 We are brothers. We're changed and it's up to us. In a year featuring a presidential election, perhaps the most important one of our lifetimes, the murder of Breonna Taylor, the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former social justice of the Supreme Court and the United States and Global Candidate. Sister Power is honored to team up with attorneys Daphne Barbie Wooten, Andre Wooten, and Raya Salter. Aloha and welcome to Sister Power. Aloha. Aloha. And so glad to have you join us, Raya, because you're in New York, am I correct? I am in New York now, yes. Okay, and we're here in Honolulu. But before we get started with all the important things that are going on in the world, each of you please tell us your legal expertise. Tell us about that. Daphne, we'll start with you. Oh, okay. Well, I am a civil rights attorney practicing in Honolulu, Hawaii. I also have authored two books thus far, one on African American attorneys in Hawaii, and my father, Justice for All, Lloyd A. Barbie. And working on the third, won't tell you the name until it's out. But at any rate, my specialty is civil rights. I've been in civil rights since I was a young girl. I did demonstrations in Wisconsin. We did for Fair Housing. We demonstrated for the Civil Rights Act. And many other things. And as well as in Hawaii, I've been a part of the Black Lives Matters demonstration, which recently happened. And as much litigation as possible to try to make things more fair and equitable. Thank you, Raya. So yes, my name is Raya Salter. Aloha, I'm so glad to be with you. I am an energy and utilities lawyer. I practice climate justice advocacy. I'm based in New York now, where I work with the Climate Justice Coalition. I have lived and worked in Hawaii. Actually, I'm wearing my Kukii Kuhuku shirt. I provided frontline support to protesters of the wind turbines last year. So I still just love to stay connected to Hawaii. And even though I'm based in New York, and if it weren't for the pandemic, I'd like to say I'd be going back and forth. So yes, my background is in clean energy advocacy. I've worked for big green organizations, NRDC and EDF. In Hawaii, I worked for the Legislative Reference Bureau, also worked with Hank Rogers on some projects. And yes, now I'm in New York focused on climate justice. Thank you, Andre. Aloha. I'm civil rights attorney Andre Wuton. I also practice personal injury law. I had the good fortune to win a million dollar employment discrimination verdict for a African-American man against the State of Hawaii Department of Education some years ago. And so we do a fair amount of employment discrimination law. We also represented Aaron Torres in a wrongful death case in which the three Honolulu police officers answered his 911 distress call. And as a prerequisite of taking him to the hospital for observation, they insisted upon handcuffing him, which he did not want to do. And they handcuffed him, shackled him, sat on him until he stopped moving and extixiated and died. So we are engaged in personal injury suits. Police grew out brutality suits and employment discrimination cases. All right. Well, thank you. Well, viewers, get ready for a wild ride. We're going to cover as much as we can. And let's start with, let's jump right into it. Kentucky Attorney General didn't give grand jury options to consider murder charges in Brianna Taylor's case. What was your reaction when you heard about this, Raya? I want to, I mean, clearly this has been so difficult. It has inflamed so many. It has kept the momentum has been overflowing certainly here in New York. I will defer to my co-panelists who I think have more specific expertise in this area. But I will definitely say that the one thing that obviously it's terrible and just what happened, but it seemed like when Black Lives Matter was so big that everybody was into it and that a lot of the folks were just going to move on and whoever wants to move on can move on, but we are not moving on. So that is what we are not moving on and that's palpable. So, but I'll, I defer to my co-panelists who are more expertise in this specific area. All right, Gaffney, give us your case. Well, I figured that the Attorney General didn't provide them with the proper charges. It just makes no sense that they're going to charge one police officer for shooting at the neighbor's wall, the white neighbor's wall. And so I figured the charge, they did not bring any charges against the police officer who shot Brianna Taylor in the bed several times, killed her, shot her, didn't even call for medical assistance till it was too late. That had to be a situation where the prosecutor, and in this case, it was admitted that they didn't even present any charges against the officers for the killing of Brianna Taylor. People don't understand, but in order to get a grand jury charge, you simply have to present the charge and the name of the suspect or the person you're going to charge against and several charges that could be murder, murder one, murder two, manslaughter, reckless. But if you don't present those charges against these accused, then the grand jury is not going to go willy-nilly and decide to give back charges. So that's how the prosecution works. And that's a scary part of our justice system is prosecutors can choose who to go ahead and present a charge against and who not to. And in this case, the Kentucky Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General decided they were not going to charge the police officers who killed her and who did not call for medical help before she died. I was going to ask you, I want you to elaborate on that, but I just talked today where Judge Drake Mathis, he said, get rid of the