#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ill.'s 96 shots in 41 seconds, Fla. Deputies Disciplined for Strip Search,Miss. Goon Squad Sentenced
Episode Date: April 11, 20244.10.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ill.'s 96 shots in 41 seconds, Fla. Deputies Disciplined for Strip Search,Miss. Goon Squad Sentenced LIVE from Augusta, Georgia, at the Masters Tournament. Chi...cago police fired 96 shots in 41 seconds, killing a young Black man during a traffic stop. We'll show you some of the bodycam videos and talk to the civil rights attorney representing the family. #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase Florida Sheriff deputies get disciplined for strip-searching a black man on a public street. The investigative reporter who broke the story will explain what kind of discipline the deputies faced. The Mississippi Goon Squad, who tortured two black men, will never know what freedom feels like again after a state judge hands down their sentences. Pro Football Hall of Famer and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith will join us to discuss his Petersburg casino proposal. And once again, the orange man is touting what he has done for Black people. I'll let you hear what he said. Then I'm going to tell you the truth. 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. Thank you. Folks, today's Wednesday, April 10th, 2024.
Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live from the Black Star Network.
I'm here in Augusta, Georgia, courtesy of McDonald's, attending the Masters.
I'm going to give a little shout-out to the Morehouse men's golf team,
as well as the Eastside Golf Boys.
I'll have that for you on today's show.
Also, Chicago police fired 96 shots in 41 seconds,
killing a young black man during a traffic stop.
We'll show you some of the body cam footage and talk to the family's attorney.
In Florida, Florida Sheriff's Deputy get disciplined for a strip searching a black man in broad daylight.
We'll talk to the reporter who broke this story.
In the Mississippi Goon Squad, it tortured two black men.
They will never know what freedom feels like again.
We'll tell you about those sentences right here on the show.
Also, we'll be joined by Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Smith, who wants to emphasize the importance of black ownership in a casino project in Virginia, his home state.
Folks, that and more.
It is time to bring the funk.
I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered of the Blackstar Network. Let's go. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks
He's rollin'
Yeah, yeah
It's Uncle Roro, yo
Yeah, yeah
It's Rollin' Martin, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Rollin' with Rollin' now
Yeah, yeah
He's funky, he's fresh, he's the best, you know he's rolling, Martel.
Martel.
Here we go again another simple traffic stop results in the death of a black man this time
a seat belt violation in chicago leads to 96 shots being fired in 41 seconds this took place
on march 21st when tactical officers with the Chicago Police Department stopped 26-year-old
Dexter Reed before gunfire erupted on both sides. The released body cam video sparks questions
rather than providing answers. How could the plainclothes officers see Dexter was not wearing
a seatbelt when his windows were tinted? And how was Dexter supposed to know who these plainclothes officers were
when they didn't announce themselves while they surrounded his car with guns drawn?
Now, what you're about to see is very triggering,
so we're going to give you a heads up to turn away if you do not want to see this video.
So we're going to give you that time.
All right, this is a 2 two minute and 45 second video folks watch Unlock the door now! Open the door now! Open the door now!
Open the door now!
Turn right! Turn right! Turn right!
Open.
Where? Where?
Up here.
Far down here. I got you. I got you. It's over there. We have an officer down. We're going to get you. We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you.
We're going to get you. We're going to get you. We're going to get you. We're going to get you. We're going I got you. I got you.
We have an officer down.
Don't fucking move.
Unit, step it up.
We got ambulance in the room.
Don't move.
We're all good.
All right.
Thank you.
We're all good.
We're all good. Andrew Stroh, the civil rights attorney.
He is representing the family here.
Andrew, glad to have you on the show.
Okay, so Andrew, here's...
I'm just going to give an example.
I remember when I lived in Chicago
and I was... I, I pulled over,
this car was at a green light, wasn't moving. I pulled over, you know, and I took off.
Car behind me starts chasing me and I don't know who the hell it is. So I keep going. I don't know
who the hell it is. So then we go another block. Then the car pulled up beside of me and he's yelling, get over, get over, get over.
So then he gets out of the car and then comes up to my car, windows up.
Then he shows his badge and then he goes, why the hell you didn't pull over?
I said, I don't know who the hell you were. Yes, you were in an unmarked car.
OK, I can't tell who you are. Why the hell I'm going
to pull over? Because some dude is telling me to pull over. When I see this here, what I saw
when that body cam started, at no point did I hear anyone yell, roll. 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 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 Glott.
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 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
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.
Window down.
Chicago police.
This is an order. Now, have you seen anything where these officers identified themselves to this young man? cut him off, unmarked police car, plainclothes officers wearing hoodies and baseball caps.
Dexter Reed had no idea from what I've seen on the video that they were police officers.
So what we see is an unconstitutional, unreasonable, pretextual racist stop on the west side of Chicago.
And as you know, Roland, they've got these tactical units that do unconstitutional policing
with decades of history regarding abuse in black communities.
So to me, what started as a-
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait.
Now, now I'm-
So you're telling me that he's driving down the street.
All of a sudden, cars pull out in front of him.
They block him in.
Plainclothes folks jump out over a seatbelt.
But we don't even know if it was a seatbelt because you can't see in those tinted windows.
They had no reason to stop him.
It was a pretextual racist stop by tactical officers working.
And here's the thing, Roland, that's so disturbing.
As you know, there's a federal consent decree pending against the city of Chicago. And part of the historical evidence shows these tactical units are terrorizing
citizens on the West and South sides. And so it's tragic. And then in the middle,
dozens of rounds fired. And then at the end, you see an execution-style military shooting
of Dexter Reed as he lay dying on the ground next to his car.
It's tragic on multiple levels.
How many black and brown men?
Wait, are you telling me that, because I cut the video,
are you telling me that while he is laying on the ground,
a shot was fired into his body while he was laying on the ground?
Three more shots.
He came out of the car unarmed.
You can see him unarmed.
They shoot him again.
And then when he's laying next to the car,
the one shooting officer pumps three more bullets into him
while he's laying unarmed by the car.
And we've asked the state's attorney to consider criminal charges against the officers.
We've asked Mayor Johnson to disband these tactical
units that terrorize black folks on the West and South sides. You know, there's so many issues
rolling with this case. Now they're going to say he had a gun. There was a weapon recovered in his
car. But let's talk. This all started with an unconstitutional pretextual stop over, they say, a seatbelt violation,
which they couldn't even have seen because he had tinted windows.
It is stunning to actually watch that. And again, we've done these stories so many times
and another black man did because of a traffic stop. In this case, supposedly a seatbelt before it's been an air freshener hanging down, before it's been a taillight, before it's been a license plate.
It's always something small.
All of a sudden escalates.
And also, last question, how many officers were involved here?
I mean, you need that many officers. deal with a seat belt not being worn?
Five officers in an SUV, four men and one woman.
One of them's wearing a hoodie.
The other one are wearing baseball caps.
They jump out.
They're called the jump out boys.
They jumped out, surrounded the unit.
Guns pointed into the car, and it just erupted into gunfire, and it ended in an execution.
And the city of Chicago and Mayor Brandon Johnson has got to commit to the consent decree and reform.
How many black men need to die before we'll change the behavior of certain members of the Chicago Police Department, especially these tactical units.
Ninety-six shots in 41 seconds.
Andrew, keep us abreast of what happens in this case.
Appreciate you, Roland. Thanks for having me on.
Folks, I'm going to go to a break.
When we come back, I'm going to talk about this with my panel right here
on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Back'm going to talk about this with my panel right here on RoboMart Unfiltered on the Black
Star Network. Back in a moment. 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 Blackstar
Network. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy.
This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. Me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching,
Roland Martin, Unfiltered.
All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network.
Let me introduce my panel, Robert Portillo.
He is host, People, Passion, Politics, News & Talk, 1380 WAOK, out of Atlanta. Scott Bolden.
He is, of course, a lawyer in D.C., former chair of the National Bar Association in D.C. Chamber of Commerce PAC.
Scott, listen, I understand the role of officers.
