#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Nov. jobs report: Black unemployment up,Manslaughter dropped in Daniel Penny trial,Medicare deadline

Episode Date: December 7, 2024

12.6.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Nov. jobs report: Black unemployment up,Manslaughter dropped in Daniel Penny trial,Medicare deadline November's job report did show some overall jobs added. However, unemployment for black men and women increased.  Economist Morgan Harper is here to discuss the numbers.  We'll explain why New York prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charge in the trial of the former white marine who killed a black homeless man by putting him in a chokehold. The deadline for those who have Medicare is tomorrow. We'll talk to an expert who will explain why millions could lose their benefits.  And if you want to travel this holiday season, we have an expert with some tips to make sure your trip goes smoothly. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (link) and Risks (link) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the Jobs Act. People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital

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Folks, Blackstar Network is here. Hold no punches. A real revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? We'll be right back. Today is Thursday, December 5th, 2024, coming up on Roland Mark Unpiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

Department of Justice, they released a scathing report on how the Memphis Police Department violated the civil rights of black citizens. Yet the mayor says, the black mayor, says he is not going to agree with a consent decree. I've talked to a man who says consent decrees are ineffective and it weighs the taxpayer dollars. And others say that the mayor

said something different when he was running for mayor as opposed to where he is now. We'll also talk to a tech expert about U.S. law enforcement officials urging folks with iPhones and Androids to use encrypted apps amid threats of

unprecedented cyber attack from China. In tonight's edition of the Crockett Chronicles, Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett blames Republicans for manipulating the census to favor congressional seats in her home state. Folks, there's lots we're going to talk about. Let's get this thing going. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Let's go. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's a go-go-go-go, yo

Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Martin! Folks, the Department of Justice says the Memphis Police Department consistently has violated the U.S. Constitution due to a pattern of misconduct involving discrimination and excessive force. Kristen Clark, the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, explained everything today during a news conference in Memphis.

Based on a comprehensive investigation of the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department, the Justice Department has found a pattern or practice of conduct that violates people's civil and constitutional rights. Our investigative team includes career attorneys and staff from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office and more than a dozen experts who specialize in police department management, use of force, statistics, and other areas. This investigation was comprehensive and exhaustive. We interviewed dozens of police department officers and many city employees, as well as hundreds of community members and local organizations. We reviewed hundreds of incidents, watched hundreds of body-worn camera videos, read thousands of documents, and conducted

statistical analyses of police data regarding officer activities and enforcement. Based on this investigation, we found that the police in Memphis use excessive force, that they stop, search, and arrest people unlawfully, that their policies have a discriminatory effect on black people, and that they discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities. Furthermore, we are also concerned that MPD officers unnecessarily escalate encounters with some of the most vulnerable members of this community, its children. Many dedicated police officers in Memphis regularly risk their lives to keep people safe and to protect their rights. The practices I described, however, violate the Constitution

and federal law. They harm and demean people and they promote distrust undermining the fundamental safety mission of a police department. The city and police department can and must correct these issues. First the police department must stop using excessive force. Officers often make tough choices in stressful circumstances, but in Memphis, we have found that officers often use unwarranted, serious force in response to low-level violations or traffic offenses. For example, officers tackled a man and held him down by his neck for littering in a park. Officers routinely punish people who flee or don't immediately follow directions.

Second, the police department must end unlawful stops, searches, and arrests without reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe the people they stop have contraband or are dangerous or are a flight risk officers often frisk search handcuffed or hold them for example police detained a black man outside of a dollar store and struck him in the leg with a baton and pepper sprayed him in the face. Dollar stores in the area had seen a spate of robberies, but police had no reason to suspect that this man had anything to do with them. Further, without evidence that someone's car contains drugs or weapons, officers often tow and impound the vehicles. Third, the police department must stop policies that have a disproportionate effect on

black people in this community. We uncovered racial disparities that cannot be explained by differences in driving behavior. We found that MPD sites or arrests black adults for marijuana possession at 5.2 times the rate of white adults based on data from 2018 to 2023. Police cite black drivers for equipment violations like tinted windows at several times the rate of white drivers. And between 2018 and 2023, they arrested 121 black children for disorderly conduct compared to just one child during that time period. Fourth, the city and the police department must stop discriminating in their response to people with behavioral health disabilities. When someone in Memphis calls 911 for a medical emergency, medical professionals respond. But if someone calls 911 for a behavioral health emergency, the police respond, even when there is no evident safety risk. One woman

encountered police officers 169 times over five years. In nearly 95 percent of these encounters, there were no criminal charges. Instead, police brought her to hospital care. Crisis intervention teams began in Memphis with officers specifically trained in responding to behavioral health calls. Nevertheless, we found that even these officers still used force without justification and without first trying to resolve situations peacefully. One crisis team member acquired the nickname Taserface for his inordinate use of the tool. These team members routinely escalated encounters and used unnecessary force against people with behavioral disabilities, even children. Crisis intervention officers taunted, threatened, and used force

against an eight-year-old boy with a history of mental health treatment. Children often suffer harsh treatment from the Memphis Police Department. Officers approach kids aggressively. They use profane language with them and inflict needless unreasonable force on them. In one especially disturbing case, a 16-year-old black girl called the police to report that she had been assaulted. When officers arrived on the scene, she declined to hand over her phone. The police handcuffed her and she became agitated. The officers responded by threatening her. Ultimately, they grabbed her

and pushed her onto the ground. This kind of encounter potentially harms our children more than the similar conduct harms adults, creating risk of serious long-term harm such as post-traumatic stress, diminished academic performance, or future delinquent behavior. The misconduct that we observe offends the dignity of Memphis residents. It creates stigma and trauma. The practical results of the police department's misconduct often include loss of transportation and consequently employment and separation of families. But let me be clear, these tactics do not make Memphis safer. Discriminatory policing erodes the relationship between the community and the police, making it

harder for law enforcement to do their jobs to detect and solve crime or promote public safety. The violations our investigation uncovered stem from Memphis Police Department's deficient policies, supervision, training, and accountability systems. For example, the department uses traffic stops as a crime reduction strategy, but has not adequately supervised those traffic stops or meaningfully assessed whether this approach actually reduces crimes or violates rights. Further, officers lack clear guidance on what they can and cannot do. Supervisors have ignored or excused clear legal violations. The department does not conduct thorough, objective investigations into alleged misconduct.

The city has noted the cost of police reform and consent decrees, but the pattern or practice of constitutional violations our investigation identified costs the city too and will not be stopped by hopeful words or preliminary changes. Achieving meaningful constitutional policing reform costs time and resources, but not implementing systemic reforms also imposes enormous costs, costs in terms of citizens' rights that are trampled, personal and financial costs in injuries and deaths due to excessive, unnecessary use of force, costs in diminished public safety, and millions of dollars in legal judgments against the city due to constitutional violations. When the Justice Department works with police departments to achieve reform, these costs

decrease. For example, our work in cities such as Seattle, Albuquerque, and Baltimore has led not only to declines in use of excessive force, but also reductions in violent crime. We stand ready to continue working with the city, the people of Memphis. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free

at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. 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.

This deserve fair, transparent, non-discriminatory constitutional policing, nothing less. We are prepared to work together to write a new chapter for this city. But make no mistake, the pattern or practice of misconduct that we found in Memphis must end. And federal law authorizes us to sue for an injunction if necessary to accomplish that objective. Now, the report was always supposed to be released today, but the city of Memphis actually got ahead of this report being released yesterday by commenting. Well, after they did so on yesterday, the city of Memphis told the Department of Justice they would not enter into a consent decree. Earlier today, Memphis Mayor Paul Young explained why. Let me be clear that I believe that even one incident of mistreatment by the police is one too many. The report the DOJ released last night, it's going to be difficult to read. Some of the types of incidents that are

described are simply not acceptable and our hearts go out to every person who has been impacted by those actions. Hear me when I say these things, that policing in Memphis must always be ever-evolving, constantly improving, and I'm confident that our team is ready to further the work of creating ongoing change. We believe that adjustments we've already begun making must continue and that they must expand. It's my job as mayor to fight for the best interest of our entire community, every member, and that's what I'm here to do today. After carefully considering the information that we received from DOJ, We didn't believe that entering into any agreement in principle or consent decree right now before even thoroughly reading the DOJ report would be in the best interest of our community.

It's crucial that the city has the time to do a thorough review and respond to the findings before agreeing to anything that could become a long-term financial burden to our residents and could, in fact, actually slow down our ongoing efforts to continuously improve our police department. The consent decree in Chicago has cost their city more than $500 million. The consent decree in Seattle has cost their city more than $200 million. In New Orleans, their consent decree has cost them more than a hundred million dollars. And from what I understand, in many cases, consent decrees are in place for at least 10 years or more. In some of these cities, crime has actually increased under a consent decree.

And we can't risk that here, not in the city that I love, the city that made me everything that I am. We aren't alone in wanting to pursue a smarter way to make improvements, and we firmly believe that there is a better way. We believe we can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input and independent national experts than we can with a bureaucratic, costly, and complicated federal government consent decree. While the review period of this DOJ report predates my tenure as mayor, make no mistake that this administration takes the DOJ findings seriously, and we're going to review this report with an open mind to the recommendations. And while no police department is perfect, we have to strive to

become as close as possible. Protecting the interests of this community is my top priority. And while we have much work to do, we are on the right track. As a citywide crime has been down 13.5 percent, the part one crimes and the more violent, those more serious crimes are down 19%. We've already begun implementing several changes within MPD and we're committed to further progress. our community, local civil rights stakeholders, independent national experts, and the DOJ to develop an effective improvement plan that transcends what is undoubtedly a bureaucratic and costly consent decree. We're working with the team now to arrange a series of town hall meetings so that we can get community and stakeholder feedback on the DOJ's report, as well as the path we will take to ensure an even better MPD and a better Memphis.

I want you all to know and make no mistake that we are committed to ensuring that we have a best in class police department that respects all citizens. And to sum it up, we agree that our police department should always strive for improvement. However, we don't believe that the consent decree is the most effective way or efficient way to achieve the results that our community needs and deserves. We believe that by working with all of you in our community, we can faster and more effectively work towards the outcomes that we all desire. And while I haven't been able to thoroughly read the DOJ report yet,

I'm happy to take your questions about our response to the DOJ request that we immediately sign the agreement in principle towards the consent decree. So, folks, you heard that. Now, here's what's interesting. This is what the same MPD is currently under a civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice. How do you plan to ensure MPD treats all of Memphis' citizens fairly? The mayor said, quote,

I welcome the investigation into, the investigation is underway. It will help us identify national best practices for ensuring that everyone is being treated with dignity and respect. Leadership is making sure that I set the tone as mayor with my willingness to comply and willingness to engage. We want that to resonate with the chief of NPD and everyone that falls under her.

