All Episodes

October 3, 2023 67 mins

It has to be about time we rethink safety and policing, especially in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy.   Like so many of us, we know things need to change.   But what can we do about it?    We grappled with this question and more in a crucial conversation with the thought-provoking documentary filmmaker, Matthew Solomon. His film, Reimagining Safety, challenges us to consider a more humane approach to policing in our communities. Together, we delve into the disturbing reality of over-militarization, the damage caused by societal biases, and the urgent need for police reform. 

We don't just stop there; we also take a closer look at the importance of empathy and changing the narrative on "defunding" the police when it is really "reallocating" the police resources in ways that work better for everyone.   Especially the police.   As we explore the potential implications of this action, Matthew shares his fascinating journey from music school to filmmaking. From his passion for conflict resolution to his understanding of societal structures, we uncover the inspiration behind his impactful work and Rick and Maiya are right there to really help get into it. This episode promises to be a blend of serious discussions, comedic rug-pulling, personal anecdotes, and enlightening insights from a filmmaker at the forefront of social change along with 2 touring musicians trying to make sense of it all. 

We also let you in on some secrets from the road with the launch of our new segment "TORROR STORIES!!!".  Check out crazy tales from the road from @maiyasykes and @rickbarriodill that you can only get on StP.  And finally, we discuss the significance of art and storytelling in driving societal progress. It's a jam-packed episode that we hope will provoke thought, inspire change, make ya laugh and ignite conversations. Reimagine safety with us and tune in, let's explore this together.

Support the show

https://amzn.to/4eYmbAV

https://www.compassionkind.org/

SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats). Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).

If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a featured guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
police academy spends 60 hours on firearms training,
shooting, and only eight hoursof de-escalation, and so they're
taught to command and controlthe mindset that they're that
Drilled into them is, when youwalk into a space, you're the
one in charge.
People need to listen to you,you know, and if somebody pushes
back, you know, the way thatthey prove themselves is they

(00:23):
have to fight or arrest somebody, or right, you know?
Right, tickets make a rest, soit's all like.
None of that is about servingthe community and de-escalating
and taking care of people.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yo, yo, yo yo yo.
Welcome back.
Slap the power season two doos,doos, doos.
I am your host, Rick barrio Do.
My name is Maya Sykes, yes, andI am so glad to be back in the
studio.
It's been a long, long summer.
We talked about this on the onthe last episode, but so many
things have happened and so manythings to talk about and to get

(01:11):
Into.
But on the show today we'redefinitely, definitely gonna be
Hearing from Maya Sykes, who'sbeen you've been reporting out
from the field on the strike Ihave a shout out to Kent and
Chen and the unofficial singerscommittee on Facebook.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
So we as singers have been trying to make sure that
we make a presence in the strikeand on Tuesdays We've been
doing our best to meet up.
Sometimes I can't always go onTuesdays because I teach, but I
have been there a few Tuesdaysand I try to go at least one day
a week to some portion of thestrike.
But I'm shout out to all mysinger friends who have rallied

(01:50):
and done some really incrediblethings.
They had kids version ofsingers come out two Tuesdays
ago.
They had a really big presencefor the National Strike Day.
That they did, you know, acrossunions.
And our friend Fletcher, who satdown with KTLA to talk about

(02:10):
why singers kind of had a dog inthis sag after a fight, has
been coming up with really cooljingles that we sing.
So his Last one was a.
It's the tune of Eye of theTiger, but it's Lie of the Iger.
Because we've been Cuz we'vebeen.
So the morale is still goodbecause the the belief that is

(02:34):
still carrying on is that thisis kind of a now or never thing
and that we have one chance toget this Right because it's been
wrong for so long, and in doingso, we've really had to change
the attitudes of what peoplethink you get if you are in the
entertainment business.
Yeah, so I think that it'sallowed for a transparency that

(02:56):
people see why we're stillfighting.
Nobody wants to be doing this,but we've really been Impressed
upon that.
These studios do not want tonegotiate at all and, one by one
, industries are falling becausethey don't want to negotiate.
So the latest dog in the fightis the voiceover and video

(03:17):
gaming industry.
That's coming down, that's it,and that's a big one you know.
I'm surprised that liveentertainment didn't go, but I
guess they were able to make alast-minute Contract negotiation
.
But at the end of the day, thisis about making livable wages
for people and not treating themLike they are underclass.

(03:39):
Because they're asking forlivable wages, and this is
something that affects each andevery one of us, unless you're
in the 1% and if you're in the1%, congratulations, but you
still don't have the right totreat people like slaves and
demand that they give you thingsjust because you want them and
you want to keep all the profitsshare.
You do not have the right to dothat.
It's wonderful to see thatpeople have decided enough is

(04:02):
enough.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, I agree, I agree, and obviously everything
is affected in our town, in LosAngeles, by by these strikes,
and so we're gonna be doing anepisode specifically devoted
that towards that a little bitlater in the season.
And I also want to say onTuesdays, let a brother know I'm
gonna, I'll come down with you.
Yeah, let a brother know andshoot, we could do a.
We could do a.

(04:23):
You know, shout out and helps.
If you're in the Hollywood area, we'll try and figure out when
we're gonna go and make a, makea make, you know, make a thing.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
We can do slap the power on the street.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Oh shit, let's do it.
Let's do it Also on the showtoday we're gonna be doing a
repeat a little bit later of anew segment that we've got,
that's called tour stories,that's we have to do that every
single time that we say tour,because it just isn't effective
without them.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Wow, haha.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I say it's calm, count chocolate.
Yeah, all I can think of iswhen I do that is count
chocolate I'm trying to give youlike Vincent price hey, yeah
it's the count from SesameStreet, like that's what.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
That's what I'm giving it.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, and also on the show.
A little bit later, we had thepleasure of interviewing in
studio this, this brilliant,brilliant man, matthew Solomon.
He is a documentary filmmakerand an activist, and a musician
musician and he just did a filmall on an iPhone and and shot it

(05:24):
and it's actually it's winningwards all over the place, has
been doing screenings all overtown and now he's doing
screenings all over the country.
But the film is calledreimagining safety.
Sorry, reimagining safety andit's.
It's really an examination ofthings in a post George Floyd
world.
And so stick around and listen.
That the interview was reallygreat.
I learned a ton.

(05:45):
I know we had a, we had a blast.
You know, just actually openingthis issue up and feeling like,
okay, there are ways that wecan sort of help and rethink
about this.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
So that was really and there are ways to imagine a
world in which the police forcehas a different purpose and
there is definitely Going to bethe unpopular opinion that the
word policing is synonymous withmilitarization.

