#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Arrests in Ahmaud Arbery case; Black unemployment skyrockets; $130M given to hardest hit by COVID-19

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

5.8.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2 arrests in #AhmaudArbery case; Rep. Bobby Rush calls Arbery case a modern day lynching; Black unemployment hits all time high; $130M given to hardest hit by COVID-19; Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther, was jailed for seven days after she violated a local coronavirus-related business closure order Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers

at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Today's Friday, May 8, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The two men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery are in jail as we speak. What about the third man? Will justice finally be served? We'll break it down with our legal panel.

We'll also talk later in the show with Arbery's father and attorney Ben Crump. Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois says this represents a modern-day lynching. He's here to talk about his anti-lynching bill. Unemployment numbers are out today and black unemployment is at an all-time high. Donald Trump ain't touting that, is he?

We'll break it down with a black economist. The Open Society Foundations will give more than $130 million to aid people who are hardest hit by COVID-19. Their president is here to talk about it. Oh, I got a few words to say to Dallas salon owner Shelly Luther, who was jailed for seven days after she violated a coronavirus-related business closure order in Dallas County in Texas.

Why are white folks coming to her support as if she somehow is Rosa Parks? It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin. I'm filtered. Let's go. He's got it Whatever the mess, he's on it Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find And when it breaks, he's right on time

And it's Roland breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling Yeah, yeah It's on for a roll, roll, roll, yo Yeah, yeah

It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's punk, he's fresh, he's real. The best you know, he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Martin. The two white men who shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery

are in jail as we speak. Gregory McMichael and his son Travis arrested last night by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, both charged with murder and aggravated assault, and they were taken into custody. Now, this comes days after a cell phone video. This right here, they're mug shots of these two. The father on the left, the son on the right. The decision comes days after a cell phone video emerged that captured the final moments of Aubrey's life while he was jogging

through the Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood in February. Now, the third man who was in the vehicle behind them who recorded that video, no word yet on exactly what is happening there. Folks, do you have the video from today's news conference? If so, go ahead and play it. All right. Let me know when we have that. So we can go ahead and go ahead and play that for you. Bottom line, folks, this decision came last night. Remember, we literally, as we were going off the air last night, this decision dropped when they sent out a tweet, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,

at 8.02 p.m. stating that these two were under arrest. Now, the crazy thing is that these other DAs had all of this time to actually arrest them, but they chose not to. The first DA recused herself. The second DA recused himself only after pressure, but he had already determined that they were not going to actually, that they wouldn't even arrest those two. And so folks have been protesting. Folks have been saying that this was grossly unfair. But it was a local defense attorney in Brunswick, Georgia, who actually dropped that video on Tuesday. That's what got everything moving. The next day, the D.A. says he was going to take it to the grand jury. Wasn't good enough. Folks call on the governor, Brian Kemp, to have the GBI

get involved. Then they actually got involved. That's actually what happened. In a moment, I'm going to pull up the video on today's news conference. First, let me bring up my panel right now. A. Scott Bolden, former chair, National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Petillo, executive director of the Rainbow Push Coalition,

Peachtree Street Project. And we'll be joining in a second with criminal defense attorney Yodit Tuelde. I want to start with you, Robert. You're there in Georgia. Again, it was pressure by the public that made this happen, and it was the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who chose to stand up and do something

and not wait for the grand jury like the local DA. And let's understand that this is par for the course in Georgia. For people who remember back to 2003, we had a very similar case in Columbus, Georgia, Kenneth Walker, where a young African-American male was shot unarmed at the back of the head by police and the grand jury declined to indict it. This case went through three separate district attorneys and it was not for the video being made public. Remember, the video had been circulating in Brunswick and Glynn County for several months before it was made public. If it was not made public, if it was not for

the public outrage, we would not have seen the GBI stepping in, going over local prosecutors. Hold on one second, Robert. Hold on, Robert. When you say it was circulating, what do you mean it was circulating? That other people knew, saw this video? That is the understanding, that other people have seen this video once it was sent to the attorney. Other people saw it before it was released publicly. So this information is new to the public, but it had been circulating there for a significant period of time. In addition to this, we have to understand that the way that Georgia laws are structured, and remember, we filed a lawsuit on this with Rainbow Push back in 2013. The way both the citizens' arrests, for lack of a better word, statutes are structured, and the stand your ground law, the same law that was in question in the Trayvon Martin shooting, are structured, they give people nearly a plenary power to claim self-defense,

even if they're outside of their home, even if they have no duty to retreat. And it ends up being the word of the person who is alive versus the word of the person who is dead, absent additional witnesses or absent video. So what has to happen is we have to change these laws. These laws are on the books not just in Georgia, but in 26 other states. And if you do not have the fortune of somebody videotaping it or another member of the posse who was hunting you down to make a video of your execution, then often there is no independent way for an indictment to happen or a conviction to happen. And most importantly, in a case like this, this is a case for the United States Justice

Department to investigate. You see a clear violation of 18 U.S.C. 242 regarding deprivation of civil rights under color of law, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 241, a violation of the Robert Byrd Act, which was passed in 2009 under the Obama administration. So we need to put our efforts together to call on the United States Department of Justice to handle a case like this, which is in many ways a modern-day lynching. We have to have federal intervention because throughout the South, throughout the history of the civil rights movement, we saw that local prosecutors could not be trusted to

enact justice in these cases. Well, first of all, not necessarily know we can trust this current Department of Justice. This is the news conference today where the GBI announced the arrest of the two McMichaels. Statutorily become involved when we're asked to become involved. You know, and we don't work off of a timeline. In a perfect world. Would we prefer to have been asked to become involved in February? Of course. But sometimes it isn't the perfect world. So we have to deal with the situation as it's placed in front of us. Yes, sir. It lonely. It will only expand what's relevant to this murder investigation. We've been asked to conduct a murder investigation.

That's what we're conducting. Yes. Director, you said Ahmaud's mother had said that the original story she was told by Glynn County police was that her son was seen in an active burglary and that the homeowner was the one that confronted him and shot him. That's not the case. We can see that from the video. Are you looking into the county investigators and their investigation and whether or not they were presenting

the accurate information with parents or whether or not they were doing a thorough the only way I can answer that is to tell you that anything that's relevant to the murder investigation we're doing, we will look at. If it's relevant to the murder investigation, which is what we've been asked to do and it's what we're doing, then we'll look at it. If it isn't relevant to that issue, then we won't. Are you concerned that you became involved in the case so late and that it took more than 10 weeks for an arrest to be made? Are you frustrated by the delay, the 10-week delay

in when this happened and when an arrest was made? Well, again, I'll preface it by saying what I said a moment ago. The way we look at cases, if we can become involved in a case when there's still an active crime scene, when something just happened. That's always better for my people. It always is because we're not reinventing the wheel. We're not depending on what someone else has done. We're starting with what we do from the beginning. And so in a perfect situation, that's the best way to get the GBI involved. But again, if I told you this was the first time we ever came in late in the case,

it wouldn't be true. It's happened before. And so, you know, my folks, I think, have done a tremendous job considering when they got involved and the time they got involved to do what they've done to this point. But I would be foolish to tell you that things wouldn't be better for us as an agency if we didn't get involved very, very early in a case. Yes, sir? When we saw you at Reynolds, the attorney that apparently leaked the video said that it's the full unedited video.

And have you been able to confirm that? And also, is it the only video that your office has seen of the shooter? Well, you know, I'm not comfortable talking about a whole lot more evidence about the underlying case at this point because we're not through with the investigation. We've obviously observed the video that we have. Whether or not there are any additional videos, I don't know of any. But regarding the link, the editing, anything of that nature, you know, we have our experts looking at it, and we'll make that decision down the road.

Right now I'm not comfortable speaking on it. Yeah, right. I've got a question for the process. Scott Bolden. Scott, when you look at what took place here, this DA decided late. And let's be real clear, the DA only asked the GBI to get involved when the video became public because he was under pressure to do so. It was abundantly clear they were trying to sweep this thing under the rug and hope everybody forgot. Well, you're absolutely right. But here's another legal viewpoint that as a former prosecutor, your job is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge a crime.

That is that the elements of murder, you have intentionality, you have a death, and you have an actor, and you have a weapon in most jurisdictions. And that's really what you do as a prosecutor, or you put it in the grand jury. Here, the 10-week or 13-week delay, in part, was because you had a prosecutor who looked at the case, even though they later recused themselves. They looked at the elements of the crime of murder or aggravated battery. And then what they determined is they then looked at the defenses in the case, which is completely inappropriate for a prosecutor to do. I thought the DA was a defense attorney. So what now? I thought the DA was a defense attorney the Say what now? I thought the DA was a defense attorney the way his document reads.

Right. So they looked at whether there were any defenses, which is completely inappropriate, and then determined that I can't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm not putting it in the grand jury. It's clear they've got a defense, but that doesn't absolve you of a crime

because you have a defense. All it doesn't absolve you of a crime because you have a defense. All it does is absolve you of being charged, and so highly inappropriate. Now, we've lost 13 weeks. This is really important too, Roland. How many witnesses have we lost? How many documents have been lost? How many pieces of evidence no longer exist, if you will? And I'm going to tell you the defense is going to put up the defense of self-defense, and they have lined it up to attack the prosecution's case already. And this is going to be a difficult case to prove, despite the spotlight, in part because of that 13-week delay.

