#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Judge rejects McMichaels' plea deal, CT officers suspended, Suicide & Black America, Dental Health

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

1.31.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Judge rejects McMichaels' plea deal, CT officers suspended, Suicide & Black America, Dental HealthThe mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, demanded the suspension of the detectives involved in the Lauren Smith-Fields and Brenda Lee Rawls cases. Smith-Fields' family attorney, Darnell Cosland, will be here to give us an update.The Tennessee officer who fired the last two shots into the body of Landon Eastep has been stripped of his police powers. Could that mean there are charges soon to follow? We'll have the attorney representing Eastep's family here to tell us what's happening in the investigation.A federal judge denies a plea deal for one of the McMichael's after an outcry from Ahmaud Arbery's family about the late-night plea notice filing. So what happens now that the judge denied the deal? The Arbery family attorney and a former federal prosecutor will break all of this down.Suicide in the black community is on the rise. Tonight we have a mental health care expert here to provide solutions for those who think there is no way out but to end it all.Plus, several HBCU's have been the target of bomb threats, again.A Georgia prosecutor is asking for protection after a perceived threat from Donald Trump.President Biden's nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, Lisa Cook, is being bombarded with racist and sexist attacks.Did you know people of color have the poorest oral health in the U.S? We are talking about dental care in our Fit, live win segment.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Monday, January 31st, 2022. Coming up, a roll of Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. The mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he has searched for suspended detectives involved in the Lawrence Smithfields and Brenda Lee Rawls cases. We'll be joined by Darnell Crossland, who is the attorney for the Smithfields and Brenda Lee Rawls cases. We'll be joined by Darnell Crossland, who is the attorney for the Smithfields family, the Tennessee officer who fired the last two shots into the body of Landon Estep.

Well, folks, he has been stripped of his police powers. Could that mean there are charters on the way? We'll talk to the attorney who is representing East Steps family here regarding the investigation. A federal judge denies a plea deal for what the McMichaels, of course, the father and son who murdered Ahmaud Arbery. We're going to explain to you what the outcry was about from the family, but also the legal understanding of that plea deal. We'll be talking with their family attorney Lee Marin. Suicide in the black community folks is on the rise.

Tonight we have a mental health care expert Troy Byer brought solutions for those who think there is no way out but to end it all. Plus several HBCUs having the target of bomb threats again. They will tell you about that and also Georgia prosecutors asking for protection

after a perceived threat from Donald Trump and his supporters. President Joe Biden's nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, Lisa Cook, is being bombarded with racist and sexist attacks. And that you know, people of color have, first of all, poor overall oral health. That's right. In our Fit Live Wednesday, we will talk about how to make sure your

mouth is always taken care of. Folks, it's time to bring the funk of Roland Martin Unfiltered to the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from small to big. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. He's got it. Got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling

Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling, Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now It's Rollin' Martin Yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Folks, Bridgeport, Connecticut Mayor has ordered two of the detectives involved in the Lawrence Smith Fields and Brenda Lee Rawls deaths to be placed on administrative leave. In a two-minute video, Mayor Joe Guerin addressed the crisis, addressed the cases, folks, and the neglect of Bridgeport Police. Once again, I want to express my condolences to the families

of Lawrence Smithfields and also the family of Brenda Lee Rawls. After reviewing these matters even more closely, I've now directed Deputy Chief Baraha of the Bridgeport Police Department to immediately put on leave the two officers Deputy Chief Baraha of the Bridgeport Police Department to immediately put on leave the two officers who are the subject of the Bridgeport Internal Affairs

Investigation and Disciplinary Action for their lack of sensitivity to the public and their failure to follow police procedure in the handling of these two matters. Let me be clear, effective immediately, both Detective Llanos and Detective Cronin are suspended from duties and put on administrative leave from the Bridgeport Police Department until such time as the OIA investigation and disciplinary cases have been completed

regarding Lauren Smithfield's and Brenda Lee Rawls' cases. The Bridgeport Police Department has high standards regarding Lauren Smithfield's and Brenda Lee Rawls' cases. The Bridgeport Police Department has high standards for officer sensitivity, especially in matters involving the death of a family member. It is an unaccepted failure if policies were not followed. To the families, friends, and all who care about human decency, that it should be shown in these situations, in this case by members of the police department. I'm very sorry.

In addition, the officer who was in charge of always seeing these matters has retired from the department as of this past Friday. To again make it clear, both to members of the public and to the department, insensitivity, disrespect in action, or deviation from policy will not be tolerated by me or others in this administration. My disappointment and demand for accountability in these and all other matters brought to my attention will remain until all the questions are answered to the satisfaction of all. It should also be noted that the untimely death of Lauren Smithfields and Brenda Lee Rawls are both still under active investigation and have been reassigned to members of the Bridgeport Police Department to resolve. I want to thank Attorney Crossland and the family and the thousands of others for reaching out and asking the questions that needed to be asked and that still need answers. I, as mayor, but also as a father, cannot fully comprehend what must be going through.

I can only pledge my continued support to try and ease your pain by getting answers and holding those responsible accountable. Darnell Crawston, he is the Smithfields family attorney, joins us right now from Bridgeport, Connecticut. Darnell, glad to have you back. So one of the cops just mysteriously retires. Yes. You know, I'm looking at your 1906. I'm reminded of the seven jewels. I'm glad to see that you're wearing that shirt. So what we've been learning here is that this department is in shambles.

And we've been saying that from day one. So it's either a combination of incompetence, disorganization, or straight-out racism. But both of these families didn't get the treatment that they should have gotten when their loved ones died. And my office has since been retained to handle the Brenda Lee Rawls family case as well. And the mayor said just now that he wants to thank me and a thousand others for asking the questions that needed to be asked but still have not been answered. Well, that's exactly what we're looking for now is answers. So we're glad that they've taken this step

in the right direction to at least acknowledge liability and responsibility for the inaction of these police officers. But now we want answers and we want some action. So obviously, let's just be clear. Pressure made all of this possible. This was not the decision of Bridgeport, Connecticut, an independent decision. It was the pressure. It was from you, from activists, from the family, from the media that forced the mayor's hand

to take this action. Absolutely. What I've been saying, and I've made a public statement, uh, which is quite clear. Listen. The world and people around the country have responded to our cries for justice. They heard us from as far as Hawaii. And yet still, a month and a half later,

we're just hearing from the mayor's office. So my question was simple. If they can hear us from Hawaii, what took you so long to hear us? And so we're saying today that we should have been heard from day one. And I'm not sure if it's political or what it is, but we're glad that we're finally being heard. But when the cameras go off, we still need to have things happening. So we're going to hold this mayor accountable and this administration accountable. And we announced today that the only way that you can hold these people accountable is, as Billy Murphy once said to me, who did the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore, is that you've got to let them pay. And we've announced that we're going to be filing a $30 million lawsuit asking for punitive damages, also policy change.

But we must let them pay. They have insurances that these cities are bonded by, and these insurance companies are going to get tired of paying out these claims, and they're going to demand that there's more accountability so that they don't have to pay. Last week, the president pro temo of the city council was on our show, and he said that the council was going to write a letter asking the state to take over the investigation.

Has that happened? No. Actually, I watched that show of yours, and I know you kind of tried to hammer this gentleman down to see, is it something that he's just thinking about, or is he going to put a bill before the city council, or what's the procedure? And Maria Pereira, who's the city councilwoman for the district that both these women were found dead in, she hasn't said anything about that procedure, so I'm not sure how he's going about that, but it has not happened yet. That was interesting because he said

that was supposed to have been done by Thursday. It didn't happen. So the only thing that happens is then, and I'll be glad to share with you, is that I sent a letter objecting to the ME's report. There was a cause of death and a manner. Causes, the toxins that were found inside Lauren Smith Fields.

And we are shocked that they have fentanyl and antihistamines found in her because obviously we know antihistamines put you to sleep and make you unfocused. So it appears that that's a primary date rape drug. The manner could, the ME's office told me it could be choking, homicide, manslaughter, accident. So my question to them is, how did you deem this an accident and total disregard for the facts and the evidence that's here that she was with another gentleman right before she died, drinking and possibly drugged? So we're objecting to that because that's another way to just disregard black women and say it was just an accident. Nothing to see here, folks. Go about your business. And we're not going to go about our business

and walk away from this. Has the family done their own independent autopsy, and if so, when are those results going to be released? So the father of Lawrence Smith Fields commissioned a gentleman who works at the

Stanford Hospital here and also does that type of autopsy. And as far as I know, that the autopsy is not completed. And also, the father told me last week that there was some funds that were being demanded in order for them to release what they've had so far. So thankfully, we have a GoFundMe. And I'm going to be speaking with the family to clear the necessary funds so we have no holdups. So our own pathologists can give us their findings. All right, then. And of course, just give out that GoFund information again for folks who would like to contribute. Yeah, so please contribute. If you go into Lawrence Smith Fields on the GoFundMe,

it comes right up. And again, Lauren Smith Fields on GoFundMe. And please help us, support us with investigators as well as pathologists to find the truth and what happened here on this journey to justice. All right, Darnell Crossland, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you, Roland. My panel, folks, Dr. Juliana Malveaux.

She is the Dean of College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Omokongo Dabinga, Professorial Lecturer, School of International Science, American University, American International Service, American University, and Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Affinity Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee. Glad to have all three of you here. Omokongo, I want to start with you. Whenever cities make these decisions, you're putting police officers, you're suspending them,

you're trying to quiet the noise as much as you can, and it is abundantly clear they realize there are some serious screw-ups in this police department. Oh, most definitely. And one of the people we wouldn't expect you to add to that list of people who've been calling out what's going on is you, Roland. I mean, every night you're hitting this hard and you brought it to probably more attention

than anybody else. And so once again, it's just amazing how this platform has done work to revolutionize things across this country. This police department, as the attorney said, is in shambles. And the fact of the matter is we have, you know,the First Sister Rawls, almost two months she's been dead. And then with Lauren, we're over a month now. And the fact of the matter is, is that this police department does not care.

And they really do think, by what you were just talking about, by having these little actions here and there, that we're gonna go away. No. Proverbial heads need to roll. We need to do more to find out about this. The lead detective or whoever who had the opportunity to resign, they let these two Black bodies be thrown away.

And if Richport thinks that these little actions that were done today to put these guys on leave is gonna stop us, they need to do more work to clean up their action now. It's like Johnny Cochran said, you know, you gotta have people in their pocketbooks and their hearts and minds will follow. But we have to make sure that they know that whatever judgment they can give to this family is never going to be enough because we are going to make sure that Bridgeport and every other department across the country knows that our Black bodies

and our Black children and our Black elders, you know, Rawls was in her 50s, I believe, they matter. They matter. And every. Every single day, we're gonna fight to draw more attention. But if they did their job in the first place, we wouldn't need to. How do you let families have family members die and you don't notify them? People gotta walk up to people, in the case of Rawls,

walk up to a man's house and be like, oh, she died over the weekend. And you call yourself an organization that protects and serves the people? You don't protect and serve all of us, because you clearly didn't care about them. But we're going to make sure that you do one way or another because this family will never get justice. All they can get is accountability and they're going to get it.

This is the GoFundMe for Lawrence Smith Fields. So far, 2,600 people have made donations. They raised nearly $70,000 as a result. So that's that particular GoFundMe. Now we talk about the other case, that is Brenda Rawls. There's also a GoFundMe that's been set up for her as well. And that one is, they just started that one. That was created one day ago.

