Violence and Trauma Recovery

there for a long time. In fact, when we take one of the interviews that's coming up in the show today, I was actually on my way to the airport and the only time that Mayor Ross Baraka had was right in that moment, and so we just stopped and got on and did the interview with him. And I'm glad you did that and now and we'll be showing folks in a few moments um what took place in that interview.

But Trade weekend was I'm really proud of you. You know, I was there before you and so you were not there for the very first event, which I thought was just so I mean, it moved me and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the weekend from my perspective because I was there when they did a ribbon cutting, which was actually a rope cutting at how the homemade ice cream. It is a Houston based business.

I think it is Houston base, but certainly, UM, we were at a Houston location and a large part of their employee base are people who have disabilities, and so all of the employees UM who have who are who have different issues, they were coming out. They were so happy to see Trade there. UM hundreds of people showed

up to get free ice cream. The mayor was there supporting Trade, UM and I and this partnership gives Pimity opportunity to bring more people, people who look like us to the work force and UM and to this partnership with how the homemade ice cream. And I think it was just a real example of who he is and setting the tone for what the life of traded truth means. I don't think that he is going to receive his full acknowledgement and flowers until much later on in life,

because the best is yet to come. But at this point, if tomorrow, which you know it won't happen, of course, but if tomorrow Trade just said, um, you know, I'm going to to another country on finished for whatever reason. Uh, He's done a lot. He's done a lot of great work, and the the the I guess the example of that or the roots of the work, the the evidence of his work was all over an entire weekend, several days of individuals showing up to support him, to show their love.

A Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee being in the building, she always saw a supports Trade Rihanna Taylor's mother to meet the palmer. Who else did George Floyd's family supported him? Of course, you know his George Floyd's cousin two d is what we call her. She was with us all weekend, but you know, her mom and her aunts and others just being there to let Trade know that he is he is loved and appreciated. And of course attorney he married, who is going to be the next Attorney General of

the State of Texas. And you know, until Freedom was in the building. So it just was a great weekend and I'm really glad that we took the time to spend with our brother Trade. To Trude, yeah, it was. It was amazing. Just just Trade stamina is just amazing to me. It's not like he was just present. You know, it's easy to just come and be present, but to be directing, to be organized in every event for four days streight where it is probably about an hour two

in between each event. You know, he's full driving, hands on, making sure that everybody who came there with him was taking care of He's checking on you every five seconds. You're good, everything is good, you know, And understanding being an organizer, being an organizer, being that plane doing all those things, and understanding how wanted two events. I have you exhausted, But to watch this man constantly do that for four days straight without rest, which is phenomenal man.

And he had so many different artists, you know, Trades first and foremost, he's a rap artist and he least he's real passionate about it's his music. So a lot of artists came out and show love. Yet you know, Davies, you had Herbo, you have my Boy to Rest, to Sean, you had um um so many I can't even you, said Chappelle. There was a lot of people the way. It was just so many people that just came up the show love for Trade Man and being his brother. You know, I'm proud just to be able to say

I know Somebney like Trade is just phenomenal. So so if you haven't been to Trade aides slash trade weekend slash Trade week You're missing a big thing. Man. It's it's it's it's a phenomenal event. So shout out to

brother Yes, shout out to our brothers. So and you know, the other thing that I was really proud of is that throughout the entire weekend, you know, I didn't see many violent outbursts or people who were, you know, so frustrated in the heat that you know, we can get, we can get really really like frustrated, and it could be a lot of tension. You couldn't really see that because I think that Trade sets intention uh to be a person who folks know that what he's about is

extremely positive. That doesn't mean in any way, shape or for him, and he won't chat because he will Uh. He's definitely a man's man. But Um, there's something about the energy of people around that they know this is not the time. And there's certain people who I how I noticed school who I think would never come around because it's not the type of environment that they are looking to foster. And it just kind of brings me to, um, what I've been seeing you talk about over the last days.

Although UM, I am always cautious and concerned whenever I feel like you are engaged in conflict with people who I think are um, you know, real extra sensitive people who can't take a lot of UM critique. UM. You take a lot of people who have so much to say about what you should do, what you did, what you didn't do, what happening your younger ears, people talking about your life, your career, um, and you deal with it.

And even though at times I'm sure it's frustrating, it's when people say things that's just not true, especially people who you actually know. But you do deal with it and and and really brush so much of it all. But not everybody has the same ability to do that. And what I know is from a lot of people, but particularly a lot of cowardly men, is that their response to dealing with someone that puts a mirror up to them is not always safe, it's not always good.

And I think that a lot of the people who you particularly challenge are individuals who have already proven themselves to be, uh, you know, to be to be folks who are not They're not they're not they're not, in my judgment, really, they have no real care about community. They're not really trying to save lives. They're not really invested in anything that would bring positivity or change or uplift man. I mean even some of them will challenge you like, well, why haven't you done this or that?

But they've never done it. They never would, they never participate and invest in those things. And so I'm always like, why do we even waste side time talking to these individuals?

And I guess there's a method to your strategy of making sure that you provide alternative um message to our youth, But it just gets frustrated to watch sometimes because I don't feel like those individuals that you're talking to or about are ever really gonna change, because it seems like they've been sent here by somebody or something to do

exactly what they're doing, which is to cause disruption. Disruption I think for me, if you don't know, if you allow negativity and allies to be louder and the truth, if you allowed those who are dismissing misleading our youth to be front and center, to have all promotion, to utilize every platform they can to deliver their message, but you don't utilize We don't utilize our voices and our own platforms to deliver the counter message that can actually

save our kids lives, then we're just as guilty as they are. You know, if if we're just sitting that back watching these people spread these lives and say a bunch of bullshit, as I say, that really ain't true, you know, and advocate for a lifestyle that's detrimental to these kids lives, to promote certain things that are detrimental to the survival, and and and and leading the culture into a direction that is ultimately a dead end. Then what do what? What? What is the work for for me? Right?

If for me the people say you're you above this? Myself? If I'm from this community, right and I know that there are people peopalize their platforms that have a real stronghold on my community, right, and I because I left because I'm able, I've I've been blessed enough to be able to afford a different basic residents. Do I'm not kid that kids that come from where I come from or being misled and misguided or being forts and said that I know it's not real? Then what is my work? Right? Who?

Who am I actually here to say? Well? Am I just because then at that point you would call me a cloud chair. You could say that I'm an ambulance chase. And I'm just doing this because I've left the real work. The real work is cheering form. And these young kids that thought, just like I did at sixteen and fifteen and fourteen, that that you know, whoever was gangster was

one who was causing all the trouble. And if you pulled out your gun and you talk all of the piling stuff and you was rougher, tougher than everybody, then that made you real, That made you a man. If I leave the community that at fourteen and thirteen and fifteen, that was my mentality. And because I don't have to deal with that no more, and I transformed and I understand something different, and I don't come back and give real understandings about that to these kids, then what exactly

what I'm What exactly am I doing? How am I How am I doing any work? What is the work I'm doing? I'm going to talk to the quiet to preach all the people that know you're the anti violence organizations. I'm sitting in the rooms with the anti violence organization, people who who already know that where the money is, who already know about violence who already changed their lives.

