#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Chauvin murder trial; Amazon union vote; VA Beach shooting; NY must offer COVID Vax to prisoners

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

3.30.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Chauvin murder trial; Amazon union vote; No convictions in case of undercover officer beaten during 2017 protest; VA Beach shooting; President Joe Biden announced his first judicial nominees; NY must offer COVID Vax to prisonersSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Today is Tuesday, March 30th, 2021, and coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, another devastating day in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. We'll show you excerpts of what happened today in court and break it down with attorney Jodit Tuelde. Amazon workers are voting on whether to form a union in Alabama. Reverend Dr. William J. Barber will be here to talk about his efforts to help them make it happen. There will be no convictions in the case

of an undercover black cop beaten by his white colleagues in the 2017 protest. We'll talk with the spokesperson for the Ethical Society of Police in St. Louis about that. In Virginia, the Virginia Beach NAACP is calling for change after officers' body cam footage was not activated during a fatal shooting this weekend. Plus, President Joe Biden announced his first slate of judicial nominees, including three black women. And the judge rules that New York must offer vaccines to all prisoners immediately. Folks, we'll also talk about why it's important

for black media to get major black dollars so we can fund the black community. I'll break it down in a deconstruction. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it.

Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling he's funky fresh he's real the best you know he's rolling Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. More witnesses took the stand today in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, including a first of all, of course, he's the one charged with murdering George Floyd. Folks riveting their testimony, including a nine year old who testified in two high school seniors. Here's what took place. At some point, did you make a 911 call? That is correct.

I did call the police, on the police. All right. And why did you do that? Because I believe I witnessed a murder. All right. So if we can at this point, then play Exhibit 20. 911, what's the address of the emergency? Officer 987 killed a citizen in front of a Chicago store. He just pretty much killed this guy that wasn't resisting arrest. He had his knee on his dude's neck the whole time, Officer 987.

The man went, stopped breathing. He wasn't resisting arrest or nothing. He was already in handcuffs. They pretty much just took the dude. I don't even know if he died for sure, but he was not responsible in the ambulance. They just came and got him. And the officer that was just out here left, the one that actually just murdered the kid in front of everybody on 36th, 38th and Chicago.

Okay. Would you like to speak with the sergeant? Yeah, like, that was bogus. He was unresponsive. He wasn't resisting arrest or any of it. Okay. Let me get you over to the desk. You can request to speak with the sergeant, okay? Yeah, and I'm sitting here talking to another off-duty firefighter that can stay in Washington in front of us as well.

Okay. And she told him to check the man's pulse parks but they wouldn't even check the parks. Okay one second. I've reached the city of Minneapolis to reach someone in our property crimes division. Y'all murderers bro. Y'all murderers. You're gonna kill yourself. I already know it. Two more years you're gonna shoot yourself. Murderers, bro. Y'all niggas is murderers, bro. Can you help us start first?

Hey, it's the spectrum. Yeah, man. Hold on. I want to speak to the supervisor. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, he wants to speak with the supervisor relating to 320's cause. Cup food. When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad. I look at my brothers.

I look at my cousins, my uncles, because they are all black. I have a black father. I have a black brother. I have black friends. And I look at that, and I look at how that could have been one of them. It's been nice. I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not

doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life but it's like it's not what I should have done it's what he should have done when you walk past the squad car there did you see anything happening there on the ground as you were walking towards Cup Foods with your cousin yes I see a man on the ground and I see a cop kneeling down on him. Was there anything about the scene that you didn't want your cousin to see? Yes. And what was that? A man terrified, scared, begging for his life.

Is that why you directed your cousin to go on into Cup Foods? Yes. And then when you saw what was happening there at the scene, what was it about the scene that caused you to come back? It wasn't right. He was he was suffering.

He was in pain. Let me stop you there for just a second, Darnell. And so when you say, first of all, he, are you referring to the person you come to know as George Floyd? Yes. Did you know anything about Mr. George Floyd before May 25th? No.

Had you ever met him before? No. Ever seen him before, to 25th? No. Had you ever met him before? No. Ever seen him before to your knowledge? No. So when you came back to this scene here that we can see in exhibit 16, what did you do when you first got there

and we see where you're standing, what did you do? I pulled out my phone. And what were you doing to pull out your phone? Recording, capturing what I was seeing. So tell the jury what you observed, what you heard, when you stopped to look at what was happening there at the scene. I heard George Floyd saying, I can't breathe.

Please get off of me. I can't breathe. He cried for his mom. He was in pain. It seemed like he knew. It seemed like he knew it was over for him. He was terrified. He was suffering. This was a cry for help. Joining us right now is Attorney Yodit Tewelde. Of course, she also is with America's Most Wanted. This was an unbelievable day of testimony, Yodit. All across the board to hear these three minors testify, having to also relive that video describing what took place. But the mixed

martial arts fighter, he was asked point blank, why'd you call the cops? And he said, because I thought I felt I witnessed a murder. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the prosecution's starting really strong. They had a strong day yesterday. They're continuing to have a strong case by putting up these bystanders who in real time can show these jurors what they experienced and what they continue to experience because of that traumatic day. But I will say with the Marshall Mix expert or fact witness, that is Mr. Williams, he didn't have a great cross-examination. You could see that he was really getting frustrated, combative, defensive. It makes me actually question whether the prosecutors actually warned these witnesses that that is something to expect. But what that tape

did, that 911 call, being played for the jury, he may not have been as effective today in his testimony, but that 911 call said everything he needed to say to those jurors that he couldn't say on that stand. So still very powerful. This is, I mean, obviously it is very hard for folks to relive this and also them playing the video of different angles for us to actually see that Derek Chauvin was not the only officer putting his weight on the body of George Floyd. Yeah. Seeing these different angles and hearing people's, again, real time narration really puts things into perspective. For some of these jurors who actually said that they'd never actually seen the video in full. Some have never seen it at all. Some only saw parts of it. So this is definitely eye-opening

for them. But if you remember the 911 dispatcher, she was able to walk the jurors through this video that no one had seen in the public. It was perched up. It was a police camera that was across the street from Cup Foods. And for her to say, I thought that the video had frozen, that's how long they were on George Floyd, that she had to do something that was completely out of the norm for a 911 dispatcher, and that was to call a supervisor and say something is going on. So for her, someone who's never had police training, any type of use of force training, to know that common sense and reason tells her something is off about this video, that's what the jurors can do. This is, of course, when you talk about, again, the way the prosecutors are approaching this,

very methodical. And look, if you're a prosecutor, you want to lead with your strongest people. You don't want to sort of just, you know, meander into this. Look, they've had a strong two days and you talk about putting the defense on the defense. That certainly has been the case. Yeah. I mean, the defense is always going to have an uphill battle, but certainly in this case, because of that video. So the prosecutors, like you said, start strong. And that's what was a little confusing when they started with the 911 dispatcher. You thought that they might've started

with a family member or maybe one of those younger, minor bystanders. But I see why they did it now. She had something powerful to say. And it's the start of a chain of events from that day. But they want to play that tape as much as possible. And they're getting to do that through the bystanders who were recording from different angles. So as many times as they could start that video and stop it frame by frame and have a witness testify to what they're watching, they are ingraining in these jurors' minds what this was like on that day for not only George Floyd, but for these bystanders, too. So if I were the prosecutor, I was going to say that that is the goal.

Keep playing that video from every single angle as much as possible. The defense has nothing to contradict that. They can try and poke holes. That's what they're doing. That's their job to muddy the waters. But there is no combating that video in real time to watch what it is that's happening to George Floyd that, again, the defense said in their opening statements for the jurors to use their common sense and reasoning. When you look at that video, you don't need training to know that common sense and reasoning says that what was happening to George Floyd was absolutely

unreasonable and excessive. But on that particular point, here's the other piece, because I go back to the Rodney King trial. The defense attacked the video because it was only one angle. Well, if you look at the video in terms of the positioning, not really on his neck. No, no. In this case, you've got multiple videos, multiple angles. And so your defense, you've got to figure out if you're going to try to discredit the video, you're not going to discredit all of them from different angles as opposed to what we've seen in previous trials. But even if they try to discredit the angles, you have the actual witnesses testifying to what it is is in the video.

So what the prosecutors are doing and they should be doing this is putting on all these witnesses to also supplement what it is that they're watching. So you can't discount them, especially those younger kids, the ones that were minors at the time, the 17, the 18-year-olds, it's really hard for the defense to go on the attack and cross-examine them, right? These are people who are still suffering, who still think about that day. One of them said they can't even walk down that street anymore. It would look very bad on the part of the defense to try and attack them. It's their job, but not a good look in front of the jury. All right, then. You'll need to well, Dave. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much. We'll keep of course, we're streaming this trial every single day.

