"Learning How To Heal and Protect Our Communities."

some time. You will will be in crisis, but we certainly are in crisis now. We now have seen that over the last weekend. Uh, there has been um a lift if you will, on the band um or what is it? I guess it's the moratorium is the right word, the moratorium on evictions and people are out here like you know, hell, folks had p p P and they had this, and they had money and they should have paid. Okay, you can say that, but at the same time, we want the violence and the crime out of our communities.

You can't have people out homeless who you expect to live a certain way to live righteously, because folks are gonna find a way to eat. Okay, they're gonna find survival mechanisms. And so in the midst of a pandemic, where we're they're saying that there is a surge in uh COVID cases, that people are getting sick. The pandemic is not over. We should not be in any way removing people from their homes at this time. So I

believe in personal responsibility. Hell yeah, we believe in personal responsibility because I paid my bills the whole pandemic, no matter what I had to do. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of people out there that can't make that happen. And what you always say, my is the there the exception, but not the room. And we understand what we're dealing with. The government knows what's happening. You know, a lot of people in the home from for months, you know, most a lot of

businesses have didn't return. You know, businesses didn't return. A lot of people still haven't going back to work. A lot of people are just traumatizing skinned to go to work. So we we have to you it take time to undo a pandemic, to undo the just the the long

term effects of it. You know, the trauma that people are then, so now on top of that, you're gonna add rent back, you know, and talking about they need to pay these bills, you know, after you suspended it, like it's just like, this ain't the time to do it, especially when, like you said, we were there's a resurgence of COVID and a eighteen different strains and people just didn't People are just starting to get back to normal,

you know. So you've got to give people some grades, gotta give them some opportunities, you know, you got to give them a little bit of time to get back and to the blow before you start threatening them, tell them they need to get out and being stret they went on vacations, I'm like, yeah, and so the landlords, right, So did some of the landlords. They took some of the money that they received and didn't do with it what they were supposed to do. Everybody is at fault.

But at the end of the day, we all in I thought, they said, we were all in this together. A little bit of vacation that somebody got that they ain't been on vacation their whole life. They probably never went to Toulon, in this place, in that place, and can coom or whatever. They got a little check for five thousand dollars and spent a little bit on a vacation. The sneakers that their child has been asking them for a little bit of summertime in the city, and we

seemed to be criminalizing and demon demonizing those individuals. Now, the system might criminalize some folks that got them p P P P p p P loans. They might be criminalized, But we know that evicting people from their home is a real serious and we don't want to see people homeless. If nothing else, you don't want to see people homeless. But it brings me to my thought of the day. My thought of the day is why are grocries so

damn expensive? Like? What is is it not possible to find some type of way not to have groceries, especially healthy food. Now, some people say, well, it's not that much more to eat health It is the milk that I drink zero percent milk, right, which I probably shouldn't be drinking it at all, And and you know, other others who are extremely healthy tell me that I should be doing a whole bunch of other things instead of

drinking milk. But nonetheless, the zero percent milk that I drink, the fat free milk, right, my milk is almost nine dollars for a half a gallon. Nine dollars. So what I'm trying to understand is like we didn't want people to be healthy. We're saying that America is obests. We're saying that Americans rather are obese. We're saying that the health crisis is this matic preexisting conditions and all this

and that. And still when you go to the grocery store a little bag of groceries, one bag could be a hundred dollars and you hardly have anything in it. How are people surviving? Because I know, for me, I have the resources to do it, and I still feel uncomfortable spending the type of money that I'm spending in the grocery store. You're experiencing this because I'm I'm I'm

struggling now. Groceries are very high. Like for real, every time every time I go to the store, I can't believe the amount of money I's been for the few things that's in the bag. Like you said, it just really doesn't make sense. Thirty dollars and you'll be having like four things in the bag and those things ain't gonna last through through the night, you know. So it's it's really crazy. Like when you look at air flights, everybody's trying to make up for what they lost. Everybody

has played double. It's like it's a drought. Like you know what I'm saying, Like when we was in the street that you were hustling and you were selling weed, and when it was a drought, you double. You made the weed a double two times where the normally was because people knew they couldn't get it or people knew they really needed it. The same thing they was doing with the lights of whites. Remember there was charging people

all types of money for things like that. So you know, we're we're in those times where you know, the economy has suffered and people who have things that they know are you know, commodities and things that people want, and they feel like, you know a lot of people got those little p P P loans and they're gonna they're gonna spend it fast. So they're trying to get their money back while they feel like it's a couple of hours out there. But all of that is drying up

right now. Man, It's all drying up. It's drying up, for sure, but it's kind of like, what do you do if you are somebody who's really struggling but you're trying to take care of yourself and your family. It scares me to think that a single mother who doesn't qualify for food stamps, because they demonize people who get

any type of subsidies. So if you work on a job, let's just say you are um an assistant maybe at a college or you know, you're you know, a pretty decent job where you dressed nice every day and you're going into an office and you're making maybe seventeen eighteen dollars an hour, maybe even twenty an hour. That sounds good, right,

That's that's nice. But if you go to the grocery store and most of your money is being spent on that, and also transportation because now that people are going back to work, it is expensive to get on the train. I think the training thing is like two dollars and seventy or something like that per ride per day. You have kids that want to have, you know, snacks and

different things. Maybe you want to get your hand your nail sounn because you need to keep yourself up to be able to go to work, your children need a haircut. How I don't understand how we could even be having a conversation about just now getting to the point where there is a debate that has not in any way been passed on fifteen hour. So it's people that ain't even making that, and they they hustling every day trying

to make ends meet. But then you have folks who are making above that, who are still living very far

below the poverty line. And if you will go to the grocery store and you have to spend three and four hundred dollars for your family of four, even your family or three, even the family or two, just to get the things that you need to be able to have lunch every day, have dinner every day, have juice, and things in the refrigerator, and don't start with washing clothes and buying like detergent it maybe you know the laundry, the cleaners for you like this. This is a very

