August 11, 2025 • 55 mins
From selling drugs at 11 to leading a gang by 13, Meshach Hewitt’s early life was consumed by the streets of Mount Vernon, NY. At just 20 years old, he was incarcerated for charges related to felony murder, gang leadership, and drug distribution—serving over 17 years behind bars.
But prison became the turning point. Meshach took full accountability for his past and committed to a complete transformation. Immersing himself in education, personal growth, and mentorship, he learned the power of breaking cycles of trauma, poverty, and oppression.
Now the founder of T.R.U.C.3 Inc. (Taking Responsibility & Uniting Communities through 3ducation), Meshach is dedicated to empowering youth and families through credible mentorship, truth-based storytelling, and life-changing education. He returns to the same streets he once ran from—not as a warning, but as living proof that transformation is possible.
This is not just a story about survival—it’s about redemption, rebuilding, and creating real change.
But prison became the turning point. Meshach took full accountability for his past and committed to a complete transformation. Immersing himself in education, personal growth, and mentorship, he learned the power of breaking cycles of trauma, poverty, and oppression.
Now the founder of T.R.U.C.3 Inc. (Taking Responsibility & Uniting Communities through 3ducation), Meshach is dedicated to empowering youth and families through credible mentorship, truth-based storytelling, and life-changing education. He returns to the same streets he once ran from—not as a warning, but as living proof that transformation is possible.
This is not just a story about survival—it’s about redemption, rebuilding, and creating real change.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hope a south darks a over your mouth.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Right? You less.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Clear?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What up?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
What are you already know? Your boy Pristol Pe walking
back to the dog in the yard. Today we got
meat shocked in the building that seventeen years gang affiliate
at at a young age from Mount Vernon. And with
that being said, let's get right to it. Man, your
boy Pristol Pe dog in the yall?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
What up?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What up?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
You already know?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
What is your boy Pristol Pete walking back to the
dog in the yard. Then we got meat shocked in
the building? Something?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
My brother?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What? So?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
How you been brother?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm blessed man the seven. How you been home?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Been home a year and a month?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Now?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Where you from?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I'm from Mount Vernon, born and raised Mount Vernon, grew
up both sides. Lived in the Bronx most of my life.
But Unt Vernon's my home.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Mount Vernon, shout out to Mount Vernon. So how long
you been home?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
I've been home since aug uh April thirtieth for last year?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
What you been doing?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So? I'm a prevention specialist, but I got a nonprofit
truth and thos UC three, taking responsibility, unite community with educations.
What we do is we in the streets, were in
the schools closer, We in the schools be preventing the
kids from going down the path that we went down.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay, alright, so we gonna get to that. Yeah, we
gonna get to that right now. Is all I wanna
know is just more or less break down to us. Uh,
you know your upbringing, if you have siblings, and uh,
what caused you to get in trouble? And then when's
the first time you went to jail and crossed that line? So?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh the bridge. Yeah, So I'm the fourth child. I'm
from Mount Vernon. I'm the fourth child for my mom,
and I'm the ninth child for my mom and my
for my dad. My mother's trying daddy and father. Father's Jamaican.
My father was married before he met my mom in
(03:26):
the seventies or the sixties whatever, I don't really know
when they met late sixties, early seventies, and then he
got married. He got remarried to my mom and both
of them was in crown, you know, selling drugs. Father
went to the fest when I was a young child. Oh,
(03:48):
the first time I probably was like four years old probably,
and then he went back. He had came home, then
he went back got deported after he got the porter
when I was like eight nine years old. They affected you,
I mean, of course, of course that was when he
got deported. It was the first time that all my
(04:10):
you know, I always tell I really tell him, tell
too many people this story. But remember coming home from
this is the platform. Yeah, I remember when they coming
home from school and my mother and my sister met
me on the corner of my school, like, yo, look
we can't go home. Yeah, because the Fast had took him.
So you know, they took you know, if you don't know,
(04:31):
the Fast take everything, they come and they take everything.
And yeah, so we ain't had nowhere to go at
that moment, like, you know, we had to we had
to regroup. And as a young man, you know, at
that time, my brother was already one of my older
brothers was incarcerated as well, and that took a toll
on me. I'm like, oh damn, you know, fuck yeat
(04:52):
old he was at that time, I was like eight
years old, seven eight years old.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
For sure. You confused the ship trying to figure out
what the fuck going on? What I'm not going back
to my room. Huh and so so, so what was deux?
