#RolandMartinUnfiltered - N.C. Wrongful Death Suit, Curbing Police Brutality, Women's Abortion Rights, Jonathan Majors' Trial

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

12.13.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: N.C. Wrongful Death Suit, Curbing Police Brutality, Women's Abortion Rights, Jonathan Majors' Trial A North Carolina family says a sheriff's deputy violated Sylvester Demetrius Selby's constitutional rights when he was gunned down in front of his home. The family's attorney is here to walk us through the federal lawsuit against Dare County.  The Supreme Court will take up the issue of abortion pill production, and Texas is forcing a woman who needs an abortion out of state. I'll talk to a Texas state representative about the threats Attorney General Ken Paxton is making to doctors who want to provide care to women in need. House Republicans are pushing to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden without actual evidence of what crimes he's committed.  The Jonathan Majors' assault trial enters its second week.   Lauren Victoria Burke has been in the courtroom and will let us know what came out in today's testimony.  In tonight's Tech Talk segment, a woman's nightmare about young black men being killed by police motivates her to create an app that she says can minimize police brutality and hate crimes. And I'll show you the conversations I had with the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau and  Airbnb's Community Partners Programs and Engagement Director at the 2023 Hope Global Forums.  Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

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at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, December 13, 2023, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A North Carolina family says a sheriff's deputy violated Sylvester Demetrius Selby's constitutional rights when he was gunned down in front of his home.

We'll talk with the family attorney to discuss their federal lawsuit against the county. The Supreme Court will take up the issue of abortion pill production, and Texas is forcing a woman who needs an abortion out of the state. We'll talk to a Texas state representative about the threats from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against doctors who want to provide care for women in need. House Republicans are pushing to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden without any actual evidence about crimes that he has committed. Speaking of that, Hunter Biden, man, he comes out blasting against Republicans today in a strong, strong speech outside of the United States Senate. The Jonathan Majors Assault Trial enters its second week.

Reporter Lauren Victoria Burke has been in the courtroom, and she'll let us know what has taken place the last couple of days. Plus, in tonight's Tech Talk segment, a woman's nightmare about young black men being killed by police motivates her to create an app that she says can minimize police brutality as well as hate crimes. Also, the Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards,

are moving out of the nation's capital as a result of a $2 billion deal to go to Northern Virginia. The Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards, are moving out of the nation's capital as a result of a $2 billion deal to go to Northern Virginia. I'm going to explain to you why it is beyond idiotic for cities, cash-strapped cities, to be building palatial stadiums for billionaire sports owners. We call that corporate welfare. It's time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martel. Martel. North Carolina family says the Dare County Sheriff's Deputy who killed their son Sylvester

Demetrius Selby was in no danger at the time he fatally shot the man on October 2nd. According to his family, when officers arrived at the home, Selby walked out of the house with a kitchen knife in one hand and an apple in the other. And he complied with officers. The officers claimed Selby lunged at them with the knife. Well, after viewing the body cam video, Selby's daughter, Legacy Spencer, is now suing Sheriff Doug Dowdy and Deputy Edward Glass III, claiming her father was shot and killed after trying to receive medical assistance for a stab wound to the heart.

The Selby family attorney, Harry Daniels, joins us now from Atlanta. So here's what I'm trying to understand here. Folks, let me know what's up with Harry. Can we hear Harry or what's up with the signal? Do we have it? Okay. Alright. So,

he walks out of the home with a kitchen knife. Walk us through this. We've seen this story before. I remember the story out of St. Louis where same thing, guy had a knife. Within 16 seconds of cops arriving, he was shot dead. Thanks, Roland, for having me on. Mr. Selby

was actually a stab victim. 911 was calledbulance for Mr. Selby The police arrived To the scene before the ambulance arrived Mr. Selby actually was suffering from Hypoglycemia, low blood sugar In fact he was trying To get his sugar up as well as Try to mitigate The blood that's pouring out of his chest

From being stabbed So he was in the kitchen He had a kitchen knife and he cut an apple to get his sugar back up. Once the police officers arrived, one officer, the black officer, he came closer to the, I guess, the door away from the porch and ordered

Mr. Selby out. The white police officer, Officer Glazer, immediately once he got to the scene, he pulled his weapon out, pulled his gun out. Officer Gibbs never unholstered his weapon at all. They called for Mr. Selby to come out. He came out. He had

the kitchen knife and the apple in his hand. He put his hands above his head to show that he was not a threat, that he was surrendering and following their commands. Once he got to the last step, he seemingly stumbled. It could have been due to a loss of a diabetic shock.

But he stumbled, and once he stumbled, the officer who was 25 feet away from him, the white officer, shot him. Once he shot him, the knife and the apple came out of his hand. He fell away from the other officer, who he wasn't even near, fell away from him, and he was on the ground, really flopping around like a fish out of water, saying, don't shoot. As he was trying to get back, turn her over,

officers shot him two more times, striking and killing him. This matter is before the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating this matter. Actually, next week they will make a determination as to whether they're going to prosecute and charge the officer with the murder of Mr. Selby. So here's what I'm trying to understand. So the cops were called because Selby had been stabbed? Who stabbed him?

We don't know who stabbed him at this time. We didn't know he was stabbed. We have a good indication the person who might have stabbed him was a person who, in fact, called 911. Okay, so Selby is stabbed in the home. Correct. 911 called. Cops are told there's a stabbing

victim he comes out of the home I guess what I'm trying to understand is you saw the video what was the distance between the cops and him when he had the knife and

how long was it before they began to engage him and then the first shot was fired? All right, so when they arrived to the scene, like I told you, one cop, African-American cop Gibbs, he came, I guess, not away from the porch, off to the left of the porch. The other officer was 25 feet away.

So 25 feet away. Immediately they called for him to come out. He came out. Then, what I just described before, walking down the stairs, stumbling. He stumbled. In fact, that's when Officer Glazer, Deputy Glazer, shot him. Deputy Glazer was 25 feet away from him. So

there was no threat at the time or any action that could have been taken by Selby to even have any threat, even threaten him or strike him with a knife. Wait, so the guy comes out with a knife, he stumbles, they're 25 feet away. Again,

again, I'm just sort of without even looking at the video, if I'm a cop and a guy is coming out, I can walk backwards as he is moving forward and I can be giving commands to drop the knife, please drop the knife, especially if you're talking 25 feet. We're not talking about eight or 10 feet

where they were in imminent danger. Right. There was no imminent danger whatsoever. And like I said, Roland, he was compliant. He put his hands, he showed his hands, put his hands above his head to show these officers he was not a threat. Roland, this man had blood pouring out of his chest. It was clearly that he was in distress as a victim.

Blood was coming out of his chest at that time, that he was the one that 911 was called for medical assistance. These officers got to the scene and immediately, well, one officer immediately pulled his weapon out as it was some type of threat or violence there as it relates to Selby. Selby was learned to be the victim. Nevertheless, he was shot and killed

when he was the one that needed help. Make no mistake about it, this is an unjustified shooting. In the state of North Carolina, I never know if the video will get released. Due to North Carolina laws, the family, in fact, the lawyers have seen the video.

A lawsuit has been filed. We are hopeful that a prosecution moved forward against this officer. But nevertheless, we have five civil lawsuits against this officer as well as the Darragh County Sheriff's Office. This is the same... And Roland, I know you covered the

Andrew Brown matter with me and other lawyers extensively. This is not too far from Pasadena County where the Andrew Brown shooting took place as well. That's where the next county over, the same district attorney's office. So you have that same thing that was going on with Andrew Brown

that we are dealing with now in Derrick County. So it's a long legal battle here. Hopefully we get some, not just some civil remedies, but also some criminal justice for this family. It's absolutely a horrific shooting.

I wish the transparency would be there so the public can see what happened to Mr. Shelby, but it was completely unwarranted. In my opinion, as it's been described, Mr. Shelby was absolutely not a threat. He was shot while he was on the ground.

And to be clear, Roland, even if the knife initially was a threat, once he was shot twice, he no longer had the knife in his hand at all. The knife had already fell to the ground. All right. All right. Harry Daniels, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

Have a good night. All right, folks. Going to a break. When we come back, a variety of things we want to talk about, including House Republicans doing the stupid stuff that they normally do, pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Biden with literally no evidence. Hunter Biden comes out swinging at them as well today. We'll share that with you.

Plus, we'll give you an update on what's happening in the Jonathan Majors case. And also, abortion. It's going to be an issue again in 2024. Supreme Court takes up the abortion pill lawsuit. And we'll talk about what's happening in Texas. There's a lot to discuss. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered

right here on the Blackstar Network. Back in a moment. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs

podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early set up goals don't worry about a setback just save up and stack up to reach them let's put ourselves in the right position

pre-game to greater things start building your retirement plan at this is pre-tirement.org brought to you by aARP and the Ad Council. country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is White Beat. I'm Dee Barnes. And on the next Frequency, Professor Janelle Hopson joins us to talk about hip hop and its intersection with feminism and racial equality, plus her enlightening work with Ms. Magazine and how the great Harriet Tubman connects with women in hip hop.

So it was not hard for me to go from Harriet Tubman to hip hop, honestly, because it is a legacy of Black women's resistance and Black women supporting our communities. That's what Harriet Tubman did. That's on the frequency on the Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show.

This is your boy, Herb Quaid. And you're tuned into... Roland Martin Unfiltered. -♪ Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin. I'm Phil Ejirite here on the Black Star Network. Well, the wacky Republicans in the House do what they do, where every single House Republican voted to move forward

to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. House Minority Leader Representative Hakeem Jeffries says today's debate about the impeachment was, frankly, a joke. We are here today on the House floor wasting time and taxpayer dollars on an illegitimate impeachment inquiry because Donald Trump, the puppet master, has directed extreme MAGA Republicans to launch a political hit job against President Joe Biden. There is no evidence that President Biden has engaged in an impeachable offense. There is no evidence that President Joe Biden has engaged in wrongdoing. There is no evidence that President Joe Biden has engaged in wrongdoing.

