#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Mom of Ronald Greene speaks out; George Floyd Inaugural Remembrance; Dems qualified immunity worries

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

5.24.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Mother of Ronald Greene speaks out after body camera and dash-camera video release; Inaugural Remembrance of George Floyd Rally held in downtown Minneapolis; American companies pledged $50B toward racial equity following Floyd's murder, but only half of that money has been seen; Dems worried qualified immunity won't be included in the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act; New York City Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams shares his vision for The Big Apple + Hezekiah Walker and Jason Clayborn will be here to talk about their musical collaboration. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, to you by AAR there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Today is Monday, May 24th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Louisiana State Police officially released nine body cameras and dash cam videos of the arrest of Ronald Green. His mother and attorney will join us to discuss. An inaugural remembrance of George Floyd rally was held in downtown Minneapolis

in advance of the first anniversary of his death, which is tomorrow. American companies pledged $50 billion towards racial equity following the death of George Floyd, but most of that money has not been spent. We'll talk about that and more in our Where's Our Money segment, the death of George Floyd, but most of that money has not been spent. We'll talk about that and more in our Where's Our Money segment,

where we'll also talk with the founder of the New Jersey Black Economic Justice Coalition about their demands for equity, financial equity, black economic social justice in New Jersey. And Democrats are concerned the provision ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officers will not be part

of the final George Floyd Justice Act, Justice and Policing Act now being negotiated in the United States Senate. We'll also be joined by New York City mayoral candidate, Eric Adams, who has been leading the polls along with Andrew Yang. Plus, Hezekiah Walker and Jason Claiborne will be here to talk about their musical collaboration. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roller Martin Unfiltered, let's Akai Walker and Jason Claiborne will be here to talk about their musical collaboration.

Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. best believe he's knowing putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's on go go royal it's rolling martin yeah rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Ronald Green, the black man from Louisiana,

arrested in May 2019 while in handcuffs. He was stunned, punched, and dragged by up to six white state troopers during his arrest. He died. Two years later, his death is under a federal civil rights investigation. Green's family was initially told he died due to crashing into a tree during a high-speed chase.

We now know that is an absolute lie. The body camera video tells a much different story. Many believe the decision to wait two years after his death to release the footage is suspicious. This is what was released on Friday, folks. I'm going to show you some of this video here. And again, where the world finally got to see exactly what happened to Ronald Brown. Go ahead and play it, y'all.

And so this is the video here that was released on Friday. That's not a car accident. That's not slamming into a tree. And so you hear how they're talking to Ronald Green. And so, folks, this is how shocking and shameful what took place in Louisiana. Two years, two years they fought to keep this video from being made public.

Sounds eerily similar to what happened in Chicago when Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by police officers and they lied and they fought to keep that videotape from being made public, including then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And when media outlets forced the release of that video, the world saw for the first time what actually happened, and that is what led to the indictment and the conviction of former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.

Joining us now is Ronald Green's mother, Mona Harton, and civil rights attorney Lee Merritt. Glad to have both of you here. Mona, while we were playing that video, you covered your ears and covered your eyes. It obviously is difficult for a mother to have to see the final moments of her son's life played out and then shown and released to the public.

Now that we know exactly what happened, it says a whole lot that for two years authorities lied to you and your family about what happened to your son yes it's uh it's horrific what we've been going through the lies how it all began how it's been unfolding uh the cover-up was obvious at the very beginning. It didn't take long for us to see that. But to be told that he died because of a car crash and the corruption and cover-up that came afterwards, two years long, it says a lot for us as a family.

And to see that, what happened to my son, it's really painful. When you talk about again, initially being told he crashed into a tree, and then you actually find out what happened, I mean, that was a deliberate attempt

to lie to you and the family. Yes, we saw that. That was my first reaction when the first videos was made to us available to us last year uh september of last year uh my my initial reaction was uh he wasn't going to get out of this alive they got him from the very beginning they made sure they maimed him while he was still behind the driver's wheel we We merit, now that, first of all,

in the initial video that was released, it only actually came out because the Associated Press fought to get it released. And then after the initial video, then Louisiana State Police had no choice but to actually release all of the video. That's right, Roland. This was something that we fought for to be released for two years. Well, the best they offered us was last September that we could

come in and view the video with the state police present, but we could not take it home and analyze it. And we've learned so much more about, you know, just the gratuitous nature of these officers' attack that we think that state charges are appropriate almost immediately, obviously. I mean, they're overdue. Speaking of that, the officers involved, did they actually get investigated? Did they go to a grand jury? What actually happened in terms of the investigation of the actions of these officers? That's the really problematic part. The investigation itself seemed to be a part of the cover-up. So it's not that what these men were doing was unknown.

It's that the supervisor that came, Lieutenant John Clary, he was an active participant in this crime. And subsequently, you can hear one of the officers who's since passed away, Chris Hollingsworth, reporting what he did to another fellow officer. And that officer saying, hey, did you have your body cameras on at the time? This was a conspiracy to cover up the murder of Ronald Green. It's now being played out in Oakland. uh miss harden on that particular point there um you know it has to to anger you that now we see what the truth is and nothing was done there was no real investigation and that's that's what it fires me up more than anything the fact that I was lied to from the very beginning. Two years of nothing but lies up to this very moment.

And the integrity of how and why they released the family of ronnie with with mockery with lies with with more conspiracy just to cover themselves protect them their own selves it's uh so i'm i'm confused here lee again Again, so did the state attorney general, did the DA in that district? So was there no investigation? So, again, the investigation itself, anytime there's an officer involved shooting in most jurisdictions, it has to be investigated by someone other than the entity that committed the shooting. But because this is the Louisiana State Police, the highest law enforcement authority in the state of Louisiana, they investigated themselves. And internally, they decided that two officers should be punished for this attempted at a cover up in this crime. One was Chris Hollingsworth, who would have been terminated, but he he died. He received his termination letter and he was was buried with all of the color guard honors.

And then Christopher Yorker received a 50-hour suspension for his role in the murder of Ronald Green. So now that the video is out, now there could actually be a real investigation. A grand jury can be impaneled. So, or, and also, who does that? Again, because it's the state police, who has jurisdiction, the local DA or the state attorney general? So, so it would be both. And the Union Parish prosecutor, whose name is Mr. Belton, would have to ask for the attorney general to help if he wanted his assistance. And the attorney general can offer his assistance based on the denial of civil rights

protections for Ronald Green. However, Mr. Belton met with us when we saw the video in September, and it was his position that it would be difficult under the past administration to bring charges against a police officer in Union Parish. Situations have since changed. Hold on, hold on. One second. You said the past administration. What past administration? I'm sorry, under the Trump administration. Okay, I'm confused here. Why would a local DA say that when he has jurisdiction? It's not federal. The federal investigation

is a totally separate investigation. So he has the local DA, Mr. Belton. He could actually take it to a grand jury himself. He could take it to a grand jury himself. What he was implying with that statement during the Trump administration was that he was in a heavily Trump-favored territory. He thought that he doubted his ability

to return a true bill on this crime in that jurisdiction at the time. But here's the deal. Okay, Trump lost, but that's probably still a heavily Trump district. So what now? Well, there exists actual, beyond this just being a Trump district, there exists actual conflicts in this district.

The officers who are involved on tape in this crime are testifying in other cases in Union Parish. And so it will be appropriate for either the attorney general or Mr. Belton to call for a special prosecutor. And that's what we're encouraging them to do in this case. Does that sound like a bunch of excuses to you, Ms. Harden? Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. How can you tell me the first year it's still pending investigation, the second year it's still pending investigation?

Even when we were there at the Capitol, seeing that little bit of footage, they were already planning the retirement of Colonel Reeves and they were also planning the 50 hours suspended time all bunch of bull for Corey York. How do you tell me that?

It's pending investigation, but you're already getting these guys off scot-free. How are we not knowing what's going on until it's done? That to me, I think, just really what is absolutely confusing and crazy. You know, that's what I'm saying. They're making and breaking their own rules and regulations.

They're also called laws just to get their good old boys off for murdering my son. That clearly shows on that video. There's a Democratic governor in Louisiana, Lee. What is he saying? Well, Governor John Bel Edwards, first you need to know his pedigree.

He met with us. We found the meeting disingenuous at best. He wasn't completely honest about the level of cover-up in the crime that was committed against Ronald Green. He didn't make this video available to us, although we believe that he could have done it. It was in his authority at the time. He chose not to.

And this is a man whose father was a sheriff, whose grandfather was a sheriff. He just signed the Blue Lives Matter law in Louisiana, and he hasn't come down in favor of the defense of citizens against police officers. Okay, so the question now is, what's next? We were down in Baytown, Texas for the rally for Pamela Turner,

for that particular officer who tomorrow, we wouldn't know when this trial is going to be set. We went down to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. So when it came to the Andrew Brown Jr., are there plans to call for a national rally there in Louisiana to put pressure on the local DA, on the Attorney General, on the governor to step up? What's next, Lee and Ms. Hartin?

3 o'clock Thursday, on the steps of the Capitol, the ACLU along with the NAACP has sided with this family to demand the immediate arrest of these officers. There's more than enough probable calls in the jurisdiction currently to issue arrest warrants

for Corey York, for Lieutenant John Say say it again, I'm sorry, I can't hear you, but certainly Mr. Dakota DeMoss and other officers who are seen on video committing crimes. And I'm sorry, she was probably saying Clary. It was Lieutenant Clary. That demand is taking place this Thursday. The family will be there. So we're looking forward to anyone who wants to join us at the steps of the Capitol with the ACLU and the NAACP. Ms. Harden, what do you want folks across the country who are watching and listening to do when it comes to this case of your son? You know what?

I'm just so disgusted. Anger, being pissed off, being all the freaking emotions that can come up in a mother whose son was killed in such a violent way, on purpose, just for the hell of it. And the thing is, why do we have to keep communicating like this? Why do we have to beg someone to put these guys in cuffs, jail them, do whatever you have to do,

but you let these guys still be on the force, still patrol the streets of Louisiana for two years after they killed Ronnie to cause more damage? Ronnie's not my first, not the world's first, and he won't be the last. He hasn't been the last. Why do we have to keep begging for the justice? Yeah.

And it's worth saying these officers went on to injure other citizens in Louisiana. And one of the officers was indicted for another criminal act shortly after the murder of Ronald Green. How y'all filed a civil lawsuit against the county, against these officers and against the state police? We filed a civil lawsuit against all the parties involved from, as you said, from the local level, each individual officer to the state of Louisiana, because this is the state police that that lawsuit has survived a motion to dismiss this up on interlocutory appeal in the fifth. All right, then, Lee Merritt, Ms. Hart, and we certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much for joining us. We certainly will keep the attention Thursday. We will be Lee. Let us know who's streaming it. We're going to be actually we'll be actually in Tulsa going from Fort Worth to Tulsa. But certainly we want to be able to pick that stream up and be able to push it out to our folks as well. So be sure to let us know what happens with that. Thank you so very much. Thank you, sir. Folks are going to go to our panel here. Dr. Avis Jones, the Weaver political analyst, Dr. Julian Malveaux, economist, president, Emera Bennett College of Mocongo, Dabinga, professorial lecturer, School of International Service at American University. Glad to have all three of you.

