Speaker 1: Native Landpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome home.
Speaker 3: Y'all.
Speaker 1: This is episode fifty six of Native Lampod. I am
Speaker 1: so so grateful to be joined by my friends and
Speaker 1: co hosts Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillim. I'm Angela Rye
Speaker 1: and today we got a lot to talk about. So
Speaker 1: what are we getting into today, y'all? Freedom is on
Speaker 1: the line for me. That's all things I want to
Speaker 1: talk about. I want to hear what you guys got, Andrew,
Speaker 1: what do you have? Well, Andrew's on mute, so I'll
Speaker 1: hop in. I don't know why Andrew mutes, but I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about there were there were twelve
Speaker 1: men since September of this year who set themselves a
Speaker 1: blaze in protests to conditions in their prison. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the state of prisons in this country.
Speaker 4: Wow. Well, Trump continues to transition transition and as he
Speaker 4: takes aim at DOJ Department of Justice in the YEA,
Speaker 4: I'd like for us to charogate the history of the
Speaker 4: FBI and it's historic violence toward black folks, and where
Speaker 4: we put that today.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of the justice system, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about Joe Biden pardoning Hunter Biden and who else should
Speaker 1: be on that list. As you all have seen, he
Speaker 1: has the lowest pardon record since Richard Nixon. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that, and if there's time, I
Speaker 1: also want to talk about Mitch McConnell's surprise or not
Speaker 1: so surprising hypocrisy on judicial appointments. So that's what we got.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. So pardons has been the topic
Speaker 1: of conversation everywhere, and of course we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about it right here at Native Lampid. We're going to
Speaker 1: start with this question.
Speaker 5: Hey, Native Lampod Kimberly Archie, I'm just wondering, can Biden
Speaker 5: step down and appoint Kamawan president for the next sixty
Speaker 5: days where she can pardon Hunter Biden and flip some
Speaker 5: tables over legislatively while she's president.
Speaker 6: Imagine her being the person to transition the powerful position
Speaker 6: to forty seven. Actually she would be forty seven and
Speaker 6: he would be forty eight, which would really mess up
Speaker 6: all of his merch.
Speaker 7: Think about that, but I like that, petty, Okay, So
Speaker 7: I like that, Petty, I want to talk about Joe Biden,
Speaker 7: who has said repeatedly he would not pardon Hunter Biden.
Speaker 1: He has now pardoned Hunter Biden. And so my focus
Speaker 1: group question is not being in public. My focus group
Speaker 1: question is do y'all think he's wrong for that?
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious to know that. And then I want
Speaker 1: to get into who else should be pardoned.
Speaker 8: I don't think he's wrong for that.
Speaker 9: I think any parent would have pardoned their children if
Speaker 9: in the same position. You know, I would pardon you guys.
Speaker 9: I would pardon your parents. I would pardon your kids
Speaker 9: if I had the power of the pen to do that.
Speaker 9: I wouldn't fall no matter what side of the divide
Speaker 9: this is. I would understand any parent pardoning their child.
Speaker 9: But I think the subtext here is what they were
Speaker 9: accusing Hunter Biden of was some bullshit. At the end
Speaker 9: of the day, like this was you know, political theater
Speaker 9: put on by the Republican Party. It is not analogous
Speaker 9: to the Mueller report or you know, the the impeachment hearings.
Speaker 9: Like this was a very it was a witch hunt,
Speaker 9: and so I don't really I think putting a lot
Speaker 9: of this emphasis on Hunter Biden's pardon. Quite frankly, somebody
Speaker 9: tweet I can't remember who it was. It was like
Speaker 9: the executive director appointer. I think somebody tweeted and said
Speaker 9: no matter how you feel or posted, I should say,
Speaker 9: because it wasn't on Twitter. But no matter how you
Speaker 9: feel about the Hunter Biden story, it certainly is not
Speaker 9: the biggest story this week. And I just think that's
Speaker 9: a big part of it. Like, why are we even
Speaker 9: talking about, Yeah, he pardoned his son. Anybody's gonna do that, Like, Okay,
Speaker 9: he did it. Next, let's think about all of the
Speaker 9: craziness coming out of the Trump administration. But in the
Speaker 9: echo chambers, all you heard about was this Hunter Biden pardon.
Speaker 9: So no, I don't think he was wrong at all.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, because there are folks who
Speaker 1: are feeling somewhat frustrated because when they have sought pardons
Speaker 1: for people who are equally deserving, this administration has been silent.
Speaker 1: One of them is a case that we're very familiar with.
Speaker 1: The close to is our friend Marilyn Moseby. And my
Speaker 1: biggest gripe here is not that he that he pardoned
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden again, tip to your point, I would have
Speaker 1: agreed and done the same thing. It is the fact
Speaker 1: that the same prosecutor who was attached to and prosecuted
Speaker 1: and was on a witch hunt against Maryland is the
Speaker 1: same prosecutor who was a science of the Hunter Biden case.
Speaker 1: This man's name is Leo Wise. Y'all should look him up.
Speaker 1: We talked about on the podcast prior Before I go
Speaker 1: down my rabbit hole, Andrew, I want to hear where
Speaker 1: you're at on this.
Speaker 9: Can I before you answer, Andrew, can I ask Angela
Speaker 9: a quick question? Because we love you know Maryland obviously
Speaker 9: you know we know her personally, but what does because
Speaker 9: she didn't serve prison time, So if you can just
Speaker 9: remind us what is her current punishment I guess, and
Speaker 9: why a pardon matters for her.
Speaker 1: So, Marilyn Moseby is currently on house arrest. She is
Speaker 1: someone who is in the car Storo system. Still, she
Speaker 1: has to check in with a probation officer, she has
Speaker 1: to follow a curfew. She has a job offer that
Speaker 1: you know, she was really excited about that she's not
Speaker 1: been able to take because it requires some travel. Her
Speaker 1: law license is still on the line. The forfeiture of
Speaker 1: her property. The properties that she purchased still on the line.
Speaker 1: She had to sell one, there's another one that is
Speaker 1: potentially in jeopardy because of this conviction, and so there
Speaker 1: is so much on the line. Just because you didn't
Speaker 1: actually go to jail doesn't mean that you're not in
Speaker 1: the carceral system. And I will tell you, guys, the
Speaker 1: other thing that is a little troubling for me, And
Speaker 1: this is where I, like many of the others who
Speaker 1: are frustrated by Joe Biden's hypocrisy on this. It's not
Speaker 1: that he said he wouldn't. I don't know why he
Speaker 1: said that he wouldn't, to begin with, pardon Hunter Biden.
Speaker 1: But what they did say at the White House in
Speaker 1: our conversations is that they would not get involved before
Speaker 1: the full trial was over, before the sentencing of Marilyn Moseby,
Speaker 1: they would not get involved. Guess who hasn't been sentenced, Biden,
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden. Yeah, So I just need to understand what
Speaker 1: it is if you say, well, you know, we will
Speaker 1: get involved, but y'all didn't turn into part and application. Okay,
Speaker 1: we turn it in part and application where we wouldn't
Speaker 1: get involved. But y'all, she hasn't been sent yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: now she's been sentenced. What is the hold up now?
Speaker 1: Because it's the same person. In fact, the same argument
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden used in his statement about why he
Speaker 1: wanted to pardon Hunter. Biden is because of selective prosecution.
Speaker 1: That is what we argued in the Maryland Mosby case.
