Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, Ramsey's job. He is Ramsy's Joh, I am. I'm actually very certain of that. By the way, I know it sounds like I was thinking about it. I'm sure he's Ramsy's Joh. I am still q Ward.
Unless somebody offers me a ridiculous amount of money. I think I'm going to remain you Ward. And you know you tuned inna Cific Cipher on purpose, I.
Hope, Yeah, yeah, I like that. I like starting off a little bit of humor because we're going to be talking about a couple of steps back that we've had to take, uh and those will become very clear if you haven't been, you know, plugged into the media or the new cycle of the way that we have, so stay tuned. We're going to be discussing an incident in Mississippi of police brutality and overreach and really trying to understand the relationship that at least have with the community,
in particular black people, and why it's so supportive. So we're going to tell you a story some folks who have authority lined authority from a good amount of this country, and what can happen when we turn these type of people loose if they are not vetted, and on and on and on. We also were talking about the Supreme Court. Supreme Court has been tripping lately and there is no more affirmative action. A lot of people might think affirmative
action was unfair. It was it allowed people to access places and positions that they weren't qualified for, and it's really not true. So we're going to explain what it was and what we've lost and how we lost it, and hopefully how we can remain vigilant and push back. And then, of course we have lots of other things to talk about on today's show, but first and inform most like we always do it, this time it's time for some Ebony Excellence. How does that sound to you? Q?
Shall we shall?
So? Today's Any Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads for the finest in men's sports. Were Checkmajor threads dot com. Today we're talking about Bust Rhymes. Yes Any Excellence For those that saw the recent Beet Awards, he has finally gotten credit for his contributions, like significant credit for his contributions to hip hop and it's well deserved. And I think that how he chose to receive that award certainly is is above and beyond what I should our typical
any excellence for so I'll lead. Buster Rhymes has been honored for a Lifetime Achievement Award a betweenty twenty three b ET Awards. He took the opportunity to give in part, some og wisdom on the rap game during and his arousing acceptance speech, taking the stage to rapture his applause and a standing ovation inside the Los Angeles Microsoft Theater
on Sunday night. The fifty one year old rapped legend reflected on his trailblazing career while calling for more unity and positivity and hip hop must His powerful speech began on an emotional note as it became overwhelmed with the love and adoration from inside the room. I'm aware it on my sleeve. I do want to cry, he said, before removing his sunglasses and wiping the tears from his eyes, prompting more cheers of support from the audience. I believe
this comes from bet dot com. And on top of that, the way that this man articulated his journey the way that he shouted out the people that supported him, the way that he acknowledged how his children motivated him and helped frame kind of the plight for not just him, but a lot of black men and men, you know, all men I believe, have a simple in light, especially if they have children, just remarkable. If you haven't seen it, please check it out.
Check it out.
All right, So we're going to talk about the police. We talk about the police a lot on this show. For long time listeners, you know this already, but the show continues to grow, so we are always ending up with new listeners around the country, and we appreciate everyone. Today we're going to spend a moment to talk about policing again. I famously am very critical of the way policing is done in this country. That is not to
say that I'm critical of police officers. I believe that the system that uphold policing in this country have gaping holes that attract violent individuals bullies, yes, et cetera, and obviously some normal, well meaning, well intentioned folks as well. The environment once a police officer is hired allows police to hold themselves to a different standard than they would hold the general public, that blue wall of silence, you know,
people trying to rewrite stories lying. You know, these people uphold, they take an oath to uphold the law, and then they're caught lying constantly, constantly, even good officers are forced by that brotherhood quote unquote and that wall of silence to either lie or commit lizab omission to cover up for police misconduct. It happens. This is not me exaggerating at all. So not just the hiring practices, but the culture, and then all of this being constantly supported blindly by
the general public. As though the general public doesn't deserve better and better and even better still versions of policing if we're back paying for it. We deserve better and better politicians, We deserve better and better judges. We just are better and better police officers, firefighters and so forth.
These these.
