#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Texas DA Seeks Reinstatement of Crystal Mason's Conviction, Hope in Haiti, Menthol Ban Delayed Again

Episode Date: April 27, 2024

4.26.2024  #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Texas DA Seeks Reinstatement of Crystal Mason's Conviction, Hope in Haiti, Menthol Ban Delayed Again Crystal Mason, the black Texas woman who was convicted for illegally voting in 2016 and then had that conviction overturned, may end up back in court.  The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office filed an appeal asking the state’s top court to reinstate her conviction.  Her attorney is here with us tonight to discuss this ridiculous case.  #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com A Black Ohio man dies in police custody after telling the cops he can't breathe.  We'll show you the bodycam video.  The Biden administration delays the Ban on Menthol Cigarettes, again. We'll examine why Biden is pulling back on the proposal that's been years in the making with the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.  Haiti's Ariel Henry kept his promise to resign as Prime Minister.  A former Haitian policy adviser will be here to explain how the newly sworn-in transitional government will restore order to the Caribbean country plagued by deadly gang violence. #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position.

Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. today's friday april 26 2024 coming up i I'm Roland Martin on the filter streaming live on the Black Star Network. I'm here in Miami where I will later be moderating a conversation with a Fulton County D.A. Fonny Willis at the NABCO conference on today's show. Crystal Mason continues to be terrorized by Republican D.A. in Tarrant County. They are appealing the Texas Court of Appeals decision, getting rid of her case. We're chatting with her and her attorney. This is just an insane, insane story. We're

chatting with her attorney on tonight's show. Also, a black Ohio man dies in police custody after telling the cops that he could not breathe. There's body cam video we have for you. Also, big tobacco successfully pays off a lot of black folks that's keeping the Biden administration from banning menthol cigarettes. We'll talk to the co-founder and co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council about this devastating decision. Also, the prime minister of Haiti has stepped down. We'll chat with a foreign policy expert about what this means for the country. And of course, just the latest that's happening in the world of politics. Lots to talk about.

It's time to bring the funk. when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah, with Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah, it's rolling, Martin, yeah, yeah, it's Rollin' Martin, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Martin! All right, folks, welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris is going to be in Atlanta kicking off what is being called an empowerment economic tour, specifically targeting African-Americans, especially black men. The goal is to tout the plans or the initiatives the Biden-Harris administration has actually implemented over the last three years, but also to lay out an agenda over the next four years if they are reelected. The first two stops are going to be taking place in Atlanta and Detroit. On Monday, they're going to be on stage with the co-host of Earn Your Leisure. This, of course, is one of the issues that you see taking place, how they're using the vice president, traveling around the country, speaking to the issues. She's a lot more active,

obviously, than President Joe Biden is. And so this, of course, is a significant issue because by starting in Atlanta, they're focusing on what's happening there, of course, economically for African-Americans, historically Detroit. And then they're going to be adding other cities to this tour over the next few months. Let's go to my panel. I want to talk about this here. Joining us on the show today, Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show, coming to us out of Detroit.

Also on today's panel, we are joined by Kelly Bethea, communications strategist out of D.C., Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi. Glad to have all three of you here. And so we're going to be joined by Kelly shortly. I'm going to start with you, Michael. Detroit is one of the cities the vice president is going to be going to. And these are the type of conversations they've got to have because they have done things.

But the reality is they have been horrible when it comes to messaging what those issues are. But one of the things they also want to do with this tour is also let people know how they can tap into the resources to access available money. Again, we're in campaign season and this is them trying to address the economic issues that are important to African-Americans. Absolutely. This is time to show and tell. This is time to claim your victories, talk about what you've accomplished, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that saved the economy and no Republicans in the House or the Senate voted for the bill. When you had Republicans saying, open the schools, open the schools, it was only Democrats who passed a bill to fund about 300—and if I remember, about $350 billion,

something like that, that went to funding schools, paying for better ventilation systems, paying for personal protection, et cetera, personal protection equipment, et cetera. So, this is the time to connect the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. And they have a lot to talk about. Connect that to everyday African-Americans and how it's impacting them. The African-American media net worth has increased 60 percent under the Biden-Harris administration. We know we have a record number of jobs, created 15 million jobs, over 800,000 manufacturing jobs, et cetera.

But also, another important thing to connect is connecting people to the resources, connecting people to the available money. The reason why all this exists is because 16.9 million African-Americans, along with other Americans, voted for Biden-Harris, especially here in Detroit. And the reason why it's important to hit Detroit, Atlanta, and other key cities that have high African-American populations is, one, these are cities that helped put Biden-Harris over the top. Two, Donald Trump is specifically targeting these cities, like Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, that have high African-American populations, and saying, we need to watch those people, we need to watch those

cities, and saying, somehow we engage in voter fraud, but he's the only candidate that told his constituents to vote twice. So this is extremely important. Matt, I have long said that they have to be doing these type of things. We saw the vice president, of course, on the reproductive freedom tour. But this year, you have to be speaking to the core audience. And what you're seeing is you're seeing, again, Gen X, millennials, Gen Z, who are really about economic opportunities, entrepreneurship, as opposed to previous generation that may be focused on social programs. And so telling the story is one thing, but also letting people know about resources that are available is another. It is. It's especially

important when you're in an environment where, I think we've discussed on the show, there are a lot of Americans who have a feeling that the economy is in worse shape than it is by actual economic metrics. So it's important for the administration to not only put minds at ease in terms of where the economy is, but to correlate with that, here are resources to help, you know, improve your economic situation and to show that we're in fact concerned about making sure you have the needs of your needs met. So I think what's important about that is, you know, what we see a lot of times with political rhetoric is we see correlation to phenomena that aren't even in the control

necessarily of the politician, but they're going to take credit for it. And here, there are a lot of things that the Biden-Harris administration should be taking credit for. I think it's important that they go on that tour, trumpeting that success, particularly, I know, when you were talking to Michael, Michael being from Detroit, I think I saw the other day that Detroit valuations of homes, correct me if I'm wrong, is significantly higher in the last year than it's been in a very long time. That's the kind of thing you have to go and say, Black people, this is what my administration has done for you.

This is the consequence of our policy. And this is why you should give us another four years of a go here in the White House, because we're working for you and the fruits of our labor are things like a significantly increased housing market in Detroit. So they've got to go, because the reality is, if they don't do that, the narrative will be controlled by the other side, where they're either through misinformation or cherry-picking certain data, they will try to paint a picture that's not necessarily true. So they've got to control the narrative in this circumstance. Absolutely do that. Now, of course, going to Atlanta, Georgia,

battleground state, Detroit, Michigan, battleground state, wouldn't be shocked. They're going to go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, battleground state. But I would also, and I wouldn't be surprised if Charlotte is on that list. North Carolina battleground state, Milwaukee, Wisconsin battleground state. But I also would hope it would go to a place like Houston, although that's in Texas. That could be beneficial to Congressman Colin Allred's bid running up for the United States Senate against Ted Cruz. But you also are going to a place where you have a significant black entrepreneur class there as well. You've got HBCU, Texas Southern University, Prairie View is only 50 miles down the road. So I think all of those are critically important. And so I would really hope this is going to be

an expansive tour that is taking the message around the country, speaking to what has been done, but also what they're planning to do over the next four years. It's one thing to say what we've done, but you also have to have an agenda for what we want to do if getting reelected. Let me go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk this case out of Texas that simply will not go away for eight years. Crystal Mason has been terrorized by the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. Yes, I'm calling it terrorized. And here they now are going to appeal. They're going to appeal a Texas appeals court's decision throughout her case. This is literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in my life. And how they are just

terrorizing this black woman is beyond shameful. We will talk to her attorney next on Roller. 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 three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers.

