May 25, 2023 • 35 mins
Tony Lewis Jr & Tony Lewis Sr Talk Life Before/After Prison, First Step Act +More
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yupster World's Most Dangerous Morning Show to Breakfast Club, Charlamagne
the God, just Hilarious, DJ Envy is offul. We got
two special guests, man, Tony Lewis Junior and Tony Lewis Senior.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
If you've been paying attention.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
To their journey, then you know we're about to have
a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
How y'all brother's doing man, amazing?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, tell them the story that you've been telling for
all these years, Tony.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
Man, my father went away when I was nine years old,
got life without parole, and you know that journey lasted
thirty four years through tirelessly fighting for his freedom, you know,
coming up here five years ago, you know, doing stuff
all across the country, doing stuff in DC, but also
utilizing our struggle to help you know, so many other
(00:41):
families that was in a similar situation, being inspiration and hope.
And then finally, you know, due to so much advocacy,
my brother pushing T connected me with Brittany K.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Barnett, who I call our Martin Day Harry.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
You're telling me and her her organization bring a live
project shoutow.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
People like Corey Jacobs also a part of that.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Yes, Randa Jones and and eventually that unlocked those gates.
And sixty five days ago, my father stepped out of
federal prison.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Have you have you adjusted yet, my brother?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm trying, yeah, getting there the technology. That's kind of uh,
the whole city's changed. Gentrification or white people having black dcs.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Man, I think it needed like context for that though.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Really, right, we live in the most gentrified place in America.
These are five years yeah, DC, and five years ago
when I was up here, I talked a bit about.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
That, right, but he left in eighteen eighty nine, thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Four years ago, so it was really chocolate. It was
now blocked.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Man, Like our neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Everything is just really changed a lot. So for him
to walk walk into that is that's all. And where
is everybody also who were there before? That's the other question.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
You know, sorry, but you know that just think that's important.
You know.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
I can definitely tell that he's still like hold up
was going on because even when I walked up to
him and spoke to me, like, y'all, you might want.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
To chill out, don't walk about happy like you.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Know, but you can give me a hug, and you
know he don't even give hugs regularly. He like, no,
don't touch too much, and then he put the two
fingers on the back.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Like a back off. Yeh mean, man, I was telling her,
I'm watching it from prison. I know who she was.
I appreciate that, big fan.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Hell yeah, and you're not from Baltimore, you're right to Baltimore.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah, you know what, you know, it's crazy because you know,
I think, uh, which, what's beautiful about the DC Baltimore
relationship has really grown and it's through people like you think,
people like it, and really a lot of it got
to do with, like, you know, people in the fairs.
You know, he was dudes like Stokey and d Watkins.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
That's like my absolutely shout out to Stokey, Yes and
my guy.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
So through that kind of work and trying to help
out share community, and I think the whole idea of
the d m V, which DC people weren't necessarily with
that from the beginning, Baltimore people want with that from
the beginning with our region even down to the seven
five to seven, you know, starting to really show that
there's a lot of beautiful things coming out of our area.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You know what, I'm saying, let's talk about the story
a little bit, man, Tony Tony Senior.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You served thirty four years.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
For your role in one of the largest most notorious
crack cocaine crime rings in that region. Like what got
you into the game?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Poverty? Poverty, single parent household, you know, like the regular
not regular, but back in my our whole street was
basically that's what it was, at least on my side
of the street. Wealfare poverty, drugs, violence, the whole block.
That's all you knew. That's all you saw. That was
(03:55):
the job. Like you know, like people say about getting
a job, that was the job. We knew nothing else.
So it was a culture. And h the poverty is
what led to me, uh selling drugs and you know,
trying to help my family mother, single parents, sisters, brothers, uh, friends,
and uh it just grew and she was a culture,
(04:17):
you know what I'm saying. And you know that's so
that's that's what did.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
You ever think it was gonna get that big?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Because y'all, you know, I always say in the eighties,
y'all were like early investors in like a tech company
or something, you know what I mean, Like, y'all are the.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Ones who really really got it.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah. I never uh, I never set forth in it
too to become big or drug I really I was
trying to just survive, help my family, eat mom, pay
the bills, you know, like gas get cut off from
time to time, the wayfaret check ain't last, you know,
like it. You know. So that was that's where I
got in. And uh and you know, like I said, it.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Was a culture.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And uh, I always worked hard at whatever I did.
So selling drugs that worked. And I came up and
I worked hard, and I seen the money and it
kept you know, wanted to get more and more, but
not to glorify it at all. But back then that
was the culture.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
What's the most you had? At one time, I had a.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Few million in cash, and back then that was that
was a lot, you know, I know, the lands a
little less, but yeah, I got to get a few
men in uh in my early twenties. I wound up
getting the rested at twenty six, and uh that was it. Yeah, done,
that was it until two years of balling a yeah,
actually more than because I saw like when I was fourteen,
(05:35):
you know, but of course small stuff and you know,
but yeah, big stuff came you know later money wise
and everything else, but marijuana from the beginning, and you know,
stuff like that, you know, small stuff like that. But
then I blocked turn from the marijuana to cocaine. Not
my making, you know, other other people making. But Ronald
(05:56):
Y yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Couple were right there too. You see the dome of
the Capitol.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
We we ten blocks twelve blocks from the Capitol where
our street is. You feel what I'm saying, And I
think that that's that really is. It's something to that though,
to say that, right, you can stand on our block
on any corner in DC and the presidential motivated.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Might ride by, like in a little sense, that is
the backdrop to you know, our store.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
And I grew up on the sound that same block
in a in a more even dailier time because now
the queen in the heart of the crack epidemic. You
feel I'm saying when I'm coming up in the nineties,
you know what I mean? Uh, And we're the murder
capital of the United States, and you know, and it's
it's just like complete destruction and just desperation, and I'm
just so happy that I had him from prison.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's crazy. It was when they got locked up.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Man, you know, being nine years old, I'm the only child,
you know what I'm saying. From the course, stuff is
on the news every day. Then they went to they
was getting preferential treatment at DC jail. So they go
to Quantico Marine Base.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah what I'm saying. So you go visit at the
sale like we had the marine based M sixteen's and marines.
It's not a prison. And I'm that's embttered than my
brain to this day.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
They go shipped out the Long Park, California for the
next thirteen years and I'm just sharing that to talk
about how that is. And I'm on that block. He
three thousand miles away. My mother started to deal with
severe mental illness that she still.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Battles to this day.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
So I lost my both my parents in the way
that I had them prior and and had to navigate
through that which we just described. But I had him
on the other and their phone in them letters, you know,
every day telling me to like make better choices, you know,
doing everything that he could from prison to ensure that
I don't you know what I mean, following them same footsteps.
(07:38):
But at the end of the day, I'm growing up
in the exact same thing. That's why I wake up
feeling like the luckiest man alive.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
And even with all of that, you could have still
took another turn. What made you not turn to wreak
Saint Patrick with all this? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
For really all, Joseph. Yeah, because where we come from,
it ain't nothing else. Just like he it's nothing that
all my uncles, all his friends, them people ain't leave
with him.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
They were still around and people people did give me,
you know, so much information of like slug. That's where
everybody called me slug. Something different, you got something different.
I had a strong grandmother, my aunts, you know, and
other dudes in the community in general just wanted me
to do something different, but nobody could show me how.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
That's what the problem came. Do something different? But who
else felt pressure? So that's what.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But I was able to, you know, by the grace
of God, I was able to kind of, you know,
find my way.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But what really save me It wasn't linear like that though.
