WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 031321 Ramses Ja, Q Ward, and Tessa Farrell 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.720 Welcome to another episode of A Civic Cipher. I'man host, 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:03.360 Rams's Josh. 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.520 They call me q Ward, mostly because my mother named 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.480 me Quentin and Quinn is kind of hard to pronounce, 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:10.680 so people just go with Q, so. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:14.800 They call the one and only Q word. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:15.760 Uh. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.639 And we are here today again, like every week, to 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:29.800 talk to you about progress and ideas and you know, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.160 to try to help shape the world into a place 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.040 that is a little bit fairer and more pleasant for 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.839 all people. This is a black space, uh, but it 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.720 is a space also for all of our brothers and sisters, 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.320 allies and folks who want to learn, you know, a 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.159 little bit more than what they may be able to 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:55.160 determine from their traditional news sources. And so today's episode 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.720 is no exception. We got a few things to talk about. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.000 I do want to touch on some of the voter 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.440 suppression is what we're calling voter suppression legislature that is 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:11.759 on the floor at least in Phoenix, Arizona, where we live, 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.800 and some of the other articles that are on the 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.840 floor or have passed already in other places. We'll get 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.679 to that a little later in the show. I do, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:25.160 even though it's not necessarily American. I do want to 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:31.880 talk about recent events with respect to Megan Markle and 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:38.440 Prince Harry and all of the stuff that they're going through, 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.680 because I do think that at least warrants a conversation, 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.480 and this is really the only space where we can 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:51.920 have that conversation in a mass media format. But first, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:59.160 I wanted to talk about something that is kind of interesting. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:05.120 So being black, we obviously we recognize that the world 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.200 is just a little different for us, or maybe it's 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.880 a little different for our Caucasian brothers and sisters. I 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.720 think that goes without saying. If you're listening to the show, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.400 you might have an idea of what we're going on about, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.239 and you know, for the most part, it's just kind 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.280 of understood that there are some things that you know 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:30.880 that just we don't expect, right, But rarely do we 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.960 get to actually hear about a story from the beginning 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.799 all the way through to what I'll call the end. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.440 In this case, we have a guest on the show 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:48.519 today who is a sometimes contributor in terms of commentary. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.799 She is a political activist. She's done lots of work 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.799 with Rerising and a bunch of other groups. Can't even 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.679 name them all, but certainly a visible figure out on 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.080 the street and what we would consider an ally. Her 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:06.880 name is Tessa Ferrell and recently she was able to 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.239 follow up with a Karen, the Scottsdale Karen, the one 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.600 that was in Target, I want to say, tearing down 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:19.200 all the masks and so forth. And you know, rarely 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.280 do we hear the end of these stories. They come up, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.680 their sensationalized and then they you know, they fall by 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.680 the wayside and no one follows up. But we have 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.520 a an actual direct interaction with this woman, and and 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.880 we have we have an opportunity to examine the ways 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:44.760 that sometimes the world treats, you know, folks different. And 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.040 and I don't want to get too much into it. 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:47.760 I don't want to tell the story before she does, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.280 so I'll just bring her on the mic. So welcome 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.600 once again. Yeah. So, so for those who don't know, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.200 I know I kind of gave a brief introduction to 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.560 the story. But can you tell a little about what happened. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.800 I want to say it was July of twenty twenty. 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.120 As in the incident, so it actually happened in March. March, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:16.480 and a well known in our community. I guess white 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:21.560 woman went into a Target and went on a rant 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:26.920 and tirade pulling down masks in Scottsdale. I think it 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.320 is a target, but pulling down masks and having a 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.160 hissy fit about how you know this it's finally her time. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.440 She's not going to get on board with this and 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.920 you don't like her. She won't be stifled in this 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:43.159 way and what have you? 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.320 When you say pulling down masks, pulling down other people's. 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.320 Masks, or so pulling down masks for sale in the. 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.279 Store off also like the displays. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.400 Ye displays throwing the masks on the floor. She's she's 0:04:54.440 --> 0:05:00.279 recording herself doing this, live streaming herself doing this, and 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:05.480 it went viral. It has like one hundred million views. Yeah, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:07.640 so that's that is the incident. 