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[ police radio chatter ]
I'm the one and only Big Freedia the Queen Diva,
represented right here,
from New Orleans, Louisiana.
* You already know *
[ siren blares ]
Newscaster: The death of Big Freedia's brother Adam Ross
marks the second fatal shooting
in Central City this month.
Ross was found shot multiple times
on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
near Magnolia in Central City.
I love you so much.
We know we have guardian angels.
My mother and my brother,
they're looking down upon us.
[ police radio chatter ]
When is it gonna stop?
When they gonna stop hurting our own people?
When are they gonna wake up and realize
they're not the givers or the takers of life?
5, 4, 3, 2...
[ siren blares ]
Chorus: * Freedom *
Man: There's a lot of dynamics to gun violence.
Like, ain't nobody just jumping up
saying "Oh, I'm gonna just be a killer."
* Freedom *
The young guys that I see come to jail,
they--it's getting younger,
younger and younger.
* Freedom *
Ashonta Wyatt: You shall be sick and tired,
sick and tired of our babies being buried.
Young man got gunned down in a car,
and y'all tell me it ain't time to pray?
* Freedom *
Ashonta: We have to stand against a culture of murder,
a culture of vengeance,
a culture of destruction,
so we can stop putting beautiful Black men
in the ground.
* Freedom *
* Say it with a smile, say it with a smile *
Freedia: New Orleans have to change.
It has to wake up.
The violence must stop.
* Freedom *
* Oh, well, well *
* Don't be uneasy *
* Well *
* Don't be uneasy *
* Well, well *
* Don't be uneasy *
* Jesus gon' make up the dying bed *
* He's a dying bed maker *
* Well, well *
* He's a dying bed maker *
* Jesus gonna make up the dying bed *
We want to remember Adam on tonight.
Let us bow our heads on a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
tonight we ask You to bless us
and keep Your loving arms of protection around us.
Ask You to fill these streets with happiness and love, God.
Heavenly Father, ask You
to watch over the city of New Orleans
and stop the violence, God.
So many family members lose loved ones,
and tonight we're remembering ours.
We ask you to have mercy on this family, God.
Continue to be our strength.
Continue...
to give me strength.
Man: Take your time.
...to be there for my family when they need me the most.
We're a strong little family, and we will not give up.
We are motivated, and we are inspired by this.
We thank You right now
in the name of the Father,
in the name of the Son,
in the name of the Holy Ghost.
Let all God's children say "Amen."
Amen.
We love You as well.
The death of Big Freedia's brother Adam Ross
marks the second fatal shooting in Central City this month.
Freedia: Knowing the type of life that Adam lived
and the people that he ran with,
I never not expected it.
I was actually laying right there on the sofa,
and I got a phone call.
Adam been shot uptown on Martin Luther King.
And I couldn't pull myself together
to even get in the car at the time, you know,
for probably about 5, 10 minutes.
I pulled up...
I pulled up, and I knew
that it was more than him being shot
when I saw the yellow tape.
And my sister Crystal was already there
'cause she stay closer than I do.
She was like, "He's dead."
The keys was still in the ignition.
The car was still running.
He was just gonna be there for a few minutes.
[ police radio chatter ]
I don't know if he stopped
and, like, wanted to talk to somebody.
Did he get into it with somebody?
My baby brother was gone,
and it just was so unreal.
When my mom died,
she told me to look after my brother and my sister.
I just lost my baby brother,
and I was feeling all type of emotions.
I was sad. I was angry.
I wanted to hurt somebody. I wanted to know who did it.
I did have a few people who reached out to me
and wanted to retaliate.
It was just like "Say the word."
I was just like "Thank you, but no, thank you."
That's not the route that I'm taking.
I don't want to have that on my conscience.
No one deserves to get their lives taken,
no matter what lifestyle they lived,
no matter what they do.
They are not the givers and the takers of life.
There's only the Man up above.
I want justice,
but I want it done the legal and the right way.
Newscaster: The police say one man is responsible
for a crime spree
across New Orleans yesterday evening,
shooting at people and stealing cars.
25-year-old Charles Williams was arrested last night.
Police also believe he's responsible
for the death of 38-year-old Ricky Goins.
Freedia: There's a story of gun violence in America
that people are not talking about,
but we're living in it.
In my 36 years, I can tell you
I've done hundreds and hundreds of these things,
and every time I open my mouth,
I plead with my people to look at each other
and love each other with the same vengeance
that we choose to pick up guns and slaughter each other.
This is cultural genocide. We're killing everything
that's beautiful about our people.
A lot of people don't talk about things that they see
because they fear retaliation,
but my only reply to them
is "Fear isn't keeping us safe anyway," you know,
so I could be afraid and not say anything,
and the people around me are still dying.
Death and destruction belong to all of us.
This is a manmade problem.
Or I can stand up and let my life mean something
and let my voice mean something.
If we take a stand against gun violence
as a collective,
we can put this to rest.
This has to be a city where children can go to the park
and not worry about gun violence,
just shots ringing out and they're ducking and hiding.
This has to be a city
where I can lay down in a bed at night
and stop worrying about bullets coming through my window.
We do not live in third world countries.
We do not live in war zones.
But we're living in war zones.
And we're killing for sport.
I'm waiting on y'all to raise the white flag
so we can stop putting beautiful Black men
in the ground.
I've seen people murdered.
I've known people who were murdered.
I've known people who have murdered people.
I'm also an assistant principal
at one of the middle schools in the city.
You know, my kids carry guns, and they're in middle school.
[ bell rings ]
As much as I know
it's not the right thing to do,
in some circumstances,
that's all they know.
That is their protection.
They think if they have it, they're safe,
but they don't know having it
brings a whole bunch of circumstances
that I don't think they're ready to face.
How has gun violence,
how does it affect you?
Boy: Too many people died that's young.
Ashonta: Mm-hmm.
We got people shooting babies for nothing.
I remember when me and my friend
were sitting on the porch and a car just pulled up
and they just started shooting at us.
And, like, once you-- you think you're about to die,
it all click.
Why can't we have fun where we live?
Why are we, like, living with shootings
and violence and police chases?
And, like, y'all are literally...
stuck in Grand Theft Auto.
It's N--It's New Orleans.
- It's New Orleans. - Yeah.
Mm-kay. What about you, Lionel?
Mm-hmm.
Has violence personally affected you
in any sort of way?
Like what?
- Your mama was shot? - Yeah.
- Is your mom living now? - Mm-mm.
How old were you?
7.
- Yes, Mr. Walker? - Yeah.
Police radio: 1415 St. Anthony.
Supposed to be a Black male.
Gunshot wound to the chest in a burgundy car.
- What is our perp information? - No perp information.
After that...
If you...
born me into a world where I don't have a daddy,
you know, because the same community
that's raising me killed him.
So I already have a attitude
about the environment in which I live.
I have a chip on my shoulder that nobody understands
because they don't think that,
because he died when I was a child,
I'm not traumatized.
That's trauma,
and it's unaddressed trauma,
so the fact that his father was murdered
in the same community
that his mother is now raising him in,
he can be walking amongst his father's killer.
Do you know what that does to a person?
- You are so young-- - Yeah.
...to be carrying a gun,
- to be having charges. - Mm-hmm.
You know, to be even in those situations.
