People on riding with us as we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Ramsy's job. He is Ramsey's jaw.
I am q Ward. You are tuned into Civic Cipher.
And if you're still tuned in read it's better if you're just tuning in for wine because you need to learn a less Okay, you need to learn where we stand in this country. But yeah, for this next part of the show, I need you to stick around because we are going to be discussing some brighter moments that have happened recently in the news, and we're going to
share the headlines and the stories behind them. It's important for us to share positive outcomes as well black people who weren't just born to live hard lives and then die. So let's all try to smile. But before we get to that point, I think we should discuss us something very special, Baba becoming a Better Allied Baba. Today's Baba
A sponsored by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the Freeboter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses and allied businesses as well as well as making the impact with your spending. Again, that's Fotmglobal dot com. So today's baba. I'm not going to say his last name. We're going to shout out a listener.
His name is Jonathan. Jonathan is an older man, an older listener for our show, White Man, Older big fan, and he sent us a letter that was very heartwarming, very encouraging, and we read that letter on the show before. But after reading that letter, he emailed us again and says, hey, you know what I can do more than just write a letter. I would like to support you financially. Right. The problem is I'm a little old. I don't use VENMO, I don't have though or all these electronic things. How
can I support you fiscally? Would you take a check? Wow? Now this is like three months ago. We got the check and I wanted to read this and share this with him, so he hears it. Ke warden Rams's job finally sending you a check. Honored to be your first actual paper check. Hope you're well. Happy new Year. I hope it's a good one for you, full of love, peace, safety, pleasure, happiness, and then you have many more take care of Jonathan.
God bless Jonathan, and a handwritten note with a paper check and it went to a po box and you left it there for months because we you know, and I just thought this was the sweetest thing. And Jonathan, you are the example of becoming a better ally. We need more people like you, and God bless you too. Brother. All right, so let's talk about some things that have happened again. These I don't want to call it good news, but closure. Maybe closure. That's a good one. Thank you man,
thank you. All right, So I'm gonna share a bit from CNN from these happier headlines. We have here a momentous day. All six rogue Mississippi officers got long prison sentences in goon squad torture of two black men. All right, So there's a lot of words there. The main one is Mississippi, the second one is officers, and then obviously prison sentences is something you don't expect to hear.
Yeah, And that laugh is like ironic and almost sarcastic because Ramses and I had a run in with Mississippi law enforcement. It's not pleasant, it was not funny, it was not enjoyable. And some of our friends were actually terrified. And we'll tell that story another time, and we have multiple times before. But yeah, Mississippi and officers, that chuckle is quite ironic.
Yeah, And for folks who listened to the first part of the show, that example illustrates how sometimes you have to accept disrespect, you have to suppress your desire to have a degree of dignity in order to survive. We had to do that so we can make it home. Yep, we did. Yeah, So this is what we have to teach our children. So hopefully you understand. Again, for those who listen to the first part of the show anyway,
I will read a bit more so. Joshua Hartfield, the last of six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers sentenced in the torture of two black men in January twenty twenty three, received a ten year prison term in federal court Thursday afternoon hearing capped and emotional, three days during which vivid accounts of the horrifying brutality of a self styled gooon squad of deputies gripped a packed court room, where the highest ranking officer on the scene, Brett Macalpan,
was sentenced to more than twenty seven years in prison earlier Thursday, Shackled around around his waist and hands, Hartfield choked up and sobbed when he began to address the court. I already know you were going to want to say something cute. I just could see you anyway. Here's this quote. He says. All I wanted to do was help people. I failed to help the two people who needed me
the most, all right. The defendants rated a home in Braxton in January twenty twenty three without a warrant, subjected the two black men to racist vitrol, used tasers on them after they had already been handcuffed, beat them with various objects, and shot Jenkins in the mouth. Prosecutor said, mister Jenkins and mister Parker would like mister Jenkins and mister Parker, I would like to apologize to you both,
Hartfield said. The officers went to the home after a neighbor reported several black men were staying at a white woman's home and reported seeing suspicious behavior. The officers kicked in the door of a home where two black men were staying and subjected them to an hour and a
half of torture. So we're not giving you all the details We've covered this story on this show and on the Black Information Network, and you know, if you want to get like the really graphic, gruesome details beyond this article, you know, just look up the Mississippi Goon Squad. Not to be confused the Gilbert Goons in Gilbert, Arizona. Don't think we don't see you. Unfortunately, don't think we don't
see you out there in Gilbert. We're close anyway. But yeah, I thought that you would get a kick out of his statement. All I wanted to do was help people. I failed to help the two people who needed me.
