Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, rams Is Jah.
I think I will be forever known as just q Bard.
Hey that's enough for me, And you're not think so well Listen, Like I said that, that works man, because we've had we had some interesting changes around here and Q word floats floats every day, and uh yeah, glad to do another episode with you. A lot a lot to talk about this episode, and I think we're gonna fall on the sword this this one as well, so be prepared.
I got your back, man. If you falling on the sword, then we falling on the sword. It's gonna be all three of us. It's a sword of swords. Sword is the sword sword?
Listen, I can learn a lot, So how about you tell me and then we'll go with that.
If I'm falling on the sword with the silent w then I'm falling on the sword with the silent w.
Yes. Indeed, we'll stick around because we're going to talk about that with respect to video of an officer throwing a baggie into the back of a car and you know, planting evidence and it's it's on camera, so we have to talk about that. Like I said, fall on sword. But we also have to talk about another video, and it's going to be an interesting show talking about two videos and intas having to do with police, and you'll
find out why in just a bit. But there's another video that came out t I actually posted it into a video of an officer in Atlanta kicking a handcuffed woman in the face, and so we're going to talk about that as well. We do want to talk about something that happened here locally where we live in Arizona. We got a visit from Jesse Jackson, and for our Way Black History Fact, we're going to talk about Bob Moses and I'll try to work some Jesse Jackson in
there as well. The good Reverend. Yes indeed, and you know we have an interesting Boba this week as well. So Become a Better Ally segment is something that I'm very much looking forward to. But I won't dawdle too much because I want to talk about some ebony excellence that ways absolutely right. Well, all I do is win no matter what talk to me. There was a movie
trailer for It's called King Richard. King Richard from Compton, Compton, California, One Time, One if you don't mark, shout out to Compton, place of my birth. Listen. But it basically details the life of the father of Serena and Venus Williams, the tennis stars, and how he was very motivated to, you know, have his children do better than he did and have
opportunities he didn't have. And I wanted to highlight this for our Ebony excellence because I thought that it was really dope to see positive representation of black fatherhood in that space. Now I know that there was a recent movie about Kevin Hart taking care of his daughter. I think that in the story like the mother passed away or something like that. The movie is called Fatherhood there it is, Yeah, and so we want to see more of that. This movie trailer looks excellent. I'm imagining it's
Will Smith that's playing King Richard, the title character. And so just want to put that on your radar, and obviously when it comes out, you know, we all need to go and support that.
The trailer is very compelling. Sure, happened to see it. You're going to want to see the movie.
Yes, indeed, And you know, we around here know that there's been a longstanding myth pervasive myth that black men are not good fathers and not present fathers, and we are not here for that. No, we're going to talk about it soon. We're going to talk about that soon. But actually, if you don't know, the CDC did a study in twenty fourteen that found out that actually black fathers are doing best of everyone overall, the most present exactly. And so we'll talk about that in a later episode.
But for now, that's our Ebony excellence for the week, and it's time for us to get to the falling on of the sword. So I'm gonna tell you a story now. Before the show, before we started taping, Swirl, our producer and Q and I were talking and I mentioned that I wanted to talk about a video where and normally I would point you to our social media
and say, check out this video. But I've taken the video down, and I'll explain why I took it down, because normally, you know, you leave things up and you kind of own it out publicly. But in this show, in this space, we have been critical of a lot of systems that are in place in this country that we believe have white supremacist origins and that are perhaps
more harmful to especially to black and brown folks. Then many people are aware of and we and so we have to be critical of those systems in order to bring attention to them. That's that's how we make it work. There's some people who protest, there's some people who you know, run for office, and then there's people like us who work in media who have to bring attention and we
have to illuminate these disparities and these discrepancies, right. And fortunately we live in a modern world where we have social media, we're able to share videos and so forth, and it has really helped bring light to a lot of the injustices. But one of the things that comes along with working in media is that when you get it wrong, you have to own it. You have to eat crow, and you have to be you know, you have to make your you know, your recompense as substantial
as your offense right. And that's this is my belief. I recognize it. Not everyone else does this. I recognize that if this was from the police coming to me, that it perhaps would not be the same. But I'm of the persuasion that two wrongs don't make a right. I'm gonna write my story the right way, and whatever everyone else does is what they do. But early in the week again we saw this video. And the video is of a young black man. He's in the front
seat of a car. He's recording a traffic stop. There's an officer behind him, and it's a really quick video. The officer is sort of approaching the car. The camera angle is out the back passenger side door. The officer approaches the open door and tosses a baggie that looks
like there's white powder into the back seat. The young man who's in the car says, hey, that's not mine, and you just threw that in here something like that, And to those of us looking at the video, it looks like, okay, here's another example of an officer planting evidence to have an excuse to make a Right now, we know that these things have happened. We've done stories about We've done stories of people who've been convicted of
doing this, you know, for many years. Right, so we're well aware, certainly in black and brown communities, of officers taking certain liberties or doing whatever it is that they can to arrest people. And you know, these people, these officers, rather, it is our belief that they're prejudiced that they're bad officers, and on and on and on the whole story. But in this instance where we had a video, Oh that's a slam dunk, right, we got it. It's on video.
