#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 6.16 Trump's executive order on policing; #DreasjonReed's family files lawsuit; Man found hung in TX

Episode Date: June 18, 2020

6.16.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump signs executive order on policing; #DreasjonReed's family files wrongful death suit against Indianapolis, IMPD; Another man has been found hanging in Houston; Anti-police brutality protests continue, but how do we move from protests to policies? + Crazy a$$ man proclaims Black lives don't matter Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site 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. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Hey folks, Roland Martin here. Today on June 16th. It is Tuesday, June 16th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin on the Filter. African American man, Indianapolis, shot and killed by cops.

We have an exclusive interview with his family right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Most folks are talking about Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. We will talk about the story of this young man, Ben Crump, and the family attorney joins us right here. Donald Trump unveils a BS executive order at the White House today.

All political theater. Is it real? No, it's not. joins us right here. Donald Trump unveils a BS executive order at the White House today. All political theater, is it real? No, it's not. We'll talk to folks about that as well. In addition to that, more white folks acting a fool, losing their jobs by challenging black and brown people when it comes to Black Lives Matter. Y'all gonna learn to stop messing with folks.

It's time to bring the funk and roll the mark on the filter. 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, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah

Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Martin. Folks, you might remember the story of Sean Reed, an African-American man in Indianapolis shot and killed by police. This is the video that took place. He was live streaming this encounter that took place in Indianapolis.

Folks, go ahead and run the video. This is his photo right here of Sean Reed. He served in the U.S. Air Force. And this happened just a couple of months ago. What happened was he was driving in Indianapolis, and he was actually on Facebook live streaming at the time, and there was an encounter. At one point, he jumps out of the vehicle and is running away. Then all of a sudden, he is shot and killed by police officers. His story has not gotten lots of attention.

Again, a lot of the attention has really been focused on the Ahmaud Arbery case, as well as the Breonna Taylor case, and of course, the George Floyd. But this is another example of an African-American encounter with police. And so we have seen this happening for quite some time. This is one of the things that's being talked about as we speak, as right now the United States Senate, they are actually having a hearing on the actions of police. We, of course, last week, the House

introduced, of course, their bill speaking to this issue. But right now, the senators are actually having this hearing. One of the folks who is testifying is Lee Merritt. Other people, Lee Merritt, of course, is the attorney. There are a number of other people who are also testifying before the senators right now on Capitol Hill so what I want to be able to do in just a second let's do this here let's go live to the United States Senate right now on that hearing on police reform can transform struggling communities project safe neighborhoods is the cornerstone of DOJ s anti-violent crime strategy and that can and help us ensure equal justice under the law.

In Dallas, we launched our first PSN program in April of 2018, targeting a neighborhood that for decades had been plagued by violent crime. Of course, one of the initiatives enforcement was to enforce and to root out the offenders that were plaguing this community, violent gang members and drug traffickers. But importantly, we felt that we needed to build a relationship of trust with this community. So we deployed a consistent and compassionate team of local police department officers and agents, federal agents, that earnestly wanted to form relationships with the people in the neighborhood. And we took steps to foster a community that felt empowered to approach those officers

for help with the assurance that they would be met with respect. To accomplish this, we took several steps. We hosted more than 100 community meetings with neighborhood groups, apartment managers, faith leaders, business leaders, and school teachers to share our vision for the neighborhood and solicit their advice on how to achieve it. Then based on that feedback, our task force worked to shut down seedy convenience stores, game rooms, and other establishments that were spawning crime. And then we used the important grant money from PSN to implement crime prevention through

environmental design, working with a nonprofit organization to redesign a central community square. This vibrant plaza now boasts a mini lending library, recreation tables, and child's craft area. And since completion of this revitalization project, the plaza hasn't seen a single act of violence. Our PSN has yielded real results and even as Dallas's citywide crime increased, the violent crime in the PSN area decreased. U.S. attorneys across the country are having similar success stories and we launched two additional PSN efforts in my district in Lubbock and in Amarillo. Both of those cities are having undeniably positive results. In P.S. in Amarillo, we reduced the violent crime there by 13%.

And in Lubbock, we've had a 25% reduction in business robberies and a 26% reduction in aggravated assaults because of this community-based... All right, folks, we're going to dip back into that in just a second. But what I want to be able to do is I want to pull up this video here and show you exactly what took place. And again, we covered this story, we covered this story, but it has not,

like I say, gotten a lot of the attention as some of the other cases. And so let me pull this up for a second right here, folks. One second. And so this is right here from WISH-TV. Go right to it.

What did I slide through? They ain't really follow me no more, though. That's all they want now. He gonna keep following me? I'm gonna talk over it. This one's live. Alright, folks, so this is the video. The police are actually

following Sean Reed. He's actually live streaming it. You heard him say it's just one car that's following following me and so this is the this is the video here Now, folks, the total run time, his camera was running the entire time. The total run time that his camera was live was one hour and nine minutes. This video right now, we are approaching the 11-minute mark. You're about to see, so you see him. The reason it's important, you just saw him. He's got the pair of athletic shorts on.

He has no shirt on. And so that's an important point here. Right here, so you hear him saying, there's only one. And so he's showing a police car that's behind him. We're at about the 11.20 mark of this video. In just a bit, he is going to actually get out of his car and then take off running. And then you're going to exactly see what took place. I can't answer on this one.

He hanging out just to let my diamond wage. N***a come my way. Then I grab my cake. Keep something on my waist. So I'm purposely allowing this to run because, as you see, they're pursuing him and he's live streaming. And then what I'm going to do. That's crazy, yo. So I'm giving you a sense of exactly what was happening at that particular time.

What the fuck is going on in my life? Uh-oh, I almost lost him, y'all. I almost got rid of his ass. Damn, never mind. I thought I had his ass. I thought I was doing good. Yo, man, J. I'm not sure she went by call.

You can call me back. I keep in mind that the family of Sean Reed, they have filed a federal lawsuit against Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. I'm not going to jail today. I'm saying you got to guess me, baby. I'm not going to jail today. I'm not going to jail today. This took place on May 6th. Hey, I'm finna be on motherfucking, um, what is this? What the fuck is this? Is this Michigan? Come on.

Now, Reed was shot and killed by police officer DeJure Mercer on May 6th. Oh, baby, what's this? Michigan and what? Michigan and what? Ace? I'm finna park this motherfucker at Ace. On 62nd and Michigan? Somebody come get my stupid ass. six. What you say? Fuck you. Fuck you! Ah!

Shit! Police actually shooting. Police actually shooting. So we're gonna be east of... Fuck! Oh my God. Certainly disturbing video there. Now, the police laid out what they say took place,

but there were other witnesses who described something different. Joining us right now is Sean's father, Jamie Reed, as well as attorney Ben Crump. Gentlemen, glad to have you on Roller Martin. Okay, Jamie Reed is there. Sorry, we don't have Ben Crump. Waiting to get him. Jamie Reed?

Yes. All right. Certainly sorry to have you on the show under these circumstances. Police say it was justified, but you, as well as the attorneys, you're finding out different information about what happened to your son, correct? Yes, sir. And what is that? What's that?

And what's the different information that y'all have discovered regarding what took place with your son? Well, they just released the officers that were involved in the murder, so... Now... Go ahead. Yeah, that was the new information so far. Now,

witnesses also describe something different happening than what they describe. Well, they said, you know, they allege that he shot at them. But everybody knows that's a lie. And so they claim, and so again, they claim he shot at them, but on that video right there, you don't actually hear anything along those lines. Also, were these cops wearing body cameras?

No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. That was one of the issues that I brought up when I talked to the chief. And they said they had some type of furlough on the body cam as far as getting them and everything. So, I mean, that's all they gave. That's all the information they said they had as far as body counts. Basically, they really never had plans on even getting body counts throughout all the years from all the stuff that had happened. Now, after the shooting, after the shooting,

the police said that they fired a taser at Dre, but there's no evidence of that. What's that? Of the police firing a taser. According to the police department, they issued a statement saying officers had attempted to deploy a taser on him and that Dre had fired at law enforcement. Right. That was a lie they was pushing out, you know, and they still ain't gave up the coroner's report.

So that, you know, that really is something that's real suspicious anyway, making it seem like, you know, even though you can hear the video, it's obvious that they tased him and then he failed. So, I mean, I don't understand how you can, you know, it's streamed live. Everybody in the world's seen it, so it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand how you can, you know, stream live. Everybody in the world's seen it, so it doesn't make any sense. How can you not go by the video? I mean, the video tells everything, like the taser hitting. You can hear the taser, obviously,

and then the amount of shots they bring out. So, I mean. I want to bring in Ben Crump right now. Ben, again, the police said that Dre fired at them, yet witnesses say that didn't happen. They even said there was no sign of a gun. Yeah, there is absolutely

no evidence rolling that Dre did anything to cause or justify them to kill him in the manner that they killed him. In fact, the witnesses say, Roland, that the police came up to him after they had already tased him and knocked him to the ground. And that's when they started using the deadly gunfire so much, in fact, that one of the officers, officers and it's ridiculous and i'm so sorry to say this in front of mr reed especially on dre's birthday but when he looked at the man in which

they shot him in his face uh multiple times they said look like it's gonna be a dead casket homie wow um you have been gathering information. You have been putting this together. As I asked, of course, Mr. Reed, the cops were not wearing body cameras. And so, again, I mean, unfortunately,

he's passed away, but the only video that we have is the video that Dre shot. So we have to believe the police account of what took place. Yeah, and it's so unfortunate. Thank God they had those witnesses there who were also using their social media devices. And even though they may not have gotten the direct shots that shot Dre,

they did get before and after and correct contemporaneous thoughts as they were saying, oh, my God, they're going to shoot him. They're shooting him. And when you hear the person who's narrating this tragedy, you're saying she's given a firsthand account blow by blow of the murder of a young man that was completely unnecessary. They had him down on the ground. He never pointed a weapon at him. He never brandished a weapon.

But yet they still shot and killed him. And remember this, Roland. This is after Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Everybody's already talking about they continue to kill us these open season killers and this is before George Floyd and now Rashad Brooks and so we have to

let everybody know that in Indianapolis, Indiana there's also a problem with these just, I don't even know what you call it roller, unnecessary and justifiable, senseless, I call it legalized genocide because they kill our children

and then they try to use the intellectual justification of discrimination to sweep it under the rug. But thank God for Dre and his family, Mr. Jamie Reed, they're not going to let him sweep it under the rug, nor am I and Attorney Monique Presley. We're going to stay focused on getting attention to Dre Reed. We got to say his name, too. Autopsy.

It hasn't been released? Has not been released a month and a half later. So they still don't, the family still doesn't know to this day what bullets went into him, the entry wounds and exit wounds, what are the trajectory of the bullets. You know, we're calling on the Department of Justice investigation because I think, Roland, we've been doing this for almost, you know, decades now. And quite literally, what they want to do always is just try to kick the can down the road, hoping that people will forget about it, that there'll be other black people killed,

so nobody will be thinking about how the cops executed Dre Reed. And so that's what I think is going on here. That's why this medical examiner, who I know has finished his autopsy, has not made them public. Jamie, it has to be difficult. This took place on May 6th. This is June 16th. What would have been to your son's 22nd birthday?

What's that? I said it certainly has to be difficult. This is June 16th, and of course, you know, today's your son's 22nd birthday. Well, it's hard, you know, knowing he ain't here because... All right, folks, let me know when we get his Skype back. I'm going to go back to Ben Crump. Ben, again, we see these stories over and over and over again.

The police want us to believe their account. But if the police say on one hand, well, he fired a gun, but the witnesses say that their gun was fired, here's the other piece. Was a gun recovered? They recovered a gun, but everything suggests that he never, ever pointed a gun, never brandished a gun, or anything like that. And so when they kill him, you have to take them at their word.

They say they recovered a gun on the scene because they didn't have their body camera videos. And that underscores what George Floyd, brother and I were doing when we were testifying at the U.S. Congress roll, and then we got to march with you on Black Lives Matter Boulevard that evening afterwards. But what we said is if you don't have your police body camera video and somebody that brutalized or worse killed, you should be charged with a federal violation of a new law that we're proposing of obstruction of justice. Because why do we have the body cameras if you're not going to turn them on

when you have interaction with citizens? We're going to just assume that it is a rebuttable presumption that you did something wrong, and the burden is on you to prove that you didn't do anything wrong, or you're going to be convicted of obstruction of justice. That would apply most definitely here with Dre Reed case and so many other cases rolling where the police said well we didn't have our body camera on uh Jamie you were speaking about uh today being your son's birthday and how hard it is please go right ahead uh guys let's do this here let's fix this fix audio, because I want him to be able to again. And so, all right, Jamie, try again,

because audio was muffled. Go ahead. OK. Can you hear me now? Yeah, there we go. OK. Yes, it's hard. And my family's back home right now celebrating his birthday,

you know, just kind of keeping my soul alive down there, you know, just letting everybody know I'm there in love and faith and, you know, just hopefully, we need justice for Dre. That's, I mean, that's mainly what I'm trying to do. That's what we need to do. That's what Ben Crump and Monique is going to do for me. So, yeah, for our family, we need to do. That's what Ben Crump and Monique is going to do for me. So, yeah, for our

family, we just need justice. You know, I need the officers to favor what they've done. You know? So, but, yeah, it's hard. And Ben, speaking to those officers, they are only on administrative leave.

