#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Biden's Covid Plan, Dems special caucus, LA judge suspended, Potter Verdict Watch

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

12.21.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Biden's Covid Plan, Dems special caucus, LA judge suspended, Potter Verdict WatchIt's Tuesday, December 21, 2021. Here's what's coming Up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network.Senate Democrats are busy trying to find a way to pass legislation before the new year. And West Virginia coal miners want their Senator to support the Build Back Better Plan. But why now? The Tri-Chair of the West Virginia chapter of the Poor People's Campaign says they have been trying to get the coal miners union on board for months. She'll be here to tell us why she thinks they are on the bandwagon now. Plus, President Biden outlines his plan to expand Covid testing sites and deploy federal resources to help strained hospitals. We'll talk to a doctor to see if his plan will be enough to slow down the omicron variant's fresh wave of infections. Remember that white Louisiana judge who was caught on tape using the N-word? Well, she's been suspended and replaced by a black judge, and the New Orleans District Attorney wants to review all of her cases from the 1990s.We are still on verdict watch in the trial of the white Minnesota officer who killed Daunte Wright. A California cop is acquitted even though his crime was caught on tape!And in our Marketplace segment sponsored by Verizon, a Houston restaurateur shares his secret to succeed in the midst of a pandemic. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. Hey, folks. Today is Tuesday, December 21st, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. A group of coal miners. They are now calling on West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to back the BBB plan after he said he is not going to vote for it. We'll talk with one of the leaders of the Poor People's Campaign in West Virginia who said they've been trying to get this union and this on board for a number of months.

And we'll break that down also on today's show. President Joe Biden unveils uh talks about omicron unveils an increasing number of covid testing sites they also announced they're going to be uh setting aside uh millions of home kits and if people request them they will be sent to america's homes for free also still waiting on the verdict in the trial of kim potter uh the former cop on trial for the death of Daunte Wright, also on today's show. Remember that white Louisiana judge

caught on tape using the N-word? Well, she's had to step off of the bench and been replaced by a black judge. Also, a California cop was acquitted even though the crime was caught on tape. And in our Marketplace segment sponsored by Verizon, we'll talk with a Houston restaurant uh about how they've been able to thrive during kobe folks it is time

to bring the funk on roland martin unfiltered on the black star network let's go he's got it whatever the mess he's on it whatever it is he's got the super fact the fine and when it breaks he's right on time and it's rolling best, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling.

It's roll, go, roll, roll, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now he's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best you know, he's rolling Martell Martell Union representing 80,000 co-workers, the United Mind Workers of America, they're calling on West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to reconsider his stance to oppose the Build Back Better bill offered by President Joe Biden.

They released a statement, and this is what they said. The United Mind Workers and Senator Joe Manchin have a long and friendly relationship. We remain grateful for his hard work to preserve the pensions and health care of our retirees across the nation, including thousands in West Virginia. He has been at our side as we have worked to preserve coal miners' jobs in a changing energy marketplace, and we appreciate that very much.

The Build Back Better legislation includes several items that we believe are important for our members and their communities, some of which are part of the UMWA's principles for energy transition we laid out last spring. For those reasons, for those and other reasons, we're disappointed that the bill will not pass. We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to the legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working and have a meaningful impact on our members, their families, and their communities. Joining us right now is Jean Evans-Moore. She is the tri-chair of the West Virginia

chapter of the Poor People's Campaign, and she says they've been trying for very for quite some time to get this union on board. Jean welcome to Roller Martin Unfiltered. Thank you, thank you I'm so happy to be here. So take us through this process uh what have y'all been doing to try to get uh y'all of course been waiting for this statement uh from the mine workers of America. What what we've been doing as as you said, you were talking about it last night, we have been working on trying to get Manchin around to being what he needs to be for some time. One of the things we always do, we are contacting various organizations to get them to come on board to be supportive of us. What I found out here in West Virginia, couldn't find coal miners. And I talked to somebody who's very involved in the coal mining community in Logan and

thought, okay, he could do it. He says, not a coal miner. They will not. They will not. What happened with Cecil Roberts speaking up, I think, I haven't any doubt, it's going to be a whole change. I do expect to be able to find coal miners who will be able to talk, who will be able to speak up, who will be able to tell the world what is going on with them. That's what we do. We'd like people to speak for themselves rather than someone speaking for them so i'm really excited about this really uh look the the point that we were talking about here is that uh in order to get to mansion you got to get the people uh who uh who he needs and uh who he supported in the past and the bottom line is uh you of these coal workers, at the end of the day,

look, you know, magic can keep trying to say, oh, fighting to keep coal going, but it's a dying, it's a dwindling and a dying industry. It's a dying industry. And so what their statement also said is that, look, they're trying to protect future jobs and this bill does that. Right, right right right i think mansion was so busy lying setting up things that he just simply forgot to read this he forgot to read what's in this bill and the things that cecil roberts pointed out because they are to help miners that's where he gets lots of his money from as you know about a million bucks a year so he gets through that

organization that i think he and his son set up he makes a hell of a lot of money off that so i think he did it to himself and i think it's probably because of his greed that he didn't even notice what he was doing to his pocket. He keeps saying that he, he, you cannot support a bill that is bad for West Virginians yet. Thousands have been signing petitions, been writing letters. You've had caravans y'all have been outside. And. And so, I mean, don't you find it interesting that he keeps saying that West Virginians

don't support it? Yet, according to polling data, nearly 65 to 70% of West Virginia voters support the Build Back Better plan. So, who is he talking about? It's that little game that's up in his head that he might be talking to his corporate sponsors, his billionaires. And there's some guy that I think I've read that he has a weekly phone call

with. He's talking to them. And you know how people tell you what you want to hear? So therefore, he's had to make up stuff. He's had to make up stuff he's had to make up stuff about west virginians of course he's lying loads of us we are calling we are texting we've been doing that for months it's a regular thing he wasn't talking to west virginians he was talking about west virginia and the comments that he made about people uh i don't embarrass easily but damn oh that gum he should not have stepped uh out of what's a particular zone that he should be in as a public servant what he's doing is putting down people who don't need that instead of helping raise us, helping to do all the kinds of things he could do for West Virginia. That man has a job that was Senator Byrd's, as you know. I don't see any similarity between his actions and Senator Byrd's.

It's just the opposite. Senator Byrd went out for west virginia senator bird's name is roads builders or whatever i don't think joe manchin's name will be if it is i don't think it'll be up very long i'm glad to see cecil roberts stood up spoke up and brought to the attention of lots of people i I don't think many people, I think there are probably a lot of people who didn't realize the details for the coal miners that are in here. So we've been educated. I'm looking at Huffington Post has a story where an activist, Joanna Vance, said that, you know, Manchin complained that, oh, he was aware of some person, one individual who said that their daughter was using the child tax, the child tax payments, you know, to buy crack.

And so that's that that has sort of led for him to say people are using this for drugs. So what once so what one person, one story you hear being. And so you use that to say, let me just screw over every single person who is in America who's receiving a child tax credit he has shown us what he really is and how narrow he is how very narrow it's like i mean i found myself saying often you know i'm older than he is you know one of the things that older people used to say you need to be popped upside your head it's kind of like knocking some sense in your head because that's where he is there's doesn't seem to be any. And as I say to me, and I think to other people too, this is a big thing when you're voting against something that is to support your own things, people that put money in your pocket. You know, poor people's campaign doesn't quit. We are going to be busy. We're going to be

busy very soon. And that's the way it is because we don't quit. We don't give up. This is a light. This is a big light into what was kind of a dark looking situation and that and it as far as i'm concerned as far as i can see it has to do with the fact that you know sometimes people read things but they forget to read the fine print i'm not saying this was in fine print i don't know but it looks like something that he and uh i'm not gonna blame it on his staff because he should know what the hell he was talking about or shut his mouth. Somebody missed something that's very important. And this group is big enough to have brought it out. And I think and I hope other national groups will be

able and willing to step up to the plate now. What I'm hearing about this isn't very good. I mean, how it's functioning with Wall Street and all of that, that he's, well, he seemed to be protecting or whatever. Looks like his understanding wasn't what he wants you to believe it was. The facts are coming out. All right.

Jean Evans Moore, tri-state leader of the Poor People's Campaign in West Virginia. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. And we expect to see you in West Virginia, Roland. We'll make you an honorary West Virginia. And I will send you one of these T-shirts. I will send you one of these T-shirts. I'll just kind of come up with the size for you, okay? All right, that's not a problem. Well, just send the 2X. Well, probably

after I get out of this quarantine, I'll probably be down to XL. So yeah, look forward to seeing y'all and keep the pressure, keep the great work going in West Virginia. We thank you very much for this opportunity to let the rest of the world know what's going on. I think West Virginians will finally have the ability to speak up for themselves now. I think more people will get off their couch. All right. We look great. We certainly hope that happens. Thanks a lot. OK, thank you. OK, good night. I want to bring in Attorney Xavier Pope as well as Demario Solomon Simmons.

