Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Brandon Scott & Erricka Bridgeford Talk The Body Politic Documentary, Baltimore Peace Movement + More

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INTERVIEW: Brandon Scott & Erricka Bridgeford Talk The Body Politic Documentary, Baltimore Peace Movement + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Morning everybody, it's the j n V.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Just hilarious, charlamage the guy. We are the Breakfast Club.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: We got some special guests in the building. We have
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: But also we have Eerica Bridgeford, who is from the
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Baltimore Peace Movement. Welcome. Now, I do have to ask
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: a question before you start. I have to make sure
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: that you guys are really from Baltimore. So I want
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: you to read this.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I do it.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I'm fine. Earn earn and iron earned.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: There you go. I don't know what that sounds like.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: It was Darren earned and iron earned.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Always it's not.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Earned.
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: Why did he have to earn and iron earn?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I don't understand that's the same murd Did you just
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: have four times?
• 0:46
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: All right? Tell you all from Baltimore.
• 0:48
  Speaker 7: I heard a just asked to agree.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: To do it.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Wow, we want to start right out like that.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: That's yes's right, but welcome guys.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: How you feel good? Were good?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Brother?
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: It's on your second term.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Sir, Thank you, thank you, thank you, long time coming.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Just you know, the last time we had a two
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: term mayor in Baltimore. I was a sophomore in college
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: twenty years ago. It's been twenty years since we had it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: So it's a big deal in the honor for me
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to have the have the city say like, no, we
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: want to keep moving in this direction, especially from someone
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: that grew up there when we grew up there and
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: understand everything that has been happening.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So what made you want to become a mayor of Baltimore?
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: So this is a real easy thing, man. So I
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: grew up in Park Heights, right, It's a place in
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: northwest Baltimore. It's the best neighborhood.
• 1:39
  Speaker 7: Sorry, Joe, don't even.
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: Start that about West.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: I don't know what you let you finish.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: So imagine envy living in the neighborhood literally so that
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the horse race Preakness is in my neighborhood. Imagine living
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: in a neighborhood that's the center of the world every
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: third Saturday and they then every other day of the year.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: You're not treated as human where we wouldn't even go
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: outside on Friday night before Preakness because they would do
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: what we call Preakness sweeps. If he was outside looked
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: like us, you could be gone. But the next day
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: somebody who don't look like us could be peeing in
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: the Miller Street and no one blinks. But before I
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: was even seven years old, I saw someone get shot
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: outside playing basketball and no one care. And literally I
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: just start pestering my parents, my uncles, my grandparents of
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: all why no one care? And one day my mom
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: just said, look, if you wanted to change, you gotta
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: change yourself. No one's coming to save us. And having
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: my family be involved in the community, my uncle dragging
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: me with him to political fundraisers when people were trying
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: to get my family's business to donate. I had the
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: understanding of what people should have been doing and who
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: wasn't doing it. So I said then that that's what
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: I wanted to.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Be at a very young age.
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: You already already knew because I was. I was about
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: to ask you what made you not go the other way?
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, because while I'm going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: give credit it to your hood why Park Heights is
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: one of the best hoods in West Baltimore City, it
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: is still also one of the most dangerous.
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what made you not go?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: It's a little different now, I tell the young like y'all.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Y'all have no idea. Y'all don't know the Old Park Heights.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: But for me, it's about it's a couple of things.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: It's my family, right like so, I am a first
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: generation Baltimore and my mom's family is from rural Virginia,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: right outside Richmond. My grandparents moved to Baltimore. Ironically, people
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: don't know this. They gonna know now to East Baltimore
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: with three hundred dollars to their name, where them my
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: great grandmother, my great aunts, all my older cousins lived
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: in this one house right behind North Avenue, the school headquarters.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: And then my dad's family. My dad followed, my uncles
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: and my older cousins who moved here from rural North Carolina,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: where my grandparents ran a pig farm until they died, right,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: which is why I don't eat pork, because I used
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: to feed them myself. But when you come from things
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: like that, you have a different setting. I was set
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: in a world where like, you don't have to accept
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: things as they are. You can work harder, you can.
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: Be greater, and you have a.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Responsibility to us and those who put you in this
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: position to take us all in your community and a
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: further place. But I also had the community itself, growing
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: up running track as an athlete and playing sports. Ironically,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: it was also the people that were deciding who live
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: or die or what the beef was in the neighborhood
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: who said, like, you have to be better than us.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: We want you to be better. Do not let us
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: hear about you getting into any trouble or things like that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: And if even some of my family members who work
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: for them were putting me in danger, they would check them.
• 4:44
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: It was just a different time. So I would say
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I had the entirety of this city that really pushed
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: me to make sure that I became a better version
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: of myself and working to be the best version.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Now what can a maya actually really do?
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: We look at you know, res I ask is you
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: know people to say the vice president is the vice president,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: but what can she do? You know the president can
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: do certain things, but she has to get things signed
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: off on. So what can a mayor actually?
• 5:09
  Speaker 7: Do?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: You control? Funding? Do you control?
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: I do so as the mayor of Baltimore, So I do.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: And I think what people have to understand is the
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: mayor is an.
