#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TN 25-Year-Old Brutally Beaten by Cops, MO Who Killed Derontae Martin, MS Teen Saves 4 People

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

7.20.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TN 25-Year-Old Brutally Beaten by Cops, MO Who Killed Derontae Martin, MS Teen Saves 4 People  Truly disgusting video of Tennessee cops viciously beating a black man after breaking into his house. They say he eluded the police for a minor traffic violation.  And a disturbing cold case out of Missouri, what happen to Derontae Martin? Why is the family still seeking answers more than a year after the death of the 19-year-old? And why do they say several people have been trying to cover up his death? We'll talk to his mother and hear what she has to say about what happened to her son. A Mississippi teen is hailed a hero for saving three girls and a police officer from drowning. I'll talk to that teen about his heroic act. And in our Tech Talk Segment, a black entrepreneur's app to help black women find maternal care. Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

Roland Martin and the Pilcher broadcasting live from Birmingham, Alabama, where we are here covering tomorrow's SWAT media day. Coming up next on the Black Star Network, folks, we have a video of Tennessee cops viciously beating a black man after breaking into his house. They say he looted the police for a minor traffic violation. The video is absolutely disgusting and wait until you see it. Now, a disturbing cold case out of Missouri. What happened to Durante Martin? Why is the family still seeking answers after the death of his 19-year-old? We will talk with his mother and hear what she has to say about what happened to her son. A Mississippi teen is being held a hero for saving three girls and a police officer from drowning. I'll talk to that teen about his heroic act.

Also in our Tech Talk segment, a black entrepreneur's app to help black women find maternal care. Folks, a lot we've covered today. It's time to beam the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered from Birmingham on the Black Star Network. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, yeah.

It's on go, go, go, yo. Yeah, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rolling Martin Now We're holding Martel now.

Martel. We're at tomorrow, the Southwestern Athletic Conference will be holding their media day. All of the team representatives will be here, head coaches. And so we look forward to chatting with them. We'll be live streaming tomorrow right here on the Black Star Network. And so always glad to be here in Alabama where my frat brother Randall Woodfin is the mayor of the city. And hopefully we'll catch up with him while we are in town. Lots of news that we want to cover, folks, and just some amazing and shocking stories that we have to cover.

First of all, let's go to Tennessee. We're a Tennessee family. They want answers after video showing cops breaking into the home and brutally beating a 25-year-old black man goes viral. Now, folks, the video is quite disturbing. Brandon Calloway, the DoorDash driver, and he was, cops say he went through a stop sign, 32 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour zone. Brandon apparently was extremely scared of a police encounter.

He chose to continue driving home and ran into the home. The cops then broke the door down and pursued him and viciously beat him. Folks, so I'm warning you right now, if you don't want to, if you don't,

be very careful, if you don't want to see this video, please turn away. It could be very triggering to some people, but I want you to take a look at it. And so go ahead and let's roll that video. Stop! Stop! Stop! Randy! Randy! Randy! Stop! Stop hitting him! Stop hitting him! Stop! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop! Stop! Stop it! Stop!

Why are you chasing him and hitting him? He has no weapon! He has no weapon! Why are you chasing and hitting him? He's beating him and chasing him! He has no weapon, sir. There's no weapon. They're being aggressive. I have all of this on video. No, I need to record this. No, you will not. Don't put your hands on me. Do not put your hands on me. I don't know if he's in here or not, but I heard the door slam. Where we going? Bring me my phone, Zaria. I need to call my mom. I need to call his mom. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Look how they're doing here.

Stop hitting him. Stop resisting. Stop resisting. Just stop. Just get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get off of his neck. Get off of his neck. Get off of his neck.

Stop. I'm putting you in jail. Stop. Stop. Stop! Stop! Chill! Chill! Chill!

Chill! I know! Chill! Randy! Well, listen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I messed up this location. No, you ain't cool. I didn't. Now, folks, this took place in Oakland, Tennessee. Now, on Saturday, police say 25-year-old Brandon Calloway failed to stop at a stop sign and was driving 32 miles an hour in a 20-mile-an-hour zone. Officers claim that when they tried to pull him over, he refused to stop and instead drove half a mile to his home and started running into the house,

they said, reaching into his pockets. Calloway faces charges of evading arrest, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and speeding. The Oakland, Tennessee Police Department has not commented on the pending case, but the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, they are now investigating. Calloway's attorney, Andre Wharton will join us tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I saw this story earlier because Brandon is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. I'm a live member of Alpha and I was talking to today earlier with our general president Lonzer and he said they have been in contact with Brandon

as well as his family and are involved in all of this. And so this video, again, has been spreading like wildfire all across social media today. We're joined now by Robert Petillo, executive director of the Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project, Monique Presley, legal analyst and host Make Make It Make Sense with Monique Presley.

Dr. Jason Nichols, senior lecturer, African-American Studies Department, University of Maryland, College Park. Glad to have all three of you here. Robert, I'll start with you. Your assessment of this video, the circumstances here. There are people who say the cops were in the right to bust down the door, that Brandon Calloway broke several different laws. Your thoughts? Those are ridiculous arguments. Let's understand that even if everything that they accused him of was true, that still does not give them the right to brutalize an individual. We've seen in recent months the Buffalo shooter, for example, murdered dozens of

people and they've caught him sitting down and were able to take him to custody without incident. We saw Dylann Roof, where they took him to Burger King afterwards after killing nine people. But for some reason, if it's a traffic stop, if it's any minor infraction, they seem to bring down the strongest hand of justice possible outside the realms was any minor infraction, they seemed to bring down the strongest hand of justice possible outside the realms of any informed police training, outside of any proportionality to any threat or fear. We hear the same old tropes. He was resisting. He was running. He was reaching his pocket. None of that justifies or is anywhere taught in the police academy that you were supposed to beat somebody into submission the way they did in this case. And it's just another

situation where if not for the tape, if not for this being filmed, who knows what would have happened. And the idea that African-American males, if with any encounter with the police, have to be on tape in order to ensure their life and ensure that they can come out of those situations unharmed and unmolested, I think is a commentary on the nature of America right now. And I hope this individual is able to, one, recover from his injuries, but two, is able to recover from the city and the department

and any municipality associated with it, able to recover monetarily for what was done to him. Well, Nick, your assessment? Yeah, I hope they go to jail. I'm tired of this. I am not certain on Robert's analysis. When you say they, you mean the police?

Pardon? When you say they, you mean the police? Yeah, the police. Because I agree to a certain extent with Robert's assessment regarding there being no justification for them being in the home. But I actually think that that is the place of the most egregious breaking of all protocols and laws. What they did once they were in the house, which they shouldn't have, that's assault, that's battery. But I'm interested in under what possible justification other than the lie they no doubt told about him reaching. And then you hear, you know, there's no weapon recovered, et cetera. This is a traffic infraction. And this is something common that people go to safety, but they still then had to follow whatever their protocols were at that time, whether it is knocking, whether it is ascertaining who owns the home.

They obviously did not believe that the people in the home were in danger or they wouldn't have just gone in there like rodeo cowboys the way that they did. So there along the lines are repeated multiple instances where they have abandoned protocols, proper guidelines and procedures, and where I believe that it'll be proven that they broke the law. So they should immediately be on administrative leave pending investigation. And then there should be steps taken by their chain of command. And obviously, the young man already has an attorney, so they will handle that civil side. But on the criminal side of it, where these police officers think you don't have the right to tell them no, you don't have the right to leave, you don't have the right to seek shelter. It's false and it is criminal. Jason, as I

unpack this, as Monique said, it's a traffic violation. They literally pursued him as if he beat somebody or shot somebody. And then, again, what Monique just said, so you bust into the house. You don't know what's on the other side of that door. You have no idea. And you're pursuing him.

He's in the house. He's not going anywhere. That's where police could have simply stopped at the door and said, sir, we need you to come out. The house is surrounded. But to bust, tear the door down, race up the stairs, grab him by the neck, and beat him because of traffic violations. Yeah, I think the part that really made my heart jump was when the police officer put his foot on his neck

when he was already down, and he had another very large human being on top of him, and he was a very small human being. And I believe at that point he was cuffed. Like, they weren't even cuffing him, if I'm not mistaken. I could be mistaken about that. I don't understand, I mean, going 10 miles or 12 miles over the speed limit, how that, first of all, justifies that many officers. I've never, I don't understand that.

But I agree with everything else that's been said. When you, when he ran into the house, I'm not so sure that that gave, I'm sorry? I'm sorry, I thought somebody had said something. I'm not sure that that was, you know, justification to enter the house with guns drawn. They did not witness him, even by the way he was dressed, I'm not sure that that was justification to enter the house with guns drawn. They did not witness him even by their own admission with a weapon.

They just saw a man running into his own home after a minor traffic violation. I think you're right about them surrounding the house. Again, I'm not an attorney and I'm not a police officer. But one thing I can tell you is I have not only a doctorate in American studies, I have a doctorate in common sense. And one of the things that I can certainly recognize is that it doesn't seem like that level of force was justified, that they were I'm not certain they were justified to even go inside the home. So I agree with what Robert said and what your other guest said, that they should, you know, have established a perimeter, made sure everyone else inside was safe. They certainly didn't make the people inside safer going in there

with guns drawn, running in like cowboys, running after this young man. I also, you know, in an investigation would like to know, you know, with guns drawn, running in like cowboys, running after this young man. I also, you know, in an investigation, would like to know, you know, more context for, you know, what was happening in terms of what the young man, what was going on in that space where we didn't see with the camera. How, you know, did he end up bloody like that? I mean, we know he was hit by the police, but we didn't see with the camera. How did he end up bloody like that? We know he was hit by the police, but we didn't see what occurred there.

And I think that's going to give the police a little bit of plausible deniability and say that he was possibly, he had swung on them, or he was resisting in some sort of violent way, or he picked something up. Unfortunately or hopefully there's body cam footage that will show us what happened inside that room while his relative or friend was outside with the camera. And Roland, one thing I think we have to look at is, where was this same energy in Uvalde's? Where you have three, four hundred officers, you have them standing around in hallways, not going inside, not wanting to make a scene where you have an armed gunman, an actual armed gunman who was murdering people. And they took no action versus somebody running a traffic stop, running, going over the speed limit and running to their own house.

