Latest / Brief Recess: A Legal Podcast with Michael Foote & Mélissa Malebranche / Demon Twink Off with NYC Councilman Erik Bottcher

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Demon Twink Off with NYC Councilman Erik Bottcher · Brief Recess: A Legal Podcast with Michael Foote & Mélissa Malebranche

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode discusses sensitive topics. If you were someone who
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: knows a victim, please reach out to the Rain Network.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: That's our AI n N and you can find them online,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you can call them, you can reach out to them.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: This is Brief Recess.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I'm Michael Foote, I'm Melissa Malbrandt.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to be talking about our new swear Jar.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about Haitian cigarettes called We're
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: going to cover the tragic gun violence dominating the headlines. Today.
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  Speaker 1: We also have an interview with New York City council
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  Speaker 1: Member Eric Boucher. Will also review with Congressman Robert Garcia,
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  Speaker 1: who you saw on the headlines on Friday talking about
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  Speaker 1: the Epstein files. And I'm going to answer all of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: your burning questions from my DMS. Yeah, it feels like
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  Speaker 1: a weird day for a suit. Maybe I did Separates
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  Speaker 1: instead I do I don't know. Sometimes when I do
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  Speaker 1: like suit separates, I feel like I'm kind of like
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  Speaker 1: not giving it my all, Like.
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  Speaker 3: You've given up.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: This is the thing.
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  Speaker 2: That's what I feel. I've been meaning to talk to.
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  Speaker 3: You about it.
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  Speaker 2: When you wear separates, it feels.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the group chattis fall.
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  Speaker 2: It feels to me like you just don't give a
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  Speaker 2: ship about how you feel. Michael. I think Michael has.
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  Speaker 1: Stop Michaels and separates. Today it's time for the holidays.
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  Speaker 1: This is sidebar. We're going to talk about the craziest
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  Speaker 1: things happening in the headlines, all the weird things going
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  Speaker 1: on in today's world. Wait, what are you doing for Christmas?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: You don't know. It's really soon.
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  Speaker 3: I know.
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  Speaker 1: Do you need an invite?
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  Speaker 2: No?
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  Speaker 1: Are you're going to be? Okay?
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  Speaker 2: I don't. I don't need an invite. I don't want
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  Speaker 2: an invite.
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  Speaker 1: Did you and Andre, like, do you do a big
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  Speaker 1: Christmas tree? Every year?
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  Speaker 2: We did do our tree. I'm dying for a fake tree.
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  Speaker 1: Really, I love a real tree. What because you just
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  Speaker 1: don't want to sweep up the needles.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to sweep up the needle, Okay, I
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  Speaker 2: prefer a solid white light. Andre likes blinking If you
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  Speaker 2: have a fake tree. The new ones come with remote controls, Babe,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at you. They come with remote controls and
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: you can change the color. It could be bright white,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: it could be blinking light. It could be all times
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  Speaker 2: press one in the comments.
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  Speaker 1: If you want Melissa to get a fake tree really
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  Speaker 1: excited about, please please plaus too. If you're a fresh
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  Speaker 1: tree girly like me, I love the smell of a
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  Speaker 1: fresh tree.
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  Speaker 2: I like a fresh tree. Yeah, but like a fake
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  Speaker 2: tree has more option?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have? Is your three legged cat climbing on
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  Speaker 1: your fucking tree? If I was missing it leg, I'd
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  Speaker 1: be like, I'm not going to sell I'm.
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  Speaker 2: Going to not talk about people or animals that are
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  Speaker 2: missing limbs.
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  Speaker 1: No, I think that's okay. It's no. I'm just saying,
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  Speaker 1: like knowing myself, knowing yourself, if there were some sort
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of even just like injury, like when I broke my foot,
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't like Michael broke.
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  Speaker 2: Both his feet during the pandemic. He broke one foot
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  Speaker 2: and then he got a little bit better and then
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  Speaker 2: promptly broke the other foot to the point where I
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  Speaker 2: didn't think it was he was.
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  Speaker 1: Still telling me the truth, the point where I told
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  Speaker 1: her about the second the second foot break my.
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  Speaker 2: Foot told me about the second foot.
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  Speaker 1: Melissa laughed in my face about this injury. She went,
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  Speaker 1: she didn't even say, I hope you're okay. Are you
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  Speaker 1: all right? What happened? Nothing? Just laughed right in my
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  Speaker 1: fucking face.
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  Speaker 2: Oh okay. So my mom and I were talking and
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  Speaker 2: I said to my mom, Mama, you are you watching
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  Speaker 2: the podcast? Are you listening to the podcast?
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  Speaker 1: And she said, I'm honestly nervous about whether or not
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  Speaker 1: she is.
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  Speaker 2: Well, so she says that she is, and then she
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  Speaker 2: said to me, Missa, if you seek missa, missa s
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  Speaker 2: h I t And I was like, yeah, she's spelling,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: but I got a really good story for you, but
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you circle back around.
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  Speaker 1: We're on our fourth digression.
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  Speaker 2: And then I was also speaking to my aunt, who
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  Speaker 2: was like, you know, you use a lot of bad words,
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  Speaker 2: and I was like yeah, and she said, but especially
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  Speaker 2: the lawyer.
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  Speaker 1: Good okay, good, okay. I'm happy to take you because.
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  Speaker 2: And she feels like, she said to me, I can
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  Speaker 2: tell that he's a smart guy. He wants to law school.
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  Speaker 2: She said, she really genuinely feels like there are more
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  Speaker 2: words in your vocabulary, and she's concerned.
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  Speaker 1: She wants to know. So I had an English teacher
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  Speaker 1: in high school who was like, stop swearing so much,
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  Speaker 1: because you're just not using your vocabulary anymore. You are
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: relying on these swear words. And I said, oh shoot,
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  Speaker 1: I said, you bitch, get fucked. That's Swedish for fucked.
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  Speaker 2: So throw it up on the screen so my aunt
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  Speaker 2: feels like she feels that you can do better.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, no note taken, and I'll take the note.
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  Speaker 1: I'll take it.
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  Speaker 2: My mom. My mom always says whenever my mom is
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  Speaker 2: like slightly disappointed in something that I have done, she
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  Speaker 2: tells me that she and my dad wasted their money
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  Speaker 2: on me. So the r O I is.
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  Speaker 1: Not your parents are nickel and diming. Oh yeah, my
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  Speaker 1: mother always said that. She was like, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: send you an invoice when you graduate high school for
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  Speaker 1: all the food and the lodge.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, my mom is just my mom, just really,
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  Speaker 2: she's just like, we lost our money.
