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Tony Lewis Jr & Tony Lewis Sr Talk Life Before/After Prison, First Step Act +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yupster World's Most Dangerous Morning Show to Breakfast Club, Charlamagne
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the God, just Hilarious, DJ Envy is offul. We got
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: two special guests, man, Tony Lewis Junior and Tony Lewis Senior.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: If you've been paying attention.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: To their journey, then you know we're about to have
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a great conversation.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: How y'all brother's doing man, amazing?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell them the story that you've been telling for
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: all these years, Tony.
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 0:20
  Speaker 5: Man, my father went away when I was nine years old,
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: got life without parole, and you know that journey lasted
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: thirty four years through tirelessly fighting for his freedom, you know,
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: coming up here five years ago, you know, doing stuff
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: all across the country, doing stuff in DC, but also
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: utilizing our struggle to help you know, so many other
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: families that was in a similar situation, being inspiration and hope.
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: And then finally, you know, due to so much advocacy,
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: my brother pushing T connected me with Brittany K.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Barnett, who I call our Martin Day Harry.
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: You're telling me and her her organization bring a live
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: project shoutow.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: People like Corey Jacobs also a part of that.
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: Yes, Randa Jones and and eventually that unlocked those gates.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: And sixty five days ago, my father stepped out of
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: federal prison.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Have you have you adjusted yet, my brother?
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: I'm trying, yeah, getting there the technology. That's kind of uh,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: the whole city's changed. Gentrification or white people having black dcs.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Man, I think it needed like context for that though.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: Really, right, we live in the most gentrified place in America.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: These are five years yeah, DC, and five years ago
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: when I was up here, I talked a bit about.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: That, right, but he left in eighteen eighty nine, thirty.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Four years ago, so it was really chocolate. It was
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: now blocked.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: Man, Like our neighborhood.
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: Everything is just really changed a lot. So for him
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: to walk walk into that is that's all. And where
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: is everybody also who were there before? That's the other question.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: You know, sorry, but you know that just think that's important.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: I can definitely tell that he's still like hold up
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: was going on because even when I walked up to
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: him and spoke to me, like, y'all, you might want.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: To chill out, don't walk about happy like you.
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: Know, but you can give me a hug, and you
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: know he don't even give hugs regularly. He like, no,
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: don't touch too much, and then he put the two
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: fingers on the back.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Like a back off. Yeh mean, man, I was telling her,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I'm watching it from prison. I know who she was.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that, big fan.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: Hell yeah, and you're not from Baltimore, you're right to Baltimore.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what, you know, it's crazy because you know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: I think, uh, which, what's beautiful about the DC Baltimore
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: relationship has really grown and it's through people like you think,
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: people like it, and really a lot of it got
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: to do with, like, you know, people in the fairs.
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: You know, he was dudes like Stokey and d Watkins.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: That's like my absolutely shout out to Stokey, Yes and
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: my guy.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: So through that kind of work and trying to help
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: out share community, and I think the whole idea of
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: the d m V, which DC people weren't necessarily with
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: that from the beginning, Baltimore people want with that from
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: the beginning with our region even down to the seven
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: five to seven, you know, starting to really show that
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of beautiful things coming out of our area.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: You know what, I'm saying, let's talk about the story
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a little bit, man, Tony Tony Senior.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: You served thirty four years.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: For your role in one of the largest most notorious
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: crack cocaine crime rings in that region. Like what got
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you into the game?