So if I'm just talking to y'all, oh dad, I'm in those rooms and ain't none of these kids I'm trying to say, if I'm not on the platforms where you got academics and whacking them talking this dumb ship, I want to bring six knine of life and try to make it seem like the lifestyle that he chose, and then the decisions that he chose are what you should be doing, because that's that's not an alternative to

street life. Of God, right, if people are making people think that what's six nine did is something to be celebrated, Oh, you know, we don't want to talk about street life. No, we don't want to talk about criminals. You know, we don't advocate for street life. But letting kids believe that you can put hit to the people, you can cause violence, you can run around in the streets and cause violence and get people shot at, you can tell people to

shoot other people. And then when you're being held accountable for the crimes and the life stide that you chose, when the police come to you and say hey, you did this and this and this and this is what the consequences are for that unless you tell on somebody else. Right, And when you decide that, you know what, I don't want to deal with my own consequences, so I'm gonna make sure that somebody else deals with the consequences today actions,

so I don't have to deal with mine. Right. Not only do you lack of techrity, but you give a false narrative to these kids who in the streets that say, you know what, I could keep doing crime because all I gotta do is tell on somebody else and I'm not gonna go to jail. There's no real consequences to what happens, right, So people think that's not a way to stop crime and stop shooting the violence in our community. The way is to say, hey, listen, the consequences in

the street life is jail or death. You can't escape it. Right. So when when you let them think that, then a person, a logical person, says, I really don't want to go to jail and I don't want to die, so I want to choose something different. And that's the reality of what it is. So when people trying to say, oh, you you want to be in the streets, No, I don't want to be in the streets. I don't want nobody to be in the streets. But I don't want

us to celebrate coward behavior. I don't want us to out advertise and and continue to perpetuate and uplift people who are just cowards. I just that's not what it is. And it's not about street like that's in every aspect of the world in and it's the movement that we would we have cowards who would sell us out immediately because they don't want to deal with key there ride with you all the time and be with you, and then something come back and it's a little bit of

heat on you. They separate you, they self from you, They tell what you said, Oh, this person is doing this is a coward mentality. So it has nothing to do with criminology or the streets. It's about integrity. So unfortunately this is my job, and I know it's my job to because because every time these things happened, my spirit is not at rest right. I can't be quiet when I see things like this. I'm immediately drawn to say it might you have to say, I don't care

how quiet I try to be. My spirit is not okay with it, and if if if I was supposed to be quiet, then I would be able to just rub it off and be like, you don't bother me, It don't matter to me. But everybody has a different role play, and I believe that my role is really transforming the street minded individual who've been lied to to understand the realities that what's really going on the streets and what's going on in life and how it's going

to affect you ultimately. You know, I respect what you're saying, and I feel like it that applies to so many places in our lives. Um. You know, I feel that we are living in a time when they're so much happening all around us, and we all have to home in on the thing things that we can influence, how we can use our voices to be more impactful and

not more harmful. UM. And I think our use are really crying out for people to help find another way and to show them that there is a better way to go about into approach uh the lifestyle that they're trying to live. But there are voices out there that

drown out, UM, the sounds of anything positive. There are people who see an opportunity of paycheck right They see not just a paycheck, but they also see their own fame being wrapped up in just getting in where they fitted and flowing what the with the the current culture and climate, and that's really dangerous because our children get caught up in that, um and they're you know, over the last few weeks, I've really been deeply reflecting on

how will we address the issues externally but really have a double down focus on issues that are happening happening internally. And I think that's what I do. You're saying, so you know, it's it's it's it's not easy, um, And certainly it will come with a lot of criticism and a lot of people who feel like, you know, they tell us all the time we should we we we shouldn't be fighting polices or or fighting with government, that

we should just focus on building in the community. But no, we have to call out injustice, we have to call for righteousness, and it's hard work. So we all have across to there, we all have, you know, And I think for me, you know, whatever, I speak to women's rights and try to talk about the support that women need, the support that we're not getting, and the ways in which we are often abused and harmed by our own men. Those are moments when people say to me, well, why

do you have to talk about that? You know, just stick with this other thing. Don't focus on that because it makes people feel like I'm being divisive. But the truth is the truth, and we have to tell it in order for things to get better. So that's the deal. Um, you know. I guess for me, the thought of the day today is wrapped around this concept that. And it's so funny as you were saying what you were saying about how you know you you just your spirit won't rest.

I was listening to Dick Gregory speaking and he said, when the universe chooses you to where the glasses and you put them on, there's rules that come with wearing the glasses. And he said that once you have them on, you can't see things as people would want you to see them. You actually see them as they offer. And therefore you are burden with the responsibility to talk about and to speak truth to power. And at that point,

when you're doing that, it's hard. It's hard. And I think my thought of the day today is around me, around what Dick Gregory is saying that some of us have the glasses on and we can see things that just need to be addressed, um, even though it's really really an uncomfortable place to be. So that's my feelings for today, and it leads us sort of into what

we've been talking about for these episodes. I think we're up to episode four where we're really focusing on violence, intervention, and awareness because what we don't want to see is that because of all this tension and beefs and every thing, it's in the music, it's in the culture, it's an outside people, stressed out, people, got ment to health issues.

You see so much happening. We don't want there to be an excuse made to take us back to the nineties crime bill, um, where you know, our people are just being locked up because folks are so frustrated that they and so afraid that they just starting the fall for more police and more punitive measures to deal with real serious community crises. UM. So you know, I guess I'm walking around with a little bit of burden on me today. I get it to make it a lot man,

and I walk around with that burden. We both we both have very heavy loads to bear, you know. And I guess that's why God chose us to do this work together. So you know, I appreciate you for the work you do. And I know sometimes my voice, you know, at times it is a little scary, not really scary, but it it's like you wish that I had I didn't have to say that. Sometimes I wish I didn't

have to say a lot of things I do. But I know, coming from this hip hop culture, understanding the impact that it has on the madge of these kids. You know, when I when I went and talked and in these precincts and I went to different detention centers and wrikers outland, I sat down with these sixteen and seventeen year old understanding how the people that they follow in this culture musically and everything impacts the decisions that

they need to actually put them in prison. Understanding that, you know, I feel like I have a higher you know, calling I have a responsibility because I understand how serious that is. I understand how your favorite artists and people you respect can literally dictate the outcome of your life, especially when you when when you just in these streets and in this culture. You know, so my moral compass is never gonna allow me too sit back and watch

people intentionally just mislead these kids. Like you said, I got the glasses on, so I'm gonna have to call it how I see it. So that brings us into this episode, which is gonna be a very informative episode. Two people that we love who are on the front line doing this work. We have the esteemed Honorable Mayor of Newark, Ross J. Baracca, and we also have someone

who we works very close with. She is the director of the New York Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery Center in Newark, and she's gonna bring to you all of the efforts that are being done together. There should be a dope show. I'm interested to hear them once again. These are two our friends, because we have friends do dope work. So I'm definitely looking forward to this episode.

Let's get into so first, before we get started, usually for our Streets is Talking segment, we have our brand expert, Miss LaToya Bond to come and showcase a small business and we certainly want to keep that going and so we'll be back to that in the next episode. Before today, we want to show you a video about the work that is happening in Newark. It's actually a click um that the media has done an interview on the work

that's happening to prevent violence in Newark, New Jersey. So we want to watch it together so that as we're talking to Mayor Baraca and also Miss Lakeisha Juri, who works for the mayor, and it's really, as my son has said, she is managing the violence intervention and trauma worked for the mayor on his hat. Before we talk to them, let's watch this video and just get a real understanding of what it is that they're doing a real hands on way on the ground in Newark, New Jersey.

