Speaker 1: What's your family is your girl Tamika d Mallory and
Speaker 1: it's your boy my son in general, and we are
Speaker 1: your host of Street Politicians, the place where and politics me.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. People,
Speaker 1: all the street politicians, fans, supporters, viewers, listeners, people who
Speaker 1: give us all types of feedback. Uh. I got a
Speaker 1: call from my son Ark a few days ago where
Speaker 1: he said he spent time over the holiday when he
Speaker 1: wasn't doing much just listening to Street Politicians podcast old
Speaker 1: episodes and he was giving me feedback on how the
Speaker 1: episodes are edited in ways that you know, we need
Speaker 1: to bring uh some more flavor to the show and
Speaker 1: all of that. And I was like, that's kind of
Speaker 1: energy we need. We like that, we like feedback about
Speaker 1: what we can do. Well. What he was really talking
Speaker 1: about is the younger audience, right, and like making sure
Speaker 1: that we integrate younger voices around issues into our content.
Speaker 1: And I think that's true. I think right now when
Speaker 1: we look at the guests that we have had over
Speaker 1: the last you know, three years now, specifically on the
Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast network, but in general, they more so
Speaker 1: are around our own age group, right. These are people
Speaker 1: sometimes a little old, and every now and then a
Speaker 1: little younger. But really it's people who are probably thirty
Speaker 1: five to fifty in that group that are out here
Speaker 1: really doing incredible work. Who really are are folks that
Speaker 1: are now, uh, they're not at the beginning of their careers,
Speaker 1: but they're not at the end. They're really in that
Speaker 1: good part like that's that that's the part where the
Speaker 1: meat is nice and tender, um, and they're really getting
Speaker 1: to become experts that they have cracked um. And so
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we've done a lot to showcase that,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of younger people who are
Speaker 1: you know, even below thirty that are really advocating for
Speaker 1: justice on issues. You've got lawyers out there, You've got
Speaker 1: the first young black mayor um of one of the
Speaker 1: cities in this country. I mean, it's just so many
Speaker 1: different younger people, younger voices and younger perspectives, and so
Speaker 1: you know, that is something that and and by the way,
Speaker 1: I think that goes on alongside the elder the community,
Speaker 1: right and because they're you know, one of the topics
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about today in terms of the Doctor
Speaker 1: King uh Dr King's birthday, UM and we're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: get into uh something that a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know around that. I learned about it from our elders,
Speaker 1: right from people who are over the age of seventies
Speaker 1: seventy five, and they have so much to offer as well.
Speaker 1: So as this new year begins, what I'm excited about
Speaker 1: the Street Politicians is the possibility of where we can
Speaker 1: go knowing all that we know, having a team now
Speaker 1: that has really over the last year, been able to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, perfect what it looks like to have a
Speaker 1: strong podcast that has great content. And now I think
Speaker 1: we get to uh spice it up and add into
Speaker 1: the make some of the things that we want to do,
Speaker 1: uh that will hopefully be appealing to people like to Reak,
Speaker 1: who's like, listen, I got all that stuff, and that
Speaker 1: stuff is good and don't stop. But let's add these
Speaker 1: elements as well to increase the younger viewership of the podcast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's definitely what we need. You know. Once again,
Speaker 1: Happy New Year to all of our fans. Is our
Speaker 1: first episode back, and we love you and I hope
Speaker 1: that you didn't make New Year's resolutions. I just want
Speaker 1: you to make change, you know, evolved the minster, you know.
Speaker 1: For the first beginning of the new year, for the
Speaker 1: first five days, I went on the fast, you know,
Speaker 1: to cleanse and just get to resenter myself. And I
Speaker 1: try to do that, and I've been I want to
Speaker 1: be intentional about writing down my thoughts and writing down
Speaker 1: my plan so I can see them constantly. So I
Speaker 1: got a little thing on my refrigerator now that I
Speaker 1: write other things, and I write about to do list,
Speaker 1: and I check it off as I go along because
Speaker 1: I see it and it makes it reminds me that
Speaker 1: I haven't accomplished certain things. So I hope you're doing
Speaker 1: something like that that is putting you in the mind
Speaker 1: frame about growing. You know, it's every year, every year,
Speaker 1: New Year. It's it's just a time to refocus. I
Speaker 1: don't think you know, the New Year it knew me.
Speaker 1: Everybody says that. But this getting this refocus and getting
Speaker 1: the time too focus on your mind, focus on your health,
Speaker 1: you know, focus on your goals and and really set
Speaker 1: to accomplish. For me, they say, this is the Jordan
Speaker 1: year twenty three, and Jordan was about execution. Jordan's executed.
Speaker 1: He scored buckets, he put buckets on the board at
Speaker 1: a high level. So I think this is the year
Speaker 1: of execution for me. This is no longer just the
Speaker 1: planning stages and you know, the ideas and the thought process.
Speaker 1: It's about really executing, fully executing, you know. So I
Speaker 1: hope that's what it is for you. I hope that you, you,
Speaker 1: you really have met, are trying to manifest your ideas
Speaker 1: and manifest your dreams and manifest your goals and and
Speaker 1: really carry them out from A to Z, because that's
Speaker 1: where I am. Yeah. I think that's so so important.
Speaker 1: And I hate to be the uh Debbie downer, but
Speaker 1: when you talk about the Jordan year being uh twenty three,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I also learned during my
Speaker 1: vacation and holiday time was what twenty three means, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to the human trafficking community, right, and that
Speaker 1: is an actual community. It is very scary, um. I
Speaker 1: learned through the story of this young woman, Marissa, who
Speaker 1: went missing. I was able to like be educated in
Speaker 1: a few days, a few hours, excuse me, five hours,
Speaker 1: but really the first few minutes of trying to help
Speaker 1: get this woman away from individuals who appeared to be
Speaker 1: trafficking her, uh, and so much happened that has confirmed
Speaker 1: in so many ways that the situation she um was
Speaker 1: in was dangerous. Uh in the situation that she continues
Speaker 1: to be in from the Stockholm syndrome UM, you know,
Speaker 1: is very very dangerous. And they also look at the
Speaker 1: Jordan's year as a time to traffic more individuals to
Speaker 1: make more money leading into major events like Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: All Star Weekend and all the major events that we
Speaker 1: see happening. There are people who have an underground UM,
Speaker 1: underground economy going on, and the currency is the bodies
Speaker 1: of women and men, women, men, children, UM of all
Speaker 1: different races. But there's something special we know about black
Speaker 1: bodies UM. And you know, I I really need to
Speaker 1: emphasize for folks the danger of what we see going
Speaker 1: on out here with this human trafficking issue. You talk
Speaker 1: about sex trafficking, but human trafficking covers a lot of
Speaker 1: things including oregon um stealing of the stealing of organs
Speaker 1: um where people are picked up, maybe used in sexual
Speaker 1: ways and other ways and then killed to remove lens,
Speaker 1: to take hearts, body parts to be sold off to
Speaker 1: people who have resources UM that need for their own
Speaker 1: family member or for whatever black market is out there.
Speaker 1: Or let's not call it black, let's say the underground
Speaker 1: market that's out there. Um. Human trafficking has a lot involved.
Speaker 1: But when we think about it, the first thing that
Speaker 1: comes to mind is women. Right, we think women first,
Speaker 1: and we should think about women because I'm sure women
Speaker 1: are props are the highest uh victims if you will,
Speaker 1: of human trafficking. But we also must make sure that
Speaker 1: we know so that we can keep ourselves, our young boys,
Speaker 1: um and and just all of us safe. Is that
Speaker 1: men are also a part of this um and and
Speaker 1: the issue of uh uh being men being mules where
Speaker 1: you see people who are working to capture still um
Speaker 1: you know uh uh yeah those things um uh women
Speaker 1: or other people oftentimes they are also a part of uh.
Speaker 1: They have also are also being traffic and they are
Speaker 1: a mute where their sin out to go do this
Speaker 1: work and they have to come back with people or
Speaker 1: else their family members are threatened with violence or and
Speaker 1: or death. Um. They may be in a situation where
Speaker 1: a husband, wife or a daughter and father have both
Speaker 1: been captured, and the more harm will come to the
Speaker 1: child if the parents, if the father or the brother
Speaker 1: does not go out and do these things and use
Speaker 1: their male stature to be able to take over a
Speaker 1: woman in her body and to um you know, bring
Speaker 1: her into this human trafficking culture. These are things we
Speaker 1: need to know and we need to understand. Shout out
Speaker 1: to our sister Tony rivera UM that has been on
Speaker 1: this show and people see her national This is a
Speaker 1: woman who was a victim of trafficking who also helped
Speaker 1: to traffic other women UM and now is a part
Speaker 1: of the h of trying to help rescue and free
Speaker 1: UM people fall from the other you know, the just scary,
Speaker 1: horrific lifestyle of trafficking UM. And she educated me that
Speaker 1: there's so much we don't know about this. And I
Speaker 1: was having a conversation with someone that's really close to
Speaker 1: us that I would not expose today. And it took
Speaker 1: me about twenty to thirty minutes to get this person
Speaker 1: to stop saying, but how could you want to go back,
Speaker 1: like after you have already been you know, you see
Speaker 1: your family members, you should just run. But actually the
Speaker 1: mental abuse and the level of skill that these individuals
Speaker 1: have to be able to get into the minds of
Speaker 1: these young women, especially also when they tell you that
Speaker 1: they're going to kill your family and they show you pictures,
Speaker 1: and they show you addresses of your grandmama's house, right,
Speaker 1: and they show themselves standing next to your father in
Speaker 1: the grocery store, and your dad doesn't even know that
Speaker 1: that person who that uson is right. Uh, he doesn't
Speaker 1: even know he's standing next to the person who is
Speaker 1: threatening to kill him. Right. When they show you that
Speaker 1: type of stuff, a lot of folks feel like they
Speaker 1: feel afraid, and they begin to believe that there that
Speaker 1: that their decisions could disrupt the lives of the people
Speaker 1: around them and could could really be harming other people.
Speaker 1: And so it's a real dangerous place. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot of incidents where people have been talking Tsha Campbell,
Speaker 1: folks just trying to destroy Tisha Campbell but coming out
Speaker 1: and explaining the incident that happened where she felt like
Speaker 1: some men pulled up to a hotel and we're trying
Speaker 1: to get her on the van uh the radio host Egypt.
Speaker 1: She also was talking about an incident that happened at
Speaker 1: a gas station. And for some reason, we are quick
Speaker 1: not to believe people who have never been like I
Speaker 1: don't know Tisha Campbell to be some liar that just
Speaker 1: make some stories about an incident. Why people live about
Speaker 1: she just detrimental to them, Like it's just I just
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, what history does. Why does teacher
Speaker 1: Campbell does not need press? Like she just doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: but you know it's just a lot, but you know, hey, whatever, anyway,
Speaker 1: I I believe her. I believe Egypt. I believe that
Speaker 1: these things have happened Um. And and more than that,
Speaker 1: I saw it with my own eyes going down just
Speaker 1: days ago, and the way in which this whole thing unfolded,
Speaker 1: it told me that I even have to be a
Speaker 1: lot more careful about my surrounding to my safety. So
Speaker 1: I just wanted to drop that on you. You talked
Speaker 1: about health and people taking care of themselves, and I
Speaker 1: saw that equalox Um had signs up that said we
Speaker 1: don't speak January. So they did not take any new
Speaker 1: members during January because they said, this is not the
Speaker 1: time to run to the gym. You you're you are
Speaker 1: spending money you may not be able to maintain. They
Speaker 1: gotta start contracts, great, great contracts. Come back. You know,
Speaker 1: sue you for not go not sue you, but whatever
Speaker 1: they do to get their money. When you don't, you
Speaker 1: cut off the card and stop paying your membership. Then
Speaker 1: you know you've got gyms packed where people who are
Speaker 1: really in their process, they in their bag, they're really
Speaker 1: working out, they can't even get on machines because the
Speaker 1: gym is full of folks that's walking around, just getting
Speaker 1: on stuff, playing around that are not really committed. And
Speaker 1: so they said January, they don't speak that language. You
Speaker 1: need to start at the time that's after the euphoria
Speaker 1: of a new year, when you really, really truly are
Speaker 1: committed to the process of health and and you know,
Speaker 1: in your wellness. So I don't know if I agree.
