Speaker 1: What's her family. It's your girl to make a d
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy, my son General. And we
Speaker 1: are your hosts of street politicians the place with the
Speaker 1: st and politics. What's going on? My son lenning the general?
Speaker 1: Listen man, long weekend. Kids driving me crazy. But I'm
Speaker 1: here kids driving me crazy. You love it, you love it.
Speaker 1: I love to see. I was watching the video UM
Speaker 1: earlier where a first of all, I took note of
Speaker 1: the amount of fathers since I've been traveled. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously we always traveling somewhere over this summer, how many
Speaker 1: fathers are with their kids on like taking them somewhere
Speaker 1: and flying them back and forth, and you know, running
Speaker 1: through airports handling their children. And then UM, I was
Speaker 1: watching a video where the father was telling his daughter
Speaker 1: to jump off the dresser into his arms and she
Speaker 1: was like, I can't do that, and he was like,
Speaker 1: yes you can, Yes you can, Yes you can. And
Speaker 1: it was such a good video. And I said that
Speaker 1: fathers matter, like and we have to as a community
Speaker 1: make sure that we are always um just uplifting our
Speaker 1: dad's because it's it's not easy, it's not easy to
Speaker 1: deal with the world's and the stress and the pressure
Speaker 1: and the pushing pull. It's not easy to try to
Speaker 1: work and provide for your family at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, having to try to be present for your kids,
Speaker 1: because I see the struggles, and trust me, I know
Speaker 1: the struggles. Just thinking about Angelo raising his daughter Attorney
Speaker 1: and Gelo pinto our partner um until freedom, and just
Speaker 1: knowing how much like y'all too, were on the road
Speaker 1: and you're like, I gotta I gotta go this time,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I gotta it back this time. And
Speaker 1: it's back and forth because you guys are trying your
Speaker 1: best to be there for your children, and you know,
Speaker 1: we just have to always just acknowledge that black dads
Speaker 1: are in the mix and black dads matter. Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: been outside, man, you know. It's it's it's it's funny
Speaker 1: when you hear this narrative because I don't really know
Speaker 1: a lot, and they probably are. They're definitely dead be
Speaker 1: dads and fathers who don't want to be with their
Speaker 1: children or don't do the necessary things to do to
Speaker 1: be that it takes to be with their children, you know.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, man, man, like those are
Speaker 1: our reflections man, especially you know when they're young. They're young,
Speaker 1: like you want, you want to really impose or imprint
Speaker 1: on your life. You know, I haven't been fortunate to
Speaker 1: have a daughter, but I have sons, and I know
Speaker 1: how important wanting them to have certain values and understand
Speaker 1: as the life it is for me to make sure
Speaker 1: that I'm there instilling these things because I know what
Speaker 1: it what it looks like when you don't. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I know, when you're not there, you're
Speaker 1: not able to have that imprint on your child, you know,
Speaker 1: because everybody's an individual, and your child's gonna have his
Speaker 1: own mind and his own you know, understanding. But the
Speaker 1: foundation that you give that child is very important man.
Speaker 1: You know. So most fathers, I don't understand that because
Speaker 1: either they had that or they didn't have it. So
Speaker 1: either way they understand how important it was in their
Speaker 1: lives to it because then you know, they're like, then
Speaker 1: I wish I had a father to do this, or
Speaker 1: you know, I'm glad that my father did this. So
Speaker 1: there's there's that duality, and most men do one. So
Speaker 1: I'm glad that lately, you know, we live in the
Speaker 1: social media era where you probably to see it a
Speaker 1: lot more. Yeah, and people are talking about dads more
Speaker 1: and appreciating more. I think at some point, um, we
Speaker 1: began to realize that there was a false narrative being
Speaker 1: created about dad's you know, black fathers not being in
Speaker 1: the household or not taking care of their chosen because
Speaker 1: you know, I think you can. You can be consistent.
Speaker 1: As long as you're consistent with kids, that's what matters
Speaker 1: the most. And there was starting to be a negative
Speaker 1: narrative that I think people start realizing that, hey, we
Speaker 1: have to be much more intentional about showing the other side.
Speaker 1: Um And I think you know, you mentioned that there
Speaker 1: are deadbeat deads, but there's also deadbeat moms right there,
Speaker 1: deadbeat moms that even though they may be great mothers,
Speaker 1: they still put their children's fathers through hoops and loops
Speaker 1: to be with the kids for whatever issues they may have.
Speaker 1: I posted or I sent around. I didn't post it
Speaker 1: because I never would, but I think brother Ben ex
Speaker 1: posted a video of a woman who, um, you know,
Speaker 1: she's talking to her husband, or her husband starts taping
Speaker 1: her talking to him about child support payments in relation
Speaker 1: to some new sneakers that the kids that the mother
Speaker 1: said the child needs. And so she's like, you don't
Speaker 1: need to bottom those damn sneakers, Like, what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? You already giving them five hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Five hundred jollars a month, that's a that's a lot. Like,
Speaker 1: you know that's enough, what you know that you already
Speaker 1: she should get anything she needs out of the child support,
Speaker 1: which we know is impossible, that's not realistic, and that's
Speaker 1: not being a parent, um, you know, a father to
Speaker 1: your child, a parent in general. But then she goes
Speaker 1: and says, oh, and f that child and F you two.
Speaker 1: And I said, that was the end of the marriage
Speaker 1: for me. Right, there's nothing else to talk about because
Speaker 1: there are women out here who that is how they
Speaker 1: approach life. So I think being honest about all of
Speaker 1: that and doing and and making sure we promote um,
Speaker 1: you know, all good father's, good mothers, good good co
Speaker 1: parents and good parents, good marriages, good families. That's what
Speaker 1: black people need to hear about, you know, more of
Speaker 1: and where there are challenges people need to understand navigating
Speaker 1: through that as well. Because for me as a mom,
Speaker 1: I certainly know the mistakes that I made and because
Speaker 1: I talk about them. I get feedback from a lot
Speaker 1: of mothers who are like man, I'm career driven, and
Speaker 1: I realized that my child, you know, suffered as a result.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that's another conversation. We should probably do a
Speaker 1: show on that. That's the whole show, you know. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you did that about the debbut moms,
Speaker 1: because I get a lot of flat right for not
Speaker 1: always calling out women and and and that's something that
Speaker 1: I've learned in relation to dealing with you and Linda
Speaker 1: and Carmen and all of the women around us, that
Speaker 1: my job is not really to call out women about
Speaker 1: women ship all the day, right, because women have to
Speaker 1: call theirselves to things. So a lot of times when
Speaker 1: I'm speaking, I'm I'm credit way more critical of men
Speaker 1: because not so much that I hold them to a
Speaker 1: higher standard. I just hold them for me, right. I
Speaker 1: just think in life in general, there's a certain level
Speaker 1: of fortitude that men supposed to have, certain levels of
Speaker 1: understanding and responsibilities that I think that we should possess,
Speaker 1: that we should not look to women to possess the
Speaker 1: same things. And it's not that we have greater or
Speaker 1: there is an equality, but there's an equality based on differences. Right,
Speaker 1: there's you. Y'all do some things better than we do,
Speaker 1: and we do some things and we're accountable for some
Speaker 1: things that you're not. Right, So the things that I
Speaker 1: feel like we are accountable for as men, I'm going
Speaker 1: to hold you to that. I'm not gonna say what
Speaker 1: about women? And and don't tell me about what about women?
Speaker 1: When I'm talking about man should I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear that conversation. When I'm talking about what
Speaker 1: men should be doing, how we should be carrying ourselves.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear you tell me, well, what
Speaker 1: about women? That's not really something that I want to do.
Speaker 1: So I get a lot of flat from men. Oh,
Speaker 1: you you know you're always thinking of you know I'm
Speaker 1: talking about wo men should do. I don't agree. I
Speaker 1: don't agree that you do that all the time. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I don't agree. Well, I mean I don't
Speaker 1: think because you do have a very specific feeling about
Speaker 1: how women should behave or move in order to be
Speaker 1: in relationship with not I don't mean physical or what
Speaker 1: intimate relationship with men. So you'll be like women shouldn't
Speaker 1: you know, wear this or do this or that if
Speaker 1: you don't want this type of response from a man's
Speaker 1: but that's human. Tell you why, because that's that's an
Speaker 1: instant I'm giving you. I can only give you how
Speaker 1: men are going to respond to what you do. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's a different thing based on what men should do. Right.
Speaker 1: You you can tell me. Women can tell me, okay,
Speaker 1: if men do this, this is how women are going
Speaker 1: to respond. That's that's a different thing. Because I've never
Speaker 1: been a woman. I can't tell women, Hey, you you
Speaker 1: need to do this. I'm just telling you that if
Speaker 1: you do this, the average man is gonna respond this way.
Speaker 1: I know that because I've been a man my whole life.
Speaker 1: So all i want to say is that I still
Speaker 1: don't agree. Agree, But it's the topic for another day.
Speaker 1: So we could get into it on another time. Excuse
Speaker 1: we could get into it at another time, so I
Speaker 1: can tell you why. I don't know that it's true.
Speaker 1: And you know what I'll do. I'll sit there and
Speaker 1: write down or put in my phone every time you
Speaker 1: do it, and then come back and say, look at this,
Speaker 1: look at that. But anyway, because because my opinion based
Speaker 1: upon talking to you, and also angelo often as we
Speaker 1: move about this country. Y'all always got something to say
Speaker 1: about what I need to do. But anyway, let me
Speaker 1: tell you I want to give up up huh right? Anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: I wanted to give an update from last week's show too,
Speaker 1: because last week we talked about the city manager in Keenly,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Justine Jones, and how they entirely departed Kennley. Okay, Keatley. Sorry.
Speaker 1: You know, listen, this is the one thing we do
Speaker 1: is tell one another when we're saying something wrong. So anyway, um,
Speaker 1: in Kenley, North Carolina. Uh, this woman, Justine Jones, she
Speaker 1: became city manager and for some reason, the entire police
Speaker 1: department resigned. So as of when we were on the
Speaker 1: show we talked about woman, she was a black woman.
Speaker 1: You remember, the whole story was the black woman city
Speaker 1: manager became uhy, she became city manager and the police department,
Speaker 1: most people on the force resigned. And remember I was saying, right,
Speaker 1: so we were saying we didn't know much of the details.
Speaker 1: We didn't. We couldn't save the show because she could
Speaker 1: just be a crazy out of her mind or let
Speaker 1: me not say crazy, but she could be a very
Speaker 1: rude and disrespectful person or she could be unreasonable. We
Speaker 1: can't say that every black woman or every black person
Speaker 1: in general is you know, doing the right thing that
Speaker 1: would make a police department resign. But we said more
Speaker 1: than like, we we get the scenario. So after the show,
Speaker 1: people started calling, and then one I got calls from
Speaker 1: people who are close to us that are you know,
Speaker 1: black women who are working, um, you know, especially in
Speaker 1: the win with Black Women's Face, which is a space
Speaker 1: where Joe take Joe taka d our friend. She started
Speaker 1: a space where black women, powerful black women get together
Speaker 1: to um, you know, really influenced culture, influence change, uh
Speaker 1: and and really just be on the backs of any
Speaker 1: and everybody who thinks that they can discard or discredit
Speaker 1: or or uh and I do mean that discard discredit.
Speaker 1: So if you're a black woman and you're doing good things,
Speaker 1: um and all of a sudden that the attack star
Speaker 1: coming against you, this network will join together to push back. Right.
