#RolandMartinUnfiltered - FDA OKs COVID vax boosters for some; Biden urges action on drug prices; Family of Fred Cox sues cop

Episode Date: August 14, 2021

8.13.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: FDA OKs COVID vax boosters for immunocompromised; Biden urges Congress to lower drug prices; NY landlords won a small victory when the Supreme Court ruled that the state had gone too far in protecting tenants at the expense of landlords; Moderate Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they would stop the passage of a budget resolution unless the infrastructure bill is signed into law first. Fred Cox family announces lawsuit in shooting death by deputy + Update you on the loud music murder case in Tennessee #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CeekCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. CEEK's mission is to enable content creators to directly generate revenue from a global audience on multiple devices, including VR Headsets, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, mobile and desktop devices. Whether you're a gamer, music, or sports enthusiast, CEEK has something for everyone Go to http://www.ceek.com and use #RMU discount code RMVIP21 for your next purchase.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marta. All right, it's Friday, August 13th, 2021. Roland Martin is off today. I am your guest host, Amisha Ramsey, and here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. In breaking news today, the FDA authorized an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose to certain people with compromised immune systems. We'll share those details and update you on other coronavirus news. And President Joe Biden is urging Congress to

take steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Drug makers raised the prices of more than 500 medications during the pandemic. We'll talk to the head of Family USA about what needs to be done. And in New York, landlords had a small victory when the Supreme Court ruled that the state had gone too far in protecting tenants at the expense of landlords. Now, moderate Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they would stop the passage of a budget resolution unless the infrastructure bill is signed into law. We'll break it down with our panel. of Kamon Johnson want police officers to who punched him into the face spot will get details from the attorney, Kerry Daniels. And in North Carolina, lawmakers representing the family of Fred Cox said they will file a civil lawsuit case of indignation in County Sheriff's Office

and the deputy that shot and killed Cox. And we'll also update you on the loud music murder in Tennessee and the ex-Georgia sheriff who was indicted for repeatedly punching a black man in the face during an arrest. Now, in the words of Roland Martin, it's time to bring the funk, so let's go. With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's on go-go-royal It's rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martel. Martel.

All right, so COVID cases and deaths are steadily rising. Take a look at this graphic. It shows a spike in cases that begin around the middle of July. Now, here are some of the numbers. Now, today, there are 37,210, 382 reported coronavirus cases and more than 600,000 deaths here in the U.S. Now, these charts are astronomical. Now, just two days ago, there were 36,800, 800,000 plus reported COVID cases and six over 600,000 deaths. Now, that's 3,312,399 increase in reported cases and another 1,647 deaths since Wednesday. Now, all those COVID numbers, again, they are rising. And we'll take a look at this. Just over half the U.S. population is vaccinated, while 60% have received at least one dose. Now, this is stats here, or stats in Chicago.

So 28 people have died from COVID-19 in Chicago's Black neighborhood since July 26, according to the data from the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office and the Chicago Department of Health. Now, Chicago Crusaders, an analyst of Chicago's 57 zip codes, shows the number of new COVID-19 cases in the city remains low compared to the counties in Illinois. Now, however, a total 2,042 people from Black neighborhoods have died from the disease. Now, news over in Georgia. Four small Georgia public schools districts have temporarily shut down in person. Now, instruction with days of starting school because of COVID-19. Now, Macon, Talbot, Talifero, and Gascook County schools officials say they will return to virtual learning as the surge in COVID-19 cases continue among students and staff that makes it unsafe to continue.

Now, fifth graders at the Suburban Atlanta Elementary School were sent home earlier this week to resume virtual learning due to high numbers of positive COVID-19 cases. Now joining me now is infectious disease specialist Dr. Alexa M. Gaffney. Alexa, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for asking thank you so dr gaffney before uh we come to you i also wanted i'm sorry i wanted to play a sound bite we got you on camera just a little bit earlier but let's play a sound bite and listen to what a man posted on tick tock he was venting his frustrations uh with increased covet cases of the unvaccinated take a look folks how you doing i just got a quick question about this

whole covid not getting vaccinated and running to the fucking hospital once you get the virus fucking deal because this shit is out of fucking control all right and i'm gonna give you a quick story on why i think it's out of fucking control last week i had to bring my wife into the hospital she has stage four breast cancer she was dealing with some symptoms and i had to bring her in to get some fluid drained. She was having some pain. She was in there for two days. On the third day, she honestly should have stayed one more day, maybe two more days. Okay. But on the third day, instead of draining her fluid and what they wanted to do, they had to dis, they told us that she had to be discharged because they had no room left In the hospital Because of COVID

Here's my question Why 99% of everybody that's in the hospital With COVID right now is unvaccinated Okay If you really fucking believe that COVID's not real And you really believe that's not a big deal And you really believe that you don't need to get the vaccine

That is your fucking right Okay I'm not a big deal And you really believe that you don't need to get the vaccine That is your fucking right Okay, I'm not going to argue with you about that What I am going to argue with about Is you running to the fucking hospital Once you get the virus If you don't trust the medical field to prevent you from getting it Why do you trust them to cure you from it? Why do you run to the fucking hospital?

If you really believe that COVID's not a big deal And it's not this, that, the other And you don't get the vaccine Stick to it, stick to your fucking guns and keep your motherfucking ass at home. Stop running to the hospital, putting everybody else at fucking risk, and in turn, the collateral damages. People like my wife who actually need medical fucking help for a chronic fucking disease get kicked out of the hospital because your dumb ass is too stupid to go get a fucking vaccine shot. Keep your ass at home. If you really believe COVID's not a big deal, prove it. Stick to your fucking guns. Keep your ass at home and fucking deal with it.

Well, there we go. He says, stay at home. If you are sick, people are flooding the hospital. He has a sick wife. And because of those folks who are unvaccinated, people are flooding the hospital. He has a sick wife. And because of those folks who are unvaccinated, they are flooding the hospital. Let's bring Dr. Daphne again. Thank you so much for being with us. First off, I want to get your reaction. A lot of people may be feeling the same way. We know the uptick in cases is promoting more mask mandates as we continue to move forward.

Now, the mask mandates here are many states. No cities are moving forward towards requiring vaccination confirmation. So, Dr. Daphne, if you wouldn't mind just kind of giving it, what is it like being number one on the front lines and the reaction that a lot of people are seeing with the mask mandates? They want to wear them or they don't want to wear them? Yeah. So, I live and work in Long Island, a suburb outside of New York City. And I responded to the initial surge of the COVID-19 outbreak last spring. And I did both hospital rounds as well as outpatient care for COVID-19 patients. And as the pandemic has evolved and we've gotten smarter with technology, I can now make a diagnosis right here in my office

with rapid testing, as opposed to having to say, based on this combination of symptoms, I suspect you have COVID-19 and then trying to make a decision about, does this person need to go to the hospital immediately? Should we watch and wait because of the bed crisis we had back then? Fortunately, I live and work in a state that is highly vaccinated. And so we are seeing a significant difference in terms of the number

of cases and hospitalizations we're seeing from COVID-19 versus a state like Florida or Louisiana or Arkansas or places in Texas where their hospitals are at 75, 85, 90 percent capacity and where their ICUs are again being maxed out like in Tennessee because there's a significant hesitation to get vaccinated. So in those states where less than 30 percent of people or less than 50 percent of people are fully vaccinated, they are back in the same crisis mode we were in in November before we had a vaccine available or where we were in spring of 2020 when we were really at the height of the onset of the pandemic. And I have to say, I totally feel that man's pain. I feel his pain as one, as a breast cancer survivor myself,

as someone who is close and connected to people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed or chronically ill and need access to their doctors and other healthcare professionals. And we should not be in a position when we have three vaccine candidates available to us where any person in this country can simply go and present themselves in any location, a hospital, a health care setting, a doctor's office, a pharmacy, a grocery store, Walmart, for God's sake. You can get a vaccine

anywhere. There is no need for this. And I understand his frustration. And I totally understand why he cursed and dropped F-bomb after F-bomb, because there is no eloquent way to put it. What we are dealing with is ridiculous. And even as a healthcare professional, someone who has given their life and given their all to taking care without regards to everybody else's health and well-being, you shouldn't come to a hospital expecting everybody to drop everything, push everyone else to the side, and save you. Dr. Gaffney, triple board certified infectious disease physician, understands that, you know, everybody doesn't get it. Everyone doesn't hold the same belief. And unfortunately there are real health consequences to that. And so I gave an oath to

take care of people and to meet their needs, but it is incredibly frustrating that we are where we are today. Um, you know, yeah, go ahead. Dr. Gaffney, I wanted to just ask you, because there's a lot of, it's kind of two sides of the coin. There are people who want to wear their mask, get vaccinated. Then there are people who don't. But then there's a gray area, and I feel that in the Black community, I know I have family members who are still just uncertain about the vaccine. And now with the Delta variant on the rampage and on the rise, they're reconsidering should they get the vaccine or not. But with a lot of misinformation, they're still, they still are undecided. What could you say to people who are in that gray area, who are black and brown, who are in those higher rates of potentially, you know, people who are much more prone to diseases and so forth.

