#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 8.2.19 #RMU| NYPD judge: Fire Pantaleo; Trump lied about helping BMore; Cyntoia Brown to be freed

Episode Date: August 5, 2019

8.2.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NYPD judge says Daniel Pantaleo; should be fired; Pastor who met with Trump says #45 lied about helping #Baltimore; An innocent man is finally free after serving 21 years in prison; Cyntoia Brown to be freed next week; ASAP Rocky is free to leave Sweden until his verdict is announced; R. Kelly denied bail in NY. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today is Friday, August 2nd, 2019. Roland Martin here broadcasting live from Santee, South Carolina, site of the Congressman Jim Clyburn annual golf classic. We'll talk with him later this hour, talk a little politics, and also talk about how this tournament raises $700,000 for nearly 200 students to go to college. But our top story, we're going to deal with Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who killed Eric Garner. And New York administrative judge says he should be fired as a result of the death of Eric Garner. We'll go live to a rally in New York City.

We'll also talk with the sister of Eric Garner and a family attorney. Also, folks, an innocent black man spent 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He is now out of jail. Speaking of getting out of jail, Centoya Brown, the woman many people rose to her defense in Tennessee, she will be released from prison next week. R. Kelly, he is still in jail. Okay, we'll get the latest on that. He is not free. Also, folks, we'll talk about some other issues,

including a pastor in Baltimore who says Donald Trump hasn't done a damn thing for the city, even though he stood next to the president when he announced his opportunity zones. And speaking of petty Trump, he literally laughs at Congressman Elijah Cummings having his home broken into. Talk about a grown child as president of the United States. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the mess, he's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, 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 Roll-Roll, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin

Now He's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martin. Martin. Finally, some possible justice for the family of Eric Garner. It has been five years since New York Police Department officer Daniel Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death. A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Yet, the Staten Island DA chose not to pursue charges. The Trump Department of Justice said they will also not pursue federal civil rights charges. But today, a New York administrative judge ruled that Pantaleo should be fired as a result of his actions and the death of Eric Garner. Mayor Bill de Blasio held a news conference earlier today, and this is what he had to say. There's been a lot of pain in this city over the last five years, and there's been a lot of fear.

The pain was because we watched an innocent man die. And the fear was because people worried that there would be no justice, that the inequities that have plagued us for generations would simply continue unchecked. But today, for the first time in these long five years, the system of justice is working. For the Garner family, and I've spent time with them and I've heard the pain that they have felt. It has been a very long five years with no sense of closure, no sense of justice. Until today, the Garner family has been failed by this entire process. And think about what they have gone through. They watched him die, just as we all did. They felt that pain.

And then they were told over and over again by the district attorney, by the Department of Justice, that the government would do its job. And they waited and they waited and they waited, and they waited, and they waited, and nothing happened. And as all this stretched on, it reinforced a suspicion, as one felt by millions, that justice doesn't exist for people who look like Eric Garner. Today, we finally saw a step towards justice and accountability. We saw a process that was actually fair and impartial. And I hope that this will now bring the Garner family a sense of closure and the beginning of some peace.

But full justice means that there can never be another tragedy like the one that befell Eric Garner. Joining us right now is Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner. Emerald, welcome to Roller Martin Unfiltered. Emerald, can you hear me? Yes, can you hear me? Yes, now I got you there. First and foremost, this um a decision the family has

been waiting for and hoping for uh just uh your thoughts about after five years finally uh somebody holding daniel pantaleo accountable for the death of your father eric garner yes um i i've been um fired up all day we heard the decision um there's now finally someone who is agreeing that there's some injustice done to eric garner and that's what we've been crying for for the past five years obviously this came up in the presidential debate the other night. But you also had, frankly, highs and lows. Many people felt the Department of Justice was going to certainly pursue civil rights charters. No charters were filed while Obama was president. The Trump administration comes in.

Then you had a disagreement there. The Civil Rights Division, they wanted to file charters, but they were overruled by the Southern District of New York, as well as Attorney General William Barr. But to finally have a judge say, yes, his actions were wrong in the case of Eric Garner, that has to be some kind of comfort because he's frankly gotten all scot-free up until now. Absolutely. So for five years, we've been told that we didn't see what we saw. For five years, we've been told that that was not a chokehold, that the cop did nothing wrong. And today, we finally heard, yes, he did something wrong. And still, to have a PBA president say that he feels like if Commissioner O'Neill fires this cop, he'll lose New York City. New York City is already lost.

New York City was lost when Eric Garner died from a chokehold. Well, first and foremost, to hear the union chief say that, I mean, at the end of the day, we know exactly what we saw. We know it was a chokehold. The medical examiner ruled it was a homicide. And so these cops continue to lie and lie and lie. And it should send a signal to the rest of these cops. If you do wrong, look, you lose your job. First of all, he should have been indicted.

He should have been on trial. But there's no way in the world he should still have his job. I agree. This should have been done five years ago. And he may think that he's getting off scot-free, but we will find a way to maybe open up another investigation towards him. But this is not the end. There's a rally taking place right now.

Tamika Mallory, my son, and others, they are rallying because they want to make sure this gets done. Again, the administrative judge is recommending he be fired. That decision still actually must be followed through. It must be finalized by the commissioner who answers to the mayor. Well, Emerald Garner, first of all, we know it has been extremely difficult for the Garner family, losing Erica Garner to a heart attack after she passed away, losing his stepfather at the funeral just the other day.

But your family has been resilient. You'll have not given up. Please give my best to Gwen Carr. Let her know that we're praying for her and that we certainly stand with you and the Garner family. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you for letting my voice be heard. All right.

