#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ahmaud Arbery death 1yr ago; Ga. GOP voter suppression; Andrew Young talks living wage, filibuster

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

2.23.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ahmaud Arbery death one year ago; Ga. goes hard for voter suppression; Andrew Young talks living wage, filibuster; Black franchisee Herb Washington sues McDonald's over racial discrimination; Meet the Co-founders of MahoganyBooks a Black Owned Bookstore in Washington D.C. that provides books written for, by or about the people of the African Diaspora.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car

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I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 star-studded 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. Today is Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021. Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasting live from Atlanta, Georgia. On today's show, we'll hear from former Ambassador Andrew Young. He talks about the importance of fighting for a $15 living wage

and also the issue of the filibuster when it comes to passing the John Lewis Voting Act, as well as the George Floyd Justice Act. We'll share that with you. Also on today's show, we'll talk to former Major League Baseball star Herb Washington, who are suing McDonald's, saying they wrongly treated him as a franchisee and actually chose to help out white franchisees over their black franchisees. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, she was confirmed today by the United States Senate, will tell you who voted for her and who didn't. Also, Merrick Garland, in his second day of testimony yesterday,

lots of time, him talking about discrimination, white supremacists, race equity. We'll show you some of that on today's show as well. Here in Georgia, the Republicans are doing all they can to pass voter suppression bills. We'll break down what is happening and the fight against them. And also, former Senator David Perdue said he's now not going to run against Pastor Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate next year. Also, Illinois has become the first state to abolish cash bail. And today is the first anniversary of the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Folks, an investigator released an update in the Elijah McClain case, the young brother who was shot and killed by cops in Colorado in 2019.

Also, we'll talk with the co-founders of Mahogany Books, a black-owned bookstore in Washington, D.C. that provides books written for, by, and about folks from the African diaspora. Folks, it's a quite busy show. It's jam-packed. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the biz, 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 believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling.

It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin 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 Martin Folks, we are here in Atlanta, Georgia on Today,

where we had an opportunity to sit down early with Ambassador Andrew Young. Later in the show, we're going to share with you some of what he told us. In this state today, people are honoring the life of Ahmaud Arbery, the brother who was killed, shot and killed on this day one year ago as he was jogging in a town here in Georgia. Now, you remember Travis McMichael and his father-in-form police officer, Greg McMichael, they follow Arbery in the truck before gunning him down with a shotgun. Their neighbor, Roddy Bryan, followed as well and recorded the entire ordeal.

Arbery's death, of course, was overlooked for months, but it really rose to prominence when you, of course, had to focus on Bramlin Taylor in his case as well. It wasn't until that video came out and the pressure that was put on people when they were finally targeted. And of course, remember, this took place in the Satilla Shore subdivision where he fell bleeding in the street at the three shotgun blast. Folks, his family doing all they can to make sure people remember his life. There was a memorial procession that was planned this evening as well. And so that's what was going on there. Now, yesterday during the Senate confirmation hearing,

Merrick Garland, Georgia Senator John Ossoff specifically asked Garland about this particular case. Here is their exchange. Judge, I want to ask you about equal justice. Black Americans the president's office, and the president's office, and the president's office, and the president's office, and their exchange. Judge, I want to ask you about equal justice. Black Americans continue to endure profiling, harassment,

brutality, discrimination in policing and prosecution and sentencing and incarceration. How can you use the immense power of the office of the attorney general to make real America's promise of equal justice for all? And can you please be specific about the tools that you'll have at your disposal? Yeah. So this is a substantial part of why I wanted to be the attorney general. I am deeply aware of the moment that the country is in. When senator Durbin was reading

the statement of Robert Kennedy, it just hit me that we are in a similar moment to the moment he was in. So there are a lot of things that the department can do. One of those things has to do with the problem of mass

incarceration. The over incarceration of things that the department can do. One of those things has to do with the problem of mass incarceration, the over-incarceration of American citizens and of its disproportionate effect on black Americans and communities of color and other minorities. There are different ways in which we can try that is disproportion in the sense both of population but also given the data we have on the fact that crimes are not committed by these communities crimes are not committed in any greater number than than in others and that similar crimes are not charged in the same way

so we have to figure out ways to deal with this. So one important way, I think, is to focus on the crimes that really matter, that attract our, to bring our charging and our resting on violent crime and others that deeply affect our society and not have such an overemphasis on marijuana possession, for example, the our charging policies again and go back to the policy that I helped Janet Reno draft during her period and that Eric Holder drafted while he was the Attorney General of not feeling that we must charge every offense to the maximum, that we don't have to seek the highest possible offense with the highest possible sentence, that we should give discretion to our prosecutors to make the offense and the charge fit the crime and be proportional

to the damage that it does to our society, that we should look at our sentence, we should also look closely and be more sympathetic towards retrospective reductions in sentences, which the first step act has given us some opportunity, although not enough, to reduce sentences to a fair amount. And legislatively we should look at equalizing, for example, what's known as the crack powder ratio, which has had an enormously disproportionate impact on communities of color but which evidence shows is not related to the dangerousness of the of the two drugs and we should do as as president biden has suggested

seek the elimination of mandatory minimum so that we once again give authority to district the court. I think it's important to understand that the court decision-making process is based on the fact that the court decision that Biden has suggested seek the elimination of mandatory minimum. So that we once again give authority to district judges, trial judges to make determinations based on all of

the sentencing factors that judges normally apply and that don't take away from them the ability to do justice in individual cases. All of that will make a big difference in the things that you're talking about. Thank you, judge Garland. Let's discuss accountability for local agencies. The civil rights division has

the authority to launch pattern or practice investigations targeting systemic violations of constitutional rights or violations of federal statutes governing law enforcement. Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the state of Georgia. I'm not going to be the one who decides whether or not we're going to have constitutional

rights or violations of federal statutes governing law enforcement. Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the murder of Ahmad Arbery in glen county, Georgia, who was shot to death in broad daylight in the street

on camera. But local authorities chose to look the other way and were it not for the court of law would have been able to investigate it. But the court of law chose to look the other way and were it not for the activism of Georgia's NAACP there likely would not have been any prosecution in that case.

How can congress equip DOJ's civil rights division to launch more and more effective pattern or practice investigations without asking you to comment on the details of the Arbery case? the case. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right

answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right

answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm not sure that's the right

answer. I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'm say is that like many, many Americans, I was shocked by what I saw in videos of black Americans being killed over this last summer. That's, I do think, created a moment in the national life that brought attention from people who had not seen what black Americans and other members of community of color had known for decades. But it did bring everything to the fore and created a moment in which we have an opportunity to make dramatic changes and really bring forth equal justice under the law, which is our commitment of the justice department. So the civil rights division is the place where we focus these

operations. You're exactly right that pattern and practice, pattern or practice investigations are the core of our ability to bring actions here. That these lead to all different kinds of remedies, sometimes

consent decrees as a potential remedy. We also can criminally prosecute violations of constitutional rights. And we can also provide funding for police departments to reform themselves. I do believe that officers who follow the law and the constitution want that accountability. They want officers who do not to become accountable. Because if that doesn't happen,

their law enforcement agency is tainted. They lose the credibility in the community. And without the community's trust, they can't do anything. So I think that's a big challenge for the law enforcement agency is tainted, they lose the

credibility in the community, and without the community's trust, they can't bring safety. So we have this number of tools. Whether we need additional tools in this particular area, I don't know. Obviously, the resources are necessary. Probably going to be like a broken record in every one of these areas for us to do our job. And Judge Garland, with my time, will you commit to working with my office and with this committee to determine what additional authorities the department may need and what resources you may require in order to be able to bring more and more effective pattern of

practice investigations where appropriate? Absolutely, Senator. I'm sorry to have gone on. No problem. All Absolutely, Senator. I'm sorry to have gone on. No problem. All right, folks, let's talk about, of course, this with our panel. Terrace Todd, board member of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of Michigan. Mustafa Santaglio Ali, Ph.D., former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA. And Amisha Cross, political analyst and democratic strategist. Mustafa, I will start with you.

Again, a year ago, Ahmaud Arbery shot and killed. It really wasn't until April where his story really went national. And then, of course, it was Breonna Taylor right before that. His story goes national. And then the intensity. And then we begin to find out that the local DA chose not to prosecute. A second DA chose not to prosecute. And how one of the DAs essentially writes a document that was more like a defense attorney for the men who were involved. And it

wasn't until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over. 24 hours later, the first two men were charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Well, you know, that's why this confirmation is so incredibly important. You know, we often talk about both in the criminal justice system, our courts, our district attorneys, but also, you know, the attorney general has a huge amount of influence and power in making sure that not only on the federal level that things are moving forward through a justice lens, but also in working with those states to hold them accountable and to make sure, again, as he said, that the resources are there for police departments and other law enforcement entities to be able to do the right thing.

You know, and then also, you know, making sure that you're building confidence and trust, which has been broken with communities of color. You know, if it wasn't for someone actually having the video and for that video to finally get out and then the subsequent other information that came, then this case, as you have said and others have said, would have just drifted away, you know, and the other thousands of instances of people being murdered. And let's just call it out what it is. You know, he was actually hunted down. They made a conscious choice to do the actions that they did. And then when you have folks who are part of the process

who are defending the individuals who have murdered someone, you know, that speaks volumes about not only who they are, but that system that's in place. And that's why so many folks have been talking about a system change, a system overhaul, because, you know, we've got to extract systemic racism out of the legal system and the law enforcement system.