The guy clearly walks up to the car, throws a bag looks like powdery substance in the backseat of the car, and he did it like sort of like it almost looked like he was being sneaky and throwing the bag back there. Right, So naturally I think I might have hit swirl. Our show producer is like, hey, so make sure you post this on our timeline, on our social media on Instagram so that we can discuss this our next show. Because here's another example that we need to
bring light to. There's a lot of folks, allies, people with support us. So maybe people in the fringes who want to support, but maybe they haven't found the way to really get in there. We need to let them know these things happen, and we have more video evidence of police misconduct and how it is affecting black and brown citizens.
And it's something that we knew, something that we know happens, but like you said, having video confirmation of it goes along way.
Sure. Sure, And a lot of the other episodes that we've done where we've talked about instances like this, The one that really stands out of my mind is where an officer got convicted finally of planting evidence and writing false police reports and doing all these sorts of things. And there was hundreds of arrests over a career, and the officer finally was convicted, and a lot of those arrests and convictions were overturned well after the fact, after many years of this guy being on the job. And
that's just one we've talked about. And I'm not talking about lived experience yet. I could you know again, I'm from Compton, So that's the LAPD For those that don't know, the LAPD, especially in the eighties and the early nineties, was really known for being like lightweight, a criminal organization. Back to this video, so I really wanted this video to be posted on our timeline to share it with people.
And then of course, once we posted it and it's already out in social media, we just shared the video the same as anyone else, and all of the people that support the show, that follow Civic Cipher immediately started commenting, like in the video like, oh my gosh, this is a disgusting you know, blah blah, you know, police this that and the third right, and that was that we let the video sit there for however long, and obviously you didn't know that it was sitting there. And I
think that maybe Swirl posted or maybe I posted. I'm not sure, but just sat there did what it did, and then I'll call it a few days later, So this might have been Wednesday, Thursday some like that. I saw another video on another website. It was the same interaction, but it was from the officer's webcam. And that's the funny thing about bodycam. Bodycam. That was it webcam, sorry, his bodycam. So the funny thing in the original video, the man in the passenger seat, the young black man
in the passengers seat that was filming the interaction. He says, hey, man, I got you on video throwing that in the car, and the officer responds says, oh, it's all good, man, I got you on video too. Is so we're all good here, right, And it was almost like the only thing, it looked like it was the only thing that he could say in response to being filmed. Right, He's playing and.
Got caught and can't respond like he got caught, so he got to play.
It cool, like he didn't get caught. You used to happen. Right, As it turned out when he released that bodycam footage, it shows what happened leading up to that. Now you don't know this, right, Q. You don't know what happens. I have no idea, Okay, Swell, you don't know, okay. So the longer video shows the driver of the car standing in front of the police car with the officer in question and another officer I believe, Right, the driver is searched, and there they pull a baggie out from
the driver's pocket or something like that. Right, the baggie is empty. There's no because there were no arrests made. Right, the baggy is empty, but there is like a powdery subs right, and it's not enough quantity for them to test, so it's you know, but it was assumed that it could have been you know whatever. Right, So the officer takes it, examines it, and then walks it into the car to the backseat of the car, throws it in
the backseat of the car. Right that the guy was just driving, And then of course the interaction, Hey bro, why are you throwing this in the car? That's that's not mine? You just threw that in here. I got you on camera. Hey man, I got you on camera,
so it's all good. Right. So it says the same thing and then walks back or and then there's a little bit more to the dialogue and he's like, man, I just didn't want to carry that in my hands, you know, you know whatever, And that's why we're eating crow today, especially me because hey, let me now, I would love to get your thoughts right, because your immediate reaction I need, I need everyone listening to know what
that is. But I want to say this, there is something to be said about waiting for the full story, right, you know, there are sometimes I don't like what I'm about to say. You're not gonna like what I'm about to say if you're listening to my voice. But there are some times when we do have to wait for there to be in the full story to be told.
And I know that it's hard for us to trust that because typically what that means is they're doing, quote, an investigation, They're going to change a couple of pieces around, They're going to rewrite part of the story and then when it comes out, they've exonered, they've you know, they're not liable for anything, right. But I think that what this has taught me at least is, you know, your reactions are are well founded. Ramses, my name is Ramses.
