September 17, 2025 • 40 mins
Thi'sl is a child of the Lou, who ran the streets, was in the foster care and justice systems. Now he runs an incredible mentoring program. He talks about how to really REALLY reduce crime, you have to be a trusted voice.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Media, what up it could happen here? It's your favorite
cousin prop. Y'all already know what it is. I'm about
to black this mug up because y'all don't be blacking
it up enough anyway. All over our country there's this
sort of narrative around crime which is verifiably false. But
(00:25):
we also understand that a lot of times the feeling
of crime and safety is a lot of times it's
a vibe like it's kind of how it feels. You
could tell me the crime rates is down across America,
but in my city, if I still feel like you know,
I'm saying not safe or safe, you know your perception
of that.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Anyway, the point I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Trying to make is there are truly verifiable, data driven
ways to actually create safety and reduce harm in a city,
and a lot of that is around trust and services.
So what I decided to do, y'all, is to bring
y'all who I lovingly called the Nipsey Hustle of Saint Louis,
(01:05):
Ladies and gentleman. Can I introduce you to the homeboy.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thisle with the red shirt on?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well, look, man, you already flamed up. I wasn't gonna
bring up.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The flame of it all.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I'm like, gotta throw the shirt off a problem. Oh Man,
happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Man, We happy to have you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
That was the one that's funny because that's the one
asterisk next to your name with me? Is all that
red you beware?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Hey man.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I was a little yeah, I know you gotta be
who you are.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I would not respect you were you to not be
flying your whoop.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
So I appreciate. He said, Look, that's what I love it.
We're gonna get into it. So we're gonna get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So this is like I said, the Nipsey Hustle of
Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
When we first met, I had no idea people out
there really actually said yes. I thought that was a joke.
I thought y'all was doing too much. And then I
met this and he was like, oh, it's over there
right there. I was like, wait, y'all really say that?
No joke at all, that's really y'allud. That's really how
we talk. We really talk.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And the crazy thing is I slowed down talking, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Sometimes it'd be like here in there, but if I
get to go away and be like her.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
He yo, yup, yup, cald switch.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
All right, perfect, So first of all, let's tell him
what you do now, so kind of give them brief
introduction who you are, what you're doing, and then we'll
go to the origin story.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
So like he said, my ain't this Travis Tyler. That's
what my mom and name from Saint Louis, Missouri. And man,
I'll be trying to figure out what am I sometimes
like for real, even when I was doing music, I
never felt like I was a rapper. Yeah, I felt
like I was an artist, you know. And I still
(02:56):
feel like I'm an artist in the sense of the
word now because I create things from inspiration, you know, alchemy.
I create from the mind. But I'm not what you
would consider an activist. I'm not a politician, but like
I'm always in the middle of something that's happening, and
(03:17):
that's how I've always been. And I have a passion
for the youth of urban community, especially black youth. I
have a passion for black men, especially black men that
are either trying to escape the reality of street life
or black men that are being re entered into society
from prison. I have a passion for the rebuilding of
(03:41):
the black community. So my whole life, that's pretty much
been my thing, no matter what space I've landed in,
it's always been my thing when it comes to community.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And so that's it, man, Like I'm wearing.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
The shirt is actually like one hundred from my mentor program,
my mentor inner city youth ages teen to seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, not just.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Setting up some of the mentor them, but creating the
rights of passage, right, creating a pathway, intentional pathway, like
I think a lot of time with inner city youth,
well I ain't even to say inner city youth, especially
with fatherless yes young men, whether wherever they're in the world,
whether it's the suburban neighborhood or the inner city or
rural or third world country. With fatherless young men, they
(04:30):
tend to lack, some of us, a passage way of oh,
this is who you can become, this is what you
need to do to become it, because there's no one
to really guide them. So with our mentoring program, that's
my goal, not just with mentor young men and send
them home and try to keep them out of trouble,
but help them identify who they are and who they
(04:51):
were born to be and help them get to their place.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, and you still got that group home joint, right.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, so the group on it's funny on an interview.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Now, I just stepped down from the Friday Okay, but
it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It wasn't a negative.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So I ran it for like a year and a half,
helped rebuild the program, brought it up to the modern age. Yeah,
staffed creating new things for the boys, learned a lot
myself in the process, and now I'm going full throttle
into shaping out my Flight one hundred program. Yeah, because
the end goal, like one of my end goals is
(05:27):
to build a school. Yeah, Flight one hundred Academy all boys,
keep the same boys from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Wow, that's my mission. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
What I truly enjoyed about what you're doing is at
least with the group on and the mentoring thing is
the trust factor in the sense that you know, when
you get involved, especially in the juvenile system, like they
tell you that your record sealed, they say that, Yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying, But like in practice, it's
(05:59):
not the thing. So, like I think oftentimes if there's
a step between getting into Juvie or into Central. You
know what I'm saying, If there's an in between step,
if somebody could come in the middle of that and
stay look, let.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Little homie stay with us, you know what I'm saying.
Or you know, let's say you caught a case.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And then every once in a while, like obviously both
of us can say this from like personal experience, every
once in a while, you might score a judge on
a good day. You know, you score a judge on
a good day, and they say, I tell you what
I heard of this program over on the other side
of town. You could either do this you have say it,
or you could go to Camp Rocket you know out here,
that's what it was like. You can go to Rocky
(06:38):
or you can go to this program and like ten
out of ten, I'm gonna be like, let's go to
this program. But sometimes that program be just as bad,
you know what I'm saying. But if it's ran by
somebody who has been through the system, who understands it
and knows that like here are the traps, here's are
the ways for which I know I was taking advantage
(07:00):
of I was abused, And this's what we're not gonna
do here.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know what I'm saying. The goal is for you
to never come back to this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You make a valid point.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
One of the reasons I believe God allowed me to
go back into the space with the group home was
bro Honestly, you will be surprised how I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
To word this in a good way, but I don't
think it is one you say.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
However, you won't.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
You will be surprised how messed up the foster cursistum is.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
A lot of these kids get pulled out of their homes.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
So the group home that I was at, mostly all
of our boys they came from environments where they have
been taken from their parents.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, And so I was under the transition to living
group home.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
So my objective, my daily task was to teach a
group of young men how to transition into manhood, how
to go.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Out on their own, pay their bills, live on their own.
All this.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You'll be surprised, though. These kids get pulled from their
homes and their parents. Yeah, and they're saying to them, oh,
We're going to send you somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Better, better, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And the places that they send them to do more
harm to them than their whole Like they're sitting in
there with people that are worse than their parents, and
one they don't have a voice to advocate for them.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
So here I am right now. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
A few months back, I was like, I'm gonna talk
about this every chance I get.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Which is crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They don't have nobody to advocate for them, because I'm
sure there are people that have been through the foster
curve system, but for some reason, people see that stigma.
They're probably celebrities that have been through foster curve, but
they see it as a stigma, like, oh, they didn't
want to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Pot all my parent gave me up. I don't know
who my parent is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I was in you know, whatever the case is, they
don't have nobody to advocate.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, these kids, a lot of these kids.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Are treated so poorly in these places that the loss
should step in. People tend to not understand why they
act the way they act. Yeah, you got to think ultimately,
you are walking into a child's home and you're kidnapping them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's what you're doing. Really. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, so if I.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Come to your house at eight nine o'clock at night
when I was fourteen, Me, my cousins, my brother, a
bunch of my siblings were taken from my mom and
my aunt.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I watched it from across the street because I was
over my friend's house. Holy swooped up. Social workers swooped up.
It's nighttime. You go into somebody's house, you take their child.
They don't know where you're taking their child to. Yeah,
the child doesn't know where they're going. And then they
(09:41):
get to the residential or the group home and they
acting a fool. And you got a bunch of unqualified,
untrained staff members there. They don't know how to deal
with them neither. That's just looking for a job. And
when they get there, they talking about why they acting
like this. Come on, man, if somebody just came to
your house and took you from your current you will
be acting the same way. And if you weren't, you
saw basically, let's just be rial. Yeah, yeah, you just saw.
