#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Racism in the Kansas City Police Department: Addressing the Black and Blue Divide Town Hall

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

5.12.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Racism in the Kansas City Police Department: Addressing the Black and Blue Divide Town Hall Roland Martin Unfiltered is LIVE  from Kansas City, Missouri, at the Robert J. Mohart Center  Tonight, we have a town hall sponsored by The Urban League of Greater Kansas City. And we are talking about Racism in the Kansas City Police Department: Addressing the Black and Blue Divide. We have folks from this community here to talk about the discrimination issues within the Kansas City Police Department. Just yesterday, two black female officers filed a lawsuit against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners for discrimination against their race and gender. We'll also discuss why there is a push for a Department of Justice Investigation and a need for local control.We aren't here just to talk about the problems.  We want to find the solutions for reimagining public safety and building community trust. We have a lot to unpack and discuss tonight, live from Robert J. Mohart Center here in Kansas City, Missouri. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, folks. It is Thursday, May 12, 2022. We're here in Kansas City, Missouri, to talk about racism in the Kansas City Police Department. We're going to have a deep conversation over the next two hours talking about what is happening in the Kansas City Police Department. We're going to have a deep conversation over the next two hours talking about what is happening in the city, why city leaders are not doing enough to deal with the racism within the department, but also how African Americans are being impacted in this community. We look forward to a great conversation with numerous panelists. And we also, of course, have our normal Thursday panel as well.

And, of course, we're doing this in partnership with the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark, unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

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

Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Roland Martin. Martin! Martin! It was on April 18th when the Kansas City Star published a damning story talking about how black officers are treated inside of the Kansas City Police Department. But not only did that story focus on that, we also talked on the show with the Urban League about how African Americans are being treated by this police department. So one of the things that I said was I said I will commit to coming here to hold a citywide town hall to not

just talk about the problem, but also talk about what this community can do to actually change what is going on in this city and also to reach state leaders to change how they are allowing the governance of this police department. It makes no sense. I've covered many stores all across the country, and I can't recall anywhere else in America where a governor appoints a board that oversees a police department and the taxpayers are paying for a police department, but they have no say over how they operate. And so we want to come here and talk about this important issue. And we have a number of people we have lined up. And just so people understand how significant it is, just yesterday, two sisters filed a lawsuit against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners for discrimination

for race and gender. In addition to that, we'll also get into how the Kansas City Police Department allowed a white police officer to terrorize, brutalize, torture, rape, and some say murder countless black women and nothing was ever done. So the question is what is happening in Kansas City and why aren't more Democrats and Republicans saying anything about fixing this problem. So there's a whole lot to unpack here, folks. We're at the Robert Mohart Center here in Kansas City. Folks still are arriving, and so we certainly appreciate all the folks who are already here.

Let me do this here. Let's introduce our panel. Gwendolyn Grant, she's the president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. Tim, is it Gradine? Okay, he is the retired Kansas City Police Department police officer. Laura McDonald is executive director for MORE2. Ryan Sorrell is founder and editor of the Kansas City Defender. And listed as a panelist is Glenn Rice, reporter for the Kansas City Star.

If Glenn is here, let me know. I've known Glenn for years through the National Association of Black Journalists, and so look forward to chatting with him as well. So let's get started because for a lot of people around the country, they know about what's happening in their particular city. We've seen stories done about other police departments, the Department of Justice doing patterns and practices investigation. particular city. We've seen other, we've seen stories done about other police departments, the Department of Justice doing patterns and practices investigation. But Gwendolyn, what we talked about was beyond shocking with what's happening here. And I happen to also be talking, and once I told some fellow journalists and some others that I would be coming here,

Bakari Sellers, Attorney Bakari Sellers, told me about this case that he is involved with, this police officer who was accused of murdering 10 black women. And I've seen and I'll read some of the depositions in a little bit. And it lays out how numerous people complained to this police department and literally nothing was done about this officer. So just explain for the folks who are watching, who are unfamiliar with how systemic and how deep of a problem it is with this police department. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me on your show a while back and then showing up when we called.

We really appreciate you and your team for that. And thank you all for joining us this evening. I believe when you're talking about the officer, I believe you're referencing Officer Galupski, who is with the KCK Police Department. But I mean, that's highly relevant and important because here we have in the Twin City or the bi-state area two police departments that are problematic for our people. It's unconscionable that Officer Golubski is still walking the streets free. in the past three years, since we started looking at the problem here in Kansas City, in 2019, KCPD has killed three unarmed black men. They're averaging, you know, in 2019, they killed two. They followed in early 2020, killing Donnie Sanders. We have Noreen Stokes here. They killed her son back in 2017, 2013, all with impunity. We just were able to

get one conviction for the officer who murdered Cameron Lamb in December of 2019. And so we are a city or a community, as far as I'm concerned, under siege because we have over-policing in the black community, no redress. That's why we asked for an investigation by the Department of Justice to come in and look at patterns and practices of discrimination, both inside KCPD against black officers and in our community where they racially profile us, they abuse our women. we have an officer on the force who through who slammed a nine-month pregnant woman on the ground on her stomach and put his knee in her back nothing was done I'm sorry I kind of went on a little so

that right there so let me shut up turn it back. Remember, I own my show, so we're fine. Yeah, okay, so that... But that just gives you an example of the challenges we have. And we have here in the audience tonight, we have family members who are the victims of police homicides, and we have people from our community, the founder of our Urban Summit, and two folks who have been out in the community protesting for the past two years straight every Friday in front of the police department, amplifying our concerns about the injustices that are dealt upon our community by Kansas City Police and having a board of police commissioners that turns a deaf ear to our complaints. So we're ready to engage with you.

Tim, nearly 20 black cops have left the department citing racism. From your perspective, does this department care? Have they put anything in place to listen to their concerns? I mean, that's a heck of a number for, you know, 18 cops to say, you know what, I'm out of here because, look, we're supposed to be all blue, but in fact, we're black. The sad reality is that this department, just like they said, the Board of Police Commissioners, they're complicit where they don't overlook the police department and judge objectively. They're not doing what they were created to do. And so who's running the police

department is middle management. And over the past five years, I've been going to board of police commissioners meetings from the first time when they hired Chief Smith. He and I went through the academy together. I approached the board and said, come talk to us as police officers. Some of these officers don't feel comfortable talking openly about their oppressors in the presence of their oppressors. Doesn't happen because there will be consequences about answering calls. So you have the chief up here, but the white male majority in the middle are implementing their own policies, dictating policies, they're benefiting off of it because they're getting training and take-home cars and they're using this to go somewhere else and become a chief of

police and they don't care about minorities. And so we could further my conversation because I was terminated and there's other officers or supervisors or commanders, white male commanders, that have done far worse things and they keep their jobs. And so nothing's done. So I approached the board five years ago when they hired Chief Smith and said, come talk to us. It didn't happen. I did it when we got Mayor Lucas back in 2019. It didn't happen. I did it last May when we got Bishop Tolbert. It didn't happen. And the people you're naming are hands of the board. Yes, these are board of commissioners.

I'm coming to the board saying, come talk to us. We want to talk to you privately about things we cannot discuss in public because I don't want the officers that I've trained and led for years to be treated badly. So you requested for the chair of the board to have these off the record or off-site conversations, and in each case, they refused to do so? Correct. No effort made? None. My last stance was on February 25th when they retired me, and I've been waiting 60 days, probably almost 90 days now, for response because it's important that you guys know what it takes to run a police department and what we're looking for in a chief. Nothing will change. I don't care who you can get

the pope here. If the system isn't changed, then you're going to have the same old thing. And women, it's the same thing from the 60s. Women, unless you're connected to someone, minorities and our civilian staff members, they don't have a voice. They're overlooked and they're taken advantage of by the majority, the middle management. Commanders. Laura, what I'm not understanding here is how in the world can folk sitting out here pay taxes for something that they literally have no control over? Correct. Seriously, I can't think of any other place where that actually happens. Yeah.

How? How? How did that happen? We have, as far as I know, it's not just the only police department in the nation, but the only city-governed department that has not governance over its own department, right? It's really unusual. There's no department in any city government that I've known of in the whole nation that's controlled by the governor appointing a board to it. So here in Missouri, the governor appoints, and how many people are on this board?

Four, four. And I'd love to share with you their demographics. The governor appoints four, and then the fifth is occupied by the mayor. And so we looked at over my organization was birthed in 2004, so we looked at that amount of history. And 18 people have been appointed, Mr. Martin, in that amount of time. And 10 of them have been white males. Four have been white female. Three have been black male and black men, and one Latino. No women of color, no women of color in 18 years on that board. And for people who live in this community,

even more egregious, 10 people, 10 of those board of police commissioners have resided in the neighborhood of the Plaza in Brookside, which we all know, you may not, is a very white, predominantly white, affluent neighborhood of our city. So there are entire regions of this community entirely unrepresented by, whether it's a Democrat or governor, entirely unrepresented on that board. And what I would suggest is the neighborhoods where people are protected and served by police predominantly are represented and the police the neighborhoods where people are heavily policed are entirely unrepresented and there's never been there's never two black people on the

board at once except the seat occupied by the mayor and then the one appointee. So the mayor is a part of this? The mayor occupies, you know, they get one out of five votes. So we elect a mayor and they get one seat and then we don't elect any of the other people that occupy what we cheekingly call the board of police cheerleaders. So you have a... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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Unelected. That has complete control over all police matters in this city. And appointed by a governor we don't elect. So they have no accountability to us, and quite often they're political donors. That's how they get the attention of the governor. When it comes to this arrangement, has this mayor or previous mayors objected to this arrangement? Yes, sir. This is a really unusual scenario. When the city relinquished control, if you will, they actually, it was very short-sighted. They didn't look for a way to take it back if we were ready, right?

So at one point, so the city relinquished control? The city voluntarily relinquished control in the 1930s. Yeah, but there's no history to that. Yeah, after a corrupt scandal that was occurring, right, with a political mob boss in Kansas City. So we gave over control to the state, but it was so short-sighted, it requires a state law and a city ordinance to regain control. So we've been scrapping for that for years now. And the state legislature has had no desire. Well, Missouri's state legislature can be difficult around things like policing and law enforcement, for sure.

There's some members that are growing in interest of supporting. So let's talk about this current board. Ryan, the chair, board, you have a pastor, no law enforcement background, correct? Correct. Any public safety expertise? No. So how is he or any other members qualified to govern a police department with literally no expertise whatsoever in doing so? I think that's a good question and for me personally I tend to not even look at who is governing the police department. I look at the police department as an institution. I look at it historically

what has it been doing to our community as an institution and so when we're talking about what has the Kansas City Police Department done to the black people in Kansas City historically, the question for me is, have they ever served a purpose of justice? And so the Kansas City Police Department this year is 148 years old. And just last year was the very first time ever in our entire history, 148 year history of the Kansas City Police Department that a police officer was ever indicted for murdering a black person. And so to me, that seems like a police department that operates much more like a criminal terrorist organization, quite

honestly, than it does anything that is actually providing justice to our people, providing public safety for our people. And another thing that I quite frequently like to tell people is that the Kansas City Police Department receives tens of millions more dollars than every single Kansas City public school combined. And so every single Kansas City public school combined receives less money than the Kansas City Police Department. And so when we talk about what is in our control, are we able to take action on? What kind of initiatives are we able to initiate? To me, I think what is in our control? What are we able to take action on? What kind of initiatives are we able to initiate? To me, I think what is in our control oftentimes is things like voting for the city

budget and not voting for increasing the police budget, because we know once again that the police historically have not kept us safe. And the very last thing to me that seems very illogical oftentimes with when we talk about the police is that for instance when we're talking about non-profits when we're talking about new programs within non-profits we always have to provide all this documentation these statistics this data saying these things specifically work these these initiatives these programs work but whenever we're talking about the police department it seems like regardless of how horrifically they do their job, no matter how many people they kill, no matter how many people they murder, we still oftentimes say, well, our cities are unsafe and we need to

give the police more money. And so to me, that's what's in our control. And I think that that's often where I try to talk about the conversation. When we when we look at you mentioned the budget, mentioned that. What has been the response of the city council? Because at the end of the day, if you control the purse strings, you actually have the power. So have they had shown any guts whatsoever to say, you know what, unless we get these changes, we are going to hold back the money? No, no, and no.

