1: talking specifically about the the white man that benefits from
Speaker 1: and perpetuates those same invisible forces that ultimately oppress or
Speaker 1: disenfranchise the rest of us. We know that there are
Speaker 1: white men on various rungs of that latter. Some are
Speaker 1: uber hateful and they are out loud with their racism,
Speaker 1: and some are exceptionally kind and benevolent, and everyone in between,
Speaker 1: and everyone is on their journey, such as the nature
Speaker 1: of any being endowed with consciousness, certainly so with human beings.
Speaker 1: I am growing as a human being, all of us,
Speaker 1: Homo sapiens sapiens. This is the nature of our life.
Speaker 1: I just I feel like I need to disclose this
Speaker 1: right now. Both Q and I have best friends that
Speaker 1: are white men. You know, shout out to Tommy, shout
Speaker 1: out to Kevin Bulekev that we grew up with, you know,
Speaker 1: and their families and their families have loved it. So
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that that is well stated.
Speaker 1: But also those white men understand that they live in
Speaker 1: a world where they got some some advantages that other
Speaker 1: people don't help have just the same way that I
Speaker 1: rams this jaw Rudy King Taylor The second understands that
Speaker 1: I live in a world where I have advantages that
Speaker 1: my own sisters do not enjoy. And my sisters are
Speaker 1: smarter than me. They're better looking than me, more ambitious
Speaker 1: than me, pick a thing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But I, because I was born with, you know, a
Speaker 1: Y chromosome, I got some access that they that either
Speaker 1: they don't have or it's a little bit more challenging
Speaker 1: for them to get there. So I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that that stated. Another part of this that I
Speaker 1: wanted to share, and this comes from Hollywood Unlocked. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me back up a little bit. Those of you
Speaker 1: that remember Derek Chauvin. He was the guy that kneeled
Speaker 1: on the neck of George Floyd for eight minutes, causing
Speaker 1: George Floyd to lose his life. He has gotten with
Speaker 1: another doctor and petition the court in Minnesota to allow
Speaker 1: him to have some evidence pieces of George Floyd's heart
Speaker 1: material and his bodily fluids, so that they can try
Speaker 1: to build a new case to somehow suggest that George
Speaker 1: Floyd was going to die anyway, and that Derek Chauvin
Speaker 1: had nothing to.
Speaker 2: Do with his death. This We're all going to die anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So what they're suggesting is that George Floyd is more
Speaker 2: responsible for his own death, or.
Speaker 1: That Derek Chauvin was not responsible at all. But there's
Speaker 1: a judge in Minnesota who said, you know what, there's
Speaker 1: enough here for me to reopen this or rehash this case.
Speaker 1: I read the details, so you'll get him. But there's
Speaker 1: a judge in Minnesota that says, you know what, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's enough for me. And there in lies part of
Speaker 1: what I think the point you've been trying to make
Speaker 1: you is that a lot of times we'll see that
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. A lot of times the fear
Speaker 1: associated with black people won't be associated with white people
Speaker 1: in the same circumstances doing the same thing. A lot
Speaker 1: of times, the grace that we ask be, you know,
Speaker 1: deployed evenly throughout the population is simply reserved for one
Speaker 1: group of people. And of course that sounds like how
Speaker 1: I feel. But the data, the conviction rates, the amount
Speaker 1: of arrests are made, would certainly support that feeling, that
Speaker 1: conclusion that I've arrived at right, And so what we're
Speaker 1: looking at and I'll share Hollywood Unlocked. According to doctor Shazel,
Speaker 1: Floyd appeared to have died from a high level of
Speaker 1: cat kick cola mines, which CBS News reports is a
Speaker 1: neural hormone important in stress response associated with the fighter
Speaker 1: flight response. How about that or Tako Tsubo myocardith this
Speaker 1: myocard died. This maybe a heart condition that develops in
Speaker 1: response to intense emotional or physical experience. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: is Derek Chauvin's case, hinges on this Doctor Schazel's theory
Speaker 1: that George Floyd died because his heart was stressed out
Speaker 1: because of fighter flight. Okay, Yeah, if someone's kneeling on
Speaker 1: your neck, you're going to be feeling that you're an
Speaker 1: experience at or it's this other condition, the mileo k
Speaker 1: card death, this which develops in response to an intense
Speaker 1: emotional or physical experience, right, like.
Speaker 2: Having your neck kneeled on.
Speaker 1: He changed you. So what happens? A judge says, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's put everybody through this all over again. The George
Speaker 1: Floyd's family, the community, the country, the world. Let's put
Speaker 1: them all through this again because the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: Even though we all, all of us reasonable people could
Speaker 1: look at that and be like, well, clearly the George
Speaker 1: flow would be alive and well, if this guy wasn't
Speaker 1: kneeling on his neck, he is the reason we all
Speaker 1: saw the video. We saw it multiple times. We're going
Speaker 1: to see it forever. It's going to be taught about
Speaker 1: in classrooms forever. But that benefit of the doubt exists there.
Speaker 1: It exists with a lot of these individuals, and it
Speaker 1: seldom exists for people when your skin is black and
Speaker 1: we're looking at this guy the I forget his name,
Speaker 1: but you know, imagine a black man shooting a white
Speaker 1: man that's having a stroke and the stroke being blamed
Speaker 1: for the death. Well, that's an interesting question uponder in
Speaker 1: a great place to leave it. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: tuning in for this episode and for every episode of
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher. I have been your host, Rams's job.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsy's jah. I am q ward. Thank you
Speaker 2: once again for ridding with us and hearing out our
Speaker 2: perspective on some sometimes very very difficult stories. Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you know it might be our last
Speaker 1: episode of the year, so I've interesting twenty of my
Speaker 1: opinions Beyond that, it's an interesting twenty twenty four. But listen, man,
Speaker 1: we're in it together and we're going to continue to
Speaker 1: do our part again. This show is based in love.
Speaker 1: We just have challenging conversations that don't always sound like it,
Speaker 1: but I promise that that's every waking moment of our lives.
Speaker 1: We exist, we walk in love, and we appreciate you
Speaker 1: trusting us with your time and, as you mentioned, hearing
Speaker 1: out our perspective. And until next year, y'all peace,