What Can Be Done? | Ep. 047 Lemonade Stand 🍋

I mean, there's some big news in web there. We're talking about what's going on in a couple major cities

“And you flew out to Baltimore into interview with the mayor there, which I think is really cool. And we weren't talking about that”

however in the past week You know as was going on with America in the past all of January another major event came up Alex Preddy was shot and killed by ice agents in Minneapolis, and I think we did just talk about it It's something like deserves giving some time. So I got a little presentation here There's some angles where to take on and there's somebody to say but just know that we you know

There's more of the episode and we're kind of focusing on this for now. So I think I'm missing what we know. I think that's that's we can get into it I think we all have a little bit on it. I mean, I It's one of those things That it feels almost impossible to not say anything about I've been mulling over my feelings and what I want to say about it

This you know the past few days. It's been really on my mind But if you don't mind

“Yeah, I think you had you had kind of the direction you wanted to go in first and”

Yeah, you got me super heated and so I made like a 70-slide PowerPoint I was gonna make a big a clip and then you know it's supposed to be my month off and my editors did take a real vacation And I can't just ask them to fly back and You might so I'm not gonna do this all thing. I just want to talk about some aspects of it, you know So if you could pull up this this thing. So I'll explain it. I mean, I get it and it's interesting because we're doing this days after

A major event that you know the way of the media works now everyone has seen the video everyone's seen it Everyone's just not only talked about it, but seen every different possible taken in. We're we're we're past that So I think what's more interesting is talking about what The impacts of this might be what is the next that what's going on in America? What is this leading to? I guess just for the one person in the audience who hasn't seen it

Yeah, Ice is doing a pretty aggressive operation in manyapolis and and this person Alex Pretty was there as part of protest and There's a whole bunch that led up to it, but eventually he was Unarmed and shot in the back by ice officers. It's it's pretty graphic. There's a lot of videos I don't know where we're gonna show them here because it's a podcast, but I mean yeah, the guy is pushed to the ground Pepper sprayed in the face disarmed and then shot in the back and then shot like 10 times

Like it absurd amount of times the guy just unloads a clip in them. So on every level it's Morely wrong. It's wrong on police procedure. It's I mean, and it brings a larger question Well, I wanted to do some context of what's going on going into this which is that in the past let's say eight to ten months ice has been given an absurd amount of extra money and and Mandate to increase it's number of agents and number of actions. So they've had this wartime recruitment push

$100 million. They've been doing ads like this American needs you choose your mission

We've been invaded by criminals and predators. We need you to get them out And they've doubled their workforce in the past like 12 months. Oh my god So they went from 10,000 to 20,000 officers the training got cut from six months to six weeks It's literally like 50 something days, you know some of which is like I don't have the specific something But some of the training is is really scanned and there's a lot of a lot of good reporting that goes into the details

And they've interviewed people that are on the thing and they're just they're noticing that the qualification standards have dropped dramatically The amount of training they have to do everything. It's it's so what we're ending up with is a decision that is made from a higher level that is leading to a lot of like I mean uneducated angry Untrained people in masks with guns out on city streets with Americans like that that is

“I guess the reason I'm bringing this context is because I have this picture here that I think”

I'm very angry about this but I'm not just angry at this guy. I think this guy's a psychopath I think this guy should be on trial from or he at the very least should not have a gun and not be

She was the first and who shot I was the guy shot him in the back. He's got like clearly

Whether he says he was afraid or not is not following procedure of of someone who has Leethel writes a force and shot a guy in the back kill him but it goes up to chain, right? So this is Greg Bavino who's like the they created our role from the Niven Exist called commander at large of ice in the area And he's basically just sent out and he's like throw into your gas and Round people up and same things. He reports into Christy Nome who's the head of Permanent Hill insecurity

Who's taking her kind of like marching orders and the idea that they need to like have quotas of like 3,000 Ice arrests a day and the idea that they should stop focusing only on people who have criminal records But just start going after people like this stuff comes from Stephen Miller who again was appointed by Trump So like there's five levels here of accountability and What I'm

Not hopeful about any of this. I'm not like it's not a good moment in American history But I do think of it as a turning point based on what I'm seeing and I think it is a

Demoted he's been demoted and sent out of Minnesota

He no longer has power and he's likely to retire as mine or something about that he's basically been soft to force that like to

Affirm up north or essentially like they're like, yeah, I said it them and again This guy was like a popular guy. They were pushing forward recently, but the backlash for this is so intense And I guess that dude. I sorry, just real quick. I I'm hung up on the six weeks of training I still can't do a layup after six weeks of trying basketball I could arrest people like gun is why you were like yeah, and you know

“I think there's an economic angle to it too, which is as we've mentioned many times”

We're not in a great economy right now for especially people when like the bottom end of the K and I used as one of the few well-funded government agencies that's hiring right now They're giving like 50,000 dollar signing bonuses, but a lot of desperate people are going into these jobs and then sent out on you know It's it's a recipe for disaster that is

Leading to exactly what it's like this is not just one lone bad actor man It's like this is a set of bad steps that is leading to disaster So anyway, Greg and Bino's out Kristi no might be out. She's cleat. She's under deep scrutiny That's because the backlash. This has been so severe and And Donald Trump is being forced to change course. I know a lot of people. I guess

one of my larger points here is that I see people when they see something as horrible as happened Going to complete despair mode and they're like nothing can change. This is horrible. It's over and I just want to say that The all the evidence is pointing the opposite people are so broadly angry about this from so many directions Including again

You'll never get every person on anything you'll never get 100% of people on anything

But that is like there's many Republicans. There are many people in power in their Republicans many center-rightening people I brought some examples here of people that I've Followed this is a guy in Moses Kagan. He's like a center-rights You know, he probably was a Trump voter and he was a guy that talked about real estate investment He's here's the guy I follow for finance reasons

He posted this and then like he's never posted political things or if he has it's been like kind of like

“Generally he said I believe what ISIS doing in Minneapolis is morally wrong and deeply on American”

I hope these people remember this episode next November I saw this guy You know, this guy says don't let politics take over your brain don't post politics because a lot of people were posting things like this I think his post was in response to this this guy goes ordinarily. I'd agree But we cross the line this past year where some of us who usually stay out of political debates can no longer do so in good conscience

We need to have some sort of majority consensus of penance position to move forward the current administration is crossing lines We don't find acceptable which I believe is the emerging consensus of a majority of Americans. I also believe this I legitimately think that this is a actually well, you know It should have been with Renee good. I don't actually see that this is so drastically different But this has clearly touched a nerve or maybe it's the fact there was two of them in such a close proximity for a lot of people

I think the backlash is intense and severe and Even Trump who's isolated and surrounded by Yesmen is noticing and backing track on a lot of stuff So Bavino's out Christy Nome is likely out of face intense grilling by the Senate If the midterms happen based on current polling. I mean he's Before this happened Donald Trump was at the unpopularity of Biden after the debate

That's where he's sitting right now like I see this as like a Biden debate moment I know you guys hated the book but this feels like a common knowledge moment. I truly feel like this Alex pretty killing is like For many people It's something where they can agree they can just be like this is too far. This is something has gone horribly wrong And immigration was his best polling thing which is still negative 11%

But prior to this immigration was Donald Trump's best issue it is now dropped to a record low after that Like he he has no issues. He's standing effectively on so Do you I even found fucking tempo?

Said empty gun then gun in the hand. He was distrunked for being shot I don't see Trump winning this one like even fucking if he's still defending it overall, but like I'm a

2A which is the second amendment absoluteness absoluteness ice-excuted innocent man that I didn't know

Okay, I just I just do not see this as something that is Difficult to find a side on for like literally the majority of people with a brain. I just think most people have landed on a Something has gone wrong here when a guy

“Is disarmed it can shot the pack industry like there's no so I think it's leading to real changes”

Next guy I want to mention this is John Mittnic this guy was appointed by Donald Trump. He was the general counsel of Department of Homeland Security in Trump's first term this guy That was just credentials and then says I'm enraged and embarrassed by DHS's lawlessness Batches him in cruelty and peach and ripped up now like the

There are people flipping damn he called to impeach Trump is he still like a Trump supporter or is he not anymore?

dog is that every almost everybody who was in Trump's first term now

It's like a single it's crazy every single person that worked with him in the first term Yeah, I think or like had an official position of some kind like walked back Support of him by the time for us Yeah, really unlike it's crazy the odds are insane Even you know Republican senators are demanding

Chrissy Nome go before the the Senate to do a testimony Paul polling on abolishing ice which in September of 24 was opposed plus 47 is now support plus three that that level of a swing in any Major issue in America is like almost unheard of like that is insane so Yeah, I just I guess I'm not as nihilistic as to think that doesn't mean anything like that that is a clearly a sea change in

American stances. There's clearly heavy anger. This is

“Something that was filmed in HD from six angle like people you have to you know, and then that's why I last thing I want to say”

About this a lot I can go on, but I think I'll just keep it this as I go through this the reason I Get so furious is not just because of this guys the actions, but Maybe this is wrong with me, but when I watch these people here Lied of me when I like that when I see Steven Miller and Judy fans reposting when they call this guy in assassin Really frustrated makes me very angry. He did not try to murder federal agents like that is to describe