If you don't know, yes, so I'm talking to myself here. Your reactions are well founded. This is this is Maybe it's cognitive bias, but this certainly reinforces your worldview, you know, and if you get more and more of the same, you know, your immediate reaction is to be angry and upset and afraid and so forth, and to you know,
be doubtful of you know, what the future holds. You know, why am I coming and doing shows like this every week if I don't believe that the world is going to change for the better by our efforts here.
Right, That's a great question I have to ask myself from time to time, exactly.
But it was very humbling to watch that video where I was like, ooh, because he the guy that was driving the car, he had a baggie on it. And I'm not gonna pretend like that bag was just flower. It looked exactly like what I think it was and what you would think it was. Right. Now, that's a whole separate conversation. Why are people forced to do these sorts of things to feed their families and to take care of themselves and have a decent living and make
their rent. You know, this guy wasn't driving a huge escalator or anything like that. It was just a regular car, you know what I'm saying. So this guy probably is just a guy trying to make ends meet the best way he can, not making excuses for anybody. But you know,
there's some context. But in terms of me being angry at this officer, I recognized, like oof, you know, it's you know, and then for all of us again waiting for that whole story and having to to get on a microphone on a show where we admittedly are very critical of policing practices policing in general, and say, h we got that one wrong. Is a part of I think our story, and it's going to keep us honest as we attempt to keep everyone else honest.
Please cute falling on the sword eating crow. I think that is our responsibility. Okay, And you know, we have to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the young man in the passenger seat. However, I don't think he has to eat crow. I think to him it looked like exactly what we thought when we saw it.
Right.
Imagine yourself sitting there, the officer walks up towards you and tosses something in the back seat, and you legitimately don't know where that came from. Like he, I think in that space, I don't think he was like. I don't think he was playing dumb. I think he was like, Yo, what are you doing because I'm not trying to go to prison because you're tripping and you don't like black people. He was wrong, but I don't think in that moment,
the way he responded was not authentic. Like, I think he thought he saw exactly what we thought we saw, right, So it's I think it's us eating crow and falling on the sword more than that, gentleman. I don't think he set us up for the okie duck with that video, is what I mean. Like, I don't think he had false pretensions like I'm about to pretend to be the
victim here so people can feel sorry. I think in that moment, he legitimately thought, this dude is planning evidence and trying to take us to jail for something that we didn't do. Maybe maybe, And you know, I said that for what it's worth, like, I don't. I don't think that that video was posted by that young man to sell us a false narrative.
Right.
The officer's body cam just had a more complete story than even that young man and had in his position.
There's no way to not.
Ecro You can't even go into all the reasons why we shouldn't have to and man, it's been done to it so many times. No, No, when you're wrong, you just are. You can't use other examples to make this.
It's just like.
You know, if you are a person in all of your interactions with black people have been bad, you don't get to treat me like I'm awful when you meet me.
And you can't point.
To all these other experiences and say this is the reason why and think that that's okay.
So we can't do that either. We were wrong, and.
Our hasteful reaction is based on some history, of course, but when you're wrong, you still.
Have to say so. Now, first off, thank you, because I didn't know. That's a tough thing to deal with, and having a like as sort of a benevolent Well that's not the right word. What am I thinking of humbling myself? You know what I mean? And being the only one with that energy. That's a much more scary place to be in. But I appreciate you understanding, you know why I wanted to talk about this and not letting me spill the b and c before we did that.
But I think there's another part of this too that it it somebody has to go first. Here's what I mean when I say that it could be you know, in modern history, we'll start with the Panthers, the Black Panthers, yes, and we'll start with and the Oakland Police Department, right, And these two groups were at war with each other for all intents and purposes because the Panthers felt that the police were overstepping brutalizing, terrorizing, robbing, killing in the
black community. And the Panthers are organized, and they bought guns. And that's why there's a lot of gun laws now because people got real scared because you know that right to bear arms is tricky when you know, when it's
a bunch of black people with afros and berets. Apparently, in the late sixties, so anyway, the panthers in the police, right, So you know, in terms of like a modern relationship with black folks in the police, having it being contentious and organized, I think that that's a great place to start. But I don't think that any of us on any side, because there's a lot of police officers who are black.
Granted back then there probably were way less. But we're talking about the system more than just the platonic ideal or the what pops in your mind the white male police officer, because then that makes it a race thing, and it's not necessarily that it certainly runs along that line. But there's a lot of I know, and I hope that I can say his name, because I will, and I do want to give him credit. There's an officer
that I know is his sergeant in Arizona. His name is Kevin Gilliland, and I've known this man for years. He's a kind man. He did a security gig for many years. When I would DJ at a jewelry store, they did a yearly party, paid me a ton of money, and he was a security guy there and he thought everything I did was cool. He listened to me on the radio, and you get to know the human being.