(06:16):
So there's the impetus to tryto change the word policing.
Just in general, sure, but Ithink that, overall, we can
agree that we need to givebetter support to our
communities and we need to givebetter support to our police
officers, because there's themissing link.
So I really think that thisfilm Educates you on how that's

(06:41):
even possible.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah.
so reimagining safety movieDot-com, I think is the website
but we we touch on, we'll put itin the show notes and the
interview is really, reallygreat and you know.
But first I actually it's thisissue, reimagining safety is
sort of when we get into this inthe interview a little bit.
But for me, you know, I'vealways been I associate, I

(07:05):
associate with the black culture.
I just, I always have, I'vebeen, you know, the only white
guy in all black bands of mostmy life.
The music I listen to, it's allmy heroes have always been
black and it wasn't, it kind ofalmost wasn't, until I think
they're us being trapped insidefrom the pandemic and having to

(07:27):
look at Having and then GeorgeFloyd, and then having to look
at a president Holding a fuckingBible upside down in front of a
burning church At the where Iwas like that was the impetus
for creating slap for me,because I kind of felt like,
okay, we're not gonna be able totweet our way out of these

(07:47):
Events that keep on happeningand I wanted to be able to put
together a voice or at least avehicle in a spaceship to be
able to talk about these thingsand to be able to Try and feel
like we have a little bit moreagency by, by, you know, having
a larger sort of Adiacy towardsthe communication and things,

(08:10):
whereas you know you write asong and you write it about
something like this, like GeorgeFloyd, and you know it's, it's
amazing and the power of musicis amazing, but it can take a
long time for that to sort ofFind its way back to you, you
know, in the circle of trying tohelp people and Really trying
to help people, trying toenlighten people and trying to
figure out where the Venndiagram is, that that,

(08:32):
especially, especially inpolicing, in an areas of Trying
to love one another and tryingto protect and serve, and so
that you know that was thereason why I Created slap.
I was because of in a postGeorge Floyd world.
I just feel like things are,things are different, and so we

(08:53):
do have opportunities to let'sget the facts together and let's
figure out.
Okay, well, if you know, ifthere is this budget, what?
How can we, you know, helpadvocate for these things,
whether they be Legislatively,or how can we advocate for, for,
for better things?
To where I remember being a kid,when I was a kid and the cops
would come by, it was actually agood thing, right, you get at a

(09:13):
certain point, until I, till I,was living in the, you know,
the black neighborhood.
It was a different story, butbut I, when the cop would come
by, it'd be a good thing, right?
You were like, okay, cool,somebody's looking out for you,
somebody's looking out for you.
And then I remember being theonly white guy living in this
Project, in the project area,got shot at a couple of times,
couple of bull holes in the backof my car and shit.

(09:35):
And then I was pulled overevery time I was there for being
white in an all-blackneighborhood, because they were
like you.
Well, you're just here buyingdrugs.
That's the only reason you'rehere or supplying the drugs.
I was applying the day.
You know.
You know it was a good week forme, this film had a different
perspective.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Maybe I bring a different perspective to the
film because I grew up withpolice violence my entire life.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
That's what I know, that's what I've seen my for the
people that don't know to whatyou were born here I was born
here.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
I was born in Long Beach, I've lived in South
Central, watts, hancock Park,venice and Silver Lake, so I've
lived all over Los Angeles.
And when we lived in SouthCentral and when we lived in
Watts, police violence towardspeople of color Was the norm.
I would see People who wererounded up because they were

(10:27):
wearing what was Classified asgang gear, but at that time it
was.
If they were wearing NikeCortez shoes or Raiders fitted
hats, they were automaticallyassumed to be gangbangers.
So I remember many incidencesthat this the police Brutality

(10:47):
towards black men specificallywas so targeted and it became
the norm.
We all would just assume theposition because this became the
norm and you would teach yourchildren this is what you do if
the police pull you over,because it was survival right.
So I always tell this story.

(11:07):
When I was a kid, my mom got abetter job and we were able to
move.
At the time we were living nearUSC and my mom, when she got
promoted, was able to move us tothe Hancock Park area.
And Again, as a child I'm 11 atthis point All I knew was the
police rounding you up andwhatever.
At the time I was learningfractions in school.

(11:29):
So my mother would do thisthing, where we would cook, and
she would change the Johnnycooks 1 8th of a crack rock.
But more like you know, we'regonna make this recipe for eight
instead of four or two insteadof you know Whatever, and she
would make me do all the mathyou know right, sure, sure.
So I remember this very, veryspecifically because we moved

(11:50):
just before Thanksgiving andRight around just before
Christmas time, my mother hadbought all these cookie tins and
she said we're gonna makebrownies and cookies and I was
like, oh yeah, that's fun.
And she said, okay, we're gonna, you know, make this recipe.
It says it Makes 20 cookies,but we need to make a hundred
cookies.
So let's do the math.
And I remember we did all themath or whatever, and we bought,

(12:11):
you know, made the brownies andthe cookies and then we went to
the fire Department and thepolice department.
And I remember this sospecifically Because I didn't
clock what my mother was doinguntil I was in my 20s.
My mother went around going highwe're new to the area, this is
my daughter, maya and we madeyou these cookies and whatever,

(12:33):
because you know she's learningabout fractions yeah, we're
learning about the differentparts of the police department
and did it at that.
My mother was making sure thesepeople didn't see me as a black
kid, but that they saw me as akid.
My mother was protecting me andI didn't even realize that
that's what she was doing.
Yeah, she was getting them, andwe did this every year.

(12:56):
Yeah by the time you know,because everybody in the
neighborhood we were one of likenine black families, they knew
who I was and they didn't thinkI was an Intruder.
Yeah, they saw me as a child,not as a black child who was
there to start trouble, and mymother had to cement that into
these people's minds Annuallyand I had no idea that that's

(13:17):
what she was doing.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
That's great and I mean that's that's the word
defund the police.
It just it's, it's not a goodfaith argument and so that's why
I'm glad we get into that inthe interview a little bit later
.
It is, it's a.
I do think there is anassociation.
I love that story because I dothink people it's community

(13:39):
thing and people need to sort ofbe connected to their community
more and that means the peoplelike the police and the firemen
that are working there.
There should be a bond therebecause we're relying on them
for when you know emergencystrike and stuff like that, and
they're relying on us for youknow keeping the community, you

(14:00):
know running and for you knowbuilding prosperous communities
and stuff.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Because at the time, especially when I was a kid, up
until I was a teenager.
Actually, this was quite atraumatic event.
One of my classmates, herfather, was shot and killed by
the police when he reported arobbery at his own home and they
mistook him for the robber andhe was an aeronautics engineer
for Boeing.

(14:25):
He had three children that hesent to Ivy League schools and
they shot this man on his porchbecause he called to ask the
police to help him.
And that is an attitude that wehave to change if we're going
to change anything about policebrutality.
We have to know that the policeare going to protect and serve
everyone, and we can't do thatif we've over militarized the

(14:47):
police, for sure, and we'vecriminalized all the aspects of
community coalition, and we'vecriminalized them.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, yeah, and I appreciate you saying that
because it really really is.
It's one of those things wherethere has to be options.
I have a lot of friends thatare policemen and I have so much
respect for them and the jobthat they're trying to do and
everything.
But we can take funds and alsobring in social workers.