Yeah, and that's the tragedy of it. They're still being paid by the taxpayers after they killed Jamie's son, and it makes no sense why they would say, unless we can prove that this young man put us in fear of our lives, there's no justification to kill him. And right now, Roland Martin, there is nothing that demonstrates, not one scintilla of evidence

that says Dre, Sean, Reed ever put their lives in danger. And that's what we have to continue to keep telling everybody. We have to make his name be known far beyond Indianapolis. And I know, Roland Martin, using your platform, you can help get the word out that Dre Reed needs justice. That would be the fit and birthday gift for everybody who's listening to the show today to hashtag Justice for Dre and make sure people know the story of Dre Sean Reed in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Absolutely. Jamie Reed, Ben Crump. Gentlemen, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, let's go live back to Capitol Hill, where the president of Noble is testifying right now. All officers render immediate medical aid. Mandatory requirements that officers intervene where physical force is being applied to either stop or attempt to stop another officer when force is being inappropriately applied. Noble proposes comprehensive legislation that incorporates the aforementioned but also includes

mandatory law enforcement accreditation as a national requirement. Re-evaluation of police qualified immunity. Provide the civil rights division of the Justice Department enforcement oversight against pattern and practice discrimination. Continued appropriations for the Department of Justice community relations. Federal data collection in the following categories. Use of force, traffic stops, pedestrian stops, and detentions. A national database that maintains a listing of officers with patterns of misconduct to prevent negligent hiring and retention. We wholeheartedly support the passing of the

Justice in Policing Act which specifically addresses the loopholes that continue to allow policing tragedies free of oversight and accountability, environments that foster unfettered racial tension and the continued desecration of what I've always thought to be a noble profession. We also recognize the majority of police officers who demonstrate on a daily basis their love and commitment towards the tenants of 21st century policing and the safety and well-being of the communities they so courageously serve. However, today, at this critical moment in time, Noble encourages Congress to act with deliberate haste to pass transformative legislation to reform the system of policing. As an African-American woman, I can unequivocally attest to the perpetual existence of discriminatory practices

that remain a haunting reality for people of color throughout our nation. It is critical that we first acknowledge the pressing need for a comprehensive and holistic approach to change, and then urgently begin the process of mapping the way forward towards policing reimagined, enlisting guardians and not warriors, those who value all communities and the sanctity of life. And finally on behalf of more than 3,800 law enforcement leaders, mostly minority, who represent the membership of Noble, we thank you for supporting the law enforcement profession, but more importantly for

listening to the voices of protesters and others around the globe who demand change. On this occasion I am cautiously optimistic that the cries of our America will be heard and acted upon so that once and for all, black lives are valued in the eyes of all police officers as more than a counterfeit $20 bill, more than a carton of cigarettes, and more important than simply showing up at the wrong address. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Chief. Folks, today at the White House, Donald Trump signed an executive order

that he said will encourage police departments to adopt higher standards related to the use of force and de-escalating training. Here is what he said. Today is about pursuing common sense and fighting, fighting for a cause like we seldom get the chance to fight for. We have to find common ground. But I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defend, dismantle and dissolve our police departments, especially now when we've achieved the lowest recorded crime rates in recent history.

Americans know the truth. Without police... Come on, come on. I can't keep listening to that bullshit. Here's the real deal, folks. A lot of stuff he was lying in his whole presentation. He lied when he said that previous presidents like Obama and Biden did not try to do anything

when it came to policing. That was a flat-out lie. In fact, they put in a lot of procedures and practices and rules that Trump rolled back. So I can't get excited because you're actually trying to say you're doing something. The other piece here, what they laid out is, of course, they had all of these different police officers there,

these police unions, touting with the creation of this database, attracting these officers. Here's the problem. Who's going to pay for it? There's no funding in the executive order. So earlier he also met with families of victims, both of Jean, Ahmaud Arbery's family, and others.

Lee Merritt, the attorney, yesterday, Jeff Bennett of NBC reported that Merritt was going to be speaking today at the Rose Garden. He was supposed to speak, but right now, though, first of all, he's actually in that hearing taking place before Congress. Now, but one of the things that Lee Merritt, what he did was he put this tweet here out, actually speaking to that, which was taken by some people to be very critical. This is what he tweeted. Reports of a photo op with the president or standing with the White House during the EO signing are false. Show me the civil rights leaders who are upset about families

making a direct appeal for federal intervention after the murder of their loved ones, and I'll show you a clown. Well, the reality is, Lee Barrett was supposed to be there. He was going to speak. He opted today not to. Civil rights leaders were also critical of him speaking and also being there with Donald Trump. I want to go to my panel. Davon Love, Director of Public Policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Cheryl Dorsey, retired LAPD Sergeant. Dr. Cleo Monago is a political analyst. Cheryl, I want to start with you. Again, this is my perspective.

Donald Trump's down in all polls. CNN had him down 14 points. Rasmussen, his favorite poll, had him down 12 points. He's losing independents, white women, all across the country. Look at the numbers right now. He's tied with Biden in Texas. He's only up two in Arkansas, a state he won by 27 points. He's tied in North Carolina. He's down in other places. Today was all political theater to show he actually wants to do something about police reform

because he sees how it's killing his reelection chances. Well, the problem with all of that is that he was being disingenuous and intellectually dishonest in the reforms that he's putting forth. Listen, nothing that he said today is going to change what patrol officers do day to day. And I know this to be true because I was one for 20 years.

And so if you ban a chokehold like they're proposing, okay, we saw Daniel Pantaleo use a prohibited chokehold, a banned chokehold in the murder of Eric Garner. And what did the New York commissioner tell us? That wasn't a chokehold. That was an upper body seatbelt restraint. So banning a chokehold and giving it another name, thereby making it not the thing that it is,

is just intellectually dishonest. If you look at when officers can use deadly force, we've always been able to use it as a last resort rather than a first resort. If you have officers who say that they were in fear for their safety or they thought they were in immediate defense of their life when they shot a man in the back, it's very difficult to argue what's in someone's head. And so all of this really, it really means nothing. And so I'm really disheartened that folks would be so easily led or misled in that the

things that they're proposing pretty much already exist, and the things that don't exist are not going to change police officers day to day. What I want to hear them say is accountability. You would think it was a four-letter word, something that they can't say. When a police officer shows up to roll call and two or three of their partners are not in roll call in their seat because they're facing federal charges or murder charges, police officers will start to do something different. But if you don't hold them accountable, how do you have a guy who's got 18 personnel complaints? You think Derek

Chauvin wasn't on a list? We need another one, a national database. Now we know that Rolfe had a dozen personnel complaints. He was on a list. So just having an officer on a list is not going to stop them from killing us. And what about those seven officers who just quit over in Minneapolis and can now go to another police department who's more in line with their thinking and would continue to kill, but under a different name, wearing a different uniform? There's a Mississippi police chief who saw nothing wrong with the murder of George Floyd. There's a major on the Tulsa Police Department who says more blacks should be shot.

And so there's a place for those officers. 57 walked off New York, Buffalo, New York ERT. 57 SWAT members in Hollandale, Florida walked off because they were pissed off and their leader, their chief took a knee. It's the mindset, it's the culture. And until you address that, we're gonna continue to have this problem.

Cleo, you work with law enforcement there in Los Angeles County. Again, all these people. Oh, let's give this praise. Trump has given credit. This executive order, you know, Cheryl was on CNN earlier in Van Jones and former Chief Charles Ramsey said, now we have a new floor, if you will. I'm not buying it because the reality is I don't believe the Republicans are going to have a serious bill that's tougher than the Democrats' bill, which many say should be even stronger as well. Roland, I have to say to start that I usually don't watch those videos anymore because it's numbingly painful, and it's just sad. So I'm still chipping off the imagery of Dre and knowing that young brother

was going to be murdered any moment. So part of my emotionality, but I'm still there. I think we all expect at this point for Donald Trump to perform and say crazy stuff and to lie, because as I've said before, it works. People who support him are not concerned about black lives, they're not concerned about police brutality. I think the sister just broke down the litany of crazy cops, which makes me reiterate the fact that this is not simply a bunch of or a small group of bad apples. As the sister also

said, this is a culture. And I just hope that today's allegedly heightened concern around black people being murdered and inspired supposedly by George Floyd does create change. And the reason I say supposedly by George Floyd, because in my opinion, there were some gory deaths that preceded him that didn't result in the kind of so-called outcry that we're dealing with now, which I still believe is mostly because of the COVID-19 social restrictions and all those things are one of the elements here. But yeah, I mean, of course, Trump was lying. He's always lying.

I mean, what's next? The bottom line is we need to change the system and black people need to hold folks accountable. Davon, look. And vote. Davon, I can't get excited about an executive order because it's not law. And the bottom line is this here.

You know, I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, great, I mean, it's good, it's unbelievable. No, I am not. Because the reality is what Donald Trump did today was all about trying to score some cheap political points. He can walk it back on Twitter any time he wants to. It's a different deal when you sign a bill into law and then you're going to have changes.

This executive order, they can slow walk it. They can ignore it. And again, you create a database. Who gives a damn when you don't even say how the database is going to be funded, Davon? So exactly. I mean, I think an executive order is typically a president's way of signaling to policy that they don't have the power to enact. And I think it's really important that the issue of police brutality, when we're talking about the legislative reforms that is necessary, there's a metric that all policy should be filtered through, which is, does this policy undermine the ability, the authority that police are given to police themselves? And to the extent that that is undermined is the extent to which a legislative action should be understood to be helpful to that end. One other thing I want to add, because, you know, I watched the speech that Trump gave. And as you as you and your other guests have mentioned,

you know, he speaks in dog whistle, right? He's a PR marketing person to his base. And there was something really important in what he said that I think we have to push back on. And what that is, is that he talked about the importance of law enforcement in addressing public safety, right? And talked about the importance of law enforcement in addressing public safety.

Right? And it's actually one of the things that I think folks on so-called left or people who call themselves radicals, I think, don't address that issue to the extent necessary to really talk to our base, like talk to our people. And I think one of the things that Trump is doing is that he's signaling to people who may not be as politically inclined or people who pay as much attention to policy. And when he talks about the importance of public safety, what we have to push back on is to say that the version of public safety that Trump, the FOP, and other kinds of entities

are pushing actually does not make us safer. And it's actually different from Noble. And again, they're not even listening to black law enforcement officials. I want to wrap all this into this as well. Cheryl, yesterday the L.A. County Sheriff came out and said that the hanging of Robert Fuller, 24-year-old, in Palmdale, California, now is being investigated as a homicide. But they rushed out and called it a suicide.

In Houston, a man was found hanging from a tree overnight. Detectives responded to what, again, they call an apparent suicide near the Houston neighborhood of Shady Acres after video from the scene was circulated online throughout the day. Those who shared the video compared the death to that of two other recent hangings, including Fuller.

Now, Houston police later confirmed the man found hanging is Hispanic and his family said he was suicidal. Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed that there were not sounds of foul play. We've gotten reports of a hanging in Atlanta and two others, a total of five here. The thing here, Cheryl, that people are saying is, if you're the police, why do you immediately rush out and say, oh, suicide, as opposed to do an investigation

so public can actually trust the investigation? The folks in L.A. County look like some damn fools today. You know, I think part of the problem is that some of what they say, and listen, you know, police chiefs are used to speaking publicly, and I think they're very savvy. And I think a lot of times what they say is for prospective jurors down the road, if this thing ever goes to court, I think a lot of it is to try to dirty up the victim. In most cases, in the minds of the public, we hear them say, you know, Mr. Floyd was trying to pass a counterfeit bill. We don't even know if he knew that the bill was counterfeit. We've heard that Mr.

Brooks was driving under the influence. I don't know if he was driving under the influence, and so on and so on. And so I think it's an attempt to mitigate the bad behavior, to portray this person in a way that somehow they deserved this thing. You know, they weren't compliant. He took the officer's taser. Whatever it is that they want to say, I think, is an attempt to dirty the victim up and put in the minds of the community. And, you know, because they never come back and unring that bell. You can't unhear it once you've heard it, right? It's out there.

And I don't think that they are naive when they do it. I think it's a concerted effort in most cases. And Cleo, that's one of the things that I keep saying it boils down to trust. When we see example after example after example of police officers lying on reports, lying in their testimony, and all of a sudden you want us to actually believe when they say,

oh, this happened, we're all good. Well, up until very recently, the lies have worked. I mean, in every single case where a black person has been murdered and the cops were on trial, if they went to trial at all, they lied. So that's a norm. In previous years, up until recently, the lies have worked.

I think it's important to reiterate that the reason why these hangings, if you will, or so-called suicides, which I don't think they are called suicides, is because the police department is always deflecting any thought that it might be race-related. Even when it's race-related, they make sure that they call themselves getting to the point of erasing that idea as quick as possible, because police departments are full of racism. I've seen with my own eyes, and being anti-black and abusive of black people is a norm. It's games for a lot of these people, and they've never had to worry about it. So that's one of the reasons why they constantly jump

to a conclusion that's not race-related when something like a hanging is located. But of course we're going to have to deal with lies because if it wasn't for lies, these people would have been, have lost their jobs. So lying about crimes is a norm. And my concern sometimes, though, is that when Black people who are partners

with some of these racists show up, sometimes, like in Walter Scott's case, and in Sandra Bland's case, they show up and co-write a fictitious report to make sure that everybody gets off. So you need to take a look at our behavior and how some of us feed into white supremacist treachery and murder.