I understand when it comes to combating crime.
But it takes all of that for a seatbelt violation?
No, it doesn't take all of that.
But, you know, I love breaking these videos down.
If you look at the first of all, we're going to do this.
So we're going to do this here.
We're going to do this here. Make this point right here.
And we have a video from several angles. And so we're going to do is we're going to play these videos.
And then we're going to we're going to go through that and we can sort of describe.
So make your initial comment. Then I'm going to have them replay the first video.
Then guys get the other videos ready so we can actually break it down. First, tactical units aren't hired and aren't on duty to make traffic stops.
That's the first thing.
Even if they saw him coming from the front window of his car and said he didn't have his seatbelt on, that's not what tactical units do.
And if it's a traffic stop, you don't go up to the car with your guns drawn saying, put your windows down. So that's blown away, regardless of what they investigate.
Secondly, on 91 shots in 41 seconds, there are officers shooting from 100 to 200 feet away,
right? Which means that's dangerous for people around them. It's dangerous for the officers. And the victim gets out of the car on arm with his hands up.
And when he gets to the back of the car, they're still shooting.
And those bullets after he's got his hands up and he's outside the vehicle, that's when he gets shot.
And you can see he gets gunned down by three, four, five, six, seven different shots,
including it looks like the officers from a distance who's behind the car just firing and reloading and firing.
That makes absolutely no sense.
There's a lot more going on here as to why they stopped him,
but more importantly, just irresponsibility in regard to just unloading your firearm on a traffic stop like this. Simply
because he's got a gun. Makes no sense.
And he didn't have a gun when he got shot.
Folks, go ahead and play.
Right. And the other deal is
you can actually carry a gun
and people carry guns for
protection. Roll a video.
No question about that.
They didn't even ask if he had a weapon,
by the way.
And there you go. Audio turned up. Do not fucking roll it up. The door's No question about that. They didn't even ask if they had a weapon, by the way.
And there you go.
Audio turned up.
Do not fucking open the doors now. Open the fucking door.
Unlock the doors now.
Open the fucking door.
Unlock the door now.
Open the door now.
Open the door now.
Open the door now.
Oh, shit.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Turn right, turn right. The door is open! Turn back! Turn back!
Nothing.
Where? Where?
Back up!
One here.
Fire at your head! Fire at your head!
Fire at your head! Stop fire, stop fire! Fire. Fire.
What?
We got it.
I got you. I got you over there for
near neighbors. We have an officer down.
Unit step it up. I got you, I got you. Unit's over there for near neighbors. We have an officer down. Don't fucking move.
Unit, step it up.
We got ambulance system around.
Don't move.
He's dead.
He's not going to move.
We're all good.
Do we have any information on the offender? Hey, you got us.
Watch out.
There's a kid over there for him.
Do not fucking move.
I don't know where the gun is.
I don't know where the gun is.
He's got a gun on him?
He started shooting at us.
Hey, dude.
My girl with a gun.
My girl with a gun.
My girl with a gun.
Okay, we got a turn to get a five.
Yes, we have an officer shot in the car.
Oh, Chris!
We have a four hour.
We have a four hour.
I'm going to help you around.
Let's get it.
I don't know where he is.
What's on him?
What's on him? What's on what's on?
Wow.
Yeah, we got a case in right here.
Heck up, watch your feet, watch your feet.
If anybody there is getting information.
Yes, yes, we're aware we have an I don't know. You said it's on the doorstep. Is anybody there? Give us the information. Hey. Yes.
Yes.
We're aware.
We have a man.
It was requested.
All right, folks.
Now, cue up the next video so we can look at it from that particular angle.
And go ahead and press play.
Don't roll the window.
11-13.
Don't roll the window. Okay. Do not roll the window. Put both hands up. press play. All right. So there's another angle.
Let's play that one.
Put your window down, man.
Roll the window down.
What are you doing?
And roll this one down, too.
Do not roll the window down.
Do not roll the window down.
Do not fucking roll it up.
Open the fucking door.
Unlock the door now.
Open the fucking door.
Hey, unlock it.
Unlock the door now.
Do you see both of them?
Open the door now.
Hey!
Open the door now. All right, so we've got three more videos.
Press play the next one.
11-32.
11-32.
Open the door now.
Open the door now.
Open the door now!
Open the door now!
South Fire!
South Fire!
All right, next video.
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.
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 Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. Yo.
What? Why are they approaching with his guns drawn?
This was a tactical stop.
This was not a traffic stop. All right.
Okay.
Last.
Okay.
Here's the last video.
Here's the last video.
Press play.
All right. So we've seen that video there. All right. All right. So. So, OK.
So, Robert, we played six different videos. At no point in a single video do I hear cops say police.
Now, in the fifth video we played,
you see somebody with a vest on that says police on the back.
I'm assuming it says on the front. But when they come up to the vehicle, nobody identifies themselves.
And I don't see a badge dangling from their neck.
I don't see anything.
How in the hell am I supposed to know who you are?
That's one of many questions I think all of us have.
This is an outrage for that community and for any community.
And when we hear all this hyperbole around why are we still marching and protesting
and demanding accountability and even demanding from the Biden administration federal legislation on police brutality.
This is why. There are so many points where the police could have de-escalated this situation
from the beginning by identifying themselves, by finding ways to talk these things down.
And I'm not even quite sure who fired the first shot in this situation. But in those sort of circumstances, should 91 shots be needed for this type of interaction? Not to
mention you're in a populated area. The thing about the collateral damage that could have
happened, these cops are firing from 100, 200 feet away at an individual. So it is a absolute atrocity that has taken place in this situation. And I'm hoping that
as evidence comes out, we find out exactly what motivated these cops to respond in this manner.
Scott, I think back to the shooting of the black couple in Cleveland when a cop jumped on top of the car and it was firing shots down plus shots
have been fired as well um and and you just and granted that that was after a car chase this is
I mean I I I get unmarked vehicles but I'm sorry I don't care if you're in Chicago where people
got well carjackings things like that I'm even even when we played, even when they got out of the car.
And to your point, Scott, guns were already drawn. He had his window all the way down.
I'm sitting here waiting for somebody to say we are Chicago police.
So they're talking. He's like, I don't know. I'm raising my window up who the hell y'all yeah and the other question that's going to be raised in the investigation is
there were playing there were unmarked cars but one of those cars in all of your videos
had lights flashing but they were on the back i don't know whether they were on the front or not
that's one thing some of the undercover had police on the back of their jackets,
but not necessarily on the front. You didn't see the badges dangling, as you say, like you have in
New York. But this was a tactical stop. This was not a traffic stop. It just wasn't. It doesn't
take five people to do this. They had their guns drawn. They were looking for something, whether it was drugs, gun.
He was a suspect.
They approached that car to get him out of that car, which means decisions were made before they stopped that car, right?
This isn't him just driving and they do a traffic stop.
So that's part of the investigation.
They don't appear to find drugs, but they found a gun in the car.
But it reminds me of Laquan McDonald.
Whatever the case may be, if there's a gun on the scene, or even if he has a gun like Laquan did,
not from Wisconsin, not Laquan, it was Philander.
Philander somebody, right?
Philando Castile.
Philando Castile.
That's right.
When the training of these police,
if there is a gun or they believe shots are fired,
they are, it appears to be trained
to just empty their weapon, whether there's a threat or not.
The reason the 200 feet away with that one angle with the cop firing, right,
he's firing 200 feet away, and he's emptying his 9mm.
He doesn't even see that the victim walks into the line of fire.
He's just firing at the car.
Boom, boom, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
He's just firing at the car.
He keeps no way he's going to hit the victim who's in the car.
He could hit other police officers.
He could hit community people.
His police officers could walk in the line of that fire.
That's completely irresponsible and ridiculous.
Because if you see on the video, the victim walks into the line of fire.
He's walking to the back of the car with his hands up, and he walks into that gunfire.
That's what that video shows.
And if he walked into that gunfire, he didn't have a weapon on him.
He left the weapon in the car. And then lastly, when they approached the car, right, look how they escalated.
