Speaker 1: I'm Tamika d.
Speaker 2: Mallory and the ship Boy my son in general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of t M I.
Speaker 2: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, New Name.
Speaker 1: New Energy. What's going on, my son, Lennon?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm Blessed Black and Holly Favorite.
Speaker 1: Blessed Black and highly favorite. That is very, very very true.
Speaker 2: You are, yes, you know, just finishing off a beautiful
Speaker 2: Father's Day with my young kings and you know, happy
Speaker 2: Father's Day to older fathers. I didn't even put up
Speaker 2: a Father's Day post on Father's Day. I was so busy,
Speaker 2: you know, being a father and doing so many different things.
Speaker 2: You know, as you know, I've been shooting the film.
Speaker 2: Shout out to my my brother Wally World, Wally Burgos,
Speaker 2: who is directing this film called Brainfast that's probably gonna
Speaker 2: be a classic movie. I've been doing that for like
Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks, and we filmed for like
Speaker 2: the this last week, probably all day long.
Speaker 3: And that had me.
Speaker 2: Just running around crazy. And then actually on Father's Day
Speaker 2: early I went to a prison to a film was short,
Speaker 2: a short film that was powerful with a guy from
Speaker 2: from Newark. You know, shout out to him. His name
Speaker 2: is Bred, they call him Bread. He has he's working
Speaker 2: with a school, a film school, and he drew up
Speaker 2: a you know, a dope script and he wanted me
Speaker 2: to start in the script and it was a real
Speaker 2: powerful script. So you know, I just did that. And
Speaker 2: then Father's Day with my kids, we went to the
Speaker 2: to the Snow, the snow.
Speaker 3: If you haven't been to Big Snow in American Dream
Speaker 3: it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Remember our listeners.
Speaker 2: In New Jersey, Jersey. I think it's a sea caucuses right.
Speaker 2: It's right next to the MetLife Stadium.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's the American Dreams, the American Dream Mall. They have
Speaker 2: all types of things. So we went to They wanted
Speaker 2: to do what do you call it snowboarding? Yes, and
Speaker 2: it feels like you in aspen in there. It's so
Speaker 2: cold in it.
Speaker 3: You know. I go in there for a few seconds
Speaker 3: and then I just let them.
Speaker 1: Bones old bone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my bones don't work. They hit their little tail
Speaker 2: bones and they was on fire yesterday. This is the
Speaker 2: first time I heard them like, yo, my tailbone, Yo,
Speaker 2: my tailbone is hurting.
Speaker 3: They both was sore.
Speaker 2: Is they give you like a two hour period that
Speaker 2: you can do everything you want to do. So it
Speaker 2: was good. It was a good event. Now today I'm
Speaker 2: about to head off. That's why I can't beat on
Speaker 2: this full episode. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I know my listenersn gonna.
Speaker 2: Miss me, but I gotta go do our program in
Speaker 2: Westside High School in Newark. Shout out to Principal Akbal
Speaker 2: Cook and the music teacher there, John Thompson Thomason, for
Speaker 2: allowing me to come here with this this music program
Speaker 2: that I created call from Drill Music to Hell Music,
Speaker 2: And today's gonna be our final presentation, which is a
Speaker 2: talent show in which we're gonna showcase two videos that
Speaker 2: they've created and music that they've created, and just talk
Speaker 2: about what the program is. So I'm really excited to
Speaker 2: showcase what these kids have been really building on and
Speaker 2: you know, and just taking the concept that you know,
Speaker 2: I planted the seed and they just turned it into.
Speaker 3: A whole forest.
Speaker 2: Man. You know, I wanted to take the same energy
Speaker 2: that they have in Drill Music, the same beats and everything,
Speaker 2: but just change the message on it because we want
Speaker 2: that energy. We want the culture because obviously it's so
Speaker 2: than that attracts people.
Speaker 3: But I just said we don't got to.
Speaker 2: Kill and drill and spend the block and do all
Speaker 2: of that in every song. So I challenged them, and
Speaker 2: they met the challenge with flying colors, you know. And
Speaker 2: I'm really I'm eager to let the school. The school's
Speaker 2: gonna be there and they're gonna present. They're finished products
Speaker 2: at the school. So I'm eager to get over there
Speaker 2: and work with these kids. So we should have some
Speaker 2: special guests come by. I ain't gonna say who they
Speaker 2: are yet until they come because you know, people's schedules
Speaker 2: mess up some of the some of the couple of
Speaker 2: them have confirmed that they're gonna be there, but they
Speaker 2: should be a dope evet.
Speaker 1: That's great. And so for those folks who are listening,
Speaker 1: just to give the proper context for this until Freedom's
Speaker 1: Boycott Black Murder campaign has a program in West Side
Speaker 1: High School in Newark, New Jersey, in which my son
Speaker 1: has been working with these young people for several months
Speaker 1: as a part of our Boycott Black Murder the efforts.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we are around the country, spread
Speaker 1: around the country trying to as you said, plant seeds
Speaker 1: through our organization to help our young people redirect you know,
Speaker 1: and there's especially during this time when folks are talking
Speaker 1: so much about gun violence prevention and intervention. I feel
Speaker 1: like we are, you know, at until Freedom. I'm proud
Speaker 1: to say that the organization is really stepping up and
Speaker 1: ensuring that we are actively engaged with our young people,
Speaker 1: and this program is a true testament to that. I
Speaker 1: give you all the kudos for being there with the
Speaker 1: students once a week for several months from the winter
Speaker 1: to the spring now leading into the hot heat, hot, hot,
Speaker 1: hot today summer. You've really been consistent with these young people.
Speaker 1: So it's a great thing. I mean, I'm I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of you and what you've been able to do.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Man, I'm proud of these young boys.
Speaker 2: And shout out to once again, shout out to the
Speaker 2: principal Cook who believed in the program and allowed us,
Speaker 2: you know fully much open door to come inside and
Speaker 2: build with these young men. And shout out to the
Speaker 2: you know, the the music teacher, coach t they call him.
Speaker 2: But he's an amazing guy and he really he really
Speaker 2: believes in the students. He loves music and he's passionate
Speaker 2: about it. So when you when you have when you
Speaker 2: put that all together, can't get nothing but something that's dope.
Speaker 2: So I'm eager and I can't wait to just watch
Speaker 2: these kids just present what they created, like they shot
Speaker 2: the videos themselves.
Speaker 3: You know, they created the beats themselves.
Speaker 2: You know, we came up with concepts and you know,
Speaker 2: we did them all together, and there was even the
Speaker 2: people who weren't actually creating music had input into it.
Speaker 2: Everybody felt he was about the room of about fifteen
Speaker 2: to twenty of us and everybody was involved, you know,
Speaker 2: and they and they felt involved in it. So I'm
Speaker 2: just glad to see that, you know, a pretty much
Speaker 2: division I had.
Speaker 3: In my head. Yeah, actually came to life. So cool.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, awesome, awesome. I'm excited. I will not be
Speaker 1: there early to do the setup. The rest of the
Speaker 1: team will be there, but I'm coming as soon as
Speaker 1: I finished today. You know that Nigel Collins the case
Speaker 1: that happened in New in Atlanta, Georgia, in bucket at
Speaker 1: Fogo restaurant. This young man was shot with his hands
Speaker 1: in the air, shot fifteen times. I had heard it
Speaker 1: was ten, but now I learned from being at a
Speaker 1: rally this week that he was shot fifteen times by
Speaker 1: police after a few calls about him being having a
Speaker 1: mental health crisis. Being in crisis, his mother had him
Speaker 1: set up to go to a program, and you know,
Speaker 1: she wanted to get the police to help her, to
Speaker 1: get him to the place where he could get help,
Speaker 1: and of course the police showed up and rather than
Speaker 1: helping him, they shot him to death. Yes, he had
Speaker 1: a gun, but everybody in Georgia has a gun. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting to me that now because people are, oh,
Speaker 1: well he had a gun, Well that's the law in
Speaker 1: Georgia that you can have a gun anybody. It's not
Speaker 1: much work that's being done to stop people from walking
Speaker 1: into a local gun store and purchasing a gun. They
Speaker 1: claim they have some screening, but clearly it's not enough.