• 5:23
  Speaker 7: Executive of a city.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Essentially, every mayor, especially if they're a strong mayor form
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: of government like Baltimore is. Actually Baltimore is the strongest
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: former mayor of government in the country, So technically I'm
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: the strongest mayor in the country. We do get to
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: direct that funding, right, and it's about and no disrespect.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I love my Vice president to death. I love my
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: president to death, But the President would tell you that
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: mayors have the toughest job in America because people can
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: see us and touch us every day, and decisions that
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: we make every day are going to impact people, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: they're going to hold you accountable, even for stuff that
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: you're not responsible for. But when you think about the
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: basic things that people Essentially, I'm the CEO of a
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: three billion dollar, full billion dollar entity known as the
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: City of Baltimore. Right, everything that people do. When they
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: turn that water on in the morning and they want
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: to be hot and clean, it's my responsibility. When they
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: want they trash picked up, it's my responsibility. When they
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: want their rec center and open up, it's my responsibility.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: When they call nine one and have the have a
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: fire truck come, it's my responsibility to make sure that
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: that stuff happens, but at a deeper level, it also
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: is important to make sure that when is someone like
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: me who has that lived experience that just Erica and
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I have, that we bring that to that job and
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: understand and that things we're talking about. Our city literally
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: is the birthplace of racial redlining in Baltimore and everything
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: that we all grew up through as a result of that.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: So when you think about things that I've just been
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: able to do in my first term and what's really
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: been like the focal point of this documentary, the body Politic,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: it's about reimagining what public safety means because for all
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: of our life, they just said reducing crime is the
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: sole responsibility the police. But I want people to understand
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: how that was never true, right, And you take Baltimore
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: City that's roughly six hundred thousand people. At its height,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: our police department had three thousand cops. Three thousand people.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Can't keep six hundred thousand people safe, especially when they
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: all don't work at the same time. So we have
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: to do the investments in changing that. And we can
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: do that. The mayor sets the tone for how the
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: city works. So I came in and said, no longer
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: we're going to just say, hey, it's all the police responsibility.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Every part of the city government has to be a
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: part of this. We passed the law that we have
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: to have a comprehensive approach that's led by a health
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: commissioner and then direct the funding to go to other places.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: So when you look at the fact that we're now
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: funding our community violence intervention work at the highest level
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: that we've ever had, people that used to be in
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: the streets, whether it's safe streets or the brothers that
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: we are, us and all these other folks who go
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: out and intercede in violence, and we're investing in them
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: and allow them to do that.
• 7:54
  Speaker 7: Deciding that we.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Weren't going to just continue down this path for just
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: like oh if they black and outside, were just gonna
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: lie come up for anything. No, we're gonna stand up
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: what we call our group violence production strategy, which is
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: the epicenter really of the movie, and say we know
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: who the people are who will most likely be the
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: victim of perpetrator of violence. It's much like any other disease. Right,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Since my granddad had prostate cancer, when I go to
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: the doctor, what did he test me for? So we
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: identify those people, and we're gonna give them a chance.
• 8:23
  Speaker 7: First, they actually get a letter directly.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: From me that says, look in Baltimore terms, just yo,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I know who you are, I know what you're doing.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: This is your chance. I know where you live, I
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: know everything about what you do. I'm telling you this
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: is your chance to change your life. If you need housing,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: if you need to finish school, if you need you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: mental health, whatever you need, we'll give it to you.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: But don't try to call my bluff because if you
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: call my bluff, then them boys coming and you won't
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: be able to say no. One tried to help me,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: and it's working and we've been able to. Last year
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: we had the largest reduction in homicide that Baltimore's ever
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: had in twenty percent, and we're beating that this year
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: with twenty four mayors. Make the difference on the ground.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: When you think about what we're investing in. I decided
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: that we were going to put historic amounts of money
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: into our rec centers. When we were growing up, they
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: were closing them left and right right. So imagine me
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: going into the doors of Tawanda Direct Center in nineteen
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: eighty nine, when I was in pre k and then
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: becoming mayor in twenty twenty and going there early twenty
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: twenty one, and it literally was the same building. Nothing
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: had changed, the same weight, equipment, and the building was closed, right,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: and then being able to reopen that right, renovated, and
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: now we had five more that we're building across the city.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: And that's only because the mayor decided that's the focus, right,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: And that's what we have to do in every city
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: is have people in those positions that will do was,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: as I always say, the right thing, not the popular one.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Because there are a lot of things that I did
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: that people were like, I can't believe you didn't do that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: For example, they said I should join on to the
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: state's lawsuit around opah yours, the state wassuing all these
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: drug companies. I said, no, we're gonna do our own
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: because we were impacting more. People called me everything but
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: my name, and then lo and behold. Now we're like
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: receiving four hundred plus million dollars from these companies from
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: doing it our way. Leadership doesn't mean being like It
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: means doing what's the best thing for the people.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: And when you wrote that letter, we'll get you in
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the second Aerica.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: That's fine.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: When you wrote that letter, where did you get that
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: idea from writing a letter?
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, so this is this is about knowing the
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: work right. So GBRS Group Violence Production Strategy will focus return.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: It's a model that's been around for a long time
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: and it works in cities. It worked in Oakland and
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: all these places. They tried it twice in Baltimore before.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: And me so this I'm forty now. I came to
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: city hall when I was twenty three, so I literally
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: grew up there and seeing the last attempt fail and
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: why I knew that I wanted to go deeper into
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: the work. But also that the number one reason why
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: great ideas and programs and things that fail in cities,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: it's because they don't have the executive leadership and buy in.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Because if it comes from me, if this is the
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: mayor's strategy, everybody else that works for city government knows
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: that they got to do it or they ask got
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: to get another job. Right, That's the reality, and that's why.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: And we have to do the notifications because if not,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: it's no different than us just showing up. And we
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: use what we call credible messagers to go and deliver
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: that message and say, look, yo, if they want to
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: give you a chance, and people change their life, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Who you're giving chances to is it?
