November 27, 2023 • 24 mins
Host Ramses Ja welcomes author AR Shaw back for today's episode that focuses on the biggest stories of the past weekend. AR Shaw is not only an author, but also serves as the Executive Editor of the Atlanta Daily World newspaper.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Here we at the Black Information Network, we know how
important it is for you to start your week off energized, engaged,
and enlightened. There are always major stories that break over
the weekend, and we feel you should know about the
ones we are talking about today, So stay tuned for
our weekend recap featuring the author of the book Trap
History and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World, Mister A. R.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Shaw.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast. Now I'm
your host, ramses Jaw. All right, mister A. R. Shaw,
Welcome back to the show. Man. I'm really excited to
have today's conversation with you. How you doing, man?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Wait, everything is good this way.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Along Thanksgiving weekend, so get right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
All right, let's do it. So first up, this comes
from you know, at least my sort of local hometown newspaper,
the Arizona Republic. Derek Shavin is expected to survive an
unexpected stabbing that place over the weekend at an Arizona prison,
So I'll share a bit. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis
(01:04):
pol police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed
and seriously injured by someone also incarcerated at a federal
prison in Tucson. The Office of Minnesota Attorney General confirmed,
While a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed in
his incarcerated individuals was assaulted, they would not confirm the
identity or medical status of the victim. This was what
(01:25):
took place initially. Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Office
of Minnesota Attorney General, confirmed Chavin was stabbed. Well, I
am sad to hear that Derek Shaman was the target
of violence. He was duly convicted of his crimes, and
like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve
his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence. This according
to Attorney General Keith Ellison in a really statement, So
(01:50):
what else do we know about this? What was your reaction?
You know, kind of bring us up to speak, Yeah, definitely, I.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Got an opportunity to read it came across the wire
on Friday and social media. The biggest thing was that
a lot of people were wishing for his demise. And
the thing is, Derek Chauvin, He's gonna have a target
on his back as long as he's as long as
he's incarcerated.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
We had to think about it.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
He committed a murder on an on armed black man,
that being George Floyd, in a video that was viewed
around the world. There aren't many people who will sympathize
with Derek Chauvin because quite frankly, he doesn't believe that
he's guilty just thinking about it. Last week he attempted
to have his conviction overthrown by the Supreme Court. Sure
no skill for the Supreme Court that they rejected that
(02:36):
that appeal, But it shows you that he doesn't really
have any remorse for killing George Floyd, and so he's
always going to have a target on his back as
long as he's in general populations. Why he's incarcerated. Uh,
And there are people who are talking on social media
now who wished that someone the person who did finished
the job.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Sure, sure, you know. And speaking of social media, that's
also how it made its way to me initially before
I was able to read a little bit more about it,
and it seemed that there were more people concerned about
the knife than Jerk Chauvin. That people were like, yo,
it's the knife, Okay, it's very funny. But there were
(03:15):
some other people that used it as an opportunity to
bring some attention to some other gaps in society. Right, So,
obviously there's a certain type of individual of a certain
political persuasion that would look at this attack on Derek
(03:40):
Shauman and say, oh my god, this should never have happened.
And so there were people on social media bringing attention
to the fact that, hey, this is normal in prisons.
We've been trying to say that prisons need to be reformed,
we need to rethink prisons, we need to abolish prisons,
you know whatever, And everyone's using this as an opportunity
and then aperture into that political, politically oriented or differently
(04:06):
politically oriented community to give them some insight onto what
the reality is like. There were people who use this
moment to kind of say, you know, thoughts and prayers,
thoughts and prayers, just to kind of show other people
how empty those statements are. And then of course there
was a group of people that I saw, like at
least in the common section, that were like, you know, anyways,
(04:28):
you know, they'd read the story anyways, you know, free Palestine, anyway,
you know. So there were a lot of people that
were framing this relative to the issues in society and
you know, when you look at it through that lens,
you realize, Okay, it's not that big of a deal.
He he's not dead. B And if anybody's going to
(04:50):
get upset about this individual being attacked in a prison,
they got a long road and a lot of hurdles
that they're going to have to confront, a lot of
issue using elements that they're going to have to confront
before they can realistically take on this issue for this
one individual, because these are issues that affect so many
other people. And I thought that that was an interesting
way that, at least on social media, this attack on
(05:14):
this gentleman was framed. Add to that that he's in
a medium security prison. This isn't a max security where
the hardened criminals go. And you know, I don't know
too much about prisons. Let me not, let me not,
let me not hold you here, but I think the
term medium security and then stabbing, I think that you
know that that makes a little bit more sense, you know,
(05:34):
And so if if indeed, like you say, he does
have a target on his back, I'd imagine they would
have probably taken more precautions to protect him. With that said,
I'm glad at least that the silver lining that came
from this is that people started talking about, Okay, really
what are prisons to and again, you know what is
what is what are we really focusing on as a society.