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  Speaker 1: This whole episode. I'm going to try not to swear
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  Speaker 1: that is my and what are the steaks? Let's give me.
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  Speaker 2: Steaks so you can't even think of the thing. I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to break it no matter, no matter what right
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  Speaker 2: I think.
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  Speaker 1: We pick a charity, okay, okay, and if oh if
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  Speaker 1: I swear, I have to vendmo money to the charity.
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  Speaker 1: Charity and if don't you have to do it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh no, I don't want to be in this is
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  Speaker 2: on you. Okay, Okay, I'm okay with me. I'm not
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  Speaker 2: changing my way. We'll think of something.
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  Speaker 1: So, j do we have any charities that we were
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  Speaker 1: Oh oh, we were thinking of talking about them on
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  Speaker 1: the show today. Hands off, NYC. It's like training people
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  Speaker 1: amazing on what to do in their communities if like
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  Speaker 1: ice comes to their communities. So okay. So I am
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  Speaker 1: pledging on air on a hot mic that I will
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  Speaker 1: donate to this organization no matter what, but I will
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  Speaker 1: donate more if what are the terms? So if I
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  Speaker 1: do swear? Yes, okay, I have to get all the
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  Speaker 1: swears out of my system before we go to before
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  Speaker 1: before I have to stop swearing. I don't know for
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  Speaker 1: the episode. Can I just like what?
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  Speaker 2: Why are you trying to tell me? Are you trying
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  Speaker 2: to tell that.
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  Speaker 1: I that I come and baby with a bunch of swears? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Are you trying to tell me that you have to swear?
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  Speaker 2: And listen? You're talking to somebody who drops the F
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  Speaker 2: bomb a lot.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I do think I learned it from you.
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  Speaker 3: Off.
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  Speaker 2: No, we should get we should get a jar Okay,
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  Speaker 2: let's go. But yeah, do you think that you can't
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  Speaker 2: tell a story without I can?
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  Speaker 1: I can. I'm going to do it. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: do it and.
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  Speaker 2: Make it entertaining and strong enough.
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  Speaker 1: I'm strong enough to be your man.
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  Speaker 2: You, strong enough to live without.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like tonight strong enough.
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  Speaker 2: Because I'm so crying.
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  Speaker 1: Let me take a break. Let's take a break. I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you about the Christmas tree, the
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  Speaker 1: mom and pop store where you got your Christmas tree,
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  Speaker 1: because I think I'm getting played by the Christmas tree
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  Speaker 1: people on.
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  Speaker 3: New York City.
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  Speaker 2: I did not We ended up not going to the
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  Speaker 2: mom and pop Christmas tree.
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  Speaker 1: The Christmas tree places are running game in this city.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to be the person who's like, ooh,
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  Speaker 1: anti proletariat.
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  Speaker 2: But I know we didn't go because I found out
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  Speaker 2: that the guy the it's like a guy or like
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  Speaker 2: some family. They're hardcore Trump supporters, and I found out
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  Speaker 2: and because I found the guy social media, and because
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  Speaker 2: I couldn't remember where he was, so I started looking
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  Speaker 2: looking looking and then I looked and then I was
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  Speaker 2: just like.
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  Speaker 1: I can't do it.
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  Speaker 2: I can't can't do it.
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  Speaker 1: Give it to give the money to the corporation, get
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  Speaker 1: you a costco.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we got a treat at a big
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  Speaker 2: box hardware store where the person who helped us was
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  Speaker 2: a veteran.
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  Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, that's great.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: There's no such thing as consumerism that is ethical, Like,
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  Speaker 1: there is no such thing as like consuming ethically right,
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  Speaker 1: Like we're still a part of some like system that
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  Speaker 1: is broken. So I do feel like there is like
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  Speaker 1: if you like, I'm not saying that, like you shouldn't
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  Speaker 1: at least strive to be ethical and like support people
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  Speaker 1: that uphold your values. But I mean not to like,
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  Speaker 1: not to like bum you out. I'm not saying that.
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  Speaker 1: It's like I.
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  Speaker 2: Hated here.
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  Speaker 1: I got to I hope my husband doesn't want watch
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  Speaker 1: this episode. I got to the Christmas tree stand because
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  Speaker 1: I want a really tall tree. I won't one that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: scratching the ceiling as we bring it in. I got
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  Speaker 1: to the stand before him. I paid off the person
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  Speaker 1: to give.
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  Speaker 2: Me You're a dirty, filthy line, disgusting lying.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a disgusting B word because.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I don't you get he's trying it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Just don't make me stop using eye statements because I'm
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: a fucking oh freaking ship. Damn, oh fox, sorry, oh sorry,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: oh darn. I'm a I'm a white male podcaster statements.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I'm so. I bribed this person and gave him some
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  Speaker 1: money and was like, don't show me a tree under
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  Speaker 1: eight feet And if my husband asks for shorter ones,
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  Speaker 1: you have to lie and say they're shorter. And it worked.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I have an eight and a half foot Christmas tree.
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  Speaker 1: Throw up a photo.
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  Speaker 2: Is your tree standing up straight?
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  Speaker 1: It's standing up straight if you look at it from
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: certain angles. Same, It's like sweatpants and like a sweatshirt.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, if you look at me from a certain angle,
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  Speaker 1: I'm also looking straight.
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  Speaker 2: No you're not.
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  Speaker 1: But then you turn to the side and you see
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: my limp wrist and my shoes and I'm wearing a
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Loeve loafer.
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  Speaker 2: What does Jack do with the tree?
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  Speaker 1: He kind of naps near it, He sort of he
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  Speaker 1: drinks the water out of the stand.
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  Speaker 2: Can't be good.
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  Speaker 1: He loves it, and he's survived ten Christmas is drinking
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Christmas tree stand water. So I think it's it might
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  Speaker 1: be what's keeping him alive. He's thirteen, and he is
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: young and spright and spring chicken. Trying to take me
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: all over my neighborhood. So he's still jumping upon the bed.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: No hip displasure for Jack, No, I guess not.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We give him like a little mobility bite and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: he takes that every day. But I've gotten two place
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: where I kind of have to start taking the mobility bites.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we all yeah, wait till you get the perimenopause.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I'm really excited about today's episode. We have Eric
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Boucher in the building. We're going to be exciting hiding
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: in the green room, terrified of me and whatever I'm
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: gonna ask, you'll be okay, excited to meet you. Like
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: all our guests. This is your algorithm as showing we
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: should talk a little bit about what's going on in
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the news.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Of course.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So Congressman Garcia actually over the weekend on Friday released
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a bunch of deeply disturbing photos from the Epstein piles. Okay,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: we tried to get him on, but he's traveling today,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: so but we have some clips, CJ. Can you throw
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: them up?