Speaker 1: It's the exact same thing. And so my lawyer in mind,
Speaker 1: exactly it's the same unit. Right, there are folks right
Speaker 1: now choquit lamonba who is who's being targeted by this
Speaker 1: same Department of Justice, same agents that were involved in
Speaker 1: Andrew's case. Over and over again. It's the same thing.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: Yes, black mayor surprise, surprise, So we keep going through
Speaker 1: this same thing. And Marilyn Mosby is an example of
Speaker 1: a larger issue with the justice or the injustice system
Speaker 1: and the carceral system. It has to be fixed. And
Speaker 1: if Joe Biden, who is responsible for authoring the crime bill,
Speaker 1: cannot see the issue here, he's already said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna parden some marijuana offenses, all of them, all
Speaker 1: nonviolent drug offenses. Period. Do you know forty four percent
Speaker 1: of those incarcerated federal prison are drug related offenses. Pardon
Speaker 1: these folks. Some of this is the vestige of your work,
Speaker 1: and it can't just apply to your son. You can't
Speaker 1: just have compassion in your heart for your son who
Speaker 1: struggle with addiction. There are many people who struggle with addiction,
Speaker 1: who have lied on applications or who stole because of
Speaker 1: their addiction. You have to have compassion for all these people.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, when you mentioned the drug system and almost
Speaker 4: half the prison population and being there as a result
Speaker 4: of we all should say in direct credit to the
Speaker 4: United States government, who is in part, quite a great
Speaker 4: part responsible for much of the infiltration of drugs into
Speaker 4: this country, the introduction of it into our communities, very specifically,
Speaker 4: and those are facts and non fiction. The other consequence,
Speaker 4: partly of Maryland's the penalties that she faces, the jobs
Speaker 4: that she'll never be able to apply for, and many
Speaker 4: of which in the federal government, which because of a
Speaker 4: federal finding of guilt you're automatically disqualified from.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: Of course, that does not apply to the presidency of
Speaker 4: the United States. You all know which I want to
Speaker 4: spend my time, all right, you know, right at this
Speaker 4: very second. But y'all the I'm of course not upset
Speaker 4: with the President for the partning here, partly because it
Speaker 4: is the President, in fact, the reason why Hunter was
Speaker 4: charged in the first place. Had he been Hunter Smith,
Speaker 4: this would never have been a charge Leo Wise. The
Speaker 4: only other case is to your point givity, where in
Speaker 4: this gun charge was ever bought before in that district
Speaker 4: was once before, and it was summarily dismissed by the prosecutor.
Speaker 4: They chose to drop it and not move forward. Yet
Speaker 4: in this case, they decided to go after this man
Speaker 4: after a possession of a weapon for twenty four hours
Speaker 4: while active addiction. While most of us who know people
Speaker 4: who have been addicted, I have and others I know
Speaker 4: you are very much so in denial about being an addiction,
Speaker 4: and so part of that question and answering that question
Speaker 4: is a person being able to even recognize that they
Speaker 4: are in active addiction when they take in action, take
Speaker 4: a step. Most people in an addiction are the last
Speaker 4: ones to see it and are the last to admit
Speaker 4: that they have a problem. My biggest issue, and Angela
Speaker 4: and you hinted at this, is that this is not
Speaker 4: a new occurrence and our understanding from a public policy standpoint,
Speaker 4: which the President is chief at that you have to
Speaker 4: understand that it's not just in your relationship to a
Speaker 4: person under which you understand the circumstances of an injustice.
Speaker 4: You ought to be able to recognize an injustice on
Speaker 4: his face when it happens. And selective prosecution going after
Speaker 4: individuals because of the positions they hold and who they
Speaker 4: may be related to, not because of an offensive they've created,
Speaker 4: is problematic, period. And so he's got what forty some
Speaker 4: of our days, y'all. I want to see what the
Speaker 4: pardon list looks like as he rushes to a close.
Speaker 4: But I want to hold my biggest beef for the
Speaker 4: Democrats who are out here on television talking about how this,
Speaker 4: you know, the action by Joe Biden is offensive, and
Speaker 4: they're clutching pearls and they're, you know, losing their head
Speaker 4: over this action. And we just gifted Donald Trump something. Well,
Speaker 4: guess what all the things you think you gifted Donald
Speaker 4: Trump he was accusing us of in the first place.
Speaker 4: He was already accusing of the president of running a
Speaker 4: partial justice department that went after Republicans and and and
Speaker 4: stayed off Democrats. They were already saying he's the most
Speaker 4: corrupt president in the history of this country. So why
Speaker 4: is it that our beef with Biden has to be
Speaker 4: in proximity to what Trump and his supporters and Republicans
Speaker 4: are going to say, think, and do for Democrats later
Speaker 4: they should be time out for this. I'm so sick
Speaker 4: of Democrats being the establishment to uphold the standard rails,
Speaker 4: but never ever ever seeking to question and interrogate those
Speaker 4: rails of government that quite frankly, have overstepped. And that's
Speaker 4: why I want to talk about the D D o
Speaker 4: jpiece because I think it's it's been that way for
Speaker 4: a very long time.
Speaker 9: I think they're trying to appease people, you know, like
Speaker 9: they're they're there. They're trying to appease this base of voters.
Speaker 9: And it's like, guys, if you haven't learned anything from
Speaker 9: the last election, the people who you're trying to appease
Speaker 9: left you. They are not coming back, right, They're not
Speaker 9: coming back. So instead of trying to appease and walk
Speaker 9: this middle of the road, especially when it comes to
Speaker 9: criminal justice, which has disproportionately harmed us, all you do
Speaker 9: is become political roadkill. When you walk in the middle
Speaker 9: of the road. What if you led with with your
Speaker 9: conscious the conviction and courage of your beliefs, and spoke
Speaker 9: to real life policy. Maybe, just maybe you can inspire
Speaker 9: a new base of voters. Because you know who did that,
Speaker 9: Donald Trump, low propensity, first time voters, helped put him
Speaker 9: in office. There is a whole bunch of other people
Speaker 9: who just sat on the couch to have an opportunity.
Speaker 9: You have an opportunity to tap into those people and
Speaker 9: speak about these things.
Speaker 8: And when you were about to say something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just gonna say. You know, the thing
Speaker 1: that's frustrating to me is we keep saying, like I
Speaker 1: remember being on Capitol Hill and hearing actually one of
Speaker 1: the contenders who I don't think should become DNC chair,
Speaker 1: Ram Emanuel say to a member of Congress who is
Speaker 1: from a battleground state, he told him to vote his conscience.
Speaker 1: And I think that what's missing here is there is
Speaker 1: this idea that you know, you have to do the
Speaker 1: right thing. He was willing to sacrifice his son. Nobody
Speaker 1: asked you to sacrifice your son, Like what would everybody
Speaker 1: else do or want to do or encourage you to do.
Speaker 1: But also, don't forget about the least of these this
Speaker 1: this pardon power should not be reserved for the privileged few. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: what does make you different from Donald Trump?
Speaker 10: Right?
Speaker 1: If Jared Kushner's father could get pardoned and after that
Speaker 1: pardon become the ambassador to France and everybody who is
Speaker 1: proximate to the part and power because of what we're hearing,
Speaker 1: we're hearing allegations that people pay for these pardons under
Speaker 1: the Trump administration. What makes people any different? Does your
Speaker 1: last name have to be Biden to receive a pardon?
Speaker 1: Because what about Kim Gardner? Kim Gardner had to take
Speaker 1: a plea deal, arguably because she couldn't pay for a
Speaker 1: defense Andrew, you know how much it costs five dollars
Speaker 1: a five thousand dollars reimbursement office. Who she is? I'm
Speaker 1: going to write, like from her office a prosecutor who
Speaker 1: like Marilyn Moseby, modeled her office after Kamala Harris in
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. Five thousand dollars reimbursement that the ethics attorney said,
Speaker 1: millions caused you to run that case against Kim Gardner,
Speaker 1: and she took the plea because there was no way
Speaker 1: out for her. They were suffocating her and they made
Speaker 1: it seem like it was going to be private. They
Speaker 1: issued a press release. These are just a couple of
Speaker 1: the names that we can mention. I know there are
Speaker 1: so many other.
Speaker 4: About the apologies. What about the folks that they drug
Speaker 4: like myself through the mud after being in my emails,
Speaker 4: my cell phone, my life, my bank account, my children's
Speaker 4: business for eight years and bought a case with no evidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, none.
Speaker 9: The financial impact that it has on you, Andrew that
Speaker 9: you talk about saying.
Speaker 4: The emotional right now, y'all, I'll work for the rest
Speaker 4: of my life to pay a million dollars off. But
Speaker 4: it takes on you and legal fees, but the toll
Speaker 4: that it takes on you to have had to stand
Speaker 4: subject of everything you've tried to do and be upright
Speaker 4: in so doing because you feel it, you believe it,
Speaker 4: you're doing it for the right reason. These folks snatch
Speaker 4: away from you like they're just turning on the fucking lamplight.
Speaker 4: That's right, with no apology, no redress. No, I'm sorry
Speaker 4: for what we did. We got it wrong.
Speaker 1: And that's the point as we go to break and
Speaker 1: get ready to talk about what else is wrong with
Speaker 1: that goddamn Department of Justice going down to the FBI.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that on the other side of this break,
Speaker 1: But yes, they not Sorry Andrew, that's the truth.
Speaker 10: That's real.