There is no evidence that President Biden has broken the law. Now, here's what is absolutely hilarious. You know, the Republicans have spent a long time, literally almost a year, trying to lay out evidence. They keep claiming, oh, no, we got it, we got it. Where is it? Never seem to be able to produce that evidence. The thing that's also, I think, is hilarious is that, you know, they claim that he was getting money from Hunter Biden and things along those lines. But here's the problem.

The timeline that they use, he wasn't even president. So you're trying to impeach somebody for alleged crimes committed when he wasn't president. That's sort of nonsensical. Jamie Raskin, who was one of the impeachment prosecutors, impeachment managers against Donald Trump,

spoke on the floor and just listen to how he details the sheer stupidity of Republicans. I want you all to watch this. It was recognized for three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker. You know, the reason mysteries are called whodunits is because they start with a crime,

and then you have to try to figure out who did it. The Biden impeachment investigation isn't a whodunit. It's a what is it? It's like an Agatha Christie novel where the mystery is what's the crime? And that gets very tedious very fast. After 11 months of this, no one can tell us what President Biden's crime was, much less where it happened, when it happened, what the motive was, who the perpetrators were, who the victims were. Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen in Congress was yesterday in the Rules Committee

when Congressman Neguse kept asking Congressman Reschenthaler what the crime was. And Reschenthaler, who's not on the Oversight Committee and is apparently just waking up to the joke, kept saying he didn't know what it was, but that's why we need an impeachment investigation to find out. He was a big fan of the impeachment investigation. He was a big fan of the impeachment investigation. And the president, who was apparently just waking up to the joke, kept saying he didn't know what it was, but that's why we need an impeachment investigation to find out. And naguse kept asking him, but what will the impeachment investigation be looking for?

And finally, Russian thaler said, a high crime or misdemeanor. And naguse said, yes, but which one? Now, naguse, of course, was involved in a real impeachment investigation of a real presidential offense. the incitement of a violent political insurrection against this Congress, against the Vice President of the United States, against the Constitution, and against the election of 2020. We did not need Sherlock Holmes in a magnifying glass to find the presidential crime with Donald Trump. It came right into this House and smashed us in

the face. Now, it's true Chairman Comer has collected a mountain of evidence over the last 11 months, tens of thousands of pages of documents, dozens of hours of interviews with government officials, but all of it clearly shows that Joe Biden committed no crime. Even their own witnesses that they called to the only public hearing they had said there is not remotely enough evidence to justify impeachment. Chairman Comer has bragged on Fox News about procuring 100 percent compliance with his subpoenas. So forget about obstruction, which I hear them muttering about today. Mr. Speaker, I played a game with the little kids in our family at

Thanksgiving. I asked them whether they'd seen my henway. And when they said, what's a henway, I said, four or five pounds. It's a dad joke, and some of the bigger kids got it. But when I asked the little kids, like three or four, if they'd seen my henway, they said, what's a henway? And I said, three or four pounds. And they started looking for it. And when the other kids came along and asked what they were doing, they said, we're looking

for Uncle Jamie's henway. And then for hours, they were looking everywhere for my henway under the sofa and under the chairs. And it could go on for days like that. Mr. Speaker, we're all looking for the Republican Party's henway. It just weighs three or four pounds, but it's costing us tens of millions of dollars. So please forgive me for spoiling the party here, but I want to say this to America. There is no henway, and this stupid, blundering investigation is keeping us from getting any real work done

for the people of America. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, folks. Joining me right now, Rebecca Carruthers, vice president of the Fair Election Center out of D.C., Ming-Yong Gai, associate professor, Department of African-American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University out of Richmond. So that's Suzette Speaks, attorney and host of the Suzette Speaks show out of Miami. All right, Rebecca, I'll start with you. Republicans are literally on record as saying our goal for this is to hurt the reelection of President Joe Biden.

It's also to assuage the bruised ego of Donald Trump because he was impeached twice. These are not serious people. These people aren't serious. But, Rowan, I have a question. What's a Hemway? I was trying to understand Raskin's analogy, but I have a question. What's a Hemway? I was trying to understand Raskin's analogy and I got lost. Maybe you know what a Hemway is. I have no idea what the hell that is. Okay. Thank you. It wasn't just me. I'm guessing the rest of the audience, if you're in

the chat on YouTube, please let us know what a Hemway is. Look, the Republican caucus is not a serious group of folks. They were presumably elected to come to D.C. and actually have real policy solutions to the policy problems that we have in our country right now. There's different international funding that's at stake. There's continuing to figure out ways to actually pass a budget and keep the government open without having a shutdown, a start of a shutdown every couple of months. There's inflation with food. There's other issues that everyday Americans are going through. And we have a non-serious bunch of goofy people in the Congress who's doing a fool's errand for Trump. They can vote to open up an impeachment inquiry against Biden. But guess what? It doesn't mean that Trump is going to

support them or raise money or even help them to get elected next year. I just sort of just sit here and look at these people, Mignon, and go, you're the ones who are in charge. You don't have grownups. You have folks who are, I mean, this is how bad it is. James Comer, who was the chair of this committee, is so offended because Steve Doocy of Fox News has been kicking his butt because there's no evidence. Says he's not going to go on the network anymore because of Steve Doocy. Dude, you're afraid of one of the biggest lightweights on Fox News? Well, you know, the thing that's really sad is that the other panelists here made a comment about these people were presumably elected to enact serious

policy. I don't think that they were, quite frankly. I think that the public that elected these individuals elected them precisely for this reason, to create chaos, quite honestly. I don't believe that any of the public that supports these representatives has any interest in moving our society forward, quite frankly. Those are the same people that support Donald Trump. These people are just Trump-alikes, really, right? We're just going to make up things and say, look over there, look over there, right? And there's no there there, but they're going to continue to look for it. We're going to make up things about Joe Biden because, hey, if we can say it enough in our little echo chambers on Fox News, right, if we can say it enough on our echo chambers,

then the general public will begin to actually repeat it and believe it. We have a serious problem at hand, but unfortunately, we do not have a serious Congress, or at least when it comes to the GOP, to try to deal with and address these issues. I would like to see, the one thing I want to see, quite frankly, if the Democrats have any sense at all, I would love to see an accounting of the costs associated with this farce that they've put on in Congress to figure out how much money the taxpayers are paying for this joke. Suzette, your thoughts. I agree with Mignon. When I thought about this, I just thought about what a party looks like once it allows

its fringe to become the center and to control it. This is basically now a party of retribution. They're taking their plays and their cues, of course, from President Trump. And what he has done in the past was to say things over and over again, so much so that the news cycle must cover it. And in turn, at the same time, we see what has happened when someone you don't like is being made the center of an investigation and how unfair that can be. So at this time, I think we're going to continue to see this charade go on, even though after, as you said, a years-long investigation, there has been no evidence whatsoever of President Biden's wrongdoing. And they're

going to still try to, you know, push the spaghetti around on the plate, and hopefully something sticks, and continue to use the news cycle to say things that don't really apply, so much so that, again, the American public in the short microwave mindsets that we all have right now won't be able to kind of pay attention long enough, is what they're hoping for, to know that there is no there there. But I hope Democrats like Jamie Raskin, like Minority Leader Jeffries, continue to use their bullhorn to let us know that, again, this is simply a witch hunt for real and that there is no substance to any of it. Well, folks, Hunter Biden surprisingly came out publicly today denouncing

Republicans. And man, it was fantastic. I'm here today to answer at a public hearing any legitimate questions Chairman Comer and the House Oversight Committee may have for me. I'm here today to make sure that the House Committee's illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies. And I'm here today to acknowledge that I've made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded. For that, I'm responsible. For that, I'm accountable. And for that, I'm making amends.

But I'm also here today to correct how the MAGA right has portrayed me for their political purposes. I am first and foremost a son, a father, a brother, and a husband from a loving and supportive family. I'm proud to have earned degrees from Georgetown University and Yale Law School. I'm proud of my legal career and business career. I'm proud of my time serving on a dozen different boards of directors.

And I'm proud of my efforts to forge global business relationships. For six years, MAGA Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family, and my friends. They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction. They have belittled my recovery. And they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service. For six years, I have been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting, where's Hunter?

Well, here's my answer. I am here. Let me state as clearly as I can. My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist. During my battle with addiction, my parents were there for me.

They literally saved my life. They helped me in ways that I will never be able to repay. And of course they would never expect me to. And in the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that as grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. It's shameless. There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen. James Comer, Jim Jordan, Jason Smith, and their colleagues have distorted the facts

by cherry-picking lines from a bank statement, manipulating texts I sent, editing the testimony of my friends and former business partners, and misstating personal information that was stolen from me. There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing. They have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life. So much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people. It is why I think that this is important. Rebecca, Republicans wanted him to testify privately

behind closed doors. Him as attorney say, hey, I'll gladly testify. Let's do it in public. They go, no, no, no. Now, I don't understand. If you want the guy to testify, make it public. Why do it in private?

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

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

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

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've 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. Like what Benyon said a little bit earlier, you know what? Some of the voters who are supporting members of the Republican caucus probably are agents of chaos.

And they just want to see Washington, D.C. just screech to a hawk and for nothing to actually happen in Congress. Like, look, here's the thing. You know what? If Hunter Biden broke the law, then he should be held accountable. But to drag Hunter Biden in to then try to have an impeachment for Joe Biden, it has to make sense. And if we are saying that a president committed high crimes and treason, shouldn't that be a public thing that we could all watch? Why have any of these proceedings done behind closed doors? That simply doesn't make sense if you're actually interested in truth-telling. Well, right there.

That's the operative phrase, if you're interested in truth-telling? Well, right there. I think that's the operative phrase, if you're interested in truth-telling, and they are not. And so that's what we see constantly, and so that's what we're going to keep getting. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We come back. The abortion issue, huge in the 2022 midterm elections. It could very well be on the ballot in 2024. We'll talk about a one-month reproductive rights battle, the Supreme Court battle in Texas next. Roland Martin, unfiltered right here on the Blackstone Network. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools.

