WEBVTT - 1. Summer of Rage 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.280 Before we get started, I want to give you a 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:05.119 reason up front to stick around for the next ten episodes, 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:08.520 as well as offer a warning we are going to 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:13.399 expose using secret undercover recordings, have the Federal Bureau of 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:18.520 Investigation infiltrated and undermined the racial justice movement during the 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.079 summer of twenty twenty. This is not a story the 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:28.880 FBI once told, and these episodes contain explicit language and 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.479 descriptions of violence and death. Some listeners may find the 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:41.800 show disturbing. I want to take you back to the 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.360 summer of twenty twenty. The pandemic is here and a 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.600 lot is still really unknown. For months, millions of Americans 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.640 have been out of work, locked up in their homes, 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.480 and left deeply uncertain about the future. The nation is 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:01.320 a tinder box of anger. Look. Racial justice activists have 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.240 come out in force in cities nationwide to protest against 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:09.120 police brutality, resulting in an unprecedented explosion of activism around 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.800 the broader Black Lives Matter movement. Right wing activists hit 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:17.360 the streets too as counter protesters, groups ranging from pro 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:23.040 police demonstrators to violent street thugs like the Proud Boys, 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.000 and militia groups like the oathkeepers, it will turn to war. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:38.080 Some of the encounters turned violent. In turn, anti fascist activists, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.319 often dressed in black and referred to as antifa, begin 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.280 meeting right wing violence with force of their own. The 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.880 clashes result in the kind of political violence Americans haven't 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.080 seen in decades. The city became a war zone. Large 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.720 groups torch police cruisers as officers fired back with rubber bullings. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.320 Violence involving the Proud Boys and leftist Antifa in Portland, Oregon. 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.760 In recent weeks, President has been calling for law and order, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.200 but many say he's fueling the flames. Lots of people 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.440 on the right, from President Donald Trump in the Oval 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.120 Office to Tucker Carlson on Fox News, they start calling 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.400 out Antifa, painting them as militarized extremists who want nothing 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.840 more than to kill cops and burn America to the ground. 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.440 Black lives matter, Antifa is going to grow like ices 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.359 dated the Middle Ease. Violent young men with guns will 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.560 be in charge. You will not want to live here 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.720 when that happens. According to President Trump, anti fascist activists 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.440 aren't simply there to stop violent right wing extremists and fascists. No, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.320 these antifa guys they're the real threat. Former Defense Secretary 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.320 Mark Asper says that Trump suggested that the US military 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.520 shoot Black Lives Matter protesters outside of the White House. 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:59.760 A mounted police have been coming down the street using 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.600 lash bangs in front of them to clear what has 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:08.960 been an entirely peaceful protest. Note nine percent, but one 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.400 hundred percent. People can protests. If you remember this public 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.919 debate gets pretty ridiculous. Soup and they throw the cans 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.399 of soup. That's better than a brick, because you can't 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.080 throw a brick it's too heavy. But a can of soup, 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.040 you can really put some power into that. Right, people 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.280 on the left are practically screaming, this is all a distraction, 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.320 a distraction from the very real issues of police brutality 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.600 against black people. And TIEF is an idea, not an organization, 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.680 you got it. Not polition, That's what it is. To 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:43.320 the FBI is FBI direct. All the while, demonstrators are 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.920 marching and COVID is raging, the economy is falling apart, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.120 people are getting shot, and nobody knows what's going to 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:55.720 happen next. Plus there's this boogeyman hiding behind every corner. 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.800 He's playing into Antifa being the boogeyman being behind these protests. 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.240 You know, Fox News is still running riot porn, acting 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.600 like the riots are still happening today. Fantiva is just 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:10.400 sort of this abstract boogeyman word that we hear. On 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.440 the other side, you can clearly see it is what happens. 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:15.280 All I can tell you is we're not the evil 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.920 boogeyman people think we are. What are you people that 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:25.719 care about our country? But what if I were to 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:30.600 tell you there is an Antifa boogeyman? He was real. 