Per view, the investigation will also give us declarative actions that we can take to ensure that we're doing exactly what we want. So again, when you talk about this particular consent decree, there have been consent decrees that have taken place all across the country. And so I want to, you heard, of course, him talk about Seattle and the cost to taxpayers. Bob Scales is the CEO of Police Strategies. He joins us now. Okay, well, we don't have him yet, so guys, let's get him up. Let me bring on my panel.

I want to go to my panel. Recy Colbert hosts the Recy Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio. Joining us out of Washington, D.C., Lauren Burt. She is with Black Press USA, but also owner of Black Virginia News. Joining us from Arlington, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University out of Washington, D.C. Lauren, I want to start with you. So it's very interesting, you heard Mayor Young there lay out, oh, this is what the cost is to these cities. You know what the mayor didn't say, Lauren? He didn't say how much abuse cases have cost taxpayers in Memphis. He didn't say how much

money Chicago has had to pay out from police abuse. He didn't talk about the Holman Street location in Chicago where they were holding people and the lawyers didn't even know it was essentially Chicago's own Guantanamo Bay. He didn't talk about how much it has cost Seattle for a lot of these settlements. And so it's interesting to hear him talk about, oh, then he says, well, you know, and also these consent decrees, crime has gone up. Let's also be honest. Crime has also gone up because you've had police officers around this country who don't like it when they're held accountable. So what do they do? They stop policing. And so we, and let's not talk

about, you know, the Trump Department of Justice, where they said, well, Bill, where Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr are going to be pulling back on consent decrees because it was hurting the morale of cops. At the end of the day, you have to have something that is going to fix these problems or try to alleviate these problems. And the reality is you cannot leave this up to police departments in the cities alone because that's how the problem started in the first place. Yeah. And also, interestingly enough, the other thing he didn't mention in a 64% black city, Memphis. I mean, I was looking that up as we were waiting, and I did not know that Memphis was 64 percent black. I knew that it was probably majority black, but 64 percent. He makes zero mention on those stop and frisk stats, which you know damn well is going to be almost all black people. You know, when they did it in New York, which is not 64 percent black, it was like all black people that they were stopping for stop and frisk. And the other thing is Memphis, just like all these other cities, putting up all these cameras, which is millions and millions and millions of dollars. The other reason why crime goes up is you have a complete lack of investment on the front end when it comes to our young people.

When you have that lack of investment, you pay on the back end. In some way, you are going to pay on the back end, typically with incarceration. But as we know, incarceration is a business. So that little speech that he just gave, that preemptive speech, is the reason why the Democratic Party is in need of a major, major reset, a major reset, because he, of course, was elected with black voters. He was elected on the back of black folks. And then he turns around and effectively kisses the ass of the police department, knowing full well that the people who are living with the problems with the police department predominantly are going to be African-American. I mean, there's nothing more ironic than that. He's voted into office by Black people, and then he turns around and abandons those voters with regard to policy on this issue. It's outrageous. His little stupid speech was

ridiculous. He didn't even give a little bit of a tip of the cap of what goes on in some of these communities with regard to their relationship with the police, particularly with regard to Fourth Amendment violations and stop and frisk, which that's an easy thing to say, because those stats are usually pretty obvious. I mean, that was outrageous. That was absolutely embarrassing and outrageous. And that's the reason why so many voters get frustrated, not only with the Democratic Party, but specifically Black leadership around this country when you see something like that? I sat there and, again, I listened to all of that, Recy, and I'm sitting there.

And I guess for me, what is so bothersome is real people. Real people are affected. The mayor's citizens. And by the way, by the way, we reached out to the mayor to get him on the show. We reached out, let me know, Carol, to every city council member. Nobody was available to come on. Now, we had city council members who came on after Tyree Nichols was killed. They had lots to say after Tyree Nichols was killed. But when this report

comes out, because this report goes beyond Tyree Nichols, this report talks about the culture of a police department. And the reason, and this is a 70 plus page report. And the reason these reports are important is because this is not taking the Memphis PD. In this report, they actually detail, they actually detail how the internal affairs does faulty and crappy investigations. That's the job of internal affairs, to hold the police department accountable. And so, see, the mayor said, well, you know, this may get in the way of things that we're already putting in place. And again, you notice two things that he did right there.

And politicians do this all the time, okay? Oh, this might cause crime to go up. How? How? all the time. Okay. Oh, this might cause crime to go up. How, how police state, and then they always like to use money and cost against doing something. Okay. So it's going to be costly. Why is it going to be costly? Because are they going to, will the consent decree demand more training? Will the consent decree call for police accountability? See, all this little double talk, I can't stand, when the most important thing here that the mayor should be saying is that thank you for doing this report because there's nothing more paramount than the safety of our citizens and they should not be under attack by people who the taxpayers are paying. Absolutely. Let's just be clear. Mayor Young is full of shit. He's completely full of shit.

He's trying to get ahead of the report by saying, oh, well, we don't know if we're going to enter into it before we read the report. Well, you didn't have to make a comment before you read the report. You could have waited and saw what was in there, and then you could have made your statement. But the reality is that to say that all this money has been spent on consent decrees is not an indictment on consent decrees. It's an indictment on policing. It's an indictment on the idea that if you throw more money at police officers, at training and at other programs, that that's going to reform the system. That's what it's really an indictment on. Seattle has a budget of over $300 million a year on policing. And so the $200 million they spent over a decade that didn't... Wait, wait, wait.

Hold on, Reese. 40% of Memphis' total budget goes to public safety. Goes to the police department. 40%. And so what the mayor really is getting at

without saying it, because I don't think he has the balls to say it, and certainly he's clearly beholden to the police chief that was standing behind him skin and granite, is that they don't have the balls to say that the solution isn't in putting more money in police programs. The solution is putting more money into the community. The solution is actually getting outside of a police response to things that are happening in the community, like what Kristen Clark detailed, how these so-called police officers that are supposed to be there and specifically trained to respond to mental health issues. But they out there taser facing people is a degree of oversight, that there is a degree of programs that can be put in place to govern the police officers who conduct themselves in deplorable manners, who discriminate and wreak havoc on their communities that they're supposed to protect.

That's really what there is an indictment of. So they should actually be grateful that these consent decrees are there that help inflate the already bloated police budgets under the false notion that they can be reformed. Clearly, they cannot. That's the real issue. And for him to sit up there and gaslight the predominantly Black residents who are victims of this kind of racial profiling, this is not a safety issue. It is a quality of life issue. If you are a Black person who cannot walk down the street, who cannot call the cops, who cannot be minding

your damn business without getting harassed and stopped and have these pretextual charges being thrown at you, bullshit charges, that's a quality of life issue. That's not a public safety issue. So, yeah, the reason why crime hasn't gone down in those places is because they're putting the money in the wrong places. They're putting the money in the police departments instead of back into the communities. And Greg, again, when I listen to these politicians, and I don't care whether they're black, whether they're white, whether they're Latino, Asian, old, when they go crime, crime, crime. Okay, so if you really want to talk about crime,

okay, mayor, what is your economic plan? What is your education plan? Everybody, we're talking about Memphis. We're talking about the very city the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in when he was there fighting on behalf of sanitation workers who were being grossly underpaid and being disrespected. This city has had economic apartheid for the last 60 plus years. And that's the question that should

be asked. What is the median family income of a black family in Memphis compared to a white family? See, when they stand here, and again, it's all about scare tactics. Oh, crowd could go up, crowd could go up. Because what you have in America, you have an unwillingness of people to hold cops accountable for their awful bad behavior. And then the DOJ comes in and their job is not to paint a rosy picture, but to paint an honest picture. And here they lay out a damning report that details the violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, and the mayor comes out and goes, oh, this stuff just might be too costly. Well, tell me this then.

What's the cost of Tyree Nichols' life? What's the cost of another brother or sister who is beaten? Tell me, Mayor Young, what is the cost to a family when a young brother and sister has been traumatized by abusive behavior? Are we going to put an actuary table and then lay out a cost there? See, I'm sick of these people talking about,

oh, how much these things are going to cost when people don't want to be beaten. People don't want to be assaulted. People don't want their constitutional rights to be held against them. And the mayor stands there

after being elected by the people? Well, you know, I look at the cost in Chicago, it costs $500 million. The police abuse settlements in Chicago alone are approaching a billion dollars.

Right. And Mayor Paul Young is complaining that the consent decree has cost them $500 million. Well, please, Mayor Young, please tell me. 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. 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 one, two, 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 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.

The black families and the Latino families in Chicago, that the lives of their sons and daughters are not that valuable because it's going to hurt your city budget. Absolutely. Well, I mean, let's start with first things first. Good to see Kristen Clark there. One of, if not the last times, we'll see her doing some actual work for people who thought that both parties are the same

and blah, blah, blah. That's why we can't have nice things in the United States of America. You could have had her as the attorney general. And of course, the hillbilly horde in Tennessee, through the combination of voter suppression and disinformation, delivered that state, my home state, to the white nationalists and the fascists who will make sure that there won't be any more consent decrees, as Robert said yesterday on the show, maybe ever. So we can just put that aside. Mayor Young, brother, blink twice if you're a hostage.