(10:03):
You're gonna sit there and all night. These kids they
acting out because they've been abducted basically in their mind.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And even Pat Wade beyond that point.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I know most people have seen if you having the
movie Dot Sit where they talk about the shackling family
and how they basically made dose fans out of the
whole West Virginia with oxy coati You know, oxy code
ain't how do you want to pronounce it? And they
showing the movie how these doctors were getting these kickbacks
introducing the drugs to the patients in West Virginia. Bro,
(10:37):
who better to prack them on own with drugs than children?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We ain't got no parents that nobody.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Cares them out.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, Bro.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
They take these kids and they put them into the
system three four, five years old, and they started doping
them from day one, man five dose dop and over
and over, switch them out, put them on something else. Well,
let me see how this don't work. Switch them out
and put them on something else. By the time they
got to me at eighteen years old, they like bro frime,
(11:10):
yeah fried, And then you got you got case workers.
They don't care about the kids. They don't call, they
don't come see them, they don't pick them up, they
don't do none of these things.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And the kids sitting there feeling like they don't got
nobody in nowhere.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
So my main space that I function in right now,
especially for them, is to be an advocate every chance
that I get, I'm gonna talk about it so people
can put eyes on it. But also that's one of
the reasons that I'm building the things that I'm building,
so that we can have a space where it's like
now you don't have to go to because there are
a lot of people I already have the good ideas
they have it. There are some good programs. Yeah, Like
(11:44):
there are good programs. Program that I was at, it's
been around four hundred and sixty eight years. It's a
decent program So there are good programs that are out here.
But the whole system as a hall, it needs an overall.
So when I had an opportunity to keep behind the veil,
I was like, you know, you know me, I go
and get the talking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, I think obviously you talking that talk. But like
one of the things that you know, in the humanitarian
space that I like I serve in, they have a
saying that says peace works at the speed of trust,
you know. So like even with all these good programs
in different places, it's like, if these kids don't trust you, Yeah,
(12:31):
you brought up being removed from your family's house when
you was real young. I love to talk a little
bit about about the origin story, because obviously you wasn't
always talking like this.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And I think that that like legitimacy, you know, or
that realness that I'm sure no matter how doped up
or how painful them kids are, like, they can look
behind your eyes and say, okay, but he knows. Yeah,
So give me a little bit of that, get a
little bit of the retired whooping all that.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh it's funny. I got this video on my page
that I posted. I started off saying, ain't nobody coming
to save you?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And at the end of it, I go through this
story about being in the group home and all of that,
and I say, have y'all ever seen the Marvel movies
where they like, this is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I'm like, that's my origin story. Yeah. So for me,
that part of the group home was significant in my life, real,
real significant. So before I went to the group home,
I was already outside.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, like the like, there are a lot of things
that I've experienced in this world that when I look back,
I just be like, Man, that's crazy. Bro.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
When I was fourteen years old, me and my girlfriend
were living together.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, broh No, I slept in the beg fourteen every night. Yeah,
with my girlfriend at fourteen, Like we basically lived again,
me and her in a room, her mom in the
next room, and so I was because of my mom's issues.
Like I've been at this point, I've been my sole provider,
(14:04):
you know, minus a short period of time her and there.
Whether it's like I went to live with my daddy
and he sent me back orf with my grandma for
a short period of time my grandfather. All of those
were short periods of time. But since I was like twelve,
I've been taking care of myself. So I was outside early,
like hustling making money so I can provide for myself. Fourteen,
(14:24):
like I said, I was living with my girlfriend. We
were sleeping in the same bed. When I went to
the group home, my mom, the caseworker, and the police
came and got me from her house and put me
in a car, drove me two hours out of Saint
Louis to a wrench little house out in the woods
(14:45):
town full of white people. Like I was a hoodie kid.
Like when they got me, true story, I had on
dicky overalls, like the zip up the brown boy. Yeah,
it's some boots like a baby.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Saint Louis, Like, I don't like the influence of
like West Coast culture, and it was very big out there.
So when he was like, yo, I'm zipped up and
the Beanie and the Dickeys, like you would think you
was in South Central.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, So I had on a Bennie the zip up
Dickey boy like yeah boo. So they took me out
to the woods and man, I got there, and when
I got there, it was the first time in my
life I think I felt that level of desperation. Yeah,
and hopelessness, huh, because I was supposed to stay there
until I was eighteen or twenty one. Those are their
words based off my behavior. I'm fourteen, so I'm in
(15:32):
my head like I'm from the beer six years like yeah,
So I'm meeting all these kids. They like, I'm been
here since I was this age, and I've been in
the system since I was this and they moved me
here and they so I'm hearing all these different stories
from different people.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And I'm just like, dang, it's crazy, you know.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And then one day it was right after Christmas, I'm
sitting in her hindsight, I got a different perspective of it. Now.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's this kid. I never forget him. His name was Roger.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
When I first met him the very first day that
I came, he sat down beside me and he said, Man,
if my granddaddy was here, he wouldn't want me talking
to you. And I was like, wow. He said because
he don't like black people. So I turned right to
him and said, why did you feel the need to
tell me that?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Why you tell me that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Like, I was like, you could have kept that to yourself.
He like, I don't got nothing against black people. I'm
just saying my grandfather don't like black people. So I'm like, whatever, okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It's like right after Christmas. Christmas Day, I was sitting
in the group home. Nobody called, Like, I was watching
all the other kids. They getting gifts, they opening their
presents and yeah, depending on their program, some of them
they get to go home. Like, so I'm sitting I
ain't nobody called me on, got no gifts, I don't
got nothing, And I'm just sitting in the chart like.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Just pissed all day basically.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, and uh, one of my workers came in later
that day. I seen her. She was talking to the lady.
The other lady was about to get off. They was
behind me and I heard her talk and she say,
he just sitting there all day.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
She was like yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
She like, did anybody call him or anything? She was like,
She's like nobody. So I'm and it's crazy now that
I've been back in that space more than once. Yeah,
I've experienced that with kids, seeing them none and I
know what to dude, Like, I got you you know
what I'm saying, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And so I'm
sitting there at that point, She's like, Noah, you're just
sitting there all day. And so she went came out.
(17:20):
She's like, hey, oh, what you doing. This lady played
a significant role in my life. I wish I could
remember her name. Bro.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Like so she was like what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I'm like nothing. She's like, you want to go to
the store. I'm like to do what She like her,
I've got something for you. So the state gave each
kid one hundred dollars Walmart gift card. Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So she like, you got a gift card the Walmart four.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Hundred dollars bore. I had never been to Walmart before.
I ain't know what Walmart was. So I'm like, all right, man,
let's go. We go to Walmart. I'm walking around.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He ain't never been to Walmart.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I had never been to Walmart. Bro, walking around, I'm
looking around the store. I got this hundred bull Guess
what I buy? No, lie, true story, white T shirt
and some Dickies Yes, yes, yes, white T shirt and
some Dickies out of waltmore than the Country. You're I
love it. So I grabbed the Dickys white tea. Go
(18:14):
back to the group home. I'm still mad because ain't
nobody called me, Nobody came to see me, you know,
none of that. And so the next few days, man,
me and dude, we always ended up in the living
room at the same time. And I'm I'm I'm mad. Yeah,
So fourteen. You gotta think when I was fourteen, Bro,
I was like probably six six foot six one. Yeah,
(18:37):
like one hundred and eighty two hundred pounds when I
was fourteen.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And so while I'm married, they had some little weights.
I had started lifting weights everything.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh man, so I'm programming.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm a big old kid. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So dude gets to talking crazy to me. We shit
in the living room. He like, man, what you doing boy?
So my conversation goes back to the first.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Time, like god. He races yeah, yeah, now and.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Now I know. I'm like what you mean boy? He like,
you heard me?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Boy?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I'm like boy as in kid or boy as in racist. Yeah.
He like, boy, you heard me.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Now we're fighting.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
I said, hey, bro, I'm gonna tell you this one
more time. Don't call me a boy again.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah. He said, what you gonna do? Boy?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Let that fool up? Yup, yup.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I'm talking about right style, locked in, big night night, yup,
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
By the time they come in, I got him by
the back of the neck. Yeah, and I'm rubbing his
face across the carpet.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I'm like, what you call me again?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
He stayed. He say, you know, he's like boy, you
hurt so now hindsight, though, when I look back, I
had to think and say, yeah, damn, me and him
were sitting there at the same time. I thought back
and said, oh, he ain't had no visitors on Christmas steeven. Yeah,
Oh he's man like me.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
He just as hurt as you.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
He was hurt. He ain't even know how the process.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
You the craziest storyteller ever like, cause I'm like, you
can get to the point, and I see.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It right now. I know, like, ain't know the process.