Folks can watch it on our YouTube channel, Facebook and Facebook and Twitter accounts as well to keep up with what's going on. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. I'm going to pull the panel up right now, folks. Tarun Walker, founder of Context Media, Kelly Bethea, communications strategist, Mustafa Santiago Ali, Ph.D., former senior advisor for Environmental Justice EPA, will be joined in a second by Attorney Monique Presley. I'll start with you, Mustafa. We look at, again, this testimony, very difficult for folks to have to relive this. But there are a lot of folks who certainly want to see Derek Chauvin found guilty in the murder of George Floyd. Yeah. You know, it was so raw and visceral and painful and necessary, you know, for folks to actually move into the space where George Floyd was and to understand what it felt like to know that you're losing your life and that no one was coming to your assistance.

You know, especially the folks who are in law enforcement who are supposed to protect all communities, all individuals, you know, are the ones who are doing this heinous act. So each and every one of those witnesses took us, you know, on this journey of what they were feeling. And then, of course, what George was going through. So I thought that it was powerful. You know, I've never been one who wanted to see folks who were polished. I want to know the realness of what you were experiencing and what you saw and what you felt. And translating, of course, what George was going through. So I'm looking forward to the rest of the case. And we all pray that this man is found guilty.

And then people paying attention to all the other officers who also played a role in George losing his life. The thing here, Kelly, as we as we look at how this trial is playing out, the fact that we literally are witnessing a cop on trial. I think that was also a lot different because for the most part, this never happens. And so to actually get to a trial is something that's totally different than what we're normally used to. Absolutely. I applaud Minneapolis prosecutors and the state's attorney's office for even bringing charges to the table. That is definitely a sign of times changing and actually holding officers accountable. Now that we're here, we need a conviction, right? Because from the court of public opinion,

it is pretty clear that this man committed a murder against George Floyd. But in court, they need to prove that outside of just, you know, opinion and the like. And that's what I feel the prosecution is doing right now by bringing out these witnesses, the questions that they're asking, the questions that the witnesses are answering, and the way in which they're answering them. We saw a lot of raw emotion in the courtroom today. We saw a few tears shed, a few, I think the previous attorney said, a little bit of combativeness, mainly because it is reasonable for a person to feel that way. It is reasonable to see something like that and have a visceral reaction to it, to have a strong reaction to it. It is reasonable to see an officer doing that and actually trying to do something to stop a murder from occurring. And the only person who was unreasonable that day, the only people

unreasonable that day were the cops that were on George Floyd's neck. And that is what prosecution is trying to establish here. The defense today, of course, everyone's entitled to a good defense. However, it's weak. It is incredibly weak because we have the video, because we have these eyewitnesses, because frankly, there is nothing that the defense can bring about outside of an officer being distracted unnecessarily so, mind you. That's really their only defense. And, you know, if the jury is really paying attention and leave their bias at the door, we're actually going to get a conviction. I definitely believe that. Teron, again, on that particular point here, I will not go as far as to say we're going to get a conviction, only being I just simply don't trust juries when it comes to cops being on trial. I think one good thing that's come out of this testimony that we're seeing, especially today,

is that what we're seeing is a humanizing of George Floyd. Everything that happened to him from the time that he was surrounded by those police officers to the time that he was put on the ground, and they surrounded him to put their knee, the dairy show and put his knee on his neck, it snuffed out his life, was a dehumanization of his life and his manhood. What you saw today from the emotion from the witnesses and from the pain and the tears that we saw on the witness stand, what you're seeing is the true definition of what his life could have meant. And even if they may not have known him, they saw a human life being snuffed out.

And I think that's what happens a lot of times when there's interaction between Black people and police officers. A lot of times they don't see us as full human beings, so they feel empowered to enact any kind of atrocity on us because they don't think there's going to be any kind of consequence to that. You can see that that's something that's on a continuum all the way down from the end of the Civil War, where black males were seen as like these dangerous boogeyman or these giants that needed to be brought to heel, that they needed to be cowed or they needed to be disciplined or eliminated if

they got too far out of line. So I think what you're seeing right now is that they're painting a picture for the jury that George Floyd was an actual human being and that he deserved due process and he deserved to live and his life did not deserve to be snuffed out that way. This is again, when you look at how this trial is going, a lot of people, I've been seeing the comments on social media, they're having to relive this, but folks, that's what's going to happen in trial. In a trial, you're going to have to go through this. You're going to have to watch the video over and over and over again

because of the point Yodit made. They are trying, Mustafa, to imprint that into the minds of the jurors. So no matter what the defense does when they get a chance to put their trial on, that video will be too powerful for them to overcome. Yeah, you know, we know that in these trials that we, like you said, when it actually comes to trial, that we have a very high hurdle to actually get a conviction. And that's why the humanization of George Floyd is so important. That's why these jurors having to feel that pain, you know, the pain of knowing that you're about to take your last breath and also looking and seeing how these officers, when they didn't have to continue to restrain him and hold him down and place their knee on his neck. How they are responsible for what transpired. So if we have to watch it a hundred times, and I know it's difficult. I have a difficult time watching it because I feel each and every second

of what was going through. And I know there are millions of other people who feel that also. We need to feel that pain so that we don't make the mistake that has been made so many times before when we allow officers, bad officers, to get off, to get off with a hand slap or to get off with a fine or to get off by just losing their job when somebody's lost their life. So it's important for us to watch this, to internalize it, and for the jurors to internalize it. And again, to be methodical as possible, look, what you have here, Kelly, this has been the prosecution's being led by Keith Ellison, the attorney general for the state of Minnesota. They took this out of the hands of the local D.A.

We remember what took place when Angela Corey prosecuted the case of Trayvon Martin, really screwed it up in many ways. And so that's also, I think, critically important. It's definitely important. Again, I applaud Ellison for doing that. But at the end of the day, regardless of which set of prosecutors have this case, the fact of the matter is they just need to paint a crystal clear picture of not only what happened, but a story as to why Chauvin needs to be convicted. I hear this all the time on social media. It's been on your show as well. But I have to reiterate, this is a trial about Chauvin, not a trial about Floyd. It's about Chauvin's actions to Floyd. It's not about anything that Floyd did beforehand, any rumors of what he could have done, should have done, what have you.

It's not about any of that. that on that day, Chauvin used excessive force and was acting unreasonable as an officer towards this human being. And as a result, Floyd died. That's why we're here. So, again, regardless of whether Ellison had it, local D.A. had it, we need that picture painted and we need that conviction made. The next piece, Toron, is going to be again, we'll see how long the prosecution puts on their case. Then, of course, the defense gets their chance. So let's go to Monique Presley, who is an attorney. She's been following the trial as well. Folks, is she ready? All right. Let's see if we can. OK, let's go to Monique. Monique. I'm here. All right. You've been live. You've been tweeting throughout the day of this trial. Just your assessment of what took place today on day two.

This was this was a hard day, Roland, and I've been doing this for a long time, and it did not make it any easier. I've been in trials where officers were accused of shooting and killing people, shooting them in the back, drowning them, all kinds of things on both sides of cases. And this was still just very difficult to ingest. One thing that the day started with, obviously, that many people had not heard before, though they do it often, I don't think it really came to the conscience of people. When Donald Williams, when the witness said he had to call the police on the police. I believe that that struck a chord with many because he didn't feel safe reporting the crime that he knew he saw with the officers who were present. He felt it necessary for his own protection.

And in order to have the event reported, he felt it necessary to call on the phone. What is the status of law enforcement, of criminal justice in our country, where you can watch someone be killed and have a ton of people who are supposed to be protecting and serving, who are right there in front of you. And a black man in America doesn't feel safe enough to tell any of them what he saw. who said she was focused after Mr. Floyd was taken away by the ambulance on the fact that there were people of color and Black men on the street, and she was concerned for their safety. So the very thing that that first, if we could not stage it any better if this was theater, except for this was real, this is the way that true trial attorneys set up their cases. So what the witness was saying on the front end was sandwiched at the end of the day with a separate witness who had the same concern. to whom we owe the video, to whom we owe these accounts that were eyewitness accounts from those who really don't have any axe to grind and are too young to be impure in what they're seeing.

