Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne
Speaker 2: the gud we are the Breakfast Club. You got a
Speaker 2: special guest in the building, Yes, indeed got May and
Speaker 2: Ross Barako.
Speaker 1: Welcome. How you I'm good. I'm good. Little tired, but
Speaker 1: I'm good.
Speaker 3: You ain't can't get tired now, I know that long
Speaker 3: way to go.
Speaker 1: How are you man, I'm good man. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: had a rough couple of weeks, but I'm all right.
Speaker 3: You can't elaborate on that, just like the specific circumstances
Speaker 3: that led to the arrest that the.
Speaker 1: Lady or yeah, you know, we've been going down there
Speaker 1: every day. In fact, my folks are down there now,
Speaker 1: uh to uh do the inspections, uniform cold construction. Uh
Speaker 1: you know you have to get a certificated occupancy all
Speaker 1: these other things. But they came in and just was like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna do what we want to do.
Speaker 1: Our folks went down there. They wouldn't let him in.
Speaker 1: I was surprised, so I have them go with y'all.
Speaker 1: I want see what's going on.
Speaker 2: So they basically they wouldn't let y'all in it to
Speaker 2: do the inspections.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they basically was like, no, go, this is
Speaker 1: a private company. This is not the government. I it's nobody,
Speaker 1: just these guys. And so we took them to court
Speaker 1: and we're in the process of being in court and
Speaker 1: they just start putting detainees in the building while we
Speaker 1: were in court, like just total disrespect. So we go
Speaker 1: down every morning to serve them, like give them a citation,
Speaker 1: because we just wanted to show a pattern that they
Speaker 1: have been disregarding the local law. When we get in court,
Speaker 1: the Congress people went down there to do a walk
Speaker 1: through and they called me and was like, Yo, we
Speaker 1: having a press conference. We want you to be at
Speaker 1: the press conference. I said cool. So I came down
Speaker 1: to the press conference. It was protesters outside and they
Speaker 1: out there every day by the way, saying let the
Speaker 1: mayor in. I SI, they were saying when I was
Speaker 1: at the gate, so the guy lets me in the guard.
Speaker 1: He was like, come on this side of the gate,
Speaker 1: So I did. I stood there about an hour and
Speaker 1: a half and then the Specialation in charge of Homeland
Speaker 1: Security came, but ICE was already there. They didn't say
Speaker 1: anything to me. I was there for like an hour.
Speaker 1: They just looked at me, looking at them. He came
Speaker 1: approached me, started talking crazy, reckless. The congress people got
Speaker 1: in it. He said, you know he's gonna arrest me.
Speaker 1: Then the congress room was like no. I said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm leaving. Don't worry about it. He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: get out. So I left. I left and went on
Speaker 1: the other side of the fence. He got a phone call.
Speaker 1: They made a decision to leave the inside and come
Speaker 1: on the outside and arrest me on the city side,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's basically what happened. They took me
Speaker 1: to a real lock up somewhere in some place I
Speaker 1: didn't even know existed in North by the way Wow,
Speaker 1: in a cell, took pictures, fingerprints, charged me with federal trespass,
Speaker 1: went to hearing all the whole thing. You know, finger
Speaker 1: printed me again. I heard that.
Speaker 3: I heard you was subjected to like the second round
Speaker 3: of fingerprinting.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: Why how do you interpret that?
Speaker 1: I have no idea. Man, there was like one agency
Speaker 1: has it not the other agency. I was like, can't
Speaker 1: y'all get it from them? Like it's technology. I mean,
Speaker 1: they did this in the middle of the court, like
Speaker 1: we were leaving, the Marshalls came into the courtroom to
Speaker 1: escort me out. My lawyers started, you know, going back
Speaker 1: and forth with them, and I just said, you know what,
Speaker 1: forget it, just take me wherever y'all got to, wherever
Speaker 1: y'all going, I'm going, let's go, and I left.
Speaker 4: They took you to a place you didn't even know
Speaker 4: exist the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Wow, like some it's non descript factory looking place.