Speaker 1: You know, some ways, I think some people are like
Speaker 1: if you don't catch them when they are feeling it,
Speaker 1: they may never get back into it. Uh. But then
Speaker 1: I also understand that, you know, you want to make
Speaker 1: sure that that I think it's actually it might some
Speaker 1: what might look at it as being responsible for a
Speaker 1: business to say, hey, let's take a step back from
Speaker 1: a new year's resolution and really think about what a
Speaker 1: new mind needs. So did that? Well, listen, I agree, man,
Speaker 1: because people don't want to waste their time, and they
Speaker 1: probably you know, I know, they probably get a lot
Speaker 1: of new emissions and they get some money, but just
Speaker 1: the process of like you said, of them having after
Speaker 1: you try to break the contract and you change the card,
Speaker 1: the money they lose probably doesn't even make up for,
Speaker 1: you know, the inconvenience you overcrowding the gym for weeks.
Speaker 1: The people that normally come there are not comfortable, like
Speaker 1: you know, they want they want to create. When you
Speaker 1: go to a gym, it's like it's a sanctuary, right,
Speaker 1: It's it's a it's your mine, so you want you
Speaker 1: want your gym to be it's like a home. It's
Speaker 1: like a second home. Actually, it's a place that you go.
Speaker 1: You you you there's a level of comfortability, normalcy. You
Speaker 1: see the same people, or you see a couple of
Speaker 1: new people here and there, and they integrate them into
Speaker 1: the process, into you know, the gym world and the
Speaker 1: gym family. But when it's overloaded and people just come
Speaker 1: in for a couple of weeks, it takes away that
Speaker 1: passion that those who really really want to do have.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm all for being a gym rack being
Speaker 1: someone who goes to the gym. I understand, you know,
Speaker 1: how a gym needs to create this level of people
Speaker 1: who are passionate about it, because that's that's that's what
Speaker 1: the world is. So shout out to equal knots and
Speaker 1: that we don't speak January. I appreciate it. Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 1: That so funny. Oh she what was the next thing? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: obviously the House of Representatives and UM the government, the
Speaker 1: federal government, they don't speak January either. They speak late
Speaker 1: January because they were supposed to elect a speaker at
Speaker 1: the very very top of the month and it didn't
Speaker 1: happen for several days. I mean, I kind of feel
Speaker 1: like I think it was January six. I think it
Speaker 1: was January six late nights, either the fifth late night
Speaker 1: or late night on the sixth that they were they
Speaker 1: were able to elect Um McCarthy as the Speaker of
Speaker 1: the House. And I tell you it's it's interesting because
Speaker 1: January six is like we just I don't know, Like
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out at what point something
Speaker 1: is gonna happen other than some random people who are there.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like the random people, Yes, they need
Speaker 1: to be arrested or or or held accountable. Let's use
Speaker 1: the words held accountable. So t T and boobo them
Speaker 1: who's selling drugs on the street corners. Yes, they have
Speaker 1: to be held accountable. They are the ones that are
Speaker 1: terrorizing communities. They shooting at night, they are uh, you know,
Speaker 1: making grandmothers feel unsafe and all of that. But the
Speaker 1: goal should always be to find out who got T
Speaker 1: T Boo boo and them on the street like that
Speaker 1: should be the goal, the the the guests. They should
Speaker 1: be worked into that. And what we always say is
Speaker 1: we want to find ways to make sure that the
Speaker 1: resources T T and Google needs so they don't even
Speaker 1: ever have to go in the direction of being on
Speaker 1: the treets. Right that that we we figured that out,
Speaker 1: And that's a whole separate side of the conversation. But
Speaker 1: where there is a comparison, right, is that because unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the people who committed an insurrection on January six, And
Speaker 1: the reason why I say this is that that comparison
Speaker 1: is it doesn't exist um in in this sense that
Speaker 1: they want things for our society that would pretty much
Speaker 1: oppress others and would take us back further than we're
Speaker 1: already sliding to a time where the power was literally
Speaker 1: only in the hands of the rich, the successful, and
Speaker 1: the white right. That is what they want. That's what
Speaker 1: they're calling for, that's what they're fighting for. That's what
Speaker 1: the insurrection is all was all about. Right, So, you
Speaker 1: can't give them anything that's gonna make them happy or
Speaker 1: that is going to solve this problem. You can give
Speaker 1: Poop Pooky and and t T and boob nowm gow
Speaker 1: to get them off the streets and hopefully help them
Speaker 1: with the life of prosperity. Right, But you can't give
Speaker 1: these people anything to help them or to calm their
Speaker 1: concerns because a part of them. You can give them
Speaker 1: something you can't give them because you can just get
Speaker 1: give them the country, just tell them, right, because it
Speaker 1: doesn't hurt anybody to ensure that our brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: have resources, but it will harm other individuals to provide
Speaker 1: full rain for these crazy people to become to to
Speaker 1: lead our free work. Right that that that's problematic. So
Speaker 1: when I think about the context of all of that,
Speaker 1: what we know is that the comparison does come together
Speaker 1: when you start thinking about who is the end that
Speaker 1: the who is inciting the behavior that of the people
Speaker 1: running up the walls. It's like the Rico charge, Why
Speaker 1: why why do they gotta You know, there's Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a k fin who's the king fan? You know what? Yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, that's what it is. We're trying to find.
Speaker 1: Nobody is really trying to find the king because we
Speaker 1: know who the kingpin is, and nobody really wants to
Speaker 1: dive into that. And I don't understand why when we
Speaker 1: we've seen who said, you know, go take back your country.
Speaker 1: We've seen who incited this, right, we've seen the major
Speaker 1: players who who who cause you know this real insurrection,
Speaker 1: and and and the low hanging fruit is it's simple
Speaker 1: to just get the dealers. But just like in America,
Speaker 1: most of the time, they'll get to the is, but
Speaker 1: they don't want to get the kingpins because they're benefit
Speaker 1: of the kingpins. Those kingpins are selling billions of dollars
Speaker 1: worth the drugs that are funding certain things, and that's
Speaker 1: a part of their system. So they they've allowed those kingpins,
Speaker 1: those key pens actually worked for the government, so they
Speaker 1: don't they don't stop the government people who are making money,
Speaker 1: and and they're utilizing these millions and billions of dollars
Speaker 1: to do certain things. So they'll grab pukie off the corner.
Speaker 1: Who was the last stop, you know, who got the
Speaker 1: last little the remnants of the drugs that they couldn't
Speaker 1: sell no else. You know, that there wasn't as pure
Speaker 1: enough for them to sell all around this world. So
Speaker 1: that's that's where we are when we look at this
Speaker 1: insurrection situation. Everybody knows where it comes from. We know
Speaker 1: who the kingpin is, we know who the major distributor is,
Speaker 1: we know the person who called for it, and we
Speaker 1: know that the major players are and and and until
Speaker 1: we really get to that, you know, we're wasting our time.
Speaker 1: You know, that's it's nothing else to be said. That's
Speaker 1: my point is that we should be looking for the
Speaker 1: big fish and that you know, the Commission did that,
Speaker 1: and they you know, came forward to say that, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, we we pretty much have pinpointed Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: roll who the Giuliani's broke, but there's still been arrests,
Speaker 1: so you know, that is what it is. But I
Speaker 1: just thought that, you know, it's important to note that
Speaker 1: as we were in this delay of fifteen votes, uh
Speaker 1: in order to get a speaker confirmed, which by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it. And also you know, of
Speaker 1: course we have to make sure that we uh uh
Speaker 1: and knowledge that for the first time in history, a
Speaker 1: black men and I Keem Jeffreys from Brooklyn that we
Speaker 1: know well and could roll up on in the streets
Speaker 1: is um the leader of the Democratic Party. And that
Speaker 1: is good because you know, I mean from a symbolic perspective,
Speaker 1: that is extremely important because it shows some of our progress. However,
Speaker 1: we do have issues, fundamental issues with Hakim about his
Speaker 1: voting record and his position, especially on the issue of
Speaker 1: um of of you know, us being able to fight
Speaker 1: incumbents with your people who are sitting in positions across
Speaker 1: the country and they've been there forever and their way
Speaker 1: of thinking and approaching government is um. It's it is,
Speaker 1: it is, it is. I want to say worked, but
Speaker 1: just but but it's just old, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just our chade. It's just you know, old mindset
Speaker 1: that needs to change and we do and you know,
Speaker 1: and he has issues with progressives and I got some
Speaker 1: issues with some progressive but I do, you know, but
Speaker 1: I am. I think we can push Hachem on a
Speaker 1: lot of issues because we know him and we know
Speaker 1: how to have conversations with him. And so having him
Speaker 1: sit at the head of the Democratic Party is important,
Speaker 1: but he will not budge, move or do anything if
Speaker 1: we're not organized as a people. We have to constantly
Speaker 1: remind him where he comes from, his background, his history
Speaker 1: of fighting against police brutality, of being in the street
Speaker 1: and organized and with black and brown folks for marginalized
Speaker 1: community ease um, and we gotta keep on him about that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, the speaker in a different role
Speaker 1: is the head of you know, Nancy Philosophers the speaker,
Speaker 1: and she was, of course, um uh, you know, she
Speaker 1: was the leader of the Democratic Party. But now you
Speaker 1: have a majority of Republicans in Congress, and therefore you
Speaker 1: would now have McCarthy as the head, as the speaker,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of power. The problem with that
Speaker 1: is he had to make a lot of concessions. That's
Speaker 1: what those fifteen votes were about. They vote with we
Speaker 1: with fifteen rounds to get a speaker because they wanted concessions.
Speaker 1: They wanted him to agree to a number of things.
Speaker 1: That actually is the same thing as what we talked about,
Speaker 1: trying to give those people who were running up and
Speaker 1: down the sides of the wall of the Capital things
Speaker 1: that they want um in order for them to feel
Speaker 1: like they're in the America that they dream of, the
Speaker 1: America they want to go back to. And so it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a fight. It's a battle, and God forb
Speaker 1: God blessed those people who don't know how serious and
Speaker 1: significant these moments are and what's taking place right before
Speaker 1: our eyes. Yeah, it's definitely gonna be a battle, you know.
Speaker 1: And I just think, you know, I'm you know, I
Speaker 1: was a little disappointed, and then I got and then
Speaker 1: when I started learning, because a lot of times you
Speaker 1: just when you don't know, you get a little frustrated.
Speaker 1: And when I looked at overall with the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: they you know, they're starting to have a little more
Speaker 1: of the back, you know. And I think that, you
Speaker 1: know what, what I've been saying a lot, that the
Speaker 1: GOP is intentional about what it is that they want
Speaker 1: and they don't care about what they have to do
Speaker 1: to get it, you know, and and and and it's
Speaker 1: not always nice. It's not always kombay. They're very rarely
Speaker 1: coom by, y'alls. And I think the Democratic Party has
Speaker 1: to take that same approach. You know, it's not about kumbay.
Speaker 1: It's about making sure that the constituents and our voters
Speaker 1: and the people vote for us, are satisfied that we're
Speaker 1: doing everything possible to do what we promised them. You know.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I want to see, you know, and
Speaker 1: hopefully what's our king Jefferies. You know his speech though
Speaker 1: it was symbolic, it was mainly symbolism. I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: symbolism starts to transfer into actual process in progress and
Speaker 1: you know, and and things that we need as a
Speaker 1: people and as a culture. Yeah, you know, only one
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to drop in here. It was an
Speaker 1: incident in New York where there was a young girl
Speaker 1: who um the police officer. There was a fight and
Speaker 1: the police officer was trying to break it up, and
Speaker 1: and he ended up attacking and brutalizing this young girl,
Speaker 1: punching out her head, punching on her face. Kids were there,
Speaker 1: They fought, They fought to try to get her free
Speaker 1: from the grips of the officer, and it was recorded. Uh.
Speaker 1: The officer was suspended without pay, and the mayor came
Speaker 1: out quickly. Mayor Adamson said that the officer was wrong. Yes,
Speaker 1: you gotta deal with the fight, you gotta deal with
Speaker 1: the kids, you gotta deal with all of that, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the office and had
Speaker 1: no right to be on the young girl the way
Speaker 1: that he did. Um and you know, I got I
Speaker 1: had people actually had you know, f you, but they
Speaker 1: were there was someone I saw And I don't know why.
Speaker 1: Instagram has this new thing where anybody that that tags
Speaker 1: you or shares the story, you can see it in
Speaker 1: your stories, like that's the most annoying thing in the world.
