I'm Tamika d.
Mallory and the ship Boy my son in general.
We are your host of t M I.
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, New Name.
New Energy. What's going on, my son, Lennon?
You know, I'm Blessed Black and Holly Favorite.
Blessed Black and highly favorite. That is very, very very true.
You are, yes, you know, just finishing off a beautiful Father's Day with my young kings and you know, happy Father's Day to older fathers. I didn't even put up a Father's Day post on Father's Day. I was so busy, you know, being a father and doing so many different things. You know, as you know, I've been shooting the film. Shout out to my my brother Wally World, Wally Burgos, who is directing this film called Brainfast that's probably gonna
be a classic movie. I've been doing that for like the last couple of weeks, and we filmed for like the this last week, probably all day long.
And that had me.
Just running around crazy. And then actually on Father's Day early I went to a prison to a film was short, a short film that was powerful with a guy from from Newark. You know, shout out to him. His name is Bred, they call him Bread. He has he's working with a school, a film school, and he drew up a you know, a dope script and he wanted me to start in the script and it was a real
powerful script. So you know, I just did that. And then Father's Day with my kids, we went to the to the Snow, the snow.
If you haven't been to Big Snow in American Dream it's amazing.
Remember our listeners.
In New Jersey, Jersey. I think it's a sea caucuses right. It's right next to the MetLife Stadium.
You know.
It's the American Dreams, the American Dream Mall. They have all types of things. So we went to They wanted to do what do you call it snowboarding? Yes, and it feels like you in aspen in there. It's so cold in it.
You know. I go in there for a few seconds and then I just let them.
Bones old bone.
Yeah, my bones don't work. They hit their little tail bones and they was on fire yesterday. This is the first time I heard them like, yo, my tailbone, Yo, my tailbone is hurting.
They both was sore.
Is they give you like a two hour period that you can do everything you want to do. So it was good. It was a good event. Now today I'm about to head off. That's why I can't beat on this full episode. I'm sorry.
I know my listenersn gonna.
Miss me, but I gotta go do our program in Westside High School in Newark. Shout out to Principal Akbal Cook and the music teacher there, John Thompson Thomason, for allowing me to come here with this this music program that I created call from Drill Music to Hell Music, And today's gonna be our final presentation, which is a talent show in which we're gonna showcase two videos that they've created and music that they've created, and just talk
about what the program is. So I'm really excited to showcase what these kids have been really building on and you know, and just taking the concept that you know, I planted the seed and they just turned it into.
A whole forest.
Man. You know, I wanted to take the same energy that they have in Drill Music, the same beats and everything, but just change the message on it because we want that energy. We want the culture because obviously it's so than that attracts people.
But I just said we don't got to.
Kill and drill and spend the block and do all of that in every song. So I challenged them, and they met the challenge with flying colors, you know. And I'm really I'm eager to let the school. The school's gonna be there and they're gonna present. They're finished products at the school. So I'm eager to get over there and work with these kids. So we should have some
special guests come by. I ain't gonna say who they are yet until they come because you know, people's schedules mess up some of the some of the couple of them have confirmed that they're gonna be there, but they should be a dope evet.
That's great. And so for those folks who are listening, just to give the proper context for this until Freedom's Boycott Black Murder campaign has a program in West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, in which my son has been working with these young people for several months as a part of our Boycott Black Murder the efforts.
And so you know, we are around the country, spread around the country trying to as you said, plant seeds through our organization to help our young people redirect you know, and there's especially during this time when folks are talking so much about gun violence prevention and intervention. I feel like we are, you know, at until Freedom. I'm proud to say that the organization is really stepping up and ensuring that we are actively engaged with our young people,
and this program is a true testament to that. I give you all the kudos for being there with the students once a week for several months from the winter to the spring now leading into the hot heat, hot, hot, hot today summer. You've really been consistent with these young people. So it's a great thing. I mean, I'm I'm very proud of you and what you've been able to do.
Well.
I appreciate it. Man, I'm proud of these young boys.
And shout out to once again, shout out to the principal Cook who believed in the program and allowed us, you know fully much open door to come inside and build with these young men. And shout out to the you know, the the music teacher, coach t they call him. But he's an amazing guy and he really he really believes in the students. He loves music and he's passionate about it. So when you when you have when you put that all together, can't get nothing but something that's dope.
So I'm eager and I can't wait to just watch these kids just present what they created, like they shot the videos themselves.
You know, they created the beats themselves.
You know, we came up with concepts and you know, we did them all together, and there was even the people who weren't actually creating music had input into it. Everybody felt he was about the room of about fifteen to twenty of us and everybody was involved, you know, and they and they felt involved in it. So I'm just glad to see that, you know, a pretty much division I had.
In my head. Yeah, actually came to life. So cool.
That's awesome, awesome, awesome. I'm excited. I will not be there early to do the setup. The rest of the team will be there, but I'm coming as soon as I finished today. You know that Nigel Collins the case that happened in New in Atlanta, Georgia, in bucket at Fogo restaurant. This young man was shot with his hands
in the air, shot fifteen times. I had heard it was ten, but now I learned from being at a rally this week that he was shot fifteen times by police after a few calls about him being having a mental health crisis. Being in crisis, his mother had him set up to go to a program, and you know, she wanted to get the police to help her, to get him to the place where he could get help, and of course the police showed up and rather than helping him, they shot him to death. Yes, he had
a gun, but everybody in Georgia has a gun. So you know, it's interesting to me that now because people are, oh, well he had a gun, Well that's the law in Georgia that you can have a gun anybody. It's not much work that's being done to stop people from walking into a local gun store and purchasing a gun. They claim they have some screening, but clearly it's not enough. You can't no one can be one hundred percent certain
about when someone will have a manic episode. But nonetheless, there are many reasons why we need to have stricter gun laws. We need to ensure that people are not just walking around with weapons, especially when you have a police department that is not trained, nor do they care to be trained properly. In our communities to deal with the over influx of people who are carrying. So that's you know what. I'll be talking to attorney Gerald Griggs,
who's the president of the NAACP chapter. They're in Georgia in Atlanta. He's gonna come on and while, you know, and be a guest to just go through it. This happened two years ago. Everybody knew it. The district attorney knew what happened, the city knew and if they don't. If they didn't know, then that means the police department with hell the information. Of course, the video that they initially put out was a video that was slowed down.
