Parents Are Losing This Battle and Nobody's Talking About It

🖤 **Are Black Children Safe in America?**

What do you tell your child when they ask if they’re safe?

In this powerful episode of **Brothers Just Talking**, Harv C, E., and Da Funky One discuss the deaths of **Nolan Wells (18)** and **Kadir Skinner (19)**, the unanswered questions surrounding their cases, and the fear many Black parents carry when their children leave home.

We are not presenting rumors or opinions as facts. Investigations may still be ongoing. Our goal is to ask responsible questions, focus on verified information, and center the humanity of two young men whose families deserve truth and transparency.

The brothers discuss:

✅ What Black parents should teach about police encounters
✅ Why survival—not winning—is the priority in tense situations
✅ The difference between real friends and associates
✅ The harm of spreading rumors during active investigations
✅ What body cameras show—and what they don’t
✅ Who should control police footage
✅ Legal and moral questions around deadly force
✅ Teaching awareness without raising fear
✅ Safely recording police encounters
✅ Why documentation, legal help, and independent reviews matter
✅ What all parents should teach about race and accountability
✅ Why grieving families often become investigators
✅ What real police reform requires

This conversation is not anti-police. Many officers serve with integrity. But accountability matters when misconduct, poor policy, or missing information erodes trust.

Body cameras alone don’t guarantee justice. True accountability requires strong policies, independent investigations, transparency, and consequences when warranted.

Parents must also create safe spaces where children can call for help without fear. Teach awareness, calm responses, and the importance of getting home safely.

Most importantly: asking for help is never a weakness.

🎙️ **Join the conversation:**

What do you teach your children about police interactions?
How do you prepare them without instilling fear?
Should body cameras always be recording?
Who should control and release footage?
Why must families fight for answers?
What reforms would rebuild trust?

Please keep comments respectful. Separate facts from speculation. Two families are grieving.

Say their names:

**Nolan Wells**
**Kadir Skinner**

May their families receive truth, peace, and justice.

🎧 **Watch & Listen:**

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👍 Subscribe, share, and join the conversation.



**Content notice:** Discusses death, racial trauma, and police violence.
**Disclaimer:** Commentary only—not legal advice.

Nolan Wells

1.  Associated Press — Investigation and autopsy overview
    https://apnews.com/article/b9327f377853d7934ea70c2e936a4f2e 
2.  Reuters — Independent autopsy raises additional questions
    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/private-autopsy-raises-questions-about-death-mississippi-college-football-player-2026-07-22/ 
3.  Reuters — Family seeks answers following Nolan Wells’s death
    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/family-demands-answers-death-young-black-man-mississippi-2026-07-10/ 
4.  WLOX — Timeline of the disappearance and investigation
    https://www.wlox.com/2026/07/07/timeline-heres-what-we-know-about-disappearance-death-18-year-old-nolan-wells/ 
5.  WLOX — Authorities request original photos, videos and eyewitness accounts
    https://www.wlox.com/2026/07/07/authorities-seek-original-photos-videos-eyewitness-accounts-related-nolan-wells-or-unusual-activity-horn-island-july-4/ 
6.  WLOX — GPS data tracking the group’s boat movements
    https://www.wlox.com/2026/07/16/gps-data-tracks-boat-movement-before-nolan-wells-disappearance-death/ 

Kadir Skinner

1.  Delaware Department of Justice — Official body-camera footage release
    https://news.delaware.gov/2026/07/16/ag-jennings-mayor-carney-and-chief-campos-release-body-worn-camera-footage/ 
2.  Spotlight Delaware — Body-camera footage and shooting report
    https://spotlightdelaware.org/2026/07/16/delaware-doj-releases-video-showing-fatal-police-shooting-of-kadir-skinner/ 
3.  Spotlight Delaware — Family’s planned wrongful-death action
    https://spotlightdelaware.org/2026/07/17/family-of-kadir-skinner-to-sue-wilmington-over-police-killing-of-the-teen/ 
4.  Spotlight Delaware — Calls for police reform following the shooting
    https://spotlightdelaware.org/2026/07/21/kadir-skinner-shooting-sparks-calls-for-police-reform/ 
5.  NBC10 Philadelphia — Body-camera footage released
    https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/officials-release-bodycam-video-of-deadly-wilmington-police-shooting/4434233/ 
6.  6ABC/WPVI — Family calls for charges after footage release
    https://abc11.com/story/body-camera-video-released-wilmington-delaware-police-shooting-killed-19-year-old-kadir-skinner-family-calls-charges/19526459/ 

Police Use of Force, Body Cameras and Civil Rights

1. Tennessee v. Garner — Cornell Legal Information Institute
   https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/471/1 
2.  National Institute of Justice — Body-camera research
    https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/research-body-worn-cameras-and-law-enforcement 
3.  U.S. Department of Justice — Body-camera program guidance
    https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/472014912134715246869.pdf 
4.  ACLU — Recording and documenting police officers
    https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/recording-and-documenting-police-and-federal-agents 
5.  ACLU — Rights when stopped by police
    https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police

#BrothersJustTalking #BJT #NolanWells #KadirSkinner #PoliceAccountability #BlackParents #Justice #Transparency

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I have a son and a daughter, and I actually had to face this. I would tell them you're safe in America, but there are times that will you'll be confronted and you may not be safe. Brother just talking when your child asks whether they're safe in America, what do you tell them? What do you tell them, James?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Man, I think for my kids, the talk I have with them is like when it comes to be a situation like tape, you get pulled over by the cops or or anything that's uh a position of authorities questioning you, your main goal is to get home. So just do what they ask you. And even though that's not always gonna be the answer, but just concentrate on getting home, let me handle it for you. Uh, what do you think, Amika?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, first thing I do is uh you gotta educate. You gotta educate the young, the young men, young ladies out here when it comes down to uh dealing with the authorities. And even if you're on the right, you always tell them to comply first. Get the badge number and everything else second, and then you can fight them the very next day. You want to make it to the next day. If they're wrong and you feel like you're right, the best thing is to comply badge number, cruiser number, and if possible, if you really don't feel safe enough, and I will say ask them for a supervisor. Can you get a supervisor to come before you start giving any other information? So I'm gonna send it right back to you, Harv. What do you think? Is your child safe?