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.080 He drove a silver hearse and the back of that 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:40.320 hearse was filled with guns, lots and lots of guns. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.120 In the summer of twenty twenty, he rode into town. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.680 I don't give a fuck about the cops, and I 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.880 don't care about the police. I do not agree nor 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:56.160 accept fascism. But understand this, if you come to me 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:02.159 fucked up, I'm gonna fuck you up. Stupid games, when 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:08.920 stupid prizes. I'm Trevor Aaronson from Western Sound and iHeart podcasts. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:34.400 This is alphabet boys, So what or who is an 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:39.799 alphabet boy. Alphabet boys are federal agents or informants working 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:45.840 for the Alphabet agencies FBI, CIA, d EA, ATF These 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.680 are our national law enforcement and intelligence agencies that run 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:54.479 around the country and the world, fighting crime and collecting intelligence. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.559 These agencies aren't interested in small cases either. We're talking 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:04.320 about really, really big cases, some of the biggest attacks 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.839 against the United States, criminal organizations, terrorists, etc. For about 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.000 as long as I've been a journalist, I've covered the 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.480 way that these alphabet agencies use undercover agents and informants 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.000 to orchestrate so called sting operations, where an undercover agent 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.480 pretends to be a criminal, a terrorist, a drug dealer, 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:25.120 an arms trader, a corrupt lobbyist, a money launder, and 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.559 on and on. We've largely come to accept undercover stings 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.880 as legitimate and necessary. But it wasn't so long ago 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.520 that many Americans found these techniques outrageous for the way 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.000 they appear to create crimes and entrap people in criminal 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:44.360 plots made possible only by aggressive undercover federal agents. Each 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.039 season of Alphabet Boys, we'll take you inside one of 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.360 these investigations as the FBI. Sometimes you get it grabbed 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.200 the little guy to go after the biggest. You'll hear 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.560 undercover recordings that were kept secret until now. This is 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.479 reference case number four one five Season Charlie, New York 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.280 three zero zero eight five one. Okay, so you do 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.000 personal security all over the world. You're connected to all 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.640 these different people. You'll meet supposed terrorists, arms dealers, and 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.000 drug runners. And you had somebody call you and say, 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:20.480 can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Columbia? 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.320 A lot of ammunitions forty seven And you'll discover that 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.400 while many of these cases have plenty of danger and intrigue, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.200 I just drove for eight hours and then I just 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.400 stuffed my gun in the face of a federal agent. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.720 They also introduce so much absurdity. I got knocked off 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.520 of Golding about a month ago, and my hip is shattered. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.120 My maipulation is a Jedi mindshield that it's hard not 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.280 to wonder. I will be polite and professional, our America's 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.040 top cops catching real criminals, but I have a plan 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.200 to kill everybody in the fucking room. I need to 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:56.400 be or are they creating them? You want to show? 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:08.840 This is season one Trojan Hearst, Episode one, Summer of Rage. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.520 The protests in Denver continuous. Hundreds of protesters have gathered 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:31.200 in front of the state capital tonight. Of all the 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.960 racial justice demonstrations around the country in the summer of 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:38.240 twenty twenty, Denver, Colorado saw some of the biggest, most 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:44.440 intense protests we've been watching as fences are smashed, torn down, 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.880 protesters starting fires, and building umbrella barricades. This is a 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.920 live look at downtown Denver where we have seen this 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.040 clash happening now for about the thousands demonstrate outside the 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.600 Colorado State Capital, chanting a phrase synonymous with young black 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:08.120 men dying at the hands of police officers. Some of 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.680 the Denver protests become violent and destructive. The police fire 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.079 pepper spray and rubber bullets into the crowds, injuring dozens, 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:20.040 but the protesters just keep coming out undaunted. Day ten 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.520 of protests across Denver, nearly a week after police use 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:30.600 tear gas and pepper balls to disperse protesters outside, and 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.200 then one night, a new guy shows up at the protests. 