What's up.
Family, it's your girl to Mika D.
Mallory and it's your boy, my son the General.
And we're your host of street politicians, the place and Holst.
We've got our.
Good old orange T shirts on today which represent Gun Violence Awareness Month.
This is the first week of gv.
A M, which is a time in New York City where anti violence organizations, advocates, partners, families, people who've been impacted on either side of a gun, the shooter and or the victim all come together to focus on UH, the anti violence movement, to bring attention, awareness, and support to the movement, UH, and really to just to put some some attention on the fact that there are models that work, and in New York City, we have a model which we've you know, we'll be talking much more
about called the Crisis Management System. And we know that over many years, the number of violent crimes and violent incidents have been reduced by the work of so many folks. You all will see and hear the footage of the press conference that happened today where hundreds of anti violence activists, experts, organizers.
We're at City Hall with the city officials, city council members, and other government officials and of course the Mayor of New York City, and you know, standing there announcing some important things that we'll talk about later on the show.
We have been doing this for a long time, and history is going to show that the first crisis management funding came from an idea I had in the State Senate called snug gun spelled backwards first, allocation of money first, and it has moved into the movement you see behind us.
And so when people believe that folks of.
Color want to normalize gun violence in their community, they are wrong.
They are wrong.
This is a real issue that we want to attack head on. But what we don't want to do is minimize the complete picture that must be addressed. By the time a person picks up a gun, we've already failed.
We've already failed. Now I said this over and over again.
There are many rivers that feed the sea of violence, and it's time to damn every river, not just one with law enforcement.
Damning every river is what we're going to do.
The epidemic of gun violence is not a New York problem. It's not a Democrat Republican problem. Tulsa is a red state. The shooting that took place there was a red state. An announcement came over just a few minutes ago of a sixteen year old attempting to recruit others in Berkeley to go in and shoot up a school.
Every day we're hearing about this.
It's breaking our hearts, breaking our bodies, and breaking our communities. When a bullet hits the target, the physical bullet stops, but the emotional trauma rips apart the anatomy of our entire community.
And there have been more mass shootings.
Think about this for a moment, more mass shootings in America than days of the years. Some unbelievable. And we've normalized it. We say it's okay, and I think we often dismiss it because the victim of handguns violence, for the most part are black and brown, and then the inner cities all across America. So we've normalized it and stated that that is just the way it has to be. And we're saying today, your damn right is not going to be that way.
We can turn it around and make it happen.
And yes, instead of gu n s, let me give you another four letters. How about jobs. Let's get our children jobs. Let's put them on a pathway of employment. That's why we have one hundred thousand sem of youth jobs, first time in the city history. Thank you Jomini Williams for pushing this for years. That is why we're pushing
the tail corporate America. We want a one hundred percent paid internship program throughout the school year leading into our fosdy care children to give them the support they need so they don't age out at twenty one, give them mentors until their twenty six. All of these things are gonna help us deal with this issue in a real way.
Time to take our.
City upstream and build real partnership with people who are tired as I am, of pulling people out of the river downstream.
This is our moment.
You do not elect me to do what everyone has done in the past. You wanted a different outcomes and you picked a different mayor. And trust me, it's a lot of noise out there. Everybody's gonna critique us. Everybody's gonna start telling them, why didn't you pick this one, Why don't you pick that? Because I'm the mayor and we're gonna make the decisions now to save our children with the level of urgency that we deserve.
Today, what you see behind us is not just the government may to happen, because to be clean, we were told no every time that we asked for resources. When we first started, we met with the mayor at the time and he looked Erica Ford and not dead in the face and said, there is no proof that what you're trying to do will work.
But we proved it.
They sent us back.
They told us to get data.
And all that Erica has mentioned in terms of how many days, weeks, years, months went by without shootings in this city, we did that together. Now, once the pandemic came, it changed a lot for everybody.
So stop trying to act like.
In media who you are here, if you have any moral conscious, tell the true story.
Violence is up everywhere. In fact, in nineteen.
Sixty three, Malcolm X got in big trouble for saying something that we see today but is that the chickens are coming home to ruths.
As we see.
Shootings happening across this nation, shootings of all types, mass.
Shootings, violence everywhere. Remember that this.
Group we told you, we told.
You what would happen.
We gave you the forecast of what would happen to this nation. If we did not deal with mental health, if we did not deal with the lack of jobs and resources, if we did not address food, deserts and other concerning issues in our community. We already told you that today would come, and so if we are to go forward and this nation is to be better, this group is an example of what must come together in order to address those concerns. The police force cannot do
it alone. If they could have, CMS would have never been needed.
The government cannot do it alone.
Half the time, they can't figure out from one side to the other what to do.
It takes all of us.
But the main thing is that the people must.
Be centered here.
Your title is your title.
I'm a part of a very robust group of advocates that I'm very proud to be a member of, and a lot of us know each other respectfully. But thank you to Mayor Adams for naming me to be the gun violence Prevention Czar in New York City. A new title. It's the first ever, and it should be. As he mentioned, we should want some things that are different. We've been dealing with this issue for far too long, and we've been using the same tactics over and over again, and we've been getting the same results.
So no one should have a problem.
With us trying something different, right, give us a chance to prove our self work. We are the people who are closest to the problem, right, so quite naturally we have the answers to those problems. There's nobody that wants gun violence to in more than the young people that come from the neighborhoods and the people who live in this community every single day. And so this is a community driven approach. When you hear about the state or the FEDS and.
Now the city, now include the community. That's the fourth leg of the chair.
That you're sitting on, MARCHA. The community that we represent.
Can create.
As you heard mentioned that this podium solutions for themselves, and we're going to work hand and sync with that community to make sure that we deliver the things that they say that they need, the things that they said that they want, and these men and women behind me are trained to deliver those resources into.
Those neighborhoods where other people cannot go.
You know, I'm proud because I was one of the first, very very few. There was three of us who were the main leaders, and no more than maybe six to seven in the room at any given time.
Who put the crisis management system together?
Architect artist.
We were the architects of this movement. Erika Ford was really the brainchild. She threw all of her thoughts on the board. And Richard gup Glover, who at the time I think was at Columbia, I think he was at Columbia, he was a professor. He worked to help organize her thoughts. We did the advocacy work, our brother at Mitchell and myself. We worked together with Erica pulling it and putting it and focusing and holding it to make the crisis management
system a real thing. And here we are over a decade late later, you know, and the christ and the Gun Violence Awareness Month came along later where we decided that we had to have a month that really every single day there'll be educational opportunities and other moments for people to get together. So I was happy to be in the hot sun today with all our brothers and sisters.
Yeah, I was definitely happy to be there.
Our brother at as you mentioned he was he was announced to be the bizarre of gun Violence and Prevention from New York, So that was a big thing. You know, just he's somebody that I think his mannerisms, the way they carries itself, you know, it's it's just somebody that I look up to that called for advice a lot, and he's been a mentor, you know, he's been doing this work longer, way longer than I have, and he's and he also respects my leadership at a lot of times,
and we just have a beautiful relationship. So seeing him, you know, pointing to this position, knowing that it's in the right hands. He's somebody who definitely takes this work serious, sleep and wakes up with this work, who calls me, you know, and whenever something is going on, it's like what are we going to do? Like that's this is what we need to do. He comes up with strategy. So,
you know, I was happy to see that. And then there was a plethora of other individuals that I've known throughout the years through different channels, some just being in the streets, some from hip hop, some from just different channels, and just seeing that they've invested their lives in this work and I've seen them really transition with something good to see. And just our family, you know, we've been doing this work for so long. All of our friends
and family was out there in the sweltering heat. You know, some march all the way across the bridge. We didn't make it to the full bridge march. But I also see the young kids that I worked with at Van Sickla Middle School.
