Light 'Em Up - “Justice comes to those that fight, not those that cry!” “Pressing forward” with outspoken community activist, civil rights warrior, controversial radio personality and voice for the voiceless, Mr. Art McKoy.

“Justice comes to those that fight, not those that cry!” “Pressing forward” with outspoken community activist, civil rights warrior, controversial radio personality and voice for the voiceless, Mr. Art McKoy.

11/19/21 • 50 min

We’re extremely humbled and excited as we have now pierced 82 countries with our podcast. Thank you to every person who has taken the time to be a part of our broadcasting family.
Some interviews are work. This interview was enjoyable.
Taking the witness stand today we have the high privilege and distinct honor to speak with Mr. Art McKoy, a tough-as-nails Vietnam Army veteran who for more than 50 years has been the outspoken lightning rod leader of Black-on-Black Crime Incorporated.
Black on Black Crime Incorporated’s mission is to help draw attention to the issue of crime, poverty and violence in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. To help make our communities safer, to provide positive alternatives for young people and assist whoever asks for help to the best of its abilities, as well as reducing the incidence of Black-on-Black crime, of course.
Art has been an outspoken critic of the Cleveland Police Department, a flag bearer and firebrand for truth, justice and peace in the inner-city of Cleveland, as well as a staunch community activist and civil rights leader for many decades. He has long “spoken the truth” about the police, both the “over-policing” and “under policing” in communities of color impacting upon the city. Art is a hope-dealer! Just landing Art on Light ‘Em Up was a huge achievement. Art’s schedule is extremely busy, (we got him for 50 minutes) but he was very gracious to speak with us the day after election day, when Cleveland made history once more by electing its youngest ever Black mayor, Justin Bibb. Art said, “We needed to get rid of some of those old folks from City Hall - those that “go along to get along”.
We drilled deep on:
♦ How to move the City of Cleveland forward and the biggest problems that need to immediately be pursued with the new administration.
♦ How he’d bring “social justice” closer to the people of Cleveland if he was the Mayor or Chief of Police.
♦ What is the City of Cleveland doing about its young men of color being gunned down in its streets?
♦ Why the City of Cleveland has a problem with women-of-color going missing.
♦ Fixing the Community Relations Board.
♦ The Voinovich Rule.
♦ Building a coalition between the predominantly Black east side and predominantly White and/or Hispanic west side of Cleveland.
♦ His thoughts 9 years after Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were shot at 137 times and murdered by Cleveland Police.
♦ Issue 24 (which established a Civilian Review Board to review Cleveland police actions taken in the line of duty).
♦ The endless struggles that the police have in policing themselves.
Art knows better than most that Cleveland and communities of color (in general) have been witness to and “are suffering from too much pain.” He is a survivor of a vicious attack in 2018 in the doorway of his own place of business, in East Cleveland (The Superfly Barber Shop) where he was “sucker-punched” by an enraged customer, over a “5-dollar line” (touch-up hair cut) that he was providing to a young patron. The punch shattered Art’s lens to his eye, broke his nose and he was left for dead. 6 months later, by the grace of God, he recovered!
Art is a survivor, a warrior, and a good man. He is known by the deeds of the people who he has helped. Art is “pressing forward”. He knows all too well that “justice comes to those who fight, not those who cry”. Art has been and always will be to us “The Real McKoy”.
You can find Art on Facebook at The University of Common Sense and you can hear him every Sunday night on WERE 1490 AM from 5pm to 7pm where he hosts The University of Common Sense. Art for 14 years hosted the #1 radio show “Black on Black Crime” on 1100 AM WTAM.
This is an interview you certainly do not want to miss.

We want to hear from you!

We want to hear from you!

Previous Episode

The Mindless Menace of Violence: 53 Years Later, Will We Ever Listen? Can America Ever Lose its Obsession with Violence?