And that's why I'm hopeful that the new attorney general will be able to assist in that. Terrace, you are probably going to have here a much better opportunity when it comes to dealing with civil rights protections, if you will. Because when Attorney General Eric Holder was there, one of his complaints was that they didn't, they were not able to properly go after people because of the limitations of the law. When someone's civil rights were being violated. I think this is going to be different. So the feds will wait until the outcome of the criminal trial in Georgia before they decide to move forward with any civil rights charges.

Can you hear me okay? Terrace? Yes, go ahead. Okay, good. I'm getting a delay. But yeah, Manal, thanks for actually having me, man. In this particular situation with his confirmation, man, I think what's going to be most important is that he can remain objective

and not really politicize his current position. Obviously, people are kind of sick of politics and actually politicizing everything. And so I don't see him having really a big issue with actually being confirmed if he can do that and also making for sure that his views on law enforcement along with anti-discrimination laws are pretty solid. And so, but you're right.

I mean, you know, unfortunately, and rest in peace, and my condolences go out to Ahmad's family, man, because this is obviously something that should have never happened. The United States of America is the envy of the world, and people really come here because of the rule of law. And I hope and pray that this individual, if he's confirmed, that he would do just that to make sure that we are continuing to be the ones that uphold the law and bring people to justice as well. So, but no, but thanks. I appreciate that.

Can you hear me okay? Amisha, yeah, we hear you just fine. We hear you just fine. Some audio, if y'all can work on that delay issue. Amisha, again, this is one of those cases where it's difficult for us to have to sit here and talk about it. Because, again, for a lot of people to see the video, to see the video of Ahmaud Arbery being gunned down, his life ending. And these white men chasing him down. This was indeed a lynching.

That's what it was. And people could sit here and try to dance around it all they want to, but we understand exactly what this is. And this is what black folks have had to deal with. And the point that John Ossoff, Senator Ossoff, was making, and the questioning is, when will there truly be justice? I mean, that that really is the issue that so many people have. When are you actually going to see justice take place in these cases and then take place when it's supposed to?

Not when we're having to stand up, yell, kick and scream just to get folks to do the right thing. And that's not what happened in this case where you went through three DAs. And then finally, after all of that, finally, finally, the investigation takes place and they are arrested. This is all black folks are saying. Can we just stop? Can we stop having a Yale kick and scream for this stuff to happen? I think you're absolutely spot on here, Roland. One of the issues that has consistently been pushed against this case has been that we did have video footage. We saw in this case what black people have seen for decades, for generations at this

point, where white men with guns took it upon themselves to roll up on an African-American in a pickup truck and basically kill them and have no reprieve whatsoever. And it'd be totally outside of their authority to even attempt to arrest or to do anything to this man at all. Mind you, these were not officers. And even if they were, this would have been a case that was outside of the realm of how they should have handled business. I think that what you see here, and I'm so glad and honored that we have now two senators who are Democrats from the state of Georgia, one of which being John Ossoff, who was able to present this and talk about it during the Merrick Garland confirmation hearing today. But I think that the point is that there are so many African-Americans who are wondering

how many more cases will it take. First, it was people didn't believe us. They didn't, they wanted to ignore our stories. They didn't want to see it. Now there's video footage, video upon video of multiple cases where Black people have just been gunned down in the most brutal ways. And yet we still don't see the level of criminal justice or justice brought to those families that we should be seeing, even when there is literal footage in place. And I think that with this case specifically, we saw stall after stall, changing of DAs. We saw, you know, the jury process.

We saw delays. It pains me to understand and watch Ahmaud Arbery's mother speak, to watch Ahmaud Arbery's mother go through this entire process, to watch people from Atlanta have to drive down. And Atlanta is nowhere near where Ahmaud Arbery was actually shot and killed, to see people from around the country, Black people and civil rights advocates, stand together and say that we need to do something. And yet still, we're how many months out of this actual murder, and we have yet to see any level of justice?

I think that there is something that comes from that. It tells Black people we don't matter. It tells black people that a white person can shoot us down like dogs in the street and keep going, and they are protected. It is a frustrating process, and we see it time and time again. I think that Merrick Garland, this is a position where he gets to try to level set,

try to reset the stage when it comes to race relations in this country and elevate how it has been a dystopian reality for African-Americans when it comes to the system not working for us. I think that he has the opportunity to really make sure that there is equity in this system, to make sure that these voices are finally heard, to make sure that Lady Liberty and justice does not evade us just because we happen to be Black. I think that that is his call. That is one of the reasons why, you know, he was chosen for this role, but also because we're at a point in this nation's history where you can no longer ignore these. You

can no longer ignore the videos. You can no longer ignore that time after time we're seeing our bodies laid bare and bloodied in the streets. You can't turn the page and just keep moving. And I think that this position is going to allow him, should he be confirmed, and I think that he will, to have the opportunity to really change and level set when it comes to how these cases are handled. The issue that we're now dealing with, not just this particular case, but so many other issues, is when you're also dealing with white Republicans who don't have the same view of justice for African-Americans. So if we go beyond and not the Ahmaud Arbery case, we look at what's happening in this state, how shameful and egregious the actions of Republicans are in In the state legislature, as we speak, they're doing all they can not to address

cases like the Ahmaud Arbery case. What they're trying to do is literally steal future elections. Massive voter suppression laws are being passed, are actually being considered in Georgia as we speak, and various groups are doing all they can to fight these efforts. Joining us right now is someone who has been doing that. She, of course, serves in the Georgia legislature, Senator Tanya Anderson. She is with the Georgia Black Caucus. I'm certainly glad, Senator Anderson, to have you with us. Thank you for having me. This is the first time I've been back in Atlanta since we spent five weeks here in December and January helping Ossoff and Warnock win. And I warned everybody. I said, look, it's coming. It's coming. I can guarantee you they are going to do all they can to try to steal the election.

They're going to change as many laws as they can. They are going to just, you know, again, trying to, you know, trying to run a rough shot over people. And that's what that's what we're seeing. And when you talk about these laws, what you're seeing is, uh, Republicans, uh, who can't win on ideas, don't want to convince folks to vote for them. They want to steal elections, give our viewers and listeners an understanding of the kind of evil things that they're doing there in the state house. So again, let me say, thank you for having me having me, Roland Martin. I just absolutely love you. And I love your show and I love the work that you do. So I serve as the chair of the Georgia

Legislative Black Caucus, which is the largest black caucus in these United States, which means that we have almost 70 black state representatives or state senators in the state of Georgia, which means we represent a very large group of black people. And what happened, you saw what happened. We danced and loved your video, Show Up, John P. Key, and everybody danced and celebrated. What happened is that they lost. What's happening now is that they are upset. They are angry. They are mad. As we say, they are mad, mad. And they are introducing laws to try to keep themselves in power as this too is a form of a privilege that they have a right to govern. And we received emails upon email when Trump lost. And just everyday folks, folks on the street, folks in other states,

emailing us 200 or 300 emails per day saying, stop the steal. The election was fraudulent. You know, recount. And so they're upset. And one lady had the nerve to say that we don't, we're not governed, we govern. And, you know, I thought how caring of her to say that you're not supposed to be governed,

that you are to govern other people. So it's another form of privilege. It's another form of wanting to remain in power and not wanting to lose their grip. But at the end of the day, we knew in Georgia that we were going to show up again for the runoff. And we had a mandate. It's been a plan. And as a matter of fact, we today in the Senate had four bills, and just a few of the bills will remove drop boxes. It will allow for more than one form of ID. It will require that you have to be proved that you are over 75 or disabled in order to vote absentee. Just a few of the bills that are to cripple, to stifle, to roll back. That which

John Lewis fought for, Congressman Lewis fought for, and Dr. King and Dr. C.T. Bibian and Joseph, all of our civil rights heroes fought for. And we're in 2021 trying to maintain those liberties, trying to maintain those freedoms. And it's absolutely despicable how they are pouting and believe in the lies of Trump, which has rolled into creating legislation that is a lie behind the lies that they were fed. My issue is that they are creating a solution to a problem that does not exist. And it's not just Georgia. The reality is they are doing this in Iowa, in North Carolina, in Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas,

going on and on and on. They don't like the fact that people actually used mail-in voting. They are trying to throw out, you didn't have a signature match when you actually did. And it's ludicrous to listen to what they're saying. How can you stop it? The reality is they control the legislature. They control the governor's mansion.