Yeah, that's exactly it, right? We are a much more prone community. The Black and Brown community has been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, and we will continue to be disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. I wholeheartedly understand. I get it as a Black woman, as a person in a Black woman's body who has had to engage with the healthcare system. I understand the history. I'm well aware of it. I understand the fear and the concerns that we as a people have. And those concerns are historic, but legitimate. But the reality is, is that we are in a situation where the things that occurred during the Tuskegee experiment or

what happened to Henrietta Lacks and all of the other common references that we use to refuse or dispute getting a vaccination, those things would not happen today. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as, you know, guinea pigs. We have to stop thinking of the vaccination as being experimental. The people who were experimented on, they volunteered, right? And there were tens of thousands of people who volunteered for the greater good of society to be able to benefit from their personal sacrifice, from all of this research, all of these health care dollars, all of these federal dollars that were spent worldwide to ensure that we had a vaccine that was safe and effective to help prevent the spread and prevent people from being hospitalized

and dying from this virus. So the vaccine has been well tested and well studied, and we're continuing to look at what are complications of the vaccines that might not have been predicted or might not have been picked up on during the original clinical trials. And so the fact that they are continuing to investigate, they're continuing the fact that they are continuing to investigate, they're continuing to look, they're continuing to watch, and they're being so transparent, for me is very reassuring. So when I'm talking to my Black and Brown

and indigenous brothers and sisters who died at rates that were much higher than our white counterparts, I say to us, like, listen, do you really trust a health care system that has continued to give us disparate health care, has continued to give us disparate outcomes? Do you trust that same health care system to save you when you get infected with COVID? Do you trust a health care system where in communities that are full of people that look like you and I and our brown and indigenous people, our brothers and sisters, where our hospitals tend to be grossly underfunded and understaffed

and don't have access to research and experimental treatments, I don't trust going into that setting. I feel more comfortable and more confident in the fact that I'm fully vaccinated and that if I choose to, I'm also a candidate to get a booster dose of this vaccine rather than take my chances with COVID-19. What will that virus do to me and what will happen to me and a Black woman's body inside of a hospital in this country? I feel much more comfortable getting a vaccine than I do getting COVID-19. And I think, you know, because we've been more disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and because we will be more disproportionately impacted by this whole anti-vaccine hesitancy movement, we really have to sit down and consider what's at stake. And as you said, we are a population in general that has far more stressors, far more comorbid conditions, is more likely to have the things that put us at high risk to be hospitalized and to die from COVID-19. So if I'm already at increased risk for the worst case scenario of this virus, I'm not going to put myself in a position where I'm then hospitalized and I'm having to fight for my life, having to advocate, having to beg and plead to get the same treatment as my white counterparts.

I'm going to do everything that I can to prevent this infection. And for me, that's vaccination. For me, that's wearing my mask. I never took my mask off even when the mandates went away for vaccinated people. And I continue to avoid crowds. I don't eat inside of restaurants. I really try to do everything as safely as I can to just mitigate the risk of getting this infection. Right. Dr. Gaffey, that sounds like you are doing all of the proper precautions and taking the proper precautions.

Hopefully people out there, they heard that and able to take that information to their family members and to translate that over and hopefully get them pushed. But I wanna open up the conversation to our panelists. Let them to weigh in on this, on what's happening with COVID- 19 the rising numbers i know they have family members and people but first off let me go ahead and introduce you all we have michael

otev he's the host of african history network show we also have brittany lewis political analyst and we have kelly bethea she's a jd and communication strategist thank you all for joining us here today on the roller margin unfiltered daily digital Show. I want to start off here. I'm going to start with Kelly because you have a background working in the healthcare system. And you have your communication strategies. So what is the message to be sent out there to folks when these hospitals are seeing similar numbers and similar occupancy rates that we saw this same time last year? I mean, the message has been out there. Unfortunately, because of fake news and misinformation, it's being combated by that. But the message is clear, and that is to get the

vaccine, get the damn shot. We have been in this predicament for almost two years now, and we have been waiting for a vaccine for months. We finally have it, and now all of a sudden, people don't want to take it because of misinformation. And, to me, it feels like that anecdote about how the man is drowning, and he's praying to God for, you know, somebody to save him. And all of these resources just drift on by. There's a boat that passes him by. There's a log of wood that passes him by. But he just is adamant that God is going to take care of him absent the resources that God gave him. And I'm not trying to make this a religious sentiment, but it feels like people are waiting for something else to happen in order for them

to get the vaccine when all of those things have already happened. We have been approaching you with resources on how to get vaccinated. We have been approaching you with ways to get to a vaccination site safely. We have been coming to you with methods just in case you can't get the vaccine, what to do in the event that you can't, such as masking up, social distancing, all of these things. And it's like the strongest cognitive dissonance ever for people to just not associate doctors' orders with what actually needs to happen. Get the damn shot. That is the message. That's the message. I want to also open it up to Michael Hochtep. If you wouldn't mind, just ask Dr. Gaffney a question that is related to this topic here with the COVID-19 in the Delta variant and what we're seeing. Who was that question for?

Oh, okay. All right. All right. Dr. Alexa Gaffney, thanks for coming on today. Question for you. Can you talk about how the mRNA technology is not new, the technology that the Moderna vaccine is based upon and the other vaccine? Can you talk about how that's not new technology? One of the apprehensions that people have is they say that the vaccine was rushed. Now, I think Trump naming it Warped Speed, the whole project Warped Speed,

I don't think that helped anything. Yeah. Can you talk about that? And also with the Delta variant, why is the transmissibility so much more higher than with the coronavirus strains we were dealing with in 2020? Sure. So as far as the production of these vaccines, remember, COVID-19 is SARS-2 coronavirus, and there was SARS-1 that happened well over a decade ago. And SARS-1 was not as transmissible, but much more deadly than COVID-19

even. And so they had been working on vaccines back then. So that didn't become a pandemic, but that epidemic sort of petered out over time. And so that was kind of shell technology that they pulled back out because they recognized that, listen, we have these mRNA vaccines or we have this mRNA technology that we can utilize. And all we have to do is get the genetic code for the COVID-19 virus, the SARS-CoV-2, and apply that genetic code to this mRNA-based technology that we've had in the works for decades, and we can utilize that to make vaccines that would be effective to fighting the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-Coronavirus-2 or SARS-CoV-2.

So this is not new technology. This is technology that has been in place, and it has been used for other modalities as well, like cancer treatments and therapeutics. So we are just using old technology or we basically have just taught an old dog new tricks in terms of application of this type of research and this type of vaccine technology to a new virus and a new infection. And the beautiful thing about mRNA vaccines is that you can produce them very quickly. Unlike a flu vaccine, where you're essentially growing a viral culture, that can take months, almost a year to produce a vaccine. So because the technology allows for quicker production of the vaccine, we're better positioned to potentially end this COVID-19 pandemic because

we don't run into issues with the time we need to produce these vaccines. So it's old technology that has been manipulated for a new current situation. So it's not like COVID came on the scene in China in October of 2019, and now all of a sudden the work started. That was work, technology research that was already being done. And the only reason we were able to bring the vaccine forth is because the rate at which people were getting infected, right? When you had millions of people per day getting infected, you can reach your endpoint of your clinical trial very quickly. It's not like if somebody was trying out if your new measles vaccine was effective because you don't really see cases that often. So you don't reach a clinical endpoint as quickly

as you do when literally millions of people around the world are being diagnosed with the infection you're trying to prevent with your vaccine. So a lot of healthcare dollars, a lot of federal dollars, a lot of dollars worldwide were thrown at this research, which funding is often an issue. You have multiple parties involved. And people need to remember, like, not every vaccine that was researched was brought to market, right? They started with over 150 vaccine candidates. That list dwindled down to 26 or 28. Then we had like a top seven contenders. And here in the United States, we have three of those seven available

to us. There are other vaccine candidates that are available in other parts of the world that the CDC and the FDA said, you know what, that's not for us. We're going to stick with these three and we'll continue to see how it goes. And to me, that's very promising and very reassuring. So I want people to remember that not every vaccine candidate that was researched came to human clinical trials. Some of them were weeded out before then, and not every vaccine was determined to be safe and effective for use. So the three that we're using are what was determined to be most suitable for use in American people. And, you know, this is based on old as well as new vaccine research data. Right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Hi, Dr. Gassi. I want to bring in Brittany Lee Lewis, our political analyst, to weigh in and ask you a question as well. Brittany? Sure. Doctor, first off, thank you so much for your work during this time. One of the things that I often hear people say is, why do I need to get the vaccine if I can still get COVID? So if you wouldn't mind just quickly talking through maybe herd immunity or why folks should still get the vaccine? Yeah. So, you know, we can put the herd to the side because we're not even close to that because American people just won't cooperate. But the reason you're getting the vaccine is number one for you, right? Put your oxygen mask on before you start trying to assist everybody else on the plane or before you start trying to

jump in and deal with the herd. So the simplest way to put it is that the vaccine is a vaccine. It's not a dome. It's not a protective bubble. It's not a force field. The vaccine doesn't keep you in the house. The vaccine doesn't make you put your mask on. The vaccine doesn't make you avoid crowds of people. The vaccine doesn't make the people who you are exposed to wear their mask, avoid crowds. And vaccine doesn't make the people who you are exposed to wear their mask avoid crowds. And it doesn't keep other people from getting affected, infected, excuse me, nor does it keep other people from transmitting the virus. So the vaccine is so that when you're out in the grocery store or when you're forced to go

to work like me, let's say, I don't know, maybe my mask is not pressed as tightly against my face, or maybe it's a little damp and I needed to change it five patients ago, and here comes somebody who's not wearing their mask properly, or maybe they're sick and they're coughing, they're sneezing, and they're spewing COVID-19 virus particles all over the place, and the virus lands in my eyes, or I breathe it in, or it's on my counter and I rub lands in my eyes or I breathe it in or it's on my counter and I rub it in my eye, whatever the case may be, right? We know it's highly transmissible. So my vaccine protects me if I have a personal failure, I go out, I do the wrong things, or if I have a mass failure. Even if I breathe in and acquire the virus, I may not get the syndrome of COVID-19.

