#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Judge halts GA voter purge; Chicago cops raid innocent woman's home; Is there a rift in BLM movement

Episode Date: December 17, 2020

12.16.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Judge halts Georgia voter purge after inaccuracies were found; Atlanta political leaders continue to campaign for Ossoff/Warnock; Attorneys are demanding the release of body cam footage in the murder case of Joshua Feast; #AhmaudArbery body cam video released; First Black woman confirmed to serve as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Chicago cops raid innocent woman's home; Rift develops among Black Lives Matter leaders; Louisville protest leader has been murdered; a Former police captain in Houston arrested for a scheme to prove voter fraud; + Meet the creator of new software that connects the Black community. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, December 16, 2020. I'm Roland Marcon, and this broadcast is live from the offices of Georgia Stand Up here in Atlanta, Georgia. Coming up on today's show, we'll talk about what is happening in this state when it comes to early voting. Today is the third day of early voting. It all began on Monday and groups like Georgia stand up.

They are encouraging people going around canvassing across the city of the state, trying to get as many people to vote as possible in the January 5th runoff with John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock versus Republicans Kelly Leffler and David Perdue. Also on today's show we talk

about body cam footage. First and foremost, lawyers in the case of a black man shot and killed in Lamarck, Texas, they want that body cam footage released in that particular shooting. Chicago is dealing with body camera footage that was shot last year of cops busting into the wrong place of a naked black woman. And why did the Chicago mayor, a black woman herself, try to keep that video from being publicized by the local media? And there's also body camera footage showing one of the killers of,

one of the men involved in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, talking to police after that particular incident. We'll be talking about all three of those cases. Also in Georgia, a federal judge has found that there's been a problem with voters who were purged. He is ordering the Secretary of State to sit down with civil rights groups. We'll talk about that story as well. And what's going on with this rift involving Black Lives Matter?

Money, power, control is at the root of the problem. And also, in our Black Tech segment, you will meet the creator of a new software that connects the African-American community, folks. And in Houston, a police captain arrested by driving a person off the road and pointing a gun at them, supposedly over voter suppression. Folks, it makes no sense whatsoever. All right, lots to deal with right here

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Folks, we are here in Georgia. The offices of Georgia Stand Up. Of course, one of the groups who is encouraging folks to get out and vote. They've been canvassing all across this state trying to, again, increase the turnout in the January 5th, November runoff. We'll talk in a minute with the leader of this organization about their efforts and what they're doing, what they're seeing and hearing on the ground. But a huge story, a huge story that has developed, and that is it deals with a federal judge found that inaccuracies in Georgia's voter purge, and has ordered a meeting between civil rights leaders and organizers, first of all, civil rights organizers, and the Secretary of State's office to deal with exactly what happened. And again, remember, we covered this story.

The folks with Black Voters Matter, ACLU, they sued the state saying that some 300 people, 1,000 people were wrongly purged. Well, according to ACLU, 198,000 people were erroneously purged out of that 300,000. Now this federal judge is saying there are indeed inaccuracies and want these two groups to meet. Republicans have been doing all they can to sow seeds of discontent when it comes to voting, alleging voter fraud, but they can't provide any evidence of that. In fact, Senator David Perdue, what he is trying to do, he literally wants them to segregate, listen to me, he wants them to segregate the votes of people who registered after the November 3rd election.

He's saying that if you did not vote in the November 3rd election, you should not be able to register and vote in the runoff. But the law allows for you to do so. And so lots of drama here in Georgia when it comes to that. Why is all of this important? It is because new polling out shows Pastor Raphael Warnock with a seven-point lead against Senator Kelly Loeffler. And in the other race, Democrat John Ossoff with a two-point lead against Senator David Perdue. Republicans are scared to death they are going to lose these two races. And what does that mean? That means it will be a 50-50 tie of Democrats in the United States Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris will be the one to break a tie if it comes down to that. Let's talk

about this here with our panel, Robert Portillo, Executive Director, the Rainbow Push Coalition Peachtree Street Project. And he's one of the, they're one of the plaintiffs in this case. And then of course, we'll talk in a minute with our panel. Robert, I want to start with you. So lay out to our viewers and listeners exactly what is going on with this lawsuit. What did the federal judge discover

when y'all presented the evidence and the information to the federal court? Well, I think it's important to first give credit to C.K. Hoffler, president of the National Bar Association, Gerald Griggs, a justice fighter who are spearheading this litigation as the legal representation. And it's still active litigation, but the order that came down from the judge today, if you go to the last page to the conclusion, he states that there are irregularities in the Georgia voter purge. ACLU discovered 198,000 voters were questionably purged from the rolls. And the judge has found that there are inaccuracies in the way that that was determined because the state used a third-party vendor. I'm only talking, no.

Yeah. And the state used a third-party vendor to determine the individuals who would be purged. And further, the judge encouraged that these sides meet. Now, the Black Voters Matter is headed up by LaTosha Brown. Many other organizations have continuously been asking for meetings with the secretary of state. Now the federal judge is putting his finger on the scale, demanding that such happens. Now, the judge did deny the injunctive relief, which we had requested. That was going to be a hard pull from the beginning. However,

simply by the judge stating that there is evidence of irregularities in the way that this purge took place, it does encourage us that we will be able to get some action on this. And frankly, we've already, this judge has articulated more evidence than any of the president's lawsuits with regards to voter fraud already. So this is active litigation that we believe could help re-enfranchise hundreds of thousands of Georgians. So Robert, you talked about this third party. We previously had Greg Palast on the show. What he said is that the vendor they use, they were not approved by the U.S. Postal Service, correct? Correct. And so that's an important point to make.

Go ahead. I'm sorry. Explain that. Yeah. Well, the importance is that the reason you're supposed to use a vendor that is approved by the United States Postal Service is that this is a governmental entity. You can't simply say that I'm going to get a list off of Amazon. I'm going to get a list from Google, and that's what I'm going to use to purge people. You have to prove that these people have moved outside of the state, that they have died or something along those lines to justify the purge. So the Secretary of State's office cut corners in doing so. That's why our argument is that we should be restoring these people to the voter rolls. And as I said, this is being spearheaded by C.K. Hoffler and Gerald Griggs. And as to

litigation, we do believe that it's very encouraging that the judge found that there are irregularities, meaning that people, they mean they could be that people were incorrectly purged from the rolls. And if the Secretary of State's office does not agree after a federal judge has said they need to meet with civil rights groups and voting rights groups, then that's clear evidence that they are purposefully suppressing the vote, not simply accidentally or doing some administrative process. And if you look at the number of states that have done voter purges around the country, we believe this could be a model for how they can fight back against voter suppression. I want to bring in now Scott Bolden, of course, formerly chair of the National Bar Association

Political Action Committee. Scott, this is why lawyers matter. And when Robert talked about providing relief to disenfranchised voters, the initial purge was 300,000. When the ACLU went back, they said 198,000 were wrongly purged. If you look at this election, let's just say, again, and most of the people are people of color, black folks are people of color. If you actually did a 70-30 split of that 198,000, the reality is this here. That could have been the difference between Ossoff winning the Senate seat outright, and there were too many people who were in the Warnock race. There were two Republicans who were running as well.

But that's what people don't understand. Joe Biden only wins Georgia by less than 12,000 votes. You talk about impacting that know, impacting that many, that number of people. That's how you can win or lose. Stacey Abrams lost the gubernatorial race in Georgia because of the shenanigans of Brian Kemp. This is how Republicans are able to sort of just, in essence, steal elections by picking off 5 or 10,000 $10,000 here, $5,000 or $10,000 here. And that's really what their goal is. You're absolutely right about that.

But this is why the Democrats and these civil rights organizations must do what they're doing now because the numbers are so close. If they were off by $100,000 or half a million losing these elections, that'd be one thing. But because the demographics have changed, that every lawsuit and every vote matters as we turn the purple Georgia or red Georgia into the blue Georgia. I got to tell you, during the next four years, the champions, when we look back on the COVID years and the Trumpism or Trump years, the champions in the line that held for democracy was the judiciary, the third branch of government. In this particular case, the lawyers had the evidence. It presented to the court. And I guess my question for Robert is,

it sounds like, I'm not involved in it, but it sounds like the court has indicated, or what you can extrapolate, is you all go work it out. You better figure out a number and resolve this, or I'm going to resolve it. And if I resolve it, you're not going to like the result, whether it's to either party, if you will. Was that the case, as you know it? Well, understand, remember that this is from a nonpartisan perspective. The entire concept is restoring as many people to vote. We're not going through saying only restore the Democrats, only restore the Republicans, but we want to have a free and fair election.

What the judge did indicate, however, is that he— You still have parties to the litigation. Exactly. You still have parties to the litigation. Correct. The judge has indicated that he does want the parties to meet and to work out a resolution. He denied the injunctive relief, but on the merits, he did not. What we saw, the Rudy Giuliani litigation before the Supreme Court, where we got a one-paragraph-back decision throwing the case out.

This is a 39-page decision for a case that we argued last week. So it's a very well-read, very well-written decision from the judge. And on the denying the injunction of relief, he cited technical issues, things such as latches, making sure that we have all the parties involved. But on the question of the irregularities, which people have to key in on, when a federal judge says that there are irregularities in the process for determining the individuals who were purged from the ballot that he wants the parties to meet, that means the parties need to meet or he will make a decision when it goes to full court.

So it might not be injunctive relief, which we're seeking to get done before the runoff election. But going forward into 2022, going into 2024, it's going to be very interesting to see how Georgia adapts to having a fully enfranchised electorate. Yeah, well, let me ask you this real quick, if I may, Roland. So what happens after both sides meet? Do you prepare an order of settlement? Does the case get dismissed? Or is there going to be more proceedings before this judge if there's no result of these meetings

that he's ordered between the civil rights groups and the government? We're early on in the litigation, so there's questions for C.K. Hoffler and for Gerald Griggs. But I think it's very encouraging that we do have a federal judge recognizing that there are irregularities in the process for purging voters. I think that's the major takeaway. And we will look forward to having the meeting with the election officials and ensuring that we have a free and fair election. And if they deny such a meeting, if they do not follow what the federal judge says, I

think that will be taken into consideration as to whatever the final outcome of the litigation is. Yeah, Roland, I think there's going to be pressure on both sides to reach a number, reach some type of resolution, just based on what I'm extrapolating. I haven't seen the papers yet, but there'll be pressure on both sides. And that's a good thing. If I'm if I'm the government that did the purge, you know, I'm the third party council vendor who did the did the purging. I'd be more concerned than the civil rights organizations, which means there's pressure on them to resolve this issue. Well, look, at the end of the day, this is a very, very significant decision here because,

again, it comes down to as many numbers as possible. People are expecting this to be a very, very tight election. So that's the thing that we're looking at out here. And that's why so many people are focused on this. We feel a focus on this. And then that's what that's exactly what we're looking at here. And so, folks, we're going to be continuing to cover this again. What is happening here? Let me just sort of set this thing off, folks. Already, already, we're in the third day, the third day of early voting. Seven hundred thousand Georgians have already voted.