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Poverty? Poverty, single parent household, you know, like the regular
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: not regular, but back in my our whole street was
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: basically that's what it was, at least on my side
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: of the street. Wealfare poverty, drugs, violence, the whole block.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: That's all you knew. That's all you saw. That was
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: the job. Like you know, like people say about getting
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: a job, that was the job. We knew nothing else.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: So it was a culture. And h the poverty is
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: what led to me, uh selling drugs and you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: trying to help my family mother, single parents, sisters, brothers, uh, friends,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: and uh it just grew and she was a culture,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And you know that's so
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: that's that's what did.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: You ever think it was gonna get that big?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Because y'all, you know, I always say in the eighties,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: y'all were like early investors in like a tech company
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: or something, you know what I mean, Like, y'all are the.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Ones who really really got it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I never uh, I never set forth in it
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: too to become big or drug I really I was
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: trying to just survive, help my family, eat mom, pay
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: the bills, you know, like gas get cut off from
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: time to time, the wayfaret check ain't last, you know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: like it. You know. So that was that's where I
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: got in. And uh and you know, like I said, it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Was a culture.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: And uh, I always worked hard at whatever I did.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: So selling drugs that worked. And I came up and
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I worked hard, and I seen the money and it
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: kept you know, wanted to get more and more, but
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: not to glorify it at all. But back then that
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: was the culture.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: What's the most you had? At one time, I had a.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Few million in cash, and back then that was that
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: was a lot, you know, I know, the lands a
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: little less, but yeah, I got to get a few
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: men in uh in my early twenties. I wound up
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: getting the rested at twenty six, and uh that was it. Yeah, done,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: that was it until two years of balling a yeah,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: actually more than because I saw like when I was fourteen,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: you know, but of course small stuff and you know,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: but yeah, big stuff came you know later money wise
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: and everything else, but marijuana from the beginning, and you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: stuff like that, you know, small stuff like that. But
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: then I blocked turn from the marijuana to cocaine. Not
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: my making, you know, other other people making. But Ronald
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Y yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Couple were right there too. You see the dome of
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: the Capitol.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: We we ten blocks twelve blocks from the Capitol where
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: our street is. You feel what I'm saying, And I
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: think that that's that really is. It's something to that though,
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: to say that, right, you can stand on our block
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: on any corner in DC and the presidential motivated.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: Might ride by, like in a little sense, that is
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: the backdrop to you know, our store.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: And I grew up on the sound that same block
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: in a in a more even dailier time because now
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: the queen in the heart of the crack epidemic. You
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: feel I'm saying when I'm coming up in the nineties,
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean? Uh, And we're the murder
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: capital of the United States, and you know, and it's
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: it's just like complete destruction and just desperation, and I'm
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: just so happy that I had him from prison.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: It's crazy. It was when they got locked up.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: Man, you know, being nine years old, I'm the only child,
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. From the course, stuff is
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: on the news every day. Then they went to they
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: was getting preferential treatment at DC jail. So they go
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: to Quantico Marine Base.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah what I'm saying. So you go visit at the
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: sale like we had the marine based M sixteen's and marines.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: It's not a prison. And I'm that's embttered than my
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: brain to this day.
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: They go shipped out the Long Park, California for the
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: next thirteen years and I'm just sharing that to talk
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: about how that is. And I'm on that block. He
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: three thousand miles away. My mother started to deal with
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: severe mental illness that she still.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Battles to this day.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: So I lost my both my parents in the way
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: that I had them prior and and had to navigate
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: through that which we just described. But I had him
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: on the other and their phone in them letters, you know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: every day telling me to like make better choices, you know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: doing everything that he could from prison to ensure that
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: I don't you know what I mean, following them same footsteps.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, I'm growing up
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: in the exact same thing. That's why I wake up
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: feeling like the luckiest man alive.
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: And even with all of that, you could have still
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: took another turn. What made you not turn to wreak
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: Saint Patrick with all this? Yeah?
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: For really all, Joseph. Yeah, because where we come from,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: it ain't nothing else. Just like he it's nothing that
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: all my uncles, all his friends, them people ain't leave
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: with him.
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: They were still around and people people did give me,
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: you know, so much information of like slug. That's where
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: everybody called me slug. Something different, you got something different.
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: I had a strong grandmother, my aunts, you know, and
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: other dudes in the community in general just wanted me
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: to do something different, but nobody could show me how.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: That's what the problem came. Do something different? But who
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: else felt pressure? So that's what.
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: But I was able to, you know, by the grace
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: of God, I was able to kind of, you know,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: find my way.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: But what really save me It wasn't linear like that though.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: Just what happened was when I was about.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Twenty, I still ain't you know what I mean, what
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna do, I don't you know.