Miss this is a lot everybody knows like even people on this guy side know that he's lying Like the people that are on this guy side will take the stance of like

Well, he shouldn't have been there like you know things can always get but no of them will actually take his words at face value

Which is disgusting the fact that he has a position of power and even the people that are ardent supporters of him know that he's lying But like well, he's directly right like it's crazy like and then Christy no comes out Halls him again. He also had no ID. This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at this scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement It's just a hundred percent untrue. This guy did not show up trying to kill law enforcement And the fact that these are coming out within

Minutes within minutes of a killing they're like we used to have this semblance of they would wait for an investigate You know what I'm saying like they're just they their role is to immediately no matter what defend the actions of the ice officer There's no agreed no amount would be too far So yeah again Steven Miller again calling him a domestic terrorist this guy's a 37-year-old ICU nurse this guy I mean, I'm not gonna show a little video, but I do think it's worth seeing like to call this guy. I think we issue washes

This is Alex pretty at his job. He worked as at veterans affairs hospital So he's like treating veterans as a nurse. This is him giving the last rights to a dead veterans Lee Randolph March 30th 1947 December 10th 2024

“Today we remember that freedom is not free”

We have to work at it nurtured protected and even sacrifice for it

Me we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom

So in this moment we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless Service to our nation in the cause of our freedom in the solemn hour. We read them our honor and our gratitude He's a generally good guy at you know his entire ICU nurse Staff did a memorial format like this is a guy who left a good contribution on the earth and he's now dead and like So the people up this shame have to be held responsible and

And I Guess what I'm saying is unlike the reaction of some parts of the internet. I do think There's a fast moving

“I don't know missile in that direction. I think that that's happening people are angry”

The I don't know if you guys saw Ted Cruz was on a hot mic or they leaked something Ted Cruz talking to Trump after this Saying Basically talking about what's happened with us and he's saying because of this you are going to lose the house and this Senate You're gonna spend the next few years getting a peach and getting nothing done and then Trump said fuck you Ted like that that is the

Ted Cruz is nightmare is my dream You know same take what he's describing is what I would like to happen and I do think I know it sounds a little Wormous I do think it's worth noting that current polling The if the midterms were held now he would lose. I mean he it is not looking good any Measure which introduces I mean this is what Gary Casperov is like the chess guy from Russia

Trying to fuck with elections just just because that's what authoritarian type of people do in this

Epic situations however And and it does bring up and the last thing I'll say is like As this ice that was unfolding after the Alex predi murder Pam Bondi Said we'll pull ice out of Minnesota if you give over your voter rules Which is a fucking crazy thing to say and

They're doing this I had to follow up more in the story. They're doing this simultaneously They're showing like 40 states trying to get their voter rules and most of them Are not doing it the states and right here have given up their voter rules But the idea is that they're trying to create an independent national voter roll list that could be used to

“Subvert in election like you could you could what it all through the federal authority and then ignore the ones that are being done?”

locally, so it's like it's a serious risk and that is why last thing I'll say is

I've seen a lot of people And by the way, this is sounds crazy to say in this moment where I'm going this rant, but I think this show in a different time I would be so different at least me personally. I would be so different. I think this is so Agreed just to me that I feel like I'm making this almost part is in statement where I'm like I'm giving you information on why I think this

This chain of people should not win elections But I I don't think that was the goal of our show and I don't think that's what we're normally doing I think I in a different year would be way more focused on like trying to break down Four issues on different sides, but in this particular demo, I just want to mention that like I think it's very people on mine are saying things like You should not or voting doesn't matter who gives up voting doesn't get matter the election's like a matter

And I I fucking hate that line of logic. I just really think the midterms this year are very important I would really appreciate the people if they do care about it. This matters to you to register and make it a part of

“If you want to protest if one do other things, I think that's incredible, but like this is an important thing to do”

Because of of how important they clearly see it is. Uh, they see it is very very important to try and Have some control or influence on this election and and to take people out of voter rolls and purge voter rolls And so making sure you're right assured is just important and that's nothing. I don't think I have anything more to say Other than that Excuse us, they use about voter rolls. This is again Republican from Utah. She's in charge of it. She's the lieutenant governor of Utah

He's a Republican vote of a Trump She did a four of you of Utah when she was sued for this said there is no evidence of nonsense in casting a vote So that hold on wait, so the pretense of asking for the voter rolls is that there are Non-citizens voting the pretenses that you know and in Minnesota's case I think Trump literally believes he should have won Minnesota. He didn't he thinks it's because they are rigging the election with

Non-citizens and he would like to have the voter rolls to create his own voter roll list nationally for all the states They can

Purge as will to make sure there's no non-citizen, but obviously there's an incredible incentive there to be

You put your thumb on the scale with what you who you purge because it's just been shown time At the again, they if you purge voter rolls near an election Many old don't notice they don't get their registration back in time and you can cut lots of votes I'm an election so it's like it's very important not to let that happen. So anyway, I'm coming to the end of this rant that I'm sorry I went a little bit too long, but

Yeah, that's that's the main that's the main takeaways I'm shocked at how small ice is to be honest. Yeah, when he 2000 like from They have a Hot if that's a lot more that's like even more concerning because I assumed it was like well You know you got some bad apples amongst the hundreds of thousands of ice people

If this is your rate of like huge huge fuck-ups with 22,000 people that's bad. It's even worse Yeah, it's like much worse. Yeah, purg I don't know a hundred ice people there's these issues like hide

“Yeah, I think a lot of it is is again from steward miller”

Deban and quotas that's been proven now. He's admitted a number of things so it's not based on like They see someone with a crime or crime is reported with it and then there's like trying to hit quotas and then no training And also as part of this I wanted to see like okay, what are other countries doing with regards to immigration's enforcement And I looked at like Japan and like some countries in Europe and it's like nobody nobody is doing Mastman in vans nobody's doing this. There's no and they all have managed to

Make their shit work. So it's like insane that this I don't know Hey, what do you think I? I Think similarly We've talked about this a little bit It happened I think he probably the reaction to like the episode when we talked about the is real Palestine like ceasefire agreement

Where I really really didn't want to make something where I just show up every week and I share my political opinions

To the applause of a bunch of people agreeing with me where they call me like based in the comments because they said I said something they like and Because it just feels like it feels so much more master-portory than it feels valuable to do that And I wanted something you you can go get that in so many places online. Yep, and I wanted to make a show Where I talked to with two other people that like breaking down things and understanding things And not just having some reactionary take about it. I have my own political opinions and they show on this show all the

“But I'm interested in understanding the world around me and I think what is hard about this is I don't”

I was having a hard time trying to parse what I wanted to say about this because I don't want to argue about it with people. I don't like I don't want to spend time trying to convince somebody Listening to this or online somewhere that Shooting this guy who didn't have a gun in his hand in the back on the street the state the state just executed him

For like no for no real reason and up and the idea that I would have to even spend time and energy arguing About that with somebody is so insane to me, man. It's so insane to me and it's off the back of like the immediate reaction of the rhetoric that you hear From the people in power right now where they say all these things about them they lied about the interaction off the back of line about why this enforcement

exists in the first place like to to so consistently even in the wake of the shooting see

Christie and Steven Miller and Trump echo these sentiments of these good men in the streets are getting rid of like rapists and murderers and pedophiles when that part isn't even fucking true dude. It's not even fucking true And if your first reaction to watching that video is trying to Fucking send the snake through the maze of why that guy was justified in doing it

“It's so insane to me. How can we even be having that conversation, man?”

And I don't I don't want I don't want the fucking bass in chat. I want I want anybody listening That had their first reaction to seeing that video or somebody even if your friend had that reaction Like just look look inward for a second. It's all I'm asking because I look inward and ask yourself why is it so important that you justify the state killing a man in the street like this

It should it should just never happen

Regardless of what else is going on. It shouldn't ever that this exact type of situation should never happen. I I Yeah, I think that's I I don't know what more to say about it than that, but I think most who agree that I literally

“I guess that's what I'm and I agree with you and I like your presentation because I agree with that too”

One more actually one more thing I was thinking about because my I do feel one one thing I wanted to say was this call the action of like fucking genuinely I do believe show up to the protest show some sort of action Fucking registered a vote and vote in the next next election because it this this type of stuff Either way people are moving it shows that it does I do believe that that still matters

And it's hard for me to say that because I I say it with the full understanding that I'm the guy on the show Who's had the plan of like leaving the country for years and I it's I I feel a little weird telling people that Because I understand that context exists and I made that decision from myself a long time many many years ago for very different reasons It's not like in reaction to this happening in front of me and I but I think if you

genuinely I think it's important to not just like

There's a discussion that we had on our bonus episode like a week ago before this happened and

it I was kind of voicing my concern or my opinion of having seen the Renee good thing and feeling so fatigued by it and being like I feel like I have grown up I have I have grown up most of my life now in the in the US seeing these violent acts happen over and over again in different forms not necessarily like it could be ice it could be the police it could be