And obviously, you know, there's many years of police killings, and you know, black people losing their lives at the hands of police, you know, needlessly. And granted we only have our powwows once a year, but he would stay in touch with me. Maybe that had to do with the fact that I was cool and I was on the radio and I could give him concert tickets and that sort of thing. But I like to think that he actually had a heart and I provided a way
for him to express that. And because of the contentious nature between some black organizations and the police historically, you know, and because I know that we're not born to die. That's not gonna be my story. That's not gonna be your story. This whell is not gonna be yours. It's not gonna be our children's story. We're not born to go to war for our whole lives. We're not meant to born to fight. I believe that we're born to love. You know me, If you listen to the show, I'm
gonna say it a million times. I don't care if you believe it or not. That's my belief and I'm entitled to it. Plus I'm on the radio and you're not so love each other right boom. But I think above all of that, somebody has to go first. Somebody has to to stop slinging mud. Somebody has to say, Okay,
I was wrong and start there. And if I'm in a position where there's a microphone in front of me and there's an audience listening, I don't mind doing that because once you take off that uniform, what my father taught me, Reverend Doctor Rudolph Wayne Taylor, is that all men are my brothers and all women are my sisters. I will not forget that lesson. I will not forget it now, and I will not forget it when I
eat Crow for being hasty and posting my video. But that's on me more than it's on YouTube, you know. And you know if you're a person who quote backs the Blue or you know an officer yourself. I know that there's some officers that listen to the show, and in all the different states that we're in in cities, you reach out and I get your messages, and I appreciate the feedback, and I know that we're trying to find our way through this. Maybe I owe you an apology.
I don't want to make an excuse, so I want that to stand on its own, but I do want to say that if that happens again, I want you to know that it's because of the nature I believe of social media, because of how easy it is to
share things. You know, we talk about the vaccine, we talk about all this misinformation and fake news and how it gets spread, and you know, it doesn't matter how right you are, you're not immune or impervious or not susceptible to the algorithms, and just really the nature of social media and how easy it is to share things
that you see. And so it might happen again, but if it does, I want you to remember this moment please and know that while I'm very critical of your profession and some of the practices of some of the people that you work with, that you reckon your brothers and sisters, that I am committed to establishing a path forward where we can all be better to each other. And I think that that should stand on its own. Very well said, I'll just agree, thank you. Yeah, that
was really on me. I had filming kind of stupid posting that video and then yes, of course, and the reason I took it down. Was because rather than leave it up and then post a follow up video again, because I know that it's so easy to share the sensational thing, and because I know that if I'm going to eat my cro I'm gonna do it in full display in front of everyone, that the right thing for me to do is delete that. And so it wasn't. I didn't delete it out of embarrassment or trying to
hide it or anything. I'm here owning it. And yeah, and now.
Watch with my mics from head borders behind in the.
If you're just tuning into civic side around your host Ramsay's joh he calls me q ward and so does my mom. This indeed another one and owners formerly and soon to be again dj q woard my hope. We'll see how that goes. And uh, if you're just tuning in, you missed some real heavy stuff, Emil I did not enjoy, but you know it was very necessary for me to eat. But we're also going to talk about, believe it or not, some more video. We're gonna talk about what we'll get
to that video, but basically policeman misconduct. So, like I said in the beginning, it's an interesting show we're going to have because you know, this is our lens into a lot of the practices that we're seeing that we don't agree with, that we know happened and so forth. So we're going to talk about a video out of Atlanta made it to us by way of Ti Tip Tip King of the South. Yeah, the kang my man. We're also gonna talk about Bob Moses recently passed away.
We're gonna spend our way Black History fact talking about him and just shine a little bit of light on his life, but also want to share some stories about meeting Jesse Jackson that was pretty cool. And I also want to talk about our Native brothers and sisters. So we're gonna spend our bob Ba section kind of giving
a little light to that. So what happened? I believe it was last episode we finally finally got around to talking about the bodies of the Native children that were buried and all at all of these schools, and we talked about how in Arizona, where we live, there is an actual street called Indian School Road. It's a major road if you haven't been Arizona, and there is in fact an Indian School there, and so it just made
sense for us to talk about that. So, without further ado, let's get into the bah Bah section of the show. And this time we're gonna highlight someone on Instagram by the name of the Consciously at the conscious Lee if you want to check them out, And let's go ahead and listen to what he has to say.
For what So they was telling us about Native Americans have a band? You think it was?
It was worse.
So people are from California, right, Did you know that in California it was legal to kill Native Americans. Not only was it legal, it was profitable. You literally can get paid per head of the Native you killed. Over sixteen thousand Native Americans was killed in cold blood during the whole Gold Rush thing. This happened from eighteen forty six to eighteen seven one. What was happening to the Natives was so bad it didn't even have a word to describe it.
Oh, it ain't just California.
Y'all Ever seen a map of the US with just the Native tribes? Y'all see them a little word right there?
Those are tribes you've never heard of.
