When is the right time to tase a handcuffed man? About to find out? Today, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of The Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding.
I am your host, ramses job. He is Ramsey's jaw. I am cured. You are once again tuned into Civic Cipher.
Indeed, as we broadcast from Hip Hop Weekly Studios, I would like to ask you to stick around because we are going to be discussing quite a few things today, including what.
Police accountability looks like.
Three years after a moment in time when we were really having the opportunity to see what police accountability looks like, what it looks like when police were accountable to the public and not the other way around. Since then, that reality has deteriorated, and so there's a few examples that have come across our desk in recent weeks, and we've
compiled them into today's episode. For the first half and for the second half, of course, we are going to be discussing, indeed, when is the right time to tase a handcuffed man? And what does it mean when you're tasing a handcuffed man that is a question that has resulted from a recent video that has been going viral on our social media, and I employ you to check
it out while you're listening to the show. Before we get to that point in the show, we can hit at Civic Cipher and see exactly what we're talking about. But we're going to actually play a little bit of the audio for you as well so that you can understand it. For some reason, you can't get to the social media. But again, we're talking about police accountability and what happens when there is a lack of police accountability.
Exactly how far do police go, what do police feel they can get away with, and why do they keep doing this? Is it because they don't fear the consequences or are we just seeing what happens when people get caught. But first and foremost designed for some Ebony Excellence, we'd like to start to show off this wayque why don't you take.
This one, noll I, you shall this week's Ebony Excellence sponsored by Actively Black, where they believe there is greatness in our DNA. This comes from NPR. Tracy Chapman was honored with Song of the Year for her nineteen eighty eight folk anthem fast Car at the Country Music Awards on Wednesday, coming the first black songwriter to ever win the award. Fast Car peaked at number six on Billboard's Hot one hundred charts following its released more than thirty
years ago. The song was nominated for three Grammys when it first came out, and Chapman won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, but it got a second win in recent months after singer Luke Colmbs came out with the cover of the song in April. His version peaked at number two on the Hot one hundred chart and one Single of the Year. At the CMA's in Nashville, she says, quote, I'm sorry I couldn't join you all tonight end quote quote. It's truly an honor for my song to be newly
recognized after thirty five years of its debut. Thank you to the CMAS and a special thanks to Luke and all of the fans of fast Car. End quote. Combes called fast Car his favorite song and his acceptance speech for a Single of the Year, he said, quote, first and foremost, I went to thank Tracy Chapman for writing one of the best songs of all time. Never intended for that I just recorded it because I loved the song so much. It's meant so much for me throughout
my entire life. It's the first favorite song I ever had from the time I was four years old. And that's from Luke Combs who won that award, right, And we want.
To shout out NPR for the article, and of course shout out Tracy Chapman for again being the first the first black song writer ever to win the award of Song of the Year and.
Both triumphant and sad at the same time.
Yeah, you know, progress, progress, So we'll take that all right. A lack of police accountability, man, this does not feel like a new topic for us.
You actually a question at the top of the show that I almost answered in real time. I had to bite my tongue to be quiet. What's the the when is the right time to tase a handcuffed?
Man?
My answers are going to sound like a joke because it's ridiculous, but it's the only time I actually had a moment of critical thinking to try to go through when would be a good time to taste someone who's in handcuffs? And I came up with if that person has you in the figure four leg lock, and you just so happened to have access to a taser or stun gun or some type of way of protecting yourself to get out of that once famous finishing move and professional wrestling. Indeed, what's funny.
We're obviously gonna develop, you know, that thought a little bit more for the second half of the show. But I think that after seeing that video, I'm kind of which video the video of the female officer in Alabama tazing the black.
Listeners and cuff to the car. That was a little tongue in cheek, Which video? Which video? Because we see that many yeah, where that would actually be a real question had we not just you know.