Now, remember, folks are voting in person. You also have absentee ballot, absente boxes also around the state. And the thing, Robert, that's been quite hilarious is to listen to folks like Newt Gingrich, who is saying the Republican secretary of state, you know, he's killing Republicans. He wants us to lose by having all these different drop boxes. And I asked Warnock and Ossoff yesterday and Monday, and it's real simple. The Secretary of State of Georgia works for Georgians, not the Republican Party. And look, if you want to win elections, make the case, the merits of your argument. But don't sit here and get mad because the Secretary of State wants to make it easier

for people to vote. You know, it's interesting. There are very divergent interests at stake. You have one political party where their interest is in restricting the franchise, having as few people vote as possible. You had the Speaker of the House Ralston here in Georgia. You had Ted Cruz, Senator. You had President Trump all say that if you allow everybody to vote,

Republicans will never win another election, and that is how they govern. This is why you never see a Republican get out the vote campaign. You very rarely see them out there saying that they're going to register new voters. It's always about depressing and suppressing and finding a way to have as few people vote as possible. What we're seeing now is that eventually demographics can outrun this oppression. That's what you're seeing in Georgia. State is 35 percent African-American, 12 percent Latino, 6 percent Asian, 52 percent women. Eventually, you outrun the efforts at suppression. And so when you keep that going, when you work on bringing in more people or attracting

more people, all you have to do is look at the contrast between the Loeffler and Warnock campaign. Warnock talks about poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, bringing back a moral authority to the nation. Loeffler runs commercials on being Attila the Hun, continuously degrading and talking down to the black church, trying to radicalize, trying to separate, saying that this is the most radical socialist senator ever. That's not meant to bring people in or encourage them to vote. So what we're seeing now, and this is why you have to be very cognizant of what's happening, Barbara Arnwine and Daryl Jones from Transformable Justice are doing great work here in the state. They're statewide John Lewis Good Trouble marches and making sort of people are paying attention to efforts in Cobb County to cut the number of drop boxes that are available. Suggestions in the state legislature to say that you can only drop off

your ballot if there's a video camera doing a live stream of the box to ensure that it's not being tampered with. That was a real suggestion that came up this week, trying to make it more difficult for individuals to vote in person, getting rid of Saturday voting. They're doing everything possible to restrict the number of people who can vote. And the reason is, as Lindsey Graham said, they're not making enough old white men to keep the Republican Party relevant. So instead of trying to win the battle of ideals, they try to restrict the votes and play the referees. And we saw this happen in apartheid South Africa. We saw this happen in Kosovo. We've seen that happen whenever you have a ruling majority that has lost the demographic battle and has now lost the ideological battle also. But, you know, Roland, Scott, to the point, Scott, to the point that Robert is making, I mean, again, what you are seeing, what you are witnessing is a party that does not want as many people to vote.

And look, we've seen this in other states. They are going to do everything they can to basically skim the rolls. It's going to happen. Look, they're already talking about in Georgia changing the law. In fact, they even floated the idea of changing the law after the November 30 election to impact the January 5th runoff. Secretary of State says that's stupid because if y'all do that, it's going to be court challenges. It's going to be wasting time and we're not going to be able to even put those those rules, if you will, in place for the election. But again, Republicans, this is what they want to do. They are going to try everything to disenfranchise voters,

and this is why it's called voter suppression. Well, but look at the character of the GOP. You see, they're not even smart about it. These are acts of desperation, if you will, that the party would rather not change, right, and be all-inclusive. It would rather cheat, lie, steal, suppress, and repress in order to win the elections and to hold on. But as Robert said, they're going to outrun this suppression, if you will. And I got to tell you, the biggest difference in Georgia, and Robert, you tell me if I'm wrong, is the transformation of the suburbs. When I was at Morehouse College in the early 80s, once you left Atlanta, the suburbs were all white, all Republican. It had nothing to do.

It looked like a different world when you left Atlanta. Now, 2021, those suburbs have a lot of women, a lot of educated women. They have a lot of black people, brown people, Asian people, and they're voting Democratic because this America, what GOP represents, and their messaging just doesn't resonate with them. And I got to tell you, as time goes on, Georgia may be purple. They may have flipped

at once, if you will, but I anticipate if the demographics continue to change, then they're going to turn that state blue. And then that is going to be a clarion call or a dog whistle to the GOP that they got to make some changes. They got to make a decision. Are they going to live in Trumpism for the next five to 10 years? Or are they going to change and look more like America? Think about what their message is. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, I've been interrupting you for 20 seconds. Hold on. Let me go back to a point that you made. Look, this whole idea about how the suburbs in Georgia have changed, that's because black people have moved. Two, as Warnock

said, Robert, as Warnock said, yes, okay, as Warnock said, Robert, in the last, they registered 800,000 people in the state. And so the reason the state has changed, the reason the state has changed is not because, oh, they're rejecting Republican policies. It's because for the last decade, you had nonpartisan groups put the work in to register people to get them so they can vote. That's why the state has changed.

It's not the policies. It's they put the work in because the parties were not going to do it. That's how Georgia has changed. That's how North Carolina changed, Robert. Also, you have to remember, Republicans, if you look at the Republican platform from 2020 where they did not have a platform, and the Republican platform from, I don't know, Goldwater or Nixon is basically the same thing. Tax cuts, strong military, theoretically socially conservative. They've had the exact same platform since Reagan, since Nixon. They aren't coming up with new innovative ideas that

are going to attract young and diverse people. So in addition to what Scott was saying about the growth of the suburbs, we have to also look at the second great migration that we're going through right now. How many people in Atlanta are from New York, Chicago, Detroit, so on and so forth, who have moved to the south for lower taxes, better weather, part of the film industry, so on and so forth. So we've changed the complexion of the state. And by changing that complexion of the state, you change those municipalities around the municipal areas like Atlanta suburbs, Macon suburbs, Richmond County suburbs, Columbus suburbs, so on and so forth. And you create a new political coalition and demographics. I was up in Whitmer County, Georgia this weekend trying to help register voters and get out information on the Get Out the Vote campaigns. Whitmer County is about 30 minutes from Chattanooga, 90 minutes from Georgia, and it used to be basically a Confederate stronghold.

If you went there in the 80s or 90s, you would not know you weren't in the 1880s or 1890s. And even there, you're seeing large Latino and African-American populations. If you go to Calhoun, Georgia, or Cartersville, you're seeing a very different Georgia than existed previously. And when Republicans are still campaigning as if they have Reagan and Bush on the ticket, that's not attractive to this new generation. So either they're going to have to modernize their ideas or they're going to fall behind and continue to have to depend on voter suppression and other methods of rigging the game in order to have an opportunity not just to win, but just to compete. Republicans only won the popular vote in presidential elections one time in the last 30 years. They won in 2004. Other than that,

they have lost every single popular vote since Bush in 1988. So they're not going to get better ideas, and they're not going to, as Lindsey Graham said, produce more old white men. They have to prepare to start losing more often. But it still does not mean you don't take your foot off the gas proposing progressive policies, fighting to have free and fair elections, and ensuring that you can register as many people as possible, because the more people who vote, the more reflective our government is of the will of the American people. Right. That's right. And those black and brown voters... So when I say that, one second, one second. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, hold on. Folks, when I said that there are groups that have been on the ground,

folks who have been going door to door, canvassing, not just during the election, but literally 365, 24-7, that's how this state changed. We're here in the offices of Georgia Stand Up. Deborah Scott, she leads the organization. She joins us right now. Deborah, how you doing? I'm good, Roland. How you doing?

Doing great. So for the folks who aren't aware, because, again, when you watch a lot of these national media shows, people, they think that the suburbs in Atlanta all white and then and not understanding the work that was put in the hard slog of folk put every day to register people. Talk about that and what is what we've done. Well so first of all thank you you're right on the suburbs have changed because black people's living patterns have changed. We have destroyed all of public housing in the city of Atlanta so people have no choice but to move out into the suburbs because that's who would accept the vouchers. So the demographics have changed, the suburbs are more middle-class in some

areas and black definitely. So we have a mix of older, younger, and affluent and working class people in the suburbs. So the voting patterns have changed in some of these counties. We have the first ever black elected officials over these next, these last couple of elections. So yes, organizations like the People's Agenda, Georgia Stand Up, HBCU Green, Black Women's Roundtable, Black Voters Matter. We have been doing the work for years, registering people all over the South, all over Georgia, to make sure that these numbers do change. So it's been a slow and steady slog, but we have done the work. Anthony, we can double check, make sure her mic is on. Are we straight with her audio? So I just want to make sure that mic is on uh are we straight with her audio um we're so i just want

to make sure that we're we're hearing you clearly um and uh we talk about all those different groups uh we've been communicating with folks uh and and the third party groups have been vital what what historically happens what historically happens uh in these elections is people have said, okay, the candidate, candidate, candidate, party, party, party. So then what happens, the election time rolls around, then there's always a fight. There's always a fight over money, over resources. You have your ad buyers, they want to sit here and put all the money on air. They want to put it on television and radio.

