Panel on police shootings and black economics

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you have to come in and adjust to... Live. Okay, so you guys are going to be watching this live. This is reality TV, and we're going to set up for it. There's really no time to do it before because we have a show before, and we're just, you know, it's just going to be real. That's our engineer right there. His name's William. Yeah, he's going to help. What's that? Right, right. You don't mind helping us out? That's a blank job, Mac. Live. So you want us to keep talking, continue discussing what you're talking about? Yes. Okay, yeah, I have to put on my little outfit. Okay, Shantay, though, and Doug, let's get up here and see what kind of... Okay, I don't know if they hear what we're saying, or is it just Debbie? This is going to be dead during. This is going to be the performance, right? During the performance, yeah. Yeah, these mics will be dead during the performance. They're live now? Yeah, it's live, so don't talk nasty and don't say anything bad about Mike. Don't say anything bad about Mike. Okay, now, William. We can hear the music, right? We have to be able to hear the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll turn that studio microphone on, yeah. Okay. There we go. You guys are in there. We have a close-up, so you guys can see. Okay, here. Just like we're performing, okay? You got to even back up there. Give me some room. Give me some room. So, we dancing. Are we good? Yeah. You guys are good, right? Okay, so here. On this one, you guys have to be a little more tight. Okay. Yeah. But on this one, we get all the... Okay, but with this one right here, it'll just probably be for the singer, right? Whatever you guys want to do, yeah. Just like... Okay, can you... Yeah, can you adjust it where you can see her dead center? Whoever's... Who's ever seen her in the lead part, can you adjust it where she's smack dab or... Okay, more... More... Yeah, up. Head so you can't see past the bottom of the table here. Okay, that's cool. Are they going to see you when you're... No, let me see. Let me see. I can't zoom out to a white child. That's okay. If you guys are going to be down or... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go like this, but I think it's plenty. Okay. That's good. Okay. Okay. So, I have to go put on my costume. Okay. Where do you want this? Oh, okay. But we're good, right? Yeah, yeah. It's good. No, I'm going to go double check in there. Oh, okay. Okay, Norris. Scoot back a little bit and just give her a little bit of room. Lady Justice. Now, this thing tightens up, right? I don't... No, I don't think so. It doesn't... No, it doesn't. It's on a swivel. Oh, it is? Yeah, so what do you... Okay, so I think that's good. Is that... How does that look? You can see right there. Is that a good picture? Needs to come this way more? See, I don't need them. I don't need this. Is that good? This way? Keep that door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door door Okay, it's not for you. What do you want? No, no, I'm looking at the camera. I know he's looking at a camera, too. He's got the other camera over there. Okay, so we're just looking for the audience. Now, Lady Justice, you're not going to have your glasses on, right? No. Guys, I know you're blind. Okay, I'm going to get ready. Okay, my stuff's all out here? Yes. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Back at the ranch. So, Melvin, do you think it's the system, or what's your opinion? Oh, no. Remember, Willis was saying that he just don't think it's... You know what, I think you should save this for afterwards. Yeah. Okay. We're going to talk about some good stuff. Talk about black men in politics. Black men in politics. Black men in politics. Okay. Okay. All right, that's a good subject. So, let me ask this question. Okay, what do you think about Obama, and has he... I'm not going to use the mic at all. Address. I don't say anything. Black issues. Don't say Obama. Uh-huh. Yeah, if a person... I guess you would have to define what black issues is. I think President Obama is one of the better presidents in a long time in terms of what a presidency is supposed to be about. Okay. Why is that? Because he represents more than just black people. You know, he is the figurehead for the entire nation. You know? Now, I do think... There's a few things that I think that he could have done a better job. Mainly, what's happening in Chicago with the murders and the gangs and all that kind of situation. And coming from Chicago, you know, representing Chicago, that was his political base. Right, that's true. That's how he mounted it like that. I thought there was an opportunity to do... A town hall meeting that would have had a lot of influence on all of these other big cities. If he could have went back, got your top ministers, and called a town hall meeting and hear some of the complaints and stuff from the community. And not only complaints, because that's all people do now. See, this generation is full of complaints. They could tell you in a minute. But the problem is, well, ask them for a solution. Ask them for some programs. Ask them to start talking about, okay, how you solve this problem? See? That's why this generation is so far behind the generation of the 60s. See? You can go all the way back to the 20s. It was like every 20 years, the black community as a whole, they progressed. They had a plan. See? But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... But... Now, there was a lot of elements that caused that. You know, the whole crack epidemic. The failure of the religious institutions. They became so commercialized that they forgot. They became religious institutions now, basically big corporations. Right. See? And so... But, you know, that's been my opinion that... Especially, quote, unquote, the black church, which is... Used to be... one of the main leadership of the black community. To me, the viewpoints, like for example, we know that in the 60s, that they were able to organize boycotts. Like the boycotts that we could do now, nobody's talking about it because there's no central leaders of this generation. And I think that's a big problem. Once again, because it's all commercialized, it seems like the ministries are just after how much money they can get and the emotionalization. Yeah, yeah. And then we don't really emphasize enough about economics. That's the starting point. Or even education. Education is important, but education has also been one of the major problems and stumbling blocks. For moving the... If you're talking about the African-American community, then the education concept has been one of the worst things that's happened because we didn't listen to W.E.B. Du Bois. He emphasized the concept of the talented tent, right? And then a couple of years later, Carter G. Woodson, he came out, he pointed out all of the flaws in a book called The Miseducation of the Negro. He was pointing out that if you utilize the concept of the talented tent, that talented tent, instead of reaching back for the nanny, a motivation now would be to join mainstream society because they have nothing in common with the other 90%. This is what Carter G. Woodson was pointing out. And then you had even W.E.B. Du Bois himself, he moved away from... Because at the time, he was an integrationist. That was his philosophy, believing that integration was the answer. He didn't realize that integration was a fallacy. You know, it has nothing to do with economics and all that kind of stuff. So from that time on, instead of paying attention to the move that W.E.B. Du Bois did by moving away from that concept of talented tent, we followed that. And then... And so what we have now... Before you go, let's a little bit elaborate on the talented tent just for those who've been here. Yeah, yeah. The talented tent, he was using an old biblical concept that comes out of the economic Torah that 10% of a person's earnings belongs to God. That's the whole concept of tithes. Right. You know, probably that's the God-given economic system. Right. And so he... He thought that he could apply that to education. But Carl G. Woodson pointed out that, no, the type of education you get is very important. And see, African-American is the Eastern people, Oriental people. We come from the East, Africa and all that kind of stuff. The education that you had over here is what you call Occidental or Western education. Totally different. It's the Eastern world. The Western world is the one that educated the Western world. You see? So... And then the Occidental education is the one that gave us slavery, capitalism, all the stuff that we're dealing with now. And then you've had other scholars that came along. Probably one of the most important one was a scholar at the University of Michigan, almost my mentor. I learned a lot from him. His name was Harold Cruz. And he wrote a book, two books, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual and Plural but Equal, about the economic... We read it. I don't believe... You're not going to be able to hear this, right? Not the guitar, no. You're not, huh? If you... Can you turn that mic on? Turn his mic on. No. That... That... The mic he's going to rap with. No, what you're saying, all the mics are going to be off while this gets going, right? Okay. If they're on, is that going to cause a disturbance? Why don't you use that mic? Can... Oh, so... He can just hold that. Okay. Well, when you're going to do your song, he's not going to speak, right? Right. So then we can keep that mic on. Right. His mic to catch up your guitar. Right. Once you're done with your song, then I can turn that off. Okay. But... Which mic are you talking about? This one, right? The mic that's down. Oh. Okay, but it... It'll be during the skit. He'll turn it off after you're done with your... Oh, okay. All right. And what about my lovely voice? Are you going to be able to get that? Okay. We're going to start the skit. Lady Justice, you need to sit straight. And... You know what to do. Now, everybody just do what we do, right? Now... So... This skit is based in a community center. And, um... I'm a wannabe gang member. I'll say it like that. But I'm just, um... Down at the community center giving back to the community. And they requested a song. It's a grand song. And I'm going to do that song for you. I had a hammer I'd hammer in the morning I'd hammer in the evening All over this land I'd hammer out danger I'd hammer