Speaker 1: Took me down in the basement is a Britain's like
Speaker 1: real cells in there. Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3: You didn't know it was there.
Speaker 1: No, not at all. No, it's a homeland security spot
Speaker 1: that they have there. Did you see other people? I
Speaker 1: didn't see anybody. Had me, you know, off somewhere, you know,
Speaker 1: so I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 3: Criticism of Trump. You think any of your criticism of
Speaker 3: Trump called them to act like that.
Speaker 1: Well, I just believed that they wanted to get the
Speaker 1: mayor of the city to you know there on this
Speaker 1: I'm gonna arrest judges, mayors whoether's like they're in charge.
Speaker 1: You just want to show that we have power and
Speaker 1: authority and you're not going to defire us and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get whoever it is, you can get it to
Speaker 1: type of thing, right, So I think that's what it was.
Speaker 1: And when they realized I was there, somebody sent them
Speaker 1: there to get me, you know. So if that's basically
Speaker 1: what happened, I don't even think it is directly about me.
Speaker 1: I think it's about them and them trying to prove
Speaker 1: to everybody that they're untouchable, and they basically do what
Speaker 1: they want to do. When they realized it was me,
Speaker 1: they sent a special agent in charge of the Homeland
Speaker 1: Security investigation of that region to come and get me.
Speaker 1: That's like the police director going downtown and the rest
Speaker 1: of somebody for shoplifting, you know. So yeah, he comes
Speaker 1: by itself and does that.
Speaker 2: So legality, right, So this is a private building, right
Speaker 2: that law enforcement should be able to come in and
Speaker 2: see what's going on. So how do they have the
Speaker 2: right to stop y'all from going in? So shouldn't in
Speaker 2: any other Like if I have a private building and
Speaker 2: I say y'all can't come in, y'all gonna kick the
Speaker 2: door then for sure, But this case, y'all can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like the fire inspectors and the health inspectors
Speaker 1: have more rights than police officers, like police officers need
Speaker 1: like a warrant to do specific things. The health inspector
Speaker 1: and fire inspector can come in any building for safety,
Speaker 1: health and humor resources or whatever it is. They can
Speaker 1: come into the building and say, look, this building is
Speaker 1: not safe, it's not fit, so forth and so on,
Speaker 1: and they won't let them in. And that's why I
Speaker 1: was totally shocked, like this can't be real. I need
Speaker 1: to go see this myself, and it was right. They
Speaker 1: just wouldn't let it. They wouldn't let anybody in.
Speaker 2: So what's inside this building? Has anybody seen what they're
Speaker 2: doing in this building? Nobody knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, CBS was a granted entry and they gave
Speaker 1: them like a limited tour. And they keep saying it's
Speaker 1: like these criminals in their murderers, rapists, you know, the
Speaker 1: Republican talking point. But everybody knows who's in there. You
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on, who they are, where they
Speaker 1: come from. We don't know anything. And you know the
Speaker 1: building was used as a halfway house and drug rehab
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. To change the use of the building.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to change it to a place with detainees.
Speaker 1: You have to get that. You checked right, it has
Speaker 1: to be. You have to get a certificate, arguments, you
Speaker 1: have to apply for that, You have to get inspections.
Speaker 1: You may have to go to the planning board, zoning board,
Speaker 1: it depends, but you have to start that process. That's
Speaker 1: anybody has to do that special. It's not like putting
Speaker 1: undue circumstances on these people. This is what everybody goes through.
Speaker 3: That's all you say that you feel like these measures
Speaker 3: were an attempt to humiliate and degrade.
Speaker 1: You absolutely once you know, you know, they they cuffed me,
Speaker 1: threw me in a car. You know the security that
Speaker 1: well the police did was pretty decent, but you know,
Speaker 1: taking me through that process, they put me in a cell,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole fingerprinting, the interrogation piece. You know,
Speaker 1: then't doing it again. I just don't think it's necessary.
