Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Morning everybody, it's the j n V.
Speaker 2: Just hilarious, charlamage the guy. We are the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: We got some special guests in the building. We have
Speaker 2: the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.
Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: But also we have Eerica Bridgeford, who is from the
Speaker 2: Baltimore Peace Movement. Welcome. Now, I do have to ask
Speaker 2: a question before you start. I have to make sure
Speaker 2: that you guys are really from Baltimore. So I want
Speaker 2: you to read this.
Speaker 1: I do it.
Speaker 3: I'm fine. Earn earn and iron earned.
Speaker 1: There you go. I don't know what that sounds like.
Speaker 2: It was Darren earned and iron earned.
Speaker 1: Always it's not.
Speaker 4: Earned.
Speaker 5: Why did he have to earn and iron earn?
Speaker 1: I don't understand that's the same murd Did you just
Speaker 1: have four times?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 1: All right? Tell you all from Baltimore.
Speaker 7: I heard a just asked to agree.
Speaker 1: To do it.
Speaker 4: Wow, we want to start right out like that.
Speaker 1: That's yes's right, but welcome guys.
Speaker 2: How you feel good? Were good?
Speaker 3: Brother?
Speaker 5: It's on your second term.
Speaker 3: Sir, Thank you, thank you, thank you, long time coming.
Speaker 3: Just you know, the last time we had a two
Speaker 3: term mayor in Baltimore. I was a sophomore in college
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. It's been twenty years since we had it.
Speaker 3: So it's a big deal in the honor for me
Speaker 3: to have the have the city say like, no, we
Speaker 3: want to keep moving in this direction, especially from someone
Speaker 3: that grew up there when we grew up there and
Speaker 3: understand everything that has been happening.
Speaker 2: So what made you want to become a mayor of Baltimore?
Speaker 3: So this is a real easy thing, man. So I
Speaker 3: grew up in Park Heights, right, It's a place in
Speaker 3: northwest Baltimore. It's the best neighborhood.
Speaker 7: Sorry, Joe, don't even.
Speaker 6: Start that about West.
Speaker 4: I don't know what you let you finish.
Speaker 3: So imagine envy living in the neighborhood literally so that
Speaker 3: the horse race Preakness is in my neighborhood. Imagine living
Speaker 3: in a neighborhood that's the center of the world every
Speaker 3: third Saturday and they then every other day of the year.
Speaker 3: You're not treated as human where we wouldn't even go
Speaker 3: outside on Friday night before Preakness because they would do
Speaker 3: what we call Preakness sweeps. If he was outside looked
Speaker 3: like us, you could be gone. But the next day
Speaker 3: somebody who don't look like us could be peeing in
Speaker 3: the Miller Street and no one blinks. But before I
Speaker 3: was even seven years old, I saw someone get shot
Speaker 3: outside playing basketball and no one care. And literally I
Speaker 3: just start pestering my parents, my uncles, my grandparents of
Speaker 3: all why no one care? And one day my mom
Speaker 3: just said, look, if you wanted to change, you gotta
Speaker 3: change yourself. No one's coming to save us. And having
Speaker 3: my family be involved in the community, my uncle dragging
Speaker 3: me with him to political fundraisers when people were trying
Speaker 3: to get my family's business to donate. I had the
Speaker 3: understanding of what people should have been doing and who
Speaker 3: wasn't doing it. So I said then that that's what
Speaker 3: I wanted to.
Speaker 5: Be at a very young age.
Speaker 6: You already already knew because I was. I was about
Speaker 6: to ask you what made you not go the other way?
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, because while I'm going to
Speaker 6: give credit it to your hood why Park Heights is
Speaker 6: one of the best hoods in West Baltimore City, it
Speaker 6: is still also one of the most dangerous.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what made you not go?
Speaker 3: It's a little different now, I tell the young like y'all.
Speaker 3: Y'all have no idea. Y'all don't know the Old Park Heights.
Speaker 3: But for me, it's about it's a couple of things.
Speaker 3: It's my family, right like so, I am a first
Speaker 3: generation Baltimore and my mom's family is from rural Virginia,
Speaker 3: right outside Richmond. My grandparents moved to Baltimore. Ironically, people
Speaker 3: don't know this. They gonna know now to East Baltimore
Speaker 3: with three hundred dollars to their name, where them my
Speaker 3: great grandmother, my great aunts, all my older cousins lived
Speaker 3: in this one house right behind North Avenue, the school headquarters.
Speaker 3: And then my dad's family. My dad followed, my uncles
Speaker 3: and my older cousins who moved here from rural North Carolina,
Speaker 3: where my grandparents ran a pig farm until they died, right,
Speaker 3: which is why I don't eat pork, because I used
Speaker 3: to feed them myself. But when you come from things
Speaker 3: like that, you have a different setting. I was set
Speaker 3: in a world where like, you don't have to accept
Speaker 3: things as they are. You can work harder, you can.
Speaker 7: Be greater, and you have a.
Speaker 3: Responsibility to us and those who put you in this
Speaker 3: position to take us all in your community and a
Speaker 3: further place. But I also had the community itself, growing
Speaker 3: up running track as an athlete and playing sports. Ironically,
Speaker 3: it was also the people that were deciding who live
Speaker 3: or die or what the beef was in the neighborhood
Speaker 3: who said, like, you have to be better than us.
Speaker 3: We want you to be better. Do not let us
Speaker 3: hear about you getting into any trouble or things like that.
Speaker 3: And if even some of my family members who work
Speaker 3: for them were putting me in danger, they would check them.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: It was just a different time. So I would say
Speaker 3: I had the entirety of this city that really pushed
Speaker 3: me to make sure that I became a better version
Speaker 3: of myself and working to be the best version.
Speaker 2: Now what can a maya actually really do?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: We look at you know, res I ask is you
Speaker 2: know people to say the vice president is the vice president,
Speaker 2: but what can she do? You know the president can
Speaker 2: do certain things, but she has to get things signed
Speaker 2: off on. So what can a mayor actually?
Speaker 7: Do?
Speaker 2: You control? Funding? Do you control?
Speaker 3: I do so as the mayor of Baltimore, So I do.
Speaker 3: And I think what people have to understand is the
Speaker 3: mayor is an.
Speaker 7: Executive of a city.
Speaker 3: Essentially, every mayor, especially if they're a strong mayor form
Speaker 3: of government like Baltimore is. Actually Baltimore is the strongest
Speaker 3: former mayor of government in the country, So technically I'm
Speaker 3: the strongest mayor in the country. We do get to
Speaker 3: direct that funding, right, and it's about and no disrespect.
