Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host, ramses Ja.
He is Ramsy's Jaw. I am q Ward. You are tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes you.
Are, and we have a what I believe to be an educational show in store for you today. A lot to talk about, the first of which is we're going to spend the first part of the show discussing Tyree Nichols once again, specifically the fact that the police have come clean about the final moments of Tyree Nichols's life. For those who need a quick refresher, Tyry Nichols was the young man who was you know, he was a skateboarder. He went back and forth from San Francisco or the
Bay Area to Memphis. He got pulled over for no real reason that we now have confirmed from the officers, and he was beaten to death on video, maybe a couple of blocks from his mom's house, you know, screaming in terror or his life. And obviously he lost his
life at the hands of police. So we're going to actually get into the story where the police finally have come clean about why they pulled him over, what they did to him, why they did it to him, et cetera, and give you a glimpse into policing as specifically policing as an institution, not as a racialized necessarily institution, because policing in and of itself it needs more than reform, because indeed, these officers that be Tyree Nichols to death
were black. And the second part of the show, we are going to spend some time dissecting a video that we came across online that has us re examining a narrative that exists about whether or not black people were kidnapped or sold into slavery. And the short answer is both. But I got to give you all that and so much more. But before we get there, it's time for some Ebony excellence.
Shall we. I think you should take this one. You'd like it, Okay. This week's Ebony Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com. This is from the Sacramento Observer. Ardrica Appleweight was selected to serve as the new Director of Black Media at the White House she's committed to ensuring equality for black journalist.
Although she's only been in the position for about three months, the young director has championed inclusive efforts, creating new ways for black press to connect with the White House. Quote. I think the future of black press is a self fulfilling prophecy between the things that we're doing and the
policy things that are happening here. And then you bring in press that is specifically talking to an audience that are looking for that information and quote Appleweight explained as audience continued to consume that it allows me to go back and say I need more time with X, X and X, because look at the interests were getting. Appleweight as a native of Carrollton, Georgia, and a graduate of
George Washington University, where she majored in political science. Noting that she was always interested in politics, the young scholar grew up participating in debate teams and with dreams of attending law school. It wasn't until she arrived in the nation's capital that she realized there were so many career
choices she could pursue with the political science degree. After working with Pete Budhachic, she served as senior communications as adviser for the Michigan Democratic Party and joined the campaign team that supported the twenty twenty two reelection of Governor
Gretchen Whitmer. The season communication expert returned to d C following the successful campaign in Michigan, and she was working with communications firms until the White House called, offering her the opportunity of a lifetime and we had the opportunity to meet this champion for all of us. And to say she was impressive in that we were blown away, I'd say is an understatement.
Absolutely, And that's why I thought you'd get a kick out of absolutely. I know you didn't know that she was going to be bless all right, So the cops come clean about murdering Tyree Nichols. Okay, So I'm going to share a little bit from NBC News because there's a lot here, and I employ you to take a look at this. But what you're going to see is, you know, there's a popular narrative and I believe that
there is a lot of truth to it. You know, white cops policing in black communities, you know, the racial component there, the lack of cultural awareness and cultural empathy and cultural understanding can lead to outcomes that are that disproportionately negatively affect black people. You give white officers the power and they don't understand. They're not culturally competent when
it comes to black people. They're afraid quote unquote. You know, we discuss how black skin is viewed as criminal often enough to non black white people, officers will just speak plainly. But you know, in this instance, we're dealing with black officers. So what we do is we get to remove race as a factor and we get to just look at police policing and we're able to see some of what happens behind the scenes with just police policing because race, again is not necessarily a factor here.
Well, I don't know that race isn't a fact.
Tyree Nichols is still black, yes, oh yeah, that part.
And disproportionately, the victims of police violence there this level, to this extreme, to a fatal extreme, are often black, poor, Hispanic, black and brown people more specific.
That's a better way to say it.
Race absolutely plays a part. It just shows that once you are indoctrinated with what it means to be a police officer in this country, your race doesn't matter as much. As that system that you've become a part.