I may not have a symptomatic infection. And even if I do, I'm still most likely to stay out of the hospital. And I'm still more likely not to die of the virus than an unvaccinated person. Excuse me. So we get the vaccine so that we don't die. We get the vaccine so we don't land in the hospital. We get the vaccine so we don't end up with long COVID syndrome or COVID long haulers disease, which is really debilitating and turning out to be a significant disabling condition that we're still learning about because people are still having evolving symptoms. But we cannot sit here and say or pretend or allow people to believe that because

people can breathe in this virus and ultimately test positive for it or get cold-like symptoms or flu-like symptoms, that doesn't make the vaccine a failure. If they didn't go in the hospital and if they didn't die, the vaccine did exactly what it was supposed to do. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Gaffney. Just really quickly, I remember I was seeing something on social and it's really, we have to be careful because we have to know where we get our sources from. But I did see a photo, I want to ask you this, Dr. Gaffney, of a person who had COVID-19 and they were unvaccinated. They had a cloudy chest, a very cloudy chest. And then there was a person who contracted COVID-19 and their chest seemed to be much more clear. Is there some

tie into all of this that's showing that you get COVID, but the symptoms are less severe. Yes. So definitely the severity of illness overall has been significantly less in vaccinated persons in comparison to unvaccinated persons. The exception to that is in immunocompromised individuals, where if someone was immunocompromised and vaccinated and had a breakthrough infection. They were more likely to be hospitalized in comparison to someone who had a normal, healthy immune system and was also vaccinated. When you talk about the unvaccinated person versus the vaccinated person, because the severity of the disease is much less in the vaccinated individual, you don't see the pneumonia. You don't

see the overwhelming inflammation in the lungs. You don't see the respiratory failure. You don't see as significant of a need for oxygen therapy. So someone who's vaccinated may need oxygen via a nasal cannula or the little prongs that go in your nose. But someone who is unvaccinated is more likely to need mechanical ventilation. So like having an intubation, having a breathing tube put down or having to be put on a BiPAP machine or some other form of mechanical ventilation. So there's huge differences in terms of, you know, all of the outcomes, the blood clots, the strokes, the heart attacks, the abnormal heart rhythms, all other organ damage, right? We've seen liver damage, kidney damage and failure, heart failure in unvaccinated individuals with COVID-19 infection.

And we are less likely to see that in vaccinated individuals. And this surge is a surge of really unvaccinated people. 97 to like 99% of most hospitalized patients right now are unvaccinated. So please don't let these misinformed, you know, disinformation spreading people have you believe that this surge is because of a vaccine failure. It is absolutely not. Thank you so much, Dr. Alexia Gaffney. We appreciate you. Hopefully folks heard you and they get it clear. Again, this is nothing to play around with. Let's move on within the show.

We want to talk about the New York Evacuation Memoratorium. Now, a small victory for landlords in New York. You want to listen to this. Now, part of New York's memorandum. Now, a small victory for landlords in New York. You want to listen to this. Now, part of New York's eviction memorandum was lifted by a divided Supreme Court saying the state had gone too far in protecting tenants at the expense of landlords. Now, unsigned orders blocked the state's measure that made it easy for tenants to evoke eviction protections by self-certifying that they faced financial hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, generally not challenged by landlords. Now, the court's order said New Yorkers' approach denying landlords as adhering

to cost certification violates the court's longstanding teaching that ordinarily no man can be a judge in his own case consistent with the due process clause of the Constitution. Now, the order does not disturb other New York provisions allowing tenants to invoke eviction protections if they demonstrate pandemic-related hardships. Now, I'm going to open this up to the panel as well. First off, we have Michael, the host of the African American History Network, and we also have Brittany Lee Lewis, again, political analyst, and Kelly Bathia, J.D. communication strategist. You guys, a lot of people, again, are facing evictions, and there's this slippery slope between the landlord, a lot of people, again, are facing evictions. And there's this

slippery slope between the landlord. What can they do? Some people can take advantage of this system. But then there are some people who are really struggling. So what does this mean for the people who are out here? We want to start it off with just Michael, what are your comments? Well, you know, I think we talked about this last week here on the show, and I've dealt with this on my show as well. The eviction moratorium, when Biden and the CDC put it in place because of massive protests launched by Representative Cori Bush and Representative Ayanna Pressley and others. He knew that it was on shaky legal ground, but he said there are a handful of legal scholars that think it will pass must the judge, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, upheld the moratorium.

And you have a lawsuit filed by Alabama landlords, and it's another landlord group that's filed a lawsuit. I think the most important thing here is this $46.5 billion in rental assistance and assistance for landlords that was in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. A lot of the majority of that money is tied up at the state level and hasn't gotten down to the tenants and hasn't gotten down to the landlords. It's for both of them. It's not just for tenants. It's for both of them, to help both of them. And 50 percent of landlords in the country are mom-and-pop landlords. So it's good that this moratorium is upheld, but I think the real focus has to be on getting this assistance into the right hands for the landlords as well as the tenants. And then we have to figure out, OK, now what are you going to do on October 3rd when this moratorium expires? Because we're dealing with a huge avalanche of evictions

that are coming at the same time when the price of rental property is steadily increasing and the price of new homes is steadily increasing as well. How do we vet between who is for serious and who isn't? Michael, you mentioned that a lot of landlords are mom and pop, people who have investment properties, people who rely on this money in order to pay their bills. Then you have individuals who say, you know, they might be taking advantage and saying, I'm not going to pay these individuals because I know that this moratorium is in place. Well, a distinction between the two, I think you have to look at each person's case who's applying. But one of the barriers that we're seeing also ties into the infrastructure

bill that was passed the Senate. You have a lot of people who don't have high-speed Internet access. You have people who—because, like for to apply for the assistance, you have to apply online. Well, many people. OK, their only access to the computer is their cell phone. They don't have high speed Internet. OK, so that's a barrier to applying. So I think with the I think with the assistance, there are ways to verify this documentation. People have to present and things like this, the ways to verify, OK, is this person legitimate? Are they not? Yes, you always have people who scam. But I think you have about three point as of August 2nd, 3.5 million people in the U.S. said they face eviction in the next two months. Okay. So this is serious because this is at a time when the Delta variant is surging. And the other thing is, if you know anything about viruses, you know, viruses surge in the fall and the winter when it gets colder and people retreat indoors.

That's when viruses really surge. So if it's out of control, if it's not out of control, but it's near out of control and in hospitals like in Mississippi, hospitals in Florida. Things like this are starting to be overwhelmed. So it's going to be even worse in the fall and winter. So I think we really have to focus in on getting this assistance, walking people through the process. And, you know, this is a big mess. This is a big mess. So but this is one of the reasons why you need government as well.

Now, the last thing what's interesting is states that talk about small government like Texas and Florida, they want government help. Hundreds of ventilators were sent to Florida. Governor Abbott in Texas is asking for nurses to come in because there's a shortage of nurses in Texas. But you didn't want to have mass mandates to slow this thing down. So some of the very people, some of the very Republicans who want small government, want government to stay out of the issue, now they want government help. Wow. I want to segue also to talk about, we know that, again, we talked about the rising cost

of how people are living in those mammatoriums, but we want to segue also to talk about, we know that, again, we talked about the rising cost of how people are living in those mammatoriums, but we want to also talk about prescription drugs and their rise. So just get this. Since the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies have taken a financial blow with nationwide shutdowns. Now, this is where doctors are not prescribing medications as much. Now, the offset that is in the decline is the revenue. Drug companies raise the prices on more than 500 drugs. President Joe Biden wants to ensure increasing drug costs do not force people to make the difficult decision between medication and other needs. And we want to play a soundbite

from President Joe Biden talking about that. For years, the price of many prescription drugs has dramatically outpaced inflation. These prices have put the squeeze on too many families and stripped them of their dignity. They've been forced, we've forced people into terrible choices between maintaining their health, paying the rent or the mortgage, putting food on the table.

