#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fulton Co. Ga Jail Deaths, Fani Willis' Scathing Letter to Jim Jordan, Maximus Strike Threat
Episode Date: September 8, 20239.7.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fulton Co. Ga Jail Deaths, Fani Willis' Scathing Letter to Jim Jordan, Maximus Strike Threat While the Department of Justice is actively investigating the Fulton Co...unty, Georgia, jail over its conditions and treatment of inmates, more inmates are dying. Ten dead inmates so far this year. One of the latest inmates, Samuel Lawrence, died days after he filed a handwritten prisoner civil rights complaint about the conditions and abuse by the guards. We'll talk to the Lawrence family attorney about what the independent autopsy revealed. Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis claps back at Rep. Jim Jordan in responding to the congressman's demand that she turn over her communication records with Justice in the election case. We will dissect her 9-page letter. A Black Pittsburgh lawyer is suing a judge for jailing him for not following his orders to negotiate a civil lawsuit. Former NFL football player Walter Bernard will be here to tell us what happened. Contract employees at the federal government's largest call center threaten to strike during federal insurance renewal unless they get higher wages and better benefits. We'll talk to a few of the Maximus employees about their demands. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.
I'm Max Chastin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.
So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops.
They get asked all the time,
have you ever had to shoot your gun?
Sometimes the answer is yes.
But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Glott.
And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.
Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.
This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.
This kind of star-studded 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. It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Today is 30 September 7, 2023.
Coming up on Roller Park,
not a filter streaming live on the Black Star Network.
While the Department of Justice is actively investigating
the Fulton County, Georgia jail over its conditions
and treatment of inmates, more inmates are dying.
Ten have died so far this year.
One of the latest, Samuel Lawrence,
died days after he filed a handwritten
prisoner of civil rights complaint
about the conditions and abuse by the guards.
We'll talk to the Lawrence family attorney
about what the independent autopsy revealed.
Georgia D.A. Fonny Willis claps back
at Congressman Jim Jordan in responding
to the Congressman's demand that she turn over
her communication records with Justice Department officials
in her election fraud case.
We will show you her nine-page letter.
A black Pittsburgh lawyer is suing the judge
for jailing him for not following his orders
to negotiate a civil rights lawsuit.
Former NFL football player
Walter Bernard will be here to tell us
exactly what happened.
Contract employees at the federal government's
largest call center threatened a strike
during federal insurance renewal
unless they get higher wages
and better benefits.
We'll talk to a few of the Maximus employees
about their demands.
Also, Pete Navarro, yep, he going to jail.
He was found guilty today for contempt of Congress.
And the SBAA program is in jeopardy
after a white woman sues complaining
that she was unable to apply
even though she got $4 million in contracts from a women's suicide program.
I told y'all what these white folks had planned.
It's time to bring the funk on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.
Let's go.
He's got whatever the piss he's on it.
Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. Let's rolling. Yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's rolling Martin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Rolling with rolling now.
Yeah.
He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know.
He's rolling Martin now. What the hell is going on in the Fulton County Jail this year?
Ten inmates have died in that jail.
The DOJ has opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in that jail, citing violence, filthy conditions, and the death last year
of a man whose body was found covered in insects.
Recently, Samuel Lawrence was found unresponsive in his cell at the jail on August 26,
days after he filed a lengthy handwritten prisoner civil rights complaint
regarding the conditions and abuse by prison guards.
I am in a cell in isolation with no water, no working toilet.
I'm sleeping on a hard metal floor, and then they decreased my food.
Lawrence later died at Greater Memorial Hospital.
The coroner has not released Lawrence's cause of death.
However, his family had an independent autopsy and found disturbing marks on his body.
Joining me now is Sheba Terrell, the Lawrence family attorney, as well about the story of the family. We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the
story of the family.
We will talk about the story of the family. We will talk about the story of the family. We will talk about the Sheba, can you hear me? Sheba, can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Kenneth Muhammad.
My apologies.
Kenneth Muhammad.
Kenneth, can you hear me?
I'm here.
I hear you.
And thank you for having me on. So what did this independent autopsy reveal?
Well, so far we have evidence that he was the victim of a physical assault.
There are injuries to his chest. Well, so far we have evidence that he was the victim of a physical assault.
There are injuries to his chest.
There are bite marks that show that they were made within a week of the time of his death.
And they were also able to confirm that he had eaten food within two hours of dying.
We have just this preliminary information from the private autopsy, but we're awaiting final autopsy reports from the county as well as from the private autopsy that was received by the
family. And so how long after he passed away was his autopsy done?
Kenneth?
Well, the date of death was August 26th. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Go ahead.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
He died on Saturday, August 26th.
And the county actually began within the day, the next day, from the information that we received.
So it was pretty quick that we started, you know, that they started the process at the county.
I can't tell you the exact date that the independent autopsy began, though.
We have several family members here, and so I need to know who's the one person going to be speaking.
What I'm curious about is he wrote this letter when he was talking to family members.
When was the last time y'all communicated with him, and what did he say about the conditions?
Last time he talked to his grandmother is when, two weeks before his death,
is when he shared some things that was going on in the jail.
So two weeks before his death. And what did he share?
Told her that the officers and the inmates were abusing and terrorizing him and bullying him.
And that was in a phone call to his grandmother?
That was in a phone call to his grandmother? That was in a phone call to his grandmother.
What was he in jail for?
He was in jail for arson, alleged arson.
And was he, was bail given?
Was he unable to make it?
What happened there?
Was not given until, they said April.
We did not know that he had a bail.
So how long was he in the Fulton County Jail?
From December 26th.
So he was in the Fulton County Jail for eight months?
Eight months, yes.
Kenneth, as I said, the DOJ is investigating,
and what's disturbing here is, I mean, it's not usual for 10 people to die in a county jail,
and I mean, this isn't even a full year. Right, yeah. If we back up,
part of my practice is criminal defense.
I handle civil rights cases, but I also handle criminal defense.
I have clients that are in the Fulton County Jail now saying to me all of the different things that are going on to them where they are fearful for their lives. So one of the things that's happening is inmates are able to access other inmates' cells.
And so one of the things that Samuel reported was that a group of inmates actually popped open the door to his cell on one instance, and an altercation ensued at that point.
And in the written report that he gave, he indicated that he suffered a bite mark at that time.
Now, the autopsy report
is showing that there's evidence of bite marks. So that's showing that the report that he gave,
the written report that he gave is... You have instances where reports are given to deputies about attacks and the deputies doing nothing.
You have reports of deputies themselves assaulting inmates.
Samuel reported that he was the victim of excessive force on multiple occasions.
On one instance, he was handcuffed, and while handcuffed, he was improperly pepper sprayed, kicked and stomped.
As I indicated, I've been dealing with issues with regard to safety at the Fulton County Jail
from a number of my clients over the last months. There is another young man named Monte Stinson who died on just August 1st of 2023.
And the circumstances surrounding his death are where the officers actually reported that he was counted in his cell alive.
But when some information came about the time of his death, it showed that he would have had to have already been dead at the time that they reported that he was alive.
You have after Samuel's death, you have another death that took place just a few days later
on August the 31st.
And so what it looks like is... attacking it, which people are attacking these are overlooking these incidents and deputies
themselves from some reports are actually attacking inmates also. So in these situations,
what we have to do is, you know, gather all of the evidence, see what the autopsy reports show,
and hold the county accountable. But there are things that the county can do to remedy these situations. And in all of these instances involving law enforcement, whether it's inside
of custody or outside of custody, there is the technology with regard to cameras, you know, really put us in a situation where a lot of these things that people are suffering don't need to happen.
So there shouldn't be one square inch in the Fulton County Jail outside of the cells themselves where 24 hours a day, if something is reported to have happened, it isn't able to be seen on some video recording.
There should be monitoring of all the different corners of the jail at all times.
So the question I have for his family members, have you all communicated with elected officials, Fulton County commissioners?
I mean, the reality is you have the sheriff there, but they also oversee the jail.
And so have y'all had any communication with elected officials?
No.
No.
They have not reached out at all.
No.
Okay.
He talked with the chaplain, but that's it.
That's it.
All right.
Well, we certainly are sorry for your loss.
This is another one of the troubling stories coming out of Fulton County,
and we'll certainly keep our eye on this story.
Thank you so very much.
Kenneth Muhammad, thank you as well.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me?
I just wanted to reiterate back on the private autopsy that the family paid for was done August 30th.
Got it.
Okay.
We certainly appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Folks, got to go to a break.
We come back.
We'll have more on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network.
Back in a moment.
President Biden has delivered for black America.
More funding for black entrepreneurs.
Millions of new good paying jobs.
He's lowering the cost of medications and the cost of living.
Joe Biden is delivering for us.
And that's the facts.
When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,
you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.
This is a genuine people-powered movement.
A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it.
And you spread the word.
We wish to plead our own cause
to long have others spoken for us.
We cannot tell our own story
if we can't pay for it.
This is about covering us.
Invest in Black-owned media.
Your dollars matter.
We don't have to keep asking them
to cover our stuff.
So please support us in what we do, folks.
We want to hit 2,000 people.
$50 this month. Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money
makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.
The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.
Zelle is Roland at Rolandsmartin.com.
Next on The Black Tape with me, Greg Carr. What do Deion Sanders, a lawnmower, and the phenomenon
of invisible labor all have in common? They're all now part of, shall we say, a colorful
lore at our historically black
colleges and universities.
Our Master Educator Roundtable convenes to
explain it all as we explore the good,
the bad, and the downright ugly
of one of the black America's
national treasures. That's next
on The Black Table, right here
on The Black Star Network.
Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman.
Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer
of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show.
It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching,
Roland Martin Unfiltered.
All right, folks, welcome back to the show.
Introducing my panel on today, Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University.
Reesey Colbert hosts the Reesey Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio out of D.C., along with Victoria Burke, Black Press USA, all into Virginia.
I'll start with you, Greg.
It is crazy to me that 10 people dying in a jail in a year has not attracted more attention.
This goes to show you how there is this thought process in this country
where people who are in jail, who are being held,
people who have yet to even go to trial are seen as afterthoughts in America.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you know, we're going to continue to say this as the numbers.
A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives
in small ways.
Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.
But the price has gone up.
So now I only buy one.
The demand curve in action.
And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.
I'm Max Chavkin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.
Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,
taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.
But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,
and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,
even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops, and 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.
Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion- dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,
Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st
and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.
Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.
Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.
Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.
We have this misunderstanding
of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.
Benny the Butcher.
Brent Smith from Shinedown.
We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.
What we're doing now isn't working
and we need to change things.
Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Continue to swell the people who are paying attention not only to this case, but to this platform, that this is why independent, hard-hitting, Black-owned, Black-controlled,
Black-story-anchored media, news media, is invaluable.
If this were 10 white people dead in a jail, I suspect there would be a lot more noise
around this.
We all remember and are familiar with the name Kalief Browder and what happened to him
on Rikers Island.
But when you start talking about double digits of people dying in short order, and when Attorney
Muhammad then named Monte Stinson, who made transition on the 1st of August, and then another death on the 31st of August, sandwiched between Lawrence's death, you know, this brings really into focus the fact that the Eighth Amendment is just words on a piece of paper.
