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This episode is brought to you by Thorne and I have some incredible news for any of you

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To learn more about Thorn, go to episode 323 of the Behind the Shield podcast with Joel

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Titoro and Wes Barnett.

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This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade and that is 511.

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I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California and have used their products ever since.

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From their incredibly strong yet light footwear to their cut uniforms for both male and female

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responders, I found them hands down the best work wear in all the departments that I've

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worked for.

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Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything and I travel a lot and they

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are also now sponsoring the 7X team as we embark around the world on the Human Performance

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project.

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We have Murph coming up in May and again I bought their plate carrier.

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I ended up buying real ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates and that has been

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my ride or die through Murph the last few years as well.

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One area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous sponsorship spots is their brick

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and mortar element.

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They were predominantly an online company up till more recently but now they are approaching

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100 stores all over the US.

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My local store is here in Gainesville Florida and I've been multiple times and the discounts

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you see online are applied also in the stores.

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So as I mentioned 511 is offering you 15% off every purchase that you make but I do

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want to say more often than not they have an even deeper discount especially around

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holiday times.

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But if you use the code SHIELD15 you will get 15% off your order or in the stores every

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time you make a purchase.

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And if you want to hear more about 511 who they stand for and who works with them listen

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to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with 511 regional director Will Ayres.

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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast as always my name is James Gearing and this week

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it is my absolute honour to welcome on the show Air Force veteran and the man behind

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One People's Project Darrell Lamont Jenkins.

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Now in this conversation we discuss a host of topics from his journey into the military,

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his love of punk rock, anarchy in music, the incredible success he's had with some young

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men escaping neo-Nazi groups, One People's Project, his perspective on racism in America

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and so much more.

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Now before we get to this incredible conversation as I say every week please just take a moment,

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go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and

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leave a rating.

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Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast therefore making it easier for

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others to find and this is a free library of over 900 episodes now.

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So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so

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I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.

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So with that being said I introduce to you Darrell Lamont Jenkins.

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Enjoy.

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Darrell I want to say thank you so much for taking the time and coming on Behind the Shield

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podcast as we were discussing before I hit record I first came across you and just one

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of the minute chapters of your life in the movie Skin and then have since obviously followed

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you and we've interacted on Instagram but now we're talking so I want to say welcome

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to the Behind the Shield podcast today.

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Thank you I'm glad to be here, glad to be able to talk to you today.

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So where on planet earth we finding you this afternoon?

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I'm in the office in New Jersey and this is basically my sanctum sectorium and it gives

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me an opportunity to just mull over things and just talk freely without any mixed company

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around to try to explain what it is that I have been doing over the past 30 some odd

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years.

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Alright well let's start the beginning of that journey then so tell me where you were

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born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic what your parents did how many siblings?

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Well I was born in North New Jersey in 1968 I'm old and my parents it was really interesting

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when it comes to my family because black families usually especially black families of the age

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that I come from there aren't a lot of people who go the professional route and pretty much

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all of my family did that.

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My father was raised in North New Jersey which was a little bit rough and tough I mean he

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you know the cool thing about graduated from the school of hard knocks that was dad but

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he also graduated from Rutgers University so and he was a counselor he was a teacher

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he was in many respects a therapist and in particular a drug counselor at near the end

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of his life he had to retire but that was the last job that he had and you grow up learning

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how seeing him come home with that kind of you know baggage that not baggage but rather

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the sympathy on his shoulders for those that he was trying to help and my father was a

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tough dude my father was a tough dude and he and that will come out in just like sometimes

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frustration or sometimes a success because um a feeling of success because this was what

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he wanted to do all his life help people get through that life when they didn't feel they

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can and so that so that was that that was that he grew up with a lot of these folks

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that were going through hell and he spent the rest of his life trying to get them out

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of that hell him and his brothers him and his brothers did that because my um because

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everybody was the basically the family business with education my mother was a teacher she

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was also a nurse and a missionary and she still is a missionary she's a mother in the

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church um right now and um so you learned how to deal with people through how my dad

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dealt with people my brothers and sisters they have families of their own they're doing

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well and um i have um two sisters one brother and everybody for the most part no one for

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the most part really knew what kind of work i was doing until you know the movie came

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a movie was being produced and once the movie and by that time dad was already gone but

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um by that time um when they got to see what it was that i was um i was doing what it is

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that i produced to be um precise then they realized that there was something serious

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going on and i had um done some work out there that they knew nothing about because one of

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the reasons why you didn't know anything about the work was the fact that i was trying to

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protect my family from um any kind of blowback that i might have to um deal with i didn't

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want them to catch any of that shrapnel so so um but i grew up and um in new jersey i

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graduated high school immediately went into the air force didn't take long for me to get

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out because um that wasn't where i needed to be and um they agreed

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and uh and needless to say i didn't have the best of time of it i actually was um discharged

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um well before my time i was supposed to stay in i was only supposed to stay in four years

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i ended up getting out two years eight months and ten days later because i was not a good fit

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but it was only because that wasn't how i wanted to fight that wasn't how i wanted to um apply myself

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um in the future as a as a um as a human being as a as a person who wanted to try to do something

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with their lives that wasn't the direction i should have been going and i was a cop i

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i don't think that um i would have been uh as successful a cop as i am maybe doing what i do

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today there's no way it's so funny because when you hear people laugh and um joke about okay would

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you want a cop to show up or a social worker to show up i'm gonna tell you flat out after what i

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see my father my uncles my mother and a whole bunch of other people in my family do social worker

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it's best to build those lives up instead of um having to tear them down you know

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well speaking of that i want to go back to your dad because this is a such a an important

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conversation there's so much and we'll get to obviously modern day but as we sit here this

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the last eight years has been so much finger pointing well it's this person's problem that

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the country is this way well this person hadn't opened the borders you know whatever it is it's

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it's it's them them them them them and there's that quote if you want to change the world start a home

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and you mentioned about you know your father and your uncle creating this environment where they

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not only you know we're healing in their own homes but then going out and and healing others

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it's funny because you talked about that kind of vicarious trauma it reminds me of michael

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clark duncan's character in the green mile where he's just taking on that pain taking on that pain

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and the first responders this thing you know we we totally understand that we're empaths too um yeah

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but so talk to me about that what was it whether it was you know their parents what was the

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environment that caused those young men to decide to to do such good in their own communities

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i mean when you grow up with that kind of pain with that kind of trauma um and you have figured

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out that you need to get out of it and then you look back and see all your friends and all their

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families still struggling you don't want to leave that behind this is the this is the world that you

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knew and you love that world you love everybody in your community and you want to leave that behind

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you want to see things better for them i mean these are your friends and these are your family

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let's not forget these are family people that need help you don't want to just say okay i got i mean

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my family was not of that mindset of i got mines you get yours kind of thing and uh it was it and

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i think it was probably one of the most important things that um my um my family could have ever done

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and we're not just talking like i said before you're not just talking about my father you're

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talking about my uncle my um my uncle bob was a psychologist and my um my uncle lenzel worked

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within the um north school system as as did my um my uncle pip they called him and you see

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and they all used to just basically um compare notes but what it is they were doing and i mean i

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when i hear people on the political level when i hear people um down that kind of work because

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they'd rather go out and have a cop shoot somebody um and that's where the problem usually is when it

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comes to issues with police and all that it's the people behind them who don't really care about the

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communities um when you hear them down the uh the work that say my father did or even my mother as

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a missionary or as a teacher herself um you're not dealing with serious people you want to solve

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problems and that's what my father was trying to do and he did and and it and it did frustrate him

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like i said they did get to um there were times when it would just get to him not in any kind of

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um rage-filled way or where he took it out on his family or some nonsense like that but just

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what do i do here because remember i grew up in the 80s 80s was aides crisis my father had to deal

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remember as a drug counselor my father had to deal with people who he knew were going to die of aids

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you know who was going to was not going to be there in the next couple of months in the next

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couple of years and i remember him saying to me one time and remember i'm a teenager i'm a

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teenager when he's telling me this how do you tell them that everything's going to be okay

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when he knows full well that it isn't and i've seen and i saw that time and time again with my

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father that's the kind of frustration that you had or if somebody washes out of the program that's

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frustrating especially when he um liked the person and wanted that person to do better

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and even what and there are times when even when they do wash out of the program he figures out a

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way to actually try to help them from um falling down the hole sometimes i mean sometimes they just

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have to they're on their own i mean it all depends on the person but he will do what he can to help

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people he will do what he can to help clean folks up and that's one of the things that i took away

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from um his work i mean i think that i have to approach things the same way that my father did

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with the drug lens um my perspective of being a first responder for 14 years and seeing you know

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all the all the ripple effects plural of drug prohibition so you've got the gangs you've got

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the homelessness you got the prostitution you've got the overdoses um you know coming from from

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the uk which has a similar prohibition stance as the u.s which was actually forced upon it as i did

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the research um you you just realized it's been an epic failure the the war on drugs criminalizing

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addiction have you ever had any discussions on the kind of the root cause of a lot of the addiction

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that your dad interacted with and and maybe that same empathy and compassion being applied to an

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addict versus the legal system i think really my father was focused more on how to fix the addiction

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as opposed to how to fix the system i mean he was not a politician he didn't approach this

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um from a political um from a political perspective i don't i mean very seldom would you hear my father

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talk politics unless it was right up front and in your face but his whole thing was you need to get

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some work done we need all the all the complaining and all the lobbying in washington isn't going to

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do a damn thing for my man who's sitting there getting ready to um stroke out on um on an

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overdose or something like that you know um somebody who just doesn't know how to um basically change

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their life that's what you're trying to do you're trying to deal with that you're trying to deal with

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that person and the people um around him so he didn't really focus on it and i think that's the

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other thing that um i have to take away from um the work that he and my mother did because

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in the end we're dealing with human beings who need help and we are also dealing we're dealing

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with folks who can't wait for you know your politician to get it right they're not going to

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get it right for various reasons unfortunately i'm a cynic that way but uh but if that's the case

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what can you do what can you do i mean that's uh that's the question you have to do and uh

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you have to ask yourself rather whenever um whenever you're approaching the situation what can

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you do absolutely well with your kind of your childhood firstly what were you playing as far

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as sports when you were a young man i tried to play football i didn't i couldn't stay in that but um

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baseball softball that was my thing but there was no real league or anything like that so

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that was my thing but there was no real leagues going on there was nobody really doing little

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league around so we used to just play um baseball with the neighborhood kids or or or softball with

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the neighborhood kids and uh but that that was my thing that was my thing and i used to talk all

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day long about um the various uh baseball players back in the day whether you're talking about

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willy star joe or catfish hunter or something like that um but uh but that was uh that that was my

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thing um as time went along it wasn't really sports or anything that i was interested in

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rather some sort of comic book or history or music music really just began was the thing for me once

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i got out of the air well no well before that but really once i got out of the air force and i

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started getting into some of the scenes out there so what about when you were in the school age you

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mentioned about going into the air force is that what you were initially dreaming of becoming or

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was there another career aspiration well see that was that wasn't where i was going i mean my father

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um just suggested it to me because he figured that that was just a way to build some sort of

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a foundation and all um my mistake was looking at it as solely that and not recognizing that there