And you'll see there three folks have donated so far. And so their target goal is to raise $50,000. And $200 has been raised thus far there as well. Julian, this is, you know, we talk about this all the time, that when we have these cases where African-Americans have been impacted, it requires protests, yelling, screaming, hiring of lawyers, doing media attention, just to do the right thing. Roland, these cases both break my heart. As a sister who has led black women organizations,

as an educator who's seen young people thrown away, as a Macongo has said, thrown away. How does a white boy, and I'm just going to call it like that, a white boy go and say, oh, I found how she was dead. And he just walks away? What the, you know, what is that? I mean, I don't even

understand it, but the fact is that people are contributing, people are fighting, people are unwilling to let these lives be tossed. And even as we talk about these lives, what are unwilling to let these lives be tossed. And even as we talk about these lives, what we have to talk about is how many lives have not been investigated.

How many times have Black women and men just been seen as throwaway human beings? And the little mayor, with his little comment after the fact, you know, whatever. That's all I have to say to him is whatever. What they need to do is bring the feds in, and that might not even help, to audit that police department. Because if those two cases are being dealt with that way, how many other cases have they had? Bridgeport, Connecticut is not different from Harlem, New York, or from Los Angeles, California.

This happens all over the country. But finally, Roland, partially thanks to you and partially thanks to protests, you have people who are saying, uh-uh, no more. But we can't make this episodic. We have to stay on top of it because we only make it episodic. We say, okay, that was one case. No, we have millions of black bodies that have been buried somewhere because somebody didn't give a hoot.

Jeff, the thing that is so clear to me is that this is what we call a callous disregard for black life. Surely, surely. First off, I want to say thanks to everything that you've done, Roland. Literally, I know people who did not know about this case until they heard about it on this show.

So I think with what everyone has said, what Dr. Odobinga said, I know people who did not know about this case until they heard about it on this show. So I think with what everyone has said, what Dr. Odobinga said, what Dr. Malvois said, very, very, very clear that we're talking about a disregard of black life. But how do we push back against that? How do we create spaces for us to stand for ourselves and to continue to put pressure on the power systems that are out there until they buckle. We're seeing now that, in this digital age, we have a remarkable opportunity to rally people that we didn't have before.

When I was in college and I was an early activist, we used to have to actually type out things, put them on flyers, slide them under the doors, go out into the neighborhoods, tack things on telephone posts, get the weak paste and just paste it over the electrical boxes to try to raise awareness. Now we have the internet, we have the digital space, and more importantly, we have black-owned media like this, which gives us the ability to tell our story, to push the narrative,

to get people into a space of awareness and alignment. So I don't want to minimize that. It's a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for us to now continue to push. We've seen in recent years, there are two points on this I want to make. One about how police, police, police, and then how we stand together using the digital space to force this issue. We always have talked about a step in the right direction. We've heard the accolades being given to the mayor here for making a step in the right direction. There were protests that have been taking place over the last seven or eight years that have now begun to evolve. At first, if you remember, people were calling for accountability. They were calling for police officers to be fired. We realized that wasn't enough. Then we were calling for police officers to be indicted. We realized, especially with the George Floyd issue, that that indictment. And in the middle of celebrating the indictment, we said, wait a minute, wait a minute. We're seeing that these officers are getting off and being irresponsible and not

being punished. Now we're talking about from the beginning to the end, firing, conviction, putting in prison, putting in jail. And on top of that, now we're paying for it. In this circumstance and situation, I'm not sure that there is any relief by bringing in the feds. In the state of Tennessee, which we'll discuss a little bit later, there are issues with the policing. And what happens is, the district attorney and the city announce, well, we're going to make this transparent by turning it over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

We're going to allow the state and the feds to investigate the cops here. And that makes us believe that it's transparent. But as long as there is a code of blue alluding to something Dr. Malveaux pointed out, we can't fully trust that the code of blue is going to indict and convict itself. So hitting them in the pocket, coming together around GoFundMe, we now have no excuse for being able to support each other across the board. And as the attorney, Attorney Crossan said, Brother Crossan said, we now have an opportunity to stand for ourselves, support ourselves,

and push this until we hit them in the pocket. Absolutely. And so, folks, we're going to continue focusing on this case when new details arise. We certainly will be right there giving you an update on exactly what's going on. Alright, folks, I've got to go to a break. When we come back, our daily black and missing update for you as well.

Plus, we'll talk about a variety of other cases later in the show. We'll talk about what took place today in Georgia for two of the men who were convicted in the death. We'll talk about what took place today in Georgia for two of the men who were convicted in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. The family was not happy at all with a proposed Department of Justice plea deal. We'll tell you what the judge has decided,

but also break down exactly what that plea deal was all about. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Norske Kulturskapet ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Don't you think it's time to get wealthy? I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show on the Black Star Network focuses on the things your financial advisor or bank isn't telling you. So watch Get Wealthy at the Black Tape.

With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, I'm Deon Cole. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. All right, folks. Mac Bell has been missing since January 11th. The 16-year-old has not been in contact with anyone since. He's a native of Miami, Florida. He's 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds with black hair

and eyes. If you have any information, please contact the Miami Police Department at 305-579-6111. That's 305- 579- 6111. The family of a man killed by

police in Florida the day after Christmas demands answers from police about what took place. Titusville police killed James Lowry after being called for a woman being assaulted. The family's attorney, Benjamin Crump and Natalie Jackson, say police have ignored their request for the 911 call and body camera footage. Instead, the family received 22 pages of blacked out information from the police. This is one of the stories that, again,

one of the stories that we've been covering. The family has been, of course, demanding action. This is, again, it goes to folks, what we keep trying to tell you is this constant situation where families lose loved ones. They don't feel as if they're getting the right information from police. They're not sharing the right information as well. This here was a news conference that took place January 28, three days ago, where family members spoke to the news media. I'm going to try to play this in just a second.

Where family members spoke to the media, trying to get answers. And so, as we said, Ben Crump, as well as Natalie Jackson. She worked also on the Trayvon Martin case with Ben Crump, representing this family. I'm going to have this in a second, but it just sort of just continues. City after city after city, we see these type of stories and how they negatively affect us. And so let's see if I can pull this up right now.

So let's see. Here we go. James Lowry's family emotionally calling for the release of more information on the 40-year-old's death. It's unacceptable. The family in agony since the night after Christmas when Titusville police say an officer responding to a domestic violence call spotted a man who police say matched the suspect's description. Next, police say that man ran from the officer. And then got in a fight with the officer when that officer shot him. Shot fired. Shot fired. Do you have a location for the DSW for medical?

I'm not sure right now. We just got blood. It looks like it might be a headshot. Police say the FDLE continues its excessive force investigation. James Larry Life Matters! Meanwhile, attorneys Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson say they're filing a public records lawsuit after police rejected their request to get a hold of body camera video, 911 audio, and police reports. This is what we got, 22 pages of black, blank records. Unbelievable. Chief John Lau responds, all evidence will be shared and police will meet with reporters for the first time when the investigation is complete. Police have not answered if Lowry was the domestic violence suspect.

His family believes he was misidentified. Police did not provide a time frame when the investigation might conclude. In Titusville, Brevard County, I'm James Sparvero, getting results, News 6. So, again, that's a local news station. They did their report there. What jumps out at me here, Julian, is he matches the description. Now, people always go, why would you run?

Because it's the cops in America. Here's what jumps out at the cops. Okay, so you got a call of a domestic violence situation. You see a guy. He takes off. Your reaction is to shoot? No, Roland.

You match the description. Omo Congo matches, Roland, you match the description. Omokongo matches the description. Jeff matches the description. And if I were male, I would match the description. The fact is that any Black person matches the description when they decide to shoot first and ask questions later. This is the absurdity of where we are and how we live right now. And they

won't even acknowledge he probably was not the person who was involved in the domestic. He was probably some dude walking down the street, minding his own business, and the police decide to murder him. To murder him. And why would he not run? Hell,

anybody would run. You know, you see the police coming, you gonna run. You know, you see the police coming, you won't run. You don't want to be in that. You won't be bothered with that. You know, I hate, I'm sorry that I'm so emotional, but so many of these things keep happening and it hits us in our souls time and time and time again. I mean, Richard Wright wrote years, years ago about when a shooting happened in one place, Black people all over the country felt it. And this is what's happening here. The mother's reaction, the mother's reaction

really speaks to the fact that she knew her son was not up to no good. And then the assistant lawyer, who held up all those redacted pages, make it clear the police are unaccountable. Just unaccountable. So here we go over and over and over again. But the nonsense, he matched the description.

Bubba the Fool matched the description. Bubba the Clown matched the description. We always talk about, oftentimes with these cases, Jeff, and it's important that we do, your first reaction is to pull a gun out and start shooting. Somebody's running away from you, okay? Let's be clear.

Police roll up. No crime has been established. So why are you shooting? This is what happens with the pat-a-rollers. When we look at how we are defined in America, as Dr. Malvo said, we all fit the description. And don't get it twisted. I have a friend, I have a congregation that is made up of all sorts of people. You talk about races, ethnicities, orientations, genders, all of that. I have an associate who made a transition from the space of being a woman to the space of being a man. She's transgender.

And one of the biggest regrets she had was a huge apology. She said, I got stopped by the police. And I recently transitioned. And I've been stopped by the police, and I recently transitioned. And I've been stopped by the police before, but I have never in my life been treated like this. They grabbed me from the car. They wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. And they... She was completely disturbed now about this. She said, I've heard the experiences that Black men have

when they get pulled over, and I know it was real. I feel it was real. I felt it with my brothers, but I experienced it now, and it meant something different. When we say, what happens when somebody runs? You're thinking in your mind, I've been there. I'm a grown man, a fully grown man. Right, this case is why they ran, why they run. Right, you start thinking about it,

and you say, I got a better than 50% chance, maybe, to preserve my life. And you begin to think about, I'm just being honest here, you begin to think about your children. You begin to think about your family. You begin to think about the people in your community and the fact that based on someone's prejudgment of you,

based on someone's preconceived notion, based on somebody else's blatant disregard, which is backed up by legalese that allows them to claim your life with impunity, and it makes you say, do I fight for this? Do I fight for my life? Because even if you tell me my life is not valuable, even if your system does not affirm me,

I affirm enough of myself to say my life is valuable, my life is worth at least trying to fight for it so that I can walk away from this and deal with the legalese on the back end. When you think about how this plays out in our families, we have to play, we have to understand one notion, domestic violence. Y'all know I talk about my family all the time. It's the backbone of everything that I am.

My community is the backbone of everything that I am. I'm particularly sensitive to domestic violence. I've got an awesome wife. I've got a grown daughter and two little girls. And I guarantee you the sensitivity around domestic violence and the people that I pastor, it is there. It is 100%. We don't tolerate it. We don't support it. And yet still, domestic violence, guilty or not guilty, is not an executable defense. It's not an offense. It's not something that you should be killed for by someone who has now named themselves judge, jury, and executioner. This is the issue. It's not about sullying someone's reputation. It's not saying that we are—it's about street justice.

We live in a society where we can no longer allow street justice to be the order of the day, and that's squarely what the issue is. Until we start talking about that, we're going to see this cycle continue. The dangerous place is you reach a tipping point where what happens when you are making that decision goes from I'm going to attempt to comply, I'm going to attempt to fight back, to when a number of people actually begin to fight back. And it is at that tipping point, call it the American Revolution, if you will,

that people begin to say, I have a right to stand up and fight for my life. I think that's when we'll start seeing these things begin to shift in the other direction. You know, Makongo, we talk about this in terms of reactions. And again, why do people run? Because of this. They say, you know what? I got a better chance of outrunning. Because even when they've been even when there have been examples, you take the case in Columbus, Ohio.

I forgot the brother's name where he was in his driveway. Cop pulls up. You know, he gets shot and killed. All he doing is just working on his car in his garage. So he's on his property. Cop rolls up, thinks he's pulling the gun out. It wasn't. He's shot and killed.