It could be terrorism it could be school shootings and I've seen so many different versions of this happening and feeling like They keep happening and and and this feeling of fucking this is fucking sick How could this not only that it's sick that it happens and that it continues but also that I feel

“this lack of attention or care that it's happening and I think”

I don't know what it is about this one

But it's something it's weird to say that it's even different from what happened two weeks ago It's like don't don't fucking forget this like Act and use it to fuel the way you influence the future in this country and I and even or even if you're gonna be here for a little bit Like I'll vote every time I'll vote every time until until I move And because it's still important to me. It's still important that I show up to my like local elections and

Why county elections and it's shit like that? Yeah, I don't yeah I don't have worse I appreciate something I

Yeah, it's funny because people saying that you know elections on like elections

“I mean directly cost like if you're mad about that this is a result of election and I think”

I Think it'll make a difference. I do But it's not the whole thing of our episode and I don't know if you have anything you want to say But I just I I think we wanted to cover that

We do have all this at the talk about this is an episode. So it was like what's next because that is something you're talking about? Yeah, yeah, I mean you already expressed it and I told you guys this when we were planning this episode is like I just think this shit is sad and That's I don't have much else to add exactly what you said. I think it's almost it's Yeah, no it's weird to just go on to a podcast. Be like it's bad. This is bad. You know, but I think we've covered you know other angles to it

And it does seem like there's a huge the the polling numbers were crazy because I also saw that on Nate Silver's thing Yeah, which is you know again immigration is the one thing that Trump has been able to hold on to as people approved people even with the stock market as high as it is People do not approve of Trump on the economy like he's failing on the world Economy and fortibility all these things that was really the core of what got him elected that and immigration right and now He's super losing on like the one golden goosey had so I do think there's gonna be some serious response to him like

One thing Trump is good at is when he senses the tide turning on a subject

“He changes his behavior so I think probably you'll see him. I think it's wise back in time”

I think he's gonna solve all these things. He's got like lizard brain instincts on like what the room is At least special among his base and this is so on popular For anyone who's even like Remotely not die hard for anyone who's like on this the center is side of right whatever like it's so on popular So he is he's tossed Greg Bavino to the wolves probably will toss Christy know him. He's clearly like trying to backpuddle

He called Tim walls. They're pulling Ice agents out of me like this there is a there is a direct reaction to people's anger Which which does which means the anger has a value. That's not you're saying like it was it break it It might have been the book that we that everybody knows whatever he knows and break neck But they did change my POV or from perspective a little bit and

For context for people who didn't hear it on patreon aid and then I hated this book It's not a fun book through I think the promise is just what changes when people are collectively aware of something and once it becomes known Everybody knows it then everybody's behavior changes even though they did all know it Behind the scenes quietly up until that point. That's a great summary of the whole book that is the entire book

It's that sentence great some repeated 300 thousand more to that I'm coming more of a defender No, sometimes it is a question sometimes he puts it in the analogy it talks about I think it was the this book and break neck talked about why there is such a extreme effort to Get rid of communication around protesting in so many countries and why what the actual value of protesting is and I think

The idea because I understand the feeling I I know there are people listening

Who hear who latch on to the part where we said like go vote as a like a part of the solution in it And they're like fucking whatever man or like, you know, let they're too lived up or or you know and Or protests don't do anything like peaceful protest doesn't do anything and I understand I understand where you coming from I get it But what change my mind about protesting is it's not about It's not about like creating this magical instant change in and getting me power that you're pushing against to just

Cave instantly. Yeah. It's about creating a consistent a consistent message and present presence and signal to all the other people in your community all the other people in the country or state or whatever They know that you feel the same way that they do and that you're all behind

“One another on something and I think this this is so over the line and it's so”

Far and one direction and it's so blatantly alive. What they're saying it's so blatantly alive

That finally it's like we can really it's like an issue that we can reach near consensus on and when like the

Darius said the establishment does so much work to make sure that we can't find consensus about fucking any And now this is something we can find consensus on I truly I do truly believe that when you show most people This video they do they do they do think it's bad. Yeah, they do most people do feel that way not Literally 100% of people but most people feel that way so when so many people are angry I'm it's so widespread across every aspect of the political spectrum and then you go out and show and demonstrate that

You can still create change in this country. I and I think This ties in later to the interview I did one thing. I was incredibly impressed about interviewing

“Mayor Brandt Scott is that he in a at a time where everything feels so gridlocked and painful and frustrating politically”

he He he believes that we can get things done together. He has a process by which he approaches those things and he's creating results around a problem that was so Embedded in how people viewed Baltimore that it's a place where people get murdered in a drug war and he's like I I'm going to start I'm going to help dismantle that stereotype

I'm going to attack the problem as it actually is here's this incredibly nuanced approach to how we're going to do that and It's not about me that it's a citywide effort of that so many people in Baltimore are participating in And we can create change we can reduce the homicide rate in Baltimore to the lowest it's been in over 50 years over a 60% drop in that time and like here's how we did it and that's among a bunch of other things he's doing

“All right, but I think it is it was remarkably hopeful to speak to him and have that be”

The takeaway and be like it's not hopeless you can make things better Yeah, we're just about Mamdanian a bit and what he's I think of people I think in general across across this guy and a lot of people It took a while because the forces of The gridlock and our political system and Social media the way I think a lot of things made it very difficult to make any progress or consensus on anything

I think people are revolving I think people are evolving to learn tactics and strategies and methods to to adapt to them to the challenges like they hit really hard And they made things way worse and I think people are crawling back So anyway, we all don't get to this because one of the immediate impacts of what's going on here is that there was a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that passed the house before Alex predies murder

But now is very very unlikely almost certainly will not pass this in it because of the absolute outrage over DHS there was I have a slide here of The seven Democrats who originally voted for this many of whom have now of course backed out because of same pressure Shout out to the one of the public and you also didn't vote for it Thomas Massey who That guy's been

Remarkably principled he probably's gonna get primary those what I looked into he's Trump is throwing all his way behind the new guy But anyway, so there's gonna be a Senate vote probably won't pass which means we have a partial government shut down Fourth one third ones

Third in like eight months does this they are voting on specifically this part of DHS or is this just the broader

64.4 billion in funding for DHS is not going to be provided assuming this hasn't passed

So there is a shutdown 10 billion of it was supposed to go to ice although as I've looked into it I think they're already funded through the big beautiful bill so in fact it'll shut down TSA and

“Homeland Security and like for stuff but ice is like the only thing that won't shut down because they already have money”

So it's not I mean it's it's Unfortunate reality and just to set the context there we had that funny Government shutdown a few months ago and as a reminder what comes out of that is a continuing Resolution which means we didn't actually pass like a budget for the full year it's basically like We're gonna continue off the levels we had while we debate future things and that didn't include DHS

So DHS needs to have a separate thing a resolution that says this is the funding But then separately they have mandatory funding based on big beautiful bill So there's a weird thing so it's not necessarily it's gonna have like a massive impact on ice specifically But it'll be yet another mini government shutdown that we could follow and we'll cause chaos and maybe we'll cause chaos in the only thing that we want Which is TSA and then the other is like a function great so that'll be cool TSA is like our only

Leppin of getting the government unshut down because people can't stay I guess that's true people to get really really pissed about it So in that sense it is a fact every government budget should go back to it should which is what the Everything was to get something for structure of fine. It's the bad state

Yeah, we just because Trump always makes national emergencies and we make an emergency that people aren't

Getting on planes and then everything becomes about TSA. Yeah, every time you have a budget issue It's like a bunch of air traffic controllers standing up and be like, I'm Spartacus They have to

“Keep our government. I think air traffic controllers should have more votes. Oh”

Like each one Yeah, everybody gets one vote except for air traffic controllers. I'm gonna end up with a crazy Every time they control a plane they get one more vote. Is that way they're incentivized to keep working so you can stack Yeah, there's a gun or I know you don't have to spend all your votes every year So one guy's been

Saving his votes for like a like 40 years. He has like 3,000 vote or become president. Yeah It's just I was speaking of voters and how we use votes to elect people there is a mayor in Baltimore That Aiden went and chatted with and this is Mayor Brandon Scott who Aiden and I both learned about from a channel five interview That like you just set up a second ago He's had this remarkable change in Baltimore. So you Aiden flew out to Baltimore this past week and spoke for almost an hour

With with Mayor Brandon Scott, yeah, you're gonna have the full interview here that you're gonna now watch You will watch it and after words the three of us are all gonna chat together Obviously this is something new that we're trying of one of us going and chatting with somebody and

“Let us know what you think. I think it was a really great interview”

There's obviously gonna be People who we interview with it when it's just it one of us. They're we're gonna keep doing the standard three We have some actually really exciting guests coming up and soon we have some really exciting things So this is awesome though. I don't know if you any other context. Yeah, and otherwise roll the film. I think my Quick preface is

The for those who don't know Baltimore has seen a historic reduction in their homicides in the city even Like greatly outpacing the national decline There's been in the last five years as well and The channel five video that came out a couple months ago highlighted this and that was the initial interest and we mostly started out the conversation About that, but then we dive into I would say his broader