(15:18):
Bring in people that know howto deal with mental health.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Bring in longer and better and more thorough
education for police officers.
Exactly, Exactly.
I know this is an unpopularthing for a black girl from
South Central to say, but whatif we actually gave police
officers the right resources?
What if we gave them?
You know, you can be a policeofficer in as little as three
months.
What if we made it a year?

(15:41):
for training and you had toactually know de-escalation
techniques.
This would keep police officerssafer.
Why isn't that a thing that ismet with just as much love?
Because I don't think that weneed to make it so that police
officers aren't safe either.
I feel like by saying, knowyour community, know who you're

(16:03):
serving, that's going to makeyou safer.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Exactly that makes total sense.
Stick around in the interview.
We do get into that a lot more.
I learned a ton Same.
It was really great Before wego to the break.
I just kind of want to put thisout.
On the way over to rehearsalthis morning, I heard of a
friend that just passed away andI had I'm so sorry.

(16:27):
Yeah, no, he'd been battlingwith cancer for a while and I
had an appointment a standingappointment for him and I and my
girl to get a photo shoottogether and do all this.
It had just been one of thosethings where it was like it
didn't make it down low enoughon the to-do list.

(16:53):
That's not going to be doableanymore.
I do want to say, in part ofthe gratitude and everything
reach out to your loved ones.
Make sure if there's somebodyyou haven't talked to in a while
your mom, whomever make sure totell the people that you love
them, and this life is short.
Take the opportunities that weget to love each other and to

(17:13):
appreciate each other.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
I will say that I echo that sentiment because I
lost a friend recently and theweek he died he told me he loved
me and after he died I reallystruggled with it, but I
realized that he gave me justthe most loving gift, that the
thing I get to remember abouthim is at the end of this life.

(17:36):
He told me what I meant to himand I think that that's a really
powerful thing to be able to dofor the people that you love.
It's not something that weshould take lightly.
Loving on one another should bea daily exercise, not something
that we do by happenstance orfor special occasion.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Amen, Take that to heart.
Love each other, Love yourself.
When we come back.
Our interview with documentaryfilmmaker Mr Matthew Solomon,
Joining us in the studio.
Today we are honored to have MrMatthew Solomon, director of
the documentary ReimaginingSafety, which is something that
is definitely near and dear toMaya and I.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
And so welcome to the show, Matthew.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Thank you for coming on down.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Thanks Great to be here.
Yeah, no, appreciate it,appreciate it.
And for the people that don'tknow, go ahead and give us a
little background on the movieand yourself.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, well, I'll try and keep it short.
I mean the movie actually.
I mean really it's kind of likewhere my all the aspects of my
life kind of intersected.
So that's why I say I got tokeep it short, because it really
like I grew up here in LA, likeyou know, blocks away from this
studio, I went to JohnBurroughs Junior High School,

(18:54):
fairfax High School, which werevery you know I'm 50.
So late set.
I was at John Burroughs in thelate 80s, graduated Fairfax 91.
So very integrated, like all myfriends were, like every race,
every religion at Fairfax.
It was one of the first schoolsto have a gay and lesbian I

(19:16):
believe it was a club or acenter or something like that,
and so, and I was a tap dancer,so I was.
I grew up adjacent to usHollywood was in, you know, the
dance community and so, like myfriends were always everybody.
And so as a straight white male, jewish also, I saw that my

(19:37):
friends had different livedexperiences than I did and we
talked about that and we knewthat if we went to the Beverly
Center they used to have anarcade at the top.
You know like my friends wouldget looked at differently or
whether they get, you know,followed around stores and so
that that shaped how you know Ilike in school we're taught, oh,
we're all equal and all of that, but then I would see it played

(20:00):
out differently and my friendswere telling me different.
So you know it started withthat.
I went to music school.
Out of high school I went toUSC.
I was a studio jazz guitarmajor, as you do.
Yes, I do.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
So you're unemployed, yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
And I actually you know, I dropped out of school
ago be a rock star, so you knowas we do we don't know how that
goes.
Yeah, but I started takingsociology and anthropology
classes while I was there and Iwas always fascinated with
societies and how do we havesocieties that work and why do
things not work?
And we were learning about atthe time they called it

(20:38):
structural racism, not systemic,but structural racism, at the
same time as the Rodney Kingbeating and the LA riots.
So I'm seeing it played out asI'm learning about it.
So then, fast forward.
You know, like I said, keep itshort.
You know, as in the musicbusiness, I got into filmmaking.
I started doing conflictresolution because I was always
fascinated with bringing peopletogether and listening and

(21:01):
getting people to hear otherpeople's learned experiences and
teaching people how to listen.
For that, because when we dothat, the stuff that divides us
kind of melts away and we canreally connect.
And so, pre pandemic, I wastraveling doing doing conflict
resolution for corporations andcolleges.
Pandemic happens, can't goanywhere sitting around.

(21:24):
I decided to go back to schooland so I went into a master's in
public administration program,figuring that I was done with
the entertainment business and Iwanted to get into government
or politics or policy makingwhere I could use my privilege
and access to help supportsocial movements.
And I was applying all of thecoursework to the issues with

(21:46):
policing, incarceration, postGeorge Floyd and all of that.
And so when it came time to domy final thesis, one of my
academic advisors was like weknow you can write a paper, but
we know that you used to makefilms.
Why don't you do somethingcreative and do a documentary?
And I was like that's a lot ofwork.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, that's a whole lot of work, you know and she
was like, well, you know, itcould be like 10 minutes or
something, and I'm like I can'tcover this in 10 minutes, no,
and she was like we'll do itanyway and I think I just needed
that little push.
Yeah, because I hadn't.
I didn't scripted before, butnot documentary.
And so, yeah, I took, I took myiPhone and I interviewed 10
people and including thedistrict attorney of LA County

(22:30):
and mental health professionalsand activists and former LAPD
officer and Dr Joe Moran.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah.
Because I remember with ties tothe Watts profits and stuff
like that.
It was really nice to see thatperspective.
Yeah, yeah, and the film.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, I wanted it to be.
I wanted a variety ofviewpoints so people couldn't
say, oh, it's just a bunch ofactivists, you know, or
something like that.
And so I made this film as astudent project, turned it in
and got an A.
And then I showed it to somepeople, actually at Jody Armors
house, and they're like this isreally good.
You need to, like, you know,change this up, you know, expand

(23:08):
on it.
I'm not a graphics guy, youknow, but stuff like that.
And so I hired somebody to doall the graphics and tighten up
the edit and mix it and wepremiered in February 2023 at
the San Pedro Film Festival,packed house, and it just kind
of taken off from there.
We've been doing screenings allacross the country impact

(23:29):
screenings, film festivals andall of that.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
The film is fantastic and one of the reasons we
talked off camera, one of thereasons why I was so inspired to
have you down and to talk toyou, is because the sort of
impetus for slap in general, ourstudio here and everything kind
of came from a sort ofhelplessness that I felt in the

(23:53):
pandemic.
During the pandemic, likeeverybody you know, the George
Floyd situation was a tectonicshift in some ways.
But, as an artist, weimmediately, as artists, we
immediately went into what wealways do, which is okay, let's,
let's funnel this into our art.
So we made music and videosabout it and everything, and we