When I was younger, I remember a Native American elder telling me something that threw me all over all. He said, I give thanks for your ancestors, because without your ancestors, I probably wouldn't be here today. That's when I realized whatever we'd be in told it nothing close to how bad it really was.
All right, So if you didn't know that, now you know. But the reason I really wanted to illuminate that is because if you couldn't tell, and I know you couldn't see him, but he's black and he took the time to share space with his native brothers and sisters, which is the energy that we try to emanate on this show and the energy that we feel you should keep in your own life as well. And if you feel like kind of going down that rabbit hole and really
educating yourself, I employ you to do so. Do me a favor and check out the hashtag land back and yeah, educate yourself. I'm sure all of our native brothers and sisters would appreciate you doing so. So that's our bah bah segment for the day and how to become a better ally. Now let's get to this next video. This one is tough, so why don't you describe the video?
Cube?
There is a young lady who has been apprehended for reasons I don't know. I did not read further into the story of the how or the why she was in the position that she was in. But even if she is absolutely guilty of whatever she's being charged with, or for whatever reason they have her subdued and laying on her belly on the ground, she did not deserve to be kicked in the face by the officer who she was not resisting, fighting, defending herself from, or anything else.
Because a lot of times that people like to ask questions about, like you said, the part of the story that we didn't see, we did not need to see more footage of this to know that she didn't deserve to be kicked in the face with the toe of a hard bottom shoe. It's probably a still tee, yeah, while being subdued, apprehended, or arrested by the police officers.
So this is this sort of video that we're going to have to describe. Fortunately, it's a very short video. If you like again, you can check out I think it's trouble Man at Troubleman if you're on Instagram and just trouble manreorty one. There you go and find the video. It doesn't it's kind of a graphic video. We don't really like to We don't want to normalize people brutalizing black bodies. We don't want to become numb to that, and so that we did not share that video. It's
it's as disturbing as you can imagine. A couple of interesting things about this video is, as Q mentioned, it's really hard to imagine there being more to the story that would warrant this woman being handcuffed. She was handcuffed when she was kicked in the face, face down, not standing nothing. And of course, if you listen to the first half of the show, you recognize that. We understand that sometimes weird as it seems, videos don't tell the
whole story. And so I tried to imagine, like did she spit on him or you know, and the truth is, even if she did, it doesn't her being kicked in the face is not a fair response. If someone is handcuffed, belly down on the ground and they're spitting, you can just walk away from that, you know. I happen to know that if you kick someone in a fight when
they're on the ground, that actually is attempted murder. That you can be tried for attempted murder for kicking someone, and he kicked her in the face, so it's hard to argue that that's not what that is, and that plus spitting is not the same thing. Right, And here we see, you know, based on our initial reaction to the video, and I do believe the officer and the other officer that was standing next to him were both suspended.
I do remember seeing something like that. Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but I do remember seeing something like that. Anyway, it's the most disturbing, disgusting abuse of power that you can imagine, you know. Just okay, let's take away for a second the police officer. Let's take away the protecting and serving and you know, the good guys, and you know all that the whatever, Let's take all that away. Let's just look at two human beings, right,
that are on two different sides of an issue. Right. One of them is female. And I don't mean to ever in my life suggest that that means anything more than she simply has less testosterone in her body. Based on my understanding of females versus males, I do recognize
there's a spectrum. I'm not trying to say anything about it of that, but my understanding is that females have less testosterone overall than men do, and testosterone makes you way stronger, and knowing that someone has less testosterone than you often makes them less of a threat, provided there are no weapons involved.
Coupled with the idea that and this is something that you'll notice immediately if and when you see this video. This officer, the male officer is a very large male. Sure, so all of the and again, I know it's very difficult to articulate this, and I mean no offense to anyone who's you know, identifies how they identify.
Promise I love you. This is a space for you, and I love you. But you know, I have to tell the story the best I know how and I'm still learning. So if it's not good there, it's not good enough, just help me. But I promise, I mean no offense to anyone. But yeah, like you said, the officer doesn't appear to be threatened, you know. And again, we're just talking about humans, so let me not call him an officer yet, just a human, a larger male
who is fortified with this testosterone you know. You know, my understanding is that you know, typically if you're going to fear for your safety, that fear is going to come from interacting with another male, not from interacting with a female, unless there's a weapon involved or something like that.
But the level of strength needed to take down a man of his size, you know, I don't imagine his mind, would you know, But even if it did, she was handcuffed, face down on the ground in the most docile of you know, or maybe docile is not the right word, but.
Even if she was fuming angry, sure from that position there was nothing she could do to harm.
There you go. And so I think that the reason what I saw in this video was entitlement was the knowledge that what I do will not have consequences. And that's something that goes almost hand in hand with every video that we see.
And because of what I do, you're beneath me.