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was a lot more behind um being in the military that you had to respect and that you had to

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basically apply yourself to i never did that so once i got out once i got out i immediately went

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to college i immediately went to college and then i found my footing now in your upbringing prior to

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leaving the military um had you been exposed to any kind of supremacist groups or overt racism up

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to that point well that was a crazy thing because no and i didn't really start seeing them face to

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face um until i would say maybe 92 or when i was probably like three or four years out of the

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military i think um what i was um what whatever it was i saw it would have been on television

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um in the news um in your newspapers and things like that and i think my involvement was just

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was started really out of a curiosity about them they didn't really to me at the time pose um the

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kind of threat the clan didn't pose a kind of threat that they did maybe um at that time

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remember it was the 80s i mean 20 30 years ago um but the thing that really raised an eyebrow as

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time went along was the fact that you heard things said by those that had influence that you heard

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some clansmen say on donahue and that was what made me say okay let me follow this and see where it goes

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well before we get into that journey talk to me about your journey into to punk because firstly

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you know it's an interesting journey you know regardless i know i've had some guests i don't

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know if it's the same era as you but i was educated on the fact that you had straight edge punk so you

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had guys in the punk scene that weren't drinking and you know we're living a very clean lifestyle

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with water yep there we go but then also punk is associated with some of the skinhead movements

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and some of the the neo-nazi movements as well so what was your journey into punk and kind of which

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which of those subsets did you find yourself amongst well it was interesting because i was

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like listening to um when i was growing up i was listening to strictly hip-hop and r&b

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excuse me the original like the early hip-hop um too when we're talking about um stuff that only

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came from new york city and my first exposure to punk for real um there were several uh record

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stores in this town new brunson and i have my own particular um record store called varsity but there

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were other record stores that sold what us as kids called the white music excuse me and

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when i went to those stores out of curiosity and it was more than just the white music more

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than just the metal bands and all of that more than direct more than just the randoran you started

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seeing um the whole punk um the whole punk groups and everything the stuff that you didn't hear on

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the radio at all i mean you could find iron maiden on the radio back then you can find judas preach

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you can find ozzy osbourne you wasn't going to find the agnostic front on the radio okay and

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and warzone and you know and fugazi i mean you're not so that was really when it was like

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underground and i was really curious i noticed something that was really curious in that

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when i looked at those kinds of records when i saw the punk albums i noticed they looked like

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the hip hop albums of the day because the hip hop albums the hip hop records of the day

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were all indie labels still they weren't major labels yet they didn't have any music videos

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you basically had to know where to find songs because a lot of the hip hop wasn't being played

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on the radio yet and basically every time you went to go get a record of theirs you saw you saw how

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bare bones it was same thing with some of these punk albums um but a lot of these punk albums

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to be honest um there wasn't any full color albums um the um the artwork was basically graffiti

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like just like the hip hop especially when you're talking about the uh the new york scene when

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you were talking about hip hop and when you're talking about the new york punk it was really

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um influenced by the hip hop scene at the time so and you saw it and you saw it on in their albums

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so um i was starting to get interested in them but then i would play one of the records and i

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was like no i'm not into this just yet what got me into is i got out of the air force um and i

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started going and i went to a punk show the important thing for me was how much everybody

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was involved and i mean whether he was on the stage or um or just watching them play and you'll see

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them jump up on stage and i mean i was used to stage diving at this point anyway because even at

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the arena shows i was going to at that point um you saw that happening or floating on um

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um floating in the audience and things like that but you know getting up on stage and singing along

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with the band that kind of thing that was new i was getting into it and then after after the show

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we all went and hung out i mean it wasn't like it wasn't like uh these guys were on the pedestal

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when they're gonna go somewhere with the girls and all of that like i was used to at that time no

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we all hung out we all um if you drank got got stone cold drunk or talk everybody that was there

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we was talking about starting our own bands and i was just like this is what i was looking for

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this is what i was looking for this kind of camaraderie this kind of um um atmosphere

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where everybody no one rather was waiting for um somebody to hit give them a record deal nobody

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was waiting for them to let them play at a club and all of that um they just said they weren't

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even waiting to see if they knew how to play an instrument they was basically saying we're good

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we're just gonna do it we're just gonna do it and uh that's that's the attitude i was looking for

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that's the attitude that i needed where you heard where you heard people decide that um i want to do

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it and i'm gonna do it that's what got it was interesting what you're saying about the commonalities

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between punk and hip-hop because you've got you know young men and women who are frustrated at

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that some sort of system or establishment and his was was quite funny i got deeply into hip-hop in my

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kind of i guess late teens and i was a farm boy in england and before that i was going to phil

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collins and people like that and then i don't know what it was and all of a sudden like the you know

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boys in the hood and some of these films just resonated so deeply i don't even know i probably

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couldn't even explain it back then but it was just i think it was uh you know a sense of of wanting

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to break the mold because if you think about you know boys in the hood their cage is the hood there

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and they're both you know trying to break out and you know obviously it's a very tragic end but you

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know there is that that real resonating with some of the the music the the messages even though the

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actual lyrics might be completely foreign to you and that's one of the reasons why a lot of people

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get upset when um when you apply say um nazis in the skinhead culture because when you talk about

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the punk scene in the uk and remember i have never been to the uk so bear with me on this one um

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what my vibe has been was that you saw a lot of um coexistence shall i say with between the punk

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scene and the reggae scene back then and when you talk about um skinhead culture it was really a

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lot of white kids that was emulating the jamaican rude boys that was coming into england to find

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work and then because the way that the rude boys looked i mean not the rude boys yeah rude boys or

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um skinheads looked that was how a lot of your hate groups and all thought that they can um angle

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themselves into the culture into the punk culture which was big at the time they looked at um we

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we don't have to wear mohawks we don't have to have our hair color we don't have to be against

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anything skin we can we can um adapt the skinhead culture and make it our own because this is the

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way we want people to look so and and that's how that was born but people fought it when i got out

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of the air force when i came into the um just before i went into the air force um i started

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hearing about skinheads i remember i wasn't in the punk scene yet after i got out of the air force

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i started meeting them and it was a very different dynamic than what i saw on opera or dana here or

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something like that and it was really important it was really important to um see and that was

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another thing that said okay this is the direction i'm going in so let's start walking through that

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direction because it was interesting i heard you on a podcast and i forget the the name of it now

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it was um a gentleman in oh my goodness i'm gonna butcher the state even but it was a few years ago

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i think it was right after covid it hit but um this just like you said this idea is presented to

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sometimes an entire nation this group of people are like this and you could insert you know so

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many different examples there and what i've learned you know over my 50 years and also in

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all these conversations is this is the problem it's you know it's not all of anything and even you

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know and i know this is my kind of opinion on this even slavery which is like a you know big

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taboo topic i know but i was curious like you and i was like all right let me let me look at

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how the uk was doing during the height of slavery bearing in mind that the british slave traders were

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exchanging people in africa and then they were going to america washing their hands you know

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getting tobacco and then coming to the uk i don't know what you're talking about there's no slaves

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here um but the uk the british people were at some of their deepest uh poverty they've been

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in years and years and years the way it's presented is the white people all benefited from slavery and

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it's like no just like with so many other examples of tyranny a small group of people benefited from

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the suffering of many but the moment you tire an entire country an entire race an entire religion

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and tar and feather all of them you totally remove the ability to actually understand the

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nuance and then move forward from it right and i think that um i think that's always important

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whenever you're trying to um um prevail as the leader of a country so so to speak or leader of

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a region or a society it's like there is that divide and conquer um mentality that you got to

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work with you know and i think one of the reasons why we called ourselves one people's project is

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because we wanted to show people that you're not going to divide us and you're damn sure won't

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conquer us and uh and and it's important to maintain that thought it's important to maintain

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that idea because uh it doesn't make any sense to go forward if you're not about that um and that's

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one and again going back to the punk scene that was one of the um major things that got me um

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really into it because a lot of the trappings a lot of the things that we grew up with as you know

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this is how you're going to be and and so on i think that the punk scene is comprised of people

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who didn't want to be that who wasn't going to be that but knew that they could still flourish

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still flourish still still grow and still contribute i mean i talked about how after i got

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out of the effort started getting into the scene i saw my first skin you know i also also met my

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first gay person openly gay person at that time so a lot of things after i got out of the military

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which is very regimented um remember the military was also the first time i got out of the house

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and started experiencing life once i got out of the military i started experiencing everything

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so going to um going to shows all the time really started giving me an idea of um what is really

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out there and what is really important and what was really important to me at the time was

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changing society in a way that um we all benefited as one people and we all worked together in

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fellowship that's always been my attitude the other part of that however is if you're trying

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to keep and this is the major part obviously um if you're trying to keep that from happening we're

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going to fight you we're going to fight you um and that's where it comes into um dealing with the

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nazis and in this day and age you know i had a guest on the show ron starworth i'm not sure if

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you're familiar with with his story but he he was a subject of the film the black clansman

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oh no no no that ron star okay yes actually saw the movie yes i'm teaching someone else i said he

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was a boxer i'm sure there's a somewhat common name i'm sure but um but it was just fascinating

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to hear again you know here's this this black police officer and he's a black man and he's

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a young police officer at the time you know and then they infiltrate it between him and you know

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the guy that she shows up in person who ironically and the movie is jewish i can't remember if he

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actually was jewish i don't think he was in real life but anyway between the two of them they have

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this thing going on and ironically one of the the top people in the clan of that chapter was actually

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a local firefighter so here's here's an irony this guy risks his life for people whatever color and

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creed they are and yet as part of the clan yeah there goes the insanity of some of these you know

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these people's thought processes but you know it was really interesting kind of hearing you know

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some of these little pockets that existed and this was back in the 80s so you mention about hearing

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you know a political figure parroting something that a clan member had said so walk me through

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that journey you're you're enjoying the punk rock scene you start to have this kind of aha moment

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where do you go from there well it's funny because i was always a political well when i had um when

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i while i was in the air force i started dealing with being more and more of an activist strike one

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if you're in the military you're in trouble if you do that in the military and like i said

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i was in trouble um so i started being a little politically astute um even more so once i got out

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so by that point by the time i got out um my main um thing in politics politically speaking i should

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say was dealing with civil rights dealing with the history of black people in this country

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and most importantly dealing with the adversaries that we faced and where they were in this day and

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age um talk radio started becoming a thing around that time and you started hearing um

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people like rush limbaugh talk trash that you heard some plans to speak or somebody up here

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in new york a guy named bob grant who would call martin luther king a scumbag on his airwaves

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and would actually allow and invite um white supremacists to leave their um contact information

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over the air and and his um station was abc you're talking mainstream um when you start seeing that

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and then you realize just how deep this goes and you start trying to figure out okay how do they

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get from point a to point b or maybe point a and point b was non-existent and it was it was all at

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point a so um and that was one of the things that um i basically tried to um document over the

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course of the past 30 years i still have a couple of um tapes from excuse me from bob grant and rush

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limbaugh where they say some things that they probably would never say today i mean and um

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and i think they're important for people to listen to now um so folks can understand

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what it is um the mindset was back then versus now unfortunately neither of those individuals