(24:14):
were, you know, put it out andkind of this.
We felt like this was ourcontribution back and yet we
caught so much shit for it.
We were immediately, we wereanti police, immediately, it was
the.
It was how the sort of quoteunquote, defund, the police
thing got manipulated from a PRstandpoint and I was like, okay,

(24:34):
well, the next time thishappens and it will, it's going
to happen again.
We can't tweet our way out ofit.
And it, you know you, with thesame, with your iPhone, went out
and have kind of.
You know you got up into a lotof stuff and I was.
I was just really, reallyimpressed by it because I think
we do need to figure out there'sso much money in in it from a

(24:57):
union standpoint that'scontrolling it.
That you know.
Usually we're pro union hereuntil it gets to then the police
unions, you know, becausethey're so over militarized and
everything.
What is, what is your fromdoing the film?
What is the kind of biggesttake that you've got?
That is, that is the biggestchallenge that you think we're
facing in trying to reimaginehow we treat safety in our

(25:20):
communities.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
I mean, the biggest thing is really all the, all the
ways that we other people like,we as people, we find ways to
be like, oh, we're not like them, or oh, they're the bad ones,
were the good ones, and that youknow everybody's like, oh,
we're the good ones.
That's the hardest thing, Ithink, to push through, because
even you know you're talkingabout unions, right, so we have,

(25:42):
you know, the writer strikesbeen going on for 100 plus days,
years.
Yeah, yeah, you know that's 100years war.
Yeah, you know the actor strikeand, and you know, online I see
a lot of people being like, oh,they're just prima donnas, oh,
they get.
You know who get a real job,learn to.
You know, hang drywall orwhatever you know.
And so even the people that aresupplying entertainment.

(26:03):
You know I have a have a cousinwho's a very, very, very
successful plumber, who you knowwas was trying to say that
people in film you know I'venever worked a hard day's work
in their life and it's like,yeah, come hang out 17-hour day
in.
You know the hundred degreeweather.
Yeah, under a tent, yeah, youknow.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
Underwater, underwater, well now, yeah,
right, yeah.
So also, too, I think that oneof the things I loved about your
film was that it utilized theplay on words of Reimagining,
redoing, etc.
Because I feel that once youput the label of defund the

(26:48):
police on the situation, youmade Upper middle-class white
people nervous, so People didn'tunderstand what was being asked
for when they were asking forthe things through defunding the
police, and really what itseemed Like what they were
asking for was a reallocation offunds.

(27:10):
Yeah, and I feel like if theybut you can't say reallocating
the funds of the police, itdoesn't have the same commercial
glow yeah so one of the thingsI would love to get into is the
there is so much backlashagainst the defund the police
argument and there's so muchbacklash against the cities that

(27:32):
have done so because they seemto To the untrained.
I present a poor example ofwhat defunding the police can do
.
How do we change the attitudesof people to want to reallocate
funding in a police department?
Because I think it goes down tothat same psychology of you

(27:53):
saying about people thinkingthat the actors and writers who
are striking or prima donnaslike no, there's an issue,
there's a crisis.
And when you break it down andtell people like no, this is
what you used to get and this iswhy it's not a living wage.
It almost seems like you haveto sit somebody down and disrupt
their consciousness.
So how do we begin to do that?

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, that's a great question and it comes up every
time.
You know, when we do thecommunity impact screenings,
there's always always somebodywho says yeah, but can we call
it something else besides defundRight?
Because it has been, like youwere saying, polarized and you
know like instantly, instantly.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
I can use this, but it was almost like it was you,
almost it felt like the minuteyou said that word you wanted it
to be polarizing.
Because the minute you saysomething like that, especially
against the you know thin bluewall, you know blue lives matter
type situation, how could itnot be Polarizing?

Speaker 1 (28:50):
yeah, and it came out of protest movements and it was
part of the Black Panthers10-point plan, which you know
how.
How I grew up learning aboutthe Black Panthers was that they
, oh they were this violent, youknow terrorist organization.
And then I saw this documentaryon them, you know, a few years
back, and it was like, oh no,they're, they were community

(29:11):
resistance, community resistance.
They fed the kids.
They were, you know, keepingeach other safe from police
violence.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, you know, the best parties of all, yeah, all
the panthers don't realize thatthe Crip organization came out
good.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
The Crips were community resistance In progress
, so they were.
Look, that was what they weredesigned to do.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, that's that.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
That was the initial gang initiation of the Crips.
They were an organizationcalled Community resistance in
progress, so you would reportany incidents of police violence
, any incidents of Violenceagainst people in your community
.
That was what, initially, theCrips were designed to do and
Over time, blue, yeah, it became.

(29:55):
Yeah, yeah.
You know all the it became whatit became.
But initially, many of thesegroups that have been demonized
in the public eyes started outas community resistance groups.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I just just getting back to your question about
defund, one of the things hasbeen really that I'm really
proud of with this film is thatI have friends who are white
liberal women you know Whiteliberal men but who see the film
and they're like, oh, I wasafraid of defund the police.
Now I understand what it is, andthen, though, they've gone and

(30:28):
had conversations with theirfamily members, so that's been
great.
I think you know what.
Actually, there was somebodywho worked in politics at one of
our screenings, I think in SanJose.
You know who was like oh,democrats lost all these
elections because of defund, weneed to change the title.
And there were some blackactivists there who were like no

(30:49):
, we don't need to change thetitle, this is what it is, and
and it clicked for me that youknow, on the right, their
messaging is so like they justdig in and this is our message
and this is what it is, and youknow, fuck you, you know this
one, and we need that on theleft, and not only do we need
that, but I don't think thatenough of the people in

(31:11):
leadership, in on the politicsside, you know, are educated
enough as to what it, because ifI was holding office and that
came up in a debate, I will, yes, absolutely.
We mean defund the police, fundthe communities, you know, fund
the people.
This people need resources.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
They only.
The only pushback I would haveon that is the defund from a
from a from a marketingperspective Implies to most
people take all the money awayand so it's an easy sell on Fox
News when they're like okay,enjoy your fucking.
You know, enjoy the underfundedpolice.
Yeah, not the police notshowing up when you have your
next problem and it's like butwhat we're looking at is

(31:50):
demilitarizing the police.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Hey, looking at that's a different yeah and
that's a different, that's ahorse of a different color.
Yeah, it also, I think, shouldbe pointed out that Police go
through what?
Three months of training.
I just don't think that they'reWell first enough to be police
people.
Like every other country.
You have to be go throughrigorous training and you learn

(32:13):
Policing de-escalationtechniques that don't involve
weaponry.
Yeah so it looks like, and Ialso Think that when you say the
defund part, when you look atwhat police people have, a lot
of times they don't have accessto the right equipment.
You know they don't have accessto Up-to-date computer-ized

(32:38):
equipment.
So I've seen instances wherepeople got sent to the wrong
house just because the computersand the Vehicles didn't work
properly.
So that's when you startlooking at oh, defunding the
police means that you're takingaway these resources.
I'm like, no, if we mayberefunded Actual resources that