They were there at the march we put together. They actually put together it's dope.
Anti gun violence song that they allowed me to feature on that we're actually gonna be shooting a video for in the next couple of days. So that's something I, you know, was happy to see. And the principal, principal camp was there. You know, they have a beautiful program in which Wednesdays is like career day everywhere you able to.
Every Wednesday for the first two hours on first two periods you go to either music program, video program, any kind of program that you want to do and you want to invest your time.
And they take the first two periods of every Wednesday, and then there's an after school component till where you can go to after school. But these people have the state of the art studio. I'll tell you their studio is better than the studio that I work.
Like, they had a food, the kids got a great studio today.
Studio in that school, it was just amazing. I've been like, I've seen different music rooms and they have a little mic here and there set up, but this is a full fledged studio. So shout out to in Sickly Middle School and principal camp who who really invests in those children, Like you can see and you can see the investment playing off because they're happy to be there. You know, they're happy to come. They really are enthused. They're doing
something they like. They're not just learning in this mundane setting, you know, to where it's boring and looking at the chalkboard.
They're doing something that they like to do. So shout out to them.
Yeah, that's great. I mean, you know, the evolution, if you.
Will, of.
Different entities within education and.
Community and government and what have you beginning to know that there has to be a different way to educate our children, a different way to bring our young people along and help them be successful.
That's that's happening. But it's slow. It's a slut drip, but happening.
Like you said, a career day every single week. That's very different because in the past it's just once a year.
Right, career day is not just them talking about careers, showing courses and classes to where it's just creativity, it's music, it's arts, is cooking and hands on, hands on and you just in that for two periods of the day, for the beginning of the day.
You start your day off with something that you like to do.
You're not just going into a classroom and listen, and you start in your day of doing the activity that you've chosen that you want to be a part of, and you're learning and your creating and it's just dope.
But that's great. It's great. It's great.
So there's a lot out of when we're talking about youth, we're talking about violence, we're talking about you know, getting ourselves organized, and there's a lot of really really dangerous and serious things happening where I think.
We It's probably one of the reasons.
Why the evolution is such a slow drip, because it's like you're moving forward and there are people who are pushing to change the culture and to you know, really sort of I really want to be intentional about my point. There are people who are really fighting to get the government to come out of its old and sort of archaic ways of thinking about educating youth about dealing with mental health and other issues.
Right.
You know, you are one of.
Those people that constantly talks about how no one can just sit you down for two hours and just talk to you. Want back and forth about your issues. To help you with your needs. You need people from a therapeutic perspective, Yes, you could sit down and talk to them sometimes, but also that they may be able to come into your world, see what you're doing, work with you from a very hands on perspective. Now, maybe the fact that we're now in our forties we can sit still a little bit different.
But certainly a young child will not be able to learn.
The same way that other communities learn. We know that and to be you know, to receive therapeutic services and other things in those ways. And so with that being said, there are folks who are sort of pushing to change the culture. But when you have such traumatic events like what we see happening across this country going on, it takes us back. So even if you go forward, you go back because people get afraid, people get you know, traumatized.
It's a lot.
You've got four people killed, he had just you know, in the last four to twenty four hours. Obviously, we're taping this show, so when people hear it, it will be a week old.
And that's a thing that it's a week old. By the time, you know.
Several days passes, we're like, well, that happened a week ago.
Buffalo shooting happened.
You know now, I don't know, probably fifteen sixteen days ago. It's not a long time, but in media time, the cycle just keeps changing.
Four people shot in a medical center.
Then you have the police doing what police do, shooting an unarmed black woman who was suspected to be in a stolen car. She was with a guy, allegedly the guy I ran and the woman when they told her to get on the ground, trit to explain that she was pregnant and that she could not lay down, and the police shot her multiple times. She wasn't in a pocket, she wasn't None of the witnesses have said she grabbed for anything or did anything that should have caused her
to be shot as a pregnant woman. But again, police will be police, and so that happened. And then you have a situation where other governments are catching on quicker than us because in a place like Canada, they are banning or at least they are new regulations that will ban the sale of purchases for certain types.
Of handguns, right or maybe all handguns.
So people are like, yo, we're seeing what's going on in America, and we're not gonna sit by and allow our nation to be riddled with the same types of watunate traumas.
I don't know what the hell they're doing in Washington, d C.
We ultimately have no choice but to fight for and fin for ourselves.
Actually, you know.
And and now I'm hearing that there's going to be legislation passed in New York City.
Will be an open cab state. I mean New York state. I apologize New York State.
That seven worse like when we when we look and see that gun violence is up, and then we're gonna make it more easy to access guns. I don't even understand how we don't realize that's a recipe for disaster.
You know.
The reality of situation is everybody shouldn't have a gun, you know, And that's what the problem is. Obviously, the guns are getting into the hands of people who shouldn't have guns. When you look at these mass shootings. These aren't you know, cultable, you know culpable ready, you know informed people, it would have packed the background check and should be able to have guns. So when we understand that something is not working, why do we continue to
exacerbate the mistake. It doesn't really make sense to me. You know, New York is on fire with gun ViOS. People who don't are getting illegal So now you're gonna make it a lot easier for somebody who shouldn't have a gun to get it.
I just don't understand the logic. Just don't.
We don't need people on the trains in New York that are already suffering.
From like all types of traumas.
I don't even know what it's called. That's going to go on the train.
People fucked up people.
People, and they buy a gun.
People fucked up out here, Jack.
And the thing is you we look at our police, who supposedly are trained to deal with situations, and they say they fear for.
Their life and they make mistakes and they shoot.
So you gonna give guns to people who got nothing near what the police got and hope that in situations such as road rage when somebody cuts you off and they get out and they got a gun name blowing your head.
You see, we literally seen sick people.
Driving on a highway and shoot a cause because they arguing.
So yeah, but I mean your point is so valid, my son, because when you think of the fact that young kids sat in the classroom for over an hour, some shot, some almost dying, others who I've been told was shot a second time because there was so much room for additional horror, you know, sat there for over and out.
And now, I mean, I don't even know.
How you talk about kids, babies who for one second, if your baby is lost from you in a crowd for one second, it can turn into a complete meltdown and break down for a child. So imagine people bloody, you know, big boom, sounds of shots going off, and there was no help. So these police officers who stood, they said at least nineteen officers were in the hallway
standing there. If they didn't do anything to deal with the shooter, why are we now, all of a sudden, so convinced that a resource officer is going to do something.
So if that's the case, then fuck it. Fire the police officers.
Exactly. If you've given us all guns to telling us protect ourselves.
What is the police officer doing that we can't do ourselves.
I don't know.
Nobody's explained that to me. So just thinking about so much stuff that's happening. I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, as they say, I don't even know if theorist is a word, but I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist person. But I'm really just trying to figure out my because there's so much to process, and the last few weeks I've been like, I don't even want to post anything on socials because I got to like think before, I got to like gather my thoughts
and gather myself before I speak. But I've been noticing over the last few weeks that while we're dealing with all this trauma in terms of like how what type of horrific incidents are happening, there's also.
Mad health challenges.