Speaker 1: But also um, in situations where black women are being
Speaker 1: disrespected and so our suspicion was correct, mostly or mainly
Speaker 1: majority white people, lots of white men, and she wants
Speaker 1: to see change, She wants to see accountability, and so
Speaker 1: as a result of that, these folks have resigned because
Speaker 1: they are not going to They don't want to bend.
Speaker 1: They don't want to bend, they don't want to be
Speaker 1: held accountable. And I say let them go. I say,
Speaker 1: recruit new people. I say, what walk through and work
Speaker 1: with the community to figure out techniques and bring national
Speaker 1: leaders like us in to help them with techniques for
Speaker 1: dealing with community issues, while also recruiting other people to
Speaker 1: become officers. I say, don't go back and get the
Speaker 1: ones that don't want to do yeah, because they're not
Speaker 1: Because you're trying to move something forward, right, and these
Speaker 1: people have you know, they have a um primitive mind state,
Speaker 1: and and they're not trying to evolve anything're not trying
Speaker 1: to mindset that also, you know, and and and racism
Speaker 1: is primitive, right, So a lot of people haven't evolved
Speaker 1: to where we're ready, you know, where we are right now.
Speaker 1: So you know, you've got to get new people with
Speaker 1: new ideas ready to embrace, you know, and engulf upon
Speaker 1: new things. Find you some new energies. A lot of
Speaker 1: people out there that want to be part of you know,
Speaker 1: the police, and they need opportunities. Man, Let's get some new,
Speaker 1: fresh fresh minds, man fresh ideas, people who really want
Speaker 1: to see the beloved community, who reimagined what policing looked like.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, well yeah, I mean I think that's that's
Speaker 1: gotta be it. So that was just the update from
Speaker 1: last week, because you know, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that people know that we did do some research and
Speaker 1: got some calls and we've heard a lot about it.
Speaker 1: Before we get to our main topic for today, Airbnb.
Speaker 1: First of all, I love black people. I love black people.
Speaker 1: I'm actually, as we know, this is Black August, which
Speaker 1: is a time of revolution, revolutionary thought. Think about the
Speaker 1: Haitian Revolution, Uh, think about even Rosa Parks and other
Speaker 1: major things that have happened in in black history. Even
Speaker 1: the March on Washington it happened during August UM. And
Speaker 1: so Black August has been poined as a term as
Speaker 1: a thing. And now as we sit in the middle
Speaker 1: of Black August, I'm actually in a place where a
Speaker 1: lot of boogey black people come, but they come together
Speaker 1: to raise money for important candidates. They come together for
Speaker 1: opportunity for black young people, black kids to be able
Speaker 1: to run free and live their lives without terrorism from
Speaker 1: police and white supremacists and even terrorism from there themselves. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know there is opportunity for network and a
Speaker 1: lot of fundraison for organizations go on. And it's in
Speaker 1: my off this vineyard. Um. And you know again it
Speaker 1: is the talented tent of Black America that gets together
Speaker 1: every year. Uh. And as I sit here and think
Speaker 1: about it, Airbnb is one of the big things up here.
Speaker 1: There's lots of Airbnbs. And I was thinking about that
Speaker 1: video that I showed you where the Airbnb where the
Speaker 1: Airbnb had a slave cabin and the guy I love
Speaker 1: black people because the black man is explaining how this
Speaker 1: is a slave board is here and these people think
Speaker 1: it's okay, and the white people are in the comments section, like,
Speaker 1: oh I went there slavery and it's like so real,
Speaker 1: it's so real. We learned so much this experience. And
Speaker 1: he's like, no, there's running water here, there's electricity, and
Speaker 1: it's just the way he does. Nobody right coming in
Speaker 1: having having enforceful sex with you at I but hopefully
Speaker 1: they put the video in here. Anyway, Airbnb has apologized
Speaker 1: and I was just thinking about that because as we
Speaker 1: were pulling up here in this town, as you know,
Speaker 1: people rent houses everywhere. Airbnb is a thing. And so
Speaker 1: as I was pulling up in the town, I was
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I hope I'm not saying it is late.
Speaker 1: It's not funny, but it is a lot. We just
Speaker 1: we just gotta do too much. Sometime. Let's bring our
Speaker 1: guests in so we can talk about our main topic
Speaker 1: of the day. So we're uh, you know, us and
Speaker 1: our friends, my son, that's the that is the running
Speaker 1: uh talk of street politicians, that we have so many
Speaker 1: friends doing so many great things across the nation. Uh.
Speaker 1: And our friend attorney Lead Mary, who is not a
Speaker 1: stranger to street politicians, but it's been a while since um,
Speaker 1: since he's been on, is joining us today to talk
Speaker 1: about two of his cases, UM that are important to us.
Speaker 1: Like we've been talking a lot, you know us. We
Speaker 1: we always talk about how we have the court of
Speaker 1: public opinion and then there is the actual court. And
Speaker 1: in the court of public opinions, sometimes were weighing heavy
Speaker 1: on our feelings about certain issues. And certainly when you
Speaker 1: get started, you don't stop. It's day seven or something
Speaker 1: and you're still talking about the issue. And I do
Speaker 1: understand what I said, and left the people online to
Speaker 1: just argue with each other. You know, when I have
Speaker 1: a position, you know, and I'm not a person that
Speaker 1: had comes by a position likely, so I like to have,
Speaker 1: you know, facts and things to back up what it
Speaker 1: is that I'm saying, rather than just because the internet
Speaker 1: is full of people who just talk right and they
Speaker 1: don't have any facts, They don't have anything to support
Speaker 1: their arguments. They just say, hey, this happened, this, this,
Speaker 1: and this is what's going on. And I don't like that.
Speaker 1: So I like to be fat driven. I like to
Speaker 1: come back with situations that I can that people can
Speaker 1: relate to, to to point to up of things. I like
Speaker 1: to be at the point to law, statue, all types
Speaker 1: of things to support my situation. So sometimes it don't
Speaker 1: be one day. To take about five or six days
Speaker 1: for you to get all that this me. You know,
Speaker 1: it really doesn't because the thing I keep trying to
Speaker 1: tell you is that the people who understand are even
Speaker 1: open to understanding. They already got it from the first
Speaker 1: two or three days. It's people who are committed committed
Speaker 1: to not agreeing with you, and especially people who hate
Speaker 1: black women, including black people. And then there's the trolls,
Speaker 1: so I don't have time for it. I said what
Speaker 1: I said, and I'm I'm done. Here's the story of Angel, guys,
Speaker 1: and today we have a time to be married on UH,
Speaker 1: to help us talk about this issue. UH. It is
Speaker 1: extremely disturbing to me the amount of people who somehow
Speaker 1: are able to justify what happened to um miss guys
Speaker 1: because of you know, are able to justify her being
Speaker 1: arrested the way she was arrested UM in that video,
Speaker 1: just because the police department put out some other pieces
Speaker 1: that supposedly make people see something that I still have
Speaker 1: an issue with, UM and I want to hear from
Speaker 1: you on it. I'll give you my short take on
Speaker 1: this situation, UH, and then you know, we can kind
Speaker 1: of go from there. What I have been saying to
Speaker 1: people is that the conversation we're having about a black
Speaker 1: woman's attitude is a secondary conversation. We could talk about
Speaker 1: respecting law enforcement, we could talk about that. I don't
Speaker 1: have an issue with that. I'm not even gonna argue
Speaker 1: with folks on that point, because everybody is going to
Speaker 1: approach situations the way that they think they should, and
Speaker 1: we all have to deal with the consequences of such,
Speaker 1: So I'm not you know, I'm not gonna are agree
Speaker 1: with that. What I am arguing is exactly is what
Speaker 1: I never saw. I didn't get a chance to see
Speaker 1: it until my sign happened to put up the full
Speaker 1: video and I was able to see from the very
Speaker 1: very beginning. And it is that in the very very
Speaker 1: beginning of this video. That is my issue. And I
Speaker 1: know you have other legal things as the video goes on,
Speaker 1: you have other legal things. But my issue, and I
Speaker 1: think the issue that we have to where we have
Speaker 1: to stay, especially as leaders and activists and people who
Speaker 1: are fighting against uh the system and trying to change
Speaker 1: the system, is that the mere fact that she was
Speaker 1: getting a ticket in the first place is problematic, and
Speaker 1: that we are we should be, and cities should be,
Speaker 1: and our federal government should be looking for ways to
Speaker 1: limit the amount of conversation and interaction between police and
Speaker 1: civilians who may get upset, they may feel whatever kind
Speaker 1: of way, and I think that's for the officers safety
Speaker 1: and the civilian safety. Right when you pull up to
Speaker 1: two people, and that y'all correct me if I'm wrong
Speaker 1: about this, You pull up to two people and they're
Speaker 1: standing there pretty much loving up on one another in
Speaker 1: the park after hours. Are they wrong for being in
Speaker 1: the park after hours? Yeah, because the rules are the rules, right,
Speaker 1: But you approached them and say, I don't know where
Speaker 1: you're from. You look like you're from out of town.
Speaker 1: You got Ohio plates, but you can't be in this
Speaker 1: park after a certain time. From my perspective, if they
Speaker 1: when they said okay, got you let them go. But
Speaker 1: I understand if they have been shootings in the park,
Speaker 1: that you might need to get their i D. Because
Speaker 1: you can't just say just because it's a couple, they're
Speaker 1: not dangerous armed, they haven't just committed a crime. Fine,
Speaker 1: So let's take it to the next step that you
Speaker 1: need to run their license to to see if they're clear.
Speaker 1: Then you under license and the license says they no warrants,
Speaker 1: nobody's looking for them, they're not, uh enemy number one.
Speaker 1: At that point, I believe that this system should be
Speaker 1: set up to say go home or come out of
Speaker 1: the park. So now, okay, so I gave my this
Speaker 1: is this is where I feel the issues start, right
Speaker 1: and that there's too much conversation after that, and now
Speaker 1: you want somebody to sign a ticket and all of
Speaker 1: that that creates what we saw at the end. But
Speaker 1: you guys could tell me if maybe I'm misplacing or
Speaker 1: not understanding the full context. I mean, I think from
Speaker 1: before league gives you know, his his legal and understanding professionalism,
Speaker 1: I think for me that is very much issue. You know.
Speaker 1: I think when we talk about community police and we
Speaker 1: talk about community and police relations, and we talked about
Speaker 1: how do we repair that, this was a classic example
Speaker 1: of how not to repair how to further divide that,
Speaker 1: right because from the initial when he got the car
Speaker 1: and he said that, and they they they when he
Speaker 1: said they can't be in the park, they said, oh,
Speaker 1: thank you, like they were prepared to just leave, like
Speaker 1: you know, they thank you got it, and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: thank you, we got it, and we're about to leave,
Speaker 1: you know. And once you took the idea, they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what we didn't really did all right, but cool, we're
Speaker 1: gonna give you the I d S. And I think
Speaker 1: at that point, you know, people are saying she had
Speaker 1: an attitude. And I think when she watched the board
Speaker 1: demand go over there and and was signing this ticket
Speaker 1: or whatever was giving a ticket, she was completely confused
Speaker 1: because I would have been confused. I would have been confused.
Speaker 1: How I'm sitting in the park. I'm not in the park,
Speaker 1: deep in the park on the benches. I'm not with
Speaker 1: dark at I'm not like we were in a threat.
