Latest / The Real News Podcast / Beyond the Wire | Boots on the Ground: Community-Led Safety Panel

Transcript

Beyond the Wire | Boots on the Ground: Community-Led Safety Panel · The Real News Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be super brief.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I largely just want to, again, thank everyone for coming out.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I'm the producer of this film, but I'm sure you
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: guys know you can't do something like this by yourself, right?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So I want to also thank the Baltimore Legacy Project
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: youth crew who's outside, who took your... I mean, they've
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: just been really on point getting B-rolls, setting up. Um,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: really appreciate them a lot. Also the folks that, um,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: you saw in the film. Um, thank you so much
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: for trusting me with your voice, your story. Um, I
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: don't take that lightly. Um, and when I say you
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: don't do it by yourself, one of, one of the, Oh,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I also want to shout out.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: She's not in here, but the narrator is actually here too.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: She's part of Baltimore legacy project youth crew, uh, in
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the front.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Her name is Empress. Yep.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But someone who is definitely in the thick of all
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: of this with me is the there's several cinematographers, but
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: there was one person who was the lead cinematographer, more
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: or less the director of photography on this project. They
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: were also the editor who edited all of this. They
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: also edited the trailer that I did. And there was
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of back and forth. do this, do this,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, that, that's the person who I
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: spent like really most of my time with in terms
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: of like creating this.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And I just wanted to.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Give a few moments for him to just say a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: few words.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: His name is Imani. He's making his way up here.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: His name is Imani.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Imani.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And I'll let you finish explaining.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Great job, everybody.
• 1:49
  Speaker 6: Thank you all for coming out. This was amazing, right?
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: I mean, this was one of the best things I've
• 1:53
  Speaker 6: worked with. I'll be real quick. My name is Imani Mullire.
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: I was part of the production crew, but also the
• 1:59
  Speaker 6: founder of the Baltimore Cinematic Universe. And for some people
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: who know it, some people don't, I can just let
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: you know we are a film studio. Renewing Baltimore with
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: a core mission is to change the vision of Baltimore
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: around the world, to have a new.
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: Perception of our city.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so yeah, I'm a TV producer, lifelong TV producer,
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: two-time Emmy award-winning. We have a whole staff of award-winning filmmakers.
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: We have a whole advisory board of all the leading
• 2:25
  Speaker 6: industry experts in the city. We launched in December, thanks
• 2:28
  Speaker 6: to Nancy from the Parkway. I think she was here.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, there you go.
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: Thanks, Nancy.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: Nancy Proctor back there.
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: And since then, we already have four TV shows, one
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: feature film, one vertical series, either in active development or
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: already shopping to major networks. And so I started working
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: with Rasheen because I was like, how do we offer
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: this to the Baltimore community? You know, all of our resources,
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: all of our pipeline. So after the success of this documentary,
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: I said, that's what we can do. So today I
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: want to announce that's what we're doing. The Baltimore Cinematic
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: Universe is opening up our film studio to the city,
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: to individuals, to organizations. If you have a story that
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: you need to tell, We do everything from feature films,
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: TV shows, web series, social media campaigns.
• 3:09
  Speaker 7: More importantly, we produce and we distribute.
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: We get it out.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: We promote and market it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: So your video will be seen by the people who
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: need to see it. And we work at all production levels,
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: all budget levels. We just want to continue our mission
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: to get that real Baltimore out. So feel free. You
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: can contact me directly. I'll be here for the rest
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: of the evening. We're online, baltimorecinematicuniverse.com. My email, Imani, I-M-A-N-I
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: at Baltimore Cinematic Universe dot com. All social media, all that.
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: But yeah, yeah, we're here to stay. We're going to
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: make a difference in this city. So hopefully we can
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: do it with y'all.
• 3:38
  Speaker 8: Thank you.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: All right. If you are a panelist, come on up
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to the stage. Beyond the wire. You know, one of
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the things that I've said, y'all have heard me say
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: versions of this and other premieres that. One of the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: beautiful things about this film is that I think it
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: gives words, images, narratives to a feeling, to an instinct,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to an inclination that I think a lot of people had. But,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you know, this put words and images to it. And
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: one of the things that, you know, when I talk
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: in general in policy arenas about the work of violence prevention,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: like the work of it, I think for a lot
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of people, it's rather abstract.
• 4:21
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Like a lot of people don't know the work. So
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to first ask each of you to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: do is to introduce yourself, you know, your organization affiliation work,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and then answer this question. You know, when a lot
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of people think about public safety, they think about the courts,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: think about police, think about jail. And that's not what
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: any of y'all do. So in your introduction of yourself,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: if you can talk about your own contribution to the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: declines in violence and homicides in Baltimore, like talk about
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: your work and your contribution to it. Because it's important
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: for the audience to have a concrete sense of like
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: what the work is. Right. So I'm going to start
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: at the end with Brother Anthony and then come down
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: this way.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: Thank you. Good evening. Afternoon, everybody.
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: First and foremost, I want to thank God for this opportunity.
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: Of course, giving him all of the honor, all of
• 5:16
  Speaker 8: the praise and all of the glory. I also want
• 5:20
  Speaker 8: to begin by, of course, thanking Dr. Rasheem for this
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: amazing opportunity and the great work that she has done
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: and continued to do with this project and helping us
• 5:30
  Speaker 8: control the narrative about the real Baltimore, as we say.
• 5:35
  Speaker 8: So I want to begin with a quote here that
• 5:38
  Speaker 8: kind of set the tone for me. And those who
• 5:41
  Speaker 8: do this work will already know where this quote is from.
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: And those connected with this facility absolutely will know where
• 5:49
  Speaker 8: this quote is from. Do your little part. Do whatever
• 5:55
  Speaker 8: you can to help change these conditions. Because we're moving
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: into a critical period in history, not just for poor
• 6:04
  Speaker 8: and oppressed people, black people, but for humanity itself. Do
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: whatever little you can, but you need to do something.
• 6:18
  Speaker 8: That quote is from one of my elders, one of
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: my mentors who helped mold and shape me to be
• 6:25
  Speaker 8: who and what I am today, the late, great Eddie Comway,
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: Eddie Marshall Comway. And so I'm honored to be here
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: at the Real News Network where his influence is still
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: alive and well in the work that we do. I
• 6:44
  Speaker 8: also want to thank all of these amazing panelists here
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: who are literally the boots on the ground in doing
• 6:51
  Speaker 8: the work that we do. I'm honored to just share
• 6:54
  Speaker 8: space with them anytime we get.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: The opportunity, especially Ms. Erica here. The other two I'm
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: with every day, practically seven days a week. But Ms.
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: Erica here, we had the lived experience at doing this work.
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: She literally did the victim offender mediation. in my own case,
• 7:15
  Speaker 8: who set me down with the families of the victims.
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: In my own case, literally.
• 7:20
  Speaker 8: So anytime I have the opportunity to be in the
• 7:23
  Speaker 8: same space with her as a blessing, because that got
• 7:27
  Speaker 8: me off to.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Doing the work.
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: I couldn't engage the work without doing that first after
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: my own release.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: So right after.
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: That, that kind of gave me the license, the permission
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: to do what was in my heart to do anyway.
• 7:42
  Speaker 8: which was kind to help other young 15-year-olds in Baltimore
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: City not make the same horrible decision that I made
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: at the age of 15. For the last four years,
• 7:55
  Speaker 8: I've had the great honor and privilege of serving as
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: a community engagement specialist for We Are Us, where we literally,
• 8:02
  Speaker 8: boots on the ground, door to door, block by block,
• 8:05
  Speaker 8: street by street, engaging the people in this city that
• 8:09
  Speaker 8: most people don't want to engage, but We've been up
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: to that assignment and that task over the last two,
• 8:17
  Speaker 8: three years.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: As of August 1st, I've kind of moved into a
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: new space.
• 8:21
  Speaker 8: I'm now the director of reentry services for the We
• 8:25
  Speaker 8: Are Us organization where I have the opportunity to work
• 8:28
  Speaker 8: more hands-on with the people behind the walls who are
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: preparing to come back home into the community to kind
• 8:35
  Speaker 8: of get their mind, their heart, their spirit right, to
• 8:39
  Speaker 8: let them know that they have a debt to pay
• 8:41
  Speaker 8: as well, even after and beyond their release from incarceration,
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: to kind of fix some of the stuff that we
• 8:47
  Speaker 8: kind of messed up in our communities. So that reentry
• 8:51
  Speaker 8: space and work is what I'm headed into now. And
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: I'll leave it at that.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: Hi, everybody. So I'm Erica Bridgeford, and.
• 9:09
  Speaker 10: I just got to say out loud, I just now
• 9:12
  Speaker 10: over there realized who he was. I mean, I've been
• 9:18
  Speaker 10: engaging with him, with you in community.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: We've been hugging.
• 9:22
  Speaker 10: I did not realize he was the same person in
• 9:24
  Speaker 10: that mediation because the work that we do at the
• 9:27
  Speaker 10: Baltimore Community Mediation Center is confidential work.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: So from the.
• 9:31
  Speaker 10: Mediator side of it, we had permission from Anthony and
• 9:37
  Speaker 10: the person that he was in mediation with A part
• 9:40
  Speaker 10: of what they talked about gave permission for him to
• 9:42
  Speaker 10: tell his story about their conversation and for us to
• 9:47
  Speaker 10: tell the story. But I've always told it in anonymity.
• 9:51
  Speaker 10: So I never remembered what his name was. I remembered
• 9:54
  Speaker 10: he was 15.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I know what happened.
• 9:56
  Speaker 10: But I never remember what his name was or what
• 9:58
  Speaker 10: he looked like. And this is my third time. seeing
• 10:00
  Speaker 10: the film and it just hit me I.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Was like what he talking is he what like and.
• 10:07
  Speaker 10: So over there I had to like you know so
• 10:10
  Speaker 10: okay so I'm just blessed and amazed and shocked at
• 10:15
  Speaker 10: my own ADHD and menopausal brain right now um So,
• 10:23
  Speaker 10: but a piece of that too is that I literally
• 10:27
  Speaker 10: meet thousands of people a year. I have trained thousands
• 10:30
  Speaker 10: of people at this point to be mediators and in
• 10:33
  Speaker 10: conflict management. I've done hundreds and hundreds of mediations. So
• 10:37
  Speaker 10: I've been in person and during the pandemic, it was
• 10:40
  Speaker 10: during the pandemic. So we did it on Zoom, but
• 10:43
  Speaker 10: in person helping people, you know, resolve their conflicts, mediate things.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: We say it's.
• 10:48
  Speaker 10: Never too early and it's never too late for people
• 10:51
  Speaker 10: to sit down and have a conversation about what's really
• 10:54
  Speaker 10: going on between them. And so even after there's been harm,
• 10:58
  Speaker 10: even after people have filed assault charges, they still have
• 11:02
  Speaker 10: the power to make the decisions about what does justice
• 11:05
  Speaker 10: look like to them, what does resolution look like, all
• 11:08
  Speaker 10: of that stuff. And so I have been, before I
• 11:12
  Speaker 10: got involved in mediation..
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: So I'm turning 54 years old this year, and that's
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: when y'all supposed to say, girl, you look good. Okay.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: My favorite thing to do on any panel. Because I
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: almost didn't survive birth, but that's a different conversation.
• 11:29
  Speaker 10: But so for, at this point, over 30 years of
• 11:33
  Speaker 10: my life, I've been doing something in this city to
• 11:36
  Speaker 10: help nurture Baltimore's peace and Baltimore's joy.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: And so to Davon's point.
• 11:43
  Speaker 10: All of the things that my contribution has been taking
• 11:49
  Speaker 10: the pain of my brother being murdered in the streets
• 11:51
  Speaker 10: of Baltimore, my stepson being murdered, two of my cousins
• 11:56
  Speaker 10: who were brothers being murdered years apart from one another.