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And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Abortion continues to be a prominent issue in this country. The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments to preserve a broad access to what has been described as the abortion pill. The justices will take up the Biden administration's appeal of an August decision by the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, extremely conservative, that will curb how this appeal is delivered and distributed, barring telemedicine prescriptions as well as shipments by mail of the drug. In Texas, the state Supreme Court forced a Dallas woman who needed an abortion for a non-viable pregnancy to literally go out of state to seek care. Doctors faced lawsuit threats if they performed procedures by the state's attorney general, the indicted Ken Paxton, who said Kate Cox, a mother of two, did not meet the state's criteria for a medical exception to the state's abortion ban. Texas State Representative Carl Sherman joins us from Dallas. Carl, first and foremost, what you have here is an extreme hard right Supreme Court just following in the footsteps

of a hard right supermajority in the footsteps of a hard right super majority in the Texas legislature. Absolutely. Roland, thank you for having me on the Roland Martin Show. And thank you for your tenacity and steadfastness to providing truth to power. Look, yet again in a Juneteenth state, here we go again, violating women's rights. It is something that we're accustomed to in the state of Texas, an attack on our women's rights, civil rights, human rights, you name it. And Kate Cox, a 31-year-old woman here in North Texas, whose life was in jeopardy, whose doctor indicated that her fetus has a rare fatal disease and

was informed that she would have to have an abortion, and yet she was prevented from doing that because of the judicial part of the Supreme Court here in Texas and our Attorney General intervening and putting themselves in between the doctor and their patient. And the thing that when we look at this, I mean, you literally have doctors in the state that are scared to death because they don't want to be sued or even lose their medical license when trying to care for women and protect their health. And not only that, Roland, these doctors are subjected to being imprisoned in our state prisons for up to 99 years just for doing their job to protect life. A party that says that they believe in protecting life has done just the opposite. This lady was risking her life until she

had to flee this Juneteenth state in order to get medical care. She would also be finding herself being in jeopardy of having other children. She may not be able to have other children because of the men in this state, Republicans, who refuse to listen to the doctors. That shouldn't be the case. This is a mother who has two children and wanted to have a third child. But because of extremism, we've got to vote these folks out of office. We've got to vote out the Cancun senator from Canada to ensure that we have Texas values here. If we put this on the ballot, Texans would vote in favor to protect the life and the quality of life for their mothers. So when you talk about putting on the ballot, well, they can't go on the ballot unless it gets to the legislature.

Republicans would never allow that. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And for me, Roland, this is personal. You know, my youngest son, he and his wife, my youngest son is a police officer. His wife, recently they lost their daughter, our grandchild, Maya Marie Grace Sherman, seven pounds, born stillbirth. In this state, you are required to carry the baby to delivery. That shouldn't be. This should be about the health and well-being of families. I'm sick and tired of having legislators who want to create these death panels

where judges that they have appointed to the Supreme Court make the decision of whether or not a mother will live or not. It's just outrageous how they have assaulted women's rights. Well, we're going to see more of that. But one of the issues that you have in Texas is in 2022, 75 percent of young people under the age of 30 didn't even vote. And so at the end of the day, the policies in the state can change if people actually show up and vote. Absolutely. You know, that's why I'm running to be Texas' first African-American U.S. senator to protect the rights of all. I hear young people say all the time, Roland, I don't do politics. I don't do politics. Well, politics does you every day, all day. When Kate Cox is refused

for having a quality life because we've got an attorney general who is a theocratic leader, that's politics. And so we've got to vote because while you may not do politics, politics does you every day, all day. All right, State Rep. Carl Sherman, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Hey, thank you, Roland Martin. God bless you. Look forward to seeing you in Texas. I appreciate it. Mignon, I want to start with you again. Look, the Supreme Court could very well rule it unconstitutional when it comes to the abortion bill. We're talking about conservatives who control on the court 6-3. I keep explaining to people over and over again, especially to all these yahoos out here who are like,

I'm going to sit the election out, that don't sit here then and bitch and moan about any of these Supreme Court decisions if you don't vote, because guess what? Presidents pick Supreme Court decisions if you don't vote. Because guess what? Presidents pick Supreme Court justices. The U.S. Senate confirms or rejects them. So when you sit elections out, you're letting other people decide your future. Yeah.

You know, I was having a conversation with my research assistant in my lab the other day, who's 20-something. She's a 20-something-year-old. And I asked her interest in voting and in politics. And she conveyed to me, well, I'm not interested in the federal level stuff. I'm only interested, or even the state level stuff. I'm only interested in very, very local grassroots efforts. And I think that what we've done, unfortunately, in this country is that we failed to foster the importance of civic engagement

within our young people, right? I mean, we watch people out on the street protesting against what's happening in Gaza, but these are the same people that refused to go to the ballot box in November. So I think the onus upon us is to really help young people understand what is at stake for them and help them understand how our country works. Oftentimes, these folks don't even know what you just said, Roland. They don't understand what the implications in the Supreme Court are for them. And these are college students, right? We have people that can't read, let alone understand how our country functions. So I think that many of us that are educators, but also those of us that are working with community members, really have a responsibility to try to help people understand what is at stake, what is important,

how we should vote if we can before they take it away, right? And these are the same people that say, well, my vote's not worth anything. It doesn't mean anything. It's just one vote. Well, if it wasn't important and if it didn't matter, they wouldn't try to take it away from us. And they are, right? So, yeah, I think that it's very difficult to manage that. But I do think that there's something else.

I don't think it's just as easy as saying, oh, people have to vote. We have a really deep sense of hopelessness in this country. And I do know that it's sort of been sort of creeping into this country, creeping in like a cloud over the past, you know, six, seven years. And certainly through COVID, it did so as well. We don't have the same kind of hope that we had once upon a time that really propelled people to the ballot box when we've had, you know, like someone like Barack Obama, for example. So I think we have to figure out some kinds of ways to help these young people understand that there's life at the end of all of this insanity that we've gone through with Donald Trump, and that we can manage to

address some of the important things that they're interested in, like women's rights, like climate change, like all of these things. And we have to figure out how to meet them where they are and get them to the ballot box. Otherwise, we're done. We're all done. And that's the terrifying part. But I'm certain that we're on such a terrifying and critical sort of precipice of something right now in this country. And we have to figure out how to get it together with all of us. The problem is we've been saw showing this. I mean, listen, I understand what Ming-Yong is saying. And people have said to be all rolling.

You know, you shouldn't call people out. You know, people, you know, sort of where they are also no i think sometimes you gotta say listen idiot there is nothing on the local level that is not assisted helped or funded by the state and the federal. Every Jackson, Mississippi water, Flint water crisis, what do they say? We need the federal help to replace the pipes. So if you focus on local, that's still federal.

And you better hope you have some people on a federal level who are going to help you when it comes to your water and i i just think that i think i think that what we do and i get it i hear that people say oh i just don't think it matters well but it's the same people who're gonna bitch him on like right now if you're angry about what's happening in Israel and Gaza, I don't like us sending funds. Who decides that? Politicians. So you want to expend energy protesting political decisions,

but you don't want to expend energy to deal with the politicians that are the ones who are making political decisions. I'm sorry, that's stupid. It's stupid. It is very stupid. Suzette, go ahead. Also, yeah, I do think there is that sense that there is nothing that we can do when everything is so corrupt and I don't want to be a part

of it, especially when we're talking about voters under maybe 35 and looking at how many layers there are to getting things done and sometimes the lack of immediacy when it comes to, well, you promised this, but you haven't delivered this. So my vote didn't mean anything or all politicians are corrupt. I think we have to kind of start to reeducate, especially in community forums like this one. I emceed one last

night, the FAMU Broward County chapter. Alumni did a know your rights forum for folks down here in Florida because the rules have changed so much when it comes to ordering vote by mail. It's like it's confusing to people. So that reeducation doesn't just apply to our college age folks. It applies to people really of every age, because what I see in legislatures that are controlled by Republicans, what they do is they move the goalposts and move the ball, and it becomes so overwhelming that people just disengage. But why do they do that?

Because folks don't show the hell up. Texas is 61% minority. But 61% of the people who vote are white. And so, so again,

when I hear these people, and they're like, you know, stuff, stuff, the stuff just doesn't get done. Well, guess what? Somebody else voting. Somebody else getting shit done. You know why?

Because they actually showed the hell up. You know, and I think you're right, this whole thing about immediacy, which again is dumb. Okay, well, I whole thing about immediacy, which, again, is dumb. Okay, well, I voted for so-and-so, and they promised me this, and it didn't happen. You do know that there are nine people on the city council. You voted for one of the nine. You kind of need five of the nine for it to pass.

Oh, there are seven school board members. I voted for one. Well, there are seven school board members. I kind of got to get four votes out of the seven for it to pass. I mean, I, I, I mean, I swear, I, I, I, I swear, Rebecca, when exactly? I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1,

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

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Did Civics 101 just skip about 20 years? So, Roland, two things. You pointed out the majority of voters who turn out in Texas are white, even though that's not the demographics of the state. And what I want viewers to really understand, Lake Research did some research on women and how they vote. It was largely white women. Do you know that these women are more likely to get a divorce than change their political affiliation? That means these women are more likely to separate, to divorce from their life partner than to change their political viewpoints.

So if we're waiting for, if the Democratic Party is targeting these so-called moderate white women, they're not going to make any substantive change in Texas if that's what folks really want in Texas. If you actually want folks in Texas to respect a woman's right to choose, it's just that. You get to choose whether or not you're going to have an abortion. You could choose not to have an abortion. It's not a forced abortion on demand. And so bottom line, we have to be able to show up for ourselves. Not only that, but even when I hear people say, oh, well, I just focus on quote unquote grassroots and local issues, every local issue, there's a, there's national implication. So a lot of times people

talk about their roads and say, oh, where there's potholes or the bridges have cracks. Well, guess what? It's infrastructure funding from Congress at the federal level that then goes to the states, then goes to counties and other municipalities in order to fund an improvement in our infrastructure. Or when we even think about, hey, well, when it rains, there's flooding on my streets. You know what? That's a sewer separation issue. That means that the rainwater and when you flush your toilet, it means that water is collecting. It's not properly leaving

the city. So guess where that money comes from? It comes from the federal government. There's been billions of dollars in grants going to the states to do sewer separation projects all across the country. I would challenge any of the viewers, when you hear people saying, oh, I only care about local issues, actually spend time educating them and letting them know, hey, this is where the national connection is to this so-called local issue. I mean, look, I deal with people like, we ain't getting no tangibles, I'm not voting.

