Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: rams is Jah.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward, but my name is Quentin,
Speaker 2: but Quentin is you know, not easy to say. People
Speaker 2: call me Quentin and Quincy, so I just go with Q.
Speaker 2: So when you hear q Ward, it's not the stage name,
Speaker 2: it's my actual initial and last name. I just want
Speaker 2: the people to know that I wasn't trying to be cool.
Speaker 3: And uh, you know, today we're back to talk to you,
Speaker 3: hopefully about some some things that we can do to
Speaker 3: make the world a little bit.
Speaker 1: Better, safer, more equitable. You know, in true to form,
Speaker 1: We're going to have our conversations about things that are
Speaker 1: going on in the world, as we typically do here
Speaker 1: on Civic Cipher. But the thing is today we have
Speaker 1: a special guest in the building with us. This is
Speaker 1: somebody that I've really wanted to come up on the
Speaker 1: show for a long time, and he's such a busy person.
Speaker 1: I've heard him speak a handful of times, enough times
Speaker 1: to make me wish i've heard him. I was able
Speaker 1: to hear him speak more, and it just so happens
Speaker 1: to be the case that we both are on the
Speaker 1: NAACP's Political Action Committee. And so this is a person
Speaker 1: that's been it's been a long time coming being able
Speaker 1: to plug in with such a profound thinker and speaker.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's a whole list of accolades. I
Speaker 1: would love to hear all about him. But Patrick C.
Speaker 1: Brown is with us today, So welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Yo, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: I mean, you make me sound like, you know, I
Speaker 5: need a book deal, a publicist or something. I'm just
Speaker 5: like I like to keep thinking. So well, I was
Speaker 5: trying and roll in silence. I try and you know,
Speaker 5: you know, speak my truth and you know, get people
Speaker 5: to think about stuff.
Speaker 4: So thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, Well, this is the place to have the
Speaker 1: types of conversations that we are going to have to
Speaker 1: and so I appreciate you. And then a little later
Speaker 1: on in the show, we're gonna have to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about some of the voters suppression initiatives that
Speaker 1: have taken center stage and you know, the the legislature
Speaker 1: and so forth, and I think that you're perhaps a
Speaker 1: bit more familiar with the goings on in that arena
Speaker 1: than either me or Q, and so we would love
Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on that and uh, of course
Speaker 1: educate folks on what we can do to empower ourselves
Speaker 1: and fight against those voter suppression initiatives. But first order
Speaker 1: of business, you know, big news this week is the
Speaker 1: trial of His name doesn't even deserve to be said,
Speaker 1: but I have to say it, so you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. His name is Derek Shaven, Shaven something
Speaker 1: like something like that. This is the officer who has
Speaker 1: uh been tried, uh try, he's being tried for murder, right,
Speaker 1: and the person who was responsible for for snuffing the
Speaker 1: life of George Floyd out. Now, be honest, you you
Speaker 1: probably know a little bit more about what's going on
Speaker 1: with the trial. Q. So how about you? Unfortunately? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so so talk talk me through what's happened.
Speaker 4: So can we break down the charges?
Speaker 5: I know that's I think that that really sends the
Speaker 5: message home to like, you know, what, what what this
Speaker 5: man did?
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And before we get to the specific charger,
Speaker 2: I want people to understand why I said unfortunately, because
Speaker 2: that might seem obvious, right, it's a trial of a
Speaker 2: black man that was murdered. You know, maybe that's what
Speaker 2: people thought I meant, But unfortunately, because watching the trial
Speaker 2: causes you to relive and re experience the trauma that
Speaker 2: all of us, I think across the world collectively experienced
Speaker 2: last year when George Floyd was murdered, and voluntary trauma
Speaker 2: is not really I don't really subscribe except because of
Speaker 2: what we do. My professional responsibility means you have to.
Speaker 2: One of us needs to be paying attention specifically to
Speaker 2: what's going on with this trial. And I have to
Speaker 2: be honest, I wish it was Ramses because Ramses is
Speaker 2: the hopeful, optimistic side of this coin that we are
Speaker 2: and unfortunately, the more progress we make, the more we
Speaker 2: realize that we have so much further to go. And
Speaker 2: part of this trial for the murder of George Floyd
Speaker 2: with Officer Derek Chauvin, and I'm not sure that I'm
Speaker 2: pronouncing his name incorrectly as you listen to the defense,
Speaker 2: and you think that they were trying to prove the
Speaker 2: guilt of George Floyd instead of the innocence of their
Speaker 2: own client. And far too often in this country that's
Speaker 2: the case. There's a black victim of violence by far
Speaker 2: too often a white officer, and the defense spends most
Speaker 2: of their resources on shining the light on the worst
Speaker 2: parts of this victim's life, an effort to justify and
Speaker 2: or sway emotionally the jury of quote unquote peers. So
Speaker 2: it's a hard trial to experience, to watch, to pay
Speaker 2: attention to, because there's this lingering feeling of mistrust with
Speaker 2: me personally, where I'm like, justice won't be served here,
Speaker 2: and I really don't like that. That's how I feel.
Speaker 2: But I've seen this movie a lot of times, and
Speaker 2: I sit and wait for the post credit scene, like
Speaker 2: a Marvel movie, waiting for the waiting for the good
Speaker 2: part to happen or that can't be it, And far
Speaker 2: too often there's no post credit scene. The movie goes
Speaker 2: off the credits roll, this over another person that wasn't
Speaker 2: found guilty or even when found guilty, right, because even
Speaker 2: once a person is convicted, they have to be sentenced.
Speaker 2: The sentences are really liked relatively, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And sometimes you know, the state or the city or
Speaker 2: the government even find just reason to press causes, I mean,
Speaker 2: to press to press charges even when we have video evidence.
Speaker 1: I want to say something. You know, there's a you
Speaker 1: know when when in Ferguson a few years ago, there
Speaker 1: was this similar to what you said. There was this
Speaker 1: almost this effort to make Mike Brown seem like he
Speaker 1: was this thug gang member whatever, as though that warrants
Speaker 1: his death or that justifies the office, the fear that
Speaker 1: the officer experiences, and these are supposed to be the
Speaker 1: brave even you know, and so forth, and far too often,
Speaker 1: especially coming from an environment like you know, the one
Speaker 1: that I was born into again, which is Compton, California,
Speaker 1: I'm able to recognize that, you know, people are these
Speaker 1: are most of the time, they're just normal people, and
Speaker 1: it's just very unfortunate to see that. You know. The
Speaker 1: the defense is, well, let's let's make the the person
Speaker 1: who can't say their piece, that the person who's lost
Speaker 1: their life look like they deserve to die, you know,
Speaker 1: or that that that the the the murder was was justified.
Speaker 1: And I think that further reinforces this idea that black
Speaker 1: lives don't matter, which has kind of been a part
Speaker 1: of the conversations or really a part of the tapestry
Speaker 1: of this country since inception. You know, we're just disposable,
Speaker 1: and you know, that's just kind of what happens. It's sad,
Speaker 1: but you know, probably deserved.
Speaker 5: And what's what's sickening about about this this trial? And
Speaker 5: I mean we could we could we go down the list.
