Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Killing of Tyre Nichols

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Van and Rachel react to the release of body-cam footage in the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis PD (17:46), the danger of strategies like the SCORPION unit (38:14), and responses from the likes of Jason Whitlock (52:23). Hosts: Van Lathan Jr. and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Her learn is on. It is I, Van Lathen, Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Rachel, are you recovered from our festivities yesterday? Have you recovered? Recovered as if I was, like, so far gone yesterday or something?

Is that what you're trying to insinuate? Are you frozen? No. Okay, go. Okay, there you go. I'm saying, I'm saying our festivities were, we were so festive yesterday. We had a good time. It was a good time.

It was a good time with the midnight boys, with Kalika, with Brian. Chelsea said she was going to come, but then she didn't show up. She played herself as normal. Yeah, she didn't get in. She lost her invite. She, that's it.

It's out. This is a, this is a standing tradition on championship weekend. Okay. And it, we watch both of the games. and we have a fun time

and it was cool. Donnie didn't come. Nope. Donnie wasn't there. Ashley wasn't there. Nope. This is, it's, it's Nick May was there. My partner,

two-ditchie strangers, six feet over productions. But we have fun. And we don't need other people, Rachel, if they don't want to hang out with us. We don't need them. Yeah, their loss. It was a good, chill. time, good conversation,

what football wasn't on. We went into YouTube deep dives. It was very fun. It was very fun. I never knew where the YouTube was taking us. We watched old wrestling promos. We watched macho man Randy Savage. We also tried to get Brian into the MCU

because we're the Midnight Boys, Pew Poo. I don't think we turned them. I'm, this is, so me and Brian, me and Brian is friendship 101. We're about to embark on our, our friendship together is two highly fit individuals or get a take on the world. Right.

And this is the way we're going to bond over getting Brian into the MCU. I know it's in him. He wants it. I feel like you get, you know, he likes an action-packed movie. I could tell his, he was into the scene that you showed. What's his favorite? movie. I don't know why this comes to mind. I'm not quite sure if it's the favorite,

but it's probably a top three. What? The last dragon. Oh, oh, that's promising. I got to remember that Brian. He showed me the movie. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I got to remember that Brian is of my ilk. We're the same age. I wonder if Brian had a Bruce Leroy phase. I think we talked about this about his love of the last dragon before. I wonder if Brian was kicking it around and there, you know, that song. I loved that movie. I couldn't get into it.

I was like, what is this? It's missed me. The 80s was a time when racism only went from white people to black people. And other racism and cultural stuff, we didn't really even bother wasting time on it, you know. We didn't even. So there's nothing that's inappropriate to you about the Last Dragon? Without a doubt. But it's not, it was just, there's a song in The Last Dragon that says like,

Ukiaki Hakasaki Su, you sock it to me, I sock it to you. Oh my God. That's the song that's being sang by the people. And I go back and I listen to the song. And obviously it was one of the, it was a jam. and a half when we used to watch a movie back in the day. But it's like in the recording of that song, in I just, you know, it's just, it's a different time.

It's a different time. We shouldn't judge the past, stuff like that. Obviously, you got rape and slavery. Well, we should point out that it was wrong then. It was a different time, but it didn't mean that it's okay. Because when you start talking like that, you start going into the,

did it matter in 2018 or did it just matter in 2021? You start going in all that. Who said that? Oh, was that soup kitchen? Oh, did it? But see, hold on for a second. When you say 2018, that's three years.

I know. I know, but my point is he was saying it was a different time. You know, the woke mob had not, you know, taking flight. Are you getting that soup right now? No, I'm just saying.

Donnie, bring up soups. bring up soups interview with Rachel. I want to hear it. The nickname. Hey, Donnie, bring up soups interviewer, Rachel. I want to revisit this real quick since we're talking about it. Let's go back and see. Let's do a short segment called Reheated Soup.

The woke police is out there. And this poor girl, Rachel, who has just been thrown to the lions, I don't know how you are equipped when you have never done this before to be woke enough, to be eloquent enough, to be ready to handle this. And my guess is this woman needs a little time. And this is, again, what we didn't give Hannah. It's what we didn't give anybody. We don't give people time to have some perspective, to try and drink this in for a second,

see how this affects their life, and then speak on it. And she will speak, my guess. And when she does, I'm going to hear her out. And if I disagree with her, if you disagree with her, then we can have our say. But I'm not sure why we're in such a hurry to throw this poor one. It's been six weeks. We've known about these allegations have been attached to Rachel since Matt's season started, which was in January. But when do you jump in?

When is when is the time? And who is Rachel Lindsay? And who is Chris Harrison? And who is whatever woke police person out there? When, who are you? And that's, I've heard this a lot of like, I think she should. I think he should. Who the hell are you?

Apparently this song, Suki, whatever, is by an artist called Raw Dog. And it's difficult to find stuff on the song. So me and Brian might have to, you know, when we, I don't think we'll go back and watch The Last Dragon. But when, when we watch the movie, it's just. imperative for people to know if you watch the movie. You know, it was just like a time when we hadn't really jumped into

culturally respecting one another yet. It was like racism was just like if it wasn't something, I mean, I don't know, it was just different. It was like a... No, you said it right. We didn't respect other people's cultures. Yeah. People wore Native American costumes for Halloween. or they dressed up as Bruce Leroy or whatever it may be.

They were blackface. Isn't the character of Bruce Leroy itself? Yes. Yes. That's why I think I couldn't get into it because Brian showed it to be like four or five years ago. So I'm trying to watch it and all I can see is how inappropriate it is. So I can't accept anything that they're showing me. You know, I can't watch the movie like that.

So the character of Bruce Leroux Leroy offended you. Well, it didn't necessarily offend me in particular, but it was offensive. And I know it offends other people. Like I knew it was wrong. I would say that there are probably things in the movie that are more offensive than Bruce Leroy. Let me tell you something. You're throwing a ball for the dog. Let me tell you something right now.

You're more of a show-nuff energy anyway. Uh-uh. Yeah, you are. What about me as Shownuff? Like, you know, show-nuff. said some real lines. People look at Show Enough in the movie as just like a villain. He is a villain, of course.

So you just called me a villain? I said you have more of a show enough energy. I didn't necessarily say that you were a villain. I said you have a show enough energy. Show enough looked. I got something real for your ass and these hands. That's kind of how you are, Rachel, let's be honest. It's like, it's kind of like, yo, I got some real for your ass and these hands.

I could see that coming from you. That literally came from you like two podcasts ago. I never. That's not what I did. I didn't do that. Bringing up bullshit. You brought up reheated soup. Isn't that what we're doing?