This is a new tactic that they are using. Rather than just releasing all the footage of the videos, they put out little drips and pieces and they slow it down and edit highly edited, so that you can't see what happened. Now, two years later the full video was out and you see this young man in my judgment, being executed. It was an unnecessary approach. So today we'll be talking to Gerald Griggs about that.
Yeah, man, I think it was a tracity. Man when I forget saw it, you know, posted on my page and and everybody pretty much felt the same way. You know, there's no justification for what happened to that young man. You can tell. You could tell there was a level of fear that he had running from the police, and you know, based on what happened to him, his fear was justified. You know, it's it's just sad to see,
you know. I went to see mister Belafonte's, as we call him, mister Be's sort of a documentary called.
Susan Susanne Suzanne Lord right now, the last name escapes, but Suzanne made this documentary she created.
About him, and it was so it was so telling, and mister b said so many things and when I think about this case, what he said, first of all, it was an excellent documentary. You got to see it because you're in there, you know, with a good part. And he was saying and it's like you see him mentoring different, uh stages of the movement, right, you watch him mentor the Dream Defenders, you see him mentoring the Woman's March, you see him mentoring the Parkland people.
And then every time what he kept saying was.
What are you gonna do to capitalize on because the enemy is going to try to divide it, right, and there's going to be another Mike Brown, you might not think so now, And sure enough there was another Mike Brown. He said, there's gonna be another error Gardner, and he constantly told every person that he met with that he you know that he mentored in those moments that they would be another person.
And just hearing that was like wow.
You know, he had been through so many different levels and just constantly seeing the same thing happen over and over and were in a constant, repeated state of just being killed and there's really nothing changing, and it's just it's just sometimes it's disheartened, you know, And I feel a lot of us who are on this front line trying to get changed. But then when you actually see some level of change or you see some level of accountability,
like with George Floyd, gives you a little hope. But then once again this government would try to roll back everything. So it's crazy.
We're in a very well one of the things that I want to talk about. I was hoping that you and I would have time to discuss it, but I'll take this conversation my thought of the day over to Attorney Griggs. You know, I was looking at social media the other day and Ambrose has now become the biggest
Trump supporter ever. And I just listened to some of the things, or at least I read some of the things that she says, and their strategy, the right wing strategy is to play three car third, three car Molly with your mind. They move the pieces around so quick, and if you're not a certain type of person the way that we are, you'll miss it. You'll miss it.
And by the way, when I was young, I was on Bortham Road in the Bronx and New York City and my mom told me on my way out the door, do not play that three card game because you can win. Don't even play the game. And I think, as you said, the government will try to roll everything back. They are trying to every the fight that we had in twenty twenty. There is a backlash to that, and we are experiencing it right now where people are doing all that they can to one discredit and also so first of all
discredit us and our movements. But the next thing is that they are strategic enough to put PEP people in place to help them make new laws and to change the rules, so that we are in a vulnerable situation for many, many, many, many years to come. These people want to, I believe, you know, reinstitute the type of world that we know we cannot allow our children to
have to face. And a big part of why doctor King and others for so hard, and why we continue to fight so hard, is because we know we have such of a responsibility to protect our children from what the onslaught that they are up against. And I don't want the kids to look back at us and say, what do we do and why weren't we on the job, Why weren't we in the watchman's house? Why weren't we
making sure that we protect them? And now they have to fight to unravel, and God knows how that will even happen because the way in which Trump and them want to stack the courts and do all the things that they're doing. They're talking about institutional, systemic change. Take us back to a time that so many of our people fought and died to get us out of.
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right. We're in some very strange, peculiar times. I said, I said, I said, I said it. This morning, I was watching, like you said, I was watching in Barrows, and then I was watching in Detroit.
You know some.
Rappers, young rappers with Donald Trump and talking telling him how he's the only one who came to the hood.
And I was just a preacher.
Well the preacher was with the rappers.
The rappers to the preacher actually said he was the only one that came to the hood, but the rappers were there too, And I was just like, propaganda is so crazy. And that's one of the things that Mr B said. He said, they will, they will, they will nullify the movement, they will discredit it, they will do everything to combat it. You have a small window to
try to do something because they're going to come. And I watched how Black Lives Matter became the mantra of the world and then it became the most hated phrase. It is it is so much of a hey, when you say that word, it's it's a scam and this and that.
It was always and I just be looking like, where did you get that from?
Who made you believe that just the words black Lives matter is something negative? And it brings me also brings you back to Malcolm X said, who made you hate the color of your skin? Who made you hate the size of your nose or the texture of your hair, who made you think that? And you don't even know
who made you do it? Right, So when I'm having these conversations and they say black lives that sense, so prove it, you know, because they can't wait to throw They throw black people in jail for two hundred dollars. They locked themselves for two or three hundred dollars. If you in the office and you you you sign over a check, that's two hundred dollars that ain't supposed to go. They putting you in jail. As a black man, I know a bunch of black men facing that.
So what I'm trying to say is if if Black Lives Matter did.
Some with a one hundred meal, they can't wait to be able to pur walk these people, why they ain't in jail if it's the biggest game in the world, Like why not?
You know, nobody ever has an answer for that.