• 11:59
  Speaker 10: Just since I was 12 years old, seeing people die
• 12:03
  Speaker 10: in the streets of Baltimore, taking that pain and letting
• 12:08
  Speaker 10: it remind me of the purpose that God gave me
• 12:11
  Speaker 10: as my parents called.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Me into being.
• 12:14
  Speaker 10: And anywhere that I go saying, oh, if there's something
• 12:18
  Speaker 10: I don't like, what is my soul calling me to
• 12:20
  Speaker 10: do about it? What is my part to do about it?
• 12:23
  Speaker 10: So I became a mediator in 2001. I became a
• 12:27
  Speaker 10: trainer in 2002. I helped lead the 300 Men March movement.
• 12:33
  Speaker 10: Now Baltimore Peace Movement, which was Baltimore Cease Fire. Funny story,
• 12:38
  Speaker 10: when I left 300, I said, y'all not going to
• 12:40
  Speaker 10: get me to lead a movement. So I don't know
• 12:42
  Speaker 10: how I ended up leading a movement. I also, when
• 12:46
  Speaker 10: I became a mediator, I was like, oh, executive director.
• 12:49
  Speaker 10: That don't look like the fun job. I'm never doing
• 12:51
  Speaker 10: that job. And now I'm the executive director at that
• 12:55
  Speaker 10: same place. And so I'm blessed to be standing in
• 13:00
  Speaker 10: my purpose and doing my purpose work. And I know
• 13:04
  Speaker 10: that it is not a mistake that I was born
• 13:06
  Speaker 10: at this time in history in Baltimore City to parents
• 13:10
  Speaker 10: who were teenagers. who said, let's have a child that's
• 13:14
  Speaker 10: gonna change the world.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: And they intentionally named.
• 13:17
  Speaker 10: Me after people who they believed were changing the world.
• 13:21
  Speaker 10: And then they nurtured me as a black girl born
• 13:24
  Speaker 10: with one hand in West Baltimore. They nurtured me to
• 13:29
  Speaker 10: be everything I could possibly be. I scare them to
• 13:33
  Speaker 10: this day. I've been talking since I was five months old,
• 13:39
  Speaker 10: so they never knew what was gonna come out of
• 13:41
  Speaker 10: my mouth.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: They always had to go meet with teachers because.
• 13:45
  Speaker 10: I was challenging authority that, you know, like to this,
• 13:49
  Speaker 10: my children worry about me. It's not safe to be
• 13:51
  Speaker 10: in the streets after a murder happened. And that's when
• 13:54
  Speaker 10: I'm going, right? And so they nurtured me to not
• 13:59
  Speaker 10: just be physically who I'm supposed to be, but spiritually
• 14:03
  Speaker 10: to walk in strength and power and to not look
• 14:06
  Speaker 10: at it like, oh, it's dangerous.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: I look at it like, oh, I'm covered.
• 14:10
  Speaker 10: I got a gang of angels, ancestors, spirit guides, like
• 14:14
  Speaker 10: everybody walking with me.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: So it never occurs to me That I'm in danger.
• 14:19
  Speaker 10: All that occurs to me is that people are hurting
• 14:22
  Speaker 10: and I'm showing up with love and I hope that
• 14:24
  Speaker 10: people are open and allow me..
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Like, I'm grateful that people allow.
• 14:30
  Speaker 10: Me into their neighborhoods to just give them any little
• 14:33
  Speaker 10: bit of love that they might need in those spaces.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: And so..
• 14:37
  Speaker 10: Like I was saying in the film, and I will
• 14:39
  Speaker 10: keep saying, it doesn't matter who is in office and
• 14:42
  Speaker 10: what they do in their four or eight years that
• 14:45
  Speaker 10: they have. That time is not enough to see what
• 14:49
  Speaker 10: we are seeing happening right now in this city with
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: these drastic drops. It is decades of work before them.
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: It is people who kept saying we love our city.
• 14:58
  Speaker 10: We're not giving up on our city while the narrative
• 15:01
  Speaker 10: is throw Baltimore in the trash. We kept saying we
• 15:04
  Speaker 10: going in the trash. Where you see trash, we see
• 15:07
  Speaker 10: gems and value. And we kept pouring love into our
• 15:11
  Speaker 10: city because our city is us, right?
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: You can't.
• 15:14
  Speaker 10: Separate yourself from where you live. If you say, throw
• 15:17
  Speaker 10: the city in the.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Trash, where do you think you're going there? I mean,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: you living in dumpsters now?
• 15:23
  Speaker 10: And so a big part of my part to what's
• 15:27
  Speaker 10: happening right now is I am aware and I'm grateful
• 15:32
  Speaker 10: that when people see my face, they see a symbol
• 15:34
  Speaker 10: of hope. When people see me and I say, oh,
• 15:36
  Speaker 10: I look broken, but I'm whole, just like Baltimore looks
• 15:39
  Speaker 10: broken and it's whole. I'm grateful that one thing I
• 15:44
  Speaker 10: get to be at this time in history is a
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: symbol of hope and hope in action, not just hope
• 15:51
  Speaker 10: in theory.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, that's right. We used to pass the mics down.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: We can have our own this time.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 16:03
  Speaker 11: Well, what is it? Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Good afternoon.
• 16:06
  Speaker 11: Well, I'm Ebony Harbin. I'm a pastor.
• 16:09
  Speaker 12: Of New Solid Rock Church, which is located in the
• 16:11
  Speaker 12: Pigtown area. I first want to just give honor to God,
• 16:17
  Speaker 12: honor to God, honor to God, honor to God.
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: Thank God for all of you guys here.
• 16:22
  Speaker 12: The great doctor that.
• 16:26
  Speaker 11: Wrote this and put all of us together.
• 16:28
  Speaker 12: I work with We Are Us, and I'm the project
• 16:31
  Speaker 12: manager for the Thrive Academy. And Thrive Academy, I deal
• 16:36
  Speaker 12: a lot with young people. And that's my passion. I
• 16:39
  Speaker 12: love young people. When I say I love young people,
• 16:42
  Speaker 12: I love young people. And when I see young people, I.
• 16:46
  Speaker 11: See me.
• 16:47
  Speaker 12: I see my children. I see nothing but greatness, you know.
• 16:53
  Speaker 12: And I've been doing this work for over 25 years.
• 16:57
  Speaker 12: And when I say over 25 years, over 25 years.
• 17:01
  Speaker 12: Pastor on Sundays because I'm a talker. I can talk, talk, talk. Um,
• 17:05
  Speaker 12: but this work right here, it's, um, it's about doing
• 17:07
  Speaker 12: the work, you know, um, and doing this work in
• 17:11
  Speaker 12: these streets. Um, as our brother Anthony mentioned, I'm with
• 17:15
  Speaker 12: these two, like, um, six days a week. Um, I'll
• 17:20
  Speaker 12: say that, um, we can be more in Baltimore city
• 17:23
  Speaker 12: and there's so much greatness in our city.
• 17:26
  Speaker 11: We have to see beyond what we see.
• 17:28
  Speaker 12: And, um, I was a teen parent, you know, I
• 17:30
  Speaker 12: was a teen parent and, um, I thank God that
• 17:34
  Speaker 12: I have an attorney. I have a school teacher. I
• 17:37
  Speaker 12: have an entrepreneur. I did lose one of my sons
• 17:40
  Speaker 12: to gun violence. It'll be eight years on August the 15th.
• 17:43
  Speaker 12: But God, but God, but God, but God, you know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: so before that happened, I was doing the work. And
• 17:50
  Speaker 12: after it happened, it slowed me down a little. But
• 17:53
  Speaker 12: now I just work extra harder. You know, I'm out
• 17:55
  Speaker 12: there working. doing whatever I can to let another mother
• 17:58
  Speaker 12: know that we're going to do what we can to
• 18:01
  Speaker 12: save life. You know, we're going to educate our young people.
• 18:04
  Speaker 12: We're going to, you know, make them see different and
• 18:07
  Speaker 12: see that you can be more in Baltimore City. Some
• 18:11
  Speaker 12: of the other things that I have done, I have
• 18:14
  Speaker 12: a used car dealership in Glen Burnie.
• 18:15
  Speaker 11: Come on, hustle.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes.
• 18:21
  Speaker 11: I'll say this, you guys.
• 18:23
  Speaker 12: So sometimes when I get this mic in my hand,
• 18:25
  Speaker 12: I'm like, look, let me just be quiet because I'm
• 18:26
  Speaker 12: a little all over the place. But my most important gift,
• 18:29
  Speaker 12: you guys, is just truly loving on our young people
• 18:32
  Speaker 12: and loving Baltimore City. And when I say I love
• 18:35
  Speaker 12: Baltimore City, my children say, Ma, you have so many children. Like,
• 18:40
  Speaker 12: what's going on? I say, yes, the entire Baltimore City youth,
• 18:44
  Speaker 12: they belongs to me. they belongs to me so if
• 18:47
  Speaker 12: y'all have any problems with the good just hey let
• 18:49
  Speaker 12: me find past ebony you know so i'm not gonna
• 18:52
  Speaker 12: talk too much i'm gonna pass this mic on um
• 18:54
  Speaker 12: but yes you guys i'm just always remember this that
• 18:58
  Speaker 12: this city is so powerful we've been through so much
• 19:03
  Speaker 12: but the strength when i say the strength that this
• 19:06
  Speaker 12: city have the strength baltimore city and listen five years
• 19:11
  Speaker 12: from now Every other city that experienced some of the things,
• 19:15
  Speaker 12: the heartache, the pain that we did, they're going to say,
• 19:17
  Speaker 12: wait a minute, we want to be like Baltimore City.
• 19:20
  Speaker 12: Everybody came together on one accord because guess what? And
• 19:24
  Speaker 12: community is unity. But once we come together, we're going
• 19:27
  Speaker 12: to be that change that guess what? The world needs
• 19:29
  Speaker 12: to see. Not just other cities, that the world needs
• 19:32
  Speaker 12: to see. So you guys, I'm going to pass this
• 19:34
  Speaker 12: on to, he said don't pass the mic.
• 19:37
  Speaker 11: I'm passing the mic, okay?
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Listen, listen.
• 19:39
  Speaker 11: I said I'm going to pass, I'm going to be quiet. Okay,
• 19:41
  Speaker 11: I'm not passing I.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Might go for it.
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: Hey, how you doing? Good afternoon.
• 19:46
  Speaker 13: My name is Delmont Player. I'm a lot of things,
• 19:51
  Speaker 13: so I'm We Out Us.
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: I'm ICANN.
• 19:55
  Speaker 13: I'm LEC, which is Lived Experience Committee under Curl and Shrugs.
• 19:58
  Speaker 13: I'm AVP, Alternative to Violence Program.
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 20:04
  Speaker 13: But in a nutshell, I'm the youth that you see
• 20:07
  Speaker 13: out here, so quick story.
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: I went to prison when I was 17 years old.
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: I couldn't read. I couldn't write.
• 20:12
  Speaker 13: I became one of Maryland's most violent and disruptive prisoners.
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: I was sent out of state. I did fair time.
• 20:17
  Speaker 13: I've been in and out of supermax. I've been beat
• 20:20
  Speaker 13: by the police, ribs broke and everything. I was probably
• 20:23
  Speaker 13: one of the worst prisoners in Maryland state history. And
• 20:26
  Speaker 13: I don't say that like I say that humbly because
• 20:30
  Speaker 13: I want you to understand like the pits that I
• 20:33
  Speaker 13: climbed out of.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:35
  Speaker 13: But at one point, something clicked, something changed, you know,
• 20:38
  Speaker 13: because the more you know, the better you have to do.
• 20:42
  Speaker 13: You know, I'm a Muslim. I'm an FOI. So I'm
• 20:46
  Speaker 13: a husband.
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: I'm a brother.