Thank you so very much, folks. That was Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, speaking about a New York administrative judge saying Daniel Pantaleo should be fired for the death of Eric Garner. I want to go to my panel right now. Certainly they have something to say about this here. Joining us right now in studio, we have Mustafa. He is there, of course. Mustafa Sandiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice in the EPA. Misha Cross, he's political commentator for Sinclair Broadcasting Group. Joseph Pignon, Republican strategist and political commentator.

Misha, I'll start with you. Again, Five years, no indictment from Staten Island. We never expected that because, frankly, a Staten Island DA sounded more like a defense attorney in this case. So many cops also live on Staten Island. Then the Trump Department of Justice filed no charges. But finally, some sense of relief for this family to hear somebody say, yes, Daniel Pantaleo was wrong, had wrongful actions that led to the death of Eric Garner. You're exactly right. Look, we came to the end of the road with this. There were so many false starts when it came to justice being granted for the Garner family. And this is something that the world watched. And kudos to the advocates, to the activists, to the family who continually pressed on. But what this tells us in a greater in the grander scheme is that in many cases, even when something is seen visually, when you get to feel the emotion of watching a police officer kill someone literally who's begging for their life, it's not going to matter.

To know that that man was still able to go to his job every day to not be fired is a problem. It is outrageous. I'm thankful that his daughter was able to speak to us a few moments ago. But there's a certain sense of upset that comes along with this, because it shows us just how broken this system is. And to have the Fraternal Order of Police there make the statement that they did just shows how, one, they don't care. Two, there's just there's no end to their protection of police, even the extremely crooked and dangerous ones. Mustafa, your thoughts? Yeah, you know, justice delayed is justice denied. You know, sometimes they don't tell the fullness of the whole story. Eric Garner was actually breaking up a fight that was going on out on the block, and then he got rushed by the police. So, you know, a lot of times people talk about, you know, him

selling a cigarette or something like that, which of course there's no justification for what's going on, but we have a systemic problem that is currently going on with far too many of our law enforcement officials. You know, 1% of police officers who kill citizens actually end up getting convicted. Ninety percent of regular citizens who happen to be involved with the death of a police officer get convicted. So there's something wrong with the system when those numbers are so skewed. And we have 447 people who have died this year so far at the hands of police. So and when you have these police unions who stand up and protect cops that have done wrong, sometimes dirty cops, then we've got to change that. And that's why I'm glad that there are some of the presidential candidates

who are starting to talk more about criminal justice reform and some of the things that need to happen in that space. Joseph, this reminds me of the Rodney King. We saw the videotape. People said there is no way in the world these cops are going to get off. They did. They were convicted in the federal court for violating his civil rights. To see the chokehold apply, to hear police officers say, oh, no, that was no chokehold. That's not what that was.

The medical examiner ruled it a homicide. Police officers say, oh, no, that was no chokehold. That's not what that was. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide. This goes to show you how this society, how this system, the legal system, the city system protects cops. And so, thankfully, this administrative judge made this decision. But this was no guarantee that Pat D' de lea was going to keep his job i actually was going to get fired i think the hard truth that we're dealing with right now um for me at least personally is trying to say that how did we get here right i mean i think the only thing more infuriating than watching eric garner have the life basically you know choked out of him,

is listening to the mayor of New York City say that this is justice. I don't know what part of justice is a man who has killed somebody, allowing to collect five years of salary, and then possibly maybe losing his job. I don't know what part of justice is us sitting here standing around saying that the Garner family should have no answers, that somehow that an individual who is entrusted to protect us engaged in an activity that by the very department handbook has been deemed dangerous, has been deemed unlawful, and it results in someone's death and there is no consequences. So I think we have to understand that we can be in solidarity with our law enforcement. We can understand they have a very difficult job. And we can also be able to

understand that in every profession in the world, whether you're a doctor, a dentist, an anesthesiologist, even a bus driver, that if you do something that is negligent, that is known to be dangerous, and it results in somebody losing their life, you are almost guaranteed to lose your job. And in this case, it's not happening. At least we don't know what's going to happen. So I think that's something that we as a society should step back and really examine, because ultimately, again, this, in my opinion, is not justice.

It's not even justice delayed. It's just an unmitigated disaster. We also want to thank all the activists out there who kept the pressure up, who kept protesting, who kept demanding justice. The Garner family as well. They never let up. They never relented. They kept that pressure up. But again, the decision has not been made to fire him.

The recommendation is to fire him. We'll now see what the New York Police Department commissioner will decide in the case of Daniel Pantaleo. Folks, going to go to a break. We come back. Baltimore is still in the news. Donald Trump is so petty and petulant. He literally relishes the idea of Congressman Elijah Cummings having his home broken into. And a pastor who we interviewed right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered after they had the Opportunity Zones news conference at the White House a year ago,

he says not a damn thing has been done to help Baltimore and not a dime has come to that particular area from Donald Trump. Hashtag, we tried to tell you. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Congressman Jim Clyburn's Golf Classic here in Santee, South Carolina. We'll be back in a moment you want to check out rollerbar unfiltered youtube.com forward slash roland s martin subscribe to our youtube channel there's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real it's rollerbar unfiltered see that name right there

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As Roland Martin Unfiltered support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, let's talk about Baltimore. Remember, it was a year ago when we had a pastor from Baltimore right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered who was at the White House, who spoke, who stood next to Donald Trump when he announced the opportunity zones.