secret grand juries. Explain that to us also. One curious thing is one of the grand jury members has called for the release of the grand jury transcript. He's taken the exception that Cameron is trying to run for cover behind the grand jury and not coming up with a murder indictment against any of the officers, whereas the person in the grand jury said that no murder charges were ever presented against any of the officers and consequently they followed the prosecutor's instructions and indicted the officer for reckless endangerment that they recommended, but no murder charges were actually presented for the homicide of Breonna Taylor. Now, at the same time, a $12 million settlement has been reached with the city and in that settlement, there are some recommendations for improvement in the no-knock warrant process, I believe the elimination of the no-knock warrant process and other reforms of police conduct, but it certainly seemed to me that the officer who created that warrant based upon false and negligent information when the person for whom they were serving the warrant was actually in jail at the time they kicked in Breonna Taylor's door. It seemed to me that that warrant was totally defective and there should have been some charges about that because that justified their entry into the home and then the prosecutor was saying it was justified for them to engage in self-defense, but if their entry into the home was illegal, which he didn't seem to want to push, then their argument of self-defense was also illegal and they should have been charged with homicide or Breonna Taylor, who fired no shots. Well, we're still waiting for justice for Breonna, but let's switch gears a little bit. It took eight days for US President Donald Trump to nominate seventh circuit judge, Amy Barrett. He takes the still warm seat of the late Justice Ruth Battered Ginsburg of the Supreme Court. Daphne, tell us your thoughts. Do you have the opportunity to meet the notorious RBG? Yes, I did. She came to Hawaii several times to teach at the UH Law School and she also presented a speech at the Hawaii State Supreme Court, which Andre and I attended. It's really wonderful to see in 85, she was 85 at the time, an 85-year-young justice to talk for half an hour without any notes, to speak eloquently, and to talk about justice. And then afterwards, she graciously met anyone who was there who wanted to meet her. They sat her in a chair. She had her white gloves on and her pearls. And she met with anybody who came by to talk. She was very rational, clear of mine. She was frail, but strong in her thoughts. And so I had that fortune. I actually had photos, but unfortunately my cell phone isn't working really well, otherwise I'd have them presented to you. But she took time to nurture other attorneys and especially women attorneys because she was one of the first women attorneys. She was number two to take the Supreme Court seat and she authored many good decisions. For example, she was the one who wrote about VMI, which was a school which only allowed men, young men, into it. It was a college. And she said that was sex discrimination because women could not go. Similar to Brown versus Board of Education, which was segregated by race. And then Justice Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court changed that by saying, changing the law, saying you can't have segregated schools that are paid through federal funds. And the same with the VMI College was paid through federal funds, so therefore it couldn't discriminate against women. So she, in addition to dissenting too many of the horrible opinions, such as the Voting Rights Act decision, which throughout part of the Voting Rights Act, she also authored many good opinions. It's important how Daphne mentioned Thurgood Marshall. To me, this really is a similar situation where when Thurgood Marshall was replaced by Clarence Thomas, now we have somebody who opened the keys for women attorneys and women, and now this woman is going to walk through that door to shut them, to shut that door. And it's unfortunate. So just in terms of, you know, and again, as a woman, you get this, you know, and I understand she has her beliefs and people say, isn't it, I'm just, I'm just gonna say how I'm feeling about it. You know, isn't it so amazing that she made the choice to have her child who had down syndrome, even though she knew he had down syndrome. That's the very choice that she had, that she, that this court leaning this way to get away from her personally, even though there is an indignity of how her replacing Justice Ginsburg, who wasn't perfect, but who was a lot. What is at stake with the court voting rights, women's reproductive health, health care more broadly. She's, we've heard she's been critical of Brown versus Board of Education. So I mean, a lot is at stake with this court that is going to lurch to the right because of this choice. Yeah. Like, Andre, today we're reminded of the hurdles overcome by heroic women who face women, who face violence and discrimination, who fail the women's movement forward. What are your reactions to number 45, before the seat is just very warm, suggesting that Amy, nominating her, she should come in. Tell us your thoughts. Basically, this is all politics. And Mitch McConnell and the Republicans played politics in the last year of Barack Obama's presidency and refused to nominate or even entertain Merrick Garner for the Supreme Court. And consequently, I do believe the Democrats should play hardball with this one. They should filibuster it because the balance of the court is extremely important. And you can't forget the fact that Trump was not elected by the majority. He was elected