#RolandMartinUnfiltered - AMC Apologizes to Bishop Barber,Opal Lee Gets Family Land Back,A League of Our Own,The Walls Group

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

12.27.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: AMC Apologizes to Bishop Barber,Opal Lee Gets Family Land Back,A League of Our Own,The Walls Group The CEO of AMC Theaters is apologizing to Bishop William Barber for getting kicked out of a North Carolina theater. We'll explain why.  Republicans are desperately trying to find something to use to impeach President Biden. We'll discuss what straws the GOP is grasping at now.  Michigan's supreme court allows Trump to state on the state's ballot.  The "Grandmother of Juneteenth" is gifted back the land her family once owned before a racist mob forced them out.  A Black-owned independent baseball league is holding open tryouts for its upcoming season. We'll talk to someone from A League of Our Own. And Roland's sit down with the gospel sibling quartet, The Walls Group, who participated in McDonald's Inspiration Celebration Gospel Tour. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. It's Wednesday, December 27, 2023, and I'm Candace Kelly sitting in for Roland. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The CEO of AMC Theaters apologizes to Bishop William Barber after Barber was kicked out of a North Carolina theater.

We'll explain why. Republicans are desperately trying to find something to use to impeach President Biden, and we'll discuss what straws the GOP is grasping at now. Michigan's Supreme Court allows Trump to stay on the state's ballot, and the grandmother of Juneteenth is gifted back the land her family once owned before a racist mob forced them out. A black-owned independent baseball league is holding open tryouts for its upcoming season. And we'll talk to someone from a league of our own. And Roland, sit down with the gospel sibling quartet The Walls Group, who took part in McDonald's Inspiration Celebration Gospel Tour. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

Let's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics, with entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. Yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah. Yeah. It's rolling Martin.

Yeah. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. Yeah, yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martel Now Martel

So Bishop William Barber just wanted to see the color purple, like a lot of you out there, but instead he was escorted out of the AMC movie theater by two Greenville, North Carolina police officers. Barber suffers from a debilitating type of arthritis, walks with two canes, and carries a chair to accommodate himself because he cannot sit in chairs too low because of a bad hip. Now, management told him he could not use his chair to sit and watch the movie in the handicapped section of the theater. Management then called the police to remove Barber from the theater.

Here's Bishop Barber describing exactly what happened. There's nothing in this, posted online that says you can't bring your own chair. Inside the theater, they have have spaces like for handicapped. It's for fighting, you know the whole spaces Sometimes they've had me sit up against the wall But two little managers in there decide today The day after they put the lower out of the end that that this chair and me doesn't have, there's no room for it.

What bothers me about it is I'm okay. But what if somebody poor, what if somebody at least less unfortunate than myself struggled to get here? You know, it's painful for me to walk in there. And if they had had a sign posted, I would have called in advance, called the manager, because they always can make exceptions. They literally said, well, do you have a piece of paper with you saying that this is your medical device? I said, I have these two canes. I have my body. I have my people here with me. And I have people here who've been with me all over the country. They call the cops. They literally called the police the day after Christmas while we were sitting in the theater. I was sitting in this chair in a handicapped

space, and you can see how it is for me to get in. I want folk to understand, you know, I don't fight because I don't, I feel good. I fight because it's the right thing to do in terms of fighting for justice. But this is how I sit. I can't sit any lower than this. I don't bother anybody. I don't intimidate anybody. It's just sitting. You can tell I have to lean because this hip is bad, so I can't, you know. And exceptions are made all the time. What do you think this says for the education around people with restrictions? Yeah, it says we've not gone far enough. It says that people want to say to even the disabled folk, you have to be disabled like this. In other words, you got to be able to sit in a wheelchair like we

describe it in our rules that we can't produce or you can't come in. And we're not going to tell you that in advance. They have no idea how much energy it takes me to move you know i have ankylosing spondylitis one of the worst forms of arthritis there is and i move and go because i'm on heavy pain medicines and whatnot and i don't make any excuses about that but but i'm taking this chair in the hospital in a hospital where they where they really have to be concerned about fat house and they've never said to chair in the hospital, in a hospital where they really have to be concerned about Fair House and they've never said to me in the hospital, you can't come in here with your chair. I've taken it in restaurants, movie theaters.

I've taken it in the largest pulpits in this nation. I preached sitting in this chair. I've flown it overseas. I took it in the Vatican when I met with the Pope. But I can't come in a Greenville theater with my 90-year-old mother the day after Christmas? That's the level of your consciousness? And I've never been arrested for anything violent. If anything, I submit to nonviolence.

And you call two policemen to pull me out of a theater the day after Christmas. But I'm standing and talking to you because it stops with me. Because I'm wondering now, what else have they done to other people? What ways have they not been accommodating to other people? So in that if they had to touch me today i'm glad about it i intend to call the mayors of the city and others and get them involved because this is you know i was standing in there and i was thinking about what if i had fallen out arguing with them you know or somebody like me you know uh and as i said to this date they haven't even said here's your money when i said that my 90 year old mother it did not phase them my 90 year old mother who's actually having some mental you know i'm worried

now about her is she angst got anxiety in there what's going on because she looked, you know, I'm worried now about her. She got anxiety in there. What's going on? Because she looked back, you know, and I saw her look back and she stood up and I said, Mom, it's all right. So she would calm down. And really, that's the reason. If it hadn't been for her, they would have had the rest. Yeah.

And you all can see I'm getting up. I do this. And I'm not ashamed. I'm glad every person God used in the Bible had a disability. Moses stuttered. Jeremiah had despair. You know, Jesus was born outside. Paul had thrown the flesh. That's not what I'm ashamed of. I'm ashamed of a business in my state, the state that says, we are the place where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great.

That somebody who's weak with a disability would be thrown out the day after Christmas simply for just wanting to sit in this. Out of the way, not in anybody's way. Not in any aisle. Not by any exit. Not in any fire housing. But they called the police.

So here's what happened next. Ryan Noonan, the vice president of corporate communications at AMC Theater provided the following statement to the local affiliate WNCT. We sincerely apologize to Bishop Barber for how he was treated and for the frustration and inconvenience brought to him,

his family, and his guests. AMC's chairman and CEO, Adam Aaron, has already telephoned him, and he plans to meet with him in person in Greenville, North Carolina, next week to discuss both the situation and the good works Bishop Barber is engaged in throughout the years.

AMC welcomes guests with disabilities. In fact, we have a number of accommodations in our place at our theaters at all times, and our theater teams work hard to accommodate guests who have needs that fall outside of the normal course of business. We encourage guests who require special seating to speak with a manager in advance to see what can be done to best accommodate, be accommodated at the theater and ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for the guests and those around them. We are also reviewing our policies with our theater teams to help ensure that situations like this

do not occur again. Wow. Just a simple trip to the theater. I want to make sure that we bring in our guests on this one. Just wanted to see the color purple, that's all. I am joined right now by my guest, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of the National Bar Association

and D.C. Chamber of Commerce. Joe Risterton, civil rights attorney. He's coming to us out of Los Angeles. And Terrain Walker. He is founder of Context Media in Atlanta. I want to thank all of you for being with us today. Let me first start with you, Scott. Certainly seems like a lot of civil rights violations going on here. What do you make about this simple trip to the theater that ended with two police officers being called? Seems like for a non-issue. You know, there were civil rights violations, in my opinion. They were just dumb decisions made, right?

They're going to get sued for just being dumb and hiring dumb employees or managers who, two things. One, they don't exercise or have the freedom to exercise discretion. Reverend Barber said everything that needed to be said. I'm sure my plaintiff's lawyers on this show will fill in the blanks. But I want to talk about white privilege, because white privilege tells them in Greenville, employees and managers of AMC, that if you have an African-American who clearly is disabled, but they haven't called ahead and they're not bothering anybody or obstructing any right of way, that if they won't leave, whether they're with a 90-year-old mother or not, that I need to call the police. This is where it gets dangerous for black people and people that don't look like me and my guest or you. This is what we confront on an everyday basis. Because once you call the police, because their white privilege says,

call the police, there's this black man here, he's trying to watch a movie. Or these young girls are selling lemonade lemonade or they want to barbecue outside. And then it gets dangerous for black people. See, white America, it doesn't get dangerous for them when they call the police on each other if they ever do that. But it gets dangerous for us. And thank goodness Reverend Barber, you know, did not exacerbate the situation, left quietly. Wasn't clear whether he left his mother, 90-year-old mother there or not, or they left and what have you. But I want to praise AMC's response, but they need to look at one more thing. That is the training of their employees and giving them discretion to make accommodations for

people, especially those who are clearly, clearly needing accommodation. Absolutely. I've been with Reverend Barbara. It's hard for him to walk, let alone sit down. You can just see it. You don't even have to be close to him. And so it's just idiocy, really, to be honest with you. And so if they get sued,

they're going to be sued for being idiots. They're going to be sued for violating human rights or civil rights, but they can throw that into the lawsuit. You know what, Torrin, I want to make sure I get your name right first of all, and I want to pass it over to you. You know, it seems... I know a lot of cops, and 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.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser

Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

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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 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.

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To me that when we go to the theater, there is an open space for you to bring a chair, whether it's a wheelchair or your own chair. What could have happened that would have made this go so wrong? And how do you feel about the AMC's response? You know, I don't think any of us have been in a theater where we have not seen ramps and we have not seen accommodations for people who have disabilities to be able to sit down. This is not, it's surprising to me that this got as exacerbated as it did. It's sad to me because this seems to me like more of a failure on the part of the management of that particular theater. And unfortunately, this is something that happens all too often because, as some of us know,

there's been a conversation around customer service and around the quality of customer service people are getting when you're dealing with the public. And this sounds like a situation where somebody either did not want to do their job or they were too ridiculous or they were power tripping on the fact that somebody with an obvious disability who has two canes, and like your other guest said, I've actually been in spaces with Reverend Barber before. It is difficult for this man to get around.