So, but it's just so it's so crazy how we allow them to trick us into believing there's something wrong with us, that we criminals.
Everyone it's the same playbook.
It's so it's so crazy that when you look from every leader, every movie we had, they did the same exact thing.
If you just study history. They did the same, exact the same shit.
Oh he stole, he did this, he's a criminal, He's not this, he's this the same bullshit.
Man. It's like when we're gonna when we're gonna wake up to it.
Yep, absolutely well, thank you, I'll see you soon, and you.
Will now tell Attorney Griggs that we're with him and I see my love and we're fighting for justice for Nigel Cullen face.
So our brother, Attorney Gerald Griggs is joining us today. I've already explained to you all this case that many of you are already aware of. The last several days last week at least have been extremely traumatizing for many people. In fact, I was getting calls from folks just around the country, people in Georgia, people who had just been
to the restaurant where Nigel Collins was killed. They've just been there days before the video was released that shows the horrific way in which his life was taken by
the police. And people are so frustrated with the idea that we have to continue to deal with this climate of police abuse that has gone unaddressed by most, if not all, if you will, of our elected leadership and I say all because while I do understand that there are many different layers and levels federal government, local government, you have people who are fighting really hard to get things like the George Floyd Justice and Police and Act
and other things passed. But at the end of the day, it hasn't and so we have to hold everybody accountable for how we get to the point where there are measures put in place to protect black lives. And I asked my friend, Attorney Jerald Griggs to join us. He has been the attorney for the family of Nigel Collins from two years ago when this incident first happened, all the way until today. Now. Attorney Griggs, my son, wanted to share his love with you and appreciation for you
being here. He wanted to send a firm statement to you that until freedom stands with you and we are there, as I mentioned to you today, is the You know, we're fighting on so many fronts on one hand, dealing with police accountability, on the other hand, with working with our youth. And we are running a program in Newark, New Jersey with some young people and one of the schools that has an extremely unfortunate number of violent incidents, fights, shootings,
you know, young people actually dying outside the building. Shootings have happened, and this principle is doing a hell of a job to work to turn that around. Principal Cook, he's a real guy from the community, and so he's working with my son and they have taken a group of students and stripped drill music from some of the beats. Some of it young people created their own. Some of it are you know, current beats that out there with popular drill songs. And they have now went from drill
music to heal music. And today is a concert before the entire school to showcase this project that they put together that includes art, I mean videos, It includes artwork, ipic work that they've done. It's just a great project. So he was unable to be here, but he said, if you're gonna have Griggs, you're gonna be all right. I can leave you in his hands.
I appreciate him, and you know, shout out to that program. We need more of that all throughout the country. So I understand, and you know, my sounds my brother, so our support. Whatever he's doing, he knows that he has our support down here in Atlanta.
So salute to him, Thank.
You, Thank you so much. So. First of all, first off, I did not do my Thought of the day in this program today, and I want to bring you into a conversation. It's not why I invited you. I wanted to talk about Nigel Cullins. However, you know I am. I am like you, pissed off with the current administration for a number of things. Aggravated, frustrated, sometimes hopeless, sometimes defensive. I mean, it's like it's almost like I'm in a
reoccurring nightmare where you're just like fighting the air. You don't know which way who to punch first. It's just it's like the ugly heads just popping up everywhere, and it is the most frustrating time I think for all of us. And I know you share the concerns around the current administration, the previous, the ones trying to get in. I mean, it's just a big landscape full of mess.
We know it, we see it, and I think we would be disingenuous as leaders, especially the types of people that are work with us, the people who expect us to lead, not to be honest and say this is a damning time in American history period, right, So you.
Share that, I share that as my brother and I think your brother, doctor William Barber always says, we're in a third reconstruction. So we wouldn't be leaders without telling people we are in one of those historical moments in history where if the good people don't stand up and speak truth to power, we're going to go backwards.
So we have to be honest.
This is the nineteen twenties all over again, nineteen thirties, nineteen forties, and we have to be honest.
With the people, absolutely, so we establish that. However, I know we also share an understanding that if we do not maintain some level of control over our government and we allow Donald Trump to become president, we ain't seen nothing yet, as the old folks said, right, ain't seeing nothing yet because this man is coming back and attempting to become president again with the vengeance. And I tell you,
let's just be honest. If you and I running our organizations and we are in a position of power, and for whatever demented reasons, we don't will never if we are anything like Donald Trump, will never accept all the reasons why the American people voted against you. But if you believe in your mind that somehow you were done wrong and you know and you need to return to power if you are a narcissist who is coupled with the racist, coupled with someone who wants fascism, We've seen it.
We know it's not what it's not what we think. We know what comes out of his mouth. We also watched him and the policies and the types of people that he put in place all around him when he was president and even since then, we know that if you, let's just be honest, if that was your personality, when you return to a place of power and get back in the position, you gonna spank on everybody and everything and try to do everything that you wanted to do
plus some more and with an attitude. So just on, just on that. That for me is problematic because I don't want I don't want the boyfriend or the old employee returning to my life with a vengeance for me, because they, you know, whatever cooked up mess is in their mind that I don't want in my life.
Absolutely, it's I mean, you know, it's like old saying we have in Atlanta. Somebody want to get their lick back. You know they're gonna try to get their lick back and so as you're saying, I mean, we fought him, and again I'm taking my naacp had off and just being Gerald Griggs, the activist in the attorney from twenty
sixteen to twenty twenty. Men, you were fighting this man repeatedly, whether it's Women's March, whether it was DJ I mean, it was all kinds of things that we were fighting him, and we were successful to mobilize the vote in historic numbers, especially in Georgia. In Georgia, we held the line. And so to see what's happening now is disheartening, but we're still hopeful that we can convince individuals to use the most powerful non violent weapon they have, which is the vote.