Speaker 1: You knew we didn't have a threat. You took out identifications,
Speaker 1: you acknowledge that the plates weren't from here. Everything about
Speaker 1: this made you didn't you went to your car with
Speaker 1: identifications because you didn't see us as a threat. You
Speaker 1: didn't call for backup, you didn't do any there. At
Speaker 1: no point did you think that we were doing anything criminal. Right, So,
Speaker 1: at that point, if we're trying to resolve the divide
Speaker 1: between you know, the community and police, at that point,
Speaker 1: you show some level of community, right, you show that
Speaker 1: you're part of the community. You show Okay, you weren't
Speaker 1: aware of this situation. You're not really from here. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you go with the warning. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of things going make it make me
Speaker 1: feel like you're trying to make me safe. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of things going on in this park, you know,
Speaker 1: don't We don't want you in here. Something that can
Speaker 1: happen to thank you over so, and I'm gonna leave
Speaker 1: with a good impression like then it's officer, thank you
Speaker 1: over so, and it feel like you're part of our community,
Speaker 1: that you you're for the betterment of us. But instead
Speaker 1: what you decide to do is you try to decide
Speaker 1: it issue us a citation, which basically means that either
Speaker 1: I have to report to a court here you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not even from here, or I have to pay
Speaker 1: a fine if I don't, if I'm not prepared to
Speaker 1: come back and forth to a landed I fight ticket.
Speaker 1: So now you you've made a decision that you're going
Speaker 1: to really impose your power on me. You're going to
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna do something that's gonna put a
Speaker 1: damper all my life, like for what? For what? Why?
Speaker 1: Like what? And you didn't have to do it. It
Speaker 1: wasn't there's no mandate that you give somebody a citation
Speaker 1: for being in There's no mandate that I signed, no mandate.
Speaker 1: These are all discretionary things, you know, and and you
Speaker 1: made it upon your discretion to to to do things,
Speaker 1: to impose things you know that are gonna cause my
Speaker 1: life a level of conflict that I don't really want
Speaker 1: that I don't even really need. So it's so now
Speaker 1: of course I'm aggravated, you know. So for me, it's like,
Speaker 1: what what is the what are the the police trying
Speaker 1: to do? Are they? Are you complete law and order?
Speaker 1: You just want people to feel fear you and see
Speaker 1: you at some level of power. Are you trying to
Speaker 1: be in community with the community? You know? Do you
Speaker 1: want like I don't understand what what is the goal
Speaker 1: of the police? People saying that's their job there here? Well,
Speaker 1: if that's the job that you have, and you can't
Speaker 1: be mad that people don't like you. You can't be
Speaker 1: mad if there's an issue, because if every time I
Speaker 1: see you, I know you're strictly there to impose some
Speaker 1: laws or tell me what I'm doing wrong, and you know,
Speaker 1: put barriers in my life something that's good cause me
Speaker 1: some level of I'm gonna have to pay money or
Speaker 1: go to court inconvenience if you if you your job
Speaker 1: is completely to inconvenence me. Why do I like you?
Speaker 1: Why would I even want to be around you? Why
Speaker 1: would I participate, you know, with anything that you involved in?
Speaker 1: And that's what that's the main thing it is to me.
Speaker 1: But I'll let lead talk. There's a couple of other
Speaker 1: things that I let lead get into, you know, the league.
Speaker 1: I just wanted you to hear leave how we feel,
Speaker 1: and now listen to what you have to say. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously I believe in misguised this position in terms of
Speaker 1: having her rights violated as a citizen because I took
Speaker 1: on the case. But I've been hearing a lot of
Speaker 1: the national feedback or pushback from the other side that
Speaker 1: it's really demanding that misguys takes responsibility for our own actions. Right,
Speaker 1: So people are saying, well, yeah, he may have done
Speaker 1: this wrong, he might have done this wrong, but really
Speaker 1: the onus was on her because she amplic she she
Speaker 1: did show deference to the police officer, right, she didn't
Speaker 1: humble herself before the police officer. And my concern is
Speaker 1: that most of the police encounters that result in in
Speaker 1: really tragic situations, um, both from John in his apartment
Speaker 1: complex of Tatiano Jefferson shot to death and playing video
Speaker 1: games with her nephew. Um, you know you you name it.
Speaker 1: Um you have a uh an instance where law enforcement
Speaker 1: is interacting with someone and that person is supposed to
Speaker 1: show deference to the officer. But you never know how
Speaker 1: you're gonna catch someone, what state, what state you case
Speaker 1: your man at all. We we can't expect black people.
Speaker 1: We can't always put the onus on black people or
Speaker 1: victims of police brutality. Uh to show deference to police
Speaker 1: culture because we accepted it so violent and um, I
Speaker 1: think most people don't put the proper emphasis on this
Speaker 1: case because she was just arrested. And it's almost like
Speaker 1: she chose to get arrested, but number one and arrested violent, right,
Speaker 1: like the whole idea of beat taking out of your
Speaker 1: setting and placing in the cage. She was she was
Speaker 1: describing an experience to me, and like you all, I
Speaker 1: shared the experience, so I understood what she was going through.
Speaker 1: But smelling that pistons still laying awkwardly in the back
Speaker 1: of that that police car, that it's not built to
Speaker 1: have people in their handcuff, um, you know, being stripped
Speaker 1: of your clothes, putting on that want your uniform. All
Speaker 1: because she didn't want to sign a citation like in
Speaker 1: our society, we said that's okay, Like we accept the
Speaker 1: society that will allow someone to go through that dehumanizing
Speaker 1: process because they didn't show deference to a police officer.
Speaker 1: The way I look at that police officer, he's a
Speaker 1: meter made. Right, you're outside, I have the dark. You're
Speaker 1: not supposed to be here. Uh, here's your ticket. Oh
Speaker 1: you showed me how to to. I'll get over because
Speaker 1: I'm just a meter made I'm not someone so important
Speaker 1: that you have the lord or like, show me deferensive perspective.
Speaker 1: You can give me an attitude, that's fine. I was
Speaker 1: a school teacher. I got attitude from you're badass kids
Speaker 1: all the time. As you're as a civil rights attorney,
Speaker 1: I can get attitude from every client that I have.
Speaker 1: It's part of the process. I don't understand why cops
Speaker 1: get to live above that in our society. And that's
Speaker 1: what I didn't get. The legal part. I can get
Speaker 1: into the legal part. We want to hear that. We
Speaker 1: want to hear the legal Yeah. So that's just my response,
Speaker 1: and mostly as a father, as as a a dad.
Speaker 1: Oh this is the same thing, but as a black man.
Speaker 1: Um from from a legal standpoint, the citizen is the
Speaker 1: person with the power, right. Uh, they call those people
Speaker 1: public servants because there are public servants, their servants to
Speaker 1: the citizens. That officer was actually serving those citizens. Hey,
Speaker 1: this is a dangerous part. I'm glad he warned them
Speaker 1: about that, because that is, in fact the dangerous part. Now,
Speaker 1: the danger there is because of poverty in the area.
Speaker 1: People are sleeping and homeless in that in that part,
Speaker 1: and they're robbing people like them who are hanging out
Speaker 1: trying to have a good time. Right, So his job
Speaker 1: is to show up and say don't come back. And
Speaker 1: his job was even to give them a ticket, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, because there was in fact the man from
Speaker 1: the city hall saying, hey, violence is increasing in this area.
Speaker 1: Start giving people tickets so they don't come back. That's
Speaker 1: what's going on on the ground level and in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: So we're supposed to give them the ticket. She was
Speaker 1: supposed to have an attitude about it, right, Uh, no
Speaker 1: laws have been broken yet, Um, when she refused to
Speaker 1: sign the ticket, there's a stupid law. Um. And one
Speaker 1: of the brothers one of a popular civil rights attorney
Speaker 1: on my page, brother Isaac from fifty show besides of
Speaker 1: the last name Isaac made a student argument why the
Speaker 1: requirement to at a signature is in fact unconstitutional because
Speaker 1: you're requiring me to promise to do something that I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to exactly. I can suffer the consequences
Speaker 1: of not doing it, But I don't have to promise you.
Speaker 1: That's a violation of my freedom of speech. It's a
Speaker 1: violation of my personal works. I don't want to make
Speaker 1: that promise. I'll think about it. I might get a lawyer,
Speaker 1: you know. So the requirement is down. Um, but here
Speaker 1: the law does empower him to make arrests where the
Speaker 1: person doesn't satisfy that requirement. So he wandered her a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and she says she wasn't gonna sign it.
Speaker 1: So he started to effectuate in the rest excessive force
Speaker 1: under the laws to find is more force than it's
Speaker 1: necessary to gain compliance any For if I yell at
Speaker 1: you and speaking in a normal voice, you are already complying,
Speaker 1: and I just suddenly start yelling at you, I'm using
Speaker 1: excessive force. I'm violating the law. Right. Um, you have
Speaker 1: a use of force spectrum that you can go up
Speaker 1: where loud commanding voice go hands on. Then you get
Speaker 1: into some of those lesslie the equipment, taser being bad, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And then you have that force right And in order
Speaker 1: for him to gain compliance, he had the authority to
Speaker 1: gain compliance for her to do what to sign, the
Speaker 1: to sign the ex citation. If she showed compliance towards that,
Speaker 1: uh the thing that he had authority to use force
Speaker 1: against her force, then the issue was resolved. And so
Speaker 1: when I say all that to say, I'm I'm breaking
Speaker 1: it down sort of in parts. But I say all
Speaker 1: that to say, the minute he showed those handcuffs to her,
Speaker 1: she said, all right, I'll signed that. I'll signed the citation.
Speaker 1: He responded, no, I'm not here to play games with you.
Speaker 1: In other words, no, I'm in my feelings now right,
Speaker 1: and now you're gonna jail? Well, uh, you being even
Speaker 1: feelings is not sufficient to take someone to jail. You
Speaker 1: wanted her to comply, she resisted. You decided your show force,
Speaker 1: your use of force was sufficient to gain compliance. Everything
Speaker 1: you did after she said I'm going to sign was illegal.
Speaker 1: When you took her to the ground, that was illegal.
Speaker 1: When you pulled out that taser, that was illegal. When
Speaker 1: you put your knee into her back, that was illegal.
Speaker 1: It was an excessive It was more than was necessary
Speaker 1: to gain compliance. Was the signature on paper. But you can,
Speaker 1: I ask you can? I asked this what's this one question?
Speaker 1: You said that the law he has there is a
Speaker 1: law that allows him to arrest her if or arrest
Speaker 1: the person if they don't sign. Is that a requirement
Speaker 1: or is it his discretion. It's a discretion. It's a
Speaker 1: discretionary decision. And what I said when I responded to
Speaker 1: this was it was abusive discretion. It was poor discretion
Speaker 1: to say in this part, this person who I've already
Speaker 1: established this no other threat other than showing me an attitude. Uh,
Speaker 1: this person is I have I do have their I
Speaker 1: D ident in ways to track them after here, right,
Speaker 1: I get to use my discretion in this case whether
Speaker 1: it's worth taking them into custod It it was poor discretion.