SPEAKER_03 1:38

You know, Sebi E, because I have a son and a daughter, and I actually had to face this. I would tell them you're safe in America, but there are times that will, you'll be confronted and you may not be safe. And that is when you have to use all of the things that your mother and I tortured home, which were encompassed the very things that you spoke about. So if we ask, are your child safe in America? that's gonna be up to you. Tonight's conversation is heavier than usual. We're talking about the death of an 18-year-old Nolan Wells and a 20-something Khadir Skinner. The unanswered questions surrounding their final hours and the fear that black parents carry every time their children leave home. We're not investigators, and we will not treat rumors as facts. But we are fathers. We're brothers, we're uncles, and more than anything, in this particular situation, we're black men, and we have questions that deserve honest answers. Welcome everybody to Brothers Just Talking. This particular episode is going to discuss depth, racial trauma, and violence. As I spoke earlier, this is gonna be a lot heavier than what you receive from us. But due to recent instances that have occurred, they must be spoken on, like they would be at the barbershop. We take this time right now to extend condolences to Nolan's and Kadir's family, and we want to let our viewers know that when you send your comments for this particular show, and you will have comments. We want you to state clearly what is confirmed, alleged, and and and things that are unknown, but more than anything, viewers, please keep your comments respectful because of what we're doing. Before we debate anything, let's separate what we know from you know from real and from what's not real. We're gonna deal with the confirmed information that we have in both of these instances. Nolan Wells was an 18-year-old teenager. He disappeared following a July 4th trip at Horn Island in Mississippi. His body was discussed, or excuse me, was discovered two days later. Authorities have interviewed dozens of witnesses. Digital evidence and Nolan's cell phone are being examined as we speak. Dispatch audio connected to the group's boat has been released. The FBI is assisting with portions of the investigation also. Official cause, manner of death should not be assumed before evidence is completed. This investigation is going to a grand jury. They decided that earlier this week, about two days ago. That's his particular case. And we'll move to this kinder after we have this opening uh discussion. Can you demand justice while still protecting the truth? These are things that we think about. Why is independent scrutiny important in cases with unanswered questions? And how should podcasters such as us discuss an active investigation responsibly? And responsibly is very important that we handle it that way. We are only going to deal with things that have been confirmed. We're going to let you know when we speak about certain things that are the family's concern. And we're going to let you know what information we know about this that are unverified. And then from my position and the guys who are on the show here with me, E and Jay, they're going to let you know when it's strictly their opinion. The first thing we want to kick off with, we want you to know that these guys were key. We want to deal with first Nolan and his humanity. If this were your son, what would you need from his friends, investigators, the media, and the public? We'll kick that out to you, E. What would you need?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

It's a deep situation with the uh the Nolan case. It's still pending in so many different situations. Um I have a different opinion about it in terms of uh who do you consider as friends? You know, you have friends and then you have associates as friends. And what I mean by that is that if these are your friends, real friends, you know, if you guys go together, you come back together. You know, you go somewhere, if one man is missing, we don't leave until that man is picked up. Now, if you guys associate as friends, which means an example would be if Harv C has a friend and I'm friends with Harv, but I don't know his guy. So if his guy doesn't show up, I don't care. You know, that's you know, I'm not really gonna put too much emphasis on it unless Harv makes a big deal about it. And then, yo, okay, let's see where your friend is. So that's what I mean by associate as friends. So the situation that I see there is, are they really his friends? Because if everybody left the island and they'll talk, they'll talk. And the man is still there, then how could you call these guys your friends when they just left one man behind and no communication? It's nothing but an island with a whole different situation is over there. Evidently they found his body two days later after the fourth, and then everybody, you know, how could you call those guys your friends? So to me, those are associated as friends. They're not really their friends, because if not, they would have not left that man by himself. They would have waited, gone together, you go together, you leave together. Those are real friends. True friends.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

So you lay you laid that out there pretty much what you need from friends. How about the investigators, the media, and the public? How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

I think that uh, and again, my condolences go out to the to the Wells family, known Wells, the family. Our condolences go out to them, what they're going through. All you bloggers and everybody in the social media need to stop putting some of this false information that's giving them false hope. They're already going through a tragedy. Definitely. The tragedy is already, it's a huge tragedy losing your son. And then you're giving all this crazy information that they don't really need to hear that's not helping their situation. I get it. They did an official autopsy report, they did an independent autopsy report, which is good. Still pending, but we'll see how it turns out. I'm not going to really give you a full ideology of what I really think, but I just want to wait till the whole evidence comes out and then I can give you my full thinking about what I really think is going on. But for the money, for the main part, for what I do understand is if the official doesn't collaborate with the independent, then that's when it goes to the officer that goes to the OEG, then OEG activates the grand jury. And once the grand jury gets activated, all you need is between 12 is 15-man jury. You need 12 out of 15 to say, yay. And next thing you know, you have a civil lawsuit for the family.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

And that that's really a great point that you're making, that you're holding off your full feelings on this particular case, so all the facts are in.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

So all the facts are out.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

So I'm not going to give it to you.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

I have a very strong opinion about this. Yes. I'm just going to hold off on it until I get the whole entire enchilada of what's going on with the case. Once the once the two autopsy reports come out and we see if there was any type of hanky panky that that went down with it, then we can really dive into some real serious stuff, which hopefully there will be people that would be found in some serious situation for dealing with this, uh dealing with this case.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