What is cruel and unusual punishment?
What is false imprisonment or holding somebody without giving them access to bail?
The family couldn't even say.
As you said, this man was in prison for eight months, and the family couldn't even determine
when he was eligible for or had, in fact, been eligible for bail.
So we're talking about a situation where it's the Wild West.
Prisoners having access to other rooms? Is there a conspiracy going on? What are the range of charges? Is there criminal behavior? Is there neglect? In other words, you've got a situation where people are being punished. This is capital punishment. I thought the Eighth Amendment meant something, but apparently not in the state of Georgia and less and less in the United States of America.
But the thing here, Lauren, when I think about when Jay-Z's Roc Nation, Tamika Mallory,
Rekia Lumumba and others, when they were protesting in Mississippi, this Parchman prison, later there was a documentary that was actually done about this as well.
I mean, very similar conditions.
And again, what I'm looking at is I just don't see there being a lot of attention being played to what's happening there in Fulton County.
Obviously, lots of attention when Trump and 18 others were were indicted and other stories along those lines. But literally,
10 folks are dead this year. And it's sort of like, hmm.
That's right. And the reason for that is, of course, deeply political. Politicians get elected
saying that they want to lock people up and throw away the key. Politicians make money,
raise money, get elected, talking tough on crime. Politicians get elected on the war on drugs. The
whole atmosphere of bragging about being tough on crime has gotten a lot of politicians, Democrat,
Republican, elected. So people who are incarcerated have nobody to stand
up for them in the political realm. There's nobody. It would have to be an activist. There's
very few politicians who will get out there and stand up for the rights of people who are
incarcerated. The fact that in most jurisdictions, they can't vote. State of Florida, you can't vote
even after you're out. Virginia,
the same thing, effectively, you know, if you have a felony record, you can't get your
right to vote back. Nobody cares about this constituency. We had somebody who was a homeless
woman who was 73 years old die in Arlington, Virginia, last week, 73-year-old homeless person
that died in the jail, one of many in Virginia.
And, of course, this Fulton County situation is outrageous. But who is going to stand up for
these people? We are a country who doesn't care about poor people. We don't care about homeless
people. We have no policy for people who have no money. And these politicians out here have no real
answers. And while we send billions overseas to do whatever in whatever other country,
these problems get worse and they grow.
But the issue of incarceration and the war on drugs is what drives this moment
where you could have 10 people die at the same facility and nobody do anything about it.
To me, Recy, it's not enough to wait for the DOJ.
What the hell the Fulton County Commissioner is doing? Well, I know what one is doing.
One is spending her time in court because she had an affair with her chief of staff. And then she
allegedly put a tracking device on his car after they broke up. So we know what she's doing.
But what the hell these, I mean, if you are a Fulton County commissioner,
your ass should be telling the sheriff,
how in the hell are you not doing a massive check on this jail?
In fact, those commissioners should themselves be going through that jail
and examining the conditions there.
I agree.
Absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day,
these are people that are not in there for life sentences, except for the fact that they end up dying due to inhumane conditions. And so for the sake of public safety, you think people will be
invested in making sure that people who are eventually going to reenter the population will do so without the
trauma and the horrors that they've been inflicted upon being in prison. But I think as a society,
we haven't decided what real punishment means and what kind of rights people deserve,
the level of humanity people deserve, even while they are incarcerated.
People are very much indifferent to that because people are more concerned about, you know,
dodging bullets or dodging whatever kind of crime people perceive to be surging in their areas.
And so this is really a stand on our entire society and how we treat people to get to
the point to where people are locked up. A lot of people
are incarcerated on pretrial detention because of the bail laws and a lack of reform there.
And so this is a multi-pronged issue. But I saw that the sheriff's statement was about
underfunding for the jail and needing new facilities. I don't think this is as much
a facility issue as it is a humanity issue and a willpower to actually do something about the level of incarceration we have in Fulton County specifically, but in this country in general.
I'm going to buy an iPad to control them. This is what I want. I want to call every single one of these commissioners, and I want to see who has the guts to come on this show tomorrow. And so Rob Pitts, he's the chair. He's black. You got Bridget Thorne, Bob Ellis, Dana Barrett,
a black woman, Natalie Hall, a black man, Marvin Arrington Jr., a black woman, Khadija Abdur-Rahman.
Call every single one of them, and also call the sheriff, because they should be supplying
some answers as to what the hell is going on there in Fulton County. This makes no sense to me. You already have a person who died covered by covered
by insect bites. OK, you've got this guy complaining about no water. Well, they should be doing a check
and seeing do you have running water in every single damn prison cell? What's going on with working toilets? This is real basic. And if you
have these allegations of abuse by prison guards, where in the hell is Governor Brian Kemp? Where
in the hell is the Attorney General? Oh, the Attorney General, the Republican Attorney General
in Georgia had time to have 61 RICO indictments to indict 61 people regarding Stop Cop City. But why are
Republicans so silent about this here? If the sheriff's complaining, well, it's about budget
cuts. Okay, what's the number? What do you need? What are you asking the commissioner's court?
What are you asking the state for? Somebody should have some damn answers because it simply isn't natural for 10 people to die
in a jail in a year and there's no code red, you know, DEFCON 5 when it comes to political
leadership.
This is absolutely weak leadership and this should not be the case and commissioners should
be saying to the sheriff, we bet not see another person die in this damn jail because this is makes no sense whatsoever this to be is on par with
parchment in mississippi and again people are way too quiet there in atlanta area in fulton county
uh and it needs to be dealt with and these commissioners need to step the hell up
that's what needs to happen.
Because it literally makes no sense
whatsoever. Alright, folks, hold tight
one second. We're going to go to break. We come back
more. Peter Navarro
defied a congressional subpoena.
Now he's going to get sentenced
in January.
So we've got that going on. Also, some
workers in Mississippi over the
largest federal government call center are demanding a new contract,
saying they're going to strike unless they get better wages and benefits.
There was a protest today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Congressman Benny Thompson, Derek Johnson, NAACP, many folks spoke there.
And we'll show you some of that and talk to those employees right here on rolling mark down filters on the black star network on the next get wealthy with me deborah owens america's
wealth coach black women are starting businesses at the fastest rate than any other segment. However, finding the funding to build them is challenging.
On our next Get Wealthy,
we're going to talk with author, Katherine Finney,
who wrote the book, Build the Damn Thing.
And she's going to be sharing exactly what we need to do
to achieve success in spite of the odds.
As an entrepreneur of color,
it's first, you know,
building your personal advisory board.
I think that's one of the things
that's helped me the most.
The personal advisory board
of the people who are in the business of you,
you personally,
and want to see you succeed.
That's right here on Get Wealthy,
only on Blackstar Network.
Next, right here on The Frequency, the woman they call the gifted eye, hip hop celebrity photographer Kory Soldier.
She's the master storyteller that captured the history of hip hop through the lens of her camera.
Tupac comes out, the next thing you know, you didn't know who they were at first.
You just seen all these dudes just come rushing the stage.
Then you realize,
Biggie gets a bottle of champagne, he pops it open,
sprays it on the crowd, he drinks the bottle.
Horry Soldier, the hip-hop celebrity photographer,
joining me right here in the next episode
of The Frequency on the Blackstar Network.
I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture.
The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me.
We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey,
we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into.
It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network.
A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding,
but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.
The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on
Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,
taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.
But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,
and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,
even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain.
I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.
So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops, and 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.
Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley
comes a story about what happened
when a multi-billion dollar company
dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1.
Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Glod.
And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.
We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus
King, John Osborne from Brothers
Osborne. We have this misunderstanding
of what this
quote-unquote drug
man. Benny the Butcher.
Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real
from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer
Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Karamush.
What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.
Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive
content, subscribe to Lava for Good
Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Hatred on the streets. A horrific
scene. A white nationalist rally
that descended into deadly violence.
On that soil, you will not replace us!
White people are losing their damn lives.
There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.
We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.
We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting.
I think what we're seeing is the
inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of
color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory
University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo
Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.
Here's all the Proud Boys guys.
This country is getting increasingly racist
in its behaviors and its attitudes
because of the fear of white people.
The fear that they're taking our jobs,
they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.
This is white people.
Hey, what's up? Keith Turney in a place to be.
Got kicked out your mama's university,
creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays,
an air hip hop comedy.
But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered,
uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable.
You hear me?
About a month ago, Maximus reached out to our office and they wanted to have a meeting.
I said, I don't have any reason to meet with you.
The only reason why I would meet with you if you had workers at the table,
you've signed an agreement with them to increase their pay to ensure they had medical health care
and a quality of work life that all individuals should be entitled to.
For the NAACP, let's be clear. When you strike,
we will be here with you to recognize that the reason why we exist as an organization
is because they was trying to exploit black workers for cheap labor. The reason why we
were created as an organization, because they exploited black folks for free labor we call
slavery. And at the end of the day day the right of workers is the right of all
citizens to be able to collectively bargain and we must do that with in
solidarity now as we stand here in this hot Sun and a parking lot but find us
that's full we need you to give to give your coworkers courage to ensure that they are willing to stand with you.
Derek Johnson, president of the NAACP, speaking at a rally today of employees of Maximus there in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Employees there, the government's largest call center, they're threatening to strike unless they get higher wages and better benefits.
They went on strike for a single day in June.
They made it clear at this rally that they will not go to work when it's time to renew federal health benefits if their demands are not met.
Here is some more of the speakers from today's event.
Today we're standing together to put Maximus on notice that workers are prepared to go
on strike during the Medicare and Affordable Care Act open enrollment period unless Maximus
addresses their demands. Let me repeat that. So I want to make sure that they hear me and
that y'all hear me. We are prepared and we will go on strike during the Medicare and
Affordable Care Act open remote enrollment period unless Maximus addresses their demands.
And I'm here to deliver a message to you, Maximus workers, that I and all of CWA,
I, as your newly elected international president, have your back.
And I will stand with you in your fight for living wages, affordable health care, for a real voice on the job, and for racial and economic justice.
When we fight, we win.
When we fight, we win.
When we fight, we win.
We are going to win in the end.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
I came a long way to be with workers who want to make a difference in the workplace.
But, you know, you want to be respected in the workplace.
And so for a guy who doesn't represent this area, but I identify with your mission. I identify because
all you want is the ability to organize and choose the right to have representation in the workplace.
And that's what you're doing here at Maximus, and I support you for that. More importantly, for those of you who go to work every day,
you expect to be respected and paid a fair wage.
Not just a living wage, but a fair wage.
Now, what does that mean?
In order to get what you want, you're
going to have to stick together.
And this is part of the process.
This company makes $2 billion a year of federal
contracts, and they can't pay you better than what they're paying you now? You know, you give
people a raise, then you raise the deductible. You give them a raise, then you raise the contribution
for the health care. That's not, you know, that's smoking mirrors
because that doesn't put anything on the table. So part of the reason I'm here is to let you know
that there are a lot of people who don't live in the Hattiesburg area who are with you. There are
a lot of people who understand this cause. But in unity, there's strength. You have to
stick together.
Folks, joining us right now are a couple
members of the Maximus Organizing Committee.
Sylvia Walker from
Bogalusa, Louisiana, and Catherine Charles
from Tampa. Glad to have both of you here.