Speaker 1: And I want to know another thing. This is when
Speaker 1: I when I read the them the law, it states
Speaker 1: that before you can actually issue arrest, you're supposed to
Speaker 1: tell the individual that this citation does not when you
Speaker 1: sign this citation, that it does not mean that you
Speaker 1: admission of guilt. At that point. After you say that
Speaker 1: to the individual, if they say no, then you can
Speaker 1: arrest them. And I never, I never, I've never heard
Speaker 1: him say that. And I think that's very important because
Speaker 1: he didn't say to her. He said to the boyfriend, Um,
Speaker 1: and yeah, he missed that department under the law as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's what it is for me. It's like because
Speaker 1: when she from in my from my point of view,
Speaker 1: when she said no, I don't, that was based on
Speaker 1: her knowledge of the law, because most people have never
Speaker 1: signed a ticket, like I've never been asked to sign
Speaker 1: a ticket. I've had numerous tickets, I've been giving tickets
Speaker 1: and nobody ever required me to sign a ticket. If
Speaker 1: I didn't, it was all right, they write the back,
Speaker 1: did not sign, refused to sign, and you still give
Speaker 1: me a ticket. So that's what's happened. Based on her
Speaker 1: knowledge of the lord. She's like, no, I don't like.
Speaker 1: She said, I don't have to sign that, right. He said, yes,
Speaker 1: you do. She said no, I don't. You know, And
Speaker 1: at that point he didn't explain the lord to her
Speaker 1: and said, well, based on the law in Atlanta, if
Speaker 1: you do not, it doesn't, it doesn't. It's not, you know,
Speaker 1: admission of guilt. And to be clear and knowing this
Speaker 1: guys now and speaking to her after the fact, that's
Speaker 1: exactly what she was doing there. She was asserting her
Speaker 1: rights as she understood them, and she felt because she
Speaker 1: felt violated by the encounter, by his decision to define
Speaker 1: him in her companion, she decided that she was going
Speaker 1: to try to assert her rights because you know, she
Speaker 1: she she had just a little bit of an understanding
Speaker 1: that she had rights to sign as as a citizen
Speaker 1: um and this officer was seemed to set out to
Speaker 1: prove that she didn't. In society has backed him. But
Speaker 1: that's the part. Well, a large sector of our society
Speaker 1: is back them in a way that I find disconcerting.
Speaker 1: And and and that brings us to what our topic is.
Speaker 1: You know, we me and to me go often have
Speaker 1: these conversations and you know, and it's it's becoming more
Speaker 1: and more dangerous to me, right because there's this this
Speaker 1: narrative and this notion that black women, you know, their
Speaker 1: passion or they don't listen, or they're angry, they have
Speaker 1: an attitude, and this attitude is what justifies these type
Speaker 1: of situations happening to them. And you know, and I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know. I think when I look back
Speaker 1: at history, right, and I look at every woman that
Speaker 1: they said had a history, I look at you know,
Speaker 1: I look at um, who can we go back to
Speaker 1: We can go back to any you can name any
Speaker 1: women that may actually made history, they will quote unquote
Speaker 1: said to have had an attitude because they just didn't
Speaker 1: go for people were telling them right. You know, So
Speaker 1: I think you to celebrate you know this, this this
Speaker 1: the fact that you're not willing to just capitulate to
Speaker 1: things that you know are not right. To celebrate roads
Speaker 1: of fouls because she decided that she wasn't gonna get
Speaker 1: up right and and and to celebrate all of the
Speaker 1: women throughout history that fought with and created most of
Speaker 1: the movements that pretty much were the backbones and most
Speaker 1: of these movements who were the fire behind the men
Speaker 1: who they had forward facing. To celebrate that and then
Speaker 1: say that that same attitude and that same fire and
Speaker 1: that same will to to get justice and and get
Speaker 1: things that they deserve is something wrong. It's like the
Speaker 1: biggest contradiction in the world to me. Well, I still
Speaker 1: think that. I mean, the bottom line is people have attitude.
Speaker 1: That's it. When they everybody people, and that it's just
Speaker 1: is with this that's gonna be a part of policing
Speaker 1: and what to do with that. I'm sorry, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a part of police, and what we allowed police
Speaker 1: to do with that, it's really going to tell what
Speaker 1: kind of society we're living. Right, But we've seen white
Speaker 1: people have not just attitudes. White people don't just have attitudes.
Speaker 1: They get they are, they are doing attitudes. They talk
Speaker 1: about your mama and everything else. Like I literally have
Speaker 1: a video that I post I'm gonna post where it
Speaker 1: is a white woman. You don't see her, but she's
Speaker 1: getting put over for a ticket and the officers talking
Speaker 1: to her and she's calling them all types of assholes.
Speaker 1: She's telling them, this is why y'all get shot. I
Speaker 1: see why so many of you get shot. And and
Speaker 1: he and he's like, okay, man, you have a nice day,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and these This is common.
Speaker 1: This is common every time I see I've watched white
Speaker 1: women to call them all types of names. And you
Speaker 1: ain't ship and throw to throw the tickets at them,
Speaker 1: rip them up in their face, and and and people
Speaker 1: act like that, right, there is okay. But when a
Speaker 1: woman asks questions and say can I have your badge
Speaker 1: number and said no, I don't have to sign until
Speaker 1: you get your badge number, now she's the worst person
Speaker 1: in the world. If she gets bad shot stabs, she
Speaker 1: brought it upon herself and that that that to me
Speaker 1: is so mind boggling that we have a large part
Speaker 1: of society that actually agrees with that mentally, and and
Speaker 1: they only agree with it when it pertains to black women.
Speaker 1: M hm, that's rights. Like I said, you know, we
Speaker 1: we went to hell for for Mike Brown as we
Speaker 1: should have. Like we was ready to fight, but he
Speaker 1: went in the store and took something out of it.
Speaker 1: We thought that was some petty and it was. It was.
Speaker 1: It didn't never justified what happened to him, but there
Speaker 1: was something that was done. And we were in the
Speaker 1: world when you know over that was ready to kill everything,
Speaker 1: just like what happen with George Floyd. He supposedly had
Speaker 1: a fake twenty We didn't get funk about that. That
Speaker 1: man should what the things that happened after that should
Speaker 1: not have occurred. So why don't we have that same
Speaker 1: you know, that same mentality when it comes to a
Speaker 1: black woman. Why do we think because they're willing to
Speaker 1: stand up for themselves and they're willing to question and
Speaker 1: have questions and not willing to just go down, that
Speaker 1: there's a problem. I gave him a situation, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, me and Tamika would on American airlines, and
Speaker 1: then a situation happened there and I was side right
Speaker 1: for the most part. For the most part, life has
Speaker 1: taught me my interactions is just take what comes. I
Speaker 1: went to jail because I was actually literally kind of
Speaker 1: too scared to fight. I didn't speak up. I made
Speaker 1: I made a judge. I allowed a judge in the
Speaker 1: d A to force me to have an attorney that
Speaker 1: I didn't want because I was scared to speak for myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to say I don't want this attorney
Speaker 1: because I was scared, or the repercussions and if he
Speaker 1: all of these things. I was nervous this right and
Speaker 1: and and in a lot of situations I've been nervous.
Speaker 1: And then my mother and my grandmother have never been
Speaker 1: nervous about nothing. The situations that I have been quiet,
Speaker 1: they stood up and a lot of times they understood
Speaker 1: their rights and they go and and I had to
Speaker 1: learn that throughout time, and even now just watching Tamika
Speaker 1: and watching other black women and watching my they don't
Speaker 1: bite their tongue and a lot of times it's because
Speaker 1: they know right for wrong. We've been taught as black men,
Speaker 1: and I listened to these things, just sign it. Just
Speaker 1: the dude talk. When the officers said to the demand,
Speaker 1: he said, do I have to sign this? And he said,
Speaker 1: you either signing to go to jail. That's not that's
Speaker 1: not a legal term. That's not you explaining to me
Speaker 1: why I have to sign it. You're just giving me ultimatum.
Speaker 1: That's basically, you're threatening. You your fear, You're you're still
Speaker 1: in fear into me to make me sign something that
Speaker 1: I don't even know why I gotta sign. You still
Speaker 1: didn't give me a legal explanation on why I have
Speaker 1: to sign this. Well, because we've been taught to field
Speaker 1: officers and and fear jail so much. We don't want
Speaker 1: we don't want any confrontation, and and and and our
Speaker 1: black women don't have that same fear, you know, and
Speaker 1: and some of them do, some of them do. How
Speaker 1: would you say, I wouldn't say that we don't have
Speaker 1: that fear, because there are some who do. Um and
Speaker 1: there are some who also agree. When you first of all,
Speaker 1: when you're not talking to trolls, because a big problem
Speaker 1: with what we experience online is arguing back and forth
Speaker 1: or spending so much time focused on people who we
Speaker 1: don't even know if they're real. A lot of times
Speaker 1: they are fake profiles, white people posing as black people,
Speaker 1: um trying to antagonize us and antagon it. So this
Speaker 1: is why I take going the role of saying what
Speaker 1: I have to say, putting my position out there, and
Speaker 1: I'll give a little bit, but I don't continue to
Speaker 1: go too far because I can tell when people are
Speaker 1: literally harassing me or just trying to cause confusion. But
Speaker 1: I had a woman come into my d M tells me,
Speaker 1: tell me she respects me so much, and now she
Speaker 1: thinks I'm crazy because I don't seem to understand this thing.
Speaker 1: And I sat and I broke down for her what
Speaker 1: I feel about the tickets, how I felt the woman
Speaker 1: was antagonized, and how I felt this situation ended up
Speaker 1: being what it is because this officer is going from
Speaker 1: step to step to step to step to try to
Speaker 1: make this woman feel her and her partner feel uncomfortable
Speaker 1: doing too much. Is what I felt about it. And
Speaker 1: as I when I finished, she said, you know what
Speaker 1: you actually are right? You're right. I still think that
Speaker 1: she put herself in a dangerous situation. But you're right,
Speaker 1: and that's fine, we can say that. But I'm so
Speaker 1: I'm saying, how do we get here? How do we
Speaker 1: get here? So anyway, that was we just wanted to
Speaker 1: here and you could you know, of course, continue to
Speaker 1: share lead, but we just wanted to hear your opinion
Speaker 1: on the situation. I strongly agree with both of your position.
Speaker 1: It's but just coming from two people who spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time challenging police norms. Right, We've been talking
Speaker 1: about reimagining law enforcement throughout the country recently, and so
Speaker 1: you know, every police encounter I'm thinking, Man, I imagine
Speaker 1: what Mike just have looked like if it was done
Speaker 1: the right way for me to meet made and let
Speaker 1: me say, let me say this when we um Also,
Speaker 1: I think that there is something to be said about
Speaker 1: this idea that again civilians who are you know, may
Speaker 1: have been drinking or or frustrated for something that happened
Speaker 1: in their day, or going through heartache, whatever, all of
Speaker 1: those things. Right, there's something to be said about making
Speaker 1: them equals, but then saying that one person has a
Speaker 1: responsibility to show deference, right, so we make them equal
Speaker 1: in saying you and the cop need to do whatever,
Speaker 1: calm it down or have respect. But then if he's
Speaker 1: upset or doesn't like something, or she the officers upset
Speaker 1: or doesn't like something, then it's your responsibility also, so
Speaker 1: you become responsible at every level. Why do we need
Speaker 1: to pay police if it's our responsibility to de escalate
Speaker 1: the situation, not having attitude, especially if you're a black woman,
Speaker 1: figure out how to get home safe. If you have
Speaker 1: to do all of that, there is nothing. There's no
Speaker 1: purpose in having an officer who's going to training, who
Speaker 1: gets a paycheck, who has a badge and a gun.
