Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome to you to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm
Speaker 1: your host Rams's job.
Speaker 2: He is your host Rams' job. I'm kind of like
Speaker 2: his sidekick, slash, teammate slash Like I'm the big brother,
Speaker 2: but kind of the little brother.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the big big brother, that's what it is. But
Speaker 1: they call me q War. Indeed, they do stick around.
Speaker 1: We got a lot in store for you today. I'd
Speaker 1: like to let you all know that it is AAPI
Speaker 1: heritage mark, that is Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage monk,
Speaker 1: and around here we celebrate this and the accomplishments and
Speaker 1: contributions of our Asian American and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: And so you hear about more, you hear more about that.
Speaker 1: As we flow through the show, We're gonna spend some
Speaker 1: time talking about why potentially there are seldom consequences in
Speaker 1: stories where we see folks harming black people, in particular
Speaker 1: non black people harming black people. There's a few examples
Speaker 1: that are in the media right now that tell that
Speaker 1: story better than we could, and so we're going to
Speaker 1: kind of get into that feel back a few layers
Speaker 1: and examine what our path forward might be. And we're
Speaker 1: also going to spend some time talking about an incident
Speaker 1: in Elk Grove, California, where a black teenager was harassed
Speaker 1: by a police officer on camera and give you a
Speaker 1: glimpse into what it can be like to be black
Speaker 1: and interact with police. We do this quite often on
Speaker 1: the show. This is another example. This is not dissimilar
Speaker 1: to experiences that both me and Q have had, and
Speaker 1: this is something that we feel gives you an aperture
Speaker 1: into that. So a lot to stick around, but first
Speaker 1: and foremost, let's start off at the top with some
Speaker 1: Ebony excellence, now we we shall. So today's ABNY Excellence
Speaker 1: is sponsored by Major Threads, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about Ralph Yarl. There's an update from Sean King and
Speaker 1: I will read it to you. This is our ABNY Excellence.
Speaker 1: He's recovering, so it goes Hey, everybody, this is from
Speaker 1: Sean King. By the way, Hey, everybody, wanted to give
Speaker 1: you all a beautiful update on the health condition of
Speaker 1: Ralph y'arl. He's healing and recovering well. Traumatic brain injuries
Speaker 1: just take time. And we're asking for your continued prayers.
Speaker 1: Our remain in close contact with his family. We've decided
Speaker 1: that they truly need the time and space and conditions
Speaker 1: not only for Ralph to heal, but for the whole
Speaker 1: family to heal. Let me stop her hook right here
Speaker 1: and remind you that Ralph Yarl is the sixteen year
Speaker 1: old who was shot in the head for knocking on
Speaker 1: the wrong door, ringing the wrong door. Okay, I'll continue.
Speaker 1: This has traumatized all of them. We worked hard to
Speaker 1: make sure the family has all the right medical, legal,
Speaker 1: and financial support they need during this time, and are
Speaker 1: deeply grateful for all the donors and supporters that chipped
Speaker 1: in to help his family. Here's an update directly from
Speaker 1: his aunt, doctor Faith Spoon Moore. She says Ralph is
Speaker 1: getting better every day. He has more good days than
Speaker 1: bad days. Ralph is currently experiencing headaches that can be
Speaker 1: debilitating at times. Our prayer is that with time that
Speaker 1: will also improve. He is a fighter and we are
Speaker 1: truly blessed to still have him here with us. Last
Speaker 1: ten days have been a whirlwind of emotions, but from
Speaker 1: being thankful that I still have my nephew to feeling
Speaker 1: an overwhelming amount of anger that we live in a
Speaker 1: country where this type of hate still exists in some
Speaker 1: Ralph is looking forward to being able to play the
Speaker 1: bass clarinet soon and we cannot wait for that moment either.
Speaker 1: We truly appreciate all the love and support that we
Speaker 1: have received from everyone. Thank you all for the prayers,
Speaker 1: and I want to also shout out Alicia Keys for
Speaker 1: setting up a trust for him. But those familiar with
Speaker 1: the story and that have donated, he received a lot
Speaker 1: of money to kind of help him with his recovery,
Speaker 1: So I got to mention Alicia Key's name there as well.
Speaker 1: So Ebanyax since goes out to Ralph yarrel on his
Speaker 1: road to recover.
