#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 4.28 Black jogger killed by ex‑cop; Are anti-viral drugs the answer? Senegal produces COVID-19 tests

Episode Date: April 28, 2020

4.28.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black jogger killed by ex‑Georgia cop; Are anti-viral drugs the answer to coronavirus pandemic? Advocate says all prison employees and prisoners must be tested for COVID-19 in Virginia; Senegal mass produces COVID-19 tests; California cops attack teen they accused of smoking marijuana; Lockdown financial tips from personal finance expert, Shani Curry. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, black man jogging in Georgia, two white men shoot and kill him. Why are they not in jail? We'll talk about it with the family's attorney right here. Also, folks, with the latest on COVID-19, what's going on with testing? The Trump administration now says that

per capita, we've now surpassed South Korea, but we still aren't testing enough Americans. Also on the show, folks, Virginia public safety officers sent a letter to the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, saying all prison employees and prisoners should be tested for COVID-19. Why isn't that the case at all prisons in America? Also, folks, this video, a vicious attack by a California cop against a 14-year-old kid with a heart condition. Wait until you see this. His family wants everyone to see this video plus personal finance expert shawnny curry is here to talk about how you should be saving your money and spending it wisely during this international pandemic folks we've got a jam-packed show it's time to bring the funk i'm rolling martin unfiltered let's go He's got it, whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rolling Martin, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Marten

Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Marten Now Now Now.

Folks, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, on Sunday when he passed a man who was standing in his front yard. That man tells cops later that he looked like somebody who was involved in a string of break-ins in the neighborhood. Now, according to police, Gregory McMichael grabbed his gun and his son, Travis McMichael, hopped into their truck to chase down this brother. They ended up shooting and killing him. But why aren't they in jail? How is it self-defense when the brother is jogging, minding his own business? Joining us right now is Lee Merritt. He is attorney for the

family of the man who was shot and killed, Ahmaud Arbery. Lee, glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. So how are these two not arrested for murder? Well, it's very important to note, and as you pointed out, that this shooter, or the father of the shooter, is former law enforcement. He was in the district attorney's office for that county for the last two decades. And before that, he was a police officer. And so the district attorney who will be responsible for the indictment backed out of it almost

immediately because they had a personal relationship with him. It transferred this case over to the next jurisdiction. And that DA backed himself out of it as well. They had to transfer it a third time. It is now with the DA for Liberty County in South Georgia. We are encouraging everyone to call Liberty County, where it's been for the past two months, and encourage them to start an investigation.

Because when we called the GDI, they had not been called to investigate this case yet. Now, this happened, first of all, at the top I said Sunday. It did not happen Sunday, first of all. The date was February 23rd when this actually happened. The father and the son grabbed a.357 as well as a shotgun, followed. They pull up to him while he's jogging, shout, stop, we want to talk to you. First of all, Aubrey doesn't know who the hell these guys are, while these two white guys is

asking him to stop. Under what authority did they have to even demand that he stop and talk to them? Roland, I have to tell you, i believe that they were actually acting under police authority both as a for both as being former law enforcement and because police i'm told by witnesses were on the scene within seconds um and so that means law enforcement had already been contacted and there was likely some sort of communication between this uh police officer for two decades um and law enforcement who arrived to the scene prior to the shooting. Now, this is a quote. I'm reading a piece from the New York Times. According to documents obtained by the New York Times, a prosecutor who had the case for a few weeks

told the police that the pursuers had acted within the scope of Georgia's citizens arrest statute and that Travis McMichael, who held the shotgun, had acted out of self-defense. First of all, let's just reset this. Let's just, I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say that was nothing more than opinion by a friend of the shooter right and so this was not a legal opinion any legal uh any attorney even with and i've spoken to the attorneys both in the state of georgia and other people who just looked at federal law because that that the that law in the first place needs to be challenged on its face because uh the the idea may be race neutral, but in places

like South Georgia, that is giving white vigilantes a green light to go hunt down black people. That's how that law works out. So that law needs to be challenged on its face. But even under the law, it fails to meet the proper standards. He did not conduct himself as a person who was apprehending a suspect. He conducted himself as a person going out hunting for a black man. Well, here's what's interesting. Again, I'm reading the New York Times piece.

But others contend that Mr. Arbery was up to no good on the day of the shooting and apparently moments before the chase, a neighbor in Satilla Shores, where he was running, called 911, telling the dispatcher that a black man in a white T-shirt was inside a house that was under construction and only partially closed in. And he's running right now. The man told the dispatcher, there he goes right now. Then it says in his letter to the police, Mr. Barnhill, the prosecutor, noted that Mr. Arbery had a criminal past. He was convicted of shoplifting and a violated probation in 2018. Five years earlier, he was indicted on charges that he took a handgun to a high school basketball game. OK, but here's the problem here. There is nothing to indicate he was robbing a place. Nothing. And so how can you make a citizen's arrest and the only thing that you have in the case is this black guy jogging?

Right, right. Even the so-called dwelling that they were qualifying, you cannot burglarize a dwelling with no doors. That's impossible. And so this dwelling that he were qualifying you cannot burglarize a dwelling with no doors that's impossible and so this dwelling that he allegedly was seen in or someone with a white some black person with a white t-shirt was seen in was a dwelling without any windows or doors you can't burglarize that under the legal definition um first of all is there an actual investigation it's been transferred but is there an investigation is that prosecutor's office i mean like is someone actually doing an investigation my office contacted the gbi the the uh the georgia Investigations. They would require the DA, when they receive the file, because the DA is not from that county, he can't send out his investigators, he would have

to contact the GBI to help them with the investigation. When I spoke with the GBI earlier today, they said they had not received a phone call from the district attorney over the case. Okay, so you're representing the family. Has this prosecutor even talked to the family and given them an update of what's going on? The family was told that they received the file two months ago and they have not heard from them since. We contacted the district attorney's office today. My office has been calling nonstop. They have refused to answer our calls. We sent out a certified letter today to put them on notice that this victim's family needs to liaison with them, which is what they're required to do under the law.

Wow. This is a story that has not gotten lots of traction, primarily because of obviously all the attention being on coronavirus. Now, the family of Mr. R. Burry has certainly they've been trying to raise the attention on social media. The hashtag I run with Maud, M-A-U-D, or also justice for Ahmaud, A-H-M-A-U-D. They printed up T-shirts, things along those lines as well. And so, I mean, this is just stunning that two months have gone by and you do not have what clearly should be a real investigation taking place. This black man is dead, 25 years old. These two folks are walking around free.

And so what? I mean, are they saying that in Georgia you get to basically accost anybody who's black regardless of what they're doing? The scary thing about this case is what happened was horrific enough. That's every mother's fear that their son just goes for a jog and is randomly killed by two white vigilantes. That's scary enough. But how the city, the people responsible for investigating and prosecuting the men who did this, how they've handled it since is actually more scary. That's actually what makes it a lynching, Roland. It's because it's sending a signal to that entire community that you're not protected,

that you're not safe, because vigilantes can do this to you and nothing will be done to them. What's crazy here is that the prosecutor who basically said nothing really happened here, again, reading the New York Times, Mr. Barnhill, wrote that he did not believe there was evidence of a crime, noting that Gregory McMichael and his son had been legally carrying their weapons under Georgia law. And because Mr. Arbery was a burglary suspect, the pursuers who had solid firsthand probable cause were justified in chasing him under the state citizen's arrest law. OK, here's what I'm trying to understand.

He was jogging by. How did those two have probable cause, and how did he go from a guy jogging to being a suspect? Did these two see him steal something? Did these two hear a neighbor say, hey, that man just stole something? I mean, how does Barnhill arrive at these conclusions? This is my suspicion. I just got involved with this case 24 hours ago. But my guess is that these two men were coordinating directly with law enforcement.

I say that because, as I said at the top, I've spoken with witnesses who were actually present during the shooting, nearby neighbors, who said that law enforcement came in, responded within seconds of the shooting, that they were already out, essentially, or near the area of the shooting. I believe that this 30-year lawman had already been coordinated with law enforcement before he killed Ahmaud. Oh, I think when you read this, and first of all, again, they claim there was a video shot by a third bystander, and that according to them, the video shows Arbery tried to grab

the shotgun. Again, I'm reading from the New York times, grab the shotgun from Travis McMichael's hands. Mr. Barnhill wrote, and that he argued amounts to self-defense under Georgia law. I don't care if you have a right to carry a gun, you don't have the right to cost me and stop me.

