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'm your host, Ramsy's job. He is Ramsy's jaw. I am Q Ward. You are still tuned in or tuning back in, or coming to see what we're doing, or checking on us, or you missed us, or you just really need somebody to talk to, or whatever the case, but Civic Cipher is here. You're welcome. You welcome to sit with us
because we going through it all. I know Q was having a tough time when I was reading about all the instances of racism Donald Trump has been accused of over the years, and you know that.
Guy has a very We need each other. He has a disproportionate negative impact on my life than probably any person I've never met. I don't know him. We have He's a gonna please stranger. I've never had any actual interaction with him, but he has a disproportionate negative impact on my mental well being.
Well, stick around because we're going to discuss Victoria Lee's shooting death at the hands of police. But before we get there, it's time to discuss b A b A becoming a better ally BABA and Today's BABA is sponsored by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter while it's 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's BABA is one that's very personal to us.
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And we appreciate all of your support. All right, this one is a little tough. One of the things that we were tasked with doing when we created the show Q and myself was sharing this platform. Black people, insofar as minorities are concerned in this country, have a very very long standing history.
And have.
A lot in the way of political power and influence, a lot in the way of money spend, and there's a good number of us. And something else that's interesting is a lot of times the problems that black people face in this country are problems that other minorities, other disenfranchised people, other people who have been relegated to the margins margins rather.
Deal with as well.
So when we created this show, it was actually my big brother raka Iris, science of the Dilated Peoples, who said, don't forget about the people who were outside protesting for your benefit in twenty twenty and Q is not that way and I'm not that way.
We would never forget all the people.
Who were Hispanic, all the people who are Asian, all the people who were Muslim, all the people who are Jewish, all the people who were Sikh, all the people who were old, all the people who were young, were out there supporting black lives in that moment. So when the tables turn and stop, Asian hate becomes a movement. This show is now our Asian American and Pacific Islander Brothers
and Sisters show. Granted, we will ask the questions and facilitate the conversations, but no, we built this and we will share it. You were supportive of us, and we will not forget that you were there right when you know, once upon a time we first started, there was this crisis at the border, kids getting locked in cages, and it was just this inhuman treatment of human beings who
were seeking refuge. And there were Hispanic people, there were Mexican people, people from country south of the American border that had a lot to say about that this is the place you come. This is a black show, sure, but this is just as much an Asian show and Hispanic. If you need it, come here, let's let's do that for you. We'll go behind the scenes. And we've done this. We've told stories of people who were gay, people were
Palestinian people who were Jewish. Had we had to condemned black people's treatment in the videos that we saw of a people, we had to condemn black people's treatment and articulation of Jewish people and their position and their role in society when black people were saying it. Because right is right is wrong and wrong is wrong. It doesn't matter what color you are, and we will stand and
be brothers. Q and I don't let me speak for you entirely, but we will stand as your brothers because we believe in the goal of this show that we can create a more inclusive environment where we know how to be better to each other. In that spirit, we want to explain some commonalities in what we see with this Asian woman's death.
Right.
So her name is Victoria Lee. We have a video that we're going to share some people that are able to see the show. You'll be able to watch it, but the audio tells you effectively what's happening as well. So let's get into that.
Audie camera video from New Jersey shows help they shot and killed a woman in her home. Officers arrived at Victoria Lee's apartment last month after her family called nine one one about a mental health crisis. They were looking for help. The family attorney says the twenty five year old, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was harmless thanks busy.
A police body camera video shows an officer meeting Victoria Lely's brother at the door of their forty New Jersey apartment in the early hours of July twenty eighth, about thirteen minutes after he first called nine one one she had.
A mental press All right, we'll send an officer report just what I'm doing this Finally, it's a mental health we.
Have to send officers also.
He then called nine one one again to cancel the emergency dispatch. Saint Lee had a foldable knife, and.
I just cancel a call, not for a mental health called. She had a nice where now what does she have?
The officer arrived at the building shortly after the second call briefly saw Lee with her mom inside the apartment before they locked the door on him and several arriving officers.
I want to break the door down.
The first responders planned their entrance, then knocked the door down. Video shows Lee approached police with what appears to be a full water jug in her hand as officer Tony Pickens Junior fired a single shot, striking Lee in her chest.
As officers tried to provide.
