WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 040922 No Charges Brought to Officers in Amir Locke Death (Part 1) 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host Rams' job. 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:09.280 Go by the name of Q Ward on Mondays, Wednesdays 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.600 and Fridays if you carry to one, and then you 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:17.479 come back on Saturday, depending on if my mom has 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:21.919 church the next day. Never mind, I'll explain it to 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:23.640 you guys. We'll just call me Q today. 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.400 Qu all right, que. Anyway, we back up in you 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.960 one more again. We are going to talk more about 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.080 some things going on. Some of them are a little disturbing, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.560 I'll admit this week we got some stuff that we 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.279 gotta process. But yeah, some things that have to do 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:48.960 with race relations in this country. I'm ever the optimist 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.080 and so we'll get through it. But Q is here 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:56.240 to keep us grounded and brooded in reality, and so 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.600 we'll have that perspective as well. Be sure to stick 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:04.520 around because we will be discussing the Minneapolis police officer 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:09.120 that shot a near lock and the lack of charges 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.840 being brought fourth in that instance. We're also going to 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:21.319 spend some time talking about a clerk, I believe a 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.840 front desk clerk in Florida who called the police. Police 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.319 showed up. The clerk called the police on a guest 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.240 staying there. Clerk was black, guest was not black, called 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.560 the police on the guests please show up and arrest 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.520 the clerk. It was the strangest story, but we're going 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.280 to get into that. We also have our way Black 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:47.840 history fact. We're going to be discussing the Harlem hell Fighters. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.040 Those guys are awesome. I've been reading about them, so 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.040 I'm really excited about that. And a whole lot more 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.680 coming your way, like we always do each and every 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:01.000 week on Civic Cipher. But first and foremost, with your permission, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:05.520 Q Woard, I would like to discuss some ebony excellence. 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:06.240 How does that say? 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:07.840 Shall we we shall? 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:15.000 So this week we're talking about Chicago's Bogan Computer Technical 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:20.560 High School senior Stephen Thomas. Shout out to our baby boy, 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.239 Stephen Thomas. He has been awarded over one million dollars 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.760 in scholarships and offered admission to more than thirty universities. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.880 The Chicago, Illinois seventeen year old will be graduating with 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.200 a four point four to seven GPA this summer, and 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:34.799 on top of being a straight A student, it's part 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.400 of multiple extra curriculars in and out of the classroom. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.399 This of course comes from the Atlanta Black Star. So 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.679 we always like to take a moment and shout out 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.320 something good going out, and today we're dedicating it to him. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.040 Share a little bit more with you here. Thomas comes 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.720 from a seven sibling home raised by a single mother. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:55.680 He says he'd like to use his story to provide 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.720 inspiration to others like him who faced hardship but want 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.000 to continue in pursuing their goal. This comes from him quote, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.160 when I'm recognized, I won't just be won't just have 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.240 been another black teen on the news for something bad 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.560 like gang violence? Are me getting wrongfully shot? I want 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.679 people to look at me and be like, Wow, he's 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.440 really out there doing something that we really thought we 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.440 couldn't do just because of how we looked. And quote 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.480 his mother, Erica, is an educator herself and Thomas's first teacher. Quote, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:24.920 no matter what life presents you, you just go for it. 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.399 You write your own story. We know there are narratives 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.000 out here but about our black boys, but it is 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:36.000 our responsibility to change that narrative. She said. We do 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.960 all types of Ebony excellence, and we talk about Chicago 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.040 a lot. We have to defend Chicago a lot. On 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:48.480 this show. Well, this ebony excellence and this student in 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:53.480 Chicago is well deserving and it certainly does help frame 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.000 the other side of the conversation the right way. So yeah, 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.400 a million dollars in scholarships accepted to thirty universities, of course, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.080 a straight a student, and he's making national headlines. So 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.680 once again, shout out to you, Stephen Thomas. Keep going, 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.600 baby boy and making us all proud. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.280 You don't really have to. We don't really have to 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.320 defend Chicago rams. We just point out obvious holes in 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.440 false narratives and straw man arguments that you know, people 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.760 like to make about black on black crime and things 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.640 like that that don't exist. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:24.320 There. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.159 It is. I love I love that you said that. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.400 Sometimes you just know how to say it better than me. Man, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.520 I need to talk away less. Just let you do this, man. 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:38.400 You got yeah right, all right? So I got to 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:45.240 share some some strenuous information. This comes from the Washington Post. 