So you know, before I throw it to James, I want you to understand that uh everyone, this particular case is one that brings up a big concern because Mississippi has a history. Has a history with our culture. They have extreme history with our culture. And one Mississippian was so wild to go on and and you can find this on YouTube, South there on YouTube. He went on to say we knew what we was doing. We set him up. We know y'all can't swim. And and I'm not even going to speak on everything he said, but it was absolutely disgusting. Now he ended up losing his guy, his job, this particular Caucasian, for the comments that he made. However, the fact that he even was bold enough to go out there and say that. Now, he said it was satire and he shouldn't have lost his job. But, you know, to these families out there, this ain't nothing to laugh at. James, I want to throw this out to you, big game. If this was your son, what would you need from his friends, the investigators, the media, and the public?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

I need full transparency. I need to know the truth. I don't need anything hidden from me. That's where I would have an issue if I'm not being told the truth. For me, it's hard sometimes for me to believe people and trust people because I'm thinking if you have an agenda, you're not going to tell me the truth. So hopefully, you know, they are being transparent. Hopefully they are being honest. You hear the stories about the people that left, and I understand about the friend thing. Your goal as a friend for me is uplift each other. And if you left them, you're not uplifting them. But then I don't know the full story behind it. They might have done everything they could, for all I know. So I don't want to put blame there. Just my thoughts, my opinions. But I would need full transparency. I need to know what's going on. Don't keep anything from me. You're already dealing with the fact that your child is gone. So the last thing I need is for you to assault my intelligence and start lying to me.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

That's the thing that we're speaking about here today. The discrepancies and the innuendos and the rumors and the things that get put out there. These families want factual information and what has happened. Now, we gave you the opening on Nolan Wells and what his family is looking for, so to speak, and his particular individual or a situation that has occurred that has led to his death. 19-year-old, and I said earlier, 20-something year old, and I stand corrected, he was only 19, Kadir Shark Dinner. He was shot and killed by a Wilmington police officer. The video has now been released, and what it shows and what it does not show has created serious questions about the official count that the police gave. So just as I ran down the situation with Nolan Wells, I'm going to run down the situation that we have before us with 19-year-old Kadir Skinner. A Wilmington police officer fairly shot at Skinner. He was shot while moving away from the officer, running. Body camera footage shows an officer pursuing Skinner, drawing his weapon, and firing. Skinner repeatedly says he has nothing, and later says in the video, he cannot breathe. Officers handcuffed him after he has been shot. And I believe he was shot in the buttocks or in the leg. I think it was the buttocks. A responding officer's footage appears to show an object being recovered from the grass. Police say officers originally saw Skinner with a handgun and that a loaded weapon was recovered. The release footage does not show the beginning of the encounter or clearly show Skinner holding a weapon. Skinner's attorneys argue that he was running from a dog, not knowingly fleeing from the police. His family is seeking criminal charges and has announced a planned $25 million wrongful death claim. The Delaware Department of Justice investigation is not complete. Again, it is not complete. So many of these things we're speaking on, they're not locked down, but we do know that the family of Kaden Skinner felt they saw enough that they were willing to come forward with a particular lawsuit. Now, this is my question I'm throwing out for us to debate around a little bit. If Kadir was running away and the footage does not clearly show a weapon in his hands, what immediately threat justified shooting him from behind?

SPEAKER_02 13:03

James, I'm gonna throw this to you first, babe. So the things that I looked up and I read or looked on the sources I checked out, there wasn't a threat. Pretty much an officer can if they feel there's an immediate threat to himself or someone else, but it doesn't show in the video that I've seen that he was actually a threat to anyone. So I don't know yet, until more information comes out, I don't know for sure what happened. But I do know that the body cam footage, the officers turn it on and off, from my understanding. So if that's the case, my question would be: why do we leave it up to the officer to turn it on and off? If you're on duty, why isn't it just on?

SPEAKER_03 13:47

That's my thought process. You know, that's a very good question.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Because you're leaving it up to a person to decide whether or not to turn it on. I like to give people the benefit of doubt, but but we don't know what's in someone's heart. So how do I know that this person is going to do something wrong and automatically turn it on at spots where you know it's gonna benefit their their argument? And even then, it didn't benefit their argument from the things they said from what I read. But that's that's my thought process on the how can you trust a person? I think a lot of problems that we have is that we don't trust our officials because history has shown us them to lie to us. And because of that, we're we're distrusting. But I think one way of kind of closing that gap is just have it on all the time. That's just my thought.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

And that and that is a good point to make on that. I think one of the things that goes on in our community and the lack of trust, and and this is where we got to tighten up because it's it's a tough thing. I know these officers got a tough job out there, man. So I'm not gonna even say this. Like, you know, let's be real. And and then they can't get information when things go down because we got the no-snitch rule in our community. So they're dealing with a lot. And then they got to deal with the cats who are handling things the way it should be handled.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