But either side has to earn it, and my hope is the other side will not earn it. You know, as the NBAC president, I can't go full throat it, but I can.
Tell you it's Gerald Griggs.
Georgia has something to say, and whether or not people turn out, we're going to send him to a prison in Georgia because he violated Georgian's rights by saying that he wanted seven thousand, one hundred and whatever votes.
So as long as there are laws in Georgia.
Where you go on with that, haven't they indefinitely paused? The case that is being led by Fannie willis, it's.
Not indefinitely paused.
So there's a hearing with the Court of Appeals in October to determine whether or not Judge McAfee's ruling not disqualifying her will stand. And I truly believe, based on my reading of Georgia law, that decision will hold.
And then the trial will start.
But also there are code defendants in the case whose cases continue, so the case is not indefinitely paused. It's a lot of media reporting that, and that's why you need Georgia lawyers to actually explain what's happening. It's just that portion is paused for or argument and in the Court of Appeals with issue ruling, but.
They're still doing some funny business and my judgment.
Yeah, I mean, they are on.
Their way around this particular thing. So you know, my thought of the day today, Griggs is I was watching
social media a couple of days ago. You know, I don't know about you, but I've significantly reduced the amount of time that I spend on on social media because I'm beginning to see the I can already tell, especially as election time comes around, you begin to see the propaganda on all sides, and you begin to see that if you can become so frustrated that you can't even focus on the tangible right in front of you, real
work that you're doing. So for me, I've cut back on social media, but I was on Shade Room one day and I saw Ambar Rose on their talking Now Amber Rose has now endorsed Donald Trump. She is the biggest Donald Trump supporter, and she said some things that I'm going to make sure that the screenshot of her comments that you all get an opportunity to see at
everyone who's listening. But the bottom line is that she says, one, Trump is not a supporter of Project twenty twenty five, that he's not a supporter of it, that it's bullshit, it's all Democratic lies. They want Democrats want you to be poor and broke, and they're just trying to force you through their own propaganda to make you vote for President Biden. Then she goes on to say that and it is not true that President Trump at the time
banned abortions, That he did not ban abortions. That's bullshit. It's a lie now. Number one, she's right about that he did not ban abortions, So that's true. But the trick that they're playing that either she doesn't know or she is intentionally involved in attempting to confuse and miss and misinform the American people, is that, no, he did not ban abortions. What he did was put people, whether it be court justices and judges, excuse me, across the
country in place that would help to ban abortion. He himself, his own words. We will play a clip today. He his own words. He said he was responsible for getting rid of Row v. Wade, which we know has been gutted. At this point, people already a lot of activists, advocates and others policymakers did not want Donald Trump to become president because they knew it was going to be a part of his platform. He has to please his conservative right wing section of his government. And in fact that
his friends, they worked for him. They were in the White House, Stephen Miller, all these crazy right wing people. These are his people. The folks from the Heritage Foundation who for decades decades have been the most influential voices in terms of policy for the Republican Party. These are his friends. These the people he put in position, They are his friends. And for her to say that he does not support Project twenty twenty five, well where has he said that out of his mouth?
At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Like Ronald Reagan, I am struggling in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life.
Of the mother.
In fact, his policies are deeply aligned with what is in Project twenty twenty five. And again his friends wrote it, the people who worked for him before and the people who are around him today. And the Heritage Foundation is at the center of Project twenty twenty five, which if you have not read it, listen to us. We're not gonna break it down. You need to go search Project twenty twenty five and read that entire platform, which is one of the most conservative platforms that this country has
seen in a long time. And it will absolutely be harmful to black and brown people. And so I know I am. I just again want people to caution themselves in grigs. I want to give you the Florida talk about this before we go into Nigel Collins as someone who's in Georgia who understands that people are frustrated with the current administration. People are frustrated about the attack on the people of Gaza and Palestinian people. Folks are frustrated because the rent is too high, the food is too high,
the gas is too high. People are frustrated because they're still killing us, the police still killing us, guns still in our communities. People are frustrated because the food does it's People are frustrated because education is not what it should be. Folks are frustrated when you have people like Anne Barolls being used as a tool to misinform our folks in a state like Georgia that had the responsibility
of choosing the next president. Because you all are a swing state, I want to hear from you what you feel about, you know, what this system others are doing, and ultimately what we do to encourage I'm in New York. I need you and your state to vote, because in New York, if we vote for you know, we're in the popular vote. But we are not an electoral college state, so we don't make the decision determination of who becomes president.
And so What we have to remember is every time we get into an election, there are voices that don't speak about politics that start speaking about politics. So you have to go to trusted messengers. And there's no more trusted messenger than the NAACP. Now, again, we're not gonna talk about which candidate you should or should not vote for, but we.
Will talk about policies.
We will talk about the systemic disinvestment in education that will happen if Project twenty twenty five is implemented. They're gonna gut the Department of Education. They're gonna gut the Department of Justice. I'm gonna say it again, they're gonna cut the Department of Justice. And the Department of Justice was specifically created to fight against a homegrown white nationalist domestic terrorists.
Called the Klan.
And so when you start talking about these policies and you hear reality show stars trying to convince you, listen, I mean, I respect Amber, you know the thing she's doing, but I don't get my politics and my policy decisions from a reality show star.
It's really that, it's really that clear.