In the wake of George Floyd's murder last year, new Or Mayor Robs Baraka announced the city would divert five percent of its police budget to community based anti violence programs. News Twelves Brian Dona Hue got the first look at a summer program created as part of that initiative. But I've been working and trying to get myself together on the sidewalk outside the small Wellness center in the Newark neighborhood battered by drug violence and hardship. The stories pour

forth of a torrent of trauma. There's Todd Carter, who's been shot twenty times, just recently home in Newark after an eight year federal prison sentence for dealing drugs. So now they put you back in the world. They expect for you to be this new person, for him to go get a job, to change your life, and you stuck. You don't know how to do that. Takia Reeves was shot twice at a nightclub in Seen and nearly died.

I ended up in the hospital on lifestupp board. Um you know, I code it like about seven times Norman's Seven Operations. And Carlo Smith is trying to find his footing after losing his job at Walmart weeks before his twentieth birthday and he was something negative, always havous to me around my birthday. All three were recently hired by the City of Newark for a unique summer job getting their lives back on track. So it's a it's an urn and learn type of a program. It's called the

Safe Summer Academy. This is what I see for myself right, this is where I want to go. At four sights in the city's toughest neighborhoods, A hundred and twenty people aged fourteen and up are paid fifteen dollars an hour to attend workshops and classes and things like overcoming trauma, managing finances, and starting businesses. Each team to the case

workers social worker to help them through. The way that we approach this is from a public health lens, and we understand that people have social emotional issues, mental health issues. Um that depression and stress and all lit those things are real areas and real places that our people are struggling with, and so we need to put some supports

around them. Okay, okay, nobody else, Okay, we've had that builds Resilious program is part of the Office of Violence Preventions, started by Mayor Ross Baraka in the wake of the George Floyd murder and funded with the diversion of five per cent of the police Department's budget. With so much debate over the phrase defund the police, Newark is providing this first glimpse at what that actually looks like. We don't say that we are a defunding the police. We

are refunding the people. One part of the program that's not on any syllabus is the hope and inspiration participants can get from each other, like reeves for example, who, after recovering from being shot, went on to earn first her Associates degree and then her bachelor's and criminal justice from Rutgers. When I go see the doctors, their faces be like, you know, like wow, You're not supposed to be here, but I am supposed to be here, you know, Like I have a story, I have a testimony. We

all do. We've all been through tragic stuff. I really just wanted to take what happened to me and and you know, turn into something good, something great, something better. So that's why this program is really helping me. You're gonna be You're gonna be running this program some day. You're gonna be, I hope. So I'm Brian, Donny you.

That's positivity New Jersey. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, this was a pre recorded component of today's episode because Mayor Baracca, who is a very very busy man, only had a very specific amount of time and while I was on my way to the airport to travel to Houston for a trade a weekend. Um, we just had to get on and do the interview.

So now we're gonna be joined by Mayor Cross Barrocca, who is the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, but he also was a very star Wars individual in the community. Mayor Baraca is well known for his community efforts. He's the type of mayor that we need, the type of mayor that comes from the people, that is of the people, but is able to turn his passion for organizing and for community basis, UM for for community based approaches to

addressing a myriad of issues. He's able to turn that into real work on the ground and hour and it's making significant changes. Um. I see the changes when I'm visiting. You are of where communities were torn down, and he is rebuilding and doing so much work. He's a friend of the show. He's a friend of ours, UM, and of course he's done a lot of work with my son, UM.

I watched the two. If you get together for many events and mediations, people don't know about the things that you all have done that is off camera, when you've actually been sitting down with the mayor and other men working out tension and confusion and conflict in our communities. And so let's hear from me and Ross Baracca. Let's listen to this interview that we did and please excuse that I looked like a crazy woman in the car. But I think what he's saying is more important than

the aesthetics of the interview. The reason why I think it's it's so important to have you on today, Man Baracca, and why my son and I really wanted to have you as a part of this six episode series that we're doing about gun violence is because you are approaching it exactly as um. You know, we support what we believe, and that is that you could put all the police you want on the streets, but if you don't invest in the people, Uh, you would never be able to

produce gun violence and to save lives. So we just wanted to hear from you today to hear more about what you're doing. Um. You know, I I the program and what you have been doing in Newark is really innovative. Our sister Humility Davis Dr. Davis is constantly telling us that as she's on the ground a new work, she

sees real change happening in real time. So, uh, you want to know my son if you want to say something, But we'd love to hear from you, and I know you have short time to be here just to let us know what it is that you're doing and what's the approach you're taking. Yeah, we I mean thank you. I mean I'm on a to be on. First of all. Uh, I appreciate you having me on. You know, we just in the middle of of of of hard work. You know, there's a lot of talk, a lot of stuff going

on around the country. We are just really trying to lay one brick out of time and it's it's it's it's hard, as I was expressing earlier, you know, in an environment you know where we're trying to create opportunity for social justice opportunities for people in our community and deal with gun violence. Uh that's escalating, uh in our neighborhoods,

you know. And one of the biggest critics of all of the things that you're gonna have to deal with in terms of trying to do this work are people that live in these neighborhoods, mothers, grandmothers, you know, folks that are raising kids in these communities that are that are you know, experiencing hard high levels of violence. And just to put it in perspective, like eight percent of the neighborhoods and Newark do not experience violent crime at all, Right,

so that looks like that sounds like a good number. Uh. And we got this from Rutgers when they did their study. But that means that of the community is experiencing of the violence, right uh. And so if you're in the then you're like, oh, it's all good. But if you're in of those neighborhoods uh, then you have a real

serious problem, a dramatic problem. Uh. And so we we have to figure out how to deal with both of those things, like how to create an atmosphere where we make the police respect our constitutional rights UH, where social justice is at the forefront of everything that we do uh and and and and reducing violence and crime. And so we think that public safety is not just the role of the police. Public safety is the role of

all of us in this community. Uh. And so we need to give give resources to other people in other areas where it is needed to help us reduce violence and crime and trauma uh that has been incurred in our community over decades. Uh. And so the police can't deal with those issues. And so that speaks directly to the idea of removing some funding and moving in another places to help, uh, you know, stabilize the community. So if violence is down, the need for police is down.

Over policing in those communities is down, and and and that's really how we're approaching it. Violence is a public health issue. We created an Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. Keeper Uria is doing an outstanding job trying

to put this together. And she's building it, you know, actually going you know, pulling community partners together, have a lot of consultants trying to figure out how to get this done, pulling all of the street organizations that do all of the violence intervention and prevention work together everybody, and UH trying to get data UH and making sure that we UH tackle hot spots in areas, deal with trauma, do with intervention and kids lives and helping families from

domestic violence to shooting victims, UH, everything that they're involved in right now this summer, I think what Jamilla is talking about, we UH as a part of our youth development program, we hired and even some adults now over one hundred maybe hundred and forty. I think UH folks who are directly involved with the legal with the legal system, UH were directly involved in terms of shootings or shooting victims.

UH we we created our own program. We pay them uh to go listen to speakers, to go to forums, to to deal with trauma, training too, to face the issues they're dealing with in their lives, to prepare them uh to to stop the violence that they're involved in the community, and help them get employment. And that's that's what we're working on uh this summer, amongst a myriad

of other things. Wow, that's that's amazing, man. Once again, I truly appreciate the work that you always do, man, in the way that you so community based in everything that you do. I just want to know because there's so many different perspectives, like what would you think is contributing to the the rash of just higher violent crimes and what would you think of it? The main two or three things that you see are really the major factors.