Speaker 3: I love my Vice president to death. I love my
Speaker 3: president to death, But the President would tell you that
Speaker 3: mayors have the toughest job in America because people can
Speaker 3: see us and touch us every day, and decisions that
Speaker 3: we make every day are going to impact people, and
Speaker 3: they're going to hold you accountable, even for stuff that
Speaker 3: you're not responsible for. But when you think about the
Speaker 3: basic things that people Essentially, I'm the CEO of a
Speaker 3: three billion dollar, full billion dollar entity known as the
Speaker 3: City of Baltimore. Right, everything that people do. When they
Speaker 3: turn that water on in the morning and they want
Speaker 3: to be hot and clean, it's my responsibility. When they
Speaker 3: want they trash picked up, it's my responsibility. When they
Speaker 3: want their rec center and open up, it's my responsibility.
Speaker 3: When they call nine one and have the have a
Speaker 3: fire truck come, it's my responsibility to make sure that
Speaker 3: that stuff happens, but at a deeper level, it also
Speaker 3: is important to make sure that when is someone like
Speaker 3: me who has that lived experience that just Erica and
Speaker 3: I have, that we bring that to that job and
Speaker 3: understand and that things we're talking about. Our city literally
Speaker 3: is the birthplace of racial redlining in Baltimore and everything
Speaker 3: that we all grew up through as a result of that.
Speaker 3: So when you think about things that I've just been
Speaker 3: able to do in my first term and what's really
Speaker 3: been like the focal point of this documentary, the body Politic,
Speaker 3: it's about reimagining what public safety means because for all
Speaker 3: of our life, they just said reducing crime is the
Speaker 3: sole responsibility the police. But I want people to understand
Speaker 3: how that was never true, right, And you take Baltimore
Speaker 3: City that's roughly six hundred thousand people. At its height,
Speaker 3: our police department had three thousand cops. Three thousand people.
Speaker 3: Can't keep six hundred thousand people safe, especially when they
Speaker 3: all don't work at the same time. So we have
Speaker 3: to do the investments in changing that. And we can
Speaker 3: do that. The mayor sets the tone for how the
Speaker 3: city works. So I came in and said, no longer
Speaker 3: we're going to just say, hey, it's all the police responsibility.
Speaker 3: Every part of the city government has to be a
Speaker 3: part of this. We passed the law that we have
Speaker 3: to have a comprehensive approach that's led by a health
Speaker 3: commissioner and then direct the funding to go to other places.
Speaker 3: So when you look at the fact that we're now
Speaker 3: funding our community violence intervention work at the highest level
Speaker 3: that we've ever had, people that used to be in
Speaker 3: the streets, whether it's safe streets or the brothers that
Speaker 3: we are, us and all these other folks who go
Speaker 3: out and intercede in violence, and we're investing in them
Speaker 3: and allow them to do that.
Speaker 7: Deciding that we.
Speaker 3: Weren't going to just continue down this path for just
Speaker 3: like oh if they black and outside, were just gonna
Speaker 3: lie come up for anything. No, we're gonna stand up
Speaker 3: what we call our group violence production strategy, which is
Speaker 3: the epicenter really of the movie, and say we know
Speaker 3: who the people are who will most likely be the
Speaker 3: victim of perpetrator of violence. It's much like any other disease. Right,
Speaker 3: Since my granddad had prostate cancer, when I go to
Speaker 3: the doctor, what did he test me for? So we
Speaker 3: identify those people, and we're gonna give them a chance.
Speaker 7: First, they actually get a letter directly.
Speaker 3: From me that says, look in Baltimore terms, just yo,
Speaker 3: I know who you are, I know what you're doing.
Speaker 3: This is your chance. I know where you live, I
Speaker 3: know everything about what you do. I'm telling you this
Speaker 3: is your chance to change your life. If you need housing,
Speaker 3: if you need to finish school, if you need you know,
Speaker 3: mental health, whatever you need, we'll give it to you.
Speaker 3: But don't try to call my bluff because if you
Speaker 3: call my bluff, then them boys coming and you won't
Speaker 3: be able to say no. One tried to help me,
Speaker 3: and it's working and we've been able to. Last year
Speaker 3: we had the largest reduction in homicide that Baltimore's ever
Speaker 3: had in twenty percent, and we're beating that this year
Speaker 3: with twenty four mayors. Make the difference on the ground.
Speaker 3: When you think about what we're investing in. I decided
Speaker 3: that we were going to put historic amounts of money
Speaker 3: into our rec centers. When we were growing up, they
Speaker 3: were closing them left and right right. So imagine me
Speaker 3: going into the doors of Tawanda Direct Center in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty nine, when I was in pre k and then
Speaker 3: becoming mayor in twenty twenty and going there early twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one, and it literally was the same building. Nothing
Speaker 3: had changed, the same weight, equipment, and the building was closed, right,
Speaker 3: and then being able to reopen that right, renovated, and
Speaker 3: now we had five more that we're building across the city.
Speaker 3: And that's only because the mayor decided that's the focus, right,
Speaker 3: And that's what we have to do in every city
Speaker 3: is have people in those positions that will do was,
Speaker 3: as I always say, the right thing, not the popular one.
Speaker 3: Because there are a lot of things that I did
Speaker 3: that people were like, I can't believe you didn't do that.
Speaker 3: For example, they said I should join on to the
Speaker 3: state's lawsuit around opah yours, the state wassuing all these
Speaker 3: drug companies. I said, no, we're gonna do our own
Speaker 3: because we were impacting more. People called me everything but
Speaker 3: my name, and then lo and behold. Now we're like
Speaker 3: receiving four hundred plus million dollars from these companies from
Speaker 3: doing it our way. Leadership doesn't mean being like It
Speaker 3: means doing what's the best thing for the people.
Speaker 2: And when you wrote that letter, we'll get you in
Speaker 2: the second Aerica.
Speaker 4: That's fine.
Speaker 2: When you wrote that letter, where did you get that
Speaker 2: idea from writing a letter?
Speaker 3: So yeah, so this is this is about knowing the
Speaker 3: work right. So GBRS Group Violence Production Strategy will focus return.
Speaker 3: It's a model that's been around for a long time
Speaker 3: and it works in cities. It worked in Oakland and
Speaker 3: all these places. They tried it twice in Baltimore before.
Speaker 3: And me so this I'm forty now. I came to
Speaker 3: city hall when I was twenty three, so I literally
Speaker 3: grew up there and seeing the last attempt fail and
Speaker 3: why I knew that I wanted to go deeper into
Speaker 3: the work. But also that the number one reason why
Speaker 3: great ideas and programs and things that fail in cities,
Speaker 3: it's because they don't have the executive leadership and buy in.
Speaker 3: Because if it comes from me, if this is the
Speaker 3: mayor's strategy, everybody else that works for city government knows
Speaker 3: that they got to do it or they ask got
Speaker 3: to get another job. Right, That's the reality, and that's why.
Speaker 3: And we have to do the notifications because if not,
Speaker 3: it's no different than us just showing up. And we
Speaker 3: use what we call credible messagers to go and deliver
Speaker 3: that message and say, look, yo, if they want to
Speaker 3: give you a chance, and people change their life, and
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: Who you're giving chances to is it?
Speaker 3: Is it shooters, It is everybody, everybody.
Speaker 2: So you look at you like, look, you did this
Speaker 2: turn your life around.