He's obviously, you know, has some physical issues. And if he's got a 90-year-old mother with him and he's got other people with him, clearly he's not trying to fake to get into the movie theater for a half-price price ticket he's just trying to find an accommodation to sit and like and i like the other guest said when you x when you x when you escalate something to the point where you have to call the police to escort someone who obviously has a disability out of a theater that's when things become very deadly for black people because how many simple situations

have we seen where somebody who has a small minor altercation with somebody in a place of business and the police get called and something that could be a conversation turns into something deadly and it turns into death this is ridiculous and something else i want to say is because this reverend barber is in his home state and i'm not sure if he's based out of greenville or greensboro but part of me wonders how much of this is some sort of maybe a possible vendetta, some sort of issue somebody may have with some of the work that he does, because he's somebody who's very prominent,

he's somebody that's very visible, and somebody everybody knows. So I wanted this was somebody who had an issue with his work and tried to get back at him by using this minor incident to create something that could have been deadly. And you know, it's an interesting point because it does seem silly,

and he would even agree with me in saying that if we look at him, we see he has a disability. So what exactly is the problem? Joe, what are your thoughts here in terms of a lawsuit coming? Listen, I know that the AMC has apologized. There's going to be a meeting to talk about the good reverend's work and changes to come. But this is a major problem. Yeah, I think it is. I think on the federal side, you'd probably bring something under ADA. There's a question as to how much is available in the Carolinas. This is North Carolina, so I believe so. Perhaps they might be a little bit better in terms of state laws. But if I'm thinking state law side, I'm thinking intentional negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Here in California, there's an unruly Civil Rights Act related to just a failure to treat someone well for what may be a racial type of thing. But that being said, I could certainly bring that and hang in there as it pertains to that. Now, if they're smart, you know, the statement that they that they did was good. It's a good start. But somebody really didn't understand. You've got to be able to be pragmatic and understand that if somebody, for instance, commonsensically, if somebody can use a wheelchair in an open space, because often people come in in their wheelchair in their open space, someone ought to be able to use a chair in an open space. I don't know if there's precedent there for that, but I'd be willing to bet that they accommodate people similarly. And as it pertains to accommodations, you have to be pragmatic and you have to be understanding anyway. There was no way that this could come out well for them. And to the point that was just made, I would say if they really knew who he was, then they really shouldn't have done it because now they're going to have all kinds of crazy attention that they really didn't want. So there's a potential lawsuit, but I'd be willing

to bet that they do everything that they can to actually keep one from happening because they could really suffer on the publicity side. Frankly, the courts might be with them. You never know. Those aren't progressive courts over there, but they're going to have a problem from a public relations standpoint. And it seems like they're trying to get in front of it. But to the point made, you've got to have more flexibility so that folks aren't just trained to just say no if something doesn't fit in a category. Because now you've opened them up to potential legal liability and it could hurt them in their pockets. Yeah. And you mentioned intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress, not just to him, but to his mother, too, who stood up and was wondering,

well, what's going on with my son? And he said, Mom, I'm okay. Sit down, enjoy the movie. But it seems like in this situation, Scott, that, as you said, it might have been a little stupid, but at the same time, what he is really trying to do is speak up for someone who is not as fortunate as he. He said, listen, I'm okay. But there are other people who might have been treated this way. And that makes it even a bigger problem because I'm who I am and I have

the stature. But he said someone who's poor and may not know their rights may not come forward like he is doing right now. Yeah, look for more stories like this to come out if there are stories. But of all the people you want to put out the theater and call the police for, of all the people in the world, why do you want to do this to Reverend Barber? Of all people. But a CEO is like, damn. It's such an unforced error. It's such an unforced error. It's such an unforced error.

You're like, this can't be happening. Right. This can't be happening to me, you know? Yes. But I will say this. I hope Reverend Barber, and I know of his excellence and his brilliance, I could see him forging a partnership with AMC to not only address this issue, but partnering with his organizations, not only on ADA issues for black folks, but civil rights issues,

human rights issues, and something positive and powerful and financial grow out of this without a lawsuit. But he is a man rooted in love and justice and freedom and equality. And if the AMC wants to be a part of his organization and partner with him because of his love and justice and freedom and equality, this could be a powerful partnership

at the beginning of one that started off in the negative. Let's hope that takes place. And if not, there's always the lawsuit. There's always the lawsuit. There's always the lawsuit. You know, Torin, as we were just talking about, listen, they got the wrong one or they got the right one, depending on how you look at it.

But here also, I mean, we're talking about him. We're talking about the Color Purple movie. We're talking about so many things that just make this ripe for being wrong. What have you been hearing in terms of, Jess, in your world of journalism about what might become of this particular situation? Well, you know, if you're a business owner and you have a situation like this, the first thought in your mind is,

what do I need to do to make this go away? So this is an excellent opportunity for AMC and Reverend Barber, like the brother said, to forge an opinion. What I have been hearing from journalists is this is the perfect storm of bad things that could have happened. You have Reverend Dr. Barber, who works in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, who takes an older woman who's in her 90s, who has a history, who probably knows the history of how these things played out in the 1950s and 1960s, going into a theater. Then you have basically management who basically comes up and says, hey, you can't sit here. What does that sound like? And then when that doesn't work, then you call in the police.

It's like you basically got a civil rights movement right there in front of you. So this is an absolute disaster. And all it takes is for Reverend Barber to get on the phone. You can get about 20 or 30 black journalists to fly into that city to be right there and get some marches and everything. So it's in their best interest to make this right as quick as possible, get rid of it, and deal with the people who made this happen in that particular locale, and then make it better.

So, yeah, you don't want this. This is the worst possible scenario. Absolutely. As you said, everybody he can call. They're at his fingertips right now. He can start a whole movement with this and make it an amazing point. Joe, what are your thoughts about if he does bring a lawsuit, what's the message here? Because he knows his rights,

but what do you want people to know? I always tell people, you know, if you feel like something's wrong, there probably is something wrong. Like, in your spirit, in your soul, there's probably something illegal, there's probably a case for action. And what do you want people to know who might be out there thinking, you know,

this happened to me. What should people do who are not in a position like he is? I think people should say something. Use the opportunity to say something. You know, lawsuits can do one of two things. Sometimes we sue folks because someone is aggrieved, an individual is aggrieved, and the defendant got their hand caught in the cookie jar, as it were,

an employer, the jail system. We've got a bunch going on against Riverside County Sheriff right now, those types of things. But the best case scenario is when you actually get to deal with something systemic and actually change something for the better for everyone. Dr. Barber would absolutely see that opportunity, and I believe sees that opportunity. And AMC, if they're smart, would do the same thing because they're nationwide and they can do it. And it was just said that this is absolutely the worst scenario could possibly be. But the part that we didn't add that we're assuming is they see in the color purple. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

They have got to fix this. I mean, AMC can be on the forefront of making some positive change. Hey, we right around the corner from February. Let's do a justice series in our theaters. There's all kinds of stuff that they could do. But a lawsuit, hopefully at best, a lawsuit by itself isn't necessarily going to change anything unless you can deal with something larger and systemic. Now, sometimes a few individual hits will do something that will make a bunch of folks fall down or whatever else. But this is where America is watching. Much of America is watching. You've got perhaps the most consequential civil rights leader as much, arguably, as anyone else. And this is an opportunity.

And AMC can actually do something and be on the front this way. I tell people all the time, I'm fine for suing people. I'm fine for having a hard case, but why don't we change something permanently if we get a chance to do that? And you can draw more bees with honey. How many times in the history has a misunderstanding ended up becoming something out of necessity that was permanent and that was sustainable and dealt with something systemic. This could be one of those opportunities. Absolutely. Well, listen, this ought to be an interesting meeting. Certainly more to come on that. He just wanted to see Celie. That's all. My goodness. Listen, we have more for you after a break, So make sure that you stay with us. online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online

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There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. Hi everybody, I'm Kim Colson. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man, Deon Cole, from Black-ish, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. The Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary Committees are requesting all communications between the White House and

Hunter Biden's lawyers that relate to efforts to depose the president's son as part of their impeachment inquiry. House Oversight Chair James Comer and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan requested in a letter on Wednesday to Edward Siskel, assistant to the president and White House counsel, the GOP chairman said they want to determine whether the president was involved in his son's decision not to comply with a congressional subpoena. The letter asks for all documents and communications sent or received by employees of the executive office

of the president regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden, as well as any records sent or received by employees of the executive office of the president regarding President Biden's statement about the family's business associates on December 6, 2023. I tell you what, this is not going away. And it certainly is something, Scott, that we are going to be hearing about in terms of the president relating to the election and whether or not this is really some type of a witch hunt. What are your thoughts about this, Scott? Can you repeat the question one more time? I'm sorry.

Oh, no, absolutely. So, in terms of Joe Biden and his son, as they're requesting all of these documents to help with an impeachment inquiry, do you think that this is some type of a witch hunt or do you think that there's a little bit of meat on this bone? There ain't even a bone. I mean, I'm a former prosecutor from New York. I've been a white collar criminal defense lawyer for 32 years and I've represented people before investigation committees on the House and Senate side. It's something called probable cause, not the idea of crime, but hard facts that support

the possibility or the probability of a crime being committed, right? Not by Hunter Biden. He's been indicted, but by his father, Joe Biden, the president of the United States or the vice president of the United States. Having an idea, having an idea that maybe something criminally happened here because of their family business or because his father talked to his business associates. They've got witnesses that said they never saw his father do anything wrong. His father can't peddle influence. And even if his family members, his brother or Hunter, were peddling influence in regard to business deals, right, that's still not enough to impeach or to bring charges against Joe Biden. It simply isn't. You've got to have

evidence. You can look at bank accounts and say, well, why did he have all this money coming in or this $10,000 or $5,000 and so what? That's still not enough unless you've got a witness or documents or corroboration that says something illegal, inappropriate, or even immorally happened here. The government or the Republicans have none of that, if you will, and say they're going on a women's prayer with a lot of circumstantial evidence, but the evidence is the possibility of a crime, not the probability of a crime. Until you get to probability, right, this is a waste of time, money, and resources, even if you've got all the bank accounts.

Because Joe Biden has a right to privacy, but he also has a right of innocence, and he's innocent until proven guilty, and so is Hunter Biden here. So this is to offset Donald Trump's 91 fellow and state crimes or criminal investigations or indictments that he's facing. But that dog's not going to hunt, because in the end, it's going to be a choice between Biden and Trump. You want Biden, who's older, with a record of accomplishments and lots of experience, or 91 felony in state, indicted GOP candidate by the name of Donald Trump, who is crass, who's crude, and has four different criminal trials going on

and has promised retribution and negative energy if he wins this election. I don't think America will re-elect Donald Trump given that choice. I simply don't. And if America does, then America deserves what it gets. And pray for all of us. Pray for all of us that that happens in 2024.

Torrin, this doesn't look good, though. I mean, a lot to write about here. I mean, when we look at this, they're requesting they might be doing a... I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus

King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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 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 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. Fishing exercise, but this doesn't look good. No, it doesn't look good at all.

And we have to be clear here. Just because you may be connected to somebody and you may be powerful, I think what's going on here is we have to show that we have to send a message that nobody is above the law. If there is wrongdoing that's happening here, then it does need to be investigated. Now, we can have a conversation about whether this is politically motivated, which I personally believe it is. But if you look back at the history of people who have been indicted, who have been convicted in some cases, and also have been under intense scrutiny for things that for far less, I don't see any problem with that. But to the point about whether there's anything that's going to be there, obviously an inquiry, investigations will find that out. But we also have to be honest here. And this is something I figured was going to happen eventually. When the Democrats and also when people who are on the left started going after Trump, I knew it was going to happen eventually. When the Democrats and also when people who are on the left started going after Trump,

I knew it was going to be a matter of time before the Republicans were going to figure out some sort of way to get their lick back in a sense. And I think a lot of what's happening here is something like Kendrick called Democrats and rebuttigans, where you've got two different parties who are fighting each other and they're using their proxies to make this happen. Now, obviously, Hunter's been indicted. I also think also people are trying to find whatever they can to smear Joe Biden as well. Now, we don't know what's there, as you said, but we also know that there's enough smoke right now for people to be able to pull things out if they want to. Now, where that's going to go, who knows?