Speaker 1: You can't no one can be one hundred percent certain
Speaker 1: about when someone will have a manic episode. But nonetheless,
Speaker 1: there are many reasons why we need to have stricter
Speaker 1: gun laws. We need to ensure that people are not
Speaker 1: just walking around with weapons, especially when you have a
Speaker 1: police department that is not trained, nor do they care
Speaker 1: to be trained properly. In our communities to deal with
Speaker 1: the over influx of people who are carrying. So that's
Speaker 1: you know what. I'll be talking to attorney Gerald Griggs,
Speaker 1: who's the president of the NAACP chapter. They're in Georgia
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. He's gonna come on and while, you know,
Speaker 1: and be a guest to just go through it. This
Speaker 1: happened two years ago. Everybody knew it. The district attorney
Speaker 1: knew what happened, the city knew and if they don't.
Speaker 1: If they didn't know, then that means the police department
Speaker 1: with hell the information. Of course, the video that they
Speaker 1: initially put out was a video that was slowed down.
Speaker 1: This is a new tactic that they are using. Rather
Speaker 1: than just releasing all the footage of the videos, they
Speaker 1: put out little drips and pieces and they slow it
Speaker 1: down and edit highly edited, so that you can't see
Speaker 1: what happened. Now, two years later the full video was
Speaker 1: out and you see this young man in my judgment,
Speaker 1: being executed. It was an unnecessary approach. So today we'll
Speaker 1: be talking to Gerald Griggs about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I think it was a tracity. Man when
Speaker 2: I forget saw it, you know, posted on my page
Speaker 2: and and everybody pretty much felt the same way. You know,
Speaker 2: there's no justification for what happened to that young man.
Speaker 2: You can tell. You could tell there was a level
Speaker 2: of fear that he had running from the police, and
Speaker 2: you know, based on what happened to him, his fear
Speaker 2: was justified. You know, it's it's just sad to see,
Speaker 2: you know. I went to see mister Belafonte's, as we
Speaker 2: call him, mister Be's sort of a documentary called.
Speaker 1: Susan Susanne Suzanne Lord right now, the last name escapes,
Speaker 1: but Suzanne made this documentary she created.
Speaker 2: About him, and it was so it was so telling,
Speaker 2: and mister b said so many things and when I
Speaker 2: think about this case, what he said, first of all,
Speaker 2: it was an excellent documentary. You got to see it
Speaker 2: because you're in there, you know, with a good part.
Speaker 2: And he was saying and it's like you see him
Speaker 2: mentoring different, uh stages of the movement, right, you watch
Speaker 2: him mentor the Dream Defenders, you see him mentoring the
Speaker 2: Woman's March, you see him mentoring the Parkland people.
Speaker 3: And then every time what he kept saying was.
Speaker 2: What are you gonna do to capitalize on because the
Speaker 2: enemy is going to try to divide it, right, and
Speaker 2: there's going to be another Mike Brown, you might not
Speaker 2: think so now, And sure enough there was another Mike Brown.
Speaker 2: He said, there's gonna be another error Gardner, and he
Speaker 2: constantly told every person that he met with that he
Speaker 2: you know that he mentored in those moments that they
Speaker 2: would be another person.
Speaker 3: And just hearing that was like wow.
Speaker 2: You know, he had been through so many different levels
Speaker 2: and just constantly seeing the same thing happen over and
Speaker 2: over and were in a constant, repeated state of just
Speaker 2: being killed and there's really nothing changing, and it's just
Speaker 2: it's just sometimes it's disheartened, you know, And I feel
Speaker 2: a lot of us who are on this front line
Speaker 2: trying to get changed. But then when you actually see
Speaker 2: some level of change or you see some level of accountability,
Speaker 2: like with George Floyd, gives you a little hope. But
Speaker 2: then once again this government would try to roll back everything.
Speaker 2: So it's crazy.
Speaker 1: We're in a very well one of the things that
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. I was hoping that you
Speaker 1: and I would have time to discuss it, but I'll
Speaker 1: take this conversation my thought of the day over to
Speaker 1: Attorney Griggs. You know, I was looking at social media
Speaker 1: the other day and Ambrose has now become the biggest
Speaker 1: Trump supporter ever. And I just listened to some of
Speaker 1: the things, or at least I read some of the
Speaker 1: things that she says, and their strategy, the right wing
Speaker 1: strategy is to play three car third, three car Molly
Speaker 1: with your mind. They move the pieces around so quick,
Speaker 1: and if you're not a certain type of person the
Speaker 1: way that we are, you'll miss it. You'll miss it.
Speaker 1: And by the way, when I was young, I was
Speaker 1: on Bortham Road in the Bronx and New York City
Speaker 1: and my mom told me on my way out the door,
Speaker 1: do not play that three card game because you can win.
Speaker 1: Don't even play the game. And I think, as you said,
Speaker 1: the government will try to roll everything back. They are
Speaker 1: trying to every the fight that we had in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: There is a backlash to that, and we are experiencing
Speaker 1: it right now where people are doing all that they
Speaker 1: can to one discredit and also so first of all
Speaker 1: discredit us and our movements. But the next thing is
Speaker 1: that they are strategic enough to put PEP people in
Speaker 1: place to help them make new laws and to change
Speaker 1: the rules, so that we are in a vulnerable situation
Speaker 1: for many, many, many, many years to come. These people
Speaker 1: want to, I believe, you know, reinstitute the type of
Speaker 1: world that we know we cannot allow our children to
Speaker 1: have to face. And a big part of why doctor
Speaker 1: King and others for so hard, and why we continue
Speaker 1: to fight so hard, is because we know we have
Speaker 1: such of a responsibility to protect our children from what
Speaker 1: the onslaught that they are up against. And I don't
Speaker 1: want the kids to look back at us and say,
Speaker 1: what do we do and why weren't we on the job,
Speaker 1: Why weren't we in the watchman's house? Why weren't we
Speaker 1: making sure that we protect them? And now they have
Speaker 1: to fight to unravel, and God knows how that will
Speaker 1: even happen because the way in which Trump and them
Speaker 1: want to stack the courts and do all the things
Speaker 1: that they're doing. They're talking about institutional, systemic change. Take
Speaker 1: us back to a time that so many of our
Speaker 1: people fought and died to get us out of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're one hundred percent right. We're in some very strange,
Speaker 2: peculiar times. I said, I said, I said, I said it.
Speaker 2: This morning, I was watching, like you said, I was
Speaker 2: watching in Barrows, and then I was watching in Detroit.
Speaker 3: You know some.
Speaker 2: Rappers, young rappers with Donald Trump and talking telling him
Speaker 2: how he's the only one who came to the hood.
Speaker 1: And I was just a preacher.
Speaker 3: Well the preacher was with the rappers.
Speaker 2: The rappers to the preacher actually said he was the
Speaker 2: only one that came to the hood, but the rappers
Speaker 2: were there too, And I was just like, propaganda is
Speaker 2: so crazy. And that's one of the things that Mr
Speaker 2: B said. He said, they will, they will, they will
Speaker 2: nullify the movement, they will discredit it, they will do
Speaker 2: everything to combat it. You have a small window to
Speaker 2: try to do something because they're going to come. And
Speaker 2: I watched how Black Lives Matter became the mantra of
Speaker 2: the world and then it became the most hated phrase.
Speaker 2: It is it is so much of a hey, when
Speaker 2: you say that word, it's it's a scam and this
Speaker 2: and that.
Speaker 3: It was always and I just be looking like, where
Speaker 3: did you get that from?
Speaker 2: Who made you believe that just the words black Lives
Speaker 2: matter is something negative? And it brings me also brings
Speaker 2: you back to Malcolm X said, who made you hate
Speaker 2: the color of your skin? Who made you hate the
Speaker 2: size of your nose or the texture of your hair,
Speaker 2: who made you think that? And you don't even know
Speaker 2: who made you do it? Right, So when I'm having
Speaker 2: these conversations and they say black lives that sense, so
Speaker 2: prove it, you know, because they can't wait to throw
Speaker 2: They throw black people in jail for two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: They locked themselves for two or three hundred dollars. If
Speaker 2: you in the office and you you you sign over
Speaker 2: a check, that's two hundred dollars that ain't supposed to go.
Speaker 2: They putting you in jail. As a black man, I
Speaker 2: know a bunch of black men facing that.
Speaker 3: So what I'm trying to say is if if Black
Speaker 3: Lives Matter did.
Speaker 2: Some with a one hundred meal, they can't wait to
Speaker 2: be able to pur walk these people, why they ain't
Speaker 2: in jail if it's the biggest game in the world,
Speaker 2: Like why not?