Like I'm trying to figure out if when you get old, allergies come on. I mean, I'm really I know this is totally off topic.
No, it's a real thing because I never had no damn allergies to like last year, I didn't even know what no allergies was like I would sneeze a little bit, But.
Now I feel like I got I can't breathe.
I feel like my eyes is always itching, I got a something in my Throat's like cotton balls in my nose. It's like, Yo, this is the worst shit I've ever felt. And it just started happening. And I'm like, when did all this shit just start happening?
The last two years I have been experiencing allergies.
Last year wasn't as bad.
This year.
I literally had several incidents, like different periods where I could not breathe, my throat was hurting, I was feeling exhausted. I almost felt like I had a flu, but I didn't because you know, I get a COVID test very often, and you not.
The COVID HU about that.
You No, No, no COVID tests that I get. They test for the flu. Also, that's why they swab me a little deeper because they go for the flu as well. You know, you should learn how to get you some of those.
No thinking me.
I do, but I feel like, wow, like what what? I don't understand it.
And people have been saying like the environment is not what it should be. So I'm thinking like, is it is can aalogies be caused by the environment, even today at the press conference, But then how is pollend We need like a medical expert, Like how is an environmentalist? How is pollen impacted by like global warming and all of that.
I feel like it could be.
I mean what happens is trees are growing, and the more the warmer it gets, I guess trees are going fast and they probably producing more poling. I can't really give you. I'm just that was just some shit. I thought it, well, yes, but when you drive around now, you literally seeing clogs of polland everywhere. Like I was driving on a highway and I could just see the shit. I had to close my window. I couldn't even breathe because it was so much pollen that started coming inside
my car. So like I see, like I guess being sick when when something ails you and you know it, you know it's the cause of your sickness, and you see it, you get real.
So I'm very aware of piling that.
Yeah, I mean, you know, we pay attention to coughing. Anybody coughs, everybody's like, why are you coughing? And I noticed today at the press conference that in the middle of the mayor speaking, he had to keep breaking to cough.
It's allergies. It probably, of course I didn't.
Ask him, but everywhere I go, I'm noticing that more people are like, yo, I'm really dealing with it. I'm scratching, you know, people are experiencing the side effects of I guess an analogy to polin as you said, And I'm just like.
I don't want to do conspiracies because I don't know.
But it's like all these things are happening at the same time, and it's real weird out with.
The fluid this, you know, this variant. Everybody's allergies is acting up. The football players is dying suddenly, like.
It's just like y'all.
Every time I turn, every time I open my Instagram, I'm seeing somebody that die. And I'm noticing football players, basketball players like or at least a former or current they just checking out. It's a car accident, it's a heart issue. Rappers, of course, so entertain us. It's like the energy I saw on John Gray, Reverend John Gray's page, he said, we need a revival of the soul, and I thought that was the most powerful.
Thing that I have read in a long time.
We need a revival of the soul because.
This is we need zero texts.
And I feel like white supremacy.
Amplifies all of the shit exactly.
It's like you gotta call you gotta allergies and you've got white supremacy.
Well, because they don't want to acknowledge, you know not they but the system has failed to correct or address environmental issues. There's not even an acknowledgment from UH, from the Republican Party in particular around the fact that global woman is an issue and that we're having climate change. So that's one thing policing is out of control. Also something that will being fought tooth and nail on.
Everything.
So that's the deal to today.
Yes, we are being joined by two women who we talked about Gun Violence Awareness Month. There are two women who were instrumental in helping us to get this month off the ground, and for the last several years we've all worked together in different capacities to refine it and to continue to work up the crisis management system in different ways.
You've got within.
Well, we'll let them talk about what CMS looks like and all the types of folks that work within the Network, miss Orisa Napper Williams of Not Another Child, and also our dear sister mss e Fae Charles, who has been in the trenches with me for a real long time and she has been a strategist in this movement, working in the Bronx and working in different words organizations, but now she's actually working on, you know, changing the culture within the court system in New York, which is a
part of it. So that's what the Network is supposed to be all about, holistic work.
So let's bring them on.
So as has been mentioned, we're being joined during Gun Violence Awaren this month in New York by two really really important individuals.
On this show, my son, we always.
Have our friends, friends, friends, and more friends, but we do know some incredible people who do incredible work. And Gun Violence Awareness Month is important, really special to me because we started it with these individuals some years ago, you know, working to try to make sure that the city of New York is really focused on the people doing the work and the people who are truly impacted.
And the two people that we're joined with today two black women, by the way, and you can't say, oh, we only have black women on this show that do things, because we've been having a lot of black men lately, so don't even try it. But miss Arisa Napper Williams of Not Another Child, and also miss Efe Charles, who
is she has a big title. First of all, she worked with People and Culture Center for Court Innovation, so she's in the system transforming the system, but also is the immediate past leader, if you will, of anti violence projects and initiatives in New York City. She has been working in the Bronx coordinating and organizing all of us for some time. Miss Arisa is actually a mother who lost her son two gun violence, and so we're dealing with two people who are very very close to both
of you. I think, also, Ife, you lost the child as well.
In my my son did not die from gun violence, but I've lost the son.
Yeah, okay, but you lost the son. So that in and of itself, so we're we're we're talking with two individuals today and my son and I have just been really trying to get into this whole idea of shootings happening across the country and what it means. Some of it, of course, is racially incentivized, or at least racially motivated. Others are mental health situations. You have other things that you know are poverty, uh motivated. So there's shootings happening
and people are noticing it. And one of the things that I said today when I spoke at and of course we were taping this show today for an upcoming show excuse me, an upcoming episode of Street Politicians. But one of the things that I said today is that we as in this group, the CMS group, which is the Crisis Management System in New York, as well as individual organizers around the City of New York, have sounded
the alarm. And I talked about how in nineteen sixty three, Malcolm X said that the chickens were coming home to roots. And here we are watching it happen happen across the nation, where people like you, miss Sorisa and Efe have been out there hitting the pavement telling the government, officials, corporations, community members that if we did not stop to deal with this issue, we are going to experience an insurmountable level of violence across the nation.
And here we are. People are afraid, they're fred to leave their homes.
We've got shootings at grocery stores, We've got shootings in hospitals, we've got shootings just in general, and schools of children, and yet here we come to a place where everybody's saying what to do, and yet we have laid out a blueprint years and years and years.
And years and years.
So we want to talk about that blueprint today, and my son, let me kick it to you to invite these two wonderful ladies to be a part of our conversation.
Quite thank you, quite thank you.
As you just mentioned, we just left a press conference in which we spoke about Gun Violence Awareness Month, which is the start of the gun violence Awareness Month. But if you see these shirts, this is the gun violence awareness movement because for us who do this work, it's just not about a month, it's not about a day. It's all the time. And we go to sleep and we wake up with this work. And we've been joined by two phenomenal women, Black women who've been on the
forefront of this work for a long time. So I just want to start with Efa, who right now is you know, she has elevated and evolved into she's inside the system now and you know she's able to attack it that way. But she's always been a frontline worker. You know, like you said, she's been in the bronx organized and putting together some of the best crisis management
systems and organizations that we have. So EFA, you know, we look at this influx of violence, right, and like like Tamika said, the chicken's coming home the roost, and we've been saying what was going to happen? What do you think is the major cause? And what should how should they be attacking it?
