Episode Three: I'm Survivin' & Creating Magic Moments

Black men Batman using Citizens App to track public safety issues in the hood, bringing hope to the people returning lost loved ones.

About Oya:

Oya L Sherrills is a survivor, a lived experience leader in her field, an advocate, and an organizer. Author of "Musings of a Rascal", she works to create a culture where healing practices are centered and valued. Oya likes to pave paths that connect past and future ancestors in efforts to prioritize peace and community-driven solutions that break cycles of violence and address trauma. She's creative, she's a mama, and she's for the trees.

Links: 

https://www.instagram.com/cgutter_/

https://www.instagram.com/princemapp1/

www.blksquares.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Content warning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as police brutality and kidnappings. Please be kind
to yourself, prepare yourself with before and or after care,
and remember if you or a loved one is going
through it, you can reach out to the a c

(00:21):
l U at two and two five nine to five
zero zero or the Child find of America at four
to six five six. Thank you. Join us to explore

(00:53):
the stories, policies and practices. And this is welcome good people.
This is episode three of Survivor's Hill, a podcast of

(01:14):
the Next Up Initiative, and I'm your host, Oya L. Cherrells.
Today we will discuss the making of magic moments a
k a. Good vibes in the Citizens App. What is
the Citizens App? It's an app you can download on
your iPhones and androids that gives you up to date
notifications about public safety issues happening in your community. In

(01:37):
a country that has grown accustomed to random acts of violence,
the Citizen app aims to keep people out of danger
when possible. There's also a function in the app to
make random acts of kindness commonplace, and that function formally
was called machic moments and now is called the Good
Vibes Button. This is a potential tool that both survived

(02:00):
advocates and violence interruptors can utilize for outreach to those
experiencings or in proximity to harm. And it's the potential
tool for regular citizens to help each other out when
a need. So I speak with Prince Mapp, who is
the head of Community and Culture at Citizens App. He's
also a former lecturer at the New School and founder

(02:21):
of the company Black Squares. He and his team joined
me to discuss all that they have survived to get
to magic moments. Let's jump in. We have got an
amazing treat for you guys today because we have the
Citizens team in the building who and so we can

(02:46):
actually just go one by one and if you guys
can just introduce yourselves, tell us your name and what
you do for Citizens just briefly. Well, my name is
Kevin de Vel Collins. I'm a new member to Citizens related.
What I do for Citizen basically is get content on
going around understanding and helping the community providing with the

(03:07):
team here. It's been intriguing for me. It's new for me.
My first experiences was in Jersey. Now I'm here in California.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to be presented with the
team here experiencing things that they're doing for Watts. The
children know, it's amazing to see that at hand. So
I'm just glad to be with the team and learning
and just going along best, you know, to provide for

(03:29):
the community and every aspect of wherever we're going. All right,
So thank you, thank you, and how y'all doing. Good morning.
I'm Anthony a k A Boy Wonder. So I was
one of the first along with Prince got we started
a citizen I don't know, but it was a seventeen
sixteen around that time, two thousand sixteen and h we

(03:53):
actually did the first video and it was amazing because
when we all went there, no one knew what this
was all about. It was just something that they were
putting out and they had us to go look for
a batman around the corner. I don't know if you
remember that first. So we all had to find us
batman and then you know, we're being recorded, so we

(04:14):
still didn't understand that everybody's on this batman hunting. You know,
we're looking for this batman. So and then we found it.
And then when we seen that we were live and
it was just it was it was, you know, a
different experience for us, but it was something that we
started in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, and we were running
around gutter. He was amazing. He had bikes, he brought us,

(04:36):
They brought us bikes. He was everywhere. I used to
drive my car. That's why they always called me laid
back because I get there when everybody's already there. But
I still did some amazing work as boy Wonder. I
got that name because Andrew Frame, he was on some
Bruce Wayne stuff when we first had our orientation meetings.
Everything he had was based like Bruce Wayne Batman. So
I told myself, I'm gonna be your boy Wonder. That's

(04:58):
how I got the name, and it just stuck with me,
you know. So I'm here now California and representing Citizen.
We've been doing some amazing work out here. Since we've
been out here, I think we were involved with finding
like four or five people, and uh, you know the
amazing thing about that is seeing family members when they

(05:19):
find the you know, their children or member family members.
That's so amazing. You know, That's that alone makes you feel.
It's a feeling that you know, it's worth everything to
find them, to see these families relieved that their child
or family members back home safe. So that's what we do,
you know, and we're doing some some things with watchs

(05:42):
and um, that's amazing to see those kids. Yesterday was
just it was it was hard for it was hard feeling,
you know what I'm saying. So I was amazed with that.
And that's where we are. That's where we out here,
you know, taking out the amazing sights and everything. This
is different. Yes, it sounds really beautiful things. You So
my name is Chris, they called me and so you

(06:02):
gotta underscore on the app. So what's my Instagram name?
And basically had a community liaison and you know, I
build the times with the community and you know, I'm
very passionate about helping people find lost ones, lost, pets, lost,
whatever you lose. I don't care what you lose. I
think as a community, we gotta come together and you know,
like help each other out, you know, as a community.

(06:24):
So basically that's what other All right, that's what's up.
Good afternoon. My name is Prince and head of Community Coach.
He has a citizen like the gentleman spoke before me.
Been here since two sixteen. It's a life changing experience
for me because at one time I was selfish and
I didn't really respect humanity or human life for that

(06:47):
for that matter. And to watch the work that our
team do every day, including those that you don't see,
to try to make people's lives a little bit better,
because I don't I don't honestly think that we're going
to change someone's life, but I do feel that we
can make people laughs better and give them a sense
of feeling good for that moment because we are entrenched

(07:09):
in so much hate in the world, in generational trauma
and um the social constructs that are made up to
make you feel that way, and so it's hard to
hold into a good feeling. You know what I'm saying.
I could feel good for this moment, and at at
leasta I'll get a text or a call and I'm
not feeling that way anymore. So we want to bring
you that that one feeling, you know, in that moment.

(07:30):
So that's why we're here. I mean, that's so amazing.
I know that most folks, if they know anything about
citizens app it is the premier public safety application, the
premier public safety technology that actually is giving folks an
opportunity as the public to participate in public safety. This

(07:52):
is something that in the work that I do, it's
very important for us because as survivors of crime, a
lot of the times we find that our agency is
completely taken away and whenever we are looking for justice,
a lot of the times what we have found is
that it is out of reach. And we have had

(08:13):
to change that in the past, you know, ten years,
and we've had to change that with policy. We've had
to change that with legislation, but we've also needed to
make sure that we were changing things on the ground
by making sure that we had tools to be able
to address a lot of the harms that happen in
our community. I find it very beautiful that one of

(08:36):
the things that you guys are able to address in
real time and track and document and provide data for
the community is that one. Because I feel like there
is this idea that in our communities, because they are
high crime communities, that nobody cares and nobody's saying anything
about what's happening, like, oh, we're all complicit. As a

(08:57):
matter of fact, that's one of the reasons why we've
had to fight so hard to even be seen as
survivors of crime. There are still people right now to
this day that are trying to um push this narrative
that people of color, black and brown people who live
in um impoverished communities or low income communities that they

