#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jordan Waddy Shooting,Miss. Town Faces Civil Rights Lawsuit,Demings Leading The Polls,Teens & Vaping

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

8.22.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jordan Waddy Shooting,Miss. Town Faces Civil Rights Lawsuit,Demings Leading The Polls,Teens & Vaping Denver, Colorado, police say Jordan Waddy, a black man, pointed a gun at them, and that's why they shot him and injured six others. But the bodycam video shows that's not exactly what happened. We have Jordan Waddy's attorney here to walk us through what really happened on that July night.  We also show you how cops in Arkansas,  New York, and Illinois are causing trauma to those they are sworn to protect.  A civil rights organization holds a Mississippi town accountable for how the police have "terrorized" its residents. We'll talk to the founder of JULIAN about its civil lawsuit against Lexington, Mississippi.  Herschel Walker declines to debate Sen. Raphael Warnock but invites him to a debate the very next day. Ya'll won't believe Walker's explanation.  And we'll talk to Lurie Daniel Favors, the Executive Director of the Center for Law & Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, about what it will take to get young voters to the polls in November. In today's Fit, Live, Win segment, we're looking at the dangers of vaping.  Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Denver, Colorado police say Jordan Waddy, a black man, pointed a gun at them, and that's why they shot him and injured six others. But the body cam video shows that's not exactly what happened. We have Jordan Waddy's attorney here to walk us through what really happened on that July night. We also show you how cops in Arkansas, New York, and Illinois are causing trauma to those who they are sworn to protect. A civil rights organization holds a Mississippi town accountable for how the police have terrorized its residents. We'll talk to the founder of Julian about its civil rights lawsuit against Lexington, Mississippi. Herschel Walker declines, surprise, surprise, to debate Senator Raphael Warnock, but invites him to a debate the very next day. Y'all won't believe Walker's explanation. And we'll talk to Lurie Daniel Favors,

the executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, about what it will take to get young voters to the polls in November. In today's Fit Live Win segment, we're looking at the dangers of vaping, and there are a lot of those. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling

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The best you know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin In Colorado, Denver's top prosecutor says that she is opening a grand jury investigation into the actions of three police officers who wounded six bystanders last month while shooting at an armed suspect in a crowded downtown Denver nightlife zone. Before we watch the video, I want to warn you that what you are about to see is indeed disturbing. So if you're going to be triggered, turn away. Now is the time to walk out the room or maybe just look away for a few minutes. Newly released body camera footage shows

Denver police officers firing seven times at suspect Jordan Waddy on July 17th. Waddy was hit and Denver police say the wounded bystanders received non-life-threatening injuries and are recovering. Authorities say that Waddy, who is in police custody, also suffered non-life-threatening wounds. He has been charged with three counts of possession of a weapon by a previous offender and one count of third-degree assault. The officers involved are on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Wadi's attorney, Tyrone Glover, joins us now.

Welcome, Attorney Glover. Thank you for having me on. We're seeing far too much of this. And I wish I could say that we're surprised or that it's shocking or anything like that. But as you know, it simply is not. Is it, though, that you can tell us about the difference between the narrative, the version of events that the police officers are giving for their justification for shooting, what seems to be out of control through a crowd, and what actually happened? Yes, and I agree with you. Not shocking, but absolutely disgraceful. And the police's narrative has actually shifted and changed over the last

several weeks. When they first came out, they said that my client, Jordan Waddy, was pointing a gun at them, that he was armed. But then when the body cams came out this week, we saw a very different picture. We actually see Mr. Waddy, you know, not threatening the officers. He has a weapon, but he throws it off to the side, and it's flying through the air eight feet away from him before they even start firing shots. After which time, they fire seven more times at my client, Jordan, and at six other innocent bystanders who are just there trying to get some food from the food truck. Absolutely ridiculous. Right. Well, and it seems obvious that departmental guidelines were not followed for what would be necessary by use of deadly force, especially where there were so many. They can't claim that they were doing it in defense of others when others ended up shot through their actions.

What is your information now, first of all, on how your client is doing medically and on how the others are doing? Yeah, and to your first point, they were responding to an alleged bar scuffle. They were walking up after there was an alleged scuffle with their weapons drawn. Right. It started off excessive before even the first shot was fired. And these innocent bystanders, we had one young lady get shot through the shoulder. A gentleman shot in the leg. My client is an absolute miracle that he didn't die. He was shot six times and he's

struggling. He's a positive guy. He is thankful that he didn't die that day, but you know, he's having trouble. He has numbness in his leg. He has trouble breathing because he was shot through one of his lungs. He's going to have a long road to recovery and undoubtedly complications from this later in life. He's a young man and can maybe bounce back temporarily now, but as he gets older, he's going to suffer because of this great injustice. Were you representing him prior to this or have you been brought on as a civil attorney who's going to be representing him in this matter going forward? I've been brought on as a civil rights attorney going forward, but I'm working closely with his criminal defense lawyers in a coordinated effort to try to bring justice to this young man and bring attention to what's going on here in Denver, Colorado. This needs to be in the daylight. This needs to be under the national spotlight. The Denver Police Department should not be able to hide behind their local media. And we want to

get justice for Jordan and we want the nation watching while we do so. Absolutely. So what next steps? I understand you're saying all the right words. You're saying that you're going to try to get justice. But have you been in contact with the police department? Is there anything that you can share about where things are with that? Where things are for myself is we're looking to file a civil rights lawsuit as soon as practical. In Denver, Colorado, we were actually in Colorado period. We were one of the first states to get rid of qualified immunity for officers. And so I can bring a lawsuit under the state constitution and the officers cannot hide behind qualified immunity the way that they have been able to in so many federal 1983 lawsuits. So we are teeing up a lawsuit as soon as practical. We want to make sure we get it right. So we're dotting our I's and crossing our T's. And we're also trying

to make sure in working with his criminal attorneys that he is treated fairly and gets due process in the criminal courts as well. Well, that's excellent to hear. I'm glad that you explained that distinction because certainly we had hoped to be able to get rid of qualified immunity with the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, which did not go forward in this past Congress. I am still hopeful about more in addition to the executive actions signed by the president. But the fact that they will not be able to, at least in your jurisdiction, be protected such that they don't have any personal consequences, any personal financial consequences for their actions is very good news indeed. I want to bring in my panel and see if they have any additional questions. I'm excited to welcome none of them strangers to me and

all of them experts, so I know we're in for a treat tonight with what they're going to have to share with us. Dr. Julianne Malveaux, she's Dean, College of Ethnic Studies at California State University. We have Dr. Omokongo Dibinga. He is a professional lecturer, School of International Service at American University, and a former teacher of my children. Just thought I'd throw that in there. He's an all-around great, smart guy.

We have Renita Shannon. She's Georgia State Representative. Welcome to all three of you. I'll start with you. I'll start with you, Dr. J. I obviously talked about what I think is good news about this case, but do you have any thoughts and do you have a question for our attorney? Sure. First of all, attorney, thank you for your work and for basically pushing this. It's very important. My question is about the body cams, the lack thereof. Why did any of those police officers have their body cams on? I think it was a bystander who captured the most important video. But increasingly, since what happened to George Floyd, police officers have been told to put your derm body cams on and they just won't do it.

Can you explain that to me, please? In Colorado, the jurisdictions can essentially decide what their body cam policies are going to be. And there's some jurisdictions where they say, look, the second that you're out of your police cruiser, the second that you're on the street, that body cam is on and the sound is on. But Denver, there's discretion. You know, they oftentimes will cover up their body cams. As you see in the video here, they don't start the sound oftentimes until after they start shooting or after the incident concludes. So you don't know what these officers were saying to Mr. Waddy, whether they dropped the weapon, which is exactly

what he did and was never pointing it. The discretion that they give to some of these departments, and specifically Dingo, oftentimes works out in their favor when they're trying to cover up some bad police misconduct. Dr. Dibenga, do you have a question for our guest? Yes. First of all, thank you, Mr. Glover, for the work that you're doing for our community. It's greatly appreciated. The question I have for you is what are you going to say to those people who are going to say, oh, my gosh, he should have just complied, he should have never had the weapon.