But well, the second part of that statement actually moves me in a way that's different than you might expect.
Okay, talk to me.
Accountability does not always show up at all. So after he's been handcuffed, shackled and sentenced, some accountability show because he could have stood on what he did and not understood why it was a big deal at all, and saying, even if it was performative, that the two people that needed him the most were the two people that they tortured and beat and shot. That's a lot for him to stand up and say in the wake of just being sentenced to twenty seven years. He could have been
angry and said something way different. I just wanted to help people, and I did it, and I didn't help the two people that needed it the most. I think that's actually big of him, especially in a case where there is some sense of accountability. I think in a lot of cases this ends different because there are no living victims afterward, so the justice quote unquote doesn't really show up because there's no account other than that of the police and what we can kind of put together
ourselves through evidence. The fact that they tortured these guys and allowed them to live after as far as accountability goes, is a massive mistake on their part and why twenty seven years is a sentence and not four. So I think it's actually very big of him to acknowledge that the two people that needed him the most were the two people that he and his crohonies or colleagues or goons or whatever they call themselves subjected these men to.
So this is the part where so I like that. I love that. However, this is the part and the point in the conversation where I was expecting maybe something different, and the reason for that is because this officer was a part of the Goon squad. So to me, my powers of deduction, knowing the Goon Squad and how they've moved,
and that this is not an isolated incident. Again, my powers of deduction would suggest to me that this was something that he was along the ride for, he was complicit in, he participated in, and before hearing that sensets it's because your life is gone. When you have a twenty seven year sentence, that's really it for you. The last thing that you did was the worst thing that you did, and it's the thing that you'll be known for,
and that will be the story. May as well go on your tombstone, right, so people do have time to reflect. And again you're not wrong. That's not nothing. But I don't want I don't believe. Rather that he was he just showed up on the scene, saw this happening and was intimidated by his fellow officers and didn't say anything that would make more sense to me him saying I
didn't help the people. I believe that because he was a part of the Goon squad and this is what they did, and this is what they were known for. That there was probably so that's what that's the angle. I thought you were going to say, I think the words would ring more hollow.
This was like a defense, right, Yeah, that's when they thought he was like, look, man, I just I'm sorry. I was much it'd be different after the sentencing. These words ring a little different because you don't even have to. It's not about you accepting accountability at this point, the twenty seven years have been.
You've already already guilty, here, already guilty.
For these words to come and wake of that, I think they ring a little different than if they had been his defense in the beginning, or him pleading for a lesser sentence.
Well, I don't know that he didn't do that, No, no, correct, but I suspect that. Well, there's six of them, so from what I understand that, you know, all of them were trying to wiggle out of it somehow and shift the blame around. But that is not nothing. You know, they're all sentenced, and you know there are two living black men who endured something horrible, but they're still alive, and so that's that's not nothing. So that's why I can't call it a you know, a good sound.
I mean, it's it's not celebratory, right, because it's in the wake of something awful happening to us. Again, but in a lot of these cases, and like I said, especially when the victims don't survive, Yeah, then it's a lot the accountability is a lot less. Even when found guilty in cases like this, the sentencing is typically very light. You're talking about multiple years even when found guilty of
murder and manslaughter. So you know, in the case where you got two living victims, an officer getting twenty seven years is some form of justice and accountability which we don't typically see in cases like this.