(09:20):
are there are always necessarily complicit in the things that
happened to them, right, And never are they complicit in
brightening somebody's day or being able to actually solve a
crime or solve a mystery in our community. And I
feel like utilizing the citizens up, you're able to definitely

(09:44):
show that that's not the case, and you're able to
show it to thousands and thousands of people out of time.
So I want to bring this. I want to bring
this over to you, Chris, Like, what is it that
gives you the drive to go out and find the
lost loved ones of folks in your community. Well, it's

(10:04):
it's two things. Is actually the people that people make
me feel good about doing what I do. I look
at the comments, and I look at how people like
cheer me on, you know, they encouraged me to keep going.
I'll show your message, right Now we've just only been
in here a week and I'm standing on the corner
and I wondered about some sneakers fromoot Lock. I'm I'm
searching for ones and from Jordan wants. I can't find

(10:26):
them anywhere. So every start I see, I'm trying to
find someone's. So I stop in the corner and this lady,
you know, so much homeless stuff going out you don't
know who's homeless, was not. So she doesn't look like
she's home. She's walking with a little girl with a
book bag and looked like they're coming from school whatever
something like Dannis. Lady looks like she needs help. I
keep telling prints. I'm like, yo, she looks like she
needs help, but she had a little kid, and I'm like,
she just keeps looking at me. And then she's like,

(10:47):
you got the time? And I find it weird that,
you know, a teeth is really clean. She's like, she's
not like dressing deer or anything, but she's like clean.
So I'm like, damn, she got a phone. Everybody got
the time on the phone. But I tell at the
time whatever, Ben tells the time, and she walks away,
but she keeps looking at me. Keeps looking at me,
keeps looking at me. Then she sends me a message.
Reads message real quick, good morning. I just wanted to

(11:10):
say that you are a blessing to families. I respect
you for helping to look for people and really care
about finding them. Don't let anything stop you. This is
what I wanted to say to you yesterday in Hollywood
when I seen you in Starbucks parking lot. But I didn't.
I just asked for the time. It's you know, stuff
like that. It's just like I get this all the time,
but I just got to Hollywood. I get this in

(11:30):
New York all the time, and I like, you know,
I follow up on people, and you know, I reach
out to them, and you know, I meet them feeling
involved because later on we're gonna need these same people
to come out to the community and help somebody reunite.
Somebody in the nineties had a cousin. She's my age
right now, we don't know if she's still my age
or she's deceased. She went missing. She was going to

(11:52):
school on like Marcy Avenue or whatever. She was walking school,
say anything she does every day. Eleven years old, somebody
kidnapped her and we never found that. We've been on show.
We've been on What's that cop show with that guy
they lost his son back in the days, there's American
most One thing. We've been on there, and we've been
all the news stations for years, like it's been ninety
one and they've been too many years. We never found her.

(12:14):
So I wish we had this app then, that the
community would have saw something and maybe we would have
found we'd had to close into my cousins, but you know,
we we we don't have a closing and we always wondered,
so I always you know, when when we first started,
it was with Jemiah Jeremiah, it was a twelve year
old kid. He was like eleven or twelve, six ft

(12:34):
three huge kids, it's a skinny kid. You know. He
just went missing and we went live with it. He
was autistic, so some people said that he's running on
the train. You know, he hard to miss me at
Red Shoes on and we went chasing the me and
Princeman like went to his mom's house. We went tracking
out all these leads. But it was amazing how people
were coming out in the community like where can we

(12:56):
go check? And you know, we're sitting in a team
over here, a team in the mall, and the team
him over here and ended up that you know, he
didn't have WiFi in his house and got upset with
his mom's and every day he was going to Best
Buy and Target and he was using their free you know,
he got to display lastops and so he was using
that to our sick top and play games. And every
day he was doing it. But he's eleven years old.

(13:17):
He's told he looks like a grown man, but he's
only eleven and autistic. And he was surviving on the
street for four days. So he was going into Target
eating free food and then like he's the eleven years
don't eating chips and we found like and the community
was hunting them down and people like there was like
serial over here, and you know, he might have been
in a step and it happened to turn out and

(13:38):
all the leads and then the next morning, me and
Princes was like, yeah, we gotta come over here, first
thing in the morning. The first thing in the morning,
he drove out from Queen's to the Bronx and we
just staked out Best Buy. We just staked it out
all morning. Like then he's like, yeah, he's not here.
I was like, yeah, we're gonna check the target. I
went to go check target, and he was wong. He
was right there. But that story right there encouraged the
people to encourage me to do things for them. You understand.

(14:01):
I don't do it because, like you know, it's my
job to build ties in the community, but it's also
my life job to create these bonds with people that
you know, somebody's out there for you because I know that.
You know, I don't want to shoot on the cops,
but the cops don't care about us. They take their
not they take their report and they just go. You understand,
like I know what it is. I experienced it before.

(14:22):
You understand, And we don't get the We don't get
the The national is a white girl that just went
missing and everybody knows about it. But the twelve year
old girl that we found the other day where citizens
have helped fund her, she's on figure Roller Street. You understanding,
like twelve years old. You know they know they and

(14:43):
they don't go over there and look, and you've got
all these young girls over there on Roll Street running
them and down who've been in since they was twelve
years old right, you understand, yes, you know, you understand that.
I just feel like, you know, the app is. I
want to thank Andrew, you know, Andrew Frame for creating this,
this idea and you know, putting it into reality. We
have a platform, and I'm building my platform more for this,

(15:03):
and I can't build my platform, you know, without doing
the work. And that's the only way it's gonna get done.
I wanted to be a credible source in the hood
to go to you when somebody's missing, and it could
only work if the community makes it work, you know. Yeah,
I mean, all hats off to you the team is.
It's amazing that you guys are putting yourself, your time,

(15:26):
your soul, energy into this work. And I do want
to I do want to address something that you said
about the way that law enforcement interacts with our community.
As a survivor's advocate, I have had to interface with
law enforcement, you know, on behalf of my folks, you know,
and a lot of the times you definitely just get

(15:49):
that feeling like that they don't care, you know, and
also like that they don't that they're not even interested
in helping our folks, especially if you look a certain way,
especially if you are male, especially if they perceive that
you know you have you've had you've made mistakes in
your past, and you've and you've been caught, you know,

(16:11):
making that mistake. And just recently, actually a couple of
days ago, a police officer came into our shop and
told me that, um, there are black cops. He was
not one of them. Um, he said that there are
black male cops who are upset because we have the
nerve to call these criminals and gang members heroes. And

(16:34):
I just wanted, I just wanted. I wanted to get
y'all's perspective on that, if you can, because I want
to say, I want to say something. The way your
police system is over here in l A is messed up,
like in New York City is not nothing like this
over There's nothing you understand like, But it wasn't always
like that. They we took everything from them by all

(16:55):
the protests that we had a few years ago, and
then you know, they started high and people that look
like us, more like us, or you know, white folks
that that understand what we're going through, their partner up,
their partner them up. But you see a lot of
interaction and you know, it wasn't easy when first started Citizen,
I got arrested for riding my bike on the sidewalk,
you know, like they was giving us hell because they
didn't want that exposure. But when you when when you

(17:19):
expose them to what they're doing wrong, and you have
somebody up top holding them accountable for for that stuff
right there, then you know things will start changing. But
you know, if nobody knows about it, and you know
you gotta ten you old boy getting roughed up, slap
by the cop, and nobody says nothing about it, and
we ain't outraged about it, then it's a problem. But
then you know, we gotta take responsibility to ourselves too.