The people who are going to ignore all of the other people who got shot, who are going to say, oh, it's his fault because he had the weapon. Like you said, he didn't draw and point it towards them. He was getting rid of it like they would say to do, drop your weapon and the like. But these guys who are going to do everything

to put all of the blame on him, the victim, what do you say to them based on what you know about this case? Possession of a weapon in Denver, Colorado, in the state of Colorado, in the United States, is not a death sentence. You don't get to use lethal force against somebody simply because they are in possession of a weapon, legal or illegal. And when we talk about compliance, if you watch the video, he threw the gun to the ground. He surrendered. He disarmed. That gun was 10, 15 feet away before the first shot was ever even fired. And then they fired six more times. They were never in any danger. They originally held him for menacing, which is essentially threatening someone with a weapon, brandishing. Those charges were never brought because there was not probable cause, not an inkling of even reasonable suspicion for a menacing charge. So he complied. There's your compliance. And they still shot him.

You know what? I, Shannon, I want to, Renita, give you an opportunity to ask a question. But I just think what Attorney Clever said is just so critically important. Having a gun legally or illegally is not a death sentence. It really is not trial by cop and sentencing by cop, execution by cop. That is not what the law is supposed to be in the United States. And sometimes we only want it to be where we have these super perfect, or at least we try to make them super perfect victims as plaintiffs in these cases. And to me, that completely misses the point of the protections that are supposed

to be available under the law. Renita, do you have a question before we go to break? Sure. Thanks, Attorney Glover, for the work that you're doing. And I hope that the other victims who were involved in this incident also have an attorney who is as invested in this issue as you are. I think this issue just kind of clearly points out on what we've known for a long time, which is that police don't use the best judgment in all situations. And we've seen other incidents like this happen across the country where police officers have shot into public crowds, have not used great judgment. And that's why you see in some states police officers are curtailed as to when they're able to be hyper aggressive in trying to take someone in. So, for example,

in some states, they're not allowed to do car chases because we know that that's very unsafe, you know, for police officers to be doing that. And in some states, there are just parameters around when they can kind of use this kind of force. I guess I just wonder, have you had any conversations with any lawmakers? I've got some friends out in Colorado. Have you had any conversations with lawmakers around putting some type of parameters around what police officers can do in Colorado? We've had ongoing conversations over the years with many of our lawmakers. I mean, it's one of the reasons why we were the first state to get rid of qualified immunity. In this particular instance, it just shows that there's a lot more work to be done. And there are lawmakers in our state

legislature who are very capable and very invested in these issues. And come session, which will be, you know, we're actually, believe it or not, already ramping up, even though it doesn't start until this winter. My hope is that we'll have some common sense policy solutions to start dealing with this. And I hope one of the things through bringing a lawsuit and bringing this to the attention of the city and county of Denver is that we can have some real changes and reforms with the customs, policies, and practices for the Denver Police Department. Well, we're certainly hoping the same. Attorney Tyrone Glover, thank you so much for being on today. We wish the very best good health to your client, Mr. Waddy, and we wish you good success in obtaining justice on his behalf. We will be right back after we pay some bills on this break.

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Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Rolandunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devine, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Friday, we told you about the civil lawsuit claiming Mississippi police have terrorized residents in a small town

by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force, and intimidation. The civil rights organization Julian is seeking a temporary restraining order against Lexington's police department to demand protection for Lexington's largely black population. The founder of Julian, Jill Collin Jefferson, joins us from Holmes County, Mississippi, with more about the lawsuit. Thank you so much for having me. You know what? Thank you for being here and welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. This, as I just said to our last guest, Attorney Glover, unfortunately, we hear these things and they're not shocking. They're horrifying and enraging, but we're not surprised by any of it. How long has this been going on?

So this has been happening pretty consistently for about a year now. It got really, really bad in the last year. It was happening before that, but when this former police chief, Sam Dobbins, became the chief of Lexington, things changed and got drastically worse. So is there pretext for what is happening? Are they claiming that there has been some sort of uptick in criminal activity and that has led to the increase in stops, frisk, search, et cetera? Or on what basis have they been doing it? Quite honestly, there is no basis. It's been random. And they have been targeting the black community. The places where these stops are happening, they're happening near black neighborhoods. The people who are being stopped are black people. When white people go through these roadblocks, they're allowed to just pass through easily.

The black people who go through get stopped pretty much every single time and arrested on baseless charges. And so what is happening here and what they're saying is the motivation for it is that, you know, this is basically, yeah, they've said it's crime control, but this is not about crime control. This is simply about control. This is about controlling the black population in a county that's predominantly black and is run by a white minority, to be honest with you. It's a town, it's a community where Jim Crow has never left. And so that's what we're dealing with right now and what we're seeing. Now, are you saying that these are all happening at designated stopping points where they have roadblocks and people are either driving through or walking through and they are on a discriminatory basis stopping some

and allowing others? That's happening, yes. What's also happening is that the places where these roadblocks are being set up are places where Black people tend to go, you know, near a night spot. You know, they're having roadblocks that will be, you know, right outside the black high school, but they don't have roadblocks outside the white high school. As a matter of fact, there have been times when the white high school has had events and they've actually blocked off the road and allowed them to get back into town more easily. So it's a completely different type of way that the Black community is being treated. And I just want to say that this also goes beyond roadblocks. You know, this is people who are like they're sitting at their homes and they're being targeted.

They're on their own property and they're being targeted. So this is not just a matter of, you know, of roadblocks. It goes way beyond that, where people are not even able to find safety and security on their own private property in their own homes. This is hideous. It's worse than I even thought. Could you, I want to go to my panel, but I really wanted you to give an opportunity to please tell us a little bit about your organization and how you came to be doing this work. Thank you. So it is hideous.

And I wish that the need for this work wasn't there, especially in 2022. But Julian is a civil rights and international human rights organization. I named it after my mentor, Julian Bond, who taught me everything I know. What we do is we specialize especially in racial terror. And so we've investigated, we've litigated modern day lynching cases. What's happening in Lexington, and the reason why we were brought in is because this is racial terror that's on a mass scale. It's happening to an entire town of Black people. You know, hundreds of Black people. It's happening to them all at the same

time. And so we were brought into this by the community. They called us. They said, hey, can you come and can you help us with this situation? I want to give credit where credit is due. There are other organizations that had been on the ground before in previous months, you know, and so this community was incredibly organized. And so we came into this and we saw the issues that were happening. And basically, I was really glad that we were able to come up with a solution that would benefit this community and also protect them. So that is what Julian does. The way that I like to describe us is that we're a mix of LDF, when it was led by Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, combined with SNCC pre-1966,

and a Silicon Valley tech firm. That's who we are. Well, that sounds like a winning combination for sure. Have you solicited the assistance of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice? Have they commented? Are they aware of what's going on? I do know that they are aware of what's going on and we have reached out to them. We've also reached out to the FBI. And so a lot of these things I can't comment on because they're ongoing investigations, but we have reached out to those entities. All right. Excellent. Let me toss to my panel. Renita, do you have a question for our very, very smart guest? Sure. Well, I want to say first, thank you so much for your work on this issue. This is something I've spent a lot of time on as a lawmaker, working on policing and police accountability issues.

I wanted to ask you, what is the best way that folks can support you? Because what you're doing is so important. We all continue to see video after video of how folks are being treated, particularly in our communities. And there's no way to really avoid the fact that just too much of today's policing really is about the harassment of Black and Brown communities. So I applaud you for what you do and want to know what is the best way that the public can support you. Thank you for that question. So first off, the best way the public can support us is by speaking out, speaking along with this community. You know, what is happening? These people are putting their lives on the line to actually make change in their communities.

They knew that if they became plaintiffs in this suit, they knew that if they filed complaints, that they would be targeted. And so people are actually, their lives and their livelihoods are in balance here. And so the more power that we have in numbers, the safer they are. So I would say if people could, you know, speak out on social media, if you could write letters to your congressman and tell them about what's happening here and say, hey, something needs to happen. You guys need to intervene. This needs to be more than just this community fighting on its own.

I would also say reaching out to the state. You know, we've reached out to the governor's office multiple times. We've reached out to the attorney general of Mississippi, you know, on this. And the attorney general's office told us they did not have jurisdiction of what's happening in here, which is absolutely ridiculous. So I would say putting the pressure on the people who have the control to change things as well. And then, you know, apart from that, something that always helps us is having funding so that we can help this community. What Julian is doing and the work we're doing, I'm incredibly proud of, but we're doing the work of, you know, an organization that

has, you know, been around way longer than we have and has a budget that's way bigger than ours. So when we go into a community, when we do this, we go all in and we do every single thing we can and we don't let our size or our budget dictate the change that we can create. But it's always, always helpful to have that backing.