(05:54):
So you know, my two cents. I'm wanted to ask
you the same thing though, when you were kind of
checking out the initial reaction on social media, what did
you get from people's uh people's take, you know, not
not not the people that were making jokes, but the
people who were sincerely like engaged in the dialogue.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, it was two things. It's interesting because with with
social media you can hear both sides. Initially, you know,
there were some people who said that, uh, there was
an issue within the prison systems then, and uh, this
should have never happened. And of course, and there was
other people who pointed out that the misinformation spread and
(06:40):
misinformation that George Floyd passed.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Due to fittanel, which is a truth.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So yeah, so you had so many people that was
that was there Chauvin's defense that he attempted to take
to the Supreme Court, which was rejected, And so you
had people, you know, spreading that misinformation online as well.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And so there's a You know, with.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Social media, there's always different opinions from different size. Like
I said, for you know, for the majority of people
that I got an opportunity to read and engage with,
they were happy that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He was attacked.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
They were happy that he went through this ordeal because
for nearly ten minutes he kneeled on a black man's
nick who was unarmed, without any remorse. And he's, like
I said, he still hasn't shown any remorse today.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, and I think that I would agree with you there.
I just I want to be fair here that it's
likely that him or his supporters would say that something
closer to he's not trying to deal with the consequences
of an unfair decision. Of course, we would say, yeah,
(07:50):
he's he doesn't care. Clearly, there's no accountability there. Why
is he trying to Like we saw him do it
on video, even if there was fintannel, even if there
was you know whatever. We saw him treat an unarmed
black man exactly like we know that these people treat us.
And so yeah, just felt important to say both sides
(08:11):
of it because you know, Candice Owne put that movie
out and then people are I don't even want to
give that anymore shine anyway, let's move on. So you
remember that Montgomery Riverfront brawl. Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
how could you forget right? That's going to go down
in history, right. So you know, as you know, the
(08:31):
co captain was charged with assault. Well, he pleaded not guilty.
So I'll share a little bit about this with our listeners.
So this comes from the Montgomery Advertiser. Harriet, the second
co captain, Damian Pickett, was beaten by a group of
voters at the start of an August fifth Riverfront brawl.
Pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a third degree assault charge
(08:52):
in Montgomery Municipal Court. Meanwhile, an opposing attorney is pointing
to video footage that he says shows the incident in
a new light.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Picket's trial will begin on January thirtieth. Picket declined to comment. Tuesday.
Zachary Shipman, who was facing an assault charge as well,
filed the charges against Picket. Dozens of videos shot by
frustrated Harriet the Second Passengers captured the beginning of the
brawl and showed Pickett, who was black, being repeatedly struck
by a group of white voters while onlooker screen from
(09:23):
the banks of the river. The footage went viral on
social media and sparked global attention and outrage. Terry Luck,
one of Shipman's defense attorneys, provided video footage to the
Montgomery Advertiser that he said shows Picket Quote seeking out
Shipman after the first fight on the dock ended. Okay,
Pickett was the victim in the initial fight, but in
(09:46):
the second fight, of course, it shows him looking or
it shows him looking for, you know, the people who
started the fight. So the video appears to happen after
the initial brawl and with Montgomery police officers on the scene.
Several versions of the initial attack posted to social media
showed that no officers were on the dock at the time.
(10:07):
All right, so you more or less got this story.