But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. First, President Barack Obama's road to the White House. We got about 500 copies of the book available. And so this actually is all of the coverage of the 2008 election. But the other thing is, is here I talk to folks like Malik Yoba, Hill Harper, Eric Alexander, Kevin Lowe, Spike Lee, Tatiana Ali.

There's a lot of behind the scenes stuff in here as well, where I talked about some of the stuff that went down at CNN. Also, when you go through here, a lot of the photos that you see in here are photos that I actually shot, photos that were my time at CNN. And so what I decided to do, because one, I published the book and I own it myself, is that so I said, you know what, I'm going to slash the price to 10 bucks. And so we're going to have Shipping and Handling $5.99. I'm going to personally autograph every copy. I'm not reprinting the book. So once we are sold out of these $500, that's it.

They're gone. So you can go to RolandSMartin.com forward slash the first to get a copy of this book. Everybody who orders this book through the website, not on Amazon, only through RollerBetsMart.com, I will personally autograph and mail you a copy of this book. It's all of the coverage, the actual interviews that I did with him. And just to show you, of course, when it came out, there's actually even in here the interviews that I did with him and Michelle Obama, which won TV One Cable Networks's first two NAACP Image Awards. And so all of that for $10.

Shipping and handling is $5.99. So go to RolandSMartin.com the first and order your copy today. Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. When we say a Republican Party, they don't like black people. This is a perfect example of that.

This Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, they have announced that they're going to be appealing last month's ruling by the Texas Appeals Court that overturned the Crystal Mason's 2018 conviction for illegal voting. Now, Crystal Mason was on federal probation for felony conviction in 2016 when she voted in an election with a provisional ballot. Now, she says she didn't know she could not vote. This actually went to court. The probation folks said in testimony that she didn't know. She was not told. She was convicted anyway. Two years later, a voter fraud and sentenced to five years behind bars because state law only allows fellows to vote if they have fully finished their sentence, including any parole or supervision requirements. Now, keep in mind, she had to go back to federal prison for violating the terms of probation. And then they tacked on two more years of supervised release. So although she has not gone to state prison, she didn't have to go back to federal prison because she was indicted.

On March 28th, the Texas Second Court of Appeals overturned Mace's conviction because she didn't have, quote, actual knowledge, unquote, that she couldn't vote while on federal supervised release in a tax fraud case. Now, I want to read for you the statement because this is important before I go to her attorney. And it shows you how sadistic and shameful these folks are in Tarrant County, Texas. This is the statement that they released. And when I read this for you, you're probably going to say, you've got to be kidding me. This is a quote from this statement. The trial court's guilty verdict should be affirmed. Voting is a

cornerstone of our democracy. This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws don't apply to them. Crystal Mason, a four-time felon, was convicted of illegal voting on March 28, 2018, in a bench trial in the 432nd Judicial District Court. She was convicted based on testimony from the election judge and poll clerk that she read the provisional voter affidavit, affirmed that she provided accurate information, signed the affidavit, affirmed that she provided accurate information, signed the affidavit, and testified that the affidavit language was clearly understandable

to mean that a convicted felon such as herself was ineligible to vote. On March 28, 2024, the Second Court of Appeals reversed her conviction and published an opinion stating if there was evidence showing Mason may not have known she was ineligible to vote on the day she voted. The second Court of Appeals failed to give proper deference to the trial court's guilty verdict and reweighted the evidence in favor of Mason. The second court of appeals misapplied the sufficiency standard of review by not viewing the evidence in the light, y'all gonna love this here, by not viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court's verdict in contravention to binding

precedent for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The second court of appeals publication of its opinion creates the very real risk that future sufficiency cases will likewise be wrongly analyzed and decided. This office requests that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant review in this case, reverse the second court of appeals decision, and affirm the trial court's guilty verdict. That's for the Tannis County DA's office. Kim Cole, Crystal Mason's attorney, joins us right now. Kim, hate to have the fact that we're talking to you again about this case. This has been going on for eight years.

And for people who don't understand, she filed a provisional ballot. The ballot was not even counted. So it wasn't like it actually was included. That's one. They also lie in this statement, Kim, by saying that, oh, she knew this, she knew that. And then they also lie by saying that once there was evidence showing Mason may not have known she was ineligible. That's according to the court.

So they're trying to say that they're wrong. There was testimony. Wasn't there actual testimony by a probation officer who said no one told her she couldn't vote? Correct? That is absolutely correct, Roland. And it wasn't just the probation officer. He was a supervisory probation officer. So he was over all the probation officers. And he testified on the stand. And this

was their witness. This was not Crystal's witness. This was their witness that they called to the stand. And they asked him point blank, didn't you tell her that she was not eligible to vote? And he said, no, I did not. They conveniently leave out the fact that, you know, they point out that she filled out a provisional ballot, filled out her, you know, correct information. Yes, she did. Filling out a provisional ballot is not illegal. And then they go on. Who, if they were, if she didn't think she was eligible to vote or she knew she wasn't eligible to vote, who would put their right name on there, the accurate information? Who would sign the ballot

if they knew they weren't eligible? She didn't know. And that's the... Yeah. And what bothers me here, again, I love this line here,

that they misapplied the standard because they should have only reviewed evidence in light most favorable to the trial court's verdict. That's not their job. Their job is to look at the verdict, the prosecution, and the defense, weigh the evidence. So basically, the Tarrant County DA is saying, oh, y'all should overlook anything that doesn't make us look good. And that's essentially what they're saying. Unfortunately, the hypocrisy is real because we've seen time and time again that they have absolutely ignored precedent.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be where we are right now with the Roe v. Wade situation with affirmative action and numerous other precedent that has provided and expanded rights for minorities. So the hypocrisy is real, right? But that is unfortunately the standard that anytime there is an appeal, they are to view the evidence in the light most favorable to upholding the verdict. However, that doesn't mean be ignorant. And they did not prove their case. Their witnesses contradicted each other. And what they also failed to include was that the Second Court of Appeals said that even if she had read the affidavit, there is absolutely no language whatsoever in that affidavit because Crystal testified that she didn't read it. They're going on her two neighbors' testimony that was inconclusive that she read it. They're just like, well,

I think she read it. You know, she was moving her finger. Anyway, Crystal did not actually read the affidavit. She was filling out her information because on one side is the attestation. The other side is where she fills out her information. And she was putting her information on there because they did admonish her that she had to provide accurate information. And she made sure everything matched up with her driver's license. And so that being said, even if she read it, there's nothing in the provisional ballot affidavit that says that if you are

ABC and XYZ, you are not eligible to vote. Nothing in there. So how would she have known? His was also interesting. I mean, here's the deal. So she was convicted of tax

fraud. She was inflating returns for her clients in terms of repairing their taxes. Okay, that's why she went. But when you read their press release, Crystal Mason, a four-time felon, wasn't it's like, wasn't that

tied to the same case? And so they're trying to give the impression that, oh, this is a repeat offender. This woman is a menace to society. Yes, that is absolutely. They have continued to persecute and disparage her. What they failed to, Crystal isn't a saint, Roland. I mean, she isn't. Every saint got a past and every sinner got a future, okay? So

she does have a prior criminal history. Otherwise, she wouldn't even be in this situation to ascertain whether or not she was eligible to vote, okay? So that's how we landed her. Yes, she is a felon. However, what they felt to acknowledge in stating that she's a four-time felon, which

they also included the one where she was acquitted, this particular case, but we can look past that right here. Anyway, in all of her other cases, Crystal pled guilty. She admitted her wrongs, even to the case that got her sent to federal prison. She has no problem holding herself accountable for the things that she's done wrong. Why on earth would she fight for seven years to prove her innocence when in all of these other cases, she admitted her guilt because she did something wrong she was like i did it i mean i'm gonna you know i'm gonna take accountability for

my actions here she didn't know she was not eligible so she refuses i mean the responsibility right i mean the thing the thing that jumps out to me is, before I go to Matt and Michael with their questions. OK, has she gone to state prison? No. But she actually, because of this, she returned to federal prison for two years. You would think a common sense DA would say, OK, we've been dealing with this one case for eight years. They literally are spending

more time on this case than they have on heinous crimes that have been committed. So the waste of resources to me is unbelievable. This is, no, we're going to make an example out of this black woman. And this is about a creating a chilling effect about anybody else.