Speaker 5: I mean, I mean I'm not I'm not gonna ask
Speaker 5: anybody pull out any IDs. I think I'm probably maybe
Speaker 5: the older of the three of us here. And I
Speaker 5: mean for me, you know, I clearly remember the Rodney
Speaker 5: King beating. And I mean I was I was what
Speaker 5: as high school and watching that on TV and it
Speaker 5: was crazy about that is we were supposed to play
Speaker 5: in a basketball tournament in California and I got canceled
Speaker 5: because of the LA riots and so you know, it
Speaker 5: was kind of really interesting seeing just the different attitudes.
Speaker 5: You know, my my my Caucasian teammates were mad because
Speaker 5: our California trip was done. And why you know why
Speaker 5: these be like burning down California. We're supposed to go
Speaker 5: to Disneyland, but play.
Speaker 4: Ball and all this kind of stuff. We're going to
Speaker 4: re Forum.
Speaker 5: You know, it was a pre stable center and everything.
Speaker 5: But all my black teammates and myself and our parents,
Speaker 5: we just had this look of like, you know this
Speaker 5: it's like it's a another day in America.
Speaker 4: Sure, but we had we.
Speaker 5: Were hopeful because this stuff has been happening since, you know,
Speaker 5: before any of us were here for our grandparents, for
Speaker 5: our grandparent grandparents. But we were like, we were hopeful
Speaker 5: because we got a video. We're not making this up.
Speaker 5: We've got proof. And then they all got off. You know.
Speaker 5: Now they did a federal trial and everything, but ultimately
Speaker 5: they never they never really saw the punishment. And what
Speaker 5: really just hurts my heart and angers me is the
Speaker 5: fact that it's a viable defense to play to all
Speaker 5: the racial, racist, white supremacist stereotypes of blout black men
Speaker 5: and when you look at some of the stuff for
Speaker 5: the witness, because I saw the video of the one,
Speaker 5: the one guy that I believe he's the MT, the brother,
Speaker 5: and he was and they were playing like, were you angry?
Speaker 5: You know, we're you know, you know you you called
Speaker 5: you know, I don't know, I don't know what the
Speaker 5: rules are for what I can you know about the
Speaker 5: language I'm gonna play. I'm gonna go generated, but but
Speaker 5: you know you called him all these derogatory terms and whatnot.
Speaker 5: And my thing is, if you're watching somebody die, you
Speaker 5: gotta be a dead human being inside not to be angry. Sure,
Speaker 5: I mean, I watched that video because I said, you know,
Speaker 5: I had I had to. I watched it because I said,
Speaker 5: I had to be a witness, a witness to this
Speaker 5: man's death, you know. And I was just angry. So
Speaker 5: I can imagine being there live seeing it happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you it's your present for right.
Speaker 5: And seeing yourself in that And and I think, you
Speaker 5: know what, what I've tried to explain to I think,
Speaker 5: you know, white people, folks who are not less, are
Speaker 5: less likely to experience this type of violence, is that
Speaker 5: you have to understand that when this happens for Freddie Gray,
Speaker 5: for you know, you know, Oscar Grant, for George Floyd,
Speaker 5: we see that could easily be us. The three of
Speaker 5: us sitting here could easily be George Floyd. And then
Speaker 5: you take it a step further. I think of you know,
Speaker 5: of you know, the young kids like Tamir Rice. I've
Speaker 5: got eleven year old son, and you know, I see,
Speaker 5: you know, Trayvon Martin. I see my son's eyes. I
Speaker 5: have two sons, you know, I see you know, Tamir
Speaker 5: Rice's eyes. I think you know, if my boys go
Speaker 5: down just down to the end of the block, we'll
Speaker 5: play basketball. Is somebody gonna not see an eleven year
Speaker 5: old and an eight year old? Are they gonna see
Speaker 5: grown men?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and grown black men.
Speaker 4: Grown black men, and take their lives.
Speaker 1: Or put them in a position to where they have
Speaker 1: to justify their existence or face death, you know, because
Speaker 1: some folks they might not engage directly, but they'll call
Speaker 1: the police. Hey, I saw someone walking down the street.
Speaker 1: He looks like he doesn't belong here. And then the
Speaker 1: police show up. And history has shown us that oftentimes
Speaker 1: it's the police that escalate the situation. The police show
Speaker 1: up with the weapons. The police show up, you know,
Speaker 1: with the capacity to kill. And this is critical.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry because you're you're you're on the right path
Speaker 5: of this, but let me throw this in. The police
Speaker 5: are capable of not doing that because we see it
Speaker 5: happen when the individual is it's not black.
Speaker 4: Let's let's go. Let's go to Wisconsin.
Speaker 5: Dude had a semi semi automatic weapon in a highly
Speaker 5: charged environment, lots of stuff. You know, you can say,
Speaker 5: every indicator of a policeman should be on you know,
Speaker 5: read alert. Yet they let him walk by, first of all,
Speaker 5: and then when there was you know, somebody got shot
Speaker 5: or whatnot, they were able to control themselves. I've witnessed,
Speaker 5: you know, especially when I go back to my you know,
Speaker 5: my days when I used to go to clubs and
Speaker 5: you know when I lived that life and whatnot. Sure,
Speaker 5: I've witnessed white dudes say all sorts of stuff to
Speaker 5: cops under the influence, call them everything but their name,
Speaker 5: and they can show self control. But then, officer, this
Speaker 5: is my house. I'm the I'm the homeowner. Why I
Speaker 5: need to see somebody? Could you step out, make sure
Speaker 5: you show your hands, move slowly.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about that. I want you
Speaker 1: to keep keep that in mind. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that when we talk about So there was an
Speaker 1: incident that happened in I want to say it was Arkansas.
Speaker 1: About how the interactions with police are. They tend to
Speaker 1: be very aggressive with when it comes to black males specifically,
Speaker 1: but black people and then to a larger extent, all
Speaker 1: people of color. I don't want to look past our
Speaker 1: Hispanic brothers and sisters in this moment, because I do
Speaker 1: recognize that it happens to them as well. Yes, but
Speaker 1: before we get there, and I do want to talk
Speaker 1: about that at length. You mentioned something, uh and I
Speaker 1: thought that it was it was really important to mention
Speaker 1: this or to discuss this right now, there's this narrative
Speaker 1: that exists on the other side for people that say, well,
Speaker 1: this is one person that died at the hands of
Speaker 1: a police officer. Of course, there's some bad apples, there's
Speaker 1: some people that take it too far, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, the policing works. It keeps us safe, right
Speaker 1: And I understand that in their reality, that is their truth,
Speaker 1: and we have to allow for that. You know, we
Speaker 1: have to challenge it, but we have to allow for
Speaker 1: it to exist in the first place. And so we
Speaker 1: want to establish that first. These people, oftentimes will then
Speaker 1: take it a step further, which you know, we will
Speaker 1: all agree is pretty flagrant on their part, and they'll say, well,
Speaker 1: why aren't you as upset with what's going on in
Speaker 1: Chicago where people are murdered all the time, or what
Speaker 1: about black on black crime that takes more black lives
Speaker 1: quote unquote than police violence, and so forth. And I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of times people miss that what
Speaker 1: we're trying to do is reshape the narrative, reshape the
Speaker 1: value of black life. Because of images were shown on
Speaker 1: television and the culture at large, and there's something and
Speaker 1: when you were talking about the Rodney King riots in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, which I was there for, that there's something
Speaker 1: that a lot of folks don't mention or they don't
Speaker 1: really consider, and that's that if there is a quote
Speaker 1: black on black crime that takes place, black on black
Speaker 1: crime is not a real thing any more than white
Speaker 1: on white crime that doesn't exist. You know that you you,
Speaker 1: you're around people that look like you. For the most part,
Speaker 1: your family members look like you.