expensive life that people are living. And you can see why people are frustrated because we fix it up nice. We fix it up you. You fix it up with a good crispy white T shirt on a nice hat. We always keep our feet fresh. You know, we I like to wear nice clothes. People look at us and there's and there's a level of resentment that builds up because you look like you're doing so well while your community and the people that come from where you come

from are struggling. And I get white folks are so damn frustrated because it's really expensive to survive, especially if you live in the re ord. And by the way, I just came back from Cleveland, and it's no better day when you go to the school. Right, it is really hard out here, and it makes those who are have a little bit look like you start looking like food. People get mad at you that you become target. Like I'm telling you, like, robbery is a big thing, right,

you know, it's a big thing. People are robbing people because some people have looked like, you know, they progressed during the pandemic, they kept up, they looked like they have more. And there's a lot of people like in the dictment area. You know, my little brother hangs out there, goes to a lot of these clubs, and he's telling me how, like every other night you're going to the club and people are getting robbed. Women a woman got snatched at the car, literally snatched at the car and

they're taking jury. So that's it's at an old time post. So you know, it's it's very dangerous out here for people who who look like they got a little more than left me. And then it's very hard out here for people who just don't have it. So, you know, we just said some these are some difficult times. Man, We're in real difficult times. And hopefully this administration and the government tried to get together. I don't really have much faith in ane of that, but we're gonna keep fighting.

So in keeping about that and itself and need sort of write into the conversation around the gun violence that's happening in our community. And today I'm really really happy, um and and really honored you will to have two giants with us. And so my son, let me keep it to you, and let's introduce our guests before we go to the next segment and have our special guests joint.

We're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. But as we've been promoting, this is our fifth episode on gun violence and what it's gonna take in order for us to combat it. We've been interviewing and you don't have the conversations with a lot of grassroots organizers. We've had different organizers, we've had people from law enforcement, we've had government officials, and now today we want to have a penel like discussion. And today joining us are two

grassroots organizers who are really doing the work. People always ask, oh, you know, why ain't nobody doing the work about gun violence that happens in our communities. People always want to tell about the gun violence that the police is doing, and and it's really what's going on our community is more important, and we do do that. We talk about

that as well. And these are two people who are living testaments to that who's worked proceed them, who have been victims, who have been family members, who have been victims, who have been surrounded by utilize their pain and turned it into purpose. One of them have already been on

our show. We have my brother, Mr. San Duke mcfader, who is the founder and CEO of g MAC Gangsters making astronomical community changes, which the organization that he founded, you know, coming from prison and he understood the need to transform his life and also utilize his experiences to be one of the people who used to be the ones who started the violence of the community. Now he's once to interrupt with so we want to say thank you and and I'm welcome to the your again. To

our brother Shan Duke, thank you for having me. I appreciate y'all. Yes, sir, as usual, this is our friend. Like you know, we always have friends with the show. So let me get this way because I don't want to not say her name properly. But this young lady, I've read her rio and she is amazing as well. Joining us today is Ms Tabell from the Tribute Project. She's also a grassroots organizer and who focuses on gun violence. She's been impacted family members, friends, and she utilized her

pain and she also turned into purpose. So thank you Tibell for joining us today for this in depth discussion that we're gonna have on gun violence in our committee. Thank you Tia and Shand for being with us. Um you know, Shand we asked you to come back today because I think you have a very very unique position that you sit in. Being an organizer is clearly one part of it. But I'll so watch being around you often.

How many men work at work with you who are recently returning or you're trying to help them stay out of the truth. And right now, what we're seeing happen UH is a resurgence in violence in our community in a way that we can't ignore it. We can't act like it's not happening. We can't turn a blind eye. It's a real serious situation. And it's cool to talk to all the folks who think they know, but there's

some people who actually do know. And I think that's why we want to focus on this, this conversation with the two of you today, UH, tr you and I recently became acquainted. Um, you've now become my sister. I've learned how much you know, how much you've been doing UH.

And you know, oftentimes, unfortunately we as women in this work are overlooked because we know that violence definitely is a larger issue for our men, but we also know that women are star and to become the fastest growing population going into prison and also having violent issues, whether it be domestic issues and or street violence issues, and

so UM, we can't ignore that. And the first show that we did five shows ago, we talked about and had Maggie carry on Shan Duke and others where we talked about women and how they are impacted by this epidemic that we are in. And so this we're speaking on the backdrop of a shooting, multiple shootings or one incident um that happened in the last weekend in New

York City where ten people were shot. And I think, Shandon Do, you were bringing us up to speed that there were three people who were the alleged intended target, but at least seven people who were hit surrounding this incident um, and clearly that's it's serious, you know. And I think for me and what I appreciate about duty A and you Shan Do is that you guys get the intersection between police accountability and what we are fighting for there and what we're doing to raise awareness and

to really curb the violence in our community. So it's so important that we talked because if we don't, the solution from government officials will be to put more police in our communities, and we know that that will not work. So talk to us and do let's get started with you just talk about what's happening, what you know that happened in New York um, and then what's what is the organizing UH idea concepts that are happening among the crisis management system and others who are working in New

York to try to address the surgeon violence. All right, thank you. So when we look at the surge, we have to frost be aware of the fact that we are still recovering from a pandemic. A lot of things that happened through at that time went unaddressed. And one of those things we know priorly that we had Beall

reform and then Ball reform. There was an attack on Bell Reform from UH prosecution where they just felt to release anybody and everybody, not really assessing the cases, but just releasing people just as a this is what we're gonna do since you want Ball reform. So there were a lot of people who didn't deserve to be in our communities, out in our community because they didn't receive any type of mental rehabilitation, and we have to be acceptance of that. So there were also people who released

from state prisons who received no type of services. Everything was shut down, right, So imagine someone doing a year or more and coming right back into our community and only option that they have is those in the community who are on the violent or criminal mindset offer them of those criminal activities. So we have to really look at that as part of the problem, and a lot of trauma not being addressed, including the fact that we have a whole bunch of police brutality still in our