Mocongo, I'm going to start with you. Again, this is, we hear the phrase pressure bus pipes. The reality is in order for black folks to get justice in this country, we have to protest, we've got to push, we've got to prod, we've got to call people out. This is an example of what happens when you're in a deep red state,

in a deep red county, where they clearly don't care about the life of an African American, and they will readily accept the lies of police officers and then cover it up. And on top of that, as you were saying, we're with the Democratic governor, and it doesn't even matter in a state like that. Our lives clearly don't matter. This is why every single day we have to continue to fight for the George Floyd police reform bill that people are all up in arms about relating to issues of qualified immunity.

These are the officers we're supposed to trust. These are the people who are supposed to give the benefit of the doubt. So they lied to her, to Ms. Harden and her family for two years. And as Lee Merritt said, they've been talking about this for at least since last September. This is ridiculous. This is a cover-up at every level. If anyone did anything similar to this in any other type of profession, they would be in jail, in prison, in any way, shape, or form. We, as you said, we have to keep the fight up. We have to do all of everything that we've done, probably just to get some form of arrest. That officer who died, whose family got all the benefits, they should be lost. And I'm glad that we have a federal government now that's going to be

putting up some other type of investigation into this right now, because we cannot let up. I'm so glad you asked about the rally that's going to be happening on Thursday, because they're going to get support from all across the globe. We cannot take our foot off the pedal right now, because this family, like so many other families, deserve justice. And it's not going to happen until we make it happen. And that's just the reality, Avis. And I think, look, it's just accepting that as a reality that we're going to have to keep forcing these people's hand. And what we saw here, again, this was an attempt to cover this up, just like the Laquan McDonald case. That's where,

that's why I don't want to hear a jab from Rahm Emanuel. You know, there's all this talk about he might become the ambassador to Japan for the Biden administration. What he did in that case is just shameful and despicable. He should never be in public service. No, he certainly should never be in public service.

As far as I'm concerned, he's guilty of obstruction of justice. But as to this case, what to me is so completely infuriating about it is that they literally tortured, tortured that man to death. yelling expletives at him, all the time just sort of swarming him, kicking him, tasing him, just completely battering him to death. And then in the moment, they're thinking about, oh, my goodness, is the body cam on? Well, let's cut it off. And then after that, they go further by not only initially lying to his family, saying that he died in a car crash, but to continue the lie by attempting to cover it up for two full years. You know, and the real sad thing is, this is not an isolated incident. How many examples do we have

to show where police reports or police accounting of situations don't really match the facts once the video evidence comes out. This is a cultural problem with policing in America. It is not something that is isolated to any one department, and there needs to be writ large reform. The Justice in Policing Act needs to pass. That needs to be a start, but that's not the end of all that needs to happen in order to root all of this, as far as I'm concerned,

terroristic activity in blue off the face of the earth. You know, Julianne, when you look at this particular case here and you look at what we saw, and I say this to people all the time. Body camera footage, dash cam footage is not the answer. It's not the panacea. But there is no

doubt that the work of Black Lives Matter in the last five to ten years has played a critical role in us seeing what is taking place. If the video did not exist, folks would be believing the lies.

In the case of Michael Slager who killed Walter Scott, they lied on that police report. They lied, but luckily it was a passerby who recorded that particular shooting. This is why body camera footage must be required for every law enforcement agency. I don't care if it's city police officers, county sheriffs. I don't care if it's constables, school district cops. I don't care if it's the state and the federal.

Every agency should have body camera footage, and again, if they do not turn them on, that should mean immediate expulsion as a result. This is why those cameras matter. Well, you know, Roland, you have been the high priest of cameras

in terms of your crazy-ass white people and any number of other things. The fact is that when you look at George Floyd, have that little girl, the 17-year-old child, had she not had the presence of mind to video that, we would be in the dark about what happened. And what I find interesting is I troll around the Internet listening to some of these white people

who still don't believe that the George Floyd Act is necessary, they say things like, well, if they had just complied. But when you look at this, this was such excessive force. I mean, such excessive and unnecessary force. You got the man down. You know, you, I mean, words escape me and they rarely do. But they escape me when I look at this. But we are blessed in this era. We didn't have cameras in Tulsa. We didn't have cameras in Wilmington, North Carolina. We didn't have cameras. We can call the roll

of the times we didn't have it. We have them now. And these police officers who don't want to use their cameras, so this should be, like, guilty until we see the tape. So don't tell me you forgot to put your camera on. They have all these excuses. No, this is a requirement. Just like you carry your gun around as a requirement, just like you put your badge on as a requirement, put that camera on as a requirement. I just, my heart goes out to Mrs. Harden for what she's had to endure, not just with the death of her son and the lies that surrounded it, but also with the fact that she is seeking justice and she has to see this and hear this time and again. You said she had

her hands over her ears and her eyes closed because this is hard to see. But we know how many thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of Black people have died the same way. So, Brother Domingo is right. We have to... That George Floyd act is the beginning, it's not the end, it's a first step, it's not the last step.

These crazy cops need to be dismissed, period. If you have any involvement in something like this, see, you know, go work at 7-Eleven or someplace where, you know, you could get 15 an hour, maybe. But you do not deserve a pension. You don't deserve honors. You don't deserve anything. We are killing our people. Absolutely. Folks, we will continue to cover this story and let you know exactly what takes place with regards to it. Now, check this out. We'll stay in Louisiana, folks. This was

caught on tape. A probation officer was captured on a security camera planning drugs leading to the arrest of a black man. Louisiana NAACP. Guys, hold the video. Hold the video.

We're going to see the video here. I'm going to walk it through it. You're going to see the graphics, okay? It is crazy. This is the video that was put out by the Louisiana NAACP. There's audio. Yes. Yes. I don't understand why this is called... Thank you. Wow.

Leave that up right there. Leave that up, folks. The NAACP wants this probation officer fired. His name is Lane Norman, N-O-R-M-A-N-D. The email for his boss is cole, C-O-L-E dot G-R-A-L-A-P-P at L-A dot gov dot G-O-V. His phone number, he's the regional administrator, his phone number is 318-767-6286, 318-767-6286. I'm going to repeat the email because, remember, the people who listen to our audio podcast, the Louisiana NAACP,

they want this Louisiana probation and parole officer, Lane Norman, fired for planning drugs. His boss is Cole, C-O-L-E dot G-R-A-L-A-P-P at L-A dot G-O-V. His phone number is 318 767 6286.

Julianne, this man should absolutely be fired. This happened in 2018. Why is he still on anybody's force? Two years later, I mean, the court dismissed the charges. He obviously is a rogue officer.

Why is he still there? See, this complicity, this is complicity. So his boss and his boss's boss said, it's okay to plant drugs on people. These people outside just chilling, chillaxing, having themselves a good old time, playing cards, and this person comes up, why? Does he get a premium or a bonus

for having arrested more people? And why has it not been stopped? So, again, I'm speechless, but I'm not speechless. This is happening all over the country. It's happened year after year. We're all not betting if anybody could fund a study to go to one of these Louisiana prisons, Again, I'm speechless, but I'm not speechless. This is happening all over the country. It's happened year after year. We're all not bent. If anybody could fund a study to go to one of these Louisiana prisons and interview,

you know, 200, 300, 500 people, probably half of their circumstances will be similar to these. Now, some of them did it. We know some of them did it. But all of them did not do it. And many of them had a prior record. And they were basically planted because if these folks don't get a bonus for messing with Black people, they get psychic pleasure from doing it. And so these folks, and then they run around bragging about it.

They tell each other, see what I did? You know, I did that. I could do that. So we really have to. That's why the Jordan bill, Floyd bill is step one. But the national registry is so very important but even more than that

they say it's a rotten apple in the barrel mm-mm, the barrel is rotten and so are the apples, get rid of all of them absolutely, for this guy to still be on the job three years for the judge to look at this video and go, yeah, charges out,

and the guy's still employed. First of all, his boss should be asking, where in the hell did you get drugs from? Hello? That's drug possession. That's exactly what I was about to say. Not only should he not have a job, why isn't he in jail?

If it's illegal for the person that he planted it on to have it, how is it legal for him to have it? Where's the prosecutor in this? So there are several people who are complicit, uh, as Dr. Malveaux pointed out, and who are allowing these activities to happen. I would also wonder,

who else was he a probation officer for? How many times has he done this? Once again, are we supposed to actually believe that the only time there happened to be a videotape there was the first time that he's ever done that to somebody? I certainly don't believe it. So, you know, this is the very essence and the very definition of what systemic racism in the criminal justice system looks like. Because not only do you have Black people largely targeted in this way, but also when there is just absolute 1,000 percent video evidence that the person was railroaded, just dropping those charges isn't enough.

When you allow the person who committed that act to stay in place, that in essence is telling him he did nothing wrong, so he might as well just continue doing it. And we're not going to look backwards to see all the other people who he may have unjustly framed in the very same way continue to still pay for a crime that they didn't commit. And Omicongo, let's be clear. The only reason that brother is not sitting in prison is because his dad put a camera in his garage.

And again, this is where black people are. Black people, we got to put cameras in our crib, in the garage. We got to put it in our cars to protect ourselves. If that daddy did not have this camera, his son is sitting in a hardcore Louisiana prison for a minimum of 10 years. It's ridiculous, and it goes to the story last week where you showed the officer urinating at a man's funeral home, a city council member on top of that. And again, we have to be responsible for recording our own information,

sometimes even recording our own deaths. And I wouldn't be surprised if what Dr. Malbeau said about some form of quota or kickback system that's going on with these officers. We remember the case a couple of years ago of the judge who was getting kickbacks for the number of people that he sent to prison. So that's not a far-fetched idea that's going on. And another thing we have to be mindful of in that video, there were small children who watched this entire thing happen, who are being traumatized at a very young age,

similar to what we saw with George Floyd when there was a nine-year-old there again. So they have these patterns that are going out to the entire community that are showing them that we don't care and we're going to put in your psyche that you are going to be policed as you get older. And really, at the end of the day, this is what's even more tragic

because we see it might even, it's going to continue after many of us are long and gone unless we continue to fight to make it stop. Well, absolutely. And so, folks, we certainly support the Louisiana NAACP. We'll be pushing that information out as well so folks can see it and they can actually respond to it. Folks, it's just absolutely crazy. Again, his brother, he was arrested. He was arrested. That man could very well be sitting in prison. And they were dropped. First of all, they were dropped three months later

after the DA's office reviewed the footage of the incident. But if his dad didn't have the camera, he'd be sitting there in jail. In Iowa, more than 5,000 people have signed a petition calling for Sioux City Police Officer Thad Boyer's removal from duty. The petition cites Boyer's history of repeated use-of-force incidents. Video of the aggressive officer pointing a taser and pinning a black customer to a table at a Perkins restaurant

began circulating on social media last month. Watch this. The manager said she wants you out look at 12. leave right now you're going to jail i'm leaving right here do not run though hey hey hey hey he sure didn't i'm wrong i'm leaving He was leaving. He was leaving. Don't shoot me. He leave. Yeah.