Speaker 4: So, y'all, our last you know segment really just put
Speaker 4: me even more deeply in this place about Tiffany You're
Speaker 4: comment about Andrew's reference to speak your con about your conscience,
Speaker 4: and then your reference to you know, folks getting up
Speaker 4: there and just speak the truth and see if you
Speaker 4: can't reach voters by just saying a thing is a thing. Well,
Speaker 4: to me, y'all, I think Donald Trump is accomplishing this
Speaker 4: as well as it relates to the Department of Justice. Now,
Speaker 4: of course, I can't stand the folks he's appointing over there,
Speaker 4: don't know the the man he's trying to put over
Speaker 4: the FBI certainly a disruptor, there's no doubt, but also
Speaker 4: himself got some issues. But y'all, any of us who
Speaker 4: could sit here with a straight face and say that
Speaker 4: they're are not deep seated issues in the Department of
Speaker 4: Justice and in the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which reports
Speaker 4: up through the Attorney General, we would be lying to
Speaker 4: ourselves as a community of blacks period. If we go
Speaker 4: back to the FBI's founding and the war on the
Speaker 4: freedom and Liberation movement largely sparked in California and Northern
Speaker 4: California and spread all throughout the country and the world
Speaker 4: as we fought for our freedom. The list of terrorists
Speaker 4: that they kept, domestic terrorists that they kept, which was
Speaker 4: largely held by black folks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X.
Speaker 1: Stokely, Carmiel, John Lewis was on the no fly list.
Speaker 1: Andrew of course come on like on the no fly
Speaker 1: list after two thousand like fighting when I worked on
Speaker 1: the Homeland Security Committee, they had to get him off
Speaker 1: the no fly list.
Speaker 4: So, in other words, the violence continue until this day,
Speaker 4: islence against our community perpetrated by the federal government visa v.
Speaker 4: The Federal Bureau of Investigations. These are the same people
Speaker 4: you talked about, the mayor of Jackson, Choquay you talked.
Speaker 4: I tell you my example, same agents who are not
Speaker 4: going into communities to snuff out crime. They're not going
Speaker 4: into situations where crime is being committed, and they're trying
Speaker 4: to do the business of problem solving to get a
Speaker 4: problematic individual, person, entity, whatever, out of the way. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: no no. They're going in creating crimes, perpetuating these things,
Speaker 4: and then in their best effort, attempting you to be complicit.
Speaker 4: And even when you do the right thing and say no,
Speaker 4: it's too late. You're caught in their web. They have
Speaker 4: invested too much money, They've got to bring charges, and
Speaker 4: they got to look good at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: And the problem is is that, y'all, this has been
Speaker 4: happening not only to our movement leaders, but think about
Speaker 4: I'll just give you one example here in Florida, Florida,
Speaker 4: the highest number of blacks we had representing us in
Speaker 4: Congress and any one particular point in time is three
Speaker 4: at the highlight four And do you know of those four,
Speaker 4: three of them had FBI investigations and the consideration or
Speaker 4: actual charges bought against them as leaders. And so my
Speaker 4: point is is, and we see this through your example,
Speaker 4: Angela and the cases that you've bought out, they are
Speaker 4: intentioned on going after our people, shutting us down. Whether
Speaker 4: we follow the law and do right or whether like
Speaker 4: other individuals, we make mistakes. They are committed to our
Speaker 4: public assassinations. Maybe not in literal form, but very much so.
Speaker 4: In our ability to contribute and exactly and in some
Speaker 4: cases very much so little, and we all know what
Speaker 4: you're talking about there, but their commitment to it is
Speaker 4: so deep, so ingrained, that in my opinion, Donald Trump
Speaker 4: would not be in the ro if his even though
Speaker 4: it may be motivated by, you know, very individual and
Speaker 4: personal reasons, we know enough from our experience as black
Speaker 4: folks in this country that this is not an agency
Speaker 4: out to do in wholesale good by all people. In
Speaker 4: some cases, it is to perpetuate the worst and then
Speaker 4: put it on us to take us out the game.
Speaker 1: I even this is such a go ahead. I think
Speaker 1: this is such a good point and part of like,
Speaker 1: I literally was watching something yesterday. I can't remem if
Speaker 1: I said this to you guys or not, but there
Speaker 1: was a Russian outlet talking about how good it was
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was getting ready to dismantle the FBI,
Speaker 1: and I found myself in this really interesting predicament. I
Speaker 1: just want to be honest, like very interesting predicament, which
Speaker 1: is he's going to try to just try the garment wall.
Speaker 1: Actually I don't really like the FBI like that, right
Speaker 1: is the one that I want to fight. And the
Speaker 1: reason for that is, you guys, we laugh about this
Speaker 1: all the time, but it's true. I'll be on the
Speaker 1: phone with my dad sometimes, who is an activist whose
Speaker 1: parents received a death threat phone calls just for him
Speaker 1: trying to get the street name changed after Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King from Empire Way and in Seattle. And he always
Speaker 1: will tell us like, maybe don't say that, you know,
Speaker 1: they tapping a phone, Like we have been conditioned to
Speaker 1: believe these things. And I got to tell you, I
Speaker 1: don't bit my trust nobody working in the Jay Edgar
Speaker 1: Hoover Building at all, you know, Like, and I think
Speaker 1: we have to be honest with this. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think and what the thing that gives me comfort
Speaker 1: is what the Congressional black HAWKUS founders used to say,
Speaker 1: which is there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies,
Speaker 1: just permanent interests. So what are some of the things
Speaker 1: when we look at like we've looked at all of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's appointments. We continue to dig through that as
Speaker 1: we talk about these each week on the podcast. Tip
Speaker 1: was like, you should just forget it. It's late by
Speaker 1: the time He's appointing so many people they would draw
Speaker 1: but here's the thing. If we are able to wrestle
Speaker 1: with what we would actually be in favor of and
Speaker 1: be honest about it, because there are things that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump could do that I could support, including recentering and
Speaker 1: refocusing the FBI and stuff that matters. I don't know
Speaker 1: the cash, but tell is the dude to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I think he ends
Speaker 1: up using it to target us more in the spirit
Speaker 1: of j Edgar Hoover, right, But if he was to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, there are people like Moumea and Asada
Speaker 1: and folks who have been targeted by these agencies that
Speaker 1: they need to be pardoned, they need a second look.
Speaker 1: There are people who we've already named, some elected officials
Speaker 1: who Donald Trump would normally brand his political enemies. If
Speaker 1: you were to say, welly I know it's been weaponized
Speaker 1: because I too experienced that. Y'all know. He said he
Speaker 1: was a victim of the system, So I was going
Speaker 1: with that for me. You know, all of these things
Speaker 1: are there some places where because of our oppression systemically systemically,
Speaker 1: so in this country, we could align with our permanent interests,
Speaker 1: and I think this is one of them. I if
Speaker 1: they do the right thing now that if it's so
Speaker 1: damn big, I don't even know why we going down
Speaker 1: this road, but I gotta be honest with y'all. That's
Speaker 1: what I was thinking Washington. I was like, what these
Speaker 1: Russians say is something that I actually agree with on this.
Speaker 9: I want to pick up on Andrew's point about the
Speaker 9: FBI surveillance was because I think, you know when you
Speaker 9: say things like that, like, yes, co Intel pro is
Speaker 9: something that a lot of people know. But long before
Speaker 9: co Intel Pro, in ninth the Red Scare of nineteen nineteen,
Speaker 9: the FBI was targeting black people. Then they were so
Speaker 9: concerned at that America was treating black people so shitty
Speaker 9: that they would align with the foreign adversary. So the
Speaker 9: FBI was more concerned with black people than they were
Speaker 9: with foreign medaling itself. Then you cut to one hundred
Speaker 9: years later, a century later, not quite, but ninety eight
Speaker 9: years later, in twenty seventeen, the reporting came out that
Speaker 9: the FBI had another watch list of black identity extremists.
Speaker 8: And some of our friends were on this list. Black
Speaker 8: Lives Matter were on this list.
Speaker 9: So I think it's really dangerous and some of our
Speaker 9: luminaries throughout history have been on the FBI list. Cash
Speaker 9: Battel is the person who Donald Trump has tapped to
Speaker 9: take over the FBI. Of course, right now it's FBI
Speaker 9: Director Chris Ray. Donald Trump can't just tap people. This
Speaker 9: person has to be appointed or approved by the Senate
Speaker 9: and he you would also have to fire Chris Ray.
Speaker 9: And the term for these directors write our ten years,
Speaker 9: so they could go across administrations. That is the whole
Speaker 9: point that they're not supposed to be political. I just
Speaker 9: want to tell the viewers a little bit about Cash Betel.
