WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 041622 Following Up On Injustices (Part 1) 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.240 Welcome to another episode of Civic Cichher. I'm your host, 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:04.680 Ramsey's Jah. 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:10.119 I go by the name q Ward, except sometimes when 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.640 Ramses and my mom get emotional, they call my full 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.239 name and over pronounced. Oh that comes after the tea, 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:21.000 So it's Quinn con not Quentin, which a lot of 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:22.160 people kind of default to. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.360 But we can talk about that later. 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.720 Yes, indeed, back up in you one more time to 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.279 make this happen. Stick around because we've got a lot 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:33.240 to talk about today. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:34.840 Of course, a. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.640 Lot of things happening that are relevant to all of us, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.800 especially as black folks. Definitely going to talk about a 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.320 few stories that were following up with. One of them 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.360 is the black teenager who was in a hotel and 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:53.960 this was a couple of years ago. There was a 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.800 woman who was saying that he stole her cell phone 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.000 and she's kind of assaulted the teenager, so we got 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.320 to follow up for that story. We're also going to 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.399 follow up with the story from Buffalo Buffalo, New York 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.039 where an elderly man was put to the ground by 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:10.640 the police. We're going to find out what's slaves with that, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.399 and we're going to talk about what it means to 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:21.760 be Black and seek housing in this country a little 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:23.280 later on in the show, So you definitely want to 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.280 stick around for that one as well. I know, and 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.759 I do want to say this right now, Patrick Leoya, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.280 there's a story there. It was killed by the police, 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.880 shot in the back of the head. We are going 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.800 to wait a little bit before we cover that story, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.360 but we acknowledge that that's something that we need to 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.200 talk about, so just bear with us. We're not going 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.279 to do that this week. We are going to follow 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.320 up with that one very soon. But yeah, a lot 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.640 to stick around for this show. We just need to 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.040 kind of pace ourselves with certain things, and so this 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.800 is what we're going to do. Now. We like to 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.240 start things off around here on a positive note with 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.200 the feature we call Ebony Excellence, and if you're ready 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.640 for that, Q, let's jump into it, shall we We shall? 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.600 So today we're going to talk about a man named 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.200 Christian Smalls. This comes from ABC News and I'll read it. 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.920 Christian Smalls was fired from his Amazon warehouse job in 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.760 twenty twenty after leading a protest over fears working conditions 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.280 could lead to a coronavirus outbreak at the Staten Island 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.560 New York facility. Now Smalls has a new job, president 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.000 of the Amazon Labor Union. Smalls's Amazon story begins in 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:37.840 twenty eighteen when he says he helped open the New 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.160 York warehouse while employed as a supervisor for the online retailer. 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.520 That's when you founded the ALU, bringing together a scrappy 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.240 group of former and current warehouse workers. It was that 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.720 Staten Island group that made history on April first, after 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.120 going head to head with Amazon in a union boat 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.440 and winning. This marked the first successful US organizing effort 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.760 in the retail giant's history. Now, for those that don't know, 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:07.960 Amazon is famously anti union, And if you don't know, unions, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:13.200 for the most part, exist to protect the workers. It's 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.720 basically a union of the workers and they use their 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:22.840 collective bargaining power to convince the company to provide better 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.080 working conditions or you know, higher pay, or you know 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.680 things like this. You know, we're greater than the sum 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.960 of our parts, and that's sort of the mentality behind 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.520 a union. Well, this man, Christian Smalls, is a black man. 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.080 I've seen his interviews. He wears a bandana sometimes he 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.560 looks not too dissimilar from me. And from Q and 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.840 he has taken on this huge retail giant and lobbied 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.400 on behalf of the workers and one so far. And 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.240 if that's not ebony excellence, I don't know what is. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.520 And so we will take this moment to shout out 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.760 the man named Christian Smalls for riving out there in 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:02.600 the corporate world. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.720 That's next level corporate bravery. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:07.960 Yes, indeed, yes, indeed. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:09.240 It doesn't go in your favor. 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.320 It's like yeah, like all that one. No, he's he's 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.960 making it happen. So shout out to him. Now, we 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:24.799 got some stories to follow up with. As I mentioned, Uh, 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.400 there once was a teenager. We covered this story on 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.520 the show Teenager who was accused by a white woman 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.159 in a hotel lobby of stealing a cell phone. Right, 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.280 and this was filmed and so we all saw it. 