He talked about what that was going to mean for cities like Baltimore, investment in those areas. A year later, that pastor has said nothing has happened. Not a single dime has come into the area that he's been focused on, and he is not happy about it. He is frustrated. But remember, I told you all this was going to happen. And I said, we'll see what happens. Joseph Pinon, here's what is interesting. Trump keeps touting all opportunity zones, but here's a black pastor who stood next to him who says nothing has happened a year later. This man lies and lies. And you got to ask the question, what the hell? Look, I think we have to separate the two issues from the president's unfortunate inability to tell the truth

and what's happening right now with the Opportunity Zones. I think realistically Opportunity Zones represent a tremendous opportunity, this once-in-a-generational time for us as people of color to actually reinvest in our own communities. I think what's transpiring right now is this disconnect between people thinking that there is somebody coming to save them once again. That's not what's happening. And realistically, the only places where, quote unquote, people are going to be coming to save people with opportunity zones are places where there's a ton of money to be made. That's New York City. That's Miami. That's D.C. There are places where there are people who don't look like us who can come there and make a lot of

money. But for places like Baltimore, for places like rural America, for places like Rochester and Buffalo, New York, we have an opportunity to invest in our own communities, to grow our own wealth. And I think that that is something that has not been communicated clearly to people of color. And I think that that is ultimately why you have people like this pastor. You have people all over America saying, I hear the opportunity, but I don't see any results. Mustafa, this is no shock.

Again, I told folks, beware of the Donald Trump black photo op. HBCU presidents, happened to them. Now it's happened to these black folks with Opportunity Zones. He's running around talking about Baltimore, trashing Baltimore, and he's done nothing. You sure did tell folks, and they should have listened. And they should have also listened to that old quote

that says that when someone shows you who they are, believe them. Donald Trump has never invested in our communities unless there was something that he was getting out of it. And the thing that's really interesting is that the president, when he is actually in his office, is in Washington, D.C. He's like 30 minutes away from Baltimore, has never went up to Baltimore since he's been president to see what's going on. You know, he lives inside this billionaire bubble. And inside that billionaire bubble, he keeps forgetting that his policies are actually the ones that are damaging Baltimore. So we need to have some real talk about what's really going on. So in each one of his budgets that he's introduced, he has done nothing to build anything up and everything to destroy the basic infrastructure that's in place. He's cut the budgets on HUD

that would help with affordable housing and each one of those budgets that he sent forward on. And luckily there were men and women of good conscience who pushed back against that on Capitol Hill, although they should have pushed back a little harder. When it comes to the environmental laws that have been put in place, he has done nothing but roll those back. So the folks who are there who are breathing that dirty, toxic air and the lead that's there, he's done nothing to help to alleviate any of those situations whatsoever. I mean, this is very simple.

He says one thing, he does another. It's no shock he's done nothing. And all those people, I keep telling these black people, y'all can keep getting played every time y'all stand next to Donald Trump, but you're going to get played eventually. Hashtag, we tried to tell you. The thing that people have to realize is that Donald Trump keeps the promises, the campaign promises that he wants to keep.

Clearly, all of the ones that he made to the black population, he does not care about. He campaigned on fixing cities like Baltimore. He campaigned on the fact that Democratic held large cities, urban centers across the country. The problem was the fact that they had Democratic leadership. And now that he was going to be president, he was going to take care of them. And we haven't seen that come through. What we have seen is him take away a lot of the things that they need to survive. We're watching the major cuts at food stamps. We're watching him make it harder for people to get Medicaid. We're watching him take from the

Department of Education. We're watching all of these things happen. He doesn't care about Baltimore. He's never cared about Baltimore, except to the extent that his son-in-law became even more wealthy off of putting people up in these slumlord homes. It's an issue that is frustrating, but it's also one that we have to look at the source. Donald Trump finds it very hard to tell the truth about anything, but he also has something to gain here. He is attacking Elijah Cummings because Congressman Cummings is also the chair of, guess what, the committee that is in charge of looking into his tax returns. This is part of a much larger scheme, and he's using racialized codes and a lot of racial language to upset people and to ignite his base. That's what he's doing. Let's talk about his childish tweet.

Really bad news. The Baltimore House of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad. Even Nikki Haley, his former his former u.n ambassador said that was unnecessary again robert this shows you what kind of person he is he is childish he is petty he's a grown child and the man has no kid no care no feelings whatsoever and so there's no sense in trying to fake the funk. He is who he is. He's a pathetic human being. Yeah, I think that, honestly, somebody who touts law and order realistically should not be touting the fact at the same time that somebody had their home broken into. Unfortunately, it really would have been an opportunity to talk about the fact that we do have

great issues in places like Baltimore and D.C. We do have great issues in the fact that there are homes being broken into all across America. It happens to the very rich. It happens to the very powerful. And it happens especially to the very poor. It's not an opportunity to take jabs and try to score political points. But again, this is nothing new. I've often said that, you know, to Mustafa's earlier point, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. And so to that point, we're better served talking about what can we do as a people to alleviate these conditions rather than trying to lay our burdens down at the feet of President Trump. Because if we keep trying to do that just so that we can sleep better at night, we're going to wake up to realize that the nightmare might still be gone. Well, I'm not trying to lay any of my burdens down at the feet of Trump, Amisha.

But what I am telling black folks is, especially black men, don't fall for the okey-doke. Folks should be, that was almost a 4% drop in black turnout in 2016. There should not be a single black person who stays at home in 2020. We should have the highest turnout in the history of America for African-Americans in 2020. And the whole focus is to say throw that ignorant man out of the White House. And that's what the focus should be, Amisha. I agree 100 percent. What Donald Trump is trying to do and what he tried to do with his statements on Baltimore and his statements on work and the progress across this country for minorities, he is looking at trying to chip away the black male vote. He already knows that black women are in a camp that's never going to move. But he is trying to move black men. And I think that his strategy is very interesting. But it's also the fact that we know that a lot of black males right now aren't necessarily interested in the candidates that we have.