Speaker 2: And so you know what I mean, Most crimes in
Speaker 2: general are based on proximity. That's it. Color, that's it.
Speaker 5: And you're you're not going to go You're not going
Speaker 5: to go clear across town, rob somebody if you can.
Speaker 5: Rob's closer to if you need, you know, you need
Speaker 5: some convenience and in those situations.
Speaker 1: But you know, this narrative has been established and allowed
Speaker 1: to exist and grow and fester to where folks can
Speaker 1: kind of hide behind this and say, well, listen, I
Speaker 1: don't need to support black lives matter. Of course, all
Speaker 1: lives matter, and black people need to figure out what
Speaker 1: their values are before they come for our police. We
Speaker 1: support our police again, which again is a sensible thing
Speaker 1: when you don't know any better. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to attack a vacuum right in a vacuum absent all
Speaker 1: the rest of the facts. But the thing that I
Speaker 1: like to bring up in situations like that is that
Speaker 1: if there is a quote black on black crime that happens,
Speaker 1: we demand justice, We demand a trial. Usually the person
Speaker 1: is found, if the police are doing their job, the
Speaker 1: person goes to court as a day in court, and
Speaker 1: if there's a conviction, the person has put away. And
Speaker 1: all too often what we see with these police shootings
Speaker 1: is that they're a high profile so again shaping the
Speaker 1: national narrative one way or the other. And what is
Speaker 1: infinitely more important is that there is no justice. They're
Speaker 1: not even ever really on trial, as you mentioned in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles in ninety two.
Speaker 2: Sometimes they don't even bring charges.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's rare, it's rare. Do we even get
Speaker 4: to the stage many times.
Speaker 5: Sure, we've got we've got incidences happened in Americapa County
Speaker 5: that never saw the inside of court.
Speaker 4: Word, yeah, I know, you know the Americopa County.
Speaker 5: You know, attorney's office decline to even pursue any charges.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean and it's not even recently.
Speaker 5: This has happened over years of police misconduct, violence, death,
Speaker 5: things of that nature.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And so you know what happens is just sticking
Speaker 1: with the example that we used earlier in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: where there's video evidence of gross police misconduct, a blatant
Speaker 1: disregard for human life. And I would challenge anybody listening
Speaker 1: to my voice to reimagine Rodney King as a dog.
Speaker 1: See all these police officers beating a dog. How upset
Speaker 1: does that make you? And does that make you more
Speaker 1: upset if it's a dog, because then you need to
Speaker 1: search inside yourself if it's a dog, do you demand
Speaker 1: or do you understand why there were riots because these
Speaker 1: police officers got off or now you know, do you
Speaker 1: does it make sense? Because I would I would bet
Speaker 1: that that is the truth. And that's all we want
Speaker 1: is just when these high profile cases happen. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get you cue, when these high profile cases happen where
Speaker 1: all the cameras are on and we're able to kind
Speaker 1: of contribute to the storyline of black people in America,
Speaker 1: that what we're doing is we're we're taking advantage of
Speaker 1: or there's potentially an opportunity to say black lives do matter,
Speaker 1: there is justice in the world, Our lives are worth something,
Speaker 1: and when they're taken from us needlessly and senselessly, that
Speaker 1: there are consequences. And that's that's really it. So you
Speaker 1: can pay out and say, yeah, it was a wrongful debt,
Speaker 1: You can do all that sort of stuff. No consequences, justice, justice,
Speaker 1: And this is why this cry has been so lowed. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry I had to get that off, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, I'm glad you got that off because that was important.
Speaker 2: It was actually what you said that woke up something
Speaker 2: in me. Sure, Before I move on, I want to
Speaker 2: say this man's name, Donald Williams, was the gentleman that
Speaker 2: the defense attorney tried to paint as this angry black man, okay, right,
Speaker 2: so that the jury and the people watching couldn't lose
Speaker 2: sympathy for him. Yeah, the cop was so uncomfortable with
Speaker 2: this guy screaming at him that he couldn't pay attention
Speaker 2: to the that he was murdering at the time. But
Speaker 2: the thing about the dog and the thing about even
Speaker 2: him and the trial in general, that sparked something very
Speaker 2: very personal for me. And I've not ever shared this
Speaker 2: outside of a very small circle. My little brother, Vincent
Speaker 2: Barry is here with us, been in my life for
Speaker 2: thirty seven thirty thirty five to thirty seven of my
Speaker 2: thirty nine years. One of the rare people who were
Speaker 2: in my life. We were in each other's lives when
Speaker 2: our fathers passed. And I've not shared this part of
Speaker 2: my story out loud before, but when my father passed
Speaker 2: away after not being in my life for most of
Speaker 2: my life, and my mom divorced when I was about
Speaker 2: three years old, and that's why Vincent's father meant so
Speaker 2: much to me, because he took up some of that
Speaker 2: responsibility along with you know, William Reverie and John Reese.
Speaker 2: I wept like as aggressively as you can cry, with
Speaker 2: as much emotion, with as much feeling for loss, and
Speaker 2: my older brother came home and didn't understand why I
Speaker 2: was crying, and when he found out, he was angry
Speaker 2: because my older brother watched my mom be abused about
Speaker 2: my father, and in his mind, my father did not
Speaker 2: deserve for me to be hurt, for me to weep,
Speaker 2: for me to feel his absence, so an effort to
Speaker 2: make me not feel that way, my brother told me
Speaker 2: every bad thing that he could possibly think about my father.
Speaker 2: And when you were talking about how people will respond
Speaker 2: if it was a dog, and you were talking about
Speaker 2: the way that they criminally lies and the way they
Speaker 2: want to make George Floyd look like he doesn't deserve justice.
Speaker 2: He does not deserve for you to feel sorry for him.
Speaker 2: He's not your martyr, as Candice Owns so proudly proclaimed
Speaker 2: on the internet, you have to make him seem less worth,
Speaker 2: less worthy, rather of sympathy and justice and fair, sound
Speaker 2: minded people to think something wrong happened. So let's paint
Speaker 2: the worst possible picture of him. Because the whole world
Speaker 2: is crying, the whole world is angry, and people are
Speaker 2: in the streets. Oh my god. We have to stop this.
Speaker 2: We have to show these people that the man that
Speaker 2: was murdered must be less than that, less than a dog.
Speaker 2: Even so, he doesn't deserve your anger and your tears.