Glad to have both of you here. Folks, here's the thing that is really interesting here. Also, Mustafa Santiago Ali. Glad to have you as well. So folks, I keep saying this and Demario, you're dealing with this here in with Justice for Greenwood. A lot of people say, man, look, all y'all out here making all this noise. You protesting, you having rallies and stuff doesn't matter. But the reality is it does. That's the kind of constant, constant pressure that has to be applied to these elected officials to get them to do right. No question, Roland. And thank you for being on the show and thank you for having that young lady on to talk about it because that's important to do the work in the streets do the work in the in the boardrooms and the courtrooms and it's also important to

connect with people like you on the media that can get that story out and it has to be consistent we have to be able to be more than just about mobilizing for a moment or a week or even a month we have to have organization. And that's what the Poor People's Campaign, they have sustained action over a period of time. And it takes that because we're against a very well-funded, very well-motivated opposition that does not want to see true justice and equity for everyone involved in America. So I appreciate you. I appreciate that young lady. I appreciate brother William Barber, and everybody that's fighting hard for justice.

And Joe Manchin needs to do the right thing. I mean, just like you say, I'm here in Oklahoma, rest of Virginia is poorer than Oklahoma, and that's hard to be. These people need these services, they need these funds, they need these programs, and they are not in fight on this. These are our own tax dollars that are going to help other Americans. They need to pass that bill today. It is very interesting to see the reaction and you see how folks are willing to aggressively go after Manchin Mustafa because of him going on Fox News. And like always, what comes out of D.C., unfortunately, is always a conversation about process as opposed to what's actually in the proposed bill.

Exactly. You know, it's amazing that Senator Manchin could continue to make so many mistakes, even if there's intentionality in those mistakes. West Virginia's 48th in employment, 50th in child care, 50th in public health. And inside of the bill, there are all kinds of things that could help to change that dynamic, you know, could help my family, you know, who were coal miners in West Virginia and a whole bunch of other folks. So inside of the bill, there was actually resources to help with black lung. My grandfather worked in the coal mines for 40 years, came up out of there with black lung like so many other folks. There are resources in there to actually build on the coal fields to bring manufacturing opportunities there. So Senator Manchin, do you not care about

economic opportunities and manufacturing so you can actually create new sets of jobs and be a leader in that space? Because if West Virginia doesn't feel it, I guarantee you other states will actually do that. And then there was also the opportunity that was in there around unions. West Virginia is one of the leaders in unions, has been historically. And for him not to support a bill that supports West Virginia, that supports Appalachia, makes no sense whatsoever, unless you put into the formula that he is literally making millions and millions of dollars. He's the individual on Capitol Hill, whether on the Senate side or the House side, who receives more money from the fossil fuel industry than anyone else. And we know there are some characters

up on Capitol Hill that have sold their soul for a few pieces of silver. So when we look at in totality, it makes absolutely no sense for him not to be supporting the Build Back Better bill and actually asking for it to be enhanced instead of being the individual who has shrunk it down time and time again. Look at the bill. People kept changing the bill because of him to make sure that would be in alignment with the things that he said that he could support. Xavier, this might be it. CNBC has this story that they just posted. Senator Joe Manchin's political action committee saw a surge in corporate contributions this fall ahead of his decision to oppose this.

His leadership received 17 contributions from corporations in October, 19 in November. Yeah, I think that Joe Manchin thought he was serving some corporate interests in terms of his contributions. But then you also saw corporate America respond. The Goldman Sachs quickly responding and then downplaying in terms of the growth of the economy, in terms of the GDP growth, instead of being 3%, being 2%. And so it wasn't just the response of citizens and we find out what's in the bill. It was the corporate response to what's happened in the bill and the outlook on the economy that now is changing the tenor of the debate and what Joe Manchin is doing. It shows that he was reckless. He showed that he made a calculation based on his political future and also posturing, putting himself on Fox News. And it seems as if he

really wasn't in the business of legislating in so much he was in the business of reelecting Joe Manchin. Well, bottom line is this here, and that is the pressure continues. We'll see what happens next. He says the bill needs to be completely rewritten, going through Senate committees. And at the previous process, we'll see if that happens. All right, folks, going to take a break. We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, including a judge out of Louisiana who has had to step down, replaced by a black judge because she was busted on videotape using the n-word also president joe biden talks about the omicron variant announces 500 million home kit are going to be sent to any american family that request it we'll discuss all of that next right here on roller martin unfiltered so

so I don't know. it's time to be smart roland martin's doing this every day oh no punching thank you roland martin for always giving voice to the issues look for roland martin in the whirlwind to quote marcus garvey again the video looks phenomenal so i'm really excited to see it on my big screen black media he makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with rolling all the way.

Honestly, on a show that you own, a Black man owns the show. Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. Roland was amazing on that. Hey, Blake, I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we

are, what we're doing in the world, and the impact that we're having. Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be Black on media and be scared. You dig? Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson.

What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, Tampa the Queen, the 29-year-old mother of three, has been missing since May 10, 2021 from Bastrop Louisiana the family of the five foot four inch tall 240 240 pound woman just wants to find her for Christmas Tabitha has black hair and brown eyes if you know anything about Tabitha Queen's disappearance you're encouraged to call Bastrop police at 318-281-1322, 318-281-1322. Today, President Joe Biden went before the cameras to talk about the Omicron variant. The cases are exploding all across the country as folks are testing positive as a result. This is what he had to say from the White House. The questions that lay out the steps the vice president and I are taking to prepare for the rising number of cases

experts tell us we can expect in the weeks ahead. First, how concerned should you be about Omicron, which is now the dominant variant in this country, and it happened so quickly? The answer is straightforward.

If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. You're at a high risk of getting sick. And if you get sick, you're likely to spread it to others, including friends and family. The unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in a hospital or even dying. Almost everyone who has died from COVID-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated.

Unvaccinated. But if you're among the majority of Americans who are fully vaccinated, and especially if you've gotten the booster shot, that third shot, you're much – you have much, much less reason to worry. You have a high degree of protection against severe illness. Because Omicron spreads so easily, we'll see some fully vaccinated people get COVID, potentially in large numbers. There will be positive cases in every office, even here in the White House, among the vaccinated from Omicron. But these cases are highly unlikely to lead to serious illness.

Vaccinated people who get COVID may get ill, but they're protected from severe illness and death. That's why you should still remain vigilant. According to our doctors, even if you're fully vaccinated, you should wear a mask when indoors in public settings. Now, let me tell you about the additional steps I'm ordering today to take on what is coming. I know you've heard a lot of this in the news already this morning. Three weeks ago, I laid out a COVID-19 action plan for this winter that prepared us for this moment. Today, we're making the plan even stronger.

First, we're setting up our vaccination and booster efforts. We're stepping it up significantly. In the past two weeks, we've seen the highest vaccination rates since last spring. And we aren't as vaccinated as a country as we should be, though. That's why we have added 10,000 new vaccination sites on top of the 80,000 sites that we already had in place. And even more will open in January. I know there's some parts of this country where people are very eager to get their booster, where it's harder to get an appointment. Excuse me. So, starting this week, I'll be deploying hundreds more vaccinators and more sites to help get the booster shots in people's arms. I've ordered FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to stand up new pop-up vaccination clinics all across the country where you can get that booster shot. We've opened FEMA vaccination sites in Washington State and New Mexico recently as cases have increased.

And today, I'm directing FEMA to stand up new sites in areas where there is a high demand. These steps are going to help us add more and more booster appointments just over the next few weeks. I also want to say a word to parents. If your children are not vaccinated, please get them vaccinated. If you're a parent, understandably, who waited to see how the first shots went with other kids before getting your own kid vaccinated, you can stop waiting. Six million children in our country ages 5 to 11 are vaccinated. Get your children protected today, now. And for those parents out there who have a child that's too young to be vaccinated, is under the age of five all right folks uh let's go right to my uh next guest uh she is uh out of uh silver spring

maryland a dr melissa clark she's a co-founder of Lack Coalition Against COVID. Dr. Clark, glad to have you here. And so let's talk about- Hyrule, and that's the Black Coalition Against COVID. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They had this wrong in the script. So let's get right to this whole thing here because, so this is where I'm sort of confused right now.