I'll start with you, Sylvia.
So for folks who don't
know, explain
what do y'all actually do?
I am at Maximus, and I'm a dual, what's called a dual.
I work for the Affordable Care Act, signing people up for insurance.
And I also work for Medicare.
So when folks are calling about the Affordable Care Act regarding benefits, you're one of
the folks they're talking to walking them through what it means?
Yes, I am.
Got it.
Along with others.
We're completing applications, answering questions, assisting them with whatever they need when
they're wanting to sign up or have questions
about are they eligible to sign up. How about you, Catherine? Hi. I've been working for Maximus for
nine years now. I work for Marketplace, which is the Affordable Care Act. I do not do Medicare.
So I do help people with enrolling into health insurance, assisting them understand how health insurance works, if they have any problems with the insurance company, their insurance gets canceled, or any questions that they have.
That is what I am responsible for teaching my fellow CSRs or representatives that are new on the floor and they don't know how to find a script, where to look for, if they don't know how to read an escalation or how to do an escalation, I'm there to do that. I also take Tier 1 calls as well as Tier 2 calls as well as supervisor calls.
So when the consumer called and asked for a supervisor, I'm the one answering those calls.
So you're focusing on pay and other benefits.
So, Sylvia, what is the pay like and what are y'all asking for?
We're asking for a wage that we could live on.
The pay is not good.
As you can hear from what I said previously,
I'm working two jobs and being paid for one job.
Now, what are they doing?
Are they paying hourly?
Are they paying salary?
What are they paying?
And what's the average wage of workers?
Okay.
So the customer service representative, and that's what I am.
I my salary is about seventeen dollars an hour.
And there are some that make a little bit less from what I understand.
And then there are others that make a little bit more. And so you're putting a lot on your plate to provide the services that are
needed for our community, people in our community, our communities, and then we're not being paid for
that. No customer service representative that works for Maximus should be concerned about how they're going to pay the rent,
how they're going to eat, how they're going to manage their home if they have to get sick
or if they get sick. So that's a problem. When you have us working, we're doing our best to
serve our community, to do the job to the fullest of our abilities, and then we're not paid. We're doing our best to serve our community, to do the job to the fullest of our abilities.
And then we're not paid.
We're in the food line pantry, food pantry line.
That makes no sense.
How many hours are you working per day?
We work eight hours a day and have a 10 hour day.
And Catherine, how many employees are we talking about?
Oh, it's a lot.
In Tampa, Florida, and here in Tampa, we have thousands of employees.
Most of those employees are females, single mothers like me.
For bilingual representatives like me, the base pay pay is 18.70 a month
and i'm sorry i'm sorry you mean uh you mean an hour an hour yeah okay got it got it all right
so y'all so sylvia you said about 17 uh you said the base pay but was it being bilingual about 18
70 um what are y'all asking for What are you asking it be raised to?
Sylvia, you first.
$25 an hour.
That's more like it.
$25 an hour.
And what else are you asking for, for Maximus?
We're asking for better benefits.
Our deductibles are high, and we can't afford these deductibles. If you don't go
to the doctor or use your health care often, if you're just getting the basic
office visit, wellness visit, we can't pay that deductible. How much is it? And then pay for the visit. How much is it? I think it's $2,500.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
$2,500?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Wow.
That is, so for that office visit, you're paying $2,500.
Well, they can ask you to pay the deductible along with the visit.
Right.
Yeah, they can ask you for that.
A provider can ask that.
Wow.
The way the insurance is set up is that you have to meet the deductible first.
I work teaching people about deductibles, co-pays, and for us at Maximus, you have to meet the deductible. So if you go to your
first doctor visit, you're not going to be paying a co-pay. You're going to pay the full visit until
you meet that $2,500 out of pocket. I mean, what's crazy is here y'all are trying to help people
placing phone calls regarding the Affordable Care Act,
and you're talking about having health care issues with your employee, your employer.
Exactly.
Questions from our panel.
Recy, you first.
Yeah, there's been reports of retaliation for people speaking out and being involved in this collective action.
Are you all concerned about that, or do you feel pretty secure in your positions,
like in terms of your immediate leadership?
Well, in my case, I do feel very concerned.
This year, two days before Mother's Day, because there was a lot of people organizing, more than 700 employees were let go.
They contacted CSRs to a meeting room, and they explained that you have two weeks to go.
And they did it throughout national.
It's not like one call center only.
It was everywhere.
And we don't have job security where I can say, well, I'm doing a
good job. They're not going to fire me. They can get rid of me at any time for any reason, and
they don't care how tenure you are. I know people on that round of layoff that were there for 14
years, and they had acute quality school. They were responsible for their job.
They did a good job.
And they still got let go.
Not a specific reason why.
Well, they said that because of low call volumes, they had to let these people go.
But imagine that you're being let go.
You're a mother with a family that you have to take care of.
And when you go to the Maximus website, they're hiring people.
And they're opening other sites.
So how does it explain that you're being fired because of low co-volume,
but you're hiring extra people?
Lauren.
Do you all know if there is any history of Maximus Call Center agreeing with workers in other negotiations in the past?
Not to my knowledge. Okay. In other words, have they ever been in a negotiation where they said, you know, maybe five to ten years ago, we will come to the table and give you some of the
things that you are asking for. Have you ever heard of that in the past? I have not. I have
been a part of the organizing since Maximus came to Louisiana, Bogalusa, Hattiesburg, and I have
not heard of that. We've been working to try to organize. They have been
union busting, doing everything they can to stop us or to shut us down, calling the police on us
when we were simply passing out flyers for information for our co-workers. I mean,
just crazy, putting us off the property.
Wow. Thank you.
So they're not willing to negotiate.
Greg?
Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Ms. Walker and Ms. Charles. Reading up a little bit on Maximus,
the way it looks, and we heard Congressman Thompson say $2 billion, but that was actually
just for the first two quarters of this year.
If I have it correctly, they're projecting as much as $5 billion in earnings this year
in a multibillion-dollar international company with nearly 40,000 employees in 10 countries.
I mean, getting rid of 700 people earlier this year, and of course, in the wake of the one day action you all had, I guess my question is the excuses they're giving and reading some of the conditions you're working under reminds me of Amazon.
And in terms of what these union busting they're trying to do, you know, they're saying that, you know, people getting put off the rolls is means there's a slowdown in call volume.
Has that been either of y'all's experience between people having to
re-enroll and those suffering from long COVID? Has the call volume actually dropped or has it
increased? I mean, particularly since people are having to re-enroll in these things.
And the call volume has not let up. The calls come in back to back to back constantly. You don't have time to recover
from the previous call before another call. You're answering another call to assist someone else.
And depending on the nature of that call, it can be some kind of difficult to take the next call and get yourself in that frame of mind
to assist that person. But we do what we do, and we do it to the best of our abilities.
Thank you. Catherine, final comment.
Well, as she stated, the calls are for marketplace.
They're a bit different because right now they're not as.
A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.
Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.
But the price has gone up.
So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be
covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey
Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at
what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall
Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms,
the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that
they're doing. So listen to
everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops and 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.
Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened
when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.
Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.
We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.
Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.
We have this misunderstanding
of what this quote-unquote
drug man.
Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.
We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette. MMA
fighter Liz Caramouch.
What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change
things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,
subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Fast coming in through as they used to be,
like during November, doing open enrollment.
After open enrollment, when we have to do also the 1095 forms for tax season,
it's cold after call.
You barely get a minute to sip water if you get anything.
We're not only calling for the benefits of the pay and the conditions.
We only get like a five-minute break to go use the bathroom or drink some water.
And as she stated, in between difficult calls, sometimes you need
more than that to decompress a little bit because you get either really irate consumers on the phone,
very mean and vicious, or you get people crying and very emotional. That also gets transferred to
us because we are human beings sitting on the phone listening to people's stories. And we work at Maximus not just because of the pay.
We love what we do.
And we just want to make sure that we get better condition.
They're making money because we are the front line doing all the work.
And I think as a federal contract, we should be considered federal employees and get the benefits of federal employees because they're getting the federal money.
Yes. All right. Sylvia Walker, Catherine Charles, we appreciate both of you joining us
on today's show. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Folks, we partnered with the Communication Workers for America. You're going to be able
to see the restream of today's rally on the Black Star Network. So check it out there. Folks, we partnered with the Communication Workers for America. You're going to be able to see the restream of today's rally on the Black Start Network.
So check it out there.
Also check out our YouTube channel as well to see the full speeches of all those who spoke today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
All right, folks, we come back more right here on Rollerbl Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll talk about Fonny Willis smacking the hell out of Congressman Jim Jordan.
Ain't nothing like a good pimp slap with some powder.
Then, of course, Pete Navarro, he got pimp slapped by a D.C. jury, found guilty.
We'll talk about both of those stories when we come back right here on Roland Martin Unfil medications and the cost of living.
Joe Biden is delivering for us.
And that's the facts.
On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense.
We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn.
The truth is most of us are not born with it.
And we need to teach common not born with it and we
need to teach common sense, embrace it, and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always
tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting
from social media and then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them
on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network.
When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,
you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.
This is a genuine people-powered movement.
There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting.
You get it.
And you spread the word.
We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.
We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it.
This is about covering us.
Invest in Black-owned media.
Your dollars matter.
We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff.
So please support us in what we do, folks.
We want to hit 2,000 people.
$50 this month.
Waits $100,000.
We're behind $100,000.
So we want to hit that.
Your money makes this possible.
Check some money orders.
Go to P.O. Box 57196.
Washington, D.C.
20037-0196.
The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered.
PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo Sign RM Unfiltered.
PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered.
Venmo is RM Unfiltered.
Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com.
Me Sherri Sheppard with Sammie Roman.
I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach,
and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Oh, is that like mediocre white men getting smacked down by sisters.
That's what Fannie Willis, the Fulton County DA, did.
She basically told Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio to kiss her ass.
Last month, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Jordan, informed Willis by letter.
He was launching an investigation into whether she coordinated with federal officials for the Trump indictment.
You know, he's been kissing Trump's ass so much, he probably has a brown face.
Now, here are a few excerpts of Willis' nine-page letter response to Jordan's request for documents.
Quote, as you know, Chairman Jordan, the congressional power of inquiry is not unlimited.
She then cites Watkins v. United States. Congress is not a law enforcement or trial
agency. That function is reserved only for the executive and judicial departments of the
government. She then said your letter offends each and every one of these settled principles.
Its obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous
partisan misrepresentations. As I make clear below, there is no justification in the Constitution of Congress
to interfere with a state criminal matter as you attempt to do. She then said the demands of your
letter and your efforts at intruding upon the state of Georgia's criminal authority violate
constitutional principles of federalism. Criminal prosecutions under state law are primarily the
responsibility of state governments. Congress's lawful prerogative to interfere with state's
administration of their criminal laws is extremely limited. She then said, your attempt to invoke
congressional authority to intrude upon and interfere with an active criminal case in Georgia
is flagrantly at odds with the Constitution. The defendants in this case have been charged
under state law with committing state crimes. There's absolutely no support for Congress
purporting to second-guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation and prosecution. Oh, this you say, Chairman
Jordan. I tell people often deal with reality or reality will deal with you. It's time that you deal
with some basic realities. A special purpose grand jury made up of everyday citizens investigated for
10 months and made recommendations to me. A further reality is that a grand jury of completely different Fulton County citizens
found probable cause against the defendant named in the indictment for RICO violations
and other felonies. Face this reality, Chairman Jordan. The select group of defendants who you
fret over in my jurisdiction are like every other defendant entitled to no worse or better treatment than any
other American citizen. Oh, she wasn't done. As it seems you have a personal interest in the Fulton
County District Attorney's Office, you should consider directing the USDOJ to investigate the
racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation. For your information,
I'm attaching 10 examples of threats this office has received.