These institutions are not subject to the influence of capitalism. Capitalism were better or worse or one of its benefits, I should say, it really does inspire innovation. Have to be fair, capitalism and innovation are kind of hand in hand at the expense of human beings. I believe that's where I would draw the line.
But I mean part of the problem. Even with the innovation, it tends to be more based on things that we want.
Not what we need, not what we need. Sure, sure, but the fact is is that capitalism inspires innovation, and so in every part of our life, our phones, the type of air conditioner we buy, we don't expect it to be the same air conditioner that we had that was on the market twenty years ago.
Right by a.
Refrigerator, by anything, it doesn't matter. We expect there to be growth. But with policing, because it's not subject to the forces of capitalism, there's no competition for policing. It's not like there's police and then there's like same with our education exactly, you understand. So these these these institutions that lie beyond the scope and beyond the influence of capitalism, people are surprisingly just okay with how things are, and
for policing in particular. Now there's been this alignment of policing with like deeply patriotic, deeply conservative people in this country along the lines of support. The troops at least are now like first responders, and now that includes firemen. So you know that flag with the blue line, it's like a black and white flag, and then there's the
blue line. There's a version of that where it's a black and white flag and a red line meant to support firefighters, and the green line meant to support border patrol people and so forth and so on. In other words, the flag that's supposed to exist, you know, in these people's minds as a way of supporting troops and armed servicemen. The flag belongs to everybody, by the way, but these folks mind now they've made versions of the flag and kind of fledge allegiance to these folks blindly, and they
ignore their capacity to innovate and grow and be better. Right, this is our demand here. I do want to say this. For folks who listened for the past few years to this show. You understand that I've mentioned some names on this show. I only use their first names because I want to protect them. But Officer Kevin, Suzanne Daniel. People in my community here, humans who happen to be officers,
great humans. I believe them to be good people. That doesn't mean that they're not as susceptible to the forces and the influences of police culture. But on the front end, insofar as I can tell based on what I know of them good people. Then there's obviously officers where a lot of that nonsense goes to their head and they feel like they exist above the level of people, like they're a judge, jury executioner. That's what we're going to
talk about in today's story. And I want you to ask yourself why this is happening, why this particular story happened, and why a good chunk of people in this country don't feel like it's necessary to for us to question police misconduct.
So not all of that blind support, I imagine more than you'd imagine, more than you factor of that support is not based on racism. A lot of people have been indoctrinated to believe or police does mean more safe, sure, yeah. Or police does mean less crime, or police does mean I'm more protected. And I heard someone recently, somebody I know, somebody that I care about, talking to their children about why a particular part of the country or a particular
part of town was more dangerous. And it was triggering to hear you say it's because that part of that part of town or that part of something. I can't remember the exact words, but to be being not policed, heavenly like, Oh, this is somebody that I know and to his bones is not racist. Yeah, does not see black and criminal, but he does think police means safer. Sure, Yeah, police means more law abiding. Police means less crime will happen if there are more police, give them more money,
and we train them better. And I was just like Wow, so many people are that misinformed, and they believe that to their core, they don't think that there's anything wrong with the way that they feel and the way that they see that.
So if you listening right now, if you feel that way, or if you know someone who feels that way, more police equals more safety. I want you to imagine the most crime free neighborhood that you can possibly imagine. And what you where your mind will probably go is a neighborhood where there's tons of mansions and everybody. You know what I mean, because there's not police on every corner. There. Go to Compton, there's police everywhere, right, go to the
worst part of any whatever, there's police everywhere. So police presence doesn't Police presence doesn't necessarily mean less crime. Talib Quali at a bar in one of his songs. I can't remember right now, but I loved it. He says, I'm gonna paraphrase because he used some words that I can't use on the radio. But he says, brothers don't sell drugs because they like to see blacks smoke. Brothers sell drugs because they broke right, And I think that
sums it up entirely. Wealth, more often than not, will shape activities, Certainly, criminal activities in a different part of town. And more police doesn't change that. If you don't have any money, you got a family feed, You're going to do whatever it takes to feed a family. There's many people in jail because they was like, I was trying to feed my family, not because even.
