Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: rams is Jah.
Speaker 2: They call me q wardon it just so happens to
Speaker 2: be my name, and that the truth and today we
Speaker 2: have a lot to talk about. Seems to always be
Speaker 2: the case in today's climate. It life itself continues to
Speaker 2: give us very very important things to talk about and
Speaker 2: to touch on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and of course today is no exception. You know,
Speaker 1: we haven't been able to do it just yet. But well,
Speaker 1: first off, Happy Halloween everyone. I'm gonna start off on
Speaker 1: a positive note here. I hope everyone is safe and
Speaker 1: has a good time out there. If you're gonna do
Speaker 1: whatever you're gonna do, stay safe. But for today's show,
Speaker 1: we need to discuss something that we've hadn't been able
Speaker 1: to touch on just yet, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: about ice cube and ice Cubes working with the Trump
Speaker 1: administration and what that means. Another thing I want to
Speaker 1: touch on, of course, is Walter Wallace Junior. If you
Speaker 1: don't know, he is a young man who was killed
Speaker 1: by police a few days ago in Philadelphia. I want
Speaker 1: to say they shot him maybe eight or ten times
Speaker 1: something like that. There's more to the story, of course,
Speaker 1: so stick around. We're definitely going to touch on that
Speaker 1: and a couple of other things. But first order of business,
Speaker 1: this is a homegrown story that made national news, at
Speaker 1: least homegrown for Qan and myself being from Phoenix, or
Speaker 1: rather from Arizona. We're going to talk about a realtor
Speaker 1: in scott Stille, in neighboring city here to Phoenix in Arizona,
Speaker 1: a realtor who declared himself to be openly racist. And
Speaker 1: I think that it kind of I think this story
Speaker 1: really illuminates how folks can carry some really strange sentiments,
Speaker 1: some really hateful and hurtful sentiments and you not even
Speaker 1: know it and proudly yeah exactly. So before I get
Speaker 1: into telling this story, I want to tell you a
Speaker 1: little bit about the background of Arizona and the folks
Speaker 1: that live here. So Arizona is still very much the
Speaker 1: wild West. Arizona is one of those places that you
Speaker 1: can walk around with a gun on your hip or
Speaker 1: wherever you want to carry it openly, where everyone can
Speaker 1: see it and be intimidated or afraid of it, and
Speaker 1: no one will do a thing. Now, there's lots of
Speaker 1: places they can do that. This is the United States.
Speaker 1: There is a second Amendment, But Arizona is very much
Speaker 1: one of those places, and there is this there's still
Speaker 1: this cowboy energy in the way uh in the in
Speaker 1: the way of like almost like cowboys versus Indians. These
Speaker 1: aren't the cowboys that are the heroes in everyone's mind.
Speaker 1: These are the cowboys that are the heroes in their
Speaker 1: own mind. Now in Arizona, if you're not familiar, there's
Speaker 1: very much in certain parts of the state, in the
Speaker 1: in the city, in Phoenix where we live, and in
Speaker 1: Old Town Scott still very much is celebration of Native culture,
Speaker 1: native history, just the lay of the land. You can't
Speaker 1: really get away from it. It's beautiful and lots of
Speaker 1: folks really appreciate the aesthetic. But in terms of the
Speaker 1: the architecture, in terms of the infrastructure, in terms of
Speaker 1: the attitudes, it's very much a celebration of cowboys conquering
Speaker 1: the land, you know, frontiersmen pioneering the West and taking
Speaker 1: over lands and staking their claim, et cetera. And I
Speaker 1: think that that energy still persists to this day. And
Speaker 1: the reason I wanted to tell you that is so
Speaker 1: you understand and the backdrop for the story of this
Speaker 1: racist real term Now, if you haven't seen the video,
Speaker 1: I employ you to watch it. You can check out
Speaker 1: civicsipher dot com or you can check out any of
Speaker 1: our social media at Civic Cipher. The video is still
Speaker 1: up and you'll see an Asian man approaching a black
Speaker 1: man and they have it out. But for those who
Speaker 1: haven't seen the video, I'll paint a picture for you.
Speaker 1: There are there's one black man who's being filmed by
Speaker 1: another black man, and.
Speaker 2: There are the young man is a social media influencer
Speaker 2: if you will, or a big YouTuber. Sure, so he's just.
Speaker 1: Capturing some content for his channel. Of course, I g
Speaker 1: for his social media and this is this is important
Speaker 1: to the story. He's he just moved to Arizona. My understandings,
Speaker 1: he moved recently to Arizona to Scottsdale from Michigan. That's
Speaker 1: important to the story. But I want to take a
Speaker 1: sidebar real quick. Lots of folks come here from Detroit,
Speaker 1: Michigan or Michigan at large. Estate Q is one of
Speaker 1: those people, indeed, and I know that when you come
Speaker 1: to Arizona from Michigan, it's a whole new world. Like
Speaker 1: Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
Speaker 2: There's no better way to explain it than that it's
Speaker 2: a whole new world, just like Aladdin and just like
Speaker 2: Princess Jasmine.
Speaker 1: Gentlemen, so taking pictures should be normal for someone who
Speaker 1: comes from a place like that to flex like this.
Speaker 2: Not even like not even something that you have to
Speaker 2: think about as soon as you, oh, my goodness, what.
Speaker 1: Is exactly grab a picture? So and I want to
Speaker 1: further suggest to anybody, think in your own mind, if
Speaker 1: these two men were not black, if they were less mellenated,
Speaker 1: they would be regarded as tourists taking photos full stop.
Speaker 1: But because they're black, I think the ready assumption from
Speaker 1: the Asian man that's not necessarily important to the story,
Speaker 1: but it helps to distinguish the two parties involved regards
Speaker 1: them as criminal, I think, largely because they're mellenated, or
Speaker 1: only because they're mellenated, as you'll find out as the sorios.
Speaker 1: So what happens is these guys are minding their business,
Speaker 1: taking their pictures or doing their videos or whatever, and
Speaker 1: they get approached by the older Asian man who walks
Speaker 1: up to them and asks them what they're doing. They respond,
Speaker 1: you know, we're taking pictures, but why are you taking
Speaker 1: pictures of us, leading us the viewer to believe that
Speaker 1: the Asian man had been taking pictures of them prior
Speaker 1: to his walking up to them. Afterwards, the Asian man
Speaker 1: suggests something like, well, we've had some trouble around here,
Speaker 1: you know, something like that, and he's and you know,
Speaker 1: do you guys live out here? And the guy say, yeah,
Speaker 1: we live here. You know we're not. We live here.
