Speaker 1: That's own. Hello everyone, and I'm to make a d.
Speaker 1: Mallory and welcome to Street Politicians, the place where the
Speaker 1: streets and politics meet. There's been a lot happening. This
Speaker 1: is our second season of Street Politicians. Folks can find
Speaker 1: uh episodes from Street Politicians Season one on all platforms.
Speaker 1: We're streamed everywhere. We're on Spotify, We're on Apple, We're
Speaker 1: everywhere where podcasts are are streaming. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a special occasion for us to be
Speaker 1: coming for a second season because so much has been
Speaker 1: happening that having a platform where our voices can be
Speaker 1: heard and where we can bring you direct information about
Speaker 1: what's happening on the ground is so critically important to
Speaker 1: my son and me. Um, we're in a critical moment.
Speaker 1: I mean, this country is shifting. Whether or not everyone
Speaker 1: wants to acknowledge it, I don't know, but I know
Speaker 1: that we're in a critical time when the country is
Speaker 1: being changed. Um, there are some who wanted to change
Speaker 1: for reasons that are not good for black and brown people.
Speaker 1: But there's a resistance that's happening across this nation which
Speaker 1: is pushing back on anything that anyone thinks they're going
Speaker 1: to do to take us back to a time when
Speaker 1: our people weren't free, and we know that true freedom
Speaker 1: we've got a long way to go. But street politicians
Speaker 1: purpose is to be here to help walk through the
Speaker 1: who's what, the who's who, and what's what. Over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks, we've been in six cities, UM, over
Speaker 1: the past eight days, and unfortunately, while try hale in
Speaker 1: these cities, we're not on tour for a concert. We're
Speaker 1: not on tour having a good time. We're literally going
Speaker 1: from city to city dealing with death and murder based
Speaker 1: upon police violence. Six cities, eight days, and so today
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about a number of issues. You know.
Speaker 1: As I was um thinking about what we've been doing,
Speaker 1: the places we've been traveling, I put together a little list,
Speaker 1: and I want to read some of the names from
Speaker 1: this list, UM, because it's critical that we understand that
Speaker 1: although so many people are engaged in this new moment,
Speaker 1: people are passionate. People want to fight, and we should be.
Speaker 1: We have to understand that this fight is not about
Speaker 1: any one person, but it's about all of our people,
Speaker 1: all those who have been killed by state violence, UM,
Speaker 1: and those people who have not received proper justice from
Speaker 1: their city states and from America in general, And so
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read some names to you. Rodney King
Speaker 1: March third, nineteen ninety one, adn and Louima nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: i'm a du Diallo nineteen ninety nine, Sean Bell two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, Oscar Grant two thousand and nine, Ayanna
Speaker 1: Stanley Jones two thousand and ten, Trayvon Martin two thousand
Speaker 1: and twelve, Camani Gray two thousand and thirteen, Eric Garner
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen, La Kwon McDonald two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: Tunisia Anderson two thousand and fourteen, Natasha McKenna two thousand
Speaker 1: and fifteen, Freddie Gray two thousand and fifteen, Sandra Bland
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, Christian Taylor two thousand and fifteen,
Speaker 1: Philando Castill two thousand and sixteen, our Antoine Rose two
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, A Tatiana Jefferson two thousand and nineteen,
Speaker 1: George Floyd two thousand and twenty, Brianna Taylor two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty, A mod Aubrey two thousand and twenty, And
Speaker 1: there's so many more names of Debra Dannas to the
Speaker 1: Ramallei Grahams. There are so many names, Santra, he said
Speaker 1: a Cod Gurley, there's too many names to mention. Um
Speaker 1: and I'm sure we're missing so many many people. So
Speaker 1: the thought of the day that I have, and it's
Speaker 1: a scary topic because is so um, you know, it's so,
Speaker 1: it's so it's such a hot button issue, but it's real.
Speaker 1: And the question I think we have to be asking
Speaker 1: ourselves is does it take rioting that includes vandalism and
Speaker 1: burning down buildings to get justice? And how do we
Speaker 1: deal with the fact that some of the people, most
Speaker 1: of the people who are initiating these acts of vandalism,
Speaker 1: looting and violence are folks who are really not even
Speaker 1: a part of our real movement. So does it take
Speaker 1: writing to get things done? I think that's the question
Speaker 1: that we have to ask ourselves today. I think for me,
Speaker 1: you know, America has never responded to anything that was
Speaker 1: quote unquote petrol. They never responded to any um asked
Speaker 1: that that wasn't followed by a demand that threatened them
Speaker 1: to lose The only thing with America respects, unfortunately, is
Speaker 1: the loss of life or the loss of money. You know,
Speaker 1: and we we don't. We don't want to take anyone's life.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a non violent we most of
Speaker 1: us practice King and aroused us that we practice it,
Speaker 1: and most of our people just are naturally, just innately
Speaker 1: just not violent. So like Dr King said, you know,
Speaker 1: riots are the voice of the unheard, and that seems
Speaker 1: to be how it shapes up. We look back to
Speaker 1: the riots after Dr King passed away. They led to
Speaker 1: the civil rights they led to civil rights laws being
Speaker 1: so we have to ask herself. It's we have to
Speaker 1: ask herself if that's not the only thing they respect,
Speaker 1: what else have we ever seen work? You know, we
Speaker 1: we've seen what it is based on. Like America itself,
Speaker 1: it's colonizes, you know what I'm saying. They have every
Speaker 1: thing that they've done, they've violently taken. They go into
Speaker 1: other countries and decide how they run there. You know,
Speaker 1: they run their governments and things through violence, not by
Speaker 1: peaceful takeovers, not by peaceful demonstrations. So you can't expect
Speaker 1: anyone who has never gained any power peacefully to give
Speaker 1: up any power peaceful. So that's what happens. I think
Speaker 1: that's what's happened. That's what we've seen throughout history. When
Speaker 1: they realize that, you know, they're gonna lose property, there's
Speaker 1: a possible loss of life, there's a possible loss or something,
Speaker 1: then they they're they're prone to make some changes. And
Speaker 1: another thing is when you asked about a lot of
Speaker 1: these people who are out there, you know there aren't
Speaker 1: even with the movement they are. They are also all
Speaker 1: two kinds of schemes. These major corporations, they want to
Speaker 1: be looted, they want to be destroyed. They want to
Speaker 1: be bailed out. You know, they've already been bailed out,
Speaker 1: so they want to get the insurance money and the
Speaker 1: time it takes. Because we've we've been in a three
Speaker 1: months pandemic and if you think about what the pandemic
Speaker 1: has done. They are organizations, they are big name organizations
Speaker 1: who have had products inside of their myths for three
Speaker 1: and for um night over ninety days that they probably
Speaker 1: can't even sell that the warrantee is it's going on it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, So how do they not
Speaker 1: lose the products? So when you see the provocateurs, when
Speaker 1: you see the people that look like that, you don't
Speaker 1: know what they're doing here and they're setting something on fire.
