What We Did to This 20-Year-Old Is Unforgivable

0:00Hey everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bullwater Keeers Managing Editor, Sam Stein. We have some tragic news today that both of us are in a state about coming out of Springfield. And so we want to talk about that and some related news from the Vice President. Pierre Bell, 20-year-old college student, killed himself, committed suicide today, jumped in front of a vehicle in Ohio. He went to Wright State University. His family came from Haiti. That's part of the temporary protected status program during the Biden years. He had been wanting to study medicine. He graduated high school with honors. He was a proud member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Obviously, he's not a criminal. And he had recently had one of these ankle monitors strapped on him that our colleague Jim Svetlis was reporting about earlier this week. It's a horrible story, Sam. How do you want to start? Well, yeah, I mean, I've been sort of gripped by this one all day. I first saw the news on the Washington Post, which reported this.

1:02He walked into, basically, what happened is he at 8.45 in the morning pulled his vehicle over. This I believe was two days ago. Maybe we're recording this on the first. So I think it happened on 31st. Pulled his vehicle over on the interstate. Okay, no one pulls their vehicle over on the shoulder of the interstate. Got out at 8.45 in the morning and just walked into traffic and was hit by a tractor trailer, pronounced dead at the scene. He's 20 years old. Okay. And this shook me, obviously, for obvious reasons. And then it just got progressively more depressing through the course of the day because advocates on the ground were talking to this family. They put out a statement. And it became pretty clear, like abundantly clear, that what happened here is he was subjected to inhumane psychological torture by our government. He wanted to play soccer at this university and he really couldn't do it with

2:02an ankle monitor on him. And his father had a note that I'd like to read, which made it very clear that this was a suicide perpetuated by a absolute mental breakdown by our government. The note said this and I'll just read it. And then you can give your thoughts, but I have additional thoughts about the people of Haiti. I have a little bit of experience. I've been to the island a couple of times. I like to talk about that. But this is what the father wrote about this. After my son was outfitted with the ankle monitor, he felt like he was treated like an animal. He took two trips to Cincinnati in Westerville to plead to the officers to remove the bracelet since he's a soccer player. And he felt embarrassed and humiliated when he was among his classmates at the university. He was bullied a lot. People telling him he's a criminal. Last Friday, August 28th, he told me, quite bad, I feel humiliated since they gave uniforms to all my classmates at JROTC that's junior ROTC. They're uniformed, but except me because of my bracelet.

3:03This morning, he left the house before 8am. He called me at 8.03 on the video call mentally, because I don't feel okay. And I told him, come home so that we can talk. I had my youngest to take to school. I took him to school. By the time I got around 11am, please show it at my door to report that he threw himself under a truck. I mean, it like brings you to tears reading it. I cannot believe that this is how we are treating people. Whether or not you feel TPS status should end for these people. And I have my own thoughts on that. To reduce a 20-year-old kid who wants to study, I think, neuroscience and serve and play soccer like an animal where you wrap a monitor around his ankle is the most, it's just vicious. It's just vicious. Yeah, you know, like you're tacking them like cattle. And you can pull out this picture here. He posted this on Instagram. You can see how he's upset about it. He writes this. I came to the country to pursue my education. I didn't come here to commit a crime.

4:04I heard anyone yet. Now I'm walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation. I've never imagined out experience. You can see it there. Like it's huge. I mean, like, yes, some people don't know things. Like it's like a fucking refrigerator on his ankle. And it's like, it's totally unnecessary. I feel like I'm repetitive on this point, but I think it's important to keep making, which is even if you're on the side that the Haitians need to go home or a sileese need to go home or any a doc a child and needs to be sent back to the country that they're born in. There are human and orderly ways to do this. Like this is, there was a process for this before we even had a DHS. We had immigration naturalization services. Like all through the 80s and 90s, like there were a way to do this where they're given a time where they need to go home. They have an opportunity to appeal, right? There is no need to put a ankle monitor on a 20-year-old