And if all of a sudden, if two white guys in a truck in Georgia roll up saying, stop, to talk to you and they get out with a gun, I'm damn sure not going to just stand there and go, OK, sure, let's have a conversation. No, absolutely not. So that law doesn't deputize the entire population to obey white men. I mean, that's essentially how the law would have to work. Then when men show up with guns and tell you to stop, then you have to stop or you can be killed. This is, again, an absolutely stunning story, tragic story. Lee Merritt, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. I want to bring in my panel right now. Adrian Irmer, she's a fellow for the New Leaders Council of Chicago. Malik Abdul, Republican strategist. Kelly Bethea, communications strategist. Adrian, I'll start with you. I mean, to listen to the details of this story, it is shocking. It's stunning. It's sad. But what you're also seeing is clear protection of one of their own by these prosecutors. Yeah, I would have to agree there.

But I also want to echo what Lee was saying in that these laws are supposed to be race neutral. But when you're in a place in small town Georgia, these aren't race neutral policies. And it does effectively become, if a white man pulls up and asks you to have a conversation with a gun in his hand, you're just supposed to acquiesce and submit. I did some digging around online, and I'm not an attorney, and I wish Lee was still here because citizens arrest laws, the ones that I've seen require that you physically witness the crime happening. And these two men clearly didn't witness anything. They saw this young man taking a jog running and they, and they presumed guilt because of the color of his skin in, in the neighborhood that he was in. So, you know,

I'm hoping that justice can be served for this young man and his family because this is this is tragic and and sort of racism at its worst. First of all, you're absolutely right. What you have here again, you do have sort of this breakdown of laws. Kelly, I want to go with you. This whole idea that Aubrey should have just stopped, hey, what you guys like, that's insane. I mean, I don't know of anybody, whether you're black or white, Latino or Asian, where if somebody just rolls up on you in a truck and yells, hey, stop, we want to talk to you, that you're going to be like, sure, how may I help you? Not only that, if somebody rolled up on me in a truck and I am, you know, just minding my business, that would prompt me to run.

That would prompt me to get away. Because just based off of history and what I was taught, how I learned to conduct myself in the world, that's a threat, especially if I don't know you. So the fact that this young man was in Georgia, minding his business for all intents and purposes, two white men in a truck, rolling up on a young black man for no reason,

there's nothing there that purports that these men knew what was happening. There's no reason to purport that this was even a citizen's arrest, because like my colleague just said, citizen's arrests typically mean that you saw the crime in progress. And because police are not there in a given time frame in order to arrest at that time, lest the person get away, that's when a citizen's arrest is warranted so that you are there like a placeholder for the police, but only for a short amount of time.

A citizen's arrest does not include you chasing somebody down in a car to accost them and then shoot them. That's not a citizen's arrest. That's a murder. Agreed. Malik, I'm sitting here reading. This is the Georgia Code. It says 2010 Georgia Code Title 17, Chapter 4, Article 4. Arrest by private persons. A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape,

go to my iPad here, and I want you to see this again. I'll go back. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion. Now, that's reading the actual code. Now, I want to read for you. This is from the Georgia Legal Aid website when it speaks of citizens' arrest. And let me get to it here.

And so here's the segment, the section here. When making a citizen's arrest, a person may not use more force than is reasonable to make the arrest. Deadly force is limited to self-defense or to instances in which such force is necessary to prevent certain felonies. It must be stressed that the right of private citizens to make a citizen's arrest is limited. The fact that this prosecutor is serving as essentially the defense attorney for these two men shows you why they should have been recused.

But the other issue is the fact that this prosecutor has already laid out a statement of facts for another prosecutor now taking into account. That prosecutor, the moment, oh, McMichael's involved. He used to be an investigator for our office. I can't touch this case. It needs to be transferred. The fact that this prosecutor has already outlined this whole deal, meaning he has established a narrative for the purpose of defending both of these men. I'm pretty positive that I'm not the only one who immediately thought of Trayvon Martin in what happened with George Zimmerman, as he decided to do.

And in that case, he was in contact with law enforcement who told him not to pursue Trayvon Martin, and that's exactly what he did, ultimately killing him. And as we talked about with Trayvon, I'm pretty sure that anyone who's approached by strangers would be apprehensive, would have any reservations or whatever. So the fact that something like this is happening again, then it was argued, understand your ground laws. Under that actual, those grounds, George Zimmerman got off. It seems as if in this case, this case is a little, to me, a little more

clear-cut than what we had in Trayvon Martin's. I'm sorry, this one isn't as clear-cut as what we had in the Trayvon Martin case, but the law, the application of the law is, I think that's probably what we're going to be looking at how it's resolved. But once again, we're reminded of, for us, what it feels like being Black in America. And I think that those, the gentleman, I'm sorry, I can't remember his name, but I think that the victim in this case, he should definitely have his rights protected. And whatever the family and the public can do to make sure that this case gets some attention, I'm hoping that if that happens and that it's resolved. And of course, first of all, Ahmaud Arbery was actually killed three days before the eighth anniversary of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

We certainly are going to continue to watch this story and pay very much attention to what is going on. All right, folks, now let's talk about what is happening with coronavirus. And that is, as of today, 1,024,375 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. 58,123 people have died as a result. Another 139,937 are recovering. Today, in his daily briefing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo provided this update on the status of COVID-19 in his state. Let me talk to you about some of the facts that we're dealing with today. Facts are our friend, right? People want to make decisions. They want to know the facts without spin, without opinion. And that's what we've been giving them. Total hospitalization rate is down a tick, which is good news. The change in hospitalization on a rolling total you see is down. Number of intubations is also down.

The number of COVID hospitalizations per day, these are new people who are newly diagnosed with COVID. It's under 1,000, which is good news. It's still a significant number of people, 900 people. After all of this, we still have 900 new infections yesterday on a three-day rolling average. But overall, you see the numbers coming down. So that's good news. This is the worst news. Every day, I think maybe today is the day the nightmare will be over, but it's not.

Three hundred and thirty five people passed away yesterday from this virus in this state. It's three hundred and thirty five families. You see, this number is basically reducing, but not at a tremendous rate. And the only thing tremendous is the number of New Yorkers who still pass away. Now, we have not had, of course, a federal briefing because that was being canceled by the Trump people. He did take some questions today. One of the things, Adrian, that that is crazy, shocking and stunning. This took place today at the White House, and the issue came up dealing with, quote, cities that need relief.

How shameful is it for the Trump administration to literally link COVID-19 relief funds with sanctuary cities and ICE deportations? Listen to what he actually said today. It's a bad management and to give them the money that they lost. That's unfair to other states. Now, if it's COVID related, I guess we can talk about it. But we'd want certain things also, including sanctuary city adjustments, because we have so many people in sanctuary cities, which I don't even think are popular, even by radical left

folks, because what's happening is people are being protected that shouldn't be protected. And a lot of bad things are happening with sanctuary cities. But that's just standing up here answering this question. That's one of the things I think about if we're going to do something for the states. I think they probably want a something having to do with sanctuary cities, something having to do with other different points that we can discuss a little bit later on. Yeah. With the states is we're not. So, I mean, Adrian, really? He's such a pig. I mean, I think it's reprehensible for the person occupying the White House, some, you know, willingly and willfully call president. I just I can't bring myself to say it in this time right now that he would withhold funds to help actual American citizens because that particular

jurisdiction like treats all people with the humanity that they deserve, right? In a country that says, bring us your poor, your huddled masses and you're weak and you're scared, right? I just, I can't, it literally makes me sick to my stomach to see him leverage funds, critical funds, life-saving funds, livelihood-saving funds to make political asks for his own xenophobic agenda. I just, it's sickening, honestly. And, you know, especially when we're talking about a community that by and large contributes great amounts of money into our economy.

I mean, immigrant peoples and undocumented peoples, they pay taxes on the wages that they earn in this country. Tax money that should be coming back into these communities that desperately need it in this public health crisis. It just, it boggles my mind. But then again, this is the person that we're dealing with, where he constantly finds ways to lower the bar and lower the bar and embarrass the tenants on which this country is founded. Malik, really, what the hell does COVID-19 relief have to do with ICE deportations? And how is that all of a sudden a condition for cities to get relief? Say, oh, if in order for us to grant you COVID-19 relief, you're going to have to allow ICE to deport anybody who they want to.

Really? It seems as if, and I don't know what happened before the clip, but it seems as if that the president himself is maybe, well, I'm pretty sure that this is another instance of the president speaking out loud in ways that he shouldn't. I doubt very seriously that any funding is tied, any relief funding is tied to however the president feels about Sanctuary City or whatever the Republican position is, conservative position is on Sanctuary Cities. I doubt that's something that ultimately ends up in any piece of legislation. So I imagine this is something of what the president is thinking out loud. But there are other things that the president. But here's the deal, though.