• 20:47
  Speaker 13: But what I often like to say is that for me,
• 20:52
  Speaker 13: the work really began to resonate for me when the
• 20:58
  Speaker 13: gang culture really ushered into the prison system. You know,
• 21:01
  Speaker 13: I didn't come in under the gang culture. When I
• 21:03
  Speaker 13: came in, it was mind everybody for every man for
• 21:07
  Speaker 13: themselves but at some point the gang culture began to
• 21:11
  Speaker 13: usher into the system and i'll never forget i came
• 21:14
  Speaker 13: into the day room one day and i'm not saying
• 21:16
  Speaker 13: to say this is like when the change started because
• 21:19
  Speaker 13: it was for for a couple years i was already
• 21:21
  Speaker 13: fighting with who i was becoming and who the world
• 21:23
  Speaker 13: had been telling me i was who the system had
• 21:26
  Speaker 13: been telling me i was who the court systems told
• 21:28
  Speaker 13: me i was who the streets told me i was
• 21:30
  Speaker 13: but uh I came in the day room and there
• 21:33
  Speaker 13: was an older guy, one of our pioneers from back
• 21:35
  Speaker 13: in the day.
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: When you get old in the system, it tends to
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: chip away at you.
• 21:41
  Speaker 13: So he wasn't as active and as agile as.
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: He used to be.
• 21:46
  Speaker 13: And I came in the day room and he said,
• 21:48
  Speaker 13: back then they used to call me by my last name.
• 21:49
  Speaker 13: He said, little player, they won't let me get on
• 21:51
  Speaker 13: the phone. And I was like, what you mean? He said, man,
• 21:55
  Speaker 13: they saying, because they was clicked up. This click had
• 21:59
  Speaker 13: this phone, this click. So what I did, I walked
• 22:01
  Speaker 13: around the day when I went to everybody on the
• 22:02
  Speaker 13: phone because, you know, I get it in.
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: And I said, I'm at the U, I'm at the U.
• 22:06
  Speaker 13: So the phones begin to, people begin to, you know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 13: the clips begin to end.
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: Like, yeah, I'm still in.
• 22:13
  Speaker 13: So I would, you know, hang the phone upside. That
• 22:14
  Speaker 13: mean ain't nobody on it, but don't touch it. Let
• 22:18
  Speaker 13: the phones hang. So at some point, about three, maybe
• 22:20
  Speaker 13: four phones was hanging. Somebody came to the day room
• 22:22
  Speaker 13: and said, man, I'm trying to get on the phone.
• 22:24
  Speaker 13: Who on the phone? I'm still at the microwave cooking.
• 22:26
  Speaker 13: Somebody say, Lord, play it. So he come over to
• 22:29
  Speaker 13: the phone. He say, what's that for?
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: He say, Lord, please. So he turn to me, say, please,
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: you getting us? He say, please, you on the phone?
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: What phone you get?
• 22:34
  Speaker 13: I say, I'm getting on all of them. I say, yeah,
• 22:37
  Speaker 13: I'm getting on all of them. And I'm with all
• 22:39
  Speaker 13: the dumb, whatever, whatever. We can do whatever. And like
• 22:41
  Speaker 13: I said, you know, God had a plan. Allah had
• 22:44
  Speaker 13: a plan for me because really I supposed to die
• 22:46
  Speaker 13: behind those walls. But I noticed that the young brothers
• 22:51
  Speaker 13: from various different organizations was willing to follow me.
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: In my ignorance and in my stupidity.
• 22:58
  Speaker 13: And I realized at that time that I'd had about
• 22:59
  Speaker 13: 17 years, and nothing had changed. All the work I
• 23:03
  Speaker 13: continued to put in, it never stopped the next kid
• 23:07
  Speaker 13: or next man from rising to think he can take
• 23:09
  Speaker 13: the throne.
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: So it never really stops. So the next day, what I.
• 23:12
  Speaker 13: Did was I called a group of little young brothers
• 23:16
  Speaker 13: in the yard, and I grabbed a book called Mine
• 23:18
  Speaker 13: is the Master by James Allen. It's a compilation of
• 23:21
  Speaker 13: all the books he ever wrote. He wrote a lot
• 23:23
  Speaker 13: of people, known mostly for As a Man Thinketh. And
• 23:28
  Speaker 13: I just would read like little parables out of that
• 23:31
  Speaker 13: book to them. And then we would just build on it.
• 23:35
  Speaker 13: And from there, you know, it just trickled in my
• 23:37
  Speaker 13: teachings from Mars number six, like all that.
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: And it continued to trickle.
• 23:41
  Speaker 13: And then I started hearing about what different organizations was
• 23:45
  Speaker 13: doing in the streets. Peace Movement, We Hour Us, Baltimore Brothers,
• 23:50
  Speaker 13: Uncle T, Chandler for Change. So what I did is
• 23:52
  Speaker 13: I got all the good men that was in the
• 23:55
  Speaker 13: institution I was in and we went to all the
• 23:57
  Speaker 13: various organizations. BGF, Blood, Crip, Murder, Ink, DMI, whatever. And
• 24:02
  Speaker 13: we brought them onto a board and a commission. This
• 24:05
  Speaker 13: is how I met Curlin Shrugs. We brought them onto
• 24:07
  Speaker 13: a board under a program that we ran called GRIP.
• 24:10
  Speaker 13: We were the overseers and GRIP was Gang Response Intervention Program.
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: And what we did was every time a beef.
• 24:16
  Speaker 13: Happened, we went on the compound and brought all the
• 24:20
  Speaker 13: gang leaders into a room to squash it. And then
• 24:23
  Speaker 13: there was meetings that took place in the chat, when
• 24:26
  Speaker 13: the Nation of Islam chat where I would stand between
• 24:30
  Speaker 13: two knife slingers, essentially, and tell them that, man, your
• 24:34
  Speaker 13: guys can't move and their guys can't move. And that's
• 24:36
  Speaker 13: what I talk about putting our lives on the line.
• 24:39
  Speaker 13: So I was mediating conflict behind the wall that spills
• 24:42
  Speaker 13: out into the community. One of my biggest supporters to
• 24:46
  Speaker 13: this day is the men and women that I left
• 24:48
  Speaker 13: behind in prison walls. I still mediate conflict so it
• 24:52
  Speaker 13: don't spill out here into society.
• 24:55
  Speaker 7: So that's who I am in a nutshell. You know,
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: that's my portion.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And again, I just, you know, for me, it's important
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: for people to hear those stories and hear that context.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Because it's important, I think,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to normalize the fact that this work is happening and
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: what it takes. And what I hope people get from
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: these responses is that, you know, this is work like
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: each of the people on the stage are. they're the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: ones that got to do it, the work that they're doing, right?
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It takes a certain kind of person, pedigree, perspective to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: do it. Pastor Ebony, you talked about the importance to
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you of young people and really, you know, loving on
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: young people. Could you talk about, like, what are some
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of the misconceptions that people have when it comes to youth,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: particularly as it relates to gun violence? What are some
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of the things that for you, you think it's important
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: for this audience to know about young people and gun
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: violence in Baltimore City?
• 25:56
  Speaker 12: One thing, we have to stop judging young people from
• 26:04
  Speaker 12: what area they're from. We have to stop judging them
• 26:08
  Speaker 12: because of their family members. A lot of our young
• 26:14
  Speaker 12: people are judged, and truly, you don't even know them.
• 26:19
  Speaker 12: We have to learn how to understand that none of
• 26:23
  Speaker 12: our young people are born murderers. None of them are
• 26:27
  Speaker 12: born criminals. Some type of trauma happened in their life.
• 26:32
  Speaker 12: A lot of our young people are on survival mode.
• 26:34
  Speaker 12: But if you get a chance just to know them,
• 26:37
  Speaker 12: not the costume that they have on, because guess what?
• 26:40
  Speaker 11: I'm going home.
• 26:41
  Speaker 12: I'm 10 years old and I'm going to a house
• 26:45
  Speaker 12: where my mom is out there getting high. I got
• 26:46
  Speaker 12: to take care of a seven year old and a
• 26:48
  Speaker 12: five year old. I don't know where my father at.
• 26:50
  Speaker 12: So instead of us judging, how about we just have
• 26:53
  Speaker 12: a conversation with them? You know, see what they need.
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: How can I help you? Because a lot of times
• 26:58
  Speaker 12: these young people.
• 26:58
  Speaker 11: Just need some love. They need some support.
• 27:01
  Speaker 12: But as long as we look at them, they coming outside,
• 27:04
  Speaker 12: that little boy bad, that little girl, look at her.
• 27:07
  Speaker 12: But you don't know their story. So we have to
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: help them rewrite their story. You know, and I'm going
• 27:12
  Speaker 12: to say this real quick. I received my honorary doctrine degree.
• 27:17
  Speaker 12: And at first I was sitting up there like, wait
• 27:19
  Speaker 12: a minute, me? My son went to school all these years,
• 27:22
  Speaker 12: you know? And my son, he said, Ma, let me
• 27:24
  Speaker 12: explain something to you. When I was up there, sitting
• 27:28
  Speaker 12: up there studying at night, you was at a hospital
• 27:30
  Speaker 12: where a child was shot. He said, when I was
• 27:33
  Speaker 12: sitting up there worrying about a test, she was up
• 27:34
  Speaker 12: there praying because guess what? Some little girl or somebody,
• 27:37
  Speaker 12: something just happened to him. He said, for.
• 27:39
  Speaker 11: 25 years, I watched you work hard.
• 27:42
  Speaker 12: And when I said, work hard, work hard, he said,
• 27:44
  Speaker 12: when I was sitting up there saying, I'm going to
• 27:47
  Speaker 12: pass this test. He said, look, the test that I thought,
• 27:50
  Speaker 12: that I was going to pass. She was up there
• 27:52
  Speaker 12: making things happen, relocating families, relocating young men that got
• 27:57
  Speaker 12: caught up in mess. He said, so you deserve it.
• 28:01
  Speaker 12: So I say on today, you guys, you know, I didn't.
• 28:04
  Speaker 12: I was sitting up there like, wait a minute, do
• 28:05
  Speaker 12: I really deserve this?
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 28:09
  Speaker 12: I've done over 300 funerals in Baltimore City, but God,
• 28:13
  Speaker 12: but God, so I was able to help that family
• 28:16
  Speaker 12: or help them in the midst of their pain.
• 28:19
  Speaker 11: So I say this back to your question. I'm a
• 28:20
  Speaker 11: little all over the place. So y'all mind me.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 28:23
  Speaker 12: Y'all got to get a Sunday morning message, but no, no, no, no.
• 28:25
  Speaker 12: So let me get real back. One thing, just please,
• 28:29
  Speaker 12: please stop judging our young people from where they live.
• 28:33
  Speaker 11: Stop it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 12: When you get to know these young people, you'll say,
• 28:36
  Speaker 12: my God, some of these young people have been through
• 28:39
  Speaker 12: some things that in my 50 years, I haven't experienced,
• 28:43
  Speaker 12: but God, And when I say, but God, but God,
• 28:46
  Speaker 12: I have a young man and I'll say this. He
• 28:48
  Speaker 12: lost his mother and his father. He was 15 years old.
• 28:51
  Speaker 12: He got himself in some trouble. His grandmother said, what
• 28:53
  Speaker 12: did you do to my grandson? I said, I listened
• 28:56
  Speaker 12: to him. Because a lot of times we got to
• 28:57
  Speaker 12: get to the root of the problem in order to
• 28:59
  Speaker 12: fix the problem. She said, wait a minute, I sent
• 29:02
  Speaker 12: him to this therapist. I sent him everywhere. I said,
• 29:04
  Speaker 12: he needs somebody to experience some things. I said, see,
• 29:06
  Speaker 12: I've been through some things.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 29:08
  Speaker 11: So I can listen. I can relate to him.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 29:10
  Speaker 12: I said, so instead of us, you guys judging our
• 29:13
  Speaker 12: young people, give them a chance. When I say give
• 29:15
  Speaker 12: them a chance, just give them a chance. Just listen
• 29:17
  Speaker 12: to them.