But I also know that from a media standpoint, sometimes all it takes is for you to muddy the water, to completely put people off from the process of even electoral politics. And if you muddy the water enough, and if you get enough stories out there floating around to make people decide, have questions about where they're gonna decide when it comes to November, sometimes that's all you need.

All you need is for people to be curious enough and be questioning enough to not go into the people you want them to deal with, and that's all you got. Sometimes that's the win right there, is to make people move. Absolutely. Now, Joe, do you think that this is all part of a political strategy? Or do you think when you look at Hunter Biden, there was an indictment for a reason and there were a lot of other things that he could have been indicted for. But what are your thoughts about whether or not there's still a fire out there? To Brother Baldwin's point, you know,

Hunter Biden is innocent until proven guilty, but he's been hot for a minute. Yeah. Everybody knows that he's been hot for a minute. And I think Hunter Biden has some problems. We'll see if it ends up, end up resulting in criminal conviction. And by the way, this is Biden's

independently operating Justice Department, by the way. This is his father's Justice Department, by the way. This is his father's Justice Department. OK. And so there is an air of legitimacy, I would say, because it's going on under the circumstances that it's going on. Do you really think Trump's Justice Department would ever prosecute his kids? It would never happen. And so but that doesn't mean mean that Joe Biden is hot. Because by the way, you know,

Trump's Justice Department looked into some of this stuff, particularly as it pertained to Joe Biden. And there was nothing hot going on then with Joe Biden, and he hasn't warmed up since, okay? And so that's what we have now. But to the point that was just made is that, yeah, they can hang in there, make this a political thing that will make people a little bit more disaffected. Remember, they don't want people, the Republicans don't want people to go to the polls. The Democrats do.

And so you can create an air of less than optimism and, you know, those types of things. It's absolutely politically motivated all day long, but because it's politically motivated, it can also have political consequences. They have a three-vote majority in the House. Republicans in swing districts don't want to vote for this thing, even if they did. They may suffer a consequence

from having just voted for the inquiry. They're going to try to minimize it and say, hey, we're just looking. We're not doing this. But if this goes anywhere and makes the news more than the day-to-day things that deal with people, real people and their issues and their problems, the swing districts guys are going to have a serious problem. So there could be political consequences. Hunter Biden's been hot for a long time. So I expect this as pertains to Hunter Biden. But just like Hillary came and testified all of those years ago. That's right.

And Trump wouldn't. You know, Biden will cooperate on the level that he needs to. And I'd like to think that he would get through this and he's focused enough and his people around him are smart enough to get them through it. But that's a separate situation than Hunter. They are not the same person. Scott, this is for you. Let's say that you are the attorney for Joe or Hunter. What are you telling them at this time? What do those conversations, what do you think they look like now? Because this is getting really messy when we're coming right in the middle of the

campaigning season. Well, having represented a number of elected officials and candidates and public figures, there are three strategies that I know Abby Lowell is discussing with Hunter Biden and President Biden's counsel are discussing with him. There is certainly the legal approach and the legal defense, right? There's a political strategy,

and this is all politically driven, right? And? There's a political strategy, and this is all politically driven, right? And then there's a PR strategy, which we saw when Hunter Biden showed up with Abby Lowell and said, I'm here, but I'm only here to testify publicly, not privately. GOP wants him to testify privately because they don't want to be embarrassed publicly. They want to see the documents, hear his testimony, get a feel for him as a witness, and then put him out before the public or maybe not. Right. All three of those strategies are not coherent or consistent or rather congruent with one another at various times. This is high level stuff. The presidency of the United States will be impacted by what happens to Hunter Biden. One, the presidency itself could be impacted either through impeachment

or through the election process. And then on the PR side, both sides, both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden are taking political and PR hits on an everyday basis because you've got the press. And so these need to be coordinated strategies. In the end, I'm giving them confidence. I'm giving them comfort, right? And I'm sharing my capabilities and my team's capabilities with them to give Hunter Biden and Joe Biden every chance, right? Every opportunity to not only beat these charges legally, but to win the PR game and also ultimately win politically, because the biggest office in this country, the most powerful office

in the world is at stake, literally, even though Joe Biden isn't indicted and even though he's under a tepid investigation by the House. And it's an election year in 2024. Bottom line is it's a lot of moving parts, right? You got to be coordinated. You got to defend. And while he can't coordinate with his dad and his lawyers, the law firm representing Hunter Biden, right, has to be at their A game in all three of these fronts. Because the legal piece, the legal defense is the most important, right? And they're making all the right moves legally right now. Because if they're – watch this real quick. If there were two levels of justice, like the GOP says, Hunter Biden is the poster child for it. My lawyer on the panel will agree.

He had a deal that was cut. No jail time, a couple of misdemeanors. He certainly had a drug habit. It's a health issue. And an independent prosecutor, after investigating for five years, came up with this deal the government agreed with it the defense agreed with it the gop leadership complained about it the deal fell apart in court he got and then he's been indicted on like nine charges four or five felonies for conspiracy and gun charges and not paying your taxes on time. He's got to be one of the few that have ever been indicted for felony or felonies on those type of charges. That makes absolutely no sense.

And watch Abby Lowe, his defense lawyer, make a big deal of it, not only in court, but out of court on the PR and the political side. So a lot to watch, unfortunately. But there's a presidential election coming up in 2024, and it's for all the prizes. Yeah, absolutely. Joe, we're agreeing with that advice. I mean, all the strategies that have been talked about, are you adding a little something?

Yeah, no doubt about it. You absolutely have to coordinate your strategy. I think PR is incredibly important as well. You know, legal, of course, is about what's going on in the box. But there is a public information war to win. And perhaps in that way, not only can he help himself, but he can actually help his father. All right. That's right. Someone, you can jump in if somebody wanted to jump in. No, I will say this. Just speaking from a media standpoint, I think something that's very important to understand is that people have to be very wary of the fact that PR is different from journalism.

And I think sometimes people have to understand that even though these stories may not be pleasant for some of the people on a political level, the point of a journalist is to get to the truth. And there's going to be some things that are going to come out during this inquiry and probably if this goes to trial that are not going to be pleasant. And I think some people are going to have to separate what they want to see from the truth. And that's going to be on both sides of the aisle politically. And it's also going to be down on both sides of the aisle from a PR standpoint and from a journalism standpoint. I think it's going to be incumbent on a lot of journalists, if they are journalists, to understand that you have to be able to report the facts, regardless of what your personal opinions are, and put those out there.

That has to be what people need to be made aware of that as well. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. If someone's going to get down to the bottom of it, it's going to be the journalists. All right. Roland Martin unfiltered. We'll be right back after this break. You're watching the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, You will not. White people are losing their damn lives.

It's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys.

America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar

company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this

misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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 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 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. Hey, what's up? Keith Turney in a place to be. Got kicked out your mama's university. Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy. But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin.

Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump will remain on the 2024 ballot. Now, the state justices rejected the cause for Trump's removal based on the U.S. Constitution's insurrectionist ban. Unlike in Colorado, the Michigan courts rejected the case wholly on procedural grounds. They never reached the questions of whether the January 6th was an insurrection or whether Trump engaged in it. The Michigan lawsuit was filed in September by an advocacy organization, Free Speech for People,

on behalf of a group of voters. It also pursued an unsuccessful 14th Amendment challenge against Trump in Minnesota and recently filed a new case in Oregon. A separate liberal-leaning group initiated the Colorado lawsuit. These dueling outcomes could set the stage for the United States Supreme Court's involvement. Certainly that is going to be the case. I wanted to start with you, Torrin. It seems to me like, as we know, the Supreme Court must speak, and certainly they are going to speak, but this is very, very confusing when you look at Michigan and look at what Colorado has already decided. There are so many moving parts here,

and we don't know what other states are coming up next with perhaps the same or a totally different decision. Because this decision in regards to Michigan was based on procedural grounds, saying that the Secretary of State did not have the right to even determine whether or not Trump could be on the ballot. What are your thoughts about all of these different decisions that have come in so far

with Michigan and Colorado? I think the public is going to get a really quick education about state politics and also about federal politics and how the three branches of government work, because I think people don't understand that what you're going to see is going to be a piecemeal state-by-state process about whether Trump is going to be eligible to be on the ballot or not. And when you see these sorts of things play out, what's going to happen is it's going to end up going up to the Supreme Court, because when you have 50 states, and I think, like I said, every state is going to rule on this, then there's going to be counter-suits, then there's going to be counterarguments on that.

And it's going to be so confusing that the backlog of paperwork and the backlog of procedure and legislation is going to have to be hammered out by the Supreme Court. Now, when it gets to the Supreme Court, it's going to be interesting to see whether or not that's going to be something that's going to be binding up close enough to the point where it gets to the place where we're at when the election comes close. Because if you move it too close to the time for election when he's eligible to become on the ballot, then it's going to end up devolving back to the states. And then we're going to have to do this whole process all over again. I think what's going to happen is you're going to see procedures happen in American politics in 2024

that you have not seen in the last 200 years. So I don't know what's going to happen. It's like every day there's going to be something new. That's all I can say. Who knows? Definitely who knows. What we do know is that on January 4th, that's the deadline for Trump and his team to file with the Supreme Court and appeal. But it seems to me that what his team is saying, Joe, is that we need to go to the legislators. We need to go to Congress. They are the ones who need to make this decision, which is interesting because the Constitution is what it is. It's actually something that people don't question and is actually the final word that people just carry out. Certainly, I don't think that this is a very good decision that Trump is making in terms of let's question what the Constitution says. Let's question the 14th Amendment. What do you think his strongest argument will be, though, when he does file by January 4th, Joe?

What I would say, there's a couple things. First of all, with an election coming up, you want to be able to say that you want the people to decide. Now, of course, in the back door, he's trying to keep certain people from voting. We understand that. But let's just go along. Let's play along like he really wants everyone to vote. You want to say that you want the people to actually be the ones to decide who's on the ballot. They are very well, perfectly capable of doing that. And of course, he's going to argue that it's a political stunt, you know, those types of things. But I would be saying if I'm him, let the people decide. By the way, here's a separate thing. He hasn't been convicted of anything yet. He's been impeached a couple times.