So if anyone is able to back us in that way, then we would also welcome that. We certainly want to do that. Dr. Dabinga. Yes, I wanted to follow up on Representative Shannon's question on kind of a different level as it relates to support. I'm wondering, what are some of the consequences of what's happening in the community? Are we dealing with, obviously you're talking about the psychological impacts, but also are we also dealing with economic impacts like people maybe being arrested and not being able to make bail and maybe losing their job, other things that may affect their ability to enroll in school because they got arrest records?

Because you talked about those are some of the things we can support by supporting the organizations financially, which I'm hoping everybody's going to be doing, including myself. What are some of these like direct consequences of some of the actions that are happening in this community? Yes, I'm so glad you asked that question. I'm so glad you asked that question. In terms of the consequences, we have situations where, yeah, people are missing work because of, like, these trumped-up court dates and on these trumped-up charges. We had a mother who she would have to drive from Memphis, you know, pretty much every other week because her son was being targeted over and over and over again by cops. She was missing work because of that.

She couldn't pay bills because of that. She couldn't pay bills because of that. These are also situations where the amount of bail that's being put on people is basically being randomly selected by the cops. You know, the very cops who are arresting them on false charges, they're the ones who are figuring out how much is supposed to be paid to let people go. And these amounts are pretty much always a little bit more than what the people can afford to pay. And so individuals, it ends up being a situation where people are really spending their last to just try to like stay out of jail on things that they shouldn't be in jail for in the first place. The other thing about this is that Holmes County is one of the poorest counties in the country. So these are

not people who have the means anyway to be able to be paying these fines. And the way that it's happening is that this county, this town specifically, this municipality, Lexington, is funding itself in large part off of these constitutional violations. The money that they're getting from these fines, it is revenue for the city. And so some of this, well, actually a lot of this is intentional in that sense as well. Wow. I'm glad you brought up the revenue part of it because, I mean, that's like a poll tax. That's like all of the other ways that we've watched government exploit our people for its own purposes. And then the funds don't end up even

going back into the city. They go disproportionately to those who, at least in a town like this, are not even in majority. So I wanted to also bring up before I went to Dr. J that it's my understanding there's been an audio recording to surface from this Lexington police chief, Sam Dobbins, using racial slurs and talking about how many people he killed in the line of duty. What can you tell us about this? Yes, so this is an audio recording that an officer who worked with Dobbins recorded with. And Dobbins didn't know he was he was being recorded. That officer reached out to my organization, Julian, and gave us that audio recording.

The person that gave it to Cardell, right. You know, he we know we had a team meeting and we decided, you know, what are we going to do with this in this audio recording? We decided that it was best to release it because the truth needed to be out there. And on this recording, you hear this chief of police, the man who hired and trained other officers and told them what they could do and not do. You hear him telling this officer that he does not care if that officer kills somebody in cold blood. You know, I'm being really, really diplomatic in how I say this, because he said a lot of curse words. He said the N-word a lot.

You know, he also said that he had killed at least 13 people in his career and that all those killings were justified. And one of those killings, he said that he shot one person 119 times in a cornfield. What we know about this now is that he shot that man down. And so this recording is basically, it told us what we already knew about this police force. We already knew that this is how they operated. We already knew that this is how they thought. We already knew that this is how decisions were being made and that they did not care about people's lives. We already knew all

of this. But what it was, it was confirmation for people who refused to believe the things that we had been saying, who refused to believe the things that other groups like Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and One Voice and NAACP had been saying about what's been happening in this community. It was confirmation that all along we had been right. And so now that this is out there, you know, this officer, this police chief, he was fired effectively, effective immediately. But the thing that people don't realize is that vote of the Board of Aldermen to fire him was 3-2. That should have been a unanimous vote. And the deciding voter in that, the alderman who voted to fire him, he was actually fired from his

job that same day. He worked in an all-white funeral home, and the people who owned that funeral home fired him. And then when it got out that he'd been fired because of the backlash, they hired him back. But since then, this alderman has been afraid to speak to people because his livelihood is on the line. This is how stifling the white supremacy is in Lexington. Every single branch of government is controlled by it. People do not have recourse when something happens to them. They just have to deal with it. And so this is why we have to actually, why we filed this suit to protect them because no one else is. The county where they're paying taxes to, the city where they're paying their taxes and where they live, it's preying

upon them. The police are the gang of the town. Yeah. And unfortunately, it's not just there. Racism is in vogue in the United States. Dr. Melvo. Sister, first of all, thank you for your work. It's so very important, not only for your town, but also for towns all over the country. Putting Lawrence in context, it was founded in 1866 at the end of enslavement. And as you describe this police officer, a police chief, it seems like he's still stuck in the land of cotton in enslavement. You mentioned the alderman. And I'm just curious about the political breakdown there. White folks represent about 64 percent of the population, African-Americans 32 percent, and the rest is other. Small town of about 13,000 people.

Are there black elected officials? Are they empowered or, like this alderman, are they afraid for their lives and their livelihoods? This takes us back. Remember what they did to Fannie Lou Hamer, put her off the plantation where she was picking cotton because she wanted people to register to vote. So I'm interested in the political demographics and whether or not there are Black people who are empowered in Lawrence. Yes. So in Lexington, the Board of Aldermen is actually four Black people and one white person. The mayor is white. The former

chief of police who was fired, he's white. The town is controlled by a powerful white family called the Barretts. The judge, the municipal judge is white. And so there are black people who have power, but on that board of Alderman, the board of Alderman generally doesn't move without the mayor having them move. And we know where the mayor stands on all this. Also within that board of Alderman, there are black people on that board who are basically there because the white power structure knows that they're not going to kick up dust and knows that they're not going to push for change. So it's kind of, you know, and in Lexington, the demographics are even, they're more drastic than the state of Mississippi. In the state of

Mississippi overall, the black population is, you know, about what you said, you know, it's over 30% black. In Lexington, the black population is over 80 percent. The white population. Yes. So it's a situation where you have to ask yourself, why in the world is this town run by white people when it's predominantly black? This town is 86 percent black. That does not get that absolutely does not on a lot of levels, does not make sense. Cliff Albright and Latasha Brown always talk about how we've got the power. They're the co-founders of Black Voters Matter. And I'm just wondering if that message has not made it to Lexington or if the voter intimidation coupled with suppression is so steep.

But thankfully, you've come on the show and hopefully now more people will know about what's going on and we will be shining some high beams on what's happening there and also on the very good work that you do. So thank you so much for coming on, Jill, Colin, Jefferson,

and please do keep us posted. Thank you so much. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, more cops gone crazy, but not just gone crazy, breaking the law in Arkansas, New York and Illinois. And we'll

tell you about another American town left without a police force after a mass resignation. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back after this break. You're watching the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us.

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Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R& video shared on social media shows them beating and restraining a man in a parking lot. We want to warn you again that the video that you are about to see is graphic and can be triggering, so now is the time to leave the room or turn away until the video's over. Oh shit.

Oh shit. This is bad. We gotta get out of here. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson made this statement about the incident. I have spoken with Colonel Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police, and the local arrest incident in Crawford County will be investigated pursuant to the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney. Here's what Crawford County Sheriff James DeMonte said about what happened. I hold all my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate measures in this matter. Two of the officers are deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff's Office,

and the third is an officer with the City of Mulberry Police Department. Arkansas State Police is investigating the incident. A New York family is suing a New York PD officer for $20 million over a road rage incident. The lawsuit alleges that Douglas Debonay, a 32-year-old off-duty NYPD officer, was involved in a July 23 road rage argument that led to a crash around the corner from his neighbor's home. Take a look. If you touch me again, if you touch me again, what are you doing? You just threatened to stab me with a pen.

Which precinct do you work? You just threatened to stab me with a pen. Which precinct do you work? Okay. You just threatened to stab me with a pen. Really? You want the cops here? Get the cops here. Yeah, they are coming.

That's fine. You put a gun on me. Tell your son to stay away from my house. You put a gun on me. Yeah, because you put a pen to my neck. I said if you touch me again. You put a pen to my neck Tell your son to stay away from my house. You put a gun on me. That's why I'm video chatting with you. Yeah, because you put a pen to my neck. I said if you touch me again. You put a pen to my neck. If you touch me again.