A couple of weeks ago, the White House was challenged on about sending home COVID tests. Oh, it can't be done. It's going to be too costly. Here we are two weeks later now saying it's going to be done. Now they're announcing they're increasing COVID testing sites. Okay. I'm just trying to understand why weren't these increases in place? Why are we talking about two weeks later? I mean, what I'm not understanding is, is why are we not throwing everything at this? Do you think that what America has done, we will sort of say, okay, you know what? Things are getting better. Let's just all back off.

And then now when there's a spike now, it's like, oh my God, what do we do now? Let's ramp up. If we maintain a high level, maybe we're not going to see an explosion in cases. Well, you know, certainly I'm glad to be here, Roland, and that's an excellent question. You know, there has been sort of a gradual ramp up. And let me say, first of all, thank God there is a plan because we are definitely better than we were a year ago when there was no plan. And there has been gradual ramp up of testing capacity, approving home tests. But you're absolutely right. We saw the Omicron variant. We saw how rapidly it was expanding

through Europe and certain parts of Africa. And the fact that there are lines of people trying to get home test kits right now could have been foreseen. That being said, I do believe that the parts of his plan that deal with testing are commendable, with the exception, I have a little bit concerned about that online, going online to get test kits. There really needs to be equity in every policy. And so for those people who don't have broadband access, we saw that debacle when it came to going online to schedule for your vaccines back in February and March and April. So why repeat that same issue? We know how to reach those people in neighborhoods that have low broadband. We have community-based institutions and organizations like the Black

Church, like community centers and recreation centers and elementary schools that could serve as distribution points. We have community-based organizations that could deploy and go door to door to deliver those tests in areas that have low broadband. We need to roll out these plans at the same time as the online testing to ensure that every American really is able to get access to those tests. And not only that, you know, so their thinking is, well, for those for those households that want the test, they have to request it. And you're right. People are not sitting here only going online. So guess what? Set up a set of a basic phone number, set up a hotline for folks to be able to call.

And then they should be dropping those PSAs and buying airtime from Black-owned media and others to encourage folks to get these home tests. And not just get them, how to take them. We're in the process of developing videos for how to make sure that you know how to use the home test because it's a five-step process. Not everybody has the same literacy ability, health literacy ability to understand the instructions and execute it correctly. So, you know, there's more to it than just, you know, making the test available online. Absolutely. And so, you know, I think, I think this is important. And also I think what has to happen is this is just, I think as a, as a country, we've got to frankly be at DEF CON 5, if you will, whatever the highest level and say, we're going to stay there for the minimum next two years. Because, see, this whole yo-yo, this whole thing, oh, let's open up.

Things are getting better. Oh, my God, we've got to pull back, whatever. To me, that is also what contributes to where we are because people get lackadaisical. Folks just sort of begin to, you know, just, oh, you know, everything is going fine. We saw the rush for folks wanting to back with football games and basketball games and concerts. And now we're seeing what's turning into super spreader events. I mean, I'm seeing, you know, look, I'm sitting here in quarantine right now for testing positive. And just more and more people are doing it every single day.

And the numbers are climbing. Yeah. And I think, you know, there's been an effort to balance people's mental well-being, our economic well-being, and our public health well-being. But I think the messaging around that has to constantly say, these situations are fluid and changing. Because once you take away a mask mandate, it's really hard to reinstitute it. Just as you said, people's behaviors lag behind the advice. And when they lag behind the advice, that's when you see rapid increases in cases taking off like we see now. But it's still really important to be very careful in public spaces in terms of wearing your mask, even in small, you know, getting together with your friends and teenagers that are having sleepovers.

These kinds of things can quickly become super spreader events, especially if people are not vaccinated and boosted. Yeah, but you still got these people who say masks don't work. I mean, I can't tell you how I keep seeing these folks all over social media, people with significant followings who say, why are we doing these masks? There's no proof they actually work. There is plenty of proof that they actually work. We see states and communities that have carried out the mask mandates. We see that rates of cases and case spread are much lower when you compare on a macro level from community to community.

They definitely work. And I know those same people have not been in the trenches with healthcare workers seeing the cases overrun hospitals and people being put on ventilators, because I guarantee you they would change their mind when they see how devastating it can be to contract a severe case of COVID and potentially die. They work. Well, I think it's a whole lot of stuff that we certainly have to do. Any questions for my guest, Mustafa, Damaria, Xavier. Well, I want to thank the sister for the great work she's doing. She talked about equity and everything.

And you made a great point when you talked about needing another way to have access to our community. Everyone is on email. You know, in our organization with Justice for Greenwood, we had to set up a hotline just for that reason because some of the older people that we're trying to impact they don't use email they're not getting online by themselves and we know our community older people are at higher risk so i think that is very important to have those important voices like yours doc making sure our people understand what the issue is and how we can access and have actual access to the life-saving maneuvers. One of my

clients and partners, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, yesterday, I mean, on the 14th, her mother, a year ago on the 14th, went into the hospital with COVID and she never made it out. And we talked about that yesterday because she was right there on the day when the vaccinations were coming on market, but she got sick beforehand. So we don't want to see that happen to anyone else in this country. Absolutely not. And, you know, another thing that I often hear on social media is, well, you know, why should I get vaccinated? Because people are getting sick who get vaccinated anyway. And, you know, what I always say is when you're going out into sub-zero weather, you're going to want to layer up.

You're going to want to have your long johns, your sweaters, and your down coat. That represents mass physical distancing and a vaccine. Are you going to feel cold? Sure, you'll probably feel cold. But you're not going to die of hypothermia. You're not going to get frostbite as if you were going out there naked with nothing on, which is basically what you're doing, especially in this Omicron wave with how contagious it is. It's three times contagious, more contagious than Delta,

which was three times more contagious than the previous variants. So it's incredibly contagious. And even though there's some evidence that there might be a little bit more mild disease, we don't know that yet. We don't know across the board how it's going to affect all populations. So it's really important now, more than ever before, to have all those layers in place, especially vaccination and boosting. And my heart goes out to Dr. Crutcher and her and her mother. Certainly, we don't want to see that happen to any other family in the United States. What mask should we be using? Because I've seen other doctors who have been saying

the last several days, folks, get rid of those cloth masks. They're not working. So what mask should we be using? So cloth masks were deployed just as an interim step because we could not ramp up mask manufacturing quickly enough to ensure that every American had a supply of masks. Now that we have the KN95 masks and the N95 masks available in drugstores and other retail outlets, those are what people should be using. So KN and N95 are fine? Yes, absolutely. And surgical masks. And if you only have one surgical mask, or I should say, if you're using a surgical mask, it's important to double up on the surgical mask because that makes them more effective. Or if you have a cloth mask and a surgical mask, double up. Xavier or Mustafa? about our seniors um and the the tech the technology gap that's there and the information

gap that's there um and getting them vaccinated and then getting them boosted with the change in information roland talked about the going back and forth how do we get information to our seniors to make sure that they are on board with the information that they're receiving to be protected. And also we don't even know, I don't necessarily think they're aware of the proper mask and how do we get proper campaign out to our communities that have been hesitant and then now may feel even more distrustful, particularly of the government of different age groups based on the changes and what's going on with Omicron? So one of the things that has been happening that doesn't get a lot of attention is there have been a number of initiatives across the

country thinking outside the box in how to reach hard hit and hard to reach communities. I've been a part of that. My company is called the Be Health Empowered Group. And I'm part of I'm a founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID. And we've worked with an organization called Choose Healthy Life and the Leadership Council for Healthy Communities to train 120 people across the country that are in faith institutions to go out and knock on doors and have events and talk about vaccination. There are phone trees in place through many of our churches now and faith institutions to actually try to reach some of the harder to reach communities like some of our older Americans. And in addition, there are also other agencies like the Department of Aging in various cities that are also participating in some of these outreach opportunities to older adults. For example, going door to door for people who are shut in to offer vaccinations. So there is a lot of work

being done behind the scenes. Could more be done? Could more funding be available? Absolutely. But the infrastructure is in place to really try to reach those harder to reach communities. Mustafa? Doctor, thank you so much for what your organization does and yourself as well. You know, I've lost multiple people to COVID-19. My family lost the first individual in West Virginia. The first person to die was an African-American woman. And I'm curious, even when we went through that, it still took some work to get the rest of the family to make sure that they got vaccinated. So my question is, do we need to have some type of accountability partners inside of our families, inside of our organizations to make sure not only the folks who are not yet

vaccinated are vaccinated, but also then staying engaged to get people to make sure they get the boosters. I think that is an excellent suggestion because frankly, people respond to the individuals who they trust, the individuals who are closest to them. And family accountability partners, friend accountability partners, I think is an excellent method to do it. There are plenty of voices that are out here, mine included, that have been talking to people for months on end, trying to dismantle the disinformation, which really is the enemy. The disinformation that's out there is the enemy. And people tend to build these echo chambers of disinformation around themselves because social media, as we know, serves up to you exactly what you want to hear based on your

history. So really breaking through that bubble of disinformation is really what we have to do for our community, which, you know, we know is mistrustful and has reasons to be mistrustful of a government that has seemed to never want to do right by us, now saying, oh, here's this great vaccine that's going to help you out. But we have to understand that this is a worldwide pandemic. This is being offered to everybody and it has clearly been shown to keep people out of the hospital and keep them from dying overwhelmingly. All right then. Well, I look, I certainly appreciate the work that you were doing that to Melissa Clark.