So I rushed him up forever.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
So when the people come in and they see me,
you know, they like, grab me up cause I'm six
foot yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's on your kid from the city. Yeah,
you know everybody record and story. They're coming to her.
So they know, like here gang member, he.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Did he did? Yeah yeah, yeah, So I'm no bressing.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
They snatched me up, throw me in the room. They
took me in this room called an isolation room. This
room is like an eight my chin. All the walls
were metal.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
The door was like this thick wood with a little
bitty wondering the thing on it.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
No way out unless they let you out in carpet
on the floor. Bro. When they shut that door, I
just lost it. Yeah. My brain said, you finna died
in her, ain't no way out.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, And I got to kick in the door. I
got to yelling, and I'm talking about Bro just was
wilding in that. But they just they paid me no mind.
They didn't even come to the door.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It don't make no difference until you down.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
They like he can't get out.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And so this girl that I knew to her, she
came and sat down by the bottom of the door
and talked under the thing, and she was like, hey,
you gotta come down. She's like, come down here. So
I laid down on the floor. I'm breathing through the
crack like I'm breathing under the door. She like, you
gotta calm down, like they never gonna let you out
of her they scared. She like, I'm out here, like
(21:22):
you gotta. So I'm just laying there regulating and I
go to sleep. Wow, and I wake up in the
middle of the night. I knock on the door. They
let me out to use the bath on the dude
like it was a big white dude used to be overnight.
He was like, if I let you out or you're
gonna get the trip. And I said, nah, man, I
just got to use the bathroom. I already then used
it there once. I'm like, I just want to go
to the tarlet.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
So he's like, all right, come on, he let me out.
I went back in and he locked the door.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
When I went back in there, bro, I said to myself,
this was my one of my origins, I said to myself,
I said, when they let me out of her fourteen
years old, I said, I'm gonna be different. Yeah, I'm
be in controlled, show the world who I am. Yeah,
when they let me out, I played the game after
that every since. Yah. So I went to another group home.
(22:08):
I stayed there. I was supposed to be there for
a while. And I got to that group home and
I asked the people. I said, how does the program work?
As soon as I got there, Yeah, they said, well,
if you do this shit and then you go to
level this, and you go to this level, you go.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
To that left. I said, how long do it take?
They said probably like ninety days. I said, I'm gonna
do it a sixty.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I love it. They said okay and showed up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Sixty days later. Bro leics than sixty I was done. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
They called my mama. My case had been dropped because
my mama was doing what she's supposed to do, and
they like, you can go home. Yeah, So now I
go home. Two days before I'm turning fifteen. I get
back home, though my mama was on the same mission,
and I've been outside ever since. Beautiful man, and I
think one thing after another to just shape me into
who I am, but a hero.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say that that authenticity
of like even having the awhereithal to know that like,
you know, at the end of the day, love homie
was scared right, like he was just hurting. So when
you have that sort of like level of empathy and
you know when you were outside, like the reasons for
(23:12):
which you were outside, you know what I'm saying, and
having those connections, it's so clear to me how that
fuels the direction you're in and it proves to me
the cornerstone premise of my whole movement here, which is like, Yo,
if you understand the hood, you understand politics, you walked
in there and say, what's the game?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
What's the play? Okay, what's the play? How does this work?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
This?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now, know how to work it. Here's a way to
make it better. I know how it, I know how
I felt in it. So if somebody else has to
be in there just the way it needs to be done,
because I know I would have succeeded had this this.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
And this happened.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So let me let me let me push you forward
to now and then to more like sort of the
bigger like national conversation. Now, so like the national conversation
all of us we lived through, you know, in the
time that you were there, in the time going on
in La too, like just this hyper policing where you know,
for us, probably the saying for y'all, the copts were
(24:08):
just another gang us, you know what I'm saying, Like
y'all just as violent, as bad and as dangerous as
everybody else in these streets, Like you ain't make no
difference to us. And sure, yeah, like in the same
way that you know, if you were having a rodent
infestation at your house, I mean, sure you could bomb
(24:29):
the house, right, and yes, the rodents are gone. You're
see what I'm saying, But you've killed everything, you know
what I'm saying. But then you get to say, like
you know, as a metaphor, it's like, oh, look, we
were tough on crime, we ended crime, you know what
I'm saying. It's like, well, yeah, but that's what you
locked us all up. Like it didn't This didn't really
help us. But you know, we're seeing sort of across
(24:50):
the country, despite all of these efforts and proof that
like the streets are different and it's not because of
any invading forts. It's because of people like you, people
like JB and okc let are like truly from the
city who really care and move at the speed of trust.
Like I said, moving at the speed of trust and
(25:10):
like and are saying, Look, it's one kid at a time,
it's one program at a time. It's it's one advocate
at a time that like says incremental slow door knock,
build trust, one kid.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You know what I'm saying. That's like, it's not fun,
it's not a movie.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It ain't sexy.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It ain't sexy. Bro, you gotta be outside. You know,
I'm gonna breeze through when you caught one to the leg.
But like, even in the process of doing the good
you were doing, there was a moment where like I
knew of like you're like you were neighborhoods, like you know,
doing backpack drives and back to school things, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But these are like in these are in active areas.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Like you you know, everybody can just walk in to
this park and be like I'm gonna do a fundraiser.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It's like like, yeah, we rob at all of you.
You know what I'm saying. So like after years.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Of doing this, you know, one little Waiian didn't know
who he was dealing with.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You know what I'm saying, caught you slipping.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know what I'm saying, you had to rebuild and
I've seen even health journey from that moment sort of change. Yeah,
to bring you into the position you're in sort of now,
which is like, obviously it's somebody we could deeply admire.
(26:34):
Can you talk a little bit about obviously without getting personal,
without sharing anybody's like personal information, but some of the
sort of like things that you've seen with some of
the young homies who've been able to maybe like calm
some stuff down, you know what I'm saying, like maybe
actually like this working, you know what i mean.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Yeah, Yeah, So I think you nailed it as a whole.
It takes a person that people trust to bring a
level of com So even when I got shot.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
When I got shot, Bryan had dudes in my inbox where.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, yeah that be outside ready to slide, Oh ready
to they ready to slide?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah Yeah, that's like, hey, who got you?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You know it?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, And I'm like, nah, I'm cool.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, And so sometimes when things
like that happen, people take things into.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Their own hands. Yeah, that you don't know nothing about.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
And so after that they were like, do you want
to do this news interview? I was still broke up.
I couldn't get out the bell yet. I'm like, yeah,
you know, but my reason for doing the news interview
was so people could hear my heart. Yeah, and you
have a thistle in every neighborhood around America.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
So here's the thing about police. Police are reactive.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yeah when by the time police on a word of things,
a client has happened, Yeah, the murder has already taken place,
the shooting has already happened, the robbery has already happened.
The person that's stopping the crime is miss Kathy that
live on the block. Yes, that say hey, commerd, Yeah,
(28:13):
where you going? I could tell you frustrate uh huh.
We had this lady in our neighborhood. The name was
miss a Miss Alexander. How many times as a kid
I would be walking past her house on my way
to do something stupid, Yeah, and she'll say commerd yep,
And you go sit there on the porch with her
and talk for like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Respects. You have to respect her. Yeah, and you done.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Or the dude that used to be in the street.
It's a dude her in Saint Louis.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I don't really know him, like personally personally, but his saying,
uh he goes by the name Yo bangor uh huh.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, Ed street dude.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Everybody love him.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You're me yeah, yeah, bro be outside like politicket, Yeah,
running programs, you know, doing stuff like that. So those
are the people that calls change in every community.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Let me tell you a place.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Oh, while we're on this subject, I think we fail it,
especially with organizations. Organizations that typically come into our neighborhood.
