“A district attorney is for all the people, so I want to be a unifier of political division,” says First Assistant District Attorney of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, who returns to Cuckoo 4 Politics to talk more about the issues facing his district and how he plans to solve them when he is, hopefully, elected District Attorney. Mike himself has been on both sides of the political divide–a divide host Michael Desrosiers believes continues to be further drawn by Republicans who insist on maintaining traditions and laws which tend to favor white men. After many years as a registered Republican, Mike Mancuso is running for office as a Democrat. He explains what inspired this change, including the democratic policies that he felt would be most effective in solving the district’s most pressing issues.  

As is the case in most of America, gun violence and drug use are becoming shockingly commonplace in Monroe County. Yet, as Michael Desrosiers points out, Republicans took a hard “lock them up” stance when drug use was relegated to the Black community. Only when drugs began affecting white communities did the conversation begin to revolve around treatment. Our host asks the First Assistant DA what changes he would like to see made to the criminal justice system and his thoughts on gun crime and gun control. Mike Mancuso describes Monroe County’s crisis involving juvenile criminals including the lack of facilities to keep the most dangerous among them away from the public. 

By joining today’s conversation, you are likely to recognize at least one issue that you are facing in your own community. As the profile of both Republicans and Democrats continues to change and evolve with the times, so must policies in order to be effective. 

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“The interplay between drug addiction, mental health and domestic violence—those three big issues contribute a lot to repeat offenses, recidivism, that revolving door analogy,” explains Mike Mancuso, who is currently running for District Attorney of Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Having worked as a first assistant district attorney since 2004, Mike has worked on countless such cases, has seen the way they overlap with each other and understands how best to approach these problems. 

This conversation illustrates the transparency and accountability that Mancuso brings to the table. He shares the challenges faced by law enforcement and the steps being taken to rebuild trust with the community, including the implementation of body cameras and data-driven analysis. You'll gain a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding police actions and the importance of fair investigations. 

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“We’ve got to protect the community but in a way that builds trust within the community,” says Don Leeth who is running for District Attorney in Monroe County, PA this Fall, beginning with the Democratic primary election which takes place on May 16. In December of 2020, Monroe County was the scene of a fatal altercation between Pennsylvania state troopers and a young man named Christian Hall. Don and Michael discuss the case and the issues it raises about the need for transparency and external investigations in cases involving police. The incident was the impetus for Don’s decision to run for DA and highlights the erosion of trust between the police department and the community–particularly communities of color–and a mentality of “them versus us.” This trust must be rebuilt by addressing issues of substance abuse, juvenile reform and mental health among others. In addition to diversifying the police force, it is crucial, Don argues, to match the right professionals–such as social workers as substance abuse counselors–to the right tasks, as police are not trained for many of the challenges they are put on the front lines to face.

Racial inequality is a systemic issue–not just an issue of a few bad apples, Don says. Part of making justice more equal is eliminating sanctions put in place which disproportionately affect Black and Latino communities. This includes veering away from punishing low-level drug abuse and incentivizing drug treatment programs, and reforming bail practices. Don describes the difference in the conversations he has with his own son about how to interact with the police, and the conversations his sister has with her own sons who are of mixed race. Michael explains why he keeps a “Ferguson” camera in his car in the event he is pulled over by police. 

The issues facing Monroe County are issues facing counties and communities across the nation. Today’s discussion expands upon the one which took place in Episode 41 of Cuckoo 4 Politics titled “Why?” which touched upon issues regarding gun control in America and its connection to race relations. 

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“There seems to be no safe place in America,” says Michael, noting that even in places that were once considered places of solace, people have to worry about being shot. Sam Jean joins another episode of Raw & Uncut to talk about gun control in America and its intersection with issues of race. The episode was recorded in the wake of Tyre Nichols dying at the hands of five Memphis police officers. They note the hypocrisy of allowing anyone to acquire a gun while requiring training and permits for far less consequential endeavors such as driving a car. Similarly, when it comes to police brutality, offending officers are moved to other departments while any other profession would bar its practitioner for life. Sam explains the sympathy he both has and doesn’t have for police officers based on the work they do, the power that they possess and the responsibility that comes with it. Asking for accountability is not the same as being anti-police. 