Just what happened was when I was about.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Twenty, I still ain't you know what I mean, what
I'm gonna do, I don't you know.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
But I got a job doing Peter pet violence interruption
like a job basically the people closest to the problem
that could reach their peers.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You know what I mean. I fell in love with
the work and I save my life.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
That's what really, you know what I mean put me
on this path that I've been on.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
For the last twenty three years.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
You know what I'm saying as an activist, aside from
you know, getting them out of jail, but being sort
of the leading voice, I stayd at the intersection like poverty,
massive conservation and gun violence in my city.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You know what was the turning point in the like
the free Tony Lewis movement, Like when did you start
seeing hope?
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Man?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
I always felt like, you know, I was gonna make
it happen. But the biggest turning point, all right? Uh?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think when? When? When?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
When you know, through the years, like people like my brother,
while a lot of other guys you know, helping and
pushing push.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Will push it. But when pushing introduces us to Brittany Barnett, right,
we had the other turn.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
But when we when pushing, it makes that intro and
he made the song coming Home with Long Hill. She
mentions Pops in that's when her legal prowess and then
she connected with a law firm, Aaron Fox Shift in
d C to be able to represent him. I felt hopeful,
but look the first motion, uh that that that she
(09:56):
files though he's judge, he gets denied for it.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Though.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You know, when I did the free Tony Lewis.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Rally, got like a thousand people up in the Black
Lives Matter plaza and and we found emotion after that
and the motion get denied, I was like, man, great,
it was like nah, it's like we're going back in Yeah.
And we just kept, you know, kept pushing, you know
what I mean. I kept bugging, you know, you and
and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Let me come up.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Let me talk about trying to you know what I mean,
because you know, I felt like I started a family man.
You know, now, I grew up right, but also I
got married, I had, you know what I'm saying, my.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Two daughters, and I ain't want my babies keep visiting
no federal prison. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I
grew up like that, you know. And and then we
hadn't seen him since when COVID hit.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
We we didn't go see what pop since three years yeah,
an't even going to.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Visit because he was like nah, he like, no, I
don't even want to see them in here. Yeah, we're
gonna do. I'm gonna see them when I come.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Home, even though I ain't.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It was just good energy and hope, prayers, you know,
and faith in you son, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah, and we you know, we did some of the
things important too that gave me hope. My father's you know, Pops, Pops,
we got different personalities, more introverted than I.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
When he started running this help to run this program
called Young Men Incorporated. Guy named Dominic Henry started it
was a former federal inmate came back in to do
this program and do the Peanut King out of Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah, but they ran it was mentioned the county something
about that man. Yeah, yeah, that's my man's that's right.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
So Pop, can you tell me a little bit about
why am I like you know more? I mean, you
can explain it better than it was.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It was a mentor peer oriented mentoring uh uh group.
I would say, hmm. They got the most high profile
guys in the prison to be a part of it.
Most of the young men look up to the it's
same to say, but the high most high problem, high
profile guys in the in the prison and uh so uh.
(12:08):
I was reluctant at first to take part, and it
really uh because I was doing some other things and
that I'm always mentioning I'm doing this on a regular anyway.
And it's consuming because the young guys always want to talk.
They want to bring you all the problems and the
girl problems, all the problem like, well what about my
problem younger? But it's all good. But anyway, now I
took I took part and it really was really was
(12:28):
it was really good. It was gratifying. Uh son, you
got to come in. Council members came in.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Uh we we.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Had a rock and roll and maybe had a good
warden who was pro uh programming, you know, he was
with it.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
And you don't get and to come into federal prison
in the ways that I was able to come in
and collaborate with my.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Father, Yeah, that was that that don't happen if I
don't know people.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I didn't really understand that this does not how and
also came in and interviewed them and did a p
s A to the young men in our community about
playing guns down for the mayor.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So, but when I saw him opening up and swing
that like the work that I was doing on the outside.
We'd always connected on it, like helping the guys in there,
their children had, you know, their children out in the community.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I would help.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
But for him to take it by the horns like that,
it made me go even harder because I'm like, he's
even growing in a different way that wasn't really you
know what I'm saying, happening before.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
So that made me keep pushing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, we can't leave out the big home up her
stealborn weight. He was a big part of sil was
a big part Timothy Williams, Tiny James Kirby Burkes. These
good men still in prison with life sentences that they
working every day, no matter what the weight they got
on their back, they're helping these young guys not to
(13:43):
come back out and pick these guns back up. That
means a lot. Man, if we don't know, they don't know.
So I got the try to shed some light on
them guys.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
What was the what was the legislation that actually got
his sentence overturned?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The first step out?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
A Trump re formed and you know again back five
years ago on an interview.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
I wasn't you know, because I helped advocate for that
as well, right, but at the time we didn't even
think that he would be able to benefit from the
first step back. But obviously other stuff that I benefit,
I mean that I advocated for. You know, it was
about not us, It was about the great and other
American families all across this country the benefit, you know
what I'm saying. So the first step actor, you know,
and shout out to to to you know, Cut fifty
Dream Court, Van Jones and and all that crew and
(14:26):
host King Jefferies also who introduced the.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Bill, but Trump signed in the law.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Probably twenty thousand people have come come home off that
reform and you know, uh, something that's really really important
to us and what we planning on working on together
moving forward. We actually got to meeting tomorrow in the
same vein as that you know, the Biden administration Jo Joe.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
President list up.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, very very very inactive.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I think it's the architect of our currence.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
But checked this out so so infrastructure, these things he
ran on infrastructure, did that computer chips, did that climate change?
Did that gun control? To the to the to the
extent that he could impact that.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Did that?
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Uh stood loan that to a certain degree.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Did that.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
But this, mister Biden, is your issue. This is you.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You can do by executive order. You do not need
congressional collaboration to do this right. No, by executive order,
he has the clemency power, power to pay right.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
And we need you to do that. We need you
to commute sentences.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
We need you to reunite American families like ours, the
joy that we're feeling that, you know, just to be
reconnected because.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
On him directly, it's his eighty six mandatory minimum.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Citizen, do it, Joe, like for real, Like it's it's
his to do.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
And it's time to do it.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I went to a vent of the Justice Department, was
three weeks ago, and then I say, this is all
like I don't. I'm glad that those thirty one families
have been reunited.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But come on, man, thirty one, pardon the commutation thirty one.
You got thousands of people languishing under these hard sentences
man for crack cocaine and many mimerum. And they've done
their time, they done they more than their time.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Right, So it's not like it's how to get out
of jail free call. We talked people that have done twenty.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Five They've done their time, more than their time, and
it never got that much time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
The reason I mentioned the reason I think Biden should
make this a main issue is because number one, he
was the architect of all of those bills. But he's
admitted to it. Like like when we had him on
Breakfast Club. You know, people always get caught up in
the U ain't black comment, but there was a moment
when I'm talking to him about righting his wrongs of
math incarceration, you know, with the ninety four crime bill.
He was like, he wasn't the ninety four crime bill,
it was the eighty.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
But I was like, you wrote that.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
You know, and what you what you get out of
that is the destabilization, in my opinion, the greatest destabilization
or the destabilizer of communities like ours, no matter who
lives there. Right, if you got it took people out
of the community. Yes, people should have been held accountable.
Even in the free Tony Lewis movement. I never said
he want no political prison.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I never was like he should have never went to jail,
should have went to jail, but just not.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's real. That's real.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I should have went to President, I should have went
to prison.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And it's like, it's like one of the situations where
you can really do that. It should be a criteria.