Speaker 1: We're not on the same level. When you approach me,
Speaker 1: I am untrained, uncootht un unfundable, everything you want to say,
Speaker 1: I'm all of that, and you are the one that's
Speaker 1: the professional here. So if I go to the restaurant
Speaker 1: to buy food and they tell me coming the back,
Speaker 1: cook the food, clean up after yourself, and then pay
Speaker 1: for it, that does not make sense. Why are you here?
Speaker 1: Why do you have and established no exactly and and
Speaker 1: to me, because that really gets into what I find
Speaker 1: to be again the root of the problem. We've tried
Speaker 1: different language on it, one of the one of the
Speaker 1: languages that we've tried on it is deep militarizing. The
Speaker 1: police plice officer that she came in encounter with he
Speaker 1: was black. That's a start. We do want to see
Speaker 1: more black police officers because the data tells us that
Speaker 1: black officers are less likely to use force and make
Speaker 1: a lawful of rest. But normally that increases when the
Speaker 1: black officers from the community that they're police. Right, And
Speaker 1: I don't know that about Officer Brooks here, um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: we're on our way. The problem is he's still, just
Speaker 1: like every other Atlanta police officers, spent seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of his training on shooter don't shoot scenarios, on the
Speaker 1: on the target practice on the shooting range. Right. They
Speaker 1: are military. They are a paramilitary standing force in the
Speaker 1: city of Atlanta. Uh. And so they're they're still they've
Speaker 1: gotten the same training that we know officers had during
Speaker 1: this period that we call the rise of mass incarceration
Speaker 1: the last fifty years, during the war on so called drugs. Right,
Speaker 1: same militarized police are out there doing the same thing,
Speaker 1: arresting women in the park for being their thirty minutes
Speaker 1: after closing. UH. And so we're getting the same results.
Speaker 1: We still have right street in Atlanta, overcrowded with people
Speaker 1: having in humane conditions. Uh. And that's something else that
Speaker 1: miss guys had to learn and sort of upper middle
Speaker 1: class and Lego who has never been in those shails before.
Speaker 1: It's something that we've seen in those jails. There are
Speaker 1: human rights violations taking place right there in those there's
Speaker 1: people with mental health crisis and those jails being being
Speaker 1: stripped of their clothes, being chained to bids. Uh. And
Speaker 1: when you're civilian sort of walking through that YouTube, get
Speaker 1: an up close in person to look at it. It
Speaker 1: is urgent. I just got off the phone with Mona Harden.
Speaker 1: We all love Mona. That's the mother of Ronald Green,
Speaker 1: and um, she wants to know, you know, everyone agrees
Speaker 1: now we saw her son beat to death on the
Speaker 1: side of the road, begging for us life. She wants
Speaker 1: to know what we were doing about it today, about
Speaker 1: the two times we went to the White House and
Speaker 1: the time we went out to Batting Rouge and everybody
Speaker 1: protesting in March with her and demanded justice. And and
Speaker 1: she wants to know what we were doing about it
Speaker 1: today because it's urgent to her. It happened almost three
Speaker 1: years ago now, but it's still urgent. And when I
Speaker 1: look at cases like this, it reminds me of the
Speaker 1: urgency at a human level. Um, we can't can continue
Speaker 1: to let law enforcement get away with the same culture
Speaker 1: and then protested it later. Like during the campaign. It's
Speaker 1: urgent for misguise, it's it's urgent for all of us,
Speaker 1: and it's all tied to the same conversation. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't get I've had people reach out to me
Speaker 1: like they reached out to you, to me to say,
Speaker 1: I don't support you on this campaign. I supported I
Speaker 1: support you on a mide I support you on Ronald Green,
Speaker 1: that support you on both them, but this one, I
Speaker 1: wan't support you, And I'm saying they're all the same conversation.
Speaker 1: It's about our individual writers. So you know, I think
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about this situation for some time because
Speaker 1: now you have joined them, and I appreciate you for
Speaker 1: that lead. You're not the attorney, right my son that
Speaker 1: would run and say, well, you know, people don't there's
Speaker 1: there's a mixed feeling or we're split in the community
Speaker 1: about this, and so therefore maybe I shouldn't take the
Speaker 1: case because one I think you see the legal side
Speaker 1: of it, which is not about our thoughts of what
Speaker 1: should and should and could and whatever. It's the like
Speaker 1: real legal basis for you know how you feel you
Speaker 1: can support her and so you know we want to
Speaker 1: support you into that. Definitely, don't not dune in smoke.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Attorney Merit, you know are you you leave?
Speaker 1: You are our brother, but you have so many different
Speaker 1: issues and cases that you are involved in and have
Speaker 1: to always remind ourselves of how much you are working
Speaker 1: every single day. UM. And this is the case that
Speaker 1: you have been fighting for some time and working with
Speaker 1: two sisters who have become our sisters, um, the mont
Speaker 1: Rosa sisters as we like to call them. UM. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell us about Sean Manta Rosa. The Valleo uh department,
Speaker 1: a police department killed him, UM. And I just want
Speaker 1: you to remind people about what happened to this very
Speaker 1: special young man that, by all accounts we know should
Speaker 1: be with us today. Absolutely. And I'm gonna allow the
Speaker 1: Monta Rosa sisters to tell their brother's story and talk
Speaker 1: to you all about who he was. And they've done
Speaker 1: such a phenomenal job doing doing that not only for
Speaker 1: the community of Balajo where they're from, but all over
Speaker 1: the nation. But I do want to put the case
Speaker 1: of what happened to your brother in context and talk
Speaker 1: to other community about why it's so important that we
Speaker 1: all continue to back other my Rosa's sisters for justice,
Speaker 1: not only for Sean. Now, but we'll start talking about California.
Speaker 1: You all know I'm from California originally. UM. Unlike the
Speaker 1: popular discussion around the South, we forget that California has
Speaker 1: some real issues concerning authoritarianism, concerning servatism UH that impact citizens.
Speaker 1: It is the deadliest state in the country for police violence.
Speaker 1: It is um the second most incarcerated state in the country.
Speaker 1: But when we start talking about police reform and justice reform,
Speaker 1: California is really ground zero. And shortly after the murder
Speaker 1: of George Floyd, Sean mont Rosa threw himself into changing
Speaker 1: police culture in California and he was out protesting on
Speaker 1: behalf of George Floyd when he was shot and killed
Speaker 1: by one of the deadliest police cultures UH communities in
Speaker 1: northern California, which is the Valleto Police Department. UM. Recently
Speaker 1: and in the media, and during the course of this case,
Speaker 1: we've discovered evidence that Vallejo Police Department engaged in uh
Speaker 1: practice called badge bending, where they celebrate the murder of
Speaker 1: civilians by bending their actual badges. UH. It's a part
Speaker 1: of an ongoing discovery that we're finding about about gang
Speaker 1: culture within policing in northern California and police violence um
Speaker 1: both staring racism um um deeply ingrained and granted into
Speaker 1: the police culture and then all out celebrations of violence
Speaker 1: and um. Anyway, so the mont Rosa Sisters have taken
Speaker 1: their their fight for Sean and they've been exposing the
Speaker 1: Valetjo Police Department on a national level, and they've been
Speaker 1: bringing in some some national figures um um into the fight.
Speaker 1: And so I'm happy to be a part of their case,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you about some of what we've
Speaker 1: been finding and our next moves to the extent that
Speaker 1: that we're willing to show our hand Ashley in the show. Well, first,
Speaker 1: I just want to thank you guys for giving us
Speaker 1: opportunities say here and UH share what's happening. You know,
Speaker 1: it's been a little over I mean two years, two
Speaker 1: years now and some months UM you know, only God
Speaker 1: in the universe knows why our family was chosen. UM.
Speaker 1: But our June second is every day for us. It's
Speaker 1: just a matter of how we present ourselves. But June two,
Speaker 1: we got the call Shawn's dead. John's Shaun's dead. We're
Speaker 1: born and raised in San Francisco. Valo is like thirty
Speaker 1: or forty minutes away. Um, this is all during in
Speaker 1: California we went into you know, lockdown, curfews and stuff,
Speaker 1: and we're just like, wait, what what you know? Um?
Speaker 1: But we all shared locations with our brother, and you know,
Speaker 1: this is the time we all want to share locations.
Speaker 1: In one of that we we see his pink locations
Speaker 1: ten fifty Redwoods for like ten fifty Redwood Street. What's
Speaker 1: he doing in Valleo? Um. But just even prior to that,
Speaker 1: just it was a thirty minutes before shawn sensus. The
Speaker 1: last text message Shawn texted us is the to change
Speaker 1: dot org petition asking for the UM get Justice for
Speaker 1: George Floyd petition. You know it takes less than a minute.
Speaker 1: We responded by saying it actually reacts with the heart.
Speaker 1: We just kind of went with their evening and we
Speaker 1: drove I remember just driving and feeling sick to my stomach,
Speaker 1: alreety of just even having that phone Callum Big driving
Speaker 1: to Valo. We don't know anything about Valo. The only
Speaker 1: thing we were up doing is like the rappers who
Speaker 1: come out of val aout and like six flags. That's
Speaker 1: pretty much all we knew about it. And I remember
Speaker 1: we just went on a on a trying to figure
Speaker 1: out answers. When we went to the location that was paying,
Speaker 1: the officers there on on site sent us to the
Speaker 1: Kaiser the hospitals right there. The people the kais were like, well,
Speaker 1: the hospitals all lockdown. We have no answers for you. You
Speaker 1: You gotta go back to the crime scene. Go back there.
Speaker 1: They're like, no, we don't have answers for you. Go
Speaker 1: to the police department. We go to the police department.
Speaker 1: It's they're closed. And it's like, you know, we were
Speaker 1: there from two am to five, like five thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning, trying to get answers, trying to get some
Speaker 1: sort of help. But we're just like going with the pictures,
Speaker 1: Sean and going with the phone locations, like it says
Speaker 1: he is here, like what's happening. You know, there's all
Speaker 1: these police officers. They all have like a R fifteens
Speaker 1: out holding them in their hands. Um, and I just
Speaker 1: remember the last time, we were like, Okay, he's at
Speaker 1: neither these hospital. There's another hospital down the way. Let's
Speaker 1: just go there. We go there and they say, well,
Speaker 1: we heard everything that happened on dispatch all night. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, if your brother's locations there, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be pretty, you know, just go back and try to
Speaker 1: get someone to give you some answers. We go back again.
Speaker 1: The guy says, let me go ask the detective for
Speaker 1: you know, for any clarity for you guys. The guy said, well,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna have to look up in uh the
Speaker 1: inmate locator to see maybe he got arrested, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he's getting processed. And when you know, we keep
Speaker 1: re emphasizing we're not from here, We're from San Francisco.
Speaker 1: We don't know where we're going. Um. We go back
Speaker 1: to the kaiser and Ashley says, let me file missing
Speaker 1: person's report, like maybe somebody can give me some guidance
Speaker 1: the car and I wone one. The dispatcher says, let me,
Speaker 1: you know, let me call and send you to the
Speaker 1: watch commander This is where I knew things are already.
Speaker 1: You know, they weren't going to give us any answer
Speaker 1: to watch. Commander told us, what's your brother's name? We
Speaker 1: give Sean's name, and then he said, well, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to find out on TV like everyone else tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And then this is already a factor in the morning already.
Speaker 1: You know you're I feel like you have a special
Speaker 1: ball on a special line, UM, connected with your love.
