EXCLUSIVE： THE JAKE GARDNER STORY REVEALED
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Summary
On today's episode of Human Events Daily, we are joined by two members of the Nebraska Freedom Coalition and Jake's girlfriend, Dana, to discuss the tragic passing of Jake's ex-boyfriend, Kyle Rittenhouse, who passed away at the age of 27.
Transcript
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard today's edition of Human Events Daily.
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Now, because we have been doing some of these evergreen conversations, some of these stories
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where, you know, we're always focused on the news of the day every single day on this,
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but I wanted to take this time around the holidays to kind of record some content, pre-record,
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you know, so we did this in Phoenix right around when America Fest was going on, kind
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But a lot of people were coming in, so I said, ooh, I want to interview this person, I want
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And then there were some people who were coming who I've connected with online in the past,
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And they had a story, and they were part of a story that is something that really should
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be on the mind of every conservative, every patriot, and really just anybody who lives
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in this country and wants to understand what's been going on here for the last 18 months
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And now everybody knows Kyle Rittenhouse, and everybody knows the story of this guy was
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in, you know, in that event, in that situation that he was in, was put in the situation that
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He was later, of course, you know, we know the rest of the story for a year, right?
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Or 14 months, was called every name under the sun, white supremacist, murderer, all the
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rest of it, by people up to and including the President of the United States, Joe Biden,
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Then finally, when he was put before a jury of his peers, he was completely exonerated.
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But what not everybody knows is that there was a similar situation that took place in
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Omaha, Nebraska, to a guy by the name of Jake Gardner.
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And so we have here with us today, two folks, they're actually members or, you know, part of
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We've got Leah Shirley, and she was actually, in the past, a Turning Point field rep and
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And we also have Jake's girlfriend, Dana, who's joining us to talk about this situation.
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And, you know, look, this guy, I just really wanted this to be a platform.
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This, the way I look at it is, this is Jake's story.
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And, you know, I really just wanted you guys to be able to come in and share that story
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with the audience here, because this is something that I think, and it's very sad, and I wish
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But, you know, when you look at Kyle Rittenhouse's exoneration, and the fact that he was able,
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finally, finally, when he got through everything, to be put in front of that jury, that they did
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And they looked at that video, and they said, look, he did what he had to do, or he would
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And Jake, that is the exact same thing that happened to him.
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But, you know, I don't know how you guys want to start, or basically, you know, or maybe
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just, maybe just start this, you know, kind of talk about how it was that you, that you
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Well, I just want to start by thanking you for giving us this platform.
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Obviously, it's something very close to our hearts.
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I know I mentioned to you when Kyle was exonerated, that is kind of a bittersweet moment, because
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it felt like it was a little bit of a win for Jake, too, but he just wasn't here to experience.
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That, I guess, I knew Jake through Dana, primarily because she dated him for, it would have been
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And also, because he was an avid supporter of all conservative values.
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He volunteered for the Trump campaign back in 2015, 2016.
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He was a huge supporter of our Turning Point chapter at Creighton.
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And he was just very active in the community, wanted to make Omaha a fun and lively place for
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people to come and experience and just be engaged with each other.
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And then, obviously, Dana dated him for upwards of six years.
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So you knew him outside of all the political stuff.
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Yeah, we started dating, yeah, about six years ago.
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Our first date was at our amazing zoo that we've been talking about all day.
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You guys have been telling me about the zoo, by the way.
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When I thought of zoos, I never thought that Omaha, right?
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And then, so going through to it, so then would you go to, like, the Turning Point stuff with
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Jake was, like, the boots on the ground for that and just, like, to be running with that whole
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And I was just kind of the supporter on the back end.
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Yeah, no, it's my wife, Tanya, and then kind of the same deal where, you know, if there's,
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like, a specific event, like this, like, America Fest is going on, and so she'll come with me
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But in terms of if it's just, you know, tabling or something, right, she's not going out there
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And we actually have a special Christmas episode as well.
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So, you know, kind of let's, and I don't know which one of you, either one of you wants
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to start, but for those who don't know Jake Gardner, just kind of in a nutshell, right,
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who, what, where, when, why of Jake and, you know, how did it end up the way that it
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So, back in May of 2020, right around when the George Floyd riots were going on, there
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was a protest in Omaha, started out probably midtown area, and then they were making active
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And he also then turned it into, it was called The Gatsby, which 20s theme, Roaring 20s, had
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a huge New Year's Eve celebration there in 2020.
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But he, after the COVID lockdowns, was preparing the bar, preparing inventory, cleaning everything
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up to be ready to open up the following weekend when the lockdowns were over.
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So, that day, he was there with his father, with his business partner, just a couple bartenders,
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They were there all day, cleaning up, getting everything ready.
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And the protesters started making their way downtown as soon as it was starting to get
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And really what happened was the protest, peaceful protest, turns into more of a riot.
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They start throwing bricks, throwing rocks and windows at buildings.
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And so, he was just kind of monitoring the situation from the bar.