See exhibits F through O. I'm providing these examples to give you a window into what has
happened to my staff and me as I keep the promise of my oath of the United States and the Georgia
constitutions and do not allow myself to be bullied and threatened by members of Congress,
local elected officials, or others who believe lady justice should not be blind and that America has different laws for different citizens.
That right there is a pimp snap, Lauren.
Yeah, it sure is.
It's the sort of idea that a lot of these congressional Republicans have,
that they somehow can enter into any conversation about anything
and have the authority to somehow rule over everybody else,
even when they have absolutely
no jurisdiction and no business being involved in what's going on. That's like some sort of,
you know, weird throwback idea that Jim Jordan in particular has. If you remember,
he tried to interfere with Alvin Bragg in New York as well, that he has the right to somehow
guide these people when they have these independent jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with him
and have obviously more power than he has over these matters.
Some of it is just pure PR.
Some of it is to try to kiss the ass of Donald Trump in public,
which is what they're perpetually doing,
what MAGA Republicans in Congress are perpetually doing to impress Donald Trump.
But some of it, I think, is the illegitimate idea that they have in their head
that they can interfere with anybody.
And as we saw in Wisconsin, Wisconsin and Alabama, these Republicans who, of course,
would appear to no longer believe in democracy, think that they can just sort of lock in their
power forever by just making a decision to lock in their power forever without the people involved,
without voters involved or anyone else. But, you know, Fannie Willis ended that conversation. She's going to continue
to ignore him because he should be ignored. And that's the way that'll play out.
What you're dealing with here, Recy, is an arrogant asshole in Congress and Jim Jordan.
And again, these people will do whatever and say whatever
to protect the grand dragon himself, the orange one.
Right. It's all kabuki theater. They don't have any power. And I'm glad that Bonnie Willis said,
go to hell, bitch. You have no authority over here around these parts. If you want to make
yourself useful, then why don't you investigate the actual crimes that are being committed against my office in
terms of the threats? And so Jim Jordan, who has gotten away with heinous things himself,
is just doing nothing but entertaining the base and further entrenching the Republican Party
with Donald Trump. The Republican Party is going all in on Trump at a time where they should be
trying to bolster an alternative to him. And that's just where they decided to throw their
lot in. But I am so glad that Fannie Willis is not backing down. She is not even showing them
any kind of deference. There's no service and honorable this. It's just kiss my black ass.
And that should always be the response, Greg.
Yeah, you know, I will give credit to Fannie Willis. You know, I was having this conversation
with students today and we were talking about Fannie Willis in Georgia and, you know, her use
of Rico. You know, this is the first big white fish in her scope.
And students have some mixed opinions on that.
But one thing is clear.
She doesn't mix her words when she gives public statements.
Some of the bits that I particularly enjoyed in the nine-page letter, when she enumerates things in direct response to him.
And I love what she said when she got to Section 2C of her point-by-point refutation of her.
She said, I'm going to give you an explanation of the basic obligations of a prosecutor.
And the sentence she uses, she says, your letter makes it clear.
Now, mind you, you know, Jim Jordan has a J.D. from Capital Law School, which is down the street from where I went to law school at Ohio State.
And he went to Ohio State, as Reesey says, with a kind of checkered record there. But Fannie Willis says, your letter makes it clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law,
its practice, and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically.
Now, you say it to this guy with a JD. He said, your letter makes it clear that you don't
understand. And then at the end, she gives a whole section, that last couple of pages, she said, here's some productive activity that you might be able to engage in.
And then she enumerates what they do with the federal money, as you said, Roland. I mean,
you're processing back rape kits. You're dealing with young people, trying to keep them out of
juvenile justice program. But the way she handled him was how you would talk to a child. And then she did tell him to go to hell and to kiss her ass, but the way she did it over
nine pages, this is the Fannie Willis that people in Atlanta know.
It's just that they haven't always seen her train those guns on white people.
And Jim Jordan, how'd you like it, brother?
How did you like it?
Well, I'm sure that's what I want to ask the same of Pia Navarro.
Of course, we've been showing you all the videos
of this white woman who's been
trolling the hell out of Pia Navarro.
Well, today, he was convicted.
He was convicted today.
Y'all, that's yesterday's
video, y'all. That's old. So, he was
convicted in federal court
today. So, this is what happened
in court today.
Go to my iPad.
All right.
Let's get it up.
So I'll tell you, I've been showing, this is the third time I'm showing this woman.
I love the fact that she shows up and every time he goes before the cameras and he wants
to pitch his defense funds, she's right there.
All right, y'all, check this out.
I'm sorry, we're going to listen to Peter Navarro.
Here we are with one of the most important constitutional separation of powers issues,
and people will not let me speak.
This is my First Amendment right.
What I'm going to do now is allow...
There's cameras here.
The marshals just saw you. The marshals just saw you. You're in trouble. You're in trouble. You just assaulted me. is allow All right. Look, if you've got a sign, hold it over there.
I can hold it anywhere I want.
This is public property.
It's assault.
I want to press charges.
Let the man talk.
Are you interested in hearing him?
Go ahead.
Go ahead and talk.
I don't agree with some of your shit, but go ahead and talk.
Go ahead and talk.
No, I didn't.
No, I didn't.
Go ahead and talk, man.
Go ahead.
It's a sad Saturday for America.
Not because they were guilty verdicts, because I can't come out and have an honest.
Oh, I love how.
Okay, first of all, I need to roll back.
Did the brother say, I don't believe most of the shit you say, but go ahead and talk?
Did he actually say that?
Let me roll that back. Okay. Okay., but go ahead and talk. Did he actually say that? Let me roll that back, okay?
Okay, now go.
All right.
They're calling for justice of services.
That was just assaulting.
Look, if you got a sign, hold it over there.
Liar.
I can hold it anywhere I want.
This is public property.
It's assault.
I want to press charges.
Let the man talk.
Are you interested in hearing him?
Go ahead, Tina.
Go ahead and talk.
I don't agree with some of your shit, but go ahead and talk.
Oh my God, Reesey's like,
I don't agree with some of your shit, but go ahead and talk.
You know what?
Sometimes
black people just let the Karens
do the work, okay?
I don't know why you got to come in there
swooping with your save
a white boy cape on one.
With his truth conductor sign.
I don't know what that say.
I couldn't read the sign, but I didn't.
No, go right here.
Go to my iPad.
The sign says stop hating each other because you disagree.
Truth conductor.
Boy, bye.
Okay, so you one of those.
Okay, that's fine.
Look, Karen's for good, good okay i'm with home girl
if you can get somebody locked up if you can you can weaponize those white tears towards white
terrorists i am on your side home girl i support you and your movement on white on white crime
and go send them to jail i want to know if she got her wish.
Was the man arrested because he
assaulted her? We all saw it. It was on camera.
Okay? She deserves justice.
I mean, first of all,
she's been amazing. I remember, y'all, this was
the first one we showed right here.
Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
Witness man is inside.
Thank you.
Uh,
WW.
She's,
um,
what's wrong with America here?
WWW dot defendeter.com. Oh.
Defend...
Come on, my man. Cut that out, man.
Let the man talk, man. Let the man talk.
Let him talk, man.
He has every right to talk.
Come on, come on, don't do that, man. Let the man talk, man. He has every right to talk. Come on. Come on. Don't do that, man.
Please play this on your channels because this is just wrong. I'm trying to speak about serious constitutional issues with you. Clown with a whistle, witch with a broom. You go figure. So, defendpeter.com, please go there,
help support this fight against
the attack on the separation of powers.
These trials are very
expensive.
Peter is using my image to grift off me.
Send me money.
These trials are very
expensive.
That's part of the Democrats' lawfare against us.
Come on, dude.
Come on, dude.
You know I got kidnapped because you're a client?
Kidnapped, raped, and almost murdered by a white supremacist gang after he docks me. A lot of times the big economic forces
we hear about on the news
show up in our lives in small ways.
Three or four days a week,
I would buy two cups of banana pudding,
but the price has gone up,
so now I only buy one.
The demand curve in action,
and that's just one of the things
we'll be covering on Everybody's Business
from Bloomberg Businessweek.
I'm Max Chavkin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.
Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.
But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and
consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain.
I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.
So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops, and 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.
Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything
that Taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley
comes a story about what happened
when a multi-billion dollar company
dedicated itself to one
visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1.
Taser Incorporated.
I get
right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,
Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st
and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.
Ad-free at Lava for and six on June 4th. Add free at lava for good.
Plus on Apple podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Glod.
And this is season two of the war on drugs.
We are back in a big way,
in a very big way.
Real people,
real perspectives.
This is kind of star studded a little bit,
man.
We got a Ricky Williams,
NFL player,
Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice
to allow players
all reasonable means
to care for themselves.
Music stars Marcus King,
John Osborne
from Brothers Osborne.
We have this misunderstanding
of what this
quote-unquote
drug ban.
Benny the Butcher.
Brent Smith from Shinedown.
We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Karamush.
What we're doing now isn't working
and we need to change things.
Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes
of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Yeah, it's time to go.
All right, we'll see you tomorrow.
And hopefully... Same time, same place.
Hopefully free speech.
I don't like that.
I don't like that.
Oh, Lord!
Risha, you were really enjoying that.
Lord, he talked about witch with a broom,
and she was like, yeah, whatever.
Yeah, she just kept going.
I mean, she knows how to play the camera.
She knows what to do to get a pretty good, you know, clip going.
And she must be out there like all the time.
There's certain people who are at that courthouse all the time just sort of waiting for people to come out.
And you can't really go in and do anything.
You can't bring your cell phone in there.
So she must be really staking him out. And nobody deserves it more
than Peter Navarro, who's one of the most arrogant MAGA Trump former staffers that has
been inside that courthouse. Oh, I thought it was perfect. And again, he was so upset. He was mad
upset. All right. Y'all can now roll a video that we've initially had. This was actually yesterday.
I just thought this was perfect.
Where's the CNN?
CNN here?
The CNN here?
Anybody want to own up to that?
Here's the problem.
Hero.
Who's this?
Come on.
Bro, you're already facing charges.
Yeah, I get it.
Go ahead and commit a crime.
So, so.
I've been here this whole time.
Situation.
Yes, okay.
All right.
Right.
Oh!
You're already facing charges.
Damn.
Damn.
Guys!
Oh!
Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, Grant.
No, man.
Look, Ron, what you said earlier
I think bears underscoring
now, particularly with that brother standing there.
Go into the
man talk. Go sit your ass down.
But here's the thing,
though. What you said is so important.