Speaker 2: Lessons in love to Ralph and his family.
Speaker 1: All right, Q, I got a question, why aren't there
Speaker 1: consequences for harming black people? Wait, let me let me
Speaker 1: ask it differently, Why when the assailing is a non
Speaker 1: black person or white passing person. Better said, why are
Speaker 1: there seldom consequences for a person like this harming a
Speaker 1: black person? Because we know that there's consequences when a
Speaker 1: black person harms a black person.
Speaker 2: When a black person harms anyone, Sure, sure, very good?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but why do you think that is? I'm being funny,
Speaker 1: but go ahead, people.
Speaker 2: People might consider it, you know, lazy two to on
Speaker 2: the nose, But our country just has a very tragic
Speaker 2: and disheartening history of going out of its way to
Speaker 2: devalue black lives.
Speaker 1: Great answer to.
Speaker 2: Reason that affirmation exists in the first place, black lives matter.
Speaker 1: So we wouldn't just I mean, for those that listen
Speaker 1: to the show, we wouldn't just get that off. We
Speaker 1: actually have some stories here that caused us to ask
Speaker 1: ourselves that very question. Why aren't there consequences for harming
Speaker 1: black people? Right?
Speaker 2: And you're you're asking a white supremacist supremacist system to
Speaker 2: punish white supremacy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the least I can do. It's all order,
Speaker 1: I get it, all right, So let's talk. Let's let's
Speaker 1: frame this for folks that are listening. So the data
Speaker 1: and all that stuff supports that at least the criminal
Speaker 1: jet this data that is recorded criminal justice system data.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say criminal justice, implying that there
Speaker 1: is justice there, but folks who are arrested for crimes,
Speaker 1: not necessarily folks who commit the crimes of folks who
Speaker 1: are arrested for the crimes. Data shows that the there
Speaker 1: is a conviction and the sentences are longer when the
Speaker 1: victim of the crime is white and the the assailant
Speaker 1: is black.
Speaker 2: The accused the accused assailant.
Speaker 1: Sure, and that the the inverse is true when the
Speaker 1: white person harms a black person. The criminal justice system
Speaker 1: tends to be a lot more lenient if it's white
Speaker 1: and white or black and black. It is, it's not
Speaker 1: such a drastic thing. However, Black people are punished at
Speaker 1: an extremely higher rate than white people across every part
Speaker 1: of the spectrum and criminal justices. Okay, so there's some
Speaker 1: background for you. I'm gonna read this. This comes from
Speaker 1: the Grio. Shout out to the Grio.
Speaker 2: They gave us a good interview not too long ago.
Speaker 1: Uh So, the Grillo has a story. The headline is
Speaker 1: NYC woman who drove into BLM crowd gets no jail
Speaker 1: and plead you. Okay, I'm gonna read a little bit here.
Speaker 1: A New York City woman who plowed her car into
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter protesters managed to evade jail time by
Speaker 1: cutting a plea agreement with the prosecution. According to the
Speaker 1: New York Post, Kathleen Cassillo, fifty three, received five hours
Speaker 1: of community service under the deal with the Manhattan District
Speaker 1: Attorney's office. Castillo drove her BMW Sedan with her twenty
Speaker 1: nine year old daughter inside, into a crowd in December
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, injuring six people. Video capturing the moment showed
Speaker 1: several protesters flying into the air. All right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stop right here. There's a little bit more. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get back to it. So on this show, of course,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the lack of accountability in the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system, particularly with respect to police. Police can operate
Speaker 1: with impunity terrorized black neighborhoods. This has always been true
Speaker 1: in this country. There's nothing new, but there's never been
Speaker 1: any accountability. And indeed, the nexus of the Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter movement rose up in response to this abuse of
Speaker 1: quote unquote authority. Granted George Zimmerman, the man who killed
Speaker 1: Raymond was not a police officer, who's a security officer
Speaker 1: or neighborhood watch or something like that.
Speaker 2: Let's rewind, because I don't want us to confuse even
Speaker 2: security officer with citizens on patrol, vigilante neighborhood watched like
Speaker 2: self appointed keeper of the peace to followed stopped and
Speaker 2: murdered Treymon Martin in the name of standing.