Speaker 3: You know, nobody ever has an answer for that.
Speaker 2: So, but it's just so it's so crazy how we
Speaker 2: allow them to trick us into believing there's something wrong
Speaker 2: with us, that we criminals.
Speaker 3: Everyone it's the same playbook.
Speaker 2: It's so it's so crazy that when you look from
Speaker 2: every leader, every movie we had, they did the same
Speaker 2: exact thing.
Speaker 3: If you just study history. They did the same, exact
Speaker 3: the same shit.
Speaker 2: Oh he stole, he did this, he's a criminal, He's
Speaker 2: not this, he's this the same bullshit.
Speaker 3: Man. It's like when we're gonna when we're gonna wake
Speaker 3: up to it.
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely well, thank you, I'll see you soon, and you.
Speaker 2: Will now tell Attorney Griggs that we're with him and
Speaker 2: I see my love and we're fighting for justice for
Speaker 2: Nigel Cullen face.
Speaker 1: So our brother, Attorney Gerald Griggs is joining us today.
Speaker 1: I've already explained to you all this case that many
Speaker 1: of you are already aware of. The last several days
Speaker 1: last week at least have been extremely traumatizing for many people.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was getting calls from folks just around
Speaker 1: the country, people in Georgia, people who had just been
Speaker 1: to the restaurant where Nigel Collins was killed. They've just
Speaker 1: been there days before the video was released that shows
Speaker 1: the horrific way in which his life was taken by
Speaker 1: the police. And people are so frustrated with the idea
Speaker 1: that we have to continue to deal with this climate
Speaker 1: of police abuse that has gone unaddressed by most, if
Speaker 1: not all, if you will, of our elected leadership and
Speaker 1: I say all because while I do understand that there
Speaker 1: are many different layers and levels federal government, local government,
Speaker 1: you have people who are fighting really hard to get
Speaker 1: things like the George Floyd Justice and Police and Act
Speaker 1: and other things passed. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it hasn't and so we have to hold everybody accountable
Speaker 1: for how we get to the point where there are
Speaker 1: measures put in place to protect black lives. And I
Speaker 1: asked my friend, Attorney Jerald Griggs to join us. He
Speaker 1: has been the attorney for the family of Nigel Collins
Speaker 1: from two years ago when this incident first happened, all
Speaker 1: the way until today. Now. Attorney Griggs, my son, wanted
Speaker 1: to share his love with you and appreciation for you
Speaker 1: being here. He wanted to send a firm statement to
Speaker 1: you that until freedom stands with you and we are there,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned to you today, is the You know,
Speaker 1: we're fighting on so many fronts on one hand, dealing
Speaker 1: with police accountability, on the other hand, with working with
Speaker 1: our youth. And we are running a program in Newark,
Speaker 1: New Jersey with some young people and one of the
Speaker 1: schools that has an extremely unfortunate number of violent incidents, fights, shootings,
Speaker 1: you know, young people actually dying outside the building. Shootings
Speaker 1: have happened, and this principle is doing a hell of
Speaker 1: a job to work to turn that around. Principal Cook,
Speaker 1: he's a real guy from the community, and so he's
Speaker 1: working with my son and they have taken a group
Speaker 1: of students and stripped drill music from some of the beats.
Speaker 1: Some of it young people created their own. Some of
Speaker 1: it are you know, current beats that out there with
Speaker 1: popular drill songs. And they have now went from drill
Speaker 1: music to heal music. And today is a concert before
Speaker 1: the entire school to showcase this project that they put
Speaker 1: together that includes art, I mean videos, It includes artwork,
Speaker 1: ipic work that they've done. It's just a great project.
Speaker 1: So he was unable to be here, but he said,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna have Griggs, you're gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: I can leave you in his hands.
Speaker 5: I appreciate him, and you know, shout out to that program.
Speaker 5: We need more of that all throughout the country. So
Speaker 5: I understand, and you know, my sounds my brother, so
Speaker 5: our support. Whatever he's doing, he knows that he has
Speaker 5: our support down here in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: So salute to him, Thank.
Speaker 1: You, Thank you so much. So. First of all, first off,
Speaker 1: I did not do my Thought of the day in
Speaker 1: this program today, and I want to bring you into
Speaker 1: a conversation. It's not why I invited you. I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Nigel Cullins. However, you know I am.
Speaker 1: I am like you, pissed off with the current administration
Speaker 1: for a number of things. Aggravated, frustrated, sometimes hopeless, sometimes defensive.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like it's almost like I'm in a
Speaker 1: reoccurring nightmare where you're just like fighting the air. You
Speaker 1: don't know which way who to punch first. It's just
Speaker 1: it's like the ugly heads just popping up everywhere, and
Speaker 1: it is the most frustrating time I think for all
Speaker 1: of us. And I know you share the concerns around
Speaker 1: the current administration, the previous, the ones trying to get in.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a big landscape full of mess.
Speaker 1: We know it, we see it, and I think we
Speaker 1: would be disingenuous as leaders, especially the types of people
Speaker 1: that are work with us, the people who expect us
Speaker 1: to lead, not to be honest and say this is
Speaker 1: a damning time in American history period, right, So you.
Speaker 5: Share that, I share that as my brother and I
Speaker 5: think your brother, doctor William Barber always says, we're in
Speaker 5: a third reconstruction. So we wouldn't be leaders without telling
Speaker 5: people we are in one of those historical moments in
Speaker 5: history where if the good people don't stand up and
Speaker 5: speak truth to power, we're going to go backwards.
Speaker 4: So we have to be honest.
Speaker 5: This is the nineteen twenties all over again, nineteen thirties,
Speaker 5: nineteen forties, and we have to be honest.
Speaker 1: With the people, absolutely, so we establish that. However, I
Speaker 1: know we also share an understanding that if we do
Speaker 1: not maintain some level of control over our government and
Speaker 1: we allow Donald Trump to become president, we ain't seen
Speaker 1: nothing yet, as the old folks said, right, ain't seeing
Speaker 1: nothing yet because this man is coming back and attempting
Speaker 1: to become president again with the vengeance. And I tell you,
Speaker 1: let's just be honest. If you and I running our
Speaker 1: organizations and we are in a position of power, and
Speaker 1: for whatever demented reasons, we don't will never if we
Speaker 1: are anything like Donald Trump, will never accept all the
Speaker 1: reasons why the American people voted against you. But if
Speaker 1: you believe in your mind that somehow you were done
Speaker 1: wrong and you know and you need to return to
Speaker 1: power if you are a narcissist who is coupled with
Speaker 1: the racist, coupled with someone who wants fascism, We've seen it.
Speaker 1: We know it's not what it's not what we think.
Speaker 1: We know what comes out of his mouth. We also
Speaker 1: watched him and the policies and the types of people
Speaker 1: that he put in place all around him when he
Speaker 1: was president and even since then, we know that if you,
Speaker 1: let's just be honest, if that was your personality, when
Speaker 1: you return to a place of power and get back
Speaker 1: in the position, you gonna spank on everybody and everything
Speaker 1: and try to do everything that you wanted to do
Speaker 1: plus some more and with an attitude. So just on,
Speaker 1: just on that. That for me is problematic because I
Speaker 1: don't want I don't want the boyfriend or the old
Speaker 1: employee returning to my life with a vengeance for me,
Speaker 1: because they, you know, whatever cooked up mess is in
Speaker 1: their mind that I don't want in my life.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, it's I mean, you know, it's like old saying
Speaker 5: we have in Atlanta. Somebody want to get their lick back.
Speaker 5: You know they're gonna try to get their lick back
Speaker 5: and so as you're saying, I mean, we fought him,
Speaker 5: and again I'm taking my naacp had off and just
Speaker 5: being Gerald Griggs, the activist in the attorney from twenty
Speaker 5: sixteen to twenty twenty. Men, you were fighting this man repeatedly,
Speaker 5: whether it's Women's March, whether it was DJ I mean,
Speaker 5: it was all kinds of things that we were fighting him,
Speaker 5: and we were successful to mobilize the vote in historic numbers,
Speaker 5: especially in Georgia. In Georgia, we held the line. And
Speaker 5: so to see what's happening now is disheartening, but we're
Speaker 5: still hopeful that we can convince individuals to use the
Speaker 5: most powerful non violent weapon they have, which is the vote.