There you go. That's what I was trying to say. Good jobs. That's perfect, okay, So let me read a little bit just to bring you up to speed. It's from NBC News. A former police officer testified Tuesday that he removed his body camera after he punched Tyree Nichols at least five times and kicked him four times. Quote. I didn't want it to show what we were doing. Quote Emmitt Martin, I told a federal jewelry in the trial of the of three former officers charged in the
beating of Nichols, who died three days later. Martin, who initiated the traffic stop against Nichols, said in federal court Monday that Nichols never posed a threat and that officers downplayed their own actions during the encounter on January seventh, twenty twenty three, which led to Nichols's brutal beating. Martin, who has already pleaded guilty, said that Nichols ran away shortly after he was pepper sprayed, but that he caught up with him. Several officers were all right there. Quote
I ran in and assisted, and I kicked him. Martin told the court, adding that his actions were deliberate and inconsistent with Memphis police policy. Quote. I was angry. I was already angry that he ran from the first stop, Martin said, referring to the traffic stop that set off the encounter. Martin said he punched Nichols at least five times and kicked him four times, and then stood by and watched former officers Justin Smith and Tadarius Bean beat Nichols.
Martin said he lied to a supervisor that Nichols was high and threw a punch at him. Martin said in court that his punches were deliberate and inconsistent with Memphis police policy, and that they did not serve a legal purpose. He added that Nichols was helpless. All right. Now, Again, as I mentioned, this is a much longer article than that, but there are some key things to jump out, and I want to get your thoughts, your acubes. So first off,
he disconnected his body cam. Does that sound like a story that you've covered on this show before?
Sadly yes?
Okay, So another question, why do you suspect a police officer would intentionally hide, obscure, disconnect, turn off their body their body Cam.
Well, typically we have to figure that out ourselves. In this case, the officer says it in the story, I didn't want people to see what we were doing.
Very good.
He knew that it was not only cruel but illegal and did not want to be held accountable, which tends to be the case not just for specific officers, but for the unions that represent them as well.
Excellent, Now I want to go on. Now, this officer, Emmitt Martini, said that Nichols never posed a threat and that officers downplayed their own actions during the encounter. Have we covered stories have you encountered stories on this show or really anywhere where an officer downplayed their actions in a police brutality type of situation.
The sad thing is that, of course, and this story, we could just see switch out the names and just copy and paste this story every show, Yeah, every single one. Yeah.
Okay. So one of the things that I didn't get to in the article, and I just remember reading it there, is that this officer, Emmett Martin, the IID what he did was he he was upset, angry because he hadn't made any arrests that night. Okay, he saw Tyree Nichols driving a little fast. I think that's exactly what his words were. He was driving a little fast and he didn't signal a laye change or something like that, and then decided to pull him over and then call for backup,
escalating it to a felony stop. He already said he was angry and he wanted to find somebody to take out his frustration on. He was looking for somebody to arrest, right, And so this was in the article. Again, you're welcome to read it NBC News. Just you know, search Tyree Nichols and perhaps the most recent article will come up and you'll be able to see everything that we're discussing here.
So what that to me says is that, you know, we always talk about bullies, and you know, bullies are the sort of people that find people who they can pick on, people that they have they can exact some control.
Over people they perceive to be weaker, smaller, powerless.
Okay, And when you're a police officer, that's everybody, that's everybody exactly, but you are further divorced from potential consequences if indeed the everybody that that you choose to bully is from a marginalized community specifically black man, because police tend to as as you put maybe it was last episode or the episode before, they can connect black skin with criminality very easily. Indeed, and not just the police, this is the this is them. They'll sell that narrative to the public.
The public will accept that narrative, and that's the that's the part that's most important. There are segments of our population that also see it that way, including other black people.
So watch this. This man admits that Tyrie Nichols was not high, and that Tyrie Nichols did not throw a punch.
And that essentially he was never a threat. I think literally never a threat.