I mean, literally. And that's the case for a lot of working families and seniors, even if you can get the care you need. But today, working families and too many seniors are struggling to make it work. Today, one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford them. Nearly 30 percent have skipped doses, cut pills in half, or because they can't afford the cost. We have to change this, and we can. My administration has already taken significant steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Last month, I signed an executive order that has the effect of improving competition in the economy, which result in lower prescription drug drug cost.

Now, folks, here's a look at Biden's plan. It will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Now, Medicare negotiators will provide a framework for what constitutes a fair price for each drug. It will make other needed reforms to lower prices. Now, it's possible drug companies that raise their prices faster than inflation may have to pay a penalty. Now, it would build on existing progress and work on importing safe, lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and accelerating to the development and uptake of generic and biosimilar drugs that give patients the same clinical benefit but at a fraction at the price. Now, Biden hopes the reform will lower premiums in co-pays for millions of Americans. Now drop insulin and arthritis medication prices by hundreds of dollars or hundreds of thousand

dollars or hundreds of dollars on average, excuse me. Now drop the price of the most expensive drugs by tens of thousands of dollars per year. Now save cancer patients at least 9,000 a year of their out-of-pocket costs and save Medicare beneficiaries that will be about $200. Now joining us live is Elliot Fisherman the senior director of health policy families USA. Thank you so much for joining us. Would you mind talk about this plan and how this would affect the everyday American? Some folks have to, are forced with choosing between buying their prescriptions and putting food on the table. It's really shocking in a country with the resources that we have that that happens

every day. And as you described, it's not to a small number of Americans, right? It's about one in three Americans can't fill prescriptions that they get. And that either means that they are cutting back on other necessities or they are splitting pills. They're not filling those prescriptions at all. They're substituting them with something that they try to find on the internet. And that starts with the fact that we are the only country that does not negotiate as a country on the price of drugs. We're the only country that is paying sticker price. And drug companies, as you described, Anisha, they're taking advantage. And it gets worse every year. Those 500 drugs that prices were increased this year during the

heat of a pandemic, that's the most drug price increases that we've ever had. So the problem is getting worse and worse. It's affecting more and more people. Right, Elliot. It seems like the drug prices went faster or increased faster than the rates of inflation. A lot of people, again, and especially in the Black community, I mean, they are suffering from hypertension and need medications such as insulin for diabetes. What type of position would this put folks in if they could negotiate

their prices of their medication? And I read in that plan that this would also allow protection for individuals who are insured and not on Medicaid and will allow those insurance companies to negotiate as well? That's a really important aspect of it. So it's really three major components. One is to negotiate the prices of drugs up front when they're released. Then the second is to control price increases later on. Ins insulin has been around a long time. Insulin has been around for 100 years. Synthetic insulin has been around for almost 40 years. So if you're seeing increases on that drug, it's not because there's some new research on it. There's some new development costs.

It's just pure price gouging. So controlling those inflationary increases and then making that available, not just to seniors who are on Medicare, but to every American. Those are three major components and they're part of the Biden plan that Congress is now considering and that Congress needs to act on. No, I want to ask you a question really quickly, because we mentioned how this covers or this affects all Americans. And we've seen with President Biden and his administration how he wants to please folks on the left and also please folks on the right. Do you think that this is possibly a way to do that? It should be. I mean, this has massive,

not just Democratic support from voters, but support from Republicans. 90 percent support. This is—you can't get 90 percent of Americans to support hardly anything. And yet, just the problem is so blatant, right? I mean, we talked about insulin. That is, it's just a basic drug. This is not some new, massively innovated drug. And we have people who risk their health to skip doses because they can't afford it. It's just such a glaring, unacceptable problem that it certainly is something that should unify Democrats. And really, I think the risk to Democrats is that if they don't act on this, that Republicans will campaign on it. In other words, this is such an appealing issue across the aisle that this is one issue where you could see Republicans going after Democrats for not fixing it. I want to take this time again to just bring in our panelists really quickly, but I want Brittany to comment on this as one of our political analysts,

just to ask you a question, Elliot, that is related to this. Yeah, so I guess my question is really around this notion of modifying health care. Do you think, considering the way in which many of these companies aren't actually using their profit towards research and development, but towards buying back their own stock, inflating their worth, giving up CEO salaries and compensation, if this is really just another moment for us to look at no longer commodifying health care, since so many of these drugs make the difference between life and death, really. Brittany, I think it's a really important point. And certainly, it is true that this is a more extreme form of pathologies that are more broadly true of our healthcare system, but it really is more extreme. Like, I do think it is possible to tackle the prescription drug issue without taking on the broader issue with how we pay for health care. And politically, I think that's the right move.

In other words, you know, it was not always clear that the Biden administration was going to go after this issue. And I think they decided they found a path forward, which can get through a very narrowly divided Congress, to take on the prescription drug issue, which is, you know, in prescription drugs, you have legal monopolies, right? That's part of the way that our prescription drug system works. So it's just these companies have us over a barrel, and they gouge in a way that, you know, the rest of our healthcare system is bad, but this is worse. Absolutely. All right, Elliot.

Just again, one of my last questions that I want to just ask you before we move on to the next, and it just popped up in my head, is what is the, what can people do in the meantime as they're waiting for this to move forward? Well, certainly people can find out if their provider has anything available for people who can't afford prescription drugs. Some hospitals or health systems may have programs available to help people afford those costs. Certainly, people should ask if there are generics or biosimilars available, and those may be less expensive. But really, the most important thing that I would ask for people to do is this is up to Congress now, and we have a window to act on this that we haven't had in a long time and may not have for a long time. This is the time. So people need to get active politically. Absolutely. Folks, you heard it from Elliot. Thank you so much for just joining us here, Elliot.

We want to move forward with another story that we have about the infrastructure bill. And as this is moving, just give me one second, folks. All right. So what we have is the give me a second. Bear with me, folks. Just give me a second bear with me folks just give me a second so again this is a house letter that nancy pelosi um put together uh the house speaker nancy pelosi put together okay all right so we're going to run to that full screen here it is on your screen now some have suggested that we hold off on considering the senate infrastructure bill for months. Now, until the reconciliation process is completed with disagreement with the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can't afford months of unnecessary

delays and risks, squandering this once-in-a-century bipartisan infrastructure package. Now, it's time to get shovels in the ground and people to work. Now we will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act passes the House and is signed into law. Now the infrastructure bill that funds the construction of roads and bridges across America was approved by the Senate earlier this week with a cross-party support. And we'll open this discussion up for our panelists. We have, again, so Michael Imhotep, who's the host of African History Network show, Brittany Lee Lewis, the political analyst, and Kelly Bethea, JD Communications Strategist. So let's talk about this infrastructure bill and

what does this mean for Americans, guys? And Brittany, we can open it up for you first. Yeah, sure. So, you know, I think there's a lot at stake here and I don't blame a lot of the camp, the progressives specifically, who are really concerned about getting the reconciliation package passed. I mean, you're talking about $135 billion for the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, right, which talks about, you know, needing to address forest fires, reduce carbon emissions, drought. $198 billion for Energy and National Resources Committee, largely related to clean energy development, $332 billion coming from that plan for the Banking Committee, including dealing with public housing, which we know is a major issue right now. So, you know, I think that this is just as important, if not more important at this time, considering the fact that we're literally watching the world burn.

So, you know, I think this is really important. And again, I think kind of the moderate Dems, as well as the Republicans, kind of like fake outrage related to adding more money to the national debt is really disingenuous when we think about the billionaires and corporations who are constantly getting a payout, and that the GOP really doesn't care about the national debt. We've added $7 trillion, the GOP and the moderate Dems, in my opinion. We've added $7 trillion to the national debt under the previous president, which is most of the debt now requiring a higher debt ceiling. So it's really interesting to see how this plays out, you know, in the coming days.

And Speaker Pelosi can only afford to lose three Democrats in order to pass anything. And Kelly, we want to open it up for you as well. Sure. It just feels like moderate Dems don't think that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. If one bill is not ready, that doesn't mean that you stop everything until that one bill is ready. At this juncture, everything is important. Everything. There is no one area of policy that is not in crisis between infrastructure, climate change, health care, race relations. Pick one. It would be quite archaic and selfish to stall one bill because another one is likely going to be stalled as well. Granted, there definitely needs to be something

happening as far as these bills go, meaning there needs to be progression there. But if one isn't progressing as quickly, there's another one on the table that needs attention as well. And they all feed into each other. So, again, it doesn't seem to me like the Democrats are on one accord ever. It always feels like the Republicans have, like, one message, they stick to it, and anything that anybody has an issue with is handled in-house, and it doesn't necessarily come out. As for the Democrats, it's like all our dirty laundry is always out there, and we look dysfunctional. And we can't afford to be dysfunctional.