Just the emotional stress and deterioration that's happened in our community right now, particularly Look, it's happening in everybody's community under COVID. The pressure emotional uh stress is caused UH this kind of responsive really aggressiveness UH that's going on. H. The fact that people aren't making uh on all levels, even the black market or say, the white market, the aren't aren't making the kind of money that that you know that they were because of what's going on. I'll

hear people out where in the house. They're coming outside and fighting over territory and position and and and and all these other kind of things. And it's it's difficult for people, uh to be able to navigate all of the social services that existed before most of those things shut down. Uh. The social services shut down, the court shut down, everything shut down, and so people out here really fending for themselves. Uh. And and you know, there's

a court system up top that people do it. And then there's the kind of course system that take place in the streets that unfortunately uh involves violence. Uh. And if there's no social services, no intervention, no folks involved employed any here, it makes it more difficult. Wow. And you know, I was I was having this conversation today, and it seems to me as if these shooters quote unquote are getting so much younger, absolutely and and and

and that's that's really dangerous to me. It's like there's a mind state to where they the lack of value for life. I I've attributed it to the Internet. That's right. I've attributed because the the visuals of these kids constantly seeing you know, violence and then they seeing it being celebrated. Right, Because as a young kids, you're very impressionable. And I remember when I was, like I said all the time, my first vision of success wasn't a lawyer. I didn't

live next door to a lawyer. I lived next to it to a drug dealer. So I wanted to be like the drug deal the girl I wanted to carb wanting all the things I wanted was this was the person I've seen it. So when you see it on it in this internet and you're seeing these young kids are seeing you know, grown people being celebrated for violence and you know, be getting uplifted, you know, it has a toll and it really just molds them. What do you think about that? I have a real life story.

I mean, that's that's real what you're saying. I know a guy that I grew up with who's a lawyer, and I used to tell him, I said, look, I always knew you was gonna be a lawyer. You're very smart. He said, I didn't know I was gonna I was gonna be a lawyer. That's all I knew my father was a lawyer. He took me to his trials. I law briefs on the coffee table in the kitchen. I said,

I didn't know nothing else. And when people used to ask me what I want to do when I grew up, I would always say lawyer because I didn't know what else to say, And ultimately it just drove me towards being a lawyer. Not imagine you come home, it's not law briefs on the table, right, there's other stuff on

the table. And and the job they've taken you to is not the courtroom or the clerk for some judge, but you know, it's the block or the wanna And so when people ask you what you want to be when you grow up, it's natural response, unfortunately, is the things that you see in front of you. And now they're paying these kids, you know, money that they you know, it's small money, but they're paying the money out here in a very difficult economy to do this kind of stuff.

And they think, and like you said, it's being celebrated, so they think this is okay and they don't have anybody intervening. And look, the data tells us if you grow up in a household where your siblings or parents have been inconsubrated, you're more likely to being conserrated yourself. You grew up in a household where you've been a victim or perpetrator violence, you're more likely to be a

victim perpetrator violence yourself. So we identify, we know who these kids are like, we can identify the social services system, know the law enforcement system, know the community, know it's a it's a it's less than two of the people in the community that's committing nine of the violence that's going on. So we know where they are, we know how to identify, and we know what the atmosphere that's

gonna create them. So we have to intervene immediately. We know what's getting ready to go down to watch it happen. Almost makes us co conspirators in it. That's makes us co conspirators. It's it's it's so true because you know, our expectation is that what you're doing should be happening all across the nation, and it's not. And in fact, there are mayors, governors and others who have pushed back

against UM having UH community based program. And in fact, when we started the crisis, management system in New York City, UH with Erica Ford and A. T. Mitchell and others that you know very well. Mayor Bloomberg was one percent against and in fact he was a thousand percent against it. He believed that legislation and policing were the only ways

to address violence. UM. And now to see what you're doing, it would seem to me that other mayors, you know, and since be just in a different place in society, that people would pick up your model and use it. But that is not actually what's happening. Let me ask you about the A are P funds the funds that are have come down or there they have been sent to many of the cities, which is a part of

the COVID relief plan. Are you using much of those funds or a part of those funds to address these issues? And do you believe that other mayors should be using funds out of the COVID relief to address violence? And because some people may not see that there's a connection between the two, absolutely you should. And a matter of fact, the the White House was suggesting that we people do that in terms of UH just the idea of hiring more youth UH in the summertime, dealing with the spike

and youth violence. So all of those UH ways to use the RP dollars. So we are using some of the money around Safe Summer Initiative, hiring people UH in the summer, increasing the summer jobs, but also creating opportunities for UH you know, grassroots organization and nonprofit organizations to

make a little money while servicing young people throughout the summer. UH. And that's important because now you put these businesses back when their feet, you put these nonprofits, you give them resources and and money and opportunity to put back into

the economy. So you are servicing your economy and lifting your economy up by taking care of small businesses, grassroots organizations, nonprofits that are out here service and young people with little and no resources at all, so you can use the opportunity to give them the resources that they need well giving them jobs that we think is a critical part of this piece. And I know that the you know, the you have talked about the resources that you all

are giving to young people. That there's there's a gentleman UM I can't remember his name, it escapes me now, but he is from UH New Work and I was told by others that he actually started this idea of paying people, not necessarily paying them, but um giving people resources who were considered to be shooters, um and or problematic in society. They have issues, they've been in and out of the system, and so you all are targeting focused on that particular population as a as a central

component of this work. Absolutely. Like I said earlier, you we know who they are. So the police department gave us the top fifty young people that we needed to engage it and me, and so we went after those. They know that's that's the point. They know who the issue, who has the issues, They know who where the problems are, and you are taking them instead of encouraging them to be locked up. You're trying to give them a second chance. Yeah.

I wrote a letter to all of their parents, and I'm gonna write another one to the to the parents of the new kids that are here now, just telling them, look, we we know your kid is involved in this and involved in that, and before they either wind up in jail or dead, here's a series of programs that you can put your kids in right now. And as a matter of fact, if you want to speak about this further.

Here's our phone number, our address. Please come down and meet with us in person to talk about how we can service your child. Mm hmm. And that's and that's the work that needs to be done. We were just sitting here talking about how, you know, all the social justice work that's been done over the past year and in all of the strides, and how just this violence is something that the structure can utilize against us to try to pull back all of the work that we've done.

So that's why I really commend when you you you're taking a proactive approach. You know a lot of these destructures would would like to take these kids and see them and prepare jails for them. You know, they look at these these kids and say, Okay, these are the kids that are eventually gonna go to jail. They're not redirecting them. They're not seeing that and getting in front of that and giving them resources and giving them different ways to direct their energy. They're just preparing to be

able to lock them up. But you're taking an approach that we all should be taking our community, that we see these kids and we can identify that they have some issues and they have problems, and we gotta figure out whether it's mental issues, whether it's just too much energy where they're hanging around the wrong crowds. We're giving them opportunities. I mean, you're giving them opportunities to redirect

and be on a different path. And and by the way, that just like they have issues, they also have talents. And who's going to help them to develop that? And um, I think that Uh you know, obviously I call you Ross, but Mayor Baraka, Um, you know, it's it's really commendable. And we're not just saying it because you're on the show and because we love you as a dear friend and brother. But it's commendable because who's gonna save our children?