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.560 He's a white guy wearing military fatigues with patches and 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.160 stripes that he claims to have earned fighting the Islamic 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.840 State or ISIS in a rock and Syria. He has 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.560 a cigar dangling from his lips. And the car he 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.680 drives is unmistakable. It's a silver hearse with a sticker 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.200 on the back window reading Peshmerga, the Kurdish military force, 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.200 and inside his hearts with a lack a lot of guns, 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.360 you know, a R fifteens and all other kind of shit. 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.000 This is zep Hal. He was a regular at the 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.840 Denver protests. Yeah, it was just this badass dude, you know, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.840 talking about he worked in the foreign military. He was 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.040 for the Black Lives Matter movement. He just seemed like 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.000 some authoritary figure, you know, this powerful figure that was there. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.640 He was very convincing, but he did explain, you know, 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.320 he was part of like a bad biker gangs. You know, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.960 he had committed a ton of violence, you know, but 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.960 you know he was for this BLM movement. This dude 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.680 was like a bad motherfucker. This bad motherfucker also introduces 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.760 himself to another Denver organizer, Trey Quinn. He's like, I've 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:36.920 done this and that. I was in the PKK and 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:43.120 the French Foreign Legion and so on, and YadA, YadA, YadA. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.080 We ran night protests every night, and so we see 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.000 him a bunch and he approaches us every single time 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.439 from that point on, he walked up with a body 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.559 cam on me. And here's another regular at the Denver protests, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.680 Bright Shelby. I didn't think nothing about the body cam 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:06.800 in hindsight, just because I just I don't know. There 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:08.680 were just a lot of things going on. I guess 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.720 he remembers the Hearst dude walking around with a GoPro 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.040 camera stropped to his chest. It was strange. I guess 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:20.320 he de escalated any type of suspicion because he started 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.400 like flashing his prison badge. So yeah, you know what 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.199 I mean, Like, Okay, he's not this guy in affair 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:32.240 you walking around with a prison badge. Yeah. Around the 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.280 time this mysterious character starts showing up, the protests in 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.400 Denver are stagnating. They're becoming this cat and mouse game 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.679 between demonstrators and cops. People coming out in mostly peaceful ways, 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:49.000 cops coming out with riot gear and overwhelming force. People 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:53.640 like zeb Tray and Bryce. They're getting frustrated. Something more 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:59.600 needs to happen, something new, and then something new does happen. 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.280 I was like, Hey, this guy, you know, he wants 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.920 to train people how to you know, defend themselves and 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.640 use the weapons and he showed me how to do 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.680 it as well. The guy with real military experience is here. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.520 He's a commanding presence, he's got a hearse full of guns. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.040 He's going to take things to the next level. That's 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:30.520 after the break. We live in a very divided country 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.880 right now, and that's not news. Everyone knows it. We 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.240 talk about it over dinner, cable news, on social media. 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.400 But this division is something that really bothers Denver racial 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.319 justice activist zeb Hal. He thinks it's really a distraction. 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.680 We're not focusing on how our government is abusing all 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:54.240 of us. They're so good at dividing us, so good 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.840 at it that we can't acknowledge things will happening to 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.640 other people. We can't accept anyone stepping out degree from 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.880 the group think, and that enables them to continue this 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.240 mass surveillance. Instead, zeb says, we sit at home watching 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.599 Cops and Robbers shows with clear good guys and unambiguous 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.600 bad guys, the portrait of a just and fair American 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.880 criminal justice system that has never really existed. Look at CBS, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.240 they have like fucking a million police officer shows, all 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.560 these other major networks, so we know the networks cater 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.400 them make them look real good. Hell, they could be 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.520 listening in here, they could be in my fucking TV. 