Well, first of all, you know, I want to salute to you, sister Tamika ant and my brother my son. You know, when you sit back here and in spaces with the both of you, there is a conscious awareness that I hold on to you from both of you guys, right, because there's a consistency in the way that you do
this work. To my sister, Bariso always salute you, says, just for what you're doing now because I think as you talked about that when Malcolm talked about the chickens coming home to roost, we are here now, right, We're here hens beep and you know the rooster's growing. Right,
That's what's going on right now. And so in my experience and in my work, and I go back to brother at Mitchell, who when we started doing some stuff way back and we had these sites that were being evaluated and research to come up with systems to address gun violence. I think the way that my brain always works about this is their compartmentalization of what's acting happening.
There's two pieces to this, right, you have this national piece where gun laws need to be changed, policies need to be uplifted, you know, marginalization of people needs to be definitely destroyed. And then you have on a local level where there's a need for involvement. So when we just talked about my song, when you talked about the work that we've been doing or reselling you and Ta making a bunch of other folks, It's about consistency. It's
about consistency in the way that you lead. It's about consistency in the way that you address problems. Too often, what we do as a city is we run for the newest and latest thing, right, not looking at what has worked really in the past and sticking with it. You can have a cookie cutter approach to gun violence. You cannot, right because just levels to this madness. Like I say this, I was telling to Meka last night.
There's levels to this ship. If I can custom can I say customers for this LTTS right, it's my acronym that I made of this levels to this ship. And so too often what happens is that, you know, you have people who want to be in the front, but there's work that needs to be done behind. And I think when we talk about what's the approaches and what we need to do, I think we need to seriously evaluate who's doing work right, staying that we will each
have a role in this work. There is something that's going to fight from a macro level and there's those that are going to fight from the inside on the street level, which is a lot of what CMS is doing, but addressing it comes from both angles. It just can't be one solution. And I think that's what people are
trying right now is just one approach. And I think Malcolm's quote of the chicken comings home to roosts, we will be roosting for quite some time if we don't look at the multiple levels to gun violence.
And miss SORIESA. You know, what do you think we need to do?
How do you think we should be attacking and what do you think you know is the most sustainable strategy. Have to be in this movement for so many years and seeing what's work, seeing what's failed, understanding after we just heard the mayor and his speech about how he plans to go about it, what.
Is your opinion.
So first, thank you Mice and make Up for inviting me today. It is simply a pleasure to be here with you, guys, and thank you for always seeing me as more than a parent, more than a mother that lost a child. And I really think the way that CMS has always moved forward where we always moved together before you.
Go forward, because I think we keep saying CMS and we have not explained.
Yes, so folks will.
Say, well, what are they talking about? Don't tell us what you are part of.
In New York.
So it is the New York City Crisis Management System. Several models was looked at from over the country, and we know that the biggest model, I would say, at that time that actually had the data that it worked was pure balance, which was balance interruptors and outreach workers. But the co architects in New York, you know you guys Ata to meet EFE, all of you pioneers from years ago, saw that that was not enough for our
city and what we need. And you guys are are pioneers, so let me know if I got the history right. But you know, you guys knew that it was more that after you took the gun out of a hand, after you gave a job, therapeutic support was still needed, professional mental health services was still needed. Employment opportunities, you know,
was still needed. And so the system comprises of not just the balance and diruptors and the outreach workers as the anchor, but also the wrap around services which is greatly needed. A lot of models do not reflect the mental instability.
That comes along with gun violence.
It does not reflect the layers of drama that is a leading cause of gun violence.
And see them as does.
And so I think, going back to MYCE question, you know, that's what we need to do is.
Expand on that.
Right now, CMS is only in and if they correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it's thirty something, maybe forty sights in about sixteen catchment areas or something to that effect.
But it needs to be expanded on.
The other thing that was spoken of today was the interconnecting with city agencies. You know, no longer should we be working in silos where I never forget. I have a parent that I was with and her son was murdered. She was at his house visiting him for his birthday, which was two days prior.
She heard some arguing. She went out to the steps and he was like, mom, good, I'm good.
When in next thing she heard was gunshots and came out and saw her child rolling down the steps.
When we went back a.
Day later, his blood still laid on the ground.
And so.
We need sanitation.
To be a part absolutely.
To be even given a time constraint of no. Twelve to twenty four hours, this blood.
Should be off of our streets.
Our parents should not be and family members should not be re traumatized to come back and see the blood of their loved ones there. And so I think having someone in in the position of the tsar, you know which he is from the streets and know the needs from there to be able to come back and implement it with the help and the support of the city agencies is dope.
You know.
And I think it was Ephae that said a little while ago, you know that we just always do is comfortable. We do the same things over and over. This is a major monumental like this has never happened before, So I'm looking forward to the success with it.
Well so for folks who are listening, those who may not understand, because we're so close to it that when we speak of it, we speak as if everybody knows and they should and they should.
But today, well let me go back before that.
Over a decade ago, a number of us came together
to work on building the crisis Management System. We were told no by previous administrations because the purpose of the crisis management system and our fight was to get resources for formally incarcerated individuals, youth, families whether they be victims, and or the families of victims, to be advocates, people to work in hospitals, people to be there with therapeutic services, people to deal specifically with, you know, extreme mental health issues, jobs,
so on and so forth. That was the model that we came together to create, and through that model we created CMS. And the first and I think Mayor Bloomberg was the mayor who told us no. But it happened to be that at that time there was a mayoral election and all the candidates wanted our support because we had organized ourselves around the city to be a force, and gun violence numbers were up, and so people were
looking for our support. And to her credit, Christine Quinn was the speaker of the city Council but also running for mayor, and of course Jimani Williams was a city council person at that time, along with a brother of Fernando.
Fernando Right, He's was the city council person.
And so we worked with them outside of Nia Bloomberg to get the first five million dollars distributed to grassroots groups one million dollars per borough, five boroughs in New York, so that they could do gun violence intervention work. What we learned was that the major thing that they would focus on was data, and so we learned that and we knew we had to provide data that shows the
shootings were down. Shootings dipped tremendously, and as a result, now crisis management, the crisis management system is up to over a hundred million dollars that goes to individuals who are formal who are organizing and employing formally incarcerated folks and you know and others.
At Mitchell, who's one of those.
In the beginning, is now the new czar I've been saying Czar, but anyway, Czar.
Yar, Czar, I was saying, kaz okay.
So he got a title, y'all, he got a title.
We got a Yeah.
The Star Violence Intervention and Prevention in New York City today was announced by our mayor.
This to me once again and if you you know, jump in here.
But once again, we're setting an example, we're setting the tone again. After more than a decade, we're finding new ways to revitalize our movement for to fight violence in our city. Very similar to relationships. Every now and then, when you with a man or a woman, you've got to see evaluated.
You got to evaluate the relationship. And and that's and I think I think that's what we're doing as a city is as an evolution that's happening, right. People are evolving. And I think there was a point in this movement where we were standing still, right and we're dependent upon the funding. What I've seen with the movement, there's this innovation that is happening, right, there's this different thinking process.
This the way that we're moving around the city. And so you're right to Mika, in any relationship that you have, you've got to grow, right, do you either grow up or you grow out? I think what's happening right now we're seeing in the city this need because this is what I say about gun violence. There's a cross pollination of the effects of gun violence.
Right.
