WEBVTT - INTERVIEW: Brandon Scott & Erricka Bridgeford Talk The Body Politic Documentary, Baltimore Peace Movement + More 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.680 Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.280 Morning everybody, it's the j n V. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.520 Just hilarious, charlamage the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:12.680 We got some special guests in the building. We have 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:14.680 the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:15.080 Welcome. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.959 But also we have Eerica Bridgeford, who is from the 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.599 Baltimore Peace Movement. Welcome. Now, I do have to ask 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:23.400 a question before you start. I have to make sure 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.680 that you guys are really from Baltimore. So I want 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.000 you to read this. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:29.120 I do it. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:33.080 I'm fine. Earn earn and iron earned. 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.440 There you go. I don't know what that sounds like. 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.160 It was Darren earned and iron earned. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.120 Always it's not. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:42.160 Earned. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:43.680 Why did he have to earn and iron earn? 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:45.280 I don't understand that's the same murd Did you just 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:45.880 have four times? 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:46.599 Right? 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.000 All right? Tell you all from Baltimore. 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.520 I heard a just asked to agree. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:55.080 To do it. 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.840 Wow, we want to start right out like that. 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.680 That's yes's right, but welcome guys. 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.160 How you feel good? Were good? 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:02.360 Brother? 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:04.120 It's on your second term. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.400 Sir, Thank you, thank you, thank you, long time coming. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.160 Just you know, the last time we had a two 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.840 term mayor in Baltimore. I was a sophomore in college 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:18.240 twenty years ago. It's been twenty years since we had it. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.360 So it's a big deal in the honor for me 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.000 to have the have the city say like, no, we 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.720 want to keep moving in this direction, especially from someone 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.480 that grew up there when we grew up there and 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.520 understand everything that has been happening. 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:32.800 So what made you want to become a mayor of Baltimore? 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.360 So this is a real easy thing, man. So I 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.640 grew up in Park Heights, right, It's a place in 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:39.640 northwest Baltimore. It's the best neighborhood. 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:41.920 Sorry, Joe, don't even. 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.160 Start that about West. 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.200 I don't know what you let you finish. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.360 So imagine envy living in the neighborhood literally so that 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.480 the horse race Preakness is in my neighborhood. Imagine living 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.280 in a neighborhood that's the center of the world every 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.560 third Saturday and they then every other day of the year. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.480 You're not treated as human where we wouldn't even go 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.880 outside on Friday night before Preakness because they would do 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.400 what we call Preakness sweeps. If he was outside looked 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.720 like us, you could be gone. But the next day 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.160 somebody who don't look like us could be peeing in 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.200 the Miller Street and no one blinks. But before I 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.280 was even seven years old, I saw someone get shot 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.240 outside playing basketball and no one care. And literally I 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.280 just start pestering my parents, my uncles, my grandparents of 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.720 all why no one care? And one day my mom 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.080 just said, look, if you wanted to change, you gotta 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.080 change yourself. No one's coming to save us. And having 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.160 my family be involved in the community, my uncle dragging 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.919 me with him to political fundraisers when people were trying 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.520 to get my family's business to donate. I had the 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.359 understanding of what people should have been doing and who 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.240 wasn't doing it. So I said then that that's what 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:50.880 I wanted to. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:52.399 Be at a very young age. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.839 You already already knew because I was. I was about 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.399 to ask you what made you not go the other way? 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.679 You know what I'm saying, because while I'm going to 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.320 give credit it to your hood why Park Heights is 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.360 one of the best hoods in West Baltimore City, it 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.760 is still also one of the most dangerous. 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:09.880 Yeah, you know what made you not go? 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.839 It's a little different now, I tell the young like y'all. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.640 Y'all have no idea. Y'all don't know the Old Park Heights. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.480 But for me, it's about it's a couple of things. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.720 It's my family, right like so, I am a first 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.800 generation Baltimore and my mom's family is from rural Virginia, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.600 right outside Richmond. My grandparents moved to Baltimore. Ironically, people 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.120 don't know this. They gonna know now to East Baltimore 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.720 with three hundred dollars to their name, where them my 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.600 great grandmother, my great aunts, all my older cousins lived 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.640 in this one house right behind North Avenue, the school headquarters. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.040 And then my dad's family. My dad followed, my uncles 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.720 and my older cousins who moved here from rural North Carolina, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.280 where my grandparents ran a pig farm until they died, right, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:54.880 which is why I don't eat pork, because I used 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.320 to feed them myself. But when you come from things 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.520 like that, you have a different setting. I was set 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.800 in a world where like, you don't have to accept 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.520 things as they are. You can work harder, you can. 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.160 Be greater, and you have a. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:11.000 Responsibility to us and those who put you in this 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.040 position to take us all in your community and a 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.479 further place. But I also had the community itself, growing 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.120 up running track as an athlete and playing sports. Ironically, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.720 it was also the people that were deciding who live 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.360 or die or what the beef was in the neighborhood 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.640 who said, like, you have to be better than us. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.120 We want you to be better. Do not let us 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.480 hear about you getting into any trouble or things like that. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.560 And if even some of my family members who work 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.360 for them were putting me in danger, they would check them. 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:44.680 Right. 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.320 It was just a different time. So I would say 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.120 I had the entirety of this city that really pushed 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.719 me to make sure that I became a better version 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:54.640 of myself and working to be the best version. 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.880 Now what can a maya actually really do? 0:04:58.080 --> 0:04:58.240 Right? 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.800 We look at you know, res I ask is you 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.239 know people to say the vice president is the vice president, 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:04.800 but what can she do? You know the president can 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:06.640 do certain things, but she has to get things signed 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.120 off on. So what can a mayor actually? 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:10.160 Do? 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.080 You control? Funding? Do you control? 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:20.120 I do so as the mayor of Baltimore, So I do. 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.479 And I think what people have to understand is the 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:23.160 mayor is an. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:24.080 Executive of a city. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.520 Essentially, every mayor, especially if they're a strong mayor form 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.160 of government like Baltimore is. Actually Baltimore is the strongest 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.920 former mayor of government in the country, So technically I'm 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.680 the strongest mayor in the country. We do get to 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.279 direct that funding, right, and it's about and no disrespect. 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.159 I love my Vice president to death. I love my 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.120 president to death, But the President would tell you that 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.120 mayors have the toughest job in America because people can 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.920 see us and touch us every day, and decisions that 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.479 we make every day are going to impact people, and 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:55.480 they're going to hold you accountable, even for stuff that 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.560 you're not responsible for. But when you think about the 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.200 basic things that people Essentially, I'm the CEO of a 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.839 three billion dollar, full billion dollar entity known as the 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.200 City of Baltimore. Right, everything that people do. When they 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.160 turn that water on in the morning and they want 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.720 to be hot and clean, it's my responsibility. When they 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.400 want they trash picked up, it's my responsibility. When they 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.919 want their rec center and open up, it's my responsibility. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.359 When they call nine one and have the have a 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.760 fire truck come, it's my responsibility to make sure that 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.840 that stuff happens, but at a deeper level, it also 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.560 is important to make sure that when is someone like 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.560 me who has that lived experience that just Erica and 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.240 I have, that we bring that to that job and 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.320 understand and that things we're talking about. Our city literally 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.960 is the birthplace of racial redlining in Baltimore and everything 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.800 that we all grew up through as a result of that. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:45.960 So when you think about things that I've just been 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.880 able to do in my first term and what's really 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.239 been like the focal point of this documentary, the body Politic, 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.680 it's about reimagining what public safety means because for all 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.680 of our life, they just said reducing crime is the 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.760 sole responsibility the police. But I want people to understand 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.760 how that was never true, right, And you take Baltimore 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.920 City that's roughly six hundred thousand people. At its height, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.239 our police department had three thousand cops. Three thousand people. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.120 Can't keep six hundred thousand people safe, especially when they 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.760 all don't work at the same time. So we have 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.360 to do the investments in changing that. And we can 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.560 do that. The mayor sets the tone for how the 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.440 city works. So I came in and said, no longer 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.400 we're going to just say, hey, it's all the police responsibility. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.440 Every part of the city government has to be a 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.360 part of this. We passed the law that we have 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.000 to have a comprehensive approach that's led by a health 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.400 commissioner and then direct the funding to go to other places. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.520 So when you look at the fact that we're now 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.440 funding our community violence intervention work at the highest level 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.560 that we've ever had, people that used to be in 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.760 the streets, whether it's safe streets or the brothers that 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.240 we are, us and all these other folks who go 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.960 out and intercede in violence, and we're investing in them 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:54.080 and allow them to do that. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:55.560 Deciding that we. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.800 Weren't going to just continue down this path for just 0:07:57.920 --> 0:07:59.840 like oh if they black and outside, were just gonna 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:03.080 lie come up for anything. No, we're gonna stand up 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.800 what we call our group violence production strategy, which is 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.040 the epicenter really of the movie, and say we know 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.040 who the people are who will most likely be the 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.400 victim of perpetrator of violence. It's much like any other disease. Right, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.440 Since my granddad had prostate cancer, when I go to 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.560 the doctor, what did he test me for? So we 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.080 identify those people, and we're gonna give them a chance. 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.760 First, they actually get a letter directly. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.560 From me that says, look in Baltimore terms, just yo, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.720 I know who you are, I know what you're doing. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.800 This is your chance. I know where you live, I 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.559 know everything about what you do. I'm telling you this 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.960 is your chance to change your life. If you need housing, 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.880 if you need to finish school, if you need you know, 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.480 mental health, whatever you need, we'll give it to you. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.280 But don't try to call my bluff because if you 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.200 call my bluff, then them boys coming and you won't 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:52.880 be able to say no. One tried to help me, 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.440 and it's working and we've been able to. Last year 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.000 we had the largest reduction in homicide that Baltimore's ever 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.719 had in twenty percent, and we're beating that this year 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.800 with twenty four mayors. Make the difference on the ground. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.720 When you think about what we're investing in. I decided 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:10.240 that we were going to put historic amounts of money 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.760 into our rec centers. When we were growing up, they 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.800 were closing them left and right right. So imagine me 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.520 going into the doors of Tawanda Direct Center in nineteen 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.080 eighty nine, when I was in pre k and then 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.600 becoming mayor in twenty twenty and going there early twenty 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.320 twenty one, and it literally was the same building. Nothing 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.040 had changed, the same weight, equipment, and the building was closed, right, 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.360 and then being able to reopen that right, renovated, and 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.600 now we had five more that we're building across the city. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.880 And that's only because the mayor decided that's the focus, right, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.320 And that's what we have to do in every city 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.240 is have people in those positions that will do was, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.080 as I always say, the right thing, not the popular one. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:52.680 Because there are a lot of things that I did 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.520 that people were like, I can't believe you didn't do that. 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.000 For example, they said I should join on to the 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.520 state's lawsuit around opah yours, the state wassuing all these 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.200 drug companies. I said, no, we're gonna do our own 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.480 because we were impacting more. People called me everything but 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.200 my name, and then lo and behold. Now we're like 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.640 receiving four hundred plus million dollars from these companies from 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.560 doing it our way. Leadership doesn't mean being like It 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.400 means doing what's the best thing for the people. 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.599 And when you wrote that letter, we'll get you in 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:22.160 the second Aerica. 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:22.679 That's fine. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.640 When you wrote that letter, where did you get that 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:25.920 idea from writing a letter? 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.080 So yeah, so this is this is about knowing the 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.840 work right. So GBRS Group Violence Production Strategy will focus return. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.520 It's a model that's been around for a long time 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.720 and it works in cities. It worked in Oakland and 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.000 all these places. They tried it twice in Baltimore before. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.960 And me so this I'm forty now. I came to 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.520 city hall when I was twenty three, so I literally 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.400 grew up there and seeing the last attempt fail and 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.400 why I knew that I wanted to go deeper into 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.040 the work. But also that the number one reason why 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.160 great ideas and programs and things that fail in cities, 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.280 it's because they don't have the executive leadership and buy in. 