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:13.320 Okay, so you know not to harp on this, but 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:19.440 I do believe that it's it's important to present examples 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:27.080 of what's the word I'm looking for, privilege. We'll call 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:34.320 it privilege when they present themselves what we have is 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:41.520 well to do. I believe white blondhaired woman who disagrees 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.479 with you know, the government mandating that everyone wear masks, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:51.000 and she's in Target and she decides to destroy property 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.479 and so forth. Now, mind you, this was around the 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.440 same time when you know, we were taken to the 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:04.160 streets for George Lloyd, and we were before that there 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.320 was a string of police killings, and then after that 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:11.799 as well, and so we were already the Black delegation, 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:17.080 if you will, We're already on high alert with respect 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:23.080 to the way the world treats us differently and how 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.919 we felt and feel often as though our Caucasian brothers 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:34.120 and sisters have a tendency to distance themselves from our concerns. 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.960 In other words, for the most part, there is this 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:43.840 either cavalier attitude toward it or this pronounced attitude of well, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.240 that's not me behaving like that, and so because I'm 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.000 not behaving that way, it's not my problem. 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:51.039 Right. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.840 So, because we're on high alert during this time when 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.520 we see someone destroying property at a target and then 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.920 she gets to leave the target, and then she goes 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.880 home and she's taken in peacefully. Meanwhile, there's someone who 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:10.640 allegedly spent a fake twenty dollars bill. I want to say, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:17.520 is what happened with George Floyd, and he was treated 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:19.240 as though he was already guilty. 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.560 He was physics treated much worse than than if he 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.800 was guilty for that specific crime. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.360 Right right. And you could argue that the difference is 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.680 that he's female, or that he was male and this 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.640 other woman's female, and you could argue that the difference 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.040 is I mean, there's you know, differences across the board. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.240 But there was no destruction of property, there was no threat, 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.200 there was no nothing. There was just a black male 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:50.000 who had his life crushed out while people were filming 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:51.640 it and telling him to get off of it, while 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.600 he begged for his life. And then there's a woman 0:07:53.600 --> 0:08:00.760 who's actually actually causing a disturbance to society act actually 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:08.400 actually causing damage or or harming you know, the larger population, 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:10.960 and uh. 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.320 Alter with the workers like the whole. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.360 Yeah, yeah, you know, you know better because I just 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.720 kind of vaguely remember it. But anyway, so this situation, 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:22.760 this was something that kind of stood out in our 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.640 minds and and so that's the reason why I thought 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.240 that it was worth bringing back up because at that 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.120 time we could point to it and say, well, you 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.679 know what, this is a clear example of privilege. This 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:37.760 is a clear example that you can throw what you 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.560 refer to Tessa as a hissy fit, and you can have, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.240 you know, get to your wits end. You can become 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:49.440 frustrated with the authority, with the government, with whoever, and 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.240 you're allowed to have your moment. For the most part, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:54.559 you're allowed to be a human and make a mistake 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.839 or whatever. And then if there needs to be some 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.440 sort of ramifications or repercussions or whatever, you are treated 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:06.959 humanely in during that process. You're still treated as though 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:09.680 there's the potential for you to be rehabilitated or maybe 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.400 you potentially made a mistake. I remember the arresting officer 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.560 when they took her into custody, apologized to her as 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.800 he was handcuffing her, and so he's like, hey, you know, 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.640 I'm sorry, I gotta do this. Wow. And so there 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.440 again that attitude that exists that we again we the 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.120 black delegation. That's a bar I took from Dave Chappelle, 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.000 but a black host. It's one that we know very 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.720 well that you know, we don't want to cross paths 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:37.040 with those people because they don't Their heart turns off 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.520 when when there's a little bit too much melanin in 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.600 front of them, you know, and it's kind of sad 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.880 because Melanin is all of our friend, you know, it's 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.440 how I think about it. But again, I thought it 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.960 was important because if you don't agree that that's an 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.200 example of privilege, or if you don't agree that that's 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.000 a one off sort of instance, and I'm comparing apples 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.640 to oranges, George Floyd versus whoever this Karen is from Scottsdale, 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:08.720 you know, then that's fine. But because Tessa was able 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.800 to follow up with her and find out the rest 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.959 of the story and how things fleshed out, I thought 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.960 that maybe that would tell the story that I've been 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.120 trying to tell and that we've been trying to tell 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.000 a little bit better because you can see where one 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.160 road leads to death and the other one leads to 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.520 and I'll let you finish. So what happened? 