Then you have the field people who say, no, you've got to put the money money on air. They want to put it on television and radio. Then you have the field people who say, no, you've got to put the money in the field. You've got to pay up people canvassing. You've got to have people going door to door. You've got to have them touching people. From your perspective, describe what that has been like. Has it been the personal interaction,

people seeing folk again and again and again and they say you know what i'm tired of y'all coming by damn it just give me the form so i can go ahead and get registered um has that been the formula for success in this state the just just the hard slog on the ground so it's the hard slog on the ground but i have to say roland it's that those black women i mean black women leaders in all across the hard slog on the ground, but I have to say, Roland, it's those black women. I mean, black women leaders in all across the state have done the work for a long, long time. And so what they're seeing is they're listening to trusted organizations that are on the ground, that they know, that they care about, that know that they care about them. The same organizations

that asked them if they were all right over COVID-19 or ask about affordable housing issues. So they trust these organizations. So what we hear is they're not so much interested in the balance of power on the national level or understand the significance of that more than they understand those kitchen table issues. What's happening around affordable health care? What's happening around COVID-19 testing? What's happening around access to jobs and opportunities for their families. So what they're seeing is if this election is going to be about me, then we need to center those issues about them. So we're getting better responses by talking directly to black women to black women. So whether it's our phones or whether it's door to door, we have canvas crews all over the state and they're getting great responses at the

door because people are sick of the mail and they're sick of the negative ads. They want that one-on-one conversation. They want those events that they can come and feel like they're in the midst of a real campaign. Yesterday, the last two days, we've been out at polling sites and doing parties at the polls. And I tell you, those seniors are out there just laughing and dancing and saying this is the best voter experience that they ever had, because we want to make sure it's a family atmosphere, a party atmosphere, that every time that the poll is open, that they should get out and vote and celebrate voting. And, you know, we know we deal with a lot of voter suppression here,

but what we try to tell people is vote early so that if there's a problem, we can help you to make sure that vote counts. That was one of the things that Raphael Warnock said yesterday. He said, we want to bank as many votes as we can before January 5th. He said that that's really important. You talked about the work that black women are doing.

What has been the difficulty with black men? Well, you know, black men, y'all aren't easy. You're never easy, right? Y'all aren't easy either. So let's be real clear. Well, it's worth it. We're worth it. Oh, there we go.

There we go. So y'all worth it. Y'all difficult, but worth it. We love the black men. We difficult, but. We wouldn't be here without a black man. But you know who gets it done, right? You know them black women be getting it done. I hear that.

But they have brothers around the country who get it done as well. What I'm trying to understand is what specifically are you hearing? What is the difficulty? Because you have to connect with them as well. So some of the difficulty has been we have been in this summer of uprising, particularly here in Atlanta, and so black men are upset, right? They're upset because of what's happening in terms of this police situation and over-policing of their communities. The recreation centers have been closed. There are a lack of jobs. There's nothing for them to do. So then we're

asking them to vote without giving them something. And so, you know, fair exchange is no robbery. In the case of black women, women are saying, this is what we've done. This is our agenda. We have the receipts and we want our agenda to reflect our receipts. I think with black men, they want that instant, like, look, you're killing us and now you want us to vote. And so that conversation, other people have made that conversation harder for us to have because of what's happening in this community, in these communities. But is it also, is it also, this is something that we've talked about on this show many times, is it also that you do not have strong black male coalition that are out there doing

the work as opposed to relying on black women doing the work now and I get I'm not saying they don't exist and see right now you don't see y'all you know she got a mask on she starts smiling she doesn't want to get in trouble with any of her people. But the point I'm making, I'm using the example. Look, for the last several months, a group of black women, more than 1,000, they've been on a phone call every Sunday night. Oh, I'm on them Sunday calls. There you go. There you go.

And I have said, and I've had black women say, why aren't brothers doing this? The reality is you can't complain about what isn't being done if you do not self-organize. So is that part of the deal that you have not seen wide-scale self-organization among black men to reach black women, excuse me, to reach black men? Well, maybe they're doing it, and because I'm a black woman, I'm not in the room, so I don't know. No, it ain't happening.

So first of all, hold on, that's a nice try, Debra. But first of all, Georgia Stand Up ain't no black women's group, okay? Y'all got brothers involved as well. We sure do. So if these brothers were doing this thing, you would have heard about it. Well, we know that there's Black Men initiatives that are doing a fabulous job. We're partners with them. A lot of the Divine Nine organizations, we're partners

with them. 100 Black Men, Tommy Dortch, they're doing stuff on the ground. I think it may not be as organized in terms of a coalition like the black women have been doing, but they're certainly doing their work. And that's precisely my point. That's precisely my point because that's what I've said on our show,

is that you have groups out there. I keep arguing that unless you have the coalition, unless you have people who are coming together saying, all right, what are y'all doing? Got it. Y'all got this part area of the state covered. We don't need to do that, so we're going to go here. What are y'all doing?

Who's doing ads? Who's doing social media are y'all doing? Who's doing ads? Who's doing social media? Who's doing churches? Who's doing this? You at the end of the day, you gotta know who's doing what. Otherwise it's a bunch of folk just out there. And then you're unable to actually track your progress to say what inroads are we actually making? Exactly. But you're, well, so what you're looking at, we're right in one of our war rooms, right? We map everything we're going, every place we're going, every place we've been. All these maps along the wall says every territory that our canvassers have gone to. All right.

So take us, like, for instance, right here. So you've got City of Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Unit boundaries. Right. Okay. So you've got this map here and then you have this map here so just so explain to the folks so we got the wide shot with the camera shot here explain to folks exactly what y'all are doing so if you look at this where s is that is a cluster of 12 neighborhoods so our canvassers are actually going out to those 12 neighborhoods we hit block hit block by block, door by door. We have a minivan system where we can pull up all the black registered voters, all the registered voters, but we care

we black around here. So we care about where we are. So we can pull up every single day where black voters are in real time. When we send out our canvassers, they're able to see exactly which doors they should hit and which literature. Now, one door might represent five people in that household or five voters. Now, when you say pull it up,

what people don't realize is you have the data of who voted, who didn't. That is, I mean, because look, elections are based upon precinct. You can sit here and go, there are 987 people registered in this precinct, last election, 230 voted. Exactly.

Who are the other 700 plus? This is who they are. We can target them. Exactly. And that's what we're doing. We're doing granular targeting to the door. And we're talking to people. So we're overlaying our walks with our talks.

So we have 75 people on the phones calling that same area that we're walking. And then we flip it up to the next area. And so we're overlaying with the walks, with the talks, with the events, with the robocalls, and then the overlaying of a general message of black women, black men, this power is yours and you have to use it. Do you also have this broken down based upon demographic? That is, you have your young folks targeting your younger voters as well, so they have peers talking to them? Absolutely.

So we have Black Youth Vote, and our coordinator is Ariel Singleton, and they're working with black youth all across the state. But what they're trying to do is to focus on that 18 to 24-year-olds, and then you even go up even more to 30 now. We have them organizing campaign. Because that key group that, frankly, does not vote in big numbers, 18 to 29. But that key group in this last presidential election

voted overwhelmingly for progressives, so that's a bank that you can count on if you speak to them about their issues. So one of the things that we're doing is a virtual concert. Actually, we're airing it on your show on Friday. They came up with their own campaign. We have an LGBTQ campaign. We have a campaign for 17-and-a-half-year-olds that just became eligible to vote for this election.

So in every segment, we have that population working on a campaign that will reach them. So black women, black men, youth, LGBTQ, and then the general community. What is your target area? Is it just Metro Atlanta? Is it other parts of the state? Or are there other organizations who are doing exactly what we're talking about here in rural parts of Georgia? So we have the People's Agenda, Georgia Coalition of the People's Agenda, that have seven offices throughout the state, and they're working a lot on voter protection. What we're doing is we're focusing on the Atlanta metro area where 60% of the population is, and we have key canvassers in. 60% of the state's population. Of the state's population. Got it. Right. And so we want to make sure that we hit these urban corridors. We're also hitting Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah,

which are other core metropolitan areas across the state. And we're hitting them with canvassers and phones. And so we have to go where our strength is. We know our strength at the base of it for us is black women. Then we go to black households. That's our target. And then of course the young folks. So let me, so, uh, I had, uh, uh, some, uh, idiot on my YouTube channel, uh, said, Roland said these voter registration efforts were neutral. Your guests just said they are hyper-targeted towards black progressives. First of all, Steve, let me explain something to you, Steve. A 501c3 cannot endorse a candidate.

They can endorse issues. Yes. Let me say it again, Steve. A 501c3, you can be a nonpartisan group, but you can have issues that you believe in. You simply don't endorse a candidate. So, Steve, if Republicans want to reach these voters, they had better focus on their issues as opposed to just throwing out God, gays and guns, as Howard Dean said in 2004. Sometimes you got to check, folks, who don't quite understand. So you're quite right about the issues.

We're voting those kitchen table issues, and those kitchen table issues affect us every single day, and that's what people are concerned about. So my suggestion to any candidate for whatever party is, if you can't deal with Ms. Johnson and Ms. Jackson's kitchen table issues about jobs, affordable housing, health care, and the care of her family, transit, all of those issues, then you're not going to reach them. I'm cracking up laughing because I got another idiot, Tommy Murray. These people are so damn racist. So some white people

got together to talk about things like this that would be acceptable. No, it'd be called racist. And he says, you call us Nazis, we don't forget. First of all, this is what white folks do. This is what white conservative evangelicals do. White conservative evangelicals are doing the exact same thing, and they're talking to white people about their issues. Yeah. Everybody talks to their base, right?

And so, of course, we're not for a particular candidate, but we are for policies and issues and power for black people. All people matter, of course, as we say. But we're at Georgia Stand Up. Our focus has been on the base of our organization, which are black voters. So when we look at we've had three days of early voting. A lot of people, they saw the big number that took place on Monday. Fair Fight said 41% of those folks who voted on Monday were African American.

That's a huge number. That is a huge number. How is it tracking so far in terms of, I mean, I saw one, the combination between in-person voting as well as absentee is over 700,000. Yes, and I haven't seen today's numbers. However, we have people that have requested an absentee ballot that have not turned it in. And so if it's sitting on your kitchen table, we need you to mail that in or take it directly to a precinct and make sure it's inside and you get that vote counted. We don't want people to assume that they filled it out and they left it on kitchen table and they forgot about it and assumed that their vote was cast. It's not cast until you actually turn it back in. Just requesting the ballot does not mean you cast your vote. We need everybody who has an absentee ballot to turn it

back in or to vote in person during one of these 12, 14 days of early voting. We were in Albany over the weekend. We were in Macon. We were in Columbus. And one of the things that they said is that, I think it was in Albany. I think I already want to talk to them. Albany. Well, interesting because some folks said Albany.

Others said Albany. Well, if it's from Albany, it's Albany. See, that's what I'm saying. So I'm like, no, make up your damn mind. Okay, either it's called this or it's not called this. I was sitting there and I'm like, y'all, which one is it? Y'all keep saying Albany, because if you said Albany, no, that's Albany, New York. We're Albany,

Georgia. I'm like, look, it's spelled A-L-B-A-N-Y. Where are you from? I'm from Houston. So, you know, they say Houston or Houston, right? No, who the hell say Houston? They do here in Atlanta. It was Houston Street. Right, that's Houston Street. No, I'm from Houston, Texas.