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's

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

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 Caramouch.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals.

Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the ad council who's formally incarcerated in voting the same thing they did when they attacked a black man in Houston who stood in line for six hours and guess what he was he was later found he could vote and he now says hey I'm not gonna vote again

because of what I went through that's what this is all about. You're absolutely right. You are absolutely right. I have, I've said over and over again, in their summation, in Crystal's original trial, they said they wanted to send a message to voters, much like their ridiculous, disparaging, inaccurate statement that they released yesterday. they are trying to send a message. They are trying to, quote-unquote, protect the ballot box as if, of course, Roland, you know where that comes from, as if folk like us shouldn't be there. And so they are absolutely still trying to send the same message. Seven years later, eight years later, we're coming up on another election, eight years later, they're still trying to send the same message. Seven years later, eight years later, we're coming up on another election.

Eight years later, they're still trying to send the same message. They don't want folks who look like Crystal at the ballot box. They are trying to protect the ballot box, not from fraudsters, because let's be honest, we've seen the documentation of who was committing all the voter fraud in the past few elections. They don't look like Crystal. So they're not trying to protect the ballot box from Crystal, I mean, from fraudsters. They're trying to protect the ballot box from those who have been typically disenfranchised by this system. And that is the whole point of them continuing to beat this dead horse. And correct me if I'm wrong.

There was a justice of the peace, Russ Casey, who admitted to forging signatures to get on the primary ballot. And he pled guilty to records tampering. He resigned. That happened in 2018. These folks are spending more time, and he was an elected official. They're spending more time going after her than they did going after somebody like him yes and in fact and in fact and in fact uh before that and he was sentenced to two years in jail

but it was probated uh over five years but they want to send her to prison they absolutely want to send her to prison because they want people who look like her. They want to protect the ballot box from folks who look like her and you and me and want to send and Mr. Rogers down there in Houston. They want people that look like us to fear that they may suffer the same fate. Look at what all they're doing. Look at all of the taxpayer money they're spending to put an innocent woman in prison. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Matt Manning, your question. So, Kim, thank you first for your advocacy. You're doing stellar work. And ironically, I'm writing a PDR to the Court of Criminal Appeals as we speak. So I really kind of appreciate it.

But my question to you is this. First, have you ever seen an appeal like this? Because my understanding is the Court of Criminal Appeals sent it down saying y'all used the wrong construction of the statute. and the opinion that came out of the second court of appeals was determining the sufficiency of the evidence. So as far as I see this, this is purely political. And to that end, is there any mechanism that y'all have to dismiss a frivolous appeal like you would like a Rule 91A dismissal on the civil side or any dismissal like that? Because I think it's frankly unethical

to appeal it following the Court of Criminal Appeals opinion in this case. But I haven't seen the mechanism whereby you could get it thrown out, you know, just on its face, because I don't know how to get there at all. From my understanding, there isn't one. We will have an opportunity to file a response to their request for discretionary review. So we're still, obviously I'm not her only attorney and we're still evaluating whether or not we will respond because to be quite honest, it's trash. I don't know. It's trash. And, you know, we're debating whether or not we actually even, you know, want to even give it the credence to draft a response.

But I believe ultimately we will, because we should say something, because this does not deserve the court's review. And hopefully the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will not take it up. But no, I don't believe there's anything, any mechanism like on the civil side where we can just get this out of here, please. This doesn't even doesn't even require one moment of your time. I mean, I think this is sanctionable, arguably sanctionable conduct, because it's so rare that you have the top court and rolling for all the viewers. The Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas is like our criminal Supreme Court. So this is basically the criminal Supreme Court saying, y'all got it wrong below, look at it again,

them acquitting, following that instruction, and then this Tarrant County DA still trying to press the issue because he doesn't want to lose in the court of public opinion. But the court has already said what it is. So, I mean, to me, it's sanctionable because I don't think there's an ethical basis on which to advance this appeal. Anyway, my thoughts. Well, I certainly hope the court actually does smack them down because this continuation of this case, it's eight years. She voted in 2016. I'm sorry, you don't spend eight years on a case like

this. Michael. All right. Attorney Cole, thanks for coming back on and giving us an update. First and foremost, how is Crystal doing with this new news? Number one. Number two, is there anything possibly the Department of Justice can do, the Civil Rights Division, anything like that, in regards to suing Texas, what have you? So, first of all, Crystal is understandably distraught. She thought finally that this nightmare was over, because it is clear that she has been targeted. They haven't put this much. I always talk about the affluenza team, you know, the case that made national attention. This young man committed several crimes, you know, stole a vehicle,

stole alcohol, killed four people, and they did not advocate him going to prison. Crystal filled out a form. That's it. She filled out a form with accurate information. She didn't lie on the form. And they want to send her to prison. This is absolutely ridiculous. I would agree that the continued prosecution should be sanctionable, because there is no basis for it, absolutely no basis for it. So Crystal is not well. She is—she's very upset. She really, really took particular issue with the DA's attempt to disparage her in their last statement. Their language was vile. And very, to me, very unprofessional. So she really took issue with that.

To, you know, paint her as a four- time felon. No, this conviction was thrown out. So you can say, I mean, so she isn't a four And she was looking forward to moving forward with her future without this hanging over her head. She has had to worry for the last seven years. At any moment, this case could have turned the opposite direction and she would have been looking at five years in jail and prison. And so she finally thought that was over. Your second question, and I apologize, I forgot what your second question was. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Oh, yeah. What role do you think I'm playing in this?

I think there's a role that they should play. There are some issues going on in Tarrant County that definitely would, as a matter of fact, there's some other issues going on in Tarrant County, may not be known to you, but those of us locally know. I actually am drafting a DOJ complaint, not in regards to Crystal's case, but in some other infringements of rights there in Tarrant County. So the DOJ should definitely step in and actually make a move in Crystal's case, too. Typically, they don't get involved in pending cases, but they definitely should look at Tarrant County's prosecution, period. Not just in Crystal's case, but in other, in their criminal prosecution, period.