That doesn't mean they're going to vote for Trump. But the great fear is that they might not vote at all. So to your point, I definitely want to see black people show up and show out in 2020. All of our policy goals are on the line and we just really need people to get out. And again, Mustafa, for me, it is about our agenda, what we care about, our policies. And the bottom line is, but the only way you affect that is if you actually vote. Put people in place who are likely going to advance your agenda. That, to me, should be the focus, and it should be a laser-like focus for folks in cities all across this country. Rural as well as inner city, it doesn't matter.

East coast, west coast, west, south, midwest, it doesn't matter, East Coast, West Coast, West, South, Midwest, it doesn't matter. I agree with you a thousand percent. It's real simple. There's a simple formula for this. The first part is make sure that you're registered. The second part is make sure that you have the right ID. The third part is making sure that all the people that you say that you love and that you care about, that you're helping them get to the polls. And the fourth part is making sure that you vote. And it's simple for me if you say you love your mama or your auntie or your grandmother or your community and you don't vote then there's something wrong with that picture all right folks uh gonna go uh say it again robert yeah i just said we we i think at this point we

have to figure out you know exactly what we can do as a community to empower ourselves, to understand that, look, it's not a straight line to opportunity and it's not a straight line to justice. And so when you look at what's happened right now with the president and the things that he's done with this tweeting to divide communities, to divide the country. I think that's a problem. But I think that we also have to be better at informing the people in our communities that the things that they see are actually there. Because when you have somebody like Bill de Blasio on stage talking about he's going to heal the lead water crisis across America, when we've got lead water coming out of the pipes

here in New York City, you know, there are plenty of people who hear that, get discouraged and say, you know what, it's hopeless, I'm just going to stay home. So I think we have to acknowledge the hypocrisy on both sides if we're actually going to empower people and embolden people to go out and then vote in spite of things that have gone wrong. Well, again, for me, you have a person to sit down and decide what do I care about and which can is aligned with what I care about. That's what's most important.

Folks, going to a commercial break. When we come back here, we're here in Santee, South Carolina. We're going to talk with Congressman Jim Clyburn, who's the host of this annual golf classic. Talk a little politics and some other stuff as well. Right here, Roland Martin, unfiltered, back in a moment. We have to create an art for liberation and for life. Artist Elizabeth Catlett. Welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered.

We're here in Santee, South Carolina for the annual golf tournament of Congressman Jim Clyburn. He's been talking trash for years, and I'm like, yo, you don't call a brother, so I call him a lassie. You know what? I'm going to fly to your tournament to play golf. Congressman, how are you doing? I am doing great, and I'm pleased to know that an alpha guy can absolutely keep a promise. I had no idea that you were going to keep this promise. That's interesting because I met the dude who handles your money, and he happened to be an alpha. That is quite true.

Yes, I'm on my side, yeah. So he trusted Omega with his money. He trusted an alpha with is quite true that's on my side yeah so he trusted omega with his money he trusted the alpha with his money that's true that's true you guys you know you guys are always number one number number one yes we are but you end up with omegas right but i ain't gonna be here soon but i ain't gonna be here so don't matter that's great thanks for coming so glad to be here let's talk about a couple of things. First off, before we talk about the tournament, in New York today, Judge Rule Daniel Pantaleo should be fired for the death of Eric Garner. The family has been fighting this for five years.

Just your thoughts. Well, having met the family, I was up in New York in the community. In fact, went to the area where he was suffocated. You may recall, I can't breathe. That's one of those things that I'll always remember. And his sisters, his mother, his now widow are just absolutely the salt of the earth people. And I'm glad to see that they're finally getting some justice, not as much as I think they

should have gotten, because this was an illegal chokehold. Everybody knows that. But this is some modicum of justice. I've got to also ask you about the petulant child that's sitting in the White House. I mean, relishing the home of Congressman Elijah Cummings being broken into. I mean, how childish. Well, it is something else, Roland. I would hope you could call it sophomoric or childish, juvenile.

But I think there's something else going on here. I think Nancy Pelosi called it right some months ago when she said it's time for the family to do an intervention. But I would hope, since I don't think the family will do it, I think it's time for the courts. Now, it may get time for the legislature, us in the Congress. But right now, there are various lawsuits in the courts, and it's time for the judicial system to do its job. And its job is to allow evidence that we're trying to get to, allow us to get to it. And right now, the reason we cannot gather the information that we need to gather is because in too many instances, he is hiring lawyers, the lawyers

are doing what they can to postpone things, and the courts need to intervene. And if we get the proper information, the legislature, that is the Congress, will do its job. You now got more than half of your caucus calling for impeachment, and that number is growing every day. Yes, but you know, those of us who are in trust with leadership in the party have got to keep two things in mind. We have to do what is right by the country, and we also have to do what is right by our constituents. And if you're in leadership, you've got two sets of constituents, those back home who will send you to Washington and those up in Washington who look to you to preserve the

integrity of their congressional service. And nobody wants to be in the minority. Everybody under present conditions want to be in the majority. Nobody wants to keep this president. Everybody in our caucus would like to get rid of this president. So we've got to do everything we possibly can to preserve those two fronts. Be sure that we don't do anything to jeopardize our majority and make sure we do nothing to short circuit a legislative process that could lead to impeachment. Now I had our second round of debates, won't be one in August. Next one is in September,

Texas Southern University. Are you satisfied with what you've heard? our second round of debates uh won't be one in august next one is in september uh texas southern university uh are you satisfied with what you've heard uh you know that too many people still on these stages or do you need to hear more especially for african americans because i've had talked to a lot of people who said frankly the moderators are not asking the questions that we want to hear you know the moderators are doing too much gotcha stuff. You know, ever since Shaw, my... Bernard Shaw, Michael Dukakis versus George W. Bush, 1988. 1988 opened up the debate with that lethal question that destroyed Dukakis' presidency, re-scrambled the cards.