Speaker 1: When I felt like that line was cut off, So
Speaker 1: we started going through all these emotions. UM. We drive
Speaker 1: back home, We're praying with our mom and our moms
Speaker 1: just like we just have to be patient. No, no
Speaker 1: phone call from anybody in the La Police department. UM.
Speaker 1: Nothing actually looks again to see if my brother was
Speaker 1: maybe arrested. Nothing in the system. UM. And I was
Speaker 1: about that evening. I believe they released the police department
Speaker 1: released the statement with no UM what was it. They
Speaker 1: didn't even specify to say the condition of Sean or anything.
Speaker 1: They just said kind of their own little scenario. But
Speaker 1: no one again didn't reach out, and it was till
Speaker 1: Ashley decided to call. I called the coroner's office at
Speaker 1: Solano County. UM. I gave them Sean's birthday and in
Speaker 1: his name, and that's when we got confirmation that Sean
Speaker 1: was at the at the coroner's office. Still didn't know
Speaker 1: what even happened, how he ended up there, and we're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out, like where he's at, but all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he's at a corner's office. So we
Speaker 1: were just so confused, we felt nauseous, like still didn't
Speaker 1: have no one reached out to us that even let
Speaker 1: us know what happened until like seventy two hours later,
Speaker 1: we finally get some type of news of what even happened.
Speaker 1: So the remember his name was Detective Kevin Rose caused
Speaker 1: our home as we're calling family to coordinate Sean passed away.
Speaker 1: We don't know what happened. Um, you know me was
Speaker 1: all everyone's calling us. And then this guy causes, like,
Speaker 1: we just want to talk to the parents, and my
Speaker 1: mom's working and my dad was at home, and I
Speaker 1: remember he said, we just want to get a statement,
Speaker 1: and we're like a statement about what we don't even
Speaker 1: know what's going on, and he's like, okay, what have
Speaker 1: you on the line, um, And I said, well, I
Speaker 1: can't talk right now. I'm on the phone with my
Speaker 1: grandma to you know, let them know everything that's happening
Speaker 1: right now. I hang up. He calls again, he's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, actually, let me have the sisters, Like,
Speaker 1: I just want to ask you guys some questions. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I haven't. I can't answer anything for you, So I
Speaker 1: just hung up. And then that's how it pretty much
Speaker 1: was for us the first June one and June was
Speaker 1: it went one second? Was this the officer who said
Speaker 1: who called? The media person, the detective Kevin Rose, all
Speaker 1: the media people, all the you know, just everyone's trying
Speaker 1: to you know, everyone's trying to just figure out what's happening. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: we don't even know what's happening. We're trying to figure
Speaker 1: out ourselves. UM. So it's just a really rough you know,
Speaker 1: first forty forty eight hours for our family. Um but
Speaker 1: it's just really this hard. It was really hurtful for
Speaker 1: our family to know you're calling us. You know, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be a detective. You're calling us to get
Speaker 1: a statement, not even to let us know what happened.
Speaker 1: How dies Sean even you know everything. So you know,
Speaker 1: we took on the fight from I remember just even
Speaker 1: the moment our our previous UM former attorney we had
Speaker 1: was like you know, you guys have to get on camera.
Speaker 1: We're asking for two weeks. We're like we have to process.
Speaker 1: This is like you don't understand how how important this is.
Speaker 1: And it's almost like I felt like a message from
Speaker 1: God just telling us, like you can't stop m And
Speaker 1: since then we haven't stopped. Don't you know. I know,
Speaker 1: I know it's kind of painful, but what exactly happened?
Speaker 1: What was If you don't mind, I'll pick up on
Speaker 1: that um and it's important. Actually, Uh, my son, as
Speaker 1: you start to ask that question of what actually happened,
Speaker 1: they remind reminded me of the time that you and
Speaker 1: I intomik or out in Minnesota. Uh. It was during
Speaker 1: the middle of all those protests, and so there were
Speaker 1: a lot of people out in the streets police for roaming.
Speaker 1: I remember when I got off the airplane and was
Speaker 1: walking to my hotel, police stopped and pepper spray you
Speaker 1: all the way by and I was just walking from
Speaker 1: my hotel. Whoa crazy? Crazy enough? This case was very
Speaker 1: similar to that um Sean is out while people are
Speaker 1: protesting the police, they don't even stop their car. They're
Speaker 1: still driving and they literally shoot him through the window
Speaker 1: like a drive by, but bullets go through the windshield
Speaker 1: and strike him. While he's on his knees with his
Speaker 1: hands up. He sees police approaching, he begins to attempt
Speaker 1: to surrender and they shoot him through the window. There
Speaker 1: no weapons involved on his part. Uh, there is no
Speaker 1: shots in the area recently. Uh, this was I don't
Speaker 1: understand why the officer wasn't drug tested immediately because it
Speaker 1: was bizarre. It was a drive by by longs being
Speaker 1: the middle of the protest, during the middle of the protest,
Speaker 1: during during the George Floyd like, it could have easily
Speaker 1: been any of us, like the night that we were out,
Speaker 1: if the law enforcement decided just to roll up on us.
Speaker 1: It was that quick. There was nothing he could have done.
Speaker 1: In fact, the best advice I would have given him
Speaker 1: in that moment was to go to the ground and surrender,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what he did. They stopped just like that.
Speaker 1: So how many times did they shoot him with They
Speaker 1: shot him once without a R fifteenth through his neck,
Speaker 1: but they shot five times out the window. And the
Speaker 1: most devastating thing is right, they destroyed the evidence of
Speaker 1: the windshield, you know, um, once the release of the
Speaker 1: footage was released and they was asked to preserve the windshield,
Speaker 1: you know, to forensics and all that stuff. The president
Speaker 1: of the Valleo Police Association orders for the destruction of
Speaker 1: evidence and has another um lieutenant actually just oh, we
Speaker 1: took it out, wipe it up, you know, put a
Speaker 1: new car, the cars back on the field. So it's
Speaker 1: like already little steps of them coming up. You know.
Speaker 1: Not only did he kill my brother, he but he
Speaker 1: endangered the other two people who he shot from the
Speaker 1: back seat, the driver and the passenger, you know. And
Speaker 1: this is a culture and we we had to learn
Speaker 1: about the rituals that happened of l with the badge
Speaker 1: banning right the captain already on seen is it's a
Speaker 1: plotting basically, Jared on the off coach on it's like, well,
Speaker 1: we've been through this before. You'll be okay, You'll get
Speaker 1: through this, you know. And it's just the whole video
Speaker 1: is already very chopped and screwed and horrific itself. But
Speaker 1: it's just like the same thing. We've been through this before.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be okay, you know, not even mind of
Speaker 1: like what's the family going to go through? You should
Speaker 1: have stopped, not even dried by a situation any of that,
Speaker 1: the justifications for like what did they say the reason
Speaker 1: why they should He said he believed he saw a hammer.
Speaker 1: I mean sorry, he believed he saw a game. Um,
Speaker 1: but what was discovered on Sean's body later was a hammer. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that he even saw the hammer because
Speaker 1: of where it was found on Sans. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and this is we, like I said, once the second happen,
Speaker 1: we have to like go and be basically we are
Speaker 1: own detectives, learn about why and Valeto so and this
Speaker 1: is the craziest thing since Valeo from Sean. There's been
Speaker 1: an officer involved shooting each year of killing one or
Speaker 1: two innocent black around unarmed men, then finding out that
Speaker 1: the badge spending. Um the captain who was there previously
Speaker 1: before the captain that's there, uh no, the chief sorry
Speaker 1: um whistle blowed about the badgepending. Then the city and
Speaker 1: everybody they fired him. So it's been a people been
Speaker 1: aware of this culture, the badge bending. You know, it's
Speaker 1: something and we're finding out now, you know, through hearing
Speaker 1: court transcripts and stuff that jaredon could have been a
Speaker 1: badge bender. You know that this is all this is
Speaker 1: their little internal gang. You know, this is what they do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's already horrific the way we lost Sean,
Speaker 1: but to learn that this is something to go behind
Speaker 1: and said they could have been hunting that night for
Speaker 1: a starbank. You know, basically, how do you mean to
Speaker 1: cut you off? So basically every time they take a life,
Speaker 1: they've been one of the corners of the badge so
Speaker 1: and basically celebrating that you you killed someone, and you
Speaker 1: took someone's life, took the life of a level one
Speaker 1: and this is what the police, the public servants are doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah wow, So what is the campaign now to deal
Speaker 1: with that? Because I'm sorry. So there has been some traction. Initially,
Speaker 1: of course they went to to cover up the officers
Speaker 1: UH actions. As of now, the as the Monte sisters
Speaker 1: mentioned a moment ago, the chief has been the placed
Speaker 1: with the new chief of police. UH. There has been
Speaker 1: a special report or investigatory report report UH done by
Speaker 1: the city of Alajo itself to found UH that this
Speaker 1: was unjustified shooting. UH. The officer has been terminated However,
Speaker 1: there was an additional finding recently by the Civil Service
Speaker 1: Commission that the officers should be reinstated. The current police
Speaker 1: chief is trying to block this officer being reinstated. The
Speaker 1: police union is trying to have the current police chief
Speaker 1: removed from his position because he used to reform mind
Speaker 1: it uh. The Attorney General's Office, Rob Boten, is responsible
Speaker 1: for the criminal prosecution of this officer. The initial prosecutor
Speaker 1: UH about out requested to be removed from the case.
Speaker 1: Um and so Rob Botner's office took over as special
Speaker 1: prosecutors and they're in the midst of them investigating. We
Speaker 1: planned to do a little bit more u H. As
Speaker 1: time goes on to put Mr Botan's feet to the
Speaker 1: fire how to move forward with prosecution. So how many
Speaker 1: times has this over to quote unquote bend his badge?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is that known to the public TEA So
Speaker 1: through court hearings that have been released, I think they're
Speaker 1: they're released publicly right now. The so the captain who
Speaker 1: started the ritual went on standing testified about who the order,
Speaker 1: who been squad, what it started with. Apparently the ridge
Speaker 1: of the ritual came from another surrounding police department and
Speaker 1: conquered police department, then went to Oakland. Then it's then
Speaker 1: the hub is basically in Valleo. So it's been happening
Speaker 1: in Valo since two thousand to two thousand two. And
Speaker 1: he basically named all the officers who are a part
Speaker 1: of it. So it's kind of like initiation, if you know,
Speaker 1: if one of us do this, then we're going and
Speaker 1: you know, I go bet yours and you go bet someone's.
Speaker 1: It's like that. And through those transcripts, Jaredtson's name was
Speaker 1: popped up, so we have reason to believe that that
Speaker 1: night he was going out to get his second one.
Speaker 1: But Jarrettson has been in three other shootings. You know,
Speaker 1: he never killed the other the other ones, but Shaun's
Speaker 1: his first fatality and Jaredson is the second. I believe
Speaker 1: in the department to have the most um accord with
Speaker 1: another officer named Steve Darden, the most officer involved shootings
Speaker 1: under their belt. So this is an officer, Jarrettson, the
Speaker 1: officer who killed our brother. His came from a different
Speaker 1: police department because he had misconduct in this other police department.
Speaker 1: So there's this thing in California where there's now there's
Speaker 1: through SP two Senator Bradford's Law of Police Decertification, there
Speaker 1: is now a process to de certified bad officers to
Speaker 1: prevent them from bouncing around from county to county and
Speaker 1: from police departments. But this is a person who's a
Speaker 1: known bad apple, who's a bad cop, who's always been
Speaker 1: trying to kill people. You know, this is the longest
Speaker 1: period I want to say, two years since Sean's death
Speaker 1: that the officers of the Malayo Police Department haven't killed anybody.