You--Y'all are still in middle school.
I was thinking about carrying a gun
when my daddy died,
but I didn't,
but when somebody try to shoot him,
they I just felt that I needed protection
'cause you can't always run from a bullet.
I just think New Orleans will never change.
We're in one of the most dangerous cities,
other than Charlotte.
Growing up on Josephine,
you know, right in the 3rd Ward,
I saw it all.
My cousin was killed over a 10-speed bike.
So I saw all of this growing up as a kid as well.
If I come from seeing all the same things
that y'all see now
and doing something different and making a change,
You can do it as well.
It's really sad.
Things have not got better.
Things have gotten much worse.
It was like they were numb to the situation
and they was expecting it.
I probably saw that a little bit more
in my high school days,
but these kids are seeing it
in elementary and in middle school.
[ Erica Falls singing "3rd Ward Bounce" ]
Freedia: * Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh *
I grew up uptown on Josephine Street,
where we saw a lot. We heard a lot.
* Ain't no place like New Orleans *
* It goes up when we go down *
It was a struggle growing up
in the neighborhood that I rolled up in.
We saw poverty. We saw drugs.
We saw killings.
We also had some fun times.
* Uptown, 3rd Ward, Josephine *
* Then we head on down to the Melpomene *
* Then we dip on through that Calliope *
My old spot.
* For that wild man gnome *
Hello!
- Hey. How's it going? - Pretty good.
This is my old house. I grew up in this house.
Want to come, just take a look in here.
Do a little reminiscing.
Probably looks a little different.
It looks a lot different.
- [ chuckles ] - Mm-mm.
We had a shotgun house, a two-bedroom,
and me, Adam, and Crystal stayed in the same room,
so we were very close.
I can remember we had bunkbeds in here
and a twin bed.
It was tight.
We all played together.
You know, we all went to Sunday school and church
on Sunday together.
Yeah, we were very close growing up.
I was 5 when Adam was born.
I was very protective, you know.
I wanted to be the big brother.
I felt like it was my responsibility
when I got older, especially,
to look after my little brother and my little sister.
You know, I looked after them
while we were outside riding our bikes
or whatever we were doing
'cause my mom was always at work
and my dad would get off late
'cause he drove for Coca-Cola.
We'll be fighting while my mama at work,
and she'll have to come home
because one of them probably locked me out
or I'll break the door.
She'd come home and whoop all three of our ass
and then go back to work.
I always knew that Freddie was special from birth.
I used to call him my special child.
I saw something special,
but I didn't know what that special was
at that time.
Being a young Black gay kid growing up in my neighborhood,
I would be picked on.
I would be called the fat sissy, you know,
and I had to fight.
Mom would go,
"You better be a man and stand up
and go out there and show them who you are."
Let go, let's go.
* N.O. bounce, N.O. bounce *
* I'm that queen gonna make you bounce *
* N.O. bounce, N.O. bounce *
* I'm that queen gonna make you bounce *
[ rapping ]
Cali, Cali, Cali, Cali, Cali, Cali-yo.
All the projects sing my songs.
I would get a lot of attention 'cause I was this fat sissy
going through the projects and hollering and making noise,
so people knew me from my sound.
They would say "Quiet, girl, quiet, girl,"
and I'd go * Whoa-oh-oh *
You know, I would have the whole projects jumping.
And most projects were very scary.
If you wasn't born and raised in them,
you'll be terrified to go in.
it was always a territory thing where,
if you was from another project,
you probably couldn't come in this project.
* Uptown, 3rd Ward, Josephine *
You know, some of the projects, when you would go in them,
the boys would pick on you and be like,
"Bitch, you ain't welcome back here, you're a sissy,"
or whatever, even though they had sissies
that stayed in the projects,
but they only wanted their sissies
that grew up back there
to be in their projects.
I was the sissy off of Josephine,
so I was protected by Josephine.
So when I would go outside of Josephine,
it was like, "Girl, you got to be careful.
You're messing with the Calio boys"
or the Magnolia boys
or whatever project that I went in.
* Make them hos count *
[ echoing ]
This is where a lot of magic happened
and a lot of bad things as well,
but this is what helped us
to create the sounds of bounce music--
beating in these hallways, beating on the walls,
hurting our hands.
Yeah. I miss those good old days.
Music has been very important to my life.
Music has kept me out of trouble.
It's the one and only Big Freedia the Queen Diva!
I thought he was gonna be a gospel singer at first.
Where you from? Where you from?
[ drum roll ]
Where you from? Where you from?
But when he started doing the bounce music,
I'm like, "You know how you're feeling
with direction the Lord see fit for you to take."
I'm still gonna back him, and I'm proud of him.
- I love you, Mama. - Love you, baby.
I love you more than anything in the world.
I love you.
My first performance was at a block party
off of Broad Street.
***
Jumped on a mic.
Started, you know, throwing out a few lyrics.
Everybody sing.
* I got passion, and I sing songs *
Crowd: * Somebody hold me, and I'll sing songs *
People started losing their mind
and started chanting the lyrics.
It was very much a new experience
and a new beginning for me.
[ scat singing ]
Uh-huh!
[ air horn blows ]
I'm the one and only Big Freedia the Queen Diva,
represented right here from New Orleans, Louisiana.
* You already know *
You know, Adam was our little hood guy
in the family.
I've heard different stories of, you know,
things that he's been involved in--
you know, shooting at somebody before,
wanting to sell drugs.
Adam definitely had a gun, and it was not legal.
He had a gun to protect himself,
no telling from what or who.
He wanted to be a big dog in the neighborhood.
He wanted people to respect him
like they respected the other guys.
Adam got stuck in that mind frame
of the Boyz in the Hood.
They would get respect
from people being scared of them.
You know, like, a lot of times,
they'll say to the police,
"You wouldn't be so big and bad
if you didn't have that gun and that badge."
Same thing with the hood boys--
"You wouldn't be so big and bad
if you didn't have that gun."
* Danger *
That's what you call stars and stripes.
They want to get their stars and their stripes
from killing someone.
And they're gonna say, "Oh," you know,
"I got two or three under my belt,"
like they're a big man
or they're sticking their chest out.
Most of the time, they're the coward.
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
* I'm so dangerous *
Not knowing what people are saying in the backdrop,
like "Oh, this pussy have to kill somebody"
or "They're not a man without a gun."
We smother these boys to death
with our expectations
of what a man can be.
We keep telling them
to be the crudest, manliest madman
ever to exist in the planet ever.
I've never lost anybody to violence,
and I keep trying to wrap my head around
somebody getting to the point that you would kill someone
and that that's part of life.
I try to talk to a lot of young people,
try to get them on the right path
and change their mind about, you know,
just the nonsense that they'll be wanting to go off on.
But at the base of it, is it like--
is this, like, hopelessness?
Like--Because if you believe that you're gonna--
your life is gonna be great,
you believe you're gonna be successful,
you believe you're gonna have your dreams in life,
this is not the path you take.
They want to say that there's something broken
about Blackness,
and there's a deficiency
in that culture.
It's not. It's how human beings behave when they're hurting.
There's this whole other story
that keeps ripping at the fabric of Black families,
ripping at the fabric of Black communities.