Well, let me take it back. They got some guts last year, and they passed an ordinance to only provide the... to hold back about $30 million of that budget from the police department, which basically is to only fund the department at the level that is mandated by the state. So they did that. Then the Board of Police Commissioners filed a suit. The judge ruled in. Then the Board of Police Commissioners filed a suit. The

judge ruled in favor of the Board of Police Commissioners that they did not have the authority to withdraw that money or to hold it after the budget had been allocated. However, the judge did say that in the next budget cycle, you do have the freedom to provide only the mandated 25%. So our mayor and our city council didn't do that. They were given the power and the authority to do it. What they did was pass an ordinance to give them the same amount of money they've been giving them after having filed that lawsuit. We didn't understand it. We spoke up strongly against it.

And then less than two weeks after they did that, the outgoing police chief said that they were not going to spend money to, or they were going to shut down an investigative unit. After the police, after the city gives them all this money, and with no control over it. Once they pass that budget and give it to the police department, I mean, they have no other say so. The only power they have is the power of the purse, and they won't exercise that power.

Which sounds crazy to me. I mean, it's sort of like when I'm looking at Congress. I mean, when Congress withholds money, that's how you get folks' attention. And so, I mean, to me, that's absolutely weak leadership there. Who on the city council is an ally? And first of all, how many council members are there? Twelve. Twelve. We have six districts, two council members per district.

So we have twelve. Twelve. Twelve council members, one in district and one at large in six districts, and the mayor. The mayor is the deciding vote. So of the 12, how many are allies in trying to seek these changes, or is this go along to get along? That's a good question. One of our allies unfortunately couldn't be here this evening Originally was going to be here But she's ill this evening

Councilwoman Melissa Robinson Has been steadfast in support of our community And a strong voice on that council There are other council members who support the effort Actually nine council members voted with the mayor When he withheld the funds back last year So nine council members voted to the mayor when he withheld the funds back last year. So nine council members voted to withhold the funds? Last year.

And then when they had an opportunity to actually do something to make a difference, they didn't do it? They didn't do it. So what the hell was that for? For show? Good question. Go ahead. There was an insane amount of political backlash after they did that. I think the media took the narrative in a very white direction and very police-friendly direction. And at the end of the day, they all

lost their courage. I mean, that's how we see it, right? They lost the courage that they exercised for a fleeting moment we were so excited about. And if I could just quickly add, when we talk once again, just like about statistics and data, to me, it's just very important when we're having this conversation because we're advocating to remove the money, this over bloated police budget that they have, that certainly has not provided any justice or safety for our communities. We're advocating for reallocating that to other areas of what we call public safety. Right now, we say the police department has a monopoly on the funds that currently go to public safety when public safety should also include things like housing. It should include mental health. It should include health care facilities. And so another, once again,

we talk about data and statistics. Between the years of 2012 and 2018 we increased the Kansas City Police Department budget by 24 percent and in that same period of time the violent crime rate increased 47 percent and so to me that that tells us to me that tells us one of two things either not only does increasing the police budget not work but there's also a possibility that increasing the police budget actually has a positive correlation to increasing violent crime rates. And so I think that there's just a lot of issues when we talk about the policing budget. I think that it's something that we have to do political education around in our communities. But I think that it's also, once again, it just requires political courage, political maturity, and voting out people who aren't in the best interest of the black community.

See, what you just described is part of the fundamental problem that we all see across the country. And the reality is this country is conditioned to whatever cops want they get. And obviously people want to be safe. Anytime I even see these studies when people say, oh, X percent of African Americans want more police. Yeah, because they want to be safe, but they also don't want to be shot and killed. They don't want to be beaten. They don't want to be robbed. And so they use that as a blunt force against folks to say, well, then, of course, the whole issue with how they utilize defund the police

as opposed to how do you shift resources. And so you make an excellent point, as far as I'm concerned, because the answer is not always more money, because if you got more money and crime keeps going up, what the hell are you doing? And so are you seeing real assessments done on how they're using the money, where they're deploying people, anything along those lines. And if not, then what the hell is this board there for? The board does zero monitoring of the budget.

They receive a copy of it. Basically, they don't weigh in on the budget. The budget is made, as he said, by middle management and then up through the chief's office. It's sent over to our city hall. And generally they rubber stamp it. Right. And we even have had like this year a state senator who doesn't live in Kansas City file, file a piece of legislation to try to control 25 percent of our budget and have that much go to the police department of the total budget, which includes our airport costs and things like that, right?

25% of our budget, and they will continue to do that. So a state rep who doesn't live here filed a bill to control 25% of the city of Kansas City's budget? Yes. And that much, 25%, would go to our police department. He filed that bill and it was not an unpopular bill. It didn't pass this year, praise God. But that's because we don't have local control that can do that. And just to expound... But I thought Republicans believe in local control. Only for... You would think, except when it comes to law enforcement. Let me add some context to that because that's a really great question. They believe in local control. When they control. When they control it. But

let me provide the historical context of state control of the police department. It started before 1936 during the appendix gas corruption era. It actually began in the 1800s, pre-civil war, because the Confederate-leaning governor at the time wanted to control the arsenal of the two largest cities where black people reside in the state, St. Louis and Kansas City. So back in the 1800s, we were under local control to protect the Confederacy. And then the Supreme Court overturned it, and then it was reinstated, and then again reinstated in 1936. And we've had it that way ever since. Most people walk around thinking that we have local control because of corruption.

We have local control because the governor wants to control the two states with the highest population of black people. Nowhere else in the state of Missouri is there local control for any police jurisdiction. So we have to understand that this is steeped in systemic and structural racism. And to continue to oppress our people. Well, and that point is important, which is one of the reasons why I'm often trying to remind people that you still have Jim Crow policy, Jim Crow-era policies that are still in effect today. So when people say, oh, that's the past,

like, no, that's not the past. You still have it. And so that's certainly an important point there. I do want to go back to, again, because I look at leadership. So you've got two African-Americans on the board right now. Yes. Okay. So what are they doing? And are they responsive to this community? Again, here's the issue. You mentioned it earlier that these people have no police experience. So one of the things that bothered me tremendously was to sit out at the board meeting and listen to commanders give answers to things. So the chief is there and he has five other commanders sitting there. That blows my mind because I went to Houston.

They have two deputy chiefs and their agency is three times the size of ours. Okay. But they're giving the chief, they're giving all this information to the board. The board is naive. They're blind. They have blind. The board has no clue what the hell they're talking about. So now you have these, the chief sitting there, he promoted all these people around them. Will anyone sit here and say anything bad about your chief when you're sitting there? Only when he's about to leave will you say, well, you want to stand up and be seen. So one of the issues that I expressed to the board when I came out and met with them in February is that the board, but this board is useless, let's be honest, it does need

to have city control, because they're too complicit and they just sign off on rubber staff on everything. Who's giving you the information is the police department is giving you the information. And so they're too naive to see it. And they have their lawyers. Everybody's have their self-interest, but the people that's being served has no voice. And that's how it is on the police department with the officers. This fraternal order of police does not support minorities, women or blacks at all. I have too much experience in 34 years that I faced it on my own. Number one, it's a vicious circle. It's part of the, they use paramilitary

that you can't go over someone's head. They're using an old system that doesn't work and it benefits them and it cripples and empowers people to be voiceless. Okay? So they make all the rules, they promote their own, they never discipline. So that's why when I'm sitting at the board meeting, these board members are asking,

why aren't there more females, why aren't there more black? Why aren't you asking them? Come and talk to us privately or without our commanders and we'll tell you the truth. I don't show up at a door at somebody's house and ask the victim, hey, did this guy beat you? No, let's talk privately so you can tell me what's going on. And time and time again, the board is not interested in knowing the truth. So they get all this information from the police department, and so it won't change. When you have a police chief that hires his deputies, and he makes all the major promotions just off of who you know.

I've had commanders, black commanders, that was 17 to 18 years that didn't get promoted because the chief has to know you. So you have to fall in line in order for the chief to do it. And he does the two major promotions that affect the whole police department to deputy chief and also the major. These are the people making all decisions at every division station. That has to change. But you definitely have to have city control in order for someone you give me your money away and i'm sad because my family lived here i grew up on 20th street my 99 year old aunt and 93 year old still live in the third district so i was hoping to speak to the council

woman here so i've taken a vested interest so now they flip the script and you only have to work in the city to patrol we're going backwards we're going ahead. Now they can work outside the city limit and come in and patrol. So was that a recent change? Yes. Yes. A recent. Not too long ago, that same, the same state representative that Laura mentioned filed legislation that would allow police officers to live outside of the city limits. And he does not live in Kansas City. He lives north of Kansas City. But I would love to have a little bit more response to your question around the two people who are black folks on the board. Go ahead. I'm Ryan. I mean, because I mean, again, that's I mean, look, what often happens is we expect black folks representing us to say something and do something and change something.

So the question is simple. What the hell are they doing? I don't have an incredibly robust answer, I think. The saying, like, all skin folk ain't kin folk, I think there's misleaders. I think that, once again, like, we can only, I'm not going to spend, I can only talk about how I spend my time as an organizer, as someone who's in the community. I can talk about how people who I work with in the community spend our time and where we think that our energy can best be put towards. Okay, so if there are two black people on the board who are not representing the interests of black folks, who's moving against them? Well, that's what I'm saying is where I think that my energy can best be spent is not begging and pleading for these two black people on the police board.

No, no, no, no. I didn't say begging and pleading. I'm saying who's moving against them, take them out. Well, the mayor is up for reelection. The other person is appointed. When is next election? Next year. Next year. So he's actually kind of started running now, which I think is part of the problem. And is this a dominant issue? You know, I think it is, just by virtue of the folks showing up here today, and it's certainly been in the forefront since George Floyd. We've had a lot more attention on our issues. We've had a lot more violence against our black community by the police in the past three years, so it certainly is something that warrants a lot of attention.

We also have a high rate of gun violence in our community, and we have a lot of deflecting to the gun violence without addressing the fact that the police department cannot solve these crimes because they have no trust in our community. There's no trust in our community to work with them to solve the crimes. And you know, research just pretty much proves that when a community does not trust the police department, crime goes up. The Kansas City solve rate is extremely low. So we have high rates of non-fatal and fatal gun cases.