Let's just be honest here. We saw this when it came to ventilators and things along those lines where you had in the case of Colorado for instance they tell Colorado don't ask for ventilators and then all of a sudden he posted a tweet oh Senator Cory Gardner called me so I'm sending 100 ventilators to Colorado the reality is we have heard numerous stories of them in essence doling out decisions when he said look don't return the calls of the michigan governor and then of course florida got a hundred percent what they asked for even though they got more than what they asked for other hard-hit states did not get it i mean we're seeing somebody who plays the partisan game of oh i will hook up my

red states but i'll ignore blue states. He's already playing this game. Oh, he's absolutely playing this game. And if you read the bill, the last funding bill that came out, they gave states a minimum of— Hold on. Hold on one second. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I need Mellon to respond. I'm going to come back to you. Go ahead, Mellon.

I believe it was Chris Wallace who actually asked the Michigan governor about the rumor that the Trump administration or through vice prince or that there was a conversation about withholding anything from Michigan. And she didn't on air. She actually denied that that was so. But I don't know. And I haven't heard any governor say that the administration actually actually withheld any type of protective gear or respirators that anything that states did that states went without a respirator or PPE because the federal government was withholding that from the state. I know that's been a lot of chatter in the media about that, but I don't think that there's been any proof that the administration itself withhold life-saving things like respirators and PPE because of the president's feelings about a particular governor or blue state. What he actually does and how the bills are written is that they guarantee a minimum number of dollars per state, but then they leave in this big, big window for him or for his administration to dole out funding

based on whether or not he agrees with the particular person in charge and with the agenda in that particular state. The last funding bill, it had that language in there. States will receive a minimum of and the rest will be at the liberty of the Department of Health, Department of Human Services. So clearly he can play favorites with the rest of that money

as long as the states get that minimum dollar. Bottomline here, there should be no preconditions. They should not be playing games with the lives of americans all right let's go to our next story in the midst of this entire deal we talk about what's happening with ice they are sending a number of haitians back they've already deported almost 130 haitians in the middle of this pandemic. Advocates like Congresswoman,

Frederica Wilson of South Florida, calling on congressional leaders to include any future coronavirus stimulus efforts. First of all, to tie halting deportations to when it comes to the resources. Now, although I said in March that it would delay most deportations because public safety was a top priority,

why are Haitians still being deported? Congresswoman Frederica Wilson joins us right now. Congresswoman? Hello, Roland. How are you? How are you? Staying safe? Absolutely. Absolutely staying safe. I see you're doing the same thing as well.

So I say is we're going to halt, but why they keep sending Haitians back? And then aren't they also making this actually impacting coronavirus in Haiti with their decisions? They really are. And it's a disgrace. It's a disgrace. And they said from the beginning that there would be no deportations during this coronavirus pandemic going on in this nation. And just in the dead of night, they began to round up Haitians from across the United States and put them on a plane to deport them back to Haiti. Some of them had been exposed to the virus. Some were in detention centers where guards had the virus. Some had the virus, and they still deported them to Haiti.

So I've been trying to get Congress to include this in the package, that we would not deport any more Haitians back to Haiti until we are sure that the virus is gone. Because we know that Haiti has a healthcare system that is compromised. We know Haiti. Haiti is being ruled by one man. And so we have to be sure what happens in Haiti is right, because what happens in Haiti definitely impacts the United States of America. And we have been dealing with Haiti for many years. So I'm trying to do two things. First of all, I'm trying to get a bill into the package, and I'm also trying to shame the president of Haiti, because you cannot deport anyone unless the president accepts you,

and the president gives you the red carpet to roll it out and send me these deportees. So if he says Haiti is not ready, Haiti cannot take any repatriated people at this time, the United States will have to stop. Well, but the thing here is, here you have people who are sheltered in place. Folks who are trying to protect themselves and protect their families. And you've got ICE running around like it's business as usual? They're going all over the country. And I've called on my mayor here to do what he can to stop the Haitians from being rounded up from Chrome Detention Center here. And he tells me that it is out of his hands because they allow them.

And ICE is just running amok. They are everywhere. And Nicaragua, they deported people, and the president put them back on the plane and sent them back to the United States. So for some reason, Mr. Trump and that racist White House are against Black immigrants, and they're doing whatever they can in the dead of night to send these people back to Haiti. And we just won't stand for it. We're not just going to be quiet about it. We're going to talk about it. We're going to do what we can to get them to stop, because we're in the heart of a pandemic. Everyone is supposed to be sheltering in place, staying at home. So why isn't ICE sheltering in place? Why are they going to detention centers? And mind you, these are not criminals. These are not detainees that

have committed any crimes. These are people who just want the right to become citizens. Well, I've got to get your response to the video I just played where Donald Trump is essentially saying, hey, if your city wants COVID-19 relief funds, then you got to accept our plan for deportations and let ICE do what they want to do. Well, that's why he has all of these people so afraid of him. That's why we have to try to put this in some sort of legal fashion by putting it in the COVID-2 bill.

And that's what we're fighting for. We have over 100 co-sponsors. Everyone is just up in arms because they disagree. And they think that this is a disgrace. It's a shame. These people are being put at risk. Haiti is being put at risk. And you know, Haiti can't even afford to wrestle with the pandemic, with all of the problems and issues that they have been going through without having an even a legal government right now running the country. So it's, and Mr. Trump knows this. He knows all about Haiti. We know that he knows about Haiti. He is in Haiti often. All right, then, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. Keep up the good work. I will do. Thank you so very much.

All right, folks, going to go to a break when When we come back, we'll talk about Meharry College. Of course, one of our pioneering black medical schools. They are on the path to find a vaccine and antibodies for coronavirus. We'll talk to one of the experts when we come back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications

so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago and I saw this guy who had this this pocket square here and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square.

This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said man this is pretty cool and so I tracked down the it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so therefore it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website uh and you can actually get

this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually makes these.

They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin. the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, that goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount.

This is why you should join the fan club. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered,

support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks. While there's an effort to find a vaccine, year, you can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, while there's an effort to find a vaccine for coronavirus, what about an antiviral drug to stop the virus? Joining us right now is Dr. Donald Alcindor, Associate Professor

of Microbiology and Immunology. Okay, so we're going to pull the doctor up in a second. Let me know, of course, when my panel is back. Are they all there as well? Okay, folks. And so in just one moment, I'm going to talk to the doctor from Meharry about this antiviral drug that they are working on to fight the virus. I do want to go to Kelly first. Kelly, you heard Congressman Frederica Wilson there talking about these ICE deportations. In your mind, should they cease while we are in the middle of this international pandemic? Absolutely. I don't understand how Haitians are consistently targeted. Anybody of a darker hue, frankly, when it comes to deportation policies are targeted by ICE to be deported. And we've had a history with Haiti for many years that

has been tense, to say the least. So the historic and racial ramifications of such are not above me. I definitely see the rationale behind it, however skewed they may be. However, what's the point of risking ICE agents to deport people who may or may not have the virus? It's not like you're testing Haitians before you send them out. And it's not like Haiti is completely coronavirus free. So either way, you're putting yourself, you're putting the deportee, you're putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk just by doing something that frankly shouldn't be happening in the first place. So absolutely, I definitely agree with Congressman Wilson there. Everything should be put to a halt, no matter what country you're from, no matter what your immigration status is, because at the end of the day, this virus is not a discriminator of person or status. Coronavirus, COVID-19 does not care whether you have

legal papers or not to stay in a country. If you have it and you do not have the means to get over it, you can die from this. And that should be priority number one from this country, not whether or not you're an American citizen. Malik, deport or not in the middle of this pandemic? I don't know what the process normally is for deportations during a pandemic. I don't know what happened during the Obama administration with SARS.

But what I was trying to get for, I, and I've been reading and just really couldn't reconcile it while listening to the representative, is this being isolated? Now, I will have a problem with it, absolutely. I think there are two things there. The discussion we could be having whether or not deportations is something that the federal government should be doing during a pandemic. But there's another discussion to be had if this is something that's being isolated to Haitians. Are other deportations happening to Mexico or any other place around the world?

If this is something that's specific to Haitians, then we really need to be raising the roof because it's clear that that would be some sort of discrimination against Haitians as opposed to any other group. So I think it's something that we should look into and definitely be concerned about. But to repeat, I just don't know if this is something that's limited to Haitians. But overall, if we're continuing deportations as we normally have, then, you know, that's a discussion that we can have. If I may interject just for a quick second, Malik's point regarding whether Obama did something similar is like the most false equivalent that we have right now, because we haven't gone

through anything like this before. SARS was not of this magnitude. Ebola was not of this magnitude. So you could go on with business as usual during those times in our history where we did have to deal with some sort of epidemic. But this is not only is this global pandemic, but there are people dying by the thousands every single day. So to draw parallels with Obama and Trump, that's just not going to deportations and what presidents and policies did in order to maintain American citizenship and the like. Parallels between what Trump's doing with Haiti and other countries and deportations and Obama, that's just a false equivalent.