Speaker 1: M No. And we stopped the ritual from twenty of
Speaker 1: them killing more people. And we can't thank fish for swimming.
Speaker 1: We can't apply fish for swimming. But it just goes
Speaker 1: to show that community pressure, what everyone is doing, the
Speaker 1: collective work of everybody is really making a difference. And
Speaker 1: so we just gotta keep applying that pressure. And I
Speaker 1: like to say all gas, no breaks, even though sometimes
Speaker 1: we need to take those breaks, but you know, we
Speaker 1: gotta keep pushing no. So I just want to say, so,
Speaker 1: what can what can we do? Now? What can people do?
Speaker 1: You know, how can we in support to make sure
Speaker 1: that these officers are fired and and actually prosecuted, because
Speaker 1: this is this is murder, you know, and and these
Speaker 1: are murderers. They're pretty much any game, you know, setting
Speaker 1: out to find the next kill. So what can we do?
Speaker 1: You know what I listen to do not only murderers,
Speaker 1: but texts payers sponsor murderers. And so for this gang
Speaker 1: that our text I was responsoring there too, um decision
Speaker 1: makers that you all can reach out to that we're
Speaker 1: asking you to reach out to, firstus the new chief
Speaker 1: of the Vallet Hill Police Department, showing your support for
Speaker 1: his um is decision and pursue progress, for his support
Speaker 1: of the prosecution of Jared Time, and for his termination.
Speaker 1: I think he needs to hear voices of support around him,
Speaker 1: and the media needs to see that the community supports
Speaker 1: the reform that he's pursuing in Valet Hill. And then
Speaker 1: for criminal accountability for these officers, we are asking you
Speaker 1: to reach out to the Office of Attorney General Rob
Speaker 1: but his office has been investigating this case for well
Speaker 1: over a year now. They have more than enough evidence
Speaker 1: to issue your arrestlaurrants uh and to place the men
Speaker 1: responsible for us Stunt's death and cover up in tustody. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you all so much. I mean you guys, First,
Speaker 1: of all, just to see you, Ashley and Michelle just
Speaker 1: blossom so much from where you started when this all
Speaker 1: happened to where you are now. It's unfortunate that it
Speaker 1: takes extreme trauma and tragedy sometimes to develop the world's
Speaker 1: leaders um your voice and your understanding and your ability
Speaker 1: to you just have such clarity in terms of how
Speaker 1: you walked us through all of this and what's the
Speaker 1: next steps and what's happening with the police department, And
Speaker 1: it would actually do them good, which I know they
Speaker 1: never think this is true, but it is to work
Speaker 1: closer with you all so that they can create systems
Speaker 1: that one respect people when issues happen. So first of all,
Speaker 1: we don't want the issues to happen at all, so
Speaker 1: you know that. But that's a long fight that we're
Speaker 1: all involved in um nationally. But just looking at how
Speaker 1: they responded to you, the same thing happened to Brianna
Speaker 1: Taylor as mother, going back and forth to the hospital
Speaker 1: all overnight, going to the apartment where Brianna was shot,
Speaker 1: then going to the hospital back and forth, and the
Speaker 1: officers and and and the detectives and others. It's not
Speaker 1: that it was just a mix up they knew she
Speaker 1: was in the house, dead on the ground, They knew that,
Speaker 1: but they wanted to send her mother around in a
Speaker 1: loop so that she would not find out what was
Speaker 1: going on and have questions on the scene. So all
Speaker 1: of this is intentional, and then there is so much
Speaker 1: disrespect involved. And I don't ever want us to normalize it,
Speaker 1: to say that you guys are gonna be there and
Speaker 1: tell them, well, if you kill people black and brown people,
Speaker 1: this is how you deal with it. But there's but
Speaker 1: that behavior, that attitude that they had with how they
Speaker 1: treated you in the detective calling and all of that,
Speaker 1: that's the same attitude that plays out in the conversation
Speaker 1: we just had um Lee about uh miss guys. It's
Speaker 1: the same attitude that plays out with how police officers
Speaker 1: deal with people all over the nation, which can lead
Speaker 1: to someone was in their life because there was such
Speaker 1: a lack of respect for our community. So I just
Speaker 1: want to say to you ladies that I was gonna
Speaker 1: say you girls, because you know, y'all are like our
Speaker 1: babies at this point, that we love you, we appreciate you,
Speaker 1: we stand with you. Um you know, we support you all,
Speaker 1: and we are really, really really sorry that your lives
Speaker 1: have ended up this way. You should be on the
Speaker 1: beach having a good time, living life and not even
Speaker 1: thinking about this type of work. But you are invested,
Speaker 1: and you know God has unfortunately allowed a tragedy in
Speaker 1: order to lift you to to help others. So thank
Speaker 1: you all. Thank you. Look I did not I don't
Speaker 1: remember signing up to be God's strongest soldier, but somehow
Speaker 1: he picked us, um, And here we are, you know,
Speaker 1: we're trying to pick up the pieces and do whatever
Speaker 1: we can. And and our brother was a fighter, he all,
Speaker 1: he was a hustler. He had to do what he
Speaker 1: had to do. And here we are. We hear him saying,
Speaker 1: stop crying, do something about it, you know, And we're
Speaker 1: doing something about it, Um, And you know, unfortunately it's
Speaker 1: not the journey we chose, but it's the show. It's
Speaker 1: the journey that's been given to us. And we're just
Speaker 1: you know, we're pushing and praying and we're doing everything
Speaker 1: we can, not just for Sean, but we really just
Speaker 1: want to be the last family impacted by the Valo
Speaker 1: Police Department, and we're gonna make it happen. How do
Speaker 1: the people join the movement if they want to follow
Speaker 1: you online. What's happen? You guys can follow us. Um,
Speaker 1: We're not we haven't formalized our work yet. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a daily work we do at a heart
Speaker 1: and are gonna do it forever. Um. But you guys
Speaker 1: can stay tuned um with the work we do and
Speaker 1: just follow updates on the case. Justice for Sean Underscore
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Justice for Sean on Twitter. UM. And
Speaker 1: we also have a website stand with Shawn dot com
Speaker 1: um where you can stay updated. UM. And we have
Speaker 1: a website. So yeah, that's where folks can come and
Speaker 1: support us. And you know, I think right now we
Speaker 1: applied so much pressure in Valo that the city officials
Speaker 1: canceled all their meetings of August. So UM, we plan
Speaker 1: to pack the city council meeting September thirteenth. Again, we
Speaker 1: still need to hear an update on the termination of
Speaker 1: Jariton and you know the uh the badge banning report.
Speaker 1: You know that's something that the publicly should note which
Speaker 1: officers are in their communities patrolling and are part of
Speaker 1: this ritual. So you know, we'll coordinate with Lee in
Speaker 1: other ways and anyways. You know, we want to get
Speaker 1: you guys out to California and you know, we'll figure
Speaker 1: it out. Yeah, we we want to come. Call OUs
Speaker 1: is to Carmen that Justice League and to her to
Speaker 1: pay for our tickets so we could get there because
Speaker 1: we old sel guys and we got your back, man,
Speaker 1: continue to fight justice for Sean. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Attorney Lee married We thank you guys. Work
Speaker 1: with us today for a whole hour. We'll pick your
Speaker 1: brain today, man, I appreciate you. I'll take it easy.
Speaker 1: You know what I think. I think that people want
Speaker 1: to look because they're just so hopeless and we've been
Speaker 1: beating so much. People want to look at police encounters
Speaker 1: and as Lee said, as like individual circumstances and instances.
Speaker 1: They want to be like, well, this situation, it was this,
Speaker 1: and then that situation is that, and it's not. It's
Speaker 1: a it's an entire system. It's an entire system, and
Speaker 1: it is failing tremendously. The reality for me is just that,
Speaker 1: you know, people just don't understand some people. Some people, well,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people just don't get that policing is a job, right,
Speaker 1: There are requirements, there are criterias, like you know, just
Speaker 1: like you explained walking into the restaurant, Like if you
Speaker 1: go to the doctor, I might know that I need stitches, right,
Speaker 1: I could look at it stitch, but I can't stitch
Speaker 1: me up right, I'm not if you you're supposed to
Speaker 1: stitch me, I'm good. And if you don't do it
Speaker 1: right there, you are liable for not doing it right.
Speaker 1: There requirements that come with being a doctor, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why you get paid this money.
Speaker 1: That's the reason why you get a title, right, and
Speaker 1: police have a title of a public servant and in
Speaker 1: a badge and a gun. So you have you have,
Speaker 1: you have. The onus is on you to make sure
Speaker 1: things end up right. You know, you have the higher
Speaker 1: responsibility than I do, you know, because you understand things
Speaker 1: that I don't. A lot of times police are interacting
Speaker 1: with basic civilians who who really haven't had interaction with police,
Speaker 1: right Sometimes, like you know, when you look at Amber, guys,
Speaker 1: like I mean Angel guys, when you look at her situation,
Speaker 1: I don't think this. I think this is probably her
Speaker 1: first interaction with the police officers. So she's she's given
Speaker 1: you interpretation of the lord the way she knows it,
Speaker 1: and she interprets it, and it's your job to to
Speaker 1: properly interpret right. It's your job to make interactions with police,
Speaker 1: even if if they have to end up with you
Speaker 1: have to, you know, contain somebody, you have to give
Speaker 1: somebody a ticket because people are not happy about that.
Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna be happy about that. So police have a
Speaker 1: very difficult job. I will not lie. And that's why
Speaker 1: everybody shouldn't be police officers. You know. I was having
Speaker 1: a conversation with the lady police officers. She was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, what's the responsibility people? I said, the responsibility
Speaker 1: to people is to do their best, but they're responsibility
Speaker 1: whatever that the best is right and and and a
Speaker 1: lot of times it's not gonna it shouldn't be better
Speaker 1: than yours, right, Their their ability to de escalation not
Speaker 1: be better than the people who are paid to de
Speaker 1: escalate and the people to all paid to protect the serve.
Speaker 1: I should not be able to do your job better
Speaker 1: than you do, you know, and everybody is. Sometimes if
Speaker 1: it's the job you have, you don't want the job.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't do the job. If you're angry today, if
Speaker 1: you're having something maybe you shouldn't go to world. Maybe
Speaker 1: you should call up because you know that you have
Speaker 1: to be your best self in interacting with people. Like
Speaker 1: if you're work at police, have you have to look
Speaker 1: at police as a customer service job? If I walk
Speaker 1: at McDonald's and and and I'm I'm looking at the screen,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, you want a cheeseburger, lap, I want fries.
Speaker 1: No matter fact I might be indecisive, I might not
Speaker 1: know exactly what I want. Right, it's your job just
Speaker 1: to deal with me or help me. Okay, what would
Speaker 1: you like? What do you What is the combination that
Speaker 1: you're actually looking for? So I can give you some
Speaker 1: help not to be like yo, could you have me up?
