Civic Cipher 042322 The Execution of Patrick Lyoya (Part 1)

going to deal with a couple of those. One in particular has to do with a man named Patrick Leoya. We didn't cover his story last week because we wanted to give it a little bit of time for reasons we'll get into, but we will be discussing his execution style death in the state of Detroit and discussing where

we go from here. A little later in the show, we're also going to talk about the criminal justice system and how it tends to mistreat black people and brown people in this country, and we have one such example, a man by the name of Daryl Howard. We're going to examine his situation a bit and just kind of give you some insight into what we know to be

true but you may not. We're going to spend a little time talking about the first African American umpire in Major League Baseball, a man by the name of emmittt Ashford, for a way black history fact. And we're also going to discuss a movie that I was able to watch recently that I would love for you to watch. We'll tell you a little bit more about it in our bah Ba segment. That is Baba Become a Better Ally, So be sure to stick around for that as well,

because it is definitely an insightful movie. It's called Who We Are, So a lot to stick around for today, so be sure to stay tuned. But first and foremost, like we always do it, this time, que with your permission, can we jump into some ebony excellence?

powerful leader in the Union. But when he was a teenager during segregation in the nineteen thirties, his single mother was two poor to pay school tuition. Nineteen thirty eighty, just finished his junior year of high school at Stora College, a boarding school founded after the Civil War that initially educated formerly enslaved children. Mister Cooper said he realized his mother, who worked as a living housekeeper, couldn't afford to make

the final tuition payment for a senior year. He took a job at the women's apparel store in Philadelphia to help pay bills, and then he was hired in nineteen forty five as a city trolley car operator, and he says it was tough when he first started. He remembers the racism he endured. He says, quote, I wouldn't want to repeat some of the things people said to me when they saw me operating the trolley. Right. He goes on to say, we had to have the National Guard

on board to keep the peace. But he was proud of his career. However, there was always one thing that bothered him. He wished he had graduated from high school and received his diploma. Well eighty four years later, he has been finally able to realize his long held wish. His family arranged his surprise graduation ceremony in his honor

March nineteenth at a hotel in Jersey City. Mister Cooper's son in law, Rod Beckernick, is a retired social studies teacher who heard mister Cooper talk about the difficulty of getting an education as a black teen in the nineteen thirties. He decided it was long past time his father in law received the diploma he'd missed when he dropped out just before his senior year. So I just wanted to shout that story out as a heartwarming story. And we

love those two every so often. I do believe that is an example of ebony excellence, even at one hundred and one years. Now, on to heavier things. And if you're listening, we really did put this off. So I'll ask you, have you been able to digest properly this Patrick Leoya story?

It's almost constant now, you know what I mean. Like it's not like we heal and we move on, like no, You'll still be hurting and processing the last one. And then, as you know in our text thread, in our inbox, there's a story of five more, ten more, a dozen more. We can't fit them all in our shows. That's sad. Yeah, we don't have enough space to talk about the number of these types of stories that we have to try to digest. But I have indigestion with regards.

These videos oftentimes the end in death of black people, and it's very, very heavy. I'm not going to speak for all black people. I'm just going to speak for Ramses. I am a human being with a beating heart, and I have feelings. So if you can relate to any of those, then you might have some insight into how this feels. Right. So for me to see anyone and be harmed, it's like, I don't celebrate that. I'm not the sort of person that goes hunting and in the

lives of animals because you know, for no reason. You know, I get that some people got to eat that way or whatever, but it's not my thing. But it's a little bit heavier when the person is black, because then it feels a little bit more personal, it feels a

little closer to our doorstep. And so we instituted this rotation so that we could deal with these stories without overwhelming ourselves and without you know, there's been this big push in recent years to protect your mental health, you know, and so this was one of the steps that we tried to implement in producing the show for you guys every week. So this one, I know for a fact, I put it off to the very last minute. I knew it was there. I just didn't want to watch

the video. I just didn't. I just didn't want to see it. I heard that Patrick was shot in the back of his head and that felt different. And here we are, and now I have to talk about it, and so I respect and understand whatever whatever, however deeply you have dived into this because I recognize the gravity of it. But this one was my turn of of course, as you know you and so here we are now.