The other thing is people should not have to go
before these judges and it depending on what side.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Of the bed they woke up on.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Your freedom is based on that.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
It should be if you did this amount of time,
you've shown rehabilitation, you should do it. The other part
of it though, for for President Biden and v P. Harris, listen,
we not only should people be reunited with their families,
but you guys should take the steps to make the
federal workforce, which I'm a part of the federal workforce
model for second chance hiring. See, we got to clear
(18:02):
up some of these birds. My father did thirty four years,
but it's still.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Places he can't work and can't live.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Think about that, right, I mean, so you're still technically,
you know, in some type of way.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
If he don't got me right, you know, to navigate
this new world after thirty four years, you know what
I'm saying, and trying to find your way.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But I work in that.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
I deal with guys who don't have a meet, who
don't have stability, they got to release to homeless shelters
and the jobs that they qualify for but can't get
them after serving it at the society, Like, we need
to really foster a culture of redemption, you know, if
we really want public safety, if we really want communities
to thrive, and things of that nature. And I think
the THISA administration should lead with that on both fronts.
(18:46):
I agree, and it need to happen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Like now, mister Lewis Senior, how did you feel watching
your son, your namesake, be out here fighting for you?
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Man?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
In that way?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
That's what kept me going. Man, so much pride, so
much joy. I get emotional, man, because it's it's uh,
it's hard for me to explain, but me and my son,
we talk about it all the time. So many different
experiences guys coming into prison. Man, your your son helped
me get a job, but I messed up because I
(19:15):
went back on drugs, but he helped me. Uh, and
then and then I'm ready to get out next month.
Can you can you hook me back up with him?
I was like, man, I'll give him your name, but
he my son, remember these guys man, And I read
your son's book and inspired me so much, you know,
slug you know his book slug. Uh just a wonderful
(19:35):
uh life goud you know, especially for us and now
coming up in the same hood and the black community. Uh,
but just so much inspiration. I'm so proud of him
at the top of it off with getting his day free,
because he didn't help me get a lot of other
people free. And I was like, yeah, you know, because
a lot of things that he tried to uh, legislation
(19:57):
he tried to get changed or in acted. We was
always looking at it thinking it was gonna help us,
Like drug minus two Uh.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah, Uh that was the first thing we say we
got denied. I mean the drugs minus two things something
very you know.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
We was only it was the legislation that well, the
Senates Commission has u and nact me saying that all
drugs you could get you was under the two point reduction,
no matter what the drugs was or what the mount was.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And uh to com back to the eighty six mandatory meal.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah something so yeah, and everybody's benefits. So we put
our most in it and said oh you was fighting
for that son and dad should get it. Put the
motion in judge, get it denied deny how oh you
had too much crack cocaine? Too much? Y'all said all
drugs minus too, no matter what. But for me, it
was always some technicality that you know, even the first
(20:52):
crack cocaine it was two points minus too. That was
separate from the two points minus drugs. But the crack
one we got denied on that too, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
So yeah, So it's been multiple things that you know
and actually on like the drug mindus to again, you know,
shout out, you know, the pushing he helped We did
it right.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I spoke about that when I was up here five
years ago.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
But even you know, for the context for a lot
of the list, like like uh, you know a lot
of people heard like big meats, you got a reduction.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That's what he got, big based.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
On the two point reduction. He got the two point
you know what I'm saying. We so something that we
helped push through.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Uh you know, like they.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Was attorney as well, because a man said, uh, yeah,
I got a big mets to off the two maybe
seven years office centers yeah, that's sixth left. Yeah, uh,
you know, but they denied me for the same thing.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
But the judges had the discretion.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
And that's the other thing about these these things with
the mandatory minimums.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The judge ain't had no discretion.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
If you met a certain guideline, they had to give
you that amount of time. But but now in the
thing that was supposed to bring relief based on the
mandatory minims, the judge got full discretion.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I felt like that was sort of ironic.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
You know. Now, if you got like, I don't want
to use the term left no more because this is
getting wid But if you got a judge that's more
for those things, then yeah, you're in good shape.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
But if you got a conservative judge or hard line
you're like to get that. Yeah, he's gonna know.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
This wasn't for people like him and the guys that
was considered to be leaders. Imagine me as an activist,
as a as an advocate, and all that I'm seeing
this happening around me all the time, everything that I'm
helping to push, I'm not the sole guy responsible. I'm
lending my influence and my dad can't benefit from it.
But I couldn't stop though, you know what I mean,
(22:34):
I knew that there's no way my father was gonna
die in prison. But we up against the federal government
and you are United States government. But I just always
felt in with the push of my you know, my
DC community and abroad, you know, we were able to
make this happen. And I hope this, you know, it's
hope for the ten million children in this country that
have had in the cost parent for people that's in prison.
(22:56):
But I think the main thing for me not to
be talking too much, but I think it's so important. Yeah,
it's so important to note though that you know, it's
also my dad didn't My dad had two, uh in
thirty four years, only like two in fractions. He did
things to get better, He did things to help other inmates,
he did things to help our community. So it wasn't
just me. His actions as a man, you know what
(23:18):
I mean, you know, could have he could have been
you know, turned up and then.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
A lot of it's a lot going on in prison.
Even if you don't want to get turned up, it
sometimes you forced to get. And being from d C,
we you know, I love my homies, but we stay
in we staying stuff in prison, you know what I'm saying.
And then Baltimore.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
Because when I was being in prison it was crazy,
so I can relate.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You know, I came home so.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Sues for real.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, just every just did you know you don't play?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Why Why was you the only person still servant? Time?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
We were trying to figure out, you know, That's what
we were trying to figure out. Why was I only everybody?
Was like every time I call home, call like what
they letting all your cody fin is gone? Why not
only one? Yeah? Why you only one? I'm like, man,
I'm fighting, That's all I can say. I don't know
why I'm the.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Only one because they look at you the leader.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Well with him Rayful, Yeah, but uh you know what
he did, so he was already set to come home whenever,
no matter what. But uh, I had to fight. My
son had to. If it don't be for my son,
I'd be still languaghing in prison.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, when you watched snow when you watch the show
like the Snowfalls and the b Because I heard you
say earlier you don't want to glorify it, but how
do you tell.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Your story without glorifying? Glorifying?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Right, see I tell the story. But then even in
the middle, at the end, I say, I'm not glorifying
what I'm saying, and I'm not, but it's the truth.
I gotta tell the truth, you know, good or bad.
But still I'm not glorifying. If I had to do
it all, if I had the opportunity to do it
all different, I would do it different. I wouldn't sell George,
I wouldn't have broken in the law. I would have
(25:17):
tried to find another way. But I'm gonna say that.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
You know, I'm gonna say this though when you could
pay you know what I'm saying, Like all them up,
them them other stories, and I say, it's all difference
of humility. But all them other stories ain't gotta me.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yeah, that's the difference.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
Dislike it's like it's like uh in this fiction. But
I'm saying it's like I'm with I'm with Vito wanted
Michael to become like I'm just the godfather in real life.
This if I took the family legit, you ain't got
this in the other stories.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And that's serious. Ain't not to mention, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I climbed the crooked ladder and sent back down the
straight one in my city. You know what I'm saying,
you be hard pressed. Finding like this helped more people.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
More people from miss.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Circum stands people. When people all through federal prison DC
guys they want to come home. I got to see
Tony because he will help me. And that's real, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
That's the part that's.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Me every day in prison, every time that somebody get
read to get up six months before they might ain't
said nothing to me the whole time they've been in
the unit. Tony, I've been meaning to talk to you, man,
what your son still having people get them jobs? I said,
yea still he man, my information?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Can you?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I said, I'll see what I can do. But I say,
I'm watching your action and I tell a lot of times,
but I see how you moving here and then you
come to me to try to get be the reference
you to my son. But I've been seeing how you
been moving and if you ain't moving the right way,
I'm not doing that. My son's name goes on everything
that he does when when he connected and trying to
get people employment or housing or you know, or whatever
(26:47):
the case may be. And I'm not putting no bad people.
