The Tea with Bri Theme Song Plays.
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Briona: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] Welcome to the first full episode of the Tea with the Texas ledge. My name is Bri, I'm the host of The Tea with Bri, a weekly podcast where I invite a guest on to speak about whatever topic they want to talk about. And I have the pleasure of being joined with my friend, Kelsey.
Kelsey: [00:00:18] Hi, I'm Kelsey Hitchingham. I'm the host of Engaging Austin, which is a weekly podcast that focuses on leaders in Austin's nonprofit and civic engagement spaces. We are really excited to welcome Warren Berkley to our first episode. Warren's pronouns are he/his; he is a Texas native with a history of involvement with advocacy and justice movements.
As a tech professional, he works to create equity in workplaces where employees of color are often underrepresented as a musician and painter.
He is an active member of the DIY art scene in Austin, always uplifting the profiles of artists of color and in marginalized communities. Warren, thank you so much for joining us today.
Warren: [00:00:56] Glad to be here.
Briona: [00:00:58] I feel like there should be (insert siren sound)
[00:01:00] I just, I am a big fan of Warren also. I have the pleasure of being Warren's friend. and so I'm just like nerding out even more right now, but we're also excited to have you on. What'd you say
Warren: [00:01:19] you can add coworkers that I listen out to too.
Briona: [00:01:23] Yeah. I just joined the Austin Justice coalition team and Warren's the one who sent me the job posting.
So also shout out to Warren because loving my new job. You, you were, you were one of the first people I had in mind when we started talking about this show. Just having watched you for so long out here in these. Policy streets. It's not, I'm excited that you could be the first guest for our new endeavor.
Warren: [00:01:49] Yeah. It's going to be I mean, ledge is always a shit show, so.
Yeah. So let's jump right in then. I mean, we've, [00:02:00] we've started the 87th legislative session it's been going on for a week now. Warren, is there anything in particular that you're paying attention to? This
session?
I'm still trying to figure out, like if you go up there where you get into a gunfight or not, cause like
Briona: [00:02:18] you're not,
Kelsey: [00:02:18] you're not wrong for asking that
Warren: [00:02:20] it's overlapping with the the still ongoing white supremacist insurgencies. But yeah, that and Corona, it's like for the longest, cause we really, we start ledge. We start like thinking about ledge, like November, October. And so obviously a big part of that this time is, is Corona.
Just cause we don't know. I mean, it's going to change, it has changed the process. Like before you could just walk into office and talk to the staff there, and now it's like, you [00:03:00] can't do that. Like you're either going to run into people at the front door with guns or you know, run the risk of getting COVID from the.
People who are specifically Republicans who still are holding onto the Corona as a hoax, even though they're, even though King Republican, Trump is showing that it's not. And some other people, you know, have died.
Briona: [00:03:30] Yeah. The 400,000
Kelsey: [00:03:31] other Americans who
Briona: [00:03:32] have, who have died from
Warren: [00:03:33] it at the, at the bare minimum, you would look at your colleagues.
Who have, you know, other Republicans who have died in Blake? Maybe the shit's real, but no yeah, only people. Well, I've heard, I haven't confirmed the only people in the Capitol right now are the people publicans who think that this is still a joke,
Kelsey: [00:03:53] And you have to get, you have to show uh, a negative COVID test and get like temperature checked and everything before you enter the Capitol right now.
[00:04:00] Right? Those are the, those are the
Warren: [00:04:01] precautions. Yeah. Rapid testing at the door, which is like useless. I mean, you could, you could get you get, get a, so you rapid test at the door, which, you know, could be negative or whatever. I mean, those things are inaccurate. Like there's no, I mean, it's just, you're not going to get those results, but I mean, you could literally like walk in and then get COVID the next second.
So it's like, how effective is that really? But we're not, we're not as far as like me and the alleged team at AGC, we're not going to be onsite for any of that.
Kelsey: [00:04:32] So, what are some of the issues that you guys take up to the ledge? Every session through AJC,
Warren: [00:04:38] it's a, it's always a criminal justice reform. Always trying to make the police less harmful for, you know, specifically for black and Brown, but that always you know, everybody benefits from that.