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.800 It became a book signing, how she gets her book deal, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.760 She got her own book deal, and so she's. 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:40.880 I just almost left. 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.200 I didn't know that culture and how she's going to 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.440 rebuild her life after this whole thing. So what what 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.760 becomes of this story then, is her husband actually is 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.080 who calls the police on her after seeing this whole 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.120 incident go viral. I guess they were like in some 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.080 divorce proceeding or something like that they had some issue, 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.760 like as the stories I'll tell the night before, all 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.120 these justifications right as to how she ended up in 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.400 this place, and you know, then they source in all 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.600 these articles talking about interviewing all of these people that 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.280 know her as to how this behavior is so unlike her, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.320 and clearly there were issues leading up. But she ends 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.200 up going on what is now multiple news channels. She's 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.280 a pr rep, so she's spinning this perfectly. Goes on 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:37.320 to say that that she she was brainwashed by Quanon 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.840 through the course of COVID and being at home and 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.880 the stress of everything, and how you know, being at 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:46.600 home and being on the internet all the time she 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.400 was taking on all this information and how it was 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.960 slowly brainwashing her. And so she goes on to say 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.720 then that she has a mental collapse and what we're 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.520 witnessing is not racist behavior, because she ends up making 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:05.080 racial slur She posts racial stuff Joe won't obviously like 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.679 elaborate on, but it exists in the world of the internet. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.240 But she ends up saying that it's a mental health 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:18.320 collapse and then voluntarily submits herself to no core order. 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.960 She as you saw like, she's not as you mentioned, 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:25.520 she's not, you know, like attacked. The police don't arrest 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.040 her on the spot. She's not thrown on the ground. 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.760 They show up at her house, they apologize as they're 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.160 arresting her, and she voluntarily submits herself to some like 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.400 it's listed as like one of the luxury like recover 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:43.560 your resorts. So I saw another article again today about 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.120 it in the Washington Post. So we're talking national news 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.600 here where she's where they're where. They give her the 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.319 opportunity to timeline these events and talk about how she 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.959 got to the police she got to and then ample 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:01.600 space to discuss her journey into mental health and what 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.600 she's learned since and how she's rebuilding her life and 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.440 what this whole episode cost her. And so I started 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.040 commenting on it and tagging her in things on the 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.080 internet saying that I understand that mental health isn't is 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.720 a real thing, that we should work on destigmatizing mental health, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.319 and we need to allocate funds in our budgets, specifically 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.080 from the seven hundred and forty five million dollars police 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:35.360 budget that the Phoenix PD receives into into you know, 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:41.240 mental health services, over five almost half a million calls 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.320 in this last year alone to the police work for 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.720 like mental wellness checks. So I'm not I'm not diminishing 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.920 the need for mental health you know services, But she 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.360 gets the opportunity right to spin this instance as something 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.480 that is solely rooted in a mental health collapse. She 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.760 doesn't you know, the fact that she even gets to 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.520 tell her story, where black folk in general don't get 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.040 that opportunity, but particularly black folk during mental health checks 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.360 of their own, when their families are begging cops not 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:14.280 to do what cops do. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.720 They don't kill my son. I called you, called you 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:23.240 because he's having a mental health breakdown. I called you 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.680 for help, not for you to show up and murder him. 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:32.720 And we're not here to you know, parse through or 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:37.440 even make the allegation ourselves that this young woman didn't 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.920 have a mental health collapse. It's just to point out 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.880 that she's now had the opportunity to express that she 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.880 had a mental health collapse and to fiscally benefit from 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.560 said mental health collapse, which that part of it makes 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.960 me cringe a little bit. Right, you're going to get 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:01.160 a book deal after doing this, just because she was 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.000 treated like a human being when the police were called. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.200 And I think a big thing last year, as our 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:14.560 call for social justice reached its height, was people were 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:21.720 confusing the idea that we wanted not to be treated 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.760 the same as our white brothers and sisters, but for 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.320 them to be treated the way that we've been treated. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.480 The call was the opposite. We're not saying, hey, shoot 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:38.560 more unarmed white men and women. We're saying, have the 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:45.640 same heart, empathy, emotional intelligence, patience, and tolerance when you 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.280 show up to see us that you do when you 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.680 see them. Give us a chance to tell our story, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.240 give us a chance to make a mistake, give us 0:15:55.240 --> 0:16:00.680 a chance to rehabilitate. Instead, on more cases than we 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.880 wish to counter talk about on video, we're shot dead. 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:06.840 Oh let me talk about that. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:15.040 First. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.160 If you're listening to my voice, I want you to 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.520 take a beat. Okay, I want to, I want to. 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:25.600 I want your mind. Okay. I want you to think about, uh, 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.000 someone that you know, maybe someone young, Okay, someone that 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.800 you saw, you know, uh come come into existence. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:34.080 Right. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.520 Maybe you saw the gestation period, you knew what it 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.119 took to bring this life into manifestation. You you recognize 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.520 how vulnerable this life was and how precious it was, 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.840 and you saw the joy that this life brought to 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.120 those around you. Right, this might be a sibling, This 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.640 might be your own child, This might be someone like that. Right, 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.160 I must say you add a few years, you get 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.080 to see this child grow and develop and learn and 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:04.840 laugh and all these things. Right, If you can appreciate 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.880 what I've just suggested to you, then you understand how 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:13.920 precious a life is and how easily it can be 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.760 taken away. If you're a human being with a beating heart, 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.920 then you understand how vulnerable we are and how special 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.800 we are to be able to enjoy this thing called life. 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:27.760 Doesn't matter what color you are, what you believe, or 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:29.680 anything like that. That is one fundamental truth that we 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:31.240 all can agree on. You don't have to be human, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:32.720 you can just you can be a plant and agree 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.639 on that everything thrives to survive, strives to survive. 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:37.920 Brother. 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.120 So with that said, the stories that I do want 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:52.520 to share are not even stories of necessarily mental health issues. Right, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.560 but everyone, every human being with a brain, has the 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.879 capacity to suffer from some sort of mental breakdown. Doesn't 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.640 matter what color they are, right. The thing is if 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.359 police show up and they're afraid, then all that stuff 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.800 goes out the window because their first move and all 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:10.560 their moves are going to be based out of fear, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.840 not compassion or any of the things Q just mentioned 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.560 right now. And this is part of the thing that 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.680 we're trying to suggest. Nobody wants a book deal after 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.680 they interact with the police, because we know that for us, 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.280 just being able to get out of that interaction alive 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.840 and go home to see our children is the goal, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.639 you know, because it really, like, my heart never beats 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.680 faster than when I see those lights light up behind me, 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.560 and I'm like, oh man, okay, here we go, you know, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:41.399 And I started thinking of everything I just did for 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.639 the past fifteen minutes. How long they've been following me? 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:45.640 What did I do wrong? What story done? 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:45.840 You know? 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:54.880 So back to my point. There's a man named Richard Brooks. 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.439 This was last year, I want to say, and he 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:03.480 was at a Wendy's in Georgia and he atlanted to 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.520 be specific, Okay, Atlanta, Georgia, and he was, I want 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.600 to say, sleeping in his car at the drive through 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:16.040 at a Wendy's, and the police came and they were 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.040 being cool with him initially. This is the way I 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.239 remember it, you know, don't hold me to it. They 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.399 were being cool with him, talking to him. Again, this 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.359 is a life. This is a man who people love. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.399 He loved people smiled. He was smiling in the video. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.640 You know, obviously he was drinking. He drank too much, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.600 stopped driving the car. He was sitting there. Police interact 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:39.400 with him, They get him out, they do a sobriety 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.639 test or otherwise, you know, welfare check on him, and 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:45.600 it seemed like they were kind of doing a you know, 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.480 just what is that thing where a cat just plays 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.560 with its prey before it kills it, just toying with him, 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:55.359 you know, because they know he's drunk or whatever, but 0:19:55.400 --> 0:20:00.159 they let him whatever. And then finally they suggest to 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.320 him that he's going to have to go to jail. 