Sure, sure, And you know, here's the funny part about that. Before I get to the point I'm trying to make this whole show, if we're being honest, is pointed toward that specific police interaction, and these stories that we're going to talk about now are just kind of really what frames what police accountability looks like these days? Who exactly exactly my point? And so having that sort of climate, having a public that's either apathetic or is I want
to say, like intellectually disinterested, disinterested disengaged. But I don't know if it's if it's apathy more than kind of a numbness, right. I think if there's like, for instance, you ever been to someone's house and they don't change the battery in their smoke detector beeping to you, that is incredibly annoying.
That's been the case for them for however long. They don't even hear it anymore. It's not actual apathy, They've just tuned it out. This happens so often, like what am I supposed to be angry and outraged perpetually For some some apathy is the exact right way to describe how they feel about this. It doesn't affect them, so there's no reason for them to actually care. But I think for an unsettling amount of people, it's very very discouraging.
I think the battery has been beeping for so long they don't hear it anymore.
And I like how you use that analogy, because the fact is is that that battery has been beeping since everybody listening to our voices right now was born, and indeed before they were born, that battery has been beeping, and it feels like sometimes we're the only ones pointing this out to everyone else, like, hey, does anyone else hear this battery beeping?
Right?
And so that's a problem. But the result of that, the ripple effect of that is that police brutality, police misconduct, you know, these sorts of things, they end up creating a climate where other police feel like they are invincible, there are no consequences for their actions. A certain group
of people are disposable or you know whatever. And maybe they feel this way across the board, because you know, police violence does happen against white people as well, it's not as prevalent, but you start to realize just how removed from real consequences police can be. And one of the things that I find particularly problematic with those people that have intellectually speaking, distanced themselves from indeed what is happening, is that.
A way that they.
Place a wall in between where they are in terms of their argument and where we are, is to say that black people have selective outrage, that black people have a victim mentality, these sorts of things, right, And I want to focus on selective outrage for a second, because you know, when people start to look at things like why are you so mad about police brutality. This affects such a relatively speaking small amount of Black people. You
guys have so many other problems. I think that it's those people that have ignored the fact that there are there is a critical process that we need to go through in order to bring about a more equitable society for all of us. And some changes start with police reform. Some changes start with dealing with voter disenfranchisement, disenfranchisement. Some changes start with reforming the car sol system. Some changes start with dealing with poverty and economic inequality in this country.
And then other changes still start, you know, in the textbooks, in medical textbooks, in reparations. Let's be honest. You know, we will talk about that for our way Black History fact. And then you have the evergreen go back to your country man. Listen, that's always a solution.
Talk some c you know what I mean.
So let's talk about what a lack of police accountability looks like. Okay, So, Jalen Walker, we talked about Jalen Walker on the show. He is the person that was you know, they were attempting to apprehend him on a traffic stop. If I'm not mistaken, I think it was.
An equipment stop too, So not speeding, not not doing something criminal, just maybe not having the money to get your tail like repaired or something like that, or your windows being tinted darker than they should be.
There you go. So he keeps driving, please start pursuing. A lot of police get behind him, and then the police say that he fired a gun out of the car.
In their direction. Please say this right.
One shot. Then finally he ends up parking the car. Some murrey gets out of the car. The police say he reached in his waistband and held his hands up in such a way that they felt like he still had the gun. They shot him a bunch of times, and the gun turned out was in.
I want to be a little more specifically, they shot him ninety six times. Yeah, so that's a bunch of a bunch of times, you know, right. I didn't even want to let that live so vague. I appreciate that. Actually, let me read almost that means almost ten officers empty clips.
Oh yeah, they were reloading and continuing to shoot. So so let's let's read this. This is from the Black Information Network of the Iron News dot com. If you want to check so police previously said Walker failed to stop when officers tried to pull him over for minor equipment violations in June twenty twenty two. According to police, Walker fired a shot from his vehicle during the pursuit.