Speaker 1: You know, it's an insurance game. Did they do it
Speaker 1: in the hood? When the car get bad, they pay
Speaker 1: somebody in the hood to go further? Like this is
Speaker 1: the insurance game. So they're playing the same game, just
Speaker 1: on a higher level. So we can't act like we're
Speaker 1: stupid to those things. We can't act like these bailouts
Speaker 1: that they give during this COVID nineteen and they're given
Speaker 1: us twelve llar texts and they're giving them hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars don't coincide with this. So you've got
Speaker 1: a hundred minute dollars now the insurance for all the
Speaker 1: property you lost. You know how much money these major
Speaker 1: corporations are gonna make or for this or for this
Speaker 1: insurance thing because they burnt down and they was able
Speaker 1: to have to close down and theft and loss of
Speaker 1: all these things that they under ensured under. So this
Speaker 1: is a this is a bigger game than just Risese.
Speaker 1: They they welcome the riots, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: They welcome them, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they know that they can't continue and they know they
Speaker 1: have to make some change because they know that the
Speaker 1: people are fed up. So this is a this is
Speaker 1: a carefully strategized pan that I think is by the government.
Speaker 1: And it's also they understand that when you get to
Speaker 1: the people to a level where they don't even feel
Speaker 1: like they're being governed by the government, something has to change.
Speaker 1: They know, like this point, you see that we are
Speaker 1: no longer willing to be governed by this government. You
Speaker 1: no longer this government right now is not represent the people.
Speaker 1: And that's why you're seeing harsh you know, things happening
Speaker 1: like I'm hearing. I don't know, don't quote me, but
Speaker 1: somebody just texts me tell them about either. You know,
Speaker 1: the commissioner has been fired in New York. Maybe it's true,
Speaker 1: maybe it's not. He should have been verified, but if
Speaker 1: it is, it shows you the drastic changes that have
Speaker 1: to be made in this time because the people in
Speaker 1: New York are no longer fist respecting law enforcement. They
Speaker 1: don't see them as someone who protects and serves them.
Speaker 1: So when you make that painfully clear, they have no
Speaker 1: other choice that but to do something. I mean, I
Speaker 1: disagree about one thing, and that is I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that all of these corpetitions are participating in the scandal
Speaker 1: to like burned down their buildings. And I know for
Speaker 1: sure Chanel Shorlette surely didn't want people to run up
Speaker 1: and their joint and steal their bags and lu beton
Speaker 1: their shoes. I don't think that they set it up
Speaker 1: that way. And even Mark Jacobs, um, I think one
Speaker 1: of their source was hit in one city and they
Speaker 1: came out and was like, listen, it's property, it's not
Speaker 1: human beings and human life. So I don't know that
Speaker 1: all of them are bad actors, but I do agree
Speaker 1: that there's an element of this whole movement that has
Speaker 1: always since I mean we're talking back in the Civil
Speaker 1: rights era when Dr King was out there, there's always
Speaker 1: been detractors, and there's always been people who want to
Speaker 1: stir up the confusion because in confusion you could do
Speaker 1: things like get an insurance claim. You can make the
Speaker 1: media change this message from talking about you know, police
Speaker 1: accountability to all of a sudden, the protesters are violent. Um,
Speaker 1: it gives police officers another reason to go out and
Speaker 1: kill you. And I think that's what worries me is
Speaker 1: that a lot of our young people, um, they don't
Speaker 1: really realize that, you know, one we need to be
Speaker 1: working towards particular goal. And then the question that we're
Speaker 1: charged with today's like it's throwing a brick gonna actually
Speaker 1: get whatever we're trying to get done solidified. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe it is. I'm just saying that's the thing we
Speaker 1: always have to ask ourselves from a strategy perspective. But also,
Speaker 1: these people will kill you, and they've been doing it.
Speaker 1: They've been There's a woman who died somewhere in this country.
Speaker 1: I can't even think of where it is, but she
Speaker 1: was out there protests and a young girl, she was
Speaker 1: a young white girl and she died. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you saw the elderly man and when he hit the ground,
Speaker 1: the blood is coming out of his ear. So it's
Speaker 1: very dangerous. And they have license to kill. They have
Speaker 1: laws that protect them killing people. Now I reckon what
Speaker 1: we would say is well, if people are participating in
Speaker 1: the act of rebellion and they're serious about it, then
Speaker 1: people have to be prepared to lose their lives in
Speaker 1: order to to to really um make a difference. Right.
Speaker 1: But what I've been you and I have been debating
Speaker 1: or discussing. I can't say for the for for the
Speaker 1: first time ever that you've been really pushing against it.