So, you know, if they can't kill black people, then they also can't kill white people. So but this [00:05:00] time. I mean, I mean, last year we didn't get a lot done. I mean, we had some wins, but a lot of our bills got stripped down or just were, just, didn't go anywhere. But this time let's see if we can harness some of that hot girl, summer energy from, you know, earlier, see if we can bring that in the ledge.
We do have a lot more volunteers this time going around. So some of that did trickle. Trickled down, like some of Austin is still about that life and still want to make sure we can take some of what we'd done locally, like here in Austin and see if we can spread those same changes statewide.
Kelsey: [00:05:42] So I'm interested in what kind of criminal justice reform happens at the state level, because I always thought that the, you know, particularly the police department was really controlled by the local municipality.
So what is the state? What can the state do to influence that?
Warren: [00:05:58] Do you, you can [00:06:00] pass like, like use of force and reporting like those type of like, basically anything we've done aside from like defunding and city budget, you can do that on a, on a state level. Well, actually, honestly, I think you could probably defund too because Dan Patrick kid, but fun fact, Dan Patrick, and an Abbott actually defunded DHS in 2017 for the same amount.
Almost the same amount that Austin did. APD. Nope, no flack though. No heat. It's okay. Then. But we do it. We get a billboard at the end of both sides of the city that says inner Austin at your own risk, you'll enter Texas at your own risk. But yeah. I mean, honestly, like, I mean, really you could write a bill for anything.
The thing is just like, how far is it going to go? Like I saw like a a [00:07:00] couple or last session. I was, I had a red light camera bill and I'm, I'm researching the offer to the author to see like, okay, what kind of stuff does this guy. Spin his timeline. And this dude had a bill about like drinking raw milk or some random shit.
It was so ridiculous. I'm like, bro, you get, you get paid all this money for this to push this agenda, like drinking raw milk. They're trying to make it legal or something like deregulate. Pasteurization or something I need, I mean, it was, it was so ridiculous. I didn't commit it to memory, but I said that to say, you could write a bill about anything.
Yeah.
Kelsey: [00:07:37] Just a matter of whether or not it gets picked up.
Briona: [00:07:39] Yeah. I think for me too, like, what is, what is the process of looking would that, what does that look like for you? Like as AJC and folks who are going and wanting to have their stuff heard. And I know that y'all do a lot of training for folks who want to come in and either.
I backed up. I just wondered what's the process of, of getting this stuff heard [00:08:00] by the people on the floor.
Warren: [00:08:02] So before when, you know, pre COVID, you would just you could write a bill and, and then you would, you know, try to get someone to sponsor it. Pardon? Yeah, smart. Like you write it and then you get someone to sponsor it.
And then you like shop that bill around to the places that you think would be supportive. A lot of that is knowledge of who is in office and like what like there's some research there. Of knowing what, what those offices typically like bite at, or jump on or what kind of bills they try to push out that out of their office.
So it would be really tough, like as an individual to just be like, Hey, I want to change this thing and then write a bill about it. And then like, not knowing who to, who to try to, who would be interested. Like [00:09:00] it would be really tough. So I recommend you get with the team if you want to do ledge work like AJC.
And
Kelsey: [00:09:07] how much of this politicking happens in the year and a half in between sessions or does it all just really like kick off as soon as ledge is like the new ledger sworn in?
Warren: [00:09:17] I honestly, I couldn't, I couldn't. Oh, as far as like like, like civilian involvement, like
Kelsey: [00:09:24] yeah. And, and, and trying to build relationships with representatives in between the
Warren: [00:09:27] sessions.
I have no idea what we were ups doing between sessions. Like I think about it all the time. Like what, what do you know, what would you even, what do they even do? Like. They meeting or like, they're not, they can't push any laws or anything. Maybe they're drafting you know, proposed bills like in that time.
But honestly, I couldn't tell you, cause I don't, I don't think I, I think their staffers are like, not even there. Like I'm not sure as far as like ledge stuff. I didn't, I have no clue. [00:10:00] I've never looked into it. I only have to interact them with them. Every two years. So that's really the only time I think about that.
