#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jor'Dell Richardson Fatal Shooting, MS Civil Rights Lawyer Arrested, GA Cop City Controversy

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

6.12.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jor'Dell Richardson Fatal Shooting, MS Civil Rights Lawyer Arrested, GA Cop City Controversy A Colorado 14-year-old boy was fatally shot and killed by police while restrained on the ground. We will speak with the family's attorney about what happened and how they fought for justice. A historic police brutality settlement has been reached in New Haven, Connecticut, in the Randy Cox case. We will give you all the latest details on this fantastic win for Cox and the movement for police accountability. A civil rights lawyer is making headlines in Mississippi after being arrested while filming a traffic stop. We'll have the latest on the incident and speak with her about how she is fighting back against justice. The Atlanta City Council has approved funding for a controversial new police training center called "Cop City," despite heavy protests from community members. Today we will speak with one of the city council members who approved the decision about why he supports Cop City and believes it will help black communities. After last night's Tony Awards, the Term Grand Wizard is trending on Twitter. We will show you the video of Denee Benton cleverly trolling Florida Governor Ron Desantis because he accepts white supremacy in Florida. In our Fit Live Win segment, coach Gessie Thompson will share tips on how men can maintain a healthy lifestyle and avoid the preventable 3. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a 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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, June 12, 2023. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered

streaming live on the Black Star Network, a 14-year-old boy in Colorado fatally shot by police while restrained on the ground. We have the body camera footage and we'll speak with one of the family's attorneys about what happened and how they are seeking justice. A civil rights lawyer in Mississippi making headlines after being arrested while filming a traffic stop. She spent the weekend in jail.

She's now out and she'll be here to tell us what happened and why she thinks she was really arrested. The Atlanta City Council approved funding for a controversial new police and fire training center that critics call Cop City. Despite heavy protests from the community, today we'll speak with one of the council members who supported that initiative and believes

it will help black communities and also at last night's Tony Awards. Well, let's just say a Ronda Santis probably was not happy at all. Being called the Grand Wizard will show you what Denis Benton said about the Florida governor. Plus, we'll find out found find out how men can maintain a healthy lifestyle

and avoid the preventable diseases. We'll talk about that, folks, with an Arpit Live Wind segment. It's time to bring the funk. Roland Martin on the filter on the Blackstone Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fat, the fine. Let's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, yo. It's rolling Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's rolling Martin now. Oh my God. A black color old teen is dead after being fatally shot by a police officer. It took place earlier this month. The officers thought 14-year-old Jonelle Richardson was carrying a handgun. Well, it turned out to be a pellet gun. The police shot and killed him on June 1st after chasing him from a suburban Denver store where he was believed to be involved in an armed robbery with a group of other teens. Now, Aurora police

had initially said the teen was armed with a semi-automatic gun, but again, it was a pellet gun. Body cam videos released on Friday will be showing you the officers chasing Richardson. You also see Officer James Snap tackling Dale in an alley behind a strip mall. Then you'll see when one of the other officers fires the fatal shot. The video, folks, is quite triggering, so if you want to turn away, go right ahead and do so. And we'll show it in about 10 seconds. Again, this shooting took place on June 1st in Aurora, Colorado. And here is that video. They're all the guys. One of us ran north. Yeah, they're all... They just shoplifted out of there.

There's a black Kia van in the alley. Oh, hit him up. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Come on. Hold on. hold on. Hold on. Come on. They're chasing him. Stop! Get on the ground, you fucking idiot! No! No! No! No! No!

Get on the ground, you fucking idiot! Fuck! No! He got me! He got me! I'm gonna shoot you! You're on me! I'm gonna shoot you!

Fuck! You broke it! I'm sorry! I'm done! Help me take you to hospital! Please! Do you have the gun? Get it!

Do you have the gun? Get it! I can't even Help me take me to the hospital! Do you have the gun? Get it! I can't breathe. Grab me. Get off me! Can you take me to the hospital?

Get off the radio! Shots fired just east behind the restaurant. Give me medical fast. Cops code four, suspect shot in the stomach. Stay with me, bud. Hold on, okay? Let's cuff him. They made me do it.

Huh? I don't know who they were. They made me do it. Okay, okay. Hang with me, bud. What's your name? I think you're all right. Do you have cuffs?

Yeah, we do. Hang with me. Take the mask off. Please. Please. My legs, I can't feel them. Please grab my arms. I'm done.

Okay, okay. Do you have any other wipings? No. Okay, okay. Breathe, okay? Look at me. What's your name?. I'm done. Okay, okay. Do you have any other wipings? No. Okay, okay. Breathe, okay? Look at me. What's your name? How old are you, bud? Do you know your birthday?

Do you know your birthday? Do you know your birthday? No. Day seven. Suspect is unresponsive. How close is the fire? I'll close fire. All right, let's start CPR. You guys see me? Hey, wake up. Wake up. Stay awake for me, okay? Stay awake for me. Stay awake. Hey, stay awake. Keep talking to me, bro.

Hey, you okay? Stay awake with me. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay.

I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay.. Keep talking to me, bro. Hey, you okay? Stay awake with me. Stay awake with me.

Stay awake. Hey. Stay awake with me. Do we got a pulse? Do we got a pulse? Let's check. Stay with me, buddy. What's your name?

Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed.

Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. Yazeed. We got a pulse? We got a pulse? Let's check. Stay with me, buddy. What's your name? Do you guys need gloves or what do you need? Yeah, we just need some pressure. I got a pulse.

It's got a bunch of hot ones right here. Okay. Here, I'll start CPR. All right. Here, I'll start CPR. Alright. There's a gun behind you that's going into the... That's his gun. Okay. Nick, I can switch out with you when you need. Okay.

Um... Hey guys, can you hang out for a minute? Yeah. I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna...

I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna... My keys are still in my car. It's like in this alley over here. I'm just gonna try probably until they get here. Hey, he's got a GSW to his gut right here. Just one. Joining me now is one of the Robertson family attorneys, Ed Hopkins. Ed, thank you for joining us. So is the position of the family that he should not have been shot?

The officers say he was carrying a pellet gun. So what's the explanation? I don't have audio on my end. Can you hear me? I can hear you now. All right. So the officer said he was carrying a pellet gun. They believe it was a weapon.

So what is the family saying? Well, let me just give you a little bit of background. So in this particular case, the body cam shows you some things, but more importantly, it doesn't show you some key things. It doesn't show you where Jordel's hand was when the shot rang out. It doesn't show you where the officer who was on top of Jordel and had subdued him was when the shot rang out. What you hear is Jordel saying, stop, please. You got me. You got me. Minutes, seconds after that, seconds after that, you hear

the shot fired. Immediately, immediately after you hear the shot fired, you hear the officer who fired the shot, Officer Grzeska say, oh, Jesus, fired or sorry. We can't make out the second or third word. And then he says, fuck, fuck. And that is one of the things that Chief Acevedo did not include in the timeline for his press conference on Friday. He told everybody about the words that Jordel spoke, which we think is a surrender. But he did not tell the audience about where Jordel's hand was when the gun rang out, whether Jordel's hand was on the gun, whether the officer had already grabbed the gun, and why the officer said, oh, Jesus, fire, fuck, fuck, immediately after shooting Jordel. So those are some unanswered questions. We are hopeful to find additional surveillance footage that will answer those questions for us, or we would like to see what the officer said

in the interviews that they had after the shooting. So you contend that the officers made a mistake, should not have shot him, and those statements are acknowledgement that they were actually wrong? The evidence does not rule that out, and that's why we need more information. The evidence does not rule out that this was a reckless discharge. It doesn't rule out that this was an intentional bad shooting. It doesn't rule out either of those scenarios. And we need additional information before we will feel good about ruling it out. It appears as though the Aurora Police Department has already ruled it out. Even though the investigations are underway, we have not ruled it out. And we want additional information, more answers, so we know exactly where Jordel's

hands were when that weapon went off. Another key fact, Officer Schnapp, who was on top of Jordel when Officer Grzeska arrived, had his weapon out as well. Officer Schnapp did not decide to fire a shot at Jordel. Officer Grzeska did. So we want to know why Officer Grzeska made that decision and Officer Schnapp didn't. We want to know what he saw that led him to believe that the best way to protect himself and his colleague was to kill Jordel there in that dirty alley. Was Jordel involved in the armed robbery? That is something that is still also inconclusive. We are not going to convict a dead 14-year-old boy without looking at all of the evidence. What we heard in the press conference is that Jordel, they allege, was in a store with a couple of other young men. What we heard, they allege, is that he showed the cashier the gun while he was in the store.

We did not hear that he pointed a gun at anyone. So at this point, we don't know whether they had reasonable basis to even tackle Jordel. But at this point, we're going to wait and see and get more information. We would like to see the video of what happened in the store before making our opinion on that. Have you talked to him? So he was in the store. Was he there with friends? Was there with family? What do we know? We don't know who those young men were. What we do know is Jordel said after he was shot that they made him do it. We don't know what that means. Jordel is not here to tell us. And we haven't seen the results of the investigation that the Aurora Police Department

is conducting. Once that is all released to us, we will have a better understanding of what happened, why they thought they had a grounds to chase and tackle Jordel in the first place. All right. Ed Hopkins, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks, going to go to break. We'll be back on Roland Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When we come back, we'll talk about a number of issues, including the building of this new facility in Atlanta that will train police and fire. Very controversial.

We'll talk with a city council member who actually voted for this also. There's a lawyer, a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi who was arrested while filming a traffic stop. Spent the weekend in jail. She's now out. She'll join us to explain why she thinks that she was arrested and the signal they're trying to send.