A little bit later, I'm going to hear from Ambassador Andrew Young, where we talked about where people are calling for senators to actually end the filibuster and to pass a very strong John Lewis Voting Act that will be able to stifle these states from the abhorrent laws that they are considering. Absolutely. And not only will it take introducing a strong John Lewis Civil Rights Act, but it's also going to take partnerships with our Congressional Black Caucus from the state level. We have to, in Georgia, I'm almost sure we have the largest Black Caucus, and we have the largest Congressional Black Caucus delegation, I'm sorry, delegation, Georgia delegation in the Congressional Black Caucus. We also have to partner with our new

president and his administration to, you know, because what happened with our elections in Georgia, you know, everyone says, oh, we got to do what Georgia did. We got to do what Georgia did. But what may not be obvious is that we got to this point now, they stole the election from Stacey Abrams, but we got to this point because of the lawsuits. There were several, three from Fair Fight, the other two from other organizations. But we have to meet them where it matters and meet them where it hurts, because at the end of the day, they will continue to try to do this throughout the 50 states. Well, you're absolutely right. It is going to be a significant battle, which is why

I said it in Florida after Amendment 4 passed, gird yourself for the battle. Same thing here because Republicans, they are desperate. They do not want to see Stacey Abrams elected governor next year. They do not want to see Pastor Raphael Warnock reelected to a six-year term next year as well. So they're going to try to do all they can. And so I promise that Roland Martin Unfiltered will be back in this state doing all we can to help you, the Black Caucus, and others because, again, these are issues that affect us in a unique way. And if they are successful in Georgia, other Republicans across the country will see that and say, we can do it as well. So we certainly appreciate all the work that

you're doing, Senator Anderson and the Black Caucus of Georgia. Thank you so much, Roland. Thank you. Thank you very much. Alicia Cross, I want to go to you again. This is what I've always said. In the history of America, black success has always been followed by white backlash. And the success of black people voting in this state in December, first of all, in January, the success of black people voting and electing Ossoff and Warnock and rewarding this state to Biden and Harris, white backlash. That's what this is. That's how they operate. Again, it hit the nail on the head. Republicans have a playbook, and the playbook is let's create fear. Let's create chaos and mayhem,

let's act as though voter fraud is real and the only real fraud is coming from them as they continue to try to limit access to the polls. The frustration I have here is that the writing was on the wall. Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight, several organizations on the ground, including the ACLU and others, have been doing the work, doing the work to ensure enfranchisement of African Americans, doing the work to ensure Blacks in the cities as well as in the rural areas came out to vote in droves, making sure that the suburbs were seen in large number. And this is groundwork that had been laid for over a decade. At some point, there had to be some level of inkling that things, just the winds of change might come about in the great state of Georgia. So we see this, and we see African-Americans come out in droves. We see the record number. We see

that turnout be amazing, not only in terms of early voting, but also in terms of mail-in voting, which they work very hard to eradicate. And the response isn't, hey, Republican Party, let's think about what we can do to engage African-Americans. Let's think about what we can do in terms of outreach. Let's think about what we can do to engage African Americans. Let's think about what we can do in terms of outreach. Let's think about what we can do in terms of policies that don't not only disenfranchise, but also try to keep Black folk back in the place that they think that we belong. Let's do some things that don't resemble the Confederacy.

Oh, no. Their response is, let's keep those Negroes from going to the polls. Let's keep them from voting in general. Let's ensure these rights that they have, those rights that we have as American citizens are eradicated and chipped away by creating these bills and pushing them at the state legislature where Republicans have the power, pushing them at the state legislature where they know that if they create these barriers, that they can totally erase many of the wins that we've

seen over this past election, because they want to do this, and they want to hyperspeed it. They want to do this in record time because they are afraid that come midterms, this population is going to come out again. That now that black people understand their power, that black people understand just how much their vote actually matters in Georgia, that they're going to continue to come out. So in order to erase all of that, it's not to run better Republican candidates and let's not be racist.

It's to stop Black people from actually showing up by stopping, you know, souls to the polls, by limiting the early voting, by, you know, making it harder to actually show up, by removing some of the polling places, by doing all that they can, voter ID laws. We're seeing this time and time again. It's not just Georgia. It's other states where Black voter turnout was strong as well.

It's almost in every state, ironically, but not so much, that President Trump actually tried to challenge the voter because Black people showed up in force. I think that this is one of those times where we're seeing American history become America's present, where the argument to sit down, shut up, make sure that Black voices aren't heard because progress has come too swiftly for a lot of white people, particularly Republicans across this country, they're uncomfortable, and they don't want to be uncomfortable. And the only way to reach their comfort again is to ensure that Black people use their voice. Mustafa, for those folks who are watching, this is also why we keep emphasizing state elections, because those who control the state legislatures are writing these rules. And there were a lot of people who voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 who did not vote in 2010.

That's what allowed Republicans to cement their power controlling legislatures. All of these things go together. They're all intertwined. You can't just say, President, U.S. Senate, Congressional races, I'm good. No, it's gubernatorial, it's state senator, it's state representative. They all go together. Yeah. And that's why, you know, it's so important for us. One reason everybody should be going out and getting everybody you know to watch this show so that you actually get educated. And that's why you also have to support the National Black Caucus of State legislators. And you have to support the national black mayors and others who are inside of these halls navigating and trying to, so that you don't get pimped by these sets of actions that folks are doing to literally take power from you

and from your communities and resources, and also to help you to understand the playbook that was just talked about a little bit. So, you know, these sets of actions have been going on. The Reconstruction, they saw too many Black folks actually getting elected to state offices and others, and then they began to tighten up and to change the rules. And then the same thing in the 50s and the 60s.

And then I would also say that they did the same thing when Newt Gingrich and them came in on the state level to be able to sort of entrench their power. And now we find ourselves today. So I just want to remind folks, there are two different dynamics that are going on. You have the foot soldiers. The foot soldiers are those white nationalists, you know, who stormed the Capitol and who

did those types of egregious behaviors that everybody saw. And then you have the strategists. The strategists are the folks at the Heritage Foundation. They're the Koch brothers and other individuals who are actually helping to fund and they're also helping to write many of these laws and to support them so that they can get instituted. So if you don't understand the game, then you're gonna get played. So you gotta understand, yeah,

we gotta address the white nationalists, but you also gotta address these strategists who are the ones who are putting these things in place in states across the nation to hold onto power as long as they can. We've highlighted for you before here on this show how similar these sets of actions are to what folks did in South Africa during apartheid, when they knew that the numbers were not there for them to be able to hold on to power. So then

they began to play these games both on the writing of legislation and then also holding on to power with judges and attorneys, district attorneys, and all these other types of things that we have in our country that relate to the same things that happened in South Africa. Terrace, just so people understand, you're there in Michigan. Perfect example, you've got a Democratic governor there. Republicans right now are so upset with her COVID mandates, they're withholding the spending of $2 billion in COVID funds to force her to back down. That's what Republicans do when they have an agenda.

They will power, and they are ruthless, and they're gangster when it comes to that power. Yeah, Roland, I want to make it clear that I'm actually from Michigan, but I actually since we have relocated here to the D.C. area. But I'm very much aware of what's happening in the state of Michigan. And one of the things about politics and why people are so sick of it is because it's called the game of politics. Unfortunately, because I've been in this thing for quite some time. And I mean, what you'll find, too, is that many of these individuals are obviously in bed with each other. You know what I mean? They put on a certain look to the public just to put on a certain look.

So that way it portrays that, you know, they're still down for this side or that side. But when they get off camera, you got to understand that or what people got to understand is that some of these people are in cahoots. They're at each other's weddings. They're going to dinner. They're doing all these things, man. And so in the state of Michigan, man, I've had like, for example, what we, I know some of you guys mentioned too, you know, racism, for example, racism doesn't have a side. It's the evil of a person's heart for the most part, because I have actually experienced some things in Calhoun County, Michigan myself, you know, and actually had to call some things to task. And it was not necessarily from Republicans. It was actually from Democrats. As a matter of fact,

in Calhoun County in 2012, there were buttons of Obama portrayed as a monkey. And so many of us had to come out at the NAACP, because I am also a former NAACP president, a local branch president as well. And so we had to call those people to task. But unfortunately, stuff like that happening in the state of Michigan, and in particular Calhoun County, some of that gets brushed under the rug. So I want to make it clear that when it comes to these types of things, man, Black people have to be very careful to understand that we should always be on the side of right. You know, I look at things from if it's just or unjust. I don't actually put things in categories, if you will.

And so in the state of Michigan, for example, I know the governor, she's coming under great scrutiny as well. And in some cases, she rightfully should be because it's impacting a lot of local small business owners, for example, in the city of Detroit, you know, who's 70, 70, 80 percent black. You've got a lot of small black owned businesses, man, that are not being able to survive simply because of some of the mandates that she's placing on. And so my heart really goes out to those people because we want to see those black businesses flourish and do well. And so anyway, I just wanted to put that out there to make for sure that we're holding everybody to task, regardless of right, left, blue, red or whatever.

As a people, we're losing, man. And so we got to gain some ground and get our power back. And the power to get it back is obviously at the election box, but also electing people that have our best interest at heart in the end uh you're absolutely right about that and what that means is that means that people are going to have to be engaged in this particular battle earlier today had opportunity to catch up with my frat brother, Ambassador Andrew Young. Always great to see him. 88 years old. He has slowed down a little bit, but his mind is still as sharp as ever.