So we know what we call ourselves. Okay, so you can't... We don't say a separate name if you from there. And if you not from there, you call it something else. Well, what do you say about Atlanta? Who's Atlanta? You say what? It's Atlanta.

Atlanta. Atlanta, right? Other people say Atlanta. Okay, whatever. Please, I don't even... Welcome to Atlanta. Uh-uh. They draw that whole thing out. Draw that whole thing out. But the thing there was they told me that they had a 58% turnout in November 30 election. And I said, what are they hoping to get? So, I mean, 58%. You got a significant black population there. I was told I'm going to be in Athens on Saturday with the Warnock campaign.

They said black numbers there were not as strong as they expected. And so what needs to happen in these non-Metro Atlanta cities? I mean, is that a different type of messaging to that rural voter, which is different between this voter here in Metro Atlanta? Well, what I would say is we need every person, every person that calls themselves a leader in any capacity to start getting on the phones and getting your people out. We need you at this point. We need all the churches, all the Divine Nine, all the community-based organizations, whether you're in Albany, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, or Atlanta, we need you to tell

your folks to get out. They need to hear from their elected officials, and they need to hear from their community leaders. So any organization that you're a part of, if your leader is not talking about getting out to vote, then they're having the wrong conversation right now. We know that the holidays are coming up and things are going to start shutting down, but we want people to do, while they're out grocery shopping or Christmas shopping, go ahead and early vote. Cast that ballot now so that they can be in the bank. Of course, we're not asking people to vote for a particular candidate, but we're asking people to vote early and then bring five members of your family out and then make yourself available for the last day, which is January 5th, and bring other people to the polls. Make yourself available by volunteering. We need all hands on deck, y'all.

Early voting ends when? Early voting in some counties end on December 30th. In other counties, it's December 31st. If you go to our website or go to the Secretary of State's website, you can find that information and we can connect you to that. We also would like people to volunteer. If you're willing to volunteer wherever you are or if you're in Georgia, we can find a way to help you help us. We need the support here in Georgia. We need the support here in Georgia. We need the love here in Georgia.

But more than anything, we need to make sure that people don't forget that Atlanta and Georgia is in this limelight right now. But when January 6th happened, Atlanta and Georgia and the rest of us are going to be asking, where is the agenda. So we need to start organizing, mobilizing, and strategizing now because we want to make sure that everybody that gets elected on this watch, on our watch, has an agenda that's connected back to black and brown people. What's the website? GeorgiaStandUp.org

Alright then. Debra Scott, we surely appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much, Roland. Keep it up. I will do. Got to go to commercial break when we come back. We're going to talk about the Ahmaud Arbery case, as well as two other cases, one out of Texas and then one in Chicago, all dealing with body camera footage. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Atlanta from the offices of Georgia Standout. We'll be back in a moment. If your vote didn't matter, you wouldn't have so many people trying so hard to stop you from voting. There is some value there.

But even when you talk about that people are not paying attention to your issues, I can't pay attention to your issues if I don't even know you there. And the only reason people are going to know you there is when you show up to the polls and vote. That's when that power manifests itself. But as long as you stay at home, as long as you making excuses, then guess what? You will always experience these issues that we're experiencing today.

And another thing, don't get caught up in the candidates. Right, there's no such thing as a perfect candidate, but you should be going to vote for the most important person, and that is you and the one you love. You talk about you'll fight for the one you love, you're willing to die for the most important person, and that is you and the one you love. You talk about you'll fight for the one you love, you're willing to die for the one you love, you need to ask yourself,

are you willing to vote for the one you love? Because if you don't, there's gonna be somebody's neck on yours pretty soon. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. Before we knew about COVID-19, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue received classified briefings about the virus. And what did they do next? They downplayed the risks, then invested in body bags. Ten months later, over 10,000 Georgians dead. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, dead wrong.

There's an easy way to save lives and keep Americans safe. It's not politics. It's science. So do your part to protect your fellow citizens and help slow the spread. For your family. For your neighbors. For your country. Wear a mask. Thank you, Ralph. Thank you so much.

All right, folks, new body cam footage provided by the Glynn County Police Department offers more insight into exactly what happened with the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. WSBTV here in Atlanta was able to obtain this grainy video which shows officers approaching the suspect Greg McMichael, the father of Arbery's killer. McMichael appears to be flustered as he answers questions about the shooting. Though Arbery is lying dead in the street, McMichael shows no signs of any wrongdoing. Greg, his son Travis, McMichael, and their accomplice William Bryan have pleaded not

guilty to the nine charters against them. They remain in jail as they await their particular trial. So that's one of the cases that we're focusing on. Another case, folks, when it comes to body cam footage is out of Texas. And this is a case where a young man in Lamarck, Texas was shot and killed by police. His name is Joshua Feast. Ben Crump is one of the attorneys for the family. He is one of the attorneys for the family. He is calling for the firing of the Lamarck police officer, Jose Santos, who was identified as the one who killed Joshua Feast on December 9th. They also want that body cam footage released.

Now, according to investigators, Feast got out of his car vehicle and ran across the street into a driveway when Santos opened fire. Now, authorities are investigating the shooting and Crump is demanding the department release the video of the shooting to the public. Feast death is the second fatal shooting Santos has been involved in. In 2017, Santos shot and killed a man during a burglary in 2017. A grand jury declined to indict Santos in that case.

Now, let's go to Chicago, where this video that was shot in 2019, folks, shocking and stunning video of a black woman, cops busting into her home. She's naked and they got the wrong place. Watch this. But what's even more so shocking about this video, folks, is that it took place in 2019. The Chicago Police Department were forced to turn over the body camera footage. It actually took place two years ago. Nine officers raided the wrong house and handcuffed this naked black homeowner. Andrette Young is seeking justice as to how she was treated in 2019.

Now, the social worker had just returned home from her shift at a hospital and was undressing when cops busted through, begging to bear down her door. She pleaded for cops to allow her to get dressed as they shoved guns in her face. She can be heard in the body cam footage telling officers nearly 43 times they were in the wrong. Now, Mary Lori Lightfoot, she wants the wrong race to stop. She's asked the city's chief risk officer to review the police department's policies and procedures for obtaining and executing search warrants. And while they remain under investigation, no consequences have been announced for the officers just yet. But here is the thing, Robert. Lori Lightfoot tried to keep

the video from becoming public. This sounds eerily familiar. Rahm Emanuel, when he was mayor, fought the release of the video of Laquan McDonald. People are not happy with Mayor Lightfoot in Chicago because of this, Robert. ...publican or democratic issue. It is an infestation in American society. It is a disease in American society. One of two times I've had a gun to my head in my entire life, as I've said previously, was Chicago Police Department walking home from the library in law school, getting off the bus on

47th and Lakeshore, walking down right before where the LA Fitness is now, where they used to be at Bally's. A squad car pulled up, put me on the hood and put two guns to my head that it's on my law school ID. So let's understand that until and unless we are willing to address the police unions, until we are able to address these issues of tamper-proof body cameras where you can't simply say the body cam wasn't working, until we have a natural city apparatus that immediately releases this information to the public and does not depend on a Freedom of Information Act request or public outcry to do so. It doesn't matter if you are in a Democratic city or a Republican city. You are going to continue to have these problems.

And as Malcolm X said, it's very interesting that the neighborhoods that have the most police brutality, that have the highest police presence, also have the highest crime. So either what you're doing isn't working, you need to figure out a better way around it, or we have to have a public policy solution that obviates the need for these levels of police presence. Because in many communities, you live in a police state. And I can tell you from personal experience, after a police officer puts a gun to your head, you lose all respect for police and law enforcement for a long period of time. So it's hard to talk to young people about respecting officers or respecting

the system as it is, the social contract, when it's been violated on every occasion. And we have to hold all officials responsible, whether they are black, whether they're white, whether they're Democratic, whether they're Republican, Libertarian, Green Party, whoever it is. And we have to stop this. And if somebody says defund the police is too radical, they haven't had a police officer's gun to their head. I want to go back to the, give me one second, Scott, I'm going to let you comment on the Chicago story, but I want to go back to the Fee story. Joining us right now is Attorney Ben Crump and Monique Pressley. We have some breaking news

with regarding this case out of Lamarck, Texas. Ben, Monique. Roland, thank you. I'm here with Monique Presley, and we have breaking news that we're about to announce at the press conference, and that is based on the independent autopsy, as well as review of the medical records on the night that Joshua Feast was killed, it has been confirmed that he died from a single gunshot wound to the back that never exited his body. And there was internal volatility based on the bullet hitting two of his ribs and causing internal damage that led to him losing a very dramatic amount of blood, 500 milliliters. And so he died on arrival at the hospital. And it is very clear that the bullet went to the upper right back area. So this police officer aimed at him from the back. been aiming at center mass to make sure he hit his target, who was defenseless. As we have illustrated, he was running away, and there was no way that this officer was

in threat or fear of his life. And so we are demanding that Officer Jose Santos, this police officer with a documented history, Roland Martin, of excessive use of force against African-Americans, be terminated immediately and be arrested for the murder of Joshua Feast in Lamarck, Texas. This is one of those cases, again, Ben, where the person is running away and it sort of makes no sense whatsoever that they're running away.

Why are you firing at someone running away who's not a threat to you? And it's really important to point out, Roland Martin, that this follows a pattern. If you look at the video of 2013, where he beat mercifully, unmercifully, a black man with his co-workers while he was working for the Galveston Police Department. And it was all captured on video. And he was allowed to resign. And then he simply went a couple of miles down the road and got a job at the Lamarck, Texas, police department. National Registry of Police Misconduct so they can't brutalize us in one county and then go down the road next week and get another job to brutalize us more because it just

keeps getting worse. And this is evident in the death of Joshua Feast. Certainly, you think you've been crump for reaching out to us with this breaking news regarding the case of Joshua Feast. Thank you so very much and we're going to keep covering this case and bringing attention to it as much as we can. Monique Pressler and I are on the ground rolling. You call us anytime you need. All right, Ben, Monique, we certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Scott Bolden, your thoughts on the first, the Chicago case, and also this breaking news from Ben Crump regarding this case out of Lamarck, Texas involving Joshua Feast. Well, both cases represent why police reform is so important. The reform bill that's pending and was passed by the House certainly, I think, would have addressed both of them. On one hand, you have these no-knock search warrants and insensitivity or just a give-a-damn attitude by the police with a young black woman getting dressed off work, and they've got the wrong

house. If you don't have a no-knock, and that should be a rarity to have to have a no-knock, that's the first thing. In regard to the Joshua case, shooting someone in the back while they're running away is not only reckless, but completely unnecessary. And again, this reform bill would have disallowed this police officer to go down the road, has been said, to get another job without a bad or negative police record following him. And let's remember this last point, okay? Under Tennessee v. Garner in the 80s, the Supreme Court said it is unlawful to shoot a nonviolent fleeing felon. Even if you're a felon, if it's a nonviolent pursuit in regard to a potential crime, it is unconstitutional to shoot or to use deadly force on anyone. And yet, in the last five years or so, when the cameras have been rolling,

we see police officer after police officer doing just that in South Carolina, doing it in the two cases, at least one of the cases you see, and shooting them in the back when they are suspects. They are not convicted. They're just suspects. And so the liability for both of these cases ought to be substantial. But the police reform bills would address this.