Speaker 9: He is a forty year old extremist. He is a
Speaker 9: lawyer with very little government experience. He was tapped by
Speaker 9: this trumpet, minished and rose rapidly there. Now, you guys
Speaker 9: know how many loyals well out of New Jersey eventually
Speaker 9: out of Florida. Yeah, but you guys know how many
Speaker 9: loyalists surround Donald Trump. That's how you get to rise
Speaker 9: in that administration by being loyal to him. Among the loyalists,
Speaker 9: Cash Betel was considered the most loyal. Why that should
Speaker 9: be frightening is he doesn't he's not an expert on
Speaker 9: a lot and what might he be willing to do
Speaker 9: to appease his boss. One of the people, Mark Milly,
Speaker 9: who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Speaker 9: at the time, had to pull him aside and say,
Speaker 9: do not break the law in order to appease Donald Trump,
Speaker 9: because life behind bars isn't great. He was raised Hindu parents,
Speaker 9: grew up in East Africa. They were Reagan Republicans. He
Speaker 9: was only a handful of people of color in his class. Well,
Speaker 9: once he went to law school. That's when he went
Speaker 9: to Florida. Like you said, Andrew and was a public defender,
Speaker 9: so was doing good work, and people saw him get
Speaker 9: radicalized and he became more to the right, more to
Speaker 9: the right, and then he startedizing off his government experience,
Speaker 9: selling wine scarves, tank tops, ridiculousness, I mean, making a
Speaker 9: mockery of government. He worked a security consultant for the
Speaker 9: Qatar government during the twenty two twenty twenty two five
Speaker 9: Foot Cup. He is willing to do anything he has said,
Speaker 9: and had I had time, I would have pulled this down.
Speaker 9: He has said we will go after the media criminally
Speaker 9: or civilly. He has been one of the loudest people
Speaker 9: who says he wants to expose the deep state within
Speaker 9: the halls of the FBI. Imagine what somebody liked this,
Speaker 9: with access to all types of information with security clearance,
Speaker 9: could do in order to weaponize his position to appease
Speaker 9: a political infant like Donald Trump. This is something we
Speaker 9: have to pay attention to.
Speaker 4: I want to on his hitness absolutely the top absolutely
Speaker 4: lists of people he wanted to go after. I agree.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the person Tiffany, to your point,
Speaker 4: which we have to interrogate obviously, is is woefully wrong
Speaker 4: and unqualified and all that other stuff. But I tell
Speaker 4: you another thing, and institutionalists who believes that all systems
Speaker 4: and structures of our government are beyond reproach is also
Speaker 4: a bad idea. I don't know who that person is,
Speaker 4: and I don't think Donald Trump probably has the capacity
Speaker 4: to a point somebody qualified for these kinds of positions.
Speaker 4: But the institutional list, which unfortunately it feels to me
Speaker 4: like the party, the Democratic Party itself, is molding increasingly
Speaker 4: into sort of the standard bearers for the status quo.
Speaker 4: The institution is itself. And yes, there are parts of
Speaker 4: the institution that must be stabilized for the for the
Speaker 4: the frankly well being of the American people and our
Speaker 4: interaction with the global community. But then there are other
Speaker 4: parts of this system, FBI being one of them. The
Speaker 4: Department of Justice, you know, in part and in some
Speaker 4: cases almost in full, very little exception, have done tremendous violence,
Speaker 4: have had rules and laws propagated off of the activities
Speaker 4: that they have observed us to do. And that is
Speaker 4: the only reason why certain things have become illegal. Federally
Speaker 4: have created sentencing guidelines perpetuated off of not the horrendous
Speaker 4: nature of a crime, but the nature of the person
Speaker 4: who has done that crime. To me, that's ass backwards,
Speaker 4: that's discriminatory, it's wrong. It ought to be leveled. And
Speaker 4: if the Democratic Party can't stand up and look at
Speaker 4: a thing and call it exactly what it is, they
Speaker 4: can't hope to gain any credibility with the American voter
Speaker 4: who sees these things every day. They see it, perpetuate it.
Speaker 4: They see y'all drop the charges against Donald Trump across
Speaker 4: all federal counts after he becomes the nomination the president
Speaker 4: to be. And you don't think people are saying, well,
Speaker 4: that looks political to me now, But yet you you
Speaker 4: crying about Hunter Bideny, Well, let.
Speaker 1: Me let what's on this point. I'm so glad you
Speaker 1: brought it up because I forgot to bring it up
Speaker 1: when we were talking about pardons. We have a clip
Speaker 1: from Joe Manchon that I want to run as we
Speaker 1: go to break. Let's talk about it on the other side.
Speaker 1: Let's hit that clip.
Speaker 10: Nick as a.
Speaker 11: Father, I don't know if a father that wouldn't have
Speaker 11: done the same thing. What I would have done differently,
Speaker 11: in my recommendation as a counselor, would have been, why
Speaker 11: don't you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump for all
Speaker 11: his charges and make it you know, it had gone
Speaker 11: down a lot more balanced, if you will.
Speaker 9: Welcome back everybody. I just wanted to say really quickly
Speaker 9: about Joe Manchin. His an independent senator from West Virginia.
Speaker 9: Bug Joe Manchin, Okay, Like this guy has been such
Speaker 9: a problem in the Senate. Nobody even ask your opinion
Speaker 9: on this, and I just I think that is part.
Speaker 8: Of the problem. It is their side of the divide
Speaker 8: can express.
Speaker 9: Empathy only when it's people who look like them. They
Speaker 9: can express empathy only when it's something that impacts their lives. Specifically,
Speaker 9: how many times have you seen a right wing Republican
Speaker 9: senator or elected official who's very anti LGBTQ until their
Speaker 9: child comes out as a member of the community, and
Speaker 9: then all of a sudden, you have all this compassion.
Speaker 9: And I think that's the difference between a lot of
Speaker 9: us and a lot of them. It don't have to
Speaker 9: impact me. I'm not that self centered for me to
Speaker 9: express empathy and understanding to somebody else. Joe Manson is
Speaker 9: a part of a bigger problem, a bigger political problem.
Speaker 9: But I'm really I'm on strike from the US government.
Speaker 8: I just feel like.
Speaker 9: They don't even deserve my attention right now. In January,
Speaker 9: I'll be back, but right now I'm on strike from
Speaker 9: engaging the US government the job when having something to
Speaker 9: say on Joe Manchin or can I talk about prisons?
Speaker 4: You can be on strike from Joe Manchin. But I
Speaker 4: know you too well. You know that when we don't
Speaker 4: pay attention awaypen, I'm paying attention community almost. I know
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. You're not on strike. Well, there
Speaker 4: are wars who violating us.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing that I thought was important about this
Speaker 1: and why I was glad you brought this up. Andrew
Speaker 1: was talking about Democrats being the standard bearers for like
Speaker 1: right institution, doing the right thing, protecting institutions. Andrew, you
Speaker 1: one of them. We got in a whole ass.
Speaker 4: But there are certain guardrails that must exist. But then
Speaker 4: there are ones that have real implication, like whether or
Speaker 4: not I serve time. Yes, but also so I did
Speaker 4: a crime that I'm being accuted consecuted for.
Speaker 1: But also inviting a terrorist into the oval to have
Speaker 1: a transitionation now well, I mean almost, especially when he's
Speaker 1: getting told welcome back by the President. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: So when you say to the American people, this man
Speaker 1: is a threat to democracy, and now you have Democrats
Speaker 1: because it wasn't just Joe Mansion who I love, somebody
Speaker 1: who I love. Congressman Clyburn was on air last night
Speaker 1: also suggest that Joe Manchin was quote onto something about
Speaker 1: this pardon for Donald Trump. And my concern is that
Speaker 1: you cannot speak out of both sides of your mouth
Speaker 1: and expect for people not to see the blatant hypocrisy here.
Speaker 1: If Donald Trump commits eighty eight felonies ninety one, but
Speaker 1: you know, some of those were dropped, as we know,
Speaker 1: and now he gets he's considered to be pardoned. They're
Speaker 1: look hearkening back into history when this happened under another administration.
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon is the person who comes to mind, right,
Speaker 1: this is not politics or business as usual, and so
Speaker 1: it's very very concerning to see that they would have
Speaker 1: this conversation at all, like why are you talking about
Speaker 1: pardoning this man? Those all of the charges have already
Speaker 1: everything's been postponed. Jack Smith had to postpone the case.