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Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tetherpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. On the streets, a horrific scene, a 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 US Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

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Tomorrow, Donald Trump's got to show up for an arraignment in Miami. Lord, his supporters, they are pissed off, all upset, mad, angry, saying that this is it. They're going to take up arms for their guy. Okay, you can try that bullshit if you want to. You know about them fools on January 6th, like one of these fools who said that, oh, now it was a mistake that he actually hit a police officer. He's now facing 14 years in prison. So guess what? You're about to go to jail. So y'all are going to act a fool if you want to, but I'm telling you how it's going to end up if you try to act a fool, because they're going to be waiting to jack you. And they should, because y'all are crazy. Now, over the weekend, it was a number of folks out there talking about this particular story.

I have gotten some of the greatest laughs watching some of these fools do all they can to defend Donald Trump. Now, one of the ones that really got me going was Jim Jordan over the weekend. He was on CNN with Dana Bash. And y'all should have heard this man with all of the mental gymnastics trying to explain why Trump was fine, why everything was good.

OK, y'all want a good laugh? Watch this. This is the best of Comedy Central. Commander in Chief, the president of the United States has the ability to classify and control access to information. That's what the Constitution and the court have said. Comedy Central. But he says point blank, he says point blank on tape as president, I could have declassified it. Now I can't. He says in his own words, it's on tape as part of this indictment. He did not declassify the material. Therefore, it is classified. Dana, saying he could have, saying he could have is not the same as saying he didn't. He said now I can't.

He said he has declassified this material. He said that now I can't. He said that he has declassified this material. He said that, I mean, now he can't, right, because he's not president now, but when he was president, he did declassify it. He said that. Which means that what he was holding was classified. No, not if he declassified it when he was president of the United States, for goodness sake.

But he's saying point blank in this audio tape that he did not declassify it. What you're saying just doesn't make sense on its face. This is what this truly is, Dana, is an affront to the rule of law. It's an affront to consistent application of the law. You had Secretary Clinton who had classified material on a server. She was not president of the United States. She was Secretary Clinton. You have that happen. Nothing happens to her. When you have two people who do the same thing, and one has the standard that I've talked about, but the only one who gets indicted is the

Republican. The only one who gets indicted is the one who was actually president who did it the right way. Oh, my goodness. That is what the American people see. And the other. Really? That was it? It's cute how they love trying to bring up Clinton, trying to bring up President Joe Biden, trying to say, oh, they had documents. See, here's the difference. They gave them back. There was a subpoena.

They literally have the notes of Donald Trump's own attorney who admits that he was trying to hide them. See, it's a little hard to sit here attorney who admits that he was trying to hide him. It's a little hard to sit here and dance around that. And they have worked themselves up into a lather. I mean, they are really upset. But they're really ticked off because not everybody who has been in Trump's orbit actually agrees with it because, well, there's another guy who was the attorney general for Donald Trump, Bill Barr, who covered his ass on a whole bunch of stuff. He went on Fox News on Sunday and was like, yeah, they got his ass. Chief argument that comes up for the president's allies and his legal team that this should have been handled under the Presidential Records Act, not this espionage act charge and other federal statutes that were used here.

Well, it started out under the Presidential Records Act and the archives trying to retrieve documents that Trump had no right to have. But it quickly became clear that what the government was really worried about were these classified and very sensitive documents. I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly. And so the government's agenda was to get those, protect those documents and get them out. And I think it was perfectly appropriate to do that. It was the right thing to do. And I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts. Now, I do think we have to wait and see what the defense says and what proves to be true. But I do think that even half of what Andy McCarthy said, which is if even half of it is true, then he's toast. I mean, it's a it's a pretty it's a very detailed

indictment and it's very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I've been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He's not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has. They have to be in the

custody of the archivist. He had no right to maintain them and retain them. And he kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security, their stomach would churn at it. Anybody, if anybody cares about national security, Lord, the folk on the right, y'all, are just beside themselves. They have been acting a plum fool, angry and upset. But the thing that's so crazy, they're literally defending stupidity.

They are so desperate to kiss this man's ass that they will knowingly defend BS. He was wrong, 100%, without a BS. He was wrong. 100% without a doubt, flat out wrong. And he ignored the subpoena. He ignored the, and they said, dog, we ain't coming after you. Just give us the papers back. His own attorney recorded notes where he said,

I don't want you going through my boxes. Ma Pound out of Julianne Malveaux. She's the Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, Los Angeles. I'm a Congo Dabinga Senior, Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University out of D.C. And Renita Shannon, a former Georgia State representative out of Atlanta. I think all of this is utterly hilarious, Omicongo, because Republicans are embarrassing themselves.

They're embarrassing themselves defending a known liar, a man who ignored the directives of his own attorney, who tried to, who wanted them to engage in his lies. They were like, say, dog, I ain't giving up my damn law license

for your ass. They got the goods on them. But they want to keep playing games. I think that, and you used the right term in terms of a game, because this is a game. I think that those who are running for president, they are hoping that in some way,

shape, or form, this takes Donald Trump out. And they are either auditioning to be his number two if it doesn't take him out, or they are fighting to get his base. They want his base of support if, for some reason, he's removed from the picture. But they are really playing a dangerous game, because their rhetoric that they're putting out there can lead to even more dangerous things happening. We saw January 6. We saw FBI officers getting targeted. And even now, the FBI is saying that there's no real chat about something major happening in Miami tomorrow. But there could be lone wolves out there who take this stuff seriously. And so these guys are being extremely dangerous. And not only the candidates. When you have some of these congressmen, when you have people like Lake,

who lost in Arizona, talking about this is my public service announcement that we all got guns, so you better be careful. I believe, Roland, at the end of the day that some of these guys are unhinged enough that they actually want war. They've used the term war. They've used military terminology. And some people are like, oh, they're just trying to act big and tough. They actually want this. They want dissension. They want destruction because they thrive in it.

And these candidates, Tim Scott and others, you know, Nikki Haley cleaned it up a little bit over the weekend because her husband's in the military. But here's the last thing I'll say, Roland. These guys who are defending Trump like this, they don't know everything that's going to come out that Jack Smith and Merrick Garland have. So there's going to be deeper things that are going to come out. And I just want to see how far they're going to take their defense, because we still do not yet know what Trump actually did with the documents. We know people took photos and all of these other things and where they were stored. But who came in, took pictures, and what did they do with them? Did Donald Trump sell them? Is this how Jared Kushner got that multi-billion or million-dollar deal with Saudi

Arabia? When that stuff comes out, it's going to be very interesting to see how they still try to twist themselves into pretzels like they're at my yoga studio or something, trying to defend this. Here's Nikki Haley trying to, as you said, distance herself from this watch. When I was at the UN, I mean, I saw that the president never got an ounce of credit or a moment's peace. I also had to deal with the Russiagate because that's what they were swirling around all the time. And we saw that that was not a fact. This is what I'll tell you. Two things can be true at the same time. One, the DOJ and FBI have lost all credibility with the American people. And getting rid of just senior management isn't going to be enough to fix this. This is

going to take a complete overhaul, and we have to do that. Two, the second thing can also be true. If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security. More than that, I'm a military spouse. My husband's about to deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men and women in danger if you are going to talk about what our military is capable of

or how we would go about invading or doing something. Bottom line is that they know this fool is wrong. So they're trying to soften a blow. Just have some guts and speak truth. Absolutely. And when you read that indictment of what Trump has been charged with, it's just absolutely egregious. Nobody who cares about national security can look at that and say that what he did was OK. And it's just so egregious because even his attorney talks about how he tried to stop him from breaking the law and the lengths that he went to to go around his attorney to make sure that he could break the law. And so I'm glad that Bill Barr, you know, Bill Barr doesn't get any credit,

but I'm glad that for once he finally admitted that what Trump did was completely wrong and is completely dangerous for this country. And so all this is very interesting to me. Republicans are always proclaiming to be the real patriots, but here we see that they are completely fine with a former president putting all of us at risk, not only the United States, but also our allies at risk. And so Trump has done irreparable damage to the country. Now, this to me, if you want to see just absolutely embarrassing, Julianne, is listening to Tim Scott and Harris Faulkner on Fox News.

Now, this is just utterly pitiful. Listen to this nonsense. Now to Senator Tim Scott. He is running in the Republican field for the nomination of the Republican Party for the White House against Donald Trump. Senator, it's an awkward position to be in. But the bottom line is you're a Republican. This was a Republican president. And look at what has happened. Your reaction. Well, Harris, more importantly, I'm an American. And let's let's look at what's happening to an American.

More important than Republicans or Democrats, red or blue, black or white, is this notion that our nation is the greatest nation on earth because Lady Justice has a blindfold on. That means that Republicans are not hunted and Democrats are not protected. It means that we look at every single case based on the evidence. And in America, every single person is presumed innocent, not guilty. And what we've seen over the last several years is the weaponization of the department justice against the former president. You don't have to be a Republican to see injustice and want to fix it. You don't have to be a Democrat to see injustice and want to fix it. You just. Boy, can you answer the question?

He's going all over the world. Can your ass answer the damn question? Yeah, I'm going to play the rest of it. Then I'm going to get Julian. But I mean, this is like a whole lot of nothing. First of all, I want to start, I'm an American. Well, shit, was somebody questioning your status like your partner did Obama? All right, y'all, let me play.

I can only stomach so much of this crap. So here's one more, here's 60 more seconds. I have to be an American and stand up for the right thing. I don't care whether you're on my party or not in my party. I don't care if you look like me or not. The one thing that makes America the city on the hill is confidence in our justice system. And today what we see is a justice system where the scales are weighted. That seems to be the outcome of where we are today. As president of the United States, I would purge all of the injustices and impurities in our system so that every American can have confidence that they will be seen by the lady of justice

with a blindfold on. That is what we need in this nation, not more politicizing of the issues. Yeah. Will you reach out or have you reached out to the former President Trump? Well, I was sitting here waiting to come on air. And so this is the first time I've had an opportunity to have a conversation, and I certainly will continue to pray for our nation and continue to pray that justice prevails. Senator Scott, thank you for your time tonight.