There is a disparity between the way we view white people who own guns–and openly carry them–with the way we view Black people, particularly Black men, who do the same. Similarly, as Sam points out, white police officers convicted of police brutality have their officer portraits shown on TV while Black officers have their resulting mug shots shown. Sam and Michael discuss a movement gaining attention in Memphis that would have two different judiciary processes for each race. Racist conservatives blame Black criminality on single-parent households, a term often interchangeably and incorrectly confused with having an absentee parent, Sam notes, as a deflection from the effects of external racist forces. 

Michael and Sam question why more money and attention aren’t being focused on de-escalating crime. Michael compares the huge disparity between incidents of gun crime in the U.S. to those of the rest of the world. 

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“A lot of people have a movie-like version of the real world,” says Sam, who returns for another episode of Raw and Uncut, “and it doesn’t work like that.” People are hungry for performative politics because President Biden’s scandal-free tenure doesn’t fill the void of entertainment left by Trump. People see the Chinese balloon flying over the Midwest and expect it to be shot down as if life were an action movie, not thinking of the implications of that actually happening. Taking the balloon down did cost nearly a million dollars in military spending, which satisfies the same people who would then turn around and complain that their taxes are being spent on projects like public housing, Covid relief extension and tunnels that would help alleviate traffic. 

They want to see empty gestures that even the politicians providing them don’t actually believe. They assume President Biden has done nothing about the train derailment in Ohio because Fox News says so. This is why Fox News invites guests on whom they know are lying because the network knows what its viewers want to hear, and knows they come to Fox to get their fix. Politicians will also create problems where they don’t exist, such as children being forced to confront trans rights issues, people being forced to use the term ‘LatinX,’ and meanwhile real, worthwhile problems like infrastructure, healthcare and tax codes and the squeezing of the middle class are ignored. 

The two discuss what the example of George Santos says about the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Sam gives his thoughts on Nikki Haley and why he is done underestimating Trump. Michael closes the episode discussing the influence of the 1949 Fairness Doctrine–and its absence–on the way that politics are presented in the media today.

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“So we have this issue in this country, that we keep essentially trying to rewrite the past, to make it seem like it wasn't what it was,” says Sam Jean Esq., who returns for another episode of Cuckoo 4 Politics: Raw & Uncut. He references Skip Gates who said that countries that confront their histories of racism do better than countries that don’t. Yet, people in positions of power are literally rewriting history to make certain segments of the population feel more comfortable. The hypocrisy of certain Conservatives to promote free speech but to want to censor students' curriculum, or want to decide whether drag shows are fit for other peoples’ children to see based on a false equivalency between a style of theater and criminal activity. They believe in free speech as it pertains to their own world view, under the guise of simply “asking questions,” while opposing points of view are forms of indoctrination that needs to be stopped. 

People aren’t willing to have conversations about the way that slave labor boosted the economy of the South such that it could compete with the industrial North in the Civil War. Africa, the second largest continent in the world is rendered the same size as other continents on the map, is reflective of how much Africa is still not valued beyond the resources it can provide for other parts of the world.

In his closing, Michael cites the 25 states across the country that are bidding to ban any curriculum that mentions critical race theory or sexual orientation, reproduction or gender identity. Anyone who opposes this is only allowed to comment on the voting procedure and not the content of the bill itself. Michael agrees with historian Jim Ross at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock that these measures are the same taken by the Old Confederacy and would only serve to resegregate schools. 

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“There’s an excitement in being able to look down on someone,” says Darryl Colon, who resumes his conversation with Michael about the origins of racism in America. Darryl discusses President Lyndon B Johnson’s Kerner commission, a committee of all-white conservatives who placed the issue of racism at white America’s feet. As Michael points out, Black Americans historically have not been afforded the same opportunities to assimilate into society as have newly arrived Americans, particularly Europeans. Darryl quotes psychologist Carl Rogers, who said that people are drawn to support and reward things that are “like them,” and that conservatives want to shut down the Critical Race Theory conversation to maintain a status quo that benefits them, regardless of its effect on others. Psychologist Alfred Adler recognized that at the heart of a superiority complex is an inferiority complex, and people are always eager for the chance to look down on someone else for the chance to be—or just to feel—powerful. He says this motivation perpetuated slavery, white supremacy and the origins of the modern-day police institution.