These white men,
these white people generally, especially these old white men,
they are working
a long-range plan to
retain control of their little funky-ass
experiment called the United States of America.
Yep. They have thrown
all the rules out. So
ironically, the
black man is
the person who
people, black folk in this country, are trained to look at as the
model.
There are rules.
Let the man talk.
First Amendment.
The white woman is behaving, ironically, the same way in some ways as he is behaving.
There ain't no damn rules.
She got on a shirt that says, witches be tripping, meaning what?
You see the anarchist symbol there at the bottom.
There ain't no damn rules. So she and Peter Navarro are kind of in the same vein. This
black man over here, and again, I remind folks, I have no investment at all in this criminal
enterprise. My ancestors were taken into it. My hope is that we will build something that can
really be for human beings as this thing falls apart. They're playing for all the marbles now.
You saw what DeSantis and Vivek, whatever his name is,
or Swami or whatever his name is, is talking to me.
Let me not do that.
Rama Swami was saying about the Proud Boys.
They said it was unfair.
The sentencing was unfair.
Steve Bannon is appealing his four-month sentence and $6,500.
Certainly Navarro is going to do the same. fair. Steve Bannon is appealing his four-month sentence and six and a half thousand dollars.
Certainly Navarro is going to do the same. As you said, Roland, they trying to take out Fannie Willis in Georgia. They trying to take out the judge on the Supreme Court, as we heard
Lawrence say, in Wisconsin State Supreme Court. These white boys are playing for keeps. You see
this cretin, what's this punk, the punk that was in the White House with the bald head Steve, whatever his name is.
Stephen Miller. Yeah.
They are now moving and bloom
into attacking people who are hiring
folks with affirmative action. They have taken
out all the stops. Oh, yeah. Now,
and for us to celebrate what that white
woman is doing, and I'm right with you, I'm laughing too,
it's underscoring a very
important point.
There are no rules.
Right.
And see, my whole deal is they hound, you hound.
In fact, here's another angle of the video.
Navarro was just really upset.
I love this.
Watch.
How are you doing, sir?
We appreciate the justice you're getting for this country.
I think this is kind of the important kind of debate.
And look, see, she's trying to block the flag, okay?
This is the problem we have in America.
Like, she's a punk boss, you know, and it's fine.
She's expressing her point of view.
She's got a megaphone and it's rough.
But when it comes time for me to express my opinion.
See, here's my whole deal.
See, here's why I think you have to do this here.
See, you can't play nice with these people.
So I'm perfectly fine with the signs, the whistle, interrupting ass.
Like, these are the same assholes y'all remember when Obama was speaking before Congress, State of the Union,
and then that fool in South Carolina yelled out, you lie.
Then you had Marjorie Taylor Greene and all those fools acting as fools.
You cannot
and again, this is the mistake a lot of Democrats
make. They want to play nice.
They believe, no, here are the right
things. I know Michelle Obama
said, when they go
low, we go high. Damn
that, Reesey. When they go low,
hit their ass in the knee and
they hit you in the shin, bust
their ass in the ankles. they hit you in the ankles,
hit them in the bottom of their feet.
Point blank and the period.
Like, fuck civility.
This is the same motherfucker who sat up there
and orchestrated what they call the Green Bay Sweep
to essentially overturn the election
and disenfranchise 81 million Americans,
8 million which more, voted for Biden over Trump.
And so he can kiss my whole ass sitting up there trying to appeal to civility
and my rights and freedom of speech, and this is what's wrong with the country.
What's wrong with the country is that these are the only charges that you've been convicted of.
Your ass needs to be up in jail.
You need to be down there with the RICO charges.
You need to be up in there with Enrico Tarrio and all these other motherfuckers because your ass tried to steal
the election too. The only difference was you were not in the actual halls of Congress while the
steal was attempted to happen. And so it's the audacity of him to sit up here and act indignant
as though he's the one who's being wrong when he shamelessly and brazenly tried to steal an election. And so I don't normally cheer white girls too much.
But good on you, white girl, for doing what you need to be doing.
I hope you can get more of your sister in over to our side and stop siding with them damn white nationalist Republican devils and go on ahead.
And let's try to get some more people elected in 2022 or 2024, rather.
So we ain't got to deal with the Peter Navarro's and the Trump's and the Sanders and the Nunes
motherfuckers again for a while.
Look, the thing here,
Lauren, and we're going to talk about it
more in depth tomorrow, but you had a
white woman in Tennessee
who sued
the 8A program, the Washington Post
has a story, and the judge
ruled in her favor.
Now, mind you, this white woman started a business,
got a $20,000 loan from her daddy, eventually got a half a million dollars in loan from her daddy.
This is a privileged white woman. She then got two federal contracts totaling $3.8 million through a women's
program, but then
her trifling ass sued
the 8A program by saying,
oh, I couldn't apply because
I'm not
disadvantaged by race.
And so now this has upended
the 8A program. Now let's
keep in mind, the federal government
spends $560 billion dollars a
year on contracts black people have gotten 1.67 percent of the federal contracts most through the
8a program okay but see these white folks want to go after everything. And I kept warning people that this is what they're going to do.
This is a moment where we must be in a fight mode.
They, look, we talked about CRT, books.
We talked about affirmative action in college.
They want to go after anything that has actually helped black people, other minorities.
And I said to the business council in Milwaukee,
I said, now is the time
to see whether real allies are
going to step up.
Let's now see if big business
is going to say, hell no, we're doing
this because it's right. You
got to bring the same
level of energy
to these assholes, and
you got to get in their face.
You got to sit here and go at
them. I ain't
conceding an inch to these
devils. Not
an inch.
Yeah. I mean, I think that
there's a lot to say about
that. We're basically dealing with a bunch of people
who are, their core strategy
really is lying. Because lying lying works and lying particularly works when
you have a press corps that wants to both sides everything and stick to
objectivity and not state right it's worse than not wanting to play nice it
is actually not wanting to report quote quote, a both-sides objective framework and not call
a thing a thing and a lie a lie.
We sat here with the first two years of Donald Trump, 2016, 2017, not—you know, going—being
wrapped around the axle of not wanting to call him the liar that he was with regard
to President Obama's birth certificate.
And they reported it as if it was just news
because he was saying it. But when a political party is dedicated to lying and they convince
a sizable amount of people that an election was stolen such that we're changing laws over it and
getting people to believe that and lying is a strategy you've got to be playing on
different strategic level when that starts to happen right because you can't even try to sit
here and try to be okay here's a perfect example uh uh uh media hassan interviewed at food by veck
idiot uh and and he was he was he was jamming them up and You say you were anti. And he was catching him in lies.
He was catching him in lies.
Lie after lie.
And he was very aggressive with the questioning.
But my whole deal was, dog, call that thing a thing.
This is what you're talking about in terms of how mainstream media sort of plays this.
And media is far more aggressive than most of these people out here. But again,
you've got to call this stuff
what it is. Watch this. We're going to come back.
Anti-identity politics, anti-affirmative action.
In a party that hates the Soros name, yet you accepted
a Paul and Daisy Soros scholarship
at law school that was specifically set up
for the children of immigrants. It was an
affirmative action scholarship, and your defense for that
is that you didn't have the money to pay for law school
even though you'd already made over a million dollars at the time
and made another $2 million. My defense of that is, if somebody gives you a merit scholarship at
the age of 24, you take it. At the age of 24, if somebody gives you a merit scholarship, you take
it. I didn't say I didn't have the money. I said at a time when I had a lot less money than now,
$50,000 was still useful to me. You keep forgetting your quote. You said, when I didn't have the
money. So, Mehdi, I've made this really easy for everybody, and I did this in the money to make. You keep forgetting your quote. You said, when I didn't have the money.
So, Mehdi, I've made this really easy for everybody.
And I did this in the early weeks of the campaign.
I released 20 years of tax returns.
Yes, you did.
Something that no presidential candidate,
let alone somebody who's successful in business, has done.
I challenged Democrats and Republicans alike,
including the Biden family, to do it.
And we looked at them, Vivek. I released it so that you could look at them,
so we can have an honest conversation. Thank you so much. And I appreciate that. The funny thing I've learned.
I do appreciate that. It's something Trump should learn from you. And I think that transparency
is important. So it's already open and everybody can see it. Exactly. We have 2009 and 2010.
You know what I would advise every 24-year-old should take $50,000. 2009 and 2010, you made
$750,000. You had the money to pay for law school.
You didn't need a Soros affirmative action scholarship that you now criticize.
None of this is worthy, but if you think it is, let's get to the detail.
That was actually the first big piece of money.
You say you're anti-affirmative action.
You took a scholarship for immigrants and their children.
I'm anti-affirmative action.
So why did you take a scholarship for the children of immigrants?
Which falsehood would you like me to address, the financial one or the one about my views on affirmative action?
Because I can go in whichever order you'd like.
Did you not make $750,000?
On the financial piece of it, not at the time that I had applied for the scholarship that fall.
Yes, you did.
That December.
Yes, you did.
This is awkward for you because you did.
I've got the tax returns in front of my face.
No, it's not awkward for you.
Yes, on December 31st when the application for the scholarship was that October.
Mitty, you're wasting your time on childish details in October of that year when I applied for that scholarship.
See, now again, I thought, look, Mitty had the receipts, but to Lauren's point, this is what you do, this is what you say.
Vivek, here are your tax returns.
You're lying.
You are a liar. You're lying. You are a liar.
You're lying right now.
You lied during the debate, and you're likely going to lie tomorrow.
So how in the world can somebody trust you?
You're a liar.
So you're Donald Trump-like.
You are a liar.
These are the facts.
See?
See, the thing is, people like Vivek, Donald Trump,
they know that the media will broadcast anything that they say without questioning it, right?
That's what we had on CNN right before Chris Lick got fired. They let Donald Trump sit there and lie
all night. Did she push back a little bit? Sure, she pushed back. But you know what he's going to
do. But Vivek Ramaswamy knew, he knew, I'm going to get attention if I run my mouth, if I run my mouth
reckless. DeSantis does the same thing. The media has to get smarter in dealing with these people,
with these demagogues who are lying, lying their way into fascism and killing our democracy is
what they're doing. And the media is sitting there just reporting what they say without checking anything. Mehdi Hassan is one of the rare examples who
actually does that type of thing. And of course, Vivek Ramaswamy, who, by the way, keeps getting
interview after interview for some idiot reason that I, this is the other thing. Why are they
platforming Vivek Ramaswamy? Why are we seeing him on a show every freaking day? I'll answer. I'll answer. Because of exactly
what you saw.
This is the problem.
This is the problem with mainstream
white media. They know he's
going to lie. They know
he's incendiary. They know
he's going to sit here and make up bullshit.
And they're like, let's go for the viral
moment. Let me tell you something right now.
Vivex people have been emailing us.
Who did they hit, Carol?
They've been emailing us trying to get him on this show.
No.
People are like, oh, man, you should go to Roland Martin.
I'm not talking to his punk ass.
He's a liar.
He's a flat-out liar. I'm not talking to his punk ass. He's a liar. He's a flat out liar.
I'm not talking to his ass.
Somebody, they were like, Roland, you should get
RFK on. Why?
He lies.