What was deux for?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
You went to my grandm You know, we went to
my grandmother house as a young cat. So my older
brother that went to jail, the one right above me,
he used to play football, So I started playing football
behind him, because I followed behind him, started hanging out
at my grandmother. I stayed at my grandmother house for
some while while my mother started, you know, my mother
switched jobs. We used to you know, my parents own
(05:30):
the restaurant on Third and third back in the days,
and the record shop. So once the fast kicked in
and took everything, everybody had to regroup. So my mother
started doing nursing and all that, and I started staying
at my grandmother house. Staying at my grandmother house was
my first taste of street life. I was always a
street kid, but that was my first taste of I. Hey,
(05:52):
my uncles is selling drugs. I could do it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
He said, Oh man, this is an opportunity for me
to go out there.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, let me let me do it. Yeah that was
so that was That was around I was around ten
eleven at that time, so young kid. Yeah, so the
first time. But but why from that? The first time
I ever went to jail with cuffs was put on
me was when I was eight years old. Yeah, I
ended up cutting one of my friends, my good friend.
He dad now, but good friend man. I had snuck
(06:22):
out the house. I was on punishment. I snuck out
the house and he went to go wake my mother up,
and I'm like, come on, man, you about to wake
blow me up? Man, come on, man, don't blow me up.
That's that's that was my first time of like got
in trouble. Yeah what you cut him? Yeah, cut him up?
Remember the arrange box cut it back then? Yeah, so
(06:44):
you know that's army fatigue wearing early nineties army fatigue
where wearing I had my army fatigues on had an
army He was angry. Yeah, I was mad. He was
about to blow me up. So I was mad. Two
times he about the first wake my mother up, let
her know that I snuck out the house, right, and
two he beat me up. Yeah I was mad. I was.
(07:05):
I was like, oh he beat you up. Yeah, he
beat me up. He beat because I snuffed him on,
Like yo, don't wait, my moms. I snuffed him and
he beat my ass because he was older than me.
I was I was in elementary school. He was in
high school at the time. Yo, okay, But he beat
me up, so I was waiting for him to come back.
He left, went to his aunt, told his aunt, you're like, yo,
me didn't let me wake wake his moms up because
you know, he snuck out the house. He liket, so
(07:25):
he came back like, I gotta wake u up, and
my aunt Nita, I'm like, you can't do that, snuffed
him again. Man, this time I took the ass whipping,
but he got his blows too, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, so he finally you wind up cutting them.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
He wont them.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I guess charges the.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Son now, so on his aunt. He ended up going
to his house. He going back to his aunt house
on his aunt called the police and they came. But
when the arm was signed for the charges, the aunt
didn't want to press charges on me because she's like
my godmother. She was like a mother to me, and
she wanted to press charges on my two friends as
they was twins. She ain't like them, so she wanted
(08:03):
so she told, you know, they did it. It wasn't him,
they did it, you.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Know, yeah, and showing them what happened.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
That was it my moms. My moms was ended up
and she was able to bring me home. You know,
they put the pans out on you get in trouble again,
you know, you know where.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You're going show, and then when you got in trouble again.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
After that, I was, I was, I was good. I was.
I was doing a little stealing cars thing, but I
never got caught. I didn't go back to jail. So
I was like fifteen. I was in New Rochelle at
the Metro North, coming back from the I think from
the movie theater or a party or whatever. And it
was a crew of us, my boys and girls, and
we was the Metro North and one of my female friends,
(08:45):
I guess one of the Mexican guys bumped me, but
we was in the midst of a robbery at the moment,
so that didn't really matter to me, you know what
I'm saying. And he was on a different mission. Yeah,
we want a different mission. And the guy must have
bumped me in. One of the females seen it, and
she was mad and she confronted the god and snuffed
them and we had to divert from what we was
(09:08):
doing over there to that, and we ended up going
to jail for that. Yeah, we end up going to
jail that we end up we ended up going to jail.
We went to New Shell Locking and then my mom's
ended up. I had to call my moms. My mom's
ended up coming to get all of us, you know,
she got came and got all of himself for one person.
His mom told him to keep them. Wow. And what
(09:29):
year was this? Oh man, this is like two thousand,
two thousand and one, probably so.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And them all you finally got in some more trouble.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah. So after that, I was just I was in
and out of trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And all that ship, all that ship was pretty pretty.