Speaker 1: We're doing fine, and then says back to the Asian man,
Speaker 1: you're you're aware that you know of all these stories
Speaker 1: happening with white folks harassing black folks for no reason,
Speaker 1: and and he says, all these racist white folks says
Speaker 1: something like that, and the Asian man says, well, I'm racist.
Speaker 1: Never heard anything like that before. This is so calm
Speaker 1: about it, but yeah, if you watch a video, he says.
Speaker 2: It sure enough, proclaimed it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then afterwards declares Scottsdale to be a either
Speaker 1: a inward free zone or a no no in word zone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he didn't say in word. He hit it with
Speaker 1: the hard R, the hard R e R. There you go.
Speaker 1: So when you see this this video, if you're black,
Speaker 1: it hits how it hits. You know, it's it's that
Speaker 1: that video is not gonna be the first time you
Speaker 1: hear that word in your life. If your parents did
Speaker 1: right by you to prepare you for it, so you
Speaker 1: have the mental fortitude to endure those sorts of situations.
Speaker 1: But if you're not a black person hearing someone wheeled
Speaker 1: that word so freely, you know, maybe maybe you're used
Speaker 1: to it, maybe happens in your family, or maybe you're
Speaker 1: appalled and you didn't realize that someone would just walk
Speaker 1: up to a black person and just say that to them.
Speaker 1: But that's what happened. And the gentlemen that were getting
Speaker 1: the content for their channel, for the most part, kept
Speaker 1: their composure. It didn't get physical or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but they obviously had to exchange some words, told the
Speaker 1: old guy to walk away, and then they went and
Speaker 1: filmed the River Outpost store or something like that, and
Speaker 1: leading us to believe that that that guy worked at
Speaker 1: the River Outpost or River Store whatever.
Speaker 2: And to be clear, he gave them the impression that
Speaker 2: that's that's where he worked, that was his place of business.
Speaker 1: Sure, so I do want to say to everyone listening
Speaker 1: that if you watch the video, the River place is
Speaker 1: not where this guy works. But they do still need
Speaker 1: to really check their position on that Blue Shirts matter
Speaker 1: flag they have hanging up in the window. But he
Speaker 1: it turned out that he worked at Sotheby's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, worked past tense, past tense worked.
Speaker 1: So before we get into that, I want to ask
Speaker 1: you Q when you first saw that, what went through
Speaker 1: your head?
Speaker 2: Initial confusion? The perpetrator, the the gentleman who's no longer
Speaker 2: employed is an Asian man in a Erica and the
Speaker 2: measuring of plights, the comparison of wrongdoings is needless. But
Speaker 2: there are several groups of people historically that have been
Speaker 2: treated bad by this country, and for another minority to
Speaker 2: adopt that position is always confusing. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it comes from hate or misinformation or ignorance or a
Speaker 2: combination of the three, but it always catches me off guard.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what gave That's what helped that
Speaker 2: young man not respond in a far worse way, because
Speaker 2: you kind of have to laugh to yourself, like, man,
Speaker 2: so another brainwashed.
Speaker 1: One, huh right.
Speaker 2: Like I understand the position of the oppressor, like they're
Speaker 2: the oppressor. They benefit largely from this, But from someone
Speaker 2: who's also been under the thumb to think this way.
Speaker 2: They got you, you brain you brainwashed. I forgive you.
Speaker 2: I should punch you in your face, but I forgive you.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy that he didn't Actually.
Speaker 2: The fact that he didn't even really raise his voice
Speaker 2: excuse me in response impressed me. Yeah, because I don't
Speaker 2: know that I could have maintained the calm in that way,
Speaker 2: and if I did, putting myself in that position, it
Speaker 2: would have to be from that. It's not your fault,
Speaker 2: you know, to forgive them for they know not what
Speaker 2: they do. Kind of thing like, oh man, they got
Speaker 2: you too.
Speaker 1: Huh. Poor guy.
Speaker 2: More feeling sorry from him for him than enraged by him.
Speaker 1: So there's something that a lot of folks, thankfully will
Speaker 1: never fully be able to appreciate, and that black folks
Speaker 1: have a special appreciation of. Appreciation is not the best
Speaker 1: word in this case, but we're going to roll with it.
Speaker 1: And that is the weight of the N word. When
Speaker 1: it's on the lips of someone who is not black
Speaker 1: and you are black, that is something that you can
Speaker 1: there's almost like a tactile component there. You can feel
Speaker 1: that in a way that almost translates to like physical pain.
Speaker 2: It's well, it's definitely weaponized right absolutely now.
Speaker 1: Now those things need to be in place, because we'll say,
Speaker 1: for instance, if Q were to say something like that
Speaker 1: to me, and you understand, you know, that's between the
Speaker 1: two of us, given the right intonations and the right relationship,
Speaker 1: or you know, a lot of times you don't even
Speaker 1: need a relationship. It just sounds familiar and familial. But
Speaker 1: you know, change one little bit about it and it
Speaker 1: becomes you know, it is something that again just kind
Speaker 1: of elicits a response that is very difficult to put
Speaker 1: into words. And I understand that a lot of folks
Speaker 1: who are not black have a difficult time understanding why
Speaker 1: a word could matter so much, And I want to
Speaker 1: take a moment to talk about that and to get
Speaker 1: your thoughts on it as well, Q. But for myself,
Speaker 1: what I want to say is if I knew nothing
Speaker 1: else and I was raised in an environment where that
Speaker 1: word didn't exist, and then all of a sudden I
Speaker 1: heard it, it wouldn't matter to me at all. The
Speaker 1: word itself does not have magic powers. It's not a
Speaker 1: call to black folks, you know, it doesn't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: cause melanin to you know, respond at the frequently you know,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. But I think that at least for me,
Speaker 1: understanding that people human beings who wore this beautiful color
Speaker 1: that God or the universe or whatever it is you
Speaker 1: choose to believe in, chose to paint me. To know
Speaker 1: that that was the last word that many of them
Speaker 1: heard during their lifetime, as they were ripped apart by horses,
Speaker 1: as they were set on fire, and on and on.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into that. That's heavy, but
Speaker 1: to know that, to know that I am the product,
Speaker 1: I'm the result of a proud group of people where
Speaker 1: that word was deliberately wielded over them to keep them
Speaker 1: oppressed too. And in a lot of ways, the people
Speaker 1: wielding that word really took it as truth that these
Speaker 1: were in fact ignorant people. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: you're listening to my voice right now or not, but
Speaker 1: you can tell that I'm not an ignorant person. You
Speaker 1: might not be able to tell that I'm black as Vans,
Speaker 1: a black Midnight, a Spades black. You know, that's how
Speaker 1: we do over here. But I will say that it's
Speaker 1: very important to know that, at least for me in
Speaker 1: my home, that is not a word that we use
Speaker 1: ingest or in a familiar capacity or not. That's not
Speaker 1: a word that my son's here, because I don't see
Speaker 1: in words. When I look at my children, I see kings.
