following george floyd s death during the end of may and into early june. remember when i talked about how the system often tries to neutralize rising leaders? in the wake of the protest, ant smith was arrested in his home by federal agents for supposedly damaging federal property months before the current protests even though his friends and fellow activists say the charges are false. white supremacy ain t going nowhere if the systems in place don t change. the same tactics and injustices can keep happening. just listen to his friend and philly lawyer, michael cord. and so, first of all, we told you what the charge is? yes. essentially it s destruction of federal property. it s an entity that s financed in part by the federal
completely different community. born and raised in west philly, ant smith is a prominent activist in the community. as a teacher and as one of the lead organizers with the philadelphia coalition for economic, legal justice. aka, philly for real justice. when you got out, nobody was there for you. ant was named one of the most influential people in philly. but generally speaking, this area and a large portion of philly is like the entire black is here. but then of course there is a large movement of white transients from a bunch of other places. so it creates a lot of tensions. so is this the west philly that will smith was talking about? i mean, i m sure it was at some point in time. yeah. but i think i feel like will smith had it a little bit easier.
but just like racial justice activists have always done, activists in philly continue to stand up no matter what. this is another prominent community leader and friend of ant smith. i want to talk about ant, this leading black activist who is known in philly, celebrated in philly. absolutely. i know you have gone through a similar thing. yeah. i was arrested. we were organizing a round displacement. and, so, at an action calling out gentrification, a sheriffs deputy grabbed me around my neck and pushed me down on the ground. they arrested me for just disrupting a public meeting. later on they charged me with trumped up charges saying i attacked an officer and later
those charges were dropped. and i knew that i had a target on me, right? because i had been organizing and been very visible. that s the same thing that happened to ant smith. it s definitely political and intentional to strike fear in the hearts of folks who organized against state terror while there is a black police commissioner, you know? i think you put it best when you said that s all it s sighing a lot. i don t know. the shaking the head. like yeah. i talk a lot about this and sometimes i m like, i don t know what to say. i don t know what to do. you know? what more can be done and said about it ?
following george floyd s death during the end of may and into early june. remember when i talked about how the system often tries to neutralize rising leaders? well, in the wake of the protest following the death, antsmith was arrested in his home by federal agents for supposedly damaging federal property months before the current protests, even though his friends and fellow activists say the charges are false. white supremacy ain t going nowhere if the systems in place don t change. the same tactics and injustices can keep happening. just listen to his friend and philly lawyer, michael cord. and so, first of all, we told you what the charge is? yes. essentially it s destruction of federal property. you might say is a police car federal property, no but it s an entity that is financed in part