The most guaranteed way for you not to get shit is if you sit your ass at home. It's real simple. In fact, coming up next, we're gonna share with you my conversation with the census director. Census comes around, man, I ain't filling that stuff out. But you do realize that's how billions are apportioned. You do realize that's how congressional districts are established because of the census.

Oh, this is beyond frustrating to me when this stuff happens. You're watching RollerBot Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Next on The Blackstone Network. article everyone, and I mean everyone, should read. Professor Porter and Dr. Valetia Watkins, our legal roundtable team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying who are we to other people? Who are African people to others? Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe

as African people. That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, how big a role does fear play in your life? Your relationship to it and how to deal with it can be the difference between living a healthy life, a balanced life, or a miserable one. Whenever the power of fear comes along, you need to put yourself in that holding pattern and breathe, examine.

Find out if there's something that your survival instinct requires you to either fight or take flight facing your fears and making them work for you instead of against you that's all next on a balanced life on black star network what's up everybody it's your girl latasha from the a and you're watching ro Martin Unfiltered. I mean, look, I, I, I, what, what, what frustrates me is when I'm listening to people who are going over and over and over again about how we need things, how I want things. But I'm not going to vote. I'm going to sit things out, which means that you just let other people have power. Same thing happens with the census.

I mean, people act as if like, oh, no, I don't want them to find me when they already know where you are. You know what? Before I play this video, this is a perfect example of just the dumb shit people say. I don't want nobody to find me. But your ass go to the grocery store and give them your phone

number to get a discount on the food. Your ass punch in your number at CVS. Y'all go to the dry cleaners. They don't ask you for your name anymore. They literally ask for your phone number. People are running around giving out their data, but they're like, I don't know,

I don't want them to have my information. At Global Hope Forum, I chatted with Robert Santos, the U.S. Census Bureau director, and we talked about how the Census Bureau is not just a data collection center every 10 years. All right, so I want to start here. We always know, we always hear about the census leading up to, whenuses. We do the population census every 10 years. And every five years, we do an economic census of all businesses. And we do a census of governments. On top of that, we do... A census of what?

Government. Government, got it. State, you know, federal, state, local, all the way down. On top of that, we do the American Community Survey, which is three and a half million households a year that provide a lot of rich data, plus another 130 surveys of governments, I mean, businesses as well as population on housing on just about every topic of importance to policymaking. Really? Yes. So how and then so is all of that data is that is that data being used then by federal government by state and local when it comes to resources? Yes it's absolutely it's it's motivated by federal and state and local government needs as well as judicial rulings

sometimes to you know monitor the status of things like the you know housing discrimination and things of that sort so we do that obviously politics plays a role in everything and depending upon who is in office, when census time rolls around, sort of dictates how things are done, how people are counted, things along those lines. But how do you prepare for that? So this is 2023. Obviously, you're not going to have the next round until 2029, 2030. And so what preparation goes in over these six, seven years? Well, as I said, we do constantly on any given day of the year, we're doing work on these other censuses and these other surveys. But the decennial census

is special because it's constitutionally mandated and it's the mechanism upon which we then get congressional apportionment. Right. And it's so important that we begin 11, 12 years before that census. So we started in 2018, 2019, thinking about how we were going to plan for 2030. We're in the process now of developing an operational plan that will be completed by the end of next year and that will set into motion the testing and additional research that's needed to then mobilize all of our resources and get the public ready for the next the 2030 decennial census one of the things that look I've covered housing in my career and it's always interesting because when we talk about data we always talk about census tract

data and so knowing and understanding how impacted communities are and so that's one of the valuable tools. When I covered City Hall in Fort Worth and county government in Austin, how they sort of looked at impacted housing in terms of how many people were packed in areas, what are those low-income areas, where do you place mixed development housing as well? Yes, that's absolutely true. It's funny that you mentioned Dallas and Austin because I'm from Texas, born and raised in San Antonio.

Born and raised in Houston. Oh, excellent. My wife's from Houston. All right. We got something in common. There you go. Second Ward. How about you?

My wife's from the Second Ward. How about you? I grew up in Clinton Park, but I went to high school, Jack Yates, in Third Ward. Okay, okay. Yeah, so actually, if you look at San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, that's the Texas Triangle. A big chunk of the population of Texas resides within that tri-area, and it's only going to grow more. That's going to incur housing needs, infrastructure needs, like, you know, transportation, highways. We already know about Houston traffic, right?

Austin traffic's the same way. So we have, we collect data and we provide it to state, local governments and things like MCOG's in municipal counties of government to do the planning so that they can help design better communities. Do corporations also take your data and factor in into decision making? Absolutely. We have a very vibrant collection of economic data on all businesses, the business sectors, the industries. We classify them. We take into account new businesses that are coming up like AI and things of that sort. And we play it back to federal, state, local government. So the average person thinks about the census. Again, we're thinking population. But how do businesses, how do they use the data to make determinations to where they're going to build new plants, think about the population data we collect, but we actually do an enormous amount of economic data collection.

We do an economic census, as I said earlier. We also do annual business surveys. So we have data available not only to companies but to the American public. So how is that being collected? For instance, I'm trying to think. I don't think I've ever, maybe I did, I don't think I've ever filled something out saying I'm a business owner. So how would that be collected?

It would be collected through our annual business surveys. We do a five-year economic census that goes to eight million businesses. And then on top of that, that's every five years. And then every year, we use the census as a frame, a list from which we draw annual samples so that we can then solicit information about what's your total sales, what's your output, what supplies, et cetera, what profits, what business industry, number of employees, and so forth. So that way when we're now talking about the percentage of black-owned business in the country doing X amount of revenue in the country or whatever, it's really coming from that data.

We have data on the race, ethnicity of business owners through our annual business. How are you now looking at artificial intelligence to do your work? We are actually leveraging it in a couple of ways. The first way is to make it easier for people and businesses to participate in our surveys. So, for example, in our business surveys, sometimes you have to type out the, what, you know, what types of materials or what industry are you in?

And it's a very long set of characters. We use artificial intelligence to look at what's being typed and then bring down a list of the most likely things. So you just click that and you go on. Saves a lot of time and money. The other way is that we're preparing our data that we've released to the public and to businesses. We're preparing for AI by inserting the metadata.

So when you do chat GPT or any of those types of queries, it will actually go to census data rather than some third-party data set. Last question for you. We always hear this, the hard-to-reach groups. And so how are you thinking now about being able to reach those folks seven years from now? Yeah, the way we're approaching it is through a couple of ways. The first is through active engagement.

We are on a mission to get out into communities, to talk to the Rowlands of the world, to talk to pastors, to elected officials, community-based organizations around the country, and to get them to recognize the value proposition of our data, how it can help their communities, their economic development, and so forth, their schools, their infrastructure, and so forth. The second way is that we are organizing ways to tap into those existing networks so that we don't have to wait until year seven to say there's a census coming because we have continuous engagement

and creating those partnerships. All right, then. Well, again, we do our part trying to explain to people the value, as I always say, connecting the dots, the value of the information. So hopefully folks participate. So y'all, make sure when it's

mailed to you or you're just coming around, fill it out because it absolutely matters. We appreciate it. Thank you for all you do, Rowan, and thank you for helping us out. Thanks a lot. Alright, folks, when we come back, we'll talk about the latest in the Jonathan Majors case. They've released that video of

him being chased by his ex-girlfriend. We'll talk to the latest in the Jonathan Majors case. They've released that video of him being chased by his ex-girlfriend. We'll talk to reporter Lauren Burke, who's been in the courtroom the last couple of days. Also, why do cities allow themselves to be held hostage to build palatial sports stadiums for billionaire team owners, and they lie to us about, oh oh this is going to be an economic benefit to the taxpayers total bs we'll talk about washington dc and also oklahoma city uh as well in this second hour you're watching roller mart unfiltered the black star network support us in what we do join our bring the the Fuck fan club. For your check and money, order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, Donaldson, R.M. Unfiltered.

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

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

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. PayPal, R. Martin, unfiltered. Venmo is R.M. Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, what do the ultra-wealthy know that most of us don't? Well, the truth is that there is financial exclusion. And unfortunately, far too many black folks haven't had access to this knowledge. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about on our next Get Wealthy with Melinda Hightower, a banker who's doing something to share exactly what you need to do

to make it into the high network status. They weren't just saving just to save, they were saving for a purpose. That's right here on Get Wealthy with me, America's Wealth Coach, only on Blackstar Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, how big a role does fear play in your life? Your relationship to it and how to deal with it can be the difference between living a healthy life, a balanced life, or a miserable one. Whenever the power of fear comes along, you need to put yourself in that holding pattern and breathe, examine, Find out if there's something that your survival instinct requires you to either fight or take flight. Facing your fears and making them work for you instead of against you. That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network.

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Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic,

there has been what Carol Anderson at every University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+.

And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! The folks um are we straight in there all right busy day in the busy day in new york city uh courtroom the jonathan' assault trial. They released the video, the surveillance video, where Majors was seen leaving the vehicle and being chased by his ex-girlfriend. Also, they released, of course, remember, they were in a car where he was on the phone. She saw a message, snatched the phone from him.

There was an altercation in the car. He then gets out of the car, and she chases him as he's getting out of that vehicle. Reporter Lauren Victoria Burke, she's been in the courtroom this week, joins us right now. Lauren, you know, your assessment of what's been happening in this trial.