I'm going to say the exact same thing. Yeah, I'm not going to say the exact same thing. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure. I'm not exactly sure if we had ICE in 1918. That's my point. Yeah, okay. Well, I'm not sure if we had ICE back then, but you did say and you acknowledged that we have to look at history, that we don't know what happened in the past. There have been only so few pandemics that we've had. We're looking back at history, but my point is looking back at history, we don't have Okay, Kelly, if I could just, if Kelly, if I could just finish your point, if I could just finish my point, there have been so few pandemics. So we only have to use as a gauge what's happened during those pandemics. They're the most recent pandemics that we've had have

happened to be during the Obama administration, not as severe as the one that we have. That's not precedent. That's what I'm saying. It's not really precedent, comparatively speaking. If you're going to try and use precedent, you need to draw a parallel that is at the very beginning. That's not a pandemic.

But I'm saying, but it wasn't a pandemic. You're just arguing that it wasn't, this pandemic wasn't as bad as other pandemics. I assume that's what you're arguing. Not only am I arguing that, I'm saying you can't really draw parallels at all. Because during the Obama administration, he didn't have to shut down the entire country in order to mitigate SARS. He didn't have to shut down the entire country in order to mitigate SARS. He didn't have to shut down the entire country in order to mitigate Ebola. So do you know if his administration stopped

deportations during those pandemics, though? What I'm saying is whether he did or didn't, it's irrelevant. So it doesn't matter if he did. It's not the wrong parallels to what's going on right now. So it doesn't matter if Obama didn't stop deportations. So, so it doesn't matter if Obama didn't stop the protection.

Okay. Here's the deal, okay? I got it. Adrienne, real quick, then I'm going to go on to my next guest. Sure. No, I will let go of a lot of Kelly's sentiments. I mean, the virulence of COVID-19 is unmatched in modern history

in terms of pathogens. So to draw a parallel to the response and the day-to-day business of government when President Obama was in office to a global stay-at-home, shelter-in-place response to one of the most virulent viruses we have ever seen in modern history is a false equivalency. And to put ICE agents in jeopardy, in the process of deportation, to effectively be granting a death sentence to these deportees or would-be deportees by sending them back to a country that does not have an infrastructure in place, a healthcare infrastructure in place to deal with this epidemic, this pandemic. Like that's, again, this is morally reprehensible. This is another example of this administration's xenophobia and extreme racism where if you don't have citizenship and you have melanin in your skin, we will treat you like less than human.

All right, folks. I told you about what's happening, of course, this fight to find a vaccine for coronavirus. But folks at Meharry are working on an antiviral drug in the short term. Joining us right now is Dr. Donald Elsendor, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Elsendor, how are you doing? How are you, sir? Doing great. Okay, so explain to folks who are watching and listening,

what is the difference between a vaccine and an antiviral drug? So a vaccine is designed to protect the person before they become infected. And so you get a vaccine, you don't have the disease, but the vaccine is given to you to trigger an immune response that will protect you if you become infected in the future. And so a vaccine would do you no good if you're already infected with the disease. And so an antiviral is not to replace a vaccine, but it would be in support of a vaccine, meaning that for those individuals that are infected right now, an antiviral would be useful in that patient as opposed to a vaccine.

A antiviral would be less difficult to make, the one we're making, what takes us only two weeks to generate. However, the testing would be similar to a vaccine in terms of going through all the hurdles required for it to achieve FDA approval and go on. But we can make an antiviral relatively quickly, the one that I've designed. Speaker 1 Okay. So explain to folks the one that you designed and how has it been working? So what I've designed basically is an antiviral that is specific as opposed to something being non-specific. So when something is specific, it will go after that particular pathogen and no other. And so it's specific in a sense where it targets the genome of the virus.

And the genome of the virus is a piece of RNA that the virus releases into an infected cell that allows the virus to reproduce itself. So the idea is that to come up with an antiviral that will directly impact virus replication, in my mind, is an ideal strategy. And so as soon as the virus is in the cell, the antiviral is sitting there waiting. And when the RNA from the virus, as it goes through an uncoating process, is released, the antiviral impacts the RNA molecule and prevents any other proteins from being made. And if you're able to achieve that in the cell, then you're able to achieve a complete shutdown of virus replication. So when you shut down virus replication, you reduce the amount of virus in the system. If you reduce the amount of virus in the system, you're able to do a lot of

things in terms of basically start to reduce the kind of pathology associated with the infection. And in this case, the inflammation that is caused by this virus as part of the course of infection would be reduced. And if you're able to reduce the amount of virus there, what we call virus load, then you would expect to see an amelioration of the kind of pathology and maybe even the symptoms and the disease itself. And of course, cutting virus down substantially in a living system with an antiviral, the possibility of allowing some type of repair of those tissues that have been damaged could lead to a person being able

to clear the virus on their own. In a sense, the potential to recover quickly on their own. And the idea is to prevent them from going through the issues that go along with being on a ventilator and ICU and so forth. So with that, you know, how far away are we? I mean, we're hearing reports that we may not have a vaccine until 2021 or even 2022. When it comes to this antiviral, how soon are we away for this to be widely disseminated across the country? So I want to provide a little information here. So when we look at vaccines in general, looking at the past, there are some professionals that look at vaccines and vaccines and how they've developed over the years. And the average time for a vaccine in the past have been 12 to 15 years for them to be basically brought to identified, brought to scale and fully implemented in the population. And remember, this vaccine would have to be global.

The idea of probably filling as much as 7 billion doses. And again, nobody knows if you have to go through a boost for a vaccine like this. And so the idea is that our antiviral strategy is something to try and do something a little bit quicker here. First of all, it can be made a lot easier. A vaccine, when you give it to a person, it takes time for the vaccine to generate the kind of immune response that can be protective. I should also say that no vaccine is guaranteed to protect you from infection. And there's evidence that suggests that people that get coronavirus infections in the past often will get those infections again, which suggest that the immunity that's derived from prior infections to coronaviruses may not be fully protected. That would suggest that a vaccine may not be fully protective as well. And so this is all speculation, and we will know when it's

done. Now, where are we with our antiviral strategy? So the antiviral has been made. We are in the process of working with our collaborators. And first, when an antiviral is made or any drug, you have to get disclosures protection, meaning that our patent application was filed yesterday. We're in the process of making contact with our collaborators. This antiviral will be tested in a petri dish first. And so imagine, if you will, we take lung epithelial cells and put them in a petri dish. We grow these lung epithelial cells in this petri dish, and we have some that are going to be treated with our reagent, our antiviral, prior to being infected and others that will be infected straight away. And what we want to know out of that experiment is what is the level of protection that we can induce in those cells that

get our antiviral compared to those cells that don't. Now, if we think about what we've done with the Zika virus, we've prepared one of these antivirals for the Zika virus. We were able to show 95% protection of those cells and culture. We expect a similar result with this because this antiviral was made using the same classical platform that we use to produce the Zika antivirus. Now, after achieving protection of cells in a petri dish, then we go to look at toxicity. The idea is that any drug has to be tested for ability to be toxic to a system, a living system. And this is done in a mouse model. You give the mouse high doses

versus low doses of your reagent. No infections, just the treatment reagent, just the antiviral. And you ask the question, does this antiviral at a high dose, an abnormally high dose, cause problems in this animal? Problems with the heart, the kidney, you name it, rashes, whatever. And the idea is that if you can come out of those experiments and say that the antivirus causes minimal discomfort or disease or pathology in this animal, then you're able to go to the next step.

And the next step with this will be a survival study in an infection protection model. The infection protection model basically involves putting on board your antiviral in a mouse prior to being infected with the COVID-2 virus, and asking another question. And that is, at what level of protection can you give these animals in terms of being able to prevent them from dying or having pathology that's associated with COVID-2 infection? And the idea is that you would want to, first of all, be able to protect them from dying. At the same time, you would want to look at the lungs of these animals and basically confirm that.