We can't afford to look dysfunctional. Something needs to happen. So just get on the ball is what I would say. This is not good as a party, but it's certainly not good for the country either. Right. And Michael, we know infrastructure. Again, we have a lot of places. We mentioned earlier like Mississippi, Alabama, the crumbling infrastructure in a lot of our southern states. But in addition to that, we have a pandemic that's going on top of that as well. For areas like that that need this immediately, what does this mean for folks who are needing their roads and bridges to be repaired? Well, Nancy Pelosi already said she made a commitment to the progressive Democrats that

she would hold the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill until the $3.5 trillion bill passed through the reconciliation process. This was a commitment she made to the progressives. So that was known up front. What you have here is you have nine moderate Democrats. Many of them are in swing states or, you know, they're focused on re-election. That's what this really is about. They're focused on reelection and trying to go ahead and get this pushed through, so they can run on that, as opposed to waiting for the 3.5 trillion. And this was a commitment she made to the progressive Democrats. Now, it's important to understand, the Democratic Party, and I'm neither Democrat nor Republican,

but the Democratic Party is a big tent party. It's more diverse in thought than the Republican Party, than the GOP. You do have different factions, but it's less factions. You have, like, the traditional Democrats, like Mitch McConnell or Liz Cheney, and then you have the crazy QAnon wing of the party, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and sugar daddy Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, things like this. You have the—you have—it used to be the Tea Party. Now—it used to be the Tea Party that rose in 2010, which was a separate faction of the Republican Party. Now they've rebranded themselves as the Freedom Party.

So you have different factions in the Republican Party, but there's more diversity. There's more diversity of thought. There's more people. There are more non-white people in the Democratic Party. The Republican Party is largely white old men. That's who it largely is, white old men. You got some white women, but it's largely white old men. And the

other thing is, the Republican Party is shrinking. It's shrinking because people are leaving them, and it's shrinking because white people are dying also. In June 2018, the Census Bureau put out a report saying that white people had a negative birth rate in 26 states out of 50. And then we just saw the Census report that was released Thursday, the initial information.

This is the first time since 1790 that the white population has declined. So you're dealing with those differences there. But, yeah, they're running for reelection. She's going to stick to the promise that she made to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. All right, folks, we really quickly want to run to a quick commercial break, but just continue to watch Rolling March, the unfiltered daily digital show. We'll be right back. White supremacists ain't just about hurting Black folk. Right. We've got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong.

I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. Seek.com.

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In D.C., the U.S. Attorney's Office dropped all charges against a black man who was punched repeatedly by a Washington, D.C., police officer as he was being arrested. Now, this was on August the 3rd. Kimon Johnson was arrested and charged with carrying an illegal firearm. Now, this is video of that arrest. You can see those officers just surrounded by Johnson and laying him against that fence there. Now, bystanders filmed this arrest. Now, the footage of the ordeal shared all across social media and shows the officer striking Johnson in the face repeatedly while a man pinned him against that fence that you see right there. Now, again, joining me now to discuss this case is Johnson's attorney, Harry Dandle. And we also have a local counsel, Brianna Lewis. You all, thank you guys so much for joining us today here on the Rolling Margin Unfiltered show. I do want to say that, again, we've seen these videos time and time again, and there's a lot of, it can be quite

traumatic to see what's happening. You all had a press conference earlier today. Can you tell me a little bit about what has been going on with Mr. Johnson and what he has to say about the incident that we've all seen and have been shared on social media? All right. Thank you. Thank you for having us. The deleted video didn't show the actual punching. He was struck 12 times by a Metro police officer in Southwest, Southeast on Sunday, August the 8th. Currently, Mr. Johnson has suffered multiple fractures in his face. He's going for a surgical consultation. He's in bad shape. He's actually spent last night at the hospital dealing with headaches and pain. We had a press conference today to speak out on his behalf. Unfortunately, he wasn't available

to be there due to his current condition. We will commend the D.C. Police Department, the chief, and the mayor, who stepped up to the plate and acknowledged that this was wrong. Mr. Johnson was struck multiple times. He wasn't combative by any means. And the officer struck him about nine times once he was pushed up against the fence. This is completely unacceptable. We're here in the District of Columbia, where it's supposed to be the symbol of democracy here, where the Constitution of the United States

actually document ladies. And then we have Metro officers. It's absolutely, completely disregarding Mr. Johnson's rights, Constitutional Civil Rights. So we are poised, ready to fight for accountability and justice. And let me be very clear. We want those officers terminated and prosecuted. Make no mistake about it, terminated and prosecuted. Because if it was you or I, we would be abundant in jail right now. Absolutely. prosecuted because if it was you or I, we would be abundant in jail right now. Absolutely, Attorney Daniels. So I saw the video. I saw Mr. Johnson, what happened,

and also a picture of his face as I was swollen. A lot has happened to him. Again, as I mentioned before, it was a traumatic incident. One of the questions I want to ask, just in this situation, and we see time and time again, innocent bystanders were the folks who had this camera, had their phones out and was recording this altercation or this instance. What about the body cameras? I know that there, was there any video of the officers who had body cameras in this instance of showing what happened? Yes, thereKA TURNER, Yes, there were. There is body cam video. In fact, Metropolitan Police Department officers are required to wear body cams. That was some legislation that was implemented just several years ago, just based on the tide of the country and making sure that officers are being accountable,

and that civilians do have access to that information if it's necessary in such circumstances like this one. And again, Brianna, you are a local council member? Yes, my name is Deanna Maria Lewis, and I'm local council with the district. Deanna. Thank you. I wanted to ask, one of the questions here is that we talk a lot about police reform and things happening, and that happens on the local level. What can people do as far as getting engaged on this local level to stop things like that from happening? I remember watching the police chief saying that this is not how we teach our officers to apprehend or arrest someone. This is over one—taking one gun off the street, but it resulted in a man getting brutally battered.

And it could have potentially been—at some point, it could have been deadly. YAMICHE ALCINDOR, First and foremost, I would like to commend Chief Conte of the Metropolitan Police Department. He's actually just recently assumed office over the last, I think, four to six months or so. And so what we do know that accountability and leadership starts with the top. And I think that here under these circumstances, Chief Conte was very swift to speak out. Mayor Bowser, mayor of the District of Columbia, was also swift to support and stand by Chief Conte's statements. And so in terms of what local residents can do is speak out,

continue recording, because the reality is this case has become such a big case because we had local civilians actually recording the actions of officers that they knew were, wasn't just not right. And without that footage, I mean, despite the fact that police officers wear body cams, we don't know where that footage would be, just to be honest. I mean, so the fact that, and we've seen this in a number of local cases, well, recent and local cases around the country, I should say, where it really was the body cam footage, not just the body cam footage, but the body cam footage and the recording footage taken by local civilians, local residents, who literally just saw something and stopped and was like, this is just not right.

And they recorded to make sure that the story was not lost. And in this case, that's exactly what happened. We have the story. We see what happened as it unfolded. And that is significantly paramount. DERRICK GARCIA, National Public Radio Network, And Chief Conte, he actually stated in his presser that the local concerned citizens who knew him sent him the video, the cell phone footage. So his own officers didn't provide video of the body counts.

But for those people that took cameras out and recorded, this probably never came to light. And just to add a pin to that point, that's also a very important point, because we need to have officers who are members of this community. We have Chief Conte, who is a native Washingtonian. I am a native Washingtonian. I live east of the river, right just not very far from where this incident occurred with Mr. Johnson. So it's important that we have our residents engaged, but it's important that our leaders listen to our residents as well. And the fact that our residents had access to Chief Conte

and were able to actually reach out to him to say, listen, this is not right. That really helped, I think, take a turn with this event. I also want to just open it up to our panelists really quickly who get an opportunity to talk to Attorney Daniels and Councilwoman Lewis really quickly. You all, let's weigh in and just ask these folks some questions about what's happening with the video that we see and what's moving forward with this situation. Who do you want to go first? I'll let Michael have the stage really quickly. Okay.

Attorneys, thanks for coming on. This is Mike Lemhotep of the African History Network show. I think Mike will have the stage really quickly. OK. All right, attorneys. Hey, thank... Attorneys, thanks for coming on. This is Mike Lemhotep of the African History Network show. I was reading about this case, and I understand it was an effort to get the guns off the street. And I was reading the statements from the police union as well. So if you could... Because I saw he was charged with possession of unregistered firearm carrying a pistol without a license, unlawful possession of ammunition, all that.

But the case was dismissed by U.S. Attorney's Office, and Johnson does not need to appear in court. So can you explain why the case was dismissed? What happened there? It seems like something's just wrong all over the place with this, OK? So can you explain once again why was the case dismissed? It could be a plethora of reasons why the case was dismissed. And I don't want to speculate, but in order to have a good case, you first need reasonable suspicion. Anything that's not done under the Constitution correct and reasonable suspicion wasn't there, then it's fruit of the poisonous tree here. Now, the position on an illegal gun, well, here, the reason of the officer's first

encounter was that they believed that Mr. Johnson was doing a drug transaction. First of all, no charge of any drugs whatsoever. And if he was doing a drug transaction, where's the drugs that you confiscated from him? Oh, the person who he was selling drugs to, that person should have been charged as well. In fact, in this case, make no mistake about it, the United States Attorney's Office dismissed all charges. It's a reason why a DA or prosecutorial entity dismissed charges. One, because there's no case here. And as we stand today, Mr. Johnson is innocent.

