#RolandMartinUnfiltered - New TSU Audit Released, Atlanta PD Wrongful Termination Lawsuit, GA House Vouchers Denied

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

3.27.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: New TSU Audit Released, Atlanta PD Wrongful Termination Lawsuit, GA House Vouchers Denied #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbaseAli Siddiq 👉🏾 https://www.moment.co/alisiddiq"Shirley" NOW available on Netflix 👉🏾 www.netflix.comBiden/Harris 👉🏾 https://joebiden.com/ As Tennessee State University narrows its choices for its next president, a new audit report was released naming six major issues the HBCU must address. We'll talk to community activists tonight about what they are doing to ensure TSU's success.  An Atlanta, Georiga, police department employee says she was fired because of how her daughter criticized how police investigated a 2022 fatal shooting on social media. Now, the former Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the Atlanta Police Department is suing for wrongful termination. Her daughter will be here to explain why she posted the video.  An Atlanta apartment complex was condemned three years ago, leaving hundreds without a home. Those residents are facing roadblocks because landlords refuse to take housing vouchers. The Executive Director of the Housing Justice League will explain why the city failed to help them find safe, adequate housing. It's now a recovery mission for the missing six workers who fell in the river after a cargo boat demolished Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge. One victim has been identified and vessel traffic is suspended until further notice. We'll take a look at how that could impact the supply chain.  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Thank you. Today is Wednesday, March 27th, 2024, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. As Tennessee State University narrows its choices to be the next president, a new audit report has been released naming six major issues the HBCU must address. Hmm. We've been talking to students.

We'll now talk to activists tonight about what's next for TSU to achieve success. An Atlanta Police Department employee says she was fired because of how her daughter criticized how police investigated a 2022 fatal shooting involving the manager of Ludacris. She criticized him on social media. Now, the formerly deputy director of public affairs, Lamar P.D., has filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

She and her daughter will join us on the show. Speaking of Atlanta, the apartment complex was condemned three years ago, leaving hundreds without a home. Well, those residents are facing roadblocks because landlords refuse to take housing vouchers. We will chat with Executive Director of the Housing Justice League about this very issue. It's now a recovery mission for those missing six workers who fell into the river after a cargo ship demolished the Baltimore-Franciscox Key Bridge. We'll give you the latest out of Charm City. Plus, Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas,

oh, she is running a victory lap after the billionaire owner of the Washington Wizards pulls out of that deal to build an arena there. And now he's returned to D.C. with his legs, with his butt tucked between his legs. Oh, we're going to shout out the great job, Louise Lucas. And two more examples, y'all, of black-owned media just repeating anything white media says and putting a black stamp on it. The source in black enterprise, I'm calling y'all out. 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 Black Star Network. Let's go. With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin

Now The president of Tennessee State, Dr. Glenda Glover, announced earlier that she was retiring. Well, the current board of trustees, they have narrowed the search down to three individuals. Those individuals are Charles Gibbs, the CEO of the National 100 Black Men of America, William E. Hudson, vice president of student affairs at Florida A&M University, Michael Torrance, president of Motlow State Community College in southern middle Tennessee. Now, the problem is you've got the legislature, Republicans trying to get rid of the entire board of trustees. Well, the question is, are they going to allow the current board to do their job and pick the new president, or are they trying to determine the outcome,

who's going to be the next president, by forcing them to delay? This, of course, has some serious concerns for students, faculty, staff, and others. While this is happening, Comptroller Jason Munpower released the second audit that was done on TSU, and they found several issues that the university should focus on. The report identifies six issues, including saying TSU did not follow federal higher education emergency relief fund guidance during the COVID pandemic, leaving $318,113 in question. The financial aid office didn't adequately reconcile its direct loan records to the direct loan servicing systems records as required by federal regulations. It could not resolve discrepancies timely. TSU didn't have adequate procedures to ensure Title IV credits were refunded timely

according to federal guidelines. For the federal direct loan and Pell Grant programs, TSU didn't report timely and accurate information regarding students' enrollment statuses. TSU didn't return Title IV funds in compliance with federal regulations. TSU's Office of Financial Aid granted Title IV funds to ineligible students. Now again, lawmakers, alums, as well as current students aren't the only people who want the success of Tennessee State University. The TSU Community Coalition comprises a variety of people who are interested in seeing the school succeed. Joining us right now, Pastor Chris Jackson, Barry Barlow, Kenneth Kane, they are of the Save TSU Coalition.

Glad to have the three of you here. So let's first deal with this here. So the board has narrowed the choice down to three choices, but you've got the legislature trying to replace the entire board of trustees. So all of that work is now in flux. So the question is, is this board going to be allowed to hire the next president of Tennessee State University? What say you? You know, thank you so much, Roland, for just being on the front lines. And we just want to say from bottom of our hearts from Tennessee, we appreciate you carrying it all

week and making a difference. Personally, I believe that this whole legislative supermajority is drunk with power, and I believe that they should be charged with DWI, DUI, deciding while under the influence of this power and control. And so I believe they will do whatever it is and whatever it takes to remain and retain control over us in a paternalistic overreach. That's my thought. So, Roland, again, thank you for having us. It appears to me that there is at least an opportunity to maybe allow the process to work as it is intended to work. However, we're having a major problem, as Dr. Jackson has indicated, with this supermajority not allowing things to flow according to policies, rules, and laws. So the hope is that you would allow the team to finish picking the president, and that president would be very much a part of as well as

the community and the students and the faculties in making sure this board stays as sovereign as Possible that is the hope but based on the record these folks have done so many things in the midnight hour We are having to just be very reactionary to everything that they're doing and so the hope is it'll go forward according to plan but we are standing ready we're being vigilant and we are ready to get in good trouble if necessary tomorrow you've got students who are going to be speaking out uh we're going be there on, excuse me, on Monday at 11 a.m. Nashville time, 12 o'clock Eastern, talk at the State Rotunda, State Capitol Rotunda.

And then on Monday night, I'm gonna be broadcasting live from the Forum in the Tennessee State Student Center. And we certainly hope that students, faculty, staff, and the community pack it out. We wanna have a two hour town hall discussion and talk about what's happening with Tennessee State. But everybody watching needs to understand this issue goes beyond Tennessee State.

We are seeing the exact same issues arise in numerous ways at HBCUs all across the country. And what we as African Americans have to understand is that when it comes to HBCUs, a significant number of them are located in the South, where you have Republicans with super majorities. And so what black folk got to understand, if Republicans have super majorities,

they're the ones who are in control of state institutions. The fact of the matter ones who are in control of state institutions. The fact of the matter is they are in control of the destiny of these HBCUs. And that is a problem. I agree. So in what you reference in terms of those reports, Roland, it needs to be understood that four institutions were looked at. Three of them were PWIs. Each of them had at least a fault, a finding that they were in error. Of course, you're not likely to hear the drums

beating and the noise being made in the local media as to what they were in error of. Everyone wants to focus on what I like to call proceed errors at TSU. Yeah, there are errors, but they're not errors that warrant you forcing out a president. They're not errors that warrant you disassembling a sovereign board. They're not errors that warrant you not allowing an institution to be sovereign and move forward with its infrastructure moves. The errors do not warrant you prohibiting us from being able to build the large dorms that we need so our students didn't have to stay in our site and hotels. That stuff is unwarranted. It's unwarranted that we have buildings on this campus that you have like four and five, six generations of people who have attended.

So the errors that they found do not warrant the actions that they have taken. So obviously the goal now is you've got the House that's going to be deciding. The Senate says get rid of all of them. The House, we've heard that potentially three, four seats picked by the governor. But right now, folks who don't know. 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.

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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 thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. How is the current board picked? Who picks the current board of trustees?

The governor. The governor. And they're given, I think it's a two-year term that they're selected from the governor. And then they have to go back before the general assembly to be reassigned on a biannual basis. Right. And the university picks two. One is the student trustee. Right. And one is also the faculty representative. Well, again, we're going to keep watching what happens there. And people just need to understand that this thing is a much broader and bigger beyond Tennessee State. We appreciate y'all joining us on today's

show and I look forward to seeing y'all on Monday. We'll see you Monday. We'll see you Monday. Folks, speaking of Monday, this is the flyer right here. We're going to be in Nashville broadcasting. We'll be live streaming the news conference in the state capital Rotunda.

You see we are, of course, you see Bishop William Barber, national co-chair of Poor People's Campaign, Latasha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Darrell Taylor, who's the TSU Student Government Association vice president. He was on the show yesterday. Sean Wimberly Jr., the TSU student trustee, Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III, Rainbow Push Coalition. Tamika Mallory is co-SU student trustee. Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III, Rainbow Push Coalition. Tamika Mallory is co-founder of Until Freedom. And so you see what we're calling on. But in addition to that, we're going to be broadcasting again, Roller Mark Unfiltered from the forum in the TSU Student Center. That'll be taking place on the evening. And so everybody,

you're welcome to attend that. We're gonna be hearing from leaders involved in this. Let me bring my panel right now. A. Scott Bolden, he is a lawyer based in D.C. He joins us right now. Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President of Fair Elections Center out of D.C. Of course, Robert Petillo,

host of People Passion Politics on 1380 WAOK out of Atlanta. He's also running for a judge position there in Atlanta. Glad to have the three of you here. So I'm going to start with you, Scott, because we've been focused on this all week. And what's happening with private HBCUs is different than what's happening with public HBCUs and we talk about public we're talking about Florida A&M, Jackson State, Tennessee State, we're talking about Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M, Southern, Grambling and so the funding the leadership all of these things are literally being determined

by Republicans, and they are advancing bills that, frankly, are counterintuitive to the interests of black people, and these things are colliding. Well, of course, these are land-grant institutions. And as a result, if the state funds them, then the state can control them. Let me do full disclosure. I represent Glenda Glover in connection to her retirement at Tennessee State. But I also sit on the board of trustees for Morehouse College. And when I look at those compliance issues or the alleged errors in the report, I can tell you all of those errors are fixable. There are no major flaws in the implementation or the areas of Title VI and Title IX and the

other bullet points that you and your team put up. These are compliance issues. These are errors, especially in the area of financial aid. This is all very fixable. So the state legislature, maybe even the governor, are gaslighting this issue, because if you look at PWIs, private white institutions, they don't get a perfect score either. But because they can exercise their judgment, because the state, the governor and the House and the Senate can exercise this type of control over the board, when you talk about who appoints the board, several of them are appointed by the governor, if you will, but they have to be approved, I think, through the state legislature. But when they want a medal—and by the way, let's remember that this land-grant institution, Tennessee State, by federal review, has been

underfunded by $2.1 billion. The state gave them a quarter of the $250 million, I think, out of the budget a few years ago. But they are still severely underfunded. And so, on one hand, you can't tell them what to do and get rid of the full board and then criticize their implementation, when at the same time you have underfunded them over several decades of $2.1 billion and expect them to perform at the same level. So there's a lot of hypocrisy here in this review. And I'm glad that you're going there. I'm glad that other black leaders have gone there, not only to call this out, but try

to influence the resolution, whether they get rid of six board members or the whole board. The fact of the matter is, the new president, whoever they pick, is going to face the same type of challenges, so long as the Republican legislature is involved in this and has a super majority. So black people in Tennessee, go vote, because if you get a Democratic majority, you wouldn't be facing these issues with historical black colleges like Tennessee State University. Well, the reality, Rebecca, is that Republicans dominate the legislature. And so the first thing is, one, if you're able to knock them down from having a supermajority to a majority, it actually gives Democrats more power to be able to impact legislation. That's a real issue, Rebecca.