by the Electoral College that put a person who got the minority of votes into office. And so having the Republican stack, the Supreme Court, when they are only representing a majority is an anathema to democracy. And I, for one, recommend if they put this woman on the Supreme Court, they should add two more justices to the court. There's no constitutional limit to the number of Supreme Court justices on the court. And the Democrats should play hardball if the Republicans do. With regard to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she was basically a justice that stood up for democracy and fairness. In particular, the case of Citizens United. The Citizens United case had to do with that ultimately the holding was you can have all the democracy you can afford to buy. And she thought that that was totally contrary to the American Constitution, at least the way it should be, and any real concept of justice. And so the cases involving Citizens United and the cases involving voting rights that she stood up for were on the right side of history. And I do believe that she will ultimately be vindicated on those. Okay, well, we're 33 days out before the election. And I'm sure that most of us watched the first presidential debate. And what I like with our forever first lady, Michelle Obama, said afterwards, if you were turned off by the president's behavior last night, I feel you. Believe me, I do. But we can't let him win by turning out all together. Turning out. Turning out all together. That's what he wants. That's what 45 was. So turn those feelings into actions, meaning both people we must vote. So let's talk briefly about the first presidential debate. And the most outstanding one I'd love with Van Jones had to say that the president of the United States did not, did not say he was, was not for white supremacy. So let's start there. What are your thoughts about that, Daphne, about the presidential debate? Well, I was not surprised that Donald Trump did not condemn white supremacy, because he is a white supremacy. And frankly, we always knew that when he was running for presidency. He would all cater to whites who felt they were superior. He felt he was superior. What did he say about African and brown nations? He called them asshole countries. He called Mexicans rapists. He said he preferred immigrants from Norway and Sweden, as opposed to the asshole countries. The way he treated other dignitaries and presidents was a clear illustration of his belief that whites were superior to non-whites. So I was not surprised when he said he wouldn't condemn KKK or the proud boys. And if you recall, he was even asked a question about David Duke and the KKK back when he was running in 2016. And he said he didn't know who David Duke was. He couldn't condemn David Duke and the KKK when they found photos of him with David Duke and the KKK before he ran for election, you know, holding hands basically, you know, hands on the shoulder grinning and grinning. But he's always been a racist. He's always looked down upon other people and even against women. He's always been against women the way he treats women and talks about women. So it's not just racist. It's also sexist. So it's no surprise. I mean, look what he did with Hillary Clinton when he stalked her at the last time he debated it for the presidency. And I couldn't believe they let him get away with that. Then he was just walking behind her, breathing on her neck. And he didn't do that, at least with Biden. Yeah, well, you know, stand back, stand by. I mean, I've never heard of Proud Boys, but I have a question for you, Andre, and then you can also elaborate. I was reading somewhere and I want your advice to the listeners out there. It's no secret many Black men are not interested in voting this cycle. What advice would you give to convince these men their vote is essential to our people? The power and the magnitude and the necessity to vote really has always been obvious to me. But then again, I was raised in a house with a politician. My father, Charles Stokes, was a representative of a man in a neighborhood in the Washington state legislature. And he was also elected to a judgeship in Seattle. And so people really need to participate. If you participate, you can have a voice. Even if you're in a minority, if you coalesce and make partnerships with groups that have common interests with yours, then you can leverage your numbers and your power and get some things accomplished. Basically, that's what we had to do to get the Martin Luther King holiday passed in the law here in Hawaii is commence the other community groups that human rights was a necessity for them as well, not just the Black people. The Black people were symbolic. But the question was, what side of justice are you on? And so we're in a similar case here. Are you going to sit on your butt while Trump becomes Hitler or Mussolini, or are you going to do whatever you can to get up and vote? We just got back from Seattle and one thing I like seeing on the businesses and stuff, we're signed saying vote early. Vote early and vote early. I'm not going to say vote twice or three times, but vote early. Okay, well, absolutely. And also, viewers, go to Iwillvote.com to register and make a plan to vote and make sure everybody around you is doing the exact same thing. And I want to remind Hawaii voters can also vote before election day. The early voting period runs from Tuesday, October 20, 2020 to Monday, November 2, 2020. So absolutely vote, vote, vote, vote. And what I'm also enjoying that the athletes have often been major voices for equality and social justice. And LeBron James, after they won the game, he announced that its initiative to