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: But I got a job doing Peter pet violence interruption
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: like a job basically the people closest to the problem
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: that could reach their peers.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean. I fell in love with
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: the work and I save my life.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: That's what really, you know what I mean put me
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: on this path that I've been on.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: For the last twenty three years.
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying as an activist, aside from
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: you know, getting them out of jail, but being sort
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: of the leading voice, I stayd at the intersection like poverty,
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: massive conservation and gun violence in my city.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: You know what was the turning point in the like
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the free Tony Lewis movement, Like when did you start
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: seeing hope?
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: I always felt like, you know, I was gonna make
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: it happen. But the biggest turning point, all right? Uh?
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: I think when? When? When?
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: When you know, through the years, like people like my brother,
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: while a lot of other guys you know, helping and
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: pushing push.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Will push it. But when pushing introduces us to Brittany Barnett, right,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: we had the other turn.
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: But when we when pushing, it makes that intro and
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: he made the song coming Home with Long Hill. She
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: mentions Pops in that's when her legal prowess and then
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: she connected with a law firm, Aaron Fox Shift in
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: d C to be able to represent him. I felt hopeful,
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: but look the first motion, uh that that that she
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: files though he's judge, he gets denied for it.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Though.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: You know, when I did the free Tony Lewis.
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: Rally, got like a thousand people up in the Black
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: Lives Matter plaza and and we found emotion after that
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: and the motion get denied, I was like, man, great,
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: it was like nah, it's like we're going back in Yeah.
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: And we just kept, you know, kept pushing, you know
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: what I mean. I kept bugging, you know, you and
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: and everybody else.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Let me come up.
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: Let me talk about trying to you know what I mean,
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: because you know, I felt like I started a family man.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: You know, now, I grew up right, but also I
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: got married, I had, you know what I'm saying, my.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: Two daughters, and I ain't want my babies keep visiting
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: no federal prison. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: grew up like that, you know. And and then we
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: hadn't seen him since when COVID hit.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: We we didn't go see what pop since three years yeah,
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: an't even going to.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Visit because he was like nah, he like, no, I
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: don't even want to see them in here. Yeah, we're
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: gonna do. I'm gonna see them when I come.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Home, even though I ain't.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: No.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: It was just good energy and hope, prayers, you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: and faith in you son, you know. Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we you know, we did some of the
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: things important too that gave me hope. My father's you know, Pops, Pops,
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: we got different personalities, more introverted than I.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: When he started running this help to run this program
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: called Young Men Incorporated. Guy named Dominic Henry started it
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: was a former federal inmate came back in to do
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: this program and do the Peanut King out of Baltimore.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but they ran it was mentioned the county something
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: about that man. Yeah, yeah, that's my man's that's right.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: So Pop, can you tell me a little bit about
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: why am I like you know more? I mean, you
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: can explain it better than it was.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: It was a mentor peer oriented mentoring uh uh group.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: I would say, hmm. They got the most high profile
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: guys in the prison to be a part of it.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Most of the young men look up to the it's
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: same to say, but the high most high problem, high
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: profile guys in the in the prison and uh so uh.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: I was reluctant at first to take part, and it
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: really uh because I was doing some other things and
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: that I'm always mentioning I'm doing this on a regular anyway.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: And it's consuming because the young guys always want to talk.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: They want to bring you all the problems and the
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: girl problems, all the problem like, well what about my
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: problem younger? But it's all good. But anyway, now I
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: took I took part and it really was really was
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: it was really good. It was gratifying. Uh son, you
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: got to come in. Council members came in.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Uh we we.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Had a rock and roll and maybe had a good
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: warden who was pro uh programming, you know, he was
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: with it.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: And you don't get and to come into federal prison
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: in the ways that I was able to come in
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: and collaborate with my.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Father, Yeah, that was that that don't happen if I
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: don't know people.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: I didn't really understand that this does not how and
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: also came in and interviewed them and did a p
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: s A to the young men in our community about
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: playing guns down for the mayor.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: So, but when I saw him opening up and swing
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: that like the work that I was doing on the outside.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: We'd always connected on it, like helping the guys in there,
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: their children had, you know, their children out in the community.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: I would help.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: But for him to take it by the horns like that,
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: it made me go even harder because I'm like, he's
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: even growing in a different way that wasn't really you
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, happening before.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: So that made me keep pushing.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we can't leave out the big home up her
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: stealborn weight. He was a big part of sil was
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: a big part Timothy Williams, Tiny James Kirby Burkes. These
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: good men still in prison with life sentences that they
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: working every day, no matter what the weight they got
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: on their back, they're helping these young guys not to
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: come back out and pick these guns back up. That
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: means a lot. Man, if we don't know, they don't know.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: So I got the try to shed some light on
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: them guys.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: What was the what was the legislation that actually got
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: his sentence overturned?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: The first step out?