• 29:17
  Speaker 11: You know, when you see them young men on the corner,
• 29:19
  Speaker 11: don't walk past them.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: Say, how you doing?
• 29:21
  Speaker 12: When I walk, when I, when I see young men,
• 29:22
  Speaker 12: that's what I don't say. I don't have to say,
• 29:24
  Speaker 12: pull your pants up. Oh, that's past Ebony right there.
• 29:25
  Speaker 12: They're going to pull their pants up because it's about
• 29:29
  Speaker 12: the relationship. And I'll say this, when you're doing this work,
• 29:32
  Speaker 12: I fear nobody but God. I'm not afraid to go
• 29:35
  Speaker 12: to East Baltimore, West Baltimore. And I grew up in
• 29:38
  Speaker 12: Cherry Hill, love Cherry Hill, amen. When I say love
• 29:41
  Speaker 12: Cherry Hill, love Cherry Hill. You know, so you guys,
• 29:44
  Speaker 12: just one thing. Just always, that young person want, they
• 29:48
  Speaker 12: want to know that, hey, somebody care about me.
• 29:51
  Speaker 11: Somebody love me. How many of y'all want to feel loved?
• 29:54
  Speaker 11: How many of y'all want to feel loved?
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: That's it right there.
• 29:58
  Speaker 12: And that's all they want. They're just looking for someone
• 30:00
  Speaker 12: to love them. And I'll say this. I love on
• 30:03
  Speaker 12: our young people, too. I love the hell out of them.
• 30:05
  Speaker 11: That's it. There we go.
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: Davon, can I add something to that?
• 30:08
  Speaker 11: You hear him say, well, I'm passing the mic. Okay,
• 30:10
  Speaker 11: let me stop passing the mic.
• 30:11
  Speaker 8: Can I add something to that on the youth?
• 30:13
  Speaker 12: Yes, sir.
• 30:14
  Speaker 8: We took a group of young people to Dr. Rasheen's
• 30:16
  Speaker 8: facility about two weeks ago. About 25 of our young
• 30:20
  Speaker 8: people in the Baltimore Brothers program.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: To help Dr.
• 30:25
  Speaker 8: Rasheem with another project specifically towards youth that I hope
• 30:28
  Speaker 8: she'll share some more information about. But she started, when
• 30:33
  Speaker 8: we brought them in the room, she started them off
• 30:35
  Speaker 8: with a question that I'm going to ask you, right?
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: She asked the young people that we brought to her,
• 30:41
  Speaker 8: what percentage do you think of young people in Baltimore
• 30:44
  Speaker 8: City are involved in crime and violence?
• 30:49
  Speaker 12: Right?
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: And we heard all kinds of numbers, didn't we, Doc?
• 30:53
  Speaker 8: One said like 90%. One was like 99%. All kinds
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: of numbers. But the actual facts, the truth, right, is
• 31:06
  Speaker 8: less than 5%.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: But there's a narrative that's prevailing, that's pervasive.
• 31:13
  Speaker 8: That young people are not just inherently criminal, but pervasively
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: involved in crime and violence.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: There's just no truth in it at all.
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: And what troubles me the most about the narrative is
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: not just the projection of the narrative, is that some
• 31:30
  Speaker 8: people will allow themselves to be used as vehicles to
• 31:36
  Speaker 8: portray the narrative.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: I'm talking about people in positions of leadership, authority and
• 31:43
  Speaker 8: power who make comments about young people that are just
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: not rooted in facts. Who take isolated incidents involving young
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: people and allow themselves, their office, their position to portray
• 31:57
  Speaker 8: narratives as if all young people in Baltimore City are
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: doing this. I just wanted to add that to that answer.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. It's good. So, Erica, one of the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: things that I think in this, you know, kind of
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Western civilization, you know, Eurocentric cultural environment, oftentimes spirituality gets marginalized, right?
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: People tend to marginalize it. And a lot of what
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: you talked about in the film and even what you've
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: talked about a little bit on this panel so far,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: like the importance of spirituality. And again, that's another one
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of those things that for some people can feel abstract.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Can you speak to the spiritual impact that the work
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: has had and why that's such an important aspect of
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the work?
• 32:47
  Speaker 10: Okay, so I'm going to try to describe it in
• 32:51
  Speaker 10: like a simple way, like how I would describe it
• 32:56
  Speaker 10: to children. I used to be a preschool teacher and
• 32:59
  Speaker 10: elementary school teacher, so I think, you know, okay.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: All right, and.
• 33:03
  Speaker 10: What you're talking about is what I call colonizer reindeer games.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Right, is how, y'all like that? Free to use it. Trademark,
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: I can bridge for it.
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: Where, like, yes, the, okay.
• 33:22
  Speaker 10: So we are all more unseen than we are seen.
• 33:32
  Speaker 10: And this is not about religion or who you call
• 33:36
  Speaker 10: God or any of that. It is just a scientific fact.
• 33:39
  Speaker 10: Human beings, what you are as a being, you are
• 33:43
  Speaker 10: more unseen stuff than you are seen stuff. If we
• 33:49
  Speaker 10: remove all of the space out of your human body,
• 33:55
  Speaker 10: your physical mass would fit on the tip of a pen.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: And I mean not a writing pen, I mean like
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: a needle pen, right?
• 34:05
  Speaker 10: So there's this physical aspect of there's more to us
• 34:10
  Speaker 10: than what we can actually see and touch.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: Which means there's much more going on with us, right?
• 34:18
  Speaker 10: And so if you ever wonder if that's true, if
• 34:23
  Speaker 10: there's way more of you that's unseen, your thoughts are
• 34:26
  Speaker 10: an unseen realm. You're right now having a gazillion thoughts
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: that can never be physically spoken, heard, manifested, right? But
• 34:38
  Speaker 10: they are a part of how you feel right now.
• 34:42
  Speaker 10: They are a part of how you're experiencing this. We've
• 34:45
  Speaker 10: all been saying the same words to everybody in this room,
• 34:48
  Speaker 10: but everybody in this room have not heard us say
• 34:51
  Speaker 10: the same things.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: Because of the unseen part of you.
• 34:56
  Speaker 10: That is so vast and that influences the experience you
• 35:00
  Speaker 10: are having as a human being. And so what we
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: do with those, that unseen part of us that whispers
• 35:09
  Speaker 10: quiet nudges to us about what we could do, what
• 35:12
  Speaker 10: we should do, what we shouldn't do, make this right,
• 35:15
  Speaker 10: make that left, don't answer that email, ignore that person,
• 35:19
  Speaker 10: call your cousin and apologize.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: Y'all know the shit y'all be ignoring. All of the things.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: There's so much about.
• 35:31
  Speaker 10: Who we are that when we just manifest a little
• 35:38
  Speaker 10: bit of it, it changes things. And here's the very
• 35:42
  Speaker 10: elementary example. that I used some years ago when the
• 35:46
  Speaker 10: Baltimore Ceasefire Now, the peace movement started, that it just
• 35:50
  Speaker 10: occurred to me recently is we're seeing now. So in 2017,
• 35:55
  Speaker 10: people were being killed every.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: 19 hours in Baltimore.
• 36:00
  Speaker 10: And Baltimore had more murder than it had ever seen
• 36:03
  Speaker 10: in its history. And people were saying, there's nothing we
• 36:07
  Speaker 10: can do about it, right? So murder is this vibration,
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: just like, so I've just got finished talking to you
• 36:12
  Speaker 10: about how much you.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: Are vibration, right?
• 36:16
  Speaker 10: So there's this vibration about murder that makes you feel
• 36:20
  Speaker 10: like you as one person.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: There's nothing you can do about that, right?
• 36:26
  Speaker 10: But there's this unseen part of you that says, but
• 36:29
  Speaker 10: I want to do something, right?
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: I feel like if I.
• 36:32
  Speaker 10: Was just more kind to people because you don't know
• 36:34
  Speaker 10: what people are going through. I feel like if I
• 36:37
  Speaker 10: just shared that post that I saw that was positive
• 36:40
  Speaker 10: so I could add to positive algorithms and the interwebs
• 36:44
  Speaker 10: that are also vibration.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 36:48
  Speaker 10: And so I compared it to an ocean because that's
• 36:51
  Speaker 10: what people would say. Oh, y'all just spitting in the ocean.
• 36:55
  Speaker 10: This little bit of stuff y'all doing, it's not going
• 36:57
  Speaker 10: to work. Y'all just spitting in the ocean.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: So I was like, they right. I'm just spitting in
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: the ocean, right?
• 37:04
  Speaker 10: But if the ocean is red and the unseen parts
• 37:10
  Speaker 10: of me are nudging me to go take a little
• 37:13
  Speaker 10: dropper full of blue ink and just start dropping it
• 37:17
  Speaker 10: in that ocean, somebody's going to say, she crazy.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: What is she over there doing? Just like they told
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: Harriet Tubman.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: It's crazy. It's dangerous. The tide going to come in
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: and take you away.
• 37:31
  Speaker 10: People going to come and try to take your dropper
• 37:33
  Speaker 10: away from you like I can't go find another dropper
• 37:36
  Speaker 10: and find some more blue ink.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 37:40
  Speaker 10: And while people saying that, somebody is going to say,
• 37:43
  Speaker 10: but that little part where she at is starting to
• 37:46
  Speaker 10: turn purple, it look like.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 37:49
  Speaker 10: And somebody else is going to say, you know, I
• 37:51
  Speaker 10: always wanted to put some blue ink in the ocean.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: And they going to come and put that little blue ink. Right?
• 37:58
  Speaker 10: And more and more people are going to, they putting
• 38:00
  Speaker 10: their little drops in the ocean. And before you know it,
• 38:03
  Speaker 10: the whole ocean is turning purple. Like it started doing
• 38:08
  Speaker 10: in 2023 when the murder rate was 20% less. And
• 38:11
  Speaker 10: people was like, wait a minute, something is happening. And
• 38:14
  Speaker 10: we was like, I've been over here at the ocean.
• 38:17
  Speaker 10: Before y'all could see it start to change, I've been
• 38:21
  Speaker 10: following my spirit.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: I've been following the calls on my heart.
• 38:25
  Speaker 10: I've been healing the things inside me that need to
• 38:28
  Speaker 10: be healed, that I know are standing in the way
• 38:30
  Speaker 10: and blocking more of my power, more of my authority,
• 38:34
  Speaker 10: more of my confidence in whatever it is that I'm
• 38:37
  Speaker 10: supposed to be doing in this world. And I'm over
• 38:39
  Speaker 10: here working on me while y'all calling me crazy, and
• 38:43
  Speaker 10: my blue drops are blessed. And they call more people
• 38:47
  Speaker 10: who say, oh, well, I want to be a blue
• 38:50
  Speaker 10: dropper too. And now that the ocean is purple and
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: looking more blue, people that's been talking trash about Baltimore
• 39:00
  Speaker 10: want the credit. People that just want to lock everybody
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: up in Baltimore want you to think it's their policies.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: That's changing things.
• 39:11
  Speaker 10: And so the spiritual aspect by science, by universal law, when.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: You are focused on something with.
• 39:23
  Speaker 10: Strong emotion, you have no choice but to manifest into
• 39:28
  Speaker 10: your physical experience.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: That thing.
• 39:32
  Speaker 10: That is just how it works. That's how creation works.
• 39:37
  Speaker 10: And so we have been focused on Baltimore's joy with
• 39:41
  Speaker 10: strong emotion. We've been focused on Baltimore's love, Baltimore's value,
• 39:46
  Speaker 10: Baltimore's gangster with strong emotion. There was no choice but
• 39:53
  Speaker 10: for us to start experiencing in our physical realm all
• 40:00
  Speaker 10: of the things that we know God created us to be.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: So Brother Delmont and Brother Anthony, this next question is
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: for the two of you. You know, both of you mentioned,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: both on this panel and in the movie, the importance
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: of doing work behind the walls and its influence on
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the work that's happening in the streets of Baltimore. Can
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: you talk a little bit more about the importance of,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and walk through some of the mechanics of, of the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: work that happens behind the walls and how that translates
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: out into the streets in terms of the work to
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: reduce violence.