Don't roll your windows down.
Roll them up.
Don't roll them up.
Don't roll them up.
Don't roll them up.
They've got guns drawn.
And as he rolls his window up, the voice inflection of the police officer, they begin to yell.
They begin to yell., they begin to yell. They begin to yell.
They all begin to yell, and they're holding their guns,
because I get it that they don't know what they're dealing with, right?
But they have a sense of what they're dealing with,
but he hasn't shown a weapon yet.
And then they have this conversation, but they're yelling, yelling,
and their shots are fired.
Who knows who fired the shot?
If the young man fired the shot, even if he did, right, then they're free
to fire, but not recklessly fire, right? If they fire into the car, they've got to see whether they
hit something or not. Remember, they don't know who else is in the car, too. There could be a
passenger. There could be kids in the back. This is irresponsible at several levels. I could do a
lot more analysis, but that's my immediate response to this. This is irresponsible at several levels. I could do a lot more analysis, but
that's my immediate response to this.
This is crazy.
Robert, final comment.
Oh, no. One of the
fundamentals of gun ownership and gun
training is never fire or even
point your weapon unless you
not only know exactly what you're aiming at,
but what is beyond it. And in this
situation, they are firing blindly into a vehicle.
And as Scott said, there could have been children in the backseat,
could have been explosives in the backseat, for all they know.
And they are firing blindly into it.
How is that going to be self-defense or defense of an officer?
How exactly do you explain the need for 91 shots?
What I think at some point in time, they thought the other officers firing
was the victim firing back at them.
And so they started firing at each other,
ostensibly, because that's what it was.
Did you see how jittery they were,
how scared they were?
This is not a job for people
who are jittery or scared.
And that showed in their reaction.
And I'm hoping we'll get more information on this
about our prayers for the family
and, of course, the victim in this case.
Yeah.
Absolutely insane.
All right, folks, we'll keep you apprised of this story.
We'll be right back.
I'm Roland Martin out of Philipson 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,
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 Glod.
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 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. hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly
violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s
capital 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 fear.
Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy.
This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits.
Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show.
You're watching Rolling Mark.
Until then. 2022, a black man was strip searched in broad daylight in Jacksonville. Well, the results of that is that the sheriff's office has said that those officers were wrong and violated a policy.
Ronnie Reed was stripped in the middle of the street in front of his family members.
The officers did not find anything, but he was arrested for selling cocaine.
The state attorney's office dropped the charges
against Reed in February,
but only after spending more than a year
pressing him to accept a plea agreement
that would have sent him to prison for at least four years.
Nicole Manna of the tributary,
the investigative reporter who broke the case,
joins me now from Jacksonville.
Glad to have you on the show, Nicole.
Hi.
So now the sheriff's department goes, yeah, they really didn't follow the rules in how he was pulled over and strip searched.
Right. Office actually opened their investigation into this arrest after our reporting on what had
happened, our reporting that questioned if they broke policy, if they broke state law.
That investigation was opened in March of last year, and it was closed in September.
We only learned about it by filing another records request asking for that investigation.
They had never notified us that it was closed, despite the fact that
our reporting is because of our reporting is why it was opened. So now I'm confused. Okay,
so the arrest takes place in February. They opened investigation after the fact. What was
he initially stopped for? So the arrest actually took place in September of 2022. We didn't publish our first story until March of 23.
So that is when the investigation was open.
What happened in that arrest is the police were doing a kind of drug operation.
An undercover officer gave $20 to a different man, and that man was seen walking toward
Ronnie Reed. That man went back to the
officer, gave him whatever amount of cocaine. And then those officers approached Ronnie
and searched him down, patted him down, didn't find any drugs, didn't even find the $20 that
police had given the original man. And then that is when the strip search occurred.
Wow. So they never actually saw Reed give this guy drugs, so therefore they assumed he was the drug dealer. Right. That's how it seems. The original arrest report on Ronnie isn't exactly
clear of what happened other than this other man walked toward
him. In the investigative file from the internal investigation, we saw an extra line that says
an officer witnessed a drug exchange. But again, there were no drugs found on Ronnie either at the
time of the arrest or at the jail. The $20 that was given to the other man in
exchange for cocaine was found in his hand when he was arrested. It was that money was never found
on Ronnie Reed either. And his defense attorney told me that she brought that to the state
attorney's office and said, I've never seen a drug dealer give on credit. Wow. Again, another one of those crazy stories of what cops
say one thing and something else, you know, actually happens. But what was nuts here,
they were trying to get this man to plead guilty. Right. They spent more than a year
trying to persuade him to plead guilty and take a four-year prison sentence.
But he kept fighting. He went through multiple defense attorneys.
And ultimately, the case was dropped in November.
I believe it was November 14th or 15th. I'm sorry, February.
I believe it was February 14th or 15th.
And that is when the state attorney said that they did not have enough evidence to bring him to court and prosecute him.
Questions from the panel. Robert, you first.
So with this, will there be any sort of apology, restitution, anything paid to this man for what he's had to go through in this situation?
Because I've had similar cases to this. This is not an isolated incident.
What systemic changes is the police department going to make to stop this from happening
in the future?
So one of the interesting things that came out in the internal investigation is that
the officers who stripped Bonnie said that they were actually never trained on what the
search policy is, and they didn't even know that what they did constituted a strip search.
So of course we asked JSO, knowing this information, have you done additional training
in the department? We never got an answer back on that. JSO told one of the local TV stations here
that they do offer and do require training on searches. But again, we don't know if there's anything
that they're doing beyond what training
they say they already have.
And I do know Ronnie is talking with a civil attorney.
Scott.
Yeah, Scott Bolden here.
He needs to talk to a civil attorney about this.
You know, the idea that the police believe that they could
strip search someone in public because they didn't have proper training. I had good home training.
I had good upbringing. Taking somebody's pants down or making them strip in public just seems
to be just at your core. We shouldn't do that. We should take him to the
station or we should put him in the police van or something. Just your core should tell you that,
whether you're a police officer or not. But here's another question, similar to Roberts,
right? What about training and what about reformation of the prosecutor's office?
I'm a former prosecutor from New York City.
Either you got the evidence or you don't.
Theoretically, philosophically rather, ethically,
under most state bar rules and the ABA,
if you can't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,
if you can't prove the case, you don't bring the case,
then you don't sit there for a year
and try to get them to plead us something.
Because that means they're not trying to do justice.
They're trying to get a conviction, right?
Any discussions with any groups or that state's attorney's office about that Reformation piece or that ethical piece,
because Ronnie ought to bring ethical charges against the assistant state's attorney for how they handled this case.
Because if they were going to dismiss it anyway, what were the internal memorandums about whether
they could prove the case or not? And was there a memo that said, oh, just get him to take a plea,
as opposed to dismissing him and doing justice? Roland, that's the difference between doing
justice and just going after a conviction? Go right ahead, man.
I think that is something that he's exploring with his civil attorney. We actually haven't heard too much from the state attorney's office on that, on why they decided to continue to pursue
these charges. When we first wrote the story, the answer was essentially a crime was committed,
and we are moving forward with this case. We haven't heard much of an
apology or any other details of why this was dropped or what the internal communication
looked like. But that is information that we are looking to get hopefully through future record.
I'd make that part of your investigative reporting because that gets lost sometimes.
But that's a huge issue
because the police are one problem, but the prosecutors drive the investigation,
drive the prosecution, and they've got to be ethically based. And if they violate their ethics,
they ought to be brought to accountability.
Yeah, there are definitely two parts to the story, just like you said, JSO and the state attorney's office.
So, yeah, we're going to continue reporting on this and seeing what we could find out.
And, Roland, one of the first cases I did with Henry Daniels back in the day was a case similar to this where a man had half an aspirin on the stove,
and they tried to charge him with possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.
And it took us over a year to get that case dismissed against him.
Once they finally got lab results to show there was half an aspirin.
So this is not an isolated incident.
Just thank God we have a legal aid general that you can actually deal with issues like this.