Because I guarantee you, Crystal's case is the tip of the iceberg as far as this malicious prosecution goes. Wow. All right. Thank you. Well, it is just, again, again, it is shameful to me. It is utterly ridiculous. And again, they are terrorizing this woman. That's what they're doing. Their behavior is an abomination. And I really believe that civil rights groups and others should be showing up at the Tarrant County commissioners meeting, condemning the DA, demanding the commissioners do an audit of their department to waste resources, to waste taxpayer resources. Going after this one woman for eight years is nuts. And I really do hope that folks

in Tarrant County and Fort Worth are loudly protesting this district attorney, calling him out and demanding he answer to this because this just makes no sense whatsoever. I agree, Roland. I agree. And we have been, so many organizations and individuals have reached out in support of Crystal and we are planning, they are planning some type of actual action and protest of them continuing to pursue Crystal, not just in the interest of justice, but also in the interest of fiscal responsibility. They're spending taxpayer dollars on a political narrative. And that's not how the taxpayers want their dollars spent. I would think if there are funds allocated toward fighting crime, they would really prefer that they pursue people who have

actually committed crimes. Absolutely. Attorney Kim Cole, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks, I've got to go to a break. We come back more on today's show. Lots to talk about, lots to cover.

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

one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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.

I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org.

Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Over 600,000 users is raising $17 million and now is your chance to invest. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I was just in my backyard. I just said I was manifesting about life. I said, I would love to come back because it was a great time.

And these kids need that right now. They need that male role model in the schools, I think. Even on TV. People are scared to go into the high school. You know, the high school, you know what I mean? I would love to bring it back, and I think we can bring it back. You know, what do you think? I think we'll ask the people. We'll ask your people.

We'll do a poll. Y'all want to hang a Mr. Cooper? Yeah, I say let's go. We all look good. You know, Holly look good. You know, Raven looked the same. Marquise, Don Lewis. It'd be funnier than half the bullshit you see out there on TV now. God damn.

What the fuck? What happened to TV? Yeah, yeah. It's some, I'm like, oh my God. Hey, what's up? Keith Tony in a place to be. Got kicked out your mama's university. Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip hop comedy.

But right now I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Well, the tobacco lobby spent a lot of money, a lot of money getting a lot of black folks to take up their position to fight the ban on menthol cigarettes by the Biden-Harris Federal Drug Administration. Well, it looks like that was money well spent. Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced that they are not going to be banning menthol cigarettes. This was the recommendation of the FDA.

Many folks thought this was going to actually go on until next year. But the administration, again, has not provided a timeline for a final decision on the ban. Health advocates say a decision should have been made by January 20th for the ban to be in effect by 2025 because the FDA, the agency behind the ban, will need a full year for full implementation. Again, it was a very orchestrated campaign by Big Tobacco to get African Americans to oppose this. One of the things they did was spread massive lies that by getting rid of menthol cigarettes, this is going to cause significant harm in the black community by having cops target African-Americans.

And so what did they do? They employed civil rights leaders like Reverend Al Sharpton. They also utilized political strategists like Antoine Seawright. They had mothers of the movement. In fact, Sabrina Fulton sent out a tweet today saying she was thankful for this position because this decision, because it could have hurt African-Americans

being targeted by cops for having menthol cigarettes. All of those actually lies, okay? They had law enforcement out there, black law enforcement officers saying the exact same thing, and they were successful. Carol McGruder is the co-founder and co-chair of the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. She joins us right now. Carol, glad to have you on the show.

Saw you a couple of weeks ago with the National Medical Association. You had a significant number of black organizations that were in support of this menthol ban. You also had a variety of other groups as well, the group Tobacco Free Kids, a lot of people who were standing behind this. But let's just be real clear. It was big tobacco money spread around the Black community that led to this decision. Yes, Roland, we were so disappointed that the Biden administration has put a pause on getting this rule out, which was promised to be out. Actually, we're over several years now. And actually, since President Obama signed the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, we're 15 years out. And the groups that are in support of getting

the deadliest product, the deadliest targeter of Black men off the market, which are Newport cigarettes and mentholated tobacco products, in our lawsuit that we filed, an additional lawsuit that was April 2. So that lawsuit is still in play. And this will not be the first time that Black people have had to throw themselves at the mercy of the court to be protected when our own government will not stand up and do the right thing and protect us. So our co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit are ASH, Action on Smoking and Health, the National Medical Association, our nation's African-American doctors, and the American Medical Association has rejoined our lawsuit just today, as a matter of fact. So it's a sad case, a sad day when our nation's doctors have to sue the federal government to compel them to do what should be a public health decision and

not a political decision. And again, what Big Tobacco did, they had, they were funding African-Americans, me with the Biden administration. And so what they said is like, oh, you don't want to do this because this could harm your re-election efforts when it comes to reaching African-American voters. That's literally what they were saying to the Biden-Harris administration. That is correct, that they, that, that mentholated tobacco smokers are going to rebel and go against the Biden administration. But all those mentholated tobacco smokers have a family member, such as myself, who see our families dying and our children addicted, another generation of our children addicted. And so, and this has to stop. And the law that the FDA is going to put out,

it's not about the individual. This is about the head of the snake. This is about the tobacco industry, the manufacturers. So there won't be anything left to smuggle to have a black market, because we're cutting it off at the head, as opposed, a lot of times, this is compared to a war on drugs, where we went out and arrested black boys on the street. So this is about getting to those, getting to the Wizard of Oz behind that curtain who's manipulating the strings to keep the black community addicted, with us giving our resources and our bodies, our lives, paying for our own deaths.

And they have done everything they could to pull out all the stops to keep the status quo. But we will not be deterred. We're not going anywhere. And this is a fight that the thinking people of our population, the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, has two resolutions supporting this, the National Council of Negro Women. And those groups represent our voters. And those groups represent people who really take a measured, considered discussion and debate about this issue, which is very complex. And it scares people. And so we ask people like Reverend Al this fight, is putting a number, a price tag on the reparations that Black people, Black smokers who are victims of the tobacco industry, of how we can turn our people into

survivors of what has been done of this racist, pernicious targeting for decades. How can we turn that around so that our people are survivors and have good health, that they can enjoy their health here? I'm here in Atlanta right now at the African-American AIDS. How can we turn that around so that our people are survivors and have good health, that they can enjoy their health here? I'm here in Atlanta right now at the African-American Mayors Association meeting, AMA. And so our black mayors are on board. There's still discussion. But when you see your... I talked to the mayor of New Rochelle. Her father is a Newport smoker. So people are living this, seeing it with their own families as people die and become sick, and the length of time that it takes that our people cannot enjoy

their old age and be able to contribute to their family, enjoy their grandchildren, because they're too sick to do so. And so that day is coming to an end, and we need the Biden administration on board. But in the interim, we keep going city by city, state by state. Massachusetts has done it. California has done it. We're looking at Maine. And we are available to make this happen. And so that local municipalities do have the authority to ban the sale of these products in their communities.

If we do it at the federal level, then it's global. And then we're cutting it off at the manufacturer's level. But if the Biden administration doesn't want to move and do the right thing, we continue the work that we're doing to get these deadly products out of our communities and to save the next generation of our children who deserve to be protected. And again, we work with you. We work with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. I had somebody send me a text today. We were in a group chat. We were talking about how a lot of black folks were paid off. Somebody said, Roland, they didn't they didn't try to throw any money at you.