We have always had that, and we've seen that taking place this time. Very first question the other night. Now, I didn't see the second debate, because as you know, or you probably know, I decided to celebrate the 400th year of African Americans coming into this country, visiting the door of no return in Ghana. So I did not see the second debate. You didn't miss much. No. But, you know, to have the very first question setting up contentiousness between two candidates

means that that's the way way that sets the tone. I would love to see some visionary questions coming up, having people lead into them being able to lay out their vision for the country. And we are getting that. And we are getting that because if you don't answer the question, you then called on it, and then you got 30 seconds after that, then 15 seconds, and then who knows when you will ever get a chance to lay out a vision. You can't lay out a vision in sound bites. And so we're in a sound bite world, and that's a problem for us.

I would hope when we get down from 20 to maybe 10, 10 used to be too much. I remember we had nine, and everybody thought that that was incredible back with Bill Clinton. You remember they called them the nine dwarfs or something. Now with 22, people are praying not to be more than 20. Now we're praying to get down to 10. Hopefully by the time we get to Southern University, we'll have a small enough number, because I want to see people lay out a vision,

especially in this 400th year. And real discussion. Real discussion. Because if we're going to talk about reparations or anything attending that too, we're talking about making repairs, making amendments, I'm sorry, making amends for what we have done, we ought to have some genuine discussions and let people lay out a vision.

All right. Now here we have the, of course, your golf tournament. That is about having fun. Raising, what, $700,000 of a scholarship for students? Yes. Tomorrow night, 150 young people will walk across the stage here. They will pick up somewhere around $200,000 in cash, another 150 laptops, 150 software packages, and other kinds of assistance to go into colleges and universities. And we don't have but two criteria for getting the scholarships. You are eligible for a scholarship if you live in the 6th Congressional District.

I don't care where you go to college. I don't care where you live. You are eligible for a scholarship if you go to school in the 6th Congressional District. And I want everybody to know that in the 6th Congressional Districts, I have seven HBCUs. The Citadel, Medical University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, Columbia College are all in the 6th Congressional District. So you got a plethora of colleges and universities that you can attend. So you can live in Madagascar, across Ghana, and decide to go to South Carolina State, you're eligible for one of these scholarships.

And so I'm looking forward to tomorrow night to handing out these scholarships, these awards, and hopefully they'll change some young people's lives. Well, I'm sure somebody watching who's saying, wait a minute, I didn't know about that. So if I send my kid to one of those schools, they should apply for one of these scholarships. Absolutely. I met two young people today. One was here because they have a health fair as well. We had a health fair all day here today. A lot of people come here for their annual checkups.

The two young people I met today both getting scholarships. They're both right here from Lake Marion High School, just a couple of miles from this conference center. One of them is going to the University of San Francisco. The other is going to St. Louis University. I told them that I'm not going to say much except that get the education and come back to South Carolina and help us out. All right.

Well, Congressman Clyburn, always good seeing you. Look at my defensive in this Hawaiian-type shirt. I want to keep everybody lively. I want you to come to South Carolina and go back feeling good. If I'm playing against you tomorrow, though, you may not feel too good. Actually, but when you see what I've got on, when you see all that alpha gear and an alpha golf bag, you're just going to throw up the moment you see it.

So I'm just letting you know. I put the Astros and the Texas A&M back in the garage. I said, no, no, he's going to see all alpha gear for the next two days. My Lord. I don't care if you have alpha. Just make sure it's purple and gold, not black and gold. Yeah, but y'all took one of our colors. Y'all couldn't even be original.

You took our color gold. No, we add some regal to it. Is that what y'all call it? Yeah, when you go to church, it's reverent. You see all the purple stuff? Yeah, but remember, Jesus was an alpha. I don't know about that. Jesus, well, he was a son.

But he was still an elf. Okay. Whatever you're saying. I'm going to check that out. Yeah, go ahead and check that out. Go ask your pastor about that. I will. Always good seeing you.

I appreciate it. Thanks so much. All right. In the end. Yes, sir. Really? Yeah, but the alpha part is first. Always good to see cars with Jim Clyburn.

All right, folks, I'm going to go to a commercial break. When we come back, we're going to talk about Centoya Brown, also a brother, freed from prison after 21 years for a crime he did not commit. Broadcasting live from Santee, South Carolina, this is Roland Martin Unfiltered back in a moment. Hey, fam, I want you to like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications. I remember union halls. And what I mean by that, union halls were places that the community would go.

And it wasn't just about collective bargaining. It was whether there was a local issue, a political issue. And there would be meetings in these union halls. They would often open up to young people. This is where you'd have dances. And they really did what you you said and with the death particularly the private sector unions i always ask the question where do they go now to be instructed on issues of public policy well we want them to still come to the union hall i mean

the union hall in many cases if it's operating in the proper way and being the best that it can be, is your second home. Okay, where people come in. That's what it used to be like, a second home. It was. There's no question. Yeah. Where you would come in, you would talk about issues, you would have your picnics. Right.