And they chased him around that room like an animal. They literally looked like they were chasing some small animal, swing and stick at it, grabbing it by the neck, putting their foot on it, trying to hold it down and restrain it. So this idea that this is a proper police protocol, look at exactly what he did in Uvalde's, to your point, about setting up a perimeter, diffusing the situation, finding out are there other armed individuals, ensuring that there's no other person's lives in danger. Instead of doing all that, all the stuff they did in Uvalde's, when it is a black life, when it is a black man in question, you break down the door immediately. You chase him around like a cornered animal. You put your foot on his neck and you drag him out bloody. I can't, we cannot continue to ignore this in

America. It's time for federal legislation. And if you're looking at those senators who are holding it up, that's why we have elections, because it's time to make sure we make a change. We cannot continue looking at this footage our entire lives that we have for the last several generations. And of course, yeah, police department not responding. But I'm just still struck by that video of them busting through the door, chasing after him, going upstairs. And again, I always say, we always talk about how police should be de-escalating situations. This went to a whole different level. And yes, I get running a stop sign.

I get going 32 in the 20. I get all of that. I get not pulling over and driving half a mile and then jumping out of your car and running in your house. But I still don't understand that if I'm the police and I got guns and he's in the house, I can actually sit there and wait. That depends. And I can get on my... No, no, no, no, no, no.

But follow me here. I'm talking about in this case right here. They're chasing him into a home. We always hear police talk about how unsafe things are. But I'm just trying to understand here how do you go from what he did to what happened? That to me makes no sense whatsoever. Right. And so the steps that,

the things that we don't know that are going to have to be known. And that's why I said it really starts at that door threshold. because by the time he is resisting and you hear his mom or whoever that was saying, stop resisting, stop resisting. So the video is what it is. And we know what we know. And we know that officers, if they're in too close a proximity to Taze, which it looked like they were, and if they're dealing with someone and they don't know the environment, they don't know if there are weapons in the home, there are all kind of justifications

that they're going to use for those actions that took place inside the house when they were trying to facilitate an arrest or at least facilitate a detention and get them to be still so that they can move from there to arrest. So I don't like starting there. I like starting further back. But what I would need to know is what they knew about the car on the radio run, what they knew from running the license plate, whether they had it established that this was his own home that he was going into, whether he used a key to get in as he ran in, what they knew, what they didn't know. Because police officers have justification to chase and to enter under exigency, where they believe that there is a

weapon and that someone is going to be a danger to others. So if they don't know that he's going into his own home, but for instance, they could say he could have been going into a neighbor's home, into a stranger's home. They bring in the, we we saw him grabbing, because then they formulated their story. We don't know how much of it is true or not. If they knew that was his home and they did not see any potential for a weapon there, then I don't think that there's any justification under any jurisdiction for them crossing that threshold in the way they did.

But if, on the other hand, they thought that there was potential danger to the people inside the home, then Robert's comparison is accurate, except for it's the fact that the Uvalde police should have run in there. No pass go. They knew exactly what they were dealing with. They had every obligation to run in there. And these officers, only if they knew, for instance, there was a gunman inside the home, potential hostages, potential loss of life. They had the obligation to do the same. And we just don't. I haven't seen those facts yet to be able to figure that out. So I think you. Well, it is certainly. I'm sorry. Jason, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say, I think you've all

these a little bit of a different situation. And I think for the reasons that people stated, number one, they had already had reports that people had seen a weapon. And then they heard gunshots and didn't go in. But establishing the perimeter, I don't think people are upset about that. But once they started hearing gunshots and getting more 911 calls and still have, you know, taking no action, and you had several different police units there, you know, from DPS and all of that, and them still, you know, as a collective not doing anything, I think is what has everyone outraged about Uvalde. I think this situation where no one saw a weapon, even the police by their own admission said they thought they saw him reaching,

but they didn't see a long gun or anything like that. They saw a man running into, presumably, and again, this is probably making a little bit of an assumption, but as was stated, they probably ran his tags. They probably saw that was his home where he lived. They saw him running into his own home. And from what they saw, he didn't have a weapon. would assume, you know, that that would not necessarily lead to the exigence that Monique just stated. But I think they're definitely going to use that as an excuse. But the excessive brutality to me is, you know, what we didn't see on the camera. We didn't see in that room when he was bloodied. I don't think he got bloodied

before that point. I think it was after that point. And I think that's the thing that's going to be difficult legally, is we see how, you know, he was severely injured. He was cuffed later, and we didn't necessarily see what happened there. i think if there's no body cam footage i think that there definitely needs to be more done. But we've been seeing these kinds of situations throughout the country. This is why we need more transparency. We also need, at the same time, we need to see the dash cam footage of what exactly occurred. I know they said 32 miles per hour in a 20 mile per hour zone. But was he driving erratically? Did he accelerate past that?

Was that just the initial speed and then he sped up? So there are lots of variables that I think need to come out of the investigation. But certainly it doesn't look good for the police in this Tennessee town. Right. And I think that that's the issue is we can't make the assumptions. The issue is, and that's why I said what I said, we need to lay out as much as possible. And over time, we will know more about what they knew. But anytime I hear officers start talking about furtive gestures or reaching and there's no gun that turns up, there's no weapon that turns up, I know that they tracked backward and started trying to give themselves reasons for the actions that came next. And in this instance, the difficulty is, and we, for instance, don't even know that he he was seriously and severely injured. We know that there was a lot of blood. So we know that that and that could mean that he got hit on the head.

When you get those soft tissue injuries and ends up with a lot of blood, then you clean the face and then there's like a bump right here. So we don't know what the extent of the injuries were, but it doesn't matter in that if they weren't supposed to be in there in the first place, they are the ones who created an assault. And it frankly is a problem with our law enforcement regulations across the board. I'm going to say what I'm so sick of saying, George Floyd Justice and Policing Act would have fixed this, would have made for some federal regulations with respect to the manner in which police officers can behave in different instances and the way that they can be held accountable. Because right now, all error, all mistakes yield on the side of the officer because it's in the officer's perspective. So they can say they think they were afraid. They think they saw a weapon. They think they saw a furtive gesture. They can say that they felt threatened. They can say that there was a

flash of a glimmer of light and they thought that glimmer was the end of a barrel of a gun. And these are all things that have been said. And so they can say these things and then they end up justified in their actions. Because what do you counter that with if the only thing that you're looking at is what would be reasonable for the officer? And that's why Vice President Harris, way back when she was Senator Harris, was saying it should be what is necessary. The standards should change. So President Biden did what he could by way of executive order, changing those standards as it relates to federal law enforcement officers. But where we have these cases where it's state, municipal, local law enforcement, and they really, I mean, that looks like something ridiculous and from the wild,

wild west. And if you look at this home, you know, if you think about this family, it's not just this one individual who's traumatized. You've got a young girl in there who is screaming and looking at a family member she obviously loves just calling his name as he's being taken away. You've got a mom who is just hysterical. You've got another family member that's running up the stairs with no clothes on. And think about it. They didn't know anybody was coming that day. The home is spotless.

You know, I mean, this is a nice home. All intents and purposes, a nice family. He's coming into a place that he thinks is supposed to be safe. And they breach the threshold. They breach the threshold of safety and, again, abandoned all protocols. And it will really be up to them to show that it was, one, necessary for them to do that, and, two, that they did not do that having the kind of information that should have led them to make some different decisions. And, Jason, just kind of to clarify the point I was making with the Uvaldes comparison,

is that the response that we saw in Uvaldes is the response we should have saw in this case. The response we saw in this case is what we should have seen in Uvaldes. That the amount of effort, the amount of just sheer violence and aggression those officers used in this case, that's what we expected to see in Uvaldes when we heard those children being massacred in that room. I expect to see them kicking in the door, breaking into and swinging sticks, doing whatever it takes to subdue the person. Clearly, they have the ability because they did it in this case. But when you're talking about somebody going 10 or 12 miles an hour over the speed limit and then driving a half mile, I would have expected, OK, we'll sit here, we'll wait for command and control, we'll set up a perimeter, we'll talk to the individual to find out what's going on,

we'll determine if there's anybody in danger inside or if there's any additional weapons. And at that point, we will try to make contact and de-escalate the situation instead of going in like they were some kind of animal control group trying to get a possum out of somebody's living room. Because at the end of the day, there has to be some level of human rights associated with an individual, and it does not appear that this police department had any interest in doing so. Secondarily, we've talked about the issue of mental health when it comes to policing, that the, for suffrage and mental health in black men is never recognized. If you look at that video really slowly, just every time they flash the victim's face, that boy is terrified. You can

see the horror in his face. You can see in his eyes and his brain playing through all the tapes of George Floyd, all the tapes of Ahmaud Arbery, all the tapes of Tamir Rice, and wondering if this will be the end of him. So for the people who are saying, well, why did he resist?

You can see that this man is going through a crisis. And instead of being put in a chokehold, instead of being beaten with a stick or a foot being put on his neck, he probably needed to talk to a crisis manager or to a mental health expert who could explain to him and talk him down that he was not in danger. He was only being charged with a misdemeanor for a traffic offense, as opposed to simply escalating into this level. So until we can reform police training where they can recognize that African-American men can have mental breakdowns, can panic, can be in a situation where they don't make the right decision, but that also does not justify this level of police brutality against an individual. Until we can get to that point, we're going to continuously have

this happen over and over again. We would love to have federal legislation on this, but that is not going to be realistic right now. But what we can do is change our state and local methods of dispensing law enforcement. We can go to our county commission. We can go to our city councils. We can make sure that whoever, the mayor or whoever else, whoever's in charge of hiring and firing the police chief makes those changes. And we have to do it city by city because we cannot count on the federal government right now. Well, again, what we continue to see

are, again, story after story after story after story. And so we're going to talk about a story coming up next out of Missouri for the families still asking questions about how a young black man died there. Folks, you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from Birmingham, Alabama, site of the SWAC Media Day taking place tomorrow. We'll be back in a moment. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, have you heard that it's not how much you earn, but how much you keep that matters?