(33:00):
weren't military, you know gradeweaponry, maybe we'd be getting
yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Well, so Maryam Kaba talks about police abolition and
what she says is you know,we're not talking about cutting
off all the resources tomorrow.
Actually, it's said in the filmby a couple people.
Yeah, I thought about you knowwe're cutting it off tomorrow
and you know, good luck toeverybody.
You're all on your own.
See you later.
We're talking.
You know Maryam Kaba talksabout Coming to a place where

(33:28):
police are obsolete.
So by funding communities, byhaving housing, education, jobs,
food you know all the thingsthat, when you don't have them,
lead to crime and this is, youknow, shown statistically.
When those things aren't, whenyou have those things, when
those needs are met, then crimegoes down and then you don't

(33:50):
need as many police officers,you don't need the militarized
Police, you know.
So that's that's.
That's one part in the film.
Dr L Jones, who's in Halifax,wrote a commissioned report
that's 200 pages on defundingthe police and they actually
Termed it detasking so takingtasks away, so not having police

(34:10):
show up at mental health callswith so many tasks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah things thatthey're not trained for, like
you were saying, right, and thething is, you know, years ago,
before I kind of ended up in,you know, the abolitionist space
, I participated in role-playingactivities tell me more with
the With with the LA CountySheriff's Department.

(34:34):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
And so hey, they can party, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
But it was interesting, you know, cuz I was
.
I, you know they neededvolunteers so that the, the
Could recruits, you know, couldpractice, yeah.
And so the reality is, on theaverage across the country,
police Academy spends 60 hourson Firearms training, shooting,
and only eight hours ofde-escalation, and so they're

(35:00):
taught to command and controlthe mindset that they're that
Drilled into him is when youwalk into a space, you're the
one in charge.
People need to listen to you,you know.
And if somebody pushes back,you know, the way that they
prove themselves is they have tofight or arrest somebody, or
right, you know.
Right tickets make a rest.
So it's all like.
None of that is about servingthe community and de-escalating

(35:24):
and taking care of people likethat.
There's a former police officerin the film, you know.
I asked her, I said you're notreally taught how to, how to
talk to people, and she's likeno yeah, you know it's not their
job to be Psychiatrists or Imean you're not trained.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
In a lot of situations we have such a mental
health issue here, like, forexample, especially in Los
Angeles, that you know I'vearound my house.
I actually have seen the policedeal with, you know, the mental
health issues of some of thehomeless in a way that is
actually it's been impressive.
I don't know if you know how LAfares in that or whatever, but

(36:01):
I can't imagine from the policethat I have talked to and the
police that are friends of mineand everything they don't.
A lot of times they don't.
That's not what they.
They don't want to be in chargeof that.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
They'd rather somebody that is, you know,
higher more more qualified to dothat kind of stuff, because
that must be scary, exactly likeyou would.
Yeah, it's just right and wedon't I mean to their credit.
I don't think that we Giveenough empathy to Empathy to
police officers in thosesituations, especially because
they don't have the training.

(36:31):
Sure, nine times out of ten todeal with it, that must be very,
very frightening.
So it's one of those thingswhere sometimes I feel like the
defund, the police aspect of ityou get blowback because it
makes by by saying we wantpolice obsolescence, you're also
saying that you want to takeaway Certain jobs you're yeah.

(36:53):
And a certain Cemented a lifethat comes from having that kind
of a government job.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, totally so.
They make a lot of money.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but theymake a lot of money.
Eventually, like when they comeout of the academy, they don't
make a lot of money, and I thinkpart of the problem is a lot of
these people are beingTransferred to areas that they

(37:14):
don't know anything about yeah,that they can't afford to live
in, and so they don't knowanything about these Communities
, and then they're being askedto protect and serve these
communities that they knownothing about.
So I think that you're gettingmore instances of violence due
to lack of awareness and justpure ignorance that Institutes

(37:35):
fear Mm-hmm.
So I just feel like in some waywe have to find a bridge of
Instilling community values backinto the police department,
because I was talking to afriend of mine Whose dad was a
policeman and he said you know,back in the day he said I was a
policeman in the 80s and 90s andI retired and like right around
early 2000.

(37:56):
But I served this part of SouthCentral and this part of Venice
and I knew all the gang leaders,I knew all the community
activists, I knew all the drugdealers, I know who to talk to
when things got spicy and Icould make change.
But now I don't feel like youhave that with your police and
they're almost encouraged not todo that.

(38:17):
So what do we feel like?
I know that there's so manyperspectives in the film that
show that part of this issuecomes from an underlying
psychological instillment ofanti-blackness.
So can you talk a little bitabout that and what that
underlying factor means and whyit's hard to combat?

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, I mean that's.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, it was a big question.
Unconscious bias, right?

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, unconscious bias you can't train your Dr
Jody Armour, yeah, you can'ttrain your way out of
unconscious anti-black bias.
It's woven in.
And, as a filmmaker, lookingback at the movies and TV I was
raised with and how black peopleare often portrayed, like the
movie Hollywood Shuffle, it'slike oh, I'm either a slave or a
drug dealer or a pimp, or apimp Shout out to pimps, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
You killed in my own youths brother.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
You killed in my own youths, brother, we're
socialized most of us but as awhite male, like we're
socialized to see black peopleas dangerous, I remember being
in second grade and theelementary school I went to was

(39:32):
75% black and most of those kidswere bused in from South
Central around there and so itwas always like, oh, they get
into fights more because it's arougher neighborhood.
There was no awareness orconversation about no, it's a
community that's underserved.
They don't have resources.
They gotta sit on a bus forhowever long, wake up early, be

(39:54):
here in this environment, goback there.
Who knows what's up with theparents?
Like, my dad taught elementaryschool in South Central, also
for a number of years.
So we have this socialized waythat we look at who are the
others, what are the dangerouscommunities, what are this and

(40:17):
that, and then we just and it'seasy to write them off.
So how do we combat that?
I mean, I think with post GeorgeFloyd, but I think even before
that there was a lot moreinterest in anti-racism and

(40:38):
people reading books or bookclubs and then taking courses.
I know, like I started takingcourses around 2017, 18 that
were specifically on anti-racismand decolonizing, and one of my
teachers, reverend BridgeFeltas, has a course called Heal
Thyself for People Racializedas White.
Where we go through like theseare all the ways that we've been

(40:59):
socialized to lack empathy forblack people, to see black
people as the others.
This is how it's affected blackpeople, like the generational
trauma through slavery andreconstruction and Jim Crow and
like all of that, and so it'seducation the right kind of

(41:19):
education.
Yeah, the right kind ofeducation, teaching people how
to be empathetic.
I think that's a big missing.
I think that's also part ofwhat's caused us to.
You know, like if cops back inthe day were more like involved
in the community, there wasprobably a sense of empathy
there to some extent.
That's not there, like I'll aska cop you know I have asked in

