People. I'm riding with us is we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am your host, Ramsy's job.
He is Rams's job.
I h I can still be c today. All right, I've been working on I need some Q I'll be you today, all right, I need.
That, Okay, all right, Well, please stay tuned if you missed out. On the first part of the show, we were discussing how increases in police spending don't translate to decreases in crime rates. And we're going to spend this part of the show discussing some headlines, some some stories of police corruption, overreach, brutality, what have you that we haven't been able to get to the past few weeks, just because we've been tackling other issues. So a lot to stick around for and we hope that you do.
But before we get to the meat and potatoes, we are going to discuss b A b A becoming a better ally BABA. Today's BABA comes courtesy of Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses and allied businesses as well as make an impact with your spending. Again, that's fotmglobal dot com and today I am sharing from Black Enterprise. This is a fantastic example of becoming a
better ally. Livingstone College has a very wealthy secret admirer. The North Carolina HBCU, that is historically black college or university, has now received its third anonymous donation of a million dollars. The three donations were given in less than a six month period by the same anonymous party, has announced by the school's president, doctor Anthony J. Davis, on March eleventh. They are as soon to have been donated by a member of its extended community and are the largest ever
received anonymously by Livingstone. The Christian based HBCU received the first of the unrestricted donations in October of twenty twenty three, as shared by the president during its homecoming festivities. The owner sent the money with the message quote I trust you will address the needs of the college unquote. According to the Star of Zion, President Davis noted that its unrestricted nature will allow the school to address multiple needs
quote thank you. This type of contribution allows the college to allocate funds strategically by enhancing academic programs, expanding scholarship opportunities, and investing in innovative facilities and technologies. So there's no two ways about it. Money money shapes outcomes. On this show, we talk about police, we talk about political disenfranchise when we talk about a ton of things that affect marginalized communities, But the primary driver behind all of these is economic
empowerment money. The importance of money cannot be understated. If you are in a position to donate, please donate because money moves the needle.
I already said one time for refreiation, on time reparation.
Listen talk to him. Q, all right, first up, how about this? I'll read these. You give me what you got. Let's do it that way. Do all right? All of these are from the Black Information Network. For those who don't know, you can check out me and Q on the Black Information Network. During the week. We talk about obviously topics like these, but we talk about other topics as well. Q knows a lot of stuff, and I'm always in awe of his brilliance.
I try to keep up. I hope you guys don't listen around this book. Nurse talking like this anyway, anyway, it's all true anyway, all right.
First up, a Louisiana police officer was caught on video putting an unarmed black man in an illegal chokehold at a Boldine festival. According to attorneys, and according to KADN, Anthony Wayne Babino Junior was waiting for a friend to bring him money to get into the Scott Bodine Festival earlier this month when an officer put him in a
cardioid hole. Civil rights attorney Harry M. Daniels and Harry L. Daniels the third said, citing video of the incident, officers are prohibited from using cardioid holds or restraints where the two main arteries that carry blood to the head and neck are restricted in the state of Louisiana, unless authorities believe they or another person are at risk of harm. According to the attorneys, Babino was in clear physical distress and on the verge of passing out while placed in
the cardioid hold. Attorneys identified the officer as Lieutenant Bruin Laverne.
And that's the carotid artery is what gets blocked when you're being choked out.
I told you he knows Q knows this stuff. Man, I'm just doing my desk, all right. Daniel suggested the incident reflects a pattern of excessive force by Louisiana police. I'd go along with that given the amount of stories that we cover out of Louisiana. Quote. The insult to injury to this is that the guy is a training officer, Daniel said in a statement. Goes on to say, he's a lieutenant, he's an officer, he's over the division, and
he's responsible for the training of the officers. If he isn't in fact engaging in these matters, and this is not a one off event, you can imagine how he's training the subordinates under him and what type of product is on the street in the city of Scott. Quote. If this is the kind of reckless brutality he's teaching to the younger officers, then this problem goes a lot deeper, the Attorney's added for News One. Scott Police Chief Chad Ledger declined to comment on the video, but noted an
investigation into the incident would launch on April fifteen. All right, both barrels.