Thank you so very much with the Black Coalition against COVID. Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you all. Be safe and happy holidays. Folks, when we come back, we're going to talk about the racist white judge in Louisiana caught on video

using the N-word, and she's like, oh, I took a sedative, and I don't recall anything. Well, she's now being replaced by a black judge while she is being suspended. We'll talk about that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Also, Marilyn Mosby, a state's attorney in Baltimore.

She said, you know what? I'm sick of your bullshit, Governor Larry Hogan. She is calling his constant attacks racial dog whistles. I'm going to play you some of her clap back today against the governor. Folks, it's a lot we're going to talk about right here in Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Thank you. so I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany.

I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey and you're watching roland martin unfiltered and while he's doing unfiltered i'm practicing the wobble all right folks the louisiana supreme court they have replaced Michelle O'Donnell at Lafayette County City Court. Excuse me, Lafayette City Court judge who was caught on video using the N-word with retired Appaloosa City Court Judge Vanessa Harris. Harris is an African-American. She becomes the first black woman to fill the seat in Lafayette City Court. She's going to serve from December 17th to February 28th. Now remember

Odinette was suspended by the state's highest court after she was caught on video saying the N-word to her family after a robbery was foiled. Watch this. Oh, shit. Mom goes, why are the lights on? When I pull up in the whip, they be saying, god damn. Why are your lights on? They're like, pull up, pull up. And mom's yelling, nigger! Nigger!

We have a nigger! It's a nigger! Like a roach. That's me. I came from the backside. And look, he trips over the... He trips. That's white. He trips over the roof. I was the only one with a roach.

That's me. Kenny was standing. I'm the one that took him down. Kenny's just standing there. Ha, ha, ha. He lied. That wasn't the wallet. Yeah.

That's my phone where it fell out. Look, Mom. The dude had a phone on him. He should have taken his phone and stolen fell out. Look, Mom. The dude had a phone on him. He should have taken his phone and stolen it from him, that fucking asshole. And now I've got a gun. It's important. Very important. As me and Austin maintain control of the situation. The good thing is, is we got medium.

We got, look, they're with the car. Wait, look, there's a couple. There's a couple. What a play bitch. fuck look there was a car wait look there's a couple there goes now after the video came out odinette said damn i'm sorry i didn't mean to take the racist sedative i i'm gonna take the other sedative um she says she has no memory of that yeah okay. Okay. Gotcha. Gary Chambers is an activist out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One of the folks who brought this to light, made it public. Gary, always glad to have you back on the show. But seriously, dude, I took a sedative. Now, normally, if you take a sedative, you're sort of knocked out.

She was wide damn awake in that video. that a drunk mind speaks sober thoughts so that if you had something that it impaired you, the only way that was going to come out of you is if it was in you. Well, now we also it's just it's it's hilarious in terms of watching this whole deal. Now, the Orleans now you have another development where you have the Orleans D.A. who is calling for review of all of her cases when she served as prosecutor. Williams is a great district attorney in New Orleans, a progressive D.A., and it is right. But every case that she saw as a prosecutor while she worked for the Orleans District Attorney's Office is now under review. But furthermore, here's the question. How do you appoint someone like that back to the bench where 80, 70 to 80% of the people who come before her in the court that she serves in are African-American and every lawyer that comes in there is going to say, look, I can't take my

client before this judge. At the end of the day, Roland, she has to go. The question is how quickly is she going to go? Yeah, I mean, I absolutely agree. And, and, and again again you know we we talk about this all the time uh and uh and certainly uh xavier uh demario and mustafa uh will bring you in on this as well uh i mean this is the thing that we always talk we we we deal with when you have these we have these racist judges in this case here's somebody who's now busted on video and it's like, oh, that's just not that's not who me and my husband are. But but sure, roll out your mouth real easy and call him a roach and everything. Yeah, Roland, she she also there was a quote of a hip hop song that was by a white hip hop artist that is basically cosplaying being black. When I roll up in the whip, they'd be saying, God damn. So there is a layer of basic blackface and using the racial slurs.

And what she said, it normally puts you to sleep and not turn you to a racist. So and they had to pull a sister out of retirement to take the bench. I know that she wanted to enjoy the rest of her life in peace, and now she got to come up and clean behind this racist white woman. Tomorrow, again, the thing that we often talk about is

when you're dealing with the system above the Supreme Court, it says equal justice under law. What it should say underneath that is. But we got lots of racist folks in the system. No question. I think we need to back up a little bit. First of all, I'd like to know who dimed out because I thought she was just there with her kids. Shout out for the person that dimed out. Number two, if you listen to the video, her son is quoting what the mother was saying that night, not about what she was saying right then. She said,

mom was saying N-word, N-word this, and then she actually added to that. I think that's real key that we understand and not let her to say, oh, well, I took this set up, which we know is just crazy. Third, I'm very happy to hear that the DA down there is saying we need to look at every case that she handled as a prosecutor. But I believe it should go even further because I'm in front of judges all the time, and most of them are white because I live in Oklahoma. And if you have a judge, as Brother Pope just stated, that you know utilizes that type of racial slur, I don't think any white person should ever say, I try not to say the word at all, period, but I'm certainly not a white person. That person needs to be off the bench, but they need to review all of her cases as a prosecutor and a judge that involve

African-Americans, period. Well, I take it a step further. First of all, let me say it's good to see Brother Gary on the show. And the other part is that she needs to be disbarred. And I know there's a process that you have to go through for that. But this is not the type of individual who could be representing anyone in the legal system. So at a minimum. And the other part of it, of course, is that all of these cases that she has looked at over the years, as other panelists have already shared, you know, you've got to raise an eye, a brow to that. And you know that there's no way that she was impartial if these are the types of things that she holds in her heart. So, and of course it plays out in

so many different ways. So one, of course, is the review of all these previous cases, but two, it's time for folks to step up and begin to disbar individuals who don't represent what the 21st century legal system has to be. I will just add that the steps to review her cases would probably lead to the disbarment, as opposed to the things that she actually said in terms of violating any ethics laws in that particular state. So that would be the process of her disbarment. And Gary, these are the kind of folks who have no business in the system who need to be completely booted out and not allowed to retire. But yeah, strip her of her law of her law license.

Absolutely, Roland. law of her a law license absolutely roland she needs to be removed from the bench immediately her law license needs to be taken away and here's the deal her husband is the coroner in lafayette parish and so if she's not careful uh you know we already lit up the husband's plastic surgery office yesterday made them change their phone lines. We're going to go after him next. If she don't just go ahead and get out the way, because we're not letting this go. All right, then keep putting that pressure on him, Gary Chambers. We love it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks. A Minnesota jury ends its second day deliberations in the manslaughter trial of Kim Potter. Of course, she is the former cop, Brooklyn Center cop on trial for the death of Dante Wright.

She faces first and second degree manslaughter charges for the shooting. We'll keep you updated on what happens in that particular case. I was going to Texas where a Texas grand jury has declined to indict a Bayer County deputy in the fatal shooting of a black veteran. Without a grand jury indictment, felony criminal charges against Deputy John Rodriguez cannot proceed at the state level. Rodriguez shot Damian Daniels in August of 2020 after he and his partner struggled to take Daniel's loaded gun and detain him for mental health treatment. The grand jury's decision comes two weeks after the Daniels family and activists gathered at the Bexar County Courthouse to demand the case be heard by a grand jury.

So that case there. All right, folks, let's uh talk about this story uh from walmart uh of course uh while shopping for the holidays a mother in kentucky noticed uh these black dolls were more expensive than white dolls at walmart the black dolls cost 50 percent more than the white dolls well walmart has apologized they lowered the price of the white dolls to drive up sales. In 2014, Walmart also had black dolls listed for higher prices than white dolls. I don't know. I mean, like, really? I mean, that's that's that's what I mean. What is it? Black dolls so popular. We get to cost more? It's the black tax that we know continues to play out in so many different ways in our country.