These young men in New Orleans,
most of them only have their mom in their lives,
and the mom only can do so much,
but she's out working,
provide for all the children,
she's trying to take care of them.
These dudes trying to help their mama,
so they're trying to hustle, whatever they need to do
to try to bring some money in.
If that means having to rob somebody
or kill somebody.
No one is responding
to the gun violence issue
- like it's an epidemic. - No, they're not.
Nobody.
You know, one time I had to sit down
and really ask myself,
"How many people do you know
killed by gun violence?"
It was between 60 to 70 people.
Wow. So what does that do to you?
I mean, just spiritually, on a personal level,
what does that do to you?
It makes me go through a lot of emotions.
You know, I've cried a lot of times.
It's such a repetitive thing going here in New Orleans.
That people don't even pay attention to.
- They don't. - They only get excited
when it is a mass shooting,
which is generally happening not to us, you know.
Some kid walks into a high school.
- Of course. - They--
And that's all over the news for a week and a half.
Every day, this is happening,
and nobody says very much about it
other than to beat up on Black people,
to say, "Well, you guys can't handle your community"
and Black people saying "No, just help us."
We have allowed the Black community
to be abused to such a degree.
They're in constant state of trauma,
and they're-- they're human beings.
They're responding to trauma.
Society has to take responsibility.
When we had an AIDS crisis,
when the government wasn't responding,
- people went in the streets. - Yes.
People harassed,
people went into government buildings.
They were like, "No, you will respond to this
because I'm losing friend after friend after friend."
- Yes. - Those were,
at that time, mostly creative white men.
- Right. - Who--
And liberals in general
did respond that way.
That community mobilized and said, "No,
we won't have this. Something has to be done."
Yes.
People like you have the same story
as those people were having with ACT UP--
"I'm losing friend after friend after friend."
- Yes. - But the people most affected,
they're not donating to nobody campaign.
- Right. - They don't have money
to do that.
You have these vulnerable people
with no power,
yelling to power, "Help us,"
And power keeps saying "But you don't count."
[ Dixieland playing ]
When I first met Devin at the school,
he reminded me of Adam.
His story was really touching to me.
I really wanted to try to save Devin
from losing him to the street
'cause that's the direction that he's headed in,
wither in jail or dead.
There's just a lot of beef in New Orleans.
I don't feel safe, but at the same time,
I don't want--like, I don't want to move nowhere else
from out of New Orleans.
Like, I want to stay in New Orleans.
I don't know why.
I'm just reckless right now.
[ knock on door ]
- Hi. - Hey.
What's up, Devin?
- You've been all right? - Yeah.
So it's been rough.
I've been hearing some really rough stuff.
Tell me what's going on.
A lot of trouble.
What's the reasons that you're doing these things?
Ashonta: How so?
Is the stolen car associated
with the Christmas Day incident?
So why was there a shooting,
and why were you the intended target?
Why are y'all beefing?
So it all started with a fight
and kind of just snowballed into a beef.
You don't have to be cool with him.
Y'all don't have to speak ever again.
We just want the beef to stop and squash it
so neither one of y'all are hurt.
I really don't know.
You can change your life around,
and we're here to help you.
We're here to help your mom.
We're here to help your family.
But Devin has to want it.
In his mind it's "I have to get you
before you get me" mentality,
and that's not just exclusive to Devin.
It's not just exclusive to New Orleans.
It's exclusive to anybody that has to survive.
By and large, 14-year-olds are not ducking gunshots
and stealing cars and running for their lives.
That is not the kind of life we want you to have.
We surely want to see you make it to 18--
- We're not sure about you. - ...and 28 and 38
and 48. We want you to see children.
We want you to see grandchildren.
Is that the way you want your mama to live,
worrying about your safety every day?
So you have to open up your mind.
You're too young to be in all this.
You have so much potential.
Your mom don't want to see you lost to these streets.
You understand what I'm saying?
Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
So can we come to that resolution?
Can we come to a point
where we can throw in the white flag
and there's no death?
You stay on your side, I stay on mine.
We don't have to be friendly,
but we don't have to be fatal enemies, either.
I don't know.
I'm not worried about the dude.
Okay. We know you're not worried about the dude,
but will you give it some thought?
Can you agree to that?
That's the very least we're asking you to do.
- Just think about it? - Yeah, I agree to that.
- I can think about it. - Hmm?
Yeah, I can think about it.
- We appreciate it. - That's your word?
- Hmm? - Yeah, that's my word.
This is bigger than Devin.
This is about every child that looks like Devin.
Devin is almost the blueprint
for what happens when you starve a child
of the necessary things that help them to grow.
Like, it's like a plant. If you don't water it,
if you don't give it the nourishment that it needs,
it will eventually wither away and die.
Charles Blow: We failed our boys.
So yes, tell that boy this is not the answer.
Violence is not the answer.
Taking a life is not the answer.
But he does not exist on an island.
He does not exist in a bubble.
He exists in a cultural context
that you created, America.
Your responsibility.
[ police radio chatter ]
Bryan: We have built the country's largest
high definition network crime camera program
in the United States.
It's all powered 100% by citizens.
The cameras-- we provide loaners--
are in people's homes and businesses.
We've been involved in pretty much
anything you can imagine--
shootings, stabbings, home invasions,
rapes, robberies, thefts, burglaries,
hit-and-runs-- and the cameras are so good,
we're able to, a lot of times,
blow up the camera video
and tell the difference
between crack, heroin, marijuana.
Freedia: Oh, wow.
This is a typical shooting,
so you have a intended target right here.
You have another intended target over there.
You have a person with an AR15 machine pistol,
and then you had two people
on the opposite side of the vehicle with pistols.
And, as he drove down the street...
there's children nearby.
Now, we had cameras around the corner,
and we were actually watching these children.
They were getting off the bus. They were happy.
And the next thing you know...
[ children screaming ]
...automatic gunfire.
We can tell from the muzzle flash,
like a trigger pull,
that was fully automatic.
They basically opened up that person
at point blank range.
Unbelievable.
Over here we have the murder of Brayanta Ketchens,
21-year-old early childhood development student.
One day, while she was taking a shower in her bathroom,
five people went, kicked in her window,
and...they shot her dead.
And not only did we help prove who did it,
the five people who were involved in that,
well, you can tell,
and this is gonna be State Exhibit "A,"
this is the smile on their faces as they left.
That's just after they killed Brayanta.
Wow. I sure would like to know
if you can pull up a certain day
when my brother was killed.
So we didn't have any cameras in the immediate area.
We had some a distance away,
but we went for what we call a needle in a haystack.
Sometimes it works.
On that day, we just couldn't find anything
that we could possibly use to help the detectives,
and that's what frustrates us to no end
is when the bad things happen and we cannot assist.
Right.
We are a city, we are a country
that is drunk on violence.
Newscaster: Police responded
to an initial call of shots fired
at the intersection of Felicity and Sophie Wright.
15 minutes later,
Will Smith was pronounced dead.
Newscaster #2: Police claiming
that 28-year-old Hayes shot Smith several times.
Newscaster #3: Cardell Hayes was found guilty
of manslaughter
for the shooting death of Smith
in a road rage incident in New Orleans.
Hayes said it was self-defense,
but the jury rejected that.
In the heart of our city,
Will Smith was shot and killed.