community that we don't see no justice for. Recently in New York City and Corona Queens. Yes, there was alleged tend people's shot seven bystanders with them Leslie identifying and I always said, Leslie, because I'm good, I'm in Chicago, and I'll getting information based off of what has been reported. So in our work we like to go into the field and understand and get our facts to be sure who was causing the violence. So in this instance it

has been said that it's the Trinity Daddios. I'm gonna go with Potios because if you know, stay prisons there and I stay prisons and we call them Potio And there's there's a history allegedly where they also were part of the killing of Junior years ago in the Bronx. So if you look at issues, you have to understand what is causing these issues. So if there's a problem

with the Potias, and I will work. That's who we look to engage, right and if we're not engaging them in those areas, there's no way we'll be able to mediate the conflicts that they're having. Was according to this last incident, they were allegedly shooting at three people who

were shot who are supposed to be rivals. We have to determine what those who those rivals are and determine what we can do to mediate any retaliation in our community, as the christ Management says, And we also have to look at those seven innocent people and their families and how someone may not be affiliated, may not be living no life of crime, but may feel a certain way now because they had an innocent family member shot. Right,

So this is what our world looks like. Putting a bandage on that those issues right now, why we continue to work on a bigger issue of why that group feels that they have to respond in broad daylight to a group of individuals with depraved and difference for the other lives around those individuals that they want to attack.

So it's a lot of work that we have to work on preventing, not just folks on the issue after that happens, you know, That's why I like and I understand because we come from the same you know, pretty much the same background and understanding how intricate the work is, right, understanding that you have when you when you come from a game culture, you know you are, you are personal, accept and acknowledge that he's a blood and you bring your bloodness, your blood um title into this work and

utilize it to transform right because you identified with the culture of the game culture, you identified with the the actual rules and laws, and you play the real rules and laws, and what it was actually founded for was protection of our communities in our neighborhoods, and you're transform

his minds. So having those understanding that and being able to connect with the game culture and understanding how these things happen, how who you need to talk to, how do you intercept understanding why we're saying that it's not about police be in our community because they don't stop. They are unable to have that intel, they're unable to have respecting those connections in our communities that could actually

further stop further violence. So I just want to commit you and that and say that's why I always say that it's definitely needed. But Te, I just want you to give us your perspective about the violence that's going on in the communities and all over. What what what is your perspective coming from your background and the work that you do. What do you see? What do you think? Yeah? Yeah, I want to again just say I'm grateful to to

be on this platform and share my unique perspective. UM, I'd like to believe that God designed my life to join this fight and really ending gun violence. And and Shan, do you said something so powerful? I don't. I don't even think I breathe. I took a breath while you were talking, Um, But it just it. It's reaffirming, unfortunately

that our deep wounds require deep, deep, deep killing. And until we get the voice of who Shan Duke is advocating for and GMAC and who Trigger is advocating for, really at the table, we're gonna continue to see this manifestation of despair and using the gun as a solution. Um. The Trigger project stands for true reasons. I grabbed the gun, evolved from risk and as a survivor. I almost lost my mom when I was ten. She was shot twice

in broad daylight. It wasn't a shock, you know, UM, I knew who had did it um, and there wasn't a shanduke to come to me and say, hey, let me get a full understanding of what you know that happened. Let me get you on the basketball or so you can release your feelings, let me um support you, mentor you so you can figure out what you want to eat, so you don't think you're burdening your mom who's healing.

You know, I didn't have that. So just with the combination of losing friends after I'm almost losing my mom, losing my stepdad, now losing young people, I realized that the voice of the shooter is missing. So when you say trigger project you you you you embody the voice of the shooter because we all have a trigger finger, But no one's asking the question black or white? You know, wife just the best guys? Was just or stick? Says My baby's like to say, was land in the middle

of the street. Why would some people be able to just walk past them like they're nothing? And why would some people see it as a commodity, see it as a resource, see it as a language. You know, we're criminalizing our culture and our music versus really getting to the source of our pain and and that's what the Trigger Project is about. Tell me when you say you know that it's a language that for me, that's powerful, because I know that's loaded. And I think both of

y'all can talk about the language. I mean, you've already been speaking to it. But there is a language chan do and and Tia that is coming out of this pandemic, and we hear it loud and clear. In fact, I've been saying that the violence that we see you taking place in our communities, it's not really While I understand that that those engaging in it do have to have some responsibility, I think it's a mirror to all of our faces. Is about where we have failed um as

a society. I think that our young people and whatever they're going through is an indication of how well we have done to give them the resources and the things that they need. So when you say it's some language and you want both of you to talk about this, tell me what that means when when we look at language. For me, right, we have to understand that mentality, that lifestyle. Right, and when you have a lifestyle that you don't see as criminal, nothing you do is is looked at is wrong. Right.

There's no more rules and remorse for your acsents because you're living a lifestyle that you believe everything you're doing is right and language. For me when I was in the streets was when I got up in the morning as triche gangster, I put two guns on my waist in Brooklyn, New York, even though there was no right to carry, And I didn't do that with the intent to go out there to shoot or murder anyone. I did that to make sure that no one would be

able to shoot and murder me. So when you hit trigger, talk about the response and the reasons and why we carry guns. We have to understand that language. So if someone is growing up in Brooklyn or New York City and we know that they never had the right to carry, but all they're seeing is people die at the hands of gunfire, we have to understand that the language tells them that the best way to protect themselves is to

carry that gun as well. Absolutely, I asked my young people, um, because young people aren't the problem, they are a resource at the trigger projects. So my masters is in youth development. UM. Gun valance tried to impede my life, but I went to NC State I was first in my family to finish high school go to college, and then I told my knee up. So you guys know what that meant to my hoop dream in my hood. Um, but I

landed in my master's of youth development. So I learned very quickly that Um, America has this language for black people. We got single parent, household, black on black crime. You know, they got the language that just keeps us oppressed. And there's also a language that the CDC research that says gun violence is a disease and all these things that sort of make us black make us prone to gun violence. So when I learned this, I got mad as hell. Um,

I'm a cancer, are very emotional. I'm also a young lady who was very dark and had a lot of responsibility on me because of trauma. So I refused to be angry again. Um, and I want to be graceful, but I just seill that to say we only a gun is a tool. A gun is like a cell phone.