This also places black businesses at a disadvantage. If I'm a black doll maker and my dolls are going to cost more, it may end up pushing folks to purchase a non-black doll because they may be on some type of a budget. So there are so many different ways that this disproportionately impacts both on the economic side, on the mental health side and a number of other ways. That's how we're doing tomorrow. Like a charge of 14 hours more for a Black doll. Well, you know, it just really showsblackness that's throughout our entire society. And so Walmart would say, look, not too many people want to buy a black doll. We all know the famous experiment of putting a black doll and a white doll

in front of little kids. And most of the kids, even black kids, were selecting white dolls. So what we have to do is say, hey, this anti-black bias that exists at all levels, as Brother Mustafa just stated, we cannot tolerate it. And if this is the same type of a doll and you have a $14 gap, that's a big problem. That sends a message to the black community and to black consumers that, hey, if you want to get something that looks like you, you want to pay this amazing, terrible premium.

And that's something we cannot tolerate, period. I want to talk about this story here where McDonald's has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by one of its longtime black franchisees. Herb Washington, former baseball player, filed suit against McDonald's saying that he was being denied

and was being hurt by the company when it comes to owning restaurants. McDonald's purchased 13 of his restaurants for thirty three point five million dollars. This is a federal lawsuit. And at one point he owned 23 McDonald's restaurants. And again, according to this story, in exchange for his agreement to exit McDonald's system and dismiss the lawsuit, McDonald's purchased his 13 restaurants for $33.5 million. They said it was a fair price for the restaurants. Quote, the court did not find that the company violated any laws.

Discrimination has no place at McDonald's. While we were confident in the strength of our case, this resolution aligns with McDonald's values and enabled us to continue focusing on our commitments to the communities that we serve. Again, Washington has said that McDonald's discriminated against him by having him get restaurants in low-volume areas in Black neighborhoods and forcing him to downsize his store base after grading his locations unfairly.

And again, this is what he said at the time, when I stood up for myself and other Black franchisees, McDonald's began dismantling my life's work, forcing me to sell one store after another to white operators. Also last week, McDonald's settled a similar suit brought by two black operators in Tennessee, James and Daryl Bird. They were so again, they settled that McDonald's purchased four restaurants for six point five million dollars. And the birds also agreed to drop their their suit. Now, there still is a lawsuit on behalf of 77 former black franchisees that is still pending in the court system. Folks, yesterday we talked about the mandatory minimums.

And of course, we were talking about the bill dealing with crack cocaine and powder cocaine, ending that disparity. Well, I was on social media today and was looking at a number of different stories. And I saw Kevin Ring's Twitter feed where he said there was some good news that came out of the Department of Justice as it relates to people who have been let out of prison, but they've been serving their sentence in home confinement. Now, the Department of Justice initially made a ruling saying that those people, after COVID ends, those people will have to go back to federal prison. They've now changed that. Joining us right now with fam is Kevin Reen. Kevin, how you doing? I'm doing better today.

All right. So yeah, you're ecstatic on Twitter. So tell people what the great news is. All right. Well, for 11 months, as you said, we've been fighting this battle to keep people home. Thousands of people were cleared to go to home confinement because the former administration under Attorney General Bill Barr had decided that there was a bunch of low-risk people who could spend the rest of their sentences on home confinement as long as they met certain conditions. They had to serve half their sentence, no violence in their record, no disciplinary infractions. So these were the lowest of low risk. They sent these people home. Most of them have been home for over a year and a half now. They've got jobs, they're paying taxes, starting families,

starting jobs, all the rest. And then at the end of the Trump administration, the Office of Legal Counsel sent out a memo, as you said, that said, actually, the Attorney General's authority expires at the end of the pandemic. All of these people have to come back. And so for the last 11 months, we've had thousands of families just sweating it out, not knowing if in a few months from now, they were going to wake up with their families or back in a prison cell. And it's been very stressful. And we have been fighting and fighting. We have done everything we could running ads, meeting with lawmakers, getting letters from their employers, doing everything we could to change this outcome. And today I got a call at 3.30 from the attorney general saying they were going to revise the memo and they were going to let these people stay home.

Now, that certainly is huge news. They give any indication of what led to them revising it? Well, no. And I mean, I just have to say that, you know, in some ways, I didn't think this would be such a fight because the idea that the Biden administration, right, was going to reincarcerate thousands of people that the Trump administration sent home seems so ridiculous and absurd that I just didn't even think it would come to this. I didn't think we'd be fighting for 11 months on this, but I just think all the groups that have been pressing, and I'm telling you, all of these folks who are in home confinement, who were formerly incarcerated, they've been

raising their voices. There've been tons of media coverage. I was on this show with you, with Gwen Levi, who was one of the women who was brought home, and then they tried to send her back to prison for missing a phone call at a computer class. It was so absurd that they would send them back that I just, I don't know why it took this. And they didn't say what the reversal was, but I mean, somehow common sense finally prevailed. And they realized this would be a disaster to separate thousands of families when you know there was no public safety benefit to it. Wow. Well, first of all, that is absolutely great news. And how many people are we talking about? Right now, there's about 2,500 to 3,000 people who would be affected and would have to go back.

And these people are already in their community. I mean, they're paying taxes. They're doing everything you would want. There's no risk, right? I mean, Bill Barr took a risk a year and a half ago, but now these people have proven that they can live back in the community. They didn't need those long mandatory sentences that so many of them have, you know, they got. And in some ways, you know, in COVID, a lot of areas has been a natural experiment. And this has been one too, because for those of us who think we send too many people to prison for too long,

we got this natural experiment where all these people came home and they showed they didn't need those decades in prison. They could live back in the community and contribute. And so it's just been great. And I'm so relieved that thousands of families, this is the best Christmas present for them. They are relieved. They're in tears of joy, and I'm so happy for them. All right, Kevin, great job. Again, keeping the pressure on the Department of Justice to move on this. It didn't make any sense whatsoever. And you're right. We don't need no level offenders costing taxpayers unnecessarily sitting in federal prison. Thank you for bringing attention to this and all these issues.

All right. Thanks a bunch. All right, Kevin, again, great, great job there. Let's bring my panel back up. Folks, this note just came in. That is, you may have a possible deadlock in the trial of Kim Potter. The jury has asked an additional question to the judge, and this is what they asked. If a jury cannot reach consensus, what is the guidance around how long and what steps should be taken? That's what they it was a question that was read in open court by Judge Regina Chu presiding over the trial. Demario, your thoughts uh uh you know on this uh new development well first of all it's disappointing because this lady shot a person that she shouldn't have shot and that's definitely negligence homicidal negligence but what that means at that point you know the judge was probably

going to tell them hey go back keep trying keep working um maybe let them go home for the night and let them come back to it. If they cannot come to a consensus, then obviously we will have what's called a hung jury. What that means is in a hung jury that they could not come to a decision and the case would have to either be retried all over again, start all the way over, or the state could decide they're not going to prosecute it any further. So even if she gets a hung jury, which I don't think is the right decision here, it's not over. It's just that someone's back there not been able to be convinced. And what I like to tell people all the time, and you never know what's going on back in the jury room. I've been there many, many times. I hope those who have strong convictions

that this lady should be prosecuted and sentenced and found guilty, that they stand straight hard with that. And they don't falter. I've had cases, Roland, literally, I've lost cases on the civil side where people just said they were ready to go home. They just were tired of deliberating. They didn't feel like we should have lost. They wanted to vote in our favor, but they just wanted to go home. So I hope those who are fighting for justice for Dante stay strong and either convict this lady or do not let her walk.

What you're seeing here, Xavier, again, this is what the defense wanted her up here with those dry tears. They just needed one person, one person to hold out in order for her to get off. Yeah, Roland, that's all you need is one person. You just need one person. But the fact that they asked the judge what happens if we don't reach a verdict,

it says a lot about where they think they are in terms of the compromise that may happen. What's the outcome of their decision? They are understanding the gravity of what they are doing. And Kim Potter's, the Rittenhouse tears on the stand, maybe have worked on a particular jury. Jury notification is a thing for a particular jury that may be predisposed or biased toward the process.

Now, this, like our previous panelist said, send them home, bring them back. And I know they asked another question about some conversations that Potter had with a psychiatrist or a therapist to be able to determine what her state of mind was to be able to needle in what some of the charges were. So I don't think this is over yet, but this is not a good sign. Mustafa. If I make a mistake and kill somebody, more than likely, there are going to be significant penalties for me.