Speaker 1: There's I'm gonna get the quote wrong, but there's something
Speaker 1: that once upon a time Malcolm X said, and it
Speaker 1: had to do with so I'm gonna paraphrase, but it
Speaker 1: had to do with having to keep your composure as
Speaker 1: a black man while fighting for an equitable go at
Speaker 1: life in the United States of America, because at the
Speaker 1: moment at which you lose your composure, you lose your support,
Speaker 1: your sympathy, you know, everything like that empathy from other folks.
Speaker 1: And I think that it illuminates just how tricky it
Speaker 1: is to just have an even playing field, no advantages,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. And that's it's just so interesting, how like,
Speaker 1: why in the world will be born into this world.
Speaker 1: It's such a weird thing, isn't it. Anyway, that's just
Speaker 1: me if you're just tuning in the civic side around
Speaker 1: your host Ramsa's Josh, they called me q Warden.
Speaker 2: That just so happens to be my name.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, a special guest in the building today, Patrick C. Brown,
Speaker 1: my committee member from the NAACP Political Action Committee, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some voter suppression initiatives in
Speaker 1: just a minute. But first to piggyback off of what
Speaker 1: we were talking about a bit earlier. You know, I
Speaker 1: saw something this week and forget it. I web too, man,
Speaker 1: I cry all the time. I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1: I'm a human being and I feel stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: it just happens. I have a beating heart in my chest,
Speaker 1: and I love my family. And if you're listening to
Speaker 1: my voice is where does it sounds? I love you too.
Speaker 1: I want you to do well. I want us all
Speaker 1: to do well. That's just how I look at the world.
Speaker 1: If you don't like it, sue me. But I have
Speaker 1: a beating hard I feel things. I've always been that way.
Speaker 1: You know this queue.
Speaker 2: You have always been that way, sir, yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, And I love loving I do. I think it's
Speaker 1: the right way to be. But unfortunately the capacity to
Speaker 1: feel often catches up with me, and so the story
Speaker 1: I'm about to share, I won't be able to convey
Speaker 1: the experience, the emotion the right way because I understand
Speaker 1: that if you're listening to my voice, you may not
Speaker 1: have the same context. The world may not look and
Speaker 1: feel the same way to you. But I do want
Speaker 1: to try to put you in my shoes when I
Speaker 1: saw this video. So, as you mentioned earlier in the show, Cue,
Speaker 1: we do have to make sure that we're engaging using
Speaker 1: our social media, and we have to make sure that
Speaker 1: we're following the news so that we know what to
Speaker 1: discuss when we do our show. So this past week,
Speaker 1: which by the way, rest in peace. Nipsey Hustle. There
Speaker 1: was the anniversary of his passing. As someone who was
Speaker 1: born in California, that hit close to home. So I
Speaker 1: have to say that.
Speaker 2: Way Compton, California to be exact.
Speaker 1: But you know, love what he stood for. He was
Speaker 1: a good guy. I was able to meet him a
Speaker 1: few times, shake his hand and hang out with him.
Speaker 4: Anyway.
Speaker 1: Saw video his video was of I want to paint
Speaker 1: the picture for you and feel free to check out
Speaker 1: on our Instagram or our Facebook. Just search at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: You'll be able to see the video or yourself. But
Speaker 1: what it is is it's a police camera dash camera
Speaker 1: and there's a man standing next to a U haul truck.
Speaker 1: The man is have you seen this?
Speaker 4: I say, I saw on Instagram yet Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it for me was heartbreaking. I'll explain why.
Speaker 1: So the man standing next to his U haul truck,
Speaker 1: he was driving the truck. I guess he was trying
Speaker 1: to exit the freeway. This was in Arkansas. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks like so he's trying to exit the freeway. He
Speaker 1: kind of misses the turn a little bit, does a
Speaker 1: little squiggle or swivel, swerve or something like that. It's
Speaker 1: a big truck and the police see him get behind
Speaker 1: and pull him over. So he's on the kind of
Speaker 1: shoulder of the highway and this is where the dash
Speaker 1: can picks him. I'm gonna talk you through this because
Speaker 1: it's important. The man is wearing dreads, and he's got
Speaker 1: a beard. He's an adult man standing there, and the
Speaker 1: officer is.
Speaker 2: Talking to him, an adult black man indeed.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's another thing that happens where people say,
Speaker 1: you know, if you just do what the officer says,
Speaker 1: you know, blah blah blah, you know, this sort of thing.
Speaker 1: And I think that that further illuminates how remember you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, Patrick that some people will be able to
Speaker 1: interact with the police and kind of push their tongue
Speaker 1: all the way out. Those people often tend to be
Speaker 1: less melanated, and the police will just kind of keep
Speaker 1: their composure. But when this man in this video and
Speaker 1: pretty much every video I've ever seen, demands you know,
Speaker 1: some dignity, you know, the minimum e modicum of respect,
Speaker 1: it's seen as threatening. It's seen as like well that
Speaker 1: Malcolm X quote that I paraphrased earlier, that you know,
Speaker 1: he's losing his composure and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the empathy and the sympathy flies out the window. So anyway,
Speaker 1: in this video, the officers like, hey, man, if you
Speaker 1: had anything to drink, you're on drugs, anything like that.
Speaker 1: And the guy's like, no, not at all. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: you look a little nervous to me. And he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm nervous.
Speaker 2: Of course, I look a little nervous, sir.
Speaker 1: And there's a police officer.
Speaker 2: I'm in Arkansas. Yeah, I'm black. I'm pulled over by police.
Speaker 2: Have you been watching the news for the past for.
Speaker 1: Ever one hundred years?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So anyway, so the officer takes exception to that, and
Speaker 1: you can see his temperature change in the video, and
Speaker 1: the officer says, well, listen, man, let me search the vehicle,
Speaker 1: you know, And the guy's like, listen, man, I don't
Speaker 1: give you permission. I don't wi. Yeah, yeah, there's no reason,
Speaker 1: nothing that you've ascertained from this interaction would warrant you've
Speaker 1: escalating it and going into the vehicle. I had places
Speaker 1: to be. I'm sure you have a real crime to fight,
Speaker 1: you know. If I swerved, you know, we can talk
Speaker 1: about that. But anything else, you know, you know, unless
Speaker 1: you have a real reason, you know, and this is
Speaker 1: kind of the The energy that was in the video
Speaker 1: wasn't anything like, no one was yelling raising her voice.
Speaker 1: The guy was very respectful, but he was kind of
Speaker 1: standing his ground like, no, that's not fair. Which again,
Speaker 1: anyone with a little less melanin would have been able
Speaker 1: to get that off, no problem, or it wouldn't have
Speaker 1: even come up in the interaction. The police wouldn't have
Speaker 1: initiated it. So the officer says, well, you know, we
Speaker 1: can wait here until to like get the dogs out.
Speaker 1: Don't say anything, you don't say anything. You we can
Speaker 1: wait here until we get the dogs out. Actually, I
Speaker 1: want to say it. They'll get the dogs out, and
Speaker 1: then they'll say the dog indicated that we smell narcotics,
Speaker 1: and then they'll go in the truck. Anyway, that's what
Speaker 1: they do. That's been my experience.