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His plan was to, if anything had happened, pull the fire alarm, call the police, let the
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And he just wanted to be there to try and minimize or assess the damage.
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What ended up happening was the name of the man who attacked him was James Scurlock, was around
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different areas around the block already throwing rocks, throwing bricks through windows, property
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And what had happened was originally they were throwing rocks, everything, of course.
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And his father comes out after it lulls down a little bit, Jake's father, and asks them
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And someone actually came from across the street and body slammed his father to the ground.
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For anybody listening, we'll have to put a link out for folks to see it, because this
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At that point, Jake came over and tried to dissolve the situation, tried to...
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His dad is a little bit older, and he was currently going through, like, cancer treatment.
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So, he wasn't in the best physical condition or anything.
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And Jake came over, tried to de-escalate, and they didn't want to de-escalate.
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He was obviously an avid Second Amendment supporter.
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He always carried on him, being working downtown Omaha.
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And one thing that they do like to say is, well, his permit was expired.
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It was expired by a few days, and it only expired because of all the COVID restrictions.
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So, that's one of the things that they like to say.
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But he told them, he said, I don't want any trouble.
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Because at this point, he's on his private property, right?
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But people like to say that, like, well, he was on the sidewalk, right?
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Which wasn't anywhere near his property, which clearly was.
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He, at one point, brandishes his firearm, and he's like, I don't want any trouble, trying
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At that point, some girl comes and jumps on him and is holding him, just trying to restrain
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At that point, he fired a shot, not towards her or anything, but just fired the shot.
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But at that point was when James Scurlock ran towards him, jumped on his back, had him
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in a chokehold, and from what he has told Dana, his business partners, other people, there
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It had rained the night before, and James was actively trying to drown him, like push
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People don't realize, two inches of water is easily left.
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And you can hear a couple times throughout the video, like you said you've watched, Jake
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And at that point, he takes his gun and just fires over his shoulder.
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It hits Scurlock, I assume, in the jugular, hit him in the neck, and he bled out on the
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Um, and as soon as that happened, Jake went inside his bar, called the police, waited
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They came, put him in handcuffs, of course, and everything, took him to the police department,
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and he probably spent the next day or so there while they were reviewing everything.
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Um, as they were reviewing all of the footage, he had security cameras everywhere around the
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So there were, there's clear-cut footage of this incident.
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And you can even hear on the videos him asking, like, please get off me.
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Um, and James had told him multiple times, even when he was on his back.
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Um, so it, after reviewing all of the evidence, after seeing the video footage and everything,
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the DA's office, Don Klein at the time, and the Omaha Police Department came to a unanimous
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decision that it was a clear-cut case of self-defense.
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And we saw so many of these incidents throughout all of this.
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And I remember I wrote about this in, um, when I did the Antifa book, cause we'd had
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the whole timeline of things and we went to sort of, but each one, you know, we were
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And so I remember this was one of the first ones cause it was May.
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And I think it's something where people though, they got lost in because that happened.
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And then the Friday after that, something happened and people, things kept happening over and over
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And that's why in the book we had to do such a timeline because I didn't want any, because
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of course you, in like the Wikipedia page, it's like totally taken down now.
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Um, they even took away all the death count that used to be there for 2020 because so many
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of these things happened and yet, you know, we just kept driving along events, kept driving
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along and people weren't going back and then re-examining them.
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So in this situation though, the local police, DA, all the officials look at this thing and
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they say, and it's not like Kyle Rittenhouse, by the way, Kyle Rittenhouse, they drop a murder
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charge, double murder charge on him immediately, right?
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Without any investigation, without any review whatsoever.
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And that's something that obviously we talked about a lot during that case.
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But in this one, they actually did do the review first.
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And they said, look, because of course it's all on the closed circuit cameras.
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I think there were some people in the crowd who had cameras too, right?
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And they say, so he was exonerated right off the bat.
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They said, look, we looked at this, the whole thing's on tape.
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I mean, obviously I'm sure they interviewed people, but you almost don't need to because
00:14:27.520
So then after that, um, the police department advised him to get out of Omaha.
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They recommended him go to one of the coasts or somewhere just not, not nearby.
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Um, even advised him to drive to Kansas city and fly out of Kansas city as opposed to flying
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Because from the moment that happened, as I remember, I remember reading, there's an
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account called Omaha scanner and they basically just tweet out everything that's going on
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And as soon as it was reported that there was a shooting downtown during the George Floyd
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And before I even knew it was Jake in my gut, I was just like, please don't let this be an
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interracial crime because if it is, things are going to blow up.
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And the second it came out that Jake was a white man who shot and killed James, who was
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At that point, the court of public opinion decided that he was guilty and the Omaha police
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department knew just based on the, the community activists on the left that they follow.
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Um, immediately there were calls to action though, not so much action as protests, riots, whatever
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So over the next seven to 10 days, they all begin protesting outside of Jake's bar.