But can I say this, Harv? We actually, I mean, at the at this point in our lives, you know, it's a job for a lot of people, but I have friends who are officers. Right. There's not any job that you can go into, everybody's gonna be perfect. So they probably know of things that's happening that they wish they could change, but they're not bad people. You know, you know what I mean? Everyone, but everyone's not that way. Everyone doesn't walk the same line. And I'm sure those people that I know aren't gonna sit there and think that this is this is cool. So that's just I just want to put that out there. So it's not everybody, but these are these are concerns that we have. Like, why do we not trust you as a whole? I have a different perspective. Go ahead, D.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Go ahead. And uh my condolences to Khadir Skinner's family about the situation. But let's not let's not jump the gun and totally dismiss what the law enforcement, what they're doing in on their half of if they did recover the gun. And let's not dismiss the fact what law enforcement has done in their on their half of the information they got. And to play devil's advocate, what if he did have that? What if he did have the gun on him? What if he did was fleeing from from him? You know, he's 19, and you know, you gotta say that, you know, most of these young, young young men at 18, 19, and you, and you, and I remember when we was that age, we did a lot of dumb stuff. You know what I'm saying? I don't know how far dumb stuff you went and did and didn't get caught, but we've done a lot of dumb stuff. Right. At 18, 19 and stuff like that. Now, it might not be as extreme as carrying a weapon or whatever, whatever, but let's not dismiss the fact that, you know, they did find it on the scene and knowing about how weapons are, they can tie to if you if you use it or if you fired it or whatever, or what have you. And then the body camera, how they actually work is once they get into a situation, it kicks in, it comes on, you know. And they can't have it on all the time because, you know, what if they're just going to go get something to eat or whatever, and then it's recording everything that's happening around them. That's a lot of data that they cannot, you know, they can't, they gotta filter all that out. So it really just works when a situation comes up, they go to a domestic or whatever, they cut it on, and then next thing you know, it's recording. Into a chase, you know, it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like the NFL. You don't catch the guy that started it. You always catch the guy that hits back. Not the guy who started the fight, but the guy who hits back. That's what you catch. But you don't catch it in the beginning. So now we're always blaming the guy who hit back. But we don't know the full story of the guy who started it. So I would like to reserve judgment until we get a full understanding of what really happened. Because they say, well, he chased him, and supposedly Kadir Skinner was running away from a pit bull. So that's that's their counter of what they said happened when they said was running after him carrying a gun, but the officer was chasing him for the simple fact that they're saying that the young black man didn't know that he was being chased, that he was running for from a pit bull. Okay, so my question would be is who's the pit bull's owner and why is his name not on everything else? So that's why I like to reserve judgment because this investigation is pending. There's a lot of moving pieces that is not making sense to me. He got shot somewhere around his buttocks, you know. Can officers do that? They can if you're armed. If you're armed and you're running and they know you got a gun on you, yes, yes, they can. They can do that. But like I said, I would like to reserve the rest of my judgment of how I really see what's really going on because we don't really have the full information about this situation. We do know that the crowd, you know, came together and you know, it you know how it is. It it always happens when the shooting happens, everybody comes together, and it's a whole lot of, you know, it's bad history. Don't get me wrong, law enforcement does have bad history about what they've been doing, but it's not all of them. Not all of them are bad.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

I do want to interject, I do want to interject here, E. I took some time earlier this week and a couple days ago to really look at this film. And they do have him running and they showed a dog chasing him. They had it frozen. They showed the dog chasing him. And I know when they put the cuffs on him, he didn't have a weapon on it. That doesn't mean he didn't toss the weapon before they cuffed him because they did say they recovered something out of the grass. And they don't even say they recovered a weapon in some places, and in some places it says they did recover a weapon. I think that is the only reason why that family moved ahead with a $25 million lawsuit against the.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

I think it's alleged so far. All these things are just alleged situations.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Well, the dog, I I'll say the part with the dog ain't alleged. I saw the dog and I saw the dude running.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

But the question I the question I have is this like, again, since we don't have all the all the facts, but I'm still thinking like a what-if situation. If he's running from you, and let's say he did toss a gun, but he's running from you. There's so many other ways to to handle that situation, at least in my opinion, other than shooting him. Remember, James, the key is if he had a weapon. Now, if he didn't have a weapon if he but but say he throw the weapon to the side, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yeah, yeah. Now if he tossed the weapon.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So he did so so the argument is that he he tossed a weapon. Right. That means at that point he's running without a weapon. Right. There's video of a dog chasing him. So why did you feel the need of shooting him? I mean, there's a bunch of different ways because once, I mean, the only way from the from what I looked at in the laws, if a cop feels that you are actually a threat to yourself or threat to others, then there's justified. Right. If you're a threat, I don't because so there's a law, there was a Tennessee versus Garner, and we're and I might be a little wrong here, but officer generally cannot shoot an unarmed person, a non-judicial person, a non-dangerous or person merely to prevent an escape. They can't do that. Deadly force may be constitutional when the officer has probable cause to believe that that person is in serious physical threat to the officer or others. So so that being a law that's been passed, well, not a law, but a court case where you know that was determined. I don't see under those specific rules where that was the case here. So I understand what people might say he can, but there's actual, you can do the research for it, Tennessee versus Garner. And that was the case. They they determined that and ruled that. So if he's running and the gun is to the side somewhere, and that's your argument, there was no reason to shoot that person.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

And I will say that is the basis for why they went on and filed the lawsuit. Because I'm pretty sure these lawyers wouldn't be jumping into this if he had the weapon in his hand and and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

But here's another thing. But here's another thing. Another thing is that understand when you have investigations as the such, all the information is not being given out to the public. And we know this. Law enforcement doesn't give you all the information. They will hold it until they get the full information, until I IED will investigate the officers first. They're going to be out of context, which means that they're not going to be on the streets, but they'll still be working, but not on the streets until the investigation is concluded. IED will investigate them. So they're not giving you the full details of the whole incident. They're just giving you enough of which the news is going to run with it, media is going to run with it, people on the streets that see it is going to run with it. Everybody's going to have their different narrative until the full conclusion of the investigation. That's when everything else comes out. So right now, I'm going to reserve what I really feel, what I really think, until the whole thing comes out. Because knowing what I know about the law enforcement game, they're not going to give you all the information. They're going to withhold until their investigation is concluded.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

So I'm okay. I'm okay with that also, but I'm going by what was said by them. So from from So just give you enough just to keep you afloat. I understand all that, but I'm going by what the law states from a court case. That's probably why they found the $25 million, but I'm also going by the data that was given to us. So that's all we have right now. So we don't have maybe, like you said, we don't have everything, but the questions that I'm asking, like, why isn't it recorded up 24-7 while you're on work? I really don't care about the data part of it because you can you could delete data that you don't need. You know, but the reality of it is, you know, I don't, you know, that doesn't, that doesn't make sense to me. If you want a job and if that's and then if it's such a data thing for you, and that's such a thing for as lawyers, then why not, why let the person who's going to benefit from not showing something have have access to turning it on and off? Then that could be a law that could be replaced to change later. That could be something they might never change it, but it's something I'm thinking about. Like, how can we make that better? And the only way I can say of making that better is well, don't you can't say, don't say can't.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

When you say can't, that means either one, you're being lazy, you don't want to do the work to change it, or, and I'll say this too, fellas, that is something that the people, if there are going to be changes, the people who vote for their prosecutors, who vote for their DAs, they're the people that can cause that to change. Now, we've laid both of these situations out to you out there. You see it. We got two different cases here. So, what I want to transition now to is our responsibility, our responsibilities of parents. What do we tell our children? Okay. Let's look at this. We got two situations here, and we want to look beyond it. So, my first thing I want to throw out, and I'm gonna throw this out to you, E, to start this discussion. How do you prepare a black child for the world without making that child afraid to live?

