#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 8.12 RMU: Mounted TX cops led Black man w/ rope; Black AU student wins $725k in suit against racists

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

Attorney Ben Crump wants to know why two Texas Rangers on horses led a black man through the streets by a rope; American University's first black female student body president won a $725,000 judgment in her lawsuit against the owner of a neo-Nazi website; Meet the woman who wants to be Mississippi's first African American Attorney General; Jeffrey Epstein accused of sex trafficking allegedly committed suicide in prison; A Georgia Southern student athlete is arrested because a bird pooped on his car. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered for Monday, August 12th, 2019. Roland is off today. I'm Monique Presley. There are new developments in the Galveston, Texas case we told you about last week. Attorney Ben Crump wants to know why two Texas Rangers on horses let a black man through the streets buy a rope. That's my hometown. I want to know, too. American University's first black female student body president won a $725,000 judgment in her lawsuit against the owner of a neo-Nazi website and one of his followers. We'll tell you what happened. An appeals court judge rules that Mississippi's redistricting plan violates the Voting Rights Act.

A huge win, but there's still a lot to be done to protect your vote. Meet the woman who wants to be Mississippi's first African-American Attorney General. Can't wait for that. Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex trafficking, allegedly committed suicide in prison. What happens next and how did that happen? And a Georgia Southern student athlete is arrested because a bird pooped on his car. We'll explain. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's rolling. The Galveston Police Department issued an apology last Monday after an image was posted on social media showing two mounted police officers, both white, leading Mr. Donald Neely, a black man,

handcuffed behind their horses and attached by what looked like a rope or leash. The police department acknowledged that the incident may have, quote, unnecessarily, end quote, been embarrassing for Neely and apologized for the poor judgment of mounted officers P. Broach and A. Smith. Well, that's not good enough. Attorney Benjamin Crump wants to know why and is demanding that the police release the body cam footage. Joining me now is Attorney Crump, who is one of the attorneys representing Donald Neely.

Attorney Crump, good to see you. Sorry it's under these circumstances. It is. And, Monique, I'm so happy to be talking with you because you have a unique perspective about Galvest come home and join us to help get justice for Donna Neely, who is a wonderful young man who's challenged by mental illness. I spent a lot of time with him today, well, treat him in this manner. They beat him on previous occasions, but this time they tied him, you know, to a rope and dragged him down the street in Galveston, Texas. And the police chief tried to say, well was just their policy these are good police officers they are good character and so I made a proclamation today that if they're such good

police of good character then you should have no problem being transparent and releasing the body cam video so we can see the true content of their character when we examine how they talked to and how they treated this unarmed black man who was suffering from mental illness. Well, you know, Ben, you and I have talked through many cases in the past few years, and I certainly am just horrified to hear of anything like this happening, not just in my hometown where I grew up, but where my parents still live to this very day and all of my family and friends. I was just there just over a month ago. But, you know, I was sharing with you earlier today how it was just a year ago when we were celebrating Juneteenth right there in Galveston.

I was the keynote for the inaugural social justice lunch. And many people don't know Galveston, Texas, that the news of the freed slaves in the South finally reached the South area. And it happened right there in Galveston, right there in front of the Ashton Villa. And I ended up reading from parts of Frederick Douglass's speech just this year while I was home. So we are all reeling from this information. And one of the things that I'm wondering, Ben, because we've been told so far that the guidelines provided for this practice, which seems to any blatant observer of humanity to be in humane. Is it true? Have you had an opportunity to review and see that this actually was something the police were trained on? You know, it's so interesting. Monique,

the police chief in the police department said, well, this is as your policy. So the officers were just trained in policy. So then when we asked them, well, present the policy to us. They say, oh, it's not in writing. It's just a policy that they're taught on. And so, you know, as a civil rights lawyer and a constitutional lawyer, Monique, I have a problem. And I know you have a problem because you're a great constitutional lawyer. Well, with how you have a law and a policy but yet it's not in writing so how does that give notice to the public what the police can and cannot do legally and so it's so many things about this case which seems they are trying to cover uh and justify something that is unjustifiable. Because when those two white police officers on horseback

marched this unarmed black man down the streets of Galveston, Texas, it was very eerie because it conjured up historical memories of slave hunters putting rope on black people and dragging them to the slave auctions. That's right. That's right. And that's what it conjured up for so many of us, Ben. But you are asking them to do something. First, you want them to release the body cam footage. Have you gotten any response from the city as to when that will happen? No response. Based on Texas Public Information Act, we gave the demand to the city police department. They have 20 business days to make a decision. They can do the right thing and show