Yeah. Shoot me in my face. You heard him. Hey, put that taser down. Hey, put that taser down. He ain't done nothing to you. Hey, put that taser down. He ain't done nothing to you.

Where the fuck all that? He ain't done nothing to you. Put that taser down. Oh, my God. Put that taser down. Hey, put that taser down. I want you to roll the video again. You're going to see where the officer tells him to get up and leave. Again, watch this. He's complying. Watch the beginning again. The manager said she wants you out. Look at 12.

If you don't leave right now, you're going to jail. I'm leaving. He didn't do nothing wrong, though. Hey, hey, hey. He sure didn't. I'm leaving. He ain't doing nothing wrong, though. Hey, hey, hey. He sure didn't. 29-year-old John Wright is charged with trespassing, interference with official acts, and failure to comply with

orders of a police officer. However, police are investigating the incident, and Boyer's actions are also under review. Okay, Avis, the dude is literally walking away, about to put his jacket on. Cops decide, oh, I'm just going to grab you and forcibly remove you. So this is what happens when you have an entire police ecosystem that is fueled with anti-Black hate, aggression, predisposition to violence.

Because that young man was just trying to leave. He was trying to comply. You know, this is why I really get annoyed with people who go around. And, you know, I understand that there is a need maybe for some of this. But I really get annoyed with people who go around, you know, trying to educate Black people

that the answer is to comply. He was trying to comply. The answer is to stop having policemen who are out here terrorizing Black people. And as we've said a gazillion times on this show, there was an FBI report over a decade ago that talked about the fact that police departments across the country had been infused with white supremacists and nothing has been done to root them out. You cannot make me believe that there is... A lot of what we're seeing right now is a white supremacist wet dream.

This is exactly what they want. They want to have the power to use violence activity all the way up to beatings and deaths against Black people and not have to have any consequences associated with it. And what better way to do that than to don a police uniform and get protected by the blue wall of silence that covers up your activities, that lies on police reports, that have prosecutors who don't want to prosecute, who have judges who look the other way, who have an entire system that says this sort of behavior is okay. But if there's one thing that made me feel good about that video. It was the fact that Black people in that restaurant said, hell to the no, not today.

Put that taser down. He hasn't done a damn thing to you. And that's exactly what we need to do. We need to stand up for each other in the moment and not just lament the aftermath after one of our brothers and sisters had been victimized by police violence. Look at the chart that's here on Macongo.

Interference with official acts. Failure to comply with orders of a police officer. This, see, this is how they try to target us. This is what they do right here. This is what, on a regular

basis, and even when you brought up the case of Laquan McDonald with that officer, they come up, they put themselves in the line of some form of harm and then justify any of their actions. And even sometimes when we see these issues where an officer with other officers aren't looking, they'll say, oh, this person is resisting, or this person has a gun and there's nothing there, and they use it as an opportunity to open fire. These guys are liars. And if I'm correct, I believe Boyer was fired or heavily disciplined back in 2012, 2013, but again, back on the force again. And so these officers, they see this as an opportunity

to really feel like they can get away with anything. And if you look at his record, they always put us on trial. When we're killed, when we're arrested for everything, they always put us on trial, put the victims on trial. But if you look at this man's record, this man's history of complaints, again, no one, another man, another officer who had no business still being on the force. And as it was just said, I'm so proud of our people for taking the stand. You know, back in the day, some people, you know, when I was a kid growing up, when the cops came, you know, a lot of us would just scatter because we didn't want to be engaged.

We don't want to be involved in some way, shape or form. But too many of us of all ages have had enough. And it's that we're going to document this. We're going to show it because we can't trust you to tell the truth. Absolutely. Folks, let's go to Mississippi, where two police officers accused of brutalizing a black man resulting in his death are no longer facing charges. Hines County Judge Faye Peterson says the state failed to prove officers Desmond Barney and Lincoln Lampley committed criminal acts when arresting George Robinson. The indictment accused three officers of taking Robinson from his car,

slamming him to the ground, and striking him in the head. The victim's brother says Robinson had a stroke before the incident, causing him to move slowly when officers asked him to get out of the car. Hines County D.A., Jody E. Owens II, says the evidence was sufficient, and he is surprised and disappointed by the judge's decision.

A third officer involved in the incident has not yet gone to trial. This right here, show the photo again, This was a black judge who ruled this in Mississippi. So that's who Judge Faye Peterson is. And this is one of those examples. I go back to Omicongo, Baltimore, when the police officers wanted a judge to hear their case and not a jury. Absolutely. And when we get down to it, we have to understand that we talked about Louisiana, we got Democrat, Republican members who are a part of this. We have to realize as well that

sometimes we got Black people who are in law enforcement who are involved in being judges and the like, and we're still not getting the justice. And we have a real systemic problem that is hitting us at every level. Even when you talk about Baltimore, we can go back to the case of Freddie Gray. And there were several Black officers who were involved in that as well. And so really, at the end of the day, it becomes Black versus blue. And we have to realize that even in a case like this, we're talking about a man, 52-year-old grandfather, a grandfather, who has to be treated like that after dealing with all of the other racism.

We're sure he probably had to deal with his entire life just being a Black man in America. And to go out like that, and then there to be no justice, we have to make sure that his story is never forgotten. And we have to make sure that there are other consequences, even when we don't get the justice we want from these judges and the like. We can get justice by exposing these people, letting people know where they work. And if they're not going to have this national registry out yet, create our own so people know who these officers are. And we have to make sure we always put the pressure on to make sure that they do what's right or they got to go.

Indeed. Folks, in Minnesota, the former St. Paul police officer who led a police dog, mauled an unarmed black man is going to spend the next six years in prison. In June 2016, Brett Palkowich and other officers responded to a call about a large street fight and were looking for an unidentified black male with dreadlocks and a white T-shirt carrying a gun. 52-year-old Frank Amal Baker fit the description. Soon after Baker was asked to get out of his car, the officer released the dog.

Body camera footage caught Paco Switch brutally kicking and severely injuring Baker while the dog was mauling him. Paco Switch, Paco Switch, which which way the right to appeal his conviction and offered a tearful apology for his actions to Baker and the St. Paul Police Department. Baker had nothing to do with the reported incident in the end. Watch this video, folks. Get over here! Got ya! Alright, I got a couple here. Put your fucking hand on the ground! Don't move! Turn over! Please!

Get in the house! Get in the house! Get in the house! Get on the fucking ground! Get in! Get in! Move! Get in! Get in! Move! Get in! All right! Get on the ground! Get on the fucking ground!

Move! Fucking move! Good boy! Put your hands off your side! Don't move! Folks, this is critical. And see, this is the thing that I need people to get. Someone has posted on a YouTube channel, bro, this is a lot. It is. It is a lot.

Which is why every single person who's watching this show, every single person who's listening to this podcast should be picking that phone up and calling their United States Senator today and tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday

and Friday saying, vote for the George Floyd Justice Act. Get rid of qualified immunity. All these folks, and let me be real clear, I get black people who say, oh, my God, black porn, don't show it. Let the white folks show it that's precisely why Amy why Emmett Till's mother

maybe Mobley said no no no no no open casket let them see what they did to my baby over the weekend I had some people who were sitting here

one woman texted me she tweeted I don't know who my member of congress is and I don't care I said oh but you're bitching and moaning about how we need bills passed in our favor I had people over the weekend

saying well I don't know why we got to sit here and call people. It's called, it's your turn. Because black folks before your behind showed up did this. And I don't want to ever sit here and show these videos, Julian. But we got to keep it in the face

because what did the Jews say? Never forget. Never forget. And said, never again. Exactly. You know, this man gets six years. Six years. He need to get

26 years for allowing this man to be mauled. Every one of the cases that we've looked at today really do speak to the George Floyd Justice of Policing Act, but also speak to the historic dehumanization of black people. He would not have sick a dog on his son or his daddy. He would not have. And by the way, everybody brown ain't down. So Sister Girl in Mississippi needs to be taken to the woodshed too because everybody brown ain't down.

And too many of us make too many excuses. And anybody who doesn't know who their member of Congress is, there's a special place in hell for them because that means they just don't care. But when you look at this case with this dog, such a light sentence for such a heinous act. And it was the wrong person at that. Wouldn't have made it right if it was the right person. It was the wrong person. And this guy has tears in his eyes. Well, he needs to have a dog in his

booty. You know, he's crying now. Well, cry after the dog chaws on you for 20 or 30 minutes. It is too much at some level, but it's also time enough, because we need to keep seeing this, hearing it, and working on it. Omokongo? Well, I understand what people talk about as it relates to Black trauma porn, but what we're doing here is different. What we're doing here is these videos

are being showed with calls to action. Phone numbers, emails, letting people know what to do to make this stop. Some of these other networks may get some type of perverted pleasure in showing these videos on loop, showed with calls to action, phone numbers, emails, letting people know what to do to make this stop. Some of these other networks may get some type of perverted pleasure in showing these videos on loop, but there's no ask. There's no call to action. Right here, we have an opportunity with every video that you show, with every mother and father and lawyer that you interview, you give us an opportunity to do something about it. And so for those folks on YouTube and other places saying

this is too much, it's not going to be too much when it's you. And so for those folks on YouTube and other places saying this is too much, it's not going to be too much when it's you. And so right now you have an opportunity right now to do something about it. And if you don't do anything about it, how are you going to expect it to stop? Like you said, Roland, you don't want to show these, but this is our world right now. This is where we're living right now.

And whether you are a toddler, whether you are a teenager, whether you are a parent, whether you are a grandparent, male or female, it doesn't seem to matter. As Samuel Jackson said last year, it's open season on black people. And until you see it in your face,

you're not going to be motivated to do anything about it. And if you still are not motivated to do something about it, I still pray it don't happen to you, but we're going to keep doing this work. And that's the thing right there, Avis. I guarantee the people who are complaining, you know what? If it was your son

or daughter or niece or nephew or cousin, if it was you, I bet you'd be like, damn, I sure hope somebody tells my story. I sure hope somebody shows that video. I sure hope somebody comes to my defense. I sure hope somebody has my back. That's why we do it. Absolutely. I mean, I guess they believe that ignorance is bliss, but ignorance is bliss only lasts so long. What's important

about showing what you're doing tonight is you're showing that this is not just one case. It seems like here in America, we focus on one case for a period of time, and then we stop looking at that one, and then we look at the next one. Then we stop looking at that one, and we look at the next one, as if it's only one incident at a time. What's important about what you're doing now is that you're showing a pattern. You're showing a pattern of practices of policing in this country. And it doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how innocent you are. It doesn't matter how innocent you are. It doesn't matter if you're sitting at home,

minding your own damn business, chilling with your children. It does not matter. This could happen to anybody. And what I want us to do as a people, we need to understand this is not supposed to be comfortable. It's not comfortable when you're being oppressed. It's not comfortable when you're being murdered. It's not comfortable when you're being oppressed. It's not comfortable when you're being murdered. It's not comfortable when you're getting a dog sicked on you and telling you three different commands

in the span of a second. Put your hands on the ground, don't move, roll over. He was supposed to do all of that in one second. If you listen to that tape, he got three different commands in like a second. That is the level of incompetence and evil. I will just use the word evil that has infused police departments across the country.