Davon, one of the issues that we're dealing with here when we talk about trying to create this change and trying to get these true police reform is that we also are fighting this mental block

that I believe people have with holding police accountable. I have great respect for Congressman Jim Clyburn, but I think he is absolutely wrong on the issue of defund the police. Because he's buying into what somebody else's narrative is, as opposed to, no, let's stop pouring millions and millions of dollars into the exact same thing that's not working. Defund the police does not say, hey, we want to wipe all police officers off the map. No, what it's saying is we simply don't want to

keep pouring money into the existing system. Let's begin to have, let's have mental health people respond to a mental health crisis. When you get a phone call and it's a mental health crisis, a police officer should not be showing up without a mental health expert with them. That's what people are saying. And I think part of the problem here is that you have all these Republicans, of course, line up against it. But you have Democrats who don't understand what people like you and others are saying when they say we've got to. They went, well, why can't you just call it reform the police? Because that's also not the same. Go ahead. So so a few a few points that are important. The first is that in a place like Baltimore where out of about a $3 billion budget, the city spent over half a billion dollars on policing. So look at it just from purely a customer service perspective. You're spending half a billion dollars on something that has not been effective.

So that's just West One Piece. So what that should do is it should cause us then to think about what are the mechanisms of public safety that are alternatives that are one more cost effective, but just generally more effective. You know, one of the things that, you know, the great John Herbert Clark once said is that there's societies that don't have a world for jail because they didn't have it. And I think a part of the problem with living in Western civilization is that many of us can't imagine a world, you know, without police, without prisons. And to your point, this isn't to say that we abolish all those things right now, because the most important thing

about the question of defunding is the importance of building those alternative community safety, the alternative infrastructure that is necessary to facilitate community safety. You mentioned the example of like a mental health professional. I think that includes networks that exist indigenously within our communities, right? That

can be more proactive in addressing conflicts. And in fact, those who have been involved in addressing conflicts without the police, right, have used the networks within the community as a resource to figure out how to resolve conflicts that lead to violence. So I think when we talk about defunding police, part of the problem is that people just conceptually, to your point about this mental block, people have conceptually wed themselves to a vision of the world that requires the existence of police. And a part of what we're saying is we're saying two things. One is, what are the kinds of reforms that can get us closer to a world where we can eventually abolish police, right? And we have to have the imagination to be able to think that such a world can exist.

And I think that requires people to study non-Western civilizations that, again, don't have police. But what it also requires is for us to look at the actual ways in which public safety is carried out. Right. And look at what are different ways to do it. Cheryl, Cheryl, real quick. Hold on, Cleo, real quick. Go ahead. You used the term earlier that the system is not working. And I think it's important that we understand that there's... No, the system is not working for us, but it's working exactly how it was designed against us. That was the point I was getting ready to make, that the system is working for people who are racist, anti-black,

and into controlling black populations and destroying black lives when they get the opportunity. And that's why, because it's a culture that is working and has worked for many decades at least, when there's a pushback, people go into lie and fantasy mode into this disorienting dilemma because the culture is being pushed back. But the culture has worked just fine for people who believe that our lives don't have that much value

and that we just play things to kill at the whim of certain people. Cheryl, the thing is this here. I didn't hear anybody today at this executive order talk about qualified immunity. And the reality is, as long as a lot of these police officers know they can act a fool and I'm good, my pension is fine, the city, y'all can pay those lawsuits, I'm just going to keep doing what I do. Absolutely. And that's part of the accountability that I speak of because there's no specificity.

In addition to dealing with qualified immunity, the police officer's bill of rights, officers are given a certification in order to be a cop, post-police officer standard in training. Imagine, if you will, if you were to go out and get three speeding tickets in a month, or God forbid you get in go out and get three speeding tickets in a month, or God forbid, you get in your car and decide every day you're going to engage in vehicular manslaughter,

DMV would take your driver's license, right? How is it then that a police officer who has racked up 18 personnel complaints, a dozen personnel complaints, involved in uses of force, deadly force, continues to be certified, continues to have that license, given the gift of resignation, not terminated when they do commit a murder, like Betty Shelby, who was given the gift of resignation and went over to a neighboring police department, like Timothy Lohman, who was given the gift of resignation and left Independence Police Department and went over to Cleveland. How about we take those officers post-certification

so that they can't go from department to department to department? Wouldn't that be helpful? Wouldn't that be meaningful? But, you know, they talk a good game, but when it comes to actually putting teeth behind reform that will rein in errant officers, they don't. And so if you don't deter the bad behavior,

why would I, if I have 18 personnel complaints, why would I do anything differently? Had they dealt with Derek Chauvin at 6 or 7 or 12, Mr. Floyd would be here today. There you go. Cheryl, Davon, I've got about 20 seconds. Go. So I think one hard conversation we're going to have to have is the role of labor, because a big part of what law enforcement hides behind is the collective bargaining. And so it's going to be important for labor to come together to be able to say to do things like take folks' pensions. Right. Or be able

to do things, you know, like those, and that's a hard conversation that labor's going to have to have to really demonstrate their solidarity with black folks on this issue. Davon Love, Cheryl Dorsey, Cleo Monago, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, gotta go to break. When we come back, crazy-ass white people

losing their jobs by confronting black and brown people. I keep telling y'all, please go right ahead. You can solve black unemployment all yourselves. We'll be back on Roller 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 rolandmartin unfiltered.com

i'm white i got you illegally selling water without a permit on my property well a philadelphia man was caught on video tearing down black lives matter signs when I'm uncomfortable. Well, a Philadelphia man was caught on video tearing down Black Lives Matter signs with a question. This was his response. I know it's the city. I pay for this. Oh, you pay for that? Yeah, my taxes pay for this place. Oh, okay.

Just so you know. So I can do whatever I want. Oh, you can do whatever you want. You're fucking right I can. And I'm always around here too. I'm always around. You're welcome. Not to me they don't. You can call it any way you want. You can go fuck yourself, though. Well, guess what, y'all? He ain't got a job. The man was identified as Michael Henkel, who worked as a supervisor writ server from the First Judicial District Family Court in Philadelphia.

Worked, as in past tense. He has been fired. See? I just keep trying to explain to y'all. Stop acting a fool. How about this? White woman in California acts a fool by dogging this man who's Asian

who's writing on his own property. Watch this. Is this your property? Hi, I'm asking you if this is your property. Why are you asking? Because it's private property. Because it's private property. So are you defacing private property or is this your building? You're free to express your opinion, but not on people's property. Okay. Absolutely. Just respectfully. Sure. So we're just saying absolutely your signs and everything and that's good

This is not this is not the way to do it. Okay? It's private but if I did live here, and it was my property this would be absolutely fine And you don't know if I live here, or if this is my property Oh really because you live here, right? You said so. No, because we know the person who does live here. Oh, okay. Then I suggest you call him or call the police or... I don't want to call the police. Because you're accusing me of a crime, correct?

What I'm asking you is why are you... And I'm not answering you. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. So your choices are to call the cops if you believe I'm calling a crime and I will more than be happy to talk to him. Okay, thank you. What's your name you believe I'm calling a crime, and I will more than be happy to talk to them. Okay. Thank you.

What's your name again? I'm Lisa. Lisa, what's your last name? What is your name? What's your name? I asked first, Lisa. I'm not stating a crime, sir. What's your name, sir?

Robert. What's your last name, sir? What is your first name, sir? I'm not answering. I'm not talking to you. You're talking to me. I'm asking you the questions. Well, we're not doing anything illegal.

Neither am I. Actually, you are. You are actually really oh okay well then call the cops lisa and robert i'll be right here okay thank you bye and that people is why black lives matter that's karen and she's calling the cops and this is gonna be really funny because she knows the people who live here personally well that's a problem the man who was talking is james guanillo he lives there. It was his property. That Karen, she's the CEO of her own cosmetics company,

Lisa Alexander, she's the founder and CEO of LaFace Skincare. They have since taken down their website after this video went viral. She issued this apology. There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision

to question him about what he was doing in front of his home. I should have minded my own business. It's a longer apology, y'all. And she went on to talk about how that, because he had offered for them to meet for drinks or coffee or lunch or whatever. She said she wants to do that because she wants to learn more because she realized she screwed up oh but it's better her husband Robert well y'all Robert doesn't have his job anymore yeah that's what happens when again when you're sitting here married to a Karen and then you want to support your Karen, and then things change. Go to my iPad, please. The company Raymond James fires employee

who confronted Black Lives Matter demonstrator. Yeah, y'all, that's the deal right there. This is what they said. After an investigation into the circumstances of a video alleging racism by one of our associates, we have concluded that the actions of he and his partner were inconsistent with our values and the associate is no longer employed with Raymond James.

Hmm, see y'all, here's the deal, Robert. You thought you were supporting your Karen. Now you don't have a job. See how that works? Now, I would hope Raymond James would promote somebody African-American into Robert's former job. And see, Karen, I'm sorry, Lisa, she's trying to figure out what in hell she's now going to do with her cosmetics company because the website is down.

See, these things keep happening over and over again because you got some white folks in America who don't know how to mind their own damn business. They, for some reason, want to challenge and step in and question folks. But y'all saw how arrogant she was? Saying, no, no, we know who lives here. That was just so gorgeous.

Can y'all roll Karen again? I just want to see it for myself again. Is this your property? Hi, I'm asking you if this is your property. Why are you asking? Because it's private property. Because it's private property, sir. So are you defacing private property or is this your building?

You're free to express your opinion. No, you, we do. But not on people's property. Okay. Absolutely. Just respectfully. Sure. So we're just saying absolutely your signs and everything and that's good.

This is not, this is not the way to do it. Okay. It's private property. But if I did live here and it was my property, this would be absolutely fine. And you don't know if I live here or if this is my property. We actually do know. Do y'all have the Kentucky protest? Because you live here, right?

You said so. No, because we know the person who does live here. Oh, okay. Then I suggest you call him or call the police. Or because you're accusing me of a crime, correct? I suggest you call him or call the police. Why do you want to call the police? Because you're accusing me of a crime, correct? What I'm asking you is why are you accusing me of a crime? And I'm not answering you.

Okay, that's fair. That's fair. So your choices are to call the cops if you believe I'm calling a crime, and I will more than be happy to talk to them. Okay, thank you. What's your name again? I'm Lisa. Lisa, what's your last name?

What is your name? What's your name? I asked first, Lisa. I'm not committing a crime, sir. What's your name, sir? Robert. What's your last name, name? What is your name? What's your name? I asked first, Lisa. I'm not committing a crime, sir. What's your name, sir? Robert.

What's your last name, sir? What is your first name, sir? I'm not talking to you. You're talking to me. I'm asking you the questions. Well, we're not doing anything illegal. Neither am I. Actually, you are.

You are actually. Really? Because it's Pussyroper. Oh, okay. Well, then call the cops. Thank you. We will do that. Lisa and Robert.

Yeah. I'll be right here. Bye. And that, people, is why Black Lives Matter. Whoo! Bye, Robert Larkin. You lost your job for being an ass. Speaking of being an ass, this took place, y'all, in Ohio. This took place in Ohio. Watch this video where there was a protester, white guy, who goes to protest,

and a bunch of Trump people are standing around. Cops are standing there. My man gets assaulted. Cops do nothing. And the cops actually sound as if they're with the Trump people. Watch these crazy-ass white people. USA! USA! USA!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! Fuck outta here, brother. Get the fuck outta here, bro! You better get the fuck home, bro! Step back, don't touch him, okay? I'm gonna get you! Hey!

Hey! Give me your hat, motherfucker! Shove that in your ass, you little bitch! Sir, I just got punched in the back of the head. You fucking bitch! Get the fuck outta here! Get the fuck outta here! Get the fuck outta here! back of the my line of USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! And it goes to show you the crazies that we're seeing all across this country.

All right, folks, coming up next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Where do we go from here, chaos or community? What must men, what must black men be doing? Over the next week, we're gonna be focusing on this show about what brothers are doing in this moment. Now, why am I saying that? Because, well, we've featured the Black Women's Roundtable. You got sisters out there who are protesting, but what should black men be doing? Coming up next,

we've got a fantastic panel. Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes out of Dallas, Reverend Dr. William Barber, Philip Agnew, co-founder of the Dream Defenders, Congressman Bobby Scott. We've also got Hill Harper on the show as well. We have Dr. Greg Carr, who is on the show as well, coming up next to discuss this. Also, folks, joining us is Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is joining us. This is in partnership with my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated.

We are going to talk about, again, the urgency of now, not just calling alpha men. It is a call to arms for alphas, but it's also a call to arms for other black men to be engaged in what's happening in the streets right now in this country, but also when it comes to November. That is next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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, so a lot of y'all always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't, and 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 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 basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it 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 rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website, 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, 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 RollerNestMartin.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 Roller Mark 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. I looked out. The field was... It looked like a million, million and a half people. It took almost four years for Trump to get the crowds he wanted. After years of Donald Trump's divisiveness and discord, America is coming together. This year, we have a choice to make. America or Trump.

Imagine how big the crowds will be when he's gone. A new day begins on November 3rd. Paid for by The Lincoln Project, which is responsible for the content of this advertising. 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 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. 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. 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 Alright folks, we talk about what is happening all over this country. When we talk about what is going on in the streets, it's important for us to understand that we are facing a significant

issue. This is a change election. We also have the opportunity right now to radically reform and change America. By doing so, what I am calling what is a third reconstruction. 1865 to 1877 was the first reconstruction. It followed the Civil War, 13th, 14th, 15th Amendment, all these gains made by African Americans.