Speaker 1: But I also recognize that it's up to them and
Speaker 1: everyone who gets to wear this pretty color that God
Speaker 1: chose to paint me, to decide how they want their
Speaker 1: story to be written and how they want that word
Speaker 1: to be chronicled in their lives. And so while I
Speaker 1: can't dedicate a whole show to just one word, I
Speaker 1: do want to take that moment to explain to folks
Speaker 1: who might not get the gravity of it, at least
Speaker 1: a little bit of that gravity in my life. What
Speaker 1: do you think?
Speaker 2: I think there is too much nuance to it for
Speaker 2: us to cover it all.
Speaker 1: Sure there are. There are.
Speaker 2: Other examples of words that were made to harm, meant
Speaker 2: to hurt, meant to insult, being co opted by the
Speaker 2: person who was supposed to be insulted by it, Like
Speaker 2: the way that women use the B word to and
Speaker 2: with each other as almost a term of endearment now,
Speaker 2: whereas in once upon a time you couldn't levy a
Speaker 2: heavier insult than that. Again, the way that it's said
Speaker 2: and who says it matters.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So I won't.
Speaker 2: I won't take up too much of our time because
Speaker 2: there is so much nuance. We would almost have to
Speaker 2: we would almost have to have an entire show about that,
Speaker 2: which I don't want to do. I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: My family is from the South. My mother's from Making, Georgia,
Speaker 2: Bibb County, Georgia, the South South, and you and I
Speaker 2: we did a show about our experiences in Mississippi. Imagine
Speaker 2: that tone, that accent, and that voice wielding that word
Speaker 2: towards us, and how much different it would feel than
Speaker 2: when a rapper says it in a song. A lot
Speaker 2: of people like to point to, well, why do they
Speaker 2: say it? And how come they say it? And they
Speaker 2: shouldn't say it, and those opinions vary, and you know,
Speaker 2: everyone's allowed to have their opinion. Like I said, there's
Speaker 2: far too much nuance, and I don't have the time
Speaker 2: to really dig into it the way that I should.
Speaker 2: But the word has, in a familiar form, been co
Speaker 2: opted by those who were supposed to be insulted by
Speaker 2: it and flipped to a term of endearment in the
Speaker 2: way that you know your favorite female rapper will call
Speaker 2: herself a bad B word as a big up or
Speaker 2: a compliment to herself when you know the word was
Speaker 2: intended to be an insult. And how people feel when
Speaker 2: they hear it varies from person to person, So you know,
Speaker 2: it's a conversation to be had, but.
Speaker 1: That's a big one.
Speaker 2: There is a very very tangible feeling. Oh yeah, hearing
Speaker 2: that word used the way that man used it, even
Speaker 2: when he's not talking to you, because he is, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because he is talking to you.
Speaker 1: I saw you paint with broad strokes, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So well, to continue with the story, you
Speaker 1: know us, you know, we have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a community here in Phoenix, black folks and allies, as
Speaker 1: most cities do. And so we got to we got
Speaker 1: to hold the video and we got to share in
Speaker 1: that video, and then you know, some of the bigger
Speaker 1: platforms Sean King, TMZ on and on and on, everyone
Speaker 1: started sharing that video. And personally, I happen to know
Speaker 1: some folks that work for the Arizona Board of Realtors
Speaker 1: or some something like some important real realtor association here
Speaker 1: in Arizona. But I have a friend that works very
Speaker 1: closely with him, and so I found out early on
Speaker 1: when the River Trading Post said that you know, he
Speaker 1: didn't work there, that he actually worked for Sothebys, which
Speaker 1: is a luxury real estate agency.
Speaker 2: If you've been to Arizona, Scottsdale, Phoenix, if you ride
Speaker 2: from Phoenix east on Camelback, almost every sign you see
Speaker 2: for every nice home that you see will be this
Speaker 2: particular company.
Speaker 1: So they immediately denounced that behavior and put up a
Speaker 1: bunch of multicultural photos of their employees, and they fired
Speaker 1: him immediately, and then came back with the second post
Speaker 1: saying that they recommended that his real estate license be revoked.
Speaker 1: So I was not the only person looking to ensure
Speaker 1: that his license was revoked. I got back word a
Speaker 1: little early that it was revoked, and then I heard
Speaker 1: that he had been arrested for disorderly conduct. And so
Speaker 1: for those of us who believe that we are all
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters on this planet, in this country, in
Speaker 1: this city, or in your city, wherever you are listening
Speaker 1: to this, you know, we'll call that a win. You know,
Speaker 1: I do believe that there should be forgiveness built into
Speaker 1: every conversation. A lot of folks disagree with me there,
Speaker 1: but I think in this story. I'll call it a
Speaker 1: win because this man didn't lose his life and he
Speaker 1: got a chance to learn a lesson. And what's more
Speaker 1: important is that people who maybe feel the way that
Speaker 1: he feels, understand now perhaps a little further than they
Speaker 1: did in the past, that maybe there are some consequences
Speaker 1: if you get caught doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 2: The very interesting thing that you unintentionally left out is
Speaker 2: that him approaching them, on its face, is not a crime.
Speaker 2: Him approaching them, him being a racist, him just approaching
Speaker 2: them because they're black, him expressing that he thinks there
Speaker 2: might be a problem, of course, because they're black. All
Speaker 2: of that's fine. It's the use of that word that
Speaker 2: made it criminal. Yeah, that's important to point out, especially
Speaker 2: because there are places you can't do that where they're
Speaker 2: still trying to make hate crimes actual crimes.