And I'm always trying to remind people, people like, man, but can we take it over? First of all, you can't take it over. You've got to knock the margins down. I mean, if they got a 20 seat margin, you got to knock it down to 18, to 15, to 12, to 10, to five, even out. It's a process. And I think what you're seeing is after they did not move on legislation last year to deal with that mass shooting, you get a whole bunch of white women and young white folks who begin to protest. And guess what? They started filing to run against these folks. And so that shooting last year has generated lots of momentum. And that shooting and the reaction of the legislature, they were so shameful that these white women came to the meeting holding up signs, and they actually barred them

from holding up signs. They had to go to court, and the judge was like, you can't outlaw somebody holding up silently a sign in the meeting. But it goes to show you how Republicans in Tennessee are using a sledgehammer against any opposition that they face. You know what, I was just in Tennessee a few weeks ago. And here's the thing. Anytime you

have a veto-proof majority, and for the audience, a veto-proof majority means that there are so many people, so many legislators in one party, that even if the governor was inclined to veto what they pass, they still have enough people to override the governor's veto. And so when you have a veto-proof majority, that means that you have a supermajority in your statehouse chambers. And that's what's happening in Tennessee. And it is very difficult and very hard in the middle of a session to fight back against a supermajority. But, to your point, if people want to change that, they could vote, and they could vote the supermajority out. Even if Republicans in the next session still have a majority, it might not be a supermajority.

It might be a simple majority. So the practicality of that, what does that look like? That means when you have committee hearings, that means it's a lot more even in your committee hearings. You don't just have one person who could decide the rules for everyone else, but now you're actually going to have more debates, which means you're going to have more quality and less extreme legislation. But specifically to this audit, you know, I read through it. I've been through multiple audits with multimillion dollar organizations. And I wanted to actually go through and look at some of the six findings with TSU.

And when I started to add up the money that we're talking about here, the questions around the money only totaled about $622,000. And just for context for the audience, that is probably less than one-tenth of one percent of the total Tennessee State University budget. And so whenever you go through an audit process, your auditors will always find issues where you can improve on with internal financial controls. But $622,000, which appears to be less than one-tenth of 1% of Tennessee State's total budget, doesn't show an egregious problem. What it does show is that Tennessee State, under Title IV, which is financial aid, they need to tighten up and be a little bit more efficient and probably update some of their systems with how they're disseminating their financial aid to their students. Robert, what the students are doing, what the TSU Coalition is doing, what other groups are doing, what we're doing going in is the example of what we're always talking about,

trying to get folk to understand that you can't just sit and complain about what they're doing and then do nothing. The reality is they've got to feel the pressure. They've got to understand that, hey, there's some folks paying attention. There's some folks out here not liking what we're doing. And when we talk on this show about the election is the end of one process and the beginning of another, what we're saying is, all right, Republicans, y'all got a supermajority, but don't think for a second that we're going to be silent

with regards to the kind of actions y'all are taking. And I think too often, I was on the phone the other day with an organizer, and the organizer said, you know, Roland, the problem is a lot of people say, well, what is this going to change if we go out and protest? I said, you're guaranteed for nothing to change if you say nothing. And I said, they've got to understand that for centuries,

there were black people who had no future. They knew they couldn't vote and they protested. They knew they had to deal with Jim Crow, but they protested. And so we cannot be a generation, and let me just say it, be a soft, weak, impotent generation that gives up in the face of adversity, no. We must take the fight to them and keep fighting and pick away and chip away at that, but it's guaranteed to stay the same or get worse if we say and do nothing.

You're absolutely correct, bro, and I want people to remember that this is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to these attacks on HBCUs. The same way four or five years ago we started seeing the first parents raid school boards in Virginia to protest CRT, and then that became the castus belli of the entire Republican Party. It metastasized throughout states around the country. We remember when Ron DeSantis launched his first attack against DEI, the beginning of the presidential campaign. Then let's see, you know, we're seeing bans on DEI in Florida, Alabama and other Republican states around the country. And similarly, this attack on HBCUs, we're going to see happen in state after state.

Many HBCUs are in former Confederate states, states that are currently controlled by extreme right-wing forces, the same forces that want to get rid of critical race theory, that want to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, that have now decided that any sort of race-based education, employment institutions are somehow violative of their conceptualization of equal protection and their twisted logic of what Dr. King believed in. They are now using this to attack any race-based programs that resulted in the ascension of African-Americans. Put simply, as Mos Def said, you start keeping pace, they start switching up the tempo. They mean to move the goalposts

because they are seeing too many African-Americans in higher education, too many African-Americans in degree programs or wants to reserve for simply them, and too many African-Americans taking advantage of the feeling themselves of an HBCU education, putting into question the sustainability of many predominantly white institutions. And we cannot forget the connection this has with the new NIL rules. All of a sudden, these black athletes don't need to go to Tennessee, University of Tennessee, University of Alabama, University of Georgia.

They can go to a Jackson State, a Clark Atlanta University, a Morehouse, a Tennessee State University, and make much of the same money. So these legislatures realize they have to start attacking the HBCUs themselves because they cannot allow that competition to exist within the market. And this is part of a coordinated effort nationwide by conservative forces to shut down black education. We see it happening. We've stood by what has happened. This has to be the Rubicon moment where we stand strong and do not allow it to proceed to step forward because if it works in Tennessee, we're going to see it work in every single other former Confederate state where black education will be on the chopping block. Absolutely. All right, folks, hold tight one second And we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Lots more to cover and unpack today, including in Virginia. That stadium for the billionaire ain't being built. And guess what? State Senator Louise Lucas, she is just doing a dance on the grave of Governor Glenn Youngkin's idea. She having way too much fun on Twitter. Also, we're going to talk to a mother and a daughter. They are suing the Atlanta Police Department. So y'all check this out.

They fired the mama because the daughter was critical of an investigation on social media. They filed a lawsuit. They're going to join us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. They filed a lawsuit. They're going to join us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media and investment. This next generation social app has already raised $10 million

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I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from LA, and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can solve. 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. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

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 2 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 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. It's the culture. Week at three only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I am Tommy Davidson. I play 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 Unfiltered. Thank you. A former Atlanta Police Department employee says she was fired. Yeah. Fired, y'all, in retaliation for her daughter's critique of how the department handled the 2022 shooting that left a man dead

involving music executive Jacques Azulu, who is the manager for Ludacris. Azulu was initially charged with murder. The shooting was ruled as self-defense, and after a long time, the charges were dropped. Well, Rhonda Frost was the deputy director of public affairs for the Atlanta Police Department. She says in a lawsuit that this video

of her daughter, Shanae Hall, led to her being wrongfully terminated. Here's some of that video. I'm trying to figure out how all of these law enforcement officers and DAs and everybody that's supposed to know the law watched a video of a 52 year old man being jumped by four men in a stand your ground state and charged him with murder, aggravated assault. I'm trying to figure out how the fuck do you come up with that after watching this video? These five guys right here, one, two, three,

that's a hit, four, five, are, I'm assuming, waiting for Shaka. Shaka's over here in the corner getting his guest situated. Follow along because it's going to be a lot of moving parts. So do it right here. Now, that's the video right there. Again, Rhonda Frost has filed a lawsuit. Her daughter, Shanae Hall, joins us right now. Rhonda was supposed to join us, but she is being advised by counsel not to publicly talk. Shanae, glad to have you here. So, all right, so walk us through. First of all, you dropped this video. Many of us remember the shooting well

because the story went all over the place. Shaka was fighting for his life. He eventually survives. Matter of fact, I saw him a couple weeks ago, the TV one, Urban won honors in Atlanta. Charges were later dropped. I think it took almost a couple of years for the charges to be dropped. So you had posted this video on Instagram, and then what happened?

The blowback against your mom, because you were, again, you were, what you were really talking about in the video, you were really talking about the prosecution. Right. But go ahead. I hadn't even indicted him yet. So what happened was Shaka Zulu got charged on, like, September 16th or September 17th. I made that video on September 18th, challenging what APD had charged Shaka Zulu with. But not only that, three people got shot that night. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, wait, what about the other, what about the other

people? You know what I'm saying? What about the guy that actually shot his friend twice? He didn't get, he didn't get charged. Then Shaka Zulu got shot in the back. So I take that back. It was three, five, three people that got shot, but not three individuals. So anyway, um, we're sitting there looking at the video and I'm thinking to myself, how is this even possible? And then the girl that gets punched in her face multiple times because she was trying to help get these men off of Shaka. It was literally mind blowing.

And so I made the video. And then right after that video, I made another video that talked about stand your ground. And this was in October, right? November 15th, uh, Tremont gets indicted. The man who punched the girl in the face, he gets indicted in November 30th. APD sends my mom home. Darren Shearbaum, who is the chief of police, thought that it would be better for her

to be sent home and investigated to figure out how I got the video. But the problem is, it was all under the guise of, oh, let's look at her work performance, even though she has a stellar work performance. Hold on, hold on, hold on. There's something right there. How did she get the video?

Wasn't the video made public? I made the video public. Well, again, so video... It was not public before. I knew somebody who had access to it. I got a hold of it. So they had not publicly released this surveillance video. First of all, let's be real clear.

The surveillance video did not come from... It was not police surveillance video. First of all, first of all, let's be real clear. The surveillance video did not come from, it was not police surveillance video. That was the cameras from outside of the restaurant, right? Correct. Okay, go ahead. Correct. So you already putting it together. This is not even owned by APD, right?

But they were so disheveled by the fact that I came out with this information and pointing out that they erred in their their choice to charge Shaka and not charge anybody else. Right. That. Yeah, that's so that's so that's like so that's so that's like, OK, shooting happens. And I, as a journalist, I I get access, which has happened before. I get access to the video and then I put it out. Okay, but they're going,

oh, wait a minute. She's the daughter of this person with the police department and oh, mama must have did it. Go ahead. That's the whole thing though. My mom doesn't have access to it. She's a civilian APD employee. So she didn't have access to the video footage. She doesn't have access to it. She's a civilian APD employee.

So she didn't have access to the video footage. She didn't have access to body worn camera. The problem is they put out this whole, let's investigate her for bullying a subordinate employee. Let's look into her work performance. But in real life, I have 700 emails that chronicle exactly what was going on. And they were not looking to see if she bullied anybody. They were not looking at her work performance to see if she came in tardy to see if she had absent days. They were looking for me and how I got the video. That is a problem. That is against every violation that the city of Atlanta has in place. Like they literally have codes.

That's not what you use taxpayers dollars for to look into somebody's child that you didn't want them to report what you did wrong. That is what the, where the problem lies. Like literally Roland, they have documents saying, look into the Mark 43 system, reach out to this detective, ask how she got the video. Look at body-worn cameras. See if she had access to that. Darren Shearbaum literally said,

see if there's a paper trail. Anything that can be audited, go and see if she looked at that. But remember, my mom is sitting at home. Now, they're sending these emails back. I take it on the Atlanta Police Department email, which are public documents. So a freedom of information request,

they have to turn those things over. And all of a sudden, now you're able to see, oh, y'all are literally questioning, how did she get the video? That's called, y'all dumb. For 10 months. 10 months. sent her home november 30th so let's follow this november december january february march april may june july august september 10th was her official fire date even though they showed up at her house unannounced on july 10th

and said hey give me all your equipment. You no longer work for APD effective immediately. And I have the letter that literally says the email that says, Oh, thank you for taking care of that. Great job. Did you not think that anybody was going to see this? Let's be sensitive. And then Roland, here's the craziest part. They actually put that she resigned on her personnel file, which we also got via open records. They said Rhonda Frost resigned on September 10th. Well, a resignation is voluntary. How come you were at her house then, July 10th, knocking on her door saying we need the equipment, we need your badge, we need everything back?