Freedmen's Bureau was created. And so you had African Americans who were elected to state legislatures all across the country, who then began to put in place policies dealing with education and economics. All these things began to happen. Yet it was the election of 1876 that changed it all.

It was that election that was a contested election that led to the Great Compromise of 1877, which then, when the South asked for the federal troops to be pulled out of three remaining southern states, that decision ushered in 92 years of Jim Crow. Then, of course, you had Brown v. Board of Education in

1954, Emmett Till being killed, lynched on August 28, 1955. December 1, 1955, you then had Rosa Parks making her stand in Montgomery, happening there in Montgomery, and what then took place, 381-day boycott kicking off the modern black freedom movement

that lasted 13 years, going through the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. We have seen Jenna Six, we've seen Trayvon Martin, we've seen all of these cases. We've seen, of course, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Mike Brown, Rekia Boyd, Ayanna Jones. We could go on and on and on. Two this year, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,

and of course, George Floyd. Now we're seeing changes happen over the last three weeks, changes that are actually real. But what more can be done? The brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha reached out to me and said, let's have a brotherhood conversation. I said, let's extend it to the country and to the world. And so we have a fantastic panel lined up to have this discussion.

I'm going to introduce them again. Reverend Dr. William Barber, repairs of the breach. They, of course, are planning the Poor People's Campaign. They're going to have the digital gathering taking place this Saturday and Sunday. Out of Dallas, Reverend Frederick Douglas Haynes III, Friendship West Baptist Church. Philip Agnew knows the issue very well of Trayvon Martin, when, of course, he was one of the co-founders of the Dream Defenders there in Florida. Also, Congressman Bobby Scott,

one of our strongest advocates for criminal justice reform on Capitol Hill. Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, of course, where George Floyd is from, and he spoke at the funeral talking about, of course, the changes they're putting in place via executive order. Also, Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Frequent panelists right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Also joining us is actor and activist Hill Harper. And, of course, we also have the president of Alpha Phi Alpha, Dr. Everett Ward. And then we also have the executive director joining us, Joe Paul. I want to first start, kick this thing off with Congressman Bobby Scott. Congressman, today, Donald Trump stands in the Rose Garden. He's sitting here touting and talking about, you know, this executive order. But the reality is it was more hot air as opposed to really being substantive.

Do you actually believe that you're going to see anything substantive come out of what Senator Tim Scott is doing there in the Senate? Well, we've seen the difference in how you hold police accountable. We need to make sure that we hold them accountable, and we're taking advantage of this moment in time

when people are absolutely frustrated, they're protesting. And rather than just add to the protests, we've come up with legislation that prohibits chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and has national standards, at least minimum national standards for policing, collects data, and makes it much easier to hold police accountable for misconduct. We believe we can pass that. As a matter of fact, in the House we have more than enough cosponsors to pass the bill.

And so rather than talk about the problem and complain, we've come up with legislation that can actually make a difference. And so, Roland, I appreciate your making it possible for us to come together to discuss this. This is in the middle of a health pandemic, the middle of an economic pandemic, and we're dealing with the police misconduct in a way that I think will make a lasting difference in being able to hold police accountable. Let me just add one thing to this because it hasn't been mentioned very often. And that is so long as we're being policed from people that are outside of the community, we're going to have a problem. We need young people from the community that grew up in the community, went to high school in the community, to join the police force so that we'll be policed by people from the community.

And I think that would make a difference. But in the meanwhile, we're going to pass legislation to hold police accountable for misconduct. Mayor Sylvester Turner at George Floyd's funeral, you spoke about signing an executive order. Congress obviously has a role, but the reality is this here. The reality is most police departments are governed locally. So the role of mayors and city councils and city managers are really important as well. And so we don't have the mayor on yet. So I want to be sure to let me know as soon as he's on so I can go to him. And that's that's an important point, Dr. Haynes, because, again, we can demand change from Washington. But we need people to be thinking about city hall, county government, school district, state legislature, while folks also focusing on Congress. No question. And so that is why here in Dallas,'ve come up with a ten point, or ten demands that we have listed for both the city manager and the mayor to address.

We're calling upon basically the dismantling of what has been a policing system that has not worked. Don't forget, I'm in Dallas, which is the city where Botham J. lost his life. And I could call the role of the many black people who have lost lives because of this policing system that is rooted, of course, in the slave patrols. So we are basically calling along with those around the nation for the defunding, the dismantling of our policing system, and then calling upon our civic leadership to join us in reimagining and envisioning what public safety should look like.

Because policing was never about serving and protecting a people who were criminalized and then demonized, otherized as threats. And so since we were seen as threats, of course, serving and protect, that occurs on the north side of town, where those who are white with money live. But then we are seen as threats on the southern side of town. And so it's very important that locally we engage in the kind of activism that presents demands that will both dismantle what has been and then develop what ought to be. Roland, I never will forget your speech at the Baltimore Alphas Convention where you challenged us. You said we used to brag about running the yard

on our respective campus how we are grown amen the question is are you grown enough to run your city to run your state to run this country and that's why again in dallas we made up our minds. We're going to run this thing. And so we've given 10 demands to our leadership to respond to. And the bottom line is if they don't respond to our 10 demands, then they're going to experience continued pressure. Because again, it's all about running our local city. Phillip Agnew, when you co-founded the Dream Defenders, y'all were focused on the state capital, marching to Tallahassee. And people talk about, well, I don't know why people still

protest. That stuff don't work. But the reality is we are seeing exactly what happens when you actually protest. Protests and policy are combined. you can't have one without the other because one actually makes the other even stronger no absolutely agree one thank you for having me it's an honor to be here with you brothers um and to follow brother haynes you know for us we've realized over and over and over in these moments, whether it be 2012, whether it be preceding that with Troy Davis or Gina Six, that it is our protest, which is our card, right, that we are able to use, that is actually able to draw the attention to the material issues that are affecting people's lives. Now, we've tried a whole host of other things.

Dream Defenders now has existed for eight years. And so, we've moved policy, we've tried a whole host of other things. Dream Defenders now has existed for eight years, and so we've moved policy. We've endorsed candidates. We've done candidate forums. We have authored policy. We've done all manner of different things that the democracy that we live under has afforded to its citizenry. But it is protest that has been singularly our most powerful weapon, because it is that unrest, it is the people being untenable and ungovernable

that actually moves who really has power in this country. And I want to get to that really quickly. Capital, the people who have money and wealth in this country actually are quite afraid of chaos. They love predictability. They claim to love disruptors, but they actually love predictability. And so to love disruptors, but they actually love predictability. And so it is our protest, right?

The belief that potentially the people in response to a policy or brutality are gonna do something that throws off the pattern under which your city is run is actually one of our most key things. And it opens up the door. What we've seen in the last three weeks, Brother Martin, is not policy that was ushered or written in the last two hours and scribbled on a piece of paper and handed. Many times these were grassroots

organizations that were working for sometimes 10 years to get this policy heard on the desk, to have it the light of day. And the protest was what ushered in and catalyzed a lot of these things being signed. And so I think it's an indispensable tool that we've got to use in this moment. And I think it should continue because it really is the only thing that people listen to. Dr. Barber,

you have been constantly talking about mobilize, organize, teaching, training. And one of the things that I have always said, one of the one of the most underappreciated things about the black freedom movement is that we spend all of our time talking about this Dr. King speech in this event, in this event. But it was the strategizing. It was the planning. It was the plotting was understanding what we target was understanding. How do we teach people? And I believe that brothers hit me all the time who say, man, I don't understand because not understanding civics, not understanding the role that that particular person plays and this plays and what this person does over here. And so we must, and I've advocated, we must take our fraternity infrastructure, which Dr. King spoke of specifically in Chaos or Community,

where do we go from here, when he said there are four institutions that will free black America. The church, the black church, the black press, negro fraternities and sororities, and he said black professional organizations. We've got massive infrastructure that's going untapped.

None of our organizations were created to go along, to get along. None of our organizations were created to go along to get along. None of our organizations were created to accept the status quo. The worst thing that can happen to them, Black church, Negro fraternity, as he said, Black fraternal organization, is to decide that our job is to go along just to get along. All of them were created in times of trouble and transition and the need for transformation. You know, Roland, we've been talking about this third reconstruction. I actually wrote a book about it. And it came out of the Moral Monday movement

when I talked about the third reconstruction would require some of the things we had in the first reconstruction and the second. Number one, it would require an all-out fight for voting rights because people will, the power structure, the capital, as Philip said, will always fight against participation in the democracy. They don't want a genuine democracy. They want a paid-for and bought democracy.

It also requires that we expand the battle. When Rosa Parks saw Emmett Till's mutilated picture in Jet Magazine, she didn't say I'm just going to go after the people that killed him. She said it's time for all of the people that have been organizing in Montgomery, including white people and Jewish people, we don't talk about that often, that have been organizing for years to go after the system of Jim Crow. And then to create a whole different set of policies, but to challenge the system of Jim Crow. You know, in this moment that we're in, it is important for us to talk about police violence, but I'm going to say something that at first might be heard wrong, but I hope it'll be heard right. It is dangerous for us to limit racism to police violence. It is dangerous for

us to see all this movement in the street and all we ask for is moderate bills. Even a white man named William Lloyd Garrison in slavery said, go tell a woman whose child is being burnt in a house to be moderate, but don't tell me to be moderate when it comes to disbanding the system of slavery. If we're going to deal with death in this moment, police violence is killing. But we also know that black folk are dying from the lack of insurance. That black people are dying because our people are working doing this COVID. That's why they're dying. We're dying because we're

working with no health insurance, no living wage, no sick leave, no unemployment, no rent forgiveness, and no guarantee that the waters can't be cut off. 61% of African Americans are poor and low forgiveness, and no guarantee that the waters can't be cut off. 61% of African Americans are poor and low wealth, and 700 people are dying a day from poverty. This was before COVID.

And so the reality is, Roland, we have to take this infrastructure, and we don't ever want them to be predictable to the other power structures. They would actually like us to just focus on one thing. That's why Trump went into the Rose Garden. He wants to isolate one thing, then conflate the protesters. And I don't even like protesters versus peaceful. It's not that it's nonviolent versus violent. That's the language that King used.

We can't allow that because the system is violent. And when you're dealing with a violent system, then you need all of your infrastructure, everybody, to be pushing against that and using it in what we call moral analysis, moral action, moral agenda, and moral agitation. Tell me one time in this country when we've ever seen any massive transformation without agitation. I actually think, Bobby, Brother Scott, that you all should do both. I think the folk inside the Congress ought to write the bill and then sit down one day and make them arrest you in the Congress or do something of that nature to let people know that you are trying to pass bills that are in line with what the street demands. Because the worst thing we could do right now is pass bills that don't live up to the cries

and the tears in the street. Secondly, the last thing we could do is not recognize that every mass movement has always been multiracial. I hate it when the media says, oh, we've never seen this before. Abolition, the civil rights movement, all of those movements happened when black and white people and other people of conscience came together and saw racism as a target to black people, but a threat to humanity and the very democracy we live in greg a car dr greg carr i have long maintained again when we talk about infrastructure when we talk about like all these pieces that we have here when you talk about alphas and omegas kappas sigmas iotas 100 black men. You talk about Prince Hall Masons.

You talk about the Guardsmen. You talk about Sigma Pi Phi, the Boulay. You talk about churches and black men's groups. I mean, we could just go on and on and on. This, to me, this is the moment when America, but specifically black America, must see those brothers in their colors, in the regalia, at these protests or even leading and launching their own. But not just that. These brothers saying, OK, alphas, we're going to hit the school board in August. Kappas, we're going to hit the school board in September.

Omegas, we're going to take October. And then the Masons say, we're going to take November. We've got all this infrastructure, and look, I'm in three of them. Alpha Phi Alpha, the longest, Boulay, Prince Hormesis. And I'm like, why have infrastructure if it's not activated externally beyond our own individual things? That's right, brother. Of course, you're right. I'm glad to be here tonight with the brethren. And you're absolutely right. Individuals don't defeat institutions. Yeah, I'm in two of those three, not quite Sigma Phi Phi, but Prince Hall and Alpha Phi Alpha for sure. And who else was Prince Hall Mason was William David Chappelle, David Chappelle's great grandfather, as he talked about the other night. He led a delegation of the African Methodists to confront that white nationalist Woodrow Wilson in 1918. And you're able to do that, and they were actually there to protest lynching. They, you know, you don't do that as an individual. You know, our dear brother, Reverend

Dr. Barber is absolutely right. We're dealing, we're operating in a field of violence. This is structural, structural violence. And you don't defeat structures with individual effort. I think our beloved fraternity, the fraternities and sororities, the organizations that we have created to help us withstand and endure, these organizations will either join or get left behind. Because another thing Dave said was, you know, the people in the streets. So if we're not in the streets, then we will just, we won't be able to exercise the authority of our experience. I mean, we sit here, Juneteenth come up this weekend, and we think about what Alpha has done in the past. One of our former general presidents, Antonio Maceo Smith, that brother revived the spirit of Juneteenth in the 30s in Dallas, right there with our dear brother, Dr. Haynes.