My young people are not the problem. Again, they are resource and when I asked them to use their voice and advocate for what they're going through or what their families going through, because the exposure to violence can lead to vinance, to just exposure. So that's in movies, that's in real life, that's in police brutality. We all saw the public lynchings. Like, just exposure can lead to this disease too. So um, when we say language, we we

we definitely just like any languages. Things you're accustomed to is go is things you say, is things you know you can do, is the way you think. Um, And no one in America is really understanding there's still public safety and our way through you know, the same day are our city made announcements that certain organizations would get money to prevent gun violence was the same day she put a left. Our leadership put eleven million dollars into

over time for police. So, um, we we have to get to a common language so that we can really disrupt this this this because it's spreading um viciously, and and now it's becoming the narrative, it's becoming that it's a young people problem. You know, But like Tamka said, uh, what's the African problem? The young people in order to feel the village warmth for young people will burn it down, you know, So I can't it go something like but

that's that's what we're going through. And that's why I try to put young people on the front so that by they're they're exposed to the risk factors and protect the factors that lead to being a perpetrator a shooter or being a victim. You know, this disease those both ways in our community, and it's in a person when we understand that, like it's such a thin line, and

they just put us in cages. So ideally, I would love if we could go to like a health clinic and really cleanse this disease out of us, because um, it's we were moving slightly in the right direction and funding it's slightly coming in our direction, but it's still not tailor for the people closest to do. We think that we can just pour money on the problem and it will go away. I don't. I don't believe it

is pouring money on the problem. I believe it's given the justice, the funding justice that we need to the to the issue right. And I talk about New York City. While we've been fighting and everyone's been behind defunding police, we still saw a city council that added two hundred millions to n y pples budget and the number they added funding to on prevention organizations but in nowhere matched a number of two hundred million dollars, right, And we

are not getting what we're asking for, right. So they're continuing to add a divide right between the community of police by not fully funding the services that's needed for our community. And and when we talk about that, we're talking about on a different level because we don't have enough funding to not just employ people, but to add

to the shifting of the messaging. Right. An example of that is my song right when when I talk about the Brother all the time, I get people understand his shift in his music, right, And his shift in his music was a determination that he made to not continue to push that music to our community. And that's where we talk about part of the problem, because we're fighting against a system that's continue to fight against what we're doing.

And our young people just like me, the mice, and the young people coming up and up, the ones who came up for us, who went through the system, who were inconcentrated reports, who who are part of the violence. It wasn't by happening. It happened because they pushed it into our minds at a young age example, I like to use his music and that's why I burned myce LP in the conversation. I believe that music it's more potent than drugs. That's something I always say. I used

to unfortunately have to sell drugs. That's what I believe back and have to sell drugs. And when I sold drugs, I so drugs to people that you would never know we're doing hard crack cocaine because they just went home, went to work, came and got the crack and went upstairs because their tolerance level was totally different. But then you have the young person who is coming up in a deprived home. I had no farther, went to force

to care, grew up in the projects. And the music it's telling my prefrontal cortex that this is how I'm supposed to live. So music is more potent than druggs because it shoots straight to your soul no matter what you're going through. If it's a all and B song and I started talking about I heard it all before, a woman is gonna relate to that if she's going through something she believed that man is lying. So it's the same difference if a young person today it's throwing

on the drills. Nobody wanna talk about it, but throwing on the drill music in New York City after popping that prop, there's no remorse in what they're doing because they're not even in the same mind. So working on and ot of like we're having to the trap nis that you're talking about that's promoting these these drugs in our kids. Mind has to shift. So we need the

resources to be able to change the messaging. You can't drive down Manhattan or anywhere broken in anywhere New York City and really see prevention shift mind shifting resources for our kids in our community to be devoted to you see everything else, no disrespect. I'm gonna going through an airport and all I saw is nothing but fifty and power of being promoted. I was like, you don't need

that much promotion. How much money were spent on that versus helping us have somebody go through a go coming into New York and to live I mean Jeff k or La Guardia and seeing nothing but violence prevention organizations that are in that community when you come and know that you have a resource when you come to that community. So we have to look at being able to fund the resources and a whole different level. People will say, right, well,

white folks have poor communities. Also, it's not like we're the only ones that have projects, poverty and this and that. But when they watch TV and listen to their music, they have bounced. They're able to listen to a little heavy metal, They're able to listen to a little bit of our hip hop and other music. But they also get to listen to things that speaks to their intelligence and helps to build them up and make them feel

like they're you know, helped build their character. I even think about when I was a young girl, clearly walking into a room in a Catholic school where all of the presidents and different important elected officials and leaders were all over the walls, and they were all white. They were all white. I think they had because I lived in Harlem and I went to school in Harlem. I think Charlie Rangel was probably the only black man Congressman Charlie Rangel, who I love very much, but he's also

a very fair skinned man. So they're basically looked like all white people. And let's not even talk about all men for the most part, who were being displayed before us. It's not until recently that you get Barack Obama. But that's one. So there's a balance that while they're in school they may be listening or whatever. When they're at home,

they may have drugs, they may have violence. And when they go to school, the schoolbooks, the the the images, everything is an affirmation versus what we received, which is a denigration, if you will, of our communities and and and and of our of our of our humanity. That's right, And you spoke on You spoke on it, right, Tondu.

And I say that all the time. These are conversations that I have with these UM radio execs, you know, and I say the fact that you you salute our work and you tell us that we do this work, but you don't give us the same platforms right to promote the work and promote the message that we promote. Artists who are talking about positivity and and still being have relevance to understand what's going on the street. Were giving them a different perspective to move away from that.