Speaker 1: But we've been debating whether or not our people are
Speaker 1: properly trained for this movement. Like I'm not a hundred
Speaker 1: percent sure. We don't even know our neighbors. So if
Speaker 1: you don't know your neighbor and people come intoe your
Speaker 1: community and they like trying to purge us, are people
Speaker 1: gonna actually come outside and say, I'm willing to take
Speaker 1: up arms to fight the McMichael's that killed um Ahmad
Speaker 1: are very like? Are people gonna come out and really
Speaker 1: staying for us? Are these white people who are all
Speaker 1: up in our marches, are they gonna come outside and
Speaker 1: make a citizen's arrest on a police officer or on
Speaker 1: people like the McMichaels who and you know who were
Speaker 1: in the process of killing um Ahmad arevery I don't
Speaker 1: know if we if we could go, if we could
Speaker 1: say we're getting we're gonna at our guns, We're gonna
Speaker 1: protect our communities, and we go back to trade von Martin.
Speaker 1: Were people in that community see themselves as being so
Speaker 1: much of the community that they would come out and
Speaker 1: take up arms and actually shoot, kill, arrest. George immiment
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know if that is even really
Speaker 1: what what it is that that even matters. I think
Speaker 1: that will. The issue for me is the people who
Speaker 1: would come out don't have the guns. You understand I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So we know that everybody is not gonna do it
Speaker 1: is everybody go for everything. But there are people who
Speaker 1: will protect, who want to be able to protect, who
Speaker 1: want to be prepared enough to go outside and if
Speaker 1: something they see something, they want to have the right.
Speaker 1: They want to have a legal right. They don't want
Speaker 1: to be beyond the law. They don't want to do,
Speaker 1: you know, things that are illegal. Just some people that don't.
Speaker 1: They want to be within the realms of the law.
Speaker 1: And it is within the realms of the law for
Speaker 1: you to have a fire you know, but is it
Speaker 1: within the realm of the law, mice to actually shoot
Speaker 1: your firearms? Because the bottom line is in order for
Speaker 1: you have you do the reason why you have a
Speaker 1: firearm is to protect you, your family, your homes. You know,
Speaker 1: when you are in threat, when you're being threatened, you are,
Speaker 1: and you have a legal firearm, you have the right
Speaker 1: to fire that fire all. But it's not working. It
Speaker 1: is It's the thing is this We're not we's not
Speaker 1: working that way. We are not firing a firearm to
Speaker 1: protect us. So where's that have will? We have a
Speaker 1: legal firearms and we're firing and to protect ourselves and
Speaker 1: it's not working. Okay, So Kenny Walker talking about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously now, um he's been able to get off. But
Speaker 1: that's also because so many people stood up for him.
Speaker 1: And that's what we have to do. Mrs Marissa Alexander.
Speaker 1: We know because we met fighting for Moliss to Alexander,
Speaker 1: this woman fired a one and shot ended up being
Speaker 1: in jail for many years. So when you're saying that
Speaker 1: we have the right, it's that right. It's only becoming
Speaker 1: or being realized either after major struggle or not at all.
Speaker 1: How many people you think are locked up right now
Speaker 1: that fired one and shot or shot someone and rightfully so,
Speaker 1: but because they're a person of color, the law is
Speaker 1: not working for them. But that's the thing we have
Speaker 1: to do. We have to gradually because we understand they're
Speaker 1: not gonna just give us all right, so we have
Speaker 1: to gradually go the steps. So we gotta say, okay,
Speaker 1: first we're gonna all our brothers and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: fight the fact that they did. They legally have a
Speaker 1: fire arm and they have a legal right to protect themselves.
Speaker 1: So that's it's a two pronged situation. But first we
Speaker 1: got to make sure that they prepared because even with
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, even if you gotta fight for
Speaker 1: your freedom, you're not gonna die. So this is to me,
Speaker 1: you rather I'd rather take my freedom, link send jail
Speaker 1: for some years and have to fight to get my
Speaker 1: freedom back to set there that you shoot me and
Speaker 1: kill me in the street, because I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: have a fight on so choices I've got. I'm taking
Speaker 1: the ladder. All I'm saying is you're a different breed.
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of people. I know people
Speaker 1: that right now without rather die than shoot some money
Speaker 1: and go to jail. No I know, I'm saying that
Speaker 1: on the streets on videotape. Obviously it ain't been that
Speaker 1: much over this pandemic because people have been moving around.
Speaker 1: A woman could be standing there being beaten by any man,
Speaker 1: police officer or not. And I see I see brothers
Speaker 1: all the time. They just look at it and they
Speaker 1: don't do ship. And I'm and you're right, I'm not saying,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying there are those who would and
Speaker 1: his sisters too. Is we're not just trying to am
Speaker 1: the brothers. The sisters need fire arms too, the whole family.
Speaker 1: Because if somebody being you or you pull that gud
Speaker 1: out of this conversation changed it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So these women definitely need to be all yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: So Trump threatened to put military on us, more military
Speaker 1: on protesters because he said that the governors weren't doing
Speaker 1: a good job of controlling protests. Um this weekend amazing, amazing, amazing.
Speaker 1: In Washington, d C. Where Mary Muriel Browser is the mayor,
Speaker 1: she decided to change the street that leads to sixteen
Speaker 1: hundred Pennsylvania Avenue and one of the actual street names,
Speaker 1: and she put black Lives Matter. He's the Black Lives
Speaker 1: matterway on the street, and then black Lives Matter was
Speaker 1: painted where every time Trump has to look out the window,
Speaker 1: that's what he sees. So people are doing some bold
Speaker 1: things across the country. And I feel like this idea
Speaker 1: that all we're gonna send the military and least have
Speaker 1: been militarized. They've been militarized exactly in in the militarization
Speaker 1: of police. That is an actual demand that we have
Speaker 1: been a part of with many groups and led by
Speaker 1: the Gathering for Justice and Justice League in terms of pushing.