Well, the secret to building wealth could be hidden in our tax code. That's right. Joining me on the next Get Wealthy is someone who calls herself the gatekeeper to the IRS. And she's going to be sharing the secrets and strategies you need to know, whether you're a business owner or an individual, how you can get wealthy. That's right here, only on Black Star Network. Sexy to me is the exact same feeling

as running water, ever flowing. Water always finds a way to get through. And so when you know that you're sexy, there are no questions about it. It is an ever flowing emotion. It is an ever flowing feeling. When you question it though, you stop the water. I actually, I struggle with this a lot,

mainly because I've been told what sexy should look like, what it should feel like. As a model who did Sports Illustrated, you're told that this is what sells sexy. But then you travel the world and what's sexy to one person is not sexy to another person. I'm more of a mind fuck kind of person. How can you stimulate the brain?

To me, that's it. Next, on The Black Table, with me, Greg Carr. We connect the dots and reveal a big picture you absolutely need to see. We'll explore how all the recent Supreme Court decisions fit together, like hand in glove, with the longstanding and very patient agenda of the GOP. As one of our guests tells us,

conservatives are playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers. And we're getting really close to checkmate. A black table you won't want to miss. That's next, only on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D. James. Hi, how are you all doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seale.

Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What up, Lana Well, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Blockstar Network, we are here in Birmingham, Alabama, covering the SWAT Media Day. Today is a setup day of players and coaches arriving as we speak. And so we look forward to interviewing many of them tomorrow, getting ready for the upcoming season. We've got, of course, Deion Sanders returning as Jackson State head coach,

getting all the headlines. Hugh Jackson, former NFL coach, he is the new head coach at Brambling State University. Prairie View University has Bubba McDowell, former NFL player. So a lot of new faces and so a lot of things to talk about here in Birmingham for SWAC Media Day. And we look forward to bringing all of this to you right here tomorrow on the Black Star Network. All right, folks, let's get back to today's news. Steve Bannon is on trial. Remember, he's the one who refused the September, January 6th committee's subpoena. Well, guess what happened, y'all? First of all, the prosecution is already arrested, and

today they played numerous videos of Bannon repeatedly saying how he was going to defy the January 6th subpoenas. Monique, I'll start with you. This seems like a pretty cut-and-dry case for the folks.

Now, of course, Bannon tried to come in late and say, oh, hey, I'll be happy to testify only if it's live. And they're like, nah, player, too late, too late. You screwed up. I'm glad to see the Department of Justice going after an idiot like him for thumbing their nose at a congressional committee. And, of course, he tried to say he would testify because Trump released him from executive privilege. He didn't have none. No, he didn't have any. And this is not a case of someone making that mistake who did not have the benefit of counsel. He's got plenty of money. He had lawyers who were responding for him the whole time. So he can't say that he didn't know any better. He did. I think the consequences are going to be de minimis. I think that there

probably will be some deal struck. But this is just the beginning of the consequences he'll be paying going forward. Any possible jail time here, Robert? Do you know? Unlikely. Let's remember that despite the fact that Steve Bannon admitted to everything that he did on camera, let's be for real, what he's charged with, violating a subpoena, lying to Congress, failing to testify, those aren't going to really—we're talking about putting him away under the Espionage Act or under treason or something along those lines. What Steve Bannon is doing, he has the calculated risk that, guess what, whether or not, whatever the penalty that I have will be less severe than the penalty for rolling over and

incriminating President Trump. The only reason he wanted to testify live was he, President Trump wanted somebody to go to the Capitol and defend him, to present the counter-argument, to present the pro-insurgency argument during the insurrection. And because nobody was doing so, President Trump, quote, unquote, released him from executive privilege so that he could go and put on a show for President Trump to get some counter-programming out there. The committee did not fall for that. So Steve Bannon understands that even if he did go to jail, let's say it was for 30 days or 60 days or 90 days, then he'll come back to his radio show, his podcast, and everything else that he has in his media

empire and the money he will make will be even more. So the benefit for him is on staying loyal to Trump, not on being on the side of the American people or the truth. Jason. Yeah, I agree with Robert, particularly with that last point about, you know, if you've ever met people who watch, you know, War Room and they love conspiracies. They love the idea of the deep state, that there's some sort of, you know, huge bureaucracy that wants to take down the little guy and anyone who speaks out. So I think, honestly, if he actually did jail time, that would actually benefit him in a lot of ways. It would bolster this idea that he's fighting, you know, these big invisible powers of the government.

And that's exactly the kind of thing that he would want. Now, I don't know if, I mean, he looks like he's done 50 years in jail if you look at him. But when you take his audience and the kind of things that he sells them, I think that they would actually eat that up, that, you know, he's being victimized. You saw how General Flynn became this kind of figure for this alt-right audience because he was supposedly mistreated by the FBI and by the big deep state, as they call it. So I think that this would actually benefit him. I agree also that he wanted to testify before Congress to make it kind of a crap show so that it would run all over Fox News and other conservative outlets. And they could sit there

and say, you know, hey, look at this counter argument and try to discount everything that happened. And you're seeing, you know, where they're making the people who actually stand up, you know, kind of pariahs within the Republican Party. The Arizona Republican Party just censured that gentleman from Arizona whose name is escaping me at the moment. But they censured him just for having some integrity. The House Speaker. Yeah, the House Speaker. Right. Yeah.

And, you know, they censured him. We already know that Liz Cheney is probably going to lose in Wyoming. So I think that, you know, unfortunately with all of the bombshells, I think if this were 1972 or even 1992, I think that this would be, you know, incredible, unbelievable information that's coming out of this committee. But we're in 2022. And right now, only about a quarter of the country is really paying attention. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of this information isn't getting through. And I think a lot of Americans aren't taking the threat seriously. And just real quick on that point, I find it interesting that people believe this act that Steve Bannon puts on. This pro little guy, working class, you know, a slub, kind of looks disheveled,

looks a little dirty and unkept, like he's just a real working man. When they arrested him for embezzling all that money that they built those idiots out for building the wall, for people who forgot, Steve Bannon was indicted for stealing money that was supposed to go towards building a private border wall. They found him on a half-billion-dollar yacht. These people do not represent the little guy. They are not part of the same deep state conspiracies that the rest do. The 1% they're talking about, they are part of, and they're putting on an act to make it seem like they represent the little guy.

Well, I never trust somebody who wears three shirts. That means they must have some massive body odor. I'm just saying. All right, y'all. Speaking of the Department of Justice, a lot of progressives, Democrats, are highly critical of Attorney General Merrick Garland saying he is unfit for the job, unable to do so, has not prosecuted or indicted Donald Trump, saying that they have good reason to do so. Now they're angry that after Rachel Maddow reported that Garland is abiding by what Bill Barr said, you know, no sort of indictment before the election.

So there's no particular impact. Well, today, Garland was asked a number of questions. He reiterated that no one, including Donald Trump, is above the law and could very well be indicted. We talked about also about this massive investigation they're undertaking and why it's taking so long. Take a listen. A January 6th question. You have said time and time again that your approach is to move from the bottom up and to go where the evidence leads you. Recently, people have posited alternative ways of going about this. One of them is called the hub and spoke notion, sort of targeting the group of

people around President Trump and then considering the rioters as one spoke and also looking at the electorate scheme as another spoke. Can you just explain to us if there was a decision point early on in which you decided to go the way that you did, why you rejected these other potential paths. And as a follow, have you seen anything either coming out of Fulton County in Georgia or anything out of the January 6th committee that has moved the investigation in any direction? So there are a number of assumptions based into this meeting question. I'm very familiar with this. I'm a former trial lawyer, but there is a lot of speculation about what the Justice Department is doing, what central tenet of the rule of law, is that we do not do our investigations in public. This is the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation

that the Justice Department has ever entered into. And we have done so because this effort to upend a legitimate election, transferring power from one administration to another, cuts at the fundamental of American democracy. We have to get this right. And for people who are concerned, as I think every American should be, about protecting democracy. We have to do two things. We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism,

the way the Justice Department conducts investigations. Both of these are necessary in order to achieve justice and to protect our democracy. Just one follow-up. Do you think you have enough resources to do that? We know that the budget request was made earlier this year was not complied with. Do you feel that you need additional resources? The Justice Department would always like additional resources and would be happy to take them, but we are going to accomplish our mission here. The people in the Justice Department are committed to this. They are working 24-7 on this. I think I'll start with you. Do you still have faith that Attorney General Merrick Garland is up for this task? A lot of people think he's frankly failing.

Whose name did you say? I said, do you believe, do you still believe he's up for this task? Were you talking to me? Yeah, yeah. I said, Monique, do you believe, do you still believe that he's up for this task? Me? No, I didn't hear, was you referring to me? Yeah, yeah. I said, Monique, do you believe that Merrick Garland is, do you believe that Merrick Garland is up for this task? Many people, I keep hearing more and more people say that he has failed thus far. He is not being aggressive enough. He is being too passive. But he needs to be far more aggressive and moving

against Donald Trump and others. Yeah. I mean, the people who are saying it, like, have never been attorney general. And most of them have never been senior assistant attorney generals. They've never been line attorney generals. Like, they haven't been secretaries in the Justice Department. They're not career criminal prosecutors who have had to do this type of investigation. And in any other circumstance, their common sense would ride out and they would know that something like this can take years, not a year, years. Like you can be investigating a citizen for bribery and the paper trail is so thick in order to make the case, to make it a through line from the people who very obviously did certain actions all the way to where the top is. And as he said, to do it with integrity. But you've got a man like

Merrick Garland, who frankly just has a good amount of experience doing this exact thing. And it's probably that this country is so used to this trigger-happy way of running the country that was the Trump administration, where they spoke before they knew the answers. When they didn't have the answers, they lied about the answers. They took executive action, so-called executive actions, and it was thick binders full of white paper. Everything about it was fraudulent, was rushed, was not prepared. So returning to normalcy and trying to, and it's obvious that work is being done because there have been charges after charges after charges, and it's obvious that they're going further up. You don't start with the biggest fish without anybody to prove it. You work,

you crack the smallest nut possible, and then you either get people to give you as much information as they can to lead you to the next one. You go up the rung. You arrest those. You make deals with those, and you go from there. lacking in experience about how to do what he's doing and have no clue what's actually happening in the investigation because they're running a tight ship and it's on lock. So these people need to be left to do their jobs. The House is doing its job and they're doing a bang up job over there and the investigative committee. So I believe that there are two paths that at some point will end up working together. But that in short, maybe not short order, we will see significant charges from the higher ranks of the Trump administration.