Ki, So the Scott Police are going to launch an investigation into the Scott Police to see if the Scott police be tripping and if there should be any consequence or punitive damages for said tripping. Is that what I'm understand.
That's basically what.
The chief statement was. No comment, but we're gonna look into ourselves. You said something to see if we be tripping.
You said something before, you said, we have a clip on our social media follow us at cif except what you said, the police police, what do you say? The police police?
The police, police police, and the police is crazy because like even internal affairs is the police, right. So my uncle retired from the Detroit Police Department Inspector Harold Scott, Chief Inspector Internal Affairs, Detroit Police Department. He was Detroit policeman. He was Detroit Police officer, Harold Scott. He wasn't independent Communal Investigation Services officer Harold Scott, no community police officer Harold Scott. And his job was to investigate the Detroit Police.
I think my uncle is incredible, but he was the police and his job was to investigate the police. There's a conflict there and that's just he my uncle. He's actually the most honorable man probably in my whole life growing up but as I say that out loud, it sound crazy, It sounds so obviously in conflict. So there's this thing that we figured out a way.
To do ramses.
And this is not even really specific to this topic, but the thing that bugs me the most, and it makes me the most fearful and the most hopeless and the most discouraged about this time and history and this time in our lives because I still remember what the
eighties nineties were like. The lack of empathy and humanity in society at large is really, really, really heartbreaking because a lot of these stories, be it politics, be it you know, geopolitical, be it war, be it law enforcement, it's really just people saying, look, man, my na ain't Bennet, and I ain't in it. That ain't my name is Paul, And yeah, that ain't my son, that ain't my house,
that ain't my money. So that ain't my problem. So I kind of don't care about everything, right because some of the stuff that we're covering. Man, Like I leave here sick to my stomach and sad and discouraged and like I said, hopeless, because there is no solution. There is no hope for a solution because so many people don't care anymore. Right, when we were young, what you used to be able to do to somebody that was
tripping was shame them. You know, when I talk about our former president, that's the thing that went away with him the most. You were ashamed to be outed as a racist once upon a time.
Now you get a platform to naw you.
The truth, right like the the the the other party, And we pay attention to this most in more than most of the world because this is what we do. They're not even how do I say this, They're not even campaigning on any policy, like none, They're campaigning on division and hate. They're just pointing at groups and encouraging you to hate.
Are you afraid of them? Are you fearful us too? Yeah, let's click up vote for me.
It's like, wow, you're not even like you're not even being politicians anymore. It's like full fear, hate mongering all the time. So it's like, I don't man, I don't know, man, watching empathy and humanity just deteriorate and go away, and we talk about stories like this. You know you shouldn't do that to that man, because you know someone shouldn't do that to you. Like, it's not more complicated than that.
You shouldn't be okay with that officer doing that to that man, because you wouldn't be okay with him doing it to you or your wife or your kids. You wouldn't be. You know, you wouldn't be. But because the person he's doing it too looks like me, and you've decided that I'm worth less than you and that i'm by nature or criminal anyway, then I probably deserved it. Like that's nuts.
Well, save some of that optimism that I hear in your voice for these other two stories. Man, you heard no optimism for me. Just be it funny for those that might be newer to the show. Q's historically a little bit more realistic in his approach, and I tend to be a little bit more. We'll make it. I do believe that, and I know that we wouldn't make this show if we didn't on some level, on some cellular level, think that we can all live in a better society at some point.
See Rams's hopes.
I wish I wish that, which people knew the other the end of that statement, that's a that's a very very uh. That was a black moment in radio right now, becus inside inside. It's a community inside joke. I wish I could tell the rest of it, but anyway, all right, next up. It's also from the Black Information Network. Body camera footage shows the moments surrounding a black man dying in police custody at a Dallas hospital in twenty twenty two.