Speaker 1: In fact, we marched two hundred and fifty miles from
Speaker 1: New York City to Washington, d C. Around the ending
Speaker 1: the militarization of police. So just sending out more troops,
Speaker 1: that's really all you're doing. And I bet you he
Speaker 1: was pissed to see that some of the truths were
Speaker 1: actually dancing in the street to the electric slide with
Speaker 1: the people, because even they know this is a bunch
Speaker 1: of bullshit. The bottom line is, man, when you have
Speaker 1: your moral compass, tells you the truth, you know, and
Speaker 1: I don't care where you were, I don't care. At
Speaker 1: some point where you're just a good person, you just
Speaker 1: can't do evil, and you know in things that a
Speaker 1: little quarter to your nature. So that's what happens. We're
Speaker 1: seeing officers, we've seen all mean people. We're seeing people
Speaker 1: in different fields of government and law seeing to themself
Speaker 1: like this is the time that I realized what's going on,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to allow my job, you know,
Speaker 1: all my career to affect or go against my moral compass.
Speaker 1: So they're speaking up and they're standing with the people.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Yeah, I do too, you know. And
Speaker 1: then a lot of stuff has been happening, like the
Speaker 1: Minneapolis Police Department is now they they actually voted today
Speaker 1: and released that they're going to defund police. We've got
Speaker 1: a problem. Like the craziest shit I've ever heard is
Speaker 1: that the City of New York it's planning to um
Speaker 1: disband or at least, uh, not so much reduced what's
Speaker 1: the word I'm looking for. They are going to suspend
Speaker 1: summer youth jobs. But the budget for police has been
Speaker 1: maintained and in some instances increase. Like you, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell you how it works. This is what the
Speaker 1: government does. Because when you when you look at this
Speaker 1: pandemic and you look at how it's paid dollars, you
Speaker 1: look at that they give us twelve dollars. Right when
Speaker 1: you get offered this pandemic in another two months, in
Speaker 1: two weeks, you're going to realize to yourself that you
Speaker 1: do not have enough money to sustain because the twelve
Speaker 1: dollars was good. They suspended most of your bills. So
Speaker 1: you know, they pushed it all. Okay, you don't gotta
Speaker 1: pay for two, do it once you good. So what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen is people have lost their jobs. We had
Speaker 1: the highest you know, unemployment rate in almost history, matter
Speaker 1: of fact, in history. And when in three months people
Speaker 1: gonna realize what's happening because the bills don't come back,
Speaker 1: then you know, they're they're not pushing it back and
Speaker 1: crime is going to go up. And they nderstand that.
Speaker 1: They understand that it's gonna be a higher level of crime.
Speaker 1: So they're like, we can't just really just get all
Speaker 1: the way with the police, you know, because we if
Speaker 1: you cut some of you with were these kids gonna
Speaker 1: get some money? You know? This is this is how
Speaker 1: these kids survived. They go to some of youth, they
Speaker 1: get their little checks by a little closed you know,
Speaker 1: having a little fun. So now what they're supposed to
Speaker 1: do to survive. So this is a plain situation here,
Speaker 1: Like we know that crime is about the rise of
Speaker 1: you know, when all of those those pushbacks and you
Speaker 1: can hold off for three months until you pay. Now,
Speaker 1: when that third moe coming, people ain't gonna income. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be serious. Yeah, that's why I kept paying my
Speaker 1: bills and struggling to do it, but I did because
Speaker 1: our we get our money from speaking, like we get
Speaker 1: our money from going across the country speaking on different programs,
Speaker 1: and somehow another people decided that zooms we're like free, yeah,
Speaker 1: which there was ninety percent free from me, so you
Speaker 1: got were eighty percent free from me. I had twenty
Speaker 1: percent of people actually paying something for Zoom conversation. But
Speaker 1: basically we didn't make any money over these last three months,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know how I did it, but
Speaker 1: I was committed to paying my bills because that whole
Speaker 1: suspension of your bills is not real it in most cases,
Speaker 1: it just put the rest of the bill in three months,
Speaker 1: like you still had to pay. So you're right, people
Speaker 1: are gonna be out here in Trumble and they're gonna
Speaker 1: need the police, and they need but it depends, right,
Speaker 1: because I don't know. I feel like, on one hand, yes,
Speaker 1: they need the police, but I also think what they
Speaker 1: need and I think that's my frustration with America, whatever
Speaker 1: that is. It's like, no, actually, you don't necessar certainly
Speaker 1: need police. What you need to do is have balance
Speaker 1: because they and they talk about looting. And what we
Speaker 1: I saw a Daily d S post that's like the
Speaker 1: biggest looting scheme that has ever happened, is that fifty
Speaker 1: billion dollars went to corporations in a similars package, and
Speaker 1: as you just talked about, twelve hundred dollars went to individuals.
Speaker 1: So if it was balanced where the corporations had to
Speaker 1: take less, so that the people, the American public could
Speaker 1: actually get more than maybe people wouldn't be in such
Speaker 1: and a place of such desperation. So I feel like
Speaker 1: you said in the march that you did in the
Speaker 1: Bronx with thousands of people showed up, and these are
Speaker 1: our march t shirts that say we all, we got well,
Speaker 1: we need you, we got we all, we need um.
Speaker 1: Thousands of people coming together. It's like, Yo, we don't
Speaker 1: even need the police to help us with this march.
Speaker 1: We're good. You can. We can protect ourselves. UM. The
Speaker 1: Hasidic Jewish community, we see it. We see them police
Speaker 1: in their community, UM supporting their community. And so I
Speaker 1: think it is a strategy that we could actually use.