I mean, this is the reality of being Black in America when you're dealing with police. And America needs to... Excuse me. America needs to really hear us right now. I mean, look at us. We're sitting here, all professionals, vast experience in everything that we do,

and we're all talking about this experience in the same vein, because we've all lived it personally. We've seen it with members of our family. Now, imagine our brothers and sisters out there who may not have the same level of education or degrees, who might have like a misdemeanor or, you know, might have no access to be able to get other opportunities, and they also see the cops coming. Why and for what reason would they want to stick around? Because we have seen that when it comes down to what these cops do, I mean, Dr. Henry Louis Gates,

you get an arrest or approach or breaking into his own house, we understand that there is no degree, no profession, no amount of money that is going to protect you from this in any way, shape, or form. And this is another reason, Roland, why we need to make sure that we're putting up more pressure

to, uh, Biden as it relates to the police reform, because even if there's not going to be the George Floyd Police Reform Act yet, because we're not giving up on that, he said that he was gonna turn more of his actions or some of these executive orders and other things that he can do to start maybe creating things like police registries

or putting these guys on blast in other ways, shape, or form. Because we thought that after Trump left, maybe some of this stuff would subside. We thought after the insurrection, maybe some of this stuff would subside. We thought with Biden coming in and so many of these Black appointees and all this, some of this stuff will subside. These guys are, these officers

are more emboldened to do what they are doing today. Body cams hasn't stopped it. Not us recording our own videos with our own... Uh, we had a couple of situations with Chauvin and so on and so forth where it was effective, but by and large, those haven't even mattered. And now Republicans are trying to introduce laws

where even personally recording these things are banned as well. We have to keep the pressure up, and America needs to hear us, because this affects every single one of us. even personally recording these things are banned as well. We have to keep the pressure up, and America needs to hear us because this affects every single one of us with our complexion. And you have example after example, and I got to give kudos to Mr. Crump

and Ms. Jackson and Lee Merritt and all of these other brothers and sisters out there who have to have so many families cry on their shoulders every single day, it seems, and they're still fighting for us because they know that our lives matter. All right, folks. Uh, talk... Speaking of our lives matter,

several historically Black college universities, uh, have...were impacted by bomb threats. Uh, they were called into their campuses today. Southern University, uh, also, uh, Bethune-Cookman University, Albany State, Bowie State, Delaware State folks, Howard University. Again, all of these institutions were impacted today by these bomb pits. They went down on lockdown, issued shelter-in-place orders. Again, that's what we've been seeing. Now the campuses were cleared and no hazardous materials were found. At least three HBCUs, including Howard, received bomb threats earlier this month.

And so clearly it's coordinated what is going on. And it's a huge nuisance, of course, because it's also screwing up students who are in class. And so that's what we're seeing take place. Folks, gotta go to break. When we come back, we're gonna tell you about a black woman, a brilliant economist who is being attacked. It's racist, it's sexist. Oh, because they don't want to see the first black woman on the Federal Reserve.

Hmm. Sounds familiar, huh? First black female vice president. Now you got the folks who folks already attacking a black female Supreme Court Justice who Biden ain't even nominated. I keep telling y'all, white fear is real in America. My book drops in September. You're watching Roland Martin,

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only on the Black Star Network. -♪ -♪ I'm Bill Duke. This is De'Alla Riddle. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packard. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. -♪ President Biden's nominee for the fifth place I'm Julie Rose and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

President Biden's nominee for the Federal Reserve Board is getting slammed with racist and sexist attacks. Dr. Lisa Cook is an experienced economist who teaches economics and international relations at Michigan State University. She also held several positions at Harvard University. Cook was a senior advisor of finance and development at the U.S. Treasury Department. She served as a senior economist in the Obama administration. If confirmed by the United States Senate, she will be the first black woman ever on the Federal Reserve Board.

Opponents of her nomination claim she is underqualified, too radical, and lacks experience and is selected due to her race. Dr. Malveaux, sounds quite familiar. You are an economist. That resume is... Hey, Liz Hook rocks. I know her. Really? She ain't got credentials? Come on. Black women economists. And, um, if she's radical, I'm off the planet. The sister... literally about as moderate as they come.

She's good. She knows what she's talking about. This is so effing disgusting, Roland. So disgusting. Her work, you can look up her papers. You know, there's never been a black woman on the Fed because black women economists have always been peripheralized. Sadie Tana Moselle Alexander,

first Black woman to get a PhD in economics, when she got from the University of Pennsylvania, was never able to teach economics at any of our mainstream universities, not even, frankly, at Howard University, because my brothers, I love them, but their patriarchy kind of has some issues. Um, there's something... My mentor, Dr. Phyllis Ann Wallace,

um, was the first Black woman to serve as a researcher at the EEOC, and she had to jump through hoops to do that. Uh, she was the first Black woman to get a PhD in economics from Yale University. We have a history of Black women achievement in the economics profession, and Lisa is great. The sister rocks. She's so good. So these little stupid...

That means I was not music prophetic. I'm going to show roll it. I know y'all talk about me. But these stupid idiots who are attacking her are attacking her because of, as you said, white fear. This woman is going to bring a different perspective to the Fed. 20 years ago, I wrote a piece saying, put a nurse on the Fed. Why?

The Federal Reserve Act does not say the person has to be a Ph.D. economist. It happened to Jerome Powell, that they have a degree in economics. So many of them don't have degrees in economics. But what they have is what the people think of as sense. She has more sense than all seven of them suckers combined. Combined. And she will do a stellar job. But you know, when you start opening the door to Black women, what you're doing is saying that others, too, can come through. Latinas, American Indian folk. When you open it to us, you're saying that there's room for others.

And these white men, in their putrid patriarchy, putrid patriarchy, are afraid that a qualified Black woman might call them on their nonsense. Again, forgive me, I'm emotional today, because when I saw that, yesterday was somebody who wrote something in one of those little right-wing wags about her

talking about affirmative action. Hell yes, she's an affirmative action select if it means that all y'all white boys were affirmative action Selects. I got my Ph.D. in economics from MIT, and yes, it was Affirmative Action, because they did not let two of us in my class, and we're the first two to be admitted to MIT's econ department. Lisa's about a decade younger.

Brilliant woman. Come on, y'all. I mean, white people are crazy. They are just M.F. crazy. And it makes me so angry to see qualified black women being sidelined because white boys don't have no sense. Well, you know, I love it how on the Congo, they love to attack black professionals because, oh, you didn't go to the right school.

Then when you went to the right school, oh, you got into those schools because you were black. No, I got in here because I can do it. And then when you excel, then as you go through all of that, see, this is why Clarence Thomas is full of shit. This is why he is absolutely trash. See, the real...

Because Clarence Thomas hates affirmative action, not realizing that it's a whole bunch of white folks walking around campuses who are only there because Mama and Daddy went there. Because Mama and Daddy cut a check. Let's just be clear. Um, Jared Kushner ain't smart. His daddy bought his way into Harvard.

Donald Trump ain't smart. He's dumb. His own sister admitted he dumb. His daddy bought him into Wharton. So can we please just stop playing these silly little games? And so there was a poll that was done, and I commented over the weekend, and they dealt with

the Supreme Court position. ABC News did a poll, and it was something like, you know, 76% of Americans don't want race to be a factor in choosing Supreme Court nominee. And my response was, I really don't care. I really don't care what y'all think.

And I said, also, get the hell over it. I mean, I'm just, like, here's what I'm not going to do. I am not interested in making these type of white people comfortable. I'm not even about to, we ain't even gonna engage in a resume conversation. We are not even going to go down that path because

I worked at CNN for six years. It was a whole bunch of white boys there who had no business with some of those jobs. And black folks could not walk through the door at all. I'm just not interested

in playing that game. I'm not trying to convince them. I'm not trying to make them feel good. I'm not trying to present a litany of people who can vouch with them. I'm just going to be like, you know what? Y'all just kiss my ass. You know, I hear you, man. And the policy for us has to be to do not engage on so many levels. This country has had affirmative action since its inception for white people. It's called the complexion of connection. When you have people who can come over here from Europe and already be guaranteed a plot of land, you know, the list goes on and on and on. They've been doing it historically. And so when we come in with the qualifications that we have, like a Dr. Cook, and let's be clear, we know that there are incredible Black women with doctorates and degrees in economics. But we know throughout history Black women haven't taken care of economics in our hood with no D behind their name because they're just that good at what they do in terms of taking care of the community and the family. And so we have this woman, Dr. Cook, with this impeccable resume. When we have whoever's going to be

the next Supreme Court Justice nominee, we already know that the resumes are gonna be impeccable because that's what Black women do. They don't come half-hearted with this type of stuff when it comes to these types of positions and professions. So you're right, Roland, we have to just not engage. Yo, look at the qualifications, call it a day. Every time I get into an argument,

the only arguments only last about maybe two or three tweets on Twitter, because I realize the intellect is lacking with some of these people. The first thing that they want to do is say, oh, how did you get your doctorate? Oh, you're a doctor, oh, this, so on and so forth. This is all they know how to do is be haters. And when they say radical, et cetera, Black is synonymous with radical.

That's all they see. I heard Ted Cruz talking on an interview saying, why do we need to have a Black woman on the Supreme Court? Black women are only, what, 6% of the population? Seriously? We can make the fundamental argument that this country has been built on the body of the Black woman in so many ways, shape, or form. And you don't want to recognize that. Over 150 Supreme Court justices, and none of them have been a Black woman. This is ridiculous. But we just have to stand up, stand proud, back our sisters when they get in these positions, back

our brothers when they get in these positions, and once they're in there, just watch them shine and do their thing and keep propping them up. Because some of these guys who got issues with this Black woman have no issues when President Reagan said he was going to nominate Sandra Day O'Connor to have a woman on the Supreme Court. Some of these guys are like,

oh, my daughters are going to have someone they can look up to. The same thing with our sisters. So wherever the justice nominee's going to be, Dr. Cook, do your thing. We got your back as well. You're the bomb. And again, we don't got time to engage. Let's spend more time building up than trying to build down with all of

these other haters out there. You know, the thing that I find to be interesting, Jeff, is I'm looking up something right now that, you know, you listen to these people, that point you made about

Ted Cruz when they love throwing up percentages. You know what? I was reading Will Haygood's book over the weekend, Showdown, about Thurgood Marshall, and when Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, was nominated, how it was very contentious. It really wasn't until the 50s where they actually were forced to appear before Congress.

And so, but it was very contentious. So if that's Ted Cruz's argument, okay, explain to me why Jewish Americans represent almost 2.5% of the American population, but there have been eight Jewish Supreme Court justices. See, that's the stupidity of a Ted Cruz, Jeff. It has nothing to do... So, ooh, they're only this.

Oh, so that's what now we're into. So there have been 108 out of 115 white males. So we're now actually into that, huh? That's the game they want to play. And that's why you have to say, I don't really give a damn what y'all think. Oh, sure. I don't. Surely. Surely. I think in general, we have to start acting with that mindset. We have to stop paying attention to how they feel about us. We live in this white supremacist oppressive structure, a systemic structure, of course. Of course we navigate through it.