So what just happened in Buffalo, what just happened in uval in Texas? What's happening right here in the city. This is heading home for everybody. Right. It is no longer isolated. It's no longer saying well, it's only happened in Brooklyn and invest eying the row. It's only the black and brown communities. This is happening nationally and the I think now what you have is the support of folks like the President, like a man that's saying okay, so we have a model. We know that aspects of
this model works. Let's use it, but then build upon it, right, and let's take someone who's had the experience. Because I tell people all the time, this work is not for the feint at heart. If you want to do gun violence work, you have to breathe it, sleep. You also have to sometimes step away from it. Like I told Tamika yesterday, it just doesn't fit into my spirit because
just the death of people consistently could be traumatizing. So when sister Reesa starts talking about the trauma in the past, that wasn't even a part of the picture, right. So as we evolved now in the city, looking at different aspects and different tools to address gun violence. This holistic approach we talked about it. You can do this work unless you think about the entire group of people a nation, the people, right, that's who we have to think about.
And so I think the way that we're moving now in the city where we're addressing to make it. Macenga knew this like ten fifteen years ago. Mental health issue wasn't discussed with gun violence. It was never said simultaneously
that it exists in the same house. And now that we're thinking about it, we're looking at aspects as Arisa just talked about the trauma that happens, like, people are literally talking about how trauma affect individuals and not only the individuals who are victims or those who are perpetrators of crimes. We're talking about the network, right, this idea of community. So for me, when I think about it, we have evolved. We started off with five million, it's
now over one hundred plus. We have over thirty somethings sites in the city. The mayor is specifically looking at ways to broaden this aspect, not just through CMS, but in other avenues. To me, a multi layer approach to addressing gun violence is what's needed. And I think that's what we're doing and it is my hope and we have to remember this. I'll say this and I'll pass
it on. This can be resolved overnight. This is a long term investment, right, you know, like when you put your little dollar in a bank if you think you're getting three point three percent interest and it's going to grow. This takes a while, but it takes a while with people who are committed, and it's consistency.
And again I will.
Say this, because we're brown and black, the money has to match the value of the human life. And too often when we're talking about blank and brown and black communities and marginalized communities, we always want to just give a little bit, right. We don't want to open the pot fully, and that is problematic because that's not where equity is right because when we think about our others who've been injured, laws, policies, investment changes have been.
Made and it's time for that to happen.
And I think with the mayor, Atoms and others that that potentially could happen. So I'm optimistic. I really am optimistic.
I'm optimistic as well.
You know, when I was sitting here listening and I was just, you know, just looking at how the crisis management system has grown, right, and I'm seeing a lot of guys that I know, people who've been formally incarcerated, Guys that I've watched completely change their lives, change their mind states, that are really inside the communities who used to be doing harm in those communities, who have invested the same and not more energy into transforming the mind
state of the young kids who had the same mindset that they have, and they're invested in it, right. So when I understand that they're invested in it without really having the monetary things that they want, just because their heart is into it.
Right.
So when we start to incentivize that change and we start to you know, we start to reward that change, and people start to realize that, you know what, I can actually make a living, I can be successful, and I can be change in my community. I can be something positive because negativity and violence is incentivized.
In our culture.
You know, when we look at all of the negative on artists and hip hopping, all of the things, they making millions of dollars. So when these kids see them, right and they're comparing them to you, who're telling them to stop the violence, and you don't look like you successful, you don't look like you have anything, who are they really gonna listen to?
And that's what I try to say.
If you want us to heat with the violence, then you got to give us the resources and give us the ability to compete, give us the same stages, and give us the same platforms, and give us the same resources that you give the counterparts. So you know, I'm very optimistic at this point, it seems as Mayor Williams said that he wants to not only Mair Adams.
Mayor Adams Adams about.
Matt Adams said that he didn't just want to make this, you know, it's it's separate entergy.
He wanted to make this a part.
Of the first one, integrated.
Another leg of government.
He's saying that this is the fourth leg, you know, and this and this, and it really is common sense
for me. It's like when you have a community and people who are in that community every day, who know the people every day, who have relationships, who build relationships over years, who have respect in all those things, and those people are incentivized to stop the violence and utilize that respect and util all of the things that they've gained over their lives to make sure that negativity doesn't happen in opposed to just having a police system that
comes in when there's the violence is happening and comes in as an after.
You know, as a response. No, you know, you have a I think that when you.
Combine both of those days, because there will be things that you at some point it will get to a level that we might have to call police. But I think more often than not, if you give use those resources, that we'll be able to intervene and stop a lot of violence in the community. So I'm really hopeful and looking forward to what the future has. Like you said, it's not gonna be an overnight thing. It's not gonna be it's gonna have to be invested in. It's gonna
be a process. It's gonna be a long haul, but you will see the narrative shift, you will see the culture start to shift. You will see the people who are celebrated for doing positivity will start to give people those same platforms and we'll say as accolades in the same everything else that negativity has gotten for the last couple of.
Decades, ms Orisa, what exactly as a mother? I know you said that you obviously, you know you do a lot more than just focusing on grief as a mom, which in and of itself is a lot.
But what exactly do you do?
I watched you today as you know, some of our people were talking when they shouldn't have been, you know, doing things that you know you always need, you always have to have mothers of the movement, And I watched you today facilitating everything from process to behavior to you know, everything, decorum, the whole thing.
What exactly is.
It that that that not another child does? And also you specifically, how do you see your role in this movement?
Yeah, you know, I'm the smallest one, but I'm I'm the mother of all they today. And so you know, we started off with just a basketball tournament because one of the young men that played guilty to my son's murder was fifteen, and it was in the middle of the summer August seventh, and a mother when.
This happens, when this experience happens, they.
Always want to scream out so that everybody will know their hurt and how they feel. And that's where I was at, you know, But I wanted to scream out to youth, you know, fifteen year old.
I wanted all fifteen year olds to know what your choices.
And and consequences and decisions was doing the people and how they was hurting people. And I started out with what they love, basketball, game and food, you know, and set that platform to be heard.
But as the years went by, more.
Parents kept showing up, you know, from both sides of the gun, to really get that support, you know, on how can I identify if my son is really into something like this or you know, I'm just trying to get through the pain of losing my child, you know. And so we grew into more of a therapeutic organization. I would like to say that everything that we do has a therapeutic basis. So, you know, we grew into peer support sessions for parents of homicide victims because you know,
if it's left up to us, nobody knows how we feel. Nobody, but that's just us. Don't be offended if one of us say it to you, you know, that's just.
Don't nobody know how I feel.
Actually somebody may know, but you know, just those support sessions so that we can support each other, you know, without the assistance of.
A counselor and different things like that.
And so that's our our family support aspect, the peer support sessions, the retreats where we go away, you know, just different things we do with the parents, helping them to or providing therapy for them.
Unconventional therapeutic support.
We just went to Patches and Hops, which is an event space where you throw hatchets, you know, and so we made it where that's a place for them to relieve, you know, anger and things. And they also had to be you know, just looking straight forward at what they were trying to target. So we do different events and things like that for them. Even with our basketball tournament now that my song actually came to one year when
we first came up to Harlem. The therapeutic aspect of that is the teams bring pictures of loved ones that they have lost the gun violence, and we hang them all around the park so that they're playing and memory of them and you know, hoping that that will defer or deter retaliation. You know, we have other youth groups out the hood where we take kids out of their neighborhood.
You know, We've taken them to our club Jean Studio, showed them you don't have to be a rapper to be in the industry, you know, exposing them to various cultures and careers. We have BUDS which is the Brothers, Uncles, Dads and Sons mentorship program.
And we have Brown Boys Book Club.