When I've been watching you for the last year or
two moving in here the way that you move. No,
I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I just being off how God works because unfortunate circumstance,
because it's some fort choices.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But then that became your your life's work, your purpose.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And we always it's crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
It really is, bro and I'm saying, I live. It's
so many dynamics. It's like I'm saying, I don't.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Even growing up. I ain't never moved. I'm on hand.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
They're on the same block.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
You know what I'm saying, and they do it from
there that the whole community have watched my journey.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Ain't going away to college. I went to college, went
to all over universe. I ain't going away to school.
Everything I did, and I.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Lost so many friends fan like, yeah, the streets city,
you know, gun violence and and and in prison and
you know what I'm saying, over all that and it
still impact my life. But still every day, you know,
still getting up to help my people. And then we
talked about d c's gentrification and the Native Washingtonian, uh,
you know, even me and my homegirl, my partner Angel Gagorio. Yeah, man, uh,
(27:48):
you know, we we we started this whole thing DC Natives.
They just to force our city to recognize people that
grew up in d C.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Because it's like.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
All the energy was focused on all the people moving
to the city, you know, and we need a part
of us some of the progression and and and so
with that though, it was like I've realized that has
brought me a lot of clarity.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Though.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That's why them bullets ain't hit me. That's why when
my friends went to jail on conspiracy, they ain't grabbed me.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
You know that. I that was my purpose and.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
And and to now have him beside me now, you know,
I mean, I just I'm so excited about what.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
The future holes for us and our city and our family.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
This is gonna be like the biggest thing for your
daughters though, Like seeing that day six and nine, you said,
seeing that you know what I'm saying, just like their
standards are gonna be.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
So high for these black men.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
You understand what I'm saying, And.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's really really good.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
Like you could have, like I'm serious, you could have
really went another way with this, you know, but your
daughters are gonna always king they're gonna be a king,
you know, to them the rest of their life.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And the.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
School with them going to gymnastic practice everything anything they
want off here, and I'm loving it. It's what I
dreamt about.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
They provide you with any resources like mental health resources
for you know, for you to help help you adjust.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
And I'm sure you got PTSD that you're dealing with.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I can imagine it's like, you know, I know that
the city has those things, but you got to go
and uh, you got to go and try to get them.
It's not like how it should be that the minute
you hit that look, just come on over here.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Have access to the we're going to engage them to
And again I've been part of that ecosystem to help
building that ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
So we you know, in the program that I you know,
designed it.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You know, we had a joint where it's crazy, you know,
we ain't gonna don't we already you know, everybody you
do break a local law, federal, you do go to
the fairs in DC. We don't even have halfway house now,
so our halfway house is actually people. So but a
program I did out there with Andel, we we actually
the bad Rocket, the program was one on one therapy.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
That's really you know, I want us to do family therapy.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
We've just been running around the last six the first
sixty days, but that's definitely a part of it right now.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Absolute.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I appreciate, you know, all the push you've been doing
for wellness and mental health. You know, it's brought up
as a kid with a mom that dealt with mental
health and I'm the only like I said, the only
child I went through all that with my mother into
this day, right, I understand the value that and to
destigmatize that for our community is so important, to make
it accessible and affordable and to make.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You not crazy.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
We all need I tell young's all the time. And
you break your angle, you be hooping. If you break
your angle, you could just go in the house and
just lay on the bed and let that joint. Hell,
now you go to the doctor. So we gotta look
at mental health in that same way. So it's definitely
something that we know is necessary. In the trauma that
black men and women all across this country has experienced
via incostration is something I think that's definitely something that
(30:51):
we don't talk about enough.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
I'm saying that shit real what's next for y'all man, And.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
It don't get taken movement, Yeah, constration, anti violence movement,
don't get taken. All the younger is out there exactly
that you know, don't put yourself in a position where
you get taken either from the community via criminal justice
system or you know, obviously the cemetery.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Too much violence and Cojack.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Got to rob the guns down, young people. We got
to put the guns down.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Part what you always say, you can't tell them what
would you would you?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We can't, Well, we can't. We can't ask them to
put the guns down without pickings up up and they
got a good job or training or some type of
more opportunity. And I always say this to our good
mayor Mayor Bowser and the DC City Council. Uh, we
need more opportunities that young people need, more opportunities, more jobs,
more more training. Uh. If we want to put the guns.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Been in trouble.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
That's the other part just to the barrier piece and
in DC and everywhere else. If people made a mistake,
they paid their debt. We we cannot continue to hold
them like put that scholar letter on them, and they
can't engage because then the cities or the counties or
the towns whatever create these quote unquote pathways or these opportunities.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
But if you got a criminal record, you can't do it.
That's that's that that who you think needed the most.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
You understand what I'm saying, and that that definitely go
for a place like Baltimore in New York and.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Philadelphia whatever, you know what I'm saying everywhere?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
So what am I left to do? And my baby
crowing on them? Life still gotta be on you know.
So yeah, we gotta get people.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Listen, Hopelessness is probably the most powerful thing there is, right,
And so when we start talking about our young people
in our in our communities, if I've accepted death, and
I've accepted that death or on conserration is gonna be
my fate and in some in some instances that my glory.
You cannot deter me with that. You cannot deter me
(32:45):
with something I've already accepted, it's gonna happen. Right, So
we gotta do this that hope we gotta and hopefully
this is make people feel hopeful, But we gotta we
gotta create systems that promote hope in these communities that
there is is something other than the street.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
You know what I'm saying. Really for me, I feel
like it ain't. You can't aim that at youth.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
You have to aim at at family because the adults
are destabilized. What you think happen to the youth, any
young any trouble. Look at you asked, who does he
belong to? What's the state of that household? That's the
answers right there. So we got to attack that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
In my opinion, how do you support that Don't Get
Taken movement?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Man?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
We were really just trying to brand it, put it
out in consciousness. You know, I got it in slub being.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Here talking about it, was at the school yesterday talking
it's amazing, and we establishing designer.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Program and we're gonna be in community. We're gonna be
trying to work on a p s A that that
that's gonna go out on social media, you know, pushing
Don't Get Taken and hopefully we can you know, get
partners around it and really build it up to not
just something in d C, but really a national movement, you.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Know, for our young people. Man, don't get.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Taken anyway we can help. Let us know, man, we.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Have one last question. So I know you say you
don't you don't want to ever glorify what you did.
You would you ever do a story somebody came to you. Yeah, Look,
everybody else got this story, everybody.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
No question. That's what we want to do.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
You know what I mean? And like you said, everybody
else story is the difference between is there is no you.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
We don't have a U.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
So would you be because this would be the first
story like this on TV.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I willing to tell it though.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
That's the thing that America want to tell. A story
like this one, a story that is the right way
of a person that people that did it the right way,
that's the question.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
And we're still fighting for the man that's left behind,
still the family. They got to be them.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, the point that if they do it, then they
got to highlight the fact that you're out here doing
God's work.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
People.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Everybody want to drama, drama, you know, help me too
many people, But like you said, yes, somebody want to
do and somebody will do it, and somebody's going to
yeah mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
That's what I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Appreciate you for You're just gonna play one of your
drug mules or something from back.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
In the Definitely, just any girl from Baltimore, any role. Yeah, yeah,
he's welcome.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yes, Tony Lewis Junior, Tony Lewis and your Tony Man.