I think we know. We all know that you're a hostage. Because he doesn't care. Mayor Young wanted to be the mayor of Memphis. The question is, who bought that seat for him? And that'll be the rich people who live in the suburbs surrounding the city of Memphis. And if there are black people outside the city of Memphis, just like that white nationalist Jason Montpower tried to take that little town of Mason in West Tennessee away for the developers, that's who owns Mayor

Young. Mayor Young evoked Chicago. Let's be very clear. There are several words that always should inform our thinking on this. One is implementation. Another is investments. And another is expenditures. So let's talk about Chicago just for a split second. $667 million Chicago set aside between 20 and 24 for police reforms because of those consent decree there. As you say, that's less than a billion. That's less than the lawsuits. But let's be very clear how much of that money was actually spent. Brandon Johnson, two weeks ago yesterday, put together a proposed 2025 budget for the city of Chicago. It would slash by 13 percent the number of employees charged with implementing the federal court order

requiring the Chicago Police Department to stop routinely violating residents' constitutional rights. So he's going to slash the budget. But guess what? That's not even the biggest story. The Chicago Police Department to date has met just 9 percent of the court order's requirements during that five-year period. They've spent less than 25 percent of the allocated budget over that same period, according to their own audits. So it isn't that they've encumbered the money to be spent. They haven't spent the money. But let's put a cherry on top of that. The cuts include the Office of Constitutional Policing Reform. That's going to be chopped

in half to about $3.7 million, slashing that workforce to implement now by 57 employees. But guess what? He's proposing, Mayor Johnson is, $ four point six million dollars on top of the money that has been encumbered for twenty twenty five. He's going to spend almost two hundred million dollars. But guess what? That number comes up to. It's a three point two percent increase in total spending. But those additional funds will be just enough to cover the cost of employee raises required by the city contract by the Fraternal Order of Police. Mayor Young, blink twice if you're being held hostage by the damn police union. Not only have they not spent the money in the consent decrees, to the degree that their

increasing budget for the police department is going to raise this because of that funky-ass police union. These pat-a-rollers are out of control. Not enough people are voting to put politicians—politician's not your friend. We could reach into Mayor Young's guts, pull him inside out and make him do what we wanted if enough people got involved in the political process. There's enough blame to go around in this, but I don't blame Mayor Young. He's just a hostage, and he's just a politician, and he's going to say whatever he needs to do to keep his job. We don't know whether consent degrees work or not

because the money for implementation hasn't been spent. That is always the issue there. I'm going to go to a break. We come back. I'm going to talk to a guest who says that, in his opinion, consent degrees don't work. Well, let's find out why. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from the Bay Area.

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It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly to rule their community, rule the jobs at. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way.

You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels. Or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And, uh, and really chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was, since I was a teenager. Wow. And, uh, and, and, and, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't. I'm grateful that it happened when it happened, because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly

violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. We've seen shouts. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show. This is your boy, Irv Quay. And you're tuned in to...

Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Well, folks, you heard Memphis Mayor Paul Young mention Seattle and their consent decree. My next guest was in Seattle when that was going down. Bob Scales is CEO of Police Strategies. He joins us now from Seattle. Bob, first of all, what is Police Strategies? So we're a company that helps law enforcement agencies collect and analyze and report on their data, mostly use of force data. Okay. And you are, in terms of when you say help law enforcement, are you funded by police departments or are you funded by other sources? So like, what are you,

like, are you hired by police departments? Yeah. So one of the big problems we have is that there is no national and very few statewide use of force databases. So oftentimes when we talk about use of force, we're operating without any data. And there aren't any evidence-based best practices for use of force policies or training. So one of our goals is to help law enforcement agencies understand their use of force data so they can make better policy and training decisions. Okay. So why do you say consent decrees are ineffective? Well, my first experience with consent decrees was in Seattle in 2011 when the Department of Justice announced that they were doing a pattern of practice investigation of

Seattle PD. And I was in the Seattle City Attorney's Office at the time and was selected to represent the city during the investigation. That was a very quick investigation. It lasted eight months. And then in December of 2011, the DOJ issued their findings letter, and we disagreed with their findings. And we asked to— basically, DOJ said 20 percent of Seattle PD's use of force were excessive or unnecessary and unconstitutional. And we said that's not possible because we review all of the use of force incidents. So we asked to see the incidents that they found to be unconstitutional, and they refused to provide us with those incidents. We asked to talk to their experts and review their methodology, and they refused to identify their exports or provide the

methodology. And it was very quickly, when we reviewed their findings report, we found a number of errors and fabrications in the findings report. And then it all sort of snowballed from there. And we saw how ineffective the entire system was. When you say you found, when you found errors in there, first of all, you were working for the city of Seattle. So wasn't it your job with the city of Seattle to protect your police department? It's not like you were a third party. You were a, actually, the findings were against the city of Seattle, and you were an attorney for the city of Seattle. Correct. I mean, I was representing the city of Seattle and you were an attorney for the city of Seattle. Correct. I mean, I was representing the city. The city was my client. But what we did was we

went through and the DOJ did not identify any of the incidents in their report. However, we were able to identify the fact patterns and match them up with actual police incidents. And what we found was that the way that the DOJ characterized these incidents was they either added information, they left out important information, or they just reached incorrect conclusions about what happened. And the DOJ never actually provided us with any evidence. We had to piece it together ourselves. So it's not a matter of, you know, did we interpret it differently than the DOJ?

The DOJ put in factual information that was inaccurate. But you say consent decrees don't work, but you're only speaking about what happened in Seattle. Do you have any other experience with other cities and consent decrees don't work, but you're only speaking about what happened in Seattle. Do you have any other experience with other cities and consent decrees? Yeah. So after when Seattle, eventually Seattle, the mayor decided to sign the consent decree about six months after the findings or eight months after the findings. And the mayor appointed me to be the compliance coordinator to oversee the reforms in the department. And I did that for about two years. And so I got a good sense of how the monitors work, how DOJ works, how federal judges work. And I've also spoken with

most of the current cities from people in the department or in the city, most of the current cities that are currently under consent decrees. And I started sort of speaking out in social media, particularly on LinkedIn about consent decrees, because I saw the same problems happening in Seattle happening in every single other city that was under a consent decree. Okay. So, but when you say the same problems, there have been other cities, other leaders that have actually welcomed these consent decrees. When Donald Trump, when his, under his DOJ, Jeff Sessions, when they came in, they tried to stop the consent decree in Baltimore and the city of Baltimore disagreed with them and said, no, they want to move forward as well. And so if you don't have, if you, if you, if you, if you don't

have the department of justice doing what they do, how do you then get to the point of fixing the problem? Because citizens are being abused. Citizens are being beaten. And in fact, these cities are paying out, we're approaching, not approaching, we're there, billions of dollars in settlements due to the abusive, unconstitutional actions of cops. Yeah, well, you're absolutely right that some cities have actually requested the DOJ to come in and investigate and welcome a consent decree. Baltimore is one example. New Orleans is another. And Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Yep. Yeah, exactly. So that's absolutely right. And what you'll also find is every one of those cities regrets after 10 or 15 years of a consent decree and after spending $100 million or more in costs and after having, you know, under the supervision of a federal judge that knows nothing about law enforcement, a monitor that knows nothing about law enforcement and is making a profit, they find that their department and their public safety is much, much worse off than before they started. And so and how then how do you tie that to the consent decree? So when you say it's much worse, how is it worse? And how are you blaming that on the consent decree? Right. So, so, uh, professor Roland Fryer from Harvard university is an economics professor. He did a study of pattern or practice investigations and consent decrees. And he found that during the first few months or years of a consent decree, homicides, violent homicides go up. And there were, I think he studied about 15

cities. There were an additional 900 homicides in those cities with consent decrees. And he attributed that to de-policing and disengagement. Because when the DOJ comes in- Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Okay. Just right before you stated that, you said that federal judges and monitors know nothing about law enforcement. What does an economics professor at Harvard know about law enforcement? He was studying data. He wasn't trying to manage departments. He was studying data and using statistical techniques to determine that the violent crime and homicide levels went up after a pattern of practice investigation. And he attributed that to the de-policing and disengagement effect. Because when the DOJ comes in, what they're

telling officers is, we don't want you to make stops. We don't want you to make arrests. We don't want you to use force. We don't want you to get complaints. And the only way that the officers can comply is to basically disengage and not do any proactive policing and only respond to 911 calls. And that's what happens in every single city that is under investigation and goes into a consent decree is you have this massive drop in arrests and an increase in crime. Well, you're citing Roland Fryer's data, but literally at Harvard, Justin Feldman literally lays out that Fryer's data was wrong. There are individuals that actually dispute Fryer's report. Other other folks in academics who do so. But you talk about what the department, what DOJ actually says.

Well, this is what we also know we know this for a fact I lived in Chicago for six years where there were cops in Chicago don't like oversight don't like uh uh being uh having to having to report various things cops in Chicago admitted breaking radios, admitting not turning on body cameras, not turning on dashboard cameras. And so how do we also account for cops who don't want any accountability and they are making decisions that, oh, you know what? I'm just going to take this check and do nothing. And so what are we supposed to do when you still have citizens who are being abused, who are being beaten, when you have cops who don't want to be held accountable? Right. There are many, many, many problems with law enforcement. There are many bad officers that should not be police officers. The question is, what do we do about it?

There's no consent decree that's been successful. There's no consent decree that has actually improved the constitutional policing in any city. What DOJ has the authority to do, but they rarely do, is prosecute the officers that actually commit the offenses. And if they did that, instead of blaming the mayor, blaming the city council, blaming the police chief, blaming policies, blaming training, they blame everybody except the officers that commit the crimes. And they let those officers, for example, in Minneapolis, in Baltimore, in Chicago, any major city that's had a high-profile officer-involved shooting or officer-involved death, the officers that may be involved in that particular death are prosecuted. But then the DOJ comes in and said, this is a widespread problem. There are officers every day that are violating people's constitutional rights. And the way we're going to fix it is to do a consent decree and change

your policies and training. But every officer that's ever violated somebody's rights is going to get off scot-free because nobody's going to, the DOJ does not prosecute officers. They try to do these phony consent decrees that do nothing. But wait a a minute but if we want to talk about prosecution then isn't isn't what you just said a direct indictment on district attorney's offices people who are who work closely with cops because here's the reality on the federal level uh they have a very narrow window if you will when it comes to civil rights violations. Former Attorney General Eric Holder talked about this here in terms of sort of how feds look at it. The reality is when you look at a lot of these cases, part of the fundamental problem is they're not being prosecuted locally.

And so shouldn't the owners on the first level be on these DAs who are doing their job? But I look at the Memphis report. They talk about how the Memphis Internal Affairs Department doing shoddy investigations. Isn't that their job? And so I get sort of this targeting about DOJ, but if local DAs and county DAs and Internal Affairs Department aren't doing their jobs and these cops

are not being indicted, what often happens is the DOJ becomes the last resort for many families because the families are being let down by local and state district attorneys and attorney generals. I absolutely agree. There should be.

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crimes and violate people's civil rights. But they're not doing it. But they're not doing it. Well, but the question is about consent decrees, right? I don't have a solution for that, but I know that consent decrees are not the solution. So DOJ has the authority. So they came into Seattle and they said 20% of our use of force is unconstitutional. That means that the DOJ, in about 250 cases over two years, they had the legal authority to prosecute every officer who did unconstitutional policing, and they didn't do a single one. In fact, there was a high-profile incident. Were there any type of limitations? Well, no, absolutely not. One of a, how this, one of the reasons this

started was a high profile shooting of a native American woodcarver, John T. Williams in 2010. And we, my office referred that case to the U S attorney for prosecution and the U S attorney declined it. They refused to prosecute the officer. We then referred it to the county prosecutor. They refused to prosecute it. We don't have jurisdiction. The city doesn't have jurisdiction to prosecute it. There's a U.S. attorney, so they won't prosecute the officer. But then a few months later, they do it.