Speaker 1: And then not to mention that other people know they
Speaker 1: know and elected officials and otherwise that that's not a
Speaker 1: community you want to play around with because they're they're
Speaker 1: going to vote and or use their voices to influence
Speaker 1: whatever needs to be done so that their communities can
Speaker 1: be protected. M any right. And I think that that
Speaker 1: pushes us into our next topic about police in our
Speaker 1: own community. When you look what happened to George Floyd,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a classic example of why we need
Speaker 1: to you know, when when we we police our own community,
Speaker 1: we deal with our brothers or compassion with a level
Speaker 1: of understanding, you know, whatever the situation giving the community,
Speaker 1: try to figure it out, you know. And that's a
Speaker 1: club when you look at the situation with a classic
Speaker 1: example of people who just had disregard for our community,
Speaker 1: disregard for black life, disregard for black body, for a
Speaker 1: black man, you know. And it's so much talk. There's
Speaker 1: been so much talk. You know, I think George Floyd,
Speaker 1: he tipped the scales, you know. I think it was
Speaker 1: just we just needed one thing. I've been saying today
Speaker 1: that he was the cherry on the cake, you know,
Speaker 1: the ice and was I was I as being put
Speaker 1: in slavery, you know, by the by the slave master.
Speaker 1: And then after we was released from slavery had to
Speaker 1: oversee it, you know. And then after and that was
Speaker 1: the second layer of the cake. And then the third
Speaker 1: layer of the cake was the officer, you know, and
Speaker 1: I think the ice and was all the brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters we lost throughout the regardens of the even Rodney King.
Speaker 1: Just the situation of watching how police have would have
Speaker 1: they have done to us? And I think I'm a
Speaker 1: Aubrey had you right there? And then George Floyd just
Speaker 1: tip the scale man. So the cake was full, man,
Speaker 1: And so it's time. It's time for us to eat.
Speaker 1: And so you can't have your cake, you need to
Speaker 1: you know, we don't want to have this cake. It's
Speaker 1: time to eat this cake and get rid of it. Man.
Speaker 1: So I think when we look at this situation and
Speaker 1: people talk about George Floyd, is you know why we're
Speaker 1: taken up for him? He had a criminal record, He's
Speaker 1: done things that you know, he wasn't a good person.
Speaker 1: He's not somebody to take up for. So, so where
Speaker 1: does black lives matter to you? When you say that,
Speaker 1: does black lives matter me? Only black lives of people
Speaker 1: who are professional, only black lives of perfect black people,
Speaker 1: or only black lives of people that you deemed to
Speaker 1: be their lives to be worthy. It's not every black life,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not a black life of the average
Speaker 1: person who has made mistakes, you know, who who's been
Speaker 1: through ups and downs, who's to found themselves in situation.
Speaker 1: So those people's lives don't matter to you. Those black
Speaker 1: lives are not worth us dying for. Just because he
Speaker 1: might have had a pass that wasn't squeaky clean, it
Speaker 1: was okay for somebody to sit on his neck with
Speaker 1: their knee until he couldn't breathe and as he screamed
Speaker 1: for his his mother, Like, so this is what So
Speaker 1: when you say that this is not the person, he's
Speaker 1: not the person that we should be champion my way,
Speaker 1: we we we champion behind black Black lives matter, needs,
Speaker 1: all black lives matter. So we watched the black man
Speaker 1: being choked to death for for something that wouldn't even
Speaker 1: amount to a crime, that was never even pool. So
Speaker 1: when people say that, I'm just so confused. Man. You know,
Speaker 1: the same leaders that we praise mircoelm Max used to
Speaker 1: be read. You know, you know, we all evolved from something,
Speaker 1: we all come from something I was in jail I
Speaker 1: spent seven years in prison of my life. You know,
Speaker 1: even for a crime you don't know. You don't know
Speaker 1: the dynamics of that man crime. You just see what
Speaker 1: he said on payer, but you don't know what that man.
Speaker 1: You don't know if those cases are even true. You
Speaker 1: have no idea, So the reality situations for you to
Speaker 1: make a judgment or whether a man should live or not,
Speaker 1: or whether he should be champion for or or people
Speaker 1: should kid that he died because he has a criminal
Speaker 1: record or something that you deemed that is not you know,
Speaker 1: respectful for you? Who are you? Who the hell are you?
Speaker 1: Who the hell are you to tell us that we
Speaker 1: who we could chimp? Who the hell are you to
Speaker 1: tell us who we can fight for? Who the hell
Speaker 1: are you to tell us who's gonna make the change
Speaker 1: from black lives? Whoever you think he is. George Floyd
Speaker 1: was the person that woke this world up. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna celebrating for that. I say, you say icing on
Speaker 1: the cave, I think that's too positive. I say, the
Speaker 1: straw that broke the camel's back. And you know I've
Speaker 1: been saying that the back of the camera was already weak.
Speaker 1: It was already broken. Basically, it was already bloody, it
Speaker 1: was already bruised, and yeah, you know now it's been
Speaker 1: cracked to the point where it just can't move anymore.
Speaker 1: The camera was down, and that would be America. It's
Speaker 1: gotta change. It's like, there's no more begging. They it's
Speaker 1: a little more crying about it. There's no more meetings.
