"That's how we do it when we kick back on my block...
...it's pop or get popped, kill or get killed, drop or get dropped" Aaahhhh, anyone who is from round tha NOLA and has a lil bit of age on'em aaaand liked that ol' gangsta shit should recognize those words. I'm still listening to that ol' G shit.
Anywayz, the other day I decided to hit my old 'hood up and see who I could find out on the streets. Everything seemed pretty chill as I drove around. I couldn't find anyone fighting, nobody making any sales out on the street corners, nothing. I gave one of my old childhood friends (we'll call him L) a call and met up with him by his crib. We got to drinkin' and takin a few hits off a Black and we got to reminiscing about some of our friends and aquaintances who had died or ended up in jail and how when we were teens we thought we were going to end up the same as them. We spoke about how Melvin, at about the age of 17, had been blasted in the face behind his red colors (he was a hardcore Blood); how Jose, another Blood, had people after him and he had to flee the country to stay alive; how the Latin Kings got disbanded after a series of crimes and murders; how the Poppins 5.9 Bloods got run out of small ghetto nicknamed Mary Poppins (ironically); and how them punk niggas a few streets over called themselves Crips but turned out to be a bunch of crab niggas that weren't bout SHIT!!! Anywayz, so I ask my homie what the scoop was on the old block and it turns out that Gretna, the city we live in, has a new police chief. It turns out that my old neighborhood, Jonestown, has been deemed the worst area in all of Gretna, thus it has been saturated with cops. I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she tells me, "Well, that's good. That means they're cleaning up your old neighborhood." Oh, if only it were that easy. The fact is, I don't trust cops and I expect a lot of people in my old domain to end up with a bunch of chump charges, like my homie L.
The scoop on L: Okay, everybody that we're cool with in that old neighborhood has sold something illegal at least a few times in their life, so don't judge my homie harshly. Several years ago my boy had lost his job so he resorted to selling crack until he could find another gig. He was chilling with a friend of his and that kat ended up selling some of L's dope to an undercover cop. They had the friend on tape but not L, they did have them in the same car though. That ended up getting L arrested for drug distribution. The D.A. told L that he had him on tape; after showing L the tape though, it only had the other dude. The D.A. (White) then told L (Black), "Yeah well you know what they say: all of you look alike." The judge eventually gave L an option, do 5 years in jail or 18 months of probation. He wisely chose 18 months of probation, which included drug counseling (even though he's a non-user), and drug testing 5 days a week. to perform the drug test, he had to show up at court at exactly 4:30 every single afternoon, or suffer being sent to jail for 2-3 days. Now, I pose to you a very simple question: What time do most jobs end their working day? Most end at 5 p.m. There, we have a dilemma. Solution: That dilemma can be solved by finding a job that starts early in the morning... Problem: Some mornings the court wanted you to show up at 6 a.m. for drug screening; okay, so your daytime schedule is fucked up. Solution: Get a night job. Problem, those jobs a limited and many night jobs end at around 6 or 7, so how is a nigga supposed to keep a full time job at all? What do you think most muhfukkas would have resorted to? With limits like these, it's no wonder most katz who've been to jail are repeat offenders. You don't even let them have jobs. Anywayz, L eventually found a job that was willing to work around his court dates. It was a construction job. The job ended in just enough time for him to hitch a ride (he wasn't making enough to afford a car and pay his probation fees) to the courthouse so he'd have to show up a bit dirty from work. The judge ended up not even letting L get a word out before threatening to send him to jail just because homeboy was dirty from work. L tells him that the judge ordered him to get a job and he did but the court time doesn't allow him to change before showing up. The arrogant judge tells him that the next time he sees L dressed liked that, he's going to send him to jail for a few days. What the fuck is up with that? The nigga got a damn job and he's tryin to get right. Why the fuck you gotta throw away the man's progress? The judge had told L that he's just trying to straighten him up but how the fuck are you trying to straighten a nigga out when you threaten to send him to jail for a few days and risk him losing his job? All you're doing is making that nigga resentful and feel hopeless. Then there's the inaccuracy of the drug screening. It turns out you can't drink alcohol either or you'll get busted. All the alcohol test checks is the amount of sugar in your urine. If it's too high, then they simply assume that you've downed alcohol and send you to jail for a few days and community service. On top of all of this, because of him not having been able to find a stable job for some time, the fines have piled up and that probation has gone from 18 months to 5 years. Yup, 5 loooong years, and they're still getting money out of him because every fuckin month you're on probation, you got to keep paying. Aaand, if thats not enough, they don't push back your release from probation by a week or a few days. If your release gets pushed back, it's by months at a time, so some tiny little thing like mildly high sugar in you urine (from having eaten Frosted Flakes) towards the end of your probation won't just get you a few extra days, it'll be pushed back 4 or 5 months... just enough time for them to find another reason to push that shit back and get more money out of you. then the judge has the nerve to pull L aside and tell him that he's just trying to get him right. With all these threats of jail for simply working; with all the limits you put that prevents someone from obtaining a job, a key factor in getting your life straight; with all the bullshit reasons for pushing back a nigga's release, how are you trying to get anyone straight? If anything, I'd say you're trying to send that nigga back to jail.
....so, that's what I expect more of now that those cops are in my old hood, nothing but bullshit and police brutality. I mean, cops don't treat anyone right when you live in a neighborhood like that. I feel sorry for the people in Jonestown. I'd say I'm glad that I was able to get my education and move on outta there but in all honesty, a part of me feels guilty. I know that I worked and studied hard to move on up and I tell myself that I deserve what I've worked for, but I feel like I'm on a chariot of privilege, looking back at abandoned miserable faces; friends that I've left behind to go through the realest rigores of life on their own. What can I do to help them though, when they're in charge of their own lives? All I can do now is just relate to them and let them know that somebody understands the bullshit they have to deal with.