So the least that you can do, the least that you can do is muster enough courage to face it and then act to do something about it. And part of that acting is not just knowing who your representatives are, it's voting. I want everybody to understand there is a direct line

between what we're seeing here and who's sitting in the prosecutor's office and who voted them in office. Who's sitting on judges' benches and who voted them on those benches? You know, who's sitting in Congress and whether or not the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passes or gets stalled in the Senate.

There's a straight line between that and the attacks on Black voting power in 43 states across the nation right now. They want to be able to do this to you forever. So my point is, let's stop trying to be so sensitive about this thing that we don't even want to see it and we just want to look the way. We do not have that luxury.

I know I don't for my sons and you don't for yours or your children or even for yourself. And there's, you're absolutely right. That's why we ran all these back to back to back to back to back so folks can actually understand what's going on. I mean, that's what people don't understand. So, you know, we're sitting here focusing on the issue.

Now, folks, in New York, Attorney General Letitia James introduces a broad police reform bill that would target law enforcement's use of deadly force. James announced the bill would amend New York's use of force law to an absolute last resort from one of simple necessity. Officers who use unnecessary force will face additional penalties under the new bill as well. In a statement, she explained her reasoning for the amendment. In New York, our laws have essentially given police blanket defense to use force in interactions with the public, making it exceedingly difficult for prosecutors to go

after officers who have abused this power. The Police Accountability Act will make critical and necessary changes to the law, providing clear and legitimate standards for when the use of force is acceptable and enacting real consequences for when an officer crosses that line. We must continue to do everything in our power to protect our communities and ensure that no one is beyond the reach of justice. Now, folks, a group of House Democrats there concerned the provision ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officers would not be part of the found Judge Floyd Justice of Policing Act. As negotiations over the contentious bill intensify, House Representatives Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, and eight other representatives sent a letter to leaders in the House and Senate urging them to

keep qualified immunity in the bill. During an interview on MSNBC's The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart, Congresswoman Maxine Waters explained why it's so important to end qualified immunity. Our negotiators are fighting as hard as they can and should continue to fight, but I'm not giving up on qualified immunity. I do not want to send any message to anybody that I'm willing to support legislation that does not have it in it.

I think we've got to be tough, we've got to be tough. We've got to be consistent and understand that we've got to hold police officers accountable. Even since the death of George Floyd, we've continued to have killings of black unarmed men in particular. And so these police officers know that they have the support of the police unions. They have the support of city council members who are intimidated by the police unions, police chiefs who are afraid that if they don't go along, they can't be chief, and even some mayors. I'm so proud of those mayors that are willing to stand up and fight,

and for the police chiefs that are willing to stand up and fight. But history tells us that they have been intimidated too long, given in too much, and the police don't believe that they're going to be held accountable. That's why even after George Floyd, they continue to kill. And so I want qualified immunity out. Now, of course, Congressman Jim Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in the House, he talked about, he said he would rather have a strong bill instead of a perfect bill. So if it means not having qualified immunity in the bill, he said he would certainly support that, he said, and try to get it later.

Congresswoman Waters said that's not an option. So what you're dealing with, folks, right here, Julian, is this battle. And so the question is, they're negotiating in the Senate. You're dealing with the issue, can you get Republicans' votes? It's clear Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are not going to end the filibuster. And so this is one of the issues. They're working with Senator Tim Scott, Senator Lindsey Graham on this bill. The question is, will they be able to get a bill that can pick up Republican votes in the Senate that does indeed end qualified immunity? And the problem, Roland, is that Congressman Clyburn having come out and said he would support a compromise before we've even had

the full negotiations weakens, frankly, the Democratic position, weakens Congresswoman Waters' position. And so, as we waffle, and this is what Democrats do, you see these Republicans, they vote party line, they're not playing, they will talk to you behind their colleague's back and say, oh, I really didn't agree with that, but I have to go with the party line. Democrats don't have that kind of backbone.

And so, my prediction is that qualified immunity will likely remain. I don't have that kind of backbone. And so my prediction is that qualified immunity will likely remain. I don't think it will go if we want a bill. And I'm with Congresswoman Waters. I mean, it's one of the things that must go. Every video you showed us leading up to this point in the show talks about police officers who are deficient, to use Avis' word, who are evil, who broke the law, and they should not have the right to their pension, the right to retire, the right to

whatever. They need to go to jail. They need to have their assets stripped from them. They need to be put in a small room with a big dog and sharp teeth. That's all they really need. They do not need all this grace. But why are we as Democrats giving them that grace? Omokongo, on that point, many people have criticized Congressman Clyburn. Others have said that this was Clyburn who was going public to give an indication that it was contentious and being able to let people know that this is a possibility? How do you square what he had to say, then what Congresswoman Waters there had to say,

and these other progressive Democrats who are saying any qualified immunity must be in the final bill? Well, Representative Clyburn, he's such a veteran and a leader. And I definitely respect what he's saying in terms of, you know, he has something that's good and we can come back and get it later. And I respect that. The challenge, however, is that we are dealing with a different brand of Republicans right now. And I believe that even with Senator Scott and Graham working on this, regardless of whether qualified immunity is included or not, no Republicans are going to come out and support it. Something's going to happen. Trump's going to speak up. Someone's

going to make some phone calls. And I wouldn't be surprised if Graham backs out on the own bill that they agreed to. This group of Republicans are going to block everything in hopes of getting control of the House again in 2022. And so I respect what Clyburn's saying. He knows the process, you know, much better than I do, but it's a different brand of Republicans. And so I understand why Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush and others are fighting to get it in now

because there's no reason to trust these Republicans to do the right thing. And so I'm with Representative Waters on this. So the question is this here, Avis. Do you, if you're Democrats, let's say you can't get 10 votes unless you strip qualified immunity out of the bill. Well, then, do you scutter the entire bill?

I would say this. I don't see why we really need to get here, because as I recall, Tim Scott has at least offered a compromise that would have a form, it would really sort of redirect the focus not to individual police officers, but to actual police departments, which I think is at least a compromise to mean that there is some financial culpability on the line when police officers act in abusive ways. I think that is a compromise,

that I'm not willing to give up on a chance of actually pushing through. So, you know, I'm really quite, with all due respect to, you know, Representative Clyburn, I'm just wondering, how come Democrats don't seem to understand what negotiations are all about? Why are you showing your hands while, you know, why are you capitulating, in essence, while the negotiations are still going on. That makes no sense to me. It's like showing your hand in the middle of a poker game. It makes absolutely zero sense to me. And I just, you know, I don't get it. So what we really need to understand is

you don't go through a negotiation process giving the chip that you supposedly value most in the middle of the darn negotiations. That makes absolutely zero sense to me. I think you put pressure on them to move forward with what Tim Scott, a Republican, the only Black Republican in the Senate, has proposed. What does it look like? And put pressure on the Republican Party to, in essence, undermine their black face that they just have give the rebuttal to the presidential address

that President Biden just gave a couple of weeks ago. Make the Republican Party say no to Tim Scott rather than telling Democrats to stand down and don't even try to do anything in the direction of qualified immunity. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to discuss economic justice in New Jersey,

African-Americans getting a short shrift, and what is being done to rally the grassroots to ensure that we get our fair share. That's up next in our Where's Our Money segment. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation and the black community has felt it for generations.

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And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe. -♪ A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become,

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Stay woke. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. Folks in New Jersey, African Americans have been mobilizing and organizing to fight lack of economic progress in that particular state. You might remember us talking about Jacob Waldhauer, who is of course, a blueprint capital. He's the CEO of Blueprint Capital, filing a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey

over pension funds, a lack of African Americans managing money in that particular state. They've been highly critical of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Democrats who run that state. I say they're freezing African Americans out. Well, Reverend Dr. David Jefferson, he has partnered with other preachers and others and Democrats who run that state, I say they're freezing African Americans out. Well, Reverend Dr. David Jefferson, he has partnered with other preachers and others in New Jersey to found the New Jersey Black Economic Justice Coalition. Over the last couple of months, I've actually participated in a couple of Zoom town halls with them to raise awareness to this, and he joins us right now.

Pastor Jefferson, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. For people who don't quite understand what we're talking about here, New Jersey is a very democratic state. You have places like Newark and Camden and others where you have black leadership. When you talk about the money, and it always comes down to the money, black folks are absolutely being left out of the economic prosperity in new jersey absolutely uh roland and let me just say thank you uh man for

what you're doing the attention that you're drawing to this this issue uh It is perhaps one of the most critical issues, Roland, in our country today. When you have, quote, one percent of individuals in this country, Roland, owning 99 percent of the wealth, you know right then and there that over the years we have had some inequities and lack of inclusion. All the way back to, if you read, where do we go from here, you know, crisis or chaos, Dr. King talked about in that book an economic revolution that we needed to have in order to balance the playing field and level the playing field in this country. And I would have to say to you that when you look at New Jersey, we have the highest, one of the highest tax rates in this country. The disparity that exists between white and black folks in the state of New Jersey when it comes to average income, $9,000 average for a black family, $217,000 for a white family. Tell me, how do you make it in a state

where the income or where the economy is some of the highest in the country? And I would submit to you that New Jersey is definitely struggling with this, and we're causing people to come together. But Roland, I think the first thing we have to do, man, is educate the public. We got to educate the public. We've got to educate the public. We've got to equip people to engage in about economic justice in the state of New Jersey's up for election. What have y'all been doing to drive this point in challenging them as they're trying to campaign for votes? How are you empowering the church members to have the information? What are the pastors challenging them with? And have you actually heard from officials make any concessions or meet some of the demands? I would say that right now we're still in that reel,

getting the information out. We have articles that we put out. We've had op-eds that we put out. We've held to date at least four major town hall meetings where we can put it where the goats can get it. Most of the people can't even relate to the whole notion of disparity, where the money is going, and why African-Americans are not getting their fair share. We put Phil Murphy into office with 94 to 95 percent of the black vote. That is the highest number of black votes any governor in the history of New Jersey have ever gotten.