You would socialize. Right. But you would strategize and mobilize and educate while you were doing all of those kinds of things. And that's what we're doing now. It's getting back to basics. And one of the ways that we're doing that is having those individual conversations, asking people to come in and asking people to be participants and activists within their unions.

All right, folks, we want to thank AFSCME for being a partner here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. The support really makes all of this possible, so we certainly appreciate Lee Sonners and the folks at AFSCME. All right, folks, a couple of celebrity cases. Asep Rocky, a Swedish court has ruled that he can be let out of jail. Two other suspects as well, while they remain free until August 14th, when an assault verdict is going to be announced.

Of course, they have been in trial for the last few days. And so Asep Rocky and two of the suspects have been let out of jail in sweden until a decision is made r kelly he is still in jail today he pleaded not guilty the charges that he sexually exploited young women and girls who attended his concerts he appeared in a federal courtroom in brooklyn packed with his supporters for a second time he was denied bail according to the u.s attorney's office Office, in the Eastern District of New York. And speaking of getting out of jail, Centoya Brown, remember, she was a young lady who spent half her life behind bars. She will walk out of prison next week, August 7th, according to former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, who granted her clemency eight months ago. She's 31 years old, was sentenced to life in prison, life behind bars

for killing a man, but who also raped her. It says she was forced into prostitution by a pimp, and though she was only 16 at the time, she was tried as an adult and given a life sentence. This story here, though, is really a sad one. John Miller, finally free from prison after 21 years. He was cleared of murder, of a murder he never committed, more than 10 years after another man began confessing to the killing in an attempt to clear his own conscience. The actual killer is David Williams. He felt guilty even before Miller's first hearing back when he was arrested for the 1996 crime

and has been declaring his own culpability for more than 10 years. Miller has always maintained his innocence. I want to go to you. I mean, here's what is what is amazing to me. It is very rare when you hear one of these stories as a person whose retirement prison is white. And this is also why there are people who do not believe in the death penalty, because we've seen these cases where African-American men have been on death row and then free for crimes they did not commit. And I cannot imagine. I mean, my niece is 22. This man served 21 years in prison. I cannot. I just couldn't imagine spending two decades behind bars for something you know you didn't do.

Hearing his story, it almost makes me cry because I think of all of the time that he missed, all the family time, all the growth, everything that has changed in this country over the past three, four, five years, much less 20, and you maintaining your innocence the entire time, reaching out, trying to get as much support as possible. Meanwhile, investigators having information of the person who confessed and details linking him to the crime that he confessed to. So at that point, you have to acknowledge the fact that our criminal justice system has ingrained within it some really serious issues. Part of it goes back to prosecutors wanting to get a conviction extremely quickly, whether or not they have all the evidence or not. But in addition to that, it's also a juror system that is more likely to believe a black man is guilty just because he's a black man than actually

paying attention to evidence at the time. I think that cases like this, once they're brought to light and you see that someone has served such a long time and is now being released, we can't really call it justice because at the end of the day, he will never get those 20 years back. Never. And it's frustrating. It's outrageous. And Mustafa, in some of these cases, they aren't eligible for a lot of money.

It depends upon the state. And that's what's also shameful. You're having to restart your life and you spent 21 years behind jail. Many of these folks could have gone to college, could have been doing things. And now you're in your 40s and 50s, some case 60s, and you're trying to restart. Yeah, a number of what we probably would label as red states have moved forward on putting things on the books to stop folks from being able to get except a small amount of resources back for the time that they've spent, you know,

behind bars. And we've got to change that. But again, that goes back to our vote and being educated and knowing the things that we are looking for and making sure that we're putting the right people in office to help to move forward to address these past injustices and the injustices that continue to happen. And Joseph, this is why when I was talking about earlier, organizing and mobilizing when it comes to your vote, because now people realize who that district attorney is, can determine what happens with the criminal justice system. We know cases,

we have a Supreme Court case with a guy in Mississippi, the white DA, repeatedly kept striking black jurors from the trial, even when smacked down by courts. This is why we've got to have DAs with conscience. We've got to have judges with conscience. We've got to have politicians who are appointing judges, who are overseeing aspects of the criminal justice system, who are standing up and saying what is right and what is fair should always be the most important and not trying to base your career of the backs of throwing folks in prison for long periods of time yeah i mean the the hard truth

is that you know to my colleagues point that no this this is not justice and it happens time and time again um and whether it's a small amount of money or a life-changing amount of money nothing can give you back that time that you had have had with your family. And ultimately, the greatest crime is that those payouts come at the expense of the very communities from which these people come from. And so you're a person of color. Congratulations. You got $5 million. That's $5 million less that ultimately goes to education in that district, that goes to maintaining safety in those communities. I mean, we know concretely that the people who are responsible for injustice in this country are not the ones paying. When police officers abuse civil rights, that money is not coming out of their pension

funds. When you have judges who are corrupt, that money does not come out of their retirement funds. This money comes out of budgets for cities, and the majority of that money goes to the safety net for the people that depend on it. And so I think, again, to your point, yes, we have to make sure that people are in tune. That means not just the 23 people on stage running for president, but we have to know who's on our city councils. We have to know who's running for those city judges. We have to know who's running in those DA races because ultimately, most of the time, they have a larger impact on outcomes in our community than if people run at the federal level. All right, Joseph Pignon, Mustafa, Amisha, we surely appreciate all of you being on today's

Roland Martin Unfiltered panel. Thank you so very much. Folks, earlier this month, actually last month, we're now in August, we were at Essence Festival, had a chance to catch up with my girl Erica Alexander. She, of course, has several different projects going on, including Black Lightning. Here's our conversation. Hey folks, Rolla Martin here, 25th annual Essence Festival.