Speaker 1: His round like after pursuing, Yeah, yeah, I understood, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. The thing is the way that the country
Speaker 1: approached George Zimmerman, or indeed the conservative facet of this
Speaker 1: country and the criminal justice system there in Florida. They
Speaker 1: approached him the same way that folks tend to approach
Speaker 1: police officers. You got blind support. You can do whatever
Speaker 1: you want. The victim is black, or the deceased is black,
Speaker 1: he must have done something wrong, right, So we talk
Speaker 1: about that a lot on the show. There's no accountability there.
Speaker 1: We talk about this is why the Black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: movement began. The affirmation exists is not to say that
Speaker 1: black people don't have more problems than just police problems.
Speaker 1: We recognize that, but to have accountability, to establish that
Speaker 1: black life has value and if you take it, you
Speaker 1: will be pursued. If a black person kills a black
Speaker 1: person and the law catches the person who does the killing,
Speaker 1: that person will be sent to jail. If the police
Speaker 1: officer kills a black person, oftentimes there is no accountability
Speaker 1: and so This is kind of the nexus of the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter movement, which is really just a rebranding
Speaker 1: and a rebirth of the movements plural that have existed
Speaker 1: in black communities in this country, going back to you know,
Speaker 1: the Black Codes and Jim Crow. You know, when we
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to deal with early forms
Speaker 1: of policing, you know, terrorism from Ku Kut's Klan and
Speaker 1: so forth. So police we get it. Today we're talking
Speaker 1: about citizens. Indeed, this particular citizen driving her car through
Speaker 1: a crowd of deal and protesters, sending people flying into
Speaker 1: the air, and they said that she gets five hours
Speaker 1: of communities.
Speaker 2: Or hours, not days, not months, not years, hours end
Speaker 2: of community service, and they're hurtful. I often cringe at
Speaker 2: the idea of actual progress. You know, I kind of
Speaker 2: joke that I'm the pessimist to rams optimism. I just
Speaker 2: I find myself grounded in the reality that I live in.
Speaker 2: I see no such progress. Well, five hours.
Speaker 1: You know, we had this similar conversation with I believe
Speaker 1: her name is Kim Potter's. The officer that shouted Taser, Taser, Taser,
Speaker 1: pulled out her gun and ended Dante Wright's life is
Speaker 1: Dante Writer Dante White, right right, okay, and she went
Speaker 1: to prison for sixteen months.
Speaker 3: I want to say something like that.
Speaker 1: It was like a three year sentence, but half of
Speaker 1: it had to be and served in half the other
Speaker 1: half was out.
Speaker 2: Like, first of all, she was convicted. The jury, the
Speaker 2: court determined her to be guilty of the crime she
Speaker 2: was accused of, and the sentence for said crime first
Speaker 2: said conviction, the quote unquote accountability for having committed this crime. Okay,
Speaker 2: we were past determining whether or not she did it.
Speaker 2: She did it, She's guilty. Was three years, and even
Speaker 2: that was too much to ask because they let her out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she's might be on house arrest or something like that
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. It shows you exactly what the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system, one of the more visible facets of
Speaker 1: white supremacy in this country, shows you exactly what the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system thinks of in terms of the value
Speaker 1: of black life. If you kill a black kid, we'll
Speaker 1: call it three years. If you run some black people over,
Speaker 1: and we'll call it five hours of community service. So
Speaker 1: you see the insult there, and you see why the
Speaker 1: affirmations that we have are necessary and that we need
Speaker 1: to sear these statements into the consciousness of this country,
Speaker 1: because if you ran your car into a pack of
Speaker 1: I don't know, wolves, bears and anything. Dogs doesn't yeah,
Speaker 1: dogs anything, people would be outraged. People. There's no way
Speaker 1: that you would get five hours of community. It just
Speaker 1: wouldn't happen. And so again, we make this comparison all
Speaker 1: the time that the criminal justice system in this country
Speaker 1: there's two there's two, there's two sides of it, and
Speaker 1: we often experienced the one side very separate systems. Now
Speaker 1: I want to read a little bit more here, just
Speaker 1: because on this show we have to tell as much
Speaker 1: as the story as we can't. So every argument has
Speaker 1: two sides. She I'll read her sign. Okay. Prosecutors with
Speaker 1: District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said they consented to the
Speaker 1: new conditions because Casillo had no prior record, didn't flee
Speaker 1: the scene, did not plot to harm those protesting, and
Speaker 1: took responsibility for what happened.