Of course we conquer all. Of course we still find our way to be successful, no matter what they do. We still find a way to align ourselves with our purpose and still succeed in spite of all of this. But at the top of this pyramid, this white male ideal that really lies to America and tries to convince us that we exist in a meritocracy. Any one of us who's been in any professional situation, we knew pretty quickly

after we got out of school and even going through school, that we do not live in a meritocracy. We are working hard with degrees. We are working hard with experience. And we are working next to someone who we have to teach how to tie their own shoes, metaphorically speaking. So we've seen this myth be dispelled. When we hear people talk about Dr. Cook, we hear this conversation and this attack on black women. We have to put that in perspective. When we talk about the great Noss and one of his quotes, he says, poor or rich, don't nobody want a brother, sister, having fill in the blank. They don't want you to have anything. So there's always an additional hurdle. There's always an additional excuse. It's extremely ironic that here we are in the midst of celebrating, seeing a freedom fighter like Harriet Tubman being put on the money, and yet we can't get a brilliant mind like Dr. Lisa Cook to secure the money and make sure that the money is good. The irony is terrifying. What we're seeing and what we're hearing in the coded language is not you, because you won't support the structure.

We hear celebrations of blackness when we hear it. You don't have a problem. They didn't have a problem with Clarence Thomas and pointing out, oh, we have a black man on the Supreme Court. But we know that, as Chuck D said, every brother ain't a brother because of color, just as well could be undercover. So it's the mentality that they're attacking when they're attacking this sister. They're saying she's free. She's independent. She's smart enough to see through anything that we could put above her, try to pull over her eyes. So it's that independence, it's that fierce understanding of accomplishments. It's that she has been through pushing her way through a meritocracy that was not a meritocracy and still succeeded and still rose to the top and still remained an independent

thinker. When we're talking about the Federal Reserve, we're talking about one question. Are you good with the money? Will you understand? Will you understand the issues? Will you be clear? She meets all of the qualifications. She checks all of the boxes.

Angst can come when we don't have institutions and we're not managing institutions of our own. We find ourselves trapped within that pyramid trying to race so that we're not caught at the bottom, that we're close managing institutions of our own. We find ourselves trapped within that pyramid, trying to race so that we're not caught at the bottom, that we're close to the top. In this case, as you said, we have to say, we don't care whether you think that she's qualified. We know she's qualified. She's ours.

And we're gonna do everything we can to support her and pay absolutely no attention to what you're saying. Julianne, go ahead. Final comment. Lisa Cook not only is eminent and qualified, but she brings a different sensibility to the flag. When we talk about monetary policy, interest rates, all that, we've talked about this on this program before, Roland. Here's the issue. Interest rates, hikes or declines don't affect the population evenly. They affect it unevenly, and that's what they're afraid of. They're afraid of looking at the diversity in our population

and how public policy and monetary policy especially hits Black people harder, hits poor people harder. That's the sensibility she's going to bring to the Fed, and that's what they don't want to hear. Absolutely. All right, folks, let's now go to uh tennessee where an officer involved in the shooting death of landon estep's strip has been stripped of his police powers nashville police chief said the 25 year old veteran brian murphy fired the last two shots during the deadly encounter we showed you this video just the other day folks folks. Again, trigger warning to anyone. If you need to turn away, please turn away right now. I'm going to read a little bit more, and then I'm going to play the video in about 15 seconds. Eastep was killed by police

on Thursday while walking on the highway. Nine officers thought he pulled a gun on them, and they opened fire. Watch this folks. She's fire! She's fire! Please. Joy Kimbrough is the attorney for Landon's wife, Chelsea. She joins us now from Nashville. Joy, glad to have you on the show. Thank you. So, you had nine cops surrounding him. Nine cops. Well, actually, there were more than nine cops surrounding him. Nine cops.

Well, actually, there were more than nine cops out there. There were far more than nine. There were nine that shot. So nine fired shots. Right, right. But there were many, many, many officers out there. And so he reaches in his pocket. First of all, we heard different reports that when they pulled up,

did he have box cutters? What was in his hand? Well, what's interesting is we have not seen this alleged box cutter. No one's seen it. You know how normally if there is like a shooting and a gun is recovered, they'll show you, they'll blow up the picture of the gun. We have not seen this box cutter yet.

So what, so in the video, he reaches back, pulls something out. What was that? Was it a phone? Was it? No, there was, we're not sure what that is. And we've never been able to really get like a good picture, a good view of it. But it was some like thin, silver, metallic-like object.

It was very small. I don't know, maybe compared to a nail clipper or something. It's something of that sort. But they couldn't ascertain what it was, and then when he pulls it out, their instinct is to shoot to kill. Has anyone explained to you why no one had a taser? Listen, I have no idea why they jumped from zero to 100.

I have no clue. And my understanding is they had been out there over 30 minutes. So I don't, you know, here in Nashville, our Metro Council will give the police department anything they ask for, any amount of money. So recently they just gave them over $3 million because they wanted new tasers. They spent over 9 million on SUVs.

They give them anything they want. So this is a well-equipped department. They have tasers. They have guns. They have dogs. They have pepper spray. They have rubber bullets. They have anything you can think of.

They have it all. And I just, the thing that just is just beyond me is this was clearly a man who had some issues. Did he have a history of mental illness? Anything along those lines as it relates to his, as it relates to, you know, his condition, anything like that? Yes, he does. My understanding is he was bipolar and schizophrenic. So he definitely has a history of mental health issues. But even if he had not, I still do not understand how this started as a man, a welfare check is my understanding,

a man sitting on a guardrail on the side of the road, not bothering anybody, not obstructing traffic, not doing anything to anyone. I don't know how it went from that to one officer, to two officers, to three, to four, to five, to, I mean, it was no less than 20, 25, 30 out there. Oh, I do, because that's exactly what happens. And the problem is when you have a welfare check,

a wellness check, and again, they were out there more than 30 minutes, it was abundantly clear something was wrong with this man. And so this is why people have been saying you bring in mental health professionals You do not send out cops who first instinct is to pull out weapons and they are trained to shoot to kill Not to wound to shoot to kill and that and so I'm still sitting here going Okay

If you were out there that long and clearly and we played the audio and we can hear the officers say look man We don officer say, look, man, we don't want to be begging, you know, don't want to do this here. I don't understand why you don't, that's not where you go, hmm, guns down, hit, pull a taser. And even after a certain period of time, and granted, you don't know what he's carrying, that's why you also have a taser. And what's more disturbing, that voice you hear negotiating with him, is our understanding that that was the off-duty officer who pulled up that's in another county. He had his family in a car.

His wife actually calls 911 to say, hey, if these officers start shooting, I'm going to be in the crossfire. So this is an off-duty officer driving down the street. He gets out of his vehicle and he's doing all the negotiating. Wow. I mean, it's just ridiculous. But in Nashville, Tennessee, when it comes to our Metro Nashville police, they get an F when it comes to being prepared to deal with people or citizens with mental health issues.

We get an F. We get an F. They're just not equipped. And this was not within a year span. This was not the first person to be shot by a Metro officer with clear mental health issues. They killed a homeless man. They killed a homeless man. They killed a homeless man in the woods. His mother had called in and asked them to check on him. His name was Jason Griffin. They killed him. That was a young lady who called the police. Her name is Melissa Wooden. She called Metro police and asked them to come kill her. She no longer wanted to live or whatever. They go out there. She's holding a souvenir baseball bat in one hand and an ax in the other hand.

Officers are out there. She has no gun, nothing that's deadly. They shoot her. She does not die. But they do. They tase her first, and then they shoot her. And now she has a colostomy bag. So, I mean, they're just

ill-equipped. They're not prepared to deal with people with mental health issues and it makes no sense because they get every dime they request. Every penny they even think they want, they get. It's approved.

Indeed. Joy, what's next for you and the family? Next, his wife is going to have to have services. He still has not been buried. They still haven't had the service. So that's what's next. You know, this is still, we're still in the initial stages. It's very hard on her. They were only married. They got married May 21st. They haven't even been married a year.

He has a teenage son that he leaves behind. So I guess just arrangements, those arrangements are what's next. But we do want officers held accountable here. We want officers held accountable. They've already decommissioned one. And the one they decommissioned is the one, you hear them say, stop, ceasefire, whatever. He's the one that even though Mr. Estep is on the ground, clearly on the ground, no threat. He continues to shoot. That's him, Ryan Murphy. So he's been decommissioned. So I expect that there will be some type of criminal investigation as far as he's concerned. But there needs to be an investigation as to all officers out there that day.

It was like a firing squad. They executed that man, that mentally ill man. They executed him. And I just hope this isn't one that gets swept under the rug because it's bound to happen again and again and again. Indeed. And let me just say this, and they're not really, you know, we just, I heard you talk about it on one of your shows. We had another officer who Indeed. The judge, Judge Monty Watkins, allowed him to be sentenced to three years, which he will only have to serve a year and a half of that. But we really aren't holding these these officers accountable here in Nashville. It is certainly a sad story. Joy, we appreciate it. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you, Roller. All right, folks.

Georgia D.A. asked for FBI security after Donald Trump held a rally in Conroe, Texas. During his speech on Saturday, Trump railed against prosecutors investigating him, including Fulton County D.A. Fannie Willis. Her office is looking into Trump's interference in the 2020 presidential elections there in Georgia. Trump urged his

supporters to hold massive protests if anything illegal is discovered that he did. Listen to this idiot. If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt. They're corrupt. New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Manhattan DA are also investigating Donald Trump's businesses. Willis wrote a letter to the FBI office in Atlanta asking for a risk assessment of buildings surrounding her office and the courthouse, the building

where a grand jury will be seated to investigate election interference. This Jeff right here shows you how evil, how sick and demented this idiot is. He has no regard for life, has no regard for anyone else, and frankly, cannot be trusted at all. I hope these folks hurry the hell up and indict this thug. It's also noteworthy to point out that with all of those component parts, he's still quite popular, and he's very popular with his people,

and he's popular with people who believe in him. I talked about one of the first, this was a couple of months back when I came on here, I talked about the difference between belief and fact. And if you can convince somebody to believe in something, in some noun, in some person, place, thing, or idea, they don't care what the facts are. So Trump is speaking loudly to his true believers. They're not interested in the rule of law. They're not interested in fairness, justice, and equality. They're not interested in the rule of law. They're not interested in fairness, justice, and equality. They're not interested in equity. They're only interested in Trump, and they're interested in what he is promising to give to them, even though he never, ever delivers. He is speaking and using coded language that is working for him. It works for him.

If you'll note, every time you listen to him speak, I'm going to give you a little tip to listen to it for. Listen to how he describes the country and listen to what he stresses. Our country, our elections. He's talking about white men. Our America. Make our country great again. It's direct coded language. It used to be coded language. Now it's just shop talk with the homeboys. So now he's saying, I am going to do whatever I want to do in this space as long as I have you behind me. People will give me money.

They will show up at the rallies. They will turn their hate into activism. So we have to be mindful that while, yes, he is shameless, while, yes, he is corrupt, while, yes, he is unqualified, he knows exactly who he's talking to. He knows how to push their buttons. He knows how to rally them. He knows how to charm them and to mobilize them. And that is why Donald Trump is still dangerous. This is why we have to make sure that we don't sit back on our laurels and just allow this to go unchecked. Julianne. You know, the orange orangutan is, I don't curse on your program, so I won't call his name.

The orange orangutan is at his highlight of stupidity, cupidity, ignorance, and arrogance. But the fact is that these prosecutors who are well within their rights in their jobs that they were elected to are being treated to horrible, just horrible treatment. And let's be clear in terms of what Jeff said. He's not going after white men. He's going after women. And let's be clear in terms of what Jeff said. He's not going after white men.

He's going after women. He's going after Black women. He said horrible things about Letitia James. He said horrible things about this sister here in Georgia. What he's basically doing is going after those who are perceived as other. So he's attempting to set up a tableau where it's white men and everybody else. And

there are white men who are, I can't even say that on air. Even I can't say what I think of them on air. Lymph, you know what, you know what. But they are so threatened by the notion that they're going to be scrutinized, that they're willing even to put their own mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives under the bus when these women are raising questions about what he is doing. He needs to not only be locked up, they need to put a straitjacket on him

and tase his behind for 45 minutes or so before they put him up under the jail, because he's basically imperiling the life liberty of just about everybody. It is disgusting. When you hear him, it's disgusting. Put a muzzle on his mouth or a sanitary napkin. Without a doubt, that would really freak him out.