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Is it shooters, It is everybody, everybody.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So you look at you like, look, you did this
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: turn your life around.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: You're doing this stuff right now. We know that you're
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: involved in activities that might end up having you lose
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: your life or take someone else's life. This is your chance.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Like your group of people that you're with, chances are
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: y'all ain't gonna be here or you're gonna be locked up.
• 11:57
  Speaker 7: That's the reality.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: We gotta we gotta tell people a real deal. And
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: if they don't like take that heat, they are people
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: that took it right. There was a young man. It
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: almost brought me to tears. We just had a little
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: graduation for some folks through YAP on Saturday. And you
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: can see a lot of this work in the Body Politics,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: which is airing on next Monday night. We'll get to you,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: but you can see what happens.
• 12:21
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: This young man literally said that he one young man
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: had been out on the street since he was twelve,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: and no one ever asked him what he wanted to do.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Or how he can do things different until our folks
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: showed up. Now he works for the convention center. Saturday,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: a young man had told us he had been out
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: of school since elementary school and out there doing what
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: folks do. Right now, we got him on the right track.
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: People are working for the city, People are.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Starting their own businesses and being able to reconnect with
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: their family. So just simply having a house right like
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: that stuff changes people's lives. And then there's some folks
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: who just tell me, as we would say, Jess rocks,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: and then I'm like okay, And then that's when they
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: got to deal with the boys. And you can't say
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: that we didn't try to tell you that there's or
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: show that there's another way. There are people out there
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: delivering that message every day, Like yo, we can do
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: something different because we also have to understand, like, look,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: we all know our people don't own boats, right, we
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: don't own gun companies. We have to understand what's really
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: happening in that cycle that we're allowing ourselves to be
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: put in, and we're trying to pull people out of
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: that as much as possible. But we can't just have
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: people shooting and killing people's grandmothers and babies and kids
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: and wives and all the other craziness. We just simply
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: can't have that absolutely, Erica.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: How did you get involved with the Baltimore peace movement?
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: Well, it used to be called Baltimore Ceasefire because there
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: was this guy named Ogon. So first there was a
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: three hundred in march movement. That's how Brandon and I met.
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: Brandon and Muniahbaha were leaders in that movement, and I
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: got very much involved because my son got involved in
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: the very first march. They did a march from east,
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: took from west to East Hilton all the way to me,
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: all the way across North Avenue, and my son did
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: that much and got very much involved.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: And I got so involved.
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: That Munia said, oh, you should be a spokesperson, and
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: so I became on the leadership team.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: So during that movement.
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: Somebody named ooh Derek Jones in Baltimore.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: He was a big leader, educator.
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: He passed away suddenly, so a lot of the men
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: in his life and women got involved in three hundred.
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: And in November of twenty fifteen, after Freddie Gray was killed,
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: there were over three hundred people got like we hit
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: three hundred murders in November that year, and so the
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: three hundred mid March movement called a state of emergency
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: for the city of community meeting and a lot of
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: Ooh's people showed up there, and one of them was
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: this guy named o'goon who had this idea about calling
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: a ceasefire because he just, you know, he watching the
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: news and he sees what's happening in Israel and Occupied
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: Palestine and keeps hearing the word cease fire, and he's like,
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: that's the only thing that made him pay attention to
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: the news is because he heard that word. So he
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: wanted Baltimore to have that same kind of like introspection
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: but also eyes on it from the outside. So he
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: had this idea that they would just be one day
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: when everybody agreed in Baltimore, it's gonna be a cease fire.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: He took the idea to different men who was like, Yo,
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: that shit dumb. It's not gonna work, I mean, And
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: so he brought it to me at that meet and
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: he was like, I heard a lot about you.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I see how you move. I feel like you the
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: person I should be talking to.
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: This About two years later, in twenty seventeen, the city
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: had more murders than it had ever had in its history,
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: which pissed me off because I had been out doing
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: work all day long, the mediation Son. You know, I've
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: been doing that work forever, and so I'm mad, like,
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: how the fuck is this? What was happening when we're
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: doing this much work and day like pointing the people
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: who say they got connection to the gangs, Why don't
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: they tell niggas to stop shooting? Because if they say
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: it's gonna happen. The next day, when I woke up
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: still that mad about it, I realized that I was
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: day I'm mad about what people not doing, and I
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: had n't followed through on this man's I did from
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: two years ago. So I called him up and was like,
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: what you say you wanted to do? Because God put
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: it on my heart, it shouldn't just be one day,
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: it should be three days. And violence is a language.
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: So if we take in violence, we gotta replace it
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: with something. Let's tell people yo do stuff to celebrate life,
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: because if nobody deserved to celebrate life, Baltimore does so.
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: Just create events that's fun, that's celebrating life. Friday through
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: Sunday call. Brandon was one of the first people I
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: called to say, this is what we think about doing
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: all you gonna Before I could finish the sentence, he
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: was like, Oh, yeah, we're doing it what you need.
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: So we at first we were just calling it a
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: Life over Death Weekend. And to Brandon's point about the
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: last program that was the GVRS, it had been called
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: a cease fire, and all the sh reachs knew it
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: to be was the police come and lock you up.
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: So when we held this community meeting to ask what
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: do we name this Life Over Death Weekend, people were like, well,
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: if you call it Baltimore ceasefire, people know what that
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: what that means. And we put a sister component of
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: the peace Challenge because there's going to be a lot
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: of people being like, I wasn't gonna shoot nobody this
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: weekend anyway, so they're not talking to me, right, but
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: that's how people next week.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: But that's when we get out anyway, I wouldn't you know.