And at the same time, the animals that did not receive a reagent and were given the COVID-2 virus straight away, they should have fulminant pathology. They should die quicker. And again, when you look at the histopathology of the lung and other tissues, you should have the kind of pathology that you'd see in humans as well. And that would tell you that you have a relevant animal model for doing this kind of work. And then the next phase, after you've done all of those things, then you would be looking at the possibility of developing an IND application to go to the FDA with the possibility of being

approved for early phase one trials. And that's the strategy and that's the process. So I'm sitting here looking at a CBS News story where they're reporting that on a possible breakthrough in work on a COVID-19 vaccine, researchers think it could be widely available in September. You buy that? Not traditionally. When you look at vaccines, there are some ways to fast track this, but ask yourself this.

How much time would you think it would take for a vaccine to come out of the clinic into a phase one study to follow people over long periods of time to see the kind of ill effects this vaccine would have in them for toxicity in the phase one study. And then over time, establish enough individuals and recruit them for the phase two study. And at the same time in the phase three study, you would be looking at this in terms of its effectiveness in COVID-19 patients in the clinic. These are all things that are very difficult to do just talking about it. And the idea of being able to do this in a construct

that would allow you to do this in a matter of a few months, to me, is an impossibility. Dr. Donald L. Sindor, Meharry Medical College, we certainly appreciate your knowledge and expertise. And this is one of the reasons why we do this show, to give black doctors and scientists an opportunity to share their knowledge. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen too often on mainstream news, but that's why we do what we do. I appreciate it, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you. OK. All right, then, folks, the folks in Senegal have done some amazing things when it comes to testing. I saw this story on Al Jazeera and I want to share it with you guys. Naomi Campbell, she also shared this on her social media accounts.

And so, really interesting story. So here's what they're doing in Senegal to test their citizens. Senegal is doing what most countries count, testing everyone, symptoms or not, entering a health center for the novel coronavirus. It has no shortage of testing kit thanks to this lab at the Institut Pasteur. Researchers are developing a $1 quick diagnostic kit, originally made to test for dengue fever. Patients drop blood or saliva onto the devices and wait for a bloodline to appear, like a pregnancy test, explains researcher Ahmad Oussal.

There is no need for a highly equipped lab. It's a simple test that can be done anywhere. The idea is to rapidly produce 2 to 4 million kits, not just for us, but for African countries, so that we can detect and isolate patients quickly. The sick are administered a cheap anti-malarial drug called chloroquine, commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa Africa where malaria is endemic. While the World Health Organization cautions the use of it, Dakar-born scientist Didier Raoult says it's an affordable treatment for poor African countries dealing with the outbreak. Hydroxychloroquine is clearing the virus from the respiratory system,

probably making that people are no more contagious and no more sick. With only 50 ventilator machines for 16 million people, Senegalese engineers are using a 3D printing machine to produce more. While imported ventilators cost $16,000, this one is just $60. Senegal is counting the costs and it's paying off. More than a month into the outbreak, the small West African nation suffered only two deaths, with most patients treated healed. Senegal has the largest rate of recovery in patients infected with the coronavirus in Africa, the third in the world, ahead of countries like the United States and France. And while it has a tiny health budget compared to those countries,

it has a wealth of experience in dealing with infectious diseases and outbreaks. Over 3,000 children died of pneumonia last year in Senegal, thousands more from malaria. Coronavirus is one of many deadly infections the country is dealing with. Lessons learned from the AIDS epidemic, the recent Ebola outbreak, were key in Senegal's strategy in dealing with the pandemic. I'm optimistic because some measures are taken already. Closing the airport, no imported case coming in the country,

limitation of movement, confinement of people from 8pm to 6am. I think those things can help. These measures were taken when there were less than 100 cases. Scientific modeling predicted tens of thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths. But this has not happened. Early detection and African-led research means Senegal is so far beating the odds. Nicholas Hawk, Al Jazeera, Dakar.

Again, folks, that was a great Al Jazeera story there, and I wanted us to show that. Adrian, again, look, there are amazing things being done by African-Americans, Africans. Unfortunately, when you look at mainstream mainstream media you swear you know we're nowhere to be found that the only time they talk about us is when it comes to those folks who are dying yet you got black people who are putting the hard work in trying to save uh folks as well no yeah this is that's a very heartening story to see and um you know it it just goes to show what and how far innovation can take us and the news and talking about the importance of science and research in such a positive light, it really makes you long for the same thing here in America.

But, you know, instead, we have Donald Trump suggesting that exposure to UV light, a carcinogen, and inhaling things like Lysol or bleach might help us fight this pandemic. It's just, gosh, it just makes you wish that we had somebody else in the White House right now. What is happening here, again, I think you're seeing the sort of things that are, Kelly, across Carolina A&T, a number of these HBCUs who know black people very well and who, frankly, are doing a much better job of really assessing and how this is impacting African-Americans. Absolutely. And I believe I asked how disproportionate this virus is affecting us. It is affecting us, Black people and people of color in general, at a hugely disproportionate rate than our white counterparts. And the reason for that isn't because we are genetically predispositioned to it. It's because of the historic systemic racism in the medical industry

in this country. So when you have medical schools specifically in HBCUs or just historically Black and know and are intimate with our stats and our statistics and our history, we have a better shot at beating this thing, not only as a community of Black people, but just in general, because you know that once Black people get a hold of something, it doesn't just affect us. It benefits everybody. So we definitely need to consider the FAMUs and Howard Med and all of these other schools, historically Black colleges and universities with medical programs, we definitely need to start pouring more into them because they have a better shot as to identifying exactly what's wrong and further actually giving us the information that we need and the support that we need to make sure that we will be well.

Malik, again, Black expertise is critical because the reality is when we were on this show, we had a previous Meharry doctor. When Dr. Anthony Fauci stood in that podium and said, you know, they were finding out late that asthma was an underlying condition of a coronavirus. We came back and he said, hell, if y'all listen to me, Harry, we've been saying this for the last five weeks. I don't think that I know that there have been studies, even I think from CDC, where they've they've actually reported on the fact that the asthma rates for black people as opposed to white population. What I thought was interesting about the doctor that you had on the show was he really was in a kind of in a short period of time was good for the public to hear that this is not a, you wake up one day and then voila, the FDA approved some type of drug. I mean, this is definitely a process. So it's good to hear that Meharry, they're focusing on this. And it's no surprise to anyone that you don't have a lot of black experts across network TV.

We don't, we probably, well, not a probably, we don't push enough for those type of things to happen to really get our experts out there. But another thing that I thought was interesting was that ironically in Senegal, the representative story, the Al Jazeera story was talking about the fact that how they actually use chloroquine and how that's been successful

and treat a low-priced option for actually treating the virus in Senegal. It's a little different than hydrochloroquine, but I just thought it was interesting that chloroquine, which is the anti-malarial drug, is something that they're using in Senegal to treat it. Again, what you said, it's a different drug. And so bottom line is doctors do what they do. And that's the most important thing and why it's important. All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening in our prisons. In fact, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, he's out of prison.

Remember, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty on corruption charges. But due to coronavirus, he has been released three years early. He was supposed to get out in 2023. He is now a free man. Well, folks who are in these prisons say it's grossly unsafe. We know about in Ohio, one particular prison where more than two-thirds of all inmates got coronavirus. Others were scared to death. In Virginia, the Department of Corrections announced expanded testing for COVID-19 for inmates who are high risk, such as at Virginia's Deerfield Correctional Facility. And because of this, they want everybody tested, prisoners as well as those who are working there. Joining us right now is Donald Baylor.

Donald is Virginia director for the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers. And Donald, as I read this throughout Florida, that was just unbelievably, just crazy to me, where you had inmates who were making masks for correction officers, but not for themselves. I mean,

you kind of, it's sort of nuts to say you're going to have to give a mask to a corrections officer, but you're not going to deal with the inmates. Both both are in close quarters. Well, here in Virginia, the department, they do make masks and they circulate them to staff as well as the offenders in the prisons. That does happen here in Virginia. But what you said about Florida there, that really doesn't make sense. If you would make them for staff, you would definitely want to have the offenders wearing them, because what we understand from the information on the CDC is that the mask only protects the other person. So if you're wearing that mask and the other person is not,

there's no protection, no level of protection. And so what about what you're calling for in terms of widespread testing in Virginia, all state prisoners and inmates? Again, we are asking this because, first of all, we are very much concerned. We have a lot of our membership in these agencies and the Department of Corrections as well as juvenile justice.