And so it's a major problem, and it should be a problem that we look at. And as Ryan said, we have to elect the people to represent us who truly do that, irrespective of race. We have a tendency as black folk to say, okay, we can't hold this black mayor accountable because he's our black mayor. We need to hold any elected official accountable for not doing what is right by us, especially as it relates to public safety. And the notion that we as black people don't value our safety in our community, that we are all criminals, this whole disparaging cultural deficiency concept, it's just wrong. So the police department, basically in my work with them,

they don't see themselves as a part of the problem at all. When they look at violence in our community, they really believe that there's something inherently wrong or deficient about black people. And we know that that's not true. But when we look at the police violence against black people, what they want to say to us is all cops aren't bad cops. Well, all black people aren't bad people. All black people aren't bad people and all black

people aren't shooting up people. So don't try to paint us with the same stroke, brush, and then ask us not to paint you with the same brush stroke. And real quickly, I just want to add also that to me, the question is, is this institution of policing even something that can actually be reformed? And that's, you know, a lot of people reformed and that's you know a lot of people will push back on that question a lot of people will push back on that question but if we have been having this white supremacist institution that has been murdering with impunity that has been murdering people in our community for 147 years is that an institution that is likely to be able to be reformed into something that is not racist into something that is not anti-black

into something that can actually create justice. And so to me, I just absolutely don't think that it's possible for the police department to do that. And I don't even think it's their job to be trying to create safety. I think that it's the job of if we have more money to give to teachers, if we have more money to provide to schools, if we have more money to provide to mental health care, to me, that's the core issue. That's where the so-called crime, I don't even like using the word crime because black people didn't even have any say in what crime actually is. Crime is just a political category. Crime is a political category that was created by white people, mostly old white people

at the beginning of the United States of America. So we can't even use this word crime because right now white people can smoke weed and it's not considered a crime. It's considered something that they can just do to have fun or they can sell weed and it's considered something that they can do to be an entrepreneur. But when black people do it, it's considered a crime. So I think we have to interrogate really

what does safety actually look like? How do we actually create safety? And is the police even the actual institution that's necessary in the future for us to be able to be doing those things so I'm gonna go to break in a second but first was the mayor invited to be a part of tonight's Town Hall not no. We just promoted it like we did. No, we didn't invite him in. And how about President of the Board Mark Tolbert? No, we intentionally did not invite Mark. See... And the reason being is that Mark has been non-responsive to our work from

the time, from when we started, and it's just been very disappointing. He's appointed by the governor, he doesn't listen. The mayor, we, you know, we elected him, and it's just been very disappointing. He's appointed by the governor. He doesn't listen. The mayor, we elected him, and we can recall him at the ballot box. We can't recall. No, no, he certainly can't be recalled, but I'm still curious as to who does he talk to? Who does he go in front of? And and frankly, I wish he was invited. And it would be great if he says, no, that's fine, because I do believe in challenging every level of power.

And I don't care whether you're appointed or elected. And the reality is he's also appointed because supposedly there's credibility in the community. And so we're going to go to a break. We come back. I want to talk about that because I want to talk about in terms of what's next. You talk about the election next year. We'll also talk about, again, mobilizing and organizing to create change in this city when it comes to this police department. We'll do so next.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered Broadcasting Live here from Kansas City, Missouri, talking about racism in this police department on the Black Star Network back in a moment. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn about the silver tsunami, which means that a million people are turning 65 every day and they're going to need some kind of care.

You're going to meet two sisters whose situation with their own family led them to start a business in this industry. And now they're showing others. This is our passion, our mission, our purpose, our ministry. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat, the black. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley 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. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

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

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network.

Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, summertime when the living is easy, or is it? Summer vacations, class reunions, kids in summer camp, all fun but stressful. You need to get into a summer mindset and have a plan. Oh, yes. Our panel gives us their favorite summer planning hacks.

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Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, we're back. I want to bring in my panel, our normal Thursday panel. Let me welcome to the show Dr. Larry J. Walker, assistant professor at University of Central Florida, recently co-founder of Black Women Review, Dr. Greg Carr, of course, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. I will start with you.

Let's see here. Greg, I'll start with you this time. And that is, first of all, I just want to get your assessment of what you have heard over the last 40 minutes. We have done these conversations in other places and it's very consistent when it comes to police departments in the United States. It is indeed, Roland. And thank you again for honoring your commitment and being there. Thanks to the Kansas City fam, especially my folks in the in the MBUF community, Baba Jammu Webster and all the crew there. I was reading Mark Dupree's piece in the Urban League's

State of Black Kansas City. And I have to agree with the young brother. I was reading Mark Dupree's piece in the Urban League's State of Black Kansas City. And yeah, I have to agree with the young brother. This really can't be reformed. The police are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. And while it may be the only polity in the country where you have a state intervening as it is, it's very clear that this white minority rule in Missouri, which stretches back to

when they were fighting going westward expansion of the slave power in this country, continues to this day. I want to just, you know, even as the Supreme Court has a case before it now to try to open carry laws in New York, And even as we see the state of Missouri is one of those states where they have made it very much more easy for people to just carry weapons and that the policing of black bodies has only intensified that, including up to and including police doing what they do, which is kill black folk. I want to say I'm encouraged finally by the conversation leading towards solutions,

which include defunding the police, meaning transferring resources to social programs, as we just heard, education, other things. I would add to it there needs to be a form of non-cooperation with the police, quite frankly. These are our open enemies. What do they need to do to make us stop with the illusion that somehow they can be reformed? I think there needs to be boycotts, selective buying. Businesses that don't support changing this structure need to have our community support withdrawn from them. And we need to get together in our communities with stop the violence

campaigns, dealing with local leaders, not just elected and appointed officials, but folks at the neighborhood block-by-block level. And I think that the police need to be excluded from all those conversations because these people are hunting. They're patirolers. They're hunters. And there's no way to reform a hunter or a patiroler. They need to be eliminated. Recy, one of the things folks here have asked is for the Department of Justice to step in and do a patterns and practices investigation. We've seen this Biden-Harris DOJ be very aggressive in doing this in other cities. Anyone reading that Kansas City Star article and reading the other pieces should be shocked and appalled at what they read. And to me, absolutely, this department has earned the DOJ coming in and examining what's happening here.

I fully agree. And I know that Mayor Lucas was in D.C. to talk about gun safety and violence with the Biden-Harris administration. So it would seem that that'd be a good time to kind of advocate for patent and practices investigations. My question would be to the panel. I have heard a lot of, it sounds like maybe ambivalence or even dissatisfaction with Mayor Lucas. I read that he is moving to try to be considered to be president of the police board. Do any of you think that having somebody who has a little bit more local control, even if he isn't necessarily, he hasn't done everything to your satisfaction to date, do you think that that could help move the needle a little bit in terms of

making changes to the police board? Yeah, we went on record yesterday supporting that decision. It's like a step closer to have the man who is accountable to the voters in the chair seat when we're deciding on who our new police chief should be. So it's not local control, but having the mayor in that seat is, I think, a bold move. And, you know, we're glad he made that gesture. We don't think they'll give it to him. Did you ask, I need to go, she asked for the mayor to have that seat? No, the mayor is trying to become the president of the Board of Police Commissioners, and I think that he, the board does have, the board president does have a little bit more control over some of the policies, and maybe he could provide,

should he choose to provide leadership? Because I believe that power and leadership are things that you can cease that. You can decide. Hold on, here's the first thing. Here's the first thing. Again, not understand. So who picks the board chair? Is it the board members or the governor?

The board members. So wait a minute. So the mayor sits on the board and the board members don't pick the mayor as the chair? That's right. But he pays, but the mayor pays the bill. We don't expect it to occur. That's crazy as hell.

Can I respond to that? I mean, that just defies logic. Hello? Can I respond how dangerous that is? Because we're sitting here... How dangerous what is? Having the mayor and the board chair? Because they're wishy-washy.

The politicians are wishy-washy. It depends on... He's up for election. Whoever decides whatever to get his vote, he's going to do that. That's why we have issue with city control from city council. They voted for us last year, and then all of a sudden when it's time for them to vote when it matters, they're not doing it. Well, but let's look at, again, your ultimate goal is to have the city council control the police department. Correct? That's actually not, at least on my end, that's not the police department.

Correct? That's actually not, at least on my end, that's not the ultimate goal. So, well, okay, then what's the ultimate goal? People in the community control that. Not your politicians who come and go and wishy-washy every other week. Okay, no, no, no. But what does that mean? People, not the governor appoint them, but people from the city council can appoint people from the community that can overlook

the board of police commissioners. These are where the taxpayers are coming from. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Follow me here. So, okay. So I got that. So what are you talking about in terms of how do you see it? Uh, so to me, and I think to a lot of people in the community, if there was 10 steps to public safety, that local control is like step two, maybe. Step two or step three. And what I mean by that is ultimately we want our communities to be safe. And ultimately we want money to be going to institutions that actually provide public safety. No, no, no, no, no. But I understand all of that.

But at the end of the day, there has to be somebody, an entity that is controlling it. So, again, I'm born and raised in Houston. I've lived in Chicago. I've lived in Austin. I've lived in Fort Worth. I now live in Loudoun County. The elected officials control. First of all, they hire the police chief. They the police chief is responsive to the city council when something happens.

So you still have to have a hierarchy. And so what I'm getting at, who do you want in this city to be in control of the police department meaning if the department not doing their job then the City Council has the right to fire the police chief the way your system is right now you have an appointed board by the governor who doesn't live here they control the police department and so you can't put any pressure on them because they're not elected. So again, if we're talking about the next step, who, who do you want as a community

to be in control of your police department to then get to what you're talking about? Because I can't get to three through 10 if I don't get to. So what does this look like? So you need a, I mean, Laura's organization has looked at various structures, but for me, the short, quick and dirty of it is the city funds it, the city ought to control it. Yes.

We pay for it, we ought to control it. Yeah, I mean, because... Now, what kind of structure we put in place to do that? That's the question. Well, that's what I'm talking about. Right, right. Because here you have a strong mayor, is there a city manager? of structure we put in place to do that, that's the question. Well, that's what I'm talking about. Right, right. Because here you have a strong mayor, is there a city manager?

We have a city manager. So you have a strong mayor form of government? No, we have a city manager form. You have a city manager, okay. And so I covered city council in Fort Worth where they had a city manager in Dallas. City council hires a city manager. City manager hires the police chief. But the reality is the city council still determines

if they can fire the city manager. Exactly. So, again, taxpayers still have control over that because as it stands right now, how this is set up, this board can literally tell y'all to kick rocks. Well, they have done that. And you can't even throw them out. They frequently'all to kick rocks. Well, they have done that. They tell us that frequently. They frequently tell us to kick rocks. So is the goal, as a community,

is your idea to aggressively push to change this state law in order to have local control, the city council control the police department. Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Okay. We got that down. All right. I'm going to come back to some other stuff, but Larry, your question. Well, Roland, I want to say, first of all, this is modern day apartheid. It's that simple. What I want to, you know, you talked a little bit about in terms of who, you know, some of the citizens there and people on the panel in terms of who they want in control. But I want to talk a little bit to mention the mayor's up for election next year. And obviously he's not there. people on the panel in the community continue to utilize to pressure him if he wants to get reelected to understand that he needs to make sure he holds back some of this funding as it

relates to the police department. So what are some of the things that are happening in terms of protesting in front of his office, et cetera? What are some of the other mechanisms in place that people are doing to apply pressure. What we've been doing is employing a voter engagement strategy, and everybody here tonight can ID themselves as a supporter of local control through our website. So we want to engage all the voters and use y'all's votes as currency in every race in this city, not just the mayoral election, because really all of the elections matter. State reps and senators, they get more say than the mayor right now. So all elections.