Speaker 1: So the fact that they're now considering a pardon of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump when they're again so many people's freedom is
Speaker 1: hanging in the balance, is so disturbing to me. And TIF,
Speaker 1: I know you have something on freedom. This all shows
Speaker 1: about liberation today and I'm not talking about liberating Donald Trump.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to quote Tip again before we go
Speaker 4: to this prison piece, which I'm incredibly interested in as well,
Speaker 4: And that is her point around roadkill, around rocking down
Speaker 4: the center of the goddamn road. That is what you
Speaker 4: get with Joe Manchin and I love you, brother Cliburne.
Speaker 4: But any sympathy in that direction is a bad Eyedea.
Speaker 4: It is a bad idea because let me tell you
Speaker 4: this much that MF. En all lock her up right right?
Speaker 4: When his first time around, do you think for a
Speaker 4: moment they would not have gone full tilt to ward
Speaker 4: prosecuting and persecuting their political enemies. Now we're not that,
Speaker 4: I get it, but I know this much. We don't
Speaker 4: provide cover. You don't give shelter to the terrorists, to
Speaker 4: the domestic terrorists who is trying to destroy everything and
Speaker 4: everybody who's not him and those who are not in
Speaker 4: his circle. And that's my real problem with allyship with
Speaker 4: Trump is that I am always confused around whether or
Speaker 4: not they are learning the right lesson from his prosecution.
Speaker 4: What he learned was that he's got sympathy with black folk,
Speaker 4: and that was that was the lesson. No, sir, no,
Speaker 4: what you should have learned is that there are some
Speaker 4: laws that are directly targeted toward certain people who are
Speaker 4: then admonished, prosecuted, drug through the mud for things that
Speaker 4: quite frankly, are irrelevant and if you ask the American people,
Speaker 4: that wouldn't care two shits about. And that's the problem
Speaker 4: when you create laws around who commits them versus something
Speaker 4: being bad for society, period, that's it.
Speaker 9: But the whole probly the entire show has been teeing
Speaker 9: up this point that I want to make around prisons.
Speaker 9: Right now, there are I want to give this information
Speaker 9: before you here, right now, there are four hundred and
Speaker 9: sixty five thousand, two hundred black inmates in state or
Speaker 9: federal prison.
Speaker 8: I'm sorry.
Speaker 9: That was that as of at the end of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 9: That's according to Brookings. Now this year, since September fifteenth,
Speaker 9: at least twelve black men incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison.
Speaker 9: This is in West Virginia. I'm sorry, why is County Virginia.
Speaker 9: They have set themselves on fire in response to degrading
Speaker 9: and inhumane conditions at prison. I want you this is
Speaker 9: from a documentary that HBO did. I want you to
Speaker 9: take a listen to why one of the men is
Speaker 9: even in prison. And this is not a discussion. I
Speaker 9: want to be crystal clear. This is not a discussion
Speaker 9: around who should be in prison or who should not
Speaker 9: be in prison. This is a discussion around the conditions
Speaker 9: that hundreds of thousands of black people and all people.
Speaker 9: But I'm just focused on black folks because we are
Speaker 9: disproportionately represented, are facing every day in prison. Take a
Speaker 9: listen to Mike Kelly, who is an inmate at red
Speaker 9: Onion State Prison.
Speaker 12: My name is Michael Kelly. I originally Consage, Los Angeles.
Speaker 12: I don't know nobody out here. I don't have no family,
Speaker 12: no friends out here.
Speaker 11: I don't know a.
Speaker 12: Soul in Virginia. I came out here to Virginia to
Speaker 12: drop somebody off, and I commended a couple of robberies,
Speaker 12: and the courts in Virginia gave me thirty eight years
Speaker 12: for two RM robberies. If I would have known that,
Speaker 12: I would have got thirty eight years for two armed robberies.
Speaker 12: Like I would have never done it, you know what
Speaker 12: I mean, Because would have been like, holy shit, I'm
Speaker 12: not flint throw on my life away with thirty eight
Speaker 12: years for two armed robberies. That's crazy, that sounds nuts.
Speaker 12: But I didn't know how serious it was out here
Speaker 12: in Virginia. In California, i'd have got like eight years
Speaker 12: and not have been that, you know. But I didn't
Speaker 12: know how serious it was, and I didn't know how
Speaker 12: serious a society took that.
Speaker 9: Now that's one inmate there, and again we're not talking
Speaker 9: about his crime, but I do think it's important to
Speaker 9: point out that white, privileged, wealthy people get to make
Speaker 9: mistakes and fail and are absolved from a very harsh,
Speaker 9: punishing criminal justice system when it comes to the rest
Speaker 9: of us. When you look at baill reform, when you
Speaker 9: look at people who are held in jails until their trial,
Speaker 9: who are appointed overcrowded public defenders, this is all a
Speaker 9: problem in the system. Now, the twelve black men who
Speaker 9: set themselves on fire, imagine how dire conditions have to.
Speaker 8: Be for you to set yourself on fire.
Speaker 9: This is from a podcast hosted by Malika BALaw that Arizona,
Speaker 9: Al Jazeera English, and she spoke with Noel han Rana,
Speaker 9: who is a legal director for Redwo Justice Fund, and
Speaker 9: she's the co director of something called Prison Radio where
Speaker 9: you can actually hear what it's like form men in prison.
Speaker 9: Take a listen to how she describes the conditions at
Speaker 9: Red State Onion Prison. At Red Onion State Prison.
Speaker 13: We've had reports over the last number of years. Actually,
Speaker 13: one of our main correspondents, Kevin Rashid Johnson, has been
Speaker 13: reporting from Red Onion State Prison for over a decade.
Speaker 11: Prisoners treated worse than dogs.
Speaker 4: Britain Is such as Curtis care who put.
Speaker 2: A whole resistance, but was mored by two dolls than
Speaker 2: beaten by guards.
Speaker 13: The conditions there are deplorable.
Speaker 14: Twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: And as a results, and they take.
Speaker 13: Many people from our inner cities and move them to
Speaker 13: this very remote location that has almost exclusively white staff
Speaker 13: rural county, where the prisoners are almost exclusively people of color.
Speaker 8: Okay, deplorable conditions.
Speaker 5: What are we talking here?
Speaker 13: We're talking dogs used on prisoners to intimidate, threaten, and
Speaker 13: bite them. We're talking about spitting in people's food. We're
Speaker 13: talking about no respect for people's religious tradition. They cannot
Speaker 13: kneel to pray, They have their religious materials such as
Speaker 13: the Qur'an or their Bibles destroyed in front of them.
Speaker 13: They are brutalized, they are covered in caps mace. They
Speaker 13: are left to not be able to be taken care
Speaker 13: of in terms of getting the mace off of them.
Speaker 13: They are beaten, They are denied access to their families,
Speaker 13: to phone calls, to reaching the outside world.
Speaker 9: So why this matters today? And this is crucially important
Speaker 9: to people who voted for Donald Trump over a STEMI check.
Speaker 9: One of Projects five's most significant proposals will terminate the
Speaker 9: use of consent decrees.
Speaker 8: We've talked a bit about that.
Speaker 9: These are legal mechanisms that the federal government ensures that
Speaker 9: state and local jurisdictions comply with constitutional law. For black folks, specifically,
Speaker 9: consent degrees are crucially important because it can compel prison
Speaker 9: in jail systems or police departments to remedy systemic violations
Speaker 9: or breaking the law. Project twenty twenty five will require
Speaker 9: the Department of Justice to again pursue mandatory minimum sentences.
Speaker 9: It erroneously claims that the more people you let out
Speaker 9: of jail, the higher the crime goes up. We have
Speaker 9: not seen that happen. There's no data to support that,
Speaker 9: and they're citing catastrophic increases in crime.
Speaker 8: Again, no data supports that.
Speaker 9: Project twenty twenty five will establish an extremely punitive approach
Speaker 9: to justice, and it's calling on the dj to do
Speaker 9: everything possible to execute anyone currently on death row. So
Speaker 9: all the people which I've talked about on this show
Speaker 9: before and how dispportunate we are represented on death row,
Speaker 9: they're going to press them to do that. And this
Speaker 9: is despite stark racial disparities among black folks in Florida,
Speaker 9: your neck of the Woods and Drew. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 9: the Santas signed into a law a bill that allows
Speaker 9: people to be convicted and sentenced to death without a
Speaker 9: unanimous jury.
Speaker 1: With only eight.