We see this video here again where he's fleeing the car. He's fleeing the car. She chases after him. She alleges that he hit her in the vehicle. But the driver said that that was not the case, that she was the one who was the aggressor. Yeah, and there's a lot of bits and pieces of evidence that indicate that effectively what happened here is that they broke up. They broke up primarily, it looks like, because there was a text message that came in apparently from another woman and she flipped out. And as you can see from the video, they had some altercation in a car in which he tried to snatch a phone out of her hand. And then she bailed from the car. He bailed from the car. And then you see

Jonathan Majors on video, on a surveillance video. Most of New York City has police surveillance cameras. You see Jonathan Majors running down the street. You see Grace Jamboree running after him down the street, which I would think would make her the aggressor. There are also things going on in the courtroom that would indicate that the judge is not particularly wanting certain—any evidence to come into play that would in any way implicate his ex-girlfriend in some of the activity that may have been violent. There was a police detective, a New York City police detective, on the stand today that the defense had called.

But really, they wouldn't— the judge would really not allow a lot of his testimony to happen. He had processed the complaint from Mr. Majors with regard to an alleged assault from his ex-girlfriend. And really we couldn't hear any of that evidence or any of that testimony from the police detective because the judge blocked it and basically sustained all of the objections from the prosecution's office. And so I think that, you know, it's safe to say watching this close-up for the last two days that if Jonathan Majors' name was Joe Smith, we would not have this case in play. You know, it would appear that he snatched a phone out of his girlfriend's hand, and somehow we're in court with a trial where he is charged with four counts, a second-degree account for assault, a third-degree assault, aggravated harassment, and a second-degree

harassment charge, which I find very difficult to fathom that he's in court for this. There was some surveillance video or some body camera, police body camera, body-worn camera video that was shown yesterday that showed Jonathan Majors when he had actually called the police. You know, he called the police because his ex-girlfriend apparently had threatened to kill herself. And him concerned, he calls the police. They come over to his place in Manhattan. And he has a three-level—I don't know whether—it's

a penthouse. It's a penthouse. So, you know, you have these three or four white law enforcement officers. They talk to Jonathan Majors. They go through his entire residence and you can kind of see uh you know obviously he's a wealthy actor so that he has this very nice spread and I think in the back of my mind what I was thinking is I'll bet you these cops came over and thought wow what is he doing with this amazing you know a place and his girlfriend is laying in a very large walk-in closet, his ex-girlfriend. And she's distressed over something, but it all turns out that, in fact, what she's distressed about is that they broke up. And from there, she spends—she gets up from this position. You can see on the video she's laying down. But a few moments later, she's actually standing up,

gathering her things with one of the police officers, and then going away with EMS, and then ends up at Bellevue Hospital, I guess, under psych evaluation for three hours because she was distressed because they were apparently in the course of breaking up. But I found it difficult to believe, quite frankly, that this case ended up in court. And you know what? That really, for me, Rebecca jumps out. I mean, the amount of energy being... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org.

Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Expanded on what is a misdemeanor charge. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. was the reaction in the court because you know not to make too much light of the video but it was like jonathan majors ran from downtown new york to harlem then across the bridge to the bronx and then down to brooklyn over in flatbush like he was running for his life he was running like tom cruise in a movie yeah you know so it's so now this just seems like it is a farce. And we've talked about that prosecutor's office in New York, especially with what appears to be some political politically motivated prosecutions. So, Lauren, what was the reaction in court as people were absorbing the judge sustaining and not allowing for certain testimony that indicated that there was violence on his ex-girlfriend's behalf in her previous interactions with Jonathan. What was their reactions when they actually saw the video? Well, I was actually not in court when that video showed with them running

down the street. That was on Monday. So I was in court today and yesterday. But I can tell you that other things that have happened that have blocked the testimony that would greatly benefit the judge, the judge, Judge Michael Gaffney, is really sustaining a lot of objections from the prosecution, from Alvin Bragg's office. And there's a lot of looking around in the courtroom. Majors is there with his mother. And I think another lady that sure as hell looks like an aunt, but I can't confirm that. And some other family members and, of course, his current girlfriend. And, you know, he's not they're not the only ones looking around and thinking, what are we doing here? And also, you can tell that there's some sort of political dynamics here, certainly coming from a good place.

We should care about domestic violence. We should certainly coming from a good place. We should care about domestic violence. We should care about the Me Too movement. We should care about all of those things and listening to women. But I do think that Alvin Bragg's office greatly overreached on this case. And I do think that if Jonathan Majors' name was Joe Smith, we just would not be in court with this.

He snatched the phone out of his girlfriend's hand. And, you know, maybe her hand was injured from that. Maybe it wasn't. It's actually hard to suss that out. There's also some obvious evidence that he may have been assaulted by her that was blocked by the judge today that would have come out if the police detective had been able to speak on it a little bit more. There was a police detective on the stand today. He just wasn't allowed to really say what needed to be said on that. And so I think Alvin Bragg's office needs to be questioned on this case in a big way. And I get uneasy, too, when I'm sitting in court and I count 10 reporters. All of them are white. The jury is all white except for one person.

It's a six-person jury with two alternates. So the eight people are sitting there, plus the two alternates. And then there's only one black person on the jury, a black woman. There was an issue with her today, and I don't know what it was. She's juror number two. But whatever the issue was, it was straightened out. They went to a meeting, came out and everything proceeded. But I just get a very uneasy feeling. I do think there's a bias, certainly in our justice system against black men. And I think if he was a white actor, if he was Sean Penn or somebody, this just would not be happening. Nobody can convince me that this would have been brought to this level if he was a white actor. I just cannot believe that. And when I look at the evidence up close, I really can't believe it.

Mignon. So in full disclosure, I had absolutely no idea who Jonathan Majors was before today. That's the first thing that I have to say. Girl, where you been? I don't watch movies. I don't know who he was, but I thought it was hilarious watching him run down the street in this little blonde running by. You don't go to movies.

You don't watch TV. You don't... Lord... No, I didn't know who he was. I had to Google while you guys were talking about it real quick because I'm like, who's Jonathan Majors? And I don't know what movies he was in. Girl, you got that time-life headset on.

How you don't know what is going on? He's from Dallas, Texas. He's in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He played Kang. Okay. He was in the critically acclaimed HBO show. Girl, just go on. Go on with your question.

Okay. I'm sorry. I don't watch movies. Go on with your question. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't watch movies. Everyone knows this about me. Lord have mercy. I have, like, movie-induced narcolepsy. Lord have mercy. I'm just saying.

Anyhow, my point is, obviously, he's a very high-profile fellow because I saw his penthouse, which was quite impressive. And I do wonder, though. So I understand the ties to the Me Too movement. I understand that there was this altercation. I understand that him being a high-profile person and a Black man certainly contributed to this. But my question, I think, is really about the is this about a broader social context where there's like a little bit more of a backlash or a whitelash in terms of how we view black men in courts, especially high profile ones? Or what? I mean, I guess I'm trying to understand more about why did it get to this point? I was listening to everyone speak earlier and I'm like, why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about this?

Why are we talking about this? Why is this here? Why is this here? Why is it in the public? Yes, he's a high-profile black man, but what is the underpinning? Obviously, the man was running down the street. The woman was running after him. So that had to have come out to the public at some point. So I guess what purpose would the

prosecution have or the judge or whoever it is to push this to such a high level, to escalate it to such a high level? Well, I think as someone who, you know, was born in New York and raised in New York, you're talking about a very liberal, very progressive jurisdiction. We talk about New York and certainly Brooklyn and really the five boroughs, but particularly New York, Manhattan. I think Alvin Bragg is trying to sort of make a political statement by bringing these types of cases where certainly you're prioritizing domestic violence and there's nothing wrong with that. But I also think the Me Too movement has created a situation where, you know, all of a sudden, like, everything is sort of analyzed to a degree that may be a little bit much in this particular case. I certainly wouldn't say it for all cases. Every case is different, of course.

And certainly sexual violence is a topic that needed to be dealt with since the Bible days. But the problem here is that I think Alvin Bragg is sort of flexing to a certain constituency to get reelected. His staff does not appear to be particularly diverse, even though he's black. The two prosecutors that I'm looking at are not. And I think it's a stretch. I think he is trying to virtue signal to a certain constituency, probably white women and certainly the Me Too movement specifically. And we end up with it as a high profile case. You have a movie actor involved.

And I think that's pretty much the answer to your question. Got it. Suzette. I was going to ask about the racial dynamics at play, but you already took care of that. Thank you, Lauren. So I was I was going to ask you about what charges, excuse me, what the sentence could be if he's convicted. And I want you to use a little bit of your crystal ball looking at the evidence presented. Do you think that he may or even the body language of those in the courtroom? Do you think that he may seek some sort of civil lawsuit against her? Being that, you know, as you said, a lot of the evidence showing that she was, in fact, charged. I think they allowed in that she was arrested, but not,

you know, what the charges were, et cetera, et cetera, in this trial. Do you think there might be a civil lawsuit that he files against her? And what are the actual penalties that he's facing? I think it was a—someone told me that it was a year, like a year in jail, up to a year. I frankly think he, I doubt he would get that if convicted. Frankly, if he gets convicted, I would absolutely be shocked. Although the jurisdiction should tell me, yeah, it could happen. You know, what to say here? I think that, I frankly think that to some extent this office is trying to make an example of him in terms of, you know, trying to make a statement for, you know, we pay attention to domestic violence. It comes from a good place when you think about that.

Certainly, you know, historically women have not been listened to. Certainly, there's misogyny historically, but I cannot look at that evidence in court and believe for one second that Jonathan Major should not be suing everybody in sight after this. Wow. It's an over-prosecution. I don't know what Alvin Bragg,

these progressive prosecutors have always argued that we don't wanna over-prosecution. I don't know what Alvin Bragg, you know, these progressive prosecutors have always argued that we don't want to over-prosecute. We certainly don't want to, you know, go back to the days where we're targeting certain people and certain racial groups that have been over-targeted in the historic past. That's exactly what Alvin Bragg is doing in this case. So I really don't understand, again, why we're sitting in court talking about somebody snatching a cell phone out of someone's hand and that raising to the level of a second degree assault. And then he calls, get this, he calls the police. He calls the ambulance because he's concerned because she's saying she may kill herself after they break up. And perfectly compliant and fine with the officers. And they decide to arrest him in that moment because she's got a swollen finger. I'm just telling you as somebody who has, you know, has been in New York a lot.