Sure I'm right and you're wrong. That's it. We're not too humans. I'm a better type of human than you, and I can do what I want and you're just gonna have to take it. I'll take a few of your teeth out of your mouth. What are you going to do? Other than bleed in front of me, you know. And it's that attitude that has contributed to this deep mistrust of black and brown people, especially with the police, but also with people in general.
And you know what stood out to me when I watched the video that the second time, because the first time he just kick turn the face, Oh my god, right, the second time was the lack of reaction from the other officers. That's why they weren't like shocked. They wasn't like, oh my god, what did you do? They were just chilling like that was a normal day at the office for them. Sure, and that was very disturbing.
So it's this unusual behavior from the people that you're supposed to look up to, right this it's bully is not the right word, you know, bullies. You know, you can have a bully and live again, that's a tempted murder.
And what are we not pointing out? We've highlighted this before, but we haven't mentioned it yet today. Tell me or did you already tell me? Mentioned that the officers were black. Oh, I was getting there. I was getting there, and I like that you brought it up. I wouldn't dare not bring that up. Oh, No, we're going to get there because that's super duper important to a point that we've
made before. Go ahead, nick it It is far less about the color of the officer's skin, tell you more about the idea that they're a police officer.
There. It is because you mentioned earlier that you having.
A relationship with an officer and him seeing the human being in you, and that being really why that bridge was built. It'd be too much to ask for all of the officers to get to know the human being in every person they interact with. That also shouldn't be necessary. You shouldn't have to have spent intimate time with me to allow me dignity to allow me to be a person that's worth not kicking in the face. Sure, no matter what thing we agreed on, even if we just
finish fighting, right, say they got in a fight. Maybe that's the part of the video. We don't see it, right, they had a fisticuffs and we didn't see it. Sure, she's still already laying on her belly, face down, subdued. So that kick in the face was. I feel like it, and I can not.
I need to not.
I'm afraid not. I'm defending myself not even you deserved it. I feel like it, and I can. And to his colleagues, he feels like it and he's can because none of them even like reached out like, oh man, what you're doing? Like no, he just got it off. Nobody moved any different. There was no reaction of any kind from the other officers that were there.
With that said, you know, like if you if, I mean, I really recognize that. There's most for the most part, two pools, two schools of thought. Right. One is, there needs to be police reform. The police are they need to be defunded. We need to take those funds and create programs that actually prevent crime and not fortify this terrorist organization that lives with us, that has the right to operate with impunity and it's actively harming us and
killing us. And then there's the other school of thought, which is perhaps largely folks who are not at the receiving end of the brutality. They have been able to look at the police like they're the good guys, and you know, the way the police move reflects their worldview, and if the police do something wrong, then it's just cognitive bias, you know, who knows. But if we assume for a second that there's large For the most part,
there's two schools of thought. I recognize that a lot of people who are listening to this show might agree with us, you know, and that hey, this is clearly the problem. These people have too much authority, there's no accountability. And you know, these folks are you know, roided up, aggressive bullies with a badge and a gun. Right. And then again, I'm not talking this is not a black and white issue because again, the officer that kicked the woman in the face was black, right, But I do
want to say this from where I sit. The woman on the ground, she looked black too, And that's what the conversation we're having, and that was a white woman, We're having a whole different conversation. We're not even having a convers because it wouldn't happen. Yeah, there it is.
And that second school of thought, I wish it were more authentic, because even if I disagree with it, I could respect it. Right that the good guys as long as their ideology is in line with mine. If it's not, then they don't matter either, because we've learned that in recent times. Talk more about capital riot. Yeah, we'll talk more about that, but they've made that clear. As long as it's you know, as long as we're in this
school of white supremacy, then yes, by all means. But if we try to get off our white supremacy and they're in the way, then I guess those blue lives don't matter as much as we said before.
Isn't that weird? It's it's there's and you know, we haven't really gotten too deep into the political arena in recent episodes, but you know, I'll just say it because I have been observing it. The Republican Party. You know, if we're going to take this step, the Republican Party really looks like they're just doing things because they've committed to this direction and they can't abandon it now. I saw a video they refuse to yeah, And I saw a video that said it was in our group chat,
I want to say. And it was a Trump rally, and all the people that were going into this Trump rally, this was a recent Trump rally, like in the past like week or so. All the people going into this Trump rally were saying no masks.
Aggressively, yeah, like they were happy to be and speaking to someone that was wearing one.
Isn't that funny. But here's the crazy part. That's a function of the Tucker Carlson's, the Fox News, the right wing, the Donald Trump, the Donald Trump of course, and the
whole entire Republican Party's ideology. You know, they're just like, hey, look, this is who we are and this but it completely ignores the fact that if you look at the numbers, not even talking about the delta variant of the coronavirus, but if you look at the numbers, I believe it's sixty sixty percent of Republicans are not vaccinated and will not be vaccinated or something like that. Don't hold me
to it, but there's some huge amount of folks. And then obviously on the Democratic side of things, it's the opposite of that. This is whay I remember seeing the study again. I'm just having the conversation here. Don't hold me to the exact numbers.