Appreciate it. He didn't even answer the second question. Julianne, go ahead. Go ahead. No, he's incapable. I read the indictment. I don't know why. Well, I did read the indictment. I don't know why. Well, I did read the indictment.

Trump clearly took national security and he didn't pay attention. He had papers in the bathroom, in the bathroom, on the floor. I mean, it looks like somebody with ADD going through government documents. Not only that. I mean, first of all, Tim Scott, I don't even know why you pay that man any attention. He's an American. He's an American. That's your answer to everything. He doesn't care what party you're in because he's an American. Know what he is, is a blankety blank, blank, blank fool. And every time he opens his mouth, he confirms the notion that he doesn't have enough sense. I don't know what he's running for, but he's certainly not running for president.

And, you know, he's running for secretary or something. Certainly not state, not housing. The indictment is very, very compelling, especially because of the inside information that exists in that indictment. You know that some of Trump's own people turned on him to get this information out. That's number one. Number two, I don't know what website I was on, but there's some website where his supporters were talking about lynching people, taking back over the government. January 6th, again, one of them said, if you thought January 6th was bad, watch out. Well, hopefully this time law enforcement gets it and he won't have

this opportunity to turn his followers into a bunch of rabid fools. But thirdly, this is very sad, not that Trump has been indicted, but that some people who read the indictment, some Republicans who read it, still believe that this is political. It's not political. Hillary took documents that she wasn't supposed to have. She was never subpoenaed. Biden has some old documents. have. She was never subpoenaed. Biden has some old documents.

Again, he was never subpoenaed. When they asked him, do you have anything, he went through it and he gave it back to him. This is just egregious and it's arrogant. I mean, he might not have even gotten caught if he hadn't said, see, I have this document. I'm not supposed to have it. I could have declassified it. I didn't, but I have it. Well, you can't look at it because it's secret. Well, why do you have it out and

throwing it about? The arrogance is just unspeakable. One of the Republican sites said he needs to learn how to shut his mouth. Yeah, the he, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, a whole bunch of them need to learn how to shut their mouths. I just can't stop cracking up when I hear

these people talking. It just is literally comedy, except what makes my stomach hurt. The bottom line is they don't want to accept what is truth. All right, folks, hold tight. One second. Go into a break. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from

foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. We'll talk about a case out of Mississippi where a civil rights lawyer was taping cops at a traffic stop. She got arrested.

She'll join us next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. That was a pivotal, pivotal time. I remember Kevin Hart telling me that. He's like, man, what you doing, man? You got to stay on stage. And I was like, yeah, well, I'm like, man, what you doing, man? You gotta stay on stage. And I was like, yeah, man, I'm like, I don't know. You know, I'm thinking, I'm good. And he was absolutely right.

What show was the other time? This was one-on-one. Got it. During that time. And I was, so you're doing one-on-one. Yeah. Going great. Yeah. You making money. You like. I'm like, I don't need to leave.

I don't need to leave from, you know, Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday. You know, I just didn't want to do that. You know, it was just like. I'm like, I don't need to leave. I don't need to leave from Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday. I just didn't wanna do that. It was just like, I'm gonna stay here. Oh, I didn't wanna finish work Friday, fly out, go do a gig Saturday, Sunday. I was just like, I don't have to do that. And I lost a little bit of that hunger that I had

in New York. I would hit all the clubs and run around. Sometimes me and Chappelle or me and this one or that one, we'd go to the Comedy Cellar at one in the morning. I mean, that was our life. We loved it. You know, you do two shows in Manhattan, go to Brooklyn, leave Brooklyn,

go to Queens, go to Jersey. And I kind of just, I got complacent. I was like, I got this money, I'm good. I don't need to go, I don't need to go chase that because that money wasn't at the same level that I was like, I got this money, I'm good, I don't need to go, I don't need to go chase that because that money wasn't at the same level that I was making, but what I was missing was that training. Yes. Was that, was that.

And it wasn't the money. It was the money, you know, it was that, that's what I needed. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong black woman.

Some of us are operating with it as if it's a badge of honor. Like you even hear black women like aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman. So at their own expense. Next on The Frequency right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Judy Proud on The Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Proud. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered.

All right, folks. There's this case out of the story of Mississippi that's very strange. Might have seen this in social media over the weekend. So a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi happened to be recording a traffic stop. All right, now we've run videos like that on this show on numerous occasions. Well, then all of a sudden, she under arrest. I'm confused. So she's recording a traffic stop,

but then she gets arrested by the very same cops. Spends time in jail, got out today, but people are asking the questions, why in the hell was she arrested for a traffic stop? Now, we've also been covering these stories about how in many of these cities and states around the country, legislators, largely Republican, have been doing their best to protect, we say, cover up actions of police officers by passing laws stopping people from actually recording police officers in action. We've seen that in numerous, numerous cases.

So the question is, what's going on? What's going on? Jill Collin joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Glad to have you here. So what what happened? Yeah. So, Roland, thank you for having us. I was in Lexington on Saturday night. I saw the cops had pulled someone over. I drove by, and I had someone in the car with me, and they recorded. The person told me, they said, if you go back through there, the cops are going to get you. I said, what, for driving? They said, yeah.

And so they said, I don't even want to be in the car with you. So I let them out at the corner and I drove back around. I made a right turn to go back where the cops were arresting this person. I was driving with my right hand. I had my phone recording in my left hand. As I approached the cops, I never stopped. I was driving. The cop flagged me down with his flashlight.

I stopped. He said, show me your ID. I said, why? He said, show me your ID. I said, is this a roadblock? He said, no. I said, so why do I need to show you my ID? And he said again, show me your ID. And then he pulled out his taser. And I remember seeing it was black and yellow. And I called my attorney, my criminal defense attorney on the phone. And I told him what was happening. He said, oh my gosh, this is crazy. And he said, Jill, I know that this is ridiculous, but just show them your ID just to get this over with now. And so I flashed my ID. I had it in my hand. I held it up.

At that point, the white officer, the officer, his name is Scott Walters. He said, get out of the car. There was a black officer behind him named A.G. His last name is A.G. He's an investigator with Lexington Police Department. They both started yelling for me to get out of the car. I was still on the phone with my attorney and my attorney was saying, this is ridiculous. And at that point, the white police officer starts pulling at my car door. Well, first he reached in. He grabbed my phone from me. He snatched my phone.

He slammed it on the top of the car, on the roof of the car. And he started yanking at my car door. But the door was locked. So he reaches in my car and he unlocks my door from the inside. He opens the door and pulls me out of the car, pushes me up against the car. At this point, I see my phone on top of the car and I'm telling my attorney, I'm saying, Mike, Mike, you need to come. And I realized that he'd hung up on my attorney. And so at that point, they cuffed me.

They put my hands behind my back. I did not. I did not resist. They put me in the back of the police car. In the back of the police car, I watched as they illegally searched my car. They started in the glove compartment. They went all through it. They flipped the seats, going through the rugs, everything. They then went to the trunk.

I had my briefcase in the trunk. It was closed. It was zip closed. I watched them as they opened my briefcase and they started going through my things. They started taking my things out and looking at them one by one. Then after they did that, the white officer, Scott Walters, he went around to the driver's side. He knelt down and put his hand under the seat and he said, lookie here, he'd found my firearm. He said, I sure hope it's stolen. And at that point, they put me in the police car. Well, I was already in the police car. They took me to jail. At jail, they cuffed me to a bench. I was there for at least an hour as this cop tried to intimidate me, telling me that he was going to take me to jail.

I said, well, I look forward to it. And they took me to jail. And that was that. And I just got out a few hours ago. Oh, that was on Saturday. So you spent. So what time was it on Saturday? This was Saturday night. So you spent all day.

You spent all of Sunday in jail? Yes. First of all, this also comes a few days after Christian Clark, who heads the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, was in your city, correct? Yes. Do you believe those two things are related? You know, I don't know.

I can only speculate and I don't want to do that. But what I can tell you is that I was there at that meeting with Kristen Clark, that people saw me there at that meeting with Kristen Clark, that I spoke with Kristen Clark. I do not know if this was related, but I was definitely deeply involved in her visit. You're joined on the show by Cardell Wright of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Cardell, what do you make of this?

This situation with Attorney Jefferson is just one of many situations that we've been dealing with over the past two years. These issues come every day. Even at the press conference, people are riding by saying, I need to talk to you. I need to talk to you. One lady came today saying her husband is at the hospital right now getting x-rays on his back because he was harassed and beat by the police and they did not arrest him. So this is just one situation of many, but we have to keep in mind that these are the situations that are happening in a poor county. Holmes County is one of the poorest, if not the poorest, county in the nation. And they are doing this at the beck and call of the elected officials in an attempt to

continue to line the pockets of the city, we're impoverished and they like the money coming in, but it does not need to come in at the expense of Black people. So we're on the ground every day. And I'm thankful for Attorney Jefferson for making that sacrifice and Julian being in the community, helping us with the fight against injustices, police corruption and police brutality. But it does not stop there. It's corruption with our elected officials. There's so many things and unethical, illegal things happening. And now the people of Lexington and the citizens of Holmes County, some of them are leaving these small cities because of fear, because they have seen their sons and their daughters get beat in their yards,

or they've been hosed and tased for nothing. And they're always being trumped up with false charges such as disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and failure to comply. These are the same charges that they put on Attorney Jefferson, that they put on everybody because they have nothing. And that's because they use these to try to extort our people by making them pay these old fines and making them pay large amounts of money. And they have to pay it because if they go to jail, they'll lose their jobs.

This Holmes County is poor, and everybody, when they work, they work because they need the money, not to give it away. Folks, hold tight one second. I'm going to go to break. We'll come back and we'll talk more about this case and bringing our panel in as well. If you're watching the show right now, click the Like button if you're on YouTube. Same thing if you're on the Blackstone Network app. If you're watching on Facebook or the other platforms as well.