And we want to ID 40,000 supporters this year, which is super ambitious for anybody who's ever done voter engagement. So people can ID themselves through our website. It's more2.org, and you'll find it on there. So let's talk about that because I'm not one to spend a whole lot of time talking about problems. I'm a firm believer in, again, moving, especially in kicking folks out. And also I believe in, to your point, data and numbers.

So the last election, how many votes did the mayor win by? There was 45,000 total. So 45,000 total people voted. All right, so your goal is to get 40,000 people on y'all's side, right? Strongly support local control, yes, sir. Absolutely. So what is the organization mobilization effort to make that happen? First of all, do you have total buy-in?

Is everybody involved? In terms of who's involved, where are your community groups, where your civil rights groups, where your black preachers, where your churches, where your grassroots people, where are we at? So more squared by organization is 34 congregations here in town that I work for and organize. So that's what our strategy and then other affiliates, other organizations. 34 congregations with total number of membership of what? Thousands. You know, thousands, I want to say, because we're in Missouri and Kansas and like tens of thousands. So we're pushing it through our congregations. We've got people here tonight who probably have ways that people can sign up tonight. And then we're just now starting to onboard other affiliates.

And we've gotten commitments from Councilwoman Robinson, Mayor Quentin Lucas, that if we garner this many supportive voters, they will put it on the local ballot. They can't put it on the state ballot, but they will put it on the local ballot. Have y'all created a contract that you're asking all candidates to sign? Not yet, but we're working on that. See, the reason that's important, because just like all the anti-tax people, the reality is, and I will say this here, no matter what community group, if you are Divine Nine, if you Lynx, no matter what the group is,

if anybody want to come to your group, you can ask them in front of everybody, will you sign this pledge? If you are elected, you will support local control, and every candidate who is trying to get your vote should sign that. And if they don't, escort them out the room. So we are working on a process that includes the Urban Council, which is a collective of the legacy civil rights organizations. And we are creating a grade card, if you will, for our elected officials.

And we're going to be asking them as they prepare for the upcoming election, do you support local control and other issues? And then we will be putting that information out in the campaign during the campaign so here's just my point of view um i totally get the other issues as well i would separate local control from the other issues okay and here's why because you might have someone who says oh i'm good with these four i'm'm not quite sure. The reason the NRA has been so successful is they only give a damn about the second amendment. You can be a blacks, you can be black, transgender, uh, love classical music. If you die with the second amendment, they fine. You've never seen the nra take a position on

anything else but guns so one of the things that i've seen and look i'm i'm very much a part of the school choice uh movement i got no problem with charter schools i believe every form of education i don't care what it is as long as our kids getting educated but if a school ain't educating our kids i got a problem that's just my position. And I've said to them, you can't be all over the place. And so this, to me, if this is the fundamental issue, it has to be you, you are signing this. And if you do not agree to local control, you will not get our endorsement. And we will tell everybody that you are against local control. Because as I'm sitting, everything that I've read, everything else, at the end of the day,

if you do not have an ability to get to the people who control the purse strings and control the power, then you're going to continue to have all of this dissension when it comes to this police department. Who controls the department is the most fundamental thing to creating any level of change. Any level. Any level. So you talk about legacy civil rights groups. I want to talk from a grassroots standpoint. Where are folks on that? How are folks organizing around that? Because to get this done, you're going to have to have a significant coalition to make it happen. I think that there's a plurality of understandings of what the most important issue is. And so I think that when we're talking about a coalition, when we're talking about civil rights groups, when we're talking about organizations that are on the ground, I think all these different groups, while we're in alignment on certain issues and we find certain

issues to be urgent, but there's organizations like Operation Liberation that bells black people out of jail. And to me, that's a very significant issue that's very urgent. And their priority right now is not local control. And there's organizations like KC Tenants who are addressing the very urgent issue of people being evicted from their homes. And so they're also in alignment, but they can't make that their priority right now. No, no, no, no, no. Follow me here. Follow me here. When I say priority, priority does not mean everybody has the same number one.

You can have individual groups that says this is a priority, but the question is, are they a part of the coalition to get this also happening? So let me unpack it. You laid out housing and all the different issues. Well, you can't shift the resources unless you control the resources. You can't shift the resources unless you control the department. So if you've got a state rep who wants to take 25% of your total budget and give it to the police department,

that's going to have a direct impact on housing, on crime, on education, every facet. And so this is where the dots have to be connected. So somebody who's concerned about housing has to also be concerned about this because this has a direct impact on what their issue is. And so that's why I'm still saying. 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 One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

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

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

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two 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'm all about getting to 40,000. I can actually have a good response because we actually, I pulled up on my phone here, we had a coalition letter that the Urban League signed on to.

This was actually a very, it was a historic open letter that we assigned or that we sent to the mayor. And it was signed on to by the Urban League of Kansas City, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Operation Liberation, the Real Justice Network, National Black United Front, Sunrise Movement of Kansas City and essentially it was an indictment of our mayor and this was one of the first times in history that this large assortment of black organizations have come together specifically with this mayor to indict him for what he has done, to indict him for not speaking up for the black community, because we met with him weeks before the city council took the vote on the budget this year, and he did not listen to any of the black organizations in our city. And so I think that to me, it kind of requires those first kinds of conversations.

So I think that the work is definitely, now I understand what you're saying, and I think that the me, it kind of requires those those first kinds of conversations. So I think that the work is definitely now I understand what you're saying. I think that the work is definitely because you say he didn't listen. Let me tell you, he going to listen to. Forty thousand people who are registered voters who are over here saying last election, you got X number. But somebody pull up. I want to see the vote total. Somebody just pull it up for me. Who are over here saying, last election you got X number of votes. Somebody pull up. I want to see the vote total. Somebody just pull it up for me. I want his exact vote total.

Listen, I've covered city council, county government, state government, every level of government. Huh? So he got 39,000 votes last time. If you have 40,000 people in your pocket, you can go to him and say, play what you're going to do. Either you for or against. He got to take a side. And if he takes the opposite side, we're going to unleash 40,000 against you off the jump. You're not winning. Then you say it is six districts. And then what are the other at large? So how many at large? Same thing.

The six at large. We got 40 in our pocket. We're going to take all six of y'all out. And we're going to put our people in. When Ron Kirk was mayor of Dallas, this is what Ron Kirk told me. Ron said, y'all can talk. City council members be talking. He said, Roland, they can talk all damn day they want to.

He said, I count votes. He said, you can holler and scream all you want to. If I walk into the room and I already got the votes, I'm going to let you holler and scream. Then when you're done, we're going to call for the vote. I already won. So what happens, so one of the things that happens with, and I've seen this so many times with communities, we don't do the exact same thing. We don't go look at the vote totals and go, last election, you won by this, this, this, this.

So we're going to go out to every single group and we'll commit 200, 300, 400, this district, this district. Now, all of a sudden, you have already identified your 40,000. Every organization that I've been involved in where I got stuff passed, I already counted votes. I never got into arguments because, hell, I already had them beat. And so the only way this happens is when you, that 40,000 number, that is you, you will have every single city council member currently who's running scared to death that they have to do what you want to do or they're going to get in the end. And then at the end of the day, on record, you run somebody against them and you've already got the votes locked up.

So any stragglers, that's just extra. And so that's one of the things that so many communities have lost in that people focus on rallies, but they don't count numbers. They don't collect data. They're not collecting names, phone numbers, emails, social media. Every politician in this city will be, I'm talking about school board, city council, will be scared to death if you have 40,000 people on your side ready to vote the same way. Trust me, they will do exactly what you want if they want to stay in office. But another challenge we have, Roland, is if we showed up, if we would just show up and vote in the same numbers that we're registered to vote. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. See?

No, no, no. See? Our people don't show up and vote. No, no, no, no, no. See? Right there. No. But you're waiting.

I'm not waiting. Follow me here. You have, okay, you have nine members of the divine nine. You got alphas. I'm an alpha. Everybody else don't got alphas. I'm an alpha. Everybody else don't count. Okay, I'm an alpha. You got omegas, kappas, sigmas, iotas,

aks, deltas, zetas, sigma, gamma, rho. You go to the Divine Nine and say, we need each one of you to be responsible to get a thousand people to commit to this initiative and to vote no no no follow me no no no no follow me here follow me here we need y'all to get each one of y'all to get a thousand we at nine thousand you just gotta get thirty one thousand NAACP we need y'all to get two thousand000. Now we at 11. Urban League, we need y'all to get 2,000.

Now we at 13. Let's say you have five grassroots organizations, 1,000 each. Yo, now we at 18. Now all of a sudden you take your churches. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not saying, man, I wish y'all come out. No. I am going to identify you right now. When is the election next year?

When is it? April. April. Y'all got 11 months. You got 11 months. You can literally, and then in the essence matter of who are you, we got your name, you're committed. Got it. We got your phone number. We got your cell phone. We got your email, and we hitting you with constant messaging. And then if you get 1,000, we say, you know what, why don't you do me a favor? I need you to go get two yourself. Now there's 2,000. That's coalition building. The mistake is when we hope they show up.

What I'm laying out is hitting them. And so come election day, you ain't even worried because you already got 40,000 who committed and then you know they're going to show up. You already organized buses and transportation. You've done all of that. That literally, Greg Carr, is what they did in Lowndes County, Alabama with the Black Panther Party. And that's how voting was changed in the Black Civil Rights Movement. Right, Greg? Absolutely. Hold on one, right, Greg? Absolutely, Roland. Hold on one second. Greg Carr?

Yes, sir. No, I said absolutely. Yeah, that's true, Roland. And we know that the roots are deep in Kansas City, in St. Louis, in the black communities of the state of Missouri to wage that kind of war. Individuals don't beat institutions. And we know that there is a long-range game plan here. Whoever that white national state senator was that introduced that potential taxing of a quarter of the city budget, certainly that is part of a larger plan. If there is some clawback of local control, he wants to institutionalize the draining of resources.

And so he threw that trial balloon up there to see where that goes. We've seen this before. But finally, what we've also seen before, and again, you're absolutely right, Roland, and what we've seen in Kansas City is when people get together and decide that they're going to impose their will, they can succeed. I mean, you know, I'll be the last one telling anybody sitting there when they walk down on 18th and Vine, Rue Foster was like, oh, y'all going to keep us out the league? No problem. We'll create the biggest business in the history of black America when they met in Chicago and created the Negro Leagues.

So I don't think, I think the infrastructure is there. I think Brother Ryan, the letter you read there, that was an opportunity for the mayor to do the right thing. But Roland, you're right. Vote him out. Vote him out. Vote him out with that community there that is 60 percent white in Kansas City, that is 60, about almost 60 percent white in Kansas City, Kansas, the Twin Cities there, but that is a third black in Kansas City and a quarter black in Kansas City, Kansas. We know St. Louis,

for all intents and purposes, is half and half in terms of that racial divide. And what these country folk are doing, not only in Missouri, Missouri now is what Missouri was before the Civil War, as you say, sis, and even after. It is a microcosm of what is now in terms of the United States set up to be white minority rule. And not all white people, obviously, because sitting here listening to you, Sister Laura, you know, we understand that this isn't about color. This is about people who have decided they are open enemies of our common humanity. You can't treat these people like you can build a bridge to them. You have to break their political backs.