Speaker 3: You're doing this stuff right now. We know that you're
Speaker 3: involved in activities that might end up having you lose
Speaker 3: your life or take someone else's life. This is your chance.
Speaker 3: Like your group of people that you're with, chances are
Speaker 3: y'all ain't gonna be here or you're gonna be locked up.
Speaker 7: That's the reality.
Speaker 3: We gotta we gotta tell people a real deal. And
Speaker 3: if they don't like take that heat, they are people
Speaker 3: that took it right. There was a young man. It
Speaker 3: almost brought me to tears. We just had a little
Speaker 3: graduation for some folks through YAP on Saturday. And you
Speaker 3: can see a lot of this work in the Body Politics,
Speaker 3: which is airing on next Monday night. We'll get to you,
Speaker 3: but you can see what happens.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: This young man literally said that he one young man
Speaker 3: had been out on the street since he was twelve,
Speaker 3: and no one ever asked him what he wanted to do.
Speaker 3: Or how he can do things different until our folks
Speaker 3: showed up. Now he works for the convention center. Saturday,
Speaker 3: a young man had told us he had been out
Speaker 3: of school since elementary school and out there doing what
Speaker 3: folks do. Right now, we got him on the right track.
Speaker 7: People are working for the city, People are.
Speaker 3: Starting their own businesses and being able to reconnect with
Speaker 3: their family. So just simply having a house right like
Speaker 3: that stuff changes people's lives. And then there's some folks
Speaker 3: who just tell me, as we would say, Jess rocks,
Speaker 3: and then I'm like okay, And then that's when they
Speaker 3: got to deal with the boys. And you can't say
Speaker 3: that we didn't try to tell you that there's or
Speaker 3: show that there's another way. There are people out there
Speaker 3: delivering that message every day, Like yo, we can do
Speaker 3: something different because we also have to understand, like, look,
Speaker 3: we all know our people don't own boats, right, we
Speaker 3: don't own gun companies. We have to understand what's really
Speaker 3: happening in that cycle that we're allowing ourselves to be
Speaker 3: put in, and we're trying to pull people out of
Speaker 3: that as much as possible. But we can't just have
Speaker 3: people shooting and killing people's grandmothers and babies and kids
Speaker 3: and wives and all the other craziness. We just simply
Speaker 3: can't have that absolutely, Erica.
Speaker 5: How did you get involved with the Baltimore peace movement?
Speaker 6: Well, it used to be called Baltimore Ceasefire because there
Speaker 6: was this guy named Ogon. So first there was a
Speaker 6: three hundred in march movement. That's how Brandon and I met.
Speaker 6: Brandon and Muniahbaha were leaders in that movement, and I
Speaker 6: got very much involved because my son got involved in
Speaker 6: the very first march. They did a march from east,
Speaker 6: took from west to East Hilton all the way to me,
Speaker 6: all the way across North Avenue, and my son did
Speaker 6: that much and got very much involved.
Speaker 4: And I got so involved.
Speaker 6: That Munia said, oh, you should be a spokesperson, and
Speaker 6: so I became on the leadership team.
Speaker 4: So during that movement.
Speaker 6: Somebody named ooh Derek Jones in Baltimore.
Speaker 4: He was a big leader, educator.
Speaker 6: He passed away suddenly, so a lot of the men
Speaker 6: in his life and women got involved in three hundred.
Speaker 6: And in November of twenty fifteen, after Freddie Gray was killed,
Speaker 6: there were over three hundred people got like we hit
Speaker 6: three hundred murders in November that year, and so the
Speaker 6: three hundred mid March movement called a state of emergency
Speaker 6: for the city of community meeting and a lot of
Speaker 6: Ooh's people showed up there, and one of them was
Speaker 6: this guy named o'goon who had this idea about calling
Speaker 6: a ceasefire because he just, you know, he watching the
Speaker 6: news and he sees what's happening in Israel and Occupied
Speaker 6: Palestine and keeps hearing the word cease fire, and he's like,
Speaker 6: that's the only thing that made him pay attention to
Speaker 6: the news is because he heard that word. So he
Speaker 6: wanted Baltimore to have that same kind of like introspection
Speaker 6: but also eyes on it from the outside. So he
Speaker 6: had this idea that they would just be one day
Speaker 6: when everybody agreed in Baltimore, it's gonna be a cease fire.
Speaker 6: He took the idea to different men who was like, Yo,
Speaker 6: that shit dumb. It's not gonna work, I mean, And
Speaker 6: so he brought it to me at that meet and
Speaker 6: he was like, I heard a lot about you.
Speaker 4: I see how you move. I feel like you the
Speaker 4: person I should be talking to.
Speaker 6: This About two years later, in twenty seventeen, the city
Speaker 6: had more murders than it had ever had in its history,
Speaker 6: which pissed me off because I had been out doing
Speaker 6: work all day long, the mediation Son. You know, I've
Speaker 6: been doing that work forever, and so I'm mad, like,
Speaker 6: how the fuck is this? What was happening when we're
Speaker 6: doing this much work and day like pointing the people
Speaker 6: who say they got connection to the gangs, Why don't
Speaker 6: they tell niggas to stop shooting? Because if they say
Speaker 6: it's gonna happen. The next day, when I woke up
Speaker 6: still that mad about it, I realized that I was
Speaker 6: day I'm mad about what people not doing, and I
Speaker 6: had n't followed through on this man's I did from
Speaker 6: two years ago. So I called him up and was like,
Speaker 6: what you say you wanted to do? Because God put
Speaker 6: it on my heart, it shouldn't just be one day,
Speaker 6: it should be three days. And violence is a language.
Speaker 6: So if we take in violence, we gotta replace it
Speaker 6: with something. Let's tell people yo do stuff to celebrate life,
Speaker 6: because if nobody deserved to celebrate life, Baltimore does so.
Speaker 6: Just create events that's fun, that's celebrating life. Friday through
Speaker 6: Sunday call. Brandon was one of the first people I
Speaker 6: called to say, this is what we think about doing
Speaker 6: all you gonna Before I could finish the sentence, he
Speaker 6: was like, Oh, yeah, we're doing it what you need.
Speaker 6: So we at first we were just calling it a
Speaker 6: Life over Death Weekend. And to Brandon's point about the
Speaker 6: last program that was the GVRS, it had been called
Speaker 6: a cease fire, and all the sh reachs knew it
Speaker 6: to be was the police come and lock you up.
Speaker 6: So when we held this community meeting to ask what
Speaker 6: do we name this Life Over Death Weekend, people were like, well,
Speaker 6: if you call it Baltimore ceasefire, people know what that
Speaker 6: what that means. And we put a sister component of
Speaker 6: the peace Challenge because there's going to be a lot
Speaker 6: of people being like, I wasn't gonna shoot nobody this
Speaker 6: weekend anyway, so they're not talking to me, right, but
Speaker 6: that's how people next week.
Speaker 4: But that's when we get out anyway, I wouldn't you know.