His death leaves a wife alone,
three children without a father.
On the other side of the gun is Cardell Hayes.
He's in jail, but he has a family, too.
My cousin Cardell,
we call him Bear
because he's like a big, soft, cuddly teddy bear--
he's a real sweet.
He was always there for me.
Growing up as a child,
he was the sweetest young man.
I lost my brother and my cousin
to senseless violence.
They were like brothers.
Dawn: Adam always used to call Cardell
his little big brother
because Cardell was so much bigger than him,
so he would say his little big brother.
And they were real close.
It was lots of police that shot him down
right after the trial.
Anthony Hayes, armed with a knife
on St. Charles Avenue,
was surrounded by 16 officers
to keep him from hurting nearby onlookers.
He had a breakdown,
and he was killed by the policemen.
Once officers arrived,
the situation lasted just over three minutes.
Officers tried to talk him down,
used pepper spray,
and at one point contemplated tackling him.
Mr. Hayes raised a knife
in an attempt to stab one of the officers,
at which time three other officers fired.
There is a question on whether officers
could have shot and wounded Hayes,
but Riley says officers are no longer trained to do that.
It really hurt Cardell
because he loved his daddy, you know.
Even though we wasn't together,
his daddy was active in his life.
Even with his illness that he was going through,
he still was very active in his life.
I believe that the trauma
to the collective Black body
is born in this country in enslavement
and has never stopped.
As soon as you get the civil rights,
when you think we're in a new era,
you start to see mass incarceration creep up.
And everything Jim Crow did
mass incarceration just does under a different name.
All the lynching the happened,
the death penalty just brings the killing inside.
We know that mass incarceration is vastly disproportionately
affected by people.
For the same crime,
the Black person's getting a much longer sentence
on average than the white person.
That's a system problem.
My name is Darren Hayes,
but my friends and associates call me Combray.
I'm the Lifers Association President here at Elayn Hunt...
where I've been incarcerated for the last 25 years.
I'm here on a homicide,
so that's second degree murder,
and that eventually led to a life sentence.
We have some young offenders.
Look like the younger, they're coming in off the street.
They're coming off the street with these problems.
So we came up with the idea, why not bring some people in
who maybe can tell these guys some things
and make them look at their self in the mirror.
Good afternoon. How's everybody doing?
- [ murmuring ] - Good.
My name is Charles Pattman.
I'm from the Wilson-Wooddale Funeral Home.
I just want to take a few minutes
just to share with you what actually goes on
after you have gone out there and you've OD'd on drugs,
when your homeboy decides to shoot someone.
So I just want to share a perspective with you
that is real.
I've seen a bullet straight through the heart.
I've seen a bullet
straight through one side of your head
and come out the other one.
I've seen them when they put that gun under your chin
and just blew half of your face off.
We've seen it.
So now we got to deal with it.
Darren: And it's another animal,
the young guys that I see come to jail today.
Back when I came, we had reasons, we thought.
Even though they was wrong reasons to do things,
we had reasons.
But young guys that I see come to jail today,
they don't know. They're just doing things
because peer pressure,
just wanting to be down.
What you did it for? "I don't know.
I don't know why I did it."
Just because he got away with it,
you think you can get away with it.
It don't work that way.
You got to free yourself,
each and every one of you.
You get out of here this afternoon,
you find the nearest mirror, and you look in it.
And you say to yourself, "I am where I am
because of the decision that I made."
And once you can look in that mirror
and say "I am where I am because of the decision I made,"
you are free because at that point
you can start moving in the right direction.
Darren: You got some good guys here.
You got some guys that just slipped one time.
You know, there's a thin line
between where I'm sitting at today
and where you're at right now.
Personally, me, myself,
I was selfish.
I hurt a lot of people,
and...right now,
I never been as high as when you help somebody.
And there's nothing like looking at somebody
you just helped or you just saved his life
from making a bad decision,
and...
it looks like the more you do that,
the more you want to do that.
Our next speaker
keep the party jumping.
Bounce music live
from the Party Bus,
from the Splash, from the Picnic,
even before I got busted.
I'm gonna bring you Freddie Ross,
known as Big Freedia,
to come enlighten us
about how he living his life.
Make it plain.
Good evening.
How are y'all doing today?
[ murmuring ]
You all know me as Big Freedia the Queen Diva.
You best believe her.
[ laughter ]
Thank y'all so much.
Thank you, Warden Stagg, for having me.
Thank you, my cousin Cardell, for calling me.
So I've been going around talking to many, many people,
and I say, "You know what? I have a platform,
and I need to use it as much as I can."
[ applause ]
God gave me a gift to be able to touch people
and reach people through music,
but I also have a voice.
I speak for a lot of different people
who can't speak up.
The most important thing is
touching this young generation.
These children are really a lost generation,
and it's gonna take one person at a time
to help change that.
And you gentlemen out here,
y'all can help make a difference
'cause they're looking at y'all.
They're looking at their brothers.
They're looking at their uncles.
They're looking at their-- their cousins
and saying, "You know, yeah, my cousin in jail.
He did such-and-such. My cousin known for this."
They think it's a game. They think it's--
it's--it's something to, like, live off
and feel good about.
How many people y'all think be affected
by the things that y'all do?
Your whole family.
We don't want to see y'all in here,
especially it's too many brothers gone off the street.
And so many women out there.
It's like five women to every man.
Don't y'all want to see all them beautiful women?
[ murmuring ]
Y'all got to get out of here, then.
Man: All right.
Y'all got to get out of here.
They're waiting for a Black, strong brother
to get out of here
and do something different with themselves.
I want to know what y'all have learned
while y'all been in this place
and what are you gonna do to change when you get out.
- Good evening. - How are you?
I notice that most of us dance around the problem.
It's the slave mentality.
[ one man claps ]
That's the problem. That's the heart of the problem.
We are inclined to do the things that we do.
We don't feel like there's anything else we can do.
There's a lot of us that are afraid to change
because they think it makes them weaker.
Man: Right.
How you doing? My name is Kenneth West.
I started using heroin when I was 16 years old.
I watch young men come in now into the system
who have been sold into a misconception of life.
Identification is lost.
You've been mistaught.
You're undertrained, undergirded.
But here's where I'm at, Ms. Freedia.
What we can do is we can try to re-facilitate to them
what the role of masculinity really is
and what is our role in family,
relationship, community, and church.
I'm asking you to grow up,
grow up into a mentality that becomes men.
God bless you.
Yes, sir.
Thank you to all of the people that made it possible
for me to be here today.
I'm the one and only Big Freedia the Queen Diva.
* You already know *
Choir: * Ain't nobody *
* Do me like Jesus *
* There ain't nobody *
* Do me like the Lord *
* There ain't nobody *
* Do me like Jesus *
* He's my friend *
There ain't nobody. Let's go!
* There ain't nobody *
* Do me like Jesus *
* There ain't nobody *
* Do me like the Lord *
* There ain't nobody *
* Do me like Jesus *
* He's my friend *
I never thought I would be carrying a gun.
I was, you know, I grew up in a church.
I was a choir girl.
* Suddenly you are no more *
* Suddenly... *
I went to Sunday school every Sunday.
* ...ore *
* Suddenly you are... *
But I also didn't ever think that I would be shot
and have to protect myself.