You don't give us the same platforms and the same notoriety as you give the people. That's poison in us, right. So the poison is incentivized. They have an incentive, right because they understand if you wrap about killing and robbing, right if you if you literally robbed somebody and shoot somebody and you rap about the song and do a

video about it, you're signed. If you look about if you look at the last probably six or seven artists that they signed from Chicago, the streets know that these are really the songs that they're putting out about real beef that happened, like literally, and they're saying, why these kids getting killed and all that because they're talking about the people who they killed on the record, or they shot or they robbed or they did this, and the family has to see this on the internet. The Internet

is pretty much exacerbating this vibe. They're promoting it. You got you got um blogs like DJ academics and them who literally gas light violence. They literally go on their their blogs such and talk about, Yo, this he's running around here after he shot this person. YEA better slide on him. He too comfortable outside? Like this is what

you got. These people have never been in the streets, They have no credibility, have no understanding, but yet and still they're able to agitate and instigate real violence in our communities and these record companies are only signing you. If that so what we have to do, and then that's why I started. I ran out and get this is that we have to start really like guerrilla marketing again, Shan Duke like, we have the memories to put posters on the walls and stickers like they it means something

every neighborhood. Um, this is where I'm starting this week, every neighborhood. We're running through the communities and we're putting these posts in the stores. We put them everywhere possible because we gotta retrain the mondstate. We need a boy hard black murder. I can't kill my brother. They gotta constantly see it the same way they look at these commercials and they go on the internet and they constantly

see visions of did somebody shooting each other? And they constantly hear music about kill kill, I blast you all, rob you. We have to give account of narrative. We gotta be able to to try to shift and try to get you know, get them back on a different trail, or else we're gonna lose because violence is promoted. It's promoted everywhere we go, and they get paid to do it. It was just so loaded. We want you to kick

the young black youth for the young black people. Young black people understand that there are moving parts around you and and their relationships that um their connection and they're moving parts around you. I eat your schools, you go to health clinics, hospitals, you attend churches, the media, you watch policy plitics. There's all these things moving around you that develop who you are. And as to me can mentioned earlier, not only have we failed you, but we

haven't worked intentionally. Like Sandu said, we're throwing money, but it's so deep rooted, like we need them to part seize. You cannot release a young man who's traumatized in jail for for being convicted of doing the crime that in In the ideology of America, crime is is synonymous with choice, and we don't develop that frontal cortex until win Shandu until we twenty six. But how many of us are locked up for the idea that we made a choice and our brain isn't It isn't even fully developed. It

makes me sick. So the media is a huge part of it. Um. What you're talking about, Misha's is being the protection So they risk factors that lead to it, but they're also protect the factors. That is the reason why I'm standing the day I had connect connecting this to adults outside my family to help me build my resilience. But I'm six before, so people believe in me because they could see the potential, you know. But every young

person needs that primary prevention and protection. You wouldn't go tell a young person that has sex without giving them a talking connors, you know. So we can't go out here and let them let the accessibility to guns be the way it is. Let the government not take accountability for the infiltration of what they've given to us. If they gave us produce, we would have been throwing a lot of fruit, you know, it would have been a lot of fruitfulness in this community. But they didn't. They

gave us drugs and guns. So we understand that it is a disease um. But at the same time, I want to address my black brothers and sisters who do feel alone, entire frustrated because you just see us taking each other's life. It's no way we're supposed to be less than twelve percent in this country, um, but it is by design, and you have to understand that it's very basic needs that were met in your life, from sleep to rest, to food, to belonging to the safety,

to shelter. You had things that were aligning your life that allow you to make decisions and beat your best self, like telling them, telling the police what you saw happen. You gotta be your best self. We can't expect our community to be accountable and when it's not a lot of self actualization taking place. So I just think we

gotta give ourselves grace. We gotta know that what's happening now isn't a result of our movement, because the movement has been steadied, but now it's starting to take high reach, no limits, So we gotta I think I see a lot more homeless young people, but maybe maybe not, But I'm thinking. And I and I was in DC recently, and I you know, I go to when I go to d C, I don't just of course, we go protests. She and who comes with us and and it and holds us down every single time that we have super

disobedience there in DC. I don't just go to that area. We always go to. In fact, uh, one of our mentors, Core Masters Berry, the wife of the late grade Mary and Ferry mayor. Mary Ferry owns the on our own, but run Z owns whatever. I don't even know with

the right terming altitude. But she runs the Southeast Learning Tennis Center in Southeast d C. And she actually lives in that part of DC as well, And so when I visit with her, I happen to go past there's a liquor store at a chicken spot and some other things. That's the same in every schoolhood, and it's it's it's really to me, it's painful. I won't say it's scary because I'm not scared of black people. I'm it doesn't matter what community we go to, we find our people

and we're not afraid of them at all. And generally what I've learned, you know, I have people in my family who say you can't go there, and you can't do this, you can't do that. Generally, I don't care how tough a dude is. When I say hello, how are you doing, and looking in his eyes, he always always gives me the respect and says, okay, you know you you about something. He might try after that to get my phone number, and that go on, you know,

what I'm saying. But but generally he's like, yeah, okay, cool, we have a connection. But I'm seeing people who are looking dingy, broken hi, And they're young cats, real young and young girls who look like they are already prostituting themselves at these young ages. And we know sex trafficking is an issue, so all of this can't You can't ignore these things and say we're just gonna lock everybody up.

There's no way that that is the solution for dealing with homelessness, first of all, in this pandemic, and my son and I talked about it all the time, right, the pandemic either made or broke you in terms of you being in the household with your family, where everybody in the house was on the schedule of being outside most of the time and they only had to be in the same house for a few hours. Maybe Dad, if he was in the home um permanently, he might

be out working overnight. He might be hustling overnight. Who knows. Mom has to go to work, somebody might go to school. The pandemic caused everybody to have to come inside of the house and deal with people that they don't even really know. They may not even trust, they may not be safe around from sex, it will assault, to drug abuse to just depression to not having the proper resources. I'm trying to understand why folks don't get this. I really am so do you are y'all seeing this's with

the young people that you're working with? Or am I just you know? Maybe I'm not. My finger is not on the post. Your finger is directly on the post. They're they're not paying attention to the fingers that they're supposed to paying attention to. Right, And what we see is exactly what you're talking about. And that's what we're talking about when we are discussing risk reduction in our organization. Right,