SPEAKER_01 24:34

How do you do that, Eve? Well, you gotta respect the authorities. You just can't look at them as objects of disrespect. That clearly is not gonna work in your favor. But then you gotta let them know, especially if you have a lot of our young black men out here, you gotta educate these cats. You gotta let them know, hey man, the system is not meant for you if you go to jail. You're gonna lose your rights to work in the government. You're gonna lose your rights to vote. You cannot have the same crime as somebody that is non-black, like a Caucasian. If you guys have the same, same crime and you go to court, you're gonna get more time than he will. And you guys did the same crime. And that's sad. And that's sad. It's a sad thing, but that's sad. That's what's going on in our society. So we gotta educate these young cats and let them know hey man, look, instead of going out here doing this dumb stuff, why don't you just try to make an honest living doing this? At least you don't have to worry about looking behind your back, somebody coming to arrest you, somebody coming to a channel.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

But D, D, I want to throw this out to you. I get what you're saying. If a dude is living, he's living foul. But we got cats who are getting done who are not living foul. And I'll go into it when when the peace comes back to me because I have real life situations.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Well, that still I've experienced. You still have to educate these cats because life is a life is just a revolving ball that keeps going round and round and round. And we can't control what's outside, but we can control the information we put into our kids. You got to let them know that when you go out here in this world, this world could be wicked, this world can be cruel, the wicked, I mean, it's not for the people that cannot handle conflict. You have to go out here and you have to educate. You gotta let them know, hey, don't go out here disrespecting these authorities. If you have, if you get pulled over, just go ahead and say, look, badge number, do what they need to say and get all your information and get out of there, and then go to the precinct and file a complaint. You'd be surprised. And I'm just gonna say this to my young brothers out there. If you have a problem and you get pulled over, don't give them a lot of hell. Do compliance with what they say, go to the very next day, file a complaint. You'll be surprised how these complaints get them in trouble. Carry juice. They do carry juice. It gets them so much trouble. You don't believe me, it gets them into a lot of trouble. You gotta file a complaint against them if you feel that your rights have been violated. There's no need to fight there, don't do it. Respect them, badge number, cruiser number, go to the precinct the next day and file a complaint, and you'll see what wonders do. It does wonders, and they hate it.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

E. E. I want to bring James in. And James, I got a several questions for you. And I want you to consider this in your answer. Why do children need confidence, judgment, and emotional control? Also, staying with trusted friends during trips and parties, and I think both you and E kind of touched on it. E really touched on that a little bit. If you leave with somebody, you come back with them. And establishing check-in times and emergency plans, and lastly, sharing locations without turning parenting into surveillance. Speak to those things, if you will, that if you need me to repeat, I'll throw them back out at you again.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Well, one of the things I I I tell my kids is one, recognize an unsafe situation. Excellent. You know, that's that's one of the things. And when you see something that's not right, if it you know, if it's if it's not right, you know, it's time to maybe just leave. You know, leave uh if you see something that's escalating, being confrontational, leave it. There's no sense of sticking around. And then you mentioned about keeping trusted people around you. Definitely do that. Also have an open communication with your kids because sometimes I've done it in the past where I was afraid to call my parents because I'm afraid of getting in trouble. Do that. You know, make sure they they can call you. You know, like my daughter knows where I am at, where I am 24-7. She can always look on my phone and her phone and they can find you, and vice versa. We don't even trip over that. I would tell them also understand your legal rights. You know, understand O'Sandino, educate yourself enough, understand your legal rights. If you do get in a confrontation with an officer or anyone of law, be respectful as best as you can because we but we've also learned that being respectful is not always the best way. You still could be if you got somebody that's gunning for you. It is what it is. But, you know, also seek legal help. You know, once we find out what's what the situation, seek legal help, like you guys are saying, I would take it one step further, get a lawyer. If you have to. If you have to. If your rights are are violated, get a lawyer. Money talks. And people, you when you hit somebody's pockets, you know, they they think twice about it.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

And that's and that's definite. E, I'm gonna toss this back to you because I got a couple other things we can kind of want to discuss in in this preparation of preparing our kids. Do you believe in teaching your children to document things responsibly? But while they document, prioritize their safety. And what parents should tell sons versus what you should tell a daughter? Speak, speak, speak to that, E.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Well, one thing I do like about what our young people are doing today is they're using their phones to record. That's part of your rights. That's a good indicator to soften whatever situation they're bringing. If they're trying to bring 100 a bad situation to you, as soon as they see you recording, it calms it down a little bit because now they know they're live. And the worst thing you can do is put somebody that's in authority, put them on a live view. And he knows right then and there there's no lying, there's no pretending, there's no saying they you did this, you did that, no, brother. You're live. We all can see what you're doing, you know. And that's a good thing that I see that uh society is doing today, which is a great thing. And believe me, it's legal. You can record as long as you're in the public setting, you can always record. So don't let nobody tell you you can't record. That's going against your rights. You can all you always can record. And the other thing is when you're giving advice to sons and to daughters, it's different. With the guys, with the with the with the sons, it's a little bit more, you know, hey, this is what you gotta do in today's society against the black man, and you know, you cannot do this, and then if you're being disrespected by another man, you gotta stay in your grind. So you're giving boys the tough love of what men, young boys need to do and how to stay away from getting into trouble. Don't disrespect authorities. If you're in a situation, I need you to comply, dash number, cruise a number, go to the precinct and complain. Now, with the daughters, you gotta you gotta be a little bit different. You know, you gotta say, hey, this is my number. I need you to call me anytime when this is a situation because things are a little different now, even though that is worse on the black men or the guys when it comes to dealing with authorities, women still go through the same thing, but not as bad as the guys do. You know, so only thing that I would tell my daughter is don't be disrespectful. Don't go 100 miles out the mouth. Don't do that. Say what you gotta say. If your vehicle is in good condition in terms of your paperwork, your documentation, give him all the things he needs, get out of there. And just like the funky one said, if needed, you can get yourself one of those lawyers that they got this app where if you get pulled over, you activate it, and your lawyer pops up. And whatever the authority is saying right there, your lawyer is listening and everything, and the lawyer's gonna let him know hey, this is such and such, or I'm a kid's representation of this is Travis Stark. I need you to go ahead and do what you gotta do. There's an app out there, uh, you look it up, and you might have to pay something a month, but it's worth it. You have a live lawyer when you get pulled over. So you can look that up, but that's something I didn't even know about.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