Speaker 1: But I happen to see a lot of people tagging
Speaker 1: me to this incident. First of all, yes, I was
Speaker 1: on vacation, and unfortunately I know that for a lot
Speaker 1: of us, even for myself, we believe that you know
Speaker 1: you you. It's like the type of work we do,
Speaker 1: there's no vacation from it. You just gotta be ready
Speaker 1: to go all the time. But what I have learned
Speaker 1: from being in I've been I've been in this role
Speaker 1: for our thirty years of my life, and I also
Speaker 1: have served other individuals, and I know it is unhealthy
Speaker 1: to work the way that we do. At times, you
Speaker 1: can't even process your thought for growth. You can't even
Speaker 1: figure out what is next and what you need to
Speaker 1: be fighting for in this work when you're just constantly
Speaker 1: responding to trauma all the time, and constantly engage in
Speaker 1: the massive movements, um you know, fighting for change. Those
Speaker 1: things are good, but you've got to build a bench
Speaker 1: of other individuals that are gonna be out there carrying
Speaker 1: the torch and continuing the work and even coming up
Speaker 1: with new projects and things that they're doing, where you
Speaker 1: could just support them if it's nothing more than a
Speaker 1: phone call, so that you can mentor them through their
Speaker 1: own process. You cannot kill yourself being on go all
Speaker 1: the time, and so being on vacation, it was difficult.
Speaker 1: It was difficult not to sit on the phone with Quila,
Speaker 1: which is Chamquilla robinson sister, every day. The way we
Speaker 1: have been talking right before the holidays, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what's our rategy. Even she and I had to
Speaker 1: take a break right so that we could come back
Speaker 1: with fresh ideas. It's difficult not to be engaged in
Speaker 1: everything that we see, but it's a discipline that I
Speaker 1: know I've had to learn. I've had to learn that
Speaker 1: a comment on everything I can't do, and that sometimes
Speaker 1: I have to actually disappear in order to be renewed
Speaker 1: and restored. And so when I saw the video of
Speaker 1: the young girl getting punched. I saw it from places
Speaker 1: with individuals that I know we're gonna do work, like
Speaker 1: they were gonna get it going. I know that I
Speaker 1: already know these people who sent it to me, the
Speaker 1: people who tagged me and shared it with me. I
Speaker 1: knew what they were gonna do. But to your point,
Speaker 1: after it kept coming and coming and coming, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not like, I'm trying to not ignore it, but
Speaker 1: trying to be like, let's just you can't. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be a police violence incident before, after, during, There's going
Speaker 1: to be reasons, family problems, everything's gonna still be there
Speaker 1: when you return from these two weeks of time that
Speaker 1: you're taken off right, and there's so many people out
Speaker 1: there to do great work that you can jump in
Speaker 1: and support them as soon as you get back. And
Speaker 1: but I kept seeing it. I kept seeing it, so
Speaker 1: I decided, let me just inquire about what's going on,
Speaker 1: so I could make sure if until Freedom could be engaged,
Speaker 1: that there are other people on our team like you
Speaker 1: and Linda, who are ready to go at all times.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as I've checked into it, the
Speaker 1: officer had already been suspended without paying. What I want
Speaker 1: to say is to your point about how keen speech
Speaker 1: was very his ABC speech where he talked about what
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party can be, which I don't agree with
Speaker 1: all of it, because there's racism that exists right there
Speaker 1: within the party, and there is sexism and a lot
Speaker 1: of other issues right within the party. That has to
Speaker 1: be if you really are going to with a speech
Speaker 1: like that, it needs to match the reality of what
Speaker 1: it's taken place. And I sat with that right and
Speaker 1: I and I was I was thinking about this incident
Speaker 1: with the officer. Our goal should be, to your point,
Speaker 1: to see realization of what we've been fighting for. Our
Speaker 1: goal should not be that we have to have the
Speaker 1: same exact response every time to these issues. We have
Speaker 1: to fight so much, so hard, so like to the
Speaker 1: to the detriment of our bodies and minds and our spirits.
Speaker 1: We should be able to see that come to realization.
Speaker 1: And when an officer attacks a young girl and then
Speaker 1: it's suspended without pay, yes there's more work to do
Speaker 1: because you've got to ensure that the process continues all
Speaker 1: the way to the end to where he loses his
Speaker 1: job and potentially even is charged with assault for the
Speaker 1: abuse of a young child. So there's more work to
Speaker 1: be done, but the first step it took hell. And
Speaker 1: it's not just until freedom to meet a mate. We're
Speaker 1: talking about years years lineage, if you will, in this
Speaker 1: movement of passing of the bat, time you got the
Speaker 1: you have the movement that has existed in New York
Speaker 1: to change police and policing culture for so long. I
Speaker 1: think about Hazel Dukes. This is a woman who's nineties
Speaker 1: something years, ninety years old who's been out there fighting
Speaker 1: to get an officer suspended without pay. Is it a lot, No,
Speaker 1: but it is different and that is what we need
Speaker 1: to be working to us is how we work. We
Speaker 1: work hard, but then we see results. And so I
Speaker 1: just wanted to say that because when people are like
Speaker 1: I saw what I was saying about f you is
Speaker 1: Somebody was like, oh, well, you know you ain't saying nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, you you want to Internet post and cute
Speaker 1: pictures to yourself, but you're not saying anything about this
Speaker 1: girl being abused. And I'm like, yo, yeah, we were
Speaker 1: so traumatized that we live in a space of attacking
Speaker 1: other people even when they've done the work to make
Speaker 1: a change. Let me just get to this other topic
Speaker 1: because I want to make sure that we do not
Speaker 1: miss uh, this moment of education. I brought it up
Speaker 1: earlier talking about Dr King's birthday, and it is obviously
Speaker 1: coming up now. Um. You know, in just a few days,
Speaker 1: we will be remembering Dr King during his birthday, remembering
Speaker 1: his contributions to society. Um. And I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know where my head was under a rock. I
Speaker 1: must not have been listening. But I did not know
Speaker 1: that Stevie Wonders Happy Birthday song, which the black version
Speaker 1: of Happy Birthday that we sing at every birthday function.
Speaker 1: You do the first Happy Birthday and then you come
Speaker 1: with Happy Birthday too, like that's our thing, right. I
Speaker 1: did not know that that song was dedicated to Dr
Speaker 1: King for his birthday. But it wasn't just about his birthday.
Speaker 1: This is the part that is powerful, the birthday piece, Yes,
Speaker 1: but it was actually after Dr King was dead. Right.
Speaker 1: So Dr King was killed in nineteen sixty eight, and
Speaker 1: there was uh, John Congressman John Conyears, God rest his soul.
Speaker 1: He introduced a bill to make Dr King's birthday a
Speaker 1: national holiday. We all know that it took fifteen years
Speaker 1: to get it done, and throughout the process you had
Speaker 1: different elected officials that were fighting and activists and black
Speaker 1: folks are advocating to make sure that this became a holiday.
Speaker 1: But of course you had resistance from the other side. Actually,
Speaker 1: a Republican Senator, Ed Brooke was the one to introduce
Speaker 1: it the last time. We're actually passed in the Senate,
Speaker 1: so you know it was. It was definitely a bipartisan effort,
Speaker 1: but there certainly were more people Republicans and conservatives and
Speaker 1: racists and otherwise who were pushed him back and resisting
Speaker 1: having Dr King's birthday become a holiday. This is a testament,
Speaker 1: this part that I'm about to say to how important
Speaker 1: our movements are and how important it is to have
Speaker 1: everyone play a role. One of these days in life,
Speaker 1: people will look back at my son and say, wow,
Speaker 1: you created this song or this spoken word at this
Speaker 1: time that helped us to articulate our needs and or
Speaker 1: to bring attenion to Sandra Bland, who's in uh. I
Speaker 1: don't have the right to do nothing. And you have
Speaker 1: so many different pieces that that represent different parts of
Speaker 1: our experience since we have been actively leading in this movement.
Speaker 1: The reason why BB Wonder created this song was because
Speaker 1: he was basically using it as a clarion call to
Speaker 1: get the date pass, to get the legislation pass to
Speaker 1: make Dr King's birthday a holiday. So he created this
Speaker 1: song as part of a movement, as part of a protest,
Speaker 1: if you will, um to to galvanize people to respect
Speaker 1: Dr King, to honor Dr Kings, and to support what
Speaker 1: Congressman Kanyer's was trying to do. And so everyone played
Speaker 1: a role. He may not have been speedy wonder out
Speaker 1: there pumping his fists and go into Congress, but that
Speaker 1: song gave us another rally and cry, gave us something
Speaker 1: else to join in and and and to help to exactly.
Speaker 1: And so you know, when we celebrate Dr King's birthday,
Speaker 1: we need to know this didn't just happen and what
Speaker 1: like some people just got together nice It's fifteen years,
Speaker 1: a fight, a song, and a community of determining individuals
Speaker 1: and some bipartisan support is what it took to get
Speaker 1: Dr King's birthday solidified so that we will always remember
Speaker 1: a giant like him. So, you know, happy birthday, Dr King.
Speaker 1: All the love and respect, and we know that there
Speaker 1: is a model that exists that we right now have
Speaker 1: the ability to continue, which is that every single one
Speaker 1: of us, no matter your talent, no matter where you
Speaker 1: want to be in this movement, you have a pro
Speaker 1: to play. And as a result of that, look at
Speaker 1: where we stand today. That's my thought of the day
Speaker 1: is look at where we are today because some people
Speaker 1: sacrifice and took all of our resources and put it
Speaker 1: in a pile of suit. Imagine where we could go
Speaker 1: if we continue to do that work. Look at that work, man,
Speaker 1: put that work in. Man. Shout out to Dr King
Speaker 1: as we celebrate as you approach his birthday and we
Speaker 1: celebrate what it is that he's meant to our people
Speaker 1: and the evolution and the growth and just you know,
Speaker 1: the fight for justice and equality in this country. We
Speaker 1: salute you King absolutely. You know, I know I'm I'm
Speaker 1: going back, circling back. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: they did to try to stop I want to read
Speaker 1: this from uh Dr Julianne Malvo. Dr Julianne Malvo is
Speaker 1: a historian. She's a great leader, she is a professor.
Speaker 1: She is um one of the mentors of black women
Speaker 1: scholars in this nation. If you don't know Julienne Malvo,
Speaker 1: you should learn more. About her. But this is a
Speaker 1: piece that she wrote, The King Holiday reflects our resilience.
Speaker 1: And this is just one piece that I want folks
Speaker 1: to know because you know, as people look at us
Speaker 1: and certainly we're not trying to be or or liking
Speaker 1: ourselves to Dr King, but we would like to live
Speaker 1: up to his work. But listen to what one of
Speaker 1: the individuals who opposed the legislation, this is what he did.
Speaker 1: His name was Senator Jesse Helms. He is a Republican
Speaker 1: north from North Carolina. He passed out binders full of
Speaker 1: lies about Dr King, described men him as a communist
Speaker 1: and worse things. He sat around basically what the buinder
Speaker 1: of stuff, just the same way like social media is
Speaker 1: the new binder. Dr King is a liar, called him
Speaker 1: a communist, called him, called him a danger to UH
Speaker 1: to America. He said, he said Dr King, he said
Speaker 1: that Dr King was everything terrible. This is even in
Speaker 1: Dr King's death. Dr King was dead and he was
Speaker 1: still saying these horrible things and telling these horrible lies
Speaker 1: about him. And that was what he was using to
Speaker 1: try to block the holiday. So when you see people
Speaker 1: out here who are accusing folks of misappropriation, of funds.
Speaker 1: They are accusing people when some people do do that,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless, misappropriation of funds, uh lying, cloud Chase and
Speaker 1: all of that on social media is the new binder
Speaker 1: that Dr King had to deal with when he was
Speaker 1: being well. He was already dead, but even before that
Speaker 1: he had been uh titled if you will, or had
Speaker 1: been labeled the most dangerous man in America. That binder
Speaker 1: now exists in the form of comments on social media.
Speaker 1: And we know all too well with that credit to
Speaker 1: discredit man. You know, there there's the's a playbook, you know,
Speaker 1: and we watched it, We've seen it, we've experienced it,
Speaker 1: we felt it, we've seen it happen to all our leaders.
Speaker 1: And the main way to discredit us is through media.