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  Speaker 4: We received this was just yesterday, ninety five thousand photographs
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: from the Epstein estate. We were able to put out
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: so far, probably about seventy five to eighty photos throughout
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  Speaker 4: the day today, many of which you've you've seen. A
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  Speaker 4: lot of the public is now seen, which is incredibly
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: important for transparency, and our intention is to put out
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: as many of the pot is as possible, while protecting,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: of course, the survivors.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I hate, it's so disturbing it is.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: But here's what I really really hate, truly, how many
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  Speaker 2: people need to come forward to say this happened to
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: me with these people and this and this man repeatedly
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: before they're just believed and something is done. I really
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: resent this idea that in order for people who have
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: been victimized by you know, a plethora of rich, wealthy
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: white men, is that you need to see it in
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: order to believe it. Like, how many people need to
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: come forward to say this happened to me, this is
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: what happened. And it's almost like there's this desire to
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: see the salaciousness to see do you know what I mean?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: It really really I'm I'm grateful that the congressman has
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: done this, I am resentful that he had to do it, and.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: The entire situation is disgusting. Right and even now that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the photos are online and we're seeing the photos to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: people are always out to get rich people. People are
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: always trying to take down you know, billionaires of the world. Powerful.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: There's people have it out for them.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Megan Kelly, who was like, well, fifteen is fifteen just
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: as bad as five.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Yikes below eighteen is it's illegal? It is statutory race, Yes,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: statutory rape. So going into I'll do like a quick
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: legal rundown. There are different kinds of crimes. Statutory crimes,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: no matter what, if you break the statute, it's a crime.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: We don't care about mental statements, Rhea. We all that
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: matters is that if you can prove an act was committed,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: it is a crime. Period. That's what statutory When we
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: say statutory, right, we've heard it sort of like throughout
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: our lives. That's what that means. It is every other
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: crime aside from statutory crimes. You have to prove their
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: mental state. You have to prove they had the intent
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to commit the crime. Whereas statutory crimes, it is a law,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and it's so reprehensible that if we can show the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: act of you breaking that law, we don't fucking care
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: what you were thinking. Right, So I'm glad they released
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: these photos. They are but watch out for them if
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you are easily triggered. They I am someone who I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: had a client a couple of weeks ago send me
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: photos of people who had been beheaded. So I have
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a pretty thick skin. I rarely get nausea, and I was,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about these photos long after I saw them.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing, right, once you see them.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Today's been kind of a doozy. Yeah. Shootings over the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: weekend were awful. Brown University. There was another one. I
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: saw a post A young woman who survived the Brown
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: University shooting also survived a shooting at her high school.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I think that's going to start happening more and more
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: because there's so many high school shootings and that now
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: they're happening at universities. I think, you know, I saw
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: the video of it, and it was I saw a video,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: so there's right. I guess the kids, the students were
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: in the library and then the police came in to
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: announce themselves, and you can just see how afraid they were.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: And I don't understand why we love guns more than
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: the people who were a part of this country.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: It's the gun lobby. I mean, the gun lobby is
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: so powerful and has so many politicians in their pocket.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Is I would love to hear Walter Masterson's take on
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: it all time.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he's got a ton of sity.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll text him and tell him to pop off
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in the comments on this video, because I just I think,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: like I don't know, we see it all the time, right,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Like corporations get more standing to get more power, get
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: more privileged than people do in this country. Like this
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: is truly broken down late stage capitalism. And I just
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: think that, like especially with gun control, there is such
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: like a causal connection. There is no like gray area
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: about it. But it's gotten to a point. I mean
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: after the Pulse shooting, I think I was talking to
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you and you and I were like, we are at
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: a place where we probably will have to survive a
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: shooting at some point. Like that is what it's gotten
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: to statistically in America. It is not dramatic, It is
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: not hyperbole to say that there's a possibility, maybe even
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a strong possibility, that we will have to survive a shooting.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I will say that when I am in
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: certain spaces, especially if it's places that I go too often,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: I have scoped out places for me to hide to run,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: you know, And I can remember that there was a
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: time where we didn't have to do that, but now
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: I feel like it is absolutely necessary. You need to
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: be ready to sort of go because, like you said,
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: it's going to happen.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right after Aurora, I remember. Now. Ever since then,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: every time I go to a movie theater, I take
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: note of, like where we're sitting in relation to the entrance,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: where the exits are in relation to where we're sitting.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Like it's just become a part of how my brain functions. Now.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I don't go to a movie and not think about that.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: When you were a kid, did you do active shooter
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: drills or no?
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: No?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: No, okay, old too old. No.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Columbine happened when I was in I think like the
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: sixth grade, seventh grade around there, and I was a
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: grown my birthdays. My birthday's four twenty, so I remember
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: being like, school's canceled today, and I didn't really get it. No,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of course, yeah, it has always kind of been a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: part of my cognizance, But I don't know what it
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: was like to sort of go through those drills. I
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: know that they have.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Them, all that they had them all the time.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I have.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: One of my cousins was really upset because there was
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: an active shoot a drill for her kids school and
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: they didn't tell the parents.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Oh whereas, yeah.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I have another friend who the school sends a schedule.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's good because you can prepare your kid for
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: what's going on. To explain what happens, I would be terrified. Sure,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Notice drills used to freak me out.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: I used to love a fire drill. I used to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: love a fire she said. I used to love a
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: fire drill because it was like ten minutes of.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Like, she's outside the dumpster smoking a cigarette, smarking a
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: newport a Capria. No, it was a super skinny caprice.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: What were you smoking at Marlborough Life? Because my dad
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: smoked them, and I used to like flinch cigarettes from
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: my dad. He first he smoked the red pack, the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: hard pack, and then he sort of decided to go
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: for a lighter cigarette and he started smoking Marlborough Lights.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: We've got it, Can we just just I'm just going
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to hard cut to the Haitian cigarette company that Melissa
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: was telling me about her grandmother, my aunt, my aunt.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: There is a Haitian cigarette company that boasts that it's
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: healthier than other cigarette.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Because it's got either like honey or bee pollen or
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: something in it. And let me tell you so. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: the name of the did ever tell you the name
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: of the company, Yes, you did. It's the punchline do
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: it Camille, which means the way that it is.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: The way it is man the way it is.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: When I first moved to Flatbush, so people who don't
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: know what the Flatbush is still pretty much even though
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: it's becoming very gentrified and a very sort of like
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: West Indian neighborhood. And there was a huge population of
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Haitian people. And I had just moved into this neighborhood
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: and I was walking from some store and I looked down,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: I took a picture and you and I saw a
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: crumpled up Camille phone comin full and it was and
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: it was the light green pack. It was meant thought
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: because it was meant because it was mento. But I
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: was like, okay, I live in.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: So it is yeh, all right. Eric Boucher's here said
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: on three, so it is meul com ill phone. Let's
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: take a break. Welcome back to brief Recess. I'm Michael Foot.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: This is under oath. We're gonna go deep diving with
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Eric Boucher, who is a dedicated public servant and activist
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: who has devoted his life to progressive causes and to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the betterment of the community he loves. In twenty twenty one,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: he was elected to represent New York City Council District three,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and Eric is also running for the House right now, right,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: he announced his candidacy to replace Nadler. Right is that right? Okay,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't mess that up. Be your member of Congress,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: my member of Congress.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Yep, that's right. So I represent Council District three. There's
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: fifty one New York City Council members in New York City.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: We represent around one hundred and eighty thousand people. My district,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Council District three. It spans from Spring Street up to
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: fifty fifth Street, roughly west of Broadway.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so that's a that's a big swath of
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: New York City.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: It is it is. I'm just wrapping up my fourth
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: year on the City Council and I was just re
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: elected last month. Congratulations, hear ninety percent of the vote,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: which I was so happy about.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Whoa that? Congrats?
