Keep 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 am your host, Ramsey's Jock.
He is Ramsy's job I am q Ward. You are hopefully still tuned in or maybe just tuning in to another week of Civic Cipher.
Either way, we appreciate you and we have a lot in store for you. So we're going to take the next part of the show and discuss some systemic issues. There is an article that we came across that we felt helps paint a picture that we've kind of been tinkering on for many years on this show, trying to suggest that police officers aren't simply bad apples.
Indeed there are, but they're part of.
A system that is corrupt and the story that we intend to share this half of the show, we believe illustrates that point quite well. But before we get there is time to discuss ba BA becoming a better ally. BABA and Today's BABA is sponsored by 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 of Fotmglobal dot Com and I had an interesting conversation earlier this week with the mother of Oscar Graham And for those that have seen the movie Hoopdale Station starring Michael B. Jordan, Reverend Wanda Johnson is the mother of the title character in the or the main character in that film. But I want you to watch her most
recent film to documentary and it's on Netflix. The Mother of Oscar Grant Reverend Wanda Johnson an award winning Brazilian filmmaker. Deborah Suza Silva's new film, Or Our Children is a powerful documentary. Two Black women whose young sons were brutalized by police build a network of support, healing, and political action. Deborah Susa Silva sees this as a call to action.
She's urging others to refocus their collective attention on police brutality by listening to the stories of survivors and readdressing
the issue's ruth causes. Susa Silva's documentary film For Our Children gives audiences an intimate look into the lives of those who've experienced police brutality and Metola takes on their families, written directed and produced by Silva, For Our Children delves into Reverend Johnson's relentless efforts to immortalize her son by advocating for the Fruitville bart station where he was killed in two thousand and nine, to be renamed in his honor.
Her story coincides with a harrowing police violence incident involving Angela Williams and her then seventeen year old son Ulysses Wilkerson. Though he survives the brutal encounter, Ulysses's life becomes ensnared in a web of suspicion and reprisal by local law enforcement that the family continues to fight today. So again, I want you to watch for Our Children on Netflix.
All right, my.
Brother, yep. Before we move on, important to put a better period on the first segment and finalize it, thought, please, The words that I wish I'd used are there are victims on both sides of that conflict, and there are those that suffer that are not directly involved with said conflict and don't support it. And the data shows, not Ramsas' opinion, not Quentin's opinion, that one side of that conflict has suffered far greater losses than the other, and those losses
can tinue to what end. There seems to be no solution, no answer, no thing that would satisfy the desire for loss by one side of that conflict. Yeah, nothing that could be said or done that will make them say, Okay, this is enough. And that's why you see children, students mostly all over the country and all over the world protesting.
And I'll say, with regards to our former president and people that think like him, stop for a second and ask yourself why white men are never called traders, are never called terrorists, and are now somehow not even referred to even when they are Neo Nazis as anti semit Why the far right, because a lot of them now that are showing up to protest, raising their fist as pro Israeli.
Historically they've been buried.
Not stand a pollsed to neil nazis interesting question to ask yourself. I'm not asking this of Rams as we kind of have an idea of why that's so, but an interesting place to start a conversation with yourself.
It's indeed a potent observation. I'm not mad.
I was going to add something there but I think you kind of nailed it. So if you're missing context, I employ you to check out our website, civicsipper dot com and listen to the first part of the show, because you had some stuff to get off his chest and we all needed to hear it. All Right, So let's talk about what's going on in La County. Right, I'm going to share a bit of a story from
the Black Information Network. Dozens of probation officers and Los Angeles County were put on administrative leave over the last five months for several misconduct allegations, including excessive force, sexual abuse, and drug possession. The Los Angeles County Probation Department announced that sixty six of its officers were put on leave
since January first. According to a May thirteenth news release, probation officers were assigned to the department's adult and juvenile operations and will face internal affairs investigations that historically doesn't mean much. The police are investigating the police and deciding what the police's punishment should be since their police anyway.
Officials said thirty nine of the officers were cited for issues of general misconduct, including suspected use of excessive force, no surprise, and child endangerment or abuse, possession of contraman and negligent supervision. Eighteen were put on leave for alleged sexual misconduct and nine for arrests unrelated to employment. The nation's largest probation agency states this is an effort to regain public trust and single out employees who are engaged
in alleged misconduct. I'll say here, it's not nothing. It's not what we would ask for, but it's not nothing. If you're trying to earn back the public's trust, it's not nothing.
That's not That's not a pat on the back. I was going to say, I think similar oversight to patrol officers would do a lot, a lot more in the way of regaining than just the public trust. But you know, it's not nothing, as Ramses was.