So we learned from the CDC that you can have an individual who may be asymptomatic. They may not experience or display any outward signs of having contracted the virus, yet they are still able to pass that on to other individuals. Now, what we are starting to notice here in the Commonwealth is that we seem to be experiencing in some of the facilities some hot spots where this virus seems to be escalating. And that's why we are calling on both the department as well as the administration and the governor to at least concentrate on these hotspots and we should do universal testing on all of these facilities that seem to be escalating and the numbers that are testing positive for the virus. So we feel that that should at least be the case,

that we should concentrate on hotspots and then move on to other facilities because we see that that's the only way to really know where you are is to do a wide range of testing both for staff and the people incarcerated there. Do you believe that your request is going to be received and accepted by the governor? Well, we are hopeful, and we already have established a dialogue with the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and we do communicate our concerns and what we hear on the ground from the people who work in the facility. So we are very hopeful that this is going to be the case that considering the way that thought and concern will be directed into some positive action in getting this widespread testing done.

All right. Donald Baylor, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Roll the button and filter. Well, thank you for inviting me. All right, then. Adrian, I want to go to you. I mean, this whole issue, what's happening in these prisons is really important. I think what it also underscores, what happens when you do not have an effective, broad-based national policy

when it comes to testing. For all of the talk of this administration, of all the massive number of tests that we still have not, according to the health experts, the scientists, we have not tested enough people in this country. Trump, you have these states who are saying Trump is pretty much, hey, you guys are on your own. Jared Kushner's out there blaming the state, saying they got to get their act together. But this is where the federal government has to lead because they really have the capacity to be able to coordinate where equipment goes, where tests go. So if you have this one state where you don't need as many tests, you can shift it somewhere else. It shouldn't be 50 states.

You're up for grabs. You're on your own. No, I agree. And what this chaos causes is price gouging and very limited tax dollars in all of these different jurisdictions that now have to be concentrated and paying an uptick or a surcharge in order to procure the things that they need around testing and treatment. You know, I'm part of, I'm a board member for an organization called Social Change, and what we're trying to do here in Illinois is lobby elected officials around state-run facilities and how do we figure out, how do we decarcerate in this crisis?

What are what are strategies that we can use so that folks inside can properly social distance, not just the incarcerated population, but the folks who have to serve that population, the CEOs, the health care officials, et cetera. And, you know, we are, we're working towards that. And there are other folks in other states that are working towards this, but it's not something that is getting a whole lot of priority right now because like with, like in regular times, folks who are behind bars sort of get the least of the attention. And now it's just being, it's exacerbated in this public health crisis because folks on the outside need the same amount of attention. So the states have to deal with this, and then they also have to deal with the federal

government and a leadership that doesn't understand the necessity for him to act right now with the Defense Production Act and really start bringing these production and these manufacturers to heel in terms of cost and procurement and disbursement of these really necessary goods. Malik? I just want to point out what the administration has been focusing on. goods. Mellie? Just to point out, what the administration has been focusing on, and Attorney General Barr actually in one of the press conferences, I believe a couple of press conferences, talked about what the administration is doing around things like price gouging. There were, I think they went out of a group that was in New York who were, actually, I take that back. They were dealing with not just price gouging, but also hoarding. So the administration actually has been focused on

that. And the attorney general has talked about it. The larger point about the testing, and I think this is something that we've heard from the experts at the White House, we've heard from them, from both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx. And it does seem as if we're actually ramping up to that point where we'll be able to do X number of tests a day. But if you look at what they've been talking about and part of the reason why the tests aren't, we aren't doing 5 million or so tests a day,

they're two separate subjects. There are the tests that we are, the actual test in the kits themselves, but also the testing capacity, which would mean the labs who were able to do those tests prior to this. What was happening is that the CDC, there was a centralized location for these type of tests.

The United States was not prepared to do this type of widespread testing. So the administration has been focusing on working with the private sector, working with the FDA, getting FDA, which is another bureaucratic nightmare, getting the FDA to relax restrictions so that these private testing facilities can go ahead and do that. So there is a testing issue in some of those testing supplies that we had to get from places like China, but also the testing capacity of our facilities to do those type of tests. So there are two things there, but the administration has definitely been focusing on things like price gouging

and making sure that we're tackling this hoarding problem, which has really been an issue in the country. First of all, it's a little bit hard, Kelly. So the administration has been focused on price gouging. Well, the administration has been participating in price gouging, when the administration has been participating in price gouging, when you have a company that's almost bankrupt in Virginia that has no history at all of making masks, all of a sudden getting a multimillion dollar contract from the federal government, when you have this administration that went to DuPont and said, so versus you guys shipping your stuff, the PPE overseas and being assembled, we're going to pay for those planes ourselves. And then so here American taxpayers paying a million bucks for this private charter, a million bucks back, two million bucks.

And then DuPont turns around and sells the very same equipment that we help them assemble quicker to the federal government. So they got to do a hell of a lot better. Bottom line on this issue I'm talking about, Kelly, again, this is what happens when your most vulnerable populations, folks who are in prisons, folks, the poor, people who are not in prison, this coronavirus is exposing the gaps in this system. And that's why we're seeing people who work at prisons, people who are in prison, this coronavirus is exposing the gaps in this system. And that's why we're seeing people who work at prisons, people who are in it and their families yelling, please, dear God, do something about this. Yeah, this is the way that we have been dealing with this crisis as a whole

is just absolutely atrocious. In fact, when Malik was pointing out the bureaucratic nightmare, as he put it, a lot of the reason it's such a nightmare is because Donald Trump fired the people who actually would have been responsible for creating the infrastructure for such a time as this. And frankly, he knew ahead of time that something like this would happen and he still fired these people. So this is a mess of his own creation. I'm not saying that he created the COVID-19 and the coronavirus,

but as far as the protocols go, as far as the infrastructure goes, this is on the administration. This is on Donald Trump's head. The fact that the governor of Maryland had to employ his wife to have a connection with Korea to bring in equipment for the state, that's something that the federal government should have been doing. A state government should never be going above and beyond what the federal government is doing for its citizens. It shouldn't have to. It's nice if they do. It's great if they do. But they shouldn't have to, because their taxes aren't just going to the state. They're going to the federal government

as well. And the fact that the federal government is so severely underperforming in regards to this issue, people are dying not because of state governments, but because of the infrastructure or lack thereof that the federal government has provided. And to your point regarding prisons, they are, if anything, the glaring reflection of the loopholes and the pitfalls of the lack of infrastructure that this country has when it

comes to health care, when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to money being spent, where it's going, all of that. So it's not just something that we have to consider on a state level. This is definitely a federal issue. The lack of infrastructure, frankly, is definitely Trump's fault. And it's a shame that the least of these are going to be affected the most because of this situation. Folks, let's go to our next story. Cell phone video shows a cop in Rancho Cordova, California, pummeling a 14-year-old child. And the face and body. Later found out this kid has a heart condition because the cop accused him of smelling like marijuana.

Watch this. Stop, bro. What's your password? What's your... Stop, Josh. Stop. Stop, bro. Stop, Josh. your... Stop, John, stop. Stop, bro. Stop, John, stop.

Stop hitting them, bro. Okay, I'm trying to understand, Adrian, smelling like marijuana, that that requires that type of force because I thought you smell like marijuana? I can't. Like, that was so triggering for me. I just, I have a big boy.

He's eight months old. And raising a black child in this country, especially a black male child, terrifies me because of instances like this where even as children, they're adultified and seen as a threat before they've even hit puberty. I mean, I just like, I have met a lack of words, honestly. I mean, I hope that this officer is not only stripped of his badge, but that perhaps the family can file a civil suit and get some recompense for this clear abuse of power and police brutality. You know, but this just goes, this is another example in a litany laundry list of examples of how desperately police departments need adequate training in de-escalation in in in reducing racial bias and in cultural competence

like i just i can't especially something as as benign as marijuana, where 24, now 26 states in the union have legalized it for recreational use or medical use. I'm appalled. It's disgusting and terrifying. I'm going to go to my iPad, please. I'm going to read this. This is a statement, a media statement that was released. And this was on April 28th, 3.34 p.m., which basically was about four hours ago. The investigation is in its infancy and the facts, as we understand them, now are subject to change as we conduct a more thorough and complete examination of the circumstances surrounding this incident, this took place on yesterday. The deputy was in the area due to complaints from citizens about hand-to-hand sales of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs to minors. They say it's important to put the video in context.

In this case, the deputy saw what he believed to be a hand-to-hand exchange between an adult and juvenile. As the deputy turned around, he lost sight of the adult who left the area. When the deputy approached the juvenile, the juvenile was uncooperative and refused to give the deputy basic identifying information. He told the deputy he was 18 years old. Having reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was occurring, the deputy attempted to detain the juvenile so he could conduct further investigation. The juvenile became physically resistant at that time, causing the deputy to lose control of his handcuffs, which landed several feet away. The deputy attempted to maintain control of the juvenile without his handcuffs and while alone waiting for his partners to arrive and assist him. Ultimately, the deputy recovered tobacco products from the 14-year-old juvenile,

which is presumably the reason for his resistance. The juvenile was cited and released to his guardians. This type of situation is hard on everyone, the young man who resisted arrest and the officer who would much rather have him cooperate. The community should know. First of all, we lost the signal there. We're going to come back. And so they lay out that the community should know, again, the roles and responsibilities of the police.