Both of these people,
they've actually read quotes
back to them. No, I didn't
say that. Yes, you did.
I'm sorry. I'm not going to
do a lot. The reason I love that white
woman with the sign, because she's like,
yep, he full of shit,
blow the whistle, and it's like, no,
I'm not going to let you
stand before the cameras talking about how
this is a grave constitutional
crisis and how this should go to the
Supreme Court. No.
This is what happens. This is
what happens. Give me the wide shot,
Henry. It's sort of like, imagine
an Eddie Murphy skit where they're going,
lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. You full of shit.
You full of shit. You lying.
That's what you gotta do. There's no other
way to deal with these people.
You have to do that. And that's
why when I busted Chris Christie
in his mouth on ABC,
because I remember in 2017,
I went on This Week and I said, Donald Trump's a liar.
Folks kind of like, oh, I'm like, can y'all stop playing?
The man's a liar.
Can y'all say it?
I'll never forget, Greg.
They were like, well, no, no, no.
I remember Judy Woodruff and Jake Tapper.
They were like, no, no.
So we can't use the word liar because the order used the word lie.
We have to know that was their intent from the beginning. because the order used the word lie. We have to know if that was their intent
from the beginning.
That's their intent!
To lie!
Yeah.
And they want you to run their bullshit
and that's all they want.
They want the media hit
to go raise some more damn money.
That's when you got to say,
nah, I'm not putting your lying ass on.
That's true.
I mean, an additional
problem, perhaps the problem for us,
is that we want that too.
This is all, you know,
the reason why it's called news entertainment
media, like you said, this is
you know, and Lauren just laid it out, that both
sides of them, they're looking for eyeballs.
And if you have
Ramaswamy on there, if you were to have Tim
Scott on, if you were to have Tim Scott on, if you were to
have Nikki Haley, if you have any of those people running and eviscerate them, I think,
sadly, it might penetrate differently than if you were not to have them on at all, simply
because our people have been trained through this ridiculous swamp of social media, as
Rizzi has been trying to help us understand for a very long time now, have been trained to go for the spectacle.
Dismembering him in space might actually have some penetrating impact.
I mean, we're in a situation now where, as you say, there are no rules and our gloves
are off.
If the Democrats win the presidential election, these white nationalists have let you know
that they don't give a damn.
This looks more like the 1850s than it does the 1950s.
In other words, they are going to fight a civil war until they win or they break the
thing.
If Donald Trump or the Republicans win, then we know what we are in for.
Clarence Thomas may retire, and they may try to even expand the Supreme Court, because
there are no rules.
We are now in a point where we are past the event horizon of what's going
to happen if they ever get any momentum.
They not only have momentum now,
they have embraced the fact that it's either going to
be we rule or
we ruin. That's it.
So now we've got to figure out
how we respond. Now I'm all with you. Let's
go all in. But if we're going to go all in, we've got to go
all in. So here's my deal
here,
Reesey.
First of all, his ass has 6%.
I ain't talking to nobody
at 6%.
I'm not.
I don't care how many times
Mary Ann Williamson's
people email us.
I ain't
talking to Mary Ann Williamson
because she's not a real candidate.
I'm sorry, y'all.
Now, we can sit here and go,
oh, no, but, well, a person,
that's how they get a shot.
They ain't real.
Okay?
Yeah.
I ain't real.
So I ain't talking to Vivek.
What he's doing, he is trying to sell books.
He wants attention. Now,
if he get 15, 18,
20, and become all of a sudden real
candid, fine. I'm going to talk to your ass.
Then I'm going to cut you to the white meat.
Because see, I'm going to
tell you, I'm going to say, no,
I'm going to say, your ass lying.
Right.
And then I'm going to say, listen, Vivek,
Roland can't get fired like Don Lemon.
No question. No question.
Oh, yeah. For sure. See, that's the deal.
I'm going to say you're lying.
I'm going to call you out. Look,
listen, y'all. September
19th is the two-year
anniversary last time I was
on This Week. You know why they
called me back? Because I told Sarah
and Chris, both
of y'all are the reason that
Donald Trump got in, because y'all chose
to work for him. This
whole system, this whole
bullshit media system
is that they don't like
being confronted with
their lies. That's the reason why
Fox News punk asses won't call me.
Here's a perfect example. Now, me put this together. This is the kind of this is the
biz that they do if they don't like getting called on. But why are you going to learn
to say, no, you are a lying hypocrite? Watch this.
You cannot have a country led by a president subject to ongoing criminal investigations,
potential indictments, and never-ending hearings. The RICO statute, that's just theater. That's
just a bunch of theater in the midst of politics and a legal thing. Hillary Clinton could be sworn
into office while still being under investigation from the FBI,
which would then put this country into a major constitutional crisis.
This will be nothing other than a show indictment to cover their overtly political,
never-ending persecution of any and all things Donald J. Trump.
She's under FBI investigation less than two weeks before the presidential election. Holy smokes. Yes, Donald Trump is a flawed man, but his sins are minor compared to
those of his persecutors. The American people are about to have a candidate who is clearly
going to be under criminal investigation for the entire first and second year of her presidency.
All these indictments are about politics.
Not a single one of them is about the law.
See, that's where, again, if I'm going on, it'd be like, here, Sean, on this date,
your ass said this.
Now you're saying something 180 degrees different.
I'm sorry, what's the difference?
See, you got to check they ass in the moment
but the rest of these people want to play
nice because they trying to book them again
they trying to come back
on again and
they have no problem
trying to
well I think it's
important for us to hear both
sides it's not important
for me to hear your ass lie.
Right.
And somebody has to be willing to say, your ass lying.
Well, they're making money off of it.
They're making money off of it.
I mean, we learned that, again, with Donald Trump and CNN in 2016.
CNN was making money off of the ratings of him standing up there and creating the spectacle that was getting clicks all over the place and getting viewership.
And as long as you have that marriage between the clicks to the website, the clicks to the
ads and the spectacle, you will get the spectacle.
On top of that, particularly for politicians, you can lie about politicians because of Time
Sullivan and the malice standard.
You can lie about politicians all day and all night create a spectacle create clicks
to the website and get away with it there is no legal recourse I don't care
what anybody says there's no legal recourse for an elected official who is
slandered or defamed by somebody on TV Dominion voting machines there was there
was they're not an elected official. So they sued Fox and they won
on defamation. But for elected officials, anybody can say anything. That's why these guys, Vivek,
Donald Trump, they know I'm getting publicity. I'm getting my lies out. If you're going to air me and
put me in front of millions of people, I'm going to do it. I'm going to get on there and I'm going
to keep lying. And that's what they do. And the media is stupid for allowing that continuously to happen.
And, Racy, what has to happen between now and next year, every time they lie, they must meet a haymaker.
Not a jab, not a little tap. They need to be. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small
ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up.
So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be
covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.
I'm Max Chavkin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.
Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. sports reporter Randall Williams and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside
the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that
they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops and 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.
Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley
comes a story about what happened
when a multibillion-dollar company
dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.
Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.
Yes, sir. We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heism player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players
all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne from brothers
osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man benny the butcher
brent smith from shine down got be real from cypress hill nhl enforcer riley cote This quote unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.
Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Karamush.
What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.
Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to
Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Punched in the face repeatedly. Yeah, but don't hold your breath for that one okay every outlet is not
a roland martin unfiltered and the reality is these people feel comfortable going on these
shows because they know that there's only so much pushback they know that they can filibuster
and over talk um and and and still get their highlight reel.
And to the extent that they are challenged, they look at it as, oh, the biased liberal media, and they use it as a fundraising call.
But the reality is that this kinds of stuff from Vivek is not doing him any favors.
He has been polling third, but after the debate, his unfavorable
shot up. White people don't like getting too mouthy with people all the time, you know what
I'm saying? So some of it might be good for a while, but I think it's starting to wear a little
thin on them. So I expect that he will flame out very soon. My only disappointment is that he's such a buffoon that I think that he really stains the entire
party with his buffoonery to the extent that if he does drop out, it will almost make other people
seem normal. And they are just as dangerous as he is, even if they don't have the same level
of spectacle. So here's the final comment. I'm going to go to Greg to close this out,
and then we'll go to a break. So here's what I mean when I say you've got to punch them in the mouth.
I'm not just talking about when they're on television
and when they're doing interviews.
What I'm talking about is everywhere.
Oh, so y'all were a little upset when a couple of new Black Panthers
stood outside of a polling location. Oh, so now y'all
want to change the rules to where your little poll watchers can now just roll up on folks and
listen in on conversations. Okay, I'm just waiting for the group to say we're going to recruit 5,000 black folks nationally
to roll up in white polling booths
and white polling locations, in red polling locations,
and for them to freak the hell out
when they see 10, 20 black men rolling up as poll watchers.
See, every time they have one of these news conferences,
it needs to be folks standing behind there with signs and blowing whistles and driving their ass crazy.
Because, see, what the Ed Blooms are doing with these lawsuits, what they are essentially doing is they're harassing black America.
That's what they're doing.
And what I'm saying is, as Greg, I would like to say, you've got to break their backs.
This is not the time for us to be nice.
Listen, I am not.
The reason that Montgomery brawl resonated when that brother picked the chair up
and knocked the shit out of homegirl because they said we tight.
I'm telling you, there needs to be some proverbial folding chair pickups
and everything because I keep
warning our people. All y'all watching
right now, I'm trying to
explain to y'all what they have
in store.
They are literally...
People need to understand
something, Greg. These people
right now in
this city, so everybody who is
watching, two blocks that way is the White House.
Yeah.
About 10 blocks that way is the Heritage Foundation.
Yeah.
And you know what these folks are doing?
They are meeting and they are planning
and they are looking at what Trump did those four years.
And they have already created a massive plan to take
over every facet.
There will be no
separation. There will be no walls.
It won't be all political appointees
and then
folks who work for a long
time. No. They literally have already
said, we are going to
fire people
who disagree with us politically.
They are, they
have got, y'all
don't understand if all you people are watching and listening.
They literally have just
maps and charts and
white papers saying, we're gonna
fire tens of
thousands of federal workers
who do not agree
with our ideology.
That's their plan.
They want
to put the control of the FCC
in the White House.
Donald Trump has said,
I am going to use the
IRS and the Department of Justice
to go after my political
opponents.
Some of us can sit here and play around.
But I'm telling you right now,
if the Republicans, they already got control of the House,
if they keep the House, and they get the Senate,
and they get the White House,
mark my word on September 7th at 7.35 p.m. Eastern,
what this panel said.
So I don't want to hear nobody
saying, Greg,
I can't believe what's happened.
Because we told y'all asses
what they were going to do. Greg, go ahead.
Yeah, no, I agree with you.
I mean, I really don't care. I'm not
in the kind of I told you so person
because... I am. I'm petty like that.
I know, I know, but I mean,
I'm king petty.
Go ahead. No, no.
It's not pettiness, man. I mean, part of it
I think is just, I don't want to say frustration,
but, you know, it's
a situation where we've seen this before.
We are in uncharted territory, but we're also not.
Go back through the history
of this funky place and see
where there have been spikes in
moments of open violence. I keep referring to the 1850s, but you can come to the 1920s and 30s in
the huge anti-Catholic movement when they were still forming whiteness. You can see the attack
on the Japanese and others. These moments come just before inflection points. And they've been
building this inflection point since the 1960s.