I had allowed to do with with the fact that
your dad and your mom's wasn't around or you or
you just was it was just it was in you.
You was just a wild from the beginning, or you
felt like that, you know, from your moms and your
pops not and all the all the changes that they
went through. You just you know that should affected you
(10:09):
in any kind of way. What was it that that
triggered you to just go out there?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
They just so I can identify it now as as trauma,
you know, to a to a child. Back then, it
was I just idolized anybody older in my family that
was that was out there. I didn't care what they did.
You was an older figure in my family. I loved you.
Whatever you was doing, I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
You know, the eleven the eleven year old selling weed.
My uncles is doing it. I'm telling them, I'm gonna
go drop it off to the thirteen year old. My
cousin is gang banging. I don't know they gang banging.
I'm bearing red red flags until I'm confronted that hold
on you and I know everything, and they like, man,
you ain't this make it. You don't get out of
here before you get killed.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I eventually turned it at the age of and that
eventually turned blood at the age of thirteen, founding behind
my cousin. I'm not even knowing that I'm gang banging.
To fifteen getting locked up, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
When you're finished it. That's when your first that got
locked up.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Fifty yeah, fifteen originally getting locked up, and then after that,
I just kept getting locked up. Like I was. I
was full fledged playing football. I was fulling playing football,
and then from football. I'm going to sell drugs with
my cousin. I'm gonna go sell some weed with my cousin.
And I was just living a life of a teenager
that that you know, couldn't really say nothing of you really, nah,
(11:31):
I just he.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Ain't had no you know, your parents, they went through
all their own personal shit, so all that trauma shit.
He just was out in the streets.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And so when you went to jail, like almost time
you did.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So when I got off on that one, and then
I ended up getting caught, I ended up. I ended
up getting caught with an ounce of weed in school.
I ended up going I ended up getting locked up.
I did a few days. They bailed me out, got out,
they put me on the they put me in a
drug program. Then I I got shot. I was on
probation for another drug case. I kept getting I just
(12:05):
kept getting drug cases. So I ended up doing a year.
I ended up getting shot up and doing a year
in county jail for being out past my curfew getting shot.
So this I was at I was at this time,
I just turned I was eighteen going on nineteen. I
got shot up in my in Mount Vernon and in
your neighborhood, in my neighborhood. Yeah, when I went to
(12:26):
I was, I was. I had just turned nineteen at
that moment, probably like a month into how many times
I got shot three times?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So wat selling drugs.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I wasn't at that at that moment when I got shot. Nah,
I wasn't even I was just going to pick somebody up.
One of my man's was on the run from the FEDS,
and I was through. I thought I was doing a favor.
I'm like, let me go get them. You're gonna take
them out. Acon is in the neighbor is in the town.
I'm gonna take you out. You're gonna turn yourself in
because the FEDS is kicking anybody throwing And then the
midst of me going to get I end up getting
(13:00):
shot up. Wow. Yeah, I ain't that some ship hunh.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, And obviously should showed you you got shut up
a couple of times, three times, three times, and you
felt about that What was going through your mind? I
mean you're in the hospital now, shot three times. I mean, like,
what's going through your mind? Well, first, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I was surprised I was alive because the last thing
I remembered while I was laying on the ground, was yo,
we got eight minutes to get him to Jacobe Hospital.
He gonna die. So when I woke up, I was like,
you know, I'm dad, Like this is what it looked
like when I realized that. When when I realized that
I was alive, I just you know, like, damn, yo,
who was that? You know? I needed to know who
it was at that moment. But you know, it's just
(13:46):
things that you know, street ship ship didn't you know?
Now you know recollection from now that you know, things
that could have been avoided. I didn't avoid, you know,
or you know, you think you're untouchable because your family
is something, and that's that's why I do what I do.
Now you know the TC's kids that you you know
it could happen.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
No, I gotta have it real quick. You see how
you went over there to you what are your guys?
You was gonna go pick them up? And you didn't realize,
I mean, other driver, beef this that you want you
want to going over to pick them up? When you
get shot up? Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So
ship like that happens. Man, it happens, now, you know
what I mean Uh, so when do you actually went
(14:26):
to jail and did some time?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So when I I actually so after the eight months,
I came home. Four months later, I went on the
police chase. I ended up going back to jail again.