In fact, Yodit, because this prosecutor hands you essentially your entire defense, they're going to stand before a jury. They're going to actually put that prosecutor on the stand, even though he recused himself, and they're going to sit there and ask, well, did you do this, do this? And they're going to hope that that jury goes,

well, that's a district attorney. We believe him. Right, but he already loses credibility in that he already established he had to recuse himself because he had previously had a working relationship with either the father, who I believe is Gregory McMichael, who is a DA investigator. So he had to recuse himself because he couldn't be impartial. So whatever he says on the stand has to be taken with a grain of salt. Yeah, but that's depending on

the jury actually taking it with a grain of salt. And then if the jury is coming from this community, it's a good bet it's going to be an all-white jury. And one person on that point. Robert, Scott, then you'll be. Go ahead, Robert. I said, well, one, on that point, remember there was the first prosecutor who recused himself because Mr. McMichael worked for the department.

Then there's the second prosecutor who recused himself because his son worked for the Brunswick District Attorney's Office. Then it was transferred to the Atlantic Judicial Circuit. And more than likely they will attempt to remove the case to another jurisdiction within the state. But if you know Georgia, you know there's only a couple jurisdictions where you're going to have much diversity in that jury pool. And on this issue of the grand jury indictment, one, you do not need a grand jury indictment to arrest somebody. The arresting officer, the responding officer on the scene should have arrested then and then let the prosecutor work it out later. You do not present somebody with their defenses. If you run a traffic light or

you get a DUI, they don't wait to go to the grand jury to arrest you. They arrest you then, then they submit to the grand jury, and then they sit you down for trial. So this is why I say that federal investigation is so important, because all these things have been mentioned previously regarding evidence, regarding witnesses, regarding the defense of self-defense. The defense case is already made for them going forward. They will say that the prosecutors already said that this is a self-defense case. All the witnesses will support that proposition, and they will simply say this was a witch hunt because of national media attention, people getting outraged, and they'll probably try to sue the state for false imprisonment or for their period of time and defamation and so on and so forth and end up getting a check out of it. So it's very important that we focus on creating a federal investigation into this. Yeah, Robert, you're right about that. But let me just say this.

I don't think the former prosecutors come in, in part because of what my colleague said before you, but also it's irrelevant. And because one person's opinion, even if they have the write-up, may be the outline for the defense, but it does not relevant probative of material as to the guilt or innocence and the conduct of the defendant. So I think that stays out. It's not like Cosby where they had the former prosecutor there because that was a civil case.

So you got to draw that distinction. The other point is we may, the defense may not want him to take the stand because of his conflicts and he ultimately didn't reach a determination. He's got real credibility issues. Yodit, obviously, the thing that also jumps out, the third guy. What's up with him?

I think he may have probably an argument that, I think the investigation that's pending with regards to the third individual has a lot to do with what he knew. How much information, to what level was he involved in when it comes to how they decided to approach Ahmad that day? So was he someone who was truly concerned and wanted to support them in their citizen arrest of Ahmad? And that's why he followed, and that's why he the police to determine what happened?

Or was this all planned? How did they plan it out? And if that's going to be revealed, then he's as much guilty of murder. I mean, right now they're presumed to be innocent. So, of course, alleged. I'm a lawyer. I've got to say that. But if it is revealed in this investigation that he was there from the start in planning how they were going to hunt Ahmad down, then he should be arrested really soon and for the same charges. I want to bring in Congressman Bobby Rush into this because he has said that, look, this is a lynching.

This is a lynching. That's what you're dealing with right here. And Congressman Bobby Rush, are you there? I'm here. Congressman, here's what jumps out. First of all, the third man who's yet to be arrested, we know that he was assisting them in their pursuit. Based upon previous information, that they actually chased him.

They blocked him in. So what happened was, Aubrey then ran in the other direction. They sped in front of him, waited for him. So this guy was a participant in blocking him in. He was a participant in what led to Aubrey's death. Right.

Absolutely. And it's clear to me and to everybody else that has eyes to see that this was indeed need. The latest example of a lynching here in America, KKK, KKK, America, this was nothing but a lynching clear on its face. And it's about time that we pass a federal law against lynching, which does not exist at this time. We passed my bill, the Immaterial Anti-Lynching Act. We passed it out of the House of Representatives.

And it's sitting in the Senate. And because there is one senator there who will not allow this bill to be voted on, be brought to the floor. OK, so now help me out, because the House bill passed. Well, didn't the Senate bill pass last year? Overwhelmingly. Well, didn't the Senate bill pass last year? Overwhelmingly, unanimously. But did the Senate bill pass last year? No, the Senate bill did not pass last year. No, it's just the House bill.

And it's sitting in the Senate right now. If the Senate passed, then it'll go to the president's desk to be signed into law. So today, the armory is not, in itself, is not considered a federal crime under any anti-lynching. And this was clearly, you know as well as I, this was clearly a lynching. Nothing else but a lynching. And it's about time that this nation,

that the citizens of this nation, African Americans and others, are protected from lynching here in America. I want to go to Scott Bolden. Scotty, do you believe, Scott, that looking at what happened here, and people have used that phrase, that this was indeed a modern-day lynching.

Would this, would you agree? Based on the video, yes. What always scares me about these cases is what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has that we do not know about, because this gentleman was just jogging. We don't know what happened before or after, but based on the video, these were some good old boys out on a hunt, and they just didn't have a tree, they didn't have a rope, but they had shotguns. It's interesting, too, that unlike many of us, the victim here ran towards the shooter and struggled with him over the gun. My gut is that he was blocked in, as you said, still didn't have a way out, and had no choice.

He was either going to fight or flight, and they gave him no choice but to start to fight. But think about this comparative. Even the police could not have legally done this under color of law. Under Tennessee v. Garner, which is a Supreme Court case, it is illegal for the police to shoot nonviolent fleeing felons, even if they haven't made an arrest yet. This was a nonviolent individual running, jogging. He had no burglar tools on him. He had no assets that could have been taken. The house he allegedly was in, at worst, he was a trespasser, not a burglar, because they didn't take anything because the house was under construction. And the defense or the defendants say he looked like a suspect. There was only one burglary in 60 days in that neighborhood. And did they see him before? There are a lot of open questions here

for the defense to have to connect the dots. But the prosecution has to be methodical. They got to be fair. And they have to go about this in a workmanlike manner because they've got to take away the noise and just prosecute the case like it's any other case, even though it's going to be extraordinary for the rest of America to look at and watch. And if he had been

white, he would not have been killed. He was killed because he was a black man in America and the old sport, the centuries old sport of black men in America

is still alive today. I mean, Roman, they wouldn't have got guns. Let me just first say that if this was an officer instead of just ordinary citizens, this would be an illegal stop, an illegal arrest, an illegal killing. Bottom line. But with regards to the prosecution, when Scott was talking about them being methodical, they need a special prosecutor in this case.

They need somebody who has fresh eyes, who's not coming from that Glynn County DA's office, because we're on the third prosecutor here. So that's really important, especially for the family. If I were the family, I would not feel comfortable in handing this case over to any prosecutors coming from that office. That's my second point. And third, someone close to the case informed me that there should be a New York Times article that's going to be coming out with regards to information regarding Gregory McMichael, who used to be a—he essentially investigated a probation violation by Ahmaud Arbery. Yeah, no, actually

the information has already come out that that was his previous relationship, and that McMichael says, oh, I recognize him. Right, so that essentially is going to be adding to the motive

for the part of the prosecution that's actually going to weaken the defense's argument that, you know, he didn't know him. If he had some familiarity with him and he felt like he was a menace, then that was almost everything for him to go and hunt him down because he thought that he was committing a crime.

So that's going to weaken the defense's argument. Robert, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they say that two Glenn County commissioners, they are blasting the initial DA saying she refused. She refused to arrest them. Now, this is the same DA, though, who had no problem prosecuting a black woman for voter fraud.

But she refused to arrest two white guys who shot and killed this black man. Robert, refused to arrest two white guys who shot and killed this black man. Robert, speak to that and also, what are the rules in Georgia when it comes to special prosecutors? Well, you know, any Superior Court judge can demand that a special prosecutor

be appointed. And I think beyond simply the appointment of a special prosecutor to prosecute the case in that jurisdiction, that the case should be removed to another area of the state. I recommend DeKalb County with Sherry Boston as district attorney, one of the best DA's offices in the state, to prosecute the case, because then that way you get away from the local biases. You get away from the local media cycle. You can get a jury pool that is not from that same community. You can look at this with a fresh set of eyes and look at the evidence in an unbiased manner.

And back to the evidentiary points that Scott brought up, let's understand, these people have had two months to erase cell phone records. They've had two months to clear their internet search history. They've had two months to coordinate with their neighbors and other individuals to create

a story. And remember, Mr. McMichael, the elder, is a previous informant or a previous investigator for the prosecutor's office. So they know exactly how the system works. They know exactly what information they need to have, what they need to get rid of, what they need to say in order to create a self-defense argument going forward. And this is why those officers who made the initial stop, who responded to the initial call, should have made the arrest at that moment. They could have preserved the evidence then. They could have taken witness statements at that point.

It should have never got to the point of the prosecutor having to determine whether or not to arrest these individuals. Those officers who responded took the law into their own hands and basically nullified the work of a judge or a jury and made themselves the final arbiter of guilt or innocence in the case. I'm going to read this here for Congressman Bobby Rush. Quote, this is from the Land Journal Constitution. Anthony, go to my iPad. The police at the scene went to her, that is D.A. Janice Johnson, saying they were ready to arrest both of them. These were the police at the scene who had done the investigation. This is according to Commissioner Alan Booker

in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution saying he talked with those cops. Quote, she shut them down to protect her friend McMichael. Later in the story, later in the story, a second, a second commissioner, Peter Murphy, also said he spoke directly to Glynn County police about the incident, said officers at the scene concluded they had probable cause to make arrests and contacted Johnson's office to inform the prosecutor of their decision. Quote, Congressman, they were told not to make the arrest. Absolutely.