They finally have their numbers straight.
It really doesn't matter in some ways whether the Democrats win or lose the White House
with regard to these white nationalists.
All the pretenses have been dropped.
And when we start talking about taking a folding chair to people, I'm all for it.
But my thing is, that means we're going to have to do it.
Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, for example, gets no credit for saying anything about Bonnie
Willis. Why? You, sir, are white nationalists. You purged hundreds of thousands of black people
and you stole an election from Stacey Abrams. You, sir, get no credit. See, our problem is
when somebody white acts like they got a little bit of sense relative to a nut, the way Reesey just said, we say, well, they sound a little bit.
Nikki Haley is insane.
Understand that she is polling neck and neck or a little bit above Joe Biden if you put her in a matchup, because people might say, well, Vivek is crazy and we don't want Donald Trump.
So Nikki Haley seems like, no, no, no, no, no.
You've got to take the proverbial, the metaphorical white chair to all of these white nationalists.
And there can't be any moment by moment peace.
When you see somebody like Joe and Mika on Morning Joe, you know what you're looking at?
You're looking at their friends. So this type of what's going on now?
No, hell no. Y'all guilty, too. You platform these people.
These boys don't run it to the wheels fall off.
And my question to everybody now watching this and the people who need to spread this is this.
Will you support a place that is going to speak truth to power or you just going to be alone for the ride?
Because understand, if they get back in power, you better get the strap.
And if they don't get back in power, you better get the strap.
Because in America, you can kill a black woman or black man in the street and have
nothing to do with it. You can kill them in jail.
You can kill them in the dollar store. You can ride
up in their collars. You can slap them
around in the park. Nobody get
in trouble. So it's already happened.
The only question is, when are we going to
get off the mat? And just in case
y'all thought what Greg
said, well, y'all must have been going too far.
I'm going to go to break.
This is Mike Huckabee.
And this is what this Yahoo said just the other day.
Do you know how political opponents to those in power are dealt with in third world dictatorships, banana republics and communist regimes?
Well, it's simple. The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made-up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them,
or all of the above. And if you're not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden
is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024.
Here's the problem.
If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning
or even running in 2024,
it is going to be the last American election
that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.
Do you know how political opponents to those in power
are dealt with in third...
Y'all heard that?
Now, but no, no.
Go back full screen.
I want y'all to show y'all where this aired.
World dictatorship.
Look at that.
Look at that top left-hand corner.
That was on TBN.
The Trended Broadcasting Network.
Mike Huckabee was talking to those white evangelicals.
And it's a whole bunch of black people who also watch and support TBN.
See, y'all need to understand.
Remember when Daystar also tripped out and they edited one of my pastor's sermons,
Ralph West, for some political comments that he made, and he was critical,
and he went off on them
for doing so. This
is what they're also doing. They're even using
those Christian TV
networks to drive their
Christian fundamentalist
agenda. Y'all
don't sit here, and
oh, and I just told y'all,
the rich white guy out of Detroit, Kevin Adele,
who owns the Word Network,
who had the black radio
station in Detroit,
50,000 watts, what did he do?
Just flipped it to a right
wing radio
format featuring Glenn Beck,
Clay Travis, and Buck Sexton.
Making
money off black folks with the word network,
but then now trying to do right wing radio.
I'm trying to tell y'all, don't give these folks an inch.
Going to Brett, we're going to come back.
We're going to talk to a lawyer.
How the hell does a judge have him show up in chains
for a civil suit.
He looks plain next right here in Roller Mart Unfiltered.
You're watching us right now, folks.
Support us in what we do.
Your dollars are critically important.
The work that we do, folks, it's not easy.
You got a lot.
Let me tell you right now, there are advertisers.
They tell us, oh, we brand safe, brand safe.
So we don't want our ads running in news and opinion shows, yet I see the ads on Fox News.
Yep, all the time.
So when you give, you are keeping this show and other shows on the Black Star Network on the air. So send your check to Black Star Network, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,
20037-0196.
Cash App is Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered.
PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered.
Venmo is RM Unfiltered.
Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.
Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.
Please, folks, again, we are about $400,000 behind our goal.
The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average
50 bucks each.
That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.
I totally understand those who cannot give that.
So, many people have given less but people have given more as
well.
And so, your donations are critical to us being able to do
this work, staying independent and free, being able to speak the truth. And so your donations are critical to us being able to do this work,
staying independent and free,
being able to speak the truth that is necessary.
And so please, that's the way for you to give.
Download the Black Star Network app,
Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV,
Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV,
Xbox One, Samsung, Smart TV.
Be sure to get a copy of my book,
White Fear, How the Browning of America
is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds.
Proceeds go right back into the show. And so you can get it at bookstores across the country. on Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds.
Proceeds go right back into the show.
And so you can get it at bookstores across the country,
Barnes & Noble, Amazon.
You can also get the audio version on Audible.
We'll be right back.
Next, right here on The Frequency,
the woman they call the gifted eye,
hip-hop celebrity photographer Kory Soldier.
She's the master storyteller that captured the history of hip-hop through the lens of her camera.
Tupac comes out, the next thing you know, you didn't know who they were at first.
You just seen all these dudes just come rushing the stage.
Then you realize, Biggie gets a bottle of champagne, he pops it open, sprays it on the crowd, he drinks the bottle.
Corey Soldier, the hip-hop celebrity photographer, joining me right here on the next episode of The Frequency on the Black Star Network.
Next on The Black Tape, with me, Greg Carr.
What do Deion Sanders, a lawnmower, and the phenomenon of invisible labor all have in common?
They're all now part of, shall we say, a colorful lore at our historically black colleges and
universities. Our Master Educator Roundtable convenes to explain it all as we explore the
good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.
Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.
But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.
The demand curve in action.
And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on
Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be
diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters,
and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone,
sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take
you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that
they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops, and 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.
Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley
comes a story about what happened
when a multi-billion dollar company
dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute season one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio
app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June
4th.
Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.
Yes, sir. We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,
Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice
to allow players all reasonable means
to care for themselves.
Music stars Marcus King,
John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.
We have this misunderstanding
of what this quote-unquote drug ban is.
Benny the Butcher.
Brent Smith from Shinedown.
We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Karamush.
What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.
Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,
subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Of one of the Black america's national treasures that's next on the black table
right here on the black star network
on the next get wealthy with me deborah owens america's wealth coach black women are starting
businesses at the fastest rate than any other segment. However, finding the funding to build
them is challenging. On our next Get Wealthy, we're going to talk with author Catherine Finney,
who wrote the book, Build the Damn Thing. And she's going to be sharing exactly what we need to do to achieve success in spite of the odds. As an
entrepreneur of color, it's first, you know, building your personal advisory board. I think
that's one of the things that's helped me the most. The personal advisory board of the people
who are in the business of you, you personally, and want to see you succeed. That's right here
on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network.
Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show.
This is your boy, Herb Quay.
And you're tuned in to...
Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Thank you. Folks, on May 3rd, a black Pittsburgh lawyer and former NFL player says he was arrested,
dragged into an Allegheny County courtroom in shackles, given 15 minutes to negotiate
a civil lawsuit to regain his freedom.
When Walter Bernard did not comply with the judge's wishes, he was arrested again and
forced to appear in court to argue the same civil case on August 9th, and this time stayed
in jail for nearly three weeks.
Bernard has filed a federal lawsuit against Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge
Philip A. Ignelzi
for multiple civil rights violations.
Walter Bernard joins us right now from Pittsburgh.
Glad to have you here.
So what the hell?
First of all, what was the civil case?
Yeah, so just to give you a little bit of background,
the case was about my brother, who's also my business partner. We had opened an
escape room, and escape room was like a place where families could come enjoy different activities
for the weekend. We did corporate events. We were very active in the community. The way that our business ran, it was designed where it required
certain automation. So we needed a minimum of four people to operate the different activities.
COVID happened. And when COVID happened, we were shut down. The governor put a governor of
Pennsylvania put in a mandate that required businesses to not operate. If we
were to operate, we would be fined $10,000, I believe. And there was a clause in our lease
agreement—a lot of attorneys refer to it as a force majeure clause. The clause allowed us
to abate the rent. Abate the rent just means we weren't required to pay the rent as long as
we were shut down. So we desired to exercise that clause. The landlord said he wasn't going
to recognize that clause. And he threatened that he was going to sue us, which he ultimately did.
He said, you have two options.
You can either pay, continue paying the rent, even though you're shut down, or you're going
to terminate the lease.
At that point, we went and we sought a commercial real estate attorney, and he argued that the ability to operate our business,
it was impossible because we were shut down. So, the landlord goes and he says, all right, well,
does that mean you're going to terminate the lease? Our landlord sent, I'm sorry, our attorney
at the time sent the landlord a notice and said, because you're not
going to basically exercise or follow and adhere to the terms of the lease, we're just going to,
we want to terminate it. We never heard back from the landlord. Next thing we know, we get filed a lawsuit for possession of the premises and
for money damages.
How much
were they trying to recoup?
They were
trying to recoup $100,000
because the lease contained
an acceleration clause.
But what I'm confused
by is
how does a judge order you to settle a suit and then have you arrested in shackles in a civil case?
I've never heard of a judge doing this in a civil case.
Yeah, so that's puzzling a lot of experts. What ultimately happened is they sued us for an acceleration. The lease also contained an
acceleration clause. So the original judge of the case says $100,000 for the plaintiff landlord. And with that being said, he also stated
that we were to be credited because the reason why we vacated the premises was because while
we were shut down, the landlord came and stole thousands of dollars of our items.
He came in and stole from us.
I understand
in terms of the ups
and downs of it, but here's what I'm trying to understand.
First of all, was
there an ongoing trial?
There was not an ongoing
trial. It was
just a lawsuit.
Yes. Yes, it just a lawsuit. Yes.
Yes, it was a lawsuit.
What happened was the judge, Ignazi, he was not the original judge of the case.
The original judge of the case said, I retain exclusive jurisdiction of the case, meaning he oversees all matters of the case.
Right, right.
There were still underlying issues that needed to be settled,
and Ignasi jumps in as another judge,
and he listens to the-
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
So one judge is assigned this case.
Correct. And y'all were
dealing with that judge.
Correct. Then all of a sudden
this dude jumps in
and
then
orders you. So like literally
did he send sheriff's
deputies to come get
you? Where were you?
Were you arrested?
What happened?
Yes.
So he jumps in the case.
He says that he jumps in a case when this matter was actually before the appellate court
and he did not have jurisdiction.
It was appealed, this matter was actually before the appellate court and he did not have jurisdiction um it was appealed this this matter and so what happens when a case is appealed it takes away jurisdiction
from the child yeah i mean when the case is appealed when the case is appealed it's down
at the appellate court right so this so this dude so this dude jumps in. I'm trying to understand, where were you?
Did they come and arrest you somewhere?
Where were you?
Right, so I was in my home.
What's this, weekday weekend?
Weekday weekend?
This was May 3rd, I believe it was a wednesday okay so so so you at the house
all of a sudden what sheriff's deputies show up saying we got a rest warrant for you
no they uh they knocked on my door uh would continue to knock uh i i have dogs they the
dogs started going crazy and and they were relentless.