They come for agenda and politics, and what they don't
understand is what you're saying, if you understand the hood,
you understand politics. So when they pull up on us
in the hood and they got this big organization with
(29:27):
all this money and they're like, this is what we
want to do. Now you're telling me that because you're
trying to build an army of people to fight for
your calls. And what they do is they come into
our spaces and they don't empower those people, right, there.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I've said this to people one hundred times.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
If you really, really really want to see impact and
see change, you need to go to the community and
see the people that are already leading it. There you
go the people that you're talking about. The reason I'm
able to go into park in that neighborhood is because
over there, at one point I was one of the
leaders actively.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So people that aren't know me, they respect me.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
They understand my journey and my transition, and that rapport
is what get the work done.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Police a reactor. Bro by the said police get on
somebody dead.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It's already done.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, it's people like me on the phone When Bro call, like, man, Bro,
I'm about the snap, It's like, nah, Bro, where you at?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Like you know what we're doing?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
And so I think those people need to be empower
more for any organization that's listening or the possibly here.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
It is.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
We don't need you to come out our community and
build a hub. We don't need you to put an
office there, and I'm gonna be candid and bring a
whole lot of white people facts and gentrify a program.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
We don't need that.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
What is needed is if you have resources, you have money,
you have things you could bring structure, you could bring system,
but bring it to empower the person that's already in
that space.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
It's don't take you thirty years to get to kind
of respect that person. Get over there already.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Gems and you know why they can't be fully involved
because they still gotta work, They still gotta do things.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You still yes, you still yes, yeah. Man.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So if you want to really empower the community, take
that forty fifty sixty seventy thousand, one hundred thousand that
you about to run on this slur campaign against whoever
else you don't like, Yeah, and take some of that money,
take about seventy five k that and give it to
somebody like Yo bang Yo.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Bang a missa. Yeah, but I say it was Alex Carrasco. Yeah,
give it to people like that, yup. Because we lived
in the Mexican hoods. You know, he had his theres bontos,
Like we already knew. He was like what what the.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
People like that?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Give it to him? You know what I'm saying, He
looked that man.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Took me camping for the first time with with Alex Carrasco.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You know what I'm saying, Like.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Believe it or not. Believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Part of the reason that you turned out the way
you did is because of seedge that people like him
playing it. Yep, no facts, it's the difference between you
and the other dudes on the block that didn't go.
It's exactly like exposure, bro is key what you're exposed
to right now. One of my missions I'm working on
over the next couple of years were I'm gonna take
a group of kids from the.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Hood to Africa. They have to see it, bro, that's
one of my missions.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
They have to Yes, Yeah, I'm gonna take a bunch
of kids from the Hood to Africa, like so they
can get over there and see what it really looked like.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, but also just taking them other places.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
They could also go to, like Denver, Like.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, I took a group of kids to Kaa a
few years that, like in the city kids, Yeah, and
they were blown away.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Like like you said, going camping, you get to see
water and boats.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
When I used to teach, I taught in the city
called Pomona. It's in the Inland Empire. It's kids from
La I's never seen the beach like you've never seen
the ocean and you're from Los Angeles, you know what
I'm saying, So, like, yeah, that exposure changes everything. Have
you set up some sort of like fundraising things so
we can see if we can get our listeners to
maybe like fund this Africa trip.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So if you go to my page, just like one
hundred foundation dot org.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Like one hundred foundation dot org.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Okay, yeah, it's a donation tab. It'll go to the
give but a page.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Okay, we will link to that. Yes see, that's all
I needed.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, listen, bro, I want to thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Some of y'all know, like I've known this man for
a long time. We've we've ran ran into many A
cities and many A shows.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
And always appreciated you too.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yes, sir man, I think there was a little bit
of like we've been sitting in green rooms that both
of us know good and well that we just why
are we here, Like we have no reason to be
in this room, but we are. It just has very
much a very much like a real, recognized real with
somebody like this man. And like you said, Bro, like
there's thistles in every city man, and I appreciate the
(33:53):
fact that like and that's part of what makes you
what you are, is that like it's the things that
happened that when there's no cameras on that for us
that we're mostly proud of is not the stuff that.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Like everybody sees.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
It's what's happened, like you said, is when it's the
phone calls you have to have, you know, the meetings
you have to set up, you know what I'm saying,
and like the like those things are are are the
things that really keep a city safe.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I want to say this before we go. We talked
about something before you start recording.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I want to point it
out because I think it's important too. We were talking
about how resources prevent violence. Yeah, so everybody know, where
there's no hope, there's violence, there is desperate right yes.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So yeah, right now with Saint.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Louis, we have been informed that the senator who's a
Republican center, Yeah, he's linked up with pjt Okay, okay,
and there you are. They're building an FBI base here
and they're bringing in more FBI agents to divert violence.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah right, yeah, one.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Again, law enforcement is a reaction to crime. Yeah, they
don't prevent it. Yeah, here's the reality that everybody that
has a brain to think should be aware of. I
don't care how many FBI you bring, how many police
you hire. There are not enough law enforcement to govern
the earth.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yes, yes, period, there's too many of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
There's not there's too many of us.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Govern the earth. Yeah, like that's that's that's a no go. Right.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah, most cases, when I see people make these arguments
about this, I'm a person I like to use facts.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I get straight to the facts, like we get the points.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
So in Saint Lewis, right, from twenty twenty to twenty
twenty four, the murder rate in Saint Louis.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Has dropped by one hundred and thirteen.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Come on, man, yeah, one hundred and thirteen. That's a
lot of lives. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
So in twenty twenty, the number of homicides at Saint
Louis was two hundred and sixty three. The number in
twenty twenty four were one hundred and fifty. See, there
are certain things that I'm not gonna say they are
the exclusive reason, but there are certain things that I
know have contributed to that. And it's not law enforcement.
(36:23):
Because our police force is short right now, they gone.
They don't do too.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Much and nothing.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Yeah, there are a few things I know they have
contributed to that. The main thing is resources, yeah, and compassion.
But they are few. Through a certain few things that
I want to shout out. One of them is an
organization called Fccy Freedom Center Saint Louis Mahomie Mike Milton.
The other one is Actual Saint Louis. The other one
(36:49):
is Mission Saint Louis. The other one is we Power
Saint Louis. We power SCL. They fund early childhood development.
Word like crucially important for our community. Wow, you got FCC,
actually Saint Louis, Missus Saint Louis, Black Men, Bill, we
Power stl.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Just to name a few people like your banger.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
These are the people that have been actively in the
community for the past four years. The past mayor to
Charlotte Jones, she probably got a lot of things wrong
in people asked, but she was directing certain things and
empowering people in a certain way. These organizations have thrived
(37:36):
over the past four years, and as a result, you
see the number of homicides in the city.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
D Chris, So why do we need to bring more
FBI agents. What is that for? Show?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Shouldn't we be throwing more money into these organizations if
they are out here the turn crime they got the
FCC has data, Yeah, they have data of reconciliation. I'm
talking about my boy Mike Milton. He's stepping into roles.
With one case in particular, a young man was driving
(38:10):
in the court with another young man.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
He was drunk. The young man died.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
He reconciled him with the mother. The mother in return,
went to the judge and was like, he don't.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Need to go to jail. You're either gonna treat me. Wow,
Like why is he going to prison? Wow?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Damn man.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
And then when they get when they get risdored justice, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Restorative justice.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
When they get released from prison, they go to SCC
and they spend time with them and they learn restorative justice.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
They take accountability. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
So if we go if we need anything in Saint Louis,
in DC, in uh Chicago, if we need anything in
these cities, what we need or people to be realistic
about what's happening, and if you want to do something saying,
say some of the funds you're gonna use to have
more law enforcement into these places where you know people
(39:05):
are already doing things because let me tell you something else.
It's twenty twenty six almost, it's twenty twenty five. Ain't
nobody scared of the police like they used to be.
This ain't nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Bro, sir.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Don't nobody's seen the police and be like, oh my gosh,
you'll go to the police. These are grown men, just
like another grown man. Ain't nobody scared of police?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
No more. That ain't a thing.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Lead like the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
That's not a thing.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah you bleed like the rest of us.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Mumbles yeah with the police, Bro, they dangerous right now?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Straight spinn up.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Look, we can talk about this back because that's the
way we are with these ice agents.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
It's like, you think I'm scared of you, bro, You
think I'm scared of you?
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Ami.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, anyway, thank you this, Thank you for it for
like bringing it back to the data and shining the
light on like people actually doing the work. You can
follow you on Instagram. It's I am thiszle right, it's
th ChIL this yeah Thhi.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
SL one hundred foundation dot org is the website social
Media's you'll be founding on all of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
There, you'll find all that. All right, it can happen here.