This is a reheated soup segment. So I think that falls into it. That falls into it. Donnie, you got to find the right segment of soup kitchen. He quit. So when you hear that, what do you think? Do you think soup kitchen had a point? I think he's saying that we didn't pay attention to those things.

more. Sorry. Stop that. I think he's saying that we didn't pay attention or we didn't bring that kind of stuff to the public's attention back in the day, but we do now. But the problem is he should have been like, and we should be bringing it up now, right? It's a problem that these things were a problem back then. We just didn't address them. Now we do and we should.

That's the part that was missing. And that ends this weekend's edition of reheated soup. Reheated soup. We'll come back next week. Probably never again, honestly. Mm-mm, good. Is that was that camel's suit? Rachel, that was funny.

Reheated soup, mm-mm, good. I want to address Tony Romo, the Tony Romo issue now. Gone viral clip. The now viral clip of Tony Romo. We were having fun yesterday at the house. We were imbibing drinks, eating chips, wings, and different types of assortment things. Okay.

And there was a very funny clip, Medani can play right now of Tony Romo, calling the Bengals Chiefs game, but it seemed like maybe he stopped himself from becoming Tony Romo, member of NWA, okay? Donnie play the clip. Put it in the post.

Oh, you got it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. So that's us having fun. Nobody thinks Tony Romo is a racist guys, okay?

No. We were drunk. We thought we heard it on TV. Nobody, we're not, you know, it's, if Tony Romo is really, I woke up this morning and all of these different sites, did Tony Romo say the N-word? Did Tony Romo say the N-word?

And we weren't the only people that were saying that. No, it was trending on Twitter. But the video of us was in there and Shannon Sharp talked about it. No one thinks Tony Romo is a racist or that Tony Romo was trying to... It's just we were having some fun guys. You would know if we were being serious

and to give even more context. We were watching, we were laughing, we were talking, and Nick goes, wait a minute, rewind that? Did you just hear that? And so we were all like, wait a second. First of all, how we even missed this moment. Then we realized, Everybody was talking about it on Twitter at that time.

So, yeah, we were just guys, I think at this point they would know if we were really serious about that. Tony, my bad. If anything. Has he put out a statement? No, he hasn't put out of his story. No, because I don't think anybody took it seriously. What would this statement say, Rachel? What I thought was, I didn't say it.

What I thought was funny was where people were trying to assume what they thought he was going to say. The best things I heard. were nifty, nickelback, and niners. Nifty, nickelback, Niners, it doesn't matter.

I don't think it was niggas. You know what I'm saying? That's all Cincinnati and Niners together and he stops himself. Who knows? We'll never know. The fan, it was a funny moment. It was a funny moment,

you know? At this point, I feel like I've done enough crying up here that you guys should, you know when I'm serious or what I'm not serious. I bitch about everything. And I'm just going to embrace it. Too many people have tried to dictate my emotions.

Fuck it. I'm an emotional guy. It's just kind of what it is. I don't know. I don't know if I would call it charmed. I would say it's what people, what's one of the things people like about you? Thank you, Rachel. A couple of things.

We have to talk about the Tyree Nichols video today. So, and the reaction to that. And what the reaction to that video signifies. And what it means in the larger scope of how we view public safety. And our relationship all over this country with the police and authority, I think that there's some lessons to be taken around here. You guys know how I feel about saying justice, for Tyree Nichols.

Tyree Nichols will have no justice. Tyree Nichols is dead. Okay. He is gone. So for me, what we have to talk about now is the society that we're consenting to live in

and the people that we're sacrificing to that dysfunction along the way. Okay. It's just my opinion, though. I know other people think that these things on the back end are very important. I kind of get the, the, I kind of get the sense that between incidents,

we don't really maintain the type of dysfunctional sort of destabilizing energy that we need to have. But that's okay. That's just me. I'm guilty of it too. So we'll talk about that video. But before we get into all of that, because that's not going to be as, I don't think as pleasant to listen to.

I would like to say, I think Rachel would too. I'm not sure. Maybe Rachel doesn't care. Everybody that came out Friday was so nice. Friday, too. We had a time. We finally got together

and break bread together with fellow thought warriors. And it was a good time. Friday afternoon, traffic in L.A. People still came out. And it was so good to not just talk to you, but talk with you afterwards. I love that everyone came down.

We shook hands. We hugged. We took pictures. We talked about some of the things that we discussed because we had to move past the moving. But, you know, we've got the whole episode coming to you guys. So the ones who couldn't be there because we know we got thought warriors all over the place. We recorded it. So we're going to give it to you guys.

You can feel like you were there with us. and then hopefully we can put this thing on the road and meet more of you. Meet some thought words, go to some different places. Shake hands, hug, you know, be with you guys. It was fun having the mic. Ooh, it was fun being up in front of the crowd so you could rock the crowd, have the mic.

I'm up there you go. Yeah, Rach, um, um, that's us. Like we're in front of the crowd. That's how you felt. Yeah, I'm like this. This is me. I got the mic. I'm rocking the mic.

I feel, you know, I'm up there like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ah, ah, I different, at Rakim, I'm Nause, you know, you know, who are you? Oh, who are you? Rachel, who, when you're rocking the mic, who are you? Oh, Kendrick. You Kendrick. Kendrick Lindsay, ooh, ah, K.L. You know what I mean? That's what we're up here.

I'm Rakim, uh, thinking of a masterplan. You know what I'm saying? Um. Don't let me drop it. I was feeling it. You're getting into it. You're getting into it. Rocking the mic.

Okay. Guys, energy up. Spirits up. Hold space for yourself. We're going to talk about the death of another human being right now. On the other side, it's break the big deal with the day. Of course, what's going on right now with Tyree Nichols. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis.

Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the five. with Fandul Predict. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus.

Offered by Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Okay. Rachel, did you watch the body cam footage?

I saw clips. Okay. Let's start there. How did you allow yourself to watch the body, the body cam footage? I saw it on accident. Why? I heard it.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I gotta be honest with you. I've had anxiety about doing this podcast today because I knew we were going to talk about this. And I don't want to be emotional. I know I'm tired of it. I know you're tired of it. You know, a part of me is like,

should I watch the video? Should I not? I didn't do it for selfish reasons to not watch the video. I just, this man lost his life. I know what happens at the end. I read the, before the video came out,

obviously I was following along. I read that it was worse than the Rodney King beating. I didn't need to see it. I heard his parents talk about it. I heard emotion. I heard them describe it. I didn't need to watch the video. So of course, being a frequent user of social media, by chance I saw it when I didn't want to, or I was listening to a podcast

and I heard it, which I think might have been worse to listen to it than to, because I'm hearing it. It's just, I don't know, I can't expect, it's all bad. I don't want to say one's worse than the other, but just to hear it was so painful. Yeah, I didn't. You watch the whole thing? Several times. Wow. Several times. I don't know how you do it.