But.
The people that are dying from COVID, it's like ninety five or ninety seven percent, Yes, some regardulous high, it's a high number. All of the people that are dying from COVID are the people who are unvaccinated. So to me, that suggests that there is a problem. They're actively losing voters because they refuse to abandon this position the leadership.
And the leadership pushing that agenda and preaching that ideology. Check their vaccination record, Yeah, and that was gonna say that, Tucker Carson, Donaldroll. People are vaccinated, so they're not going to die. But they recognize that it galvanizes their base. And so you know, back to our point here that you know, as long as people will I mean that this base will support you know, back the blue and all that sort of stuff, as long as it suits
them in their immediate reality. And they're here now, right, And I feel.
Like it looks like if I take a step back and I look at just the world from you know, the criminal justice system to you know, the whole political arena, to you know, their take on race relations, the whole right conservative, it looks like a flailing like uh, like a desperate child just throwing a temper tantrum for the sake of throwing a tantrum with no real desired outcome other than to make them hurt more.
And you have a base that doesn't require there to be an actual political agenda. We've seen that it can just be hate and fear mongering. That's that, and that it works.
That's enough their pep rallies.
Let's just go out here and be excited and loud and mad and make jokes about them whoever they are, and have a different ideology or a different train of thought than they do.
Listen. I went on vacation recently with someone who I wouldn't call her a fan of capitalism, but she is very good at articulating the merits of capitalism, right, And I don't read with all of them, and she doesn't agree with, you know, everything that I say. I'm more of a socialist type of guy, I believe, you know. But you know, I've benefited from capitalism, so I'm not mad at it for me, but you know, for the world,
I recognize it's caused a lot of harm. Right. So it's we have conversations in a very weird space, and you know, we were on vacation together, so we spent a lot of time together fleshing out these ideas. And the one thing that I took from that is that if you're on a different of a different opinion, you're you think about things differently from me. As long as you can articulate them and you offer solutions or a path forward or there's this is why I think that,
because I believe it leads to this outcome. Oh, it's so much more well received. I can learn so much from that. And you might even be right, I mean about some things and there. But there doesn't always have to be a right and wrong again, Yeah, it could just be different. Right.
We can both believe different things that are not zero sum in ideology, right, like us both believing this thing. Neither one of us has to be objectively wrong, and we can keep going forward next to each other, loving each other, sharing exact ideas and life and laughter.
And so with that said, I don't really get the sense that any of our friends on the right really have those things very often. If they do, they certainly don't take the time to articulate them. And it just feels like saying no for the sake of no. Saying no not because you have a better idea, like that's not going to work well.
What we're saying no because you want yes specifically, or you want them to have a no, you know what I mean.
It's like a kid saying you know, if you want to play with a kid's toy and they're like, no, it's mine. We're not even playing with it, I know, but it's mine. Well, I mean, listen that these are meant to be played with. Well this one is mine. Okay, well listen, you know, you know, and that's just it. That seems like that sort of mean.
But you're three, so I can rock with that. Yeah, if you're an adult three, it's different.
Trying sixty three seventy three these guys anyway, you know, just our thoughts on another video of an officer kicking a woman in the head, handcuffed, and you know why we're able to be critical of policing not necessarily along the lines of race only, although we do.
Know that, well, the victims all seem to be the same color, yeah, right, with the same racers.
And I think that's more telling of even if the officers are different. And again, I think that's more telling of the system in place. It's a white supremacist system. It's founded in white supremacist roots. If you do want to find out the history of slave putre rolls in the word patrol where it comes from, you know, then you can, you know, find that we're telling the truth that does have its history there, and we will continue to bring attention to these things as long as it
makes sense to do so. But that is enough of that for now. I think it's time to check in with DJ Swirlift.
And pay trip Way Way.
We are highlighting civil rights leader Bob Moses, who passed away recently at the age of eighty six. He's a soft spoken, self effacing grassroots organizer, the champion black voting rights.
He was born and raised in Harlem, New York. He went to the South to join the nascent fight for civil rights in the early nineteen sixties, ultimately becoming a central figure in the movement. As a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and deeply segregated in Mississippi, Moses work to hand political power to black people voting education
and voter registration drives. He continued to push education to the forefront of the civil rights agenda when in the eighties he founded the Algebra Project, a math training program focused on empowering students from underfunded public schools and poor communities. May his light continue to guide us as we face another way of Jim Crow Laws.
This is coming from NPR dot Org incredible.