And there is an election interference case. But he hasn't been convicted of anything yet. And so if I were him, I would probably use that as well. But I also might say, because I'd expected the Supreme Court to rule for me, possibly because I put a few of them there, that this ought to all be resolved at the Supreme Court to rule for me, possibly because I put a few of them there, that this ought to all be resolved at the Supreme Court so that we can move forward, because he doesn't want to be put off on the ballot anywhere else. Now, on the other hand, he may say that, well, you know, we want to buy time and run

out the clock and all of these other things, but he doesn't want to run out of the clock on anything that has the potential to keep him off the ballot right now. And so, you know, it's going to be interesting because we just don't have any precedent for it. That's right. And that is very key because the Supreme Court didn't know what to do in terms of... They haven't really made their case, right?

And in terms of leaving everything to the states' rights, when it came to abortion, they left that power in the states. And now when it comes to this particular decision, they have to come and step in and say something or not, or else it certainly is going to be confusing. Is it not, Scott? Yeah, not as confusing as you may think. I'm a former state party chair for the Democrats here in Washington, D.C. Let's unpack this a little bit more, right? The states control the elections, whether they're for federal office

or state office. That's the first thing. And, you know, the Republicans are big on state rights. Secondly, Republicans are strict constructionists of the Constitution. The plain reading of the Constitution is what controls their outcomes in a conservative court or conservative justice and how they lay it out in their opinions. Thirdly, and most importantly, Colorado had an enabling statute that called for those who had standing to challenge someone being put on the ballot. They were findings of facts and conclusions of law made by a judge that, in fact, Donald Trump had engaged in an insurrection. And then, but they still said that at the primary level, that wasn't the final ballot, essentially.

And so they were going to hold their opinion until the appeal was resolved. The Court of Appeals in Colorado indicated, supported that decision and endorsed that decision. And now that appeal is going to the U.S. Supreme Court. And so Colorado has made findings of fact. That's really different than Michigan and Oregon and some of these other states. All of them have very different procedural or even administrative processes as to challenge somebody on the ballot. Every state has a process for challenging somebody, but some make findings of fact, some don't.

And so Michigan indicated, and this is really important, and Minnesota indicated when they denied him, when they denied putting him off the ballot, it was the primary ballot that they kept him off because it wasn't the final ballot. And so this fight is going to be rekindled after the primary because then the final ballot and who gets on the final ballot is what's going to be litigated. The state parties in Michigan can determine that. But even the court in Michigan said this isn't the final ballot and there is a mechanism for challenging it. So this is going to be reverberating. This is going to you're going to hear more and more of these arguments at the state level. And it's going to be convoluted. It's going to be confusing. And that's what's going to get to the Supreme Court, because the Supreme

Court loves settling conflicts in the law. And you have several states are going to rule differently on this. And that's what states that are going to rule differently on this, and that's what they're going to have to resolve. And you make some very good points, especially because, as you said, there were facts that were presented in Colorado. They made the case, as opposed to Michigan being procedural.

So we might have different cases coming to the table for many, many different reasons, and that's why we're seeing the difference in these particular decisions specifically. And I'll tell you something else, which is it didn't get reported on a lot. In the Colorado case, there were moderate Republicans who brought that litigation.

And in several other states, it's not just Democrats bringing these claims in these other states to keep Trump off the ballot, they're moderate Republicans because they're looking for an alternative to Donald Trump, an alternative to MAGA. They may have it in Nikki Haley, maybe not. We'll see how she does in the first caucus, in the first primary. But these are moderate Republicans who believe in the Constitution and believe in fairness,

justice, and equality, and don't want to see the crudeness and the crassness and the illegal conduct that Donald Trump is promising. They don't want to see him in the White House. Race is going to be close no matter what. But the state litigation on keeping him off the ballot is a really, really powerful and important opportunity to get that done. And it's the real threat, other than the, obviously, felony indictments and criminal indictments, but it's the real threat, other than the, obviously, felony indictments

and criminal indictments, but it's another threat to his political survival because his campaign are his criminal cases and his criminal cases are his campaign. If either one of those fail, if he loses at either one, right, it's over for him. So he's got to keep both of them going until he can win the general. No one in the history of the world has beat 91 felony and state criminal indictments. And so he's got to run the table. It's unlikely he's going to run the table on this. He's going to get caught, as we used to say.

He's going to get caught short from where I come from, at least once, maybe several times. Right. Out of all those, right? One's got to stick. One or two. You know, Joe, what are your thoughts about the Supreme Court when it lands into their laps on the fourth? What do you think they're going

to do? I'm sure you've given this some thought. You know, the Colorado opinion was written in a way that is prime for a conservative justice to look at it and say, I've got to uphold it. They may not uphold it, right? They may not side with Colorado, but they wrote it rooted in strict contructionist theory. It's about a 200-page opinion. And they also wrote it based on state rights.

Republican justices love to render decisions based on those two legal theories. And this Colorado opinion is written for their review. It's really significant. And so I think the conservative justices in the Supreme Court are going to struggle with trying to save Trump. But I will tell you this. My father, who passed away a few years ago, was a state court justice in Illinois. He served for some period of time on the Court of Appeals. And he talked to me about code of conduct, judicial code of conduct, that you may reach a decision, no matter where you are on federal or state judiciary, right, you may still reach a conservative decision. But the judicial canon of ethics really controls the thought process of most judges once they get there.

I'm not saying that there's no politics involved. But for the most part, conservative and liberal justices try to get it right because they have their canons of ethics. They're going to struggle with not only their canons of ethics, their politics, but also how this Colorado opinion was written. It's going to be interesting to see what their position is on this insurrection, what they think of Donald Trump. And remember, Justice Roberts hates politicizing the court, which is why they punted on the John Smith or Jack Smith papers. He will not want to have this court tied up in the political decision-making or the next president. It's a lot for them to consider. He may have no choice in the matter in 2024.

I want Joe to jump in. What are your thoughts? That's where I would have gone. There's a couple people that aren't going to care. Clarence Thomas will do anything to thwart Democrats and support Republicans, particularly because he's got an axe of grind ever since 1991. Roberts will come in and try to find the middle ground that preserves the legitimacy of the court, even though he gets decisions wrong as well. I'm not saying that he's faultless, but he is concerned enough about

the legacy of the court to try to make something happen that doesn't make it look like the court figured in on who became president. He will try. We will see if he will succeed, but he will try. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I agree. Yes. Now it's's interesting because Trump recently had kind of a win in the Supreme Court when they decided not to determine whether or not immunity applied to him. I'm wondering if you would say, Torraine, that this is another win, that if it goes to the Supreme Court, that this will be a win, Torraine, that this is another win, that if it goes to the Supreme Court, that this will be a win, Torraine? Well, you know, it's so crazy to see the way the political system in America has gone over the past four years that you can't tell. I know there's quite a few judges on the Supreme Court who may feel like they owe Trump a favor because a lot of their appointments are beholden to him.

Who knows? I mean, it's hard to say. That's what I'm saying. The system right now is so up in the air and there are so many unique things that have happened over the past four to eight years that it's hard to even make a judgment call about the way things may go now. It's like, you just don't know. That's my opinion on it. Joe, could this backfire in any way? I mean, going to the Supreme Court, like I said, he's had some wins recently. Could could this backfire at all? There's no other place to go, because if below they have not found for him, he's going to have to go to the Supreme Court. Everybody's going to have to go to the Supreme Court. And again, at the end of the day, as it pertains to preserving democracy, upholding the Constitution, whether it's the legislature, whether it's the executive, and particularly the judicial, at some point we're screwed anyway if the

justices and the judicial system doesn't do what it needs to do in light of the Constitution and what needs to happen. The question becomes whether the fact that three of these folks were appointed by Donald Trump and they got rid of abortion after specifically saying that they wouldn't do so, does that mean that they would actually turn the country upside down and topsy-turvy with something like this that was clearly supportive to the president? In light of particularly if he ends up being convicted of some things, you know, that type of thing. So the question becomes whether they will actually do that. Donald Trump has all confidence in the Supreme Court in that he feels like he has an expectation and he will give them an opportunity to do what he thinks that they ought to do.

They're going to go to the Supreme Court. There's no way that it doesn't go to the Supreme Court, particularly if he doesn't like what's going on below. But we'll just have to see what happens with it. Yeah. And I think what's interesting here is that when we talk about abortion, he set that up for a very long time. He knew way ahead of time what he wanted those numbers to be, and he actually made it happen.

Unlike this situation, we don't know how they're going to decide because, as Scott said, these are three Supreme Court justices who believe in the originalist theory. Let's take the words on the paper and go with it. Let's not interpret it. But what did the framers actually think?

This actually is something that Trump did not plan for. We're certainly going to have more on this and continue to follow this. All right. We're going to be back after a break. So stay with us. I know a lot of cops and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was

convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs

podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this

quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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.

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.

Don't you think it's time to get wealthy? I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show on the Black Star Network focuses on the things your financial advisor or bank isn't telling you. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraiji Muhammad, live from L.A. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad,

and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at three, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a

question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network, a balanced life with Dr. Jackie.

Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5 DC. Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, some good news. Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, now owns the land her family's home sat on 80 years ago before a racist mob damaged the property. According to local affiliate WFAA, Habitat for Humanity is gifting the 97-year-old back the land that her family previously owned in Fort Worth, Texas. Lee, a civil rights activist who led efforts to make Juneteenth a national holiday, initially contacted Gage Yeager, the CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity, when she noticed the organization owned the lot.

She offered to buy the land at first, but then Yeager said he would instead gift it to her. The organization is also building a home for her on the land. Well, this is some good news. Listen, it's not always that we have good news, right? But this is really something, and I'm just wondering, Torrin, what are your thoughts about this? This is something good to write about, right? Definitely. And I'm glad that that elder is still here to actually be gifted this land while she's still here to enjoy it on this plane. Unfortunately, you know, these stories are all over the country.

You hear these stories about people who've had their land taken. You heard about wealth removal. You heard about people who've created inventions, who are black, who've had those inventions stolen from them. And land theft is something that we don't talk about enough as a community, but this is something that we, I think most of our grandparents and some of our great grandparents have stories about land that was gifted to them or land that was deeded to them in the 1920s and 1930s. And sometimes after the Civil War, it was outright stolen from them. That's right. Either by violence or by legal machinations and everything.