Those officers have to testify. Hold on, hold on. Yadit, one second. Congressman Bobby Rudd, I'm going to go to you. And you were reciting those facts. You know, my mind went back to Emmett Till and how he was literally murdered back in 1955. I tell you, what has changed. What has changed. It was the lynching, then same flimsy evidence, same cold conspiracy among the law enforcement agencies, black men, young black men, dead. And then it was nothing but lynching, and we need a federal law against lynching in America.

We can give Ida B. Wells all the purest of prides that there is, but she spent her life fighting lynching, and lynching is still as prevalent today as it was back then. So when are we going to ever get mad enough, get angry enough to demand that the Senate pass the immaterial anti-lynching law, pass it so that we can send it to Trump. Trump has already said that if it passes the Senate, then he's inclined to sign it. Congressman Bobby Rush from Illinois, we certainly appreciate it, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

I'm going to go back to Yodit here. Yodit, you were making a point. Go ahead. So when you were reading that, I was infuriated. I'm sorry I jumped in there. But this is precisely why a special prosecutor needs to be appointed. Think about these officers who are most certainly going to testify. If this case gets to trial, prosecutors call police officers who respond to the scene, who take the reports, who go to the DA's office and submit said reports. They are going to have to testify, and they're going to have to tell the jury

exactly what they encountered with that first prosecutor from the Glynn County DA's office. They can't possibly have a prosecutor prosecuting this case from the same office. Right, right. You know, Roland... Especially appointed. And those officers are going to have to tell the jury

what that DA, that first one, did. And just so y'all know, I just read for you two Glynn County commissioners. Anthony, go to my iPad. This is Commissioner Booker. This photo right here, this is Commissioner Alan Booker of District 5.

The other, Peter Murphy, he's white. This commissioner has said that those local cops wanted to arrest these two, but the DA told them no. Bottom line here, Scott, Robert, and Yodit, what we are seeing here is no doubt the first DA trying to protect and cover up. The second DA trying to protect and give them a legal out the same way Bill Barr tried to give Mike Flynn a legal out. The third DA tried to sit on this,

and it was only because that video got leaked. Well, guess what? The whole cover-up got blown up because they couldn't deny it any longer. Yep, yep, no doubt about it. And let me tell you something, and another thing contingent in congruence with that is this. Do you know how unusual it is for a prosecutor to tell the police not to make an arrest in a homicide? In most jurisdictions, or a lot of jurisdictions, for instance, New York, and I don't know about Georgia, only the DA in that county can authorize an arrest or homicide. You have the police on the scene. They've done their investigation. They called her to authorize an arrest. Normally there's a homicide DA or

assistant district attorney on the scene working with the police to determine whether an arrest should be made. I don't know whether they had one on the scene or not, but she wasn't even on the scene, Roland. She's only going by what she was told, and they told her, we're going to make an arrest. And she blocked it, completely uninformed and ignorant of what they had come across, or she wasn't even on the scene, which is awful. That's awful.

Well, I think it's a little bit charitable to say ignorant. I think she knew exactly what was going on on the scene, and that's why the decision was made. And this is why it's so crucial to, one, reform our criminal justice system, because let's understand, if that video did not exist, none of this would be going on right now. Most cases like this where you have individuals who suffer this sort of fate, there is no video there. So we need to find a way to create a criminal justice system where if a black man simply says something, it holds some credibility. It is not simply written

off as another black criminal being killed. We have to have humanity and we have to have empathy and we have to understand that we can't simply have video as the only arbiter of truth. Yodit? I'm just glad this video came out.

And it's the irony of it being released by an attorney who obviously spoke with the third individual who's still being investigated is the icing on the cake. But I'm so glad that it did come out. Like I said, it is imperative that a special prosecutor look at this. That office is tainted. And from what I know, and I don't practice in Georgia, but a lot of the attorneys that I do know do,

and they have told me that that county has been riddled with corrupt, corruption, I'm sorry, with corruption, judges, lawyers, prosecutors. So they have a reputation, and there is no way that this family is going to get justice if a prosecutor from that office takes the lead on this case. Well, we certainly will see what happens with that in the next hour. We will talk with the father of Ahmaud Arbery as well as attorney Ben Crump. And so we certainly thank the three of you. So, Scott, Robert, Yadit, thanks very much.

Thanks, Robert. Thank you. All right, Robert, Yadit, thanks very much. Thanks, Robert. Thank you. All right, folks. Guys, go to my iPad, please. If you go to the hashtag RunWithMod, people all over social media were posting videos and photos of them today running with mod. You see the hashtag run with Maude. And folks were, again, either running indoors, some were running outdoors. All of today, a matter of showing their respect in alignment with the family as a result of what took place. The family said, as you heard yesterday, the mother

who's on our show, she talked about how he loved to run, he loved to jog, was a high school football player. And so this is what folks were doing. What I want to sit here and do, Omari Harwick was one of the folks who actually posted a video tied to this. Guys, go ahead and play this. Unarmed Arbery for you bro young beautiful black boy wonder I was trying to be dutiful

add to your journey a little bit of my thunder what God has made add to your journey a little bit of my thunder. What God has made, even the most racist cannot drive us under. You are still alive to me, you beautiful young brother. Whoo! I did 10 miles for you, baby.

For your mama for your siblings cousins father grandfather grandmother aunts, uncles mentors and any other this is all

eternally your brother. Peace. Again, so many people all across the country have been touched by this particular story. Like I said, in the next hour, we will talk with the father of Ahmaud Arbery and his attorney, Ben Crump, to get their reaction to the news of this arrest. Got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk black unemployment numbers skyrocketing as a result of coronavirus. And so that's coming up next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year.

You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago,

and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down. It took me a year to find a company that did it.

And so they make these about 47 different colors. And so I love them because again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So, there you go.

So, if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So, it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rollingthismartin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our bring the funk fan club and so that's what we want you to do and so it's pretty cool So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, that goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount.

This is why you should join the fan club. The unemployment rate in the U.S. has risen to 14.7%, folks, with 20.5 million jobs lost in the month of April alone as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. That's what it looks like for everyone, but we're looking at what it looks like for African Americans. Joining me now is Bingham Adjelore, senior economist at the Center for American Progress. All right, sir, what are we looking like? That's overall Black folks higher and Latinos higher? Yes, very much so. So Black folks is up to 16.7% from 6.7%.

And then for Hispanics, it went up to 18.9%, a jump of 13%. Wow. And so now, folks are already talking about May, June. I mean, this is not going to be a one-time bump. How long do economists like yourself think we're going to be dealing with this high-level How long do economists like yourself think we're going to be dealing with this high-level unemployment? It's actually really hard to figure out because this is a public health crisis, and we've been quarantining for two months, but the administration

hasn't done anything. Congress hasn't done anything in terms of testing or contact tracing and doing all those stuff to actually try to combat this public health crisis. So the longer this public health crisis is going to last, the longer this economy is going to get worse. And with that, obviously, even with a slow rollout, that doesn't mean people are going to be coming back. But here's the deal. You can open your business.

You can talk about doing hair, doing nails, restaurants, whatever. But if the customers say, hey, i'm not messing around with this coronavirus stuff you're not going to have employees employees coming back exactly and one of the kind of sad things about this is that people are actually being forced back to work because a lot of these states georgia a lot of these southern states they put people back because they want to get people off of unemployment insurance because if you open up the economy and then you say you have to go back to work you don't go back to work then you become ineligible for unemployment insurance. Because if you open up the economy and then you say you have to go back to work and you don't go back to work, then you become ineligible for unemployment insurance. And people are worried, rightfully so, of going back to work and catching the coronavirus

because we aren't tackling this public health crisis. And on that particular point right there, when you talk about, because again, if you have to make an economic decision, it's real simple. If I know I'm getting this in unemployment, but then if I go back, but then they cut my hours and cut it way back down. No, economically, it makes sense for me to stay on unemployment. Not just economically, health-wise. I mean, we have over 75,000 deaths, over 1.2 million cases, and it keeps increasing. Because people seem to forget this is about health, people's lives that we're talking about. And so, yeah, if you want to go back and work, then you're going to take that risk.

But you actually need to stay home. So we want people to stay home. We want businesses to temporarily lay people off and have furlough so that once we tackle this, once we combat this public health crisis, then people go back to their original job and then we can get the economy started again. But we have to tackle this coronavirus first. What do you make of the proposal by Senator Kamala Harris, which says, look, give Americans $2,000 a month?

That's a very important plan because we had that $1,200, but we know that's not going to last. Even in small cities, that's not going to last a long time. We have people who are losing their jobs, but they still have to pay rent. They still have to pay their bills. There's not enough places that are doing moratoriums on that. And so people are going to need this money for as long as this thing is going to last because we're talking about 14.7%. That's the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.

So it tells us about how deep this is. And so to help people through to keep paying their bills, to put food on the table, things like that, then you're going to have to have some sort of kind of process or some policy to have direct payments. That's going to be continuous, not a one time payment, but continuous payments. But I don't necessarily think we're going to have we have a Congress that actually has those guts, even though you have some Republicans like the senator out of Missouri who has been making that particular point, who also has been saying you should be giving direct payments to people, especially businesses. Exactly, because this is a thing where we have to think bigger, we have to think broader. We have to help both businesses and individuals, especially small businesses, to actually keep this going. So the thing to do to

solve this public health crisis is to stay at home, social distance. But to do that, we have to make sure that the businesses are able to, especially the small businesses, make them able to continue and then have individuals be able to stay at home, stay safe, stay healthy. And then once we tackle this crisis, then everyone can come back. But to do that, businesses have to stay afloat and individuals have to stay afloat. And that's why we need all this kind of packages and policies to promote this. All right, Benjamin Argelore

with the Center for American Progress. We appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you very much. All right, folks, I want to bring in my panel for today. Bring back Robert Petillo, Dr. Neombe Carter, Howard University Department of Political Science. And then we'll soon be joined by Derek Hawley, of course, president of Reaching America and political analyst as well.

