#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Arbery killers’ hate crime trial, MD County PD brutality lawsuit, Liberia's 200th, Fighting hunger

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

2.16.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Arbery killers’ hate crime trial, MD County PD brutality lawsuit, Liberia's 200th, Fighting hungerA Maryland law firm is taking on Prince George's County Police Department on behalf of four plaintiffs who each claim they were the victim of police brutality at the hands of a former PGPD Corporal, Attorney Malcolm P. Ruff will tell us about this mass action federal civil rights lawsuit.It was the second day of testimony in the federal hate crime trial of the three white men convicted or murdering black Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery began with an FBI analyst describing racist posts by one of the defendants. We'll take at those posts presented to the jury.New Jersey governor is calling for an investigation of what appears to be excessive force used on a black teen. When you see the video, you be the judge.And in our tech talk segments, an app that could help curb food waste and hunger.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You dig? Hey, what's going on, family? It's Wednesday, February 16th, 2022. I'm Ray Baker in for Roland, who, as you know, is in Liberia for its bicentennial celebrations. We'll look at those festivities a little later in the show. But here's what else we have coming up tonight on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. A Maryland law firm is taking on Prince George's County's police department on behalf of four plaintiffs who each claim they were victims of police brutality at the hands of former PGPD Corporal, now Attorney Malcolm P. Ruff will tell us

about this mass action federal civil rights lawsuit. It was the second day of testimony in the federal hate crime trial of the three white men convicted of murdering black Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery. We began with FBI analysts describing racist posts by one of those defendants. We'll take a look at those posts presented to the jury. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is calling for an investigation of what appears to be excessive force used on a black teen. When you see the video, we'll let you be the judge.

And in our Tech Talk segment, an app that could help curb food waste and hunger all at once, you know our people are looking out for us. We're gonna have all that and much more, as our good would say it is time to bring the funk right here 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, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rolling Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now.

Yeah, yeah. He's funky rolling now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rolling Martel Now Martel A Maryland police department is under investigation and scrutiny for the excessive force of one officer on more than one person. Corporal Michael Owen Jr. and the Prince George's County's police department are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by four men for, quote, physical, emotional, mental and financial injuries stemming from the excessive force used by Owen.

Now, Owen is in jail awaiting trial for second-degree murder charges for the 2020 murder of handcuffed William Green. Owen had had several instances of excessive force throughout his policing career, yet maintained his job. Representing the plaintiffs and the attorney is Malcolm P. Ruff, and he joins me now. Malcolm Ruff, thank you so much for taking time to join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Malcolm, I think we're going to have a little bit of technical difficulty with your audio. You take a moment to get that audio resolved for us, and we'll just go over one more time with this. Oh, we have him back again. Malcolmcolm thank you so much for joining us we're glad to have you thank you right thank you brother baker i much appreciate it i'm honored to be here with you to discuss this very important topic yeah and so we're grateful that we're here to because there's so much i want to unpack because prince george's county to the rest of the united states particularly black folks is looked at as almost an oasis it's the the wealthiest, last week I checked, wealthiest predominantly black county in the United States. But as we can see from what you have here, that that doesn't necessarily mean

that black folks are safe from the harm that comes with policing. Walk our viewers through exactly what happened. Let's start with the 2020 murder of William Green by Corporal Owen. Absolutely. Our firm has been deeply involved in investigating instances of police brutality that have occurred. And we've come to find that Prince George's County has been one of the most prevalent counties with police brutality, going as far back as the 1960s, when they were believed to have been members of the KKK within the ranks of the PGP, as well as very untoward tactics that they would take toward black people.

They used to use what were called death squads, and they would essentially entrap young black men. And in the process of doing would essentially entrap young black men. And in the process of doing that, they killed two young men. Throughout the ages, the police department in Prince George's County has had numerous amounts of settlements and judgments against them for police brutality, numerous amounts of publicized incidents, numerous amounts of sustained findings of excessive force against its officers. And so all of that led up to 2020 and Michael Owen being in a squad car with William Green,

who was a beloved member of his family. He was 43 years old, just a giant of a man, but also a gentle person. He was inside of that police car. He had been driving. He had been arrested for crashing. And when he was in that police car, handcuffed behind his back, Corporal Owen decided to shoot him seven times through his torso. He actually missed one of those times from point-blank range and ended up killing William Green very shortly thereafter.

William did have conscious pain and suffering. There is video that is included in our lawsuit of William being dragged by these officers out of that squad car, breathing his last gas of life. Just one of the most depraved acts of police brutality that's ever happened in this country. And ultimately, we were able to prevail upon Prince George's County back in September of 2020 in settling that matter for $20 million. But now we are looking to continue to hold this police department accountable, because this rampant police brutality is indeed a pattern in practice within this department. It is something that is ingrained, in our view, in the Prince George's County Police Department.

And there are additional victims within the year that led up to William Green's murder of Michael Owen, people that he assaulted, people that he used unnecessary force against, and damaged them seriously, mentally, physically, emotionally, financially. And that's why we brought this litigation to the federal district court here in Maryland. And that's a great place to leave us, because I wanted to ask about that. One thing to talk about, a history of a police department all throughout brazenly harming black citizens. But at least in this particular space,

it seems that we're identifying, at least right now, one individual who at the least had a pattern of behavior that would have told us that this unfortunate, violent, depraved outcome could have been anticipated based on his other actions. Am I misreading what it is that you're telling us? Absolutely not. It is our belief and based on our research and our investigation that the Prince George's County Police Department had very clear signs that this officer was going to create problems and potentially even do what he did, which was to ultimately take someone's life unnecessarily, unreasonably, and heinously.

He had been involved in previous shootings, one of which we feel was very, very suspicious. He was cleared of those shootings. But he also claimed that he had PTSD from those shootings. He let Prince George's County know about that. They declared that he was partially disabled, yet they still let him remain on the streets. And he continued to brutalize victims. We identified no less than nine previous victims of Corporal Michael Owen in his 10-year career. And these four gentlemen that I represent, Mr. Coston, Mr. Harris, Mr. Gaird, and Mr. Patterson, they happen

to have been the victims of this officer within just over a year prior to William Green's murder. Essentially, they could have been William Green. And they have serious damages. And that's why we feel the need to highlight and to bring forth to the public view exactly what's been going on in Prince George's County. The people in Prince George's County, the advocates and people that know what is happening on the ground are very aware. And there is a lot of turmoil over reform in Prince George's County. And this litigation is a part of the reparations that need to happen with the community

in Prince George's County. So I'm hearing that, and I want to walk our audience through this bifurcation, if you will, with me, Attorney Ruff, about the individuals and the institution. Now, we seem like we've documented repeatedly the behavior of the individual, Mr. Owen, who, even if we take him at his word

of suffering from PTSD, seemingly is ill-equipped to be responsible to engage with the individual, Mr. Owen, who, even if we take him at his word of suffering from PTSD, seemingly is ill-equipped to be responsible to engage with the public because of the traumatic effects of the PTSD. Now, I imagine that some who think that certain calls of police change, rehabilitation, reform, or even abolition would say, let's not go that far, folks just need more training. How would more training have played out in Mr. Owen's case? Well, I think that, you know, only training can only get you so far. You have to look at the character of a person. You have to do comprehensive evaluation of the people that you employ, especially in the very important position of a police officer. So, you know, the police departments all across this country are duty-bound not only to make sure that they hire the right people, but also that they retain the right people and that they get rid of people that simply cannot do the job. There's no ability for those people to be trained in order to

keep people safe and to keep them within constitutional parameters. But the bigger problem in Prince George's County really was that, in our view, there was no oversight. There was what's called what we believe to be a condemnation of police brutality that was ingrained in the fabric of their police department. So there was a blind eye turned to all of these incidents. And that is no better depicted and displayed than in the case of DeMonte Ward-Blake, who we also represent.