He has no charges. So in regards to what the police union says, I expect the police union to be the police union and say what they say. They say they supported the Walter Scott shooting down in South Carolina, Michael Brown, George Floyd. They're going to say they're going to protect the police. But we are here, Ms. Lewis and I, as protective citizens in this nation, and make sure when their rights are violated, we are in the gaps to ensure that their rights are not violated and one that their justice and accountability comes. OK, thank you, because that's what I was trying to figure out. I was like, OK, so what was the probable cause that it was a suspected drug transaction? And then I'm looking at the charges. There's nothing in here in the charges about possession of drugs or anything like that. That's what I was trying to figure out. Okay, thank you for that.

It don't take a rocket science to spot on. There's nothing there. Yeah, okay, thank you. All right, Brittany, do you have a question for Attorney Daniels and Councilwoman Lewis? Yeah, sure. She's a local attorney for Mr. Lewis. She's not a councilwoman. She's a local attorney for Mr. Lewis. She's not a counsel on me. She's a local attorney for Mr. Lewis. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Local. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Yeah. I guess my first question would be, you know, what do you think is going to be the officer's main defense here? Because clearly we have video footage showing kind of the violent way in which they were restraining him. You know. Are they going to go with the union statement here that the officers used a minimal amount of force to subdue a violent suspect? What are you anticipating? Well, here's the deal. The video speaks for itself. When you have a video, and thank God we have the video, that is the most objective evidence, light most favorable depicted by the video. Here, there is no question that Mr. Johnson's rights was violated. So the officers actually have been suspended, and they have been recommended for prosecution by the United

States Attorney's Office, and that's by their own chief, their own chief of police. So the chief, when he looked at his video, he was disgusted, ashamed, and embarrassed. That's his words, not ours. And it was completely inconsistent with any training. I used to be law enforcement myself. Nowhere in our academy of training that we would talk to an arresting suspect by beating him. So I don't believe it's defensible whatsoever. I'd be shocked. I'm sure they'll come up with something as a civil rights lawyer, but the video speaks for itself. And I'm going to let Ms. Lewis add on to it. And also, I just want to clarify a point. Defense, there are no criminal charges here. So there's not really a defense to be had. I mean, if we're talking about a defense that perhaps the police officer wants to raise,

if there's some sort of trout board here and here as a personnel matter, I mean, I think that might be a little different. So to speculate, sometimes I think we hear officers say that there was provocation, right, that the defendant or the suspect, because he wasn't actually defendant under these circumstances, but the suspect or the individual that was being encountered at the time, because I don't even know if there was really sufficient standing at this point in time to even cause him to be a suspect at this point, right? So perhaps the encounter, he was resisting arrest. I think we hear resisting arrest a lot. I think we hear assault on a police officer a lot, right? But the reality is someone being difficult to be arrested does not necessarily rise to the level of APO, assault on a police officer. It also doesn't necessarily rise to

the level of needing to use physical violence to de-escalate and apprehend even if it is a suspect, right? I think that we've seen numerous times, there's so many videos floating around social media as a D.C. resident. I vividly recall the January 6th attack on our Capitol, my home, where there were literally suspects who were able to just seamlessly be walked out of the Capitol building premises after there was an attack on my home Capitol. So I don't really know, quite frankly, what defense they will come up with. But I think, as Attorney Daniels said, the evidence, the video speaks for itself. I don't think that there's anything here that rises to the level of provocation. I think at the press conference

earlier today, there were some individuals asking about, well, wasn't there a ghost gun found? What we're talking about here today is Mr. Johnson's humanity, right? And the reality is, even if there was a gun found, even if he was in the act of committing a crime, it's about police training and de-escalation tactics as they are needed. And we have seen that depending on your color around this country, some people get the benefit of the doubt and others do not. Absolutely. Kelly, would you mind asking Attorney Daniels and also counsel,

what are their thoughts on this excessive force that we see clearly in this video with uh with their client you're asking me to ask them your question yes your question i'm just asking you can ask them a question so i'm saying this is excessive force give them a if you want am i asking a question well i i do have my own question and it's that's fine i answer both questions to the large—I'm sorry? We can answer both, though. He said he'll answer both questions. Sure.

I want to speak to the larger issue here that was just brought up regarding race relations. I am a D.C. native as well. I grew up in Northeast. I grew up in Brookland. I actually live, like, less than a mile away from my home, my childhood home. And something that I—and I moved back. So something that I've noticed upon moving back—I've been back home about, you know, four or five years now. And it's not hard to see, but the gentrification of this city, there's something to be said about the police relations amongst D.C. and Washingtonians now than before. It's almost like it's at the same time, in that you don't see this kind of behavior amongst police officers in

Upper Northwest. You don't see it in Georgetown. You don't even see it in Brooklyn. You see it in Anacostia, though. You see it in Congress Heights. You see it in Shaw. You see it in 8th Street Northeast and Benning Road. But it's where the Black people are being pushed out of the city that the imposition of police officers reside the most. So if you could comment on that and the fact that, frankly, in this situation specifically, no matter what this man was doing, arrest him like he's white, if that's your standard. If that's something that you can understand, arrest him like he's white, if that's your standard. If that's something that you can understand, arrest him like he's white. So just hopefully you understand what I'm saying. But if you could comment on those things, in addition to the excessive force point that the host just made. So I think the unfortunate reality is that race and economics often parallel. In those neighborhoods, one of which I actually live in,

that you named, oftentimes the community, there is a lot more diversity in some of these communities. And I think that people who do not live in these communities would know or understand. But the reality is that there's a perception that these communities don't have that economic diversity. Mr. Johnson is actually a college graduate of Savannah State. You know, this is a gentleman who has furthered his education,

you know, and who's looking to pursue a career with his accounting degree. And the reality is, based on the perception of what you look like, where you are at a particular time of day, the reality is, and I know you know this well, I went to public schools in D.C. I'm a DCPS public school product. And the reality is some of my friends like to hang out on the corners, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that there's any illegal, illicit, or criminal activity going on, right? It's just sometimes—

Right. It's a cultural thing. It's a cultural thing. It's absolutely a cultural thing. It's cultural. It's absolutely a cultural thing. And that's what gets me, not to cut you off, but just the fact that these officers are not culturally competent within the communities that they are supposed to be serving, that goes a long way regarding these interactions. If they knew the culture of the city, if they knew the culture of Anacostia, if they knew the culture of Congress Heights, if they knew the culture of Shaw and H Street and all of these wonderful, just cultural moments in this city, cultural spaces that are

dwindling because of said gentrification. And he wouldn't have to prove his humanity just by way of him being a college grad. He would just be a human being who's a Washingtonian hanging out with his friends on the corner. Absolutely. And I think to the point of gentrification, that's another reason why community policing is so important. The police officers who live in communities need to know the important. The police officers who live in communities need to know the individuals who are from or who live in those communities, irrespective of what their socioeconomic or educational class is. We should not have to qualify Mr. Johnson's humanity by saying that he's a college student, by saying that he has

a Calum degree. You know, it should just be sufficient that he is, that he in and of itself exists as a person. Because the reality is, if he was hanging out with some friends who may or may not necessarily look like those that he was hanging out with on that day in Georgetown, for example, the approach may not have been the same. The inquiry may not have been the same. It may not have even happened whatsoever. We see, if we go to Georgetown, if we go to the Palisades, if we go to various places around Kennedy Street Northwest and various upper and higher income boards in the district, that people like to hang out. It's not necessarily a race thing that people hang out on corners or hang out in front of streets. You know, there are literally individuals who are D.C. transplants who purchase properties and have garden parties in front of their homes or in their backyard.

Not to mention it's hot. And they're not being approached and encountered in a hostile and aggressive manner just by simply existing and having a good time. And not to kind of dispel anything that happened right after the encounter, because we do want to acknowledge that we are by no means trying to further or support the fact that there are ghost guns that exist in the District of Columbia. I think with the crime rate rising in the way that it is, we all can sit here and agree and acknowledge that that is an important all can sit here and agree and acknowledge that that is an important public safety issue and an important public safety concern. But that's not what we're talking about here today for the fact that there were no charges,

right? And even as I already said earlier, if there were charges, we are talking about the way in which Mr. Johnson was handled. And if he looked differently, if he was a white man, I mean, just to put it very blanketly, I highly doubt he would have been approached in that way, especially if he was standing there with a group of white males as well, socializing and fellowshiping on that afternoon. Couldn't agree more. I want to ask you guys a question really quickly because we mentioned how the bystanders, we have the video. And I automatically kind of trigger back to George Floyd how individuals were on the sidelines.

Now, there were individuals who were watching Mr. Johnson and they were saying, why are you hitting him in the face like that? And we could see trash cans and trash kind of pushed over. And then there's one officer who was in front of that situation, pushing the people off. Now, can there possibly be some type of police reform or legislation or anything that can allow the people to get involved. As we saw in this situation, people recognize that something was clearly wrong in what was happening there. Well, actually, the law in the district is that if you are being assaulted, even by law enforcement, you can use the amount of force equal to the assault here. Obviously, Mr. Johnson was being assaulted. He actually was punched twice, actually three times before he even tried to retaliate.