We heard from a nine-year-old girl. And so hearing that testimony and everybody saying the same thing. Nobody is saying he was resisting. Nobody is saying he was fighting back. Nobody is saying that there was anything they could see that was a justification for the actions of the defendant on that day. The next step, obviously, is for the prosecution to continue to move forward. We had Yodit on and she talked about, again, how the prosecutors were strong in the first two days. Again, your assessment of how they are laying out this case. They're doing a textbook job of laying out the case. I heard some criticism yesterday because it didn't have fireworks, bells, whistles, things that people who expect theater may expect. You know, it's not Matlock moments, especially though when you have

the state, when you've got the prosecutors, the government presenting a case. Their job is to do so very methodically and to do it absent error. They've had the time to put forward and to plan the case that they're putting forward. They shouldn't be surprised by their own witnesses, even though, as we saw yesterday and again today, you have hesitant, recalcitrant, remorseful, emotional witnesses who are having to recall probably one of the most hideous things and horrific things that they've seen in their lives. So the prosecutors are having to do a dance. What you find and what I see them doing, which to me, again, is textbook and accurate, is

that they are putting forth their fact witnesses. And if the fact witness also happens to be someone who took a type of physical evidence to go along with it, whether it was audio, whether it was video, whether they can provide information that informs on sketches that were taken on the scene, all the different vantage points, and you see how the prosecution is laying one on top of the other, and they've got them all lined up in terms of the time and the sequence of events. So you've got them doing that. But what they're going to do after they finish with these, the experts are going to come

behind. So even though Donald Williams was able to testify basically like a martial arts expert and talk about the shimmy on the neck and talk about the way that asphyxia works and the way that when you've got pressure on both sides of the neck and it starts to restrict blood flow and that causes for other things to shut down in the body. So we got all of that from an eyewitness. When does that happen? You've got an eyewitness who's a martial arts expert. You've from an eyewitness. When does that happen? You've got an eyewitness who's a martial arts expert. You've got an eyewitness who's a firefighter, you know, who's trained EMT. You've got eyewitnesses who are young people who were in the scene. Then the real

experts are going to come behind that and say, when this witness was talking about the shimmy, here's what we can see from the physical evidence, from the examination, from the autopsy. Here's what we can see as people who are trained in the use of excessive force and why it violated excessive force. So it's gonna be a progression. There's a reason that they haven't put up any of the law enforcement fact witnesses yet.

They're gonna come next. That's like the next stage. And then after that, you're going to have the experts. And the reason why they wait is because experts are allowed to stay in the courtroom the entire time and observe everything. They listen to the prosecution. They listen to the cross-examination. And then they're called because they can be asked to comment on what prior witnesses have said. So it's very important that even if you've got the best use-of-force expert in the world, you're not going to put him up first before you know what the firefighter said, what the nine-year-old girl said, what the 17-year-old girl said, what all of these people said. And forgive me, I don't have all of their names. I'm not looking at my notes. I'm just going by memory. But these humans who in very real time showed what community looks like when they all were joined together witnessing this horrifying event.

All right. Well, Nick Presley, attorney, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, the votes are in and the countdown is underway. It could take up to several days or weeks for workers at Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama warehouse to find out if they'll become the company's first unionized workforce in America. retail, wholesale and department store union. Months of protesting, unfair working conditions and Amazon's poor COVID response have culminated into this moment. A historic vote that could have major implications for the e-commerce giant moving forward. There have been a, again, as I said, a number of protests taking place all across, all across West Virginia. There have been activists, members of Congress going down. They're standing with union workers there again, speaking to the issues. That's one of the things. And so, in fact, I'm going to play for you again. Here's a video here of of the folks with with

Perfect Union U.S. addressing this very, very issue. Workers feel like they're in prison. When you are going to work every day with a heavy police presence, I think it absolutely levels this fear of what could happen. Again, it shows the way in which anti-union forces get all involved with local political forces. The best of the police officers have been here on scene since day one. We feel like we've been harassed.

We had cops tell us that we couldn't step off the sidewalk. When we're on the gates, the police ride around to our checkpoints. I mean, they're in the parking lot at all times. From the second you pull up, like, that main entrance, they're generally right there, lights flashing, anywhere from four to five SUVs, like, at all times. They're up by the main front entrance. They are walking around the parking lot, oftentimes walking around the facility. They're called for really like the most mild like disturbances, almost as if they're like security in a way. But they're in marked Bessemer police cars. Some of the officers, they have reported to us that they are there to keep an eye on us. They sit right here at the front gate and they sit there and watches us the whole time we're here. We had one of our organizers that here at the front gate, and they sit there and watch us the whole time we're here.

We had one of our organizers that was working the front gate. The police officer told him that they need a count of every time that we are down here. They had two African-American officers from the Bessemer Police Department. Now, they claim this is private property, but they got public police on site who are enforcing some kind of private rule.

I asked them, was it a law? They said no. Is this normal to have city police marked cars patrolling a private property like this? And I think the answer is no, it's not normal. We're not used to seeing anything like it. Joining us right now is Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, president and, of course, senior lecturer for the repairs of the breach. He has been, of course, down to Alabama to support those Amazon workers, as you saw in that video. Reverend Barber, what exactly has been the response that you've gotten or heard from Jeff Bezos or the folks with Amazon with regards to this effort to unionize?

Well, you know, Jeff Bezos is an interesting character. And we've got to be, just say that like that. You know, he made $180 billion last year, about $60 billion more than he made the previous year. And, you know, he has come out and said he's for $15 an hour and he pays his workers 15. But what he doesn't tell you is that warehouse workers, right near his own plant that are unionized, start at $18, some of them at $21 an hour. When we were down there, after we finished, they actually had an African American woman come on, represent the company, and they coached her evidently to say, I don't deserve this much. I'm just an unskilled worker. But you have people working in ice cream factories or processing factories just down the street

that make more money than he does. And in addition to that, you know, Bezos came out about he was given $10 million to say he was for Black Lives Matter. He listed NAACP, Urban League, several other groups. He deliberately did that. He actually puts that stuff inside the plant to say that he's for black lives. We don't know how much money he's given also. And some terms of he may have been given out also. So stocks to this organization.

But be that as it may, that plant has fit 6,000 people. The best of 6,000 is 5,500 black workers rolling. And the question is, does he care about the black lives in his plant? Because they can be fired at will. The black lives in his plant, 20,000 people in Amazon warehouses got sick during COVID. Many died. In his plant, they only get 15 minutes every six hours to go use the bathroom. In his plant, right

after he did a big press conference about his chunk change that he gave to a few Black organizations, he cut the hazard pay, $2 hazard pay of the workers and increased their hours. So he's an interesting

person to say the least. And when I was there, for instance, they do have police, but they have African American policemen, city police, on the property that basically serve as an intimidation to the workers.

All of this is because the southern aristocracy, the ruling caste like Bezos, the thing they fear the most is unionization in the South. You know, Alabama is the most unionized southern state, and at one time had some of the most powerful unions in Birmingham to steal workers and so forth and so on. And the great fear is that union rights and voting rights and economic justice rights will all be connected and bring people together over against color and class and geography, the things that have been used to deliberately segregate and separate people. This is a serious fight, Erland.

This is, in a sense, the economic Selma, the way this goes, not just when they finish this count, but after they finish the count. These folk have already won, whether they win the vote or not, and they're eventually going to win the vote. But this is huge because it could be a major rippling effect across the South. And if we ever figure out that voting rights is both an economic issue and a race issue and that labor rights is both a race issue and an economic issue, and we build coalitions around that, we will find out that the South is really not conservative. It's just unorganized and deliberately divided. I'm going to address this

later when I'm talking about why we and black owned media is going after General Motors and every other major company when it comes to media spend. Because, Reverend Barber, when we talk about social justice, but then we don't really confront economic social justice. And see, what has happened is these companies, what they've done is, and I will use this word for a very precise reason, what they've done is pimp black folks in that they will make donations to the NAACP, to the NAACP LDF, to the Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. They'll make donations to the National Urban League.

They'll make it to churches. But if you actually add up, if you add up how much those 5,500 workers would get per hour, times per day, times per week, you will see that that small, that spare change that black groups are getting. And so what we're saying is, hey, we don't need y'all cutting social justice checks to black folks.

If you fund black people, if you pay black people, if you don't screw over black owned media, if you use black law firms and black accounting firms and black catering firms and black transportation companies, then we could literally fund our own organizations. Yeah. And this money comes at an attempt to mute the voice. I said investment. Every group that he's given $10 million, and it was $10 million. That's nothing to somebody that has $180 billion in one year. But $10 million and said because he was concerned about black lives and he didn't care if he lost customers. Well, then everybody ought to take that money and say,

either you change the way you're cheating these word employers, but we're going to give it back to you and we're going to fight you because you cannot do that. And then inside the union, inside the warehouse and inside the organization, Roland, he's running, he's putting it on his website and on his and in emails. Look at what I did for black folk as a way of saying, you don't need a union. You don't need a contract. You just need to trust me. I was on the call yesterday with our rep. I hope you have no historian.