(17:40):
We can't be out there shooting each other up. And
you gotta take responsibility too. We can't have the little
tobios on the on the street corner like that's whatever,
gang members running that. Like, where do you get accepted
that that that's not acceptable in New York City in terms?
So like this is the mecca of gang members over here.
This is the mecca wherever you go, I don't care
what world you go in. Country Go l is the

(18:00):
metal game. You're you're correct, And I felt like you know,
law enforcement is some of the English those that they
said that, they said that, they said that to me yesterday.
This guy was telling me, right, he was telling me.
He's like, yo, you know, you gotta watch where you go.
And you know some of the police has said you
I like the bro I don't care about that that ship.
I mean, like, I'm here to do certain something totally different,

(18:21):
not stepping on. Nobody told I'm here to do good work.
And if you can't see that, then it is what
it is. You understand, like somebody got to do it.
Somebody can't be scared of doing it, that's right. And
I feel like something I grew up with my father
imparting onto me and you know, onto the nation too,
because he has you know, he shared this to audiences.

(18:44):
Is that a lot of the times people feel that
if you have if you have made mistakes in your past,
that somehow that is the definition of your future. Right,
But that's not the case. You know, we are are
not defined by the things that happened to us, and

(19:04):
neither we defined solely by the things that we have done.
You know, we have an opportunity, in each moment of
our lives to make a change and to make a choice.
And I think that we have to recognize that that
that there is a lot of space for people to
turn their lives around. And there's a lot of examples

(19:25):
for that too, and for people to have gone through
all kinds of trauma, you know, they themselves have experienced
being victims and survivors of crime and never having had
gotten resources to make sure that they healed that thing,
and so then they act out of the wound. Right
that might lead them to believe that it's okay to

(19:48):
poison the community, or believe that it's okay to poison themselves,
or believe that it's okay because somebody harm them, that
it's okay to harm somebody else. And those beliefs, though,
those do not necessar necessarily determine the value of a person,
because those beliefs can be changed, and we have seen
example after example of that change, you know. And so

(20:12):
I really just fullheartedly believe that something my dad said
growing up was that, you know, a person who has
been through the wringer, a person who has actually taken
from the community before, actually has the capacity to give
back to the community ten times that amount. And so
I feel that what we have in this room today

(20:34):
is the best example of that. And I feel like
the efforts that you guys making our heroic and I
feel like it should be celebrated, and not only that,
it should be duplicated. It should be duplicated in our youth,
and it should be duplicated in all of our elders.
Please speak. This is something happened to me when I
was a kid, and I was afraid to tell anyone.

(20:56):
I was about fourteen years old and I was coming
some friends of mine and from their house. So where
I used to live is it's like one of those
borderlines of you cross the street and in Nasal you
crossed the street the other side you and Queen's would
being you know, the city, New York, one of the boroughs.

(21:17):
So my friends in them lived in in on the
Nasal side. I crossed the street, I'm on the Queens side,
but to get to the Queen's side was a nice
little walk. So as I'm walking through the Nasal side
and their house is a few maybe a block away
from where I was at, a Nasal County or police
officer stopped me mine I'm only fourteen years old, and

(21:41):
he got out of his car. He pulled out his gun,
which to me was a very big gun because I
think it was a fifty seven, and he put it
in my face, put me against the wall. He put
the gun in my face. At that moment, I thought
I was gonna die, because even though you pull a
gun out and you're saying, well, I'm not gonna shoot him,
I'm just gonna scare him, you never know, it could

(22:03):
just you know, misfire. Anything could happen. So that's how
I was looking at I was thinking that I was
going to die. At that moment, he caught me every
name in the book, called my mother, kind of names,
all black, this black nigger, this think of that. You know,
for no reason, told me to get against the wall.
I should kill you right now. And where you're coming from,
and I said, my friends live up to block. He says,

(22:24):
you're a liar, probably looking to rob somebody, and I
should just take you out right now. Do do do
the world of favor and just kill you right now.
So he then he just turned around against got in
his car, and he left me. They're traumatized as fourteen
years old, and I was afraid to tell anybody. I
never told my mom, and I never told nobody. It's
like like the first time really speaking on it. But

(22:46):
I felt compelled to speak on it right now because
I see a lot of that out here since I've
been out here. I've been out here since last Monday,
and I can see how these cops are. They remind
me of him. So I can understand some of these children,
you know, how they may be traumatized like I was,

(23:06):
because I'm sure some of these cops and pull those
type of moves or maybe worse on some of these kids.
So doing this work that I'm doing now, you know,
I'm proud of what I'm doing. Now, you know, I'm
really proud of what I'm doing. Yeah, definitely, And it's
something to be proud of. I mean, and I'm really
really sorry that you have to go through that. And

(23:28):
I just I really hope that any law enforcement who
hears these words can realize that it's true for them too. Hey,
if you have been a terrible ass whole, cops, you
do not have to continue to be that, Okay, you
you have. They have a right to make a change
and to make a choice to you know, if that

(23:48):
requires for them to pull off their their badge, you know,
in their uniform, to be able, you know, to regain
their humanity. Then that they might need to do that,
but for any of the law enforcement that is coming up,
they have to recognize that there has to be a
new paradigm and hold that thought. We'll be right back

(24:08):
after a word from corner sponsors. It cannot continue the
way it is. And not only that, they have to
see that it's not Everything is not on their shoulders.

(24:29):
We have to broaden the idea of what public safety
is and what it looks like. And for our communities,
we have to be able to step up and take
a role to responsibility to check out, let me check
out kids bags, like who they're hanging out with? All
of that plays apart all of that plays that I
denounced in New York City, I announced Broad. I'm not

(24:49):
saying shoot somebody at all, but like the broad daylight
shoot is bro, I mean like let the kids come home, Yeah,
let the kids come home. Let don't come home the
playground on more. Yeah, what I'm saying that that's shooting
up the school yards. And I mean that ship don't
make no sense, bro, that ship like I mean like, yeah,
I'm not telling you y one o'clock in the morning
and shoot each other. But I prefer like if we

(25:09):
had an options, say that ship for later on you
kids in the house. Yeah, because I want to go
to o'clock in the morning, meet up with Park and
shoot it out. It's almost like it's it's almost like
giving dolphins needles, right, you know what I'm saying. You
ain't gonna stop them from getting hot. Your moth will
give them clean needles so they don't spread. So listen,

(25:30):
if y'all going to shoot each other, go down a
Yankee stadium, you get on that shot out saying we
like you know what I mean, you can't really like
you want to, you want to be able to. And
then after that, but the reality is we're never gonna
stop violence. We're never going to stop the spread of violence.
You know what I'm saying. We can best do the
best we can to maintain it. You know what I'm
saying about playing out And that's the most important thing. Yes,