Dr. Carter, I'm going to start with you looking at these numbers. Look, these are real. And bottom line is this here. Business owners are unsure. Folks are saying, wait a minute. In fact, I know there's a woman who I know, she has a business, a spa business. And the mall said, y'all got to reopen. She said, my customers are not ready to come back.

And so she turned in her, gave her money for that particular month and said, I'm out of this lease in 30 days. So business owners are saying, it doesn't make sense economically for me to open up. I'm bringing employees back on the payroll. I'm having to pay them if I don't have any customers. Well, absolutely, Roland. I mean, what is the point of opening your business if you're going to kill your customer base? I mean, quite frankly, this is reckless and it's dangerous. And I think when we're talking about the health effects, we have to also know that our communities are at particular risk.

So this kind of stuff is going to be, we have to think more critically about this. It's more than just the money that we are losing as business owners and as communities. It's also about the ill health effects. And when you look at African American communities, we're usually the folks on the front line. We're a lot of the folks in service economy and other things where we're actually in more frequent, more intimate

contact with people. I mean, I have members of my family who are hairdressers, right? They're not working either. But to go to work right now is going to put themselves at risk and also the families that they have to go home to. So I think it's a short-sighted strategy, as Banga was just mentioning earlier, to sort of say, we have to open up, we have to open up. And we still have a health crisis that we are nowhere near having under control. Let's go to Derek Holley. Derek, what do you again make of what the heck

is going on here? I mean, we're dealing with an economic calamity, the significant amount of money that has gone towards folks' big business. But if you don't deal with businesses and you don't deal with this, these unemployment numbers are real. And you're talking about, you know,

14, 16, 18% for folks over the next two, three, four, five months. Oh, it's going to be hell to pay for any politician come November. I would agree with that ruling. folks over the next two, three, four, five months, oh, it's going to be hell to pay for any politician come November. I would agree with that, Roland. And I think Congress right now, we're definitely going to have to put forth another stimulus package. And I think the House, they need to get back to work and come up with some type of situation, a solution for these people who are struggling right now. I think right now, a

lot of these small businesses are in jeopardy of not even coming back. A lot of these jobs are in jeopardy of not coming back. And I think until we figure out what's going to happen right now, I think the government needs to step in with a stronger stimulus package to help out the small businesses and the people who are employed by these small businesses. Robert? Well, I think the biggest thing we have to look at is the fact that our economy has been operating in an emergency posture for over a decade. What happened during the Great Recession is we did massive amounts of economic stimulus to the economy as opposed to the austerity

measures which were taken by European governments in order to lift us out of that recession to flatten out that economic curve and then to stimulate spending and recovery. That is that graph you see of the Obama administration of unemployment coming down year over year and then continuation of that through the Trump years. The problem, however, was that just like if you are running your car on high, you run out of gas eventually. And then when something actually happens and you need to speed up, you've already burned all that out. So since we've already pulled all the economic levers, because we had the $1.5 trillion tax cut last year, because we had the $1.3 trillion spending bill, $700 million in military spending, we are already stimulus to the gills, and that puts us into the position of falling into an inflationary curve through military spending. We are already stimulus to the gills and that puts us into the

position of falling into an inflationary curve through more spending. So our Congress has to come up with some actual stimulus ideas that will affect the regular American, regular Americans or regular small businesses, as opposed to simply being giveaways where we're getting Ruth, Chris and state check 10 and $20, and the airline industry can walk in and just ask for $28 billion and walk back out the door. We have to have a target stimulus plan and not just get hustled again, like we got on the last two stimulus bills, and have something that's targeted at regular people

and not simply a giveaway to corporations. Because when they got those tax cuts last year, instead of investing in the infrastructure, instead of investing in employees, instead of putting money away to have a rainy day fund, they tell all of us to have a six-month rainy day fund in case something happens, they invest that into stock buybacks, artificially inflating the value of their stocks and then cashing out on it. So we have to make sure we put guardrails in place so we do not end up in a similar situation and that we're able to pull ourselves out of this economic tailspin. But here's the deal. This is what happens, Naomi, when you have

nonsensical fiscal policy, when you give this huge tax cut, when your deficit was already still high because you were trying to reward your rich Republican donors. And this is what one of the reasons why you don't do that. Well, absolutely. I mean, I think everybody who was thinking about that tax cut at the time, people were screaming from the rafters that this is going to actually not do much for regular people. And they did it anyway. But you have to also remember this is a government, this is an administration, this is a Congress in many cases that doesn't think much of regular people, right? Their thing is that corporations will take care of it all. And we know that's exactly not what corporations do. And in fact, that's the job of the government. But we have a government that is intent on shirking its responsibilities to its citizens. And that's

fiscally, that's in terms of health policy and every other way. And so these are the kinds of outcomes we can get. The answer to every question is always, well, the corporations need to be saved. I mean, and it's not unique just to this administration. I mean, we've seen it before with the banks that were too big to fail. We see this time and again, and it's the American people that have to bear the brunt of this and have to pay the cost of it over the longer term. All right, folks, speaking of that, the Open Societies Foundation announced that it will give more than $130 million to combat the ravages

of COVID-19 around the globe with a focus on providing immediate relief for vulnerable communities and pushing back against government encroachment on political freedoms. Joining us right now is Patrick Gaspard. Okay, so y'all let me know when Patrick is there.

Should have been there. Okay, well, so y'all let me know when Patrick is there. He should have been there. Okay, well, don't tell me he's there, but he's not ready. Saying he's there means he's ready, all right? So let me know when Patrick is ready to go, all right? And so I do, but I do want to ask my panelists here. So yesterday I talked about the Maryland HBCU story where Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the $577 million. But this was interesting.

He talked about he vetoed these things because of the fiscal situation in Maryland due to coronavirus. Yet he approved the more than $400 million to rebuild Pimlico Racetrack. So, Derek, I'm trying to understand. So, a 13-year lawsuit over here to fund HBCUs unanimously passed

by the Maryland Senate. Only two people voted against it in the Maryland House. $577 million. Hogan says, we ain't got money for that. We just don't have money for it. Oh, but we got $424 million to rebuild a racetrack in Baltimore.

For Christmas. Horses over HBCUs. Yes, indeed. And so the thing is, I'm a Maryland resident. And Roland, I was on your show a couple of months ago when Governor Hogan only proposed to give $200 million to these HBCUs.

And so, you know, they fought this and came back and agreed to this $577 million. I've never been a fan of Hogan. I think he's full of it. And so I think this right here just goes, without a doubt, shows how much and where his priorities are. He's putting this, as you said, horse racing in front of education and black students. And there's no excuse for it. And I think, again, when we talk about this months ago, Roland, we talked about the public outrage and how it needs to be protested. Well, we can't protest physically, but we can certainly do what we did for what happened with the shooting and make our voices be heard.

And hopefully he can change his whole perspective on this. Here's the deal, Robert. We had a rally that took place several months ago that served that particular purpose. Look, it was only two people voted. 120 people voted for it in the House. Two voted against. Unanimous in the Senate. The votes are there to

override. Now, they simply have to do it. And I think that has to be the clearing call of the people. It's interesting the value judgment we make as a society when it comes to money. We never, for some reason, run out of money for corporate bailouts. We never run out of money for aircraft

carriers or for Space Force or anything along those lines. But when it comes to feeding a hungry child or to educating our population, suddenly we just ran out of money at the last minute. We just ain't got money for it. And what it comes down to is the influence of people over lobbyists in politics. Lobbyists have more influence than people do right now. But what we've seen through many of these anti-lockdown

protests nationwide is that people can take that power back. Follow the lead of some of these Tea Party folks. Follow the lead of some of these anti-lockdown people. If they can overcome math, science, and nature in two weeks to get the country open back up for them, then we might have to be doing some of the same things to make sure we get the funding for the things we need. How utterly laughable, Dr. Carter. Oh, we got no money

for the funders' HBCU settlement, but we got money for a racetrack. Of course, because that's, again, about values. You pay for what you think is important. And this is something that these HBCU settlement, but we got money for a racetrack. Of course, because that's, again, about values. You pay for what you think is important. And this is something that these HBCUs have been fighting the state of Maryland for four years, and Maryland has dragged its feet every step of the way. And now they have what they think is a reasonable excuse for not giving these schools what they're due.

This isn't some money that is just, you know, these schools are asking. This is money that they're due. This isn't some money that is just, you know, these schools are asking. This is money that they are owed. This is money that they're due because of policy made by those same politicians in many cases. So I'm not surprised that they chose to fund Pimlico over the HBCUs in this case. All right, folks, as I was telling you about the Open Society Foundation, there's $130 million they're going to be spending to combat COVID around the globe. Patrick Gaspard is the president who joins us right now of the Open Society Foundation. Patrick, glad to have you on Roller Mark Unfiltered.

My brother, it's always good to see you. I wish it was under better circumstances. Absolutely, absolutely. What will this money be used for? Exactly what? Well, Roland, you should, of course, understand that the Open Society Foundations is a philanthropy that invests in the well-being of the most vulnerable communities around the world in human rights and in civil rights. So right now, during this crisis, the $130 million that we're investing globally is going towards the protection of those who are most susceptible to COVID, whether it's

on the health care front or the economic front. In the U.S., we're investing $70 million in 20 cities around America to make sure that those who are not receiving direct stimulus from the government can have some means of taking care of their families, paying for food, taking care of their children, taking care of their rent. We're working with the National Domestic Workers Alliance in particular to look after the empowerment of mostly women of color who are in domestic roles, who are providing care to children, providing care to the elderly, but don't have the benefits and the wages that they need in general on a good day, but certainly not during this pandemic. And so in terms of organizations, in terms of, so are they going to go to other organizations?