How is that possible? So it's just a whole bunch of lies, deceit. Peter Amen, who was in the building, who works with Darren Shearbaum, literally working hand in hand to get her out of the building and never to return again when she's done nothing wrong. The director of human resources for the city of Atlanta in writing says, Rhonda did nothing wrong. The director of human resources for the city of Atlanta in writing says, Rhonda did nothing wrong. Send her back to work. Starting from like January, February, March, she did nothing wrong. Send her back to work. She did nothing wrong. Send her back to work.

He also says, you're putting the city in jeopardy of being sued. You're putting the city in legal jeopardy. This is in writing. This is for the public to see. And this is what taxpayers' dollars are going to day in and day out. Every time that they file a motion moving forward, there's taxpayers' dollars going to support this buffoonery that they know what they did. They know the wrong that they did. They know my mom did nothing wrong. You know why I know? Because it's in writing. And that's the problem. Now, what they also don't realize is while this is happening, you decided to go to law school. Yeah, I was actually in law school. So this happened June 2022, the actual shooting. And so that would have made me like a 1 L year. Cause I'm getting ready to graduate

in a couple of weeks now. So it's almost over. That's how long this has been going on. And when you sue the city, for those that don't know about some of the government, you have to put them on notice. You have to send like an antelitem notice or something to let them know, Hey, you're going to get sued or EEOC something that says you're going to get sued. If you don't do something about this, these people have had months and months and months to respond and did not. And now this is even funnier. I just heard from our, uh, heard from my mom's attorneys that Darren Shearbaum, who was the chief, Peter Amen and Chata Spikes, who have all been mentioned in the lawsuit, uh, they don't want to accept, they don't want to accept service while at work. So I'm like, you're talking all this mess for all these months, but

you don't want to accept this lawsuit. Go ahead, chief, go ahead and let them, let them serve you right there at your office. So then we could be done with it. And you get your, your 21 days or 30 days, whatever it is, and we can keep it pushing, but they don't want to be served at work, which is crazy. Cause that's where all of this was going on. Everybody was so confident. Everybody was so bold. Everybody was talking so much mess in all of these emails. And remember, I have 700 of them to prove them. And I've had nothing but time because I'm in law school. And so during my free time, I was reading emails about them saying, oh, what about this? Go talk to Detective Finney.

Go talk to Detective Lowe. I talked to Detective Lowe. I reached out to Detective Lowe. I was the one that was reaching out to people to figure out how you got this wrong. My mom had nothing to do with this. Now, this is a federal lawsuit, right? Correct. All right.

Robert, what do you make of this? Not surprising. Not surprising is what I have to say about this, because we've seen this happen before in Atlanta, and we'll continue to see this happening in Atlanta. We have to understand that there is a culture within the APD that extends to criminal defendants, that extends to whistleblowers, that extends to individuals that seek to reform the system, where we see actions like this take place very often. That thin blue line turned into a thick black sharpie line when it comes to these questions of litigation

or people who are trying to make the types of internal changes needed for better policing. And I stand by the sister and everything that she's doing to defend her mother. But I think we need to have more actions of this nature within the city, because we've seen that simple political reforms are not enough, that whenever there are politicians who seek to reform the APD, we see what happened to Keisha Lane Foddell, we see what happened to other politicians. They get ran out of office because the APD has the power to simply allow crime to go crazy for about six months, which causes the free election. So we have to have people who are willing to participate in the type of litigation necessary to spur the type of change which this will spur.

And I'm hoping that this will get other people who have gone through similar situations to stand up and say, it's not just enough to ruminate and be angry at home. Let's get together and start litigating these things out so we can create a change as necessary. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well said. And that's the part that we found, even when we got to the point where we were looking for an attorney. I'm so glad that my mom was able to get A.J. Mitchell, who I heard is your frat brother, Roland. I mean, look, if you're looking for a great attorney, you might as well call an alpha and not call any other attorney. I'm just grateful for him because my mom is now at least en route

to getting some of the justice that I feel like she deserves. But I think, like your co-host just said, it's, it's about people standing up what they did. They try to send me a message. Sheer bomb tried to send Sinead a message and said, look at Sinead. Yes. Your mom works for us. And no, I'm not going to burn a cross on your front yard anymore, but I am going to retaliate. I'm going to retaliate by making sure she doesn't have a job. I'm going to take away her livelihood. I'm going to take away her ability to pay bills. I'm going to take away what he thought he was going to do is take away my voice. And it didn't work out like that.

It didn't work out like that, Roland. Let's go to the Kappa lawyer. Scott. The excellent Kappa lawyer. The marginal. All right. So to your guest, it sounds like you got receipts. You got the evidence. To a third party like me on the outside conspiracy and a lot of efforts on the part

of APD to have your mother removed from her position. And when you see a set of facts like that, then it begs the following question. What's the motive? I mean, why go through all of that time, money, energy, and now a lawsuit that at least based on she's going to get past summary judgment. I mean, why does a department go through all that just to remove one person who apparently was a high performing employee? Well, actually, actually, I had a video before she goes. You called out the police department gets criticized all the time. So did you come up with a motive for this? No, but when they answer that, I'll... You've had a video before Sinead goes. That's what you called out. The police department gets criticized all the time. So did you come up with a motive for this?

No, but when Sinead answered that, I'll say this before she answers. First of all, let me set the scene. This was a very high-profile shooting. It got lots of attention. This involves the manager of one of Atlanta's biggest rappers. And so... And then there was a lot of, I remember when this story happened,

it was a lot of folks, okay, what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened, and no information was getting out. And I remember when Sinead dropped the video, video comes out, and then it was like, what the hell? Like, what the hell were they doing? And there literally was no conversation ever at any point.

They charged him with murder. Correct, Sinead? That's correct. And so all of us, and he couldn't, places where he couldn't go. And so it was a lot of focus on this. Sinead, go ahead.

Exactly. So what happened, remember, nobody had access to the video. So they were able to charge him in what they thought was going to go on their merry way, right? And that's the problem with a lot of police departments. You just, whatever black man will do, and especially the most powerful one that's sitting in the room. And the initial, let me just add it here, and the initial narrative, again, because I remember this vividly,

the initial narrative that was established was that Shaka Zulu got into a fight with some men in a parking lot, pulled out his gun, killed... 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 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 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. Shot at the other men, killed them. Oh, manager of rapper,

manager of ludicrous, charged with murder. And so that's all anybody knew. Now, while he was fighting for his life in the hospital, that was a narrative. And the whole time was kind of like, what happened, what happened? No one knew what happened.

It was like, fight, gun gets pulled out, gets shot. Sinead drops the video, then the whole narrative changes to, oh, damn, he got jumped. It was self-defense. Go ahead. Okay. And the video certainly shows that.

I guess my ultimate point is it would have been easier for the police department to do the right thing. Right. And to go by the book than all of this other stuff. And it would have been easier to share. Again, it would have been easier to share the video with the public. It was sort of like, no, no, no. We ain't releasing nothing. We ain't releasing nothing. And it was like

when she got the video, we were like, what y'all doing? The truth was easier than the lie. Right. The truth was easier than the lie. But go right ahead. So no, so when you say that, when you ask the question, that's the lie but go right ahead so no so when you say that when you ask the question that's the same thing it almost seems

surreal so as I'm looking at them and I posted my very last video after we got that written memo the internal memo I said the same thing you could have just said I messed up you could have just said we got it wrong you could have said you know now that the DA has came out and said XYZ we're going to make this right

but when egos get involved, and from what I gather, loudly that gets nationally, internationally with people that knew of Shaka Zulu, knew of ludicrous, knew of this, these murder charges and to be wrong. So their investigation was never about my mom. It was, how did I get the video,

which is even more disturbing because instead of you sitting around trying to figure out how we got this wrong, you're trying to figure out how I got the evidence that came out. And that's like, like Roland said at the very beginning, that's not even your video. Why are you so involved in other, in what is not a PD's property? That's the question that I have. In in fact I just want to just show folks the framing and I think before I go to Rebecca this is sort of the framing give me one second

so this is WSB channel 2 so this was the headline go to my iPad long time rapper of Atlanta long time manager of Atlanta rapper Ludacris among three people shot in Buckhead so then police say an accomplished Atlanta music, longtime manager of Atlanta rapper Ludacris among three people shot in Buckhead.

So then police say an accomplished Atlanta music executive and manager to Atlanta rapper Ludacris was one of several people shot outside a popular Buckhead restaurant early Monday morning. Then when you go into the story, it says here, police said there appears to have been an argument or altercation that happened and the victims were shot in the parking lot of the shopping center. So, and it goes back in January, the Hawks honored Zulu for his community service, praising him for being a positive leader in Metro Atlanta. The other two victims' identities have not been released. So that's the initial story.

But check this out. This, then, is the next story that comes. Now remember the previous, this is November 22nd, 2023. The previous story, the previous story, the previous story, the previous story was

a year earlier. So all of a sudden you see this story, Ludacris' longtime manager, Shaka Zulu, killed 23-year-old in self-defense, prosecutors say. Now, the crazy thing was, again, if early on, if early on, if you actually release the video, the public will go, hold up. They didn't. That was a fight. They went after him.

That was a fight. It's a fight. They went after him to defend. And so then a whole year, and in fact, he was at one point, Shaka was out of the city. He literally went to Florida to recuperate. I happened to be speaking at an event there, was invited to a get-together. I had met him before, got an opportunity just to chat with him, spend some time with him.

This brother literally was on lockdown, Rebecca, for a year. Movement, mobility, couldn't go certain places. His life was altered and over his head for an entire year was a murder charge when the video that shanae dropped showed it was self-defense from that night this just this was just crazy well i hear everyone saying that it would be easier just to tell the truth in the first place but we know this is anti-blackness if people weren't racist the world would go around much faster the world would be a better place and we know that's what thisBlackness. If people weren't racist, the world would go around much faster.

The world would be a better place. And we know that's what this thing is. So, Sinead, my question to you is taking on anti-Blackness, especially at an institution, a law enforcement, it comes at a personal cost. So my question for you is, you know, there is strategies with taking on institutions and anti-Blackness. What was your strategy? What was your thinking in releasing the video under your name instead of releasing the video under a pseudonym or anonymously? You know what? I wish I had some skills that made me think beyond the initial, oh my God, I'm releasing this in my own name. This is something I was passionate about. And it's, it's not just these types of, you know, not just the Shaka Zulu thing.

When I did a video four or five years ago on why the NCAA needs to be paying athletes. Um, I had gotten a lot of followers, including, you know, Dion Sanders and big name celebrities that were like, wow, you actually stood up for something that you believed in. So when I saw the video, I was livid. I was like, how do you charge this man after being stomped into the ground? You know, and with my whole one year of lawyerly skills, I was like, I know for sure that this is at a reasonable person standard that any reasonable person, you, I, whomever, my father, if you come out and someone 20 in their twenties, and for most of us on here, we're in our forties and fifties, and you start putting your hands on me, you guys jumped me. If I have a weapon on me,

I'm shooting everybody, everybody in proximity that is causing me harm. So the way that he handled it to only fire one shot. And again, three people were shot. You had Mr. Bennett, who was the one that passed away. You had Willie, who was the one that got shot in the arm by his friend. And then you had Shaka Zulu. So all three of these people are shot. One is dead. Shaka Zulu is fighting for his life.

And then you have Willie, who was the friend of the guy who was doing the shooting and no one else is charged. And then you have a woman who's mercilessly punched in her face and no one else is charged. And I actually wrote the mayor a letter. And I said, if he was white, if Shaka Zulu was white, don't change any other scenario. Don't change anything else about the fact pattern. This man would not have been charged, but he's was white. Don't change any other scenario. Don't change anything else about the fact pattern. This man would not have been charged, but he's not white. And so when Darren Shearbaum or whoever reported to the scene, I'm not sure what they looked at, but if they looked at the video footage

the same way that I did, that man fought for his life in self-defense and that the outcome of it. And then not only that though, to turn around and outcome B, you have to fight for your life. And now you have to pay money. He had to pay $250,000 for bond. Like Roland just mentioned, he was on house arrest. You have to report to, to your probation officer, whomever it is, because you defended yourself because your life, literally you're getting kicked in your head, stomped in your face, kicked. You're literally on the ground fighting for your life. And then to turn around, you have to fight the system, too.