And, Roland, you just laid out the roadmap for how to do that. And that's, and that's, so again, just how my, how my brain works is 11 months before the election, uh, next 10 months, you get 4,000 people committing every single month, 133 per day, you hitting your 40,000 and you're constantly tracking. So are we ahead of pace or behind pace? I can guarantee you there will not be a single elected person in this city who will not be shaking in their boots when they look up and go, we got 40,000 people ready to take you out. I guarantee you. But the only way that's going to happen is with organization and mobilization.

It ain't going to happen hoping they come out, praying they come out. No, I'd rather have a pot in hand before election day. And so election day comes, you're like, you know you're about to lose. Because we're about to drive 40,000 on you. Because here's the deal. And again, it's 12 council members. Does the mayor vote unless it's a tie? So it's 11. He votes in every case. Fine. I just need seven. I don't need all 12. I just need seven. If this coalition takes seven positions,

yo, you can run the table and then withhold the money. And then let's see what the commission then does. I mean, but this group has to literally be committed to actually do that. I'm going to go to, actually, I'm going to save this for the end. I'm going to save this for the end. So let me do this here. Let me go to a break. We come back.

We're going to talk to some of the families that have been affected by police violence when we come back on Roller Mark Under Filter here on the Black Star Network, broadcasting live from Kansas City. Folks, don't forget to support us in what we do. Download the Black Star Network app. Everybody in the room, y'all can do the exact same thing as well. We created this because we don't want to be dependent upon Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, and Twitch. So by having the app, we own it, we control it, and so we don't have to ask anybody's permission. This show is 100% Black-owned. It's me and just

me. I don't ask nobody's opinion, and so we don't have to ask somebody, can we cover here? And so y'all can download the app, of course, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox One, and Samsung as well. And one of the reasons we ask our folks out there to support this show, because, again, when we are able to travel around the country, we appreciate the support of the Urban League, but also our crews, our equipment. And I need people to understand when we talk about owning, when I say own this show, all this camera equipment, own all of it.

So we're not renting. We're not borrowing. And so we have the ability to go cover stories all across the country. And so, of course, those of you who want to support our show, there's a whole bunch of folks out there watching old school. They don't do no cash app, Venmo, Zelle. In fact, hold up. See, y'all think I'm lying. Y'all think I'm lying.

Hold up. Where is it right here? Man, let me shout out. Let me shout out Alfred Lee. Alfred said, I gave two years ago. Alfred showed up to hand me his money and gave me his card. So y'all think I'm lying. I tell my people all the time.

I say, yo, people walk up to me every time we go out and they hand me money. Alfred Lee walked up, gave me his $100 bill. He say, I want to make sure you got it directly. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them.

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

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

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

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

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

PayPal is RMartin unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Hey, fam, Patron Grooming is a black-owned men's grooming company that delivers on this promise every day to men everywhere. Everything we do, every product we make, is designed to help you to present your best self. It's a promise they've kept since 1991 when they first introduced the Bump Patrol brand,

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Use the discount code, hashtag Roland30, as hashtag R-O-L-A-N-D-3-0 for a 30% discount at the checkout. We appreciate Patrol Grooming being a partner with us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. Hmm, why is it so hard to see Panther? Right. The deal.

I mean, if you go to Amazon, I think I tried. So I have a collection of black DVDs. That's a hard movie. They charge you $300 on Amazon. I was like, I'm not about to pay no $400 for a VHS copy. What's the deal? Man, it is interesting, Roland. It is the movie they don't want you to see.

Power to the people. It's funny. I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you to see. Power to the people. It's funny, I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you can see it anywhere. But a movie that says that it is not an accident that we medicated the black communities right around the time when they were getting militant,

when you had the Panthers starting to organize, the people starting to vote and march on Washington, we let these communities get medicated. In fact, that comes up in The Godfather, you know, where they say, as long as it stays in the black community. So we asked the question, they tried to say, ask us questions. I asked them, the reporters, when we did that, I said, listen, why is it a 13-year-old boy in the hood

can find a way to buy a gun, some liquor, or a church, or some crack, and yet you can't find them to arrest those people? You can't arrest that dealer. Why is that? That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey yo, peace world.

What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roll Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Kansas City, where we're talking about the black and blue divide in this city. We've been talking about, of course, racism within the department, how they impact the community. The folks on the stage now, they know firsthand what happens in this police department. I'm going to start that on that side there.

Just introduce yourself and just grab the microphone. We got four microphones right next to you. Right next. Look down. There you go. OK, your microphone is right. Yeah. So just tell us who you are and how you get it. These are all impacted families. And so tell us exactly what happened. OK. Hi, my name is Lori Bay. I am the mother of Cameron Lamb that was murdered December the 3rd, 2019 by Detective Eric DeVauquenier. Hello, I'm Ruby Watson and I'm the grandmother for Malcolm Johnson who was murdered, was it May 2020, I think? Yeah, by the police. Hi, my name is Nareen Stokes and I am Ryan Stokes' mother who was murdered July the 28th, 2013, nine years ago down at the Power and Light, which I call it the Power and White because we are so prejudiced in this city.

It's totally motivated with Republicans, racists. Nine years I suffer, and they still don't want to give me justice or accountability. My name is Akil Bay. I'm a Lowery Bay husband. I was stepfather to Cameron Lamb, who was murdered December 3rd, 2019. It's the first time in history of Kansas City that a white police officer has been charged, found guilty, and sentenced for killing one of their citizens. We talk about accountability. I've had so many conversations with family members all across the country, and the one thing that they keep saying they want accountability and they want justice.

You've been listening to this conversation, and obviously the district attorney, when they pursue those charges, is one thing. But in many of these cases, these officers are still on the force, never fired, never disciplined, not having any real internal affairs. Just share from your perspective just how frustrating that is when they want the public to abide by the law, by decency, and have respect for the law, but the law doesn't have respect for community citizens. With my grandson, he went to the store. I'm not saying he was perfect, but he went to the gas station to get a pack of cigarettes, and all of a sudden the police swarmed in on him.

They claimed he had a gun. He had no gun. And they had him down. It was like about five or six police. There are six different videos out there that captured all of this. And no one has been held accountable yet, as far as I know. But I think they have an update on something. So my granddaughter, I don't think she really feels like, you know, talking in public about it because it was her older brother.

But the fact of the matter that they tried to say he had a gun when he did not have a gun and somebody tried to plant a gun and it was a police officer that shot the other police officer and tried to blame it on him. So, and that was on 63rd and Prospect at the gas station at BP. So one cop shot another cop? Yeah. Yeah, and tried to pin it on him. They had him down. He was on his back, first of all. And they had his hands.

They had his feet. So how could he shoot anybody? But first of all, he didn't even have a gun. But that's what happened. Wow. Yeah. It's crazy happened. Wow. Yeah. It's crazy. Ryan was killed down at the Power and Light, accused of also having a gun. There was an altercation before that with some white boys from Johnson County, Kansas, that says Ryan and his friends

had stolen a cell phone. Cell phone never was found, couldn't ping the cell phone, don't know what happened about the cell phone issue. All I know is next I hear that there was a foot chase and they were chasing after Ryan saying that he was the person that stole the phone or stole anything. I still confused about it to this day. But then the gun comes up, that he was supposed to have a gun.

And he wouldn't put it down. So they had to shoot him five times in the chest when they come to my house. This is what they tell me. But when I go to view my only son, Ryan was my only son, 24 years old. We got to view the body thinking that they shot him in the chest and he was shot in the back. How do you call that justifiable to shoot a young man in the back with no gun. And I'm supposed to believe it. I'm supposed to take it, sweep it under the rug.

I'm supposed to be silent. Any DA investigation? None. No video. It wasn't nothing. They treated those people down there. They had also pepper sprayed them. They treated them like it was back in the 1960s.

That's just wrong. That's just wrong. You know, I see wrong all in it. I see dirt all in it. I've went through two cheese rollers and two mayors, and neither one of them, neither one of them have neither one of them, have came to me in a respectful way and tried to give me something. Y'all heard the conversation earlier in terms of what folks want to see happen.

What do you want to see change with this department, with this city? First of all, they need to come and be open and man enough, woman enough to talk to us, the citizens, and hear us out and give us accountability. Give us the justice. My son's case has not even touched a jury, a judge. It went to a judge that called it qualified immunity. So now they want to say, you know, I can't do anything. I'm in appeals, just sitting. I'm just sitting,

waiting. So I'm confused. What could we do? What should I do? What more can I do? Well, I'm kind of like her. I want to see accountability. And the sad thing about it is we know that if the cop had been black and the person had been white, that that police officer would be in jail right now. I don't understand why it takes so long. And I definitely want local control. I have a question for Roland. One of the questions is how do we get local control on the ballot? Because if we have that, you know, I think that that would make a lot of difference. And I hate it. Every time you turn around, there's been a killing by a white officer, and it's a black person, whether it's a young lady, whether it's a young man, in some cases even a kid.

And I can't figure that out. Mr. Martin, my son Cameron Lamb, he was caught by the helicopters. He was speeding in a direction, and he was speeding pretty fast. So he was caught by audio. Never at one time was he pursued on this chase. Not one time was he ever pursued. He got home, went into his driveway, had a conversation with his roommate. Then he proceeded to the back of his home and he proceeded to back up into his garage. And then he was pursued by, well, not pursued, but there was a plainclothes detective that came to the back of the house. He had eyesight, and my son had eyesight of him the whole time.

He requested that he put his hands up. My son did that. So then Eric DeVauquenier, he came from the other side of the home. He went to the back, claimed that he could see my son pointing a gun at Detective Swann, and he proceeded to shoot four times in the windshield of the truck. And I'm very angry and I'm very frustrated. So we did. Finally, we went to court. You know, the officer, the balcony, he was found guilty and he was later sentenced.

However, we went to the grand jury in, I believe, July of 2020. Detective DeValconeer, he was found guilty. But my frustration and anger with that is that not one day has this man ever served one day, not one day, in jail. He posted a $30,000 bond, which he has literally been out since the entirety of the grand jury. Even when he was sentenced, he got to walk out of that courtroom just like we did because the judge granted, sweetheart, correct me if i'm wrong but an appeal allow him to stay free pending right uh-huh yes so it's just like i feel like

it's not over for us because at some point when was this trial uh when is the next trial when was his trial uh It was in December. Well, let me see. It was in November. November. Thank you. So he's been pre-pending appeal for the last seven months? Yes. Recy, I'm going to bring you in here because we talk about all the time on this show the George Floyd Justice Act.

It failing due to a sorry person like Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. The point about qualified immunity, I mean, this is exactly why that bill was so important and why Congress, why the United States Senate, the House did their job, but the Senate failed. There are people out there who are saying that, you know what, I'm going to sit this thing out. And I keep telling people, look, I understand. But when you look at these critical races that are coming up in November, where you have seats up in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Louisiana, and of course, Democrats defending seats in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and New Hampshire. This is why this has to be an election issue for folks to turn.

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

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content subscribe to lava for good plus on apple podcast out in order to get this done unfortunately didn't happen last year but uh this is needed for these families to seek justice.