I mean, you know, but not only did he do that, he was the animating force behind the voting rights case. We heard Dr. Barber talk about that, Smith versus Allwright. He was an animating force in getting folks together to fight Sweat versus Painter. You know, one of our other frat brothers, one of my mentors, the great Jacob Carruthers out of Phillips Wheatley High School in Houston, they're involved in that.

But this was at a time, the 30s, the 40s, and before the 50s, the 60s, when our fraternities and sororities were shoulder to shoulder with those who never stepped foot inside of a university. You know, when Alphas put together, you know, go to high school, go to college, you know, this was for folks who had not yet

been in a position where they could join an organization like that. And the only reason our organizations exist is to do this work. So when we look at a George Floyd, you know, when we see a Breonna Taylor, when we see an Ahmaud Arbery, when we see the fact that George Floyd went to Jack Yates High School, your alma mater, Jack Yates in 1872, coming out of enslavement, put that money together to buy what became Emancipation Park to celebrate Juneteenth. What we understand is the black church,

the black organizations were and remain the foundation out of which we fight, out of which we win. And finally, I'll say this, listening to my brother Agnew, brother Philip Agnew, you know, this, what looks like a spontaneous general strike against the social order, and that's what we're in right now, another one, you know, in this field of violence. We always have these general strikes against state violence. The greatest perpetrator of violence, as Dr. King said, is this government in the world.

But as we see these general strikes, what usually happens is what emerges out of those general strikes are those organizations, as Brother Phillips said, that have been doing this work all along. And as folks who come out into the spontaneity of the moment begin to look for what we want to do, the agenda is advanced in the streets by those who have been organizing all along. And then Brother Scott now has a floor under him to go and wage war in the federal legislature and said, I want this, and everybody else out there wants it too. So if Alpha is not going to step up now, then Alpha will be a participant in observing this unstoppable flood. But I think that we all know that Alpha Phi Alpha is going to be there. And that's why we're on this call tonight. So I'm just grateful to be with you brothers.

Hill Harper, WB Dubois wrote this book. Go to my iPad. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860 to 1880. That's important because if one reads that book, very large book, you read that book, they begin to understand that the fight during Reconstruction was not free slaves just sort of sitting back and watching white legislators in Congress and state capitals

be benevolent when it came to passing legislation. No, what happened was there were white abolitionists who came down, who came down south as broken down by James D Anderson in the education of blacks 1860 to 1935 where they said oh let's go we need to go help these illiterate black folks. They got here and realized that free slaves had already opened schools and they were like we weren't waiting on y'all. What happened was black folks were active participants when it came to reconstruction. Ten thousand black newspapers were created, even with the literacy rate being so high.

What and then, of course, what was happening in state capitals, passing laws. This is the moment. This is the moment, Hill, where we take all of this knowledge, all of these resources, eight, nine black cable networks, websites. We've got all of these pieces sitting here. And this is when it needs to be unleashed to be able to drive our people to begin to make these changes. Yes, yes. But I'll tell you, I'm about to probably say something that folks... Go ahead. That's fine.

...that folks don't want to hear. Here's the deal. You already mentioned it, Roland, about being out-strategized. And I'll tell a story. I was in the classroom with my mentor, Professor Charles Overtree, when I was a student at Harvard Law School, and he was teaching me. And I always, every day, I got into a fight with another student there named Berenson. And Berenson and I would battle over ideology. We'd battle over, he was ultra-conservative guy. And afterwards, though, we'd speak, you know, cordially.

And although we disagreed and he'd always tell me, hey man, I gotta go into Boston to go to a meeting. I'd be like, what meeting, what meeting you going to? Oh, well, we, it's a couple of groups I join. One Heritage Foundation, I go to those planning meetings. I'll go to another forum, I go to another one. He said, I go to about three of them a week. I said, three? Three of them a week? What are you all planning? Well, we're just, you know, we're talking. You know, we're talking about

trying to figure some things out. And when you think about this, everything that we're seeing, you know, every martyr that we're making on a daily, seemingly a daily basis, is a direct result of us being outstrategized and outplanned by people who have completely antithetical views that we have and completely disregard our humanity. And we, and the other problem is, is that you talk about all these institutions. I'm a member of the Boulay as well. I go to that Manhattan Boulay meeting, and I'm looking around this table full of the smartest brothers, most powerful brothers that you've ever seen, and I'm looking, I'm saying,

well, how come we're not seeding in new talent? Where are the young cats? They need to be in the room. And part of the problem with many of our institutions, whether you're talking about the Urban League, NAACP, Rainbow Push, On Down, NAACP, Rainbow Push, on down. I love everybody in the leadership, but bringing new people in is not something we'd like to do. Why? Because so many of us want to be the chief.

We want to remain being the chief so long that it actually starts to hurt the idea of mass impact. And we don't, it's like a farm system. If you don't bring new people in and actually teach them how to lead and lead the organization, the organization begins to die and it gets cut off from younger voices. And it's not about age,

it's about actually giving open access and saying, I want you to take over this leadership position. I want to see this to you. And we haven't done that historically. And we're seeing the results of that. Folks, be sure to let Mayor Sylvester turn into the Zoom. He's been trying to get in. So and let me know when he's here. Is he here? OK. Mayor Turner is is in. All right. Is he here? Okay. Mayor Turner is in. All right. Glad to have you here, Mayor Turner. And again, for all the folks who are watching, I just want you to understand all these are alpha men. There were other brothers who wanted to be

here, Dr. Cornel West, Amari Hartwick, but they had commitments. And Dr. Everett Ward, you see in the top left corner, he hit me up along with Executive Director John Paul saying, hey, we want to do something for the Brotherhood. I said, well, I got my own platform, so let's actually open this thing up to the public because this should be a call to arms not just for alphas, but every fraternity, every sorority, every African-American, all of them.

In fact, the mayor is in, y'all. He's in the bottom right-hand corner. That's Mayor Sylvester Turner. No, the chyron says Jeff, but that's actually Mayor Turner. So this is about challenging. This is about getting black men to be involved in what's happening.

Mayor Turner, you spoke at the funeral of George Floyd. You talked about ushering in the executive order. What I've said to people is that, you know, we can sit here and say, man, what's the CBC doing on a federal bill? But the reality is, you're the mayor. You actually have more control over the Houston Police Department

than any member of Congress who's from Houston. And so what do you want to see black men, alphas and others, doing to drive this change that we're seeing happening across the country to make it even more significant so that these police departments and cities are responsive to the constituents? You know, thanks, brother Roland Martin, for having me. And let me thank you for what you have done and continue to do. Look, I would tell you, this is a moment when we all have to be engaged and operate with that sense of urgency.

We have seen, we have listened to the marches, the demonstrators, and I wanna thank them for making it uncomfortable for all of us, all of us in positions of leadership. And that's why the very next day after George Floyd's funeral here in Houston, I signed the executive order implementing almost all of the eight can't wait plus more. And saying that this is the way it will be in the city of Houston from this day forward. requiring people to intervene, police officers intervene, when they see people violating the policy, breaking the laws, de-escalation, giving a verbal warning before utilizing deadly force where possible,

fully reporting off every use of deadly force to the Independent Police Oversight Committee, de-escalation, all of those things are included, and it became effective the very moment that I signed it, and almost all of our city council members joined in as well. Now, that's the beginning. That's not the ending. At the same time, I put forth a task force that would be citizen-driven

to review our own Independent Police Oversight Board to see how it can be strengthened to bring about even greater accountability. So there are a number of things that we are doing here locally. But what I will say, even though we are doing these things locally, what happens in Minneapolis or Atlanta or St. Paul or any other city, when there's police abuse

or brutality that's taking place, it's as if it has taken place right here at the city of Houston. So we need national standards, you know, of brutality that's taking place. It's as if it has taken place right here at the city of Houston. So we need national standards, national requirements. And so it's just a point in time for AFLA's and everybody else to remain engaged, to listen. I told one of my members of city council today,

as we review our policies, practices, and procedures, everything is on the table. I'm not eliminating anything from and procedures. Everything is on the table. You know, I'm not eliminating anything from the beginning. Everything is on this table. Let's take a look at it. And then I've said to people in the business community last week, when people are talking about defunding police, and from my take, what they are saying,

place your priorities in these communities and neighborhoods that have been underserved and under-resourced for decades. Don't just spend money to police and incarcerate, but invest in these communities. And the more you invest in these communities and lift these neighborhoods up, then you won't have to spend nearly as much on policing. So that's just from this vantage point. But we've got to lock arms. We're all in this together. And it's not one and done, and it's going to be a continuous, ongoing battle. So let me thank you for what you're doing,

and thank you for convening this, and I apologize for not being able to get in at the very end. It's all good. Here's the deal. I'm going to throw this out there so anybody can respond. So give me everybody on the screen together, and I know I'm about to drive the control room crazy, but I'm going to set this up this way.

In 2011, Ohio passed an onerous voter suppression bill. The folks said, we need to put this on the ballot in 2012. So they need to collect at least 300,000 confirmed signatures. So Congresswoman Marsha Fudge, former president of Delta Sigma Theta, she asked me to moderate the Divine Nine panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. I said, not a problem. So I'm standing there and I asked all the presidents. Everybody's talking about all the voter registration drives and blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I bring up this thing in Ohio. And then nobody was aware of it. And so Congresswoman Fudge, she looks at me and she's telling me to move on. I go, no,

we stand right here. And so I'm pressing, I'm pressing, I'm pressing. And what ends up happening is they're like, man, he going way too hard. So then Cynthia Butler McIntyre, the Delta president at the time, she says, well, she was head of the Divine Nine, and so she's the panel in the council. She said, we're going to meet tomorrow. We're already meeting tomorrow, and so then we're going to come back with an answer for you.

And they met the next day, and this is what they discovered. They discovered that there were 120 Divine Nine chapters alone in Ohio. All right. So if the Divine Nine said every chapter is responsible for getting 1,000 signatures, the Divine Nine alone would have been responsible

for one-third of all signatures needed. Alicia Reese right now has been trying to get a ballot initiative in Ohio to guarantee the right to vote. The only organization that has actually made it their official state action is Alpha Kappa Alpha. I'm throwing this out because what I keep trying to get to with our black organizations, you have infrastructure,

but if infrastructure is only activated for our meetings and for us, for step shows or for what's internal, then a black community actually never sees us and they rightfully should question, what are we doing? So if they see black and gold and don't know why everybody is wearing it or see pink and green or red and white or purple and gold,

if they say, I don't know, I don't know who those folks walking over there in those colors. That is a problem for us. And Roland, this is Reverend Barbara. And I want to say something that he'll just said strategy. And what you're talking about is using this infrastructure and recognizing that our organizations were born to be about social change. Sometimes they become they will become just fellowship organization. And what you're saying is that we have to look at strategy. Yes, it's one thing to be in the street for a protest, but the protest and the mourning, and I've been arrested 14 times, so I know about that, but you have to turn it into policy. You have to turn it into power. And there are three things

on that. Number one, you cannot then have black people in office who the people are marching for fundamental change, and they only put up bills that's just a little bit of change because that pours water on the actions in the street number two you have to be careful in this society of letting the society point at one person being the problem rather than the system now i'm gonna say going to say this. I'm like, here, I'm going to say something. Trump ain't the ultimate problem. Hold on. Let me remix that. Trump is an iconography of a too often repeated American reality.

That's what Neil Fainer said out of Princeton. Before Trump was elected in 2010, since 2010, 26 states passed racial voter suppression laws. And they went at from the bottom, the city councils, they went after the legislature. The worst problem we have, and to some degree, is McConnell. That's why we need to be targeting Trump and McConnell. I know we're non-partisan, I'm talking history, I'm not talking partisanism.

I'm talking about in policy, in policy, because in some ways, as Ibram Kendi says, the person who does the loudmouth racism is the distraction. The folk you got to watch are the ones that underneath that are institutionalizing and making policy. The third thing I wanted to say is that when we talk about where we are in this particular moment and why we keep expanding, we need to expand our vision so that we can be engaged. We are in the midst, we keep talking about death, death, death. Watch this. Voter suppression, Roland, is a matter of life and

death. What do you mean? When you suppress the vote, you allow people to get elected who then block health care. Blocking health care kills people. When you suppress the vote, you allow people to get elected who cover up for police, who allow the violence to continue. That causes death. So we need to look at the death measurement in every piece of public policy. And lastly, in the first Reconstruction, they did two kinds of strategy. They had a state strategy and a federal strategy.

So all of the southern states passed equal protection laws before the 14th Amendment was passed. But by them passing it at the state level, they then demanded it at the federal level. Right now, we need all of the mayors and all that to do what they're doing. But why do cops, violent cops, racist cops kill people? Because they know they will only get tried at the state level. We need a federal law that can kick in and try people at the federal level for murder so that the person knows that they will be tried for the crime they do.

The Klan killed people in the South because they knew they would only get tried at the state level and there would be no double jeopardy. We need a federal law as well that will try people for murder. That's why we need both ends and not either or. Anybody can jump in. Who wants to be next? Bobby Scott, go ahead. Yeah, and that's exactly what we're doing. The Justice and Policing Act will make it possible to prosecute on the federal level. But I don't want to get into a

debate as to whose fight is stronger. It's like saying you got the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. You need them all. You don't have people in the Air Force saying we're better than the Army. We don't need the Army. Now, we need everybody. And so we need people in the street creating the situation. We also need elected officials, and elections have consequences.

