Implications of Project 2025 on Policing and Criminal Justice

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A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton.

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What do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good afternoon

and welcome to Need to Know with Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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I am she Nsenga Burton.

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Today We're going to talk about some of

the things that you may look forward to or

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not so forward to with this next And with

this next administration, as it relates to

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policing and some of the criminal justice

items that are at least listed in project

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2025, which they're saying is a wish list

of right wing and white nationalists.

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But if you're looking at some of

the announcements have that have

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been made, it seems like they're

following that wish list to get off

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in terms of what they want to do.

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And our, uh, Next president, our president

elect has already said, uh, that he is

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willing to use his executive orders to

get these, uh, policies into place if he

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cannot get Congress, uh, to pass them.

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But he's about to have a, uh, a

Republican Senate and House, but we know.

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That doesn't always mean that you

get your legislation pushed through.

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Um, and then, of course, he can also

use his courts that he is, um, nominated

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or appointed people to as well.

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But I wanted to talk about this

because I, I learned of a situation.

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Involving 2 teenagers who were

on their way to a homecoming

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event, a ball address event, and

they were stopped by the police.

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And I had the opportunity to hear

some of the audio and how the police

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officer was talking to them and.

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Apparently, of course, everyone

the night, and they were

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really afraid for their lives.

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So I just want to remind

people that police officers are

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not necessarily your friend.

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They're not there to be your friend.

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They're supposed to be there to serve

and protect, but we do have a long,

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long history of negative interactions

between police officers and people

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of African descent, black people,

brown people, or what have you.

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So I think you need to, what you

need to know is that because.

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Uh, people will be emboldened by

this new president and the policies

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that, uh, he wants to put in place.

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For example, he wants to

stop criminal justice reform.

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So, what that means is when they

were, you know, some areas, you know,

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carrying marijuana is a misdemeanor.

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Now he wants to be a felony again.

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Some areas, you know, they had

reduced the sentencing guidelines.

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So, you know, you serve a shorter

period of time for certain crimes.

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We can stay on marijuana.

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Um, but now they want to

stop that and increase the

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amount of time that you serve.

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They also want to, um, make use of

the RICO statutes, um, to, in order

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to imprison larger numbers of people,

um, take them off the streets, so

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to speak, um, whether or not they

I won't say whether or not they're

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innocent or guilty, they have to go

through a trial, but the Rico statute.

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So we have an example of that here

in Atlanta of the Rico statute

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being used, um, against the record

label, but, um, they also, you

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know, he wants to politicize the

DOJ, the Department of justice.

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I'm getting to my point in just a 2nd, I

just want to give you a little bit of this

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information, the Department of justice.

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So, instead of the Department justice

mission, which is to serve in the interest

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of the public, he wants to change it.

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So that is.

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Their mission to serve in the

interest of the president.

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Okay.

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So that means all of the things that

are done, you know, whether it's an

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investigation of civil rights crimes, you

know, whether it's anything that you are

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used to having the Department of justice.

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Do I even investigate?

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You know, Congress people, or what

have you for crimes he wants that to

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go away and he wants them to pledge

basically pledge allegiance to him

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and say, forget the public interest.

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You need to be working and be

in alignment with the president.

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It's a corporate model.

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Right?

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Where you're.

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Uh, whatever department you

run should be aligned with the

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strategic plan, the strategic

vision of the president's office.

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Right?

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So he wants to do that.

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And as opposed to having the Department

of justice, which is supposed to represent

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the interest of the people and then

just 1 more thing, even though violent

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crime has dropped significantly in

major cities, most of the information

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that they, most of the wish list is

coming from false information about,

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you know, Statistics on violent crime.

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So they're saying it's more violent

crime is more violent crime.

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There's more violent crime.

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Well, in fact, it's less violent

crime and violent crime has been

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reduced in many, many municipalities

cities or what have you.

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And so, What you need to know is that

information, this response, right?

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We need to have more death penalty.

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That's also part of this, right?

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We want to put more

people to death, right?

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These are pro life people, but they

want to put more people to death.

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Um, we want to, um, build more

prisons for when we do these mass

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deportations so that we can put people

in there until we can get rid of them.

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Right.

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So we already had them, uh, putting

kids in cages, losing track of the kids,

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finding out some of the kids were sex

traffic that already happened: 2016

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But apparently we want more of that.