* ...you are no more *
Things happen in your life
that make you change your whole outlook on life.
It was late night.
Bringing one of the girls that I was cool with
home from the club.
As we were turning right here onto Orleans Avenue,
the police had a car pulled over right here.
So I remember that because the lights was on.
And what I did was I turned here on this street.
I dropped her off to her house which was on this side.
And as I'm going around the curb,
there's a dude standing in the middle of the driveway
just in front of my car.
I'm like, "What is this? What is he tripping out?"
His eyes were, like, super big.
I waited for a moment.
When he moved to the side...
all I heard was gunshots.
When the window shattered,
I got hit with my first bullet.
And when I realized, I started ducking.
I put my hand up like this to cover the back of my head,
and thank God I did.
Bullet got, you know,
jammed right here in my wrist.
So thank God for putting up my hand
because if I hadn't have put up my hand,
I would have been shot in the back of my head.
I can remember driving off real fast,
and I slammed into another car,
and I turned out the driveway.
I went right back down the street
to the same police that had the vehicle stopped
two blocks up the street,
and I pulled up to the police,
and I said, "I've been shot."
I remember blacking out after I told him I got shot.
I was very terrified.
This person was still out on the streets.
You know, I remembered his face.
Why did he do this to me?
Was he trying to rob me?
Or was he trying to make a name for his self?
Was he trying to put one under his belt?
And my mom was like,
"You're not gonna be captivated in your own city
in your own house."
The only way for me to feel safe to get out of the house
was to carry a gun.
I went, and I had to fill out all type of paperwork,
and they did the background check.
That's the only way that I felt safe--
that I had something to protect myself now.
I was never out to harm anybody.
I was out to just protect myself
if push came to shove.
And, um--
Still didn't get it. All right.
A lot of New Orleans bounce artists
died too early,
and their legacy become "They're dead,"
and I never wanted that to be me.
Magnolia Shorty was my friend.
We were like the two hottest bounce artists
at the time.
She was like the female version of me,
and I was like the female version of her,
so it was just like we were on that same path,
repping New Orleans
and putting New Orleans back on the map
through bounce music.
New Orleans police
are investigating three deadly shootings
in a span of just two hours.
The latest incident happened around 12:30 this afternoon.
Freedia: She was brutally killed and shot
because of the guy she was hanging out with.
There were actually, you know, hearsay
they were actually looking to kill him,
and she was in the car with him at the same time.
Newscaster: So far, there are no suspects or a motive.
Can't have any witnesses.
So she was killed on a funny style.
Make that ass sound like a car.
5, 4, 3...
Messy Mya was also another local artist
who was on a rise.
BeyoncÃ© used both of our voices
as a voiceover in the "Formation" remix.
What happened at the New Orleans?
Messy Mya was killed, unfortunately,
at a block party that I had just left at
and finished performing at.
And that particular day, I felt something strange
was gonna happen at the block party
'cause a lot of times
it's usually shooting at the block party.
I've had to, like, duck under cars
and behind trucks and hide behind trash cans.
And that particular day,
I was, like, "I'm gonna rap and I'm gonna leave.
I'm not gonna hang around."
And 10, 15 minutes later, they called me
and said that Messy Mya was dead.
We're out here. We're making a stand
because we feel like enough is enough.
One of the bounce legends--
Big Freedia's gonna say a few works for us.
I am very saddened about our loss to the bounce community
and to the bounce family.
Messy Mya--We all knew Mya for telling jokes
and making us all laugh.
Instead of this being something sad,
we can celebrate his life.
Now it's time for us to stick together
more than anything.
And let this be an experience that we all can learn from
to love each other more.
Thank you all so much.
Woman: One love.
- What's going on? - Hey, what's going on, Freedia?
- I'm chillin'. How you doing? - Wonderful. Wonderful.
So this my neighborhood. I grew up here.
Come around here, trying to educate people
of gun violence
that we can, um, be able to live in this community together
without killing one another. - Hell, yeah.
Lost a lot of people in this neighborhood
to gun violence. - I can imagine.
A lot of cousins and good friends of mine
and, unfortunately, by the hands of one another.
I would never admit to killing no one.
Right? Even if I have.
But I went to jail for it, and I went to trial for it.
Right?
I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There's a lot of dynamics to gun violence.
Like, ain't nobody just jumping up saying
"Oh, I'm gonna just be a killer."
That is not how that started.
I grew up. We were very poor.
Lot of things I was dealing with.
My stepfather was really abusive.
And because of that,
I had a lot of, um, psychological problems.
The way I acted out landed me in different institutions.
I probably was the youngest person in there.
I was definitely the smallest.
We used to go to the 7-Eleven down the street
and steal alcohol, and, you know, we would drink it.
And before you know it,
you know, I was snorting cocaine.
I think I was 10, 11 years old.
What's up, soldier?
Oh, yeah, it's a good day.
- How you feeling? - What's up?
You good?
I was known in my part of town as a jack artist
'cause, you know, I would rob people to support my habit.
You know, breaking in cars and breaking in houses.
that had guns in there.
So I've always had a gun.
I almost lost my life about three times on this corner.
Yeah, so you got a lot of pain in this neighborhood.
Right. So this is the spot right here
where I actually got shot.
They had so many bullets coming at me.
You know, I had ran out of bullets.
I only had a handgun, and I was shot in my arm,
and I was shot in my leg.
The guy ran over. He stood up over me,
and he was shooting.
He was shooting. I just thought I was dead.
You know, for some reason,
he just turned around and jumped in the car and ran.
I was 19 years old, and I should've been dead.
What's up, brother? How you been?
- Your world. - You been all right?
- Yes, indeed, man. - That's what I'm talking about.
It's Freedia right here, bruh. - What's happening?
- How you doing? - I'm good.
This Lamont. Me and Lamont used to run the street together.
How long you been in that chair, bruh?
Since '90. I got shot at a young age,
you know, in the projects.
Somebody tried to...rob me.
I wouldn't give up the money. Young at the time.
Living that life.
Rebellious.
- You know I was. - Right, right.
You know, stubborn.
The first desire of man is to survive.
And when our survival is threatened,
then we will do anything.
There's my other cousin out here in this wheelchair.
He been in that chair for about 30 years.
- How you doing, brother? - Good.
What's up? How you doing?
If you wanted to survive on the street,
you have to hold yourself down.
You know, you got to be a man.
If not, then everybody gonna mess with you.
I did a lot of destructive things around here,
but right now I'm just trying to keep young Black men alive.
Can you tell him that you love him
just one last time?
Say "I love you, Daddy."
I--I love you, Daddy.
Words from a young boy to his father
who was shot and killed last night in Algiers.
Woman: An emotional day for family members
of Ryan Massey.
The 25-year-old was shot multiple times
at the Garden Oaks Apartment Complex in Algiers.
NOPD say a verbal argument turned physical.
Earlier today, his family started a memorial
in his honor,
where they say the hardest part about this
is having to explain his death to his 4-year-old son.
Celebrating the life of Ryan Massey--
sunrise October 10, 1992,
sunset April 5, 2018.
This is the third nephew I've lost to the street.
If my family don't see what I see,
something wrong.
Father God, we thank You today
for all the ministers,
for the Massey families,
all the friends, God, that came from near and far.