If not us, then who And and and it's it requires a certain love for our people to understand that you're gonna have to fight the people that you're trying to help, right, They're gonna I know you do. If you work with black if you work with black people, you fight every single day of your life. Let gonna tell you a quick story. We was just at one of these events, and so the man's in the back and the guys in the front, and he's piste off with the man saying, you ain't give me a job.

And he said, the man didn't give me a job. He didn't hire me. So I said, saying nothing, he came he and then he comes to the front and he gives a um a speech and he's talking. He said, well, everybody is being paid to be here. So I actually I did hire you know, everyone in this building that was here, Like, you're literally being paid to come to

this program. Uh, and we can't give all the research sometimes, he said, if I hired you, there's somebody who's actually been doing something else and and and took a few more steps to get the job that you're looking for. It's not that I don't want to hire you, but if I don't hire you, and then I don't hire them. And they said, oh, well, I need to get in trouble to get a job. So he said, it's it's we damned that were doing We damned that we don't.

But the bottom line is we're still gonna do the work, and we know you gotta go, and we appreciate you. Man, if you don't want to get punched in the face, don't get in the ring. Brother. That's that's what it's about. You know you gotta deal with all of the blows that's gonna come out you. You just gotta do the work that you know you're supposed to do. That's it. Trust me. We we know all so well about that. We get punched in the face all day, all night.

But we appreciate you. Man. We know you're busy, and you appreciate you taking your time out. The work that you're doing is commendable. Hopefully we'll get some more officials that follow this model, man and invest in our kids future and not in prison anytime. Many time you need me, I'm here for your brother. Thank you, Thank you to make up definitely, thank you. I love you so much, brother.

I appreciate you. Thanks for being with us, and we have to invite you back as we continue to go through this series to have more dialogue about the steps that need to be taken because people will act like they don't know what to do. Well, you're a shining example of how to get it done. Thank you. Alright, Alright, that was a dope, you know could he's an amazing guy because he shows you how coming from an organizing

you know, he was once just a community organizer. Then he went to being a principal and then counsel and that then to the mayor, and the effect and the respect that he had in his community is what it what it is. And that's what I say about community based organizations having people from the community. You know, the alternative to the presence in our community is about having people from the community who are respected and loved and you can transform it. And that's the way that he

approaches being the mayor. He approaches being the mayor from the lens of being someone who actually loves and kids for the community. So that shows you when you act to care about your community and you come from that community, you are more likely you want to do that for the Yeah, and I think I think I agree with you might say, you know what I think, Um, there should be more of this that's happening within our society that you can't just show up to run from mayor.

You know, where people are saying, well, why were you so against Andrew Yang running for mayor? UM? And while Eric Adams and I know, I've known him for a long time, UM, and I have a lot of respect for Eric, I'm still in disagreement with him about a few of the issues that I care about in terms of how he intends to leave the city yet and still I'm happy to say that he has a background

in doing work within our communities. He actually was very, very involved, heavily involved and addressing policing issues within New York City's and YPD. He did that. He worked with the blacks and law enforcement and they were out there challenging police oh all the time. And he knows the communities. Even Ray McGuire, he wasn't. He's not you know, he's not a and he is not the typical mayoral candidate because clearly he has a lot of wealth and he

has been in UM and private practice. But he's from the community. Andrew A unfortunately is not period. I actually have never seen him. And if Ray McGuire, one thing I can say, many of the community events that we've done, he's been there. That's why I know it. I know him from being out there is showing up at events, um, you know, donating resources. Same thing with the Maya WiDi. These are people we've actually seen. Whether or not we agree,

I'm not talking about agreeing with them on everything. Even Scott Stringer, these are people we've seen. They've been on the issues at one point or another, they've been engaged in some way. Don't have to agree with everything, don't

have to support all their policies. But someone who just shows up from absolutely nowhere and decides that because of a message of you know, giving people a thousand dollars or whatever, they can become mayor when unfortunately they have not been engaged on a day to day basis or on any level in our communities. I just didn't think that that was okay, And not to mention the things that he said while running from mayor gave me a clear understanding of why I felt the way that I

felt inside. When they asked him about street vendors and he said, there has to be more enforcement and basically locking up people who are out there selling lucy cigarettes because and I know those are not necessarily street vendors, but you get my point. These are people out there selling bottle water, they're selling you know, different things, hats

or whatever. Instead of him saying that we need to get them in the pipeline so that they can get the types of certificates that they need to do the work, he went straight to law enforcement and policing. And I thought to myself. This is not a good idea, So you know, there are people who didn't like it, but again the glasses so we know, man. So I'm just happy that we understand and hopefully we can give some

understanding to anybody that's paying attention. Like if you can't, there's nothing about us without us, man, you can't be in our communities, and you ain't from our communities. You don't have a post on what's going on in the streets. You don't have a post that what's going on in the in the communities that you're trying to government that how can you govern or do anything for them? Correct facts. So we just spoke to Mayor Ross Baraka and he spoke to us about this person that we're about to

interview right now. She is Lakisha Yuri. She is the executive director of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery in New Ork, New Jersey. She does all the work because Ross rock the is the Mayor of New Ork and he has so much on his plate. She is the go to person for all everything violence prevention and intervention inside of New New Jersey. She had handled so much I've worked with up. She is a phenomenal sister Lakeisha Yuri. How you doing today, Clean? I am good. Thank you so

much for having me on the show today. Thank you so much, so thank you. I just want to say hi, so good to see you any every time I see we're working. So it's good to give you an opportunity to tell people what it is that you do every day and how much you make the efforts of Mayor Baraka Um make it real in Newark, New Jersey. Thank you so much. We know that these front lines are certainly front lines, UM, and we certainly showed it. So UM showed that the show that So it's good to

see you. It's good to see my song, and it's good to be on the show. Street politicians, right, that's who we are, right, So give us give the people telling people what it is that you exactly do, what is your position entail? So under Mayor Ross J. Baraca Um, maybe a year ago in the wakening cries of George Floyd in the protest, there was this rally and cry around defunding of the police, and so the City of New York ultimately reallocated five percent of its police department

budget to violence prevention programs. So I was already doing some work out of the Health Department, and so what we did was we put domestic violence, sexual soul, and community violence under one umbrella. And so we're building out domestic BOUM not just domestic violence, but community violence, but putting it in a place where we are approaching it

from a public health place. So we're marrying public safety and public health, and we're having our own community based public safety where the police don't have to respond to everything, where the people are allowed to have a voice in public safety. And so we are getting a police precinct. So the city of north has seven police precincts and one of the precincts is going to be designated to the Office of Violence Prevention. So we're building out this

office UM and we're building a museum. So in this precinct, we're going to have a Conflict Resolution Museum UM and that music m is going to tell the history of the city of Nuke's policing from the sixties seven rebellion up through today to where we see changes that are happening in law enforcement and in the police department in the City of Newark. So my office is going to

be responsible for the social services aspect, the mental health aspect. UM. We have a um Brick City Peace Collective, which consists of about sixteen community based organizations that's going to collaborate and come together and coordinate strategies to be able to combat some of the crime and valance in the city.