Talk to us a little bit more of what are
we missing, Let's fill in some gaps, and of course
I'd love to get your thoughts on.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
This.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
These charges.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, it's unfortunately that Damian Pickett is facing any charges
with the Montgomery following the Montgomery incident. As we all
saw video that he was attacked by a group of
white individuals who obviously intoxicated and belligerent and they just
didn't want to follow the rules. Now, let's say that
you know that there is a case that he did
(10:47):
you attack, there was an attack, So the Alabama in Alabama,
there is a law that was passed in January twenty
twenty three that states a person does not have a
duty to retreat from a conflict before using force in
self defense. And this is an Alabama law that was
passing twenty earlier this year. So if he has the
(11:08):
right to stand his ground, which we've seen to stand
your ground law in multiple states, particularly in the South,
and so Alabama is one of the states that adopted
this law, and if he was defending himself, there is
no reason for him to retreat according.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
To Alabama law. So these charges should have never taken place.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure sure, you know, to me, this looks like if
it's up, then it's stuck, you know what I mean,
run up, get done up. You know, there's it's just
sort of weird that the defense is trying or I
shouldn't even call it the defense the prosecution because these
are charges filed against you know, the captain.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Their position is not the initial fight, the initial attack
on this solitary black man by a group of white
individual The entirety of their case rests on a subsequent
video that, based on everything that I've read, does not
even show any additional fighting. It just shows him seeking
(12:15):
out the individuals who attacked him initially. And I feel like, again,
if it's up, then it stuck, like don't like, you
cannot have that in a vacuum. You can only have
that in the proper context of Yo, these guys jumped
this guy, and yeah, he had some help, but that
doesn't necessarily mean he knows these people personally, and he's
(12:38):
trying to bring some justice to his immediate situation. It's
not like he left there and then came back the
next day. He's still there, still popping. It is still
going on, and if he's looking for a person that
attacked him, he feels like maybe they took something from him.
He needs to bring some balance to the universe. To me,
it feels like, okay, once you view it through the
proper context, there's really no case here. What he's not
(13:00):
looking for people, just like I said, in a vacuum,
he's looking for the people that attacked him, and that
to me feels appropriate for any individual, any any being
endowed with consciousness that has a strong enough self preservation
survival instinct. I'm going to make sure that these people
(13:21):
understand that this is not okay and this was never
going to happen to me. Again my two cents. But
I guess we're going to have to wait till January
thirtieth to see what happens with this, because apparently they
can file this and you know, drag this man through
a bunch of court proceedings, and you know, obviously we're
gonna watch it because we saw the video. It's funny
(13:42):
how that works. Today's guest is the author of the
book Trap History and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World,
Mister A. R. Shaw. Okay, this from the bbc Z.
A legal deadline has prompted a rush of sexual assault
(14:03):
charges against high profile figures, including Axel Rose, Sean Diddy, Combs,
and New York Mayor Eric Adams. I'll share a bit.
The list of names has grown this week, with some
being accused of abuse that allegedly took place decades ago.
That's in part because of New York law. The Adult
Survivors Act, expired on Friday that gave people a look
(14:25):
back window on sexual assault that took place before the
twenty year legal statute of limitations. This means civil lawsuits
on historic sex crimes could be filed for a limited time.
Diddy's accusations have grown, so now he's facing three different accusers.
Of course, we mentioned Eric Adams Andrew Cuomo, his case
(14:49):
fell under this this law as well. Jamie Fox is
dealing with some charges as well. Axel Rose as we mentioned, etc.
And this is the same one that Donald Trump, you know,
that was another high profile case and another one that
Donald Trump had to face ended up losing and had
to pay five million dollars. So as always, bring us
(15:09):
up to speed, let us know what we're missing, and
of course I love your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, definitely, So this this law is definitely prompted a
lot during thanks Given weekend. It was a lot of
names that popped up that became impacted by this law
because it expired I think on the night of Black Friday.
So from Thanksgiving to the Night of Black Friday, we
(15:35):
saw so many names prominent individuals who were being accused
of incidents that occurred years ago. But it's interesting that
there was the reactions, particularly on social media, with different
when it came to the different subjects. I want to
point out that Jamie Fox, a lot of people didn't
really they took Jamie Fox aside, which was kind of
(15:57):
different from everyone else. Every other prominent celebrity people were like, uh,
you know, they kind of believe those stories.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But for some reason, Jamie Fox there was like this.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And I'm not sure if it was because of uh
Jamie's recent health issues or anything of that nature, but
you saw, you know, from what I what I saw
that more people were quick to defend Jamie's position more
so than the other celebrities who were named in these lawsuits.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Uh. So it's just gonna be interesting to see what
moves forward and what sticks and what falls apart. Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
But it shows you that, uh, you know this this
is good for for victims to have a voice, uh,
to speak out if they if there was incidents of abuse.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Just going to be interesting interesting to see what the
fallout is uh following once once everything uh uh you
know SIPs itself. Things you know, come along in terms
of the legal proceedings.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Once everything plushes out, Yeah, I can dig it. The
The thing that I've been worried about with this is
that how do I say this. This is kind of weird,
and it's weird to say because I think that everybody
(17:17):
wants everything to be fine, everything to be okay, the
truth to come out, that sort of thing. But there
are some people who lose sight of the fact that
some people are capable of doing bad things. And there
are other people that lose sight of the fact that
(17:39):
it is possible for people to fabricate stories or embellis
certain parts of stories because money is at stake. And
it may be the case that all of the people
named in this in these suits are guilty, or maybe
the case then maybe not all of them are. And
(18:02):
there are incidents that can be revisited and revised by
individuals who were in these intimate moments where there's not
a lot in the way witnesses, onlookers, et cetera. And
they can simply just say something and cause enough trouble
to where it will bring attention, money, you know, whatever,
(18:24):
and then people can monetize that. And you know, even
if a person doesn't have a victory in court, you know,
maybe they get a book dealer or maybe they get
you know whatever. There's there's you know, there's and because
of this these these aren't criminal charges, these are civil charges.