Saying, And again, it's not a pat on the back. That's not me excusing it. It's like, Okay, at least we got that.
No, that's not it.
I just want to acknowledge. My position historically has been acknowledging when the opposition takes a step in the in the right direction, we we know we have to take a couple of steps in their direction. But when they do take a step in this direction, it's not nothing and it's not regression. So we got a long way to go. Never hid from that, but anyway, I'll finish up.
Quote.
We are releasing this information in the spirit of greater transparency and to address sorry, to assure our stakeholders, especially the families of youth and our juvenile facilities, that we will not tolerate anything that impedes our mission to provide a safe, nurturing and structured environment for those entrusted to our care.
Unquote.
This is a quote from Probation Chief Guillermo Vierira Rosa, and it's important to add this. This release states that nearly twenty eight hundred sworn officers work at the department. So I don't know if that's the entire police department or all of the officers together, or if that's just the probation.
Department.
I'm guessing Los Angeles has a larger force than twenty eight hundred officers, but.
So you know, neither of us know. But the point is.
The point is is that what they're trying to do is compare the six six officers who've been placed on lead to this larger number of officers who work there, right.
And so let's have this conversation. On the show. We've been.
Making a case that there are systemic issues, and the pushback from those that oppose this view is that, well, no, these are individual bad actors, right, Which is funny because you know a lot of times those same folks are happy to quote statistics about how black people commit x amount of crimes and you know, black people this, that, and the third, but aren't willing to look at black people individually, right, And I say, let's look at everything systemically,
because I think that individuals behaviors are the result of systemic insulation, sometimes systemic restrictions, and you end up having these outliers. And when these outliers the numbers tend to grow. Then you're dealing with what I would refer to and most people refer to as a systemic issue. So it's important that if we're going to have one conversation, let's both have that one conversation. If it's about individuals, then sure, let's have it. If we're going to have a systemic conversation,
then let's have it across the board. But insofar as police are concerned, regardless of there's twenty eight hundred officers or twenty eight thousand or twenty eight million. If I see sixty six people that are caught up on all kinds of stuff, I don't see individual actors. Sixty six is a big number, especially when you're talking about people who are empowered to shape outcomes for the citizens that pay their salary, that they're supposed to protect, so forth
and so on. Sixty six is a big enough number for a city to suggest that there is.
A degree of insulation.
One of the things that this number doesn't tell to people that might oppose this opinion is it doesn't tell how long these sixty six individuals have been able to shape outcomes for let's be honest, black and brown people and out what the ripple effect of those outcomes has been on those black and brown families, those black and brown communities, the children, and the reality that they see, the traumas and the generational traumas. This number sixty six
doesn't reflect any of that. I'll take it a step further. This number sixty six is the number of people that were caught committing crimes that were significant enough to warrant disciplinary action. So this in no way should suggest that, Okay, only sixty six in a city this size, sixty six you're doing Okay, No, this is sixty six who got caught. We tell stories all the time of police misconduct, and we only tell.
The stories of the police who were caught.
But I come from and I know Q will have something to add here, But I come from the place comp in California.
We up right now, So shout out to Compton. One time. I come from a place where I I saw.
Just how cool the police were, exactly what police misconduct looked like. I rams this jah Rudy King Taylor. The second saw with these two eyes, the police rob people on the street, beat them up and rob them. Granted it was in the eighties when I was a little kid, but I saw it happen. I know what a robbery looks like, and I know what it looks like when you're defenseless to fight back. And this is very much shaped my relationship with the police and my view of
the police. And again, I recognize that there are good people on both sides.
Man, But but.
If we're talking about a systemic issue, we have to discuss the system that creates the degree of insulation that allows people to feel like they can do this and not live in fear of the consequences of it, because I know if I robbed somebody, I would live in fear of those consequences. Right if I beat somebody and smashed their head into the side of the car door.
Another thing that I saw with these eyes. For those that don't know, I may have shared the story on this show before, but I've seen the police pull a guy out of his car when I was very little, and they set him on the ground on this and he is in an intersection in the street now on the side. He was in the middle of the street where cars would have to go around them. They set him on the ground in front of his car and they took his head and then they smashed his head.
And he was sitting on the ground the police were standing. They took his head and smashed his head into the side of the car door. And it had been at the door in I might have been four or five years old, and I saw that happen. So again, when you think about black people's relationship with the police, why black people don't want talk to police, We don't want none.
To do with the police. The police stay over there, will stay over here and just keep it the same.