And to answer your question about whether or not the former president banned abortion, no, he didn't ban abortion, but he nominated and they will confirm the three conservative justices who made the majority to issue the Dobbs decision, which effectively ended abortion in this country. And so respectfully, stick to reality TV and stop trying to disinform individuals. We see what's going on on the ground here in Georgia. And again, if there was a media celebrity in Georgia,
we will listen to. It's not Ambar Rose, so we don't really have to listen to her in Georgia. But what we do have to listen to. What we have to consider is the fact that there is systemic injustice that's continued to happen that neither candidate are talking about that for any matter, or what they're going to do about the weabonization of law enforcement, what they're going to do about actually fixing the alleged crisis at the border, what they're going to do to fund fully fund the
educational system. And so we have to make the candidates have that robust conversation about what they're going to do to change people's lives. And let's be clear, I live through twenty sixteen to twenty twenty. I remember the COVID pandemic. I remember the twin pandemic of racism sixteen nineteen. I don't want to go back to that. But what I also don't want to do is to sugarcoat what we are experiencing right now.
Yes, yas is too high.
Yes A McDonald's happy meals like eight dollars. At this point, we have to address those things. So we need policy considerations from the candidates, from our trusted sources and voices in the political space, to break down what they are going to do, what they have done. Again, I don't want somebody, when we're going through a historic pandemic to tell us to inject bleach into our skin or use uv lights that came.
Out of his mouth.
I don't want someone who led an armed insurrection against our country because he lost an election.
Those are facts. I don't want somebody calling in to.
Georgia to try to overturn the will of black voters.
Amber that's what actually happened in Georgia.
So again, respectfully, you can endorse whoever you want, but we run on facts, not feelings.
That's right. Absolutely, thank you so much for that. I'm so happy to have you here. The chime in on my thought of the day today. Attorney Gerald Griggs is a friend. I did not invite you here as the president of the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP, and also the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP. You are president of that as well. I didn't invite you here as that. You just my friend, Gerald Griggs, and we're just kicking
it today about what's happening in our society. But you are the attorney for Nigel Collins family two years ago. This young man. The way in which he was killed is something that I mean, I don't watch videos of these incidents as much as possible. I do everything that I can to avoid it. The only way that I will watch a video and it sort of catches me is if I open my phone on my own and I just happened to be trying to see what's going on and then boom, there's the incident. Other than that,
I don't. I can't because the trauma sticks with us of watching our people literally be lynched in a different way and right there in the palm of our hands, and that's a very different circumstance for us. You know, I think back when lynchings were prevalent, because, by the way, someone said to me the other day, they don't lynch us anymore. No, no, no, there's still lunchings happening across this nation, especially in places like Mississippi, in Louisiana, I
know of the cases. But at that time they would lynch us and have the community to watch it and leave the body hanging for days and days, so that every it was a symbol to everybody about what could happen to you.
We know who take and take home.
And take souvenirs, including body parts, especially from the men, you know. And also white folks would get dressed up, cleaned up in their best clothes a Sunday, go to church clothes to watch a lynching. Now it is not the same as us, you know, looking at a body hanging for days. But it's on our cell phones, it's right in the palm of our hands. And when I saw Nigel, I could see in his face and my son spoke about this before you came on, the fear in his eyes. You know, he was he was afraid.
You know, he was scared. He wasn't there to harm anyone. He needed help. And I want you to talk about two years ago. This happened two years ago. For folks who are listening that video that you watch of Nigel Collins being shot to death by the police in Fogo the Brazilian steakhouse. It happened two years ago, and Jerald Griggs has been the attorney for the family since the time. So let's talk about it. Break it down for us. Let us know what has happened or what happened.
Yeah, So for those that saw the video a few days ago when it was finally released because of the pressure of the family has been putting on Atlanta Police Department for two years, let's take ourselves back. May the eighteenth of twenty twenty two, Nigel Cullins was in the
mental of a mental health distress. He was at his home with his mother and his father and he was going through his manic stage and for two hours, his mother, doctor Maya Cullins, was calling law enforcement to get a crisis intervener so she could get Nigel to a bed that she had already secured at one of our facilities here so he can get treatment. Of course, the police department did not respond in any term of a fishing
amount of time. It took two hours and so Nigel was able to successfully leave his home, get on Martyr, take Martyr down to the Linburg train station and walk up Petemont to go to Fogo to Child. And unlike the information the police have been releasing and the City of a Lad has been releasing, Nigel actually formally worked at Fogo to Child and knew many of the individuals that were there. So the nine one one call saying that they didn't know this guy got had spiky hair
and gold teeth, all that erroneous. But anyway, he goes into the Fogo to Child, he gets some food, he sits at the bar, he interacts with people at the bar, he's talking to the matre d. He does go behind the bar and get a bottle of Hennessy and come back and drink that. And he's in the process of eating and drinking and not threatening anybody. You can clearly see that in the video because no one is threatening, no one's disturbed, people are eating and drinking, everything's going well.
He was never asked to pay for the meal. He was going to probably pay for the meal, but law enforcement arrived. They arrived, and that's where the video really begins. Now again there are two hours of video that has been released. Most of the platforms, with the exception of YouTube, have not released all the video, which is why the family was upset. But so you see the police come in and they interact with Nigel. As soon as they get to Nigel, he turns around, puts his hands up
and starts to go to the ground. As he's going to the ground, the police push him to the ground and he flips over with his hands up. Now their police are saying, well, we told him put his hands behind his back. He has his hands up. He does have a gun in his waistband. And again in Georgia, as of March of twenty twenty two, there was the open concealed I mean open carry and conceal carry constitutional carry.
So because of our Governor Brian Kemp and the infinite wisdom of the General Assembly, you can carry a gun anywhere in Georgia, concealed or not, without a license, without anything. You just have a gun because it's Georgia. So's they see the gun in the waistband. He's going to the ground. He's on the ground. Put your hands up, he's got his hands up. Put your hands behind your back. Before he gets an opportunity to put his hands back.
He's tased.