And because you know, there's there's a lot to digest,
(18:47):
and of course, you know, our human impulse might included
is to side with the victims. But I think that
there's a big part of a lot of people who
are really figuring out how to feel about this, that
wants to indeed make sure that these victims are in
(19:07):
fact victims, because we unfortunately live in a society where
it's too easy for non victims to paint themselves as
victims for fiscal benefits, And that part feels very unfair,
especially when you're talking about a person who does not
have a long standing reputation of kind of moving in
(19:32):
a grimy way. Allah Jamie Fox. You know, if he
does have this reputation, I'm sure there's many people that
don't know about it. I certainly don't. And that's the
part that feels kind of unfair, because it's you don't
want to see a good person, good black person at that,
(19:54):
get taken down as a result of something that's baseless.
And once you see that, maybe if there's a person
who is just manufacturing this content for the sake of
trying to get money, what's at stake, we could lose
another one of our hero and you bear in mind,
(20:14):
we've had to confront, you know, the potential loss of
you know, Will Smith from our you know, cultural zeitgeist,
if you will. We've had to confront the loss of
you know, Bill Cosby, We've had and for the same reasons,
you know, we've had to confront the loss of r
(20:36):
Kelly for the same reasons we've had to confront, you know,
and not saying we've lost at least uh Will Smith,
but you know, we've we've had to really wrestle with
these these heroes once upon a time us losing them.
And when you start to look at a person like
Jamie Fox, you start to realize, are we losing too much?
(20:59):
And is this appropriate? You know, and and it's it's
one thing to say, okay, well, there's some good ones
that probably get swept out with the bad ones. I
felt like that was a prevailing thought during the Me
Too movement that you know, unfortunately this is kind of
what happens. You know, you have to believe the victims first,
(21:19):
and you know, it's it's it kind of has to
be guilty until proven innocent, because this is women's just do.
And the way that the legal framework is set up,
it's kind of it kind of supports the men's position
and posture in these cases. And so once once you
get to the point where you're dealing with with like
you as you mentioned to Jamie Fox, it becomes like, okay,
(21:42):
let's slow down and make sure that we're really being
a little bit more surgical these days, because we've already
lost some high profile prominent black leaders, if you will.
And for Jamie Fox, you know, as you mentioned, he
had some health issues and you know, on and on.
But also he's one of those folks who, and my estimation,
(22:05):
doesn't have a reputation, doesn't really move in that way,
and to hear that might be a little off putting
for people. So they probably want the truth before they
condemn him the same way that they would condemn a
Tory Lanes or you know, whoever else. So this is
kind of what I've gathered. Any final thoughts before we
(22:26):
conclude here.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, it's important for the legal proceedings to take place,
for everything to take place. I think, of course, we're
in a society where we want to judge. Once we
hear the first side of a story, but it's there
for all sides of the story story to be told
before we come to a final conclusion of what happened
and what didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. That's I think that we
have learned and are still learning that a more recent
story would be Jonathan Major's. You know that this is
it's It may not be entirely fair to accuse and
then have the trial and then convict the person before
(23:09):
they've actually been able to present the evidence and the
opposition has been able to present the evidence and so forth.
So we'll wait and see what happens. But obviously our
primary at least it sounds like both of our primary
hope is that the victims, if indeed there are true victims,
they get their just due and it's based on an
(23:30):
objective truth, something that actually happened, and that they are
fiscally compensated to the degree that they are able to
right that wrong. And you know, we'll go from there.
So as always, i'd like to thank you for your insight.
You are a brilliant journalist and it is a joy
every time we get a chance to talk once again.