Speaker 6: And so we wanted people to know the fact that
Speaker 6: you're saying that shit is violent, like violence is not
Speaker 6: just about shooters, it's about who you being pettied with
Speaker 6: in your own family, who you dragging on social media
Speaker 6: like can you be peaceful.
Speaker 4: For three days as a challenge to yourself.
Speaker 6: But we were worried that because it would be called ceasefire,
Speaker 6: it would get confused with the previous city program that
Speaker 6: people and so we were like, but Baltimore is smart.
Speaker 4: If somebody say, oh, that's that ship where the police,
Speaker 4: we were like, no, that was that. This is this
Speaker 4: and people gonna understand.
Speaker 6: And they did it and it so at the time
Speaker 6: the ceasefire started in May of twenty seventeen, people were
Speaker 6: being killed every nineteen hours in Baltimore. So we had
Speaker 6: that first weekend in August of twenty seventeen, the city
Speaker 6: went forty one hours that weekend without anybody getting killed.
Speaker 6: And although people be like, well that ain't nothing, you
Speaker 6: say that shit to you get the phone call, you know, right,
Speaker 6: So when we hit twenty four hours, we was like,
Speaker 6: wait a minute, bitch, we might have did so right,
Speaker 6: you know, forty one hours.
Speaker 4: But also when the first person got.
Speaker 6: Killed, we went showed up at the space, We blessed
Speaker 6: the space where the murder happened. We found his family,
Speaker 6: his family, got money and resources, and the Kingdom Life
Speaker 6: Church showed up and gave his mother the funeral, and
Speaker 6: she literally said, if her son was going to be killed,
Speaker 6: she was glad it happened during the ceasefire weekend. And
Speaker 6: that's some wold shit to say, but that's really what
Speaker 6: she met because she was like, if he got killed
Speaker 6: last weekend or next weekend, nobody would have.
Speaker 5: Cared about my son publicized, right.
Speaker 6: So everybody that was like, weller's stupid, it's not going
Speaker 6: to work. We was like, Okay, we're gonna do it
Speaker 6: every every three every three months though, so we started
Speaker 6: doing it every three months. We started blessing murder spaces
Speaker 6: all year round. In twenty twenty two, it occurred to
Speaker 6: me that the way creation actually works is whatever you
Speaker 6: focus on your attention on with intense emotion, that's where
Speaker 6: you're gonna manifest physically.
Speaker 4: So we're calling it cease.
Speaker 6: Fire, and we're paying so much attention to what we're against,
Speaker 6: we are not.
Speaker 4: Putting that energy on what we're for. Because when you redirect.
Speaker 6: Your focus to what you're for, you don't give a
Speaker 6: fuck about what you're against.
Speaker 4: You like, this about what I'm for, what I'm standing on.
Speaker 6: So we said, we asked Baltimore, what do you know
Speaker 6: already exists here?
Speaker 4: What are you for? What do you want for yourself?
Speaker 6: And from different places the ideas came it should be
Speaker 6: Baltimore Piece Movement, So we changed the name. The focus
Speaker 6: more on what we want, what we are for, what
Speaker 6: we know we can uplift in the city. And this
Speaker 6: work is important to me because since I'm fifty two
Speaker 6: years old, that's when.
Speaker 4: Y'all go, girl right, thank you very much.
Speaker 6: So I started seeing people get killed when I was
Speaker 6: twelve years old. My brother was one of my brothers
Speaker 6: was killed in two thousand and seven. My cousins have
Speaker 6: like just countless people. And that kind of pain and
Speaker 6: trauma is either gonna swallow you up whole, or it's
Speaker 6: gonna push you forward into your purpose so that other
Speaker 6: people don't have.
Speaker 4: To experience what you experienced.
Speaker 6: And so the pain of my life and understanding that
Speaker 6: they are now ancestors fighting with me on the other side,
Speaker 6: whispering moving pieces for me on the other side, like
Speaker 6: when I did not follow my call and I was
Speaker 6: suicidal and tried to kill myself. And so I'm aware
Speaker 6: like I gotta do what my soul tells me to
Speaker 6: do or else I'm gonna end up back on the
Speaker 6: psych board, and I'm not gonna make it because I
Speaker 6: shouldn't have made it this far, and survivor's remorse can
Speaker 6: become a real thing. Right when I've heard bullets flying
Speaker 6: past my ear. I shouldn't be here for a lot
Speaker 6: of reasons. But my parents had me on purpose, you know.
Speaker 6: They said, oh, let's have a boy who's gonna change
Speaker 6: the world. So I came out a girl, kind of
Speaker 6: acting like.
Speaker 4: A get there.
Speaker 6: Other things, but they knew, so they were gonna name
Speaker 6: me Malcolm Patrece had I been born a boy, but
Speaker 6: they named me Aca after Ka Huggins.
Speaker 4: And my middle name is Angela after Angela Davis. So
Speaker 4: it's not you.
Speaker 6: That's about my name, y'all. Huggins only has one R
Speaker 6: in her name. He thought it was too So I
Speaker 6: was reading the autobiography of Angela Davis in my twenties
Speaker 6: and she mentions Araka Huggins. I'm like, that's about's name
Speaker 6: from and I'm like, no, you.
Speaker 1: You spoke my neighbor.
Speaker 6: He said, oh, well, and you was born with let's
Speaker 6: fingers and more that you special because this also he
Speaker 6: was like that, and.
Speaker 1: Because that's what they a couple of.
Speaker 4: Everything.
Speaker 1: We ain't no football having up here. Tell us.
Speaker 2: I want you to tell us about the Body Politic documentary.
Speaker 2: It's so important why people should go check it out?
Speaker 5: Which hold up?
Speaker 6: Which I actually did watch and I love it because
Speaker 6: uh you know he of course, Brandon said to me,
Speaker 6: I love it because it speaks to people in Baltimore
Speaker 6: of all ages, like my son.
Speaker 5: That's something that I can watch with my son. Even
Speaker 5: how it comes on.
Speaker 6: It's like we have the most always say we got
Speaker 6: the most authentic mayor. And I've met a lot of
Speaker 6: mayors and traveling and you know, I've been on it
Speaker 6: by certain mayors and and different cities and stuff, but
Speaker 6: we had Baltimore. We have like one of the most
Speaker 6: authentic mayors. The way he speaks, the way he talks,
Speaker 6: the way he loves his city, and how he actually
Speaker 6: went through ship. And it's not just a Polish because
Speaker 6: you think of a Polish person. It's like, oh, this
Speaker 6: person is perfect and this person, like no, Brandon is
Speaker 6: literally the most you know what I'm saying, like brand absolutely, yes,
Speaker 6: I say that when I look this nigga at my
Speaker 6: section and my birthday party.
Speaker 4: Why you got your own section.
Speaker 3: I know you and my section ship and he's like, no,
Speaker 3: they told me your birthday party and I had to come.
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, party, but he it wasn't
Speaker 3: my father wasn't going on.
Speaker 7: That wasn't me.
Speaker 5: First it was it was a building.