And that includes mediating some of these conclutes directly. UM And So the office also has social workers, case managers, victim advocates, Anti racism and hate Crimes unit where people can come and report if they feel discriminated against based on race and ethnicity. UM. And we also have clinicians and therapists and a hospital based violence intervention program. So it's a gamut of a bunch of things happening under this office. UM. And yes, it has been entrusted to

me to to run it, developed the strategies UM. But ultimately because I come from the community, born and raised in the city of North and we've sold it together with Mayor Rocket before he was the mayor, before he was the councilman, when he was the principal of a school, and so we know that community based efforts work when the people know the community they come from the community,

the outcomes are inevitable. So you all, now, Mayor Rocket was telling us that, Um, the police and I guess in conjunction with your office and others, have identified those people who are crisis there in crisis, so they, you know, our folks who would have been identified as the troublemakers, the potential shooters, and you all are working with them. And I know you say the office that you have said that, the office you're working on. Um, it's in progress.

This work is already happening. It's just that at some point you guys are gonna have a center which I hope will become a national model even an international model for how do you bring violence down and hype work directly with the community. But every day at this point, you're you're doing this work, working with these young people, trying to get them employed and to keep them off

the streets in mind. Is that correct? That's correct. So what we find is the data says that four percent and sometimes even ten percent of the population experienced the most crime and violence, or the small amount of people

are committing the most crime and violence. And so rather than coming up with this approach where we are blanket, you know, doing strategies, it's focused, determined, right, we go right directly to the people who are committing the crime violence and talking with them and seeing what is it that you need? Why are you robbing people? Why are

you shooting people? Why did you join the game that you're a part of, why are you, you know, stealing cars, and just really trying to ask those questions and figure out what is it that we can do to get to the underlying portions of it. We have UM people, so the police do have a list, and they have a lot of intelligence around who people are, what's happening, and what they're doing. And their strategy is just to

arrest them. That's the only strategy. But we're saying no, that that's not enough because we have this cycle of violence that continues to happen if we just keep arresting people UM, because they're doing things from behind the wall, inside the wall, outside the wall, and so we want to find out what is going on. So we are UM implementing. So right now, I have a summer program UM and we're gonna extend it beyond the summer UM

and it's called the Safe Summer Academy. Where we went after and recruited those people that we know are creating the most crimon violence in the city, and we employed them. So I currently have a hundred and twenty individuals UM fourteen to seventeen, eighteen to twenty four, and then a twenty five and over UM groups I have about fourth sight.

And these are the people that we know are creating the crime and violence or have been victims of and we are trying to intervene so that they don't become the perpetrators of And many of them have mental health issues issues, have been incarcerated, have dropped out of school, and so we're very intentional about this population. And we recognize some of the issues, and we recognize trauma and so many of the staff for trauma informed trains and so we know what it takes to be able to

engage them. So so let me just ask you, first of all, what is the success rate at this point? And then the other thing is or maybe you could answer this first and then talk about the success rate, but what type of work do you have these young people doing when you employ them? Um? You know, what are you what are you giving them as opportunities and are they learning a skill a trade? Um? How would you speak to the actual opportunities. And then what at this point do you think is UM, How do you

think or efforts are paying out? So the UM what I would say is that they are UM earning to learn right so as to earn and learn program. So many of them, they are learning skills around UM social emotional right, anger management, conflict resolution, They're getting financial literacy, money management, entrepreneurship skills UM. They're doing vision boards, they're presenting their business ideas. The program is going to fund

UM their business idea. We're going to give each of the participants a thousand dollars to get started their own business, and that may be something as small as a T shirt business, to socks, t shirts, whatever it is, so that they can flip the game right, so they can flict their hust to the ones that may be hustling and selling drugs in the community, so that they don't have to steal cars to sell aparts to make money.

So we're trying to show them better ways to be able to make money, how to UM look at their skills and really flip it into something more positive so that they don't have to go to jail. They're getting UM UM public speaking skills, um, you know, so they're doing electrical carpentry, welding, you know, so hands on kinds of things, Ocean thirty certifications so that they can go on construction sites so UM CDL licenses. So it just

depends on the age range. But we're giving them some hands on skills that they can take that's transferable um to wherever they go. In terms of the success, I would say that every day that they show up as a success. Every day that we keep them for eight hours off the street is a day that they get to live again, that they are not committing crimes and violence. So we have them on a forty hour work week schedule um And in those forty hours a week, we

have kept the city safe. And so I would say that those are our small victories, but those are victories, and we have a hundred and twenty of them. So we have stopped a hundred and twenty people a day from being incarcerated or being hurt in ets. So I would say that the victory and the success rate isn't that. But we are gathering data. We are gathering u information to see really where the impact is and what the

real outcomes are going to be. When it's over. So for the young people, we can't keep them past the end of the summer because they're going back to school. But for the adults who are disengaged, we can keep them through the end of the year. So we're gonna extend it out um and we'll find um job sites for them to go on. They are. They went to the Mayor's director meeting and all of the directors throughout the whole city introduced themselves to tell them who they are,

and they ultimately offered many of them internships. So, you know, really trying to find some tangible things that makes sense that they can really network and get something tangible out of it. I think I just want to know, you know, because it's the work is First of all, I want to congratulate you. It's phenomenal. A lot of times people try to, you know, diminish the defund police strategy and you actually utilize the word that you know, a phrase

that I use is refunding the community. And you know what, I want to know, what do you think, like based on the data that you've been doing, what do you think it's like two of the most central causes of the crime and violence in our community. UM. I would say, as we're talking to them, we're asking them like, what makes you cause you know, what's causing you to go out? And for many of them it's UM, it's the culture, right, the culture of violence is popular, UM and it's normal.

And many of them, well, my father did it, my brother did it, people with my family did it. And I saw them, you know, come up and you know, we ultimately know that. Um. The ultimate you know is poverty, right, money a lot of times, but then I find that when they do get money, they don't know how to manage it, right. They don't have a plan for the money. Even if they do have it, there's no plan. Um. And for other people, we're finding that stress, being overwhelmed um.

The culture in the inner city, right, people feeling disrespected, self worth, self confident, self esteem, all of those things are underdeveloped. UM. And when you have that, then people lash out in ways that that's violent, Like they don't know another way, right, lack of coping skills, lack of UM conflict resolution skills, that they don't know that there's another way to resolve conflict, that violence is not the only way to do it. Domestic violence is up UM.

In the city of north we have over four thousand cases a year UM domestic violence, UM, sexual assault. You know, many of it. We don't even touch sexual assault because it's so taboo UM sexual violence that's happening, and we ultimately really attack the community violence. Being at the shooting seems, being at the hospitals, helping the families, and those seems to be the things that we are grinding all the

time for UM. But if we can get to a place at healing right and knowing that there is resolved, that we don't have to, you know, always resort to violence, that there are other options, other alternatives, and so I think that we don't know the other alternatives. I think for me is that we have so many kids, Like the ages of the shooters is getting younger. To me,

it's like when you have twelve and thirty. I was having a conversation with Erica four yesterday and she was giving me until that thirteen old kid was killing the romps and he was killed by fifteen, you know, so it's like wow, Like at thirteen and fifteen, I wasn't thinking about taking nobody's life, right, I was playing basketball, you know, there was it was certain things that kept my attention. Even though there was violence in the community.