No, no, no, no, no. I asked, why did the county attorney and why did the U.S. attorney decline to prosecute? You'll have to ask them. We had evidence. We had sufficient evidence to charge an officer with homicide, and they refused to charge the case. But then they used that case. They used that case in their findings letter, and they said that that officer committed constitutional violations, and that was the reason for the consent decree. But they refused, and they identified 250 other cases, and they didn't prosecute a single one. So I'm curious. In that particular case there, cops can charge someone without the district attorney getting an indictment first.

Did that happen? No, no, no. It's impossible. So we know it's not impossible. What the police do is they refer cases for prosecution. The police cannot prosecute anyone. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what I asked. No, no, no, no, no, that's not what I asked. If you said you have the evidence that this cop committed a homicide, did the police department go and arrest this cop and charge him with homicide.

He was not arrested, but he was referred, the case was investigated. And the case was referred to the U.S. attorney and the county prosecutor for prosecution. And they refused to indict the officer. No, no, no. Here. No, no, no. Here's my—no, no. See, again, I'm going to ask this question again because this is the problem that—and again, I've covered way too many of these cases. And this is what happens. can actually arrest someone based upon their evidence, charge them with whatever that particular crime is,

then the next step is it going to the DA's office for an indictment. What I'm asking is, did the police in Seattle arrest this cop saying, we are making this arrest of homicide, and now, after he's been arrested, now will the DA actually go seek an indictment? So what I'm asking is, did the police in Seattle arrest that cop and charge him with homicide? The police department's charging actions are

separate from the prosecution's actions. So what do the police do? That's not accurate. No. So the police, you're correct that the police could have arrested the officer, but officers are not arrested until they are indicted because arrest is used when the individual represents an immediate threat to public safety. So when officers... A cop, a police officer who kills somebody, that's not an immediate threat to the public? Well, what happens after every officer involved shooting in every jurisdiction I know of is that the officer is immediately taken off active duty, right? And normally their firearms are taken away until the investigation is completed. So that officer was actually fired just a few days after the incident. So he was fired by the police department. So he was no longer a police officer. But the issue is not whether he was arrested or not. The issue is—and the police cannot charge anyone. All they can do is refer a case for charging. Only the district attorney or the U.S. attorney can file charges. And so in every case, for example, Derek Chauvin, he wasn't arrested after the incident, but as soon as the indictment

was filed, then he was arrested and arraigned. That's the way our system works. Well, actually, that's part of the problem we have in our society. We have a completely separate law enforcement system when it comes to cops and when it comes to everybody else. My panel has questions. Lauren Victoria Burke, you're first. Yeah, I don't know where to begin. My head is sort of spinning a little bit. I mean, Bob, don't you think that it's really the case that consent decrees don't work because cops effectively in our society are a protected class, right? I mean, politicians protect police. Police are immune from most criticism. And, you know, this idea that the money, I thought that your point with regard to money was

particularly laughable. My father was a cop in New York. And so my education, everything else was paid for by that on overtime. Police overtime in New York is through the roof. This idea that the consent decree is really expensive and so we shouldn't do it. Are you kidding me? We spend millions and millions and millions in this country on law enforcement. Law enforcement gets what they want. When they ask for money, they get money. There's not a politician, Democrat or Republican, that wants to out on the street and all these other things, George Floyd, and not be a little bit disgruntled about that, I think is outrageous.

We should be having more than just consent decrees. You've got to be kidding me. This idea, I think it was 2015 when Eric Holder, after Ferguson, Eric Holder investigated Jennings and Ferguson, and we found out that the cops were fleecing the black community in Ferguson. This is data. You want to talk about data and rolling fly? Let's talk about data. I mean, we've got so much data on this that it's ridiculous. So when you say that the consent decree doesn't work, it doesn't work because we in this society

really respect and value and protect cops. Cops are a protected class. They're an undeclared protected class. So I have no question. I guess that's my comment. But I find your entire thesis to be a little bit, based on Washington state, a little bit challenging. I know you know about

the ACLU suing the city of New York on stop and frisk, and they were stop and frisking basically all black people, all black men. So, you know, give me a break with this general idea that we shouldn't be questioning law enforcement. Well, that's not what I said. So all you have to do is, if you want to look at money, look at Chicago. The mayor tried to recently cut the Chicago PD's budget. And Chicago PD said, we can't do that because of the consent decree. And the monitor said, you can't do that. And the judge said, you can't do that. And DOJ said, you can't do that. So he restored all the cuts to Chicago PD. So consent decrees are a blank check for police departments. If you're into defunding the police, don't do a

consent decree because they'll get everything they want under a consent decree. And not a single, if you look at the data, show me one city, one city where constitutional policing has improved because of a consent decree. And we have some consent decrees like in Seattle, it's going on 15 years, Virgin Islands, 17 years. You know, how long does it take to reform a police department? Sir, there are no, there are no, we're not reforming. We're not, we're not reforming police. But Bob, is it? I mean, we're not, the idea that we're somehow going to change the police in this country in itself, whether there's a consent decree or not, whether $100 million is spent or not, you know and I know that that's not going to happen.

Police have a great deal of power in the United States of America. We spend a million, million, million dollars out of budgets on police. That's not going to change. You just saw probably the piece we just had in Memphis. They stop and frisk who they want. There are clear Fourth Amendment violations. And as long as you do it with the black community, no, the biggest problem that we have here is that, wow, these naughty consent decrees. Really? Really? Tell that to the family of Walter Scott and Eric Garner and George Floyd. One second. I said they don't work. The consent decrees don't work. If you want to spend money, if the- I want to show this money one second officers prosecute officers do that but first bob bob first bob first of all on this show we've long said prosecute officers but the problem that you have been prosecuting officers uh is that you have da's who work with those

various officers and guess what cops rebel no no no no no, no, no, no. One second. One second. And again, part of the problem is that how the federal laws are set up, they have a very narrow window. We talked about money. I pulled this up. That's not true. Chicago taxpayers. One second. First of all, Bob, we literally have had the attorney general of the United States state that.

So I'm only stating what Eric Holder said. And it's not true. I'm going to say this here. Because all you have to do is read the consent decree. One second. Between 2000. Bob, one second. Read the findings of any consent decree.

Bob, one second. Bob, one second. Bob, one second. Bob, one second. I want to speak to the money part. This is Chicago. Between 2019 and 2023, Chicago taxpayers paid $164.3 million to resolve lawsuits that named 200 Chicago cops. In all, the city spent $384.2 million to resolve lawsuits alleging approximately 1,300 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct. And if we go to New York, that number is approaching a billion dollars.

So the reality is the amount of money we're spending with these lawsuits is unbelievable. Recy, what's your question? I just want to clarify that the money is not spent on consent decrees. The money is spent on corrective actions that are identified and agreed upon within consent decrees. Consent decrees themselves don't cost money. You have a monitor, you have judges. That's not what's costing hundreds of millions of dollars. It's the programs, the ineffective programs, which I would agree with you if you want to say that the programs implemented supposedly to bring these police departments into compliance are ineffective, but that's not

the consent decree itself. It's the programs that are selected. So my question would be, you say prosecute police officers. You can't prosecute a police officer for pulling somebody over for driving while black, for roughing up a teenager, for harassing and stalking and things like that that they do that erode the quality of life in these communities. And that's a big part of why these police officers are, these police departments are under consent decrees. So if self-governance doesn't work prior to the consent decrees, if consent decrees don't work, then what, based on your extensive experience, what are the kinds of reforms can work? Because to me, the takeaway from this discussion is that policing is unreformable and that the solution is to spend less money on policing itself, not more money, because we're not changing the legislation around police accountability. And so my takeaway is, why are we spending more money on policing for any reason? Yeah, well, my answer is what we need is more accountability. Just as you said, DAs are unlikely to prosecute, et cetera.

Consent decrees do not provide any accountability, and monitors are paid millions of dollars by local taxpayers for writing reports and telling police departments what they're doing wrong. There is no magic bullet. There is no policy, no training, no supervision that DOJ does in their consent decrees that is the magic bullet that changes anything. It's just literally a waste of money, where DOJ could spend their resources, those resources on prosecuting officers who commit constitutional violations, which according to the DOJ are widespread. This is not a question of, well, we can't, we don't have jurisdiction. We can't, we can't, we don't have the tools. They have all

the tools they need. They just choose to allocate their resources towards consent decrees rather than prosecuting officers. If officers knew that if they violate somebody's constitutional rights, that they will be prosecuted by the DOJ, I guarantee you that their behavior will change. If there's no accountability, they have no incentive to change their behavior. Consent decrees don't do anything to change officers' behavior except make them less proactive. Greg Carr. Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Mrs. Scales. I think we could all agree. I think we could all agree that prosecuting police officers is a good thing, and they should be prosecuted the hell out of. We should break their backs politically with prosecutions.

We both know, we all know that's not about to happen, at least for the next four years, and probably never, as Lauren would say, the police are a rogue element, and they're padded rollers. They've been that way since the day of enslavement. My question, you said, you know, you asked the question, what do we do about it? That would seem to be the most effective short-term strategy. And I'm glad you brought up Chicago. We talked about that a minute ago. And indeed, the mayor did have to restore that money. And of that, almost $200 million he's proposed in terms of an increase in 2025. That just about matches the 3.2 percent increase

in just enough to cover the cost of employee raises required by the funky Fraternal Order of Police. So as you said, yeah, you had to restore that, but it's going to their pockets, not going to any reform. And in fact, he fired the guy who was over the—what was it named?—the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, Bob Boyk, the police chief fired him because he was responsible for implementing the consent decree, because he's—but he fired the guy for saying that you can't move those—that money from enforcing the consent decree over to putting more cops on the street, which is exactly what he did.

I mean, I know you know all this. I do—my question, and I just want to say one more thing before I ask the question about Ronald Fryer, who we both know. I'm going to set aside the deeply controversial nature of his tenure at Harvard University. He just got reinstated to Classroom 2021, because I don't think that's related to the critiques of his research methodology. I think that the paper—I don't know if the paper you're referring to is one he did back in the summer of 2020 for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which was questions in terms of his methodology by economists at the University of Chicago, who said that, you know, there was probably some form of selection bias in his assertion that Black people and Latinos are

no more likely to be shot by the police than white people. That's one of the more controversial things that the friar has said over the years. And his response was, well, my data is taken from 911 calls. Well, this is a black man who doesn't understand that black people are wary to call the damn 911 because the police show up, they may shoot them. But we're going to set all that aside. My question is this, because you asked what are we going to do about it, and I agree with you. Prosecute the hell out of these cops, even though what are we going to do about it, and I agree with you.