That's something that I didn't even know about. That's the first thing I heard of it. So, look, viewers out there, we want y'all to go research this. Because we're not just giving you information just to kick out there and it's out there on a bobo. This is serious information that we drop into you and so research it and then comment it. If it's not everything that he just dropped, it was give it what the difference is, or validate what he's saying and kick it back to us and let us know. Now, James, I want to kick this out to you. Are there discussions that white parents should teach their children about race, intervision, and accountability? How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Well, my my thought process because I'm bi I'm I'm biracial. Okay. So because I'm biracial, I see both sides. And and that being said, I guess it's a little different for me coming from Philly because uh the conversation is pretty much similar with the people I know, no matter what race you are. It's like when they because if it doesn't matter what race you are at the end of the day, if you if your child is dead, you know what I mean? Like if somebody that you love and it's no longer there, you can't hold them anymore for whatever reason. I don't think it's much of a difference in that conversation. But as far as majority of the white families that I do know, the conversation is is a little different because for some, there's an understanding, even though it's not right, there's a certain privilege that's baked in for them. No question. And because again, and a lot of my friends, they they know this. They don't say it's right, they disagree with that whole concept, but it is what it is. Even, you know, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be totally honest here. You know, I there's certain things that I've experienced that my brother didn't experience. I've gotten off of some things that my brother didn't. My brother is Amika's, you know, complexion. I am my complexion. And my brother has dealt with some stuff that I'd never dealt with. You know what I mean? It's just the way it is. It's unfortunate, but I don't, I don't know. I think for most of us, if we could just stop having these safe conversations and just be honest about things, it will help.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

You know, I you know, I think it's extremely sad that we are in the 250th anniversary of this country, and we're still in we're still dealing with a lot of negativities of race. We are still dealing with it. Now we dealt with it so strongly, and and and a lot of times I think America doesn't want to really, really look at and and really understand the seriousness of what slavery did to this country and what it's done to a couple sets of people. But not just that, because America looks at a lot of minorities, not just black Americans, in a certain way. And I think it's sad that this is the land of the free, quote unquote, the home of the brave, definitely. And we still are coming up with these complex situations that as black Americans, we definitely gotta teach our kids certain ways to handle themselves. I know I taught my son early on. Look, when a cop pulls you over, you put both hands on that steering wheel, put the windows down, and let him know that your father works for law enforcement and do everything he is asking you to do. And like Emeka said earlier, if he's out of if he's out of pocket, you make sure you get that badge number, you get that game, and you report, he could tell me. And then I will take it the next stage. And I'm very much on point with what you said, Emeka, about making that phone call, having your girls make that phone call. But I do disagree with you when you say girls have it a little better. I think in this day and age, today, maybe not so much back in the day, but today, I think our women, our black women are catching it just as bad, if not worse, in some instances, I agree, as the guys are. And the reason I say that, one, you got more females on the department. And so a lot of times when you got more females on the department, they tend to get into it with other women really quickly. And, you know, so I I just think um I disagree with you on that point, but for mostly what everything that you were kicking, I gotta, I gotta agree with you. But I'm just so saddened by the plight of our country. I want to move into another area. When do y'all think, and this is definitely in line with what I was just speaking on, I'm I want to say, when will the killing of black men cease? Now we got two instances that we're talking tonight. One, as far as the the individual, quote unquote, was running from the officer, has happened repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly. I mean, we can go back to the 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, when black men were killed for reasons that they shouldn't have died of. The one with Nolan Wells, this is a little different, man. But because Mississippi has such a history and the South has such a history, this kind of thing may have gone down, but it was undocumented. So I thought I tossed this out to you guys justice, accountability, and exhaustion. That's what these families are facing now, right? So I want to kind of kick it to us. If footage, witnesses, and public pressure are repeatedly required before a case receives attention, what happens when there ain't no camera? When there's no camera at all? What happens then? I'm gonna throw it to you, James, first, this time to let you kind of kick this around.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Well, I'm gonna touch on what you asked originally, like when will the killing of black men cease? Go ahead. I personally don't think it will end through outrage alone. It's gonna take uh to, you know, reducing preventable deaths requires enforceable laws, transparent investigations, like I was saying before, being honest, better supervision, consistent prosecution when crimes occur, community safety work, you know, the you know, and and a sustainable political participation. I think all those things are needed for it to get better. But the main thing is, you know, that mindset when you're when you're raised, and it is and let me say that it doesn't really matter if it's black or white. We go to other countries where everyone's the same, everyone looks the same, it becomes a class thing. It's always something that separates somebody from someone. So understanding that, I do believe you have to start from home, and you have people that are taught hate at a very young age. Yes, yes. Who who believe just because I I quote unquote this imaginary, you know, biological lottery that you hit that you're better than a person, which I think is ridiculous, you know. Uh, and they think that a lot of people feel because I am so-and-so, whatever, I'm supposed to be giving. I'm entitled to this. You know, they they got rid of a lot of our Latin brothers and sisters and got rid of them, complaining about jobs, but they are jobs that people didn't want, you know. So you can't complain in the DEI thing. They complained about the DEI. But the reality of it is you you don't qualify. You didn't get the education that, you know, and if you have a head start in this world and you don't qualify, that's not my fault. You've had every opportunity and you didn't take advantage of it, that's not my fault. So get some get an education. Learn something, make something of yourself. Like keep saying, tell people pull by their bootstraps. Well, do the do what you say you tell her, tell me to do, you do the same. Teach your kids, and let's all work together because I've learned something, man. I have friends of all nationalities, of all political beliefs. But one thing I do know that we may disagree on certain things, but everyone I've spoken to, we all agree that we want a good education for our family. We want good health care, you know, to make sure that we're safe. So I don't understand why we can't seem to get along better than we do.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Very true, very much so. And it is it's a sad commentary. Like I said, that, you know, after all this time in this country, we're more than 100 years beyond slavery, and we still are dealing with the same nonsense on a different level, but the same nonsense that has perpetuated itself from the very moment that we landed here. If footage, witnesses, and public pressure are reportedly repeatedly required before a case receives some type of attention, what do you think happens when there is no camera?