And, you know, my dad worked as a cop in the bad 70s and 80s. This is really an interesting case that was brought to this level. All right. Well, Lauren, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. Thanks a lot. All right, folks, going to a break. We'll come back. We'll talk, give you an update on what's happening in Rudy Giuliani's trial in Atlanta. They are whooping

his ass in court big time. I love it. Also, I got to talk about, y'all, the infatuation of taxpayers. Folk who whine and complain about welfare and folk out here helping the poor. Why do we continue to give billions of dollars to sports team owners who are billionaires to fund lavish stadiums that only makes them richer. I'll talk about Washington, DC and Oklahoma city.

And we come back on roller Martin unfiltered on the black star network. I'm for ride to Mohammed live from LA. And this is the culture. The culture is a two wayway conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into.

It's The Culture, weekdays at three, only on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which simply put, is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country. It's the one legal article everyone, and I mean everyone, should read. Professor Porter and Dr. Vlithia Watkins, our legal round table team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture.

You crystallize it by saying, who are we to other people? Who are African to other people? Who are African people to others? Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people.

That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. Carl Payne pretending to be Roland Martin. Holla! You ain't got to wear black and gold every damn place, okay? Ooh, I'm an alpha, yay.

All right, you're 58 years old. It's over. You are now watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Uncut, unplugged, and undamn believable. All right, folks. It's the third day of Rudy Giuliani's defamation trial in Atlanta, and, man, they are kicking his behind.

The judge has already made it clear to feign him. Now they're trying to figure out what the damages are. Of course, he made false claims about two former Georgia election workers. This morning, a Northwestern professor and social media expert testified that Giuliani's claim that had significantly harmed these two women. Based on her analysis, Humphrey said it would cost them $17.8 million to $47.8 million to fix the damage caused by Giuliani. He's expected to take the stand as early as tomorrow. A judge ruled this year that Giuliani, former mayor of New York City who was Donald Trump's attorney, that he

defamed Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wondria Shea Moss by baselessly accusing them of election fraud. A jury is going to decide how much he must pay Freeman and Moss for the damage he caused to their lives? And Suzette, I hope they bankrupt his ass.

Every dime. Sir, we talked about this on Faraji's show today on The Culture, and I made my stance very clear. Mr. Giuliani has not learned any lessons. He was giving press conferences as of just Monday. Now, this is a trial that's going on. The portion that he's in right now is the damages portion. As you stated, the judge already ruled that he was found liable for defamation. And now here he is on the stump in front of reporters just this past Monday, still repeating the same lies and then saying stay tuned as if there's more evidence to come.

He doesn't get it. He's himself in such jeopardy. And the judge has been very up in arms with his attorney. Judge Barrow has been U.S. District Judge Barrow has been admonishing his attorney to get your client in order. If he gets on the stand and starts spewing the same nonsensical, fallacious and damaging information that he's been doing for the last three years, it's literally him shooting himself in the foot. I just don't understand it. And I'm looking at, again, some of the testimony that was rendered this week when we saw and heard the voice messages, the racial slurs, the things that were hurled at these ladies. When Shea Moss talks about cutting her hair, dying it the next day, seeing these videos online, not understanding that people started to come to their house to make a citizen arrest. She moved. Then they started writing her at her new home.

There was so much harassment going on. We have to remember just how caustic the atmosphere was after January 6th with someone at the level of a Rudy Giuliani and having the platform alongside Donald Trump to attack two innocent workers who were just volunteering and doing their jobs. He is going to have to pay. And we're going to have to see what this judge decides is the ultimate price for reckless behavior. I mean, y'all and I become a courtroom every day looking like Johnny Manziel.

You know what? I hope they do. Honestly, if you think about how they've how he endangered these women's lives, right? I mean, it's not even—the harassment is one thing, right? The sort of toll on one's mental health. But the fact is that these women, both of their faces are everywhere, all over the country, all over the world. And these lunatics have been sort of unleashed against them. I hope that, you know, they own him, quite frankly. I hope that, you know, it's like an Alex Jones kind of thing with the

families that sued him. He must pay and they must bankrupt him to make sure that he absolutely does not do any of this again. And, you know, I think one of the reasons why he continues to tell the same lies is just this is what they do at this point. These people live like in a matrix, right? Donald Trump, half of the GOP, all of the Trumpers, Giuliani, they just say whatever it is that they want to believe and assume that that's OK. Right? And perhaps in their heads, maybe they say it enough. They believe it themselves. I'm not really sure. But I do think that we see this newfound sort of stance where we deny, deny, deny, and deflect, deflect, deflect,

and dig in, dig in, dig in. That's what they do. And hopefully that family will own him in the end and bankrupt his behind so that he can never come outside again and have his hair die running down his face or anywhere else. Hopefully they'll own that, too. And here's the deal, Rebecca. Trump owed his fool $3 million, and he ain't going to pay him. He did all that ass kissing and lying for Trump, and he ain't going to get nothing out of it.

Look, his smelly-looking ass deserved this and more. Like, what he did to Shay Moss and her mom is despicable. I made it clear in this program. I didn't like him when he was mayor. I didn't like him before when he was a prosecutor. He did a lot of bad things that directly negatively impacted Black folks. So he gets what he gets. Even his defense team didn't even do a cross-examination on the expert that was quantifying the reputation loss to Shea Moss and her mother.

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

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

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

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, That's season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I hope they bankrupt him. I hope he goes away. I hope he crawls into a hole to never be heard from again. All right, folks, I got to talk about this here. So I was, early this week, I was looking, I saw this story.

And in Oklahoma City, voters there approved, it was an initiative. The voters went to the ballot box. I think it was approved by about 70, 71% of the people. that would institute a 1% sales tax increase for the next six years to help pay for a new basketball stadium for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, several years ago, they moved from Seattle because Seattle would not build a new stadium for the Supersonics. So then they would purchase and move to Oklahoma City. Now, mind you, the folks who own Oklahoma City, Thunder, are some of the richest people in the state of Oklahoma.

Okay? So go to my iPad. So this is a Forbes story, and it says, under the plan, the new arena is going to cost $900 million. Well, check this out. The owners are only chipping in $50 million. But, oh, they're going to chip in another $70 million coming from a previously approved sales tax earmark

for improvements to the current arena. Now, the team would agree to stay in the city for 25 years, and the new arena is going to open for the 2029-2030 season. I want y'all to hear what I just said. The billionaire owners of the team are going to get a billion-dollar stadium, which, let me explain to y'all what happens. It increases the value of the team when they get a new stadium. So let's say the team is worth $1.52 billion. You get a new billion-dollar stadium. They then go, oh, the team is now worth $3 billion. So somebody comes along and buys the team from the owners. They're going to pay $3 billion for the

team. Is the city going to get any of that money? Nope. But it's the city's building that actually increased the value of the team with the new stadium. Now, same thing happened here in D.C. So, a lot of people are in mourning because Ted Leonis, who owns Monumental, that owns the Washington

Capitals and the Washington Wizards, that they have announced this non-binding deal with, just hold on folks one second, a non-binding deal with the governor of Virginia to build them a new stadium in Northern Virginia. Now, here's what's hilarious about this deal. So they're going to go from

downtown D.C. to this 12-acre place in Alexandria, Virginia, Mix U. So you know what all that means. Oh, they're going to build shops and restaurants and stuff like that, entertainment complex, all this sort of stuff for the Capitals and the Wizards. And so, again, it's $2 billion. Now, they wanted the city to approve about $600 million in investment to upgrade Capital One Arena. Now, Washington, D.C. got lots of things they have to deal with. Go to my iPad. You're talking about $2 billion for an arena? Now, I love this here, and it's always a lie. So Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, the Commonwealth will now be home to two professional sports teams, a new corporate headquarters, and over 30,000 new jobs. This is monumental.

Let me explain something to y'all, okay? I covered City Hall in Fort Worth. I covered county government in Travis County in Austin. I have seen these stories all the time, and I'm telling you right now, it's a lie. In Oklahoma City, the experts testified, the economic experts said it's a lie what they're going to do talking about all the economic benefit because they try to suggest that, oh, X number of people are going to travel in from out of town and spend these money in a hotel. Y'all, it's always a lie. There are very few, there are very, very, very, very few sports stadiums that have actually

created that sort of economic development, okay? Very few. But this is the thing that bothers me. What bothers me is that we live in a society where taxpayers will moan and complain about money going to workers. They'll moan and complain about, oh, those folks need to get off their butt and go to work.

They'll moan and complain about women and children receiving food assistance, food stamps, EBT cards. But the same society will gladly fork over millions and billions of dollars to billionaire sports teams. One of the economists, one of the economists in the Oklahoma City case said this is one of the worst stadium deals ever. But see, I'm explaining to you why this happens.

This happens because they are playing on the emotions of fans. Oh my God, we're going to lose our sports team. They're going to move. Look what happened in Oakland, okay? The owners of the Raiders and the owners of the Oakland A's, we need a new stadium.

They were sharing a stadium. Now, look, it wasn't a great stadium, but let's remember, the Raiders left Oakland to go to L.A. They came back to Oakland. They were always squeezing concessions out of fans. I remember when the Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams demanded improvements to the Houston Astrodome. They spent upwards of $200 million to improve the Astrodome.

He still left years later to go to Tennessee for a billion-dollar stadium. You cannot show me a single city in America that all of a sudden the quality of life diminished because a pro sports team left. You can't show me how, oh, my God, housing values have gone down. We no longer have enjoyable parks. Crime has risen. Companies no longer want to come here because the sports team has left. We get punked and played constantly.

And you know what these leagues do? These leagues say y'all got to do it. Y'all need to especially the NFL. Mind you, the same NFL is the most

profitable sports league in the country. Bringing in anywhere from $15 to $18 billion. Every single person that owns an NFL franchise is a billionaire. So why is it in this society we keep funding billionaires

and fall for the okey-doke? It is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, Rebecca, and taxpayer money should not be used to build stadiums for billionaire sports owners. No, it should not.