Speaker 5: But either side has to earn it, and my hope
Speaker 5: is the other side will not earn it. You know,
Speaker 5: as the NBAC president, I can't go full throat it,
Speaker 5: but I can.
Speaker 4: Tell you it's Gerald Griggs.
Speaker 5: Georgia has something to say, and whether or not people
Speaker 5: turn out, we're going to send him to a prison
Speaker 5: in Georgia because he violated Georgian's rights by saying that
Speaker 5: he wanted seven thousand, one hundred and whatever votes.
Speaker 4: So as long as there are laws in Georgia.
Speaker 1: Where you go on with that, haven't they indefinitely paused?
Speaker 1: The case that is being led by Fannie willis, it's.
Speaker 4: Not indefinitely paused.
Speaker 5: So there's a hearing with the Court of Appeals in
Speaker 5: October to determine whether or not Judge McAfee's ruling not
Speaker 5: disqualifying her will stand. And I truly believe, based on
Speaker 5: my reading of Georgia law, that decision will hold.
Speaker 4: And then the trial will start.
Speaker 5: But also there are code defendants in the case whose
Speaker 5: cases continue, so the case is not indefinitely paused. It's
Speaker 5: a lot of media reporting that, and that's why you
Speaker 5: need Georgia lawyers to actually explain what's happening. It's just
Speaker 5: that portion is paused for or argument and in the
Speaker 5: Court of Appeals with issue ruling, but.
Speaker 1: They're still doing some funny business and my judgment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, they are on.
Speaker 1: Their way around this particular thing. So you know, my
Speaker 1: thought of the day today, Griggs is I was watching
Speaker 1: social media a couple of days ago. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I've significantly reduced the amount
Speaker 1: of time that I spend on on social media because
Speaker 1: I'm beginning to see the I can already tell, especially
Speaker 1: as election time comes around, you begin to see the
Speaker 1: propaganda on all sides, and you begin to see that
Speaker 1: if you can become so frustrated that you can't even
Speaker 1: focus on the tangible right in front of you, real
Speaker 1: work that you're doing. So for me, I've cut back
Speaker 1: on social media, but I was on Shade Room one
Speaker 1: day and I saw Ambar Rose on their talking Now
Speaker 1: Amber Rose has now endorsed Donald Trump. She is the
Speaker 1: biggest Donald Trump supporter, and she said some things that
Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure that the screenshot of her
Speaker 1: comments that you all get an opportunity to see at
Speaker 1: everyone who's listening. But the bottom line is that she says, one,
Speaker 1: Trump is not a supporter of Project twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: that he's not a supporter of it, that it's bullshit,
Speaker 1: it's all Democratic lies. They want Democrats want you to
Speaker 1: be poor and broke, and they're just trying to force
Speaker 1: you through their own propaganda to make you vote for
Speaker 1: President Biden. Then she goes on to say that and
Speaker 1: it is not true that President Trump at the time
Speaker 1: banned abortions, That he did not ban abortions. That's bullshit.
Speaker 1: It's a lie now. Number one, she's right about that
Speaker 1: he did not ban abortions, So that's true. But the
Speaker 1: trick that they're playing that either she doesn't know or
Speaker 1: she is intentionally involved in attempting to confuse and miss
Speaker 1: and misinform the American people, is that, no, he did
Speaker 1: not ban abortions. What he did was put people, whether
Speaker 1: it be court justices and judges, excuse me, across the
Speaker 1: country in place that would help to ban abortion. He himself,
Speaker 1: his own words. We will play a clip today. He
Speaker 1: his own words. He said he was responsible for getting
Speaker 1: rid of Row v. Wade, which we know has been gutted.
Speaker 1: At this point, people already a lot of activists, advocates
Speaker 1: and others policymakers did not want Donald Trump to become
Speaker 1: president because they knew it was going to be a
Speaker 1: part of his platform. He has to please his conservative
Speaker 1: right wing section of his government. And in fact that
Speaker 1: his friends, they worked for him. They were in the
Speaker 1: White House, Stephen Miller, all these crazy right wing people.
Speaker 1: These are his people. The folks from the Heritage Foundation
Speaker 1: who for decades decades have been the most influential voices
Speaker 1: in terms of policy for the Republican Party. These are
Speaker 1: his friends. These the people he put in position, They
Speaker 1: are his friends. And for her to say that he
Speaker 1: does not support Project twenty twenty five, well where has
Speaker 1: he said that out of his mouth?
Speaker 6: At the end of the day, this is all about
Speaker 6: the will of the people. You must follow your heart
Speaker 6: or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Like
Speaker 6: Ronald Reagan, I am struggling in favor of exceptions for rape,
Speaker 6: incest and life.
Speaker 3: Of the mother.
Speaker 1: In fact, his policies are deeply aligned with what is
Speaker 1: in Project twenty twenty five. And again his friends wrote it,
Speaker 1: the people who worked for him before and the people
Speaker 1: who are around him today. And the Heritage Foundation is
Speaker 1: at the center of Project twenty twenty five, which if
Speaker 1: you have not read it, listen to us. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna break it down. You need to go search Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five and read that entire platform, which is
Speaker 1: one of the most conservative platforms that this country has
Speaker 1: seen in a long time. And it will absolutely be
Speaker 1: harmful to black and brown people. And so I know
Speaker 1: I am. I just again want people to caution themselves
Speaker 1: in grigs. I want to give you the Florida talk
Speaker 1: about this before we go into Nigel Collins as someone
Speaker 1: who's in Georgia who understands that people are frustrated with
Speaker 1: the current administration. People are frustrated about the attack on
Speaker 1: the people of Gaza and Palestinian people. Folks are frustrated
Speaker 1: because the rent is too high, the food is too high,
Speaker 1: the gas is too high. People are frustrated because they're
Speaker 1: still killing us, the police still killing us, guns still
Speaker 1: in our communities. People are frustrated because the food does
Speaker 1: it's People are frustrated because education is not what it
Speaker 1: should be. Folks are frustrated when you have people like
Speaker 1: Anne Barolls being used as a tool to misinform our
Speaker 1: folks in a state like Georgia that had the responsibility
Speaker 1: of choosing the next president. Because you all are a
Speaker 1: swing state, I want to hear from you what you
Speaker 1: feel about, you know, what this system others are doing,
Speaker 1: and ultimately what we do to encourage I'm in New York.
Speaker 1: I need you and your state to vote, because in
Speaker 1: New York, if we vote for you know, we're in
Speaker 1: the popular vote. But we are not an electoral college state,
Speaker 1: so we don't make the decision determination of who becomes president.
Speaker 5: And so What we have to remember is every time
Speaker 5: we get into an election, there are voices that don't
Speaker 5: speak about politics that start speaking about politics. So you
Speaker 5: have to go to trusted messengers. And there's no more
Speaker 5: trusted messenger than the NAACP. Now, again, we're not gonna
Speaker 5: talk about which candidate you should or should not vote for,
Speaker 5: but we.
Speaker 4: Will talk about policies.
Speaker 5: We will talk about the systemic disinvestment in education that
Speaker 5: will happen if Project twenty twenty five is implemented. They're
Speaker 5: gonna gut the Department of Education. They're gonna gut the
Speaker 5: Department of Justice. I'm gonna say it again, they're gonna
Speaker 5: cut the Department of Justice. And the Department of Justice
Speaker 5: was specifically created to fight against a homegrown white nationalist
Speaker 5: domestic terrorists.
Speaker 4: Called the Klan.
Speaker 5: And so when you start talking about these policies and
Speaker 5: you hear reality show stars trying to convince you, listen,
Speaker 5: I mean, I respect Amber, you know the thing she's doing,
Speaker 5: but I don't get my politics and my policy decisions
Speaker 5: from a reality show star.
Speaker 4: It's really that, it's really that clear.
Speaker 5: And to answer your question about whether or not the
Speaker 5: former president banned abortion, no, he didn't ban abortion, but
Speaker 5: he nominated and they will confirm the three conservative justices
Speaker 5: who made the majority to issue the Dobbs decision, which
Speaker 5: effectively ended abortion in this country. And so respectfully, stick
Speaker 5: to reality TV and stop trying to disinform individuals. We
Speaker 5: see what's going on on the ground here in Georgia.