I'm trying to pull it up on another device. What I found to be interesting about this whole deal, Malik, and this is again, when you go back to how cops operate, this whole notion of let me detain you.

Then they say, well, we found tobacco products. I'm sorry. Pummeling the hell out of a kid because of tobacco? Do you know how many kids I've seen smoke? I mean, this is the

problem I have with how they sort of operate with police officers. It just doesn't make sense for what is really a minor offense, Malik. Minor. And I think this was in California, I believe, where weed is illegal. Marijuana is legal and careful. I think this was California where marijuana actually is. Rancho Cordova, California.

Yes. Rancho Cordova, California. Yeah, so that's already a problem. Let's take, let's, if we give the police the benefit of the doubt to assume that everything that they say there is true, the problem that I have is, is the interaction with the kid true. We don't know what happened before this video clip, but he's pummeling the guy on,

he's pummeling the kid on the ground. It's hard to get around that and it's hard to justify. And again, even if they say, okay, well, they saw an exchange where drugs were being sold. What we're seeing is not a proper response to drugs being sold. Even if the guy, even if the kid resisted, even if the kid resisted and the police officer lost his handcuffs or whatever, when you get to pummeling, I mean, this was pummeling. This wasn't restraint. This wasn't trying to just tie the hands behind the back. This was pummeling the kid in the head. So I don't know how you get around that.

I'm pretty sure since this is a police, that they're going to investigate it. But these type of incidents, just looking at the kid being flung around, those things are disturbing, but I'm pretty sure we're going to get to the bottom of it. Where it's going to end up, I don't know, but this is just unacceptable. And the reality is kelly um we rarely see videos of white kids being pummeled like this by cops rarely do we see it and frankly i would be hard-pressed for you to see it anytime soon especially with the social distancing and whatnot but in in this particular incident, if I heard you correctly, the cop thought that or was told that this person was 18 years old and he had a suspicion of tobacco. If I'm not mistaken, you can be 18 and smoke cigarettes. So there's still no probable cause or reasonable suspicion from my understanding of what I just heard for this cop

to even, you know, approach this person, let alone, um, assault him in the way that he just did. Um, and I keep saying on your show, and I will, uh, I will say it again. If you have a racial bias in any capacity. You should not be in a job where race comes into play or where you have to take race into consideration in any regard. If you're a racist, it makes no sense for you to be a police officer unless you purposely want to, you know, destroy Black lives if you are a racist. It doesn't make any sense to me that you would want to do anything otherwise. If you cannot be racial neutral and just use good judgment and empathize with the suspect or whoever you are trying to serve in that capacity, if you're not able to do that, you don't need that job. And that's any client-facing job. Police officers are in a client-facing job. And if you cannot service the

client in such a way that is neutral, that benefits all parties involved, that does not discriminate against religion, color, race, creed, ethnicity, et cetera, if you're not able to do that, you shouldn't be a police officer or any other type of client facing job. So again, it's very triggering to me to see this video just in general. I have young men in my family. I have a little brother. I have a baby nephew. I've seen it firsthand. The fact that this is still a thing, especially during a time where people are supposed to be social distancing. It's just absolutely insane to me. It's insane. It's, again, it is the reality of what we see that impacts us as African-Americans. All right, folks, let's go to our next guest. We want to talk about personal finance.

A lot of people are trying to figure out how do they make ends meet, but some of us also need to understand that, look, we don't know how this thing is going to end. This is going to be continuing for a period of months. And so what position must we be in? What must we be thinking about now when it comes to our money and how we manage our money. Some say put those pennies together, right? My next guest, Shani Curry, is a personal

finance expert. She, of course, is someone, she's out of Miami, works with the CBS affiliate there again. And so you can follow her on social media as well. I'll give that a handle in just a second. But Shani, look, people out here, you see people raising money for food. You see people raising money. You have all these different benefits that are going on. And so many folks just don't know what's next. You got companies who are sitting on money, not spending money on advertising because they don't know what's going to happen with the economy. And so what are you advising people when it comes to really being focused on their dollars and looking at every single penny over the next several months? So I think what's key in this is when we look into an economy and we see that, number one, when you look at the unemployment rate, it's like at 84 times what it was last year.

When the average American has about less than $400 in their savings account, all of those are going to be situations that's going to tell you that you definitely need to mind your money. Simple things that I advocate for my clients to do is, number one, simply just look at your budget. Just look at it. Oftentimes people say, I don't have a budget. Everybody has a budget, whether it's on QuickBooks, whether it's just in your hand, or whether it's in your journal. You definitely have a budget. This would be the opportunity to just look at what's coming in and what's going out. So how you're going to be impacted is definitely going to be situationally.

Some people have lost their jobs, so that's going to be impacted is definitely going to be situationally. Some people have lost their jobs. So that's going to put you in a totally different demographic, whereas in you're working from home, you're still maintaining your income, you received your stimulus check. So it really depends on what segment of income you're in. And obviously, first of all, my panelists, get ready. I'm going to go to each one of you and ask a question as well. Obviously, we talk about, I mean, a budget is essential. But what you're also dealing with is you're dealing with people who now being home, their expenses are also changing. Some people are saying they're spending far more on food than they normally do because they're home 24 hours.

Now you're talking about also folks who are making online purchases when it comes to shopping as well. And so, I mean, just our normal way of operating, our normal, just how we, just our routine has now totally changed because so many are sheltered in place. All right. So when I'm looking at a lot of my clients' budget, one of the things that we have the capacity to do is just say, how much do you think that you spend? And then we look into all of their different accounts and we see how much they actually spend on something. What I'm finding is people have had the opportunity to reduce on the amount that they're spending with gas. People's eating out expense is reducing tremendously. So what they're losing, what they're gaining from gas and what they're gaining from not eating out, they're being able to supplement that into what they're doing

for groceries. So what I'm finding specifically with my clients is that a lot of people have decided to look at their income and they're looking at what's going on. They look at it, they go, oh my gosh, even though I'm home, I'm doing a lot with Uber Eats. I'm doing a lot with dining out. Oh my gosh, it's actually costing me four or $500 and I'm going to lot with Uber Eats. I'm doing a lot with Dining Out. Oh my gosh, it's actually costing me $400 or $500. And I'm going to the grocery store. So that's an additional $500. When they're able to just see those numbers in front of them, look at their habits,

look at how their emotional spending, they're able to reallocate that money in a way that it makes sense. You don't feel so bad that you're spending more on groceries because you're home and you're eating more because you've had the opportunity to reduce the amount that you're spending on gas and the amount that you're spending on dining out. if you can really get a hold of your emotional spending.

This is not the time to be on autopilot. The things where you're just saying that, you know, if you're eating out of boredom, watch your habits. Look at what it is that you're doing just because we really don't know how long we're going to be in this situation. And you don't want to deplete your resources on the basis of overeating or on the basis of just emotional spending because you're on autopilot. You're accustomed to eating out. You're accustomed to doing this. You're accustomed to doing this. This situation has really brought us to a place where we get to let go of some of our habits that weren't serving us in the first place. Let's see here. Let's go to Malik first, your question for Shani Curry.

Yeah, just a quick question. Just wondering about your experience dealing with people who don't have a lot of resources, a lot of financial resources and disposable income, especially during what we're facing now with so many people being out of work. So my question is, what is your advice for those people who don't have that amount of disposable income, who may be actually dealing with an unemployment check and just trying to pay rent? Like, what is your advice for people in those type of financial situations? Okay, so if you're finding it, you're falling within that demographic of where you've actually lost all of your income and the only thing you're getting is your unemployment check, right? Obviously, right off the bat, your wastefulness is gone. My clients who are in those positions, they definitely want to get into

some level of community building. This is not the time for you to just be completely by yourself. If you're finding that you don't have enough food resources, then this looks like you need to do some community building. That's where that's coming down to. When it comes to your rate, you want to take advantage of any of the social programs that's going to be available to you where you can. There are some people that's taking advantage, and that's something that we can't talk about. Some people that are taking advantage of COVID relief programs that they really don't need to. But for that demographic, you definitely want to get into community sharing. You want to get into food sharing. You want to find out what type of community.