It was wrong. So I didn't think about using a fake name or using any fake information. Matter of fact, I added at APD. I was like, at APD, at APD, at the DA's office, at anybody that would listen because it was important to me. So I didn't, you know, I wish I maybe would have thought about it. My mom might have still had her job. But at that moment, all I cared about was justice being served and Shaka not having to fight for his life in the hospital, fight for his life with the system, and then fight for his freedom.

Last question. So is the goal to get your mom jobs back and back pay? Absolutely not. I don't ever want her working for APD. My mom actually went back to school and is in the paralegal school at Emory University to come and work with me once I get my law degree in a couple of weeks.

So we're going to work together. I had to get her off the other side. So the goal is that somebody in APD acts with integrity and does the right thing and pays her what she's lost, pays her for her pain and suffering and just does the right thing. I need somebody. Patrick Pendleton, I think, was the only person who's the H.R. director that said, stop this. She did nothing wrong. And he now knows that She did nothing wrong. And MPD now knows that she did nothing wrong. Well, and unfortunately, taxpayers got to cut a check for stupidity.

All right. Sinead, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, when we come back, we're going to talk about some residents in Atlanta got kicked out of their crib. Now they can't get housing in other places. We're going to discuss that. Also, Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas lost. She's taking a victory lap after that new sports arena for the Washington

Wizards goes down in flames in Virginia, and they come crawling back to the District of Columbia. Also, I am so sick and tired of bad journalism being practiced by Black-owned media. It's driving me crazy. I got two more examples, y'all, that I'm going to talk about. All of that on Roland Martin Unfiltered of the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Please join our Brena Funk fan club. Your dollars are live for us to do what we do for this show, for Roger Bahama's daily show,

for the weekly shows that we do on the Black Star Network. Nobody is doing the kind of news that we do every single day. So please join our Bre the Funk fan clubs. When you're checking money, order the PO Box 57196. Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash out. Dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered.

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There's a lot more to do, but we can do it together. I'm Dee Barnes, and next on The Frequency, Beyonce has always been country. We're talking to music, pop culture, and politics writer Taylor Crumpton about her new article on Beyonce's new country songs and how country music has always been part of Black culture. Since the release of Texas Hold'em and 16 Carriages, there has been a definition of what Black country music is and a definition of what Black country music is and a definition of what white country music is.

White country music historically has always won the awards, they've always got the certifications. Black country music has not. This is a conversation you don't want to miss. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrance Ferguson. And you're tuning in to the Black Star Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers.

I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

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

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

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, 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 that occasion. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Folks, three years ago, a judge condemned the Forest Cove apartment complex on Atlanta's south side and ordered a demolition of the complex.

Well, the complex's owners were hit with 231 housing code violations for a variety of reasons. Disrepair, sewage leaks, mold, you name it. Residents were forced to vacate their homes with little to no relocation assistance. That was all promised. Hundreds of families are having difficulties finding new homes in a very tight housing market as well. Some fear being homeless or being forced to move into really low opportunity areas, segregated

areas, contrary to what they should have been doing. Joining us right now is Allison Johnson, Executive Director of the Housing Justice League. Allison, glad to have you here. This is, so was there an agreement? What was the case here when the residents had to move? Were the landlords supposed to offer them assistance, money, what, help them find a place, have them sign up for free with a relocation service. Walk us through that. Yeah, so thank you for having me. So Forest Cove is just one of the eye-opening

examples of what happens when your community has been deprived of resources for the next time. Particularly with Forest Cove residents, what happened is that they were organized enough to go and fight for their right to have great, safe living conditions. But under these conditions, as you can see, they were so deplorable that people were not waiting for HUD to intervene that some of them had to leave. So we finally were able to get the attention of this mayor's administration to say, hey, enough is enough. You know, people cannot continue to live under these conditions and we've got to get people out of these conditions. And so there was a back and forth for a while. Understandably that, you know, although this was a private property and it was a HUD owned property, the city still had to come in and intervene because

these are still residents of the city of Atlanta. And so HUD and Millennia, who is the corporate landlord of this property, they neglected this property for more than five years. This property already had come from another neglectful corporate landlord. And so what happened was they were promised that they would be relocated to high opportunity neighborhoods. But what happened is that most of the residents have been relocated to, again, like you said, low opportunity neighborhoods. They are having a time with finding housing. They are having to uproot their children from their current schools that they have been enrolled in for the last eight months. And it's just been a chaotic, ridiculous situation.

And people who are accountable have not been accountable. And now it's time that residents are standing up to say, hey, you have to be accountable to what you say you are going to do. So right now, folks are having a really hard time. They're being threatened with evictions because some of the property or the other landlords where they have relocated to are not allowing them to stay or use their Section 8 vouchers. And some of them are being threatened with their utilities to be shut off. And so it's a very chaotic situation. They're moving from one chaotic situation into another undesirable situation. Rebecca. Sure. So are you all also contacting the federal government to have HUD strip a millennial

corporation from serving any HUD facilities in the country? Because I suspect that they're getting all of this government contracts. That's probably the majority of their bottom line. So you all going after their eligibility for government money? You bet we are. And we're not going to stop until millennia has emptied their affordable housing portfolio. We have gone after them. We have had some successes. Right now, HUD has currently disbarred Millennia from receiving any HUD contracts right now and for the future for the next five years. So what that has done is it has forced Millennia to begin selling off its

affordable housing stock. We're not going to stop there because, you know, it doesn't end there. They own all the properties and some of them are market rate and they treat some of those tenants just the same as they treat those that are living in Forest Cove complexes. So, yeah, it's a victory. It's a small victory. But again, we're not done there. Robert? Yeah, it's a victory. It's a small victory, but again, we're not done there. Robert.

Affordable housing has become all but a thing of the past here in Atlanta. What are options for individuals who do find themselves in situations where their affordable housing options have gone away? What are the options for staying still within the city of Atlanta? Because we've seen, starting with the Olympics,

many low-income people being simply moved outside of Atlanta, changing the demographics of the city, and most people don't think that has happened on that today. Yeah, so as we know, like both HUD and the city of Atlanta have been very neglectful and have played a huge portion or a huge part in displacing Black residents in Atlanta. So some of the options that they have to really organize themselves,

organize themselves out of this, because we can't build ourselves out of this situation. There's no amount of money that's going to allow us to build enough affordable housing that's needed. We need programs, and we need those safety net programs like rent stabilization, like more and increase in advanced tenant protections. The state of Georgia is like four decades behind other states. And when it in advanced tenant protections. The state of Georgia is like

four decades behind other states. And when it comes to tenant protections, we also need to really think about how do we reinvest into public housing so that it is inextricably linked with opportunities. And I know people will frown upon that, but we are not meeting our needs, particularly here in Atlanta, where we have a huge income disparity and income inequality here. We're not serving those who really need to be serving those who are living below the poverty line. We are creating and we are building luxury units, but we are not going deep enough to a real deep affordable housing where families will have stable places to live and raise children and where their children will have the best opportunities to have the best quality of life. So those options are very few and limited.

We believe in the spirit of organizing. If it were not for us organizing with the residents, none of this would have taken place. So, you know, we've got to have that backbone to get, you know, this is the cradle of the civil rights movement. So, you know, we've got to stay here. And we believe that organizing is the most important tool to us stabilizing families in the city of Atlanta. Scott? Yeah, but in connection to this particular affordable housing development, let me ask you this, and if I missed it, please forgive me. Why hasn't the state AG or the corporation council sued to put the development in receivership, i.e. forcing the developers to fix the property or bring in a new developer or receiver,

or in the alternative, why hasn't HUD taken over management of the property and made these changes? In Washington, that would be the first two things, whatever side I would be on as a lawyer, that would be on the table. Can you comment on that? Yeah. So those were some of the things that we were actually fighting for because we understood that the outcomes would not be as positive as one would be if they were to tear down and reconstruct and rebuild. And there was a one-for-one replacement unit. Why hasn't HUD done that? That is our exact question to HUD. Why do you think they're going to allow it to happen?

It's something that just happened overnight. And then give those residents vouchers to go to another affordable housing unit. It's fundamental. It's federal law, basically, and it's part of HUD's mission. I represent a lot of developers, no offense, but I've been on the losing side of a couple of those lawsuits here in D.C., so that's why I'm raising it with you. It's so fundamental. Yeah, well, you know, again, Georgia has a really, really huge issue when it comes to the balance and the imbalance of power between landlords, developers, and tenants. We have put HUD on notice. At some point in this transaction, they have violated these residents' civil rights.

And so they will always be on notice. And they have began to come into the fold of the conversation in terms of trying to work with tenants to make sure that their basic needs are being met. But it's a little too late. It's a little too late. Yeah, you know, yes, excuse me. You know, Roland, the other problem with HUD and what they do, they take forever to do what they're supposed to do with the goals and objectives, they take forever. They will take over this facility two years from now when it's a moot issue. So I understand your dilemma, ma'am. Yeah, it's terrible.

I think it's time for HUD to think about the role that they play in housing. I think it's time for HUD to have a serious conversation with the different participating jurisdictions about how they handle residents in these different cities. And it's also time to have the serious conversation is, can we afford to continue to have forest coves throughout the United States of America? And trust me, more forest coves in this country. And then you start to think, well, wait a minute now, this is the law, this is fundamental. And then you start to think, OK, so now it's poor people, right? It's expensive taking care

of poor people. Is HUD slow and is the government slow to rescue these folks because it's poor people and they just don't care? I hate to think like that, but under the COVE scenario and a few other scenarios I've been involved in, it's hard not to think that if these people were educated and were middle class, they wouldn't be in this position, but they'd get a lot more attention a lot more efficiently. But again, it's poor people. So good luck going forward. Exactly. Poor people, but a lot of those people in the community are educated. And so folks that are leading these households, the people that are disproportionately affected are Black women.

And so, yeah, we are often forgotten about until we start to raise a lot of hell. All right, then we'll look. Keep raising hell and hopefully things will work out on behalf of those residents. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, we come back. Washington Capitals, they are staying in a district of Columbia. And guess what? The sister in Virginia who killed that deal, oh, she is tap dancing on their grave. We'll talk about that next when we come back.

Roland Martin on the Filters on the Black Star Network. We couldn't play in the white clubs in Minnesota. It felt like such a, you know, strength through adversity type moment that I think black people just have to go through. You know, we have to figure it out. You know, we make, you know, lemons out of lemonade, but there's a reason we rented a ballroom, did our own show, promoted it, got like 1500 people to come out. Clubs were sitting empty. They were like, where's everybody at? And I said, they're down watching the band you wouldn't hire. So it taught us not only that we had to be, we had the talent of musicians, but we also had the

talent of entrepreneurship. It wasn't like a seat at the table. It's like, no, let's build the table. That's right. We got to build the table. And that was the thing. And of course, after that, we got all kinds of offers. Of course. Right, to come play in the clubs. But we didn't do it. We said, no, we're good. No, we're good.

We're good. And that's what put us on a path of national. And of course, when Prince made it, then it was like, OK, we see it can be done. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million. And now is your chance to invest for details on how to invest. Visit start engine.com slash fan base or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits.