Speaker 1: I mean, the US attorney came to my hearing. It's
Speaker 1: a classic misdemeanor. Four hundred dollars fine, wow, you know,
Speaker 1: maximum thirty days in jail. She's she's at the hearing,
Speaker 1: the US attorney. I'm like, what what's happening here?
Speaker 2: You know, this is they're trying to give you a
Speaker 2: maximum obviously thirty days in prison in the fall Aliphant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is probably what they're going after,
Speaker 1: but they don't have no I don't think they have
Speaker 1: a case at all. I mean, first of all, it's
Speaker 1: not federal property, so federal trust. But it's not even
Speaker 1: one federal employee that worked. Like all they do is
Speaker 1: all they They don't have a lease. They have a
Speaker 1: contract for them to house a few of their prisoners.
Speaker 1: That's it. It's not there's not nothing to do with
Speaker 1: the federal government at all. This is a private property
Speaker 1: with a private owner from Florida called the Geo Group,
Speaker 1: which owns hundreds of prisons, by the way, that has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the federal government. If anything. If
Speaker 1: it was trespassing, uh, they would have to call the
Speaker 1: local police, right and if they thought it was a
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, they should have called the state police.
Speaker 1: But they didn't call anybody, by the way, because they
Speaker 1: let me in the property. Wow. Yeah, the people who
Speaker 1: called were those ice agents and everybody else who called
Speaker 1: their bosses and boss came down there and did what
Speaker 1: he did, and you got orders to do that.
Speaker 3: Have you got any like like messages like behind the
Speaker 3: scenes on some like all right, don't step out of
Speaker 3: line again, it can get worse or something, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pretty much. But I mean, you know, we were in
Speaker 1: the processes, in the process of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: the charge in that, you know, and these people are
Speaker 1: you know they serious now they committed today foolishness, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. They're threatening to arrest the congresswoman
Speaker 1: who was there, and multiple congress women. You know, they're
Speaker 1: threatened to take us through this all the way to
Speaker 1: the end. But you know, at the end of the day, like,
Speaker 1: we didn't do anything wrong. So I mean, if they
Speaker 1: want to waste their taxpayers money, the government's money, to
Speaker 1: go through this, then let's go through it. We think
Speaker 1: we are correct, and I don't think they have any
Speaker 1: ground and stand on.
Speaker 3: What do you say to people who say they don't
Speaker 3: care about fighting for the rights of immigrants, they're.
Speaker 1: Just misinformed and because we've allowed other people to kind
Speaker 1: of dictate or control the narrative. Honestly, what we're fighting
Speaker 1: for is the due process for the fourteenth Amendment, the
Speaker 1: fourth and fifth Amendment, to be secure in your person,
Speaker 1: your papers, your property, people can't do anything till you
Speaker 1: pull you over, throw you in jail, without due process,
Speaker 1: without you going to court, without them having a warrant,
Speaker 1: all these specific things. And I think more than anybody,
Speaker 1: Black people should be concerned about that, because we're the
Speaker 1: number one victims of being searched without probable cause, or
Speaker 1: people coming to our property, our persons disregarding our constitutional
Speaker 1: rights for the for our first the Bill of Rights,
Speaker 1: the disregard for that, we should be the first ones
Speaker 1: concerned about it. And so we should stand up for
Speaker 1: people who's getting getting there is violated because we next.
Speaker 4: And I see that you also run for governor as well.
Speaker 4: Do you feel like this is a part of the
Speaker 4: plan to mess that up too?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think it's the part of the
Speaker 1: plan to mess everything up, you know. So I think
Speaker 1: they what they meant for evil though always turns to good.
Speaker 1: I mean, these people are they're not thinking about what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They're just reacting. Right. The person in charge
Speaker 1: of homeland security, well, the second in charge gets on
Speaker 1: TV start saying we stormed the place. It was a
Speaker 1: bust of migrants going in there. You know, we slammed
Speaker 1: ice agents like all this was fabrication. Now they just
Speaker 1: put themselves in a bad situation because now you're saying
Speaker 1: things that are not true because we have the videos.