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: And so we wanted people to know the fact that
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: you're saying that shit is violent, like violence is not
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: just about shooters, it's about who you being pettied with
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: in your own family, who you dragging on social media
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: like can you be peaceful.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: For three days as a challenge to yourself.
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: But we were worried that because it would be called ceasefire,
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: it would get confused with the previous city program that
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: people and so we were like, but Baltimore is smart.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: If somebody say, oh, that's that ship where the police,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: we were like, no, that was that. This is this
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: and people gonna understand.
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: And they did it and it so at the time
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: the ceasefire started in May of twenty seventeen, people were
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: being killed every nineteen hours in Baltimore. So we had
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: that first weekend in August of twenty seventeen, the city
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: went forty one hours that weekend without anybody getting killed.
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: And although people be like, well that ain't nothing, you
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: say that shit to you get the phone call, you know, right,
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: So when we hit twenty four hours, we was like,
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: wait a minute, bitch, we might have did so right,
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: you know, forty one hours.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: But also when the first person got.
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: Killed, we went showed up at the space, We blessed
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: the space where the murder happened. We found his family,
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: his family, got money and resources, and the Kingdom Life
• 18:39
  Speaker 6: Church showed up and gave his mother the funeral, and
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: she literally said, if her son was going to be killed,
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: she was glad it happened during the ceasefire weekend. And
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: that's some wold shit to say, but that's really what
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: she met because she was like, if he got killed
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: last weekend or next weekend, nobody would have.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: Cared about my son publicized, right.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: So everybody that was like, weller's stupid, it's not going
• 18:59
  Speaker 6: to work. We was like, Okay, we're gonna do it
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: every every three every three months though, so we started
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: doing it every three months. We started blessing murder spaces
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: all year round. In twenty twenty two, it occurred to
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: me that the way creation actually works is whatever you
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: focus on your attention on with intense emotion, that's where
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: you're gonna manifest physically.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: So we're calling it cease.
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: Fire, and we're paying so much attention to what we're against,
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: we are not.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Putting that energy on what we're for. Because when you redirect.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: Your focus to what you're for, you don't give a
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: fuck about what you're against.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: You like, this about what I'm for, what I'm standing on.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: So we said, we asked Baltimore, what do you know
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: already exists here?
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: What are you for? What do you want for yourself?
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: And from different places the ideas came it should be
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: Baltimore Piece Movement, So we changed the name. The focus
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: more on what we want, what we are for, what
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: we know we can uplift in the city. And this
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: work is important to me because since I'm fifty two
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: years old, that's when.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Y'all go, girl right, thank you very much.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: So I started seeing people get killed when I was
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: twelve years old. My brother was one of my brothers
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: was killed in two thousand and seven. My cousins have
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: like just countless people. And that kind of pain and
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: trauma is either gonna swallow you up whole, or it's
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: gonna push you forward into your purpose so that other
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: people don't have.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: To experience what you experienced.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: And so the pain of my life and understanding that
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: they are now ancestors fighting with me on the other side,
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: whispering moving pieces for me on the other side, like
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: when I did not follow my call and I was
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: suicidal and tried to kill myself. And so I'm aware
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: like I gotta do what my soul tells me to
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: do or else I'm gonna end up back on the
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: psych board, and I'm not gonna make it because I
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: shouldn't have made it this far, and survivor's remorse can
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: become a real thing. Right when I've heard bullets flying
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: past my ear. I shouldn't be here for a lot
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: of reasons. But my parents had me on purpose, you know.
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: They said, oh, let's have a boy who's gonna change
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: the world. So I came out a girl, kind of
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: acting like.
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: A get there.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: Other things, but they knew, so they were gonna name
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: me Malcolm Patrece had I been born a boy, but
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: they named me Aca after Ka Huggins.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: And my middle name is Angela after Angela Davis. So
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: it's not you.
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: That's about my name, y'all. Huggins only has one R
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: in her name. He thought it was too So I
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: was reading the autobiography of Angela Davis in my twenties
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: and she mentions Araka Huggins. I'm like, that's about's name
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: from and I'm like, no, you.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: You spoke my neighbor.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: He said, oh, well, and you was born with let's
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: fingers and more that you special because this also he
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: was like that, and.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Because that's what they a couple of.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: Everything.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: We ain't no football having up here. Tell us.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I want you to tell us about the Body Politic documentary.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: It's so important why people should go check it out?
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: Which hold up?
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: Which I actually did watch and I love it because
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: uh you know he of course, Brandon said to me,
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: I love it because it speaks to people in Baltimore
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: of all ages, like my son.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: That's something that I can watch with my son. Even
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: how it comes on.
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: It's like we have the most always say we got
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: the most authentic mayor. And I've met a lot of
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: mayors and traveling and you know, I've been on it
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: by certain mayors and and different cities and stuff, but
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: we had Baltimore. We have like one of the most
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: authentic mayors. The way he speaks, the way he talks,
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: the way he loves his city, and how he actually
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: went through ship. And it's not just a Polish because
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: you think of a Polish person. It's like, oh, this
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: person is perfect and this person, like no, Brandon is
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: literally the most you know what I'm saying, like brand absolutely, yes,
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: I say that when I look this nigga at my
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: section and my birthday party.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: Why you got your own section.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I know you and my section ship and he's like, no,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: they told me your birthday party and I had to come.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: I was like, all right, party, but he it wasn't
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: my father wasn't going on.
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: That wasn't me.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: First it was it was a building.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: It was it was the it was that's Dave fault,
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: that's Dave counsel fault.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Wasn't no. And I got that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: They looking at me like can you call it? I'm like,
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: what the hell I'm gonna do.