Now he's in a manic episode, all right. It agitates him. He tries to remove the pain by running away from the police. Now here's where the interpretation of videos diverge again. You can't see where the gun is outside of when you saw it in the waistband. Police are saying he took the gun out as he was running. I don't see that, and I've seen the video four times. I see his hands, you see his hands. You see a
napkin in one of the hands. Anyway, he runs around the back of the restaurant, comes back towards the opening fouryer and is tackled by the security guard.
Security guard tackles him.
Now my question is why is the security guard tackling him if law enforcement has been called to address this situation. The security guard tackles him, the gun goes off. You don't see the gun being produced. I don't care how much they slow it down and try to circle things.
It goes off.
We don't know who shot home, but we know a gun goes off. He's on the ground, gun goes off, security guard rolls off. Police fired him five times. Now here's where the anger of the family and myself and others who had seen the video before. We'd seen the video three times. The first time we saw the video was six months after the incident. The NAACP was invited in to see the video. They stopped it right after the five seconds of the first shooting, so we didn't
know anything about a second shooting. So then a year goes by, we meet with the mayor, the mayor of Grease to release the video to the family. We go into see the video and we realized, low and behold, the first video was edited. So they played the second video where you see him run, he gets tackled, fires five times, pauses, walks around a little bit.
And then fire fires ten more times.
And my thing is, why are you firing into a man who's clearly down, He's clearly incapacitated, and you unload fifteen shots into him. But that doesn't stop there. We asked them to release the full unedited video a year ago. They do not release the video for whatever reason. Case is still open, so the family files a lawsuit last month and the police finally released the video. The edited portion of the video with the editorialization and the attempts
to justify. Even though this case has not been justified, the case is still open. It's in the District Attorney's office. The police. Atlanta police cannot justify a police involved shooting.
Either the GBI or the DA has to do that.
So the family is completely frustrated with the response of law enforcement. One day, didn't show up in time to address the mental health issue that my Nagel was having two hours before. Then you show up at the restaurant, get erroneous information, You try to tase a man who's trying to give up with his hands up. You chase him, the security guards tackles him, and then you unload fifteen shots in him, and then you try to justify it. And so that's where we are. It's been two years
of a fight for transparency and justice. They have now told our friend, pastor Jamal Bryant, that they will finally release the unedited version. They told them that on Friday. It's forty eight hours later. I still don't see it. So that's where we are. In Georgia, there's a systemic police brutality issue. In Atlanta, there's a systemic police brutality issue, and the attempt to diflect and divert continues from Rayshard Brooks and Jimmy Atchison all the way now to Nagel
Cullins and also Deacon Johnny Holloman. There are so many names in Georgia in Atlanta that need to be lifted up, and we're appreciative of you and until Freedom and so many others are standing with this family. But Georgia has a police brutality problem. Atlanta has a police brutality problem, and Nagel Cullins is the face of that.
Thank you for that very clear synopsis of what has taken place here, because I've had people say, well, he shot the security guard. They don't know that they're saying it because that's either what the news has said or implied strongly implied. But have they tested the ballistics from his gun and the wound of the police officer to I mean the security guard to one hundred percent either eliminade and or confirmed that it came from Nigel's gun.
No, they haven't.
And one of the interesting things now that I've seen the full two hours again, I was initially showed clips, then another clip, but now I've had a chance to see it all No, they haven't released the full GBI report, they haven't released the autops report, they haven't released the m's report, they haven't released the ballistics report. And interesting enough, you know I am a criminal defense attorney, so I deal with this all day long. When they declared Nigel dead,
they didn't bag his hands. The reason why you would bag so somebody's hands is to do GSR gun gun residue on the hands to be able to definitively say one they handle the gun and two they fired the gun. Because when you fire the gun, there are particles that eject from the firing of the bullets called stippling, that go backwards and they go forward, and you can tell who is in contact with the gun and if they used it. So, I mean, it's easy ways they can
prove allless. But all they're doing is putting a narrative out there, and we would argue the narrative is incorrect, and that's why we are correcting the narrative. We want
the truth to come out. We want transparency, and transparency starts with if you're going to release the video, release everything so now that everyone can see what actually happened, what the witnesses said, what now on one said, what the medical examiners have said, what the GBI testers have said, and then of course the police involved shooting, so we can determine what the security guard and the police officer are.
A see it.
You know, it's interesting because even in the Breonna Taylor matter, Kenny Walker was accused of shooting the officer, one of the officers in the knee in the leg I think the knee, and they never tested or whether they tested it or not, we don't know, because they never said. They never one hundred percent confirmed that Kenny's bullet hit the officer's knee with everybody shooting all around, Who the hell knows how the officer was shot, right, We don't know,
but they tried to use it and to bilify Kenny. However, for some reason there was never one hundred percent confirmation. Then ultimately the case against Kenny was dropped. And so I think this is a pattern that we see that when there is a shooting, an officer involved shooting, there is this this. You know, they say one thing, but they never actually give you the proof to prove what they are using as their narrative to give them a reason for the use of force, and so that's interesting.
The other thing I see as a pattern is that they are slowing down videos. There was a time when they would just put out a clip and cut some part from it. Now they slow down the videos and they are very clear. I was having a conversation with Attorney Ben Crump about this. They know how to manipulate the eyes what the eyes can see based upon the way they edit the footage and slow it down and make it where it's very difficult for you and I to understand the rapid speed of things as it happens.
And so these people are using tactics. This is not like it's just a mishap or they are They have very specific tactics for how they are going forward with brutalizing and then misinforming, disinforming, as you said, the people. So I know you are seeing that in your.