Me Sherry Shepard, with Tammy Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Alright, y'all. Welcome back. About right now, Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas, I'm sure

she is singing Luther's Bad Boy. Having a party. Because Governor Glenn Youngkin, Republican, he announced with big fanfare they were going to build this $2 billion arena complex in Alexandria, Virginia, and going to lure the Washington Wizards and the Mystics and the Capitals out of the District of Columbia. They were going to create this exclusive hotel where they said rooms were going to average 700 bucks a night and amphitheater and all these shops and all this sort of stuff in the 12-acre area.

That sucker did because State Senator of Virginia Virginia Louise Lucas, who's over the money, said, no, we ain't funding this. And the governor, boy, he was talking about her, and he was dogging her out, and she was like, I'm going to show you the hand. He learned real quick, you might

want to bring in that black woman on the front end of the process. She posted this on Twitter, y'all. She said, as Monumental announces today they are staying in Washington, D.C., we are celebrating in Virginia that we avoided the Monumental disaster. Thank you to everyone who stood with us in this fight. Now, here's the deal, okay? So Ted Leonis, who owns the Wizards, is a billionaire. There are

other investors in the team who are billionaires. I've always said why are cities building palatial arenas for billionaires that are only driving up the value

of the team. So if they sell, the only person that benefits is the billionaire. That was Louise Lucas's position. She said, wait a minute, why in the hell are we going to sit here and screw taxpayers and taxpayers are on the hook for the bonds to pay for this stuff and it's on us? Somebody did this graphic and she posted F-A-F-O. F around and find out.

And so you see, this is one of the most hilarious graphics. So they put her head on somebody's photo next to a grave, and the headstone said, They put her head on somebody's photo next to a grave, and the headstone said, Yunkin and Leona's $5 billion arena with her throwing the peace sign with the image. That is absolutely hilarious. Now, D.C. announced a $515 million deal that the city council is going to vote on next week to keep the team

in the city. And what it's going to do is it's going to create this office, excuse me, the place next to their current arena is going to create this place for them to be able to have retail space and stuff along those lines. And so now Leonis is, you know, seeing the praises of the deal. I don't even like that deal. I'm going to our panel right now.

You know, Scott, the reason I don't like that deal is because listen, they're trying to spend as well. The capitals in the widget. They're so important to downtown redevelopment or whatever, but let's be clear. If the, if the capitals in the wizard they're so important to downtown the redevelopment or whatever but let's be clear um if the cat at the capitals if you if that's your venue pay for it your damn self i just

i just i have a problem with taxpayer dollars and and we see this all around the country where they play on the emotions of people oh my god we, we're going to lose our teams. Our teams, like what are we without professional teams? Well, there are a lot of great cities in America without professional sports teams. But this is how billionaires, this is how billionaires pimp cities, and this is how billionaires get. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and

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

21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add 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. 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 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'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. They love to talk about welfare. This is how they love getting handouts

and corporate welfare under the guise of economic development. Yeah, Roland, you know, as former head of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, I worked on the deal that brought the Wizards from suburban Maryland 20-plus years ago. I get it. I hear what you're saying. But there is great economic benefit. And with the Wizards and the center— What is it? What is it? The Verizon Center. That area in downtown Washington was economically depressed.

There was nothing there. Poland paid for what I was about to tell you. A. Poland cut a deal with Mary and Barry to build it, and he built most of it. The city helped, and that whole area was transformed. Now, it hasn't been kept up, and it's still an economic generator in regard to small businesses, restaurants, retail. I mean, that whole area was transformed. So you can't take that away. But A. Poland paid for most of that before he died. Here, I get what you're saying.

But, and I can't defend the Wizards because if you've seen that product, my goodness, I don't think they won 10 games. So them leaving the city, we're going to be that big of a deal. But my point is the city is in a tough spot because on one hand, the fans who are in D.C. who love them, want them to stay and want to make it a night of entertainment. And that's the night of entertainment with the retail around it and so forth and so on. So there are arguments on both sides. Let me tell you how embarrassing this is for Leonis even more. When Mayor Bowser went to him, the Washington Post publishes, when Mayor Bowser went to him to present this $500-plus million deal before him and Youngkin did a press conference the next day, he sat in his office, watched her present all of this, and then at the end of the presentation told her it was too late

and denied he had a deal with Youngkin, but then went and did the press conference the next day. Because his arrogant ass thought he had a great $2 billion deal in Virginia, and Youngkin sold him on that. And if anybody pulled all the different stories, the economic report that was done was a joke. And see, the reason I despise these deals is because I covered City Hall in Fort Worth. I covered county government when I was in Austin. I covered this when I was in Dallas as well. And when Bruton Smith was looking to build a motor speedway in Texas,

he visited Fort Worth, he visited Dallas, he visited Arlington, and I was one of the two City Hall reporters covering this whole deal. And the city of Fort Worth. He visited Dallas. He visited Arlington. And I was one of the two city hall reporters covering this whole deal. And the city of Fort Worth said, okay, here's the deal. We're not building you a stadium. Now, we will invest in the infrastructure, roads, and things along those lines, partnering with the state as well. I believe it was about $65 million.

But their whole deal is, because here's the deal, because the deal was they were not guaranteed any races. He was moving a race from one of his tracks. Their whole deal was trying to get two to two events. Now granted, NASCAR tracks generate 250,000 people

for event. You get two events as 500,000 people. That's the equivalent of Dan Medeir a whole NBA season. Who are spending money. Right, right. But their whole deal is we're not going to be on the hook for taxpayers because Bruton Smith was a billionaire.

He owned tracks all around the country. So when they do these reports, Scott, and I've been a part of these, I've covered these. Do these reports and say, well,'ve been a part of these. I've covered these. Do these reports. Well, here's the deal. If X number of people come in from out of town, they're going to stay in hotels.

They're going to spend money in restaurants. They're going to do all this sort of stuff. But then when you actually break it down, folk ain't coming in from out of town in significant numbers. So all of these economic reports, they're important. Well, wait a minute, Roland. That's not true. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but that's not necessarily true. Yes, it is. You got people coming from out of town in Maryland and Virginia that come to D.C.

No, no, no, Scott. The cap. No, Scott. Scott, you missed what I said. When they put these economic reports together, they're lying. What they do is they say X number of people are going to come in from out of town, stay in hotels,

all that. People who are coming in from Virginia and Maryland, you got tickets to the Wizards game. When they played the Rockets, you gave me two tickets. I drove my ass from my place in Northern Virginia to the game and drove back home. I didn't

book no hotel. I didn't go to the restaurants. And so the problem is, when it comes to these deals, and economists and other people have done them, these deals are massive failures nationwide

for numerous cities, and they're always great for the owners and the leagues. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, but then tell me this. If I was to follow, if I was the mayor of the city, and I was to follow your analysis, and you say it's a complete failure, let them build it, blah, blah, blah.

If they do that, then the city benefits immeasurably from that stadium and that team being there and the community and the individuals who attend those games, they benefit. Why shouldn't the city pay their fair share minimally under your analysis? No, because here's the deal. Typically, in most of these cases,

the city is giving the owner the land. Typically, they're giving them a massive, massive deal. Tax cut. They're giving them a massive deal when it comes to, oh, the city will own

it, but you can lease it for a dollar for 99 years. And see, here's what happened. Leona's was like, oh, yeah, we out. And the city attorney said, come here. That's another issue. He said, come here. When we put the last improvements on the stadium,

when we took it to the bondholders, y'all had to agree, well, you couldn't leave until 2037. That's right. Oh, and I showed it. And see, that's what these teams do. So what they do is, it's the rosy announcement, the big old announcement. Oh, we're going to stay in the city for forever. And then they go, oh, it's been 10 years, and our building is outdated,

and we need new revenue streams. And there are other stadiums being built and they got luxury boxes and we need new revenue streams. Oh, so what are we going to do? And what happened here was, what happened here, Rebecca, what they did was the media rights deals for sports teams is totally changing. And so Mark Cuban, for instance, sold the Dallas Mavericks to the folks who own the

Adelson family who own the casino. And what he said was the game has changed. He said now it's a real estate deal. They're trying to get sports wagering in Texas. They hope to open a casino in Dallas and all the real estate around it. That's what Leona's was trying to do in Virginia. Oh, I want to control the 12 acres. Well, that deal got scuttled. And so now what they're going to do, they're going to expand them, give them additional space in the park place,

a city place, whatever. It's right next to the stadium. And so now Leona's is, oh, this is a great thing. We got more space to do things with. But let me be clear, Rebecca. Here's the real deal. In every case, when they get a new arena, the value of the team shoots up. And here's what we know. When Josh Harris bought the Washington Commanders for $6 billion, what did Schneider pay for them, like $400 million? You now got small market NBA teams that are selling for two.

When Tillman Fertitta, hell, bought the Houston Rockets, he bought it for $2 billion, the Milwaukee Bucks. So if you get an improved stadium or a new stadium, the Wizards, even though they suck, the value of the Wizards will double or even triple with that new arena. That's how they gain the system, Rebecca. Just like burgers isn't the business that McDonald's is into, McDonald's is in the real estate game. And you're right, it's the same way with professional sports and arenas. It's really not about the product as much as the land value,

because we know when a new stadium goes into a place, there is hundreds of millions of dollars in critical infrastructure that is built around those new venues. But something I would like to push back at Scott, that $500 million that Mayor Muriel Bowser promised to Leonis to fix up Capital One Arena, if they would have spent $500 million to make sure seven, eight, and nine-year-olds aren't committing crime in the city, if they use that $500 million to fix the housing crisis in the city- Don't be so honest, Scott. Don't be so honest. I know a lot of cops Hold up, time out, time out, time out. Hold up, hold up. Scott, Scott, Rebecca, stop talking.

Scott. 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. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

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

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 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 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.

And Rebecca, stop talking. Scott and Rebecca, stop talking. Scott, stop talking. Scott, she asked you a question. You don't answer with, my problem with... No, answer her question. If...if the mayor had come out and announced

they're gonna spend $515 million to improve the life of the residents of D.C., would people respond the same way as they are for giving it to a billionaire sports owner? Now you can answer. Wait a minute. Wait. Mayors of cities can walk and chew gum at the same time. They just came out

with a new anti-crime initiative that's worth more than $515 million to make the residents safe. That wasn't her question. I'm telling you, yes. That was her question. They don't respond just the same because they want to live safe and feel safe. That's, I'm telling you, yes. That was her question. Because they want to live safe and feel safe.

That's what I'm saying. What are you talking about? Part of the $515 million. Okay, read the deal. Hold on, hold on, hold on. One second. People cannot hear both of you. Rebecca, finish your comment. Then, Scott, you will talk without being interrupted.

Rebecca, finish that comment. Go ahead. So this is what my overarching point is, is that if we want to encourage more people to actually spend more money in D.C., actually go to restaurants, then reduce the crime in D.C., just putting a facelift on the Capital One arena, that by itself is not what's going to get more people, especially from across the bridge in Virginia or across the counties in Maryland, to actually spend more money in D.C. I will say personally, me and a lot of people who I associate with, we're less likely to spend money in D.C. restaurants now, in part because we know our cars can get jacked, because we know that 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-year-olds are stealing cars. We also know that with the new criminal reform package, the legislation that the D.C. council and the mayor have signed off on, most of the D.C. advocates do not support

it. They think it's bad, just like most of the criminal legal criminal justice advocates in Atlanta thinks Cop City is bad. It's the same thing here. Just because it's a black mayor advocating for it doesn't mean that it's good for the black community. But my second point was one of the reasons why Leonis wanted to push this to northern Virginia, the reason why Youngkin wanted it to go to Northern Virginia, for the viewers who may not know this, Amazon HQ2 was headed to that part of Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, Amazon, once they got certain tax cuts, they actually went back and decided, hey, we're not going to build and spend as much money in development the way we said

we did. So now you have a whole area of land where there's already been hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in providing new luxury apartments for the new Amazon employees. There's been a new metro subway station placed in that area. And so now there's a gaping hole that Youngkin was trying to fill because he was like, hey, so we were promised to do this with one corporation. The corporation reneged. Let's figure out if we could cut a deal and get another large corporation, i.e.