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They had to have security there 24 seven because they were afraid people were going to burn the
00:16:17.740
And I remember some of this happening in real time where they were trying to say that the,
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They were trying to say that his logo and it was like, it was like, it had like white supremacist
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Well, it was, but, but, but they tried to tie it to some white supremacist.
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They were trying to like enjoy, did joy read tweeted out?
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She tweeted out there were everyone tweeted out, um, Megan Hunt, a state legislator in
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Um, she was tweeting out Cara Eastman, who was a democratic candidate for Congress was
00:17:01.260
tweeting that Jake Gardner killed this man in cold blood.
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Because it wasn't enough to say this happened on video and we can go through that and dissect
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it and say, Hey, we don't think it was self-defense.
00:17:14.020
He overnight, you know, they have to go through the symbol.
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They do this like numerology, symbology thing and they, they decide he must be, they said
00:17:22.840
he had Nazi tattoos on his, somewhere on his body.
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And they find like, is this, I remember there was a guy, um, I think it was a Coast Guard guy
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and somebody from the, uh, uh, the New Yorker was trying to say, because he had the Malta
00:17:40.680
cross, they were trying to say that it was like an iron cross, Nazi cross.
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You even had Adam Devine who he's from Omaha, the actor, Adam Devine, and he, he would frequent
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Jake's bar anytime he came in town and Jake, one of his photos on his social media was him
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So they started going after Adam Devine saying you support a white supremacist.
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And so Adam Devine had to go and basically disavow Jake Gardner and give the whole, you
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know, stump speech about, Oh, I don't condone white supremacy.
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And bow to the crowd, um, or to the mob rather.
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So did 311, the band that he named his bar after.
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So the Hive is a song that 311, they're a band that actually originated in Omaha, right?
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And, uh, so have you ever heard the song, um, what's one of their hit songs?
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So the Hive is one of their songs and that's, he named the bar after their song has a bunch
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of their like equipment and everything instruments in the bar.
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And like a lot, a lot of the bars will do like, um, you know, they'll do like a sports
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team or, you know, had nothing to do with white supremacy or something.
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So if you did like a 1920 style New Year's party.
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You know, flapper dress and the dudes are wearing like pinstripes.
00:19:35.240
But what I was getting at, um, was 311 kind of did the same thing with Jake.
00:19:39.420
Um, they had did some posts on Instagram, which I don't remember exactly word for word,
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but that, um, you know, um, that what happened to James Scurlock was, you know, wasn't right
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and that they don't support racism or anybody, any of their followers that are racist,
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anything like it was, it was just, so here's a guy who's dedicated his entire bar, put however
00:20:02.880
much money it took to, you know, raise the capital, take out loans for that bar and dedicated
00:20:11.760
And had traveled the country to see them every single year for probably 20 years.
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And now, did they even try to reach out to Jake?
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And to say, hey, you know, we understand you're a big fan.
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And that's, so what ended up happening then was.
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So we're in this point where the disavowals are starting, the protests are going on, the
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cops are saying, you've got to get out because essentially, these people are out for blood.
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There are these people in the streets, they're out for blood, they've got your name, they've
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got your, you know, the name of your bar, location, you said he lives right there anyway.
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And then, I mean, even to the point of using a different airport.
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Which is, was that like a couple hours between Omaha to Kansas City?
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And so even, even his parents, they had to station security outside of his parents' house.
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Because people were looking up where his parents lived, where his brother lived.
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And then when all of these protests are going on, they start protesting outside of Don
00:21:17.520
Klein's home, who was the district attorney at the time.
00:21:22.080
So the DA exonerates him, but then this is like Antifa BLM types.
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And they're targeting now the DA at the DA's home.
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And so as all these protests are going on, finally, Don Klein says, okay, you know what?
00:21:49.300
I'm confident in my decision, but we'll invite in a grand jury.
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He sent the knee to the mob and it's hard for me not to harbor a lot of resentment towards
00:22:05.160
him because in my mind, that initial action was what, not his initial action, rather his
00:22:13.240
follow-up action of caving was what really expedited this entire process.
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And as the grand jury comes in, the special prosecutor that gets appointed, Frederick Franklin,
00:22:26.460
everyone, even Jake's lawyers at the time felt okay about his appointment.
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Even though he owns a law firm that only employs black lawyers.
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And so Frederick Franklin gets appointed as the special prosecutor.
00:22:50.800
And from that point on, it became very evident that they had an agenda to push.
00:22:57.000
The investigators on the police department, I have a lot of contacts within the police department.
00:23:03.280
And they were telling me the people who were appointed to investigate were nothing short of black supremacists.
00:23:10.000
They were incredibly racist towards white people, towards Asians, towards anyone else, really.
00:23:18.660
And his business partner even said that it became a case of witness intimidation,
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where they're going after his partner who's going to testify in this grand jury and harassing him,
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harassing his family, and trying to influence him to not give his testimony.
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I had more, like, just social media warriors coming at me, attacking my business.
00:23:54.220
Because they probably, I mean, that's the thing in investigations,
00:23:56.960
that you always kind of assume that the significant other is not going to give you anything you want.