Motivations as mayor like why he wants to do this job how he sees his position and What his ethos is when it comes to like creating solutions in a city because I think we've talked about this feeling of how much can a mayor actually do Yeah, and I preemptively he answered that question There's so many times this interview where I had things I wanted to go to her asked and he just Perfectly sped towards those things I wanted answers for and he speaks so well

You can probably see in the interview. There's a couple times where I'm almost at a loss for words of like where to go next And I need to work on my interview But some of his answers especially in the back half of this interview really blew me away I think it's a little more like approach and In the weeds at the beginning so if you feel like the first bit is a little slow

I encourage you to stick around because it's it's very informational and then I think which is good Like I think it's very very interesting to learn about from my perspective

But if you find it a little slow I encourage you to stick around listen to the back half because I think he is a lot of powerful

Things to say about his position who he is as a person the city itself Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this. Let us know what you think of it. We'll come back at the end roll the film All right well join this is a new a bit of a new style thing for 11/8 sand up, you know a pop-up interview

Then I want to come to Baltimore man. I know I just would never leave could that's what happens

And I've mayor Brandon Scott with me and we're in my girlfriend's parents home filming this interview and I figured I'd get straight to it because the The reason I wanted to speak with you was this historic reduction in Homicides in Baltimore over the last few years An over 60% reduction since 2021 a huge reduction in non fatal

shootings in violence as well and

“the in 2025 the lowest homicide a number of homicides and I think over 50 years and”

You know there's a bunch of layers

From from my understanding as to why this is the case, but this has happened during your

term is mayor and you're you're elected in 2020 and I wanted to just get your Explanation behind that because just to lay some a brief context for the for the rest of the US The homicide rate in the country is also falling through this time But pretty significantly, but Baltimore way way ahead of the curve even compared to that Declined nationally so I just wanted to know

How did this happen? Yeah, I think that before we do that we just got it like take one step back right when we think about

“A Baltimore and gun violence everyone thinks about TV shows Homicide lifelong in the street the corner of the wire obviously, but”

For me, that's real life right I was born here in Baltimore in 1984 so Fortunately and unfortunately, I'm my former two years are the years that everyone thinks about when they think about Violence in Baltimore the 80s 90s early 2000s actually the reason why I before I was 10 years old decided I wanted to be the mayor of Baltimore. It's because of gun violence I was out playing basketball in the Amales and someone sort of shooting and someone got shot right the person didn't die right

To be honest, we didn't like we know you know of the person went to the hospital It's a different time different time back then, but Pestered my parents my grandparents on uncles everybody about like why and the one really cared about what happened and Probably to shut me up in the way and the way black mothers have this way of like making you shut up

“But not squashing your dreams at the same time right like and she just said if you wanted to change you got to do with yourself”

And that's when I decided I wanted to be the mayor of Baltimore. You decided you wanted to be the mayor of Baltimore before you were Ted years old Yeah well before I was like 7 at the oldest 7 a years ago Did it say that whole time like did you ever bring ever like 15 you're like I would be something He's a talk to anybody that is known the my whole life

Including someone is in the room to know I can see right now. It has never changed

Never ever ever changed But that's the core of it for me and when you think about that right we just I calculated this recently 41 I'll be 42 in the few months But 18 of the 41 years that I've been alive Baltimore had over 300 homicides right so that's most You know of my life basically and I came to City Hall first as an unpaid intern in

2007 and didn't catch up getting paid so I've been there this 19 years in that building So in addition to that life experience of growing up in park height, so the neighborhood that I grew up in park heights Host the precness the horse for it. So I lived in a neighborhood that the whole world descends on for the third Saturday and they and every other day the year we weren't even treated as human like that was the reality for us but

I'm in City Hall. I'm a staffer. I work on public safety policy. I work in the mayor's office that work in the mayor's office of criminal justice I spend a lot of time Understanding what the police department's responsibilities. I'm in City Hall in City government when CVI comes to Baltimore, so I'm growing up in maturing at a time where I can see I lived through zero tolerance when if you were black and breathing you were walking

You could just go to jail simply for the for that reason but the violent state So throughout my time on the city council. I was the vice chair and then chair of the public safety committee and then became the chair of the president of the council. I talked about a lot of that Baltimore had to change the way we thought and operated when it came to gun violence that we could not

BPD right just from a sheer math problem anybody who's thinking with their brain and not with the motion

their motion understands that at its hayday Baltimore Police Department had 3,000 police officers right and we'll just say in the city of 600,000 right a 600,000 people well only about a thousand of them may ever work at the same time one thousand people can't keep 600,000 people safe it's literally impossible but that is the mentality that we've had not just in Baltimore but in this country that is just their responsibility they play a very important part in that responsibility that government has to

protect and keep people safe but it's not just theirs to bear along so luckily for me when I became the mayor someone was smart enough to pass a law that says Baltimore has to have a conference as violence prevention plan presented to the mayor in the city council that person

“we meet it's law in Baltimore that you have to have a comprehensive approach to dealing with gun”

violence and we got to work building of that first one and we said that it's a public health issue

so we're going to think about it through a lens of public health I in 2021 rolled out the first one walked out of a row home in East Baltimore not unlike this one and said that this is what we're going to do we are going to commit to lowering homicides in Baltimore by 15% from one year to the next and people literally laugh impossible there's no way and it wasn't that they were laughing that we would set a goal like that yes they thought that was ridiculous but we weren't just saying

that we were going to do that by going out and having mass arrests we were being very intentional we were going to change the way that we operated totally including with our police department

“we were no longer going to say like okay everybody that lives in parka so everybody that lives in this”

part of West Baltimore is the most likely to be the victim of perpetrator gun violence we were going to actually find out who those people were and focus on them that's where our group violence reduction strategy our focus deterrence model comes from we started in the western district in Baltimore city which is about 3.7 miles and roughly 60,000 people and it was a responsible for 16% of the violence in the city in such a small area and we know that

basically 2% of the population of the group for people that we need to focus on so we started there

this is a partnership at that time between my office the mayor's office they was safety engagement the police department the station attorney's office they're attorney general office of Maryland and what we do is we first for individuals who are likely to be the victim because this is group violence on group violence people have done this and I want folks to understand this in across the country only 11% of homicides countrywide are what we would call gang violence the overwhelming

majority has nothing to do with stuff like that yeah I thought that was this is something I'd been thinking about when I watched the the channel five years that the touch on a lot of this was the disconnect between people's average understanding of gun violence or gang violence being the fuel behind these statistics that they've been brainwashed to be taught when in reality it's something it's something much different and it seems to be like more more like interpersonal

like issues between people and things like that yeah so it's mostly you know interpersonal issues and I think the difference what what happens here will get to that what happens though is that we especially don't mind generation coming up on the little order not that much uh we were like the drug war was at its height and this is what happens in this country we're seeing it happen right now with immigrants right we have a history on this country

of deciding what the enemy is making things simple for the American people if you give the people something that is bad they'll know that it's bad and they'll support you in doing any and

“everything that you can to get rid of it that's what happened with the war on drugs it was up is the”

gangs it's these folks is this and in some cases it's drug users if drug users weren't using drugs then there would be no no drug wars all of those kind of things instead of like what we should have done then is focusing on the core of the problem right uh and and I think what we're doing here is starting to get it that people are going to have conflict right so uh we identify those folks

know we're just not gonna have that they're investigated about police department who turn it over

to our states attorney attorney general for prosecution but there are many of them who aren't yet involved in that kind of illegal activity but because they are affiliated with these groups of people they are likely to get into some conflict or other activity and even just being in the group we'll put them at risk these folks actually we go to them they get a letter directly from me this is I know who you are I know what you do I want you to change your life I want you to stay

alive but you cannot continue to do the activities and be the places and with the people that you are and do that what could you could you give me an idea like like day day one if they want to

this approach day two of you taking this approach what is actually changing in that first neighborhood

like what what what is what is what is this rolling out actually look day one is not that is is

“oh I mean it's not about day one day zero so we have to build this up and I think it's important to”

know that right when we set out that we were gonna do this GBRS model we everyone knew like okay just you guys you because it's not just about the police you have to have the community partners there you have to have the more of those people we have to have people in the community that have the standing to go to people and talk to people yeah then no one else can and convince them to agree to take the services and change their life in Baltimore most folks at the time at a

different police commissioner he's now a deputy mayor in New Orleans Mr. deputy mayor how will you

Michael Harrison only he and I thought that the age range will be older everyone else for us down that we're gonna be we just need to go work with these some of these organizations that already exist that have street credibility to work with 18 to 24 year old black man we both said we think it's gonna be a little higher than that so through the data we were right it was not 18 to 24 years it wasn't even 25 to 28 years it was 30 to 34 years we actually had to work and build

with an organization yet to even get ready to do that work and to build GBRS and folks who want to see how we did this they can see it is all known documentary called the body politic you can get that on all your streaming platforms we actually had a good friend of mine who leads to Baltimore peace movement and the Baltimore Community Mediation Center go around the city having and starting in the Western conversations with the community about how we were going to build this to do something