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Okay, it was.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: A Trump re formed and you know again back five
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: years ago on an interview.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: I wasn't you know, because I helped advocate for that
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: as well, right, but at the time we didn't even
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: think that he would be able to benefit from the
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: first step back. But obviously other stuff that I benefit,
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: I mean that I advocated for. You know, it was
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: about not us, It was about the great and other
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: American families all across this country the benefit, you know
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: what I'm saying. So the first step actor, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: and shout out to to to you know, Cut fifty
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: Dream Court, Van Jones and and all that crew and
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: host King Jefferies also who introduced the.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Bill, but Trump signed in the law.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: Probably twenty thousand people have come come home off that
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: reform and you know, uh, something that's really really important
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: to us and what we planning on working on together
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: moving forward. We actually got to meeting tomorrow in the
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: same vein as that you know, the Biden administration Jo Joe.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: President list up.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very very very inactive.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: I think it's the architect of our currence.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: But checked this out so so infrastructure, these things he
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: ran on infrastructure, did that computer chips, did that climate change?
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: Did that gun control? To the to the to the
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: extent that he could impact that.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: Did that?
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: Uh stood loan that to a certain degree.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Did that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: But this, mister Biden, is your issue. This is you.
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: You can do by executive order. You do not need
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: congressional collaboration to do this right. No, by executive order,
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: he has the clemency power, power to pay right.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: And we need you to do that. We need you
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: to commute sentences.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: We need you to reunite American families like ours, the
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: joy that we're feeling that, you know, just to be
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: reconnected because.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: On him directly, it's his eighty six mandatory minimum.
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: Citizen, do it, Joe, like for real, Like it's it's
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: his to do.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: And it's time to do it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: I went to a vent of the Justice Department, was
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: three weeks ago, and then I say, this is all
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: like I don't. I'm glad that those thirty one families
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: have been reunited.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: But come on, man, thirty one, pardon the commutation thirty one.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: You got thousands of people languishing under these hard sentences
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: man for crack cocaine and many mimerum. And they've done
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: their time, they done they more than their time.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: Right, So it's not like it's how to get out
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: of jail free call. We talked people that have done twenty.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Five They've done their time, more than their time, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: it never got that much time.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: The reason I mentioned the reason I think Biden should
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: make this a main issue is because number one, he
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: was the architect of all of those bills. But he's
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: admitted to it. Like like when we had him on
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club. You know, people always get caught up in
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the U ain't black comment, but there was a moment
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: when I'm talking to him about righting his wrongs of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: math incarceration, you know, with the ninety four crime bill.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: He was like, he wasn't the ninety four crime bill,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it was the eighty.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: But I was like, you wrote that.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: You know, and what you what you get out of
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: that is the destabilization, in my opinion, the greatest destabilization
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: or the destabilizer of communities like ours, no matter who
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: lives there. Right, if you got it took people out
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: of the community. Yes, people should have been held accountable.
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: Even in the free Tony Lewis movement. I never said
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: he want no political prison.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: I never was like he should have never went to jail,
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: should have went to jail, but just not.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: That's real. That's real.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: I should have went to President, I should have went
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: to prison.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: And it's like, it's like one of the situations where
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: you can really do that. It should be a criteria.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: The other thing is people should not have to go
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: before these judges and it depending on what side.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Of the bed they woke up on.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Your freedom is based on that.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: It should be if you did this amount of time,
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: you've shown rehabilitation, you should do it. The other part
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: of it though, for for President Biden and v P. Harris, listen,
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: we not only should people be reunited with their families,
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: but you guys should take the steps to make the
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: federal workforce, which I'm a part of the federal workforce
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: model for second chance hiring. See, we got to clear
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: up some of these birds. My father did thirty four years,
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: but it's still.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: Places he can't work and can't live.