Prosecute the hell out of these cops, even though they're not going to be prosecuted. My question is, are you aware of any consent decree, whether it be in Washington state or Chicago or any of the five—I think Fryer referred to them in his area as viral incident sites, Baltimore, Chicago. You know, he's talking about Laquan McDonald and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. And he distinguished that from the 22 so-called non-viral sites where he says you see crime going up because, as Roland said, the police just stop going out there. Are you aware of any city, including the one you work the closest with, where consent decrees have actually been implemented by taking financial resources and putting them where the consent decree says they need to be put,

as opposed to taking the money and either not spending it. Remember, 25 percent, only about a quarter, less than a quarter of the Chicago budget that was allocated for consent decrees was ever spent on consent decrees. Are you aware of any city, any one you study closest, where that money was actually put someplace other than money given more to the damn police to shooting us in the first place. Yeah, I mean, that's an excellent point, is that consent decrees are not funded by the federal government, right? They're funded by local taxpayers. The monitors are not paid by DOJ. The monitors are paid by local taxpayers. All that money is taken from other services that cities provide,

and it goes directly to the police department. And so essentially, mayors and city councils lose control of their budgets because the monitor and DOJ and the federal judge will dictate what the city must spend on policing. And oftentimes,'s lots of training, you know, officers get overtime for training. There's lots of policy development. There's lots of IT systems that come in. I mean, it is a gravy train for police departments. And meanwhile, other city services, particularly in areas, you know, that desperately need it, you know, go down. And just another point about the Roland Fryer, I mean, I understand there's always, I mean, I do this sort of for a living, and people always argue with my findings and my data and so forth.

The thing that I really like about Roland Fryer's papers is that it really does confirm everything that I saw that happened in Seattle. In Seattle, when the DOJ came in, we saw nonviolent misdemeanors, arrests for nonviolent misdemeanors dropped by about 90 percent. So things like in the park after dark and loitering. And some people might say that, well, that's a great thing. We don't want police doing that. But the result is when you don't enforce these low-level quality of life crimes, then other crimes start, when people figure out there's no enforcement, if nobody calls 911, then crime starts increasing. And I also knew firsthand all these officers who told me personally, I'm not going to do anything while the DOJ is here, right? I'm just going to

sit in my car, wait for a 911 call. And you can't, you can't, there's no way to force officers to be proactive. And so the morale, I mean, it just, it just, it just makes, and then it becomes this division between the community and the police. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And you can't, you can't, certainly there's a reason why Roland Fryer and—what's the boy's name?—Glenn Lowry, there's a reason why they're darlings of the right. These are two Negroes who you can take their work and use it to—it's this confirmation bias. First of all, there's already a division between the police and black people.

That division was there from the beginning of the police. But my direct question was, are you aware of any city, including the one you worked in, where the policymaking recommendations of the consent decrees were actually implemented? You just said yourself that once you get that money, the local money is given to police, they do whatever the hell they want. And in Chicago, they're spending it on raises because they got the damn police union that got them by the throat. Are you aware of any city, including the one you worked in, where those recommendations, the dollars went to fulfill those recommendations? Oh, absolutely.

They do. They do. And the reason that—but to your point, the reason that consent decrees go on for so long is because of just what you said, right? It starts out—a consent decree will start out on paper. You do these 10 things. But by the end, it's like the monitor and the judge and DOJ want 100 things. And the money, you know, you've got union contracts, et cetera, the money goes other places and so forth. So there's, I mean, almost 20 years were going on in some agencies under a consent decree, and they're still not, quote unquote, reformed yet.

So when, what will it take? And then the other question is, after they have a new policy and a new training, if these are the policies and training that will really work and 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 But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. 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 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 podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. All your constitutional police problems, then why isn't every agency doing it? Right? There is no silver bullet here.

It's just a money-making thing. So allow me this final comment before we go, because my next guest is waiting. Let me also remind everybody who's watching, Bob said that, well, the answer is to prosecute these cops. I remember there was a woman named Marilyn Mosby who prosecuted cops in Baltimore. And what did the police department do? They rebelled against her. They said, we're not going to even work. I know when Kim Fox prosecuted cops in Chicago. Exact same thing happened. In fact, there was a judge in Chicago who reported eight to 10 cops to the police review board who said that he knew for a fact

that these cops were lying on the witness stand. We have evidence all across the country that when cops are prosecuted by district attorneys, the cops rebel. So guess what, Bob? If the DOJ prosecutes them, the cops are going to be pissed. If the local DAs prosecute them, the cops are going to be pissed. And the reality is, we have a system where the blue line protects one another and they despise accountability. So they don't want the DOJ. They don't want the state attorney general.

They don't want internal affairs. They don't want the mayor. They literally want to be able to do what the hell they want to do. So I guess the reality is we're just never going to have a reform system as long as the cops have complete, they can do whatever they want with impunity because they don't want any accountability. Final comment before I got to go. That's why DOJ has the ability to change everything. If they shifted from consent decrees to prosecuting officers, there's nothing the cops can do against the DOJ. They can't recall them or complain about them or whatever. And DOJ has within their authority and their power the ability to dramatically reform and change policing if they chose to use it.

Question is, Bob, do you agree with getting rid of qualified immunity? No. I mean, the thing is, is that qualified immunity is not about prosecuting officers, right? That's civil liability. We're talking about prosecuting officers. I don't think the civil liability is going to change much, but the prosecuting officers, if an officer knows, if I violate this person's constitutional rights, I could go to jail, that is the best deterrent you have for bad policing. Well, guess what, Bob? I know a lot of people that said if we impose the death penalty that is going to be deterrent against murder, it didn't happen. I also know for a fact that

the reason those cops continue to do what they do, because they know that the system that we have, this is what they know. They know that district attorneys are afraid to prosecute them because those same DAs want the police union's endorsement. Those same cops know that mayors do not want to wage war against those bad cops because they want the police endorsement's union. And they also know that if they do get indicted and go to trial, juries are more than likely to acquit cops of bad behavior, even when it is clear. It's undeniable because in our society, we have scared people so much that say, don't you dare oppose cops because we need them.

And so I guess we never going to have, never going to fix this problem because it is literally, the deck is stacked in favor of cops against everybody else. But we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, we're going to go into a break. We come back.

We're going to talk about why is the FBI telling people if you have an Android or an iPhone, you should be using encrypted apps and not sending text messages. We'll have that for you next. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting,

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I mean look at the boy we gon' be alright If I named every alpha we be here all night You see that black and all gold Through them neon lights If I ask her who she with she say she won't ice Only time our heads down after singing to him. Competition with who? We ain't competing again. If it's something that's stuck in, we keeping the win. Because without us, boy, it wouldn't be no them. Yeah. Alpha

Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence while providing service and advocacy for our communities. Take your facts. Well, of course, yesterday was the Founders Day for Alpha Alpha, so we're going to still show a little love today. All right, folks, let's talk about this here. Responding to a series of cyber attacks on telecommunication companies like AT&T and Verizon, U.S. law enforcement officials were advising Americans to use encrypted messaging apps to safeguard their communications from foreign hackers, such as China. So according to the law enforcement, the Chinese hackers have

literally been inside of these telecommunication companies for months, and they still are there. And the FBI is saying until they are gone, you're going to be sending important text messages. You had better use encrypted apps. Social analyst and diversity strategist Shereen Mitchell joins us right now. So Shereen, they're talking. So when we talk about encrypted apps, so I'm

looking, so I have Signal. You have WhatsApp, as far as I'm concerned. I don't particularly like WhatsApp. There's another encrypted app that I was made aware of that, I think it's the Swiss, it's called WIRE. So explain to people what's going on here, why law enforcement would issue this edict, which is major. So one thing for sure, thank you for having me again. And you named the two encryption ones I was going to name. So I definitely know that we're always on the same page because WhatsApp had a problem in multiple tiers before. So yes, the encryption is important. Also VPNs are important.

But let me just explain why this is a problem. A lot of times we don't realize how much data we're adding to social media apps as well as what our telecom services have access to. And this is where the problem comes in. Because if you use your telecom service, it's just a regular text message going back and forth. And they actually have server records of your phone calls and your interactions and all of your contacts as well. So what they're saying now is that people need to be a little bit more careful about it.

But here's where my problem lies. This country has also known that multiple times that we've been hacked, including government entities. But what usually happens, they try to play down the harm or anything in between. So the only way we know something changes is when our service, like Verizon, changes their, you know, the way that they do security. Right. All of a sudden the service changes. We should be told that the reason why those security changes is because we have a situation where something happened, something was released, something was hacked. What even what the FBI is saying, they're not telling any of the customers whose information may be out there that their information is out there. They only told high profile people that information. So sometimes

people go, well, I'm not that important. Why would anyone have that information? You don't know why you might be important, who you may be connected to, who may have your phone number or the spaces in between. That's why protecting your own phone, protecting even your own VP services is so important. Now, we know that Iran, China, and Russia have always been one of the things America says has been trying to hack into our services for multiple reasons, and it's usually heightened when it's an election year. This is important because I think we need to start connecting the dots as to why sometimes a lot of the disinformation happens because the way the content is spreading, we don't even know

if some of our own family members are sending us those messages unless we have some of those messages encrypted. So what we're talking about here is, so what they're saying is that, and for people to understand how deep this is, by them being in these communication companies, they can see the photos, they can see the conversations you're having with people. And so by requesting the encrypted apps, what they're saying is that with those encrypted apps, so you take a signal, it creates a connection from one device to the other. So that that encrypted app cannot be hacked by but they can't buy these foreign adversaries, we think. And so that's what they're calling for. And so they say. And the other thing is, so you take a signal.

People don't realize it's essentially the same as your device. You can actually send text messages. You can do audio files. You can actually do video chat as well. So you can use the app very similar to the way you do FaceTime, the way you do things along those lines. But the protection is you're going device to device. That's why they're telling people to use that as opposed to utilizing text messaging on your Android or your iPhone, correct? That's absolutely right.