And in that matter, we are intending very soon to file another federal civil rights lawsuit claiming that Prince George's County caused DeMonte to become a nearly complete paraplegic, excuse me, quadriplegic, by being slammed on his face by a Prince George's County police officer at a routine traffic stop. Again, this is the same jurisdiction where all kinds of police brutality has happened. You have to look at people like the Habib brothers. Look at all of the instances of police officers who have had the opportunity to just completely violate the constitutional rights of county citizens. We have a complaint that identifies all of these historical references

of police brutality. And I would encourage people to look at that complaint. It's publicly available, and it just shows the pattern and practice of police brutality and acceptance of the treatment of the citizens of Prince George's County, especially those who are black and brown people. Now, Attorney Ruff, I'm going to bring my panel in in just a second, but I have one more question for you before we go to the panel, and that was we talked about the individual responsibility, and you began to allude to the institutional responsibility then. And so while the most leverage we have in the court of justice, particularly to get to borrow a phrase you use is reparations. How do we ensure that rather than just raising the price of violence on county

and city jurisdictions, we actually get them to begin to change the way they are going about practicing policing of their communities? Certainly. You know, that's a twofold question. Number one, we have to make sure that we are lobbying our legislators and making sure that they know what issues are important to us. In Maryland, you saw last year a huge wave of police reform that was ushered in by advocates and politicians alike. That partnership is really what is necessary to prevail upon police departments to operate within constitutional bounds. But also, lawsuits like this are what's necessary to bring about change.

This lawsuit is filed under a legal theory that follows a case called Monell v. the Department of Social Security in New York City. That was a case that was ruled on back in the late 70s. But it is the only small window where a plaintiff can sue a municipality, a local municipality, directly. If you sue a police officer, that police officer's department may not necessarily be responsible for his actions. And that means that that local government may not be responsible for his actions. And that means that that local government may not be responsible for his actions. But if you can prove that a local government has acted with deliberate indifference, as we believe that Prince George's County has, to the actual constitutional rights of

its own citizens, then we can pierce that veil in federal court and file a direct liability against the municipality. And when municipalities are held accountable, then real change happens. With that, we want to bring in our panel. We have Monique Presley, a legal analyst and crisis manager, and Breonna Cartwright, a political strategist. I know you all have been listening to our conversation, and so, Breonna, I want to invite you to offer any questions to Attorney Ruff that you might have, given what we've laid out thus far.

Yes, thank you so much, Attorney Ruff that you might have given what we've laid out thus far. Yes, thank you so much, Attorney Ruff. I, as another attorney within this field, I've seen a lot of these issues. And one thing you focused on was lobbying legislatures. And so I would like if you could go into a little bit more of that. I know that in the Florida legislature, Representative Dari Joseph created stricter laws that occurred. Well, I should say strict, raised the penalties that would be given if this kept on occurring. So I just want you to talk about how people who, maybe not attorneys, but lobbyists or people who are activists, what they can do in order to strengthen our movement

in helping state by state protect our community. Absolutely. Like I said, in Maryland last year year we had really huge sweeping police reform. Maryland, if you might know, is the home, the founding place of what's called the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights. It's been employed throughout the country, not everywhere. But it started here in Maryland. And essentially it gave wide, sweeping protections to police

officers administratively in dealing with discipline, in dealing with collective bargaining. It essentially was a collective bargaining agreement that was codified into law. And it made holding police officers accountable very, very difficult. Well, in Maryland last year, we decided to completely repeal the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights and to allow our people, our citizens, to file complaints and to have those complaints considered seriously. But moreover, we also made changes to the Public Information Act laws here in Maryland to make it less cumbersome, less of a hurdle to get information about bad acting officers. Those types of laws were created through coalitions of advocates, community members, politicians, and lawyers, amongst other folks. I give a big shout-out

to the ACLU. I give a big shout-out to Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, Out for Justice, and the Job Opportunities Task Force. These are organizations within Maryland who have been champions of legislation that is for black people and will help black people overcome the oppression that we've faced historically for years and years and years. So for young people, for people that are watching the show, find those local advocates that are really on the ground, that know what the pulse of their community is, and how to make action happen in your local government, in your state government. And it will be effective, and it is needed for us to bring change. I appreciate, Attorney Ruff, that you shouted out the local organizations in Maryland,

because this being a national show, even an international show, so many people might think that it needs to be a national or international solution. But the work is done in very small, grassroots spaces, and then that becomes contagious because Maryland borrows from whatever New York is doing, borrowing from Florida. Florida is borrowing from Alabama. Alabama is borrowing from Ohio. Ohio from North Carolina and so on.

I know that we're also joined by Monique Presley. Monique Presley is an attorney. So, Ms. Presley, if you have a question that you would like to offer to Attorney Ruff. We'd love to have you offer that question. Sure. Congratulations just on moving forward and trying to take a stand and bring more light to these issues. They certainly need it. But what do you think your chances are with, I believe it's four plaintiffs, right,

with four different kind of separate incidents. Do you believe that this one is going to settle as the prior one did for this officer, or are you actually looking to go to trial? I mean, when we file lawsuits, we are always prepared to go to trial. I am prepared to go to trial in this matter, and the county, I believe, is going to be defending the case. They've indicated that they want to move to sever the matters and to make them each individual cases. We are going to be contesting that motion in the federal district courts. So we are absolutely prepared to go forward whether the cases get severed or not in each one of the cases, because we believe that they were absolutely instances of police brutality. One of the instances I would just highlight happened to a father of two who was in a parking lot trying to fix his niece's car. This officer, Corporal Owen,

came into that parking lot looking for a shooting suspect, and he happened to detain these people who were innocently fixing a car. And my client protested being detained, and ultimately he was thrown to the ground, choked by this officer multiple times, and thrown in jail, charged with all kinds of unlawful charges, wrongful charges, which were all dismissed. But that type of incident creates real mental turmoil in the minds of people, especially black people. We have been oppressed so long and so hard to have a officer, a Black officer who is assimilating his, the majority culture within his department, just utterly violate him in front of his children, in front

of his niece. Those types of incidents, those types of facts need to be heard in the courtroom. And we absolutely intend to take this all the way to a jury and to a verdict. I'm grateful that Ms. Presley asked that question because it was such a precise and incisive legal question. Because from the outside, we as an audience would think that, well, of course all four should be heard together because they demonstrate the pattern, they demonstrate how things work, they demonstrate that it was an institutional or systemic failure. But if we began to sever each of those complaints, then each one may be attended to for a different nuance or reason. So I appreciate Ms. Presley offering that question,

and you, Attorney Ruff, for answering it. Before we get out of here, Mr. Ruff, is there any way that if folks want to continue to find or follow what it is that you're working on with regard to this case about the upcoming lawsuit that you said we should keep an eye out for. How can folks do that? Absolutely. You can obviously go to our webpage. Our firm is Murphy Falcon and Murphy. It's www.murphyfalcon, Murphy like Murphy Brown, falcon like the bird,.com. Or you can check me out on Facebook or Instagram.

I'm brother Malcolm ESQ on Instagram, Malcolm Ruff on Facebook. We are looking to uphold the rights of black people in Prince George's County, and especially with the upcoming lawsuit that we intend to file on behalf of the estate of Demonte Ward Blake, a young man who was, again, like I said, slammed on his face, nose broken, C4, C5, C6 broken, instantly on impact, and became a complete quadriplegic for 653 days before he passed away of other causes. That case is something that the people of Prince George's County need to be aware of. The people of Prince George's County need to hold their administration accountable for, because there was nothing reasonable about that case. And that family needs to be made whole for what happened to their son by Corporal Bryant Strong, who, just like Corporal Owen, is facing criminal charges. And I just have to give a quick shout out to the state attorney's office in Prince George's County, which is led by Aisha Braveboy. They have been true champions of holding police officers accountable,

charging police officers when they see that unreasonable conduct has happened. And that's exactly what we need from prosecutors all across this country. But please stay abreast of where we are in these cases, especially if you live in Prince George's County or in the DMV area. These are important issues that affect every Black person and how we live and our quality of life and how our rights are upheld within our municipalities. So, I very much appreciate the opportunity to talk to your audience. Brother Ray, I love you so much, my friend. And I appreciate everything you do for to your audience. Brother Ray, I love you so much, my friend, and I appreciate everything you do for black people.