00:24:02.180
Unless it's like, you know, like an ex kind of situation or like a divorcee, that kind of thing.
00:24:09.560
But, you know, otherwise it's usually like it's just not worth it.
00:24:15.140
And look, and we've seen the grand jury process.
00:24:17.280
And this has always been the, you know, sort of stereotype, you know, cliche about grand juries,
00:24:25.620
So, you know, even if you put this in front of people, because at the end of the day, you know,
00:24:29.600
the grand jury is, and the question there, that's not just, the standard is much lower, by the way,
00:24:38.680
This is not a question about, a grand jury does not decide whether or not you're guilty.
00:24:42.140
A grand jury decides whether or not to bring charges.
00:24:44.780
And so what it exists as is a sort of, a sort of veneer for a DA to say, well, I didn't bring charges.
00:24:55.980
And so, but the thing is, though, no grand jury is going to sit there and say, well, you just presented us all this evidence.
00:25:03.520
You know, we don't think it should go to trial.
00:25:06.480
What the prosecutor says is, we'd like there to be a trial to determine whether or not this evidence is, you know, warrants a conviction of a crime.
00:25:14.860
So a grand jury usually says, okay, fine, go to trial.
00:25:17.760
Well, and what's crazy is that during this entire grand jury, when his business partner was called to the stand to testify,
00:25:25.120
he's referencing the security footage, the video.
00:25:29.240
And Franklin comes in, no, no, they haven't seen that.
00:25:36.900
So the grand jury, which, again, is convened to conduct the investigation, was not actually shown all of the videos that we just talked about.
00:25:46.480
And we've submitted a request for all of the evidence that was given to the grand jury, and we still have not gotten any records released.
00:25:59.400
And from what we've seen from Franklin's press conferences and everything, he's blatantly lied multiple times about facts of the case.
00:26:14.180
So Franklin is essentially kind of like the binger in this situation.
00:26:18.980
So this is why, you know, again, because we have the Kyle Rittenhouse, we can sort of like go one to one here.
00:26:23.360
So this is the person who says, look, I want to make an example out of this guy.
00:26:27.500
I want to, and by the way, gain political capital, gain clout, maybe, you know, book deals, CNN and MSNBC hits, you know, the nation is going to talk about me.
00:26:40.060
And Andrew Branca, by the way, who does Law of Self-Defense blog, you know, he always points out that in these cases, that if you get an activist prosecutor assigned to it, then who isn't looking at the law, they're thinking of how can I exploit this person?
00:26:56.440
Who conducted an act of self-defense, well within their rights to do so.
00:27:02.860
Obviously, you know, and I just said this earlier today on the thing that the right to self-defense is an inherent expression of the right to life.
00:27:14.360
So if you believe you have a right to live and that everyone has a right to live, well, then the positive expression of that would be defense of that life.
00:27:21.960
Because if you're not allowed to defend it, then you don't actually have a right to live.
00:27:27.460
So that's where the right to self-defense comes from.
00:27:30.500
But that being said, you know, these prosecutors realize that especially and like you said, if it is a case that involves, you know, cross-racial and you've got one victim and it fits the narrative, then of course they realize that they can ride that to fame and fortune.
00:27:48.500
And even if, even if, and this is totally Branca's credit, you know, because he's explained this so well so many times, even if the case fails, they can still get political clout and political capital out of this.
00:28:02.220
And so what if they just had to destroy somebody's life?
00:28:09.160
Which I think, I think if anyone's paying attention, they probably know at this point.
00:28:12.180
So at that point, the grand jury decided to indict him on four different charges.
00:28:19.580
And this happened, it was released on September 14th.
00:28:27.920
During this entire time, May to September, Jake was in Oregon, staying with one of his friends.
00:28:37.760
He left Omaha, went to Oregon, stayed there up until the charges were announced.
00:29:00.240
Because he, I don't know if it's because he thought that he felt like he couldn't win.
00:29:06.060
I don't know if it's because he didn't want to drag his family and Dana and all of his friends and loved ones through that.
00:29:16.440
None of us really know because we didn't have the opportunity to talk to him about it.
00:29:21.880
We didn't, it was just something that we never thought was in the realm of possibilities of what he would have done.
00:29:27.600
And I know I tell Dana all the time, I wish, I wish he would have known the army he had behind him because we were willing to go to war for him.
00:29:37.100
Obviously, like you said, like I would talk to anyone and everyone that would listen.
00:29:42.520
Cassandra Fairbanks did an amazing job in the very beginning reporting this initially and getting the story out there.
00:29:49.300
Obviously, you, Tim Pool, so many people really were talking about it.
00:29:53.420
And even Tucker Carlson picked it up, which really helped garner a lot of support for him almost.
00:30:01.180
Kind of similarly to Kyle, who he said, in the beginning, you don't really know all of the support that's out there.
00:30:08.000
But then once your story gets out more, there's a lot of hate.
00:30:11.040
But there's also so much support that comes with it.