5:09that's in the JROTC who hasn't committed any crimes. There's just no need for it. It's gratuitous and it's cruel. And it's tragic. And Jim wrote just about all these other stories like this, like that poor mother who just tried to give birth and lost her baby and then went in for a checkup and then she got the ankle bracelet put on and a shackle put on. And it's like, this is not any way to treat people that are not to anything wrong. Okay, it's not a way to treat people by the way that slam across the Rio Grande, but these people didn't do that. They came through a legal process. Yeah, he came legally. His parents actually had fled Haiti, so they came first. And then he came to be with them. And I believe he was in a, he obviously was here on TPSP, he was applying for a sound. So he did, he'd, depending on the sound claim, so everything he did was buy the books. Okay, he wasn't a criminal. He went buy the books, he followed the law. And I spent a little time on the Instagram feed and it's like, it's like

6:12watching, you know, the American dream, the pursuit of the American dream, get violently interrupted. And it makes you fucking sick to your stomach. I mean, he's posting. And the post, obviously Instagram's a filter for like all the great things left, but his posts are like it. He's playing soccer. He's got these fancy outfits because he's doing fun things with his friends. He's exceedingly excited to graduate. He's got his capping gown on. He's holding his diploma in his degree. There's one picture where he's like in a limo because he's just graduated. There's another picture where it looks like he's starting to work somewhere. There's other pictures where he's holding more diplomas. He's in his uniform. The last photo, the last photo he posted was a series of photos. It's him with a big green sign first day of class. He just started college right state university. He had his whole future ahead of him. His whole future ahead of him. He has on his bio study, psychology and neuroscience preparation for medical school. This guy wanted to

7:14do good things in this country. He's going to college. He's like this is the other thing. He could just give him a student visa. He can't like this is not an illegal immigrant. It's some of it came if there's another situation where someone was in Haiti and applied to write state university and got into write state university, they could just get a student visa to go there. This is all absurd and just deplorable. The way that he's being treated. You had other thoughts about Haiti. So then just quickly on Haiti because the vilification of Haitians which has been gone for a couple years, it hits a little bit differently for me. I think I've talked about this a couple times. It's been a while since I've been to Haiti but I did go there three times when I was a kid. I went there because my dad did a medical mission when he was in a resident at medical school. So he went to this little village called Deschappel in the mountains of Haiti.

8:17And this is like he brought me and my siblings to get of age so that we could go because he can't really bring kids there. So I think I went there when I was like 11, 12, 13 something like that. Went three times. I remember I spent the Christmas there. It was very interesting. This is the most impoverished destitute place you can possibly imagine. This drive to Deschappel from from Port-au-Prince probably normally would take like an hour. It took us four hours because there's so many potholes. And when you get off the plane, it's really hits you. Like the first thing you get off the plane, you're like absolutely hounded by kids just begging you for money. Like begging you for money. I mean I remember very vividly being like holy shit. This is there intense. And then you get there and you realize like these people are like absolutely salt to the air. It's like all they want is opportunity. Like genuinely the nicest human beings in the planet. Obviously this is a generalization. Sure. Sure. There is crime and corruption in Haiti. But the vilification of the Haitians who came to Springfield is one of the more saddening elements

9:20to me of the Trump 2.0 era. What we've essentially said is we're not going to bother understanding these people. We're not going to bother meeting these people. We're not going to bother extending a hand to these people because they're different because they're brown because they come from Haiti. And it is the most antithetical thing to me for people who proselytize and assist that they are Christian and heart and values to turn around and say you know what? You you came here on TPS status and we in that in temporaries in the word. So don't complain. And I was almost like reluctant to put up the post today about this guy here because I know in the replies there's going to be a bunch of grotesque human beings who are like, well, not my fault. Yeah. And it just it just makes me so sad to think that this is what we've been reduced to. These people need help. But they're also hardworking. They come here. They want to study neuroscience. They want to play soccer. They want to make a difference. They want to serve in the military. And we're like, you know what? You're different. We don't like you. Go back.