Speaker 2: Yep, they said, she did not.
Speaker 1: What she didn't have a prior record, she didn't flee
Speaker 1: the scene, did not plot to harm those protests.
Speaker 2: Okay, So.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what does that mean when you run your
Speaker 1: car too? So she this is what is says, all right.
Speaker 1: It goes on to say Casillo told police she feared
Speaker 1: for her and her daughter's safety when she acted that
Speaker 1: faithful day. So her and her twenty nine year old
Speaker 1: daughter in a car. They're afraid for their safe They're
Speaker 1: in a car to protests, so they run peace people over,
Speaker 1: sending people flying into the air. All right, I'll finish.
Speaker 1: A demonstrator outside the courtroom disputed castillos are sorry Casillo
Speaker 1: Casillo's assertions that she panicked and hit the gas because
Speaker 1: the crowd of protesters was quote aggressive. This is why
Speaker 1: I chose wolves. But dogs works too, because people care
Speaker 1: about dogs. If a dog is being aggressive, or you
Speaker 1: think a dog is being aggressive, there are people who
Speaker 1: still come to the defense of that dog, and they'll say, well,
Speaker 1: the dog was afraid. The dog had a writ every
Speaker 1: right to be aggressive. The dog.
Speaker 3: He doesn't mean you get to run the dog over.
Speaker 3: There are people who would lose their minds. So we
Speaker 3: live in a country where people would flip out over
Speaker 3: animal abuse and.
Speaker 2: What was the name of the I believe a black
Speaker 2: child fell into a gorilla enclosure at a zoo and
Speaker 2: to keep the child from being hurt that either tranquilized
Speaker 2: or shot the gorilla, and people were outraged. There's a
Speaker 2: one hundred chance that this child is going to be
Speaker 2: harmed or killed. I believe that child was black because
Speaker 2: I cannot imagine our country being as angry over someone
Speaker 2: trying to protect a white child in those same circumstances.
Speaker 1: I will raise you this next story here, This one
Speaker 1: comes from Time magazine. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is trying
Speaker 1: to pardon a man convicted of murdering a DLM protester.
Speaker 1: This is just this past week. The fate of an
Speaker 1: Army sergeant, Daniel Perry, who was found guilty of fatally
Speaker 1: shooting a protester at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, is up in the air as the Texas
Speaker 1: Pardon Board reviews the conviction for a possible pardon at
Speaker 1: the Governor's request, and Perry's attorney pushes for a retrial.
Speaker 1: So the governor has requested that they look into this. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a little bit about this story.
Speaker 1: On April seventh, Perry, a thirty five year old active
Speaker 1: duty sergeant at Fort Hood, was convicted of murdering connection
Speaker 1: with the death of Garrett Foster, twenty seven, who was
Speaker 1: killed after Perry shot him during a protest in Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas in July twenty twenty. Perry claims he acted in
Speaker 1: self defense because he feared for his life after Foster,
Speaker 1: who was carrying an assault rifle, when Florida's open carry
Speaker 1: law allegedly made him feel Right, now, do you see
Speaker 1: how in both of these stories, the feelings and the
Speaker 1: security of the white individuals, it's very much centered despite
Speaker 1: being in my estimation unfounded. If I have the protection
Speaker 1: of a car, none of the windows are broken, and
Speaker 1: you know I'm still in a car, right, and then
Speaker 1: I floor it, run people over, who's the aggressor? Well,
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system seems to think HMT most likely
Speaker 1: the person that got run over. Sure, right, but we
Speaker 1: you know we have to five hours community service will
Speaker 1: call it square. In this instance, this man is literally
Speaker 1: going to get away with the murder.
Speaker 2: At the governor's request.
