Latest / The Breakfast Club / The Verdict, The L.A. Review, and Serena's Return

Transcript

The Verdict, The L.A. Review, and Serena's Return · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A South Carolina jury has acquitted a store owner of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: murder in the shooting death of a fourteen year old
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: black boy over poor water bottles.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: This makes us feel as if our children don't matter,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: and they do.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And Los Angeles prosecutors are now reviewing a sexual assault
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: case against Sean Diddy Combs.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: We're gonna beal, we think we're right.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And Serena Williams is coming back to tennis. I'm just
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: so grateful to every single person. It's Wednesday, June third,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: from the Black Effects Podcast Network. I'm Mimi Brown. This
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is front page, and here are the day's biggest stories,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: plus today on the underplayed, the anniversary that just passed
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: without national news coverage, and what that silence is telling us.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Stay with me. A South Carolina jury has found a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: convenience store owner not guilty in the shooting death of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: fourteen year old Cyrus mccarmick. Belton has drawn national attention
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: ever since it happened nearly three years ago. Rick Chow,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the owner of a gas station convenience store in Columbia,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: South Carolina, was acquitted Monday night after being charged with murder.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: This case goes back to Memorial Day weekend in twenty
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: twenty three. According to investigators, Cyrus walked into Child's convenience
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: store with friends. Employees believe the fourteen year old had
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: taken four bottles of water without paying. Cyrus then left
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the store and started running down the street. That's when
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: prosecutors say Rick Chow and his adult son chased after
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: him outside. During that chase, Chow pulled out a gun
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and fired. Cyrus was struck in the lower back and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: died at the scene. The shooting shocked the community immediately,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: especially after Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott publicly addressed the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: case and said, even if the teenager had stolen water bottles, quote,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that's not something you shoot anybody over, much less a
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: fourteen year old. But Chiles the Fish attorneys argued self defense,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: saying Child believed his son was in danger during the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: confrontation outside the store. The defense claimed Cyrus pointed a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: gun during the encounter, but the prosecution, led by South
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Carolina Solicitor Byron Gibson, argued the opposite. He pointed out
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that multiple witnesses testified they never saw anything in cyrus
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: hands while he was running from the store. No gun, nothing,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The jury came back Monday with the verdict not guilty.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Here is Todd Rutherford, the attorney for the Belton family.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I've been practicing law for almost thirty years. I've never
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: seen anything like this. I don't understand it. I'm at
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: a loss to explain it to his father, Troy standing
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: beside me. I'm being a loss to explain it to
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: his mother, who couldn't take it and had to leave.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going a loss to explain it to his family
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: because I too don't understand it. He ran away and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: he got shot in the back. It should not happen.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Shouldn't have happened, and unfortunately we're gonna have to deal
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: with the end results of it.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: The family says they will now pursue a civil lawlaw suit.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Sean Diddy Combs is now facing a new criminal review
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles while already serving time in federal prison.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office confirmed this week
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: that prosecutors are reviewing a sexual assault investigation connected to Combs.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: This is separate from the federal case that already sent
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: him to prison. Right now, Combs is serving a fifty
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: month sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey after
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a New York jury convicted him last year on prostitution
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: related charges involving transportation across state lines.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, the jury's verdict was resoundingly clear. There was
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: no sex trafficking, there was no racketeering. Everything was consensual,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Everything was adult, which is why he was convicted only
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: of the prostitution offense.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Combs is currently appealing that conviction, but now a second
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: legal battle may be developing on the West Coast. According
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to reports, both the Last Angela's Police Department and the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: La County Sheriff Department spent the last year investigating allegations
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: from a music producer and publicist named Jonathan Hay. Investigators
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: later turned their findings over to the Los Angeles County
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: DA's office for review. This week, the office confirmed prosecutors
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: are actively looking at the case. Hey alleges there were
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: two separate incidents involving Combs, one in Los Angeles in
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty and another in Florida in twenty twenty one.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: The Los Angeles allegation includes claims of sexual battery. The