00:30:13.700
And what people, I think, don't even realize going on the timeline, this actually happened, this incident was prior to the Kyle Rittenhouse.
00:30:19.380
Because, Kyle, that wasn't until the end, way, way later, end of August, is when that happened.
00:30:24.380
So this was, what, three months prior to all of that.
00:30:28.600
So at that point, really, the family and myself and Dana and a couple of our really close friends with Jake have been trying to push for any type of justice, whatever that looks like.
00:30:46.300
I know we filed a lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit against Franklin and I even believe Don Klein's office just for that action of caving to the mob, inviting the grand jury, falsifying evidence, witness intimidation, like the list goes on.
00:31:03.720
And we're just trying to raise awareness to the fact that even though Kyle won, and thank God he did, the right to self-defense is still under attack.
00:31:16.480
And it's still very much an issue that needs to be consistently fought for.
00:31:21.860
And they're, just because Kyle won, they're not going to stop.
00:31:26.360
That doesn't win the battle, not the war, right?
00:31:29.600
But do you think, and, well, let me ask you this, do you think that Kyle being exonerated, and even though, of course, he's exonerated, he's still like kind of like quasi-canceled, right?
00:31:42.780
You know, ASU was protesting him, though I will say, though, even though ASU held a protest against him, I don't know if you guys saw the video, but Turning Point and the local conservative chapters of other groups all came out, I think Yao came out as well, to shout down the people protesting Kyle Rittenhouse, basically saying if he wants to come out, he can come out.
00:32:02.860
So there are still people trying to cancel him, but when you saw that exoneration, did you feel that it kind of emotionally had some resonance with what happened to Jake?
00:32:14.860
Yeah, it was just, I just remember saying, like, I just wish he would have held on, I wish he would have waited, you know, because I think at the time it was just so hard to see that, you know, he could have gotten out of this, you know,
00:32:31.660
that he had the support and I think the emotions and just, he was just going through a lot, the stress, everything, it was just, because I had talked to him even the day that he died, and it was just, I had never seen Jake like that before.
00:32:51.240
And what people don't realize is that, like, he's a war veteran, too, he was dealing with...
00:32:58.020
Yeah, he was dealing with, like, a traumatic brain injury, he was still dealing with, like, PTSD, and that night, similar to Kyle again, like, that night...
00:33:09.640
He served in the Marine Corps from November 2000 till 2004.
00:33:17.260
He was one of the first units to invade Iraq, and he is part of one of, his unit was, like, one of the most decorated Marine Corps units.
00:33:26.620
And those early, you know, those early operations in Iraq, that was some of the fiercest stuff, because that was still when you had fully constituted Iraqi army that he was facing off again.
00:33:35.840
So that's mill-to-mill, you know, conflict, and that's real, real stuff.
00:33:41.340
This is, you know, kind of prior to, you know, I guess what they, what do they call it later, the insurgency, et cetera.
00:33:48.840
Well, and Dana even said there's video of him over there when he was first there, and he says, you know, I'm glad to be here, I'm glad to be fighting for my country, but I don't want to kill anyone.
00:34:00.080
And that was something that they tried to use against him.
00:34:07.840
I was going to say, how would you use a comment like that against him?
00:34:10.200
I'm guessing this is another one of those comments that they didn't show the grand jury.
00:34:13.820
Well, they tried using that against him, too, because of his Facebook post, too.
00:34:16.700
He made a Facebook post that said something along the lines of, gotta love when you have to conduct a firewatch.
00:34:32.480
So, for people who haven't served, a firewatch, I don't know, it might sound strange to you,
00:34:40.440
It literally means standing watch overnight, and you're not only checking for fires, but
00:34:47.040
you're just checking to see if anything, you know, bad goes wrong.
00:34:51.680
And, you know, I was a Navy officer, and on ship, that's what you say, you call it firewatch.
00:34:56.900
I'm saying firewatch, I'm just on firewatch, and you might have, you know, different shifts
00:35:03.300
But it's a very, very, extremely common term, right, across all branches.
00:35:08.900
You know, and of course, you know, Marines and Navy are similar, so we have a lot of that
00:35:12.560
same terminology from the Navy, and the Marines are sort of shared because of that.
00:35:17.980
But they tried to say firewatch meant, like, I'm going to shoot somebody.
00:35:24.820
Well, Fred Flankin flat out said from that post that he took that as Jake was basically
00:35:37.540
Also, of course, they had to bring in, you know, because Jake worked on the Trump campaign,
00:35:43.360
and Trump said, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
00:35:52.840
You could actually, you can take anybody and go through their social media posts and decide
00:36:00.640
Oh, he just destroyed him just for being a Trump supporter, which had absolutely nothing
00:36:12.880
Oh, they loved to use that he was, like, a transphobic bigot because there was a point
00:36:18.120
in time at his bar where in the women's restroom, a man dressed as a woman came in, assaulted
00:36:27.140
a woman to the point she had to go to the hospital, and Jake made a blanket policy that,
00:36:35.280
You have to go into the bathroom that corresponds with your...