Speaker 1: It's not illegal to do a hate crime, or it's
Speaker 1: not classified as I hate.
Speaker 2: Correct, So you know, maybe the classification might need some specification.
Speaker 2: But the use of that word is what made his
Speaker 2: actions criminal, not just him being a jerk.
Speaker 1: Indeed, so again, happy ending there, and well as as
Speaker 1: happy an ending as you can expect given the circumstances.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone walked away. Everything's good lesson learned hopefully
Speaker 1: by not just the man who lost his job, but
Speaker 1: by again folks who were would observe that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, like the other companies around there, they recognize, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, these guys are better allies. These guys
Speaker 1: meaning black folks and black allies, are better allies to
Speaker 1: us and our our interest as a business than you know, enemies.
Speaker 1: And maybe they might rethink their blue shirts matter stance
Speaker 1: and et cetera.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna have that conversation one day too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, it'll come. It'll come. We got an
Speaker 1: election coming up still, so see where the chips lie.
Speaker 2: Looking forward to that. That's next week, by the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but oh it's this coming week, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well yeah, this week? So anyway, ice Cube, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. If you are like me, you
Speaker 1: grew up listening to ice Cube, and ice Cube was
Speaker 1: the coolest and he was mister f the police and.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: From there to here?
Speaker 1: Sure, wow, and on and on and you know, then
Speaker 1: he made his family movies and so forth, and you know,
Speaker 1: he pops up every so often. But you know, he
Speaker 1: remember he did that. He had a time where he
Speaker 1: was like doing the Warp tour and he was like
Speaker 1: on stage with all the rock and roll guys and
Speaker 1: he was trying to play in that field a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you know, he's he's big enough, and he's from California,
Speaker 1: and I'm from I was born in California. I call
Speaker 1: myself from Phoenix, but I was born in California, and
Speaker 1: so he was always very much a hero in my book. Well,
Speaker 1: that very same ice Cube put together some sort of
Speaker 1: resolution forgive me not this unprepared but I forget the
Speaker 1: name of.
Speaker 2: It, contract with Black America.
Speaker 1: That's why I keep you around, because you know stuff. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So ice Cube has this contract with Black America and
Speaker 1: he's working with the Trump administration, and that's on its face,
Speaker 1: sounds ridiculous because ice Cube is one of the heroes
Speaker 1: that would really speak, you know. Ice Cube is Muslim,
Speaker 1: you know, and and Muslims are one of the first
Speaker 1: groups that Donald Trump insulted, you know, and ice Cube
Speaker 1: is one of the.
Speaker 2: First groups he insulted as president. He started insulting black people.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, long time, I think it was.
Speaker 1: He came out the wound and that was probably a
Speaker 1: long time right after he started crawling anyway. You know,
Speaker 1: So a long story short, ice Cube is the one
Speaker 1: person that you don't imagine would end up working with Donald.
Speaker 2: Trump, especially because he said it, yeah he self, he
Speaker 2: he self said it now that he would never.
Speaker 1: Now, well, let me hear your thoughts on this first.
Speaker 1: So here's problem, real quick, real quick, real quick. If
Speaker 1: you're just tuning in, this is Civic Cipher. I'm ramses Jah.
Speaker 2: My name is Quentin, but they call me q Ward.
Speaker 1: And right now we're going to talk about ice Cube
Speaker 1: working with the Trump administration. Okay, your thoughts.
Speaker 2: The idea that black people are a singular monolith community
Speaker 2: is on its face, hilarious to me. Sure we do
Speaker 2: not all think, feel, or act the same. So ice
Speaker 2: Cube without even having a meeting with those who would
Speaker 2: present themselves as more informed, the president of the NAACP,
Speaker 2: for instance, or someone the former president Barack Obama, someone
Speaker 2: who at least by profession, spends their time in this field,
Speaker 2: working at least and in part for the Black community.
Speaker 2: Because as a singular I just really think that's short sighted.
Speaker 2: But if you're going to speak for all of us,
Speaker 2: how about you sit down with some of us first, right,
Speaker 2: and then if you're going to present these things as
Speaker 2: in exchange, we're going to sit at the negotiating table,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to push forth these things that I want,
Speaker 2: maybe make sure that the people that you're tearing down
Speaker 2: haven't already presented those same things, right, Because there's things
Speaker 2: in this contract with Black America that he's presenting to
Speaker 2: Donald Trump that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have already
Speaker 2: spoken to. So then you seem incredibly uninformed, incredibly unprepared
Speaker 2: to present yourself as the leader of said cause when
Speaker 2: just simply clicking on Google a cuple It's a couple
Speaker 2: of times could have made you better prepared. Sure, So
Speaker 2: there's that first, right, if your ice cube, if you're
Speaker 2: Ramsy's Jay, if you're a q ward, if you're going
Speaker 2: to speak for all of us, first talk to some
Speaker 2: of us and then educate yourself so that the stance
Speaker 2: that you're taking isn't completely off base. Secondly, are we
Speaker 2: still trying to convince ourselves that this gentleman cares about
Speaker 2: anyone other than himself and by this gentleman, I mean
Speaker 2: our president, Like, are you are we sincerely still trying
Speaker 2: to convince ourselves that there's a slither of decency and
Speaker 2: that we could actually sit and have a conversation with
Speaker 2: him that would yield some type of progressive outcome for
Speaker 2: anyone other than him and people that think like him,
Speaker 2: and people that are very very well off like him.
Speaker 2: Because I think once upon a time people thought that, right,
Speaker 2: there were several black celebrities scene in his presence, and
Speaker 2: people thought, well, maybe those people are just trying to
Speaker 2: get a seat at the table and trying to express
Speaker 2: themselves and something's going to come of it. We have
Speaker 2: yet to learn that for him, it's just a photo op.
Speaker 2: You just give him someone else to point to as
Speaker 2: an ally, to say, hey, look how racist. I'm not
Speaker 2: look at my black friend over here. What's your name,
Speaker 2: black friend?
Speaker 1: I can't my African American, my African American.
Speaker 2: At some point we have to, I mean, we've been
Speaker 2: so conditioned to forgive and to turn the other cheek
Speaker 2: and to look and hope for the best outcomes, And
Speaker 2: in that way, I think we might be singular as
Speaker 2: a community. Right. The fact that hundreds of years have
Speaker 2: passed and there's been no Black uprising in the way
Speaker 2: that we just out here seeking revenge. Because even the
Speaker 2: Black Panther Party wasn't hitting the streets looking for revenge.