Speaker 4: The dog creates probable.
Speaker 1: Cause exactly even if the dog doesn't because there's nothing there.
Speaker 1: But we'll tell that story just a second. I went
Speaker 1: to this is my belief. I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: that for sure.
Speaker 5: But it's beyond belief with me that you know, the
Speaker 5: courts have ruled several times over that a police officer
Speaker 5: may use deception and to further their investigation. So you know,
Speaker 5: I've been around police dogs. I've you know, I've I've
Speaker 5: seen them work. I don't know a damn thing about them.
Speaker 5: So I don't know what indicator or what clue or
Speaker 5: whatever it is. So the police officer is going to say,
Speaker 5: all right, the dog indicated that there's drugs in the
Speaker 5: car or whatnot, and so now I have probable.
Speaker 1: Cause to do whatever they want.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and what they're and you know, I mean you
Speaker 5: when you kind of follow the line of thinking, it's like,
Speaker 5: now I want you to react to now give me
Speaker 5: an excuse to then feel that I am unsafe that
Speaker 5: now I can you know, handcuff, you stack the charges,
Speaker 5: whatever comes next and that and you know, to that video.
Speaker 5: And I think one thing for the folks who are
Speaker 5: listening to understand is that you know his the I'll
Speaker 5: go with my interpretation. My interpretation is that this officer
Speaker 5: wanted subservience. And this man was being a man. I mean,
Speaker 5: he wasn't getting outside of himself, he wasn't getting no
Speaker 5: hostile talking funny to me, boy, exactly. It was, why
Speaker 5: are you pulling me over? Valid question? Then it's like
Speaker 5: we want to search up nah don I want you
Speaker 5: guy to search my car? And now it's I could
Speaker 5: do like I can see the temperture chain just as
Speaker 5: you where. It's like, okay, so now you're gonna make
Speaker 5: me work and I'm gonna make you hurt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, this is the part where
Speaker 1: it became very troubling to me. So the man who
Speaker 1: with the dreadlocks not the officer, pulls out his phone
Speaker 1: and he calls his father. Just so happens to be
Speaker 1: the case that his father is a circuit judge and.
Speaker 2: They're practicing attorney.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, I forgot about that. So you can see
Speaker 1: him speaking to his father on the phone. He's holding
Speaker 1: the phone. It's not a video call, nothing like that.
Speaker 1: The officer asks him to lean over the front of
Speaker 1: the police vehicle so so they can check his person
Speaker 1: or whatever, and and the man is telling his father, okay,
Speaker 1: they're they're leaning me over the hood of the car.
Speaker 1: They're patting me down. And then the officer grabs his
Speaker 1: right arm and puts it behind his back, and he says,
Speaker 1: is okay, they're they're holding my right arm, and then
Speaker 1: when they grab his left arm, he loses it. Not
Speaker 1: he doesn't do anything crazy, but emotionally he loses it.
Speaker 2: He breaks because he loses it. Sounds like he went off.
Speaker 2: He did not. He got emotional emotional thank you because
Speaker 2: emotionally but heyings.
Speaker 1: And what he said was, they're arresting me, daddy. And
Speaker 1: even now saying that out loud.
Speaker 2: The way that our sons would say it to us.
Speaker 2: It's not our grown selves, but our children would say
Speaker 2: it like that.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine.
Speaker 2: Ada Naya Grayson Trey. They would say it to us
Speaker 2: like that, they're arresting me, daddy. Daddy with a full
Speaker 2: understanding that he's done nothing and the fear being used
Speaker 2: against him. Just let us and we'll let you go,
Speaker 2: even though you haven't done anything and we have no
Speaker 2: probable cost to search or arrest you. But we know
Speaker 2: you're afraid, we know you're uncomfortable, and that you would
Speaker 2: rather just go, so just let us do what we want.
Speaker 2: Don't have any dignity, so don't even have any submit
Speaker 2: to us, and we'll let you go. And in that
Speaker 2: space of understanding that he'd done nothing to deserve what
Speaker 2: was happening to him, and that all of his fears
Speaker 2: and that nervousness they spoke of justified in that moment
Speaker 2: he broke.
Speaker 1: I would you know, and this is not strictly relevant,
Speaker 1: but I want to say it. I had to bury
Speaker 1: my father, so I don't have anybody I could call.
Speaker 1: That means that I'm the person who gets that call
Speaker 1: and it's inconceivable. They're arresting me. Daddy weeping, wailing, grown son,
Speaker 1: bullbeard dreadlocks. And then you can hear him on the
Speaker 1: phone saying, why would you arrest my sons.
Speaker 4: With the terror?
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna make an assumption that,
Speaker 5: you know, considering his father's background, he's well aware of
Speaker 5: exactly of what could happen. And then you know, I
Speaker 5: think you know we're all parents here. Imagine that your
Speaker 5: son is in is in a situation and there is
Speaker 5: nothing you can do it. But listen, that's the thing.
Speaker 5: It's not it's not your home. You're having dinner and
Speaker 5: you discover something half to my child. But now you
Speaker 5: get your child is.
Speaker 1: So you and I have been doing this show for
Speaker 1: some time. Real quick, I want to shout out hot
Speaker 1: ninety eight three and Tucson because this is where we're
Speaker 1: debuting in Tucson today. But yeah, go out much love
Speaker 1: to Tucson as well. But we've been doing the show
Speaker 1: for a while and we were able to share this
Speaker 1: story Once upon a time. It sounds very similar to
Speaker 1: the story that I just shared, so I want to
Speaker 1: go through it briefly so that if you're listening to
Speaker 1: my voice, you understand that there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: context here and a personal experience that's it's almost identical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of many experiences, but yes, specific when this
Speaker 2: one is specific.
Speaker 1: Yes, So in short, what happened was, once upon a time,
Speaker 1: Q and I flew to Miami to pick up a
Speaker 1: very nice Porsche. You purchased a Porsche for his fiance
Speaker 1: and we were going to drive it back on a
Speaker 1: road trip. The car was for the one that she
Speaker 1: wanted was in Florida, so we had to fly there
Speaker 1: to get it. We're driving back, beautiful road trip, We're
Speaker 1: seeing all these states and having a good time. Cars
Speaker 1: brand new. We get into Mississippi and you really wanted
Speaker 1: to get out of Mississippi. We were in Alabama first
Speaker 1: and then we went to Mississippi, so.
Speaker 2: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi in that order.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're running like the gauntlet, yeah, man.
Speaker 2: And it was night and this was at the height
Speaker 2: of what we've been dealing with. So we're seeing signs, flags.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Confederate flags, all that stuff, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the Trump trucks and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: and not not like in a way to support Trump,
Speaker 1: but in a way to intimidate us. That's how it was. Really,
Speaker 1: That's the way I remember it, because I've seen Trump
Speaker 1: trucks in where I live in Arizona, and it's just
Speaker 1: people were proud of Donald Trump, I guess, but these
Speaker 1: were specifically to intimidate, like they would be alongside like
Speaker 1: other signs and verbiage and you know, uh we we
Speaker 1: What did they say, like we killed rap music? Something
Speaker 1: like that. Had had the word kill and rap music
Speaker 1: in the same sentence on a sign with a Donald
Speaker 1: Trump flag.