We had an opportunity to talk about not just the issue of the minimum wage, but also what folks need to do when it comes to fighting for that filibuster, to get rid of it, to pass that John Lewis voting bill and the George Floyd Justice Act. Here is

some of our conversation a little bit earlier today. Ambassador Young, there's a really aggressive fight right now led by our frat brother, Reverend William Barber and others on this $15 minimum wage, living wage. They're pushing Congress,

trying to get Senator Joe Manchin and others. What more should they be doing and what should they be saying to these members of Congress to get them to understand why this is critically important? Well, I'm not sure about where the Congress is on this, but it's something that has to happen. And it can happen all at once, or they can have a graduated increase over a short period of time. I got, well I got waylaid by a number of black businessmen here in Atlanta. And they were saying that they were already underwater and they couldn't move immediately and I said well I don't know how it's going to work out

but we've got to get to the fact and when I became mayor that's the first decision I made that there would be nobody on our payroll that made less than the poverty line and we immediately raised garbage workers police everybody

so everybody would be and in fact now the sanitation workers and the water workers are making more than I made as mayor. And they're getting pensions and I didn't get a pension. But you have to look out for the people who are the essential workers. That's the best thing,

the best term that's come out of Black Lives Matter and the pandemic, essential workers. Because we used to talk about poor people and everybody gets turned off. But when you realize that you can't run a hospital,

you can't have a clean city if you have trash in the streets and open sewers. And if your water is not clean coming out of the tap. We learned that from Flint. But every city has got to be very, very careful about what comes out when they turn on the water, especially for drinking water. And those workers matter.

People, when you go into grocery stores, those workers... They keep us alive. Right. And they are essential to the survival of any urban area. Trust me, grocery stores, when the grocery stores shut down,

I don't care how much money you have, Bob Mines, you're going to have issues. Sunday was the 81st birthday of the late Congressman John Lewis. Same thing. Republicans all across this country are trying to push these voter suppression laws. Georgia, they real mad because of

Biden winning this state and Warnock and Ossoff. And you got Manchin, Sinema, Feinstein in the Senate. We don't want to get rid of the filibuster. Bottom line is this here. Democrats don't get rid of the filibuster. They cannot pass the John Lewis Voting Act to confront what the Republicans are doing. And this is where I'm saying, I believe, if they keep it up, it's going to take a mass of folk hitting D.C. saying, y'all going to get rid of filibuster to pass this because if you don't,

they're going to steal the election in 2022. You got to get rid of the filibuster for the George Floyd Justice Act and for that John Lewis Voting Act. Yeah, no question about that. And I'm hoping, and again, I was surprised after Selma that we got the Voting Rights Act so quickly.

And really so easily. But Lyndon Johnson was committed. and Lyndon Johnson knew the Senate Well, Joe Biden is committed and Joe Biden knows the Senate. The question is Do we have enough leverage? And Can we keep our troops together and our troops are not just black troops. I think one of the best things that happened as a result of Black Lives Matter

is that white people realized that... And Dr. King told this to the business people in Birmingham. He said, look, you cannot keep us down in the gutter if you don't keep one foot on us down there with us. And he said, if you're going to get out of the gutter, you've got to let us out of the gutter, and we can stand together as brothers, and we can do things and go places,

and you can see that in Birmingham. You can see that in Birmingham. You can see that in Atlanta. And we've got to have, well, Citigroup did a study that said discrimination costs the the economy, $16.5 trillion between 2000 and 2020. Well, the whole national, gross national product is just $19 trillion a year. So $16 trillion is a lot of money. And I think that all of a sudden, we are hearing bankers and we're hearing Walmart. We're hearing people realize

that the fortune is at the bottom of the pyramid. And if you're going to grow the economy, you can't grow it from the top down. You grow it from the Congress and help them get over some of their petty racism. Racism does not pay. It is ignorant, it is stupid. And you're hurting yourself as much as you're hurting anybody else. But people have lived with it so long, they're threatened by the challenges

that come with social change. A little hard to give up that pile of net money. Well, it is and it isn't, see? Like, I was preaching Sunday. I preach on the third Sunday in my church. And I ran across a kid, my next-door neighbor, see? There was an article that I would have missed. But he made a lot of money.

Back when Maynard was mayor and I was mayor and we were building the airport and the Olympics, he was a project manager on all this. But he doesn't throw away any money. He doesn't live flashy and he's quiet. And the article found him out that he's been investing in the high-tech startups. And he's been an angel investor in this town for the last 20 years. You see? And that's beginning to pay off. This, like, somebody put some money into this. This didn't just happen.

You see? And you have to invest money to make money. That's right. And starting with MARTA, our mass transit system, in 1971, we have made sure that black entrepreneurs get a piece of every action. We started with 20% of the overall project.

Maine had said no, 25% of each and every contract. When I came along, I just gradually eased it up to 40%. And when they asked me about it, they said, that's too much. I said, no, that's not enough. I said, look, if we bring the Olympics here, 40% of $2 billion, see, that sounds like a lot of money. But that's chicken change compared to what's going to come in here if we get the Olympics, see?

And if we get the Olympics, we might have $2 billion, but there'll be $10 to $20 billion coming in that the city doesn't control. I said, now you're going to get 95% of $20 billion. But if we get to fighting about 40% of $2 billion, you're not going to get anything. Because people do not invest money, and they do not come to places where there's racial turmoil.

See? So... it's a constant education job. That God put the world together so that we either learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will perish together as fools. Well, we're having that battle. There was a study that was done that showed the federal

government over five years spent $5 billion on media advertising and black media only got 51 million out of the 5 billion. And the same with these ad agencies. I have made this omission on my show and I've had some black folks who've said Roland I think you're being too harsh I think you're you're pushing too hard I said folk I can't be satisfied with 1% no it's not you see is if they want I mean take Popeyes here in Atlanta. Popeyes is largely, well, Hank Aaron owned a lot of them.

But when, I mean, we had a real recession going until Popeyes comes out with a new sandwich. And next thing you know, they got lines behind every Popeyes. And folk actually fight their line to get those sandwiches, see? And it's do you have a thriving, growing economy or do you have a sick, dying economy? Yep. Now, you can hold on to what you got and you will get sick and die with it.

And you can't take it with you no uh but you can reinvest it and you can grow it and then you might even be able to get into heaven in spite of your past sins because the bible that i read says when you get to the pearly gates they're going to ask you did you feed hungry but i was hungry and you fed me i was thirsty and you gave to the pearly gates, they're going to ask you, did you feed them hungry? But I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me the drink. I was sick and in prison and you visited me. And they asked the Lord, well, when did we see you, Lord? Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these, my brethren,

you did it unto me. Now, there are a whole lot of rich old folks that don't know what to do with their money. And if they pass it on to their children and grandchildren without any values, without any vision, and without a sense of responsibility for the kingdom of God here on earth, then they're creating hell on earth.

I mean, that's what is boredom and too much money that gets people into drugs. And that is responsible for a lot of the chaos in our individual lives. The most dangerous thing, I think, about the last president was there were no values. None. No values about anything but himself. Thank you. The American Pronunciation Guide Presents ''How to Pronounce Atlantic'' We are in a dangerous time and we've got to move quickly. But at the same time, I was preaching Sunday, and I was talking about the virus,

and how did we get on top of that? And then I looked it up, and I found that there was somebody by the name of Kizmekia. And I said, now, what nationality is that? And I said, where is she from? And I looked, and she's from a little country town in North Carolina. I said, damn, that's a black mama maid name. You know, Kizmekia or Kizzy is a sister. damn, that's a black mama maid name. Kizmeki or Kizzy is a sister. Right.

And she was smart. They took her out of her elementary school and put her in a specialist, you know, special education. And they treated her fairly. And then she got a grant to get a doctorate at University of North Carolina. And I don't know how she ended up doing it, but she was interested in tropical viruses 20 years ago, 10 years ago. And she's just 34 now but she spent six

years in Sri Lanka the Indian subcontinent studying these tropical viruses so when they came around nobody knew anything about it but they realized yeah sister Kinsey has been studying this when nobody understood that it would one day be important. And so the Lord always has a ram in the bushes. And I was so proud that this sister from North Carolina, and that was the reason I went, called up Morehouse Medical School.

I said, wait a minute, I want to get the shot that the sister developed. So you were not afraid of taking that shot? Oh, no. Look, I've been taking shots since I was two years old, and I'm 88, and they ain't hurt me yet. See? Oh, my goodness.

Ambassador Andrew Young. Tomorrow on Roland Martin Unfiltered, we'll share the second part where he talked about the importance of African Americans taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and so we look forward to sharing that with you. Got to go to a break. When we come back from Atlanta,

we'll talk with Herb Washington, who is suing McDonald's, saying they purposely ended his Hurtist franchises with the company to help white franchisees. That interview is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. For me, the reason I see the value, so my parents worked elections. They volunteered for campaigns. They ran phone banks.

I remember being seven, eight, nine years old. It was like you had no choice. It's not like you had to vote. It was like, yo, go over there for the next eight hours, stand there, and hand out these pamphlets to anybody who's walking in, and then we'll bring you lunch, and then you've got some water for yourself. It was kind of like, okay. Again, it wasn't like my brother could say, no, we're all right. We're going to stay at the house. It didn't work that way.

And so for me, that was a huge part of my upbringing. And look at you now. And it's very interesting because for me, service was a huge part of my upbringing. And that's just something that's just, you know, it's a natural thing. I don't think twice about going out and doing community service. I don't think twice about giving up my Saturday mornings, even if I stayed out late on Friday night.