Speaker 2: We were just demanding equality. We were demanding your minimums,
Speaker 2: the things that you just automatically assume you're gonna get.
Speaker 2: We have to arm ourselves and demand them.
Speaker 1: But that's it.
Speaker 2: Even when taking arms and organizing as a militant group,
Speaker 2: we still didn't hit the streets for payback. Even now,
Speaker 2: we don't spend a lot of time talking about reparations,
Speaker 2: mostly because I think we just think it's impossible and
Speaker 2: it's never gonna happen. But secondly because we're not even
Speaker 2: trying to. We don't want you to pay us back.
Speaker 2: Just let us live.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 2: Lives matter.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: You can stop there as a period after that. Not
Speaker 2: black lives are better, not black lives are more important.
Speaker 1: Certainly not blue shirts, you know what I mean. We
Speaker 1: just want to matter.
Speaker 2: The fact that people even argue the merits of that
Speaker 2: as an organization or a statement, how on earth is
Speaker 2: that a controversial thing to say?
Speaker 1: Crazy?
Speaker 2: So we're not supposed to be heard or feel betrayed
Speaker 2: when someone like ice Cube, who we've revered and looked
Speaker 2: up to our whole lives. Makes this kind of decision
Speaker 2: because he's just a celebrity, and why are we so
Speaker 2: invested in them? But let's be honest, we are so
Speaker 2: invested in them. Watching ice Cube succeed and thrive is
Speaker 2: something that we all take personal. That's why we went
Speaker 2: to see Friday.
Speaker 1: We wanted to see his baby in the NWA, and.
Speaker 2: That's why we went to see straight out of compety
Speaker 2: and shouts to his son. Man, he's brilliant, He's incredible.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, all of these things hurt me
Speaker 2: ice CEI and other people that I know personally having
Speaker 2: a stance.
Speaker 1: So Little pump.
Speaker 2: I said that I just almost unplugged my mic.
Speaker 1: So listen, listen, I'm being funny. I'm being funny. Well,
Speaker 1: in the case of fifty cent and Little Pump, what
Speaker 1: they said, while extremely nearsighted, short sighted, selfish, hurtful, was
Speaker 1: based on the fact that they make so much more
Speaker 1: than four hundred thousand dollars in a year that it
Speaker 1: was a fiscal position or posture on their part.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people voted for this current guy
Speaker 2: for fiscal financial reasons, right.
Speaker 1: And my understanding is that his his opposition, Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: will tax only the four hundred thousand and first dollar
Speaker 1: and above heavily. So if anybody makes less than that,
Speaker 1: or your first four hundred grand, that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: taxed at the normal rate or the standing rate. And
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about that stuff, but that that
Speaker 1: explains fifty cent a little pump. I do want to
Speaker 1: talk about ice Cube though, so I I'm not playing
Speaker 1: Devil's advocate advocate here, but I do want to kind
Speaker 1: of paint a little bit of the other side of
Speaker 1: the picture because I saw him explain what he was
Speaker 1: trying to do. So, uh, ice Cube said that his
Speaker 1: plan what's the name of.
Speaker 2: It again, contract with Black America?
Speaker 1: Very good, awesome. So the contract with Black America, I'm
Speaker 1: so glad. You know so much more stuff than me.
Speaker 1: It's not true. So ice cubes contract with Black America,
Speaker 1: he says, is something that he would have worked or
Speaker 1: discussed rather with the Biden campaign as well as the
Speaker 1: Trump administration, as well as anyone willing to sit down
Speaker 1: and have that conversation with him. And he says that
Speaker 1: the Biden administration says, yes, we do want to have
Speaker 1: that conversation with you. We want to review it, we
Speaker 1: want to go overton et cetera. But let's do it
Speaker 1: after the election, whereas the Trump campaign had less in
Speaker 1: the way of a contract with Black of America, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was convenient. This is me putting it together.
Speaker 1: He didn't say this, let me finish. He I'm putting
Speaker 1: it together. Donald Trump had to go to Georgia. And
Speaker 1: my understanding is Georgia sometimes could go this way, sometimes
Speaker 1: could go that way in terms of how they vote.
Speaker 1: Not not really, not really, So it's always read Georgia
Speaker 1: and Florida. You don't you don't typically have to wonder
Speaker 1: which way they're going. Okay, well, and I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: not you know, it's not one hundred percent outcomes. But well,
Speaker 1: in any event, Donald Trump was going to go to Georgia,
Speaker 1: and I think that's where he first unveiled his I
Speaker 1: don't know, five hundred billion dollar plan to help out
Speaker 1: Black America, which my understanding is somehow based at least
Speaker 1: in part on his conversations that he had with ice Cube.
Speaker 1: So the way it looks to me, based on all
Speaker 1: of these things that are largely unrelated, as I string
Speaker 1: them together. Is ice Cube sat down with Donald Trump
Speaker 1: only because he could not sit down with the Biden
Speaker 1: administration because they wouldn't grant him an audience until after
Speaker 1: the election. Ice Cube was able to get off some
Speaker 1: of his ideas. Trump used them in the same way
Speaker 1: that he used of the photo ops and so forth
Speaker 1: to kind of bolst or his his speech going into Atlanta,
Speaker 1: where there's a huge black population, to effectively try to
Speaker 1: convert some folks who black folks who might have been
Speaker 1: on the fence by speaking to black issues with a
Speaker 1: dollar sign attached to his message. And so I see
Speaker 1: Donald Trump using ice Cube. I see ice Cube certainly
Speaker 1: a kind of falling for the okie dope, the same
Speaker 1: one that Kanye and you know, you've seen that picture
Speaker 1: of all the people praying for Donald Trump in the
Speaker 1: Oval office and all this, all these sorts of things
Speaker 1: where it's just you know, this dude. In any event,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too deep into it anyway,
Speaker 1: So I see ice Cube sort of falling in that
Speaker 1: same cycle. But after watching him say his piece, I
Speaker 1: do kind of feel like he was well intentioned, and
Speaker 1: I do feel like ice Cube was because you got
Speaker 1: to think it takes time to put together, you know,
Speaker 1: a plan like that takes time and then to work on,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. And then worst case scenario if now
Speaker 1: I'm not defending ice Cube at all, you know me,
Speaker 1: and everybody listening knows me. I'm not trying to sit
Speaker 1: down with nobody even remotely close to that man. But
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, if Donald Trump wins this election or
Speaker 1: otherwise refuses to you know whatever, ice Cube has put
Speaker 1: some paperwork in front of him that he can refer to.