Kelly, his name is Kelly. And he was telling the story of how because of the power of black and white folk coming together in the union movement, years ago he said that the corporate southern aristocracy went after the unions and called them communists and got some black civil rights organizations to also join and call them communists. One of them was NAACP in Alabama. And then the next year turned around and out of them was NAACP in Alabama. And then the next year turned around and outlawed the NAACP. In other words, these folk are playing checkers. They're chess. They ain't playing checkers. You got to check. Bezos is probably also funding Alec at a higher rate.

Where is his voice? Where is his voice in these other issues? So you've got to look at the people. And if you really want to help black people, pay us a living wage. Give us contract guarantee our health care. There was a young lady that testified at our rally. She caught COVID. One of 20,000 people that caught COVID. And her doctor said she needed four weeks. Now, he claims he cares about black lives. She's a black woman. They gave her two weeks and said, you have to find a rest on your own.

We can't be muted on these issues. And that's why, you know, you heard me say, Roland, everybody's talking about race now with the voter suppression. And we should. Part of voter suppression is race. Part of it is class. Part of it is geographical, because some of the bills they're putting out in Georgia, three women, joined in stopping $15 minimum wage, which would have lifted 45 percent of black workers out of poverty and low wage if it had stayed in the COVID relief bill. That was a form of racism, classism, and elitism. And so what I love about you, Roland, we got to raise these issues. And we

aren't the only ones. I know some folk are going to get mad with us. That's all right. Because Dr. King, 56 years ago this past Thursday, stood on the steps of the Alabama Statehouse and said the battle to suppress the vote and the battle to suppress the vote and the battle to

suppress labor rights and the fear of white and black masses joining one another has been a tactic used by the southern white aristocracy to hold on to their money and to block economic justice.

That's what Dr. King said 56 years ago last Thursday, standing on the step of the Alabama Statehouse, and here we are again in Bessemer, Alabama. See, Doc, the thing that I sort of walk people through, there are, and I got people who hit me up and they're constantly like, but no, reparations is the most important thing. And this is what I keep saying.

To get Congress to do that, you need 218 in the House. You need 60 in the Senate. You need a president to sign it. If he vetoes it, you need two thirds in the House. Two thirds in the House, you need 60 in the Senate, you need a president to sign it. If he vetoes it, you need two-thirds in the House, two-thirds in the Senate. What I'm saying is there is

money sitting right in front of you that does not require congressional action. Now, I understand that argument in terms of Congress makes the move. It's going all right. This is what I'm saying right now.

We're out here spending trillions of dollars. We are setting the trends. You got black folks out here creating tick tock dances that white girls are then copying badly. And then all of a sudden we look up and they own the Jimmy Fallon show and they're getting signed up to multi-million dollar endorsement deals by companies. What I'm saying, this is where we go to corporate America, the publicly traded companies and the private ones. And and who say we ain't waiting for y'all to hit to get to your goals over five years. Get you can get to your goals next week. You can get to your goals right now.

And so the demand has to be there. The pressure has to be there. And folks got to be willing to go there and folk got to be willing and not to be like because The pressure has to be there. And folk just got to be willing to go there. And folk got to be willing not to be like. Look, I've already heard it. Fox News not going to call me. Hell, MSNBC not going to call me. It's some black civil rights people wanting to come on my show.

Because, you know, Roland, he likes strong black coffee. Well, guess what? Damn sugar, damn cream. Sometimes it has to be strong and black. That's right. And you know what? Strong and black would also draw strong white that will address systemic racism and poverty because they understand the intersections. And you're right. This filibuster issue, we don't even need 60. We could go to 51. But you've got to have the pressure, right, to make that happen. And these corporations, we shouldn't allow any corporation to claim that they love black lives

and they don't have people that are under union contracts and sharing in the profits and guaranteeing health care and guarantee living wages you know that's like allowing a i remember back in the day we used to have these banquets nwsp and other groups have banquets and somebody who was anti everything we stood for could buy an ad and then we'd ask them to stand up during the banquet and say something. Uh-uh. Right. That's what my deal is. You got to have a race equity index. If you are going to come, oh, you want a

table? I want to know who's on your board. I want to know your senior management. I want to know, do you put money in black banks? I want to know what's your black supplier diversity. I want to know all of that because if you ain't doing all of that,

you can't come by the table and then pick up some of the cheap award. No, you can't do that. And let me tell you, when I got to Bessemer, and I'm not ragging, I'm just telling you what folk, they asked me, you know,

why is it that folk are being so easy on Bezos? Why are they allowing him to run on his website and put inside of his plant that he loves black lives and list the organization he's giving money to while we are down here struggling and dying and getting sick, every one of those 5,500 black folk that are in that Bessemer plant, Roland, they work at will. They can be fired at will. No just cause. There's nowhere in the world Bessemer can say for $10 million, or that matter, $100 million, because even $100 million to $189 billion is nothing. No way you can take $10 million, divvy it out over a few fold and say, this shows I support Black lives. Black lives need union contracts. Black lives need full living wages. Black lives

need universal health care. Black lives need to make sure that they have the kind of response inside of the warehouses. They tell us the problems they have with even going to human relations. They also share with us, Roland, one lady shared that when they're in a class, you know, the company is required to do certain education on unions. So they'll have a class on unions and teach the wrong information. And then when one of the workers said, that's the wrong information, we know better, they call them in front of the class and take a picture of them and their ID card as a form of intimidation. You don't get to pay a little bit of chump change and do that kind of stuff to black people, brown people, white people, whoever they are, anybody that's truly committed to justice and truly committed to a just society for everybody. So in a real sense, this battle right now for voting rights and this battle for union rights in the South,

this is our economic settlement. And, you know, a lot of people are saying we ought to go to the corporations and challenge them on voting rights. Well, some folks may not be able to go to the corporations because they've already gone to the corporations before this fight. Right.

So you can't talk about the corporations pulling money out of Georgia. If the corporations are putting money in the organization, they're fighting against the supposed to be standing in voter suppression. Come on. We got to be honest about this. We got to be honest. And the workers are saying that this is not me. I'm telling you, when we got the best of this, these were the questions the workers were asking. That's why I'm so thankful to see that you got down to Bessemer, you have UFCW, you have the retail union, Black Lives Matters down there. You have some of the other strong white coalitions and Latino coalitions that are coming together in Bessemer and sending a signal across the South that it's on, baby. This is why, Reverend, you and I talk about all the time and I preach it constantly.

You can't just talk about it. You can't just release press releases. You can't just release empty statements. You can't just release empty statements. You have to organize, mobilize, period. Period. Period. That's the only thing. That's the only thing. And you got to keep it connected, y'all. You can't just holler racism on voter suppression and you don't holler it on economic injustice. It's both and. It's not either or. Somebody asked me one day, is it race or class? You know what my answer is? It is. That's the answer. It is. It's not either or. It's both and. It's never been either or. Jim Crow is the father of race. Systemic racism is the father of race. And the original goal of systemic racism was to split black and white, low and wealth income people who were joining together to stand against the systems of slavery and stand against white aristocracy and the ruling class. And we can never forget that. You cannot reduce

racism underneath an economic critique, but you cannot have a true race critique and not have an economic justice critique. It is. They both go together. They're not separate. All right. Reverend Dr. Barber, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Dr. I'm going to go to a break. When we come back, I'm going to talk more about, again, what happens when we demand our dollars. What happens when we push hard to ensure what happens. What happens when we say, no, no, no, we can fund this. What happens when we use our collective power? And what I'm going to do, folks, I'm going to walk you through and connect the dots. Because I think what is happening here is that too many of us are not quite understanding when those of us are saying enough is enough.

So I'll unpack that and have our panel weigh in when we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power. And this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Seven days a week. No days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit. And it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing

up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose

between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage.

We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. And $15 a minimum anyone should be making making to be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need $15 right now.

Your work keeps the community safe. But what keeps you safe at work? People in public service face unique dangers, and we need the right training, resources, and staffing to stay safe. But how do we make sure we have what we need to stay safe on the job? We join a union. Union members negotiate for the resources we need to keep us safe at work and protections if we're injured on the job. Union members are better trained and better protected. Job safety. That's the work you do is important. A lot of people depend on you and you deserve respect. Respect includes making a

decent wage that reflects how hard you work for your community. So what's the best way to make sure you get the pay you deserve? Join a union. Union members are paid more than people with similar jobs who aren't in unions. For women and people of color, the union difference is even greater. The respect you deserve, the pay you've earned. That's the union difference. The work you do is important. A lot of people depend on you, and you deserve respect. Respect includes making a decent wage that reflects how hard you work for your community. So what's the best way to make sure you get the pay you deserve?