00:36:42.760
Which wasn't out of character for Jake because Jake was, like, all about safety in his bar.
00:36:49.120
Like, he wanted everybody to feel safe and be safe.
00:36:51.480
And so I remember that night that that happened, and he was, like, up all night distraught over
00:36:57.360
He even had posters in his bar bathrooms, in the women's room specifically, that said,
00:37:02.100
if you're on a date and you feel uncomfortable, ask for an angel shot.
00:37:07.740
And that will be a code to the bartender that you need help out of the situation you're in.
00:37:13.720
So they try, of course, like they do with everyone, they try and paint him as this awful person
00:37:24.740
Oh, he had a very strict dress code, which they also used against him, too, because he
00:37:32.240
Like, it was just a fancier, you know, upscale bar.
00:37:34.680
And so he didn't allow people in that had, like, pants down to their ankles or hats on
00:37:45.340
He was going for a certain, you know, clientele.
00:37:48.920
But, I mean, people, you know, would use that against him.
00:37:52.460
Like, he was a racist because he wouldn't let somebody in, like a black guy in, that
00:37:57.700
He'd say, can you please take your hat off and then you can come in.
00:37:59.840
Well, then he was a racist because he was asked to take his hat off and then wasn't allowed
00:38:04.620
Pretty sure I've seen white people wearing hats.
00:38:06.640
In my, I would have to go back and check, but I'm fairly certain.
00:38:10.720
Well, and he held all of his friends, family, whomever, to the same standard.
00:38:15.520
So he wasn't being discriminatory in a negative sense.
00:38:28.660
And I've always said this, that, you know, sort of like the, it's like the racism industrial
00:38:36.180
Because they are demanding that, you know, we live in this country full of systemic racism.
00:38:42.020
And I remember when they tried to turn Covington Catholic, right, it wasn't enough for them
00:38:46.820
to say that Nick Salmon was, you know, a racist.
00:38:50.260
It had to be the entire school had to become like this Nazi training academy, you know, in
00:38:59.880
You know, on, on the river that, you know, apparently had just escaped everyone's notice.
00:39:04.780
And I remember they were, you know, they were going through like yearbook photos and yearbook
00:39:10.000
quotes to find anything that would fit their narrative.
00:39:15.600
Or they could twist a little bit to fit into that narrative.
00:39:19.320
And it's the same thing they do to, you know, really all of us, anybody who they've decided
00:39:23.620
to target to say, oh, well, this, this thing is actually related to that thing, which is
00:39:31.360
Well, and that's, that's exactly what Fred Franklin did in his presentation of the quote
00:39:46.940
I mean, they're, they're, they're, um, just taking it day by day and, you know, they, um,
00:39:52.460
are really blessed to have a lot of support, you know, and, um, they actually had to move
00:39:58.280
out of Omaha because of all this stuff going on.
00:40:01.620
So, um, yeah, just to stay safe and get out of it.
00:40:05.840
So, um, but they're, they're hanging in there, you know, um, it's still a struggle.
00:40:10.380
I think it's always going to be a struggle, um, especially, uh, you know, just going through
00:40:15.520
the, the lawsuit and, um, the rest of their family is in Omaha.
00:40:22.940
Do you, um, you know, I just realized I can probably facilitate if, if they'd ever be interested
00:40:28.720
in maybe even, um, talking with like Kyle Rittenhouse or his family or, you know, if
00:40:33.860
you ever wanted to talk to him or something, we could probably put that together because
00:40:38.460
I imagine that, um, obviously different situations, but similar in so many ways, you know, I think
00:40:46.320
we can probably, not like, you know, on the podcast or anything, but, um, and of course
00:40:51.600
the shortening point cameras will be there with promo code posts.
00:40:57.160
I mean, but if, you know, we'll talk offline, but if, if you're ever interested or you guys
00:41:01.580
think that would be interesting to do just to have a sit down and kind of talk through
00:41:05.280
some of this stuff, because I know he's mentioned that, and they, they've said it publicly that
00:41:08.860
even Kyle, um, is in, because think of it, right?
00:41:17.440
Um, he wanted to be a police officer at one point and, but he had PTSD from that event.
00:41:24.280
Now you've got Jake, who's already a combat vet, who's already coming out with, with trauma
00:41:29.860
from that, plus the newfound trauma of having to live through this event.
00:41:35.580
And I don't think people realize this as much that when you're in a situation where you
00:41:40.460
literally are faced with, you know, having to conduct that kind of action to protect your
00:41:46.760
own life or else, you know, you're going to be done for, you're going to be destroyed that
00:41:51.820
that is extremely traumatic to anybody at any age, regardless of your background.
00:41:58.160
And, you know, you said before you were talking to him that day and I don't think anybody
00:42:04.520
can really, and I, you know, I've read about it.
00:42:06.960
I've, I've met with, you know, I know so many people who've gone through PTSD, who live with
00:42:10.700
PTSD and I don't think unless you've ever been through it yourself.