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: It was on election night and we were like teetering
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: at like eighty nine percent, and I was like in console,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: I was so excited because I wanted to get ninety percent,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: and my staff was like, we are you are not allowed.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: You have said run.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: You know, a win is a win.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: And then overnight it went over to ninety, which I
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: think is just like the ultimate customer satisfaction survey for
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: me and my team. It was really cool.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And how many terms has this been for you? So?
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Generally speaking, the city council is four year terms, okay,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: but this time I had a two year term and
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: a two year term because it fell on the ten
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: year redistricting. Okay, so they redrew the lines and I
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: either run. This is technically my third term.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, all right. And was there anything that you
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: sort of like voted on recently that you're really proud
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: of or things that like, I mean, our listeners are
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: awesome and so keyed into politics on the local level,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: national level, anything that is just like top of mind.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: That this is something I'm really really really excited about.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: It's a bill that I introduced a few weeks ago
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: and we had a hearing last week, and it's a
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: bill that would relegalize a housing type in New York
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: that's been functionally illegal for many years, and that is
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: shared housing. Oh interesting, and single room occupancy housing SROs.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: SROs housing with shared common areas, Okay, shared living areas,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: share bad, shared kitchens.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's so important for just like affordability and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the housing crisis in New York algether and.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize that those were no longer legal. When
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: did they do away with SR So.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Essentially by the eighties they were they were phasing these out,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: and because they were they were bad, right they were.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: They were often unsafe, very poorly run, poorly managed, and
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: so we phased them out, and.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: They were sort of like slum lords kind of.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: There were there were, But the phasing out of single
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: room occupancy housing tracks almost directly with the exponential rise
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: in homelessness in New York because for decades and decades,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: hundreds of years, really soros, single room housing was shared bads, kitchens,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: common areas, was a important wrong on the housing latter
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: for people if you didn't have a lot of money, right,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: it was a source of stable housing. We want to
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: restore that wrong on the ladder, But do it in
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: a different way with new safeguards like no more than
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: three people three units sharing.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand they're like safety and the like, probably
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: like hygiene situation of like a lot of people sharing.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: But the more accessible you make housing, the more you
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: sort of put it as like a rung on the ladder,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the fewer homeless people, the more accessible you make it,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the more likely it is someone is going to use
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that money to get a room, especially in the cold
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: winter months.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Like, yes, that's right. And the truth is that shared
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: housing is very, very common all throughout New York. It's
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: often referred to as having roommates, right, but it's family
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: size apartments that are getting rented out by singles with
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: different people living in different bedrooms. So it's it's there,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: it's everywhere, but it's often unregulated with very few tenant protections.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: You have people who enter these roommate situations who were
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: often victimized and taken advantage of by the person who
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: has the least to the apartment. There's no real fire code. Uh,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: you have illegal walls and partitions.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I was going to say illegal walls and partitions fire codes.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Also a lot of migrants live in those spaces too.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Like a lot of my clients have sort of shared
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: living situations that are just really disturbing and complicated sometimes, right, but.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Like options of people living in really tight spaces, right, right.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you know about Soros, Melissa? I know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: so you were you had like.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: A recognition years and years ago when I first started working,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I was a paralegal at the Gay Mental Health Crisis,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: and we had a lot of clients who were living
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: in Soros. And they, you know, some of them were
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: either they were because they were working, they were able
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: to pay for it, or they got a housing stipend
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: that was that allowed them to live in those spaces.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I don't think I realized that they had sort of
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: gone by the way said, but a lot of them
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: would complain exactly of what you were saying. Well, yes,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: you know, it's I'm lucky to have a roof in
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: my head. However, there's a rodent problem, there's a you know,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: roach problem, that kind of thing. It doesn't feel safe,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: it's not clean, it's not well maintained. So I love
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: that you did this because people, I mean, I look
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: at how much it costs to rent an apartment now
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: in New York City, And I can't believe how much
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: people are supposed to have. How much money is somebody
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: who's just starting out supposed to.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Me average rand in New York City right now is
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars, right, that is the current amount.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know how people have afford these rents.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: It's unbelieva.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Really, it's shocking.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, I mean again, people I know, like, when
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: I find out how much they pay in rent, I'm like,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: how do you do that? How much much do you
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: make well?
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: And also what are you not doing right are you?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: I mean? And I appreciate that vacations and things are
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: a luxury, but are you able to feed yourself? Are
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: you able to do some nice things for yourself? I mean,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I feel like this idea of people working just to
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: pay rent is just it's wrong. It's wrong.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: It is And for people in shelter, in the shelter system,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: we have to create ladders out of that. And it
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily have to be there forever home. It's a
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: place for them to go to get independence, to get
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: stabilized before they move on and get a larger apartment.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Who is are you getting pushback on that as you're
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: sort of trying to introduce. It's like who is who
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: are you up against?