We are chatting with my home girl, Erica Alexander. A lot of y'all know her from living single. She's like, look, I'm on Black Lightning. She said, I'm on something new, not just something old as well. That's true. What's happening? Happening is a lot here. This is my first time at Essence.

Your first time? First time. I'm a virgin. All this blackness? That's what I said. It's a lot. And I'm appreciating it. You know what?

Negro love is real. Oh, no. It is. I tell people all the time, it is totally different. Absolutely. I mean, just folk want hugs. It's the kisses. Yes.

It's like, you my baby. Yes, everybody comes saying, you my baby. And also, New Orleans women, first of all, you're a man. No other woman say, hey, baby. Hey, baby. That's right. Nobody else says it that way. Hey, baby. Hey, baby. That's right. Nobody else says it that way. Hey, baby.

Hey, baby. It's beautiful. And there are really beautiful women walking around doing great things and talking to people, having discussions. It's great. Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk about, first of all, before we talk about what you're here promoting and working on, it was great to have you part of our reading of the Frederick Douglass July 5th 1852 speech listen I was glad to be asked I was

honored I didn't realize he had made this speech so you always turn people on to things that they don't know about and when I started to contemplate and actually look at the substance of the text you see how brilliant the man is oh it was a I mean that literally was, I think we ought to do this. You know what? I'm going to read this speech. Then I'm going to call some other people and see if they want to read part of the speech. Okay, well, then we're going to edit this whole thing together, and then we're going to stream it.

And it was just crazy. I mean, I literally just sent out, like, 50 text messages. Wow. It was like, we'll respond. Wow. And then, and I knew some people, we'll respond. Wow. And then, and I knew some people, stuff would happen,

they couldn't do it. Yeah. It was July 3rd. So I went in and did a whole, I read the entire speech, all 10,000 plus words. Okay. So then,

if anybody didn't send it in, boom, we already had it covered. Got it. Well, that's you, Roland, you have contingency plan for everything.

You're the hardest working man I know. More importantly, one of the smartest people in the world. The fact that you're on our side, when I say our side, the nation's side, the black community's side, black women. I see you have conversations with people and tell people who are supposed to be experts their job. And so the fact that you bring us this type of stuff is amazing. Well, we got to talk about, we with you for people vote. All these people still talk about what you said. Fuck. Oh, like, I mean, like three words. People, they were like, I said the young you were the young church. He like, yo.

Yeah, we know. But listen, I like when Michelle Obama said, when they go low, we go high. But that's not what always needs to be done. When they go low, bury them. Bury them with the truth. Bury cut off their oxygen because somebody has to go in there. We need gladiators and warriors to take these people out. They're playing a whole nother game. Right. They're not waiting for us to elevate. They're not elevating themselves. That's what for me. I always tell people when I was on CNN, when I'm on mainstream television, I said, no, I'm

going to put you in a rhetorical body bag. Like, I go in like, yo, I'm not playing games here. I remember when the CNN people called my agent once like, well, you know, can you tell me, you know, it's just television debate. I'm like, no, no, no. You don't understand. No.

That's something deeper. But you are dealing with warfare. Yes. Yes. And if people don't know it, then they know it now. They should have had a talent like yours out there debating and asking questions and pushing hard, not just people who were, you know, going to ask the same questions that they heard somebody else say and have rhetoric that goes around and regurgitates like somebody's day-old vomit. They need some people who would actually stop the discourse and say, no, that's wrong. And here's

why it's wrong. And then actually lay out a whole nother way to think. If we gave the American people that, we wouldn't have what we have right now in the White House, which is an abomination. Absolutely. Absolutely. So hopefully folks will understand that this ain't a game. No, it's not a game. And it's real. People's lives are in hand. Not only that, we're talking about not only our lives, but the world's lives. When you see him play games with other countries, Iran, to tickle them like they're a child.

This is not, they don't want, and you're not going to push them around. And here we are playing games. Why would you send somebody like that up there? They think, oh, we want to shake things up. You don't do that with something you love. You take care of it. You make sure that there's a great steward. You make sure that there's somebody passionate

and who knows the job. So if they're willing to do that, then we need warriors like you. Absolutely, absolutely. Let's talk about this here. All right. What are you doing? What's this? This right here. I thought you warriors like you. Absolutely. Let's talk about this here. What are you doing? What's this? Wu-Tang. So this is the emblem and the logo of the famous Wu-Tang clan.

And I am in the new series from Hulu, Wu-Tang and American Saga. Now I put on my Wu-Tang hat. For real. Wu-Tang and American Saga. Oh, thanks. It's a shout out to Big Dodd Custom Hats. They do a lot of things for the community in West Virginia, and I'm going to give them a shout-out, and they did the hat.

But I play Linda Diggs. Linda Diggs is RZA's mother. She's not with us anymore. She had 11 children in real life. Four are represented in the series. Ashton Sanders plays RZA. You've got Elijah Martinez, who was on a Broadway play while he was doing this. He plays Divine.

I've got Shiri Diggs. He's played by Zoli Griggs. And also a little young man named Justice Davis, who's actually a champion boxer. And he plays the baby. But we're doing that for five months in Staten Island. They filmed it in their community because they wanted to make sure they brought it back to the community. While they were there, they got a district named after them. So you're seeing how their phenomenon is just not a community neighborhood thing.