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are here today to um to answer for it um they answered for it in their day eventually um but

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but um overall it's just basically right now today is just a um teachable moment for the rest of us

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that that history a question for you because this is again you know something that i've observed um

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i'll give you a prime example there was a famous news story a few years ago just up the road from

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where i live where a preacher was going to be a preacher and he was going to be a preacher and

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preacher was going to burn an entire you know pile of corans and and yes and someone told me that and

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i was like i bet you that motherfucker has got a book and he's about to release it and sure as

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shit this piece of shit had written some book this wasn't anything about some holy you know virtuous

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movement it was simply so he could sell his shitty book and i hope it sold terribly but it really

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frames the fact that when when i observe extremism by people with a large platform

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usually there's a book or a tv show or a tour or something that they're basically promoting through

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their toxic you know divisive spiel that they're putting out there what have you seen about some

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of these you know bigger figures out there as far as the the thing beneath the thing they may say

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that you know they may be preaching about whatever you know islamophobic or whatever it is but is

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there a common thread where behind that there's there's greed and power to be gained yeah and

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pretty much that's pretty much what you have these days that is what you have these days um

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before reagan i mean remember reagan was the great communicator why was he the great communicator

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because he was the first president to um actually look at a camera and say this is my friend you know

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uh other um other presidents before then yeah they knew that they had to sell themselves to the public

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of course reagan comes out of um comes out of a profession in which you knew how to do that

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and after reagan after reagan your politicians started to um adopt that to the point where that

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is the only thing they know to do so you have a lot of politicians that as james brown said in the

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seventies are talking loud and saying nothing and uh and um in the eighties and nineties and

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two thousand talking loud and doing nothing will be more apt um it's all about it's all about the

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grip now so to speak and they know and i think it's a pretty telling thing in regards to how

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successful the rest of society is because you're talking about conservatives out there who know

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their ideals will not um go any further than um than their chatter

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but their bank account will be amazing i mean i remember one time i heard ben shaper on um bill

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mars show say flat out um when someone talked to him about um the kind of a criticism kind of um

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um things that he's the slings and avocés gets for the things that he believes he says hey um i'll

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cry about it on my bed of money or something to that effect and it's like that's what matters

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that's what matters to the um for the ben shaperos and the candace homes and uh and michael

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knolls and all that they're not really going to um put forward anything that is going to

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benefit society but it's most certainly going to benefit them and it's been like that for years

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you did have back in the 90s and back in the 80s you still had people who um who were going to do

396
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:50,720
some work but that became less and less especially as the liberals and the left and the democrats or

397
00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:56,960
whatever you want to say um started applying themselves and started um getting themselves into

398
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:04,320
um the positions where we can actually make sure that things were done and that wasn't supposed to

399
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:11,520
happen but it happened and as we came up you know you're talking about the right just going down

400
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:18,880
to the point that all they have is the grift and um and then that's the issue that we have today

401
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:24,000
you take a look at congress today we have people in congress who have not done a thing marjorie

402
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:31,600
telegreen lauren bolbert matt gates but you see them all the time they haven't put any forth

403
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:41,120
put forth any kind of legislation or excuse me or anything that benefits um even their own constituents

404
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:51,120
but they say they say cute sound bites that will um that will get them at the next um right wing

405
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:57,120
conference that they can speak at or something like that i mean it gets them there and that's

406
00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:03,200
all that matters that's really all that matters and that's frustrating for people who really are

407
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:11,120
looking for um folks who are going to um put their time in and do what we need them to do when we

408
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:18,400
elect them and uh and even if you're even if you are not going to agree with the darn thing that

409
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:28,080
i'm about at least um make sure that you know the society stays afloat but that's not where they're

410
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:35,760
at they couldn't care less i've made this observation recently it's extremely simple

411
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:41,840
a leader unites a nation and a tyrant divides them and again i would argue the last eight years

412
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:47,120
which spans both sides of the aisle we have seen nothing but division and so you know whether it's

413
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:54,320
local government whether it's you know a state or or a nation itself if whoever we have you know used

414
00:44:54,320 --> 00:45:01,920
our tax money to fund to be at the helm of that organization if they are doing nothing but dividing

415
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:07,680
or doing nothing as you just mentioned with some of these people then there needs to be an awakening

416
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:14,160
by us all of the you know the the u.s you know the the entire nation to band together and demand

417
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:20,560
good people i mean it nauseates me i literally had the capacity to finally vote as an immigrant

418
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:28,080
and that was i think trump and clinton were my two choices and all i heard over and over again was

419
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:35,760
people say the words the lesser of two evils and i'm just like 330 million people you should never

420
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:42,160
hear that phrase if the system is right you should be like i really like this person but if we get

421
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:46,480
but if we get this person it's still going to be good it's not my favorite but it's still going

422
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:52,480
to be good but we have to choose from these freaking horrendous people every single four years

423
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:59,680
yeah and and it's by design because when now you're talking about um a political process that was

424
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:06,320
that's a complete mess right now voting for the lesser two evils is voting for evil

425
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:13,280
and evil is taking its toll to the point that this year you don't hear people saying lesser

426
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:20,720
or two evils anymore because they realize that saying that it's going to set up a lot turn on a

427
00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:27,600
light bulb in that and a lot of people's heads and said wait a minute we just spent 48 years

428
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:34,640
of evil in control and you want me to vote for evil again no that's not the way this works

429
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:41,440
not the way this works and i think one of the things that um people are trying to do is i mean

430
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:47,440
a lot of people are trying to change that it's just a matter of knowing how and i'll be fair i'll be

431
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:54,960
honest this is one of the things that got occupy started occupy and i and i'm spending a lot of

432
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:59,680
time telling going around the country telling people this and talking on podcast because

433
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:05,920
everybody tries to pretend that they didn't know what occupy was about occupy was about finding

434
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:12,800
solutions to our problems without having to go through a corrupt political process to um to do

435
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:24,560
it you know i mean it's funny how um we're looking at the bridge in baltimore and and biden promises

436
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:31,040
60 million dollars to get the bridge rebuilt this is not a controversial thing but you have one of

437
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:40,240
those one of those uh republican congressman who's trying to make a name for himself trying to balk

438
00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:47,920
at the idea of joe biden giving them all this money when just a couple of years ago there was

439
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:55,760
a bridge that collapsed in mississippi and they got three or four times that much um unanimously

440
00:47:56,640 --> 00:48:03,040
without any controversy so there's i mean so now we're looking at there's really no controversies

441
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:11,200
going on except for the ones that um certain politicians create and create just to benefit

442
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:17,440
themselves so when you see a society um looking at that they say okay we really got to start

443
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:22,400
building and this is what i always um encourage start building up our institutions start building

444
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:29,200
um start building new institutions to replace old ones that will respond to our concerns and our

445
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:37,440
needs and like i said that's what occupy was trying to encourage people to do and i think to some degree

446
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:45,680
there was um success in that but i think um we need to just keep that momentum going even though

447
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:53,920
it's been what 2011 was when occupy happened so it's been about what 13 years or so and um

448
00:48:54,720 --> 00:48:59,680
we're still trying to figure out how to get back to that so to speak how to um build off of that

449
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:07,040
and i think we're doing okay things are getting addressed in ways that um they will otherwise not

450
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:12,160
get addressed you know i mean i think that when you take a look at police brutality for example

451
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:21,200
um people aren't saying aren't asking the government per se to um to identify and try to um

452
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:28,320
i try to gather the evidence that will get bad cops out of there they're videotaping the police

453
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:37,040
now and and they're and they are showing everybody what exactly it is that um that we're upset about

454
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:44,000
and our concerns and that's why police who are doing wrong are going to jail today that's why

455
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:49,920
um that's what got a lot of these um police officers in jail today it was the people it was

456
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:55,520
folks out there in the street it wasn't our government when it comes to this conversation

457
00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:59,600
because i mean i've you know i've i've had people on here many many times where we talked about the

458
00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:03,840
cases where a police officer has absolutely made a mistake you know and actually ironically in the

459
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:08,560
george floyd case you know i had a guy who really broke down the whole case and it was just ultimately

460
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:14,160
they were completely wrong the the police and the paramedics in that particular case but they were

461
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:19,120
actually brought to justice the way anyone else would have been they were actually you know

462
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:23,200
that they received the judgment that they should have so then you look at the kind of massive

463
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:28,000
reaction to that they that one was actually handled the way it should have been what's very unfair

464
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:33,120
though i think and i just shared an interesting video it was an author talking about the police

465
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:40,080
an author talking about another author's book and he said um he was talking about poverty in this

466
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:45,600
particular case he said in the world of poverty in america it's like a burning building and

467
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:50,720
children are jumping from the windows to their death and all we're doing is focusing on the

468
00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:56,240
children and not who started the fire and who benefits from it and i think this is the other

469
00:50:56,240 --> 00:51:01,520
side you never ever hear when it comes to law enforcement in the states there are some incredible

470
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:06,080
men and women in in uniform some of them train despite their department i've worked for the fire

471
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:11,120
departments where i took my time off and my own personal money to get better at my job because

472
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:17,440
my department didn't support me that way but what we don't say is why are the streets of america so

473
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:23,840
unsafe why do we have gangs why do we have so much homelessness why i mean why do we consume 75 percent

474
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:27,920
of the world's opioids even though we're four percent of the world's population why do we have

475
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:34,240
20 percent are incarcerated of the entire world when we're only four percent so and i again back

476
00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:40,880
to the drug prohibition i think that's a big part of it it really is and so as well as the let's make

477
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:46,240
sure that law enforcement are doing what they do let's also address the root cause of what's sending

478
00:51:46,240 --> 00:51:53,280
innocent little children into gangs into violence in and out of all colors and creeds but into those

479
00:51:53,280 --> 00:52:00,000
those kinds of human beings that are dangerous to other civilians and then also creating situations

480
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:06,080
in which sometimes they're justifiably killed in that particular situation or or sometimes

481
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:11,760
they're erroneously killed and shouldn't have been but the other side needs to be discussed and this

482
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:18,240
is all colors and creeds why is our multicultural nation so dangerous compared to so many other

483
00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:24,480
places in the world well i think that's the main reason why i started this conversation the way i

484
00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:33,200
did i needed to point out a that um ultimately that rest at the feet of our elected officials

485
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:43,120
and unfortunately um we have a lot of elected officials that benefit from the uh the climate

486
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:51,680
out there being the way that it is i also said that um before you even have a cop on the scene

487
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:57,520
you want to get those folks who are social workers you do want a social worker on the scene you do

488
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:05,520
want a counselor um in the middle uh in the middle of um some drama and somebody getting ready to

489
00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:14,800
cause it because in all in all truth truth i think that um those who will be considered perpetrators

490
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:22,160
excuse me i mean in truth those who would be considered perpetrators

491
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:30,000
would listen to them quicker than they would a cop they don't look at the social worker as about

492
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:36,800
to ruin or end their life they look as at the social work as somebody who's trying to help them

493
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:43,920
and it is and that's true and it will be true for a lot of folks in law enforcement too except

494
00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:51,440
they come with a gun in a badge they come with handcuffs and unfortunately they also come with

495
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:59,920
a very bad rep they come with a very bad rep and people are going to balk at that the moment that