I don't think twice about going to church in the mornings. So I think that might be even bigger than the civics piece in schools. I mean, I think that at this point, having that in schools at least gives the children the opportunity to go home and ask their parents, so mom, dad, what is this? What do you think we should do about this? This is what I learned in school today. Let's talk about it. At least gives the children something to bring home and start a conversation with. However, if the parents start that for the children,

then, you know, then the children can go to school and say, hey, why am I not learning this here? Why don't I have a civics class? You know what I mean? And they'll have, we'll have more Roland Martins running around here. I'm Deon Cole and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke.

Folks, one of the things that we have been doing here on Roland Martin Unfiltered is we have been focusing on economics, business opportunities. And what happens when we are frozen out of being able to participate in the billions, billions that are developed, spent and earned in this country. We've covered several times black McDonald franchisees who have been suing the company, saying they have been systematically eliminated as owners and operators of various stores. We told you last week about Herb Washington, who filed a lawsuit against McDonald's, saying that he was systematically hurt by the company. He joins us right now, along with his attorney, Kevin Conway. I'm glad to have both of you on the show. Herb, first and foremost, you played Major League Baseball.

You were very competitive in that. We have Herb on the phone. We have Kevin via video. Herb, you played Major League Baseball, did very well there. Then you chose to go into business. At one time, you owned more McDonald's franchisees than any other African-American. But your lawsuit alleges that all began

to come crashing down. And you say McDonald's was really helping white franchisees put you out of business. Hey, Roland, thanks for having me, man. I'm a fan. I haven't seen you in a couple of years when you visited us at the National Black McDonald's Convention

in Houston, man. I remember your talk that you gave. It was very powerful. But to your question, yes, absolutely. There's a two-tier system in McDonald's whereby white operators and the system is set up so that, their cash flows are higher, and black operators are relegated in large you have a store, let's say in Buckhead, and you have the store somewhere else that is not as – you're going to get less for it. And in most cases, you're doing less volume.

So when you combine those things and you go to exit McDonald's, believe it or not, most black operators leave the McDonald's system broke. That's right. Most black McDonald's owners leave the system broke. I want to pull in Kevin right here. Kevin, this is not the only franchisee who is suing McDonald's. There are a number of others. The number of black McDonald's franchisees has dropped significantly in the past 20 years, correct?

Yeah, that's correct. In recent history, there was upwards of 388 black operators, and it's down to 186. And you have this recent administration in the world who has gone to triple the cash flow gap between all the stores, all the stores. Also, over the same time, you have corporate America, corporate McDonald's, going from 42 black executives down to seven,

all within this most recent administration. Kevin, I think you're touching your microphone when you're moving there, so it's actually blocking what you're what you're saying. And so it was hard to make that out. And so if you could just, again, lay it out again where you said the number of franchisees, how they how they have dropped in the past decade or so. Sure. Yeah, the the black operators have dropped in recent history from 388 to 186. So it's been about a drop of almost half of the African-American representation in the McDonald's system. And I was saying the most recent administration of McDonald's, the cash flow gap between black operators and white operators has tripled. So now we're looking at upwards of $700,000 to $900,000 less

for a black-led operation than a white-led operation because this is a case of redlining black operators into inner-city stores that are low-volume and they're in impoverished communities and they require security and more upkeep than the high-volume stores out in the suburbs. And when Black operators try to get the stores in the suburbs, McDonald's has the right of first refusal to block that.

Herb, McDonald's says that the real issue here was that you were facing business challenges, that they invested significantly in your organization and tried to help you. They also said, quote, this situation is the result of years of mismanagement by Mr. Washington, whose organization has failed to meet many of our standards on people, operations, guest satisfaction, and reinvestment. Your response to that McDonald's statement? Absolutely. You know, here's what I would say to you, Roland. I've been a McDonald's owner-operator for 40 years. You don't keep a bad actor around for 40 years. I don't care if it's your relative. If they're bad, they have to go. And it wouldn't take you 40 years to recognize that they're bad. If you were to take a look at my track record, my track record didn't start to, by McDonald's account, to go astray until the new administration came in, which is Steve Easterbrook, who McDonald's discharged because he was having sexual relationships, allegedly, and they let him go.

And he was the CEO of the company. And his number two guy, Chris Kay, who is now the president of McDonald's. OK, it all started then. And you know why it started? It was a major reinvestment push in McDonald's and most McDonald's look beautiful now. And in Ohio, I was the last person to sign the document to go forward. And the reason is because I was concerned with how do I pay for this reinvestment? And McDonald's couldn't tell me how much it was going to cost me. And I said on numerous occasions to vice presidents and everyone who would listen, would you move into a house and not know what your mortgage is? And that's what McDonald's was asking me to do. Now, when it comes to reinvestment, McDonald's has not given me one penny.

No, let me take that back, of relief. Most recently, McDonald's took a look at black owner operators to take a look at how they could help the cash flow gap that I spoke of earlier. So McDonald's came to Herb Washington. We had a meeting and at the conclusion of that meeting, Roland, take a guess at how much money they offered me. How much? It amounted to, over the course of a year,

$6 per store per day. And it was on one restaurant, of which McDonald's has cited for me to sale by June. So that savings that they said they were going to help me, if I sell that restaurant, then guess what? That goes away also. McDonald's has not helped hurt Washington. They haven't lowered my rent.

They haven't paid my bills. None of them. Now, anything that McDonald's has done for me, they've done for the masses. I have gotten no special treatment. Mismanagement, anything they can cite that they might call mismanagement, we can go and cite white operators with similar situations. McDonald's does not like a strong black man speaking up about the systemic racism that's in McDonald's. That's what this is about.

Don't get hoodwinked on some operation things that they bring up because you don't stay around for 40 years and run bad operations. You don't do that. Ask McDonald's. Is there racism in McDonald's? Kevin, final question. Is it your goal here to seek relief solely for Herb, or is it to get McDonald's to change its practices and do right by all of its Black McDonald's franchisees? Yeah, that's an easy answer, Roland. We want a total change at McDonald's in their corporate practices and policies. We want to hold them accountable for the 40 years of racial discrimination that they imposed upon Herb Washington. So that's an easy answer. It's both. McDonald's needs a total reimagination

of what the last stronghold of power looks like, and that's the boardroom. You know, this is the last stronghold of power, which makes it the very last battlefield. And until a Black or, You know, this is the last stronghold of power, which makes it the very last, the very last battlefield. And until a black or, you know, until a black man or woman can feel like an equal on the street and in the C-suite, you know, we're not having real progress. This is, you were talking about business and economic success. This is it right here. This is the last battlefront. Kevin Conway. Herb, go ahead. I'm sorry. Final comment, Herb. Go ahead.

Yeah. This is happening across the country. There are Black females that have sued McDonald's. There are former McDonald owners. There's current McDonald owners. And they're hourly employees suing McDonald's. At the cusp here, McDonald's has a problem with black employees, black franchisees. And we have to hold them accountable because as goes McDonald's, goes the rest of the industry. All right. Gentlemen, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Bring my panel back up with this conversation. Terrace, I want to start with you. And that is, look, very few people want to go the route of litigation because that means you're spending money. You have to actually, you know, sue folks.

And that's just not what folks want to do. But one of the reasons we have this segment called Where's Our Money? Social Economic Justice, because we're talking about, again, ensuring that the millions and billions and trillions being spent in this country that African Americans are participating. You heard Ambassador Andrew Young talk about the Citibank study that shows the cost of racism, some $16 trillion over the last two decades. That's real for black folks.

Yeah, so you know what, man? Roland, first of all, I appreciate that you actually show that clip with Andrew Young because he was speaking to my soul, man, because and then now even this segment, because, you're absolutely right. They don't want to go to litigation because obviously it is very expensive and you're not certain that you're going to get your due diligence or your due justice in the end. And so, but one of the things that I do realize is that as a people, man, ultimately we want to win. We want to win as any other American that we have throughout this country. We want to win because obviously our ancestors helped to build the greatest nation on the face of the earth. And we should do everything in our power to protect that and also the American dream that they had dreamed for us to have. And so, again, going back to what I'm saying, man, this thing is truly about economics because economics helps to level the playing field. It leverages everything.

And so what those gentlemen were actually speaking to, man, they're absolutely right. about economics because economics helps to level the playing field. It leverages everything. And so what those gentlemen were actually speaking to, man, they're absolutely right. I look at what Dr. Claude Anderson had said, and I'm sure you have probably heard this as well. Dr. Claude Anderson said this, that if you didn't get anything in the position of number two, you're now number three. And not long from now, we're going to find ourselves, population-wise, in the fourth spot, which is going to be a little bit more difficult to leverage our economic power. And not only that, we need to obviously pool our resources together and really start supporting our businesses together to be able to survive in the end, in the long haul. Because let's be honest, man, I mean, you know, we have some of the most powerful buying powers. As a matter of fact, one statistic I heard early on,

I heard that we have so much buying power, it's like 1.2 trillion that's flowing through the African-American community, enough to be the ninth or tenth wealthiest nation on the planet, but yet we own very little. But yet some who come from India, they own a third of the hotel industry in this country. And so we really have to really, really get really refocused on what really matters. And even our educational system, I mean, you know, I can go on and on for that because I'm an educator by profession. But my point is, man, economically, this is what this really is all about, us being able to leverage ourselves and making sure that we have a seat

at every table that we get an opportunity to be at. So thanks for sharing that. Mustafa, the thing that I think that I believe that has to happen, I think for many of us, is that we have to begin to ask questions and be extremely deliberate with our dollars. What I mean by that is, what I mean by that is, if there are individuals who work for companies who want to, excuse me, who want to join the NAACP board,

National Urban League board, who want to join local groups, we should establish a race equity index. And it should be black board members, black senior executives, black minority supply development in terms of what is your spending, black PR agencies. What are you spending with black owned media companies? And then if you aren't doing those things, then you can't come join black organizations. See, I just think that, and I think we as black consumers

have to also make that point. I remember shortly after George Floyd's death, Newsweek did a story of how many publicly traded companies had no black board members one of those companies was t.j maxx and i began to tweet those things out saying black folks we just running up in t.j maxx buying stuff and it's like they have no black board members if we have to be as dr king said we we must redistribute the pain and be very conscious about where we're spending our dollars.