Speaking in general terms, it's especially pronounced for black people that come from environments like that and Detroit in the three one three, So and I know it's a little different out there, and feel free to speak on it, but I know that there's a lot more in the way of black people who fill the ranks and the police departments in a place like Detroit, but there are still systemic issues.
Unfortunately, the design, purpose, and mission of police departments all across the country are the same, so the people that wear the uniform have far less impact on how that how those duties are carried out than we might imagine.
And somehow or sometimes rather just because of the nature of the job and what's required to do it to the pleasure of your authority and those who employ you, you could be a decent person doing a very very difficult job, having a unfortunately negative impact on the lives of people that you would otherwise be empathetic of. That look, think, pray, love, and vote the way that you do because it's what
the job calls for. I start a lot of conversations with what may sound like a disclaimer to people reminding you as you hear my voice, because the position that I take on things might give you the wrong impression. I am no one's moral, spiritual, or intellectual.
Superior intellectual part.
I know that no and most mostly because we do not have to agree on everything right, So the things that I hold strong position on, I don't require those in my life to share all of them. Some of them you need to. Well, we can't rock at all. But I say that because I'm also not a judge. I'm also not an officer. I'm also not a probation officer. I'm also not the person who gets to decide what your outcomes and the reality of the people that love you will look like based on how I feel on
any given day. And if I'd elected to apply for and was lucky enough to obtain one of those positions police officer, judge, you know, district attorney, politician, then I would need to be held to a higher standard because if my decisions are going to decide whether or not your kids grow up hungry or without you, or whether or not the mistake that you make carries more weight than a counterpart who might not look, live, pray, and
love the way that you do. Then I would need to It would make sense for me to be held to a higher moral standard. I should be infallible. You should be able to comb through my secrets and realize that I don't have the same shortcomings as an everyday citizen. That should be required for me to sit in a position where I get to tell you you can't be free because I said so. People should be able to say, well, who are you to say so? And then I should be able to show you this listening resume of near
perfection that I have. If I'm going to dismiss or suspend my empathy, if I'm going to dismiss or suspend being able to understand or relate to you, then you shouldn't be able to relate to me either. You should have to look at my recan and be like, yeah, I mean, he should be the one you know. He is a good father, He is a fair person, He has not committed crimes. He has shown in a history of decisions to be fair on all of these things,
not some of most of them. And we allow too much in the way of missteps, mistakes, and mishandlings to people who willed way too much power, way too much I've used the example, and I've heard other people use the example before pilots. How you don't get to be the one bad apple or the two bad apples or the twelve bad apples that keeps crashing planes and ending people's lives. And that's because pilots, in the event that they do so, have to her and their union has
to incur what those penalties look like. Same with doctor, same with almost every other profession except police. But as long as our police have the fiscal immunity that they have and are protected in a way where they are able to run a file and make the type of mistakes that could end your life figuratively and literally by taking away your freedom or by taking away your life,
there is no reason for that system to be corrected. So, once again calling back to the cry that I kind of cringe that the first time I heard it, of defund the police, you have to go back and examine what the measurable outcomes would have been from the things that were put in place or being proposed at the time.
Get passed the catchphrase or the slogan or whatever you want to call it, the positioner, and go and see what type of things they really wanted to put into place, what type of legislation, what type of actual reform, and what type of reallocating of resources were being proposed, and measure how the lives of so many people would have been shaped by those decisions.
Well said masterful.
Yeah, this is an ongoing conversation, and you know, I think that it's important that we discuss.
How things look to.
Again, systemic issues require systemic changes. Individual issues don't really move the needle, don't make people vote any differently anything like that. You mentioned the pilots. If one airplane crashes, there'll be a whole investigation and they will change all the laws for all of the airplanes in the world. And we need to have that same time of respect for black lives. So with that in mind, we'll leave that right there. Has always had like to thank you
once again for tuning in to Civic Cipher. I have been your host Ramsey's job.
He is still Ramsy's. Joh I remain Qward. Thank you guys repeatedly for coming to give us a listen and for letting our voices have some type of you know, impact in your lives. Please subscribe, Please share, like comment Some good comments would help Civiccipher dot com and Civic Cipher on every social media especially YouTube c I b I c c I p h e R and yes YouTube YouTube YouTube subscribe.
Share real quick too. Before we go, I want to say, I want to shout out.
To Philip some more time. Man, we love you brother.
This is how these conversations go, So don't lose faith in us. Man, keep sending us letters and we'll keep the conversation going.
And until next week, y'all. Peace, peace,