Are they going to individuals? So how do you disperse those funds? So there are a number of things that we're trying to accomplish here, Roland. In addition to the direct humanitarian relief, we're also making sure that we're working with organizations like Make the Road by Walking, for instance, or the Robin Hood of philanthropy, to make certain that we're taking up public policy advocacy so that we can emerge from this crisis a little stronger than when we went in. Because you'll recall, Roland, that I, of course, worked in the White House during the Obama administration. And during the Great Recession, we all said that we had to repair the damage to get out of the ditch that we found ourselves in to get back on level ground.

This time, if we just manage to get back on level ground, that will be an abject failure. This crisis presents an opportunity at a moment when, finally, people are paying attention to essential... I maybe have about 10 more minutes, but I had something else I had to talk about. Okay. Yep, go right ahead. I think one of your producers is coming in. Yeah, yeah.

They're pulling that audio down, but go right ahead and finish your comment. Sorry, sorry. Just to say that if we just get back to level ground, that would be a real abject failure of responsibility here. At a moment when American policymakers are finally paying attention to essential workers who are in our nursing homes, essential workers in our hospitals, those who are cleaning up after all of us, we've got to make certain that we pass legislation in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals that guarantees paid sick leaves, that guarantees paychecks in these kinds of emergencies, and that decouples health insurance from your place of work. This is a moment to lift up those kinds

of policies and to make certain that they're baked into the infrastructure instead of going back to the general neoliberal policies that failed us over the last generation. Well, many people have been making the point that we should be using this opportunity to correct these significant infrastructure problems when it comes to our economy. Look, we're seeing now, because of this coronavirus, in education, in health, in nearly every single area, the level of inequality. The question, though, is will we have policymakers who have the courage to confront the stuff? Well, you know, Roland, they're not going to have the courage to confront this

if we don't build up constituencies that can hold them accountable on these issues. You know, these issues are not new. Of course, we went through the Great Depression in this country. We've gone through the Great Recession. But this moment is the great reveal. All of the inequalities that we're seeing in health care delivery outcomes and economic outcomes that, of course, are really coming down hard on Black and brown communities, these are not new phenomena. These are not revelations for us. They're compounded by this moment, but they're really exposed by this moment as well.

I want to commend senators like Elizabeth Warren, who've come out with an essential workers bill of rights. Congress members like Pramila Jayapal, who's come up with payment protection measures in Congress. But all of that will be for NART if, while we're socially distanced, we don't find ways to mobilize, to advocate, and to use the technology that we have to lift up a powerful noise on behalf of those who are invisible no more. But I want to add one more thing, Roland. You know, there's another thing we can't go back to. I'm sitting here and having this conversation with you from New York City, my hometown. But in the last few weeks, Roland, I love this city, but in the last few weeks, we've seen 500 people receive either summonses

or have been arrested by the New York City Police Department as a consequence of violating shelter-in-place orders. It's not going to be a surprise to you or to your viewers to discover that over 90% of those who've been arrested or who've received summonses are African-American or Latino. So while other communities get to shelter in place peacefully and the police are handing out masks to them, our young people are being subjected to policing violence.

And right now we're trying to find ways to socially distance ourselves from law enforcement. That should not be the case. Let's use this opportunity to shine a light on these injustices. That's what we're doing with our investments to the Open Society Foundation, and that's what I hope your viewers will rally towards as well. Patrick Aspart, president, Open Society Foundation.

I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you. All right, I'm gonna go back to my panel here. I'm gonna go to Robert and Derek. Dr. Carter, I think she had to go. This really is an opportunity, Derek, for folks to say, you know what? Look, these things are now real.

And I think what happened before is that people were like, yeah, okay, we're hearing those things. And everything in our politics was about the middle class, the middle class, the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. But now people are also seeing that,

yeah, y'all screwed too. Middle class, lower class, you screwed too. And so when you hear, like, I was seeing a report today, people were talking about how... No, I was talking to an educator who was saying that in some districts, 40 and 50% of the black kids haven't logged on. Haven't logged on to classes.

They're like, well, we don't understand what's happening because they don't have laptops. They don't have internet. It's a little hard to do online learning if you can't get online. Not only that, Roland, they tell these kids to go find a place, a quiet place to study.

Well, a lot of these communities, a lot of these homes, you got six, seven, eight people living in a house. How are you going to tell a kid to go to a room and study when his grandma's in there sleeping? And so I think this whole coronavirus, as you said, it has really exposed America for what it is. It's exposed middle class. It's exposed blacks and low incomes to a whole other level. And so it really shows just how far behind we are and how far we have to go to catch up. And I don't know right now, coming out of this COVID, if it's going to set us even further back. Because right now, a lot of these communities

are just so devastated. And I'm looking at, you know, we're in Maryland and we're considered, you know, middle class. But a lot of the kids that my son goes with, a lot of their parents are in these lines for food. And these are things that these people have never, ever had to deal with. So I just don't know at this point how we're going to come out of all of this without some kind of help. Robert, this is where policymakers, I mean, all of these, when you talk about inequality, I think part of the problem,

we got to come up with a new word. I'm just being straight up. I think, like, for instance, when you say white privilege, the reason most white folks have no clue about white privilege is because they think, oh, that's for rich people.

Like, a poor white person doesn't have white privilege. That's part of this whole issue here. But I think when people say, oh, that's for rich people. Like, a poor white person doesn't have white privilege. That's part of this whole issue here. But I think when people say, oh, we have structural inequality, ah, it's, to me, you got to hit people in a much different way to get these people to understand

that you truly have a nation of have and have-nots. And there are people who are walking around who thought they had the middle class life. When the rona hit, they found out real quick they as wasn't in the middle class. Well, to that exact point, what we have to remember is we don't really have a middle class in this country. We have middle income people.

The difference between the middle income and the middle class is when corona hit and we started seeing Marriott, for example, lay off two-thirds of their global workforce. Delta laying off flight attendants, laying off middle management. When all those things happened, me and my wife, who considered ourselves middle class, were both shaken, hoping that that phone call didn't come in, because we're middle income, middle class, we are leveraged to the guilds. Just because you make a decent salary, if you have bills which are right there with them, you do not have the reserves in place where you can survive being laid off or being out of work, then you are middle income, not middle class.

Your credit cards are maxed out and your student loans are just barely getting hit with the minimum balance every month. You are middle income, not middle class. I think that people are realizing that now because of this long run of economic growth that we've had over the last decade, it has faded into the past, faded off into memory. But for older millennials, people 35, 36, 37, they got to live through the first Bush recession, then through the Great Recession,

and now through the Corona recession, all before hitting 40. So we're going to have to change the way this system works. People like Amazon and Jeff Bezos can no longer get away with paying zero in federal taxes. We can no longer have an economic system where we are $25 trillion, and at the end of this year, probably $30 trillion in debt to who knows who,

but also do not handle the basic needs of every American. And let's look at the medical bill aspect of this coming out of corona. You're going to have hundreds of thousands of people who have recovered, who are in ICU, who are on ventilators, who are going to recover from coronavirus, come out to having no job because of the losses of the economy, and 75 to $100,000 in medical bills that now they have to figure out how to pay. So the argument against universal health care is now out the window. The argument against a universal basic income is out the window because it's either we take care of the American people

or we face a situation where we're in a generational hole that we have to fight our way out of. Folks, go ahead. Just real quick. Obviously, minorities. I think we are probably hit the hardest with this, low-income individuals. But I was on the other day, social media, and a white guy, he posted, he said, he had gone, he was middle class. Actually, I would say upper middle class. And he had posted saying that he had gone to a store and he was accosted by an individual, another white person. He said, these are people that I normally see them and

they would never do anything like that. And I had to take a step back because these people, for the first time in their lives, they're experiencing something that we experience and see every single day. I go to a 7-Eleven when I'm leaving out of D.C. I stop on the way home. I get accosted every single day. So for a lot of these people, this is unknown... unknown territory for a lot of them. And I don't think a lot of... I think a lot of people are not going to be able to rebound from this because of the devastation that they're experiencing.

Well, the point that Robert made about the difference between being middle income or middle class. And it simply goes into, one, it doesn't impact how a bunch of us are living. Let me just be clear. I'm not putting it on all the onus is on the person. No, what I'm saying is what this thing reveals is how people live when you talk about folks who have a 10 11 12 credit cards that also goes to what's the lifestyle by which you're trying to live at that's one two what this also speaks to is that when you

talk about incomes how that has changed I'm not giving an example. Like, I personally think this dude is nuts, but there was a guy who worked for Sports Illustrated who was protesting. He was angry that his new company, they got sold, his new company, they were instituting 20% cuts across the boards. So this guy, Grant Wall, was upset.

He had been the soccer writer for Sports Illustrated for 24 years. And he felt that they were trying to do these cuts not for three months, but from all the way forward. He was making $350,000. Now I'm going to show you some white privilege, Robert.

He was making $350,000. They said 20% cuts across the board. He took offense. He starts going on social media mad, upset, because of their actions. They were like, okay, fine. We're just going to lay you off. He went from 350 to zero.

Now, all I know is, I can tell you right now, Robert and Derek, ain't that many $350,000 jobs as a writer in magazines these days because the magazine industry has totally imploded. So, he's on a whole different wage scale than a whole lot of journalists. But then you have these other jobs out there where before, they were paying

folks $70, $80, $90, $100, $100, $500, $10,000. Now people with that skill set are now only able to, they try to find jobs that are paying 40, 45, 50. And so in fact, Ray Suarez, who, longtime journalist, he wrote this piece about how this has totally changed what's happened with him and his family because of what he used to make and how that has changed

and now how they're watching every single penny. I mean, and the point I'm making also, this is not going to all of a sudden turn around like Trump keeps saying, oh, it's going to bounce back. No, it's not. Well, Roland, on that point, Roland, on that point, we have to realize that this isn't going away. This is the new normal.