Now, let me ask another question. When we dissect these types of stories on our show, do you feel that it's possible for some officers to get off some of their lies in defense of themselves because they feel that there's a chance that they can ultimately be exonerated, and therefore, because it came from an officer, the public just accepts it. Well, he's through the first punch, or they didn't stop, they didn't obey a legal command, or they were acting erratic,
or you know, I feared for my own safety. Is it possible? Is it conceivable that some of these officers are outright lying. Indeed, like this officer is doing right here.
Well, it's right here, he's telling the truth. Well yeah, But initially they lie, and it's not just conceivable, it's often the case, especially when the things that they lie about don't even have to justify the end or the outcome. He didn't pull over when we first let him up, He swerved a little bit. He had a gun. Even it's not illegal to have a gun. Yeah, right, this is the Second Amendment for people, right, So the possession of the firearm also shouldn't render a person deceased at
the end of their interaction with you. So not only do they often lie, not only is it conceivable and likely happens far more than is reported, because when the other person in the story is no longer with us, they can't give you their side of the story. Sure, the officer's account of what happened is not just readily accepted, it is the only piece of information that we have. But the interesting thing is even in those lies, like I said, he threw a punch at me, that still
doesn't justify that person no longer being with us. So it's they've The society that accepts these narratives are also the reason that that sense of quote unquote fear. And you know, I don't like using that word because I
think it's just an excuse for hate. The same society that's saying we shouldn't have bump stocks banned, you shouldn't have to go through a background check to get a gun, everyone should have a gun, are the same people that are saying the police are justified in killing people because their job is hard and they were afraid. Well, which
is it. Should we make their job less hard and more safe so that they shouldn't have to be afraid that every person they pull over might have a weapon and might not be right mentally and might shoot them because everybody can get a gun, any kind of gun, whenever they want, Like, it's hard to ask for both things to be true when we as a society are the ones perpetuating the circumstances, the scary circumstances that we're putting these trained officers in.
Me. I want to back up a little bit because you said some really important stuff. I just want to emphasize a point that you made for the benefit of our listeners. When you were talking about the officer lying in the initial report, saying that Tyree Nichols threw a punch right, And of course the question was is it conceivable that an officer would lie. There's so many people that look at stories like this and they say, well, that's just a handful of officers. So that's just in Memphis.
That's not all of the no q Ward and Ramsey's Jah covered these stories across the country every single week. We've been doing the show for four years, every week, and we got them from Mississippi to California, to New York, to Florida to where's this place? Memphis, South Dakota. I remember that story.
And the narrative that we're left with, and this is Ramsy's favorite narrative. It's just a few bad apples, man, listen. And the really interesting thing about that is that there is no system in place for those few good apples.
Who come try to actually bring about.
Help in any way to keep the bad ones in line. You're not just made out to be a pariah, but you put yourself in actual danger.
Let me let me add something right here. When people say a few bad apples, what they're what they're saying to me is that they are only aware of a few bad stories. But you and I deal in data, and so we can see the data, and the data says that it's not a few bad apples. It's a corrupt white supremacist system, even with black people at the forefront of it, like these officers that beat Tyree Nichols
to death. Now back to my point, them lying about saying that he threw a punch at them so that they could justify their subsequent actions beating him to death is bogus. But it reminds me of the many videos that you and I watch on this show where a person is clearly not resisting and there's four or six officers taking one human being down, yelling stop resisting as they punch him and drag him and man handle him
and whatever. Stop it. He clearly cannot resist or otherwise clearly is not resisting.
Or cannot stop resisting. If by resisting they mean trying to learn to not be unlive.
Yeah, like you know, it's it's the wildest thing, but you know, the stop resisting thing is another the other side of that coin. Oh, he threw a punch. Okay, So first off, that's a lie, just like the stop resisting thing is a lie. It's just something that they say for the benefit of the videos. And then they go back and they get their lawyers to look at it and they find an angle that NOBE can see and say, oh, he had his his hand that was
tucked behind him. He actually used that and pinched my belly button and I didn't know what it was, so I had to punch him.
Yeah, there should be a more severe consequence for lack of bodycam footage. Oh yeah, and this is what There was an auto minimum punishment for not having the body cam on and make it severe like ten years. Yeah, they would all have it on whatever disconnect their body.