Speaker 5: It was like, whoa not not to take this take
Speaker 5: this off another direction? But what does it say that
Speaker 5: a political candidate, a president's name, former president's name can
Speaker 5: be used in that fashion. I mean, I as involved
Speaker 5: with as I've been in politics, I cannot think of
Speaker 5: you know, I don't remember somebody being able to say like,
Speaker 5: you know, Reagan nineteen eighty four, and you know, as
Speaker 5: as a form to like, you know, as a verbal
Speaker 5: you know, punches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, man, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean, I love Barack Obama, but yeah, I'll have
Speaker 4: a sticker.
Speaker 2: On my car, yeah, or a flag on my yard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I was.
Speaker 5: I got a T shirt that I wear, you know,
Speaker 5: when I march at the MLK Parade, and that's about
Speaker 5: the only time it gets out of the closet.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we're in Mississippi. We're almost out of there.
Speaker 1: We're almost in the Louisiana queues.
Speaker 2: Driving it's three o'clock in the morning. It's dark dark,
Speaker 2: it's no street lights, dark moon light. That's all in
Speaker 2: the cut Records dot com. We was out there dark.
Speaker 2: Then those trees are real big.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the tree and the trees are so tall
Speaker 1: the moonlight you can't see anything. So what happens is
Speaker 1: in Arizona, there's grooves in the in the road that
Speaker 1: will wake you up if you're drifting one side or another.
Speaker 1: But in Mississippi, the grooves are actually the white line.
Speaker 1: The line is the groove.
Speaker 2: Yes, the grooves are not on the side of the
Speaker 2: road like here, they're in the they divide the lane
Speaker 2: the group.
Speaker 1: Yes, so if so, if your tire touches it just
Speaker 1: a little bit, it'll make that loud noise. And so
Speaker 1: that happened, and the police were able to hear it,
Speaker 1: and so they get behind us and they pull us over.
Speaker 1: And you know, as you mentioned, like being able to
Speaker 1: only listen to what's happening. So what happens is the
Speaker 1: police come to the car and they start talking to Q.
Speaker 1: He was driving at the time. The car has a
Speaker 1: paper license plate, it's a new Porsche, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: just interacting with Q, he says, no, sir, I've never
Speaker 1: drank alcohol in my life, never tried a drugs, never
Speaker 1: done a drug in my life. And that's something that's
Speaker 1: true of me as well. I've never me Ramses has
Speaker 1: never also never tried a drug or never done out.
Speaker 1: But the thing is to be able to say that
Speaker 1: and meaning that's the truth, you know. So there was
Speaker 1: nothing beyond that. And of course I'm talking to Q.
Speaker 1: You can tell, okay, this person is not intoxicated, it's
Speaker 1: not inebriated. There wasn't a huge swear. It was just
Speaker 1: about maybe one second or half of a second worth
Speaker 1: of a noise. And then we explained, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we're driving to Arizona. We didn't know that the lines
Speaker 1: are there, and that's just kind of a thing. We're
Speaker 1: changing radio, whatever was happening. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: we said anything like that, but early on they were
Speaker 1: able to determine that there was no inebriation in the
Speaker 1: equation and so and so that should have been the
Speaker 1: end of it. Yeah, but would you mind stepping out
Speaker 1: of the car? Police are so now Q has to
Speaker 1: get out of the car. So what do I do.
Speaker 1: I go into panic mode and I pull out my phone,
Speaker 1: but I don't record it because they're gonna do whatever
Speaker 1: they're gonna do to Q. I know they're going to
Speaker 1: do it to me, So I go to Facebook Live.
Speaker 1: The problem is that I can't see Q out the
Speaker 1: back of the car because those police lights are so bright.
Speaker 1: So I'm just filming and my phone is about to
Speaker 1: die because we were jamming the outcast all through the
Speaker 1: you know, the South. We're like, just you know, that's
Speaker 1: just kind of yeah, man, we're on our level. So
Speaker 1: so what happens is, uh, you know, just like I predicted,
Speaker 1: the officer comes back to the car and asks for
Speaker 1: my ID. Now I'm still on Facebook Live, and now
Speaker 1: I have a good number of folks that have been
Speaker 1: able to see. Oh there's police sirens. And remember the
Speaker 1: climate in the country at the time.
Speaker 2: And remember what time it was.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's late at night, so it's real early out
Speaker 1: here in Phoenix.
Speaker 2: No even here it was late though. That's what made
Speaker 2: it even more scary, Like it's three there, it's midnight here,
Speaker 2: one o'clock here, Okay.
Speaker 1: Something like that. Yeah, so there's hundreds of people looking
Speaker 1: at this, right. And then the last thing that happens
Speaker 1: is he gives me back my ID and he says,
Speaker 1: can you step out of the car?
Speaker 2: Police?
Speaker 1: And I'm like uh, and then my phone dies. So
Speaker 1: everybody that's watching that now, these people are crying, These
Speaker 1: people are calling calling calls terrified. You know, all of
Speaker 1: my friends, every my family, everyone was so worried and
Speaker 1: that so that speaks to that helplessness that you experience
Speaker 1: when there's nothing you can do because you're on the
Speaker 1: other side of a phone call. Anyway, they pull us
Speaker 1: out of the car, and I'm giving you the quick
Speaker 1: and dirty version of the story. But once they pull
Speaker 1: us out of the car, they say, can we search
Speaker 1: the vehicle? And we say, yes, please search the vehicle
Speaker 1: because a we're not moving a house full of stuff
Speaker 1: like the Gentleman was in Arkansas. It's a brand new car,
Speaker 1: so there's nothing to search. I think we might have
Speaker 1: had a backpack each.
Speaker 2: And we don't want to start an adversarial relationship with
Speaker 2: a highway patrol officer and a state trooper or a
Speaker 2: sheriff at three o'clock in the morning in Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Sure out of state boom.
Speaker 2: So, Yeah, we know our rights, but no, we're trying
Speaker 2: to get home to our baby.
Speaker 1: We would rather not upset you right now.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean here's the thing with rights.
Speaker 5: I mean, knowing your rights and being able to live
Speaker 5: to make this case can be two different things. Yes,
Speaker 5: what in that situation, it's you, it's the cops, and
Speaker 5: there's nobody else.
Speaker 2: Sir. You can search the car, my shoes, my bag,
Speaker 2: this hat, I have on my pockets. What you need. Listen, man,
Speaker 2: I got the spare tire compartment. Look at my ears
Speaker 2: because this is a hybrid. There's a compartment that you
Speaker 2: might not know about. You can check that if you
Speaker 2: look under there. It's right there, sir.
Speaker 4: You got some unopened waters, yes, please.
Speaker 1: So listen. So what they do is they get the dog,
Speaker 1: and you know, they after he gives the flashlight and
Speaker 1: does the whole thing, they get the dog. So we're
Speaker 1: waiting out on the side of the road terrified. I'm terrified.