So for people to understand that, for them to understand what you just described. So when people are using other apps, your contacts are still on your main phone. However, the people that you're exchanging information with, anything you're exchanging in that conversation, that is the only thing that can be shared between them. And once you delete them, once they're gone, if you need to get rid of them, there's no other record of them. With your phone, with with the service the record still is on their server even if you delete them that doesn't mean it's deleted on the server

that's the difference i'm hoping that that people understand what that difference yeah so you're so so so so so if you delete the photos you delete the text messages it's on their server. And it's not. And so by them being able to hack, they can access whatever stuff you sent because it's still on the company server. Now, you mentioned VPN. Explain VPN. So perfect example. I'm in a hotel here in the Bay Area. And I know I was in and I've seen folk who use VPNs when they're accessing the internet. I remember I was in an Apple store, and I could tell this woman was in some form of security. She was getting her laptop, and they wanted to log on to the store's Wi-Fi.

And she said, absolutely not. And so she made them plug in with the Ethernet and use the VPN. So explain why. What does a VPN do? And is it a monthly cost? Where can you get a VPN? Explain that. Some VPNs do cost. And you can do a combination of VPNs that also have antivirus, that if anything is coming through, it can be scanned as it's happening. But yes, anything public, and this is something that is really important, it's not even a store, right? You go to Starbucks, you go to any place where they say free Wi-Fi, right? It's not that you can't use them. It's that you still need to have a service to protect yourself from that. Because if someone else is on that system, they have access to you too.

And it's because it's public. So if you don't have anything to protect your system, other people have access because it's a public system. All they have to do is log in. So, Shireen, explain how it works. access because it's a public system all they have to do is log in so so so so so so so so explain how it works so if i got a vpn and i'm somewhere and they got public wi-fi okay what how does that work okay what like what i do okay so what happens so for example i'm gonna make it simple so for example if i if i if i have a vpn on my web browser like when i'm looking at something

and i'm scrolling through something and i have a vpn my browser, like when I'm looking at something and I'm scrolling through something and I have a VPN, my VPN basically has a completely different IP address than my actual phone or my actual device. So even if someone discovers the IP or anything in between, they won't know or won't have access to my actual machine. It'll be a completely separate number that has no connection to my devices. That's what's different. If you keep it open and you have your original IP, that means that once you give your IP to that public service, they have your device IP. And you only have one IP for your device. if I come up with VPN numbers, I have different VPNs,

but they're connected to my device, but they're not actually my device VPN. Got it. All right. Questions from my panel. Reese, you first. Yeah. I mean,

if Signal and WhatsApp and all this stuff can't do that, why the hell can't the telecoms companies do that? Why we got to download a whole ass different app when they had the same technology? Like, what's going on? That's what I'm trying to understand. So, Recy, I totally get the question. But, like, for them, right, it's them using all of their servers. And it's not that they don't have the access to try to encrypt things. But the thing is, all of our data is on their servers.

Every one of us has a place on their servers. And if someone hacks one of their servers, has access to one of their servers, they have access to everyone on that server. So that's where the problem is. And I'm not trying to say that there's an easy answer to this, but it just simply is. As long as our data is going back and forth with that company, they only keep it on the server.

Now, sometimes they will delete it over time and they let you know that there's like 30 days they're going to delete this or delete that. You have no knowledge of that timeline, they do it when it happens and all that space in between so having a separate app ensures that no matter what they do no matter what their decisions are no matter who's working for them because sometimes those hackers are inside right no matter who's working for them you have a way to protect yourself and still be able to use the service because we can't provide our own services. I mean, if I can provide my own telecom service, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

I mean, it would be that simple. All right. Great. Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Ms. Mitchell. I greatly appreciate this. And thank, for asking that question about VPN. I didn't know what VPN was. Last year, we go to Egypt every year with folk to take a study abroad there, and I was advised to get a VPN, so I did, and it worked flawlessly. And I keep it on now. You know, I re-up to another year, keep it on all of my devices.

I guess my question is that having not had that kind of protection before, what, I mean, anytime that I've logged on publicly or, you know, that access, it goes back to whatever that is on my device, right? So it doesn't really matter how far back it goes, correct? And also, one other thing, of course, there's been all this noise about banning TikTok and things like that, particularly for young people. I don't think that's going to happen. But, you know, what is the real, what in your mind is the worst case scenario in terms of these data breaches? I think that I think that the worst case scenario for us as an individual or the government is what you're asking, Professor Carr.

I just want to make sure. Both. I mean, for us, I just assume we are here butt naked in these cyber streets with no protection. But I'm thinking generally about, you know, cyber warfare. I mean, you know, what in your mind, like, what is the extent of damage that could be done in this kind of wild west of cyberspace? So I think that there's twofold. Like, do you remember when D.C. had their, you know, certain agencies were hacked and like there's a question, right?

Remember that? Like even D.C DC had that happen, remember? That's the thing that we have to worry about. How much is that information that has been breached? Remember Equifax when Equifax got breached because they had this basic low-key, just had your information sitting there for anyone to grab on a text-based version of where your information was sitting? That is what we're dealing with. Because the hackers are just going to use whatever services that they can get to, to compile as much information about you to do whatever they can.

Some people, and I mean this sincerely, have had their banks hacked and lost thousands and thousands of dollars. Because once you compile a profile of a person, you can pretend to be that person because you have enough information to be able to do that. That's the personal part. The government part is the hard part

because the government part has more to do with anything that's supposed to be in play to protect us from cyber aspects, but also national security aspects. And if our national security is something that gets hacked, we have a fundamental flaw in our defense system. And that's the worst case scenario. And we've had conversations at different points where there was questions about, you know,

software updates that had, you know, embedded, you know, malware that was able to send information out from some government, you know, not laptops, but servers. And that's a problem. We need to be able to secure our content as our private content and the things that are, you know, afforded to us privately. But we have to also be able to be trusting our government that anything that the government is doing that should not be out there that is supposed to be protecting the American people is also being protected.

And those, if D.C. government can be hacked, right, California government, like, we fundamentally have a flaw in our system if we do not understand how to make sure that we're all being protected properly. Thank you. Lauren.

Okay, so last time I worked for the federal government, it was 2014. Every time we turned around, we were getting rumors that China was hacking the system that we were on. Now we're hearing years later that we have a problem again, not only with TikTok, but with this warning that we've just heard. And all my friends who are federal employees that go overseas are always told to leave their cell phones home,

and they're given another cell phone to travel overseas. Do you have the answer to what's up with TikTok? I'm just curious about TikTok. China always seems to be the answer to what's up with TikTok? I'm just curious about TikTok. China always seems to be the country that everybody's worried about. 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 one, two, 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate

choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from

Shinedown. 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. I was wondering if someone was going to ask that question, but yes, that's the main one. But I just want to make sure I don't want to let go what you just said. Some people do make that recommendation that, you know, you don't even take like even like take a tablet that you're not so concerned about that if it got lost or there's, you

know, there's not enough information about you on it, your phone, you know, take a basically a burner because if they, if it has enough information that that you may and you may not be able to protect yourself with your content and everything else at home. So I just want to make sure that that's actually true. And that's not just like, you know, a throwaway comment. Some people should be very cautious about that. But the TikTok thing is where some of this, I think, also comes from, because when we were allowing many of the other social media apps,

if you remember when we were having the fight with Facebook, now Meta, and how much Messenger, remember the Messenger argument? How much Messenger was gathering data, collecting content, remember that? That same argument went by the wayside. So TikTok is doing the same thing.

And what they're saying out loud is, well, we're okay with American companies doing it, but we are not okay with foreign companies doing that same thing. So for me, I always try to get people to understand if our data should not be used in any way for a foreign country, It should not be used in any way for any American foreign company. It should not be used any way for a American company either, because if they're manipulating the data and we all know we've had this conversation about what happened in the elections of 2016 and all that, you know, profiling that was done. We, you know, all the pushes about that, we're now only saying, well, this is bad now because it's a foreign company. If you're going to tell me it's bad for the foreign company, then it was bad for the American company. And let's do the due diligence on data protection

and data privacy across the board and not pick and choose when it's supposed to be important and when it's not supposed to be. But what they're saying about TikTok overall, just so that we're clear, is that TikTok is also, if you connect it to your contacts, right, if you connect it to any other parts of your phone, they're collecting that data too. They have access to that data as well. And that is the problem. So if you're going to be talking to the people you connected into TikTok, well, yeah, China's China is the company that is going to, you know, TikTok is the company that's connected to China that can get that information and see your messages at that point. So using the encryption says, okay, well, you know,

encrypted software says that, okay, they can't get the rest of those exchanges. They may have their names and phone numbers, which to me is still a problem, but the exchanges, the information, the content, the things you're sharing is not accessible for them. Now, they do have access to anything you put on TikTok, so let's just make sure that's clear. All your videos, all your drafts, all of that is still available to them. But anything you, anything you do, that's not on their service, they should not have access to. And once you start connecting them to different services, even some of the overlap between like, you know, I know Instagram and Facebook are still within the same company, but once you start connecting to LinkedIn and log in from the same services, you're connecting all that content to a central location for them to get access to as well. Thank you.

All right. Shereen, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having me, as always. I definitely appreciate it. Anytime. All right, folks. Going to a break. We come back.

Congressman Jasmine Crockett, we're always talking about the census and why it matters, but we also try to explain to y'all why who controls the state legislature also matters. Wait until you hear what she has to say, how they

in Texas, how they, hmm, let's just say use the numbers of people of color to put more white Republicans in Congress. Folks, support Roland Martin Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. If you want to give via Cash App, I know they make it so much harder now. Cash App got rid of all of our accounts because they changed their rules. But our way around it is if you use this QR code, the app Stripe, you can still contribute to us via Cash App. So just use this QR code, click the Cash App pay button to contribute.

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We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million

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and be you without limits. On a next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking all things mental health and how helping others can help you. We all have moments where we have struggles and on this week's show, our guests demonstrate how helping others can also help you. Why you should never stop giving and serving others on a next, a balanced life here on Blackstar Network. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Good morning and happy 118th Founders Day to the Ice Cold Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. This is Governor Wes Moore, and I'm honored to celebrate this special day with each of you.

Alpha has long been a guiding light in the fight for justice and freedom in our country, and no matter the challenge, whether we find ourselves in the fell clutch of circumstance, under the bludgeonings of chance, we have not winced nor cried aloud. Alpha men have always stepped up to the moment, and today we celebrate our beloved jewels. To the brothers of the mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty MAC, thank you. Thanks for your leadership and service in honor of our jewels, our ritual and the banner of Alpha Phi Alpha.

Your work continues to make Maryland a better state. Happy 118 Founders Day, y'all. Well, today on Capitol Hill, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett broke down how white Republicans in Texas took advantage of population growth by black and brown people to guess what? Increase their power in Congress. Watch this. It is interesting that we're having this hearing.