Yep.
Absolutely crazy.
Nicole, great job reporting.
Keep it up.
Thank you. Thank you for job reporting. Keep it up. Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
We come back.
We'll talk the Goon Squad getting sentenced for their attack on two black men in Mississippi.
You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.
Support us in what we do.
Join our Bring the Funk fan club.
Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year.
That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.
So if you're checking money, order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-710196.
Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo's RM Unfiltered,
Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.
We'll be right back.
Janet actually called me and she said,
do you remember us having an argument in the studio, whatever, whatever?
And I said, no, not really, because we never argued in the studio.
And she said, well, there's this piece we found and can you come over and watch it with me?
And I said, sure.
And I went over and watched it and I loved it.
I just started laughing. I said, this is great. This is great, Danny. And she said, okay,
so you're okay with this? I said, yeah, I'm fine with it. Because literally we worked together for,
I mean, I don't know how many days we've been in the studio together. And literally we had
maybe one argument like that. Right. And it was captured. But of course, that's the thing that,
you know, absolutely people want to see. But yeah, that kind of thing happens. Some days that's with that's with you know your voice isn't good today let's just go see a movie or let's go
just chill or you know some days it's tough love like you got to do that again Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy.
This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits.
Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family.
You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.
Folks, we've talked about the goon squad in Mississippi, six white cops.
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 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
LavaForGoodPlus on Apple Podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Glod.
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.
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.
Who brutalized two black men?
Well, they pled guilty to federal charges.
Now they have learned their fate in state charges.
The five former Rankin County deputies and a former Richland police officer pled guilty to
state charges in August for their involvement in a racist assault against Michael Corey Jenkins
and Eddie Terrell Parker. The disgraced law enforcement officers have already been sentenced
between 10 to 40 years in federal prison. Rankin County Circuit Judge Steve Radcliffe
sentenced Brett McAlpin,
Jeffrey Middleton, and Daniel Opdyke to 15 years for a hindering prosecution and five years for conspiracy to commit a hindering prosecution.
Joshua Hartfield got 10 years for a hindering prosecution
and five years for conspiracy to hinder prosecution.
Christopher Detman got 20 years in prison for burglary
and five years for conspiracy.
Hunter L. Ward got 20 years for aggravated assault, 20 years for burglary,
and five years for conspiracy to commit a hindering prosecution.
The state sentences were run concurrently with federal sentences.
They must permanently surrender their law enforcement certificates.
I mean, you see right here these six thugs and what they did.
And the bottom line is, let's not even believe for
a second this was an isolated incident, Robert. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say,
Roland. You know, for every one case like this that comes to light, we had this with the
Red Dogs in Atlanta years ago. So many law enforcement agencies around the country
have squads of this nature, have groups of this nature.
And often in the name of public safety, in the name of combating crime, because, you know, communities, when crime goes up, they get very lax on human rights all of a sudden.
They're able to put these units out there.
But we've seen over and over again the excesses that happen when you give officers this type of power and this
lack of accountability. I'm glad that these officers have been brought to justice, but we
have to work on making the wholesale changes to law enforcement and criminal justice reform in
this country. This is why it's important for us to still push for, even in this election year,
that George Floyd Justice for Policing Act. at. What you see here were just simply six thugs, six gang members with badges and guns, Scott.
Yeah. And there are goon squads like this still in existence. The police department and police
chiefs, who should resign in this case but hasn't, tolerate it as this kind of mantra that to catch thugs or to stop crime in the
roughest parts of the neighborhood, you need a rough unit.
Well, no, you don't.
You just need a unit that's going to do good police work and do it by the book.
But this whole idea that you don't want to know, you don't want to know how we solve
crimes in tough communities because it's the price you pay for democracy or your
constitution or for a safer community.
It's all bullshit, basically.
There's nothing good about what these people did.
They've done it before, and senior management and police departments know they exist.
They tolerate it with a blink or a nod until something like this happens.
And nine times out of 10, it happens to poor black people,
the least, the lost, and the left out.
And then they're prosecuted or they're fired from the police force,
but the damage has been done already.
It's just pathetic.
Yeah, and so certainly glad to see these thugs brought to justice.
Speaking of bringing a thug to justice.
Donald Trump's trial begins on Monday.
This fool, y'all.
This fool tried to sue the judge.
I mean, he will delay and delay and delay.
I mean, Scott, this is one of those with a judge.
Well, the judge has got to say, man, sit your ass down and stop this nonsense.
They struck that down.
This idiot.
And also, let's also today, Allen Weisselberg, who was his numbers guy, got sentenced today to five months in jail for committing perjury, lying about that.
So, I mean, you've got to be stupid to say, yeah, I'm willing to go to jail for Donald Trump.
Well, Weisselberg benefited a lot from that inappropriate relationship.
He got another five months.
He must like jail.
He must like it, boy.
But he done met somebody in jail because he keep going back for Donald Trump.
But the judge in this case, you know, made a very quick
ruling and basically said,
sit your ass down.
Your day is coming. Your day in court
is coming, and it's coming fast.
Your first criminal trial, the first
time you've ever faced the criminal justice system,
not the civil justice system.
And I'm going to tell you, it's going to be
tough on Donald Trump. I keep
telling everybody that. Those cameras are going to be in the courtroom. You're going to see that, it's going to be tough on Donald Trump. I keep telling everybody that.
Those cameras are going to be in the courtroom.
You're going to see that this is a day of reckoning because he's going to get convicted of some of those counts, if not all of them, because it's a paper case.
It's an easy case to try.
It's about fraud.
It's not about hush money.
The lawyer for Donald Trump, They've got key witnesses. But they also have corroboration,
written corroboration that regardless of what his lawyer pled to and went to jail for,
it doesn't matter. They can corroborate what he's saying. And so his day of reckoning is coming.
The press and politics and political folks make out like this is the least important case.
31 felonies is the most important case,
and that judge will sentence him to jail. And whenever that happens, right,
they're going to have a hard time getting him out
of serving that jail time.
They could keep him out while the appeals work.
But at some point in time,
your day of reckoning is going to be upon Donald Trump.
It's hard to imagine him winning the race convicted with 30 or less or more felonies.
It really is because he won't be campaigning.
And a lot of that money he's raising right now has got to go towards legal fees.
So the Republican Party is in a hot mess because Donald Trump is leading the Republican Party right now.
Very unfortunate for the Republicans who are not
Congress supporters.
Robert, this man has attacked the judge, attacked the judge's daughter. I guess he thinks
that stuff flies. No, player. So they slap him with a gag order.
Am I the only one who found
it strange that Michael Avenatti was on MSNBC last night talking from federal prison, saying Trump can't get a fair hearing?
Your man's sitting in jail for 17 years for stealing everything else.
For stealing, that's wrong.
I don't want to hear his ass.
Robert, I ain't trying to hear no Michael Avenatti jailhouse confessions.
Look, Rowland, this is what we talk about when we talk about the auction nature of the criminal justice system.
When you have money, when you have access, when you have political connections,
you have a completely different experience in the criminal justice system than the normal person.
We have to tamp back down on that if we want to actually have a functioning system.
One of our founding fathers, John Jay, talks about the legitimacy of our system and the criminal justice system and the courts.
The courts do not have armies.
They do not have enforcement mechanisms.
Therefore, the people have to actually believe that the system is fair or else the system collapses around itself.
What we see is if you have unlimited money, you can file unlimited lawsuits and motions and delay, et cetera, along the lines.
That is something that is not available to your average defendant. have to put guardrails in place to ensure that no one can use money or political connections or anything else
to face a different criminal justice system than your average everyday person.
Because once you start establishing that as a rule and as a fact,
then people have no reason to believe in the system as it is.
And that's how you end up with failed states like we see across the world right now.
Absolutely.
It's nuts, nuts, nuts.
So, we'll talk again on Monday.
Alright, folks, we come back.
I mean, please.
I'm like,
Michael Albinoni, he can't get a fair trial in New York.
Shut up. Go back to your jail cell.