The other issue that's going on here is that in the proposal to move the Washington Wizards to Northern Virginia is then moving the Washington Mystics from Southeast D.C. in a historically black neighborhood where the arena that's placed in Southeast D.C. where Washington Mystics play, it was supposed to create an engine of more development or redevelopment in that area. And so the owners were also suggesting, oh, we'll just put the Washington Mystics and take them back up to Capital One Arena,

and then we'll just play musical chairs with this. So this is a bad deal for everyone. The D.C. Council passed $500 million in an emergency with the mayor in order to have a competitive bid with the Washington Wizards. I would rather that D.C. uses that $500 million to properly fund mental health in the public schools here because of the amount of truancy that's happening with kids who have not bounced back since the pandemic. That's a huge issue here in D.C. Not only that, we have 12 and 13-year-olds dying because they're carjacking vehicles. They're taking everyone's vehicles here. They took a UPS truck, a FedEx

truck. They took a Secret Service person's truck. They took an FBI truck. They even took an ambulance and a fire truck. So D.C. has other pressing issues instead of trying to write a check for $500 million. And finally, in Northern Virginia, they just gave away billions of dollars a couple years ago to secure Amazon HQ2 for its second headquarters. You know, I'm driving up and down that area. It was called National Landing, and I'm not seeing the level of development that Amazon promised.

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on may 21st and episodes four five and

six on june 4th ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad and this is season two of the war on drugs podcast we are back in a big way in a very big way real people real perspectives this is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. The state of Virginia period is writing all of these checks to billionaires and they're not getting a good ROI, a return on their investment. Suzette, the guys that purchased the Oklahoma City Thunder purchased the team for $325 million. The team today is valued at $3 billion.

They can build their own damn stadium. I definitely agree with that. This is a little bit outside of my ballpark, pun intended, but I will say. No, it's not. No, it's not. You're in Miami. And y'all got fleeced. Y'all got fleeced in one of the worst stadium deals when they built that trash stadium for the Miami Marlins.

It used to be the Orange Bowl. Again, billions of dollars. And it just keeps happening in every city because it's ego, because no mayor wants to be known as the one. You cost us our sports team because you wouldn't fork over the billion dollars. Well, I was just going to add, sir, that in Miami we have gotten a little smarter because you have seen this issue kind of come up with international soccer star David Beckham wanting to build a stadium. And he hasn't over the last several years been able to convince anybody, whether it's been in Miami or up in Broward, to do so.

So he has made several proposals to the Miami City Commission, and it's bounced back. So there are some folks wising up to what many would just call corporate welfare, where we're okay with it for some reason for billionaires, but for the everyday person, as you say, you know, people are up in arms when it comes to, oh, just a penny sales taxi or, you know, for teachers' wages, et cetera. But when it comes to sports stadiums, for some reason, it's a holy grail and no one wants to touch it. But I will say we've seen kind of a little bit

of a shift in attitudes here with, like I said, the soccer stadium has not been built to this day. So folks are getting a little wiser. Here's a joke here. I'm looking at this article here in Forbes. And this is what I think what Mayor David Holt said. He said, oh, having a major league team means so much. It said, it can't, I love this one, it can't be calculated on a spreadsheet.

Oh, my God. And transcend the projected economic impact. He said when he talks to investors and job creators in other places, Oklahoma City has clout that it didn't have before it landed the franchise. Quote, the thing about having a major league professional sports team in American life is that it commands respect. And people realize that's a city that must have enough people, enough corporate presence, enough general wherewithal to host one of the world's greatest brands.

No, dumbass. It means that you're a fool who's willing to spend a billion dollars to build a billionaire a damn stadium. That's right. That's right. I mean, in fairness, having lived in Arizona where we had a professional basketball team when I lived there, we had the Phoenix Suns, it would be nice to have a professional sports team here in Virginia. However, not on the backs of the general public. And as the other panelists were speaking about the issues that we have, we have serious issues in Virginia. Post-COVID, our kids can't read. They cannot read. They cannot write. We have so much remediation that needs to happen for our adolescents because of COVID. We don't need to

spend that money for a sports stadium. It also reminds me, though, and it gets back to voting in some ways, right? Because I was thinking about when we were talking about this stadium, I started thinking about there was a casino that they were trying to push in Richmond, Virginia. They were trying to build a casino here as well. And they had to go, LeVar Stoney, the mayor, was trying to push that through here and talking about how many jobs it would bring and how much prestige it would bring to Richmond and how it would reinvigorate business and all of these things. Well, the people of Richmond voted it down. They said no, right? So they saw through it.

They saw through the noise. They understood that some people were getting paid from this and that there were kickbacks for multiple folks and that it wasn't going to do very much for the communities. I think it comes back down to the general public. We have to put our feet down and we have to stop it. I'm okay with the Washington Wizards coming to Virginia as long as their people pay for it. Well, guess what? That ain't happening.

Taxpayers are going to foot the bill for that. So that's nice, wishful thinking. foot the bill for that. So that's nice wishful thinking. And let me be clear, Ted Leone, who owns the team, he's worth $2.8 billion. Lorene Powell Jobs is one of the folks who is also one of the owners of the team. Love Lorene dearly, but guess what? She's worth about $7 or $8 billion. They can afford to build, they can afford to privately finance their own stadium. I do not believe that taxpayers anywhere in America should be footing the bill to build arenas

and sports stadiums for billionaire team owners. I don't care who they are. All right, going to break. We come back. Our tech talk segment, that's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the next Frequency, Professor Janelle Hopson joins us to talk about hip-hop I'm Dee Barnes, and on the next Frequency, Professor Janelle Hobson joins us to talk about hip-hop and its intersection with feminism and racial equality, plus her enlightening work with Ms. Magazine and how the great Harriet Tubman connects with women in hip-hop.

It was not hard for me to go from Harriet Tubman to hip-hop, honestly, because it is a legacy of Black women's resistance and Black women supporting our communities. That's what Harriet Tubman to hip hop, honestly. Because it is a legacy of Black women's resistance and Black women supporting our communities. That's what Harriet Tubman did. That's on the frequency on the Black Star Network. Hi, I am Tommy Davidson. I played Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. I don't say, I don't play Sammy, but I could.

Or I don't play Obama, but I could. I don't do Stallone, but I could do all that. And I am here with Roland Martin on Unpreasured. A nightmare scene of seeing a teen die at the hands of police in a police encounter led my next guest to jump into action. Maria Watkins, the founder and CEO of RTC ProTech, developed the first ever patented black-owned app with a 24-7 call center to minimize police brutality and hate crimes. She joins me now from Birmingham.

Glad to have you here. So explain this app. Okay. Thank you so much, first of all, for allowing me the opportunity to share this with you and your guests and all the people that follow you. Right there, Corporation, a few years ago, God really inspired me to do something about police misconduct. And I have one of my team members, he's a retired police captain.

And every time I would see the incidents of violence, especially with police stops, we have this long, drawn-out conversation, right? But I was inspired just to do something about it. My background is a social worker. I've been helping to protect children and individuals for a long time. but he inspired us to develop the app, to implement the app, and to stay with it. And so now we have a working app. It's at the Apple Store. It's the RTC Protect app. And some of the features and the main features I want to quickly say is that it does have the audio and video recording, but everybody's got that. But what this is, it gives you a safe place.

So if a police officer take your phone or someone smashes your phone in a hate crime situation, you can still get to that video. All you have to do is go to the back door of our website, download the app, both video and audio, and that will give you the comfort to keep it moving. So first of all, how does it work? That is, so let's say you get pulled over, you pull the app and you activate it. So how does the call center work? Does it make a phone call?

Does it make a phone call there? How does that work? Okay, so the way it works is that you download the app, it's voice activated. So when you feel like you're in a serious situation, then you can activate the app. How? So what do you say? By saying open RTC. Got it. Okay.

All right, go ahead. And then the app began to send messages to the people that you registered with and put as emergency contacts. So what they'll do, they'll be able to see where you are, know where you are because of GPS technology. And at that time, the video starts recording. And where the 24-7 monitoring services comes in is that they're there to make sure they're watching as well. So not only your emergency contact people see it,

but also the call center and they'll begin. So you're not alone. That's the biggest thing. And we're hoping that the major goal is to reduce, of course, to prevent and reduce violence in communities, especially in communities of color. Questions from our panelists. I'll start with you, Mignon.

So my question is, I love this app. I'm looking at it on my iPhone right now trying to figure out how to download it. I think it's fantastic. But who are the individuals and what is the training of the individuals that are at the call center? How do they help to navigate the situation or to intervene? Okay. We're at that point of looking at people and hiring people to support the 24-7 call center. We're at a place where as we increase in subscriptions, we can add on that particular service. But we're not only going to have the

call center, but we'll have the whole gamut to where it's a 24-7 call center. They can see what's going on as well as the emergency contacts. And we'll also have the wearable device that's coming into play where it's more, I want to say, Afrocentric type, wherever devices, a bracelet and a necklace. And also we'll have, and this is something that's going to help the people in the D.C. area, is our cell phone cradle, which is customized and got some unique features to it that will help in a situation where you're possibly being pulled over, where you're possibly, you know, of those things. So, yeah, we're looking at a comprehensive approach to personal safety.

Suzette? I love this idea. Congratulations on making this. Thank you, thank you. All of these circumstances where people, you know, turn off their body-worn cameras and there are no, you cameras, etc. So I wanted to ask you about the funding. How did you

get the funding for this? And someone who is, I ain't going to put your business out there, Roland said, at 64 years young, and starting a company, putting it out there and getting it patented and all that good stuff, it will inspire so many people. How did you get funded

and grew to the stage you're in now? Well, let me tell you, we're still there. We haven't added all the stuff that we want to add, of course. But our plan, we've got smaller investors, and we're looking at doing a campaign to be any other year reaching out to angel investors so that we can take care of the wearable device in the sale cradle that's in our objective to do that and we're going to do it because we want money to come with concern money to come with love about what's going on in our in our uh our own importance because i think what goes on a lot of times is that people don't see our worth. And that's why they can shoot us,

whether that's our brother, or that's why they can treat us any kind of way. But we've got some e-books out there trying to tell people, hey, how you can be safe in America, how to respond to police stops. We're going, we're throwing in the towel. And what works, works. But that's how we're, and the funding, it's been blood, sweat and tears and credit cards and whatever

it takes to keep things going. So we're operating now basically on increasing our subscriptions, so that's what, money, increasing our sales of our e-book, increasing our awareness that's out there that we've got something that's going to work. We need you to come be a part of this because it's a community effort. And then the last thing we're going to do is continue to partner with other people that's like-minded, that's concerned about the future of our community because we're brilliant people. And to me, as well as a 64-year-old, I think ain't nothing, nobody can stop me.