I've always respected the work you're doing now, I'm glad
you got your father out here doing it with you.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Man, Man appreciated.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It's the club
Yupster World's Most Dangerous Morning Show to Breakfast Club, Charlamagne
the God, just Hilarious, DJ Envy is offul. We got
two special guests, man, Tony Lewis Junior and Tony Lewis Senior.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
If you've been paying attention.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
To their journey, then you know we're about to have
a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
How y'all brother's doing man, amazing?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, tell them the story that you've been telling for
all these years, Tony.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
Man, my father went away when I was nine years old,
got life without parole, and you know that journey lasted
thirty four years through tirelessly fighting for his freedom, you know,
coming up here five years ago, you know, doing stuff
all across the country, doing stuff in DC, but also
utilizing our struggle to help you know, so many other
(00:41):
families that was in a similar situation, being inspiration and hope.
And then finally, you know, due to so much advocacy,
my brother pushing T connected me with Brittany K.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Barnett, who I call our Martin Day Harry.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
You're telling me and her her organization bring a live
project shoutow.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
People like Corey Jacobs also a part of that.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Yes, Randa Jones and and eventually that unlocked those gates.
And sixty five days ago, my father stepped out of
federal prison.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Have you have you adjusted yet, my brother?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm trying, yeah, getting there the technology. That's kind of uh,
the whole city's changed. Gentrification or white people having black dcs.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Man, I think it needed like context for that though.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Really, right, we live in the most gentrified place in America.
These are five years yeah, DC, and five years ago
when I was up here, I talked a bit about.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
That, right, but he left in eighteen eighty nine, thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Four years ago, so it was really chocolate. It was
now blocked.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Man, Like our neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Everything is just really changed a lot. So for him
to walk walk into that is that's all. And where
is everybody also who were there before? That's the other question.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
You know, sorry, but you know that just think that's important.
You know.
Speaker 6 (02:03):
I can definitely tell that he's still like hold up
was going on because even when I walked up to
him and spoke to me, like, y'all, you might want.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
To chill out, don't walk about happy like you.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Know, but you can give me a hug, and you
know he don't even give hugs regularly. He like, no,
don't touch too much, and then he put the two
fingers on the back.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Like a back off. Yeh mean, man, I was telling her,
I'm watching it from prison. I know who she was.
I appreciate that, big fan.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Hell yeah, and you're not from Baltimore, you're right to Baltimore.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah, you know what, you know, it's crazy because you know,
I think, uh, which, what's beautiful about the DC Baltimore
relationship has really grown and it's through people like you think,
people like it, and really a lot of it got
to do with, like, you know, people in the fairs.
You know, he was dudes like Stokey and d Watkins.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
That's like my absolutely shout out to Stokey, Yes and
my guy.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
So through that kind of work and trying to help
out share community, and I think the whole idea of
the d m V, which DC people weren't necessarily with
that from the beginning, Baltimore people want with that from
the beginning with our region even down to the seven
five to seven, you know, starting to really show that
there's a lot of beautiful things coming out of our area.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You know what, I'm saying, let's talk about the story
a little bit, man, Tony Tony Senior.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You served thirty four years.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
For your role in one of the largest most notorious
crack cocaine crime rings in that region. Like what got
you into the game?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Poverty? Poverty, single parent household, you know, like the regular
not regular, but back in my our whole street was
basically that's what it was, at least on my side
of the street. Wealfare poverty, drugs, violence, the whole block.
That's all you knew. That's all you saw. That was
(03:55):
the job. Like you know, like people say about getting
a job, that was the job. We knew nothing else.
So it was a culture. And h the poverty is
what led to me, uh selling drugs and you know,
trying to help my family mother, single parents, sisters, brothers, uh, friends,
and uh it just grew and she was a culture,
(04:17):
you know what I'm saying. And you know that's so
that's that's what did.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
You ever think it was gonna get that big?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Because y'all, you know, I always say in the eighties,
y'all were like early investors in like a tech company
or something, you know what I mean, Like, y'all are the.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Ones who really really got it.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah. I never uh, I never set forth in it
too to become big or drug I really I was
trying to just survive, help my family, eat mom, pay
the bills, you know, like gas get cut off from
time to time, the wayfaret check ain't last, you know,
like it. You know. So that was that's where I
got in. And uh and you know, like I said, it.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Was a culture.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And uh, I always worked hard at whatever I did.
So selling drugs that worked. And I came up and
I worked hard, and I seen the money and it
kept you know, wanted to get more and more, but
not to glorify it at all. But back then that
was the culture.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
What's the most you had? At one time, I had a.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Few million in cash, and back then that was that
was a lot, you know, I know, the lands a
little less, but yeah, I got to get a few
men in uh in my early twenties. I wound up
getting the rested at twenty six, and uh that was it. Yeah, done,
that was it until two years of balling a yeah,
actually more than because I saw like when I was fourteen,
(05:35):
you know, but of course small stuff and you know,
but yeah, big stuff came you know later money wise
and everything else, but marijuana from the beginning, and you know,
stuff like that, you know, small stuff like that. But
then I blocked turn from the marijuana to cocaine. Not
my making, you know, other other people making. But Ronald
(05:56):
Y yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Couple were right there too. You see the dome of
the Capitol.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
We we ten blocks twelve blocks from the Capitol where
our street is. You feel what I'm saying, And I
think that that's that really is. It's something to that though,
to say that, right, you can stand on our block
on any corner in DC and the presidential motivated.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Might ride by, like in a little sense, that is
the backdrop to you know, our store.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
And I grew up on the sound that same block
in a in a more even dailier time because now
the queen in the heart of the crack epidemic. You
feel I'm saying when I'm coming up in the nineties,
you know what I mean? Uh, And we're the murder
capital of the United States, and you know, and it's
it's just like complete destruction and just desperation, and I'm
just so happy that I had him from prison.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's crazy. It was when they got locked up.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Man, you know, being nine years old, I'm the only child,
you know what I'm saying. From the course, stuff is
on the news every day. Then they went to they
was getting preferential treatment at DC jail. So they go
to Quantico Marine Base.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah what I'm saying. So you go visit at the
sale like we had the marine based M sixteen's and marines.
It's not a prison. And I'm that's embttered than my
brain to this day.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
They go shipped out the Long Park, California for the
next thirteen years and I'm just sharing that to talk
about how that is. And I'm on that block. He
three thousand miles away. My mother started to deal with
severe mental illness that she still.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Battles to this day.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
So I lost my both my parents in the way
that I had them prior and and had to navigate
through that which we just described. But I had him
on the other and their phone in them letters, you know,
every day telling me to like make better choices, you know,
doing everything that he could from prison to ensure that
I don't you know what I mean, following them same footsteps.
(07:38):
But at the end of the day, I'm growing up
in the exact same thing. That's why I wake up
feeling like the luckiest man alive.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
And even with all of that, you could have still
took another turn. What made you not turn to wreak
Saint Patrick with all this? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
For really all, Joseph. Yeah, because where we come from,
it ain't nothing else. Just like he it's nothing that
all my uncles, all his friends, them people ain't leave
with him.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
They were still around and people people did give me,
you know, so much information of like slug. That's where
everybody called me slug. Something different, you got something different.
I had a strong grandmother, my aunts, you know, and
other dudes in the community in general just wanted me
to do something different, but nobody could show me how.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
That's what the problem came. Do something different? But who
else felt pressure? So that's what.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But I was able to, you know, by the grace
of God, I was able to kind of, you know,
find my way.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But what really save me It wasn't linear like that though.