I'm on the island. I'm on the boat in the
island for four months. I got out, first time in island,
first time. No, that's actually I was on the island
for adolescents too. It's my first time there for more
than a few days. I was that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I was that experience going to island quoting the bridge
first time.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
You young and you gang banging it, don't even you're
not even you're not even phase by it. Yeah, you're
not really fade. You're on the cloud.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You're in that cloud where you like you ready for whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, because you thought, you know, you know, as a
young kid, it was always like a badger honor. The
older guys was coming home, goifying these places. So me
being me and me being an adolescent, I'm soaking it
up like a sponge, like yeah that I gotta go there.
And so when you go there's you already got a
chip on your shoulder, like yeah, all right, I'm head.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So it's safe to say, so a lot of this
ship that a lot of these young brothers back in
the days, uh did it was actually a lot of
brothers thought that was coming home, girlfid in prison. You
know what I'm saying, you know, coming home?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It was in the island and all that running the
phone and all that suck representing the block and all
list and all that.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Right, that's the whole fact, and and and that ship
just carry on.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And a lot of brothers, a lot of young brothers
see that, and it's true, you know, and they look
up to that, you know what I'm saying. The back
of the day, it was like starting to look up
to yo. You see Rudy, Yo, you just came home.
You got the stupid waves and all that nigga cock
these are looking crazy and all that world that nigga
looking right and all that pause.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
You know what I mean. Right, that's you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So, and I get it, and I definitely can relate
to what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
So I got out. I got out from that four months.
I got out from that. I was facing the A.
I was I was facing the a one drug felony
for that for narcotics, and we they found some stuff
in the call that really was I end up. So
I was supposed to do two years on that and
I got I turned myself in. I think it was
January third to do to the time they let me
(16:25):
out January fall, right, So when they let me out,
I wentin't caught my case. I went and caught my body.
Right after that, That's when everything just.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Unfolded and it was really in trouble.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, reallygally. Psychologically, it didn't really phase me because I
didn't know no better, you know, mentally, nobody actually, like,
you know, you got people in my family in the
neighborhood that would tell you what you think they think
you should do. But nobody ever explained to me this
is why they saying that, and this is why I
(17:01):
do what I do today. I'm giving you examples of
why you shouldn't go down that path. So nobody actually
told me so in my mind, I was like, all right,
I did what I did and it was wrong. You
know what I'm saying, But I did it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
You know, you didn't really know the repercussions though, you
know what I'm saying, these are the things that you're
doing now you're teaching this young brothers that these other
rep because repercussions. That's why we heard this platform as well.
That's where the platform is built. You know what I'm saying,
not only for our voice to us, for us to
have our voice, but to Oce Showers young brothers and
sisters out there that you know what I'm saying, it's easy.
(17:35):
You go to jail like this, you know what I'm saying,
or get shot like this, or get killed like this.
You know what I'm saying. So so and then.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So yeah, so they so they they made a mistake
and let me out. I ended up catching a body. Yeah,
me and me and one of my men and my
young bros went on a little move. I ended up
killing a dull. Two dudes. One dude get locked. I
guess one dude while I'm in Boston cause I went
on the move. Nobody knew I was on the run
because I never I was a kid that never told
(18:07):
people what I did. So even though I looked up
to my older family members, I never was wanted to
tell him, y I'm gang bang yo, I'm I'm out
here doing this. I kept to myself, you know what
I'm saying, So I told my I told one of
my cousins, like, yo, we usually be in Pennsylvania in Philly,
I said, y'are about to go out of Boston. So while
I'm in Boston I was out there, one of the
dudes that I was with end up getting robbed and
(18:28):
shot up, so kind of spooke me. I'm like, damn,
I'm out here. Let me go back to New York.
So I was supposed to go back to Harrisburg. I
ended up getting locked up. So what happens is one
of my cold of fenders must have got locked up.
And when he got locked up on a probation violation,
somebody told on him. So somebody else got locked up.