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.520 The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a mere lock 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.960 during a pre dawn no knock raid in February will 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.440 not face charges and the killing prosecutors announced in a statement. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:01.960 Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepenn County Attorney Mike Freeman, 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.960 who jointly reviewed the case, said there was quote insufficient 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:10.000 admissible evidence to file criminal charges end quote. I know 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.240 you want to get in right there, Cube, but let 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.560 me finish. They said they could not prove beyond a 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.520 reasonable doubt that officer, we're not going to say this 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.280 name who fatally shot Locke violated the state's use of 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.359 deadly for statute. Prosecutors also said they could find no 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.800 criminal wrongdoing in the decision making that led to Lock's 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.360 fatal shooting, but strongly criticized the use of a no 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.080 knock warrant. Well, at least there's something there. You know, 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.680 you stabbed me in the heart and then don't spit 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:45.920 on me. I appreciate that don't spitting on me part. Okay, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.680 before I get to the comments from his family, I 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.080 want to just revisit this for a second. So we 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:53.960 talked about this when it happened. We talked about this 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:59.760 on the show. Officers burst into a house. It was 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.200 an no knock raid. Ten seconds later, a mere Laka 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.880 is dead. He was sleeping on the couch. It wasn't 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.120 his apartment. He was sleeping on the couch, he woke 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.960 up and grabbed his gun, and you know, the video 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.320 shows he was raising the gun, but he was also 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.760 rising up out of being asleep, right, and the video 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.040 cuts off. At least that's the video that I saw. 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.760 And as he was like getting up out of the 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:33.400 bed and of course had his gun in his hand, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.960 the assumption is the following frame is when he was 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:40.800 shot and lost his life. I do want to revisit 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:46.440 this because I think that this is important. What we 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.719 see is a police kick in the door, and you're 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.640 listening to us. Just imagine if you are a gun 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:55.480 on I'm not a gun person. I say it all 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:57.000 the time on the show. I'm not a gun person, 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.920 but maybe you are. So imagine you're a gun person, right, 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.880 and someone kicks in the door of your house. Right, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.800 let's even say that they say that they're the police, right, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.480 But you don't know for sure. This could be a 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:11.520 robber just saying that they're the police trying to get 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.200 you to cooperate. You don't know, you know, And if 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.280 you grew up in a rough neighborhood and you're kind 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.520 of paranoid, maybe you're a little edgy, right, you know, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.000 So let's have that be a part of the narrator, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.920 because maybe you do trust someone just says, hey, I'm 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.720 the police, do whatever I say. But in a lot 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.080 of neighborhoods that I've been to, and certainly the neighborhood 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.520 I come from, the police are also the bad guys 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.280 in a lot of those stories. So it could be 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.040 the police. That could not be the police, And even 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.520 if it is the police, doesn't necessarily mean that everything's 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.200 going to be okay. So this is your reality, right, 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.560 someone kicks in the door of your house and you're 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.200 startled awake from your sleep, right, and you're a gun 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.160 owner in this imaginary scenario, so you grab your gun. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.880 That's how you protect yourself. That's how you defend yourself 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.880 from whatever's coming your way. If you're startled, it could 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:02.520 be a bear, could be a person, it could be 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.880 whatever you know, and before you're able to make sense 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:14.360 of what's happening, you're dead. All right. Now, Let's not 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.560 imagine it to you. Let's imagine you have a child 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:18.920 and that happens to your child, or if you're not 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.320 old enough to have children, let's imagine it's your parent, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.600 your father, your mother, to imagine it's anybody that exists 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.120 in your world. Before they have a chance to even 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:33.400 process what's happening, they're afraid someone's yelling, screaming. A bunch 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.160 of people are running into the house, and they do 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.120 the only thing that they believe they can do to 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.640 protect themselves from whatever these noises are, and before they 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.920 even get a chance to process it, they're dead. That's 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:52.079 what happened here. Now we know that that was established 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.320 on the show. We made it a point Q and 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:01.040 I to say, how. 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:05.400 Unfair is it for you, the people who are supposed 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:10.040 to protect us, to just throw your hands up and say, well, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:15.040 that's unfortunate, it's collateral damage, and move on with your life, 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:21.160 not even heeding the responsibility of the situation, not even 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.360 acknowledging the fact that you've forever altered the course of 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.000 not just this person's life, but this community's life, the 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.320 lives of the people in the community. You know, it's 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:33.360 not just one person. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.839 I mean, a cousin lost their cousin, and a sister 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:38.960 lost her brother, a brother might have lost his brother, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:40.960 a mother of course lost her son. Will read about 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.120 that in a second, you know, And that's just family 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.880 members not to mention, friends, coworkers, whatever, whatever. The story 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:52.360 is here and no one's held accountable. All right, Cue, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.320 I want you to jump in right here, because the 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.320 last time we talked about this, you had a lot 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.640 to say about a lack of police use accountability and 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.160 how no one seems to care about that, especially when 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:06.040 the person is black. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:16.640 You've heard the words existent existential threat before. I'd argue, 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:22.320 over the last two years, the entire world has been 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:29.160 dealing with an existential threat in this pandemic. That sounds 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.480 like a very dramatic way to describe it, except a 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:37.360 million people have died. So what else would we call it? 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:52.000 Except those lives by most stretches of American awareness seem 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.720 very cheap. M Like, people just seem very okay with 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:04.199 the idea that, in a very very preventable way, we 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:10.920 lost a million people. Yeah, life in and of itself 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:19.280 has seemed to become cheap, especially to the haves in 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.280 this have versus have not world that we live in, 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.800 this have versus have not country that we live in. Now, 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:35.320 understanding that not in all societies, all countries, all city, states, provinces. 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.760 Is it the haves versus the have nots? Right. In 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.120 some places, those two separate groups of people exist in 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:50.120 a way that is not adversarial. However, in the capitalist 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.680 society that we live in, it is very much adversarial. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.520 In order for us to remain the haves, you have 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:05.520 to remain the have nots. We speak about the idea 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:07.480 that they just throw their hands up and say, oh, man, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:14.679 are bad after murdering someone who, even if he was 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:19.640 the target of the warrant, was not ordered to be executed. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:24.560 I'm assuming, but this young man not even a person 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:30.840 of interest in this no knock surprise, scare you to 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:36.960 death style raid that happened. Now, you mentioned you know 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.320 someone being a gun person, and gun person sounds like 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.120 gun advocates. Gun you know a person that's going to 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.960 march down the street and and you know, protest our 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:48.800 Second Amendment. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:49.080 Right. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.160 You later said gun owner, which I like a lot 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.080 more because I fit into that category. I think I've 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.360 said on the show multiple times. If the gun government 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:05.120 had everybody give us their guns law tomorrow, I'm first 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:07.880 I'll show everybody how to get there. Y'all't even have 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.880 to use y'all GPS. A little black and white car 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.560 with the phive beta Sigma license played on the back 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:15.960 of it, and I'll show y'all where to go to 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:20.680 turn the guns in. The idea for me has not 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.480 always been that that was a way to protect my family. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.680 But I came home to a man sitting on my 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:34.720 porch claiming my house. So when you have a pregnant 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:39.120 woman and a baby and there's a man sitting on 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.560 your porch who may or may not have a gun, 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.960 telling you that your house is his, it puts some 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.320 things in perspective for you, especially at a time in 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.560 our country where people that look like us, and more specifically, 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.960 my children had to become literal targets. A man became 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.520 the president on the back of the idea that he 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.080 would keep people that look like my children out of 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:05.080 this country. So when put in a position where hey, sir, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.240 and this was by a law enforcement officer, just the 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.400 heads up, you might be the only person in this 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:16.920 community that doesn't have a gun, not telling you you 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.280 need to get one, just telling you that something to 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.200 think about. That was a very sobering moment for me, 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:30.400 especially as this pandemic followed, this new movement of hyper zenophobia, 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:35.880 hyper racism, hyper bigotry. Then we had a pandemic where 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.040 you couldn't find toilet paper or water at the store. 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.880 All of these factors coming into play once again, this 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.400 have versus have nots thin to be viewed as the 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.240 have who doesn't have a gun surrounded by have nots 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.120 that do. It changes the way you think about things 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.600 a little bit. But once again, it does not make 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.280 me a gun person, just a gun owner. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.560 Well, it's necessary, I think, and it's it gives a 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:10.320 voice to this scenario. It's it's, you know, for better 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.120 or worse. There is a second Amendment right, you know 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.560 in this country, and people have the right to exercise that. 