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Chaos. You're gonna have people, we're gonna have people out here saying this happened, that happened, and the authorities will say, no, it didn't, didn't happen. He fled, we chased him, we caught him, and in the process of him refusing to comply, he sustained certain injuries. You see how that was worded? They can write it out. The power of the pen will get you out of every situation once they write it out. But because we have surveillance, because we have all this new technology that now puts the light on everything the authorities do, it's kind of hard to say, hey, we chased him, he refused to comply. But a good example would be the California situation where the dude was getting beaten outside of his car and they kept hitting him with them slugs, the the Rodney King? Rodney King. Perfect example. Right, classic. They beat the brakes off, dude.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

And we had a camera.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

We had a camera right there. Now imagine if there was no video camera. They would have to be a good one. They would have got off anyway. But the question I have, the question I have. They paid civilly. They paid, they paid a lot of money civilly. He's stupid and he made a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

They did, they did. So they finally finally got off.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Yes. Financially, they paid. So that even hurts even worse when you financially get paid. So if it wasn't for the footage, we would not have known how this man took a beating. He took a hell of a beating, and that was serious. And that's now imagine all the rest of the beatings that we've been getting without footage. Previous to 92.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

But again, that was a 93, 92. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

But now we have all these cameras, and help me understand this. With all these cameras, you know you're being watched, you know you're being recorded, why do you still do it?

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Well, you got some of this idiotic authority, guys, that they just one, there wasn't even supposed to be in the power of authority. What's the what was the lady that called the authorities that came to our house, and in the process, she got shot for supposedly the guy said he was boiling hot water and and he got in the fillers and he shot the lady.

SPEAKER_03 42:18

That was his defense. That was his defense he was threatened by the boiling hot water. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

But the ice agent is saying he's the car is about to hit him, even though the car was nowhere near. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Right. So you have a few of these bad apples that were not supposed to be in the law enforcement game. But because of the color of their skin, you know, they got into the law enforcement game and they stayed in the law enforcement game and still brought those bad habits in that law enforcement game. So it's sad, it's sad that it's happening, but that's not putting on all of the boys in blue. I'm not putting them all.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

I'm not putting them all. I'm not putting on all. I'm not putting all the time. Yeah. Let me tell you what. I'm not dispute, but how do you filter out the bad apples, like you say? Well, I mean, a better job has to be done at filtering these people, almost like when you try to buy a gun. We don't the filters in place aren't that good at times.

SPEAKER_03 43:13

I think the psych tests gotta be better, because I know they take psych tests before they come on board. I think background checks gotta be more thorough. Because a lot of times when you have when you have cats who uh lateral from one agency to another, I don't think their past all the time is brought to the forefront of what they might have been doing in Iowa and now they gotta police in D.C. That's a whole, totally different game. If you're policing in Iowa and now you're policing in Washington, D.C. or a major city that's especially on the East Coast. And when you deal with those kind of things, that creates uh a kind of angst or situation that uh, you know, like some of the stuff that we face. Because I'm gonna tell you what I saw. This is very important, I break this down, and this is important. Support of our officers. When I first came to Washington, D.C., and this is from this me coming from the heart, I came from Philadelphia, where it was a mayor there named Frank Rizzo. He was ruthless. Yes, he was. He stripped, at one point, he stripped every Panther buck naked out on the corner and arresting them. Johnson swinging the whole nine yards, and it was on the front page of the newspapers, and everybody knew that he wasn't down with brothers and police. And at the time he was police commissioner. He wasn't even mayor then. He was police commissioner. So when I came to DC and I ended up working for the police department, I still had this thing in my mind that I was kind of like anti-police. But man, you know what I found out? I found these guys are just like me. They just want to go home every day. They just want to do their job. And so I gained a major respect for these dudes because they just want to do the job. Now you know what? These are the guys who grew up in Washington, D.C. These are the guys, quote unquote, the good guys, who wanted to see their city flourish and they wanted to keep their city clean. And so that's why they became police officers. And I have major respect for them. And when they stop somebody, they ain't always coming off with the rah-rah-rah-rah. They're talking to you with respect. Why? Because they're part of the community. But the problem comes when we bring these guys lateral a lot of time, and I think they don't respect the community, black community or minority community, the way that these people have been used to being respected or should be respected. And thus this builds that little area where things are uncooled. But and and I'm talking black and white officers who grew up in DC who have respect from the community. Because even the white officers that grew up in Washington, D.C., they understand what the community is about, even when it was Chocolate City. And people respected them. But when we bring cats in from other areas, they don't understand the community. They just here doing everything, quote unquote, straight by the freaking book. And everything, there has to be times that you provide grace. And that's not always what's seen. I want to move on into another area. I want to get into something that we usually do on our program. And it's like a rapid fire thing. But today, the rapid fire is going to be done on this very, very serious subject. So I'm going to throw it out there quickly, and you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. E, I'm hitting you first. The hardest thing about raising a black child is.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Being honest. Gotta tell them the truth. It's crazy out here. It's crazy out here. That's a good one. Tough, tough world. Tough world.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Yup, yeah. The hardest thing about raising a black child is being honest. The truth I wish, this is for you, James. The truth I wish I didn't have to teach my child is racism. That's real. That's real. That's real. I'll take this next one. It's justice without transparency is whack. And when I say that, the only way you truly get justice is if you're transparent across all boards. And look, we already feel we're on an unfair playing field. So if it's justice and no transparency, we don't have an opportunity to win. This is for you. The change I want to see before my child becomes a parent is.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

I want to see him grow. I want to see him grow. I want to see him, you know, as a chance. What's the change though?