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.040 We saw the the Karen esque breakdown in the hotel lobby. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:50.320 We discussed this sense of entitlement, this sense of uh, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.640 this perceived sense of authority over black and brown bodies 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.240 and in black and brown agency that often comes from 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.159 a Karen in the midst of her breakdown and other 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.479 non melanated individuals as well. But you know, for that episode, 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.320 we were talking about this and sort of what it 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:11.839 feels like to be on the other end of that, 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.840 because that's a tough thing to kind of navigate. You know, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.279 all the women in the movies are blonde haired, blue eyed. 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.360 You know, everyone's coming to rescue or find a bad guy, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.280 you know, so we're taught that this is the this 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.000 is this is the type of person that society loves 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.640 the most, and it is definitely not us. So we 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.160 have to kind of know where we stand in those 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.800 type of situations, and therefore they can be very intimidating 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.840 to be a black person being accused. It doesn't matter 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:42.760 if you did it or not, but being accused of 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.920 violating to one degree or another a white woman. 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:47.560 Right. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.040 We love white women, We love all women here, and 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.800 we're not trying to pick on anyone, but it is 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:57.760 something that we have to be aware of. On another episode, Kean, 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.000 I remember this, we talked about what it feels like 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.920 to walk down the street at night in my own 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.640 neighborhood and there might be a white woman out taking 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.360 a walk at the same time, and I'll cross the 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.800 street just to give her the whole side of the street, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.240 so she doesn't feel threatened, because if she feels threatened, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.240 there's a very real chance that I could be in 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.680 danger just because she feels a certain type of way. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:29.960 So I'm saying this to establish exactly how we many 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:31.600 of us, I should say, not not all of us, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:36.680 but exactly how many of us have come to deal 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.880 with Karens. You know or would be Karens. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:41.080 Right. 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:43.800 So let me bring you up to speed with this story. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.680 This comes from CNN. The California woman who falsely accused 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.080 a black teenager of stealing her cell phone and then 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.720 attacking him in a New York City hotel pleaded guilty 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.760 to unlawful imprisonment in the second degree as a hate 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:01.560 crime the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. And now in December 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:05.480 twenty twenty Maya Poncetto was seen on video attacking a 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.599 fourteen year old Kean Harold Junior, who was with his father, 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.280 a musician, in the Arlow Hotel. Poncetto said she thought 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.920 he had her phone, but investigators later determined he did not. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.160 Oh that was so satisfying. I remember that video of 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.480 the incident quickly went viral, with many accusing Poncetto of 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.320 racially profiling the team, an accusation that she has denied. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.040 The incident also occurred as continued calls for racial justice 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.160 and police reform were the highest they'd been in years 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.080 due to the deaths of black people like George Floyd 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.440 and Breonna Taylor at the hands of law enforcement officials. 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:44.960 Now here's the part that I think you need to 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:50.840 hear about, Q. The plea deal requires Poncetto, who's twenty 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.280 three years old, to follow the probation terms for a 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:59.520 separate case in California, attend counseling, and avoid further criminal incidents. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.720 If she doesn't comply, Ponsetto could go to prison for 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.280 up to four years, prosecutor said. But if she successfully 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.600 follows those terms, she can replead the felony charge to 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.440 a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment in the second degree. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:23.559 Now around here we call that a slap on the wrist, right, 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:29.960 and around here we like to reframe the conversation or 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.240 the scenario around Okay, what if the perpetrator was black 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.000 and the victim was white. Now with that said, Q, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.280 I'd love for you to jump in and tell us 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:42.600 what we already know you're gonna say. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:49.480 So, having done no research at all, I cannot say 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.920 straight faced and with my chest puffed out that if 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:58.280 she were say Ramses, that the plea deal would not 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:05.160 have would not only have not been offered, definitely wouldn't 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:09.040 have included a portion of the plea where if you 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:15.720 comply with the probation terms from another case, you can 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:21.559 replead this one down to it. Okay, I'll stop and 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.079 see how confusing that got real fast. Our plea deals 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:35.840 are often ah almost legal entrapment. Right. I need you 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.679 to agree that you did this crime that you're saying 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.880 you didn't do, and we'll make sure you don't go 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:49.360 to prison for as long cool cool not say you 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.240 did this, and then we're going to give you the 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.920 charges from this other thing that you also did. And 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.080 if very thing is cool in a little bit of time, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.200 we're just like you ain't do either one of them. 