Speaking of the app, be sure to download it. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Your dollars make it possible for us to do this every single day. All of this, folks, takes money. None of it is free. And so when you join our Bring the Funk fan club, your dollars goes to this show. So all the resources do that. And so our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks a year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. To cover these stories, that raises a million dollars. It goes a long way, folks, for us to be able to do what we do.

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And so you can do the same thing. Folks who get on the show, I'll be sure to give you a shout out. I'll be right back. We 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. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story

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$50 this month. Rates $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is rolling at rollingsmartin.com. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, owning your energy and how to use it. Trust me, it impacts the people on your job, who you attract, and even your love life. What you give out is what comes back to you. So like attracts like, right? So if you

come in with a negative space and I match that negative energy, then two seconds later... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else but never forget yourself self-love made me a better dad because i realized my worth never stop being a dad that's dedication find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the u.s department of health and human services and the ad council there's somebody else coming with more and negative energy and then I was just always just matching negative stuff. And here's the kicker. If you're not careful, that energy can

even be stolen. That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back. We're talking about this case again out of Mississippi. That is just quite strange.

Jill Collin Jefferson, who spent a day in jail for recording a traffic stop, released today. Jill, does state law allow people to record traffic stops? So far, yes, it does. But the thing is, Lexington Police Department, they do whatever they want to do. As Cardell said, the charges they put on me, those are the charges they tend to put on anyone. Lexington, if they come to you and a cop tells you

to do something, they could just tell you to pick up a piece of paper. If you don't pick it up, they'll charge you with failure to comply. They just put charges on you. And then if you say anything, they'll charge you with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. And so this is how they operate.

What happened to me is indicative of what's happened to so many other people. But in this situation, you know, we said we're not paying the fine. We're not paying bail. We're going to go to jail and wait this out until a trial date or until they waive the fine because they're not getting any more of my money going into the system. And so that is what happened. But no, it is not illegal to record in Mississippi yet. Questions from the panel. Renita, you first. Well, I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you, Attorney Jefferson. I have to say I'm not surprised. Having been a legislator in Georgia, I know that states across the country have tried

to pass these bills to say you cannot record the police. And every time they go to court, they are always told, yes, people can, as long as they are not interfering with an arrest, which you certainly were not. I guess my question for you is, are you all able to collect other folks who have been arrested by police for filming them to put together some sort of something where you can ask the DOJ to formally step in and see what's going on? Yes. We have been working for a long time on building a case against the Lexington Police Department, actually, for a very long time. We actually sued them last year in federal court, and we have a trial date against them in June of next year. And so all of these things that

are happening, we've been working to build this case and we have other people who've been through the same thing. You know, honestly, it was meant to be for me to go to jail because in jail I met women who had been assaulted by the police, women we'd been looking for to get their stories from them. You know, I found out that, you know, there are two women, they were in the cell with me, and the police had ticketed them or arrested them simply because they would not sleep with the officers. And we knew that that was going on in Lexington, but actually being in the cell with them, we got to share our stories. And so it was meant to be that this happened. Julianne?

Sister Jefferson, I'm very sorry for what you had to go through, but as you say, sometimes there's divine order. I don't wish a jail night on anybody, but I'm glad that you learned some things there, especially things that you could bring to your work. As you talk to the women in the cell with you, and you say that some of them were arrested because they simply wouldn't sleep with the officers. What kind of resource actually do they have? What kind of recourses do they have if the county is so slanted? Is there any way, any place, any where people can get justice?

And the second thing I would ask is, what were the terms and conditions of incarceration there? I mean, I'm sure it wasn't comfortable, but is there some things you could share where, you know, if you treat people in jail badly, that's a lawsuit right there? I mean, I'm sure it wasn't comfortable, but is there some things you could share where, you know, if you treat people in jail badly, that's a lawsuit right there? Yes. You know, first off, what I'll say is that going to jail was my choice. They wanted to, they offered to release me on my own recognizance, but they are still going to make me pay a fee. And so I told them I was not paying that fee. And so they put me in jail because I refused to pay the fee after, for the charges. You know, these women, yes, they had been

arrested because they had turned down these officers and that's not something that is uncommon here. You know, being in jail with them, I'll tell you once, you know, the truth of the matter is that when I got in jail, there are feces everywhere. They cleaned it up the next day, but they were all over the floor in chairs and in the cells. There was, because there was a mentally ill woman who had been throwing her feces, who had been throwing her food up against the wall. And it had just been, I guess, too much for them to clean up all the time. So it was just, the conditions were awful. They cleaned it up sometime on Sunday evening. And then she threw more feces. And so the conditions there, I can tell you that they treated me well, but they treated me well because I'm me.

You know, from what I heard about some of the other women who were in there, they had not been able to make phone calls. They had not been able to speak to their children. There were things that they just were not able to get, basic things. But I can tell you that the people who dealt with me while I was behind bars, while I was in jail, they were kind to me. But I think that was only because they realized that I was me, honestly. Umakongo? One of the questions that I have hearing about all of this is simple's simple. You know, what can we do who are not there to support the actions that are happening down there from the community? When you talk about

the situation with the bail and why people are paying because they don't want to lose their jobs and some of these things that are happening across the country, you all are doing the serious on the ground work every day down there in Lexington. What can we do who are not there to best support you? Is it about financial contributions? Is it about sharing videos? What could best help the cause there? Well, I do think that what you just said is how you can best support. Right now, what we're trying to do is we're trying to turn the eyes of this nation and the state of Mississippi toward Holmes County. We know that we were in the mainstream media around the end of the summer of last year dealing with the former racist chief that what they're recording got leaked,

but the situations never ceased. Right after his termination, we would think that we would have some sort of peace, but those that took over, they began to perpetuate his same racist tactics. So what we need simply is for coverage, for everybody to speak out, to help put pressure on the governor, because the governor is the only elected official that can remove a sitting elected official. And we know that they are complicit in all of these situations because of what the police are doing and how they're bringing revenue into the city through these unlawful arrests. But also, we would need Julian is doing a lot of work, reaching a lot of clients, trying to figure out how to file suits. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, we're out, we're talking. We're rallying. We're protesting. So even financial contributions

into these organizations will help us continue this because now that Attorney Jefferson has sacrificed herself and went to prison, we will not let that go without a fight. And we're going to see this through until the end. So anything you can do, more coverage, more financial

resources, we would greatly appreciate it. I didn't finish answering Julian's question. You know, I realized, so in terms of recourse, people have hardly any recourse in Lexington. If they file a complaint, if they want to file a complaint, a lot of times the mayor will not even give them a complaint form. No. Once they, if they get a complaint form, if their complaint is against the police, the mayor tells them to go talk to the police.

Yes. The police investigate themselves and decide what happens in Lexington to them. And so the recourse after that in court, Mississippi does not have a statewide public defender system. And so most of the people who go to court, especially in Lexington, which is the second poorest county in the country, they have no attorneys. So they get railroaded in court as well. And so they get found guilty of things that they did not do. It happens all of the time.

And in terms of even recourse from the governor's office, we reached out to the governor's office months ago and told him what was going on. He has completely ignored what has happened. And so in all of this, this community has no recourse except for the help that is coming. And I hope more will come from the Department of Justice. All right. Keep us abreast of what happens, what's happening there. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you both of us for joining us on the show. Got to go to break. We come back with some breaking news. The head of the NYPD, she's quit.

Some drama going on with her and the mayor of New York. We'll tell you exactly about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Question for you. Are you stuck? Do you feel like you're hitting a wall and it's keeping you from achieving prosperity? Well, you're not alone. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach,

you're going to learn what you need to do to become unstuck and unstoppable. The fabulous author, Janine K. Brown, will be with us sharing with you exactly what you need to do to finally achieve the level of financial success you desire through your career. Because when I talk about being bold in the workplaces, I'm talking about that inner boldness that you have to take a risk, to go after what you want, to speak up when others are not. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. The Supreme Court is back in session. God help us all. It is no exaggeration to say that this current session could completely reshape this country and redirect our future for generations to come and not in a good way we invite dr blithia watkins professor angela porter our legal round table back to the show to put it all in perspective that's on the next black table please don't miss it right here on the Black Star Network.

I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? All right, folks, 11 to 4, City. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcast.

Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position.

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Critics say the new facility that's going to be built in a predominantly black neighborhood will only exacerbate tensions between law enforcement and the community, as well as the center will cause environmental harm to the area. Since the vote, some council members have asked why they voted to approve the center. And also, we had one council member on last week saying that they don't even fully have all the details. Well, Michael Julian Bond is on the city council. He said that the new training center will provide much-needed resources for law enforcement.

He joins us right now from Atlanta. Glad to have you here, Councilman Bond. So first and foremost, how much is this going to cost? It will cost the—the total cost is $90 million. It will cost the taxpayers of the city of Atlanta about $67 million over the term of the lease for the facility. I had a council member on last week who said that initially the council was told that private donations and grants were going to pay for this, not any taxpayer money. Is that true? No, that's incorrect. Two years ago, the Atlanta City Council voted to approve the construction and the terms of the building of this facility. The details were all in there. It's $30 million share up front from the city of Atlanta. Then over the term of the

leaseback, about $37 million over the next 30 years. Who is going to be building this? What is the oversight when it comes to contracts, things along those lines? Well, this is a public-private partnership between the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Foundation. They will be partnering to solicit the construction contracts for the development of the center. I believe the construction should take about 18 months. The foundation is responsible for raising the balance of that $90 million from the $67 million that the city of Atlanta will pay. And that term of lease will be about 30 years when the key is turned back over to the city fully. How do you ensure that black-owned businesses or city-owned businesses are going to be benefiting from this if the city is putting up two-thirds of the money, but the foundation

is controlling who gets the contracts? All of the city's contracts, we have probably the original MBE program in the country here in Atlanta that was started by Amanda Jackson. All of our contracts adhere to that MBE program. And this is not the first time that the city of Atlanta has done a public-private partnership on a public project. You may recall a few years ago, we did the same thing with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. We've done it repeatedly for smaller facilities like the Chastain Park Amphitheater and the Lakewood Amphitheater on the southern end of the city. When you come into business with the city of Atlanta, whether it's a nonprofit or for-profit entity, they have to adhere to the city of Atlanta's MBE program.