Mm-hmm. True. Well, you know, I love our fraternity, brother. Mustafa, go ahead. Yeah, I said, you know, I love our fraternity, brother, but I often say that we have to stop funding our own oppression. And what that means is that we have to have a justice analysis, an equity analysis, as you alluded to. You know, earlier today I was on with, I think it was 200 of the largest philanthropic individuals and organizations in our country. And I was very clear, you know, what's your board look like,

what's your senior management look like, and what does your funding structures look like, and what is the sets of priorities you're putting in place to change the dynamics that are happening inside of our country? When we look at McDonald's, we are often fooled. It's the window dressing that sometimes gets you, right? You start to see black and brown folks in the commercials, and there's small amounts of funding that are necessary that go to certain institutions, you know, maybe on the educational side. But when we look at the infrastructure inside of these corporate entities,

then that's where the truth is actually told. About what does ownership look like? What does the support for ownership look like? What does the support for funding, um, for them to be able to grow and to be very sustainable actually look like? You know, it's interesting, and I'll just close with this real quickly, Roland. You know, Ava DuVernay is a genius. When she did Queen Sugar, you actually can take the lessons that are learned from that and apply them to this McDonald's situation,

where that family is actually, has the most fertile land, but yet having difficulty in being able to get the financing, and being able to get the product, because there are others who own the other aspects, the refineries and those types of things, to actually take that sugar cane and turn it into a product. It's the same thing with McDonald's.

You have the brick and mortar, but if you don't have the other support and then there are other entities that are stopping you, then it puts you in a very difficult position and in a very disenfranchised position. We have the power to change that dynamic with our dollars. And again, Amisha, these are allegations Herb Washington is leveling in a lawsuit.

They have not been adjudicated. McDonald's disputes these allegations. But the thing that I really want, again, I want us to really make clear, and this was, and Ambassador Andrew Young and I talked about this here. We talked specifically about same thing. political parties, politicians coming to us, wanting our votes, but allowing white advertising folks to control the flow of dollars. And then those dollars not coming back to us in a significant way. And I know people keep saying, well, you keep bringing up the advertising dollars. Yes, because, again, it is the denial of dollars that keeps us from being able to build capacity. I'm here in Atlanta working on a project.

We've got a team of eight, nine people. Those folks have to get paid. And guess what? A lot of black media companies can't do what we're doing. But here's the other thing, Amisha, that's also important. And let me just go ahead and say this,

and it fits a whole lot of people, a whole lot of people. I need, I need, let me just be as clear as possible. I'm going to talk right into this camera. I'm going to get into this camera right here. Okay? Let me be as clear as possible to all y'all.

I also need these black people who want to come on this show, who want to come on other black platforms, and who want to raise holy hell and they want black folks to come to their aid. They want black folks to tweet. They want black folks to call. They want black folks to email. Yet when they settle their lawsuits,

you don't hear from them again. All of a sudden, they disappear. And then the question is, you know, how are you spending your dollars? What are you doing? I've had folk who have come on this show

who we have talked about what they've been dealt with and have not spent a single dollar. In fact, Amisha, they were not even decent enough to join our Bring the Funk fan club for $50. So there were people doing Operation Breadbasket let me go ahead and just put this here because I need some people to understand that I'm not playing

with this subject because see what folks not going to do is come and they want black people to stand with them and then disappear. Operation Breadbasket, I'm going to tell you all, this actually happened. Dr. King, this is literally in the Martin Depp's book, SCLC was having trouble making their payroll. Dr. King said, Jesse, when we go to Chicago, let's go by Independence Bank. Let's go by some of the black banks to see if we can get a

loan to help pay our payroll. Dr. King comes to town and he says, Reverend Jackson says, Doc, that's what they called Dr. King, Doc, let's stop by so-and-so's house first. Doc said, Jesse, we don't have time for that. We need to go meet with the black banks. He said, Doc, just trust me. Let's go to the meeting. Dr. King walks into the house and a group of black businessmen in the house. And after they greet each other, they then sit down and Dr. King, then they then hand Dr. King an envelope.

And in that envelope was enough money to pay the bills of SCLC for several months. Dr. King began to cry and said he had never experienced that of all the folks they had helped all around the country. And Amisha, Reverend Jackson, same thing. There's a whole bunch of black people who became millionaires

because of the protests and the boycotts of Operation Breadbasket and Rainbow Push. And some of those folks did not write checks back because of the protests and the boycotts of Operation Breadbasket and Rainbow Push. And some of those folk did not write checks back to help the very people who stood with them. So all I'm saying is if you're going to come to black America to stand with you, well, you damn sure bet not go missing in action after you cut a deal. Take them to church, Roland. I feel like this is a point at which, you know, there are several Black people

who have called on the support of various organizations, particularly when they've been wronged in police brutality cases, in education cases, in cases around the country where we've seen high levels of discrimination, and then once they get their settlements, they completely disappear. Not only do they not engage with those same organizations, but they also do not help fund them. And it's one of the sad things, because if we don't fund our

own, if we don't fund our things, it's going to be very hard for them to maintain, very hard for them to help the next individual or the next family that is agreed. But in addition to that, I think that from watching what I saw earlier from the ambassador, one of the things that really stood out was, and you've talked about this several times on your show, Roland, was the importance of understanding your value and having that seat at the table, but also fully recognizing that we can't do the work that we need to do in advocacy and getting elected officials to that spot who actually need to be elected to push policy on behalf of African-Americans who are suffering across this country if there is no money involved.

We can talk about hope and change and pushing advocacy as much as we want, but we need to have those ad buys. We need to have more boots on the ground. We need to make sure that we're reaching people in the digital space, that we're reaching people, um, you know, in the digital space, that we're reaching people by knocking on doors, that we're reaching people through those TV spots. That takes money. That-that is the influence. And anybody who believes that you can do that without cash is completely ridiculous

and living in an alternate universe. With that being said, what frustrates me personally is that we see Black elected officials, we see, um, you know, strong liberal elected officials who don't happen to look like us, who count on and need the votes of our community, but consistently hire white firms that consistently, you know, will deny the consulting firm led by an African American group to go with the white firm, even though the people who they need the most in terms of electoral support come from the Black community. So part of this is also on, you know, specific campaigns and who they choose to elevate and who they don't.

The other part is having a full acknowledgement as someone who happens to, if you are a black entrepreneur, if you are a black person who has a consulting firm, do what you do on this show, Roland, put them on blast. Because at the end of the day, you know, trolling up those votes and getting us to come out and support these candidates is one thing. But it's also extremely important for those candidates and for those candidates' organizations to put the money where their mouth is, support the Black community, support that diversity, make sure that you're not just pushing it in paperwork, that you're not just pushing it on the campaign trail, that you're actually investing in and acknowledging all the talent and skills of those African-Americans, not just the ones that you need to get to the polls for you, but also the ones who are running

the ad agencies, the ones who are actually pushing the ads, the black media. Make sure that you're investing in those because that's the only way we survive. And I need everybody to understand what I'm describing is more than one person. There are multiple people who I'm talking about. And if hit dog hollers, then I'm talking about you. All I'm saying is this here. If you are black and you want to come to black America to stand with you in your battles,

well, then we fully expect you to stand with black America. All I'm saying is I warned you. Don't let me have to do this again because then I might start naming names. Got to go to a break. We come back. Powerful testimony at the U.S. Senate hearing when it

came to the riot on January 6th. Also, the Senate confirmed the sister to be the United Nations ambassador. Plus, we'll talk to a black bookstore in Washington, D.C. in our Marketplace segment. Yeah, here we support black-owned businesses,

give them an opportunity to talk about their businesses. All of that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasted live from Atlanta. When you think about the fact that 2043, we are going to be a nation that's majority people of color. I've really focused on this a lot, on television, on radio, in my speeches, that my focus is trying to prepare us to have demographic power while also having educational economic power at the same time. Because there's nothing worse than having demographic numbers, but then you still don't have that economic power, that political power, and education power.

Well, you know, you and I, and I think most people know and understand that education is what we've got to impress on all of our people. We've got to help people to understand that if you want a decent quality of life, if you want the kind of quality of life where you're not having to worry about your food and your nutrition and being able to pay your bills or buy a house, then you've got to become educated. The more education you have, the larger the paycheck is and of course we've got to be involved in

entrepreneurship taken the talent that we have to create businesses and there's a lot of opportunity for that. Hi, I'm Vivian green, you're everybody this man Fred Hammond and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks. In our Marketplace segment, we're going to talk about Mahogany Books. They opened in 2007 to meet the needs of readers nationwide who were interested in books written for or about people in the African diaspora. After being an online-only bookstore, they were able to open the doors to its first physical store located in D.C.