(25:55):
I want to speak into reference what she was talking
about earlier when she made the statement about under the officers.
Who doesn't believe that um a man of my caliber,
because I am the children here in l A and
all over the world far as where I was criminally
minded or I was missing form, and I was a
product of my environment, whether I was dealing with whatever

(26:17):
trials and tribulations or whatever crime is that we can't change.
You can change. And I like to say, for better
for words, that I am that young man who wants
to experience that I was criminally minded. There's a lot
of things that I'm not proud of that I've done,
and I come from a good background, but the choices
and decisions that I made I referred from what my

(26:37):
mother and father had taught me. But nevertheless, I am
proud who I am today, and this is what inspires me.
So I would like to say, for better for words,
that anyone that is listening to this, that young man,
you can change. Young women, you can change in regards
of what you have experienced or been through. You have through,
like you said, be around people like minded that can

(26:58):
help you change. That's why one of the songs is
that I sung yesterday that I composed of that time
goes on. But if you heard in the song the
words that I was conveying, how can I go on?
How can I change? I need a help in hand
to find my way through this new age we call
today and other words is we have a past, we
have a presence, and we have a future. But in
that totality, we need each other. And I need to

(27:20):
be around people that can help me change, to show
me the difference. And this is the opportunity. I'm so
glad that I have to be with citizen that I
can show my strengths of who I am and what
I've experienced to contribute in my community. My community is
the world. It's not just one place l A. New
York is everywhere. And I'm so glad that I have
an understanding of who I am today that I can

(27:42):
give up my life and I can have the opportunity
to share, because at one point I was destructive having
an understanding of things that I did. I know what
empathy is more than I knew back what it was today,
you know, And I'm glad I have this opportunity that
I can speak, to speak volumes to anyone that is
listening today. Um that and it's sad, you know that, officer.

(28:04):
It's sad that he will perpetuate that for whatever reason
he made that statement. I'm in disagreement with it entirely
because I have a past, but I have changed for
the men that I be with like this that provides
for me to keep me going further. So I I
consider being around conducive, positive people and we do have
a choice in the matter. So to see these young

(28:25):
kids in the environment, whether they are being misled, I
want them to know you can change, and that's the tool.
And I'm so glad that I had the opportunity yesterday
to meet Rock and be out there the experience. What
I saw in watch them kids that moved me because
I am them and I once was them that they
don't have to be misled to pick up a gun,

(28:47):
to distribute drugs, or to be pimped or to be misguided.
And if some are, I want to know you can
change because every opportunity that you can wake up in
the morning and you have the breath of life in yours,
there's an opportunity, especially like I said, if you're around
people like a caring mother, caring father. Because some of
us come from dysfunctional families, we already know that. But

(29:09):
at the same time, it's conducive. I believe that we
can be surrounded around people where the opportunity is given,
you know that they can take advantage of that, you know,
But I'm entirely disagreement with that statement that that office
and made for whatever reasons he made that, maybe because
of he's afraid of his colleagues or what they may

(29:29):
think him coming outside of that badge to provide for
ex criminal or someone that was a murder with where
he don't believe that they are heroes. Yes they are
so anyone as as a violence violence expert, let me
give you some clarity on on some of them thinking
that comes out of that this week. You know, it's

(29:51):
in my language. I'm saying inherited, inherited, inherited all week
is part of my language this week, right, because what
we see in these neighborhoods, some of the trauma, it's
inherited trauma. And just like with the police, their behavior,
it's inherited behavior, you know what I'm saying. And if
I grow up in a household you know a certain

(30:15):
way of living. If everybody in my house of scammers,
nine times out of ten, I'm gonna be what exactly
So this this is the same thing that applies to
cops in community to behavior is inherited, you know what
I'm saying. And you you wanna have one or two
that stands out, like like got that we just saying
In New York City, we have one or two that
stand out, but the majority of them are gonna are

(30:35):
gonna go of what the norm of what how we
how we go about doing business? Right, So when they
look at a hero, their heroes are unfortunately the cops
lost their life and this and when we look at
a hero right now, when we look at it hero,
we might look at our dad, you know what I'm saying.
So you have you have two types of people. You
have role models and you have real models. Right, And

(30:58):
my father was my role model. And my father was
an avid junkie who who shot heron, who tried coking
dope for the first time and overdose on Father's Day. Right,
myro my role model, Right, my real model, it's Kevin Collins,

(31:19):
who inspired us every day while he was in prison,
who gave us hugs when he was coming out of
school from college, who sings songs and listed our spirits
were going back and our selling that crying night, who's
out here doing what they gotta do too, whatever it
takes your your humility, your humoris, your proud for being
proud of finaments and triped whatever. It takes the sacrifices

(31:41):
that you're making for the community. Those are real models.
So a cop would never define a real model. He's
looking at our role models. He's looking at where we
inherited this trauma from. He's looking at those individuals. How
the funk you're gonna call limit hero and this man
overdose on heron his father shot someone. Now he shot
someone and heard it. And they don't see real models,

(32:05):
they don't understand it. That's why, that's why there's a
division between law enforcement and community. What citizen does, if
I could bring it back, right, what citizen does is
creates that transparency. Right, it opens that playground up and
now in the world. And see because if we use
Ukraine for example, right, everybody wants to support Ukraine because

(32:27):
Ukraine is getting exposure. Right, Nobody wants to support our
communities because our communities don't get exposure. The only exposure
they get is or the negli exposure and people don't
pay attention to that. If we if we would get exposed,
more more support will come to the community. Right, So
that's why. That's why he said. I told God from

(32:48):
day one, you use this platform to build your platform.
Put your name when your shirt, put your Instagram in
your shirt, because you're gonna be more valuable to people
than people are gonna be valuable to you. Right, you
remove yourself from what we're doing. Right now, a little
kid is gonna go missing and never gonna be found.
So we have to we have to. We have to

(33:09):
understand where their behavior comes from, the behavior is inherited,
the traumas that these kids go through. It I just
deal with. I just went through this in Beverly Hills.
They just asked me what I was doing there. So
it tells you, right, if if a cop asked me
and I was only there twenty four hours, he asked
me in Beverly Hills, what am I doing in Beverly Hills? Right,
So automatically, subconsciously, I'm telling myself, Prince, you don't belong here. Right.

(33:33):
A kid goes to Beverly Hills from Compton, from South
Central Forever, and they hear that automatically what they think
they don't belong in. So the things in Beverly Hills
don't belong to them, either, so they go back and
think that this is where we belong and this is
the only thing we ever gonna have. Men when the
kids said yesterday, Yo, these kids they've never been to
the beach and then in California, that is the truth.