00:42:14.700
And even though how many, however many guys I talked to about it, you don't know what
00:42:19.940
You have no idea what it's like until you've been there.
00:42:22.640
And so in terms of that kind of closure, and I think that, you know, we look at veteran
00:42:29.280
suicide in this country is, you know, and it's, we talk about it like some statistic, you
00:42:36.260
And they act like, oh, well, too bad, you know, that's, sorry for them, just how it
00:42:43.240
But we have this great military and they're all doing great.
00:42:46.100
And so what if people are, you know, you know, becoming statistics, but I think one
00:42:50.860
thing that you guys have done, and I think it's, it's so brave, by the way, that you
00:42:55.460
are both coming on and being so willing and courageous for Jake that even after all of
00:43:02.000
this, that you're not letting him just be some statistic and you're not letting
00:43:09.860
Because I'm sure, I'm sure for them it's, ah, right.
00:43:14.840
We told you that this guy was bad and he knew he would be found guilty and, you know, all
00:43:21.680
And, you know, that's clearly not what was going on.
00:43:25.920
And so I do hope that, you know, in some way Jake knows that you guys are out here and
00:43:31.220
that you're fighting for him and that you haven't quit on him and that you are still fighting
00:43:40.640
You know, and, and that, I, I don't know, that's above my pay grade or it's above my pay
00:43:48.080
But I hope that, you know, I have, I have to imagine he takes it all into consideration.
00:43:54.160
And so what, so for you guys, you know, cause we are getting towards the time.
00:43:58.540
Is there, do you have a website or anything set up where I could, you know, drive people
00:44:04.920
want to support your, what you're doing, support this kind of work?
00:44:07.360
So we are actively working on setting up a website right now.
00:44:16.780
If you follow nebraskafreedom.org, I will push everything out through there as well so
00:44:22.380
that it's easily accessible in the event that the name changes or anything.
00:44:26.020
Um, we are working on trying to find a, whether it be a third party source or straight through
00:44:33.020
the website, trying to get something set up for legal funds.
00:44:36.060
I know we had multiple GoFundMes that of course just magically get taken down.
00:44:42.740
Just don't even, if you're on the right side of the aisle or even just a patriot or a Christian,
00:44:50.200
And I've heard, I've been recommended that one.
00:44:53.020
So we, yes, we will be setting up a give send go justice for Jake Gardner.
00:44:58.320
Um, we're working through a lawsuit right now, um, a wrongful death lawsuit.
00:45:03.900
And actually John Pierce is one of the attorneys on that.
00:45:07.700
So one of Kyle Rittenhouse's former, I believe lawyers.
00:45:11.740
Um, but really, yeah, just trying to raise as much awareness as we can, giving the family
00:45:17.780
as much support, whether it be emotionally, monetarily, whatever the case, because
00:45:22.740
we all know these things get very expensive, very quickly.
00:45:26.520
Um, and just trying to hold people accountable is, is really what we're trying to do here.
00:45:32.900
Obviously nothing we can do is going to bring Jake back, but hopefully something we can do
00:45:38.720
will prevent another instance like this in the future.
00:45:42.700
So that's, that's really what we're, what we're pushing towards.
00:45:46.700
Um, just making sure that we can honor his memory.
00:45:49.640
Thankfully, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on July 8th of this year, actually,
00:45:57.920
So it took probably almost, almost a year to get all of that set up.
00:46:03.100
Um, we wanted, wanted him to be in Omaha, but the police department, everyone else pretty
00:46:09.980
much recommended that Jake wanted to be in Arlington.
00:46:13.040
Jake wanted to be in Arlington and that nothing, nothing that we would have set up in Omaha
00:46:17.740
He told his mom the night before, um, that if he, the night before he, he was supposed
00:46:23.380
to turn himself in on the day that he died, fly back to turn himself in, in Omaha.
00:46:28.280
And he told his mom the night before that if something happens on the airplane or if
00:46:32.460
the plane crashes or something like that, I want to be cremated and I want to be buried
00:46:40.960
And I'm, and I'm sure that she, you know, heard that and at the time had no clue.
00:46:45.680
It's just something you say, you know, something you say, but.
00:46:49.840
Well, and that was the thing was he, he, he, he knew.
00:46:54.780
The second that indictment came out, I think Jake knew.
00:47:00.560
Do you think he just didn't want everyone to have to go through that?
00:47:03.800
Because it's, it sounds to me like he's the kind of guy who didn't necessarily put himself
00:47:15.380
You're always talking about how he cares about people, stayed up overnight.
00:47:20.500
I think he didn't want his loved ones, his parents, um, to go through that.
00:47:25.200
And I think, um, Jake believed that he didn't stand a chance.
00:47:29.360
He had gotten like 5,000 death threats over the summer on his cell phone.
00:47:33.520
And I think he thought once that indictment came out, there's no way, there's no way I'm
00:47:53.560
We do have the ability to get the narrative out.