Joining us right now is Derek Young and Ramonda Young. They are co-founders of Mahogany Books. How you doing? Hey, how you doing? How are you, sir? Hey, Roland. How are you? Thank you for having us.

Doing great. Doing great. I got to ask you this here. I mean, a lot of folks, of course, staying at home. COVID is keeping folks out. Have you seen an explosion of folks buying books? Because what the hell else are you going to do? Exactly right.

Actually, we did, to be frank. So like you mentioned, we've been in business since 2007, and we started online. And so our website had already been equipped to ship books to customers all across the nation. We have a great customer base. And so when COVID kicked in, we didn't have to tweak our website. We really could focus on our energy by focusing and making a priority what our customers needed, really listening to them. So with all these parents having their kids at home, we really turned to creating children's book bundles because like you said, what are you going to do but read? And so we really tried to make it simple for the families. We made bundles for elementary age. We

had another bundle of books for kids from middle school, high school, so parents could just easily point and click. So that's what we did. We really focused in on what customers were needing at that point. We also created Blind Date with a black book. So a lot of people were excited and always looking to us for our curated books and what we liked. And so we created a bundle so people didn't know what they were going to get. But we chose the books and people were excited to have that surprise land on their doorstep. So yes, people were reading like crazy during the pandemic. Derek, how do you also get people to take the extra step to order their books online from you, as opposed to the ease of Amazon? You've got Barnes & Noble and folks like, yeah, but Prime is free.

Because, again, you're not just competing with other small bookstores. I mean, you're competing against behemoths that frankly make it easy for folks just to press one button. Boom. It shows up tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, I think what we've done from the very beginning must be true to ourself. We know that we weren't going to compete with Amazon on prices and all these other different things that they do. But what we do is we know black books. So we focused in on the curation of the books, on finding books that people didn't even know existed, on making sure that people understood that there were a wide variety of voices out there telling our stories. So those books weren't being promoted or merchandised on our competitors' websites like they were on ours. So that's what we really focused in on to make sure that

if you wanted to hear something that talked about yourself, that went into your history, that reflected our values, our wants, our needs, then you came to Mahogany Books to find those books. So, Ramonda, if I'm, let's say there's a, there's a particular book that is hard to find. And so, could someone contact y'all and say, hey, this is the book that I'm looking for. Can you find this particular book? And then what is your process for doing that? Absolutely.

So we work with one of the world's largest, actually the world's largest distributors. So almost any book in print we have access to, almost. And so what our customers can do, if they don't find it on our website or amongst the thousands of books that we have there, they can easily call our store. We have a great team of people that can take those calls and fulfill those orders, place those orders over the phone and still have it shipped to their house. So there's a couple of different ways because customer service is very important to us. It was, I'll be honest, it was crazy during those last few months of last year when it was just an onslaught of books and juggling all of that. But we love that we can cater to our customers in that way and offer them books that

they can't find anywhere else. And to your point about people wanting to go other places, there has been for the past probably five or six years, a strong push to Shop Black. I know a lot of people are just seeing it in the last year, but there's been a steady increase of people saying, you know what, I'm choosing where I want to put my dollars and I want to put them with you guys. It's a book. It doesn't have to be here overnight. I'm okay with that. And so we know our customers, we know that they are open to that and that they really are supporting a Black business who's also turned around and active in the community. So we give books away to kids. So it's not just, oh, I can go get my books overnight. It's bigger than that. And we know that our customers seek

that. And so that for us is an honor to be able to fulfill that niche for them. All right, then, Derek, tell folks where they can find y'all if they want to begin place orders now. And then also remind folks that when that big bestseller book comes out, let's say Barack Obama's book, Michelle Obama's book, if they want to get on the waiting list for it, they can contact y'all. Yeah, indeed. So you can always go to mahoganybooks.com. That's our online store website. We offer pre-orders on almost every book that's out. In fact, we're doing a bunch of pre-orders for Amanda Gorman's books, the fantastic young poet that was at the President Biden's inauguration.

So again, they can go to mahoganybooks.com. We're always promoting new books and on our Instagram and all of our socials is at mahoganybooks. Yeah, we'd love to be able to provide those books to anybody. Like, and you know, a lot of people think black books are just for black people.

Everybody needs to read about our history. Everybody needs to know about the contributions we've made to this country and others too. So we're excited to be able to provide that for everyone. All right then. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Derek Young, Ramonda Young, Mahogany Books here in Washington, D.C. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thank you for having us. Bye. All right. Thank you for having us. All right. Thank you very much. This, Amisha, is, again, when you're deliberate. And I think what we're talking about here is we're trying to get black consumers to be deliberate in their actions, deliberate in their spending, deliberate. And even if, look, you can't do it, you know, on everything, if you just simply say, hey, I'm going to make the effort. Perfect example, you know, we are in Atlanta today.

We're in Tuskegee, Alabama tomorrow. And we're going to be in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday. And typically, you know, I've been with CNN, TV One, and we've had these, and I've been, you know, I've been with CNN, TV1, and we've had these events and we've had, we've had, you know, productions and somebody say, well, hey, we're just, we're just going to order some food from Corner Bakery or here. I said, no, no, no, no. We're going to find a black caterer or a black restaurant that's in Atlanta. We're going to order the food from them. We're going to find out it's a black owned restaurant or caterer in Tuskegee, Alabama. We're going to order food from from them. We're going to find out it's a black-owned restaurant or caterer in Tuskegee, Alabama.

We're going to order food from them. We're going to do the exact same thing in Jacksonville. I remember when I was at TV One, and folk can take this the wrong way, but I don't really care. It bothered me immensely when we would have big interviews, and they couldn't find no black photographer. And I was like, damn! I said, if the black media company don't hire a black photographer, who the hell gonna hire black

photographers? And so I remember we had our PR person. It was her first day. This was probably her first week. This was the first time she had encountered me. I said, come here. I said, the next time I have an interview like this here. I better see a black photographer who y'all employ and just understand that was a black media company, to say, go find somebody who can do this who's black to provide them a shot. I think, Roland, to that point, part of this is you have to be intuitive and want to do it. Because I think it is very easy for folks to get lulled away and, oh, I'm going to order from this restaurant or, oh, I'm going to invest in this bookstore.

I'm just going to Amazon this thing. These are typically things that aren't top of mind for a lot of people, even though they shouldn't be for black people. If we talk about, you know, raising our bid of entrepreneurship, having more leaders and more people who are out here doing this thing on their own and leaving something for their kids and future generations, we also have to, as a people, invest in those future generations, invest in those entrepreneurs who look like us, make sure that we know who in our community has coffee shops, make sure that we know who in our community has sandwich shops,

who in our community has entertainment venues, who in our community can serve as the makeup artist, the wedding planners, all of these things that people use on a regular basis. But I think that in many cases, because of lack of advertisement, sometimes it can make it harder for them to reach the masses. But for black people, there has to be an intuitive thing within us that says, no matter where we are, we should be looking for people who own these companies who look like us, that we can actually take our dollars too. Because in many cases, that's the support that they need. That's how they drum up attention.

That's how they get what they need. I'm a native Chicagoan, so Sip and Savor, shout out to them. I love that coffee shop. That's the only coffee shop I would go to in the entire city because it is owned by a Black man. It is owned by a Black man who was able to expand and have multiple coffee shops that carry his name. In D.C., I go to Mahogany Books. I appreciate Mahogany Books. That's one of the bookstores that I believe, actually, because of what they also do for the community. As someone who's worked in education policy, I have a great respect for bookstores that are also providing books for kids who otherwise would not be able to receive them. We have to intuitively make those decisions ourselves and support our black entrepreneurs. Mustafa, again, we've got to keep pushing it. We've got to keep pushing it. We've got to keep pushing it. We got to keep pushing it. Got to keep pushing it. The reason I keep talking about the black media dollars is because then we're able to provide

a mahogany books who may not be who may not be able to afford a big marketing advertising campaign, the opportunity to be on for five, six, seven, eight minutes, which is invaluable for a black owned business. If you want to be in community, be six, seven, eight minutes, which is invaluable for a Black-owned business. If you want to be in community, be in community. And what that means is that you have to support each other. You know, Black doctors. My doctor is Black. My dentist is Black. My health food store is Black.

And I can go down the line. And that's because it's not just about raising your right hand with a power fist when the moment comes. It is also about being very intentional about your dollars, because the dollar is power. And how we use it will determine if we actually build wealth inside of our communities that then gives us leverage and power to do so many other things, or if we continue to just let it float away and someone else to utilize it. Bottom line is I really can do without terrorists,

the convenient Negroes who are conveniently black when they need or desire something. And again, when we talk about the collective, the community, you got to actually be about it. And again, here's the deal. If you take care of the community, the community will take care of you. Actually, you said it absolutely correct. If you take care of the community and the word community obviously is a common union. And so I'm literally loving this segment right now because that's really what this thing is all about.