You feed yourself. Sure, even if you don't have a family, if you're starving. I heard somebody say, once upon a time, you have food and water and I have guns and bullets, then I have food and water. That's not a criminal thing. That is a kind of survival of the fittest thing. I'm stronger and more powerful or not. If I just want it more than you have it and I don't have it. There are people who have a by any means necessary approach to their own survival. That's a human primal response to being.
Alive, any any creature with a nervous system, not just a human, anything that can ensure its own service. We're hardwired biologically to do that. I want to share something else too. So a good number of people that are in jails, it's not just black people. A lot of these people are poor. A lot of these people that are arrested in the criminal justice system, a lot of
them are poor and homeless. And the crazy thing is, I put a memea the other day and it says, what's the difference between a prisoner of war and a homeless person? The answer is, under the Geneva Convention, a prisoner of war is entitled to food, shelter, and medical care. This person is not. Medical care is critical because a lot of homeless people are not medicated or self medicating, on and on and on. When you criminalize the drugs
and blah blah blah. So there's this runaway effect that is not often talked about in circles like that, leading to this story that we're talking about. Now. Forgive me for building a framework so thoroughly, but it's important because we're going to share basically a story about police violence. And I want you to have the proper framework to receive it. I'm going to read from CBS News. Well,
first I told you a bit about the story. Basically, police rushed into a house, beat up a bunch of people, did some really gross and vile things to them, and they were subsequently arrested. So that's where this reading comes from, right, CBS News. All five Mississippi deputy sheriffs who responded to an incident in which two black men accused the deputies of beating and sexually assaulting them before shooting one of them in the mouth have been fired or resigned, authorities
announced tuesday. Now, real quick, I want to make sure that when I say shooting in the mouth, I want you to know that this wasn't a shooting from across the room because the officer was quote unquote scared and the bullet happened to hit him in the mouth. Oh no, they put the gun into the guy's mouth and then shot like almost like an execution style. Okay, police did this, Okay,
all right. The announcement comes months after Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker said deputies from the rankin Sheriff's County department burst into a home without a warrant. The men said deputies beat them, assaulted them with a sex toy, and shocked them repeatedly with tasers in a roughly ninety minute period. During the January twenty fourth episode,
Jenkins and Parker said. Jenkins said one of the deputies shoved a gun in his mouth and then fired the weapon, leaving him with serious injuries to his face, tongue, and jaw. The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff's department after the episode. Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey announced Tuesday the deputies involved in the episode
had been fired and some had already resigned. Bailey's announcement also follows an Associated Press investigation that found several deputies who were involved in the episode were also linked to at least four violent encounters with black men since twenty nineteen. They left too dead and another with lasting injuries. Deputies who had been accepted to the Sheriff's office Special Response Team, a tactical unit whose members received advanced training advanced training,
were involved in each of the foreign counters. Deputies said the raid was prompted by a report of drug activity at the home. At least in court records obtained by the ape by the Associated Press revealed the identities of two deputies at the Jenkins raid, Hunter Elward and Christian Deadman. Wasn't immediately clear whether any of the deputies had attorneys who could comment on their behalf. Okay, so I want to stop right here. Is a little bit more, but
I want to stop right here. So these officers tazed. They first off, they didn't have any videos, and all their video cameras that they turn off their body can head to me, that suggests premeditated. They knew that's what they were going to do and felt like they could get away with it because they have the support of the people.
And there's no way that all four or all five bodycams malfunction that day simultaneously.
They turned them off off. Now here's the thing. What corroborated the story of the men who filed suit. We're going to get to that in a second. What corroborated that story is the tasers keep a record of how many times they're deployed, and in that ninety minute period, the tasers were deployed dozens of time on these guys obviously, like they said, they were beaten, abused with a sex toy.