This is what things are now. You think corporations, once they start making more money, once they figure out they can pay you 20% less, that suddenly they're going to start paying you that 20% again when you don't have other options? You really think that now that companies realize they can get the same productivity out of you working from home and not paying that overhead to keep an entire office

building that they're going to bring you back into the office. This is what things will be from now on. We have to adapt to that. I keep telling, look, it's a lot of folks in media. I've been telling them, like, guys, let me explain something to y'all. I said, if your shows

are looking about the same or looking slightly less, then you you doing it from the crib, than you being in these massive studios, you better expect some things are going to change. All these people who are on TV now doing their own hair and makeup, what you think that's going to happen to hair and makeup jobs at the networks in

six, nine months. I mean, I just, same thing. You're sitting there going, look, I'll give you an example. First of all, it was always nuts to me. I'm just giving y'all this good example because I think it speaks to it.

Whenever MSNBC or one of these networks will call me to come on, y'all, I live 45, 50 minutes away from downtown D.C. And so, I'll be like, damn, why... I have a unit that can connect to their offices where it looks like I'm sitting in a studio.

I got a home studio, lights, green screen, I got everything. And I'm like, why do I want to get in the car, damn near in the car for an hour, to go to your studio to do a five to seven or eight minute segment and then come back home? That's two hours I've lost sitting in the car. Y'all are spending $250 or whatever the number is

for a car service. Multiply that by a hundred or 200 in a week. I'm like, if you get your Skype working, we fine. And I'm just, and I'm telling you, I need people to understand what's about to happen. Because here's the other thing. I was reading this one story. If you work at a restaurant with a buffet, that's gone. Yes, indeed. This one chain, I saw this story, this one chain, I forgot the name of the restaurant.

They shut down for good because they know we ain't reopening because coronavirus has destroyed buffets. Yeah. And look, on all that, what people need to be doing is taking this time right now, taking this...

Hold on, hold on. Derek, one second. Derek, Robert, then Derek. Yeah, people have to take this quarantine and this stay at home, this shelter in place. You don't need to be sitting around watching Netflix. You have to be planning for the economy that's going to exist when we emerge.

Do you really think all these people have gotten used to eating Ruth Chris at home with free delivery or just going to go back to sitting in your restaurant? What we're seeing in the movie industry. Trolls World Tour, the first major release, released completely on digital. So now companies realize they can release the movie directly to you and cut out the cut that the theater gets. Do you think they're going to go back to that? Do you think these things are going

to somehow rebound? So you have to be planning personally what you are going to do going forward to ensure that you are ahead of the curve on the new economy and not simply waiting for things to bounce back because this is the new normal. There is no going back to what happened before Corona. Well, Derek, to that particular point, their movie theater owners, those exhibitors, they mad as hell at Universal. And they've already said, oh, we're not going to show any Universal movies because Universal said we're gonna start putting shows, putting these movies online. And I mean, look, it's just, look,

I'm just, I just want our audience, I need our audience to understand what's coming. What's coming because it's real. Derrick, go ahead. I said this many, many times to my son and to everyone. Anybody that's doing business continues to do business because it's real. Derek, go ahead. I've said this many, many times to my son and to everyone. Anybody that's doing business, continues to do business the way they were

pre-COVID-19, you're going to get left behind. Because right now, as Robert said, as you just stated, this is the new normal. Yep. All this social distancing, the buffets, it's over. All that. We're changing. We're changing. This thing is changing buffets, it's over. All that, all that.

Restaurants and everything. We're changing, we're changing. This thing is changing big time. Everything's changing. All right, y'all, gotta go to a break. Gotta go to a break. Our American workers saying when I come back, you were talking about white privilege.

Wait till I talk about this white woman in Texas. Lost her mind, and now she's a cause celeb because she defied a legal order not to open her nail salon. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of public service. I love knowing that everybody can be helped by me. My name is Alonzo Thornton and I'm a psychiatric nurse too for the Department of Aging and Disability in Nevada. We service individuals with intellectual disabilities so we have to assist them all day 24 hours a day. There's an individual, a young lady who when she

first came in she was scared, she was really apprehensive. And slowly you build a relationship. Through my interactions with her, daily interactions, she yells my name out when I walk into the room. Alonzo! Alonzo! It's just a happy, joyous thing. And it just makes me, I mean I'm giggling and I'm laughing when I leave her room. And that's one of the best feelings that I have. Alonzo is amazing with the individuals. He goes above and beyond no matter what it is. I'm from three generations of Alonzo Thorntons who joined the army. My grandfather was in World War II. I joined the army in 1984 as a combat medic and in the military we had people who watched our back. it was a system where I would watch your back you watch mine my union grants that security

because I know my men my medical benefits taken care of my pension is taken care of I can concentrate on caring for people and public service especially I love it because a lot of times many individuals don't have anywhere else to go you know public hospitals may not take them but public service and we take them and we care for them and we give them the best lives possible I love it I don't see myself going into anything else every time I see someone prosper because of something that I did or I've done or I see another person getting the health care because of my encouragement.

It just makes me know that this was worthwhile and any trials that I'm going through, it's worth it. Alonzo Thornton knows how important it is that we have each other's backs. That's what he's always done in the Army, as a public service worker, and as a member of AFSCME. Alonzo is the embodiment of duty, honor, and integrity. The people of Nevada are lucky to have him looking out for the state's most vulnerable residents. If you know someone like Alonzo who sees their job not just as a career, but a calling, go to this website and nominate him or her

for a Never Put Award. Folks, we talked about the people who refused to obey some of these orders when it comes to safe distancing. Well, what took place in Detroit is an example. First of all, at a McDonald's in Oklahoma City, a customer entered Wednesday evening, was informed of the rules rules and things got violent.

A woman authorities identified as Glorisha Woody got into a physical confrontation with an employee after being told to leave. Employees first forced her out of the restaurant, but she returned with a handgun and fired about three rounds. One employee was hit in the arm while a strap was struck to others. The employee involved in the initial encounter with Woody had a head injury. Three of the four employees were taken to a hospital. Now, in Detroit, three family members have been charged in the killing of a security guard

who told a customer at a Michigan Family Dollar store to wear a state-mandated face mask. Ramonia Trayvon Bishop, Larry Edward Teague, and Sharmell Teague have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder, along with other charges in the killing of a security guard. A fourth person has been arrested there for hiding evidence. Now, of course, then you have all these other people out here who just lose their mind when it comes to all this sort of stuff.

And so take, for instance, this white woman, Shelley Luther. She owns a hair salon in Dallas. The county judge said, executive order, close your businesses. We're trying to save people. Then you have the governor, Greg Abbott, close businesses. We're trying to save lives with coronavirus.

She decides, nope, not gonna do it. Here is when she went before the judge, Eric Moyet, and all he said was, apologize for opening your businesses so we can move forward. You're not gonna go to jail. This is what happened.

Proceed. Judge, I would like to say that I have much respect for this court and laws... And? And that I've never been in this position before and it's not some place that I want to be but I have to disagree with you sir when I when you say that I'm selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they'd rather feed their kids. So, sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed,

then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon. So Eric Mourey sentenced her to seven days in jail. All then conservative white folks lost their mind. Oh, she was right. She was just. She should defy. How dare you fire Eric Moyer? He's an Obama appointee. They went on and on

and on, even though he was an Obama federal appointee, but the Republicans refused to even give him a hearing. So therefore, he was never even giving a committee vote to be a federal judge, and so he's now actually a local judge in Dallas, just so y'all know that. But then all of a

sudden, she opened a GoFundMe page. $500,000 they raised on her GoFundMe page, touting her. Here's Kellyanne Conway speaking from the White House about how unfair Shelly Luther is being treated. All right, guys, come on.

Let's see what Kellyanne got to say. Okay. Y'all get it ready. Let me know. So, y'all got it now? Play it. Come on! Y'all get it ready. Let me know. So so y'all got it now. Play it for the random. Come on. Jailing of, for example, the woman who's now a household named Shelly Luther, who I think people have raised about a half a million dollars. Last I checked, I guess for her and for others, because that just strikes people as in a fairness on top of an injustice and wrapped around inequality.

I mean, here's somebody who said to the judge, no, I wouldn't apologize because I need to feed my family. We hear stories like that all across this country. As of today, 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment. And it's devastating. It is economically devastating. It is a health and a financial crisis. And that's why we're trying to manage both of those every single day. So Governor Abbott is one of the governors said he has a plan. He presented that plan to us. He's discussed the plan with the president and members of the task force. I know that is fact where he has said, here's what we're going to do. It's a very big state, obviously. It's a different different

levels of infection in different places. But the great news is that we know there's a ventilator. We have excess ventilator capacity. Now we have PPE capacity. To then Governor Greg Abbott, he comes out and says that this was not what was intended. So therefore no one in the state can arrest anybody and jail them for violating my executive order. And so here's the news conference when Shelly Luther comes out of jail to the cheering throngs of her supporters. Shelly free! Shelly free! Shelly free! Shelly free! How cool is this?

Thank you, thank you guys so much. I'm a little overwhelmed and I don't wanna scare the kids, I'm okay. But I just wanna thank all of you who I just barely met and now you're all my friends. You mean so much to me. And this would have been nothing without you. Thank you so, so much.