“of this magnitude you cannot just go in and drop it into the community you have to build it with”

the community brick by brick and politically though what that meant is that we but really me I had to yield a lot of pressure in a lot of talk because while we're building that things are not the way we want to be out on the streets of Baltimore but if you're going to really re imagine and re-track re-a work the way that you're moving for public safety you can't just start that on day one you have to build that infrastructure up to get to the point where we're going to people with letters and

they take it and they go and change their life or they don't in the end up in one of our investigations so that's one part of what we were able to do right because listen it happened to me recently I was I don't know street corner and a young man walked up the means and Mr. Mayor I got a letter from you I don't know what it means and then I was able to on the spot ironically because some of our CVI workers were with their with me to get him in the right space and when you think about

the fact that over 90% of the people that we have brought into that is raised at hands and say that they want services had not been revict them eyes and over 90% of those people had not recidivated into activity it shows that it's working but then the other folks sorry you will not continue to carry out violence on the streets we will remove you okay so when you're talking about people

“looking to receive services like I think my understanding of this is there are people who are”

like officially employed by the city in communities who are available kind of available is community touch points for people to go to or speak with or identify situations that might turn into something that could become violent down the road yes that's actually some interesting we'll get to that there's another part of our CVI okay ecosystem okay when you talk about GBRS you're talking about community of most partners we have YAP and Roka

they're the ones to come in they do the case management thing the life the life coaching

everyone else other ones that connect them with the with the jobs opportunities all of that

which just speaking about is something else that we invest in heavily in the city of Baltimore and that's actually community violence and division at the street level for us our flagship CVI program mistakes streets we have 10 sites across the city of Baltimore including two in Park Heights we're where I grew up we're we actually in our community partners our community organization partners employ people even though it works three Mario program they're actually private employees

that used to be out on those corners used to be involved in the violence to now in a seat and mediate conflicts that can lead into violence right but this is just one layer that's just many that many layers that that's the street the street the street intervention that they do

“and I want to just I want to touch on that because what they do is critically important right”

and we'll just we'll use me for example yes I can go out on a corner of Park Heights and co-expring all day long I don't really need to carry to do that like I grew up there right and no folks have been there but I still can't have the conversation that my friend who used to be on that same corner doing the things that people doing that same corner with those people he has an extra layer of credibility you need credible messages to be able to diffuse some of these issues and if they

were all here they would tell you most of the issues that they're talking about a very simple someone you know they found out that they both had the same girlfriend they didn't know right someone sent somebody else's girl a message on instagram someone made a rap video and the person thought they were dissonant right or they got into it in a party all of these kind of sympathy this is the stuff that people are dying over not just here in Baltimore

“but around the country and I think it's important to go back to your point earlier that”

we have to uh we understand that the way especially now news is pushed down to be simple quick in dirty there is nothing simple or quick about murder you cannot explain the reasons that another human being will kill another human in a 30 second or a minute clip it cannot be boiled down to like oh this person used to they had these legal problems they sold drugs

has to be about drugs doesn't and I always say like this just because someone who plays

have played football forever has a heart attack doesn't mean it happened because of football right someone can be involved in a legal activity and get killed and had nothing to do with that legal activity it could be about a woman it could be about something that happened before they were doing that illegal activity I think that in this country we really have to get to that that portion of where we're talking about things as they are even when they're not simple

because there's nothing simple about picking up a gun and killing someone because we have to also understand most people most I'll kill by someone that they know if you're thinking about these incidents where they find someone dead in a car right where they were sitting in the front seat and they get shot in the back of the hit right how many times have you heard that over and over again I don't know about you but I don't let nobody sit behind me that don't trust with my life right

like that's just does not happen or you hear the stories about them like they're in the house there's no doors kicked in there's no nothing right but the person is dead and I don't that means that person was comfortable with that person being in their home and when you think about that for us it then goes to another level we also have our violence intervention workers in hospitals hospital base response because people that get shot go where the best place to make sure that the next

incident doesn't happen is after hospital providing services at the bedside right and when you think about that we put 50 million dollars of our offer money into community violence intervention and we've seen it it's not just about safe streets we have we are us we have the peace team challenged the change in alcohol tea we saw in the in the other other video home who makes me go viral every six months thanks on critique but we we also have other organizations

like 10 day of family you have all these groups and organizations and this is the part where I always

say to folks because folks are looking at me I always say this historic reduction that we have

“is Baltimore's victory yeah right that's what this is this is about all these different parts”

because we're also doing it any different way even on a law enforcement in the legal route right when you think about the fact that because I have changed the way that they operate right the police department is focused on the folks that are committing those those illegal acts and on the guns they

over 60% of them come from states not the state of Maryland and when you think about that

“and you think about how we have real gun laws here in Maryland right you can see how that impacts”

but we don't just stop there when our first came into to office and every city was having issues with ghost guns we sued polymer 80 the nation's largest ghost gun company ended their business not just in Baltimore, Maryland and now pretty much just ended in their business we also just a few months ago at the end of the year one the largest settlement that any city has ever had on a gun dealer

72 million dollars against handover armored outside of Baltimore city where we knew we proved and

court that they were purposely going around Maryland's gun laws and selling weapons to people that they knew what end up in the convince of crime here in Baltimore we're doing all of that those gun cases are being turned over to our state's attorney's office and our U.S. attorney too but our attorney general's office here in Baltimore who are prosecuting these gun cases and because they're not being overloaded with a ridiculous zero-tonal police in cases they actually are prodding a great job

of making sure that we're holding people accountable but we did all of that and at the same time

we have historic investments into schools in Baltimore right I think we're like 12 or 13 new

renovated schools since I've been in the mayor's Baltimore we've renovated five new six new rec centers seven pools right we have five rec centers under construction here we have 8500 young people with you work summer jobs last summer those things are also matter in this fight because this is Baltimore's victory and now we just have to keep it going this is this is super super interesting because I think a giant theme of our show is talking about how nuanced problems are like

when you when you talk about global global issues or but even when you scale down to the issues

“of a city or a town the approach that you have to take to solve problems is so complicated and”

figuring that out is really really challenging because people look people want everything to be in like such black and white like simple this is the solution why don't you just do this no one solution there is and this is such a demonstration of that I think the question I have is you and the rest of the city are taking an approach that is so comprehensive and has so many layers to it but it took a long time for a lot of these actions to be taken and I'm wondering how

how replicable do you think this this broader approach is for I don't know it's like cities like like Memphis or St. Louis or like do you think it's because it took it took Baltimore a long time to get here and and attack the problem in such a nuanced way and I'm wondering like is it reasonable to could can other cities look to you is like a model is I'm wondering like it took a long time for Baltimore to get here is it reasonable for other cities to figure

“this out as well like I think today that we have and I think this is this is an important thing”

yes as you said earlier we're having a more a steep and start the climb right then I look places but we're not the only one and if you look deep a little secret mayors talk to each other everyday all day long and when you look deep into it you'll see similar things happening right and let me just say this because I have to have to say this for there's a in the conference of mayors there's a secret group called the tennis shoe caucus I'm the vice president of the tennis shoe

caucus the president and leader of that is Mayor Ross Baraka of New York New Jersey will always

be that person but I say to say this myself around the wood friend from Birmingham Brandon Johnson in Chicago just in being Cleveland all of us know that what I am doing or what they are doing right it's just taking the work that Mayor Baraka did years ago over a decade ago to the next level that was the standard reimagining public safety the way he did it in New York what I have

involved version of that we just in Baltimore we're blessed because the way that our government

“is different right we I don't also now that I have my fabulous governor governor more I don't”

have the issue with my state that so many of my counterparts have right I don't have the pre-imption or and more importantly I have someone who understands and believes in the mission and the plan and is a deep supporter of the plan the governor announced his his upcoming budget for this general assembly session and included money to help expand CVI and GBRS in Baltimore right that's a big part of it for us GBRS is funded not just with help from our federal delegation that's the best

federal delegation in the United States Congress obviously with city money now we're talking my state money and also private and philanthropic partners but yes but there's different for every city right when you think about that and when you think about some of those folks have come here right I mean you're young we're within a whole bunch of folks we're here I think last year around this time actually because I'm one of the co-chairs from mayors against legal guns and we actually

worked and talked with them about GBRS and all these other things we're getting a new mayor of Albany Dorsey she's going to be here I'm a good sister coming to talk they've talked we share ideas all the time but when you look and see the approach actually made what's in an eye from Birmingham where when a panel in Baltimore together like a month ago and we basically gave the exact

“same answer to every question because we're all doing similar things in our cities you have to adapt it”

for your your your locality but we're all doing similar things because it works you just have to make it work for your folks and I'll job really is to do the best job that we can I want one of them to take everything that I have put in place and figure out ways to make it better so that we can continue to learn from each other and if the really the country when we hear a lot of folks especially in watching DC thinking about how we did nation's should be moving on violence and all these

other things the truth is is that they should be coming to the mayor the mayor's other leaders on the

issue where the ones that we can't escape folks right we gonna see these people in the grocery store we're gonna be the ones at the funerals where the ones that have to deliver the phone calls to those parents that is our job every day which is what makes this job the toughest political job in the country without a doubt but we also know how to get things done we don't live in the world of hyperbole we don't live in the world where you can just politically grandstand and show up to work

and not approve a budget we don't live in that world yeah if we're looking folks are looking to we're examples of how to do it they should come to us lead us lead the way stay out of the way this is so it's crazy because you're preemptively answering a lot of the a lot of the questions I had and because I'm a little annoying they didn't tell you that you're you're being me to the