Cool Zone Media, we appreciate you, all appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Yes, sir, it could happen here is a production of
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to podcasts, you can now find sources for it could
Happen here.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Listen directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.
Media, what up it could happen here? It's your favorite
cousin prop. Y'all already know what it is. I'm about
to black this mug up because y'all don't be blacking
it up enough anyway. All over our country there's this
sort of narrative around crime which is verifiably false. But
(00:25):
we also understand that a lot of times the feeling
of crime and safety is a lot of times it's
a vibe like it's kind of how it feels. You
could tell me the crime rates is down across America,
but in my city, if I still feel like you know,
I'm saying not safe or safe, you know your perception
of that.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Anyway, the point I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Trying to make is there are truly verifiable, data driven
ways to actually create safety and reduce harm in a city,
and a lot of that is around trust and services.
So what I decided to do, y'all, is to bring
y'all who I lovingly called the Nipsey Hustle of Saint Louis,
(01:05):
Ladies and gentleman. Can I introduce you to the homeboy.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thisle with the red shirt on?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well, look, man, you already flamed up. I wasn't gonna
bring up.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The flame of it all.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I'm like, gotta throw the shirt off a problem. Oh Man,
happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Man, We happy to have you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
That was the one that's funny because that's the one
asterisk next to your name with me? Is all that
red you beware?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Hey man.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I was a little yeah, I know you gotta be
who you are.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I would not respect you were you to not be
flying your whoop.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
So I appreciate. He said, Look, that's what I love it.
We're gonna get into it. So we're gonna get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So this is like I said, the Nipsey Hustle of
Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
When we first met, I had no idea people out
there really actually said yes. I thought that was a joke.
I thought y'all was doing too much. And then I
met this and he was like, oh, it's over there
right there. I was like, wait, y'all really say that?
No joke at all, that's really y'allud. That's really how
we talk. We really talk.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And the crazy thing is I slowed down talking, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Sometimes it'd be like here in there, but if I
get to go away and be like her.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
He yo, yup, yup, cald switch.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
All right, perfect, So first of all, let's tell him
what you do now, so kind of give them brief
introduction who you are, what you're doing, and then we'll
go to the origin story.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
So like he said, my ain't this Travis Tyler. That's
what my mom and name from Saint Louis, Missouri. And man,
I'll be trying to figure out what am I sometimes
like for real, even when I was doing music, I
never felt like I was a rapper. Yeah, I felt
like I was an artist, you know. And I still
(02:56):
feel like I'm an artist in the sense of the
word now because I create things from inspiration, you know, alchemy.
I create from the mind. But I'm not what you
would consider an activist. I'm not a politician, but like
I'm always in the middle of something that's happening, and
(03:17):
that's how I've always been. And I have a passion
for the youth of urban community, especially black youth. I
have a passion for black men, especially black men that
are either trying to escape the reality of street life
or black men that are being re entered into society
from prison. I have a passion for the rebuilding of
(03:41):
the black community. So my whole life, that's pretty much
been my thing, no matter what space I've landed in,
it's always been my thing when it comes to community.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And so that's it, man, Like I'm wearing.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
The shirt is actually like one hundred from my mentor program,
my mentor inner city youth ages teen to seventeen.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, not just.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Setting up some of the mentor them, but creating the
rights of passage, right, creating a pathway, intentional pathway, like
I think a lot of time with inner city youth,
well I ain't even to say inner city youth, especially
with fatherless yes young men, whether wherever they're in the world,
whether it's the suburban neighborhood or the inner city or
rural or third world country. With fatherless young men, they
(04:30):
tend to lack, some of us, a passage way of oh,
this is who you can become, this is what you
need to do to become it, because there's no one
to really guide them. So with our mentoring program, that's
my goal, not just with mentor young men and send
them home and try to keep them out of trouble,
but help them identify who they are and who they
(04:51):
were born to be and help them get to their place.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, and you still got that group home joint, right.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, so the group on it's funny on an interview.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Now, I just stepped down from the Friday Okay, but
it was a good thing.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It wasn't a negative.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So I ran it for like a year and a half,
helped rebuild the program, brought it up to the modern age. Yeah,
staffed creating new things for the boys, learned a lot
myself in the process, and now I'm going full throttle
into shaping out my Flight one hundred program. Yeah, because
the end goal, like one of my end goals is
(05:27):
to build a school. Yeah, Flight one hundred Academy all boys,
keep the same boys from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Wow, that's my mission. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
What I truly enjoyed about what you're doing is at
least with the group on and the mentoring thing is
the trust factor in the sense that you know, when
you get involved, especially in the juvenile system, like they
tell you that your record sealed, they say that, Yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying, But like in practice, it's
(05:59):
not the thing. So, like I think oftentimes if there's
a step between getting into Juvie or into Central. You
know what I'm saying, If there's an in between step,
if somebody could come in the middle of that and
stay look, let.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Little homie stay with us, you know what I'm saying.
Or you know, let's say you caught a case.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And then every once in a while, like obviously both
of us can say this from like personal experience, every
once in a while, you might score a judge on
a good day. You know, you score a judge on
a good day, and they say, I tell you what
I heard of this program over on the other side
of town. You could either do this you have say it,
or you could go to Camp Rocket you know out here,
that's what it was like. You can go to Rocky
(06:38):
or you can go to this program and like ten
out of ten, I'm gonna be like, let's go to
this program. But sometimes that program be just as bad,
you know what I'm saying. But if it's ran by
somebody who has been through the system, who understands it
and knows that like here are the traps, here's are
the ways for which I know I was taking advantage
(07:00):
of I was abused, And this's what we're not gonna
do here.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know what I'm saying. The goal is for you
to never come back to this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You make a valid point.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
One of the reasons I believe God allowed me to
go back into the space with the group home was
bro Honestly, you will be surprised how I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
To word this in a good way, but I don't
think it is one you say.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
However, you won't.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
You will be surprised how messed up the foster cursistum is.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
A lot of these kids get pulled out of their homes.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
So the group home that I was at, mostly all
of our boys they came from environments where they have
been taken from their parents.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, And so I was under the transition to living
group home.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
So my objective, my daily task was to teach a
group of young men how to transition into manhood, how
to go.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Out on their own, pay their bills, live on their own.
All this.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You'll be surprised, though. These kids get pulled from their
homes and their parents. Yeah, and they're saying to them, oh,
We're going to send you somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Better, better, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And the places that they send them to do more
harm to them than their whole Like they're sitting in
there with people that are worse than their parents, and
one they don't have a voice to advocate for them.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
So here I am right now. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
A few months back, I was like, I'm gonna talk
about this every chance I get.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Which is crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They don't have nobody to advocate for them, because I'm
sure there are people that have been through the foster
curve system, but for some reason, people see that stigma.
They're probably celebrities that have been through foster curve, but
they see it as a stigma, like, oh, they didn't
want to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Pot all my parent gave me up. I don't know
who my parent is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I was in you know, whatever the case is, they
don't have nobody to advocate.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, these kids, a lot of these kids.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Are treated so poorly in these places that the loss
should step in. People tend to not understand why they
act the way they act. Yeah, you got to think ultimately,
you are walking into a child's home and you're kidnapping them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's what you're doing. Really. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, so if I.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Come to your house at eight nine o'clock at night
when I was fourteen, Me, my cousins, my brother, a
bunch of my siblings were taken from my mom and
my aunt.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I watched it from across the street because I was
over my friend's house. Holy swooped up. Social workers swooped up.
It's nighttime. You go into somebody's house, you take their child.
They don't know where you're taking their child to. Yeah,
the child doesn't know where they're going. And then they
(09:41):
get to the residential or the group home and they
acting a fool. And you got a bunch of unqualified,
untrained staff members there. They don't know how to deal
with them neither. That's just looking for a job. And
when they get there, they talking about why they acting
like this. Come on, man, if somebody just came to
your house and took you from your current you will
be acting the same way. And if you weren't, you
saw basically, let's just be rial. Yeah, yeah, you just saw.