496
00:53:59,920 --> 00:54:04,160
um the moment that they step on the scene things are going to start getting heightened heightened

497
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:10,160
and it ironically enough police are supposed to be trained to de-escalate the moment a cop is on the

498
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:19,360
scene everything gets escalated and that is where i come in and try to say this is how you solve

499
00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:30,320
problems by not by um trying to keep things from becoming a problem or too much of one if it's

500
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:40,080
already a problem um if things become a problem if you are dealing with um somebody who was a

501
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:47,440
bad actor um that is supposed to be protecting us and all that whether or not they intended

502
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:56,000
to be a bad actor it's going to it's going to reveal itself a lot more than um it would have if

503
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:06,480
um if it was if we only focused on um on the police if we only focused on that various incidents

504
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:11,680
that those various incidents that take place if you start holding um if you start holding

505
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:18,400
elected officials accountable for trying to benefit from that kind from that kind of activity um then

506
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:26,320
you will start seeing some sort of changes i think about um let's go back to 99 2000 when

507
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:35,360
Ahmadou Diallo was um was murdered in um in new york city something changed then because

508
00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:40,000
we didn't focus on the police i still don't know the police officer's names

509
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:46,320
um we focused on um Giuliani who was the mayor at the time how was safer who was the police

510
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:54,720
commissioner at the time and said that you caused this because they were trying to use the police to

511
00:55:55,360 --> 00:56:01,120
um advance themselves politically at the expense of a community that they were told that they had

512
00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:09,280
to fight and uh that made all the difference in the world back in 99 that made all the difference

513
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:15,520
in the world unfortunately not for Diallo but the Abner Louima trial was happening at the same time

514
00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:25,120
um where four cops were um in were on trial for assaulting him and um police precinct they ended

515
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:31,280
up going to jail some of them ended up going to jail one just got out just got out and

516
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:40,640
we realized then that we had a lot of strength a lot of um power within ourselves to solve

517
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:45,840
the problem even even before the cops show up we have the power to solve the problem

518
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:53,760
and when bad actors show up to say that they were going to and they ended up killing somebody we

519
00:56:53,760 --> 00:57:01,520
also had the power to um to correct that one and that's what we start that's what we're seeing now

520
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:08,800
that's what we're seeing now um so uh in the end i think my main message is that it all the um the

521
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:15,680
solutions do begin and end with us i mean after all we are the ones that elect these officials

522
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:21,360
we are the ones that um put police on the street and make sure that they have money and that they

523
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:26,480
put police on the street and make sure that they have money and and and any kind of first responder

524
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:37,200
remember Elijah McLean um his death was um due to due to the uh incompetence of um not just police

525
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:47,920
but in particular the EMTs so we know what we have to do and we know how to do it it's just a matter

526
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:54,880
of being able to just buckle down and getting it done well i think again you know it's it's when you

527
00:57:54,880 --> 00:58:03,120
look at the the environment we have created an environment that really does encourage failure

528
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:07,280
and people say criticize the police well they look like they're going to war it's like well yeah have

529
00:58:07,280 --> 00:58:12,080
you seen some of the streets that they work in i mean i have you know personally pulled blankets

530
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:18,000
over so many dead young people in gang killings you know and it happens all the time in what people

531
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:23,600
think are very good areas too well can i make a point about something please here's where here's

532
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:30,160
here's where um we should start how we should start looking at things when we talk about um

533
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:37,360
the kind of jobs that police go deal with the kind of areas that they have to um uh police

534
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:43,520
uh that they have to patrol and they come home with a lot of ptsd and they're going through it

535
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:53,120
themselves i mean i recognize that but imagine they get to go home imagine those who get them

536
00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:58,480
he'll have to live there what kind of ptsd are you dealing with there oh absolutely

537
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:06,080
that's why you see the kind of drama that you see in those streets you know and when people start

538
00:59:06,080 --> 00:59:14,720
um respecting that and recognizing that um it can go a long way but again it does matter who it is

539
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:22,160
that we put in these positions of authority and in positions of power they have to care they have to

540
00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:29,520
care and if they don't care then we put do we place them with people who do and um that goes back

541
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:34,320
and that's one of the things that i had said earlier about how we are able to put ourselves

542
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:42,320
in these positions um where we can solve problems whenever we see them and as we are coming up a

543
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:48,080
lot of your more right-wing figures like more conservative figures are going down they're losing

544
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:56,640
their influence and um that's why all you see from them now is just a grift it's just a grift or

545
00:59:56,640 --> 01:00:06,960
somebody calling for a national divorce succession or whatever or a civil war i mean that's all

546
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:12,240
rhetoric because you really don't want us to have a civil war in this country you're not prepared

547
01:00:12,240 --> 01:00:18,400
for that we are not prepared for that it will not go down the way that you think it will well i

548
01:00:18,400 --> 01:00:24,000
think it's also i mean that's thrown around and and here's what i see and maybe i'm just naive

549
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:30,160
but what i see is that most people have so much more in common than they have differences and most

550
01:00:30,160 --> 01:00:37,600
people live side by side and have no issues with color or sexual orientation or who they they pray

551
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:42,880
to they're you know they're in the communities we are a very diverse nation overall built on

552
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:49,600
immigration but in 2020 you know from 2020 especially forward i mean i mean if you can

553
01:00:49,600 --> 01:00:55,920
divide over a bloody virus then you can divide over anything but it's like they put they gave the

554
01:00:55,920 --> 01:01:02,960
microphone to the biggest fucking idiots in our entire nation and said have at it we represent

555
01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:08,400
this entire country when they don't but the problem is i don't know why but the middle 80

556
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:14,880
percent just seemed to lose their voice that is the more dangerous part of that is the dangerous

557
01:01:14,880 --> 01:01:21,280
part of these folks turning things into a grift um those come from conspiracy theories they were

558
01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:28,560
all living conspiracy theories and a lot of them were in fact trying to their their focus was trying

559
01:01:28,560 --> 01:01:35,200
to make sure that their political beliefs were still in the mainstream as they were leaving the

560
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:41,920
mainstream i always tell people you know what if we all decided that we didn't have to wear masks

561
01:01:42,480 --> 01:01:47,920
and we didn't have to quarantine those same individuals we running around with masks saying

562
01:01:47,920 --> 01:01:54,160
that if you're not wearing the mask you're hurting my child you know that it's it's all about it's

563
01:01:54,160 --> 01:02:02,720
all about trying to maintain for themselves and none of it is real none of it is real

564
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:12,320
and i think their biggest problem in this year going forward until november is trying to convince

565
01:02:12,320 --> 01:02:19,280
everybody that um that it's what they are about is real when we all know better we all know better

566
01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:25,840
what they are about is real when we all know better we all know better we all know that um that they're

567
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:33,600
just running the game to try to stay in some sort of power and 2020 really irked people 2020 they

568
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:40,880
really irked people well we saw the leaders that we paid had no idea how to lead not i mean there

569
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:47,440
is a fact that we were still trying to figure out what was going on excuse me they exploited that

570
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:52,320
to say they didn't know what they were doing no they didn't but they were going to learn um

571
01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:59,600
but they acted like they knew what they were they were doing and they didn't so here we have here

572
01:02:59,600 --> 01:03:08,000
um at ruckus for example ruckus university is not too far from me here they just lifted um a um

573
01:03:08,640 --> 01:03:14,080
a covet era requirement or something i cannot recall off the top of my head right now what it was

574
01:03:14,080 --> 01:03:21,440
but now all the um branch convidians out there are are out there saying we won we proved ourselves

575
01:03:21,440 --> 01:03:28,800
no we are now at the point where we don't need those provisions anymore because we got this under

576
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:35,840
control no thanks to you and and it's and it's frustrating as all get out because you got all

577
01:03:35,840 --> 01:03:44,480
these conspiracy theories um confusing people when folks are actually trying to just work through

578
01:03:44,480 --> 01:03:50,720
this help each other out we basically showed everybody what it was like to be a community

579
01:03:50,720 --> 01:04:00,000
that cares in 2020 that segment of society for that segment of society that attitude is poison

580
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:07,040
that attitude is poison because that division is there basically life's blood

581
01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:16,880
you know and you have to figure out i think the mission in life is to build as build everything

582
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:24,000
build grow evolve but beware of that crowd that doesn't want you to do that that doesn't want the

583
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:29,280
society to do that for whatever reason well i saw i saw it just as strongly the other side don't get

584
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:34,160
me wrong i heard the whole chinese conspiracy thing it was a real virus i've got i've got friends

585
01:04:34,160 --> 01:04:38,240
that you know we're in icus that were seeing people dying you know we've had those stories on

586
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:45,280
the show but if we're talking again that middle 80 percent what should have happened and i'm not

587
01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:50,480
talking hindsight four years ago i'm talking you know after we realized okay this isn't as horrendous

588
01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:55,280
as we thought it was going to be everyone kind of reevaluated and went okay it's bad but it's not

589
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:59,680
that bad that we thought you know initially like it's going to sweep through and kill everyone so

590
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:03,920
then it should have been all right how can we make americans as healthy as possible let's focus on

591
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:09,280
everything we can do for mental health physical health you know emotional health and it wasn't it

592
01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:15,040
was if you don't wear a mask and isolate and get vaccinated you're a murderer stay in the house we'll

593
01:05:15,040 --> 01:05:19,920
tell you what to do and bear in mind i'm coming in from the middle i got vaccinated to travel to see

594
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:25,120
my my family i'm not anti-vax even though i wouldn't have had it if i didn't need to because i'm

595
01:05:25,120 --> 01:05:28,080
you know healthy and i think it would have been another shitty flu and then i would have been

596
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:34,960
fine but the what should have happened with that captive audience where if we're talking about

597
01:05:34,960 --> 01:05:40,800
coming together if we'd had a leader at the helm we would have absolutely done everything to isolate

598
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:45,200
the people that were vulnerable that was our main goal our selfless goal was to make sure the people

599
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:51,840
who really need medical care and isolation are given all the best areas there the people that

600
01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:58,000
are the most um uh they're the strongest the least likely to have an issue keep the country running

601
01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:03,440
but we make sure that you know in the meantime let's look at our pe programs in school let's

602
01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:09,600
put real food back in school let's get rid of soda from school let's let's work on pedestrianized

603
01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:15,200
areas let's give local farmers you know subsidies so they can start making clean food in every

604
01:06:15,200 --> 01:06:21,040
neighborhood not just the mega farms but none of that happened so i saw it as a complete failure

605
01:06:21,040 --> 01:06:27,200
of leadership from both sides one the scaremongering from one side and the other one the the dictatorship

606
01:06:27,200 --> 01:06:32,160
that was stay in your house shut up we'll tell you we can get out which was you couldn't have done

607
01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:38,960
anything worse to make people more vulnerable to a virus and as we've emerged now obesity is getting

608
01:06:38,960 --> 01:06:47,440
worse mental health is worse so we are a more sick country now after such an incredibly powerful near

609
01:06:47,440 --> 01:06:55,760
miss than we were in 2020 and that is a complete example of an absence of leadership from left and

610
01:06:55,760 --> 01:07:00,720
right well what i will tell you is that i mean because i was definitely on that side of um if