SPEAKER_03 47:25

What's the change you want to see? Well, I I know you want to see him grow, and I think that's all of us with children. No, but what's the change? And I guess it should be more like, what's the change in society I want to see before my child becomes a parent is?

SPEAKER_01 47:40

I think the change in society, and it's it's already happening, is diversity, being more diversified, in which the more diversity we have in our society, I think the less we'll see of racism, even though racism is still gonna be here, but the more diversified the society is, you have the Asians, you have Indians, you have this, you have that. And then now it's kind of hard for you to be, well, okay, you can't really, you know, discriminate about me because me and you from a different, we you from out of, you from a different country, I'm from a different country, and they can kind of like work with you and see you kind of like the same way. So a diversified society that we're already in, it's kind of like it's gonna lessen the racism a little bit, but not a whole lot, but at least it's it's we're going in the right direction. So that's what you want to see.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

You want to see the racism, you want to see the racism lesson. This is for you, James. Nolan's story reminds me that we have a long way to go. That's powerful, man. That's powerful. That's powerful. And I'll take Mr. Skinner's story. Mr. Skinner's story reminds me that with a long wick, we got a long way to go. We are not safe and protected in the way that we should be. Those are quick hitters for the day. And uh, and I know you guys know that we do that so often with this show. We hit the quick hitters and uh bring those kind of things to you. I want to take the time because we're coming up near the close of our show. I want to connect these two guys, Nolan Wells and Khir Skinner. These stories, as I kick these out to you, they are not identical. Instead, for you, the viewing public, I want you to connect them through experience of their families, both demanding the truth. If this was your child, you would be demanding the truth. Nolan Wells' death contains questions investigators have not fully answered. Khadir Skinner's death includes release police footage that creates additional questions about the use of deadly force. Different circumstances, but two families forced to fight to make sure that their sons are seen as human beings rather than just some case numbers. So I'm gonna throw these questions out as we're coming close to our close. Why are families so often required to become investigators and activists themselves? Why are they grieving? Why is that?

SPEAKER_01 49:59

They need answers. They can't always rely on what the government is doing in terms of being honest, transparent, just like uh the Funky One said, transparency is the only way to get to the truth. And if the family feels that the government is not giving them the full transparency of the situation, then you need to get an independence to go beside that. Like it, like what the Nil the Wells family did, independent of autopsy compared to the official author autopsy, which was pretty cool because now you can rest assured if one does not collaborate with the other, there's a problem. And then when there's a problem, there's smoke. When there's fire, there's smoke. And when there's smoke, it's time to make changes in the political situation. That's gonna take suing and winning and getting money that's gonna make the whole government just go into another frenzy. So, yes, transparency is the only policy to which I say families should do. They should not take the first objective of what they say is being true. Go get a second opinion.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

And for you, the funky one, my man Big Gang, what would genuine transparency look like to these families and to us who are observing both of these cases?

SPEAKER_02 51:12

If I was in their situation, again, I would want to know every wherever my questions, I want to know the answers to. And and the reality of it is I might have questions tomorrow. I might have questions next week, I might have things I didn't think about. So this is where legal counsel comes in to play. But I would definitely need to know the truth. I mean, that's what most people fight for. Just let me know what happened. Don't gaslight me. Don't make me think I'm crazy. Don't insult my intelligence. Just be honest with me. I can accept a hard truth. I might not like it, but I can accept it. But I can't accept you BSing me. I can't accept you you making me feel like I'm crazy when I know something's not right.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Great points, man. Really, really great points, dude. As we close, I want to speak to tonight. This show was different. This show was different from maybe a lot of the laughter and a lot of the things that we bring up and the debates and the challenges, but it was needed because our youth are in danger if we are not talking to them. And that was one of the main things of our focus tonight. We want to have conversation with our children. We want to have conversation with our community. We want to have conversation with our law enforcement. Tonight we speak the names of Nolan Wells and Khadir Skinner. Their circumstances are different, and we will not combine allegations with facts. As I stated earlier, we are not investigators, and we're not going to be around here running with rumors. We're dealing with facts, and that's why we haven't come to conclusions, and we're only dealing with facts. But I will say this: both these families deserve truth, transparency, and complete investigations. Kadir was only 19 years old. His final moment should not become just another video that people watch, debate, and eventually forget. We must ask what happened before that camera began and the threat that existed when the shots were fired, and whether every action taken afterward respected his humanity. We're tired of watching black families bury their sons. It's almost like the old Richard Pryor joke how long, how long, how long will this go on? We are tired. These families are tired. We're tired of teaching our children survival lessons that no child should really need. However, it is definitely something needed in our community. We're tired, but we cannot become silent. Justice requires more than footage. It requires truth, accountability, and consequences when the evidence demands them. We ask to you, our listeners, we want you to comment, send us your thoughts, comment respectfully, share this episode, subscribe, and join the BJT Facebook group. May their families receive truth, peace, and justice. Thank you and good night.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

You've been listening to Brothers Just Talking. Hosted by Harvey, James, Ameka, and Sebastian B. Blue. Produced by Sound Fader Studios. Executive producer and audio engineer Sonar the Funky One. Theme music by shattered aspirations. If you enjoyed today's episode, subscribe, leave us a review, and join the conversation in our Facebook group. Want to be a guest on the show? Email us and tell us why your story needs to be heard. Until next time, keep talking, keep laughing, and keep it real.