It's a coping mechanism. You have different ones. Yeah, it's, Van is afraid of nuclear fan. I am afraid of nuclear war. So I immerse myself into everything possible about nuclear war. learn it down to the weapons that are used. Learn it down to missile missile defense systems, budgets,

installations all over the globe, how fast a submarine can be at a spot to shoot a nuclear weapon. The types of nuclear bombs that might be able to fly from North Korea, whether or not they are classified as ICBMs, how high they go, where our chances are deflecting them are, how quickly we can scramble up a defense where our nuclear installations are around the country and how close I live to them. What the nuclear technology of the Russians are now as opposed to what the nuclear technology of the Russians were at their height. How many nuclear weapons does China have?

How many aircraft carriers is China have? Like how fast can we scramble a response when we know that something's in the air? It doesn't have to go all the way to space. Do we shoot it while it's going to space? Do we neutralize it from satellite while it's in space? Do we neutralize it when it's finding its target on the way back now? I'm just saying. So, yeah.

So with this, the reality of the situation, the way I look at that and sometimes the way I cope, the reality of the situation isn't going to change. The only thing that's going to change is how much you know about it and how much you know about it, in my opinion, affects your ability to be able to do something about it. That does not mean that I think anybody should have subjected themselves to this video. I am very proud of everyone who made the decision not to watch it. I am. I think that those people that made a decision not to watch the video, I probably watched it and talked. entirety, and its entirety probably six or seven times.

I watched clips of it way more than that, maybe upwards of 10 times. But the people that made the decision to not watch the video, I'm extremely proud of them because they made a choice, they made the most important choice that you can make, which is a choice for your spirit and a choice for your sanity and a choice for the way your body is going to move. So I appreciate everyone that didn't watch it. it's also just about like when I watch videos like that and I close my eyes, that's all I see.

Because I heard it, it's what I hear. And so I think for me, which I saw something more than I've seen before when it comes to broadcasting it on television is that even the media, at least whatever channel I was watching, even said, we're not going to show the video right now. We're going to show you who the man who Tyree Nichols was. You just not see that. You don't see that at all. And I'm not saying that that's better, but I appreciated that because I want to learn about who he was in that way. And I don't want my last memory to be that video or to hear that audio.

And I think that's, yeah, I guess that is my coping mechanism. That's how I want to see him. Because sadly, this is how we learned about him. I'll speak directly to that too. Tyree Nichols' death is now symbolic, and there's no way getting around that. His family gets to remember him, and the people that loved him,

get to remember him in the way that he represented himself and showed up for them while he was a lot. I didn't know Tyree Nichols. Right. I didn't. I don't need a reminder to remember or recognize people's humanity. I need a reminder, I think sometimes to,

I think we all need reminders sometimes when people make mistakes to remember that they're only human. But as far as, you know, I assume that this man had people that loved him. I assumed that they have memories of him. I assume all of those things. The reality is that Tyree Nichols' death has become symbolic of us living within a system that is desperately broken. And we can, I'm not being critical of anyone who chose to do that or who wanted to remember him as the loving son, the skateboarder, you know, all of those things.

but I believe that that itself is also a coping mechanism. I believe that itself is also people who are making the very deliberate choice to say, hey, we don't want to remember somebody's life by how they die. And that makes a ton of sense. But I do think it's important for us to remember and put it right smack dab in the front of our brains. that are unwillingness or inability to address what are becoming foundational systemic issues. These are becoming the calling cards of these broken systems, which is the deaths, the horrific deaths of American citizens.

We are, we're getting to a point to where everyone is complicit. in their apathy or complicit in their inability to hold the right people accountable to make sweeping reform, not even reform,

sweeping dismantling of these things nationwide. And just as we talk about school shootings, this is just a part of life. This is just a

part of who we are because it doesn't seem like we have the wherewithal to really look at this and get something done about it. You don't think we have the wherewithal to do it? You're on mute. You don't think we have the wherewithal to do it? No, I don't. And we're going to get to Tyree Nichols and talk about the ends and outs of it. But I just, I think this part is important because I want to make sure that there's some

catharsis for the audience here and the people that are frustrated, can talk to the people who just need to decompress a little bit. And I think this conversation is good. No, I don't think we have the wherewithal. I don't. And let me tell you why. Because, you know, we've had conversations on this podcast very recently about what place anger, hostility, rage have in these conversations.

And people's opinions differ on what place they do have. If your anger is misplaced or if it leads you to a place to where you can't function intellectually, then obviously it serves no one. It's you making yourself feel better, right? But being displeased and angry and uncomfortable, like really uncomfortable, about these societal situations is the only way to fix them, but you have to be able to remember that you were mad. Human beings are literally, it's a pro-evolutionary trait.

Forgetting tragedy is a part of who we are. We have to move on and live the rest of our lives. Sure. But in this case, we need to remember this is why our government has made a big, big push about not letting us forget certain things. The reason why they say remember 9-11, it's to remember the victims, of course. But it's also that you remember it when they need a tax hike or to send young men into war, young men and young women into war, or to bomb some country or to drone some group of people with their

family, you know what I mean, to kill a bunch. They're reminding you, hey, never forget, because there are a lot of things that are going to have to be done that aren't going to look so pretty. And you have to remember why we're doing them. And it's the same thing ever. Remember the Alamo. Remember Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor happens. A couple of years later, the United States nukes a bunch of people. Thousands of innocent people die. Hey, remember, this war was started by some people who attacked us, but we weren't even in it. So I want you guys to understand that the thing inside of you that incites you, it's as useful as you make it, right?

And you're going to forget. You're going to move on. And between these incidents, we do. And we have conversations about the political inability of people that we voted for, about how we should be criticizing them, about how we should be talking to them, We volley these names around. We put these names on bills. We do all kinds of things.

But you know what doesn't ever happen? Actual reform, actual change. Well, I completely agree with you. When you were saying wherewithal, I was thinking of it in a different way. But I agree with you. And I think that the reason we are in this cycle over and over again is because the way we do,

this is we wait for a tragedy to happen and then we react to it. And then we react and we're outraged and we protest and then we wait again for another tragedy to happen and we react to it without actually being proactive to the real issue. And I think that's the other thing is they're addressing the problem in the wrong way. Well, they're really not addressing it. But rather than looking at these random things, and I know we'll get into it, not random, but these other things, it's not addressing the overall issue, which is it's a system. Nobody's addressing the system. They're not doing it in Congress. They're not doing it on a local level or regional level, whatever it may be.