Brother Roland, thank you very much for allowing me to be here with you all today. Before we go, Malcolm, we wouldn't be right if I didn't ask you just to lean back just so subtly so everybody can see your lapel pin, because now that Brother Roland, the Alpha Phi Alpha brother, is off in Liberia, and we got these Phi Beta Sigma brothers sitting inside his house,

we're going to chant Phi Beta Sigma. And particularly, Brother Malcolm, after the disappointing and quite honestly abhorrent behavior of our fraternity brother Daniel Cameron in Kentucky, it is good to see a Sigma man on the job using law for justice and for good for black people. So I appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, Malcolm Ruff. We'll be sure to follow what's going on and making sure that we hold those folks in Prince George's County responsible for what they do. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

This is Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll have much more coming up later. We'll be right back. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА 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 Blackstar Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive

into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. 14-year-old Autumn Tucker has been missing from Riverhead, New York, since February 12, 2022. Autumn is 5'3'' tall and weighs 235 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a brown coat, white sneakers, and has a gold hoop nose ring. Anyone with information on Autumn, we ask that you please call the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 1-800-346-3543. 1-800-346-3543. A man in Louisiana who spent 44 years proclaiming his innocence gets his conviction vacated

and charges dismissed. Vince is a free man after a judge ordered a new trial after discovering evidence that could prove his innocence was not turned over to his defense team. Simmons says he credits God and God alone for his release. I still got some work to do because we have a lot of people in here that need help. And they're in here bad. And God got me on a mission to free his people. Like he said, told Moses in the Bible, free my people.

And that's what I'm here for. The evidence included medical records indicating no signs of any assault. The dismissal of the charges happened with the consent of the two alleged twin victims. Again, joining us with our panel, Monique Presley, legal analyst, crisis manager, and Breonna Cartwright, political strategist. Ladies, Monique, start with you. When we hear these kind of cases time and again, are we supposed to be encouraged that justice eventually gets it right, or are we still discouraged that it takes so long for justice to happen for Black folks? Well, I don't want to say discouraged, but no, no, is not the most encouraging thing in the world. But it's not just that justice takes so long for Black folks. It's that it's disproportionately longer than others. pipeline system that is mass incarceration in this country, which we know is disproportionately filled with black and brown people. Also, each year, the Innocence Project said like 10,000 a month, people are being convicted who are not guilty, who have been either coerced into copying a plea on something or have been

mis-ID'd. And so those numbers are very hard to keep up with. And programs like the Innocence Project and national defense lawyers, they can't do all that work. And so that's why it takes so long, because they have cases and cases and cases that need to have attention paid to them. And it's all part of a larger system of injustice. Rihanna, your thoughts? Yeah, I agree on that. Innocence Project has been doing hellacious work in this field for years. I remember many of my law school classmates who were part of the Innocence Project. So there's a lot of, because they aren't able to do as much work,

they even start in law school and trying to get as many people as possible participating in these problems. 44 years to serve for something that you did not do is a long time. And I will say, though, once that 44th year comes, they're still grateful, which is shocking to me, that they're released instead of wrongfully going through the death penalty or even longer. So, you know, as it was stated, we can't get discouraged. We can just try to do some mental health work and rest up and keep going forward to try to get the justice that we

need. It is a long road. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And so it is easy to, as you said, get discouraged. But just knowing that there's many people that are affected by this, I think helps for us to still stay on the road to justice. Brianna, my follow up comes to you first. When we see this type of grievous error, it just looks like the state and I don't necessarily mean Louisiana, but the state apparatus throws their hands up and says, my bad, you're free, all good. Where there's no repercussion or consequence that would discourage this future prosecutorial misconduct, quite honestly. What is our way forward then to try to discourage the state from even imprisoning folks for 44 years wrongly? I totally agree. And I think that's the most disturbing part is the fact that, okay,

44 years, oh, well, we admit that, you know, we're wrong and now you're free. Um, but that person endured a lot. Um, and so, um, I do think that there should be mechanisms in, um, prosecutorial misconduct. Um, I do think that there should be economic penalties. Um, I do think, you know, honestly, because prosecutors come from the taxpayers, people go in and out in regards to how is that money going to be spent. But I do think that there is not enough penalties for the mistakes that we are seeing, going from prosecutors, but as we also said, to the police and all these taxpaying funds we give, and we see them poorly affecting our community and not actually helping our community. And so I think that there should be more talks about what we can do and mechanisms we can take in order to

to try to alleviate the problem. And honestly, just, I mean, after 44 years, that transition back into society is hard in itself, even as an innocent man, right? They've been already ran through saying things that weren't true, getting a job, going in 44 years later to then try to figure out where do you start your life. A lot of things have happened in 44 years, including this technology that we're doing right now. And so just making more proactive community choice to actually integrate them, to financially get them back on track, as Attorney Ruff said, talking about reparations. And so I think there's a lot that needs to happen. I don't think there's a concrete answer, but it's very sad to see. We appreciate that.

Moving on, there's a story from New Jersey that most of us probably have seen now from social media. The New Jersey officials called for an excessive force probe after a shocking video shows police using extreme measures to stop a fight in the mall. Take a look at this Yo! Oh! Holy shit! Oh no no no no bro! Chill! Brian get up! Brian leave! Holy shit!

Holy shit! Holy shit! Nah nigga! What the fuck! Holy shit! Oh no! Oh, no. Holy fuck. Yo, it says he's black. Racially motivated.

The disturbing footage even caught the attention of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who tweeted this. Although an investigation is still gathering the facts about this incident, I'm deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in the video. We're committed to increasing trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. Well, I'm going to bring our panel back in on this. Monique, when you see this, I do appreciate Governor Murphy's words, right? Because there are things that we clearly see in the video that while that may not be the entire context of what's

going on, we have to trust us, right? What's the old adage? Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? So we want to believe what it is that we see. So we appreciate the governor even acknowledging that all of us see something that doesn't immediately pass the smell test. But once we've gotten the governor's recognition, as we've been wrestling with and trying to think through all day, what next? Oh, it's going to be a lawsuit. And I hope that it is swift because the decision making here is clear. What we watched and I swapped text messages with Attorney Crump a little earlier today. I hope that he takes this case because what we witnessed was like trademark exhibit A for what racial bias looks like from law enforcement. We see enough of the video to see, one, that the white young man was likely the provoker,

at least that's what it looked like in it, and that they, too, were both fighting. So even if the officers came up to it late, all they could see was two fighting and to pull one away and put him on the ground face down and into the strips and to just sit the other one down like they're their boy. No, that's improper training. That's racial disparity. It's constitutional violation and it should be pressed immediately. And those officers should also have consequences. Brianna, when you see this video, what is your takeaway? I am very confused. And I say that lightly. Only thing I can think of is racism. Because when the officers came, the white boy was on top of the black boy. They pulled the white boy off, which means that they could see that, you know, at least that he was fighting to whether or not he wanted to fight, even though, like, you know, it was stated. It seems like he was provoking it. That's why he was at the top, et cetera, et cetera.