611
01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:05,120
you're not wearing a mask um you're not helping at the very least i don't know if i'm gonna sit

612
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:09,360
in and say you're a murderer or anything like that but i was definitely angry when people started

613
01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:15,840
um playing games with it because we did not know what was going on yet did we have people that were

614
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:22,560
incompetent sure did we have people that was going to exploit our fears sure but by this but it was

615
01:07:23,200 --> 01:07:28,640
something that we was just basically trying to get a handle on in those early days especially

616
01:07:28,640 --> 01:07:34,000
what i would say however is that yeah you're right it was a perfect opportunity for us to do the

617
01:07:34,000 --> 01:07:38,880
things and build the things that we needed to um needed to build and i think we still have those

618
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:45,200
opportunities we still have the opportunity to protect ourselves from that next wave whatever

619
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:52,160
it is that um however it is that it comes um forward and that's the thing we should be doing

620
01:07:52,160 --> 01:07:59,920
a lot more pre-emptive stuff um that will keep us from falling into the trap that we fell into in

621
01:07:59,920 --> 01:08:09,040
2020 and i mean across the board not just talking about covid but just economically um we we had

622
01:08:09,040 --> 01:08:15,280
safety measures in place all right i'm not talking about the pandemic um pandemic office that was

623
01:08:15,280 --> 01:08:19,600
shut down during the trump administration i'm not talking about that i'm talking more about

624
01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:26,400
the um the things the mechanisms that we've always had in place the way we normally go about things

625
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:36,400
that um that we took advantage of at that time that we really didn't know existed until um until

626
01:08:36,400 --> 01:08:44,240
we really needed to have them and a lot of that has gotten strengthened and i'm by that i mean

627
01:08:45,120 --> 01:08:54,960
how we communicated um at the time how we um managed to um make sure that we still had the

628
01:08:54,960 --> 01:09:02,560
things that we needed um no one starved during um during the pandemic you know we was able to

629
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:09,040
we was able to get around to the places that we can get around to at that time uh because we were

630
01:09:09,040 --> 01:09:15,200
all because we all had some sort of infrastructure so to speak and we're still maintaining that

631
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:22,640
we're sitting up here on a stream yard um conversation right now the stream yard and

632
01:09:22,640 --> 01:09:28,960
all the other uh all the other um video conference platforms got strengthened during the um during

633
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:36,000
the pandemic we're able to teach our kids remotely now even more so than we were before the pandemic

634
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:44,080
you know we are able to have things delivered to us if we if we're in if we're sick if we cannot um

635
01:09:44,080 --> 01:09:51,440
get around you know all of that kind of thing says that we have put some sort of infrastructure

636
01:09:51,440 --> 01:09:59,840
in place so that we can function as a society when we need when we need to be um and when we can't

637
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:09,600
in some aspects so um so so i i would say that while there are things that we need to do

638
01:10:10,480 --> 01:10:18,000
there are things that we did do that we should appreciate today and um and i yeah i i'm one of

639
01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:28,160
the things that um is really important for me is that i have to be an optimist i have to um

640
01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:36,880
recognize that um the reason why i fight so hard that hard that i do is because um

641
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:45,120
i believe in us i really do appreciate um the things that we do as a society and i want to

642
01:10:45,120 --> 01:10:52,960
preserve that i want to make it stronger and um if i'm going to come from that position

643
01:10:53,600 --> 01:11:00,320
definitely appreciate it definitely help contribute to it definitely point out to everyone

644
01:11:00,320 --> 01:11:08,720
just what it is we have that we should maintain and that will go a long way into people um being

645
01:11:08,720 --> 01:11:15,120
um being a lot more proactive than they are today where they're not just sitting around and just

646
01:11:16,640 --> 01:11:21,040
going enjoying their lives just going through their day to day and coming back and watching

647
01:11:21,040 --> 01:11:31,840
television or something like that um excuse me um they see themselves as um a cog in the wheel that

648
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:41,440
they can um and they can be a very effective cog in that wheel so um never um never look at uh

649
01:11:43,360 --> 01:11:48,320
us as being in the worst of times don't you don't have to look at us being in the worst of times

650
01:11:48,320 --> 01:11:55,360
there we do have ways of getting out of whatever times we are in that are bad um we just have to

651
01:11:55,360 --> 01:12:02,720
be mindful of them and appreciate them from down to down yeah i agree completely and i always call

652
01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:08,400
myself an angry optimist i'm i'm super happy you know but i will push back sometimes if it's you

653
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:13,440
know if what it is is detrimental to people's health and happiness so i agree a thousand percent

654
01:12:13,440 --> 01:12:18,320
and i see the potential and this is why i'm so passionate and what what i do you know why i do

655
01:12:18,320 --> 01:12:24,000
what i do is because i people should be living healthy lives you know young boys and girls should

656
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:28,480
be growing up and actually doing the thing they dreamed of in preschool not getting dragged into

657
01:12:28,480 --> 01:12:34,400
some you know street life or you know meth life or whatever it is that that they're dragged into

658
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:41,600
so um with that let's kind of share a pretty uplifting story from from your uh life up to

659
01:12:41,600 --> 01:12:48,240
this point um talk to me about how you met Byron Whittner and uh let's kind of discuss excuse me

660
01:12:48,240 --> 01:12:57,280
discuss his journey well Brian um it was really interesting because um excuse me i would say that

661
01:12:57,280 --> 01:13:03,520
a lot of time a lot of times when i'm dealing with the um the nazis um it's always going to be

662
01:13:03,520 --> 01:13:11,280
aggressive it's always going to start off aggressive i should say um but i always leave that little door

663
01:13:11,280 --> 01:13:16,720
open so that they know that they can talk to somebody if they want to get out or if they want

664
01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:24,720
to talk further about where you know things are i remember one of the nazis i remember one of the

665
01:13:24,720 --> 01:13:32,640
nazis that i chased down at a glenn beck rally in dc um he found my number and i think he was

666
01:13:32,640 --> 01:13:39,600
thinking about trying to just call me out on whatever it is um i did to him and we had about

667
01:13:39,600 --> 01:13:46,400
an hour-long conversation he didn't know that i would be knowledgeable about this and that

668
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:54,000
and we still talk today i mean he's a trump supporter unfortunately but baby steps baby steps

669
01:13:55,760 --> 01:14:04,400
and it's so funny because that conversation could not be had if i don't recognize the humanity in

670
01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:13,440
everybody my mission in life is trying to get them to recognize their humanity before um something

671
01:14:13,440 --> 01:14:20,240
bad happens because that's the only thing that um that that kind of hate migrant those kinds of

672
01:14:20,240 --> 01:14:26,560
hate politics is going to lead to and unfortunately this is something that i'll get from my father too

673
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:36,560
by the way um this particular thing you can't uh go to them so speak some people can some people

674
01:14:36,560 --> 01:14:43,920
can't but my approach has never been um to go to them and try to encourage them like i said i leave

675
01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:50,320
the door open for them to walk through i try to leave a crack of the door open but the whole thing

676
01:14:50,320 --> 01:15:00,480
ultimately is going to be up to them to walk through it and at some point brian did um his

677
01:15:00,480 --> 01:15:08,800
wife called me said he wanted to talk and we talked about music about the punk scene about

678
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:16,880
everything but politics because you know as i said before we're human beings and that's the first

679
01:15:16,880 --> 01:15:22,240
and foremost thing you want to talk about you want to talk about who you are and why it is you're

680
01:15:22,240 --> 01:15:28,880
coming and coming to me and what is the direction you're going into now and that went on for about

681
01:15:28,880 --> 01:15:34,880
three years that went on for about three years before we actually met erasing hate the documentary

682
01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:42,160
erasing hate um when you saw when you see me in um that documentary that was the first time we

683
01:15:42,160 --> 01:15:48,480
actually met face to face yeah i remember that yeah because uh up to that point that uh they were

684
01:15:48,480 --> 01:15:54,880
worried that being seen with you was going to be dangerous for them and their little one absolutely

685
01:15:54,880 --> 01:15:58,960
i mean you're talking about someone who was one of the biggest enforcers of this white supremacist

686
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:06,480
group and um and he was pulling himself out and there was a lot of things that he was trying to

687
01:16:06,480 --> 01:16:14,000
deal with and he didn't know how to deal with it and um and i was one of the reasons why he was

688
01:16:14,000 --> 01:16:21,200
able to and why they were able to um i mean sadly things aren't where they um where they should be

689
01:16:21,200 --> 01:16:28,960
now they're no longer together um him and his wife but he's also no longer a nazi you know he's

690
01:16:29,680 --> 01:16:35,520
that that is important and he is um going on with his life they both are and

691
01:16:37,600 --> 01:16:46,560
that is that's is really the um the mission i mean you want people who are going to be productive in

692
01:16:46,560 --> 01:16:54,480
their lives you don't want to destroy those lives um it's just an unfortunate byproduct

693
01:16:55,440 --> 01:17:00,960
that if you're trying to preserve and protect a society there are some people who just need to be

694
01:17:00,960 --> 01:17:07,920
dealt with but when those individuals show that they are not the people you have to deal with

695
01:17:07,920 --> 01:17:14,880
anymore jump in with both feet and see if you can just make sure that um they're going to be okay

696
01:17:14,880 --> 01:17:19,600
and the rest of the world is going to be okay it was beautiful getting the chance to um know brian

697
01:17:19,600 --> 01:17:26,560
over these past couple of um past decade or so um and they're not the only and he wasn't the only

698
01:17:26,560 --> 01:17:33,040
one there was um there's a lot of people um in this that was about that life that are no longer

699
01:17:33,040 --> 01:17:38,720
about that life some of them actually became roommates and best friends of mine you know and

700
01:17:38,720 --> 01:17:45,120
and i think that's really important um and when it comes to growth when it comes to how things go

701
01:17:45,120 --> 01:17:52,480
forward uh and there's more out there that i can look at and say they're going to need help

702
01:17:52,480 --> 01:17:59,440
eventually but again they have to come to us my obligation is always going to be to the people

703
01:17:59,440 --> 01:18:06,640
they have the potential of hurting and that's the other thing um unfortunately no matter how much

704
01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:11,920
they grow and no matter how much they build there's always going to be those folks out there

705
01:18:12,400 --> 01:18:17,760
that are not going to forget what they were some of them have been hurt by them when they were that

706
01:18:17,760 --> 01:18:25,760
thing and that's just going to be a big hurdle that they have to um they have to deal with they

707
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:29,520
probably would never be able to deal with that because a lot of the things that they were about

708
01:18:29,520 --> 01:18:37,120
were frankly unforgivable um but um they still must try we all still must try and um

709
01:18:39,600 --> 01:18:47,760
i guess well how should i say i guess the best thing to say is that it's not going to be easy

710
01:18:47,760 --> 01:18:55,840
it's never easy but it's worth it's worth trying to pursue it's worth trying to pursue i could tell

711
01:18:55,840 --> 01:19:00,400
you with via my friendship with brian and others that were a part of that scene once upon a time

712
01:19:00,400 --> 01:19:05,680
it's definitely worth trying to pursue i'm glad i have the friendships that i have coming out of