Welcome to this special episode of Light ‘Em Up!
We want to also welcome our new sponsor “Innisfree beauty solutions”.
We are excited to announce that we are now broadcasting in 79 countries.
On this edition of Light ‘Em Up we’re going to discuss the mindless menace of violence.
Akron, Ohio has set a record each consecutive year recently for murders. It is clear that the city and police department have no clear way forward to remedy this problem.
Taken as a single category (including homicides, suicides and accidents) about 40,000 Americans die each year as a result of gunshots. No one knows for sure why this is, but we do know quite a bit.
We know that:
♦ Every other high-income country in the world has many fewer guns and many fewer gun deaths than the U.S.
♦ States with fewer guns (like California, Illinois and Iowa) have fewer gun deaths, and
♦ States with more gun restrictions (like California, Massachusetts, New York) do, too.
On April 4, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy was in Indiana campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President when news reached him that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.
A crowd that had gathered for his last stop in a mostly black neighborhood had not heard the news. The Chief of Police had wanted Kennedy to call off his speech, fearing a riot. But Kennedy stood up on the back of a flatbed truck, with no police in sight, and broke the tragic news to his supporters.
A leader leads at all times – even in, or especially in -- times of tragedy and despair.
He spoke for just 5 minutes, making a plea to those listening not to allow the assassination to be an excuse for hatred or racial division.
There would be no riots in Indianapolis that night, unlike in numerous other U.S. cities such as Washington, New York and Detroit.
The following day, Kennedy made just one public appearance, at the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio. The remarks he delivered were powerful and impassioned. He spoke for just about 10 minutes, but 53 years later, the words he spoke remain just as relevant, just as necessary for every American to hear and contemplate, as they were back then.
The speech he gave came to be known as the “Mindless Menace of Violence” Speech and as America continues to struggle with violence every minute since April 5, 1968, we offer it to you here to think about when next you hear a news report of another American’s life being ended violently, as you are most like to hear if not today, then soon.
We’ve come to accept violence in our streets as natural, as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west or water flowing downstream. But must it be this way?
Here at Light ‘Em Up and Justice Rolls Down, we don’t think so.
Like Robert Kennedy told the audience in Cleveland, there’s no program or resolution that will instantly cure our society of this sickness.
If every problem has a solution, so too does this one.
We want to hear from you, our listeners -- we ask you directly.
♦ What needs to be done to start to chip away at the steady drumbeat of violent incidents in this country of ours?
♦ How do we begin the process of reducing violence in our streets and in our homes, schools, places of worship, business and entertainment?
Send us your thoughts and we’ll devote a future episode to explore the wisdom you’ve shared.
You don’t have to live in America to express your thoughts. Just being a human being qualifies you to know that each victim of the mindless menace of violence is a human being, “whom other human beings loved and needed”.
Don’t shrug it off for someone else to do. ACT! Respond today!
I hope this episode make

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undefined - The Death Penalty: Justice & Deterrence or Flawed & the Fruit of a Long Racist Past? A Detailed Look at the Troubling Case of Oklahoma v Julius Jones.

The Death Penalty: Justice & Deterrence or Flawed & the Fruit of a Long Racist Past? A Detailed Look at the Troubling Case of Oklahoma v Julius Jones.

As we reach yet another milestone -- broadcasting in 82 countries -- we close our 2nd season – another fantastic year of investigative journalism. The truth is hidden; it must be pursued! We delivered a record 18 episodes in this calendar year!
In this episode of Light ‘Em Up we focus on The Julius Jones case, race and the death penalty, and its application in the U.S. We examine the glaring errors that infected this case from its inception.
We investigate the true fact pattern, unpacking the background, case specifics and share 7 grounds on which Julius Jones’ case not only cried out for clemency but also demands that the decision be reversed and Mr. Jones be freed.
In 1999, Julius Jones was convicted of murdering a white businessman. Although he had an alibi, he was convicted and languished on death row for >20 years.
The U.S. ranks 5th worldwide for the number of executions. “It’s devastating to have the United States [be] the only Western developed country that executes people — and the only country in the Americas to do so,” Ivan Simonovic, the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for human rights, stated in a recent interview with Al Jazeera to which we were granted exclusive access.
We feel that it is crucial to shine a light on and to analyze the representation that a defendant received at trial, on appeal, and in sentencing and any other post-conviction proceedings, especially for those facing execution. There is no “do over” with an execution. In this country race has always mattered ... and will always matter.
The death penalty in America is very expensive policy to pursue, it is defined by bias and error and thus fatally flawed, its application is racist. It targets the most vulnerable people in society (especially the mentally ill) and helps to further corrupt the integrity of our criminal justice system.
Defendants continue to be convicted and sentenced to death based on such arbitrary factors as:
🧨their socioeconomic status & that of the victim
🧨their race & the race of the victim
🧨where the crime occurred
🧨the poor quality of their counsel
Know these facts to be true:
🧨 Defendants convicted of killing white victims were 17 times more likely to be executed than those convicted of killing Black victims.
🧨 Earlier in the 20th century when it was applied for rape, 89% of executions involved black defendants, most for the alleged rape of a white woman. Since executions have been carried out exclusively for murder, 75% of cases involve the murder of white victims, even though blacks and whites are about equally likely to be victims of murder.
Ella Baker, the civil rights and human rights activist once said, “Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.”
The death penalty debate boils down to these 3 questions: What is the purpose of capital punishment? To kill with clinical efficiency so as to give victims and their loved ones some sense of justice and closure? Or to make the condemned suffer, in the final pursuit of seeking revenge, an eye for an eye?
We’d like for you to consider these questions and respond.
Do you think the death penalty should be abolished? Does it make us safer? Is it cruel and unusual punishment?
As we close out this season, we want to express our most sincere & humble appreciation to every listener who has taken time from your busy schedule to be part of our listener family.
The truth is powerful, and the truth is under attack.
We push forward – always forward; never backward!
Justice comes to those that fight ... not those that cry!
Thank you! Peace be with you