So I'm just glad this happened. What I would like to see is more stories like this coming forward because I guarantee you there are stories like this all over the country of elders who have these stories. And I think we need to start talking to our elders who have experienced this so we can do our own research and maybe partner with people who are focused on giving our people our land back. You know, Joe, I've been reading about a lot of these deed thefts that have been going on, especially in Brooklyn or communities that are historically black. And then you have older people that are there. They don't understand what is happening when they're signing a piece of paperwork, what's in this small print. This certainly worked out well for Opal Lee

in terms of getting this back. But there's certainly a lot that people should keep in mind when it comes to, I have a property, and how should I properly manage it, and make sure that the people who are out there, those phone calls, too. I don't know if you've gotten a phone call asking about a property, and if you want cash, we can give you cash for it. But there's certain things that people should

keep in mind when they have a property, especially if it has history attached to it. Is there not, Joe? Yeah, for sure. I mean, and it really comes down to most people have that have generational wealth due because of the homes and because of the homes that they own and it is very very easy to sign your property away uh without knowing um and it's also very very easy to not see the big picture uh once uh big mama dies and pookie and ray ray are fighting over property and they decide because they live close to uh sofi in inglewoodwood and they can sell their 1,200 square foot bungalow for a million dollars, it seems like the thing to do. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what you've done is you've given away, basically, you've gotten a value for it, but a generational wealth and a placement in a community. And so one of the things that has happened, I think, is that we have to have larger lessons about the larger issues related to this, how hard it was to get property.

Read the book Color of Law and the things that happened, how the interstates split up neighborhoods that were racially mixed and took properties away from us. teach history on how it was so difficult to get property. And now you can be strategic about keeping property in a family, about doing rentals, whether you help somebody that's in the family get on their feet or whether you rent at market value, you have it in trust and you do things that help to preserve it and you have plans in place so someone doesn't have to die and then things go into probate, which often is what sucks a lot of the value away from the property and a lot of the wealth because there is a fight where the lawyers have to get paid per court order. But, you know, there might not be the ownership afterward that it would be and there certainly wouldn't be as much. So we have to look around the corner and not just to it and hopefully plan for those things so that these things are in place when someone passes. So there's frankly less to fight about. Absolutely. Currency here is the

information here, right, Scott? And not everybody can be an Opal Lee. And not only did she get the land back, but she's getting the house built for her. And we know that is because of her status, but not everybody is like that. So what Joe was saying is very on point. I wanted you to just add to the conversation when we talk about legacy and land and making sure that we get what is ours. I think there's a lot to be learned from Opal and a lot to be learned from so many of these stories that we are hearing about across the country. That was for you, Scott. Oh, Scott, your mic is off. Uh-huh. All right.

Yeah, you still have people out here. They may not be a racial mob, but you still have those out here who would take our property and want to pay very little for it. It's called redlining. It's called not giving you a mortgage. It's called bankruptcy discrimination.

That's a whole other debate. But that's a good thing. I mean, listen, real estate property is always a value. I'll say that again to your listening audience. It's always a value. It may fluctuate, but you'll always be rich and wealthy if you own property in this country, and it goes up in value. Now, you sell when you want to sell, you know, but at the same time, it's valuable. It is the greatest source of wealth creation for all Americans, including black people and certainly folks that don't look like us. So that's the important thing. The other thing, though, is protecting the property, right? If you don't have your property and you don't have your valuables and trust for

when you die, or you don't have a will, like most of us don't have a will, at least if you believe statistics, right? You need to get a will, a will for wealth creation, protecting your property for those who are younger than you and coming after you and pass it along from generation to generation. You've got to have something to pass along to because if you get rid of it while you're alive, I know you can't take it with you, but you've got to care about those coming after you, like your children and grandchildren and stuff. And so wealth creation, wealth building, and estate planning. I don't care whether you make $20,000 a year or $20 million a year.

You ought to have an estate plan. It doesn't cost that much, a will, or put all your valuable stuff and real estate in trust so that you don't have Ray Ray and Pookie arguing about it afterwards. It's laid out for you when you pass away. That's right. Just important points for all of us to remember. That's right. And on top of that, you're not going to pay extra taxes. A lot of monies that are attached, right, passing on that piece of property. As I said, information is the best. All right.

We are going to be back after a break. More with Roland Martin on Filter. Stay with us. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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 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 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. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

The enigma of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. What really makes him tick? And what forces shaped his view of the world, the country, and Black America? The answer, I'm pretty sure, will shock you. And he says, you know, people think that I'm anachronistic. I am. I want to go backwards in time in order to move us forward into the future. He's very upfront about this. We'll talk to Corey Robin, the man who wrote the book that reveals it all.

That's next on The Black Table, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Dee Barnes. And this week on The The Frequency we talk about school to prison pipeline, book bans, and representing for women's rights the group Moms Rising handles all of this, so join me in this conversation with my guest Monifa Vandelli. This is white backlash

this is white fear that happens every time black people in the United States help to walk the United States forward towards what is written on the paper. Right here on The Frequencyor Family. I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson.

I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Cassidy Clausel-Young has been missing since November 26, 2023 from her Harvest, Alabama home. The 15-year-old is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 125 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. Cassidy's ears and navel are pierced, and she wears braces. She may be wearing a blonde wig. Anyone with information about Cassidy Clausel Young is urged to call the Madison County, Alabama Sheriff's Office at 256-722-7181. All right. Well, the final Confederate monument in Jacksonville, Florida's Springfield Park was removed today. Mayor Donna Deegan ordered the removal of the monument called Women of the Southland. The monument has stood in the park

north of downtown since 1915. Deegan said its presence divided the community and had no place in the city park. The granite structure with its columns, rotunda, and roof remains in the park. After being stripped of the statues, what will be done with the Springfield Park monument after it's removed is unclear.

Previously called Confederate Park, Springfield Park was renamed in 2020. So I guess it's just about time, would you say, Torin? It's about time that that came down. First of all, I gotta give a shout out to my hometown, Duval. Oh, alright, alright.

I grew up in Jacksonville. I grew up in Jacksonville. I grew up in Jacksonville. I grew up not too far from Springfield on the west side. Wow. Yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful thing. But I do got to say this.

A lot of these monuments, even though this one was up there in 1915, a lot of these Confederate monuments that you see around the south that are finally coming down, they were built up in the 1950s as a resistance to the black civil rights movement. So a lot of these things are not even historical monuments, really. They were put up by segregationists following the lead of George Wallace, who was saying that this is the South, this is our South, and we want our South to represent us. And, you know, this is, Springfield is a majority black neighborhood. And I remember walking to school, seeing that monument and seeing other monuments along those lines and things. They were trying to do this revisionist history of what the South was really about and what slavery was really about. So I'm glad to see it come down. And to answer your question, I say take the medal and make it into a monument and make it into a bust of James Weldon Johnson,

another Jacksonville legend who wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing. Lift Every Voice and Sing. Absolutely. So I'm interested, growing up there, these were monuments. Did you talk about them in school? What was your first recollection of them? The first time I really paid attention to that was when I was downtown when I was like eight or nine years old. And there used to be a monument smack dab in the middle of Hemming Park, which is the middle of downtown Jacksonville, with a Confederate soldier with the Confederate cap holding a rifle and had with his gun up, looking like he was looking vigilant, looking at the north.

And I asked my mother what it meant. And she gave me the history of the Confederacy. And she also told me about Florida and Jacksonville's part in the Confederacy. That's when I first became aware of it. And I was always a big fan of history. So I started just doing research and looking it up. And I realized that some of the stuff I was being told in school about what the Civil War was like

and what the Civil War was about was totally antithetical to what there really was. It was about keeping black people enslaved. It was about keeping us in shallow slavery, and they weren't defending themselves. They were trying to export a hateful, bigoted ideology to the North and also to Brazil and also to South America. That's when I became aware of.

And then I began to ask questions and sometimes the questions, the answers I got didn't really match up with the history. And I had to do my own research, which like a lot of young black people had to do that. You had to really do your own research. You had to dig for yourself. But in doing that, you learn what the real truth was. And that was good, too. So you can educate other people.

I'm just glad that we have a mayor that was able to really push forward and to push forward an idea to move, remove this legacy because it is history, but it doesn't need to be history. It needs to be celebrated. It needs to be made. People need to be made aware of it and leave it in the past and go look for it if you want to, but it doesn't need to be praised. Wow. Thank you for that insight and taking us back to your youth. You know, Scott, what's very important too about what Torrin mentioned was you had the right people in power in order to make that happen. And that's a really big deal. We talk about that a lot on this show. That's where you the voting comes in and that where it's so important.

And you have to get to the polls in order to eventually see a change like this. That's true. I'm glad the governor didn't step in and try to block it. I was surprised at that. So that was a real blessing. But, you know, these monuments, I appreciate the history my brother just shared with us because we didn't have these monuments in Illinois. At least I didn't grow up around them. But what's interesting to me now as an adult is that we are the only country that celebrates a civil war of a group of people from the South that lost the civil war, that were attempting to disrupt this experiment of democracy called the United States of America in their efforts to form a more perfect union. The actual democracy was at stake here, and the North won.

Freedom, justice, and equality won for whatever reason under the leadership of Lincoln, whether he wanted to free the slaves or save democracy, take your pick. And yet we celebrate the South. We celebrate the Confederate. I mean, we celebrate with organizations, the monuments, anything referring to the South or the Confederacy ought to be barred by law as far as I'm concerned. Because if you go to Germany, right, you see no remnants of the Third Reich or of Hitler or the World War II and Germany's march towards conquering several countries. And yet here in the States, it's like we put our arm

around our Southern brothers who threatened democracy and say it's OK. We were still all Americans. I've never seen anything like it, and it's illogical. And so we have to remember that. And so any images, any celebrations of the South, at least from a public standpoint, ought to be barred by law. Now, what you should do with these monuments and what have you, if they love the South and the daughters of the South and the men of the South who want to celebrate it and folklore to owe back in the day and make America great again, that you should put your private money together, create a museum and put all those monuments in there, all the paraphernalia in there,

all the historical documents in there. And when you want to go celebrate the South losing the Civil War, you ought to be free to go do that without my tax dollars at work. Right, right. Joe, you know, I think what it comes down to is who's telling the history, why are they telling the history, and what history are they telling specifically? And as we heard from Torin, he was getting a history lesson by just passing through the park. One, that he had to actually go and research himself, and with his mother's help,

was able to ultimately get it right. Fortunately, and, you know, this is a reminder, right? Torren's story reminds us all that we have to make sure that we're talking to our kids, and that we're talking to our parents, we're talking to our grandmothers, we're talking to our aunts and our great aunts and our great uncles and our great grands, because we need to make sure we don't lose sight of this history,

because often they lived these stories, right? I remember my mom grew up in Indianapolis, and she talked about, and I asked her at one point, I said, have you ever dealt with segregation? And depending on who it is or who it is you ask indiana is either the northern capital of the south or the southern capital of the north and and she talked about a couple stories yeah we were in amusement park this particular time and you know we were asked to leave um and then years later our family was putting on the biggest family reunion at that time in state history that was in the 90s so So I'm related to everybody in Indianapolis, but it's important to understand history and the way that you keep from losing history

is having discussions and having conversations. I believe that most people that are pro-Confederacy in terms of keeping statues up, they either don't know or won't admit that most of them went up in a response to what was going on with the Supreme Court and desegregation and laws changing in the 50s, et cetera, and the whole George Wallace thing. Most of them don't know that or they don't want to claim it. And Southern pride is just a code word for racism, being able to keep doing what we wanted to do in terms of slavery. And I had never seen such a consolation prize for some folk that lost. And so what we have to really do is make sure that we pass that history along and we talk to the people in our families. Let's record. Let's do some Zoom meetings. Let's put some things together. My wife's aunt, Josie Johnson, is the mother of civil rights in the state of Minnesota. And just

record. I did a podcast with her. Get information so that this isn't lost, so that somebody can't throw you an okey-doke related to these particular issues. Right, right. Get out that camera, get out that recorder, whatever it is, so that there is a record of it that people can refer to. Torrin, I'm going to end with you. I'm curious, first of all, when you found out about James Weldon Johnson, when did that history come into your arena? I became aware of that because my mother and my grandmother were really big on history. There we go. And, you know, Jacksonville, when I was growing up, didn't really have a lot of places you could go to

to understand about black history. There is a museum called the Ritz Theater, actually in Springfield, where I learned a little bit about that. But I read The Souls of Black Folk when I was like eight or nine years old. And James Weldon Johnson talks about going to Atlanta first, and he talks about coming back to Jacksonville.