Speaker 9: People on the jury finding you guilty, that is enough
Speaker 9: to send you to the death right. So you think
Speaker 9: about if you got that one black person on a jury,
Speaker 9: their vote is now they're rendered powerless. This is federal
Speaker 9: prisons and red Onion State Prison is a microcosm for
Speaker 9: all how all prisons operate. You when it comes to jails,
Speaker 9: black people made up almost half the state jail population,
Speaker 9: even though we're only thirteen percent of the US population
Speaker 9: that was in two thousand and all of these laws
Speaker 9: that we talked about, the First Step Act has not
Speaker 9: been enough because black adults were still in prison in
Speaker 9: twenty twenty at five times the rate.
Speaker 8: For white folks.
Speaker 9: So I just you know, the administration is moving so
Speaker 9: quickly it's hard to keep up with these things. This
Speaker 9: is something that is going to be relevant for a while.
Speaker 9: This is evergreen in the sense that we all I
Speaker 9: don't want to forget about people in prison again. There
Speaker 9: I'm not being an apologist for problematic people who've committed
Speaker 9: crimes who've murdered, people who've raped, people who've drugged people.
Speaker 9: All of those are legitimate problems. But the way that
Speaker 9: we treat these men in prison and women women in prison,
Speaker 9: it does not rehabilitate anyone. It is not reforming anyone,
Speaker 9: and it's not being helpful to society. It is a
Speaker 9: drain on taxpayer resources. But most importantly, it's a disgrace
Speaker 9: to humanity.
Speaker 4: So if I love that you, I mean I obviously
Speaker 4: the topic is degrading, but it's real. It is exactly
Speaker 4: what is happening. And I appreciated you invoking the word
Speaker 4: rehabilit rehabate, rehabilitive, because prison is to serve two purposes,
Speaker 4: one punitive so that you pay for the crime and
Speaker 4: it be such that it is dissuading to people outside
Speaker 4: to do it again, and the others rehability. I don'tabilitative, well,
Speaker 4: but in the context of the sentence, really rehability.
Speaker 8: I didn't know that was.
Speaker 1: To be honest, rehabilitative isn't the work.
Speaker 8: Is it rehability rehabilitative.
Speaker 4: Comment? I'm either way. It's meanted to help rehability an individual,
Speaker 4: so that once the punitive part of your sentence is
Speaker 4: over the time you must spend there that you're able
Speaker 4: to move back into society and play a functioning role. Well,
Speaker 4: guess what happens when you decide to extract a person
Speaker 4: from the community in which they know that they love,
Speaker 4: that they will be given any reason in the world
Speaker 4: to want to do right by so that it can
Speaker 4: be returned to when you extract them and get them
Speaker 4: all the way across the country. And this happens by
Speaker 4: the way they shift inmates with it or within the
Speaker 4: prison system to worse ones within the prison system, sometimes
Speaker 4: away from their family as as as as part of
Speaker 4: you knows back.
Speaker 9: A lot of the guards are members of white supremacist
Speaker 9: societies and gained.
Speaker 4: You don't have to call back the layer too far
Speaker 4: to see why it is that so many of these
Speaker 4: law enforcement and incarceration agencies are almost all stocked with
Speaker 4: white folks. And while they're almost always put in very rural,
Speaker 4: sequestered areas of states where the population that surrounds them
Speaker 4: the workforce that then obviously works there are all homogeneous,
Speaker 4: almost all of them being white. But the part about
Speaker 4: removing people from their family, this is the cruel and
Speaker 4: unusual part of it because if you're trying to get
Speaker 4: somebody to understand what they did wrong and then get
Speaker 4: to a place where they can then make a commitment
Speaker 4: to do right by whom by this society. No, they
Speaker 4: want to do right by their children, but their mother,
Speaker 4: by their wives and husbands and girlfriends. That's what you
Speaker 4: want to do right. But when you starve the humanity
Speaker 4: out of a person by starving them from the people
Speaker 4: who love them and whom they love, when you don't
Speaker 4: allow them to be in communication with them, and when
Speaker 4: they are in communication the rates are socking high on
Speaker 4: the phones that working people can't even do it right. So,
Speaker 4: if we have international laws about how it is we
Speaker 4: deal with prisoners of war, people who are coming for
Speaker 4: our lives, our land, that your punishment can't be cool
Speaker 4: and unusual, and their whole set of standards on the
Speaker 4: which they must be treated, how is it that right
Speaker 4: here in this country we don't have a standard against
Speaker 4: crul and unusual, that you can be as cruel and
Speaker 4: unusually cruel with your tactics as possible to bring people
Speaker 4: to heal and have it on.
Speaker 1: Paper, right, Yes, we have it on paper, but it's
Speaker 1: not applied, you know, it's yeah.
Speaker 4: Again and it's on paper to to to bring someone
Speaker 4: to heal in a system of justice in this case
Speaker 4: is these are punished sights. These are you you you
Speaker 4: f with the right one today.
Speaker 1: And it's not rehabilitative.
Speaker 9: Rehabilitative rehability is not. But the word is rehabilitative.
Speaker 8: Is that what we learned?
Speaker 4: That's okayabilitated? Thank you whoever gave us that. We got
Speaker 4: that part of it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 8: I want to quick shout out expect.
Speaker 4: People to return to a community when you've taken all
Speaker 4: of the humanity, when you stripped it and starved them
Speaker 4: of any remnant of what it feels like to be
Speaker 4: treated like a normal, regular human. I just want to
Speaker 4: what happens to be in.
Speaker 9: Shout out the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus because they are
Speaker 9: looking into the accusations about the Red Onion State Prison.
Speaker 9: So if any member of the Virginia Virginia State Legislature
Speaker 9: Legislative Black Caucus, if you're listening, we would love a
Speaker 9: video update from you guys, what you find out, what
Speaker 9: actions need to be taken, how we can be supportive
Speaker 9: then anybody out there really, because like I said, this
Speaker 9: is a microcosm. And for if, for some by some miracle,
Speaker 9: if someone is incarcerated listening to this, I just want
Speaker 9: to say, you were not forgotten about. We honor and
Speaker 9: remember that you exist just as a human being, independent
Speaker 9: of your crime. And I'm not excusing anyone's behavior or
Speaker 9: excusing anything alleged. Right, Well, well, some people have been
Speaker 9: convicted and even but even that doesn't mean they're still Yes,
Speaker 9: but even for the guy who said, yes, I committed
Speaker 9: these armed robberies, like I don't think he should be
Speaker 9: held to that for thirty eight years of his life.
Speaker 9: And to your point, and even how law enforcements slowed
Speaker 9: their ranks, it was because it wasn't to keep America safe.
Speaker 9: It was to keep white communities safe from black people.
Speaker 9: They said, you can, Yeah, you could beat a negro,
Speaker 9: you could shoot a negro, you could murder one. You
Speaker 9: just got to be wearing a badge when you do it.
Speaker 9: And that that has helped expand lawns don't even need
Speaker 9: to be wearing a bad exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, but the system was correct. Stem came out of
Speaker 1: vigilanzi just we're a little overtime for a break. But
Speaker 1: I do want to just on this point around sentencing
Speaker 1: the armed robbery, the gentleman that committed the armed robberies
Speaker 1: that he talked about. He lolo sent these statistics from
Speaker 1: the United States Sentencing Commission. The average sentence for robbery
Speaker 1: offenses and fiscal year twenty twenty three was one hundred
Speaker 1: and eleven months months, which is approximately nine point two
Speaker 1: five years longer than murder in a lot of that's right.
Speaker 1: At twenty seventeen USSC report found that black mail offenders
Speaker 1: received sentences on averages nineteen point one percent longer than
Speaker 1: similarly situated white male offenders. So the thing that we
Speaker 1: are hoping for is one that the Virginia State Legislative
Speaker 1: Black Caucus reaches out to us with the video that
Speaker 1: you guys can email your videos to hello at Native
Speaker 1: lampod dot com. And also we would love to come
Speaker 1: yeah and bear witness to what's happening in that prison
Speaker 1: and like lift up the stories of the folks Tiff
Speaker 1: has talked about today as well as many others who
Speaker 1: are not yet heard.
Speaker 4: So we thank you, Angela to those lawmakers to not
Speaker 4: be cowed by the organized industry of the prison industrial
Speaker 4: complex and the police and the and the and the
Speaker 4: patrol unions to not be cowed by those people, to
Speaker 4: push through for what's righteous, what's righteous, and what's right right.
Speaker 1: And so with that, we are going to righteously take
Speaker 1: a break.
Speaker 2: Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I think we have
Speaker 1: to talk about is we've contemplated the full justice system today.