Hopefully, when these two Senate seats in Georgia and we get the Senate to move on this police reform bill as a priority, as Biden and Harris have said, we can resolve. It's not too late to resolve going forward. We send condolences to those who've died of police violence, but we can fix this through legislation and implementation. But Scott, on that point- But this is the thing that- Robert, go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say, on that point, we want the federal legislation, but at the same time, on state and local government, particularly local government where police departments are regulated, we can do that right now.

Lori Lightfoot, we ain't got to wait for 50 senators or anything along those lines. Or if you're in Atlanta, we're still dealing with the death of Rashard Brooks and others. You don't have to wait for Ted Cruz or Mitch McConnell or any of those things. We're talking about majority African-American cities where you have police unions that exert more power than the actual population there. Politicians are so afraid of this idea that you're going to have a crime running wild. And because of that, they basically condone and coddle police brutality. And look at a state like Oregon, where they were faced with a drug problem. And instead of bringing in Gestapo, instead of bringing in stormtroopers, instead of saying we're going to start beating folks upside the head and shoot them in the back every once

in a while if you do it, black folks, they just legalize drugs and just legalize all of them. So what I want to see is on the state and local level, in particular, where African-Americans have power, I want to see the same sorts of efforts and initiatives. We had Ted Terry, who was the mayor of Clarkston, Georgia, who really pushed ahead on marijuana decriminalization and decreasing police contacts in that municipality, and that eventually spread to the city of Atlanta. We can have these things spread city by city throughout the country. Once you have a critical mass, then that matriculates its way up to Washington, D.C. But this idea that we need to keep waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen, we have seen during that meeting, Joe Biden has no interest and no intention of doing the types of radical, quote-unquote, actions that will actually facilitate these type of change that we need.

So we have to force it on the local level. Well, you're absolutely right. And it's about accountability, but it's also about courage of these politicians, these elected officials at the state legislature and the city council and the mayor to say enough is enough from the police unions, if you will, that the times have changed because that's really what's handcuffing these governments, these deals that they've connected with, these deals that have been approved that give these police officers not only these rights, but to the detriment of communities of color. And so you're absolutely right.

There's going to have to be some courageous decisions, not conversations, and reduce the power of the police unions to some level of fairness. You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree with you more. All right, folks. Let's talk about this case out of Houston, my home city, where former Houston Police Captain Mark Anthony Aguirre was arrested yesterday for allegedly running a man off the road and restraining him with a gun in an attempt to prove a non-existent massive voter fraud scheme in Harris County

in exchange for more than $250,000. According to an affidavit describing the incident, he was a member of a group of private citizens called Liberty Center for God and Country, and that he and his friends had been conducting 24-hour surveillance on the victim's home. The group is run by conservative activist Steve Hotz, who just last month pushed an effort to throw out 127,000 drive-thru votes in Harris County. Scott, this is the thing that Donald Trump has unleashed in this country, that Republicans have unleashed in this country,

that these people think they can decide what happens. They can decide, oh, we're going to stop voter fraud. And so when you hear this and when you hear these idiots encircling the home of the Secretary of State in Michigan, when you see the attacks here in Georgia, what we are seeing unleashed are people who think that they are above the law. In fact, they think they are the law. Yeah. Empowered

by Donald Trump and the GOP leadership. The direct connection there is not just reckless, it's dangerous. A week or so ago, people are going to get killed. Words matter. If Donald Trump and the GOP leadership doesn't want to be accountable for these types of bad acts,

then they need to stop talking about arming people to watch the polls, about voter fraud and rigged elections and stand up and protect us and fight, fight, fight. You got nuts and fools out here who take that as an approval of violence. And in Houston, your hometown, listen, this belongs on your section of crazy-ass white people. I know you got it here, but think about what they did. They surrounded the car. They put a knee on his back. They went to the police. They called the

police before. They called the AG before, as if they had this superiority right to do this with no evidence whatsoever. They just got a crazy idea in their head and said, we're going to act on it. In an organized manner, he was paid a quarter million dollars to do this as if he was licensed under the law. He had no business doing this, and he's going to be prosecuted. He can get up to 20 years for this, but it's dangerous.

It's scary if you're black. It's scary times still for black people all over this country. Robert? I think it's important for African-Americans in this country to exercise their Second Amendment rights at this point in time. I don't want no PlayStation for Christmas. I want ammo.

If you're going, you need to join groups such as the National African-American Gun Association, NAGA. You got the Black Gun Owners Association. You got the Bass Reeves Gun Club here in Atlanta. You got the Huey P. Newton Gun Club. They just got Grandmaster Jay from the NFAC. So there's an attack underway on African-American Second Amendment rights. So we have to ensure that we are exercising them and that we're politically organizing around those just as everybody else. Because on Saturday and Sunday right here in Atlanta, we had armed white militias roaming the streets of downtown and circling the Capitol before early voting started to intimidate voters.

And while our electors were meeting to certify electoral college results, it only takes one of these folks to lose it before we are all in danger. You can depend on the federal government or the state government or police or anybody else, but those Jordans ain't going to help you when these Magos come for you. You know, that PlayStation ain't going to stop but two, three rounds before you need something else. So I think it's important for African-Americans to invest in training, to invest in their Second Amendment rights. You don't need level three plus armor. You're not going to stop anything past a nine millimeter. You need level four armor. You need to have a bug out plan and a bug out bag.

You need to be ready because guess what? Scott is not going to let us bag. You need to be ready because guess what? Scott is not going to let us come to his house to be safe. You're going to have to defend or protect yourself and your family. You're absolutely right, but when we take a law under the Second Amendment, what are we? We are terrorists in the eyes of the law

and the government. I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6. Right. Right. Alright, folks. Just before I go to break, some history was made in Massachusetts where Justice Kimberly Budd was unanimously confirmed today as the Chief Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Court.

She's the first black woman to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Her nomination was confirmed by a 7-0 vote. She replaces former Chief Justice Ralph Gantz, who passed away in September. And so we certainly congratulate the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court there in Massachusetts. Some bad news, though, in the case out of North Carolina. Remember we went to North Carolina, all those African-Americans were running for statewide office. Well, one of the folks who we talked to on the show, Sherry Beasley, she was the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

And she was running for reelection. Remember, she had been appointed this chief justice job, but a white chief justice, a white chief justice felt that he should have gotten the job. So what he did was he was on the Supreme Court, ran against her. Well, he beat her by 400 out of five, five point four million votes cast. He beat this sister by four hundred and one votes. You know, I just said four hundred and one votes you know i just said four hundred and one votes so sherry beasley lost so all of you out there who think vote doesn't voting doesn't matter had cheryl beasley gotten another 402 votes she would have retained her position as chief justice democrats had a six to one majority

on north carolina supreme court it's now down to four to three. Why? Because by him beating Beasley and a Republican winning his seat, that's how it's now four to three. And so I just want everybody out there to understand that every vote does indeed count. And this is an example of where it matters. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. What's going on with Black Lives Matter? Lots of chatter, lots of people angry over money, over power, over control. We will talk to two Black Lives Matter activists in different parts of the country about this issue next, right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from the offices of Georgia Stand Up here in Atlanta, Georgia, where we are covering the Senate runoff races between John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

We'll be back in a moment. America is a complicated story of people building a more perfect union. And if you don't think there's been any change, you should sit down with Andrew Young. You should sit down from some of the folks in that generation who know the distance we've come. And as we continue to push hard, change comes. The other side knows your power. The other side knows your voice. That's why they're engaged in voter suppression. If you weren't so powerful, they wouldn't be trying so hard to stop you from voting. So you ought to stand up in this defining moment in American history and win the future for all of our children.

We got power. We about to get ready to launch our We Got Power Tour. Cliff and I are going on the blackest bus in America. We're hitting the streets again. We're going to be going through at least 12 states, maybe more. I'm just really excited. Now, it's a little bit different this time because COVID-19, we've got to wear a mask, we've got to be socially distant, but we are very committed that we've got to get in the

streets and inspire and encourage our people in ways that are socially distant. Ready to hit the road, ready to see our folks, ready to be socially distant, ready to mask up. On our way to Pennsylvania, we'll be there for two days, and then we're headed to Ohio to Cleveland. We're going to be just spreading a lot of love and building a lot of power. The very last day, we're going to be out here on the ground in these streets because our people need us.

Can't stop, won't stop. Register to vote. You can even request your online vote by mail ballot by clicking the link or by scanning our QR code with your camera. Vote early. Vote today. Because we got power. Before we knew about COVID-19, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue received classified briefings about the virus. And what did they do next?

They downplayed the risks, then invested in body bags. Ten months later, over 10,000 Georgians dead. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, dead wrong. There's an easy way to save lives and keep Americans safe. It's not politics. It's science. So do your part to protect your fellow citizens and help slow the spread.

For your family. For your neighbors. For your country. Wear a mask. All right, folks, we were just showing you the Black Voters Matter spot there. So let me go ahead and switch masks. I'm going to put one of the Black Voters Matter masks on. So we are all good, all good here.

All right, folks, so we're going to go from Black Voters Matter to Black Lives Matter. And there's been a lot of discussion dealing with Black Voters Matter to Black Lives Matter. And there's been a lot of discussion dealing with Black Voters Matter in terms of where they are, their future, what they're involved in. And there are a lot of folks now who are not particularly happy with the direction of Black Voters Matter. Patrice Cullors, we had her on the show. We had her on talking about the amount of money, the donations they have been receiving, as well as their leadership. And we've seen a lot of different stories now being done where folks are saying what is happening. There are chapters that are upset with the direction of Black Lives Matter. That's what has been going on as well.