I said, no, because folk folk know how how I despise cigarette smoke. I said, so they wouldn't even attempt to try to sit here and throw some money at me. And so I absolutely was in support of this because it's also it's about black health. And people need to understand that this is what this is often what happens. People need to understand the money, hundreds of thousands of dollars that were being spent behind the scenes to get black people to oppose this menthol ban. And again, what was most insidious was for them to be throwing out that all black men could be targeted by cops and could be arrested by cops and could be harassed by cops if they had menthol cigarettes. When this ban had absolutely nothing to do with

that, those were lies that were being spread to scare black people. And the tactic worked. And it did work. And how they latch onto our legitimate pain and suffering and the legitimate need and grievances that we have and the need for reform. And that we have to be up. We have to do those same things. We have to do the police reform and we have to get these products off the market. And we need to do those same things. We have to do the police reform, and we have to get these products off the market. And we need to do that simultaneously at the same time. We can't wait till we solve racism in America to get the biggest predator, the biggest killer off the market, which is the tobacco industry. We need them out now. And that's actually probably, if it wasn't for all the political interference, an easier lift, and that this

is the beginning. This isn't the end. So people are, you know, they're afraid, like, what's going to happen? What's going to happen is, we're going to have services for our people. That's already happening. We're, we, black smokers, through the taxes they pay, they're paying, they have already paid for every single thing that they could need to help them to get off of nicotine. And so, and we're working to get them what they have already paid for, and that they need to understand that they are the victims in this, and that no one loves a mentholated tobacco smoker more than the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. That is why we exist, and that we're working hard to save the lives of the 45,000

black people who die every year directly from tobacco-induced diseases, that's not counting secondhand smoke. That's not counting all the asthma, all the poor quality of life and health that we have in our old age because of these debilitating diseases, diabetes. All of the things that we have, they're exacerbated by smoking. Most of our diabetic amputations are smokers. And so people need to understand that this touches every aspect of our life. Whether you smoke or not, it's affecting our community and that the only way the tobacco industry can survive is to addict another generation of our children.

And so, if you're an addicted smoker, protect, do the right thing. Stand up and protect our next generation of our children. This is what's at stake here. And demand the services that you need to get off of these products. And the first thing is to get it out of our communities so that it's not always around and part of our community, our norms and our communities. It's not normal. Matt. So the question I have is... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg 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 Corps vet.

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

podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, 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. Here's the deal.

We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Is there a precedent for banning a comparable product that has been specifically targeted on one demographic. And I ask because I understand the necessity, I understand the value, and I support it. I am wondering what the response has been in relation to the obvious arguments, I'm sure, on the other side about government overreach and about the idea that people have the choice whether to smoke or not. I mean, I understand... This is what people need to understand about the menthol. When

President Barack Obama signed the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, the other flavors in combustible tobacco were taken off the market. Menthol was left in. Black people are not the only people that smoke menthol, but the vast majority of black smokers smoke menthol because of the pernicious and racist targeting that we have endured for decades. So Canada, the European Union, which is made up of several countries in Western Europe and Europe, they've taken it off. And so that conversation of race, they have black people all over the world. So the black Canadians, they weren't saying, oh, our black Canadians need menthol because they didn't endure the racist targeting that we've had. You know, when you're

in Detroit, you look across the river, and there's Canada, the difference between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, which is a stone's throw. That's the difference in this fight that we have in America for justice, for health justice, for Black people. And health is our first civil right. You can't enjoy any other rights if you're unhealthy. And so our community, we need to get healthy, and we need to get the vector of death and disease, which is the tobacco industry, out of our community. And however you feel about it, you need to disclose that you take money from the number-one killer of Black people, if that's part of your conversation. If you're defending them, if you're feeling that, you know, we have the right to pick how we want to kill ourselves, you need to disclose that you take money from the

tobacco industry. People need to know that. Michael. Hey, Carol, thanks for coming back on again. I remember when you were on before dealing with this topic. And it's interesting that a lot of these people, these civil rights leaders, et cetera, who say Black Lives Matter would take money to not ban menthol cigarettes and save black lives. That's a conundrum right there. But two quick questions.

Number one, how would this ban actually work? Because before I think we're talking about a ban on manufacturing, not on possession. So how would the ban actually work? And two, where can people go to get factual information on what the proposal is, what the proposed ban is? Those are great questions. So our website, which is savingblacklives.org, savingblacklives.org, you can go on our website and you can sign up to get all of our email on our e-blast. We have sometimes links where you can go and sign in and sign up and let your congressperson know how you feel. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, they have a lot more resources than they do. So they already have the forum up right now, where you can write your congressman to tell

them how you feel about this. So they're a great source of information, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. They have all of the cities and states that have already enacted legislation to take these products off the market. So how this works in different ways on the FDA level, the tobacco companies, they would still be allowed to actually manufacture in this country, but they could only export, which is another issue because we're allowing them to export death to someone else, but they would no longer be sold, but it would not be illegal to purchase them or to use them. And so we know that people, I'm from the hood, I'm from the community,

but I have my own family members. In California, we passed a law. They still are getting some products. So it's a process. It's not magic. We passed the Voting Rights Act 50 years ago, where I just was listening to, where they're trying to put this sister in jail who tried to vote. So these fights are real. And they're not going to go away tomorrow. It's not going to be some magic. It's going to be digging in. It's the beginning of the end of this, of these decades of predatory targeting. And it takes resources. It takes our people to know that we're supporting them, and that we're going to get healthier together, and that our federal government,

our state governments, our local health departments need to give black smokers what they need and to treat addiction, nicotine addiction, in all its forms and the effects that we have, we endure because of stress, because of racism. So we're looking at innovation to help our people to get off of these products. So we need to work on supply, and we need to work on demand as well. We know there's still demand, and we are rolling out as quickly as we can. We're giving technical assistance to governments and cities across this country of the best way to help our smokers to know that they can stop,

they can get off of these products. And they can. They really can. They just need a little extra help. All right, then. Well, look, keep the fight up. Carol, we're going to continue with the ballot as well. It is not over. It's not over. It's far from over. So we're not going anywhere. And we're going to stay tuned for the lawsuit. It's possible that the federal, that the courts will intervene and they will handle this. And so that's our next line of defense is what the courts are going to say. All right. Well, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Prime Minister of Haiti resigns. Will that lead to stability in the country?

We'll tackle that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. A lot of y'all have been asking me about the pocket square. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1 Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and

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

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

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

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers.

But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We're available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here. It's all about looking different. And look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying

to tell fellas, change your look, please. You can't wear athletic shoes every damn wear. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square, these shibori, is because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares. But also, I like being a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey at Essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser.

I saw this feather pocket square, and I said, well, I got some ideas. So I hit her, and she sent me about 30 different ones. And so this completely changes your look. Now, some of you men out there, I had some dudes say, oh, man, I can't wear that. Well, if you ain't got swagger, that's not my problem. But if you're looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket squares saying, see, check mine out. So it's always good to see them. And so this is what you do. Go to RollinusMartin.com forward slash pocket squares.

You can order shibori pocket squares or the custom made pocket squares. You can order shibori pocket squares or the custom-made pocket squares. Now, for the shiboris, we're out of a lot of the different colors, and I think we're down to about 200 or 300. So you want to get your order in as soon as you can because here's what happened. I got these several years ago, and the Japanese company signed the deal with another company, and I bought them before they signed that deal. And so I can't get access to any more from the company in Japan that makes them. And so get yours now. So come summertime when I see y'all at Essence, y'all can be looking fly with the Shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket square. Again, RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares.

Go there now. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now that Haiti's presidential transition council is in place, the Prime Minister Ariel Henry has resigned. The nine-person council, comprised of seven voting members and two observers, representative of Haitian political parties and civic society groups, was inaugurated at Port-au-Prince's National Palace on Thursday. They will spend the next several months trying to create stability in the Caribbean country.