And this governor ran on a platform of economic fairness. So we have to educate Black people that you have to make sure that when you vote, you are putting your vote where we can get an economic return and not that you just always vote Democrat. And we have to continue the grassroots effort in order to make sure our congregants understand that. And so we have another major town hall that is coming up the end of June, where we will have Black preachers on there across the country. We're reaching out to Bishop T.D. Jakes. We're reaching out to Dr. Franklin Richardson, who head the Council of Churches, because we're going to bring Black preachers together in a huge town hall

along with their congregation so that our people who sit in the pew can really understand where their money is going and how they should really vote. If Black people had not turned out to vote for Phil Murphy, Phil Murphy would not be a governor today. And I would admit that I think we have that same situation with a number of people around this today. And I would admit that I think we have that same situation with a number of people around this country. And by the way, let me just say that this whole notion of the pension fund in the state of New Jersey is the same across the country. We only have a small percent of asset managers, Black asset managers, who have a small piece. I think Robert said it's like one and a half to two percent across the entire country.

So this is not just a New Jersey issue. This is a national issue for which we need to get our arms around. And in fact, one of the town halls that we did that we streamed, John Rogers of Area Capital Management was on there. And this is what John had to say. Again, it comes back to us. You know, I tell people all the time that we wouldn't have lost the Ebony Jet building here in Chicago if we had people working in major consumer products companies

insisting that the advertising go to a black company like Ebony or Jet or Black Enterprise or WBON Radio, what have you. But we sit there and allow this to happen. And so, you know, I think you know, I know you know this. 17 years ago, we started a conference called the Black Corporate Directors Conference with Charles Tribbett from Russell Reynolds. And the whole concept was started because I noticed that there were very few Leon Sullivans in the boardrooms of corporate America, people willing to speak out and make change. So the conference has grown from 30 directors to last year before COVID, we had 300

directors come together. And we've had everyone come and speak, you know, from Barack Obama to Jamie Dimon, to Ursula Burns, to Don Thompson. We've had Magic Johnson, which has been an extraordinary success story, the kind of speakers we get. Usually seven CEOs of giant companies. Robert's been there. David Rubenstein's been there. It's just been a wonderful thing. But what we do every Friday night, we have what we call the conscience of the conference, someone to remind us the responsibilities that we have to fight for economic justice once we're in the boardroom.

So over the years, we've had Harry Belafonte, we've had Andy Young, we've had Congressman Clyburn, we've had Reverend Sharpton, we've had Reverend Jackson, Sherrilyn Ifill, Valerie Jarrett, people who are committed to our community. They're going to be willing to show us how to fight for economic justice in the boardroom. And that's always been the highlight of that conference. Again, having those folks who actually marched with Dr. King or believed in Dr. King's movement. And because too many of us directors get in that boardroom, we're just happy to be there to collect the checks, not make anyone uncomfortable, hope that nothing changes. But if we don't speak out, we're actually giving cover for the status quo to stay the same. Because the white CEO sits there and says, well, I've got a black director.

They're not saying anything. Things must be OK. It gives them an excuse to not fight for change. So, again, coming back to this, it's up to us to fight in that spirit of John Lewis and make good trouble. Hey, Jennifer, the thing right here, before I go to my panel with questions for you, Patrick Jefferson, why we created this segment. And I've had some I've had some black folks. It's amazing to me. Say, you know, why y'all sitting here begging white folk for money on the advertising side? And I'm sitting there going, dumbass, $170 billion is being spent every year

and black-owned media is getting 1%. And you're asking why? Will we demand that? When we are nearly 12% of the people who buy General Motors cars, we are 40% of the people who spend money at McDonald's. We are spending billions of dollars at Target, billions of dollars at TJ Maxx, billions of dollars with Apple and with Samsung. And we can go on and on and on. And you are sitting here

wondering why we should not be getting it back. This is why black America is broke. This is why our civil rights organizations really can't stand up for black folks fully because corporate America is funding them, and we can't. This is why our HBCUs are underfunded because we also can't give back.

If we are dramatically able to, if we are able to increase dramatically the investment in black owned companies, then we have the ability to also hire and pay wages and all of those different things. And so, hell yeah, we're going to be demanding this. And I have to say this, this is the same thing that Dr. King faced when he wrote the letters from the Birmingham jail. The letter that he wrote was centered around why we can't wait because you had individuals on the sideline who was saying that, hey, the timing is not now. And why are you creating all of this friction? What we have to do, Roland, is teach people to follow the money. Those advertising

dollars that are being spent that are not coming to, quote, you know, black media, those dollars are going to those places, and it's our people who are buying those goods and services. And so the question is, why shouldn't a percent of that money go to black media? The same thing is true as it relates to the pension fund. That money goes to major white Wall Street firms. Those Wall Street firms then engage in white, major white developers who come into our communities and therefore put things in place. And they get funded, by the way, by the state, because the states in many instances match that, okay, with certain credits. And the next thing you know, our people cannot afford what is put in place. And so what we're doing is gentrifying our

own communities. And then we start hollering about why in the world can't our people afford that? And what we have to do is teach people to follow the money. And here's the other thing. We have to start turning the heat up and challenging people who look like you and I to get all the stuff. What's the audio issue, guys? I'm hearing this. Thank you. Go ahead, please. We have to challenge our black elected officials to come with us, get off the sidelines, and let's really get equipped to stand together to get our fair share. We cannot have people saying, I would get in, but I am afraid of what I might get by way of retaliation. I'm afraid that I might not get funding for this. We have to help people to understand it's not just about them. It's about the next generation and the sacrifices that we have to make. That's the problem. The problem is,

is that we do not have individuals who are willing to get in the fight. And we've got to encourage people to get in the fight and be willing to take the risk. Here's what I know. Risk and faith go together. And if we say that we're faith-based leaders, if we say that, quote, we really trust and believe in God, we've got to take some risk. There's no way in the world you can have faith and don't take risk. And there's no way in the world you take risk and don't have faith. Those two things go together. And guess what? We have the power in the pew. And I honestly do believe Dr. Leon Sullivan really was able to do what he did because he had the backing of the congregation that he was with. I can go on and on with respect

to ministers who have done this, and we have to rally the church. I am reaching out to all of our pastors, to all of our leaders, and basically saying to them, those elected officials come to our churches. They come to the places where they know the numbers are. Then why don't we go to where the numbers are? If we can help further other people's careers, we have to help those people then make sure that they are furthering the careers of Black people. And we have not been successful in doing that. And I think the timing is absolutely now. And I think you're drawing attention to the issue. And we're going to get more people involved. Robert Julian? Robert, data show that African Americans

disproportionately work for municipalities, cities, states, federal government. Uh, for Black women, almost 20% of us have those kind of occupations. So those are our pension dollars that we're talking about. Our pension dollars that are sitting there. So the question becomes, in terms of pension fund governance, are there opportunities for workers

to participate in pension fund governance, or who is involved in the governance of pension funds in New Jersey, and is this a possibility for a legislative fix to ensure that at least one pension fund worker is on the pension board. Absolutely. We have not had a person of color hired into that hierarchy in the last umpteen number of years. We haven't even had a Black treasurer in the state of New Jersey since the inception of the entire state. And so we have not had black representation there, and people have not understood that.

And you're absolutely right. I asked my congregants one Sunday, and we have three services. How many of you all have money in the pension fund? Close to 60% of the individuals raised their hand. Those individuals right now have no say, but they don't know that they don't have any say unless pastors like myself understand this economic picture and begin to educate them. Until we have people positioned like what you're talking about right now, and people knowing that we make up a good 13, 14, 15 percent of this pension fund, you're talking about $80 billion pension fund

in the state of New Jersey, one of the largest in the country. And we literally have no representation. We literally have no voice. And we literally have no input as to where that money is going. That is a crime. I mean, that is absolutely, and from my perspective,

totally, totally unacceptable. And I would admit to you that I think a number of other states are the same way. Oh, yeah. Omicongo? Reverend Jefferson, you make a powerful argument for why we need to have more of our Black leaders involved. And I really commend the work that you're doing with your church and other churches. And you also talked about the government's response. I'm wondering, in New Jersey, what is the response from the corporate entities, particularly in this post-George Floyd era, where people have made more commitments to finances and diversity and the like? Have they been hostile to to you or have they shown a commitment to work with you or are they just feigning ignorance right now?

They have not been hostile, but they have also not worked with us yet. And we have something afoot to bring them to the table. You know, here's the real deal, and here's what's going down. What is absolutely going down is this. We have individuals who are at the point of pain but have no understanding as to how they can get out of where they are. And if you really think about this thing, there is nothing afoot right now to balance this thing. There's nothing afoot. We have to have some kind of legislation, and that's what we're going to put on the table of the governor. Before Phil Murphy get elected, we're going to make this issue so big. And Dr. King puts it very clear in his book.

He says, you have to bring direct action in order to get relief. He said, the last thing that you wanna do is protest, but you have to indeed draw attention to the fact that someone have their knee on your back or on your back. And so what do we have to do? We gotta bring about direct action. If we bring about no direct action, things are going to continue the way that they are right now. You know,

we like to romanticize Dr. King, but my question is how many of us are absolutely living the dream and bringing about some of the change that he talked about? You know, every birthday, every day, his assassination day, all over the country and all the networks, we're going to play that up. And guess what? We are still having a knee on the neck economically, and we are not moving this needle. But I will say to you that we're bringing about the pressure,

and I really have to kind of give Roland some kudos here because, man, if you don't bring attention to it, I'm telling you right now, we'll never get the change that we absolutely need. Avis. You know, I think this issue is so incredibly important. And I think it's important that we understand as a community that we can be focused on more than one thing at the same time. It seems like, in recent years, and understandably so, there has been a lot of focus, for example, on criminal justice issues and a lot of energy around protesting in that space. Do you foresee an ability to sort of find some sort of hook, some sort of link that would energize the Black community around this movement with

anywhere near as much fervor as we're seeing in those more sort of just direct violence types of cases where people are seeing a threat to their lives. How can we do a better job of emphasizing the importance of economics? Because I would argue that, in many ways, that's killing us too. JOHN YANG, The Washington Post, Man, you're so right. I mean... And here's the thing. First of all, thank you so much for asking the question. I think the challenge is exactly what Roland

kind of positioned up front, and that is, Black people saying, why are you folks doing this? Why are you doing that? Um, it's almost like we have to beg for what is rightfully ours ours when indeed we're spending huge dollars, whether it's in taxes, whether it's with companies, you name it, we are spending huge, huge dollars. I think that one of the places we have to focus is also on young people. When we even start to talk about this notion of forgiving, let's

say, college debt for young people, do you know how important that is? And I think that we've allowed then the Democratic Party to start moving away from that, when really, do you not know that if that debt is forgiven, that's a mortgage for a ton of our young people. When you're coming out of school economically a slave, I mean, and I use, you know, slave in terms of in debt. When you're coming out of school with that kind of debt, do you know how long it takes to get any kind of equity, to get any kind of investment? So I think we have to also focus on young people and put some attention on those places where they have enormous interest and try to build it with them as well. And I also think that we just got to I think we got to hold people accountable. You know, I just I just think that we got to lean in and we just got to stay at it.