Speaker 1: You know, now that we have social media, you have
Speaker 1: people who who have no knowledge, people don't even have
Speaker 1: a face, that are able to discredit you and make claims,
Speaker 1: baseless claims that they can't prove, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and and then we have a people who are so
Speaker 1: consumed by negativity that they just grabbed onto that because
Speaker 1: you know, like my brother Charlotmagne always says, who kids
Speaker 1: about the truth when a lot is more entertaining. You know,
Speaker 1: when a lie is entertaining and it says that somebody
Speaker 1: who who does positive things is negative and somebody people like, wow,
Speaker 1: really this person and they can go dirt on your
Speaker 1: name and they can somehow to fame you and discredit you.
Speaker 1: Is it leads for a more story at least for
Speaker 1: a better story on you know, social media. People want
Speaker 1: to hear that. They don't want to hear all the positivity.
Speaker 1: They want to they want to be able to tell
Speaker 1: you that there's a lot of people, not all people.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people. So I just want to
Speaker 1: shout out, shout out to brothers you know who are
Speaker 1: doing things. You know, we weren't gonna talk about it,
Speaker 1: but shout out to meet mill Man. This because the
Speaker 1: negativity is always overshadowed by the positivity. Brothers, that the
Speaker 1: positivity is always overshadow about the negativity. It's not there
Speaker 1: there you go. The positivity is you know, the negativity
Speaker 1: is always over the positivity is always overshadowed by the negativity. Yes,
Speaker 1: you are right, and I stand correctly. You know, Brothers
Speaker 1: started reform. He's bringing people home from jail Christmas, he
Speaker 1: build out mothers who are incarcerated. He's constantly doing positive
Speaker 1: things in the community with children, you know. Shout out
Speaker 1: to NBA young boy who started this non violence you
Speaker 1: know campaign that he's been doing, and he's actually teamed
Speaker 1: up with former people that he would be from what
Speaker 1: to give out toys and communities. Shout out to Bobby's
Speaker 1: murder who came home. And it's intentional about being in
Speaker 1: detention centers, dealing with at risk you people who are incarcerated,
Speaker 1: young youth who incarcerated, who don't have, you know, role models,
Speaker 1: and who don't have positive influences. And these people are
Speaker 1: doing this work. And I know they're doing this work,
Speaker 1: and it's not publicized as it should be. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not it's always the negativity that gets highlighted when
Speaker 1: they get into argument, discredit, you know, and all these sites,
Speaker 1: you exactly, but and I know we're human, but I
Speaker 1: just would I want to give the credibility and I
Speaker 1: want to give the positivity somebody because they're definitely doing
Speaker 1: positive things. You know, in the situation that just happened
Speaker 1: with me, you know, I speak. I spoke to him
Speaker 1: and he talked about how could have been ugly, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's drinking. He's he's arguing about the fight. He's talking
Speaker 1: about how Tank is gonna win. And the guy him
Speaker 1: got into some words and he was there with a
Speaker 1: bunch of his friends and and and cooler, and he
Speaker 1: said to himself, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna allow
Speaker 1: this to turn into more than that. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: back and forth. He knew a bunch of his friends,
Speaker 1: some of them who who have higher temperance, they don't
Speaker 1: have as much to lose. And what he did was
Speaker 1: immediately lead. He said, let's go. He said, I was
Speaker 1: in there a bunch of my friends and we left
Speaker 1: it without incident. You know. And rather than being praised
Speaker 1: for that, this we're always gonna be the part that
Speaker 1: there's the argument, there was this, and that no praise
Speaker 1: the man because he was able to de escalate. He
Speaker 1: he separated itself from a situation that could have been drafted.
Speaker 1: You know. So I want to I want to applaud that.
Speaker 1: I want to start highlight because we always call out
Speaker 1: coward culture and I call out the negativity of our
Speaker 1: black brothers because I want us to hold ourselves accountable.
Speaker 1: But I also want to highlight we do positive things.
Speaker 1: So I want to make sure so those brothers understand
Speaker 1: that we see you and we love that you are
Speaker 1: taking that role. We love that you invol We love
Speaker 1: that you are recognizing that you have the power to escalate,
Speaker 1: you have the power to do something better. You you know,
Speaker 1: you you're walking into that power. That's what gangster is
Speaker 1: to me. So those those brothers right there that I
Speaker 1: just described, those what I call gangsters, I want to
Speaker 1: salute them. Yeah, absolutely, I love that. I have nothing
Speaker 1: more to add. I appreciate what you just said. And
Speaker 1: I think we you know, and I've even had to
Speaker 1: learn that in our human moments that you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta make good decisions. You gotta make decisions that especially
Speaker 1: when you're drinking and you out. But I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: honest with you, my son, as I was watching the incident, Yes,
Speaker 1: I know, those things could turn into violence, It could
Speaker 1: turn into a bigger thing. It could turn into something
Speaker 1: that goes on next week or your camp to get
Speaker 1: into a fight. But I've been my whole life since
Speaker 1: I was a little girl, especially coming up in the South,
Speaker 1: you know, being with my family in the house whenever
Speaker 1: there's a sports event or something that is, it's tense.
Speaker 1: I've seen the men get into big arguments and maybe
Speaker 1: even start stuckling with people. Gotta be like getting relaxed,
Speaker 1: like y'all are doing too much. So for us, we
Speaker 1: used to see in these types of things and the
Speaker 1: energy and everybody starts getting into it. I've always say that,
Speaker 1: but you know, but when the media gets involved, to
Speaker 1: your point, they're going to stretch it for their content
Speaker 1: that clicks in their LIFs. When the truth is generally
Speaker 1: those incidents in exactly as it did, people calm down,
Speaker 1: other people got involved, say listen, relax turned down, and
Speaker 1: then you know, people get to go home safe. So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just saying it don't really get us
Speaker 1: as rattled as it does some people because we used
Speaker 1: to seeing folks get super aggressive around sports events especially. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now it doesn't give me. Rather, it's just that I
Speaker 1: know that the media has a way to perpetuate things.
Speaker 1: And I know in those situations when there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people, you're in the front row of the fight
Speaker 1: and you're somebody and he's somebody, and then you have entourages,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to really lose, right, So when those things
Speaker 1: is publicized and publicly, somebody gets beat or hit, you
Speaker 1: know that that turns into the next level of gun play.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not like it used to be. You know,
Speaker 1: people used to have a fight and you go on
Speaker 1: and his energy. But right now everything is super hype,
Speaker 1: you know, super super hyped up. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: glad that cooler has prevailed. And I wanted salute me
Speaker 1: for for being just being having that foresight because there
Speaker 1: was times that he didn't, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: in his growth and you see the growth. You see
Speaker 1: the growth from the Safari situation to now you see
Speaker 1: and let's let's promote that, man, Let's celebrate that. Let's say,
Speaker 1: your brother, we appreciate you. You are you're doing You're
Speaker 1: doing what's supposed to be done in this culture. Man.
Speaker 1: So that's that, all right. Well, you've got a guest
Speaker 1: coming up today. Are someone that you broke to be
Speaker 1: on the show who has an impactful story himself, and
Speaker 1: then on top of his story being so impactful, he
Speaker 1: also um is now doing something for some other individuals
Speaker 1: that really need help. So let's welcome them the street politicians.
Speaker 1: So today we have a special guest this brother was
Speaker 1: convicted of a crime, wrongfully convicted of a crime, then exonerated,
Speaker 1: and then went on to become a lawyer. Um. I
Speaker 1: heard of his story from my brother shot brother to
Speaker 1: make us shock and sing, and he said, you've got
Speaker 1: to meet this brother. And we had a good conversation.
Speaker 1: And his brother is very, very passionate. No reminds me
Speaker 1: a lot of myself. You know, after being wrongfully convicted,
Speaker 1: you come home and you have this will and this
Speaker 1: drive to just want to do better. Um, and this
Speaker 1: brother is just that. His name is Jared Adams. How
Speaker 1: are you doing today, King, I'm doing well. Thank you
Speaker 1: both for having me on the big fans of you
Speaker 1: all for quite some time. And I'm just appreciative to
Speaker 1: have this platform to talk about my my clients in
Speaker 1: this story. Before we get to clients, you know, give
Speaker 1: a little bit. So you were wrongfully convicted of a crime.
Speaker 1: What was this crime? You know, what was the process
Speaker 1: of you going about getting exonerated and didn't coming to
Speaker 1: actually become an attorney? Yeah? Well, I was falsely accused
Speaker 1: of a rate at the age of seventeen years old. Um.
Speaker 1: A lot of it had to do with brace, you know,
Speaker 1: simply put. You know, my accuser was a white girl.
Speaker 1: Um my mom didn't have any money to afford an attorney.
Speaker 1: And I sat and I watched what I thought I
Speaker 1: knew about the justice system, you know, totally, you know,
Speaker 1: crumble down of the reality of what the criminal justice
Speaker 1: system really is. I got to to prison term in
Speaker 1: eighteen years old, and all I had was in high
Speaker 1: school education. So I knew I needed to find a
Speaker 1: way to be able to communicate my innocence because at
Speaker 1: the time I didn't know how. I started to do
Speaker 1: the same thing that a lot of brothers do when
Speaker 1: they're getting this situation. When I started to fight for myself.
Speaker 1: I educated myself through having aunties you know who mailed
Speaker 1: me case law, to reading in the paper about attorneys
Speaker 1: and reaching out to them, acting questions, and eventually the
Speaker 1: Wisconsin Innocence Project took my case, litigating my case all
Speaker 1: the way up to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
Speaker 1: where my conviction was unanimously reversed. My record was ultimately expunged,
Speaker 1: and I came home and started the healing process with therapy.
Speaker 1: Then I was able to go ahead and get my
Speaker 1: associate's degree bachelor's degree, law degree, and I clerked in
Speaker 1: the same circuit that overturned my conviction before I started
Speaker 1: to work for the Innocence. That's incredible, the just the storyline.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a movie. You know. It's like, if
Speaker 1: we didn't know and see you here as a living
Speaker 1: breath in person, it would be, you know, a great
Speaker 1: uh story and and story of triumph for TV. And
Speaker 1: we know that aren't often imitates life. So much of
Speaker 1: what we see as the depictions on the screen are
Speaker 1: things that are actually happening to so many people, and
Speaker 1: particularly black people. And then even more specifically black men
Speaker 1: um and the issue of rape um and the issue
Speaker 1: of the black male put in the position of being
Speaker 1: called the rapenist by white women is a very very
Speaker 1: significant issue. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 1: What was the story? What happened? And then and then again,
Speaker 1: I know you're kind of going over the same thing,
Speaker 1: but then, what was the process of exoneration from something
Speaker 1: that series? It's like, what did the the entity Wisconsant
Speaker 1: Innocence project here and see in your story that made
Speaker 1: him want to take your case? So I told the
Speaker 1: complete beginning from the end in my book that I
Speaker 1: have autter eve Injustice. But the best way to get
Speaker 1: to it was this, if you could think about what
Speaker 1: happened with m. TiO, That's exactly what happened to me
Speaker 1: and my two the friends you. We were invited to
Speaker 1: uh to a party where a consensual encounter took place,
Speaker 1: and there was a false accusation that bore out of it.
Speaker 1: We didn't find out until like months later, and when
Speaker 1: we got to face these charges, the narrative had totally
Speaker 1: changed into what we normally see the historical depiction of
Speaker 1: black men's are where ravagers savagers, and it was basically
Speaker 1: like we were guilty and had to prove our innocence.
Speaker 1: The truth is, we went to this party, we were
Speaker 1: invited up, this young lady invited us into a room.
Speaker 1: My roommate walked in on this encounter, and from that
Speaker 1: started these false accusations that grew into a narrative. Still,
Speaker 1: I'd have no idea where they came up and created
Speaker 1: this stuff from. So we're we're now faced with seventeen
Speaker 1: years old. None of us have ever been in any
Speaker 1: trouble with the law at all, and so our attorneys
Speaker 1: are telling their strategy that we can only have the
Speaker 1: hope was true, but it wasn't. This case was tried
Speaker 1: on race and it had absolutely no evidence besides the accusation.
Speaker 1: And then where we come to find out is the
Speaker 1: police withheld the statement from a college student that undermined
Speaker 1: the entire accusations and he corraborated our version of events.
Speaker 1: That statement was never turned over to us during trial.
Speaker 1: So that's what the Innocence Project was ever to obtain,
Speaker 1: which resulting in us being being exonerating. I asked about
Speaker 1: that the Innocence Project piece because so many people contact us, um,
Speaker 1: you know, claiming their innocence. Uh, they're advocating for themselves,
Speaker 1: and they're looking for organizations, groups and otherwise to pick
Speaker 1: up their stories. Especially the project. I think I get
Speaker 1: the most calls asking can I connect somebody within any
Speaker 1: project to uh, you know, so many, especially brothers I
Speaker 1: don't often, which I think is also, um, pretty scary.