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: So this surprised me because I posted about this bill.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: The Times did a piece about it, and I post
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: about it, and I thought everyone would say, oh, Eric,
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: that's such a great idea. There was a lot of
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: pushback on social media from people who felt like it
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: was like a really bad thing because you just want
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: to make apartments smaller. You just want instead of instead
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: of addressing affordable housing, right, you just want to make
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: everyone's apartments tiny.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Right, Oh, this helps the developers who just want to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: make really small apartments and sounds a lot.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Of exactly what the huh? What the the knee jerk
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: reaction from people was. So it is going to take
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: some education.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I get that. I also think that like this thing
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: happens on social media. It happens to me a lot
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: where haters come in who have never stepped foot in
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: New York City. Oh, the people who hate on my
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: videos who want to you know, are up or mad
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: at me about the videos about ice. They're they're like
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: not even Americans sometimes, And I'm like, uh, what, like
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you really have to like couch? What criticism you internalize
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and how you sort of move through your work, because
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of the times it is like a kid
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: who stole their mom's phone.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah right, all right.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: If somebody's living in you know, in Idaho, who has
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: no idea what it's like to live in New York City,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: and you know, why would you want to live in
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: New York City? You can, you know. And then there's
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: always somebody in the comments who's just like, I live
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: behind God's back someplace, and I you know, and I
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: pay one hundred dollars for like this huge place, and
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, then I have to be in that place, right,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: like New York, you know. And for somebody who is
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: like a life on New York or New York is
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: my home, I want to be here, and it seems
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: to me that I should be able to afford to
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: live in the city that I grew up in.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: That's right. And I think a lot of the criticism
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: is well meaning, right, people feeling like we want to
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: shoot warn people into tiny boxes and no one should
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: have to live that way. But the truth is that
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: almost everyone, almost everyone I know at one point in
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: New York has had roommates. Of course, that's essentially what
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: we're talking about. Some of the people who are, you know,
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: getting kind of asking in the comments I had to
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: I actually said, like, when I met you, you had
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: roommates and you were okay with that. Not now, but
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: at the time it was a way for you to
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: be in New York and get your footing in the
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: city we started.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: It's how we got here, right entry point.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we need all of the above. Yes, we
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: need more three bedroom apartments for families. We need more
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: two bedroom apartment cours family, We need more big apartments.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: We also need more shared housing we do.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: This isn't the silver bullet, like and I don't I mean,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't hear you here today on the show say
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: that it is this Diao sex monk, you know that's
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: going to fix all of our problems. It's not. But
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: it is definitely a stuff in the right direction, or
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: one of many things that we can do to support
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: affordability in New York.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I'm excited about it. We had a hearing.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: We're going to be doing more education and I'm going
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: to be getting my colleagues on board, and I hope
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: that we can pass it early next year so that
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: we can have been seeing more options. One more thing
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: about this, it's really good for people with mental health
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: issues because social isolation and seniors social isolation is a
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: really big problem. When I talk to service providers and
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: people who work in social services, one of the problems
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: I have is people shutting in, staying in there interesting
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: and for days at a time, and this really gets
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: peeled out that social interaction. It also gives social service
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: workers the opportunity to observe the person and make sure
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: they're open.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Right, there's a door to knock on just that wellness track. Right, Eric.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you so a couple questions. So is
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: the intention to build these spaces or to take already
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: apartments that are there, maybe vacant, and rehab them so
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: that they can become SROs. And the second question is
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: you mentioned this idea of people who are struggling with
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: maybe substance abuse or mental health issues. Would there be
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: like a social work component in the I don't know
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: the basement of the building.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: That's right. Supportive housing on site social service is very
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: important for those populations. And we're talking about new housing,
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: talking about conversions of office space, sure, and yes, residential
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: that's that's a really big opportunity for right now.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Because the district you were just you mentioned right all
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the way. I mean that includes Mintown, which has seen
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of things change about it since the pandemic, right, which.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Has been awesome. At the beginning of the pandemic, we
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: were very frustrated by the lack of office residential conversions.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: New York wasn't doing many of them. They were happening
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: in other parts of the country, they weren't happening in
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: New York. Now we are leading the country with office
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: to residential conversions and it's a really, really big relement.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: It is going to help address the housing shortage. It's
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: also going to help revitalize some of these commercial only districts,
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: which is an outdated concept.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: The idea that you have this area is residential. This
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: is an office area only that shuts down at five o'clock.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: You want twenty four to seven vibrant neighborhoods.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: We have limited space of New York. It's such an
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: obvious statement, but we really can only build up so
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: high and you can't really go out too far. It's
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: an island, right. I was in La A couple of
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: weeks ago, and I was like, Oh, as far as
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the eye can see is Los Angeles. Yes, spread out
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: another neighborhood, You're good area. I wanted to sort of
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: pivot a little bit. Melissa mentioned the game and health crisis.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I know that HIV AIDS funding has been cut in
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: America recently, that there's a lot of things on the table.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You are also running for one of those house seats.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit more. I know this is
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: like a cause that's really important and near and dear
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to your heart. Like, let's get into it. I want
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: to talk about this. This is something that I think
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: everyone in the room has sort of dealt with.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, truly shameful what's happening with HIV AIDS funding both
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: foreign and domestic?