(33:56):
That's the truth of Yeah, that's the truth of the communities.
I mean, honestly, this was a conversation that I was
having with this officer because one, I love that you
talked about things being inherited, because he made mention that
you know, oh, my my father was an officer, and

(34:18):
my grandfather was an officer, and you know, we have
a good idea of like who is a criminal here
and and you know who is who is law abiding
and all of that kind of weird stuff. But they
but he also talked about segregation and how segregation have
been the mindset of segregation had been inherited, you know,

(34:41):
within the law enforcement culture. Right. So he's like, oh,
but that ended, And I'm like, no, that just because
it ended on the books doesn't mean that it question.
Let me ask you a question. Well, Jim Crow called
Nat turn On a hero. Of course, not exactly exactly.
When you go home, right, that that was your something

(35:03):
right there. That's your baby. You undertook about what you
did right, And that's the same thing that happens with
them from generations. Father will come home. I just beat
this nigg up and he was running like a dog
and cleaned it up. I just rest rest five people,
rest five black people. They was all right and or whatever.
They cleaned it up. Now it's the same thing though.
They go home with that because when I go home,

(35:24):
my kids always want to come to work with me.
I always want to and you know what I do.
I don't got no babysit them. Throw them in the back.
It's seven down. Take them on with me so they
get experienced this. I like them like handing out food.
We're gonna do a car watch this summer. I told
him to bring my little girls over there. I did
a lemonade stand, one leben they stand. They got like

(35:44):
a couple of hundred dollars out there half an hour
because they so little, you understand, But I want to
show them like from little you know, like you know,
back back to what we were saying, you know, like

(36:04):
you know that cop that you were talking to he
learned something from his father. And if his father was
a copy learned something from his father. It's all cleaned
up now, you know, the word in is all cleaned up,
but it's still going on, but the actions are still
the same. I mean, honestly, I felt like he came
to intimidate me. I felt like he came to press

(36:25):
on me, to try and make me feel like, you
know what, what we're doing in our community is not valid.
And you know, I'm like, that's old as hell. I'm like,
I read I read about you know, spirits like yours,
Like I've seen this before, like even though I haven't
been here before, Like you know what I'm saying, it's

(36:45):
funny that you mentioned your children, because my fifteen year
old came in. He was like, hey, hey, before you
guys leave, I just want to I want to leave
you with something. He said. You know, there's this idea
of of good cops, and he's like, well, can you
answer me this. There's good cops, then, how come so
many of you guys, let the bad cops, the cops

(37:06):
that are shooting people on the back, you know, and
and kicking grandmothers and punching, you know, folks with disabilities
in the face. How come so many of y'all are
quite He was like, so, I just want I want
you guys to New York. That's that. That's good because
we were talking about this. In New York. They lost
their power to be defended by the state attorneys whatever

(37:27):
that I forgot the name of it, but they lost.
They took that away from them. And ever since they
took that away from them. We got this mayor right now,
that's giving them. But ever since they took that away
from without last minute, That's what I said, the old
starts on the top. They took that that away. They're
not protecting them. Are you can actually suit them, you
can actually like go after them in court. They're gonna
lose their job. Nobody wants to be Nobody wants to

(37:48):
be like, Yo, you jumped out on this this this
person over here, and and you had no right to
jump out on him. Now you got them on the floor.
You gotta hold that down because you did that. I'm
your partner. But this is what we have in New
York because they hiring more people from our community and
they're picking up back in the community and working. It's
a slow process, but you can see I can see
it working because I remember when I was a little kid.

(38:08):
I swear to God like I just love getting caught
by the cops. You know why they didn't care when
I when I was ten years old, Sulling crack, eleven
years old, Sulling crack. You know what they did to us.
They beat the ship out of us, take out drugs
and put it on the person that gave it. They
knew who was giving us the drugs. They'd take that,
beat it. They didn't care, they didn't they didn't lock
us up. I knew what was going on, you understand.
But now everybody's being held accountable for what they're doing.

(38:31):
And it's you know, our responsibility in the community not
to abuse that power. Is that, you understand. It's not
like we know. They can't jump on us no more.
They don't got stopping first no more. And then jay
Z stopped that. Jay Z it was one of the
people to help stop. They don't have that no more.
But when they had it, everybody was getting searched. She
was getting searched. Come back, your shoulders getting flipped over.
They took that away from them. Now we can't give

(38:52):
them the Oh look, she lady walking down and she
had three guns in the necessarily understanding and they they're
hanging out the building again. They got a bunch of
guns in the mailbox. We've gotta break all the mail
We as a community, we gotta take responsibility ourselves. And
I'm not saying the police out there doing you know
some there's good cops that I've met, good cops, you know,

(39:12):
because they call me, Chris, can you come over it?
As a missing teenager? Chris is an eighty seven year
old guy. Can you come over it? Can you help
us out? They? Can you agree to though, that a
good cop will call out yes, because I mean if
the expectation moving forward, you know, is that community will

(39:35):
also call out the bad ship that we see happen
in our community. Right And as a matter of fact,
I feel like again citizens app shows that that's what
happens all day long. Right. It's not you know, law
enforcement that's coming up and popping up with all of
these alerts. This is people in the community that's saying, hey,

(39:55):
this is what is happening. We're gonna take a short
break to hear from our upstairs. Take you for saying that,
because people will be like, yo, y'all be snitching or
we're a cop up. We cannot puy nothing on the
app Let's get this clear. We cannot puy nothing on

(40:17):
the app. Right that someone from somebody somebody from somebody
from the community has to call non war one. So
we could put it this thing like people, we don't
just make this up. Well, this is gonna happen right now,
you know, like you know, you know you might not.
Is that the response time is a little bit different

(40:39):
because it maybe we can we can go to an
incident and we might think that we go to an incident,
there's nothing happening. It's just at the post and the
victim just left. You know what I'm saying that there's
nothing happening, is that the post is not showing up,
you know what I mean? And I don't. I don't agree,
Like you know, because our definition of a good cop
and their definition of a good cop maybe totally different.
They definititionly a good copy one is out there getting

(41:00):
the five arrests and throwing them through it in the ground,
taking a crack and give them to the drug. They
think that's a good cop. They're definitely of a bad cop.
Might be the one thing that got caught that was crooked,
that was hustling, and that's a bad cop to them, right,
And they were like, you know, one bad cop doesn't
spoil the punch, right, you can you imagine having one
bad pilet at Delta. So so we gotta take a

(41:25):
chance every days, one cop, one pilot that can't fly,
which what who Who's going to get him today? Because
this one's going to crash today? Yeah, we get the crash.
That's the same same thing with cops, right, you can't
have you can't have one. You can't have a bad cop,
and and and something that's that's so there to mental

(41:46):
to the world like flying, right, because cops is posted
post posted to be to protect your wealth, but to
be protect your your wealth and your well being. It
was it started as well first because cops wasn't for us.
It was to pick us up because when we got
away from slavery, they was there like they was like
bounty hunters. But then they figured out policing, you know,
I'm saying, how to keep communities like under control. But

(42:07):
it was it was it mainly put in place to
protect rich people's wealth, you know what I'm saying. And
so it wasn't designed for you. When they started the
designing for us, they had to build a prison first.
And the penitentiary didn't come from penitentiary wasn't a place
where you supposed to go and stay a long time.
You go to penitentiary for three or four days and
repent from your sins and get out. That's what That's

(42:29):
what the world penitentially came from, I'm saying right, from
the church and becomes the idea of the church that
given a chance to go sit down some time out,
they gave this this is a whole century of time.
That's not that's not that's not what it was designed for. Right,
That's not what it was designed for. So again we

(42:52):
go back to you and I'm no, I'm no politician
and I'm no like activists. But you go back to
social constructs, which is a coup ideas made up by men, right,
And I didn't see a group of ideas made up
by society. It's not a group of ideas made up
by community. It's a group ideas constructed by men in
the room and say this is how the world is
going to be. We're gonna give dum power over here.