Speaker 1: Q was fortunately playing a little cooler because he had
Speaker 1: a little bit more information than I did because he
Speaker 1: was out talking to the officers already. But I was
Speaker 1: terrified because why in the world do I need to
Speaker 1: get out of the car? And I challenged them later.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, if Q was a sixty
Speaker 1: five year old, privileged corporate executive driving the same car
Speaker 1: and I was his, you know wife, a forty five
Speaker 1: year old white female, blond hair, blue eyed, would we
Speaker 1: be standing on the side of the road for two
Speaker 1: and a half hours for five minutes dogs to search
Speaker 1: the car, you know? Or would the story have gone
Speaker 1: any different? And that was my charge to them anyway,
Speaker 1: bring the dogs out. And you wouldn't believe me if
Speaker 1: I told you so. Yeah, the dog indicated the president's
Speaker 1: the presence of narcotics in the car, so we're going
Speaker 1: to have to do a full search of the vehicle. Whoa, okay,
Speaker 1: we just got the car yesterday. And and then long
Speaker 1: story short, the dog searches the car, and then he
Speaker 1: searches the car, searches all puts it, puts the blue
Speaker 1: gloves on, goes through and everything like that. And then
Speaker 1: what he told us was that, you know, if the
Speaker 1: dog's nose is so sensitive that if somebody had a
Speaker 1: joint in their pocket and brushed up against the carr
Speaker 1: or brushed against the car in a grocery store parking lot.
Speaker 1: And remember we're driving down the highway at seventy five
Speaker 1: eighty miles an hour across states plural since the last
Speaker 1: time we stopped, because you know, those things are pretty
Speaker 1: good on gas. It was a hybrid. So but it
Speaker 1: just seems so like such a reach in it. And
Speaker 1: that's where my you know, black folks have historically had
Speaker 1: a deep distrust of the whole judicial system, the political system, and.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 4: On the history behind Oh yes, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: But it was so it wasn't a surprise, but it
Speaker 1: was kind of reaffirmed in our interaction that Okay, you
Speaker 1: just made that up. That doesn't that doesn't even make
Speaker 1: any sense. First off, no one leaned against the car
Speaker 1: was on a car lot, and then we had it
Speaker 1: and we've been with it ever since, and no one
Speaker 1: we've been around even does that. There's no way, you know,
Speaker 1: and someone leans the How likely is it that someone
Speaker 1: leaned against this car in a grocery store parking lot
Speaker 1: with a join in their pocket and then the smell
Speaker 1: stayed on the fender.
Speaker 4: Or whatever.
Speaker 1: Right, So it just it's so outlandish and outrageous that
Speaker 1: it again and further at least told me that the
Speaker 1: mistrust that I have of mistrust is too strong a word.
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to, yeah, to
Speaker 1: really believe a face value what an officer says to me,
Speaker 1: especially if it sounds a little just it doesn't really
Speaker 1: sound feasible. I kind of know what I'm looking at
Speaker 1: when I'm looking at it. And in that instance, in particular,
Speaker 1: I don't believe it wasn't black and white thing as
Speaker 1: much as it was a policing of a black people
Speaker 1: thing because the officer, I want to be fair, the officer.
Speaker 1: What we found out later was we might have been half.
Speaker 2: Black, both of those guys were black. And the reason
Speaker 2: why that's such a massive reveal is, once again, we
Speaker 2: were in Mississippi. This is a sheriff and the state trooper.
Speaker 2: It's three o'clock in the morning, and in Mississippi, the
Speaker 2: Mississippi draw sounds like the Mississippi draw.
Speaker 1: Doesn't respect your race. It's so heavy.
Speaker 2: So before we can see them, because remember flashlights and
Speaker 2: the big bright light on the police vehicles, we can't see.
Speaker 2: We can just hear. So what Rams just spoke to before,
Speaker 2: there was some relief on my part because when I
Speaker 2: got out of the car and looked and saw someone
Speaker 2: that looks like you, I didn't think I was gonna
Speaker 2: die anymore.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean we're out of the woods at all,
Speaker 1: you know. It just okay, maybe it's not as mission
Speaker 1: critical as we once thought. So again, if you're just
Speaker 1: tuning in to Civic Sipher, I'm you host Rams' job.
Speaker 1: They called me q Ward and our guest today Patrick C. Brown,
Speaker 1: a member of the NAACP Political Action Committee, and I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about these voter suppression initiatives. So
Speaker 1: real quick, let's let's frame what that is.
Speaker 5: Okay, So let's let's let's talk about I mean, voting.
Speaker 5: Voting has had a very interesting history in our country.
Speaker 5: And you know, I guess the frame it. I want
Speaker 5: to take us back to the start, you know, to
Speaker 5: the founding of America. So when you go back to
Speaker 5: you know, George Washington, you know that era of time,
Speaker 5: not everybody could vote. So our country has never been
Speaker 5: all in on democracy and on you know, voting, which
Speaker 5: is you know, the you say, the essence of democracy.
Speaker 5: And so originally to vote, you had to be a
Speaker 5: white male and you had to own land. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: you can think, you know, if you're not a white
Speaker 5: male and you don't own land, then you don't vote.
Speaker 5: Now we can fast forward, you know, through through the
Speaker 5: years and eventually, you know, all white men could vote,
Speaker 5: and then you know, we said, okay, you know, you
Speaker 5: don't have to own you know, land, things like that. Eventually,
Speaker 5: you know, women would get the vote, because that wouldn't
Speaker 5: be intil like the nineteen twenties. Actually, you know, African
Speaker 5: American men would get to vote before any women for
Speaker 5: the Native American community. And so as you can you know,
Speaker 5: as you go through this, you can see that voting
Speaker 5: has always been an issue now here's what is so
Speaker 5: crazy about voting. We live in a country where we
Speaker 5: desperately want people to be involved in their communities and
Speaker 5: politics things like that, but we also make it so
Speaker 5: difficult to do. But what's even worse is we gaslight
Speaker 5: and we tell people, you know, your vote matters, voting
Speaker 5: is important, but then we tell them like, you know,
Speaker 5: but then you know, we say, you know, the vote
Speaker 5: is so important, we make.
Speaker 4: It very, very difficult to actually do.
Speaker 5: And so what we're seeing basically post the twenty twenty
Speaker 5: election is that you know, one political party y'all probably
Speaker 5: know I'm talking about the Republican Party is and this
Speaker 5: is not just Arizona's across the country. You know, Georgia,
Speaker 5: Kansas just passed and crazy, but we'll talk just about Arizona.
Speaker 5: Is that with this election, they're now trying to change
Speaker 5: the game. And so a couple couple of items like
Speaker 5: this could be a whole show in its own bout.
Speaker 5: I'll keep it pretty simple here in Arizona, we have
Speaker 5: had we've enjoyed mail in ballots and now the acronym
Speaker 5: is pebble. That's you may have heard that, but it's
Speaker 5: it's mail in ballot and we've had that since like
Speaker 5: about ninety six, and so it's pretty straightforward. You sign
Speaker 5: up on the permanent early voting list. That's what Pebble
Speaker 5: stands for. And basically you get a ballot for every
Speaker 5: election as long as you you know, don't move and
Speaker 5: don't update your your information that if you know, if
Speaker 5: you move and you update your information, your ballot will
Speaker 5: find you. And this is for federal elections, state elections,
Speaker 5: local elections, all that.