They were talking to neighbors.
It wasn't until they called me on the phone.
A detective leaves a message on my voicemail, which I still have, and he says, you need to come to the door.
You're not in trouble.
The sheriff just wants to see you.
But if you don't come to the door, he said that the situation is going to get worse.
Okay, so you, so you, so you, so you, so do they, do they eventually arrest you?
Yes, they, they arrest me under the legal definition of arrest.
I was, I was not free to go anywhere.
Right, right.
But I'm saying this, but what happened?
How did you get in the shackles and then go into the courtroom?
How did that happen?
I was required to get into the sheriff's vehicle.
Got it.
They drive me down to the courthouse.
Got it.
And they throw me in a holding cell, and I was was required to I couldn't get out of the holding cell.
Right. And then when I was summoned by the judge, that's when they shackled me and brought me before the judge while wearing shackles.
And you go before the judge and the judge tells you, you got you got 15 minutes to settle this lawsuit.
I'm going to keep you in jail.
Yeah.
So what he said was he had previously put in an order.
And the order, if you look at the plain language of the order, it actually did not have, it did not require us to do anything.
So when I first walked into the courtroom, he asked me, he says, why did you disobey my order?
I said, I did not disobey your order.
So he said, all right, here's what we're going to do.
He says, you have 15 minutes or less.
He says, you're either going to settle this case.
That's option one.
He said option two is the financial documents,
your personal brokerage accounts, federal tax returns.
You're going to turn those over, and you have to make the decision in 15 minutes.
And if you don't, I'm going to finish processing you in jail.
You're going to get fingerprinted,
and you're not going to get out until you comply.
And what then happens, and that then happens, and you spend three weeks in jail.
No, no.
So this was the first time.
So what ends up happening is he goes back to his chambers.
I call him back, and I say, my client is not here. So I can't do option
one because there's a dispute currently as to the numbers. And I said, under the professional
ethic rules, I cannot accept a settlement without even speaking to my client. We had no idea that
this hearing was going on.
You gave me no notice, no opportunity.
You pulled me out of the house.
So I can't choose option one.
Then he says, go ahead.
Here's what I'm trying to understand.
What I'm trying to understand is, one,
have you filed a complaint, a judicial complaint, against this judge for overstepping his bounds?
Two, did the judge who was overseeing the case, has he said anything about this guy stepping in and just assuming control of this?
Uh, so that's your question. Yes, there was a there was a grievance filed by myself against the judge.
He also filed one against me. And the original judge did not step in. What ended up happening the rest of the day is I said I have to pick option two.
And he gave me interrogatories, which are formal legal questions provided by opposing counsel.
Opposing counsel starts asking me questions.
When I try to object, the judge threatens me, you're not allowed to object.
If you continue to object, I'm going me, you're not allowed to object. If you continue to object, I'm gonna put you in jail.
So I'm answering these questions under duress.
I don't have documents.
He's asking me about stuff that I felt.
And cautious persists and you eventually get put in jail.
So.
No, no, no, so he lets me go,
but he tells me that I have 10 days
to produce the documents.
Okay, so this happened in May.
This happened in May.
Yes.
Okay, this happened in May.
All right, so you file a lawsuit.
Okay, where does the case end?
First of all, has the appellate court ruled on this case?
So what ended up happening is the appellate court ended up quashing the appeal.
They never ended up ruling on the matter that was on appeal.
However, while it was on appeal, he issues a contempt order against me.
Wow.
When he didn't have.
Go ahead.
No, I'm saying, wow.
I mean, I'm just trying to understand.
I've never heard again a case waiting appeal decision and the judge stepping in here.
I got about I got about 60 seconds left.
I got to ask you this question here.
All right.
So you filed a lawsuit.
You filed it against this judge.
Yes, I filed it against this judge. But while the lawsuit was pending, he comes back when I'm
at a hearing in August, August the 9th. I'm at a hearing and he causes me to be arrested.
And then he leaves me in jail for 21 days. And I had no ability to get out. In Pennsylvania, when you're picked up
on a warrant such as I was picked up on, you have 72 hours to get released. He refused to hear my
case within 72 hours and left me incarcerated. We tried to file an emergency motion to get me out based on my civil rights being violated under the 72-hour rule, and he refused.
I wrote a check while being shackled in court on August the 21st.
And after writing a check just to try to settle the case, I was still remained in jail for another week.
And that's after we settled the case. That is absolutely
crazy. Well,
hopefully you will get
some recourse
in this absolutely crazy case.
I've never heard of a judge
again having somebody
brought in
and then they're shackled in order.
You got 15 minutes to sell a civil
suit. That's just absolutely crazy. So let's see what happens next.
All right. Thank you. That is. But this goes to show you, Lauren, again, the crazy legal system we have.
And for all those people out there, Lauren, who say judges don't matter.
Thank you. Well, there we are. Obviously, judges do matter.
A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small
ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up.
So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's
Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,
taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.
With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone,
sports reporter Randall Williams,
and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull
will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,
even the signal chats that make our economy tick.
Hey, I want to learn about VeChain.
I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.
So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops,
and 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.
Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Cops believed everything that taser told them.
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley
comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company
dedicated itself to one visionary mission.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.
Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.
In a big way.
In a very big way.
Real people, real perspectives.
This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.
We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.
It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.
Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.
We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man.
Benny the Butcher.
Brent Smith from Shinedown.
We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.
NHL enforcer Riley Cote.
Marine Corvette.
MMA fighter Liz Karamush.
What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.
Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does. It makes it real. It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to
Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
There's some antebellum South stuff, but it's not in the South.
It's in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.
I don't understand how this hasn't been dealt with already.
Obviously, it's almost like it was kidnapping or something. It's
sort of a strange situation. Anytime you talk about shackles or somebody with a nonviolent
offense, in this case, a civil litigation moment, it makes no sense. It sounds like the judge has
some sort of attitude of, I'm going to show this guy, I'm going to show you, you know, who's in charge here and obviously overstepped his authority.
The thing I tell people all the time, Recy,
is understand judges have significant power.
I mean, look at the judge.
Remember the woman in Philadelphia in the meat meal case,
the decision that she made?
And so, again, it trips me out when I hear these people who say,
oh man, these judges
that abide in that point, that shit
don't mean nothing. I'm like, you out your damn
mind.
Right. And this judge...
This is not a federal judge,
but whether you're a federal judge,
a state judge, or
a local judge, judges have
power. And they can abuse that power well that's the key
point is the abuse of power i mean he didn't he wasn't vested this power but he was able to
weaponize the the appearance of having power to get the police to do what he wants to do to keep
to get the prisons and the jails to go along with what seems to me to be false imprisonment and, like Lauren said, kidnapping. And I would add extortion, okay, when you are basically doing the bidding of a business
owner to extort money, tens of thousands of dollars, out of a person under duress. This is
absolutely an outrage and disgusting. And unfortunately, this person, without any other
recourse, is on the bench until 2030. And so it absolutely does matter who you put on the bench. It matters
who you elect, who will appoint judges in cases where judges are appointed. And so this is just
another one of those issues. And the fact that this is civil and it's turning into a carceral
situation for an attorney, throw respectability politics
out the window. There is no profession. There is no socioeconomic class that can shield you
from being black and from white power being weaponized against you.
Look, we see what happens here. And again, you can be an attorney, Greg.
It don't matter when one of these judges get a bug up their asses.
And keep in mind, was it in, I'm trying to remember, was it Connecticut or was it Pennsylvania
where you had that judge who was in cahoots and he got a whole lot of money
and he was throwing black kids in that private prison?
Again, this is why I keep trying to warn people.
Stop sitting here saying that these judicial races don't matter.
They don't matter until your family member gets in trouble.
That's exactly right.
And as Reesey said, he's on the bench until 2030.
It's an elected position.
I don't know who this guy Ignells is.
I don't know what his record is.
I know he practiced many years in the
courts there in western Pennsylvania.
But,
you know, it's very important. I mean, there are a couple
of things. I mean, you know, first of all,
if this is for any law student
who's taking professional responsibility in law
school or any lawyer will tell you this,
this has the
potential not even to be over with
this foolishness, because this boy then filed a lawsuit—I'm not a lawsuit—he's filed
a complaint with the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board against Brother Bernard.
That might interfere with his ability to practice law.
Now, Bernard, of course, has filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board
against Ignelzi. But as you asked him,
Roland, this becomes very curious because, you know, Judge Hertzberg, the original judge,
the judge who was on the case who said he exercised exclusive jurisdiction, ain't opened
his mouth yet. Now, both those investigations are ongoing, but it reinforces another point
that needs to be made. Just like there's a blue wall among the bounty hunters that we call the police,
there's a black wall among judges.
So you have to be real careful.
I mean, y'all going to back this boy on this?
But I tell you what, if he prevails on it, watch how it flip very quickly.
And finally, this man wrote an $80,000 check and still went to jail.
I ain't got $80,000 to write a check for.
And I can't even imagine what that felt like.
Because at the end of the day, if you get in the grips of one of these people like this,
and the system is not going to back you,
this guy clearly thinks he can get away wherever the hell he wants to get away with.
And that becomes a system that when we turn on it,
and people want to know why,
you can pull this case up and add it to the litany of abuses.
And there you go.
All right, folks, that is it for us.
Lauren, Reese, Greg, I appreciate y'all being on today's panel.
Thank you so very much.
All of y'all who are on YouTube, if y'all had not hit the like button,
hit the like button, y'all.
It ain't that hard.
Hit the like button. It impacts the algorithm. y'all. It ain't that hard. Hit the like button.
It impacts the algorithm.
Trust me, it impacts the revenue we generate.
Speaking of revenue, support us in what we do.
Join our Bring the Fuck fan club.
See your chicken money.
Order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.
Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered.
Venmo is RM Unfiltered.
Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.
And, of course, supporters of what we do, download the Black Star Network app,
Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.
And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds,
available at bookstores nationwide.
Of course, Target, Books a Million.
Get it from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.
Order the audio version on Audible.
Folks, that's it.
I'll see y'all tomorrow.
Shout out to my Houston Astros.
They beat the hell out of the Texas Rangers.
Man, 16 home runs in that series.
We coming for y'all asses.
And the rest of y'all people who are the Yankees fans,
yeah, I'm sorry.
Y'all in last place.
Deal with it.
All right.
I'll see y'all tomorrow.
Howard!
Folks, Black Star Network is here.
Hold no punches!
I'm real revolutionary right now.
Black power!
We support this man, Black Media.
He makes sure that our stories are told.
Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rollin'.
Be Black, I love y'all.
All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.
The video looks phenomenal.
See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN.
You can't be Black-owned media and be scary.
It's time to be smart.
Bring your eyeballs home.
You dig? A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.
Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.
But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.
Small but important ways.
From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding.
If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.
I'm Max Chastin.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.
So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I know a lot of cops.
They get asked all the time,
have you ever had to shoot your gun?
Sometimes the answer is yes.
But there's a company dedicated to a future
where the answer will always be no.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.
And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs
podcast. Last year, a lot of the
problems of the drug war. This year,
a lot of the biggest names in music
and sports. This is kind of
star-studded 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.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart podcast.