Regarding the resistance from Conservatives to incorporate Critical Race Theory into curriculum, Michael makes the analogy of wearing red during American Heart Month: dedicating a month to heart disease doesn’t mean you think it’s more important than cancer. It’s simply a matter of raising awareness. Historically, large groups of people united under one cause have proven too much of a threat to those in power to be tolerated for long. The two men refer to 9/11 as the first time Americans were truly united, and the world with them, a unity which could have lasted to this day had it not been squandered with an invasion of Iraq under false pretenses.

Michael closes the show by discussing the methods used to conduct census surveys in centuries past, and the categorizing of citizens based on to what degree they possessed Black heritage. He compares this with the way citizens are choosing to self-identify today.

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“Differences should be celebrated, not eliminated,” says Darryl Colon, the first guest on the new season of Cuckoo 4 Politics. Darryl, who has several advanced degrees in the field of psychology and mental health, explains that differences among races are nothing more than genetic adaptations to regional climates. Yet, the enormous power of imagery, particularly the medium of film, has profoundly influenced the way races feel about themselves and each other. He explains that Black characters, particularly Black men, who behave in a way deemed unacceptable by society, will never make it to the end of a film or novel. “Unacceptable” behavior, oddly enough, includes acting with bravery, intelligence, or initiative. Michael recalls that in the 1986 movie “Top Gun,” two minor but recurring Black characters were not featured in the film’s epilogue sequence the way all the white characters were. Even movies like Black Panther have hidden messages suggesting dire consequences for Black characters who act too decisively or with too much confidence.

This kind of messaging has a profound effect. Darryl cites a famous study called the “Black Doll/White Doll '' experiment begun in the 1940s wherein children, both Black and white, were shown a Black doll and a white doll and asked which doll was beautiful, intelligent, good. Up until recently, throughout each experiment, the children chose the white doll. Black people, Darryl says, have been fighting off stereotypes assigned to them by Europeans 500 years ago in an effort to justify the slave trade. Before then, people from the African continent were making major contributions to science and letters, like the basis of the Pythagorean theorem.

Another major contribution is Hip Hop music, which, though originally dismissed by mainstream radio as being too “urban,” is now celebrating its 50th anniversary with stars of the genre dominating media and branching out into parallel fields like fashion. Michael opens and closes the show on this topic, as well as the declaration of Juneteenth as an official holiday. While many corporations have embraced the holiday, many of their celebrations are off-key if not exploitative. Michael quotes, “Black history should be viewed as another way to celebrate us as a nation, like the Fourth of July.”

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“Growing up, there was an idea that some people just were not going to serve in public office,” says Sam Jean, who returns to resume the discussion about the results of the US midterm elections. This week, he and Michael discuss the “celebrification” of American politics. It’s evident in candidates like former football player and recent Republican candidate for the state of Georgia, Herschel Walker, and former news anchor Kari Lake who recently ran on the Republican ticket for Governor of Arizona. Taking leaves out of Donald Trump’s playbook, these candidates trade charisma for competency.

This is only successful, Sam and Michael point out, because Republican voters like candidates who behave in a mean, mocking manner toward the Democratic party. This voter base sees themselves as victims under the thumb of liberal policy and conspiratorial liberal media. So, they prioritize the satisfaction they feel in seeing liberals “get owned” over sound policy and practices. They present Florida governor Ron DeSantis as another example of this, a figure whom, Sam points out, has never actually had to prove his mettle.

Also part of the discussion is the state of Louisiana which is the only state to vote to maintain slavery and involuntary servitude as a means of punishing criminals. This brings up issues of privatized prisons and for-profit incarceration. Michael’s closing statement analyzes the new lines along which voters are divided.

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“I told you that you can’t pay attention to certain narratives,” says returning guest Sam Jean on this episode of Cuckoo 4 Politics. As it turns out, Sam was correct about his midterm predictions, and that the much-publicized Republican Red Wave turned out to be a drip. Sam attributes this and other false beliefs to fake news and fear campaigns put out by the Republican Party. Many people also believed that their hometowns would reach crime levels comparable to major cities like New York and Chicago, and that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked by a man he met on Grindr.

These falsehoods and the likes, Sam and Michael argue, proves that Republicans have no real issues which they plan to address. What is more, they discuss issues in a one-size-fits-all narrative and as Sam explains, politics are too local for such an approach. What is worse, such extreme views can be enough to drive independent people away from voting.

Perhaps ironically, Donald Trump made Sam a believer. Find out why, as well as the real story behind the presence of litter boxes in school classrooms (and it's far more concerning than Republicans’ fear that students are identifying as cats).

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