(23:50):
Today's guest is the author of the new book Trap History,
and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World, mister A. R.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Shaw.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
This has been our production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host Ramse's Jaw on all social media and join
us tomorrow as we share our news with our voice
from our perspective right here on the Black Information Network
(24:21):
Daily Podcast
Here we at the Black Information Network, we know how
important it is for you to start your week off energized, engaged,
and enlightened. There are always major stories that break over
the weekend, and we feel you should know about the
ones we are talking about today, So stay tuned for
our weekend recap featuring the author of the book Trap
History and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World, Mister A. R.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Shaw.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast. Now I'm
your host, ramses Jaw. All right, mister A. R. Shaw,
Welcome back to the show. Man. I'm really excited to
have today's conversation with you. How you doing, man?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Wait, everything is good this way.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Along Thanksgiving weekend, so get right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
All right, let's do it. So first up, this comes
from you know, at least my sort of local hometown newspaper,
the Arizona Republic. Derek Shavin is expected to survive an
unexpected stabbing that place over the weekend at an Arizona prison,
So I'll share a bit. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis
(01:04):
pol police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed
and seriously injured by someone also incarcerated at a federal
prison in Tucson. The Office of Minnesota Attorney General confirmed,
While a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed in
his incarcerated individuals was assaulted, they would not confirm the
identity or medical status of the victim. This was what
(01:25):
took place initially. Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Office
of Minnesota Attorney General, confirmed Chavin was stabbed. Well, I
am sad to hear that Derek Shaman was the target
of violence. He was duly convicted of his crimes, and
like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve
his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence. This according
to Attorney General Keith Ellison in a really statement, So
(01:50):
what else do we know about this? What was your reaction?
You know, kind of bring us up to speak, Yeah, definitely, I.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Got an opportunity to read it came across the wire
on Friday and social media. The biggest thing was that
a lot of people were wishing for his demise. And
the thing is, Derek Chauvin, He's gonna have a target
on his back as long as he's as long as
he's incarcerated.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
We had to think about it.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
He committed a murder on an on armed black man,
that being George Floyd, in a video that was viewed
around the world. There aren't many people who will sympathize
with Derek Chauvin because quite frankly, he doesn't believe that
he's guilty just thinking about it. Last week he attempted
to have his conviction overthrown by the Supreme Court. Sure
no skill for the Supreme Court that they rejected that
(02:36):
that appeal, But it shows you that he doesn't really
have any remorse for killing George Floyd, and so he's
always going to have a target on his back as
long as he's in general populations. Why he's incarcerated. Uh,
And there are people who are talking on social media
now who wished that someone the person who did finished
the job.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Sure, sure, you know. And speaking of social media, that's
also how it made its way to me initially before
I was able to read a little bit more about it,
and it seemed that there were more people concerned about
the knife than Jerk Chauvin. That people were like, yo,
it's the knife, Okay, it's very funny. But there were
(03:15):
some other people that used it as an opportunity to
bring some attention to some other gaps in society. Right, So,
obviously there's a certain type of individual of a certain
political persuasion that would look at this attack on Derek
(03:40):
Shauman and say, oh my god, this should never have happened.
And so there were people on social media bringing attention
to the fact that, hey, this is normal in prisons.
We've been trying to say that prisons need to be reformed,
we need to rethink prisons, we need to abolish prisons,
you know whatever, And everyone's using this as an opportunity
and then aperture into that political, politically oriented or differently
(04:06):
politically oriented community to give them some insight onto what
the reality is like. There were people who use this
moment to kind of say, you know, thoughts and prayers,
thoughts and prayers, just to kind of show other people
how empty those statements are. And then of course there
was a group of people that I saw, like at
least in the common section, that were like, you know, anyways,
(04:28):
you know, they'd read the story anyways, you know, free Palestine, anyway,
you know. So there were a lot of people that
were framing this relative to the issues in society and
you know, when you look at it through that lens,
you realize, Okay, it's not that big of a deal.
He he's not dead. B And if anybody's going to
(04:50):
get upset about this individual being attacked in a prison,
they got a long road and a lot of hurdles
that they're going to have to confront, a lot of
issue using elements that they're going to have to confront
before they can realistically take on this issue for this
one individual, because these are issues that affect so many
other people. And I thought that that was an interesting
way that, at least on social media, this attack on
(05:14):
this gentleman was framed. Add to that that he's in
a medium security prison. This isn't a max security where
the hardened criminals go. And you know, I don't know
too much about prisons. Let me not, let me not,
let me not hold you here, but I think the
term medium security and then stabbing, I think that you
know that that makes a little bit more sense, you know,
(05:34):
And so if if indeed, like you say, he does
have a target on his back, I'd imagine they would
have probably taken more precautions to protect him. With that said,
I'm glad at least that the silver lining that came
from this is that people started talking about, Okay, really
what are prisons to and again, you know what is
what is what are we really focusing on as a society.