The exact same thing has to play out here. You know, her defense is I made a mistake. Well, we can accept that you made a mistake, but there also has to be repercussions for that mistake that you made. You took someone's life. You pulled someone over. Her partner pulled someone over for having an air freshener in their car, and then he lost his life. So for me, this is very serious. And you don't want to

set these precedents where other police officers can just say, well, I made a mistake, so I shouldn't be found guilty of taking someone's life. You know, and the thing about it is when you say a police officer made a mistake, Xavier and I, you know, we're lawyers. When we make a professional mistake, we have to be held accountable. She's not just some regular individual out there who made a mistake. She was trained for this. She worked on this position for over 15 years, and it has to be some form of accountability. But I just want to just say another thing that Xavier brought up. He brought up the term jury nullification. This is something that can also be used in a positive manner for us as Black people. When our people, when you're on that jury, you want a Black person on there, two Black people

on there, hold out and make sure the prosecution is actually doing everything to the constitution for those black people that they're prosecuting. And you can say, I don't believe that this black person has received a fair trial. Therefore, I am not going to convict them. We have to be strong enough to do that when we get on these juries because this entire system is set up, because this entire system is set up to allow these injustices to happen. And when we have the opportunity, they're very far and few between, but when we have that opportunity, stay strong in your conviction and don't just go with the herd. Don't just go with the other juries. Stay strong and use jury nullification in our favor when justice requires it. And I'll add this piece too, because

you talked about the standard and the training of being a police officer. And I've said this plenty of times on your show, Roland, that there needs to be, our laws have to be able to be changed just like so many other professions, whether it's finance or whether it's other industries. If you don't meet a certain standard and you fall short of that standard, there's a criminal penalty to pay for that. And we're making it harder for cops if they don't meet that standard because we're basing it on them having sort of their training. So if you have training and you're not meeting that standard, they don't meet that standard because we're basing it on them having sort of their training. So if you have training and you're not meeting that standard, you don't meet that,

how are you not criminally liable for that in other industries, but it's not for police officers? We need to clean that up because that is a great area in our law that's allowing police officers to get off for shooting people for an air freshener and calling a mistake. All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, talking about someone getting off, cop in California got off and some video was caught on tape. Also, we'll tell you about a lawsuit involving black women and Google and Haitian immigrants suing the federal government. We'll tell you all about that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Thank you. it's time to be smart roland martin's doing this every day oh no punches thank you roland martin for always giving voice

to the issues look for roland martin in always giving voice to the issues look for roland martin in the whirlwind to quote marcus garvey again the video looks phenomenal so i'm really excited to see it on my big screen support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told see this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like cnn i gotta defer to the brilliance of got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with rolling all the way. Honestly, on a show that you own, a Black man owns the show.

Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. Rolling was amazing on that. Stay Black. I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we are, what we're doing in the world and the impact that we're having. Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be black on media and be scared. You dig? so All right, folks, we talk a lot about about, you know, cops getting off and get the benefit of the doubt to take this out in California. A former white California police officer was acquitted by falsifying a police

report from a violent arrest of a black man in May of 2020. Officer Matthew Diggs accused Amari Johnson of smoking while he was outside waiting for friends to come from their apartment building. Johnson had his phone in his hand, but he had no smoking

paraphernalia. The ex-cop detained Johnson for no reason. After the acquittal, the San Diego branch of the NAACP said, quote, there was more than enough evidence to convict this former police officer. The justice system failed in this case. This is the thing that Mario will be talking about all the time, how unfortunately in this system, juries and judges will give so much leeway to the cops.

I mean, and so, again, he says the guy was smoking. No evidence, but the cop gets off. Yeah, I mean, this again, this is a great example of word again, jury nullification, where there were people on that jury that decided I'm not going to rule against this cop. I don't care what I hear. And that happens all the time. And I'm really actually impressed with the six-year-old police chief that they fired this guy for lying. Because Roland, as you know, I practiced 1983 police excessive violence cases every day. And we see the lying happens all the time. They are actually taught

how to lie. They're taught how to use certain phrases that helps them get off. They're supervised. We see this almost every single day. And most times, there's absolutely no accountability. And one of the things that we always talk about is even body cameras. We say,

oh, we need body cameras. Obviously, it's better to have video than not. But that's not the silver bullet because this was on video. This showed that this guy was lying about this young man. And we see many, many cases like that we're dealing with right now every single day in that jury nullification scenario. What does that mean, right? That's what the brother of Mustafa said earlier, the black tax. That's what we're up against. It's unfair. It's unjust. We've got to continue to fight. We cannot get this hard. We cannot get discouraged. As you say, Roland, in your promo, which gets me hype every time I hear it. If you're black on media, you can't be afraid. Hey, if you're a black person in America, you can't be afraid because the reality is we're going to have these injustices. But we must continue to fight. We must continue to speak out. We must continue to stand for our rights and our dignity at every opportunity. Even we have these blatant, blatant, blatant losses. The according to police report, Xavier, he said that he saw this man smoking.

Yet nothing was discovered. Nothing, nothing at all. So how do you see somebody smoking if you can't find any evidence of the smoke? Roland, I just talked about this in our last segment. If the jury instructions about what violates the law is relating specifically to just a lay person on the street. The jury in their mind, particularly if they're, we know the juries have been historically biased, they're gonna put in their mind what an average person would do

and what a police officer would do. And even seeing evidence, they're not gonna match it up to the jury instructions. So if the law has changed, and if you're a police officer and you do these things and you violate this, then you have now committed a crime that speaks directly to what the jurors are supposed to do to directly associate their activity with criminal behavior. So if juries in their brain are thinking that cops cannot commit a crime, no matter what they see,

the jury instructions are gonna not gonna line up in terms of criminality that they can hold a police officer accountable that's why we have to change our laws to be able to be a be specific about what is criminal about cop behavior that violates the rights of black people you know you know Mustafa, every time we do one of these stories and again, when you have these cops who are lying on these reports, this happened in La Mesa. And yeah,

thank goodness La Mesa fired him saying, and it's like, dude, you lied on the police report. Yeah, I mean, you know, any police chief who's worth anything, you know, he's going to get rid of these types of folks. Now, we know it doesn't happen everywhere, but there are some who are holding folks accountable. You know, the problem is when we go toward these criminal situations that are going on, that things don't turn out the way that we normally would assume that they would.

So the other part of it, and again, the brothers who are on the panel with me, they're practicing attorneys. I am not. You know, the other part of it is the civil suit, which I hope comes to be. And I hope that folks continue to utilize that as one of the tools in trying to make sure that justice or some form of justice actually plays out. Oh, look, I mean, it just, I keep saying line that report, you should automatically get the boot. All right, y'all, let's talk about this other lawsuit. Google

is under investigation of the California Department of Fair Employment and the Housing for Racist and Sexist Treatment Towards Black Female Workers. The civil rights agency is interviewing several black women workers and reviewing emails that may have discriminatory and harassing content. This is not the first time the tech giant has been under the fire for the mistreatment of black workers.

A leading artificial intelligence researcher claims she was fired in these last December over an email she sent in March. A group of Google employees claim when they reported racism and sexism, they were told to take a mental health leave. And so we'll let you know what happens with that. California Department of Fair Employment and Housing investigation. A group of Haitian immigrants. They're suing the Biden administration over its horrid treatment of migrants at a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas. Monday's lawsuit provides firsthand accounts for migrants who had been in the encampment and had been confronted by border patrol in september one account includes testimony from one plaintiff who says she was terrorized by officers on a horseback over 11 migrants have testified to the treatment they

endured earlier this year now um you know and this is real interesting because you know um when the biden administration um announced that they were negotiating with the ACLU over a lawsuit that was filed by a by Mexican migrants. Well, it was sure a lot of folks who were all upset and how dare they. But will those same black folks say anything and defend these Haitian migrants and them wanting to sue the federal government? Which was Dafa? I think the answer is no. I think that when it comes to Haitian brothers and sisters, we have always seen that folks have not aligned themselves in the same way that they have for others. And there's nothing wrong with folks supporting others who are dealing with these injustice situations. But we got to take care of home and our haitian brothers and sisters have been

all these natural disasters and a number of other things that um have placed them in some very precarious situations so it's time for folks to step up uh xavier i mean we the haitian community the the people of haiti have been isolated by the international community since they declared their own independence from the world, and they have been economically strapped. And we've used this whole rationale of them not seeking political asylum based on the way they're situated in the world. And it's time for us to be able to recognize our brothers and sisters that are coming there, and our country needs to be able to recognize our brothers and sisters that are coming there and our country needs to be able to give more resources to that place to be able to make sure that country is being economically viable, number one. Number two, we have to be able to stand up

for our own. Our interests are aligned across the diaspora and against things that be able to isolate them from the rest of us. And so we have to put our attention on that it wasn't just something that was the trend on social media and be gone for a day these people are still dealing with these issues that they are still ongoing we have to put the attention on it and Roland you're doing a great job we continue to put the issue on the spotlight tomorrow yeah I mean I echo what the brothers say I also want to say brother Mustafa is looking so clean with a head and a turtleneck man I gotta step my game up when i come up with him next time first of all why are you shocked he's an alpha i'm not shocked i'm not shocked i give it up to that i even like that

shirt you got you know of course of course you know you know that that that's what y'all got to do but you know i i echo what my the has already stated. We know the history of Haiti. It should mean so much to these people were able to defeat the three powerful armies in the world at the time and create their independence. And then they were specifically crushed on the economic level to the retaliation of that. Here's the thing from a legal standpoint, what I do every single day. When you come to this country, you should have an opportunity to prove if you should be here or not. That's just the standard for anybody that comes here, illegal or otherwise. They didn't get that opportunity and they were treated as

chattel slavery. We saw all the pictures of the people with the horses and looking like they were hitting them from the horses. So I hope they get an opportunity to go through the legal process. I hope they have some fantastic attorneys. I'm sure the horses. So I hope they get an opportunity to go through the legal process. I hope they have some fantastic attorneys. I'm sure they do. And I hope they get just compensation for what happened to them. Got to ask you all this here. Former Chicago Mayor Romney Manuel was confirmed to be the next ambassador to the United States for Japan.