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: Think about that, right, I mean, so you're still technically,
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: you know, in some type of way.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: There's no question about it.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: If he don't got me right, you know, to navigate
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: this new world after thirty four years, you know what
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: I'm saying, and trying to find your way.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: But I work in that.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: I deal with guys who don't have a meet, who
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: don't have stability, they got to release to homeless shelters
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: and the jobs that they qualify for but can't get
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: them after serving it at the society, Like, we need
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: to really foster a culture of redemption, you know, if
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: we really want public safety, if we really want communities
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: to thrive, and things of that nature. And I think
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: the THISA administration should lead with that on both fronts.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: I agree, and it need to happen.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Like now, mister Lewis Senior, how did you feel watching
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: your son, your namesake, be out here fighting for you?
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: Man?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: In that way?
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: That's what kept me going. Man, so much pride, so
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: much joy. I get emotional, man, because it's it's uh,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: it's hard for me to explain, but me and my son,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: we talk about it all the time. So many different
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: experiences guys coming into prison. Man, your your son helped
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: me get a job, but I messed up because I
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: went back on drugs, but he helped me. Uh, and
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: then and then I'm ready to get out next month.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Can you can you hook me back up with him?
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: I was like, man, I'll give him your name, but
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: he my son, remember these guys man, And I read
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: your son's book and inspired me so much, you know,
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: slug you know his book slug. Uh just a wonderful
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: uh life goud you know, especially for us and now
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: coming up in the same hood and the black community. Uh,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: but just so much inspiration. I'm so proud of him
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: at the top of it off with getting his day free,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: because he didn't help me get a lot of other
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: people free. And I was like, yeah, you know, because
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: a lot of things that he tried to uh, legislation
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: he tried to get changed or in acted. We was
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: always looking at it thinking it was gonna help us,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Like drug minus two Uh.
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Uh that was the first thing we say we
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: got denied. I mean the drugs minus two things something
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: very you know.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: We was only it was the legislation that well, the
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Senates Commission has u and nact me saying that all
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: drugs you could get you was under the two point reduction,
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: no matter what the drugs was or what the mount was.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: And uh to com back to the eighty six mandatory meal.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah something so yeah, and everybody's benefits. So we put
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: our most in it and said oh you was fighting
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: for that son and dad should get it. Put the
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: motion in judge, get it denied deny how oh you
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: had too much crack cocaine? Too much? Y'all said all
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: drugs minus too, no matter what. But for me, it
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: was always some technicality that you know, even the first
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: crack cocaine it was two points minus too. That was
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: separate from the two points minus drugs. But the crack
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: one we got denied on that too, you know what
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: I'm saying.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: So yeah, So it's been multiple things that you know
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: and actually on like the drug mindus to again, you know,
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: shout out, you know, the pushing he helped We did
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: it right.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: I spoke about that when I was up here five
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: years ago.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: But even you know, for the context for a lot
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: of the list, like like uh, you know a lot
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: of people heard like big meats, you got a reduction.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: That's what he got, big based.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: On the two point reduction. He got the two point
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. We so something that we
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: helped push through.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: Uh you know, like they.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Was attorney as well, because a man said, uh, yeah,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: I got a big mets to off the two maybe
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: seven years office centers yeah, that's sixth left. Yeah, uh,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: you know, but they denied me for the same thing.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: But the judges had the discretion.