Just what happened was when I was about.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Twenty, I still ain't you know what I mean, what
I'm gonna do, I don't you know.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
But I got a job doing Peter pet violence interruption
like a job basically the people closest to the problem
that could reach their peers.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You know what I mean. I fell in love with
the work and I save my life.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
That's what really, you know what I mean put me
on this path that I've been on.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
For the last twenty three years.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
You know what I'm saying as an activist, aside from
you know, getting them out of jail, but being sort
of the leading voice, I stayd at the intersection like poverty,
massive conservation and gun violence in my city.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You know what was the turning point in the like
the free Tony Lewis movement, Like when did you start
seeing hope?
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Man?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
I always felt like, you know, I was gonna make
it happen. But the biggest turning point, all right? Uh?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think when? When? When?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
When you know, through the years, like people like my brother,
while a lot of other guys you know, helping and
pushing push.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Will push it. But when pushing introduces us to Brittany Barnett, right,
we had the other turn.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
But when we when pushing, it makes that intro and
he made the song coming Home with Long Hill. She
mentions Pops in that's when her legal prowess and then
she connected with a law firm, Aaron Fox Shift in
d C to be able to represent him. I felt hopeful,
but look the first motion, uh that that that she
(09:56):
files though he's judge, he gets denied for it.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Though.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You know, when I did the free Tony Lewis.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Rally, got like a thousand people up in the Black
Lives Matter plaza and and we found emotion after that
and the motion get denied, I was like, man, great,
it was like nah, it's like we're going back in Yeah.
And we just kept, you know, kept pushing, you know
what I mean. I kept bugging, you know, you and
and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Let me come up.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Let me talk about trying to you know what I mean,
because you know, I felt like I started a family man.
You know, now, I grew up right, but also I
got married, I had, you know what I'm saying, my.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Two daughters, and I ain't want my babies keep visiting
no federal prison. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I
grew up like that, you know. And and then we
hadn't seen him since when COVID hit.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
We we didn't go see what pop since three years yeah,
an't even going to.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Visit because he was like nah, he like, no, I
don't even want to see them in here. Yeah, we're
gonna do. I'm gonna see them when I come.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Home, even though I ain't.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It was just good energy and hope, prayers, you know,
and faith in you son, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah, and we you know, we did some of the
things important too that gave me hope. My father's you know, Pops, Pops,
we got different personalities, more introverted than I.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
When he started running this help to run this program
called Young Men Incorporated. Guy named Dominic Henry started it
was a former federal inmate came back in to do
this program and do the Peanut King out of Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah, but they ran it was mentioned the county something
about that man. Yeah, yeah, that's my man's that's right.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
So Pop, can you tell me a little bit about
why am I like you know more? I mean, you
can explain it better than it was.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It was a mentor peer oriented mentoring uh uh group.
I would say, hmm. They got the most high profile
guys in the prison to be a part of it.
Most of the young men look up to the it's
same to say, but the high most high problem, high
profile guys in the in the prison and uh so uh.
(12:08):
I was reluctant at first to take part, and it
really uh because I was doing some other things and
that I'm always mentioning I'm doing this on a regular anyway.
And it's consuming because the young guys always want to talk.
They want to bring you all the problems and the
girl problems, all the problem like, well what about my
problem younger? But it's all good. But anyway, now I
took I took part and it really was really was
(12:28):
it was really good. It was gratifying. Uh son, you
got to come in. Council members came in.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Uh we we.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Had a rock and roll and maybe had a good
warden who was pro uh programming, you know, he was
with it.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
And you don't get and to come into federal prison
in the ways that I was able to come in
and collaborate with my.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Father, Yeah, that was that that don't happen if I
don't know people.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I didn't really understand that this does not how and
also came in and interviewed them and did a p
s A to the young men in our community about
playing guns down for the mayor.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So, but when I saw him opening up and swing
that like the work that I was doing on the outside.
We'd always connected on it, like helping the guys in there,
their children had, you know, their children out in the community.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I would help.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
But for him to take it by the horns like that,
it made me go even harder because I'm like, he's
even growing in a different way that wasn't really you
know what I'm saying, happening before.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
So that made me keep pushing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, we can't leave out the big home up her
stealborn weight. He was a big part of sil was
a big part Timothy Williams, Tiny James Kirby Burkes. These
good men still in prison with life sentences that they
working every day, no matter what the weight they got
on their back, they're helping these young guys not to
(13:43):
come back out and pick these guns back up. That
means a lot. Man, if we don't know, they don't know.
So I got the try to shed some light on
them guys.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
What was the what was the legislation that actually got
his sentence overturned?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The first step out?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
A Trump re formed and you know again back five
years ago on an interview.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
I wasn't you know, because I helped advocate for that
as well, right, but at the time we didn't even
think that he would be able to benefit from the
first step back. But obviously other stuff that I benefit,
I mean that I advocated for. You know, it was
about not us, It was about the great and other
American families all across this country the benefit, you know
what I'm saying. So the first step actor, you know,
and shout out to to to you know, Cut fifty
Dream Court, Van Jones and and all that crew and
(14:26):
host King Jefferies also who introduced the.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Bill, but Trump signed in the law.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
Probably twenty thousand people have come come home off that
reform and you know, uh, something that's really really important
to us and what we planning on working on together
moving forward. We actually got to meeting tomorrow in the
same vein as that you know, the Biden administration Jo Joe.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
President list up.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, very very very inactive.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I think it's the architect of our currence.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
But checked this out so so infrastructure, these things he
ran on infrastructure, did that computer chips, did that climate change?
Did that gun control? To the to the to the
extent that he could impact that.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Did that?
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Uh stood loan that to a certain degree.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Did that.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
But this, mister Biden, is your issue. This is you.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You can do by executive order. You do not need
congressional collaboration to do this right. No, by executive order,
he has the clemency power, power to pay right.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
And we need you to do that. We need you
to commute sentences.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
We need you to reunite American families like ours, the
joy that we're feeling that, you know, just to be
reconnected because.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
On him directly, it's his eighty six mandatory minimum.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Citizen, do it, Joe, like for real, Like it's it's
his to do.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
And it's time to do it.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I went to a vent of the Justice Department, was
three weeks ago, and then I say, this is all
like I don't. I'm glad that those thirty one families
have been reunited.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But come on, man, thirty one, pardon the commutation thirty one.
You got thousands of people languishing under these hard sentences
man for crack cocaine and many mimerum. And they've done
their time, they done they more than their time.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Right, So it's not like it's how to get out
of jail free call. We talked people that have done twenty.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Five They've done their time, more than their time, and
it never got that much time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
The reason I mentioned the reason I think Biden should
make this a main issue is because number one, he
was the architect of all of those bills. But he's
admitted to it. Like like when we had him on
Breakfast Club. You know, people always get caught up in
the U ain't black comment, but there was a moment
when I'm talking to him about righting his wrongs of
math incarceration, you know, with the ninety four crime bill.
He was like, he wasn't the ninety four crime bill,
it was the eighty.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
But I was like, you wrote that.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
You know, and what you what you get out of
that is the destabilization, in my opinion, the greatest destabilization
or the destabilizer of communities like ours, no matter who
lives there. Right, if you got it took people out
of the community. Yes, people should have been held accountable.
Even in the free Tony Lewis movement. I never said
he want no political prison.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I never was like he should have never went to jail,
should have went to jail, but just not.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's real. That's real.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I should have went to President, I should have went
to prison.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And it's like, it's like one of the situations where
you can really do that. It should be a criteria.