And it's like, oh, he was in Jacksonville? I didn't know that. And he talks about riding up and down Duval Street, which is still up in Jacksonville, and working at the cigar factory there, and in Tampa and everything. So that made me get a little bit more curious. And then I found out that him and his brother moved to Harlem, and they were a big part

of the Harlem Renaissance. And when you grow up in a city where you have these huge historical figures there, it sparks your interest, and it makes you want to learn a lot more. So I started just walking around and figuring out, talking to older people and everything. So that's how I learned. And to the other brother's point, I think it is very, very important to talk to elders and

get as much of this history documented as you can, because if you're blessed enough to have these elders with you and they're still here, we have some people who were 70s and 80s in their 90s, get as much as you can. It may be painful. And we've got to be aware too that some of these, some of our elders may not want to talk about this because they were in the thick of this and they still have some of that pain. But we've got to have this history preserved for our future generations so they can understand where they've come from, what they went through. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know 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. And where they can go. That's where that comes from. Absolutely. And I'm sure that your mom and your grandma, that they told you, and when you sing this song, you have to stand, right? I think that's what's beautiful about that song.

It comes on and everybody has to, you got to put your phone down, you have to stand right i think that's what's beautiful about that song it comes on and everybody has to you got to put your phone down you have to stop talking you have to pay attention lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring ring with the harmonies of liberty now if you can get that second and third verse you Go through. Go ahead. I can't help you with it. I can't help you with it. Now who has brought us thus, I'm on the way. I don't want to get in no trouble. All right, people.

We will be back right after this break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it, and you spread the word.

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Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. A Colorado jury convicted the two paramedics connected to the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Now, Peter Chichunyuk and Jeremy Cooper, convicted the two paramedics connected to the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Now, Peter Chichunyuk and Jeremy Cooper, two former members of the Aurora Fire Department,

were called to the scene on August 24, 2019, to help McClain after he was stopped by the police. Cooper injected McClain with large amounts of ketamine, resulting in an overdose. Now, both paramedics have now been terminated. He infected McClain with large amounts of ketamine, resulting in an overdose. Now, both paramedics have now been terminated. Chichen Ike and Cooper are two of the five authorities charged in the homicide of McClain. Randy Rodima was found guilty

of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault with... And he will be sentenced in January. Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard areard were acquitted of all of the charges. Now, when we think about all of the facts here to my panel, we're talking about this young man. There was a call. A local businessman thought that this young man in a ski mask looked very suspicious. We are talking corroded chokehold. His ski mask was never taken off. He vomited in his ski mask. No one assessed his vital signs when they showed up or asked how much he weighed. All of the math was wrong with the ketamine. And this is why they were in

the situation that they were in. I want to go to you first, Scott. What do you think about the outcome of this? In fact, there was a higher charge that they were not found guilty of, reckless manslaughter. How do you feel about this decision? You know, this is a tough case for both sides because the criminal intent, right, and whether it's specific intent or general intent, you've got to be able to prove criminality and that the mindset of the defendants was either criminal negligence or disregard for what would normally be the conduct of these individuals that did not reach beyond negligence but reached the level of criminal negligence or indifference, depraved indifference, I think the statute says here.

And the jury cut the baby in half, didn't think it was manslaughter. If you want to inject them with this medicine and to either reduce the violence or reduce whatever was going on as a way of treating him, you've got to have some medical statistics or some vitals from this individual, or you can't do it. Now, the paramedics would argue that we didn't have time. We were making split-second decisions, and we needed to do something. I got it. But the simple fact that he's not responding doesn't mean you pump more into him. There's got to be some medical standards in your training. If you violated those standards, then as a result, you're not only going to face civil lawsuits, but in this particular case, because of the depraved indifference of your actions,

then you certainly could face criminal charges. And in this case, it did, because there was no context. There was no information. There was, there was, there was, they didn't even ask these questions before they started working on this young man, and it proved fatal to his life. Right. And, Joe, I think that's what is key here. This young man would be alive.

Yes. And what's key here, Joe, is that they were way off in terms of their assessment. They thought that he weighed 200 pounds when he weighed 140 pounds. So then we do get into a question of training. Their defense would say and argue in court that, listen, this is a really state and county level. This has nothing to do with any type of federal crimes and that they rose to the occasion in terms of their training as we talked about both sides. Really, it was really difficult to make this decision.

What are your thoughts about the outcome of this? A lot. You know, they did a lot of things wrong, really. They get to the scene. It takes them seven minutes to make contact with Elijah McClain. They testified inconsistently than some of the things that showed up on tape. They said that he was saying gibberish, but their specific sentence that he sang, you know, where he is cognizant about what's

going on, but he feels threatened. The next thing that I would say, not to try to be funny, but this brother weighed a buck-oh-five. I mean, I mean, soaking wet. There's no way you look at this guy and say he's 200 pounds. There's no way. And then ketamine is very, very, uh, is, is potentially lethal if you don't have your weights, right? I mean, you know, they basically gave him 50% more ketamine than they

should have. And then they said that they did it because of excited delirium, which, depending on who you ask, isn't a thing at all. Right. What it probably was is him lacking oxygen. OK. And in any event, more to the point for everything, they say that they kept the police kept them from doing their jobs. But you don't hear them talking about that on tape. You don't hear them talking about that on the on the body cam. So that's not necessarily believable. And then to the point of what the police did or didn't do, they were in a

situation where none of them was under threat. None of them. You know, given their size, the number of them versus the number of him, they didn't have anything to worry about with this kid. They didn't have to do it the way that they did it. The question becomes whether to what extent you separate what the police did or didn't do. And by the way, you know, they pretty much got off, you know, one of them's back at work versus what the paramedics did or didn't do. But there are a lot of inconsistencies with what the paramedics said and what actually happened, saying that he was, you know, a certain way on the gurney when he wasn't saying that he was saying gib way on the gurney when he wasn't, saying that he was saying gibberish when he spoke very, very clearly.

So there were some inconsistencies there, but they did, to the point made, decide to split the baby. And so there's criminally negligent homicide, not a specific intent for murder wasn't brought, but a general intent for manslaughter they decided not to do either. But if you ask the mother, you ask his brother's mother, she'll say it wasn't justice. She'll say that it wasn't enough. Because at the end of the day, a couple of the cops are still running the street and they weren't prosecuted to the highest extent, or at least in terms of the success rate related to the manslaughter conviction, which would be difficult,

admittedly. It's very, very difficult to do, but she's not going to be satisfied with that. And so it's just unfortunate all the way around because at the end of the day, it's not something that had to happen at all. They're precise and deliberate and careful when it comes to convicting these folks, but they weren't precise and deliberate when it came to dealing with his brother when they saw him.

Yes, and no humanity at all, Joe. Didn't even take the ski cap off. Seeing that he was down there and seeing that he was, you know, convulsing or something, we could have been spitting up, vomiting, which he was, and that made things worse. That's right. No doubt about it. Or to even see how young he was.

To assess his age. That's right. To look at his face. You could see. To assess his age. Yes. Torrin, I wanted to go to you. You know, there's quite a legacy left here for this young man who liked to play music to animals, was a massage therapist,

just nice by all accounts, minding his own business. What type of legacy does this leave? Because we look at the legacy and why it was kept alive. It really was his mother who was not letting this go as certainly as she should have. Well, I think there's two legacies here. One of them is a new legacy and one of them is a very old one. The first one is the fact that his mother was able to let the world know that this was a very beautiful, sensitive, talented young man whose life was taken from him. And that's something that I have to commend her for, for letting us see the humanity in him. The second legacy is the fact that this

society often does not see the humanity in young black boys. The other two guests talked about the fact that this young man was 140 pounds and they said that he was 200. We have to understand that we live in a society where, especially when you're dealing with like law enforcement and the medical field, where your skin is your threat. It doesn't matter what size you are. It doesn't matter what your gifts are. This society sees a young black man as a threat. In their mind, they saw this young convulsing 140 pound young man as somebody who's like the size of Suge Knight and Mr. From Color Purple. That's what they saw in their mind. And that's how they reacted to it. And it just surprises me that somebody could see somebody who was in physical trauma.

And you, although you're not a doctor, your job is to alleviate the suffering of somebody going through some sort of issue. But we've already seen the data that says a lot of times people in the medical field believe that black people are either faking it when they say they're going through physical pain or they feel like we can take more pain than the average human being so they give you more drugs and they give you less treatment this is something that's happening this is something that we see with black with female mortality rates with black women we see this with people men who are in serious pain or maybe in cancer or maybe dealing with serious illnesses who are

given less myths because they feel like we're trying to get high of what we're trying to use this is what happens when you don't see the humanity in a young man. This is what happens when you don't see the humanity in certain parts of your population. And I think this speaks to a larger issue in the medical field that really needs to be addressed. There's been some preliminary conversation about that, but we also have to talk about how many people have been injured and maimed and possibly killed in a medical field by people who don't have any empathy and don't have any understanding of us as humans. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th and episodes four five and six on june 4th

ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad and this is season two of the war on drugs but sir we are back in a big way in a very big way real people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit man man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care

for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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 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 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. Bees. That has to be addressed.

Absolutely. All right. Well, we're certainly going to have our eye on this because next is sentencing. So we'll see how that goes. All right. We'll be back after a short break. I'm Faraiji Muhammad, live from L.A. And this is is the culture the culture is a two-way conversation you and me we talk about the stories politics the good the bad and the downright ugly so join our community every day at 3 p.m eastern and let your voice be heard hey we're all in this together so

let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Dee Barnes. And this week on The Frequency, we talk about school to prison pipeline, book fans, and representing for women's rights. The group Moms Rising handles all of this. So join me in this conversation with my guest, Monifa Vandelli.