Doesn't matter. You put a pen to my neck. The cops called him in. Don't you see? That's why he's here. It's fine. It's fine. Listen, you need to be disbarred from whatever precinct.

Okay. You cannot be using our taxpayers' money to behave the way you're behaving. Tell your son to stay away from my house, please. Okay? He drew it. Yes, he did. I have him on camera okay he walked by your house yeah i have cameras too okay use this let him call let me call mr I'll tell him that he was a cop. Did he show his knife to you? Yes, he did. He did.

He did. Yeah, but your husband put a pen to my neck. Are you off your- No, I did not. I said, get off my step. Put a pen to my neck. Get off my step. Everything is recorded. I'm just trying to talk to him and find out what's going on.

Everything is recorded. Really? Yeah. Everything is recorded. So we'll see if I could- He didn't come to my house? Okay. Here you go. So there's one.

He stopped right there, right? Now he sent his friend as well. Okay? But how go. So there's one he stopped right there, right now We sent his friend as well. Okay How do I know it's him because it doesn't matter it's damn same car and he's on the street You never come to your home I came over here to talk I did not break the mirror. I did not break the mirror. All I did is push him. Yeah, because he almost killed me.

I didn't cause the accident. I went to talk to him. I went to talk to him, and he drove into the car in front of him. Because he was scared. You came out your car. What am I going to do? He doesn't. What am I going to do? You're on my property.

Put a gun on me. Yeah, because you put a pen to my neck. You touched my neck with the pen. You touched my neck with the pen. With the point of the pen, you touched my neck. I didn to have a conversation. Okay. Listen to me. I came to have a conversation. I was going to apologize before you came and you took a pen and put it to my neck. And you went right here. Yeah, you came and you took a pen and put it to my neck. No, I said if you touch me again, I didn't touch you. And you went right here. No, I didn't touch you. Yeah, you did.

Debonay faces the rare charge of second degree menacing and another, a fourth degree criminal mischief, both misdemeanors, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. Debonay has only had one complaint, filed against him to New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board for abuse of authority in 2017. Some people just have no damn business being on law enforcement at all. Yet another off-duty police officer inflicting trauma.

A Chicago police sergeant has been charged in an off-duty incident where he was caught on video pinning down a 14-year-old after suspecting him of stealing his son's bicycle. Park Ridge police say that Sergeant Michael Vitilero is facing official misconduct and aggregated battery charges concerning the July 1st incident. Last week, the 49-year-old officer surrendered himself to the police. Vitilero's next court hearing is September 8th. And still more.

Another small U.S. town is now without a police force after every officer quit. Melbourne Village, Florida's six police officers submitted their resignations last week. Now the village, with a population of 822, is deciding whether to rebuild the police department or extend a contract with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, which will step in to take care of police services in light of the resignations. The town of Melbourne Village, which is about 70 miles southeast of Orlando, is not the first to have the police department wiped out by widespread resignations.

In July, the majority of the Kenley, North Carolina, town police department resigned over a conflict with newly hired black town manager Justine Jones. According to the Police Executive Research Forum, resignations spiked 18% in police forces between 2020 and 2021. All right. I'm going to bring the panel in, though I got to say, I have no idea where to begin. Lord have mercy. Representative Shannon, let's start back and then work our way forward. What we are seeing over and over again with these police forces is that if they cannot control who they report to by way of race, they refuse, flat out refuse, to work for people of color, black and brown people, in any way, shape, or form.

Absolutely. That is what you're seeing. And I wish that the media would actually stop reporting on these stories about police departments resigning because it sounds more grand than it actually is. Most of these towns you're talking to when you say department, most of these stories are five or six people resigning. And that just happens to be the entire police department because these are cities and towns where they don't actually have a lot of residents. And so we have had, even in the case here in Georgia last year, we had Republicans, by the way, pass a bill, put a bill on the floor to abolish a police department in Glynn County because there was not enough need. And so when you look into this story about the Melbourne town, you've got one officer saying on record they didn't really have anything going on. There were not robberies occurring. They would have maybe five incidents a year. And so this,

I think, is really important because the conversation around whether or not to just keep throwing money at policing, which politicians love to run on and people love to just kind of run on, let's just, you know, reduce crime by supporting police more and more, which we know that more police actually does not make us safer when you look statistically. But this just kind of makes the point. We have seen situations, for example, in New York when police officers got mad because of the criticism that they were receiving and they resigned and actually crime went down. And so I think what the story really should be from this story they were talking about in Melbourne, the one in North Carolina, and really any of these departments is really a true reflection of crime rates, regardless of whether know, there really is, there's really time out for passing the same old

solutions, which is more and more and more money towards policing instead of putting more money into things that actually reduce crime, like reducing poverty, putting out resources for addiction, putting out resources for mental health issues that need to be dealt with. You know, they really should be taking comfort in the fact that just more and more money towards policing is not, you know, the answer. I agree with you if that's true, but I got to tell you, I don't have any measure of affection whatsoever for the Brevard Police Department. office be in charge and be charging this small municipality for its services. It isn't sounding like the best solution either. But OK, let's go to another one. Dr. Dabinga, you are our resident race expert, but all three of our panelists obviously know

a great deal about it. But when we look at those road rage incidents, what are you seeing there? Because I see, obviously, a lack of temperament to hold the office, and I see, you know, the need for better screening for these police officers because he has no business having a state-sanctioned weapon that can be used to murder other citizens. But what do you see reflected there? Well, on a panel like this, I'll take fourth place as it relates to race expertise. I mean, I just have so much respect for what all of you all are doing and continue to do. To be quite honest, when I look at these situations, I primarily find myself thinking about the midterm elections.

And the reason why I find myself thinking about the midterm elections is because we have to get the senators in place that are going to help us to be i think about the fact that he can go right down the street and get another job because there's not going to be a database created where situations like this can be tracked the fact of the matter is this happens all too often and the fact of the matter is that men even going to the first story you started with with the arkansas police officers many of these guys are coming in wired up many Many of these guys are bullies in their own right. Many of these guys are racist and have social media posts where they're showing that they don't care about black people. And so this man, he should not, like you said, he should not have a job. But really, at the end of the day, we have to continue to keep our cell phone cameras,

you know, charged so we can record these incidents. And that Arkansas example, I think when we were reading the story that you all sent, the person who filmed it said if I wasn't filming, this guy would have been killed. One of the officers saw I was recording and, you know, pointed at me while I was doing that. And that brother probably would have been dead. So really, at the end of the day, when I see that story about the man basically trying to hunt this guy's son down, I'm saying at the end of the day, he has to be gone. All this talk about a pen and all this other type of stuff, this is ridiculous.

You're brandishing a weapon on somebody's private property. These guys do not care. They do not care about us. They barely care about themselves. So really, at the end of the day, we have to turn to our political might. I mean, look, the guys who killed Ahmaud Arbery got life sentences plus. And even that has not been incentive enough for some of these guys to stop their shenanigans.

They're still going out. They're still not caring. The only thing we have is to record, hold them accountable, get that political power in there so we can get it all documented, get these guys off the force so they can work anywhere in the United States ever again. Yeah, well, I mean, I hear you. And no, I do not believe that that incarceration in one state is a proper incentive for better action from a police officer in another state. There's just not any data to bear that out right now. Dr. Malveaux, you got the last minute. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about, about these cases, Dr. J, about these cases. I was going to say, don't tip me like that. But in any case, the whole racist police culture is national.

We saw these cases, but these cases, it's not limited to those cases. There are lots of blame to go around, but I'm going to tell you I blame more than anything else. Police officers who call themselves good cops, they could blow the whistle on their colleagues if they wanted to. They will tell you in

conversation, I just had a conversation this weekend with this brother who was talking about, I hear you saw something I said, and he said, you don't like the police? I'm like, no, I really don't. And he said, well, many of us are good people. Well, if you're good people, blow the whistle on the bad people. But what they only when someone has a camera and captures this, are people willing to act? And even then, action is often very slow. But these so-called good cops are not good because they closed their eyes and co-signed

the rogue, racist police culture that allows this man, Debono, whatever his name is, to walk up on somebody's property talking smack and lying and threatening. And no, he shouldn't be working for a police force or anything else. He shouldn't be working. He should be behind bars. And to charge him with two misdemeanors? I mean, they should charge him with at least one felony, plus at trespassing. He's on this man's property talking about his son. I mean, come on here. All of these cases, again, really speak to the rogue, racist police culture that has its roots in enslavement. That is simply racist, has roots in enslavement.