I don't think there is an easy solution here. As our coach at Grambling State University, and I'm wearing my Grambling cap, used to say, as Coach Rob used to say, it's five yards in a cloud of dust. We're going to have to grind it out and we're going to have to get it on social media because in many instances, the main media might not carry the story. But guess what? We got a Roland Martin unfiltered man. Thank God for that, because we're going to get it out in any way we have to in order to make sure that we draw attention to this issue. We're going to have another major town hall. And for the first time in a long time, we're going to have a huge economic justice rally that I've already gotten a ton of the civil rights folks, a ton of pastors.

We're going to have a huge, huge economic justice rally in the city of Newark, New Jersey, bringing people from all over the country so that we can put some real media, some real attention and some real focus on this issue. This is the future of our community. If we don't win this, I got to tell you, it's going to be a long time before we get any equity in the country. Absolutely. So be sure to let us know when that's going to take place. Certainly we will be interested in live streaming it. Folks need to be fully aware of it.

So Pastor David Jefferson, we certainly appreciate it. New Jersey Black Economic Justice. First of all, go to njbej.com, folks, NJBEJ.com for more information on what they're doing there in New Jersey. Folks, we're talking about billions, billions of dollars that we don't get. That's what the whole issue is. Would it be, Roland? Would it be? All right. Pastor, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Let me actually also speak to that real quick, folks. No, no, pull up what you see there, lower third there. So you might have seen, folks, at the bottom there, we actually had lower thirds there. So you see where's our money. A little bit earlier, we had an ad that was running that for Nina Turner. If y'all can go in and put that up, that'd be great. It was been very interesting. I've had people who have been commenting on social media.

How dare you? How dare you post a video of her on your Twitter feed and on your Instagram feed and on your Facebook page. I said, it's called paid advertising. I said, here's what I find to be curious. I said, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, every local television station, every radio station, newspapers, magazines, podcasts, websites, they all do political advertising. But when black-owned media does it, folk like, oh, what you doing? Then they have people who will say, well, would you take advertising from her opponent? Yeah. All you got to do is call.

See, what I need people watching to understand is that it's amazing the standard that folk have for black media they don't have for white media. It's amazing when they

tell us what we can and cannot do and should and should not do, but don't say nothing when they do. How do y'all think we stay on the air? How do y'all think we go to Fort Worth on Wednesday to broadcast a parking lot rally with Denver Peoples who's trying to become the first black mayor of Fort Worth? How y'all think the airline tickets get paid for?

And the hotel rooms and the driver and the security and my production people. And then we're going to go to Tulsa on Thursday and be there for six days. How do you think this stuff get paid for? So I wish some of y'all would stop sitting here saying what black media, what we can and cannot do, when y'all don't say nothing when billions are being spent with white media. And all of a sudden, we get some political

advertising, and oh man, you selling out all that nonsense. And most of the folk who doing that, they ain't even join our Bring the Funk fan club. They ain't giving a dime, and all they're doing is commenting and watching for free. If y'all want to support what we do,

please support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered, and Zill is rolling that, rolling this martin.com. Folks, if you give on YouTube, don't forget, we only give 55 cents of every dollar you give there.

So if you give us to us direct, then we get the full 100%. So we certainly appreciate that. Folks, next month, New York City is going to have their mayoral election. And it's a whole bunch of folks in a race. We've had several candidates on already. Our next guest, who is running for mayor, has served as a city's police officer, and now he wants to be the next mayor of that city. He's running neck and neck in the polls with Andrew Yang.

Eric Adams joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Glad to have you back on. You were on before, bureau president there in Brooklyn. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. First of all, how is it going? You're broadcasting from a car, so clearly you must be on the road out there trying to make it happen.

First of all, I just love your unfiltered show because we need real talk right now. And let me just plant a seed, Brother Roland, which is crucial. My campaign is in the philosophy and theory of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river.

No one goes upstream and prevent them from falling in in the first place. All over the country, New York included, all we do is pull people out of the river of crime, homelessness, lack of education, all those issues we're seeing. There's no desire to stop folks from falling in the river because we have profitized and made money out of pulling people out of the river. And that's the difference between Eric Adams and everyone else that is running. What is your core message to African-Americans in this city? Why should they and others be voting for you to be the next mayor of New York City? It's about ending inequalities.

And those inequalities are created based on agencies within our cities. And this is not just a New York issue that I'm fighting for. It's a national issue. I'm going to get it right in New York, and it's going to cascade across the entire country. Cities are made up of agencies, and our agencies are creating the inequities and really the injustices throughout this entire country. Just look at the fact in New York City, 65% of black and brown children are not edu, don't meet proficiency every year. If you don't educate, you will incarcerate.

80% of the men and women at Rikers Island, our jail, don't have a high school diploma or equivalency diploma. I know how to take our city upstream. And I'm not just a cop. I was arrested by police officers and brutalized and civil rights leaders asked me to go into policing to fight from within. I started 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care,

and I was a civil rights leader in the police department and led the reform that you're seeing across this entire country right now? So when you talk about economics, look, New York, Wall Street, capital there as well. When you talk about African-Americans' businesses, there are some that do well, but the bottom line is there's so many people who are being left out. How are you going to make sure that every city department, that those dollars that are flowing, the billions of dollars in that city,

don't just go to folks who don't look like you and I? Well, let's be clear. Let's first start with the dollars that are coming from taxpayer dollars. We spend $22.5 billion a year in goods and service and procurements. Yet much of those dollars are leaving the city and we don't see it recycled in our small businesses. I'm going to turn that game around. Number one, I'm going to hire a chief diversity officer when I walk into City Hall. Number two, I am telling all of my procurement officers in every agency, you are to hand in your letter of resignation and I will make the determination if I'm going to hand in your letter of resignation,

and I will make the determination if I'm going to move on that. Number three, which is extremely important, that's not being done in New York at all, I'm going to put in place a real-time system where we can monitor our agencies in real time of how are you reaching the goals that I set up for you in procurements of goods and services, and we're going to zero in on those communities that were hardest hit by COVID virus. We will reach our numbers. We will judge them monthly.

And if you're not reaching the numbers that I expect of you, I'm going to move on that letter of resignation and put a person in that understands the mission that Mayor Adams has set out for our city? One of the issues that also comes up, education. A lot of drama that took place. A lot of folks upset with these high-end or, you know, tough-to-get-into schools

that are seeing significant drop in black enrollment. Mayor Bill de Blasio waded into that. We had him on this show, and people were not happy with him at all. You have a new head of schools there as well. You also have folks, you have parents who are clamoring for more charter schools.

Albany is saying, nope, we're going to put a cap on it. So, education. What is your education plan for New York City? Brother, thanks so much for that, Roland. Let me tell you something. We get caught up in the conversation and not the education. Adults are battling over something while children and babies are failing all the time. Education is wrong in New York City and across America.

I sat down on my campaign trail. I met with pediatricians and across America. I sat down on my campaign trail. I met with pediatricians and neurologists. We're so busy looking at what children learn and not how they learn. The first classroom is in a mother's womb. If that mother's not receiving the right folic acid, iron, iodine, the right nutrition, that baby could be born

with irreversible learning disabilities in some cases. Not all, but some cases. So what is Eric Adams going to do in education? I'm going to focus on every mother having a doula so they can understand the first thousand days of life, how it impacts on brain development. Then I'm going to make sure that we bring back the joy of learning into our schools. Children can't be just academically smart. They must be emotionally intelligent and well-rounded, their full personhood. of learning into our schools. Children can't be just academically smart. They must be emotionally intelligent and well-rounded, their full personhood.

We're going to connect our careers with the curriculum. And I'm not focusing on just those eight schools that you were talking about. Those are the specialized high schools. Eight schools, we'd spend 90% of our energy on those eight schools instead of looking at the over 500 schools that are failing our children every day.

I told you the number. 65% of our children don't meet proficiency, black and brown children. 30% of the men and women who are incarcerated right now, Roland, are dyslexic. So why aren't we doing dyslexia screening? 55% have a learning disability. Why aren't we doing learning disabilities identification to give the support to parents

so they don't end up incarcerated? Because we are downstream. I'm going to take my educational system upstream, everything from nutritional-based healthy food to learning how the skills they need, to leaning into vocational training, pathway to college. We need to change how we are educating our children. Right now, we're just schooling and not educating. Extended school hours, universal tutorial for every child that needs it, looking at our summer months so we don't have the summer slide. We're doing the wrong education because we're still following an agrarian calendar and an outdated method that is not prepared for the deep into the 21st century.

Well, look, we certainly look forward to see what happens in this race. I know you have to go. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And look forward to having you back on the show. Thank you. Take care, Rowley.

Stay unfiltered. Yes, sir. All day, every day. Take care. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. That was, again, Eric Adams running for mayor of New York City.

Hey, to the other candidates, Ma Wiley, I've been trying to reach you. Andrew Yang, we've been trying to reach you. Andrew Yang, we've been trying to reach you. Let's see. Scott Stringer. Who are some of the other folks, some of the top candidates? We've been trying to reach all of them. We ain't heard from none of them. Hitting y'all on Twitter, DMing, calling. So

I'm just saying. Just saying. Y'all might want to holler back. And same thing here uh now speaker nancy pelosi we've been trying to get you on for a year it's amazing how you ain't got you ain't got no time for us but chuck schumer been on four times in the last year every major democratic presidential candidate been on the previous head and the new head of the Democratic National Committee has been on. The old head of the DNC has been on.

Numerous U.S. senators have been on, members of Congress. Why is it that Speaker Nancy Pelosi don't do black media? Huh, it's interesting. Just saying. I don't know what Nancy's scared about. I ain't gonna bite. But it's amazing. You got lots of time for CNN, MSNBC, but you can't come talk to black media. So, Eric Adams, I certainly appreciate you talking with us. Folks, Don Winslow put this video together.

He sent it to me and I want to go ahead and show this video. No, y'all should have it over there. He put this video together to show you Republicans and this whole thing, y'all, when it comes to January 6th. Now, all of a sudden, they are saying they're going to filibuster. They're going to filibuster, y'all, The creation of the January 6th commission. Do y'all see? They're going to filibuster. Do y'all know how unbelievably stupid this is? Do y'all know how ridiculous it is

that what they're doing? And I saw an item the other day. I got a kick out of this one, Avis. Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin is angry and upset, upset that Republicans are sitting here threatening to filibuster. Huh? Really? Really? Is that what is that what what y'all doing? Is that what we're doing now? So, actually, this is the new video that Don Winslow put together.

I'm going to go ahead and play it. Control room, I got it. That I thought was pretty funny, y'all. Watch this. Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy. Let's review. This is a dog. This is a cat.

And this is a domestic terrorist attack. Any questions? Mitch. So, I mean, now check this out, y'all. I got to pull this up. So if you want to hear a fool, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Roy Blunt of Missouri is on Fox News with Chris Wallace on this Sunday. And if y'all want to hear something that is some of the most utterly ridiculous and shameful thing in the world.