I remember when I was becoming a man,
we used to fist fight.
That was our guns.
Now when you fight, you ain't shaking it off,
scared of whooping,
scared of-- scared of beat-down.
You go and get a gun.
What that gonna solve?
You kill me.
Either you're gonna get caught,
or somebody gonna kill you.
I had the intent today
to preach on the sermon "I Fought a Good Fight,"
but when I got ready to come across the bridge,
God changed the message.
See, where I come from--
I come from oppression,
I come from the brickyard,
and when you fight the good fight,
you get up and you shake hands.
But somebody don't know how to fight a good fight.
[ cheering ]
A good fight is a clean fight.
A good fight mean I can walk away
and say "We can still be friends.
We can still be homies. We can still be buddies."
I'm talking about a good fight.
[ cheering ]
The right words came out of his mouth to me
that "Unc, I love you."
That's some powerful words.
It hurt me once I got by myself
'cause I can't let nobody see me crying,
let nobody see me break.
Can't let my emotion take the best of me.
Why couldn't you let anyone see you break down or...
You feel normal emotions from losing a...
My mother asked that same question
that you asked me.
And she said, "Let it out.
"Maybe it's good for somebody to be there with you
when you let it out."
I just went off on my own and just...
went...on the levy.
I just went on the levy and just let it out.
There is something that I need to say,
and I need you to hear it.
Once upon a time, you would hear the sentiment
"It takes a village to raise a child."
Now we live in fear of the village
because our babies are being slaughtered
at the hands of our babies.
We've lost sight of the village.
I grew up in the Fisher Housing Development.
It is a part of the Algiers community
on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
It was... a housing development--
extreme poverty.
I grew up in the household without my father.
My grandmother raised me part time
'cause my mother battled a drug addiction.
Even though I grew up
in what people would consider the projects--
we came up in a very violent area,
but we also came up with a lot of loving people.
We had what I consider to be a village.
There was always people around
that could kind of push you in the right direction.
Even if your parent
or your guardian by blood wasn't there,
then your neighborhood grandmother or aunt
could always chastise you
and kind of get you back on the right track.
All of the neighbors knew you, knew your parents,
and not just "Hey, how you doing?"
They knew you by name. They knew where you lived.
They knew your mama's phone number,
your mama, your grandmother, your grandfather,
and of course they got you in a lot of trouble, too,
because if they saw you doing something
or thought you were doing something,
you got in trouble.
The neighbor would whoop your ass
before you got home,
and then your mom and your daddy
would whoop your ass.
I wasn't just raised by my mom and dad.
I was raised by my aunts, my uncles, my cousins.
Everybody helped to raise us.
So I think that's the largest change,
that the village is disappearing
right before our eyes.
Ray Nagin: Ladies and gentlemen,
this is not a test.
This is the real deal.
There's a major hurricane
that is in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is the storm of the century.
Freedia: New Orleans has always had its problems,
but it's just never been the same since Katrina.
I was about 27 when Katrina hit.
Adam was about 22.
Crystal had just had her baby.
There have been evacuation orders,
but for the most part, it seems
like many people are gonna just take their chance.
We were just like the typical New Orleans people.
We didn't want to evacuate.
We thought, Oh, it's just gonna blow over.
Woman: Quite incredible scene here.
The flooding on the street has gotten considerably worse.
I've got some skyscrapers off to my right here,
and we are just watching them fall apart.
Man: The worst of the storm has now reached New Orleans.
This is the moment we've been talking about.
Man #2: If the predictions come true,
if the predictions are right,
there will be a lot of dead people
in New Orleans tomorrow,
there's no question about it.
[ helicopter ]
Freedia: It was the worst storm ever.
It hit, and we were trapped in my house.
Man: Give me line 5.
Freddie in Lakefront, Freddie on WWL.
All right, they're monitoring this.
All I can tell you is do everything you can to signal
if the helicopters are passing over you.
Yeah. You're the exc--
And is the water rising any more?
All right, I got you.
I'll cross my fingers and say a prayer, Fred.
Good luck to you. Godspeed.
Thank you.
We were stuck there for two days
before we was rescued by a boat.
* I shall not *
* I shall not be moved *
* I shall not *
* I shall not be moved *
* Just like a tree *
* That's planted by the Lord *
* Oh, I shall not be moved *
We wound up sleeping on the bridge for a night,
and then some buses came and got us the next morning
and brought us by the Superdome...
where we were turned around with guns at the Superdome.
And we were told to go to the Convention Center.
Help! Help! Help! Help!
I think one of the things that people want us to do here
is to play a blame game.
I...
We got to solve problems. We're problem solvers.
What I'm interested is helping save lives.
That's what I want to do.
That five nights
staying on that ground by the Convention Center
probably was the worst five nights of my life.
Aw, baby.
When I left after Katrina--
I was gone about 10 to 12 months
before I went back to New Orleans.
It still had a smell
like something was dead in the whole city.
Oh, my God, is this really New Orleans?
You could not believe
that a city that was full of so much life
was just like a dead city.
Now you had neighborhoods
that previously didn't really jell.
Now they're in the same area.
People feel like they have to be territorial, right?
So you have young people now
that they grew up hearing stories
about how their relatives lived in this housing development
and another one lived in this neighborhood
or housing development
and these areas didn't get along.
So now they grow up hearing this,
and they feel like "We have to continue
this crazy legacy."
In this city,
people are particular about areas
and turfs and wards
and neighborhoods,
and when you mix that all together,
that's not always a recipe for rose petals and lilies.
The social system for kids is nonexistent, you know.
My kids can't come out here and go around the corner
and play with the kids around the corner
'cause there aren't any kids around the corner.
Who's worrying about what type of child
we're gonna have 5 or 10 years up the road?
I am
'cause I don't want my grandchildren to be the one
that's gonna stick a gun in somebody's face.
All that has a psychic cost.
Charles: I look at these boys, and I see pain,
and we don't let them be vulnerable.
That's not healthy.
If you're never allowed to express that,
it's going to come out
and likely in a destructive way.
There's a epidemiologist
that says violence is a contagion.
It acts like a disease,
that it transfers to the next person
to the next person.
When I look at the age range
of young people who have committed gun violence
and who are victims of gun violence, right?
I think about the age they were when Hurricane Katrina hit...
and the trauma that they had to suffer
through that whole ordeal.
One of the things
that people in the community suffer from
is post-traumatic stress disorder--PTSD.
People are traumatized.
Some of those kids were 8, 9, 10 years old, right?
And you look at the age range now,
10, 13 years later,
these are the young people
that's out here now
that's cutting up.
A lot of these young men out here
is overcompensating for their manhood.
Something has happened to them
that threatened their manhood.
- Mm-hmm. - It doesn't necessarily
have to be sexual abuse,
although that is something that happens.
- Right. - We have emotional abuse.
We have physical abuse.
And we have young people out here
trying to prove to themselves that they are men.
Mm-hmm.
Talking about mental health
in the Black community is taboo.
We don't want to talk about that.
If we are not dealing with our psychological issues,
then we're gonna always have our problems.
But I'm saying this from my own personal experience.
I was a problem child growing up in this neighborhood.
I've been to institutions all my young life.
Psychologically, something was wrong.
- Right. - Something was happening
with me, right?