Speaker 1: And we already know the story about Ralph Yarrel. Right,
Speaker 1: And you know you may be saying to yourself, well,
Speaker 1: the wheels of justice are turning slowly. No, because the
Speaker 1: wheels of justice wouldn't be turning at all. In the
Speaker 1: case of Ralph y'all, the young man or the boy
Speaker 1: who knocked on the wrong door and was shot in
Speaker 1: the head in the arm, the police didn't even want
Speaker 1: to arrest what's his name, Andrew Lester. They had to
Speaker 1: arrest him two days later because of public outcry. I
Speaker 1: was going to say, the police didn't arrest not they
Speaker 1: didn't want to. They didn't exactly went to the police station,
Speaker 1: went in a statement. I was afraid. That's why I
Speaker 1: shot him twice. That's why I opened the door door.
Speaker 2: That's why I went and got my gun and then
Speaker 2: opened the door and then shot him because I was terrified.
Speaker 1: So there's another story. It's just like this, and you'll
Speaker 1: start to understand this sort of pattern. I had the
Speaker 1: privilege of speaking with a Maud Aubrey's mom a few
Speaker 1: days ago for a show I do with the Black
Speaker 1: Information Network, and we talked about how she's honoring her
Speaker 1: son's memory and making sure that people continue to say
Speaker 1: his name, that he wasn't just a person who was
Speaker 1: born to live those few years and die and be
Speaker 1: remembered as a person who died. In her estimation and
Speaker 1: her belief that He's worth more than just being remembered
Speaker 1: for dying, and I think that that's more than fair.
Speaker 1: But the story there is.
Speaker 4: That there were some people in Florida who saw him
Speaker 4: in a neighborhood and in a like abandoned house or
Speaker 4: a house that was like a construction site or something
Speaker 4: like that, just investigating, checking it out.
Speaker 1: It's cool to see how stuff comes together. I know
Speaker 1: I built houses before. Well I didn't build myself, but
Speaker 1: I had houses built, living them ultimately. Interesting to see
Speaker 1: how they lay the floors in and bring the walls
Speaker 1: and stuff, and my neighbor's houses as they were going
Speaker 1: up as well. Anyway, maybe wrong place, wrong time, but
Speaker 1: some folks didn't like that, so they went and got
Speaker 1: their guns.
Speaker 2: But even if he was full on trespassing, it wasn't
Speaker 2: there posted signs don't come over here. The punishment for
Speaker 2: that isn't. Death is not and should not be murder
Speaker 2: by citizens on patrol.
Speaker 1: Exactly what gives you the right to end the life
Speaker 1: of you know? Before we get there this story for
Speaker 1: those that are not familiar, they jumped in their trucks.
Speaker 1: This is in the South in Georgia, so they're in
Speaker 1: their trucks chasing them down, They jump out the trucks,
Speaker 1: they start wrestling.
Speaker 2: He tries to run away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I hope you never have to watch the video.
Speaker 1: But they shot him on and he died in the street.
Speaker 1: And I think it took two months before the police
Speaker 1: actually went back and the rest they knew what happened.
Speaker 2: To day they came and they were like, yeah, we
Speaker 2: shot him, actually obstructed justice. Yeah, like actual members of
Speaker 2: local politics and local law enforcement went out of their
Speaker 2: way to make sure these men didn't get in.
Speaker 1: Trouble for it exactly. So you know, the question we
Speaker 1: ask is why aren't there consequences for harming black people?
Speaker 1: Again a question that we've asked with respect to police officers,
Speaker 1: and now we're asking it with respect to just ordinary
Speaker 1: citizens who feel like driving their car through a crowd
Speaker 1: of protesters, or bringing assault rifles to be on in protests,
Speaker 1: or ringing doorbell or going to the store to get
Speaker 1: skittles and walking to a friend's house in the case
Speaker 1: of tray On, or in a mod Aubrey's case.
Speaker 2: And not only not being held accountable but being held
Speaker 2: up as heroes. Yeah, that happens to sending book deals
Speaker 2: and going on tours and signing autographs and posing with
Speaker 2: politicians after murdering people that look like that.
Speaker 1: It's like a sickness. Man, there's like a sickness that
Speaker 1: exists in this country. But the reason we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about this is because it's important that you understand
Speaker 1: the context of the affirmations that we chant Black lives matter.
Speaker 1: It's important that you understand why the accountability is important.
Speaker 1: It's important that you understand that we demand and insist
Speaker 1: that this country value our lives and the lives of
Speaker 1: our children the way that we value our own lives.
Speaker 1: And until that day happens, stories like this will continue
Speaker 1: to explain exactly where this country it's