Speaker 1: So I just start dropping the videos so people could
Speaker 1: see that I walked in there with my hands in
Speaker 1: my pocket, you know, very calm, you know, because the
Speaker 1: guy opened the gate and let us in. There was
Speaker 1: no kicking, no shoving, no pushing. I mean, they're used
Speaker 1: to lying and controlling the narrative, but this is the
Speaker 1: time they made a very grave mistake.
Speaker 3: Do you think that this will impact your bid for
Speaker 3: governor in any way?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, people who don't like
Speaker 1: what happened, don't like what happened anyway, they don't like
Speaker 1: they wouldn't vote for me anyway. So I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose any votes based on what we did.
Speaker 1: I think what it does do, though, it tells people
Speaker 1: that we're willing to go all the way, that you know,
Speaker 1: we're not just talking about defending people's rights, that we're
Speaker 1: going to challenge these people at every turn.
Speaker 3: I do wonder what message do you think your arrest
Speaker 3: sense to other elected officials who might oppose the these
Speaker 3: federal polities who just opposed the Trump administration period.
Speaker 1: Well, I think these guys need to ratchet it up
Speaker 1: a little bit, need to figure out what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do in a collective way. These kind of individual things
Speaker 1: that are happening. It's not really enough. We need like
Speaker 1: collective energy here, a cooperative plan of action to push
Speaker 1: back against what's happening. Not all these separate states doing
Speaker 1: these suits. We should do a collective one. The irony
Speaker 1: is when I was going to court, the state of
Speaker 1: New Jersey was going to court with Donald Trump that
Speaker 1: same day, our ag filed the suit against this his
Speaker 1: sign of executive order undermining the fourteenth Amendment of birthright citizenship.
Speaker 1: On that day he was in court. But it should
Speaker 1: have been Donald Trump versus New Jersey, against balt against Maryland,
Speaker 1: against you know, California against Maine. It should have been
Speaker 1: like fifteen different states together. And I think we need
Speaker 1: collective action. This individual stuff is not working.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard, you know, may and Adam say this,
Speaker 3: and I've heard a lot of other people say this
Speaker 3: to me, like there's an attack on black mayors. Do
Speaker 3: you think so?
Speaker 1: Well? I think I think black mayors having a little
Speaker 1: bit more difficult than everybody else, obviously, just like black
Speaker 1: people do. Obviously people expect more from you. You're going
Speaker 1: to be scrutinized more. They think you have a magic
Speaker 1: wand and because you're black, you're gonna make all of
Speaker 1: the black people problems disappear in five seconds. Obviously that's
Speaker 1: not going to happen. But I mean, ultimately, I think
Speaker 1: we have a harder road to tow, a heavier, a
Speaker 1: bolder to move. But you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: This is what you signed up for. You know, we
Speaker 1: knew this when we got into it, like this was
Speaker 1: what it was going to be.
Speaker 3: How did it feel for you when you just saw
Speaker 3: you know, the city and knew it like really come
Speaker 3: to your defense, like they was outside, like people was
Speaker 3: pulling that not even just knew people was pulling up
Speaker 3: from all over the tried state, you know the ride
Speaker 3: for you? How did you feel when you came out
Speaker 3: and saw that?
Speaker 1: It made me feel good. Irony is when I was
Speaker 1: in there, you know, the the guy locked me up
Speaker 1: after the judge said you could go, took an extra
Speaker 1: thirty forty minutes to let me out because he was
Speaker 1: trying to devise a plan to get me outside because
Speaker 1: there were so many people out there. He was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: we got to get these people from in front of
Speaker 1: the building. I said, you know how you get them out,
Speaker 1: Get me out, Let me out, They'll go. I wish
Speaker 1: it was that easy, I said, is it actually is
Speaker 1: that easy? So as I walk out of here, they're
Speaker 1: gonna walk away and lo and behold. I walked out,
Speaker 1: We walked down the street, talked to them, and everybody dispersed.