(43:13):
We're gonna give dump power over here, we're gonna give
them power over here. I don't know one person in
Watts that have a ship that can get cocaine from
Colombia to to America. Correct, I don't know and cocaine.
And I don't know one person there with a private
jet that has that ability. Right. So you can always
look at the people on the ground and what they're doing,

(43:35):
but you never look at the people in the sky
at what they do. And I don't know no gunman
in factories and New York City to live and watch?
Does colt liv and watch if you do pop out?
Just saying and um. So again, as we talk about
broadening the idea of what public safety is a lot

(43:59):
of folks will tell us that, you know, I get
anxiety from getting all of the alerts you know about
do with a machete down the street A lot of
the times, by the way, that is a gardener. Okay, listen, um.
Every once in a while, you know, you might have
somebody who's like busy out there with a real machete.
Like but a lot of the times it's not what

(44:20):
you think it is. But if it is what it is,
you want to know, you know, before you walk down
that street than you know, there's somebody down there with
a machete. But that's that's my orientation, that not that
might not be everybody else's orientation. And so I firmly
believe also that public safety has to do with bringing
awareness to the things that make us feel safe. Also,

(44:42):
so what are the things that make us feel safe?
It is community, is connection. And so I love the
magic moments piece that you guys have, you know, seeing
that seeing it makes us feel safe. If we know
that someone else, you know, if someone was missing and
they got found, makes me feel safe because I'm like,

(45:02):
you know what, that person got home safely, and that
is a reciprocated feeling, you know, when I get that
alert that wow, this person they were not harmed, they
were returned home, or if they were harmed, but they
would return home and now they're getting care right. So
I just wanted to see if you guys can speak
to the magic moments peace to like and why that's

(45:23):
important to public safety. So so basically the magic moments
turned into good vibes, and you know, we just want
to let people know that there's good stuff going on
in the community instantly. It's not always negative. You mentioned
a part about you know, some people get anxiety about
hearing all these notifications and stuff going on. The best
thing about the app is that if you look at

(45:45):
it and somebody went live, they actually tell you what's
going on that wayas you don't know what's going on.
I don't want to turn the corner and just to
du running from the cop of the machete and trip
over me and kill me. I don't want that. I
don't want my three year seeing a guy and down
naked Hollywood Boulevard and we're on vacation. I don't I
don't want them to be exupposed to that, you understand. Like,

(46:05):
so if I see it going on that way, you
know what, Let's jump in the car, let's turn back
that way, you understand, Or let's tell the owner the
store something's going on. Can you please lock the door
so we can be safe. You know you gotta do
jumping out of cars? That was yo. I've been all
over the country. Yeah, I got the most car chases ever.
Like you know, that's all you see on the app,
Like they don't stop over here, Like I don't know

(46:27):
what it is, but you know, I don't wonder why
jumping out of car and heading into a Starbucks where
I'm at, you understand, or a target where I'm at
and barricading itself in and we all in danger. I
want to know what's going on? You understanding? You know
these magic moments, like you know, back to the magic moments.
They create a good feeling about what's going on in
the community. If you known anybody that's like handing out food,

(46:48):
you know, going down to the homeless on scared role
and providing them with something, you know, the magic moments
is an opportunity for them, and the opportunity to let
the community know what's going on, because it's the opportunity
for them because you know, it might be somebody watching
with a big bank and they'd be like, oh wow,
I didn't know this was going on. They might see
the alert and be like, you know what, I'm sensing
thousand over there. I'm said five thousand over there. Let'm saying,

(47:11):
let me donate a couple of my hours over there
to help out. How can I help out encourage the
community to come out and help, you know. In this clip,
Prince and Chris are on the scene where they have
just notified a mother that they have eyes on her
missing teenager. She drives up to meet them, jumps out

(47:32):
the car, sees her daughter and embraces her. Why why

(48:05):
what happened? God? Hear me? You hear me? Oh my god,
what what happened? What happened? Then the mother leaves this
message for the Citizens team. I am so blessed and

(48:26):
happy to say that the ride is home and thanks
to the Citizen app. They are amazing. I oh my god,
I don't I don't even know what to say. Um
um um, the gentleman Chris in Prince um, oh my god,

(48:47):
I'm just amazed right now. I guess they followed into intuition.
All of you guys post they followed it tooth and nail,
and I'm so happy to have my daughter home and
she's home, like literally home. Thank you, Thank you guys.

(49:10):
I think that we want to set example and also
encourage others to to follow that leads. You want people
to emilate greatness. When you're doing something great for the community,
it should be exposed and um, we want people to
emilate that greatness is important. So so the magic moment
came to me when um, when I first came to
engineer citizen. I used to build the hardware subsisting and

(49:32):
I had to figure out how to map out the
entire world to figure out what the towers was. So
I created that that technology as well, where we was
able to identify the towers like in Watts where we
can get the signal. Right. And I'm when I while
I'm building this hallway, I had to listen to police
radio to see what challenge we needed. So this is
my first engineering job ever, figuring out where we're gonna go,

(49:54):
what we're gonna listen to, and what challenge we need
to listen to. Right. And when I first heard the
first clip, it was noise. It was noise, like you know,
like the white noise when you want channel with three
that's challenge is in New York is the ship the
channel doing don't work when you got cable, right, So
it's the white noise now, um um. And I'm just
I'm just the head engineer is showing me what to

(50:15):
do with the white noise. What I'm saying like, you know,
setting the frequencies and figuring it out right, and now
the white noise is slowing down and white others Charlie
Tennant we got a you know what I'm saying, Like
now the white noise is is no longer noise, it's
a sound, right, and it's it's a clip now, it's
it's it's words coming from a no on one car. Right.

(50:37):
So remember that was the noise. And when that word
came in that there was um two kids downstairs in
the office locked in a hot car. Right. We made
it an incident and my colleague ran downstairs and we
got the two kids out of the hot car. We
turned that noise into magic, magic moment. And that's the

(50:59):
magic own you know what I'm saying. So they take noise,
which is clips coming in and radio a whole bunch
of stuff. They clean it up. When I say that,
I told my citizen, and clean it up, push it
through the app to an incident that you see. And
if we take that same incident and bring home with
twenty five year old men, we turned that noise into
what exactly, and that's what that's where, that's that's the

(51:22):
ultimate that's the the ultimate reason why we want these
magic moments. And that's something that we're looking to create,
not something we're looking to cultivate on our own. Like
we don't. We're not going to exploit. We're not looking
to play hot and seek with a baby. You know
what I'm saying. We need to take no baby and
hot over there and got it goes and find that
that's not what we want. We want to noise. There's
a lot of stuff going on which is like society,
and the magic is bringing society together to help create

(51:44):
this this beautiful magic. I mean, wow, I mean I
feel like that is epitome of what it can mean
to utilize technology, you know, to provide safety and killing
for communities. Right. I also am of the school that

(52:05):
you know, healing comes in a lot of different forms,
and sound is one of them. Like, so it's it's
amazing that you just like we're able to break down
how you turn noise utilizing frequencies into these pivotal magic moments.
I feel like a lot of the times noise and