Alright, we come back. Bruce Smith,
former NFL player, pro football Hall of Famer,
now is a part of a casino being in Virginia.
He says black folks should be participating economically in these areas,
especially when they're in majority black cities.
You're watching Rolling Mountain Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.
Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Cox, a conversation with Professor Toyin Falola, a man described by many as an African intellectual legend. He is without a doubt the most important
and prolific writer, thinker, teacher, and servant of African studies
in the modern world.
And then today, we have George Floyd, the Black Lives Matters, and the reimagines of
radical Black talk.
We're honored to welcome him to a very special, can't miss episode of The Black Table,
only on the Black Star Network.
Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media
for the creator economy.
This next generation social media app
with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits.
Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin Unkilled. so virginia has So Virginia has commissioned several cities 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.
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 One, 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 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 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. an effort that's in Petersburg, Florida. And Bruce Smith, Pro Football Hall of Famer, says,
you know what? Why are these casinos being built in black cities and black people not participating?
Well, he has joined several others to bid on that casino. There are a number of people who are
vying for that license. They are very lucrative licenses. And so Bruce Smith joins us right now.
Bruce, glad to have you here. The reality is, since Don Barton died, there's not been a single African-American owner of a casino in the United States.
Well, and hi, Roland. It's good to be on your show.
And thanks for having me.
I hope that we're about to change that.
There's too much at stake.
There's too many people that have paved the way for this opportunity, and we cannot let it pass us by.
It's not the fact that the project in Richmond didn't have African-American participation,
the majority of these folks were not from Virginia.
And when we have these economic opportunities, groundbreaking economic opportunities and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that come at our doorstep.
And for Virginians not to have a major stake at these opportunities, I just think that it's
an injustice. And we need to make sure that Virginians have a seat at the table because we live here.
We spend our money here. We send our kids to school here.
And we know how to strengthen our communities and what's needed in our communities and to help uplift our people,
as opposed to folks from out of town coming in here and telling us what we think we need or what we should have or the opportunities we should get, quite frankly.
And we've seen this before where licenses come up and people outside vie for those licenses.
I look at bally's in Chicago that vie for one in Illinois.
So you have these you have these, you know, international international casino companies.
But your but your whole point is, hey, if you're a state and you're a city, you should really be looking to the people who are from there to participate in that in the economic economic viability of these projects? It strengthens the fabric of our communities, our cities,
and quite frankly, the state. We just had these opportunities come to light when legislation was
passed to build five casinos in the state of Virginia. Just like with marijuana licensing,
I'll give you the prime example of what I'm talking about.
There is a casino in Portsmouth,
which is a predominantly African-American city.
There was an out-of-town developer and vendor,
well, not developer, but casino operator that came here,
and there's only 5% African-American participation in a predominantly African-American city.
That speaks volumes.
So when this opportunity came along, because of my long history with the Cordish Company, one of the things that I emphasized that we had to have a significant stake in chosen to be the developer of this resort, casino, entertainment development.
We're going to employ over the life dollars that will go to the state as well as the city in tax revenue, new tax revenue.
So I just think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Virginians to have an opportunity to invest in this generational project that will create generational wealth and will also decrease the wealth gap in our state and in our cities.
Scott?
Hey, Bruce.ott bolton here uh bruce um if if these are licenses that have been awarded
are they going to be voted on by a referendum or are we beyond that and i i can see urban one is a
client of mine but i did not represent them in regard to the virginia licenses and stuff
but i know a little bit about it just on the periphery.
These five licenses, do they have to be voted on by referendum, or are they locked in and
there's a commission that's going to award them based on an RFP?
Yes, this casino license will be voted on by referendum.
So the process, I'll give you the short version. And
the short version is the city sent out an RFP. There were five vendors that answered the RFP.
We happen to be, in my opinion, the strongest team. The Cordish Company has over 100 years experience of development. I've got
over 20. They have... Yeah, I'm familiar with them.
Yes. They have... They do business
all over the world. They are very
strong. They built and they own casinos
in a number of major cities.
But the fact that, and let me get back to your referendum. So the person that will be selected,
the group that will be selected by the city council and the committee to move forward as being the vendor.
First, they have to become a host city, which means it has to go through the House and the Senate.
They have to pass it. The governor signs the bill, and after the governor signs the bill, then it becomes law.
There's a holdup right now. There is language in the bill that talks
about that it has to go back. The governor took that language out, which was, and I'm losing my
train of thought right here for a minute, but the governor took the language out. So now it's up to Don Scott to do the right thing. And doing the right thing
will be doing the right thing for the citizens of Petersburg that has high rates of unemployment, poverty, food deserts, limited resources to fund schools.
There's just so many problems that exist.
And this will be the economic engine that this city needs to provide hope, entertainment,
and give these folks a shot in the arm with good paying jobs and a prosperous future.
Yeah, but Bruce, I'll just share this with you.
I don't think you have to worry about black people in Virginia supporting this initiative because they certainly want it.
Your opposition is going to come from those who don't live in the community and those who have a view of the world that you and I don't share,
given the melanin in our skin.
That's the first thing.
And the second thing is local support.
There was no issue with local support.
You may have even more,
but those prior efforts had good local support.
It's that your opposition is well-organized,
financially backed, and they
are a force to deal with.
Do not underestimate them, because those referendums, those two referendums that were lost already,
they were, they made all the sense in the world for people that look just like us.
So I'll leave it at that.
Good luck, brother.
Well, and the word I was trying to recall at the time, I probably had too many cushions while I was playing in the NFL.
I didn't say that. You said it.
But it's called the reenactment clause.
The governor took it out. So the governor did his part.
Now Don Scott has to do his part. And then it's not time to play
politics with the people of Petersburg. These folks want to work. They want their city to be
uplifted. This city has been forgotten about for decades and generations.
And this can be the economic engine that puts them on the map and can spark for new growth within their city, new economic growth and opportunities for the people that actually live there. with you 100%, but we will be well armed as we go into this referendum and make sure that the
people of Petersburg understands what's at stake and who's opposing what's about to take place.
Yeah, good luck. You said House Speaker Don Scott must do the right thing.
Specify that.
What do you mean by that?
Well, the bill just needs to be clean.
It needs to be a clean bill so the city of Petersburg can do their business.
This opportunity should not be delayed not one single day longer. These folks in Petersburg desperately need this economic engine, this opportunity for this once-in-a-lifetime project to delay it any significant amount of time would put people in the same state that they've
been in for a lifetime.
They need this project in the worst way, and we want to do everything we can to make sure that we bring a project that brings massive number of jobs,
get tax revenues so they can repair their roads, so they can fund their schools,
so they can have the tax revenue and the jobs that are created to sustain families
and they can feel proud about it.
All right, then.
Bruce Smith, man, I appreciate it.
Good luck in your efforts.
Roland, thanks so much for having me on, man.
And appreciate all the work you do throughout all the communities all over this country, man.
Much love and respect.
I appreciate it.
Thanks a bunch.
All right, folks, going to break. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.
All right, folks, going to break.
We come back.
Donald Trump says, I know why Jewish people and the blacks are voting Democrat.
I'm going to tell you why.
Yep.
We're going to show that race is next 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 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 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 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 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.
Watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black get wealthy with me deborah owens america's wealth coach nurses are the backbone
of the health care industry and yet only seven percent of them are black what's the reason for
that low number well a lack of opportunities and growth in their
profession. Joining us on the next Get Wealthy is Needy Barnanilli. She's going to be sharing
exactly what nurses need to do and what approach they need to take to take ownership of their
success. So the Black Nurse Collaborative really spawned from a place and a desire
to create opportunities to uplift each other, those of us in the profession, to also look and reach back and create pipelines and opportunities for other nurses like us.
That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network.
Fan Base is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy.
This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom
to be you without limits.
I am Tommy Davidson.
I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder.
Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin.
Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable.
You hear me? Michaela Boyd was last seen at her Columbia, South Carolina home on March 8th.
The 15-year-old is 5 feet tall, weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information about Michaela Boyd is urged to call the Columbia, South Carolina Police Department,
803-545-3500, 808-543-3500.