Can there would be less instance.
And if they did, oh that's your bad, sir. Someone there should have had bodycam on, right, And instances where there's more than one officer and there's no body cam footage minimum charge.
Yeah. Remember the Tyree Nickels stuff we saw from street camera footage. So all these officers were doing the same thing. And this is what I mean. Systems, A few bad apples, come on, all right, let me give you a summary of everything else. Okay, So I read a lot of messed up things about the police, okay, and again to know that this was a black officer shows that it's a police issue with black and brown bodies, not a
white people's issue with black and brown bodies. Only this officer, Emmitt Martin I, admitted to taking his body cam off, admitted to kicking and punching Tyree Nickels several times, and the kicks and punches did not serve for legal purpose. Sorry about that. He admitted Tyree Nichols posed no threat and that he only ran because he had been pepper sprayed. He admitted that Tyree Nichols was helpless, as the officer, saying this after he pleaded guilty, came clean about it all.
This is rare that we get the chance to say, I told you so. I've been telling you the whole time, been telling you for years. CU's been telling you for years. The officer admitted there were no warrants. He admitted that he downplayed the officer's actions and that he lied about Nichols being high and attempting to throw a punch at the officers. He said it was standard for members of the Memphis Police Department Anti violence team to keep quiet
about using force. This is all a matter of public record, now, okay. The officer said he was angry because he hadn't made an arrest yet. He noticed Nichols driving a little fast as a traffic light was turning red and saw him changing lanes without signaling and radioed other officers to make it a felony stop. This officer also had a history of violence, which we talked about last week with the football player to help help me with his name, Tyreek Hill,
Tyreek Hill. With officers having a history of violence that are never held accountable, so did this officer. Emmitt Martin the third. His history of a violence included once emptying a full can of pepper spray on a suspect. I want to say that again. Suspect innocent until proven guilty, right, That's what the criminal justice says, you know, is the case in this country.
But in this case, he's already saying the kid didn't do anything. There was no warrant, there, he was no threat. He didn't like so even using the term suspect in this case, they weren't investigating something that happened that they weren't present for. This officer initiated the stop phoned in other officers and intentionally instigated the situation to end up in this young man's death.
Now, this guy's nickname, you know, back to his history was full Can. They called this officer Emmitt Martin the third Full Can because his history included him once emptying a full can of pepper spray on a suspect. It just blows my mind. And again, if this was an isolated incident, or this was something that we talked about a little bit here and there, you know, over the amount of years that we've discussed issues like this, you have to be honest with yourself that this is indeed
a systemic issue. This isn't isolated incidents. He says that we protect each other. He says that this is standard protocol for us to keep quiet about using force. And you can read this article. You don't even have to read the article. It's this is what he said in court. It's public record. It's not just you don't need a journalistic source. You can go right to the source, right. And the crazy thing about it is that the police
will always find an excuse to your earlier point. Q. Once upon a time, I might have shared this on this show before, but Once upon a time, I got pulled over by the police on a freeway okay, And I had a choice to pull over where it was safe or where it was unsafe and safe was a little further along. And because I chose I wasn't speeding, I wasn't a scared, but I chose to pull over where it was be safer for me and the officers just was a little further up the road, about a
quarter mile okay. The officers had to ride behind me with the lights on. They started beeping the horn, shouting whatever on the freeway driving low speed man. They pulled me out of that car, They handcuffed me, they called extra officers, all this sort of stuff. They searched the car, they searched me. I told him I had never done a drug, drank alcohol, nothing in my life. Never. They're like, yeah, that's exactly what a meth head would say. WHOA Okay,
well you know what I'm saying. And they were escalating this. Fortunately because I'm on the radio, they could one of the guys heard my name and he knew who I was and googled it, and it's like, okay, you guys, we got to back off. And then they treated me differently, but had I not been on a radio, that could have ended up any number of ways because of that bully mentality and then figuring out a way to escalate
a situation based off of nothing. I told them, that's why it's safer here for you and me, And unfortunately Tyree Nichols will never have that opportunity because he will never speak again because now he's buried in the ground. So that's that.