Speaker 1: I mean, people are not interested in doing nothing extra crazy,
Speaker 1: you know, they just want justice. And that's simply what
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: Now you're running for governor, what's the first thing you
Speaker 2: want to do when you become governor? Like, what's the
Speaker 2: first thing on your mind? The first thing you want
Speaker 2: to do first day, second day, third day?
Speaker 1: With well, I mean number one, I think we need
Speaker 1: to fix this budget. Our budget is, you know, is
Speaker 1: out of whack because we have given so many tax
Speaker 1: breaks to these multinationals and we need to bring that
Speaker 1: money back and fix our tax code. But ultimately, we
Speaker 1: need to be building affordable housing across the state of
Speaker 1: New Jersey. We need to be building ten twenty thousand
Speaker 1: units of affordable housing in the first two years one,
Speaker 1: it'll reduce people's costs, reduce rents, mortgage. So I would
Speaker 1: put a rent control on all rent across the state
Speaker 1: of New Jersey for the first couple of years until
Speaker 1: we get the first units of housing built in a state.
Speaker 1: That needs to happen to begin stabilizing our economy and
Speaker 1: it to make people believe we mean business right put
Speaker 1: thousands of people to work. So dealing with this affordable
Speaker 1: housing crisis is like number one on my list.
Speaker 2: That there's a lot of people in this race for governor. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you step above all those people? Because right
Speaker 2: now looking at polls, and polls mean a lot of
Speaker 2: nothing a lot of times. But how do you make
Speaker 2: sure you're ahead of those polls to make sure people
Speaker 2: come out and support you, that you're really taking this serious?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean the polls are fluctuating every week,
Speaker 1: they change here and there, which means that it's like
Speaker 1: a fourth quarter game. It's going to be whoever gets
Speaker 1: there put people out to the polls to vote, and
Speaker 1: whoever wants it better than more than anybody else is
Speaker 1: the person I think that's gonna get over the line.
Speaker 1: But ultimately I think people could see my record, and
Speaker 1: we've been putting that out there, the things that we've
Speaker 1: done in the city of Newark, and we believe that
Speaker 1: if you could do it in Newark, you could basically
Speaker 1: do it anywhere. Our problem if the state has a cold,
Speaker 1: Newark has the flu. Right, so our problems are a
Speaker 1: lot more intractable and difficult, and our ability to mitigate
Speaker 1: those issues makes us uniquely qualified to deal with the
Speaker 1: issues around the state. I saw something.
Speaker 3: It was an Emerson College poll and it said that
Speaker 3: fifty six percent of voters were undecided about who they
Speaker 3: wanted to vote for in the Democratic primary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it's that big Immocon Yeah, Emmerson.
Speaker 1: They did a text poll. Those text polls are incredibly unreliable.
Speaker 1: They're texting people, and you know they texting a small
Speaker 1: portion of people, but there is a huge undecided number,
Speaker 1: but it's not fifty six percent. And you always have
Speaker 1: to understand and I know, we know when they poll
Speaker 1: in people, it's not really us because we're not answering
Speaker 1: the phone. So we have to be a little weary
Speaker 1: of those poles, little literary of them, and really just
Speaker 1: get on the ground and keep working. I mean, the
Speaker 1: poll said that Kamala Harris was going to win right.
Speaker 1: The poll says she was gonna win New Jersey by
Speaker 1: double digits, and she only won by five percentage points.
Speaker 3: Newark Airport, Man, what the hell is going on? Man Baraka? Like,
Speaker 3: what is the problem with Newing Airport? How did they
Speaker 3: get here to way? People are saying it's unsafe to
Speaker 3: fly out the new A Airport.
Speaker 1: They don't flatter airport. I don't think it's unsafe. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's unsafe because they keep delaying in canceling flights.
Speaker 1: If they weren't doing that, then it would be unsafe.