(41:43):
the past that cops fordirections.
I don't really talk to themanymore, but you know you just
get this like flat stone facelike you know, I'm like oh, how
do I get to the?
oh, you go down there, and yougo down there and you do.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
I actually had.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Okay.
So I grew up.
I was born in Long Beach, Igrew up in Wasen, south Central,
and then, when I was 11, wemoved to Hancock Park.
But I grew up seeing you knowslews of gang members with ties
on their hands, or not even gangmembers, just black men because
they had on raider caps, likebeing just zip tied, and I grew

(42:21):
up with this.
So I grew up.
I remember they shot my neighborbecause they had the wrong
address Johnny Cochran actuallyrepresented the family because
they shot him like 47 times.
I remember when my great uncleand great aunt were alive there
was some kind of shooting thathappened two blocks away and

(42:41):
they arrested every black manwithin a five block radius and
at the time my great uncle wasin his late 70s.
So I grew up with this image ofbeing completely petrified by
policemen.
And a couple of weeks ago I wasin downtown and there's one
stretch of downtown near FirstStreet where all of the federal
buildings are, where thosemeters are like $9 an hour or

(43:03):
something like ridiculous, andthey don't take cards.
So I'm sitting there, I had torun in some paperwork to one of
the federal buildings.
I'm like great, I've literallyput in $5 worth of quarters and
that gave me 10 minutes and I'mjust like it's gonna take me
that long, whatever.
And this man taps me behind myshoulder and it was a cop and I
was terrified immediately.
Like I was.

(43:23):
Immediately.
I was like I didn't do anythingwrong.
I would do that.
He was like, ma'am, these metersare the worst.
And he literally took outquarters from his own pocket and
started putting them in themeter and he was like that
should give you like 25 minutes.
You need more than that.
Just let me know.
And I was like and I had to stophim and say, listen, I am from
here and I have grown up with abias and fear of policemen my

(43:46):
whole life.
And the fact that this justhappened and that you were nice
like single-handedly trying tobe out here changing folks' mind
, but the immediate terror thatI felt by this man tapping me on
the shoulder because thathasn't been the case with so
many police encounters that Ipersonally have had, and I know

(44:08):
that there are good cops outthere and they must be
frustrated I wonder what we tellcops that don't wanna have that
stigma attached to them to do.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Well, I think, like in the same way that white
people have a lot ofresponsibility in dismantling
racism, whoever the good copsare have a responsibility in
really understanding the impactof the culture of policing.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
That's a great point.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
And what policing represents, and we were talking
about funding and that sort ofthing.
Like the reality is, nobody'sbeen defunded.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
The they have more money.
Yeah, they've been overmilitarized.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
They're over militarized consistently and
Gina Viola says this in the filmthe budget for LAPD has grown
50% in the last 10 years, andbetween LAPD and the Sheriff's
Department, we're spending over$7 billion a year.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Now, is that the sorry to cut you off, but is
that the unions now just have?
So they know?
This is cause I remember seeingsome documentaries that, like
you know, you have a quota forthe DEA, which is why it's this
ridiculous war.
Right, it's like, and whatyou're finding from the film,
that the sort of kink in thewheel is the unions, the

(45:33):
allocation of those funds.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
We didn't really get into the union part of it.
You know, I know that theunions are lobbying, you know,
for more money and for moreprotections and all of that,
whereas you know everybody elsewant more transparency and want
resources to communities andthat sort of thing, and so that
wasn't really discussed in thefilm, although I've had

(45:56):
discussions, you know, outsidethe film.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
That also seems like it'd be its own film.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause there's a, there's an
aspect when you actually realizethat, okay, we did something
during the pandemic where wewent to South Carolina, we shot
this.
It was on this, the site of theCain Hoy riot, which was the
largest race riot inreconstruction and you start to

(46:23):
see almost the genesis post theEmancipation Proclamation of
okay, well, we'll just move thisform of slavery I think this is
Eva DuVernay's point in herdocumentary and everything but
we'll just move this form ofslavery into incarceration of
the black male and sort ofdestructuring the black family
unit which you know, in a waythat that's this, that's this
giant systemic problem.

(46:43):
But, as we've kind of gone onnow to your point earlier, if
it's not, if they're not finding, you know, getting in the
community with people that livein the community and get to know
people and can kind of solvethese problems and everything,
how do how?
What was your finding?
Or what do you think is thesort of way to get at?
If you have almost a baked insort of thing, the system is

(47:10):
baked in and once you, onceyou're incarcerated black male,
it's almost impossible to getout.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
And you talk about that in the film.
You talk about how there werede-incarceration programs that
were effective.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Super effective.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
And working very, very well.
It almost seems like the minuteprisons became privatized, that
went away.
So is that the cause, or whatis the cause, behind those
programs being destroyed?
I mean?

Speaker 1 (47:37):
you know if we're gonna be real and accurate.
The cause is money, economics.
The cause is capitalism.
There's a financial incentiveto locking people up and keeping
people locked up, because youknow either the private prisons
are making money or that youknow.
Ava Divernade talks about thisin 13th.

(47:58):
You know almost free,practically free, labor.
So, it's like the newinstitution of slavery is prison
.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
You know I don't know if you've ever seen when Donald
Glover hosted Saturday NightLive.
He did this great skit aboutthat where he showed all of
these.
They're like killers and gangbangers, but they're all working
in prison at a call center.
So they're like yeah, Imurdered three people.
Hello, welcome to Victoria's.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Secret.
How can I process your orderbut?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
that's really true.
Almost all the call centers foralmost every major retail brand
.
That's crazy.
Go through process, Wow yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
I mean, I loved the point about how it's kind of
easy when you look at it on adollars and cents standpoint.
It's $300 a day, I think theysaid in the film to incarcerate
someone, and it's $125 a day toactually have a full housing
rehab and give somebody a handup for a job or a way Make them
more functional?
members yeah, Like, why would wenot do that?

(48:58):
And is it just when you saymoney?
Is it just that?
What's the way out of that?
Do we just have to?
Is it legislative andlegislative only, or I?

Speaker 1 (49:08):
think it's a collective where enough people
have to say no more, yeah, we'renot gonna put up with this
anymore.
And you were talking about thegood cops, or the cops that do
good things at times.
And one of the issues is that,as Alex Vitale says in the film,

(49:30):
police are violence workers atthe core of, like.
Their base job is to handlepeople, and whether it's you
know violently, or violently ornot violently.
But if you don't comply, itbecomes violent.
So there might be individualswho are doing good things and

(49:52):
trying to change things, and thepolice as a whole, the
institution of policing, theculture of policing, has a very
negative impact, especially onblack and brown communities.
So with that, with theknowledge that there are people
who are getting rich off of theway things are and they're not
gonna give up their money orpower, I think enough of the

(50:16):
working class has to be likeyeah, no more, we're not doing
this anymore.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Yeah, it seems like you have to shame.
The more you publicly shamethose kinds of people into not
wanting to do that kind ofbehavior, then the behavior
doesn't become profitableanymore and they switch to
something else.
But it's getting that initialpush to happen and that just
seems like it's its own quagmire.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, and going back to the whole messaging thing,
it's like whatever message thatgets put out, there's gonna be a
swift like even the whole CRTthing.
Like I was literally readingKimberly Crenshaw's paper on
intersectionality, thinking wow,this is amazing.
I love this, everybody shouldread it.
And then, two days later, likeCRT, is teaching our