The other thing is people should not have to go
before these judges and it depending on what side.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Of the bed they woke up on.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Your freedom is based on that.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
It should be if you did this amount of time,
you've shown rehabilitation, you should do it. The other part
of it though, for for President Biden and v P. Harris, listen,
we not only should people be reunited with their families,
but you guys should take the steps to make the
federal workforce, which I'm a part of the federal workforce
model for second chance hiring. See, we got to clear
(18:02):
up some of these birds. My father did thirty four years,
but it's still.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Places he can't work and can't live.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Think about that, right, I mean, so you're still technically,
you know, in some type of way.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
If he don't got me right, you know, to navigate
this new world after thirty four years, you know what
I'm saying, and trying to find your way.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But I work in that.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
I deal with guys who don't have a meet, who
don't have stability, they got to release to homeless shelters
and the jobs that they qualify for but can't get
them after serving it at the society, Like, we need
to really foster a culture of redemption, you know, if
we really want public safety, if we really want communities
to thrive, and things of that nature. And I think
the THISA administration should lead with that on both fronts.
(18:46):
I agree, and it need to happen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Like now, mister Lewis Senior, how did you feel watching
your son, your namesake, be out here fighting for you?
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Man?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
In that way?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
That's what kept me going. Man, so much pride, so
much joy. I get emotional, man, because it's it's uh,
it's hard for me to explain, but me and my son,
we talk about it all the time. So many different
experiences guys coming into prison. Man, your your son helped
me get a job, but I messed up because I
(19:15):
went back on drugs, but he helped me. Uh, and
then and then I'm ready to get out next month.
Can you can you hook me back up with him?
I was like, man, I'll give him your name, but
he my son, remember these guys man, And I read
your son's book and inspired me so much, you know,
slug you know his book slug. Uh just a wonderful
(19:35):
uh life goud you know, especially for us and now
coming up in the same hood and the black community. Uh,
but just so much inspiration. I'm so proud of him
at the top of it off with getting his day free,
because he didn't help me get a lot of other
people free. And I was like, yeah, you know, because
a lot of things that he tried to uh, legislation
(19:57):
he tried to get changed or in acted. We was
always looking at it thinking it was gonna help us,
Like drug minus two Uh.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah, Uh that was the first thing we say we
got denied. I mean the drugs minus two things something
very you know.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
We was only it was the legislation that well, the
Senates Commission has u and nact me saying that all
drugs you could get you was under the two point reduction,
no matter what the drugs was or what the mount was.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And uh to com back to the eighty six mandatory meal.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah something so yeah, and everybody's benefits. So we put
our most in it and said oh you was fighting
for that son and dad should get it. Put the
motion in judge, get it denied deny how oh you
had too much crack cocaine? Too much? Y'all said all
drugs minus too, no matter what. But for me, it
was always some technicality that you know, even the first
(20:52):
crack cocaine it was two points minus too. That was
separate from the two points minus drugs. But the crack
one we got denied on that too, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
So yeah, So it's been multiple things that you know
and actually on like the drug mindus to again, you know,
shout out, you know, the pushing he helped We did
it right.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I spoke about that when I was up here five
years ago.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
But even you know, for the context for a lot
of the list, like like uh, you know a lot
of people heard like big meats, you got a reduction.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That's what he got, big based.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
On the two point reduction. He got the two point
you know what I'm saying. We so something that we
helped push through.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Uh you know, like they.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Was attorney as well, because a man said, uh, yeah,
I got a big mets to off the two maybe
seven years office centers yeah, that's sixth left. Yeah, uh,
you know, but they denied me for the same thing.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
But the judges had the discretion.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
And that's the other thing about these these things with
the mandatory minimums.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The judge ain't had no discretion.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
If you met a certain guideline, they had to give
you that amount of time. But but now in the
thing that was supposed to bring relief based on the
mandatory minims, the judge got full discretion.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I felt like that was sort of ironic.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
You know. Now, if you got like, I don't want
to use the term left no more because this is
getting wid But if you got a judge that's more
for those things, then yeah, you're in good shape.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
But if you got a conservative judge or hard line
you're like to get that. Yeah, he's gonna know.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
This wasn't for people like him and the guys that
was considered to be leaders. Imagine me as an activist,
as a as an advocate, and all that I'm seeing
this happening around me all the time, everything that I'm
helping to push, I'm not the sole guy responsible. I'm
lending my influence and my dad can't benefit from it.
But I couldn't stop though, you know what I mean,
(22:34):
I knew that there's no way my father was gonna
die in prison. But we up against the federal government
and you are United States government. But I just always
felt in with the push of my you know, my
DC community and abroad, you know, we were able to
make this happen. And I hope this, you know, it's
hope for the ten million children in this country that
have had in the cost parent for people that's in prison.
(22:56):
But I think the main thing for me not to
be talking too much, but I think it's so important. Yeah,
it's so important to note though that you know, it's
also my dad didn't My dad had two, uh in
thirty four years, only like two in fractions. He did
things to get better, He did things to help other inmates,
he did things to help our community. So it wasn't
just me. His actions as a man, you know what
(23:18):
I mean, you know, could have he could have been
you know, turned up and then.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
A lot of it's a lot going on in prison.
Even if you don't want to get turned up, it
sometimes you forced to get. And being from d C,
we you know, I love my homies, but we stay
in we staying stuff in prison, you know what I'm saying.
And then Baltimore.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
Because when I was being in prison it was crazy,
so I can relate.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
You know, I came home so.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Sues for real.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, just every just did you know you don't play?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Why Why was you the only person still servant? Time?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
We were trying to figure out, you know, That's what
we were trying to figure out. Why was I only everybody?
Was like every time I call home, call like what
they letting all your cody fin is gone? Why not
only one? Yeah? Why you only one? I'm like, man,
I'm fighting, That's all I can say. I don't know
why I'm the.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Only one because they look at you the leader.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Well with him Rayful, Yeah, but uh you know what
he did, so he was already set to come home whenever,
no matter what. But uh, I had to fight. My
son had to. If it don't be for my son,
I'd be still languaghing in prison.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, when you watched snow when you watch the show
like the Snowfalls and the b Because I heard you
say earlier you don't want to glorify it, but how
do you tell.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Your story without glorifying? Glorifying?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Right, see I tell the story. But then even in
the middle, at the end, I say, I'm not glorifying
what I'm saying, and I'm not, but it's the truth.
I gotta tell the truth, you know, good or bad.
But still I'm not glorifying. If I had to do
it all, if I had the opportunity to do it
all different, I would do it different. I wouldn't sell George,
I wouldn't have broken in the law. I would have
(25:17):
tried to find another way. But I'm gonna say that.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
You know, I'm gonna say this though when you could
pay you know what I'm saying, Like all them up,
them them other stories, and I say, it's all difference
of humility. But all them other stories ain't gotta me.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yeah, that's the difference.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
Dislike it's like it's like uh in this fiction. But
I'm saying it's like I'm with I'm with Vito wanted
Michael to become like I'm just the godfather in real life.
This if I took the family legit, you ain't got
this in the other stories.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And that's serious. Ain't not to mention, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I climbed the crooked ladder and sent back down the
straight one in my city. You know what I'm saying,
you be hard pressed. Finding like this helped more people.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
More people from miss.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Circum stands people. When people all through federal prison DC
guys they want to come home. I got to see
Tony because he will help me. And that's real, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
That's the part that's.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Me every day in prison, every time that somebody get
read to get up six months before they might ain't
said nothing to me the whole time they've been in
the unit. Tony, I've been meaning to talk to you, man,
what your son still having people get them jobs? I said,
yea still he man, my information?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Can you?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I said, I'll see what I can do. But I say,
I'm watching your action and I tell a lot of times,
but I see how you moving here and then you
come to me to try to get be the reference
you to my son. But I've been seeing how you
been moving and if you ain't moving the right way,
I'm not doing that. My son's name goes on everything
that he does when when he connected and trying to
get people employment or housing or you know, or whatever
(26:47):
the case may be. And I'm not putting no bad people.