We have community food farms here where you can go and you can get free food. That's going to be the situation. It's more about community building. And you definitely want to be looking for employment. In some segmentations, people are finding that they're just a lot emotionally overwhelmed. So they're not doing, some of my clients are not doing that extra stuff and actually looking for employment they're kind of getting accustomed to this unemployment check it would be in their best interest it will i lost you i don't know okay there we go sorry it will be in their best interest to um to begin looking for employment for sure not just resting and thinking

that that unemployment check is going to be sufficient those would be my three takeaways for that watch what it is that you're spending. Get into community building. See what type of resources that you can take advantage of when it comes to allowing you to stall out your rent payment, your car payment, your mortgage. You definitely want to tap into those programs. If you're finding that you're kind of sinking in the emotional frustration of losing your job, find some ways to kind of segment so that you can begin looking for employment. Adrienne, what's your question for Shani Curry? What are some ways that you're encouraging folks to save money on food. Like, is it, I'm just curious what your thoughts are. Is it, is it cooking large amounts

of food to last a long time? Is it sticking with non-perishables? So like the canned goods, because they're cheaper than fresh goods. What are your thoughts on that? Well, that's really going to be situational. There's not caught blunts with that when I'm saying, Hey, you only need to do fresh foods or you only going to do canned foods and things like that. I think the most important thing is to watch what you're doing. Have some level of awareness. I'm finding that some people are doing a lot of emotional eating. A lot of people are looking to food to supplement for their boredom as opposed to having some level of consciousness. So if you're overeating, this would be definitely the time, whether you're eating non-perishable or you're doing fresh or whether

you're getting all of your food from a food bank, whichever way that it is, it would be a very good time for you to begin watching your food intake if that is driving up your expenses. That would be the simple way that I go about that. All right, Kelly, final question. Sure. I heard the phrase emotional spending, and I don't hear that very often, but I would like for you to expound upon that because I want people to understand that just because you don't have a whole lot of disposable income does not necessarily mean you can't emotionally spend your money. So my question specifically is for those who do practice emotional spending to their detriment, myself included, what are some tips of the trade that you can give us to mitigate emotional spending? Or, and or, are there any things,

like for us who do spend money, what would you rather us spend our money on to help us with our budget? Okay, so the number one thing, so you asked me two questions, so I'm gonna do the best that I can to unload them. One of them is, I think oftentimes people think that they're only investing

when you're thinking about a stock in a bond, right? They're only think, that's the only time they think that they're only investing when you're thinking about a stock in a bond, right? That's the only time they think that they're investing. But you're always making an investment. You have to figure out whether or not you're spending, where every dollar that you need is coming to an end. It ends. Spend in. That's the end of it, right? Whether or if you're going to be investing. Are you making an investment in your health when you put food into your body? Is that an investment?

When you're making an food into your body. Is that an investment? When you're making, you know, when you're making an investment into your rent, you're making an investment into having housing and where it is that you live. So make sure that when you get ready to take money out of your purse, your pocket, your debit card, whatever you're using it for, think of it as an investment. Don't always think from a place of just spending where that money is going to quickly come to an end. How do you begin to look at your ability to emotional spend, right? The number one is just going to be looking at, just go and look at your transactional history. Just look at how many times you decided

that you bought something that you don't necessarily need. And then look at it and say to yourself, you know, what was I thinking? Why did I really need this? Did I really, you know, did I really use this off of Amazon? Did I really need this? Did I really, you know, did I really need this off of Amazon? Did I really need this? It's just really asking some hardcore questions. Oftentimes people are on autopay when it comes to their spending because they don't look at it. So if you just look at what it is that you're doing with your money, that can help you to, you know, kind of take apart some of your emotions attached to it.

People are very bored. I find a lot of people are very bored, so they're taking a lot of classes, a lot of courses, they're eating a lot of food. When I'm looking, when I look at my clients' expenditures, like I can look at every single thing that they're spending money on. A lot of it is just going to Uber Eats, a great deal. When I'm looking at budgets, it's talking about $1,500 on Uber Eats, you know, going out and you're saying, you know, I'm limited on cash. Are you limited on cash? You really got to, even if you're not a cook, you can learn to prepare some food for yourself. So the emotionalism of just being unaware, if you can start reducing how unaware you are, it will give you the opportunity to look into your emotions and what it is that you're

buying. All right. I think we are all good. Shani Curry, how can folks reach you? All things on First Empowerment. You can find me on First Empowerment. I'll go with just one last thing, if I can mention, if I can in my few little more moments, is when it comes to COVID relief programs, if you're getting notices from your banks or even if you're seeing things online as it relates to going ahead because you feel like you're limited on cash, maybe you may say, hey, I'm going to go ahead and freeze my mortgage payment for 12 months companies, whether it's your mortgage, whether it's your car payment.

Because oftentimes, if you really don't need those programs, if you've lost your job, obviously you do need a program that's going to help you maintain your home, make sure you maintain your car. However, if you're not in those types of situations and you're taking advantage of some of those programs, you can find that they will not serve you in the long term. For instance, when I'm looking through the fine lines of some of those programs for some of my clients, it's saying, yes, you can go ahead and miss 12 of your monthly payments until you recover from this. But instead of you having a 30-year mortgage, now you have a 40-year mortgage. So if you're going to take advantage of any of those COVID relief programs, you want to make sure that you read the fine lines. It may even be necessary to go to an attorney if you're going to take one of those programs to make sure that in the end of this, they're not putting so much on the back end as if you didn't make any payments at all. I'm

finding that to be something that a lot of people are having to face during these COVID relief programs, for sure. All right, folks. Shani Curry. She is the personal finance expert with CBS4 in Miami. Also, author of the book, here it is, 10 Things Every Woman Should Keep in Her Purse. Obviously, that's for the sisters because I ain't got a purse. All right, Shani. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. All right, thanks. I also want it. Thanks a lot. All right. Thanks. All right. Also, I want to thank my panel, Adrian, Kelly, Millie. Thank you so very much for being with us today. Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Thank you so very much for your insight.

We certainly appreciate it. All right, folks. Thank you. We are almost done, but don't forget, of course, what we do is every day. Those of you who join our Bring the Funk fan club, those of you who contributed 50 bucks or more who join our fan club, we truly appreciate all that you do. Your dollars make it possible for us to do this show. I'm going to read off your names.

So let me pull this email up right now here. And so here we go. All right. Bernita Ladd, Casey Pitts, uh, Deborah McNair, Desiree E. Bliss, Dong Perrion Smith. That's too funny. Uh, Dwayne Burris, Gary Jones, George Brown, Jacqueline Thomas, Karen Paris, Kim Coakley, Lamont, no last name Lamont, Lorene Hayes, Love to Praise Ministries, Monica S. Brown, Roosevelt Carey, Shalonda Davis, Taj, Thomas Lee, Tiffany Thomas, and Vonda Jackson. Don't forget, folks, if you want to support what we do, you can join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans to contribute 50 bucks a year. And of course,

that's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. Other folks have actually given at other levels. I just got someone, I got Sharna Washington just contributed during the show. Anthony Seawright did as well.

Also, let's see here. I just got a notice from Brother Thomas, and so I certainly appreciate that as well. So bottom line, folks, is we appreciate all who contributed to the show. Don't forget, you also get discounts on pocket squares on our books that are on RolandSMartin.com. So all of that makes it possible. If you want to join our fan club, go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. If you want to give me a cash app, that's dollar sign RMUnfiltered,

okay? Then, of course, PayPal. PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered. And if you want to use a credit card via Square, just simply go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, tomorrow's show, of course, Wildin' Out Wednesday. The comedian Godfrey is going to be in the house.

Cannot wait to talk to that crazy fool on the show. So looking forward to that. And we'll also stay abreast about each other's stories. It's all about, of course, keeping you informed as best we can because you know how we do it. It's about being unapologetic. It's about speaking to our issues. And it's about being unfiltered. So I certainly appreciate all of that. OK, folks, I got to go.

We got lots of things that are going on and I will see you tomorrow right here. 6 p.m. Eastern. Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also, click notifications so you turn it on. So when we go live, you know exactly when we go live. So we want you to do that. Also, we want you to share and retweet these videos, share with people because we want people on Instagram, on Facebook, on Periscope, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on Snapchat, on all the platforms, TikTok, you name it, all of them to know what we're doing, where we are and how we are doing our best to give you the most important up-to-date information that exists. And so it's only one show that does what we do. We're the only daily digital show out here. And so that's why we're about empowering you with as much information as possible. All right, folks, I got to go.

I appreciate all of you for watching. Thank you so very much. I'll see you all tomorrow. How? I'll see y'all tomorrow. Ho! Ho! This is an iHeart Podcast.