If you call yourself a good cop, stop it. Yeah, well, as usual, everyone on this expert panel is 100% right, absolutely correct. And hopefully somebody is listening. It is time for us to take another break. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back, right here on the Blackstar Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,

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Y'all know who Roland Martin is. He got the ass got on. He do the news. It's fancy news. Keep it rolling. Right here. Rolling. Roland Martin.

Right now. You are watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. Giona Patterson from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, has been missing since July 29th, 2022. The 15-year-old, who goes by the name Nook, is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Gianna Patterson should call the Potsdam, Pennsylvania Police Department at 610-970-6570. Primary Tuesday is coming up.

For the past several months, Tuesdays have been setting the stage for who will be battling it out in November midterm elections. Tomorrow, voters in Oklahoma, New York, and Florida head to the polls for the primaries. All eyes will be on Florida as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is trailing Democratic opponent Val Demings in a new poll. A University of North Florida survey found Ms. Demings, who represents Florida's 10th congressional district, is leading Mr. Rubio, a Republican, seeking a third term, 48% to 44%. So what is being done to ensure that that poll is right, y'all, so that we can get young voters to head to the polls to cast their ballots? I don't have all the answers, but I know someone who does. Joining me now is the Esquire, Lurie Daniel Favors,

the Executive Director for the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. Attorney, welcome, welcome, welcome. It's a pleasure to be here with you, Attorney. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me today. Yes, and we have to keep meeting like this. We had such a great conversation on my show a few days ago that I was like, I know who knows the answers. I know who knows the answers. Loree knows the answers. We don't have as much time, but what can you tell us? Tomorrow is a huge day. First of all, how's it looking? What are the priorities? And how do we get these votes out?

So the first part of your question blanked out. I think you said, how are we looking in terms of turnout for young people right now? Was that correct? Yes. How is it looking now in terms of what is expected? Is this going to be one of those dead as a doorknob turnouts or are our numbers looking up? Well, if you're looking in New York City, you might start feeling a dead as a doorknob turnout because the reality is we're seeing in a variety of places where the fact that it's a midterm election and midterms are always difficult in terms of turnout. The fact that voter suppression is real and making it more difficult for voters to get out is also happening. It really is going to depend on your local communities and how the grassroots communities

have effectively moved into on-the-ground outreach. We've seen a lot of success with folks who are having what I like to call real talk conversations about voting, what really can happen when you vote, and being honest about what cannot. But tying the issues that young people care about to the electoral system is step number one. Yes, please, please, please tell us about that, because one of the things that stuck in my head that you talked about was that we can't try to get our young voters to turn out by beating them up with everything they owe our ancestors for the opportunity to vote. There is a history gap, and it does not move them the way that it moves some of us who have lived to see some of it happen. So you start someplace else with young voters. Where's that?

I like to start with what they care about. And I will typically ask them, what are the three things that you absolutely love about your community? And then what are the three things that you cannot stand, that you wish you could change? And inevitably, they'll say things for the latter question. Of course, police brutality comes up. Homelessness comes up. Economic instability comes up. Gang violence.

And then we kind of thought a path backwards from the issues they care about to ask them, who do they think is in charge of those policies. So if you have an issue with the way your community is being policed, makes perfect sense. Did you vote in the last election for your local sheriff or for your local mayor? No? Well, you should have because the mayor might appoint the chief of police in your community. Were you able to get a stimulus check during the pandemic and able to spend it in a way that was helpful for you? Were you able to get access to extended unemployment benefits because jobs in your community are scarce? Well, whether or not you were able to get the extended unemployment benefits, which really helped a lot of Black voters, because quite frankly, 80% of us do not have

jobs that allowed us to work at home. Many of us face layoffs. But if you ask Black voters, do they care about that extra stimulus package and did they care about getting additional funding for unemployment benefits? Absolutely, they did. Well, if you lived in a community that was led by Republicans who did not agree with expanding those benefits or who did not vote for you to get additional stimulus checks, well, then that made a real difference. If I can start with what they care about and then tie that to the vote, we're a lot more effective at getting people to actually not just commit to voting, not just registering to vote, but doing the hard work of getting there and then bringing their family and friends and community with them. Absolutely. And you know what? Wink, wink. It might not just be

young voters that that works for. I don't know. I don't know, Laurie. But something else that I think is important, and then I want to pitch the panel. I'm sure they have some questions for you. You explained in a way that, to me, it keeps it real, but also helps to manage our expectations about what the vote is and what the vote can do. And the fact that it's not a panacea, it's not a miracle drug, it doesn't fix everything, it's not going to drop a million dollars in your bank account. It's none of those things, but still necessary.

Yeah. So I like to be real clear, voting ain't going to give you Wakanda, okay? Like we're just not going to get Wakanda because we all had great voter turnout. Voting in and of itself will not even give you reparations. And I think we just need to be clear about that because sometimes in our zeal to encourage people to get out the vote

because we know what's at risk, we sometimes frame it as though, well, if you just vote, all of our Black problems will be solved. And that's simply not true. Voting answers the question, who is the king or queen in your community? And I like to tell people, we don't have a king or queen in America, but in countries that do, well, what's your housing policy? Well, what did the king say? Whatever the king said, that's the housing policy. What's your policing policy? Well, did you ask the queen? Who gets healthcare in this community? What did the king say? Who, do you have racism here? Well, that's, that depends on what the queen said. Did you ask the queen? In those societies, those decisions are made by the king or the queen, and they don't really care what you have to say. In this country,

the people who get to answer all of the substantive policy and decision-making questions in our communities are the people who get the most votes. So what does policing look like in your community? Well, what did the people who you elected into office or didn't show up to vote for so they got elected anyway, what did they say? Do elected into office or didn't show up to vote for so they got elected anyway, what did they say? Do you have hospitals in your community? Well, you might, but if you're in a rural Black community like most of the Black folks who live in the South,

you might not have a hospital, although the hospitals are going to be increased and expanded in white communities. So if you're not voting for the people who get to sit in the king or queen position, you basically have a monarchy that is going to get to decide every single thing that matters for you, and you don't get to have a say. And if you like that, that's fine.

But what I like to also remind people, Monique, is that it would be one thing if we didn't live in a society that was literally founded by psychopaths who based their entire economic and governing policy on hating black people and stealing land from the indigenous. But since that is where we started and that is who we live amongst, we got to be real clear. Either we are putting a king and queen into office who is going to maybe not move us into Wakanda as much as we like, but they're not trying to kill us, or you're going to be governed by people who literally would base their national governing philosophy on your complete and total devastation.

Ooh, that was a mouthful and an earful, Attorney Lurie Daniel Flavors. Dr. Malveaux, questions. First of all, you on fire, sister. I mean, you're seriously putting the fire out there. Appreciate it. I want to know, we all are talking about young voters because they are more ambivalent than seasoned voters are about the process. But I'm not sure that seasoned voters are voting as much as they can. When we look at voter participation rates, I mean, they're below 60 percent. So let's just let's not blame

our young'uns. Let's talk about those who are over 50 and are not voting. What can we say to them? So I think we should avoid blaming any of these groups, because the reality is our low voter participation is not a function of our decision making. It's a function of the fact that for the first 300 and I think it's 45 years, from 1619 until 1965, somebody can check the map, we were intentionally, proactively excluded from gaining any of the experiential knowledge that we would need in order to not just vote,

but to vote effectively. And so we have a lot of gap in information to fill in. And quite frankly, regardless of whether you're 18 or 88, there are a lot of us who simply maybe participate in an election, might vote once or twice, a couple of times. We have our super voters, yes. But the reality is most of us do not have a real clear understanding as to how civic participation, which includes the vote,

but it also includes the 10 steps before you get to an election day and the 10 steps that exist after you've actually voted that take us from recognizing a problem to actually implementing and protecting a solution. The reality is most of us just cannot make those connections. So those of us who can have a particular responsibility to create opportunities, educational programming, and formats that will allow people to fill in that 345-year gap. We've only been voting without risk of getting lynched since 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed. That's less than 60 good hard years