The Economist story came out today. We have another story that came out on USA Today. And there have been others as well where chapters say they're not getting the resources that they should be getting. All this money is coming in, but they're not actually helping folks who are on the ground. And so we want to focus on that right now with the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma, Reverend Sherry Dickerson and Chanel Heim. She's an organizer for Black Lives Matter in Louisville, Kentucky. And so glad to have both of you. Chanel, I want to start with you. Just your assessment. First of all, let's do it this way.

Because here's what people don't realize. There are Black Lives Matter chapters that are not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter global network. Your Louisville, Kentucky chapter, are you affiliated with the national entity? At this time, we are not affiliated with the national entity. And I think for us, it became very confusing this summer and within the last year of a

lot of moving around and there wasn't a lot of answers. And so we must not be unclear on what the solution for getting any answers. We stayed away from whatever the configuration was. We're still a bit confused on what that configuration is. We just know, just like any of the other countries that we throw down from around the country, that whatever is going on at this new, I do want to make sure that people understand that this is a brand new entity. This is not a historic entity that folks have been trying to, you know, kind of whitewash with the alt-right stuff that's going on. This is a brand new

entity. And so none of us were consulted on that. And it's just been hard to support that. But it also has been feeling a bit neglected as we go through these uprising moments and Louisville being one of those places and not getting any support whatsoever. So let me – hold on. I want to go back to what you just said there. And folks, if I can get a little more audio with her, because I can I can barely hear. Here's what you said. It's a new entity.

So, OK, so here's, I think, part of the deal here that that is tough for people. That's confusing as well. And that is really understanding what the structure is. And I'll be honest with you, when I had Patrice on the show, I was confused as all get out because it was the movement for Black Lives and then it was the Black Lives Matter global network. And so when you say this new entity, she named herself as executive director, right? So, and again, here's the other question. If your organization isn't a part of the national group of Black Lives Matter,

why do you care? I think it's a bit dangerous, right? I'm just trying to understand. Can you hear me? Say it again? I think it's a big favorite in this moment where we have another large protest moment, something very new, not only to the U.S., but to the world, with everybody yelling Black Lives Matter. And in the middle of that, people who we organize with, I think people thought of us as one big organization and we're actually very much networked

to each other. If DC asked for something, Louisville might answer. If Louisville asked for something, Chicago might answer. And that's how we work. What happened was that we decided to make sure that we had a hub that could take care of those resources or anything

else and be able to spread it out to the chapters. And little by little, less answers came to that formation. And what was scary for our chapter is that we had an uprising going on and those things were being asked of us on the ground. We had no idea what people were talking about until all of a sudden a new formation was made and several other chapters that we organized with were left out of that as well. And us staying away from that was a clear indication to keep us safe. But also, it's just really confusing not to have the representation of what you began this chapter underneath. We got approval from Black Lives Matter, the network, when it was before this iteration of whatever this is, to be

able to use the banner and be able to organize within a network of other chapters. So I think that's why it matters a bit, especially as we talk about what decentralization looks like. We've always had a picture of our region. Okay, so this is... The transformation of the group is weird

because it's changing the narrative of where we live. Okay, so this is why I'm absolutely confused, and I want to bring in Reverend Sherry Dickerson here. So, Reverend Sherry Dickerson, let me ask you. You're there in Oklahoma. OK. Are y'all a part of the Black Lives Matter global network or the movement for black lives? Or are you an independent chapter? Yes, we are part of the movement for black lives, which is a different collective that is not the same as the Black Lives Global Network. We were recognized at one time, but we are not an affiliate at this time because they have restructured.

Okay. Okay. So let me—here's the problem. One second, one second, one second, one second. Here's the problem that I have, Sherri and Chanel. First of all, let's take this thing back. When Black Lives Matter started off as a hashtag and that thing reverberated around, it really encapsulated all of this energy that we saw out here. Then that thing reverberated all around the country. The problem is what they did, they tried to actually then go get the trademark, but then it was too late.

It had already been out in the public domain. And so essentially what they tried to do is to bring some order to something that took off in reverse. And for me, and I'm just being honest with y'all, that the struggle is even understanding what's what. So even, like I said, when I had Patrice on the show, she was explaining it and I was kind of like, well, what's this and what's this and what's this and what's this? And so now when you say there's another entity, So what are we not talking about? A third entity? So Chanel, is it, again, again, and trust me, I'm not, I ain't got no dog in any of this.

I'm just actually confused because there's the Black Lives Matter Global Network. There's the Movement for Black Lives. And what you're saying, Chanel, is now there's a third entity. Correct? Correct. Correct. But it has been a part of that same formation that

has just been coming and coming and coming. Confusing for you, confusing for Congress to organize within that structure, right? So we organize with those folks and there's decisions that are being made. And we're not even talking about small decisions, right? There's this whole conversation of sending Biden a letter and even the support that we see during this global rebellion for our chapters and what's happening. And that conversation is

not happening with anybody. There's certain delegations that are being made for other chapters. And it's just been confusing. And I think for those chapters that actually put in that letter and want that accountability, it's just been had for a few years and we just not have gotten any answers whatsoever. I think it's really surprising that............ ... ... ... ...

... So, Sherry, the thing is, and this is really... Here's the thing for me, Sherry, Sherry, the thing is, and this is really, here's a thing for me, Sherry, that is fascinating and frustrating. There was so much discussion among Black Lives Matter activists, well, no, we didn't want like the Urban League and the NAACP and like everybody else. We wanted decentralized, no one leader. We wanted collective decision making.

I'll be honest with you, Sherry. Nothing can run that way. I'm just being perfectly honest. Part of the deal here, you cannot have a national entity having chapters if you don't have something, a document that holds them together. It's the Constitution. It's bylaws. It's operating procedures. It's hierarchy. It's structure, national CEO, boards, regional leaders, yet international infrastructure is just impossible to do unless you actually put real infrastructure and hierarchy in place. Your response? I don't. Sherry? Hold on one second. Chanel, hold on. Hold on. Chanel, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Reverend, go ahead.

Yeah. I don't I do not disagree with you as far as especially, and I can speak for the Oklahoma City chapter and many of the BLMT that signed on to the letter, this was not an issue of being upset. This is calling for accountability and transparency because that is part of liberation work. We want to have a cohesive flow amongst all of us. And we don't want anyone excluded. When there is a chapter that is doing the work and they are working around police brutality, when they are serving mutual aid, that's part of the Black Lives Matter platform.

And so it's not problematic at what they're trying to do, except for it has been exclusionary, except for there has been no communication with those of us on the front lines doing the work. And they've said that there's an extension or invalidation, but that has not occurred for everyone, and so it needs to be equitable. Let's do this here. Chanel, I can barely hear you. Your sound is muffled.

Control room, if y'all can make her audio only, that would be great. If we could do audio only via Skype or FaceTime, that would be much better, because people on YouTube and Facebook, they literally cannot hear you, and I can't understand. It sounds real muffled. So let's get that fixed. I want to bring in Robert and Scott here.

Robert, you're part of Rainbow Push. You have chapters. You have higher organization. I think what Black Lives Matter is going through is going through those real-life growing pains on how do you harness something that no one expected would just take off the way it did. That's first. But two, Robert, let's be honest. This is also because millions of dollars have been coming in to Black Lives Matter, just like the NAACP has gotten millions of dollars of support after the death of George Floyd. But the difference is you have infrastructure, national chapters, all these things put in

place, and Black Lives Matter is trying to put all this stuff together. And the criticism I think of people is legitimate when they say, hey, you know, you make yourself the leader, which goes to, well, how did you do that? Was there an election? Did a board choose you? Was there a vote of the membership? Do you even have membership? And then also part of the, it's a branding deal. It's crazy to say that you have some chapters, that you have Black Lives Matter chapters that aren't a part of an entity which goes to the whole deal of the trademark. Guess what? The national entity can't say you can't use our name because they can't trademark the name.

So it's to me, you know, and I get they want to use Black Lives Matter, but at the end of the day, this is one of those things where I think folks may have to just simply pull back and say, let's shut this thing down. Let's completely have a clear organizational chart, and then we're bringing folks in to know what the hell is going on. So I get really all sides. It's just, Robert, confusing as hell. Well, look, Roland, I think one of the best pieces of advice my aunt Catherine gave me is that experience is the best education. Someone else's experience is the cheapest education. These are the regular growing pains of any organization. If you look back to

the big six in the 1960s or the progeny of the civil rights movement going back a century. You have many of these same issues and similar issues if you look at any sorts of social justice organizations. And this is where intergenerational dialogue comes in. Because if you are able to have conversations between a group like the Rainbow Puss Coalition or SCLC, Georgia Coalition of People's Agenda, NAACP, with some of these younger organizations, and then find out what they did as they grew. How do you create a structure? There was not always a situation where Rainbow Push had offices in Detroit, Chicago, Silicon Valley, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Baltimore. You have to learn

how to build that organization. Being a revolutionary is easy. Governing is harder. So as we grow, as we continue to focus on the work and focus on the mission, you build the infrastructure around that to make it a long-lasting concept, a long-lasting idea that can build for generations to come and execute the plan and not simply be a here today, gone tomorrow group. And also, when you don't have that organizational structure in place, you end up with a situation like Sir Major in Atlanta, who was representing himself as being part of Black Lives Matter, but was actually Black Lives Matter of Metro Atlanta or whatever organization he created, and then used thousands of dollars in donations to buy cars, to buy a

house, those sorts of things. So these things come together over time. And I think instead of chastising, it's a situation where older and established organizations can work together with these groups. And of course, to anybody involved in these organizations, they can reach out to me at any time. I'd be glad to speak with them and find out the best ways to go forward because as long as the mission is the focus,

then you can work on developing the infrastructure around that. But it's all about dialogue between groups so you can figure out what other people did to build their organizations as strong. None of these things happen overnight. You're a lawyer. You're used to organizations and lawsuits and all kind of stuff along those lines.

Any lawyer will tell you if this sucker ain't organized and you ain't got all your ducks lined up in a row, you're going to have dissension in the ranks. Well, you're rolling. Are you talking to me? It's A. Scott. Yeah, go ahead. No, it's you, Scott. Here's the difference between the big six when they were organized. They were organization. The Black Lives Matter movement started as were organized, they were organization.