And I know one thing that I have learned so far is that while freshman orientation just ended, we need a course on what the census is for because we have people sitting in Congress and have no idea what the census is for. And so I do appreciate that you have talked about what the funding is for. But it seems like my colleagues really want to zero in on southern states. So let's talk about Texas for a second and let's deal with them and their concerns about their districts. And let's also talk about the citizen situation. So I don't know how much you've paid attention to the election, but we do have an incoming administration, and we have a border czar who has said that they are going to deport everyone

that is here and is not a citizen. They are planning to do mass deportations. In fact, in the state of Texas, our commissioner has offered up land so that they can put these camps there and send people out of our country. Now, if you start asking people, are you a citizen or not, and they're living in a home and somebody's threatening to go in and raid homes and take everybody out and send them back to wherever they came from, I mean, I would imagine that that may make people say, never mind, I'm not going to fill this out. But, I mean, has that been your finding or no?

We have conducted research that shows that there can be selective inclusion of individuals who reside in a residence because of— Exactly. Because you've got the federal government that is asking this question, and it's the same federal government that is threatening to go and yank people out of their schools, their homes, and things like that. And then we just had a conversation

where we were talking about how many voters. Listen, when you're counting people, you're not just counting voters. You count children, don't you? Correct. You count a lot of people that aren't necessarily voters. And I want to make sure

that we really get to the nitty gritty on Texas, because this is hilarious to me. Texas added two seats. In 2020, according to the census, and we know that there was a significant undercount, specifically in Texas, for a combination of reasons. But we know that specifically Texas added four million people. Of those 4 million people, do you want to take a guess at how many were Anglos? Just a guess. I'd say a majority. 180,000. That's it, of 4 million. 95% of the people that were added. And we know that when

it comes to minority populations, they tend to be undercounted. So get this. We added 4 million people. They were people of color. Texas got two new seats. So they took those black and brown and Asian bodies, and guess what? Do you think that we got a new black, brown, or Asian seat? Somehow, the way that they do their Republican math in the state of Texas,

that amounted to two new white seats. Guess what? White Republican seats. We got two new Republican seats out of four million people of color. So let me tell you, they love to use our bodies to apportion us in an inaccurate way, all right? So when we talk about our districts, I also want to talk about something that Texas is taking advantage of that I've worked on a lot. In fact, I did legislation on. It is called prison gerrymandering. I don't know if you are familiar with it. I'm familiar. But here is the reality. The numbers show that in rural Texas, they were constantly bleeding population. Urban Texas was growing exponentially. But what they do is they count inmates where they are imprisoned instead of counting them where it is that they will return to.

So their family members that are in Dallas, Texas or Houston or wherever, their family members, when they need wherever, they're family members when they need something, they call us, even if it's relating to that inmate. But somehow rural Texas is getting better roads than they probably deserve because they're counting those inmates that are not driving on those roads. They're counting those inmates that are not using their hospitals. They're counting those inmates whose children are not attending their schools because of prison gerrymandering. So again, Republicans are really good about using black and brown bodies because I can also tell you that the numbers are clear that we have a black

and brown incarceration issue, not just in Texas, but in this country. And in fact, the state of Texas incarcerates more people than any other independent democratic country. That is how bad our incarceration is just in the state of Texas. And I've got so many great colleagues on this committee that actually benefit from being able to do things like that. So listen, this is about resources.

It's about putting the resources where the people are. And I am curious to know, for whoever goes next, do you ask your constituents when they call your office, are you a citizen or not? Because at the end of the day, I have to handle immigration cases as well in my office. We are elected to represent the people regardless of their citizenship, and we have to help them because they reside in our districts. Thank you, and I'll yield. So I'm glad there, Recy, Congresswoman Crockett talked about the census, how critically important that is when it comes to accounting.

But here's also something that people need to understand. So the CBC fought for additional money to be put into the budget for media to try to discount many African-Americans as possible. What then happened was the white ad agency that got the contract decided oh we're going to create our own rules steve congressman steven horsford was the and he was on the show uh when this happened he was these he was the cbc's census task force leader when he met with the agencies they literally said oh we're not going to buy any newspapers, the circulation 50,000 and under. The whole point is for you to reach as many people as possible.

I had to call. So we filled out. We filled out the information in the portal, which they said to go through, did not hear from them for four to six months. I started calling them out on social media and on the show. Then all of a sudden, they called the black ad agency, Carol H. Williams, who they also were freezing out of the process because they didn't want her to make a lot of money from their fee from this year. What should we do? She's like, I advise y'all to cut a check.

So the only reason we got $250,000 in advertising was because of the pressure put on. So I need black people to understand that, again, mainstream white media got millions of dollars from census money that the CBC put in specifically for black folks to get. And then on the political side, white Republicans, what they do is, oh, population increases? Yeah, we're going to create more opportunities for white Republicans. I'm saying all of this because in five years, it's going to be another census. And let me tell you, whoever's in the White House in 2028 is going to be dictating how the census goes. So people need to understand that that whoever's in power in 28 will control the 2030 census. And that's going to have an impact for the next decade about political representation. And oh, by the way, if you lose population, because we saw it last time,

and it's projected that blue states are going to lose 12 electoral college votes, California, Illinois, New York, I think Michigan or Wisconsin. Don't be surprised if Republicans in Nebraska get rid of that one blue delegate. And so that's going to be 12. So you need 270. So that means Democrats are going to have to go get 12 elsewhere. And those 12 are likely going to go to red states because of population shift. Recy? This is why the deck is so stacked. And this is why we continue to come up short because they're playing 10

dimensional chess challenge. We still at checkers. so yeah, when we continue to, even when Democrats are in charge, have white overseers of the money who devalue black institutions, black media, et cetera, and even some Black overseers devalue that as well, then we're going to continue to come up short.

And then on the other hand, you have Republicans who leave no stone unturned. We looked at some of the maps in Democratic-led states, and they were atrocious. They didn't run the board up, run the numbers up in the congressional districts like the Republicans did in their states. And so this is a multi-pronged issue. It goes to the lack of trust in the government in terms of the census and things like that. And it just goes back to how Republicans are willing to exploit any and every angle that they can. So I'm afraid that it's not going to be a rosy picture unless there is a fundamental and radical and drastic shift in the way that information is

funded in this country. And it's funded in ways that amplify and uplift black media. And don't talk about, well, you know, y'all don't have 30 million subscribers compared to call her daddy or Joe Rogan or whatever the fuck. When those people get $100 million contracts and we get the little peanuts left over, yeah, we don't have the impact or we don't get the investment. And so it starts now, yesterday, should have started 10 years ago, and it's going to be cumulative. But I just don't see that any of those steps are being taken. I don't see that anybody is taking this seriously beyond people in the CBC. And so I don't know.

I don't have the answers. This to me, Lauren, is an example, again, of how people need to understand how politics is connected. Census is tied to apportionment, tied to redistricting, which is tied to who controls state legislatures. So we cannot sit elections out because all of this stuff is interconnected. It is interconnected, but I think we're quickly arriving to a point where there does have to be a discussion, almost like an ultimatum, about what the demand is collectively in the Black community and how to get that through political leverage, which requires usually some sort of demand that comes along with some sort of a threat, quite frankly.

And we don't leverage money particularly well, but we do leverage votes. And this system, you know, when you're 14 percent of the population, it's a difficult hall. But for the Democratic Party, we represent more power than just 14 percent. But it's not leveraged correctly. It's clearly not leveraged correctly. And in fact, we're being leveraged because others have money to leverage us and leverage our representatives and our elected officials to do certain things that are not particularly good for the community. And until that's figured

out, all of these other things are going to be made much more difficult, whether it's the census or anything else. Right. I agree. There are 14 states that have ended prison gerrymandering. It's good to hear Representative Crockett bring that up. The news came out of the EU. Today is Thursday, so maybe it was Tuesday. Talking about the decrease, the continuing decrease in population there, their numbers are now close to mirroring

the numbers here in the United States. What they didn't report, of course, was the disaggregation by race and ethnicity. You continue to see people immigrating to the countries of the European Union. In fact, one of the recommendations coming out of the report was that they increase immigration. This country will continue on its path of de-whitening. These people who are going to be rounded up by these fascists in a few months and given the middle finger to Donald Trump in recent weeks in terms of, because in order to send people out of the country, you got to have someplace to send them to that have agreed to take them. And Mexico is saying that that's not going to happen. So where do they end up? They end up in hillbilly heaven in these damn dust-ass towns where their bodies can be used, as Representative Crockett said, to prop up

the dying white majority in this country. So, yeah, this time bomb called United States of America continues to tick, except it's getting louder now. It's louder than at any time prior to the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. Now, as Malcolm X said, finally, and here we are on the birthday of Robert Mangaliso Subukwe, the great Pan-Africanist and leader of one of the leaders of South African struggle. Malcolm said, as long as you have the ingredients for an explosion, you have the potential for explosion on your hands. This country has made full scale step now to become an apartheid state in a way we've never seen, because white people understand from Steve Bannon to Elon Musk that they're about to be a minority. That doesn't mean that they will be in power.

What it means, however, is that there will be a confrontation now that won't take place at the ballot box, won't take place in the courtroom, even as we see the assassination in broad daylight of the guy who was over the largest public, I'm sorry, the largest private healthcare company in the country, that confrontation is going to take place in the street. And they're not built like that. They're not built for that. Alright, folks, going to go to a quick break.

We come back. I just got to let y'all tee off on all these white folks talking about how dare they don't vote for Peter Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense because he's more qualified than the current Secretary of Defense. Really? Really? Yeah. We got something to say about that when We come right back. Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape.

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subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 All right, folks. So all of these Republicans, especially these nutcases at Fox News, they are saying how dare these Republicans speak out against Peter Hexeth to be Secretary of Defense. And they're saying that the current Secretary of State, the Hexeth, is far more qualified. Hexeth even posted a tweet saying, you know, we need to have a secretary of defense who's been in battle, who's had bullets whizzing by. Chuck Hagel, he knows that experience.