On Mocongo, these folks, they still listen to him, his rant and his ravings. And again, we saw what happened on January 6th. He can move these folks to violence. D.A. Willis is absolutely smart to do this. Oh, absolutely. And he called at that rally for the largest protest that America has ever seen as it relates to any actions that these women's offices may take.

So we could be talking about something greater than January 6th. I think we also, you know, Brother Jeff was talking about paying attention to the words that he uses. Let's also remember, let's listen closely as well. When he goes after people like Liz Cheney and Kissinger and all these other types of guys, he may call these guys are not patriots or traitors and so on and so forth, but he never used the word

racist, never used that word until talking about these two black women. So if everything that he said in that rally, the most dangerous word that he can throw out to that audience is that word racist. These women not only need protection in their offices and for their staff, they need round-the-clock protection. We've seen what has happened across these countries in these school boards and this fake, you know, critical race theory argument and what these people will do over mask policies and all of this other type of stuff. Imagine what these folks will do to hear that two Black women are coming after their leader. This is no joke. And these two sisters need to invest in private security in addition to all of the FBI stuff.

We have to start going the distance to make sure that our community is protected because we've seen what they're willing to do to each other as it relates to these insurrectionists and January 6th and so on and so forth. They could give two cares about us. This is real and it needs to be taken serious in every way, shape, and form.

All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, we'll talk about today's developments in a federal courtroom in Georgia where the Ahmaud Arbery family vehemently opposed a Department of Justice plea deal between two of the white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. We'll break down exactly what this plea deal was,

how federal courts works when it comes to these deals, but we'll also be joined by one of the Arbery family attorneys, Lee Merritt. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Stavros Stavros Stavros Nettopp Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a

deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. All right, folks. Today in Georgia, a pretrial hearing took place for two of the white men who were convicted in state court of killing Ahmaud Arbery. This, of course, now the federal trial is supposed to start on Monday. That is, they're being tried for civil rights violations against Ahmaud Arbery.

And so, as you already know, they were convicted, again, in state court. But this is now in the federal court. Well, the issue today dealt with a Department of Justice plea deal that was worked out between them as well as the two defendants. Now, this is the plea deal right here. In this particular plea deal, they would get 30 years in federal prison. But in addition to them getting 30 years in federal prison, as part of the plea deal, they also

would confess to the actual crime that they chased Ahmaud Arbery down because of his race. Now, in this plea deal, they also would waive any federal appeal as well. This would ensure they would be incarcerated regardless of the outcome of any of their state appeals. Now, this set off the family of Ahmaud Arbery. They were not happy with this deal because based upon this deal, they would serve the first 30 years in a federal prison and after 30 years, if they are still alive,

they would then be transferred in a federal prison, and after 30 years, if they are still alive, they will then be transferred to a state prison. Again, this was for Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory. So what the judge then, the judge did not agree to the plea deal. Now, she agreed with the, I listened in on the call today, folks. She agreed with the 30-year sentence. She did not agree on the second part of the plea deal when it came to them serving the first 30 years in federal prison. As a result, she gave them an opportunity to withdraw their plea deal.

Their attorneys asked for 48 hours to confer with their clients. She then said, well, you could come back tomorrow or you can come back Friday. They said, let's do Friday. She said, let me be clear. The trial begins on Monday. In the back and forth, the judge made clear she could sentence them to more than 30 years. She can sentence them to 30 years or sentence them to less than 30 years. And so that was the issue, Jared, there. Joining us right now is Lee Merritt, one of the attorneys for the Maher Arbery family. Lee, you sent out a series of texts condemning this plea deal. Why is that?

Why that response? Because this was the statement that was sent out after the judge's decision from the Assistant Attorney General Christian Clark, who leads the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Quote, we respect the court's decision to not accept the sentencing terms of the proposed plea and continue the hearing until Friday. The Justice Department takes seriously its obligation to confer with the Arbery family and their lawyers, both pursuant to the Crime Victim Rights Act and out of respect for the victim. Before signing the proposed agreement reflecting the defendant's confessions to federal hate crime charges, the Civil Rights Division consulted with the victim's attorneys. The Justice Department entered the plea agreement only after the victim's attorneys informed me that the family was not opposed to it. Your response to that?

Kristen Clark, who has been a dear ally and friend in the Civil Rights Department and even before she was there, did consult with us as attorneys, both I and Ben Crump. She did not talk to us about the condition of transfer from state custody into federal custody. And that's what the family was against. So what is the issue there? Because if they go to federal prison for 30 years, they're in prison. They're not getting out. And if they serve their time in a federal prison, then they're going to state prison. So what so what is the issue here? Them serving it in a Georgia state prison prison versus a federal prison. Well, as Kristen Clark will tell you, the Department of Justice is currently suing the state of Georgia because of the condition of their prisons.

They're overcrowded. They have less funding. And comparatively, the federal prison would represent a lighter sentence, certainly so to the family. The family is convinced of that. And so they are not interested in any plea deal that makes that sentence primary. When you say a lighter sentence, what does that mean? How is it lighter if they're not getting less time in federal prison? No.

So what I said was if you consider the condition of the state prisons in Georgia, the fact that they're overcrowded, the fact that they're underfunded, the fact that safety would be an issue for these men, this is something that the family wanted to consider. And obviously these men think that this sentence will be lighter because they're fighting desperately

to be transferred to federal prison. OK, I'm I'm I'm still trying to understand this. OK, so is the family saying because Georgia prisons are overcrowded, underfunded and they're in horrible shape, they want to see them there? That's correct. OK, so that's why we keep saying lighter sentence. That's really what you're see them there. That's correct. Okay, so that's why when you keep saying lighter sentence, that's really what you're talking about there. And so now here's the other piece here. Their appealing on the state grounds was a part of the federal plea deal. They are admitting to the crime.

Can't, doesn't that pretty much negate any potential appeal because they are admitting to it that he was, he was pursued due to race. And so you pretty much slam dunk. You can try to appeal all you want to. You ain't getting out because you're going to have this federal sheet of paper where they have stated that they pursued him and killed him based upon his race. Absolutely. The terms of the confession that where they admit to certain aspects of the crime, now, mind you, mens rea or the belief that they chased after Ahmad because of his race is not a factor in the crimes that they were convicted of at the state level. However, any confession is going to make an appeal more difficult. So, yeah, that would be one benefit to the plea.

Also, this DOJ plea bargain, it also would mean they can't appeal on the federal level. Right. They've waived their right to appeal as a part of the plea agreement. They could not appeal the plea agreement that they would have entered today. So what would the family be satisfied with? That is, a plea on the federal level, but they serve it in the state prison instead of federal? The family is actually content with their sentence as it stands, life without the possibility of parole in Georgia state prisons. This is a cherry on top. So anything that would come along and modify the conditions that they've already accomplished in the state sentence, they would oppose.

But here's the deal, though. Correct me if I'm wrong. When it comes to state, you have life without parole, but that's obviously on the state charge, you still have the federal charge. But one of the defendants does have the possibility of parole, correct? And he was not a part of this plea. Right. And that's

William Roddy Bryan. That's correct. Okay. And so, if that's the case, is the family then asking the feds to withdraw the the case because again the judge has said the trial is going to start on monday so if they come back and say hey because you know judge you didn't accept it you know uh we're not going to accept this let's say this thing moves to trial. Okay. It goes to trial. Let's say they are convicted. The reality is I've talked to different lawyers who say, in a lot of times, when you have somebody convicted in the state and federal, a lot of times the

federal supersedes the state and they serve time there first. So even if the trial moves forward, there's no guarantee that if they're convicted, they don't serve initially in federal prison. So this is certainly a condition that we spoke with Kristen Clark about. And she assured the family because of the primacy of the state case and the fact that the

charge for murder was more serious in terms of weight at the state level than the federal level. Without a plea deal, they stay in state prison. Okay, no, no, no. Without a plea deal, they stay in state prison if they're not convicted. No, even if they're convicted. Based upon what? Based on the representations of Kristen Clark. No, but is there a statute that says, is there a statute, and I've been asking people for it, is there a statute that says the state takes precedent over federal?

There are factors that are considered. It's not a statute. There are two factors that will play here. First, who received the sentence first? So the fact that the state received the sentence first, and again, this is as was explained to us by Kristen Clark, the head of the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. So the fact that they received the sentence in the state first makes it more likely that they will first serve out the state sentence. And then in addition, the seriousness of the charge. Here, kidnapping versus murder. Murder is the more serious charge. It's the sentence that they would play out first. I want to bring in Glenn Ivey, former federal prosecutor in here. And Glenn, I want to ask you that because, again, I see y'all sitting here, people saying, oh, this is confusing. And I need people who are watching. Some of y'all like,

OK, Roland, move on. No, I'm not going to move on because too many people out here are utterly confused by what's going on because a bunch of y'all are not lawyers, and you don't understand what's happening in the criminal justice system. And so I've been watching people all day, all pissed off about the plea deal, some saying, well, I don't understand why the family is acting this way because you don't understand what's going on here. And so that's why we're having the conversation. Now, Glenn, explain to us, how does this thing work? You've got a state conviction, but now you've got a federal trial that's supposed to start on Monday.

Well, does anybody supersede someone? I mean, who works that out? Yeah, I mean, typically the way that would work is you would do a plea agreement that encompassed the state and the federal case at the same time. So there'd be a coordinated effort. And then, you know, typically the federal sentence would go first or be the entire sentence, because typically the federal sentences are more are stiffer than state sentences. Now, because they have been convicted, these two, life without parole, that's life without parole. Yeah, I mean, I guess the feds, you know, they don't have a sentence that's going to supersede that

from the standpoint of a term of incarceration. So you would think, as counsel just explained, that he got representations from the Department of Justice that the state sentence could supersede that, and that would be the one that would be served first. But it is a little unusual for it to happen that way, I must say. So you're saying in most cases, like in many cases, federal is served first. Yeah, not only that, in most cases, the federal case would be the one that would drive the whole deal.

And what happened here, Lee, that was back and forth between the state and the federal, and the federal folks said to state, you go first. You prosecute them first. That's right. And there was a plea deal offered before the state entered their sentence, you may recall. And in that case, the federal— Hold on, hold on, hold on one second. You said there was a plea deal offered by whom, state or federal?

By the federal government. Got it. Go ahead. Yeah. So the DOJ considered a plea deal prior to the state sentencing. In that case, the men would have served their time in federal prison first. Because of that, the family decided to take their chances with the state sentencing to see if they would get a more severe penalty. Okay. So you're saying that prior to the state, him then being convicted on the state level,

the federal, the federal, the DOJ approached them about a plea deal on the federal charges. That's correct. For both charges, as, as counsel just mentioned, they would have done the two of them together. Got it. Oh, okay. Hold up. So again, see They would have done the two of them together. Got it. Oh, okay, hold up. So, again, see, that sort of changes it. They were approached about a plea deal on the state and federal charges. And the family said, let's wait to see what happens on the state with the state case.

That's exactly it. Okay. The judge rules. Glenn, the point I'd ask Lee is, okay, let's say the McDaniels don't accept. They said they pulled their guilty plea. Judge says trial starts on Monday. Let's say they are convicted in federal court.