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:35.120 The apparatus is that powerful. So yeah, Zeb, he's pretty 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.120 skeptical of the US government, and as a black man, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.679 Zeb's pretty tired of hearing about our racial divide. In 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.840 his view, the US government and the country's most powerful 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.680 corporations encourage the racial division we now have so that 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.640 poor white people and poor black people can't form the 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.320 political alliance they naturally should. Well, I understand, you know, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.080 me and being black in this system, you know, I 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:04.000 feel like this, Yeah, yeah, Okay, there's white privilege, but 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.240 we are led to believe that it's this all powerful weapon, 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.280 like white people don't have to do anything, and that 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.600 is part of the thing that's used to divide us. 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.400 But I dare someone to go in the middle of 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:19.480 fucking Arkansas to a white community who lost a factory 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.840 and say, hey, you're entitled, You've got this privilege. But 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.680 we're made to think that way. They're dealing with the 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.080 same shit people in inner city. They are fucked up, 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.280 they're own drugs. Also, they're living in poverty. But we're 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.480 made to think those white people in rural areas are 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.960 constantly the enemy when they're living in a hall as well, 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.160 the same fucking hell as us, but we are told 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:50.720 that that other side is fucking terrible. Zeb, whose full 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.520 name is Zebadias, wasn't always this caustic. His anger really 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.040 set in a couple of years ago, in early twenty twenty, 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.720 when the pandemic started. He saw how people on the 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.640 an edge like him, suffered job losses, poor healthcare, mounting debts, 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.880 and anxieties about eviction. At the same time, Zeb saw 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.560 affluent Americans adapting to the pandemic with ease, working remotely 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.480 deliveries from Amazon in their local grocery store, lush fenced 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.720 in backyards to get fresh air, iPads, and new laptops 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.080 for their kids to use for remote schooling. The pandemic, 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.520 in Zeb's view, laid bare the inequities in America. Some 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.560 of us had everything, while others of us were a 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:35.840 missed paycheck away from poverty. Were all in danger. We're 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:41.240 all in danger, and that is serious. I think in 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.000 the right ways. I have become more radicalized because I 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:48.320 care more about people. Zeb was born in nineteen eighty four. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.440 His parents were in high school when his mom got 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.520 pregnant with him, and then his dad skipped down, so 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.800 Zeb's childhood was tumultuous. He lived with his grandmother for 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.080 a bit in California when he was a small boy, 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.200 and aually moved to North Carolina when his mother married 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.920 a US marine. In his twenties, Zeb had a serious 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.840 girlfriend in North Carolina and she decided to move to Denver. 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.480 So Zeb followed and he and his girlfriend got married. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:18.160 I got here shockingly, unexpectedly on four twenty and she 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.840 takes me downtown Denver, and I'm seeing all these people smoking. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:22.880 They're all going to get arrested. They're all gonna arrested. 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:24.080 I gotta get out of here. I gotta get here, 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.040 and I'm freaking out. Then I got pulled over by 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.400 a cop in October of twenty twelve, and he asked, 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:31.760 you got any drugs in the car, And I'm like, 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.280 I've got some marijuana sart, Okay, you got any drugs 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.200 in the car I've got this week? And I'm freaking out. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:37.720 He says, no, do you have any real drugs. We're 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.560 not worried about that. I'm like, oh no, I do not. 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.720 You know. It was real funny. It was real funny. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.120 But that's how I got your You know, we had 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.160 a daughter along the way. She has our other two 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.880 kids as well, which is a big story on the side. 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.360 But yeah, that's how I got here. I got here. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.960 Zeb glosses over this part a bit. He and his 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.400 now ex wife, Bridget, had a dog, as Zeb mentioned, 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:03.720 but they were living in poverty and didn't want to 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.840 subject their daughter to such a difficult life. So Zeb's 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.560 mother and stepfather in North Carolina, who were well off 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.080 by comparison, agreed to take care of the girl. Zeb 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.520 travels back regularly to visit and tries to be there 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.920 for big moments birthdays, first days of school, major holidays. 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.960 It was around twenty fifteen when his daughter was born. 