Speaker 1: If you know, the streets get get rowdy after this election,
Speaker 1: you know, he can start you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a framework there. Because Donald Trump has not lived
Speaker 1: a black life, has no idea what issues affect black folks.
Speaker 1: He what does he say? What have you got to lose?
Speaker 1: What does he say? I'm the best president? What is he?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm so nearsighted. Listen.
Speaker 2: This is the problem. Once Donald Trump wins, right, if
Speaker 2: that's the outcome, he doesn't need black support anymore, so
Speaker 2: he has no incentive to see anything through that he
Speaker 2: told ice Cube that he might or might not do
Speaker 2: with regard to black people. It's not happening, right, you guys,
Speaker 2: act like he wasn't just the president. He's not the
Speaker 2: president right now, he's running ads about this America that
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's going to have us living in, using footage
Speaker 2: of the America that he has us living in. Like,
Speaker 2: at some point, we can't be simpletons, ice Cube, you're
Speaker 2: too intelligent to believe that this man is going to
Speaker 2: honor anything that doesn't serve him, pretending that he cares
Speaker 2: to get reelected. Sure, but he's not gonna win. And
Speaker 2: they say, Okay, I'm the second term president. Now let's build. Now,
Speaker 2: Now let's get these black folks together. Now, let's help
Speaker 2: these black people.
Speaker 1: Let's get them kids out of them cages.
Speaker 2: You know, now he's not gonna he's not gonna not
Speaker 2: need our support at all anymore, and then do all
Speaker 2: this good stuff. He knew he was going to run again,
Speaker 2: so he could have spent his entire Listen. I don't
Speaker 2: like dude at all, period, And I know that it's
Speaker 2: not As an intelligent person, you shouldn't have a stance
Speaker 2: that you can't be moved off of with better information.
Speaker 2: The trouble is, I'm certain that there's not going to
Speaker 2: be any better information. He's not going to change. He's
Speaker 2: not going to improve, He's not going to do anything
Speaker 2: any different. Right, So Ice cubes too intelligent of a
Speaker 2: person to feel like he was going to bring something
Speaker 2: to this president who he could have auditioned for us
Speaker 2: this whole four years. I'm with you, right, Biden is
Speaker 2: not the incumbent, so he has to say, hey man,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to win this. It's like if I was
Speaker 2: a DJ trying to get Rams just to hire me,
Speaker 2: but Ramses is still trying to get a liquor license
Speaker 2: in permits from a city to have a club. Hey look, bro,
Speaker 2: I would love to hire you. I just don't have
Speaker 2: no club yet. So soon as I get a club,
Speaker 2: let's sit down, let's get it cracking.
Speaker 1: And then there's this.
Speaker 2: Other guy who has a club, who's made it clear
Speaker 2: I'm never hiring nobody black sir ever. Matter of fact,
Speaker 2: let me do all I can to not just not
Speaker 2: hire you, but to make life harder for you. Me
Speaker 2: saying okay, since Rams's gotta wait until he get his club,
Speaker 2: let me go over here and not just sit down
Speaker 2: with this guy, but put myself in a position where
Speaker 2: this guy can put his arms around me and use
Speaker 2: me as a prop to further his own cause you're
Speaker 2: smarter than that. And forgive me if I get ried
Speaker 2: up by it. But I know too many intelligent people
Speaker 2: that are allowing misinformation and shortsightedness and selfishness to cause
Speaker 2: them to see this thing as non binary.
Speaker 1: Don't vote for Kanye. How about that? The world is round?
Speaker 2: How about that.
Speaker 1: If your ancestors come from Africa. Anyway, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about moving on, and thank you everyone who listens
Speaker 1: every week to Civic sidher Uh. It really does matter
Speaker 1: to us. If you're just tuning in. I'my host Rams's
Speaker 1: joh they called me q Ward and we now are
Speaker 1: going to discuss Walter Wallace Junior, as of today, the
Speaker 1: latest name in the endless list of names of melanated
Speaker 1: folks who have lost their lives at the hands of
Speaker 1: excitable police, terrified fearful police. These guys are supposed to
Speaker 1: be brave, right heroes even sure anyway, So I don't
Speaker 1: know all the details, and I understand what that's like
Speaker 1: when you have a platform like this and you're able
Speaker 1: to reach lots of people and you don't have all
Speaker 1: the details. But most of us don't have all the
Speaker 1: details because there's an investigation going on. But what we
Speaker 1: do know is what we saw from the video and
Speaker 1: what was told from the folks who were on the scene.
Speaker 1: And so if you're not familiar with Walter Wallace Jr.
Speaker 1: This is one video I'm going to tell you to watch,
Speaker 1: but use your discretion because you're going to see a
Speaker 1: human being executed in the street. That's not the sort
Speaker 1: of thing that I am comfortable watching anymore. But the
Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding the video are as follows, at least to
Speaker 1: the best of my knowledge, Walter Wallace Junior was He
Speaker 1: suffered from a mental illness and a mental condition.
Speaker 2: It's really really creepy to hear you speak about him
Speaker 2: in the past tense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I never got to talk about him when he
Speaker 1: was alive. Man's that's the way it goes over here.
Speaker 1: So his mom, I want to say, calls the police
Speaker 1: to get the police to show up, help her out,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever the case is. And he has a knife. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I know someone who has a
Speaker 1: history with cutting himself a very close friend of mine.
Speaker 1: In fact, I know a couple of folks, but certainly
Speaker 1: this one person is very close friend of mine and
Speaker 1: sometimes we'll have a blade nearby and it makes me
Speaker 1: very nervous because in the past he suffered from that.