(05:54):
So you know, my two cents. I'm wanted to ask
you the same thing though, when you were kind of
checking out the initial reaction on social media, what did
you get from people's uh people's take, you know, not
not not the people that were making jokes, but the
people who were sincerely like engaged in the dialogue.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, it was two things. It's interesting because with with
social media you can hear both sides. Initially, you know,
there were some people who said that, uh, there was
an issue within the prison systems then, and uh, this
should have never happened. And of course, and there was
other people who pointed out that the misinformation spread and
(06:40):
misinformation that George Floyd passed.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Due to fittanel, which is a truth.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So yeah, so you had so many people that was
that was there Chauvin's defense that he attempted to take
to the Supreme Court, which was rejected, And so you
had people, you know, spreading that misinformation online as well.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And so there's a You know, with.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Social media, there's always different opinions from different size. Like
I said, for you know, for the majority of people
that I got an opportunity to read and engage with,
they were happy that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He was attacked.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
They were happy that he went through this ordeal because
for nearly ten minutes he kneeled on a black man's
nick who was unarmed, without any remorse. And he's, like
I said, he still hasn't shown any remorse today.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, and I think that I would agree with you there.
I just I want to be fair here that it's
likely that him or his supporters would say that something
closer to he's not trying to deal with the consequences
of an unfair decision. Of course, we would say, yeah,
(07:50):
he's he doesn't care. Clearly, there's no accountability there. Why
is he trying to Like we saw him do it
on video, even if there was fintannel, even if there
was you know whatever. We saw him treat an unarmed
black man exactly like we know that these people treat us.
And so yeah, just felt important to say both sides
(08:11):
of it because you know, Candice Owne put that movie
out and then people are I don't even want to
give that anymore shine anyway, let's move on. So you
remember that Montgomery Riverfront brawl. Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
how could you forget right? That's going to go down
in history, right. So you know, as you know, the
(08:31):
co captain was charged with assault. Well, he pleaded not guilty.
So I'll share a little bit about this with our listeners.
So this comes from the Montgomery Advertiser. Harriet, the second
co captain, Damian Pickett, was beaten by a group of
voters at the start of an August fifth Riverfront brawl.
Pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a third degree assault charge
(08:52):
in Montgomery Municipal Court. Meanwhile, an opposing attorney is pointing
to video footage that he says shows the incident in
a new light.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Picket's trial will begin on January thirtieth. Picket declined to comment. Tuesday.
Zachary Shipman, who was facing an assault charge as well,
filed the charges against Picket. Dozens of videos shot by
frustrated Harriet the Second Passengers captured the beginning of the
brawl and showed Pickett, who was black, being repeatedly struck
by a group of white voters while onlooker screen from
(09:23):
the banks of the river. The footage went viral on
social media and sparked global attention and outrage. Terry Luck,
one of Shipman's defense attorneys, provided video footage to the
Montgomery Advertiser that he said shows Picket Quote seeking out
Shipman after the first fight on the dock ended. Okay,
Pickett was the victim in the initial fight, but in
(09:46):
the second fight, of course, it shows him looking or
it shows him looking for, you know, the people who
started the fight. So the video appears to happen after
the initial brawl and with Montgomery police officers on the scene.
Several versions of the initial attack posted to social media
showed that no officers were on the dock at the time.
(10:07):
All right, so you more or less got this story.