Speaker 4: It was it was the it was that's Dave fault,
Speaker 4: that's Dave counsel fault.
Speaker 1: Wasn't no. And I got that.
Speaker 3: They looking at me like can you call it? I'm like,
Speaker 3: what the hell I'm gonna do.
Speaker 6: They blame him, the mayor, like this the man fall
Speaker 6: Jess party.
Speaker 4: I ain't had no m I'm like building.
Speaker 1: I'm like this, come on, y'all.
Speaker 6: But like I'm saying, yo, he's he's actually somebody that
Speaker 6: actually can touch the people, can actually you know, say,
Speaker 6: I've walked that walk and I know why. You know,
Speaker 6: things are like this and things are like and you know,
Speaker 6: making the city a better place. But I love that
Speaker 6: the doc is something that my whole family can watch
Speaker 6: because you know, when you think about, like, oh shit,
Speaker 6: the mayor just dropped the documentary, you looking to not
Speaker 6: understand it because I'm a person that's not really into
Speaker 6: polity either.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, but the fact that.
Speaker 6: I understood the whole thing, you know, me, my son,
Speaker 6: my man, we watched it, you know my mom, I saent.
Speaker 6: Of course I said it to her as well, and
Speaker 6: it is amazing And it's not out yet. It is,
Speaker 6: it is going to be out, but it actually shows
Speaker 6: you things. It comes out Monday, right, yes, but it
Speaker 6: actually twenty since it actually shows you things that you
Speaker 6: don't even know about your city. Like I didn't even
Speaker 6: know that twenty what was it twenty nineteen?
Speaker 4: Was I word?
Speaker 5: She had twenty seven?
Speaker 1: What was it?
Speaker 5: Seventeen?
Speaker 1: Was not worst?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know so I certain things like that, like
Speaker 6: you know, so it's definitely informative. It's informational and I
Speaker 6: even if you're not from there, it's definitely an inspiration
Speaker 6: to have a mayor like you to come out to
Speaker 6: drop a dot about your city like this.
Speaker 3: Well, I think for me, I think it's important for
Speaker 3: me for multiple reasons. One, like, I think it's important
Speaker 3: this is something that yes it's about Baltimore, but really
Speaker 3: this is also about like inner city America, right, I
Speaker 3: think because you could replace me with whatever mayor across
Speaker 3: like may Wood from in Birmingham, and all these other
Speaker 3: folks that are doing this great work in their city's
Speaker 3: mayor Jones, my favorite mayor in Saint Louis, right, who
Speaker 3: are from those cities and doing this work. But I
Speaker 3: think what happens is, like you said, Jess, and look,
Speaker 3: you know, we love you. We're very proud of you.
Speaker 3: Got to say that every time. But people look at
Speaker 3: their elected officials and they don't really see them as human, right,
Speaker 3: like they see us as these robots that have to
Speaker 3: do this stuff over and over and over. Right. I
Speaker 3: always say, like people Erica last when I see this,
Speaker 3: people think that, like my job can be described by
Speaker 3: my Instagram feed, they have no idea, right the stuff
Speaker 3: that has to happen. And I think, for me, the
Speaker 3: reason why this is the second documentary that I've done,
Speaker 3: I was in another one called charm City when I
Speaker 3: was a council person. But I did this because I
Speaker 3: wanted people to see raw and uncut what it's really like,
Speaker 3: because people have no idea what it's like to be
Speaker 3: the person that has to call someone and tell them
Speaker 3: that they love one never coming home, or be the
Speaker 3: person that someone's calling and saying, my baby's not gonna
Speaker 3: walk again or have to make that decision that you
Speaker 3: know is going to impact people in a way that
Speaker 3: people aren't gonna be happy about. And what you see
Speaker 3: in this movie also is that Baltimore obased sprinkle grit
Speaker 3: that we have and that despite all the stuff that
Speaker 3: we hear all these TV shows, there are so many
Speaker 3: people that love our city. When you see Erica and
Speaker 3: when you see all of the folks, Dante and everyone
Speaker 3: out there doing that work, right, you see something that
Speaker 3: you won't get to see because most people aren't going
Speaker 3: to be out there with violence intervention workers, a safety's
Speaker 3: workers and saying like, hey, yo, you got to do
Speaker 3: you don't need to do this right. Most people are
Speaker 3: not going to be out there blessing a space after
Speaker 3: someone gets murdered. Right. Most people aren't going to be
Speaker 3: sitting there getting those phone calls like I did, or
Speaker 3: happen to fight to even start this program.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: It's like you say, V I couldn't just do this
Speaker 3: on my own because agencies from the state, right, and
Speaker 3: we had a different governor. We didn't have Wes Moore
Speaker 3: when this movie was being famed, Like I had to
Speaker 3: convince our former governor to agree to do this. I
Speaker 3: had to convince our federal partners at the congressional.
Speaker 7: Level to agree to help us do this.
Speaker 3: People don't get to see that, and they also don't
Speaker 3: get to see like my raw emotion, like when things happened.
Speaker 3: And this is one that's captured in the film that
Speaker 3: you don't see from my standpoint as much as you
Speaker 3: do from Ericas. But our brother Tata Boxton was murdered
Speaker 3: doing the filming.
Speaker 7: Of this movie.
Speaker 3: And people will see me that day on the news talking,
Speaker 3: but they don't know, Like most people don't know how
Speaker 3: close Tata and I are. They're gonna know now in
Speaker 3: this video in this movie when they see me and
Speaker 3: him walking around these neighborhoods together. They don't know that.
Speaker 3: Like it took a lot for me to even go
Speaker 3: out and talk to the press that day because I
Speaker 3: had to not be in that moment. I couldn't grieve,
Speaker 3: I couldn't do any of the stuff that you do
Speaker 3: when someone that close to you is murdered. Because now
Speaker 3: I got to go and show a strong, strong standpoint
Speaker 3: for the city, and people will be able to see
Speaker 3: that and also see that there's a different approach to
Speaker 3: dealing with violence that's working, and we have to spread
Speaker 3: it across. I think the thing that I've been most
Speaker 3: proud of with the film is that two months ago
Speaker 3: President Biden and Vice President Harris had a executive order
Speaker 3: sign it at the White House and after that Maya's
Speaker 3: from around the country stay to watch the film. Never
Speaker 3: in my wildest dream that I think little Brandon from
Speaker 3: Parkston and Cole Spring would be at the White House
Speaker 3: first right there, more time than I ever thought I
Speaker 3: could imagine in the last four years, but two that
Speaker 3: they will be watching a movie about me and about
Speaker 3: Baltimore and it be something positive. But that's what this
Speaker 3: story is about. It's about hope, determination and what is
Speaker 3: possible when people work together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it's really important.
Speaker 6: I was really excited to come here, specifically because PBS
Speaker 6: is not a place where our people gonna go and
Speaker 6: know what the fuck is on PBS on Monday at
Speaker 6: nine ten o'clock and I was like, so, the viewership,
Speaker 6: the audience of the Breakfast Club, these are our people
Speaker 6: impacted by violence live in this in even the people
Speaker 6: doing the work around violence. That's the people that watch
Speaker 6: that that followed us. And I was like, and we
Speaker 6: got way till just come back from eternity.