(52:25):
silence can be synthesized right into a really a beautiful,
you know, a beautiful moment, like just through our voices,
you know, as well, like being able to show love
to one another, like being able to speak that to
one another, being able to speak that into existence, but
also through song. So I hear that we got a

(52:48):
real vocalists here. Yeah, I don't feel like singing right now. Yeah, Well,
let me just say this right, because I know how

(53:12):
to get his button. I'm in the shower, I'll start singing, luthor,
I'll start singing songs that that's gonna just have him sing.
And as I'm in the shower singing, I'll stop and
take it from there. I guess this button every time

(53:32):
you put yourself out there. Yeah, but a shower singing,
there's a coffee on you. Well, Kevin's on you. Man.
I'm trying to see what I want to sing ing
that my mom and step song. Man, I never could

(53:53):
have made it here, all right. He's not my words,
not my song. This is mother and step song. Never
could have made it, never could have made it without you.
I could have lost it all. But now I see

(54:16):
how you were there for me. I say, never would
have made it. No one know we would have made it,
never could have made it without you. How would have
lost it all? But now I see how you were

(54:39):
there for me. I say, I'm stronger, I'm wiser, I'm better,
much batter when I look back and realize all that
you're gonna be through. I realized that I wouldn't have

(55:01):
made it, but you're don't want a held on to
and never never could have made it. No one never
could have made it. I never could have made it
without you. I would have lost it all. But now

(55:23):
I see how you there for me. I say, I'm stronger,
I'm wiser, I'm better, so much better. When I look
back and realized all that God it for me through

(55:46):
I realized that I would never made it, but you're
don't want a held on to. I never never could
have made it. No one never could have made it,
never could have made it without you? Who I would

(56:07):
have lost it all? But now I see how you
were there for me. I say, I never would have
made it. No one never could have made it. I
never could have made it without you. How would have

(56:31):
lost it all? But now I see how you were
there for me. Or you dropped the beat, you was
used in the trash, just now look at you, was mesmerizes.
Now that's good. Right, Where can the people find like,

(56:58):
where can they find that? You gotta gotta talk to me.
That song is inspiring, you know what I mean? And
he's sung the other day and I was like like
every time I hear I get tids because it's so
real to our lives. Like I couldn't have made around him.
Probably couldn't made it without me. I couldn't have made

(57:20):
it without him, you know. Like it's like and that's
how we look. We traveled in another city. We're trayling.
We we're gonna take this throughout the world. We're staying
in the New Yoritesty, we're gonna We're gonna take this
throughout the world, you know what I'm saying. So, and
we're gonna start here and we want to we want
to multiply this team. We want to create the same
team and leave them here in l A. We want
to find ten fifteen individuals who kids about and we

(57:42):
want to leave them in l A and go to
another city and do it again. You know what I'm saying,
And create opportunities. I say, I'm passing door real quick.
I say that you cannot stop bolenced by giving someone
a job. You have to give someone a life, change
the opportunity, you know what I'm saying. And it's a
difference right that made it What Rocket is doing, He's
giving them a life. Chaining opportunity to go home and

(58:03):
create their own business in their bedroom. Right, because time
is freedom, that's right. Time is freedom. The ability to
have time along with what you're doing to to to
feed your family and take care your bills and everything
is freedom. But when you locked and you're tied into
I think it's like five five thousand hours or something

(58:26):
in five thousand change hours that you give to an
employer every year of your time. Then you might sleep
for that for or at the same time. So if
you do the math of how many hours you're given
to people and sleep, you're not really giving a lot
to yourself. So we're not free until we are to
give that five thousand hours that we're given to an

(58:46):
employee to ourselves. I'm free. I love what I do,
not serious like Prince. I wake up five o'clock in
the morning, go to the Bronze catch Story, go bring
my kids to school. From there, I'm out of taking
nap in the car. I don't get back home two
o'clock in the morning. I do it every day. I
love it. It's because I like, I'm my best friends,
my boss, and I mean like, and now he knows

(59:08):
I'm out here doing it. I mean, I don't miss
nothing major, and I like doing it and saying like
I guess I'm not. I'm not his boss, I'm his colleague,
little brother. I told him, I told him this when
we was inside. I said, Yo, we're gonna make it.
You know what I'm saying. And I'm tearing up because yeah,

(59:32):
so all right, we wasn't supposed to make it right right?
And I felt bad for these kids because if you
don't have those real models from people, that's going to
tea out of that darkness. My father died, it's abused,

(59:54):
shocked half my life in prison. He was standing right
next to me while I got stabbed directly in my
middle of my chest with an ice pick, and let
me tell you something, it did not penetrate me and
my lyon. Nope, ice pick straight to act first, what

(01:00:17):
every with every with every bit of pressure that the
person stabbing had, keeps a big guy just like that
with an ice pick and didn't make a mark. Tennyson
acts at me and cut me in the hand and
gave me the mark. Do you think I didn't know
I had a purpose after that? You think I didn't

(01:00:38):
know I had a reason to live after that with
with something, some spirit, some being student in front of
me and took the brunt of the frost. And I'm
talking about going through some other ship. So this is why,
this is why I get up. This is what This
is why I mean tids because I know that a

(01:00:59):
lot of these kids don't have that shot in front
of him stopping that force. And that's why we go
through the scene and they under the sheet. Mm hmm.
You know what I'm saying. So we whether we believe
it or not, we know it or not that we're
blessed and protected. My clothing line is Black Squares and

(01:01:22):
the shirt that I've designed behind him is um I
like my chances. And then his shirt his signature shirt.
He will fucking skateboard off the building. He will know
what I'm saying. Roller coaster with no seatbelt. He liked
to take chances, you know what I'm saying. And here
here Roder might be trapping and stuff like that, trying

(01:01:43):
to find a missing kid. And I said, Yo, this
is going to be your signature short. You know what
I mean, what my signia shirt is. We're not the
same because no matter what we went through, we're all
allowed to be our individual selves on me. He's him,
he's him. We're not trying to be like each other,
you know what I'm saying. We're all individual And if
you could bring your individualism to the world and show

(01:02:04):
the best version of you, I don't know what it is.
I know what the worst version of me is. I
don't know what the best version of me is. I
know what the worst version of me is. But if
you could bring the best version of you, that journey
to getting there, to the world, then you want changing
the community. I'm so glad that I have the opportunity.
When you asked me A requested a song and I

(01:02:25):
was contemplating over here what should I sing? Right, But
that song in particular about Marvin Sap was written, never
would have made it. It's a god inspires, spiritual song.
But for me today when I sung it and in
tells the unity of us coming together collectively. And I'm
so glad. Like I said, I am glad that I
have the opportunity to be here in Los Angeles, California,

(01:02:48):
to be a participant, just to see what I saw
is today in the Watts community and Kudo's brother to
the brother rock Man. I love that what I've seen
him with the use because in our schools growing up
through the miseducation of a negro, I like to say,
for better words, Cardig Woodson, that's not implemented well for me,

(01:03:10):
it wasn't as me coming up far as business entrepreneurs
teaching these kids at that age what intels business give
them leadership, but is a legacy that they can provide
for their families and having an opportunity not to be
in the box, to be clothed and not understanding business
perspectives or owning your own or coming together collectively. And