The Black Lives Matter movement started as a movement, if you will. And you're absolutely right. The movement, because there was so much work to be done around the country, no one was thinking about organization, trademark, and what have you. And then the thousands, if not millions of dollars started rolling in.

And now you have no trademark. And so you have these various independent entities operating. And that's what it's going to be. So either two things, one or two things are going to happen. One, whoever has the most credibility and is best organized, it's every man for himself. They're going to raise the money and assert themselves and present and be present and fight all the other organizations are free to do the same thing right now secondly if there's some organizing force or some presence or person that can bring all of

these factions all of these entities together and create an organization through acceptance and people signing off on exactly what the structure would be, because you're going to need structure because to have these chapters, if you will, I represent probably seven or eight black nonprofits. And while they organizations, excuse me, none of them started as a movement. So this is the challenge. It's not just growing pains. It's organizing pains, if you will. And it's going to be up to the will of those who deeply believe in the movement,

whether they're founders or not, to try to get one organization, accept leadership structure and the ability to lead. And that's what you're left with. Or you're just going to have factions all around the country doing their thing. I want to bring back Sherry and Chanel. I think we got Chanel's audio straight.

Chanel, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Okay, so, Chanel. I can hear you. So, Chanel. Okay, what do you want to see done moving forward with this national entity, third group, whatever?

What do you want to see happen with Black Lives Matter? That's what I was going to say earlier. I think sometimes people think decentralization means de-organization and that's not true. We have plenty of organization. I mean, most of us have been managers of like large companies and stuff. That's not the problem. Our problem is the communication, the transparency that we've been asking for for years. This didn't just start this year or last year. This started many years ago. And so, as you name off other organizations who may have gone through the same thing or whatnot, we are not alone at asking for that transparency, but having that transparency actually be answered. So I think for the chapters, it's understanding what took place and then how did we get here? Because those are the questions that we're asking. Sherry, Reverend Dickerson,

isn't this also, first of all, I want to see what you want, but isn't this also a matter of the millions that have come in and chapters are going, wait a minute, we're the ones doing all the work. How is that money also funneling down to us?

How's it being distributed to us? How's it being distributed to us? Sherry? I think she's got mic issues. Can you hear me now? Sherry, please unmute. I'm unmuted. Are you able to hear me? Okay. So I do agree that we need, like we said, structure. What I want,

the first thing that I would want is that the issues that we advocate against and try to get the systems dismantled, that we would be successful at that. So there would be no more issues to where people are dying by the violence of state sanctioned violence and police brutality. Here in Oklahoma City, we are currently dealing with a situation where we've had four deaths within the last month. One just happened on Friday. A mentally ill man was murdered by Oklahoma City police. So what I want is for that to stop happening. With the organization, I want continuity. Yes, do we want shared resources? Do we want shared power?

Do we want to have organizational structure where we are able to support one another and have support from the power hierarchy? Of course we do. It is difficult. The gentleman that spoke that said it's easy to be a revolutionary. I do take, I disagree with that. This is not an easy work. It is a heavy work. But with the revolution and being part of the movement, it does take finances to be able to ask people to literally step up and do this work, to stand on the front lines, to help us run administration, to have those voices amplified, to have someone have a social media presence. To be able to offer resources to the families that are dealing with the loss of a loved one. I mean, in the world of COVID, we want to be able to be the resource for our communities. That is what I want. That is why we are saying that we need, just basically, it's not a part of the pie. If you are collecting, there are a lot of people who have donated under the misunderstanding that the money is distributed to the chapters where there are, where they are.

And that's not happening. I want that to begin to happen. Well, perfect example. I mean, that was this group that created some Black Lives Matter entity out of San Francisco that wasn't tied to the actual Black Lives Matter group. And I think a company gave, what, several million dollars and they had to ask for the money back. I mean, to me, this is real basic. It's like, look, I'm a vice president. I'm vice president of digital for the National Association of Black Journalists. If you want to support NABJ, you go to nabj.org.

There's one entity. And I'll just be honest with both of you. This is the final comment here for me, Sherry, and Chanel, and I'm going to get your final comments as well. If a guy like me is confused as hell, I can guarantee you there are millions of people out there confused. Folk don't know where to send money, who to send it to. When Donald Trump and Republicans were complaining about Black Lives Matter Minneapolis with this chant, pigs in a blanket, they would say, that's Black Lives Matter. That chapter wasn't even affiliated with the national group. And so the difficult thing, look, I'm also an alpha. If you guys, a bunch of guys walking, running around saying, wearing black and gold and saying we're alphas,

and they were not actually an alpha chapter, we shut that down. And so to me, this is just something where, again, from a national standpoint, and I keep hearing when someone tells me we have structure. I'll be honest with you. When there are three entities bouncing around and you're not really know who's what and who's doing what. I think it's confusing. It's confusing to the public. Not knowing if you're a chapter or you're not, or you're certified or you're not, is what's the certification? Who chose leadership? To me, all of that goes together, Chanel. And I just think for the public, it's utterly confusing. And it would behoove Patrice and others to say, we have got to get this thing ironed out so we can have a path forward. Otherwise, people are going to lose confidence in Black Lives Matter. And that is the worst thing that can happen if it ends up going there, Chanel.

I think when people are actually invested into something, when they actually want to see that change. Here we're talking about revolutionary chapters of people who take up black liberation work. They know exactly where that work comes from. There's really not confusion about who does the work and who doesn't do the work. What I do find confusing is when I see a link on a popular branded website and I'm wondering where the money goes to. When we send the links out from our chapters or from our work, particular pieces of our work, whether it's housing Black mothers or feeding people out in the streets, they know exactly where that work is going to. So I don't want to make that confusion. What I do want to make confusion is when we're talking about

transparency and accountability, that can happen anywhere. We got an entire president who isn't transparent and accountable to anybody. So I want to make sure that we're talking about the right things when we're talking about this situation. The tension is not within the organization. The tension is with the chapters who are producing the work and an entity who is collecting resources, not only funds, but resources for that work. And those chapters, including the ones from the South or wherever they are, and people who used to be those chapters, have the right to be able to name that as we fight revolutionarily for freedom and to dismantle the system, like Sherry said, that are killing Black people on the streets. They know exactly who those

people are. Now, the problem we do have is people believe in the narratives that do come from the alt-right, the Republicans, or Trump's mouth. I'm not too concerned with them, but I think we do have a problem when we don't defeat that piece, right? I don't care what they're saying. What I do care is about what my people say and the work that my people see. And so that's where I'm more concerned about. All I'm asking for is transparency and communication, a call, an email or something. Sherry, final comment. My final comment is that could we use a situation, I would love it if Ms. Collier's, and I have respect and I understand how organizations or a movement kind of just blossoms into something we weren't expected. I'm also affiliated with the Women's March, which we're dealing with some of the exact same growing pains.

We would love to sit down at the table, be recognized for the work that we are doing and get on the same page. They did ask us to have a fiscal sponsor to get your boards together. And many of us complied with everything that they asked. And yet we have still had no communication. They have not acknowledged many of the chapters that are doing that work. Well, look, we lost Reverend Sherri Dickerson. I appreciate her joining us. She is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter in Oklahoma and also Chanel Heim, Black Lives Matter, Louisville, Kentucky. I certainly appreciate both of you being with us. Folks, Robert, final comment here.

Look, I appreciate what both of them want. I think, Robert, this also comes down to money. I think people and look, when I had Patrice on, I want to know how much money has come in. You know, I know, look, the NAACP, when I had Derrick Johnson on, look, they've had more than $70 million come their way in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. Folks want to know how's that money going to be spent. The same question people are asking. And guess what? There should be an accounting of that. They should be able to Black Lives Matter. Patrice Cullors and her team should be able to issue reports stating how much money has been pledged to Black Lives Matter in the wake of George Floyd's death.

How much money has been received? Where is that money going? It is going into what area of grants? How many people on staff? What are people getting paid? So when people talk about transparency, you're right. If you have chapters and you have a process, look, there should be a process there, meaning a chapter is notified 30 days or 60 days after. All those things. You have to put the infrastructure pieces in place before you can truly have an effective organization. Folks, a movement is not an organization. And that is the difference I think we're seeing right here, Robert. Well, that was my point about being revolutionary is a lot easier than governing.

You know, we all have had revolutionary ideas. When I was in college, I decided I was going to organize our campus workers at Clark University, and I was going to do all these protests. I almost got my ass expelled. Reverend Jetson is the one who saved me and made sure I was able to do all these protests, I almost got my ass expelled. Reverend Jetson's the one who saved me and made sure I was able to graduate because having organizational support is very important. So instead of trying to out revolutionary each other

and out revolutionary everybody, work on putting those infrastructural bedfast in place and understand that there's nothing wrong with reaching out to other organizations. People who have been around for 40 and 50 years have been around for 40 and 50 years for a reason, because they understand taxes, because they understand payroll and OSHA regulations and finding out how to build it into an actual movement instead of simply a revolutionary idea. So it's important to have those conversations to reach out to people. You don't have to reinvent the entire wheel. And you talking about the millions of dollars these organizations are raising,

give some of that money to Rainbow Push. Reverend Jackson asked me every day to raise money. Go to rainbowpush.org, join, get a membership, because there are organizations, there are legacy organizations that have been around, they're still doing the revolutionary work, and understand that there are plenty of fights for us all to have a different part in the fight. If we're fighting each other, that's another moment, another minute, another dollar that we're not spending on the work that needs to be done. All right, then. Robert Portillo, we certainly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. A. Scott Bolden had to leave as well. We certainly think Scott. Also, an update on the story earlier today the mayor Lori Lightfoot folks literally a few moments ago apologized for the wrongful rate we talked about earlier that took place in February 2019 and she also has admitted that it was a mistake to try to stop the CBS affiliate WBBM from airing that body camera footage and so Lori Lightfoot, under significant criticisms, the mayor of Chicago, for her actions

and the actions of the Chicago Police Department. And so this is what she said, quote, I want to tell Ms. Young that I am deeply sorry and troubled that her home was invaded and she had to face the humiliation and trauma that she suffered. This is just not right. This is according to the Chicago Tribune, Lightfoot said in an emotional news conference after Wednesday's city council

meeting, it simply should not have happened. And I will make sure that there is full accountability for what took place. And so Lightfoot also says she would push for changes at the local and state level to make it easier to release body camera footage under circumstances similar to what Young experienced. And yeah, city lawyers tried to stop WBBM from getting that video. And in fact, if he says, quote, this is the Chicago Tribune story, a federal judge rejected the Lightfoot administration's unusual request to prevent a television station from airing a news report. The courts have long ruled against efforts to prevent news companies from publishing reports

saying it's an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Lightfoot disavowed the move by her law department, saying she was blindsided by it. Quote, filing a motion against a media outlet to prevent something from being published is something that should rarely, if ever, happen. And had I been advised that this was in the works, I would have stopped it in its tracks. That's the update on that particular story. All right, folks, got to go to a quick break. When we come back, our Black Tech segment, we'll talk to a brother who was trying to create something to bring us together as a community.