So if we don't deal with the sickness,
then the guns will always be there
and the dope will always be there
and we're gonna always have the problems.
My son was born March of 1996.
I really knew that I had to do something, right?
Joined a 12 Step program.
You know, I got a sponsor,
and I've been clean 22 years.
So that's like my son's whole lifetime
that, you know, that I've been clean.
And thank God that my children never seen me like that.
I'm the person that even my family members thought
was not gonna be here.
I was supposed to be dead at 16, 17, 18, 19,
and I'll be 47 in June.
I know people who have done less than me
that's in penitentiary for the rest of their life
- or that's dead. - Right.
So I have to believe
that there is something for me to do.
- There is a purpose. - Right.
- You have your purpose. - That's right.
- God wasn't done with you yet. - Right.
I like to live my life as an example.
If I was considered
the worst person in my neighborhood, right?
Then the Creator says, "Okay, this is the worst one?
I'll fix him."
So it takes everybody's excuses away.
[ jazzy marching band music playing ]
[ gunshot ]
[ siren blares ]
We begin tonight with breaking news.
New Orleans police are investigating
a double shooting in the CBD
one block off
the St. Charles Avenue parade route.
Witnesses tell me that they saw a group of teenagers
take off down Union,
and then they heard five to six shots fired.
One unknown male was struck in the head.
That male is in critical condition.
When I first heard of the shooting,
I saw it on the news,
and I didn't know whose shot it was,
but, you know, I remember saying a little prayer,
and then, you know,
when we found out it was actually Sam,
you know, it was like the world just crashed.
Sam Butler is a kid
who went to the same high school as me,
was a aspiring athlete
in football and baseball,
and was shot on Mardi Gras day by a stray bullet
right after Adam was killed.
He didn't look, you know, anything like his self--
swollen, staples in his head, drains, and hooked up,
not breathing on his own.
Such a lively young man
just laying there not responsive,
and you don't know if he's gonna make it.
It was heartbreaking.
The bullet went in the right,
and it's in the left side,
so he actually have damage on both sides of his brain.
He had two craniotomies two days apart.
They told us that, if he survived that surgery,
that he would have left side paralysis.
So we didn't know if he was gonna ever speak
or eat on his own, breathe on his own.
- Hey. - Hey.
- How are you? - Good.
- How are you doing? - I'm good.
Hey.
- Hey. - How you doing?
- I'm doing good. - You're doing good?
He's been doing really, really good.
He's starting to move his leg.
Just started talking in November.
I felt ex--
excited, excited.
- Mm-hmm. - To be able to speak
to whoever you want. - Mm-hmm.
Like--Like I used to.
He wanted a phone,
and he was writing on the, um, erase board.
- Uh-huh. - "I want a iPhone."
And I was like, "When you start talking,
you can get a iPhone."
Sam started talking.
You got your iPhone, though, huh?
- Yeah. - [ laughter ]
- It's a new one. - Okay.
And he's eating some now.
He wasn't eating.
You see all the feeding tube,
but he's--we don't access it
'cause he's starting to eat by mouth.
Her had a goal to eat gumbo for his birthday.
I swear. I swear.
It was like "Mind, come on, mind, come on,"
- 'cause I got to eat gumbo. - [ laughs ]
- And all that.
My mind was on that gumbo.
He loved gumbo.
- Come on, man. - You hold him like that,
and he's doing his leg.
Nice job, sweetheart.
Okay, lock up that left leg.
You're gonna run out of room, huh, homes?
They look at him like a miracle now.
They're just amazed at his progress,
and one of the surgeons
that actually did his first surgery
when it happened
told me that usually they die
either before he get to them
or right after he start surgery.
And to see Sam, you know, has just been amazing,
- Oh, yeah. - His progress and stuff.
'Cause he worked very hard, very hard
'cause I told them "Don't be light"
- 'cause he's a athlete. - Come on.
- So he got that determination. - Oh, yeah.
I told them "Don't go light on him.
Go hard. Push that..."
- Wood. - Yeah.
Push that wood.
That's the thing in football, right?
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
So I tell them Push the wood."
Nothing but the grace of God got us to this point
in, uh, Sam's fate,
for him knowing the Healer,
you know, and even when he was having
these little tremors,
I said, "Oh, boy,
look like you're catching the Holy Ghost."
I said, "You should say hallelujah."
He would be in the hospital,
and if he caught one, he'd go up the hallway.
Hallelujah.
[ laughs ]
Thank God for you because, you know,
just stepping in and looking after Sam,
you and your husband,
and just being there for him
in this whole time of need, you know,
is much appreciated.
He know I'm mushy, so he'll be laughing at me
- when I get teary. - Yeah.
[ laughs ] But I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
Just a touching story all around,
you know?
Yeah.
***
* Jealousy, baby *
* Won't get you nowhere... *
The city, they come together
for what they want to come together for.
They talk for when they want to talk.
They look out for who they want to look out for.
* Jealousy, baby *
Hi, Mike.
* Won't get you no... *
There's a lack of love for each other,
and that's what's missing.
As a community,
we have to shoulder up to everybody...
because when something happens in New Orleans,
we're all affected by it.
* Jealousy, baby... *
- Welcome, welcome. - How you doing?
- You get to meet the man. - [ laughing ] Yes.
- Yes. - This is Devin.
- Hi, Devin. - This is Calvin.
How you doing, brother? What's up, bruh?
- How you feeling? - Good.
- I definitely think
Devin can change his direction,
but Devin has to want to change it.
We're gonna let y'all talk.
I think Calvin can try to put him on the right track
because he's been in the streets.
He know what the streets is about.
He did some of the things that Devin's doing now.
So, man, just tell me some things about you, bruh.
Well, as for me right now,
it ain't looking well because, um,
it's just a lot of felony charges right now for me.
So how many charges you have right now?
Uh, right now I'd say about 14.
What's the worst one?
Uh...grand theft auto, I think.
Grand theft auto? Okay.
No violent charges.
No carjacking, no armed robbery.
Nothing like that.
Now I just want you to know that I understand
because I used to be your age. I used to go to jail.
I done been shot. I done been stabbed.
I've been to jail for murder.
First degree murder,
four counts of first degree attempted murder.
So I want you to know that we are no different.
The only difference between you and I
is that I'm doing something different with my life,
and I would like to show you how to do the same thing.
When I was 14 years old,
I was sentenced to juvenile life,
and I spent four years in that place.
All right?
Four years.
And after I got out of there,
because I didn't change my mindset,
it wasn't but a year later that someone shot me.
All this is because I made a decision
to do some things...
that destroyed my life.
So, man, how do you feel
about some of those things that I'm telling you?
To me, I think you're saying that, um...
what goes around comes around.
Absolutely.
That--That--That's definitely what happens.
What goes around comes around.
So they told me someone shot at you, right?
Someone tried to kill you.
If you seen him right now, what would you do?
Fight.
But he shot at you last time.
So now there's some--
this done grew beyond the fight.
So you're saying if you see him again
you're gonna want to fight. He might have a gun.
He don't want to fight.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
You see where I'm going with that?
One of the myths I always try to, uh, dispel
is beef don't die.
Right?
So let me tell you.
The brothers who shot me,
we grew up together, right?
I shot one of them. He shot me.
And guess what. We're cool, bruh.