I do want to mention that some of my readings today come from the Detroit Free Press, that the Detroit Free Press is a black owned newspaper, like the Atlanta Black Star, like the Grio. Some of our sources we just pulled from black sources because this is the place for that, and a lot of times they'll tell the story in the way that we really need to hear it and to share it with the listener you, so

I'll begin. A black man, faced down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Grand Rapids police officer the violent climax of a traffic stop, refootchase, and struggle over a stun gun, according to videos of the April fourth incident released Wednesday. The release by Grand Rapids police spark renewed protests and calls for justice Wednesday, as state and state officials promised to full investigation. It comes in the wake of other police

involved shootings in Grand Rapids. The video released Wednesday includes footage from the unnamed officer's body camera, which was deactivated shortly after the officer told the suspect, twenty six year old Congolese refugee Patrick Leoya, to quote let go of

the taser. End quote. The video, collection of dash cam footage, bodycam footage, and a home security camera and a cell phone video, shows the unnamed officer pulling over Lioya and a passenger for a quote license plate that doesn't match the car Quoteleoya gets out of the car and the officer gets out and tells him to get back in the car. The officer asks for his driver's license and then asks whether Lioya speaks English. Elia then appears to

run around the car. The officer chases and tackles him to the ground on the front lawn of a house. They struggle, and the officer can be heard yelling to Lioya stop and let go of the taser. After about ninety seconds, the officer is lying on top of Lioya, who's face down on the ground. The officer, still yelling for Lioya to let go of the taser, proceeds to shoot him. Leoya is shot in the head. Police Chief Eric Winstrom confirmed. Winstrom said the taser was deployed twice

but did not make contact. Okay, now, I recognize that if you're hearing our voices today, and we do appreciate every listener, everybody that has a little bit of a moral compass in their heart and they want to do right, and they're taking the time out as you're doing right now, to listen to our voices and try to become a

better person for your brothers and sisters. You know that you share this country with This is a this is a this one feels different to me, and I know that the police will always have an excuse, right, And I've said this many times on the show. But you know, for those of you who maybe you're on the fence, maybe you're in the gray area, or maybe you have to have really important conversations with people who I feel

like the police are justified. You know, there are people who do their best to try to find the justification in the police's actions. There's no objection, there's no objectivity, if you will, right, They are trying to find out who did what wrong to justify what the police did. Well, he shouldn't have did this, he shouldn't have ran, he shouldn't you know whatever. So as I do, I'll break this down how I see these things happen. Okay, Now this is a refugee. So let's say he's not aware

the extent of police violence in this country. Let's say he didn't grow up in a place like Detroit, you know, or a place like Compton, where I'm from. You know, cues from Detroit shout out to the mon So he hasn't been taught from a young age to fear the police. You know, many of you listening might think, well, no, the police are the good guys. You know, why would

anybody fear the police? You know, there are parts of the country where the police don't really behave like across the board in a way that makes you feel like they're there to protect you. At least. That was a lot of my interactions with the police in my nearly forty years of living. In that time, I've learned that police. I've seen police rob people. I've seen police beat people up, not even take them to jail, just beat them up and leave them there. I saw that happen. These eyes

saw it happen. I've learned, obviously doing this type of show and just kind of being a conscious black man with black children to raise black sons, specifically, that it is possible and legal for police to lie to you when they interrogate you. So the police can say to you, hey, you know what, we have your DNA at the scene. So if you confess to the crime that you may or may not have committed. But let's say in this example, you didn't committed but if you if you confess, I

can make it easier on you. It's legal for them to lie to you and say things like that, oh, we can you know, do whatever, and make it, make it easier on you. But then what happens is you confess to a crime that you didn't commit and it's all because the police officers did that. So rather than committing being committed to finding the truth, this is a legal thing that happens all too often. You know, if you don't believe my words here, please look up and

follow the Equal Justice Initiative. A man named Brian Stevenson. He's a person that I look up to very much, h And he's a person that fights to overturn wrongful convictions using DNA evidence or whatever you mean, legal means that he can and obviously a success rate is very high, which is how he's known for doing this. And overwhelmingly the people that are beneficiaries of his services and those of the Equal Justice Initiative are black or brown and

overwhelmingly poor. And so what we're looking at is a problem with policing, with confessions and so forth. But more times than I've seen the police be the good guys, I've seen them be the bad guys in my actual lived life. I'm not talking about in TV. I'm not talking about in videos, you know, because I do respect the fact that lots of police do lots of good work.

I have to say that, as many people as might get mad at me for saying that there are lots of police officers do lots of good work, I'll see that entirely. But I don't understand, and I don't know that I ever will how the police get to be the heroes and they always fear for their life? Right? Are you that brave? Or are you not that braid?