And I'll have more to say when I can gather myself. But I'm a little overwhelmed. I just want to say thank you. Thank you, Shelly. Thank you, Shelly. Thank you, Shelly. Shelly. Shelly. Shelly. Shelly. We love you. Shelly! Thank you, Shelly! Thank you, Shelly! Shelly! Shelly!

Shelly! Shelly! Shelly! Shelly! Today, a Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, at her hair salon, getting his hair cut, standing with Shelly Luther, saying that what happened to her is wrong.

Oh, it's interesting. But here's also a tweet that he sent out. He sent this tweet out. What I found to be interesting. This is what he said. It was ridiculous to see Shelly Luther sentenced to seven days in jail for cutting hair. It's not right. It's not justice.

It's not Texas. But what it is, is white. Folks, here's the deal. The orders were put in place to keep people alive. I totally understand what Shelly Luther is saying. Her hairstylists have to eat. But what happens when you have dead customers?

What happens if one of your employees gets coronavirus transferred to them and they bring it home and infect their families? That's why the executive order was put in place. But to see this whole reaction, how dare you arrest her? And then for Senator Ted Cruz to say, oh, this is not Texas. This is not justice. Where in the hell was Ted Cruz when Crystal Mason was sent to jail for voting illegally? Where was he? Where was he when her own probation officer went before the court and said she wasn't told that she could not vote

when she got released? The judge in Tarrant County didn't care. Sent her to prison anyway. And she had to go back to federal prison for violating her probation. But Crystal Mason is a black woman. And Shelly Luther is a white woman. The reality is there are two systems in this country.

And I don't really care if folks get mad. I don't really care if they say, oh my God, you shouldn't be playing the race card. You shouldn't be focusing on this. The reality is this here. The people who are out here who are yelling and screaming, oh my God, this is unfair.

It's mostly white folks you're seeing. But you're seeing a lot of black people, Latinos who are dying because of coronavirus. And what you're seeing is white privilege when you can raise half a million dollars because a white woman in Dallas was just so offended

when all this black judge said is, I won't send you to jail if you simply apologize. She said, I'm not apologizing. Y'all heard what she actually had to say. This is the sickness that's happening in this country. And then when you have the Kellyanne Conways and the Donald Trumps, for them to make all these excuses,

oh, yeah, and how she's now a call celeb. Now you got the Trump people who literally are calling Michael Flynn, the guy who lied about foreign contacts as national security advisor, they are now calling him their Nelson Mandela. I want y'all to know these people have no shame. And this is why people like this

need to get thrown the hell out of office come November. I bet you wouldn't see all these people raising half a million dollars for a black hairstylist, a black salon owner, if they opted to defy an order. By the way, the next time we see a black person defy a lawful order from a cop, I can't wait to see all of the Shelly Luther defenders come out and say

they should have defied the order. So which is it? Which orders do we get to defy? Which laws do we get to say no to, Shelly Luther defenders? Do we get to say no to orders from the county judge and the governor of Texas? Or can we tell a cop? Like the one who told Sandra Bland, get out of the car and she said no. But that's right. Y'all said Sandra

should have followed his order. But y'all just raised $500,000 because Shelly Luther, white woman, blonde woman, defied an order. I just find that to be all quite interesting. Robert and Derek, what y'all think?

I just want you to hit me on the head when you said this is a fundamental aspect of privilege. Okay, yeah, this is a fundamental aspect of privilege. What people have to understand is the absence of privilege is not the same thing as oppression. These people have got it into their minds that they have certain rights and privileges. They believe all that stuff they tell us in elementary school and in high school about being land of the free and the home of the brave. Black folks have learned that those things are

very optional and very much in question when it comes to law enforcement. I have sat in many courtrooms where people have gone to jail for simply defying a lawful order of law enforcement and that being their only crime. I wish everyone got the same benefit of the doubt. I wish governors were intervening to stop nonviolent offenders from being placed into custody. But this is just simply another example of the inequities in our criminal justice system and the privilege which is provided. If you are, if you have a movement behind you, if you're politically connected, and if Ted Cruz comes out with coronavirus within the next week because he went to the salon,

then I still think they will find a way to justify these activities. Because on the one hand, they are speaking on one side of their mouth, telling people, we are all in this together, running commercials and ads about the importance of social distancing and following the governmental guidelines. On the other hand, they have this rebel spirit

that they're supposed to fight against the oppression of the government. And in the meantime, 80,000 Americans are dead. Agreed, Robert. Agreed. And you're so well said. I look at this and I'm one of the last persons to say, you know, play the race car, play the race car. But right here, I have to pull the race car because this is all this is. One, I knew the story that all the judge asked her to do after defying, okay, this executive order saying stay at home.

He just wanted her to apologize. And I recognize you got employees and everybody, you got to feed your family and all that kind of stuff. I get that part. But he was willing to let her go. All you had to do was apologize. She didn't apologize because he was a black judge, period. And now all these people coming to her defense, it's just, it's insane. I looked at an interview yesterday with the Governor Abbott. He was along with the President.

And he sat there and said that, yeah, we have this executive order, but I'm not going to put anybody in jail for defying their executive order and wanting to get out and work. Then why the hell put the executive order in place? What's the need for it if it's okay for people to go out

and defy it? And I guarantee you, if this had been a Black person, they'd have to be locked up right now. Period. They're still locked up. They wouldn't have got out, and there wouldn't have been no $500,000 raised. I guarantee you, it would not be $500,000 in some GoFundMe campaign. And all we have to do is look at the numbers

of people who have been cited or arrested for social distancing violations in New York and California. 35, 35, 35 of the 40 people in Brooklyn arrested for social distancing are black. Hmm. Ain't that something? Ain't it something? Robert, Derek, gentlemen, I appreciate you joining us on the show today. Thanks a lot. Thanks for all that.

Going to a break. Thanks, Roland. Thanks, Roland. Thanks, bro. Folks, go into a break. When we come back, we'll talk with the father of Ahmaud Arbery on what today would have been his 26th birthday. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it.

Folks, as we say at the top of the show, two men who have been charged or in prison, in jail right now, for the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a young brother who was jogging on February 23rd in Brunswick, Georgia. Gunned down in the street when he was stopped by these two white men. A third man is still being determined whether or not he is going to be charged in the case. Today will have been Ahmaud Arbery's 26th birthday. The NAACP and others held a protest, but also a celebration of his birth today in Georgia.

Appreciate each and every one of you. We're getting ready to release these blues with DJs. Y'all give us a little bit of something. First, let's sing happy birthday to Ahmaud before we start the music. Well, there you go. He got it. They got it. Go ahead. That's it.

That'll work. I don't want to sing right now. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Sing, y'all. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Let it go. Let it go. Y'all, this is a party for Ma, y'all. Ma's not here to turn up for his birthday, but we can do it. We're joined right now by Marcus Arbery, the father of Ahmaud Arbery and attorney Ben Crump. Marcus, glad to have you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Unfortunately, sir, in these sad circumstances. Yes, sir.

First and foremost, today would have been his 26th birthday. Yes, sir. Has to be painful as the father of this young man, 26 years old, full of vitality, and here you are having to do interviews like this and for the last two months dealing with individuals

who refuse to seek justice for your son. It's rough. It's hard. It's hard. So young. It's hard. But I'm dealing with it as strong as I can in my family and my children. We're just dealing with it the best we can.

It's just hard to see that he he gone and he ain't coming back. But the only thing we can do is just try to keep that legacy going. When you got word last night that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was arresting Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, the death of your son. What was your reaction? The family was a little relieved that they were behind bars, but we still got a lot of progress because it's just a beginning. But we want them kids to stay in jail. We don't want them to get no bond.

We just want a condition of life in prison without parole. They will never get out. That's what our family wants. They did go before the judge today. No bail was granted to the both of them. Ben Crump, I want to bring you in here. Obviously, the only reason we're at this point is because of public pressure. It was the public, the family of Ahmaud Arbery, who pressured that DA, George Barnwell, to recuse himself.

Then we have this third DA, and only because this video came out. Public pressure made it happen, but for black folks, damn, do we have to yell, kick, and scream just to get basic justice? We're not hearing Ben, so hold on one second, Ben. Y'all let me know what's up with Ben's mic.

Got it. There we go. Ben, go ahead. Got it. Go ahead. Unfortunately, Roland, that is the actual reality, because let's be clear on the record, the reason they arrested these two murderous duo, this father and this son, for executing Ahmaud Arbery

was not because they saw the video. It's because we, the people, saw the video, and there was so much public outcry that you could have a lynching in 2020 of a young, unarmed African-American in broad daylight and that the killers could be allowed to go free and go home and sleep in their beds at night for 74 days. And these police officers that allowed this to happen should also be investigated, Roland, because either they were one, incompetent, because they did not check to see if a burglary had actually took place. He had no burglary tools. He had no burglary bag, no burglary mask. All he had on was a T-shirt and shorts. And yet they took the word of the murderers as the gospel

and let them go free. And so we have to continue to question not only every police officer involved in that investigation. We are very suspicious of the district attorney because he had that video rolling and he said he couldn't make an arrest. He had to take it to the grand jury on June 12th when we know just by looking at that video probable cause exists. I do want to ask Marcus Arbery this. I discussed this a little bit earlier with our panel on the top of the show. And, you know, after today's news conference where they announced exactly what took place here, two Glynn County commissioners, one black, one white, said that the cops of the Glynn County Police Department

wanted to arrest them on the scene, but DA Jackie Johnson said no. This is the quote here. Anthony, go to my iPad. The police at the scene went to her, saying they were ready to arrest both of them. These were the police at the scene who had done the investigation.