Per CBS News, Kenneth Knotts, age forty one, was driving from Houston Dallas with a woman and two of his children on November twenty nine, two when his tire blew out in Hutchins, Texas. According to a complaint filed by attorney Jeff Henley, the situation calls Knots to have a mental breakdown, his mom said, sighting an account of from the female passenger, police found Knots holding an infant on top of a vehicle at a convenience store on Interstate
forty five. Knots was arrested and taken to ut Southwestern Medical Center for a psych evaluation. Body camera footage, which was released to the public last week, begins after Notts attempted to escape the hospital. In the footage, Knots pleaded for water as multiple officers held him down on a hospital dead I can't breathe, the man said. At one point during the struggle, Knots body went completely still. No pulse, no pulse. Medical staff can be heard yelling in the video.
Knots was later pronounced dead. I saw this video and it was a lot more sad than this account really would suggest. You could see a man that was clearly in distress, and you see a human being lose his life, clearly afraid. At one moment, he's trying to move and trying to leave and trying to he's asking for water and he's just panic.
It's important to note he's trying to not die.
Yeah, he's not. He's not fighting anywhere. He's not like wrestling or.
Even if he's fighting. I can't breathe, and you won't let me breathe. So I'm going to try to do anything I can to keep it not pass away right now.
Yeah, and then in the next I mean, I think there's a cut in the video, but just a couple of I mean, the immediate next frame in the video is them you know when they do they pump your chest and they're saying out loud one, two, three, So it's just it's kind of a sad result of the video. You would think, Okay, let's get him some water, let's calm him down, let's get him restrained, or whatever is going on there.
But it's not. He's he's sub human. Yeah, he's bad by nature, he's criminal by nature. He's beneath me. Does not matter that he can't breathe, It does not matter that he needs water. It does not matter if he doesn't survive this, because I'm going to be fine. I might get reassigned, i might get paid time off, i might have to be an officer at a different agency after this, but I'm going to be fine. And this is how I feel like treating him right now. So this is how I'm going to treat him right now.
And Ramsas and Q and you, sir or ma'am, can be as upset as you want. But I'm protected. I have qualified immunity. I have a very strong union, and worst case scenario, I'll get a slap on the wrists, or even if I lose my job, I won't there won't be any real accountability or real penalty, And most likely I'll go over to the next city or the next county. I can get a job.
Yeah, I think that's what happened with the guy that ended up.
So why not treat people that I see as beneath me and not human and less than my dog anyway, why not treat them terribly?
You know what's funny.
It's going to happen if I do.
You know it's funny. I'm glad you mentioned them. Oh real quick, you mentioned officers going from on county over to the next county. I believe that's what happened with
the officer. We covered a story recently. You may have heard of this story either on the shore or elsewhere, but we covered a story where an acorn fell off of a tree and landed on top of a police suv and the officer pulled out his gun and just emptied his clip into the gun, thinking that the handcuffed black man in the back seat had shot at him. But it was, of course the acorn. It fell from
the tree. So he had his video. You know, the ticks forever for those videos to come out, just because police try to play those close to the chest and hope they'd fly under the radar anyway, right before they found their conclusions, he resigned so he didn't technically get fired. So I suspect someone tipped him off. They're probably going to come down fire you, So you should quit tonight so that it doesn't say that you're fired, and then you can get employed elsewhere. And I think he ended
up getting employed elsewhere. The other thing I was going to say had to do with this thing that I saw on this show that I used to watch a long time ago. I was watching a rerun recently show called Community, and there's a scene where they start talking about they're talking about like racism on the campus or in life or something like that, and then the subject switches to like someone was being cruel to an animal. And there was a white woman on the show, she's
one of the characters. She goes, Hey, you know what, I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at animal cruelty. And then the black woman in the scene she goes, you can excuse racism, you know what I mean? And everyone has this moment. So shout out to the writers for but I think, real quick, and I want you to jump back in, but real quick, I think that for those that actually do watch this video again, Kenneth not. You can find the video on the Black
Information Network's website. I don't recommend it. You're going to see a human being losers life. But for those that watch that video and think, yeah, he deserved it or whatever it is you think, just imagine if this was happening to a dog, how would you feel and why you don't feel that way about it happening to a black man. And I think that you'll see Q's point in that moment, But.