There were a lot of people who spoke out against this. Very few actually spoke in favor of it. Why don't you vote for it? Well, this is a decades-long odyssey to build this combined training center. The city of Atlanta has been without adequate training facilities for its police and fire for about 10 years now, longer for the police department. The facilities for the police department that exist on the site are dilapidated, and we're really up against potential OSHA violations for that facility. It was built in the 1950s. The fire facilities that our department had been using for decades were on Atlanta Public Schools' property. We had a lease with them. We had a dispute with them over property deeds that emerged from the school system becoming independent from the city of Atlanta.

The then mayor and superintendent had a dispute. The APS decided not to renew those leases, so we literally lost about 90 percent of the facilities that our fire department uses to train. So now our firemen are currently training in a trailer, and they have a temporary burn tower for them to train in. We're short about 200 firemen. We're down almost 500 for police officers. We have the ability to fill those firefighter spaces, but we don't have facilities to train them. We have to lease temporary space all around the metropolitan area for our fire department. Our police facilities are not well maintained. And of course, the main police facility there on Key Road, as I mentioned, is 80 years old.

You know, the black community that people often reference as being put upon by this facility, when it was constructed in the 1990s, there were three prisons there when those original residents moved into that neighborhood. There was the city prison, the state metro women's facility, and a juvenile facility there, where that neighborhood was constructed. And so, and others have also remarked, well, could you build it someplace else? Could you move it to another part of the city? And yes, there are large tracts of land that the city of Atlanta owns within the city, but they literally either are across the street or back into the backyards of predominantly African-American communities. This particular site obviously had been used for decades for the public safety use. And depending on where you're standing when you're on the site,

you're at least three quarters to a mile and a quarter away from the nearest neighborhood or community. So this is something that we as the fiduciaries of the city of Atlanta, which we do have responsibility to as well as to listening to our citizens, which we do have responsibility to, as well as to listening to our citizens, that we have a duty to our employees to make sure that they have adequate and safe facilities to train in and the equipment and salaries and so forth. You know, there were a lot of people who came and spoke to the city council, but most self-identified as non-residents of the city of Atlanta.

And as I'm an at-large member, and as I move around the city to the different neighborhood and community meetings, people are not opposed to us providing for our public safety employees, particularly our fire and EMS employees. All right, questions for the panel. Renita, you first.

Yes, so my question is, there are a lot of folks who actually do live in the city of Atlanta who are not in favor of this training facility. I know that the next step for those who are against this training facility is to have a referendum for the public to actually show their true voice on this training center.

What is your position on the referendum? Well, I mean, I support activism. I'm a former activist myself. My parents were activists. I come out of an activist background. You know, I'm excited to see people engaged in the process. You know, however, there has been an election. There is a city government. We make thousands of decisions

on behalf of the population of Atlanta with their acquiescence. They elected us to do so. But we do have a provision in our charter to allow groups of citizens to make these types of petitions. So I wish them all the best in their effort. Renita, you got a follow-up? Yes. Just a quick yes or no. Do you support the referendum effort? Because I understand what you're saying. I've been an elected official here in Decatur, and I understand electing people to make decisions for you. But it's crystal clear, especially with the hours of testimony that you all had against Cop City, that many, many are not in favor of this. And these are people who do live in the city of Atlanta. So yes or no, just very directly, do you support putting this

to a referendum since this is such a controversial decision? Well, one, I disagree that this is a controversial decision. And then second, I disagree that there's a majority of citizens that disagree with the construction of the facility. So I apologize to you. I'm not going to be able to answer yes or no. I believe citizens have the right to exercise the legal tools that are available to them, and I support them doing that. I believe the city council has made the right decision for our citizens, even those that disagree. So I'm ambivalent about whether or not I support the referendum or not. I mean, if the referendum is successful, we will obviously live with the results of that referendum.

But that will still put us behind providing the equipment, the facilities that we need to help our fire, police and EMS employees. And please understand that, you know, in the city of Atlanta, you know, training has been at the center of this. What type of training are EMS and police receive? You know, it only takes about eight weeks of standardized training in Georgia to become a police officer. The training that Atlanta gives its police officers is 36 weeks. And we have probably what is rated one of the best police academies of the top three in the nation, the most extensive training. You know, that's great and all, but guess what? That makes those individuals extremely marketable to other departments. And so if the city of Atlanta is not providing the best equipment and workspace for those individuals, they're easily gone.

So our recidivism rate is exceedingly high. We lose police officers to the metropolitan area, the neighboring departments. We lose them to the counties. We lose them to the state. And, of course, we do. They're highly marketable on the federal level. So part of why people leave is because of the deteriorating facilities that we have. And it's the same on the fire side. Just, it's not as bad, but it's the

same. You know, we have a higher recidivism rate because it only takes about seven, eight weeks, you know, standard in Georgia to become a fireman. Our training is almost 18 months. And so with the additional skills and training that they have, they become highly marketable around the metropolitan area. And they often leave for less money and benefits because our facilities are so poor. And so this really isn't a question of whether or not people like it or not. You know, this is a need in the city of Atlanta to improve these facilities for the long-term interests of our citizens. Omokongo? Yes, Mr. Brown.

I was wondering, what is the plan as it relates to the relationships with the Black community? I've read that there's been talks about engagement programs, but in a state that's been fairly hostile to the Black experience there, and I know people can look at Atlanta as a separate case from Georgia itself, but many who live in Atlanta do not. What specific programs are there in place to actually build and work with the communities that are in the areas of Cop City? Well, in the areas of the Atlanta Police and Fire Training Facility, the mayor has established an advisory committee made up of members of the adjacent communities that are not inside of the city of Atlanta, but are adjacent to the facility in southern DeKalb County. There have been several town hall meetings. The committee that the mayor has

established is slated to remain even after the construction of the facility so that there can be ongoing input on behalf of the citizens. And of course, Atlanta is unique that, again, under the great leadership of our former mayor, Mayor Jackson, that we established a neighborhood planning unit system where we have a standing committee within each neighborhood in the city of Atlanta to give direct input into the decisions that affect communities. And that's everything from zoning and...

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL

enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast

season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Planning to our police and budgetary issues. Julianne? Councilman Bond, two quick questions. I think one of the biggest objections to what you're doing with Cop City is the agglomeration of having everything together. I mean, it really does speak to the expansion of the military industrial complex and especially with the police brutality that's been documented there in Atlanta.

That really raises a lot of concerns, just the agglomeration, having all of that together. The second concern many of us have is with the open space, with basically killing trees, eliminating open space, which is desperately needed in many of our urban areas. What do you say to those two concerns? Well, first, this is being built on the exact footprint of what had been there previously. And so I know people have made a great deal comparing the acreage in Atlanta to the acreage in L.A., the acreage in New York. But this is a preexisting site where you had a public safety use that had been there for many, many decades. And so we can see that all trees create oxygen, but the trees that were on the site were new-growth trees. The police facility has been there undisturbed since the 1950s. There had been a farm, a prison farm, on the site, and it was operational until Maynard Jackson became mayor in 1974.

But the farm was maintained after that. And so the farm did not fall out of use until about 2000 or 2001. And so the trees that are on the exact footprint, they are new growth trees. Now, the trees that were standing in the old growth portions of this site, it's almost 300 acres. It's about 285 acres. Those trees will not be disturbed and have not been disturbed. So the environmental concerns there, that should put environmentalists to rest, because

the old growthgrowth forest is not going to be disturbed at all. I want to make sure I got both of your points. On the environmental concerns, you know, this is adjacent to the South River and Entrenchment Creek. And so there have been environmental concerns there, but most of the concerns have generated from the DeKalb County side of the creek. On that side of the creek, there's a wastewater facility operated by DeKalb County. Ninety percent of all the sewage spills that have ever happened in DeKalb County have happened on that site,

have happened as a result of DeKalb County operating their water sewer treatment plant. You know, the city of Atlanta since the 1990s has been underneath a consent decree for the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries. We have improved our system here with our drinking water and our wastewater. So if there is a municipality that should be, that you would want to have to deal with water runoff or either silt or any type of overflow into a creek or tributary, it is the city of Atlanta, because we've become almost fully compliant. I think that we've just got about two or three years left on the consent decree,

and we have literally spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving our water and wastewater facilities. Councilman Bond, we appreciate you joining us. Last question is, what's the next step? Well, the next step is that the contracting for the development of the facility would be underway, and of course, in tandem with that, you would have the citizens

who have, who are desiring to file with our city clerk to get their petitions signed. They have 60 days to do so. They need 70,000 signatures of voters who voted in the last election. When they acquire those signatures, if they do, they have to bring it back to the clerk. The clerk has to re-verify them, and then the city council has to vote to accept them to add them to the ballot in November.

But short of that, in line with that, the construction means should be underway. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. It's great to be here. Folks, we'll come back. We'll talk this resignation, sudden resignation, the commissioner of the New York Police Department, what's going on there. We'll talk this resignation, sudden resignation, the commissioner of the New York Police Department. What's going on there? Also, an Olympic track athlete died mysteriously. Now we know why.