So another more positive headline. This comes from CBS Chicago. Conservative activist Kyle Rittenhouse cut short a speaking event on Wednesday night at the University of Memphis after he was drowned out by angry protests and activists. Now that's what it says. Wow. CBS affiliate WRIGTV reports Writtenhouse was invited to speak by the campus organization of conservative advocacy group
Turning Point USA. Rittenhouse was acquitted about felloony charges for shooting three people, killing two of them in twenty twenty during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse, who was seventeen at the time of the shootings, had
claimed he shot the men in self defense. WRIGTV reported his appearance at the University Memphis had sparked weeks of controversy, and it was quickly shouted down at the UC Theater Wednesday evening when he told the audience he quote was violently attacked by a mob of rioters unquote in Kenosha.
Instead of the planned speech, the event swiftly moved to a Q and A session, but Rittenhouse was ushered off the stage after about thirty minutes, after protest repeatedly yelled and booed and uh, it's nice to know that people. I mean, it's not surprising that it would take place on a college campus, but still it's nice to know the people are not accepting that this worst timeline.
Yeah, it's a strange juxtaposition though, because a college organization brought him to cam.
Yeah, that's the weird partner.
So a weird thing to witness this guy be somehow made an activist and hero for going home, getting a gun, going to a place and killing people and then making himself somehow the victim and the.
Hero in this story.
Is really insane, But it's not the first time we saw something like this happen, where these people get to do horrible things to us, zero accountability and somehow become heroes and go on speaking tours and sign autographs. We saw this happen in the wake of Trayvon Martin. We've now seen this in the case with this young man, and where the political backing kind of hals these guys
up and lifts them up as heroes too. It gives you an idea and to the mindset of tens of millions of people in this country who think that things like this should be celebrated in that these guys should be labeled heroes. Right, if that kid really made a mistake and went there and was defending himself, you think he'd be a bit more somber, a bit more apologetic, a bit more sorry at the way they's played out.
Taking a life, allowing himself to be made a hero and kind of living in it and making money off ros is insane.
Yeah. I mean, if I got to be known for something, the last thing I want to be known for is an ending a life that just feels a little low vibrational. But like I said, shout out to the students at the University of Memphis for showing up and showing out and not letting him get off his nonsense. That's not nothing, you know.
And you know what, There's been some colleges around the country, some college campuses that have been showing up. Man, I want to make sure that I shout out all the college campuses. I know there's a couple in California that have been I think it's called BDS or something, divestment and sanctions for the State of Israel so that Palestine can get aid. And you know, there's these calls for a c fire, and so these students are organizing on their campus not to do business effectively, not to do
business with Israel and hurt their pockets. And we talked about this last week. So if Suzanne Oslin was listening, I'm so sorry that I'm not articulating it the way that you did. But I know that there's other college campuses around that are.
Is booming right now. So shout out to all the student activists out there that are letting your voices be heard. We like to support you, and we feel like you support us, and we're all going to get where we need to where we need to be at some point in the future. All right, let me share this last
one with you. This one comes from the Black Information Network, and this is kind of a BABA, but it's making headlines, so you and Chief Antonio Gutierrez is calling for reparations over the Transatlantic slave trade to quote help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination unquote. On March twenty fifth, Gutier's made the call for reparations amid the UN International Day
of Remembrance of Thectims of Slavery. Gutierrez said the Transatlantic slave trade laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy. It goes on to say, we call for repertory justice frameworks to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination. Experts say at least twelve point five million Africans were kidnapped forcibly, transported by European ships and merchants, and sold into slavery between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.
A UN report released in September suggested countries consider slavery reparations. Quote. This is the movement that will signal finally the collective victory of humanity, of good over evil. Hillary Beckel's chair of the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community Political and Economic Union, previously said at the UN govern Assembly, So I want to say a couple of things.