Speaker 1: We don't need any more hearings. We need get the
Speaker 1: ship done. Like, get it done. There is a way
Speaker 1: to stop police from being able to kill people without
Speaker 1: have without being health accountable. You know what you do
Speaker 1: hold them accountable. So they were like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: to Meka, you're a leader and you you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: calling on Joe Biden right now because we gotta get
Speaker 1: Trump out. Fuck that. I don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: My position is, if Joe Biden wants to be president
Speaker 1: and he can't answer the little questions that we have
Speaker 1: and the demands that we have, then I might as
Speaker 1: well have Trump as the president because I'm dealing with
Speaker 1: the same thing. One person that's completely crazy and out
Speaker 1: of his mind and another person that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: closet racist. So I need you to show me you're
Speaker 1: my ally. When I scream out, and I called that
Speaker 1: when the baby cries out, the baby is not mad
Speaker 1: at the parents. The baby is not doesn't hate the parents,
Speaker 1: but the baby is saying there needs to be attention
Speaker 1: put on this issue. And so when we're calling out
Speaker 1: saying we want to hear from Joe Biden, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that we support Trump. Who the hell like We've
Speaker 1: been fighting against Trump, And I think, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's disrespectful for people to try to make it seem
Speaker 1: like just because we're demanding things of a Biden that
Speaker 1: somehow that makes us on what they said, They said
Speaker 1: I was being uh it was something. It was a
Speaker 1: word they used. They said I was being uh naive
Speaker 1: and irresponsible. That I would that I would, I would
Speaker 1: think that in this moment we should be challenging. This
Speaker 1: isn't exactly the moment. My sister teslin Um, who's a
Speaker 1: great leader, said she she used to be with the
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders campaign and she said, oh, this is the
Speaker 1: moment people mad at puff. Oh you know puff, he
Speaker 1: this is the wrong time. It probably would have been
Speaker 1: better if he would have said something about um, you know,
Speaker 1: the voting issue, and and and and and holding our
Speaker 1: vote hostage, if you will, when there were more people
Speaker 1: running and we had options where we can kind of
Speaker 1: play around and figure out who's the best person. But hey,
Speaker 1: it didn't happen at that time. It happened at the
Speaker 1: moment when we're in that we're in, and it needs
Speaker 1: to happen because we are tired of being given these
Speaker 1: boogeyman choices. Well you know, if you don't, if you
Speaker 1: don't do this, and that person is going to get all.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we freaking want Trump. I don't
Speaker 1: want Trump to be left again. But I know one
Speaker 1: thing what we have ain't working. And and what I
Speaker 1: mean by what we have is I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: d n C and these entities that you know, just
Speaker 1: they don't give you much, but they ask everything. It's
Speaker 1: the fact. So you're right listen to me. I'm with you, man,
Speaker 1: And I wanted first of all, I want to commend
Speaker 1: you on probably having the greatest speech of you know,
Speaker 1: this if of modern history. You know, behind like I
Speaker 1: have a dream, you know what I'm saying, Like it's
Speaker 1: being compared up there with that man. The words that
Speaker 1: you said. I was just grateful to be in the building,
Speaker 1: you know at that press conference when you came from
Speaker 1: your heart and you spoke about how black people have
Speaker 1: been treated in this country and and how fed up
Speaker 1: we are. You know, they're not many times that we
Speaker 1: have in history that are are monumental, and this is
Speaker 1: a monumental time. That was a monumental speech. So for
Speaker 1: you know, commend you live on our platform. Street politicians,
Speaker 1: If you have not heard that speech, then you need
Speaker 1: to go google it or you probably under the rack somewhere.
Speaker 1: You know it was THENG. The bottom line is this,
Speaker 1: I've heard you say that a thousand times. I've listened
Speaker 1: to me. I've heard you say speeches that I didn't
Speaker 1: understand why the world ain't here before I heard you
Speaker 1: saying speech yesterday that probably rival that one. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So the bottom line is, I know
Speaker 1: what it is that you do. But I'm just glad
Speaker 1: that you're actually getting recognition that the world is able
Speaker 1: to see what you see. You know what I see
Speaker 1: with us until freedom seen with so many of us
Speaker 1: have been there, you know, have been with you from
Speaker 1: the beginning, who have followed your leadership have been able
Speaker 1: to see for you know, for years. So I'm just
Speaker 1: glad that you're getting recognition. And in a couple of
Speaker 1: hours is gonna be a birthday, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you know, give you a little give you a
Speaker 1: little shut up, and we've got to give people their flowers,
Speaker 1: right they're here because most of the times people don't
Speaker 1: get their flowers. Man, So I just want to say
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. At the point that we are actually
Speaker 1: filming this piece, I'm we're recording it. I am turning
Speaker 1: forty years old, uh in a few hours from now,
Speaker 1: So by the time you see it, I'll already be forty.
Speaker 1: It will already be on our way to forty one.
Speaker 1: Like time goes by so fast. But you know, on
Speaker 1: that speech, you know how I do. When I gotta
Speaker 1: do a speech, I shut to everybody out. I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk. I got brity down. I need to
Speaker 1: go over it. I need to make sure and check
Speaker 1: with my historians, make sure my messages right, my historian
Speaker 1: Mark Thompson, that's my go to person. I get a
Speaker 1: few kick punch lines from you, and I get my
Speaker 1: political inspiration from Linda. I checked my media references with Rachel,
Speaker 1: and I might get a gut feeling for my mama
Speaker 1: and daddy about whether or not what I'm saying is good.
Speaker 1: Oh and then finally, finally my child says, my ain't
Speaker 1: nothing that cool, like you sound whack. So I get
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta a process that I go through
Speaker 1: what I'm doing speeches. But by the time we made
Speaker 1: it to the press conference with Jamie Fox, was that
Speaker 1: it was led by um uh, I'm sorry Steenson, Stephen Jackson.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, Stephan jack I'm anyway, Stephen Jackson,
Speaker 1: who I now just loved because I see the commitment
Speaker 1: and he's a friend of um right, he's a friend
Speaker 1: of George Floyd's a very good friend of his. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, I don't know, I felt
Speaker 1: like I just at the time that we got there,
Speaker 1: no one had been arrested. We found out that Chauvin
Speaker 1: was being arrested during the press conference, But arriving there,
Speaker 1: we were like, what, like, there's nothing happening. It's been
Speaker 1: days and there's still nothing happening for George Floyd and
Speaker 1: no one is being held accountable. So I was just
Speaker 1: speaking from my heart. I was just speaking from my heart.