Join a union. Union members are paid more than people with similar jobs who aren't in unions. For women and people of color, the union difference is even greater. The respect you deserve, the pay you've earned. That's the union difference. Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shantae Moore. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

I'm being frozen out. Facing an extinction level of battle. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks. So I got tired of sitting down. So I said, you know what? I'm going to sit here and stand up for this one. So let me unpack this, okay?

Let me unpack this if you can. We're talking about money. We're talking about money. And the segment's called Where's Our Money? And so you heard Reverend Barbara and I talking about this, where I was talking about this whole idea of what is it that we can fund ourselves? Now, earlier, my boy Dave came in and gave me a haircut. And Dave popped by. I paid Dave his 30 bucks. So we're very good at funding hairstyles.

We're very good at funding when we go into the beauty salon. We're very good at all those different things. But when we start talking about how do we make demands when we're already spending dollars, it's amazing how black folk get real uncomfortable. Like black people get real uncomfortable. I can't tell y'all how many times I've had black people say, oh, you know, I don't, you know, Roland real militant, you know, he, he, he real aggressive with that thing. You know, uh, sometimes you just, you gotta make white folk feel comfortable. And so when, when Byron Allen took out this ad, uh, in the Detroit free press is also going to run in the wall street journal. And when we, um, had the meeting with General Motors.

And let me be real clear. This ain't a General Motors thing. We meeting with everybody. See, in media alone, we're not getting our money. We're not getting the money that we deserve as black-owned media from pharmaceuticals. We're not getting from the automotive sector. We're not getting, we're not getting it from all of the sectors. See when y'all heard me say, when y'all

heard me say, y'all heard me say to Reverend Barber, I want to know black construction companies, black catering companies, black transportation companies, all of that. See, I'm no distance.

And look, I am fully supportive of black people on corporate boards. But if your ass black and you are on a corporate board of directors and you are a black CEO, I need to know how you change the game. Not you getting money, not you creating wealth just for your family. I need to know how is it that you as a black CEO, as a black COO, as a black CTO, as a black CIO, as a black senior vice president,

as a black board member, how are you changing the game? Not just for you. How are we challenging America where the money is being spent right now? Had a brother say, man, you always dog reparations movement. No, I'm not. What I'm saying to you is that there is money literally being spent right now. And we are not saying where's our fair share.

White House announced $500 million going to states for COVID vaccine awareness. You should be asking in North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Illinois. I could go on and on and on. How is that money going to be spent? Will it be spent with black vendors? Will it be? Y'all did not hear me say black organizations. What we have done in black America. Is we have allowed this entire infrastructure to seed black organizations and they have gotten a pittance of what

we should be getting. Y'all heard Reverend Barbara say, we let folk come in and buy tables at our event. How much is the table? How much is the table? $1,000? $5,000? That's it?

Do you understand if a corporation is in a position to give is in a position to give in a position to give contracts that are worth 10, 20, 30,

40, 50, 100, 200, 500 million dollars the same black organizations can buy their own damn table. Do y'all see what I'm talking about here? All of these companies, all of

these companies are sitting here. Oh, we gonna give this money and we gonna give this money to this black group. But are you going to fund any black companies? General Motors announced a $10 million initiative to support social justice.

Listen to me, y'all. $10 million. And they said, they said, we're going to give, we're going to give a million to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A million. A million. But if they were funding black media institutions properly, hell, we can give the million. Let me sort of unpack this for y'all.

Let me unpack this for y'all. See, I had to stand up on this one. I couldn't sit down on this one. And panel, I'm coming to y'all because you got Mustafa who's dealing with environmental justice. You got to run with

context media. You got Kelly Stradges. When you start funding properly black companies, then we're not sitting here. Y'all tripping on some BS donation. We can't continue. Oh, we've set goals of 5%.

We've set a goal of 8%. That's it? That's it. General Motors. Black people. 11.4% market share. Dollars you spend on advertising with black-owned media should match your market share. Go down the line to every corporation in this country.

At some point, y'all, we got to recognize game recognizing game. Don't you understand what it would be like if black folks, we can say no, no. We can fund our own groups. we can fund our own groups. We can fund our own groups. We good. We can fund our own groups. I love golf. I love golf. I love golf. I love golf. Imagine if the proper dollars are coming to Roland Martin Unfiltered,

New Vision Media. Then I decide to say, you know what? I'm going to buy an outfitted, customized van for 10 HBCU golf teams. Y'all, I'm just putting... No, no, no. We don't have to... General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Mercedes. Could y'all please... Could y'all please, could y'all please, please donate, could y'all please donate a vehicle, could y'all donate a vehicle to this one HBCU?

And we'll take a picture and we'll put it out there and we'll show everybody and we'll praise y'all. We'll give you all the credit in the world. Cause y'all gave us one van. No. If y'all spending $3 billion annually on advertising, and if you give black on, if black on me, it deservedly gets two to 300 million of that money every single year,

we can buy the damn van ourselves. Folks, what we are doing is we are literally giving away Our hard earned capital and loyalty to brands for nothing. And what I'm saying is when you hear me talk about this third reconstruction, This notion of economic social justice is we send forth the word to every corporation in every single sector. We are coming and we are coming to get what is ours. And we are going to use our voices, whether there's a legal strategy to sue you and your ad agencies, whether we're going to call you out by name in newspapers and magazines

and on websites, on digital shows, on radio, in every single form. Because we simply cannot wait. Y'all look, I'm 52. I'll be 53 in November. No day is promised for any of us. And you can't take it with you. The question is what you're going to do with it while you got it. And so imagine.

Just I want you just imagine. Imagine. If all of a sudden. Let's just say five billion dollars in media spending goes to black owned media because of what we're doing. Let's just say five billion. Let's say this show then got five percent of the five billion annually. I'm just doing some basic math. Y'all, that's 50 million every year. That's just 5%. 5 billion. 10% of 5 billion is 500 million.

10% of 500 million is 50 million. Imagine then I'm just throwing this out. Imagine then if we said we're going to take 55 million of the $50 million we get every year, and every year we are going to seed and fund a school of communications that already exists, but to bolster the program, to create the next generation of Roland Martins and folk who work for me and producers and writers

and directors and camera operators. You all see how this changes the game? I need us to understand that black people, and Toronto, I'm going to come to you first, black people, we have been playing ourselves small. We have been going to people, hat in hand, asking them for pennies on the dollar when we have been providing far more value to them.

And imagine if we'd say this, not just to corporate America, but to the federal government, to the state governments, to the county governments, to the city governments, to the school boards, that no longer are we going to accept the pennies that you have been offering. We are here to do as Dr. King said. We are here to cash a check that was sent back to us, stamped insufficient funds. No.

Now what we are saying is we see the money sitting right there in the vault. You ain't sending us a check. You can cash app it, PayPal it, Venmo it, Zelle, however you want to send it to us, but we are not going to play ourselves small. Folk, that's where we are right now. And if we learn the lesson of operating collectively and stop being in silos and stop taking pennies, we could have a media company that's the size of CNN and Fox News and Univision. We can have a construction company that's the size of the major construction companies, Turner.

We could have PR companies that are as big as Sunshine and Saks and Lippin Group and all those different groups. I am sick and tired of saying that there are two points pre-COVID, there are 2.6 million black-owned businesses and 2.5 million only have one employee to an average revenue of $54,000. The time for us to stop playing small ball is over. It's time for us to play grown folk major league ball. And it ain't going to happen if we have a bunch of scared Negroes who are so scared, I want to ask for a lot. No.