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: They blame him, the mayor, like this the man fall
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: Jess party.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: I ain't had no m I'm like building.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I'm like this, come on, y'all.
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: But like I'm saying, yo, he's he's actually somebody that
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: actually can touch the people, can actually you know, say,
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: I've walked that walk and I know why. You know,
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: things are like this and things are like and you know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: making the city a better place. But I love that
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: the doc is something that my whole family can watch
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: because you know, when you think about, like, oh shit,
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: the mayor just dropped the documentary, you looking to not
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: understand it because I'm a person that's not really into
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: polity either.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, but the fact that.
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: I understood the whole thing, you know, me, my son,
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: my man, we watched it, you know my mom, I saent.
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: Of course I said it to her as well, and
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: it is amazing And it's not out yet. It is,
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: it is going to be out, but it actually shows
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: you things. It comes out Monday, right, yes, but it
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: actually twenty since it actually shows you things that you
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: don't even know about your city. Like I didn't even
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: know that twenty what was it twenty nineteen?
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Was I word?
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: She had twenty seven?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: What was it?
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: Seventeen?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Was not worst?
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you know so I certain things like that, like
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: you know, so it's definitely informative. It's informational and I
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: even if you're not from there, it's definitely an inspiration
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: to have a mayor like you to come out to
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: drop a dot about your city like this.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Well, I think for me, I think it's important for
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: me for multiple reasons. One, like, I think it's important
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: this is something that yes it's about Baltimore, but really
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: this is also about like inner city America, right, I
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: think because you could replace me with whatever mayor across
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: like may Wood from in Birmingham, and all these other
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: folks that are doing this great work in their city's
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: mayor Jones, my favorite mayor in Saint Louis, right, who
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: are from those cities and doing this work. But I
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: think what happens is, like you said, Jess, and look,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: you know, we love you. We're very proud of you.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Got to say that every time. But people look at
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: their elected officials and they don't really see them as human, right,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: like they see us as these robots that have to
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: do this stuff over and over and over. Right. I
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: always say, like people Erica last when I see this,
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: people think that, like my job can be described by
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: my Instagram feed, they have no idea, right the stuff
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: that has to happen. And I think, for me, the
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: reason why this is the second documentary that I've done,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: I was in another one called charm City when I
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: was a council person. But I did this because I
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: wanted people to see raw and uncut what it's really like,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: because people have no idea what it's like to be
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: the person that has to call someone and tell them
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: that they love one never coming home, or be the
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: person that someone's calling and saying, my baby's not gonna
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: walk again or have to make that decision that you
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: know is going to impact people in a way that
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: people aren't gonna be happy about. And what you see
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: in this movie also is that Baltimore obased sprinkle grit
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: that we have and that despite all the stuff that
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: we hear all these TV shows, there are so many
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: people that love our city. When you see Erica and
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: when you see all of the folks, Dante and everyone
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: out there doing that work, right, you see something that
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: you won't get to see because most people aren't going
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: to be out there with violence intervention workers, a safety's
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: workers and saying like, hey, yo, you got to do
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: you don't need to do this right. Most people are
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: not going to be out there blessing a space after
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: someone gets murdered. Right. Most people aren't going to be
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: sitting there getting those phone calls like I did, or
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: happen to fight to even start this program.
• 27:34
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: It's like you say, V I couldn't just do this
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: on my own because agencies from the state, right, and
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: we had a different governor. We didn't have Wes Moore
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: when this movie was being famed, Like I had to
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: convince our former governor to agree to do this. I
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: had to convince our federal partners at the congressional.
• 27:52
  Speaker 7: Level to agree to help us do this.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: People don't get to see that, and they also don't
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: get to see like my raw emotion, like when things happened.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: And this is one that's captured in the film that
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: you don't see from my standpoint as much as you
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: do from Ericas. But our brother Tata Boxton was murdered
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: doing the filming.
• 28:14
  Speaker 7: Of this movie.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: And people will see me that day on the news talking,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: but they don't know, Like most people don't know how
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: close Tata and I are. They're gonna know now in
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: this video in this movie when they see me and
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: him walking around these neighborhoods together. They don't know that.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: Like it took a lot for me to even go
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: out and talk to the press that day because I
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: had to not be in that moment. I couldn't grieve,
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: I couldn't do any of the stuff that you do
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: when someone that close to you is murdered. Because now
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I got to go and show a strong, strong standpoint
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: for the city, and people will be able to see
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: that and also see that there's a different approach to
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: dealing with violence that's working, and we have to spread
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: it across. I think the thing that I've been most
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: proud of with the film is that two months ago
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: President Biden and Vice President Harris had a executive order
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: sign it at the White House and after that Maya's
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: from around the country stay to watch the film. Never
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: in my wildest dream that I think little Brandon from
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Parkston and Cole Spring would be at the White House
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: first right there, more time than I ever thought I
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: could imagine in the last four years, but two that
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: they will be watching a movie about me and about
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Baltimore and it be something positive. But that's what this
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: story is about. It's about hope, determination and what is
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: possible when people work together.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it's really important.
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: I was really excited to come here, specifically because PBS
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: is not a place where our people gonna go and
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: know what the fuck is on PBS on Monday at
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: nine ten o'clock and I was like, so, the viewership,
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: the audience of the Breakfast Club, these are our people
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: impacted by violence live in this in even the people
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: doing the work around violence. That's the people that watch
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: that that followed us. And I was like, and we
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: got way till just come back from eternity.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: Baltimore in the buildings.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: Today, sleep come better.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: To me.