Violence has always especially in poverished communities, Violence has always occurred and been visible. But at thirteen and fourteen and fifteen, it wasn't. It wasn't the central part of the culture. And this this coaches it seems so engulfed and it's just like me, it's just really hard, Like what what

did you think? I bet surprised you most like when you you see and it's like wow, like because we come from pretty much the same error, Like what are the things that really shocked you that you've seen here in this culture? Like you said, the age range is getting younger. So our youth house is phil of killers. Our youth house of phill of shooters um and they don't have the emotional piece right where it seems heartless. It seems emotionless, it seems careless, and it seems almost

business as usual. And one of the people who worked for me at sharif UM's when I outreach worked as then a couple of months ago, his daughter was shot and killed. She was kidnapped and murdered in South Carolina, but she's here from New Jersey. The mother moved down there, and she's fifteen years old and she was kidnapped and

killed by other young people who did that to her. Um, And it was her friend, a person who she thought was her friend, who lured her out and her friend boyfriend killed her and they shot her eleven times and and and bury her in a shallow grave. And I just thought that it was just heinous and and and we went to court and saw him being arranged and he was like, yes, sir, judge, no sir. And I

was like, what is this? Like, how could you kill, kidnap, kill, and shoot in all of these things and there's no sense of remorse. Um, the girl was sixteen, he was eighteen, she was fifteen, and the other boy was sixteen, and just to see that their lives are just forever changed as a result of decisions that they make. So I think that I'm always surprised at the hainous nous and how many times one people, oh, one of the guys in the program got shot nine times, one person got

shot twenty times, the girl got shot four times. And I just find that it is overkill. But I'm always wondering, like, what makes it so that tre like that you can do that to somebody? What did they do? And what I'm shocked about is that it is a little to nothing over disrespect or when you said something, or when you posted a video, or when you said it's gonna wrap song, or you stow this car and said you

can drive better than me. So we have these young people now in a battle over who can steal the most cars and who's the better drivers, and they're they're battling in neighborhoods over over stolen cars and killing each other over I'm the better driver. I'm shocked at that. I'm surprised over that. Dude, what is your skill set?

Because the other thing, um, you know, I and I probably focus a little bit too much on the naysayers, but um, in my life, while there are many times when people try to challenge us and say that you know, we are not um, you know, doing great work or good work or any work at all, when you hear the critics at times, and I'm never as disturbed by the critics um as much as I am when they say that we don't work on this issue or that

people don't care about the violence that's happening in our communities. Because I know there are people who are on the ground, and I certainly for uh you know, since my son's father has been deceased, which was uh twenty years ago, I've been deeply engaged in this work, um and trying to support others. And so maybe because some folks just don't see it. Obviously, the media does not give us the same attention as they do when a police officer

kills someone. And to be clear, UM, the police have a different responsibility than young Johnny who lives in a community at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. UM. A police officer who has been trained, who has resources, UM you know, who has family um themselves, that knows that should have the emotional intelligence to know that taking another life, especially without just cause, UM, is not right. It's and and and it's something that has to be people have to

be held accountable for it as far as I'm concerned. UM. But when we do that work, folks pay attention and they give us um some of the media at times UM that we need in order to really bring to awareness to the problems between community and police. But when it comes to gun violence, we often are the messaging, the marching, the protesting, UM, the begging for funds, the organizing people who are out there stopping shootings that goes without notice, m even by some of our own communities.

And so it's it's really a place for me that's very sensitive. And when I hear people saying the work is not being done, nobody's focused on that. I think about people like Ukisha, and I think about, um, how you said you got started a long time ago, and you've been with May of Barrock since he was a principle, which is many, many years ago. And so what I'm wondering is what is your skills set so that people will know this is what you can do. And here's where I started and where I am today. So my

skill set is is an organizer. Right I started on the grounds many years ago. Um I organized. I'm a chair for the North Anti Violence Covolition. But before that, right I was in the New Black Panther Party and before that, you know, so organizing people in the community has has been um my passion. But by trade and by education, I'm a social worker. I'm a licensed clinical social work. I have a master's degree in social work.

But my heart and my passion is organizing people. So then they say is say the work is not being done. I tell them that's not true, because we've got people who are on the front lines all the time. People know sleep because people don't understand what it takes to

organize people. They don't understand that the phone calls have to happen, that we at the hospitals with people, were at the funerals with people, were organizing the funerals, we're doing, we're calling the mayors, and we're doing all of the things. Um that the behind the scenes that it takes to get in front of the cameras or to make the

awareness happen. So when I first joined the North Anti Violence Coalition, the way that we brought attention to violence was by going into the streets and stopping the traffic. And so we stopped the traffic for a hundred and fifty five weeks in the raw, rain, sleeps now, no matter the weather condition to bring awareness to it for

families who wasn't our own families. And so as as we're out there and we're saying we can't have business as usual, there are women being killed, their children being killed, the police of brutalizing people, and we can't let it be swept under the rug. These were not our families per se, but we we we stepped in the gap for people, um. And so they were thankful because there was another voice to help them to uplift the voices of their the voice list that that was there, um.

But the work is being done. The work has always been done, um and and people have to join in, right, and they don't join in until it lands on their door steps. And so our people, I would say, have to be more compassionate and aware of what happens behind the scenes and what it takes um in order to organize to get some things done. We were policy changes, right,

We try to get policies changed. And so had I known about policy change fifteen years ago, then I would certainly be a bit better off than than I am now. And so we don't learn. There's there's no training, there's no school that you go to to teach you how to be an organizer, to teach you how to be an activist. And they see activism as people who are troublemakers. And we're not troublemakers, but we have to be in order to have our voices heard. And so unless it's aggressive,

people don't always understand it. Don't always have to be aggressive, or when you see it, it's because there has been UM a dismissal happening long and so now then we have to meet aggression with aggression sometimes. And so people don't understand activism. People don't understand civics, people don't understand law,

people don't understand order UM. And so when they see the ones of us who are out there who are flying from city to city UM helping other people who are UM who don't get to the divisions and get the media, and it's hard because I certainly know that you catch backlash. I know that people catch backlash when they feel like you're benefiting right from the movement, or you're you're getting a little bit of something, or you're

being paid or whatever it is. But it's like, you don't know the cost that I paid to have to get on the flight, to get the hotel, to get the rental cars, you know, to do all of those things. So when the guy who I just told you about daughter got shot and killed in in South Carolina, we went down there, and it called right for us to be down here. The missing person flyers. We're knocking on doors, we we were there for weeks, she was she was

missing for twenty five days. Right, we have to push the police, and we're going from county to county and police department to police department, and those things take. It takes skill, it takes ingenuity, it takes energy, it takes sleep, it takes resources. It takes all of those things to

be able to bring about change. And so I don't want people to dismiss the skills that it takes for those things to happen, but the energy and the passion because many of us this has been on our doorsteps and we're trying to stop it from landing on other people's doorsteps. Let me just ask this this last question, and of course my son don't have anything else, but I think this is uh an important question. My son asked you earlier. What shocks me? And I want to

know what are you most proud of? Of all the things that you're you you're doing at this time, what are you most proud of? It? It makes you go to sleep at night saying or what No matter what happens out there, I know, I try, so what makes me most proud is knowing and then I speak even for for the mayor. On one side of this is that we've lost parents, right, So he's lost his father.

I lost my mom and my dad, And I know that our um passion that keeps us doing this work is that we stand on the shoulders of people before us, that we have to make proud, that people who are proud of us, that we can't let down and we can't embarrass them. And so what makes me proud is knowing that my mother and father is proud of the decisions that I make. My brother Um is in jail now, and he's been shot by the police, he's been shot by community people, and he's probably even been the shooter.