It's actually a global brand. What will somebody learn from watching this? I think the first thing they'll learn is that our stories as family are just as relevant as the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. And we need to. That's why it's so smart that they said Wu-Tang, an American saga. They put it up there. They made it hefty. Brian Grazier is the producer.

Alex Say and RZA wrote it. But what you have is some people who treated it with the love and care and passion, and more importantly, the delicacy and the complexity that that needs. We're talking about the early 90s, and everybody talks about what the 90s had, but we also ... We don't talk about all the redemption stories and all the transitioning that people did from the street to not only entertainment, but also as messengers of peace, and that's what they did. They learned from an ancient sort of obsession about movies, Chinese movies. They learned something within them was more powerful than all that.

And that's why we're here today. Well, first of all, sounds quite interesting. Thank you. I also, again, like that Hulu is diversified content as well. That's critically important with these streaming services. We also now with them have far more outlets, and we're not so locked in with the major seven film companies. Now the opportunities are there to tell our stories in totally different, unique ways. Look at what folks who have movies on Netflix,

something with Hulu. Now when you're on, you're not worldwide. You're not just in the U.S. Right. That's true. But we also have to make sure that we hold their feet to the fire because a lot of these same companies are owned by larger companies that seem to just swallow them up, like Pac-Man. And I think that we need to make sure that they don't build their brand with our people

and then dismiss us when it's time. Yep, yep. We've seen that before. We've seen that before, and we shouldn't let them do it. So I'm really hopeful that not only Hulu but all the other streaming services and all the people who have come out and companies are there to make a better tomorrow for everybody. Last question. The digital thing, you're still doing that?

Yes. The media company? Yes, Color Farm Media. So Color Farm Media, we're still around. We're producing the John Lewis documentary. Don Porter's our director. That will come out in 2020, around the early part of 2020, and then you'll see it in theaters and then on CNN all the time.

That's a blockchain thing? That's what I'm saying. No. Color Farm Media is my company that we produce film and television, but the blockchain, well, let me put it to you like this. Blockchain kind of fell out completely.

Not blockchain, but... I still don't understand it. Well, it's a ledger. It's a way to keep track of money. Got it. Listen, last time I came on, I ruined that, okay? So don't ask me now.

I was trying to... You were trying to help me out. And I was like... Well, you know, look, let me tell you something. Whether I can explain it or not, it is something that's actually legitimate that's going to change the world. But they...

Look, whenever you bring something out, people abuse it. And they started making companies that weren't real, and then the bottom fell out of it. The truth is that blockchain is still there. It's's real and what they do with it could be revolutionary but it won't be overnight all right okay and i'm doing the blackness the blackness that's what we're talking about the newsroom i was doing on it was the blackness yes yes and that that's real that's keep going we partnered with medium and we're going to be on their platform and we're going to do something rolling out called Moonrakers 2020. What is that?

That talks about the black women who often are behind these really power brokers who never get their place. So we talk about Mignon Moore. We're talking about Leah Daughtry. We're talking about, of course, Kamala Harris and all those other people will be featured. But I want to talk about the people who make that happen. They never get their due. And we can't wait till the candidates win to give them their due. Right. All right. You busy? Yeah. How about that? I'm so glad to be with you. All right, darling. Glad to see you. Anywhere you're at, I'm happy. Yes. Ciao. Alright, folks. We certainly appreciate all of you for watching us today.

Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm here in Santee, South Carolina for Congressman Jim Clyburn's annual golf classic, raising $700,000 to send students to college. Folks, this is why you gotta support Roland Martin Unfiltered. That interview with Erica Alexander at Essence Festival. We got tons of other interviews coming up in a couple of weeks. I've got an hour special with my friend Omari Hardwick that we're going to drop the day before the final season of Power premieres.

Why do I need y'all to support this year? First of all, I just checked. When we launched this show September 4th of last year, we had about 170,000 subscribers on YouTube. I'm going to actually get the actual number. Right now, folks, we are sitting at 338,240. That means we've doubled our YouTube channel in just under a year, just a year. So I want to get up to 350,000 before our September 4th anniversary. We also need you to support us.

I'll bring the Funk Fan Club. Every dollar that you give goes to support this show, allows us to travel, allows us to do interviews like with Erica Alexander, with Omari Hartwick, Joseph Sikora, Lorenz Tate, allows us to talk to Congressman Jim Clyburn, allows us to go to Houston next month to broadcast live from Texas Southern University on that Thursday night where the debate is going to be taking place. This is why we need independent black owned media.

I don't we're not asking somebody else. Can we come here? We're not asking somebody. Can we do this? We're actually doing it because we make those decisions. But it can only happen with your support. We appreciate AFSCME, one of our sponsors, 420 Real Estate, another one of our partners as well, the American Heart Association, XQ America. We appreciate all of them, what they've

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where we are traveling in 2020 on the road with these candidates, asking the questions, speaking to our people all across the country. That's the plan that we have. We want you on board as well. So please do so. So, folks, right now we're going to roll, of course, all the names of people who have given to our fan club. If you don't see your name, send me an e-mail. We'll actually add it.

If you have not gotten your promo code for discounts on my website, books and things along those lines, send me an e-mail as well so we can be sure to get that to you. All right, folks, I got to go. Monday, I will see you guys broadcasting from Miami for the National Association of Black Journalists. We're having our annual conference. I'm vice president digital on the board, so I got to go there a little bit early. I'll see you guys on Monday.

Y'all should have a great, great weekend. I'm going to hang out with the congressman and his constituents here in South Carolina. Y'all take care. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.