Anywayz, the other day I decided to hit my old 'hood up and see who I could find out on the streets. Everything seemed pretty chill as I drove around. I couldn't find anyone fighting, nobody making any sales out on the street corners, nothing. I gave one of my old childhood friends (we'll call him L) a call and met up with him by his crib. We got to drinkin' and takin a few hits off a Black and we got to reminiscing about some of our friends and aquaintances who had died or ended up in jail and how when we were teens we thought we were going to end up the same as them. We spoke about how Melvin, at about the age of 17, had been blasted in the face behind his red colors (he was a hardcore Blood); how Jose, another Blood, had people after him and he had to flee the country to stay alive; how the Latin Kings got disbanded after a series of crimes and murders; how the Poppins 5.9 Bloods got run out of small ghetto nicknamed Mary Poppins (ironically); and how them punk niggas a few streets over called themselves Crips but turned out to be a bunch of crab niggas that weren't bout SHIT!!! Anywayz, so I ask my homie what the scoop was on the old block and it turns out that Gretna, the city we live in, has a new police chief. It turns out that my old neighborhood, Jonestown, has been deemed the worst area in all of Gretna, thus it has been saturated with cops. I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she tells me, "Well, that's good. That means they're cleaning up your old neighborhood." Oh, if only it were that easy. The fact is, I don't trust cops and I expect a lot of people in my old domain to end up with a bunch of chump charges, like my homie L.
The scoop on L: Okay, everybody that we're cool with in that old neighborhood has sold something illegal at least a few times in their life, so don't judge my homie harshly. Several years ago my boy had lost his job so he resorted to selling crack until he could find another gig. He was chilling with a friend of his and that kat ended up selling some of L's dope to an undercover cop. They had the friend on tape but not L, they did have them in the same car though. That ended up getting L arrested for drug distribution. The D.A. told L that he had him on tape; after showing L the tape though, it only had the other dude. The D.A. (White) then told L (Black), "Yeah well you know what they say: all of you look alike." The judge eventually gave L an option, do 5 years in jail or 18 months of probation. He wisely chose 18 months of probation, which included drug counseling (even though he's a non-user), and drug testing 5 days a week. to perform the drug test, he had to show up at court at exactly 4:30 every single afternoon, or suffer being sent to jail for 2-3 days. Now, I pose to you a very simple question: What time do most jobs end their working day? Most end at 5 p.m. There, we have a dilemma. Solution: That dilemma can be solved by finding a job that starts early in the morning... Problem: Some mornings the court wanted you to show up at 6 a.m. for drug screening; okay, so your daytime schedule is fucked up. Solution: Get a night job. Problem, those jobs a limited and many night jobs end at around 6 or 7, so how is a nigga supposed to keep a full time job at all? What do you think most muhfukkas would have resorted to? With limits like these, it's no wonder most katz who've been to jail are repeat offenders. You don't even let them have jobs. Anywayz, L eventually found a job that was willing to work around his court dates. It was a construction job. The job ended in just enough time for him to hitch a ride (he wasn't making enough to afford a car and pay his probation fees) to the courthouse so he'd have to show up a bit dirty from work. The judge ended up not even letting L get a word out before threatening to send him to jail just because homeboy was dirty from work. L tells him that the judge ordered him to get a job and he did but the court time doesn't allow him to change before showing up. The arrogant judge tells him that the next time he sees L dressed liked that, he's going to send him to jail for a few days. What the fuck is up with that? The nigga got a damn job and he's tryin to get right. Why the fuck you gotta throw away the man's progress? The judge had told L that he's just trying to straighten him up but how the fuck are you trying to straighten a nigga out when you threaten to send him to jail for a few days and risk him losing his job? All you're doing is making that nigga resentful and feel hopeless. Then there's the inaccuracy of the drug screening. It turns out you can't drink alcohol either or you'll get busted. All the alcohol test checks is the amount of sugar in your urine. If it's too high, then they simply assume that you've downed alcohol and send you to jail for a few days and community service. On top of all of this, because of him not having been able to find a stable job for some time, the fines have piled up and that probation has gone from 18 months to 5 years. Yup, 5 loooong years, and they're still getting money out of him because every fuckin month you're on probation, you got to keep paying. Aaand, if thats not enough, they don't push back your release from probation by a week or a few days. If your release gets pushed back, it's by months at a time, so some tiny little thing like mildly high sugar in you urine (from having eaten Frosted Flakes) towards the end of your probation won't just get you a few extra days, it'll be pushed back 4 or 5 months... just enough time for them to find another reason to push that shit back and get more money out of you. then the judge has the nerve to pull L aside and tell him that he's just trying to get him right. With all these threats of jail for simply working; with all the limits you put that prevents someone from obtaining a job, a key factor in getting your life straight; with all the bullshit reasons for pushing back a nigga's release, how are you trying to get anyone straight? If anything, I'd say you're trying to send that nigga back to jail.
....so, that's what I expect more of now that those cops are in my old hood, nothing but bullshit and police brutality. I mean, cops don't treat anyone right when you live in a neighborhood like that. I feel sorry for the people in Jonestown. I'd say I'm glad that I was able to get my education and move on outta there but in all honesty, a part of me feels guilty. I know that I worked and studied hard to move on up and I tell myself that I deserve what I've worked for, but I feel like I'm on a chariot of privilege, looking back at abandoned miserable faces; friends that I've left behind to go through the realest rigores of life on their own. What can I do to help them though, when they're in charge of their own lives? All I can do now is just relate to them and let them know that somebody understands the bullshit they have to deal with.
The Saga was recounted at 10:57 AM
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