But I'm proud to know that I didn't let those things change my heart, to know to do what's right, regardless of in the face of um, in the face of change, in the face of adversity, and so I drive to do what's best for the people after me and to be able to be an example. So that's what makes me proud that I think that my parents

and people who poured into me. I have people from my neighborhood who poured into me, who taught me UM, and so that's what keeps me going That's what inspires me and motivates me, is that I have people who depend on me, and every decision that I make their life depends on it as well, and so I make decisions based on their lives. Well, I'm proud to say that I know you and that I work with you,

and you're amazing person. It's good to understand. It's good to know that we have people like you that that do the work for the same reason we do it.

You know, all the backlash, all in that whatever in the world would not stop me from doing this work because I understand that our people need this work done and whatever you know, and most of our leaders will criticize and receive backlash if you're not you know, I say, if you know, if you didn't do real work, if you haven't been ostracized or criticized for the work that you do, if you you're not doing anything that's life changing, and you know, on the cusp of something that's new,

you know, when you do new work and you take new strategies and you decide, you know, I'm gonna following my heart and do this way, they're gonna be people that are they says, So I just want to say that we are glad to have you on the front lines and have you on street politicians. We're gonna have you back up here one time, especially when we get when we say we do it on in person, we gotta have you come to the studio man and just get you know, and we just want to say we

appreciate your work man, keep doing what you do. Man. Thank you so much. Titia. We appreciate you so much. And it feels good to be able to highlight your work because I know that you wear it on your sleeve. Um. And you know, I have to be the one to say because I think it's important, and I think the mayor would say as well. With all that he's trying to do and the fact that he's folding a million directions.

As my son said, um, you know when when we first bought you on uh, he has he has responsibility that are beyond violence prevention and intervention. And to have a strong black woman sitting in this seat helping to coordinate and organized people. I know it makes the mayor proud as well. That's why he mentioned you during his interview. And we want to do it that we can to support you and to make sure that you are able to keep the santama and the energy to keep going.

And so thanks again, thanks for talking with us and know that we are here. The show is here, but we are also here personally to support you. Absolutely. I thank you so much for for bringing me on. I think the mayor for the opportunity. I think that when he first presented that he was going to do Office of Violence Prevention and he presented it to all the directors, nobody raised their hands and wanted the job, and they

said give it to Keisha. So I think so I think that Um, that it was just for me, Um, and we know that was for us is for us, and so I thank you so much for being partners in this work, Um, and for holding a line. So thank you, thank you, Hey care, thank you. You know.

I think what was interesting about Keisha and what she was saying, and you know, we didn't get a chance to go back to it, but she talked about how the new work that they're doing in terms of taking one of the precincts and turning it into a violence intervention and prevention space where they will have all the services and people can actually walk in and access the things that they need like mental health services and job placement and what have you. She said that that came

about as a result of the defund police movement. Now you know, you can't miss that because she was talking about the George Floyd protests. Therefore, what we all know is that people started calling for the police to be defunded across the nation where we can take some of the resources. And as you entitled it UH some time ago, and I see many people are picking it up and

using the title refunding the community, refund the people. And so as a direct connection between the movement for UH for police accountability, there has been this work to prevent violence in our communities and we have, unfortunately those who try their best for many different reasons. I think some people just don't know and don't understand, but others are perfectly trying to UH make you know, create a different narrative.

But if you really focus and pay attention to the progress, the natural progression the police accountability movement in many places has turned into folks doing more to support community efforts which will ultimately bring down by So I was happy to hear her talk about that, and I think it is it is an example of how our movements connect and why we as people who are frustrated, especially who don't necessarily sendally see the changes that we're looking for.

How we need to um, you know, we need to understand that there is that In no way should be be looking at one part of the movement and believing that it is not connected to the entire pie. Yeah. I don't get it. That's why I don't get it you pretty much. I don't get how people just don't get the fund the police. I don't get how you

don't see the direct correlation between poverty and violence. I don't get how you don't understand if you don't put resources in communities, and you don't give kids access to opportunities and things that keep them out of the streets. If you don't put basketballs in their hands, you don't put computers in their hands, if you don't give them skill sets, if you don't provide them with different opportunities,

then you actually literally putting guns in there. In So, I don't get how this doesn't make sense to people. I don't get how you can look at communities where people are well to do all over this country, whether it's black people, white people, or ethnicities. It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is. When you're in a community that is thriving, there is less crime and violence, and there's less police participation. There's less police um presence inside of

communities where people are well to do. So this is a this is common sense, but people want to act like they don't get it. Because what happens is this economy that we live in is built off crime, is built of violence. The whole injustice system has to run. If you don't have anybody to lock up and there's no crime, then they're not able to make these billions of dollars in industries that they make that are based on the fact that crime is being committed. So they

have to have impoverished communities. They have to have kids who don't have opportunities who see violence and crime is the only way out. Two things. They have to create cultures of violence, Like teachers said, that's one of the things. The culture. They had to create, the culture of violence. They had to make that violence um utilize as a way out of your circumstances. When I talked about this old time, we talked about the music. People say the

music and this and that. The music is what it is because people see that you are celebrated for violence. They're only giving record deals. And I said it again and I said before, they're only giving record deals to those people who are active in the streets, who are

really the shooters, who are really the robbers. You don't even have to have a skill set, but if you're talking about a real crime that actually was committed, and you put that on a track they promoted right so that people see why real crime and real active street mess is what's gonna get me out of my circumstances, gonna get me out of hood, which is a short lived strategy because ut is usually it's what's been happening lately.

As soon as they are getting these record deals and they get out the community, they get lots up for the crimes that they talked about when they get shot and killed by the person who they shot, brother or cousin or family member or somebody who sees them as an opt So you know, we gotta really understand what it is that we're dealing. Man. It's gonna be a full fledged, multi prong process to stop violence in our communities.

And and it seems like I agree with you everything you said, and I and it seems that uh Maya Baraca has the right strategy. H. He has the right idea of what has to take place in order to ensure that UM we're not looking at locking more people up and or having police violence, UM be the strategy

for addressing issues that's happened in our community. UM. When I hear Keisha talking about mental health support, we know that our young people need that because if for no other reason, they must be traumatized by what they see in the palm of their hands on their cell phones every single day, whether it be violence, whether it be issues that's happening in the community, whether it be a

lack of hopelessness. And then, of course, as may Baracca said coming out of uh the the pandemic, UM, we know that people are in a real dire situation mentally, physically, emotionally, and so there's a lot of work to be done.

And I think Lakeisha Yuri having her as the woman that is behind the man may and Ross Barrocca, Newark is going to quickly become an example of what can be done to strengthen communities and how we in violence not by being more violent, but actually by providing people with the services and resources that they need in order to feel whole. And with that being said, that brings us to another episode Street Politicians and other powerful episodes.

I want to think our guests for being here. You know, the work that they're doing needs to be highlighted. We talked about what our communities need and we need leadership like we see today. So once again, tune in if you have any episodes or ideas for topics that you want us to discuss that you haven't heard. If you don't like something about me, if I pitched you off, send us, send us everything you know. I could take it. My skin is thick, you know. But once again, I'm

not gonna always be right. This Mega Mallery is not gonna always be wrong, but most of the times she will be. But we will both always and I mean always be or the true number one show in the world, Number one