We'll explain next on Roller Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from the offices of Georgia Stand Up here in Atlanta, Georgia. We're covering the runoff with John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock versus Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. We'll be back in a moment. We learned early in Sunday school that thou shall not steal. Thou shall not bear false witness. Thou shall not have no other gods before me.

Raphael Warnock's opponent seems to have forgotten these basic Sunday school lessons. Her gods have agreed her lies about Pastor Warnock. And her shady Wall Street practices are evidence of this. And on January the 5th, let's bear witness that greed, lies, and shady dealings don't represent Georgia. Let's send Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate to fight for the rest of this state. And we believe that this state is on the verge of shocking the entire country. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on, hold on. What y'all know about that damn offer?

And ultimately, we know we can't let nobody turn us around. In spite of all that you have endured this year alone, this is still the good life city? Yeah! If it turns out that the Senate is hinging on one seat and there's only one race left... Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! That's right. This will literally be the epicenter of the entire country, right? Turn up, turn up, turn up, turn up, turn up, turn up. That's right.

This will literally be the epicenter of the entire country, right? So we ready. Music has an ability to be able to help us feel connected. And that's because music has a way of speaking for the spirit. And it is the spirit we're going to change this country with. It is going to be standing in a space of our power and in the fullness of our spirit of love and the spirit of humanity.

That is what's gonna transform America. Black communities always do a great job of organizing and mobilizing, but could it get better? My next guest, David Cole, has created something called U-High, which is a messaging software that provides the black community with a safe space where users can share knowledge to help build the black community. He joins us right now. David, how you doing? I'm well, brother. How are you? I'm doing great. So explain to us what UHI is. What is it? UHI is a permission-based communication and collaboration platform. And Roland, what I mean by that,

it allows the organization and association, the tool to be able to connect, communicate, and collaborate. File sharing, the uploading of information, video embedding, Zoom integration, the ability to work using Microsoft Office 365, all inside of a permission-based platform that the administrator then has the ability to invite people into this community privately to be able to work and to be able to strategize. Okay, so I'm on the App Store right now,

and I am seeing something called UHI Spaces and UHI Messenger. What's the difference? Yes. So think of spaces, Roland, as buckets or repositories where subject matters can be built. I'll give you an example. Let's say for police reform, we can build a space around police reform. We can build a space around economics. And then we can have experts and policymakers and individuals contribute into those spaces with articles, Word documents, video, YouTube embedded video. So again, those spaces allow you to do that. And then the messenger side is basically just one-to-one messaging. We also have group messaging as well.

So around that whole space that we created called Reform, we can have a message group called Reform where those individuals can have a conversation around the subject matter, but it is a messaging app and a collaboration app. So what's the difference between UHI and WhatsApp, Signal, Wire? Why should I use this? Understood. Great question.

So WhatsApp is a messaging application. U-Hive provides both collaboration and communication. So what you can basically do on your desktop, you can do the exact same thing on your mobile device, both on Android and on iOS. So again, we're putting that information, those tools into the power of mobile and empowering the community

to be able to remotely move around while having the features and functionality of the desktop experience. All right. How many folks have already downloaded this app? It is brand new. I have a client out of Las Vegas, but it is my goal, Roland, as I think I shared with your producer, you and Dr. Barber talked about the third reconstruction. You talked about organizing, mobilizing, and strategizing. So I built this during the pandemic

to be able to offer this as a solution to a group like the Black Lives Matter. I just listened to the segment where there is a fracture. Well, this could serve as a connective issue to be able to allow those organizations or those chapters to be able to come together. So this is a startup, but it's a startup with a solid framework

of software applications. It's ready, it's solid, and it's ready to go. I'm ready to do my part to help my community. All right, then. David Cole, people can get more information from uhai.co at the website? That is correct. Absolutely, brother. All right, then.

Well, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you for joining us on our Tech Talk segment. Thanks a bunch, and good luck. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you for joining us on our Tech Talk segment. Thanks a bunch, and good luck. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks. That is it for us, folks.

It has been a crazy busy day here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Phenomenal content, great guests, and really topics you're not going to see anywhere else. That's why we want you to support what we do. When you join our Bring the Funk fan club, your resources make it possible for us to do what we do. Anthony, give me that wide shot. We are here in Georgia Stand Up, folks.

We, of course, that's how we're at this office here. That's how we've been traveling. That's how we've been covering, going around this state all around Georgia. When you see our mobile setup, Anthony, you can give me a shot here. I just want you all to understand, okay? I just want you all to understand because I want you all to see what we do, okay? And so you see here, folks, these cameras, these lights.

When you see our portable switcher, when you see our monitors, when you see all of these different things, we, of course, we're living in a world of COVID, so we had to go out and get the mic stands so we don't have the guests who are touching the microphones to keep them safe. All of these things, folks, this is how we are able to broadcast this show. This is how we are able to bring you the kind of news and information. That unit you can't see down on the floor there is our live streaming unit. That unit right there, folks, just so y'all understand, on that floor right there, that little blue and orange thing, that's $19,000 right there.

But that's how we're able to live stream anywhere. That's how we've been streaming these various rallies, things along those lines. And so when you support this show, you are supporting a black- owned media company that's bringing you the news and information from your perspective, that's allowing us to be able to cover the news. And we don't have to ask anybody's permission. There's not one day, there's not one day where we're sitting here and somebody is telling us, no, we can't cover this. No, we want to be able to go anywhere we want to to cover the news that we want to. And that's why we're doing so. Y'all ain't got to wonder where the money is going.

You see where the money is going when that camera right there is a Canon XF405 4K camera. And so is that one. And we have three of those, three Canon C300s with a body of that camera is $9,000 alone. When you talk about the four-quad monitor there, the Blackmagic Assist monitor, when you talk about the ATM Mini Pro Switcher, when you talk about the whole new lighting system, all of these things here, the Sennheiser microphone. Oh, just in case y'all were confused, yes, I know all this equipment.

I know how to use it. And so our goal here is to be able to give you a quality show. We're not sitting in the basement of a house, just talking on Zoom or on a stream yard. No, we're actually providing the black community with a high quality production. And that's why we are here. That's why we're doing what we're doing. So you can support us via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered, zale, roland at rolandsmartin.com.

You can also send a money order to New Vision Media, NU Vision Media Inc, 1625 K Street Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. And of course you can go to rollermartinunfiltered.com And so yeah, we are very transparent. We've got some other things that we've been ordering.

We've been out here, man. We had like, we was like, oh, we need a boom mic. We need this. We need that. And so, folks, I just want y'all to understand we can do exactly what CNN does and MSNBC does. I'm just going to tell y'all here. Yesterday, we were broadcasting out there from the Joe Biden rally.

CNN was standing right next to us. Fox News was standing right next to us. And we were broadcasting just like they were. And so that's what this is all about. This is about us using our skill set our technology and for us to be able to bring you the kind of information you're not going to get anywhere else and look look i'll try just so y'all know i'll try to partner with every major black media company they didn't want to partner that's fine we're going to do it ourselves if you mention their names, I've called all of them. All of them.

All of them. And I said, let's partner. Folks didn't want to partner. So fine. I'm going to do it my damn self, and we're going to build it with your help. So please join our Bring the Funk fan club. We've got a couple of more weeks before we hit our deadline. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our funders,

our followers to help us. You can go to rollermarkdownthefilter.com. You can join our fan club right here on YouTube. You can also go over to Facebook as well. And just so y'all know, I got off the phone today. I was having a conversation with an OTT company about launching our own OTT channel. Y'all, I told y'all I wanted it to happen this summer, but we could not make it happen because of resources.

But I'm literally, y'all, and I just want y'all to, I'm just trying to tell y'all, I'm not playing with y'all. I need y'all to hear what I'm saying. I literally had a conversation today with the company about us being able to have our own app, our own OTT channel on Roku, on Apple TV, on Android, on Fire Stick, on Samsung TV, on Xbox. We have the conversation today. I just want, and I got no problem telling y'all, I got no problem telling y'all this, it's about being transparent. In order for us to launch all of that, that's going to be $145,000. Base level, $145,000.

That's how we're able to be able to advance this. I want us to have our own channel on Pluto TV. I want us to be able to live stream our content. And to give you an indication, after this show, we're going to be live streaming the National Association of Black Journalists celebration of its 45th anniversary of the 44 people who founded NABJ in 1975. That's going to be streaming after this show. You heard what Deborah said earlier.

On Friday, we're going to use this platform to livestream the concert that these young people have put together to encourage folks to vote. Also on Friday, we're going to be livestreaming the awards ceremony, the Freedom Awards that's held every year for the National Civil Rights Museum out of Memphis. They gave me a call for us to do it. On Tuesday, we did the Spirit of Democracy Awards with the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation. Last Thursday, we did the awards program for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Folks, there is no other black cable network, no other black website that is doing what we are doing here at Roland Martin

Unfiltered because we don't have to ask anybody's permission to do it. And so that's where your dollars are going. All right. So please support us as best that you can. We're simply asking. $50 for the year. $4.19 a month. $0.13 a day. If you can't give $50, that's fine. Every dollar matters. And then if you can give more, please do so. Last night, somebody gave us $500.

I deposited that. Every dollar counts because it's about informing our people. That's it for me, folks. Tomorrow, we're going to be on the road with Black Voters Matter. But I'm going to be broadcasting tomorrow, Jonesboro, slutty vegan. Yes, I am actually going to eat my first vegan meal tomorrow. Slutty vegan, it better be good. Lord, I'll be praying for y'all. It better be good.

So that's going to be tomorrow. We'll be broadcasting from slutty Vegan in Jonesboro, Georgia. And then on Friday, we're either in Valdosta or Savannah with Black Voters Matter. I can't remember where we're going to be. In Athens, Athens, Georgia. I'm going to see y'all on Saturday. All right, folks, I got to go. I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Holla! Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,

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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. 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 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. This is an iHeart podcast.