I guess that's my question is, are you, are you reaching out to these representatives in between the legislative session, just to maybe like build relationship, get your name in front of them, like talk to them about this particular policy or does it, do you do, can you not access them before sessions in place?
I think their offices are always open, so you could probably go in there, but uh, Never tried. I mean, we did, we did see a Eckerd came to one of our events and like, Oh, when was that? November, but that, or maybe October, but that's so close to ledge. It's like, it basically is alleged.
Kelsey: [00:10:50] Hmm. Yeah. And she's new now as far as being the state Senator goes
Briona: [00:10:54] , my question also is what I know you're saying, like there's the online and like obviously [00:11:00] things have changed. And how does, how has that been working now with everything being virtual? Cause I know like. 90% of people aren't meeting in person. So as a person, who's done this for a while.
How's that shifted the way that stuff has been working
Warren: [00:11:13] for y'all. So we're scheduling zooms now and we're going to have to rely much more on phone and email, which before it used to be like supplemental, like all come to your office, talk to you. You know, and then like email for any follow-up or anything like that.
And now that is like the main tool for communication. We're still scheduling out visits so far. I think we've, I think somebody had a meeting which seemed really fast to me and good job, whoever that volunteer was, but yeah, it's going to be, I don't know. I can't even say for sure. Cause it's like.
[00:12:00] I mean, we're literally like, just starting. I have no, I have no idea what it looks like. I've met with an office, but it was outside of ledge. It was just like an, like an introduction to like that office. Cause they're they're new. But as far as like in session meetings, no, no idea what it's going to look like so far.
I imagine it's probably going to be three times as awkward as it is going into the offices. Cause like. Maybe not though, because it's scheduled, but there's been times where you'll step into office and they're like eating breakfast or some shit. And now they have to like put down their, their breakfast taco and they're like, hiding it in a, in a desk or something.
And so that they could do their actual yeah. Work.
Briona: [00:12:43] Is there anything else you think we should ask you about? Like, I feel like as a person who has been doing this for awhile, you have way more experience than we have speaking for myself. This is like my first time actually legitimately paying attention to the lens. So I'm also like leaning into your expertise here [00:13:00] of Warren who does all the things,
Warren: [00:13:02] I'd say going in, like, if, like, if you're gonna, you're going to actually like do some footwork and like.
Trying to work on some bills, like you really have to be dynamic and have no expectations. Cause you're just going to be disappointed at the end of the session. But, but also at the same time, like I wouldn't like, you shouldn't be discouraged, like the stakes are high here. So I mean, this is like, you know, state law for.
Yeah, supposedly forever, unless, you know, we we've seen times where like you pass a law and then next session somebody is trying to get rid of it. But yeah, you just have to, I mean, it's a shit show. You'll learn a lot that I, I was, I mean, I was pretty, I was pretty overwhelmed. Like the first, the first session I did, I was super overwhelmed and I feel like a lot of people.
Are going to have the same experience [00:14:00] and there they're going to get like turned away or discouraged just because it is so much there's, there's so much going on. And even, even me, like having done this before. And, and taking a leadership role in an again. Now there's so much going on that I couldn't, I couldn't even fucking tell you still, like it's too much, like, unless you, like, you can make a career out of it.
Shit. Like just doing this there's so much going on and you just, you really just have to like, like learn to focus when you're there and like, like stay focused on, you know, your individualized task and the big picture of like what you're trying to achieve.
Kelsey: [00:14:36] So Warren, what are some of the, can you talk about some of the specific bills that you guys are trying to introduce this session?
Warren: [00:14:42] You want me to pull up the list? Yeah, it seems info. So, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll do our big ones. I'll do our big ones. Cause our big ones are, are really fucking important. one that's like, Ended up being near and dear to me, not, not so much in the beginning of the [00:15:00] last session, just cause I was like, you know, still learning.