But as long as these cops are protected via qualified immunity, they pretty much can do whatever they want with impunity. Unfortunately, that is the case. And I know that nobody wants to hear vote for more Democratic senators when they feel like they haven't gotten enough return on their votes in 2020. But that's just the reality. You have to just do the basic math. The basic math is that you need to hold the House with a simple majority would be fine there, and you need to get at least 52 votes. Hopefully that there are some people who were previously hiding behind Manchin and Sinema that will come on to the side of getting rid of the filibuster so that we can get a number of things pushed through. But I think there also speaks to the culture of these police departments. You know, I was reading in the case where, you

know, the police officer, Daniel Straub, actually, you know, blew the whistle on the fact that the police narrative was inaccurate. And he's the one who's out of a job, as opposed to the one who actually shot, you know, Ms. Stokes' son, and he's still on the force, or at least it was at the time of this article. So there is so much that needs to be done in terms of just reforming the police culture, protecting the police officers that do come forward and be truthful in these situations. But legislation at the federal level will go a long way. Larry, this is the issue that, again, we keep focusing on. And look, if you don't have the federal bill, you look, you're not going to get it from Missouri legislature.

And so you have to have some type of action on the federal level. Yeah, I know, you know, Roland, we've talked about this on your show and a number of these tragic incidents, especially black folks being killed by law enforcement. You're right. And Recy just talked about, you know, some people may be sick of hearing the importance of voting for Democrats. But it is important every election. And this November, we need to make sure that we continue the, you know, in terms of the gap between Democrats and Republicans. She talked about having at least 52 members, you know, in terms of Democrats. But yeah, we, you know, you know, we certainly thought that, you know, there would be some kind of policing reform bill. But you

talked about, you know, Senator Scott, who, you Scott, who in many respects scuttled the bill. And we need to make sure that we hold elected officials, obviously they're in state level, but also in the federal level. And I can talk about the Senate to in November that we have enough Democratic, progressive Democratic senators to willing to pass a comprehensive police reform bill so that we don't have to continue to hear the stories, painful stories of Black families who have to endure this pain for the rest of their lives. And that, Greg, is the point that we continue to make, and that is what I kept saying earlier, connecting the dots. If we don't understand that you can be working in your local community for one thing, but you got to have action from the city council, you got to have things happening with the state, you got to have things happening on the federal level, all of these things are moving in the same direction, but we can't operate in a disjointed way. That's absolutely right, Roland. And again, for everyone watching this, everybody live there in Kansas City, and everybody around the world watching this,

this is the function, the appropriate, the proper function of Black news media. We have to coordinate. It isn't voting or not voting. It's voting and community organizing and house-by-house, block-by-block organizing. The frustration, the sorrow, the expression of all the emotions that we're hearing there on the stage and our hearts go directly to you all because it could have very easily been any one of us. We know that we are beyond sick and tired of it. We are able to fight back when we coordinate. Ms. Watson, when you say local control,

that is the thing that these settlers in their criminal enterprise we call United States of America are the most terrified of. Because when people look at each other, it's very much more difficult to be a racist, to oppress people when you build relationships with them face to face. These are cowards. The police are doing the job they are employed to do. This punk, Eric DeValcanet, or whatever his name is, he's being defended by an organization that's headquartered here in Alexandria, Virginia,

a stone's throw from Roland Studio, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. These white boys form like Voltron when they get ready. There's some people in that audience who are old enough to remember Leave It to Beaver. So you know Ken Osmond, as you all know in Kansas City, who played Eddie Haskell. His widow has donated the damn proceeds from his book to this white killer. You see, John Henry Clark said it best. He says,

at moments like this, blood calls blood, and somehow blood always answers. They're never going to give local control. This is what the federal elections, and Roland is always talking about this. This is why the Secretary of State elections are so important in states. They are lining up to steal the 2022 and the 2024 federal elections. But local control is about not just getting people registered to vote and turning that electorate out. It's about meeting face to face, person to person, and building the type of relationships where you can turn out 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people, not only to vote, but to boycott, not only to boycott, but to say, we are going to take out anyone who does not support our common humanity.

And again, I'll end where we started, where I started a second ago. That becomes so much more possible. And we are encouraged so much more in our local efforts when we can connect to the other local efforts. And that is why black media is so important, because it allows us now to say it isn't just me in Kansas City. It isn't just me in Oakland or Nashville. It isn't just me in Boston or Los Angeles. I see people around the country doing the same thing and we have been shown by our open enemies. When we connect, we win.

To each one of you. We've seen mothers of the movement. I've talked to John Crawford III. I've talked to Tracy Martin. So many others. When it comes to John Crawford III, I've talked to Tracy Martin, so many others. When it comes to this election next year, are you willing to be the face?

What are you willing to do to get these changes? Because what I've always learned is that those people who have been directly affected by police violence are really the most effective voices to get other people to get off their butts and actually do something. And so from your perspective, what are you willing to do? What do you want to do when it comes to making these changes with the election happening next year? Well, I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. Whichever group that I can get with, they need my assistance to go out and speak anything in that regard. Because, see, what happened with Cameron, they admitted it through the trial that it

was a violation of his rights. So they don't, you know what I mean? And no de-escalation. You can have me talk about anything. Retrain the police, let them be drug tested if they don't, been out there and used a firearm. That 48 hour stop, you know, without reporting, come on, we got to change that. And whatever's necessary for me to do, I'm willing to do it because what they did was wrong. And the culture, the young lady spoke about the culture, it was so deep that they knew it was going to be covered by the police chief. Even the police chief, you know, before the trial went on, got up and said, the bad guy dead.

You know what I mean? Stuff like that. So that culture's real deep. And you keep telling me about all officers not bad. Well, where the good ones? Where? Why they don't stand up? You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Well, what I do when I get upset, I write. I just wrote to President Biden a couple days ago, and I did get a response. Not only do I write, I write the Progressive Caucus, the Black Congressional Caucus, and I contact my representatives, and I just let them know. As a matter of fact, I just sent out some emails today. But the other thing that I would like to see is I think that we really need to educate people on, they say, well, my vote doesn't count. Well, count well yes it does because even if you don't vote that's a vote for the person that you didn't want in the first place and so I think people need to be more politically astute and also to you know you can get a sample ballot prior to the election and see who's on there

and you need to do your research on that person. And to Gwen's point, just because they're black doesn't make it right. You know, so I want the best person representing me. Now, I did work some campaigns for Obama. I didn't do anything for Biden because I really couldn't get around like I wanted to, but I have done phone banking as well. So, and I will continue to do that and I will get with whatever organization, you know, that needs me to like, I have to sit down, y'all. Yeah, I'll do the data entry, you know, so I mean, I'll do my part to help. I think that I would just piggyback off of my husband and yourself, get with the organization, see where I can be useful and do whatever it is needed to, you know, help out with the next election.

All right, then. Well, let me thank all of you for sharing your stories with us. It is never easy to do so when you've lost a loved one. We certainly appreciate you doing so. And hopefully this will move some folks to action and galvanize them to make some changes in the city with the election next year. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go to a break. We'll be back with our final segment. You're watching Roland Martin on the Filchers, broadcasting live from Kansas City, Missouri, right here on the Black Star Network.

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Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back.

This is our final segment here in Kansas City where we're talking about black and blue, dealing with discrimination and racism in police brutality in the Kansas City Police Department. I want to start our final segment talking to Glenn Rice. He was one of the staff writers with the Kansas City Star who actually wrote that piece that when we first talked about this on April 18th, Glenn and I go back 30 plus years, National Association of Black Journalists. He plays a little youth group. He couldn't be an alpha, so he had no choice but to become an omega.

Sorry. I mean, so trust me, we've had a few step-offs. He ain't won one yet, but, and I ain't gonna make you hop out here, because you got bad knees. You got bad knees? And I'm almost 60. My knees still work. See, that's how Alphas roll. See? See what happened?

Alphas got good knees. All right. Glenn, I ask this question to book authors. I always ask them what was their wow moment when they were researching or writing their book. When y'all were reporting in this investigation, what was the wow moment for you as a reporter with all these different stories that you were hearing from these police officers inside? It would have to have been Herb Robinson. That was the detective that was driving to an off-duty job in his uniform. He was pulled over by his colleagues.

He was in uniform? He was in his uniform driving an unmarked police car. It was registered to the police department, to the Board of Police Commissioners, and he was not disobeying any traffic violations. When he changed lanes, he put his blinker on and he drove the speed limit. In fact, he was driving down Blue Ridge near Snibar. For those, that's the eastern part of Kansas City. It goes into Raytown, and the two officers, they were in the right turn lane.

They saw the car switch lanes before the lights changed and proceeded through the intersection, followed him for about a mile, and then they pulled him over. And when he stepped out, he stepped out with his uniform on and they were shocked. And not only just hearing about it, but getting the videotape and also talking to, now he's Sergeant Robinson now, and that was probably one. Also finding out that the chief was not sincere when he kneeled to add a protest. He wasn't sincere. As a matter of fact, he said he did it and he didn't necessarily mean it. In fact, he did it to protect his officers. This was in May, Steve,

is that correct, of last year. It was during the height of the protest. The police department decided to have a unity march where they, you know, after days of unrest on the plaza, they decided to have a unity march. And at the end of the unity march, at the behest of the mayor, he took a knee. It took Rick Smith, I think, four days before he actually said Black Lives Matter or even uttered the name George Floyd. So I can understand, you know, so so in just to talk with that, there was another detective

in homicide who was I would say her name is Heather Leslie. And we found some lot of things that happened with her. During the protest, she was at the police headquarters, and she looked at a monitor that was positioned on the plaza during the protest, and she said, you want to know why there aren't any black people out there protesting? And no one in particular, and we're a room full of homicide detectives. And she said, because the black people are too damn lazy. They're too lazy to get off their asses. And so, so not only to get that, but also

get an internal, like an internal memo that outlined all this. And this was written by a white homicide detective because there was, you know, there was that very concerned about what went down, how that went down. So, were a lot, to say the least. This was an extensive investigation. How long did y'all report on this? I spent a year of my life reporting that, as well as some other things that happened along the way. The Eric DeVaulconeer murder trial,

the effort to get rid of the police chief, an effort issued by some members of the police board. And that's all that's happened during COVID. So, you know, we got extensive records, settlements, internal documents, lawsuits, legal documents, talked with a lot of black officers, both on the record and off the record, some who have left the department, some still remain with the department. So it was quite an extensive effort. And was it also surprising to you and the other reporters, with all of this reporting,

all things y'all laid out, that the head of the board, President Tolbert, wouldn't even comment, wouldn't even talk? Yes, that was quite surprising. And I went to him on numerous occasions in person, text, called, went to police board meetings. Matter of fact, I reached out to all the members of the police board and talked to them like, you know, you guys need to comment about this issue. I mean, you've got officers talking about rampant discrimination in the department, and none of them would comment. No. The mayor did. We met with him.

We actually showed him the video of Herb Robinson, and he talked about that. We also showed him some of our other findings and so forth. So, no, aside from the mayor, no other police board member talked about our findings. I spoke with Kathy Dean early in the process about recruiting and retaining black officers, but you know, but when it came time to us to actually get ready to publish, went back to them again, emailed them, uh, went to them in person and asked them, uh, to comment and they collectively said no. Wow. Wow. Gordy Lynn, one of the things that I often talk about, I spend lots of time studying the black freedom movement, what was called civil rights movement. And Dr. King was never concerned about the rally. His deal was what happens the day after.