This is white backlash. This is white fear that happens every time black people in the United States help to walk the United States forward towards what is written on the paper. Right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Do you know someone who can easily hit a home run or catch a pop fly with one eye open? If you do, a Black-owned independent baseball league

is holding open tryouts for its upcoming season. A league of our own independent baseball league is inviting serious athletes to join the tryouts and prove their skills. Local, national, and international baseball players at least 17 years old will have a chance to try out for the 2024 fall season. Michael Maiden, director of media relations for A League of Our Own, joins us from Chicago

to tell us more. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. You know, I guess you said the time is right for this right now. Tell me how this came about. Well, you know, I've been involved with baseball over 40-plus years as a high school coach, a college coach, a former Major League scout, and even doing summer travel baseball. And I'm very disturbed about the lack of diversity in the game of baseball, and more importantly,

the lack of African Americans in the game of baseball. And the myth is that black kids are not playing baseball, but the reality is that black kids are not given an opportunity to play baseball on a high school level if they're not at a traditionally all-black high school, which means they're not being given the opportunity to play on a collegiate level if they're not going from high school to college. And if they're not playing on a collegiate level, they're not getting drafted into the major leagues.

So, therefore, you have a study decline of African-American baseball players playing on the major league level. So what we have is a tool and instrument to aid and assist the development of African American baseball players and give them an opportunity to continue playing baseball, develop their skills, and hopefully become a farm system to major leagues as well as that personal experience of playing baseball on the higher levels. Wow.

Now, in terms of what this league will ultimately look like, how many teams are we talking? Where are you scouting? How will this unfold? Well, initially, we're looking at four teams, but we're open to do six teams. We will hold statewide trials

in a number of places, from Florida to North Carolina to Alabama to Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin. We're going to go all over looking for the best ball players to want to play baseball. And it's going to be housed in Lansing, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. They call it the Chicago Softland.

And what we're going to do is we're going to have those four to six teams stationed at one location, which allows us to cut down on our expenses for travel and so on and so forth by having a league to function at one site. So we'll have two or three games a day, 50 games in 50 days. So it'll be nonstop baseball. Wow. So exposure is really key here. And that's really what you want to do.

You want to make sure that young people are exposed to the sport. Share with us a little bit about the Negro Leagues and how important the Negro Leagues were in opening up the door for African Americans to enter into the field. I mean, we were talking about an international history of men who traveled to Japan

and various parts of the country to really display their skills. We have an important history when it comes to baseball, but a lot of people don't think about that at first when they talk about the sport. Well, Negro League players were the pioneers of baseball. They did a lot of things in their past to allow the African-American baseball players, the few that are in the major leagues. The opportunity to be there today. You know, you have guys like Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers that I've ever lived. Who falls to the father of Negro League baseball,

who have not been given a just due on the level that they serve to open the doors. Not to mention when you talk about Negro League baseball, a lot of people don't know it was the number three grossing economy in the black community in this day. So we were creating our own jobs, our own wealth, and we were out drawing the major leagues. That's one of the reasons, you know, we credit Branch Rickey for bringing Jackie Robinson in to break the color barrier. But there was an oath between the owners that the players were playing the game. So Branch Rickey saw the dollars that the Negro League players was bringing in by outselling the major leagues as far as attendance, concession. And he wanted to tap into those dollars.

So Negro League baseball have a very, very deep root in the African-American community, and we have to recapture that and bring it back as it was then, so can it be now. Torrin, I wanted to open up this panel discussion to you. First of all, what question do you have for Michael? First of all, Michael, it's an amazing thing you're doing. Thank you for starting this initiative. Can you talk a little bit about how a lot of black athletes who may have a lot of different skill sets get funneled into basketball and get funneled into football at the expense of every other sport?

And do you think that's something that was deliberate? And do you see a way to move people out of that way of thinking into something new like baseball? Well, you know, I think it's a myth when they say that we're losing kids to basketball and football. In my 40 years, basketball, football on a high school, college level has always been popular. But black kids have been playing baseball when they were given the opportunity to. And, you know, I tell people, I always relate to the Jackie Robinson West Little League a few years back when they made it all the way to the Little League World Series. And they excited the nation.

And more importantly, the black communities, because they saw this all-black team, Little League team from Chicago, playing baseball on the national stage. And I scratched my head and laughed because I said, being around, I knew there were many all-black low-league teams out there in various cities that nobody knew about. And when we turn on the TV

and see the low-league World Series, we see Japan and China, and we see the non-African-American teams playing in the low-league World Series, we had never and China, and we see the non-African-American teams playing in the Little League World Series. We had never seen a team make it that far. And when they made it, they captured the heart of the nation. We're playing baseball.

Yeah, baseball is dying in our inner cities, but we're playing baseball. But the fact of the matter is we're not getting the opportunities because we're being cut off. So they use the myth that baseball is too expensive. Travel ball, kids can't afford it. No, the the myth that baseball is too expensive. Travel ball, kids can't afford it. No, the fact of the matter is, at our HBCs, they used to be, quote unquote, historically black colleges. We got less and less African-American players playing at HBCs because

non-African-American players and non-African-American coaches are now running HBCs. And you got non-African-American baseball players getting scholarships as minorities at our HBCs. And you got non-African-American baseball players getting scholarships as minorities at our HBCs. So what does that tell you about the plight of our game and African-American baseball players? Scott, question for Michael. Hey, Michael, love the concept. I'm a big baseball fan, and my dad certainly was.

And he would always teach us about the American League National League and then the Negro League and always had a lot of paraphernalia so I love what you're doing I guess my question for you is how do you how you're not paying these ball players and you got tryouts how do you measure your success with this initiative? At the end of the 50 games, kind of what are the checkpoints for you vis-a-vis this was successful and we need to do it again? I need partners. I need investors because we can really make this a big deal.

Yeah, well, let me just say for the record, we went down this route about four or five years ago to do a professional independent baseball league. And a lot of commitments that we had for sponsorship didn't come through the gates. The tenders didn't fare. You know, we were in a black time and we thought it would really go well. So we had to fold the league within the first month. We reorganized the league to put it under our not-for-profit so we can go after grants and donations

and we can get the community involved to give donations to help us sustain the league. And the reason why we did it as a play league, 50 days to 50 days to fall league. Number one, do it in the fall. We're not competing with all the other independent minor league,

major league baseball because we operate in the fall. Number two, we have the seed funding in place to sustain ourselves by charging the players a mission fee to be a part of the team. And then we're also looking to reach out and develop a network of donors and sponsors that want to give donations as a tax write-off to help this organization thrive and stay alive and provide African-Americans. And the league is to all, but our focus is on African-American baseball players, opportunity from all over the United States to come in and play baseball, develop their skills,

and not only showcase them to the major leagues, but to the international market and say, here's baseball players that want to play baseball, they got the talent and skills. Absolutely. Michael, before we leave, I just want you to remind us where people can get information if they are 17, if they want to try out? How do they do that? Where do they know where to go? Well, they can go to our website, our own 247.com,

and they can register online. Any donors or sponsors out there that want to know more, there's also a page on there where they can become a supporter, a booster, a donor. We want to sustain this league. We want to make it because not only is it a league of our teams,

we're going to honor Drew Foster, Satchel Paige, Sam Allen, and Dick Allen, one of the most famous. We're going to honor them by naming teams after them so we can ever invoke their memories

in the hearts and minds of future generations as we will be live streaming the games and the other Negro League players as we expand the league and African-American players that have been great contributors to the game that we're going to name the teams after as well. Michael, this is very exciting. I look forward to having you on again to talk about all of the success with the startup of this.

Michael Maiden, Director of Media Relations for a league of our own. Thank you so much for being with us and good to see you. Thank you. And we definitely look forward to coming back and sharing more about this week. All right. You know, I just got to know, are we closing out the show? Am I going to the panel for more questions? All right.

All right. I want to say thank you to all of my guests, all of my guests, Scott, Joe. Now, listen, Torrin, I got your name right about 80% of the time. Forgive me for that other 20%. I'm going to get it right the next time. It's very good to see all of you, and thank you for being part of such a lively panel today to all three of you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Absolutely. All right. As we close, the Houston, Texas Quartet, the Walls Group, took the urban contemporary gospel scene by storm in 2012 with their first studio album. The siblings have not slowed down since, and Rowland sat down

with the group who participated in McDonald's Inspiration Celebration Gospel Tour at Chicago's House of Hope. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people,

real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. understanding of what this quote unquote drug thing, Benny, the butcher,

Brent Smith from shine down. Got be real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer, Riley Cote, Marine Corvette, MMA fighter, Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Stories matter. And it brings a face to it. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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 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. We have one aisle today. 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. All right, the Walls group back. What's going on?

We chilling. And you still extra. You know. How y'all it? Still crazy? Still crazy. How y'all it? Still crazy? Still crazy? How y'all let her sit? Did she come in first?

Like, no, I'm sitting in the main seat. She actually didn't want to sit there. I wanted to stand. And they made me sit here. Cause I'm- Oh, you a shorty? She was shorty. Five nine.

What? Minus six? Yes. I'm just a home foot. She tell me five nine. I'm five three. Ain't no way you five nine. Right. See, right there.

It's like you're like, stop it. Stop it. See? Extra. See? Extra. What's been going on with y'all? Of course, got together last time.

Now you're part of the 17th McDonald's Gospel Tour. So how you feel? Accomplished. Yes, how old are you? Good, not gonna lie. 17 years old. Okay. We gonna do this again?

See, see, we gonna do this. See, here you go. Again. Yeah, we feel pretty good to be here, not gonna lie. Chicago's like our second home. Uh-huh. So we happy to be here. We got a lot of our favorites on this leg at a tour.

And when they asked us, we was like, for sure. So honored, so happy. I kind of wanted to interrupt Tim Bowman's rehearsal, but I'm going to respect him because I love him. I really do. You're just going to interrupt this rehearsal? I just wanted to go see. You know what I'm saying?

I'm glad you interrupted our interview. We know who would have. I'm hoping now. I'm hoping now, yeah. to interrupt our interview. We know who would have. This one. I'm hoping now. I'm hoping now, yeah. The face tell it all. Oh, yeah, we're excited to be here. Always. Go ahead.

No, we're just excited, man. It's always great when McDonald's calls. It's just really good to be able to do that. And we've been watching, especially during the pandemic, it was cool to see how they continue to do it, even when, you know, you couldn't go and touch the people, but they still did it. So it was just kind of cool. And they called us to do it too, so it was fun.

You mentioned, um, you mentioned being back, and then you got the crowds. So, I'll ask you this question here. And I always ask artists this here. There's some cities that are just, just lit when it comes to gospel music. Out of all the cities y'all go to, what's that one city that y'all know?