All right, folks, Donald Trump says he knows why Jewish and black people are voting for Democrats.
It's out of habit.
Listen to this fool.
They don't want to talk about that.
They don't want to talk about the attack of October 7th on Israel because Biden is no fan of Israel.
Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel and, frankly, should be spoken to.
How a Jewish person can vote for Biden is for a Democrat because they are on the side, 100 percent of the Palestinians. And he doesn't know how to get out of it. He's stuck.
But he is if you look at what he's done, he is totally on the side of the Palestinians.
And frankly, it's incredible that historically Jewish people vote for Democrats.
To me, I cannot. I know you're Jewish, Wayne, and I know you vote for me, but I don't understand it.
And you probably don't understand it either. You take the 10 worst presidents in history, add them all up.
They haven't done damage to our country like this lunatic has done.
And not that's and that's not even including the weaponization of the DOJ against me,
his political opponent and all of the other things that are taking place. He has done more damage to this country than any other president.
And and multiply at times the 10 worst.
There's never been anybody like him.
It's horrible.
And, you know, when you talk about the Jewish people, you can also say the black people,
African-Americans have been brutalized by this man.
And by the way, if you look at his statements about them in the 19, his statements about them in the 1990s, he was he spoke horribly.
Very racist.
About black people.
Horribly about.
He's a racist.
At a level that very few people have heard.
Yeah, he's a racist.
His best friend was Senator Byrd.
You know, I really think a lot of it's habit, Wayne.
A lot of it's habit.
I see you caught on to that when I said it initially in the program.
A lot of it's habit.
It's all it is.
Jewish people, by habit.
And it's changing.
They just, they vote for the Democrat.
And black people, by habit, vote for the Democrat.
Right.
But now, the African-American population is, we're at the highest level anyone's ever been at as a Republican.
It still should be much higher because of what I've done with criminal justice reform, with funding the black colleges and universities, with all of the opportunity zones.
Nobody's done more than I have.
I say nobody's done more since Abraham Lincoln.
I actually wanted to go beyond Abraham Lincoln, but some people thought that wasn't a good thing to do. So I left it at that. That is the biggest lying fool you've ever seen. And see,
this is what happens when you keep telling a lie, folks start believing it. Trump sat there and
said, I've done more for the African-American people than any other president other than Lincoln. You a damn lie.
Then he lied about HBCUs, y'all.
Y'all notice Trump and his supporters can never give a number.
They can never give a number, Scott, as to how much money they gave the HBCUs.
Sir Tim Scott, Trump, they can never give a number.
Then he talked about what I did for criminal
justice reform. First of all, it's not what you did. The Democrats
passed the bill in the House.
Then when the bill got passed in the House,
it was tripped in the Senate
only because Senators
Dick Durbin, Kamala Harris,
Cory Booker said
this ain't strong enough.
So, and then he
loves some opportunity zones. Scott,
I have yet to find, and I've been
looking, I have yet to find any
data on these opportunity
zones that shows how they benefited
black folks, low-income people.
Can't find it. Cannot
find it. And I'm telling you,
what Biden and the campaign has to do,
they gotta say, lie,
lie, lie. Don't give me that, well, you do, they got to say lie, lie, lie.
Don't give me that.
Well, you know, misstatements.
No, you got to say lie, lie, lie.
And then if they ever debate, which is up for question, then Biden's got to say, stop lying.
Still lying.
You are lying.
Because that's what he is.
He is a liar and oh Biden made some comments that I disagree
with obviously in the 90s but let's remind Donald Trump uh was sued out of the gate because him and
his dad would keep him black people from renting the apartments in the 70s and Wayne forgot how he
wanted the ex to have the death penalty for the Central Park Five,
now the Exonerated Five. Nah, you ain't getting off the hook like that, sucker.
Yeah, you know, the Biden campaign needs to run an ad about that. They're spending multiple
millions on black and brown voters to keep them in line. They need to do an ad that says
just that. Donald Trump says, hey, lie,
and then the reality, okay?
He gave some money
to the historical black colleges,
but that's not offset
by what Biden has done
in regard to historical
black colleges,
or better yet.
But Scott, hold up.
It's not that he gave money.
In his budget,
and Dr. Walter Kimbr, my, my friend,
brother, Dr. Walter Kimbrough, who's been president of two HBCUs has worked with several
others. He has said, he said, Trump zero, the program they keep touting was a program
with that only account about $90 million HBCUs. Okay. Let's just be, okay. And that's the program
that keeps it was made permanent, but Trump Z Trump Trump kept zeroing that program out of his budget.
And so they never want to talk about that. And so it ain't even a question when it comes to giving.
But he is a liar. And then to say, well, black people vote Democrat out of habit.
No, actually, black people have been voting Democrat. Let's be real clear.
Let me start voting Democrat with Kennedy 1960. Before that, black people were voting for Republican because black people were voting for Republican based upon policies from Lincoln's Best Place Proclamation all the way through the 1800s and 1900s.
But it was policy, not habit, policy.
That's right. That's right. And the other thing is, why would black people vote for Donald Trump or Republicans now?
So if you want to talk about policy, what policy or initiatives does the GOP have that says, yes, we want black people, we want to empower you, and we want you to vote for us?
That's the question I always ask black Republicans and stuff.
Republicans are anti-gay.
They're anti-DEI.
They're anti-abortion.
They're anti-gun control.
They are anti-criminal justice reform, police reform, anti-voting rights. I mean, they're anti-pre-child
care. So that's eight policy considerations right there. Whether you intellectualize your vote or
not will give you reasons as to why you vote Democrat as opposed to Republican. You got to
give me some policy that says that black people ought to be here with me.
And you just don't have that.
I'll tell you something else, too.
He lied about Biden, too, in this Hamas war.
I don't agree with Biden,
and I think he ought to be doing more,
but we're talking about humanitarianism.
We're not talking about supporting Palestine or Hamas.
We don't support Hamas.
Nobody does.
Or the Jewish people.
He doesn't. Those are
our bombs being dropped, right? Those are our financial and military support being dropped,
and our concerns about humanitarianism are being ignored. So I don't know what he's talking about,
if you're Jewish and you vote Democratic because Democrats don't hate, don't like Black,
don't like the Jews. No, we support Israel, a two-party state solution.
We also support the Palestinians' right to live. Instead of bulldozing Gonzaga, there's got to be
a way to eliminate Hamas, who, by the way, isn't even in Gaza. The leadership is elsewhere in Qatar.
But just bulldozing them through military, you know, you're not going
to outrun these images of Palestinians and children in hospitals and camps being bombed
because there are one or two Amas leaders there.
There's got to be a better way.
And you've got to give these people a way out, and you've got to give them food, help.
They're over there bombing aid workers.
They bombed and killed the hostages,
right? And what about the hostages? We got to bring them home. Those are, man, some of those
people are Americans, too. But just bombing your way through to stay in office, B.B. Netanyahu,
to not face criminal justice charges, to stay in office because you don't want a referendum or you don't want new elections, right? At the expense of 30,000 Palestinians, something's got to get. All Biden is saying is,
listen, we support you, but there's got to be a better way to do that. How is that anti-Israel?
It just simply isn't. So, you know, I don't know why we give credence to anything he says,
because he just lies all the time. You say it enough times, he believes it.
Yeah, but the reality is you got people who believe the lies and we have to say, no,
here's the truth. And I'm telling you right now, OK, I don't care what any poll says.
If you are black and if you are broke and white, if you broke and Latino, you got to be a fool voting for Donald Trump.
That man don't give a damn about none of y'all.
He ain't letting y'all walk through the body of any of his hotels.
This man is an absolute ingrate.
He is demonic.
He is evil.
He deserves absolutely no votes whatsoever.
And it manifests itself.
He's told you who he is. Believe him. Right? Absolutely no votes whatsoever. And it manifests itself.
He's told you who he is.
Believe him, right?
And we just won't.
Since when did we oppose Biden because he's too old?