Here's another example of black women, when they have children, how their health is at stake. You're watching Roller Mark, done and filtered right here on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern

and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not replace Donald Trump. 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. Bye bye, Papa. They're taking our resources. They're taking our women. This is white people. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. Louder and Prouder on Disney+. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Tansy, Tansy, Tansy. Tansy, Tansy, Tansy.

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Tansy, Tansy. Tansy, Tansy. Tansy, Tansy. Tansy, Tansy. Tansy, Tansy. It's been missing from Tucson, Arizona since April 14th. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information with regards to Tanzania Mosley should call the Tucson, Arizona Police Department at 520-791-4444. That's 520-791-4444. All right, folks, the bombshell out of New York City where Keisha Anzul,

who was a year ago named by New York Mayor Eric Adams as police commissioner, she quit. That's right. Issued her resignation today. She sent an email out saying she made the decision to step down from my position. While my time here will come to a close, I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the NYPD. And I will always be a champion for the people of New York City. She was sworn in on January 1st, 2022. She did not give a reason for why she's doing so.

But what you have here is you have some folks saying that she has been battling with the mayor's office. Right here it says Sewell's relationship with city council, city hall, has seemed to sour in recent months, with the commissioner finding herself increasingly handcuffed when trying to make key department decisions. This is what the New York Post reported on Sunday. What you also find is you also have had a situation where you had a higher up who was involved in a particular case of an officer who was arrested and he ordered that report to be axed. And so it's also a drama here. I'll say this here, Renita, if somebody resigns 15, 18 months into their tenure, something else is going on here, not just I want to go spend more time with my family.

Absolutely. You're right. I mean, everybody knows what this looks like. Politicians do it all the time. They serve, you know, 15, 20 years in office and all of a sudden they say, oh, I've got to go leave and spend more time with my children. And it never really washes. To your point, the things that you listed that were stated publicly as to why the police chief is leaving really just don't wash. And I think that there is a lot more to this story. And I think that we are going to see a lot more with this story in the coming months. There is a another story here when the department's highest ranking uniform officer, Omokongo, he was involved in this particular issue. She decided to discipline this officer, Jeffrey Madre,

and she sided with the city's civilian complaint review board in this. And so what happened here, he was hit with an official reprimand, which was for 10 days. He was docked between five and ten vacation days when they say that he abused his authority in the 2021 gun case involving a retired cop. This is the New York Post story right here. Madre, he, of course, he voided the arrest of a retired cop who was accused of flashing a gun at three children in Brooklyn in November 2021, according to internal affairs sources. Now, the Civilian Complaint Review Board had recommended that Sewell hit Madre with the command B discipline over the incident. And according to folks there, that this also was a point of contention because Madre is a big time, he's supported big time by the mayor of New York City. First of all, this is very clear here on Macongo. No cop should be standing in the way avoiding any arrest. I don't care if somebody's a retired cop.

And so as far as I'm concerned, if you are the highest ranking uniformed police officer and you did that, you should not have your job. Absolutely, straight up. And given, especially this last story just kind of goes to what I was already thinking from the other parts you were reading, when you have somebody who, someone in her position siding with civilian review boards, you're automatically going to become an enemy of your colleagues. And I really think that there has to be a lot behind that. And if Madre and Mayor Adams are tight or connected, I can't see a window where she could have had the support that she needed. And she's also a Black woman

running this. And I's also a Black woman running this. And I remember a story we did a few months ago, I'm sure you remember, to state where there was a Black woman who was put in charge of a county sheriff's office or something, and then those members all quit. I believe that law enforcement in particular is where you're going to find the most types of people who have issues with a Black female being in a position of leadership. It doesn't seem like she got the support, which she had, that she needed. And when you talk about this last situation where this cop, what they said, flashed a gun or something in front of children and the like, she sounds to me like somebody who was out there representing

the community. And if this is indeed the case, and if it's indeed the case that Mayor Adams didn't have her back for situations like this, then shame on him. And I really hope that she speaks out because we know that people are going to circle the wagons as it relates to tarnishing her reputation about why she left. And so I hope that she comes out and let us know, because if situations like this are the case, she needs to know that there are more of us out there who are going to be speaking up in her defense and having her back, including people in New York. Well, you look at this case here, Julian, this Madre, African-American as well.

This is what it says, that this retired cop was arrested on allegations he pulled a gun on three kids ages 12, 13 and 14, who smashed a camera outside his family's realty office in Brownsville. This is what's crazy. Madre, who knew Forrester from his time as a 73rd precinct commander, overruled the arresting sergeant on November 21st, 2021, personally showing up at the station house late that night and ordering that the charges against the ex-cop be voided. That sounds like an abuse of authority. It's absolutely abuse of authority. And it's even more than that. I mean, for someone to wave a gun in front of children, 13, 14, these are children. Why do you have a gun? They smash

a camera. They say it was an accident. Worst case scenario, make their parents pay for the camera, make them pay for the camera. But you don't go around flashing a gun. But then beyond that, you've got a hookup inside the police department, so your boy goes down and says, dismiss the charges, and they do. That's more than abuse of power. That's ridiculous. But I think the third thing, obviously, uh, the police chief, uh, Chief Sewell, basically, s-sided with the com- the citizen's complaint,

s-sided with, um with the arresting officer. And, you know, as we all know about the police, it's a thin blue line. It's silenced. Circle the wagons. Everybody's loyal. Don't say anything bad about anybody, even when they shoot somebody.

Don't say anything bad. And so I think that because she sided with Wright, she got to be placed in the wrong by Mary Adams. I'm disappointed in him, but then again, I'm not. The other thing is that police departments are sources of toxic masculinity, simply toxic masculinity. And from that perspective, to have a Black woman in charge was probably rankling many of them anyway. And then, and although I'm told that she did a good job and I looked up a few things, she seemed to have been she had pushed back when she first came in.

Then she seemed to settle in. But who knows how many of these kind of instances took place? And the mayor, being a former police officer himself, could have taken a better, better role. He probably was. They said that she resigned after a meeting with the mayor. So he said something that triggered her and made her say, I'm up out of here. And I'm sorry that the sister had to leave, but I'm sure she's been bigger and better things in front of her. And God bless whomever tries to straighten out the New York Police Department. All right, folks. Hold tight. One second to go to break. We come back. What the hell is happening in the world of HBCUs?

There are numerous presidencies that are open and a lot of them are women being pushed out. Discuss that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Blackstar Network is here. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good

and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Humanowned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now.

Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? What's up, everybody? It's your girl Latasha from the land of HBCUs? A number of openings are now available, and we can just simply go down the line. In fact,

if you type into Google, go to my iPad, HBCU president resigns, what you will see, folks, are a number here. Now, first of all, you see that the president of Langston University, my alpha brother, Ken Smith, he's leaving, but he's retiring to run his own Chick-fil-A franchise. But when you go here, the story here, four black women presidents have been fired from HBCUs. And so you'll see the story here that was actually posted, and it shows you all of them. And so, again, these various stories. Then you go down here. Jackson State University president will resign months after no confidence vote.

Tougaloo College president resigns effective at the end of June. TSU president Crumpton Young resigns. We also know, of course, earlier Ruth Simmons resigned at Prairie View A&M University. Then, of course, President Lamar Owen only there two and a half years. Vernell Bennett-Ferris, she resigns. This was just three days ago. Russ College has fired their president, Dr. Ivy Taylor. No one explains exactly why she's leaving as well. And like I say, we could just sit here

and go down the line. Philander Smith, Roderick's mother's announced that he is also resigning after nine years leading that university as well. And so here you have Fisk, Flander, Rust, Tougaloo, Lemoine, Owen. Again, they feel the Prairie View opening, Texas Southern University. It's a lot going on here. Julianne, you, of course, president, Emerita Bennett College. Here's the deal. A lot of these schools, a lot of these are women presidents not serving a significant number of years in these places. What in the world is going on? Well, from my experience, I would say that boards need to stay in their lane and presidents need to stay in their lane.

Presidents generally do. We have too much to do to jump into the board's Kool-Aid. But too many board members are micromanagers. Too many want to get off into the board's Kool-Aid, but too many board members are micromanagers, too many want to get off into the weeds. And then again, women, even at a women's college, I mean, you have men on the board who don't necessarily appreciate your leadership style. In my case, people never appreciate my bluntness, and that's just me. So I'll own that. But oftentimes, people don't appreciate women's leadership style. And I mean, I had a

staff member who I did fire tell me that I was a diva president. I was like, dude, just go away. But people feel free to say things to women presidents they wouldn't say to a man. But I really think that the crux at HBCU land is boards interfering with the day-to-day responsibilities of the president. At a point in time, Ruth Simmons, I mean, to have such a star at Prairie View, such a star, and it's her alma mater, and she was totally dedicated to it. And then the boards start dabbling, and she's like, I don't need to put up with that. I'm at retirement age. I can do other things. So, you know, I mean, people have enough of interfering boards.

I think that's a lot of it. And I think also gender bias is a huge thing in our community. I mean, we act like it's not there, but it's there. And no matter what kind of college you're at, the gender bias is alive and well. Crazy thing here, Renita. A lot of these folks are stepping away after two, two and a half years. I don't care who you are. You leave the presidency of a university for two, two and a half years. That don't care who you are. You leave the presidency of a university of the two, two

and a half years. That's a clear sign. Unless you're leaving for another great opportunity, these folks are not. It's a clear sign that there are issues. Absolutely. No, absolutely, Roland. I mean, I think that's it. Most people stay. I mean, the length of time people have been staying in presidencies has gone down. A generation ago, people went to these presidencies and they stayed just about for life. You look at Bill Harvey at Hampton, 40 some years or Norm Francis at Xavier, 40 some years, the longest serving HBC presidents. But now many presidents, you know, I did five, but many are doing two and three because at a point in time, you just say enough. You just throw your hands up and say enough.