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So, um, that's going to

probably start happening now.

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So what I need you to know is in

order for people to work for this

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particular president, they are going

to have to pledge allegiance to him.

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All right.

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And so.

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All of those rights and protections

that people have been working

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to put into place, particularly

following George Floyd, particularly

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following, um, Ahmud Aubrey, you

know, these very high profile cases.

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Brianna Taylor, um, will

be either rescinded.

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Or repealed and so what you need

to know is your interactions with

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anybody who's representative of, you

know, the president anyway, shape or

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form, particularly since he's calling

himself the law and order president.

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Right?

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It's probably going to be negative.

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It's very high possibility.

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That'll be negative.

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There's a very high possibility

that your civil rights will be

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violated because there'll be

nowhere for you to go to get them.

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Um, Um, to even, uh, notify yet

alone, um, tried to remedy the

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situation through the courts.

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And even if you are able to get

that done, the likelihood of you

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remediating the situation through

the courts is slim to none.

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So my point is, you should be ready

to be pulled over by the police.

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Um, you should be ready to

have a good, good attitude.

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I don't care if they're calling you the

n word, don't say nothing, especially

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if you're teenagers, don't say nothing.

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You should be ready to ask

for your lawyer immediately.

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One of my friends, um, she, um, when

her son turned 16 and started driving,

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she gave him a lawyer, um, introduced

him to the lawyer, and he carried

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the lawyer's information with him,

and he actually did need it once.

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Um, so you need to know that

you need to have a lawyer.

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Um, You know, hopefully on

speed dial, you know, old people

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like me call it speed dial.

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You don't have to be fumbling around

for stuff where you just do this

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and they call the lawyer right away.

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Um, and you need to be ready for

some really intense interactions

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because, you know, civil rights,

um, are basically going away, um,

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and they will not be enforced.

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And, um, the, your remedies

will be curved curved.

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So the likelihood of you being

able to do anything for yourself

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is very slim once that happens.

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So I say all that to say, I'm sorry.

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If you didn't read project 2025, you

might want to read it now because

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all these people who voted for

him, particularly those who have.

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Long, long relationships with the

incarceration and mass incarceration,

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and all of the great things that

were happening in order to repeal

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some of that damaging those damaging

policies, like, these extremely long

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prison terms for nonviolent crimes.

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The amount of which you could be

imprisoned, you know, all of this

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positive legislation around marijuana

and CBD and all of that is going away.

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So, uh, be clear, uh, that.

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You may not have the most positive

interactions with police officers,

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or people from the, or people who are

aligned with the president anyway,

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shape or form, because that's what he

wants and in order for them to work for

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him and to continue to work for him.

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They have to say that that's what

they want to, and they have to do.

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What he wants them to do in

order to keep their jobs.

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So that's all I got.

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It's gonna be a long 4 years and

then, you know, all the generational

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damage that will be done.

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So it's gonna be longer than that.

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But these next 4 years.

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Could be 8, I guess, you know,

since he said he didn't play

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and leave the White House.

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So it's gonna be a long 4 years, but

please know, which you need to know.

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Have a lawyer on speed dial, follow

all the ru uh, rules of the road.

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So, you know, if you do have an older

car that has tinted windows, if you live

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in a county now or a state, that doesn't

allow them, get rid of the tinted windows.

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Not to blame the victim, I'm just saying,

um, if you have a light out on your car,

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you know, this is Sandra Bland, right?

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If you have just one, a bulb

missing, oh, no big deal.

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It's just one bulb.

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I'll get it done tomorrow.

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Get it done today.

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Get it done today.

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Um, but don't give them anything.

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Use your signal.

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Don't give them anything Um or any reason

to stop you they're going to anyway, you

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know for For all intents and purposes, but

you don't want to Be able to have them say

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well I stopped you because you had this or

you had that You want to have everything

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in line registration in place all your

taxes paid property taxes Don't have

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any outstanding traffic tickets, right?

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Because in some places, I'm sure

they'll be saying, once you have

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a certain number, they're going

to turn it into a felony, right?

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Because they got to keep the prison field.

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All right.

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So make sure that you are

handling your business.

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So tune in.

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Next week to a black executive perspective

podcast, and I will see you then.

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Thank you for tuning in

to need to know with Dr.

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Nsenga

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Burton,

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BEP Narrator: a black

executive perspective.