Talk to us a little bit more of what are
we missing, Let's fill in some gaps, and of course
I'd love to get your thoughts on.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
This.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
These charges.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, it's unfortunately that Damian Pickett is facing any charges
with the Montgomery following the Montgomery incident. As we all
saw video that he was attacked by a group of
white individuals who obviously intoxicated and belligerent and they just
didn't want to follow the rules. Now, let's say that
you know that there is a case that he did
(10:47):
you attack, there was an attack, So the Alabama in Alabama,
there is a law that was passed in January twenty
twenty three that states a person does not have a
duty to retreat from a conflict before using force in
self defense. And this is an Alabama law that was
passing twenty earlier this year. So if he has the
(11:08):
right to stand his ground, which we've seen to stand
your ground law in multiple states, particularly in the South,
and so Alabama is one of the states that adopted
this law, and if he was defending himself, there is
no reason for him to retreat according.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
To Alabama law. So these charges should have never taken place.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure sure, you know, to me, this looks like if
it's up, then it's stuck, you know what I mean,
run up, get done up. You know, there's it's just
sort of weird that the defense is trying or I
shouldn't even call it the defense the prosecution because these
are charges filed against you know, the captain.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Their position is not the initial fight, the initial attack
on this solitary black man by a group of white
individual The entirety of their case rests on a subsequent
video that, based on everything that I've read, does not
even show any additional fighting. It just shows him seeking
(12:15):
out the individuals who attacked him initially. And I feel like, again,
if it's up, then it stuck, like don't like, you
cannot have that in a vacuum. You can only have
that in the proper context of Yo, these guys jumped
this guy, and yeah, he had some help, but that
doesn't necessarily mean he knows these people personally, and he's
(12:38):
trying to bring some justice to his immediate situation. It's
not like he left there and then came back the
next day. He's still there, still popping. It is still
going on, and if he's looking for a person that
attacked him, he feels like maybe they took something from him.
He needs to bring some balance to the universe. To me,
it feels like, okay, once you view it through the
proper context, there's really no case here. What he's not
(13:00):
looking for people, just like I said, in a vacuum,
he's looking for the people that attacked him, and that
to me feels appropriate for any individual, any any being
endowed with consciousness that has a strong enough self preservation
survival instinct. I'm going to make sure that these people
(13:21):
understand that this is not okay and this was never
going to happen to me. Again my two cents. But
I guess we're going to have to wait till January
thirtieth to see what happens with this, because apparently they
can file this and you know, drag this man through
a bunch of court proceedings, and you know, obviously we're
gonna watch it because we saw the video. It's funny
(13:42):
how that works. Today's guest is the author of the
book Trap History and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World,
Mister A. R. Shaw. Okay, this from the bbc Z.
A legal deadline has prompted a rush of sexual assault
(14:03):
charges against high profile figures, including Axel Rose, Sean Diddy, Combs,
and New York Mayor Eric Adams. I'll share a bit.
The list of names has grown this week, with some
being accused of abuse that allegedly took place decades ago.
That's in part because of New York law. The Adult
Survivors Act, expired on Friday that gave people a look
(14:25):
back window on sexual assault that took place before the
twenty year legal statute of limitations. This means civil lawsuits
on historic sex crimes could be filed for a limited time.
Diddy's accusations have grown, so now he's facing three different accusers.
Of course, we mentioned Eric Adams Andrew Cuomo, his case
(14:49):
fell under this this law as well. Jamie Fox is
dealing with some charges as well. Axel Rose as we mentioned, etc.
And this is the same one that Donald Trump, you know,
that was another high profile case and another one that
Donald Trump had to face ended up losing and had
to pay five million dollars. So as always, bring us
(15:09):
up to speed, let us know what we're missing, and
of course I love your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, definitely, So this this law is definitely prompted a
lot during thanks Given weekend. It was a lot of
names that popped up that became impacted by this law
because it expired I think on the night of Black Friday.
So from Thanksgiving to the Night of Black Friday, we
(15:35):
saw so many names prominent individuals who were being accused
of incidents that occurred years ago. But it's interesting that
there was the reactions, particularly on social media, with different
when it came to the different subjects. I want to
point out that Jamie Fox, a lot of people didn't
really they took Jamie Fox aside, which was kind of
(15:57):
different from everyone else. Every other prominent celebrity people were like, uh,
you know, they kind of believe those stories.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But for some reason, Jamie Fox there was like this.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And I'm not sure if it was because of uh
Jamie's recent health issues or anything of that nature, but
you saw, you know, from what I what I saw
that more people were quick to defend Jamie's position more
so than the other celebrities who were named in these lawsuits.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Uh. So it's just gonna be interesting to see what
moves forward and what sticks and what falls apart. Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
But it shows you that, uh, you know this this
is good for for victims to have a voice, uh,
to speak out if they if there was incidents of abuse.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Just going to be interesting interesting to see what the
fallout is uh following once once everything uh uh you
know SIPs itself. Things you know, come along in terms
of the legal proceedings.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Once everything plushes out, Yeah, I can dig it. The
The thing that I've been worried about with this is
that how do I say this. This is kind of weird,
and it's weird to say because I think that everybody
(17:17):
wants everything to be fine, everything to be okay, the
truth to come out, that sort of thing. But there
are some people who lose sight of the fact that
some people are capable of doing bad things. And there
are other people that lose sight of the fact that
(17:39):
it is possible for people to fabricate stories or embellis
certain parts of stories because money is at stake. And
it may be the case that all of the people
named in this in these suits are guilty, or maybe
the case then maybe not all of them are. And
(18:02):
there are incidents that can be revisited and revised by
individuals who were in these intimate moments where there's not
a lot in the way witnesses, onlookers, et cetera. And
they can simply just say something and cause enough trouble
to where it will bring attention, money, you know, whatever,
(18:24):
and then people can monetize that. And you know, even
if a person doesn't have a victory in court, you know,
maybe they get a book dealer or maybe they get
you know whatever. There's there's you know, there's and because
of this these these aren't criminal charges, these are civil charges.