They're not addressing that. And so until they address that and there's change with that, there's not going to be an issue. And I know we'll get all into it and so you can move on to that. But that's, I mean, that's really what it is. We wait for it to happen and then we react to it. And it's a cycle that we move on and on and on

and we keep doing it. With so many different things. Okay. You guys know Tyree Nichols was killed. 29-year-old black man stopped. Traffic stopped on January 7th. He was beaten by officers for three minutes. He died in the hospital three days later.

The video is gut-wrenching. It's so out of body somebody help him bad. cries out for his mother, being by police. 80 yards away from his mother's home.

Absolutely. He said that police, Memphis Police Chief Sarah Lynn Davis, first black lady to serve in that role, told CNN that the footage was as bad, if not worse, then the 1991 Rodney King beating case

five police officers to Darius Bean Demetre's Haley Emmett Martin III Justin Smith and Desmond Mills Jr. were fired after the incident

and have been charged with second degree murder aggravated assault aggravated kidnapping official misconduct and official oppression attorneys for the officers have said in reports

that nobody intended Nichols to die for her mercy On Friday, though, Attorney Antonio Romanoucci told Insider that their actions were designed to kill. He said that when you see the video and you see the fact that they were taking three punches and kicks at someone who was restrained, they knew their actions were designed to kill, Romanochi told Insider at the Mount Olive C.Mee Church in Memphis. Whether or not they knew that they were going to kill them, that is not the law. He was a human pinata for those officers, he said. It was unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes.

If you watch the video, they use several different ways to beat him. They punch him in his face. They kick him. They beat him with the baton. He is being restrained this entire time. There was a traffic stop. He was forcibly removed from the car. We should say that from the beginning of this, there seems to be.

procedural misconduct in all kinds of ways. The police, like they do all the time, they escalate this. They try to forcibly remove him from his car. He flees on foot. They track him down. They don't even know how to use the fucking pepper spray. They're pepper spraying everywhere. They're pepper spraying themselves, okay, trying to wash it out of their own eyes.

And then they get this man cuffed and they just beat on him, punches to the face, kicks to the head while he's down. One officer gets his baton out, wails on him. He just beat him. And then as he is sitting there, as he is laying there, because he sits, he lays there for a little while, then they tell him to get up. They say, brother, sit up.

As he is laying there, several different organizations fail. MS arrives on the scene. They start looking at him. No one is like, yo, y'all really fucked him up. Like nobody seems to care about the American citizen. that essentially has holes in his face from fist, batons, and feet. It's truly, truly astonishing.

Like, it's astonishing. And these cops are black. And there's an eerie part of the video when you watch it that you hear them speak in vernacular that's so familiar to you. Damn, bro. I was running, bro. I was, man, my legs started hurting, man. I had him like, he's strong as hell.

He got to be high. He got to be on something. It's otherworldly to listen to them. And for them to feel no connection at all. Nothing. They didn't look at him like he was a person, a human being. no connection at all. Something that you said.

The fire department came first. Nothing. Twenty minutes. Then the EMS came before they even decided to do something. And he's just sitting there dying, dying. And they're bragging to one another about the way they took turns, beating him. These are police officers.

These are public servants. These are who your tax dollars pay for. And this is how they're treating the citizens. I was hitting it with straight haymakers, dog. I jumped in and started rocking him. That's what they're saying. Why did cops pull him up? His family said that Mr. Nichols,

who was a photographer, was driving around, taking pictures of the sunset. Officers initially said he was pulled over for alleged reckless driving. But police on Friday, last Friday said that there's no evidence to substantiate that claim. The footage release only begins

after police confront him at an intersection at 824 local time. Police said the initial traffic stop was not filmed, but we don't know why. This goes back to something that we've talked about on this very podcast about how the nature of the frivolous traffic stop lends itself to deadly outcomes when you have a culture of police murders. And you have to look at what their intent is when they're doing these frivolous traffic stops.

They're fishing expeditions. They're doing it so they can fish for something else. So they're specifically targeting certain people so they can dive into possibly finding some other criminal activity. So the original purpose, there isn't one. It's not reasonable. That's exactly what was happening here, which is why that traffic stop was not filmed. I know I'm assuming that, but that's why I wasn't filmed. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech.

Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business.

And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. If we talk about the nature of the traffic stop, the frivolity of it, and what it means to have police overextend themselves and become obstacles in the life of average ordinary American citizens, it speaks back to the culture of policing that we are discussing. It speaks back to whether or not police are there to protect and serve. and be instruments of public safety,

or whether or not police, with budgets that are out of control, with tactical gear at their disposal, and a military mindset, or marauding around communities all over this country, looking for people to fuck up. Looking for people that they think, for some reason,

present some, imminent danger to society, although they don't have any specific information that that's the case. Any specific evidence that they've been taught killology throughout the 90s

and the sheep dog mentality both things that you guys can look up and that now everything looks like a wolf and that they're hammers, everything looks like a nail. We should talk about that. because some of these officers were a part of the Scorpion Unit,

which was launched in 2021. You guys have heard about the Scorpion Unit. It is the street crimes operation to rescue peace in our neighborhoods. They launched it because they felt like crime in Memphis was going to crazy. We need to crack down on crime. This was something that the mayor and this police chief, who we're going to talk about a little bit, we're very excited about when it started.

Have you heard anything about this Scorpion unit? Do you know anything about it? I mean, I heard about it because of this. I don't know if this is something that's implemented in other cities or not. But I think that even if they don't call it the Scorpion unit, there are similar units who do just that. I mean, this is where profiling comes from, right? if you're having these traffic stops because you're trying to reduce specifically with the Scorpion

Union combating the high numbers of carjacking insults and homicides and you're doing that by pulling people over and stopping them, how are you deciding, you're not stopping at the street and stopping every single car that goes by? So how are you determining who's who's necessary without it being profiling? So to answer your question, no, I don't know. I had not heard this before, but I am aware that units similar to this exist in other cities when they're trying to combat

high crime. And the way they do that seems to be through profiling. I think that you just said something that's so important. I'm going to read you some stuff about this scorpion unit that was put out when they made the announcement a couple of years ago.

It's important to us that each member of the community feels that they can go to the grocery store or live in their house without their house being shot or shooting frequently occurring on the streets and on the roadways. From MPD assistant chief, Sean Jones. Okay.