At one point during the encounter, Walker jumped out of his still moving vehicle and attempted to flee on foot. According to a state investigation of the incident, officers initially tried to use tasers to stop Walker, but police believed he was going to fire again after the twenty five year old reached toward his waistband and raised a hand. For the state investigation, walker had left his gun in
the car off officer Aspire. The total of ninety six shots within seven seconds, forty six of those hitting Walker. So what we're talking about in terms of lack of accountability is that none of the eight officers involved were charged after an internal investigation revealed these findings. Right now, this isn't a community oversight committee. This isn't a place where Walker's family could bring forth evidence or hire a
separate investigator anything. This was an internal investigation. And Q has a great analogy about police investigating themselves.
Because and of course finding nothing no wrong. There we go there. We looked at us and we thought we was cool. So there you go, right, y'all have to work, so y'all be cool.
And people don't realize that the consequences of that is that trust is further eroded nationally, and it has been eroded for such a long time. People wonder why black people don't really interact with police, don't communicate with police, don't have none to stay the police, and then these things happen, and people still wonder that.
This is.
A gross misuse of force, This is indeed an act of violence. I believe that this is anti black. And the fact of the matter is that even if Jalen Walker was suicidal and he wanted death by cop and you know, the worst optics, even if that's what he wanted from this, you and I have seen, because of the amount of footage and stories that come across our desk time and again, officers confronting people like that and at least attempting to de escalate a situation prior to
letting off shots. And when they do let off the shots. Seldom do we hear of stories that involve non black people that involve this amount of shots where a person's not holding a gun.
I love your grace and your you know, benefit of the doubt, and saying seldom I don't have a single account. Yeah, well I'm trying to be I'm trying to cover all bags. Someone might say, remember this one time that you come
from that place. My memory serves me correctly. Not only do I not have an account, but I have actual accounts of the contrary, where police are actually put in danger forcefully, aggressively forwardly by someone that's not black, and refuse to use their weapons, someone who's armed and trying to harm them. Sure, and already harming others. Sure, sure, so.
Oh yeah, yeah, we've seen him in the back of the police car getting McDonald's or burger king or whatever.
We've seen him.
Saw a video the other day of a guy that was actively attacking an officer with a stick and the officer had the gun drawn. It was like, drop the stick, drop the stick, and the guy just swinging at him. The officer keeps backing up.
Seeing a video of a guy hitting officers with their car and ramming them. Still no need for this to turn violent. Yeah, and ninety six shots is just kind of like and I think you said multiple officers reloaded. I know that there was there was reloading. I can't say how many officers did, but imagine that up. I emptied my clip. Let me the one guy who who we all already shot, let me reload to make sure
that we're safe. So that's why, you know, because the research that we've done, excuse me, the research that we've done has shown that that's why you would. That's why they shoot and reload, just to make sure that they're safe from a guy who's my bad. I didn't mean to cut you off.
Go ahead, well again, I think it shows a disregard for human life and black life.
Thank you. I don't know that they have a disregard for human life.
But if that was the only story, that would be way too much. So allow me to add some additional framing for you that helps again framed the second part of the show here. So Elijah McLain's death, as you know, as we talked about, this was a hard story for us to talk about. I remember this one because Elijah McLain was such a kind person. We saw the videos we saw, you know he was. I believe he might
have been on the spectrum or something like that. There was he had like a I know he had a blood condition or some sort of health condition that he would cast him to get colds. A soft, mild, kind, warm, young person, and he glowed all those adjective.
And I said soft intentionally, not as a pejorative, but this kid was a soft person intentionally, not some coward of some sort, but no, just meant no one any harm, even while being harmed. I love you and forgive me.
Yeah. Yeah. So when we had to cover this story, we obviously did our research on Elijah McLain and we saw these videos. We got a chance to see who he was, his temperament. And then of course there was the video or the audio from the body cam and the video whatever of him saying all these kind things as he was being harmed by the officers. He was wearing a ski mask because he had a blood or a health condition.
I forget what it was. I believe this was in Colorado. In Colorado, Yes, he were a ski mask in the mountains, folks, where it's cold in the wintertime. I believe.