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: And that's the other thing about these these things with
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: the mandatory minimums.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: The judge ain't had no discretion.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: If you met a certain guideline, they had to give
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: you that amount of time. But but now in the
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: thing that was supposed to bring relief based on the
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: mandatory minims, the judge got full discretion.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: I felt like that was sort of ironic.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: You know. Now, if you got like, I don't want
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: to use the term left no more because this is
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: getting wid But if you got a judge that's more
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: for those things, then yeah, you're in good shape.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: But if you got a conservative judge or hard line
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: you're like to get that. Yeah, he's gonna know.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: This wasn't for people like him and the guys that
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: was considered to be leaders. Imagine me as an activist,
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: as a as an advocate, and all that I'm seeing
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: this happening around me all the time, everything that I'm
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: helping to push, I'm not the sole guy responsible. I'm
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: lending my influence and my dad can't benefit from it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: But I couldn't stop though, you know what I mean,
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: I knew that there's no way my father was gonna
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: die in prison. But we up against the federal government
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: and you are United States government. But I just always
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: felt in with the push of my you know, my
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: DC community and abroad, you know, we were able to
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: make this happen. And I hope this, you know, it's
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: hope for the ten million children in this country that
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: have had in the cost parent for people that's in prison.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: But I think the main thing for me not to
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: be talking too much, but I think it's so important. Yeah,
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: it's so important to note though that you know, it's
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: also my dad didn't My dad had two, uh in
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: thirty four years, only like two in fractions. He did
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: things to get better, He did things to help other inmates,
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: he did things to help our community. So it wasn't
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: just me. His actions as a man, you know what
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, could have he could have been
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: you know, turned up and then.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: A lot of it's a lot going on in prison.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Even if you don't want to get turned up, it
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: sometimes you forced to get. And being from d C,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: we you know, I love my homies, but we stay
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: in we staying stuff in prison, you know what I'm saying.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: And then Baltimore.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Because when I was being in prison it was crazy,
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: so I can relate.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: You know, I came home so.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Sues for real.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just every just did you know you don't play?
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Why Why was you the only person still servant? Time?
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: We were trying to figure out, you know, That's what
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: we were trying to figure out. Why was I only everybody?
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Was like every time I call home, call like what
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: they letting all your cody fin is gone? Why not
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: only one? Yeah? Why you only one? I'm like, man,
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: I'm fighting, That's all I can say. I don't know
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: why I'm the.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Only one because they look at you the leader.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: Well with him Rayful, Yeah, but uh you know what
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: he did, so he was already set to come home whenever,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: no matter what. But uh, I had to fight. My
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: son had to. If it don't be for my son,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: I'd be still languaghing in prison.
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you watched snow when you watch the show
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: like the Snowfalls and the b Because I heard you
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: say earlier you don't want to glorify it, but how
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: do you tell.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Your story without glorifying? Glorifying?
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Right, see I tell the story. But then even in
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: the middle, at the end, I say, I'm not glorifying
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying, and I'm not, but it's the truth.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I gotta tell the truth, you know, good or bad.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: But still I'm not glorifying. If I had to do
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: it all, if I had the opportunity to do it
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: all different, I would do it different. I wouldn't sell George,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't have broken in the law. I would have
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: tried to find another way. But I'm gonna say that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm gonna say this though when you could
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: pay you know what I'm saying, Like all them up,
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: them them other stories, and I say, it's all difference
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: of humility. But all them other stories ain't gotta me.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the difference.
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: Dislike it's like it's like uh in this fiction. But
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: I'm saying it's like I'm with I'm with Vito wanted
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: Michael to become like I'm just the godfather in real life.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: This if I took the family legit, you ain't got
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: this in the other stories.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: And that's serious. Ain't not to mention, you know.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: I climbed the crooked ladder and sent back down the
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: straight one in my city. You know what I'm saying,
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: you be hard pressed. Finding like this helped more people.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: More people from miss.
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: Circum stands people. When people all through federal prison DC
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: guys they want to come home. I got to see
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: Tony because he will help me. And that's real, you
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: know what I'm saying.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: That's the part that's.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Me every day in prison, every time that somebody get
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: read to get up six months before they might ain't
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: said nothing to me the whole time they've been in
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: the unit. Tony, I've been meaning to talk to you, man,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: what your son still having people get them jobs? I said,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: yea still he man, my information?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Can you?