Four teams of officers will focus on restoring peace and neighborhoods and reducing violent crime and hot spots around the city. There was a video that they put out with this. And the video shows cops getting training. There were a couple of questions. from even the mayor and the police chief. But there's something that I never saw or something that was harder to ascertain for me

when I'm looking at this. Actually, two things. Number one is what you're talking about. How? You have a specialized unit that you are, and by the way, according to officials in Memphis, it worked, that they had a crime reduction last. you. Okay. That they say that the Scorpion unit and units like it were actually very useful in

reducing crime. At what cost? That's the, that's, that's the, that's the, that to me is the question. One is how. How does the Scorpion unit reduce crime? And in something like this, when you are selling a new style of policing or a new unit of policing, a different approach to policing, I think it's incumbent upon the people that are putting this stuff out there to tell us how they're going to do this. Does this mean that they are going to work with the community and build a bond with them and a trust with them and have information coming from the community and the best ways to assess crime and be there as

and be there to stand in the gap between criminals and victims. Or does this mean that they're going to maraud around neighborhoods and arrest everybody that they see? Does this mean that interactions are going to go through the roof? Does this mean that that that that, that they're going to be casualties of the Scorpion unit? And I also think that when we're talking about reducing

crime and we're talking about specialized units or different police tactics, there should be equal amounts of study and care put on to community impact. Was there anyone in the MPD or wherever or wherever that looked at the impact of a unit like this on the community? You have a budget for everything else. do you have a budget to do a community impact study and let people know how their lives are going to be different if there is a specialized unit that is focusing in on specific hotspots?

Because remember, what we're not supposed to be doing is subjecting American citizens to life in a police state. And that's kind of the stuff that I never hear. You know what I mean? Well, I think also, oh, I'm sorry, I thought you finished. No, you're done. I know, I got you. Well, no, I was going to.

say, I think also when you create a unit like this, I would imagine that there's certain policies and procedures and protocols that are in place because this is a new unit. So how is this new unit supposed to function? Is there particular training for this unit now that you are going to put them in high crime spots every single day where violent crimes occur on a daily basis? That's what the Scorpion unit is saying. That's why they launched it. So what does that look like? that's what I would want to know. Or did you just say, I'm taking these 50 officers and I'm just throwing you into these situations? Are they patrolling?

Are they only responding when there's a call so they can get there quickly? Or is it at random and profiling, which seems to be the case, which is why when you were talking, I said, at what cost is this being done? Like, what is the ultimate goal here? Is the goal here for appearances to say I have more cops, out on the streets, or is the goal to actually understand what's happening, why it's happening, and best in the best way to fix it? Or is it a scare tactic?

It's called the fucking Scorpion Unit. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's a scare tactic. So let's talk about the name real quick, because I think that's a very interesting observation. Two things, absolutely everything that you're saying is minty green fresh. Okay? And the reason why it is is because if you're doing something in the interest of the community, you have to know how it's going to impact and affect the community.

And there need to be specifics. It doesn't just need to behave. We're going to take our toughest motherfuckers and put them in the hardest areas and do this. We need to know how it's going to work, why it's going to work. Because I can tell you right now, a nominal drive. And crime in Memphis is not worth the life of even one, one American citizen. It's not. In my opinion, it's not.

Especially in what this does to the relationship between the community and the police now. I mean, they lynched a guy. So we're out of here. We're done. We're fucked. Okay. And it was only two years that the motherfuckers were doing what they were doing. And we already got here.

Do you know who started SWAT? Do you know who started SWAT? I do not. A man by the name of Daryl Gates. This is an interesting little. Hold on. Is this my internet or? I'm going to change my Wi-Fi.

I'm going to change my Wi-Fi real quick. Let me see. Okay. Who started SWAT? SWAT SWAT was started by a gentleman by the name of Darrell Gates

Darrell Gates was in Los Angeles police guy and in like the late 60s in response to riots to what he thought

was a rise in a particular the type of crime. He went around talking to Marines, and in his conversations with those Marines, he wanted to have a more militarized unit of the police that could deal with these threats that he thought regular patrolmen couldn't deal with, Darrell Gates. If that name is familiar to you, it's because Darrell Gates also presided over the LAPD at the time that Rodney King had the shit beat out of him. It was Daryl Gates's LAPD

that was in effect the most ruthless police department in America maybe in the history of America the LAPD at that time.

Now, do you know what SWAT means? I actually don't. Swat means. special weapons and tactics. That's what it means. SWAT means special weapons and tactics. That is not the name that Daryl Gates had for SWAT, though. Oh.

Everyone knows the name as special weapons and tactics. The original name for SWAT was Special Weapons Assault Team. Oh, my God. That's a fact. that's not emotional van flying off the handle. That's a fact. Even in the late 60s, Daryl Gates was told by people, hey,

maybe you shouldn't call a unit that is supposed to be acting in the interest of the public, an assault team. You can't call it that. By the way, this is, Gates is on tape addressing this. So he changed the name. When that gentleman right there who starts that group,

and now SWAT has been Ballyhooed, and we can talk about whether or not it even works. You know, there have been mass shootings where SWAT team hasn't even fucking gone in. In Lillerton, Colorado, the SWAT team didn't even go in when Harris and Klebold were fucking up the fucking school because they didn't know what they needed to do.

You know, they didn't know the layout of the school. They had no fucking, it's just like, whatever. It's a bunch of fucking guys who got an extra training, whatever, man. And so think about what the police force is going to be like when that guy is in charge of me. When you've looked at the police as not really being an agency that acts in the interest of public safety,

when the police have a union inside of them that is essentially an assault team. and when we're having specialized units that aren't investigative in any way, that aren't community outreach in any way, and even the investigative units themselves fall under the same umbrella, what's going to be the cost of the community?

The fucking point of the police is you. You are the point of the police. You are the point of the police. All right. I encourage everybody to look up what I just said, look up anything that I just said, because we're getting to a culture that seems in some ways irredeemable or unfixable, I assure you that that's not the case.

It is, it's not redeemable, but it is fixable. This culture of policing cannot be redeemed, but there are things that can be done to fix it. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimfaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease

and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections, or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiatoradio.com.

This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistency. love stories and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting.

Watch only on Prime. Let's move on to some of the responses to this. Because we got into the realm of lunacy here with some responses to this. reaction, one of the first reactions I saw was from Jason Whitlock who can always be coming on. He always has something interesting to say. Donnie, can you give that to me?

I would examine the racial element of this because there is a racial element. And this is a story about young black men and their inability to treat each other in a humane way. Everybody involved in this on the street level was either 24 to 32 years old. everybody. It was a group of young black men, five on one.

