Transcript:
Lidia Curanaj: Joining us is National Police Association spokesperson and retired Chicago area police officer Betsy Brantner Smith. Also with us, the host of the Marc Little show, pastor Mark Little. Thank you guys so much for joining us.
Pastor Marc Little: Thank you for having me.
Lidia Curanaj: Pastor, I’ve often said that BLM should actually stand for buys large mansions because that’s exactly what the founders did with the billions raised, all the corporations. They poured money into this. The foundation raised over $90,000,000 in 2020 alone in the name of George Floyd, yet only a fraction of that appears to have been even tracked. And now recent federal investigation shows subpoenas issued and serious transparency questions. They are now emerging. What do you think? Was BLM a scam? And are we going to finally see some accountability here?
Pastor Marc Little: Well, thank you for having me again. But I have to say, number one, to answer your question very directly, it appears very clear as a lawyer and as someone who has run several nonprofits. Nonprofits. I remember they didn’t know or the claim they didn’t know that they had to file a nine ninety. So what does that tell you?
And we know from 2013 with the killing of Trayvon Martin and then after that Michael Brown, pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon, hands up, don’t shoot. They create narratives that are lies. It has been a grift since they began and none of the families that have been victims of violence have been helped by them. But what we do know is that they’ve collected valuable properties all across the country. And if anybody knows anything about the law and non profits, personal inurement is a no no.
And that’s what we seem to be looking at. I’m glad the DOJ is now finally on this case because it sends a message to others who would capitalize off of the violence in our streets and capitalize off of families who are hurting to not do it.
Lidia Curanaj: And, you know, Betsy, speaking of misused funds and misguided leadership, I want you to take a listen to what Chicago’s mayor, Brandson Johnson, said about the federal government’s ICE efforts in Chicago.
Brandon Johnson: No one is gonna convince me what the Trump administration is doing against black people and brown people can ever be justified. It is racist. When you have black babies being thrown in the back of vans zip tied in the middle of the night and mass men sticking guns in the faces of black and brown people that is nasty, is vicious, is racist. Doctor Keane described it as an evil. Militarism and that formation is an evil.
Lidia Curanaj: You know, and, of course, during the summer of love and the BLM riots, we saw cops under attack. Chicago short nearly a thousand officers. Budgets are continuing to shrink it. We’re spending all this money on illegals. What do you think about Democrat leaders like mayor Johnson who are clearly telling blatant lies?
Betsy Brantner Smith: This is the thing. He is telling blatant lies. So many are. And what they’re trying to do, Lydia, is get cops hurt. We’re seeing this in Chicago.
We’re seeing it in Phoenix. Phoenix, we just had another ICE agent sent to the hospital because he was nearly run over on a traffic stop. Brandon Johnson is so wildly irresponsible. And that’s why the National Police Association has filed a FOIA request because we wanna know how many millions, hundreds of millions of dollars he has spent on illegal aliens and also what that has cost the Chicago Police Department as far as resources and crime and crime prevention goes. It’s just extraordinary.
This money could be spent helping the public instead. It’s all being spent on people who don’t even belong in this country. And then he lies about ICE and he lies about his own law enforcement as well. That’s why his approval rating is in the tank.
Lidia Curanaj: Right. It certainly is. And pastor, what do you think about these democrat leaders? That the very policies they claim to be pushing, the narrative that he’s spewing that it’s a Trump administration that black babies are being tied zip tied and thrown into the back of vans. And you have people out there listening to this and believing the lies.
And Chicago continues to be the murder capital of the country. The majority of people being killed, young black men killing other black men. Yet all the democrat leaders they wanna do is demonize Trump instead.
Pastor Marc Little: That is so true. And as a survivor of gang violence in Los Angeles, when I was shot and lost my leg by an 18 year old crip, No one wanted to talk about black on black crime. And Chicago has been the capital of not wanting to talk about what’s happening in their streets, black on black crime in particular. And now we see they are more concerned about helping illegal aliens with food, with housing, with schooling than they are their own citizens. And now we know that these sanctuary cities, thank God President Trump is dealing with this problem so that Americans can be safe, so that Americans can go back to work, so that Americans can live their lives in freedom.
This is a tragedy, Brandon Johnson, what he’s doing. It’s like a stage show. If I didn’t know better, I would think that they were just actors because it makes no sense.
Lidia Curanaj: It certainly doesn’t. We have to leave it right there. Betsy Brantner Smith and pastor Little, thank you both.