of active engagement in the electoral process. One of the things that we have done, and this is just one example, at the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, is we've launched our Advocacy Academy. And every semester, we are taking cohorts of everyday New Yorkers, people of African descent,

and providing that for them, an 11-week culturally responsive education that fills in or does a bit to fill in that gap of information. Another thing I would just say quickly is we spend so much time focusing on election day, we forget that there are 364 other days of the year where there are council hearings happening. Most of us don't know it. And even if we know about it,

we don't know how to testify. Who's teaching our people how to testify at these hearings? Who's teaching our people how to look at the calendars to see what legislatively is happening at their local and state levels? Who is teaching our community how to not just have an elected official, not just be proud of them when they come to your church and want to shake hands and kiss your babies, but how do you hold them accountable? How do you present them an agenda that says, I love what you're trying to do, but this is what me and the folks in the community, this is what we don't come up with. And we need you to take a look at this. We've got five suggestions, only three of which are negotiable. So we got to be clear that filling in those gaps,

it's not just about election day. It's about the entire 360 degree ecosystem that exists around the vote. For again, most of our existence here, most of our time here, we were excluded from that. And when we can fill that gap in and we can, then we are going to see a stronger level of activation, I think, regardless of the age group of the voters in question. And I know that we can get an amen from the elected official who we have on the panel, Representative Renita Shannon. Weigh in. Okay. So I grew up in Florida. Obviously, I don't live in Florida anymore as I'm a lawmaker in Georgia.

But I'm a firm believer that you have to give people something to vote for. And if Democrats want to continue to lose elections, when we do lose, it's asking people to vote for the lesser of two evils. That just does not work. So my question to you is, what are voters telling you on the ground in Florida about why Val is four points over Marco? Like, what is making that four-point difference? So I can't speak to specifically the voters in Florida as I am in Brooklyn, the other end of that coast. But I will say when it comes to the lesser of two evils, I really do think that that's

a framing of elections and electoral politics that we should perhaps shy away from. That makes very much sense to me. I was a black church girl. The lesser of two evils makes a lot of sense in a religious institution. But when it comes to picking somebody who's going to decide whether or not you get access to clean water or dirty water comes to picking somebody who's going to decide whether or not you get access to clean water or dirty water, I want somebody who's going to be able to make those decisions without racial animus, right? And so I like to encourage people,

when it comes to voting, we're not looking for our child's father. We're not looking for a co-parent. We're not looking for a lover. We're not looking for a bestie, someone to have beer with, because that's never going to happen. We're looking for someone who is going to most effectively make the decisions about whether or not if there's a storm that's hitting Florida, a hurricane, whether or not you're going to get access to government resources to help you rebuild in a way that's not skewed by racial outcomes.

And so if I were a guessing person, just to the specific question, I would say Val Demings is simply a better candidate. But I'm not a Florida voter, so that's simply a guess. But I think she's phenomenal. And I think Marco Rubio, who just helped to squash the amendment to the infrastructure bill or the Inflation Reduction Act, that would have done things like cap insulin at $35 so that people aren't paying their child's education so they can survive their diabetes. I think stuff like that may have a lot to do with why perhaps Marco Rubio is doing less well than he might have expected. Yes. I mean, whatever it is, keep it coming, y'all. Dr. Dominguez, 30 seconds. I just want to know, do you feel, first of all, it's just an honor to talk to you. I love your

show and just everything you've been doing on Sirius. My question is this, do you feel, first of all, it's just an honor to talk to you. I love your show and just everything you've been doing on Sirius. My question is this. Do you feel like we're getting ahead of ourselves as it relates to all of these stories about how Democrats' projections have changed going into the fall? And could that influence voters to possibly stay home because they think we got it all in the bag? All I know is I remember Democrats thinking they had it in the bag not so long ago, and then we wound up with Donald Trump as president. So it's never in the bag. Like, so long as you have the ability, if you are choosing, if you have two people on the ballot, one of whom, again, ain't going to usher in Wakanda, but doesn't want to kill you, and on the other side of the ballot is someone who literally would rather see you wiped off the face of the earth, certainly their piece of this rock,

then I think the choice is clear. And I guess this also relates to the point earlier about giving voters something to vote for. That becomes less important, I think, the more sophisticated your voting populace is. The less sophisticated we are as voters, and again, that lack of sophistication is by design. It is not our fault as black voters. But the less sophisticated we are electorally, the more you have to sort of entice the voters to come out. The more we double, triple electorally, the more you have to sort of entice the voters to come out. The more we double, triple, quadruple down on explaining to our people how every single racially disparate outcome is a function of some level of electoral engagement,

we won't necessarily need the trail of goodies to lead us through the forest. We'll be the ones determining what it is that elected or candidates and incumbents should be saying when they come to us because we have we'll have already determined what our collective agendas are see see daniel girls make all the sense in the world i'm telling you they do they do they do if you all like what you hear and you are learning some things which I know you are, from this talented expert queen. You can hear her every weekday. Lurie Daniel Favors, Sirius XM, it's Urban View? Is that right? Sirius XM Urban View, 10 a.m. to noon, Monday, Eastern, Monday through Friday on Sirius XM Urban View Channel 126. Thank you, ma'am, for coming and for sharing. We appreciate you.

Appreciate you. We all know that the Georgia GOP senatorial candidate and former Georgia Bulldog star running back, Herschel Walker, isn't the most intelligent candidate who will appear on November's ballot. That's kind. The Republican candidate has a history of verbal gaffes, nonsensical language, factual inaccuracies, and a blatant disregard for the truth, just like the man endorsing him. This

past weekend, Walker confused some reporters, and himself no doubt, when asked about debating incumbent Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock. What I say to Senator Warnock is he owe it to the people to get in front of the people to explain why he's voted for the policies that he's voted for. And, you know, this is in his hometown. It's in his hometown, and I think it's a fair and equitable debate for the people. A debate should be about the people. And I'm not sure why he won't come to debate. And I'm saying I'm going to give him, make him feel good. I even buy him a gift. You know, I buy him a gift.

I may drive him to the debate in one of my nice cars and stuff. And I'm not going to buy him a suit because his suit costs too much. But I do whatever to get him to debate me so he can see the contrast between he and I. I believe in lower taxes. He believes in giving more taxes. I believe in less crime. He believes in voting for these judges that believe in no cash bails. You know, there's a big contrast between Senator Warnock. And I believe in being honest, being transparent. Right now, he's not transparent.

He said he's getting away from Joe Biden. And everyone knows when you voted with him for 96% of the time, how in the world can you erase that? Right now, it's time to vote. You want people to think I'm going to be tough. I'm getting away from Joe Biden. You're not tough. You're just pretending.

Because if we vote you back in, you're gonna do the same thing you've done, that vote with Joe Biden and hurt this country and hurt this state. Now I wanna piggyback on that because 13 WMAZ invited you to a debate and it's gonna be on Mercer's campus on October 13th, but you haven't responded. Do you intend to be there? I'm not gonna respond to anything that, cuz that's not a debate, you know that. When you've got people that have contributed to his campaign and it's in this room that only two people are going to see it on Sunday night, I think NFL football like, yeah, I'm giving you an opportunity to be statewide so everybody can see what

it is, see the contrast between the two of us. I don't know how you can ask for anything better. That's like the rumble in the jungle. Everyone get a chance to see. He and I go at it because he's a sitting senator, and I'm from Wrightsville, Georgia, this little country boy that's not too smart, and I'm trying to unseat a senator that has been there wrecking things. So I'm calling wrecking Ralph and stuff,

that he got to get to Savannah, Georgia, to go up against Hershel Walker. And you ought to tell him that. October the 14th, Savannah, Georgia, in front of an audience, and you get to be statewide. You can't ask for nothing better than that. You know that. He's not all checked in.