It's time for us to stop playing ourselves small. Teron, I'll start with you. And to address an elephant in the room that people aren't really talking about, we as black people, as black entrepreneurs and as black media people, we get caught up in this idea of individualism over collectivism. Ever since 1964, one of the cons of that civil rights bill was that it kind of took away some of the energy that Black people had when they traded with each other, when they didn't have a choice. It also took away some of the idea of community that we had. From Jim Crow up until the 1960s, we had Black-owned newspapers, we had Black-owned record labels, we had Black-owned radio. And there was an infrastructure where people who had a talent could take their writing gifts or their speaking gifts or their musical gifts, and they could create an infrastructure that would feed them and feed

their communities and feed their families all the way down to grocery stores and land. What we have now is people who are so obsessed with going into white corporate America, going into larger corporate America, going into larger corporate America, making a name for themselves and not caring about bringing anything back for their community. That's very much a fracture that has to be repaired. And that has to start psychologically first before it starts anywhere else. We have to get out of this idea that we're all in these individual little cults and I

got mine and everybody else has to get it the way they get it and start thinking collectively. That's going to have to be the first thing. The second thing is something that you alluded to and that Reverend Barbara alluded to is that we have to start making distinctions between executives, between black executives and executives who are black, because you can be a black executive and not really be concerned about the well-being of your people outside of your own paycheck. Someone who's a black executive and not really be concerned about the well-being of your people outside of your own paycheck. Someone who's a black executive, someone who's an executive who is black is thinking about what can he do to benefit his collective? What can he impart on people who may not be where he or she is? What wisdom can you take from corporate America, bring back to your community,

build a new generation of people to follow you, to take out of corporate America and build our own infrastructure and build our own businesses. I think that's what's going to have to happen. And I think until we realize that we're going to have to think collectively instead of individually, we're going to keep going in the circle where we keep going back and begging for corporations to pass money to donate, give donations to organizations that may or may not trickle down to the people who really need them, you know, to put up vanity projects to make it look like they're really concerned about black lives when none of that information and none of that knowledge or none of that pipeline goes to feed people who may be talented but may not have the resources. That has to start with us. Kelly, we can either

receive checks or we can write checks. No, I definitely agree with what's been said so far. One thing that I do want to point out, at the beginning of what you were talking about, you were saying about these Black C-suite leaders who are in a position to actually do something regarding bringing more money to the communities, regarding uplifting us as people. And like Terrain said, it's a matter of whether you are a Black executive or executive who is Black. But something else that needs to be taken into consideration is the lack of trust between those who are in these possessions and the community at large, meaning when something goes down, when shit hits the fan, so to speak? Do these C-suite leaders trust us, the general public, the consumer, to have their back? Meaning, if they resign or if they quit or if they get fired, do they trust us enough to boycott? Do they trust us enough to support them in their plight to help us? I feel like as we have come into this individualistic society of, you know, me, me, me, have to put myself out there first because no one else has my back.

We have this lack of trust within our community such that we don't pour into each other the way that, you know, my parents did, my grandparents did. We don't trust our own businesses to help each other. So that's definitely something that we need to take into consideration when we have these conversations. The cost-benefit analysis of self-preservation, especially when you're in a C-suite definitely needs to be taken in consideration because right now these C-suite leaders are saying, hey, it makes more sense for me not to say anything because I don't know if my community is going to have my back. Got it. I'm sorry? I said got it. Yeah. And my second point was about whether we even trust ourselves with our craft and with our worth. You know, we did. I remember last year we did like the blackout on Instagram and everybody had a black tile. But it needs to be more than that. Going back to my point about boycotting and supporting and making sure that the change that we seek is something that we are creating.

It's more than just a social media post. It's more than just marching out on the street. You have to talk with your dollars. You have to talk with yourself. But that's what I'm saying. Mobilizing, organizing. And you have to trust each other in order to do that. Mobilizing, organizing. You mobilize and organize your dollars. Mustafa. Well, C Street leaders, you know, they have a responsibility for making sure that they stay connected to what's going on, you know, in the streets and with other individuals. And just let me say this, because, you know, I've been having this conversation with folks for a while now, Roland.

I'm glad you're bringing this up because we're at a transformational moment. You know, let's look at it on the federal government side. You got two trillion dollars that the current administration says is going to flow out. You got two to four4 trillion around infrastructure. We should be making sure that our folks are positioned to be able to make sure that they're taking advantage of that. And there has to be accountability in the process from our current administration to make sure that for once

we're actually building wealth inside of the various businesses that should have a level playing field. And we know that that's not the case because when we look at federal contracting, and I know a lot about that, there's a small percentage that makes it to African-American communities, to Latinx communities, and indigenous communities. And then if we flip it and look on the corporate side, so we had a conversation around Amazon. So we know that this past year they made $386, $387 billion. Bezos, he's worth $180 billion. You got folks like Tesla, and you got the leadership there, $155 billion. You got Bill Gates, another $155, $156 billion.

With all that being said, there are opportunities if, one, we put the right pressures and build the accountability in, both on the federal side and on the corporate side, that you could actually build real wealth inside of our community. But we have to ask the question, one, do others want us to build wealth? And then, two, are we comfortable enough with our own selves to be ready to do what's necessary to make that become a reality? I hope the answer is yes. And the answer is yes. If we know all these dollars are flowing, then those big organizations should be helping to make sure that folks have the capacity and that the training is there and the mentoring is there

for all the various businesses that are out there. Roland, I know you do work in that space, but we don't have enough folks who are saying, I see what this horizon looks like. And I'm willing to invest some of my time to make sure that other brothers and sisters are able to benefit. It's all about capacity. That's what it boils down to. Folks, we're going to continue driving this point home, getting our people to understand. You've got to understand economic social justice. We're still dealing with the craziness when it comes to what happens in these cases. We talked about the Derek Chauvin case. This is now going to a jury. Well, in St. Louis, my God, the jury, the federal jury in the case of three white cops accused of beating a colleague, a black colleague working undercover as a protester in 2017 returned a partial verdict

yesterday, ruling two mistrials and declaring one of the officers not guilty of all charges. They deliberated for two days before finding St. Louis police officer Stephen Corte not guilty in all counts. Former cop Chris Myers was found not guilty on a civil rights charge and the jury did not reach a verdict on a charge of destruction of evidence. The jury jury did not reach a verdict on a charge of destruction of evidence. The jury also did not reach a verdict on the civil rights charge against former officer Dustin Boone. Well, what the hell? Joining us now is Heather Taylor, spokesperson for the Ethical Society of Police. Heather, glad to have you back on Roller Mart Unfiltered. Thank you for having me. This brother beaten, city settles for $5 million. So is this jury trying to tell us that no, did he just beat himself? Exactly. Exactly. The, the arguments that, you know,

he didn't have his hands up. He was running, you know, just the typical arguments that come whenever it's a black victim. In this case, it just happens to be a black officer. The way the defense argued was that, you know, essentially beat himself, and so did the officers who testified. I've never seen so many officers lying in one hearing and one trial in my life. It was just utterly disgusting. Christopher Myers is the brother who was beaten, and he has described the injuries. Folks, see the photo here. This is not just a busted lip, folks. Show the photo, please. This is not just a busted lip. I mean, he has suffered significant spinal injuries and other damage as well. And these three white cops get off.

They get off for almost killing this brother, a fellow police officer. Yeah, our lives, you know, we're still black when it's all said and done. You know, Luther Hall is black. This is a white, predominantly white jury. And we saw that we've seen this all across the country. This is where a microcosm of what happens all around the nation, even when it's a black officer. We're still black. And there are two different criminal justice systems, one that's black and one that's for everyone else. What do you make of Cortez lawyer saying, quote, that he's ecstatic and that he can now return to the St. Louis Police Department if he so chooses? There's no way in hell I will want this cop on the force. But we also know about the racism in the St. Louis Police Department. Yeah, yeah. It's scary. The community should be afraid. Officers within that department should

be afraid. And if this guy comes back, the tone that it sets, there is no way that the police department can recover from that community. They should be outraged. Other officers should be outraged about that. Y'all have laid out in a significant way the history of this department and the kind of racism that has existed. And let folks know what we're talking about, how deep this is. Yeah, we've been dealing with this forever. 90 days before Luther Hall was brutally beaten by several white officers, Officer Milton Green was shot by a white officer. That white officer was never charged. He was allowed to resign.

He wasn't allowed to resign because he shot Milton Green. It was for another charge. He's then hired at another police department. We have written reports. We've co-authored, I've co-authored a 112-page report about systemic racism, corruption in 2016, co-authored another one in 2020 that was 60 pages that outlined systemic racism, corruption, you name it. And, you know, it's a fight. It's been a fight my 20-year career that I was there, and it continues to be a fight. And I don't know what really can change it except for top-to-bottom review and removal of a lot of commanders and a lot of people that are within that police department that have no business there. You've had black police chiefs and they've been run away. They've been run off. So, of course, you've got a mayoral race going on

right now. Tashara Jones is running. There's a final debate tonight between both candidates. The election is April 6th. Is that what it's going to take? A change in leadership at the top? How does it change? Yeah, we endorsed Tashara Jones. Ethical Society of Police endorsed her because we know it's going to take someone that really understands this community, that's from this community. She's going to have to put someone in place as a chief. We have a black chief now. We still have the same problems. We have to have someone who's a nice guy, but we need somebody that's a leader that's going to put their foot in someone's backside when they're wrong. You got to fire these people. We can't talk about training. You cannot train away racism. You cannot train away rapists. We have rapists in racism. We have misogyny. You name it.