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: I said, I'll see what I can do. But I say,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: I'm watching your action and I tell a lot of times,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: but I see how you moving here and then you
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: come to me to try to get be the reference
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: you to my son. But I've been seeing how you
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: been moving and if you ain't moving the right way,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I'm not doing that. My son's name goes on everything
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: that he does when when he connected and trying to
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: get people employment or housing or you know, or whatever
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: the case may be. And I'm not putting no bad people.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: When I've been watching you for the last year or
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: two moving in here the way that you move. No,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: I can't do that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I just being off how God works because unfortunate circumstance,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: because it's some fort choices.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: But then that became your your life's work, your purpose.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: And we always it's crazy.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: It really is, bro and I'm saying, I live. It's
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: so many dynamics. It's like I'm saying, I don't.
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: Even growing up. I ain't never moved. I'm on hand.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: They're on the same block.
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, and they do it from
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: there that the whole community have watched my journey.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: Ain't going away to college. I went to college, went
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: to all over universe. I ain't going away to school.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Everything I did, and I.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: Lost so many friends fan like, yeah, the streets city,
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: you know, gun violence and and and in prison and
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, over all that and it
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: still impact my life. But still every day, you know,
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: still getting up to help my people. And then we
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: talked about d c's gentrification and the Native Washingtonian, uh,
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: you know, even me and my homegirl, my partner Angel Gagorio. Yeah, man, uh,
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: you know, we we we started this whole thing DC Natives.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: They just to force our city to recognize people that
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: grew up in d C.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Because it's like.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: All the energy was focused on all the people moving
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: to the city, you know, and we need a part
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: of us some of the progression and and and so
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: with that though, it was like I've realized that has
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: brought me a lot of clarity.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Though.
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: That's why them bullets ain't hit me. That's why when
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: my friends went to jail on conspiracy, they ain't grabbed me.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: You know that. I that was my purpose and.
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: And and to now have him beside me now, you know,
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, I just I'm so excited about what.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: The future holes for us and our city and our family.
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: This is gonna be like the biggest thing for your
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: daughters though, Like seeing that day six and nine, you said,
• 28:33
  Speaker 6: seeing that you know what I'm saying, just like their
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: standards are gonna be.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: So high for these black men.
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: You understand what I'm saying, And.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: That's really really good.
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: Like you could have, like I'm serious, you could have
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: really went another way with this, you know, but your
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: daughters are gonna always king they're gonna be a king,
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: you know, to them the rest of their life.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And the.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: School with them going to gymnastic practice everything anything they
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: want off here, and I'm loving it. It's what I
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: dreamt about.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: They provide you with any resources like mental health resources
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: for you know, for you to help help you adjust.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: And I'm sure you got PTSD that you're dealing with.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: I can imagine it's like, you know, I know that
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: the city has those things, but you got to go
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: and uh, you got to go and try to get them.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: It's not like how it should be that the minute
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: you hit that look, just come on over here.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: Have access to the we're going to engage them to
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: And again I've been part of that ecosystem to help
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: building that ecosystem.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: So we you know, in the program that I you know,
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: designed it.
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: You know, we had a joint where it's crazy, you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: we ain't gonna don't we already you know, everybody you
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: do break a local law, federal, you do go to
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: the fairs in DC. We don't even have halfway house now,
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: so our halfway house is actually people. So but a
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: program I did out there with Andel, we we actually
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: the bad Rocket, the program was one on one therapy.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: That's really you know, I want us to do family therapy.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: We've just been running around the last six the first
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: sixty days, but that's definitely a part of it right now.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Absolute.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: I appreciate, you know, all the push you've been doing
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: for wellness and mental health. You know, it's brought up
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: as a kid with a mom that dealt with mental
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: health and I'm the only like I said, the only
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: child I went through all that with my mother into
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: this day, right, I understand the value that and to
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: destigmatize that for our community is so important, to make
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: it accessible and affordable and to make.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: You not crazy.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: We all need I tell young's all the time. And
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: you break your angle, you be hooping. If you break
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: your angle, you could just go in the house and
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: just lay on the bed and let that joint. Hell,
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: now you go to the doctor. So we gotta look
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: at mental health in that same way. So it's definitely
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: something that we know is necessary. In the trauma that
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: black men and women all across this country has experienced
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: via incostration is something I think that's definitely something that
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: we don't talk about enough.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: I'm saying that shit real what's next for y'all man, And.