Y'all got to listen to what this fool had to say when it comes to why we should not be pursuing a commission. I mean, it's hard for me, y'all. It's hard for me to take these people seriously, uh, when they say, uh, some of the most, uh, idiotic stuff, uh, you've ever heard. But, but, but this one really, really, and truly, uh, got me going when, when my man was sitting. Y'all, he literally laid out and offered up that, well, you know, just go ahead and play it. Are you that you're going to be able to block the creation of this commission in the Senate? Well, I think it's too early to create a commission. And I believe Republicans in the Senate? Well, I think it's too early to create a commission, and I believe

Republicans in the Senate will decide that it's too early to create that commission. Commissions often don't work at all, and when they do work, like the Simpson-Bowles commission produced a good result, nothing happened as part of that result. The one commission that we generally think did work was the 9-11 commission, Chris. I think that was I was part of putting that commission together. I think it was 14 months after 9-11, after all kinds of other information was out there for that commission to look at before that commission got started. You keep talking about the 9-11 commission, the two chairs of the 9-11 Commission, one Republican, one Democrat. They put out a statement this week, and here's what they said.

They support creation of this panel, saying unity of purpose was key to the effectiveness of the group, the 9-11 Commission. We put country above party without bias. You know, I don't think many people or anybody is saying that your committees can't do their work. The question is whether a commission, an independent commission, no members of Congress could serve a useful function. As you say, it may be a year from now

before they come out. Can you honestly say in opposing this commission coming out down the line that you're putting country above party? Well, I think, first of all, I think I said a minute ago what happened 9-11. Obviously, I meant what happened January 6th. Those are clearly, in my time in the Congress, the two seminal moments where the country, the capital city itself under an attack that we wouldn't have anticipated? But I do think that the 9-11 Commission had a lot more information available to it when it started than this one would have.

And we made a lot of decisions before the 9-11 Commission started that were important to further secure the Capitol, to further look at our intelligence failures. We need to be doing all of those things. We'll see what my colleagues think, but there's been very little bipartisan discussion between the House and Senate on this topic. So Republican Senator Roy Blunt's response... I'm really laughing. I'm really laughing, Avis. Because it's too soon. It's too soon. Was it too soon for all those Benghazi committees? Nope. Apparently not.

You know, it's just one excuse after another excuse. The next thing you know, they're going to say, my dog ate my homework. It's just absolutely ridiculous. What's happening right here is that they don't want an investigation to show how deep the rabbit hole goes for a couple of different reasons. They don't want Beelzebub in Florida to be mad at them. They don't want his crazy-ass minions to be mad at him. They also don't want their colleagues who are sitting right in Congress right now, who I believe colluded with a lot of these organizers to make this thing happen. We've already heard reports about it look like some of the insurrectionists, some of the people who were trying to have a violent coup against

our government, were given a tour the day before when there weren't supposed to be anyone in the building, not to mention what was going on with Ted Cruz and others at the time, which it seemed like there was coordinated activity, including elected officials right now that are there right now. All of this happening right before the midterm elections is something that the Republicans want to avoid at all costs. So clearly, here's the deal. This party is not a party that gives a damn about this country. It's a party that only cares about power, power at all costs, absolute power, power no matter what happens to anyone. Damn the policemen who got

killed or pummeled and injured, specifically, you know, in the light of people who under any other circumstances would be talking about how much blue lives matter. And so, you know, what we're seeing here is just the same old thing where Republicans are trying to divert attention away from truth uncovering activity so that their coup approaching or affirming and behavior can be sort of can continue to go on in the dark as they continue to do anything that they can, anything that they can do, in order to hold on to power. That's the whole deal. And this whole idea of, hold on, there's so much more that we got to wait, we can learn more.

On Mocongo, isn't that the point of a commission? Absolutely, 100%. And what's ridiculous about what Blunt was saying was that, well, the commissions didn't really accomplish much and they didn't really make any real changes. Well, then you make sure that this commission has the power to implement the changes that didn't happen with the report that came from the 9-11 commission. Look, at the end of the day, we have Capitol Police officers who still have to protect these guys who have issued statements saying this needs to be studied, who are being re-traumatized

by these Republicans who are out there denying what actually happened to them. We're talking about police officers, as Dr. DeWeaver said, who were killed, but others who had parts of their fingers cut off, eyes gouged out and the like. They're not getting any respect from these Republicans. And look, we understand that these guys were engaged and they're scared. And it was James Carver who said, we need to keep this in the front lines of the media every single day coming up into the midterms. And they're also scared of that. Look, these guys have never been about Blue Lives Matter.

They've always been about retaining power. And we know that there were so many of them who are involved in this. And they don't want that story to come out, and yet this is another reason why the filibuster has to end. We had a Confederate flag flown in our Capitol. Enough should be said right there. Julianne? These people want...

There were witnesses to what happened on January 6th. They were there in the Capitol building. Their lives were threatened. These police officers were protecting their monkey behinds to their own detriment. And for them now to say, oh, gee, nothing happened or it wasn't that bad or we can wait. No, we can't wait.

This was one of the most horrible violations of our Capitol. And it was fueled by race. As Omicongo said, with the Confederate flag waving, but with a black police officer being threatened, used the N-word some 15 times towards him, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The senator from Missouri has never been a bastion of brilliance. Quite the opposite. And so we're not surprised by anything that comes out of his mouth.

But what we need to be doing is saying, this has to be studied. If Nancy Pelosi, who won't come on your show, but she should, but if Pelosi has to do it as a Democratic thing, then let's do it that way. But this must be studied. We must get to the bottom of it. But this must be studied. We must get to the bottom of it. Names must be called. There are members of Congress. Hello, Marjorie Taylor

Greene. There are members of Congress who are complicit in this, and we know that they are, and that needs to come out. Absolutely. All right, folks, I got to go to a break. When we come back, new music by Hezekiah Walker as well as his collaborator in the music, Jason Claiborne. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used

to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message. When you study the music, you get black history by default.

And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe. A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become, you know, to this generation,

the way they visualize it. Its narrative kind of like has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of Black people. 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. Here's Akai Walker and Jason Claiborne are teaming up for the re-release of the hit song

You're All I Need. Joining us right now, Jason. Jason, what's up? What's going on, man? How are you? Doing great. What caused y'all to say, you know what, let's just drop it again? Well, you know what's crazy?

I wrote the song about 15 years ago, and I was just like, man, it'd be cool to feature Bishop back on a song that I wrote for him. You know, we had a big hit with Better. I wrote Better for him as well. And, man, I just was like, I got signed right before the pandemic and had to sit. And I was like, man, what better way to put out an anthem that we had together that Bishop made popular and put it out and re-release it on my album. And so now you're doing that. Is it a little different?

Did y'all change up a little bit? Well, you know, yeah, you know, we put a little, we put a little, you know, I put the little young, youthful feel on it, young adult feel on it and put, you know, still same message, still same vibe, where everybody can sing it in churches and all of that good stuff. And, you know, Bishop came and put his stank on it like he always does, man. And I'm just grateful for him to be a part of the song.

We actually have a music video that's dropping on Sunday, May the 30th, as well, to the song. All right, then. Well Then what sounds interesting there, uh, anyone else on this, on this new album, the folks want to check out. Yes. Um, uh, Michael Lampkin, who is an incredible singer out of St. Louis was on Sunday's best. Um, I have a lot of new people that I wanted to, you know, um, bring on, bring on to this game, to this music game and to this gospel world. I've written songs for so many different artists that I've been behind the scenes all this time. And God is now starting to bring me out to the forefront.

I've written for Ricky Dillard and Vashon Mitchell and a whole lot of other artists. And I'm just glad that now I'm dropping my album, Jason Claiborne and the Atmosphere Changers. God made it beautiful and you can get You're All I Need on this record right now. All right. Well, I certainly can't wait to hear that. Looking forward to receiving the copy. This All I Need remix. When is the album out? So the album drops this Friday, 5-28. You get the full record, 13 songs. If you're looking for that God's property, Natalie Wilson, sounds of praise vibe from back in the 90s, that's the sound that we're bringing you on this album.

13 songs, no skips. It's a song on there for every generation, from the young people all the way to the senior citizens. We got something on there for everybody. All right. Jason Claiborne, man, we appreciate it. Looking forward to checking it out. And Bishop told me he's going to call you. All right.

Tell him, hit it, brother. Yeah, he said he's going to hit you up. All right. Jason Claiborne, I appreciate that. All I need, a remix and the album's out on Friday. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Folks, there's nothing like a good old family reunion, but what happens if they choose to stay? That's the basis of Netflix's comedy family reunion. I caught up with the show's stars, Loretta Devine, Anthony Alabi, and Tia Mowry. Hi. How we doing? Glad to see all of you.

It's always great. Wish it was in person, but it's all virtual. And so we don't have much time, but I gotta get started. And I'm sorry y'all, but I gotta start with Houston first. I'm born and raised in H-town, Jack Gates graduate. So I gotta start with Loretta. Loretta, how you, plus I'm an alpha. She's an AKA, so we got.

How are you? Great to see you. Indeed, indeed. Let's get right to it. I grew up in Houston, huge family. My grandparents, we went to the same church. So every Sunday, it was literally 30 to 50 people at their house every single Sunday.

And so what I really love about this particular show is the family dynamic. We didn't have a situation where kids went into the room and adults were overheating. We were always all together. Loretta, talk about why that's important to show that and deal with the stuff that families have to deal with? Well, I think it's to be able to look inside a home

is extremely important now. There's so many things that people don't know about black families and how we love each other and how we give and take with each other. And this is a great example with them moving back into my house and with all their kids and then deciding to stay forever and us being based in a Baptist church and Miss Tia's character is, I don't know,

what's she doing raising these children without even whooping them? I mean, it's like, we need to break. We need to get it all together. So everything you can think of, good and bad, happens in this family. And we share it with everybody and we do it with love, which is a great thing.

Tia, what's wrong with you? Because I ain't got no problem whipping the behind of a kid. Act a fool. In fact, in my family, you ain't even got to be somebody's kid. Every aunt and uncle had the right to jack a kid up. Listen, listen.

My mother whooped my behind, OK? So anyway, my point is, is that I just wanted to, you know, I wanted to rebel and just do something different. I was like, OK, this is the traditional way of doing things. My grandmother whooped my mother. My mother now whooped us. And I was like, let me just try,

let me just try something different. I mean, you know, Loretta may think differently, but so far things are going well. I know, I'm also, wait, Loretta, you know what it is? I'm also a psych major. So I, you know, I studied growth and child development, and I've just learned other options. Help me, Anthony. Help me, Anthony.

Yeah, yeah, Anthony. I was whooped. You know, my mom was Puerto Rican, and my dad's Nigerian. So I definitely got whooped. I don't, I personally, my kids are four and two. So yeah, they're little, right? Tia, you have little kids. So we don't know yet.