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: It's just it's important for people to feel seen in
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: their pain, like those of us who do the work
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: on the ground. There are people like us all over
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: this country because America is a place that believes in
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: power over instead of power with. It is a it
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: teaches that violence is the way you get power. And
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: so all cities like Baltimore are dealing with the same problem,
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: and they have people like us doing healing work, doing
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: intervention work, doing mediation work. But they people still look
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: at us and say what we should be doing, and
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: how come y'all not doing because.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: They don't really see on it.
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: They only see us on TV or happen to maybe
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: see us in the street, but they don't even if
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: with my pain in grief was public around Tata different
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: from what Brandon did. I was all over the national
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: news crying about it. But people still will circle back
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: and go, well, then y'all should be doing this, that
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: and the third. But you not really doing nothing except
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: being whatever you are, which.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Be in the comment.
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: Some people just cheerleaders, some people just hey, does the
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: remind me who I want to be. That's fine too,
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: but people, it's important for people to see what it
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: is like, what you actually as a human go through
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: when you decide I'm going to have an intimate relationship
• 31:45
  Speaker 6: with violence and murder because I'm working to heal it
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: in the world and people need to be seen about
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: that work and about their trauma and about how they
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: lost people and it's not just them that's going through it,
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: and that people really love them and people really want
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: Baltimore to win. That's something I have learned. We've traveled
• 32:04
  Speaker 6: around the world with this film. It premiered in London,
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: as you know.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: They're like, oh, that's why.
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: Make it to London.
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: That's a whole different conversation. But the news lite about
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: what he was doing and why he didn't make it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: But that's a different conversation. But we've been to the Netherlands,
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: We've been like this film has literally been saying around
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: the world in Africa, like it's been seen everywhere, and
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: just like you're saying that things that people in Baltimore
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: are gonna watch it and.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: Go yo, I didn't even know that about us.
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: Beautiful things people around the world got to say that
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: about us, and which made me say to them that
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: means it's neighborhoods right here where you live that you're
• 32:46
  Speaker 6: judging the fuck out of and you're saying it's something
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: wrong with them instead of asking what happened to them
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: and how do you benefit off of the systems that's
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: doing whatever it is doing to them. So, yeah, support
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: our work in Baltimore, absolutely, but it's probably stuff happening
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: right here where you live that you need to be
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: looking at differently, and you need to be supporting the
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: word getting done right here where you live, and.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: You check it out on Yes, yeah, I'm about to say,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: but I want to remind people check it out Monday
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: on PBS. What time Monday.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: It's coming on ten pm on Monday, But you can
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: stream it on PBS right right during and whatever, and
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: then it'll come to some stringing.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: Streaming and people should check their local listens because you
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: know pbsd Yeah.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Depending.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: The film has the instagram is at the Body Politic film.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, definitely go check it out. I just have one
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: last question. You know you were talking about you said
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: that you know you were meeting with Biden and Kamala Harris.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: You will know So now that Trump will be in
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: office in January.
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna just move back from the how have you
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: had conversations with his administration as yet or even spoken
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: to him yet?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: And how do you plan on, you know, focusing on that,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: because I mean, I don't think Trump is really going
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: to care about the NCA these too much, you know,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: areas like Baltimore.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: Detroit, Baltimore. He's mad, He's made it.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: No, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to get
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: funding and to make sure that you got the budget.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: You need to make sure that your city is clean
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: and clear and good. So how do.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: You Yeah, we were buckling down right, and I think
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: that this is the reality, and this was the message
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: that I was delivering all over the country to folks
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: right because I was in that first meeting Envy with
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: the President and Vice president where.
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: We talked to them before Oprah hit the street about.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: We need to be able to use this stuff to
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: help community violence intervention and focusing as oncome violence as
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: a public health issue. We didn't think in our wildest
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: dreams that the President would go out and say it
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: right then and there, but he did and then allowed
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: us to do that work. We put fifty million dollars
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: of our offer money into community violence intervention. Now we
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: don't know, none of us know what the Trump administration
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: is going to look like for our cities. But if
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: they are going to care carry out the things that
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: they said, we know it doesn't look good for us.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: So we have already been working because we know that
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: offering these other stuff we're going to end to how
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: do we now institutionalize these things within city government working
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: with our state government. We're blessed in Maryland to have
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: a governor Wes Moore. We're now blessed. We're going to
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: continue to have the best congressional delegation with the now
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: with the addition of Senator Angela also Brooks.
• 35:24
  Speaker 7: So if folks of black people.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: In particular are living in a in a city or
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: a state and they feel like their rights are being
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: in friends, come to Maryland, aka come to death row Right.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: If you don't want your governor telling you what books
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: you can't read, and if you don't want to you
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: want to live in a state where women's bodies can
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: be protected, come to Maryland. If you want to come to.
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: A place where black people will be respected.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Come to Maryland. But that aside, I think that what
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: we're going to do is we're gonna knuckle down. We're
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: going to be working with our philanthropic partners, and that's
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: the key on how we set this up. It wasn't
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: just a city funding it. It wasn't just a fa
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: It's funding. It wasn't just the state. We had our
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: philanthropic partners, all of us together, and now we just
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: have to wait and see. My hope is that the
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: new administration sees like, oh, this city has been having
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: tremendous reductions in violence, right, why would they come and
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: disrupt that. We hope that that can can continue. We
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: hope that our congressional delegation is still like they are today,
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: being able to make choices about what things they get
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: funded in their local districts, and if not, we're just
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: going to have to work around it and do it ourselves.