You can't train those things away. You have to fire them. And you have to do a better job of hiring these people instead of allowing these fools to run rampant with a badge and a gun. It is certainly disheartening that those three essentially are walking free, viciously beating this brother, a fellow cop. Heather Taylor, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you, too, always. Folks, the Virginia Beach branch of the NAACP are calling for a citizen's review board with full investigative and subpoena powers after the deadly oceanfront shootings that took place on Friday. The shootings took the lives of Donovan Lynch and DeShayla Harris. The police chief revealed that the officer who fatally shot Lynch

had a body camera that was not activated at the time. The NAACP attended a special session with the city regarding the shooting this afternoon. And joining us now is Dr. Karen Hills-Pruton, president of the Virginia Beach NAACP. I'm glad to have you on the show here, Karen. Look, I have said this repeatedly. I fundamentally believe if you're a cop with a body camera and you do not turn it on, you should automatically be fired. Certainly agree with that. What explanation was given?

Like, I don't understand. What's the point of wearing a body camera if you're going to turn it off? Absolutely. I certainly agree with that. That's a $5.5 million investment for the city. Those are the questions that we have for the city ourselves. Had a recent meeting on today where the chief of police explained more, but didn't share much of anything because now he's turned the investigation

over to the state police. But right now, no explanation given as to why the body-worn camera was not turned on. So in the case of Donovan, how did he get shot? Well, don't know. There were three separate shootings down at the oceanfront on Friday, March the 26th. I mean, we don't have the specifics of what happened between the exchange between Donovan and the officer. That was one of the incidents that happened down at the oceanfront. There were two other incidents.

One, three people were arrested as a result of the one where multiple shots were fired. And then a second incident where an individual, Deshaela Harris, who's deceased now, my condolences to her family. She was hit by one of the bullets from the first incident. And then we have this situation of this interaction between Donovan, Mr. Lynch, and an officer, which we don't know much because Donovan is not here to tell us. And of course, the officer information has not been released yet. This is it is certainly troubling what took place this weekend. Young man, entrepreneur, someone's story, first cousin to a singer for Pharrell, who's there from Virginia Beach. And again, the switching of stores is also a problem when it comes to these police officers, because there were several stories being told Friday and Saturday. And so have y'all gotten actually a straight answer as to what exactly

what went on? No, not a straight answer as to what exactly went on. There was a press conference on Saturday where there was a sharing by the police chief that there was a gun in the vicinity. That's how he described it, as a gun in the vicinity. And he just left that statement there with the public. I guess that was a way for him to kind of change the trajectory of how Mr. Lynch may have been viewed in the situation.

But what he failed to explain to the general public, which he has access to, is that Mr. Lynch was a legally gun-permitted individual. And so if there was a gun found in the vicinity, then he was a legal gun owner. So what are you saying when you say that? I mean, again— And Virginia's an open-carrier state. So basically we're saying if you're white and you're open-carrier, cool, but if you're

black—and in fact, the family's said that he was approaching an officer to say hello, who he went to high school with, and he ends up dead. I've heard that version of yes. I believe that that is what the family is saying, that there was a connection between him and the officer. Absolutely. Well, certainly keep us up to date about this particular case and what happens next. Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Thank you very much. Kelly, what greatly bothers me again, I'm sorry, how the hell do you have a camera and you don't turn it on? The point of the camera is to record what the hell you do. Now, I am definitely a proponent of body cameras and any other these officers more or less were deliberately trying not to be held accountable for their actions. does not take into consideration that they have Black colleagues and they treat Black colleagues like they would a criminal on the street.

That is greatly disturbing, but also expected. Unfortunately, it was also expected that these officers would either be acquitted or hung jury and the like, which is why I'm paying so much attention to the Chauvin case regarding George Floyd, because this could truly set a precedent for cases across the country and across jurisdictions that it is possible to convict an officer of murder, of assault, of a crime that they committed and they can't hide behind their badge any longer and act like they were just doing their job when clearly they weren't doing their job. That's why I'm looking so closely at the Chauvin case.

But when it comes to this case, this is a clear-cut situation of business as usual. And we're trying to combat that theory. We're trying to combat that narrative with the Chauvin case and other cases coming down the pike. So hopefully with the hung jury, it means that it's possible for this trial to for this case to come back because it was a hung jury. So hopefully it comes back with more evidence, more proof and and a prosecution or prosecutors, rather, who really believe in the case

and believe that these officers need to go to jail for what they did. Well, look, Ms. Trowles, they might have to try again. I was in a St. Louis case here. But Mustafa, again, it baffles me. Every single time I hear one of these cases, oh, cop had a body camera but it wasn't turned on. So now same thing, of course, Breonna Taylor. Same thing when they had the protest there in Louisville, the protest in Louisville,

where the brother who's a barbecue restaurant owner was shot and killed. Oh, same thing. Oh, camera wasn't on. Yeah. You know, that doesn't fly anymore. There's new technology that's out there for those who follow these types of things. You know, there's't fly anymore. There's new technology that's out there for those who follow these types of things. You know, there's technology that when you're about to turn the camera off, a voice can come on and say, you know, powering down the system now. There's also new technology where you have body cameras where it actually comes back on when you move. So it's all about if you want to make the investments to make sure of that. But it's also about building into the process and letting your officers know that if you turn this off, there are going to be repercussions for you turning it off, you know, and whatever the sets of reasons are for someone being able to turn it off. The other part of it is, you know, when we go back out to St. Louis,

we've got to stop allowing police officers to be able to move from one department to the next. We don't allow bad doctors to be able to do it. We don't allow bad dent officers to be able to move from one department to the next. We don't allow bad doctors to be able to do it. We don't allow bad dentists to be able to do it. So somebody who actually has your life in your hands, they should not be able to move around. And then the other part that I'll close off with is that the Department of Justice has to get engaged in these cases.

And then they have to put the pressure on. They have to do the analysis that's there. And we got to stop funding with federal dollars these police forces that continue to have these significant problems. So if you want to get somebody to change, we've tried all these other things, then you got to hit them in the pocket. So they no longer get these federal dollars. If they have a case where they bust a drug ring or something like that, in many instances, they get to take in those resources. No, you don't get those resources either. So if you want to see change happen, then you also got to deal with it on the economic side. Absolutely. Speaking of the economic side, the pressure continues on corporations

to take a stand against the Republicans' voter suppression law in Georgia. A lot of pressure being placed on Home Depot. Arthur Blank, of course, made his billions from Home Depot, owns the Atlanta Falcons. He's now decided to open his mouth. Now, this is a statement from the Atlanta Falcons website. Go to my computer, please. Thank you. Statement from Arthur Blank on Georgia voting rights.

This is what it says. The following is a statement from Arthur M. Blank, Atlanta Falcons owner and chairman on Georgia voting rights. Every voice and every vote matters and should be heard through our democratic process in Georgia. The right to vote is simply sacred. We should be working to make voting easier and not harder for every eligible citizen. To that end, AMBSE leadership, along with our non-profit partners, conveyed that ideal directly to state officials in recent weeks. Our businesses and family foundation will continue to actively support efforts that advance voting access for

the citizens of Georgia and across the nation. To run. It would have been nice to have seen this three weeks ago. It would have been nice to have seen this before it passed the House, before it passed the Senate, before it got signed by the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp. Well, you know, this is a very it's a very political statement. And when I say it's a political statement, I mean, it says a lot. It sounds like it says a lot without really saying anything. Corporations in Georgia have to walk a very fine line here because there's this image of what Atlanta is. And I tell people all the time, you have Atlanta, which is where I'm based, and then you have Georgia.

The state of Georgia is run by Georgia. Atlanta is sort of like this enclave of black entrepreneurship and black progress that really has to figure out how it's going to work with the state. What you're seeing with a lot of these corporations, they're really just playing the middle and sitting on the fence until something gets so outrageous that they can't say anything anymore. And unfortunately, that's sort of a historic thing that happens in this area. You have corporations who may make a statement of saying we're against Jim Crow, but we won't take any definite steps to really kind of like alleviate that. We're against voter suppression, but we won't take any immediate steps to say anything about that, to make, to move policy with our dollars. What you're seeing,

Arthur Blank's statement is just basically a continuation of that sort of thing. You have a lot of corporations really concerned, really concerned about their bottom line. They're not concerned about the moral responsibilities. And I think this case, and I think this legislation is going to put a lot more corporations who are based in Georgia, from the film industry to Coca-Cola, to all these places they call Georgia homes, going to make them have to have a come to Jesus meeting, so to speak, about what they really stand for outside of profit. The only way you can really move that is if you make it too uncomfortable for them financially to ignore it. And I think that's what's going to have to happen here. Mustafa, too little, too late.