Monumental Sports, to do something here. OK, but Rebecca, the second part of what you're talking about is the art of the deal. OK, so what? The first part of your analysis is that that's the problem with progressive liberals like you. You don't understand the business concept and the balance between city and businesses in that relationship. So let me tell you two things that Mira Basler has done. Who is a progressive liberal but a pragmatist, right? One, they passed a new crime bill that's going to make the city safer, hopefully, that includes a continuum of care for kids who are carjacking and doing a lot of the bad stuff.

But secondly, the $515 million, which is the crime being around that area, around the stadium, that's a huge issue. Part of that $515 million is to make those areas safer and to give kids incentives not to go out and commit crimes. So you can walk and chew gum, and you have to if you're the mayor. So I don't necessarily disagree with you. I'd love to spend a half a million or half a billion on kids and poverty and making poor people the working class or middle class.

I completely agree with you. But it's expensive taking care of poor people and rising them up. Most cities don't have the money to do it, so you partner with the business community, whether it's the Verizon Center or whether it's the Wizards or what have you. But people got to feel safe. Black and brown and

white people got to feel safe in this city, and you've got to be law enforcement at a higher level to reduce crime. So, Robert... Why do you interrupt me, Robert? Because you're at your... Because you're at your conclusion. That's first of all.

No, I'm not. One more thing. Yes, I'm saying you concluded your argument. Now, Robert, his was interesting. You listened to all of that dribble from Scott. Go to my iPad. Dribble? This is a story from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Should cities pay for sports facilities?

Now, let me scroll down here because I'm going to show you how what Scott said is completely nonsensical. That's what I'm talking about. I am talking. Economic impact studies also tend to focus on the increased tax revenues cities expect to receive in return for their investments. The studies, however, often gloss over or outright ignore that these facilities usually do not bring new revenues into a city or a metropolitan area. Any student of economics knows that households have budget constraints that are binding, which means that families have only so much money to spend, particularly on entertainment. If the family chooses to spend the money at the ballpark, for example, then those funds cannot be spent on other activities. Thus, no new revenues are actually being

generated. Then, his was interesting. Very little evidence exists to suggest that sporting events are better at attracting tourism dollars to a city than other activities. More often than not, tourists who attend a baseball or hockey game, for example, are in town on business or are visiting family and would have spent the money on another activity if the sports outlet were not available. Now, check this out. Economist Roger Knoll, you can shake your head all day, Scott, but this is a fact. Economist Roger Knoll and Andrew Zimbalist have examined the issue in depth and argued that as a general rule, sports facilities attract neither tourists nor new industry. A good example, once again, is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This ballpark is probably the most successful at attracting outsiders

since it is only 40 miles from the nation's capital. Now, this, at the time, there was no Major League Baseball team, so actually, this number is even worse because now you have the Nationals here. Knoll and Zim here. It says about a third of the crowd at every game comes from outside the Baltimore area. Knoll and Zimbalist point out that, quote, even so, the net gain to Baltimore's economy in terms of new jobs and incremental tax revenues, is only about $3 million a year, not much of a return on a $200 million investment. Robert? Well, Roman, you can expand that out.

Just look at RFK Stadium right now, a multi-billion dollar development right there in Washington, D.C., where the Redskins played for a generation. How's that neighborhood looking around RFK Stadium? Was it this economic driver that turned that area into a magical paradise where everyone is walking on streets of gold? Look at Sochi, where the Olympics took place. There are wolves living in that stadium now. Look at Beijing, where they spent hundreds of billions of dollars on their opening ceremonies.

The Birdcage Stadium that they used for that and many other stadiums have fallen into disrepair. Look at Beijing, where they spent hundreds of billions of dollars on their opening ceremonies. The Bird Cape Stadium that they used for that and many other stadiums have fallen into disrepair and have actually become environmental hazards taking place. Look at Rio and Brazil, where they had the Olympics at, where their stadium has been reclaimed by the Amazon rainforest. Look at Atlanta, where we have the Olympics at, where the stadium then became the Brave Stadium and now Georgia State Stadium. Stadium economics have never made sense. Indeed, that exact same public investment that you will put into building these new stadiums,

if you put it into an airplane and just dropped it out the back for people to pick up off the ground, would spur more economic activity than building a stadium. If you just sent everybody in the neighborhood around the stadium, you know, $1,500 or $2,000 that you would spend for them on behalf of the stadiums, that also fits the streets like you'll do for the stadiums and build new retail spaces like you'll do for the stadium, you'd have way more economic activity than actually building the stadium itself. These are vanity projects for billionaires, so they can invest in something they know has a stable return and that will double, triple. This is better than casino money, buying a sports team at this point in time.

This is why you're seeing so many athletes and rappers become minority stakeholders in these projects, because you invest $500 million in it, and then 10 years later, you get $10 billion out of it. You don't get that kind of return anywhere on Earth, but the fact is the detached payers don't get that same return. And when things go bad, as you just mentioned with Camden Yards, you end up with a very nice stadium with people scared to walk inside because Harbor Plate is completely abandoned.

And you have kids roaming the streets right there in the Capital One Arena where the Wizards play. There are homeless people and drug addicts roaming the streets so nobody wants to go in the Capital One Arena where the Wizards play, there are homeless people and drug addicts roaming the streets, so nobody wants to go in the damn stadium. So it would be better just to fix the problem that existed instead of investing that money in the stadium and still keeping the same problem outside of it.

So I'm going to go back. I'm going to hold on, hold on, Scott. Scott, Scott, excuse me. Hold on. I'm going to go back to this, Scott. So this is the question again. This is very basic. Why, if the team controls the arena and they get the money from the concerts and other events and all those things, why not say parking revenue, you're going to get the concessions, you're going to get all of that sort of stuff. Hey, privately finance it.

Now you're in control. Why? Why can't they probably finance? Because every deal is different, first of all. And when you talk about the concessions, in many of these deals, the concessions are shared with the city. But here's what you're missing. The economic analysis of these stadiums is you can't narrowly say what the stadium produces or doesn't produce outside guests and what people spend at the stadium. The economic engine of a stadium is its impact in two areas. What happens

around it, one, and job development and creation around it, but secondly and most importantly, are the incredible tax revenues generated from those sales tax and from that stadium and from the team being there. And cities are looking at that because they need multiple sources of income. Freeze right there. Hold on. Freeze right there. Nope. Freeze right there.

That's good analysis. Freeze right there. Actually, it's bad. Here's why. That's good analysis. No, no. Actually, it's bad. No, it's bad.

Here's why. Here's why. Here's why. Scott, didn't D.C., when they had the last refurbishing of Capital One Arena, didn't they take out bonds? Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is D.C. still 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 Glott. 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

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Paying on those bonds? I think the Wizards, based on the revenue generated by paying on those bonds. No, no. Let me show you. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Because here's what happened.

Had Virginia done this deal and the Wizards bounced, guess who would still be paying those bonds with no team? D.C., let me take you to Houston. Go to my iPad. Yeah, I agree with you there. When Harris County did a deal to refurbish the Houston Astrodome to keep Bud Adams from leaving, they took out bonds. Well, guess what? They left anyway. And so this is a

story from 2010 in the Houston Chronicle. This is what it says. More than a decade after its professional football and baseball teams moved out, the Astrodome carries as much as $32 million in debt. Harris County, which owns the stadium, projects that it will take another generation to complete the $48 million in debt and interest payments to get it off the books. Now... But that's anecdotal. No, no, no, Scott, that's not anecdotal.

Here's what happened. What happened was a sports team owner said, if I don't get a sports team owner said, if I don't get a refurbished stadium, I'm going to move my team. And so the elected officials, oh, we don't want them to leave. So let's refurbish the Astrodome. What happened? He stuck around for a few more years

and he took off for the money in Nashville. And guess what? Stuck the taxpayers with the bonds and the interest payment. And that's my point. If these teams want to build stadiums, build that shit yourself. And you know what's happening. And hold up. And you know what's happening in the NFL?

Because there's been a massive backlash of these type of deals, guess what most of the most recent stadiums in the NFL, they have been built because they have been privately financed because of this very issue. Bottom line is this here. What Louise Lucas did in Virginia is right. And she said point blank, I'm not going to believe those rosy forecasts of all of the economic development is going to come flowing in. She was like, we're not going to stick Virginia taxpayers with the bill. You're a billionaire. Pay for it yourself.

Okay, you got 20 seconds. You got 20 seconds. Final comment. Roland, lean in. No. You're so right. If you're so right, then why do most cities and states still partner with developers and holders?

Easy. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Hold on. No, no. Hold on. That only takes five seconds. I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you why. It's ego. Because no mayor wants to have it in their obit, they let our team leave town. Exactly. And guess what? So you got to live with your minority of people. You don't have to live with a damn

thing, and that's why I'm glad and that's why I'm glad and Louise Lucas said hell no to the stadium and I hope more people around the country tell these billionaire owners, build your own damn stadium. Got to go to a break.

We'll be back. Roland Martin on the Pilcher on the Black Star Network. Fanbase is pioneering a new era of social media for the creator economy. This next generation social media app with over 600,000 users is raising $17 million, and now is your chance to invest. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. on a next a balanced life with me dr jackie people can't live with them can't live without them our relationships often have more ups and downs than a boardwalk roller coaster but it doesn't have to be that way trust Trust your gut. Whenever your gut is like,

this isn't healthy, this isn't right. I don't like the way that I'm being treated. This goes for males and females. Trust your gut. And then whenever that gut feeling comes, have a conversation. Knowing how to grow or when to go. A step-by-step guide on the next A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, now, yesterday I told y'all how I'm sick and tired of these black-owned media outlets that don't even do basic journalism.

All folk doing are just rewriting whatever the hell they see in white media. So TMZ reported yesterday that Diddy had sold Revolt to an undisclosed buyer. Now, I talked to four sources. The deal has not been closed. It has not been sold yet, okay? I've known this for a month. But all these folks, all these blogs, Essence wrote a story about the whole Diddy investigation,

didn't call nobody, just pulled from Fox 11, called from CNBC. And I'm like, what are we doing? Why are we putting a stamp of approval on this nonsense? So go to my iPad. And I got to call out Black Enterprise today. So Black Enterprise dropped this story yesterday, y'all, and I'm sorry. This is bullshit. This is the tweet. Diddy may be down bad, but he did secure his bag. That's the tweet. Now, check this out.

You click the story, y'all. You go to the story, and it goes to, when you go to the story here, this is what the story says. Sean Diddy Combs is no longer an owner at Revolt TV after selling off his shares to an anonymous buyer for an undisclosed amount. Now, you read the story and they got all this sort of stuff in here. Sources say Combs sold his Revolt TV shares to an interested buyer but made sure that

the company remains black on TMZ reports. You read this story. It ain't nothing but a whole rewrite of the TMZ story. Y'all, this is black enterprise. This is supposed to be the black business it ain't nothing but a whole rewrite of the TMZ story. Y'all, this is black enterprise.