So we do you know, we do cleanups I'll call it, you know, after child, after loved one is murdered to mecause you know, you call me plenty of days with a parent with a wife, you know, to provide support to them, but also trying to adhere our children from going either side of the gun.
You know.
And that is what we do do the other youth programs that we have, you know.
And when I hear reesa speak like, my mind is always blown at the way that we have evolved. Right that the idea of what therapy has been, because a lot of time is brown and blacks. The way that we heal and the way that we deal with things have not been mainstream. And the evolution of us as a city to recognize non traditional therapeutic services and say that all in the same sentence, that's growth for us
as city. Right because and before you know, you push the traditional and no disrespect to white folks who are clinicians, but we push the traditional whiteism of therapy on people of color, totally not engage in religion, totally not engaging the village that we have as people of color, Totally not engaging the way that Teresa just speak about parents and getting mothers together.
So the fact that.
We have now been able to recognize that non traditional support for families is under the city and it's talked about in city documents as non traditional.
That is growth.
But again, this idea around uplifting and bringing cultural competency to the fact that we grieve differently, that is recognition by the city.
Right.
I told we said this before. I remember when my son passed, he died from an illness, and when I was going through my feelings of loss and depression, I was told go to God, right, go to church.
You know, that's what you do.
What we change now, which is not bad because that's what we do as people of color back from slavery, you know, we pray to the same oppressors, or we go to the oppressors to relieve us from stuff that we're going through. But what we have seen in the city right now is a mayor recognizing the fact that which you consider to be traditional for some communities, you
can not doe for other communities. And that recognition right there in itself to me as an advancement in the way that we're approaching the work and the way that we're approaching leadership and the support that's needed. So just a Lisa talking about and I think Aresa has done it. She has put moms in the city on a local level at a higher platform because before parents of victims were not really given the opportunity within the process of healing.
Has done in the past two years, I think has made it a much more vocal point that people recognize there is a need to support parents and loved one right not just through.
Victim services, but through the.
Collective village that we'll grow into CMS. Let me ask this go.
Ahead, my son.
Know what I was going to say is I think what you touched on something that was so important you know, and it's cultural relevancy is the way that we do things. And you know, I've been I've always every government official I'm gonna be critical of. I'm not gonna just let you pass because you got black skinned, because we went to sleep before, you know. And I've been critical of some of the things that man Adams has said, you know, and I've and I've held him to it, you know.
But today he says some really powerful things, you know. And he spoke as a black man, he didn't speak as a politician, and he spoke to people and said and basically said, you don't understand us. You don't understand what it is that we go through in our communities. You don't understand how we grieve. You might not understand our lingo. Everybody here you looking at you saying what are they doing here? But the bottom line is we know,
we know what we're doing. We know we got this boogerloo thing that we do that works for us, that our community.
There's people in this that's in.
This crowd right now that can talk a gun out of somebody's hands, way different than you can. And you're gonna go there with your textbook theory of how we're supposed to go. And these people right here have been shooters, have known what it is to be shootings, been around, and they know exactly what to do. So I'm going to give them the opportunity to do what they've been doing their whole life, and we're gonna make sure that it's recognized as someone who does first response to And
that was really important for me. It wasn't just the regular old conversation that the politicians have and we want to do. He really he really spoke to that and making at Mitchell bizarre someone who I know very personal, and I know how he does this work.
I know the relationship that he has in communities.
I know his background, I know the people around him background, I know how engaged and serious he is about this work, and I know how he's going to bring more people who have that same vigor, who have that same background, who have that same intention into this work and the people he's already connected with. And I'm just I'm just really excited, man. I'm very excited.
More excited, mind, you know, I really am, because.
It's going to be culturally it's going to be culturally relevant.
Work is not going to look like what people think it is he's saying at And the thing that I respect is that he said the fact that we didn't make him part of government because we wanted him to have his autonomy to do the work the way he does it, to walk into communities the way that he does and still be connected to the community, but just an extension of a different level of government.
And that is something that I've never seen done before.
Yeah, because his respected has lived and learned experience, right, because too often what we equate is that you have to have multiple degrees in order to execute. And what he is saying is that there are lived and learned experiences.
And listen, I'm all push.
About education because it shows that you can stick with something that's continuous behavior in practice. There's theories around that, but there's also theories about someone who's had to lived and learned experience. What I like about what's happening now is that we're not glorifying our past mistakes, right, And that's when we talk about the way this movement is. There's too many that want to highlight, Oh, I was this, I was that.
I think to shift my son.
It's something you always say, even when you're talking about when I be following my own is ig and he's talking about the rappers and all that stuff. The reality is that you're talking.
Grown folks business, right.
You're not talking the fact that I am Sidney and talking I was a shooter, I'm this gangster, I'm that person I got distrike. You're saying that was a part of me. But I've evolved because I understand the impact of my own violence to myself my community, and now I need to shift, right. And so there's a shift in the mind state that you're talking about. And I think that's what you're seeing that there's a mayor that recognizes the fact that you don't have to have multiple degrees to have impact.
Right.
There's a mayrit that's saying, let's invest and use non traditional approaches to also aid in gun violence. There's a mayor that's saying, there are people that's been doing this work, who have evidence based and research data. Because you know how our city city is and how our people are.
Show me the data, show me that it's been researched, that's been able to do that, And you have a mayor that is committed and know that it takes consistency to make change that in itself is evolution, right, That is itself is innovation for us.
It is, it is, it is innovation.
It is certainly I believe in it because I believe in at and in many ways, you know, I believe in Eric also, the Mayor Adams, right. I believe in him because I know him since I was a young child, and I know that he loves black people.
However, I do feel that the one track that.
Mayor Adams may fall into that could potentially be a trap for us as a movement and for the entire city, is the trap of believing that an investment and a continued stroke of the ego of NYPD is going to somehow be the other side, the other balance, if you will, of addressing gun violence. Certainly, he said today, which of
course he's going He's a former police officer. He believes in the police and what you know, and he believes in the police and the police, right, and he said today that thirty percent of the shootings are down, and that you know, he named the number of things, the highest arrest rates of people with firearms, illegal firearms.
He talked about those things.
He's going to tout that he's also the mayor, which means he has to talk about the success of all his agencies, including the police department. But the thing that I realize and I hope and that he also understands, is that we've also added more jobs. So you've got more people back to work, right, you have more folks out in the world post COVID visiting other individuals out doing their work, getting their mental health services back on track.
And so while yes, I think the police have one role that in and of itself is not and has never been, this solution or the turn key way to address the needs of the community. So yeah, I see how policing is important, but the budget is extremely inflated for policing and there is not enough money going to the services and the other areas that I just mentioned. We know that police are funded more than any other agency, so education is not funded in the same way.
You know, foods, food.
Services, to our community housing, all those things are suffering tremendously And I really do hope that as a part of what Mayor Adams does and what he is focused on, that he realizes that there has to be a shift. And that's why, whether it frustrates people and it pisses people off. And whatever we say, defund the police, not that we want to take all the resources and completely get rid of police, but we believe that police funding needs to go down and the funding for our organizations,
our networks, and our services needs to increase. So let's see how that goes. You know, I support the work I can be whether they say it's no permanent friends, it's only permanent interests or something like that.
So we're not enemies, you know.
I tell Eric directly how I feel about some of the things.
He says, and that there's no he knows clearly.