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Right, yes, funding.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: That you know, one of the few good things that
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: George W. Bush did, one of the very few was
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: prodding very few. Yeah, with the prodding of Bono was
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: really upscale United States funding to help end HIV and
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: AIDS around the world. And that is predicted that is
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: thought to have saved like millions of lives and truly
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: incredible way they want to zero it out, which which
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: could cost millions of lives, truly, truly shameful. And the
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: United States you have programs like Ryan White which have
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: really also helped save countless lives. They're talking about zeroing
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: those out. They would love to do it. And there's
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: a real possibility that we'll see a resurgence in HIV
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: and AIDS after many, many years of incredible progress. I mean,
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: it's been truly incredible what we've been able to live
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: through the last few years.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I also feel like when it comes to HIV AIDS,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: now that we have PREP, now that we have all
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: these medications that people don't, especially in the gay community,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: like that. I'm a part of that. I hear a
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: lot about that my friends, my community. It's almost as
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: if people, well people are definitely it's not on their mind.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: They're not like, oh, like I'm at risk, I'm on PREP,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: like right, Like, it is very much a out of sight,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: out of mind thing now. But I don't think what
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: people consider is how white and privileged that thought is
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: how very few people actually get to experience that feeling
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of comfort, that feeling of like a sound mind, of
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: not having to be concerned or worried. I grew up
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: when there was no PREP. Like when I was sexually
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: active outside of closed relationships. It was at a time
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: when HIV was very much still something that you could contract.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Everyone was concerned.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: Not using a condom never entered my mind.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I had from childhood, going to elementary school in the eighties.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: Part of our curriculum every year ongoing was save sex
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: and HIV and AIDS, And it was so shocking to
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: me when PREP came along and condom free sex became
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: a thing. But I never I never imagined doing that.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Well, of course not. I mean because the message was
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: you couldn't. It was you just couldn't do that to
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: yourself unless you want dangerous. It was so dangerous unless
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: you want to die, this terrible, horrible, lonely death. Right. So,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: when I was working at the game as a health crisis,
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: it was sort of the mid nineties. I mean, I
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: remember when AZT first came out, do you know what
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: I mean? So, like yes, so sometimes like dying, people
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: were dying. And I will say, I think I've shared
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: this before. One of the reasons why I left jam
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: C was because all my clients were passing oway. It
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: just felt like that's what was happening, and it was
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: at the time the kind of place that eventually it
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: took its toll on the soul. And I just remember
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: one day I was just like, I'm crying at work.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: This can't be and it and it keeps happening, right
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: and and the thought of that time coming back again
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: is so scary to me. I really can't stress that
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: enough because I and I you know, and I hate
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: sort of saying these things like, you know, back in
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: my day, but honestly, yes, back in my day. You know,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: I have some gay friends who are my age who
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: all their friends have died.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: Unreal, do you know what I mean? So privileged to
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: be so if I was born a few years earlier,
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: I probably would not be alive right now because I
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: would have been part of that yeah generation generation. And
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: we're lucky that we're here because we we were just
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: born a few years later. Yeah.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I paid close attention to this. There was a cruising
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: spot in Penn Station that is in your district. That is, uh,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: you know, right in it's Penn Station. It's one of
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the major transport hubs for New York. There's a cruising
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: spot in the men's restroom where gay men were having sex,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and recently, I think it was over the summer, there
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: were police were cracking down and sort of policing that activity.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Tell me more, let's get into it. It was very
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: much a situation where, yes, what was happening is illegal, right,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: we're not there are people who are engaged in sexual
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: activities and technically a public space, but the police were
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: approaching it in a way that was like, oh, that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: person looks gay, and then they would have r.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: It was entrapment. Yes, there was entrapment. And my office,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: you know, we were in contact with one of the
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: people who was entrapped right by the cops and he said,
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: I want you to know that I was not doing that,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: Like I was not doing that.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And and the problem with this sort of entrapment
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: of the NYPD was it was during Pride month and
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: there were over two hundred people who were picked up,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: and it was like people who were just wearing Pride
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: bracelets in their penn station, which if you've ever been
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: to gay Pride in New York, you need a bathroom quick.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Sometimes like it wasn't necessarily like actual things were happening
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that people were clear perception it was a gay person
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: was near the bathroom in pens to round them up.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: We're not too far from it now, right.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: They're also really disturbing accounts of the language that the
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: officers use.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we won't use it on the air, but yeah,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of queer slers were thrown around in their
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: their reference.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we went public about it. I'm co chair
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: of the City Council's LGBTQ caucus. They also represent the stations,
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: so a council member, Tiffany Kamba, and I my my colleague.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: We went public about this and Amtrak responded eventually saying
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: that they were just responding to complaints about things that
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: were happening in the room restroom. We are watching this
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: very closely to ensure that they that those practices stop,
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: because that this is something that's been a theme throughout
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: my career. When I started as the LGBT liaison at
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: the City Council back in two thousand and nine, there
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: was entrapment happening in video stores where the PD, their
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: vice squad was approaching. You know, they they have these
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: very attractive undercover guys approaching older men.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Oh god, and offering.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: That's right, right, that's that's entrapman.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, of course. Yeah. You know, I think the NYPD
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and a lot of police forces have a long, ugly
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: history of doing this. This is not like to me,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I had heard about these things happening, you know, decades
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: ago where the police were doing this. There's there's a
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: really long history of this type of behavior. And as
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: a criminal defense attorney, I'll be one of the first
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: people to tell you once you're sort of a part
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: of the system, it's really hard to get out of it.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: It's very much a system that it's it's it's fly tape.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Once you touch it, it's kind of stuck to you.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: So when I heard it, I was like, what fucking
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: year is it? Like this is twenty twenty five and
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: we're still doing this. Like it really was one of
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: those moments. And especially in a city like New York,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: like we have one of the fiercest pride parades, We've
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: got a huge queer community. This is where quer kids
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: come to get away from this in their hometown say that, yeah,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: this is the mecca. Right, So I'm glad you did
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: something to take me through that thought process, right, like
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: how you sort of approached it, because this is like
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: not politically palatable, right, like saying okay, like technically public
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: gay sex is illegal. You could imagine how this in
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the wrong conservative hands could get twisted at those words, right,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: especially with like Drag Queen Story Hours. We could talk
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: about that as well. I know you have been outspoken
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: about supporting Drag Queen Story Hours, and so have I.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I would just love to hear a little bit about,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: like what was that thought process, Like you're a queer man,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: You've been focused on these issues. You hear about this
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: happening in your neighborhood, like you live in the district,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Like what do you do? Because I know I would
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: if if I were in that scene had to make
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the decision, I would probably have like a dark Knight
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: of the Soul war. I have to really think about, Yeah,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: how I purchase this because, like I said, in the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: wrong hands, this could be like an ugly headline for you.
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think in New York City we have trauma
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: from y Yeah, Stonewall Rebellion was started with a police raid.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: Our communities want safety, but they don't want to be persecuted.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, and they deserve safety, yeahs as do we?