Speaker 1: The reality is it's too many planes in the airspace
Speaker 1: air traffic controllers is not enough. Our air traffic controllers
Speaker 1: walked off because of stress. They don't want to when
Speaker 1: they losing contact with airplanes. They don't want to be
Speaker 1: the one responsible for ninety people one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: people going down, so they walking away. The radar system
Speaker 1: in that area doesn't work. The infrastructure has broke. So
Speaker 1: but the Trump administration came in, got rid of four
Speaker 1: hundred people, blamed DEI and now they realize it's a
Speaker 1: real problem and none of that is gonna help it.
Speaker 1: So now they're trying to put money in infrastructure and
Speaker 1: hire more air traffic controllers. But they need to do
Speaker 1: that like rapidly, like an emergency, and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: we just need to slow those flights down. We need
Speaker 1: to do the same kind of patterns that happened out
Speaker 1: of LaGuardia. See LaGuardia is in the same airspace but
Speaker 1: not having this problem. They're not having this problem because
Speaker 1: they have less flights and they have more time between flights, right,
Speaker 1: the flights coming in and the flight's going as more
Speaker 1: space between those, nor to just we just fly places,
Speaker 1: flying in and out, in and out, in and out.
Speaker 1: We acting like there is no problem, right, but there
Speaker 1: is a problem. And so as we act like there's
Speaker 1: no problem, they're canceling flights and delaying flights and ultimately
Speaker 1: this need to not have those flights until they get
Speaker 1: this in order.
Speaker 3: So you said people are they were walking off whye
Speaker 3: because they.
Speaker 1: Just were stretched out? Yeah? They what were stretched out about? Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, to not have contact with an airplane for
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, for sixty seconds, for ninety seconds is a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're an air traffic controller, and you
Speaker 1: can't control what's going on, and somebody crashes and dies
Speaker 1: on your watch. I mean, obviously that's going to cause
Speaker 1: a bit of stress. Absolutely, folks walked off and Newark
Speaker 1: unfortunately add insult the entry there you fixing one of
Speaker 1: the runways at the same time. So that should be
Speaker 1: done prayerfully by the end of June. But we need
Speaker 1: more air traffic controllers and we need the infrastructure fixed immediately.
Speaker 1: We need emergency spending, emergency funding to get that stuff
Speaker 1: done like yesterday.
Speaker 3: But nobody knew that about the infrastructure beforehand.
Speaker 1: Of course they did. They knew. They knew that the
Speaker 1: infrastructure was old. They also knew that we didn't have
Speaker 1: enough air traffic controllers, not just newer but period, right,
Speaker 1: and that's why we were having incidents. Then when the
Speaker 1: Trump administration first came in, you've seen all these airline
Speaker 1: issues that were going on, which signaled that there was
Speaker 1: a problem, and instead of dealing with the problem, they
Speaker 1: began blaming DEI and continue to lay people off instead
Speaker 1: of hiring people fixing the infrastructure so we won't have
Speaker 1: this emergency situation where we are now. So they finally
Speaker 1: they've understood that this is a real problem. So now
Speaker 1: they're trying to address it, but it's not happening fast enough.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I would say, they need to
Speaker 1: stop some of these planes from going off the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be inconvenienced because you can't get as many
Speaker 1: flights as you could have got before. But safety is
Speaker 1: more important than anything else, I will say.
Speaker 2: Now, I wanted to ask about the congresswoman that is
Speaker 2: also going against you in this race. They said that
Speaker 2: she has supported a lot of the things that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump has has put to the table, and you've been
Speaker 2: very vocal about that. What are your thoughts to some
Speaker 2: of the things that she's trying to follow up with
Speaker 2: and that she's campaigning for.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, everybody in the primary now is progressive, right,
Speaker 1: but all of the progressive leaning organizations endorsed my candidacy,
Speaker 1: all of the progressive unions, all of the progressive organizations
Speaker 1: for People's Organization in Progress thirty too, be Jay working
Speaker 1: families because I'm a real progressive. I'm not just playing
Speaker 1: one on TV. The reality is, here's a woman who
Speaker 1: supported the border wall, right, who you know, supported four
Speaker 1: billion dollars to go towards Trump's borderwall. Right, A person
Speaker 1: that voted against immigrants while she was the congress person. Right,
Speaker 1: who is opposed to Immigrant Trust Act in New Jersey
Speaker 1: that says that we have to not ask people their status,
Speaker 1: that our police can't cooperate with ice, that we have
Speaker 1: to make sure immigrants get the same services as any
Speaker 1: other people or residents of the state of New Jersey.