Here, please, because I definitely have something to say on this one.
Okay, well, let me just get a couple of bars off and then we'll go to you. But this call is not just to the US. It's to Portugal, it's to Great Britain, it's all the countries that were involved
in the slave trade. I also want to say for people that push back and say Africans weren't kidnap blah blah blahs and the other that is not true for everybody that thinks of African slaves, you know, and I that push back against this, I argue that you've been taught to undervalue African life and so the word African may not trigger the emotional response that it does for us and people who have not been conditioned in the
way that you are. So I ask you perform a thought experiment going through all of this, you know, all your beliefs, and change the word African slave to sex slave, and then see if you feel the same way. All right, But I.
Think that's a very powerful visual and mental stimulating exercise that you just expressed, and I hope people actually do it, or replace African with child or.
Anything other than African, because you've been taught to devalue us, but you have not yet been taught to devalue the life of a child or a sex slave or anything like that. You usedill have empathy for those humans.
Yes, all right, God, I'm not looking forward to the show that we have to do when this is somehow brought to a vote and the country that doesn't say yes is the one that we live in.
Yeah.
I think it's important that this is not just a call to the US, because I've lived in these other countries, you know. I've lived in Spain, spent a lot of time in Portugal. I know how the Portuguese feel about their history. They probably aren't they probably helped author this, right.
I know how almost every other developed economic powerhouse in the world feels about parts of their history that are similar to this, even if they're not as grotesque, And they disavow and they stand against and they highlight so that so that the people know, so that the children know, so that everybody understands that these moments were awful, and then they learn and propel forward from those where this country tries to pretend it didn't happen, make light of it,
tell us all the benefits that we got from being made slaves. And I am not looking forward to us having to do a show where somehow this becomes something real in the UN and the United States is the country that doesn't raise its hand when it's time.
To say yay on something like this. You know the interesting thing, I have to have this conversation tomorrow. I have to add a conversation all the time. But on our other show that we do, voting matters. The reason that the Supreme Court is packing down all of our rights and equitable access to different levels of society is because there are people who didn't vote in twenty sixteen, people who the stakes weren't high enough, they didn't affect them. And not just that Rams.
We've spoken before, and our people say proudly all the time that we are not a monolith.
We should be we should think that is that is kind of We're getting kind of tight out here, y'all.
We are very splintered and very very particular about the things that we will support and the other side is not. They are singular and their hate for us and their disdain for us, and in their mission to keep us
under their boot and under their thumb. And because of that, we took emails from a female presidential candidate and made that a disqualifier for her, and we have not done the same for the nineteen and counting federal criminal indictments for another candidate who has already been president is very very popular and leading the way to become that again, right, so that president was not polite, it was not decent, it was not honest, it's not honorable, and is the
reason we have such a lopsided Supreme Court and the reason why things that a lot of you probably thought were made law have been overturned with regards to the eye, affirmative action and women's rights in this country. So we need to figure out a way to become more united on something and become more organized and more and mobilize better and getting the outcomes that we want in this country because we are losing that fight in a very very aggressive way.
I think you're absolutely right. There's as frustrating as it is, especially when you have, let's say you have two candidates and you don't want to vote for neither of them, right, you still have to accept the fact that voting is the only way to shape outcomes in a democracy. That's it. That's the game that everyone is playing, and if you don't participate, then other people shape your reality too. So let's just realiity we have to deal with, but we're
gonna have to leave it right there. So as always, I'd like to thank you for rocking out with this one more again here on Civic Cipher, I have been your host Rams's job. I am q Ward.
If you are on our Live Today Instagram live and you see the comment that is pinned, message me DM me. If you have my personal information, reach out to me. I need advice people, because I have to deal with this very real situation tomorrow and I will not pretend that I am prepared for it.
So you can also follow q at I am q Ward and I am at Ramsey's job, and you can hit us on all of our social media at Civic Cipher collectively. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are launching our lives on YouTube so that.
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