You know, you find out all of this later down
(18:49):
the line. So they got locked up, I guess, you know,
one toll on the other. Then they told on you know,
they both told on me so so big. So you
know anyway that while I'm up, you know, so they
saved theirself. That that's that's that's that's pretty much, you know,
to this to this day, you just have to have
to wear it. Yeah, at this point, at that point
(19:09):
in my life, I could be like, yo, you know
what you know, I'm not even mad at you. I'm saying,
shouldn't even have to put you in that situation. I
should have knew better, you know what I'm saying. And
being that we were young, that's because you mature now
you I grew all that.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
But what it is, it is with this fact, so
how much telling me that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
For the day? I did seventeen plus years.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
For the body?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
For the body?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So you went up north? How was the first time?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you went downtown down downstate?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Fact?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
All right? What year was that?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Two January twenty second, two thousand and eight into downstate?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And how was that? What was your experience with that?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That that that you think the Wyomi depends on in
there all in bookings and Rikers Island or song. That's
that's something completely different right there. And it actually confused
me because I didn't know what I was expecting. Like
I knew people that my older brothers and stuff was
up there, but they never told me what they expect.
So when I got in there, yo, go there, man,
(20:08):
drill sergeants, go there, go there. Everybody got tough faces.
So I'm thinking everybody in here is murderers. So I'm like, damn,
this is what I'm about to be up against right here.
I'm a little dude. I'm like, all right, you know,
gang banging. I still don't really know that our prison
ethics at the moment, but I'm in my mom like,
all right, whatever, you know, I'm ready, Like mentally I
(20:30):
was strong, so I'm whatever. I know. I got a
back end out here.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're gonna face it.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, whatever it is, I'm I'm gonna deal with it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Down stays, they pushing you all over it, telling you shave,
They're telling you turn around, spread them all that. What
was going through your mind?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So defiance at first, it's defiance because now it's like
you my manhood is it? You're not going through all
of that, Like you know, they tell yo, Ben that
I ain't doing none of that. You know, by Holland right,
you could get away with that. You know, you might
get away with it, you know. But up there they
like what and you got dudes that have been through
the system. They're telling you, look, yo, don't get yourself hurt. Man.
(21:10):
Just so the the hair shaving and all that, I
already cut my hair before I went up already because
people already told me they're gonna make you do that.
So my hair was cut around. But nobody prepared me
for the the shower, that cold shower, nobody. Nobody prepared
me for a white striped naked were all going in
that room to take that cold shower, no fast. So
that was a shot. Spray you with the uh, the
(21:33):
pesticides and personage, put it on your on your private
everywhere you got a hair, right, y'all. Wasn't prepared for that,
so that was a shot. Then they quarantined you for
five days and you can't come out yourself, m breakfast, lunch,
and you lock in for dinner. So I wasn't ready
for none of that. So that that was like, damn,
(21:55):
hold on.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
This is how I'm gonna do this these years, these
sec so how much time you got put about it?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I got twenty years for it, so I copped out
to twenty years. They brought it down, they charged me.
They they went from twenty five to fifteen of life,
brought it back up to twenty five life, and I
got them to reduce it to twenty flat, and I
took it right there. Twenty flat. That's what I went
up north with. They put the army. My drug case
got swept with it. Okay, so everything, everything was all
(22:25):
in one okay.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
All right, So you just copped out to twenty years sacks.
So now you got twenty years and where you want.
What's the first jail you went to?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Sing? Sing?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
So?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Entering sing sing? You think you in the streets for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
They don't, That's what I hear. I never've been to
sin z, but everybody that I interviewed, Yo, since it
was like I started, it was like ome I was closed,
so I.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Get to sing sing, got people playing a radio, loud,
smoking drink. It's like it's like you on. It's like
you in the town, but you incarcerated, so it's you know,
you know, mad people there. It's just like anybody happy
down there. It's like it's it's a weird. It's a
(23:12):
weird thing. It was a weird thing down there when
I got down it was weird, but it didn't register
until years later. Like, Yo, they should never send nobody
there just coming up north for the first time too,
because it tricks you to believe that this is what
all prisons is and and it's like that, Yeah, it
was wild down there, man, it was wild. Then I
(23:33):
got shipped off to five points, okay, and you double bunks.
You in a big old cell, double bunk. But it's
not as it's not like sing sing, it's quiet. It's quiet.
Everybody yard is separate. You're not going to the yard
with nobody going besides the people in your block. Sometimes
they split your block and half. You're not going to
(23:55):
the mess hall besides with your block and another block.
So that is you quiet in the in the whole squad.
Everything is military.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Military, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
So it was it was, it was, it was different.
But at that moment for me, it's I'm still confused,
like it's it's because nobody is still explaining to me, Like, yo,
every jail you go to is going to be different, man,
nobody nobody explained that to you. And I was telling
the brother, you know, this is these are the things.