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: I knew he was going to do that.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: Fight, fight, fight, fight.
• 40:48
  Speaker 13: So like growing up in the juvenile justice system, I
• 40:53
  Speaker 13: did skid straight. I did big brother. I did choice program.
• 40:57
  Speaker 13: I did a big brother. So I did all the
• 41:01
  Speaker 13: youth programs, but none of them worked. The reason why
• 41:05
  Speaker 13: they didn't work because I didn't sit in front of
• 41:07
  Speaker 13: men that I resonated with. So the people they would
• 41:09
  Speaker 13: sit me in front of was guys who was nothing
• 41:11
  Speaker 13: like me, had experienced nothing like I experienced, who didn't
• 41:15
  Speaker 13: have brothers that was in and out of prison, cousins
• 41:17
  Speaker 13: that was in and out.
• 41:17
  Speaker 7: Of prison, mothers and fathers who were strung out on drugs.
• 41:21
  Speaker 13: Everybody, guys that they hung around with 10, 15 years
• 41:25
  Speaker 13: they seen you. So that's the one thing that I
• 41:29
  Speaker 13: think make, us so impactful with the young men. But
• 41:35
  Speaker 13: to be more specific is without saying names, I'll give
• 41:41
  Speaker 13: you a scenario of an entire family. So a father
• 41:47
  Speaker 13: gets locked up when me and my guys basically growing up.
• 41:52
  Speaker 13: His father goes to jail for shooting somebody a couple
• 41:56
  Speaker 13: blocks over.
• 41:57
  Speaker 7: Both of them got sons.
• 41:59
  Speaker 13: So before we even encounter each other, our families is
• 42:04
  Speaker 13: already telling us that we don't get along. Like we
• 42:07
  Speaker 13: don't deal with them. We don't really know what the
• 42:10
  Speaker 13: whole situation is about. We just inherit a beef. So
• 42:15
  Speaker 13: now we grow up and we condition that we just
• 42:19
  Speaker 13: don't like these guys. So any little thing triggers the beef.
• 42:24
  Speaker 13: Now a kid goes to jail. A father is already
• 42:27
  Speaker 13: in jail. He goes to jail for somebody that's involved
• 42:29
  Speaker 13: in his family. So now he got to what we
• 42:33
  Speaker 13: call home field advantage because the father's already been on.
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: The scene 15, 20 years in the prison system. And
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: he considered a soldier.
• 42:42
  Speaker 13: So now a young man has to walk into a
• 42:44
  Speaker 13: prison system at 16, 17 years old and contend against
• 42:49
  Speaker 13: grown men who have been, who are hardened criminals, who
• 42:52
  Speaker 13: have been serving time for 15, 16 years, who has
• 42:55
  Speaker 13: all kind of connects through the prison system. So now
• 42:58
  Speaker 13: he has to rise up and, you know, rise to
• 43:01
  Speaker 13: the occasion. So situations like this, so now he get in,
• 43:06
  Speaker 13: he has.
• 43:07
  Speaker 7: No uncles, he has no big cousins on the yard.
• 43:10
  Speaker 13: So in response to that, since you did that behind
• 43:13
  Speaker 13: the walls, and that's my homeboy and we out here,
• 43:17
  Speaker 13: we going to address it out here. So since you
• 43:19
  Speaker 13: did that and we can't get you and you got
• 43:20
  Speaker 13: the prison system and he can't do nothing to you,
• 43:22
  Speaker 13: we going to touch your peoples out here in the street.
• 43:24
  Speaker 13: So we going to send you a message from my
• 43:26
  Speaker 13: way that every time something happened to him, We're going
• 43:28
  Speaker 13: to hit one of yours out here. So stepping in
• 43:32
  Speaker 13: between it, it don't really seem like much. But the
• 43:36
  Speaker 13: ripple effect of a lot of people in a lot
• 43:40
  Speaker 13: of those murders, a lot of that stuff come from
• 43:44
  Speaker 13: behind the prison walls. Orders, hits, because somebody get touched
• 43:50
  Speaker 13: on a yard and they feel like they can't do nothing.
• 43:52
  Speaker 13: So I'm going to send somebody out there to do
• 43:53
  Speaker 13: something to your mother. Like, there are tapes and phone
• 43:57
  Speaker 13: recordings where they have men on the phone because somebody
• 44:01
  Speaker 13: took somebody off for some drugs behind the wall. Say, man,
• 44:05
  Speaker 13: go to that house and do something. Beat his mother up.
• 44:10
  Speaker 13: Because since he won't act like he ain't played, you know,
• 44:12
  Speaker 13: people get on the phone, they call people parents and
• 44:14
  Speaker 13: tell them, if you don't pay that money, we're going
• 44:17
  Speaker 13: to do X, Y, and Z to him.
• 44:19
  Speaker 7: And so how do they children respond to that? So..
• 44:23
  Speaker 13: Mediating conflict behind the wall, it has a profound effect.
• 44:27
  Speaker 13: And not just mediating conflict from behind the wall, but
• 44:30
  Speaker 13: mediating conflict from this side. When I was speaking at
• 44:33
  Speaker 13: this situation, what happened to one of our elders, and
• 44:36
  Speaker 13: I was just saying people so quick to, like Pastor
• 44:39
  Speaker 13: Anthony said, throw the youth away. And the brain science
• 44:42
  Speaker 13: is real, that the brain doesn't fully develop until the
• 44:45
  Speaker 13: age of 25.
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: That is a true thing.
• 44:48
  Speaker 13: Like, It's not that, no, am I saying that I
• 44:50
  Speaker 13: didn't know that I was doing right from wrong?
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: Hell no.
• 44:53
  Speaker 13: I definitely knew that. That's why I tried to put
• 44:55
  Speaker 13: on black to try to disguise it. But what I'm
• 44:57
  Speaker 13: saying is you did not know the magnitude of the
• 45:00
  Speaker 13: effect it was going to have and the ripple effect
• 45:02
  Speaker 13: on yourself, on your family. So when something like that
• 45:05
  Speaker 13: happened with a youth out here, that man got family
• 45:08
  Speaker 13: on the inside. So now we got to be on
• 45:11
  Speaker 13: the phones mediating conflict because if those young men get
• 45:14
  Speaker 13: caught and go behind those walls, they got to stand
• 45:16
  Speaker 13: on business. So it's somebody back there that want to
• 45:19
  Speaker 13: address that, if just for no reason, just because he
• 45:22
  Speaker 13: got on the phone and heard his mother say, yeah, them, they.
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: Out here doing that.
• 45:25
  Speaker 13: He say, yeah, when he come back, I'm going to
• 45:26
  Speaker 13: knock his head off just for GP. So, yeah, it's
• 45:30
  Speaker 13: very important that we are mediating conflict on both sides
• 45:33
  Speaker 13: of the fence, because I'm telling you, the ripple effect
• 45:36
  Speaker 13: that it has.
• 45:37
  Speaker 7: When somebody is stabbed behind those prison walls.
• 45:40
  Speaker 13: Or somebody is shot out here on the streets, whether
• 45:42
  Speaker 13: they're part of an organization or whatever, it spins behind
• 45:46
  Speaker 13: those walls and vice versa, it spills out into the streets.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: And Brother Anthony, let me add to the question because
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I think the other thing that I've heard you address
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: that I think is important for this audience to hear is,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: you know, we are us has to stop the beef hotline, right?
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: No law enforcement involvement. Right. In that process. Can you
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: talk about the importance of that? Because I think there's
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: some people who can't fathom why it's important in that
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: particular context for law enforcement to not be involved.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: Absolutely. I'll say this, right.
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: There's so much that we do on the stop the
• 46:28
  Speaker 8: beef side of this work that you just never going
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: to hear about. You're never going to read about. You're
• 46:34
  Speaker 8: never going to see on Instagram, Facebook, that part of
• 46:38
  Speaker 8: the work. Because it involves a level of confidentiality where
• 46:45
  Speaker 8: if the individuals involved don't trust us, not only do
• 46:50
  Speaker 8: you not stop the beef, but you potentially put yourself
• 46:54
  Speaker 8: in harm's way, as he articulated in the documentary. all
• 47:03
  Speaker 8: of the people, all of the parties involved have some
• 47:07
  Speaker 8: sort of connection to the criminal legal system, right? So traditionally,
• 47:14
  Speaker 8: that's just not going to work with law enforcement in
• 47:16
  Speaker 8: the room.
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: Not only is it not.
• 47:19
  Speaker 8: Going to work with law enforcement in the room, but
• 47:21
  Speaker 8: we're never even going to get them to the mediation
• 47:25
  Speaker 8: if they believe in the slightest way we have any
• 47:28
  Speaker 8: connection to law enforcement. that we cooperate with law enforcement
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: in any way, they're never even gonna be in that room.
• 47:36
  Speaker 8: That's just not gonna happen. That's the reality of it.
• 47:39
  Speaker 8: So that's not to say that law enforcement doesn't have
• 47:42
  Speaker 8: a role to play in solving crime and violence in
• 47:45
  Speaker 8: the community. That's separate from mediating conflict, completely separate from
• 47:51
  Speaker 8: resolving beefs and disputes, especially where blood has already been spilled, right?
• 47:57
  Speaker 8: So involving law enforcement from that perspective, makes no sense
• 48:01
  Speaker 8: at all for us.
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: And you're never gonna hear about that, right?
• 48:05
  Speaker 8: You're never gonna see two people that called their hotline,
• 48:08
  Speaker 8: that called one of the mediators and said, bro, they
• 48:12
  Speaker 8: shot my brother. I'm gonna burn half of East Baltimore
• 48:15
  Speaker 8: to the ground. You're never gonna hear that. And you're
• 48:18
  Speaker 8: never gonna see our response to it, right? You're gonna
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: see our public response to mass shooting events.
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: You're gonna see that. You're not gonna see what we
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: do behind the scenes.
• 48:29
  Speaker 8: In terms of who we calling, who we talking to,
• 48:32
  Speaker 8: what we talking to them about, because that confidentiality has
• 48:35
  Speaker 8: to be there and that level of trust has to
• 48:37
  Speaker 8: be there between us and them. So that's the reason
• 48:42
  Speaker 8: for the no police involvement. But for this audience particularly also,
• 48:48
  Speaker 8: according to the Department of Justice statistics, over 650,000 people
• 48:54
  Speaker 8: are released from prison throughout America every year.
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: 650,000.
• 48:58
  Speaker 8: I want that number to sink in. These are the
• 49:02
  Speaker 8: number of people that are coming home from prison every year,
• 49:06
  Speaker 8: according to the federal government, right? But in that same report,
• 49:10
  Speaker 8: they said that here in the state of Maryland, almost 10,000
• 49:13
  Speaker 8: people are in this revolving door of going into prison,
• 49:18
  Speaker 8: coming home from prison every year.
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: Right here in the state of Maryland.
• 49:22
  Speaker 8: All of them are coming home to a community near you, right?
• 49:28
  Speaker 8: So it only makes sense that we put some effort
• 49:32
  Speaker 8: into rehabilitating people The 2.2 million people that we have
• 49:39
  Speaker 8: locked up behind these prison walls, we incarcerate more people
• 49:44
  Speaker 8: in this country than any nation on the planet. There
• 49:49
  Speaker 8: are some states that incarcerate more people than any other
• 49:54
  Speaker 8: civilized nation on the planet.
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: But as a.
• 49:58
  Speaker 8: Society, we give zero thought Zero thought to the fact
• 50:03
  Speaker 8: that these two million people, the majority of them, at
• 50:09
  Speaker 8: some point are coming home. And if there is nothing
• 50:13
  Speaker 8: done to help repair them, right, then it leads, it
• 50:18
  Speaker 8: produces a cycle.
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: Of crime and violence that continues.