Medical aid to Lee, but she was pronounced dead at a local hospital. A knife was recovered on the scene. It's unclear from the video if she was holding it when officers enter it, but our family says she dropped it before they opened the door. Well, some US police departments have enlisted mental health experts and social workers. Many officers themselves are not trained for these specific interactions.
So we want to give credit where it's due. That is courtesy of CBS News, and the first voice you heard there was Gail King. I know that there were some things. I'm watching you watch the video. I know there were some things, some lines that you connected Q and some things that stood out to you. So I'm not I'm not going to go first that the one you got it.
I think far too often when people hear us being critical of police, their mind pulls up a police officer that they know. That's an awesome person. Yeah, that's kind, that's courteous, that's polite, that's respectful, that comes around and knows them and knows their kids, and all of their interactions with that officer are good. So they don't understand
what it is that we're talking about. And what we keep trying to reiterate is that we're not talking about Officer King, Taylor, Officer Ward, or we're not talking about any specific officer. We're talking about the system of policing in this country and how it is, by the nature of its conception and by its execution in a lot of cases, just done wrong. Not because the officers are
all bad people. They are just part of a system that has kind of set them up to be on the wrong side of a lot of outcomes based on the way the job is done. So this kid calls the police. Rewind, this kid calls nine to one one, So let's start there. There should be a different phone number family members going through a mental health crisis, because what we learned in this video is if you call nine to one one for a mental health crisis, a
police officer has to come. And what you might notice if you listen to that video is as soon as the dispatcher told him an officer was coming, he said, okay, let me cancel it. Just an ambulance. I'm sorry, just an ambulance, is what he said. The dispatcher told him, no, for mental health, we have to also send an officer. This kid said, okay, never mind, let's just cancel it all together. And he then did what I believe he thought was helping by disclosing that his sister had a knife.
So he didn't want the police to come because they would see that.
But once he saw that, the dispatcher like got excited, and I don't mean excited in a way that's happy, just alarmed. The situation got more serious and escalated. The dispatcher's entire mood change. She has a knife, so I'd have to imagine that communication with the officers was different than it would have been had that fact not been explained to the dispatcher. The police arrive and the brother is now trying to protect his sister, but he does
not understand how. And this family, I can kind of tell from their accent, probably first generation here and doesn't know how to fully communicate his fears with these officers, doesn't know how to actually protect his sister, even though
he's trying his best. The mother and the sister then open the door and there's some interaction with the officers, and you can hear the young lady is upset, and now the police have determined as the mother, probably trying to protect her daughter as well, closes and locks the door, the police have now determined they have to break the
door down. Now, as we were watching that video and listening to it again, was what was your thinking or your position when they've now determined, well, now we have to break down your door. And one of the officers ask, go ahead, read it right there? Who wants to go lethal and who wants to go less lethal? And one of the officers without hesitation, volunteers, I'll go lethal.
So the thing that jumps out at me is that I try to be objective here.
I'm not.
I'll admit it ten times out of ten, but I try. Okay, So for people that are police apologists, I'm going to try to humor. You're the lens through which you might view this, Okay, try to account for that that vantage point. If she has a knife and she's in the apartment with another person, Okay, what that means is that there's a person whose life is at risk. Okay, a person
can die. And if you're the police officer and you show up and you recognize that this is a life and that situation, you have a duty to protect life by taking the other life.
Right.
This is just the reality of the police officers. That's what they think.
Mindset.
Yeah, got it. So they started it because they brought the knife. I'm just here to keep the.
Peace, right. This is what the officers thinking.
And when this officer says I'm gonna go lethal because of probably his perception of the seriousness of the situation, forget the fact that this woman is clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She's twenty five years old and she's in the middle of a mental health crisis, which was articulated to the nine to one one dispatcher. Again, we're talking about a system nine one one dispatcher. Mental health police have to come. They're bringing guns. Okay, that is not
the place you need guns. It's not even the place you need knives. So please don't bring a gun. And the phone call wasn't listen. My sister has a mental health disorder. My sister's having a crisis right now. Yeah, she's in the midst of one. Yeah, so sending those guns here make it worse. It's going to make it worse.
So that's where I was going.
When I look at it through that lens, I see how a person can arrive at those conclusions. But I am biased. As I mentioned, I have a beating heart, I have emotions, and I would rather live in a world where Victoria Lee was still alive.