These are the platforms that I have in my organization today.
(24:25):
I have something called prison orientation because when you get
to every jail, they tell you they give you orientation
on the prison, how the prison is rained, but nobody
gives you orientation on how the prison is ranged. Right
on our side of the spectrum. Right, So I'm trying
to teach the kids.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Luck, man, you think you're prepared for that. I hear
y'all saying, y'all ready to do twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, you think that ship?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
You ain't ready for us? Man, you don't even want that.
I don't even want that for you.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You will never be ready for no ship like that. Man,
It's un.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Normal.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's not a normal environment. You feel me. Sure, you'll
never be ready for no jail shit, you know now
if you get accustom to them and you got a bid. Yeah,
But other than that, I mean, you know, so you
did seventeen years out of the or where you where
you did your seventeen years?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
So I was in I was in Comstock twice, great
great medals. I went to sing sing twice. I was
in Attica, I was in Clinton, I was in Auburn,
five points Elmira.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And what you did in your time, what you did
due to the time of there. So in the beginning,
I mean you as a gang member and all that,
how that all worked out for you?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
So so so in the beginning, you know, it's it's
I got to prove I gotta continue to prove who
I am.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And dang very challenging.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It's very challenging because for everything you try to prove,
somebody else trying to prove too. So now it's you know,
it's egos, and it's egos involved. And I eventually got
to green Haven. And when I was in green Haven,
one of my big homies at the time, you know,
I was going to a program with Yale University students
(26:09):
and I had got a few people involved, and he
was like, yo, get me involved. When I got him
involved and he actually seen what it was, he was like, Yo,
won't you get some of the bros out the yard.
I'm like, Noah, where they are. You're like, nah, man,
you gotta gotta get them out the yard, get them
something different to do. I ended up getting my legal
research from through, you know, through efforts of my brother
while he was he's in Chowonga, keep telling yall, get
(26:31):
your legal research, get in there, getting the law library.
You know the law a little bit, but get in
there and get your certificates so you can help other people.
You get the accolades to go. And so green Haven,
I started actually taking MAD program, the yacht program, the
the AVP program, and I started facilitating these programs and
(26:52):
actually change my view on everything. I ended up going
back to the box. When I went to the box
and a poll, you know, police whip you out and
they say you whipped them out.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So yeah, so you got it, you got it.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I got in trouble when I when I left the
police with the police whatever. So it happens as the
Certain team came in. It was a lot of underhand.
It was under It was a lot of all nonsense
going on in greenhad, you know, police bringing this stuff,
and you know what that you know, when that happens,
even though they get caught bringing in shit, you still
getting the blunt of it. So they brought the Certain
(27:26):
Team and at that time they the CERTA team was
introduced to docs you know, to the Department of Correction,
and they came to green Haven. First took the jail
under siege, walked the superintendent out the jail, walked the
all depth of security out the jail, and they was
taking a lot of our stuff. So they took things
that you you know, you had that you really wasn't
supposed to have, like footwear when I was walking around
(27:47):
with Gucci's on prodis on and stuff like that. They
took all of that. So when they took all of that,
I end up going to the package room to get
some regular basic sneakers. I got there, they like, are
you over the limit? I'm like, how am I over
the limit? They're like, yeah, you know what. I'm like, Nah,
I just got all my stuff. So I didn't have
shown it. But it was an officer that came out
out of nowhere like, Yo, you're not gonna tell us
(28:08):
how to do our job. But me being arrogant and
being in a facility like green Haven amongst people that
talk like us, that look like us, that sound like us,
you forget where you at. It's like a single thing
all over again. And that's what happened. I ultimately was like, yo, bitch,
who you're talking to? Forgetting that? Yo, this is an authority,
(28:28):
right head? You know one thing and you and what
was this? This is green Haven?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, and this is a whole different facility.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And you know, it went from one thing. She came
out A dude, one of the male officers came in
that I was alright with. I told him. I tried
to like wing him, like, yo, grab my package. What
I'm saying like it this bitch is wow, you grab
my package and me not really realizing like yo, this
is his coworker right here, like he got a job
(28:58):
to do. I tell him you gave him my back
and shure. He tried to come out and pop on
me and me and him getting it on. Yeah, so
we end up getting it on. And I'm still all
right because I ended up having all I like, I
suppressed them, but they beat my ass after that. They
put me in a wheelchair after that, Like yeah, I
was on bed rest for two days. It woke me up.