Keith Ellison, for example, used to be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. He ran for attorney general in Minnesota and got elected a close election right after he took over the prosecution in the George Floyd case. The first officers charges were enhanced and the other three got elected, got arrested. What would have happened if he had lost that close election? You just wonder where we'd be today. And so elections have consequences. If we don't win this presidential election and put somebody in there that's going to put people on the Supreme Court that will support voting rights, it will be virtually impossible to win a voting rights case

for the next 30 years. Elections have consequences. And so if we're talking about voter suppression, you got the Supreme Court, you got what the states are doing, you gotta fight it at every level. And so we need people in office, we need people in the streets,

we need people thinking, doing the think tank to come up with the ideas. But everybody needs to be in this battle. We have enough people involved. We have, you mentioned the divine nine and that power. But we need to make sure we're fighting on every level. And one of the main things we can't get diverted from is the fact that we have an election in November.

Not only as Reverend Barber in November, not only as Reverend Barber pointed out, not only for president, but U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate has been confirming judges that the ABA has deemed unqualified. The only qualification they have is they're going to roll back voting rights. We need more people in the House and the state legislatures. If you just notice what happened with the 2119 in the state Senate and 5149 flipped from Republican to Democrat, all of a sudden we could pass the minimum wages here. We pass instead of voter suppression that they've been passing for several years, they passed making it easier to vote. A lot of legislation that couldn't even get out of subcommittee was passing because people turned

out and voted. But they also had to protest to set up the scene. So everybody's in this battle doing the best that they can do. And so Reverend Barber has pointed out some of the things that need to be in the legislation. I think everything he mentioned is in this bill. It was written by the Congressional Black Caucus. We have the votes to pass in the House. And we need, if they're not gonna pass in the Senate, we need people in each of the states that have a US Senate election

to make sure their senators held accountable for what they did on this legislation. If I can jump in, Brother Martin, do I have time? Go ahead, go ahead. Hey, Roan, I want to jump in too. You got time. Okay, no, no. So go ahead, Phillip, then he'll. Yeah.

You know, respectfully, Brother Scott and to the other elected brothers, I understand maybe it's not conveyed and maybe I don't seem like it, but I understand the great weight that you all have with your jobs and I have a great respect for you all's positions, but the eight can't wait and the Justice and Policing Act

are not reflective of the demands that people are talking about on the street. These are good piecemeal, these are good gap fillers. These are good things. And I agree they are different and they will move us forward. But I don't want us to rest on that. I think going back to Brother Rowland's question, the brotherhood has gotten comfortable. The brotherhood has gotten quite comfortable with the conditions. And yes, this is an overgeneral statement. We have young brothers, we have older brothers, we have brothers internationally.

But on the whole, we've got to really reckon with the fact that our fraternities and our sororities are becoming atrophying institutions because they do not reflect the conditions of people who are on the ground. And I know that because I'm 35. I'm actually a bridge person. I consider myself, I'm not the youngest.

I can't be out till three, right? But I'm also not as seasoned as some of you brothers on here. And what we are hearing consistently from people on the field. Well, I'm 51, Phil. I can still be out to three. Well, brother, sometimes. I just want to have a little levity there. I forgot where we were. I forgot where we were. I forgot you know me.

Yeah, I forgot you know me, brother. But what I want to say is not to condemn Brother Scott and Brother Mayer, but to also, I have to, my role on this panel is to say that those pieces of legislation are in some ways antithetical and in other ways do not go far enough to getting the real change that people want to see from their policing. I do agree with the assertion that defunding the police is also another way of saying that we need massive investment in food, jobs, housing, healthcare, education in our communities, and that money should come from the oversized budgets of police. But we say defund the police because we are speaking to an indictment of an institution that is rotten

to its very core, is only accountable to wealthy people. And no matter what measurements we put in, therein still it will be. No matter how many adjustments we make to Alpha Phi Alpha, there is still a core, still a thing that we are, a nexus, a reason for being that will remain unscathed and unchanged. And that's what we're seeing with the institution of policing. And I think if brothers- What are you advocating?

So what are you advocating? I mean, be more specific. And then what are you saying that people then are asking for? Sure. I think you are actually on the path, brother. People are asking not tomorrow, but for the police department.

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And we've been using the police department for all manner of things that it should have no business involved with. And so the demand and the question is to be thinking with a North Star towards eliminating the need for police as a mechanism of safety. So we cannot divorce, as Brother Barber was saying, we cannot divorce the policing system without talking about the society that they are built to run. And so all of those other things,

and Brother Mayer, you did bring it up. I don't want to belie the point that you did bring this up, but we've got to have a North Star, and that North Star is providing basic necessities for every person, including and especially Black people. And when you see... I live in Miami, Fisher Island, they have safety, right? And in Liberty City, they have police.

So I want to jump in here, and again, hold on, hold on. Hold on one second, hold on one second. Hold on one second. I just one second. Hold on one second. Hold on, Mayor. Mayor, hold on. I'm going to come right to you. I want to unpack a little bit more what Phil is talking about. So when I hear defund the police, and Senator Kamala Harris was on my show and others, what they're saying is so many reasons to go to the police.

We have mental health problems in our cities. We have other different issues. So the question then is, are we using police in schools to serve as a school-to-prison pipeline, or are we actually using them to de-escalate providing safety but also encouragement in those schools? So looking at our funding,

looking at that totally different, and saying, well, you know what? If I've got mental health issues, Kajima Powell, brother who totally different and saying, well, you know what, if I've got mental health issues, Kajima Powell, brother who was shot and killed 16 seconds when the cops arrived, the brother in Dallas who was killed within 30 seconds saying, okay, is it possible that we

can send mental health advocate out with the police when confronted with one of those situations? That's what I hear with defund the police, not get rid of them completely. Mayor, real quick, then Hill. Mayor, go ahead. Yeah, and I hear with defund the police, not get rid of them completely. Mayor, real quick, then he'll. Mayor, go ahead. Yeah, and I agree with you. We have asked, systemically, we have asked police to do everything. When I came in as mayor four and a half years ago, even before George Floyd and many of these other things, what I said to the people

in this city is that we have overlooked and ignored neighborhoods for decades. We have literally starved them to death. And that's where the pain is. And now we need to look at these communities as neighborhoods of opportunity. So we need to invest in a material way in these communities, quality schools, quality parks, economic business, job opportunities, health care, access to quality health care, a whole list of things that we label as building complete communities. And so that's where the focus needs to be. I grew up in one of those communities. I still live in the same hood in which I grew up in. And so what I said to people, if we invest in these communities in a real

way, then when a flashpoint comes, people will be more willing to give you time to move even further. But they want to see the investments. I also said, as a mayor, I don't need to come in as an incrementalist, because when you're an incrementalist, the little things you see, people don't see it at the end of the day. We need to be transformational in our thinking and transformational in our execution. So I agree with you. People have been waiting for a long time,

way too long, to see material, substantial, transformational change in their communities, in their neighborhoods, and that's where the dollars need to be in a very real way. Hill-Harper. Thank you, my brother. Hill-Harper, I think... I don't want us to...

Hill, then I think Freddie. But you were saying... Hold on. Hill, then Freddie. Hill, then Freddie. Okay, you know, I just wanted to jump in and obviously go talk about what Phil had to say. Brother Phil, you know, and all due respect to the elected officials,

listen, it takes a lot of courage, a lot of work, and a lot of difficulty to put yourself out to get people to cast ballots for you. Here's the problem, is that most elected officials, including the brothers here, who I respect, know the right things to say. So everything you said, Brother Mayor, you just said everything correctly. The thing is, though, is for true systemic impact and change, it has to be significantly more radical to even get back to the beginning. You know as well as I do,

if you're negotiating a deal, you have to start way out here even to get back to here because it's going to pull you back. And so you all, most elected officials, particularly ones that call themselves progressives, always start way too low, way, way too low. And here's the problem with that.

What starts to happen is you start to see, if I post on my social media, vote, a litany of comments from young people saying, why? And Brother Scott said, hey, voting matters. Without question, Brother Scott, who's in office has impact. However, since the people that they've been putting into office, they see such little incremental change and change from the standpoint that within a year or two can be completely eliminated. That's not systemic change. And that's what people want. We talk about fruits of a poisonous tree, right? You can't just talk about bad apples and say, well, we're going to do a little piecemeal work here. We're going to make sure we're going to clean it up. We're going to put the funding here.

If the tree is, you have to pull the tree out. Replace the tree with a new tree or something completely different. Maybe a tree doesn't even need to be there at all. So what does that all mean? It means, for instance, if you're really committed to this idea of community policing, Brother Scott, that you had mentioned, or Brother Mayor, for instance, you all have the federal power of incentives. And you could say that every jurisdiction locally,

if not every single employee, for instance, I do a lot of stuff in Detroit. I love Detroit, I live there, I got a business there. So for instance, if you looked at the majority of employees that work in the city of Detroit, a lot of them don't live there, right? A lot of them live somewhere else, like most of the cops live out in the suburbs,

come in and police, right? So if we make a rule federally, as well as locally, that says, if you're going to get a check from the city, because the people who are paying taxes are paying your salary, you have to live in the jurisdiction. You have to. And if you're gonna get money from the federal government,

you have to have all city employees living in that jurisdiction. That would be a fundamental shift that would make people very angry because there's many people who are living off the backs of black people's taxpayer dollars that have no interest in those folks in Detroit or wherever, name whatever city, actually advancing

because they're spending their money that they get from these black people out in the suburbs like Bloomfield Hills and paying taxes out there, not living here. Freddie Haynes. For police, et cetera. Freddie Haynes. And I think that the idea of let us know

how we can empower you all elected officials to be more radical. How can we help you be more radical rather than than piecemeal work? I want to help you be more radical. I want to protect you in your radicalism. I want you to push and I want to be there to support you in pushing. I'm not just saying this on you. Right. Hold tight, Hill. I want to bring you to Freddie Hold on Congressman

Hold on one second Freddie Haynes Freddie Haynes and Congressman Scott Hold on Congressman Congressman Scott And a Republican president ready to veto Whatever you do It's hard to get things done.

And so, yeah, we need voter registration drives. We were, as I said, if you're interested in voter suppression and defeating voter suppression, one of the things that we need to do is get a Supreme Court that'll stop rolling back voting rights. And let me tell you, if this administration is reelected, they'll have the Supreme Court rolling back voting rights for the next 30 years.

Got it. Now, we can be as radical as we want to be talking, but that's what we need to do. On another hand, you're talking about policing. I've been for about 15 years, been promoting the Youth Promise Act. And Hill, you've been very helpful in that, coming to things.

Well, we got that actually enacted in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and in the Every Student Succeeds Act. We got it in law. The administration won't implement it, along with the Destiny and Custody Reporting Act. That's law. They won't implement it, along with the Destiny and Custody Reporting Act. That's law. They won't implement it. We need votes

to change the executive branch so they'll implement some of the stuff that we've actually gotten passed. But we're doing the best we can. There's always a question whether you want us to talk or whether you want us to get stuff done. If it's getting stuff done,

it's getting it done within, with what the country has sent us to work with. Some of them are sent there to undo anything we're trying to do. And we just do the best we can getting bills passed. Now we can be radical. You can be for a single payer healthcare plan and get nothing. That's what happened in 93. I'll cut out of the car.

Just got here. Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I need everybody to hold on. Freddie Haynes. Hold on. Hold on. Dr. Barber, one second. Dr. Barber, Dr. Barber, Dr. Barber. Hold on, Dr. Barber. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Freddie Haynes has been waiting more than anybody else.ber, Dr. Barber, Dr. Barber, hold on. Dr. Barber, hold on, hold on, hold on. Freddie Haynes has been waiting more than anybody else. Freddie, go. Dr. Barber, you're next. Doc, hold on. Dr. Barber, hold on. Dr. Barber, hold on. Freddie Haynes, Freddie Haynes, then Dr. Barber. Freddie Haynes, go.

And I'll come in after Brother Barber. Gotcha. All right, so Freddie Haynes, Dr. Barber, Greg Carr, go. Thank you for doing this. I just wanna say this, that if we're not careful, we're missing a major point that Roland was questioning us about, and that major point has to do with the coordination of our infrastructure. If we have an infrastructure that coordinates with a common vision,

the good news is we can empower you, Congressman Scott. I agree. I agree. I agree. To do that with radical because we all recognize that most of our politicians preside over systems and structures that were built by white supremacy. And so if you're not careful, you'll end up bringing your black face to presiding over a system that perpetuates white supremacy. So what we want to do is empower you to dismantle those systems. And when you do it radically, it means you get to the root. That's why we keep talking about the fact that the policing system is rooted in the

slave patrols. So you have to uproot that which keeps producing this toxic, racist fruit. So in helping you to do that, again, we get back to what Roland is challenging us to do, and that is to have a coordinated response with our already existing and powerful infrastructure, and recognizing how powerful that infrastructure is. We watched in this nation what the lack of a coordinated response will do when it comes to dealing with COVID-19. Whatever else you want to say, we've got 100,000 people plus who have been rolling this gut going, as well as the black church, as well as our black businesses. But the sad reality is,

we never came together for a coordinated response. I think it was Mary McCloy Bethune who says, if I hit you with one finger, I may not get your attention. Two, perhaps, but if I bring the fingers together and form a fist, that's a coordinated response. I can strike a blow. I can win the fight.