Speaker 1: Whether we're talking about the federal state level, it's important
Speaker 1: to and Tiff brought u juries. We also got to
Speaker 1: talk about judges. And one of the things that we've
Speaker 1: seen happen in Congress is the blatant hypocrisy that exists
Speaker 1: when it comes time to appoint these judges. So recently
Speaker 1: there are a couple of democratically appointed judges who've said
Speaker 1: that now that Donald Trump is out in office, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what that retirement I was thinking about, I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be able to do it. And my outgoing
Speaker 1: Minority Leader McConnell, who is still in he mad age
Speaker 1: these people who he thinks are older, too old to
Speaker 1: be judges anymore. His old ass had this to say
Speaker 1: about in chief right, about them not stepping down. Now
Speaker 1: that the twenty twenty four election results are in let's
Speaker 1: roll that clip.
Speaker 10: Looking to our history, only two judges have ever ever
Speaker 10: unretired after a presidential election, one Democrat in twenty oh
Speaker 10: four and one Republican in twenty oh nine. But now,
Speaker 10: in just a matter of weeks, Democrats have already met
Speaker 10: that all time record. It's hard to conclude that this
Speaker 10: is anything other than open partisanship. They roll the dice.
Speaker 10: They're a Democrat who replaced them, and now they won't.
Speaker 10: They're changing their plans keep a Republican from doing it.
Speaker 10: It's a brazen admission, and the incoming administration would be
Speaker 10: wise to explore all available recusal options with these judges
Speaker 10: because it's clear now that they have a political finger
Speaker 10: on the scale.
Speaker 1: This sentime right, I know, right, and I wish it
Speaker 1: was but in twenty sixteen, So this is of course
Speaker 1: just this week. But in twenty sixteen, eleven months before
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen election, Mitch McConnell had this to say
Speaker 1: about Obama's decision to nominate Merrit Garland for the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court vacancy.
Speaker 10: Miss President, the next justice could fundamentally alter the direction
Speaker 10: of the Supreme Court and have a profound impact on
Speaker 10: our country. So of course, of course the American people
Speaker 10: should have a say in the Court's direction. It is
Speaker 10: a president's constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice,
Speaker 10: and it is the Senate's constitutional right to act as
Speaker 10: a check on a president and withhold its consent.
Speaker 1: So, of course, if eleven months is way too close
Speaker 1: to an election to appoint someone to the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, certainly when Mitch McConnell, who's now eighty
Speaker 1: two years old, and it's pushing for people's retirement except
Speaker 1: for his own. Certainly, certainly in twenty twenty, when there
Speaker 1: were only six weeks left, he would not want Donald
Speaker 1: Trump to appoint anyone to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: Let's roll that clip.
Speaker 10: On Saturday evening, President Trump announced his nominee for the
Speaker 10: Supreme Court, Judge Amy Conye Barrett of the US Court
Speaker 10: of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. I had the opportunity
Speaker 10: to meet with Judge Barrett earlier today. I left our
Speaker 10: discussion even more convinced that President Trump is nominated exactly
Speaker 10: the kind of outstanding person whom the American people deserve
Speaker 10: to have on their highest court.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I just you know, I'm surprised, right, because
Speaker 1: miss McConnell said eleven months was way too close to
Speaker 1: an election. So then it's six weeks.
Speaker 4: He's like, well, well, six weeks is a.
Speaker 1: Perfect time to appoint a conservative justice. And now he said,
Speaker 1: these democratically appointed judges, I don't know why they won't
Speaker 1: retire anymore. And at that point, you know, and they
Speaker 1: said that they weren't going to return. He mores about
Speaker 1: the same point as them. Amy coy Barrett nomination. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to understand what's happening.
Speaker 4: Well, all this proves, as you know, Angela and Tiffany,
Speaker 4: Mitch McConnell is not only a hypocrite, but the greatest
Speaker 4: thief in American history, you know, the one that stole
Speaker 4: a Supreme Court justice. See eleven months before Obama was
Speaker 4: the American people should have a choice, that was his line. Well,
Speaker 4: they did have a choice. They elected a president for
Speaker 4: four years, and he gets to act as president all
Speaker 4: the way up until those four years are up. That's
Speaker 4: how he goes. But he's a great thief. He's a
Speaker 4: great com man and the thief.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 9: I just want to remind people that Mitch McConnell is
Speaker 9: a direct descendant of people who enslaved black folks.
Speaker 4: Is you sure he not the one?
Speaker 9: I mean what I'm saying, you know, like he says
Speaker 9: he's in his eighties, but evidence would argue otherwise. And
Speaker 9: is he is retiring finally or stepping down as a
Speaker 9: majority leader? But every time I see him, I still
Speaker 9: be in the Senate. Yeah, I just I That's what
Speaker 9: I was No, no, I would listen to. I was
Speaker 9: just gonna say when I saw my retirement earlier, I've
Speaker 9: cleared that he's yeah, he's yeah, but he's no longer
Speaker 9: the majority leader because we have seen him have several
Speaker 9: health issues on camera where he literally freezes like the
Speaker 9: internet does here sometimes.
Speaker 4: So he on baby, yeah, we got we got more topics.
Speaker 4: But I do know that I think we might be
Speaker 4: surprised by this dude and how he votes these next
Speaker 4: two years. And I hope surprised in a good way.
Speaker 4: But we'll see surprised.
Speaker 1: Who's surprising you?
Speaker 4: I think I think we may all up saying the
Speaker 4: man ain't gonna be leader, and he's looking down the door,
Speaker 4: and and he probably didn't run for re election.
Speaker 1: He's stillist.
Speaker 9: But when you say surprise theory is what specifically you mean?
Speaker 9: Do you think he might go to the last I
Speaker 9: get more conservatives, Like, what do you mean.
Speaker 4: For inst all? I don't know that it's on the
Speaker 4: spectrum of of conservative versus liberal. That's not the surprise.
Speaker 4: I think the matrix is going to be on craziest
Speaker 4: versus just crazy as it relates to some appointments. So
Speaker 4: the craziest might not get through on certain things, but
Speaker 4: crazy still going to So he.
Speaker 8: Might support HEAs but he might not support but exactly. Okay,
Speaker 8: I think you you can.
Speaker 9: See that and some of the Republicans, But when you're
Speaker 9: deciding between Freddy and Jason, you know, I kind of
Speaker 9: feel like.
Speaker 4: The craziest and crazy it's still crazy is going in period.
Speaker 4: Just know that's the low bar.
Speaker 1: Okay, well we got such it's such a low bar.
Speaker 1: We in hell, so I wanted to speaking of not
Speaker 1: being in hell. We have an angel among us are
Speaker 1: one of our producers, Lolo, who was just a gods
Speaker 1: ending during our tour, and of course all the time
Speaker 1: she liked to fact us up check us. While I
Speaker 1: was googling, she was sending rehabilitative Andrew and I just
Speaker 1: want to shout her out her birth She just celebrated
Speaker 1: her birthday and instead of getting loved on and getting
Speaker 1: all the gifts, Lolo went to be a gift to
Speaker 1: some other people that she shared a video of her
Speaker 1: experience with us, and we want to share it with y'all.
Speaker 5: Hey Lolo, Hey NLP found.
Speaker 1: My name is Lolo.
Speaker 14: I'm one of the producers with the show.
Speaker 13: Now.
Speaker 3: Usually I'm behind the scenes, but today I wanted to
Speaker 3: do something a little different and share a unique experience
Speaker 3: that I had. And so in November, just like many
Speaker 3: of you all, I was feeling a lot of despair
Speaker 3: and I'm like, dang, it's my birthday. Move. So I
Speaker 3: decided to travel overseas and go to different countries and volunteer.
Speaker 3: I went to Bangladesh, I went to Sri Lanka. I
Speaker 3: went to Jordan and amongst some other places where I
Speaker 3: got to just kind of explore. And with that I
Speaker 3: met so many different people. I was able to experience
Speaker 3: so many different cultures. My point to all of this
Speaker 3: is when experiencing those cultures, it really made me feel empowered.
Speaker 3: I say that because I met so many different people,
Speaker 3: like women who had no opportunity of being able to
Speaker 3: own anything because.
Speaker 1: That was how it was in their country.
Speaker 3: I met people who had no rights, who had no
Speaker 3: ability to be able to advocate or say anything without
Speaker 3: being oppressed in their country. And I think about the
Speaker 3: different ways that we can play a part in policymaking
Speaker 3: and government in our community. There's so many different avenues
Speaker 3: and how often sometimes we take that for granted, something
Speaker 3: as simple as just going to vote. And so I
Speaker 3: wanted to share this experience, but I also wanted to
Speaker 3: pose a question with you all about how are you
Speaker 3: activating in your power in twenty twenty five. I don't
Speaker 3: believe that you have to be the next Martin Luther King,
Speaker 3: but what I will say is we can't just rely
Speaker 3: on the Angela Rise, the Tiffany Crosses, the Andrew Gillums
Speaker 3: to be the leaders and the advocate and the voice
Speaker 3: for us. It's exhausting, but we all have a small
Speaker 3: role that we can play and really uplifting our community.