Speaker 1: We don't really hear from women as much who are
Speaker 1: in prison. Understanding that black women are the fastest growing
Speaker 1: population in prison, we don't really hear much from women
Speaker 1: saying can you help me get my sentence overturned? Right here?
Speaker 1: From our brothers will all the time. What did you
Speaker 1: say to the Innocence Project? What did that look like? Um?
Speaker 1: And because I would imagine that because they took your case,
Speaker 1: it's one of the things that encouraged you to work
Speaker 1: on the two individuals that you're gonna talk about today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and to your point to me, to listen, women
Speaker 1: are the fastest growing because of the numbers of black
Speaker 1: men that they've been going through at a at a
Speaker 1: rate of like pac Man, right. And and the thing
Speaker 1: about it is I actually represent, you know, some women,
Speaker 1: and I'm investigating their cases and claims of actual innocence
Speaker 1: as well. The horrible thing about women and wrongfully going
Speaker 1: for convictions is that oftentimes women who are rongfully convicted,
Speaker 1: they are roomfully convicted of not like painous murders, but
Speaker 1: of actual depths of their own kids, which is even
Speaker 1: more traumatic to think about. The science hadn't called up
Speaker 1: to shaking baby syndrome, right, And so you know, if
Speaker 1: the science is off and you're accusing mothers of wrong doing, well,
Speaker 1: who do you think, Barrett the brunt of those accusations.
Speaker 1: Before the science caught up, it was black women, it
Speaker 1: was women of color, and so it most certainly is
Speaker 1: an issue, and I wanted to just touch that before
Speaker 1: I go on too answer. And what I did was this, First,
Speaker 1: let me say this, I had some praying folks on
Speaker 1: my side, like my mother and my aunts would not
Speaker 1: allow my spirit to to to dissipate. Because of them,
Speaker 1: I was able to just live each and every day
Speaker 1: like I was preparing to come home the next day.
Speaker 1: So I started to write as many people as I could,
Speaker 1: and I started to go through case law and articulate
Speaker 1: my case with the case that was, you know, in
Speaker 1: the news or the hottest topic, and eventually I was
Speaker 1: able to get the help that way. It's one of
Speaker 1: these things where you should ask for help, you should
Speaker 1: seek seek help, but you should also be helping yourself
Speaker 1: by educating yourself as much as possible. The Innistance Project
Speaker 1: is an organization no different than the one that I've
Speaker 1: built called Life of the Justice, where we can only
Speaker 1: take so many cases right with two points something million
Speaker 1: people incarcerated, if only we had two per cent of
Speaker 1: those wrongfully convicted, that leaves thousands of people who are
Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted, and the money ain't in this work. To me,
Speaker 1: you might saying, you know what I'm saying when I
Speaker 1: say that the money ain't in this type of work
Speaker 1: where you're advocating and where you're taking on cases for free.
Speaker 1: These cases can go on for five to seven years
Speaker 1: at a hundred plus thousand dollars you know, each case,
Speaker 1: and so it's not easy. So when people are looking
Speaker 1: for help and they're just not getting their responses for
Speaker 1: organizations like the Innocence Project, it doesn't mean it's your
Speaker 1: case is bad. It doesn't mean that they want to help.
Speaker 1: It's just the reality that the resources are not here.
Speaker 1: The laws do not support people post conviction because most
Speaker 1: of the people claiming flaws in their post conviction look
Speaker 1: like us on this zoom right. Now. That's that's powerful.
Speaker 1: So now let's get to um the case that you are. Now.
Speaker 1: When you when you explained to me, it was mind body,
Speaker 1: but I didn't even understand being form in cars rated
Speaker 1: to understanding, you know, just understanding the law and and
Speaker 1: just understand what I know the law to be. What
Speaker 1: you're saying to me just really didn't even make sense.
Speaker 1: So I just want you to give us a little
Speaker 1: understanding about the case we're here talking about today. So
Speaker 1: I'll do my best because when you try to make
Speaker 1: some sense out of something that's senseless, it just don't
Speaker 1: make sense. But here's the story of Terrence and Ron
Speaker 1: not guilty, certain life. These are two young men born,
Speaker 1: raised in the Waverley, Virginia area. There's an officer who's
Speaker 1: shot and killed around ten forty eleven a m. As
Speaker 1: they always do, there's a rush to judgment and around
Speaker 1: up of nothing more than than what I can call
Speaker 1: a roundup of young black men between the areas of
Speaker 1: Waverley all the way up to Richmond. Of a description
Speaker 1: that does not fit and never fit Terence and Farran's description.
Speaker 1: This officer is shot. The police immediately get there. He
Speaker 1: gives a description. They started to go out looking for
Speaker 1: people when all alone they knew who the eyewitness, the
Speaker 1: only eyewitness had identified, was not Terence and Farran. That
Speaker 1: part of their case was buried. It was buried. No
Speaker 1: investigative journalists asks questions, and down in this town, in Waverley,
Speaker 1: which is one of the last known towns to ever
Speaker 1: do an open lynching, it was as quiet as an
Speaker 1: injustice could ever be. These guys are get this. They're
Speaker 1: accused of killing the cop. Two black guys accused of
Speaker 1: killing the white cop, and they ultimately, trying to avoid
Speaker 1: the death penalty, plead guilty to accessory after the fact
Speaker 1: time server and the other pleaded guilty to man slide,
Speaker 1: thinking that if they did this they will be appointing
Speaker 1: the death penalty. I'll pause and say this, there was
Speaker 1: a time where we never believe that anyone would plead
Speaker 1: guilty to anything that they didn't do. But with the
Speaker 1: sister able to Duverney in the central part five case,
Speaker 1: we've now become educated that people are put in situations
Speaker 1: where if they're trying to save their life and the
Speaker 1: lives of their families, they will make decisions that we're
Speaker 1: sitting there on our couch cannot understand. That is exactly
Speaker 1: what happened with Terrence and for Ron. So now the
Speaker 1: family of the officer is they're mad and they're going
Speaker 1: to the Department of Justice and their accident Department of
Speaker 1: Justice to right or wrong because they believed that the
Speaker 1: people they were told that we're responsible for the death
Speaker 1: of their son, the officers Alan giveson. They believe that
Speaker 1: they got off to light. But the true reality is
Speaker 1: that it wasn't them, and that's why the prosecutor gave
Speaker 1: them the deals that they gave They ended up being
Speaker 1: investigated by the FADS during eight months. By eight months,
Speaker 1: you know, eight months after the interer of a guilty plea,
Speaker 1: the Feds sit down a team of of undercover agents
Speaker 1: to do control bys of people in around this town.
Speaker 1: With those people that they were able to get controlled
Speaker 1: bys on, they used them to bring the federal case
Speaker 1: and the safe that the depth of Officer Gibson was
Speaker 1: the result of Terence at Iran being drug kingp in
Speaker 1: for teen years and that's how the death happened as
Speaker 1: the furtherance of the drug conspiracy. They ended up being
Speaker 1: tried in federal court for the same murder that they
Speaker 1: played guilty to trying to boy the death penalty. They're
Speaker 1: now facing the death penalty and federal court for this
Speaker 1: same murder, and it's wrapped in a drug conspiracy that
Speaker 1: has no drugs, no proceeds from drugs, no photos, no
Speaker 1: recorded conversations, no baby mamas with with with with houses,
Speaker 1: no chains, no gold teeth. If I told somebody that
Speaker 1: I had a baby, you would expect to see rattles
Speaker 1: and strollers and stuff like that. So if you say
Speaker 1: someone has been dealing drugs for teen years. You would
Speaker 1: expect to see proceeds, you drug parapherniliar something, Absolutely no
Speaker 1: evidence at all, they bring forth this case. And again
Speaker 1: this is as quiet as an injustice as you're ever here,
Speaker 1: because something like a cop being killed is normally national news.
Speaker 1: But the reason why it wasn't was because they knew
Speaker 1: that these guys had nothing to do with it, and
Speaker 1: so did the jury, who ultimately they found these guys
Speaker 1: not guilty of the murder, but found them guilty of
Speaker 1: one drug count. Now I could go on and tell
Speaker 1: you my opinion of why I think the jury found
Speaker 1: them guilty of that one drug count. But to bring
Speaker 1: it to to where everybody can understand, think about the
Speaker 1: neighborhoods we grew up in. Think about how you see
Speaker 1: a federal suite come through and they picked up guys
Speaker 1: that you know good and well, are living on air
Speaker 1: mama's couch, don't have any money nowhere near big time
Speaker 1: drug dealer, but they've charged them with the keenpn statute
Speaker 1: amongst the group of other people. That's exactly what they
Speaker 1: did to Terence and Iran with absolutely no evidence. So
Speaker 1: now these guys are now found guilty of this one
Speaker 1: single drug count. This one drug count would have resulted
Speaker 1: in a hundred and twenty months to two hundred at most,
Speaker 1: depending on the calculation of the drugs and amount they
Speaker 1: were left to have. So using what is nothing more
Speaker 1: than a legal lynching is a case called US versus
Speaker 1: Watch where the court, despite the jury finding them not guilty,
Speaker 1: use the accusation of them being involved with the cops
Speaker 1: murdered and the state court guilty please to enhance their
Speaker 1: sentence to life in prison. So essentially they robbed due
Speaker 1: process and saying we don't care what the jury says,
Speaker 1: we think they did it. Here goes your life sentence.
Speaker 1: And they've now been in federal prison for the last
Speaker 1: twenty five plus years. That's just unbelievable just listening to that,
Speaker 1: Like when you told me that before, you know, it
Speaker 1: didn't make sense, and the more you say it makes
Speaker 1: less and less and less sense. So so what what
Speaker 1: is the process now? What? What? What have you been doing?
Speaker 1: You know, to try to write because you know when
Speaker 1: I when I spoke to you, you told me how
Speaker 1: you've been You really started investing your own money in this.
Speaker 1: This was something you looked at the injustice and you
Speaker 1: were so passionate about getting these brothers home that you
Speaker 1: started doing things that made it personal for you. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this, um so, how I got involved with
Speaker 1: this case. I'm doing a speaking event at the Virginia
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Association where where where brothers and sisters are getting
Speaker 1: their rights restored back to vote after completing and discharging
Speaker 1: a sentence. And at the end, you know, it was
Speaker 1: a lady who was standing in the line. She was
Speaker 1: at least about eight people back. But what stood out
Speaker 1: to for me was if you could see the wrinkles
Speaker 1: increases of anguish on the forehead as she's making her
Speaker 1: way up to me. It reminded me of my mother,
Speaker 1: and I could rememb here being in the courtroom and
Speaker 1: I'm raised by all women, so to be accused of
Speaker 1: something of a rape and my mother and my aunts
Speaker 1: are hearing this, I would often turn around and look
Speaker 1: at them just to reassure them they know who they raised.
Speaker 1: This ain't true, and the regals increases of forehead on
Speaker 1: their forehead. I will never forget it. And when I
Speaker 1: saw this woman approaching me, it made me stop and
Speaker 1: I said, I gotta find out what she wants. So
Speaker 1: she gave me a Manila envelope and it was it
Speaker 1: was Fran's Mary Clayboom, and I started to read the
Speaker 1: contents and I said, I give you my word, It's
Speaker 1: all I can give you. I said, I'll look and
Speaker 1: I'll work in this case until the evidence tells me
Speaker 1: to stop, because oftentimes, you know, you get cases and
Speaker 1: it just ain't the true. Man. People have plans and innocence,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it just ain't the truth. I told her this,
Speaker 1: and two thousand and seventeen, I've not stopped working on
Speaker 1: this case. Since every piece of money that my firm
Speaker 1: is able bring in, I've donated a third of that
Speaker 1: to furthering the investigation of this case. I've hired former
Speaker 1: federal investigators, retired judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys to put
Speaker 1: together a panel and say here's what I found. You
Speaker 1: tell me if I'm wrong. Not one of them told
Speaker 1: me I was wrong. That's how sure I am about
Speaker 1: this case. And that's why I'm here today to put
Speaker 1: the messaging out. Because if you could be accused of
Speaker 1: a crime, found not guilty, and still sentenced to life,
Speaker 1: what do we stand a chance in the system at all.