• 50:22
  Speaker 8: So we got to get to this tendency, the orientation
• 50:26
  Speaker 8: in the mind to return to criminal behavior and conduct.
• 50:29
  Speaker 8: And that don't stop when they're released. It actually starts
• 50:33
  Speaker 8: when you send them there. We have to be involved
• 50:36
  Speaker 8: in that. So that's the part I'll add to the
• 50:38
  Speaker 8: incarceration piece.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Can I say one thing? So I'll let y'all say
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: two quick things. After they say what they're about to say,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: we're going to do Q & A and we'll pass
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: a microphone around. So if you have questions, you can
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: raise your hand. We'll bring a microphone to you. Go ahead.
• 50:52
  Speaker 12: I just want to say one thing when it comes
• 50:53
  Speaker 12: to the Stop the Beef team. In order to stop
• 50:59
  Speaker 12: a beef, you have to have a relationship. And when
• 51:01
  Speaker 12: I say have a relationship, have a relationship. And I
• 51:05
  Speaker 12: deal a lot with young people, you guys. They have
• 51:07
  Speaker 12: to trust you, you know. And when I say trust you,
• 51:10
  Speaker 12: trust the fact that I know that they care about me.
• 51:14
  Speaker 12: They want the best for me. So it's all about
• 51:16
  Speaker 12: the relationships. So if we are us, have a situation.
• 51:22
  Speaker 12: They can reach out to other organizations that's trustworthy.
• 51:26
  Speaker 11: You know, we can't.
• 51:27
  Speaker 12: And one thing I thank God for the organizations that
• 51:31
  Speaker 12: we all work for. We don't have a foot in
• 51:33
  Speaker 12: and a foot out. Got to be real about this thing.
• 51:36
  Speaker 12: You know, it's no halfway thing. You're going to be
• 51:38
  Speaker 12: real or you're going to be fake. And when you're
• 51:41
  Speaker 12: in that position, these young men and young ladies, because
• 51:44
  Speaker 12: there's a lot of young ladies now that's carrying guns,
• 51:47
  Speaker 12: you know, you have to be able to put your
• 51:50
  Speaker 12: life on the line. There's many a times that our
• 51:52
  Speaker 12: lives just there, you know, not knowing if we're going
• 51:55
  Speaker 12: back home, but God.
• 51:56
  Speaker 11: But one thing, relationship, keep that. You have to have
• 51:59
  Speaker 11: a good relationship. And I'm going to be quiet, okay?
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: There we go.
• 52:03
  Speaker 10: About the re-entry part, just how important it is to, like,
• 52:08
  Speaker 10: just listening to Delmont talk, it's like, oh, he's somebody
• 52:12
  Speaker 10: that society would have been like, oh, throw him away. Like,
• 52:16
  Speaker 10: you're one of the most dangerous, and we can't control you,
• 52:19
  Speaker 10: and the choice program ain't even worth, and this ain't like, okay,
• 52:23
  Speaker 10: throw him away.
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: Like, and look at what we have, right?
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: And so..
• 52:30
  Speaker 10: All of the research shows that what happens in the
• 52:33
  Speaker 10: first 48 hours when somebody comes home from prison determines
• 52:36
  Speaker 10: where they're going to be three and six months later.
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: And so if they come home and they have not..
• 52:45
  Speaker 10: Resolve conflicts, if they have not rebuilt relationships with the
• 52:51
  Speaker 10: people who've been raising their children, if they have not
• 52:54
  Speaker 10: really gotten clear about what does getting a job look
• 52:58
  Speaker 10: like when I come home, I know I'm going to
• 53:00
  Speaker 10: go live with my aunt, but really what's going to
• 53:03
  Speaker 10: happen when I go there? If they have not had
• 53:05
  Speaker 10: hard conversations with people who they believe have harmed them,
• 53:10
  Speaker 10: And so when we do mediation, reentry mediation, and people can,
• 53:16
  Speaker 10: two years before they come home, we go into the prison,
• 53:20
  Speaker 10: whoever they said they wanted to talk to comes in.
• 53:23
  Speaker 10: It took a lot to just build a relationship enough
• 53:27
  Speaker 10: with the Department of Corrections to get them to let
• 53:30
  Speaker 10: us be in rooms with the person who was incarcerated
• 53:34
  Speaker 10: and who they want to mediate with and no COs
• 53:37
  Speaker 10: can listen and no COs are in the room. Like
• 53:39
  Speaker 10: that was five good years of Lori Charcutie and banging
• 53:43
  Speaker 10: her head against brick walls to be like, no, because
• 53:48
  Speaker 10: nobody is more institutionalized than people who work within those systems.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: So all of those people kept saying to us, oh, if.
• 53:55
  Speaker 10: Y'all come into prison and work with them, they gonna
• 53:58
  Speaker 10: be tricking y'all into sending them money and sending them drugs.
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, boo, it's just, see, I was just
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: bringing the drugs in here.
• 54:04
  Speaker 10: I don't know what y'all talking about, but like, and so, so, but,
• 54:11
  Speaker 10: When people are coming home, if they have not built
• 54:14
  Speaker 10: strong relationships, if they have not rebuilt trust, if they
• 54:18
  Speaker 10: have not resolved conflict, if we don't understand that there
• 54:22
  Speaker 10: is no such thing as an offender who has not
• 54:24
  Speaker 10: first been a victim of a lot of things. Sometimes
• 54:28
  Speaker 10: it's a mediation between the son who one of the
• 54:31
  Speaker 10: things he went to jail for is he kept stealing
• 54:33
  Speaker 10: from his mother while he was selling and using drugs.
• 54:36
  Speaker 10: And him and mom are now in mediation before he
• 54:38
  Speaker 10: comes home. So you would go in thinking, oh, he's
• 54:42
  Speaker 10: the offender, she's the victim.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: And we go, okay, what do you all want to
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: talk about?
• 54:46
  Speaker 10: And the first thing out of his mouth to his
• 54:48
  Speaker 10: mother is, how come you always put men before me?
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: And that's where we're starting the conversation.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 54:54
  Speaker 10: And so whatever it is that can be in getting
• 54:57
  Speaker 10: into prison is very hard work. It's as difficult as
• 55:02
  Speaker 10: getting into schools. So just the comparison is crazy. But
• 55:06
  Speaker 10: to get in and be able for people to really
• 55:09
  Speaker 10: have real conversations where there's no CO presence, there's no
• 55:13
  Speaker 10: police presence, there's nobody that works in the prison.
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: There's just the grassroots volunteer.
• 55:19
  Speaker 10: Mediators and the people who are having the conflict and
• 55:22
  Speaker 10: need to work it out and make plans about what
• 55:25
  Speaker 10: does a smooth transition home really look like, what a
• 55:29
  Speaker 10: success looks like. what is healing, all of that stuff.
• 55:31
  Speaker 10: What does it really look like? The research shows that
• 55:34
  Speaker 10: people who have that opportunity are in that first two
• 55:39
  Speaker 10: hour session, 8% less likely to re-engage with the criminal
• 55:44
  Speaker 10: justice system at all. They can have as many mediations
• 55:47
  Speaker 10: in prison as they want before they come home. With
• 55:50
  Speaker 10: every additional session, it increases by another 10% that they'll
• 55:55
  Speaker 10: be less likely to re-engage with the system. And all
• 55:58
  Speaker 10: that is, happening is they're building a stronger relationship with
• 56:02
  Speaker 10: the support systems or whatever it is coming home is
• 56:06
  Speaker 10: going to look like. They're building a stronger foundation to actually,
• 56:10
  Speaker 10: when they come home in that first 48 hours, it's
• 56:13
  Speaker 10: going to determine a much healthier place they'll be three
• 56:16
  Speaker 10: and six months later.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: All right. So what I'll do is if you have
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: a question, I'll ask you to raise your hand and
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: a microphone will come right to you. You'll see a
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: young man in a red vest coming to you with
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: the microphone.
• 56:38
  Speaker 9: Thank you and just so much respect to all of
• 56:43
  Speaker 9: you for giving hope to Baltimore and our communities. It's
• 56:51
  Speaker 9: humble to be in your presence today. And I want
• 56:57
  Speaker 9: to One shout out to Tawanda Jones, who's been doing
• 57:05
  Speaker 9: work in the community to get accountability amongst the police
• 57:14
  Speaker 9: and to reduce the amount of police brutality and violence
• 57:19
  Speaker 9: in our communities that also leads to the violence, community violence.
• 57:26
  Speaker 9: They're interlinked. Um, and so in somewhat in that vein, um,
• 57:33
  Speaker 9: and I think some of you were kind of touching
• 57:36
  Speaker 9: on this.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Um, the fact that, um, our state's attorney.
• 57:43
  Speaker 9: Uh, is trying to take out safe streets through the
• 57:48
  Speaker 9: inspector general's office. Uh, the, both the state's attorney's office
• 57:53
  Speaker 9: and the police, uh, trying to grab credit For the
• 57:59
  Speaker 9: things that we all know, I've been saying this for
• 58:01
  Speaker 9: a long time, that the only reason we've had the
• 58:05
  Speaker 9: reduction in crime.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Is because of folks like you guys.
• 58:08
  Speaker 9: Doing the work, people who really understand the community and
• 58:13
  Speaker 9: have been a part of it. But at the same time,
• 58:18
  Speaker 9: I heard you say it takes everybody and everyone has
• 58:23
  Speaker 9: a role, etc., But how do you move in those
• 58:31
  Speaker 9: spaces where the police, law enforcement, and the state's attorney's
• 58:39
  Speaker 9: office are involved? You can't extract them from everything, right?
• 58:44
  Speaker 9: We could do it from conflict mediation, et cetera. So
• 58:48
  Speaker 9: the question is, how do you guys move in those
• 58:51
  Speaker 9: spaces to maintain enough of a relationship but also not
• 58:58
  Speaker 9: to be trapped in it as well.
• 59:06
  Speaker 5: Absolutely. Yeah, good question. Absolutely a good question.
• 59:10
  Speaker 8: It's common sense that law enforcement is part of the village.
• 59:21
  Speaker 5: It has its role, its responsibility, its assignment.
• 59:25
  Speaker 8: And that's why I started with the quote from Eddie
• 59:27
  Speaker 8: Conway that said, do your little part, right? That's their
• 59:33
  Speaker 8: part that they have to do. And we hope that
• 59:37
  Speaker 8: they would do that part. We're not advocating that. We
• 59:40
  Speaker 8: don't want law enforcement to do their job, right? But
• 59:45
  Speaker 8: what we are saying is that in the work that
• 59:47
  Speaker 8: we do in terms of just specifically in terms of
• 59:50
  Speaker 8: the conflict mediation, that doesn't work with law enforcement there.
• 59:55
  Speaker 8: I would hope that the state's attorney is committed to
• 59:58
  Speaker 8: doing his job, right? Because if your idea, right, is
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 8: that it is acceptable to kill men, women, and children.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 8: If your idea is that it is okay, it is cool, right,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 8: to harm the elderly in the community, then prison is
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 8: a mercy for that individual, right?
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 5: But that's not our job.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 8: To do, but we will hope that the people whose
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 8: job it is to do that will deal.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: With that as they should.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 8: And they have every right to claim whatever credit that
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 8: they feel they deserve for doing.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 5: That, right? But we are clear in terms of the
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: work that we do, right?
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 8: In terms of reducing homicides and non-fatal shootings, we know
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 8: what we have contributed to because we know what we
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 8: do on a day-to-day basis throughout every area of the city.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 8: So I want to be clear that Everybody has a
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 8: role to play. Everybody has a part to play. There's
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 8: no part of the village that gets to sit on
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 8: the sideline in this and say, nah, I'm going to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 8: sit this one out, right? So we hope that BPD
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 8: is doing their job and improving at doing their job.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 8: Anybody that will say that the Baltimore City Police Department
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 8: in 2026 is even remotely close to the Baltimore City
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 8: Police Department from 2015 is just, you've been missing, right?