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:04.800 How do you feel about that? Rams? 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:10.640 Now? Watch this? That kind of reminds me a bit 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:16.280 of the sentence handed down to Kim Potter. For those 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.760 that don't know or don't remember, Kim Potter is the 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:24.760 officer former officer I should say, who was convicted to 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:29.360 be fair for killing Daunte Wright. We saw the video. 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.040 She was the officer that pulled out her gun, you know, taser, taser, taser, 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:39.360 and then ended Dante Wright's life. And you know, Q 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:44.760 makes an excellent point. You know, if you listening to 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.600 us today, or me talking into this microphone, or anyone 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:55.600 we know accidentally takes someone's life, there is a degree 0:10:55.640 --> 0:11:03.520 of accountability that comes into question immediately. But oftentimes with 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:12.840 police officers, you know, their the leniency is it's asinine, 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:20.320 and it's so unfair and it's so hurtful. So we 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.240 mentioned last week that I went through and I tried 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:27.280 to compile a list of officers who had been convicted 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.760 of an on duty killing going all the way back 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:35.040 to nineteen sixty five. And I believe that I know 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.319 for a fact, we came up with less than one hundred. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.520 You know, I want to say that on one list, 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.280 we found thirty eight and that was an exhaustive list. 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.320 On another list, we found somewhere in the neighborhood of 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.040 maybe forty five. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.160 Time period for. 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.680 That one of them was from nineteen sixty five to 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:01.840 twenty twenty one, and so and then bear in mind 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:06.280 that certainly in recent years, the number of police shootings 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.520 has hovered at around one thousand per year. So when 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.240 we're talking about thirty to we'll call it fifty if 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:21.679 I'm being generous, convictions for on duty killings of police officers. 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.840 And in total of all the years, you know that 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.240 it's we're thirty to fifty somewhere in there, if I'm guessing. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.839 But last year there was I think eleven hundred, year 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.600 before that, nine eighty, you know, and so forth and 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:40.320 so on. Going all the way back, you begin to 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.480 see very easily that that number easily gets into the 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.880 five digits, maybe even into six digits of police killing. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.400 And we're talking about less than one hundred of people convicted. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.520 This means that every single human being that police execute 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.240 is that's done justifiably. And if that is the case, 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.920 then we really need to rethink what policing means, and 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:11.960 what public safety means, and what criminal justice means, because 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.840 that margin of error is entirely unacceptable. I'm saying that because, 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:23.800 as we know, the majority, or rather a significant amount 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:31.400 more than what is a reflection of the population. So 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:38.200 what am I trying to say comparatively speaking, it disproportionately 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.360 affects black people, So a lot of those bodies are 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:45.480 black and brown bodies. People just getting executed by the police. Now, 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.640 this is not a news story for us around here, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.520 but this might be something that's new for you. Now, 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:57.880 I digress. Following up with this story, I wish that 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.440 there was a little bit more to it than just 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.079 to slap on the wrist and her admitting that it 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.320 was a hate crime. Granted is documented publicly. I mentioned 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.040 that as sort of the silver lining with the Kim 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.040 Potter case. You know, it's documented that she was wrong, 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.679 but in terms of actual punishment or justice or whatever, 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:18.840 it feels very hollow. 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:25.320 Go ahead, you, I mean, before I could even interject, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.360 you said it, it feels completely hollow, especially because there's 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.000 this kicker there for her. Right. If you can just 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.720 behave for a little while, we'll even pretend like this, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.560 this thing that you're pleading guilty to didn't happen, right, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.040 and we'll downgrade it to some misdemeanor that will never 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.680 come up again. Essentially, you know, it's not like we 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.480 made a celebrity of her, or if she walked past 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.960 us to this. She came in the studio and interviewed 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.280 under a different name, like for some other topic that 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.760 she was supporting our show. We'd interview the lady, have 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:58.920 a whole show, probably give her a hug, you know, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.560 take her around the corner to the spot where I 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.800 get my cucumber lemonades, and have no idea who she 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.840 was es. So she kind of lived in the anonymity 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:13.280 of that and have her record essentially as sponged of 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.840 it as well. It just seems really, really unfair. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:23.320 Absolutely, Now let's turn it up a bit more. We 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:29.840 saw a video a couple of years ago. Two Buffalo 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:35.400 police officers pushed an elderly man down. He hit his head, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:40.120 hit the sidewalk, and he started bleeding out of his ear. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.840 We saw this on video too, right, this is a 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.760 crazy thing about these things. We see them happening. How 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.360 can you say that it's not what it is when 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.400 we see it, you know, like. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.440 When they're wearing a badge, it's not what we saw. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:15:59.000 You didn't see that. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.680 I'll continue called the Jedi mind trick. I think. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:05.880 That must only work. 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.560 Oh, you pushed that man down, sirs, Well you didn't, Okay, 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:10.360 maybe I didn't. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:17.960 Well, this story comes from the New York Times and 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.040 we'll talk about it. So and the author here is 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.360 Eduardo Medina. This came out April eleven, and it's entitled 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.320 the officers cleared of wrongdoing all Right. Two Buffalo police 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.200 officers who shoved a seventy five year old man to 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.120 the brown during a protest in twenty twenty have been 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.840 cleared by an arbitrator who said the use of force 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:41.440 was quote absolutely legitimate, legitimate end quote, because the man 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.240 who was hospitalized with the head injury was quote not 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.840 an innocent bystander end quote. The forty one page ruling 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:54.400 from the arbitrator, Jeffrey Shellick or Celchik Sorry, was issued 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.920 on Friday. It came nearly two years after a widely 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.280 viewed video taken by WBFO local radio station, showed the 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.800 two officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Turgalski, shoving the man, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.800 Martin Gugino, who was attending a protest in June twenty 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.520 twenty after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The video, 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.320 which fueled outrage during the summer of unrest over police violence, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.639 shows mister Gugino stagger backwards and land hard on the 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.240 sidewalk with blood immediately leaking from behind his right ear. 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.800 His lawyer, Melissa d. Weisserath, said he was hospitalized for 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.840 about a month and suffered a fractured skull, a brain injury, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.639 and hearing loss. Mister Seltchik based his findings on a 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.439 three day hearing in November. Mister Gugino, he wrote, did 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.720 not respond to a subpoena to appear at the hearing, 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.119 and quote in effect refused to testify end quote on 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.280 his own behalf all right, here we go. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:51.399 Ready, No, I'm not ready because I'm ringing along with you, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.400 and there's so much stuff I want to call bs 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:55.879 on already. 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:57.880 Hold on, let me get to it. 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.080 Just get worse, sir. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.159 Well listen, buckle up, because here we go. The officers 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.640 had not violated the department's guidelines, mister Selchik wrote, and 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.000 there was no evidence that they quote had any other 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.720 viable options other than to move Gugino out of the 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.040 way of their forward movement and quote Mister Gugino, he added, 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.200 had not complied with in order to quote move back 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.199 and was making odd physical gestures within a foot end 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.760 quote of the officers. 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:33.840 So that. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.840 Effectually is how you're able to say you didn't see 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.600 what you saw on video, because you know, a lot 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.480 of us saw the video, and if you haven't, it's 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.600 certainly something that you can find online. You know, there 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.520 is certainly a trigger warning if you're sensitive to violence 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:56.760 against humans, violence against older people, or you just have 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.320 a beating heart and a degree of empathy. It's tough 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.680 to watch, but you know, he there was nothing aggressive. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:06.480 There was you know what I mean. Was the only 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.200 thing aggressive in the video was the officers. It was 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.520 the only thing. They're militarizers, wearing uniforms, they have weapons, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.280 they have batons, they have shields, and all dressed in black. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.439 There's a line of a marching and a man standing 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.840 there with his phone and granted he's in front of them, 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:22.520 and it looks like he's trying to either ask a 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:27.000 question or you know, you know, whatever whatever he's trying 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.159 to do, but it's not aggressive at all. And then 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.399 the guy just pushes him out of the way. He 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:33.440 falls backwards and he hits his head and then blood 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.760 comes out of his ear. It's so sad to watch. 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.120 And then they're saying, no, that's that's totally fine. It's 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.760 his fault and we see with our own eyes and 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.720 they're able to determine that. All right, go ahead, cue, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:47.960 what are you go? 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.640 It's odd how they I'm guessing, how the journalist has 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.840 to report about this because they say that his lawyers 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:59.879 says he was hospitalized, Like that's not extremely easy to prove. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.000 Like they're saying that, like that's his lawyer's opinion that 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.280 his soul was fractured and he had a brain injury. 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.840 Like I'm sure there's medical documents that prove these things 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.080 to be true. So it's intentional that they say it 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.800 like it's his lawyer's opinion that these things happened. And 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:25.200 I thought it very simultaneously maddening and hilarious that part 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.359 of the justification was and I quote, and I'm laughing 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.040 because I'm so angry. I would rather laugh than punch 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:38.240 through my computer screen. He made odd physical gestures within 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.359 a foot of the officers, And if you rewatch the video, 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.840 you'll find yourself trying to figure out what in this 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:53.520 case is being classified as an odd physical gesture. I 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:58.320 am a single, singular person being approached by an army 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.240 of officers that are in essence about to assault me. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.399 But I'm the one being accused of doing something odd, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.359 Like I said, Man, it's like the Jedi mind trick, like, hey, 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:11.720 you guys just shove that. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:12.000 Man. 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.040 No, we didn't. Maybe you didn't. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.920 You know. It's weird because there seems to be especially 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:23.720 on the right, that overly patriotic you know, support the troops, 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.520 you know, support our first line defenders. Then blue line 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.760 flagsticker wearing people that, you know, it's like they don't 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.479 realize that they're they could be classified as boot lickers. Now, 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.680 far be it for me to knock anyone who's supporting 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.240 the police, supporting the troops, you know, anything like that. 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.960 That's not my way. You know, everybody you know does 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.919 what they do. In fact, I'm supportive of police. I 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:52.800 just support the police in a very different way. I 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.320 support them by charging them with doing better do it 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.080 all the time. I think that we all can be better. 0:21:58.200 --> 0:21:59.880 Ramses can be better. I can be a better father, 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:01.639 can be a better friend, I can be a better brother, 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.320 you know, And I charge everyone around me with the same, 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.240 especially when I pay all this money in taxes, I 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:09.440 kind of you know, it goes to the police force. 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:15.680 So you know, it's just interesting how folks don't realize, well, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.080 you know, a lot the police really do a lot 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.080 more harm in black and brown communities than they do 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:26.120 in other communities, and so maybe folks can justify that. Now, 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.119 I do want to follow up with one more story 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:32.840 before we move on. This one came from Sean King. 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.320 This is compliments of Qus shared the video with me. 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.200 There was a video that we saw on Instagram of 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:43.479 police officers opening the doors to their vehicles as they 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.280 were interacting with the suspect or whatever the case is. 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:51.000 They were blasting Disney music very loudly, and the reason 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.399 for that was so that the Disney music would trigger 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:59.320 a copyright violation on social media, which would prevent the 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:03.840 videos that people who are the onlookers and recording on 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:08.800 their phones making sure to keep the police honest, making 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.040 sure that those videos would not go viral. This was 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:13.360 the point, and they admitted it in the videos. It's 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.880 interesting now. We did an episode, you know a while back, 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:21.280 where we talked about how police will move their vehicle 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:26.359 in the line of sight of folks filming police encounters, 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.960 or will physically stand put place their bodies in the 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:34.080 way of folks filming the interaction. And they'll say, you know, 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.520 I need this space to conduct my investigation or you 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:40.960 know whatever. But we can see that they're physically doing 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.400 that to prevent someone from getting a good angle of 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:49.440 the engaging officers interaction with a suspect, you know, And 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:55.560 those things also feel very unfair, and it feels like 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:01.520 very sinister, underhanded. You know, why blast Disney music in 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.560 the middle of the night in a neighborhood when everyone's sleeping. 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:06.320 They all came out. It was like, yo, can you 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.080 turn your music down? If you're not hiding anything. I 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:15.720 would it's we are trying to keep everyone honest. And 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:18.480 it's never lost on us that the police are the 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:23.919 ones with the guns. All of them have guns. We 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:30.600 have cell phones. You win, right, But this posturing and 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:37.160 this you want to talk about odd movements, odd physical gestures, 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:38.560 you know what I mean? Those are the sorts of 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:40.240 things I'm gonna put my body in the line of 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:42.560 the camera and so forth. So I just wanted to 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.199 follow up with that one as well. So yeah, right, 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:47.399 there are a few follow up stories for us, just 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:48.639 to bring everyone up to speed. 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.160 They don't even try to pretend, right 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:55.400