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:18.440 Do they give to them? 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:26.760 Sega? Do they? Though we'll say it's not equally afforded socially, 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:27.640 you know what I mean? 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.480 Right, because given the scenario that you mentioned, right, you 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.000 said you know that a person would be on edge. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.640 You don't have to be on edge to be asleep 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.320 and someone's your door down screaming. I don't care what 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.680 they're screaming. You should not be expected to comprehend and 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.480 process and be in right mind awaken out of your 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.480 sleep by men kicking your door in bearing. 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.520 Absolutely, that's that's that's exactly where I was going with, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.520 you're a terrified human being, whether you're on edge or not. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.360 Even if you're a sound of mine and a happy 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.080 home with a happy family, and you know all as well, 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.600 that scenario should be terrifying. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:13.040 You know, watch this. On my other show That I Do, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:21.960 I did an episode where I talked about no knock warrants, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.880 and that's what we're talking about here. That's what happened 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.920 with the mere lock. The police used a no knock warrant. 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:34.000 Basically they kicked in the door and then announced their presence. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.360 There was another one where they went to the wrong 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:47.920 house and in that situation, of course everything bad that 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.000 could possibly go wrong went wrong with that and it 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:55.000 was in the wrong house. But the fact that there's 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:59.840 no accountability in situations like that, like you can just 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.480 can just make mistakes and everybody's like, well, you know, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.880 that's the price we pray pay as a society. It's 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.760 just collateral damage. And that's the part that feels sort 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.240 of unfair. You know, I think you hit the nail 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.000 on the head when you said that the price of 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.720 life is cheap because these things don't seem to change. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.119 You mentioned that a mere lock was not even a 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:22.240 person of interest. He wasn't named in the warrant. They 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.560 didn't even know he's going to be there. He just 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.600 happened to be there. The second, the Second Amendment legally 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.000 affords him the right to bear arms same as any 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:34.960 other citizen of this. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.359 Country, except if the police kick your door in to 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.639 murder you. Yeah, now, you sam this, You're not allowed 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.720 to bear arms to the fact that you have a 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.199 gun as a justification for murdering you for no reason. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.840 And there's the right is there? What kind of right 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.359 is that? Yeah? Absolutely, now, But now you said something 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.440 a while ago. You said that. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:00.440 In the. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:08.840 When the police end up taking the life of a person, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:14.639 it's very different than when a regular person does. You know, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.560 you mentioned like manslaughter. You know, if I accidentally do 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:23.879 something and it causes someone to lose their life, I 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.600 still have to bear the responsibility. It might not be 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.520 a murder charge. There was no intention there, but there 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:33.760 was a loss of life. Someone has to pay for it. 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.479 Someone has to repay that debt to society. Someone has 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:38.600 to be held accountable, whatever the case is. You said 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.879 this to me, you that was a brilliant point you 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:45.480 made in this case, and in lots of police cases, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.639 the police can just make mistakes with no accountability. I 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:52.879 do want to read this, and I don't want to 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.080 get back to police accountability. But let me breathe some 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.920 life into this. So quote a mere Lock's life matter 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.640 end quote. Ellison and Freeman said in a statement. Quote 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.080 he should be alive today and his death is a strategy. 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.920 End quote. Lock a twenty two old black man, of course, 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:14.760 shot and killed as the swat team executed a warrant 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:22.600 related to a homicide investigation in neighboring Saint Paul. He 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.159 was shot in the face, chest, and shoulder. Shepherd a 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.760 Gray's round to the wrist. Usually when people are shot 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.320 in the wrists because they're trying to like protect themselves 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.960 or like put their hands up or something. It was 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:34.879 later pronounced dead at the hospitals. Not clear from the 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.480 initial video if his gun was pointed at officers or 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.119 whether anyone ordered him to drop it before he was shot. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.000 The incident lasted less than ten seconds. Okay, I wanted 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.480 to finish that just so there was said again that 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.760 comes from the Washington Post. Now, this is the same 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.040 sort of tactic that ended the life of Breonna Taylor. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:58.840 We've talked about her on the show too. Of course, 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.520 that's another her big name. We shouted that name alongside 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.520 George Floyd when we were protesting in twenty twenty and 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:10.480 no knock warrant where she didn't have anything to do 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.000 with anything, she wasn't involved in anything whatever. And then 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.399 now she's dead. Her mother had to bury her, and 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.399 then everybody's looking at all. The police at least are 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.000 looking around like, well, shoot, I mean, you know it 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.360 ain't our fault, you know, And then all the other 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.000 police in the country are like, yeah, I mean that 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.000 makes sense, sure, sad, but you know, it's cost of 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.960 doing business. And we're here to say that cost is 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.080 too high. That's too high a price, you know. I 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:35.679 mean some things you just can't make mistakes on. If 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.920 you get a weapon, if you get a tool case, 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.080 only purpose is to end to life. You don't get 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.040 to make mistakes. You got to be very sure about that. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.600 You know, there's no room for ambiguity. And if you're 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:47.400 afraid that someone's going to take your life, perhaps that's 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:49.520 the wrong job for you. You know, I'll say it again 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:58.119 now this is the part that I think you'll flip 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:07.399 out on que. I don't like to just have bad news. 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.040 If you listen to the show every week, you know, 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.679 I try to bring some levity or some positivity or 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:20.680 silver lining to just about everything when I can. And 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.960 I wanted to talk about, well, you know, sometimes there 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.400 are charges brought forth and then sometimes people are actually convicted, 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.200 you know, and so you know, we're getting there, We're 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:34.720 moving in the right direction. That's really what I wanted 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:40.000 to say. I'm honest, my hand to god. My friend 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.280 Margaret was with me when we were putting the show together, 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:47.040 and she was kind of giving us some feedback on 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.040 some topics that we needed to talk about this week, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:55.280 and we collectively discovered in researching the amount of police 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.600 officers that were actually convicted of crimes, we found that 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:07.720 there were four right who were convicted of you know, 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:16.320 like killing a person. And I wanted to use Derek Shovin, 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.040 the person who knelt on the neck of George Floyd, 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.639 and what other other names I could find, But the 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:25.680 only other name that I could find where a black 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:30.680 person was involved since twenty twenty was Kim Potter, right. 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.040 And Kim Potter, if you remember, is the woman who 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.399 killed Dante Wright. She yelled out taser, taser, taser, and 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.560 then shot her gun and it killed Dante Wright. He 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:45.520 was trying to like escape from a traffic stop, which 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.919 again isn't a crime. No one that says that to 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:50.720 me will get any more of an audience from me. 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.320 Everything runs when it's scared. Deer run when there's cats 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.760 run when they're scared. Anything with a nervous system will 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.480 run when it's scared or fight. Those are two things 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.439 that are any creature created by our same creator, whoever 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.400 you believe that creator to be, has endowed us all 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:12.879 with that same operating system. So that is not a crime, right. 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.159 That is a higher function is it is a limbic function, 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.920 more than your thinking brain, That is your lizard brain. 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:25.119 I need to survive, however you feel what survival is, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:27.959 It's up to you. But that people do that, and 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.560 so do other creatures on this planet. But I want 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:37.320 to say this. I found four names since twenty twenty. 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:40.639 Guess how many I found overall, going back to nineteen 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.120 sixty five. That's as far back as it goes. Guess 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:45.240 how many names I found too? Help me out? How 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:46.280 many names do you think I found? 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.080 I don't think it's going to be exponentially more than that. Right, 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:53.080 if you're using the same math this amount of time, 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:56.040 by this many people, it ain't gonna be that number. 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:04.240 Thirty eight entries. And admittedly I was on Wikipedia. I 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.679 don't ever claim that Wikipedia is the strongest, you know, 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:10.080 most thorough source, but you know, for the most part, 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:12.840 it gives us a guidepost, a guideline of what we're 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:16.439 really looking at. Thirty eight entries on the Wikipedia page 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:18.440 going all the way back to nineteen sixty five of 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:21.560 US law enforcement officers convicted for an on duty killing 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:25.000 in the United States. A lot of those were white victims, 0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:27.600 white people that lost their lives. Not a lot of 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:32.680 them were black. And that's our reality, and that's why 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:35.320 we had to talk about this today. And I know 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.119 we got like thirty seconds left, so cute your final 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:39.159 thoughts before we move on. 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:48.080 Be them black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander. They were people, 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:56.399 Their lives didn't mean nothing. And for a much larger 0:24:56.480 --> 0:25:03.320 number than thirty eight was killed murdered. I don't care 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:06.600