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 8: I don't know where you've been at. Completely different institution.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 8: But that's not our job to talk about. I mean,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 8: we don't talk about it. We let them talk about it.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 8: Do y'all job talking about it. And we're going to
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 8: do what we do over here.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 5: We interact. Of course, we interact in the work that
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 5: we do.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 8: We've been to plenty community engagement walks with law enforcement.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 8: You know, they come, they show up and we politely
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 8: tell them, look here, we got this, you know. we've
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 8: been doing this pretty good on our own, right? Thank
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 8: you for showing up, right? They had all of the
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 8: community meetings, events. We're in the same space, the same room.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 8: So we're not ducking or not, you know, working with
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 8: each other in a collaborative aspect of doing the work.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 8: But we're talking specifically about the conflict mediation part. There's
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 8: no police involvement in that from our perspective.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 10: So the way that I have navigated in all of
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 10: my work throughout the 30 or however many years, with
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 10: law enforcement specifically and city agencies, state's attorney, all of that,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 10: is we just explain to them why it behooves them
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 10: to do their part in supporting what it is we're doing, right?
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 10: So Patricia Jessamy, right? She was state's attorney way back
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 10: in the day. And we did research that showed if
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 10: people use mediation with us, it reduces..
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: The court's load, right?
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 10: Because people can make agreements in mediation to drop the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 10: charges because they've actually resolved whatever the conflict was. And
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 10: so now the state's attorney is, all they got to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 10: do is honor that the people wanted to drop their charges.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 4: So it's, right, so..
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 10: And so that made Patricia Jessamy set back in the
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 10: late 90s a contract every year to fund a position
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 10: for one of our caseworkers so that we receive stuff
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 10: from the state's attorney when people have conflict, right? And
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 10: so when an Ivan Bates comes along, who... When an
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 10: Ivan Bates comes along, who when we were both on
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 10: Governor Westmore's public safety transition team, him and I had
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 10: very different ideas about what should happen. His office signs
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 10: a contract with the Community Mediation Center every year to
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 10: send us money for that position.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: And I'm not sure he knows it.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 10: And I'm glad that he doesn't know it because from
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 10: what I've experienced, I think that if he knew it,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 10: something weird would happen where maybe suddenly we would not
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 10: get that money.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: And so..
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 10: But in building those relationships and saying it behooves you,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 10: if you live in Baltimore too, or you have to
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 10: work in Baltimore too, and so this work is helping
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 10: to make your job easier. If we are doing police
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 10: complaint mediations where a community member who had a problem
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 10: with a police officer gets to sit down and have
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 10: an honest conversation with that officer who's in that community,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 10: y'all are saying you need police community relationships to be
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 10: better so that the murder rate can come down and
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 10: so that policing can be better.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: Don't you want to.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 10: Be seen as saying you support community being able to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 10: have these hard, confidential conversations?
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: Like, you know what I mean?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 10: And so if you are, and honoring individual officers' humanity.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 10: So Erica Bridgeford is an abolitionist from that standpoint. I
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 10: think the police department needs, I just, get rid of
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 10: the whole thing, do something else. That's not where we
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 10: are in human history right now. I honor and understand that.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 10: So I work within, while visioning the world that I want,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 10: I work within the world that I have. And so
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 10: from that standpoint, I can honor individual officers as human
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 10: beings when they show up.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: Directly in front of me.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 10: And so if you are respecting and honoring what I do,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 10: if I show up because somebody got killed on this
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 10: block and here I am doing a sacred space ritual
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 10: and I look up and two police cars have blocked
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 10: off the block because I'm crazy and they got killed
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 10: in the street. So I'm kissing the ground right in
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 10: the middle of the street where they were.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: And the police see that.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 10: And without a conversation, they just block off the street
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 10: so that nobody interferes with the sacred work that's being done.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: I'm going to go over there and hug them and
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: thank them.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 10: Like, thank you for being a human person happened to
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 10: be wearing a police. And you use your authority in
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 10: that moment to benefit the healing of this community. And
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 10: so when we treat each other with humanity in the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 10: moments that we can.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 4: And in the work that I do, I'm helping to,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: when there are.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 10: Those disputes between police and community, I'm a bridge that
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 10: can help them work on understanding one another as well.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 4: While in my personal life, I might be totally against policing, period.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 10: But when I got my mediator hat on, I'm a
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 10: trusted bridge because in that bridge role, if I hold
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 10: up one side, this is the bridge, and I hold
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 10: up the side that I agree with, everybody falls into
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 10: the battle. So the ethics of our work is very important,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 10: whatever your ethics are in it. And when institutions and
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 10: agencies and policymakers see that you stand in the ethics
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 10: of the work that you do without attacking and demonizing
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 10: them while holding them accountable when it's necessary, if your
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 10: humanity shows up, somebody's humanity is going to show up
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 10: in that and it's going to make it go how
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 10: it's supposed to go.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 5: Dave, I also want to add this to that.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 8: And a lot of times what we get caught up into,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 8: we get caught up into the politics of law enforcement,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 8: the offices, the seats, in terms of the reality.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 5: Because it's a whole different reality.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 8: On the ground as opposed to the people who are
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 8: sitting in the seats running the offices in the administration.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 11: Absolutely.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 5: It's a totally different reality.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 8: Like on the ground, BPD has phenomenal community engagement offices
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 8: that we interact with on a daily basis. Like we know,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 8: I mean, we know them, we got their numbers on
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 8: speed dial. They have our numbers. So we interact with
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 8: them daily on the ground. I mean, the real people.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 8: And a lot of times that gets lost in the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 8: translation of the politics that you see in newspapers and
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 8: on news shows, right? And like the chief of school,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 8: we're in the schools all day. We're in all of
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 8: Baltimore City Public Schools engaging young people. So, I mean,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 8: the chief of Baltimore City School Police, Jeff Short, is
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 8: one of us. He's with We Are Us. So his staff,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 8: his team, they do the same kind of work we
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 8: do from a community perspective, not from a law enforcement perspective.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 8: So I just, I mean, just wanted to separate the
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 8: politics from the community engagement and the people that do
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 8: the work on a daily basis. They love Baltimore just
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 8: like we do. And the people with the boots on
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 8: the ground are doing the work from a community engagement perspective,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 8: not necessarily from a law enforcement perspective.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 13: Yeah, and I was just going to add, like, you know,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 13: when I was growing up, it used to be a
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 13: thing called officer friendly.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 13: So what we, what we do, we don't, we don't,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 13: we don't dislike the police. Like I know, and that's
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 13: never to be misunderstood. We love good police. We love
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 13: good police work.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 7: You feel what I'm saying?
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 13: Because if we have a, Situation with Stop the Beef,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 13: where we need to relocate somebody, we call good police.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 13: When we have a situation where a brother need to
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 13: turn himself in to mediate a conflict because people is
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 13: in the streets hunting him, we call good police. But again,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 13: like Anthony said, you're not going to really hear about that.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 13: You're never going to hear about us meeting an officer
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 13: or a couple officers in a house in West Baltimore
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 13: for a brother to turn himself in, yeah, you're going
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 13: to see them on TV walking them into the building
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 13: like they went and caught them, right? But we respect
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 13: good policing.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 7: But we have a job to do. I always think
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 7: about Bill Belichick.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 13: If you ever have been fortunate enough to go to
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 13: their arena, it's no signs or no way on the wall.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 13: It's just one thing when you walk in that building
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 13: and say, do your job. So that's what we do.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 13: We do our job. And then we expect good policing
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 13: to do their job when it's their turn. But when
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 13: we out and we mediating, we trying to stop it
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 13: before we even get there. We trying to stop somebody
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 13: before they pull the triggers to have to engage with
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 13: the police. We trying to meet it. We trying to
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 13: alleviate all that. We trying to cut that off before
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 13: we even get to that point. Because when you get
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 13: to the point of no return, then you get into,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 13: like he said, a lot of unnecessary politics. So yeah,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 13: we work closely with a lot, there's a lot of,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 13: like you said, speed dial and everything else. So I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 13: definitely want to thank, we not, and I often say
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 13: this when I'm speaking about Stop the Beef because I'm
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 13: one of the mediators. That the reason why we do
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 13: no police involvement because we come from a community and
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 13: a culture where you've seen men from the Nation of
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 13: Islam had to stand in between police and the community
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 13: during the Freddie Gray riots. Because our people and our
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 13: communities have a distrust in a distaste for law enforcement
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 13: because things have happened that went uncovered, beaten alley, drugs
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 13: planted on them. So the last person they want to
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 13: call is the police. The last person they want to
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 13: talk to or see is the police. So now you're
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 13: starting to see when Because of work like that, you're
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 13: seeing officers sometimes may come out and it goes. So
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 13: now they starting to get to like, oh, when the officer, well, yeah,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 13: that's officer such and such. When I grew up, we
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 13: knew the officer's name. They had bright eyes. We got
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 13: out of there because we knew them. They knew our parents.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 13: But now they're trying to put people in the community
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 13: to police a community that they don't know. So when
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 13: you try to police a people that you don't know,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 13: it's always going to be conflict. So they got to
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 13: be boots on the ground also back in the community
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 13: so you can have, like, an officer friend so everybody knows.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 7: So he come in.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 13: You can walk in your community and stop something that
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 13: I can't because it's your community. But if I walk
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 13: into them little brothers and I say, man, they see
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 13: me coming, man, I go to one of the brothers.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 7: And this is real quick.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 13: I was just in Hershey Park the other day, literally
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 13: with some other students because I'm a student support staff member.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 7: Ran into a couple of my little Baltimore brothers.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: They out there, and I jumped up on them.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 13: Yeah, send a picture to Captain Andrew. And when I
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 13: was walking off, the grandmother didn't know who I was,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 13: but moms did. So when I was walking off, I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 13: heard her say, who was that? She said, well, that's
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 13: one of the brothers.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: They everywhere.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 7: Now, he and Hershey Park acting crazy. I'm just popping
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 7: up on.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: A whole nother gig.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 7: So yeah, you know what I'm saying? But you got
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 7: to know your people.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 13: Communication in relationships matters, no matter what you're doing in
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 13: this line of work in the community.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: So after Pastor Ebony makes a remark, we actually have
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: time for one more audience question. Yeah, so Pastor Ebony,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: you go ahead, and then we'll address what's happening in
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: the back.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 11: I just want to say one thing.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 12: As you mentioned, back in from like 2003 to 2010,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 12: police department, and as far as experience, it was hard.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 12: Certain things that I witnessed in Baltimore City, And at
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 12: that time, I was a youth pastor. 2018, so I
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 12: grew up in Cherry Hill. And I'll say this real quick.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 12: My son was murdered August the 15th of 2018.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 11: And I would always pray, do the prayer walks for
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 11: Safe Street and Cherry Hill. Never worked for them. Self-employed.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 12: Did 20-something years with Marriott General Manager. However, when my
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 12: son was murdered and I made it to the scene,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 12: I threw my wallet up. So at that time, Safe
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 12: Street workers, they were trying to find my wallet. The
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 12: two detectives that came in my office at my dealership,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 12: like two days later, was like, hey, your coworkers, they
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 12: got rid of all the witnesses.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 11: So I'm saying, what are you talking about?