I'm sure her family would agree. Okay.
The way I think about it is, if a knife is in that room and it is a mental health crisis, one person potentially could die. Okay, we know that. But if I can navigate these waters the way that I want to. I would like to the situation and optimally fleshes out the way that best case scenario.
Or they body or they send a mental health profession or that. But but we're here.
There's no mental health professor. Our system is not set up. Our system is failing us actively right now. The officers too. Okay, but if I go in there, no gun's blazing, one person could die, but also two.
People could live.
Three people could live, three people could live, right, But you know, of the two people that are in behind that door, if I go in with my gun out, one person is definitely going to die.
So a person like me, granted I've had more time to think about it, and they had time to put their strategy together.
For those that were able to see.
The video, you saw them having a conference outside, waiting for more officers, et cetera.
You know what, there was not time for for Victoria to put the knife down.
Yeah, there was about two seconds when they shouted, dropped the knife, and less than two seconds the shot fire off, probably one second one and a half seconds drop the night. So between the end of that statement, I would I'd be surprised if it was one second, right, So imagine the amount of time it takes in the middle of a mental health crisis to process the doors open. These people are coming at me. They're all shouting at me and oh yeah, I am holding let me drop this knife,
you know whatever. But that's the ready fire aim thing that happens with police that I talk about so often on the.
Show, especially once the gun is strong. Well, I took it out, so I got to use it right now. It's easy for us, I'll see this. It's easy for us to be critical of police and what they've done after the fact. But this happens all the time. So now again we're talking about a system. We had to talk about Sonia Massey on the show, and it's not the officer. It's a system that makes these people feel like they are the authors and the finishers of the
fate of human beings. They can end lives because they have a gun and they believe some noble cause, and often enough the cause is just protecting themselves. So you showed up and now you're scared, and you brought a gun and you killed me because you were scared. You didn't even have to show up, Pam. I called you for help, and you came to me and harmed me.
So that is indicative of the system, especially because it happens so frequently. So again, when I look at just kind of the state of play, there's a person behind this door with a knife, perhaps in the middle of an argument with their mother or whatever situation is happening. If I go in here with my gun out, one person's definitely gonna die. My gun is out, okay, And all these guys with me know that if I go in here, no gun's out, tasers, whatever, there's the potential.
That nobody dies. Nobody dies. You know what's interesting, Rams, And we've had this conversation more than any other conversation on our show about accountability for officers and officer involved shootings, and because there in so many cases, isn't any accountability, there's no hesitation to shoot because we're listen, we understand that there have been cases. We're in order to protect the most people, someone got shot, in order to protect the life of the officer, someone got shot. We're not
saying that that never happened. That we talked about those on That absolutely happens. But the thought press process behind taking out this gun to kill changes drastically when on the other side of this, I might go to prison. Watch this.
Let me add to that, right there, Q and I, we both have a friend who got caught up in a murder case when he was younger. Hear the story all the time, and it ended up being that he was able to prove that it was self defense. But imagine the gravity of taking a life, taking a human's life, like, that's got to if you have if you're like saying, that's got.
To really trouble you have any empathy at all, right, But.
For normal people, their reality is like, if I do this, there might be some consequences, And.
For police, there's most likely going to be some consequences. That was premeditated. He made the choice beforehand.
I'm I'm going to go.
So what do you do with that? It's heartbreaking because we know this could be avoided. There's just people who refuse to enact different policies and a different system altogether so that the outcomes don't continue to be this over and over again.
Well, let me give you some quick game before we let you go. The idea of defunding the police will certainly free up some money to have different types of people respond to calls like that, maybe mental health professionals, maybe people that don't need to end other people's lives. Maybe everybody can make it home that day. Sure, bad people are with us and they always will be. But
I don't believe this was a bad person. This is a person who was working on mental health and now we have to live in the world.
I'll say this with a little bit of time that we have left. We would usually dedicate this to having you guys follow us and all that, but listen to this. People who say she threatened to stab him in the neck, go ahead and shoot me either don't know how mental health crisis come about or cannot conceive of a loved one in a similar situation shot within two seconds of yelling drop the knife, which her family says was already dropped. Reminds us both of Sonya Massey.
Be sure to follow us on social media at Civic Cipher, I'm ramses Josh
I am q Ward on all socials as well, and until next week, y'all, peace, Peace,