But, by the end of the session, I was like, yo, we need to get this shit past, the Sandra bland act, which it. Doesn't it doesn't number of things. Its main component is reducing arrests for class C misdemeanors. And this is. This is one, this is how Sandra bland ended up in custody for a fucking tell light, which is ridiculous.
And now she's no longer alive. Never, never should have happened. Like but it, it, it prevents situations like that. Where a cop, a cop should never be arresting you for a traffic offense like that. Isn't hurting anybody. You know, you're not under influence some shit with the tail light or license plate lamp, or, you know, a stop sign or some shit like that.
That should not end with you behind bars because it's not even, it's not even an arrestable offense, [00:16:00] but somehow Texas law has decided that like that's okay. Like you basically in Texas, you can be arrested for anything you can get, you can get a, you can get a resisting arrest. Charged with no with no other crime, like, like I, I showed up to arrest you for nothing and you resisted that and you get it, you get a charge for that.
And like Texas gives too much, too much power to, to cops for nothing. And, and so this was the Sandra bland act would, would get rid of that. If it's something where it's a fine or a citation, that's all you get. If it, if, if it, nowhere in the law says that it's arrestable, you're not getting arrested for it.
And that's like one of the main tools that police use to over police, certain neighborhoods like pulling people over for anything, pulling them over for nothing, and then finding [00:17:00] something to justify the, the interaction. And so that that's, that's a big one for me. Let me pull up the, I don't know the bill number off the top of my head, but.
I should probably say it for the record.
Kelsey: [00:17:13] Are these bills that have already been submitted at this point? And you're just going to try to get someone to sponsor
Warren: [00:17:18] them. No, this one, this one has an author already. It's HB eight 30 and the author is Thompson.
that's our big one. It was I think for a couple sessions now we've been trying to push that one and it got last session. It got stripped down to, I don't even remember what it was. It basically didn't do everything we want it. And that's a normal thing that happens with session.
Like you come in with the bill at the beginning and by the end and in a session that bill can look like something completely different or that bill could like, just get evaporated into another bill. Like some of the key points that you wanted. Pushed because you just end up somewhere else [00:18:00] entirely.
And so that's like, that's a thing that I feel like people should expect day one, like I was working on a red light camera bill, which that bill, there were like four or five bills for red light cameras. And the one I had went nowhere never made it into calendars. Like they didn't even look at it, but some other random bill.
That did basically did the same thing got passed. And now you can't, there's no civil penalty for a red light camera running a red, or like, you know, they take your picture, maybe some shit, you just throw that shit in the trash. No,
Kelsey: [00:18:35] never stopping again.
Briona: [00:18:37] So, so red lights were not suggestions.
Warren: [00:18:39] Got it, got it, got it.
Just a camera component. There was like a whole scam with that thing. Like the person who got that past doesn't even like later got. Fired for fraud. Like they were taking bribes under the table. Let's let's do this shit show. I can't, I can not state that bad enough. Like if that is an [00:19:00] understatement. But yeah.
Another one of our big ones re SWAT reform, we've been, Oh man. SWAT reform, SWAT SWAT reform. I just want to like. I know like what happened to Brianna Taylor is should have never fucking happened. Right. But it is also not a new thing. I have been every time I try to find a specific botched SWAT raid. I always discover like four or five more.
And. It's it's re it's ridiculous. Like we just, like a lot of times, a lot of times when they Bosch a raid to, if nobody dies, they just won't say anything and you won't even hear about it. They'll just be like woopsy and just like walk away. They'll like destroy somebody's house and just like chop out. But yeah, so.
[00:20:00] There's a couple of bills for this HP five 79 and HB four 92. We definitely need some kind of, we need to limit like the usage of SWAT. Like they, it's just, it's too easy for them to just go get a piece of paper sign and then come just like destroy somebody's house for like, not at nine times out of 10, they don't, they either don't find drugs or they.
Find such a small amount. It doesn't even justify like the damage they caused or what it costs taxpayers for them to deploy these specialized units and equipment. So we're like, we're basically paying for cops to do like the shit you see on TV for fun, like knocking down doors and shit and, you know, throwing flash bangs and all that shit for nothing like.