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 12: He said, yeah, one of the officers told me you
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 12: work for Safe Street.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 11: So unfortunately, we don't have anything for you. And I'm
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 11: sitting up there.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 7: I'm hurting.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 12: And I'm sitting up there saying, wait a minute. First
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 12: of all, I never was on that payroll. What I do,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 12: I volunteer. bust my butt every day, hard work dealing
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 12: with these young people out there, but because they assumed,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 12: or some of the officers was not doing their job,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 12: did not like me, they told these two detectives, oh yeah,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 12: she worked with, say, Streets, you know, they got rid
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 12: of all of the witnesses, so maybe they're going to
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 12: figure it out, maybe they're going to go and try
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 12: to hurt them, and I asked that officer, the detective,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 12: I said, sir, are you serious? I said, you just
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 12: told me that you can't do anything about my son murder.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 12: He wasn't in the streets or anything that because someone
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 12: assumed that I work with safe streets and because they
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 12: don't like these guys, they're not going to do anything
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 12: about my son murder.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 11: Three weeks later, but.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 12: I tell you about God. One of the detectives, he
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 12: called me, he apologized. He was like, I want to
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 12: tell you that I'm sorry. And I was so hurt.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 12: I told him, I said, get up out my office.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 7: I said, leave.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 11: I said, leave.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 12: I went down to Southern District and I asked them,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 12: the lead detective at the lead office at that time.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 11: I said, yes, I fight for these children. But wrong, wrong, wrong,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 11: wrong is wrong. Right is right. That's in my book.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 11: I don't care who you are.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 12: And I said, because you assume, not knowing who I am,
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 12: not knowing I work hard. I'm the general manager at
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 12: that time, I think, at the fan field at BWI.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 12: I said, you assume because I'm out here in the
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 12: community working that I work with this particular group. So
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 12: you're telling these detectives not to investigate my son's murder.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 12: Till this day, the young man has not been arrested.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 12: So when I say that it's hard sometimes, and I
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 12: thank God for Colonel Russell, because yes, me as a pastor,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 12: because of certain things that I witnessed in Baltimore City
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 12: with the police department, with my own eyes of what
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 12: they've done to young.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 11: People, it's hard.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 4: It's hard.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 11: So I'm learning.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 12: I would say this year, 2026, I see more officers
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 12: that genuinely care now and doing their job. My thing is,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 12: do your job. Don't beat them up. That was my thing.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 12: Lock them up if they're doing wrong, but you're not
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 12: going to beat them up in my face. You're not
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 12: going to plant guns on them. You're not going to
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 12: do things like that. So when you say as far
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 12: as relationship and trust in the officers, I would say
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 12: today I do. I was a chaplain as well for
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 12: five years for Baltimore City Police Department, and they had
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 12: to learn me and I had to learn them. But
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 12: that's one thing that I tell you guys. If you
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 12: don't know someone, don't judge them. Get to know who
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 12: that person is. And this other detective, now he'll reach
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 12: out and say, you know what? I'm truly, truly sorry.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 12: I know it's been a long time. I've retired, but
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 12: I'm going to do whatever I can to help you.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 12: So say this.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 11: We all go by off of what we experience, what
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 11: we experience. A lot of these children go off of
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 11: what they experience.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 12: A lot of young men and young ladies that I
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 12: dealt with in Baltimore City, I had people calling me, hey,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 12: can you take this gun?
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 11: I'm saying, a gun?
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 12: Well, Sarge said, if I don't get a gun, they're
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 12: going to plant this gun on me. So our children
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 12: experience so much. So then we wonder why they don't
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 12: trust the police. That's the reason why. That's the reason why.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 12: Our young black men have been through so much. But God,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 12: you guys, but God. So listen, I'm a pastor. But
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 12: just to answer your question, I know I'm going to
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 12: be quiet. I know I keep saying I'm a pastor.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 12: But just to answer your question, it's all about relationship
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 12: with the good ones.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 11: And I'll say the good ones.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 12: It's a lot of good ones out here that get up,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 12: put that uniform on, that genuinely care. And they are
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 12: the ones that we have relationships with.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 11: That we trust. So that's it, yeah. Had to get
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 11: that off of me.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: All right, we have time for one more question from
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: the back.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 14: First of all, I'd like to say thank you to
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 14: each and every one of you for the work that
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 14: you do in our communities. I just left Maryland Correctional
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 14: Institution for Women, the lifers group. Listen to all the
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 14: things that you just talked about. Listen to the women
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 14: tell me about the things that you just said, the reentry,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 14: the lack of it, the lack of cooperation from the staff,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 14: all of that. It's a story that you all know,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 14: so I'm not going to repeat it. A couple weeks ago,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 14: me and a couple other ladies did what we called
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 14: a clarion call. It was a call to every organization
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 14: in the city of Baltimore that we knew that was
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 14: operating and helping our young people, our seniors, whatever community
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 14: involvement you had, you had an organization we called you
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 14: out and guess what? See that group up there? They
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 14: all were there. They all were there. On the back
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 14: of my T-shirt, it has a number of groups that
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 14: were there. And what all we called to say was this.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 14: Our young people need us. We are the solution to
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 14: Baltimore's problem. You all just said it. You are the
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 14: solution to lowering those murder rates. We, all of us
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 14: in here, are the solution to what's going on in Baltimore,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 14: not with our young people, with our seniors not feeling
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 14: comfortable to walk to the store. Our organizations can offer
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 14: that assistance. All we're saying is that we can get
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 14: this done in our city. Let's continue to have these
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 14: talks Let's continue to have these gatherings. Let's continue to
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 14: show up. First day of school was coming up. We
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 14: got six young men who attacked a 74-year-old man a
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 14: couple weeks ago at a 70 gathering. You all probably
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 14: seen it on the news. Guess what?
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: They have not been apprehended. But guess what?
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 14: It's going to be groups like We Are Us, Delmont's group,
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 14: Pastor's group, It's going to be groups like them. Somebody's sister.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 14: One of those six men have a mother, a sister,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 14: an uncle, a neighbor who knows who they are.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 3: Call one of these groups, please. Tell them.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 14: Let them walk your son. Let them walk your son.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 14: Let them talk to your son.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: Let him do media. Let him do whatever.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 14: But try to get them before they kill somebody else.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 14: We don't want them to have a murder charge. They
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 14: just got an assault charge right now. Let's get those
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 14: young people, but also let our young people know accountability
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 14: is there. It has to be done. But you got
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 14: the support of a whole community. So if you need
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 14: to talk to someone to get out of a gang
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 14: or you're in a situation where you're being bullied into
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 14: something you don't want to do, we are us. I mean,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 14: I can't even name the many groups. This lady right here,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 14: you all talk about re-entry. That's Monica Cooper.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 7: Yes, it is.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 14: Okay, that's Monica Cooper. She does the re-entry programs. She
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 14: has an organization called Maryland Justice Project. We would not
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 14: have a... Pre-release center proposed now. It hasn't been built
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 14: yet because the women in this state of Maryland, they
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 14: didn't feel we deserved a pre-release center until Monica got
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 14: on top of them. Now we are getting a pre-release
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 14: center so that the women come home, can get all
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 14: the services that you said we needed.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, so there are other people. There's Mr.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 14: Linda Moore in this organization with the Second Look Coalition,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 14: who I'm a member of. There's Delmar, all of you
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 14: all are members of the Grift Experience Committee. You know,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 14: formerly incarcerated people in this city are doing some great things,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 14: you all. We are doing some great things. And all
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 14: I'm saying to you all is support those organizations that
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 14: are helping.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 3: Tell your neighbors. Tell their children.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 14: If they got a little boy that they know is
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 14: doing something wrong, call Muhammad.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: Tell him, say, hey, look, come.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 14: Walk with me so I can introduce you to little Johnny.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 14: Come walk with me so I can. Pastor Ebony, can
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 14: you come? I want you to talk to Mary Jane
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 14: or Alicia or whatever her name is.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 3: We can do this.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: Come on now.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: We can do this. And that's what I'm saying. We.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: We.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 3: The we is us. Come on. The we are we.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 3: We can do this. Thank you. All we need. We
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: are we. We are the we. Come on, don't forget that.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 5: Davon, can I add one point to this right here? Yes, sir, quickly.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 5: Because she mentioned it. And when Ms. Gwynn called me, right,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 5: I mean, I.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 8: Had some reservations when she called, right? She wouldn't let
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 8: me off the phone. till she got a confirmation. But
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 8: I had some reservations and I have to share the
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 8: reservations because we have to be careful. Like just because
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 8: we are good intention don't mean that everybody else has
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 8: good intentions, right?
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 5: And there are some.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 8: People who are deliberately trying to use isolated incidents involving
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 8: young people to paint a big, broad picture.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 5: And cut funds.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 8: So we have to be careful that we don't allow
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 8: ourselves to be used to promote that narrative, right? That
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 8: was my reservation. We were there, we showed up at
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 8: the walk because Miss Gwen made the call. You can't
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 8: not respond, right? But at the same time, in my
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 8: mind is that the enemies of Baltimore The enemies of
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 8: young people in Baltimore who are not good intentioned are
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 8: going to use this, right? They're going to use six
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 8: young black men and paint the picture that this is
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 8: all young black men in Baltimore. And I have a
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 8: problem with that. So we just have to be careful
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 8: that in our messaging, we are on the same page, right?
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 8: that we're not promoting the narrative that this is all
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 8: black youth in Baltimore City.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 5: And I'll leave it at that.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: Appreciate that. Appreciate that. So I'm going to just say
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: something quickly. And in fact, Brother Anthony kind of teed
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: up what I wanted to say, which is that all
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: the work that has been talked about in the film
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: and on this panel, this work is under attack. And
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: folks that are familiar with LBS, Sinclair Broadcasting, David Smith,
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: who owns the Baltimore Sun, Fox 45, ABC 7. These
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: are folks for whom are carrying out a political agenda
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: that benefits the law enforcement establishment, Maryland State's Attorneys Association, FOP,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: the Association of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs. These are folks
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: that are tied into a media network, a media company
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: and an media empire. that is putting out propaganda for
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: the purpose of taking away the resources that funded a
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: lot of the work that you see on screen. So
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: that's one of the things that I wanted to make
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: sure to communicate, because in order to protect the work,
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: we have to fight against the enemies of our community
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: that are trying to take the resources away to do
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: the work. And one of the things that I'll quickly
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: add is that one of the things that LBS will
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: be working on in the 2027 Maryland General Assembly is
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: to have legislation passed that will bar the state of
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: Maryland from doing business with Sinclair and any of the
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: things that David Smith owns. So that's something we'll be
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: working on in 2027. And that, and for us, that's
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: our role, right? In the ecosystem, in terms of violence prevention,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: our role is to protect the work. And so, so
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: that's one of the things I wanted to make sure
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: to share. There will be another screening. At the Parkway
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: Theater on August 29th on a Saturday. Please get your tickets.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Tell all your friends it's going to sell out. So
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: get it sooner than later. The other thing that I
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: want to announce is that Rashim and I have been
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: having conversations about, and I hope you don't mind me
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: sharing this. One of the things that I often have
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: said to her about this documentary is that You know,
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: part of the beauty of it is that it gives
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: humanity to folks that typically their humanity has to be qualified.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? And because it's an independent project, right,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: that she was able to really give voice to that
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: in a way that folks that are operating within institutional constraints. Right.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: You often have to think about, like, what are white
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: folks going to think? Right. What are the institutions going
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: to think? And none of that appears in the documentary.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: And I think that the evidence of that is that
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: the Department of Corrections is in talks and want to
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: make this available to those that are behind the walls.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: So I think it just speaks to the importance of
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: these narratives, about the power of them, and the importance
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: of people actually understanding the benefit of this work, and
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: also understanding the importance of protecting the work. So again,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: please make sure, tell all your friends, August 29th is
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: the next screening. When you go out, and it costs
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: money to do it, so please, there's QR codes out
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: on the front desk that'll allow you to be able
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: to contribute. to make contributions. This project is independent. There
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: have been a handful of folks that have invested, but
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: not nearly at the level that you would get from
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: films of this quality. So it's extremely important that you
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: all continue to contribute, to promote the work, to provide resources,
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: and also do the surveys. Dr. Rashim is a social scientist,
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: so she likes reading those surveys. She actually does read them.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: You know, we'd be sitting together, she'd be reading through
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: the surveys. So it's really important. So if you click
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the QR code to be able to fill out the survey,
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: to give good feedback, it really helps the project move forward.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: Give the panel another round of applause. All right. Safe
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: travels on the rest of your Saturday afternoon. You all
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: take care.