Speaker 4: Baltimore in the buildings.
Speaker 3: Today, sleep come better.
Speaker 4: To me.
Speaker 6: It's just it's important for people to feel seen in
Speaker 6: their pain, like those of us who do the work
Speaker 6: on the ground. There are people like us all over
Speaker 6: this country because America is a place that believes in
Speaker 6: power over instead of power with. It is a it
Speaker 6: teaches that violence is the way you get power. And
Speaker 6: so all cities like Baltimore are dealing with the same problem,
Speaker 6: and they have people like us doing healing work, doing
Speaker 6: intervention work, doing mediation work. But they people still look
Speaker 6: at us and say what we should be doing, and
Speaker 6: how come y'all not doing because.
Speaker 4: They don't really see on it.
Speaker 6: They only see us on TV or happen to maybe
Speaker 6: see us in the street, but they don't even if
Speaker 6: with my pain in grief was public around Tata different
Speaker 6: from what Brandon did. I was all over the national
Speaker 6: news crying about it. But people still will circle back
Speaker 6: and go, well, then y'all should be doing this, that
Speaker 6: and the third. But you not really doing nothing except
Speaker 6: being whatever you are, which.
Speaker 4: Be in the comment.
Speaker 6: Some people just cheerleaders, some people just hey, does the
Speaker 6: remind me who I want to be. That's fine too,
Speaker 6: but people, it's important for people to see what it
Speaker 6: is like, what you actually as a human go through
Speaker 6: when you decide I'm going to have an intimate relationship
Speaker 6: with violence and murder because I'm working to heal it
Speaker 6: in the world and people need to be seen about
Speaker 6: that work and about their trauma and about how they
Speaker 6: lost people and it's not just them that's going through it,
Speaker 6: and that people really love them and people really want
Speaker 6: Baltimore to win. That's something I have learned. We've traveled
Speaker 6: around the world with this film. It premiered in London,
Speaker 6: as you know.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, that's why.
Speaker 4: Make it to London.
Speaker 6: That's a whole different conversation. But the news lite about
Speaker 6: what he was doing and why he didn't make it.
Speaker 6: But that's a different conversation. But we've been to the Netherlands,
Speaker 6: We've been like this film has literally been saying around
Speaker 6: the world in Africa, like it's been seen everywhere, and
Speaker 6: just like you're saying that things that people in Baltimore
Speaker 6: are gonna watch it and.
Speaker 4: Go yo, I didn't even know that about us.
Speaker 6: Beautiful things people around the world got to say that
Speaker 6: about us, and which made me say to them that
Speaker 6: means it's neighborhoods right here where you live that you're
Speaker 6: judging the fuck out of and you're saying it's something
Speaker 6: wrong with them instead of asking what happened to them
Speaker 6: and how do you benefit off of the systems that's
Speaker 6: doing whatever it is doing to them. So, yeah, support
Speaker 6: our work in Baltimore, absolutely, but it's probably stuff happening
Speaker 6: right here where you live that you need to be
Speaker 6: looking at differently, and you need to be supporting the
Speaker 6: word getting done right here where you live, and.
Speaker 2: You check it out on Yes, yeah, I'm about to say,
Speaker 2: but I want to remind people check it out Monday
Speaker 2: on PBS. What time Monday.
Speaker 3: It's coming on ten pm on Monday, But you can
Speaker 3: stream it on PBS right right during and whatever, and
Speaker 3: then it'll come to some stringing.
Speaker 6: Streaming and people should check their local listens because you
Speaker 6: know pbsd Yeah.
Speaker 1: Depending.
Speaker 3: The film has the instagram is at the Body Politic film.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely go check it out. I just have one
Speaker 2: last question. You know you were talking about you said
Speaker 2: that you know you were meeting with Biden and Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: You will know So now that Trump will be in
Speaker 2: office in January.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna just move back from the how have you
Speaker 6: had conversations with his administration as yet or even spoken
Speaker 6: to him yet?
Speaker 2: And how do you plan on, you know, focusing on that,
Speaker 2: because I mean, I don't think Trump is really going
Speaker 2: to care about the NCA these too much, you know,
Speaker 2: areas like Baltimore.
Speaker 4: Detroit, Baltimore. He's mad, He's made it.
Speaker 2: No, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to get
Speaker 2: funding and to make sure that you got the budget.
Speaker 2: You need to make sure that your city is clean
Speaker 2: and clear and good. So how do.
Speaker 3: You Yeah, we were buckling down right, and I think
Speaker 3: that this is the reality, and this was the message
Speaker 3: that I was delivering all over the country to folks
Speaker 3: right because I was in that first meeting Envy with
Speaker 3: the President and Vice president where.
Speaker 7: We talked to them before Oprah hit the street about.
Speaker 3: We need to be able to use this stuff to
Speaker 3: help community violence intervention and focusing as oncome violence as
Speaker 3: a public health issue. We didn't think in our wildest
Speaker 3: dreams that the President would go out and say it
Speaker 3: right then and there, but he did and then allowed
Speaker 3: us to do that work. We put fifty million dollars
Speaker 3: of our offer money into community violence intervention. Now we
Speaker 3: don't know, none of us know what the Trump administration
Speaker 3: is going to look like for our cities. But if
Speaker 3: they are going to care carry out the things that
Speaker 3: they said, we know it doesn't look good for us.
Speaker 3: So we have already been working because we know that
Speaker 3: offering these other stuff we're going to end to how
Speaker 3: do we now institutionalize these things within city government working
Speaker 3: with our state government. We're blessed in Maryland to have
Speaker 3: a governor Wes Moore. We're now blessed. We're going to
Speaker 3: continue to have the best congressional delegation with the now
Speaker 3: with the addition of Senator Angela also Brooks.
Speaker 7: So if folks of black people.
Speaker 3: In particular are living in a in a city or
Speaker 3: a state and they feel like their rights are being
Speaker 3: in friends, come to Maryland, aka come to death row Right.
Speaker 3: If you don't want your governor telling you what books
Speaker 3: you can't read, and if you don't want to you
Speaker 3: want to live in a state where women's bodies can
Speaker 3: be protected, come to Maryland. If you want to come to.
Speaker 7: A place where black people will be respected.
Speaker 3: Come to Maryland. But that aside, I think that what
Speaker 3: we're going to do is we're gonna knuckle down. We're
Speaker 3: going to be working with our philanthropic partners, and that's
Speaker 3: the key on how we set this up. It wasn't
Speaker 3: just a city funding it. It wasn't just a fa
Speaker 3: It's funding. It wasn't just the state. We had our
Speaker 3: philanthropic partners, all of us together, and now we just
Speaker 3: have to wait and see. My hope is that the
Speaker 3: new administration sees like, oh, this city has been having
Speaker 3: tremendous reductions in violence, right, why would they come and
Speaker 3: disrupt that. We hope that that can can continue. We
Speaker 3: hope that our congressional delegation is still like they are today,
Speaker 3: being able to make choices about what things they get
Speaker 3: funded in their local districts, and if not, we're just
Speaker 3: going to have to work around it and do it ourselves.