713
01:19:05,680 --> 01:19:12,000
that i mean if anyone hasn't seen the film i urge you to watch skin because i mean it's so well done

714
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:20,320
as well i mean the actual film um what i'm curious about what when you talk to these people whether

715
01:19:20,320 --> 01:19:24,880
they reformed or whether you had conversations with them about what they were doing and what

716
01:19:24,880 --> 01:19:30,880
conversations with them and they're still in that now what if any were the common denominators you

717
01:19:30,880 --> 01:19:35,920
found between their early life because i don't believe that any toddler is you know baby is born

718
01:19:35,920 --> 01:19:42,880
a racist it's a learned behavior so their early life and finding that particular tribe to be the

719
01:19:42,880 --> 01:19:48,560
one that they latches on well i've been seeing it for years i actually studied on the montel

720
01:19:48,560 --> 01:19:55,760
williams show it goes back in 2008 it's like you're talking about people who are in many respects

721
01:19:56,400 --> 01:20:04,800
coming from a life that um doesn't appreciate them coming from a life that just basically

722
01:20:05,680 --> 01:20:11,280
is a complete mess in many respects where they get frustrated and they're trying to make their

723
01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:17,440
lives worth a damn trying to figure out how to make their lives worth a damn and it all depends

724
01:20:17,440 --> 01:20:24,480
on who gets to them sometimes we all have that all of us come from them

725
01:20:26,480 --> 01:20:35,120
sometimes we have family that are there which is basically you and i you know um but those who are

726
01:20:35,120 --> 01:20:43,440
going through that real trauma that real pain um maybe you can't look towards family sometimes

727
01:20:43,440 --> 01:20:50,640
you'll go to a church or a community center um you want to try to latch on to people who can help you

728
01:20:50,640 --> 01:21:00,560
build and unfortunately there's the folks who just know how to exploit for their ends and you're good

729
01:21:00,560 --> 01:21:09,040
at good for that in the movie skin there is a somebody that they recruit and and um i remember

730
01:21:09,040 --> 01:21:19,680
in an interview that brian and he was he was a homeless kid in the movie and uh they came up to

731
01:21:19,680 --> 01:21:28,000
him and they invited him to uh to hang out with him for a while excuse me to hang out with him

732
01:21:28,000 --> 01:21:34,880
for a while in an interview brian said that you know really there were two people playing me

733
01:21:34,880 --> 01:21:43,360
there was um jamey bell who played him in the movie and um the actor and i apologize for not

734
01:21:43,360 --> 01:21:49,760
remembering the name off the top of my head but uh um the actor that played that kid that was um

735
01:21:49,760 --> 01:21:55,520
the homeless kid that they recruited because that's how he got in that's what he um that's how he

736
01:21:55,520 --> 01:22:01,280
became what he became so they used that younger kid just to show the two timelines of his journey

737
01:22:01,280 --> 01:22:06,320
in the neo-nazi group yeah yeah and i think um and i think that's really important because

738
01:22:07,040 --> 01:22:15,920
it means for the rest of us that when you do see somebody in pain and you're a positive mind and

739
01:22:16,560 --> 01:22:26,880
ability um and you can do something do something remember that everybody comes from somewhere

740
01:22:26,880 --> 01:22:35,040
and it's all a matter of what roads they take what roads we all take sometimes those roads are a

741
01:22:35,040 --> 01:22:43,360
little bit rocky and other times you can be at the um end of that rocky road or somewhere along the

742
01:22:43,360 --> 01:22:52,720
rocky road to try to get them on the proverbial straight and narrow you know so uh unfortunately

743
01:22:52,720 --> 01:22:58,880
like if you if there are times when it can be too late and other times you can get them just in the

744
01:22:58,880 --> 01:23:06,000
nick of time but i think that's one of the reasons why um i do what i do because um frankly

745
01:23:07,120 --> 01:23:15,200
i can i have the mindset i have to come with the mindset that it's never too late um but um

746
01:23:15,200 --> 01:23:21,600
but i also have to come with the mindset that sometimes you just can't save everybody and uh

747
01:23:21,600 --> 01:23:25,360
but you try to save as many people as you can try to help as many people as you can

748
01:23:26,160 --> 01:23:31,200
that underlines something i talk about all the time people love to find those failures and point

749
01:23:31,200 --> 01:23:37,600
to them and go see it didn't work rather than all the people that it did you know and i think that

750
01:23:37,600 --> 01:23:42,800
when you when we talk about exactly what we're talking about you know there's this this cycle

751
01:23:42,800 --> 01:23:46,560
and i'm actually writing a second book at the moment that hopefully will kind of illustrate

752
01:23:46,560 --> 01:23:52,560
this kind of multi-generational trauma if you for example are a young you know young boy somewhere

753
01:23:52,560 --> 01:23:59,200
out in you know rural america and you know your you lost your father to an overdose and your

754
01:23:59,200 --> 01:24:05,520
mother's you know incarcerated what are the consequences of that you know and what are the

755
01:24:05,520 --> 01:24:12,480
incarcerated what are the chances of you then having this healthy nurtured life and then going

756
01:24:12,480 --> 01:24:17,680
on and becoming you know a functional member of society they are reduced doesn't mean it's not

757
01:24:17,680 --> 01:24:22,240
going to happen but we have now reduced the chance and the paramedics and firefighters and police

758
01:24:22,240 --> 01:24:28,640
officers of the world see these homes on a daily basis the answer though is mentorship people

759
01:24:28,640 --> 01:24:33,760
point and go oh it's these broken homes okay yeah it partly yes but what are we going to do to fix

760
01:24:33,760 --> 01:24:39,440
it you know this is how this is 2024 welcome to america so and don't get me wrong there's there's

761
01:24:39,440 --> 01:24:44,720
so many homes that are intact and doing very well but the other answer is if you are in you know in

762
01:24:44,720 --> 01:24:50,240
a home firstly to to make sure your home is good you know be a good dad be a good husband or wife

763
01:24:50,240 --> 01:24:57,040
or mother or whatever it is but then step outside your front door and be a mentor do something for

764
01:24:57,040 --> 01:25:02,720
someone whether you're a mechanic or a plumber or a football coach or a chess master whatever it is

765
01:25:02,720 --> 01:25:09,680
find a person or a group of people to bring in and do something positive and if we all did that

766
01:25:09,680 --> 01:25:14,880
we would push the needle but if we just point at government buildings meanwhile the gang bangers

767
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:21,280
or the dealers or whoever or the fascists are scooping up our children then the cycle is going

768
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:27,440
to continue and it goes back to what i said at the beginning a leader brings people together and that

769
01:25:27,440 --> 01:25:32,320
includes in your own community are you a leader or you're going to allow your community to be

770
01:25:32,320 --> 01:25:38,640
divided and these children continuously go down this path that sadly guarantees you know a less

771
01:25:38,640 --> 01:25:45,120
than happy you know teen and adult life or more to the point can your community lead you don't have

772
01:25:45,120 --> 01:25:50,160
to be the leader or by yourself and i think that's one of the reasons that one of the things that

773
01:25:50,160 --> 01:25:54,560
could be scaring folks too because they probably think i can't do this by myself you don't have to

774
01:25:54,560 --> 01:25:58,960
because there's a whole bunch of people out there that are trying to do the same thing trying to

775
01:25:58,960 --> 01:26:05,520
make sure that their society and their community is going forward and doing the right thing

776
01:26:06,000 --> 01:26:12,240
work with others if you are about that and i'm talking about you don't even have to put too much

777
01:26:12,240 --> 01:26:17,600
of an effort it's not like anybody's asking you to go out into the sticks or something like that and

778
01:26:17,600 --> 01:26:25,200
just try to help somebody one-on-one or anything like that i mean your church if you go to a

779
01:26:25,200 --> 01:26:32,000
church or if you have a community center help them with the programs that they have already built

780
01:26:32,000 --> 01:26:39,360
there are people that are already doing it and they need your support even if you threw a couple

781
01:26:39,360 --> 01:26:47,280
of dollars to them or whatever if you can do that anything that helps somebody not go in that wrong

782
01:26:47,280 --> 01:26:57,840
direction is going to benefit in a in phenomenal ways believe me because i've seen it i have been

783
01:26:57,840 --> 01:27:05,760
a part of it and that's the kind of people we are if there's anything that we've seen during the

784
01:27:05,760 --> 01:27:15,600
pandemic is that that is the kind of people we are some folks actually um some folks close to me

785
01:27:15,600 --> 01:27:21,280
i don't know if you ever seen um the documentary i was in called alt-right age of rage at the end

786
01:27:21,280 --> 01:27:27,280
we were talking about someone the question was that we were at our most divided this was done

787
01:27:27,840 --> 01:27:35,600
in um 2017 2018 and i said that i disagreed i don't believe us to be divided that we're frustrated

788
01:27:35,600 --> 01:27:40,560
and we have questions but i don't believe that we are divided i remember when we did the premiere

789
01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:47,840
somebody asked me about that and i said just you know what we are better people than we give

790
01:27:47,840 --> 01:27:57,040
ourselves credit for you know and we are always going to be trying always going to try to do right

791
01:27:57,040 --> 01:28:03,680
by each other it doesn't always come out that way but we will always try to do right by each other

792
01:28:03,680 --> 01:28:11,920
pandemic showed that we showed that during the pandemic we would even if we disagree even if

793
01:28:11,920 --> 01:28:20,640
we disagree with how we should be doing things we were doing things in a way doing things to make

794
01:28:20,640 --> 01:28:29,920
our lives and our health better and um that is the takeaway from 2020 we were looking out for each

795
01:28:29,920 --> 01:28:37,040
other and we will always do that see i agree again it goes back to the 80 i think that's

796
01:28:37,040 --> 01:28:41,920
where most people were but people were just being kind of pulled like lean towards one way or

797
01:28:41,920 --> 01:28:46,080
another but i think in the middle when you actually sat down with people they were like oh no this is

798
01:28:46,080 --> 01:28:51,120
this makes sense like i just want to be healthy and happy well let's be honest that happens

799
01:28:51,120 --> 01:28:56,480
we're always going to have disagreements of the direction that we're going in if you really do

800
01:28:56,480 --> 01:29:05,120
care about society and about your community and about the lives that we all lead the disagreements

801
01:29:05,120 --> 01:29:12,880
can be hammered out you may still be mad at folks but you're still going to be out there trying to do

802
01:29:13,600 --> 01:29:20,720
um something and even if um there are disagreements there are things that you agree about

803
01:29:20,720 --> 01:29:28,880
and you work along those lines but the fact of the matter is you are out there because you want to

804
01:29:28,880 --> 01:29:35,360
do what's right i'm not talking about the folks who are um who are just basically negative and

805
01:29:35,360 --> 01:29:39,440
trying to capitalize on that negativity i'm not talking about that i'm talking about

806
01:29:40,560 --> 01:29:48,000
the folks who are actually trying to do right trying who actually do care and they actually

807
01:29:48,000 --> 01:29:55,520
were the majority of people in 2020 we're buttonheads yes that's how it works like i said

808
01:29:55,520 --> 01:30:03,440
we were still trying to figure out how to get things done and uh one person has an idea another

809
01:30:03,440 --> 01:30:10,160
person has another idea they conflict that happens that happens but we work it out