It looked like gang violence to me. It looked like what young black men do when they're supervised by a single black woman. And that's what they got going on in the Memphis Police Department. They've elected some or put some black woman in charge of the police force. And we're getting the same kind of chaos and disunity and violence that we see in a lot of these cities that are run by single mothers. If we want to discuss the breakdown of family that leads to disrespect for authority that causes you to resist the police and run from the police and not comply with the police because you resist authority at all time because there was no male authority in your home, let's have that discussion. But that's not where they want to take us. They want to take us down the path of saying, you know what, this is Tucker Carlson's fault. Hmm.

Do you have any thoughts about that? I don't, my natural inclination is not want to even respond to it because it's just so ludicrous because what he's doing in that moment is checking every single box he needs to make sure that he gets another appearance

on Tucker Carlson's show. Gang violence, check. Blame black people, check. Talk bad about black women. Check. you know, cater to Tucker Carlson and say how they'll try to blame you and make you the enemy. Check. He does every single one of those things in that statement and actually says it's all a red herring to what the actual issue is. The issue is the system. And that's exactly what you have to point out in this. It's not because those officers were black and he was a black man.

This isn't black on black crime. It is a systematic issue, which is why it keeps happening. It ain't bad apples. It's not one police unit. It's the entire policing system, which is why we're here. So it's hard for me to entertain anything that Jason Whitlock says because he's a fucking idiot. And he's just going to say everything that he needs to say, like I said, to keep getting these moments on TV. But you have to address it because the people who are watching Tucker Carlson show, they're not listening to this podcast. They're listening to Tucker Carlson and watching a black man speak on what they're looking at as a black issue and are taking his word as Bible. And that's the problem with this.

And that's why you have to call out Jason Whitlock. Because they'll say, well, Jason Whitlock's black. And this is exactly what he said is happening. And that will be their truth. And we have to speak out against it because that is not the truth. That's not why Tyree Nichols is dead. He's dead because the system failed him. And it's a system that has been a problem since its existence, particularly with black people. There we go. So let's let me try to do something new.

Let me try to not. Let me try to do something new. Let me try to do something new. Let me try to not get mad. I'm not going to get mad. I'm just going to take what Jason Willock says on its face. I thought you were going to try to see the other side of it. I was like, don't be new like that.

Come on. Don't be new like that. I ain't nobody that new. Okay. that newness doesn't exist. It's Van. It's me. It's the big boy. Come on. It's Captain Titties.

It's me. Okay. First of all, Sarah Lynn, Jay Davis, who is the police chief. She's married.

I don't know if he meant that she's a single black woman and the fact that she's just one black woman. Yes, looking over to these black men. looking over these black men or if he admit that she was actually single but she's married. I just want to state that. I don't know

if I don't know what was going on with there. It was the first thing that he said. Right. So she's the chief of the Memphis police. She joined the Atlanta police force in 1986. Rose to Deputy Chief did not have a career that was without controversy.

She was fired. She was demoted and fired. And then she was brought back on after an appeal. But she continued to rise up the ranks, became chief of the Durham Police at some point, and then became the chief of the Memphis police in 2021. The reason why I point out this is because she's had a decades-long career in law enforcement. I am 42 years old. She got her first job in law enforcement in 1986. if you guys do the math,

that is a long time as a cop. She's been a lot of different places, okay? For nearly 40 years, as a police officer, if she doesn't have what it takes to be a police administrator, it's not because she's a woman. It's not because of anything other than

the police failing to recognize good candidates. I don't know. as much about her besides some of her past controversies and the fact that she has been on an upward trajectory since the late 2010s. She's been featured on Good Morning America, old magazine, all of that stuff.

So if there is a cop anywhere that was prepared and groomed to be a chief of the police, it is her. She is literally like Lieutenant Daniels from the wire. You know, somebody has some issues back in the day, but a company player, someone that's on the trajectory. So the notion that she's unqualified in some way

or that people are acting out in some way because she is a woman is preposterous. It's simply, it's just on its face preposterous. There are no holes in her record or resume. All right, that's first. Number two, the breakdown of the family slash authority. I hear this a lot. Actually, Jay Z said this.

Donnie, find that clip real quick. You think about the idea of growing up in a single parent house, which I grew up in, which we grew up in, and having an adverse dealing for authority. Right? Your father's gone. So you like, I hate my dad. Well, nobody tell me what to do it. I'm the man in the house. And then you hit the street and you run into a police officer. And it's first thing. Put your hands up, freeze, shut up. And you're like, excuse my language, everybody. You like, fuck you. Right. So that interaction causes people to lose lives. Okay, it's ridiculous. That's his experience.

No. Sure. No, no, no, no. I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying he is generalizing his experience to every experience of a black man growing up in a single parent home. It's quaint

in its idiocy. Agreed. And the only reason why I bring it up in this situation. Because when I heard Jason Whitlock say that, I thought, hey, that's not something that's somebody that wasn't bug dancing would say. But then I thought to myself, no,

that's a belief that some people have. And it's important that we named this and look at this. Okay. 1633, a lot of black people went to Washington and one of our best, a lot of people went to Washington, one of our best, gave a speech. Martin Lutherton Jr. There's a very famous placard made by a gentleman named Samuel Edgerton at that speech.

Plackard was yellow with red writing on it. And it says, we demand an end to police brutality. 1963. The version of this story that the Republicans would have you believe is that social programs

and the image of the welfare queen and giving out black people giving all kinds of help to impoverished black people, impoverished people, period, is the reason why the family unit

broke down. What the Candace Owens, what the Jason Whitlock would have you believe, that black people suddenly lost their drive to succeed after the government began to subsidize their lives. At some point, in the early 70s, after a decade of sweeping change, that black people decided to say, hey, we're not going to work because we'll just get it for the government. And that women decided that the way to prosper was not to have family unit but to have as many kids as possible by whomever

and I have a dad and the government would be your dad. This of course leaves out the fact that during the 50s we had the lowest crime basically in American history. I mean, we've had tremendously low crime

recently before a lot of this but in the 50s we had some of the lowest crime rates in the history of this country. We also had near full employment. And that was because on the hills of World War II, the economy was booming. Tax rates even being what they were in the 50s, you had incredibly low crime. You also had stable black families going into the 60s. You had the same thing, but something changed. Interactions with the police came to a point to where black people had had enough of it. That's because police brutality by that point.

have been a decades-old problem in black society. I point you to something here. We'll go to Illinois, if you will. The Illinois Association for Criminal Justice published the Illinois Crime Survey conducted between 1927 and 1928. I'll tell you why this is important. The reason why this is important is because in the 20s, during prohibition, that is really when the police professionalized themselves.