Speaker 5: And again, if there was a media celebrity in Georgia,
Speaker 5: we will listen to. It's not Ambar Rose, so we
Speaker 5: don't really have to listen to her in Georgia. But
Speaker 5: what we do have to listen to. What we have
Speaker 5: to consider is the fact that there is systemic injustice
Speaker 5: that's continued to happen that neither candidate are talking about
Speaker 5: that for any matter, or what they're going to do
Speaker 5: about the weabonization of law enforcement, what they're going to
Speaker 5: do about actually fixing the alleged crisis at the border,
Speaker 5: what they're going to do to fund fully fund the
Speaker 5: educational system. And so we have to make the candidates
Speaker 5: have that robust conversation about what they're going to do
Speaker 5: to change people's lives. And let's be clear, I live
Speaker 5: through twenty sixteen to twenty twenty. I remember the COVID pandemic.
Speaker 5: I remember the twin pandemic of racism sixteen nineteen. I
Speaker 5: don't want to go back to that. But what I
Speaker 5: also don't want to do is to sugarcoat what we
Speaker 5: are experiencing right now.
Speaker 4: Yes, yas is too high.
Speaker 5: Yes A McDonald's happy meals like eight dollars. At this point,
Speaker 5: we have to address those things. So we need policy
Speaker 5: considerations from the candidates, from our trusted sources and voices
Speaker 5: in the political space, to break down what they are
Speaker 5: going to do, what they have done. Again, I don't
Speaker 5: want somebody, when we're going through a historic pandemic to
Speaker 5: tell us to inject bleach into our skin or use
Speaker 5: uv lights that came.
Speaker 4: Out of his mouth.
Speaker 5: I don't want someone who led an armed insurrection against
Speaker 5: our country because he lost an election.
Speaker 4: Those are facts. I don't want somebody calling in to.
Speaker 5: Georgia to try to overturn the will of black voters.
Speaker 4: Amber that's what actually happened in Georgia.
Speaker 5: So again, respectfully, you can endorse whoever you want, but
Speaker 5: we run on facts, not feelings.
Speaker 1: That's right. Absolutely, thank you so much for that. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to have you here. The chime in on
Speaker 1: my thought of the day today. Attorney Gerald Griggs is
Speaker 1: a friend. I did not invite you here as the
Speaker 1: president of the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP, and also
Speaker 1: the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP. You are president
Speaker 1: of that as well. I didn't invite you here as that.
Speaker 1: You just my friend, Gerald Griggs, and we're just kicking
Speaker 1: it today about what's happening in our society. But you
Speaker 1: are the attorney for Nigel Collins family two years ago.
Speaker 1: This young man. The way in which he was killed
Speaker 1: is something that I mean, I don't watch videos of
Speaker 1: these incidents as much as possible. I do everything that
Speaker 1: I can to avoid it. The only way that I
Speaker 1: will watch a video and it sort of catches me
Speaker 1: is if I open my phone on my own and
Speaker 1: I just happened to be trying to see what's going
Speaker 1: on and then boom, there's the incident. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I don't. I can't because the trauma sticks with us
Speaker 1: of watching our people literally be lynched in a different
Speaker 1: way and right there in the palm of our hands,
Speaker 1: and that's a very different circumstance for us. You know,
Speaker 1: I think back when lynchings were prevalent, because, by the way,
Speaker 1: someone said to me the other day, they don't lynch
Speaker 1: us anymore. No, no, no, there's still lunchings happening across
Speaker 1: this nation, especially in places like Mississippi, in Louisiana, I
Speaker 1: know of the cases. But at that time they would
Speaker 1: lynch us and have the community to watch it and
Speaker 1: leave the body hanging for days and days, so that
Speaker 1: every it was a symbol to everybody about what could
Speaker 1: happen to you.
Speaker 4: We know who take and take home.
Speaker 1: And take souvenirs, including body parts, especially from the men,
Speaker 1: you know. And also white folks would get dressed up,
Speaker 1: cleaned up in their best clothes a Sunday, go to
Speaker 1: church clothes to watch a lynching. Now it is not
Speaker 1: the same as us, you know, looking at a body
Speaker 1: hanging for days. But it's on our cell phones, it's
Speaker 1: right in the palm of our hands. And when I
Speaker 1: saw Nigel, I could see in his face and my
Speaker 1: son spoke about this before you came on, the fear
Speaker 1: in his eyes. You know, he was he was afraid.
Speaker 1: You know, he was scared. He wasn't there to harm anyone.
Speaker 1: He needed help. And I want you to talk about
Speaker 1: two years ago. This happened two years ago. For folks
Speaker 1: who are listening that video that you watch of Nigel
Speaker 1: Collins being shot to death by the police in Fogo
Speaker 1: the Brazilian steakhouse. It happened two years ago, and Jerald
Speaker 1: Griggs has been the attorney for the family since the time.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about it. Break it down for us.
Speaker 1: Let us know what has happened or what happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So for those that saw the video a few
Speaker 5: days ago when it was finally released because of the
Speaker 5: pressure of the family has been putting on Atlanta Police
Speaker 5: Department for two years, let's take ourselves back. May the
Speaker 5: eighteenth of twenty twenty two, Nigel Cullins was in the
Speaker 5: mental of a mental health distress. He was at his
Speaker 5: home with his mother and his father and he was
Speaker 5: going through his manic stage and for two hours, his mother,
Speaker 5: doctor Maya Cullins, was calling law enforcement to get a
Speaker 5: crisis intervener so she could get Nigel to a bed
Speaker 5: that she had already secured at one of our facilities
Speaker 5: here so he can get treatment. Of course, the police
Speaker 5: department did not respond in any term of a fishing
Speaker 5: amount of time. It took two hours and so Nigel
Speaker 5: was able to successfully leave his home, get on Martyr,
Speaker 5: take Martyr down to the Linburg train station and walk
Speaker 5: up Petemont to go to Fogo to Child. And unlike
Speaker 5: the information the police have been releasing and the City
Speaker 5: of a Lad has been releasing, Nigel actually formally worked
Speaker 5: at Fogo to Child and knew many of the individuals
Speaker 5: that were there. So the nine one one call saying
Speaker 5: that they didn't know this guy got had spiky hair
Speaker 5: and gold teeth, all that erroneous. But anyway, he goes
Speaker 5: into the Fogo to Child, he gets some food, he
Speaker 5: sits at the bar, he interacts with people at the bar,
Speaker 5: he's talking to the matre d. He does go behind
Speaker 5: the bar and get a bottle of Hennessy and come
Speaker 5: back and drink that. And he's in the process of
Speaker 5: eating and drinking and not threatening anybody. You can clearly
Speaker 5: see that in the video because no one is threatening,
Speaker 5: no one's disturbed, people are eating and drinking, everything's going well.
Speaker 5: He was never asked to pay for the meal. He
Speaker 5: was going to probably pay for the meal, but law
Speaker 5: enforcement arrived. They arrived, and that's where the video really begins.
Speaker 5: Now again there are two hours of video that has
Speaker 5: been released. Most of the platforms, with the exception of YouTube,
Speaker 5: have not released all the video, which is why the
Speaker 5: family was upset. But so you see the police come
Speaker 5: in and they interact with Nigel. As soon as they
Speaker 5: get to Nigel, he turns around, puts his hands up
Speaker 5: and starts to go to the ground. As he's going
Speaker 5: to the ground, the police push him to the ground
Speaker 5: and he flips over with his hands up. Now their
Speaker 5: police are saying, well, we told him put his hands
Speaker 5: behind his back. He has his hands up. He does
Speaker 5: have a gun in his waistband. And again in Georgia,
Speaker 5: as of March of twenty twenty two, there was the
Speaker 5: open concealed I mean open carry and conceal carry constitutional carry.
Speaker 5: So because of our Governor Brian Kemp and the infinite
Speaker 5: wisdom of the General Assembly, you can carry a gun
Speaker 5: anywhere in Georgia, concealed or not, without a license, without anything.
Speaker 5: You just have a gun because it's Georgia. So's they
Speaker 5: see the gun in the waistband. He's going to the ground.
Speaker 5: He's on the ground. Put your hands up, he's got
Speaker 5: his hands up. Put your hands behind your back. Before
Speaker 5: he gets an opportunity to put his hands back.
Speaker 4: He's tased.
Speaker 5: Now he's in a manic episode, all right. It agitates him.
Speaker 5: He tries to remove the pain by running away from
Speaker 5: the police. Now here's where the interpretation of videos diverge again.