And I do believe that Steve Bannon will ultimately cooperate. That's my theory on Steve Bannon. Jason, do you believe that Merrick Garland is moving too slow or that he is moving at the right pace? Your assessment. So my assessment is, so there are signs on both sides of this. First of all, I agree with Monique that these investigations, you know, take time and that things need to be done. And he seemed he gave a very measured answer. It made me disappointed that he's not on the Supreme Court where he should be. But at the same time, some of the things that have been coming out, for example, that the Justice Department has demanded a lot of the documentation that the congressional committee has collected. And some people

feel as though you should already have that. You should have a lot of this information. You shouldn't be getting it from Congress. Now, I think he's done a really good job and he's been impartial and fair and kudos to the Biden administration for staying out of the Justice Department's way, not trying to influence it like we saw in the last administration. And I think sometimes when we jump out there, you know, many of us in the media, we like to, you know, get quick stories and get quick answers to everything. And that can be a mistake. I think that's to be honest, this may upset some people, but I think that was one of the mistakes we made with Russiagate, you know, when we were like Trump's in Russia's pocket

and we had all this evidence and, you know, the night were like Trump's in Russia's pocket and we had all this evidence and, you know, the night after night on some of the big networks, you heard about it. And then they couldn't prove it in the long run. So I think taking your time and not jumping to conclusions is a good thing. And Merrick Garland, I think, is, you know, in the good sense of law and order, is a law and order kind of guy. He hasn't interrupted that investigation in Delaware of Hunter Biden. Many people think, you know, he would have shut

that down because he's a, you know, he's a Biden appointee, but that's not what he's done. He lets his attorneys do their jobs and to work these things through. And I agree that this is a big, enormous case where it's going to take, you know, a whole lot of work, a whole lot of due diligence, and you cannot just indict the former president of the United States without very solid evidence. Roland, can I add something? Hold up, hold up, hold up.? Hold up after Robert. But, Robert, we've had numerous legal analysts say they presented enough evidence already to indict Donald Trump. There's no such thing as enough evidence.

Anybody who's ever tried a case always knows that enough evidence is always more evidence. And this idea that you need to speed run this trial. Understand this will be the most significant prosecution since the Norberg World Crimes Tribunal. We're talking about the indictment and the trial of a former United States president, but not just a former United States president, all of the other people involved in this conspiracy. So his chief counsel, you'll see an indictment with Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis on it. You may see other cabinet officials, maybe the attorney general, chief counsel to the president, General Flynn. On down the line, this could end up looking like the Nuremberg war tribunals at the end of the day.

And so when you're going at a case like that, you can't miss. As Omar from The Wire said, if you're going to come for the king, you best not miss. Imagine what would happen if you rushed this and, as Jason said, ended up not being able to secure a conviction in the case. You've just set the country up for a civil war at that point in time. You already have about a third of the country that wants to succeed at any point in time, and the idea of their president being prosecuted and then acquitted at the end of the day might set them off. So you need to take every moment that you can, gather every piece of evidence. If you're

going to go to trial with President Trump, you need to make sure that you have that conviction ready lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. And right now, Merrick Garland is saying, I'm waiting until I get all of the information in. I do not want to rush this because if I am wrong, that could indeed destabilize the very fabric of the country. So by all means, take your time on this one. Okay. Monique, real quick. Yeah, I was just going to say people assumed that the reason the Justice Department wanted the information that Congress, the Congressional Committee collected was because they didn't have that information. But it's really in any number of circumstances, the fact that they want to make

sure that what was said to Congress is the same as what was said to them. Because I can name quickly at least 10 people who we've seen testimony from in Congress that also spoke to the Justice Department like way last year, spoke to them and continued to speak to them. So it's not a question of the Justice Department not talking to everyone they need to talk to. If they learn of somebody new, that's different. But they're looking at two different things that are both one that's under oath and one that may have been just speaking by cooperation and trying to see if there's more there or if lies have been told or if a perjury charge is possible or if there's different information or follow-up. So people just, the justice firm is going to be strapped.

I got to end this conversation. Okay, I got to end this conversation right here because I've got guests who are holding. I'm going to take a real quick comeback. We're talking about this case out of Missouri that is very strange, folks. A young black man who died last year. Family's still trying to figure out what the hell happened. What's going on here? You're watching

Roland Martin on the Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. The strange case out of Madison County, Missouri. On April 25th, 2021, black teen Durante Martin was found dead in the attic of a white man's house with a gunshot wound to his head.

The homeowner is a man named James Wade, who is said to be a known white supremacist. The local coroner quickly ruled his death a suicide. After months of his family's questions and the completion of a second autopsy, an impaneled jury concluded that Durante's death was the result of violence, not suicide. It's been a year and no one still has yet been held responsible for Durante's death. The family wants the Department of Justice to get involved in finding out what happened to Durante Martin. Katie Ryan is the chief of staff for Campaign Zero, and Erica Lotz is Durante Martin's mother. They join us now to break down this quite disturbing story. First off, let me ask you this, Erica. So did Durante know this man, James Wade?

No. He did not know James Wade. Okay. So Durante doesn't know this guy. So how in the world did Durante end up in the guy's attic? Durante went to the house with a friend of his who lived there. At the house.

Okay, so a friend of Durante's lives at this house. Is Durante's friend related to James Wade? I'm not sure of the exact um relationship James Wade uh uh Katie do you know yeah actually so this is Roland first of all thank you so much for elevating this story um it is exceptionally disturbing. And as you suggested earlier, we have far more questions than answers. So a lot of the questions that you're asking off the jump are quite a few of what we need answered. The real timeline of Durante's death actually started last year, April 22nd, 2021, where, and which was a day that Durante actually had surgery on his hand. So he had a broken arm, had surgery. He was in a cast in his right arm, dominant hand, right? Hand to wrist,

or hand to elbow, rather. And two days later, we know that he went with a peer, a group of peers, who took him to a party that was occurring at the home of James Wade. James Wade, as you said, is a known white supremacist. He's an individual who prominently hangs a Confederate flag from his front porch, has a Facebook profile riddled with racist jokes and memes. Durante, as one would expect at a home of a white supremacist, was the only black individual at the party. The party was, all the other attendees were white. That was on April the 24th. What we note to that point is then at three o'clock in the morning is when Durante's body was found in the attic and sort of like a makeshift closet of the home of

James Wade. And we have the 911 call that James Wade made very calmly to local police to say, apparently a guy just shot himself in my attic. And in fact, we have the audio of that 911 call, if you want it, for anyone interested on our justice for Durante dot com site. That is the timeline of his death. And then, of course, there is a series of subsequent happenings that make this case even more bizarre and have been barriers to accountability. Was there any type of investigation by authorities? Well, what we know is that after Durante was found dead, no authorities contacted Ms. Lotz about her son's death. Within 24 hours of his killing, a coroner had already conducted an autopsy, embalmed his body without Ms. Lotz's permission,

ruled the death as suicide. Ms. Lotz only spoke to authorities, the local sheriff, two days after his death on her, because she initiated a phone call. She called and spoke with the sheriff who said they could provide no information. She obviously knew her son very well and that a suicide was out of the question as a cause of death. She hired an independent pathologist to conduct a second autopsy. That independent pathologist showed that it, in fact, was inconsistent with suicide. Then a jury was impaneled. That jury determined the cause of death was violence. It was not suicide. Then a jury was impaneled. That jury determined the cause of death was violence. It was not suicide. That was supposed to spark a second investigation moving from the sheriff and into the hands of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

So hold on one second. So hold on one second. Hold on one second. I'm trying to, again, I'm following here. So Katie and Erica, you're telling me that a jury was in panel. Was that a grand jury by the DA? Yes. Yes, sir. Okay. So the DA, so the DA impaled the grand jury. The grand jury said it was violence. Death by violence.

Has the DA... So the DA hasn't indicted anybody? No, sir. Well, to this date, zero arrests have been made in the case of Durante Martin. Okay, okay, okay. Hold on, hold on. I'm sorry.

Okay, I'm confused. I'm still confused here. The DA impaneled a grand jury, correct? Yes, of six members. The grand jury came back and said death by violence, correct? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And go ahead. I'm sorry.

Yes, sir. They told me that it was death by violence. And they pretty much are going to leave it as a suicide. OK, wait a minute. OK, I'm, again, I'm not a lawyer. I've covered enough cases. And I'm, Katie, I'm absolutely confused here. When a DA impanels a grand jury, and the grand jury comes back and says, death by violence, normally a DA indicts somebody or somebody gets arrested. Are you saying that the DA hasn't indicted anybody? This guy hasn't been arrested? Nobody's been arrested in a year? Yeah. So what's interesting about this case, and I think specifically, this is specific to Missouri state law, was that the jury was impaneled because of a coroner's inquest. That jury was essentially to review all of the interviews, review the outcomes of the autopsy, and then draw the conclusion if it was plausible that this was death by suicide

or death by violence. Their determination that it was death by violence is what triggered then the case moving out of the sheriff's department and then being reassigned to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is the way that the investigatory bodies sort of begin to escalate in the state of Missouri. So the case moved to the Highway Patrol. The Highway Patrol, in theory, investigated. Ms. Lotz has been provided with very little information. All that we know is that the case has been closed, that they determined also it was suicide,

that no arrests were made, and that there are no charges being brought against anyone. Wow. So, Erica, that's it? That's just, their whole deal is sorry? Yes. They didn't even say sorry. I asked Sheriff Katie when I spoke to her about,

could you tell me what happened? And she told me she couldn't tell me anything. And I said, so the only thing you can tell me is I have a dead son. And she told me exactly. There are multiple things. Katie, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. No, I was just going to say there's just at every turn and with every sort of body of law enforcement that this case has moved through, there has been inconsistent work, to put it lightly. There has been a complete lack of transparency about who is doing what.