increase the number of poll workers in Black Victoria District had a mass 10,000 volunteers since it began. Isn't that wonderful? So tell me more about Raya. What else can people do to utilize their platforms? Yes, we're here in a pandemic. We've lost over 200,000 deaths here in the US. We're locked at home. Let's encourage people, Raya, and then you definitely help people to use your platform to vote. I think this is a great question and really important because Trump is walking the beast of racism and fear and oppression. And so much of it is to create this, it's almost to get in our minds and make us feel that he can't be defeated. He's going to steal it. He's going to cause violence. And we still have the power that is not true. That type of poll watching effort that you talked about, Mr. James putting forward is exactly the type of stuff that we can do in our own communities to counter that. And now in this virtual world, as much as we're at home and it's very hard, we can connect on stuff like Zoom, there are local groups, there's so many ways to jump in and get active. I know I've done phone banking, writing postcards, calling him to Miami to say, hey, are you going to be with us? And it's, you know, it's also, it's exciting each other, the Democrats, it's getting a vote out. There are so many opportunities to do that from home. And I definitely, we need to not be afraid. We need to listen to Ms. Obama, Mrs. Obama, exactly what you read and not let him be in our minds because we can take this fool down. All right. Take the clown down. Yes, I totally agree. There's a lot of things people can do to get involved, especially in swing states, to send postcards from Hawaii, urging people to vote, make phone calls, urging undecided voters, write letters to the editor, write letters to anybody and just say, hey, we don't understand why you're undecided. I remember watching Trevor Noah the other night, and he goes, you're undecided. Why? So write to the undecided and explain why you shouldn't sit on the fence on this particular election because as laundry says, we don't want to end up a Nazi country or we don't want to end up a country where white supremacy takes us way back to before Brown versus Board of Education. And we are the majority now in America. The majority are not white. Americans are not white. We have pieces of blood from all over the world. And so we can take it. We can vote and encourage others to vote. If you're in a state where people need to have rides to the poll, donate your vehicle to give rides to people to go to the poll and back home, especially for the elderly. In Hawaii, we just have mail-in. About that debate, I mean, I've seen a lot of Republican commentators who were just totally turned off by Trump's performance, ignoring the rules and being totally rude and saying statements about white supremacy. And so I think the consensus is that the debate was a disaster for Trump, even among Republicans. Now, he might have reached out to some radicals, but the reasonable thinking Republicans, you know, they're voting in the other direction. Yeah, well, you know, we only have a few minutes left. I have to ask you, we must come back. But racism is the dailiest pandemic of all. In two minutes or less, Ryan, Andre, and Daphne, give us a boost and encouragement and motivator speech, as if you were in the courtroom right now for everyone to get out and vote. I think certainly I really want to encourage people. It's so important to vote. We got to take the clown down. And you're just right about racism is certainly something in the climate justice realm. The root causes of these crises and climate change needs to be talked about more in terms of who it impacts, black and brown people and places like Hawaii, is that the root causes of these problems truly are white supremacy, racism, colonialism, what was done to this world. And we need to change that direction. And the only way to really change that trajectory is to show up and vote. Daphne. Okay. Okay. Remember our ancestors, African American blood in you. You remember that your ancestors couldn't vote in the 1950s. And the Constitution didn't allow anybody who wasn't a white man of property to vote. So that change evolved. But just remember our ancestors died. They were lynched. They were shot at. They were maimed simply because they wanted the right to vote. And not just African Americans, but white Americans who helped African Americans and went down to the civil rights 1960s and were murdered, Cheney, Shwerny in Mississippi. Fannie Lou Hammer became blind due to a beating, trying to get the right to vote. And then she went on to run for office. So, you know, we owe it to our ancestors to maintain this power in this right to vote. And just remember South Africa. Remember those lines, miles of lines there to vote President Nelson Mandela into office. So let's not just turn away and sleep through this vote. Wake up and stay woke. All right. Andre. We are at a pivotal time. We have a president who reads Mein Kampf, who wants major military parades for him when he dodged the draft himself and never served, and nobody in his family has ever served. He is talking about not leaving office when he loses the election. This is a serious matter. And if you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, you kind of stand up and vote. You know, that's really a minimum. I mean, if you're not going to contribute money, if you're not going to go demonstrate them, you can show up and vote, even if it's by mail. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Daphne. Thank you, Andre. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Please take care of yourself and each other.