But that officer, who was a woman, as you see right there, just had him sit down while she went to go finish cuffing the black boy that to me makes no sense whatsoever because the white boy who started stuff it's just sitting there watching the other guy get handcuffed and left and walking away and so i mean i still see him standing here i do not know the full story um maybe then they take the white guy away in question and maybe don't put him in handcuffs. Just kind of like how we saw Dylan Roof get Burger King after shooting us up. You know, I'm not quite sure what happened after. I can only comment on this video. We see in that moment the differences of breaking them up and who gets penalized is very troubling in itself. And so to me, the governor's words is not enough. People know how to read talking points.

They've been hurting our community for a while. They'll pretend like it isn't a problem. But at the end of day, police, the governor, the politics, it's all an institution and they're perpetuating it, um, by letting this go slow. So like it said, this needs to be a lawsuit, um, and this needs to go and be solved very swiftly. Monique, you're an attorney, and I can anticipate there may be others who are more supportive of the police

in lock and step and blankly who may say that we, even here in having this discussion about what we see in these 25, 30 seconds of video, are being a bit premature because police have

split-cision decision myths to make. They don't know who may or may not have a weapon in that situation. There are so many variables. How would you respond to those folks who say that we perhaps are being out of step by even offering our analysis on that little bit of information? Well, look, for over a decade, I worked as a line litigator and then a senior litigator in

the civil division defending a municipality. And here's what I can say. For whatever threat assessment they made, it would have had to be the same assessment for both. If you don't know if there are weapons there, then that's a reason to secure both of them. If you don't know who was the initial agitator, that's a reason to secure both of them. There's no calculus in which, based on what we saw in the video, it would make sense for the one to respond by, like I said, putting the black boy in the prone position while the other sits the other one on the sofa. There's just not any justification for that. And from what we're hearing from one report, the young Black boy remained in handcuffs for 30 minutes before he was released. We appreciate you sharing that light, and I'm grateful that those in the audience who may be considering the opposing views of pausing for a second have

opportunity to hear, particularly from someone who worked representing various institutions and municipalities. Now, a California cop is cleared of any criminal wrongdoing for shooting and killing a homeless black man in 2020. Deputy Eduardo Duran and his partner, Deputy Jonathan Israel, suspected Kirk Andreas Reinhold was jaywalking and approached him. Reinhold said he was not jaywalking, and Duran and his partner eventually placed him on the ground. During the encounter, Israel said Reinhold was reaching for his gun. His partner, Deputy Duran, shot and killed Reinhold. The Reinhold family says Kurt was mentally ill and not reaching for gun but flailing for help. The family is suing, claiming the

homeless outreach team in the sheriff's department is, quote, ill-equipped to deal with mentally ill subjects and disproportionately targets and detains persons of color in Orange County. And again, that's in California. Breonna, it feels like today we're just hitting everybody with stories about how police and the systems and institutions that are otherwise here to protect us or at the very least serve us are harming us time and again. I can anticipate there may be some who think that we traffic in radicalism who would say, well, we're just cherry picking all of the bad stories. But it feels to me more that we are documenting the,

as we said earlier with Mr. Ruff, the pattern and practice of law enforcement officers when it comes to their treatment of Black folks all throughout this United States. How do you see this? Are we cherry-picking the bad stories? You can feel free to be honest about us if we are just doing something out of line or out of step here.

I think that, you know, Black America in itself has a lot of bad stories, and it needs to be highlighted. And I think these are issues that are not even nearly talked enough. So, you know, we can concentrate on, you know, police doing ill will to the black community, but within this story, particularly, I want to highlight the mental health aspect. Um, cause we've seen it time and time again, um, from, and I'm so sorry, I can't remember because

there's a lot of these that go on in a lot of different states, but there was a child that was mentally ill and they were actually calling the police just for mental health aspects and it ended up where that child got killed because there is not enough teaching within police force and how to respond to mentally ill people. And I will specifically say as someone who lived in Los Angeles, not Orange County, but, you know, not too far from Skid Row, and how they treated homeless people. And so that within itself is a problem, right? And so in the California culture of what I've seen, even going up to Northern California, of being able and being, for it to be culturally right in California to pick with the homeless. And we've seen where, we've seen in Atlanta where they take the random arrest of people that are homeless, or they see

legislation comes in that panhandling is illegal, so now we can pick them up. And so there's a lot of issues within homelessness in itself. And a lot of people who are homeless do have mental health issues or more than likely they would not be homeless. Um, there's, there's a huge ask. It's a lot. We can go into it in the sense of, you know, hard to take care of them as a family, um, finding those resources and going back to, to the, Minneapolis is the key thing that we can say of why we started the movement of defunding the police. There's a lot of funding in the police department that could be allocated elsewhere to help for these issues. But if

you go through the larger story of this particular problem, he said he was jaywalking, then we realized he wasn't. But he was talking to the officer, and even if you heard what was said on the body cam, he was already wanting to instigate, right? And that's the problem in itself, thinking, oh, well, this is gonna be innocent, we're gonna do X, Y, and Z.

And this person who isn't in the right mental state is fighting back because they're like, what's going on? I'm just walking. And they're like, oh, no, you're jaywalking. He goes, no, I'm not. And yes, he should not have been stopped, first of all. And the fact that this police officer has gone off because they said he handled his gun, it's he shouldn't have been stopped in the first place. They picked on him because there was a red light and they were crossing over on a red light and he shouldn't have. But really, they were just trying to pick on someone. And that's a problem in itself. We don't see enough of the stories where

police are actually there in time of need and helping our community. And so, I mean, for the whole cherry picking thing, I don't know, even if we are, the fact that this is happening and we can pick so many instances in just this one day of recent is a problem in itself. Monique, I think about that and you've worked in around municipal governments and things of the sort. Ruth Gilmore, the prison abolitionist, says that what we do when we warehouse people in prison is ultimately throwing away those waste people, those people that we don't want to be seen. Our homeless populations in so many of the various cities in the United States, we try to push them as far to the margins as we can because cities want to put their best foot forward and look as presentable as they can. Is there a better way that cities can then deputize

or engage their resources, their law enforcement officers if they're gonna use those, those mental health professionals, social workers or care workers if we have them in their cities? Is there a better way to engage our vulnerable, houseless population and our mentally ill population that does not have to result in these types of violent encounters?

Well, those are two different things, right? people who are absent housing and the need to create additional spaces that are safe for them to be temporarily while they are getting back on their feet. And some cities have great programs for that. Others do not. So we model the good ones. But where police encountering a mentally ill person is concerned, there should be specific units. There are mental health professionals and rapid response units that should always be called. They should always be called when you're encountering someone that you believe is having a mental challenge or when a family member is saying that they're having some sort of psychotic break. Because if you get an officer in close proximity with another person and all they have

to use is their taser or their gun, then you best believe there's going to be drastic consequences. So the officer being cleared is because of a decision that at the time that he used the gun, that that was the justified thing to do. Nobody backs all the way up to understand that the entire scenario did not have to happen, should not have happened. And overall, it is a dehumanization of Black bodies. I've said this on the show over and over and over again. We are not seen as human because when we are seen as human, we are treated with respect even, even when it is suspected that we are doing something wrong. That is the obligation of law enforcement. And none of that was met in this case. Monique, I do want to push back on something that you said. You kind of separated those two issues of the difference regarding those who may be without homes and those who may be mentally ill, but we do know that an overwhelming number

of our houseless population are folks who struggle with mental health, challenge substance abuse challenges, and that substance abuse is directly related to their mental health challenge. And so in those ways, if we separate those things, aren't we making it more difficult for us to address the true solutions by separating them?