Speaker 7: Right, That's what we have to do, because.
Speaker 3: This work has to continue not just in Baltimore, but
Speaker 3: in Newark, in Saint Louis and Chicago, everywhere else in
Speaker 3: the country because we know that violence is going down
Speaker 3: and our inner city. So we just have to do
Speaker 3: that work and buckle down.
Speaker 5: I got one more thing to say.
Speaker 6: So after the election branding, you said, this country does
Speaker 6: not deserve black woks.
Speaker 5: It doesn't, Okay, I want.
Speaker 6: You to to what do you think that we need?
Speaker 6: I want you to expand on that, like.
Speaker 3: Well, we can be here all day. I think when
Speaker 3: I said that and people are like, oh, that's a
Speaker 3: great speech, I was like, well, my staff will tell
Speaker 3: you that they had no idea without what I was
Speaker 3: going to say when I went out there. It was
Speaker 3: just the response. But I think there's a couple of things.
Speaker 3: Right when we think about and people can say what
Speaker 3: they want, right when we think about the election that
Speaker 3: we just went through. We went through election with the
Speaker 3: most qualified person to ever run for this position, was
Speaker 3: the most disrespect that Canada ever ran the best campaign
Speaker 3: that I've ever seen. And I've been around a lot
Speaker 3: of campaigns, right, and yes that and yes that includes
Speaker 3: President Obama's and that we love him forever. You know,
Speaker 3: I love your president. But this, when you look at
Speaker 3: that and you look at the focus and the things
Speaker 3: that people focused on, it's very clear that this country
Speaker 3: still has a big problem with black people and with women,
Speaker 3: and unfortunately my vice president, your vice president, it was
Speaker 3: both of them, because this wasn't for many people about
Speaker 3: policy right. Folks voted against their best interest, which is insane,
Speaker 3: but it happens all the time. We have to have
Speaker 3: real and honest conversations about what it means to allow
Speaker 3: people to be treated the way they should be treated
Speaker 3: you and not be disrespected the way they should be disrespected.
Speaker 3: And I always say this up to people like me
Speaker 3: in my position, like I said that day to call
Speaker 3: things says they are right, and people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're putting yourself at risk, You're making yourself a target,
Speaker 3: Like I'm already a target any I'm already at risk,
Speaker 3: And what are they going to do to me that
Speaker 3: they didn't do to my ancestors. The reality is too
Speaker 3: many people that look like me fought and died for
Speaker 3: me to be even able to sniff a position like this,
Speaker 3: for me to sit by and allow someone who was
Speaker 3: as qualified as talked about, but also who personally did
Speaker 3: so much for me in my city to just be
Speaker 3: treated like that and not say it right. I think
Speaker 3: that I owe that to her as a black man,
Speaker 3: as a son and grandson of black women, but as
Speaker 3: the husband to a Belasian wife just like she's a
Speaker 3: Blazian Ablasian American as well. I owe that to them,
Speaker 3: but I also owe that to my ancestors and for
Speaker 3: me to continue to stand on what we know it's
Speaker 3: right and call it out. And we know that right,
Speaker 3: we can if you just look at what they say
Speaker 3: about her every time she opens the mouth, and then
Speaker 3: other folks can just say stuff you be like really really,
Speaker 3: I mean, look y'all, Linda McMahon is about the leader
Speaker 3: Department of Education, right, and we're talking about she wasn't
Speaker 3: qualified for the job. Come on though, Like, we know
Speaker 3: what it is, and folks have to call it out
Speaker 3: and stop being scared to do so, because that's how
Speaker 3: these folks get so comfortable and continuing these things because
Speaker 3: people are like, oh, yo, they're gonna take away my money.
Speaker 3: They gonna yeah, money is fine, your position is fine,
Speaker 3: that is fine, but like, what principles do you have?
Speaker 3: What kind of world do you want to live in
Speaker 3: where you can literally see that happen to this woman.
Speaker 3: And also, look, let's be honest, the data doesn't align right.
Speaker 3: We have to remember and this is in particular, I
Speaker 3: take this person too, because I also came into office
Speaker 3: during the middle of the pandemic. Right when they came
Speaker 3: into office, no one knew what the next week was
Speaker 3: going to look like, let alone the next four years.
Speaker 3: And when you think about it, in particular to black
Speaker 3: folks and folks that listen and watch The Breakfast Club,
Speaker 3: You've never seen more investment in the HBCUs, You've never
Speaker 3: seen more small black business career. You've never seen a
Speaker 3: lower level of black unemployment in this country. What else
Speaker 3: do you want? Like this stuff takes time. She's not
Speaker 3: going to just be there in four years during the
Speaker 3: height of a pandemic and then like, oh, all these
Speaker 3: things are the list that have existed in this country
Speaker 3: since they brought the first one of us over here.
Speaker 3: It's gonna go away. We have to stop holding ourselves
Speaker 3: to this extreme high regard and taking Joe whatever the
Speaker 3: rag man from other folks.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 2: Definitely check out the documentary this Monday ten PM. Check
Speaker 2: your local listing on PBS.
Speaker 3: And we appreciate you for joining us anytime.
Speaker 5: I wanted to ask you, who is the guy next
Speaker 5: to you. He's a wise man in.
Speaker 6: My opinion, who said it takes the village to raise
Speaker 6: a child.
Speaker 5: Uncle the village is.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Uncle Tim. He got in trouble.
Speaker 6: I'm like, no, nah, when he said that, Brandon knew
Speaker 6: he fucked. Like he says, envy, this was a whole
Speaker 6: press conference. It takes the village the raise a child.
Speaker 4: What if the village is.
Speaker 5: Retarded, guest, I knew what he meant.
Speaker 1: Just know what he meant he meant.
Speaker 4: That's not the point.
Speaker 1: Even you can see. I'm like, damn, you know.
Speaker 3: Yes. So we had another event a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 3: and Uncle teas about to ask quest. I said, Uncle T,
Speaker 3: before you asked this question, he did, man, he had
Speaker 3: talking points.
Speaker 1: I said, if we asked the question.
Speaker 3: The last time you asked me dad question, you got
Speaker 3: me a lot and everybody just busted.
Speaker 2: That's my man.
Speaker 1: I love uncles a lot of work.
Speaker 7: Saves a lot.
Speaker 3: Of young people in East Baltimore. We love him very uncle.
Speaker 1: He's forty plus forty.
Speaker 3: You know, look them old black people, they're gonna say
Speaker 3: what they mean what they said.
Speaker 6: He got because he whipped the young people over every
Speaker 6: single day helping us.
Speaker 7: But I'll tell you something about Uncle T though.