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Comb's legal team they have denied the allegations. One of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: his attorneys previously called the claims false and defamatory, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: said Combs deny sexually abusing anyone. At this point, prosecutors
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: have not announced charges and there's no timeline for when
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a decision could come. But if Los Angeles prosecutors do
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: move forward, it could mean additional prison time for Combs
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: on top of the sentence he's already serving federally. Every
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Wednesday on front page, this is what we do. One
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: story that didn't get the coverage it deserved this week
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: because some of the most important news in the country
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: right now is happening on page eight. Today's pick Sunday
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and Monday. May thirty first and June first marked the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Tulsa RAS massacre.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: If you have not heard about the anniversary this week,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that is the story. May thirty first through June first,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, Tulsa, Oklahoma, a white mob deputized by
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: local police descended on a black neighborhood called Greenwood. Greenwood
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: was at the time the wealthiest black community in America.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: People called it Black Wall Street. Over the course of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: about sixteen hours, the mob destroyed it all. They burned
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: every black owned business, They burned every black owned home
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: over thirty five city block. They machine gunned residents from
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the ground, They dropped firebombs from private planes. They arrested
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: almost every survivor. Estimates of the dead ranged from one
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty to three hundred Black Americans. Most are
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: buried in unmarked graves. Tulsa has been excavating mass burial
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: sites for the last several years. Not a single white
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: attacker was ever charged. Survivors and their families were never compensated.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, a lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma state Court.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Two of the last known survivors, Viola Fletcher and Leslie
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Binningfield Randall, were the lead plaintiffs. Both were over one
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: hundred years old. They asked for a public nuisance ruling,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: acknowledgment and reparations. In June of twenty twenty four, the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the case. The state's argument the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: harm was too old, the legal claim was barred, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the court agreed. Mother Randall passed away last year. Mother
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Fletcher is, as of this anniversary, one hundred and twelve
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: years old. The number of confirmed survivors of the Tosal
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: race massacre is now extremely small. The anniversary just passed.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: There were no major network specials, no White House proclamation,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: no federal recognition, no reparations bill moving in Washington. If
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you missed the anniversary this week, most American newsrooms did too.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: For context, when we remember other American tragedies, we remember
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: them every year the country grinds to a stop. We
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: name the dead, we hold ceremonies, we do not forget.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: But for the Tulsa Race massacre, most Americans went one
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: hundred years not knowing about it at all. The story
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: was actively kept out of textbooks, out of news coverage,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: out of memory. The HBO show Watchmen taught more Americans
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: about Tulsa in twenty nineteen than every American history class
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: combined in the previous century. That is the legacy. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary just came and went. So,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: if you have kids, tell them about Greenwood. If you
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: have a community, talk to him about it. If you
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: have a platform, use it. Because the last living survivor
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of one of the worst racial massacres in American history
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: is sitting in Tulsa right now. In the country is
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: not paying attention. That is the underplay, and finally, Serena
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Williams is officially stepping back onto the tennis court. The
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Tennis Icon announced this week that she'll compete in the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: HSBC Championships in London beginning June eighth, marking her first
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: competitive tournament since retiring nearly four years ago, and for
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: tennis fans, this is a pretty big moment. Serena is
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: now forty four years old and has spent the last
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: several years focus on her life off the court, raising
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: her daughters, building businesses, producing projects, and running her venture
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: capital company. But now she's returning to competition as a
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: wildcard entry in the doubles tournament on the grass courts
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and Queen's Club in London.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I'm just so grateful to every single person that's ever
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: said go Serena in their life. I'm just so grateful because, yeah,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: you got me here.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And this tournament matters because it's one of the major
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: warm up events leading into Wimbledon later this month. So naturally,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Latini's world is already buzzing about whether this is just
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a one time appearance or the beginning of a bigger
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Serena return heading into Wimbledon. So far, Serena isn't saying
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that's your front page. I'm Mimi Brown. This podcast was
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: brought to you by The Black Effect Podcast Network