The timing of his passing is impossible not to mention it as our country is trying once again to deny us the rightalien how you say, the wind alienable rights. They're going out of their way to deny us in that way once again. So the timing of his passing a giant in that space. He will be missed, he will be hopefully very respectfully remembered. We need more people like him.
I want to take this time to mention that there's going to be a March for Voting Rights. It should be in all the cities, but it's going to take place on August twenty eighth, twenty twenty one. And if you want to find out what's going on in your city, you can check march on for Voting Rights dot org and register or organize or whatever it is you can do. So that's another Bob Bob become a better ally again.
That's march on for Voting Rights dot org because we're all gonna get out in the streets and let our voices be heard so that we don't lose our right to vote. And you know that might sound alarming to you, but the truth is you personally might not lose your right to vote. But there are people in circumstance answers who feel the same way you do, would vote the same way as you, and their vote would help strengthen
your voice because you know their strength in numbers. And they will be disenfranchised because either they can't get off of work and make it to the poll, or they you know, they have a condition they can't stand out in the sun, or they you know, whatever the case is. And these little weird laws that people are enacting are
meant to disproportionately affect Democratic voters. Some Republican voters will be affected by it as well, but typically the way voting works in this country is the less people that turn up to vote, the more it favors Republican outcomes. And so you know, we have to say we want everybody to vote Republican or Democrat. But I think you kind of know what we're getting at on this show.
I mean, I find it ironic when it's time to vote, the people who are on TV saying get out and vote, they're not saying get out and vote Democrat. They're not saying get out and vote for this agenda. They're just simply saying get out and vote. None of those people are Republican and everyone should find that alarming.
Well, you know, I think it was I forget. His name is the filmmaker bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore. I want Michael Moore from the great state of Michigan. There it is shout out to the d One time he offered up a fun fact once upon a time, and he said that, you know, most of the people in this country, their beliefs are aligned with Democratic values more so than Republican values. By far most of the people in this country. Just the voting turnout doesn't reflect that,
and so again when they are less Democratic voters. You know. But I do want to mention something about Bob Moses and really something that was a little bit more personal. So again, you know, uh, you know, he lived a long life full of service, and we're certainly grateful for that. You know, we obviously on this show are trying to follow in those types of footsteps, and we're very grateful to the people that have come before us and recognize
that this is not a permanent position. We don't get to last in this space forever, and that there are folks who will come behind us, and hopefully we'll be able to you know, Blazer trail for them as well. And it's funny that I was able to have a conversation earlier in the week with you. Wouldn't believe me
if I told you Reverend Jesse Jackson. Yeah, man, So you know, he flew out to Arizona and you know, was arrested at a sit in, and you know, don't worry everything, you know, because those who knows that he's aged might alarmed at that, but you know, it's more of a It was organized, and so while it was very real, it was no one was hurt. You know, there's a lot of cameras there and so forth. But before and after his arrest, I got a chance to talk with him just a little bit and to listen
to him talk. You know, he speaks very low his voice, but you know, I tried to catch every word, as you can imagine, because it's energizing to have someone who was standing next to Martin when he lost his life, you know, you know on the balcony, and who has such he ran for president twice, you know, almost one, you know, and just the name, I mean, you know who we're talking about Jesse Jackson, but you know, he
certainly was very kind. You know, we did manage to get at least one halfway decent picture together, but you know, he was very kind. He was very proud of the fact that, you know, we're doing the show and trying to create more of a voice in spaces like this and spaces like the ones that you're listening to right now and whatever radio station or platform that you're consuming
this audio on. And it was it was energizing. And you know, I don't know if he would catch our show this time around, but you know, I'm certainly grateful
to that. And it really did kind of because he talked about you know, passing the torch and then seeing him and seeing that he's aged and that you know, he was still out there marching and doing his thing, but you could tell that, you know, you know, father time comes for all of us, right, and that we need to be thinking about that and all the things
that we do. And so if we're going to shout out Bob Moses, I certainly want to take the time to acknowledge that Reverend Jesse Jackson spent a little bit of time with me and encouraged us to keep going and keep doing what we're doing, and so I certainly plan to continue in that way. I also want to shout out doctor Camilla Westenberg, who's a contributor on the show from time to time, and the whole NAACP was out there that really helped put me into that position
to be able to have that conversation. And I think that's about it. That's all we're gonna have for today's episode. So with that in mind, once again, i'm your host, rams is job. You can call me q Ward. We do appreciate you tuning in every week and listening to us. Hopefully we're making the world a better place and if not that we're making your world a little bit better. We would love to continue to do this and we'd love for you to tap in and help us out.
So if you can check out our social media, it's all at Civic Cipher. You can go to Civic cipher dot com and download this in all previous episodes, and also consider making a donation to the show. It really helps us grow. Show produced by DJ Swirl, and I think that's going to do it for us. So until next week, y'all. Peace,