We speak about it when we see each other professional and or social events. I have said many times I thought what you said on this is wrong or it's right. But I do think that the fact that he was there today, that he's made the investment, and that he named our brother the bizarre of gun violence intervention and prevention is putting us on the right track and once again, the people will save the city.
That's really what we're bottom line. That's the bottom line. You know, I'm with you on that. I don't you know when they started talking about defund police, I've always been like the language has always been you know, as a as a mediator, as a certified mediator, someone who's mediad cases a lot of cases in my time. The reality for me is that when we start using language, it is toxic that can inflate and that can actually create problems.
You're right to me that I get it.
They have an Although i'm amount of budget, I do think there's an opportunity to shift some of that money to other resources, right, And I'm hoping that Eric does that. I'm hoping that Maya Adams does that across this city because there is a balance, and that's what we've been talking about.
The balance. All we know is police, right, We've grown.
Up only knowing police to resolve our situations. When we look at Switzerland as a Switzerland and Sweden that have guns, they have a number of guns, their gun crime stats are so dog gone low, right, for a place that owns guns and people use guns. All we know in our country is police, and so that's the first thing that we turn to resolving all issues, whether domestic violence, whether you have your you hit your big toe, whether
you're neighbor playing music too loud, we call police. I think the shift that we're going to see right now. And I'm not saying that we don't need police.
I'm hoping at.
One point in our lives we don't have to have police resolve in everything. But the one thing that I would say is that I hope that Eric, as a former police officer, understand that you can do and sing him do this, is that you have other ways to resolve community safety. Invest in community, allow people to have community sustainability practice and plans, allow young people. Change the way that we educate our children in schools. We've taken
away trade from the schools. Right we automatically say that folks must go to college. We don't give people another opportunity to be invested in the arts, to invest in sports in other areas. Like I think with him right now, this is a great opportunity for him to reinvent the city, and I believe with the right people in place, he can do that.
Well.
We will know.
We want to keep the conversation going. We're about to start a whole sort of reinvite track of bringing back all the folks that we have talked to over time to follow up on where people are. I think what's important about this conversation today is we really kind of are helping folks who are sitting at home saying they either want to get started or they already have grassroots organizations.
What does that look like? What does the relationship look like to work with the mayor who you may have issues with on one hand, but on the other hand, they have the resources you need to deal with certain things in the community. There's many different layers to this, and I think in New York City, while we may not have figured it all out, we certainly have.
A good model for the nation.
And miss Orisa, I would say to you that your spirit and your leadership not just being again a grieving mother, which in and of itself is important, but taking that and turning it into leadership is so important because.
You keep us all centered, You keep us no matter.
I don't know anybody that has a problem with this, or Resa. We all have issues with one another. We fighting each other everywhere. I don't speak to this one, this one, don't speak over here in the third but we none of us have that.
Issue with you. And it's important to you that we love me.
That's right.
We need mothers and fathers.
That's because she comes with a pure spirit, to me, I'm gonna say that all the time. I tell people that all the time.
You gotta have you gotta have a pure spirit, and I'm giving yours.
You gotta have a pure spirit school with her because she has a pure spirit.
My motive and intent is pure. I just want to amplify. I don't want another mother to be where I am. I really really don't. And so whatever I have to do. I know everybody's staff, Like I mean, at brought me in and when my mind goes back to that first time that I met him, like that's almost like twelve thirteen years ago.
But I know everybody's staff. I just because I.
Know the important work that they do, you know, and so pure.
Heart you do, pre heart and organized has just come to the forefront a lot more, you know, given this platform to be able to do so, and because this is so important to me, Like shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge today.
No like like it was shut down I know to me because you saw it.
I know.
My but coming from the other way after going over the Brooklyn Bridge all my life, always at a standstill, always caused to see it was like we was everybody's at a standstill, just looking and bringing awareness to gun balance. And what's important about that is today was one of several times over the history of this thing as we were building it, we bought caskets over yes.
For helping us to bring this thing to fruition. And now it's time for us. You know, sometimes in the movement we get a little comfortable. People. You know, your numbers are down.
You know, you're trying to just keep things afloat contracts exactly.
But now we got we got to put the A team eighteen plus the newcomers back in the.
In the mix and on the grind, and we can save our communities. We can work with the community to save our communities. And so that's what we're going to focus on. We love you both, you know, thank you so much for your leadership. People need to be you know, we in New York have to teach the rest of the country, uh, in pockets where they don't have models like.
Ours, how to do this work. My son, you're going to take us out.
I just want to say, uh, you know, bout down to you beautiful black queens. You know, thank you for all the work that you do, thank you for the energy that you bring. Thank you for your smile. Thank you for cussing us out. Sometimes it's a reason because we'll be needing it, you know.
But I just want to say, hands on you Church Mama, like she'd be laying hands and got the Holy oil.
Give you that look together them.
That's not me, we need it.
But I just want to say I love you all and I appreciate your conte part of you.
Guys.
Man, we are just like you know when you think about the baton being pasted and the new.
Generation of folks.
Yo, bro, I'm just gonna say this to you, my son. I got nothing but love for you, y'all always in my prayer to me because you're ready now. I feel about you at the end of the day. It is just great to see the both of y'all where you bomb. I to lift y'all up in every comp Happy birth I know, his birthday and all that good stuff.
The episode airs on my birthday next on June.
Ah.
Yeah, Geminis, y'all ain't taurists though it ain't a tourist season, but I'm my son is.
It was May sixteenth, O listen, I know it was something I knew, that tourist thing. It's a rest.
Okay, thank you, thank you.
I love me and Miss Reesa and I love me.
They just two of the baddest black queens that you know, and they both do different things in their perspective ways, but they are so effective man.
So I think what's important about the two of them is that you know, there's different sides to this. There is the you know, the trauma side, which miss which both of them can speak to because Efa has been working in it and Miss Sorisa actually is living it.
And then there is the side of the organization. How do you actually put one foot in front of the other and lead people in this work so that people can be effective and so that a movement can really grow and so we can actually help to save lives. That is what today is about. Listening to them talking about leadership qualities, vetting individuals who are working in the movement, A lot of people jump up and say they're going
to work in the movement. Everybody shows up. I'm an anti violence participant, I can do this, I'm a leader. And you find out that they have more mental health issues than the kids that are out there shooting, than the people who are out there being problematic and so vetting the workers. I hope people don't miss some of what they've been talking about having mothers of the movement that can help to deal with the internal conflict, because
you have much of them. That comes up in all movement spaces, but in this anti violence work, having so many people who are passionate and yet they come from the streets, you got a lot of egos and a lot of bravado that even exists within some of the women within the work, and so that is necessary working together, being unified. First thing on this shirt, unity, all of us coming together. We have boycott Black Murder and until freedom.
You also have life Camp. You have Man Up. You have not another child, you have a Harlem mother saved. You have Jos exactly, Guns up, Life down, Guns down, Life up.
Excuse me, guns down, Life Up.
You have so many organizations in the city that's doing this work. But today we didn't go out as individual organizations. We went out as one and all of those things. Working with your mayor, working with your city officials, looking at your budgets, budgets, increasing the budgets, maintaining data, right to show your numbers in terms of how you're impacting communities, bringing people who are from the streets of the streets, you know, dealing with folks who are on both sides
of the gun. All of those things are strategies for building real movements. And you know, and I think that both of these women have a lot that they can share on what that looks like from being in this and on the outskirts.
Yes they do. And you know, I'm just like, once again, you know, there's a very big opportunity, you know, and we always say we need something different, and this is one of those moments where I think.