Speaker 1: What was the sentence for the guilty clean state for it?
Speaker 1: It was one year time served for for wrong right
Speaker 1: and it was a five year suspended like three years
Speaker 1: suspended sentence for terrence. And this is a murder of
Speaker 1: a cop Tomka like, and no one, no one ever,
Speaker 1: no one ever said, well why did they get that?
Speaker 1: Well we know why because through this investigation I contacted
Speaker 1: the prosecutor who did the case. He says very clearly
Speaker 1: and adamantly, he never had the information that someone else
Speaker 1: was identified running away from the scene of the crime.
Speaker 1: We were able to put this stuff in front of him,
Speaker 1: we were able to file us in the court. And
Speaker 1: still the court has said to us, yeah, we hear
Speaker 1: what you're saying, and we you might have a legitimate argument,
Speaker 1: but they should have brought this years ago, so therefore
Speaker 1: we don't want to hear it. That's just crazy. So
Speaker 1: isn't it. Usually what you look you will be looking
Speaker 1: for is a judgice and interests of justice. Indeed, indeed,
Speaker 1: I mean because because what we're talking about, like I said,
Speaker 1: is this, you're talking about a situation that's set up
Speaker 1: for you not to win post inviction. When a person
Speaker 1: is convicted. It is designed for finality, not for justice.
Speaker 1: They are reviewing the case to see if any way
Speaker 1: they can say good trial. It's not gonna work in
Speaker 1: a case like this that screens actual innocence, right. Ruth
Speaker 1: get Ginsburgh said it best in one of her written opinions.
Speaker 1: Innocence should be the gateway over all procedural barriers, and
Speaker 1: in this case it's ridiculously flawed. And that they aren't
Speaker 1: arguing with me about the innocence of these guys because
Speaker 1: the jury found them not guilty. They're not arguing with
Speaker 1: me that evidence in this case was with hail from
Speaker 1: them because they got the same record. So instead they've
Speaker 1: decided to say, well, they should have brought it twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. So therefore we're not gonna hear you said
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have brought it twenty years ago. They should have.
Speaker 1: So basically, yeah, so and and and I have if
Speaker 1: if folks out here looking at this, I have some
Speaker 1: YouTube videos that pretty much educate us, like around post
Speaker 1: condition and the way it works is this. I would
Speaker 1: like to tell everyone that if you're innocent and you
Speaker 1: have the evidence, that's all you need, that's not the case.
Speaker 1: So post conviction works like this. After you're convicted, you
Speaker 1: have a certain amount of time to bring arguments. I
Speaker 1: can't tell you why that is, but that's just the
Speaker 1: way that the system is set up. Some will argue
Speaker 1: that is set up that way to give true victims
Speaker 1: the right to put closure on their case. But there's
Speaker 1: a way to do it while still preserving people's right
Speaker 1: to fight for their innocence, because they are innocent people
Speaker 1: who are there. But it's designed to keep you in
Speaker 1: a short time limit to bring these arguments. And what
Speaker 1: that does is this, it puts It puts people who
Speaker 1: in the criminal justice system that any percent, if not higher,
Speaker 1: rely on public defense. It put people who at post
Speaker 1: conviction couldn't afford the attorney to represent them at the
Speaker 1: initial stage even further behind because now you need an
Speaker 1: attorney to do these challenges to the actual conviction, and
Speaker 1: they have to do it within time frames that are
Speaker 1: like a year two years, and if you missed them,
Speaker 1: they literally will not hear arguments and will block you
Speaker 1: as a result, And it simply makes no sense. And
Speaker 1: then what happened has to happen is this, you now
Speaker 1: have to go from the court of law to the
Speaker 1: court of public opinion in order to hope that someone
Speaker 1: looks at the case becomes disturbed enough, compelled enough, or
Speaker 1: politically indicted enough to do what is right. And that's
Speaker 1: what Terence I a Ron's case is. And I'll expand
Speaker 1: upon that. We made the file into the Virginia and
Speaker 1: Pellic Court acting that they be granted actual innocence. During
Speaker 1: the time, there was a Democratic Attorney General by the
Speaker 1: name of Mark Herron who was in office in Virginia.
Speaker 1: His office took a whole entire year to investigate everything
Speaker 1: that I alleged. They came back and in the seventy
Speaker 1: eight page following they agreed with us and said that
Speaker 1: Terence and Ran should be granted their actual innocence and
Speaker 1: their convictions should be reversed. The problem is Harry lost
Speaker 1: his seat before the actual court hearing, and a Republican,
Speaker 1: Jason Mairis took office. And when he took office, he
Speaker 1: reacted back and I don't even know how he can
Speaker 1: do this, and we're arguing about this in the Virginia
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. Now. He retracted the support of his his
Speaker 1: his you know, redecessor and literally said, well, these guys
Speaker 1: came too late with this argument. He never said anything
Speaker 1: about their guilty. He never said anything about this Attorney
Speaker 1: general view the evidence. And in the r own life
Speaker 1: he simply said, these guys playing guilty. They should have
Speaker 1: brought this long ago, don't do And how how so
Speaker 1: you have the Supreme Court in Virginia. Is there a
Speaker 1: higher court that this can be taken to after it is?
Speaker 1: And so right now there's two things going on. We
Speaker 1: have a part. We have a pardon clemency request on
Speaker 1: the desk of the President right now. I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's there. All of the details and facts are there,
Speaker 1: um and the President can sign this and either pardon
Speaker 1: them or commute their sentence at any time. The argument
Speaker 1: that we're making to the Virginia Supreme Court is that
Speaker 1: you cannot reverse course in the middle of litigation just
Speaker 1: because of a political change in climate. And that's exactly
Speaker 1: what happened in their case. So our argument to the
Speaker 1: Virginia Supreme Court is happening on the week of February fourteen,
Speaker 1: and we're hoping that they order it that down to
Speaker 1: the state court to allow us the opportunity that we've
Speaker 1: never had, and that's the power to have an evidentiary
Speaker 1: hearing where we can subpoena witnesses and support and get
Speaker 1: them sworn under oath to testify as to how the
Speaker 1: evidence of an identification of another suspect that happened less
Speaker 1: than one hour after the officer was shot, how did
Speaker 1: it not make its hands and the prosecutors or the
Speaker 1: defense attorneys back when this case happened. And we're just
Speaker 1: praying right now. And so this is the part of
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm here, because still this case is
Speaker 1: not when national and we're talking about the depth of
Speaker 1: a police officer. Do you understand that if I had
Speaker 1: it wrong, there would be no shortage of a thousand
Speaker 1: articles talking about this crazy black lawyer who making this
Speaker 1: crazy argument. That's not happening because I'm right, And so
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that someone can help me push this thing over.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna take it's gonna take the attention of
Speaker 1: us the culture, because these are two black men who've
Speaker 1: been in there for a quarter century, but something that
Speaker 1: they not only didn't do, but they were found not guilty.
Speaker 1: You h you know, I just want to I want
Speaker 1: to ask two more questions, and I know you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of you got word to do, and we
Speaker 1: we thank you for taking time out your busy schedule
Speaker 1: to come here. First, I want to ask, just listening
Speaker 1: to this, how many people do you think, because we
Speaker 1: see people exonerated every day, you know, all of these
Speaker 1: things clearing people every day, how many people you think
Speaker 1: have been flawed by this process that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: that are actually innocent, who presented evidence and a judge
Speaker 1: has told them that they presented it too late. That's
Speaker 1: probably still sitting in prison right now. That's the first
Speaker 1: question I want to ask. And then lastly, what what
Speaker 1: is it that we we can do to actually help
Speaker 1: this case? Because you know I'm you know, I was
Speaker 1: formally I'm formerly constate and wrongfully convicted of a crime,
Speaker 1: and I know that pain. When you described the mother
Speaker 1: of the wrinkles in the forehead, and you described being
Speaker 1: in that courtroom and looking and assuring your mother and
Speaker 1: your grandmother that they raised a certain person, I remember that.
Speaker 1: I remember my grandmother being in court and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at her and then talking about me. It was one
Speaker 1: thing that one of the victims supposedly who I supposedly robbed,
Speaker 1: said to her that that that gave me some you know,
Speaker 1: gave her understanding that it was a lie. She was
Speaker 1: the victim, said that I got inside of his cab
Speaker 1: and I was smoking a cigarette. And my grandmother knows
Speaker 1: how much I hate cigarettes. My grandmother knew that she
Speaker 1: would put me on punishment for two or three weeks
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't even go to the store about her
Speaker 1: cigarettes because I didn't want her to smoke. She knows
Speaker 1: her aunt I was, so the minute she heard that,
Speaker 1: she jumped up the screen. It had to be removed
Speaker 1: from the courtroom because she said, you were lying. My
Speaker 1: grandson would never smoke. No site where y'all lying on
Speaker 1: my grandson. So that right there gave me some silence
Speaker 1: to knowing that she knew that what they were saying
Speaker 1: was alleged was wrong above me. But I just want
Speaker 1: you to answer those two things so that we can
Speaker 1: you know, let you go. You know, I can tell
Speaker 1: you this. The numbers are scary. They're scary. If we
Speaker 1: have of the two point three million people incarcerated, we
Speaker 1: have roughly somewhere around nine hundred thousand black men, right
Speaker 1: just talking about black men. But if women numbers are increasing,
Speaker 1: So if you just take that and you say to yourself,
Speaker 1: if any of those folks are reliance on public defense,
Speaker 1: and this ain't a negative to talk about a public defender.
Speaker 1: This is to highlight how their job. They can't do it.
Speaker 1: They don't have the resources, they're overwhelmed. So I would
Speaker 1: say this the numbers from the Innocence Project, and John
Speaker 1: Grisson suggests that there's like two to three percent of
Speaker 1: people who are wrongfully convicted. So if they're saying it's two,
Speaker 1: you know that it's probably about ten percent, right, because
Speaker 1: you know that people oftentimes plead guilty for things that
Speaker 1: they didn't do. They oftentimes are advised, you know, ill
Speaker 1: advised you know, to do to to go through and
Speaker 1: or proceeding that they shouldn't go through or way or
Speaker 1: whatever it is taken plea. We know that because before
Speaker 1: their bond reform, people would plead guilty because of the
Speaker 1: how horrible the conditions were and county jails. So so
Speaker 1: if we really wanted to do and find out the numbers,
Speaker 1: we would have to go through and and each individual case.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you I would say this, of
Speaker 1: the two point three million, I would say somewhere around
Speaker 1: of people who encountered the criminal justice system, are either
Speaker 1: rungfully convicted, um played because they just wanted it over with,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and or didn't have the resources
Speaker 1: to put up their defense and so again they just
Speaker 1: waved the white flag to get it resolved. This is
Speaker 1: a culture thing. This is this is where where you
Speaker 1: have nineties some to percent of of prosecutors being white men,
Speaker 1: and they go on, oftentimes to become judges and then
Speaker 1: there they're they're handling cases and the city's like Chicago, Baltimore,
Speaker 1: where it's a revolving door of young black men that
Speaker 1: are coming before them. They start to become decessitized, and
Speaker 1: they just get rid of cases, get rid of cases,
Speaker 1: get rid of cases. And that's what I'm saying. The numbers,
Speaker 1: if we peeled back the onion, it would terrify us.
Speaker 1: How many people are wrongfully convicted or planned guilty to
Speaker 1: something that they did not do. So tell us, tell
Speaker 1: us what you want us to do to help? How
Speaker 1: can we help? How com people sitting watching this interview
Speaker 1: help like? What? What? What is the process here? Here's
Speaker 1: how I think folks can help. I think we all
Speaker 1: need to become educated about about these issues. And what
Speaker 1: I what I mean by that is the issues that
Speaker 1: directly affect us in our community. Um, they're more than
Speaker 1: just the legal conundrums, you know, they are intertwined with
Speaker 1: the with the problem that we still face and deal
Speaker 1: with in society and at its race that is prejudiced.