Speaker 1: I was saying what I believed to be true, and
Speaker 1: it just so happened that I I, through the grace
Speaker 1: of God, articulated the feeling, the collective feeling of black
Speaker 1: people in America. And um, I was in the CEO
Speaker 1: of the President and CEO of Urban League, Mark Mariel
Speaker 1: said to me, you were just explaining it, just explaining
Speaker 1: it and that and that was so powerful because it's
Speaker 1: the truth. I was just explaining American history and how
Speaker 1: when you start trying to talk to us about looting,
Speaker 1: like what we've been looted as a people, and all
Speaker 1: this violence we've learned, this violence from America, you know.
Speaker 1: And and and I said something about Targeting Auto Zone.
Speaker 1: You know, I spoke about these corporations, and then Target
Speaker 1: put out a statement saying, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: I had anything to do with it, but they put
Speaker 1: out a statement saying that they were going to provide
Speaker 1: resources to the processes. So, you know, I'm grateful to
Speaker 1: God for using me as a vessel to speak truth
Speaker 1: to power. I did what I've always done. But because
Speaker 1: I feel and I I a truely, deeply believe that
Speaker 1: I'm a free black woman because I'm not funded by
Speaker 1: any of these people. I'm not funded by any of
Speaker 1: these moves, these these you know, we did that at
Speaker 1: the Women's March. Even though we didn't have corporate money,
Speaker 1: we were still funded by a powerful group of individuals
Speaker 1: and a lot of white women, to be clear. And
Speaker 1: now we're getting a dollar to dollars, three dollars, four
Speaker 1: dollars from black people. And for my birthday, I launched
Speaker 1: a campaign where people could give to Until Freedom UM
Speaker 1: four dollars forty dollars or four hundred dollars for my
Speaker 1: fortieth birthday. And I'm I'm so appreciative of the investment,
Speaker 1: as you always say, the investment that folks are making
Speaker 1: to to to to be with us, to work with us,
Speaker 1: and to be a part of this freedom fighting agenda together.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, if you want to, if you want
Speaker 1: to make an investment and on behalf of tniques birthday
Speaker 1: or four dollars forty dollar, four hundred dollars, you can
Speaker 1: go follow us at until Freedom on Instagram. We have
Speaker 1: a million links there. But if you want to make
Speaker 1: an instant one is Dallas sign Until Freedom of cash
Speaker 1: at that you can send too at this right now,
Speaker 1: but well, as you hear it, you be type it,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's what it is, is investment in freedom. Man,
Speaker 1: If you don't believe that we're going to get the
Speaker 1: freedom that you want or we're gonna fight with every
Speaker 1: out of us to get the freedom, and don't invest
Speaker 1: in us. We don't want We don't take donations because
Speaker 1: we don't want charity. We don't want you to feel
Speaker 1: like you're given us something. We want you to feel
Speaker 1: like you are invested in the same freedom that we
Speaker 1: are invested in. So you know, and www dot until
Speaker 1: freedom dot com. That's www dot until freedom dot com.
Speaker 1: And I think I'm old school because I still say
Speaker 1: w w W people don't say w w N. But
Speaker 1: until freedom dot Com is where you can go to
Speaker 1: get all the details on how you can donate or invest.
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm new school. Cash at work so fast
Speaker 1: that it breaks. Don't worry about it if you if
Speaker 1: you don't didn't, you can go to because because Benmo
Speaker 1: was there, that's until Freedom Okay, So either way, anyway,
Speaker 1: so listen, I think we're done for today. But the
Speaker 1: next topic that we have to have and we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to guests on is to talk about Brianna Taylor.
Speaker 1: We've got to talk about Brianna Taylor because because I
Speaker 1: just want to just give a little bit of because
Speaker 1: we found out about George Floyd, because we were down
Speaker 1: there for Brianna Taylor. You know, we were in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky, aproach.
Speaker 1: We were celebrating actually Brianna Taylor all Memorial Day. We
Speaker 1: did a memorial for her with her family, you know,
Speaker 1: and then we actually went and then we demanded that
Speaker 1: the officers be arrested. We did a press conference the
Speaker 1: next day and in the interim we had to go
Speaker 1: to UM where do we have to go to? Uh?
Speaker 1: Indianapolis because the police death police killings in twenty four
Speaker 1: hours in which a pregnant woman was ran over Sean Reid,
Speaker 1: the guy that you all see on videotape driving and
Speaker 1: LIFA chasing him. And then you see the officer leaning
Speaker 1: into the camera when he which he doesn't know he's
Speaker 1: being filmed, and he says something like, you know, I
Speaker 1: guess this won't be an open casket or something terrible.
Speaker 1: That happened, UM, and that was in Indianapolis, and we
Speaker 1: were there and that's when we learned, as you were saying,
Speaker 1: had lots of his life and we drove ten I
Speaker 1: was in the middle of tonight straight over there to Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: and the things I've seen here was just it was
Speaker 1: like award zone. But we're here, so we're we're We're
Speaker 1: definitely gonna talk about Beyond the tailor next time. If
Speaker 1: you don't know, I have an album out. I got
Speaker 1: a book that's out. Um it's called I Know My
Speaker 1: It um mcbrid Publishing is one of my is a
Speaker 1: children's book. I love it is the number one seller.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the people who are supporting me from
Speaker 1: making number one seller. It's on Amazons and number one
Speaker 1: sell on Amazon, and we appreciate you man. And if
Speaker 1: you can go get it album so not for sale,
Speaker 1: the album is out, you can go get that, um
Speaker 1: and just for me, just and talk support off until
Speaker 1: freedom and we all we got, we all we need
Speaker 1: and and and just so folks know, while I'm always
Speaker 1: you know, working with my brother and we're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing street politicians forever because we got something shipped to
Speaker 1: say and we want people to hear it. But also
Speaker 1: I have a show with Jamility Davis and Yandy Smith,
Speaker 1: Harris and our friends called talk over To and that's
Speaker 1: really the ladies coming together to to really kind of
Speaker 1: delve into um, all that's happening from a woman. It's perspective,
Speaker 1: from a woman's perspective, from some strong black woman's voices
Speaker 1: and our perspectives. And so you'll hear about talk over
Speaker 1: To and we want you to tune into that. Um.