All of a sudden, we don't like his aim.
You don't like his energy.
Really?
Well, I like what he's doing with the economy, for sure.
I like what he's doing with climate change, for sure. I like what he's doing with climate change, for sure.
I like what he's done on the abortion issue.
I like all that.
And there's more than enough reason to vote for him for those reasons alone.
I'll tell you one last thing, Roland.
This abortion issue, I'm going to tell you.
You can talk about the economy.
You can talk about criminal justice reform.
You can talk about all this.
Let me tell you something. The value differentiator, if that's a word,
the value differential in this election
may be democracy and all that other thing,
but abortion, driving
a wedge issue and leveraging that issue
on abortion, where
you have white women around this country
telling their stories, because it's
more than just abortion.
It's life
sciences. It's health care. It's the ability just abortion. It's life sciences.
It's health care.
It's the ability to have babies or to save your life if you've got a bad birth process, if you will.
That's got to resonate with every woman in here.
I don't like seeing women get abortions, but it's a woman's choice. The government ought not be in it.
And 80 percent, I'm sorry, 75 percent of Americans, wherever you
poll, maybe 65 percent, say it ought to be a woman's choice, even in red, poor, conservative
states. Those numbers are there. And so I think it's going to be a real wedge issue. If the
Democrats don't put their foot in and drive a truck through that issue, then I don't think
they're going to win. But abortion has got to be front and center.
You know, I got some fool in our chat
talking about rolling the stop line.
Point me there.
Point out the lie.
Show me how much money went to HBCUs under Trump compared to Biden Harris.
I'll wait. Donald Trump only actually accidentally went to HBCU because they had this event that we're going to give him an award, Benedict College, that got ridiculed and slammed
because it was really put on by some Republicans.
This man is a fraud.
All he cares about are the rich in this country.
And I don't, for the life of me,
I don't know what y'all folks with no college degree,
only high school diplomas are thinking
by saying you're going to vote for this man,
he don't give a damn
about nobody
making $40,000
or less. Hell, he don't
care if you're making $100,000 or less.
He is unscrupulous. He is
a fraud. He is a shameful
individual, and he keeps lying.
And I'm going to call out the lie
when he says it. Lie, lie,
lie, lie, lie. L-I-E,
not L-Y-E. Lie.
L-I-E.
He's a liar. And again, I dare
any of y'all watching,
please bring to
me the proof how Opportunity
Zones have been effective.
I'll wait.
Let me go to break. I'll be right back.
On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, it's spring.
Hallelujah. But hold on. It's not all funny.
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 One, 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 Glott.
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 kind of starts that 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, Season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content.
Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
With the sun and the warmth comes the need to clean the clutter mentally, physically, emotionally, socially.
All of those things need to happen.
Getting rid of the clutter and clearing the cobwebs in our head and in our home.
That's next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network.
Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million
and now is your chance to invest.
For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code.
Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.
Folks, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass,
former Congresswoman Karen Bass,
she says she wants to see California
Congresswoman Barbara Lee replace Marsha Fudge as Secretary of HUD. Fudge, of course, announced
her decision to step down. She's a former congresswoman from Ohio. And the White House
has not indicated who Biden is going to name as his next HUD secretary. They're responsible for billions of dollars when it comes to housing.
But Baz says she wants to see Lee.
Remember, Lee ran for the United States Senate,
and so she's not running for her congressional seat.
And so her term will be up when the new Congress is sworn in July.
So we'll actually see what happens there.
Folks, I'm here in Augusta, Georgia, where the Augusta National Invitational, also known as the Masters, is taking place.
I'm guest of Mercedes Benz here.
And I was at the course today.
Today was a practice round.
It was also the part three context.
And I ran into a couple of groups that Mercedes has invited out,
and they've invited the Eastside Golf.
We've had them on the show, in addition to the Morehouse Golf Team.
Check it out.
Hey, folks, Roland Martin here.
We are at Augusta National, and I'm sitting here walking off the course.
Then I ran into these guys, Morehouse Golf Team, Eastside Golf,
here enjoying the festivities
courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
Y'all good?
Yes, sir.
All right.
All right.
So we'll have a little fun.
And of course, y'all have been a great week.
Certainly was glad to see them out there.
And one of the things that they are doing with the Masters is reaching out, paying colleges, the HBCU that's here in Augusta,
reaching out to the folks as well, providing an opportunity to experience one of golf's majors.
And so I'm sure, Scott, that's music to your ears being a, aren't you about now that Morehouse grabbed, aren't you on the board or something like that?
I chair the governance committee on the board of trustees.
And I just want to know, did you play them young boys from Morehouse?
And how'd your handicap go, up or down?
Because I know you are in heaven.
I did not play them.
You are in heaven as a master.
I did not play them. We, of heaven, Sebastian. I did not play them.
Of course, we were there.
We were just watching the Part 3 contest.
But I ain't got no problem cracking my clubs out if necessary.
And, yes, my golf handicap is a 3.7, so it's pretty damn good.
How do you get a 3.7 handicap?
Like, where are the other.3?
What is that, just an average?
You know, usually you have a 3 handicap,
you have a 10 handicap.
I got a 20 handicap.
3.7, how do you get that?
That's because
that's what happens when you
work alongside, or when you've got
bootleg friends of yours
who don't actually turn in their scorecards,
who don't turn in their scorecards where they can actually showcase their handicap.
And so when I put it, yeah.
So, yes, I have a golf handicap index from from the folks at USGA.
So, yeah, we got skills.
You've shown me that several times.
You show it to whoever wants to see it.
But I'll be happy.
Whoever you ask.
A, I'll be happy to bring your little behind out to the golf course
and take some of your legal money.
I mean, so all you got to do is pick a day.
I'm going to invite you to my private country club,
and I'll let you play. They only have so many blocks. What's the pick a day. I'm going to invite you to my private country club, and I'm going to let you play.
They only have so many blocks. What's the name of your club?
I'll make you one of those. What's the name of your club?
What's the name of your club? Lakewood Country Club.
In northern Bethesda, sir.
Have you played that? Have you played that course?
I think I played
Lakewood.
I will be happy
to come there and take...
I want you to come out and play my team.
Hey, you can put
your little team together.
I ain't got no problem dusting off
some short...
I ain't got no problem dusting off some short...
They're big hitters, too.
They're big hitters.
They big hitters.
I put teams together to win golf tournaments. That's what I do.
Because I can't play worse shit, so I put teams together.
You know what?
That's probably the one thing you and I have agreed
on the most. You can't play worse shit.
I can't play worse than that.
I did run to a couple. I did play with shit.
I did run
to a couple of capitals on a golf
course, and one guy was like,
he said, you got that red? I said,
no, let me help you out. The colors
of my show are my
high school colors, Jack Yates High School
of crimson and gold.
And so that's
why I have the shirt on.
That's why I have this here.
So let them know.
No, no, no.
So, you know, and again, us Alphas,
we can show y'all how to wear red.
So that's how we do it.
We've got dinner.
Actually, I look much better in black and gold.
Old gold.
I look great in red, but I look much better in black and old gold.
Your mama told you years ago that you were a fine black man,
and you believed it.
You believed it, right?
That's the first problem.
You believed what your mama told you. My mama said it.
My daddy said it.
My grandparents said it. My aunts and uncles said it. My daddy said it. My grandparents said it.
My aunts and uncles said it.
They're prejudiced.
They're prejudiced.
They're also smart.
I got to go.
We got dinner in 20 minutes.
I'm cutting the show short.
That is it.
You ain't got to complain about uh
well you know i mean i mean i've been uh i've been a lot of other golf tournaments
uh so uh look there was there were a number of people and listen there were there were a number
there were a number of folks a number of folks who i ran into and then i'm gonna pick up who i ran
into there were a number of uh of there were a number of folks.
You know what? Let me show this here. Let me go ahead and show this. I took. Hold on. Let me just do this. No, no, no, no.
I just. No, no, no, no. I just. No, I just. I just remembered.
I just remember because I want to go ahead and do this. So there were a lot of people.