And we're not winning the fight because we're not coordinated. We have a National Medical Association and yet there was no coordinated response when we saw COVID-19 disproportionately kicking our behind in the black community. No coordinated response. We have a national bar association, and yet where is the bar association in a coordinated

response when it comes to disrupting this policing system that, again, is attacking and killing us? We have an infrastructure, but the infrastructure does not have a common vision. The infrastructure on top of that does not respect the fact that we were all born, as Bishop Barber so brilliantly said, all of us were born resisting the oppression that was existing. And now we've become content to compete with one another and then party with one another instead of going back to our rootage. And in our rootage, we were guilty of standing against these systems, but we've got to do it in a coordinated way. The Ohio illustration that Willis gave is powerful.

We had enough in Ohio to get it done. We got enough across this country to make some things happen along with our coalition partners. We can radically transform this nation. And we're saying to the mayor, we're saying to Congressman Scott, we want to give you the power to be radical as you want to continue to provide a black face over a white supremacist system. Reverend Barbara, then Grant Carr. One of the things, I want to challenge the false dichotomy of radical versus getting stuff done.

Because when our people are dying, for instance, in COVID, and they're dying because they're working, it is not radical to say we want to build paths that make sure they have health care, that make sure that they have living wages, make sure they have sick leave and unemployment. That's not radical. That's human. Now, will it be a fight? Sure. But then what we have to understand is we need people to recognize that it's not the street versus those in the legislature. It's actually how do you turn both the street into legislation, and then how do you organize and coordinate that? Let me give you an example. In Kentucky, they had a governor who was extreme.

And one of the things we don't talk about is poor. Black or white leaders, the poor and low wealth. 140 million people, 43% of this country. 61% of black people are poor and low wealth, and you hardly ever talk about it. And if you start talking about it with some black folk, they would defend it by saying, well, I grew up poor. That's not what we're talking about. We're not coming at you. We're saying that 61% of black people are poor and low wealth. And we now know through a study

that if you register 10% of those with white, quote, quote, and with brown, quote, quote, that you can fundamentally change the election anyway. That's not hyperbole. That's data from Columbia University that we had done. So in Kentucky,

we saw this extreme government. We went in and organized in five counties in the mountains, Republican counties. Three of them turned. Those coal miners began to work with folk in Louisville, white coal miners with black folk in Louisville. The governor won, and the night that he won, he gave homage to the campaign for teaching him to get out of the left versus right, radical versus doing something argument, and start looking at what's right versus wrong, and doing right by the people, and connecting poor and low-wealth people. So one of the things we've got to do is we've got to reimagine what we see as the politics of the day. And I will tell you, I've talked to presidential

candidates and others that tell people running, Roland, don't talk about poor. Poor folk don't do this. Let me tell you something. There are 100 million people that didn't vote in the last election. 100 million. Trump won by 80,000. Why didn't a lot of those 100 million people vote? Well, we've been out in the streets feeling others. didn't vote, not because folk didn't win certain arguments, because they never hear their condition. They never, they hear middle class, they hear social Darwinism from Republicans, they hear neoliberalism sometimes from Democrats. What would happen, for instance, in the 13 former Confederate states, among which Texas is one. There are 75 million adults living in

poverty and low wealth. There was a 4 million vote margin of victory in the Senate races in those states. There was a 4.6 million vote margin for the president in those 13 states. And there were 26 million voters poor and low wealth who did not even vote. We have to reimagine how can we radicalize the language, or call it transformation if you don't like radical, or call it reconstruction, whatever it is, so that what happens is it's not those who are radical versus those who get things done. I come out of electoral politics. I learned how to win. I worked for a white governor that won 16 years in North Carolina and whatnot. But the question is, what is the moment calling for? What is the moment calling for?

And if, in fact, this country is wrestling with death, then it is time for us to have a politics that takes on death and looks at the death that is caused by public policy and then put a face on that death what has us in the street now the face of george floyd so what we've got to do is put a face on public policy a face on the denial of health care a death measurement on the denial of of living. That's what the Poor People's Campaign is doing. That's why on June 2020, you won't hear a lot of people this Saturday pontificating about the poor. I'm not even going to do a big speech. It's going to be poor and low wealth people counterintuitive who are saying there are five issues we have to deal with. Systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, which is where the money really is if we want to redo our communities, and the false moral narrative of white evangelicalism. looking at every county and every district in this country where if you register 10 to 15 percent

of poor and low wealth people around an agenda they can fundamentally shift the politics of this country even in the south great car great car great hold on no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no Congressman Scott, hold on. Greg Carr's been waiting. Hold on. I got to go to Greg Carr. Then I'm going to come back to you. Congressman Scott, I'm coming back to you. Greg Carr, go ahead. Greg Carr, go ahead. Congressman Scott.

Congressman Scott. Congressman. Congressman. Congressman. Congressman, one second. Those bills never would have passed. That money could have been spent on people who actually needed it. And there's a stark contrast.

We've heard talk about on the job. There's a stark contrast of what we're doing with people who are infected on the job with the coronavirus. There's a Democratic position and there's a Republican position. Democratic position, I've been in the lead trying to make sure that OSHA comes in and has enforceable regulations to protect people from getting infected in the first place. We have hazard pay so they'd get extra money if they're working in dangerous positions. If they get it on the job in the heroes bill that has already passed the House, they'll get a presumption of workers comp so that the bills will be paid, lost wages will be paid. Treatment is covered with no copay and deductible. If you lose your job, you lose your insurance. We've got subsidies so you don't lose your insurance. And paid leave, all of that to make sure that people are protected on the job. The Republican position on the other side,

what we're fighting, the only suggestion they made is if you can prove that it was the employer's fault, they don't have to pay anything. They get immunity. Got it. There is a stark contrast to what we've been fighting for and what they've been fighting for. But it's not enough. Absolutely right. And we've been able to get that passed in the House. Greg. So there is, there is a, there is a significant difference in the way we're treating people and the alternative.

Let me echo what Reverend Barber has said in terms of how institutions fit with this. Reverend Barber, I remember when you all were doing Moral Mondays at that time, I was campus advisor for the Howardton AACP and we rolled down one weekend. First time I heard you speak many years ago. And when you talk about fusion politics, At that time, I was a campus advisor for the Howard's NAACP, and we rolled down one weekend. It was the first time I ever spoke many years ago.

And, you know, when you talk about fusion politics as a son of North Carolina, I think about, you know, I've been rereading Helen Edmonds and H. Leon Prather and some of these cats dealing with what happened in North Carolina in the 1880s and 90s. And one of the things that seems to be clear, which kind of preceded the Wilmington racial terror of 1898, that fusion politics, you know, people didn't have to like each other. That's right. We had these black elected officials and these black communities organized with these, you know, in the Republican Party and these disaffected white Democrats and these independents that came together for the fusion ticket.

The reason it shaped the core of white supremacists in North Carolina was that they realized that they didn't have to like each other to get power. And so, you know, as I've watched you and listened to you and you talk about this third reconstruction, one of the things I think we have to do, not only as a people, but as an organization, as a set of organizations, is realize that there is a fundamental role to be played in terms of developing study. We have to study. Study proceeds a lot of this, because a lot of these things we've been here before,

the SNCC tensions with SCLC and other groups, we have to study so that we understand the mistakes we've made and the successes we've had. What segregation did was force us together in a way that allowed us to really organize our institutions and out of those independent, in many ways, institutions, insert ourselves into politics. We don't have that anymore.

So that when I look at, for example, the Deltas, who I think do probably as good a job as anybody or better in the Divine Nine with their political action. You know, my dear sister, Ajua Batwe Asmoir, I go down to Delta Days on the hill at Herbert Quest and I see these sisters in there. And then they spread out all over the country and do what they have to do. I'm looking and I'm saying, where is the counsel in the Panhellenic to really trade experiences and figure out how to fine tune and then expand and build on the things Roland is talking about. And Brother Hill, you know, I was in law school, I guess around the same time you were at Harvard, I was at Ohio State. And I

remember when they started the Federalist Society, you know, the school would catch it on the federal bench, including some of the courts of appeals. And they didn't say nothing to us. We didn't know what they were doing. But see, the way this works is out of your independent base, you strategize, you study your past failures, you study your successes. And then as you've got that form, you then inject yourself in the trajectory capitalists don't like chaos. Well, you know, sometimes they call it disaster capitalism because they have a plan. You know, Naomi Klein is talking about this screen new deal right now. I'm very concerned in terms of education because these capitalists are looking at the structure of what we think of as a country. They're really in a country at all. And they're saying, how can we extract value from this situation? This is not a nation. It is a settler state with a number of different nations in it, and everyone advances their

interests either individually or in coalition politics with others who share interests. So Reverend Barton, when you start talking about the poor people's campaign, you're saying, okay, like Stacey Abrams told them in Georgia, look, why wouldn't you vote to expand Medicare if I told you that you give me a dollar, I'm going to give you nine back? Well, you don't have to like me, but we've got to deconstruct. Talk about deconstructing uprooting the tree. The tree is this country. And you've got to deconstruct the national myth that we are one people. And once you've deconstructed that, you then intervene on behalf of those who are at the most risk because it's moral, because it's principled.

But you don't do it with the idea that somehow we're going back to use Lincoln's phrase to the mystic chords of memory to make this country be true to its principles. There were never any principles. This is a zero sum game. And our people have made advancements when our independent institutions from that base, we have intervened and either in coalition with others or without others. And that's really the space that allows us to weaponize everybody everywhere, elected officials, independent actors, but our institutional bases have to be strengthened again.

And when it comes to the divine nine, I think what we have to do now is get together, trade techniques with each other and develop these spaces where we can study what we have to do now is get together, trade techniques with each other, and develop these spaces where we can study what we've done before so that we don't keep having this conversation. Because our people are going to take the L in this thing as it moves into the next cycle otherwise. All right, folks, here's the deal.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Here's the deal. We literally have 11 minutes. So what I'm about to do is there are eight people. There are six main speakers, and we're going to hear from our executive director and our president, Dr. Ward. So I'm going to give each one of you one minute

to make whatever you want to say in your one minute. And so I'm going to start bottom right, and I'm going left. So I'm going to Mayor Sylvester Turner out of Houston first. Thanks, Roland. Look, I agree with what I've heard. I don't think we are disagreeing. Whether it's radicalism, whether it's transformation, whether it's deconstruction, and whether it's fundamental change, what's important from my perspective here in the city of Houston,

for example, as the mayor of this city, is that I've got to do everything in working with our partners here to bring about fundamental, radical change that will positively impact the people in these communities and these neighborhoods that have been overlooked and ignored for a long time. That's my commitment to them. When it comes to housing, when it comes to quality education, when it comes to enhancing their quality of life, when it comes to the environmental racism that's in many of these communities, providing economic and job opportunities, good, sound infrastructure, the things that will benefit

them so that they don't have to feel as though they have to leave their neighborhoods and go someplace else. Every community is important. Every person in these communities have value. And it's not about funding a police organization to patrol police and incarcerate them, but it's about giving them an opportunity. My job as mayor, as the CEO of this city, organization to patrol police and incarcerate them. But it's about giving them an opportunity. My job as mayor, as the CEO of this city, is to come in and in a radical, transformative way to change their life such that it is much, much better

by the time I leave here. That's my goal. And it takes all of us working together to make it happen. The people on this street, those protesters, I applaud them. I walk with them, agreed with them. So I hear you. We are not, I don't think we are disagreeing. I look forward to working with brothers and sisters in this city and across this country

to bring about that fundamental radical change that will improve people's lives for the better. All right, that's a great two-minute and two-second, one-minute, Mayor. My mayor of my hometown of Houston, Texas. I appreciate it, Mayor Sylvester Turner. I'm sorry. It's all good.

Now my pastor when I lived in Dallas, Reverend Dr. Frederick Haynes III. Hey, thank you so much for doing this, Roland. I appreciate you and your leadership and your history lessons that you continue to give us. I simply say this, we cannot miss what Dr. King referred to as the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. A perfect storm has gathered, and we have an opportunity right now to accomplish a few things. Number one, we have an opportunity to have a coordinated response whereby we insist on using our political power in order to bring about a Marshall Plan for communities that

have been deprived, that have been discriminated against and dissed. We need a Marshall Plan. This country was able to rebuild cities in Europe after World War II that they felt they had destroyed. We can do that and insist on that. Again, it takes moral imagination and courage to do something like that. That is fusion politics, calling for a moral imagination that says we need a Marshall Plan for our communities, and we need a vision of wellness and wholeness, what that looks like. This particular virus that's exposed, as Bishop Barber says, the fissures, the breakages in society. And of course, we are right there in those fissures. We need now a moral vision of what wellness and wholeness looks like. And when you combine that with a Marshall Plan

that we push for, we can take advantage of this zeitgeist and bring about this third reconstruction that we have been set up to be a part of. All right, then. Great one minute and 34 seconds there, Freddie Haynes. Let's go to my man, author, activist, Hill Harper. I'm going to be real quick because I want to hit that one minute. Listen, everybody on this, I will work with you and support you in whatever I can.

And I'll leverage and use my platform and resources to support you. And I would just ask the same when I come at y'all, because there are things that we're working on around economic empowerment and actually creating cross-generational wealth and living wage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Reverend Barber, I appreciate the work you do so much. I love hearing you talk. And I just think that you are a leader and you are outstanding. One thing I will say quickly in 30 seconds. We often want to educate white folks about racism, but we as black people have to think about, I put racism in three different categories.