out a warning I'd hammer out the love Between my brothers and my sisters All over this land I'd hammer out the love If I had a bell I'd ring it in the morning I'd ring it in the evening All over this land I'd ring out danger I'd ring out a warning I'd ring out the love Between my brothers and my sisters All over this land If I had a song I'd sing it in the morning I'd sing it in the evening All over this land I'd sing out danger I'd sing out warning I'd sing out the love Between my brothers and my sisters All over this land I've got a hammer And I've got a bell Got a cue in And I've got a song And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door And I've got a door No more than a few of you I'm a whole truck of you Hands up! Hands up Ernie! Don't you move! Ernie don't you move or I'll shoot you! Hands up! Now! You have to knock down! Shots fired! Shots fired! On the ground now! On the ground! Get back now! No! No! No! No! Ernie! Don't knock it off! Please take it off! Take it off! Take it off! Please take the mask off! I cannot breathe! Brown appears to no longer be capable of pleading for anything. Attorneys say at no time was an ambulance or 911 called for help. We're going to turn to Baltimore now. We have live pictures coming in. We're going to turn to Baltimore now. We have live pictures coming in. We're going to turn to Baltimore now. Is there a problem officer? Put your hands above your head! Put your hands above your head! Put the guitar on the ground! Put the guitar on the ground! I can't do that officer! My dad gave me this guitar and... I can't do that officer! My dad gave me this guitar and... Just do it! Well can your partner just hold it? Well can your partner just hold it? Uh... Uh... Oh! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Tell him he's got to turn it down! They say it's the land of the free. They say it's the land of the free. Known as the home of the brave. Known as the home of the brave. More citizens than soldiers More citizens than soldiers Lie restless in their graves. Victims of social hate Victims of social hate generated from racial rave Victims of social hate generated from racial rave rage. Of a world where our protectors Of a world where our protectors wear badges to serve in vain. Through media, news radio, Through media, news radio, racial tension racial tension steadily thrives. Went back in time to uncivilized, Went back in time to uncivilized, inhumane genocide. America, America, America, America, of all colors, race and creeds. No gangs, no thugs, No gangs, no thugs, no murderers Bleeding red on asphalt streets. Bleeding red on asphalt streets. Give me a second, presently I'm so confused. Give me a second, presently I'm so confused. As to why our lady justice hides her eyes to such abuse. As to why our lady justice hides her eyes to such abuse. No guns, no hate, No criminal intent. Just cursed by colored skin, Just cursed by colored skin, which labels us a threat. Let's change the scene Let's change the scene and make freedom ring through bells with famous cracks. Because in this life, the structure's not right if I'm guilty because I'm black. if I'm guilty because I'm black. I need to get out of this place. I need to get out of this place. I need to get out of this place. Hey mom, where's dad? Hey mom, where's dad? He's down at the community center. I just talked with him. He said he'll be home in a bit. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. All the things I've gone through personally. Now, understand, this does not mean that I haven't had great police officers that have treated me with respect. I want to shout out to those guys. But I've had some buts out there that has cost me. A good example, me and my wife were sitting out in front of our house talking, getting away from the kids. Because we couldn't afford to whatever hotel. So, so trip this. While we're sitting out there doing nothing, just talking, for no reason, police officer pulls up. Now, understand, there were other people sitting in their car getting out. And we happen to have been the only people that was black. They pulled us over, okay, and gave us a fix-it ticket. And told us, gave us a fix-it ticket, okay. And said, only thing you got to do is get it signed off on. So my wife, we get it fixed and get it signed off on. So four years later. Okay. They didn't turn in the paperwork they were supposed to turn in. And she got a failure to appear. Now that little fix-it ticket is going to cost us $800. Wow. And we can't see a judge unless we pay at least $300, $400. That's crazy. Yeah. Okay, so my point that I'm bringing, there's experiences that we experience as black people. That other people don't experience in the volume or quality. And trust me, I'm getting a lot of quality on this. A lot of quality. Yeah, and so, and that's what my friends don't understand. You know, that they may not have even been ever pulled over. Right. You know, I get in the wrong neighborhood. Oh, just during the last Fourth of July, I think I shared this with you, Willis. Okay, but we have a caller on the line. And I want to try to see if that caller is still on the line. Are you there? Hello? Hello. Hello, this is Joe in Riverside. I'm a friend of Willis and Sean Taze. Hi, Joe. Joe, you've got a friend of mine's also. Hey, I love all you guys. I know, but you forgot your first name. Guitar. Guitar Joe. Okay. That's me. Is that Joe Joe? Yeah. Anyway, I appreciate you guys' panel, and I think it's really great. And God bless the stuff that you're doing. And I think it's wonderful. But? I mean, I keep going for 10 minutes, but I think I better cut myself off. Okay. Thank you. And you dig it? Yeah. You got anything to say, man, but I really appreciate you calling and watching. Did you check it out? Yeah, I really enjoyed it. After forgetting about it over and over for like a year, I finally did a second one. Uh-huh. Plus, the football game's on, so you must be really special. All right. I love you guys. God bless. All right. Thank you, Joe. Bye-bye. Okay. What an incident that happened to me as a teenager. Okay. Now, now, now, now, now. I don't want to get into hard stories with this, that. And thinking, I'm like saying that white people, and I know it's the stories, but why do you think that they don't understand what's happening to us versus what's happening to them? Well, the experience is different. See, I get it totally. The experience is different. Like, for example, age 16, being pulled over by police because somebody had committed, now, understand, they're living in the hood, okay, and watch. Somebody committed a crime. The police pulls us over, some musicians, okay, and they got shotguns on. You understand? They got shotguns, guns out, and we got instruments. They don't know what's in the instruments. If we had did the wrong move, I wouldn't be here today. Yeah. Okay. But see, that's what I'm looking at a lot of these videos, and a lot of these cats are doing the wrong moves. Well, in this particular case. I mean, as far as unarmed shooting, I mean, that's kind of jumping forward a little bit. Well, but I want to make. At this point, what we have to understand, it's not like the police officers come from the same community in most cases, and this is very important. If they came from the same community, they would kind of be able to know. It's just like my friends were like, you guys got all the dope in your community. Yeah, we know exactly where it is, and we're wondering why the police don't know where the dope went. They do know where it is. They're just allowing it. Now, what were you going to say, Doug? Well, basically. I was 16 years old, okay, and my sister was outside playing, and some police had pulled up. We was in Gardena, California, and they took my sister in handcuffs and said that she was selling dope. Now, mind you, I had no idea what dope was at that time in my life, okay? But you know now, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because I went to jail, you know, because I jumped over the gate and asked the police, what are you doing with my sister? He was like, oh, this is your sister? Oh, come on over the gate. Now, wait a minute. I'm kind of getting a little hint of Hispanic cop there. Is that what it was? Oh, yeah. It was white and Hispanic. Oh. Okay. He like did a little, oh, this is your sister? Yeah. Yeah. This is your sister? So he was like, well, hop over the gate. So I hop over the gate, and he let my sister go, and he put me in handcuffs. And I said, what are you putting me in handcuffs for? He said, well, we was observing you selling dope. And I said, well, what are you doing? And I said, well, what are you doing? And I said, well, what are you doing? And he said, me selling dope? I said, what is dope? I don't know nothing about dope. Okay? So I go do jail in Central eight months, and I get out, and I become the biggest dope dealer in the hood. By the way, Central is the juvenile hall. Yes. Because for the simple fact, I felt like, well, I'm going to jail for it anyway. So you're going to do it. So why not? You feel me? So I found out about it, and I started doing it. Because. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. That's what happened. But basically, it kind of directed me in the wrong direction. So you're saying that because of the harassment, which I've been looking at the videos and doing research on things, and a lot of the people, what's that you were saying that I watched? American Justice. Yeah, not American Justice. Is it American Justice, but the James Brown thing? It's a. Democracy Now. Yeah, Democracy Now. And a lot of. We're talking about, you know, the really bad things that are happening because of the attitudes of the police in the poor neighborhoods. Would you like to chime in, Melvin? Yeah. I think the key missing point is the misunderstanding of the whole purpose of the police and the type of society we live in. See, I think the first thing to understand. That in the modern. Capitalistic society that we live in of corporations and all like that. The first duty of the police, you know, is to protect the corporations and property and the prop and the community that runs the corporate. That's that's primary. Right. And since the the corporations is exploiting, you know, the majority of the people, you're going to have a reaction to that. So what we have here is it's a type of war that's going on between the police whose job is to protect property and the corporations against the reactionary motive of the community. See, that's what's missing. It's not the new. Now, we have had an opportunity to break that down coming up to the sixties. That's what the sixties was about. But. But this particular generation who got who got caught up with crack, all the other negative elements that was coming their way. The they were able to invade their music and bring in negative elements of music to cause destruction also. So you have that going on in the community. And the most important thing that this community, that this generation failed to study. And that's Jay. Edgar. Hoover. See, if they had a study, J. Edgar Hoover, all of this wouldn't be a mystery to them because he developed techniques, tactics that we're dealing with right now. See, and what we don't realize we're talking about it early, you know, education and economics. Economics is the most important thing that we have here in a capitalistic society, because that's the way people make their living, their existence. So they're going to do it. They're going to do it above the law. You know, they don't make some kind of way they're going to get by. Yes. So that's what's happening. And when it comes to the black community, see, integration was the worst thing to happen to us as you want your mom. Yeah. So as a legal concept, because all of the progress that we had made in terms of economics, we gave it up and we put it in the hands of the mainstream society. And then we turn around and say, wow, we're suffering. Now, do you think that was the master plan? Or do you think that that was a way for the white man to make money on black talent? Like you're referring to sports like Jackie Robinson, right? Yeah, but it's not about racism. See, that's a fallacy also. It's about economics. Well, that's what I said, that they bought them into their their ball clubs, knowing that they were going to be able to make big money because of their stardom or superstardom. In a way, because that was all part of the modern capitalistic system, you know, the entertainment thing, sports and all of that. But what I was pointing out is the the African-American gave up economic control of their community without understanding that we live in a dual ethnic plural society. Right. What we mean by that is that we live. You got what you call each each ethnic community. You control the economic life of the community. But you also got what you call the shopping mall economic community where everybody exists in. See, and the African-American only exists in that shopping mall community. We don't we don't even control our own community. And then we turn around and ask why we're suffering these problems. You think people's shopping mall like we just consume like we don't produce consumers. Exactly. We meant, you know, in modern economic. The. The person that pointed that out was Harold Cruz wrote a book in the 70s called Plural but Equal. Laying all of this out, you know, and the modern generation with all of this technology, all of this information with just a point. And they don't know anything about it. And then they turn around and ask, hey, why are we suffering? How can we need jobs? We used to develop our own jobs. We used to control our own education system. Yeah. I think you're giving white people more credit than me, making them smarter to think that they there's a few smart one up there, you know, that may have thought about what what Melvin saying and stuff. But I think the majority of people weren't that smart enough to know to say, let's go ahead and wipe out like you were saying, you know, with like with Jackie Robinson and stuff. I just don't think especially all of down south with their to me. It's just. Their their their small mindedness. That was just flat out. You're talking about white people being right. Right. That's what I'm saying. You got it. You're surrounded by black people. So you got to make it clear. I'm talking about white people being like down south. Flat out racism. I just don't think they were smart enough. And I think like, you know, to go and say and I don't think they had enough foresight to say 20 years from now, if we go and we give, you know, a small portion of something, it's going to completely wipe out. Yeah. I think that was a product of what happened, you know, but I don't think it was the master plan. Well, I I think I have to disagree with you there, because I think like what what we're seeing, like always people say, how come there's so many blacks on Skid Row? I think that there's so many blacks on Skid Row because of the oppression that they had to go through. That was all laid out. This was a plan. I don't know what I'm talking about. It's what Melvin was saying. I know what you're saying. I know. But I'm saying that there are people that there are people smart enough that not all of them, but all it takes is one good leader. Let me let me jump in here. Melvin said it. He qualified it. I don't think he was saying all white people. OK, but he pointed out there was a definite plan from people like J. Edgar Hoover. And this is all documented. And guess what? There's people like Skull and Bones. So we had two presidents, at least, that was Skull and Bones. Both of them were Bushes. OK, which which. Which didn't believe that people should have a right to make choice and that the high ups should make the choice for them. And they imposed these plans. And this is all. So here's the thing. This is all documented. Now, here's the problem, though. OK, if somebody says, OK, J. Edgar Hoover did this, tore down communities. All right. Now, here it is. You executive of a corporation because your daddy benefited from what these people did. Yeah. And now you're taking the block. And then that wasstestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestesteste the facts that have created these problems. Okay? You got a community that has no financial, economic problem, and nobody cares. Well, I don't disagree with that. I just think that what happened was you had a few. J. Harry Hooger was one that, like I said, he had a lot of power, and he did create a lot of things that caused this. But I think what happened a lot in the black community was there was a few people came on in, and the black people rolled over, and basically they gave up everything that they had worked so hard for. But I don't think it was a master plan that you had the majority of the people in the United States sitting up here saying, you know, if we go and we do this, this, and this, that's going to completely wipe out this race. Okay, first of all, hold on, hold on. It does make a difference. The Bible says it takes a little rudder to steer a whole ship. Look. That J. Edgar Hoover rudder steered all of America. Well, why can't we do that now? We have a problem with immigration now. Why can't that little rudder right now fix that? Let me show you something. All right, let's go back to J. Edgar Hoover and another rudder. Now, watch this, watch this. Okay, there was a country, I believe it was Guatemala. I may have the wrong country. They had an elected, a Democratic elected official who says, we're going to take back our resources, okay, and we're going to run our own. We're going to run our own country, all right? So, the owner of International Food Corporation, Chiquita Banana, decided to go to his brother, which was on staff, okay, all right, and say, we're going to change this policy. And he got with J. Edgar Hoover and stuff, and what they did, basically, is got a coup together and took down an elected government. And, you know, to this day, they have... Haven't been right since. And that's why they're leaving that country, trying to immigrate over into ours because of something that we did. All the third world countries were done like this. And you got to understand, so International Food Corporation, Chiquita Banana, all their children are benefiting while there's children in pornography, child pornography, drugs and stuff, and that's why they're crossing over. Everybody thinks they're coming from Mexico. No, they're coming from Guatemala, another third world country, because of what we did. Now, to say there wasn't a master plan, okay, to take a blind eye and not look at what America has done, the evil. We did it domestic. We did it international. We've done it all over. And this is stuff that we picked up from the Britons, okay? India was in slavery. In colonization. In colonization, yeah. Okay, and to say, well, I don't think... No, no, no. And this is the problem. White people are benefiting from all this injustice and, well, I don't see why there's a problem. That's 600 years of slavery and people... Look what they're doing in Los Angeles, using poorness to move and destroy the black community through Section 8. Now, and we're talking... All the officials are talking about it. Hey, you're destroying the whole community. By taking away Section 8 or putting Section 8 in? By putting Section 8 in. Section 8 in. I know it's Section 8. That's the housing. It's where you pay according to how much you make. That's what Steve was basically talking about. There's no rent control, so now they're upping the rent, doubling the rent. No, rent control is off of Prop 13. That's a different thing. That's a whole different... Section 8 from low-income housing type thing. They're two separate issues. I'd like to say something about J. Edgar Hoover, which a lot of people miss. That he's black. That too. Yeah. That too, which is very important. Well, technically, mulatto, but that's... It's not white. It is black. Exactly. Mulatto. But now there is a lot of evidence about this plan because ever since the Freedom of Information Act, you know, where a citizen can get... All they have to do is fill out the form and get the information. And they found out what is known as the Hoover Membo. And this is a memo that J. Edgar Hoover sent out to his most trusted FBI, his most trusted FBI agents, about a month before Dr. King was assassinated. And in that, he said their main mission was to prevent the rise of a black messiah who can unify the black nationalistic voices here. And then he began to... Because he perceived Malcolm X as a messiah. And then in that memo, he perceived the people who were... He was inspired to that role. He mentioned Stokely Carmichael. He mentioned the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but he thought he was too old. But the person that he feared most was Dr. King because he said that if Dr. King ever gave up his liberal, nonviolent doctrine, he could become