“you're being me to the punch because I think one one narrative that I feel like the public has”

broadly there's a lot of political polarization and frustration in the in the country really right yeah really and I I think people have this idea that at a you know maybe at a city like a city council level or a mayoral level and then on up even if you're the president you're sort of subject to the trends and constraints of your time and that makes it difficult to accomplish things because you're you're stuck in this like broader political system but

everything you're saying is about navigating and like finding a way to have a large impact even with those yeah listen I think that and you can pull the clip my first day in office December the eight twenty twenty uttered something that my staff did not want me to utter and this still draft

some of them crazy but it was the truth right I said that we would do they're always do the right

thing not to pop a thing even if it's politically bad for me changing the way that we did public safety at that time right you're in here interviewing Baltimore because this comprehensive violence prevention plan has had like historical success did no one else has seen and that Baltimore is outpacing the country but at the time right people were like we don't we shouldn't have a five year plan we needed to do it right now we need a plan for this month right like yes

go back to the old way sweep everyone up do all the dumb things they didn't work before right

two hundred seventy homicides that you they arrested ninety one thousand people in the city of of six hundred thousand and twenty twenty four we had two hundred and one we had arrested about sixteen seventeen thousand significant less violence was significantly less arrests because it's

never been about how many it's about who and for what but I said that to say this you

we in this country especially right now this is true when I said it then we need elected officials who are on the free to do the right thing even if it means they only get one turn if you only get one turn fuck it you got that one term and you did was right because having folks govern right for one if you're in Congress one year to get reelected to the next right because every two years or in the most most in most mayor offices for three years to get reelected in the next or

four in the fourth what does that gotten us right it's gotten us into this point where people are just consistently only pushing that margins because they don't want to ruffle in the feathers we need the chicken plucked in this country right now and we have to change the way things operate that means that some of us aren't going to get reelected for me it worked out right

in the first mayor in Baltimore to be erect reelected in 20 years the last time and me a guy

reelected in Baltimore I was in college I'll be out of college for 20 and 20 years on made a 13th of this year right we have to do that push the envelope now because ultimately we're not

“in these positions for a long time and here for a good time and to do good work I think with with”

your point of having long-term solutions not be popular when you introduce them like you're described right now now we've come around at this point where we can view the historic results one thing that is really impressive to me is that you the reduction in homicides stayed consistent in its quantity like you reduce by huge percent but then you reduce by a similar quantity the following year in the following year in the last three years we beat the previous year yeah it's not slowing

down even as you get closer to zero which is incredible and with the results feel almost

indisputable like they they seem really difficult to argue with so it was curious from people because undoubtedly there are still people arguing I was curious of what the pushback at this point could even to the to the to the work that we're talking about

“yeah with the pushback is yeah listen we live we live in America and I think that I didn't”

say this but we also have to understand the history of my great city we know Baltimore there would be no United States of America without this city right we literally right around the corner from where you are sitting the star's the bingo banner was written right or you talk about the right the war 1812 you think about education in this country this is why Baltimore feels in particularly uh uh personally invested in the fight around education in this country because

we have the education system in this country that we have because of a little boy from West Baltimore by the name of Thurgood Marshall when you think about this city's history people think about that they think about uh some alpha ever congressmen the the conscious of the congress a logic comments right they think about all of these great people but then they don't think about that the first racial realigning bill was signed in my office right they don't think about that and we have to understand

“that those kind of people and they're thinking doesn't just go away uh that's why we have to”

undo those policies right there still laws that I am working to change and things on the books now that are connected to that and how that impacted what happened here when you think about you have the first racial realigning laws and then you have suburs being bill and you have flight and then you have D industrialization and GEM and all these other places leave and then drugs miraculous they show up in eastern West Baltimore when black people don't own ships right like boom

you have a recipe for disaster and and now you have people who unfortunately they they're like our CVI right out our safe streets workers they're under constant attack what you would you saw the channel five interview there was a reporter who is racist who said that one of my CVI workers was a cripp because he had on a blue hat yeah a blue law sangelist dodges hat the day that the oils played the law sangelist dodges that's the kind of thing that you're still fighting

there are some folks who have assessed all right think about it like this the mayor the pollot politician didn't poll because I don't care who quote unquote gets to credit for the homicide reduction yeah the media poll that they pulled and did a story about their own poll about who should get to credit because some folks are obsessed with really if we want to pull back the onion

the reality is that some folks think that a young black man from park heights who you know

is probably closer to the streets than it is to the board room can't be part of the solution because I'm the problem right and that's the same thing for my safe streets workers the same thing for my young people the same thing we people have not evolved as much as we think they have right because look truth is if it's all going bad it's the mayor's fault right but if it's going good it's everything but the mayor's fault but for the mayor is everybody every this is bolt some

“more is when and that's what makes it special that everybody plays a part of it but people are”

trying to tear down because they've also lost their power and sway in the world and they want to get it back they're used to controlling everything that comes out of city government and the mayor's office they don't believe that the city should be invested in the city accurately that we're building new rec centers in west Baltimore and east Baltimore and that we are we we're doing uptown and downtown not just one part of the city they are folks that have not evolved and we're going to

say we don't care is it I'm just more personal to you you impressively like you're you're not looking for that credit it is the city's victory there's so many layers to this it's not just about you but is there any part of you that you know was that kid who was dreaming of being the mayor all long you get into this position you you know you work in the city all those years leading up to it you create this incredible change with the help of all of these other people around you

the results kind of speak for themselves and you still have that like layer of of pushback is it is it disheartening or discouraging does it make you want to be like what you don't know about this

yeah like you understand I'm a young black man from park arts in Baltimore I'm always going to

“have that right and I think because I know my history and where my family comes from and who we are”

like to me that pushes me to be even better it's this it's personal me for a different reason it's different when the guns been in your fucking face it's different when you had the doctor bullets it's different when you've been sat down in the curb in handcuffs just because you were breathing it's different when a few years ago a young man that went to my high school was murdered and his mother told me that he was looking for me before that football game it's different

so yes it's personal to me it's very fucking personal to me but I don't give a shit about the credit as my grandmother would say let the work that I've done speak for me right there was that's the reality but I know that this isn't just it's being a part of something that is greater than yourself is the best thing that any human being can do and for me this is about my city this is about the next me who is in one of our schools or playing on the basketball

quarter football field somewhere that they don't have to they live with less of what I live with

“it's possible that's what this about for me but do I that I think they're like oh I would”

breach my goal and then America would just be like oh you look he did it no I knew that that it's just not the history of this country especially when it comes to people that look like me

and especially when it comes to people who look like me who don't coach which who don't I will never

shrink my blackness who don't do those kind of things I'm not going to just be black I'm going to be bligety bligety black because that's who I am I come from a family on one side my my my my mom's family escape role poverty outside of Richmond Virginia in Amelia Amelia County to move here when my mom was an infant right my dad's family my dad followed my uncle's here after he graduated from high school with my grandparents ran a pig farm in North Carolina until the daddy died it's actually why don't

eat pork right I know the history of my family I know that even in the 1700s in rural North Carolina members of my family were free they never owned me so when you know your history and you

fight me now only about something else or that's their problem my job is to make those kind of people uncomfortable because I am working towards undoing systems policies practices that have kept people not just black people but anybody really who isn't wealthy and wealthy white male from succeeding to the level that people they say people can in the American dream whether you're a woman whether you're Hispanic whether you're immigrant whether LBQ but including black people because I

am black right gonna continue to do that if if I always tell my team as we if we go through

a week and someone didn't call me Negro online we didn't do our job because that means we're not

“pushing hard enough honestly that's a incredible answer man I've kind of blown away like I”

think I think it's a you have an incredibly admirable outlook because I think it's I think it's a I don't think it's a necessary to like seek credit in life by any means but I think time I like to seek credit is about my athletic prowess that's it that's all I think of medicine I did I did want to ask you and we touched on this at the beginning I think the perception

people have of Baltimore is so heavily shaped by media I think the wire is a big part of that

I think news media is a big part of that I think there's so many and this is you know media shapes the perspective of everything it's not you know it's not just Baltimore but I think Baltimore sits in this place where the media has informed a very specific view of it and I was wondering how that perception of the city especially because it shapes people who aren't from here the most heavily how does that impact your ability to do the job so it doesn't impact me I think one thing

folks have done a sample Baltimore is we don't really care what other people think outside the

Baltimore especially if you're in Pittsburgh I had to make sure I put that in there and in New York

if I give you a quick practical answer like in my head maybe because some person in the state Senate has a few of Baltimore because yeah I'm saying they watched a bunch of TV does that mean that you're unable to get the funding for a program you're you're looking for it it can be sometimes little difficult and and when you deal with that but I think that we have a blessing for us right now right the Senate president of the Maryland General Assembly represents the area that we're in right now

right the governor of Maryland is from Baltimore I just happened to be very good friends with the new speaker of the house and in the Maryland General Assembly but we know that that does have an impact