And there has been, quite frankly, like a level of cruelty and callousness that Ms. Lotz has encountered. She has been told both by the sheriff and then by an officer within the Missouri Highway Patrol that the best thing for her to do was to accept the fact that her son committed suicide, which makes no sense given the fact that, again, to revisit, he had just had surgery on his dominant hand. So he was in a full cast. He was at the home of a known white supremacist who, and Roland, this is going to blow your mind, this is the second individual at this man's property who has allegedly died by suicide. There was another man named Nicholas Lowry a few years prior whose body

was found at James Wade's property, shot in the head, and the coroner ruled it a suicide as well. So we have a pattern of behavior here. Was Nicholas Black? No. And it sort of, I think that makes the the a little bit more interesting, the story a little more interesting. He had closer ties or relationships with James Wade. And it just sort of goes to show that there might be a level of comfortability of covering up crimes at this particular individual's house. Well, I literally just astounded um um certainly keep us abreast erica and katie what happens uh we certainly would do our part to elevate this uh let us know if there are going to be any public rallies or demonstrations or anything around this case because it's certainly, it's a lot of folk

I got questions for. I'm telling you, I mean, here's the thing, Roland, we are really sort of like, we don't want this to be the case in which another black man in Southern Missouri dies and we just accept what people are saying is true, right? But that we are challenging this in a very loud, vocal, and public way. We want to drive people to the site justicefordurante.com. We would love to

see the federal department get involved to have this case completely moved out of Missouri so that we can have fresh eyes and actually get to the truth about what happened to this young man who was about to live his dream of playing college football and that we can get Ms. Lott's answers. We can't get her son back, but she certainly deserves peace of mind to know what happened to him. Katie, Erica, I thank you both. Keep us abreast of what happens.

Absolutely. Thanks so much for having us. Thank you. Thank you both. Keep us impressed with what happens. Absolutely. Thanks so much for having us. Thank you. Thank you. Robert, Monique, Jason, I've heard some strange stories. I ain't never heard a situation where they impanel a grand jury and they conclude it was death by violence, and all of a sudden the Mississippi Highway Patrol goes, I'm sorry, Missouri Highway Patrol goes, no, it was suicide.

Wow. I'll start with you, Robert. Well, you know, I need some more information because, like you were saying, this is an absolutely ridiculous case. And quite frankly, most forensic labs can very quickly tell whether or not a gunshot wound was a suicide or not. You look at whether or not there was dust residue on the hands of the individual who committed suicide. You look at the angle of the inter-room wound and of the exit wound. You look at the type of ammo that was loaded, whether or not the individual owned a firearm, where the firearm came from, those sorts of things. So it's not really that difficult to find out whether or not a suicide did take place.

In this case, it does sound like another situation where the death of a black boy is simply not being respected by America. You do not give them those same human rights. You do not put a second thought into it. And therefore, you believe the kind of cockamamie story that it was a suicide. So I do think more information has to go into this. I think the state of Missouri Justice Department, their attorney general, launched an investigation into it. We saw in the Ahmaud Arbery case that it wasn't until the state stepped in and intervened that we saw an actual prosecution, and later on the conviction of the May Michaels and the other individual in that case. So more information has to come to light, but the family absolutely has to continue

fighting this going forward because there's more there than what we're seeing. Monique? Yeah, I mean, I'm very familiar with this case. I want to thank you, Roland, for taking the time to amplify the work that Campaign Zero has been trying to do, which is really just has been screaming into the void about this case. The Justice Department, as you know, it takes so much for them to be able to take cases on. So it really, we have to have a continuous outcry where you can't, in cases like this, trust the state. There have been so many

things to go wrong in Missouri, whether it's Ferguson or beyond, that we are seeing more and more of the same. Two important points. The prosecutor for Madison County called this inquest, which is a coroner's inquest, because of the suspicious circumstances. So even though there was this coroner's report quickly saying suicide, he called for the inquest, maybe thinking that they would confirm that and quiet everybody down. But after listening to the testimony, this jury got together for two hours and came out and said, no, it was death by violence. Important to note, a neighbor testified in the inquest. And these are all public records saying that James Wade, the supremacist who owns this house, had all but confessed to him at a Walmart, you know,

that it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to get away with if he had done it or something like that was the quote. I'm not using the exact language, but I'm pretty close to it. So we had that witness. We had others who were in the house who were saying, you know, that it was unlikely that it happened in this way. We had his full cast on a dominant arm. And they're saying that a gun that wasn't his, that he somehow in the attic decided at three o'clock in the morning that it was time for him to end his life. The family doesn't know what happened to the gun. The gun didn't belong to him. That the place where he died had been cleaned, had been in some ways anesthetized. The scene was trampled. There were a lot of people there. It was a party. So we don't have pictures of exactly what happened or how he was found. To Robert's point, you would think that there would be some things that you would suicide, that the scene and things were not

consistent with suicide, but unreliable as well because they did this first examination and then embalmed the body. So making it very difficult to be accurate in all scores on the second part. So this is one of those cases where if we could see that the police had done it, people would be all over it because, one, that's considered a high-profile case. Two, there's a sure finish line for civil litigators on how somebody is going to life in front of him. And we've got this known white supremacist who seems to be either knowing way more than he's telling or worst case scenario, getting away with murder and something absolutely needs to be done to let the Missouri law enforcement officials know that this is not going to go unanswered, that people are not going to just be quiet and go away. Absolutely stunning, Jason.

I couldn't believe it. You know, I mean, I read about the case, but I couldn't believe hearing particularly that there was someone else who had committed suicide in a similar manner at this guy's house. I mean, that's literally the same, you know, uh, probability as getting struck by lightning three or four times. Um, it just doesn't add up. And the fact that they had a protest in that town, which was, uh, you know, in that area of Missouri, which was home to a Ku Klux Klan member who was killed by his wife a couple of years ago. And one of the things that happened at one of the

protests for Durante was that people threw nooses at the protesters. So I think that when you take that all into account, you start to see why these charges aren't being filed. Why, you know, things like the embalming of the body and all these kinds of things. It just reminded me kind of of Emmett Till, how they tried to bury him really quickly before the news got back to Chicago that he had been killed. I cannot fathom. You know, I've been trying to think of another explanation, and I know that there were people at the party who said it was a suicide. Now, if I were 17 or so, and I'd seen or maybe been in an area where a young boy had been killed, maybe I would say it was suicide too too out of fear.

And I think that that needs to be taken into account as well. But this guy essentially confessed. I mean, this is, you know, a confession if I ever saw one. And yet, and we know he used, you know, the N-word. We know he didn't like black people. We saw the stuff that he put on the internet. And yet, I can't believe with the death of a child that this guy is more than likely going to get away with it. It is unbelievable. And particularly when it's clear he died by violence. This has been corroborated by two different entities.

And the fact that this isn't a nationwide story, that people aren't screaming this from their rooftops. When you Google it, a couple of mainstream outlets have one or two articles about it, but it's not something that you're seeing on CNN or any of these other things. But if something has a little more ambiguity to it, but it's not something that you're seeing on CNN or any of these other things. But if something has a little more ambiguity to it, they'll be all over it. But something that, from I think my perspective, looks pretty open and shut,

the fact that it's not getting the attention that it needs and that he is not getting the justice that he deserves is just so mind-blowing and so troubling. So first of all, Monique, this county, is this a largely white county? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And make no mistake, these people are afraid. These people are afraid. What was just said about the protesters when they would try to protest being bullied, all kinds of threats, all kinds of intimidation. what is going on here. So basically when law enforcement is telling a mama, you need to get over it. That really is. And even in the people within Campaign Zero who have been trying to get information and trying to put it out there, so much of the pushback has been people just in fear and not wanting to be lone voices that are speaking up and being left exposed to this kind of treatment for their families. Because there's frankly no way in the world, Roland, that a young white female 19-year-old about to go be a star volleyball player or cheerleader at university ends up dead at in the attic at a party and the entire world doesn't stop and try to figure out

what happened and there and there are so many ugly layers um to this this is this is a situation you know where a young man had no involvement with drugs, yet they find low levels of meth in his system. The prosecutor said, we could figure out who had meth. We could figure out maybe if someone was lacing something, but that's their job to figure that out. Almost cussed. That's their job to figure these things out, and they are not doing that.

There simply is no... Okay, I'm just using common sense. Ain't no black high school senior going to an all-white party at the home of white supremacists.

First of all, he ain't sticking around until 3 a.m, first of all, he ain't sticking around until 3 a.m. Second of all, how in the hell he get in the attic? I mean, I just, I've been to many parties, okay? I'm not like, yo, let's go check out the attic. This, everything about this case is absolutely strange. And so, I hope campaign zero continues it. Protest, whatever.

We'll keep doing our part. But this is just I'm literally have no idea what the hell I just heard. This is absolutely crazy. Who killed Durante Martin? Folks, there's a website. Please go to it. That's just wow. That's just

unbelievable. Alright, folks. I'm going to go to a break. We'll be back on World of Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network live from Birmingham, Alabama. Folks, please download our Black Star Network app. The goal is to get 50,000 downloads and 100,000 by the end of the year. And so, of course, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

You also can support us with your resources. So please hit us up, folks. Cash, excuse me, checks and money orders to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App is DallasSignRMUnfiltered. PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfiltered. And Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. We'll be right back.

Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network, a Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Hi, everybody. This is Jonathan Nelson. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. all right folks Imani Phillips has been missing from Chesapeake City Virginia

since July 17th the 16 year oldyear-old is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 125 pounds, with black hair and black eyes. Imani has piercings in her nose and ears, three earrings in her left ear, and two in her right. She was last seen wearing a short blue crop top and black shorts with tight shorts under them. Anyone with information about Imani Phillips should contact the Chesapeake City, Virginia Police Department

at 757-382-6161, 757-382-6161. In Colorado, the Adams County DA judge says the criminal charges for the five cops and paramedics responsible for the death of Elijah McClain will stand. Judge Priscilla Lowe said there is sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for each of the counts listed in the grand jury indictment filed with the court on September 1, 2022. A grand jury charged five paramedics and officers with 32 counts connected to McClain's death, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

August 12th is the next court date for the five defendants. Elijah McClain died on August 24th, 2019, after an encounter with police while walking home. Three black men charged with the 1995 murder in New York were exonerated after prosecutors found flawed evidence in their case. A judge overturned the murder convictions of Vincent Ellerbee, James Irons, and Thomas Malik after prosecutors discovered the case was built on misconduct by lead detectives. Prosecutors found that retired detective Louis Scarchella and his partner verbally fanned crime scene details to Irons and Malik

while ignoring inconsistencies in their confessions. The men have always stated detectives forced them into making false confessions. Now, folks, Tuesday, Georgia prosecutors revealed that 16 Republicans engaging in a fake electoral scheme are subjects of their investigation into Donald Trump's involvement in the state's 2020 election. Fulton County D.A. Fannie Willis filed court documents calling the fake electors who signed a certificate declaring Trump the victor of the election targets in her investigation. Willis began the investigation last year to determine the attempts

to influence the administration to the 2020 Georgia general election. Several Trump supporters, including legal advisor John Eastman, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and attorney Rudy Giuliani, received subpoenas to testify. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber says Giuliani must appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta on August 9th and any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta. Robin, I want to start with you.

This is a fast-moving investigation by D.A. Fannie Willis, and folks like Lindsey Graham have been trying to run away from it. Mm-mm, ain't happening. Yeah, I've tried cases against Fannie for years here in Fulton County, and she's an aggressive and a very competent and well-put-together and prepared prosecutor. And this idea that Lindsey Graham and Giuliani and others had, they can simply flout a subpoena by a grand jury here in Georgia, that doesn't fly.

Republicans always talk about states' rights. Well, this is a states' rights situation where you're now under the jurisdiction of the Fulton County Superior Court, and you must reply to it. You knowing the president, you being a senator, does not matter in this situation. And let's understand what they are being tied into. President Donald Trump made a phone call that we have all heard where he literally pressured the secretary of state to fabricate nearly 12,000 votes and to swing the election towards him. This is the most lock stock slam dunk case you can have where you have the defendant literally admitting to the entirety of the crime on the telephone that everyone has heard already. So I think that they should be,

even if the January 6th committee, let's say it doesn't go anywhere, you still have to look at these investigations going on in Fulton County and in New York City against the Trump orbit and understand that they are all in some grave legal jeopardy. The last thing they need to be worried about is launching a 2024 campaign, but it seems like they are so myopic, they think the only thing that will keep them out of trouble is if they can get back into the White House and then pardon their way out of it. Monique, when you look at, again, how this thing is moving, when you look at how Senator Graham, first of all, somebody who was a member of the military JAG, he knows better when it comes to subpoenas. They're trying to fight this. But say, dog, y'all made phone calls. And the problem is you got your own Republicans who are telling on. Right, right. And he is, you're exactly right to point out his background as a prosecutor and

as a defense attorney before he was a U.S. senator. So he 100% knows better. And this is kind of like a writing on the wall type thing. I think he's just trying to delay what ultimately is going to have to happen. And it is what it is. Lawyer up and get with it. Well, look, you know, Jason, a lot of people keep saying Merrick Garland, do more, do more. It might be these black DAs, Fannie Willis and Letitia James in New York, the attorney general, who may sink their teeth into Donald Trump's ass first. Yeah, I mean, I wish that this was happening in other places as well.

You know, those fake electors came from a couple other states as well. And I wish that, you know, they were trying to pressure state officials in other states. And it looks like the women in or the woman in Georgia and the attorney general in, you know, Letitia James in New York are taking this seriously and they're going after them. The only thing that I would kind of go against what Robert said is that I think you're going to get an announcement about 2024 from Trump probably in September, maybe as early as September, you know, or October, just to get people excited right before midterms. But I think part of the calculus there is that's when they start the whole witch hunt argument up again. That's where they gather their base and say, look, they're coming after me

because they don't want me to be president. Not because I broke the law, not because I did something wrong, but tries to politicize his illegal scheme. And I think it's actually a pretty smart plan. It worked before, and I think it's probably going to work again. I think that's what they're going to do to try to shield themselves from investigations, not only at the federal level, but also some of these local investigations. Get people in Georgia who are Trump supporters. Doesn't seem like he has many because he lost all those Republican primaries, but he has some out there in Georgia.

Get them excited and thinking that this is a witch hunt. Get the press starting to cover it that way, the right-wing press. I think that's the calculus that the Trump people are using. And that's why they're going to announce early. They're not going to wait until the typical time of, you know, after Christmas to announce a 2024 campaign. And Jason, it's interesting because... All right, I'm going to go tight. Go ahead real quick. All I'm going to say is that what Jason is saying,

for anybody else in politics, that would sound insane. Why give the other side a political issue that they can use going into the midterms where they can say a vote for xyz senator is a vote for trump's return it'll be the october surprise of all october surprises and it's just so dumb that i'm sure that's what president trump's going to do all right folks um i i got i got to talk about this story out of mississippi uh where a young man uh several folks from drowning. Corian Evans, a step into action when a car with three teenage girls went into the water

and a cop was in distress trying to save them. Folks have been hailing him. We had Corian's signal. Looks like it just went out. So I'm going to go to a commercial break. When we come back, hopefully we'll have the signal taken care of. We'll have Corian right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered from Pascagoula, Mississippi. We'll be right back on Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life

is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on

Blackstar Network, a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. Sexy to me is the exact same feeling as running water. Ever flowing. Water always finds a way to get through. And so when you know that you're sexy, there are no questions about it. It is an ever flowing emotion. It is an ever flowing feeling. When It is an ever-flowing feeling.

When you question it, though, you stop the water. I actually, I struggle with this a lot, mainly because I've been told what sexy should look like, what it should feel like. As a model who did Sports Illustrated, you're told that this is what sells sexy, but then you travel the world and what's sexy to one person is not sexy to another person.

I'm more of a mindfuck kind of person. How can you stimulate the brain? To me, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, have you heard that it's not how much you earn, but how much you keep that matters? Well, the secret to building wealth could be hidden in our tax code. That's right. Joining me on the next Get Wealthy is someone who calls herself the gatekeeper to the IRS. And she's going to be sharing the secrets and strategies you need to know, whether you're a business owner or an individual, how you can get wealthy. That's right here only on Blackstar Network.

It's time to be smart. Roland Martin's doing this every day. Oh no punches! Thank you Roland Martin for always giving voice to the issues. Look for Roland Martin in the whirlwind, to quote Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN.

I gotta defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am Roland with Roland all the way. I'm honored to beiance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with rolling all the way. Honestly, on a show that you own, a Black man owns the show. Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. Rolling was amazing on that. I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we are, what we're doing in the world, and the impact that we're having. Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You can't be Black on media and be scared. You dig? Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr, we connect the dots and reveal a big picture you absolutely need to see. We'll explore how all the recent Supreme Court decisions fit together, like hand in glove, with the longstanding and very patient agenda of the GOP. As one of our guests tells us, conservatives are playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers. And we're getting really close to checkmate. A Black Table you won't want to miss. That's next, only on the Black Star Network.

Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shantae Moore. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, we're trying to get Corey Evans back on the line. We lost him.

I was about to go to him to interview him, but we lost him. And so we'll try to make that happen. And so hopefully we can do that before we finish today's show. If not, we'll try to do it tomorrow. I do want to talk about Knoxville, Tennessee, where the police chief has fired a lieutenant and suspends a captain for ignoring racism and bullying complaints from a black police officer. An investigation found that Lieutenant Lance Earlywine violated the department's truthfulness policy and Captain Don Jones violated the harassment policy. DeAndre Jackson said Officer Adam Broom told racist jokes and displayed racist behaviors towards him. Jackson reached out to supervisors to remedy the situation, but his superiors ignored his complaints.

During the investigation, Earlywine said he did not know of the complaint, and Jones told Jackson it is just bad jokes and he could handle it. This is what Knoxville Chief of Police Paul Noel said. This is not a decision that I made without great thought and consideration. We can recover from most mistakes, take the appropriate action and move forward. Unfortunately, truthfulness is not one of those mistakes. As police officers, we're held to a higher standard. One of those standards is to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts at all times. Broom resigned after a white colleague complained about his racist and unprofessional behavior. Well, that's the exact kind of actions we should be seeing

from police chiefs. Jason? Yeah, no, agreed. He needed to go if he's covering things up and telling racist jokes. So, you know, there's no question that someone like that can't be in law enforcement. And if you're not going to be truthful, you can't be trusted to extract the truth from other people, to be truthful in some of the circumstances that we went over at the beginning of the show. How can we trust law enforcement if law enforcement if members of law enforcement are telling lies in some of their internal matters? How can we trust them when they go to court and testify? So this is really an important thing, and I'm glad that it turned out this way where this guy is gone.