And because you know, there's there's a lot to digest,
(18:47):
and of course, you know, our human impulse might included
is to side with the victims. But I think that
there's a big part of a lot of people who
are really figuring out how to feel about this, that
wants to indeed make sure that these victims are in
(19:07):
fact victims, because we unfortunately live in a society where
it's too easy for non victims to paint themselves as
victims for fiscal benefits, And that part feels very unfair,
especially when you're talking about a person who does not
have a long standing reputation of kind of moving in
(19:32):
a grimy way. Allah Jamie Fox. You know, if he
does have this reputation, I'm sure there's many people that
don't know about it. I certainly don't. And that's the
part that feels kind of unfair, because it's you don't
want to see a good person, good black person at that,
(19:54):
get taken down as a result of something that's baseless.
And once you see that, maybe if there's a person
who is just manufacturing this content for the sake of
trying to get money, what's at stake, we could lose
another one of our hero and you bear in mind,
(20:14):
we've had to confront, you know, the potential loss of
you know, Will Smith from our you know, cultural zeitgeist,
if you will. We've had to confront the loss of
you know, Bill Cosby, We've had and for the same reasons,
you know, we've had to confront the loss of r
(20:36):
Kelly for the same reasons we've had to confront, you know,
and not saying we've lost at least uh Will Smith,
but you know, we've we've had to really wrestle with
these these heroes once upon a time us losing them.
And when you start to look at a person like
Jamie Fox, you start to realize, are we losing too much?
(20:59):
And is this appropriate? You know, and and it's it's
one thing to say, okay, well, there's some good ones
that probably get swept out with the bad ones. I
felt like that was a prevailing thought during the Me
Too movement that you know, unfortunately this is kind of
what happens. You know, you have to believe the victims first,
(21:19):
and you know, it's it's it kind of has to
be guilty until proven innocent, because this is women's just do.
And the way that the legal framework is set up,
it's kind of it kind of supports the men's position
and posture in these cases. And so once once you
get to the point where you're dealing with with like
you as you mentioned to Jamie Fox, it becomes like, okay,
(21:42):
let's slow down and make sure that we're really being
a little bit more surgical these days, because we've already
lost some high profile prominent black leaders, if you will.
And for Jamie Fox, you know, as you mentioned, he
had some health issues and you know, on and on.
But also he's one of those folks who, and my estimation,
(22:05):
doesn't have a reputation, doesn't really move in that way,
and to hear that might be a little off putting
for people. So they probably want the truth before they
condemn him the same way that they would condemn a
Tory Lanes or you know, whoever else. So this is
kind of what I've gathered. Any final thoughts before we
(22:26):
conclude here.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, it's important for the legal proceedings to take place,
for everything to take place. I think, of course, we're
in a society where we want to judge. Once we
hear the first side of a story, but it's there
for all sides of the story story to be told
before we come to a final conclusion of what happened
and what didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. That's I think that we
have learned and are still learning that a more recent
story would be Jonathan Major's. You know that this is
it's It may not be entirely fair to accuse and
then have the trial and then convict the person before
(23:09):
they've actually been able to present the evidence and the
opposition has been able to present the evidence and so forth.
So we'll wait and see what happens. But obviously our
primary at least it sounds like both of our primary
hope is that the victims, if indeed there are true victims,
they get their just due and it's based on an
(23:30):
objective truth, something that actually happened, and that they are
fiscally compensated to the degree that they are able to
right that wrong. And you know, we'll go from there.
So as always, i'd like to thank you for your insight.
You are a brilliant journalist and it is a joy
every time we get a chance to talk once again.
(23:50):
Today's guest is the author of the new book Trap History,
and the executive editor of Atlanta Daily World, mister A. R.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Shaw.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
This has been our production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host Ramse's Jaw on all social media and join
us tomorrow as we share our news with our voice
from our perspective right here on the Black Information Network
(24:21):
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