it's not just about identifying a shooter. It's about identifying a shooter and then working to reduce that risk of that person. And that person risk may be different or definitely would be different from a lot of people, right, and it could be those issues that you're talking about, and we have to now work to pull them of that, right, And that's what we do every day. So once we locked eyes on you build a relationship, build the rapport. It's it's not an overnight success. Right, we had we

we've had a recent this wasn't spoken about recently. One of my guys got a call from a participant that we've been working for a while and he's supposed to be a young and created kid, and he called because he was in his house and somebody he was arguing with his mother and him his mother is always going at it, but we a stabigation with him and his mother. So what one day they come to the house because somebody alleged called the police on him, and it wasn't

his mother, it was a neighbor. So he's thinking his mother called the police on him while he is alleged that have a gun in the house. According to the call sixty seven precinct, it's outside his house looking out the window, ready to rush the building. But he's on the phone with one of my outwas workers and the outwas worker gets to the scene and and because we've built a relationship of a special working late ship with n y p D, he informed them, Hey, I have

him on the phone, give me a moment. I'm going to get him out of the house, and and we were able to do that without anything happened. This wasn't highly reported, but contact system in pieces and they'll tell you this happened, and the commanding officer respected that we were able to do that right, and we after that, we had to assure that young brother, don't go at your mother right because it wasn't your mother that call, even though you are arguing with her. So now we

still have to work with ovations. So this is an example we're talking about, and this is a kid that is continue to have issues, but we put him in programs and we have in programs were able to work with him right. So we have to look at that because he's also been outside of the home where we had to get him into a shelter at times. So we understand the issues we need to society understand that. This is how we work on bringing down the conference

that's having our community. But when we're talking about our young people, we have to remember, like you said, we left them, there's a piece mission there, so we have to grab them. We have to understand what pieces mission in their life and see what we can do to supplement those mission pieces. Yes, I do a lot of fundraising and and asking and and presenting and proposing because my young people need beds, they need legos for their brothers and sisters, so they don't go rob somebody to

get the money to do it. I'm competing with the streets. And so earlier you asked, is money a solution? Um, It absolutely is, because first, I think doing things that we do should receive uh compensation. You know, I worked as a full time high school counselor. I'm often the summertimes. I go hard in the summer because I'm paid for my nine the five and and I got free time, you know, but I'm also the mother of a three year old, and this work is non stomped. You know.

Young people don't have boundaries. They're not supposed to, you know, they're asked the in requests are are substantial, and it may be from fixing a broken nail to during a college application. But my time, my opportunity, and and and my counseling, my supervision, my team who also pours into these young people. That's the solution, um. And we need the government, we need city officials, we need philanthropists to

really get on the side of thinking outside the box. Um, because it may look like intervening and stopping the police, but it also may look like just giving a young person a hundred dollars because they just misplaced the ZIP and they gonna do something to get it back. And so I need Um, I needed this platform and I needed this opportunity because I do believe public health in

our way through this is this oution. And UM, I do believe that I am in addition to violence interruption into just this progressive transformation that all Black cities have made. Returning citizens are running the city. And UM, I do believe that I am in addition to violence interruption into just this progressive transformation that all Black cities have made. Returning citizens are running the city. You know, um, And it's a beautiful thing and it shows that transformation is real.

Tell us how people can support the Trigger project. Same thing for GMAC. How can people give um, you know, cash, afts, whatever you have. We're also going to make sure that we put it on the screen. UM. I want to make sure that folks know that. As we are in this conversation right now with Shan Do, he has pulled away from a conference that is happening in Chicago. Again. People seem to think there's no work being done, nobody's getting together, They don't care about gun violence. What about

the violence in our community. Well, there are individuals that are at a conference right now working together on on strategies. And then we have our sister Tia in um Tia bell In in d C. And guess what, it's not free. It's not free. It costs money to get there. I'll see you in a nice little clean hotel shining through. You supposed to be in that. We're not. We're not staying at the Motel six. We're not doing that. But let me tell you, let me tell you something about that. Right.

I had to. I had to work on of the sources of funding to make this happen for fifteen of my team, right, and we submitted to the Mayor's office to prevent gun violence, that we're going to the conference, and they said they didn't deem it necessary. We're gonna send two people, and they didn't understand the need for me to take my team to the national game crime. We sent to national conference and we're Gangster is making

astronomical community changes dealing with issues of gang violence. There's always something there to try to prevent us from moving forward. But we had to continue to fight for solutions, right, So in that we had to make it work, and that's what this work is about. But at the same time, not just on that level, if we're talking about working

on with individuals in our community. If to like look at the incident with the TEND people's shot, if we had a post on that neighborhood and we knew that conflictence bruining, it takes resources to take those two groups who have no space to to mediate. And when you think about the conference, nobody wants to sit on the corner with TEND people on this side Tipically that's side of anybody got guns and trying to mediate the conference.

It's not gonna work. There's no mediator there. Somebody's obsessing. So we have to create mediation spaces for then wherever there's conference of gangs or whatever clicks in our city. And in that there's times where we had to take a group of individuals and sit down and pay for

dinner or lunch to have that conversation. Then go get the other group and have dinner on lunch with them and they don't want no pizza because they in the speech husband they want a pizza, And then work to bring that group together right and that these are different types of resources and just like the systems said, you know, how how can I not have to count the city if I see a person who was upset about a hundred fiftiesip that somebody got him for and if I

know I could save a life by being able to say, here's a gift car for two hundred hours. Bro, It's not even that serious, right, We got that, yo, Bro, don't do that again. You see what I'm saying. He still want to do what he wanted to do regards, but we want you to know that our world has been been that you made a bad mistake, and let's work with you to make sure that you don't make mistakes like that because that's gonna lead to somebody dying. So we had to look at all these things and

understand that the resources are extremely important. And on top of that, because I've been attracted about my salary before and they don't know the level of work that I do. Right, I'm I'm the CEO, and I'm in the train in two with my team. Right, it doesn't stop, but it's it's about also understanding that this is what I do twenty four steps it there's no stop point for me.