Then subsequently subdued and punched multiple times in the face by one particular officer. As a black man, when I watch that video, I'm disgusted. I want to help Mr. Johnson, you know, that's been there because he is getting pummeled by these officers. And these, he could have been easily killed, struck in the face multiple times. And I'm not condoning any violence by any means, but I can understand how those citizens,

the people who were there, got very emotional and upset. When you go back to George Floyd, I wish I was there to do something, do something. We saw what happened when you don't do anything. By any means, I'm not advocating any violence or anything. But a lot of people are tired. They're ready to, you know, do something different. I'm not condoning anything whatsoever because we need law and we need order. But at the same time, you cannot really get really upset at those individuals who was frustrated. They are frustrated people coming to their neighborhood, officers and police coming to their neighborhood

and harassing them. And when they see somebody in their neighborhood who look like them and somebody they know just getting assaulted over and over again, their emotions was high. So... Let me also add this. One thing about policing in the District of Columbia

and those individuals who are perhaps over-policed in the District of Columbia, they recognize police officers, right? I mentioned community policing, but the same is true that when you have police officers who do overly police in certain jurisdictions, in certain neighborhoods, they become familiar with one another, not to be confused with friendly with one another. They become familiar. And so, by virtue of them being able to recognize those officers, they know if they have had past patterns and practices of harassment. They know if a particular officer has had another encounter that perhaps was not filmed and was not reported or was not reported to the

Office of Police Complaints for their behavior and conduct. Some of this activity that individuals in these various over-policed neighborhoods is commonplace. And I think that is why you see so much rage and anger by the bystanders in those videos, because people are tired. I think people in the District of Columbia are not just tired. I think people around the country are tired. And that is why in the year 2020 and throughout, we saw the defund the police movement

all across various cities and states because people are literally crying out for help. People of all hues, colors, backgrounds, ethnicities, they are trying to figure out why can't we all just be treated equitably? And for that, it's not just black people who are angry. Everyone is getting angry because we are starting now to see that it's not just black and brown civilians who can potentially be overpoliced in this way and who can potentially be, you know, assaulted in this way. We are now starting to hear more and more stories of diverse individuals who do not

identify in the black and brown communities as having these egregious and sometimes deadly encounters with police officers. Brittany, would you mind asking Attorney Daniels and Ms. Lewis a question? Yeah. So, I mean, my question really is what next steps can we take? We as, you know, the Black community and the Brown community, we've been dealing with police brutality since the formation of policing, right, which was essentially to police us as commodity. We've gone through reforms. We've protested. We've added body cams. It certainly hasn't done anything really to change the realities in terms of like we are still run the risk every time we step outside of our house of being assaulted. So what more can we do? It's frustrating, right? Because as you just identified a full list of things we are currently

doing, it's almost like ad nauseum. We're trying to do everything that we can possibly do, and it still seems to not be enough. I think the reality, as I said earlier, is leadership starts with the top. And we have to, and the leaders at the top of these police departments, regardless if you're in D.C. or Timbuktu, they have to understand and step out and lead and say, this is unacceptable. And they have to offer the appropriate repercussions when these out-of-characteristic, outside-of-training, outside-of-the-scope-of-training behaviors and conducts occur that these leaders are alerted to. In terms of what civilians can do, I think you have to keep doing what you keep doing, right?

I think this is a situation, unfortunately, where you have to document and memorialize. Having recordings is paramount. I know it is tiring. I know you get tired of seeing on the news another Black man being harassed or violated or killed by a police officer. But it is because of these events, ever since Ferguson, I would say, that the tide is starting to slowly change. So keep on keeping on. Absolutely. And she said, do what you have to do, folks. I have my phone.

Press record. Let that be that documentation that you have. That way, you know, you're able to have an extra set of eyes. Because as we know, sometimes the stories don't always add up from what law enforcement relay back to the affidavit that we read. But we can all see it for our eyes that what happened to Mr. Johnson was, again, very excessive. And there was no crime there other than having that illegal firearm. But he could have been apprehended a much different way. I just want to thank our attorney, Daniels, for joining us. Ms. Lewis, thank you so much. Do you guys have any closing

statements that you want to just share with our audience about what happened to Mr. Johnson? Because this can happen to anyone. All right. So it looked like that froze for a second, but we're going to keep it moving. We have a story here out of North Carolina. This is Fred Cox. There's a federal suit again. So a North Carolina family files a federal lawsuit against the officer and the Davidson County Sheriff's Office for their 18-year-old son's death. Take a look at this video. Rowland spoke to Fred Cox's parents back in April. Last November, Cox was shot and killed by Deputy Michael Shane Hill at a funeral service

for Cox Jr. Now, shots rang out after the funeral. Now, police say Hill saw Cox with a handgun at the time he was shot four times. Now, Cox's family says that's not true. They claim Hill shot the team as he was holding a door for a mother and her 12-year-old son who were searching for cover. Now, Deputy Hill was at the service to contact potential witnesses in the killing of Thompson. Now, a grand jury decided not to indict Hill. Let's open this up to our panelists.

We have Michael Imhotep again, the host of the African History Network show, Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst, and Kelly Bethea, J.D., communications strategist. Who would you like to go first? Brittany, let's talk about just Mr. Cox's case. I mean, he's an 18 year old who was shot and killed at this funeral. And I know, I remember the attorney for this family is Benjamin Crump. And he was saying that, or excuse me, I'm sorry about that. I just, I'm sorry, Brittany, let's open it up to you for a second and just talk about this situation. Yeah, sure. I mean, per usual,

it's unfortunate. I want to say I'm surprised, but I'm never surprised with these types of cases. Our bodies are seen as threats and I feel like it is commonplace for officers to shoot first and to ask questions later. There are so many unanswered questions here. One of the things that I wish would really happen and I do think would make a difference is if we start holding these people, these police officers who are murdering members in our community, directly responsible for the payouts that have to happen. It frustrates me even more beyond losing another Black body to these types of situations. But we as taxpayers should not have to fund their racism, their poor judgment, and their mistakes. And I think if that was the case,

we would see a lot less of this. Really quickly, for our panelists, we're going to hold on really quickly. I want to bring Attorney Daniels back and Ms. Lewis to comment on this as well. You mentioned that police have a relationship with individuals who are in these communities. And when we say relationships, we use that term that it's not necessarily a cordial relationship, but they're familiar. Now, this individual, this law enforcement officer, was at the funeral investigating what happened. So there is some type of relationship that they know by the request of the family he was there. But then when the shots happen for Mr. Cox to be shot when this happens, I just want to talk about that relationship with law enforcement. So again, I'm sorry, let me just rephrase that question for you for a little bit more clarity. So the officer who was there at the funeral,

he was there by request of the family because he's investigating the crime. So when the shots happened, there was allegedly a drive-by shooting in the area. That's when all pandemonium broke out. And it seems as if the officer had a difficulty deciding what was an immediate threat and what wasn't and when Mr. Cox was being approached. Right. I'm actually very familiar with that case. I actually met Fred Cox's mother when I was, she actually came and supported the Andrew Brown family in Elizabeth City, North Carolina,

where Ben Krupp and I are co-counsel on that case. And I actually talked to Ben yesterday about Fred Cox's case, and I read the complaints. I'm very familiar with the facts in the case. And obviously, the officer, the investigator was there. One thing that the investigators at the funeral the whole entire time, after the repass celebration, repass service, Mr. Cox was actually outside inside his car in an air conditioner. And on the other side of the church, it was some type of drive-by gunfire. Mr. Cox actually tried to get a mother and her child in the church, in the backside of the church.

While Mr. Cox had his opening door, had his arm up in the air, not in the air, but holding the door open, the mom and the child went under his arm, investigated this open fire. There's no weapon found, no gun. He actually shot Mr. Cox, I think think four times, once in the neck, shoulder, hip, and actually shot the child as well. No justification whatsoever. He just

started shooting anybody who came in the church. And he actually knew Mr. Cox was there. So he had familiarity with Mr. Cox being at the funeral. Mr. Cox, at no time, his ex was there. He was a volunteer pallbearer for the deceased for the funeral. So the officer already knew that Mr. Cox was not a threat.