Then what? Yeah, it's a pretty unusual scenario. I hear counsel saying that the Department of Justice represented that the state would go first from the standpoint of incarceration. Usually it's the other way around. Usually the federal sentence is what drives all of this process at the state and federal level. Usually it's coordinated, so it is a little odd. But, you know, the fact that it would be a longer sentence, you know, because it's a life without parole sentence, you know, maybe that's a factor. I guess the other question would be which judge decides as well, you know, which one would go

first. And, you know, and typically issues like where they serve their sentence, at least at the federal level, the judges don't even decide that. That would be the Bureau of Prisons who would make that decision. Bureau of Prisons, that's exactly it. Yeah. So, and again, it's interesting, you know, folks like, oh my goodness, you're complicating this. Y'all, it actually is complicated because the fact of the matter is you actually rarely see this. I mean, you rarely see this. Take the cop who killed Walter Scott.

Hung jury on the state level for murder charges. What did he do? He took a plea deal on the federal level as opposed to going to a third trial on the state level. And that's why he's sitting in federal prison. And so people need to understand that this is unusual in terms of how this happens because what have we historically seen? Historically, we've actually seen people found not guilty on the state level,

and then we've had to depend upon the federal government to convict them in a hate crime trial. Rodney King. Yeah, Rodney King case is a perfect example. And again, those two cases involving police officers, this obviously is different in terms of what happened. Well, Lee, we certainly will see when we go to court on Friday what they're actually going to do. The judges made clear that, look, if you don't accept this plea deal, the trial starts on Monday. To my panelists, either you have a question for Glenn Ivey or Lee Merritt.

Julianne, I'm a Congo. Jeff? Glenn. Julianne, go. Well, what I'm curious about in terms of this, I love what the family is saying is make him go to the worst prison that he can... them... to the worst prison they can go to. Is there any mitigation? I mean, can judges or others say, we want to give them a break? I'm just concerned about how this plays out. Well, if you mean at the federal level, typically no, because they're violent

offenders. So, you know, at the federal level, you have, you know, they call them club feds. They're still jails, but they're certainly not what you'd see at the state level from the standpoint of accommodations and the like. But you also have the Supermax case, you know, jails there, too, where, you know, the Unabomber is held and the Al Qaeda suspects are held and, you know, that crowd, too. And that's 23 hours of solitary confinement day after day. In fact, human rights violations have been raised about that particular prison in Colorado. So, you know, the family has a right to push for what it wants, and they're probably right that the state, if I hear counsel right, sounds like the situation in Georgia jails is especially bad. But there's some tough jails in the federal complex of jails as well.

Well, I got this text, Lee, and I would like someone hit me and they, so are we now advocating for inhumane conditions in prisons? No, the inhumane conditions exist, and we have lawsuits filed against Georgia state prisons concerning their conditions. However, why should these men be the exception when so many black and brown people are actually held in those deplorable conditions in the state of Georgia? Well, why do these men get the less severe conditions while everyone else

gets the worst of the worst? So I'll ask again, if the family then does not want this to be a possibility, are you going to ask the federal government to drop the federal charges against them? Because if you drop the federal

charges, there's no conversation. They're going to prison. They're in life without parole. There is no discussion about potentially going to federal prison. Because as I said, you can move forward with this, and then they can be convicted in federal court, and the judges may decide they're going to go to federal prison first. And so all this was for naught. So will you do that? Roland, it's funny that you say that that because in our conversations with the Department of Justice yesterday, Wanda Cooper-Jones

made it clear that her preference was if there was a chance that these men would be transferred to federal prison as a result of their conviction then take these charges and well, I won't use the language she used drop them. But

that's up to the federal officials to decide whether they actually drop a case. That's correct. Jeff? Yeah, there are several issues here. I want to say thanks to Attorney Merritt and Attorney Ivey for really getting into the weeds with this issue. And like Brother Roland said, there are people out here who do not understand the complexities and the layers when it comes particularly to sentencing. When you talk about

the state system versus the federal system, some of those differences come into play, including the quality of management, the size of the prison system itself, the federal prison. I think there are about 122, 123 federal prisons, whereas there are over 1,700 state prisons, and they tend to be poorly run. Is this issue about, and this plea agreement that was rejected by Judge Wood, is this more about preferred imprisonment for these guys? They want to take their chances at the federal level as opposed to the horrendous conditions in Georgia. Yeah, it certainly comes down to the conditions of confinement. And in Wanda's statement to the court, she repeatedly referenced the conditions of confinement is what she was hoping to maintain,

that she wanted these men to serve their time where her son was murdered, where she raised her son, where she paid her taxes in the Georgia State prisons. And if there's a problem with the Georgia State prisons from a humanitarian standpoint, fix the prisons. Glenn, any comment? Well, you know, I think it's certainly a challenge, you know, what's going on in prisons across the country. And this is true at federal prisons, too. COVID is a challenge at the federal level. They have a lot of jails or prisons. Washington, D.C. actually faced some challenges with their jail as well. And I filed a request

to get prisoners out of jail early because of these conditions at the federal level. So it's a challenge that I think we need to keep our eye on. I understand the family has a unique concern here, but the challenge of the condition of our prisons, we've got to keep our eye on that ball because they're inhumane. People don't get a chance to get the types of training and education that they could benefit from. So when they come out from a reentry standpoint, they've maximized the chance to really be productive citizens again. But in the case of these two, they're not coming out. And if they do go to federal prison first, when they finish federal and they're still alive,

they're going to state prison. If they go to federal prison first. Omokongo, final question. First of all, thank you both for your tireless work on behalf of the community. The question that I have is that if they were willing to sign something admitting that they targeted Arbery because he was black, is there some possibility where some types of hate crime charges can also be added to whatever they're dealing with? Just so this another message can be sent as it relates to that area as well? Well, actually, so that's what this plea bargain would be. So they will be the plea bargain. They would they would be plea bargaining to pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges. Right now, they are they've already been indicted and charged with violating his civil rights, federal hate crimes.

So the multitude of this. So they would be pleading guilty to those charges. And so today, what the judge, excuse me, what the assistant attorney said in the courtroom, she said it was important for the purpose of the public to get this guilty plea, to find them convicted on these hate crime charges. Lee, your thoughts? Yeah, the hate crime charges are not available at the state level, and obviously they're pressing them forward in the federal case. However, for the family, they're mostly concerned about these men serving out their state sentence. All right, then. Any response to that, Glenn?

No, I take that point. You know, it would be a powerful, I think, admission by both of these men that what they did was based on racial animus, and I think that would be an important message for the nation to hear, really the world.

But I understand that, you know, the family has a different priority on this. All right, then. Lee Merrick, Glenn Ivey, gentlemen, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. So one of the reasons why it was important to have that conversation and give that time to it, because frankly, a lot of people out here, y'all know what the hell's going on. Okay, here's the deal for everybody out here who's whining. I see y'all in the chat room whining and running your mouths. Today's hearing, you couldn't record it. We couldn't air it. So unlike the state trial where you got to actually see for yourselves

what was being discussed, Federal cases aren't allowed. They don't allow that. They did allow a phone line to be available for both of us to listen in, to hear the proceedings, and then be able to report it. And so it's way too many people. I saw stuff all day today. I saw people, oh, the DOJ is trash.

Kristen Clark, what kind of black woman are you? Okay, this is the same black woman who was leading the Lost Committee for Civil Rights under law who's out there fighting civil rights cases. So, folks, the reason we have shows like this, so you can understand the law. So you can understand what's happening here. This is a very unique case that we're dealing with here that rarely ever happens. And so it's too many. And let me just be real clear. It's way too many black folks out here who are emotional on this whole deal, who are trashing other black folks who want to see them convicted.

And so we have actually something that we rarely ever get justice on the state level and the federal level. Because they've been convicted on the state level. And the plea bargain was to plead guilty on the federal level. And so versus sitting here yelling and complaining and why we having a conversation is to allow our black legal minds to explain to you what is going on. So you understand what is going on so you understand what is going on and you're not running out here in a fog trying to figure it all out. And so again, the judge gave them till Friday for the McMichaels.

Only one of them was in the courtroom today, folks. So that their lawyer said, can we confer with our clients? So Friday, when they come back to court, they will decide, will let the court know whether they have actually accepted the guilty plea. If they withdraw their guilty plea on Friday, the federal hate crimes trial for the McMichaels will begin on Monday in Georgia. And we'll tell you exactly what happens on Friday in this case. Folks, when we come back, a former beauty pageant queen

commits suicide a couple of weeks after the 26-year-old son of Regina King does the exact same thing. We'll talk with an expert next about what is happening with African Americans and suicide, and we'll also later talk with a doctor about your oral health. We talk about mind, body, fitness.

We talk about working out, your diet. But a lot of us have some serious problems in our mouths that could actually hurt us later in life. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Hi, this is Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I'd like to ask you a question. Is your life teetering under the weight and stress and pressures of everyday life?

Well, let me tell you, balance isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Living a Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, cheer ourselves on, and pull ourselves together together. Learn tips and tools that will help you with the everyday stressors. So join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture

with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Cupid, the maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered.

Folks, suicide is a significant issue in the United States, not just for black men, but also for black women. Yesterday, the news of Chelsea Ward killing herself, jumping off a building in New York, shocked so many people across the country. Of course, she was Miss USA in 2019, was a TV correspondent for Extra, and also was a, first of all, was also a local mayor

in the D.C. suburb. First of all, no, she was a, Chelsea was also a lawyer in New York. We also have the story of a mayor in Hyattsville, Maryland, who a week ago took his life, as well as the 26-year-old son of actress and director Regina King. His name is Eon Alexander.

That was two days after his 26th birthday. And so to have these three cases in the last couple of weeks has been a shock to a lot of different people. In addition, I was watching a story where the voice of Charlie Brown, a 65-year-old gentleman, also took his life. The CDC conducted a study and found that black respondents had the highest percentage of suicidal ideation at 15% compared to whites and others.

Also, 44% of blacks reported having more than one negative mental health symptom, while whites and others had 38% and 40%. There's a common misconception, oh, black folks, we don't kill ourselves. But what we have seen over the past decade, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of African Americans committing suicide. Troy Beyer is a mental health expert. She joins us from Flagstaff, Arizona to offer her insight. Many of you also know Troy from being an actor and director as well, but she has other pursuits beyond Hollywood.

Troy, so many people, I've seen the comments of people saying, I mean, here you have this beautiful, talented, vivacious, 30-year-old black woman, television correspondent. She's an attorney living in a high rise in New York. Why in the world would she take her own life? You see all the different salutes of Regina King's son, Eon. I mean, he was a chef and he was a DJ doing great things in just two days after his 26th birthday. But folks don't really understand the reality of depression that people go through in this world. Yeah. So what qualifies me to have this conversation with you is that I do have a doctorate in clinical psychology. And I am very well educated on this particular topic. And you said it right there, Roland, depression, right? So when a human being is depressed, they push it backwards. They

don't want to push forward. And when you are pushing backwards continuously, then you don't even want there to be any momentum. You want to stop the action because the pain of moving forward is just too painful. And I think that's really what, you know, what's happening here is that people are just depressed. We don't have futures that we're excited about living into. Even though face value, it looks like this person has a great life or this person has a great life. What you see is not always the truth. We know that. Instagram teaches that every day. It lets us know that just because they're looking happy doesn't speak to their authentic happiness. People are depressed. They're sad. They're scared.

We're living in the most challenging times in the history of the world as far as I'm concerned. And what's inspiring us to want to move forward? Well, that's the question. And also the issue, and she and I saw, I've seen different posts where Chelsea talked about anxiety. Um, and there are people who, again, they have significant bouts with that. It leads to, uh, it leads to panic attacks. Um, and things along those lines. And, uh, you know, one of the things that, uh, It leads to panic attacks. That's right.