00:47:55.420
And to anybody else who's out there that is in a situation where you're facing wrongful
00:48:00.520
accusations and you feel like there's nowhere to turn, just understand, we, we will help
00:48:09.280
I'll get, I mean, we will find a Malia and Dana for you to help you.
00:48:13.640
Like, you can get this kind of help and, you know, I don't, and, and that's the thing
00:48:19.040
is like, you know, they do have hotlines and things out there, but I don't know if they
00:48:27.280
Me personally, like I will be on the phone with you.
00:48:29.660
Like, this is not something that, you know, Kyle Rittenhouse.
00:48:37.460
But what, um, if you had a message to anybody else who's facing that kind of situation, what
00:48:50.920
I think I would just say, um, I mean that not, not necessarily, maybe not necessarily
00:48:56.800
charges, but just that onslaught of anger and hate.
00:49:03.840
For me, it's, it's a swarm attack and it's, it's like the first three times my name trended
00:49:07.320
on Twitter is because of swarm attacks and it's all lies.
00:49:10.220
It's just, it's just, and James Lindsay has to think it's a false reality attack.
00:49:17.500
And it's, I mean, we tried so many times just to get him to like shut his phone off.
00:49:21.960
Like, don't read it because it's not accurate information.
00:49:24.240
Like, you know, it's not, we all know it's not, you know?
00:49:26.480
So I think, um, I would just, I would just encourage people to just surround yourself
00:49:30.580
with people that, um, that, uh, support you, that know the truth, that can continue to encourage
00:49:36.320
you, you know, uh, in those situations and, and yeah.
00:49:41.000
I always tell my wife, the first rule of social media is don't read the comments.
00:49:48.520
Oh, there's actually, there's actually a way to set up.
00:49:50.640
If you're on Twitter, um, you can set it up to, and this is how I run it because, you
00:49:55.360
know, and I've got a big account there, but you can set it up where you mute, auto mute,
00:49:59.920
um, people who have like, if they haven't put in, uh, if they don't follow you, that's,
00:50:10.480
And so you can actually craft it into such a way where pretty much the only response you're
00:50:16.720
going to see is like someone who's basically on your side.
00:50:19.560
Um, which is funny for me because I, I do have it set it up that I don't see anyone's
00:50:25.180
So sometimes there's been situations where like some like big celeb or like big account
00:50:30.500
is coming at me and I'm not, I have that auto muted.
00:50:37.000
And then someone will tell me like, Hey man, Seth Rogen's coming after you again.
00:50:49.940
But it, it, it is a way like you gotta just don't lock in, right?
00:50:54.760
Don't lock into that world because that's what they want to do is they want to drag you
00:50:58.980
And I say this before that, you know, evil cannot create evil can only corrupt.
00:51:03.180
And so they want to take something good and something true and turn it into something evil.
00:51:09.540
And something that, you know, something like someone fighting for their life and then overcoming
00:51:13.800
odds and winning and winning that ability to, you know, continue to live is the essence
00:51:24.120
The essence, the, the, the, the actual essence of good, the core of good.
00:51:27.040
But at the same time for anyone to come and try to corrupt that and then twist that, that
00:51:32.380
is the essence of evil because their, their ability to corrupt, they don't have the ability
00:51:35.980
And so at the same time though, you, you, you have to see that for what, and it's hard.
00:51:41.000
It's so hard because we as humans, we're designed to focus on threats.
00:51:47.020
We take energy that's coming at us, but you have to just say, I'm not accepting it.
00:51:51.560
I'm an unplug and, and just surround yourself, like go put on your favorite movie and go be
00:51:58.560
with your loved ones and, you know, take your dog for a walk, whatever it is.
00:52:04.420
But yeah, it's, it's social media is kind of horrible in these ways.
00:52:09.980
And I think that as a society, we haven't quite got to the point where we know how to
00:52:17.920
Um, and especially for people who are going through trauma, but, um, just to kind of wrap
00:52:25.640
Have either of you guys ever done any like interview like this before?
00:52:31.960
Um, not, not long form, but I, I have talked about it extensively with like local media
00:52:43.340
And I'm sure, you know, I hope please share this with, um, you know, with this family and
00:52:50.360
And when, when you get the link set up, you know, I'm going to post them all and get them
00:52:55.500
And, um, do you guys want any, you know, from anything else, people follow you personally
00:53:00.000
or, you know, or think it's, you know, if you want to follow me at Malia Shirley, you
00:53:05.580
And I say that because you post the shit all the time.
00:53:08.540
I, I don't, I don't think of myself as like any type of account to follow.
00:53:12.140
I pretty much just post as my own form of like therapy to cope with all of the, with
00:53:21.000
Um, but if, if you're in the Nebraska area, I am, I will keep you updated on all of the
00:53:29.020
I know we're going to bring you out for an event.
00:53:41.020
She's literally telling me the zoo is better than San Diego.
00:53:58.140
And thank you so much for being here, sharing the story, sharing Jake's story, sharing your
00:54:09.540
And everybody out there, as always, ladies and gentlemen, you have my permission to lay