Speaker 1: We have a system that you cannot just keep changing
Speaker 1: the faucet. You have to rip up the floor and
Speaker 1: change the pipes in order for it to work. So
Speaker 1: what we have to do is taste by case the
Speaker 1: most egregious to start with. We have to unify as
Speaker 1: a culture behind these cases and not just do it
Speaker 1: at the conclusion of the case. We have to do
Speaker 1: it all the way until that becomes legis slave ship
Speaker 1: that prevents this type of stuff from happening. As a
Speaker 1: result of the central Part five case, you can now
Speaker 1: no longer interrogate kids without an adult. When it comes
Speaker 1: to Terence and for Ron's case, we need to demand
Speaker 1: that the court stops robbing due process of its power,
Speaker 1: specifically at a high rate to black men, when they're
Speaker 1: sentencing people and they are using what's called relevant conduct,
Speaker 1: which is nothing more than accusations by the government, and
Speaker 1: they're using it to enhance brother's sentence to life. So
Speaker 1: what we have to do is, in my opinion, visit
Speaker 1: the website not Guilty Serving Life. Look at the YouTube.
Speaker 1: It tells you how to obtain a progow on Alterney.
Speaker 1: It tells you, um, you know the things that you
Speaker 1: need to look for when you evaluate needs cases. And
Speaker 1: more importantly, we need to sign this petition for Terence
Speaker 1: and for Iron, and we need to eradicate the use
Speaker 1: of relevant conduct. I'm telling you, if you look at
Speaker 1: the numbers, they ain't doing it to nobody with us.
Speaker 1: That's who relevant conduct is being used against. Yeah, sounds
Speaker 1: sounds I mean you say, if so are articulate and
Speaker 1: it's like wrapped up in a bow and it's clear
Speaker 1: even though it's senseless. Um. But there are so many,
Speaker 1: as I said earlier, brothers, family members that we meet
Speaker 1: that are explaining the exact same thing you're saying. They
Speaker 1: just may not be as articulate and able to describe
Speaker 1: it in depth, right, but they know what's happening not
Speaker 1: just to themselves, but to other brothers who are locked
Speaker 1: up right next to them in jails all across this nation,
Speaker 1: in prisons nation, federally and locally. Um. And we know
Speaker 1: that we know that the crime of unjustly convicting men
Speaker 1: of color, and particularly again black men, is big business.
Speaker 1: People are making money off this, and so therefore, you know,
Speaker 1: why would a system you I had a family member
Speaker 1: telling me one day when we were talking about the
Speaker 1: campaign the closed Rikers Island in New York City, um,
Speaker 1: and that this particular family member is a correctional officer
Speaker 1: has now retired what was there in the system for
Speaker 1: many years. And when I was saying, you know, and
Speaker 1: this was just a conversation two years ago, I was saying,
Speaker 1: you know, they gotta close the jail because too many
Speaker 1: people are dying. Which, by the way, since that conversation
Speaker 1: two years ago, we've had tremendous death people. Wows. It's since,
Speaker 1: you know, since for the last few years. And so um.
Speaker 1: She says to me, well, how where am I gonna work?
Speaker 1: You know where? What? Where will we get jobs? And
Speaker 1: it took a while for her to sit with in
Speaker 1: process and come back to me and say damn, because
Speaker 1: she is an advocate, right, she does believe in this
Speaker 1: justice in the system. She is one of those or
Speaker 1: was an officer who tried to help in Carson rated individuals.
Speaker 1: So she was not she was she didn't realize how
Speaker 1: institutionalized she was. That this is business. This is about money.
Speaker 1: So if you close the prison, or if you allow
Speaker 1: those people who have not committed crimes, those people who
Speaker 1: are innocent, to go home, then where are you going
Speaker 1: to get the resources to keep this business operating? That
Speaker 1: keeps phone operators on the d m V system in
Speaker 1: some states. Uh, That makes police uniforms, card parts uh.
Speaker 1: And moreover, that provides jobs and also contracts for so
Speaker 1: many including what is the our mark um making the
Speaker 1: uniforms and the food. I mean, there's so much business
Speaker 1: coming out of prisons, and we are the collateral. And
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about it as I sit and I
Speaker 1: listened to you, and then also just coming off of
Speaker 1: a time of quanza, and you know, we're just coming
Speaker 1: off of a time where we should be reflecting. Right.
Speaker 1: We've always been a part of the chattel slavery right mentality,
Speaker 1: and this is what continues to happen today. In fact,
Speaker 1: even the invasion of our land in Africa was all
Speaker 1: about currency. It was all about using black bodies to
Speaker 1: build and to be the currency and the foundation of
Speaker 1: white wealth. UH. And of the power structure of now
Speaker 1: the American government, but there were other governments prior to
Speaker 1: this who have taken advantage of us. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: I agree with you that we've got to educate ourselves.
Speaker 1: We've got to be educated outside of Hookie shouldn't be
Speaker 1: locked up. We've got to know why Hookie is locked
Speaker 1: up and what this system looks like and where that
Speaker 1: comes from. So, you know, that's my my soapbox for
Speaker 1: the day. Thank you for listening to my ted talk um,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate you coming and you know and and
Speaker 1: sharing with us this story of these two brothers, Terrence
Speaker 1: and Pharran, who need to be free. You know, it's
Speaker 1: very clear. And I think that even though I don't
Speaker 1: know you well, I believe just from Shaka being our brother,
Speaker 1: listening to you today, uh, that you wouldn't even be
Speaker 1: involved in this situation if you did not know one
Speaker 1: that these brothers should be free. And that's enough for
Speaker 1: me to feel like we should do all that we
Speaker 1: can to help advocate for you. And the last thing
Speaker 1: I will say is that the clemency piece is important. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: there was so much drama my son and I have
Speaker 1: been involved in Instagram and and well my son does Twitter.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't open Twitter. Every time I open it, I'm traumatized. Um,
Speaker 1: but just just the smell of Twitter or someone saying
Speaker 1: it makes me sick. But we've been involved in these
Speaker 1: online wars about Brittany grind and coming home. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that uh, you know, we have had
Speaker 1: to say to those even our own brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: that question Britney's return and how she was the trade
Speaker 1: that was done in order to get her free is um,
Speaker 1: you know people. Basically, what I've had to say is
Speaker 1: that we as black women have done business with the
Speaker 1: Biden administration. Right. We voted for this administration ninety four
Speaker 1: plus percent and have continuously bailed out the Democrats from
Speaker 1: from Warno twice. Um, maybe even more than that, because
Speaker 1: somewhere they told me warn this is his fifth election.
Speaker 1: I don't know when that happened. But nonetheless, there's been
Speaker 1: at least two big runoff situations that we have had
Speaker 1: to go into Georgia from the activist level to black
Speaker 1: women and then voting for the that candidate. And there's
Speaker 1: been so many races around the country. So we deserved
Speaker 1: Brittany grinder to get free because we said so. So
Speaker 1: the the pardon or sentence come mutation that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: we also should be demanding that in the same way.
Speaker 1: It is not to say Brittany shouldn't be free. What
Speaker 1: it does mean, though, is because we did business with
Speaker 1: the administration and we see that it works, we know
Speaker 1: there's a presidential election coming up, then we ought to
Speaker 1: be exploiting that relationship the same way that they're trying
Speaker 1: to exploit us. We should be doing the same thing
Speaker 1: because this is about American business. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the mindset. The mind frame is how do we use
Speaker 1: the grinder model that they knew they could not leave
Speaker 1: a black woman in jail and or in Russia and
Speaker 1: then still with the elections and come to us demanding
Speaker 1: stuff they knew they couldn't do that, and we need
Speaker 1: to be demanding the same on the other side and
Speaker 1: with other issues. And so, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: that's got to be the message that we're sharing with
Speaker 1: our brothers and sisters who are in community that need to,
Speaker 1: you know, be activated to help with what you're going on.
Speaker 1: And I hold a little you said that, so well,
Speaker 1: I'm just piggyback and at this point, we gotta get
Speaker 1: something for our support. And this to go to your point,
Speaker 1: I just talked with with for RAN's dad and he
Speaker 1: was like, look, why hasn't the Black Caucus in Virginia
Speaker 1: and supported you? He like every time I go there,
Speaker 1: you know, he reminded me of like my grandfather. You know,
Speaker 1: he tried to roll up a couple of dollars and
Speaker 1: stick it in my hand. I'm like, look, thank you, Dad, Like, man,
Speaker 1: let me look, we got it. Man. He like, but
Speaker 1: I don't understand why they ain't help you. And I'll
Speaker 1: just say this. This is a family historically years all
Speaker 1: of their life, they've been told going that booth, punch blue,
Speaker 1: don't matter who behind it, told their grandkids, told all
Speaker 1: of their friends. And they've done that and now here
Speaker 1: they are right. They have the support of a Democratic
Speaker 1: Attorney general who said they're innocent, they should be out
Speaker 1: a republic. Look, he comes in and said, I don't
Speaker 1: care if they're innocent. I'm gonna leave with me. And
Speaker 1: just because I don't like the Democrat who wanted to
Speaker 1: mount Melta Harris Joe Biden, this one on, y'all, we
Speaker 1: need you Terence. If Ron needs you, you don't have
Speaker 1: to exchange nothing at all. Just signed the pardon and
Speaker 1: commute their sentence today. They deserve it. You want to
Speaker 1: say that, I just want to ask one more simple question.
Speaker 1: How long were you incarcerated before you were exonorate? So
Speaker 1: I did ten years in prison. I did almost ten
Speaker 1: years in prison. I was a baby man, I was
Speaker 1: a baby. Then I I sat there and I expected
Speaker 1: the same results in my case, because I know we
Speaker 1: didn't do nothing that I would see on law and
Speaker 1: ordering up now I don't. I don't. I come from
Speaker 1: a very rough neighborhood in Chicago, but my grandmother was
Speaker 1: even rougher. She didn't play that right, and so we
Speaker 1: stayed out the waiting. So when this this allegation against
Speaker 1: me came, my family knew it. They knew what time
Speaker 1: it was. But they also knew this. They also knew
Speaker 1: that I didn't know what I was up against because
Speaker 1: they kept me on the porch talking my life right.
Speaker 1: So when this happened, they knew what was about to happen.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I thought all I had to be
Speaker 1: was innocent, and that was another So when I went
Speaker 1: through this, for those ten years and I'm writing all
Speaker 1: these people, and I come home and I'm being here.
Speaker 1: You ever came home and been introduced to your niece
Speaker 1: or your nephew, You know how difficult that is. You
Speaker 1: know how many brothers come home and they got to
Speaker 1: look through picture albums. I'm looking through a picture album
Speaker 1: one day and I'm flipping through the pictures, my baby, pictures,
Speaker 1: eighth grade, high school. I don't see another picture for
Speaker 1: teen years later in that album. That's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: What I'm doing, I know exactly what it's like. M
Speaker 1: that's that's that's heartfelt and passionate, and you know, I
Speaker 1: definitely understand that. I understand that I felt that. So
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you for the work
Speaker 1: that you're doing and whatever you can, whatever we can do,
Speaker 1: you know, as individuals, as you know this podcast, as
Speaker 1: our organization, whatever we can do, we definitely are here
Speaker 1: for you. Now. You're one of our friends. That's going
Speaker 1: going going, you know joke, we said, everybody here is
Speaker 1: our friend, and you know you're definitely are now one
Speaker 1: of our friends. So please make sure that you utilize
Speaker 1: us whatever situation that you have man and continue to
Speaker 1: do the work because it's God's work that you're doing.
Speaker 1: You know, sometime we turn our pain into our purpose
Speaker 1: and our passion, and that's what is I see that
Speaker 1: you've done. So we salute you. I appreciate you in
Speaker 1: the same applies here as well. Look, they are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who jump on um and give you
Speaker 1: their version of what the law is and and and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I probmise if you, guys ever send
Speaker 1: you an email with a question from the fan base
Speaker 1: who wants to know what true legally supported answer to
Speaker 1: what's going on in court and out. I got y'all.
Speaker 1: Attorney Attorney Jared Adams, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: street politicians. We appreciate you such an insightful interview today
Speaker 1: and you know you certainly, as my son said, can
Speaker 1: utilize us and counting us for our support. Thank you, guys,
Speaker 1: continue to do what you're doing. We need you all voice.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. I don't know if you say
Speaker 1: good interview, because even though he's great in terms of
Speaker 1: how he explains it, and you said it right that
Speaker 1: he has a lot of passion, you know clearly his
Speaker 1: own circumstances. It was a great question that you asked
Speaker 1: how long he had been, uh in prison because for
Speaker 1: some reason in my mind, I thought maybe two years
Speaker 1: or three years. For ten years, that's a long time, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to have served. It's so many people, it's
Speaker 1: just so so such a sad thing that it's not
Speaker 1: just sad, it's maddening. Um. You know, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a crime, it's an in humane it's in humanity, it's
Speaker 1: it's so many things. The amount of people who had
Speaker 1: his story who ten years would have been a cake
Speaker 1: walk for them in terms of what they are doing
Speaker 1: now thirty forty years, you know, and you know all
Speaker 1: the people that we do see getting coming home. I just,
Speaker 1: you know, something in my spirit wants to say that
Speaker 1: or wants to use this as a moment to remember
Speaker 1: the make great Kenneth Thompson, our dear system Sean Thompson's husband. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was the district Attorney in Brooklyn, and even though
Speaker 1: we didn't always agree on different issues, one thing we
Speaker 1: always always always appreciated about Ken Thompson was his thirst
Speaker 1: for freedom and for exoneration. From the day he took
Speaker 1: office until he he died. He was getting people free
Speaker 1: and the good people like him. Just I don't know
Speaker 1: what happens. It's like they don't live long, you know.