And things along those lines. And, you know, one of the things that I've talked to teachers and professors, the level of anxiety a lot of young folks have to succeed, the constant comparisons to siblings and other friends. You mentioned social media. I remember I was talking to a movie junkie one day, and I was talking to this guy, comparisons to siblings and other friends. You mentioned social media. I remember I was talking to a movie junkie one day and I was talking to this guy and he was saying how

this was a grown man with children, a wife of children and he said how he had to get off of Instagram because he took nice vacations but he was just so despondent looking at celebrities and others and what he was seeing on Instagram that he was being depressed by it and I was going I said wait a minute you

serious yeah you know and so and so so you have this where we're now living in this world where you're being constantly compared to others as well a lot of people talk about that level of anxiety how they can't handle it right listen the hustle is real it is real we're trying to keep up with the Joneses in a way like never before. Anxiety is the inability to control an outcome, okay? It's all future-based, right? So that's why when we have anxiety,

we can, and when we're having a panic attack or dealing with depression, we need to know how to take care of ourselves. And that's my job. That's why I went and got a doctorate in clinical psychology because I'm dedicating my life to teaching human beings how to self-regulate in the space of despair and anxiety and panic we have a first-aid kit when we have for physical challenges

do you know we do not have a first-aid kit for mental challenges so a first-aid kit takes care of your physical challenge until you can get to a professional as far as I'm concerned, the mental first aid kit that I'm creating will allow a person to self-regulate until they can get to a professional to help them. People commit suicide because they feel like it's the only option. The pain is so great. I also want to add in that when we're experiencing emotional or psychological pain, the same exact region of the brain is activated that is activated when we're experiencing physical pain. So it's very real, but we have not been trained. We have not been equipped with the tools and information to take

care of ourselves. And that's what my life work is all about because I am done hearing about people taking their lives because the pain was unbearable. The pain is real, but it can be bearable if you have the right tools, the right information, and if you have the desire to live. And I can't imagine, I can't imagine that that beautiful spirit, any of the people that I know that have died recently, did not have the desire to live. It was just too painful. To that particular point, I'm going to go to my panel for questions in just a second. When we talk about what people are dealing with, actor Michael Madsen,

his son also recently took his life, wife, children. He served in the military. Dad said had no idea. There were no indications whatsoever and again the outward appearance is one thing you take you take you take Chesley not only was she a lawyer a TV correspondent had an MBA as well I think people confuse oh my god here's somebody I mean how do you have these these amazing you know credentials and you've done all these different things and you're 30 years old, and then you would actually do this. This was the last post that she made on Instagram. And this apparently, this was posted after 6 a.m. on Sunday

and it was authorities say it was around 8.15 when she apparently jumped from the high rise in New York. She said, may this day bring you rest and peace. It was around 8.15 when she apparently jumped from the high rise in New York. She said, may this day bring you rest and peace with a red heart. When you talk about somebody who's being tormented, what they're going through, they're searching for those two things, rest and peace. Yeah. Listen, Roland, just, you know, everything that glitters is in gold. I mean, I've attempted suicide twice. I know, I know the plight, I know the journey. And one of the reasons

I left show business and went into psychology is because I was tired of the rejection and tired of the hustle. And I was really suicidal. I was like, I've got, I've got to stop this. No one would have ever thought that about me. They're like, oh, she's got it together. She dated Prince. She was on dynasty. You don't know what happens when someone goes home and they shut that door. That's when the real deal comes out. And like I said, if you don't have anything in your future, that's really inspiring you and lighting you up, you're going to depress backwards. So yeah, she was definitely glistening and she was golden, but her soul was broken and she didn't have the tools to fix herself. And that's what my life work is about, again, is teaching you how to do you.

Jeff. Because you can. Sure, sure. First of all, I want to say thank you, Dr. Troy, for not only your career, but all of the intersecting spaces that makes you uniquely qualified to put what you're putting into the world. Thank you for walking in your purpose. Thank you for healing others. And I know it's a thankless job. When I'm in the ministry here in this space, I counsel people, and I'm a very practical minister.

I understand that you can't pray these things away. You can't put oil on somebody's head and expect for it to go away or point them to a verse in a scripture. It's all about getting them the tools, getting people the tools that they need to work. And this affects all of us. We get on Instagram and social media and to use a music metaphor, we compare our daily singles to somebody else's greatest hits. And it can move us in a place where we reflect, and we reflect on the past, it creates the regret. We start thinking about the future, and it creates the anxiety.

And when we talk about the neurological process, I want to give you a moment and just tell us about the brain process as it relates to trauma. Because if I'm correct, people look and they say, oh, it wasn't that bad. A person just, you know, they fell down some steps. I got in a car wreck. But as we are especially developing trauma, if I'm correct, trauma registers the same for different people. It sure does.

Okay. So talk about that a little bit. Yeah. And thank you. Thank you for introducing that into the conversation a little deeper, because it's so relevant. Trauma is hugely impactful, especially emotional trauma, because it has an impact in a way that we can't really see. So we don't know that we, listen, if you break your arm, that's a physical trauma. We know we've got to put it back in place. But when you're dealing with emotional trauma, we don't know to what extent the trauma is impacting you.

So what happens is when we're dealing with any kind of threat, especially emotionally, our brain, the part of our brain that is responsible for logic and reason, which is the frontal cortex, I call it the CEO of the brain, it shuts down. It's no longer available to make wise, smart choices. We're activated then by the reptilian part of our brain, which is only concerned with fight or flight. And when the fight looks too big, that's when the flight sets in and that's when suicide kicks in. And that is not done within a consciousness of logic and reason.

It happens in the space of primitive survival. That's the part of the brain that's instructing you to kill yourself. So that's why I teach people within seconds how to disengage from that reptilian brain like that, reactivate that frontal cortex and make some very reasonable choices until they can get the proper help. It's all science. It's all doable. We just need access to the information. And before I go to Omicongo, this just in here for TMZ, walking dead after Moses J. Mosley. Dead at 31. Cops suspect suicide. Yeah, there we go. Omicongo.

Wow. Thank you, Dr. Byer, for all of the work that you're doing. As somebody, myself, I was suicidal as a teen. And the question I have for you is now as a parent raising kids, three kids between the ages of seven and 15, what are some of the modern day signs that, and I work with youth across the country, so I see things, but from an expert who does this like you do, at the level you do, what are some of the signs that we as parents, educators, anybody who has young people in our life or in our charge should be looking for

as it relates to signs of possible suicide ideation and attempts? First thing is isolation. Whenever you see a child or an individual removing themselves from community, community is congregation. It's common union, right? You have people that you unite with. So when you start to see an individual withdrawing and going into solitude and isolation and

removing him or herself. So if you look at some of the posts of people who have committed suicide, there's a two-week space of no communication. They would post every day, and all of a sudden for two weeks there's nothing. So I look for these patterns. You want to look for behavior that is a departure from their norm. Now, I want to say something to parents, and I'm just going to tell one on myself, as much as I know about emotion regulation and psychology, I've had challenges with my children and them wanting to like not be here because they weren't able to see past whatever they were challenged with. So suicidal thoughts don't discriminate.

You got to know that. And so you have to make sure that you just equip yourself and you're looking for the signs. So when it does show up, you are equipped and you are prepared. And on that point, when you mentioned that, literally Chesley's last post was that morning on January 30th. Her previous post was January 17th. Yes, there's a definite pattern. You want to look for people who there's a very clear line in which they've started to engage in different behaviors. Julianne. Dr. Byer, first of all, thank you so much for your work. I think it's really important. We know that in the African-American community, suicides are up. We know that especially among African-American men, we're seeing more than we have seen perhaps in a decade or more.

How can I put this? Dr. Martin Luther King was suicidal as a teenager. And this is something that people don't often talk about. And depressed his whole life. Yeah, he had depression. But as a teenager, he tried to kill himself twice, uh, at 13 years old. Um...

In the Black community, we don't really talk about mental fitness as much as we talk about physical fitness. And when people say they're depressed or whatever, a girl, you need to go talk to your pastor. You know, something like that. How do we get the notion of mental fitness more conversational so that people who need help feel non-stigmatized when they seek it? That's fantastic. Thank you for asking that because

that's my complaint. We're so conscious of our physical challenges and our physical fitness, but when it comes to mental fitness, it's like, oh no, let's not talk about it because of the stigma attached, which is why I created Mindology Fitness. I make it fun, effective, and affordable. People come to my classes. They love it. It's all about having a great time. It can be fun. It can be cool, but it has to start as a community conversation that grows and to become just a normal conversation. We're like, oh, yeah, you have a Mindology fitness coach. Who's your coach or whatever you want to call it? And another thing that I'm doing to rectify the challenge that you're saying is present in our community is every Wednesday on YouTube, I am doing free emotional remedy relief sessions. And I'm teaching people how to

take care of themselves in a really fun and cool way. I'll give you an example. If you're dealing with anxiety, all you have to do is squeeze your ring finger, put on some music and squeeze your ring finger. And within two minutes, your anxiety will be complete. I'd say 70% diminished. So I'm introducing really fun ways. Like you don't have to swallow a pill to heal anymore. Yes, maybe sometimes it's necessary, but if we can have fun and we can dance and make it cool and hip, why not? That's what I'm here to do.

That's my purpose. That's what God gave me my breath to do. And that's what I'm doing. So thank you for pointing that out. Troy, how can folks find you and the work you're doing? Okay. So you can find me at mindologyfitness.com, also Dr. Troy Byer channel on YouTube. Please join me on Wednesdays. I am there for you. I will be teaching you all sorts of tools and techniques that are organic that you can do to shift your emotion, any amount of emotion that you don't want to deal with,

like that. All right, then. See, Troy, see that when you text your brother? Yeah, right? I love you, Roland. Yeah, she hit me today. She's like, I want to talk about this this week. I'm like, how about tonight? You sure did. And there you go thanks a lot i appreciate it all right folks going to a quick break we come back talking about your oral health get your mouth right some of y'all don't be trying to turn don't be trying to flip right now y'all know y'all got some mouth problems trust me it could be an indicator of a greater sickness in your body. We'll be joined next by another sister who's a doctor.

Dental doctor. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. I'm going to go to the bathroom. Nå er det en av de fleste stående stående i verden. Blackstar Network is here. Oh, no punching! I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power! We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller.

Hey, Black, I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? MUSIC MUSIC Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWV. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny.

And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. According to the CDC, folks, African Americans are among the racial ethnic groups with the poorest oral health in the U.S. The greatest disparity of children with tooth decay, African Americans. African Americans age 35 to 44 experience

untreated tooth decay nearly twice as often as white Americans. The five-year-old survival rate of oral cancers among African American men is almost half of that of white Americans. Yeah, y'all. Oral health matters. Dr. Lucia Johnson,

she's the owner of VIP Smiles from Cleveland, Ohio She joins us right now doc. How you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? All right, so let's get right to this whole deal, okay, and that is People just like we're talking about mental health People love talking about your physical health working out you always posting your workout videos But it is people don't spend a lot of time actually discussing

their oral health. Yeah. We see that a lot. I think that people focus so much on their body and their health and having medical coverage. We forget that your mouth is the gateway to your body. And so if your

mouth isn't healthy, it's really a representation of your body. So it should be the reverse. Dentists are able to diagnose and treat disease a lot earlier if you're seen on a regular basis. If you think about some of the statistics that you brought up, we're talking about the disparities in our culture. It's because they're not seen as often, whether it's access to health, lack of coverage, or just the dental IQ is low. Or folks say, oh, my goodness, my tooth hurts, now I go. Versus, okay, so here's the question.