It's not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. They've been silent for a long time. So, yeah, too late. Kelly? It is too late. Kelly. It is too late. But the issue here is, again, this goes back to what we were talking about, even with the black C-suite leaders. The fact that we need to support them in making decisions that are actually beneficial to us. So that cost benefit analysis of self-preservation and whether, you know, if money is more important or a more stable choice to make, if these corporations actually felt the power of our purse strings and were convinced that if they didn't make a statement earlier, then we would be pulling our monies back from their corporations and their businesses, then I feel like we would

have had a statement earlier before the governor signed this bill. So we need to really think about how we spend our dollars, how we hold these C-suite people accountable before we basically say too little too late. Because if we are proactive in making sure that our causes are heard and that we actually put our money where our mouth is when our causes are heard, then we won't have situations like this. Well, again, I just, it's like, okay, I mean, thanks for the statement, but, you know, I'm just saying, like now, like now, I mean, the whole point is for you to say this before it happens. That's the whole point. All right, let's go to break. We'll come back. We're going to talk about the judicial nominees put forth today by President Joe Biden, including three black women. That's next on Roller Mark Unfiltered. Who needs a little love today?

Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love? What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D.J.

What up? Lonnie Wells. And you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. President Joe Biden announced his first judicial nominees today, including three black women for circuit court vacancies. The group includes the first Asian American woman for the district court in Washington, D.C., and the first woman of color for the district court in Maryland. The pick that is getting the most attention is Judge Katonji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She is widely seen as a future Supreme Court prospect after the president promised to choose a black woman if a seat becomes vacant while he's in office. Jackson is being named to fill the vacancy left by Attorney General Merrick Garland on what

some consider the second most influential federal court. This is, first of all, Ketanji Brown, Mustafa, should have been picked by President Obama to replace Antony Scalia. First of all, I don't care what, look, I don't care if people get mad at me, I don't want to. I think this was one of the biggest screw-ups of President Obama.

Not only is Ketonji Brown a sister, she's also the sister-in-law of then House Speaker Paul Ryan. Do you... What kills me, I'm still... Y'all, I'm still utterly confused by it. You had a perfect opportunity... First of all, Republicans were not going to confirm anybody,

including her. I argued then, I argued then, that if you appoint a black woman, you would force these old white men to have to stand up against the first black woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court. The heat that would have been on their ass for nine months would have been amazing. Obama goes and appoints a white guy who nobody was fighting for. It's kind of like, eh, we've had 105 of those before. And so again,

clearly, Biden understands this and is laying the groundwork. He's already said his first vacancy is going to be a black woman. Yeah. I mean, you've got to give President Biden credit.

You know, he's been making some good moves. You know, I have my other issues that I wish he would do better on. But this is one of those that meets up with this transitional moment that we have, this transformational moment that we had. I mean, she's an incredible, incredible litigator. I will be a great complement to the court. And this also begins that process that we talked about when the former president began to, you know, just populate the court with these extreme conservative folks and began to dismantle, you know, many of the various laws and actions that were necessary. So to see these three sisters and actually a very diverse set of candidates that he's moving forward is a very positive step. Kelly, there were a lot of Democrats who said that President Barack Obama was not as focused on the federal bench as he should be, as Republicans are. This is important. I've been saying this consistently. Democrats cannot

allow Republicans to control their federal bench because they are the final arbiters of our laws. That's absolutely right. The Republicans know really where the power lies. And unfortunately, the public is not fully aware of exactly how the judiciary is set up. It's not just about the Supreme Court. There are many layers before any case gets to the Supreme Court. So the fact that Mitch McConnell basically packed the court with over, I want to say over 200 something judges during Trump's presidency and made sure that they were ultra conservative, made sure that the conservative movement, the conservative policies would either stay in place or be created while on the bench. That's a really scary thought. Talk about issues like women's rights, pro-life issues,

everything gets heard on the bench. And McConnell knows that. Republicans know that. It's time for the Democrats to get on the ball with realizing that it's not just about the executive branch. It's not just about the legislative branch. This past election, we were really concentrating on making sure we got the two senators from Georgia and the Senate. We were really concentrating on increasing the majority in the House. We were really concentrated on getting Biden into the White House. But with all of those things taken into consideration, we were not taking into consideration who's going to be on these benches, who is actually going to interpret the laws that the legislature comes out, who interprets the laws that Biden comes down the pipe through his executive orders. Those are the people who I don't want to say really matter,

but that is the balance of the other two branches here. So I'm personally very excited the fact that Biden is committed to a Black woman finally going on the Supreme Court. I think that is a perspective that America needs, especially in these issues, especially in these cases that come down SCOTUS. And I'm excited to see what happens with that and with the Senate that, even though we have a razor-thin majority,

it's possible that she can actually become the first black woman on the bench. So I'm excited for that to possibly happen. Every single law can be challenged in the court system to run. That's why judges matter. Exactly. And there's also this something we need to pay attention to, you have the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. A lot of times what happens, depending on who the judge is, if the letter of the law benefits what they see as keeping the status quo in check, they're going to stick with that. And they're not going to talk about trying to open up the law to make, to be inclusive to every American citizen. With the black woman on the bench and eventually on the Supreme Court, we may have more of an idea about what the spirit of the law means in America, which is on paper is supposed to be free. You know, every issue that affects American citizens gets a fair hearing by somebody,

by a jury or their peers, and by people who may understand the culture of the people who are bringing these complaints. And that goes all the way back to the things we've talked about through the whole show, from police brutality to unionizing to labor rights to even the Chauvin case. All these things have to be set. All these cases have to be seen by a judge. And if the judge is more concerned with keeping the status quo in place instead of delivering justice, it's a detriment to all Americans.

So I think this is a beautiful thing. Absolutely. And again, folks, to understand the impact of judges, let's go to New York. All inmates in New York's jails and prisons, all of them, folks, are being required, are being required for a vaccine. This is a result of a judicial ruling. Now, folks, look, this is again. I don't know how much I can explain to people why why these things matter. But the reality is they do. Justice Allison to the New York State Supreme Court. See if there is no acceptable excuse for this deliberate exclusion. Governor Cuomo's office, Andrew Cuomo's office, responded to the ruling today by expanding the state's coronavirus vaccine eligibility to include all incarcerated individuals. According to the New York Times,

1,100 prisoners have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of last month, and five have died. No better example, Mustafa, why judges, the right judges, matter? You got to have the folks in place. When you don't, you get all these bad rulings, you get all these things that put us further and further behind the eight ball, if I can say it that way. And COVID, you know, this is just another example of why we need to make sure that we have everyone in place on the judicial side, on the legislative side, on the executive side. You the legislative side, on the executive side. You got to understand how all this stuff comes together to actually end up helping to protect our communities or to create these disparities that can, you know, that can be devastating. It makes no sense in this country, frankly. Kelly, how people act like, oh, they're

prisoners. OK, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. No vaccines. Y'all can be last. No. In fact, because if you're actually a worker in a prison, you can be infected and taken home. Yeah, the prisoners are people too, period. That is what it comes down to. There was a surge in the prisons regarding COVID-19 infections. And at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw a lot of stories come out about

how prisoners were, you know, stuck with like one mask for weeks or no mask at all. Or, you know, if they were at all infected, they were never sequestered or, you know, quarantined. So the infection spread throughout the prisons. But they're people, too. And what's more important, a lot of these prisoners get out, you know, by way of parole or exoneration or whatever. And there's still a person. I'm going to keep reiterating that. They will leave, like a lot of them will leave prison by way of whatever type of release. And they need to be protected so that we are also protected. This is not a situation where, you know, it should be a caste system or a class system as to who gets this vaccine. Everybody is affected. You know, COVID doesn't

know about money and tax brackets and race. You are either going to die from it or you are going to survive. And we have over half a million people who have died from it because our government at the time did not make that correlation. So we need to take into consideration prisoners and people who work in the prisons when it comes to vaccinations as well, because they're simply people too. Daron? No, I agree with everything that Kelly said.

I think there's an attitude of dehumanization and brutalization that people feel is okay for people who are incarcerated. And I think what you saw before this legislation was passed is just a manifestation of that. These are still human beings. And these are human beings who deserve health care. These are human beings who deserve respect. And you also, as she said, you have to look at the fact that eventually they're going to be released and they're going to go into the general population and possibly affect people if they're not taken care of. And you also have to look at situations inside prisons where there's massive

overcrowding, mistreatment, that sort of thing. So it's necessary to take care of these people psychologically and physically so we can have people who are somewhat healthy going back out into the world so we don't have these things, these cycles continuing where people who feel like they're on the lowest on the totem pole feel brutalized, and then they go out and brutalize other people. All right, folks, that is it for us. Mustafa, Kelly and Teron, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, if y'all want to support the work that we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, bringing you news information you're really not going to get anywhere else, please do so by supporting us via Cash App,

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