Speaker 1: She voted she is opposed to that, and voted against
Speaker 1: things when she was the governor. I mean, excuse me,
Speaker 1: when she was the congress person. So the reality is,
Speaker 1: I don't think that she's progressive at all.
Speaker 2: Now, you went to her hometown of Montclair to make
Speaker 2: that statement, to make sure that the residents of Montclair
Speaker 2: know who they're voting for.
Speaker 1: What was that important to you? Well, I went there
Speaker 1: to really talk about the fact that they have a
Speaker 1: plan for everything but black people, right, that the reality is,
Speaker 1: they come up with all of these strategies and plans
Speaker 1: that they're so thoughtful about, but none of it involves us.
Speaker 1: But they keep coming in our community asking us for things,
Speaker 1: but they have no plan to help us. When we
Speaker 1: were on a panel, they asked her about the wealth
Speaker 1: gap as she started talking about third gradest reading level,
Speaker 1: and so I got upset, Right, I said something on
Speaker 1: a panel and I said something in Montclair. I said,
Speaker 1: you know, reading levels. We need to make sure that
Speaker 1: our kids can read on grade level. But don't get
Speaker 1: confused that the wealth gap has nothing to do with reading.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, income and wealth are two
Speaker 1: different things. Income you could say that, you know, if
Speaker 1: you have a better education, you can get a better
Speaker 1: job and your income could be better. But wealth, you
Speaker 1: could be dumb as a doornail and have wealth. Your
Speaker 1: parents can pass down businesses and real estate and all
Speaker 1: the thing to you, and you can mess it up,
Speaker 1: but you still have wealth. Right. You know, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has wealth not because he's brilliant, but because his family
Speaker 1: had wealth. I mean, this country has denied us wealth
Speaker 1: since we came here, like slaves, helped to develop wealth
Speaker 1: for other people who've passed their wealth down. And because
Speaker 1: she don't understand that, and she talks about it like
Speaker 1: in a tone deaf way, it kind of undermines our
Speaker 1: ability to destroy a wealth gap that's actually doubling in
Speaker 1: a state of New Jersey right now, that went from
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars to six hundre one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: because of the lack of home ownership and business development
Speaker 1: in our state. And she and if you're going to
Speaker 1: be the governor, you should know that, right.
Speaker 2: So's she's actually supposed to be coming up here, I
Speaker 2: think this weekend next week. What's one question that you
Speaker 2: would think is the most important question that she should answer.
Speaker 1: That what's her plan for black and brown people? But
Speaker 1: more importantly black women. Right, Black women are the most
Speaker 1: committed and dedicated constituent that the Democratic Party has, and
Speaker 1: they're treated the worst in New Jersey or in this country.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's endorsed by the mainstream Democratic Party, but
Speaker 1: they have no plan for black people. They never did.
Speaker 1: They have no plan for Latinos, they never did. And
Speaker 1: they have no plan for working people. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party is in charge of the state, and working
Speaker 1: people are struggling the most. We can't pay our bills,
Speaker 1: Our childcare is too high, right, insurance is too high.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you got the wrong credit score, you
Speaker 1: might not get no insurance. Right. Your rent is too high,
Speaker 1: your more is just too high. And we still give
Speaker 1: a tax breaks to billionaires in New Jersey and can't
Speaker 1: take care of working people, and you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: the party of working families, right, she should have an
Speaker 1: answer for those things.