You know? Are you afraid? I remember reading a story, and this was some time ago, so my details a little hazy, but it was a person was shot and killed by an officer, and the officer had shot the person's hands right or or hand or something like this, and I remember it and when, uh, the officer had to like explain what had happened. Actually, I'm not even sure that the person died, but either way, the officer shot to him, okay, and it shot the person's hand

through the hand. The officer was able to suggest that, well, I shot through the hand because the person was trying to grab for my gun, right, And if that's the end of the story, that makes perfect sense. Off you're trying to grab the officer's gun. The officer needs to take action, discharge the weapon. Boom, problem solved, right, protect the officer's life at all costs, right, This is kind

of the way that works. That's kind of one of the protections you're afforded if you sign up to become a police officer, that your life matters more than everyone else's. But the person who was shot, it was either that person or their family. I don't remember the details exactly, but that person or their family was saying, like, your instinct is to try to keep the weapon from being pointed directly at you, because you know that once that reapon is raised raised, rather that it spells the end

of your life. You know what I mean, I'm going to get shot, So you will reach out your hands and try to keep the weapon from going all the way up, you know, try to block it. This is kind of an instinctive thing, right, And so they were trying to say no, this person wasn't trying to grab the gun, take it away from the officer, turn it around, grip the gun, and then discharge the weapon in the

officer's direction. This person was simply trying to save his own life, which anything with a nervous system does and in theory should be allowed to do. Right. So this taser, you know, I don't know all the details yet. I did wait to try to wait for more things to come out, but this one might take a while. A

lot of these do. But that taser. When they say, like, you know, the officer said he was grabbing for his taser, the way that story hits the public is like, well, this Congolese refugee who was running away from the officer decided that he was going to get the taser tase the officer, and therefore the officer was in danger. So the officer had every right to shoot the man in the back of the head, right. I want to add

to that. Tasers are supposed to be non lethal. So if someone does get your taser, officer, you know, we don't know the officer's name here, but if someone does get your taser, again, a non lethal weapon. This is why you have it as an alternative to your gun. Someone does get your taser, the understanding there is that that device is not going to end a life, right, So fearing for your life doesn't really make sense to me, you know, based on you know those details. Right. Furthermore,

if this man has the taser. The taser went off twice. No one was electrocuted. And you're wrestling with this person. He's face down, You're on top of his body, and you're, I guess tired of wrestling with him because it's been a while. Shooting someone in the back of the head. That sounds very gruesome, and you know the video, it's very sad because you see these two forms moving back and forth, struggling. Looks like a life and death struggle.

I'd imagine that for Patrick Leoya, he probably thought that it was, which is probably why he ran and all of a sudden, the gun goes off and then he stops moving and the life is extinguished. And around here we think life is precious. We feel like we have to say specifically that black life is precious, because there are lots of things in the world to teach us

that black life is not precious. You know, a lot of what we talk about on this show is ways that this country at least shows us that black life is not precious. And so we use this forum to affirm that for ourselves and for our tribe, and we use this forum to bolster our relationships with the other tribes. If you will with our less melanated brothers and sisters.

We recognize that we were the first men. We recognize that, as a result, all men are our children, and as a result of that, we recognize that we love them even when they're wrong. So if you're listening to this show and you might not be black, we love you, and there's forgiveness built into the narrative, at least on civic cipher, because you know it's okay to be wrong provided that you're moving in the right direction. I've talked at length about why people run. You know, people run

because they're scared. So even if this guy didn't grow up in the United States, just ran because the police officer was maybe asking questions, he didn't understand, he didn't know what was up, didn't know what to expect. You know, you pick any animal in nature, pick any animal in nature scared, and if it doesn't fight you, it'll run. Right. That should never be a death sentence because we're dealing with human beings. We can figure stuff out later, and

nothing is ever that important. Now, I got about a minute, and I do want to get your thoughts too, So jump in right here and let me know how this feels to you.

You know, this man loved this dog very much, so it did not behave to him the way that it would to a potential intruder or any stranger that didn't live at his house. I remember when I was a kid, the cops came and they drew their guns, and this very aggressive, very vicious dog became very docile and very passive and very scared because even as a dog, it understood that thing that that man has, that it's pointing at me, could kill me. So imagine a person that

absolutely knows better. Of course, it's not even fight or flight at that point. In most cases, it's just flight.