Speaker 4: So what are you going to do?
Speaker 3: How are you going to act in your power in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five? I love that?
Speaker 1: And Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday. For the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. Belolo you know, I'm mad a tale
Speaker 1: about you having a camera up vertically when you know
Speaker 1: that we got to record the video. But it was
Speaker 1: just so good and I love that she's always she
Speaker 1: was committed to love it. But I'm mad about that.
Speaker 9: Well, I think, Angela, you know this how black women
Speaker 9: and our Black women group chat, like we talk about
Speaker 9: our exhaustion. And I was working the other day and
Speaker 9: I'll tell y'all, a young woman came up to me
Speaker 9: and you know, asked, are you Tiffany Cross? And I
Speaker 9: said yes, and she said, I love Native Land and
Speaker 9: thank you all for the work that you're doing. And
Speaker 9: she was there doing some work. She worked for a
Speaker 9: group Mama Lobby or they basically they helped elect mothers
Speaker 9: to office. And so I was poking on on their website.
Speaker 9: But they were doing this whole retreat and I was
Speaker 9: telling her, like, you didn't know that black women were
Speaker 9: on strike. You don't have to do anything this month,
Speaker 9: but you can rest and relaxed. And she said, you
Speaker 9: don't wanna take the last two weeks. But after this election,
Speaker 9: like we had to get right back to it. So
Speaker 9: just shout out to all all everybody who's doing something
Speaker 9: and you know, I just the work that black women
Speaker 9: do and the way that we are quick to organize
Speaker 9: and mobilize. So I think it's really awesome that Lolo
Speaker 9: in that space said I want to give back. I
Speaker 9: want to focus on other people, and I wish that
Speaker 9: more of us would do.
Speaker 4: That well on there, and you know, that's in service.
Speaker 1: It sounds like that's tips called a action.
Speaker 8: I din't mean it to be, but.
Speaker 1: There's black women. We all strike and then we'll serve
Speaker 1: you in a little.
Speaker 4: Bit and well hopefully when you serve, when you come
Speaker 4: back around to service, which, by the way, I still
Speaker 4: debate whether or not black women are out of service.
Speaker 4: It's just not a luxury. But I will say this
Speaker 4: much that when we are in service, first be in
Speaker 4: service to yourself and then through that service, allow yourself
Speaker 4: to still be served. It's uplifting. It gives me joy.
Speaker 4: I want to, you know, plan and do for the
Speaker 4: next And I would just say, there was a listener
Speaker 4: question Angela that we passed around. You passed around a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago with a young woman who had
Speaker 4: an idea about how we can share the load during
Speaker 4: this administration versus sort of putting it all on just
Speaker 4: a few of us to sort of track what's happening
Speaker 4: in this administration. I would love for us to play
Speaker 4: that maybe next episode and let it be.
Speaker 1: An admonishment Thanksgiving.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4: Okay, but I missed it? Can we do it one
Speaker 4: in this one when people?
Speaker 10: Maybe?
Speaker 8: But that's your call to action?
Speaker 1: Action is running video again?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 9: But also we got a request for our viewers. We
Speaker 9: need you all to tell us your favorite episodes. Yes,
Speaker 9: that's our collective call action.
Speaker 1: Yeah is tag team? This is so.
Speaker 8: But we we got caught up with lolo.
Speaker 9: But yes, we needed We want to hear from you guys,
Speaker 9: give us your favorite episodes of Native Land.
Speaker 8: It doesn't have to be a whole episode.
Speaker 9: You tell us a segment that we did, a story,
Speaker 9: we told the policy, we uncovered something, we unpacked, a
Speaker 9: beef like whatever.
Speaker 8: It is like, we want to hear from you. What
Speaker 8: was your favorite moment? So how can they.
Speaker 4: Ael part two of that is run that back?
Speaker 1: You can do that they should d m us. I
Speaker 1: would love we love the videos. We'd like to feel
Speaker 1: connected with y'all because we don't always get to be
Speaker 1: in person. And while we love the shoutouts that y'all
Speaker 1: will run up to us in the store or whatever
Speaker 1: and say you love NLP. We love that too, But
Speaker 1: please sending your videos to Instagram, stay your name and
Speaker 1: where you're from, or you can also email us at
Speaker 1: hello at native lampod dot com. I'm gonna donate my
Speaker 1: call to action to my brother and friend, assembly Member
Speaker 1: Isaac Bryan out of the California State Assembly because he
Speaker 1: dropped a very important piece of legislation this week. And
Speaker 1: there's some things that the nl PEP fam can do
Speaker 1: because Lolo told us we got to still get to
Speaker 1: work to even though you on strike, you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: be on strike for this. Well, let's route a clip.
Speaker 14: I'm assembly Member Isaac Bryan from California's fifty fifth Assembly
Speaker 14: district that's Cuver City, Mid City, the West Side, Lamart Park,
Speaker 14: the Crashop Corridor, and Ladare Eyes. And this week I
Speaker 14: introduced AB seven. What assimbly Bill seven would do is
Speaker 14: allow for colleges and universities in California to prioritize applicants
Speaker 14: who are a descendant of a chatteling slaved person in
Speaker 14: this country. The reason I introduced this piece of legislation
Speaker 14: is because we've seen the attacks on affirmative action going
Speaker 14: back decades, including Proposition two nine here in California, and
Speaker 14: we've seen the incoming administration and their plans to gut DEI.
Speaker 14: In fact, we live at a time right now where diversity, equity,
Speaker 14: and inclusion are not only demonized as bad words, but
Speaker 14: on the verge of being criminalized, and we've got to
Speaker 14: do something about it. Meanwhile, while all this is in place,
Speaker 14: legacy admissions are still going on all across the country.
Speaker 14: If you're related to a major donor, you often have
Speaker 14: a backdoor inside track and the admissions decision. If you
Speaker 14: are the relative of somebody who went to a prestigious university,
Speaker 14: you often have an inside, back door advantage in the
Speaker 14: admission's decision process. So if we're rewarding legacies of privilege,
Speaker 14: I think we you also have a conversation about legacies
Speaker 14: of harm in this country. It's not about undue advantage.
Speaker 14: It's about an equal and earned opportunity. That's why I
Speaker 14: introduced AB seven.
Speaker 4: Bless you, I love this.
Speaker 1: My call to action as a result of that is,
Speaker 1: please make sure you go read up on that that
Speaker 1: bill is giving me so much joy because this white
Speaker 1: women who benefited from affirmative action. That's another podcast for
Speaker 1: another day, but I'm gonna tell y'all right now, that
Speaker 1: made me feel happy when you see folks like Isaac
Speaker 1: doing the work in spite of the opposition that they're facing,
Speaker 1: in spite of everybody coming up against us. Walmart On
Speaker 1: down saying we don't need your DEI and we don't
Speaker 1: need y'all. I live for an Isaac Bryan saying, actually,
Speaker 1: you do need us, and I'm gonna show you how
Speaker 1: much you need us. It's time for us to get
Speaker 1: our just due. So shout out to you, Shout out
Speaker 1: to all of our listeners. As always, we want to
Speaker 1: remind everyone to please leave us a review and subscribe
Speaker 1: to Native lamppod. We're available on off platforms and YouTube.
Speaker 1: New episodes dropped every single Thursday, with the special mini
Speaker 1: pod every Monday. Please don't forget to follow us on
Speaker 1: social media, but most of ull send your comments. We
Speaker 1: are Angela Raie, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillam and there
Speaker 1: are six hundred and ninety eight days until the midterm elections.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all, Alcome home.
Speaker 8: Guy's a question before we go, what we talking about
Speaker 8: on the mini pods.
Speaker 2: Morning Slee. Thank you for joining the Natives attentional with
Speaker 2: the info and all of the latest rock gulum and
Speaker 2: cross connective to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Speaker 2: Thank you sincerely for the patients reason for your choice
Speaker 2: is clear, so grateful and took to execute roads. Thank
Speaker 2: you for serve, defend and protect the truth even in paste.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: Welcome home to all of the Natives, We thank you.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all. Welcome Native Lampod is a production of
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