When I've been watching you for the last year or
two moving in here the way that you move. No,
I can't do that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I just being off how God works because unfortunate circumstance,
because it's some fort choices.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But then that became your your life's work, your purpose.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And we always it's crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
It really is, bro and I'm saying, I live. It's
so many dynamics. It's like I'm saying, I don't.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Even growing up. I ain't never moved. I'm on hand.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
They're on the same block.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
You know what I'm saying, and they do it from
there that the whole community have watched my journey.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Ain't going away to college. I went to college, went
to all over universe. I ain't going away to school.
Everything I did, and I.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Lost so many friends fan like, yeah, the streets city,
you know, gun violence and and and in prison and
you know what I'm saying, over all that and it
still impact my life. But still every day, you know,
still getting up to help my people. And then we
talked about d c's gentrification and the Native Washingtonian, uh,
you know, even me and my homegirl, my partner Angel Gagorio. Yeah, man, uh,
(27:48):
you know, we we we started this whole thing DC Natives.
They just to force our city to recognize people that
grew up in d C.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Because it's like.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
All the energy was focused on all the people moving
to the city, you know, and we need a part
of us some of the progression and and and so
with that though, it was like I've realized that has
brought me a lot of clarity.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Though.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That's why them bullets ain't hit me. That's why when
my friends went to jail on conspiracy, they ain't grabbed me.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
You know that. I that was my purpose and.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
And and to now have him beside me now, you know,
I mean, I just I'm so excited about what.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
The future holes for us and our city and our family.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
This is gonna be like the biggest thing for your
daughters though, Like seeing that day six and nine, you said,
seeing that you know what I'm saying, just like their
standards are gonna be.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
So high for these black men.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
You understand what I'm saying, And.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's really really good.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
Like you could have, like I'm serious, you could have
really went another way with this, you know, but your
daughters are gonna always king they're gonna be a king,
you know, to them the rest of their life.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And the.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
School with them going to gymnastic practice everything anything they
want off here, and I'm loving it. It's what I
dreamt about.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
They provide you with any resources like mental health resources
for you know, for you to help help you adjust.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
And I'm sure you got PTSD that you're dealing with.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I can imagine it's like, you know, I know that
the city has those things, but you got to go
and uh, you got to go and try to get them.
It's not like how it should be that the minute
you hit that look, just come on over here.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Have access to the we're going to engage them to
And again I've been part of that ecosystem to help
building that ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
So we you know, in the program that I you know,
designed it.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You know, we had a joint where it's crazy, you know,
we ain't gonna don't we already you know, everybody you
do break a local law, federal, you do go to
the fairs in DC. We don't even have halfway house now,
so our halfway house is actually people. So but a
program I did out there with Andel, we we actually
the bad Rocket, the program was one on one therapy.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
That's really you know, I want us to do family therapy.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
We've just been running around the last six the first
sixty days, but that's definitely a part of it right now.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Absolute.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I appreciate, you know, all the push you've been doing
for wellness and mental health. You know, it's brought up
as a kid with a mom that dealt with mental
health and I'm the only like I said, the only
child I went through all that with my mother into
this day, right, I understand the value that and to
destigmatize that for our community is so important, to make
it accessible and affordable and to make.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You not crazy.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
We all need I tell young's all the time. And
you break your angle, you be hooping. If you break
your angle, you could just go in the house and
just lay on the bed and let that joint. Hell,
now you go to the doctor. So we gotta look
at mental health in that same way. So it's definitely
something that we know is necessary. In the trauma that
black men and women all across this country has experienced
via incostration is something I think that's definitely something that
(30:51):
we don't talk about enough.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
I'm saying that shit real what's next for y'all man, And.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
It don't get taken movement, Yeah, constration, anti violence movement,
don't get taken. All the younger is out there exactly
that you know, don't put yourself in a position where
you get taken either from the community via criminal justice
system or you know, obviously the cemetery.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Too much violence and Cojack.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Got to rob the guns down, young people. We got
to put the guns down.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Part what you always say, you can't tell them what
would you would you?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We can't, Well, we can't. We can't ask them to
put the guns down without pickings up up and they
got a good job or training or some type of
more opportunity. And I always say this to our good
mayor Mayor Bowser and the DC City Council. Uh, we
need more opportunities that young people need, more opportunities, more jobs,
more more training. Uh. If we want to put the guns.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Been in trouble.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
That's the other part just to the barrier piece and
in DC and everywhere else. If people made a mistake,
they paid their debt. We we cannot continue to hold
them like put that scholar letter on them, and they
can't engage because then the cities or the counties or
the towns whatever create these quote unquote pathways or these opportunities.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
But if you got a criminal record, you can't do it.
That's that's that that who you think needed the most.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
You understand what I'm saying, and that that definitely go
for a place like Baltimore in New York and.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Philadelphia whatever, you know what I'm saying everywhere?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
So what am I left to do? And my baby
crowing on them? Life still gotta be on you know.
So yeah, we gotta get people.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Listen, Hopelessness is probably the most powerful thing there is, right,
And so when we start talking about our young people
in our in our communities, if I've accepted death, and
I've accepted that death or on conserration is gonna be
my fate and in some in some instances that my glory.
You cannot deter me with that. You cannot deter me
(32:45):
with something I've already accepted, it's gonna happen. Right, So
we gotta do this that hope we gotta and hopefully
this is make people feel hopeful, But we gotta we
gotta create systems that promote hope in these communities that
there is is something other than the street.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
You know what I'm saying. Really for me, I feel
like it ain't. You can't aim that at youth.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
You have to aim at at family because the adults
are destabilized. What you think happen to the youth, any
young any trouble. Look at you asked, who does he
belong to? What's the state of that household? That's the
answers right there. So we got to attack that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
In my opinion, how do you support that Don't Get
Taken movement?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Man?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
We were really just trying to brand it, put it
out in consciousness. You know, I got it in slub being.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Here talking about it, was at the school yesterday talking
it's amazing, and we establishing designer.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Program and we're gonna be in community. We're gonna be
trying to work on a p s A that that
that's gonna go out on social media, you know, pushing
Don't Get Taken and hopefully we can you know, get
partners around it and really build it up to not
just something in d C, but really a national movement, you.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Know, for our young people. Man, don't get.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Taken anyway we can help. Let us know, man, we.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Have one last question. So I know you say you
don't you don't want to ever glorify what you did.
You would you ever do a story somebody came to you. Yeah, Look,
everybody else got this story, everybody.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
No question. That's what we want to do.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
You know what I mean? And like you said, everybody
else story is the difference between is there is no you.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
We don't have a U.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
So would you be because this would be the first
story like this on TV.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I willing to tell it though.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
That's the thing that America want to tell. A story
like this one, a story that is the right way
of a person that people that did it the right way,
that's the question.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
And we're still fighting for the man that's left behind,
still the family. They got to be them.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, the point that if they do it, then they
got to highlight the fact that you're out here doing
God's work.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
People.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Everybody want to drama, drama, you know, help me too
many people, But like you said, yes, somebody want to
do and somebody will do it, and somebody's going to
yeah mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
That's what I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Appreciate you for You're just gonna play one of your
drug mules or something from back.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
In the Definitely, just any girl from Baltimore, any role. Yeah, yeah,
he's welcome.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yes, Tony Lewis Junior, Tony Lewis and your Tony Man.
I've always respected the work you're doing now, I'm glad
you got your father out here doing it with you.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Man, Man appreciated.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It's the club
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