I'm sure once they turn 15, 16, it's going to be a lot easier to just smack them. It's going to be too late. 15? You're early. You've got to do it early. You can't wait till 8, 15. You're going to get dropped.

15? 15, way too late. Are we doing this? Because this seems like an episode of Family Reunion, right? Oh, my gosh. Again, look, my mama had seven brothers and sisters, 42 grandkids, about 80-plus great-grand. Trust me, kids got jacked up.

But also what I appreciate, and granted, some people are like, oh, my God, y'all talking about whooping. But the other piece is we dealt with stuff. We dealt with religion. We used to have these debates. And if you were a kid, if you wanted to jump into the debate, the adults let you, but you didn't get treated like a kid. So if your points were stupid and idiotic,

you got smacked verbally with your points. So if you couldn't debate, don't step in here. Loretta, talk about again that importance of the conversations between family members together as opposed to kids, adults, everybody's separate, going your own way. Yeah, there was no separation. And the families were always loud

I mean families if you were in a really good loving family you had that vibe you could hear them No, but this is my point, but this is my point And I mean everybody that could get in the conversation and hold their own it was worth coming over for the food. See, Tia, when I was on CNN for six years, people say, man, you go hard on TV. I said, that ain't nothing. If you can survive the Lamar family debates,

that's light work. I mean, you know, Anthony, you had touched on this too about just, you know, the family dynamic that we have on this show when it comes to parental guidance, right? It's about trying to find that balance with allowing our children to voice their opinion, to, you know, do what they want to do. But then they're learning, you know, by their own behavior and their consequences. You know, it's not just all about us always just telling someone what to do. They have to go through it themselves. And, and I feel like it creates, you know, independence. I love

that with this show, we allow our children to have a voice, you know what I mean? And to, and to stand up for whatever they, they, they, they, you know, feel or that they want to do. And, and, you know, no matter how Medeir guides them, you know, with the belt or we just, you know, guide them with an opinion, we let them be, you know, and then they, they learn from that. And I think that's, I, in my opinion, I think that's, that's a great parenting tool. You know, you can't always control your kids. They have to learn how to have their own independence and their own voice. And therefore, when they get out into the world, they have more weight and foundation

into who they are as a person. And that's what matters. Anthony, she took all your time, but go ahead real quick. All good. Ditto. What she said. I'm used to it. It's cool. Well, look,

Anthony, Tia, and Loretta, I certainly appreciate it. Yeah, Tia, you took all his time. They give me the rap. I'm sorry. Can I say something? I agree with you. What you said is perfect. That's it. Get that bite. Yeah. My daddy said, when you get

your own opinion, you're paying all your own bills. Yeah. Loretta, Anthony, Tia, I appreciate it. Look forward to the family reunion. Thank you so very much. You know, I do get a kick out of these folk who have this whole attitude. Like, I'm serious.

This is just me. I know some of these new wave new folk. I'm sorry where I come from. If your ass ain't paying all your bills, I don't really know how these kids think they got an opinion.

I get to express myself. No. You can do what I did. You can express yourself to your damn self when you in my room that you live in, but you don't get to express it back to me, to my face. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I encourage my children.

I think there's a difference. You want to encourage children to be able to express themselves. No, you don't. There's a difference between being disrespectful. No, no, no. You be able to express themselves. No, you don't. And there's a difference between being disrespectful. No, no, no. You encourage them to express themselves elsewhere. My children have had excellent vocabularies and oratorical skills. I have a son who is a national oratory winner.

That happens because from a very young age, he was expressing himself. No, that happens because his ass red. You made him go to sleep early. That means he did some homework. That's why that happened. So I'm just, I'm just, you know, it's just real interesting to me as I watch folk today raise kids over Congo.

And I just sit there and I'm like, I know your ass ain't just going to let them just talk like that. Just, you know, just, but, okay. You know, I... But, mm, okay. You know, I'm somewhere in between. You know, I definitely, with Dr. DeWeaver in terms of... Both y'all soft. Both y'all soft. But the kids also know that we don't play.

You know, at the same time, he's in charge. Do either one of y'all have a look? Absolutely. Of course. What is it? I have stopped people dancing. No, no, no, no.? Absolutely. Of course. What is it? I have stopped people dancing. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Hold up. Hold on.

Right here. Right here. What's your look? Full screen, Henry. What's your... That ain't no damn look. That's called I'm Curious. Omakongo, what's your look? That ain't no damn look. That's a... I'm constipated. Julianne, go ahead.

Go ahead and comment, please, on this. Well, first of all, my look takes my glasses off. It looks straight at you like, don't you say another you-know-what word. But I don't necessarily think we have to whip children. I mean, we were whipped in enslavement. First of all, I'm not talking just about whipping. I'm just simply saying them even running their mouths.

First of all, do y'all abide by the theory this my room when the kids say it? Oh, hell no. Oh, hell no. You in my house, I remember having my deficit one time, and a boy told me he deserved his privacy. I said, here's the

mortgage. The month you pay mortgage, you get privacy. Until then, you up in my house, and that's just that. He called privacy. I said, here's the mortgage. The month you pay mortgage, you get privacy. Until then, you up in my house, and that's just that. He called his mother and said, she won't let me have any privacy. She said, well, you in her house. I'm with that. What's mine is mine. It's my house.

I'm with that 100%. All right. So, Avis, for your cheering, do you make it clear the phone they use and the Wi-Fi they own, that that ain't theirs? Oh, absolutely. They understand that all of that stuff costs money. But, you know, also, you know, I have encouraged entrepreneurial ways. I have a kid who in second grade got, you know, got sent to the office because he was selling paper airplanes.

He was so good at selling paper airplanes on the playground that all the kids were spending their lunch money with him instead of spending it on lunch. So, you know, it kind of encouraged in ways for my kids to be able to make their own money to get some of the things they wanted. Hey, all I'm

simply saying is, you know, and see, what gets me with children, how they think we don't know what's disrespectful. You know, like, we don't know what the hell. Like, we don't know what the sigh is. You know, and the whole, you know, the whole, the look off. Like, you know, like, when your ass.

I mean, so let me go, for y'all to know, this is what that means. When your ass going to be done. See, we all know what that means. See? And so, I'm telling you, look, all I'm saying, look, I get folk new, but I'm telling y'all, I'm a firm believer, something that are old school should

remain new school. And I had somebody just said, oh, the previous generation failed us. No. The problem is when that next generation go, I don't want to do that to my kid because I didn't like it when it was done to me. And that's why you're going to have an ignorant-ass kid

acting a fool with you. You know, Roland, I had this aunt. She was a great aunt, my grandmother's sister. And I was sent to stay with her one summer. You see me rolling my eyes because that was hell. But that lady will whip you in the morning for stuff you contemplated doing. I mean, you get up in the morning and she's like, smack it. What's that for?

Some devil bit you're going to get into today? Oh, I was so grateful when that summer was over. But did it keep you in line? Pretty much. Right. See, it's amazing how, yeah you know i it's truth be told it worked you know it's amazing how that all always come out on in the end there all right y'all y'all can check out family reunion uh on netflix is streaming right now uh avers of my congo uh julianne i certainly appreciate that if some of y'all got kids out of control, feel free.

Look, I have them straight in three days. Three days. Three days. Three days. Three days. And the last day and a half, just for good measure, they'll be straight in the first 36 hours. Oh, my goodness.

You about to start charging for that. No, I'm trying to tell you. Look, I ain't got a problem. Y'all don't understand. I will jack up. I'll never forget. Y'all, the true story. We were at my brother's house and I asked his daughter to do something and she was about, she was sitting about 10 feet in front of me.

I said, turn the TV down. Matter of fact, no, he was in the kitchen. He was in the kitchen. He was cooking. And he called her name, and she ain't move. Now, I'm there. I'm reading the book, and I was like, did he call her name again? He called her name four times. And I was like, did he just call her name four times?

Her ass didn't move? I was like, all right, this is all new. Because him and his wife had told me they didn't spank, they dated child. I was like, yeah, OK. I don't know what house she grew up in. I know what house you grew up in. And I don't know. But anyway, phone times he call her name.

So the TV was real loud. And I said, Lizzy, turn the TV down. She ain't move. Y'all, she ain't even 10 feet in front. I said, Lizzy, turn that TV down. She ain't move. I said, turn the TV down. She ain't. So then said, turn the TV down.

So I snatched her ass. My brother's like, now look, now you see, now remember, we don't spank Lizzy. I said, oh, it's all cool. I'm going to beat her ass. Y'all don't spank her. So your rules are still in place. But ain't no way in hell I'm going to have a little child get called,

ignore me four times, and not be a response. Oh, she got jacked up. She got jacked up. She ain't do it again. I bet she hear my damn voice in her sleep. See? I'm just saying. So some of y'all can go ahead and try that.

I'm just saying, go ahead. Then you're going to have the most ignorant-ass kids running around here acting a fool. Then y'all want to, dang, I should have handled that before they would turn six. Not a hell on wheels. Mm-hmm. I know some people that I know some people go, y'all going to be sitting there emailing me, tweeting me, or commenting, no,

you shouldn't be doing that. I ain't say do it all day like Julie and our aunt did. I'm just saying a few times will get you straight. And you'll remember, nah, I ain't going to do that because I might get my ass whooped. So let me just go ahead and think twice. Because that happened

to me. I was going to do something that was kind of like, if I do that and then he find out, man, I'm going to be sore for about four or five days. You know, I'm just going to go ahead and skip that. I'm just going to skip the sore part. So we good. We good.

Y'all watch Pale Reunion on Netflix. Pale, I appreciate it. Tomorrow, folks, we're going to be, of course, focusing on George Floyd. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of his death. We're going to be live from Black Lives Matter Plaza. Hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow like it is all day today here in D.C. Of course, we've been live streaming events for Minneapolis for the last two days, and we'll be doing so tomorrow as well.

Be sure to tune in to us. Don't forget if y'all want to support what we do here at Roller Mark Unfiltered, you can join our Bring the Funk fan club. Support us via Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash RMarketUnfiltered, Venmo.com forward slash RMUnfiltered.

Zale is rolling at rollingsmartin.com, rolling at rollingmarketunfiltered.com. And if you want to go ahead and just put your order in now for me to jack up your kid, just go ahead and pay right there, and we'll go ahead and handle it. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered. And before we go, you know what? I need to go ahead and do this here.

Hold on here. So let me show this here, y'all. Look, Anthony Anderson, you know, he been out here working out on his big wheelie challenge. And so let me show y'all what he posted. Kill the music, please. This is what he posted today on his Instagram. Go ahead and turn it up. Y'all hear it?

Let's get it. He'll start over. All right, everybody. Monday Motivation. Let's get it. Roland Martin, this is for you. Let's get it. I don't know why in the hell he went in a trash bag just to sweat and lose weight.

Anthony, seriously. I told Anthony, the reason he did that, y'all called me out. I told Anthony that he had a water bottle. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.

I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to it.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.