There are racists, there are anti-racists, and there are non-racists. We got too many black people out there, particularly professional black folk, that fall into that non-racist category. That are like, if I'm okay, I'm gonna be alright. If me and mine are alright, I'm gonna be alright. Rather than being anti-racist, which is

actually actively figuring out how to fight systemic racism, systemic poverty, etc. Too many black folks are non-racist. They don't want to admit it. They never would. But we need to convert them into anti-racist. And you did one minute and ten seconds.

Reverend Dr. Barber. All right. Can I get ten seconds to stand up? First of all, I just want to say that in history, history only changes four things. Pandemics, war, environmental disasters, and mass

social movements. And we have all of them going on now. This is a zeitgeist moment. Number two, I want to say, WWW June 2020. If you want to see an agenda and a budget and people coming together in moral fusion, join us digitally on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, June 20, 2020. And what I'm talking about, you will see it in actuality. Number three, in this moment, my greatest fear is we ask for too little. My greatest fear is we ask for too little.

And we don't have a moral imagination that's big enough for the moment, and we miss the moment. Number three, you cannot say, and I love all my people, but we had three black women PhDs in epidemiology and public health, and all of them said the three bills passed in Congress during COVID and the fourth bill far, far short.

Don't have time to debate it. But if you think our bills that gave 84 percent of the money to corporations are going to help the 61 percent of black folk that are poor and low wealth, then I have several things I want to say. And that's not being ugly. That's being true. That's not being radical. That's being Jesus. Because the God that I follow, that black Palestinian Jew, said that if you don't treat the poor right, you don't treat the homeless right, you don't treat the immigrants right, you don't treat the sick right,

I don't care if you're black or whoever you are, you're going to be judged for that. And right now, this nation is under judgment. And the reason this pandemic is having so much problem is because when it hit, we did not seek to close the fissures that were caused by systemic racism and poverty. Instead, we did neoliberalism

and we gave the money to the corporations and people signed off on it. And too many of our people signed off on it. I say that not with deep criticism, but with deep love. Because finally, if we're not going to address systemic racism and systemic poverty and ecological devastation and the war economy

and the false modern narrative of religious nationalism seriously, transformatively, and reconstructively, then let me ask this question. And I know I'm a preacher. What the hell are we living for? That's the question I got gotta ask. Mayor Turner, you off the hook. Reverend Barber went longer than you did, so you all

good. That was a minute and ten seconds. That was two minutes and thirteen seconds. Congressman Bobby Scott. But the pastor had to say. Congressman Bobby Scott. Hold on, Congressman. You're muted. Yep, thank you. Now you go., you're muted. Yep, thank you.

Now you go. Thank you, Roland. Thank you for putting it together. We've been working as hard as we can with an agenda. It may not be radical enough, but we passed the minimum wage to increase people's wages. We passed the PRO Act so they can negotiate for better wages. We've reported out a committee in trying to get the college affordability bill passed, which

will make it possible to go to college without incurring debt. We're fighting discrimination with legislation and housing policies to help people own homes, which creates wealth. In policing, we've got a good bill that will hold police accountable. We've been fighting to implement the Youth Promise Act, which will take money out of the criminal justice system and into the community. But a lot of the progress we're going to make will depend on the election,

to the extent that we can get people to vote and vote their interests, and if poor people can vote, not with the wealthy, but with the poor, we can elect a legislature that will pass all of these bills we've been able to pass in the House. The last bill was $3 trillion. 99% of it is to help the people, the average man and woman in this country.

And it's going to depend on the election. The voting rights and everything else depend on the outcome of this election. Alpha Phi Alpha, about 100 years ago, developed a campaign, a voteless people is a hopeless people. And we're going to see that in effect in November. If we vote right, we'll be very hopeful. And if we vote wrong, it's not going to be pretty. Voteless people is a hopeless people. And so thank you, Roland, for bringing us together.

Thank you very much for keeping that under two minutes, Congressman Bobby Scott. Appreciate it. Philip Agnew. My brother. Black women are facing many, many wars, and we can end one of them if we work on the brotherhood. We know that black men are under a great amount of pressure externally and internally.

We are taken away from our humanity. We are alienated from ourselves and many times we're taking it out on our sisters. So if there's any word that I want to give, we have a lot of duty and a lot of work to do to talk to brothers about the way that we engage with our sisters, with our lovers, with our baby mamas. It starts when they're being initiated. We create predators, and we have a duty to be able to raise up a new

generation of men that respect women. Inspired by my experiences with the fraternity and my experience while organizing, I launched an initiative with a number of brothers last Monday called Black Men Build. Brother Harper, Brother Scott, Brother Haynes, Brother Mayer, Brother Barber, Brother Ward, I am going to be reaching out to you all about this initiative. We're seeking to engage the world as

an organized force for black men. You can find more information at blackmen.build. There you go. 58 seconds. Go ahead, youngest one on the panel. Oh, Lord. Greg Carr. Dr. Greg Carr. Greg, you up? I left you two seconds.

Very quickly, W.E.B. Du Bois, I would encourage folks to get a book called The Education of Black People. The last chapter in there is a speech that he gave at Johnson C. Smith. You gave me that copy. You gave me that book. Yes, yes, indeed, I did. And Du Bois says this, our frat brother.

He said, these laws are going to change. These segregation will come, and then you're going to have to decide what you're going to do in a society where if you don't define yourself, you're going to get run over. Global capitalist structure is collapsing. I don't expect the United States to be here in the future as long as it's been here in the past. And at the end of the day, if we do not make different types of choices, we're going to become

fodder for whatever's coming next. This isn't an American conversation. It's a global conversation. It's a human conversation. At the end of the day, most of our people aren't in college and most of them in college don't join fraternities and sororities. Leadership is earned. It is not inherited. So if we're going to do something in this organization, we better decide what it's going to be, and we better decide it fast. Thank you, brother. Oh, look, you beat Phil. You were under his time. All right.

John Paul, the executive director of Alpha Phi Alpha. Go ahead, brother. Thank you, Brother Roland Martin, for using your platform to educate and enlighten the masses. And to my talented brothers, it's truly an honor to have you all here. This is exactly what the Jules had in mind when they founded this organization 114 years ago on an Ivy League campus.

They had no right doing that. They had the audacity to come together seven black men on an Ivy League campus when most people couldn't even read. Three sets of words, black men vote. We need to make sure that we come out of our house and make our voice be our vote, make our vote be our voice. That's exactly how we move the needle. The next one, have no fear.

There was one time that black men that looked just like you and I would not be afraid of losing anything, even their jobs and some even lose their lives because they didn't have any fear because they weren't fighting for themselves. They were fighting for their future. If you don't have any kids, there are kids who need you. And so we need to absolutely use our voice and have no fear.

The last one is never give up. I truly believe, and I've been listening to a lot of Martin Luther King speeches, MLK speeches, and I truly believe that one day we will overcome. And it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but just like they said, someday. Our accents will always speak louder than words and I have to plug the frat. If you're not following us,

please follow us on Instagram and all the other social media at APA1906. Thank you, Brother Martin, and thank you, my brothers. 36th. 35th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha, Dr. Everett Ward. My brothers, thank you for an enlightening evening. There are a couple of things I want us to take away from this.

Number one, as president of the Council of Presidents of the Divine Nine, I want you to know that we do have a strength. I heard loud and clear, Brother Harper, and to all of us, the Divine Nine, we are not against each other, we are for each other, and it's a collective power, and we have a strategy that we're going to implement, and we're going to use our partners all across the country because the urgency of now demands

that we be fully engaged as a collective body of the Divine Nine representing two million members. And so we've got to be together. We are supporting the Poor People's Campaign on Saturday. We're gonna be in the streets. And for our brothers and sisters who are marching, I applaud the marching, but what we've gotta do is march to the polls on November the 3rd,

because at the end of the day, we are not at each other, we are for each other. So we need our elected officials, we need our brothers and sisters in the street to have a protest to public policy agenda. And that's what it's all about. 1.8 million black men didn't vote in the 2018 election. And now we gotta make sure our brothers really go out and vote because when you look in the

mirror at the end of the day, it's left up to us to protect and save our own communities. No one's going to do it for us. We got to do it for ourselves. So brothers, thank you for being here. This is the beginning. Brother Martin, thank you for your vision to broaden this discussion beyond the House of Alpha, and we'll continue to do all we can

to move onward and upward together. Thank you, my brother. Folks, here are my final comments. In the movie The Untouchables, there's this great scene that exists between Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. And Kevin Costner wants to take down Al Capone. Sean Connery says, what are you prepared to do?

Kevin Costner says, I'm prepared to do anything within the law. He said, then what are you prepared to do? He said, when he puts one of yours in a hospital, you put one of his in the morgue. That's the Chicago way. I ask every single person who's watching, alpha, non-alpha, man, woman, doesn't matter, Christian, Jew, Gentile, doesn't matter, what are you prepared to do?

See, it's real simple. It's real simple. Go ahead and pull the panel back up for me. It's real simple for the folks who are watching on YouTube, on Facebook, on Periscope, who are looking at all nine men up here. It's real easy for the 7,000 people who are watching simultaneously right now

to say, well, what's Bobby Scott going to do? And what are them preachers going to do? And what are these black mayors going to do? What's the CBC going to do? But you've got to ask the question, what are you prepared to do? So they've already laid out that, you out that Congress is doing what they're doing. Then you've got folks in state capitals doing what they're doing.

Then you've got county folks, and you've got school board folks and city folks. But the question is, what are you prepared to do? What is happening in your house? What is happening in your family? What is happening with your neighbors? What is happening on your street? What is happening on your block? What is happening on your street? What is happening on your block?

What is happening on your neighborhood? What is happening in your city? What impacts what happens in your country? What impacts in the world? She's real easy for folk to sit saying wait man We sure need this and when we sure need that and it'd be great if we had this see I had a lot of people told me the same thing man bro man it'd be great man it'd be great if if you could have a show i had a show on tv one it got canceled so i launched my own i i didn't sit around saying what's black enterprise doing uh and what's oprah doing and what tyler perry's doing and what what's what's everybody doing? I said, no, if I have the capacity to do it, then I'm willing to actually do it. So the challenge for every single brother or sister watching is not to make excuses

about what somebody else is doing, but what are you doing? Don't just say what's happening when it comes to black folks not voting if your family's not voting. Don't say, well, we need more of us registered. If you haven't asked your aunt and your uncle and your cousins and your nieces and your brother and your sister and your parents, whether they are registered. Don't wonder if the registration has expired. You do what's necessary to ensure that they somehow actually registered. What cannot happen is for this generation of black people to be gutless compared to our ancestors. You cannot tell me we come from a stock of people who knew they were involved in slavery, but they said we

are going to somehow change the condition for our people. When you had black people who died just learning how to read, doing slavery, they did not say education did not matter. When you had black people who put their money together to create HBCUs, to ensure their children were educated, and even when HBCUs like Hampton were created, and they said we don't only want our kids knowing how to farm, they said challenge them, you better make sure they're doctors and lawyers. What I'm trying to say is this here.

This generation cannot talk about Juneteenth on Friday. And you don't respect my alpha brother, the late Representative Al Edwards, who was the one who carried that bill across to make it a state holiday in Texas. When you got the governor of Virginia today announcing that Virginia is going to move forward and become the second state to do it. Now you got the NBA and all these companies now trying to give folk the day off for Juneteenth,

and that's great. But the challenge for all of us is the question, what are we going to do in getting the game? The challenge for us is, are we going to actually use our dollars? Let me go ahead and say it. It's an abomination in black America when 5% of graduates of HBCUs give back to their schools. You cannot have freed slaves who rub nickels and pennies together

to ensure these institutions were created and to have this generation of black people be willing to write a check. Don't tell me you support your school wearing your letters and you go back for homecoming, but you don't send at least $50 back to your school to ensure the next generation has an opportunity. Don't tell me you care about black entrepreneurs if you're unwilling to write a check

to ensure you're supporting black businesses. The sister who created these headphones, Mary Spiel, blackcompanyseek.com. We support her on this show. check to ensure you're supporting black businesses. The sister who created these headphones, Mary Spio, Black Company, Seek.com. We support her on this show. Black Mama Tease, the sister who created her own vodka line, supporting her on this show. The litany of African Americans that own businesses, we're

supporting them on this show. We have infrastructure, we have knowledge, we have all that we need. The question is are we willing to actually use it? I'm not just going to fight white supremacy. I'm also going to fight lazy black folk. I'm not just going to fight folks in D.C. or in state capitals. I'm also going to fight black churches and black preachers

and black educators and black business leaders and folks to say, what are you prepared to do? The bottom line is this here. You've got an evil man sitting in the White House. You've got the late Dr. Conrad Worrell who talked to me and Mark Thompson eight days before he died. He only had 15 minutes of breath in his body,

and he said, I need black folks to say, we got to put this man out. Judges, as Bobby Exxon said, they want to have judges for the next 50 years control the federal judiciary. Everybody needs to understand we are in the fight for our lives, literally.

We're walking around wearing masks because we're not trying to die because of coronavirus. And I say like our frat brother, Vertner, Woodson, Tandy said, we will fight until hell freezes over and then we will fight on the ice. It's time for some of y'all got to decide whether you prepare to fight.

Folks, thanks a bunch for watching this special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, Ron. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, brothers. Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids,

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure. Last year, a lot of the problems of the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems

of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter,

and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.