(10:03):
You're gonna sit there and all night. These kids they
acting out because they've been abducted basically in their mind.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And even Pat Wade beyond that point.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I know most people have seen if you having the
movie Dot Sit where they talk about the shackling family
and how they basically made dose fans out of the
whole West Virginia with oxy coati You know, oxy code
ain't how do you want to pronounce it? And they
showing the movie how these doctors were getting these kickbacks
introducing the drugs to the patients in West Virginia. Bro,
(10:37):
who better to prack them on own with drugs than children?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We ain't got no parents that nobody.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Cares them out.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, Bro.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
They take these kids and they put them into the
system three four, five years old, and they started doping
them from day one, man five dose dop and over
and over, switch them out, put them on something else. Well,
let me see how this don't work. Switch them out
and put them on something else. By the time they
got to me at eighteen years old, they like bro frime,
(11:10):
yeah fried, And then you got you got case workers.
They don't care about the kids. They don't call, they
don't come see them, they don't pick them up, they
don't do none of these things.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And the kids sitting there feeling like they don't got
nobody in nowhere.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
So my main space that I function in right now,
especially for them, is to be an advocate every chance
that I get, I'm gonna talk about it so people
can put eyes on it. But also that's one of
the reasons that I'm building the things that I'm building,
so that we can have a space where it's like
now you don't have to go to because there are
a lot of people I already have the good ideas
they have it. There are some good programs. Yeah, Like
(11:44):
there are good programs. Program that I was at, it's
been around four hundred and sixty eight years. It's a
decent program So there are good programs that are out here.
But the whole system as a hall, it needs an overall.
So when I had an opportunity to keep behind the veil,
I was like, you know, you know me, I go
and get the talking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, I think obviously you talking that talk. But like
one of the things that you know, in the humanitarian
space that I like I serve in, they have a
saying that says peace works at the speed of trust,
you know. So like even with all these good programs
in different places, it's like, if these kids don't trust you, Yeah,
(12:31):
you brought up being removed from your family's house when
you was real young. I love to talk a little
bit about about the origin story, because obviously you wasn't
always talking like this.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And I think that that like legitimacy, you know, or
that realness that I'm sure no matter how doped up
or how painful them kids are, like, they can look
behind your eyes and say, okay, but he knows. Yeah,
So give me a little bit of that, get a
little bit of the retired whooping all that.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Oh it's funny. I got this video on my page
that I posted. I started off saying, ain't nobody coming
to save you?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And at the end of it, I go through this
story about being in the group home and all of that,
and I say, have y'all ever seen the Marvel movies
where they like, this is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I'm like, that's my origin story. Yeah. So for me,
that part of the group home was significant in my life, real,
real significant. So before I went to the group home,
I was already outside.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, like the like, there are a lot of things
that I've experienced in this world that when I look back,
I just be like, Man, that's crazy. Bro.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
When I was fourteen years old, me and my girlfriend
were living together.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, broh No, I slept in the beg fourteen every night. Yeah,
with my girlfriend at fourteen, Like we basically lived again,
me and her in a room, her mom in the
next room, and so I was because of my mom's issues.
Like I've been at this point, I've been my sole provider,
(14:04):
you know, minus a short period of time her and there.
Whether it's like I went to live with my daddy
and he sent me back orf with my grandma for
a short period of time my grandfather. All of those
were short periods of time. But since I was like twelve,
I've been taking care of myself. So I was outside early,
like hustling making money so I can provide for myself. Fourteen,
(14:24):
like I said, I was living with my girlfriend. We
were sleeping in the same bed. When I went to
the group home, my mom, the caseworker, and the police
came and got me from her house and put me
in a car, drove me two hours out of Saint
Louis to a wrench little house out in the woods
(14:45):
town full of white people. Like I was a hoodie kid.
Like when they got me, true story, I had on
dicky overalls, like the zip up the brown boy. Yeah,
it's some boots like a baby.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Saint Louis, Like, I don't like the influence of
like West Coast culture, and it was very big out there.
So when he was like, yo, I'm zipped up and
the Beanie and the Dickeys, like you would think you
was in South Central.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, So I had on a Bennie the zip up
Dickey boy like yeah boo. So they took me out
to the woods and man, I got there, and when
I got there, it was the first time in my
life I think I felt that level of desperation. Yeah,
and hopelessness, huh, because I was supposed to stay there
until I was eighteen or twenty one. Those are their
words based off my behavior. I'm fourteen, so I'm in
(15:32):
my head like I'm from the beer six years like yeah,
So I'm meeting all these kids. They like, I'm been
here since I was this age, and I've been in
the system since I was this and they moved me
here and they so I'm hearing all these different stories
from different people.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And I'm just like, dang, it's crazy, you know.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And then one day it was right after Christmas, I'm
sitting in her hindsight, I got a different perspective of it. Now.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's this kid. I never forget him. His name was Roger.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
When I first met him the very first day that
I came, he sat down beside me and he said, Man,
if my granddaddy was here, he wouldn't want me talking
to you. And I was like, wow. He said because
he don't like black people. So I turned right to
him and said, why did you feel the need to
tell me that?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Why you tell me that? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Like, I was like, you could have kept that to yourself.
He like, I don't got nothing against black people. I'm
just saying my grandfather don't like black people. So I'm like, whatever, okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It's like right after Christmas. Christmas Day, I was sitting
in the group home. Nobody called, Like, I was watching
all the other kids. They getting gifts, they opening their
presents and yeah, depending on their program, some of them
they get to go home. Like, so I'm sitting I
ain't nobody called me on, got no gifts, I don't
got nothing, And I'm just sitting in the chart like.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Just pissed all day basically.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, and uh, one of my workers came in later
that day. I seen her. She was talking to the lady.
The other lady was about to get off. They was
behind me and I heard her talk and she say,
he just sitting there all day.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
She was like yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
She like, did anybody call him or anything? She was like,
She's like nobody. So I'm and it's crazy now that
I've been back in that space more than once. Yeah,
I've experienced that with kids, seeing them none and I
know what to dude, Like, I got you you know
what I'm saying, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And so I'm
sitting there at that point, She's like, Noah, you're just
sitting there all day. And so she went came out.
(17:20):
She's like, hey, oh, what you doing. This lady played
a significant role in my life. I wish I could
remember her name. Bro.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Like so she was like what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I'm like nothing. She's like, you want to go to
the store. I'm like to do what She like her,
I've got something for you. So the state gave each
kid one hundred dollars Walmart gift card. Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So she like, you got a gift card the Walmart four.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Hundred dollars bore. I had never been to Walmart before.
I ain't know what Walmart was. So I'm like, all right, man,
let's go. We go to Walmart. I'm walking around.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He ain't never been to Walmart.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I had never been to Walmart. Bro, walking around, I'm
looking around the store. I got this hundred bull Guess
what I buy? No, lie, true story, white T shirt
and some Dickies Yes, yes, yes, white T shirt and
some Dickies out of waltmore than the Country. You're I
love it. So I grabbed the Dickys white tea. Go
(18:14):
back to the group home. I'm still mad because ain't
nobody called me, Nobody came to see me, you know,
none of that. And so the next few days, man,
me and dude, we always ended up in the living
room at the same time. And I'm I'm I'm mad. Yeah,
So fourteen. You gotta think when I was fourteen, Bro,
I was like probably six six foot six one. Yeah,
(18:37):
like one hundred and eighty two hundred pounds when I
was fourteen.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And so while I'm married, they had some little weights.
I had started lifting weights everything.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh man, so I'm programming.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm a big old kid. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So dude gets to talking crazy to me. We shit
in the living room. He like, man, what you doing boy?
So my conversation goes back to the first.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Time, like god. He races yeah, yeah, now and.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Now I know. I'm like what you mean boy? He like,
you heard me?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Boy?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I'm like boy as in kid or boy as in racist. Yeah.
He like, boy, you heard me.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Now we're fighting.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
I said, hey, bro, I'm gonna tell you this one
more time. Don't call me a boy again.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah. He said, what you gonna do? Boy?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Let that fool up? Yup, yup.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I'm talking about right style, locked in, big night night, yup,
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
By the time they come in, I got him by
the back of the neck. Yeah, and I'm rubbing his
face across the carpet.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I'm like, what you call me again?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
He stayed. He say, you know, he's like boy, you
hurt so now hindsight, though, when I look back, I
had to think and say, yeah, damn, me and him
were sitting there at the same time. I thought back
and said, oh, he ain't had no visitors on Christmas steeven. Yeah,
Oh he's man like me.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
He just as hurt as you.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
He was hurt. He ain't even know how the process.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
You the craziest storyteller ever like, cause I'm like, you
can get to the point, and I see.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It right now. I know, like, ain't know the process.