This is supposed to be the black business Bible. Amid news of the revolt sale, it's being speculated. If Combs knew a federal raid was on the way, but how you report, who is the reporter on here? Somebody named Jeraslyn Jovan. Okay. So we got speculation in a story. When I read this story y'all, and I read it last night, there literally was nothing that was fact checked. Nowhere in this article,

not one, like y'all look at the, nowhere in this article did it say Black Enterprise reached out to Revolt to confirm or deny the story. Nowhere in the article. Nowhere in the article did it say Black Enterprise reached out to Sean Diddy Combs. Nowhere. We just slap our name on a story and rewrite what TMZ said. You put in a story speculation. No. Y'all, I was the managing editor of the Dallas Weekly, the Houston Defender, the Chicago Defender, the news editor at Savoy Magazine, was the top editor at blackamericanweb.com. And let me be real clear. If any reporter or intern sent this story to me,

my response would be, yo ass got one shot to fix it or you're fired. You're gone. See, the reason this bothers me is because what we now have in black-owned media is a focus on aggregation. So what we do is we see what somebody else report, then we rewrite it, put our name on it, and then when black folks sit around, they say, did you read Black Enterprise? Did you read Essence?

Did you read this? Did you read Hollywood Unlocked? Did you read The Shade Room? Did you read Ball Alert? Did you read this here? And so we just spinning and repeat what somebody else wrote. It ain't true. The Breakfast Club this morning, they read the story and they said it had been sold.

Factually, it hasn't. How do you not check? And I get it if you're on radio and you're reading the story, but how are you a, this is the black business Bible. How do you rewrite a TMZ story? Let me tell you what happens at ESPN. When somebody else breaks a story, they'll have their reporters call, write the story, and then they'll put in the article at the bottom which is also BS. This story, this was originally reported by The Athletic or this was

originally reported by so-and-so. The reason this is a problem for me, I am a journalist. I'm not a media personality. And when black people see stories like this, what happens is black people then go, oh, that must be the case. I told y'all what happened when the same thing happened on the Newsweek story about Biden cutting up. Matter of fact, I'm going to show you how this whole thing works. Go to my iPad. Newsweek. And Biden and HBCUs. What's the first story that comes up?

Boom. HBCU funding falls from $45 billion to $2 billion under latest Biden spending plan. Y'all, the story was a lie. The story was an absolute lie. HBCUs were looking forward to $45 billion in funding. They may be faced with just under $2 billion, the Associated Press reported. So Newsweek rewrote the Associated Press story.

The $3.5 trillion bill was set to include $45 billion for HBCUs. Operative word here, y'all. And other minority-serving institutions. Y'all see that? HBCUs were never going to get $45 billion. When he ran, he announced $45 billion HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions. Those are the facts. The initial 45 billion was when the Build Back Better plan

was 10 billion, not 3.5 trillion. See, here's what I'm trying to explain to y'all. When we read stories and don't fact-check, and then we black-owned media come right behind them and then rewrite what they wrote, we're feeding a lot of black people, and black people then go, oh, I saw it in Blavity. I saw it in Essence. I saw it in The Root.

I saw it in Black Enterprise. I saw it on The Source. Well, they had to check, so it must be right. We've got to do better. And stop putting your bylines on stories you didn't even report. Do you all know what used to happen in media? I'm going to go to my panel next. You know what used to happen in media?

When they would rewrite a story, this is what they would do. They would go, we would go, defend their news staff. Because when you put your byline on a story, that means you actually reported the story. You don't put your byline on some shit you rewrote. You don't slap your byline, I criticized the essence person yesterday, I'm criticizing the person with black enterprise today. I saw the same thing

By the source put out a story same thing on the whole diddy deal, you know, I'm gonna pull up right now Did they do the same thing up? Well, at least well at least the source got it, right? at least the source got it right. At least the source rewrote the TMZ story, go to my iPad, and put source staff. But you don't put your name on nothing that you didn't report on. This is a problem. And I told y'all one of the problems that we do not have, because we're not getting the advertising money, we don't have the resources to have top-notch

reporters or enough editors or whatever, but I need black-owned media to do better. And I need black-owned media to at least pick the damn phone up and at least attempt to fact-check something before just running with it. Rebecca.

You know, Roland, all of our institutions are under attack right now. And so when we look at misinformation, misinformation is when information is misleading or inaccurate. So oftentimes in social media, we'll see, oh, this famous celebrity passed away. And it turns out they didn't do that. But that's an example of misinformation. But then we get into something that's a little bit more malicious, and that's disinformation. Disinformation occurs when there is an intentionally falsehoods that are planted out there, sometimes covertly, so that the audience that's intended to go run and tell that, run with that rumor, they are not even aware that they're being specifically targeted. And so what we're seeing right now with certain Black media just rubber stamping information

that they're getting off the wire or that they're reading from elsewhere, if you don't verify it, it's misinformation. But what's going to happen as we go into the fall elections, this is just a test case for then what disinformation is going to look like when people are just pulling down unsubstantiated reports that they also don't have the budget to actually substantiate, and they're rubber stamping it out. And now Black voters going into the fall election is going to assume because Black enterprise, because of Blavity, because of the Griot, because of the Breakfast Club is putting out information, therefore it must be accurate.

But guess what? Going into this fall, a lot of information that you're going to see from a variety of sources that you normally would just assume has accurate reporting, it's not going to be true. And that's the thing that I'm fearful about. Listen, Robert, this is real basic. Go back to my iPad.

I want y'all to read what the source wrote. I ain't letting them off the hook. They wrote, now get this. Sources in the know about the purported deal say the embattled mogul sold off all his shares to a mystery buyer for a sum that has not been disclosed. Now the word is the company in itself quote remains black owned which is supposed to be aligned with as TMZ puts it upholding quote

its original connection and dedication to furthering the culture. It's still hazy as to what Revolt was let go for regarding the sale but one thing is, the new owner is keeping a low profile for now and for good reason. There's a lot of heat around the Sean Combs with Monday's raid by the feds, so now may not be the best time to announce a business deal of that magnitude for one of Diddy's brands.

Now, sources say that the owners or owners share a passion for black culture, which is a broad statement, but they intend to introduce themselves formally in the coming weeks. Everything that you just read right there is complete, utter bullshit. And you know what they're doing? Now go back to it. They are simply repeating what they saw in TMZ, but they trying to make it sound like they have the sources.

Let me be clear with all y'all who watching. I talk to four people who are actually in the know. The sale has not been completed. I've known about the sale for more than a month. And there is a real deal. The source goes, the owner or 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 three 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 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 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. 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. 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. The owners, it's not owners.

I know who the person is. But when you write this oh they maybe want to keep a low profile bullshit then it's all you know the whole day which is a broad state

you're feeding bullshit to black people and then they go I read the source and they said this You're feeding bullshit to black people. And then they go, I read the source, and they said this. It's a lie. I read Black Enterprise, and all they did was rewrite what TMZ said, which ain't true. This is dangerous.

When Rebecca said, you now do this, and you apply it to other areas. And we've seen it. And this is look, this ain't about trying to take somebody down. But Black Enterprise rewrote a Washington free beacon story about the Biden administration hand out crackpipes. And I sent them an email and said, do y'all know y'all were rewriting a story from a conservative newspaper? That was a lie. They never responded. But it was the same bullshit, Robert. Look, Roland, two points. The first is just an editorial point. Why is it when they were trying to appeal

to black audiences, they just take what white people wrote and then rewrite it in slave dialect? Why do they think that is something that appeals to black audiences? Why do you have to write these things straight off the Step and fetch it comedy tour. Well, I had heard that they'd be about to tell some people that we're going to go down here. We're going to give this back.

You don't have to write like that for black people to understand you. And I think that that's part of the place where we get to the disservice of black media, because if you think that you have to dumb yourself down to the point that we can't understand, you know, complex words and prepositions and grammar and commas and stuff, well, you're already starting from a point of disrespecting your audience when you think that's how you have to write. And, look, to Rebecca's point, this isn't going to start. This has started. Look, Roland, when we first found out about you running for judge, me and you found out at the same time, because there was an article on the front page of the Atlanta Journal of Constitution saying that I was running before I had even announced that I was running, before I had even decided I was running. And then from there, we saw other outlets secondhand pick up that article and pick up that information,

and they started casting me in all sorts of spurts and to the point Megyn Kelly is sending out tweets. Oh yeah, Sheila, oh, this liberal who worked with Reverend Jackson and Robert, when I saw it, what did I do? You tweeted about it. You called

him out. No, no, no, no, no, no. Before I called him out, I, no, before I called him out, I called you! Yes No, no, no, no, no. Before I called him out, I... No, before I called him out... You reached out to me... I called you! Yes. The first thing I did... And here's the deal. If I did not know you personally,

I would have went, okay, who is this Robert dude? Let me see if he has a website. Oh, he follows me on Twitter. Send him a DM. Oh, I'm going to send him a DM on Instagram. Oh, let me see if he has a LinkedIn profile. Let me see if he has a website.

Oh, hold up. Oh, he's a lawyer in Atlanta? Oh, oh, hold up. The story says that he used to work for Rainbow Push. Oh, boom. Let me call Reverend Jackson. Let me call John Mitchell. Let me call Shelly Davis.

That's what fucking reporters do. They make calls before they report stuff and before they tweet it. And before any of that happened, before my phone rang, even one time of any reporter except for you, I had outlets reporting on it in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Central America, all across the globe. Because as Mark Twain said, a lie goes around the world before the truth puts on its pants. We know that because Mark Twain never actually said that. That's just something that was attributed to him. So when we talk about this level of lazy journalism that we have now, we have journalists that just assume people are only

going to read the headline. No one's going to look into it any deeper and that their words will just be part of a 12-hour, not even a 24-hour news cycle. And that's why they put absolutely no effort into reporting actual media, reporting actual journalism, and that's reporting the story. They pick what the narrative is first, and then they find a story to fit it as opposed to taking the facts as they are and just reporting to the public.

And, Scott, here's the deal. And, again, I need everybody watching to understand that y'all watch this show. I called out NBC News when they did it. I remember them when Root did it. So this ain't, oh man, you picking on Black Enterprise, but I'm going to tell you, when they ran that crack

pipe story, and I just checked, now mind you, nobody responded. I ain't even going to name who I emailed, but I emailed the top people. But this was literally the email that I sent. Gents, y'all really should take this story down.

It's awful because it was rewritten from the right wing website, the free beacon. The GOP, come on y'all go to my iPad, thank you. The GOP has spread this nonsense all day. Me personally, I would never write anything based on the quote reporting from that right wing rag. The headline was called, Biden administration to fund the distribution of crack pipes and syringes to promote racial equity. By rewriting it under the BE,

you're essentially spreading the right-wing misinformation. Here is Reesey Colbert breaking down the program. Look at hashtag crack pipes on Twitter to see how it is being spread by the right wing. Just letting y'all know. Now, here's the whole deal. I sent that because my whole deal was like, y'all, what we doing? Like, and y'all had somebody, which means some little person who did no research, didn't check the source, Scott, just rewrote it. You put it up on blackenterprise.com,

which means, did it go through an editor? Did it go through any fact-checking procedure? And now somebody sees it and goes, well, Black Enterprise wrote it, so they must have fact-checked it. It shouldn't take me to call them out. The same story got spread by, I think, the same story got spread by some other people.

And I remember I called News 1 before, after I left TV 1. I called Blavity. I was like, yo, that story y'all got up, that story wrong. Take that shit down. And so, again, for me, the Jasmine brand, and this is just innocent. I was reading a post on the Jasmine brand once, and I saw it, and that was like one or two words that actually threw the story off and was wrong.

I was like, hey, we'll let y'all know that's not correct. Y'all might want to fix that. I respect news and I need black owned media to give a damn and not fall for the okey-doke. Scott, go ahead. Yeah. You know, lazy lawyering, lazy doctoring, and lazy writers in the media, all very dangerous. The problem with lazy writers in the media is that it goes worldwide. Boom! It makes it even more dangerous. So I agree with you. But here's a question, Roland.