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.440 That's when Zeb began to feel America had become fundamentally unfair, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.480 that rich people were getting richer, and that no matter 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.080 how hard he worked, he was getting poorer. He couldn't 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:42.560 even support his daughter. The American system seemed broken. Zeb 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.480 wasn't the first person to feel disillusioned with the American promise, 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.399 but he and others were seeing how body camera and 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.399 cell phone footage had created a near constant stream of 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.280 news stories about Black people dying at the hands of 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:59.600 police officers nationwide. Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, to mere Rice, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.080 Freddy Gray, Brianna Taylor. The list goes on. In Colorado, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:10.000 in twenty nineteen, there was Elijah McClain, a twenty three 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.720 year old who died after being arrested by a war police. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.760 Police say Elijah McClain was wearing a ski mask, acting 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:21.120 agitated and ignored officers commands. Elijah was, by all accounts, 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.760 an introverted, sensitive, twenty three year old. He worked as 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.880 a massage therapist and taught himself to play guitar and violin. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.600 Elijah would often play music at animal shelters to help 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:36.280 calm the stray cats and dogs. Elijah also suffered from anemia, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.560 and so we'd wear an open faced ski mask even 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:44.439 during the summer in Colorado in order to stay warm. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.560 On the evening of August twenty four, twenty nineteen, Elijah 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.400 walked from his apartment to a convenience store in Aurora 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.880 suburb just outside Denver. A resident there called nine one 0:18:53.960 --> 0:19:00.640 one and reported a man wearing a ski mask. The mask, Oh, man, 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.720 Elijah looks sketchy, the nine one one caller said, then 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.040 added he might be a good person or a bad person. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.679 Three cops responding to this call stopped Elijah as he 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.680 was walking back to his apartment. The cops claimed Elijah 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.160 resisted arrest and reached for one of the officers guns. 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.200 It's hard to know what's true. The video of the 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.320 initial encounter is shaky and unclear. The body camera of 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.320 another police officer recorded from the point that Elijah was 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:41.159 already on the ground. We started their visiting. That's one 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.360 of the officers claiming that Elijah reached for a gun. 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.240 As you can hear, Elijah pinned down to the ground, 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.000 pleading to be let go. The officers speculated that Elijah 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.959 was on drugs, but Elijah kept telling them that he 0:19:53.000 --> 0:20:01.680 wasn't on drugs and that he wasn't trying to resist. 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.800 I can't breathe, I have my ID right here. That's 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.240 what Elijah tells the officers. At the time, Elijah was 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.480 handcuffed behind his back and one of the officers was 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:23.639 applying a chokeold to his neck. Page of different, completely, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.400 I'm just different, Elijah told the officers as a way 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:32.520 to explain why they might have thought his behavior was odd, 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.320 but also to assure them that he wasn't violent, he 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.040 wasn't trying to resist. He kept saying that to the cops. 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.119 Paramedics then arrived on the scene and injected Elijah with 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.919 five hundred milligrams of ketamine as a sedative. That dosage 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:48.800 would have been excessive for a two hundred pound man. 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.400 Elijah was just one hundred and forty pounds. His pull 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.560 stopped and he was taken to the hospital. Three days later, 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.560 Elijah was pronounced brain dead and taken off life support. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:09.840 Elijah's death sparked outrage in Denver. People poured into the 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:12.400 streets to protest. One of the first events I went 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.320 to was shortly after the murder of Elijah mclin. Zeb 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.479 Angered about Elijah's senseless killing was among them. He'd never 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.439 been politically active before. You know. I went there and 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.320 saw his mother and a bunch of other people, and 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.320 everyone was hurt. You know, we knew it was wrong. 