Something different is actually happening.
I always say that culturally relevant in us, doing things that fits within our culture, fits within our DNA is you know, we've been we've been foot fit into this cookie cutter system in the structure of the way things supposed to happen. You know, just regular policing doesn't really work in our communities.
It doesn't.
It hasn't stopped violence, it is you know, it hasn't stopped crime.
It hasn't really done anything.
It's locked more people up, but it hasn't been a solution to crime, you know, it has been a solution
to nonviolence. So I think having people who are invested in the community because they actually come from there, because their mothers live there, their sisters live there, their cousins, their own children lived there, and them speaking energy into the community, them bringing peaceful energy and nonviolent energy, providing opportunities and resources, being able to employ people from their community, and saying, hey, you don't have to be out here
with no gun. We're gonna give you a check, and we just need you to make sure that the park is safe. We just need you to make sure that you you know, you you intervene it. Like if we started centivizing you imagine if somebody got paid a couple of dollars every time they broke up a fight or got in the middle of some conflict. People would love to do it. People like I ain't getting in the middle of that. I ain't getting paid for that. That's
not my job. So when we started centivizing those things and people start realizing there's a level of honor that comes with that, there's gonna be a celebration for someone who's able to, you know, diffuse and de escalate situations in communities, We're gonna see the whole shift in the culture.
So, you know, what I mean.
The problem is, But the problem is that a lot of people want to do it, but they don't realize that once it's a job, there's actual training that goes into it, and that's what we have to focus on.
You also have to do internal work, right, like I talked about.
But the thing is, I say it all the time.
It's like it's like anything, right, It's like being a basketball player. There's a natural talent that you have and then there's coach. When you're coach once you have that natural talent and you want to be good to those just refines the talent that you have. They're mediators who just have a natural gift to mediator.
Right, and they don't have they haven't been taught to certain skills.
So when you give these natural mediators the skill set and you tell them, hey, these are these are the things, and most of the times, when you look at it and you when you and you're a natural.
Person at it, you already applied most of those things. But you then what happens is.
You understand that you have to make sure that you fit into a formula, that you fit into a structure, that there's a way to go about it.
But you also implement your natural ability into everything.
So yes, there's training that comes, but that training is welcome when it's incentivized. That training has come is welcome when it's when it's celebrated. So, you know, I think there's going to be a different time, I see, because like I said, there were so many quote unquote forming gangsters that was in there, people that know it's in the streets that have come home and.
They have actually really changed their lives. You know.
I know dudes that was notorious ten years ago that I looked at I was locked up with, and they and they got these young kids and they putting you know, they got them on the right path, and they really invested in changing the mind states and changing the trajectory of these kids.
So you know, I'm just I'm really happy for that. Man.
I'm looking forward to I'm looking forward to it as well. And at also you know, as a leader, he doesn't play around, so that's a good thing as well. So with that being said, what is your I don't get it but today, because I'm sure you have one, Well.
My only I don't get it, right, was.
You know, since we're going to be on this topic and you know, for me, it was the media. You know, the media decided that rather than celebrate something, they wanted to try to make negative and speak about background to speaking about at or how was he vetted? And you know, do you know that he had this investigation?
Did you know? For you? You only have one I said for me.
For me, you know, I think the one thing that I didn't get was how the media wanted to spend something that was so monumental and so positive into talking about negativity, right, and immediately went to well how was this person vetted?
And did you know about this investigation?
And all of these things and we all have a past, you know, and they wanted to focus on that, and they wanted to say, well what is the timeline and how do you notice?
And it's like, what is the timeline for the police? Right?
We we gotta hold we we've been giving billions of dollars to the police, and what is the timeline that says that they're doing their job?
Right?
Because gun violence goes up, it goes down, violence crime goes up, it goes down. There's no timeline, right, There just has to be multiple strategies implemented. And I don't know why when it comes to things that we're doing as a community based especially black and brown people, there always has to be this negative connotation that surrounded. There always have to be the DeBie downer, There always has to be well, how do you know it works?
How does this why we always have to go through those things?
Man?
I just don't get you know how the media constantly spends those things.
And that's why violence.
Is perpetuated, right because the picture of a mass killer is all over the TV and it gives some level of infamy.
It gives some level.
Of fame, and people see this and these other people who just sick, who dealing with those same issues, want that picture on the stream. But you don't give the picture of someone like at who just was giving the gun violence?
Are you? That's not put all over every news channel?
Right, we don't celebrate the person who is doing the gun violence.
Is not class it all over every.
Channel, not doing the gun violence, the person who's doing the work.
The work to Then it's important, that's.
Right, You're right, And it's important because people want to emulate that.
People want to they want to follow something that they see celebrated, you know.
So I just don't get why we don't celebrate the positivity more while we always want to focus on the negative and try to defame and discredit and devalue things that are so positive, especially when it comes to black and brown communities.
Yeah no, I mean, listen, I don't have anything to say. You already said it. They begin to ask all kinds of questions today to try to create negative narratives. They're going to write a bunch of trash. We already know that, and I think that our responsibility. I said today while being interviewed by someone that if at fails, we all
fail together. That's the bottom line for us. We have to work with our brother and help him and provide him with the resources and the support, and also allow him to leave without all of us thinking we know better, and therefore we could try to get in the way of what it is that he feels, what he's led, what he's motivated to do, and how he wants to lead.
That's our responsibility, because we already know, based upon the line of questioning that you spoke of, that these reporters begin to ask today that they don't want to see him win, that they don't they want to be able to use the failure of the news AAR and the crisis management system in total, with one hundred plus million dollars going to formally incarcerated individuals, They want to use that to say it didn't work, it was a waste
of money. And let's go back to policing and government and the processes of all the things that we know does not in and of itself work to all of our issues in our community. And so it's our responsibility to make it work. We've got to be innovative, we've got to put our strategy out there. And we also which is why I'm glad that at also doesn't work for the government so to speak, that he's not an employee of the mayor's office and it's not an agency
that is inside the administration. Because guess what, we also have to challenge and push the administration. And he said today when asked by one reporter, what resources do you need, he said, we need the cooperation of all of the
agencies within the city. And that's a fact because sanitation, as miss Or Resa just talked about, they need to know you cannot leave a community shot up from some incident with blood splattered everywhere, because that is very similar to bodies hanging from trees, from lynchings, that you're leaving the trauma behind. That normalizes the behavior, and it normalizes the unfortunate sort of discomfort of the people who live
in communities. We have to accept the example by keeping our communities clean, by focusing on taking care of those people who because again, as has been said, most people are not shooting most people in the communities, the overwhelming majority, they want to live in safe, clean communities. Unfortunately, we have some that are knuckleheads and others who are traumatized and challenged and whatever that is. We got to do
the work. So that's that for me. I think, you know, New York City is pointing in the right direction on at least this one issue. And now it's up to all of us to get in there.
And do the work, you know, and I'll ended you know, as much work and as much as you know each individual I mean, each of these entities are doing, each organization is doing. We as individuals have to take pride and take a declaration that we're gonna do something in our communities, especially as black men, you know, knowing that black men are dying in this gun violence crisis that we're faced with.
We're dying at at alarming rates.
And as a black man who comes from marginalized communities, who has a level of influence in those said communities, you know, I declare that I will be frontline and center dealing with these young men and trying to steer them away from those streets. So with that said, I'm not gonna always be right. Miss Timika Mallory is not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic.
Pace to.
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