The violent gangs have overrun since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Johanna LeBlanc, partner at the Adomi Advisory Group, has served as a foreign policy advisor for the Haitian government and recently served as a senior staffer in Capitol Hill. She joins us now to discuss what happens next. Johanna, glad to have you here. So, look, at the end of the day, they've got to get a hold of security. You cannot have these gains controlling the country, but that also means having some sense of stability. Who can actually lead this country to a sense of normalcy? Thank you, Roland. It's always a pleasure to join you.

So, now that the presidential council has been installed, the next step will be to appoint a prime minister. And then the prime minister will create a cabinet of ministers. And the whole purpose is to, one, ensure the smooth transition of the Kenyan-led mission into the country to help address the post-security crisis in the country, and, two, to also organize free, fair, transparent, and inclusive elections in the country that is scheduled to happen in November of 2025. But there are a lot of concerns. The people on the ground are concerned about the Kenyan-led mission coming into the country, and rightfully so, because previous interventions in the country

have failed greatly, in particular when the United States occupied Haiti for over 20 years. And then you had the UN mission that came into the country, brought cholera, which led to the killing of countless Haitians and left many Haitians sick. So rightfully so, they're skeptical. But what I think, though, with the Kenyan-led mission is that President Ruto has demonstrated himself to be a Pan-Africanist. I think it's a great opportunity

to have another Black nation supporting another Black nation and finding stability. But there will certainly be challenges, and I think President Ruto is up for the challenge. Yeah, a lot of challenges, but also you have all these conflicting parties. And it's like, you know, how will folks be satisfied if you can put leadership in place that will act from a presidential level, prime minister level, from a government level to get things going?

Because it just seems like, you know, Haiti is in a constant state of drama and instability and insecurity. Yeah, since 1986, the country has dealt with severe instability. You are absolutely correct. And the country is on its knees. Haiti, something that I think that's important for the viewers to understand is the role of Haiti in the liberation movement. Haiti, as the first Black independent country in the world, its independence was not just about Haitians liberating themselves from the oppression and suppression of France,

but it was also about liberating other Black folks, right? So, a year after the country gained its independence, it amended its constitution to make it such that anyone who is Black who were to step foot on Haiti's soil would be considered free. A white man could not own land in the country, nor be a slave master. So those sort of laws severely undermined the notion of white supremacy, and Haiti had to pay a price for that. One, the reparations and the billions of dollars to France. And the United States did not recognize Haiti as an independent state for over 60 years. And, beyond that, Haiti helped with the independence of many countries across the region. So, now Haiti has helped its friends, its neighbors. Haiti is now on its knees,

and it is time for the rest of the world to support Haiti. And this is why I welcome President Ruto's mission into the country. It shows solidarity. It shows Pan-Africanism. And I think it's also an opportunity for President Ruto to show to the rest of the world what a prosperous collaboration could look like between two Black nations. Question from the panel. michael you're first all right thanks for uh coming on and giving us giving us an update on haiti um added two quick questions one is um what's the can you explain the purpose of the gangs uh ousting uh ariel henry number one prime minister ariel 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 ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts I'm Clayton English

I'm Greg Glod and this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast yes sir, we are back in a big way in a very big way real people, real perspectives this is kind of star studded a little bit man we got Ricky Williams, NFL player Heisman Trophy winner big way. Real people, real perspectives. This kind of starts at it 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 Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working,

and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

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And we know they released about 4,000 gang members from, well, prisoners from prison as well, number one. And number two, understanding the history of the U.S. involvement in Haiti and destabilizing Haiti, stealing $500,000 worth of gold in 1914, the Marines, and then ruling Haiti for 19 years. Is there a role that the U.S. should play in stabilizing Haiti, or should the U.S. just stay out of it altogether? Sure. I think your question is two prongs, right? The first one is about the gains. First and foremost, the gains that we are seeing in Haiti, they're not driven by an

ideology. They're not driven by an ideology. They're not driven by a belief system. They are driven primarily because of the lack of economic opportunities that exist on the island. And, secondly, they exist because they are being financed by political elites, by some members of the oligarchs, and so on. And many of the guns that they use to terrorize people in the country actually come from South Florida. So, when people ship cars and cargoes to the Republic of Haiti, they sneak guns into them. And because there's not proper inspections, they end up in the hands of bad actors in

Haiti, then distributed to the gangs. So what you saw recently is that, in terms of the oust of Prime Minister Aguilar-Lee, is that the gangs formed a coalition and said, you know, let's work together, let's get rid of Prime Minister Aguilar-Lee. And they successfully did that, something that many people in the country, many sectors in the country, members of Congress, had been calling for Prime Minister Aguilar-Lee to resign, and he didn't do so, right? So it took the gangs to play a significant role in the outstaying of Prime Minister Aguilar. Now, your second question about the role of the United States government, one, yes, I

think it is a great idea that a Kenyan-led mission is going to come into the country to help address the insecurity crisis. But Kenya is going to leave at some point. Now, what's going to happen? Right. So while Kenya isn't a country, we have to help to strengthen the security institutions that currently exist. One, the Haitian National Police, severely underfunded, severely lack the equipment and

recent technology to fight these gangs, they need to be further strengthened. Two, the United States has invoked the Leahy Act, which makes it unlawful for the use of U.S. funding for the purpose of the Haitian military. No state should be without a military. That's just unacceptable. And the military is to fight external threats as well as internal is to fight external threats, as well as internal threats. So right now, as we speak in Haiti, as we speak today, although Haiti has a military, it does not receive any sort of support from the United States government. So I think the

U.S. should support the Haitian state in strengthening its security infrastructure, so that when Kenya leaves, Haiti can fight and fend for itself. All right. Thank you. Matt? I'm really glad Michael asked that question because that was going to be the genesis of my question about the United States and our responsibility, if we have one, in being involved in stability. And I guess kind of the nexus of that question or the corollary to that question is this. Is there a potential for Haiti to have an international law claim to say essentially the United States has passed legislation preventing support of the Haitian military, but we go around the world as the world police and give money to other institutions and states all the time, right?

I mean, we're funding a lot in Ukraine. So is there any basis for an international law claim against the United States or other nations for expressly disallowing support to the Haitian military? Well, first and foremost, the Haitian military was initially disbanded in 1986 due to gross human rights violations. And as you know, the United States Congress does not fund militaries that commit human rights violations, which some of us will say completely hypocritical, because there are other nations that we know that have committed gross human rights violations and remain to and continue to receive funding from the United States. But what happened is that, in 2017, the Haitian army was recreated with a new, with new entities, with new parties, with new individuals that have not been accused of any sort of human

rights violations. So, the question is, why isn't it that the United States is not lifting the Leahy Act so that the use of U.S. funding could be used for the purpose of strengthening the Haitian national police. But beyond the security infrastructure in Haiti that needs to be strengthened, we need to look at the economic conditions of the country. Many of these challenges that we see is caused by lack of jobs. More than 60 percent of the Haitian population is unemployed, and about 80 percent of the port-au-prince is controlled

by gangs. So what needs to happen is that, in addition to humanitarian assistance, in addition to security assistance, the U.S. government must also, Congress in particular, must pass an economic package to revitalize the country's economy and help with the creation of jobs and the creation of various infrastructures such as roads and buildings and ports and so forth. Thank you. All right, Pam. Johanna, we really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Look forward to hopefully some good news

out of Haiti coming soon. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, we come back. We're going to talk about this case of Ohio. Body cam released of an African-American who was killed there. We'll give you the details on that. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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right here, only on Blackstar Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. on 50. The body cam video of a handcuffed black man in Ohio has been released on April 18th. 53-year-old Frank Tyson was involved in an accident. Police found him in a Canton social club near the crash. The struggle began when the officers tried to grab Tyson, who said repeatedly,

they're trying to kill me and call the sheriff. As he was taken to the floor, the cops restrained Tyson with one, placing a knee on his back, prompting Tyson to scream that he could not breathe. Officers told Tyson he was fine and he needed to calm down. The cops were joking with bystanders and leafing through Tyson's wallet

before they checked on him. When an officer commanded Tyson to stand up, he did not move. It was then they rolled him over and realized he was not breathing. The body cam video is over 30 minutes long. We'll be about to show you an edited version done by a local affiliate. There are some audio drops in this version. So here we go. The guy who did this, he's in the VFW.