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.160 Because if it comes from me, if this is the 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.559 mayor's strategy, everybody else that works for city government knows 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.360 that they got to do it or they ask got 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.360 to get another job. Right, That's the reality, and that's why. 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.120 And we have to do the notifications because if not, 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.520 it's no different than us just showing up. And we 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.080 use what we call credible messagers to go and deliver 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.040 that message and say, look, yo, if they want to 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.440 give you a chance, and people change their life, and 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:31.959 I think. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:33.520 Who you're giving chances to is it? 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.920 Is it shooters, It is everybody, everybody. 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.080 So you look at you like, look, you did this 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.480 turn your life around. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.160 You're doing this stuff right now. We know that you're 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.720 involved in activities that might end up having you lose 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.640 your life or take someone else's life. This is your chance. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.559 Like your group of people that you're with, chances are 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.760 y'all ain't gonna be here or you're gonna be locked up. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:58.560 That's the reality. 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.160 We gotta we gotta tell people a real deal. And 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.680 if they don't like take that heat, they are people 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:05.600 that took it right. There was a young man. It 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:07.560 almost brought me to tears. We just had a little 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.720 graduation for some folks through YAP on Saturday. And you 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.080 can see a lot of this work in the Body Politics, 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.640 which is airing on next Monday night. We'll get to you, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.240 but you can see what happens. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:21.520 Right. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.640 This young man literally said that he one young man 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.400 had been out on the street since he was twelve, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.800 and no one ever asked him what he wanted to do. 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.240 Or how he can do things different until our folks 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.520 showed up. Now he works for the convention center. Saturday, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.920 a young man had told us he had been out 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.240 of school since elementary school and out there doing what 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.040 folks do. Right now, we got him on the right track. 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:47.960 People are working for the city, People are. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.360 Starting their own businesses and being able to reconnect with 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.400 their family. So just simply having a house right like 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.040 that stuff changes people's lives. And then there's some folks 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.439 who just tell me, as we would say, Jess rocks, 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.200 and then I'm like okay, And then that's when they 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.080 got to deal with the boys. And you can't say 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.200 that we didn't try to tell you that there's or 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.920 show that there's another way. There are people out there 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.360 delivering that message every day, Like yo, we can do 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.680 something different because we also have to understand, like, look, 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.000 we all know our people don't own boats, right, we 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.240 don't own gun companies. We have to understand what's really 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.720 happening in that cycle that we're allowing ourselves to be 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:27.840 put in, and we're trying to pull people out of 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:29.960 that as much as possible. But we can't just have 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.840 people shooting and killing people's grandmothers and babies and kids 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.440 and wives and all the other craziness. We just simply 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.320 can't have that absolutely, Erica. 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.199 How did you get involved with the Baltimore peace movement? 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:46.160 Well, it used to be called Baltimore Ceasefire because there 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.240 was this guy named Ogon. So first there was a 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.800 three hundred in march movement. That's how Brandon and I met. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.360 Brandon and Muniahbaha were leaders in that movement, and I 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.920 got very much involved because my son got involved in 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.360 the very first march. They did a march from east, 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.719 took from west to East Hilton all the way to me, 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.280 all the way across North Avenue, and my son did 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:07.920 that much and got very much involved. 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.360 And I got so involved. 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.959 That Munia said, oh, you should be a spokesperson, and 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:14.760 so I became on the leadership team. 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.400 So during that movement. 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.640 Somebody named ooh Derek Jones in Baltimore. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.280 He was a big leader, educator. 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.040 He passed away suddenly, so a lot of the men 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.200 in his life and women got involved in three hundred. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.400 And in November of twenty fifteen, after Freddie Gray was killed, 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.320 there were over three hundred people got like we hit 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.160 three hundred murders in November that year, and so the 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:46.200 three hundred mid March movement called a state of emergency 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.680 for the city of community meeting and a lot of 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.560 Ooh's people showed up there, and one of them was 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.520 this guy named o'goon who had this idea about calling 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:56.840 a ceasefire because he just, you know, he watching the 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.480 news and he sees what's happening in Israel and Occupied 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.440 Palestine and keeps hearing the word cease fire, and he's like, 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.480 that's the only thing that made him pay attention to 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.560 the news is because he heard that word. So he 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.880 wanted Baltimore to have that same kind of like introspection 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.920 but also eyes on it from the outside. So he 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.040 had this idea that they would just be one day 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.400 when everybody agreed in Baltimore, it's gonna be a cease fire. 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.400 He took the idea to different men who was like, Yo, 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:30.760 that shit dumb. It's not gonna work, I mean, And 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.800 so he brought it to me at that meet and 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:35.480 he was like, I heard a lot about you. 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.120 I see how you move. I feel like you the 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:38.200 person I should be talking to. 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.360 This About two years later, in twenty seventeen, the city 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.040 had more murders than it had ever had in its history, 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.000 which pissed me off because I had been out doing 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.360 work all day long, the mediation Son. You know, I've 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.920 been doing that work forever, and so I'm mad, like, 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.240 how the fuck is this? What was happening when we're 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.600 doing this much work and day like pointing the people 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:03.720 who say they got connection to the gangs, Why don't 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.160 they tell niggas to stop shooting? Because if they say 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.480 it's gonna happen. The next day, when I woke up 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:10.880 still that mad about it, I realized that I was 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.080 day I'm mad about what people not doing, and I 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:15.920 had n't followed through on this man's I did from 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.760 two years ago. So I called him up and was like, 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:20.760 what you say you wanted to do? Because God put 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:22.640 it on my heart, it shouldn't just be one day, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.360 it should be three days. And violence is a language. 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.440 So if we take in violence, we gotta replace it 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.640 with something. Let's tell people yo do stuff to celebrate life, 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.320 because if nobody deserved to celebrate life, Baltimore does so. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.760 Just create events that's fun, that's celebrating life. Friday through 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.640 Sunday call. Brandon was one of the first people I 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.800 called to say, this is what we think about doing 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.000 all you gonna Before I could finish the sentence, he 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:47.760 was like, Oh, yeah, we're doing it what you need. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.880 So we at first we were just calling it a 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.760 Life over Death Weekend. And to Brandon's point about the 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.240 last program that was the GVRS, it had been called 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.600 a cease fire, and all the sh reachs knew it 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.880 to be was the police come and lock you up. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.239 So when we held this community meeting to ask what 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.320 do we name this Life Over Death Weekend, people were like, well, 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.800 if you call it Baltimore ceasefire, people know what that 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:16.080 what that means. And we put a sister component of 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.119 the peace Challenge because there's going to be a lot 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.000 of people being like, I wasn't gonna shoot nobody this 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.800 weekend anyway, so they're not talking to me, right, but 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.040 that's how people next week. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.240 But that's when we get out anyway, I wouldn't you know. 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.199 And so we wanted people to know the fact that 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.000 you're saying that shit is violent, like violence is not 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.720 just about shooters, it's about who you being pettied with 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.560 in your own family, who you dragging on social media 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:42.680 like can you be peaceful. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.160 For three days as a challenge to yourself. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.040 But we were worried that because it would be called ceasefire, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.760 it would get confused with the previous city program that 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.280 people and so we were like, but Baltimore is smart. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.359 If somebody say, oh, that's that ship where the police, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:57.960 we were like, no, that was that. This is this 0:17:58.359 --> 0:17:59.400 and people gonna understand. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.120 And they did it and it so at the time 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.160 the ceasefire started in May of twenty seventeen, people were 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.520 being killed every nineteen hours in Baltimore. So we had 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.760 that first weekend in August of twenty seventeen, the city 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.880 went forty one hours that weekend without anybody getting killed. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.399 And although people be like, well that ain't nothing, you 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.480 say that shit to you get the phone call, you know, right, 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.320 So when we hit twenty four hours, we was like, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.320