But you're probably tempted to laugh. And it's not all checked in. But you're probably tempted to laugh. And it's not funny at all. Because the latest, the Phillips Academy poll, shows Walker with a slight lead over Warnock just under three months until the election. Run that back. Slight lead. That that you just heard has a lead to to represent other human beings in an elected office. What what kind of country are we even living in where that is possible? Senator Lindsey Graham gets a momentary legal win by a federal appeals court that halted the Republican lawmaker from complying with the subpoena from a Georgia grand jury investigating election interference. But the South Carolina lawmaker must explain to the judge in a filing why she should partially quash or modify his subpoena

under the speech or debate clause of the U.S. Constitution. At issue is Graham's involvement in persuading Georgia election officials in 2020. In the weeks following the election, Graham called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff twice, wanting another review of the absentee ballots. Graham maintains he did nothing wrong and was engaging in legitimate inquiries as a lawmaker under the Constitution's

Speech and Debate Clause when he contacted Georgia officials. Yeah, that has nothing to do with the Speech and Debate Clause, and it doesn't matter whether you're an original founder's intent-type Constitution person or you're an interpret it however you want to interpret it the way the days of the week are type person that is not what that is about um but it's going to push things and delay them dr javinga this is this this more just party politics business as usual this is business as usual this is who they are they deflect and deny and they drag out taxpayers dollars to the best of their ability in order to keep themselves in the news and do their best to

try to win some more financial support the fact of the matter is like you said everything lindsey graham is putting out there is fake he's simply trying to avoid being held accountable and when you look at what fannie willis is doing down there and holding these guys accountable, up until this search happened at Mar-a-Lago, most people who, most people have said the closest line from Trump in an orange jumpsuit is what's going on in Georgia. And the fact of the matter is this could also be the case of what's going on with Graham if he tries to obstruct once he is eventually ordered to have to testify, which I think that he will. Same thing of Ruli Giuliani, who was there last week. And going on for your Warnock story and Hershel Walker,

this goes to the question I asked Luria in our last segment. We can talk, like you said, this is no laughing matter. We can laugh about Hershel Walker, say that he's not right in the head and all of this, but he can win in Georgia. And even though people like Mitch McConnell is talking about he might be scared, he might lose the Senate. We may not have the best candidate. All of this stuff, like Larry said, how we got Donald Trump in 2016. It could lull us into a sense of false security that can have these type of guys getting in. Senator Lindsey Graham has no business being in the Senate. He's a coward. He doesn't care about the people of South Carolina. He has been kissing Trump's behind from the beginning and continues to do so.

And I'm just waiting for the day that he gets brought down and to be held accountable because he is nothing but a liar as it relates to what his role is to such an extent that Ben Rathisberger, I believe his name is in Georgia, said that he took that phone call as a threat to help him, encourage him to get rid of some votes in Donald Trump's favor. He didn't call as a senator. He called as a sycophant and a supporter and a surrogate for former President Trump. And he needs to be held accountable for it. Yep. Rep. Renata, this is this is your home turf. This is what y'all got going on right now. And what the Warnock and Walker election, what that says to me is that for all we talk about race and racism and white supremacy, some things really are not about race as the true through line. It is all really at base about power because they would elect this man,

they would kiss him full frontal on the lips if it meant them holding on to the power that they have and being able to gain more of it. Tell me where I'm wrong. Well, you're not wrong, but it is also about race. What they are, and this is where people are getting confused, which is why you never hear me say anything. You'll never hear me say anything about Herschel's level of intelligence or make jokes about him not being the brightest person. You'll never hear that. Why? Because I know living here in Georgia that these folks are not selling that he is a member of Mensa. They are selling that he will blindly follow the agenda, which is about keeping white supremacy intact. And that is what the voters are voting for. So that's why I asked the previous guests about what, in the race that we're looking at in Florida,

what voters are being offered. Because regardless of whether voters have a bachelor's degree, don't have one, it's not about the education level of a voter. People want to know what they're going to get. Especially on our side, we've got to have increased turnout. If people don't know, then they will stay home. And it has to be something proactive. It can't be, well, you could be stuck with somebody who really wants to hurt you because people have now lived through the Trump administration. I mean, they've lived

through the Trump presidency and came out alive. So people know what they can actually withstand. So, right. Right. I mean, but, but are you a Democrat? Absolutely. Okay. So I I think here we can not just ask the questions, but we can answer them. If there are things that are being offered that, you know, the Democratic Party offers in the upcoming midterm elections that is different than what the Republicans offer. Take this one minute and tell us. Well, and so every candidate, it is different. But what I'm saying is I'm seeing too many ads run on don't elect Herschel because he's not smart. That says nothing about what voters will get if they vote for Democrats. That's an issue. And we're seeing that across the country. I would say that we're seeing a lot of it by folks who are outside of Georgia who are thinking that that is the biggest thing

that we've got in order to defeat Herschel. It's just not going to work, as polling is showing you, because what they're selling on the other side is that he will run their agenda. Right, but what will we get? I'm giving you the air, the time, the opportunity. What will we get? You're there in Georgia. I assume a Warnock supporter. What is it

that Georgia voters looking at us right now, I don't want them to count on these ads. What is the difference? If it's not about his intelligence, it's not about the agenda, what should the Georgia voter be going to the polls for to ensure that Warnock is able to, Senator Warnock is able to keep his seat? Senator Warnock is running a campaign where he is saying that he will allow women to make choices about their bodies. He is running a campaign to say that he will work to expand access to health care.

I mean, he's running on all of the values that Democrats want to see. I guess what I'm what I'm pointing out again, though, the shock about the competitiveness with Warnock and Herschel is that the rest of the country is focusing too much on Herschel's level of intelligence and not enough on policy differences between the two. That's what I'm pointing out. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree with you. And that's why I want to give time and space for us to make the differences, because I think that is the benefit of a show like this one that Roland has and the Black Star Network that he has built, that we don't just come and talk about the problems. We come and we offer the solutions because I know people come here because they can trust us. Dr. Malveaux, what are your thoughts?

Well, two things. Herschel's intelligence is irrelevant because what we know is that he's a Trump puppet. And I mean, he could have a zero IQ if he could follow the cue cards and say, vote this way. So we really don't really need to care about that. As our sister senator has said, what really need to care about that. As our sister senator has said, what we need to care about is public policy. And with the policies, I mean, Raphael Warnock is head and shoulders above any of the Republicans in the Congress.

Let's just be clear about it. He's talked about child care. He's talked about health care. As the senator says, he's held up democratic values. Not only that, I mean, he's genuinely a good guy. He'll have no baby mama drama. You know, excuse my ebonics, but when you say baby mama drama, you have to use ebonics. He doesn't have any of that. He doesn't have any of these problems. Herschel is a problem candidate. And, you know, lack of intelligence notwithstanding, he also doesn't tell the truth. That clip you read about debating, come on, it's absurd. But in any case, so first of all, I think when we, again, we have to make the case for Democrats. We have to make the case for it. And I think, quite frankly, we've talked about it on this show before. Democrats do a very poor job of tooting their own horn. President Biden did a win last week. He got the inflation reduction bill, which really doesn't reduce inflation, but that's another story. But he got it passed. It has some environmental things in it. It has some money in it. It has lots of stuff in it. Where, I mean, they did a press

conference. They need to be beating the drum on this one because these are the things that if Republicans get power, they will take away. Make no mistake, they will take away. And then just a brief minute on Lindsey Graham. I mean, anybody who trusts him, remember 2016, he attacked the orange orangutan. Then as soon as he won, as soon as 45th president won, he starts playing golf with him. That lets you know how few, how little integrity, how few principles that man has. So I do hope, I mean, and he says he was free speech allows you to go trolling for votes with other elected officials. I think not. I give kudos to the folks in Georgia who are pursuing him. Kudos to the folks who are that sister district attorney or attorney general, whichever she is, who's saying we're going to

stop this stuff. But, you know, we can't depend on one elected official. I don't care who he or she is and how much we love them. We have to depend on ourselves. We have this segment on voting. And I always say about voting, voting is not the most you can do. It's literally the least you can do. Once you've voted, what else are you going to do? Will you hold these people accountable? And if you can't, you're part of the problem. Yeah. Will you hold them accountable? Or hey, what about you can run? You can run yourself. Hey, hey, council is for you too. School board is for you too. Whatever it is, maybe you're supposed to be in law enforcement instead of these people who are going in there and bragging about killing us. There are all kinds of ways that you can walk out a public service agenda that helps not just your family, your community, your country.

But for now, we need to take a break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. When we invest in ourselves. I go. Our vision. We all shot. Together we are black beyond measure.

Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise 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. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine.