Speaker 1: But that's that doesn't matter. So this guy has a
Speaker 1: blade and the police show up on a mental health
Speaker 1: or mental breakdown one call, and then the video picks
Speaker 1: up and what you see as a woman I presume
Speaker 1: to be his mother, screaming and running around in the streets,
Speaker 1: and you see the circling a car, and then you
Speaker 1: see Walter Wallace Junior circling the same car on the
Speaker 1: opposite side, and he's holding a knife. I couldn't really
Speaker 1: make out a knife clearly in the video, but you
Speaker 1: hear them talking about, you know, him having a knife
Speaker 1: and drop the knife and that sort of thing. And
Speaker 1: he walks out from in between the car, and now
Speaker 1: the cops are standing in the street, and he starts
Speaker 1: walking toward the police officers. And what I saw in
Speaker 1: the video, he's not running at them. He's not he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the knife in a position where he's going
Speaker 1: to cause harm. It's just kind of in his hand
Speaker 1: and he's walking toward them. The police are a good
Speaker 1: ten twelve feet away from him, so there are no
Speaker 1: imminent danger. And then you hear I think it was
Speaker 1: as high as thirteen shots rang out and then his
Speaker 1: body falls into the street. So some of the early questions,
Speaker 1: uh that were asked, were was that necessary? Did they
Speaker 1: try tasers? You know, non lethal means, you know, where
Speaker 1: this human being could still be alive and not executed
Speaker 1: in front of his mother who called the police to help,
Speaker 1: not to end his life. And so we'll leave that there,
Speaker 1: and I want to get your thoughts. I'll add my own.
Speaker 2: There's a reason why they murder us. We're less of
Speaker 2: a liability dead, And I want you to digest that.
Speaker 2: We're more of a liability if they just tase us,
Speaker 2: they shoot us from rubber bullets, if they beat us up,
Speaker 2: Because then we can talk. We can tell our story.
Speaker 2: We can give context, we can give nuance, we can
Speaker 2: give evidence towards their wrongdoings. We can add color to
Speaker 2: a picture that they would rather be black and white.
Speaker 2: He was bad, we were scared, he posed harm to us.
Speaker 2: In defense of ourselves, we killed him. Now who I
Speaker 2: am doesn't matter. I don't get to tell my story.
Speaker 2: I don't get to say what actually happened that day,
Speaker 2: and our lives in case you're wondering why we say
Speaker 2: it every day now don't matter to them because even
Speaker 2: when they murder us on camera, they get paid leave.
Speaker 2: In that worst reassignment.
Speaker 1: I think that's what happened when the officers that shot
Speaker 1: him there on leave until the first part of the
Speaker 1: year paid.
Speaker 2: And our country, our states, and our cities have made
Speaker 2: legal deals with their unions to make all of this stuff. So, so.
Speaker 1: A lot of folks on the opposite side of this
Speaker 1: conversation say what they normally say, if you had just complied,
Speaker 1: he'd still be around, and they would say, well, you
Speaker 1: have to listen to the police, because if the police
Speaker 1: feel threatened, they have a right to defend themselves. They're
Speaker 1: doing their job and they shouldn't be exposed to the
Speaker 1: prospect or the potential for death. And that's why they
Speaker 1: have weapons, so that they can defend themselves and defend
Speaker 1: the defenseless. And so I want to speak to those
Speaker 1: folks who have that mindset. If you have a well,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's start here. If you just change
Speaker 1: the colors, then everything falls into place a lot more easily.
Speaker 1: So Walter Wallace Junior was a white you know, teenager
Speaker 1: having a mental breakdown. Police showed up on a mental
Speaker 1: breakdown call, and he has a knife, he's ten feet
Speaker 1: away from you. In my mind, I don't see the
Speaker 1: police ending that person's life. If someone's coming at you
Speaker 1: with a knife and you have a gun, and you
Speaker 1: are there to preserve and protect life, and you are
Speaker 1: really the hero, as you put it earlier, and you
Speaker 1: are really brave, and so for you can take a
Speaker 1: few steps back, you can shout some more commands. There's
Speaker 1: an a human life is so precious, irreplaceable, and it's
Speaker 1: so easily snuffed out. And you don't only have a gun,
Speaker 1: especially when they're black, And that that too, that part,
Speaker 1: because you know there's you know that there's police that
Speaker 1: will spend hours negotiating hostage situations, hours talking people off ledges,
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours. But be black and have
Speaker 1: a mental breakdown, want to kill yourself? Maybe you know,
Speaker 1: we'll never know. As you said, he's not around to
Speaker 1: tell his story. Why was he walking around with a knight.
Speaker 1: I don't think that any sane person gets a knife
Speaker 1: and walks to police with guns drawn on him with
Speaker 1: the intention of winning a fight.
Speaker 2: And then the problem tends to be with us. The
Speaker 2: counter argument is that we've seen the same video footage
Speaker 2: of white men assault rifles with guns, attacking cops, running, lunging,
Speaker 2: jumping toward and on cops and not being killed, So
Speaker 2: we know that they're capable.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they're just so scared. And this is why
Speaker 1: it's really hard for folks like me to really look
Speaker 1: at police like their heroes. I do respect the fact
Speaker 1: that they have a job to do.
Speaker 2: That you have to apply for that job, and you
Speaker 2: have to test for that job. Sure, and you have
Speaker 2: to interview for that job. I'm telling you as someone
Speaker 2: who's done all of the above. You have to show
Speaker 2: an aptitude. You have to convince a board of police
Speaker 2: officers that you're capable of doing the job. You have
Speaker 2: to pass a background check. There's a lot of steps.
Speaker 2: So they're not being drafted into this position and then
Speaker 2: just having to figure it out. So when we hear
Speaker 2: about how hard their job is, sure, but they signed
Speaker 2: up for it. Some of them are paid handsomely to
Speaker 2: do it. And if the job itself presents too much stress,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't do the job. There's no police draft. Not
Speaker 2: only do you have to go after the job but
Speaker 2: it's not an easy job to get relatively to you know,
Speaker 2: the manager at Target. It's an easy job to get
Speaker 2: relative to police. Police forces in other countries and other
Speaker 2: developed countries. The minimums you have to meet to get
Speaker 2: those jobs far exceed ours. But you have to go
Speaker 2: through some steps to get that job. And if you
Speaker 2: voluntarily go through all you have to do, then don't
Speaker 2: come and tell us you're killing us because the job
Speaker 2: is too much.
Speaker 1: You're stressed out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, go do something else, sir, Because when I'm afraid,
Speaker 2: you're the person that I'm going to call. And as
Speaker 2: much as we as much as we march, and as
Speaker 2: much as when something happens, we all still dial nine
Speaker 2: to one to one.
Speaker 1: All of us, even the police.
Speaker 2: So I shouldn't have to worry about calling you for
Speaker 2: help and then never seeing my family again, which is
Speaker 2: in essence what happens here. His mother called for help.