So I get the lazy part, right? Nobody's going to argue with you about that. I guess for me, and I don't know, in journalistic standards of excellence or just basic journalistic standards, if I cite a source for my article and I'm repeating what TMZ or The Washington Post said and I'm rewriting it and giving them credit, aren't I minimally okay with that? Haven't I met the minimum standard or no? Right, right, right, right. What happens is, now that happens, you credit the source. The Atlanta Journal of Public Health. That happens all the time.

Right, right, you credit the source. But here's how I operate. If you black, and it's a black story, if I'm, so when I criticized Essence yesterday, they quoted Fox 11 LA and then they said a source told CNBC

that the raid was tied to a sex trafficking deal. Now, as an editor, the moment I see that story, I go I'm sorry. One, we as an editor, the moment I see that story, I go, I'm sorry. One, we as an organization, media organization, we don't run any story without two sources. That's first. Two, you have in your story a source from CNBC.

You don't know nobody at CNBC. You don't know who that source is. So when I'm sitting and telling y'all, I talked to four sources. I know their involvement in the sale of Revolt. So when I come on and say, I got four sources, your ass can damn well take to the bank. And my folks are real, are significant. Now, a lot of times, a source, let me explain the journalism lingo. Someone familiar with the thinking of.

That means they ain't close to the source. A family member of. See, there's all kinds of different phrases that we use that sort of give you a sense of how close they are to the source. So when you're writing a story, you can say, this is how you do it. TMZ is reporting that Revolt has been sold. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Black Enterprise reached out to Revolt, called and emailed,

and by press time, we did not get a call back. What that says is we made an effort to try to confirm TMZ's reporting. Black Enterprise, that essence, they ain't tried none of that. In the Essence story, where they used to talk about, quote, CNBC and Fox 11, they never said Essence.com, reach out

to Diddy, his lawyers, and his press person to get a comment. So in their article, they quoted CNBC quoting Cassie's lawyer, but not quoting anybody on Diddy's side. That's a failure of journalism. All I'm saying is pick up the phone,

call somebody, email somebody, DM somebody, make an attempt. But when you make no attempt, then you was rewriting somebody's stuff and slapping your name on it. And I'm sorry, that don't pass muster. And I'm telling you, in newsrooms that I run, you will get fired.

No, I got you. The other thing that they do is they will say, mainstream media will say, TMZ is reporting X, Y, and Z. NBC has not been able to independently confirm this. Hold on. Michael Jackson dies. I'm in Jamaica.

Right. The resort I'm at as a sports complex, I'm walking across the street. Roland, it's so sad about Michael. Say what? Dude is in a car. Say what? Michael Jackson is dead.

We used to them killing some celebrity. I was like, man, Michael Jackson ain't dead. No, Michael's dead. Now, as a result, I'm hearing Michael Jackson music. Rolling, the journalists go. I go back. 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. 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. We are back. In a big way.

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

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs

podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. To my villa. Marlon, how you doing? I say, man, I'm in Jamaica. Roland, hold on. Say something to his daughter. My brother's gone. Oh, shit, yeah. I go, Marlon, when you say your brother's gone,

my mom called me. My brother's dead. With my other phone, this is my personal phone, pick it up. I'm emailing CNN. I have confirmed from Marlon Jackson. this is my personal phone, pick it up, I'm emailing CNN. I have confirmed from Marlon Jackson, now mind you, CNN is on air.

Whoop Blitzer is giving TMZ credit. CNN has not independently confirmed from anybody that Michael Jackson is dead. My email to CNN was the first confirmation by anybody at CNN outside of TMZ. That's called reporting. And that's the problem. I'm simply saying to black-owned media, make an attempt to call.

Respect the black audience enough that you don't just repeat what you hear. And I don't give a damn what's in the New York Times. If it's a story involving black people, and I see that story, and it's the Times, boom. Say, bro, I'm seeing this. And that's what I'm saying. So what ends up happening, Scott, we then are spreading what they

report and didn't even attempt. And I'm telling you, I know for a fact the sale of Revolt is not final. So all these people are reporting everywhere. Revolt sold, sold, sold, sold, sold. Then it got a bad sold. It's not true. The sale could actually fall through between now, and I've already been told when it's going to get announced, it could actually fall through. So what then happens if it does fall through, everybody said

the deal was done. That's why you call. Go ahead, final point. Well, I think you're talking about excellence, right? No, I'm talking about journalism 101, not journalism 401, not journalism 401, not journalism 301,

not 201, it's 101. You were taught to call. If a story came out, if somebody said, Roland, Scott Bolden got arrested. No, no, no, no. Seriously. No, wait, hold up. I'm going to use a real example.

The judge held Scott in contempt. Let me hold Scott Bolden in contempt. What's the first thing I did? Scott, if you didn't pick up, you know what I would've done? Right. Emailed you.

If you didn't respond in five minutes, I would've called the firm and asked for your secretary. See, that's what you're supposed to do. You don't just go, hey,

Scott got arrested. Scott going to jail. Scott, Scott got held in contempt. And then you go, no, Scott got arrested. Scott going to hell. Scott got held in contempt. And then you go, no, Roland, I wasn't held in contempt. The judge is threatening to hold me in contempt. So being held in contempt and threatening to hold in contempt are two totally different things. That's all I'm saying to black-owned media. Damn, use the phone.

Call somebody. But you know, when black-owned media is lazy like that, it perpetuates white privilege's view of black people and their product, if you will. And that somehow it's almost acceptable to have

a non-excellent or below-standard product that's acceptable to black people, so it's not reliable, if you will. Somebody white looking at it and saying, well, that's from a black publication, so we can't really rely on it because their white privilege kicks in. To me, that's another danger if you're not practicing excellent journalism. So, I mean, nobody's going to disagree with you about this. I just wish we could

No, no, no. No, no, no. There are people who disagree with me. Man, why you make a big deal out of this? About what? Because I dared say because I've called people out. I'm just going to leave this one to y'all. But I'm going to give you an example that's not black-owned media.

Y'all three going to love this one. So remember when President Obama had the news conference and he was asked the question regarding the arrest of Skip Gates? And remember he said that the cops acted stupidly after arresting him, after ascertaining that he actually owned the house. Remember that? That's actually what he said. Sean Handy, Fox News and the right. Obama called cops stupid. No. He said they acted stupidly after learning he owned the house and still arresting him. That's actually what he said. So I'm on CNN, and we're in the air and we're discussing it.

And so I'd already found out what happened at the meeting that morning. What happened at the, so in the White House, there are two meetings. There's a seven o'clock meeting, and there's an eight o'clock meeting. The seven o'clock meeting is the real, real meeting. Okay, there's more people in the eight o'clock meeting. The 7 o'clock meeting is the real, real meeting. Okay?

There's more people in the 8 o'clock meeting, but the 7 is the real, real meeting. So we're on the air, and Candy Crowley, great respect for Candy Crowley, Candy Crowley goes, well, you know, my understanding from the, you know, that the White House would really prefer to walk that back. I went, no, they're not.

They all turned to me. I said, my understanding is Obama is very clear as to what he said. Well, Roland, you know, I've talked to my sources in the White House. And I went, I ain't lying, I'll never forget. Me too. I went, oh, I got sources too. And I can tell you. Now, here was the reality.

The reality was, the reality was, in a seven o'clock meeting, the white boys came in, were like, yeah, we got to walk this back. The black folks like, bullshit, yeah, we got to walk this back. The black folks like, bullshit. No, we not. And a black staffer, I ain't going to name him, said, outside this building, I left the office yesterday. And I'm a senior staffer in this White House. And I couldn't flag down a cab. And they passed me by.

The whole room went silent. and I couldn't flag down the cab and they passed me by. The whole room went silent. So when the white advisors, when they all went into the Oval Office, Obama made it clear, he wasn't walking back nothing. I know who I got the story from. And I was like, I got sources too. So at CNN it was kind of like, well you know that's Candy Crowley. I well, you know, that's Candy Crowley.

I don't give a damn if that's Candy Crowley. Shit, I know people too. But what happens is, in those sort of like, they like to defer to the last, I just remember, and again, I love Candy, but the bottom line is, I know people too.

Y'all may remember, there was a General James Jones. He had friction with Robert Gates. And I remember I made some comment and it was like, well, General Jones is very, well,

I was like, yeah, he ain't gonna be that long though. I said, he ain't gonna be that long. And it was sort of like the response to me was sort of like, like, what do you know? I said, OK, we're going to see who go first. Why don't y'all Google General James Jones and see when he resigned and then Google Robert Gates to see when he resigned.

Jones left first. This is an example, even when you're in white media, why you got to have your own sources close to the action. Because there were numerous times, even at CNN, where I had stuff and other people didn't have. And I just, I don't want to hold y'all. I got to, but it just, Scott, you'll give me. Man, we way late.

No, no, Scott, you'll be all right. I'm just going to get you out of this. I'm going to get you out of this deck. I'll say that one thing. Because Rebecca, I'm going to get you. They wouldn't let me put this in my book. CNN said, no, Rebecca, we're going to close on you. But they wouldn't let me put this in my book.

The night of the Iowa caucus, when Obama won. So I didn't get on the air for three and a half hours. So we off air and somebody on the air and they saying, we don't know where Obama is tonight in Des Moines. I was like, he had dinner. And then I said, he then, then it's then of course, then when he wins, they go, we're not sure when Obama is coming to the convention center. He leaving dinner in 20 minutes. And they come to me and they're like, oh my God, what are you getting this from? I said, from the person sitting next to him at dinner.

And then it was, so then they would, I was getting all this information all night and they were just like, oh my God. And I said, well, if y'all put my ass on the air, the audience would be getting this information as well, but y'all got me sitting on the sideline. This is what they also do to us. So all I'm saying to our black folk,

I need us to learn how to pick the phone up, develop sources, so when stuff happens, you can speak authoritatively, and you can be the one breaking news and giving facts and not relying on white media. Rebecca, close us out. And I just want to make it clear and being careful that we're not calling black journalists lazy, because I know that that was a comment that was made earlier. That's not the issue here. The issue is don't fall for clout culture, but actually do your

due diligence the way you learned in J school. The ethics that you learn in journalism school more than any other time. We need you all to step up and to adhere to those standards. Well, I am calling you lazy if you don't pick the phone up to get attribution or to get the right information. And what you do is you write a story and you slap your name on it as if you actually reported the story and I'm calling whoever edited the story lazy if they actually approved that story because both individuals the reporter and the editor or editors failed journalism 101. I will say that. Robert, Rebecca, Scott, always a pleasure. Scott,

you know you're wrong when it comes to the stadium, but nice effort. Nice effort. Rebecca owns you on that one. Nice effort. Rebecca owns you on that one, but I know you got to protect your Chamber of Commerce position, but we

spoke truth. All right. That's it. Kappa's always wrong. That's it, y'all. We will see y'all tomorrow right here on Roller Barton Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club. Send your check and money order to 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. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You can check us out on Amazon News by going to Amazon Fire and pulling up our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week streaming channel there. You can also, of course, you can tell Alexa, play news from the Black Star Network and the audio will start playing.

You can also check us out on Plex TV, Amazon Freebie, Amazon Prime Video. And don't forget to get a copy of White Fear, The Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. You can also get the audio version on Audible. Check it out there as well. All the folks who are in the Nashville area, please do me a favor. Do not forget on Monday, we are going to be in Nashville, 11 a.m. local time, 12 o'clock Eastern. We'll be live streaming on the Black Star Network news conference on Stop the Attacks on HBCU.

You see the people who are going to be participating. And that night from the forum in the Student Center, we're going to be broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's open to the public. We want y'all to come on out, especially the students, faculty, staff, the community folks who care about Tennessee State and HBCUs because we'll be holding our T-ish Tennessee State Town Hall. I will see y'all then. Folks, thanks a bunch. See you tomorrow. Holla! Blackstar Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 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 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 2 on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.