Cases absolutely, And what you know the public needs to understand is in a case, the police or the state have the burden to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. So slowing a video down life does not happen in slow motion, if happens in real time. And the Supreme Court has said that, you know officers have split second decision to make. They didn't say slow motion decisions to make,
and it has to be the reasonable officer. And so in this particular case, it's not reasonable for an officer to shoot somebody fifteen times, whether they have a gun or not, if they're not a threat when they're down and so, and then an officer does not have the right to encounter somebody if they don't have reasonable, articulable suspicion that that person has committed a crime. So when you initially taste Nigel Cullins, what crime was he reasonably
that you could artarticulate suspected of doing? He was in a restaurant, lawfully, having a gun, eating a meal, and he was not being disruptive. Even the two hours of footage show he was not disruptive. So it wasn't this only conduct. He wasn't obstructing because in George you have a right to resist an unlawful arrest. But once you got past the reasonable suspicion, which is to detain, that's just the detained. They said they were going to arrest him.
So what's the probable cause that he committed a crime? What is the more probable than not that he committed a crime that I can charge him with. I'm still asking that question. So from the point of the encounter, which started at all, that's where we start our analysis, and that analysis is faulty.
So to get to the.
Point where a citizen, now the security officer who's now intervening in a police investigation, tackles somebody, it sets all that in motion. So while we're having these armchair quarterbacks trying to do analysis based on a one sided narrative, that's not what happens in court. And the burden is not on the family to justify anything. The burden is on the police's.
Two last things. And I'm gonna let you go one Fannie willis where does she fall in this entire scope of mess? And I say that because you know, Fanny has become beloved by black people. Black women specifically have been supporting her because we know that the unfair treatment that she has suffered and continues to suffer, you know, is something that we have to stand up and speak
out about. Right we know that too many women are sexualized and whoever we may be with or whatever's going on in our personal lives is used against us in
ways that it does not always happen to men. Number one, but it's also anytime we are strong, powerful women who are willing, who have self determination and are willing to go up against some of the most powerful go up against the system, then you have these issues about who we slept with, how we wear our hair, how we speak, We're too loud, we're too angry, were too so these are stick. This is a stigma that people recognize and
immediately jumped on to support her. However, I had people contacting me during the time where I, like others, was posting Fanny and saying we need to support the sister, saying, you know, we understand this moment, but her relationship to prosecute prosecuting police officers who harm black and brown people and particularly black people in Atlanta has not been great. And so I wonder if you can speak to that really quickly, and then we can finish with you talking
about you said the family. You talked about the family. I met mom, beautiful woman, young woman said the last two years she's been going through hell, and I saw her. I just wasn't expecting. I was expecting to see someone a little bit older. I guess that's my own. I don't know ignorance that I would dare to think that after all these years, with all of these different types of mothers that I worked with, that I had this
idea of what she would look like. And when she walked up, this is a beautiful, amazingly beautiful woman who does not look like what I know she's been going through and she was trying to get help for her son, which really hurts me, you know, deeply. I want to know how Fogo, as you said, Fogo de Child, I've been calling it Fogo, how have they been responding to this family. So that's the two things Fanny and then Fogo de Child is the corporate side of this. What has been their response.
So Fani has had her special investigator unit meet with the family on two occasions. They now have the case and they're reviewing the case. And as you spoke, you know, Fani is very intentional in how she handles police involved cases. You know, she hasn't been as quick as the previous district attorney to indict police officers and charge them and try them, but she's working through it. And you know, I've known Fannie Willis since I was nineteen and she
worked in the city Solicitor's office. She's a conscientious attorney. Now, that does not mean I don't disagree with her. She'd be the first one to say, Gerald's like that friend who you love to hate, and you know, I don't want to talk to him when he gets in his feelings about anything. So we fight. We fought in George
as long as trial aps. I disagree with her. I still disagree with her, but she understands that when it comes to the situations that are happening with the former president of the United States, there's only one person in Georgia that can call Fannie out.
That's me.
Anybody else we're going to have a problem because she does when she has her mindset, do the right thing. But sometimes she can be this waited to do other things. So it's a love hate relationship.
I do respect her, it's the politics and as a prosecutor, you know, prosecutors unfortunately are very close to police. I mean, what we deal with, well, you want to be nice about it today, the way you said it sounds really nice and buttoned up. I would say that for the last two years, either she knew that he was shot and killed in such an egregious manner, or she didn't know.
And if she did not know that this happened because she didn't see or have or whatever the full video, then that raises the question of the police department and how honest and forthcoming they have been with her office.
And so I don't know which one is, you know, And I'm sure you understand that we don't have to get into it today, but I still have questions about that because what happened in Nigel Collins, it feels to me like two years ago something should have been done, and certainly indictment too have been handed down for these police officers. But let's talk about the mom and fogo to child, and then you can go for today. And thank you so much for being with me.
So Maya Cullins is a force of nature and like you said, and I was in the same position when I first met her.
You know, I was expecting.
An older woman who would have experienced this, but she had Nigel very young. She's a very accomplished woman. She has her PhD. She owns multiple mental health treatment facilities throughout the state.
She does a lot of.
Civic engagement and a lot of community engagement, both in making waycross Atlanta. She's a powerhouse media producer herself, with TV movies that are on tub and one that's coming to Netflix.
She's a force.
And when I first met her, she said, I love my baby. They took my and they killed the right the wrong one, but they got the right mama. She told that to the mayor directly. And so she's not going to give up. She's as tenacious as me and Tamika put together, and that's saying a lot. And she's angry right now about what happened to her son when she tried to get help, and she's not.
Going to stop.
And so the response of the restaurant hasn't been any response. They haven't responded to the lawsuit yet. Hopefully they will respond to the lawsuit and we'll handle it in court. But yeah, I mean, but you know, there's been really no response. We see what the response is from the police department. You know, they waited two years release this tape.
Now they're trying to justify the tape even though they haven't justified the shooting through their internal you know, department of Internal affairs or anything like that.
And the DA's office hadn't justified it.