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: It don't get taken movement, Yeah, constration, anti violence movement,
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: don't get taken. All the younger is out there exactly
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: that you know, don't put yourself in a position where
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: you get taken either from the community via criminal justice
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: system or you know, obviously the cemetery.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Too much violence and Cojack.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Got to rob the guns down, young people. We got
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: to put the guns down.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: Part what you always say, you can't tell them what
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: would you would you?
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: We can't, Well, we can't. We can't ask them to
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: put the guns down without pickings up up and they
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: got a good job or training or some type of
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: more opportunity. And I always say this to our good
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: mayor Mayor Bowser and the DC City Council. Uh, we
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: need more opportunities that young people need, more opportunities, more jobs,
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: more more training. Uh. If we want to put the guns.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Been in trouble.
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: That's the other part just to the barrier piece and
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: in DC and everywhere else. If people made a mistake,
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: they paid their debt. We we cannot continue to hold
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: them like put that scholar letter on them, and they
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: can't engage because then the cities or the counties or
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: the towns whatever create these quote unquote pathways or these opportunities.
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: But if you got a criminal record, you can't do it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: That's that's that that who you think needed the most.
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: You understand what I'm saying, and that that definitely go
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: for a place like Baltimore in New York and.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Philadelphia whatever, you know what I'm saying everywhere?
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: So what am I left to do? And my baby
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: crowing on them? Life still gotta be on you know.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: So yeah, we gotta get people.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Listen, Hopelessness is probably the most powerful thing there is, right,
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: And so when we start talking about our young people
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: in our in our communities, if I've accepted death, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: I've accepted that death or on conserration is gonna be
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: my fate and in some in some instances that my glory.
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: You cannot deter me with that. You cannot deter me
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: with something I've already accepted, it's gonna happen. Right, So
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: we gotta do this that hope we gotta and hopefully
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: this is make people feel hopeful, But we gotta we
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: gotta create systems that promote hope in these communities that
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: there is is something other than the street.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. Really for me, I feel
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: like it ain't. You can't aim that at youth.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: You have to aim at at family because the adults
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: are destabilized. What you think happen to the youth, any
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: young any trouble. Look at you asked, who does he
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: belong to? What's the state of that household? That's the
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: answers right there. So we got to attack that.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: In my opinion, how do you support that Don't Get
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Taken movement?
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Right now?
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: We were really just trying to brand it, put it
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: out in consciousness. You know, I got it in slub being.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Here talking about it, was at the school yesterday talking
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: it's amazing, and we establishing designer.
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: Program and we're gonna be in community. We're gonna be
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: trying to work on a p s A that that
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: that's gonna go out on social media, you know, pushing
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: Don't Get Taken and hopefully we can you know, get
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: partners around it and really build it up to not
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: just something in d C, but really a national movement, you.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: Know, for our young people. Man, don't get.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Taken anyway we can help. Let us know, man, we.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: Have one last question. So I know you say you
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: don't you don't want to ever glorify what you did.
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: You would you ever do a story somebody came to you. Yeah, Look,
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: everybody else got this story, everybody.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: No question. That's what we want to do.
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean? And like you said, everybody
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: else story is the difference between is there is no you.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: We don't have a U.
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: So would you be because this would be the first
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: story like this on TV.
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: For sure?
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: I willing to tell it though.
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: That's the thing that America want to tell. A story
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: like this one, a story that is the right way
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: of a person that people that did it the right way,
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: that's the question.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: And we're still fighting for the man that's left behind,
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: still the family. They got to be them.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the point that if they do it, then they
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: got to highlight the fact that you're out here doing
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: God's work.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: People.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: Everybody want to drama, drama, you know, help me too
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: many people, But like you said, yes, somebody want to
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: do and somebody will do it, and somebody's going to
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: yeah mm hmm.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: That's what I wanted to know.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you for You're just gonna play one of your
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: drug mules or something from back.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: In the Definitely, just any girl from Baltimore, any role. Yeah, yeah,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: he's welcome.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, Tony Lewis Junior, Tony Lewis and your Tony Man.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I've always respected the work you're doing now, I'm glad
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you got your father out here doing it with you.
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: Man, Man appreciated.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: It's the club