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.280 In February twenty twenty, after the demonstrations for Elijah mclin 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:38.119 began to fizzle out, public officials announced they would investigate 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.800 the police response. It was something, sure, but there wasn't 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:44.840 a lot of faith that the police officers and paramedics 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.560 responsible for Elijah's death would be held accountable. Then three 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.560 months later, on May twenty fifth, twenty twenty, a white 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.640 police officer in Minneapolis named Derek Schouven arrest a black 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.160 man named George Floyd on suspicion that he had used 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.679 a counterfeit twenty dollar bill. Chauvin restrains Floyd on the 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.560 concrete street during the arrest, and he places his knee 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.840 directly on Floyd's neck for approximately nine minutes, and he 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.840 murders George Floyd. Good even to everyone. We're coming on 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.320 the air with the latest on the wave of protests 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.440 unrest taking place at this hour across the country, outrage 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.120 at the death of George Floyd and African American man 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.480 in Denver. Floyd's death is like gasoline thrown on the 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.960 warm embers of anger over Elijah McClain. Thousands of people 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.200 protest in the streets, animated by both men's untimely death 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.280 at the hands of police officers, and the Denver area 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:41.159 police response to the demonstrations was brutal. In June, dozens 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.840 of people gather in Aurora's public Square for Elijah McClain. 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:47.760 They call it the Violin vigil as many of the 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:52.119 demonstrators play violins in Elijah's honor. The police, dressed in 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.760 riot gear, storm into the demonstration and disperse the crowd 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:15.080 with violent shoves in full volume streams of pepper spring. 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.399 During other demonstrations, police in the Denver area fire pepper 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:25.040 balls and rubber bullets into the crowds, injuring dozens. It's like, 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.080 fucking wow, I'm out there with my camera, he goes, 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:29.840 I'd never taken photos, you know before, I just picked 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:32.800 up the hobby at the time. Zeb Hal had purchased 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.040 a camera to document the protest. It was crazy, you know, 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.440 I'm just you know, taking pictures that I'm seeing his 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:41.840 fire in a civic center park and then it's kind 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:47.040 of like a saving private Ryan moment. Zeb isn't quite 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:49.879 sure what happened next. Did a rubber bullet hit him 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:53.040 in the head? Where did he pass out after being 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.800 overwhelmed with pepper spray and then smack his head on 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:59.320 the concrete. I'm like, you're just like kind of flozzed 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.080 out of people picked me up off the ground and 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:04.560 they brought me, you know, took me away, put some 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:06.400 I think it was milk in my eyes and shit 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:10.520 and kind of brought me back to But I was 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:14.000 having issues after that. My head was hurting so bad 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:16.919 and I wasn't able to sleep well. I was just 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:19.879 like sporadic, like emotional, like losing my mind. You know. 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:21.720 I had to get I think it was a cat skin. 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:24.359 You know. They almost told me to like stop driving 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:28.600 at one point, they were really concerned memory was off 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:32.280 a little bit, you know, to some degree. Yeah, it 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:36.280 was pretty pretty rough. From that point on, Zeb admits 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.520 he's done in his right mind. He's taking a hard 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:41.800 hit to the head, and he feels traumatized by the 0:24:41.800 --> 0:24:45.240 police response of the protests, but he doesn't want to quit. 0:24:46.440 --> 0:24:48.439 It feels like they're on the edge of something big. 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:52.720 Maybe the system could be reformed if enough people come 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:58.040 out and speak up. He's too far in, Zeb can't 0:24:58.040 --> 0:25:03.600 stop now. And this is about the time that a 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:07.480 man arrives in Denver driving up to a protest in 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:20.520 a silver hearse filled with guns. One of the primary 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:24.119 organizers of the Denver racial justice protests is Trey Quinn, 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:26.840 a tall black man who wears a beard and large 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:32.119 frame glasses. Trey identifies as a black nationalist through his 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:35.800 activism he's trying to promote organizations and causes that invest 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:39.000 directly in black communities in Colorado. What we were asking 0:25:39.080 --> 0:25:43.200 for is the same type of investment in the community 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:46.840 that would give us the same type of ownership in 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.160 a city that other communities have. You know, people can 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:54.359 look at the skyline and they see all these buildings, 0:25:54.640 --> 0:25:57.480 and none of those buildings provide any sort of wealth 0:25:57.520 --> 0:25:59.880 to black culture, but they provide wealth to these other 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:03.280 cultures because they have investments in that. And we wanted 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:07.000 to let people know this is what is really needed 0:26:07.040 --> 0:26:09.439 for us to get out of our situation. Since you 0:26:09.520 --> 0:26:12.399 want to help us so much, this is actually what 0:26:12.440 --> 0:26:16.440 we need, and so that was my message. Trade dislikes 0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:19.600 that the protests in Denver and others around the country 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:24.160 are being described as Black Lives Matter protests. Black Lives 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:27.440