We need to warn you that the reason we don't have video on this is because it involves a minor. So a Chicago cop charged after shoving Black teen in the throat. Craig Lancaster, a Chicago police officer, is facing charges of aggravated battery [00:00:15] involving an eigth grader outside of Walter G Grimson Elementary School. The officer was also relieved from his duties. Charges were filed almost six months after the incident occurred. Now, according to Atlanta Black Star, Williams legal Guardian filed a lawsuit against Lancaster and the city of Chicago last month. [00:00:32] During the morning of May 18, Williams, who was 14 at the time, finished playing a game of basketball with a friend and was walking into the school before the bell rang. Simultaneously, a teacher was standing in front of the door on school property [00:00:48] talking to Officer Lancaster, identified as her personal companion. The filling says Williams tried to walk inside the building when the physical encounter occurred. He just slammed his hand right into, I think it's JaQuwaun, throat and he stepped toward him. [00:01:05] Talking about this police officer, let me remind you all, this man is probably wearing a gun because he's in uniform. He stepped to a 14 year old, jammed his hand right into this kid's throat, and he stepped towards him. Then the officer stared down this young man and said, [00:01:20] I'm going to beat the f out of you, that's according to the attorney. Marsh said according to the teen's account, as Lancaster was leaving, he was stopped by a security guard. He flashed his police star and gun holster, entered his car and exited the premises. [00:01:36] The court documents shed light on Lancaster's alleged misconduct while working for the city's police department. Lancaster has been accused of off duty excessive force on several or seven occasions and has received two 30-day suspensions for off-duty misconduct, the lawsuit states. [00:01:53] The City of Chicago has been on notice for years of Lancaster's penchant of off-duty violence and misconduct, this is according to Atlanta Black Star. The Chicago Police Department declined to come in on this incident, saying only that is under investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. [00:02:10] Lancaster is due to make the first court appearance on November the 16th. Here's my problem with this story, and my God, there are a lot of them. Jackson first of all, the charges didn't come until six months later. He was relieved, that means six months he was allowed to carry on with this racist [00:02:26] behavior of mistreating people. They said seven times, I'm promising you it was more than seven times. It's only seven times documented, allegedly. This idea that you can behave in this manner, seven times you can do something. You could be suspended 30 times, I mean, 30 days, twice. [00:02:43] 30 days, twice, and still wear a badge. Showing your badge is flashing your colors. This is gang behavior. Let me explain it to you. Showing your badge is flashing your colors. Showing your gun is showing that what you will do if you disrespect those colors, [00:02:59] that is law of the street, that is not how police should behave. Unfortunately, we're talking about what's allowed to happen to young Black teenagers at the hands of police. How is this different than what happened to Tamir Rice and any other young Black man at the hands of police department? [00:03:15] Jackson. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, you're 100% right. Seven times that it was documented. But seven is a lot, which, I mean, if you get caught seven times, clearly you're just habitually doing it as if it's just a playground for his sadism. [00:03:30] But hitting somebody in the throat, that's a really dangerous place to touch somebody. You could break this, and then it's over. It's the worst place to hit somebody in the face pretty much anywhere, and he has no regard for that. And he said, I'll beat the f out of you. [00:03:48] So this is pretty common. Actually when I was in the sixth grade, I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, I live in New Jersey now. But you know what's up with St. Louis or any place like that, but people be fighting after school and stuff, and I remember police would get out the car and be ready to fight, talking all this stuff. [00:04:06] And looking back, I'm like, in the sixth grade we was 11, 12 years old, I'm 31 now, just imagining myself beating up a kid is just. That's pretty scary that law enforcement kind of regularly [00:04:23] attracts people who look forward to doing these things, so, yeah. >> Speaker 1: What about policing in this country attract these people? And it can't be said one bad apple, because guess what we know? We know that it's happened so often, right? Seven times, two, suspension for 30 days. [00:04:40] Then to continue this behavior in a schoolyard, flash your badge, flash your gun, and hop in your car, like, yeah, it is what it is. This behavior is unbelievable. It is the base. What's wrong with the hiring process in policing departments? What's wrong with the institution that we don't flush these cops out? [00:04:58] Why aren't other cops treating this guy like he has the plague? Why aren't they staying away from him? Because it is common nature to protect the blue, back the blue at all costs. And that, too, to me, represents part of this bad actor scheme where people want you to believe that it's a one off thing or one bad apple, when in actuality, [00:05:15] the institution is broken, and we got to name that. We have to name that for the sake of 14 year old's like this young man in this situation, but also because where's the trust in any institution when Black people can be treated like this, Jackson? >> Speaker 2: It's nowhere to be found. [00:05:31] I mean, oftentimes you don't call the police just because it could be a hassle, you know what I'm saying? Unless something's really crazy, then ain't nobody calling the police. If you live in a certain income neighborhood, that's kind of how it goes. But this always brings up the point that I raise, local elections, [00:05:46] local elections, local elections. There's not gonna be some federal sweep, it really can't be no time soon because it's too complicated. And at the end of the day, a lot of people who get elected into positions to do something about these municipalities happens in local elections. [00:06:02] So that's a lot of what my work in politics will continue to be, is getting people to realize the power of city council. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you said that. As a mayor, city mayor in a town that has a problem, I think this is absolutely correct. [00:06:18] I think also what happens is we buy into how politics are sold to us. People tell you all the time that the presidential is the most sexist or the sexist election in this country, when in actuality, not voting or not participating in your local elections is probably gonna have larger ramifications than electing a president and it's gonna affect your life immediately. [00:06:36] The policies, when I tell people every day, if there's a racist police chief, you need to fire your mayor. In most cities, the police chief and the board, the town board is in charge of hiring the police chief. So the racist police chief might create the culture where it exists, but the mayor [00:06:53] and the town board allows that person to keep their job, doing harm to residents. So I'm telling people all the time, regardless of what they tell you in this election or what's most important in this election, your local elections, your school board determines which books will be banned in your child school, right? [00:07:09] Your city council tell you which streets will be fixed, which neighborhoods will have sidewalks and successful green spaces. All of that matters in the quality of life that we don't even think about and we just blame the president blanket, writ large about what's going on in our communities. [00:07:24] And not really holding people accountable because we bought into this idea that every four years we need to be worried about elections. If this country really cared about elections, they'd have put presidential elections the same time they put mayor elections, so people don't drop off in the manner that they do and they call them off year elections. [00:07:40] There's nothing off about elections in the uneven years, except for the fact that less people to participate because we've been sold this idea that you need a president and the 400 people in Washington, DC, when in actuality in this country, we have over 50,000 elected officials, Jackson. [00:07:57] >> Yep, 100%. And that's kind of reminiscent on why, when you really take a step back, the media, ain't nobody, they really not talking about nothing it's just Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Poll came out, there's a year until the election, let's all. But there's so much more stuff going on actually in politics, in America. [00:08:15] So, I think that was the way you just laid that out was perfect, absolutely. >> Speaker 1: I'm glad you said something about polls, brother. And I don't wanna go on a tangent too much, but my other job is blackmail voter project. And I feel comfortable that I need to say this. The New York Times put out this poll about 20% of Black men supporting Republicans. [00:08:32] That is dastardly, I'm gonna tell you why. Because it's based in nothing, right? There's no 20% anywhere in this country of Black men supporting Donald Trump, period. And what happens is people will forget this because our mind is trained to be short, right? They did the same thing in 2020, in January, [00:08:48] there was a poll that said 20% of Black men are gonna vote for Trump. They did the same thing when Clinton was running, saying 20% are gonna support the Republican. They did the same thing when the first Bush was running. And guess what happened each election, not that. Never has 20% of Black men voted for a Republican candidate since the switch of parties when racist left because Black [00:09:07] people were allowed to sit at the Democratic Party. So this idea, this false narrative, is meant to do exactly what you said, sell wolf tickets. And the media is making tons of money off this idea of Trump, Trump, Trump, and what's gonna happen with the scary Black man. And the sad part about it is you have Black people on social media and [00:09:25] other news outlets running with this false story, and it does harm to our community. So I don't want people to think that it's just disconnected that I'm talking about Black men and this problem with policing. But when you keep telling a demographic that shows up in a different way, that majority of them support something they don't, people are gonna tune you out [00:09:43] as fake news regardless what Trump is talking about fake news is. You sound like fake news whenever you're telling Black men that 20% of them support Trump and they know it's false, man. They act as if we live in a bubble and don't know that the very issues plaguing us are political issues, i.e policing, [00:09:58] the problems with over policing us, i.e education, under educating us. All of this, they're built in discriminatory practices in the hiring process as it pertains to Black men, whether it be our hair or our names and everything else, the microaggressions. People are playing games with what it means to be Black men in America, when in [00:10:16] actuality, the true problem is, Jackson, the true problem is they don't see us. And that is not a request from me to say that Black men are vain and need to be seen, I'm talking about in the human aspect. When you think about when we were hunters and gather, to be unseen was to be dead, [00:10:31] to be left behind by your people, your clan is to be dead. And that's exactly what happened when you look at the social markers, Black men are dying many deaths, not just physical death. The fact that we could be the only demographic born rich and experience poverty in our life, the fact that we have so many white consultants [00:10:48] telling people what best for us is absolutely ridiculous, brother. >> Speaker 2: Man, we at church right now, I don't even think I can say anything else. We just gonna have to leave it at that. [LAUGH]