“but when you think about Maryland you have to also think about the big blue areas of Maryland”

Montgomery Prince George's county in Baltimore City and because we have it's not just about when we're going for things right it's oftentimes we're working alongside my county executive counterparts right and we have to continue that we do have to fight through some of that stuff that is pushed down through media not just in the state but around the country but we put now you can see in a lot of relationship too when you think about the fact that I've been going and talking and testifying

and getting and working on public safety stuff in there literally since 2011 right as when I was a council person and people understand they know that I'm going to be balanced and fair that's what we have to continue to do but now I think the results of what we're doing especially nationally is changing the narrative when I'm out of town I'm hearing everyone's like oh you guys are doing great I want to invest in Baltimore like three years ago that was in the

case right we have had more positive national news stores about Iowa City in the last two years

“then we probably had in the last 20 that's a good thing but the truth is the best way to keep”

that going and the change that perception is to keep changing the reality on the ground here in Baltimore. With the change that you're looking to in the future to kind of round things out I'm wondering with you know all of the progress that has led up to this point now what are your what are the biggest things you're looking at in the next few years you know if you're if you continue to be mayor or you know whether long enough in the future you're not the mayor anymore

what are the primary things you think there are to still work on right now like well one we haven't

you haven't heard a celebratory tone for me for a reason I was being ardent at the national action networks MLK breakfast and folks went to clap you can see the video for this one set went to clap when I gave the number and I said don't clap we haven't nothing to celebrate we

“acknowledged the historic progress but 133 allows us only 33 too many for me because one life is one”

too many as we say and we are us but for me we have to grow that GVRS is in five out of police districts we have four more to get to we have to continue to do that work we have to make sure that all this ecosystem with CVI with hospital-based response safe traces they are already with GVRS and all these other things that we're doing are institutionalized and not just in city regulation and all of those things but also within the mind and the culture of the community so that when

the day comes that I'm no longer in the chair they can't walk away from it what has happened in Baltimore and many places before is that people come in and they change it just because it's not their idea and we have to make sure that we're doing that that's the work that has to continue now

“so that we're just seeing less and less but we we're not just focused yes everyone thinks”

but we're not just focused on violence we have to focus on economic development we are tackling vacant housing in Baltimore when I was a junior in high school on December the 8th of 2000 in Baltimore at 16,000 vacant properties when I took office on December the 8th of 2020 with 16,000 vacant properties we now have that down to a 12,100 in something I didn't check at this morning that's a big drop but we have a plan to eliminate it over the next 15 years between the city

our GBC and our business community build in the community our state government that is helping

with us we just put out our first of its kind tiff tax instrument financing tax bricks

of what people normally call it not for some wealthy development in a wealthy area but on the vacant housing across the city of Baltimore right and that is now that work is now starting to really catch fire and that's the work that has to continue to happen as well to continue to

“make Baltimore progress that's what we're going to be focused on that in the people element as well”

thank you and when I know a world series in the Super Bowl with that's a great one well L.A. is kind of holding the down right out for the world series so maybe I tell this year they won't be able to buy this year it's coming home but I'm lacking orange book it I've actually a blue jays fan so I was pretty I was pretty sad it will be in ALEs but not in across the Canadian board of my friend thank you thank you so much I really really appreciate your time

it's really nice to get just more background on what's going on directly from you because I think a lot of you know the headlines and the stats are like what are heavily perpetuated through news media and I think you see like a lot of the same information rigor dictated over and over again

especially when you're outside of Baltimore itself so to get to hear this from you is incredible

thank you so much for coming out thank you for coming thank you for coming thank you for having me yeah absolutely Simon asked you by the player also this school flashback just a little bit of a rat and then hope this is stimmt for nee garnich visor steuer is so my safe space hmm do you mind that's all it's not here yeah genau visor steuer is so dy steuer app that I just understood egal ob studio job or unzug stimmt crass for me not like steuernan steuern

el edict safe with visor steuer by amazon would now be more than 50% of the bestellungen with weniger perpetuation gelifert zum Beispiel in papiertüten or also ganz ohne zusitzliche papacum ben mal nachtbar also itarish beild li fan via dirdeinen kopp führer mit gehoich und had rückung in der verpackung des herstellers wasierend of amazon verpackung staten aus dem jahr 2005 und son sich in rozbotanian und der EU welcome back welcome back I hope you enjoyed the interview I wanted to do a little wrap up of that and I wanted to see

what you guys thought of uh especially duck uh my my feelings no we're trying to we have a subgolf to keep my words below 100 i've been very cheesy of my words in the latter half of the interview I I really felt like there's this theme in what he's saying that is deeply echoed through

our show from basically the start and a lot of the books we've read of there are no easy solutions

this way it doesn't exist it's not how you solve anything you need to have a deep like nuanced

understanding of the communities where problem exists and a multi-layered approach to be able to tackle issues as complex as your cities you know high high murder rate or housing or health care these things are not just do this and you will fix it and it's eye opening to me as somebody to look at him as somebody who is so young he's 41 now and he got elected in 2020 um well and to see someone like him so confident and motivated and humble in in taking that approach on and then also finding

success like he is demonstrated that this attitude can translate into policy change and an approach

“on the ground that actually changes the problem like it honestly made me incredibly hopeful and that was”

my biggest feeling coming out of this interview was wondering how you maybe echo some of that or maybe feel differently no there's there's two like two I don't know lines or segments I thought bad ass one is him being like I know I wanted to be Baltimore mayor since I was like 10.

He was a nine yeah I was just just wild to do that and then make it happen that's that's always well

that's super badass um he's a cool last dude man this is like he's like cool and then the second thing that I was super not expecting was him saying that being a mayor is the hardest political job never would have thought a mayor would say that forever because even us I mean you know behind the scenes we've had the opportunity to interview other mayors and uh and we've sort of been like I think even us like we're the hardest people no I mean it is very difficult say that a mayor's

hard even though we have the hardest job there so even though we are warriors yeah and the you know one of the things he mentioned that I never thought about is that as a mayor you're like in

your community and you see the people like it's it's maybe it's influential as you can be in politics

while still just like literally being in your community every day seeing them every day like mentioning that somebody's gonna come up to you in the grocery store based on something you just did

“or said and that was really interesting to me I mean talking about us on ironically I think of”

this job as hard because people say mean things about me on the internet sometimes the idea that people are saying that to your face all day every day that's well like a thousand times harder and then the idea that you know somebody in the Senate goes and lives in Washington DC most of the year they're traveling or they're doing those things and they're not actually face to face with it they're like us they're internet warriors and they go on X if they feel like it but I thought that was like

really fascinating and it made me think okay it made me value the position of mayor I think more than I had because probably like many of you it's just like well mayor does last things geographically then a senator or a governor which does less than the president but it's like man if you're really having that much on the ground effect um and then ties to his other points which is like the fact that he's actually lived there and knows it means he's one of the only people qualified to come in

and actually speak to the community closest to the problems that you understand them better but he's and even he mentions how like that's true of him but even that goes further if you

“want somebody who's actually lived on that street to monitor that street and that's how you're”

going to be effective so I I really liked a lot of what he's like you know this is a weird segue but you've worked in a work the area like a big corporation and this is such a common thing there where the people that are higher up are often so far removed from the actual reality of what has to get done in the actual work that the the guy who's doing middle management whatever is actually the one in the weeds or in depth on the real problem when he's to be done and the hardest part

is getting their solutions enough power and buy and higher up this is one of my questions I wanted to ask him but I didn't get to ask because we did run out of time and I was because over the course of this interview I'm developing this feel for certainly part of the reason maybe the largest part of the reason why he's so successful at this job is because of how ingrained in the community he is and how much genuine care and love he has for his own city right and in a way I don't

like when I look at my own upbringing I wonder especially you because of the way you grew up in like a military family moving around and stuff yeah I actually feel like this is a big like whole it's actually hard for me to like relate to people at a personal level because I moved

connection to because also a huge part of the reason why I see like moving as a part of my future like because it's not I don't really I feel very differently about the connection to where I'm from because of how I grew up my roots but he is very much the opposite right and I wanted to ask

if he thinks that's essential to being politically accepted like genuinely politically successful

not not getting elected but like by your actions successful and because so many people especially at the top sphere of politics feel like they're jumping around looking for positions that they can just land right like when you see somebody and I'm sure I'm sure he could be a good guy that someone who came to mind was Tom Stier who I think I see running for California governor and I think he was in a position in Colorado a few years ago when he was like running like

Democratic primary but people like him of there are many at that top level of politics where they're playing like the game and they try to become like I try to become the mayor of this

city I'm not actually from and then a state senator of this state I've only lived in for a little

“bit and then climb up the political ranks I feel like I see so much of that that's why I like to”