(01:03:32):
I was inspired by the young lady also all of
them when she got up there and she cried right
some moan and she showed her in forts and how
and she said it, I think you robbed and that
that that's what it's about. Understanding our children, giving them
something with meeting the needs of the people. That's the

(01:03:54):
opportunity I was. I was a lady just to see that,
to see the smiles on their face. A little kid
as a young ain't got up to the performing and
wanted him to dance, just to see that give him
them something construct the kid right because he heard yeah,
he didn't cool, but that moved me to see our
future the kids that they can grow into being something,

(01:04:16):
you know, because we know we know all over the
world what's going on in the communities of all people
of our ethnicity, and I'm sure another rural neighborhoods also,
but mainly all I like to keep it from our
coach in our perspective, giving him the platform of that
opportunity that's powerful and awesome, the entrepreneurship, the business. And

(01:04:39):
then when I've seen the kids pressing the shirts, I'm like, yo, no, seriously,
that twelve yeo that pressed that shirt painters and what
they do energy at eleven years old, the older dude
is giving me a pack of crack and the gun
I swear it up. I se what he was doing.

(01:04:59):
I'm like, oh, like twelve years old, Like now you
little a little bit of coaching for what what Rock
is doing right now, it's gonna turn out to It's
just gonna even if they don't stee in that field,
this is gonna show them how to, like you know,
stick with it, stick with something that you want to do,
and just stick with it. Because I didn't have that,
I always had to drive to work. I started packing

(01:05:21):
back and both my both my parents crackheads and heavy
went out. Is we had a family, my mother and
my mother and my father. But then you know, it
wasn't it wasn't the typical home that the kids should go.
And you know it's none of us. I mean, and
you know what I've seen rock doing. It's like, yo,
it's like you know the first like you know I
speak about that first or siever shot was my own.

(01:05:42):
I mean that she was in the wrong spot. Drug
gave me a guns that you're selling crack over there,
shut down and went over there, flip the dirty two shots,
flipped another clip, six sixty four shots. The first time
I shot my on she was in the spot eleven
years old. What I've seen into Yo doing that right there,
Like damn, he's gonna get an opportunity there. I never had,
you understand like that, that's two opportunities. I wish. I

(01:06:04):
never was a bad kid. It's just the environment that
I was growing in. Like you know, if he wasn't
selling crack, he wasn't nobody you understand if you didn't,
if you didn't not because we wasn't killers, Like I
don't know where this came from. But we wasn't killers,
were just doing where we had to do to check
that block, just getting money from. You understand, I don't
know where this new ship came into. You know, people
want to be killers, Like I don't. I don't get that.

(01:06:26):
It's not you know, I might be outdated or whatever,
but you know that that don't make sense to me,
you understand. But the opportunity that they've given them and
Watts is like a game changer. It's a game change.
And then, you know, one thing he staid, I was like,
I'm gonna give them a computer to go with it.
I'm like a computer, you understand, like like a computer.

(01:06:46):
It was giving us packing guns, and you're giving them
a computer to take home with them. And then you know,
I'm thinking about them, you know what, what's there? You
know what's there. When as soon as he said that,
before you know, before he was telling me about anything
else that came along with the program, I was like, damn,
you know, because if you gave me a computer in
my house, my uncle visit stealership and they'd be gone.

(01:07:07):
So I was thinking about, you know, everything else that
went with what they're getting. And then you know, you've
got spiritual cultures there, you got you know, all the
programs that they have for the families that they're working
with these kids. And I was like, wow, it's not
just that you know, we're gonna help him out and
you know, here take this and onto the next thing.
And so the community effort, it's a holistic approach so

(01:07:30):
that we can provide as much service to that kid
and their family as much as possible, so that we
can really start to see a shift in culture. Because
I felt like, yeah, I've hit the nail on the head,
like saying, how you know the adults previously they were
giving kids the poison. You know, they was giving them

(01:07:53):
the guns, they was giving them the drugs in order
to sell. But they didn't see it like that. They've
seen it as, oh, no, we're giving you an economic opportunity.
And so if we can take that same mindset and
flip it into something positive, something that's not going to
be a detriment to our community, that's what we got
to do. Because at the end of the day, I
don't believe that we even though even though we have

(01:08:16):
had a history of our community like turning in on
itself through those methods. We don't We don't have to
continue that. You don't gotta be like me to be
like me, right. And I say that because you don't
gotta go do or experience what we talked about today
to be sitting in this see interviewing people or becoming

(01:08:40):
a person that's giving it, do an interview. You know
what I'm saying. Any And I told about a minimum
of success. Minimum I mean just being able to provide
for your family when you have your own family. Right,
So I don't think that what you see in your
community it's what you have to be, especially if there's
if there's if there's a success story behind it. Right,

(01:09:02):
kids in South Jamaica at one time, I thought they
had to get shot nine times, like fifty to be successful. Right.
What he should have told them was, you don't have
to be like me to be like me. Right, don't
go through what I went through to be where I'm
at today. So I'm Prince Matt One on Instagram, Black

(01:09:23):
Square is Clothing on Instagram, b LK Squares Clothing on Instagram,
and black Squares Publishing on Instagram. And so you can
go to my website at b LK squares dot com
My name is he gotta underschool. You can find me
on Instagram and citizen app. Yeah, Man, download the citizen
that man, download the citizen that you know and spread that.

(01:09:43):
Spread them good vibes, and I mean, we want to
bring good vibes to every city and acurse America across
the world. Want to bring some good vibes, and we
want other people to know that, you know, the community
is out here, to help the community out here, I mean,
and with that, I'm gone. I want to think like
so much for their truth and the wealth of knowledge
they've shared before getting out of here, I would be

(01:10:05):
remiss not to mention that there have indeed been some
controversies when it comes to the Citizens App. They have
made some mistakes as they've been building out their platform.
For instance, there was an incident in California having to
do with a bounty on an arsonist in a wealthy neighborhood,
which led to an assault of an innocent which they

(01:10:26):
apologize for. Apologies aside, the app has also been criticized
for its origins. Originally it was named Vigilante, and they've
taken guidance from former police Chief William Bratton, whose broken
windows theory on policing has arguably led to some heavy
handed police tactics across the nation. In all, the Citizens

(01:10:50):
app is a tool, and like every tool, there are
pros and cons. Like then sensitive remarks you may find
in the comments of very tragic incidents. However, the pros
are potentially life seating. For instance, real time safety alerts
that can help you and your family from walking into
a hail of bullets, alerts that lets you know if
a loved one is in danger, the ability to support

(01:11:13):
a family in finding a missing loved one. Also, Citizens
provides guidelines for on scene filming in order to protect
the privacy of victims, survivors, and even suspects, not to
mention the ability to showcase the good vibes and magic
moments in your community. All in all, this is one app.

(01:11:35):
What I hope to see is more technological innovations that
seek to increase peace and healing and stop the spread
of violence. Disclaimer My views, beliefs, and opinions are my
own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my guest,

(01:11:57):
resource organizations or sources shared. You've been listening into the
Survivor's Hill podcast, join us next time as we sit

(01:12:20):
down with rough artists too hungry, and the tattoo artists.
The mentor, the activist advocate known as rock tune in