And they did that. The, this got I think, [00:21:00] I don't know if it, there was another bill that got birthed out of this because of a botched rate in Houston where an informant lied and said, yeah, I've seen drug deals coming out of this place. And so SWAT, you know, slap together something real quick uh, a warrant got it.
Signed by a judge and they went and they showed up. And it killed two people because those people, this is Texas and those people had guns. And in Texas, if you want to kick somebody's door down, I say you have a high chance of them sending bullets back your way. Right? Like it happens all the time. This is Texas loose ass gun laws.
Like no waiting period. The waiting period is, you know, when they fill out the paperwork. And so these people responded cause they don't know what the hell is going on. It's a no-knock raid. People flooding in their house. So they're, they're busting back and they killed these people. No, there's no drugs.
Informant [00:22:00] lied. Those, those cops too. I think two of those cops are now getting felony charges because they're corrupt as hell. And I think one of them may. May have had something to do with George Floyd too. Cause he was George Flores from Houston. These were Houston cops. This is Houston. What has happened?
One of these dirty cops. I think George Floyd actually got caught up with not a hundred percent sure I'm going to do my research. But I'm pretty sure he's at an interaction with one of these cops who is now behind bars because they're so fucking corrupt. And so. Oh, I'm going on a tangent. So I reformed no knock raids need to fucking go.
Obviously like we can't even, we can't even get an accountability for them. Like they're just allowed to fuck these up. And they do it all over Texas. They do all over the country. We've seen like they have to go that's that's another big one. Like SWAT [00:23:00] reform.
Kelsey: [00:23:02] So are these things AJC is focusing on throughout the year as well, like stuff at the local level, in addition to what's happening at the state
Warren: [00:23:09] legislative level.
Yeah. We've been trying to get rid of no knock raids for a minute. Okay.
Briona: [00:23:13] How
Kelsey: [00:23:13] do you guys determine what bills you're going to advocate for when it comes to a session? Because I'm sure that there's just like a million out there in a million different policies that need to be, need to be changed. So how do you focus your energy?
Warren: [00:23:27] We look, uh, we look at what's coming in and how it aligns with like our, cause we, we have a pretty clear I guess mission statement.
Like we, we tackle the same issues, like, you know not only, you know, reducing over policing police, accountability, reporting, reducing like the racist bias and the, in the. Police the whole structure of, of [00:24:00] cops. So we know what we're looking for when these bills come out and if they're good bills, if they're tackling those, if they look like they're tackling those issues, we support them.
And if they don't exist, we write our own and we find somebody to in the Capitol to get behind it.
Despite, despite it being Texas, there are some people in the Capitol who believe in justice for all.
Brought his crack it up, right. It just gets a bad rap, you know, for, cause we have so many bad shit ass Republicans, but at the same time, I feel like there are people in these streets who match those energy levels on the opposite spectrum. And. I mean we're out here. Right? We've got, we have hard mode. We don't have like little we'll have like government support, like little California get every little, you know, every little law passed can't even [00:25:00] your glue has a cancer warning on it.
Like we don't get it. We don't got that kind of support. We don't got unions out here.
Briona: [00:25:06] I laugh because it's just, it's such a realistic thing to say, because I feel like. I mean, we say it all the time. Like don't Austin, my Texas, right? Like other people who live here and are trying to make Texas a better state for everyone.
And then we have to fight against the folks who don't want Texas to be a better state for all of them. So I laugh because it's like, you see people like you and AJC and, and they actual people who represent us who are trying to make things better. But then like you're saying like bills get so whittled down that you're just like, This isn't at all, what I originally intended for it to be.
So that's why I laugh because even as a person who, hell, I didn't even know where to get updates on the ledge, aside from like actually Googling them. But I feel like just the way that having access to even know what's going on on a ledge [00:26:00] level is like so secretive. Like if we look at how the system is set of like, City council meetings when people are like expected to appear in court, like it's during the day when people have jobs that they can't take off work from, like all these systems that are placed to keep the people who are supposed to be represented by these folks, oppressed are not able to access.