Speaker 4: And it's worked really well because.
Speaker 5: About eighty percent of the folks in Arizona love Pebble
Speaker 5: and this is like across party lines. Everybody likes having
Speaker 5: that convenience because you can sit at home, you can
Speaker 5: fill out your ballot, you can pop it in the mail,
Speaker 5: you can take it to know the voting center, you
Speaker 5: can take it to you know, the county Recorder's office,
Speaker 5: popping in their dropbox, and you're good. A lot in
Speaker 5: the last couple of years technologies and even better, you
Speaker 5: get a little text message when your ballot goes out.
Speaker 5: Once you fill out your ballot, you know, it gets
Speaker 5: received a text message, Hey, we've got your ballot. Your
Speaker 5: vote has been captured. All these great things but what's
Speaker 5: interesting now is suddenly folks are having issues or I'll
Speaker 5: say the Republicans are having issues with mail vote by mail,
Speaker 5: and so we're the first thing we're saying is we're
Speaker 5: seeing a bill that wants to take the permanent out
Speaker 5: of permanent early voting list.
Speaker 4: So how now the bill is?
Speaker 5: And I don't have to pull up my cheat sheet
Speaker 5: here the bill is, I want to say, it is
Speaker 5: SPH fourteen eighty five. And if you' all on Google,
Speaker 5: if if I'm wrong, you guys will I'm sure we'll
Speaker 5: let Ramses know and I apologize. But like I said,
Speaker 5: I just want to get to the heart of information.
Speaker 5: So with this is how this would work is if
Speaker 5: this bill passes, and it's currently floating around in the
Speaker 5: state legislature. So as of today, I believe that it
Speaker 5: was supposed to go up for a floor vote in
Speaker 5: the House today, a couple of amendments to be added
Speaker 5: to the bill, and so ultimately what happened is that
Speaker 5: that bill is going to be pushed to next week.
Speaker 5: So because they've broken for you know, because it's a
Speaker 5: good Friday, they're not gonna do anything. But with Pebble,
Speaker 5: what happens is is that if you don't utilize your
Speaker 5: mail in ballot, meaning if you receive your ballot and
Speaker 5: you do.
Speaker 4: Not mail it back, then you can be removed from
Speaker 4: the list.
Speaker 5: And so now people may think that's not a big deal,
Speaker 5: but what a lot of people do is their ballots
Speaker 5: come to their home, they fill out the ballot, they
Speaker 5: take it and drop it off at the polling place
Speaker 5: on election day or a couple of days out, or
Speaker 5: they'll take it to the counter recorder. So if you
Speaker 5: do that, you could then lose being off with pebble.
Speaker 5: And what's really scary about this is people may not
Speaker 5: realize this until it's too late. Sure, And why this
Speaker 5: is I think a big this is really going to
Speaker 5: impact negatively, you know, black and brown communities, is that
Speaker 5: we already have an issue with having enough polling places
Speaker 5: or enough working equipment. Now I would I want to
Speaker 5: you know, I want to be fair that in previous
Speaker 5: elections we've been fortunate that there's been a good sense
Speaker 5: of equity. But you know what, if you have a
Speaker 5: lot of people voting, it's gonna be lines and all
Speaker 5: thing goes with it. So now, if you don't use
Speaker 5: that you likehood, you may not vote, and you may
Speaker 5: not even know that you know, you've been kicked off
Speaker 5: the list.
Speaker 1: And this is just one.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is yeah, there's there's there's many, there's many yes.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing that I think it's important that
Speaker 1: it helps frame this, and that's that people need to
Speaker 1: understand that the less votes are, the less voting that
Speaker 1: actually takes place, the more it favors the Republican party
Speaker 1: historically speaking. And so the Republicans have an interest in
Speaker 1: suppressing votes across the board because the less people that vote,
Speaker 1: the more people that vote, the more we're a democratic
Speaker 1: leaning country. It's just the voting system favors Republicans, right.
Speaker 5: And when it comes down to it is you know,
Speaker 5: in the hear and now Republicans when or they do
Speaker 5: better when they electorate.
Speaker 1: As small as possible boom.
Speaker 5: So you know, you could say common sense would be
Speaker 5: if people aren't voting for you, that means they don't
Speaker 5: like your ideas, they don't like your policies, so it
Speaker 5: would make sense to them adjust what the people. Instead,
Speaker 5: they're going the opposite direction, saying no, what we're gonna
Speaker 5: do is we're gonna shrink that down. And so that
Speaker 5: means people of color, the elderly, the folks are disabled,
Speaker 5: all the people who benefit this are not going to
Speaker 5: not vote.
Speaker 1: So and because this is just one example of this,
Speaker 1: and there are many others, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: what folks can do to challenge is to combat this
Speaker 1: or where can they go? Where's they're more inform How
Speaker 1: can folks keep up with you, support you, follow you,
Speaker 1: strand you know the much larger movement.
Speaker 5: Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna give a shout out
Speaker 5: to a really great organization because I think this is
Speaker 5: probably the easiest for y'all listening. There's a group called
Speaker 5: Progress Arizona. I'm working with those guys. They're amazing. They're
Speaker 5: in the trenches every day with this stuff. I mean,
Speaker 5: they're at the capitol. I would follow Progress Arizona. They're
Speaker 5: on Instagram, they're on Facebook, they're on Twitter, and they
Speaker 5: also you know, they put this stuff out. They're also
Speaker 5: on YouTube. The YouTube channel is really great because they
Speaker 5: do they do a quick, like two minute video of
Speaker 5: all the things happening in a legislature each week, very digestible. Now,
Speaker 5: as for these type of bills, because of where we're at,
Speaker 5: you need to contact your state legislator.
Speaker 4: You need to call that person up now.
Speaker 5: If you don't know who it is, I'll just go
Speaker 5: to azledge dot org and then at that point you
Speaker 5: just need to type in your information.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you know who's representing.
Speaker 5: Who's representing you, call that person, email that person because
Speaker 5: at this point now they're getting to the stage where
Speaker 5: the vote's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: All right, So this will become especially useful to black
Speaker 1: folks if you are a non black person, an ally
Speaker 1: to black people, because in those spaces, perhaps your voice
Speaker 1: may carry a little bit more weight. And so if
Speaker 1: you've been wondering what more can you do to support
Speaker 1: your African American brothers and sisters, your Latino brothers and sisters,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity here for you to reach out to
Speaker 1: your legislator and take action against these voter suppresion initiatives.
Speaker 1: But that's about all the time we have for this week.
Speaker 1: Once again, want to thank you for tuning in Pacific Cipher.
Speaker 1: I'm your host rams this job.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward.
Speaker 1: Be sure to hit the website Civiccipher dot com to
Speaker 1: download this. In any previous shows, please submit topics, anything
Speaker 1: you want us to discuss, follow our social media at
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Speaker 1: And until next week, y'all, peace,