But he just started shooting. And that's that type of relationship where not familiar with the community. You know, one, you know this guy been at the funeral the whole time. You just opened fire and Mr. Cox ended up deceased. So I'm very familiar with the case. I met his family, great family. Ben and I talked about this case yesterday. So that's another case where in North Carolina, where complete disregard, and let's be blunt, let's be honest, black guys are out there shooting. The first black guy you see, you're going to shoot him. That's what happened. Right, right, right, right. And with this situation, I was reading this story and we

mentioned affidavits. Sometimes that doesn't always line up with what actually happens. But the mother of that child also has a legal representation and said there's no way that Cox could have had a gun while he was opening up that door. And they have to say this for themselves to prove he's innocent. And he no longer can speak for himself because unfortunately he's passed away now. But if I'm not mistaken, I believe I read the report that the FBI state their investigation in North Carolina concluded that Mr. Cox did not have a gun. So he did not have a gun. And I believe the officer involved in this situation, what could that have been? Should he, I mean, it was a request of the family member, family for him to be there. But at the same time, when all pandemonium breaks loose and you see the

first black man that you see, that's when there's a frenzy. There seems to be a fear when it comes to being in communities with black folks. Well, as myself, former law enforcement, and doing these types of cases, use of excessive force and Rolfe Delft cases, I stated I'm one of the attorneys in Andrew Brown's case. We do cases all over. And I actually have been on rolling talking about Mr. Brown's case. Do cases all over the nation. When you look at these cases, you talk about reasonableness, objective reasonableness at the time, and the officer's eyes and what he saw.

Well, there's no reason for an officer that's open fire on somebody just open the door. We are trained to assess the situation and see before the decision is made. Just because the door was opening doesn't mean that a salient who was outside shooting was coming in the church. And there was, it was no reasonableness whatsoever. Like you said, Mr. Mr. Cox, he was a hero. He saved a child and a mother from crossfire outside of church. He didn't expect to come into church, come into the house of the Lord with safety to get killed as he was trying to bring people in the church. And the reason was objective reason for this. I don't believe this cop have any leg to stand on whatsoever.

It was completely unreasonable, substantial, reckless. And what he engaged in, he was on duty as an investigator. He was invited there to the funeral to speak to possible witnesses who he was trying to track down and hope that they would be at a funeral. And he ended up shooting and killing a complete innocent man. And justice was Fred Cox. I know Ben and the other attorneys on it, they're going to work very hard to get justice for this family. The district attorney, he presented the case to a grand jury.

Unfortunately, it came back with a no bill. But at least the grand jury attempted to try to get an indictment. To say a lot of other DAs don't even bring it to the grand jury. So it's a long way, a long road to go, but they're going to get justice for Ms. Cox and his family. All right, I want our panelists to weigh in on this as well. Michael, we'll just start with you because I know you got some good questions to ask Attorney Daniels and also Ms. Lewis. Well, in reviewing this case here, I was trying to figure out why did Officer Hill think that Brother Cox had a gun, number one, and then number two, because when you look at this, the attorney for

Cox's family said it's impossible for him to have a gun because he was holding the door open with one hand and waving people in the door to the church with the other hand. So what made the officer think he had a gun? I mean, he didn't have three arms. So what made him think he had a gun? And then you said there was no gun found. I'm not reading anything that was a gun found on him, anything like this. So why wasn't the officer charged? I mean, I know the grand jury, you said no true bill. But wait a second.

You just killed somebody who was innocent. And you said you thought they had a gun, and they didn't have a gun. It's not like they had a cell phone in their hand, and it looked like a gun. You just killed somebody who was who was innocent. And you said that you said you thought they had a gun and they didn't have a gun. It's not like they had a cell phone in their hand and it looked like a gun. I'm missing something here. So I think this is kind of a two part issue and a two part question. Right. I think first and foremost, I think historically we have seen that black people, just by virtue of the color of their skin, are not giving the benefit of the doubt. And that, for whatever reason, there is more fear against darker skin than lighter skin. I think that's just what we see.

And that's called implicit bias. And so you ask, why was it essentially this fear-mongering? And it's because of the color of his skin. I think that that, just for whatever reason, Black people just seem to be more scary to certain people and certain populations. And unfortunately, there's an implicit bias that permeates some law enforcement departments that recognizes unconsciously that implicit bias, but they do not at the of action, understand how to unpack it. And therefore, they result in egregious conduct. So the second part of your question is,

why was there no bail return? And perhaps that's because at the time, based on the evidence that was presented to the grand jury, it was found that the officer's impression or state of mind at the time that he took the action, there was no intent, there was no legal mens rea to rise to the level that would create a crime, a criminal crime to be charged against the officer. And so really you have to understand what occurs at the grand jury. And at the grand jury level, it's a one-sided presentation of evidence. And the reality is officers, they do live and they live through and they have a very dangerous job. And you have to almost, there's a level, I think, of sympathy

that some grand jurors have to police officers and law enforcement in general, just by virtue of the fact that they are in a very dangerous profession. And some grand juries are a little hesitant and reluctant to make and bring charges against or find charges against a law enforcement officer if at the time, despite the implicit bias here, right, and despite the fact that it seemed to be a motivation of racial animus, but at the time, you have to think, was the intent to kill? And that seems that the grand jury did not find that. Okay, thanks. I want to give Kelly and then Brittany an opportunity to talk.

Kelly, would you mind just asking a question to our experts? Sure. With both of these cases, the parallel being, the commonalities rather being, you know, both basically minding their business and living their lives before it was rudely interrupted by a covertly racist white cop or implicitly biased cop, whether they were white or not, is irrelevant. What do you—for either of these cases, if you know, what are the next steps for these families as far as reconciliation beyond just civil suits and possible criminal charges being brought? Like, is there, I always wondered outside of the moms, you know, like Trayvon Martin's mother and the other group of mothers who basically have

their own support. Is there something, a group, a program, an initiative that we could possibly know about to help the families of the fallen, because it'll be a collective effort for all of us to heal, especially the families that it is most impacted by. Well, to answer that question, I know that Ms. Sabrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, has an organization when mothers of men or children have been lost or police violence or unlawfully taken. I don't know exactly the organization. Our listeners probably can Google that and find out. That is a fraternity or a group that you do not want to be a part of by any stretch of imagination. When you, in these cases, as a civil attorney, I'm not a prosecutor, I'm a civil prosecutor, but one thing that I pride myself on is going through what we call discovery, uncovering

evidence, and giving that information over to the Department of Justice, United States Attorney's Office, district attorney, as such, and bring accountability not just to the person who's accused, but those who are in charge of prosecuting. And one thing I can tell the listeners that if your local elected official do not exercise their oath or duty bound, then you can get rid of them, vote them out. And you should, because one thing I would tell you is that you never know when it's going to come knocking on your door. A lot of people are, hey, it's out of sight, out of mind. This is what happened to Mr. Johnson. This stuff that happened in Southeast Anaconda, it happened all the time.

But it can happen in Northwest. It can happen in Georgetown. It can happen anywhere, as you can see across this nation. We represent people all over the United States. And the first thing, a lot of times where clients that we retain our services, I thought this could never happen to me. I thought this could never happen to me. It can happen to anybody. And redress, you know, one thing we go into court and yeah, they seek monetary damages, especially

in this situation. Mr. Cox, his mom never see him get married or have a child. Those things are very painful, hurtful. And no, no matter what, I guarantee you, and I met

Fred Cox's mother, you cannot give her every dollar in the world. She want her son back. Obviously, we cannot do that. But at least we can try to bring some comfort. So one less thing she would have to worry about. It's not about amnesty. It's not about money. But in this society, as a civil attorney, that's the only thing that we can bring to her.

But at the same time, we can bring accountability. We can bring awareness, educate people to get involved in the community, activists to get involved in voting, to be a part of the community that they live in. So you don't have to be the next Fred Cox. You don't have to be the next Johnson, the next Andrew Brown. And the list goes on and on. Reverend Sharpton said something very profound. One of the hardest things for him to do, one of the most difficult things that he's had to do in his profession

as a reverend and a preacher is giving eulogy for a negro who had an opportunity to do something and did nothing then very profound and very true it's so it's the same see something say something do something say something absolutely thank you so much attorney daniels and miss lewis i know we said um i wanted britney to ask a question but we're about two minutes out Absolutely. Thank you so much, Attorney Daniels and Ms. Lewis. I know we said I wanted Brittany to ask a question, but we're about two minutes out. But I wanted to just thank you all for being on the show and thank you for being advocates, just social justice leaders and representing these families, again, who are grieving. And it takes a strong individual in order to be that support system for individuals who are going through.

Right now, I want to bring our panelists back up and just to say a thank you to them as well for coming on to the show and weighing in and asking some really great questions. We have Michael Imhotep. He is the host of the African History Network show. Michael, thank you so much. Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst. Thank you so much. And we also have Kelly Bethea, J.D. communication strategist.

Y'all, I appreciate y'all sticking with the girl, Misha. It's hard to feel Uncle Roro's shoes, but I'm happy I was able to be here today. I'm just happy that you all were able to just bring the funk and bring the details and the information that people so desperately need. And I'm happy that we have all these lights who are able to shine and inform the folks. So I just want to thank you for that. Again, thank you for joining us here on the Royal Imagine Unfiltered show here. If you would like to support us, we'll show you how you can do that. You can continue to bring the stories that matter to you. Here's a graphic that we have to show you how you can donate and contribute to Black

media because Black media matters. Rolo will be back to host in the seat on Monday. I'm Amisha Ramsey, and it has been swell. It's been fun. I'm exhausted. Uncle Rolo, we can't wait till you get back. But again, as always, have a good week. And, you know, again, show your support.

And again, don't forget to bring the funk. All right. Take care, y'all. Thank you. We'll see you next time. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

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