So I rushed him up forever.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
So when the people come in and they see me,
you know, they like, grab me up cause I'm six
foot yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's on your kid from the city. Yeah,
you know everybody record and story. They're coming to her.
So they know, like here gang member, he.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Did he did? Yeah yeah, yeah, So I'm no bressing.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
They snatched me up, throw me in the room. They
took me in this room called an isolation room. This
room is like an eight my chin. All the walls
were metal.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
The door was like this thick wood with a little
bitty wondering the thing on it.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
No way out unless they let you out in carpet
on the floor. Bro. When they shut that door, I
just lost it. Yeah. My brain said, you finna died
in her, ain't no way out.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, And I got to kick in the door. I
got to yelling, and I'm talking about Bro just was
wilding in that. But they just they paid me no mind.
They didn't even come to the door.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It don't make no difference until you down.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
They like he can't get out.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And so this girl that I knew to her, she
came and sat down by the bottom of the door
and talked under the thing, and she was like, hey,
you gotta come down. She's like, come down here. So
I laid down on the floor. I'm breathing through the
crack like I'm breathing under the door. She like, you
gotta calm down, like they never gonna let you out
of her they scared. She like, I'm out here, like
(21:22):
you gotta. So I'm just laying there regulating and I
go to sleep. Wow, and I wake up in the
middle of the night. I knock on the door. They
let me out to use the bath on the dude
like it was a big white dude used to be overnight.
He was like, if I let you out or you're
gonna get the trip. And I said, nah, man, I
just got to use the bathroom. I already then used
it there once. I'm like, I just want to go
to the tarlet.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
So he's like, all right, come on, he let me out.
I went back in and he locked the door.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
When I went back in there, bro, I said to myself,
this was my one of my origins, I said to myself,
I said, when they let me out of her fourteen
years old, I said, I'm gonna be different. Yeah, I'm
be in controlled, show the world who I am. Yeah,
when they let me out, I played the game after
that every since. Yah. So I went to another group home.
(22:08):
I stayed there. I was supposed to be there for
a while. And I got to that group home and
I asked the people. I said, how does the program work?
As soon as I got there, Yeah, they said, well,
if you do this shit and then you go to
level this, and you go to this level, you go.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
To that left. I said, how long do it take?
They said probably like ninety days. I said, I'm gonna
do it a sixty.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I love it. They said okay and showed up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Sixty days later. Bro leics than sixty I was done. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
They called my mama. My case had been dropped because
my mama was doing what she's supposed to do, and
they like, you can go home. Yeah, So now I
go home. Two days before I'm turning fifteen. I get
back home, though my mama was on the same mission,
and I've been outside ever since. Beautiful man, and I
think one thing after another to just shape me into
who I am, but a hero.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say that that authenticity
of like even having the awhereithal to know that like,
you know, at the end of the day, love homie
was scared right, like he was just hurting. So when
you have that sort of like level of empathy and
you know when you were outside, like the reasons for
(23:12):
which you were outside, you know what I'm saying, and
having those connections, it's so clear to me how that
fuels the direction you're in and it proves to me
the cornerstone premise of my whole movement here, which is like, Yo,
if you understand the hood, you understand politics, you walked
in there and say, what's the game?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
What's the play? Okay, what's the play? How does this work?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
This?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now, know how to work it. Here's a way to
make it better. I know how it, I know how
I felt in it. So if somebody else has to
be in there just the way it needs to be done,
because I know I would have succeeded had this this.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
And this happened.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So let me let me let me push you forward
to now and then to more like sort of the
bigger like national conversation. Now, so like the national conversation
all of us we lived through, you know, in the
time that you were there, in the time going on
in La too, like just this hyper policing where you know,
for us, probably the saying for y'all, the copts were
(24:08):
just another gang us, you know what I'm saying, Like
y'all just as violent, as bad and as dangerous as
everybody else in these streets, Like you ain't make no
difference to us. And sure, yeah, like in the same
way that you know, if you were having a rodent
infestation at your house, I mean, sure you could bomb
(24:29):
the house, right, and yes, the rodents are gone. You're
see what I'm saying, But you've killed everything, you know
what I'm saying. But then you get to say, like
you know, as a metaphor, it's like, oh, look, we
were tough on crime, we ended crime, you know what
I'm saying. It's like, well, yeah, but that's what you
locked us all up. Like it didn't This didn't really
help us. But you know, we're seeing sort of across
(24:50):
the country, despite all of these efforts and proof that
like the streets are different and it's not because of
any invading forts. It's because of people like you, people
like JB and okc let are like truly from the
city who really care and move at the speed of trust.
Like I said, moving at the speed of trust and
(25:10):
like and are saying, Look, it's one kid at a time,
it's one program at a time. It's it's one advocate
at a time that like says incremental slow door knock,
build trust, one kid.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You know what I'm saying. That's like, it's not fun,
it's not a movie.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
It ain't sexy.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It ain't sexy. Bro, you gotta be outside. You know,
I'm gonna breeze through when you caught one to the leg.
But like, even in the process of doing the good
you were doing, there was a moment where like I
knew of like you're like you were neighborhoods, like you know,
doing backpack drives and back to school things, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But these are like in these are in active areas.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Like you you know, everybody can just walk in to
this park and be like I'm gonna do a fundraiser.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It's like like, yeah, we rob at all of you.
You know what I'm saying. So like after years.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Of doing this, you know, one little Waiian didn't know
who he was dealing with.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You know what I'm saying, caught you slipping.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know what I'm saying, you had to rebuild and
I've seen even health journey from that moment sort of change. Yeah,
to bring you into the position you're in sort of now,
which is like, obviously it's somebody we could deeply admire.
(26:34):
Can you talk a little bit about obviously without getting personal,
without sharing anybody's like personal information, but some of the
sort of like things that you've seen with some of
the young homies who've been able to maybe like calm
some stuff down, you know what I'm saying, like maybe
actually like this working, you know what i mean.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Yeah, Yeah, So I think you nailed it as a whole.
It takes a person that people trust to bring a
level of com So even when I got shot.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
When I got shot, Bryan had dudes in my inbox where.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, yeah that be outside ready to slide, Oh ready
to they ready to slide?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah Yeah, that's like, hey, who got you?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You know it?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, And I'm like, nah, I'm cool.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, And so sometimes when things
like that happen, people take things into.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Their own hands. Yeah, that you don't know nothing about.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
And so after that they were like, do you want
to do this news interview? I was still broke up.
I couldn't get out the bell yet. I'm like, yeah,
you know, but my reason for doing the news interview
was so people could hear my heart. Yeah, and you
have a thistle in every neighborhood around America.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
So here's the thing about police. Police are reactive.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yeah when by the time police on a word of things,
a client has happened, Yeah, the murder has already taken place,
the shooting has already happened, the robbery has already happened.
The person that's stopping the crime is miss Kathy that
live on the block. Yes, that say hey, commerd, Yeah,
(28:13):
where you going? I could tell you frustrate uh huh.
We had this lady in our neighborhood. The name was
miss a Miss Alexander. How many times as a kid
I would be walking past her house on my way
to do something stupid, Yeah, and she'll say commerd yep,
And you go sit there on the porch with her
and talk for like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Respects. You have to respect her. Yeah, and you done.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Or the dude that used to be in the street.
It's a dude her in Saint Louis.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I don't really know him, like personally personally, but his saying,
uh he goes by the name Yo bangor uh huh.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, Ed street dude.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Everybody love him.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You're me yeah, yeah, bro be outside like politicket, Yeah,
running programs, you know, doing stuff like that. So those
are the people that calls change in every community.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Let me tell you a place.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Oh, while we're on this subject, I think we fail it,
especially with organizations. Organizations that typically come into our neighborhood.