810
01:30:11,840 --> 01:30:16,080
i want to put one more area to you and then we'll go to some closing questions but it's it's uh

811
01:30:16,080 --> 01:30:22,800
it's a probably an unpopular conversation but this is just the way that i saw things but

812
01:30:23,680 --> 01:30:26,480
i'll give i'll give you another example first and i'll go to what i'm going to say so

813
01:30:27,680 --> 01:30:36,160
you have to be very careful what you put out into the world in pursuit of your own personal gain

814
01:30:36,160 --> 01:30:43,040
so for example nwa fuck the police you know i get that it was initially you know coming from a place

815
01:30:43,040 --> 01:30:47,200
where that was their reality you know back in the 80s that was a war zone you know and like you said

816
01:30:47,200 --> 01:30:53,360
at war with the police as well now you've got iced tea who wrote cop killer and you know ice cube in

817
01:30:53,360 --> 01:31:02,320
nwa playing police officers on tv all the time i never hear that platform being used to be like hey

818
01:31:03,040 --> 01:31:08,160
this is the gang lifestyle used to be part of but we need to get away from that there's nothing

819
01:31:08,160 --> 01:31:14,000
glamorous about killing each other and slinging dope and all those kind of things and so i find

820
01:31:14,000 --> 01:31:22,160
that very kind of um irresponsible to not use a platform to do good now conversely just to kind

821
01:31:22,160 --> 01:31:30,080
of flip it on the other side now you have someone who's in a presidential role who you know a couple

822
01:31:30,080 --> 01:31:36,240
of decades before called for the execution of five black teenagers in in central park who were

823
01:31:36,240 --> 01:31:43,360
innocent of a crime now fast forward he's the person at the helm and he's making very inflammatory

824
01:31:43,360 --> 01:31:49,280
statements that in my opinion james gehring's perspective poured the gasoline on the racism

825
01:31:49,280 --> 01:31:56,320
that was evident now i do not think that a lot of people in the u.s are racists but you pour gas on

826
01:31:56,320 --> 01:32:01,760
a single match you're going to get a big flame so it's not pointed just to ice cube but it's just

827
01:32:01,760 --> 01:32:11,440
to me it's the responsibility or irresponsibility of causing that division of uh fanning the flames

828
01:32:11,440 --> 01:32:18,000
of hate whether it's in the hood or whether it's you know from dc and the impact that it has on

829
01:32:18,000 --> 01:32:26,560
actual real human beings lives in that country what i think in the case of um um that particular

830
01:32:26,560 --> 01:32:34,000
person um and his um supporters i think they have given up on trying to appeal to the greatest

831
01:32:34,000 --> 01:32:42,560
society and they only want um what's theirs they only want to um basically destroy so they can have

832
01:32:42,560 --> 01:32:51,680
their own little society i don't think it would be fair to um look at them as um being responsible

833
01:32:51,680 --> 01:32:56,560
to us because they don't think so there are people within the republican party there are

834
01:32:56,560 --> 01:33:02,400
conservatives out there that are in fact trying to maintain this society maintain this um country

835
01:33:02,400 --> 01:33:10,000
or what have you um that you can listen to they say you know what this is not what i signed up for

836
01:33:10,000 --> 01:33:16,160
when i became republican or whatever now in regards to ice tea and ice cube and what it is they said

837
01:33:16,160 --> 01:33:23,200
i'm sending songs they also um were saying in their regular songs back then too i mean there are

838
01:33:23,200 --> 01:33:30,800
songs where um in particular i see talked about how things were um this is not the life for you

839
01:33:30,800 --> 01:33:35,680
if you want to be a high roller you know this is what it means there's a song called high rollers

840
01:33:35,680 --> 01:33:43,040
that he did back in the day and he talked about where this will lead there's also songs like um

841
01:33:43,040 --> 01:33:50,560
self-destruction and we're all in the same gang and at that time there was in fact um hip-hop

842
01:33:50,560 --> 01:33:57,680
coming from public enemy and boogie down productions that was about um some of it was about that

843
01:33:57,680 --> 01:34:02,400
lifestyle but others was about trying to build yourself up so you don't have to be in that

844
01:34:02,400 --> 01:34:06,480
lifestyle you know yeah like let's get all this music by the way i was listening to it religiously

845
01:34:06,480 --> 01:34:13,680
yeah so so you so you know i mean as you get older as ice tea and ice cube and everybody look

846
01:34:13,680 --> 01:34:20,800
what ice cube does now he does more family fare you know so and yes you do see ice tea playing a

847
01:34:20,800 --> 01:34:29,360
cop but he still goes on stage singing cop killer because that is what um you have to try to reach

848
01:34:29,360 --> 01:34:36,800
people in some way and um the um the audience that he deals with when he's on that stage

849
01:34:38,640 --> 01:34:46,000
is not going to be receptive to i guess how should i say things that make it for lack of a better

850
01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:51,520
term things that try to apologize for the things that um that we have seen in the streets you know

851
01:34:52,080 --> 01:34:58,320
um so he knows basically he knows how to talk to them basically anybody that has come from that

852
01:34:58,320 --> 01:35:05,920
world knows how to talk to his audience and i gotta trust him on that one i gotta trust him on that

853
01:35:05,920 --> 01:35:14,000
one and uh it's frustrating when you are taking on a job where you're trying to help people and all

854
01:35:14,000 --> 01:35:23,760
of this bs is happening um but i will strongly suggest that it's not going to be the entertainers

855
01:35:23,760 --> 01:35:30,880
that are singing the songs that are going to be um necessarily the solution to the problem i mean

856
01:35:30,880 --> 01:35:38,000
to some respects to some um to some point at some point they can be but in the end it's all going

857
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:46,400
to be about what we do as individuals and as a community um when we do see bad actors we have

858
01:35:46,400 --> 01:35:53,040
to remove them no matter where they are and we if we're going to talk about trump we got to remember

859
01:35:53,040 --> 01:36:02,160
he's a bad actor he's a bad actor and uh we have to deal with that he's a he's one of the um he's

860
01:36:02,160 --> 01:36:08,560
a bad actor on high i think one of the things that's really important by the way is that not

861
01:36:08,560 --> 01:36:15,440
just in the area of politics but in the area of um commerce um when you see a lot of your um

862
01:36:15,440 --> 01:36:22,640
billionaires and such getting in trouble um you do see a society that's trying to um right the ship

863
01:36:23,920 --> 01:36:29,760
where they are trying in fact trying to hold people accountable for the um for the things they've

864
01:36:29,760 --> 01:36:37,600
done i don't care if you're talking about ken lay or bernie made off or or sug night all right i

865
01:36:37,600 --> 01:36:44,480
don't want to say p-ditty right now because uh let that play itself out but i mean even with the

866
01:36:44,480 --> 01:36:50,880
me too movement or whatever you know i mean you see a lot of people just i mean this is this

867
01:36:50,880 --> 01:36:57,040
generation are giant killers they are trying to hold um hold you accountable no matter how much

868
01:36:57,040 --> 01:37:02,960
money you have i want to see them go down michael jackson too i mean it's it's crazy how you know

869
01:37:02,960 --> 01:37:08,400
there was so much abuse there and even if you none of us were physically there but firstly when you

870
01:37:08,400 --> 01:37:12,800
watched the documentary those people weren't even paid so there's only one reason that you would

871
01:37:12,800 --> 01:37:18,960
take all that time to tell that story but then you know there's no dispute at all that irresponsible

872
01:37:18,960 --> 01:37:24,560
parents allowed their child children to be in a bed with michael jackson for days on end so you

873
01:37:24,560 --> 01:37:30,000
know if take michael jackson out and put any other man that you know in there you would have not been

874
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:38,080
as us before you know before the day was out michael michael um actually um was clear to that

875
01:37:38,080 --> 01:37:43,440
r kelly wasn't yeah but michael michael was clear to that because we're talking about childhood

876
01:37:43,440 --> 01:37:50,080
trauma by people that hadn't really unpacked their own and it was and it was weird and uh

877
01:37:51,360 --> 01:37:57,440
but i would say um that also happened at a time where we what where we were still putting um

878
01:37:57,440 --> 01:38:02,560
celebrities on the pedestal we're not doing that the way we did it back then anymore we're not

879
01:38:02,560 --> 01:38:07,920
doing that anymore and um and i think basically that should serve notice on anybody who's going

880
01:38:07,920 --> 01:38:16,480
to get into get into today's society and get into that um echelon of um life um that your

881
01:38:16,480 --> 01:38:24,800
celebrityhood or your prominence in um society is not necessarily going to save you um because if

882
01:38:24,800 --> 01:38:31,840
we see something that is off if we see something that is not um i should i say compatible with

883
01:38:31,840 --> 01:38:38,000
that if you're not out of a society um you're going to be held accountable for that and um and

884
01:38:38,000 --> 01:38:43,280
i think that's important um basically put out there so people can um so so people can realize

885
01:38:43,280 --> 01:38:47,200
that you better be on your um best behavior because we know how to do this

886
01:38:48,880 --> 01:38:52,480
absolutely well just one more thing i guess i haven't really going to pull this out of you

887
01:38:52,480 --> 01:38:57,920
there so you know there there is a tendency like we talked about you know you give someone the

888
01:38:57,920 --> 01:39:03,520
you listen to some of the rhetoric you know in in the last few years you know everyone hates asians

889
01:39:03,520 --> 01:39:07,760
all of a sudden supposedly it's asian hate everywhere and it's like no there's some

890
01:39:07,760 --> 01:39:12,640
psychopathic horrible people that have absolutely preyed upon some asian people but that's not the

891
01:39:12,640 --> 01:39:20,640
whole u.s with that being said you know you are physically there in these neo-nazi you know rallies

892
01:39:20,640 --> 01:39:26,080
and you are you know documenting the activities of a lot of these you know racist movements

893
01:39:26,080 --> 01:39:31,280
so talk to me about the landscape in the u.s so you can educate you know the people listening

894
01:39:31,280 --> 01:39:35,760
like what are we what are we looking at right now and is it on a downward trend is it on an upward

895
01:39:35,760 --> 01:39:42,400
trend it's on the downward trend and they are basically what we're seeing today are them getting

896
01:39:42,400 --> 01:39:49,440
loud it's them pulling a hail mary really that's that's what we're looking at right now when trump

897
01:39:49,440 --> 01:39:57,520
was elected they didn't expect that they saw an opportunity during none of us did or anyone else

898
01:39:57,520 --> 01:40:03,520
it goes back to our 330 million people conversation yeah well we'll be here forever on that one my

899
01:40:03,520 --> 01:40:09,520
attitude about that by the way and i don't want to get off track like it always do but i always tell

900
01:40:09,520 --> 01:40:18,320
people that over the past 20 20 23 years um we have really been trying to get a hold um get a handle

901
01:40:18,320 --> 01:40:24,640
i should say on um on our political process whether you're talking about and and and weird

902
01:40:24,640 --> 01:40:29,520
things started happening because of that that's why jesse ventura became governor of minnesota

903
01:40:29,520 --> 01:40:34,000
when he wasn't a democrat or republican whether or not you cared for him that's another story