Andrew Cuomo getting back to the mayoral roots of New York City you know it's going back to where he's from man of the people I I genuinely and maybe actually maybe not even like if I were to look at it in the best faith faith possible it's I feel like it's very difficult to actually engage with problems if your your life is just so far removed from them if you didn't grow up in that city you just don't understand what the problems could even be even if you want to especially the

detail which I think matter the little details of like how like what is bottlenecking this from actually happening yeah genuinely also and this comes up in the interview that you all just watched a few times but he he notes it's like because I'm black like I understand what did the problems are in Baltimore and and what I had to deal with growing up and what black people

“in Baltimore deal with in a in a way that I think would be harder for I mean anybody outside of Baltimore”

but maybe a a white person from Baltimore to understand genuinely and I I think that is also a theme in the interview and I'm not I'm not saying it's impossible for an outsider to come into something and do do do do a good job and also there's a lot of mayors who live in that city who become mayor who suck balls yes like a guaranteed it's like it's like a little hell no no there's a whole history of people shit and bricks I actually talked to a handful of people in Baltimore

talked to another person that works in politics there to do like background for this interview yeah and it's a they've actually had a horrendous track record of mayors in the past have a good relationship yeah yeah so he he stands out for many different reasons but it did make me question the idea of are you if are you able to do the job effectively even with the best even with the best intentions if you're not if you didn't grow up in that state or that city at the

very least like could I ever be an effective say I was running for office and I grew up my whole life in Washington state and then I just run for like mayor of Albany one day I'm probably not going to do that great of a job I don't think you could do it if you lived in one place for a hundred

“all right then you should be fun at all well I get your your your point I wanted to ask him that”

and see what his opinion on it was because I I don't know if that's necessarily my solid opinion but as I was listening to him speak it was something I started to think about it's like do you need his level of community understanding to truly be effective at this drop it also you know I think I want to talk about my mom Donnie real quick he's he's one month in I do think it helps with communication the very if you can if you can understand the problems and speak to them effectively

which I think that's been one of the standout parts of mom Donnie's campaign and it's early term is married and not much is actually happening it really a month and there's not much radical change although the child care stuff was pretty well ahead of schedule yeah but you know a large part of what he's doing is being the communicator of what's going on and he's remarkably adept at it he's really good at it and you know I saw there was some people

from Cuomo's administration who reviewed his handling of the first major crisis in New York since

been a massive and they all gave him an aid they said he's done he's they did remarkably well

it was it was his communication his leading from the front you know he went out there he's obviously not an experienced shoveler but he's shovel you know he's done what he needed to do to get New Yorkers understand what's going on everything ran smoothly so again I gotta say I got I

“I think it's lending credence more to what you're saying is it got from New York”

who's speaking it away that people understand well hold on he's not from New York that's what's from New York me he it grew up in Ghana didn't you no until he was seven oh yeah but like then they moved it and and they moved it so he's been in New York since he was like oh okay I thought he moved a lot later I think you ganda you ganda was it yeah sorry yeah

I think he's gone he's a mess sure I should go look at the history of this but

but I think also to I mean this is maybe I don't want to ding I'm Donny by necessarily on this but I think a strength of Mayor Scott's background as well is how long he was in Baltimore politics before he took that position which is crazy that is considering how young he wants but I think Mum Donny's political tenure within New York I mean Mum Donny's younger for one but him being a little Mayor Scott's political experience in Baltimore and how involved in the

city he was the way he understood the institutions going into becoming mayor and like the plans that he had ahead of time and his relationships with those people in the mayor the mayor's office or like in other departments before he became that person all seemed to have such huge effects on his ability to create the change in the past like five years

“so I think that's another part of it too is like coming up coming up in your cities”

politics and then there's a weird question here of like well when we're talking about like a state senator or a president or like a national level position you're getting you're getting so zoned out that's like could you ever truly understand the community you're representing any way yeah quick quick just correction you guys are right it was you got not so it you've gone to and then actually at five he moved to South Africa and then so it's 70 moved in New York which to me is like

clearly he grew up in New York City yeah you could put me in yeah my first six years but we were

ever and I still grew up in Sacramento like it's like I didn't move to the US permanently until I was 11 you know so and can it Canada there's a massive cultural gap and a lot of people don't mention yeah yeah you're particularly between Canada and Washington State it's a world apart yeah possibly just so for people who don't know if you drive between the two there's no difference if there's not a border crossing you would not know it's it's it's it's night and day it's like

yeah yeah yeah it's just I'm really excited to you know more so than already follow what Mondani is doing and as part of this I looked up a little bit of like what has he done so far and it's you know it's a lot of like executive orders and saying things it's gonna happen one of the I forget the forget me the exact terminology of it but he's like creating an office that is just specifically going to be about communicating a ton with the community so he is super

on board with this theme of I mean already it's very good at communicating but the like instituting at this part of his office it's like we're going to talk to the community all the time it's like pretty notable and then yeah this child care thing I mean we you know super briefly go over it but already him in the governor of of New York have announced like this start program for

“free child care for two year olds I believe and then so it's gonna be universal child care”

for two year olds and then it's gonna be expanding over the next couple of years and this was like right out the gate that's that's pretty crazy to come out with a big sort of universal child care plan for how quick it was that was you know okay so this is my maybe my villain chair here and what I think is maybe particularly impressive about mare Scott is yeah yes so for everybody which mare do we like better is you make them

which one of right for now I think the thing with a mom Donnie is every it seems everything seems cool I'm excited yeah we're lucky we're a month in like let's see how it works out everything seems promising dope I think the thing that impressed me about mare Scott is like we're doing this on cut the he says it's in himself work isn't done he still got plenty to do job done yeah he it was a bit of a job's not done moment I love that but yeah he's like telling

people when they start clapping don't clap it's awesome we're not done like love that and in him but he's on the like five year and not the or the five year tale of already doing a bite of shit having done some right with real results and maybe the last thing I wanted to touch on was I was so hung up on I do not think you should ever be in these positions

have I like I've so clearly done I've so clearly done a good job like you he could be like that and be a little pissed it's crazy to see that like you have something so you have a result that's so straightforward it's so demonstrable and he still has haters he still has haters and anyway this is a question I want to ask you both because I this reminds me of like a thought

that someone gave it stuff with me basically with the way politics is now you can all the downsides

for your psyche and for your reputation and for are like so uncapped and massive and the upsides are really not like even if you do a great job like this people that likes you likes you you don't say you're not not it's not a big celebration you're not making money it's not you don't have saying your rewards are very and so the theory of this was that this incentive structure is bringing only almost only obviously this is an exception but the worst people in the politics

like the act because only someone who is a true psychopath would choose to use their talent and time and energy to try and run this ladder versus go start a business or what you don't have

“say like this is and yeah that's why it's impressive he's yeah he has this outlook I think”

because I think you're right I think it does push people who are like that into these positions he's on this other end where I think his genuine love for Baltimore and the place he grew up in and how he wanted to improve it as a child that has carried through this his entire life is what carries him through it's truly not about him it's about the city is making a change as a city it's not me it's like all of these people across all of these neighborhoods these different organizations

these different departments in the government they all do this work and like I'm like a part of

that and I think if you're you can find on the other end instead of this person who is like basically

like narcissistic enough or enough to do the job on the opposite end it's someone who has such a deep love for where they're from that they're willing to step up and be like the vector

“for change I think maybe that's my hope and mom Donnie gives me like a glimmer of that he seems”

like more pointed in that direction and maybe like you're saying as we climb into this like era of frustration like we'll build up more figures like this that's that's kind of my hope is like this is that these are the diamonds that will create you know that's yeah that's a spooky thought for me because this guy feels like he was designed in a Baltimore lab to be the perfect guy's love to see him brought there and it's like we need someone like that for for life or for

you know there's gotta be person that loves every one of these cities to make the change I don't know like just like to mowing that guy like I don't know and so yeah I guess that's the worrying part of I I didn't really impress my what you're talking about there's no shot rock for Illinois as like that we're just shooting on the way guys we'll include the interviews probably over time thanks for listening to this week's episode of lemonade stand

work you know lemonade stand curse is not to be blamed for anything it's happened in January what are our last week we we talked about the terrors for Greenland and they immediately got over that was the blessing believe it's a blessing right so I don't know what we would be blessing here

“I honestly would not be surprised if this episode comes out and immediately trump has fire”

Kristi no more Steven Miller god on on I'd run away this year we're gonna go after bad events and they're gonna get better 26th a year of lemonade stand or it's like a weird like monkeys paw where Brandon Scott gets put into DHS like head of DHS and we're like oh shit it's this weird how monkey line was discussed for stand in single government and this is just just sick and twisted whatever it goes we'll cover it next week but I am hoping for a week with no major

insane current event because there's a lot of like stuff to catch up on again you know we talk about things other than we talk about economics we talk about tech on their show and there's been some

incredible developments both in the world of tech AI and then you know I mean the US dollar is like

plummeting this year there's a lot of talk about economically that I think we like to get to so we'll plan for that next week unless something else crazy happens thank you guys for watching looking forward to seeing your reactions and thanks again for going on to Baltimore and doing that that was really cool thanks head better buddy bye