You're saying that just kind of I don't know if triggered is the right word, but kind of made me relapse to a moment in my own kind of subconscious conversation that I had to have with people close to me after our former president became president and during his presidency, when people that I know and cared about would check me in his defense, there's a determination where you hear people say out loud, yes, I know he's a bigoted, sexist, racist jerk. Yeah, I know he's an awful human being.
And you know that after they say all that, they're going to give you some type of qualifier to explain why he still has their support. And it's funny that you said that because xenophobia, white supremacist, white nationalists, racist bigot, you know sexist. I'm trying to find more offensive things to say about them, which are all true, and none of them are disqualifiers for so many people, people that we know, people that we've come in contact with, people
who we've had conversations with. It is a really, really troubling thing. That's some close to one hundred million Americans proudly wear this man's name on their clothes, post pictures and flags of them on their houses and their cars. This identity politics with this person. They found such a strong and fitrial connection with It's scary man and he's on he's what how many indictments?
Now? Man, I lost camp and none of those things qualify him. He's on criminal trial now being well.
You say former president, but he's the he's the leader in the clubhouse now to be the next president.
Can I add something? Watch this one of the things that I never really understood. And for the art, because we do have a handful of conservative listeners and Republican voters that that listen to our show every week. One of the things I never understood, And anybody who's hearing my voice, feel free to help me out. I have never in my life heard of a ku klux Klansman voting or Democrat. Not in modern history, right, I've never
heard of this version of the Democratic Party. And I've never heard of an Aryan nation or skinhead or a Nazi voting for a Democrat. All of those people and the people that are they don't they don't technically fit into those groups, but they feel a lot of the ways that they feel basically racist people. They don't vote this way, they vote that way. In other words, conservativism encompasses all of these hate groups, hate.
Magnan and encompasses it more.
So watch this. So watch what I'm gonna say me, Ramses. If I had to cast a vote and I knew that I was under the same umbrella as those people, I would seriously reevaluate how I want to be remembered in the world. Am I shaping a world that benefits people like that? Like it's just I'm voting with and like them. But I think that, you know, because sometimes we'll say, you know, there are some Republican people, and a lot of Republican people and a lot of conservative pople.
They're good people, but at a point you have to reconcile that. I'd imagine real quick I'm going to get this last one off before we go. I'm just going to read it real quick. This last one comes from the Black Information Network, of course. A Tallyhouseie, Florida police officer appeared to be caught on camera opening a sealed bottle of alcohol and planting it as evidence to charge
a black man with a dui per our. Tallahassee Calvin Riley Senior, age fifty six, was pulled over for a routine traffic stop in May twenty twenty three when police discovered he was driving with a suspended license, and Florida officers can decide whether the ticket or rest somebody driving with a suspended license. According to our Tallehassee, however, they discovered a second If they discover a second offense, police
are required to conduct an arrest. Body camera footage shows Tallahassee Police Department officer Kirsten Oliver speaking to Riley before calling another for backup on suspicion that he smelt like marijuana. Police then asked the man to perform a voluntary sobriety test, to which he refused. Officers detained the man and put him back in the police car while searching his car authorities found no marijuana, but Oliver discovered a sealed bottle
of liquor. The officer proceeded to break the sealed, dump the liquor out on the street, and then plant the empty bottle back in the car. Video shows Oliver suggesting the bottle was already opened and the man had the alcohol cup in a cup in his vehicle, So we can't react to that one, of course, So save your thoughts Q or maybe share them online and the people will get it. But we have to leave it right there.
But that's it for us today on Civic Cipher. So thank you for tuning in and hopefully growing a little bit with us here today. Once again, I've been your host, Ramsy's job.
Rams I'm trying to keep hope alive and I am struggling to do so.
That's why we're a team. Man, redo it together. It's okay. Sometimes I have those moments and you're there for me. So and you know what, we have a ton of really amazing listeners that are there for us as well. And if you want to become one of those listeners, become a better listener and better supporter while we try to do this good work. You can do so online throughout the week. Please subscribe to our YouTube. It's at Civic Cipher. All of our social media is at Civic Cipher.
Our website civiccipher dot com. You can make a donation again, money moves the Needle. You can also suggest topics or submit comments or whatever, and we'll be back next week. But until then, y'all peace,