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: All right, we all do and I think especially you know,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: folks who are in vulnerable communities like the LGBTQ community,
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: like you know, black women like these are these are
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: the people who need our help, and we need our
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: not just our citizens, but obviously our public service to
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: sort of rally around us and say this is important.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: You are a part of my community. What happens to
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: you is.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: Important to me, right to us. And I have a
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: good relationship with the and white with the lgbt NYPD organizations. Yeah,
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: there's one, it's called Goal Gay Officers Action League, and
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: they are very active within the NYPD, and there's so
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: many more of them than there used to be, and
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: that's been a really powerful force of change right in
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: the NYPDEH because they're they're everywhere within the force, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: that's such a very positive source of culture change from within.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: It's a complex sort of line to toe, right, having
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: to work with people that are maybe politically opposite or
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: people sort of pulling people together. I know you're running
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: for Jerry Adler seat in the House right now, what
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: is your plan when you sort of get in there.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: We've heard from you know, New York City politicians have
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: been pretty outspoken about partnering with Trump, how we sort
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: of work with this administration. What we can do to
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: ensure that New York remains the safe place that it
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: is for many people, especially migrants. Like what is your plan, Like,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: how would you approach this as someone who's running for
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: this seat and hopes.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: Obviously, we have to stand up against Donald Trump. We
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: have to stand up against fascism on the march, we
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: have to oppose it, we have to be against it.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: But we also as Democrats, we have to be four
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: something and something that people are going to be able
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: to feel tangibly in their lives. One of the reasons
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: why mom Donnie won against all odds because he spoke
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: directly to people about the issues that they were confronting
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: in their lives, and he gave people a real sense
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: of hope that those things were going to change in
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: their lives. Yes, and let's just say New York City
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: for example. In New York City, they say that an
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: individual has to make like one hundred and thirty thousand
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: dollars a year to have a good quality of life,
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: and a family has to make like two hundred and
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars to have a good quality of life,
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: ninety percent of New Yorkers don't fit in. That means
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: ninety percent of New Yorkers have.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: A substandard don't belong here, and.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: They people want their Democratic Party. If we as Democrats
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: want Americans to start voting for us again, we when
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: we are in charge, when we do have power, we
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: need to make a difference in people's lives. One of
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: the issues that we talk about a lot is housing.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: How do we bring housing costs down around the country.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: At its core, the rise in housing costs is caused
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: by a shortage of homes, and as a country, we're
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: around five million homes short nationwide. How are we going
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: to make up that difference? How are we going to
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: have five million homes built around the country so that
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: there's not this scarcity created so that you have twenty
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: five people competing for every vacancy. I will work to
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: establish a program, a nationwide program where we as a
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: federal government, we should be incentivizing cities, counties, and states
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: to allow for more housing construction, transit oriented development, walkable
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: neighborhoods with multi family homes near public transit, near transit options.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: The United States stopped developing that way seventy five years ago.
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: The federal government needs to create a program for these
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: entities to sign up for to buy into where they
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: will be compensated per unit of housing created. Wow, and
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: there could be affordability mandate included by way the federal
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: governments helping with the cost of the infrastructure that'll come
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: come with them.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Whose buy in do you have for that? Right?
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: That is your vision? Right? Love to hear it. I
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: think it sounds what do you think?
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: No, it's amazing, cool, really hopeful.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: How do you sort of approach that? Like, how do
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you get that sort of how do.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: We make that happen?
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: There's a cohort of members of Congress who are onto
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: this right. They get it, and they include members of
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: both parties. By the way, Okay, they understand that we
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: as a country have created a scarcity of housing, the
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: scarcity environment where we're competing against for limited resources when
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: it's totally unnecessary. We kind of have a society where
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: we have ample resources for all rights, where the rich
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: and the well connected aren't winning every hand because there's
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: this scarce amount of housing. I think growing that coalition
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: addressing the misinformation about transit oriented development and walkable neighborhoods.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: People don't really understand what that means. Donald Trump, when
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: he ran for president in twenty sixteen, he accused Democrats
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: of wanting to abolish the suburbs.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: The Democrats in DC have been in want to, at
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: a much higher level, abolish our beautiful and successful suburbs.
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: Because what we were talking about is really building more
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: density in the suburbs, allowing multifamily housing in the suburbs,
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: not single family homes. And it resonated with some saying
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: they want to they want to build a skyscraper next
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: to my home. It doesn't have to be like that.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: We're talking about two stories. We're talking about duplexes, triplexes,
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: areas that you could walk around by the way. The
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: vast majority of Americans they want to live in walkable neighborhoods.
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: The poles show again and again and again, surveys show
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: that most Americans want to live in a neighborhood where
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: you could walk around. Sure, but the vast majority of
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: jeority Americans they don't live in those neighborhoods because it's
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: functionally illegal where they live.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: How's the how's the race been going? How's that how's
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: that looking. The race has been in the headline fighting recently.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: There's a demon twink running against Eric, who said that
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: it's a twink off currently, which I would love to
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: hear what your thoughts are. I mean, this is a
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: total tonal shift from Trump and reportable housing and multi vamberinds.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: But twink off really does sound like a fire island pines,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: like mud wrestling activity like.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: And you know, I loved asking you for saying that
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: because I'm forty six and he described us as having
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: twink like qualities.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Incredible.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: I'll take it at forty six, Like, yeah, I do
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: identify more more and more as a daddy.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Actually I'm a twas you heard her first, Eric Watchers
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: and daddy.
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: I'm a t was last years since I haven't been
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: a twink.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Twas the night before you were a twink exactly. That
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: twink depth hits hard. I've been there. I mean, I
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: just to be called a twink at you said forty six. Yeah,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: that's a beautiful thing. Great job, browndom applause. On the skincare,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: you got that Korean skincare twelve step?
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: What are you doing in very dim lighting?
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Hit the lights?
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Michael loves lighting.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: I love a good lighting moment. I'm sorry, I'm not
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: gonna apologize for it. I took a leaf out of
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: the remedy book and just said, give me all the lighting.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: And the mals, yeah, and all lamps.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Yes overhead, no overhead.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah. We had a moment at the city council about
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: overhead lighting because it's.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: A hate crime. Is worse than the policing of pensation.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: I'm telling you, I passed legislation that would require the
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: city to a better light underneath oh baby, scaffolding to
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: say no, no, no, oh. Absolutely. At the press conference,
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: I said there's a stereotype that gays hate overhead lighting,
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: and it's accurate.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Except for scaffolding.
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: For scaffolding.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah baby, if you are campaigning on no more overhead lighting,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: you have my vote because let me tell you something.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: As a as a ball diva, that glare could light
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: this entire d show.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: I hear a lot about the glare.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: I hear a lot about are distracted.
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: I hear a lot of headlighting and the I think
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: you just.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Then, Diesel call me. We need to discuss, because I
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: think we could start like a little super pack against
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: this overhead light.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: And yes, if I come to your home and you
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: have overhead lights, I will turn on every lamp and
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: turn off every Well done.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I'm quite imperious when I go to people's homes. Melissa knows.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I just walk right in and open the fridge, take
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: a sandwich.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Yeahs also been known to go into purses, but I
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: went into one time.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Eric, what do you think about? Okay, this is our
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Christmas episode A, how do you celebrate? And B we
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: are we're currently before. We're not going to tell you
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: who's on which side. Eric wasn't in the studio when
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: we covered fake versus real Christmas trees, but you do
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: have to pick a side.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: And I'm team real Christmas trees, even though I'm definitely
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: team artificial plants in general.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Interesting, we've got one right, Yeah, I think our fake
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: bamboo tree iHeart studio.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: Way better than no plant. A lot of them are like,
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: I have a fake orchid that enough away where it's
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: an orchid, right, as far as anyone's concerned.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: Doesn't get dusty, do you?