See, you out. What is going... What's that one city? You got to hold the microphone up, bro. Me and Darryl just left Newark, bro. And then New Jersey. They're like the last of like... Really? America, for real really America forever when it

comes to like just people that's going like people that show up to concerts, people that show up and it's like, yo, we, yeah, we still have church. I have not seen that in like a decade. So Newark, New York, Newark,, I was gonna say, this is the city of Gospel Fest. And every time we've done Gospel Fest, people pack out the park, people pack out these venues.

They love gospel music out here. I feel like a lot of gospel music originated from Chicago. It did. Yeah, so this is really the gospel music city for real. Where they come out, they come out. He's talking about the people that have gone down to support them. I'm fully aware that Yolanda Adams is for Houston,

considering I'm born and raised in Houston. I'm aware of Reverend Paul Jones. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're fully aware of the gospel artists that come out of Houston. Yes. Just get her a double cheeseburger. Keep her happy because, you know, she's hangry right now because she's in the double cheeseburger. So, you know, they keep her happy. Because, you know, she hangry right now.

Because she eat a double cheeseburger and fries. Well, it seems she's hungry outside. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But so, Chicago is just... I love Chicago. Love it. Gotcha. Detroit. Detroit, you know... Detroit, they do love the Lord over there.

They do. They do, though! They like to fight, too, but they do love the Lord. Now, that's where the Clarkson's is from. When I say they show up and show out, Aretha, you know. Queen. Yeah. They show up and show out.

I love Detroit. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm going to ask you this here. I love the competition, especially the old school. Anybody who read Dream Boogie about Sam Cooke, like the old gospel group, they used to have battles.

And they would be like, we're about to kick y'all behind when we're going out here to the store. So if there was a gospel versus, who would y'all want on the other side of the stage? For us? Yes! Can we all give different answers? You got different mics?

Yeah. Who would you... First, me or Kirk? If that was a goth versus... Dance off. In terms of battle, battle in terms of y'all on one side of the stage, who would you love to see on the other side just to give a show for the fans? You smiling hard.

It's just set up. No, it's not. It's just... I love competition. I love it. I love for everybody to just be great. But we're a group. That's not fair.

We're not. We're a group. But groups can have... Yes. Power rankings. That was a verse from Earth, Wind & Fire and the Isley Brothers. That's true.

That's what I'm saying. I'm trying to solve what? Solve what? I want to verse Kirk. And I want to dance house. A dance battle. Dance house? No, dance really.

It's verses. It is. They just say America's got talent. Oh, my God. All right, she will try to dance. Okay, who you got? Who you got? Who do I?

Who's a really prominent group? Like, right now? I feel like I'm for all the groups that we could burn. Fine, get one of those. I think we lose. Cause we got, you got the groups, right? You have the Williams singers, you got the Clark sisters. You can't go into it saying we will lose. Because look at that discography, we the new kids saying we won't lose. Because look at this daughter of mine.

We the new kids. I could never lose. Girl. I want to... I want to go eat with... I want to go do Mr. Whining. Oh, we lose it. Okay, so...

Maybe not. I don't want to do the whining. Okay, I don't want to do the whining. You want the whining. You want the whining. Okay, all right. Have you come up with yours yet? I want to do the whining. You want the whinies. You want the whining. Okay, all right. Have you come up with yours yet? I want to go against LeBray.

I want them. I want those guys. I want them to come back. I want them to come back. Actually, they're great. They're awesome in the match. All right. Okay, what's yours?

First of all, you think you're going to lose everybody, so. He said whinies. Do you know Barbara whinies would literally wipe the floor with us? That's crazy. Just him by himself. Hey, you think you're gonna lose everybody, so... He said, do you know Barbara Winans would literally wipe the floor with us? That's crazy. Just him by himself. Hey, you can't go into it. But we're not haters. You gotta go... No, first of all, this is not haters. What it is, no, what it is, I know what it is,

I'm trying to tell you. When I interviewed the O.J.s, the O.J. said the four top... You know, he said the four tops of the spinners always gave them issues. What they said know, he said the four tops of the spinners always gave them issues. What they said is, they said it was just always great because each group would just cause them to take their game to a whole new level.

And so the whole thing, so it's not, it's not, it's not, I want to beat them to death. No, it's literally, all right, okay? Because it's put on that ratio for the fans, and then it's just the back of... Do I got to be a gospel group? Okay, fine, let's go ahead and expand it.

Who you want? Okay, who you want? Jodeci? I'm gonna out-dance Bobby Brown like never before. Everybody know Bobby gonna get long-winded. He gonna get winded. What's wrong with you? That's an easy one. Bobby ain't even dancing. I ain't gonna lie, because they still got the moves. Wait a minute. Stop it, girl.

If we put our moves together for real, my prerogative, we're going to get the new edition. Okay, you just said the wine is with dust, y'all. I'm talking about discovery wines. Girl, new edition. You actually think... I got y'all to be up against something. You actually think...

Put me up against... Ronnie, Michael, Ralph, Johnny, and... Listen, I seen it. Ronnie, Michael, Ralph, Johnny, and Bob. Sometimes. Listen, I seen them. I seen them recently in the airport. I got younger bonds.

So we just going to see who lasts the longest. I don't know. See, you saw them in the airport. You ain't seen them on stage. I haven't. See, that's my boys. Don't even, don't let me have to make. Hey, you know what? Call them and tell them we want the smoke.

I want to smoke Since you gonna see no sis you gonna sit here And see hold up. Hold on. Which one which one of them do I want to call? I'ma call Johnny I'm a no, I'ma call Johnny. I'm a cop. I'm a car says no. No, you talking all this We seen Johnny you talking what old car tiny please You talking all this? We're sleeping, Johnny. You talking what? Don't call Johnny. Please. You talking all this. I'm calling Johnny. I'm calling Johnny.

I'm calling Johnny right now. And you go Android girl. Alright, so y'all sitting here, since you want to challenge somebody. No, I'll tell you. No, I'm calling Johnny right now. I'm calling Johnny. See,? Since you wanna challenge somebody. No, I'll tell you though. No, I'm calling Johnny right now. I'm calling Johnny, see.

Johnny might be on the road. Johnny might be on the road. So, okay, see Johnny picking up. Okay, let's see, I'm gonna call Michael. No, I'm not gonna. He heard the legend of us. The legend? He heard Darryl solo last week.

He got scared. Hold up, Michael. I think Michael got an android. I think Michael got an android. I think Michael got an Android. Let's see. Let's see. You know what? Ryan and DeVoe got a FaceTime.

Ryan and DeVoe got a FaceTime. I love your wife. Huh? No, but he's still sitting here. He still is. I love her. Right. I love her so bad.

Right. So you think you can outdance Bobby? Is that what you think over here? I mean, she was in that group. What is wrong? She really think? But y'all still got to continue with their music. That's what I'm saying.

Discography-wise, like, hey. All right, we're going to do this here. All right, we're going to do a video here. You think I'm joking. I'm going to go ahead. No, I'm going to go ahead and sit. I'm going to go ahead and sit. Girl, you know you don't want them.

Yo, New Edition, what's up? Hey, I'm here with the Walls family. They are participating in the McDonald's 17th gospel tour. And I asked them what group they would love to challenge. And they said we would take out New Edition. They said right there. Right there. I didn't say that. They said we would. They said Edition. They said right there. Right there. I didn't see that.

They said we would... They said Bobby ain't got no chance. They said he gonna need a oxygen tank. That's what they said. That's what they said right there. They said Michael Bibbins, they said they gonna dust you. That's what they said. That's what they said. They said, Ralph, you ain't got no shot. This right in the purple. Right in the purple, Ralph. I love you.

I love you. OK. So I'm just letting y'all know. So if y'all want their phone number, text me back. And matter of fact, call them out at the next concert. I know. Call them out. Wow.

Call me out. Ralph, I know your doppelganger. He just, he on the look. Girl, whatever. See that? Just need the day to stay strong. Bye, y'all. Y'all ain't got no sense. Y'all ain't got no sense. See, right here. See, they stay strong. Bye, y'all.

Y'all ain't got no sense. Y'all ain't got no sense. See, right here. See, right here. We bust that singing sensitivity, too. I ain't playing. So, Brie Babineau started this, and I have to ask everybody this question, because she's a little special. She's touched. And so I asked, I mentioned Zoom by the Commodores, Anna O'Lantern Ritchie, she had no idea what Zoom was. You ain't never heard of Zoom?

Girl, what is wrong with you? It's what you FaceTime on, you have an iPhone. No, first of all, boo, I got an iPhone. But here's the whole deal, right now, your black card is in review status. Okay, so I'm not, right now, so y'all gotta's the whole deal. Right now, your black card is in review status. Okay, so I'm not... Right now, so y'all got to answer the second question. Now, Tim got

his black card back because he knew the second point. Then I mentioned Jeffrey Osborne and LTD. She had no idea who Jeff... I'm 19 years old. I don't know. What's that? Farrakhan and the Commodores. Are you crazy? He was in a singing group, bro. He was. Louis Farrakhan don't know what's in it. Farrakhan in the Commodores. Are you crazy?

He was in a singing group, bro. He was. Louis Farrakhan was a calypso singer. He wasn't in the Commodores. Y'all ain't never heard of Jeffrey Osborne, LTV, Stranger, Love Ballad. You ain't heard of music before you were born? Yeah, I heard some of it.

You know some gospel singers before you were born? I, I heard some of it. You know some gospel singing before you were born? I heard it do a decent. It's young enough. Black card is in review stand. Once in college. Black card. Uh, uh, uh. Not right now.

We're in the halfway. Listen, the committee is meeting next Thursday to decide whether or not to revoke y'all. Y'all got y'all. Y'all. No, I'm revoking the... You ask me something, I'll stop. I'm revoking the group card, the individual card. So you know the OJs.

OJs. But you don't know LTD. Charlie Fire. Charlie Wilson. Praise God. What is wrong? You knocked the bomb. Y'all got home.

Nothing. You knocked the bomb on me. Y'all, you dropped a bomb on me. Y'all... You dropped a bomb on me. The song is, -"You dropped a bomb on me." -"A bomb." Baby. Did you actually say... Did she actually...

Did she say, you got the bomb in me? You knocked the bomb on me. You knocked the bomb in me, y'all. She need to eat. Yeah, we done. Get her that cheeseburger and fries and that Coca. My God. My grandma was here. She was saying... I need you.

I need you. Yeah. I need you. Ooh. Ooh. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, come back to me now, my friend. You better say, I'll come from the sky.

Oh, come back to me now. I'm going to To Thee I need you I need you I need you I need you I need you I need you

I need you I need you I need you I need you I need you to open up your mouth and lift up your head and say, what I needed. I need you to do what I needed. I need you to do what I needed. I can't tell you what's on your nose. We'll see you next time. 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. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know 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 Lott. 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 War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.