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: Right, That's what we have to do, because.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: This work has to continue not just in Baltimore, but
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: in Newark, in Saint Louis and Chicago, everywhere else in
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: the country because we know that violence is going down
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: and our inner city. So we just have to do
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: that work and buckle down.
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: I got one more thing to say.
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: So after the election branding, you said, this country does
• 36:52
  Speaker 6: not deserve black woks.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: It doesn't, Okay, I want.
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: You to to what do you think that we need?
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: I want you to expand on that, like.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: Well, we can be here all day. I think when
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: I said that and people are like, oh, that's a
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: great speech, I was like, well, my staff will tell
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: you that they had no idea without what I was
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: going to say when I went out there. It was
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: just the response. But I think there's a couple of things.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Right when we think about and people can say what
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: they want, right when we think about the election that
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: we just went through. We went through election with the
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: most qualified person to ever run for this position, was
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: the most disrespect that Canada ever ran the best campaign
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: that I've ever seen. And I've been around a lot
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: of campaigns, right, and yes that and yes that includes
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: President Obama's and that we love him forever. You know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I love your president. But this, when you look at
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: that and you look at the focus and the things
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: that people focused on, it's very clear that this country
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: still has a big problem with black people and with women,
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: and unfortunately my vice president, your vice president, it was
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: both of them, because this wasn't for many people about
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: policy right. Folks voted against their best interest, which is insane,
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: but it happens all the time. We have to have
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: real and honest conversations about what it means to allow
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: people to be treated the way they should be treated
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: you and not be disrespected the way they should be disrespected.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: And I always say this up to people like me
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: in my position, like I said that day to call
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: things says they are right, and people are like, oh,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: you're putting yourself at risk, You're making yourself a target,
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Like I'm already a target any I'm already at risk,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: And what are they going to do to me that
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: they didn't do to my ancestors. The reality is too
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: many people that look like me fought and died for
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: me to be even able to sniff a position like this,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: for me to sit by and allow someone who was
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: as qualified as talked about, but also who personally did
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: so much for me in my city to just be
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: treated like that and not say it right. I think
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: that I owe that to her as a black man,
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: as a son and grandson of black women, but as
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: the husband to a Belasian wife just like she's a
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Blazian Ablasian American as well. I owe that to them,
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: but I also owe that to my ancestors and for
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: me to continue to stand on what we know it's
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: right and call it out. And we know that right,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: we can if you just look at what they say
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: about her every time she opens the mouth, and then
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: other folks can just say stuff you be like really really,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, look y'all, Linda McMahon is about the leader
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: Department of Education, right, and we're talking about she wasn't
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: qualified for the job. Come on though, Like, we know
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: what it is, and folks have to call it out
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: and stop being scared to do so, because that's how
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: these folks get so comfortable and continuing these things because
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: people are like, oh, yo, they're gonna take away my money.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: They gonna yeah, money is fine, your position is fine,
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: that is fine, but like, what principles do you have?
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: What kind of world do you want to live in
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: where you can literally see that happen to this woman.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: And also, look, let's be honest, the data doesn't align right.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: We have to remember and this is in particular, I
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: take this person too, because I also came into office
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: during the middle of the pandemic. Right when they came
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: into office, no one knew what the next week was
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: going to look like, let alone the next four years.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: And when you think about it, in particular to black
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: folks and folks that listen and watch The Breakfast Club,
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: You've never seen more investment in the HBCUs, You've never
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: seen more small black business career. You've never seen a
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: lower level of black unemployment in this country. What else
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: do you want? Like this stuff takes time. She's not
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: going to just be there in four years during the
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: height of a pandemic and then like, oh, all these
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: things are the list that have existed in this country
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: since they brought the first one of us over here.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: It's gonna go away. We have to stop holding ourselves
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: to this extreme high regard and taking Joe whatever the
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: rag man from other folks.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Definitely check out the documentary this Monday ten PM. Check
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: your local listing on PBS.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: And we appreciate you for joining us anytime.
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: I wanted to ask you, who is the guy next
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: to you. He's a wise man in.
• 41:26
  Speaker 6: My opinion, who said it takes the village to raise
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: a child.
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: Uncle the village is.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Uncle Tim. He got in trouble.
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: I'm like, no, nah, when he said that, Brandon knew
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: he fucked. Like he says, envy, this was a whole
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: press conference. It takes the village the raise a child.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: What if the village is.
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: Retarded, guest, I knew what he meant.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Just know what he meant he meant.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: That's not the point.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Even you can see. I'm like, damn, you know.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: Yes. So we had another event a couple of weeks ago,
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: and Uncle teas about to ask quest. I said, Uncle T,
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: before you asked this question, he did, man, he had
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: talking points.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I said, if we asked the question.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: The last time you asked me dad question, you got
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: me a lot and everybody just busted.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: That's my man.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I love uncles a lot of work.
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: Saves a lot.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: Of young people in East Baltimore. We love him very uncle.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He's forty plus forty.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: You know, look them old black people, they're gonna say
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: what they mean what they said.
• 42:42
  Speaker 6: He got because he whipped the young people over every
• 42:45
  Speaker 6: single day helping us.