that messiah. Now, the plan that J. Edgar Hoover developed go all the way back to Marcus Garvey. That was the most successful black movement. And he was the first black man in the world that ever existed. And so he organized millions and millions of people, not just in the United States, but all over. And he stressed economics. He stressed education and doing for yourself. So what Hoover did is he took this black doctor during the 20s, right? And then he infiltrated the UNIA. And out of that, he came up with a concept called infiltration and disinformation. And that's what he did. And he never changed. That became the counterintelligence program. That became COINTELPRO. That's what they're dealing with now. And Hoover died in 1970. See, all of these movements, every movement that you think about is infiltrated. You know, people that they think is a comrade, these are police that's come through the military academy and trained and all of that. Melvin, let me jump in. Let me say this. Okay, so you had a man this powerful institute something that he didn't have children. I mean, people he mentored, okay, who took it to the next level. It just ended. It didn't end. It kept going. And this is the thing that I think Americans, black, white, Hispanic need to wake up. There's a faction in this country, okay, that are adopting and implementing these values. But see, this is what scares white America because white America don't want to believe that. That's scary to think that we got this. That's scary to think that we got that much evil in our country. But read your history books. Evil's been going on for a long time. Well, they're saying that they're going to change some history books because there was one that kind of I think was too real to put it in plain terms. And they felt like it was putting white people in a bad light because it was kind of exposing a lot more things than we actually learn in history classes. So I think they were revising it. I was listening to a podcast about that recently. And see, the main problems of African-Americans, it's caused by African-Americans. See, because we never got that whole slave concept and being dependent upon others for our survival out of our mind. Even though we're not in physical slavery, we're still in mental slavery. Because when you look at the African-Americans as a whole, we make more money than the majority of the countries in the world. As we waste it. We live in that shopping mall. We live in that grocery store. We live in that grocery store. We live in that entertainment. And look at the sports figures. Look at the most of the sports figures and entertainers that we look up to who are basically sold out to black community because they give nothing back to it. You know, when I say give nothing back to it, they got enough money to be put in schools and going in there and building factories and create jobs. How come they don't go there? Well, you know what? I always thought, is it Baltimore where, you know, the riots and the shooting? How much money that the government pumps? And I mean, I'm just throwing this off the top. How much money that was pumped into that city or state or the communities there, the schools there? And I mean, the money that the state, I mean, recordedly said that they put in there, that money was all squandered. And they're like looking at where did this money go? Because the problem is still... Well, don't look at Baltimore. Look at Los Angeles. I just said, look at Unified School. $118 million just for the homeless thing and it went up. Let me jump in here. Okay. I had a corporation that I was doing and I was trying to mentor people coming in and I had an interesting situation. My accountant was white. That is interesting. Okay. My intern secretary, my secretary, was black. So she came to a meeting with me. All right. And we got on this subject. And so some kind of strange way we got on the subject. And so she made the statement that white people don't care about the black community. And so my accountant says, well, all my people give to the black community. And so then me who happened to have been in the nonprofit organization at the time, I knew exactly what was happening. I said, yeah, white people are giving to the black community, but there's an umbrella. It's not getting to the right place. So the people that's up under that umbrella ain't seeing it come in. It's going to be fat people on the side of fat cats. And this is what's going on. Okay, look, you got all kinds of policies that don't work, but it'll get other people rich. Right. And that's what emoji says. Pimping of poverty or poverty pimping. You would like going down to Skid Row, San Julian Street, people selling rocks out there. I mean, for years, the police know it's there, but how come they haven't done anything about it? Because they don't want to. If we see it, then you know they see it. Right. But what I'm also saying is the streets are filthy. You have all of your emissions right there. And those streets are filthy. And I believe that they allow those streets to be filthy so people can feel sorry for them. Yeah. And give them money. But not just the police now. That's what. Right. Look, everybody have a vet. The homeless have it come down. The homeless industrial complex, just like the prison industrial complex, military industrial complex. In a capitalist society, you create bureaucracy. Capitalism is a system that always needs markets to exploit. And see what's happening down here, all your activists, your service providers, your business community, all of them have a vested interest in keeping people in the street. See, they haven't become creative. Right. They haven't become creative enough to transition. That's why it's at a standstill right now because people, everybody's worried about what? They vested interest. You know, if they saw the homeless problem, where are the people that's working there? The service provider, where they going? And that's basically what I'm saying is that they want it to be that way. But I want to get back on track as far as this evening's show. And that is about unarmed shootings of not just black people, but anybody. I wanted to mention that soldier that you talked about. Okay. You want to mention, do you know something about him? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, because, and first of all, let me say that was an excellent piece. That was a great piece. Now we're doing this piece on the 23rd of September at the St. John's Church somewhere in Watts. It's called If the Shoe Fits, you know, about solitary confinement. Okay, now you're doing a real thing. You're doing a real thing. Okay, now you're doing a reading or you're doing? It's performance this time. Oh. Yeah, on that day. They perform it on the 23rd of every month. They did it at KPFK a lot last Wednesday. But what I want to mention is the theme coming up is military veterans in solitary confinement. And see, and one of the things to understand about the prison system is a military veteran, when you get locked up, 90% of the military veterans go to solitary confinement. Okay. And you have to go to solitary confinement because of their background. See, because of the, they've been off into the war zones and people, they're so unpredictable. So you have to factor that into the equation too when you have a situation like that. And then having it happen in a place like Texas, you know, to have all of these kind of racist history. And the military-type police. tight police system and stuff like that. The other thing, I would wish that you guys could do that piece on the 23rd before they perform. Man, that would be a nice piece to do because it deals with a veteran and the whole subject is going to be about a veteran. We will have a veteran there that's been in solitary confinement. Now he's out doing a little acting and all of that. Well, liberty, okay. Can you read the definition of that for me, Shante? The word liberty? The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. And the second? The power or scope to act as one pleases. Okay, now we know that's within reason. We can't go around shooting a bunch of people. Now I kind of want to get into the, the, the, the motive behind the, the skit is that liberty and justice, in my opinion, was like kind of a, a false hope or we were talking last night, Norris, kind of something when I was a kid, that song, if I, if I had a hammer and the hammer of justice and the bell of freedom and, and that whole thing. And it, those are things that, that you wanted to look up to and, and that you wanted, because it sounds so good, but it wasn't that for, black people. And I mean, it wasn't that for a lot of people, but, but it just seemed like we were all always on the, how should I say the crap end of the stick, the short, yeah, not the crap, but the short end of the stick. And, I'm watching these videos and in some, some sense or cases that, if a person is unarmed, I don't think you need to shoot them 11 times or how, you know, ridiculous amount of time that these cops are doing it, but I see what they're doing. They're not, they don't have any procedures. And I think that's probably the key, which Norris and I were talking about a little bit last night, but I want to get into first. Okay. We kind of started off. Why did we think this was happening and, and why, why white people think that we're crying and complaining about these, these things, but does anybody in, sorry, sue me or do whatever you want, beat me when you want, but didn't have enough time to do the research. But I think Melvin or Norris or Shantae might have the stats on imprisonment for the same, the same crime. What, what is that? If a, if a white man does a crime and then a black man does a crime, how much more time with a black man get? Actually, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Actually, I don't have the exact figures in front of me right now, but pet president Obama just made a speech concerning this, that a black man for the same crime is going to get a longer sentence, longer time. Okay. Let's, let's leave it at that. We had looked it up already on one other show and we, we already had established, I mean, it was like more than 50%. You know, I don't remember the exact number, but it was like, if, if a white person got five years, a black man was going to get like 11. Okay. And he's not going to get five years. He's not going to get five years. Okay. And most of the time they weren't even going to be, be eligible for a shorter release as quick as what the white person was. Okay. As a reason for that too. And what is that reason, Melvin? Well, the reason is based upon economics again. You know, when you look at the, you're talking about poor upbringing, I'm talking about money. I'm talking about the way the court system is set up, which most cases are settled by plea agreement. See, Oh, I see. Because they're not going to pay you to play where if you got a lawyer, if you go in there and got a lawyer, most of these are little minor cases. And if you got, you can bail out, first of all, you can bail out and you could have your case a year later. But if you locked up, you in there, you can't bail out. You don't understand that they have 90 days to, according to legal system, they have 90 days to get you to the court process, unless you give up your right to a speed, you're going to be in trial. And see most of them sitting in there all this time, like they give up, they have little simple things. And then before they know it, they have two or three simple things. And the two or three simple little felonies add up to serious felonies and all that kind of stuff. That's how come it's tied into economics. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. Okay. Well, can I add to that? Go ahead. You know, I had a friend who's not my son's friend, even my son, he actually did a plea bargain for something that shouldn't even been that way a case that he had actually won and the judge overturned the other side. All right. And so here it is. He's sitting in jail. He says, dad, it was dangerous in jail. I had to get out. It's not like you can bail out and then you, you know, you waiting to see the judge and your trial and no, you in there and they're treating you like I went to jail for nine days for parking tickets for one of those nine cars that got towed away. Right. Okay. And it was crazy in there. I'm like, y'all don't have a section for people there. I'm in here for traffic tickets. I'm like hardcore criminal. No, no, no. One of the guys that was a drug dealer. Now I'm in the same room that there was a drug dealer, a rapist and the killer. And so, and so he said, he said, uh, the guy, you can die in here. He's like, you can die in here. This is a vulnerable place. This is a place where you can die. This is a place where you can die. This is a place where you can die. This is a place where you can die. This is a vulnerable place. And I'm like, and honestly, the rebel said, I got to get the hell out of here. If they had offered me a plea bargain for one of my tickets, I would have took it right then and there. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, so what I'm saying is, is that we get the crimes and, and that makes a lot of sense what you're saying, um, uh, Melvin. But as far as the numbers of, uh, unarmed shootings, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, unarmed shootings, are the numbers of black people higher than anybody else? Well see, here's another thing. Nothing have changed. They just amplified in a few things. And I know what you're saying, but is that because of economics? Well, you know, That black people are getting shot more than anybody else? Well, you know, economics is always going to tie into it, but see what's, what's happening is a lack of the black community with two major instruments, uh, sectors in the black community, which have dropped the ball. The number one is a black church. Yes. Right? See the black church, they haven't put forth any kind of plan to challenge this, uh, uh, penal system. See, um, let me give you an example before reparations, right? That they, uh, uh, brought out reparations, uh, not reparation, uh, realignment that jumped off in October. What realignment is, is that they was going to let out all of the nonviolent offenders, they had all these little simple crimes. Uh-huh. That was an opportunity because they announced this six months prior. And I sit in on a few meetings with some of these religious leaders and stuff to come pushing them to come up with a plan so they could supervise some of these individuals, right? Keep them out from going back in again. And, and, and so they can be, uh, uh, like that. And they did absolutely nothing. And all of these individuals that came out, the majority of them ended up in the skid row community down there now. So the, the, the, that's number one corporate is that black church. See, because the black church had become a corporation. Mm. The everything that Jesus taught, they do just the opposite. Yes. You know, in terms of chasing after that big money. and then justified, and then the people letting them get away with it without challenging. And see, that's the whole thing about when you define, one more little quick thing. When you define liberty, right, which is tied into freedom, right? As far as I'm concerned, there's only one definition of liberty. If you want to know what it is, read the 8th chapter of John and the 32nd verse, and you will find out, because Messiah Jesus tied liberty into truth. You want to know, as long as you falsify and stuff like this, and what it is, if you continue in my words, you are my disciples indeed, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. See, that's liberty. They can disguise everything they want to and all like that, but if you don't tie truth, you'll never have. Well, see, the point of the skit was in the gangster, looking outfit, singing the... Cholo. Yeah, the... I'm sorry. That's a private joke, everybody. That's a private joke. That whole thing was that, you know, rather you... I mean, even if you look like a terrorist now, they say profile, ethnic profiling or... Racial. Racial profiling. But liberty should give a man the right, to dress the way he wants and walk. If you don't have a weapon or you're not messing with people, then you should not be afraid to walk down the street with a walkman or... But I think you just hit the nail on the head right there. When you said the word afraid, I don't think the people necessarily walking down the street with the walkman or as you were playing the guitar in there, I think the police out there are afraid of the people that they're coming up on. Part of what... Like what Norris was saying, they're not from the community, so they don't know how to react to the people they're coming up on. Everybody's stereotyped. I think he's saying like profiling them when they're not doing anything. Well, that's what I'm saying. You're being stereotyped because you look like you're a gangbanger. So therefore, because you look like a gangbanger, you have to have a weapon or something in there or you're going to fight me or you're high or you're doing this or that. You're playing a guitar out there. It's like shoot and ask questions later. And I think that's what's happening now. You just lean toward them a little bit. Exactly, because they're scared of you. But they're choosing deadly force. They come upon the situation where there's no reason for them to talk or bother them in the first place. And then they get afraid because that person is afraid. Like with Trayvon Martin, there was no... Or even Bland. Oh, Sandra Bland, yeah. Sandra Bland, a good example of that is the interaction of... He was provoking her, though. Right, he was. And see, here's the thing, and I'm with you on this one. When we don't look at our system and where it needs to change, like, for example, if I want to be a police officer, I probably won't become a police officer because the neighborhood I grew up in, a lot of cats were dope dealers. Now, here's where I grew up in a poor neighborhood and a lot of my friends chose to solve their problems by selling drugs. Now, me, I made a vow that I would never sell drugs. All right? Now, I probably would have made a good police officer, but that's just not going to happen. Period. So, I mean, what's your point getting at that you could never be a police officer? Because he's stereotyped from the area that he came from. The system. Oh, okay. I think Melvin was kind of saying something about that a while back. And the key in relationship to the police... Wait a minute, I think it was Nora saying that they don't hire the people from their community for... Well, they do a background check. Like, for example, a lot of cats went to service and got kicked out of service because of the neighborhood and the friendships that they had. I have a lot of friends. I was with the original Crips. I was in class at Edison High School with Arden Jones, Freddie Manson. Now, I chose... You've come a long way. I've come a long way. But I chose... I knew that was wrong what they was doing, so I went a different direction. All right? But that still holds... Like, when I went to jail for those nine days. Okay? Now, here's the thing. I was automatically put... I was automatically put in with the Crips because they separate you by race. Well, wait. Watch what I'm finna say. In the jail system, they separate you by race, what neighborhood you in, what gang affiliation. So, I was automatically put in with the Crips. Now, see, now, my white friends has no clue. Now, if you do go to jail as a white person in jail, you're called a wood, and you don't want to be in jail. I feel sorry... No. I feel sorry... I feel sorry... I feel sorry for all the white people that was in jail that I saw them. They were the minority, and for the first time, they felt what it was like to be black. They don't put them with, like, white supremacists or anything? Well, there's tiers of jail. That's the federal penitentiary. But we just talk about county jail. Yeah. Well, like, for example, one guy that was in jail with me, he was mixed with Hispanic and black. He spoke Spanish or Latin, whatever, fluently. And they didn't know what to do with his butt. No, they knew what to do with his butt. He didn't want to get transferred out of our cell. Because he knew. Because he was going to get killed. Mm-hmm. And so, now, here's the thing. Most people don't understand that system. And now, here's the other part. They don't understand that system has overflowed into our social system. Now, the police who deal with that system think that people... We are that system. We are that system. Instead of understanding, there is a difference. But if you're not from the community, okay? Like, I know one police officer, a friend of mine. He knows the difference. Very successful detective. Because he comes from the community. He knows when a person... Even if they got a background, when