Speaker 5: You can't see where the gun is outside of when
Speaker 5: you saw it in the waistband. Police are saying he
Speaker 5: took the gun out as he was running. I don't
Speaker 5: see that, and I've seen the video four times. I
Speaker 5: see his hands, you see his hands. You see a
Speaker 5: napkin in one of the hands. Anyway, he runs around
Speaker 5: the back of the restaurant, comes back towards the opening
Speaker 5: fouryer and is tackled by the security guard.
Speaker 4: Security guard tackles him.
Speaker 5: Now my question is why is the security guard tackling
Speaker 5: him if law enforcement has been called to address this situation.
Speaker 5: The security guard tackles him, the gun goes off. You
Speaker 5: don't see the gun being produced. I don't care how
Speaker 5: much they slow it down and try to circle things.
Speaker 4: It goes off.
Speaker 5: We don't know who shot home, but we know a
Speaker 5: gun goes off. He's on the ground, gun goes off,
Speaker 5: security guard rolls off. Police fired him five times. Now
Speaker 5: here's where the anger of the family and myself and
Speaker 5: others who had seen the video before. We'd seen the
Speaker 5: video three times. The first time we saw the video
Speaker 5: was six months after the incident. The NAACP was invited
Speaker 5: in to see the video. They stopped it right after
Speaker 5: the five seconds of the first shooting, so we didn't
Speaker 5: know anything about a second shooting. So then a year
Speaker 5: goes by, we meet with the mayor, the mayor of
Speaker 5: Grease to release the video to the family. We go
Speaker 5: into see the video and we realized, low and behold,
Speaker 5: the first video was edited. So they played the second
Speaker 5: video where you see him run, he gets tackled, fires
Speaker 5: five times, pauses, walks around a little bit.
Speaker 4: And then fire fires ten more times.
Speaker 5: And my thing is, why are you firing into a
Speaker 5: man who's clearly down, He's clearly incapacitated, and you unload
Speaker 5: fifteen shots into him. But that doesn't stop there. We
Speaker 5: asked them to release the full unedited video a year ago.
Speaker 5: They do not release the video for whatever reason. Case
Speaker 5: is still open, so the family files a lawsuit last
Speaker 5: month and the police finally released the video. The edited
Speaker 5: portion of the video with the editorialization and the attempts
Speaker 5: to justify. Even though this case has not been justified,
Speaker 5: the case is still open. It's in the District Attorney's office.
Speaker 5: The police. Atlanta police cannot justify a police involved shooting.
Speaker 4: Either the GBI or the DA has to do that.
Speaker 5: So the family is completely frustrated with the response of
Speaker 5: law enforcement. One day, didn't show up in time to
Speaker 5: address the mental health issue that my Nagel was having
Speaker 5: two hours before. Then you show up at the restaurant,
Speaker 5: get erroneous information, You try to tase a man who's
Speaker 5: trying to give up with his hands up. You chase him,
Speaker 5: the security guards tackles him, and then you unload fifteen
Speaker 5: shots in him, and then you try to justify it.
Speaker 5: And so that's where we are. It's been two years
Speaker 5: of a fight for transparency and justice. They have now
Speaker 5: told our friend, pastor Jamal Bryant, that they will finally
Speaker 5: release the unedited version. They told them that on Friday.
Speaker 5: It's forty eight hours later. I still don't see it.
Speaker 5: So that's where we are. In Georgia, there's a systemic
Speaker 5: police brutality issue. In Atlanta, there's a systemic police brutality issue,
Speaker 5: and the attempt to diflect and divert continues from Rayshard
Speaker 5: Brooks and Jimmy Atchison all the way now to Nagel
Speaker 5: Cullins and also Deacon Johnny Holloman. There are so many
Speaker 5: names in Georgia in Atlanta that need to be lifted up,
Speaker 5: and we're appreciative of you and until Freedom and so
Speaker 5: many others are standing with this family. But Georgia has
Speaker 5: a police brutality problem. Atlanta has a police brutality problem,
Speaker 5: and Nagel Cullins is the face of that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that very clear synopsis of what has
Speaker 1: taken place here, because I've had people say, well, he
Speaker 1: shot the security guard. They don't know that they're saying
Speaker 1: it because that's either what the news has said or
Speaker 1: implied strongly implied. But have they tested the ballistics from
Speaker 1: his gun and the wound of the police officer to
Speaker 1: I mean the security guard to one hundred percent either
Speaker 1: eliminade and or confirmed that it came from Nigel's gun.
Speaker 4: No, they haven't.
Speaker 5: And one of the interesting things now that I've seen
Speaker 5: the full two hours again, I was initially showed clips,
Speaker 5: then another clip, but now I've had a chance to
Speaker 5: see it all No, they haven't released the full GBI report,
Speaker 5: they haven't released the autops report, they haven't released the
Speaker 5: m's report, they haven't released the ballistics report. And interesting enough,
Speaker 5: you know I am a criminal defense attorney, so I
Speaker 5: deal with this all day long. When they declared Nigel dead,
Speaker 5: they didn't bag his hands. The reason why you would
Speaker 5: bag so somebody's hands is to do GSR gun gun
Speaker 5: residue on the hands to be able to definitively say
Speaker 5: one they handle the gun and two they fired the gun.
Speaker 5: Because when you fire the gun, there are particles that
Speaker 5: eject from the firing of the bullets called stippling, that
Speaker 5: go backwards and they go forward, and you can tell
Speaker 5: who is in contact with the gun and if they
Speaker 5: used it. So, I mean, it's easy ways they can
Speaker 5: prove allless. But all they're doing is putting a narrative
Speaker 5: out there, and we would argue the narrative is incorrect,
Speaker 5: and that's why we are correcting the narrative. We want
Speaker 5: the truth to come out. We want transparency, and transparency
Speaker 5: starts with if you're going to release the video, release
Speaker 5: everything so now that everyone can see what actually happened,
Speaker 5: what the witnesses said, what now on one said, what
Speaker 5: the medical examiners have said, what the GBI testers have said,
Speaker 5: and then of course the police involved shooting, so we
Speaker 5: can determine what the security guard and the police officer are.
Speaker 4: A see it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting because even in the Breonna Taylor matter,
Speaker 1: Kenny Walker was accused of shooting the officer, one of
Speaker 1: the officers in the knee in the leg I think
Speaker 1: the knee, and they never tested or whether they tested
Speaker 1: it or not, we don't know, because they never said.
Speaker 1: They never one hundred percent confirmed that Kenny's bullet hit
Speaker 1: the officer's knee with everybody shooting all around, Who the
Speaker 1: hell knows how the officer was shot, right, We don't know,
Speaker 1: but they tried to use it and to bilify Kenny. However,
Speaker 1: for some reason there was never one hundred percent confirmation.
Speaker 1: Then ultimately the case against Kenny was dropped. And so
Speaker 1: I think this is a pattern that we see that
Speaker 1: when there is a shooting, an officer involved shooting, there
Speaker 1: is this this. You know, they say one thing, but
Speaker 1: they never actually give you the proof to prove what
Speaker 1: they are using as their narrative to give them a
Speaker 1: reason for the use of force, and so that's interesting.
Speaker 1: The other thing I see as a pattern is that
Speaker 1: they are slowing down videos. There was a time when
Speaker 1: they would just put out a clip and cut some
Speaker 1: part from it. Now they slow down the videos and
Speaker 1: they are very clear. I was having a conversation with
Speaker 1: Attorney Ben Crump about this. They know how to manipulate
Speaker 1: the eyes what the eyes can see based upon the
Speaker 1: way they edit the footage and slow it down and
Speaker 1: make it where it's very difficult for you and I
Speaker 1: to understand the rapid speed of things as it happens.
Speaker 1: And so these people are using tactics. This is not
Speaker 1: like it's just a mishap or they are They have
Speaker 1: very specific tactics for how they are going forward with
Speaker 1: brutalizing and then misinforming, disinforming, as you said, the people.
Speaker 1: So I know you are seeing that in your.