He ran in there. He ran in where? He's in the building right now, yeah, And there's cars right there. All right. Yeah. He's in the VFW right now. Birch, you want to come with me? Please get him out of here. 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. 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-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. They're trying to help me. They're trying to get me. They're trying to get me. They're trying to help me. They're trying to get me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me.

They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're on the stairs.

They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're trying to help me. They're trying to get me. They're trying to get me. They're trying to help me. They're trying to get me. They're trying to help me. They're on the stairs. They're trying to help me. They're trying to help me. Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff!

Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff!

Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! There's money to kill me! You're gonna get sprayed! You're gonna get sprayed! Call the sheriff! There's money to kill me! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff! I got him, here it goes. You want that one? Say when.

You're good. Give me his other hand. Get off me. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. I can't breathe. 20-29. Stop fighting.

I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Keep them out. I'll be glad to listen for you. I can't breathe. You're fine.

I thought he was here to pick up the to-go order. I've always wanted to be in a bar fight. I don't know if this counts. Matt, what I'm confused by is the man says, I can't breathe. The cop goes, oh, you're fine. But then you don't go back and check on him. You're joking, things along those lines.

It literally makes no sense to me you have that many officers around and you don't actually check on the person who's in handcuffs. Absolutely. around and you don't actually check on the person who's in handcuffs. Absolutely, especially in the wake of George Floyd and some of the other cases that we've had. I mean, I would think any self-respecting police officer would be going above and beyond, especially when somebody particularly says that they can't breathe. I think they'd go above and beyond to ensure that the person is safe, that they're in good health and that they're not in any kind of medical peril. So here I think that you have a big issue with that. I will tell you the rest of this contact I think is going to be difficult in this case in particular because I think what they're going to say immediately is that there was resistance. And that doesn't mean that the force that they used was justified. But this is going to be, I think, a difficult case because of the inception of the contact

as between the police officers and this gentleman. But once he's on the ground, once he's subdued, the fact that they're not rendering medical care, I think, is going to be a problem, particularly because we've recently seen cases where paramedics have been convicted, right, of not providing medical care timely. So I'd be interested in seeing if the criminal authorities have looked at this case for a criminal element on that, in that regard. To that particular point, Michael, that again, the arrest is one thing. The lack of care and compassion after he is handcuffed is another.

Yeah, it is. And looking at that video, yes, he was resisting arrest. Yes, it took force to arrest him. It appears he may have been intoxicated as well. But once you arrest them, the suspect in your custody, you're responsible for their well-being, OK, whether they're guilty or not. You're responsible for that. And according to the article from NBCNews.com, it says that Frank Tyson laid on the floor motionless for more than five minutes before police checked him for a pulse. And he laid on the floor motionless for about eight minutes before CPR was started on him. OK, so they're standing around, not checking for a pulse, not caring for him, even if he was guilty of everything that he's accused of, OK?

So there was a lack of care. There was a callousness here. And then one—it also said that an officer appeared to have his knee on Frank Tyson's upper chest for about 30 seconds as well. So hopefully justice will prevail here, but it seems like there's some gross negligence when it comes to how the police handle this. Well, you talk about justice. Let's go to Colorado, where the paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a deadly dose of ketamine avoids prison. He was convicted in the case, Jeremy Cooper.

He had faced up to three years in prison after being found guilty in a jury trial last year of criminally negligent homicide. He was the one who gave the dose of ketamine to 23-year-old Elijah McClain. Yet the officer has been sentenced to probation. The family is, the mother said, quote, eternal shame on all of you. So, you know, we talk about justice, Michael, but okay, fine. A guilty verdict is one thing. This cop, he gets, excuse me, this paramedic, he gets off. He gets probation.

Elijah McClain is dead. Yeah, this sounds like another case of white privilege. this paramedic, he gets off, he gets probation. Elijah McClain is dead. Yeah, this sounds like another case of white privilege. I think he should have gone to prison. He was guilty. He needs to be held accountable. And also, when you hold, when verdicts are rendered, when sentences are rendered, oftentimes they're not just to correct behavior and punish somebody for behavior, but it's also a deterrent for other people who may commit the same type of acts.

So here, this is really saying that Elijah McClain's life had no value. We know it did, but based upon the sentence that was rendered, apparently his life had no value. Matt? I'm actually going to take a different position on this. I don't like any sentence that looks like a judge or a jury is going light in a circumstance that's tragic, such as this one in heinous. However, I will say, first, probation is not a cakewalk, particularly on the type of probation he got. There are a lot of probations here in Texas, for instance.

You can get probation on a first-degree felony. And if you violate that probation, you're looking at the full range of punishment, $5 to $99 or life. So I tell you that to say, while people may want him to have gone to prison, probation can be extremely problematic if somebody doesn't adhere to it. And there's still a very big anvil hanging over a person's head. And that's actually what I'm writing a PDR about right now, which is asking the Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn a verdict on a client of mine who was convicted before I was his lawyer and is on probation and was revoked.

So, probation can be severe if a person is not handling it. And even if they are handling it, there are a lot of conditions. But beyond that, criminally negligent homicide, I think, is a very difficult charge to prosecute, because it is the criminal equivalent of negligence. So, I have never been a fan of that charge. I think that's always a hard charge. And I think, in this case, because this paramedic did have statutory authority to administer medications, I do think that that probably puts it in a different light.

I don't know who administered punishment, whether it was the judge or jury here. But without knowing more of exactly the evidence against this paramedic, I don't want to necessarily render judgment that this is not the correct outcome. I get the optics, but unless I know all the evidence, I don't think I can say that with any level of intelligence. But probation is not always a cakewalk. And this could be a circumstance where the judge or jury, whomever meted this punishment out, thought that this is a person who didn't have anything in their background and should get this opportunity. But it is not one where they don't have the opportunity to take it away from them if they don't adhere to those conditions.

So there's still a lot of risk there. And if they don't adhere to them, then perhaps they'll be going to prison. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back black and missing and more on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Next on A Balanced Life, we're talking everything from prayer to exercise to positive affirmations and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way. That's on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, on Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We welcome a towering intellect, activist,

master theorist, prolific author, and unstoppable firebrand for change. The one and only Dr. Errol Henderson joins us to talk about his new book, The Revolution Will Not Be Theorized, Cultural Revolution in the Black Power Era. And this is what's going on in so much of academia and in some movements circle is a lot is an anti-black national it's an hour of power you don't want to miss that's right here on the black table on the black star network i'm faraj muhammad live from la and this is the culture the Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern

and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's The Culture, weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Judy Proud on The Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar

on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Gabrielle Troy has been missing from Stone Mountain, Georgia since February 26th. The 14-year-old is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Gabrielle Troy should call the DeKalb County Police Department at 404-294-2911.