No, because what an officer does on the street is one thing, and what we do with the unhoused, whether they have medical issues or not, whether it's a drug issue or whether it's another mental health challenge, oftentimes when you provide housing facilities that are full service facilities, then they're getting the care that they need. They're getting opportunities for therapy. They're getting opportunities for a

room for AA meetings. All of those things are involved in transitioning a homeless person from the streets to successfully being in society. So cities that do that well have all of it included. But my point is, none of it should be happening at the hands of law enforcement. The way that the homeless population is treated, whether it is with regard to housing or mental health challenges or drug abuse, none of that should be at the hands of the police. And when police encounter someone on the street, whether they are homeless or not, if there is mental illness afoot or if you suspect they're drunk or something that's causing them to act not in their right mind, the very first thing to do is take space unless they are unsafe, like, unsafe to themselves, about to harm themselves, take space and call for a triage unit that knows what to do in that circumstance.

Annette is not a gun. Annette could have solved that. Mm-hmm. So, I-I just want to... Go ahead, Brianna. I just want to push back a little bit, too. I totally... Monique, I-I totally hear what you're saying and agree that the police is not the solution. would be the model cities that have this and the triage to call. Because of the ones, and I've

lived in Los Angeles, Miami, D.C., and New York, and of what I've seen, and those are major cities, what I've seen is mostly the police handling that. So if they were to step back and give space, where, you know, who would they call? And is that already in place? Or are you saying that we need to distribute those funds to somewhere else where that they can take back some space and call that triage? So the EMTs are trained in how to handle a person that's having a mental health challenge.

And to me, I believe that the EMTs are a better call or a call that should come from the police if they're encountering that. But in places like D.C., Houston, Baltimore, Boston, there are rapid response units within the police department that handle mental health issues. And so they're called different things in different spaces. But when you are in that environment where you are dealing with someone, we've seen cases where someone refuses to answer the door. We talked about that on this show a couple of weeks ago, where if they had just left the man alone, called some mental health specialists, worked their way in that way, then he would still be alive right now. But they insisted as law enforcement on doing the only things that they're trained to do, which is secure the threat, secure perimeters, shoot to kill. It's you know, they have a shorter list of things that they are able to do. But if you look at where housing is concerned,

even the District of Columbia, which last year was having a tremendous problem, well, pandemic time, year before last, was having a problem with the unhoused. But many of them would stay around where the shelters are, waiting for an opportunity to go in because there are services and programs available. The issue is capacity. And so that is a way that funding has to be allocated federally, statewide, and locally in order to ensure that people who need it have the help they need when they need it so that they are safe and off the streets. We hold a great deal of optimism that what Monique offers as a suggestion can come to fruition and save lives.

But we are sadly reminded about exactly what happened in 2016 in Miami, Florida, when mental health therapist Charles Kinsey was shot by police when he was tending to his autistic patient who police interpreted as a threat. Moving on, I have another story I want to get to before we run out of time. A preschool in Massachusetts gets shut down after a teacher had toddlers participate in a blackface activity to celebrate Black History Month. The now-fired teacher believed having children create and wear black masks was a beneficial part of the Black History Month curriculum. The IC Kids Montessori School is now closed to ensure student safety out of fear of protest

after pictures of the activity made their way around social media. Now, the school apologized on Facebook saying, in closing, we would like to end by saying we have had a multicultural, diverse staff and families, ranging from African-American, Spanish to Asian, to this indeed was not our intent. Said staff member did not execute curriculum in the manner trained to do so, resulting in this negative impact and light of the daycare center.

In the event that we reopen our doors, all staff will be trained in diversity and creating curriculum for the birth to five-year-old age group. We would also aim high for a more diverse staff with strong child care background and knowledge and experience. Multicultural issues in child care and other mandated professional development will be done continuously throughout the year. I've been putting so much on y'all laps, so I'm not going to ask for too much from any of you all, Monique or Breonna, on this.

But, Monique, you hear this story, and an educator thinks that dressing children up in blackface is a good idea, and you think what? I mean, that's just a mess. But the thing that even struck me about it is I hope people don't let it by as that teacher making some sort of innocent mistake because everybody knows that black people aren't black like that piece of paper. So even to do that and to not use all the hues of what blackness is to teach a real lesson is why it's so hideous. I mean, it's obvious that the intent was not good,

not just that it wasn't thought out. Brianna, what's your read on this? I think it's hideous because it shows, once again, of the institutions, right? Which school is an institution, police is an institution, we can go on and on. But the institution of education has started at a young age of three years old. So ingraining children at this age for this type of behavior is, is absurd. And, and, you know, to say, oh, and definitely during black history month, because they should be talking about the, the, like, you know, Monique said, the wonderful hues of blackness, what it is to be black,

um, the history we've made, the strides, the, uh, the, the, the accomplishments, you know, promoting us and the benefits of it. And they decided to take something and deduce it down to a paper. But even if you were trying to describe the history of when blackface occurred, I don't know if that's the proper... Actually, I do know. It is not the proper way...

It is not, right. ...to teach that to three-year-olds. Right, yeah. And, you know, I think the thing that we can take away here, if nothing else, is even if we give the teacher the credit for the naivete that Monique rightly says that they don't deserve, but even if we walk through the exercise of extending them that credit, do they not know actual Black people and what we look like?

Do they not know the various hues, as Monique said, and Brianna has pointed out, the hues and shades in which we come? Well, you know one way they can learn? By watching the Black Star Network right here. We're going to have much more Roland Martin unfiltered right here on streaming on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА 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 Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, everybody, it's your girl, Linnell. So what's up? This is your boy, Earthquake.

Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. In Georgia, an FBI intelligence analyst walked jurors through dozens of text messages and social media posts where two of the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery repeatedly used racial slurs. Here are two text messages Gregory McMichael sent. Quote, white Irish slaves were treated worse than any other race in the United States. Close quote. He also said, zero ends work with me. We know what that dreaded N-word is. Days before Arbery was shot,

William Roddy Bryant learned his daughter was dating a black man. He sent the text saying his daughter has her ends now. Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, hopes the words from the men who killed his son were motivated by race. He believes they were motivated by race. Take a look. I'm just glad the world see it. You know, that's what I'm glad about. I'm just glad the world see what kind of man that hate African American people that run down the streets and hate our children.

I got grandbabies, and I seen a little baby on the stage dancing. A little baby. Don't mind if you a kid, black. That kid ain't did nothing to you. You hate that baby too because he black. Man, that's a sickness. We understand that passion that he speaks with.

Joining me now, our attorney, Gerald Griggs, president of Transformative Justice Coalition, Barbara Arnweier, and Daryl Jones, the chair of the transformative justice coalition, Barbara Arnwire, and Daryl Jones, the chair of the transformative justice coalition. Thank you all for joining me. Ms. Arnwire, I'm going to get started with you. The tension there, we would think that that emotional peak would have come already and it would crest by now after the resolution of the state trial, but seeing these heinous

text messages, I can only imagine invoked in Rose that same frustration, tension, anxiety, disappointment, and hurt all over again in the courtroom. Is that accurate? Well, yes, because they're having to do the entire case over. So they have to introduce everything that was introduced in the murder case. Plus, layer on top of it all the hate crime motivation.

So it's significant that this case is bringing out new evidence that we never heard of before. The state case was as thorough as it could be with weeks, but here we are hearing evidence that we never heard, not just the hate crime, digital evidence, not just the digital forensics, as they call it, but we're actually hearing about things like Travis McMichael, not only did he have all this hate, but we found out that his dad, when Ahmaud was shot and killed, was shot, that his dad went over

to Ahmaud's body while he was still breathing and moved his arms and did not try to render any aid. The only reason why he moved his arms, he claimed, was that he was trying to see if he had a gun on him. Now, the man is lying in the middle of the ground street, gasping for air, trying to breathe, dying visibly. He's got his white shirt has become red with blood,

and he's shot in the center of his chest, and his hands are all messed up. And you're talking about looking for a gun? You couldn't even render a bit of aid to this man? It is just sickening. And then to see the father, furthermore, on tape laughing hours later with the police, laughing as he's being interrogated, talking about buying guns and how much pleasure he takes from it. And then when he's talked about Ahmaud, he just acts like he's talking about a

piece of paper, like it's nothing. I mean, it is just the saddest, evilest thing I've seen in years. I mean, we know hate exists. We know how vicious it can be. But to actually see how these guys yearned, wanted, were on the internet

begging for the opportunity to kill somebody black is just terrifying. Mr. Jones, when we dredge all of this up, we know that we ultimately want justice, but it feels like we're reproducing harm. Are we dragging folks like our audience, ourselves even, the Aubrey family, are we dragging them through pain and anguish again?