Speaker 5: Cases absolutely, And what you know the public needs to
Speaker 5: understand is in a case, the police or the state
Speaker 5: have the burden to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 5: So slowing a video down life does not happen in
Speaker 5: slow motion, if happens in real time. And the Supreme
Speaker 5: Court has said that, you know officers have split second
Speaker 5: decision to make. They didn't say slow motion decisions to make,
Speaker 5: and it has to be the reasonable officer. And so
Speaker 5: in this particular case, it's not reasonable for an officer
Speaker 5: to shoot somebody fifteen times, whether they have a gun
Speaker 5: or not, if they're not a threat when they're down
Speaker 5: and so, and then an officer does not have the
Speaker 5: right to encounter somebody if they don't have reasonable, articulable
Speaker 5: suspicion that that person has committed a crime. So when
Speaker 5: you initially taste Nigel Cullins, what crime was he reasonably
Speaker 5: that you could artarticulate suspected of doing? He was in
Speaker 5: a restaurant, lawfully, having a gun, eating a meal, and
Speaker 5: he was not being disruptive. Even the two hours of
Speaker 5: footage show he was not disruptive. So it wasn't this
Speaker 5: only conduct. He wasn't obstructing because in George you have
Speaker 5: a right to resist an unlawful arrest. But once you
Speaker 5: got past the reasonable suspicion, which is to detain, that's
Speaker 5: just the detained. They said they were going to arrest him.
Speaker 5: So what's the probable cause that he committed a crime?
Speaker 5: What is the more probable than not that he committed
Speaker 5: a crime that I can charge him with. I'm still
Speaker 5: asking that question. So from the point of the encounter,
Speaker 5: which started at all, that's where we start our analysis,
Speaker 5: and that analysis is faulty.
Speaker 4: So to get to the.
Speaker 5: Point where a citizen, now the security officer who's now
Speaker 5: intervening in a police investigation, tackles somebody, it sets all
Speaker 5: that in motion. So while we're having these armchair quarterbacks
Speaker 5: trying to do analysis based on a one sided narrative,
Speaker 5: that's not what happens in court. And the burden is
Speaker 5: not on the family to justify anything. The burden is
Speaker 5: on the police's.
Speaker 1: Two last things. And I'm gonna let you go one
Speaker 1: Fannie willis where does she fall in this entire scope
Speaker 1: of mess? And I say that because you know, Fanny
Speaker 1: has become beloved by black people. Black women specifically have
Speaker 1: been supporting her because we know that the unfair treatment
Speaker 1: that she has suffered and continues to suffer, you know,
Speaker 1: is something that we have to stand up and speak
Speaker 1: out about. Right we know that too many women are
Speaker 1: sexualized and whoever we may be with or whatever's going
Speaker 1: on in our personal lives is used against us in
Speaker 1: ways that it does not always happen to men. Number one,
Speaker 1: but it's also anytime we are strong, powerful women who
Speaker 1: are willing, who have self determination and are willing to
Speaker 1: go up against some of the most powerful go up
Speaker 1: against the system, then you have these issues about who
Speaker 1: we slept with, how we wear our hair, how we speak,
Speaker 1: We're too loud, we're too angry, were too so these
Speaker 1: are stick. This is a stigma that people recognize and
Speaker 1: immediately jumped on to support her. However, I had people
Speaker 1: contacting me during the time where I, like others, was
Speaker 1: posting Fanny and saying we need to support the sister, saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we understand this moment, but her relationship to
Speaker 1: prosecute prosecuting police officers who harm black and brown people
Speaker 1: and particularly black people in Atlanta has not been great.
Speaker 1: And so I wonder if you can speak to that
Speaker 1: really quickly, and then we can finish with you talking
Speaker 1: about you said the family. You talked about the family.
Speaker 1: I met mom, beautiful woman, young woman said the last
Speaker 1: two years she's been going through hell, and I saw her.
Speaker 1: I just wasn't expecting. I was expecting to see someone
Speaker 1: a little bit older. I guess that's my own. I
Speaker 1: don't know ignorance that I would dare to think that
Speaker 1: after all these years, with all of these different types
Speaker 1: of mothers that I worked with, that I had this
Speaker 1: idea of what she would look like. And when she
Speaker 1: walked up, this is a beautiful, amazingly beautiful woman who
Speaker 1: does not look like what I know she's been going
Speaker 1: through and she was trying to get help for her son,
Speaker 1: which really hurts me, you know, deeply. I want to
Speaker 1: know how Fogo, as you said, Fogo de Child, I've
Speaker 1: been calling it Fogo, how have they been responding to
Speaker 1: this family. So that's the two things Fanny and then
Speaker 1: Fogo de Child is the corporate side of this. What
Speaker 1: has been their response.
Speaker 5: So Fani has had her special investigator unit meet with
Speaker 5: the family on two occasions. They now have the case
Speaker 5: and they're reviewing the case. And as you spoke, you know,
Speaker 5: Fani is very intentional in how she handles police involved cases.
Speaker 5: You know, she hasn't been as quick as the previous
Speaker 5: district attorney to indict police officers and charge them and
Speaker 5: try them, but she's working through it. And you know,
Speaker 5: I've known Fannie Willis since I was nineteen and she
Speaker 5: worked in the city Solicitor's office. She's a conscientious attorney. Now,
Speaker 5: that does not mean I don't disagree with her. She'd
Speaker 5: be the first one to say, Gerald's like that friend
Speaker 5: who you love to hate, and you know, I don't
Speaker 5: want to talk to him when he gets in his
Speaker 5: feelings about anything. So we fight. We fought in George
Speaker 5: as long as trial aps. I disagree with her. I
Speaker 5: still disagree with her, but she understands that when it
Speaker 5: comes to the situations that are happening with the former
Speaker 5: president of the United States, there's only one person in
Speaker 5: Georgia that can call Fannie out.
Speaker 4: That's me.
Speaker 5: Anybody else we're going to have a problem because she
Speaker 5: does when she has her mindset, do the right thing.
Speaker 5: But sometimes she can be this waited to do other things.
Speaker 5: So it's a love hate relationship.
Speaker 1: I do respect her, it's the politics and as a prosecutor,
Speaker 1: you know, prosecutors unfortunately are very close to police. I mean,
Speaker 1: what we deal with, well, you want to be nice
Speaker 1: about it today, the way you said it sounds really
Speaker 1: nice and buttoned up. I would say that for the
Speaker 1: last two years, either she knew that he was shot
Speaker 1: and killed in such an egregious manner, or she didn't know.
Speaker 1: And if she did not know that this happened because
Speaker 1: she didn't see or have or whatever the full video,
Speaker 1: then that raises the question of the police department and
Speaker 1: how honest and forthcoming they have been with her office.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know which one is, you know,
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you understand that we don't have to
Speaker 1: get into it today, but I still have questions about
Speaker 1: that because what happened in Nigel Collins, it feels to
Speaker 1: me like two years ago something should have been done,
Speaker 1: and certainly indictment too have been handed down for these
Speaker 1: police officers. But let's talk about the mom and fogo
Speaker 1: to child, and then you can go for today. And
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with me.
Speaker 5: So Maya Cullins is a force of nature and like
Speaker 5: you said, and I was in the same position when
Speaker 5: I first met her.
Speaker 4: You know, I was expecting.
Speaker 5: An older woman who would have experienced this, but she
Speaker 5: had Nigel very young. She's a very accomplished woman. She
Speaker 5: has her PhD. She owns multiple mental health treatment facilities
Speaker 5: throughout the state.
Speaker 4: She does a lot of.
Speaker 5: Civic engagement and a lot of community engagement, both in
Speaker 5: making waycross Atlanta. She's a powerhouse media producer herself, with
Speaker 5: TV movies that are on tub and one that's coming
Speaker 5: to Netflix.
Speaker 4: She's a force.
Speaker 5: And when I first met her, she said, I love
Speaker 5: my baby. They took my and they killed the right
Speaker 5: the wrong one, but they got the right mama. She
Speaker 5: told that to the mayor directly. And so she's not
Speaker 5: going to give up. She's as tenacious as me and
Speaker 5: Tamika put together, and that's saying a lot. And she's
Speaker 5: angry right now about what happened to her son when
Speaker 5: she tried to get help, and she's not.
Speaker 4: Going to stop.
Speaker 5: And so the response of the restaurant hasn't been any response.
Speaker 5: They haven't responded to the lawsuit yet. Hopefully they will
Speaker 5: respond to the lawsuit and we'll handle it in court.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, but you know, there's been really
Speaker 5: no response. We see what the response is from the
Speaker 5: police department. You know, they waited two years release this tape.
Speaker 5: Now they're trying to justify the tape even though they
Speaker 5: haven't justified the shooting through their internal you know, department
Speaker 5: of Internal affairs or anything like that.
Speaker 4: And the DA's office hadn't justified it.