So we're still at the same place we were two years ago, except the world has seen the tape. And I know people want to make quick assumptions about what is or is not in the tape, But I would argue, watching all two and a half hours, don't watch it in slow motion, watch it as it happens. Watch the reaction of the people in the restaurant as it's happening.
If Niger was such a threat, how come the people didn't get scared until law enforcement started firing tasers, and law enforcement started firing weapons right there in the vestibule of a busy restaurant.
Those bullets could have.
Gone anywhere, anywhere, fifteen shots, and it could have been a whole lot of other people injured because they didn't know how to deal appropriately with the mental mental health crisis.
Well, thank you, Attorney General Griggs, our fighting brother, fighting attorney, long time attorney. How long you've been an attorney.
I've been an attorney twenty years. I've been doing this a long.
Term, fighting in the state of Georgia. We thank you and we honor you because it's not easy to take case after case after cases. You know, in the position we sit in. We are often the only phone call that people know to make and the only ones who respond, and sometimes we have no answer for how to navigate all the pieces of the difficulties of these situations, and nothing in us has any certainty that the end result will be favorable for our people. But we fight anyway,
and we see you out there. Griggs. You deal with a lot. You deal with the haters, you deal with the people who and I think now folks have started to just say we can't beat Griggs. We just got to join them, and you know, figure out how to support you. And so I certainly always have and will continue to be your sister and to support you. And I want to help in any way that I can until Freedom wants to help with Nigel. You know, for us,
we run towards difficult cases. I don't know why. So don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that as if it is a badge of honor, okay, because I wish I could get cases that is cut and dry. The thing happened, bam, you see it. That's it. I'm right, police, you know, or whomever is involved. They lose and the system just resets itself and does what's right and there's accountability. That's not the case for us. We seem to take
on the cases that have layers. It's complex people. You know, Brionna Taylor's ex boyfriend or whatever he was to her was a drug dealer and therefore she was involved with it. She was somehow kingpin herself. That's one case that Kenny, her current boyfriend at the time that she was killed, shot the cop George Floyd may or may not have taken some drugs. You know, it's always layered. You know, Ahmad Arby walked into the house a house that he
was trespassing on the property. These are the narratives out there, and we take on those types of responsibilities. That causes a lot of stress. And I know you are definitely you face that, but yet you still stand up. You still have time to make brand new babies. This baby is so beautiful. How old is your newest child.
He's four weeks last week, so he's going into his fifth week now. So you know, and like you said to me, we don't take the easy cases. You know, Ahmar, they said he was trustpassed, even though there was no trust passing signed down there in Sentilla shows, you know, Nigel, they're saying he shot the security guard when the evidence doesn't show that he shot the security guard. He shows that there was a discharge with weapon when there was a struggle. So, but we also focus on what the
law says. And so you know, the law said Amar was not a trust passer. And there are three individuals sitting in the prison cell in Georgia that gonna state that the rest of their natural lives. And so, folks, you gotta understand this.
Is not easy.
But we were built for this moment. We were built for this time. We're gonna make sure we stand up for our people. It's like Tamika, did you know she said, until that's freedom for her people, she's gonna be doing this work. So yeah, there's a lot of people out here that don't like me. I really don't care. What I care about is justice, and we are going to pursue justice. We're gonna be just as bold and just as opinionated as our ancestors, and we're gonna get that justice one way or the other.
One way or the other. Thank you so much, Attorney Gerald Griggs.
Appreciate you.
So Thank you again, Attorney Gerald Griggs for being with us today. I mean, I think you are, you know, listening, and you've taken the time to hear all of what he stated in this interview. You hear someone who's not confused, he is not off on the facts. He knows he's been for two years dealing with Nigel Collins family, and you know he's with at ease able to explain to you why this case is so egregious and why what
happened to Nigel is illegal. It should be considered to be legal by the courts in the state of Georgia. And we support one hundred percent the work that Gerald Griggs is doing there along with Nigel Collins family. Next week we're going to be back with our regularly scheduled programming. This week is Mysan has had to go off and work with the young people, which again my heart is just I'm so proud of what he is doing and what a vision that he had through our Boycott Black
Murder campaign and he has executed that vision. And I am so excited to leave from sitting here in front of this computed today talking to you all, to go out and be a part of what I feel is history in the making with these young people, that their minds and hearts have been shifted, that they can see a different way than the way that sometimes our culture tries to tell them that being the most thugged out, being the most violent and dangerous, that they are trauma
and their issues that they face in life, that they should take the hard way, which is the violent way, the dangerous way, the way that can lead them to self destruction. That that's actually celebrated, That there are people who will pay you for the music that exploits your trauma.
That there are systems that somehow will uplift you and make you seem like you are a leader in our community when you do wrong and when you are, you know, in my judgment, when you are a part of what is bringing us down versus what is actually lifting us up.
There's too many different areas within our community that celebrates that, and what we want to do is turn it around and say that no, these groups, these people, this area, this segment of our community that celebrates peace, people who yes, are dealing with trauma, but are still committed to their own upliftment and the upliftment of our community. That's what we want to focus on. That's where we want to invest, that's what we want to show and lift and highlight
as a beacon of light in our community. And so today I'm excited and I know that you all will get an opportunity to hear the music, to meet the students, their parents, the teacher, the music teacher that was involved, and of course Principal Cook all that's coming up. Thank you for joining TMI. We are working hard to bring you the type of content that you all can appreciate.
And please go to TMI Underscore Show to leave us comments about what you like and don't like about the show, things that you think we can do to improve, and guess that you want to hear from topics that you would like to hear. Because you all are a part of this with us. We're learning together, we are growing to get other and we are so grateful to have you on the journey with us for t m I. Thank you, Peace yea. Check out the video version of t M I every single Wednesday on Iwoman Dot TV.
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