Robert? You know, if you want to know what somebody really thinks and believes, listen to what they joke about. People's jokes are usually a way to cover up their actual feelings towards something and be able to write it off by saying, hey, hey, hey, look, man, it was just a joke. I didn't know you were going to be so sensitive about it. That bias goes into your policing. That goes into your policing that goes into your work there's some professions uh where you can't uh you can't be in the habit of telling bad jokes because of the way that impacts your actual professional performance policing is one of those things it's not this question of being uh woke liberal snowflakes who can't take a joke it's the question of when you have literally black

men's lives in your hand on a daily basis maybe joking about joking about those people gives us an indication of exactly what you think about those people. And looking at the first story we covered today, we can't take that risk as a community any longer. Monique? Yes, to everything that's already been said. But also, the reason why we are trying to get sensitivity, racial sensitivity training, bias sensitivity training, and all of these things is because it doesn't just affect it, as Robert said, in these circumstances where you're trying to joke to cover up true feelings, this is the way that people will be treated on the streets. When we look at profiling, when we look at the number of times that a black man or a black woman is stopped compared to their white counterparts, when we

look at the manner in which we're treated, look at the case earlier today. Do we think, you know, we've seen white men brandishing entire axes and be taken without injury. So we see these differences and it's this type of conduct that enables us to know the thought processes and the biases that are afoot and that has no business on the force. And guess what, folks? Let's go to Lexington, Mississippi, where the former police chief, y'all, he gone after he was caught on tape saying, I shot that N-word 119 times. Go to my iPad, please. You'll see it here.

This is from WLBT. Special meeting. Now, his was crazy. The vote was all three to two. Sam Dobbins, there was an expletive-laced racist recording said to be him. It was made public. Okay? Now, his was a trip.

He initially denied that it was him on the recording. Nope. Robert Lee Hooker, a former officer, made the roughly 16 minute recording, says it is achieved. It says the man on the recording uses numerous expletives and multiple racial epitaphs, derogatory terms and bragged about shooting one suspect at least one hundred and nineteen times. A three to two vote? What the hell are those two people thinking? Well, you know, beyond a three to two vote, my question is, who is this person that he shot 119 times? Can we find this individual? Can we determine whether or not they lived or if they got justice for that shooting? Forget him getting fired i love that beyond uh beyond where we're at right now we need to be finding these these individuals who may have been victimized over here imagine how many people

may be sitting in jail right now because of the racist attitudes of this cop or who may have been killed by this cop uh the three to two vote is the least of it we need to be investigating every single arrest that he ever made to determine what Rachel Bice was involved and bring him into justice for what he's done. You know, I love it when these guys agree 100 percent. Jason, go ahead. No, I was going to say I love it when these guys use the shaggy defense. You know, it wasn, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. You know, in reality, we know it was them,

and, you know, it gets corroborated by other sources. And, you know, this guy needed to go. But I was thinking the same thing as Robert. Like, who is it

that he shot this many times? It couldn't have been just him either. It must have been other people involved. You can't shoot somebody 119 times by yourself, at least not one person. You know, so I'm wondering who else was involved, who else in the department, you know, could be implicated in what occurred or what seems

like may have occurred there. So I think that those are things that need to be investigated, not just does this guy need to be removed. We need to see that he committed any crimes and who else was involved in those crimes. All right, folks, let's talk real quick. Maryland politics, the primary was on yesterday. It's a battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Westmore, as well as Tom Perez, they are neck and neck. About 30 plus thousand mail-in ballots are being counted.

That will determine the actual winner. Westmore declared victory last night. Perez has not conceded. The race that we've also been watching is the state's attorney's race. Remember Marilyn Mosby, the incumbent, she was indicted by the feds. And there were two challengers. Ivan Bates right now is leading her 41 percent, 32 percent in that particular race. So clearly, you know, that indictment and again, having two challengers has taken its toll there. And so Marilyn Mosby could be ousted if the mail-in ballots hold up. I'll start with you, Jason. You're there in Maryland.

What do you make of this gubernatorial race with Perez and Moore? And then you have a hardcore Trumper who won the Republican nomination. Is this going to be a cakewalk for the Democrats? It's a blue state, and they already control the legislature. Now they could control the governor's mansion. Yeah, I think it was a dangerous bet that the Democrats made. One of the ideas that they had

was to kind of promote Dan Cox and, you know, say, you know, because they didn't want to face the hand-picked successor whose name was Schultz, I believe, that was handpicked by our current governor. So they didn't want that. So they wanted to face Dan Cox.

But I think the way that the country is swaying and the unpredictability of these elections, I'm not so sure that I would have taken that gamble. I think it's, I wouldn't say it's going to be a cakewalk. I think that either one could, you know, should win, whether it's Westmore, whether it's Tom Perez, and even Peter Franchot claims that he's not necessarily out of the mix, even though he's pretty far behind.

I'm hoping that Westmore pulls it out and that he wins this election. And part of that is personal. I don't you know, I don't really care for Tom Perez just personally. But I think, you know, I really hope that Westmore pulls it out. But I don't think it's going to be a cakewalk. I don't think it's going to be very easy. These elections are won locally and Westmore was propped up by some national figures like Oprah and others. But we'll see how it shakes out in Maryland. And there is, you know, I think there's a right-wing sentiment right now and

a kind of a white lash that's going around the country. And I don't think Maryland is necessarily exempt from that. Well, first of all, I won't say he was propped up by Oprah. I mean, he certainly had supporters. The bottom line is he is a native of the city, and he was on the ground. So that was happening. Monique, it is certainly difficult to see all the drama that Marilyn Mosby has had to go through, all the attacks on her. Since the moment she chose to indict those cops who killed Freddie Gray. Folks have been after her. And it looks like if these ballots, mail-in ballots continue, she will not be continuing in that position after

November. Right. I just want to say I put my sticker on for anybody who can't see it, I voted. And so I have a vested interest in all things Maryland. That's not my county where the state's attorney's office election is, though. But I do think it's unfortunate with her and with Black female prosecutors generally, the attacks that we've seen against Kim Foxx and against Letitia, against all of these women who are doing things to try to make their departments more accountable and to get people out of prison that were in there for marijuana offenses and things like that, who have started entire units to investigate the situation that I talked about last week on the show, where we've got like over 10,000 in the U.S. who are falsely, wrongly convicted, whether it's prosecutorial misconduct or whether it's forcing confessions as the case that you just discussed. So I see

those things generally. But also, you know, it's hard when there is a current case against you. It would be hard for a white man with a current case against them, like currently under indictment, to win an election and to stay in an office as the state prosecutor, as the prosecuting attorney. But there's still a significant amount of people who did vote for her and who believe in her. But I see these attacks very similarly across the board, and I hate to see it happen, especially where this criminal case, it seems, is the epitome of trumped-up charges and will likely resolve once they get what they wanted, which is her out of office. Robert, someone who frequently has been on my show, Glenn Ivey, defeated former Congresswoman Donna Edwards.

They were running for the seat vacated by Congressman Anthony Brown, who was running for attorney general. Go to my iPad, please. Ivy destroyed her 51.2 percent to 35 percent. He was supported in a huge way by AIPAC. Millions of dollars were spent in this race, and he was highly critical of her. She was trying to come back after being defeated. She had been an MSNBC analyst. And so this is a hilly Democratic district. So it looks like former federal prosecutor Glenn Ivey is going to be the newest member of Congress from Maryland. Yeah, I think what we have figured out about American politics is money talks at the end of the day.

Despite your ground game, despite your community connections, often the most well-financed candidate wins. And also on the governor's race, I don't think Democrats can simply count this as being a slam dunk in the state. You know, we've had a house in Maryland for about four years now. You know, about 15 minutes outside of Baltimore, once you get to Dundalk, Bill River, Essex area, you are directly smack dab in the middle of MAGA country. And those people fly their Trump flags. They fly their Confederate flags, and they are a political force to be reckoned with. You drive down some of the back roads and highways, you'll see entire shrines set up to Trump on the side of the road. So I think Democrats should be wary with the idea of thinking they can just roll in and have an easy victory in that race. They're going to have to still put the work in

to turn the vote out. There's still several systemic issues going on that absolutely need to be addressed, everything down from fixing the streets to fixing corruption. Also, I think with the Mosby race, we have to look at the fact that in the city, crime has continued to be a problem. And when you're in a position that deals directly with prosecuting, and when people don't see any change in the number of homicides that are taking place, the number of property crimes that are taking place,

it's difficult to maintain your position in office. At the end of the day, the numbers are going to be what you're taking. But here's the deal, Robert. Is that, though, the DA's job or is that the cop's job? You're going to get scapegoated. In the mind of the public, you can try to thread that needle, but often people are frustrated. I've seen people go after congresspeople because they were mad about crime in their city. Going after the attorney or the agricultural commissioner a few years ago in Georgia was running on a tough-on-crime stance.

People vote with their hearts, not necessarily their logic. So whether it's your fault or not, you often get blamed for it. So, Roland, can I push back? Hold tight once. I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I wanted to push back on one thing, and that is, you know, it wasn't just money that got

Glenn Ivey elected. Glenn Ivey is a known figure in the state of Maryland. Like I said, these elections are local. You know, I understand Donna Edwards is known in Maryland and known nationally. But here locally in Maryland, Glenn Ivey is a big name. You know what I mean? People know Glenn Ivey. So I think, you know, in terms of name recognition locally, you know, I wouldn't just put it on money here in Maryland.

People know Glenn Ivey. He's been someone who's been in government. His son is a state delegate. Like, he's pretty well known here. So I wouldn't just say it was all this money. I didn't know about the AIPAC money. But I wouldn't just say that it was all money that got him elected. How you didn't know about the APAC money? It wasn't like a couple of dollars.

Damn. It wasn't no secret. I don't doubt it. And APEC has been taking significant credit for helping him win that race. So, come on, Jason, keep up. Wake up. All right. Let me go to a break.

All right, y'all, when we come back, Tech Talk is coming up next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network, broadcasting live from Birmingham. Back in a moment. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie.

We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. I'm Angie Stone. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Oh, We're Dr. Jackie. And so now you're not here for me to dance with, sir. You and your ascot. I need it. I need that in my life right now.

OK. I love you, Roland. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, black women are three times more likely to die than white women from pregnancy related complications. A registered nurse and maternal health expert created Walami, an app that advocates, uplifts, and educates pregnant women of color for better health outcomes. Lael George is the founder of Walami. She joins us now from Lakeland, Florida.

How you doing? Hi, Rowan. How are you? Great to be here. Doing great. Is it Lael or Lael? I want to know if that's correct. Lael.