They come for agenda and politics, and what they don't
understand is what you're saying, if you understand the hood,
you understand politics. So when they pull up on us
in the hood and they got this big organization with
(29:27):
all this money and they're like, this is what we
want to do. Now you're telling me that because you're
trying to build an army of people to fight for
your calls. And what they do is they come into
our spaces and they don't empower those people, right, there.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I've said this to people one hundred times.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
If you really, really really want to see impact and
see change, you need to go to the community and
see the people that are already leading it. There you
go the people that you're talking about. The reason I'm
able to go into park in that neighborhood is because
over there, at one point I was one of the
leaders actively.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So people that aren't know me, they respect me.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
They understand my journey and my transition, and that rapport
is what get the work done.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Police a reactor. Bro by the said police get on
somebody dead.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It's already done.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, it's people like me on the phone When Bro call, like, man, Bro,
I'm about the snap, It's like, nah, Bro, where you at?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Like you know what we're doing?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
And so I think those people need to be empower
more for any organization that's listening or the possibly here.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
It is.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
We don't need you to come out our community and
build a hub. We don't need you to put an
office there, and I'm gonna be candid and bring a
whole lot of white people facts and gentrify a program.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
We don't need that.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
What is needed is if you have resources, you have money,
you have things you could bring structure, you could bring system,
but bring it to empower the person that's already in
that space.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
It's don't take you thirty years to get to kind
of respect that person. Get over there already.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Gems and you know why they can't be fully involved
because they still gotta work, They still gotta do things.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You still yes, you still yes, yeah. Man.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
So if you want to really empower the community, take
that forty fifty sixty seventy thousand, one hundred thousand that
you about to run on this slur campaign against whoever
else you don't like, Yeah, and take some of that money,
take about seventy five k that and give it to
somebody like Yo bang Yo.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Bang a missa. Yeah, but I say it was Alex Carrasco. Yeah,
give it to people like that, yup. Because we lived
in the Mexican hoods. You know, he had his theres bontos,
Like we already knew. He was like what what the.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
People like that?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Give it to him? You know what I'm saying, He
looked that man.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Took me camping for the first time with with Alex Carrasco.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You know what I'm saying, Like.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Believe it or not. Believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Part of the reason that you turned out the way
you did is because of seedge that people like him
playing it. Yep, no facts, it's the difference between you
and the other dudes on the block that didn't go.
It's exactly like exposure, bro is key what you're exposed
to right now. One of my missions I'm working on
over the next couple of years were I'm gonna take
a group of kids from the.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Hood to Africa. They have to see it, bro, that's
one of my missions.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
They have to Yes, Yeah, I'm gonna take a bunch
of kids from the Hood to Africa, like so they
can get over there and see what it really looked like.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, but also just taking them other places.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
They could also go to, like Denver, Like.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, I took a group of kids to Kaa a
few years that, like in the city kids, Yeah, and
they were blown away.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Like like you said, going camping, you get to see
water and boats.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
When I used to teach, I taught in the city
called Pomona. It's in the Inland Empire. It's kids from
La I's never seen the beach like you've never seen
the ocean and you're from Los Angeles, you know what
I'm saying, So, like, yeah, that exposure changes everything. Have
you set up some sort of like fundraising things so
we can see if we can get our listeners to
maybe like fund this Africa trip.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So if you go to my page, just like one
hundred foundation dot org.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Like one hundred foundation dot org.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Okay, yeah, it's a donation tab. It'll go to the
give but a page.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Okay, we will link to that. Yes see, that's all
I needed.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, listen, bro, I want to thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Some of y'all know, like I've known this man for
a long time. We've we've ran ran into many A
cities and many A shows.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
And always appreciated you too.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yes, sir man, I think there was a little bit
of like we've been sitting in green rooms that both
of us know good and well that we just why
are we here, Like we have no reason to be
in this room, but we are. It just has very
much a very much like a real, recognized real with
somebody like this man. And like you said, Bro, like
there's thistles in every city man, and I appreciate the
(33:53):
fact that like and that's part of what makes you
what you are, is that like it's the things that
happened that when there's no cameras on that for us
that we're mostly proud of is not the stuff that.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Like everybody sees.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
It's what's happened, like you said, is when it's the
phone calls you have to have, you know, the meetings
you have to set up, you know what I'm saying,
and like the like those things are are are the
things that really keep a city safe.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I want to say this before we go. We talked
about something before you start recording.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I want to point it
out because I think it's important too. We were talking
about how resources prevent violence. Yeah, so everybody know, where
there's no hope, there's violence, there is desperate right yes.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So yeah, right now with Saint.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Louis, we have been informed that the senator who's a
Republican center, Yeah, he's linked up with pjt Okay, okay,
and there you are. They're building an FBI base here
and they're bringing in more FBI agents to divert violence.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah right, yeah, one.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Again, law enforcement is a reaction to crime. Yeah, they
don't prevent it. Yeah, here's the reality that everybody that
has a brain to think should be aware of. I
don't care how many FBI you bring, how many police
you hire. There are not enough law enforcement to govern
the earth.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yes, yes, period, there's too many of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
There's not there's too many of us.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Govern the earth. Yeah, like that's that's that's a no go. Right.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah, most cases, when I see people make these arguments
about this, I'm a person I like to use facts.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I get straight to the facts, like we get the points.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
So in Saint Lewis, right, from twenty twenty to twenty
twenty four, the murder rate in Saint Louis.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Has dropped by one hundred and thirteen.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Come on, man, yeah, one hundred and thirteen. That's a
lot of lives. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
So in twenty twenty, the number of homicides at Saint
Louis was two hundred and sixty three. The number in
twenty twenty four were one hundred and fifty. See, there
are certain things that I'm not gonna say they are
the exclusive reason, but there are certain things that I
know have contributed to that. And it's not law enforcement.
(36:23):
Because our police force is short right now, they gone.
They don't do too.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Much and nothing.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Yeah, there are a few things I know they have
contributed to that. The main thing is resources, yeah, and compassion.
But they are few. Through a certain few things that
I want to shout out. One of them is an
organization called Fccy Freedom Center Saint Louis Mahomie Mike Milton.
The other one is Actual Saint Louis. The other one
(36:49):
is Mission Saint Louis. The other one is we Power
Saint Louis. We power SCL. They fund early childhood development.
Word like crucially important for our community. Wow, you got FCC,
actually Saint Louis, Missus Saint Louis, Black Men, Bill, we
Power stl.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Just to name a few people like your banger.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
These are the people that have been actively in the
community for the past four years. The past mayor to
Charlotte Jones, she probably got a lot of things wrong
in people asked, but she was directing certain things and
empowering people in a certain way. These organizations have thrived
(37:36):
over the past four years, and as a result, you
see the number of homicides in the city.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
D Chris, So why do we need to bring more
FBI agents. What is that for? Show?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Shouldn't we be throwing more money into these organizations if
they are out here the turn crime they got the
FCC has data, Yeah, they have data of reconciliation. I'm
talking about my boy Mike Milton. He's stepping into roles.
With one case in particular, a young man was driving
(38:10):
in the court with another young man.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
He was drunk. The young man died.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
He reconciled him with the mother. The mother in return,
went to the judge and was like, he don't.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Need to go to jail. You're either gonna treat me. Wow,
Like why is he going to prison? Wow?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Damn man.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
And then when they get when they get risdored justice, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Restorative justice.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
When they get released from prison, they go to SCC
and they spend time with them and they learn restorative justice.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
They take accountability. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
So if we go if we need anything in Saint Louis,
in DC, in uh Chicago, if we need anything in
these cities, what we need or people to be realistic
about what's happening, and if you want to do something saying,
say some of the funds you're gonna use to have
more law enforcement into these places where you know people
(39:05):
are already doing things because let me tell you something else.
It's twenty twenty six almost, it's twenty twenty five. Ain't
nobody scared of the police like they used to be.
This ain't nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Bro, sir.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Don't nobody's seen the police and be like, oh my gosh,
you'll go to the police. These are grown men, just
like another grown man. Ain't nobody scared of police?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
No more. That ain't a thing.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Lead like the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
That's not a thing.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah you bleed like the rest of us.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Mumbles yeah with the police, Bro, they dangerous right now?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Straight spinn up.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Look, we can talk about this back because that's the
way we are with these ice agents.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
It's like, you think I'm scared of you, bro, You
think I'm scared of you?
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Ami.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, anyway, thank you this, Thank you for it for
like bringing it back to the data and shining the
light on like people actually doing the work. You can
follow you on Instagram. It's I am thiszle right, it's
th ChIL this yeah Thhi.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
SL one hundred foundation dot org is the website social
Media's you'll be founding on all of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
There, you'll find all that. All right, it can happen here.
Cool Zone Media, we appreciate you, all appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Yes, sir, it could happen here is a production of
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to podcasts, you can now find sources for it could
Happen here.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Listen directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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