I looked this up too. I feel like it was like sixty six degrees or something like that. And because he had like a blood condition. It caused him to feel cold, even more cold than I would feel or you would feel, right, And so he dressed warm, probably at a point when other people would be fine. So again, he's walking home, he's got the ski mask on. Someone calls the police on him because he's suspicious. The police
show up and he dies. He doesn't have a gun, he's not never harmed anybody's not intending to harm anyone. He's trying to communicate, trying to explain everything to him. And somehow this would lead you to believe those officers showed up with the intentions of doing harm to someone. And that's speculative, of course, but you show up without the intention of doing harm to someone, and maybe the unarmed young person is still alive today. And again, if
that was it, that would be too much. But the officer who's responsible for choking the life out of him as he was saying all these things, everything that Q said he said, I implore you to go look up the transcript or watch the body cam footage again. Elijah McClain, I think he was in Aurora, Colorado. If you're not familiar with the story, how he was kind and apologizing,
He's like I'm just different. I don't mean any harm, and I'm not saying that this is exactly what he said, but effectually, this is what he was communicating to the officers. And then he lost consciousness and then his life was over shortly thereafter. The officer that choked him to death is not back on the job with two hundred thousand dollars in back pay. That's what a lack of police accountability looks like. He killed him.
He killed him.
He can't live another day of his life, any goals and he dreams, anything like that gone. This officer is back on the job to potentially do it again with an extra two hundred thousand dollars in his pocket, because there's no accountability. He's Elijah is gone.
We saw him.
You could see his spirit. That's the type of spirit that deserves to live. We need more humans like that. He's gone, not drawing bread. They had to bury him, and that officer is an officer again with two hundred thousand dollars back business as usual. How hurtful is that?
I'm past hurt, you know what I mean? Like it's this is turned into anger. It's and again perpetual anger to live as a as an informed black person in this country and in our space where part of what we do for a living to do right by you, our listeners, and our partners, is to have to ingest all of this information on an almost daily basis. It takes a lot for us to not be perpetually furious. You'd have to be unaware, to be calm, or find some way to compartment in lives like we try to do.
Sharing the load of this of this burden and this trauma and everything that comes with it. It is a really impossible.
Ask, real quick for everybody that does, you know, reach out to us on social media. We appreciate all of that, Q and I do our best.
To all of it.
Some more people are really really yeah, but we appreciate the people that are concerned about our mental health and we try to take good care of each other, so we appreciate all that. Now, hang on, now, if this officer that killed Elijah McClain being back on the job with two hundred thousand dollars in his pocket wasn't enough, or if that wasn't too much, how about this? This comes from the Black Information Network, the Goon Squad of Mississippi.
Those cops. Turns out they got away with years of police brutality. And this goes back to what I've been saying time and again, we only know about these instances because these are the police that get caught or when they get caught. But indeed, this story goes and I'll read a bit, several deputies in Mississippi's rankin County Sheriff's Department have engaged in excessive force, police brutality and abuse
unchecked for years, according to reports. The department was initially thrust into national spotlight after five deputies from the department, who referred to themselves as the Goon Squad, tortured and sexually assaulted Michael Jenkson. Jenkins and Eddie Terrell park are
two black men during a raid earlier this year. According to court documents and incident reports obtained by Business Insider, the violent incident, among several is among several examples of police brutality that the officers have gotten away with for years. Two of the officers involved in the torture of Jenkin and Parker, Christian Deadman and Hunter Elward, were also reportedly present for the deaths of two other black men in
twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one. One incident report reveals that Edwards punched Damien Cameron at least three times and tasted him before his death. According to Monica Lee, Cameron's mother, the deputies knelt on his back for over fifteen minutes,
despite complaints that he couldn't breathe. Elward and Deadman were also present for the police shooting of Pierre Woods in February twenty nineteen, according to documents, So again, what happens when this stuff goes unchecked is that it keeps happening.
They doubled down, they tripled down, And.
You need to know about these things, because how do we change it if you don't