(51:05):
kindergartners to hatethemselves for being white, no,
no.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
No, it's not what it is, but I also feel like that
happens because these peopledon't read these papers.
They make this assumption aboutthis, and then it's very easy
to make an assumption aboutsomething you know nothing about
.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Well, like so the cousin of mine who's the
successful plumber.
He grew up in the valley and atone point recently, like within
the last five or six years, hewas ranting about affirmative
action.
He was like, because of that Icouldn't be in the fire
department because they had aquota or something.
And I'm like, yeah, but youhave this like major plumbing

(51:47):
business because you didn'tbecome a firefighter, you know.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
And so there's always this the affirmative action
thing is tough for me because Iknow for college everybody
assumed that I got into collegebecause of affirmative action
and I'm like, yeah, affirmativeaction mostly helps white women
and they were the biggestproponents against it.
But the single largest groupthat has helped by affirmative

(52:13):
action in university inworkforce period is white women.
So the fact that this alwaysgets turned around on black and
brown, people is veryinfuriating because it couldn't
be further from the truth andit's easily verified.
That's a part.
I'm like you came up with thisbias because somebody said these

(52:36):
black people got into collegebecause of affirmative action.
That is not the case, and thefact that anybody can use that
and have it come out of theirmouth as an excuse for why they
didn't get something is crazy tome.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Do you have a sense of hope, or do you have a sense
of sort of feeling like, becauseI know we just shift from one
industrial complex to anotherthe pharmaceutical industrial,
the military, and then now it'sthe incarceration complex and do
you have a sense of sort ofhope on where a movement is

(53:11):
going or possible in areimagining, safety in a post
George Floyd?

Speaker 1 (53:16):
world.
I do now.
I didn't.
Like a year ago, when I wasworking on the documentary,
actually, chelsea Byers, who's aWest Hollywood city council
person she was just electedAbout a year ago we were having
lunch and she asked me she'slike, do you have hope?
And I had to think about it,because usually, like up until

(53:38):
2020, even with everything goingon I had a lot of faith in
humanity and in people.
And then seeing how peoplereacted to COVID and not
believing it and all of that,and then George Floyd and then
January 6th all of it.

(53:59):
It was like, wow, we're actuallynot doing well.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Yeah, yeah, it just seemed like for a minute
humanity just went from trippingto a full vacation for like
four years.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Who was in charge in the White House at the most of
the time?

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Yeah, but even before that it's still.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
It just seemed like the floodgates of sort of the oh
, I don't have to be closetedabout my racism anymore.
As a matter of fact, I can runstrongly on it and win the
Republican primary and I supposethat is.
That's part of the systemicissue, that's part of the
empathy issue, that's part ofthe education part, right, but

(54:37):
is the hope, with the moneythat's out there, that's already
out there for a verymilitarized police force and I
love, I got a lot of friendswith her policemen, I am very,
I'm pro police I'm just tryingto figure out, like, what is the
bottleneck in the systemicbreakdown on how there's all
this money?
Like you said, the LA policeunion is asking for more money.

(55:00):
What you know, did they needmore money for more bodies
Because with $7 billion youshould be able to do some stuff.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Yeah, I mean, it's more money just for more money,
because somebody's getting,somebody's getting it Because
somebody's getting it, it'sprobably not even being
allocated to your foot soldiers.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
It's going to superintendents and
commissioners.
A lot of cops are.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
I mean, they're making six figures.
They're making $200,000 a yearand up, plus pension and all of
that, like a lot of people don'trealize that.
But getting back to your hopequestion, I do have hope and the
thing that's been helpful forme is traveling around the
country and when we do thesecommunity screenings and we have
, you know, we do panels withlocal leaders and there's a

(55:44):
community and people areinvolved, like they get inspired
and a lot of times there's likea several different
organizations will come togetherto host a screening and then
they're building strongercoalitions with each other.
And so you know it's a longhaul and they even say this in
the film.
It's, you know it's not goingto happen in our lifetime, and

(56:07):
people are coming together and Isee people's mindsets, you know
changing, you know, in positiveways, I think you know also,
you know talking about Trump andeverything it became, you know,
economically fortuitous, to bemean.

(56:27):
Like being mean like and I thinkthat started with, you know,
with Twitter also but like, likeall the reality TV shows that
you know we had the Nat Jerry.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Springers and the Norris and the Siamese, all of
that.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
It's like, yeah, you know, and so, like it it's
become, you know, a way to youknow, move up the social ladder
is by being mean, and so we haveto, I think, combat that.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
And normalize, being kind yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
I love the way the film kind of closed with it's
not radical to defund the police.
It's radical that they havetanks, you know, and then
they've got all this and taserand lobblop this weaponry from
wars, From war.
And you know it's radical thatwe keep putting this much money

(57:14):
into a sort of an aggressivepolice Cause you basically made
them arms dealers.
Yeah, yeah, you know, but I do.
I liked that because it made methink differently.
Already I was like, actually,yeah, that's not radical.
You know what's radical wouldbe to.
You know that's radical havinggiven them all this heavy

(57:35):
artillery and given them, youknow, the license.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Batterams and what's that?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (57:39):
batterams and stuff like that, and so I mean, it's
something like I forget theexact number it's around like
1,100 people were murdered bythe police last year, you know,
and that's with the budgetsincreasing.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Three a day.
Yeah, that's crazy, that'scrazy.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
So how do we get more eyes to your film?
Because it seems like thetakeaway I have is that dialogue
, and specifically dialoguewithin different communities,
gets at ball rolling, and itseems like your film does a
wonderful job.

(58:13):
I, having seen it, think thatyour film does a wonderful job
of evoking some of thesequestions in a way that makes a
person not just think, but thinkcritically.
So how do we get more eyes tosee this?

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Yeah, well, thank you for that.
So we're actually we weretalking to some distributors, so
I'm hoping that in the next fewmonths it will be released on
platforms.
In the meantime,reimaginingsafetymoviecom is the
website and reimagining safetymovie is our Instagram account

(58:53):
and you can go there.
There's trailers, there'sinformation about the film.
We have like seven screeningscoming up so far September,
october.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Okay, and we can list those screenings and on show
notes for as long as possibleand all over like.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
We're in Goddard College in Vermont, we're
Seattle and Tacoma, washington,hosted by the Black Panther
Party Washington State up there.
So all over.
And if you're listening and youwanna host a community
screening in your community, youcan reach me through the
website and there's my emailthere and we'll set something up
.