And in that work I have to provide for a family, and I cannot be looking like I'm starving in the street, hurting and telling somebody that the positive life is the way to grow. And man, that's I'm not trying to hurt, like yeah, yea, look at but I'm not with that right.

That doesn't make sense to the people. So it's about understanding that there's value in the work of of of of who we are and what we do, and that it takes resources to keep us working right, because I can't I got a bunch of I got kids, So how do I provide for my kids? I chose this work right, and I chold to build up the ability to be able to finance myself and anybody else in the community that I can finance to do this work.

And that's where we have to grow. We grow more provincionists and we're able to fund more provincionists on different levels. It's not just about the street work we're doing, but on different levels the mental health perspective, right, that's not getting the resources that it needs. So when we get people understand we need so many different levels of resources to deal with these issues, then we'll really start to see the changes that we're looking for and we're working towards.

I said it all the time. I said, those directly impacted pollution man. And like you said, if these young most of these young kids are committing acts of violence out of poverty, poverty is violenced, you know, and you and these communities a lot. They on the corner, hustle in the skin and making a couple of hundred dollars. And we have organizations and I say all the times, like you said, gangster is making astronomical changeing. Gangster's stopping violence.

Right when you gangster, you can tell somebody, yo, we're not beefing. Ain't nobody shooting on this block. We're gonna hold this block down. The ladies gonna feel safe, the kids donna feel safe, and the fun. And when we're able to fund that mentality, when we're able to give these young kids, that the the ones who have the reputations in the hood, the up and coming ones who would normally have been the shooters, and say, look, we want to fund you to make sure that this block

is safe. This is your block, you think it's your block, making sure you don't. We don't need nobody shooting out here. We make sure these kids got opportunities, they got on resources, they got after school, they got basketball, they got traveling teams, all the things that keep you out of them the streets. Like if we can, if we can fund our communities to do those things, then we can change the narrative. Then we then we we we create with cool is

right now? Cool is you shoot you the shooting you and you man down somebody you call the stain as they said, that's being cool. So when we when we start saying, yo, the cool dude right here ain't going to jail. You know what I'm saying, He ain't going to jail. He got more money than you, and he cool. He got the same girl you're trying to get, and

he ain't doing nothing negative. Then we can compete. I told you my my message is to take the positivity out of negativity and put the positivity and positive right exactly what you said. We have to now show him. Yeah you see me, I'm looking good. I might gotta pare this and that. Yeah, I'm doing positive right. I got people who see me that year a rapper. It happens all the time, you know. I got the chain on that looks like a wrapping something, right, and I

say no, guess what I do. I prevent violence and they all struck like you're serious? Yes, right, the perception right, So this is what we have to get in going back to what you said, Mike, think about and that's what we gotta get a society think about. Think about going to all these neighborhoods with the resources to say all you, you, and you and you. I know you got a reputation out here. I know they respect you

out here. I'm going to make sure that you have a yearly salary to make sure these these shootings do not happen. So when you were gonna do the neighborhood, listen, don't mess up my money with no shootings, right, that's the mindset you gotta have. Right, you're a gangster, right, you're saying you're a gangster. All right, As a gangster, you should baby tell So don't shoot out here. We're

not doing that, right, don't mess up my money. Look at how you want to especially women and children are outside, especially the window especially, And that's that's the messaging right once up at the time, as we get the to understand one, don't shoot two if you have a problem and you feel that you have to respond, we want to find an outlet for you. But if you feel like that's the demonster says, we gotta check our women

and children. So that is our main messaging, right, If somebody is not of that life, then you should wait for any type of action. I don't give as a fight. You don't go up into a public restaurant and engage in a fight because you're now gonna engage people who have nothing to do with that, and an innocent person will get hurt. So the messaging has to change overall. Right, the people who are pushing this energy we have to

reach out to, including our state prisons. I want us to remember that there are people are sitting in jail with life oppressed, with no money, and they're using their reputation there. There's their status that all of that to push those young brothers in the street to keep moving like that because that's all they got, right, So we

gotta get on top of them as well. Information how people donate and if you take us out, Yeah, you can find g MAC at www dot Gangster g A n G S T A macin m A c K I and dot com UH and Our donation button is right on our page PayPal. You can find us on there. Look up shandonly Fatther to see the work that we're doing in New York City and what I'm going to do for Brooklyn as a whole. Bless you brother again.

In the perfect world we would be able to operate in a way that is and that's that to who we're serving, not the grant tour you know, um, But I'm Tia Bell, founder to Trigger Project. Check to true reasons I grabbed the gun eball from risk were the voice of the young inns and the shooter. And our website is www dot the Trigger Project dot org. We're on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at the Trigger Project DC. And we do have a cash shop because we're not

that big. So it's dollar sign Trigger Project. And you are donating to and supporting again the nourishment, the enrichment, UM, just the betterment of the young people that I served. We make. It's just that and work together. Yeah, you gotta connect man. We want to thank you all for being a part of this conversation. Um. Continue to do the work you do. We do the work so we understand what it takes. We understand how unfunded, undefunded this

work is, how unglamorous it is, how it's criticized. You know, I understand definitely what Shand goes through, being somebody from that life, coming from the streets and really wanted to do something better. And people don't want to see you do better. They don't want to see you evolved. They don't want to believe that you can evolved because you're able to utilize you know, soliloquy, I mean colloquialism and and and understand the language and understanding where the uniform

of the culture and be effective and really change. I want you to know that when they're attacking you and it's and it's and they don't believe and you being able to do what you do, one of the main reasons is they don't believe in themselves and they can't do nothing but ridicule someone else. Family, We want to thank you all so much. It took a lot of your time today. Um, this is gonna be a really powerful episode that I think a lot of people will

gain information. And you know, generally we do ten minutes, fifteen minutes. It's kind of moving along quickly because we do live in a society and in a time where everything in media is fast fast, but today we want to slow it all the way down and really be able to give folks the opportunity to YouTube, the opportunity to express the real nitty gritty of what's happening. Anybody who wants to get this thing right. If you are

somebody who's out there and you say, listen, I have power. UM. I am a corporate leader, I a philanthropist, I'm an elected official, I'm whoever, and I have the ability to make a change. These folks know what they're talking about.