Is what we're gonna get on the other side worth what we're living through in this moment? You know, and thank you for that question. One of the big things that people need to understand about this federal hate crimes trial is this. The reason that the family pushed for it was because in order for this country to heal, it first had to acknowledge what's there. What this federal hate crime is doing is stuff that did not come out in the state and the state court is now coming out in the federal court. So all the heinous acts, all the emails, the text messages, the nastiness, the racist, all that vitriol that's there is now

dripping out. And in order for us to move forward as a nation, we've got to deal with what's there. And that's what this federal hate crime is all about. So, no, I don't think that not that covering it up, not having this trial somehow moves everyone forward. It doesn't. You have got to expose the hate that's there in order to deal with it. And that's what this federal hate crime is doing. And that's why we applaud the families so highly for taking this bold stance to be certain that, you know, here's a great example. Emmett Till's mom could have kept that casket closed and no one would know the hate that went to Emmett Till. But she elected to open the casket because she wanted all the world to see. That's the same thing that the Aubury family

is doing here. They're opening up so everyone can see the hate that killed Ahmaud. Attorney Griggs, often we hear about the federal hate crime, hate legislation, hate crimes, excuse me, and charges. And those are often very difficult to prove because it often goes toward intent.

But I've, and I'm not a lawyer, I'm not trained in the law, so forgive my ignorance. But Mr. Griggs, it seems that when I have text messages that says I have my, my daughter has her N-word now, I don't work with any Ns, that seems like we can start to get toward intent. Is it, is it going to take something that damning moving forward to get federal hate crime charges sustained whenever we have these incidences of civil rights violations? Well, hopefully not, but in this case, it's so clear-cut.

I mean, they put it in black and white. They put it in text messages. They put it in e-mails. They put it on the Internet. And so it's essentially easy for the government to walk you through the mental intent and the thought process of these three individuals. And I think that, you know, this case will be a seminal case to show that we have to push this envelope.

We have to have these cases prosecuted. And I applaud the family of Ahmaud Arbery for, as Attorney Jones just said, opening the casket to show in 2020 and 2021 and 2022, these issues are still very relevant, and it's important for the world to see this. So I think that this case will be the beginning of many, many, many more hate crime prosecutions, and that's why I think it's necessary. Mr. Griggs, let me follow up then with this.

If this is indeed the seminal case that you say it is, but we also said that it was so thoroughly and grotesquely documented, does that mean that that will then become a bit of our burden of proof or our standard moving forward for federal hate crimes? No, I don't think so. But I think it will show that it's necessary to have these cases. Again, in the state court case, they didn't get any of this evidence in. And as we continue to hear it, I'm starting to ask the question, why you didn't present this evidence? Because in Georgia, it goes to show motive.

And this case was precipitated on the basis of race. Now, I understand they didn't need to prove that to prove the murder, but it goes to the very essence of why those individuals hunted Ahmaud. And so I'm happy to see it coming out. Yes, it's painful. Yes, it's ripping a scab open. But again, the country needed to see why Wanda and Marcus fought for 74 days to push back against this cover-up. And now we're starting to see it. This case was always about race. We always knew that something nefarious happened in the Scintilla Shores community, and now the world is getting to see it.

Ms. Arnwild, I saw you nodding your head when Mr. Griggs was making this point about why this wasn't brought up in the case. I'm not a trial lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. But, you know, I host a show that has three of them on right now. So if you would take a stab at it, how come that we didn't hear about some of these grotesque text messages in our, uh, in the state trial? Because a lot of people are afraid of race. I mean, it's like the third rail to them.

And, uh, we were actually told, uh, during the, uh, trial, the murder trial, not to talk about race. And I said, uh, excuse me, I am a civil rights racial justice lawyer. What do you think I'm going to talk about? And so there was this attempt to just try to make this about right or wrong. But even at the end of that case, remember, Linda Donikoski had to say it was because of a black,

they said a black man was running down the street. She had to go back to the racer. She would not have had any credibility with the jury. But what I want to really bring forth to everybody today is one of the testimonies that we heard today, one of the e-mails, was Travis McMichael, the one who did the actual shooting of Ahmaud, talking about he wished he had a taurus, but a taurus is a gun, would only kill five people. That, in fact, he needed

what was called a SIGA so he could shoot just every black person standing around with his machine gun, that he could just mow them all down. This was the testimony we heard today. That's the kind of hate that was in his heart. It wasn't just he was saying the N-word. It wasn't just he was saying he didn't want to be around Black people. He was talking about how he could just kill and slaughter Black people. And that wasn't the only email that he talked about that. Repeatedly, he talked about his desire to kill Black people. That kind of animus is absolutely ugly and to not be tolerated. I want you to know that

Ahmaud's father, Marcus, he finds today to have been liberating. Absolutely liberating. Mr. Jones, we're going to give you the final word on this. From being in the courtroom and hearing, experiencing this, we know that

for Black Americans, this isn't really exclusively about Ahmaud Arbery. We wrap our arms around his family. We love them. But we know that Ahmaud Arbery could be you, could be myself, could be Mr. Griggs, could be Ms. Arnweier, could be any of our panelists. All of our viewers know that there but for the grace of God go we.

And so what tools, what information from this particular federal hate crime trial are you looking forward to being able to take with you that the Transformative Justice Coalition can venture out across the United States to continue to do their work? I think, you know, one of the biggest pieces that we're going to take away from this is the strength of the Arbery family. And what is necessary and demanding of the African-American community across the country

right now is having that inner strength to be able to come forward and stand up and say, this is happening. I'm not going to let it go. I'm going to fight for justice. And the one statement that I think that Marcus O'Farrill, Ahmaud's dad, says that says his best, he said 100 percent justice for Ahmaud. And that's what we want for every African-American that's in this country, is 100% justice and the willingness and the ability to stand and fight for it. And that's what they're demonstrating,

that's what they're representing, and that's where we are. And this is also a voting rights case. Don't get this twisted, everybody. This is a voting rights case here. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, Ms. Omar, before we let you go, please explain that. Walk that through, because I think it's an important point,

and I don't want to be pedantic and insult our audience's intelligence, but I also want folks to be able to see the connection from this hate crime to this point of voting that you're talking about, because for so many, it can be a disparate, connective point. Yeah, and what Barbara is speaking of

with the voting rights perspective is this, is that Jackie Johnson was the state's attorney that was in charge in this case when it began. She refused to arrest the officers. She refused to have the officers brought in. She wasn't going to... Vigilantes. Uh, the, uh, excuse me, the vigilantes. Uh, she wasn't going to have the vigilantes arrested.

So she was up for reelection at that point in time. She had promised the family, the Aubrey family, that she had their back. She lied to them. The police department lied to them continually. They weren't going to do anything because one of the defendants in this case was a former investigator out of Jackie Johnson's office, a former police officer in Glynn County, where this murder occurs. So, what happens? Here's what happens. She's up for reelection. She's beyond the point of having anyone to file against her.