So how often should we be seeing folks like you? Once a year, every six months, once a quarter? Twice a year for healthy individuals. If you have gum disease, which is where you start to lose bone and teeth, you should be seen four times a year. Okay, so we're going twice a year. What are we doing twice a year? You want to get a professional cleaning, x-rays. We examine your oral tissue we look for any lesions oral cancer decay problems we want to correct how you're brushing how you're flossing and really just look at what

you're eating I think that's the thing that links your health it to dentistry what do we eat what are we? What is destroying our teeth? Because imagine the hardest mineral in your body being destroyed by what you eat. You could imagine the damage that is doing internally, the soft tissue. So that's really what we're looking for. And when we see a rampant decay, right, when we see multiple teeth, especially in children that are decaying, the first question is, what are they eating? Mm-hmm. And of course, I'm quite sure when folks get in that chair and y'all go, so you're flossing? Of course I am. Then you're like, yeah, uh-huh. So while your gum's bleeding so fast. So what are the dead giveaways that you would kind of wear?

Folk lie to dentists, and within 30 seconds of their mouth opening, you're like, you lying. Exactly. Exactly. Flossing is the hardest thing for people to do because it's technique sensitive. And you can tell, as a dentist, we can tell because typically there's not inflammation along your gum lines if you're flossing consistently. If you're flossing once a month, you're going to have inflammation.

So it's not if you're flossing at all, it's if you're flossing consistently. So what's not if you're flossing at all, it's if you're flossing consistently. So what's consistently? We recommend that you floss your teeth before bedtime, whatever that is. Because what we want to accomplish is you're brushing your teeth and flossing and removing all of the food and the bacteria that's accumulated throughout the day before you go to bed. At bedtime, your mouth is very dry. And this is a perfect breeding ground for the bacteria in your mouth to create acid, which breaks down your teeth. So you want your best to brush your teeth at bedtime and floss

at bedtime. We do recommend flossing at least once a day and brushing your teeth twice a day. The other thing about flossing, people don't do it properly. A lot of people floss their teeth and they saw back and forth. We actually recommend that you gently hug your tooth and you really want to focus on the pink triangular area between your gums so that you're you can go ahead and hold it up you can hold it up i said you got props yeah i have a couple props here but when you're flossing your teeth this is a child's um tooth model here you really want to focus on this pink triangle and you should bring your floss along the gum line, right in those areas, so that there's contact along the curvature of the tooth. It's not just to break through and get the food out of your teeth.

It's to actually clean along the gum line. So a soft amount of pressure is all you need to do that. And that's the worst thing that I see. A lot of people just don't know how to floss properly. Now, you know doggone well you brush your teeth more than one time a day. Y'all, we were at the National Dental Association. They had their national conference here. And so I don't know if I spoke that year.

I've spoken several times and I was awarded that year. Man, they had some food at a reception, y'all. And Doc was like, it was over. Oh, hold up. I'll be right back. I got to go to my room and brush my teeth. I was like, Doc, we got to go. She's like, no, I brush my teeth after every meal.

So you brush your teeth after every meal, huh? Yeah. And I clean my tongue. I have a tongue scraper. And that's what I recommend, especially for adults. If you look at your tongue and the surface of your tongue, it shouldn't be white. All right? That's plaque.

So I do want to recommend for all my adult patients. A tongue scraper? Tongue scrapers. Yes, absolutely. And that's done what? So I do want to recommend for all my adult patients... A tongue scraper? Tongue scrapers, yes, absolutely. And that's done, what, same thing at night? Yes, yes. And I actually do it every time I brush my teeth. Yeah.

And I brush... Yeah, we know you do. All right, let's go to our panelists for questions. Omokong, I'm going to start with you first. Thank you. This is so timely. My kids all have dentist appointments in the morning, so this is great information to hear. So I'm going to ask a question that sounds silly,

but it's like an age-old thing I hear with people. Brushing before flossing or flossing before brushing, does it affect the health of your teeth in any way, shape, or form? No. I actually recommend brushing before flossing, um, because you want to kind of remove the bigger particles in your mouth before flossing.

All right. Thank you. Let's see. Julianne, you're next. Black, thanks for being here. I appreciate you. I appreciate the focus on dental health. We have had Black children die because they have not had access to proper dental oral care. Does our healthcare system and especially, you know, the Medicaid, Medicare, do they provide enough reimbursement possibility access for dental health? In my opinion, no. I was a Medicaid provider for 16 years. And after the pandemic, I realized that I could not afford to be a Medicaid provider

anymore. It crippled my business. And actually, they didn't reimburse me. And what it is, is in 17 years, we've never had a fee increase. It's the exact same fee schedule. And it just really isn't enough reimbursement. So you'll see a lot of the providers that are taking it, like myself, really want to give back. Or they have a very large practice where they can substantiate, you know, because of the volume. And that's why it's hard to get appointments at those types of facilities that accept Medicaid. It's very rushed dentistry. It's more like they're processing encounters and you're really not getting the quality of care that we should be getting. And yes, they should be reimbursing us and they should be giving Medicaid providers increases because we really can't afford,

for instance, $34 for a cleaning is reimbursed. You can't hire a hygienist for, you know, $34 an hour. So it, it, it's killed, it killed my practice. And I really, you know, I've tried to be a pillar of the community and serving in that way, and this year I could not any longer be a Medicaid provider. Jeff, she didn't say it killed her business. She said it kilt her business. Now, you know how bad it was when she said it kilt my business. You know it's bad. You she said it killed my business. You know it's bad.

You have three phases of dying business. You have killed, killed, and then killed it. So you want to make sure you don't get to that. And if you're really getting bad, it's killed it. But when you get to that, Dr. Johnson. Hey, let me tell you what type of day I've had. Do not make fun of me, okay? Oh, no.

No, no, no. I'm going to make fun of you. So let day I've had. Do not make fun of me, okay? Oh, no. No, no, no. I'm going to make fun of you. So let's just be real. I'm going to make fun of you on the show and then when we get off the air. So don't even sit here. Don't be begging for sympathy. Jeff, she called me yesterday. She's like, oh my God. She's like, what are we going to add? I'm like, yo, calm

down. You talk to patients every day. Just talk like you're talking to a patient trying to get their stuff together. She was freaking all out. I'm like, child, breathe. Jeff, what's your question? We love you, sis, and you're doing just an awesome job. But just tell people what you know. My dad used to always say, son, take care of your feet and take care of your teeth,

and you're going to be all right. Now, he did tell me to take care of my teeth after he got his first pair of dentures. So I tended to listen to him even more because that struck home. I said, man, you got that first pair of dentures, man. So I said, I don't want to have to get there. But let me ask a simple question because conversations like these, these are my jam. Shout out to you, Roland, because we've been talking tonight about practical things that can help people actually improve their lives. So to the RMU universe out here, I'm just going to ask

a real simple question that probably has a lot behind it. How long should you keep a toothbrush? Change your toothbrush every three months. Change your toothbrush every three months. So if you have one of those electrical ones,

same thing, change that brush every three months? Absolutely. Every three months. So that should be in between seeing your dentist. Your dentist usually gives you a new toothbrush on your visit, but you should replace it in between. Well, why replace it, though?

When people say, well, I can just go a few months, it still looks clean to me. It's just bad hygiene, number one, because you're utilizing that maybe twice a day. The bristles start to wear. And then what we usually have is when you use your toothbrush too long, people start to brush too hard. And then they cause abrasion along the gum line and the softer areas on their teeth, which damage their teeth. So it's just better to get a new toothbrush. Also, I'm glad you brought that up. Please buy soft toothbrushes.

That was my next question. It's like... So ignore that medium and hard. Exactly. And because there's a market, they still sell them, but they're terrible for your teeth. Plaque is a microfilm. It's very soft.

And so you just need a light pressure when you're brushing your teeth, and that plaque will come off very easily. The hard tartar, you have to have that cleaned off professionally. There you go. So that's why when they got that metal tube and they sitting there.

Eh, eh, eh. Scrape, yeah, uh-huh, trust me. That's why, look, Hazel Harper is my dentist here in DC. Oh, I love that. And I drive Doc crazy because when I walk in, I got my noise reduction headphones, and I'm like, all right, y'all do what y'all do. I don't hear nothing.

She got to tap me on my shoulder, roll it, to ask me a question. I ain't trying to hear nothing in the dentist's office. I ain't trying. It ain't going to happen. Not going to happen at all. Alright, we got lots more questions. We're out of time, so here's what we're gonna do.

You're coming back next month. See, I told you it was painless. Painless. I love it. I told you you were freaking all out. Unlike this and you, which is painful. Lucia, say that again. Just like my dentistry, painless. Yeah, uh-huh, right.

Yeah, right, right. We heard that bullshit before. Yeah, we'd all heard that before. Oh, it ain't gonna hurt. I'm gentle with that needle. Yeah, okay, all right. We all done heard that before. All right, so a lot of people have a lot of questions.

They ask me about mouthwash and toothpaste and all kinds of other stuff. We're going to have you back. Then we'll have the phone lines open for people to call in. They can answer their questions. So we'll do that next month. And so, so good. See, see, there you go. Now, now you can relax. You can breathe. You can woosah and stop being all stressed out. Thank you. Thank you. Folks want to know where can they find you?

I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm on Instagram, VIP Smiles, DDS. Facebook, VIP Smiles. And she got all kind of photos on there, folks, of folks with some teeth, some before and after shots. So prepare yourself. Yes. Because it's triggering. All right. Doc, I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. All right. You guys have a great evening. All right, y'all. We were supposed to end at 8 o'clock because we were supposed to show Debra Owens' first episode of her new show. But we're going to do that in four minutes at 830. Let me thank Jeff, Makongo, and Julianne for joining us on The Pound today.

I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. We got to a whole lot of stuff. Hope y'all now understand. Again, I keep saying this, and Jeff, people keep thinking I'm crazy, and they're always like, man, why you keep pushing this? I need people to understand when you watch cable news, they ain't talking about oral health.

They're not sitting here talking about suicide. They're not talking about, and not in a way that's relevant to us. And so you're gonna hear the same thing, Trump's rally, you're gonna hear the same stuff. And so I need our people to understand that when we don't have spaces and places

where our experts can come and share relevant information with us, then we are walking around clueless. And then on the Congo, we hear folks say, man, I didn't know that was going on. What do you watch? That's why Julianne, in that promo,

when Jeff says, bring your eyeballs back, too many of us are spending our time, and I'll say it, talking about and dealing with bullshit as opposed to stuff that can be transforming, helping us in our daily lives. And so, folks, that's why we want y'all to download the Black Star Network app. That's why we want y'all to look at these shows,

support the folks who are watching. Every available platform, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Download them on all of those different devices. And, of course, support us with your dollars. Y'all, I'm trying to tell y'all, when you give $50, $100, $200, $500, $1,000 is just as important. And also, when somebody gives us $25, $20, $10, $5, $1, trust me, all that matters. It helps us do exactly what we do.

Terrence Green, thank you so much. Thank you. Have a good night. Terrence Green, thank you so very much. Thank you so very much to Frederica Mays for supporting us, Lawrence Aldrich for supporting us, Shauna Reeder for supporting us, Dennis Johnson for supporting us. Lawrence Aldrich for supporting us. Shauna Reeder for supporting us. Dennis Johnson for supporting us. Lanell Farmer, Charles McLaughlin.

Thank you so very much as well. And then also, let's see here. Somebody gave you a square. I'm looking for a name. And I don't see the name. I'm trying to find it. My apologies, y'all. But again, I'll read some of those names tomorrow.

Some of the folks who actually gave during the show. Cash Shappers, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R Martin Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Folks, coming up next, the first episode of Debra Owen's show, Wealthy You.

Get your finances straight. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Ho! Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.