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:08.280 Right so he panics rightfully. So you know, that's different 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.080 if you're black. You know, what's her name where she 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.480 went to jail and then died there? I forgured her name, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:16.560 Sandra Bland. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.600 Yeah I wish she was the only example. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.240 Yeah, yeah, exactly, But I mean, you get it. Anything beyond. Hey, look, officer, 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.240 I'm chilling. I just want to go home. It's very scary, right, 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.480 So this guy panics, which to me it seems kind 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:34.080 of like part of the course. It's not like he's 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.240 panicking because he saw like a pigeon on the ground. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:39.920 Those are the police. They have guns and the right 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.399 to kill you with impunity, and no one will bat 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.680 deny clearly. So that's a very scary interaction because that's 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.560 how it's framed in our mind, because that's how it is. 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:55.960 So he panics, and he turns and runs away, and 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.160 then the police pull out their guns and they shoot 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.360 him in the back and he dies. His life ended 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.399 in a parking lot of Wendy's on the pavement. It 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.440 wasn't even a sidewalk. His life ended right there, that 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.680 same life, that same life that his mother pushed him out. 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:13.760 He took his first breath, He played with all his friends, 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:19.359 his cousins, He had goals, dreams, hopes, and he was 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.119 executed on the sidewalk, running away, posing no threat to anyone. 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:27.320 Right didn't damage any property, he didn't tear any masks 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:28.160 down at a target. 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:29.840 He actually went out of his way to make sure 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.560 that didn't happen, which is why he was pulled over asleep, 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:34.359 not driving drunk. 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.719 There you go. Another one I want to share is 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:42.520 this one is especially troubling to me. Especially troubling to 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:50.160 me because I know what this feels like because I've 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:52.680 been there before, I've seen it, and it just hits 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:57.560 close to home. But there's a man by the name 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.119 of Andre Hill, and I've told story on the show before. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:09.400 But he was working on a car in his garage 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:11.560 and he was starting the engine. This is the way 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.040 I remember the story. So if you want to research 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:15.800 it on your own to prove me right or wrong, 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:17.439 you know, go for it. But the way I remember 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.119 reading the stories, he's in his garage and he's like 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:22.600 working on a car, starting the engine, turning it off, 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:27.919 starting the engine, turning it off, and a neighbor calls 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:32.800 the police. The police come and they show up, and 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.320 they have their cameras on but or they have their 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.280 cameras off, but it only it still records the last 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:42.119 thirty seconds or something with no audio. So what you 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.719 see from the police camera is an officer walk up 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.879 to the garage, you see Andre Hill walk out of 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:53.080 the garage. You see the officer pull a gun, shoot him, 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.480 and he dies right there in his own garage working 0:22:55.520 --> 0:23:01.879 on his car. He did nothing except, you know, I 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:03.080 don't even know what he did. 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.520 He existed in skin that looks like ours. 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:11.040 And so this is the thing that makes these these 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.720 when white folks get to have their mental breakdowns and 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:16.480 the police show up and they're not angry and they 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:18.679 don't want to kill your whatever it looks like like 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:20.400 white skin looks like a superpower. 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:23.160 I'm glad you said angry that time and not scared, 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.399 because I think they use the fear thing as a scapegoat. 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:30.440 I know how I behave when I'm afraid of something. 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:33.480 I'm afraid of something and it's running away from me, 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:36.520 I don't murder it, you know what I'm saying, Like 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:41.120 they get to disguise that hate as I was afraid. 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:45.360 I was afraid from my life. So no, you weren't afraid. 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:49.639 That was hate. That was anger, that was racism, that 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:52.840 was bigotry. That was not fear. So I'm glad you 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:56.520 said anger that time, because they use fear as a 0:23:56.640 --> 0:24:00.400 very convenient excuse. After the fact, it's very, very hard 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:02.760 to justify that you murdered a guy you were afraid 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:04.080 of as he ran away from you. 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:07.240 Now, I do want to come back to this, but 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.199 I want to take a moment for a second. If 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:13.160 you're just tuning in the Civic Cipher, I'm your host 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:16.160 ramses job. You call me q Ward and UH don't 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.480 forget to check us out online Civiccipher dot com. 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:19.040 Uh. 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:23.720 You can download this and all previous episodes. We can 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:27.760 always use your support. Uh, please consider signing up on Patreon. 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:29.600 You can check us out on your YouTube that's YouTube 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:32.920 dot com, slash Civic Cipher, and be sure to follow 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:39.600