She's running unopposed. So, the Arbery family and the community go out and they get the, uh, votes. They get the signatures. They petition and get the signatures to get another person on the ballot. They then work like the Dickens to get that person to the first time in the Glynn County history

to have a sitting prosecutor defeated. That all came from the Arbery family and the Brunswick community that was determined because of what had happened because of Jackie Johnson. And now where are we? Jackie Johnson is being prosecuted. And you can rest assured that the Arbery family and the Transatlantic Justice Coalition

will be here during that prosecution. So vote, people. So vote. Can I add one thing? Go right ahead, Mr. President. And so it also was the strength of resolve of the Arbery family not only to vote out Jackie Johnson, but to change the law. And so not only to vote out Jackie Johnson, but to

change the law. And so, as Barbara so eloquently stated, and my brother Darrell Jones said, this was a voting rights case because they used their pain and turned it into purpose and power and changed the law and the course of justice in Georgia. They got a Republican governor to repeal a slave period law. The citizens' arrest law was repealed and removed, and a hate crimes enhancement in Georgia was passed. So they turned their purpose and their pain into purpose and power and ultimately changed the course of Georgia history. So that's why we have to understand that there is a continuous path in this particular case that shows how you can be motivated to change the law and to hold

people accountable. That's what your viewers should take out of this case. And we continue to press towards justice, as Barbara has said, not only for the federal case, but also the case against Jackie Johnson. And don't forget George Barnhill, who penned the letter that justified the killing. Right. Thank you. And now also, guess what? In Missouri, they just introduced this week the Ahmaud Arbery Act.

Yeah, they sure did. Which will get rid of their citizens' arrest statute. Absolutely. So it's a movement, right? Right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Yes, ma'am. Right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, we had the state senator who introduced that bill the day he filed the bill. Breaking news.

We had that person on the day he filed the bill. So we're grateful for him. We're grateful for you, Ms. Anwar. We're grateful for you, Attorney Jones. We're grateful for you, Mr. Griggs. Thank you all so much for your time and continue the good work. Going to pivot quickly to our panel just for a quick word. Ms. Presley, Ms. Cartwright, I want to hear from you on this because one of the things that was instructive to me was the

ways that we saw that this turned not only to a critique or protest in response to harm done, but the voting rights piece that we saw and the penalties now that we have because of it. Ms. Presley, I'll start with you. Are there other ways that we as a community, when we respond to police violence, to vigilante violence, to racial violence, can make a direct pivot into how that we can change that electorally or politically? It should not be in response to police violence or in response to something that happened that's

wrongful in our community. What we need to do is take our local citizenship, our state citizenship as seriously as we take federal elections, because state elections, frankly, are how we end up with attorneys general and those matter, right? And local elections in most cases are how we end up with attorneys general, and those matter, right? And local elections, in most cases, are how we end up with the prosecutor, the DA, and those matter. And as you heard from my sister Arnwein, the prosecutor in this case, the former one, was running unopposed. And a lot of times that is happening because our people are not continuously engaged. So that's what it has to be. We can't wait for the next dead body in the middle of the street.

It has to be the case that we know who is governing us and we move to change it to have people of conscience who care about our civil rights in those positions of power. Breonna, I've got to get to one story. So I apologize for not giving you an opportunity to get a word in on this, but I do want to make sure that I get this next story in because I think it's important that our viewers know it. Now, we just found out that it seems

that the Minnesota prosecutors who successfully got first- and second-degree manslaughter convictions for the April 11th killing of Daunte Wright is having a change of heart when it comes to sentencing Officer Kimberly Potter. In court filings this week, prosecutors said a sentence under the state's guidelines of slightly more than seven years would be proper. Now, prosecutors initially said aggravating factors like abusing her authority as an officer warranted a sentence above the guideline range. Potter's attorneys are asking for probation. Potter's sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

And there is more news even in the state of Minnesota, particularly when we go to Minneapolis. Considering all that we saw there and thinking about, unfortunately, the violence and shame that police have enacted on so many of our family, friends and loved ones there, we're reminded about the murder, the recent murder of Amir Locke. Tomorrow family and friends will say their final goodbye to Amir Locke, the 22-year-old

black man shot by Minneapolis police executing a search warrant earlier this month. The funeral service will be held in the church that hosted the aforementioned Daunte Wright's funeral last April and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who sadly officiated Wright's funeral, will preside. Again, for those who may not remember the story, on February 2nd, a SWAT team member shot Locke

as officers were serving a search warrant in a St. Paul homicide case shortly before 7 a.m. Locke's family says his death was an execution and calls for the ban on no-knock warrants throughout Minnesota. Disappointing and heartbreaking stuff nonetheless, but you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll be right back after this break. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА 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 at the Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Never, never let a person know you're frightened. Novelist and poet Maya Angelou. Today, during the Bicentennial celebrations, our own Roland Martin participated in the 43rd Annual Monrovia Day in Liberia. Take a look. All right, so how we doing?

Doing good? And it's hot, too. So we're not going to be here all day. But I'm from Houston so this is not a big deal. Where's the Houston delegation? Y'all said there's a Houston delegation. Where's H-Town? Alright, I'm just checking. Alright. Let's see. Before I talk, we're gonna do this here. Hold on one second. We need a selfie. So here we go. Alright. So we're gonna do this side of the room right here. Okay. Okay, hold on.

We're going to do this side of the room over here. Now, smile. I got three and a half million followers. Smile. Okay, there we go. All right. All right. Certainly glad to be here.

This is my third visit to the continent, the first time here in Liberia, when I had your ministers on my show, Roland Martin on the filter, and also our network, Blast Start Network, in I think it was September. They said, we would love for you to visit. I said, well, if we could do better than that, I'll actually come here and do my show. I said, because I own it, so I don't have to ask anybody. So we've actually been live streaming this event all day back to the United States. And we've also been, of course, you stream the event on Monday. And that's important because when you own, you can make those decisions. You don't have to ask anyone's permission. And it's also about telling our story. On March 16, 1827, the nation's first black newspaper was

founded. It's called Freedom's Journal. In the third paragraph of Freedom's Journal, they wrote, We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. And the reality is, for African Americans and also people on this continent, unfortunately, other people have been speaking for us, telling our narrative, telling our story, and no one can better tell our story than us. And it should be told by folks who look like us who sound like us and it must be controlled and operated by us and so

what this also represents an opportunity for us to be able to not only share with what's happening here in liberia but there's so many african americans today who have no understanding of the unique history when it comes to this country and also people of African descent in the United States. Those who are from Virginia, those who are from Mississippi, the 12,000 or so who travel here in a 30-year period. And so the ability to be able to share with them the information is important because if the next generation has no understanding, then you will not have any connection, if you will. And so it was great to hear my brother from Providence, Rhode Island, because I've been to Providence for the Jeffrey Osborne Golf Tournament. And whenever we go come

for the golf tournament, we actually double the black population because ain't that many brothers and sisters in Providence, Rhode Island. Yeah, you know I'm not lying. So when we come there for the golf tournament, Jeff is glad to see all the brothers and sisters come to town. But it really is about us being able to share and tell our story. And I appreciate all the remarks, but I'm also someone who believes in action and moving forward. It's interesting, as you were talking about, being able to create sort of these historical markers and these landmarks I was actually at the

hotel today I was at the monument we were taking drone shots and doing things along those lines and I was sharing with my brother the minister here was sharing with him about what can be done to be able to tell this story. And so I appreciate ideas, but I also appreciate money. So for me, so do understand the way I operate is I appreciate partnerships, but I always ask how much. And so you have been having conversations with the mayor. So what I want to know is how much. And so you have been having conversations with the mayor. So what I want to know is how much to create that historical zone is going to cost. So then when we're back in Washington, D.C., and we're having conversations with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, then we can ask how much to put in the budget

be allocated to actually pay for that. And so I will promise you this here, and then I'll take my seat. Before I leave on Tuesday, after I interview your president on Monday, I want to leave here with that number, trust me when anytime any of those cabinet members and when the president the vice President comes on my show. I will be specifically asking them to allocate for that amount. So you just to let me know how much And that's what we call black power Another round of applause for that amazing speech. Monrovia Day in Liberia celebration on the Black Star Network, as well as all of the Bicentennial events. Roland and the Liberian RMU crew will be covering all of the festivities. Coming up, we got much more coming up.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. 1. Skruva avgjørelsen av styrkepuffet. 2. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 3. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 4. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 5. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 6. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 7. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. 8. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff.