they're trying to do wrong, you know? Yeah, and that's the whole thing with this kid as well. It's like, if the cop that shot me in the skit knew who I was and what I was doing, he would not have shot me. But my point is, if I have a guitar in my hand or some people don't have anything in their hands, why are you choosing deadly? Why are you choosing deadly force? Why are you choosing deadly force? And people are scared. Like that young football player that just died. They just had their trial for that cop. I don't know if they fried him or not. Probably not. But they shot him, shot at him 12 times, hit him 10 times. And the cams were showing him. He got in a wreck. He was pounding on some doors trying to get out. He was on the other night, I think. Right. And the lady called and said, somebody's trying to break in my house, some white lady with her kid or whatever. So justifiably, she could be scared, you know. But when the cops got there, he's got the lasers on his chest. And he's scared. He's scared. And the one guy has his taser. Another guy didn't even pull out his club because they figured they could handle him. Well, they said he started running towards them, which doesn't make any sense. But he ran. He was charging towards them. That's what they described it. Well, he ran. But you could look at his mannerisms and tell he was scared. He wasn't threatening. He didn't put his shoulders down to. Yeah, I understand how they described it. It was like he was charging at them and they were afraid for their lives. No, that one guy. It makes no sense, though. Like, why would he be doing that? And I think they shot him in the back. But even if you're a man, you know, and somebody's charging at you and you're going to shoot somebody for charging at you, that's stupid. If you're a police and somebody's running at you and you think that. You're fearing for your life that you have to shoot him, then you're in the wrong profession. OK, now I saw that. No, I saw the trial. And they like had him in the little room and they're asking him questions. And he was saying like his eyes, his eyes. Did you see that? Yeah. But his eyes like crying and all this other stuff. Like weird. Or, you know, like he had a demon. Yeah, that's how he described it. And then. But how how tall was the football player? He was six foot. Yeah. Two hundred and something. And and how tall are you? And how much do you weigh? Oh, I'm five, seven, one hundred and sixty pounds. And I'm like looking at that and like said, there's women in the force. So because you're a smaller man, that's what they teach you is if a bigger man approaches you, you just shoot him. But see, they used to have they used to have height limits, weight limits and everything. And everybody says, oh, now you're discriminating against other people. So we're going to take those all away. You know, so they. Took all those requirements away. And now it's like supposedly if you can pass the agility tests and all these type of things. But obviously, that should not have been an argument that I'm smaller than him and that I'm afraid of him because people 40 years before you fought to get those requirements that you had to be able to, you know. Well, I mean, I could I could understand the situation if that bigger man was aggressive and got a hold of him. And let's say he was the only police officer. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. There's other people there. Right. And something else coming into play here when it comes to the police. Right. The stereotypes that's built into our society, the media and all that kind of stuff. And you have to ask yourself this question. How many name incident in which a black policeman have shot a young white dude? And then turn around. You know, if you can, you may find one. Yeah, I know. I know one. You're lucky. But ask the question. You know what? Why? Why? Why is when you had a black police in the same kind of situation, they find themselves in the same situation, but you don't see them shooting because black police can kick everybody's butt. No, it's because in the mind of that white police, you know, he following the same stereotypes that he see here in the music. See on the TV and all that. Yeah. They're scary. Wait, wait, wait. Boss Hall. They present themselves in the room. Okay, this is what I don't like about society. Yeah. We don't want to address racism because we can't seem to prove it. All right. Or a person being stereotyped. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, but the problem is there's clearly a racial problem and stereotypes are created from racism. All right. So maybe we need to have a system that addresses that. Mm-hmm. That's one of the things that could be brought about and changed. But you know what? I mean, like all of a sudden everybody forgot about when the police were chasing after this black guy and say, yeah, we got this gorilla. When? Yeah, everybody forgot about that. Hey, Williams. She's going to go to a break. Yeah. Hey, guys, we're going to take a break from our discussion and take a look at what's going on and where you could get it going on. No, we can hear you. The best impression started home. Elite furniture for affordable prices. Live in large furniture. That's live in large furniture. For more information, contact Richard Boyd at 951-214-8555. That's 951-214-8555. Drama Stage Qumran has a weekly veterans theater workshop, which is led by Melvin Ishmael Johnson, who's here in the studio with us. And Earlene Anthony. The workshop is on Wednesday nights from 4 to 6 p.m. Miss Earlene. Miss Earlene. A free course in stage managing, playwriting, and more. If you'd like more information, you can contact Melvin at 213-479-1764 or email dramastage1 at yahoo.com. We'd like to thank our engineer again, William, for your help tonight. Great job. Special two-hour show. Doing a great job. If you'd like to be part of our show through sponsorship, you can contact us at 951-789-1046 to learn more about our nonprofit organization. Thank you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. We'd love to join you. Broadcasting live from Skid Row Studios in downtown Los Angeles. A special two-hour episode. Hope you guys are enjoying it so far. And back to our discussion. Well, we ain't going back to our discussion. What about that little thing that Richard had? That little thing he was riding on? Richard is selling the self-balance boards at selfbalanceboards.com. A lot of the popular DJs are riding it. So I've seen a lot of celebrities using it as well. So it's basically kind of like that mall cop thing. The thing you see on the beach with the two wheels and the stick and handlebars. But without the stick and handlebars. So you're balancing on yourself. It's based off of your weight. It's pushing forward. You go forward. Pushing backwards. You go backwards. It's a bit difficult at first. But I think once you get the hang of it, it'll be a lot of fun. Did you get the hang of it? Yeah, a little bit. The turning is a bit difficult. But yeah, a lot of people are riding on the really popular. So that's selfbalanceboards.com if you want to see what they look like. You can definitely go on YouTube and see it. I bet there's a bunch of videos. There's people riding them already. Okay, now Melvin, you got anything you need to say? You did say there was a shoot set. Any announcements that you want to make or upcoming events you want to put out there? Oh, yeah. We go in production for our play about Marcus Garvey and J. Edgar Hoover, Catch the Tiger. But on September 23rd, St. John's Methodist Church up in Watts at 630. We will be performing If the Shoe Fit. I'll be directing this piece, If the Shoe Fit's Voices from Solitary Confinement. And the theme is veterans in solitary confinement. And we would love for you guys to come out and perform that piece. Do you have the address? Do you know the address? I don't have the address. Okay. I can tell you later on. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. So we were talking about, what were we talking about? The police. Everybody's talking about the police. Okay. So what we were getting at was we were talking about liberty. We were talking about the reasons that we're being shot. We're talking about weight and standards that the police department have had to, I guess, eliminate because of discrimination, height discrimination, weight discrimination. And that is giving some people excuses about, I mean, for shooting bigger people or whatever. We have to look at also how the media portrays this because there was a picture and it showed Trayvon Martin at a space camp, like with a big smile on his face. But all the media just showed him in a hoodie and he looked threatening. And I think when that's broadcasted constantly and that's put into people's minds, then I think that's how they see us. And then when you were talking about the police, I think that's how they see us. We were talking about the racial profiling. I think the mainstream media is a big part of that. Well, I think so too with Trayvon Martin. I do not know how that guy got away with it. But when you compare it to how, when there's white people that are doing crimes and stuff like that, they show them how they look when they were kids and they show them as innocent or they say he was disturbed or something like that. So we put them in a different category. And also when you were showing, I think the YouTube video you were talking about with a black person carrying an AK or whatever, it was, and then the white person carrying it, completely different. I mean, you could have, yeah, it could have gotten shot right on the spot. The black guy was just walking. White guy was walking the test or experiment that they were doing, the real life experiment. Well, I don't, I think what's happened is as times have progressed and technology is progressing, everybody has a cell phone that can take videos. Now they're saying, okay, we're going to have dash cameras. We're going to have cameras on top of the police. I think. I think what's going on is just becoming more open, you know, because everybody's presenting it. I don't know about the dash cam though, because they said with the Sandra Bland one that it was manipulated. Well, but did you can, they can tell whether it's been manipulated. Once her lawyer gets one of the things. I know, but the thing of it is, and what ticks me off. But what I'm trying to say is nothing has changed from what is going on. It just looks like there's