Together, we are black beyond measure. Hey, I'm Qubit, the maker of the Qubit Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. We are black beyond measure. Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. Worldwide, more than 7 million people die each year prematurely from diseases caused by cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke. In the U.S., 480,000 people a year die from some kind of tobacco use. Teen vaping is on the rise. The American Lung Association reported a 73% increase in the practice among teens since 2016. And as the new school year gets underway, students will face renewed social pressure to vape. Dr. Bridget Williams, the CEO of Green Harvest Health,

is here to tell us the warning signs and provide tips to prevent your child from vaping. Welcome, Dr. Williams. Thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. So we all say that we know the dangers of smoking and the dangers of cigarettes and secondhand smoke. Some maybe do not know the equal and now even greater dangers that are caused by vaping for our children. Can you explain what vaping is and what actually the contents are in the smoke that's being vaped? Absolutely. So vaping is very attractive to young

people. It is actually marketed what we've seen, though originally it was originally supposed to be seen as a way to help people stop smoking. It's actually been actually a way for more and more young people to get into this space. So instead of combusting a cigarette, which we're used to with all sorts of brands that have combustible cigarettes, what we're finding is that with vaping, you're actually inhaling the mist off of nicotine, but also usually 2,000 other chemicals that tend to be in this product. And not only is it attractive and techie, but it is also highly addictive with one pod or cartridge being equal to a pack of cigarettes. Wow. I had no idea the number for potency was that high. Why was it ever thought to be an off-ramp?

So the original idea was to try to stop people from combusting. Whenever you were burning any sort of cigarette or anything at all, you increase the likelihood of carcinogens getting into your lungs. So this was originally developed in 2003 as an idea, as an easy way to slowly pull people away from smoking. However, in doing this, we have actually found a brand new way to get people addicted. And with the marketing that they do, for them to know what the numbers are in terms of it being a carcinogen that's leading to cancer? And are our teens now as the lead vapors at higher risk of cancer in the future because of it? So we're still at the beginning of this. A lot of this just started in the early 2000s, so very long-term studies we haven't actually had. But what we do know is that

our increase of throat irritation, mouth irritation, and coughing is increasing. They've actually found that there's an increase in anxiety and depression with these students, and that there's the likelihood of this actually being a gateway drug is something that we're finding as well. Another interesting thing, as far as long-term use, is that there's a decrease in impulse control. And so this is not meant for the teenage brain. The teenage brain is still developing. And so to introduce this, especially at the high concentration that they're exposed to and even higher concentrations, then the likelihood of

this becoming more of an issue and what else might develop as far as continued lung injury and even heart injury is something that we're discovering. So are there age restrictions or age minimum requirements for all vaping? So, you know, it is a little bit state by state. Originally, of course, with tobacco or cigarettes, we're used to it being 18 years old. There was an increase from 18 to 21 in many states, but not all states. And the problem is, is that teens seem to be able to obtain these from all sorts of different sources, which can also be dangerous itself. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what are some solutions? What are you thinking that we need to be doing? So definitely there needs to be much more vigilance at home as well as at the schools, that we have to have open communication with our teens and be willing to actually talk about why they're using it

and what they're getting out of it. There's so much, a lot of this can be a lot of teen pressure. Also helping them find ways that when they're ready to kind of pull away from this, how do they quit? Usually for your average adult that's trying to quit just tobacco, cigarette smoking, it takes them three times to be able to get away from this. So how can we actually help our teens is by open

communication, giving them other things to do, sugar-free candies and gum. Even the fidget spinners that were very popular not that long ago can keep them busy. A lot of students will find that just chewing on something, even a straw, can be beneficial. So I know that in many schools, they have what they call like zero tolerance policies for vaping and kids can get expelled, kids can get suspended, get in a lot of trouble. But it seems to me that that's at cross purposes with the notion of it being an addiction and them needing help in order to stop doing the thing that can get them in trouble. What's the fix on that? So we need to take this more seriously, that there was, of course, back in the 70s and 80s, this big issue with teens and exposure to cigarettes. And we haven't had that same focus as far as how do we help our teens now with these vapes.

So instead of expelling our students, there should be support groups for them. There should be more communication with the parents, that we should have more behavioral modification and cognitive behavioral therapy to help pull them away from an addiction that they many times, of course, were not intending to get involved in.

Yeah, absolutely. I want to give our panel quickly an opportunity to ask questions, starting with Representative Shannon. Do you have a question for our guest? I do. So you talked about how vaping is a lot harder to quit. Why is that? Is that the chemicals in the vaping? And if so, what are the differences between the chemicals and traditional cigarettes that just make this harder to quit? So the teenage brain is more likely to be drawn into addiction because it's still developing. So that in itself makes it that much more difficult. But if you consider one pod being the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes, and for many of these kids, they're going through it. Some might take 10 days to get through it, but for some, it might take them two days to go through a pack of cigarettes. And we're talking about 15 and 16-year-olds. So they graduate into a heavier

use than many times it takes years and years for adults to get to that point. Dr. Dominga? When I was reading this and learning about this, I couldn't help but think about the situation with menthol cigarettes and how they were targeted to the Black community. Are there extra steps that we within the Black community need to take to be extra vigilant to make sure that this doesn't become the next addictive substance for our community? Absolutely. So again, it's always about communication, but also looking how readily available is this when you're going to your corner store? Are they making sure that they're doing

that age check to make sure that the person that's purchasing this is over 21? That we have good monitoring of our bathrooms in our high schools and middle schools, as well as on the playground even for young kids so that they're not falling into this trap of using this. A lot of these devices don't look much different from a flash drive. And so we have to be vigilant and be aware of what they're exposed to. And for a lot of people, they just ignore it and don't think that it's a serious issue, but it can be a serious issue for the developing brain. Absolutely. Dr. Malveaux?

Thank you for your work on this. It's so very important. I remember when vaping first came out and folks talked about it as an alternative to actual cigarettes. In fact, my mom, who's somewhat addicted to cigarettes, we encouraged her to vape because we figured that it would burn her lungs less. But somehow this thing has gotten out there. It's become very popular. They have flavors, which makes it very attractive to young people. How did it get to be so widely used? And again, what are the tobacco companies doing? I mean, it's irresponsible. They know better than to push cigarettes,

but they're pushing this vaping with the same kind of aggression that they once upon a time push cigarettes. So how did it get to be so popular and why are they pushing it so hard? Absolutely. So when you're adding that flavor in there, obviously it makes it a lot more fun. And a lot of the names of these brands, you know, the flavoring is mango and blueberry vanilla and bubblegum. So they also put a chemical in there, the propylene glycol, that creates these big plumes and plumes of smoke that makes it taste good as well as it looks fun. So the marketing is attractive as well as the chemicals itself make it a lot more fun for people as well. So it became more and more attractive because that's what they wanted to do. It became a new avenue to gain a new brand of customers.

And even though there might have been good intentions initially, that's not how it ended up. So even though there's been a ban on flavoring for kids somehow still find access to this. Originally, you know, a lot of these flavors are out there. A lot of it's been narrowed down to mint and, you know, much more toned down flavors and not so fruity and exciting. But kids, you know, companies are still finding ways to get it in kids' hands. And so even there's this recent ban with the Juul company that was really the driving force of this. And even though there's been a ban on them, which started in June, right behind that, there was an appeal decision. And even though there's been a ban on them, which started in June, right behind that, there was an appeal decision. And so the ban has actually been put on hold.

So we have a lot of work to do to protect our children as well as ourselves. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Williams, for bringing us more information that we need to know about the risks and the dangers that are involved. And I hope that we will all pay more attention and be more vigilant so that we can keep our youngsters and, frankly, everybody out of harm's way until we get our arms wrapped around all of the potential negative and harmful side effects of vaping. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you. All right, everybody. We made it, made it, made it, made it, made it to the end. But you know what? Three things. First, I want to thank the panel. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dr. Julianne Malveaux. Thank you, Dr. Domingo.

Thank you, Representative Renita Shannon. You guys are bright and brilliant and talented, and you make it easy in the host chair. So easy. I'll be back here again tomorrow while Roland's doing more golfing and more enjoying and more taking time off and no doubt by now in some linen suit somewhere dancing. But before I'm back here tomorrow, did you guys know I have a show? Join me. Noon, IG Live. Make it make sense.

My guest tomorrow is the queen, Ms. Latasha Brown. We're going to talk about her Southern Girls Consortium. So see you noon tomorrow on IG. See you right here tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement.

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