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: Dusty does get see.
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: That's the problem with the fake plant, Like they get dusty.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: Real plants get dusty too, though, But not like.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: A fake plant. The fake plant seems to like really
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: like really like absorb the dust.
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: And I got my parents some fake, like really tasteful
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: fake plants, and unfortunately they've been taking it too far.
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: And my father, you just lost the game. I started
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: planting fake plants outside like he put them.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: My friend did that in the lawn.
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I had either.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: So people do that? What people do?
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: That?
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Common below if you've planted up there, I've never heard this.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Is like, actually, I will tell you.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: The pineapple on the pizza. Who is what?
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: A really good friend of mine and I'm not going
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: to say who she is, but she knows who she is.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: She planted, you know, in front of her door on
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: either side. Instead of having like two real plants, she
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: puts some fake plants.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I mean I guess I had a
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: strong reaction, but I guess it does kind of make sense.
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: Maybe in a harsh climate or something.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: They're in a hurricane. If I get hit by a
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: fake orchid, I'm gonna be cola by your fake birch.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: On your shiny NuGet.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Have a fake birch tree land on my house. That's
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: what happened to the Wicked Witch. Okay, well, thank you
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: for joining us. Do you want people to do you
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: want to plug anything? Do you want us to.
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: Invite people to follow me on social media? Botcher on
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: social media channels. It's a great way of us staying
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: in touch with each other. Eric Botcher dot com is
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: my website. Okay, and I really want to thank you
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: for having me.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: Of course, Well this will put it on socials and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: attack you so you can so people can see your
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: handles and everything.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: And does your campaign are you looking for volunteers or
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: anything like?
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: For volunteers you can sign up. Yeah, we're gonna have
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: fantastic it's going to be really really exciting six months.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: We're always looking for fun ways to get involved. So
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: Much, thank you, thank you.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back. This is tails from the DMS.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: This is where I answer all your burning legal questions. Honestly,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: any of your questions ask me relationship advice. I've been
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: in a relationship for almost ten years.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: As I always disclaimer. We do have a disclaimer, which
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: is that while Michael is a lawyer, he's not your lawyer.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: So let's try and remember that.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, but if you do want me to be your lawyer.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: I actually just recently opened up in my link tree.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: You can click a book a consultation with me, and
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I charge like a small fee. I think it's pretty reasonable.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: But to book a consultation with me is thirty minutes.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: I'll review your case, I'll review what's going on. It
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: will be very much like this, but with less bronzer.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: And I won't be there chiming. Unfortunately, it's up charge
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: if you want, Melissa, Yeah, it's for sure, I'll come.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: Listen, Michael, I was just calling to see if you
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: could discuss something that happened here in Indianapolis on Tuesday,
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: December ninth. There was a naturalization ceremony that was being held. However,
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: thirty eight out of one hundred prospective citizens were turned
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: away at the door.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: I did hear this?
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: They were turned away?
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, like she said. There were some people who
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: were set all set to become naturalized, which means so
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: you tell people what that means.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, So when you're set to become naturalized, and
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: means all of your paperwork is literally done, everything's been approved.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: USCIS has approved everything right, and it's I think actually
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: most of it's been like stamped process. You are this
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: is the last stup. It's sort of like the swearing
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: end ceremony you won the election, correct, this is your
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: put your hand on.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: And if you are interested in becoming a citizen, like
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: this is sort of this is the prize, right, this
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: is the.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Price by family and by friends. I've gone to a
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: couple for some clients it's fun.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and for whatever reason, and we don't know why
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: a group of them were turned away that they couldn't.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know why they were turned away. I can guess,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: I can postulate. I think that there is a lot
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: of miscommunication going on right now. The directives coming down
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: from uscis, from DHS, from the Trump administration down to
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: the officer level, like communication is very garbled, I would
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: say in the enforcement space. That's what I'm sort of
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: witnessing is that certain clients the police are acting one way.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: ICE is acting one way, like there is no comprehensive
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: plan of these are the rules, this is how to
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: follow them. We had an organization like ICE that exploded
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: in activity is huge and has so many people now
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: working for them that are all brand new. So that
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: is what I think is happening. I don't necesssaraly know
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: exactly what happened Indian Noatlas. A lot of what they're
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: doing is illegal. I can't say whether or not. This
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: is just off the top of my head. A lot
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: of what they're doing is illegal, but it's not going
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: to be enforced. It's going to take years to get
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: to the bottom of it. We need lawyers and firms
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: to pick up those lawsuits, and a lot of it
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: will be litigated long after people have been removed from
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: this country. And I see that. It is heartbreaking.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: It looks like a part of the reason. I don't
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: know what happened there, but what has been happening more
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: and more is that the people who were about to
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: be sworn in are from countries that the current administration
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: deem as high risk. So they're coming from some country
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: that he's probably yes exactly, yah, yes, Somalia, etc.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, Well, thank you for your question. If
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: you want to ask us a question, you can go
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: to my link tree, click on ask us a question.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: You can record your voice. We will play it on
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: the ERA. I'll try and answer your legal questions. And
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: that was tales from the DMS thank you for watching
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Brief Recess. I forgot my life.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: Thanks for watching Brief Recess. I'm Melissa Malbranch. He's Michael Foot.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Michael Foot. I'll see you in court. Wait we
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: swear count? Throw it up on the screen. What was
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: my swear count? Zero?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: Lies?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: That is a visionist history.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Lies.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: I'm still going to donate.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, I'll make you. I'll keep you hones.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Have a wonderful holiday everyone, Happy New Year. We're going
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to have episodes playing throughout the holiday break, but we'll
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: be back in the studio in January with some fierce tea.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: This has been an exactly right production, recorded at iHeart Studios,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: hosted by me Michael Foot.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: And Me Melissa Malbranch. Our producer is CJ. Ferroni.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: This episode was edited by Nicholas Galucci.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain and our guest booker
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: is Patria Cottner.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: Our theme song was composed by Tom Briefogel with artwork
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: for Charlotte Delarue MNSA Lilac with photography by Brad Obono.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Brief Recess is executive produced by Karen Kilgareff, Georgia Hart,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Stark and Danielle Kramer.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: You can find me on Instagram at Department of Redundancy
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: Department or on TikTok at Michael foot.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: And I'm on both Instagram and TikTok as Melissa Malbranch.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Got legal questions, reach out at brief Recess at exactlyrightmedia
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: dot com. Listen to brief Recess on the iHeartRadio app,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: course we're a podcasts with video. Search for brief Recess
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: on YouTube