Got it. You know, ain't nothing we can't do. Rebecca? There are some jurisdictions that are making it harder and making it illegal for people to film police. Are you considering partnering up with groups like ACLU or other groups that are fighting police brutality just to make sure that this is able to be rolled out in a way where it's not causing people more harm if the laws have changed in their local area? Yes, exactly.

Even in one of the books we've written, we mention ACLU because they really deal with your rights and knowing what to do, and we're like providing the function of it. And so, yeah, we already sort of know which states are looking at legislatively trying to cut down the filming, but we're trying to get ahead of the game and do as much as we can do. And no, we can't help everybody, but if we can reduce it by 5 to 10 percent, you know, with the amount of violence and the police stops, then we've done our job. God called me to do it and I've got to do it. And that's where my strength comes from.

All right then. All right. Well, look, good luck with it. Again, tell folks the name of the app. It's the RTC Protect app. All right. Folks, there you go. We appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. All right. You have a good one. Folks, we come back. We lost a great actor. We'll talk about in memoriam. Andre Brower, next on Rollerblad Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,

you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it, and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it.

This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Rates $100,000.

We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

My name is Lena Charles, and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world. My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia Games. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Many of us were shocked yesterday when we found the news of the death of Andre Brower, the great actor who died at the age of 61 years old.

Many folks know him from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, playing Frank... First of all, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, playing Frank. First of all, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he played Frank Pimpleton on the 1990 series Homicide Life on the Street. He also played in numerous movies as well. The Good Fight, there was a television show, of course, Tuskegee Airmen, just an extraordinary actor, native of Chicago, went to Stanford University, also spent time at Juilliard as well. Began his career on TV as a sidekick to Kojak, played by the late Taylor Savalas,

worked on stage, also directed. He's survived by his wife, Amy Brapson, and three sons, but absolutely an amazing actor. And we remember many of his iconic roles. And I remember seeing him play the court martial Jackie Robinson. He played the lead role in that as well. And so certainly prayers go out to the family losing a great one at the age of 61, Andre Brower. Yesterday, I mentioned Craig Watkins, who was the first black district attorney in Texas. He was found unresponsive at his home yesterday.

He was 56 years old. He became the first black district attorney elected in all of Texas. Also created their integrity unit, going back and retesting the DNA in old cases. A number of people were actually freed in Dallas County as a result of that unit being placed there. He was in private practice after losing in the DA's race. Craig Watkins was 56 years old.

And so that's two brothers in different fields who are no longer with us. Folks, I came across this video on social media. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. podcasts. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

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

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Goals to show you what black people have to deal with in this country. Brother buys tickets to a basketball game.

White man sitting behind him didn't like the fact that his seats were better than his. Watch this. My man being racist because I bought these tickets. And he's going to sell the security to come and take my tickets. Because you're racist in 2023. Boy, you about to go viral. It don't matter. I bought them. I bought them.

It don't matter. My man racist. Man, be quiet. Be quiet. I don't want to hear you about to go viral tonight. I promise you. We about to take it. Set up. Set up. Be quiet. I don't want to hear you about to go by tonight. I promise you. We bought the ticket. Shut up.

Shut up. Thank you. Show them the ticket. There we go. Hey, shout out to the Denver Nuggets. We come all the way from Houston to come and watch the Denver Nuggets game. And we get this mistreatment because we bought tickets. And look, look, and we got this pig.

We got this pig being racist. Hey, you're going to go viral tomorrow, I promise you. What's your name? What's your name? You're going viral, my man. You're going viral, my man. Yeah, you're going viral. That's why he's trying to red in the face.

That's why he's turning red in the face. That's why he's going red in the face. Exactly. Shut up. Don't talk to us no more. Shut up. I mean, this is the stuff that black people have to deal with in this country. Suzanne, I'll start with you. I mean, this white man thinks

that he wants to know how much that you pay for these tickets it don't matter. Exactly it don't matter where I got from pay for I'm sitting here sit your ass back. It is so it's like was the compliments of the care and is the can I don't know what to even call this. Because he's a young brother, and we know the kind of implication

that goes with an older white gentleman in this context, in this specific instance, looking at someone who he perhaps believes shouldn't be or shouldn't happen. A sectionist he's in is quite frightening. And I'm glad he recorded it. I think sometimes within my friend circle, we joke that if they knew what the Internet could do, they would have never let us have the Internet. So I'm so grateful that we can record and document our real-life traumas, these microaggressions, or more than micro in this case,

where someone is literally infringing upon your, you know, well-being, you're just minding your business, you're just going to a game, and how impactful that can be over time on our mental health, on our just, you know, how we are viewing ourselves. And I'm glad he stood up to him and started to document exactly what was happening in that moment. So it's very sad, but we know this happens quite frequently and far too often.

And I'm just glad that we can, you know, stand up for ourselves and call it out when we're experiencing it. Here's what's crazy. I'm on the YouTube, excuse me, on the Instagram channel, Min Young of the brother who posted this, and they're saying that the man, Richard Maxey, is an employee of the stadium.

He called the ticket guy over. The ticket guy apologized. The ticket usher apologized after the fact. But, again, how shameful. This is an example with the Denver Nuggets. If that guy works as an employee of that stadium, the Denver Nuggets should fire him. Exactly. And the NBA should be sending directives to teams saying that patrons should not be harassed like this here. Now, it's different if – and, look, it happens all the time. They check different if it happens all the time.

They check tickets. Happens all the time. But for him to say, how much did you pay for these seats? Oh, hell no. Oh, hell no. Exactly, exactly. And how many viewers are watching tonight?

So you said his name was Richard Maxey and he works at that stadium. I'll bet if the Nuggets actually received quite a few communications via text, via email, via social media, they might act on it. It's absolutely unacceptable that this man treated this young man in this manner. The first thing that I did think about was the amount of stress. You know, I don't even, the word microaggression doesn't even quite encompass the daily lived experience of being black in America anymore. You know, we have to—white people go white people with a why, right?

People are going to do what they're going to do. of protecting ourself, protecting our peace, protecting our own, one another, in order to ensure that this constant assault on our health, quite frankly, on our mental and physical health, does not send us to a premature death, quite frankly. It's mind blowing to me, and it seems to be exacerbated, right? It seems to be getting worse over time.

And so we have to figure out ways that we can just practice mindfulness or do something where we can separate ourselves from those environments and hold our own as that young man did. He was great because I would have been shaken probably and said all kinds of things to that person. But hold our own. But at the same time, we've got to protect our peace and protect ourselves because, as I said before, I'm going to get in trouble for it, but white people going white people. The racist ones going white people.

Well, I mean, that's why we show these videos all the time, Rebecca. Guys, play it again. I want you all to show how he hides his badge. So if you watch the video, you're going to see here how his video, his badge is out.

And then as a brother keeps talking, you're going to see how Richard all of a sudden goes, hmm, I actually, he said, well, guys, you're going to go viral. Then he goes, you know what, dadgummit, he might be right. Let me go here and stick my badge in my front pocket so the video is not seen. But a bunch of people have actually been on social media, and they have already Zoomed in and identified his name and all of that.

So you're going to see in a second. So you see when he turns back, you're going to realize how he hides his badge so he's not being picked up on the camera. And the bottom line is we shouldn't have to do this. We should be able to go to games, enjoy ourselves. We shouldn't have to video stuff like this here. But this is why, frankly, pulling that camera out and showing that video is important. Uh-oh, uh-oh, here we go. Oh, let me hide that badge.

Let me hide that badge. So, too late, Rebecca. Too late. We know who you are, Richard. So here's the thing about red-faced Richard. He probably didn't even pay for his tickets anyway because he works for the team. So he probably is sitting in comp seats. So who the hell is he to then ask a paying customer, a paying customer at the Nuggets game, how much did you pay for your ticket? Like, get out.

Red Face Richard needs to lose his job. And also the Nuggets organization. And I believe there is a black woman who's a part owner in the Nuggets organization. No, that's a black woman who's a part owner of the Denver Broncos. That's Melody from Ariel Melanie from Ariel, Ariel Capital. OK, thank you. You know what? They need to make sure that he has given the VIP treatment, fly him back, fly him and his family back up from Houston on the Nuggets dime, give him the VIP treatment, whether he's in the owner's suite or he's down on the floor court side because

bottom line this is ridiculous black people just we just why can't we go to a basketball game in peace and then suzette to your question what do we call male karens we call them chads or we call them dwight thank you well um sorry richard see this will happen rich is one you mess with somebody Thank you. Well, sorry, Richard. See, this is what happened. Richard, one, you messed with somebody from Houston. So I'm actually texting a video to senior execs of the NBA as we speak. And I'll be sure to send an email to Adam Silver as well. That guy should be fired by that team.

If that guy works for the company that controls that arena, he should be fired because he should not have been questioning that brother, asking him how much did his tickets cost. And so I'm going to make sure that the NBA is aware of this video. Mignon, Suzette, Rebecca, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, thanks for watching as well. Before you go, if you're watching on YouTube, hit the Like button, y'all. Real simple, hit the Like button.

Before we go, also support us in what we do. Senior Check and Money Order, the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinunfiltered.com. And also be sure to support me by getting my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. Like that video right there.

Get the book everywhere, bookstores everywhere, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and get the audio version on Audible. We'll be right back. Actually, we'll be right back. I'll see you guys tomorrow right here. Roller Mart Unfiltered. And you don't want to miss the conversation tomorrow. So a former Bernie Sanders campaign aide who supported

Joe Biden writes a column saying he now supports Republicans because they have the party for the working man and woman. Really? Look forward to that conversation tomorrow right here on Roller Mart Unfiltered. Until then, holla!

Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Hey, Black, I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? 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 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 them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.