And the younger the presidents also, like folks in my generation, the less likely, younger than me as well, the less likely, the younger you are, the less likely you are to put up with the BS. The more likely you are to just throw your hands, I got something else to do. God didn't put me here for this. When you see people moving quickly, you know something's wrong. Renita? Well, what Dr. Malveaux is saying is absolutely

correct. I've never been an HBCU president, but I have been a woman who has been an elected official. And it's true really for any position of leadership for women. There's always an immediate challenge to second guessing the decisions that you make. There's always a challenge to your previous experience and whether or not that is good enough. And so to your point, Roland, what you're saying about these folks coming in and within two years deciding to leave, that really does not sound like a situation of somebody who changed their mind really necessarily on the position from what they knew before they went into the position, because generally people are excited about new opportunities. And so to make a change

that quickly, it means that they have just completely weighed the pros and cons of staying in those positions and have decided that this does not meet up to, you know, what they would like to be doing with their life. And so this is, you know, I think it's this. I think it's also what we've talked about so many times on this show about the financial support that HBCUs receive. That makes things very difficult. And so it's just been a very trying time for HBCUs across the country, at least the last couple of years. Here's the problem here, Omicongo, when you talk about a president leaving after two, two and a half years. And that is, it's like having to start over again. Texas Southern University is now about to be on their third president

in the last four years. They got rid of Austin Lane, the latest president. She served there just two years. That's young. Not looking for another president. Same thing, Lamoyne Owen. She comes in 2021. Now she resides in 2023. Now you're looking for another president. You talk about Fisk University. They've had, what, six presidents or seven presidents in 22 years after getting rid of Van Newkirk Sr. Then you talk about, I mean, we could just go on and on and on.

And here's the thing that's crazy. If you talk about the 107 HBCUs, if you have almost 10 openings, that's 10% of all HBCUs. That is not, I mean, that's a significant number of openings. And the problem is you talk about new administration, new start, paying off contracts. And so where that money could have been used again for the university, now you're having to pay off contracts of folks you got rid of. Yeah. And I experienced that when I was a freshman, my freshman year of college,

I was at Morehouse College and Massey had come in as a new president at the time. And so seeing the transitions, people want to bring in their people, all of the changes and resources. And the people who suffer the most because of these transitions are the students. You know, we have to sit here and watch it. Sometimes we see some of the infighting going on. And many of the issues that we've talked about throughout the tenure on the show, when it comes down to these HBCUs, is what Dr. Malvo hit on, is his relationships with the boards and the presidency and the presidents.

And to be quite honest, it's so sad to see what's happening right now because going back to what we were talking about with the indictment and everything, it was under the Trump presidency and things that are going on now with this critical race theory and all of this nonsense

that we started to see more Black families get more interested in sending their children to HBCUs. They thought it was going to be safer, wouldn't have to deal with some of the nonsense that they're seeing in their schools now and like. And so now with this aura of instability that's coming up with all of these vacancies and firings and people retiring,

starting Chick-fil-A's and all of that, I think it's also going to undermine the confidence that many Black parents will have in sending their children to HBCUs, even though there are HBCUs that have steady presidencies and the like. But when you're talking about this high a number that's probably only going to increase, Roland, the people who are getting screwed the most are the students who are just coming there ready to do their best and give their best. And they may not even get to experience the full force of everything their school has to offer because they're going through yet another transition. You come in as a freshman and by the end of your sophomore year, you're

dealing with a whole new leadership team of your school. It's very unfortunate. I don't think people really understand, Julian, we talk about continuity, why that is so important. When you have continuity of leadership, because what happens is new president comes in. Now there's a whole host of people who are now getting hired, getting moved in, getting moved out, new systems being put in place. They begin to bring in people below them. And so having to restart now, it's like it's like it's a whole new administration, no different than a new president in the White House and a whole new administration. Absolutely. I mean, it takes you a good year, if not a little longer, to really get your foot wet, to get, you know, get into the environment, to learn the culture, to know the culture.

And you do bring your own people in. And then if you leave in another year, two years, now you've got a provost that you brought in, other people you brought in. What happens to them? Because the next person that comes in is going to want to bring in their own people. The other thing that happens is that the cost of a search is not inconsequential. When they do a presidential search, they usually use a firm. The firm is usually paid some fraction, probably at least half of what the president is earning.

So you're talking six figures there. And then if you have candidates, you're flying them in and out. You're talking more money there. And so, you know, it's a financial burden. And it's also, you know, the stability, though, is the most important thing. In the first year, you can expect instability. Some people got to go. They just got to go. But if you then decide to leave year two or even year three, what happens to your people? They're going to have to go too. And Opal Congo was right. All of the things we talked about with HBCUs, HBCUs were put together, developed for students, for students to have a positive experience, for students to be lifted up, for students to have an alternative experience in this contemporary time. You don't want to go to Georgetown. You want to go to Howard or something like, you know, people want to be in a black environment. But if a black environment is unstable, it's not a good environment.

Well, again, this is something the folks here that is is cause for concern for a lot of folks out there. The number of HBCU presidencies that are now vacant due to the resignation. And again, the point we made earlier, it should be of concern the number of women who are being replaced short of their term. And I've talked to other female HBCU presidents over the years who've talked about there's a significant amount of misogyny and sexism, paternalism among individuals who are on the boards, who question female leaders in a lot different than they actually do male leaders. And so that is absolutely the case. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. Olympic athlete dies very young. A lot of people were saying, oh, my goodness, did she commit suicide? Now we know the truth about her death.

And again, is a perfect example of what black women are dealing with when they are having children we will explain next on roller button unfiltered right here on the black star network hit that like button folks if you're on youtube i see y'all commenting we should easily be at 1500 uh likes on youtube y'all it's real simple click like that's it it ain't hard it ain't hard click the button okay stop having me actually beg y'all to do so. Also, download our Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung, Smart TV. Also, join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do the stories that we do and to be able to do every single day folks we're the only black news and information show uh two hours a day only black news and information network that's right this

show for roger hummus daily show of course uh weekly shows from deborah owens jackie hood martin greg carr uh d barnes stephanie humphrey it's no like this but your dollars make it possible for us to continue doing what we do so, see your check and money orders. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, bookstores nationwide, order on Amazon, download on Audible. I'll be right back. That was a pivotal, pivotal time. I remember Kevin Hart telling me that. He's like, man, what you doing, man?

You got to stay on stage. And I was like, yeah, well, I'm like, you know, y'all think I'm there, I'm good. And he was absolutely right. What show did you have at that time? This was one-on-one. Got it. During that time. And I was- So you're doing one-on-one.

Going great. Yeah. You making money. You like- I'm like, I don't need to leave. I don't need to leave from, you know, Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday. You know, I just, I didn't wanna do that. You know, it was just like, I don't need to leave. I don't need to leave from Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday. I just didn't want to do that. It was just like, I'm going to stay here. Oh, I didn't want to finish work Friday, fly out,

go do a gig Saturday, Sunday. I was like, I don't have to do that. And I lost a little bit of that hunger that I had in New York. I would hit all the clubs and run around. Sometimes me and Chappelle or me and this one or that one, we'd go to the Comedy Cellar at one in the morning. And I mean, that was our life. We loved it.

You know, you do two shows in Manhattan, go to Brooklyn, leave Brooklyn, go to Queens, go to Jersey. And I kind of just, I got complacent. I was like, I got this money. I'm good. I don't need to go. I don't need to go chase that

because that money wasn't at the same level that I was like, I got this money, I'm good. I don't need to go, I don't need to go chase that because that money wasn't at the same level that I was making, but what I was missing was that training. Yes. Was that, was that. And it wasn't the money. It was the money, you know, it was that, that's what I needed. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down.

The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a badge of honor. Like you even hear black women like aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman at their own expense. Next on The Frequency right here on the Black Star Network. Hi, everybody. I'm Kim Coles. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Blackish and you're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content. Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better

dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. All right, folks. Welcome back to Roller Martin on the filter right here on the Black Star Network. When Olympic track athlete Tori Bowie, when she passed away, a lot of folks thought that, oh, I mean, she must have committed suicide because they did a wellness check on her. Well, the problem is that that wasn't the case.

Now we know exactly what happened based upon an autopsy report. She was found dead in her Florida home on May 2nd, just 32 years old. Well, according to the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office, she was eight months pregnant and was in active labor at the time of her death. Medical officials said possible complications included respiratory distress and eclampsia based upon the autopsy. She, of course, won three Olympic medals at the 2016 Rio Games as well. Dr. Julianne Burt joins us right now. Doc, this is, you know, a shocking story. Young woman, extremely fit woman. It also shows us, because remember, Serena Williams talked about what she experienced

in her childbirth as well. This is something that people have been ignoring in terms of the issues that black women are having in childbirth. Absolutely. And thank you for having me. Black women are still having issues in childbirth. That is an understatement. But we know that there are preventable, these are preventable deaths. We know that access to health care, access to health insurance so that one might get that health care, making certain that women are seeking care on a regular basis, that there's not a reason job won't let me go to my appointment or I'm running late for my appointment or whatever the myriad reasons can be that there is limited care. CDC says

the latest studies show that about 80% of these deaths are preventable. Wow. 80% of these deaths are preventable. Cent. Wow. 80. 80%. That's a lot. What is eclampsia? What is that?