Speaker 1: You don't got old day to do what you know
Speaker 1: you I'm laughing because that's what you do. You go
Speaker 1: places and sit there five minutes while the way to
Speaker 1: stand there and go I think I want this, I
Speaker 1: don't want this, and you're gonna eat the same thing
Speaker 1: every time doesn't matter. Right there now Linda is she
Speaker 1: orders your food? Yeah? But the thing is, but this
Speaker 1: customer service, I don't have to be rushed to tell
Speaker 1: you about what I want. Ain't because the regardless of
Speaker 1: what it gets on. People shouldn't because the reality situations,
Speaker 1: you get what you're saying. You have a shift. Right
Speaker 1: within that shift, even if you work with one person,
Speaker 1: you're still getting the same check. Right. Nobody ain't telling you, yo,
Speaker 1: you gotta walk away from that table. Are they are?
Speaker 1: And see that's the problem. The big problem here is
Speaker 1: that they are. They're telling you you have to give
Speaker 1: a certain amount of tickets out per night or during
Speaker 1: your shift. They feel you aren't working exactly what the
Speaker 1: problems with all the problems that the system of policing
Speaker 1: is bad. And then you hire officers who are angry
Speaker 1: about the system of policing, who don't know how to
Speaker 1: do their job in the fashion that doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: that doesn't infringe your palm the rights and the ability
Speaker 1: of the citizens. So it's it's a clusterfier, you know.
Speaker 1: And I hate when people want to give the onus
Speaker 1: on the citizen. I am a human in I don't
Speaker 1: have any training and that's why I'm not a police
Speaker 1: officer because I probably would have failed the academy. I
Speaker 1: get angry. I'm mad when you give me a ticket,
Speaker 1: I'm mad. I get pulled over I'm mad when you
Speaker 1: yell at me, and mad when you try to expose
Speaker 1: because I feel like I'm out of male. So when
Speaker 1: you try to impose your will and your power on me,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna work. But you know, when when you
Speaker 1: come to me with some level of courtesy and you
Speaker 1: speak to me in the man that will respect, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna speak to you the same way. But the minute
Speaker 1: that you try to impose your will on me, then
Speaker 1: now you're you're you're human being like me. I don't
Speaker 1: give a funk about the rest of that. That badge
Speaker 1: does not give you the authority and the ability to
Speaker 1: disrespect me, or talk down to me, or make me
Speaker 1: feel like I'm powerless because it but it doesn't because
Speaker 1: regardless of that's not what that's not what the law says.
Speaker 1: The law says that you were supposed to protect and serve.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to interpret the law. You're supposed to govern
Speaker 1: the law. You're supposed to utilize the law to make
Speaker 1: the best decision, but not for you to try to
Speaker 1: make me feel like you have a power over me.
Speaker 1: That's that's not that's not the police And you told me,
Speaker 1: and if that's what policing looks like then we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of interactions where the community does not
Speaker 1: like the police. Shout out to um my brother, um
Speaker 1: Jay Jordan. I just went to a convention for the
Speaker 1: launching of Time Done, you know, and that's that's a
Speaker 1: big thing. Tom Donne is working. Two Give Back gives
Speaker 1: them formally incarcerated citizens back their rights and full over.
Speaker 1: They're over seventy thousand rights things what we call collateral
Speaker 1: consequences of being incarcerated. When you when you when you
Speaker 1: are deemed rehabilitated and you re into society, you should
Speaker 1: be able to be a full citizen. So that's what
Speaker 1: Time Done is looking to do. They're they're actually looking
Speaker 1: too after you've served your time and you if you
Speaker 1: have certain amount of parole and you've done certain amount
Speaker 1: of things, that your your record is completely expunged to
Speaker 1: where it doesn't show up that you've ever had a record,
Speaker 1: so that you're not criticized, you know, And that goes
Speaker 1: to my I don't get it, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: get how a person serves their sentence. You do ten years,
Speaker 1: you did a crimely serence you sends you to ten
Speaker 1: years in five years probation and parole or whatever. You
Speaker 1: come home, you do the ten years, and you do
Speaker 1: the five years, and yet you still uh serving a
Speaker 1: sentence because you're there are criterias and you can't be
Speaker 1: a dog walker, you can't cut hair, you can't travel.
Speaker 1: I can't go to Canada. You know, I told his
Speaker 1: story about what happened in um in the White House.
Speaker 1: You know how we do all this work. We come home,
Speaker 1: we redeem ourselves and you're invited to do after work.
Speaker 1: After you do. We've done all this work to get
Speaker 1: these little passed. And I get to the White House
Speaker 1: and they tell me that I'm on the list that
Speaker 1: I can't go in. You know, so things like that,
Speaker 1: those those things hurt. You know, when you do a
Speaker 1: lot of this work and you and you're working hard
Speaker 1: a lot of people. I feel like, what am I
Speaker 1: working hard for? I served my debts to society. You know,
Speaker 1: I've come home, I'm living the right life. I'm a
Speaker 1: productive citizen, and still all these barriers and things stopping
Speaker 1: me from being able to to really fully excel. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, I I literally can't go to Canda. I
Speaker 1: got people that want to booked me to go to
Speaker 1: Canada do shows for the last fifteen years, and they
Speaker 1: won't allow me into Canada. I actually was detained you
Speaker 1: know when I when I went UM, I forgot exactly
Speaker 1: where it was, but they detained me because I had
Speaker 1: a formal record, you know, and I was going tour
Speaker 1: with the game, and they wouldn't allow me to go
Speaker 1: into I forgot exactly where it was, but I know
Speaker 1: that I was. I sat and detained New Center for
Speaker 1: three days before to the US, you know. So you know,
Speaker 1: we we we tell people turn your life around. We
Speaker 1: turned we we we sentence them and they fulfill them sentences.
Speaker 1: But yet you come home and you still treated like
Speaker 1: you're serving the sentence, you know. So I really don't
Speaker 1: get that. Man. Hopefully it's called chattel slavery and what
Speaker 1: they say slavery by another name. So they because as
Speaker 1: we know in the Constitution, if you're in prison, you
Speaker 1: are still not you're not considered to be like a
Speaker 1: full human, full man. And so I think, uh, you
Speaker 1: know this, this gives them the ability to you know,
Speaker 1: I was listening to Jamilla T. Davis talking about how
Speaker 1: she did all of this time twelve years she has
Speaker 1: completed her parole. She's done all of this InCred doable
Speaker 1: work in communities. We see it every day. We know
Speaker 1: what she does, working with young people, working with women,
Speaker 1: and now she's still paying what is it, restitution charges
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the white men who taught
Speaker 1: her how to do the crimes that she committed, they
Speaker 1: don't have any of that. So the system is and
Speaker 1: that's why you can't, like, I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: much about oh, well, you're bordering yourself and you need
Speaker 1: to do this and that, and I can't it's very
Speaker 1: difficult for me to get into those conversations. Yes, certainly
Speaker 1: we could tell people, hey, you gotta, you know, make
Speaker 1: sure that you get home safe. So therefore you have
Speaker 1: to conduct yourself in a way that protects you because
Speaker 1: people you know you you you you, you're you're. We're
Speaker 1: in a situation where we're dealing with people and a
Speaker 1: system that is i'll say dangerous, but also it's it's
Speaker 1: it's not mature, it's not it has too much ego
Speaker 1: and and and therefore you're you're not protected. So I
Speaker 1: understand that I wouldn't say, but that still does not
Speaker 1: mean that it's right, what is happening, And so when
Speaker 1: we try to justify these things, it upsets me because
Speaker 1: if we understand what the system is, how it was designed,
Speaker 1: and how it still operates today, then it is it
Speaker 1: is designed to to to put punitive damages before community interaction. Right.
Speaker 1: It is designed to feed capitalism, and that is where
Speaker 1: the child the major challenges. We're feeding financial resources into
Speaker 1: a society so other people can get rich and our
Speaker 1: people can stay poor. That's why that's why they go.
Speaker 1: They don't take they're not giving a white woman a
Speaker 1: ticket about that incident that happened. It's not gonna happen, Mike.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it never happens. I'm saying the majority
Speaker 1: of the time, it won't happen. They're not going into
Speaker 1: white neighborhoods ticketing and forcing white people to sign tickets
Speaker 1: and all of that. They are charging us to be oppressed.
Speaker 1: So that's why what's happening. They don't want you. They
Speaker 1: want you to to go back to prison, They want
Speaker 1: you to struggle, They want you to commit crimes so
Speaker 1: that this way we can continue to feed the system.
Speaker 1: And there's no other way to think about it, because
Speaker 1: if you didn't want people to continue to go back
Speaker 1: to prison, to feed the system, to commit crimes and
Speaker 1: what have you. Then you will find ways to make
Speaker 1: sure somebody can walk dogs as a for a living,
Speaker 1: somebody can have a barber shop for a living. You
Speaker 1: would find ways to make sure that happens. Another great show,
Speaker 1: you know. I want to shout out our brother, Attorney
Speaker 1: Lee Merit, for coming on and tackling and giving his expertise,
Speaker 1: his legal mind along with his logical mind about certain things.
Speaker 1: You know. Also want to shout out to mont Rosa
Speaker 1: sisters whose fight for their brother is you know, tremendous.
Speaker 1: We we've seen these young ladies for the last two is.
Speaker 1: We watched them, like you said, grow into activists and
Speaker 1: advocators and and and speak so strongly and and and
Speaker 1: understand what it calls for them to do in this moment.
Speaker 1: So I just want to shout them out and make
Speaker 1: sure that you support them. We live in times that
Speaker 1: are very hard for everyone, but those who are paid
Speaker 1: to protect and serve, those civil servants, you know, those
Speaker 1: people who we look for to have some level of
Speaker 1: safety to that are supposed to ensure that our rights
Speaker 1: are given to us. So I'm making sure that we
Speaker 1: are safe. They have a higher standard than the average citizen,
Speaker 1: you know, and I know a lot of times you're
Speaker 1: gonna see citizens do things wrong because they don't know
Speaker 1: a lot of people, don't know a lot of people
Speaker 1: and exactly, And we're not trying to justify anything, but
Speaker 1: we do know that citation shouldn't end up and people
Speaker 1: being told to the ground and locked in jail. You know,
Speaker 1: we know those things shouldn't happen. And when those things happen,
Speaker 1: we have to look to the people who who who's
Speaker 1: supposed to have the higher level of the higher standard,
Speaker 1: who's supposed to be held to the higher standard? Man?
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm always going to advocate for justice
Speaker 1: to be done, and we're also going to advocate for accountability.
Speaker 1: But we know that if policing is done properly in communities,
Speaker 1: there are a lot less arresting and a lot less
Speaker 1: people being hurt. So let's understand that, let's support each other,
Speaker 1: let's love each other, let's try to reimagine what policing
Speaker 1: looks like in our communities. I'm calling on if you're
Speaker 1: a police officering, you're watching this, you know, I understand
Speaker 1: that you're human beings, Understand that you have emotions, Understand
Speaker 1: that you deal with the same thing that us as
Speaker 1: regular citizens do, but just understand that we're not paid
Speaker 1: to deal with those things. We don't have the training
Speaker 1: to deal with those things. So a lot of times
Speaker 1: we're looking for you to de escalate, We're looking for
Speaker 1: you to know the laws, We're looking for you to
Speaker 1: be the level headed one. And we know that it
Speaker 1: works because it works in communities that are not of
Speaker 1: color and not don't live in poverty. So when you
Speaker 1: try it in our communities, maybe it'll work there too.
Speaker 1: With that said, I'm not gonna always be right. To me,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna always be wrong, but we both always
Speaker 1: and I mean always, be authentic. Listen to Street Politicians
Speaker 1: on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of
Speaker 1: Street Politicians, or I Women Dot TV