Speaker 5: So we're still at the same place we were two
Speaker 5: years ago, except the world has seen the tape. And
Speaker 5: I know people want to make quick assumptions about what
Speaker 5: is or is not in the tape, But I would argue,
Speaker 5: watching all two and a half hours, don't watch it
Speaker 5: in slow motion, watch it as it happens. Watch the
Speaker 5: reaction of the people in the restaurant as it's happening.
Speaker 5: If Niger was such a threat, how come the people
Speaker 5: didn't get scared until law enforcement started firing tasers, and
Speaker 5: law enforcement started firing weapons right there in the vestibule
Speaker 5: of a busy restaurant.
Speaker 4: Those bullets could have.
Speaker 5: Gone anywhere, anywhere, fifteen shots, and it could have been
Speaker 5: a whole lot of other people injured because they didn't
Speaker 5: know how to deal appropriately with the mental mental health crisis.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Attorney General Griggs, our fighting brother, fighting attorney,
Speaker 1: long time attorney. How long you've been an attorney.
Speaker 4: I've been an attorney twenty years. I've been doing this
Speaker 4: a long.
Speaker 1: Term, fighting in the state of Georgia. We thank you
Speaker 1: and we honor you because it's not easy to take
Speaker 1: case after case after cases. You know, in the position
Speaker 1: we sit in. We are often the only phone call
Speaker 1: that people know to make and the only ones who respond,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we have no answer for how to navigate
Speaker 1: all the pieces of the difficulties of these situations, and
Speaker 1: nothing in us has any certainty that the end result
Speaker 1: will be favorable for our people. But we fight anyway,
Speaker 1: and we see you out there. Griggs. You deal with
Speaker 1: a lot. You deal with the haters, you deal with
Speaker 1: the people who and I think now folks have started
Speaker 1: to just say we can't beat Griggs. We just got
Speaker 1: to join them, and you know, figure out how to
Speaker 1: support you. And so I certainly always have and will
Speaker 1: continue to be your sister and to support you. And
Speaker 1: I want to help in any way that I can
Speaker 1: until Freedom wants to help with Nigel. You know, for us,
Speaker 1: we run towards difficult cases. I don't know why. So
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that as if
Speaker 1: it is a badge of honor, okay, because I wish
Speaker 1: I could get cases that is cut and dry. The
Speaker 1: thing happened, bam, you see it. That's it. I'm right, police,
Speaker 1: you know, or whomever is involved. They lose and the
Speaker 1: system just resets itself and does what's right and there's accountability.
Speaker 1: That's not the case for us. We seem to take
Speaker 1: on the cases that have layers. It's complex people. You know,
Speaker 1: Brionna Taylor's ex boyfriend or whatever he was to her
Speaker 1: was a drug dealer and therefore she was involved with it.
Speaker 1: She was somehow kingpin herself. That's one case that Kenny,
Speaker 1: her current boyfriend at the time that she was killed,
Speaker 1: shot the cop George Floyd may or may not have
Speaker 1: taken some drugs. You know, it's always layered. You know,
Speaker 1: Ahmad Arby walked into the house a house that he
Speaker 1: was trespassing on the property. These are the narratives out there,
Speaker 1: and we take on those types of responsibilities. That causes
Speaker 1: a lot of stress. And I know you are definitely
Speaker 1: you face that, but yet you still stand up. You
Speaker 1: still have time to make brand new babies. This baby
Speaker 1: is so beautiful. How old is your newest child.
Speaker 5: He's four weeks last week, so he's going into his
Speaker 5: fifth week now. So you know, and like you said
Speaker 5: to me, we don't take the easy cases. You know, Ahmar,
Speaker 5: they said he was trustpassed, even though there was no
Speaker 5: trust passing signed down there in Sentilla shows, you know, Nigel,
Speaker 5: they're saying he shot the security guard when the evidence
Speaker 5: doesn't show that he shot the security guard. He shows
Speaker 5: that there was a discharge with weapon when there was
Speaker 5: a struggle. So, but we also focus on what the
Speaker 5: law says. And so you know, the law said Amar
Speaker 5: was not a trust passer. And there are three individuals
Speaker 5: sitting in the prison cell in Georgia that gonna state
Speaker 5: that the rest of their natural lives. And so, folks,
Speaker 5: you gotta understand this.
Speaker 4: Is not easy.
Speaker 5: But we were built for this moment. We were built
Speaker 5: for this time. We're gonna make sure we stand up
Speaker 5: for our people. It's like Tamika, did you know she said,
Speaker 5: until that's freedom for her people, she's gonna be doing
Speaker 5: this work. So yeah, there's a lot of people out
Speaker 5: here that don't like me. I really don't care. What
Speaker 5: I care about is justice, and we are going to
Speaker 5: pursue justice. We're gonna be just as bold and just
Speaker 5: as opinionated as our ancestors, and we're gonna get that
Speaker 5: justice one way or the other.
Speaker 1: One way or the other. Thank you so much, Attorney
Speaker 1: Gerald Griggs.
Speaker 4: Appreciate you.
Speaker 1: So Thank you again, Attorney Gerald Griggs for being with
Speaker 1: us today. I mean, I think you are, you know, listening,
Speaker 1: and you've taken the time to hear all of what
Speaker 1: he stated in this interview. You hear someone who's not confused,
Speaker 1: he is not off on the facts. He knows he's
Speaker 1: been for two years dealing with Nigel Collins family, and
Speaker 1: you know he's with at ease able to explain to
Speaker 1: you why this case is so egregious and why what
Speaker 1: happened to Nigel is illegal. It should be considered to
Speaker 1: be legal by the courts in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: And we support one hundred percent the work that Gerald
Speaker 1: Griggs is doing there along with Nigel Collins family. Next
Speaker 1: week we're going to be back with our regularly scheduled programming.
Speaker 1: This week is Mysan has had to go off and
Speaker 1: work with the young people, which again my heart is
Speaker 1: just I'm so proud of what he is doing and
Speaker 1: what a vision that he had through our Boycott Black
Speaker 1: Murder campaign and he has executed that vision. And I
Speaker 1: am so excited to leave from sitting here in front
Speaker 1: of this computed today talking to you all, to go
Speaker 1: out and be a part of what I feel is
Speaker 1: history in the making with these young people, that their
Speaker 1: minds and hearts have been shifted, that they can see
Speaker 1: a different way than the way that sometimes our culture
Speaker 1: tries to tell them that being the most thugged out,
Speaker 1: being the most violent and dangerous, that they are trauma
Speaker 1: and their issues that they face in life, that they
Speaker 1: should take the hard way, which is the violent way,
Speaker 1: the dangerous way, the way that can lead them to
Speaker 1: self destruction. That that's actually celebrated, That there are people
Speaker 1: who will pay you for the music that exploits your trauma.
Speaker 1: That there are systems that somehow will uplift you and
Speaker 1: make you seem like you are a leader in our
Speaker 1: community when you do wrong and when you are, you know,
Speaker 1: in my judgment, when you are a part of what
Speaker 1: is bringing us down versus what is actually lifting us up.
Speaker 1: There's too many different areas within our community that celebrates that,
Speaker 1: and what we want to do is turn it around
Speaker 1: and say that no, these groups, these people, this area,
Speaker 1: this segment of our community that celebrates peace, people who yes,
Speaker 1: are dealing with trauma, but are still committed to their
Speaker 1: own upliftment and the upliftment of our community. That's what
Speaker 1: we want to focus on. That's where we want to invest,
Speaker 1: that's what we want to show and lift and highlight
Speaker 1: as a beacon of light in our community. And so
Speaker 1: today I'm excited and I know that you all will
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to hear the music, to meet the students,
Speaker 1: their parents, the teacher, the music teacher that was involved,
Speaker 1: and of course Principal Cook all that's coming up. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining TMI. We are working hard to bring
Speaker 1: you the type of content that you all can appreciate.
Speaker 1: And please go to TMI Underscore Show to leave us
Speaker 1: comments about what you like and don't like about the show,
Speaker 1: things that you think we can do to improve, and
Speaker 1: guess that you want to hear from topics that you
Speaker 1: would like to hear. Because you all are a part
Speaker 1: of this with us. We're learning together, we are growing
Speaker 1: to get other and we are so grateful to have
Speaker 1: you on the journey with us for t m I.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Peace yea. Check out the video version of
Speaker 1: t M I every single Wednesday on Iwoman Dot TV.
Speaker 4: That's