The first of all, let me tell you something. Everywhere we go, we run into fans of Roland Martin Unfiltered.
They're people.
They were on the golf course out there.
I even ran into one white guy who said, I didn't get his name.
He said, I'm a conservative.
He said, but I appreciate your point of view, and I love your show.
So I was like, I appreciate that.
So it was.
But again, but again, there were no number of brothers and sisters out there.
I do love I do love when you see black folk because they get look like.
And I was like, that's me. And so so I so I helped them out.
But that was when after I finished going around, there was a young sister.
It was so funny. She was she was taking me around. She goes to a high school.
She goes to a high school here in Augusta.
She plans on going to nursing University of Alabama.
And she didn't know who I was, but it's all good.
And I saw these two sisters who were working the tournament.
They had pink hats on, and they had pink hats,
and they had their green shirt on.
And I said, I know y'all AKAs.
And I dropped by to see them.
And, of course, they were.
And so it was good to see them. Just of course, of course they were. And so it was a good to see them. So just give me a second. I'm going to go ahead and show this here. And then also, I also, I got to give a
shout out to a brother as well. He was, he runs all content. We worked, we worked together at CNN, and I got an opportunity to see the whole content center.
It's a massive complex.
This brother, he runs all of it.
He's from New Orleans.
I had a good time chatting with him as well.
And so let me shout out Derek Moore, Derek Moore.
Uh, he again, brought all the content stuff, fantastic brother. Uh, so I just want to give
him a shout out. Uh, and, uh, it was good seeing the folks. And again, I want people to, the reason
I'm saying that I want people to understand, uh, that, uh, look, our people are here. Our people are here.
Our people are working the event.
The people who are attending, who are working in corporate communications as well.
And so I think it's always important to showcase folks who are doing.
I also happen to, Carol, check your email and check your text.
Let me know when y'all, I put it in the group me as well.
So let me know when y'all have it.
So I pulled up.
Let me know y'all have it.
So I was going around speaking to lots of different people.
And understand, I have not seen Ron Townsend.
So, Scott, you may not know him.
He used to run Gannett Television.
Ron Townsend, in 1990, became the first African-American member of Augusta National.
And then remember when they had a lot of the criticism for lack of women here, Martha Burke and her group, they were protesting.
And so then it was around that time when Condoleezza Rice became brought in to one of the first female members of the club.
Saw her on the course, had opportunity to speak to her. We're going to pull the photos in a second.
So here's the thing.
Today was a practice round, the
Part 3 contest. It's the only day
you can take photos.
They don't even allow cameras
on the grounds.
And if they catch you with a camera,
not only will they take the camera, they will also
literally take your credentials and ban
you for life.
So so so could not have any of that. But I did have to take some pictures.
And so to Derek Moore, again, who runs all of content for the Masters or team of over a thousand.
He gave me a tour of the whole facility. We worked together at CNN back in the day.
And so it was great to see him. We're going
to show his photo in a second. Let me know when y'all got it. And then I cannot remember the
sister. OK, check your text. It's also in group me. So there also was, like I say, the sister who
drove me around. She was showing give me the tour of the whole joint. That was too funny as well.
And so she said, you know what she says?
She said, my apologies.
I don't know who you are.
She said, but my mom and them probably do.
I said, baby, you tell your mom and them.
I said, when you tell your mom and them who you drove around, they're going to tell you exactly who you drove around,
they're going to tell you exactly who you drove around. But one of the things that I do is I speak to everybody.
I speak to all of everybody who worked there.
That's how you're supposed to do it.
So the brothers and sisters who worked
the security, who worked on the
grounds, who worked
in concessions. I ran into this one
sister. She was Sigma Gamma Rho.
Scott, we were in the concessions
area.
I'm sorry, we were in the merchandise area
because they do crazy business in merchandise.
So we took a
picture and I said, because she didn't have a camera,
I said, listen, we're going to email it to you.
No, no, no.
She said, I need you to autograph my hat.
So, see, Scott, I know you don't know it.
Scott, I know you don't know this feeling, Scott.
I know you don't know what that's like.
So let's go ahead and pull the photos up.
Oh, you did?
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
People keep telling you, they said, yeah, and they tell you to your face,
stop getting rolled in a hard time.
So, yeah.
So go ahead and pull the photos up, y'all.
So that's my man.
That's my man.
That's my man, Moore.
Like I say, he runs the content deal. Great brother. That's my man. That's my man. That's my man, Moore. That's my man.
Like I say, he runs the content deal.
Great brother.
So good to see him, Derek Moore.
This is the young sister who would drive me around.
If y'all know her, if her people know her, let her know.
I put it on TV because she didn't realize I had a show.
And then, what we got next?
That's the photo I
shot. That was in one of the part three
Conleys and Rice. I got opportunity
to speak to her as well.
And that's another photo
of hers. So, look at my
social media, folks. We're going to have some more content.
And again, today was the only day I could take
photos, so I had to get as much as I
can. So, you know what I should have done?
I should have took a picture of all the black people I ran into.
But it was way too many. So
the brothers and sisters are out here.
So, that's it.
Scott, appreciate it. Robert had to go.
I really appreciate him being on today's show as
well. Folks, I'm going to be
live from here tomorrow as well.
And so, again, I can't shoot video.
I can't shoot content.
So today's the only way I can get it.
But it was so great seeing the brothers at Eastside Golf.
We featured them in our Marketplace segment.
And great to see the brothers on the Morehouse men's golf team as well.
Folks, that's it.
Y'all watching.
You're watching YouTube.
Hit the Like button, y'all.
We should easily move 1,000 likes.
Please support us in what we do.
I also hope y'all understand that, you know, we appreciate Mercedes inviting us.
I'm talking to them with love because, you know, we had a Mercedes Sprinter, got totaled,
we're having it rebuilt.
And so, you know, I'm talking to them about also being a sponsor, partner of Roland Martin
Unfiltered, the Black Star Network.
But we appreciate the opportunity for us
to be able to go places, cover these stories,
because we get to interface with fans,
people who support our show.
There were people who said,
man, I donate to your show as well.
In fact, at dinner, there's a band performing,
and one of the brothers took a picture,
and he said, I got to donate now.
And I'm like, yes, you do.
So that's what we do.
And so we want you to support us as well, because, again, our goal is to cover the stuff other people are not covering and talk about the issues that matter.
You know, we hate the fact that we have to show these videos when brothers have been shot and kill our police officers.
But here's the whole deal. Other media is not covering that stuff.
They're not covering it. And I'm going to tell you right now, these attorneys, they thanked me because they said, Roland, if you don't,
if you're the only one covering this stuff, we have an outlet. We have a day to reach our people
to put pressure on elected officials and others when it comes to these cases.
I've had family members stop me and tell me, thank you for covering the story. My loved one
was shot and killed and you were the only place we were able to covering the story. My loved one was shot and killed
and you were the only place we were able to tell our story. So that's why we do what we do. And so
if this show doesn't exist, we don't have that outlet. So please, your support is critical.
Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Senior Check and Money Order, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,
20037-0196. Cash Shappers, Dollar Sign R, Dollar Sign R, M unfiltered.
PayPal, R Martin unfiltered.
Venmo's R, M unfiltered.
Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.
Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.
Be sure to download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV,
Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.
Folks, that's it for us.
I'll see you guys tomorrow right here.
Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.
Holla!
Folks, Black Star Network is here.
Hold no punches!
I'm real revolutionary right now.
Black power.
Support this man, Black Media.
He makes sure that our stories are told.
Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland.
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 scape.
It's time to be smart.
Bring your eyeballs home.
You dig?
Pull up a chair. Take your
seat. The Black
Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr
here on the Black Star Network.
Every week, we'll take a
deeper dive into the world we're living
in. Join the conversation
only on the Black Star Network.
Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you.
Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently
on your shoulders?
Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy.
Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie.
We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not.
From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives.
And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network.
I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach,
and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you,
but you absolutely need to know.
So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. absolutely need to know. 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 Chastain.
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, Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Lott.
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.
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.