Lloyd Austin, he knows that experience. In fact, all these people assume, I love how they want to denigrate Lloyd Austin. So, just so y'all know, Lloyd Austin served in the military from 1975 to 2016. He's a retired

four-star general in the United States Army. He finished from the United States Military Academy, Auburn University, Webster University, native Mobile, Alabama. Okay, let's see here. He's commanded the United States Central Command. He's been Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

Hmm. Forces in Iraq, Multinational Corps in Iraq, Airborne Corps, 10th Mountain Division, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Wars he's been in, war in Afghanistan,

Iraq War, Operation Inherent Resolve. Huh. If we pull up the list of awards, Defense Distinguished Service Medal with four bronze Oak Cliff clusters. Army Distinguished Service Medal. The Silver Star. Defense Superior Service Medal. Legion of Merit. Defense Meritorious Service Medal. Meritorious Service Medal. Joint Service Commendation Medal. Army Commendation Medal. Army Achievement Medal. Army Presidential Unit Citation. Joint Meritorious Unit Award. Secretariat's Distinguished Service Award, Department of State, National Defense Service Award, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Service Rib ribbon, and on and on. When these white folk actually read Peter Hegseth's bio, he literally can't even carry Lloyd Austin's briefcase. These white folks crack me up, Lauren, with

a nonsense. How like Will Kane, Will Kane out here defending his boy Peter Hegseth for, you know, all these Republicans voted for Lloyd Austin for Secretary of State. How dare they oppose Peter Hegseth? Player, you can't even compare

Hegseth to Lloyd can't even compare Hegseth to Lloyd Austin's record again Austin retired four star general the highest you can go Hegseth he ain't even got a star

I wish these folks go sit they punk asses down Lauren yeah part of the result of President Obama is this sort of fantasy land that the conservatives, some of the conservatives have created for themselves. And I thought it really started with Breitbart, which was taken over by Steve Bannon when Breitbart had a heart attack. You know, this idea that reality isn't reality. They need that. They need to hang on to that. Because, in fact, the reality of it is there's plenty of qualified black folks in the military,

obviously Lloyd Austin being one of them as a four star. And so when you put up some Fox News host as your nominee for secretary of defense, and his resume is thin. And then you find out that this guy sounds as if, to me, he's an alcoholic from what the reporting is revealing. And you have a woman who reported a sexual assault, a rape to the police, which was in fact not adjudicated. The police did not continue with her allegation, but still, this is your nominee. And then, you know, you have to live in a fantasy world to think that that type of nominee with those types of issues is somehow superior to somebody like Lloyd Austin. Living in the fantasy is the only way that you can continue this bizarre, crazy notion that you're superior. I mean, that's all

they've got. And so that's what this is, in my view. It's a sad, sad state of affairs. It is just hilarious to listen, watch these people reesey uh tout a mediocre a mediocre white man who and then tommy tubberville goes well i don't think it's the job of the republicans to vet the candidates democrats should do that punk ass that's your job of a u.S. Senator to advise and consent. These people are a joke. They do not mind. They love touting mediocrity when it comes to white folks, but they want to call anybody black dumb,

ignorant, and a D.I. hire. Well, it's the white math. The white math puts a deviant, degenerate, incompetent, stupid motherfucker who has all kind of uh out of wedlock babies multiple marriages ain't been able to keep his dick in his pants not even one time he was married okay a person who can't even manage a slush fund with 10 measly ass employees a person

who could not manage the funds he can't manage manage his alcohol intake, can't manage his personal conduct, who had to have his mama, like a little bitch, sit up there and go on TV and defend him. Imagine Lloyd Austin, grown big ass, calling in his mama to make calls on his defense. And Peter Hexeth, who got dogged out by his mama for being what she said was womanizing an abuser now she coming back in reverse of course calling him a patriot it must be the white man that in your mind allows you to think there's any kind of equivalence that they're

even in the same realm they wouldn't be allowed in the same rooms, skiffs or otherwise. Not the same chow lines. Nothing. But it's the disease and derangement of whiteness that gives people the audacity to utter Lloyd Austin's name in the same breath as that deviant and incompetent loser, Peter Hegseth. There's absolutely no reason why that man should be confirmed if they even get to a confirmation process. And we know these hoes ain't loyal to Donald Trump when it comes to people. He already shopping around for a new defense secretary. So all this groveling and all of this cover that these Republicans are giving

Peter Hegseth or Pete, I don't even know if his name is Pete. I'm going to call him Peter because he seemed like a little Peter. All of this cover that I've given him is just an embarrassment to them. But these people have no damn shame. They are part of the coat at Trump and he has all these people by the

balls. The only person that might tank him is Joni Ernst because she has her eyes on the gig. And so maybe she might whisper in a little couple ears and she might say, let's not pick him. Pick me instead. Maybe that'll happen. But if it relies on the dignity and the self-awareness of Peter Heggs to step aside, which surprisingly Matt Gaetz had, then we in deep trouble. But don't ever, ever, ever in your life put Lloyd Austin, who has impeccably rammed the Department of Defense.

We can see his record now, having run the Department of Defense for the past four years. Don't put him in the same sentence as Peter Higgs. That is ridiculous. I get a crack out of the fact that, Greg, let's see here. Last four years, hmm, ain't been no cabinet scandals. You ever had people have to resign in disgrace, didn't have to be fired, none of that sort of stuff.

But, hey, these little MAGA trolls, they say, oh, we want that back. But, hey, these little magnet trolls, they said, oh, we want that back. Oh, so they want that chaos. But the sheer incompetence of Peter Hegg said, yeah, when your mama wrote the letter to you and she made it, got published, your mama wrote it. We ain't say it.

Your mama said you were abusive to women. Man, I don't want to hear that little nonsense. And so, the boys cooked and here's the... Will Kane, let's be real. Will, I destroyed you so many times at CNN. Come on. Peter Hegg said is as

accomplished at running the Department of Defense as you were at being on ESPN. You had no business talking sports on ESPN. You had no credentials to be on ESPN. And that was a joke. You know it. We all know it.

You got to hook up. We know why you got to hook up. So can we please stop? That boy ain't got no business being near Secretary of Defense. And these people look like fools trying to strain themselves. They're going to pull all kind of muscles, try to convince people that he can actually run the department. Shut the hell up. Well, help me, because I thought maybe I saw yesterday that, uh,

a day before, was it Stephen A. Smith that said that Trump should get a pardon? I just, I thought. Oh yeah, I gripped that. He was on with, he was, he was on with Chris Cuomo. And Cuomo said, hey, you might disagree with this, but I think, I think that Biden should pardon Trump. And Stephen A. agreed. I said, both y'all crazy. I said, hell no, he don't deserve should pardon Trump. And Stephen A. agreed. I said, both of y'all are crazy. I said, hell no, he don't deserve no damn Trump. I mean, he don't deserve no damn pardon.

And I'm like, I'm not all is all. We need to end all of this, move on. Then you got John Fetterman sitting there talking about, yeah, Trump needs to be pardoned for his case in New York. Hey, Fetterman, dumbass, that's a state case. And Governor Kathy Hochul, hell no, he don't deserve no pardon. I'm so sick of these people

so damn scared. Greg, go on. Well, no, I mean, I agree with you, but I mean, now one thing I will say that Fetterman, Cuomo, Stephen A. Smith have in common in this regard. And I'll just detour for a moment.

Whoever thought I'd be quoting LeVar Ball, who said, Jason Whitlock, that the only thing he should comment on is snacks. The only thing that Stephen A. Smith should comment on, the only thing that Stephen A. Smith should comment on is ball. Talk about ball chasing, man. Don't stray your vocabulary, abusive vocabulary. You commit so many crimes with the vocabulary. You should save all that for ball playing. Don't get into politics, man. But the thing that they have in common is they seem to think we live in a nation. This is the fundamental mistake. I'm going to tell you who else got mad at

the idea that Hexeth would be abandoned. Steve Bannon, yesterday, from his row house in the shadow of Capitol Hill, on his War Room podcast, mad as hell at Trump and him, saying, Mar-a-Lago needs to get its act together. Do not abandon. And I don't know whether it's Peter or Pete either, Recy, but he said Pete. He said, don't abandon Pete. Don't abandon Pete. Because, and this is the fundamental issue, abusing women, sexual assault, complete and thorough incompetence, alcoholism, these are not detriments. They are qualifications. The objective that Bannon has is to destroy the government. So as we talk about the idea that there are standards or that there's some notion of national unity, whether it be John Fetterman or Stephen A. Smith, whether it be Andrew Cuomo or whoever else, Biden should pardon Trump, you're thinking about this like you're trying to preserve something that doesn't exist. Just like the deficits that are going to explode when Republicans give all this money to their billionaire friends and then the Democrats get back in office and try to fix it. You're trying to fix something. You're moving against a force that does not want it to be fixed.

Steve Bannon, finally, is angry because these nominations are for people who will literally, if you can't destroy the Department of Education, you put WWF slap wrestler in to starve it to death, to take away its staff. If you can't destroy the folks over, whether it be the Department of Commerce or whether it be the folks who are going to control Bitcoin, the news breaking now that they're going to not have Bitcoin be regulated at all. They want the chaos because the chaos will allow them to steal with impunity. So Pete Hegseth may or may not get put out.

If he gets put out and they pull DeSantis in, as Rebecca was talking about last night, right there in the studio, we need to have a strategy for thinking about who we're going to fight to put into governorship in a few years in Florida. I don't know whether any of the men serving in the starting five will be picked. I understand Wesley Hunt is on the short list. Bruh, you're a black man in the Republican Party. You're not going to be the secretary of anything, perhaps the secretary of the janitorial crew, perhaps in the Pentagon. Wesley Hunt?

The point is that these people want the chaos. That is the objective. They want to employ the thing from the inside, and then they get to do whatever the hell they want. So I think we're reading it wrong when we start talking about qualifications because the cruelty, as Adam Serwer said, is the point. The disqualifying things are qualifying things in

this bizarro strategy. Well, we know how crazy deranged they are, but what y'all not gonna do, you ain't gonna impugn the integrity and the qualifications of this brilliant black man for that idiot.

But also, don't you love the Republicans who talk about the elitist, the elitist, the elitist, the Ivan Leeds, but they keep saying he's a Harvard educator, Harvard educator. They crack me up with that nonsense as well. Now, Peter, go on back, go on back with your four, five wives, Go on back with your four, five wives. Go on back with your drinking.

Because guess what? You ain't going to be Secretary of Defense. And Will Kane, you're embarrassing yourself riding for your boy. But it ain't going to happen. Just letting y'all know, it ain't going to happen. Lauren, Reesey, Greg, I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, y'all, I'm here to speak tomorrow at the Private Memorial Service with Frankie Beverly.

Tomorrow would have been his 78th birthday, but right now I'm here to go see. See, just my luck. I come to the Bay Area. I hit some friends. They say, hey, we got an extra ticket to the Warriors games, and they happen to be playing my Houston Rockets.

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