This is according to Glynn County Commissioner Alan Booker. He told this to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Quote, she shut them down to protect her friend McMichael. Now, a second Glenn County Commissioner, Peter Murphy, he said the exact same thing. He said he talked directly to officers. At the scene, they concluded they had probable cause to make arrests, contacted Johnson's office to inform the prosecutor of their decision,

and the quote was, they were told not to make the arrest. Mr. Arbery, that DA is still there. These are two public officials, one black, one white, who say she ordered them, do not arrest these men who killed your son. Mm, Lord, that's just deep. That's just deep. You know, she paid on her own to do her job, and she just failed to do her job.

This lady been having, this lady been having problems for a long time without holding her job. It's just time for her to go. To go because the justice system is broken with her in the office. Oh, it's time for her to go. It's time for her to go. She got to get out.

Resign or get kicked out one or other. It's just time for her to go because she got the justice system broke bad. Ben Crump, in reading that, I got the sense y'all two hadn't heard those two accounts. I had not, and I agree with my client, Marcus Arbor Sr. I mean,

she should be put up on ethical violations as her duty to administer justice, Roland. I mean, for her to show that kind of bias when a citizen in her jurisdiction is dead on the ground because of the murderous conduct of two individuals,

one who she had a previous relationship with, you absolutely know that is unethical. And now that we have found that out, we will act accordingly to call for her removal of office. That is dereliction of duty completely. And in the name of Mr. Aubrey's son, we have to make an example of that because how many other black people have she looked the other way on when it came to justice? Marcus Aubrey, just a couple more questions. Your son was born on this day 26 years ago.

Sunday is Mother's Day. Normally when it comes to Mother's Day, children, they celebrate, they fet mothers, celebrate them, they fet them, they give, all those different things along those lines. But this is going to be a much to her because he ain't there to just share that mother's love for her. And that's going to be real heartbreaking for her. But I just sent all my prayers out to her. And I just prayed to God for her because I know that was her baby boy, me and her baby boy. And that's going to be pretty rough for them all because her children love her dearly.

And they always just celebrate Mother's Day with her. So it's going to be kind of heartbreaking for them. They celebrate Mother's Day with me, too. They always call me on Father's Day and say, my happy Father's Day. We got some wonderful kids. I know this is going to be really heartbreaking for them. I just pray to God for them. God keep his hand on him.

Keep us strong. I know it's hurt for him because that was our baby boy. So it's going to be pretty rough for him. And obviously next month is Father's Day, and it's certainly not going to be a good time for you. No, sir. It ain't going to be a good time for me because he was so loving to the boy

that he always gonna miss calling me for that kind of stuff. Father's Day and birthdays, just like I do them. Every time they have birthdays and stuff like that, I make sure I call them and I give them money. I don't miss their birthdays. They don't miss Father's Day for me, so that's gonna be pretty rough.

Anything, I mean, for people, for people i mean obviously when these stories come up um folks talk about they show the video talk about the tragedy there's something that you want our audience to know about armand arbery yes sir i just want people to just remember him as a loving young man. And he was the kind of young man, if he had one dollar, and you asked him for it, he gave it to you. He just was a very fine, outgoing young man. You know, I just get on to him because he'll work and give it. If you need his whole check, he'll give it to you. And I just get on with it. I just tell him, don't work and just give your whole check. Keep something for yourself. Ben Crump, you've had to do this any number of times,

dealing with mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles in situations like this. And it certainly does not get easier as the years go by. It certainly doesn't. And this was a difficult one, Roland. I mean, it was literally a modern day lynching. And we thought that we had overcome these things, but to see that video, it took you back to things we thought we had overcome in America.

You know, the most horrific thing I can think of, Roland Martin, to this is the James Byrd incident where he was lynched and dragged in Texas. But there was no video of that. We actually witnessed with our own eyes the lynching of a young, unarmed black man. And so when Marcus calls it a lynching, that's exactly what it was. And we cannot sugarcoat that. They've got that shotgun and that .357 Magnum, and they went hunting a young black man. And we cannot let them get away with this, no way, no how. And so we want everybody to be vigilant.

I thank you for sharing that information on the district attorney there in Glen County, Georgia, because she has to be made an example of. Indeed. Marcus Arberry, Ben Crump, we certainly appreciate it. Again, our thoughts and prayers go out to your family. Mr. Arberry, we're gonna stay on top of this story. We've done this, numerous other stories,

and we'll continue reporting on it and making sure that the public knows full well all the details of this. And one of the things we're also not gonna allow them to do, what they're very prone to do, is try to destroy the name and image of every black man when this happens to. They wanna bring up criminal past

and bring up all kinds of other stuff. Now the focus is going to be on the actions of these three men who were there, participated in the killing of your son. Thank you, Roland. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

God bless. Again, folks, it is always very difficult when we do these stories, but that's why we do what we do here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let me be real clear with you, and Ben Crump was sitting right there, and he can tell you, national media ignored the Trayvon Martin story. We had to force them to do it. I was at CNN in 2012 when that happened.

It was there. We had to force them to do the story. National media only focused on this story when that video dropped on Tuesday. But we had Lee Merritt on this show last week. Why am I saying that? It's because we've got to have our own platforms to speak to our issues,

that we're not going to be late to the party when these things happen. And so that's why we're here. We want to be sure to put the pressure on these people when it comes to the folks who are not showing up for us. We can't wait for national media to then determine whether or not the story is big enough. I told you what happened.

I was talking about Ted Cruz and here he is defending Shelley Luther, but they were not there for Crystal Mason. We were talking about this story as well, and so we understand that. And so we want to thank all the people who are supportive of our show. In the last 24 hours, I'm going to read the name of all the folks who have given to our Bring the Funk fan club, the folks who have given 50 bucks or more. The goal of our fan club is simple, and that is for the people to support what we do in order for us to be able to bring those storiesimley, Arnetta Wilson, Atoya, Bonita Patterson, Bread from Haven Ministries International, Brian Lucas, Carla Hopkins, Carolyn Harris,

Carrie Dorsey, Cha-Cha, Chavia Workman, Christina Keat, Christopher Johnson, Clayton Bullock, Clint Williams, Cornell Shelton, Crystal Bauer, Demario Solomon-Simmons, Danetta Samilton, Danielle Florent, Daphne Wells, Daryl Dishman, Daryl Bev Rice, DeVry Ross, DeRitha Johnson, Dorothy Allen, Dwayne Nicholson, Dwayne Rideau, Edith Christie Burris, Eric Booker, Eric McWhorter, Erica Dishman, Eugene Craig, Eugene Evans, Fatima Kitchens, Faye Gibson, Felicia Davis, Felicia H. Cooper, Frida, Gail Howard, Gertrude Wynn, Hillary Brown Smith, Imani Enterprises, Jay Briscoe, 357, Jimmy Dover, John Jones, John, John, John Jones,

John Williams, Janetta Woodson, Joseph Carroll, Joyce Dukes, Juanita, Karima Sadiq, Karen Wallace, Kathy Painter, a lot of you on the last 24 hours, Keisha, Kim Singleton, Kimberly Snell, Christian Clark, L.A. Jones, Lynn Worth Daly, Lisa Young, Lori Stewart, Marilyn Kitt,

Marjorie Powell, Mojo Working, Pamela Ray, Paul Lawson, Paula Davis, Peters, Full Stack Applications, Progress for All, Quincy R. Byam, Reginald Hutcherson, Rennell Gardner, Ricky Reynolds, Robert Johnson, Ronnie Morris Sr., Sabrina A. Smith Foster, Sonia Smith, Stephanie Cooper, Sudi Mott, Sula,

Susana Skinner, Tamara McDaniel, Tarika Bates Wells, the InnovateHers, U-Tumble, Vincent Porter, Walter Andrew Matthews, William Beale, Youth Becoming Healthy Project, Inc. So according to my folks, we now are over 6,000. We're over 6,000 folks who have joined our Bring the Funk fan club. The number is 6,048. If you want to become a member of our fan club, this is what our goal is simple. By the end of this year, so this is middle of May,

we got folks another six and a half months. Our goal is to hit 20,000, have 20,000 individuals who join our fan club. We're asking 50 bucks each, $4.19 a month. That's 13 cents a day to support what we do. Look, we are here talking to about four black people. It's about covering our issues. It's about putting on our black experts. We've had more than 80 coronavirus experts on. I'm talking about black scientists, black doctors, African Americans who are owning PPE companies because we understand mainstream media doesn't tell our story.

But we also have been the place, you've seen more congressional black caucus members on this show, I guarantee you, than you've seen on mainstream news in the last month. Why? Because we know that there's more than two or three black caucus members. Okay, you only see the same folks on broadcast and cable.

It's not how we roll. And so we want you, of course, to support what we do. That is give via cash app. That's dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartin unfiltered. We also have venmo at RM unfiltered. You can also, of course, mail to our address, New Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street,

Northwest, feet 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. That's 20006. On Monday's show, got our Fit, Live, Win segment. Also, we're going to talk about the Maryland HBCU case. Don't think Larry Hogan and Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford Blackman Howard University graduate. We're going to let y'all off the hook. We're going to push Maryland to override the veto to ensure those HBCUs get that $577 million. And so we've got a great show for you. And we're

going to stay on top of this Arbery case as well. Folks, I want you to have a great weekend. We had some technical issues, could not have our video that we play at the end of the show, which has all the members of our charter of our fan club. We're some technical issues. Could not have our video that we play at the end of the show, which has all the members of our charter of our fan club. Actually, we'll have the new list. We have it on Monday, so we'll roll it on Monday's show. All right, y'all be sure to have an absolute great weekend.

Shout out, of course, to my mom, Imelda Martin. Happy Mother's Day. And so we'll probably be doing like everybody else, a family Zoom, or we'll be on some platform for this Sunday for Mother's Day. All right, y'all. I'll see y'all. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. 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 homes. We met them at their recording studios. 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. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through

alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.