9. Skruva av styrkepuffets styrkepuff. ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Thank 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 Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie.

We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hello, everyone. It's Piera Sheard.

Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. President Biden has rejected a request by former President Trump to block White House visitor logs from January 6th Committee investigating the siege on the United States Capitol. White House counsel Dana Ramos wrote to the National Archives that Biden determined executive privilege is, quote, not in the best interest of the United States and therefore is not

justified, close quote. It is not clear detailed that these logs were or what is not clear in the details what that that what these logs were or what they could reveal to the January 6th committee. Joining us again, Monique Presley, legal analyst and crisis manager and Brianna Cartwright, political strategist. Brianna, I'm gonna come back to you. I did cut you the insurrection and mutant, a mutinous attempt from January 6th. Do you think that the Biden administration is acting in the best interest of the United States by not classifying these logs, by not saying that it's protected by executive privilege? Absolutely. I think President Biden is doing the right thing in this. I can't see how protecting the logs will help. And we need to get more answers.

It's been a long time now. It's been over a year. And I personally know people who were affected on January 6th. And so I don't see how it's a national interest to protect who came in, especially because a lot of people who are going to receive the logs will be underprivileged as well. And so we'll be regulated on how to share it and keep it confidential and so forth. So I don't see it as an issue. Monique, who can we...

Is there anything legally that President Trump or any of his allies could try to push for that would make this executive privilege, even though the president does not see it as such? No, because the asserting of the privilege belongs to the office of the president. It doesn't belong to the individual. So whomever is in office is the person who would have to assert that. And in this case, it's President Biden. But beyond that, the logs before that last administration were routinely public records. The Trump administration is who changed that in the first place because they wanted those things to be kept secret.

So this really is just correcting course as President Biden has had to do and so many other things. It's amazing that the idea of correcting course, it looks like a step toward justice or depending upon one's view, a step toward radicalism. Moving on, there's another story I want to draw our audience's attention to. Nearly 1,500 New York City workers lost their jobs for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. The city required employees to show proof of vaccination by February 11th.

These employees had been on unpaid leave for more than three months, and about 900 of the terminated folks were from the city's Department of Education. Now, although some 900 of the terminated folks were from the city's Department of Education. Now, although some parts of the nation have relaxed masks and vaccine mandates, we still have more than

79 million reported cases and over 950,000 deaths. Monique, I'll come back to you. 9-11 was a horrible day in American history that saw nearly 3,000 Americans, at least in New York City alone, meet their ultimate fate. And yet COVID is causing nearly 3,000 deaths daily in the United States.

And we're moving forward. And as we see in New York City, more than 1,000 public employees are unwilling and refusing to get the mandate and then are simply willing to lose their job over it? And beyond the question of those public employees suffering the consequences of their work, does it feel to you that Americans by and large are just tired of the pandemic? So we're going to start behaving as though it's not there anymore. Well, I'm sure some feel like that. I mean, God knows I'm tired. Many are tired. But the recent polls that they conducted said that the majority of Americans are still in favor of mask mandates for schools and are still in favor of having to show proof of vaccination. So perhaps people are tired, but they still want to be safe and are on board with what's necessary in order to be safe. It's unfortunate that those New York employees made a different choice, but they've been not

paid by that job for over three months. So I'm sure at this point they have had to make other arrangements. Brianna, what is your read on this? I mean, I appreciate what Monique offered just now. And so many Americans are experiencing this pandemic, this endemic at this point, this ongoing new reality that we live in. They're experiencing that in so many different ways. So I invite you to share with us how you're experiencing it and how you make sense of all of this. Yes, I agree with Attorney Presley.

It's better to be safe than sorry. And they had the ample opportunity to get vaccinated. It's the right thing to do. It's just the safest thing for our country. There's people that are drastically dying. Just because you're vaccinated does not mean that you're not going to get COVID, but at least you know that we're reducing deaths by hospitalization. And so, as a labor attorney, I do not like to see people lose their jobs. However, we need to keep what is the best interest of our children in our nation.

And at this point, I do believe it's still mask mandates and vaccinations. It seems to me on the question of mask mandates that, of course, that we would see declining cases, declining hospitalizations and all of those metrics that we look at because we just had a violent spike that caused so much death and hurt so much harm to so many people. And so if nothing else, even those of us who may have gotten COVID in the Omicron variant and were asymptomatic, so many people now have this built-up antibody that if we relax the mask mandates, I fear,

and though I'm no science and healthcare professional, I fear that we may invite ourselves to another variant. Now, before I let everybody get out of here, Monique, Brianna, I saddled at you guys with police story after police story after police story, badgering, seeing violence upon black folks, violence upon black folks, blackface. I got to make sure we get out of here with us feeling something good. So there's another example of black excellence, and it's Dr. Susan Collins, who will become the first black woman to lead a federal bank. Now, the important thing to know here is that the Harvard alumni will become the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on July 1st. The international macroeconomist currently serves as the provost and executive vice president of academic affairs

at the University of Michigan. Go blue to all my folks out there who would support. She has worked as a professor, a dean, director, and research scholar throughout her extensive career. Monique, I always dropped all these bad police stories in your lap and told you to legally tell me what idea, what recourse we have, but when you see this story about this dear sister getting this position, what is your takeaway and what do you hope that it inspires in others?

Well, look, all black everything. Happy Black History Month. I support black women without equivocation and am thankful for her setting this kind of example and for it to happen during the month where we celebrate the accomplishments of our people is even better. Brianna, I wantWomenLead. And I love to see the Black excellence and hopefully more kindergarteners, uh, kindergartens learn about this, uh, versus the other stuff. Um, and so I'm very happy to see this,

and congratulations. And hope to see more following our footsteps. And we thank both of you, Monique Presley, Breonna Cartwright, Black Women Lead, right here on Wednesdays on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And before we go, here's a reminder for you HBCU juniors or seniors. Time is running out for you to apply for that scholarship from Roland and McDonald's. If you attend an HBCU and Thurgood Marshall College Fund member institution, you can submit your application for the chance to receive a $15,000 scholarship. The deadline is February 28th. That's coming up real soon now, so make sure you mark your calendars.

Go to tmcf.org for details on how to apply. Now, in addition to the free money, scholarship recipients will also have the opportunity to engage with McDonald's executives working within their respective fields or study. Well, that does it for us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. I want to thank the panel, Brianna Cartwright and Monique Presley. They held us down so excellently here. Always want to thank the technical and production staff for doing a fantastic job behind the scenes that helps bring us this wonderful program that informs and excites. I want to say goodnight and goodbye

to the Facebook community, the YouTube community, and those watching on the Black Star Network. I love how we check in, we talk to each other, and build community among one another while we feed ourselves the information and dialogue that we need. Thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming on the Black Star Network. Our girl

Recy will be here for you tomorrow. And if you haven't done it yet already, download the Black Star Network on all of your devices. And if you would like to support us so we can continue bringing the stories that matter to us, then we need you to go ahead and click all those buttons. Cash app, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle. We're streaming on Facebook Live, YouTube, and Twitter, so make sure you support us there and download the Black Star Network. As I said before, our good sister, Recy Colbert,

is gonna be here in this chair for us tomorrow, and I will be back on Friday. We all pitching in to do our part to hold down a seat for our brother Roland as he celebrates with our kinfolk over in Liberia. And in parting, let us remember the words of the Yoruba proverb that if we stand tall, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before you. God bless. 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.

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