leadership and transparency and give it up, or they can punt it to the Texas Attorney General, which he will have 45 days, which means they're going to fight it and not give it up or they can punt it to the Texas Attorney General, which he will have 45 days, which means they're going to fight it and not give it to us. So what we did, we made a proclamation of our own that if they don't give that video up in 30 days, we're going to invite other civil rights activists and other mental illness advocates and other human rights advocates from all around America to come and have a great march on Washington. And we're going to march from Juneteenth inauguration site where they read the speech those many years ago. And we're going to then march right down the same street that they dragged Donald Neely down to show him that we're standing with him and that

we're also demanding equal justice and treatment of not only African-Americans and other minorities, but also and especially people who are suffering from mental illness. And we need you to be there, Monique. We need your voice. Oh, well, Lord knows I'll do what I can, Ben. But joining me on the panel, I'm bringing in reinforcements today, is Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist and president emerita at Bennett College, political analyst, Dr. Avis Jones DeWeaver, and Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the Environmental Protection Agency. Let me start with you, Dr. Malveaux.

What in the world? What in the world? As Attorney Crump has said, this is replete with history. To have a black man on rope, behind horses. We've seen these pictures unfortunately or fortunately Monique I've been researching 1919 lynching in terms of the economic suppression of our people and so I've been in the Library of Congress where they threatened to put me out because I keep making mouth noises when I see some of these pictures I've got some of the pictures but this is reminiscent of some of the pictures

that I saw from a century ago. What's also ironic is that in the wake of both El Paso and Dayton, 45 has talked about mental illness. But when the African-American person has a mental illness, this is something that no one wants to pay attention to. These Galveston police must know that this man is mentally ill given the number of times he has law enforcement encounters I think the report said six or seven times he's had encounters he's been arrested he's been beaten

this is a young man who is not well so the response to someone was not well should that be to put a rope on them and drag them down the street. Let's not forget what happened in Texas not too long ago to James Byrd. So dragging down streets is something that people seem to like to do in Texas, not to disrespect your home state or anything, because it could happen in any state. But the fact is that this just sent chills up my spine when I saw it. And so, Attorney Crump, I'm always grateful to you for the kind of leadership that you put out there in terms of saying, let us march. And Monique will be there because she's committed.

She's offering me up. See that? I kind of like that. The elder here. Sacrificial lamb. Prodigal daughter. But no, we all know how important this is and so I thank you for your leadership and for the coalition because we've seen not only

african-americans who experienced mental illness but also whites disabled there was a case here in Washington not too long ago where an autistic young man was was beaten by police and then choked to death. So these things happen because these police, they don't say they haven't been trained at all. You don't have to have a whole lot of education, unfortunately. I hate to say it, but it's the truth. What kind of training do these people get? Well, but you would be surprised by that. One of the things I know for sure from spending over a decade defending a municipality, the District of Columbia, in fact, in the Attorney General's office, is that the guidelines can say one thing and police officers can be trained

according to those guidelines. But the guidelines can be so tone deaf, time deaf, can really not catch up at all with what people are saying here. They're calling optics, but of course it's beyond optics. What it really boils down to, and I want to bring you in Mustafa, is when you're dealing with someone who may be volatile and maybe they knew that, maybe they didn't, I don't know what kind of all of the history was with Mr. Neely. When you're dealing with someone who has mental challenges, whether it's autism or whether it's some other form of a depression, or whether it's a neurological disorder, sometimes people even who have epilepsy can present as if they are being non-compliant and unfortunately end up arrested, end up harmed, end up dead. Because if officers aren't trained, not just in how to detain somebody, but trained

in how to handle it when someone has mental capacity issues, then we end up right where we are. Right, Mustafa? Yeah, definitely. But we should also call out the fact that in Galveston, they have police cars. And if someone has been apprehended, they could very easily place that individual in a police car. If they felt that there was a psychological issue that was going on, they could call in the EMTs and then they could take them and get them evaluated. You don't walk them down the street. What this is, there is a psychological component to it, but it's a little different than we're talking about.

Yes, with the gentleman, we have to make sure that there's the evaluation of him. But this is about sending a message to the gentleman, we have to make sure that there's the evaluation of him. But this is about sending a message to the community, to the community that's usually the one that's being disproportionately enforced upon, that we have power. And to the other community, who usually is less, you know, enforced upon, that this power that we have looks like you and me and that we will utilize it to control and to herd these individuals that we see as less than human. Because if they actually saw this gentleman as human, there would be a different set of actions. I've worked with enforcement personnel over the years, and I know when somebody is actually following the right protocol in a situation and when someone is ad-libbing and bringing other things into the mix to send a message out to let folks know, if you mess up, we're going to embarrass you.

We're going to treat you as less than human. This is the parallel to 1919. things occurred those years back, it was done not only to punish the supposed perpetrator who may have done something, because a lot of times they didn't, but also to send to the community a signal, you better watch out. It's almost like my grandmother used to call the tall nail syndrome with a tall nail. This is an iHeart podcast.