Speaker 1: He was that was his big first and passion was
Speaker 1: to get people free. He is known for exonerating so many,
Speaker 1: especially brothers of course of different black backgrounds, also in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: after his predecessor had a whole lot of people locked
Speaker 1: up for primes they didn't commit. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: just I want to see the work of Jarrett Attorney
Speaker 1: Adams and the Innocence Project and Brian Stephenson and you
Speaker 1: know so many who do that work every day, that
Speaker 1: that that work would just be multiplied, definitely. Man, just
Speaker 1: hearing him, he reminded me so much of myself, health
Speaker 1: and passion that I have for just you know, saving
Speaker 1: our people and and and just paying your part. You know,
Speaker 1: after you've been incarcerated, especially willfully accused and incarcerated, you
Speaker 1: have this passion to want to make sure it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen again. You know. So he utilized his time. You know,
Speaker 1: he didn't a lot of time to do him. He
Speaker 1: did the time, and he educated itself and now he's
Speaker 1: able to serve to make sure that what happened to
Speaker 1: him doesn't happen to anybody. Else. So I once again
Speaker 1: I want to say thank you to him, and thank
Speaker 1: you to my brother Shakra for saying, you gotta you
Speaker 1: need to meet this guy, and you guys need to
Speaker 1: talk to him. So shout out to both of them
Speaker 1: that reached me to my I don't get it, you know,
Speaker 1: it was It's been a little time, but I didn't
Speaker 1: really hear anybody talk much about this whole Skip Bayless
Speaker 1: and Demorrow Hamling situation. I don't get how it was
Speaker 1: pretty much just glossed over, you know. And I you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people say, oh, you always want
Speaker 1: to race Bason. I just it's not so much race
Speaker 1: baiting for me, it's just understanding the dynamics that black
Speaker 1: people have to do. I watched Kyrie get hammered about
Speaker 1: the situation that something that he didn't even say, you know,
Speaker 1: something reposed. I watched black athletes, I watched black you know, entertainers.
Speaker 1: I watched black people period who have platforms be hammered
Speaker 1: about things that they say or things that they're even
Speaker 1: attached to. And to watch Skip Baylor's make that tweet
Speaker 1: which was so insensitive while a man was on the
Speaker 1: field being resuscitated, being brought back to life, who's heart
Speaker 1: damn and stopped on the field and him talk about
Speaker 1: just play the game, you know, and knowing that if
Speaker 1: a black man had said that same thing, there would
Speaker 1: have been consequences, every percussions. I just don't get how
Speaker 1: we continue to allow things like that. I don't understand
Speaker 1: how the world wasn't way way more critical. You know.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear any direct apology come from just you know,
Speaker 1: the network people that he worked with. I didn't see
Speaker 1: any consequences. There wasn't no suspension, There wasn't no maybe
Speaker 1: a couple of days off, you know, based on what
Speaker 1: he said. We understand how it affected the family, the
Speaker 1: community that the fans of football, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and it did. It hurt a lot of people, a
Speaker 1: lot of people, like you know what I said, The
Speaker 1: people were harmed, you know. And I didn't see any
Speaker 1: any consequences for And I just don't get that. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't get why it's so clear that there
Speaker 1: is bias in America and everything that has to do
Speaker 1: with you know, black and white and and people of
Speaker 1: color and white people who are in the same positions,
Speaker 1: But yet we act like it's not, you know, and
Speaker 1: we we even as black people, we normalize, right we
Speaker 1: we we've normalize the fact that white people can say
Speaker 1: things and get away with things that we can't, and
Speaker 1: we just call it, you know, business as usual, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think just just looking at that situation and
Speaker 1: then his response, you know, as sharing the shop, you know,
Speaker 1: with the hope that he would take the tweet down
Speaker 1: and the insensitivity of him saying he's not gonna take
Speaker 1: it to run down because he met what he said,
Speaker 1: you know, just standing firm, wrong and strong, and to
Speaker 1: know that you can still go see that tweet and
Speaker 1: you can see that a man was way more interested
Speaker 1: and the game continuing than the actual person who was
Speaker 1: fighting for his life, you know, and and him to
Speaker 1: stand by that and people that he worked for, you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a in the organization speaking about the organization,
Speaker 1: why the NFL didn't see that the call on him
Speaker 1: to do something, you know, it's just so many different
Speaker 1: aspects you know that I really just don't get. But
Speaker 1: you know, I do get it, but I don't get it,
Speaker 1: you know, and I just it was it bothers me.
Speaker 1: It bothers me that our lives, you know, are not
Speaker 1: taking serious. It's not value as much as everybody else's.
Speaker 1: So I'm always gonna say something about it, and people going, oh,
Speaker 1: you wanna right, No, I want to tell the truth.
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem telling the truth, and I
Speaker 1: don't care what comes with the truth. But you know
Speaker 1: that that tweet was insensitive, you know, and his response
Speaker 1: to Shannon for hoping that he would take the tweet
Speaker 1: down was even more insensitive, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: there should have been some level consequence. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he firing man, but there should have been some level
Speaker 1: of suspension and some you know, some level of making
Speaker 1: him be held accountable for seeing something with the platform
Speaker 1: as big as his that was detrimental and it was
Speaker 1: harmful to people. I mean, one thing I will say
Speaker 1: is that I don't know much about this topic because
Speaker 1: obviously the only reason why I, um, you don't even
Speaker 1: knew what was happening was because because of all the
Speaker 1: social media, and it wasn't even um and which I
Speaker 1: think is part of your point. It wasn't even the incident.
Speaker 1: I learned of the incident second to the Skip Bayless tweet,
Speaker 1: like it was more out there in terms of Dio hugely,
Speaker 1: and Matt Barnes and you know, the list goes on
Speaker 1: of individual saying Skip was disgusting for what he tweeted.
Speaker 1: And then after that I actually saw what it was about,
Speaker 1: right because I'm obviously sort of not in the sports
Speaker 1: roof and um and you know, I wasn't as consuming
Speaker 1: as much social media during this time, but I did
Speaker 1: see a lot of people, especially black men, saying that
Speaker 1: his tweet was insensitive, wrong time. In all of that,
Speaker 1: um And I think you're right. I think a lot
Speaker 1: more people who jump to call for black folks to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, apologize, correct atone, repent, bow down. There's so
Speaker 1: many things that you know, we are are are called
Speaker 1: to do whenever I would keep whenever someone is accused
Speaker 1: of harming any other community. Um And I think that
Speaker 1: it's a testament which we talk about all the time,
Speaker 1: to the unity of that community, right and black folks
Speaker 1: have to have the same that we will all or
Speaker 1: not all of us in terms of every single person,
Speaker 1: but that there will be a majority of the major
Speaker 1: are who will say no, and we'll push back together
Speaker 1: because once we do that, we force people to have
Speaker 1: to respect us the same way that other communities, um
Speaker 1: have have really been able to accomplish, which is something
Speaker 1: it's not something for us to uh be upset about.
Speaker 1: We should actually use it as inspiration for what we
Speaker 1: should be doing as a community as well. UM. And
Speaker 1: so you know, hopefully that's that is the message that
Speaker 1: sort of comes out of all of this is how
Speaker 1: do we get to the point as a people where
Speaker 1: he can't even be on TV without not just a
Speaker 1: full apology, but certainly removing the tweet, right, because if
Speaker 1: you're there, then we as a people will hurt your
Speaker 1: numbers by not watching your network, and that particular show
Speaker 1: will lose ratings and also any responses they have will
Speaker 1: be will receive uh letters of demand, calls and everything.
Speaker 1: Because there is a way to force people, unfortunately into
Speaker 1: doing what is right. I don't want to say submission,
Speaker 1: because we certainly don't like when it feels like that
Speaker 1: for us, but certainly force them into doing what's right
Speaker 1: or force them to have to exist stage left. And
Speaker 1: so hopefully that's what we learned from this whole ordeal.
Speaker 1: And thank god, uh the young man is doing better. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, smiling has his faculties, he's alive, he's talking.
Speaker 1: That's really really like whoa, because I just I mean,
Speaker 1: after what I saw, I just didn't know that he
Speaker 1: was gonna make it. Yeah it was. It was rough
Speaker 1: Man and it was. And I think that's even more
Speaker 1: the reason why I just think, you know, we as
Speaker 1: a community, we as people just good moral fiber and
Speaker 1: and people of integrity, should just you know, say hey,
Speaker 1: Skip that that tweet needs to come down, so you
Speaker 1: know that that's something that I would like to see.
Speaker 1: I would like to see us being together as a community.
Speaker 1: And that's just people just a good, good, good heart
Speaker 1: saying that the treets should come down. And with that said,
Speaker 1: we come to the end of another episode of the
Speaker 1: number one podcast in the world. Street Politicians Probably make
Speaker 1: sure that you tune in. We appreciate you guys. You know,
Speaker 1: um send us your requests, send us your input, let
Speaker 1: us know what you want us to talk about. Let
Speaker 1: us know how much you love us, let us know
Speaker 1: how much you hate us. As Free Politicians pod on
Speaker 1: Instagram d M must you know, we just want to
Speaker 1: say thank you for always supporting us. We couldn't be
Speaker 1: number one without you, guys, Oh my god, we could
Speaker 1: be number We are working being I understand manifestation, but
Speaker 1: I also know how people's minds work, and how black
Speaker 1: people's minds work, specifically, and they think something is already done,
Speaker 1: they don't feel like they have to work to help you.
Speaker 1: I know that black people want to be a tough
Speaker 1: part of the winning team, so when they jump. But
Speaker 1: we still need to make sure that people know that
Speaker 1: we're doing really, really well. It's the first year show
Speaker 1: of three. That's a new year. Thankfully we have survived
Speaker 1: with our Black Effect UM Podcast Network contract and we're
Speaker 1: back again for another season another year UM. But we
Speaker 1: do need people to continue to download our podcasts and
Speaker 1: to support us, to help us uh to really really
Speaker 1: be number one on the charts. Now. We're certainly number
Speaker 1: one in the hearts of so many UM, but there's
Speaker 1: work to be done to move us to the top
Speaker 1: of the podcast charts. You know. I was reading some
Speaker 1: research recently that's talked about UM. You know, black folks
Speaker 1: and how they consume information and podcasts is certainly one
Speaker 1: of the growing areas. It's not the first yet, but
Speaker 1: it is becoming that and so so many more of
Speaker 1: us need to turn podcasts on and listen to great
Speaker 1: content of all sorts on Black Effect Network. Podcast network
Speaker 1: has so many different types of podcasts. They've got the
Speaker 1: gossip girls, they've got the people talk about sex, hip hop, sports, um,
Speaker 1: the culture, politics, um, you know, all kinds of issues.
Speaker 1: And you could just literally pop on a podcast and
Speaker 1: listen while you're cleaning up, while you're you know, in
Speaker 1: your car. And so please look at podcasts as a
Speaker 1: form of information because there's so much and there's so
Speaker 1: many good ones. You know, so many podcasts that are
Speaker 1: out there, not just on this network, but lots of
Speaker 1: podcasts and lots of YouTube content where you can actually
Speaker 1: see visuals yea. And and we were voted in the
Speaker 1: top seven most important. We were number eight of twelve
Speaker 1: I think number eight of twelve or something like that,
Speaker 1: like eight of twenty five or twenty I don't I
Speaker 1: don't remember, but it was Essence Podcast and we were
Speaker 1: in the number of top black podcasts that are on
Speaker 1: the air right now. That's us Street Politicians. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna always be right, Jamika Mary is not gonna
Speaker 1: always be wrong, but we will both always and I
Speaker 1: mean always be authentic. We're coming for the number one spot.
Speaker 1: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on
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