904
01:40:35,440 --> 01:40:42,960
that's why you saw um seattle blow up during the world trade organization meeting in um 99

905
01:40:42,960 --> 01:40:49,920
that's why um after september 11th we really started becoming more active in on politics and so on

906
01:40:50,560 --> 01:40:57,920
and that's also why donald trump um became president because one of the things that we was doing and um

907
01:40:59,760 --> 01:41:04,240
one of the things that we were doing was trying to say okay we don't necessarily need to vote for

908
01:41:04,240 --> 01:41:10,640
the lesser two evils we can still vote for who we want that fight is still on unfortunately

909
01:41:10,640 --> 01:41:18,560
unfortunately and it's a bloody one i mean we got the first black president out of that you know so

910
01:41:19,280 --> 01:41:28,560
and we are going to continue to fight that um but having said that um and i did lose my i did

911
01:41:28,560 --> 01:41:33,120
lose where i was going we're talking about with the the upward spiral downward spiral and you said

912
01:41:33,120 --> 01:41:41,040
when when the hail mary okay so here's the thing um as we know that we need to grow and i've said

913
01:41:41,040 --> 01:41:46,320
this a couple of times today we know we need to grow we know we need to evolve we are going to

914
01:41:46,320 --> 01:41:53,760
do both yes that is going to happen that means a lot of the old traditionalist ways are going to go

915
01:41:53,760 --> 01:42:01,440
by the wayside there won't be the two major parties that we see today there won't be the um

916
01:42:01,440 --> 01:42:06,560
the robber barons of today out there anymore i mean we are not going to go through the same

917
01:42:06,560 --> 01:42:13,360
processes that we have seen over the past 200 years there are going to be changes a lot of

918
01:42:13,360 --> 01:42:20,880
people who live their lives with what we are changing don't want that to change and yet they

919
01:42:20,880 --> 01:42:26,800
have to see a change and they don't know what to do like i said when donald trump somehow became

920
01:42:26,800 --> 01:42:37,920
president um it became more than just a campaign to call out the um to basically um champion those

921
01:42:37,920 --> 01:42:44,320
causes now you had the opportunity to make sure that the things that you believe will stay in

922
01:42:44,320 --> 01:42:51,040
place and they do not want to lose that they're still going to lose that but they do not want to

923
01:42:51,040 --> 01:42:56,880
lose that um they know they're going to lose that which is why you hear them talk about

924
01:42:56,880 --> 01:43:04,160
succession and civil war and all of that so and i will tell you right now again we're not prepared

925
01:43:04,160 --> 01:43:08,560
for that because it's like what mike tyson once said everybody has a plan till they get punched

926
01:43:08,560 --> 01:43:14,880
in the mouth you think it's going to break down a certain way when it comes to um a civil war

927
01:43:14,880 --> 01:43:22,080
but it won't you're going to start seeing people um players that you did not um expect like those

928
01:43:22,080 --> 01:43:25,920
um those robber banners that i was talking about the people with the most money are going to

929
01:43:25,920 --> 01:43:33,360
benefit the most out of something like that and all of a sudden we got warlords and cartels that

930
01:43:33,360 --> 01:43:43,520
are going to actually make up what we um what what counts as government and the government that um

931
01:43:43,520 --> 01:43:48,320
that we have today is just going to be a puppet one for them so i mean that's the kind of thing

932
01:43:48,320 --> 01:43:57,120
that you can expect i mean when um they think so to that end we the people who have not seen

933
01:43:57,840 --> 01:44:06,560
a war on these shores since the civil war in um in the 1860s um i've been living in a

934
01:44:06,560 --> 01:44:14,480
state of stability and peace with a few scuffles here and there amongst ourselves um and are not

935
01:44:14,480 --> 01:44:23,520
really to give that up i don't think we're giving that up because um the hail mary um

936
01:44:24,320 --> 01:44:31,280
is going to be intercepted well again i mean if if you get the 80 to communicate with each other

937
01:44:31,280 --> 01:44:36,640
they're going to be like i don't want to fight you we all agree yes you know what i mean see that's

938
01:44:36,640 --> 01:44:43,200
the thing there we are a society as i said before we're not divided we are all have been able to

939
01:44:43,200 --> 01:44:48,880
come together for things like um trying to say protect ourselves with the pandemic you know we

940
01:44:48,880 --> 01:44:56,880
we know the society that we want we know the society that we have so something like that fails

941
01:44:56,880 --> 01:45:02,880
because it is not compatible with where we are going that's why shot when charlotte'sville blew

942
01:45:02,880 --> 01:45:07,920
up everybody's um everybody started saying okay we're going to do this to make sure that doesn't

943
01:45:07,920 --> 01:45:13,360
happen again that's why when january 6 happened we were like okay we're going to do something to

944
01:45:13,360 --> 01:45:18,320
make sure that didn't happen again people who weren't involved in either people who weren't

945
01:45:18,320 --> 01:45:23,120
paying attention to either saw both those things as being a threat and they took action

946
01:45:23,120 --> 01:45:30,800
and that's as a society um even when even with the summer 2020 when every place on the planet

947
01:45:30,800 --> 01:45:38,640
every place in the country was going crazy um even in the midst of a pandemic people now folks were

948
01:45:38,640 --> 01:45:43,600
on um for the most part on the side of those that were in the streets at that time but they said you

949
01:45:43,600 --> 01:45:48,080
know what we can do this a lot more responsible we don't have to um we don't have to tear everything

950
01:45:48,080 --> 01:45:56,480
up we hear the message and we're going to we're going to see what we can do so as we are building

951
01:45:56,480 --> 01:46:03,040
we also just have to be mindful of those who want to keep it torn down that's um that's

952
01:46:03,760 --> 01:46:12,000
the never-ending um curse of freedom eternal vigilance you got to maintain that um that

953
01:46:12,000 --> 01:46:17,520
vigilance otherwise you can lose everything that you're fighting for and in the end i think that's

954
01:46:17,520 --> 01:46:25,360
what we are doing and even the folks who are part of these little kabobs that are trying to tear

955
01:46:25,360 --> 01:46:31,360
things down even they appreciate that because ultimately as we were just talking about um just

956
01:46:31,360 --> 01:46:35,760
a couple of minutes ago a lot of them are comprised with folks who are just trying to make their lives

957
01:46:35,760 --> 01:46:42,320
worth a damn that's why i don't and and i think and i think it's important to remember that

958
01:46:42,320 --> 01:46:47,200
um they don't really want to smoke either otherwise they would have brought it by now

959
01:46:48,400 --> 01:46:53,920
so the question is okay so now what do we do with this and i think we're going to figure it out

960
01:46:54,720 --> 01:46:59,440
yeah i mean that kind of goes back to what you said i think we've been moving there for a long

961
01:46:59,440 --> 01:47:04,400
time and the thing is is that we've been moving to a place where we can't just go and do things

962
01:47:04,400 --> 01:47:08,800
that we've been doing for a long time and the thing is it's the squeaky wheels pointing out oh

963
01:47:08,800 --> 01:47:13,280
you know these guys don't get on with each other it's like just go to any town the way they they

964
01:47:13,280 --> 01:47:16,880
portray that there's some big race war outside your front door okay we'll walk out your front

965
01:47:16,880 --> 01:47:22,320
door what do you see oh actually i see you know kids of all colors playing football in the park

966
01:47:22,880 --> 01:47:27,120
that's the america you actually live in are there pockets of places that are not so good

967
01:47:27,120 --> 01:47:33,040
yes but most of this place we go to school together we work together we play together we pray together

968
01:47:33,040 --> 01:47:38,320
we're all colors and creeds and orientations that is the beautiful tapestry that we live in so

969
01:47:39,280 --> 01:47:43,440
open you know take who knows what might happen in the next couple who knows what might happen in

970
01:47:43,440 --> 01:47:50,080
the next few decades america may not look like this um there may be some kinks in the armor that

971
01:47:50,080 --> 01:47:57,040
cause us to um separate maybe um but in the end we're always going to come back to that community

972
01:47:57,040 --> 01:48:02,480
that we have today we're always going to come back to what we have today and we're always going to be

973
01:48:02,480 --> 01:48:08,160
striving towards that we're not going to let it completely fall i do not believe that one darn

974
01:48:08,160 --> 01:48:15,280
bit a hundred years from now whatever society we have here in north america we're going to appreciate

975
01:48:16,160 --> 01:48:24,240
i really do think that and i hope i'm here to see it me too all right well for people listening

976
01:48:24,240 --> 01:48:31,040
where are the best places to find you online and or social media all right so some um well i will

977
01:48:31,040 --> 01:48:36,400
tell everybody um first and foremost because i'm old school um one people's project is at one

978
01:48:36,400 --> 01:48:46,400
people's project.com our news line is idavox.com um feel free to read whatever um read a lot about

979
01:48:46,400 --> 01:48:57,120
us there and donate if you can um and um social media wise i usually go by the tagline d lamont

980
01:48:57,120 --> 01:49:02,560
jenkins just look for d lamont jenkins on your favorite social media outlet whether it's instagram

981
01:49:02,560 --> 01:49:10,000
or threads and the one that i'm not going to mention um OPP and idavox are also um one people's

982
01:49:10,000 --> 01:49:14,240
project you can look for one people's project on instagram you can look for idavox on instagram

983
01:49:14,240 --> 01:49:22,480
and yes i'm on facebook you can find me on facebook and um yeah i there's a couple of them out there

984
01:49:22,480 --> 01:49:28,880
that i'm just getting on oh yeah tiktok i'm on tiktok i think under there i'm notorious doj

985
01:49:30,080 --> 01:49:35,760
i think i see i don't even know my own screen name yeah i'm i have tiktok but i'm not on it

986
01:49:35,760 --> 01:49:42,000
that much i just share some of my podcast promo videos basically yeah i'm on it all the time but

987
01:49:42,000 --> 01:49:46,640
it's just like am i d lamont jenkins there i'm notorious doj i can't remember yeah because i

988
01:49:46,640 --> 01:49:52,880
have two i have two screenings notorious doj and d lamont jenkins just let's throw that in the

989
01:49:52,880 --> 01:49:57,920
google machine and you'll find me perfect well i want to thank you so much it's been such an

990
01:49:57,920 --> 01:50:02,560
interesting conversation a very different perspective than a lot of people have but um you

991
01:50:02,560 --> 01:50:08,400
know a much needed conversation this is a beautiful thing there's so many people out there that their

992
01:50:08,400 --> 01:50:12,800
perspectives are just different and when we all talk to each other you know we meet in the middle

993
01:50:12,800 --> 01:50:17,840
and we're like oh there's you know again 80 percent commonality and 90 percent commonality

994
01:50:17,840 --> 01:50:24,960
so between what you've done and the the compassion that you brought from your dad and his brothers

995
01:50:24,960 --> 01:50:31,840
through to what you've done and literally rescued young people from extremist organizations and

996
01:50:31,840 --> 01:50:36,720
given them the ability you know to to lead normal lives i think it's phenomenal so i want to thank

997
01:50:36,720 --> 01:50:40,960
you so much not only for your work but also for coming on the behind the shield podcast today

998
01:50:40,960 --> 01:50:53,840
and i appreciate you having me thank you very much