One of them was shot in the mouth, you know, on and on, and you have to start thinking what set of circumstances makes police feel like they can get away with them? And the short answer of it, and the short is not as thorough as I'd like it to be, but the short answer of it is that the police are using you and your fear to prop themselves up higher, to get more money, and to abuse that power, particularly when it comes to black people, round people,
or people. And the hiring practices and the blind support and the culture that exists in police departments across this country fosters this toxic environment. And again, they're not subjected to the forces of capitalism. They don't need to innovate. They can keep singing the same song and dance. They need better training, they need better this than that and the other, and it doesn't work. It's been this way for fifty years.
Yeah, I mean, you know, our police departments have a monopoly on law enforcement. There is no competitor. They don't have to be good at their jobs to not only be paid, but rewarded right and get an annual pay bump. There you go, and even when all the evidence shows we'd all be better off, we spent the money elsewhere.
To actually prevent the necessity of crime that actually has measurable outcomes. I said it before, I'll say it again.
Opening potative and quantitative outcomes exactly.
But I want to make sure that I say this, and this is something you can look up yourself. Opening a daycare and making it free to a community of poor people shapes criminal outcomes, crime statistical outcomes better than hiring new police officers. It's fact, it's documented. It's well documented. If people really wanted to make an impact on crime rates, you would think, well, let's just open more daycares. But again,
they use fear. Your fear, if you're hearing my voice, they're using your fear to be able to not only do things like this, but keep doing things like this. And people get the worst end of it is us. That's not to say that other communities don't have to deal with that too, but you know, we get the worst of it, and we have a show on a
microphone and we're talking about it. I want to finish reading this in a phone interview Tuesday, Jason darre, an attorney representing the Ranking County Sheriff's department, said the department knows of five deputies who conducted the Jenkins raid. Jenkins and his attorney have said six deputies were at the home, all five identified by the department, where I either resigned or fired. There is nobody camera footage of the episode.
Records obtained by the AP show that tasers used by the deputies were turned on, turned off, or used dozens of times during a roughly sixty five minute period before Jenkins's was shot. Jenkins and Parker have also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking four hundred million dollars in damages. And again that's from CBS News. You're welcome to go and check this out and read a little bit more about it, but I need you to follow me here. And this is part of the reason why we had
to develop your mind so that you could receive this story. Now, follow this suspected drug raid.
Right.
A lot of people are like, oh, well, then they were suspected drug dealers. They probably were selling drugs, right, that's I mean, this is how we are. I don't love it either, but the truth is I've been a victim of that too. I've been there. We we yes.
Shout out to the drug dog that smelled drugs in my new car, yeah in Mississippi.
For those that don't know the story, check out a couple of older episodes. Q and I have a great story getting pulled over in Mississippi in a new car and the police for no reason. By the way, the police wanted to make a big deal out of it, so they snatched us out of the car, got the dogs, and it's this whole story. You'd love it anyway. I want you to imagine what it would be like to be in a position in your life where, okay, maybe life didn't come together for me the way that I wanted.
Most folks would probably say that most people, you know, when you were little, you probably wanted to go to the NBA, or be an astronaut, a movie star, or a hundred different things, and most of those things probably didn't happen. Right, It's just the way the world is. That's fine, okay, But just like you, Nobody as a child says, you know what, when I grow up, I want to be criminal. Nobody says I want to be a drug dealer. You know it's not something to aspire to.
I want to live in fear that someone's going to rob me and you have to look over my shoulder all that. Nobody says that, Okay, but let's say whatever circumstances don't come together the way that you want. You're ambitious, you have a family to take care, and you end up in that situation. So giving the conservative folks who conserved the minded the benefit of the doubt, want you to put yourself in that position. Okay, So here's where I am. I gotta steal drugs, right, the police come
into your house and they arrest you. That's fair. I was doing this. I took this risk, I took this chance. I knew this could happen, and that's fair.
But imagine even in that case, though, there should be a warrant.
Yeah, sure, sure, that's where I'm going. Now, imagine the police kicking the door, torture you for ninety minutes, and then shoot you in the mouth like an execution, and then go on with their lives. Is that not a gross overreach of the police. And I feel like that is a question that can best be answered if you put yourself in that situation. Do me, that favor