Speaker 2: She didn't call and say, hey, come get this guy
Speaker 2: off of me. And even if she did, then just
Speaker 2: come get this guy off of her. Don't come murder
Speaker 2: her son, even if he's a bad guy. Don't come
Speaker 2: murder her son.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're a police officer, not an executioner. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: let me paint a little bit more of this picture, though,
Speaker 1: because again there's folks that will say, and well intentioned
Speaker 1: they as they may be, that you know, if you
Speaker 1: just do what the police say, everything will work out.
Speaker 2: Whish that was true.
Speaker 1: First off, that is a truth that holds up in
Speaker 1: more often in instances where the person interacting with police
Speaker 1: is less mellenated. Perhaps the less mellenated, the more likely
Speaker 1: that is to be true. But there is something to
Speaker 1: be said about we'll take a special type of person
Speaker 1: in this instance. We'll take a white woman for this example,
Speaker 1: and let's call her twenty six years old, right, an
Speaker 1: American citizen, the same as anyone else, capable of anything
Speaker 1: that anyone else is doing. You know, women can do
Speaker 1: everything men can do, and you know, there's nothing crazy here.
Speaker 1: Just in this example, there's a twenty six year old woman.
Speaker 1: If she feels like the police are treating her unfairly,
Speaker 1: and she throws a fit about it, she throws literally
Speaker 1: throws food at an officer, tries to hit or you know, cry, screams,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. People look at that and they say,
Speaker 1: ha ha ha, that's funny. Of course she's going to
Speaker 1: get arrested, you know, whatever, and that's the end of it.
Speaker 1: No one says, well, you know, she should have done
Speaker 1: what the officer said, you know, you know, because there
Speaker 1: are some instances where people are able to protest and
Speaker 1: unjust arrest, even if it's only unjust in their mind right,
Speaker 1: and the.
Speaker 2: Police are actually as what an unjust arrest?
Speaker 1: Sure, you know, the police are not all saints. We
Speaker 1: know that.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I know that on paper there is and
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if if there's actually ever if they actually
Speaker 2: ever see it that way. Oh yeah, yeah, no, no,
Speaker 2: I know what you're saying. Well, you know, like when
Speaker 2: the police are their own witnesses.
Speaker 1: So watch this. Imagine you know, you and I we
Speaker 1: got pulled over in Mississippi. If we had said everything
Speaker 1: to those officers that we said in the episode of
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher that we did, that would be asmine. That
Speaker 1: would be crazy. That would be like us shooting ourselves
Speaker 1: in our own foot because we're black. If we're a
Speaker 1: twenty six year old white woman, we could say it all,
Speaker 1: you know, and it'll be fine. But I think that
Speaker 1: there's this idea that exists in a lot of folks
Speaker 1: mind when it comes to black folks getting mistreated by
Speaker 1: the police, where if you just do what the police say,
Speaker 1: then you'll be okay. And what I'm saying is that
Speaker 1: if a twenty six year old white woman is able
Speaker 1: to stand up for herself, to stand up for her
Speaker 1: own dignity, her self worth, whatever the case is, and
Speaker 1: say no, you're wrong, what you're doing is wrong, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera, even if she's wrong, if she's able to
Speaker 1: stand up and do it, then if a black person
Speaker 1: does the same thing, that's all that's like pretty close
Speaker 1: to a DEAs sense in most cases, you know, if
Speaker 1: not an outright descence, you know, you're supposed to do
Speaker 1: what these people say or die. And I think that
Speaker 1: considering the optics and considering those dynamics helps you to
Speaker 1: understand that people's natural impulse is to stand up, uh
Speaker 1: to to demand dignity. If you're hurting someone, their body's
Speaker 1: natural tendency is to react to the pain. You're twisting
Speaker 1: my arm. So if I'm twisting to get away from you,
Speaker 1: because it's it's an involuntary action that my body's taking,
Speaker 1: my nervous system is responding to this pain. But the
Speaker 1: officer will then say oftentimes, if you're black, you're resisting,
Speaker 1: thank you. And if you're resisting, then that's a charge.
Speaker 1: And if somehow you have a little bit more strength
Speaker 1: than the officer, or the officer is a little bit
Speaker 1: too scared, don't change to dare and you're it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a a nervous system response. You know,
Speaker 1: if the officer gets hurt or anything like that, then
Speaker 1: now you've assaulted an officer, et cetera, on and on
Speaker 1: and on, and at any point the officer feels afraid.
Speaker 1: Like we saw in Georgia where the guy was sleeping
Speaker 1: in the in the driveway at the I forget his name,
Speaker 1: but he was sleeping in the driveway at the Windys
Speaker 1: I want to say, yeah, and he was drinking. He
Speaker 1: pulled over. He was drunk. Rather, he pulled over his car,
Speaker 1: went to sleep in the in the driveway or in
Speaker 1: the drive through or the parking lot, whatever it was.
Speaker 1: Police showed up and he was talking to the police
Speaker 1: and he was fine. The police soon as they say,
Speaker 1: they're going to arrest him. This guy's drunk. He's out
Speaker 1: of his mind, drunk, right, he's having a conversation. But
Speaker 1: he's not thinking with all of his faculties, and he
Speaker 1: turns around and tries to run away. Now, this guy's
Speaker 1: not fast at all. At no point is it even scary.
Speaker 1: And the police shoot him in the back.
Speaker 2: And they're so afraid of him running away from them.
Speaker 1: And if you just look, if you took a day
Speaker 1: out of your life, if you are of this persuasion,
Speaker 1: if you took a day out of your life and
Speaker 1: looked into how many times police shoot black people in
Speaker 1: the back and they lose their life, I'm sure that
Speaker 1: it will help you reframe that conversation around something that's
Speaker 1: a bit more factual. But with that said, we are
Speaker 1: now at the end of another episode of Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: So once again, i'm Ramsey's Jaw and I am Qward
Speaker 1: and if you want to keep up with us during
Speaker 1: the week, you can do so at Rams's Jaw and
Speaker 1: I am Qward or follow the show at Civic Cipher
Speaker 1: on all social media, and of course you can submit questions,
Speaker 1: topics and donate at civiccipher dot com. All your donations
Speaker 1: are appreciated. We'll be back next week, same time, same channel.
Speaker 1: Until then, Peace