The sort of meetings. That's, that's why I laugh because this whole system is a joke at the end of the day. Like it says, this is, this is representative of the people, but in the people can't come talk about what the people want, but we have these representatives who say they represent us, but they don't listen to us.
So I laugh because. Well, th the sentiments are great and it's very hard to see that sometimes. That's why I'm like I'm laughing. Cause I'm grateful for the folks who do try to make this system actually a system that worked for
Warren: [00:26:51] us. Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely a by design, like yeah, like you're a hundred percent, right.
You see it like at the local [00:27:00] level and the state level and even, even more at the federal level, like, I don't even like, what do you even do if you want to change federal law? Like, but no. Yeah, you're right. Like, I
Briona: [00:27:13] mean, we see this right now with how much governor. Abbott hates mayor Adler. Like there fights back and forth.
Like it makes me laugh because it's just like, A pissing contest at this point of like, who can do what? Cause the governor lives here, but Steve is the mayor here. And it's just like, it's always just like so funny to see those, those two really go at it. Cause I'm like, like if we think about the police right now, like as we're trying to take control of APD and I'm like, that's not supposed to work that way.
Like it's a local entity. You just happen to live in this.
Warren: [00:27:48] Can we talk about how dumb ass of a plan
Austin, Boston police get paid. Like there's some of the highest [00:28:00] cops paid cops in the state. And so they would like if, if they got rolled into DHS and the deal is with that is they have to keep them at the same pay benefits. Everything. So you would have like bougie ass, like Austin cops next to like DHS cops, but they're all DHS cops now, you know, under this group.
Yeah. But like this dudes make it twice your salary. Like they, they're going to create like a, like a caste system with the within DHS, which is like, Okay. It's such a dumb idea. Like it's bad, it's terrible. It's a terrible idea, but it's also so dumb and would fail, like, like would fall flat on his face that I of like the chaos in me wants to see it happen just so that it could fucking explode.
I mean, I don't even, is it posturing? Like, do they really want to do that? No.
Kelsey: [00:28:57] I mean, I think avid looks anything that Austin does [00:29:00] Abbott wants to undo it. I mean, like he's tried to legislate the way that we cut down trees in Austin.
Briona: [00:29:05] So trees, the homelessness epidemic, like everything we do is not good enough for him.
And that's just like, I also think like if essentially a quote, if he controlled APD, it would just make it easier for the Trump bats who are coming up. And I think that's also like now that we're seeing this shift in power, I'll be interested in seeing how he feels about the police being under AP on their Austin sort of like jurisdiction, because I honestly think it was all like a sort of publicity, publicity stunt, because APD had to.
Do what APD does and not listen to the governor. And so it's just like also like, cause we tried to define we're in the process of defunding APD and, and now he's like taking that super personally. So I also am enjoying his like, sort of he's like the mini Trump of. Texas. And it just makes me [00:30:00] laugh. Like how much, like he tweets about things to him.
Like you could just like sit in your house and do nothing, which you normally do. Yeah.
Warren: [00:30:06] What you like focus on some other parts of Texas man. Like anything else? Yeah. Like why, why don't you try to go get like like Elgin internet or something? Like, like anything else? Can we get an HEB in in El Paso or something?
Like, come on
Briona: [00:30:22] food deserts.
Warren: [00:30:23] Yeah. Yeah. Can we, yeah, let's feed Texans.
Briona: [00:30:27] How dare you, California has Texas
Warren: [00:30:30] one
Briona: [00:30:32] day. You're trying to make an equal place for all
Kelsey: [00:30:35] avocado toast.
Briona: [00:30:38] Scott, everyone wants more. Once I went to eat on time, Cod worn the nerve of you,
Warren: [00:30:44] sorry. Sorry about my socialism.
Briona: [00:30:48] It's showing. Reign it in Abbott might listen to this.
Also imagine you haven't gotten this far in the
Kelsey: [00:30:55] podcast and be the secret progressive. So
[00:31:00] Warren: [00:31:00] as long Connie, I mean, so much of what he does is like, it's not super firefighters because so much of it he does is just like posturing to, to look like. You know, he's like, you know, the typical Texan, you know, don't care about nothing except personal liberties or whatever.