10:24It's really sad. It's really tragic. I could have it appear. I'll just say this. I'm going through his Instagram feed while we're talking. They're literally it's him in the library. It's him in his uniform. It's him getting a diploma. The the the smile on his face. He's in this nice little suit. Probably bought the suit just for this moment. In the whole future is ahead of him. And then in a matter of months, he gets an ankle monitor bracelet gets bullied in his school. Can't play soccer. Can't do the ROTC. Feel so ashamed of himself that he throws himself in front of a big rig. Torrifying. And this message is brought to you by Tempo Meals. Now during the week, my schedule is pretty non-stop. And when I'm busy eating healthy is usually the first thing that slips. And it slips off. And that's why I've been loving Tempo. The meals they're already prepared. And so when I'm hungry, I can't have a ready meal in just two minutes. I've been getting meals like their citrus herb chicken in the filet mignon. And what I love most is that they're actually satisfying and taste fresh. It doesn't taste like your usual prepared meal. It's really good. I don't feel like I'm eating a

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12:33he said he knew it was a lie, but he needed to spread the lie to get people to pay attention to the alleged policy issue and his concern, which I guess the policy issue was that he wanted people like Pierre to be shackled with. Ankle Munger since sent back to a country where there's really no opportunity at all and grave danger for them. I thought it was an interesting contrast. JD Vance being the point man for this just to spickly inhumane policy that resulted in the suicide and also an interview he did with a child on a podcast this week where he talks about the chances of going to heaven. On a scale of one to ten, ten being absolutely certain, one being not certain at all, how confident are you that you'd go to heaven? Oh man, that is a tough question. It's high, but it's not ten. It's a seven or it's an eight. I'm always one of these people who is always going to have little doubts. If you asked me that question a year ago, probably it was

13:39like a five or a six. Why the change like five or six now is seven or eight? Because I'd say the difference is and again, I all respect to God, but I still occasionally have doubts like is this actually real? Do you notice what the doubt was there? You notice what the doubt was there? Is this real? It's not that he might have aired. It's not that he might go to hell. JD's doubt is that God might not exist. Like we might live in a simulation or whatever, this might have been an accident, a big bang, which is fine. Let's find out to have, but it's it's pretty striking that he gives himself an eight in the likelihood of going to heaven. The only reason it's not a nine or ten is because heaven might not exist. The thought doesn't even occur to him that he might go to hell. I have additional thoughts. You're Jewish. You're not as quite as familiar with the heaven and hell. I'm not. I have thoughts. What are your thoughts?

14:41The lack of humility and to rate your ability to get through the pearly gates. I mean, you have to really be on a different planet to start being like, you know what? Do we get to do decimal points? Because that'd be like a seven point eight. The right answer is this. Who am I to know? It's up to the Lord above. I'm trying to serve others. I can show that I'm worthy of it, but who am I to know? You don't rate yourself. I mean, it's unreal. We talked about this. We talked about this, you and I did, about people who go on TV who think they sound good on TV and really stink. And that is a prime example of someone who, when he's sitting there, he's like, you know, I got a good answer for this. He's not actually better in writing because thanks to producer Matt and Anzali for flagging this for me, because I had forgotten it. Even though I did the live reading of the JD Vance conversion to Catholicism book with JVL, some epic content. We'll put it

15:43in the notes here. If you missed that, you should go back and watch it. But it was so horrifying afterwards. I had to like black out and I just tried to block everything out of my mind because I couldn't deal with it anymore. And so I had forgotten this passage from the book. So this was just like an off the cuff thing where it was like he just lacked humility in that moment. In the book that went through editing that he wrote that I'd multiplied it or see wrote this, page 251, if you're yourself, I don't worry about what I will find on the other side of eternal sleep. Even as a child, I never feared hell. Oshah like Joan Didian, dreaded neither the loss of heaven or the pains of hell for the most logical reasons. She simply didn't think they existed. I came to believe in both, but I still didn't find either particularly motivating. That's really interesting in telling. It's sort of this like more absolute right? Like I don't really worry about this stuff. Like I can I can vilify Haitians. I can say they're animal eaters. And I can rationalize it as you know, just being tough on immigrants. And you know what? Don't bother me because I'm pretty sure I'm going to heaven.