more incidences of it only become, it's become more broadcasted. Because we didn't have it. This is the technology we have. Well, but this is the whole thing. See, when people see a black community erupt, we've been trying to tell white America, this has been happening. This is unfair. But they don't care. Well, I don't know if they don't care. I don't believe they do. They turn a deaf ear to it and they're blind to it. It's not in my neighborhood. So I don't think it's even just black neighborhoods. I think it's anything that doesn't happen in the neighborhood that you're living in. Most people don't really care what's going on. You know, I listened to some things that going on. Um, in, in the San Fernando Valley, the Valley has changed demographics greatly, just like LA has. Um, it used to be, it used to be a predominantly white neighborhood. Now it's predominantly Hispanic. And where is it? What? In the San Fernando Valley? I mean, in LA. Oh, in LA. Riverside. But what I'm saying is that, you know, I hear things that go on in, in, you know, I'm sure there was, you know, robberies that went on because we knew about it growing on up. But you never heard about it. You know, we didn't make the news. Now it comes on. It's a major thing. That's all we're over here in. Well, Denise, I mean, I'm sorry, but that's the whole point. Okay. They have been here. I lived in the San Fernando Valley when it was predominantly right. White. It was right. And there was stuff going on and they never put it on TV. But now, now there's Hispanic. Now they're putting all this crazy stuff on. But it's been going on with white people. So it's like, so in white America. Because mine is like, we're really good people and we really don't do nothing. But look, they wouldn't took over and look at the stuff that's happening now. But that's what I'm saying. You know, people, once they, they move out of the areas or it gets the demographics change in the area, things change then. And a lot of things are getting, you know, Well, I believe, I believe too that, um, I, I mean, you look at a lot of it and it does change, you know, I mean, I mean, look at the neighborhood you grew up in. I mean, I mean, White people. White people don't party as hard as black people. They just can't. And so when they, when they get in their hood, their neighborhoods and they try to cut up a little bit, they can't cut up like we do. And they just can't. So what I'm thinking, you know, you said demographics, I'm saying it is changing and it is more turned, you know, more turned up because it is. But how many, how many of the police in that area have been on the force for 30 years and now they're coming up for retirement. But the demographics didn't take 30 years to change. So like what? What Norris and Melvin were saying is they don't know the community that they're trying to protect type through there because the demographics has changed and they don't understand the culture necessarily of what's gone on. Wait a minute. Doug, Doug, what do you got to say about that? Honestly, I think that, um, they really need to implement, um, psychological testing to see if the police are scared or certain things like that. Um, in order to have us really safe and protected because, you know, being scared of something will allow you to do certain things like pull guns and shoot people because you're scared, you know, you're not acting rationally because they do have psychological testing and they also, but they're lying. They have to happen. But I think, well, I think even if it's written, I think a lot of the profiles when they come back with show that this person was questionable. But I have a quota that I have to. I need to hire 30 cops down here. I only have 25 that really fit the job description. Where am I going to get the other 25? They start laxing down more and more on things either through the psychological testing. Go ahead, Melvin. Um, why? Let's take Beverly Hills, for example, and ask the question, why? Why? Police is not shooting people in Beverly Hills. Well, come on. What do you think the answer to that? The question is? Well, it's simple to me. It's I go back. Wait a minute. Wait. OK, I'll go back to the. But are they cutting up? Do the people in Beverly Hills, are they cutting up like people down on Skid Row or Hollywood Boulevard? That has nothing to do with it. Actually, let me. I think it does. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, they are cutting up. Is this not as obvious? Wait, wait. You got people who see all those diamond stores there that will try to throw a chair through the break. And so you got as much crime going on there. But here's the. No, don't say that. There is not. Not as much crime. Well, no, no. It is. Yes. Yeah. I know for a fact I got I got a friend that runs a company. I don't kind of say his company, L.A. Ice Company. And so he tells me about all the stuff that he's doing. He's the one who makes LeBron James 20, whatever, three, whatever is 24. So, look, they have a lot of crime. But here's the difference. They have a lot of money to have private organizations. All right. See, corporate business is like you're talking about private security, private security, private security. Private cops. OK, so they can control this situation. They can catch the situation before it happens, because you got to understand if their clients are here. Oh, wow. You almost got robbed. And if they come in there to do business, they're not going to do business because these people got a lot of money. So they catch the problem before it even gets started. And I think we're still talking apples and oranges. But if you if you ask and answer that question correctly, then you will understand where there's so much madness and shooting. In the black and Hispanic communities and stuff like that. See, the police is there to protect property. They come from that community. Right. So when you look at the black community, it boils down once again until we organize ourselves economically where we can become a power. Now, that's the first step. That just sounds like that just sounds like. I mean, when you talk about you talking about when I mean, what I'm getting from this. OK, we're talking about, say, Corona. You guys know about a place called Corona right next to Riverside. Yeah. OK. And then you're saying Beverly Hills. OK, now we're talking Corona. What is it? Comb Gardens or whatever that place. And then you're talking Beverly Hills. OK, it's not it's not clicking. Whatever you guys are saying right now is not clicking. Let me make it. Let me jump. Real quickly. My sister lives in Compton. OK. Both her and her husband are professionals in Compton. They refused to move out of Compton. All right. I took one of my friends there. OK. He's from the high desert, you know, passed from the high desert. And we went to event. We're like, this is Compton. Aren't we going to get killed? I'm like, no, there's homeowners. There's people who get up and go to jobs every day. OK. Point. Point. Point is that Compton is not. Well, the way everybody think there are some bad parts of Compton and some bad situation, but actually is no different than any other neighborhood. It just got some bad points that are highly publicized, highly over publicized. You look down the neighborhood. First of all, you can judge a neighborhood by the fact that people are cutting their grass. That's all neighborhoods. Any city you look, it's going to have good parts and bad parts. Right. And that's my whole point. But Compton gets the bad rep. I think it's notorious. Right. And Watts, too. You got a lot of people. Pacoima. South Central. Pacoima. I lived in Pacoima myself. Yeah. You got some bad elements, but the bad elements, we can go to downtown Riverside and they got bad elements over there. Across the Blanca. I know one thing for sure, though. When you moved out of Pacoima, it probably got better. It probably got better. It was quieter. OK. Go ahead. Yeah. I was going to. I was going to say, because I think it's so important, police community relations to understand that. That's true. OK. Yeah. What I want to know now is that we kind of talked about, you know, the problems. OK. The solutions. What you want to talk about. OK. Yeah. I want to kind of get into some solutions. And that's why I was getting ready. OK. And go on that. And then I want to talk about something Norris and I was talking about after you about procedure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The solution, until the economic life of these communities improve, you're going to have a lot of crime there. And the police is going to approach it from a military point of view because they are protecting property. Why? Because in all of these communities, the community don't own the property. OK. Outside forces own these properties. OK. What is the solution, Mel? Well, first of all, the solutions. The solution is to improve the economic life of these communities by pooling your resources. Right. And so we need a lot of help from these churches, from these rich entertainers and athletes. They need to be called. Look, we need you to come in here and put up some factories. We need to, because that's the starting point. Jobs. Create jobs. And then another thing. Let's look at the Sandra Bland thing. See, we need to have community groups where we can teach our community members not only how to recognize when you're in danger, but how to act when you're in danger. When you find yourself in a dangerous situation like that, if I was going to teach somebody how to, when that police come up to you, you tell them, you keep your mouth shut. I know what you're saying, but you know what? Growing up as a kid. Right. When there was a police. Or a fireman or a teacher or whatever. I grew up in Mississippi, right? When it was dangerous. Right? It's dangerous now. No. It's more dangerous out here than in Mississippi. You know, a whole nother thing. And our parents taught us. They taught us survival techniques. If you have to say, yes, sir. You know, they teach you that. Because they want you to. That seems kind of. I know what he's saying. I know what he's saying, but it just sounds kind of weird that being polite or having good manners is a survival technique. I know it is. But you know that because you've used that when you've had police pull you over for no reason. I know that, but see what I'm saying. It's sad that you have to teach your kids that. No, it's not sad. We should automatically teach our kids that. No, I mean, you're being mistreated that you have to do. Teach them the law. Hold on. Everybody. Everybody. Look. All right. First of all, the black community is very much connected to the black church. All right. I want you to call in out there. If your pastor has talked in the last six months about what you should do in front of the police. They're busy preaching tides and prosperity. Right. Parking lots. Parking lots. Yeah. Parking lots. Parking lots. They're doing everything but relate to the community. And then here's the other problem with the black church. The black church is no longer. The black church is located in the black community. It's located, at least in California, in the Latin community. Well, tell me what is in a Latin community? Well, I'm just saying. Okay. So we do. That's a whole nother subject right there. So it's not relevant. Okay. My point is solution. Okay. Now, Melvin is saying that we need more money. We need more money in the communities. And that's going to help. We got money. And put it in the right places. Black people got so. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got money. We got more money than a hundred countries mixed together. Yeah. Put it into the right places. You know, we go out and we party and all that kind. We go into the shopping mall. How many business do we have in the community? Own, buy, buy. And major businesses. Do we have one toothbrush business, toothpick business? We got any blacks with factories like that in a big city like Los Angeles? And then we ask the question, how come blacks laying down there in Skid Row? Because they don't have any community. People from the outside controlling. All I'm saying is that we need to start talking about economics and ask the questions, you know, how are we going to improve? How are we going to create more jobs? I got you. I got you. Some of the reasons that there isn't any, any, um, uh, businesses. Watch yourself. Businesses. Cause we're all thieves. No, no, no. There isn't any businesses in the city, especially LA is because the government has a tax so high between your EPA standards. Between your EPA standards. Between your property taxes. This is true. That it is not, you know, you're going to go out to the high desert where property's cheaper. They don't have all the restrictions and stuff. And you're going to build the factories out there. Now to get from LA out to the high deserts going to take you two hours every day one way. But there are businesses in the community. It's that they control the outside forces. You go through these communities, all kinds of business and factories there. But new businesses. They're under. Some things are grandfathered in, you know, then where they're at. So if you want to start a new business up, you have such tight regulations on there that it's just not profitable. That's okay. Okay. So you got anything to say about this? Yeah. That, uh, we can't even get it together and get on the same team to even create businesses out there because you can try, like I've been trying for years and I can't get my brothers to come together in one room and say, okay, let's invest in this. And let's do this because everybody wants to be the chief and no Indians. You know what I mean? Mm hmm. So, um, well, that's, I think is, uh, always kind of been a black problem is everybody's or I call it Highlander mentality. There can only be one. One. Only be one. Why can't we all be and we all make it? Why can't we just all get along? Yeah. And then see it, the white listeners and I'm hoping a few of my friends at work, so we're not just pointing our fingers at white people. Saying this. And I mean, you blue eyed devils did, you guys did create this havoc and the slavery and the oppression and you did it. You did it. Okay. Just own up to it. But we're not sitting here in this room trying to make excuses for what you've done. We want solutions. But Melvin, that thing you're talking about, in my opinion, that's a dream. Which one? About what you're talking about? Black owned and them coming in and the economy. And economics. Why was it, why was it, we did it during the 60s, we're doing it during the 20s. We mean, we created so many jobs. Okay, I'm talking about a solution to get the cops from killing us. Okay. Okay. How, how, how long do you think that that solution is going to take place? We're going to all be dead by the time that rolls around. I got us back on that too. Because if we have our own businesses, the cops will protect us because we are the business in economics. We bringing money to the community. So they're going to protect us because why? We are, we are money. Like they protected that veteran that went to war? Like they protected him? Did they protect him? They killed him. I understand that. I understand that. Okay, then what are you saying? They have a business. Do you have a business? But he protected us. He went to war and he put his life on the line for us. They don't care. All of us. I'm sorry. So you think they don't care about that, but they care about your business? They only care about money. They only care about money. They only care about money. Let me jump in. Let me jump in. First of all, I went Melvin and Dub. Okay. First of all, I remember when I was a teenager, after a certain hour, when we would ride from Watts to Huntington Park or even Southgate after a certain time, the police was going to automatically pull you over if you was black. Okay. Now it may have been racism, but the other thing is they were going to protect those businesses there. Make sure you wasn't a black person. That was trying to do some harm or rob their community. They were protecting the community. Okay. So? Well, the thing is- I'm talking about solution to black people not getting shot. That's the solution. First of all, the key to black community is black dollars. Okay. Oh, you know what Norris? That's crazy. You know what? That's just like you sitting there saying stop black on black crime. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Atlanta- Stop all crime. Stop all crime. Has less black crime than any city. All right? And it's a chocolate city. Oh, yeah. We have models. They're pooled together their resources. T.D. Jakes went in there and did one of the biggest expo and they didn't have no problem. We have models across this country. You're going to say the black dollar. The black- Could you please break it down for our listeners what the black dollar means? Well, we're just talking about black business, black folks coming together. Black folks going to a black owned business. Black folks going to a black owned business and spending their money. Like they don't want anybody else to come spend their money. No, it's not just, no, no. But what I'm saying, the black dollar is staying in the black community like other dollar, whether it be Polish, Jewish, Korean, whatever. Okay? And we have models for this. And I've never heard any of those ethnic groups say what we're saying. Well, see, and it's another key. I didn't get to the second part of that's so important with these communities. We got the concept. We got the concept of centralization that we had when I said centralization. I know. It's all of these communities like in Chicago, Detroit, we working together. If you have a product out here, if you connect it to all, it's 250 major cities in the United States, right? We got huge black communities. They disorganize in all of these areas. But can you imagine, right, if you had a product that you create? You already got a market if you centralize and you working together. You got distribution. With the black community, right? But I think that's a big problem that's come through is black people don't work together with other black people. Everybody's out doing their own thing. Yeah, no, that's what he's saying. But what I'm talking about is go after all the dollars. Well, you're going to do that. That's the shopping mall. Wait a minute. Hold on. Let me tell you something. I'm in the music industry, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I'm going to get over to white, black, whoever. I still, as a black man, have to have a base, all right? And it starts with the black community. I know, but when you say base, are you talking about with drums as well? No, no, no. No, I'm talking about a base. Core audience. I do black music, okay? Now, I would rather be considered a person who's just universal. But because of the way the industry is and society and life, okay, the first people I got to grab is the black community. Okay. Now, do you think you'd make more money if you were universal? Well, that's what I'm saying. The pathway to be- What you're talking about- No, no, no. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and cut this off because- No, no, hold on. The pathway to be to the universal is through the black community. I don't buy that because a lot of stuff going- Well, I can give you Michael Jackson. I can give you James Brown. Well, I mean, we can talk about this later, but that's getting off base. I think the key to our problem, a logical key and a simple key, is people. And the simple key is procedure, that these police have to go by procedure, that these procedures should be set up and they should not be straight away from. If you do not follow these procedures and someone gets shot on arm, then you fry. And your penalty should be twice that of a civilian. In a perfect world. No, they can set it up. I believe that that's going to happen a lot quicker than what you guys are all talking about. If we step together and we got in the police department or the government and say, this is what a cop has to do. Yeah, he might have to stray from it, but if he did these things and he shot somebody, then he's going to fry. Then that cop- But do you think that would result in them not wanting to do anything at all for fear that they would die? Okay, then you go get a right policeman. Okay, but hold on, hold on. Okay, I got to close right now. And I thank you so much for participating. Thank you. Thank you for participating. And I'm sorry, I got a little passionate. That's what Denise says, right? Passionate. I didn't get the N word. I got passionate. Okay. I just want to thank God for all you guys. I want to thank everybody for listening. But I need to say we're never more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ than when we are loving, forgiving, and creating. I need to get this right now. I need to get this right now. I need to get this right now.