And like we always talk about leverage. And one of the most frustrating things to me that I've actually seen, even in my hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan, a lot of times in predominantly black neighborhoods, we see everybody owning businesses except for people who live there. But unfortunately, what happens is they will come in and actually take those dollars and then they choose to live somewhere else. And so we constantly are seeing this all over the country where those dollars are leaving our community, going somewhere else. And yet we're still struggling. So, you know, I really appreciate that you are actually talking about

or that we're actually having this conversation right now. You don't understand, my heart is just really touched because we cannot no longer apologize for supporting our own because nobody else is. You know, nowhere in the United States that I know of that you can go to a Chinese restaurant and see somebody black working there or even somebody white for that matter. And they don't apologize for that. And so neither should we apologize for that. So. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, we have to actually make for sure that we're supporting, Frank Lucas, in the movie American Gangster, when Denzel Washington said, I'm going to get that money.

He said, I'm going to get that money. Somebody, somebody, I know he was a drug dealer. All I'm saying, y'all, is I'm cool with that phrase. I'm going to a drug dealer. All I'm saying, y'all, is I'm cool with that phrase. I'm going to get that money. That's what we got to be about in order to actually change the condition of our community, which is one of the reasons why we want you to support what we do here. Your resources allow for us to travel all across this country. I got to I got to shout out this. I'm trying to think, do I want to give the brother's name? Who literally I was looking at the other day,

and this brother sent in $5,000 for our show. He said, I'm tired of the show buffering on YouTube. So I want to help make sure to help y'all build this OTT channel. Y'all know we're actually having them built right now. It cost us $153,700. I told y'all I'm up front with what these things cost. And so when you support us, we certainly appreciate that. If you give to us on YouTube, remember we get 55% you get 45%. Look, YouTube got enough money. Okay, that's Google. They got billions upon billions. So if y'all support us, please give direct cash

app dollar sign RM unfiltered paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. We also have Zell at rolandsmartin.com. Taris, Mustafa, as well as Amisha, I certainly appreciate all of y'all being on the panel today. I'm going to close the show out this way, okay? So hold on. I'm going to close the show out this way. I didn't forget, didn't forget, that was a hearing today, and this was powerful testimony. It's eight minutes and 27 seconds. I'm going to go ahead and say holla right now, but I'm going to close the show out with Carnesha Mendoza, Captain Carnesha Mendoza, testifying on Capitol Hill today. It was real busy in Capitol Hill. Of course, we saw, of course, the Senate pass, first of all, vote to confirm Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be the next U.S. ambassador

to the United Nations. That took place. Also, we saw Governor Pritzker of Illinois and Cash Bell in that particular state. And so all those things happened. But this testimony by this sister describing what took place on Capitol Hill on January 6th was riveting. She was a surprise witness. And I wanted to be sure that you heard what she had to say.

So we're going to close the show with this. I'll see you guys tomorrow. I'll be in Tuskegee, Alabama. I'm interviewing 90-year-old attorney Fred Gray, one of the unsung heroes. We're gonna sit down and chat, and so look forward to that. Y'all take care. I'll see you.

Holler! ...committee today, and thank you all for your service to our country. My name is Captain Carnisha Mendoza, and I've served with the United States Capitol Police for 19 years. I take a lot of pride in my Marine. My name is Captain Carnisha Mendoza and I've served with the United States Capitol Police for 19

years. I take a lot of pride in my job. Prior to serving with the Capitol Police, I served as an active duty soldier with the United States Army. My last duty station was split between the Pentagon and the Washington area criminal

investigations division. I received various awards from the Army and the Capitol Police to include an award for recovery efforts during the Pentagon attack. Unfortunately, I didn't save any lives, but there are certain lessons that always stuck with me after 9-11. One of those lessons is knowing the unthinkable is always possible, so be ready. So I always take my job very seriously as 9-11 is always in the back of my mind. With the Capitol Police, I have served in various operational, administrative, and collateral assignments. I'm currently serving as a captain in the Special Operations Division, where I have various responsibilities to include serving as a field commander and a field force commander for the Civil Disturbance Unit. Throughout my career, I have responded to and managed various critical incidents and events from

congressional and member security related issues to shootings and armed carjackings. I have served as a CDU field force commander for multiple events including the November 14th Million MAGA March. In my career I've been activated to work demonstrations with various controversial groups, and I've been called some of the worst names so many times that I'm pretty numb to it now. As an agency, we have trained for and handled numerous demonstrations. It's something we do on a regular basis, and it's something I've always felt we've excelled at. During the million MAGA march, multiple white supremacist groups,

to include the Proud Boys and others, converged on the Supreme Court along with countergroups. The Civil Disturbance Unit fought hard that day, physically breaking up fights and separating various groups. I literally woke up the next day unable to move due to the pain. On January 6thth we anticipated an event similar to the Million Maga March that took place on November 14th where we would likely face groups fighting among one another. Additional civil disturbance units were activated that day. I was working the evening shift and had planned to report in at 3 p.m.

I was prepared to work a 16-hour shift and assume field force commanders should the event continue into the evening and overnight shifts. It was approximately 1.30 in the afternoon. I was home eating with my

10-year-old, spending time with him before what I knew would be a long day when a fellow captain contacted me and told me things were bad and that I needed to respond in. I literally dropped everything to respond to work that day early. I arrived within 15 minutes and I contacted dispatch to ask her what active scenes we had. I was advised things were pretty bad. I asked where assistance was needed and was advised of six active scenes. There was an explosive device at the Democratic National Committee I was the first person to be called to the Capitol building when the fire broke out.

I was the first person to be needed and was advised of six active scenes. There was an explosive device at the democratic national committee building, a second explosive device at the republican national committee building and large

hostile groups at different locations outside the Capitol building. I advised the dispatcher I would respond to the DNC since that building was closest to where I was at the time. En route, I heard officers at the Capitol building calling for immediate assistance, so I proceeded past the DNC to the Capitol. As I arrived to the east front plaza of the Capitol, I heard an officer yell there was a breach at the rotunda door, and I heard various officers calling for assistance at multiple locations throughout the building. Many of the doors to the building were not accessible door with the assistance of a capital division officer. Once inside the memorial door, I

immediately noticed a large crowd of possibly 200 rioters yelling in front of me. Since I was alone, I turned to go back so I could enter another door, but within a few seconds, it took me to walk back to the door I entered.

There were already countless rioters in front of me. I was able to enter a lower level door so I could enter another door, but within the few seconds it took me to walk back to the door I entered, there were already countless rioters outside the building banging on the door. I had no choice but to proceed through the violent crowd in the building. I made my way through the crowd by yelling and pushing people out of my way until I saw Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit in riot gear in the hallway. I was on the way to the building and I saw a police officer walking by.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. the wall. A CDU sergeant pulled my right arm free and had he not I'm certain it would have been broken. Shortly after that an officer was pushed and fell to the floor. I assisted the officer to a safer location and got back in line. At some point the crowd breached the line officers worked so hard to maintain. Civil disturbance units began to redeploy to keep rioters from accessing other areas of the building. I proceeded to the rotunda where I noticed a heavy smoke-like residue and smelled what I believed to be military-grade CS gas, a familiar smell. It was mixed with fire extinguisher spray deployed by rioters. The rioters continued to deploy CS into the rotunda. Officers received

a lot of gas exposure, which is worse inside the building than outside because there's nowhere for I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter.

I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter.

I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in the face by a rioter. I was shot in determine exactly what those objects were. I immediately assumed command in the rotunda and called for additional assets. Officers began to push the crowd out the door. After a couple hours, officers cleared the rotunda, but had to physically hold the door closed because it had been broken by the rioters. Officers begged me for relief as they were unsure how long they could physically hold the door closed, with the crowd continually banging on the outside of the door, attempting to gain reentry.

Eventually, officers were able to secure the door with furniture and other objects. I'm proud of the officers I worked with on January 6th. They fought extremely hard. I know some said the battle lasted three hours, but according to my Fitbit, I was in the exercise zone for four hours and nine minutes. And many officers were in the fight even before I arrived. I'm extremely proud of the United States Capitol Police. I'm especially proud of the officers who are the backbone of this agency and carry out day-to-day operations. I know with teamwork we can move forward.

The night of January 7th, into the very early morning hours of my birthday, January 8th, I spent at the hospital comforting the family of our fallen officer and met with the medical examiner's office prior to working with fellow officers to facilitate a motorcade to transport Officer Sicknick from the hospital. Of the multitude of events I've worked in my nearly 19-year career in the department, this was by far the worst of the worst. We could have had 10 times the amount of people working with us, and I still believe the battle would have been just as devastating. As an American and as an Army veteran, it's sad to see us attacked by our fellow citizens. I'm sad to see the unnecessary loss of life.

I'm sad to see the impact this has had on Capitol Police officers. And I'm sad to see the impact this has had on our agency and on our country. Although things are still raw and moving forward will be a difficult process, I look forward to moving forward together as an agency and as a country. In closing, I want to honor Chief Sun's leadership. I served under his command as a watch commander for three years and was able to personally see his hard work and dedication. He was fully dedicated to United States Capitol Police and he cared about every employee on the department. I often hear employees on the department praise his leadership and his ability to inspire others. He's made a significant impact on our agency.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best.

You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. He's on aisle six six and aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 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 We're on Drugs Podcast Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.