There was a 48-21 roll call vote. Just three Democrats, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, and Jeff Merkley voted against him. Does Ronald Emanuel deserve to be representing the United States in Japan, Xavier? Now, you know, Roland, I'm from Chicago, and he was the mayor here in Chicago, and he wasn't able to run for mayor again because the city was going to run him out of here because he held and covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald by Jason Van Dyke for 13 months. And someone who does that, who I know that they ship him off the country, but it doesn't make a difference. You've disqualified yourself from being in position. And they get in the middle of the

night, Roland, when no one was paying attention and this happened and you had to be able to his connections his political standing if it was so great why'd you have to do this in the middle of the night the Mario no I think he's an accessory to murder after the fact. I mean, no question. Holding that video, which was horrendous and we all saw it, it's for him to be actually rewarded with such a wonderful ambassadorship. I mean, going to Japan is one of the best places in the world to go and be an ambassador. I'm really disappointed. I'm a fan of Senator Booker and Senator Warnoff. I was really disappointed that they voted yes to move him through because this is a person, Senator Booker, who was on the forefront of trying to get

the George Floyd Policing Act pushed through. How could he vote for someone who was the antithesis of the George Floyd Policing Act? This guy was actually literally covering up the murder of lafayette mcdonald and i'm just really disappointed to see that they voted for him still a fan of senator booker but definitely disappointing that particular vote all right folks so tight one second we come back our marketplace segment uh where we talk with a black restaurant owner uh how uh to uh continue thriving amidst uh the craziness of this international COVID pandemic. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, y'all, download the app, the Black Star Network app.

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Alright folks, with the on again, off again mask mandates, people, should they go in, indoor restaurants, sit outside? What do they do? Man, it makes for a real difficult for a lot of industries, but especially our restaurant industries. They've been having one a hell of a time since COVID hit last year.

Joining me now is Marcus Davis. He's the founder of The Breakfast Club in Houston. And so many different restaurants have been struggling. A lot have gone out of business. Many of them have been shuttering leases. And so, Marcus, let's talk. Let's talk about this. How you had to constantly deal with just the ebb and flow and the up and down mass. No mass. Can you be open, open limiting spacing all the stuff is all the problems that covet has given restaurants you know uh one of the things you have to know as an entrepreneur is that my papa used to say if you stay ready you don't have to get ready and i know

it's hard to uh to deal with covet but you have to understand that at any moment, anything can change. And the mindset that I've had since January of 2020, even as deep as December of 2019, which is something's about to happen, something very well could happen in our city, in our state, in our nation, and you've got to be ready for it. And you roll out, what I share with entrepreneurs. You roll out things as far left as possible and as far right as possible. Each scenario, each way and try and prepare yourself accordingly. So in short, to answer your question, just thinking about what the potential are, not being deceived by, you know, the days where things look like it's changing, but being prepared for what may happen tomorrow, even though I'm experiencing what I'm experiencing today. I'll give you examples. So, you know, the mask mandate is now being placed is back in place in here in D.C. But not only that, in Illinois, they're now requiring everybody to be vaccinated, even come into restaurants and bars and indoor places. We're seeing in New York City. And so now we're moving towards that. How is it for you there in Houston and how are you managing that? You got some folks

who are acting a fool, losing their mind, cussing out restaurants, saying, how dare you ask folks for vaccination cards? then you got others who are saying hell I want to be safe but I want to go out and eat so you know it you have to consider what's at stake and I know there are a lot of folks talking about Liberty and about life but those are the things that are actually at stake your very life is at stake so your loved ones life is at stake your Liberty you you have life is at stake uh your liberty you you have no liberty uh if you are no longer in the land of of the living so you have to keep that that in mind as an entrepreneur again i just pay attention to what what's happening in the marketplace i

pay attention to what uh what our customers need i pay attention to what my staff needs, and I try and operate accordingly. And that's not to say that it's not challenging. That's not to say that it's not tough. That's not to say that it's easy. You ask, what's it like? It's like deja vu. I am feeling today, as I felt in March of 2020, when they first said that the NBA would not play a basketball game. And I knew then that, oh, this thing is as real as I thought it could get. And so today I'm thinking and I've been I've been making this case for a long time, Roland, because people have been under the impression, you know, I have a couple of businesses, you know, a couple of restaurants, a bar and another concept.

And two of them i've yet to reopen and we've yet to reopen it because i had not felt particularly my bar i haven't reopened it particularly simply because i had not felt that it was time yeah other bars are open and other people people are going out to them but uh in the space that i run i didn't want to be in that space uh you know with with the virus being the way that it was so uh how do i feel i feel like we're back in march 20. it's not i can't say that it's that severe but the uncertainty and the way the entrepreneur has to stay on his tiptoes and keep his head on the swivel is back to the that date uh questions for my panel i'll start with you xavier and how are you dealing with employees and morale and maybe some of the other legal issues that you

face in terms of running your business so unfortunately i only caught the second half of what you said but i think i i get the gist. You know, with my team members, I'll start there with my employees. It's just by sharing, communicating with them that we're all in this boat together. And that's been the analogy that I've used from the start is that I am the captain of this ship, trying to steer this ship through these COVID waters and reminding my team that we're all in this ship together and we're going to make it to the shores together. We just have to everybody has to pick up their oar and they have to row in order for it to happen. And that means that we got to work a little harder, dig a little deeper, roll up our sleeves a little higher,

roll up our pants, leg a little higher, lace our boots a little tighter. And that's what we have to do as a team. Your your your your metal as a leader is definitely tested during during these times. And I'm grateful that I have a team as strong as as I do. And I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to to stand up and be the captain of the ship to get us through those times. But I'll share this with you. You know makes, uh, uh, 20 years in business. And one thing I can honestly say is that the other 19 years of being an entrepreneur helped pave the way for the moment that we're in now. You got to remember, I live, I'm in that dirty South, baby.

I'm in that third coast. So I've been through everything from hurricane Ike, uh, to hurricane Harvey, uh, to tropical storm Allison. from Hurricane Ike to Hurricane Harvey to Tropical Storm Allison and then all the stuff along the way from the Enron debacle to the 2008 crash. So as an entrepreneur, I made sure that I learned from each and every moment that we had in the life of our business and use that as a way to prepare for the next one. You mentioned legal. You mentioned a couple other things. After Hurricane Harvey, I gave speeches about the importance of making sure your books were in order, making sure that your CPA is on point, making sure that your legal counsel,

your legal representation is on point, and making sure that your insurance is up to par. Because those weren't things that I was taught in the early days of business. I learned them along the way, and i'm fortunate that i learned those lessons hey i'll jump in if there's nobody want to talk about come on jump right in, baby. I thought you were going to ask a collection play for me. I'll jump right in. Hey, man, good to talk to you. Heard about your restaurant. I got two questions. One, you know, as far as my business and my team,

we've been able to just work all remotely. We're still all working remotely. Obviously, you cannot do that as a restaurant. You know, how are you keeping your team safe from when you have these individuals that want to come to your restaurant and they don't want to, you know, do what's necessary to be safe? So how are you keeping your team safe from when you have these individuals that want to come to your restaurant and they don't want to do what's necessary to be safe. So how are you keeping your team safe? And are you dealing with any legal issues with that? If you're requiring your team to have vaccinations, et cetera. That's my first question. My second question as a proud black ball-headed former football player, vegan, I want to know when the vegan items are coming on that menu.

Never, never, never. vegan you want to know when the vegan items are coming on that on that menu so i can never never never don't talk to me don't don't don't don't let me influence you man i understand where y'all coming from but come on i i've been to the breakfast club i'm talking to the entrepreneur this is your show but it's his restaurant. Never. All right. Let me answer your first question. How am I keeping my team safe? By being who I am, by being a taskmaster.