Speaker 3: Is running for governor hard when you still got a
Speaker 3: governed as mayor. And the reason I brought that up
Speaker 3: is because everybody were not everybody, but they were people
Speaker 3: saying that this was a publicity stunt when you got arrested,
Speaker 3: Like you're just trying to drum up, you know, attention
Speaker 3: for your campaign for governor.
Speaker 1: What you say, I got a lot of ways to
Speaker 1: drum up attention. Corner jail ain't one of them, you know.
Speaker 1: But but ultimately, like, look, I just came from the
Speaker 1: gym that day. You know, I was going to get
Speaker 1: a shake to go back to the office. My policy
Speaker 1: advisor reminded me that they were having a press conference.
Speaker 1: I went down there for that press conference to support
Speaker 1: my congress people, right. I didn't expect that they would
Speaker 1: do that. And honestly, you know, when they started threatening,
Speaker 1: I thought they was bluffing. Like when I left the property,
Speaker 1: if I wanted to get arrested, I would have stayed
Speaker 1: on the property or I actually left right in twenty
Speaker 1: years go, I would have took flight, you know where
Speaker 1: they said they coming to wrest you. I would have
Speaker 1: been ENCE's cars everything. You know. The reality the matter
Speaker 1: is nowhere for me to go. Like, if they're gonna
Speaker 1: wrest you wherever I'm gonna go, they're gonna come. Like, so,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do it, just do it now. And
Speaker 1: that's really what my sentiment was, like, I don't believe
Speaker 1: you got it in you that this is not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: This can't happen. What a congressman told me, they come
Speaker 1: and to rest you, I said, why, what did I do?
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. That's exactly what my response was,
Speaker 1: What did I do? I was like, oh, come arrest me.
Speaker 1: I was saying, I didn't do anything, But how would you?
Speaker 1: How are you gonna arrest me? I'm not even on
Speaker 1: your property anymore? And they came out and did it anyway?
Speaker 3: Did that confirm to you what type of political climate
Speaker 3: were in?
Speaker 1: Oh? Absolutely, absolutely, very very dangerous. The fact they're still
Speaker 1: going through this, that my lawyers are still going back
Speaker 1: and forth with these people, it's still it tells you
Speaker 1: clearly that they're committed to this stuff. And the question
Speaker 1: becomes how committed are we and I don't believe we
Speaker 1: are as committed as we need to be to turn
Speaker 1: this thing over.
Speaker 4: At any point, were you like afraid for your life
Speaker 4: the fact that you were taken to an off site factory.
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Absolutely. I mean, I mean, I guess when you
Speaker 1: I'm a grown man now with families, So when you
Speaker 1: get arrested, all kinds of things going through your head.
Speaker 1: Who picked my children up from school? Like I got
Speaker 1: to beat you? All kinds of stuff I leave my
Speaker 1: house going through But all kind of stuff is going
Speaker 1: through your head, like you know, really fast and uh,
Speaker 1: and they're taking you somewhere you don't know, like you
Speaker 1: can hear them talking. Yeah, they followed me. They came
Speaker 1: one of the details got in a separate car and
Speaker 1: drove behind them and got and went to where I
Speaker 1: was going. But ultimately, like you don't know where they
Speaker 1: take me. If I'm not going to the county jail.
Speaker 1: Am I going to Berging County? That's this county? What's
Speaker 1: going on? And where they're gonna put me out when
Speaker 1: I get in the county jail. I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: things I was thinking about right the when I got
Speaker 1: to the place I'm like, what is this place? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do? Do anybody know I'm here right?
Speaker 1: And all of those things are going through your head.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, fear gets in your in your
Speaker 1: heart and you just pray that you know, fear don't
Speaker 1: turn you into a coward.
Speaker 2: There you go. Well, we appreciate you for joining us,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you know you'll be back up here
Speaker 2: before the race actually happens.
Speaker 1: When what date is that tenth?
Speaker 2: That's right, well, ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Ross Baraka, it's
Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning. Come
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club.