404-294-2911. While a story out of Baltimore for a Maryland high school athletic director has been charged with faking an audio recording of the principal making derogatory remarks about students and racially derogatory remarks about students and staff, Pikesville High School AD, 31-year-old Dijon Darien was arrested for disrupting school activities after Baltimore County police said he created the falsified audio recording of Eric Iceworth in January. The audio clip using the principal's voice went viral. The audio recording was a rant about teacher inadequacies, low test scores of black students, and complaints about Jewish families in the community. Police say Darien's motive was retaliation for an investigation of how he spent school funds. This here was an absolutely wild story, Matt.

I remember when it came out. And now they're saying, do use AI to get back at the principal. This terrifies me. This terrifies me for all of us, for my clients. I mean, I don't know. I think we're going to get to a point pretty soon in society, and I think I've said it on the show before, where one of the things that concerns me about AI is us as a society and our ability to discern the truth from fiction. And there's a popular app, I think it's called Parrot, where you can put in what you want the presidential candidates to say, and it spits out a video that looks like it's Joe Biden or Donald Trump with what sounds like their voices saying whatever you've put in. I don't know how we are going to

discern from what's real, between what's real and what isn't, without one brilliant people putting together software to be able to figure that out, I guess, or mechanisms to determine that. But from a prosecution standpoint and even from just pure accusation standpoint, this is scary, because this is the kind of thing where it passes as real so easily that you don't know. And especially in a case like this, you can build outrage, you can disparage a person, you can kill their whole reputation on something that isn't real. So I see this being one of the concerns that I have about AI, one of the concerns that I have about

AI, one of the concerns we've talked about on here, even despite all of its... 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, 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 glad and this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Beneficial capabilities. Michael.

Yeah, Roland, you know, this is a crazy story. And this is one of the concerns. I have real concerns about artificial intelligence, just like Matt does, because you can, one, when it comes to elections, presidential elections especially, but, two, you can use it in retaliation against people to invoke anger and invoke people to take actions, to take matters into their own hands. And then, after they have committed acts of violence, after possibly they have killed somebody, then they find out, oh, it was a hoax, oh, it was a fake.

So one, there's going to have to be strong legislation and regulation of artificial intelligence. Here we have a situation where the technology is more advanced than the laws that regulate the technology is. Secondly, you know, when you do something like this, it makes people—for the next case where it may be something legitimate, it may cause people to be reluctant or hesitant to support that person who claims to be the victim, even if they are, when you misuse a situation like this to try to cover up something that you allegedly did. Absolutely. Unbelievable. And trust me, we're going to see more stories like this with AI becoming much more prevalent. Let's go to Texas, where a black Texas mayor running for re-election received a package with a noose and a threatening note. The Arcola police posted this on social media,

asking for help finding out who sent this to Mayor Fred Burton. The note demanded that Burton drop out of his 2024 campaign. The threat comes amid a string of controversies during the mayor's campaign. Folks there, well, you know, look, somebody's sending you a news, Matt. They pretty much are telling you exactly how they feel. Yeah, they are from Scranton, Pennsylvania. So Michael Scott and his progeny are, you know, calling out this mayor. I didn't understand this at all. I read the article that was sent, and it looks like obviously this mayor has been a little embattled. Let me say first, there's no justification for this. It's not acceptable. They absolutely need to prosecute if they found who sent it. But what's very strange is, if you look at the

address on that package, it's from Pennsylvania. So I'm really interested in seeing if they're able to make a connection as to why somebody would be sending something across the country like that. But I guess this mayor has had some at least accusations of improper use of taxpayer money to investigate another city council person. And it's sad that in 2024, you know, we still have to deal with this as black people, that it's still this kind of racial vitriol. But I do know that the Postal Service has investigators who work for specifically this purpose. So hopefully they're able to track that and hold accountable whomever sent this to him. Yeah. And to that point, you send this in the mail. That's a federal crime, Michael. Yeah, it's a federal crime. We want to know who sent it, get to the bottom of this. I don't want to jump to conclusions also, because it could be a legitimate racial

incident. I don't know. But at the same time, you know, I remember back when, after Dylan Roth killed nine African Americans in South Carolina, and there was a rash of black church fires after that, and people associated the black church fires with the killing. But when you do the research on those church fires—and I reported this extensively on my radio show and when I was on the Empowerment Radio Network—some of those church fires were—maybe two or three of them were done by a black man. Okay. So I don't have all the details here. We want the full investigation. It could be a white supremacist. Don't know. So, uh, you know,

we need to get the full details here, but this is crazy regardless what it is. Um, indeed it is. Uh, all right, folks, g gents that is it I gotta get out of here I gotta participate NAPCO the group of Black County executives they are meeting here in Miami and I'm participating in a moderated conversation with DA Fonny Willis and so looking forward

conversation let me thank Matt let me thank Michael for joining us today's show folks we thank all of you as well you're gonna be in California LA area tomorrow I'm gonna be at Cal State University We thank Matt and we thank Michael for joining us today's show. Folks, we thank all of you as well. You're going to be in California, L.A. area tomorrow. I'm going to be at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, emceeing the Domini Jazz Festival. I did that last year.

Looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. And also Saturday and Sunday we'll be in Los Angeles for the George Lopez Golf Classic. Looking forward to hanging out with the homies for that as well. Folks, that's it for us. And tomorrow, shout out to all my LBs. Shout out to John Williams, Freddie Ricks, as well as Paul Stafford. Tomorrow is my 35th Alphaversary. And so looking forward to that. That's the Pyle McCrown chapter of Texas A&M University.

Crossed April 27, 1989. And so shout out to the LBs and RIP to our brother, number one, Kevin Roberts, who of course passed away on tomorrow in 1999. So certainly prayers for his family. He's in the Omega chapter. Folks, I appreciate all of you. Don't forget, support us in what we do.

We're doing great work here at Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. You know, I got some news about some other shows that are no longer being aired. Bottom line is, look, we got to have daily news shows that speak to our perspective, covering our news and information. And so your support of this show is invaluable. I say this all the time because it absolutely matters. It absolutely matters with what we're doing. We're out here fighting the battle again on the advertising front, trying to get more of these ad dollars, but it is not easy. And so please, when you

contribute to the show, it doesn't matter what you contribute, all of it goes to go back to support this show. Every dollar is crucially important. And again, the goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each. That comes out to be $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. If I had charged folks, let's say $6.99 to subscribe for the year, it would cost a hell of a lot of money. But we wanted more people to have access to our information

because it is important. And so when you give, you are making that possible. And so please send your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash shop, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Support us, of course, by getting my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Mind, available at bookstores nationwide.

You can get the audio version on Audible. I certainly read that. Also, got a fire sale going. I got 500 copies left of my book, The First, President Barack Obama's Road to the White House. There's a original report about Roland S. Martin. Of course, I'm going to be personally autographing every book. I see a bunch of your orders coming in, and so please, get yours.

Once we're gone, that's it. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. You can't find this book on Amazon. You can't find it anywhere else uh i won't be uh printing any more copies so once it is gone that is it and so you want to go to rolling s martin.com forward slash the first rolling s martin.com forward slash the first and if y'all trying to get ready for summer you're looking for some snazzy pocket squares get our shibori pocket squares get our customized feather pocket squares by going to rolling s

martin.com forward slash pocket squares. Trying to get the brothers looking all cool. And so y'all definitely want to get that as well. All right, folks, that's it. I'll see y'all next week. Ha! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

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