Like, there's like no way behind it. Like he just, he's talking, it's all mass mandate where he's like, I feel like he's looking at it's that meme where the guy is like, you know, he's sweating. He has to push the two red buttons. It's like, that's Abbott constantly. Like you're seeing the death toll. But also, you know, if you tell, if you mandate mass, like all those red counties are going to be mad at you.
So how do you, how do you appease both? No, you just shift the responsibility to somebody else. Yeah,
Briona: [00:31:50] but then the city tries to put a mandate and he gets
Warren: [00:31:53] mad. Yeah. And then he's like, no, no only Denny's can mandate medicine.
[00:32:00] Briona: [00:32:01] I wasn't prepared for that. Random, um, off the collar question that has nothing to do with what we just talked about except sort of, do you think Texas will ever
Warren: [00:32:10] turn
blue? I feel like you asked me
Briona: [00:32:14] this before on the other show, this is a new, a new setting. We're talking about ledge now that we have, you know, new president coming in, we've got new people into the unto office currently where Georgia just turned blue.
Warren: [00:32:29] I think the spirit of Texas is blue. The people, the red counties are like, so sparsely populated. It's really not representative of the state, but you know, we have all these like yeah, like Jerry of like I was trying to come up with. Cause it's not, it's like, you know, it's like voter suppression, gerrymandering, you know, all this crazy like redistrict districting all the time.
[00:33:00] Like it's, it's like a, it's like a. Assist like an invisible system that has existed for so long to give us like this facade of like, you know, red state. When really, if you look at the, the voter numbers, it's, it's not, it's, it's pretty blue. Like the best places in Texas are. Blue city. So, so I mean,
Briona: [00:33:24] well, all
the
Kelsey: [00:33:25] major metropolitan areas in Austin, or sorry in Texas are blue anyway.
I mean maybe with the exception of bear County a little bit, but I mean, still San Antonio, it was blue on the map. When, you know, when we saw the
Briona: [00:33:36] returns,
Warren: [00:33:39] we'd, we'd have to like tear down those, the, the status quo of like how. Politics works in this state for that to happen, which I don't, I don't see some, you know, some, some like gargantuan, whenever you try to do that kind of stuff.
Some like [00:34:00] secret, like, like cluster of like millionaires, like shows their head and like, those are money behind it. So Like nobody, nobody yet, nobody out here is ready for that. That kind of work tearing down like the infrastructure of, of white supremacy, like at its base. Nobody's we ain't, we ain't even there yet
Briona: [00:34:24] someone I was talking to the other day said that there's I think. Either bill or initiative. I can't remember it out. But about redistricting, like redrawing districts in Texas.
Kelsey: [00:34:38] Yeah. We just finished the census and so they do it every 10 years after the census has been completed. So is so redistricting is on the on the docket
Warren: [00:34:47] this year. Do you want to go to those meetings? Wait, no, this is sorry. This is, this is work. Talk my bad.
Briona: [00:34:57] Send me send, I'll send an assistant to send me back notes. [00:35:00] Cause now I do not want to go and say excited to know what's happening, but I don't want to sit there
Warren: [00:35:05] for it. It's definitely happening. I'm not tapped into it just cause you know, busy with the ledge. I honestly, I, all the only thing I know is that it's happening.
Yeah. I did briefly look at. The, so they were doing some recruitment for that. And I was looking at the map and the map was pretty fucked up. Like the number of like the, I have something about the, the districts are, or how many, how many people applied in certain areas. It was just, it was, it was like, it was like the classic Austin map where you, where you look at it and they show you the zones.
And the places who would get hit the hardest have the less representation. And so it was just like, it was just like classic Austin politics to me, like [00:36:00] when I looked at it, I can't remember the specifics though. It was like some recruiting where they were recruiting for this uh, for this group that's in charge of redistricting.
They also. Like it was, I found out we found out about it so late that some of the process had already like been finalized and done. And like people had been chosen for certain roles. And then, and it was supposed to be like a public thing where everyone has an input and we've find out like three or four processes in.