You know, I walk around and I, you know, we, you know, put the rules in place, the regulations in place, the protocols in place. And, you know, and I let my team know that, hey, this is for all of our safety. I've got some folks who have been with me for a number of years. I've got some 10 year plus team members that are I've got some team members that are 70 and above. I've got some team members that have had pre or still have preexisting conditions. And I share that if we're going to operate as a team, then we have to operate as a team. We have to look out for each other's best interest. And that means, one, we protect each other with our mask on. And it also means that, two, we make sure that the guests are operating the way we ask for them to operate. And being a family

friendly restaurant where it's a whole lot of hugging and laughing and touching and all that kind of good stuff, it gets a little hard. And I've had to remind some of the team members, hey, we got to make sure that we stay safe because we got to be here tomorrow for these same people. And it's worked. The question about vaccination, we found out how we could get all of the things that our team needed from masks to vaccination to tests. We found out how we can get those things,

make them available for our team. And we did just that. And fortunately, we were able to get the majority, the lion's share of our team to participate. We didn't mandate it inside of the store. We asked for cooperation. And for the most part, we got cooperation. Now, with regard to the vegan question. Never. I think I froze.

Yeah, you did freeze. That was my impersonation of me of my screams freezing. Never. You know, when people freeze, they don't look so nice. You was looking so nice. I was like, what the fuck is up with that?

I tried to tell you hey i gotta i mean xavier's a vegan also i've been a vegetarian for over 25 years so i was gonna i was gonna ask you are you vegetarian or you vegan i'm vegan i've been vegan for five years okay 25 years so i had to ask you know it's a great restaurant i want to support my own businesses but i had to ask. It's a great restaurant. I want to support my own businesses, but I had to ask. Well, I got to tell you, you had five years before, I mean, you had 15 years before you went vegan. I'm just saying.

Trust me. Trust me. The lies are down around the block for the Breakfast Club. They missing your money. Well, see, That's the thing. Now that I know the brother, maybe I can get him to spin a line. Hell no. Let me just make sure we're clear

on this. I have two vegan restaurants here in Houston that I visit on a regular basis that I eat at. Love the food. Absolutely positively love the food. I want to let them do that thing. I go there and support them. And if somebody wants some direction on where to go to get a vegan breakfast, I'll

send them that way. I might even tell them to bring me something back. So I can have it on my lunch break. And originally it came because of space. Right. Because I value what veganism is supposed to be about. And I'm not one of these guys that's going to put something on the menu if I can't do it the way it's supposed to be done. In short, I'm not going to cook your – Now, we do have a – I'm not going to cook your tofu hash on the grill where I just got the bacon off of. And because we don't have the capacity, the space to do that,

then we just keep it – we just keep the bacon You know, we just keep the bacon on that. Plus, ain't nobody buying that damn tofu. Mustafa, go ahead. And I'm waiting. I'll be honest with you. I've been in this game two decades and I'm waiting. I'm waiting to see how long it lasts because just and this is respectfully right. I don't want nobody blowing me up. I've seen everything from the South Beach to Atkins and every two, three years over the last 20 years, someone has said, you need to add this to your menu. And then the next two years, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm not doing that no more. But this one seems to be a little bit more sustained. Well, that's never going to be bacon now.

I mean, I know that. Look, look, I'm going to be, hey, I'm going to keep it real. Roll with me, keep it real, I'm going to keep it real. In our first couple of years of business, people ask me, man, when are you going to get something light on there, something heart healthy? So I think around our five-year anniversary, we created this heart healthy menu, right? It had the egg whites, it had the fruit bowl, it had the grilled fish instead of the fried, you know, all of the stuff that the wheat toast with no butter the grits with no butter we had all that stuff man we made that menu did a

whole big pr campaign about it that mean you're still sitting behind my uh catfish and dust is hell and and and the one brother that kept asking me where was i go where was i gonna put it on the menu he walked in the store i said look what i did just for you he ordered exactly what was on there by the time i got to his table he had extra cheese and extra butter on everything sustained mustafa brother thank you for being the great spirit uh and their bodies at the same time my grandmother used to say that in challenging situations everyone needs a north star i'm curious, the Breakfast Club. What makes the Breakfast Club special? What makes it a North Star, especially in this moment? The people. The people is what makes it special. And I try and

make everybody aware of that and remind them of that every day. And when I say the people, people say, man, I'm glad y'all were able to stay open this long. I'm glad y'all were able to stay open during the pandemic. I'm glad y'all were able to be here for 20 years. And I tell them that I'm appreciative of you allowing, causing, empowering us in order for that to happen. When I say the people, I'm talking about my team. Miss Jackie's been with me for a decade. Miss Mary's been with me for over a decade. Miss Gail's been with me for over a decade. Christian's been with me. I mean, these are that that have helped make TBK what it is today. So when I say the people, you know, it is it is truly the people. Now, if you want my what I believe, what I share with entrepreneurs, inspiring entrepreneurs about formulas to success and and and what I what I hold us accountable for and the standard that I hold us to that that that has led to this success.

It is this simple thing, quality product, quality service all the time. That's our North Star. We believe in giving a quality product, delivering a quality product through the hands of great people and doing that as consistently as we possibly can. I challenge any entrepreneur, if you do those things, I challenge you to show me your lack of success in whatever industry there is, unless you're cussing folks out, but then that ain't great service. Those are the things that I believe have made the difference in the life of TVK. All right.

Look, I can't wait to get back to Houston to have some pancakes, grits, hard scrambled eggs, and bacon. I don't give a damn what Demario thinks. Can't wait to have you back, brother. And Demario, I don't wait in line. Hey, Demario, look, what cowboy is that in your window up there?

What is that? First of all, he's an OU fan, and he's a sorry Dallas Cowboys fan. So I used to have that. let me ask you a question correctly. Right. When you get a ring again, man, it's you got a ring. Now you're not talking down there in Houston where you want anything to take. Look, when I was when I was a fan, when I was a fan of football, when I was a fan of the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers, baby. Holler at me when you get that extra ring, right?

Only two teams in the league with six rings. Only two. But let's just say this. Rolling Stone, I'm a football, I'm an OU fan, I'm an OU former player. He's an A&M guy. Same thing. We whoop them all the time. We're still whooping them.

And the Dallas Cowboys are doing pretty good this year. Hold up. Last time A&M played OU, who won? Oh, yeah. It was A&M. In 2012? Okay. Y'all won in 20. No, no, no, no, no.

Who won? Who won? Y'all won the last time. Oh, okay. I mean, that's all that counts. I'm trying to figure out what your protest is. Man, you better go eat some bacon. Never won a championship.

The Cowboys are doing well. They are doing well. And I believe this might be the year. After 25 years, just statistically, statistically, it may be the year. I mean, come on, brother. They've sucked for 25 years. This may be the year. I mean, come on, brother. They've sucked for 25 years. This may be the year. I got my shirt in the closet.

Don't worry. They're going to suck 26 years. It ain't going to happen. I can't say that. They win one playoff game every eight years on average. I'm going to tell you right now, it ain't going to happen. DeMario, go eat a chicken sandwich. All right, that's it, y'all.

I got to bounce. Marcus Davis, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot for being part of our Marketplace segment. Brought to you by Verizon. Thanks a bunch. Xavier, Mustafa, my alpha brother, and of course, we tolerate them at Omega from Oklahoma on the show. And so we

feel sorry for them as always. So that's it. I appreciate it, gentlemen. Thanks a lot. Folks, don't forget, download the Black Star Network app, please. All platforms, Apple, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Samsung, Xbox, all of the platforms. And of course, please join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar you get goes to support this show. And you know how to do that. Cash App, RM unfiltered PayPal's are Martin unfiltered Venmo's are in my filter zeal is rolling at rolling this Martin calm rolling that role Martin filter calm. I am getting better Yes, I'm still in quarantine. I'll be in quarantine at the minimum until Saturday And so I'm improving so still got a little stuffiness in my nose, still an occasional cough, but getting stronger every single day. Cannot wait to have this COVID crap out of my body

to be back at full strength. We're also, of course, we'll be back in studio in January because we've had one of my other staffers has COVID as well. And so actually three people in addition to me have it as well. So we're, actually three people in addition to me have as well. So we're doing our part.

Y'all stay safe, please. A double mask. Wash your hands. Safe distance. Also utilize your Pirell as well. We don't look. I've gotten way too many text messages from frat brothers, from NABJ members. Stephen A. Smith said today he announced he tested positive for COVID.

There's way too many people who are tested positive. It's a major outbreak. Y'all be safe. If you're going to go home for Christmas, please protect yourself, protect your family, especially our seasoned saints. Okay, so please do that. I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Holla! Network. Thank you. this is an iHeart podcast