(59:27):
And that's what we've been doing.
Over a thousand people haveseen the film since February and
over 40 different organizationshave worked together to host
those screenings.
And there's demand for more andpeople are always like, where
can I see it again?
Or work and I tell my friendsto go see it, and so that's been
really.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
It's real.
I love how it's real and to thepoint, and yet it feels like
it's much needed.
So the film is calledReimagining Safety in a
Post-Jourge Floyd World.
Matthew, thank you so much forcoming on down and talking with
us.
Please keep us posted oneverything that's going on with
it and let us know how we canhelp in the future too.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
Yeah, thank you Also.
I love that your zigzag madecommunity change.
Yeah, that's pretty dope.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Oh, through like my life.
Yeah, no right, that's dope.
Yeah, cause I always say if youthink about it it doesn't make
sense.
But if you kind of take a stepback, it's like oh, I can see
how that feels.
Wow that yeah.
I think that's really dope andnone of it was planned, except
that I wanted to be a rock starout of high school and I was in
music.
But then, like, film wasn'tplanned, conflict resolution

(01:00:33):
wasn't planned, making thiscertainly wasn't planned Like I
thought I was done with film.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Like I said, we were smart to stay out of music.
I love music.
It's ruined my life.
It's great.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Oh yeah, I mean I have a lot.
I break up with music likeevery other day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Every other day, every other day it's like my
weird abusive boyfriend.
Right, right, I can't quit you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
I can't quit you.
It's my broke back mountain.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Hey well, thank you again, Matthew.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thank you, my pleasure thanks, all right, all
right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Wasn't that good, it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
I mean, I learned so much and I you know the film.
I just love a film like that,that is not afraid.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Plus, matthew was so even keeled and articulate about
subjects in a way that I thinkis really powerful, because it
just comes off as diplomatic,almost.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yes, yes, no, amen.
And so make sure to check ourshow notes.
We'll have all the informationon how to get ahold of checking
out the movie and anything likethat.
And if you are a distributor,by the way, hit us up at
HalaInfo, at slapmusicmediacom,we'll try and help the guy out
with a distribution deal.
Well, before we go, we're gonnado part of this new segment

(01:01:37):
we're calling tour stories.
Wow, and Maya, what do you gottoday for your tour story?
These horror tour stories?

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
This tour horror story is brought to you by a
rock band that I cannot name,because if you saw our previous
episode, you will know that yourgirl performs for multiple
people in which she has to signhefty NDAs to keep her job.
So this rock band was nodifferent and it was when I
first started back up singingand I was very excited to get

(01:02:10):
the gig.
We were playing at a hugestadium and the lead singer is
also an actor Make of that whatyou will and he sometimes thinks
that he's Jesus.
Make of that what you will.
So at this very large venue.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
That's limiting it.
I'm trying to guess.
I know the people you've beenout with.
I'm trying to think, but goahead.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
So he comes out in a fur coat, no shirt, pants, boots
and a cowboy hat and he tellsthe audience do you love me?
And of course they say yes.
He says do you love me?

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
And of course he says yes.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Now he is on a platform because we are in a
stadium and there is a cage andthere's 20 bodyguards that are
very, very burly.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
And he says if you love me, bless me with your spit
.
Oh my God.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Oh my God, oh my God.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
The entire stadium of people spit on 20, I would say
black guys.
I'm just gonna go on.
You know what and I don'tremember there being a white guy
there they spit on 20 blackguys that look like the size of
escalades, in security officerjackets, and then a riot ensued
and then we had to leave.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Oh my God, that is definitely a tour story.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
I had to flee for my life.
Thank you, holy shit Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Bless me, bless you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
You're spit, bless me with your that's, that's,
that's all right, I mine.
This tour story for this showis actually a funny one, and it
is funny because it is.
I used to.
I used to say all the time I'vegot no limit soldier tattooed
on the bottom of my feet too,because when you're in this game
, you just don't know, you don'tknow how to quit, like we don't

(01:04:03):
we, we don't know when to stop,we, we just we work, we're
workaholics.
We, every day, any day thatends in Hawaii is a workday.
We were our manager shout outto Doc McGee, dear, dear, dear
friend and our former manager,one of the greatest managers of
all time.
We were staying in Nashville andwe had our first show was in
Memphis, and so we at the timewe didn't have a tour bus or

(01:04:27):
anything.
This, this was, this wasvintage trouble, so it's, I'll
say that because it's even morefunny.
So we were in a Sprinter vanand we got maybe.
We were so excited.
We're like, why don't we to?
Memphis is gonna be fuckinggreat.
We got a gig this night.
It's gonna be really, reallycool.
We were Shlepping our own gearand everything and we're in the
Sprinter and we leave town.
We get about 10 minutes outsideof town and the fucking this,

(01:04:49):
the Sprinter breaks down.
Of course, yeah, yeah, andwe're like, okay, and it's hot
as fuck and why okay?
So finally we wait, we get it.
We get a tow truck and the wayI forget how it got broken up,
but I want to say Ty and I rodein the tow truck and then we had
somebody else who was, who hadgotten a car, who was gonna
drive in a car and put everybodyelse in that, and so the tow

(01:05:11):
truck drives us to Memphisbecause we have to make the gig
on time, right?
No matter what happens, the vancan break down.
You got it you know, the showmust go on, it does not stop.
And so we get.
It was like man, we're, are wegonna make it?
And we're hustling, we'rehustling and it's.
You know, I'm in a tow truck.
We pull up to the gig in a towtruck and it is a dive bar.

(01:05:34):
It is a crazy car, they're justthe smallest dive bar.
We get out and it's about timefor us to play and no one and I
mean no one is there, zero.
And so we play the gig and Allof a sudden there's these two
people to come in and we're likewe got, we've got two people

(01:05:55):
that are, you know, they'rewatching the show and this is
great, but they have this giantwolf with them.
Not a wolf, a wolf, a real wolf, that.
So it's two people, a giant wolfand vintage trouble in this
game playing the wolf comes upon stage, sits down and just
chills and a wolf will do.
And so you know we, we finishour set and it's all done.

(01:06:17):
Come to find out we wereopening up for those two people.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
No, you were not.
We were opening up for the wolfpeople.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yeah, we were looking up.
So these two people I think Iwant to say was either boyfriend
, girlfriend or a brother,sister band, and then they had a
wolf.
That was part of the stageaccoutrement, because the the
wolf was was part of the backline.
The wolf just sat up on stage.
We're like are you gonna givethem like ear earphones or
something like that?
You know, but now the wolf wasjust it, you know into it.
Listen, it's so tow truck rideto a gig and a wolf on stage.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
You know you can that time you opened for a wolf?

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
That time we opened for a wolf and it's not a step
in well, no, no, no, no.
So Thank you guys, as always,for listening.
Make sure to reach out if youhave any questions, any kind of
shows you want to hear about.
You know, we always, alwayslook forward to your comments
and we will see you next week.
Slap the power.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Slap the power is written and produced by Rick
Barrio, associate producer threeCorey audio and visual
engineering and studiofacilities provided by slap
studios LA, with Distributionthrough our collective home for
social progress in art, slap thenetwork.
If you have any ideas for ashow you want to see or if you

(01:07:32):
would like to be a guest artiston our show, please email us at
info at slap the powercom.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

3. Dateline NBC

3. Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.