We're going to set standards. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. It's also when the police became a little bit more. There was more money putting into policing because prohibition at this time was a huge, huge, huge national program. It was a big deal. You wanted to be able to arrest people that was drank and that liquor, that drank,

drank, drank, that hen doggy dog, that mad dog, 2020, that four local. that do say, that Hennessy, whatever. You wanted to be able to arrest them. So you saw more police and you saw police get more aggressive. In the 1920s? The 1920s, okay? The report of British is when this happens. Illinois wants to know, hey, how are the police working?

You do a survey. That survey, in 1927, this is, remember now, there is a point in American history where black families are actually more stable than any other family group because all we had was family. Sure. Whatever erosion of the father in the black home

that the hyper-conservative is going to blame the left for or going to blame government programs for, that doesn't happen for another three or four decades, right? The survey in 1929, showed that African Americans made up 5% of the population, but accounted for 30% of the victims of police killings. They were 5% of the population.

They accounted for 30% of the victims of police killings. Herbert Hoover, who was the president a little bit later around the same time, all this stuff is available online. He actually commissioned a study. called the report on lawlessness and law enforcement vis-a-vis police brutality. We're talking about in 1929, 1930, 1931, like we're looking at this,

police brutality has been an issue, particularly for people in color, for as long, like Rachel said, as the police have existed. And that is not hyperbole. That is verifiable fact. Verifiable fact. The only thing I will add to that is,

what else was on the rise in the 1920s? Violence against black people? KKK. Which you know that there's a direct link to a lot of people in enforcement being linked to the KKK. It went back on the rise in the 1920s. So I don't think it's too much of a reach to say that the reason brutality increased

and there was studies that were being conducted is because in conjunction with the police establishing themselves, I find it very coincidental that also on the rise in the 1920s was the KKK. I find it coincidental too. Let's go back to the... You don't find it coincidental. I'm agreeing.

Let's go back. Let's go a couple of decades in the future here. Let's talk to Malcolm X. Dona, give me that audio. The control press, the white press, inflames the white public against Negroes. The police are able to use it to paint the Negro community as a criminal element. The police are able to use the press to make the white public think that 90 percent or 99 percent of the Negroes in the Negro community are criminals.

And once the white public is convinced that most of the Negro community is a criminal element, then this automatically paves the way for the police to move into the Negro community exercising Gestapo tactics, stopping any black man who is on the sidewalk, whether he is guilty or whether he is innocent, whether he is well-dressed or whether he is poorly dressed, whether he is educated or whether he is dumb, whether he's a Christian or whether he's a Muslim, as long as he is black and a member of the Negro community, the white public thinks that the white policeman is justified in going in there and trampling on that man's civil rights and on that man's human rights.

It's 1962. It's 1962. How relevant, 61 years ago, how relevant is that? That's insane. I have a list here of racial uprest that's in direct result of police action. Philadelphia race riots, 1964, Rochester race riots, 1964. Harlem race riots, 1964. In Harlem, 1964, 15-year-old boy named James Powell was shot and killed.

1967, officers beat up a black cab driver, John Smith, during the traffic stop. Lentorites. Some of the earliest examples of police brutality, everybody has seen. Have you ever seen a waterhouse or a German Shepherd being turned on black people peacefully protesting during the civil rights era? Have you ever seen that? Of course you have. I have. You have.

Donnie has. And I suspect that Jason Whitlock has. Everybody has seen that. and beyond racial lines, by the way, beyond racial lines. Have you seen the police beat the shit out of hippies? Have you seen the police take a drastic turn during a specific period of American history

and even a more drastic turn when budgets ballooned out of control and they were completely militarized? Yeah. I'm not, the Jason Whitlock's in the world, we criticize them because we think that we're, that they're coons. That lets them off the hook in a way.

I'm not saying that they're not that. Whatever. They're just wrong. It's just not true. It's just a fable. From him and from Hove or anybody else who thinks that it's just not true. Here is the truth. The police are broken,

have been broken, will be, broken, the police are the result of a system in which capitalism depresses a group of people to the degree

that they are impoverished and the crime rate there arises. Then, because there's no fixing that, right? Because that's not a problem that needs to be fixed. The only way to fix

it is then to send the police in increasingly vigilant, increasingly violent, increasingly vicious, and to say, fuck them niggas up. Because what we don't want to do is spread it around.

What we don't want to do is invest into human lives. What we don't want to do is to have, to identify and sort of convict a system that has the highest income inequality since the Gilded Age. We don't want to have conversations about what it really means to invest into people. We want to fuck people up and people die because of it. And as a black man, as I sit here, people will indict my culture and they will tell me that I come from a violent culture.

And they'll tell me that because of crime rates all across the world, right? Or all across the country. Never mind that any place people are poor, the crime rate goes up. Look at what's going on in the Appalachians. Look at what's going on at some of these rural places that we don't talk about where you neary see a black face. Hip-hop, the evening news, all of those things are supposed to be examples why my culture is violent. Why I have a propensity to the violence.

violence. But I can show you 10, 15, 20 videos of police officers from Minnesota to Kenosha to fucking goddamn Baton Rouge, to Los Angeles, to New York, to Florida, to Baltimore, to Memphis. I can show you videos to Colorado of police killing people. And I'm in no way supposed to believe that the police have an inherently violent and vicious culture. Right. So we'll be. I mean, I don't know what to say.

I looked at the Jason Whitlam thing and I'm like, I'm looking at it. And I'm like, well, the fuck is he talking about. It's just, it's just not true. Right. but I think what you said, everything you said was just on point. And what you said is never going to happen because you have to admit that it was all a lie and it was corrupt from the beginning.

You have to change a narrative that if we're talking about the 1920s has existed for 100 years, they're never going to admit that. So it's easier for them to just say things like, Huh. Let's see if we can put a band-aid over this situation and diversify the police. Let's give the police more money to have more training. Let's give the police more money to have certain, you know, departments that can address certain issues rather than going to the root of the problem.

Like, it's rotten at the root and it's stimming everywhere else. And we will continue to have these problems and will continue to go back to that cycle that I mentioned at the beginning where we just wait for the next tragedy to happen, we get outrage, we protest, and we repeat. And until they fix it,

and we can talk about it. And I know that's something that you said, we go, we talk about it as it happens, but it's got to be the people in a position of power as well that are actually not just going to post how sad they are about what happened,

who say it's a shame. You know, when I look at the Bible, an administration and they condemn what happened in Memphis and they're inviting Tyree Nichols' parents to the state of their union address, that is performative to me. What are you actually going to do to get to the root of it? You are the elected official. You are the one that is in a position of power. That is why you're voted to do it.