Eclampsia. Eclampsia, okay. Eclampsia, right. So eclampsia is when a woman has seizures in childbirth or even after. And oftentimes this is happening after delivery, after a woman actually goes home. So, of course, hearing the breaking news, you know, I'm asking myself, you know, did we know that her blood pressure was elevated? There are some what we call atypical cases, but it's typically starts with elevated blood pressure. And so when those blood pressures go high,

a lot of things in the body start to break down. Your heart is affected, your kidneys are impacted, your blood vessels are impacted, and clearly neurologically you are impacted. And clearly, neurologically, you're impacted. And a thing that I guess we as a society or just human nature doesn't understand, that the placenta is also an organ. It's a temporary organ, but it is an organ. And it gets impacted. And so eclampsia is less than 5% of women will have this, especially those even with elevated blood pressure. So I don't want to scare women, but I also want to caution women. If you

are dealing with blood pressure issues, some women, Roland, come into the pregnancy with elevated blood pressure. And oftentimes women are developing it even during the pregnancy. So if it's caught, we can start to manage it. But eclampsia definitely is something that is always in the back of our minds as physicians and other health care professionals, nurses, definitely. And this is where people have, look, you have to be your best advocate. And if that means putting that pressure on them doctors, that's what you actually have to do. Serena dealt with that. And then you have these doctors that have this assumption, especially white doctors, that black women can endure this amazing amount of pain that's totally different than how they treat white women. This is a reality that we're seeing in the medical industry.

It is a reality, unfortunately. I've been in practice for 18 years years out of medical school for 22 now. And it unfortunately is a reality, as you said. It's, you know, blood pressure, even outside of pregnancy. Right. The studies show that black men and women are started on blood pressure medications, antihypertensives, less often than our counterparts. So the healthcare industry, if you will, is not taking it as seriously when there are Black and brown faces in front of them. And unfortunately, that is true. So when you mentioned being your best advocate is absolutely true.

I'm kind of glad that we're on the other side of COVID now, because, of course, there were times when there were offices that did not allow patients to bring in a second person. And that, to me, was detrimental because sometimes what that pregnant woman needs is someone else who's sitting there hearing, listening, asking questions that she may not be thinking of, such as, you know, my wife's been complaining of headaches recently. Instead of just blowing it off as it's the job, it's the kids, headaches can be a first sign of the blood pressure issue that can lead to, as we mentioned, eclampsia. Questions from my panel. I'll start with Julianne. Doc, first of all, I love you. You have my same name. So, yes. Hey, but what the eclampsia and the high blood pressure and all these things, a lot of women and diabetes, they contract these things during the pregnancy. They didn't have them before, but it comes during the pregnancy.

Are there preventive measures? What should they be doing? Should they be seeing doctors more often? How can they prevent, like, the onset of diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy? Or even before the onset? Great question. So, you know, I learned in medical school, and it still holds true, that right around 50% of women, when they do get pregnant, aren't planning to get pregnant. So it is an opportunity when you're going to see your physician or other health care provider that you maximize your health, you optimize your health. You don't walk around with a blood pressure of 140

over 90 and allow your doctor to say, oh, that's just right there around normal. No, it's not. The parameters changed years ago. So making certain that your blood pressure is under control, making certain that, like you said, your diabetes, no woman should be getting pregnant when her hemoglobin A1c, which is one of those values that we use, if it is greater than 7%, we should not start women getting, or allow, if you will, when a woman comes to me and says, doc, I want to conceive, I'm looking at all her numbers. You know, we talk about knowing your numbers in the month of February, right? But we need to know our numbers 365. You need to know are your blood pressure numbers in a good range, with or without medication. You need to know if your blood sugar is in a good range. If you have

a family history of diabetes, definitely go and get checked. But oftentimes we're not optimizing our health even prior. Weight loss, I am not advocating because it is, honestly, it's not realistic that every woman prior to pregnancy is going to have a BMI less than, you know, 25. It's just not realistic. But it makes a difference of a BMI, which is a ratio of height and weight. If your BMI is, you know, normal is less than 25, right? So there's ranges. When you start getting higher, 25 to 30, that's considered overweight. Over 30, and there's classifications as we go up, is obesity. The closer we can get to getting that down to normal prior to the pregnancy, prior, would be ideal.

Omicongo. Dr. Byrd, I want to know about your sense of optimism as it relates to the medical industry responding to this crisis. I see so many Black doctors, particularly Black women doctors, but many Black male doctors as well, speaking about this. I see Black celebrities like Serena and Oprah speaking on this. And Roland talked about the surveys that Black people feel, doctors feel and nurses feel, Black people feel can handle more pain. Has the medical industry been responding to this crisis in a way that you find satisfactory? Not satisfactory. Well, I will definitely start. No, it's not satisfactory, but it is starting. There are hospitals that have created boards, right? I'm a member, a proud

member of the National Medical Association. We are a group of, you know, there's a lot of buzz around it, right? We all remember Ms. Johnson, Judge Glenda Hatchett's daughter-in-law that passed away, I think it's been at least five years now, passed away, a celebrity family that was impacted by bias in the medical field. So it is out there. But that unfortunate loss of life has really elevated. Her husband has continued that fight, and that has elevated the voice. There's a lot of boards and councils and meetings. There are a lot of criteria that, you know, doctors, there are doctors who are practicing that graduated from medical school in 1980.

There's a lot that we've learned since then. So we've got to make sure that they are up to speed. We've got to make sure our younger physicians are up to speed. We've got to make sure our younger physicians are up to speed. We've got to do as best we can to get everyone on the same page. And that right there is extremely important. So, no, we're not satisfied because this life was lost. There was a baby, you know, a potential life that also was lost with this tragedy. So I know we're working towards it, but I will say, and I think Roland already kind of hinted to it earlier, we know, we keep saying that Black and Brown people, I'm not saying, there are a lot of advocates out there, but black and brown people need to feel heard and be heard.

And oftentimes it that happens when someone looks like them. And I'm not telling you to pick up and, you know, transfer care. I'm saying make certain your questions are answered. Make sure that you bring someone. At this point, everyone's door should be open to allow a loved one in that room. make sure that your questions are answered. Make sure that you bring someone, at this point everyone's door should be open, to allow a loved one in that room. And if they're not allowed or can't

because of the, you know, logistically, they're at work, they can't, see if your doctor is okay with your loved one being on a video chat in the room and asking those important questions. Renita? Well, thank you, Doctor, for your work. As a lawmaker, I focus a significant portion of my work on working against maternal mortality.

And I wanted to ask you to talk to the viewers a little bit about why they should be so vigilant after somebody has given birth. Because far too often I found that people really were only concerned while people were pregnant and then they felt like if they gave birth in the hospital and they came home all of the risk was over not realizing that this is the period after it's after birth that you really have to be super super vigilant so just talk to the viewers about that if you could absolutely thank you for that. So what we know and what has been a great response legislatively, right, is the fact that more and more states are expanding Medicaid for women. It used to be that at two months, boom, women were getting cut off of any access. And now we are having, I think the latest numbers show

about 34 states have expanded Medicaid up to a year because those numbers that we're talking about, the fact that black women are three times more likely to have death or near death, even near death is very impactful on a woman's body and life and future. We know that that three times more likely to happen happens often two weeks out up to a year out.

And before those numbers weren't really being captured and they're still not great at being captured, but that is extremely important. So when you're checking up on your loved one, these are things that I want you to ask her. Of course, is she eating? How's the breast milk? Those kinds of things. But look at her legs. Look to see if you notice any swelling in her legs. Does she look even more swollen than when she was pregnant and everyone was teasing her about how she was gaining so much weight? Look at her legs. Ask her questions.

How's your blood pressure? Check on her mental health. Because the thing we didn't mention, there are a lot of physiologic reasons why women, especially black women, are at increased risk of death or near death. But what about their mental health, right? So when you're checking on that loved one, make sure that you are looking them up and down, making sure, are they going to a doctor who has some means of checking on them prior to the six-week checkup. The six-week checkup was what I learned in medical school is how to strengthen residency. But now it is important not just for the woman who had known medical history, but all patients, whether it's a physical visit, I know there are programs out there where

they're sending people to those homes. But look at video chat. I can literally ask the woman, you know, to show me her legs and ask about headaches and blurry vision. Has she been seeing spots in the front of her eyes recently has she been having a pain? Women who start complaining oh, I just got a lot of gas pain Asked more questions So definitely being vigilant after is just as important as in the hospital and before all right, Dr. Julianne birth We appreciate it. Thanks a lot Thank you. All right Reese. First of all a Renita of Congo, as well as Julianne,

thanks for being on today's panel. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank all of you for tuning in. If you haven't on YouTube, hit the Like button. Do so right now. Also, folks, don't forget, if you are watching, download our Blackstar Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone,

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Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandRMFiltered.com. And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, The Browning of America. unfiltered, Zale Rowland at RowlandSMartin.com, Rowland at RowlandRowlandFiltered.com. And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, The Browning of America, to make white folks lose their minds. Available at bookstores nationwide. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Target. Download your copy on Audible. Don't forget, folks, this Saturday we're going to be in Houston for our Juneteenth event.

That is Juneteenth 2023 and the future of black economic freedom. Got a great panel lined up of black entrepreneurs. Also, we'll be talking to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Conqueror Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas State Senator Boris Miles, and we got a great announcement you do not want to miss. We will be live streaming on the Black Star Network to RSVP.

First of all, we got about 500 seats. We just want to make sure to get a head count. Send an email to info at RolandSMartin.com info at RolandSMartin.com Thanks for McDonald's for partnering with us on this event. Tomorrow, folks, I'm going to be a guest host,

but I'm still going to be here. I'm going to be two blocks away. White House is having their first Juneteenth concert, but it's also Black music month uh and so i'm gonna be there it starts at seven o'clock so i'm gonna be doing some live live hits from the white house while i'm there i can't be in two places at one time got to be there for security reasons uh and so uh so look forward to that tomorrow so we will be there so cannot wait uh to uh show y'all who's gonna to be there. Let us see Method Man.

You've got Tennessee State Band. It's a whole bunch of folks who are performing for this Juneteenth concert in conjunction with Black Music Month. So cannot wait to be there and show y'all exactly what's happening there. Not sure if they're going to be live streaming the whole deal, but guess what? I'll be there sharing it with you as well. So looking forward to that. All right, folks, that's it. I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, right here on the Black Star Network. Ho!

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there

and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.