Kelsey: [00:36:31] Was this for the census in particular? Or was this for the redistricting? Yeah. Cause this, I mean the census, the way that they rolled it out last year was so fucked up intentionally. I mean, like Trump didn't want to put any resources behind it. Texas didn't get any money for the census. Everything had to be a finance at the, you know, the local and County level.
So it wouldn't surprise me that that kind of disfunction rolled over into the actual redistricting as well.
Warren: [00:36:57] Yeah. So yeah. I'm yeah. [00:37:00] Doesn't that doesn't surprise me. Yeah. The only, the only census, like everything I saw revolving around the census was like local, local advocates were like pushing people to do it.
And there was really nothing from any kind of like government, body.
Kelsey: [00:37:20] Yeah. I mean, that was by design is because we didn't get any funds for it.
Briona: [00:37:28] Yeah. Well, I think one last question that I have is how can, how have you been getting, I know that we're just starting, how have you been getting updates on like when meetings are, how people can get like the post-meeting information and then sort of that to like, make it more accessible so people know what's going on.
And if you don't have an answer, that's fine.
Warren: [00:37:51] We have like an insider multiple. I don't even know if you would call it an insider. Just somebody who's been so tapped into it for so [00:38:00] long. They're like an invaluable resource to our team. So I'm like you, I don't know where to find this shit other than like, I mean, I can navigate my TLO and I can make a list, which I recommend everybody make an account and like, just go through the bills.
That are already out before it gets too crazy. But that, that was something I did like beginning of ledge. I went through all the bills that looked like they were in our scope, like any kind of any police reform or policing reporting use of forests. All that stuff you know, prison to pipeline should or school to prison pipeline, like all of that kind of stuff I went through and I put all of those on my tail.
And I, you know, I keep a track. I keep track of those good and bad bills and make two lists the ones I like and the ones I hate. And so that's like the first [00:39:00] start is, is looking at what people were, are, are sending through. What, what are, what are like, what are they trying to sneak past this, this time?
And then the, you know, beyond that, it gets super complicated with like committees and, and calendars and, and testimony and all that. But getting that first step down, like finding out what the objectives are and looking for how they align with your objectives. That really helps a lot. As far as the meetings go, I totally have to rely on somebody else for that
Kelsey: [00:39:40] for our listeners.
My TLO is my Texas legislature online. We'll link it in the show notes, but it's capital dot, texas.gov is the best way to go and sign up so that you can follow the bills that Warren just mentioned.
Warren: [00:39:53] Yeah. That's yeah. That's, it's a. Very valuable tool. There's like five [00:40:00] abortion bills, like are like in December already, like all kinds of, I made an another list of like stuff like not, not in our scope, but still important.
Kind of like for everybody, like minimum wage. You know, workers' rights, that kind of stuff. It's like, I looked at like, you know, the abortion stuff. It was so insane. My first thought
Kelsey: [00:40:24] was like, really still fucking, really like, really putting fucking effort
Warren: [00:40:29] into some people. That's like, that's all they give is just like some of these Republicans is all I give a shit about.
And that'll, that'll get them. Reelections too
Briona: [00:40:40] Lord and savior told them that this is a place I can also do a tangent on the separation of church and state and how religion shouldn't play into any of our Texas laws or laws period. But that's not today's episode Lauren Lauren, Warren, tongue-tied now talking legend Warren, Warren.
It has been [00:41:00] an honor and a pleasure and a joy to have you. Be our first guest to be on the show to deal with our seven good Jillian questions with your expertise. Thank
Kelsey: [00:41:10] you so much. I mean, I think that we've, we've got a lot of great takeaways as far as bills to pay attention to, and really just what they, what the actual process is.
Warren: [00:41:19] Thank you.
Yeah,
Briona: [00:41:21] thanks for having me. Yeah, we'll be sure to link everything in the show notes, where to find more and where to find the work that AJC is doing. And then we will catch all of the next one may. Well, LLC. Thanks Warren. Thanks Bree. Thanks. Y'all catch you next time.