16:47Pretty sure no matter what I'm going to heaven. And the ability to sort of skate like that. It's actually really interesting insight. And it sort of it tells you sort of a lot about the guy where he's able to sort of self rationalize. He thinks he's on the pious path. No matter what. Yeah, just a couple of additional thoughts to that. You know, I don't want to pretend that we should have had egg or on or somebody that is a little deeper in Christian theology. But you know, I did 13 years of Catholic school. The ninth commandment, their old testament. This is your people. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. I do think in this case he admitted that he was bearing false witness. He's smearing his neighbors by calling them pet eaters. So you know, maybe he's gone to confession about that. We'll get to the thaw soon. Yeah, but Tim, that's why he's not at eight or nine. That's why he's on it. No, no, it's not. The reason that I don't know how many of you have my man exists. He's definitely going. The golden rule might be another thing. You know, treating others as you would want to be treated. I'm sure he'd love to be

17:47shackled like an animal. Can we talk about that for a second? Did you see Milo on pears? Oh, yeah. The part you're going to bring up a different part. My favorite part of the pears, Milo interviews were pears asked him. He references his family back in the United States. Oh, yeah. Pears goes, are you speaking about your wife? A man. No, Milo talk. Yes, it was right before that because Milo's talking about, you know, I was shackled. I was treated in humanely. I thought this was the stuff they did to MS-13. They do this to everybody. He's like, and he was like, I was weak. I fell. I cried like an old lady. And he's like, I, you know, I, my, and basically, he's like, I, I've seen the light. This is horrible. And then he's subscribed. He's like, how could we, you know, I, I feel ashamed for supporting Trump. And it's like, I don't know, man. I don't know. I kind of want to welcome you into seeing the light. But boy, you talked about masturbating to ice videos too. Like, I don't really think so. This one's a tough one. And it's like, JD, I don't know, man. Maybe you should try it. Where an ankle monitor, you know, see what it's like and see if that's it's a drone in the shoes.

18:51Yeah. Get thrown in these fucking internment camps we have. One other thing I just do want to say is the Catholic, a final point of personal privilege is I, one miss here for JD might be that, I know it's going to be a shock to people is that the Catholic conversion is fake. Kind of like the Donald Trump conversion. And he, you know, he grew up as a Protestant. I, he just might not realize that the rules are different. Like I don't speak as a Protestant. My understanding is like on their side of the aisle, it's a creative Catholic. All you got to do is kind of bring Jesus into your heart. And you can make it happen. It's not about works. It's about faith. And, and that's not how things work on the Catholic side. Like you don't just get to be like, hey, I believe in Jesus and God and get to go to heaven. The rules are a little different. He might just want to kind of review, re-review the Catholicism because, you know, you do, you got to do a little better than this. I mean, when he interviewed with Ross Dalchad, I remember, Ross asked if he had, is there anything you wanted to take back? And he did take back the childless Catholic ladies. But not this. Not this. Well, look, this is out of my expertise. I don't really know what the Catholic rules are.

19:55I know what the Jewish rules are. And we are just run by guilt. Like we just feel guilty about everything and insecurities. He could use some guilt, and some incidents. Exactly. Lately, insecurities and guilt and fear of like, what's the thing where you just, you're like, you're faking it, like you're exposed to. Imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome. Like, that's it. That's Judaism right there. And I think everyone can use a little bit of that. Well, JD Vance sucks as usual. Just really tragic. Rest easy to pier. Let's make, I don't want to make this, but, I want to make this, but pier. And I want people to understand that pier shouldn't have, this should never have happened. Honestly, should never have happened. It's awful. And I hope people elevate his stories that we don't do this to other people. There are 350,000 Haitian immigrants in this country. Many of them have just lost TPS status. And this is not going to be the last horror story. It's not. And we need to shine a light on this shit because it's awful. What's

20:56happening? So I just went into that. Yeah, I agree. A lot of, a lot of Haitians here in New Orleans, a lot of Haitian brothers and sisters, it's tough to kind of imagine the culture here of Adam. And it's just, it's really if I can sec what they're doing. Thank you to Sam for getting me off my ass to come talk about this. It is really important. And sending all of love to it to Pierre's family. And that will be back tomorrow. I'll try to the faith. Appreciate you guys.