Speaker 1: You know again, the next time you hear from us,
Speaker 1: it will be a special, a special on Brianna Taylor.
Speaker 1: Will be bringing her lawyers, will be bringing her mother,
Speaker 1: her best friend. Because we are not going to stop
Speaker 1: until we see justice for Brianna Taylor. There will not
Speaker 1: be a woman at this point at this time that
Speaker 1: we received less attention from the media and from our
Speaker 1: people and from all people. UM as we have seen
Speaker 1: with so many movements in the past. Brianna Taylor was
Speaker 1: murdered in her home. It's wrong, um. She was murdered
Speaker 1: for no reason at all, and it has to be
Speaker 1: dealt with. So I want to say thank you, oh
Speaker 1: first of all, before we even do that. Marciana has
Speaker 1: gotta be something that you don't get, because you never
Speaker 1: get anything you don't get well, don't get What I
Speaker 1: don't get, right, was if we've seen the video where
Speaker 1: the police officer pushed the seventi year old man who
Speaker 1: hit his head on the ground, and then another officer
Speaker 1: stopped him from picking up a man as his head
Speaker 1: was bleeding. You know, the officers got charged, The officers
Speaker 1: got charged with a level of assault, they lost their jobs,
Speaker 1: and then when they was coming out of the courtroom,
Speaker 1: there were people supporting them. There were people clapping for them.
Speaker 1: I don't get how your humanity allowed you to clap
Speaker 1: for that situation. I don't get. And most of those
Speaker 1: were officers, and I would I think, what we need
Speaker 1: to do. It's fine the name of all of those officers,
Speaker 1: because those officers are not fit to work for the police.
Speaker 1: They are not fit to police, you know, um protect
Speaker 1: and served. And I just really didn't get it. I've
Speaker 1: watched that scene a bunch of times. I watched the
Speaker 1: man hit the ground, I watched this head bleeding. I
Speaker 1: watched officers walk by him. I watched one of them
Speaker 1: said don't touch him. I watched them just ignore this
Speaker 1: man as blood gush from his head, this elderly man,
Speaker 1: and these people actually applauded that. They applauded that. So
Speaker 1: there's a level of evil within this system that I
Speaker 1: just don't get. I don't think it's ever been in
Speaker 1: my heart. I don't think it can ever be in
Speaker 1: my heart. There's something going on, and we need something
Speaker 1: different because this system as it is, it's just not
Speaker 1: right and I just don't get it. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: we don't a few good cops. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: there are no good cops. There are some. Edwin Raymond
Speaker 1: and the NYPD twelve. They are an example in New
Speaker 1: York of officers who are really trying to fight back
Speaker 1: and fight back against the system. So I think there
Speaker 1: are some good cops. So where we see that officers
Speaker 1: actually like protesting, and I think it was like a
Speaker 1: hundred officers that decided that they were going and to
Speaker 1: push back against um. These officers being held accountable for
Speaker 1: their actions and being reprimanded. It's sort of debunks this
Speaker 1: whole conversation about good cops because we're still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where they are. And if you if you're silent,
Speaker 1: if you're so quiet that we can't hear you, then
Speaker 1: I don't I don't really know that those are good
Speaker 1: cops at all, so or that the system, I think,
Speaker 1: the system of white supremacy, of racism, of everything that
Speaker 1: we see really overshadows good cops. And until officers begin
Speaker 1: to step in take control, uh perform uh citizens arrest
Speaker 1: or officers arresting officers, officers maybe having to draw their
Speaker 1: guns on other officers. Like that's the place that we're
Speaker 1: at right now. It's not a passive movement. It's not
Speaker 1: an old one. I see you, sis, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you know. I'm cop numbers some are so so badge
Speaker 1: number whatever, and I'm with you not like lives have
Speaker 1: to be saved. And if you're standing by why people
Speaker 1: are being murdered, then you become just like those officers
Speaker 1: who stood by and watch Chauvin put his knee in
Speaker 1: George Floyd's neck and, as Attorney Bencromp says, torturing him
Speaker 1: to death and kill him. And they weren't that innocent
Speaker 1: because they had their knees in his back as well.
Speaker 1: But they also could have stopped it and said enough
Speaker 1: is enough. And so they have now been charged and
Speaker 1: they should be. So that's my position, you know, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much look, one thing, we disagree on everything.
Speaker 1: If there were many we could we could be we
Speaker 1: could be talking about any issue, doesn't matter what it is.
Speaker 1: We disagree. But one thing we agree on is black
Speaker 1: folks and our freedom. And we agree around this police
Speaker 1: accountability issue. And so, um, I guess maybe there's a
Speaker 1: turns of the tides in terms of our discussions for
Speaker 1: the next few months as we lead towards an election,
Speaker 1: and maybe we won't disagree all the time. Now we
Speaker 1: ain't got time. We ain't gotta time to disagree. Right now,
Speaker 1: black folks is getting their asking, so we gotta agree
Speaker 1: about that, man. And you know we love us. We
Speaker 1: I know that we love us like nobody else. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. You know, we'll fight about something like
Speaker 1: something's gonna come up. We'll be fighting, but listen to me,
Speaker 1: we gotta go. Let's meek enjoy her birthday. We're definitely
Speaker 1: not gonna always agree, and I'm not gonna always be right,
Speaker 1: and she's not gonna always be wrong, but she is
Speaker 1: most time. But we're always going to be authentic. M
Speaker 1: That's how we own it.