Lael. Okay. Lio. Lio. Okay. All right, Lio. I surely appreciate it. Was there any one particular thing that caused you to say, you know what, I need to launch this app because it's needed? Yes, definitely. I didn't want to die when I was pregnant when I started on my Matana Health journey. And for me, as a nurse, I felt like I've seen too much.

And there was just a lot going on where, you know, we see the data, we know what the data is, that black women are three to four times likely to die compared to white women on their journey. And this really sort of scared me even as a nurse. I was working at a healthcare facility in the rural area where when the moms are giving birth, the birthplace is overlooking a lake. And it's just a wonderful, nice experience that they have. And the moms, before they actually leave the hospital,

they're entitled to a complimentary massage. And compared to growing up in the District of Columbia, starting my journey as a nurse in the District of Columbia and getting trained, back then, a lot of our training was not necessarily evidence-based when you practice in the hospital. So it was such abased when you get to the, when you practice in the hospital. So it was such a difference when you compare the DMV area, where there's a lot, a lot of wealthy black women, compared to the rural America that I was, where the income level

wasn't as high, but still they were still they had access to great health care. So when we compare that, I was just really shocked by all the things that I saw. And it really sort of scared me when I was on my own journey. I did not want to die. And if there was a birth plan that I had, it was that. So when I went to grad school, I started studying, what can we do? What kind of care model can we create to improve the lives of Black women and of women of color? So that's kind of how I started my journey. I had a professor who really encouraged me to do this. And when I thought about it, even though it's hard to be an entrepreneur, right? But I thought about it, even though it's hard to be an entrepreneur, right? But I thought about it. There's really no savior that's coming to save us as black women.

I have the expertise. I have the lived experience. And it's just, I just had to dive in. And that's how my journey started. All right. Questions from my panel. Monique, I'll start with you. Just congratulations on everything that you're doing. The statistics are as alarming as you say,

and in some places like New York, even more so. What is it that women can do in advance? Like when you said you started when you were deciding to become a mother and getting a plan together, what are just some of the things that we can do to help save ourselves and stay alive? Because as you say, nobody else is coming to do it for us. Yes, at Walla Me, we really teach this idea of owning your pregnancy journey. So first of all, understanding what it is that you want your pregnancy journey to look like. And from there, try to understand and educate yourself on what the health care system is like. And would it provide the things that you are dreaming of? Would it provide how you want to be treated?

Would it provide how you want your outcomes to be? And if you want, let's say, a vaginal birth versus a C-section, if you want a home birth versus birth in the hospital, first of all, it starts by making sure you understand what it is that you want, and then getting education and resources on who would provide that. Is it what provider or what OB or midwife will provide the experience, kind of experience that I want? And what provider or hospital has the best outcome when it comes to vaginal versus C-section? And just really getting in communities and researching and understanding so that we can own that journey,

so that at the end of your journey, you kind of feel like, okay, I own that. It wasn't that I got pregnant and the healthcare system just took over and did whatever they wanted to do with me. And part of it, when you start to plan your journey, you start to understand that the healthcare system is really broken when it comes to, especially when it comes to maternal health. So it's not going to cover everything that you want. If you want to be able to breastfeed your kid, it might not cover, not all insurance will cover lactation specialists. Sometimes they do.

And we had a mom on our platform who wanted to talk to a nutritionist. Her goal was to be able to talk to a nutritionist so that she would prevent having gestational diabetes or any of those complications. But her insurance told her that unless you're diagnosed with gestational diabetes, we're not going to give you a nutritionist. So things like that, you see the disconnect. Our health care system is very focused on disease versus prevention. So for that, making sure that, okay, when you know that the health care system is not going to do that and that's what you want, how can I afford it? If you can, if you're one person who can figure out a way to get the things that you want to kind of create a plan and not totally rely a hundred percent on the healthcare

system, because unfortunately as shown to fail us time and time again, and there are moms who sometimes save up for own birth, save up for whatever it is that you want. Just making sure that you are able to pull in your resources. If it's putting that thing on your shower list, right? Just putting in your resources and making sure that you are able to get the resources to get to the end point that you wanted. So I would say owning your journey. the end point that you wanted. So I would say owning your journey, figuring out what you want, and making sure that you have the resources and planning ahead to make sure that you get the resources

if the health care system cannot provide it. Thank you. Jason? Yes, thank you, Leo, for everything that you're doing. My question is, under the best scenario, if someone were to come to you and ask you how they should plan out their birth, like they don't necessarily have an idea in their own head, if they wanted to, should they go with a doula or midwife or should they go to a hospital?

Like, how would you break it down under normal circumstances, a person with, you know, normal health, how, what would be the best birthing situation? So thank you for that question. And we get that question a lot. Do you go to doula and midwife? I just wanted to make sure that I clarify that we at Walla Me,

we definitely support having a medical person at your birth. So a doula is a support person at your birth. There are great evidence shows that they help decrease C-section and all the wonderful things that having a doula does. We love doulas, but doulas are not medical professional. And honestly, they came into this work and they're not trying to be medical professional, right? And so at your birth, in order to be safe, to continue to improve outcomes, we recommend that number one, you find a medical professional that's going to be at your birth. So that's either an OB or a midwife.

So the question then is, do you want an OB or do you want a midwife? So that's where we want to start. If you are low risk, what they call low risk, and you have no underlying condition, then we would definitely suggest that you use a midwife. Quite frankly, our platform, one of the pillars of our platform is making midwifery philosophy accessible because we know that midwifery is the bedrock of the Black community. And then we, as far as Matana Health goes, it started, we have a rich, rich, rich tradition of using midwifery. And we also know that in other countries

that are having better outcomes, interdisciplinary care is, has great outcomes. And what that really means is like, you are able to use a midwife and an OB, and OB and midwives are able to work together seamlessly, unlike the U.S., and to work together to get a better outcome for the mom. So we would suggest, because of the strong evidence that says that midwifery does, shows improved outcome, we would suggest if you're low risk, that you start by talking to a midwife.

And if that's not something you do, also try by getting suggestion from a friend of did they had a good experience with an OB, if it's an OB that you want. We love OBs, and there are definitely great OBs out there. So having those conversation, who do you want at your birth, right? What is a medical professional that you want at your birth?

And then if you can afford it, add some things like having a doula, having, if you want a perinatal massage during your journey, like whenever you're due to have one, all of those things that I kind of talk about, like whenever you're due to have one, all of those things that I kind of talk about it as when you're going shopping. So it's like, if you're going shopping, what do you need in your medical bag? So what the first thing is a medical person,

so OB and a midwife or a midwife, then decide what other things can support me in this journey. So is it a doula to give me some emotional support, to give me some practical support? And then do you want an acupuncture? Do you want a massage every other month when you're able to do it? There's so many other things that you can add to that medical bag that can really enhance your outcome. Because let's face it, a lot of the reason why we have bad outcome, other than racism being the biggest thing, is also stress. Like the stress of navigating life as a Black woman, it can be stressful and code switching and all of those things. And evidence has shown that that also has bad outcomes.

And so starting by adding all of those things, doulas are wonderful, therapists are wonderful. I strongly suggest and recommend a perinatal health therapist. So adding all those things into your shopping bag. And so that's where we start. And the other thing is, where do you want to have your child? Is there a hospital nearby where everybody has been raving about? There are platforms where you can use to kind of see the ratings of hospitals, compare them, like Hospital Compare and all of

those platforms where you can rate platforms, where platforms are being rated. And you can kind of figure out what is their rates like. And when you find that provider, also asking your provider, what is, what is your C-section rates? And those kinds of things, having those conversations. And that's, that's where to start. Number one, OB or midwife, do you qualify? If you feel like you want a midwife, talk to the midwife. They always have questions that they will ask you to make sure that you qualify. Then second, what other professionals or support do you need on that journey? Then put those in the bag. Then where do you want to have your child? Oftentimes that also goes along with

if you want an OB or a midwife, then you kind of limit your choices when you pick those things. So do you want to have your baby at home? Do you want to have it in the hospital? Is it safe to have your baby at home? Is it safe to have in the hospital? The provider that you pick, do they deliver in the hospital or can they deliver at home? So all of those things, that's the first place to start. And honestly, just asking friends and family about if they had a good experience or bad experience. It's another way to start. Folks, the app is Walami.

Leo George, we appreciate you joining us on the show. Thanks a lot. Good luck. Thank you joining us on the show. Thanks a lot. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Folks, some sad news out of North Carolina. Former North Carolina NAACP President Reverend Anthony Spearman has passed away.

Spearman's family confirmed he was found dead in his home on Tuesday. In addition to his work with the NAACP, Spearman was the North Carolina Council of Churches president and served on the Guilford County Board of Elections. Spearman was an advocate of social justice, standing up for gay marriage. Instead of North Carolina, the poor people and the people of color, we often had him on our show when we were in New Orleans, when we were in Elizabeth City of a protest there. He joined us there. And so, again, certainly somebody who stood right next to Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. He succeeded Reverend Barber as president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. And so thoughts and prayers certainly go out to the family of Brother Spearman, a very good brother

who was 71 years old, Anthony Spearman. All right brother, who was 71 years old. Anthony Spearman. All right, folks, that is it for us from Birmingham. Let me thank Jason, Monique, and Robert. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, tomorrow we'll be broadcasting all day from Birmingham here for the SWAC Media Day, talking to coaches and players and conference officials

about the upcoming season. So we look forward to having that. So stay tuned to the Black Star Network. You should download the app to keep up with the latest of what we are doing. Of course, you can do so Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

You can also, of course, support us with your resources. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans who contribute a minimum of 50 bucks a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. You can send your checks and money orders to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The cash app is DallasSideRMUnfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at Rolandsmartin.com. Folks, thanks a bunch. And also, shout out to my man, Good Day. He, of course, is my tailor in Maryland. This is one of the fabrics they gave me when we were in Liberia. And so he hooked me up with this right here.

And so I appreciate it. So you know we got to look all clean. So I'm going to have another one on tomorrow as well. All right, y'all. That one on tomorrow as well alright y'all that's it I'll see y'all tomorrow from Birmingham Howard you you you Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.