And these are just two of thousands of people across this nation who do the work every single day and they know not just the communities that they know the blocks, they know the buildings, they know the apartments, they know the people, they know the hospital, they know the intricate details, and they need our support. So until freedom, our organization UM is you know, working very uh diligently. My son is leading the campaign to black boycott, black murder, but

also street politicians as a platform these six episodes. I'm proud of them, my son, because you know, we really have focused in and honed in on what we know. UM. But street. Politicians will not stop here in terms of getting out being using our platform to share a message about the work. We have to do it for ourselves. We can't wait for any else to tell our stories. Very very powerful individuals. That was dope. That was dope. They had a little synergy there, you know what, they

had good energy, man, they both respected each other. It's this work is you know, it's not glamorized. You know, it's not even understood the time. But when you see people like them who really are passionate about the work, who come from the community, who who understand, Like when you listen to them, you know that they understand what's needed to stop violencing the community. Have the right level

of passion, skill and love that is needed. Man. That when I'm listening to t I can tell these young boys and girls sit around her and she treats them with love and tenderness and she and she pours into them and she wants those resources to be able to give to them. Listening to Shan, do I know that

he really wants to change? I know, you know he identifies with his own mistake and you know, being led astray and and the mind state that it took when he was involved in that street life, and he really wants to be able to give back and redirect a lot of our youngsters in our communities right now. So it's really dope to have conversations like that with people like that. Yeah, I feel like I felt like there was, as you said, synergy between Tia and Shan Duke. That's

really important. Right. It's like this is the first time that they met, but they talked about that language and they both speaking and you would think, well, if you didn't know that, they just today UM on our platform had their first conversation. If you didn't know that, you would think they've been working together for years. Because the model, the model and the depth of knowledge is the same.

Yet different places and spaces mean that you have to be creative and how you approach things, and we can learn from one another. I think that there is something to be said about the to me they UM they to me, I felt like they were in a beautiful dance. Uh. In conversation. It flowed so well that at times I lost myself in trying to understand and digging deep with what they were saying, because there was nothing fake about it. It's extremely authentic and it's coming from a place of

real understanding. And you can only get that understanding when you're out there knocking doors, talking to people, saving lives and really working with our people. And guess what, none of us are perfect, right. I'm sure that within their organizations, within their lives, they struggled with all types of things. I think we're all constantly in a battle with ourselves before, you know, how can we do better? How can we be stronger? How can we support more? How can we

be supported more? Um? But at the end of the day, I know for sure that these two individuals are doing some real powerful work. And the other thing I was gonna say is that there are other folks that I've reached out to when you've reached out to and not long after we talked to them, there's some drunk Oh, you know, why did y'all come to my town and you didn't call me? Or why did you do this? Or you know whatever, which you try to respect people all the time and when they say why did you

come downtown? And we make sure that we work hard to to to mend those relationships when we feel it's necessary, and when those individuals have a certain left of respect. But the thing about Tia and and why I know we're not crazy is because as soon as I've reached out to her, she was like, we have the late.

All of these connections have to be made. I'm gonna introduce you to my people who introduced me to yours, because she never ever started with the old Well, you know, y'all came the d C one time and stepped on my toe and hurt my mom is back and did this. It was straight from the beginning, y'all what y'all trying to do? You know, tell me more about who you are,

and we beginin. We jumped right in and you could see that energy from her in this conversation, which tells me that it's a lot of other people out here that really don't have our community's best interests at hard. And and that brings you to what I don't get. You know, I don't get why people see the need to try to hate what tis somebody down that's doing work that they don't do. You know that they that

they're not even willing to do. Like if you look at most of the people who criticize, you know, brothers like Shan do or brothers like myself or sisters like you, you know, who literally on the front line doing this work. They are doing nothing, you know. And I don't understand how people think that they even have do they have the authority, they have any level of credence who have to critique people who are actually doing work, like this

work is a day and night job. Man, You know what Shan Duke was breaking it down, how this is his lifetime's work. You know, this is his lifetime's work.

I've seen the article in the paper about Sean King and his house and him having a house, and people want to criticize, and it's for me like, well, why should a man who gets death threats, who puts his life on the line, who we've seen do work to to get people of death roads to who we've seen raised money for people who's been in jail to come home and buy them houses, who we've seen raised money for different situations and people we've seen him fight, you know,

and get police officers who have done things, identified them, found that the new the number of them, found people who are who are wronged and and and somehow got the address and got them to charge. Like when people are literally doing work to that that significant in that real and that threatening to your own life. Why should they be starving? Why should we not want to see them happen? You know? And it's and it's and and

why do people what do? What does it get? What does it give you to to to tear people down and hate on people that are doing work? Literally, even if you don't agree with everything, like it's people, I don't agree with everything. When I see somebody is doing something, especially something that I'm not willing to do or able to do, you know, or don't know how to do.

You know, I could could, I could partigue it or preticithering. Ah, well, I think this is never at the end of the day, I'm not trying to tear you down because I know whatever it is that you do, if I'm not able to do it or doing it and it's actually helping or done something to somebody attests to the fact that

you're really doing work. I don't have anything there going to say about that, you know, as long as about evolution is about saving our communities are gonna build and it's about community and I'm all for man and I think more people should have that monstery. You want to know what I think what I don't get it. You don't get it because it ain't to be That's it, because if we don't get it, we're supposed to get

it because it ain't to be got. So once again we had another make shoot that you follow, Shan Duke, Mike Fatter, g Matt and Tia Bell the Trigger Project doing real phenomenal work. You hear you hear it. You see who they are, dope individuals and I'm your host, my song this is Tamika Mallory. She's not gonna always be wrong and I'm not gonna always be right, but we will guarantee you of the time will always be authentic. Number one show. That's how we owed it. That's how

we owed it. That's how we owed it. That's how we owed it. That's how we owed it.