You got in this office on the hills of black people advocating for you. So what are you going to do for them? If I'm the Nichols family, I wouldn't even want to be. there, I'm looking for answers at this point to try to have another family not go through what they went through. I'm sick of the cycle, which is why I go back to the first thing I said about this. I had anxiety coming on, excuse me, even talking about this because it's not a matter of if, it's just when this is going to happen again because we're in a century long, if not more

than that, but a century long issue, foundational issue with the police that is not being addressed. It's well said. And it's part of the frustration. You know, there's other stuff to talk about. We'll get to it. I want to

ask if anybody on the team has a problem having Valerie Castile on Thursday, that is Philando Castile's mother. She wants to come on the podcast and talk about her son and about some of the things that are happening to her now. You know, we'll maybe have Valerie on to talk about some of the

stuff that's going on. I do want to address a couple of things or just say a couple of things here. LeBron James tweeted that we are our own worst enemy. I have a tremendous amount of respect for LeBron James. But not this tweet. Be better. And that's not coming from, that's coming out of love. That that's coming from like a 100% place of love. That's the fucking shit that I, do I'm saying?

Has he, y'all? responded it to this tweet. Has he deleted this tweet? No. Not that I can see. Huh. So I'll tell you guys. Yo, man.

I said this on the podcast, on the podcast, the live podcast we did Friday. Everything you guys say about me is correct. So let me just say this real quick. Everything you guys say about me is correct. Rachel is better at a lot of things that I am

in terms of dealing with these things in a way that is heady and straightforward and right to the point of the issue. I get wrapped up in my emotions. Check. I worked at TMZ for nine years. Check. Have I ever been somebody's nigger?

I absolutely have. Check. What I'm not, though, is somebody's nigger now. And I've never been somebody's nigger to where I put my head in the sand. I'm not saying that LeBron James is doing that right now. But what I'm saying is sometimes the criticism of LeBron James gets to, or, somebody like this gets to a point to where I'm acting holier than thou. I'm not.

LeBron James has done so much for this community that he deserves. He deserves credit. Not even credit. You guys that don't know what the I promise school is, that there's a food pantry at the I promise school, that there is transportation from the I promise school,

for whatever you might say about it, is a completely holistic approach to education. and societal functionality for students and their parents. It's the complete right way to do it. Complete right way. You know, was he actually reading the alibiography of Malcolm X?

No. Okay? No. All right. But LeBron is on the good guy's side. We don't need that, though. We're not our own worst image. Okay?

You're not. If the other side can take your quote and use it in their favor, there's a problem with it. And I would imagine that we aren't the first people speaking about or to LeBron James about this tweet. Of all the things that you could tweet about what happened with Tyree Nichols, this was your takeaway? This is what you felt compelled to write in all caps with multiple exclamation points? Hey, I don't, with love. not even on a call-out type of don't be just with love with no no no no Rachel let's be let's with because we got a look we have to love it has to be with love with love

with love LeBron is with us LeBron is with love just have to be more responsible I'm not I'm not coming down on him I'm not here to list all the things that LeBron has done I'm just saying I would imagine that we aren't the only people talking about this or to him about it. I would imagine, I know that your heart is in the right place and your intention is good. But with these public platforms,

with the things that you represent yourself to be, and he is. He is. I'm not taking that away from him. You've got to be more responsible because people look to you for your leadership because of the things that you've done. You've just got, like, as you said, be better.

That's it. I'm not here to knock LeBron. That's not what we're, no, not at all. Love LeBron. LeBron is doing great things for black people. It's just we want to make sure we want to, you know, we need to be able to be able to talk behind the scenes. Me too. I need to be able to like somebody to check me.

You know, and I've been checked over the last couple of days. There have been people that have checked me, you know, there are some people that I have to check. Okay. But it's checked. It's like we get in each other. You know, Rachel, sometimes. expression, it'll be like, fan, check me. Check.

You know what I mean? Donnie, I want a sound effect. Whenever it is not just, it's a loving, because when you call somebody, but it's like, it's just a check. You know, and I'm not even, I'll say this about the, I'll say this about some of our people who watch and listen to our show and then comment on various forums and Reddit or whatever. Sometimes it's just a loving check.

And I got to be more willing to check, check. Somebody, you know, there was one comment I saw a couple of weeks ago that brought up my dad. And I'm like, come on, guys. Like, you know, but we'll, you know, go fuck yourself. I hope, whatever. But, but it's a check. It's okay.

It's okay. All right. We got to go. Without, that's our, what? What are you doing? You don't hear them? You don't hear them going crazy? No, because they're trying to check me.

Boys, boys, boys, boys. They're trying to check me. Oh, I do want to say one thing. Check, check them. Um, I do want to say one thing. I, I, uh, I have one thing to, I have one thing to, say here. And it is the fact that I got something that's pretty amusing. I have a line on what Tony Romo was trying to say. Go ahead. From what I understood from a really, really good source,

Tony Romo was said, Tony Romo says it's from a really good source. I was about to say near defenders, but I thought that that sounded dumb. He's got three knit, yeah. Three near defense. and he just changed it up. He was about to say near defenders and he thought that it sounded dumb. Hey man. What a coincidence. I'm just saying.

Hey, Tony, Tony ain't got no look. Tony ain't got no smut. Tony ain't got no smut on this record. I believe Tony. Tony was about to say near defenders. He changed it up. It's just one of those things. And our PTSD made it a joke.

I would like to say to the family of Tyree Nichols and everyone that has gone through this before. I honestly, from the bottom of my heart, from the pit of my soul, pray for your healing. I pray that whatever has to happen for you guys to be able to move forward, which I know that you will, because that's what we do, that it happens. And I hope that you can feel strength because it must not be easy to be to feel what you're feeling right now. I hope you can feel strength. But I just want everybody to understand right now, there will be no justice for Tyree Nichols.

There will be no justice for Bionna Taylor. There would be no justice for Amad Arbery. There would be no justice for Trayvon Martin. There will be no justice for Mike Brown. They're dead. The ones that we need to ensure justice for are the babies that are still sucking air right now. Are the black women and men that are still on this earth right now.

They need justice and they need living justice. Breathing justice. Justice is walking around being a full representation. citizen. That's what they need. So if you want that justice, you got to put your motherfucking foot on the gas. And so do I. And so do I. So do I.

Yeah. Right. Take thing caps off. Do not stop running on Van Lakey Jr. I'm Rachel Lundon.