We see each other, we-- we get along
because someone intervened
and said no, this is not gonna happen.
Like, y'all need to talk about this.
All of us still alive
because we was able to talk out a situation.
Do you have any young brothers and sisters?
Yeah.
Do you have a brother younger than you?
- Yeah. - How old is he?
7. He just turned 7 today.
He like you, huh? He look up to you?
He like you, like the way you dress,
like to be around you and all that, right?
'Cause you know that he is more likely to do
what he sees y'all doing, what he see you doing,
'cause he want to be you. He want to be like you.
"I'm gonna be like my big brother."
You got any older brothers?
- Uh, yeah. - Mm-hmm.
- He in jail. - In jail?
But let me ask you this. When you were younger,
did you want to be like your big brother?
Yeah.
And he in jail? And where you headed now?
Same place.
You understand what I'm talking about right now?
So what you think your little brother's gonna be like
if you don't stop that?
Either dead or in jail.
You were not put here to do what you're doing.
Find your greatness. Find your purpose.
And do that.
Because the real deal is,
if you don't have a plan for your life,
the system got a plan for your life already.
The jail is built already
for people like you to come into
who don't have a plan for their life.
They got a room for you all the time.
They're never gonna turn you around
and say "We ain't got no bed for you."
I just want you to know, brother,
that, whatever it is you went through in your life,
whatever's going on with you,
you're not by yourself, you know.
That's where I'm at, brother Devin,
so, brother, I just hope
that you'll allow me to be your big brother
and let me help you, you know,
the way someone helped me.
You know, let me help you
to get through this dark time in your life
and get you on track and get you on the right road,
and I'm willing to do that if you're willing to have me
to do that with you, so...
do I have your permission, brother?
Yes, you do.
I'm looking forward to working with you, brother.
[ chorus humming ]
How you doing, my brother?
- Can I give you one of these? - Yeah.
Man, we're trying to do our part to stop the violence.
This is the Stop the Beef Hotline.
- Right. - Free of charge.
No police involvement, all right?
- Okay. - All right, my brother.
The New Orleans Peace Keepers mission,
it's a violence reduction initiative.
We started off just walking in, like, the violent neighborhoods.
We say, like, a hour of power--
one hour of doing something
is better than 24 hours of doing nothing, right?
You know, 'cause these simple fights
evolve into somebody getting killed.
Gunplay, so get involved. Stop it, you know?
- Yeah. - Say something.
In the Black culture,
if you get involved, you're a rat.
Hey, baby.
- And we got to stop that. - Yeah.
You can probably save somebody's life,
and you're not ratting,
you're just helping the situation.
We started the Conflict Resolution Hotline,
which is known as Squash the Beef Hotline
here in the city of New Orleans.
How's it going?
Someone will call the hotline,
and we get them to begin to start doing
what they haven't done up to that moment,
which is to communicate.
We get them to the table,
and they're going back and forth,
then we intervene and say "Yo,
what are y'all beefing about?"
And they stop, and they're like,
"I don't even know."
Hey, how y'all doing?
Of course we meet people that say it doesn't work,
but we have been able to resolve 46.
And two of those mothers who we've been able to help,
it's like we've saved the whole world,
so we're just really trying to change the culture.
- Yeah. We need to. - Yeah.
It's very important.
People feel
that resolving conflict
without smacking somebody or punching somebody
is weak.
We're trying to bring attention to this hotline that we have
trying to stop the violence, man--Squash the Beef.
I don't know where they get that from,
and I think it sometimes stems from
this misunderstanding of what manhood is,
and some people think that being a man
is based upon your ability to invoke fear in another.
Hey, how y'all doing? Look at--
- Hey. - Mama, Big Freedia here!
Hey, let me give y'all this
to try to stop the violence in the--
in the city, all right?
They're so cute.
So adorable.
I haven't been on this block
since my brother was killed right there.
Wow.
Definitely rough.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, this is where my brother was killed,
and the little kids in front of the house,
they planted this tree in remembrance of my brother.
Damn, man.
- You know. - How did that make you feel?
It made me feel really good, you know?
I hadn't been to this spot since it happened.
- Yeah. - You know.
I'm getting the strength now
to just spread the word in courage
so that another family won't have to go
what we went through, you know?
I wish I was there
to be able to resolve whatever was about to happen
or whatever happened.
I know that I could have found the resolution to fix it
if I was there or knew what was gonna happen.
- Hey, how's it going? - Michelle, this is Devin.
Michelle Charles. Very nice meeting you.
How you doing, brother Devin?
Devin is 14.
He hasn't even begun
to start his journey
of where he can go in life.
I hope we're not losing him to the jail system.
Not too much talking today, okay?
All right. So you ready?
Following your lead.
Once you introduce the child to the system,
one arrest alters that kid's trajectory.
One arrest.
And now the dominos start to fall.
- Hey, hey. - Hey.
- How are you doing? - Doing all right.
- Good to see you. - All right.
So we have--The cameras are going up right now.
One of the cameras will be facing over here.
Yeah. This is where my brother got killed,
right in front of that blue house.
Why I wanted to put a camera on that block--
to feel the presence of my brother's spirit
and let him know that he's gonna look over this block.
This camera that's going up that you're helping us with
is gonna be the first camera in the city of New Orleans
that offered gunshot protection.
- Oh, wow. - Camera's gonna start to spin.
It's gonna take a quick assessment
- of the entire area. - Oh, wow.
We're gonna know in real time if something bad's happening,
and we're going to be able to help
with the police response.
Yeah, this is amazing.
Hoping that putting up these cameras
can, you know, help the next person
if something like this happens
'cause we still don't have any closure.
* Oh, well, well *
* Don't be uneasy *
* Well, well *
* Don't be uneasy *
* Jesus gon' make up the dying bed *
- Freedia: Where the lighter? - No light in your eyes?
We ain't got no lighters over here?
Where the smokers at? Where the smokers at?
Here, let me put you-- give me a paper.
- Shawn got a light. - Thank you.
You got it?
This last year has been a really rough year for me.
I had to learn how to control my emotions
and find peace,
and still it's a-- a daily process.
Tonight we want to remember Adam,
and we're gonna celebrate
'cause you know he wouldn't want us to be sad.
He'd want us to jam 'cause he was a lively person.
He was full of life and full of joy.
We remembered our loved ones by celebrating their lives.
[ Dixieland jazz plays ]
We have a centerline band, and we come out,
and we act a fool for him.
* Jesus on the mainline *
* Tell Him what you want *
* Jesus on the mainline *
* Tell Him what you want *
It will take us as a community to end the gun violence,
each and every family, each and every individual.
That's the only way that it's gonna happen.
I think it's important to focus on saving one person at a time
'cause if you can't save one,
you sure can't save more than one.
Well!
[ laughter ]
* Danger *
* Oh, yes *
- * Danger * - * Wow *
* Danger *
- * Let's do this * - * Danger *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
* I'm so dangerous *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
* I just want to be dangerous *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
* Dangerous *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
* Dangerous *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
- * Dangerous * - * Dangerous *
* D-A-N-G-E-R *
* Danger, danger *
* D-A-N-G-E-R *
* Danger, danger *
* Everywhere we go is dangerous *
- * Dangerous * - * Dangerous *