Speaker 3: This is this is how you know when and you'll
Speaker 3: remember this. Remember this summer, we had this incident where
Speaker 3: this young lady was shot and killed inside of the house.
Speaker 3: Right uncle called me before the police commissioner called me
Speaker 3: and him in the community. When I got there, they
Speaker 3: were like, Brandon, this is who it is. So I
Speaker 3: delivered the message to our folks. And then if you
Speaker 3: watch the interview and Eric, everyone was online like your
Speaker 3: brain is sitting the message and others don't know what
Speaker 3: he's saying. I literally go out there and say, the
Speaker 3: entire city is looking for you. Your best bet is
Speaker 3: to turn yourself in.
Speaker 2: He knew they.
Speaker 3: Knew what I was saying. But that's the kind of
Speaker 3: person And that's really what's happening with these communities, because
Speaker 3: people ain't just gonna let somebody go in the house
Speaker 3: and kill a little baby, and you think you just
Speaker 3: going like, we'll go off about your business like na, yo.
Speaker 3: They like people who are looking for you. And they
Speaker 3: were able to say, I'm like, look y'all, chill, we'll
Speaker 3: find him. Tell us who they told us, And we
Speaker 3: were able to get him and put him where he belonged.
Speaker 3: But I think that shows you the character of people
Speaker 3: who know, like, no, we got to set a code
Speaker 3: that like, no, whatever you got going on ain't got none.
Speaker 7: To do with this little baby.
Speaker 3: And that's the kind of thing that we have to
Speaker 3: have and stop allowing. Like the thing that pisces me
Speaker 3: off the most is if I go on the Internet
Speaker 3: and see somebody that shot somebody mother or daughter or somebody,
Speaker 3: and they be.
Speaker 7: Like free free him. What Yeah, are you crazy?
Speaker 3: Like yo, he killed somebody's child, right Like, I ain't
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with their little city silly petty
Speaker 3: beef because I think envy. One of the things and
Speaker 3: just that people don't realize is that this ain't the
Speaker 3: nineties people dying or regular beef thing dying whole amounts
Speaker 3: of money like yeah, yo, disrespecting me or every other
Speaker 3: day like dump Yeah I did say that one time,
Speaker 3: damn the TV I did. Thanks Jess for reminding me.
Speaker 3: Uh yo sent my yo, sent my girl a message
Speaker 3: on Instagram? Like did she respond it?
Speaker 1: Nature girl?
Speaker 3: Bro?
Speaker 8: Like like that's just how we go right Like, And
Speaker 8: we got to get our folk, got to understand that
Speaker 8: we gotta be better with each other in understanding how
Speaker 8: to resolve conflict because we're gonna have conflict.
Speaker 7: That's the human way.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing is is I know we
Speaker 2: gotta go, but I think the biggest thing is social media.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you why, right, because before, if that
Speaker 2: was a situation, you send my girl a note, it's
Speaker 2: just between me, you and my girl. Everybody, the embarrassment
Speaker 2: is not there.
Speaker 1: I can just walk away.
Speaker 2: Now I'm embarrassed because now everybody, everybody feels like I
Speaker 2: need my ego. The same thing as if you if
Speaker 2: we get into a fist fight, right, yep, you beat
Speaker 2: me up on and you know it's a couple of
Speaker 2: people that see it. I go home.
Speaker 3: It's people at the next block don't know social media,
Speaker 3: and I know I can't beat you. So the next time,
Speaker 3: I gotta bring the blak.
Speaker 2: Correct, that's what Now it's all in the commed.
Speaker 1: So now I got to prove myself from New York.
Speaker 3: I understands, right, you got new.
Speaker 1: Balances on these weatpants. You know.
Speaker 6: I just want to say, because you brought up like
Speaker 6: conflict in general, right, it really is a trap to
Speaker 6: make us.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 6: I think that we there's no other choices like the
Speaker 6: thing I have to do now because people don't understand, right,
Speaker 6: they don't understand the brain science of it is. It's
Speaker 6: just a moment in your brain telling your body run, fight, freeze.
Speaker 6: You chose fight, But if you take that pause and
Speaker 6: calm down, it's.
Speaker 4: A lot of other options to you.
Speaker 6: But you are being socialized to think these are the
Speaker 6: only options because your humanity ain't worth shit, so these
Speaker 6: you gotta act like an animal because you are an
Speaker 6: animal and this is all you can do, when really
Speaker 6: you got all of these other options, and we don't
Speaker 6: get taught conflict management skills like conflict management didn't get
Speaker 6: it doesn't get addressed, like the coronavirus.
Speaker 2: I think also because we're just learning as it's going on.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, you know because and anybody
Speaker 2: will be a liar if they say it doesn't affect them.
Speaker 2: The first time you read a negative comment about yourself,
Speaker 2: it could have been one hundred positive comments, but that
Speaker 2: one negative comment, those two negative common stuck with you,
Speaker 2: and it's hard to feel like I'm gonna let it go.
Speaker 1: It takes time to learn, and that's why Conversation car.
Speaker 6: And there are all over this country organizations that teach
Speaker 6: conflict management skills. We do that at the community Mediation
Speaker 6: Center in Baltimore that teach mediation. So there's a safe
Speaker 6: space to take all right, me and you say that
Speaker 6: ship to my face in a confidential space so we
Speaker 6: can really work it out right. And there are organizations
Speaker 6: doing that work all over, but they have to be
Speaker 6: uplifted as much as to keep that same energy shit
Speaker 6: is to recognize that it is intentionally trying to make
Speaker 6: our demise just a real And.
Speaker 3: The last thing I'll say, I say to see the
Speaker 3: kids all the time too, right, and we have to
Speaker 3: understand like who's programming. I got to ask this by
Speaker 3: a kid in a school last year. It's like, mister man,
Speaker 3: every time I go on Instagram or TikTok, it's trying
Speaker 3: to show me fight videos. I don't watch fight videos.
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, but people in your class other people do,
Speaker 3: and they think that people like you algis are a real thing.
Speaker 3: Perfect example, this is a true story. A young lady
Speaker 3: that works for me one of it set up a
Speaker 3: TikTok account, Like I'm not downloading TikTok. You can do
Speaker 3: what you want, but she was like, well, we want
Speaker 3: the algorithm to be right. So you sit here while
Speaker 3: I picked the things She's like, what are you interested now?
Speaker 3: Like sports, babies, politics, weather, nature, right cities. Assuming she
Speaker 3: goes in there because it puts in my age right
Speaker 3: and all my information and where I live. All they
Speaker 3: wanted to show me was ass videos.
Speaker 1: She's looking at it like, what.
Speaker 3: We have to understand that and really figure out ways
Speaker 3: to unplug ourselves from that. But thank you all for
Speaker 3: having me.
Speaker 6: Thank you both and Scott Erica.
Speaker 2: Make sure you check out the documentary this Monday, ten
Speaker 2: o'clock on People.
Speaker 6: Yes so much, Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's The Breakfast Club. Good Morning Wakes Up in the Morning,
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club