• 42:46
  Speaker 7: But I'll tell you something about Uncle T though.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: This is this is how you know when and you'll
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: remember this. Remember this summer, we had this incident where
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: this young lady was shot and killed inside of the house.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Right uncle called me before the police commissioner called me
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: and him in the community. When I got there, they
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: were like, Brandon, this is who it is. So I
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: delivered the message to our folks. And then if you
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: watch the interview and Eric, everyone was online like your
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: brain is sitting the message and others don't know what
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: he's saying. I literally go out there and say, the
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: entire city is looking for you. Your best bet is
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: to turn yourself in.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: He knew they.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Knew what I was saying. But that's the kind of
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: person And that's really what's happening with these communities, because
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: people ain't just gonna let somebody go in the house
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: and kill a little baby, and you think you just
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: going like, we'll go off about your business like na, yo.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: They like people who are looking for you. And they
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: were able to say, I'm like, look y'all, chill, we'll
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: find him. Tell us who they told us, And we
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: were able to get him and put him where he belonged.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: But I think that shows you the character of people
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: who know, like, no, we got to set a code
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: that like, no, whatever you got going on ain't got none.
• 44:00
  Speaker 7: To do with this little baby.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: And that's the kind of thing that we have to
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: have and stop allowing. Like the thing that pisces me
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: off the most is if I go on the Internet
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: and see somebody that shot somebody mother or daughter or somebody,
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: and they be.
• 44:15
  Speaker 7: Like free free him. What Yeah, are you crazy?
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Like yo, he killed somebody's child, right Like, I ain't
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: had nothing to do with their little city silly petty
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: beef because I think envy. One of the things and
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: just that people don't realize is that this ain't the
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: nineties people dying or regular beef thing dying whole amounts
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: of money like yeah, yo, disrespecting me or every other
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: day like dump Yeah I did say that one time,
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: damn the TV I did. Thanks Jess for reminding me.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: Uh yo sent my yo, sent my girl a message
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: on Instagram? Like did she respond it?
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Nature girl?
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: Bro?
• 44:50
  Speaker 8: Like like that's just how we go right Like, And
• 44:55
  Speaker 8: we got to get our folk, got to understand that
• 44:58
  Speaker 8: we gotta be better with each other in understanding how
• 45:02
  Speaker 8: to resolve conflict because we're gonna have conflict.
• 45:04
  Speaker 7: That's the human way.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing is is I know we
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: gotta go, but I think the biggest thing is social media.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you why, right, because before, if that
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: was a situation, you send my girl a note, it's
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: just between me, you and my girl. Everybody, the embarrassment
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: is not there.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I can just walk away.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Now I'm embarrassed because now everybody, everybody feels like I
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: need my ego. The same thing as if you if
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: we get into a fist fight, right, yep, you beat
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: me up on and you know it's a couple of
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: people that see it. I go home.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: It's people at the next block don't know social media,
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: and I know I can't beat you. So the next time,
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: I gotta bring the blak.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Correct, that's what Now it's all in the commed.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: So now I got to prove myself from New York.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: I understands, right, you got new.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Balances on these weatpants. You know.
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: I just want to say, because you brought up like
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: conflict in general, right, it really is a trap to
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: make us.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: I think that we there's no other choices like the
• 46:01
  Speaker 6: thing I have to do now because people don't understand, right,
• 46:05
  Speaker 6: they don't understand the brain science of it is. It's
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: just a moment in your brain telling your body run, fight, freeze.
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: You chose fight, But if you take that pause and
• 46:14
  Speaker 6: calm down, it's.
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: A lot of other options to you.
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: But you are being socialized to think these are the
• 46:19
  Speaker 6: only options because your humanity ain't worth shit, so these
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: you gotta act like an animal because you are an
• 46:24
  Speaker 6: animal and this is all you can do, when really
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: you got all of these other options, and we don't
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: get taught conflict management skills like conflict management didn't get
• 46:34
  Speaker 6: it doesn't get addressed, like the coronavirus.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: I think also because we're just learning as it's going on.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, you know because and anybody
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: will be a liar if they say it doesn't affect them.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: The first time you read a negative comment about yourself,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: it could have been one hundred positive comments, but that
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: one negative comment, those two negative common stuck with you,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: and it's hard to feel like I'm gonna let it go.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: It takes time to learn, and that's why Conversation car.
• 47:02
  Speaker 6: And there are all over this country organizations that teach
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: conflict management skills. We do that at the community Mediation
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: Center in Baltimore that teach mediation. So there's a safe
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: space to take all right, me and you say that
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: ship to my face in a confidential space so we
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: can really work it out right. And there are organizations
• 47:20
  Speaker 6: doing that work all over, but they have to be
• 47:22
  Speaker 6: uplifted as much as to keep that same energy shit
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: is to recognize that it is intentionally trying to make
• 47:31
  Speaker 6: our demise just a real And.
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: The last thing I'll say, I say to see the
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: kids all the time too, right, and we have to
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: understand like who's programming. I got to ask this by
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: a kid in a school last year. It's like, mister man,
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: every time I go on Instagram or TikTok, it's trying
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: to show me fight videos. I don't watch fight videos.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: I said, yeah, but people in your class other people do,
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: and they think that people like you algis are a real thing.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: Perfect example, this is a true story. A young lady
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: that works for me one of it set up a
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: TikTok account, Like I'm not downloading TikTok. You can do
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: what you want, but she was like, well, we want
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: the algorithm to be right. So you sit here while
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: I picked the things She's like, what are you interested now?
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Like sports, babies, politics, weather, nature, right cities. Assuming she
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: goes in there because it puts in my age right
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: and all my information and where I live. All they
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: wanted to show me was ass videos.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: She's looking at it like, what.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: We have to understand that and really figure out ways
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: to unplug ourselves from that. But thank you all for
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: having me.
• 48:37
  Speaker 6: Thank you both and Scott Erica.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: Make sure you check out the documentary this Monday, ten
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: o'clock on People.
• 48:46
  Speaker 6: Yes so much, Thank you.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: It's The Breakfast Club. Good Morning Wakes Up in the Morning,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club