We've already talked about you've got an election happening next year. What do you want the folks assembled, the folks who are watching, the folks who are listening, the people who are around the country, what's next? What do you want folks doing tomorrow and then Saturday and Sunday and Monday? Because this is going to be a daily grind to make these changes. Yeah, and thanks for that question. We need our community to show up, sign up to support local control.

We believe that that is the number one issue that has to be addressed in order for us to get any redress with this police department. Without control of policies, we won't be able to address any of the practices and procedures that are oppressing us. We need our community to show up and contact your city council members

and let them know that you are going to hold them accountable for their vote. I see one of them in the audience today who voted for that ordinance against our pleadings. And we've got to stop allowing our elected officials to not vote. They voted to give the police more money. When we were saying, don't do it, don't do it, they voted to give the police more money we've got a hold I elected you should the council members here their council members here I probably shouldn't have called them out but you know I know first I know all up to me no no no this is this all all up

this is real basic for me I would just like to know why well yeah that would be a good question to ask because we made our points. We bought the case. The vote we wanted from that council member would have gotten that ordinance out of committee. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

Add free at Lava for the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hold on. So if there's a council member here, seriously, I would love to hear, sure, come on up.

I would love to hear why. I ain't got a problem asking a question. Step on up. If you can grab that microphone there. And so, what's your name? Good afternoon or good evening, Councilwoman Raina Parkshaw. I'm Kansas City's 5th District Councilperson. Okay. So somebody bring me a chair. So the ordinance that we're talking about, so were you on the council when they voted to withhold the money and then they were overruled? Yes. Okay.

So then when y'all had the opportunity, so according to Gwendolyn earlier, she said the judge said that the money had already been allocated, so therefore y'all couldn't withhold the money back. Yes, and I supported that. All right. So when you have the opportunity to actually do it the right way, what happened? So ultimately what happened was, you know, I found out after the fact that there were some meetings that had occurred, some strategy meetings that occurred prior to the vote that I wasn't privy to, wasn't aware of. Some strategy meetings.

Strategy meetings with key elected officials, with, I'll just say it, I'm going to be transparent, with the mayor to talk about, you know, how they, to talk about the proposal. And I missed the first part. I was late coming in because I had another event. So I don't know exactly what was said earlier today before I walked in. What was said was that the city council voted to hold back, correct, hold back funds.

Then the board sued. The judge ruled against the city. But the judge did say that because the city had already allocated the money, they couldn't pull the money back. The judge did say that if the city council chose to make a decision before budget allocation, that would be allowed. Correct. Yes. And so when it came down to it, the budget that was presented had $6.5 million allocated or put in for 911 operators that was in the funds that it was recommended to be put in a special fund or taken so that the council could then have more authority over those

dollars. So I received a call 24 hours before that saying, we want you to support this. We want you to vote for this. Well, I know that we need 911 operators. I know that definitely I agree we need to have reform in our police department. I know that there are bad actors, and I agree with that. But I felt that it was too much to, at the last minute, that I didn't have information to say I'm going to vote to move all of this money aside. Because I understand we need 911 operators, and the 911 operators

budget was sitting there. As a council member, could you have pursued delaying the vote? Could I have pursued delaying the vote? Delaying the vote. So we had, we couldn't delay it any further because we needed to, by charter, we needed to approve the budget, and we were and it had already been delayed. And so we weren't able to really delay that. Otherwise, we would be outside of the charter that we have. So ultimately, when it came down to it, the vote that I took was to create a separate fund, but it's still, but it, it, it wasn't just, it wasn't what

the Urban League wanted or the, what the, what the, the community members that called me, it wasn't what they wanted me to do. But honestly, I felt that it was too much to put it at risk to, because it was six and a half million dollars set up up, that wasn't just about KCPD. So what I did try to do, because I was notified in the last 24 hours, was to try to see if we could move that $6.5 million so that then the 911 operators would still be home. Right. Because we need that. Our community needs that.

And so, but they weren't able to do that. The other council member that was kind of working on it tried, that we weren't able to make that happen. So, Gwendolyn, you obviously have been shaking your head. So I want you to respond. So go ahead. Yeah. First off, let me just set the record straight because we made it very clear to you that the money for the 911 callers had been taken care of. Councilwoman Robinson told you, Councilwoman Shields, who was over the finance committee,

went in, they fixed that budget problem, and that all we asked you to do was to vote the ordinance out of committee so that it could get to the council floor for a debate and to vote it up or down. We asked you for a committee vote, and you did not give us the committee vote to advance that ordinance so we could stand on the council floor and fight for it. That's what we asked you to do. Now let me be real clear about the $6 million, because basically the ordinance was what we wanted the ordinance to do was to set aside the $30 million so that the $30 million over and above the 25% required allocation could giving it to the Board of Police Commissioners, which would have been in alignment with what you voted for the year before.

So to mull it all down into $6 million weed stuff that was not what we were talking about that day, and that's what we asked you to do, Councilwoman, just get it out of committee. And you gave us a whole lot of mamby-pamby responses to our requests and then went down there and did not vote with the people. That's what really happened, y'all. And Ryan was there, all of us. That's what really happened. So, so, so I'll allow the councilwoman to respond.

Go ahead. I disagree. But, you know, I am here because I care about our community, because I want to see reform. I agree with local control. I agree that we need to reform our police department. I felt with the information that I had in that moment that it would have been, could potentially have been more detrimental to our community. I'm willing to come, which is why I'm here, to work on a strategy so that we can have the accountability that we all want, desire, and deserve. So I have a couple questions. Sure.

So one, are you up for reelection next year? Yes. Are you running again? Yes. Will you commit to support the effort for complete local control of the police department. Yeah, I support that, but we need our people to come out. No, no, no, no. Wait, wait.

Hold up. I support that. What? Yes, I support that. See? I support that. Hold up, hold up, hold up. I ain't done.

So will you be a part of this coalition to persuade other council members and also to achieve that 40,000 number to get 40,000 people in the city to back this. So when they come vote next year, that will be a significant voting block to make the city council move. Yes. Okay. The other question more important than that for you is in the next budget cycle will you vote for the with the people to control to exercise control of the purse and not keep giving the police department money throwing good money after bad will you do that okay so what i will commit to is working with you in the organizations and the community to come up with a strategy. I feel like it's unrealistic and unfair that you called me at

the last minute to say we want you to do this, but I don't have any information about any strategy other than we want this, we want to pull those dollars. And I felt like it was too detrimental to our community. I was not going to have the potential of 911 operators not being available. We already don't get enough service in our community. We already don't have enough. So I commit to continue to sit and work, if you will have me, if you want to do that, to work on a strategy to do that. That's what I commit to. So hold up. So when is the next, in terms of council voting on the next cycle? When is that?

In April, in March of 2023. Okay, cool. Before the next election. All right, so here's the deal. What took place in the past has actually happened. So now it's, okay, what happens next? See, look, I don't waste time on what happened last time. My whole deal is what happens over the next year.

That has to happen. So now, and we got about 10 minutes, because, again, I want to go back to it. And so, Ryan, I want to start with you here. We're talking about, again, this coalition. What do you want to see happen? What needs to happen to make sure that your legacy groups are fully listening to and respecting grassroots groups, community groups, so folks are working in partnership? Absolutely. I think, to me, I mean, we had that coalition letter, that open letter that we sent to Mayor Lucas. When was that?

That was maybe, would you say, two months ago? Okay, got it. Right after the vote. It was maybe, would you say two months ago? Okay, got it. Right after the vote, after the, it was in March. Okay, two months ago. Probably about two months ago, I would say, and to me, that very clearly articulated what the community wanted, so it's very difficult for me, Councilwoman, I will have to say, it's very difficult for me to sit here and hear that what the community wanted was unclear or that we hadn't made our demands very clear. And I feel like we all came together. We had been strategizing.

We had numerous strategy meetings. I think we had numerous strategy meetings. And so to me, I'm just saying, I mean, we made those very public. I think that the strategy was taking place. So that's just on that end. On what I personally and with people who I organize with, I have a black media organization called the Kansas City Defender. Everybody, I got to plug my organization real quick. Because I think that white media outlets in our city are not only complicit, I think that they're co-conspirators.

I think they're co-conspirators whenever black people are murdered in our city, white media outlets are co-conspirators in the murders of our people. And so I think it's absolutely necessary that we have black media outlets that are able to change the narrative. And so for me, for me personally, what I can work on and what I have been working on with people who are organized with what we are working on is starting to change the narrative. I think we have to regain control of the narrative because when black people get killed, the police chief calls them a bad person or he demonizes him or he inserts anti-blackness into the narrative and criminalizes the person. And so I think once again, just for how I am personally organizing, how I support in my organization, how we support other organizations is we're trying to change the

narrative. I think that that is relevant when we're talking about things like the budget, because that's also once again, a political education issue. I think you brought up a good point, or I think someone, maybe one of the other panelists brought up a good point as well earlier, that when you ask people, you know, do they want to be safe, then they might say one thing, but if you ask, or do they want police, they might say one thing. If you ask people do they want to be safe, that's a completely different question. And the way that we achieve safety, there's lots of different ways that we have to, that we can think about achieving safety. And so I think that that's what we're working on, and we're willing to work with all the grassroots organizations. Like I mentioned, there's Operation Liberation is doing great work.

There's Friday Night Protests. There's a number of community organizations who we've been working with. I think the legacy civil rights organizations have been doing very important work as well. So I think a lot of these coalitions have already been being built. And we have extended ourselves numerous times to politicians. And oftentimes the politicians don't listen to us, quite frankly. And that includes the mayor. That includes Mayor Lucas.

We met with him beforehand. We told him very explicitly what we wanted him to do as the community, as over maybe 10 organizations that are black organizations. We said this is specifically what we think is in the best interest of our community. And he completely we said it was a dictatorial authoritarian move because he did not listen to what we said. And he just went with what he thought was the best. And I think a lot of times politicians do that. Right. And that's why you of times politicians do that. Right. They don't listen to that. That's why you get their tits in the ballot box. And the very last thing I'll say is that in terms of these 911 operators, my question is, and what a lot of us were asking is,

why wasn't that in the existing police budget that they already had? Why do they need more money for this supposedly incredibly urgent resource? That should have been already. And so clearly they were mishandling the money that they already had. So why don't we give need more money for this supposedly incredibly urgent resource? That should have been already. And so clearly they're mishandling the money that they already had. But again, part of the problem is who then controls the budget? And see, that's where it goes to. Again, I cover city council. Reality is when the city council approves the budget, they see what all the allocation is.

The problem you have is you have this outside group that literally gets the money, but then they control it. Laura, I want to go to you, and that is, I talked about what's next. Here's the deal. To run a campaign, you need money. You need people. You need resources. Next, what do you need? First of all, everyone in this audience can ID themselves as a supporter for local control right now through our website. It's more2.org backslash local hyphen control backslash. You can do that right now. Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's way, hold up.

Just give the main website. More2.org. Say it again. More2.org. More2. M-O-R-E. M-O-R- That's way. Hold up. Just get a main website. More2.org. Say it again. More2.org. More 2. M-O-R-E. M-O-R-E number 2. Dot org.

Dot org. You'll find it. On the home page is a big ass button that says local control, right? You'll find it. There we go. All right. You'll find it. You talking about slash, hash, underscore.

But you'll find it. You'll find it. More M-O-R-E, number two, dot O-R-G. And the donate button is on there too, right? You can donate that way, and any donations we get in the next day or two, we'll just make them all straight to the campaign, not to the organization. All right, so all the folks who are watching and those who are listening to our podcast, you can also donate to this campaign in this effort.

And so please do so. And then y'all let me know how much money I got in 48 hours. All right. So go ahead. Keep going. What else you need? We want everybody in the audience to also through the website. You can contact us or you can contact me or one of our people here tonight.

No, no, no, no, Laura. Hold up. Laura, Laura, Laura. Get an audience. See, Laura, I'm going to show you how this is done. I've been going to a black church my whole life. Let me show you how this is done. Where are your people, Laura?

Yeah. I was hoping they were going to do that. So I need y'all to stand up. Stand up. Y'all stand up. All right. In the back as well. Okay, now, here's the deal.

When we are done, when we are done, Lord's people will be down front. Y'all will be right here, not back there, right here. And y'all can come up. Y'all are collecting data, right? They need your name, your phone number, your email, your social media, so they can reach out to you after today. Straight? Cool. All right. Laura, go ahead. Keep going. That's all I need is we need audiences. So I had a CAPA, no offense to you gentlemen, but I had a CAPA approach me in that audience

and said, where can we get you all to speak? So give us an audience and we'll come speak. All right. CAPA's finally doing something. I have a CAPA board chair. I have to show respect. All right. It's all good. We'll let them have something. But it's all good.

Without Alpha, they just CAPA-side. It's all good. All right. Final comments from my panelists. Let me start with Larry. This event has been critically important for the community. You offer a lot of insight and advice. And I'm hoping based on the conversations we had this evening, the coalition will continue to strengthen and also hold elected officials accountable. And looking forward to hearing more about the story and elected officials supporting some of the initiatives, the members of the community want.

Recy. I'm shocked you have not cussed today. Shocking. Well, hey, I'm on my best behavior. I just want to say I just think it's a wonderful display of democracy and civic engagement between the panelists, the audience, and the councilwoman who went up there and, you know, her feet were held to the fire. But I think it involves everybody being involved and being accountable and pushing back and

collaborating, because I think, ultimately ultimately everyone wants the same thing, which is local control and police reform. So best of luck to you all in moving forward with this. Greg, and I want you to, I was going to do it, but I want you to incorporate what Stokely Carmichael, Kwame Ture said about change has never happened because of one person. It's always happened through organization. Go ahead, Greg.

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 Incorporer incorporated on the I heart radio 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. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Greg, you on mute? Okay, my bad. I was, uh, there was so much smoke going on in there, I was shouting over here, so I had to put myself on mute, brother. Anyway, all in the right direction, though. As our brother

and ancestor Kwame Ture Stokely Carmichael used to say, if you put Martin Luther King in Montgomery or Birmingham by himself, he would have been killed. He said history is not made by individuals. It's made by the masses of our people. And he said, it's less important which organization you join, it's less important which organization you join than it is to join an organization. And we know that we must coordinate. So what we've seen tonight has been inspirational, very sobering, but also we come out of this with a great deal of hope, not just for Kansas City, not just for Missouri, but for everywhere in the world where we understand when we organize and work together, the people are undefeated.

And so I'll close with the observation that found its way into musical form somewhere around 18th and Vine from that great ancestor, Charles Christopher Parker. Now's the time. All right. So I'm going to close it out this way. So I want everybody in the room, look to the person to your left. Then I want you to then look to your right. Then I want you to look behind you. And I want you to look in front of you.

There literally are more people sitting in this auditorium than the number of people who had gathered in a basement in Montgomery in 1955. Let me say it again, that there are more people sitting in this room right now than the number of people who were gathered in a basement in Montgomery in 1955. I sat and interviewed Fred Gray, who came up with the Montgomery Improvement Association campaign. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 382 days,

but it was only a one day boycott. 50,000 black people did not get on buses in Montgomery. And after one day, they then said, let's do five more. And then after those five days, they then said, let's keep this going. If you go back and actually look at the initial demands of the Montgomery Improvement Association, you will see that it was a lot different than what ended up being. So 382 days go by, and the Supreme Court rules that segregated busing was unconstitutional. It was that event, and there were certainly things that happened before that, Emmett Till's lynching on August 28, 1955, but it was that event that led to a 13-year struggle that we know as the Black Freedom movement some call the civil rights movement

are there four college students in here if your college students stand up so i got your college student to stand up that's one two any other college students three just four so there were, oh, stay standing, stay standing, stay standing. There were four college students at North Carolina A&T who decided to go sit at a lunch counter. They did not ask the NAACP for permission. They didn't ask the Urban League for permission. They didn't ask the Urban League for permission. They didn't ask the university for permission. They got together on their own and went down to the lunch counter. I spoke there a couple of years ago and actually met the brothers who are still living. That's a monument to them on the campus. Y'all can be seated.

Why am I using those two examples? That 40,000 number you can easily hit. How many registered voters in the city? Okay, 280,000. It's actually 218,000. 218,000. Yes. Folks, that ain't even 25% of all registered voters. You can literally do this. You can literally do this. Now, some of y'all are like he was pushing everybody the reason why is because i just don't believe in i hope they turn out i want to know who is going to turn out that's right the reason i was like no y'all got to stand up. Because I hate when we have gatherings and people show up

and no one collects data. You ain't know who to, if you showing up tonight says you care about the very issue, which means some wants to be collecting the data of every single person here. So you get a phone call or a text or an email tomorrow and you're already inputting in the database so you can now start receiving text alerts or email alerts about the next thing to achieve the goal of changing the system. And I guarantee you there's somebody who's sitting here saying, yeah, I mean, I don't know, man, 40,000 a lot. I already laid it out to you. 40,000 people over the next 10 months is 4,000 people a month. If you have 25 or 30 organizations that are part of the coalition, let's just say you make the goal. We want 40 organizations to be a part of coalition. That means you simply task for each organization to get

1,000 people. That means that over the next 10 months, all they got to do is get less than 100 people every single month. What do you think then will happen? I'm going back to Montgomery. Because trust me, the folk in Montgomery are like, yeah, they're

going to get on that bus. Then they were like, damn, they're going to get on that bus. Then they were like, damn, 50,000 black people walked. But the beauty of that wasn't that that shocked the white establishment. It actually shocked black leadership because they actually

saw what unity looks like. And then when they did it for five days, they were like, yo, what happened? Those four students, people forget literally the actions of those four North Carolina A&T students spread like wildfire over a period of three weeks all across the South. The exact same thing happened. There was no Google. There was no Twitter. There was no Instagram. There was no Google, there was no Twitter, there was no Instagram, there was no TikTok, no Snapchat, no Facebook, it spread like wildfire. So I want you to visualize this. If you hit the 40,000,

and you then elect at least seven city council members that support your position, you now control the council. But you just don't control the council on this initiative. You control the council on every initiative. And those seven, gotta listen to the 40 because y'all put them in office. And you can tell them that Cosby Show episode, I brought you in this world, I take you out. You can look at one of those people and say, we put you in office, we can take you out.

Now you begin to say, wait a minute, hold up. Bond initiative. Who gets the contracts? Now, housing. We got the seven votes. Now, reimagining public safety. We got the seven votes. So literally, 40,000 people, organized and mobilized, can elect seven of the 12 council members.

And now, all of a sudden sudden you control the city council and if the man don't act right he gets replaced if there are incumbents who don't act right they get replaced force them to make the commitments now imagine what happens after April. Now imagine what St. Louis then sees what's happening in Kansas City. Now what happens when other cities around Kansas City, what happens? Montgomery completely altered American history and world history, you deciding to mobilize and organize to hit the 40,000 could literally lead to the same dramatic shift in this city, in this state, in this country. There has been no movement in the history of the world that ever started with a mass consensus. It all started because one person simply said, I got an idea. And then they told somebody, they told somebody else, they told somebody else, if you decide to do this, I should come back here a year from now for a victory party. A year from now, y'all should be celebrating like crazy because you did what everybody said could not be done. That is,

you got black folks and white folks and Latino folks and Asian folks and Native Americans. You got folks who are straight and gay. You got folks who are conservative and liberal, but you got folks who say we care enough about our city that we should be controlling how our tax dollars are spent. And I can guarantee you, I can guarantee you this. If you do what we have talked about today, the folk at the state capital will then be saying, damn, are we next? And your response is absolutely. Again, folks, thank you so very much to our panel. Thank you to all of y'all for being here. Thanks to everybody who are watching.

If y'all want to support, again, more2.org. Give the Urban Leagues website. In a microphone, baby. ulkc.org. ulkc.org. I'm going to be checking back with y'all on that $40,000. I want to see where we're going on that.

And so, again, create the memes, push the videos out. I got 3.7 million social media followers, so y'all send to me, and I'll send out as well. I ain't even going to charge you. But, again, let's make this thing happen. Kansas City, thank you so very much. I'm familiar with this. My late grandmother and my great-grandmother lived here. I hit my Uncle Marvin. He said he was going to swing by. So I've

had a family who lived here in Kansas City. My Aunt Bobbi lad who passed away a couple of years ago from pancreatic cancer. They all lived here. And so trust me, this is not the first time I've been here. Eric Wesson, I hit him earlier. He's in Orlando with the Black Newspaper. I hit him as well as I spoke at their event. So this is not, trust me, I'm not new to what's happening here in Kansas City. Good to see Glenn. Also, Pastor Dan Edwards, I pledged him at Texas A&M. And so y'all got to, look, if he ain't acting right

on part of this deal, y'all give me a call. I'll deal with that. So I ain't got no problem. I ain't got no problem letting them know. So again, everybody who's watching, don't forget, download our app, please. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Xbox One, Samsung, and, of course, support our Bring the Funk fan club

where every dollar you give goes to support this show. A bunch of y'all walked up to here handing me all sort of cash. If y'all gave me money, give me your name. Be sure to give me your name because every Friday we run the list of all of our donors. More than 30,000 people have actually given to our show in the past three and a half years. And when he talks about the importance of black media, that's why we have a mural on our wall. The nation's first black newspaper was Freedom's Journal. March 16, 1827, the third paragraph, they wrote,

We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us and so the reason that is important is because we do not need to be asking someone else permission to have these gatherings to broadcast these gatherings to do these events because if you understand the history of black media if you understand uh what uh what what the kansas city papers did the chicago defender the pittsburgh courier atlanta daily world that's how we were what the Kansas City Papers did, the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, Atlanta Daily World. That's how we were able to get through because black media covered our story. And I'm not interested in asking anybody permission.

Can I please go cover something? That's why I said I choose to own. And so when people say, man, I wish you'd go back to CNN or MSNBC, no, if I can't own it, I'm not interested. So that's why we do what we do. So, folks, Cash App, dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is RM Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zillow is rolling that, rollingthatsmartin.com, rollingthatrollinmartinunfiltered.com. To our panel, Larry, Greg, and Reesey, I certainly appreciate it as well. We normally have a lot more time to talk, but I'm glad y'all were here with us as well. And so thank you so very much. More to the, y'all come on, come down here, come on, come on, have your pads and everything ready.

Down here. Everybody here, don't run out of here. Sign up, give them your information. But again, the movement starts now. There's been, don't make this a moment, actually make it a movement. And trust me, when you throw them out of office, they're gonna be like, damn, why did we piss them off?

That's why you gotta hit that 40,000. Thanks a bunch I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year,

a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

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