(29:19):
It woke me up consciously, like yo, look you bugging
they beat your ass. Yeah, they beat my ass to
the point where I was like, yo, listen, man.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
These are the things that that you are subjected to
when you up north. Yeah, you actually don't know when
the fuck you could come home, cause if police go
out there, you could go up north doing the building.
Police could kill you.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
And that was the thing though.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Man.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
So when when I'm on when they finally when the
when the when the team came in, they seem that
I had them all on the ground. I actually told
the sergeant, I'm like, yo, I'm good, you could take
me back to myself. You know what I'm saying. I'm all,
you know what I'm saying. I still want my package though,
And he was like, damn you ain't. They ain't do
nothing to you. And you know that's like a.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Signals, it's like a disrespect, like we need to go
back on this guy.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, so that they offered me whooped me out. But
while I was in the box, you know, it really
dawned and I'm like, oo, damn man, I don't talked
myself into an ass whooping just now, like it what
the fuck? Man? They gave me my ship, Like I
could have just went back to my unit. You know
what I'm saying. Yeah, like yo, what like Yo, you
gotta change your thought pattern, like real, like you gotta
wake up. They could have killed you just now when
(30:26):
you not even you know, because and I've witnessed that
while I was in Clinton credits, I've witnessed them killed
of course, Like and you know that should have woke
me up, That should have woke you up, but it didn't.
And you know, so I got back to Comstock. What
I went, I went, I went back to CompStat, I
got a reversal. I end up back in Comstock and
they gave me a transfer to go back to sing
(30:47):
sing And this time around when I got to sing sing,
the atmosphere was a little bit different. It was more
people programming. And I ended up while in orientation a
brother by the name of named south Side that I knew.
He had came to orientation. He was facilitating for a
pick the PACE program Prisoners for AIDS counsel and Education
(31:09):
program and he's seeing me. He was like, your face,
you know, because everybody know me by stone face. You
know what I'm saying. So he was like, your face
your signa sign you up for the PACE program? Like
what is that?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
He taught?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Man, I wanted to do no AIDS program. Man, what
I'm saying? He like, nah, bro. I took it and
I actually started. I took an interest in the program,
and it changed a little bit of conversation with me
and my wife because I started learning something that I
thought I knew that I actually didn't know nothing about.
I didn't know nothing about HIV. You know, the stuff
that you hear, you grow up hearing that shit is
(31:41):
all lies. So once I started educating myself on that,
it was different from educating myself with the Yale University
students and the Alternative to Violent projects and the ARM
the arm that the youth awareness programs and all that
it was. It was something different. So it waked up,
It awakened something in me and I started. I took
the basic, I took the Advance, and then I went
(32:03):
for the CJI, which was the Criminal Justice Initiative on
five day training where you got certified from the Department
of Health AI's intituo. And once I got certified and
I started actually facility, I started getting all the homies
and people that was ganging feeling I wasn't that. I knew, like, yo,
come take the program and educate yourself because it can
actually benefit you when you leave from here. And I'm thinking,
and I'm a testament to say it's true because the
(32:25):
job that I have to this day is through that
program right there. Well, yeah, I was able to land
that job, and I was able to get other guys
to come take the program and get them jobs as well,
you know, so you know the pacepall I get, I give.
I give all my kudos to the PACE program.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
And from there and sing saying I got into rt
A Rehabilitation through the arts. So the funny thing with
that is when I own, I draw. So when I
wanted to take that program, a lot of dudes was like, Yo,
You're not gonna get in that program because it's a
staring committee and it's you know, they pick and choose
(33:05):
who they want to be involved. And then I'm like, yo, man,
who's involved And y'all just had him Jamaine Archi. They
was like, yo, Jamaine is one of the staying committee
members on that. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna
go talk to that's big bro right there. I'm gonna
go speak to him and let him know I got
an interest in all I want to be a part
(33:25):
of the art program, and you gotta have a few
you have to have more than one person to vote
you in. And I got into ll TA. Ultimately, I
got into all TA through like three people I spoke to.
They let me in through the art program. From the
art program, I got into the theater program. I got
to act in seventeen seventy six, and my mother and
(33:45):
my wife ended up coming in to actually see me
performing in seventeen seventy six. Wow, And you know, my mom,
my mom and my wife was actually excited, like they
was happy to see me doing something different besides just
coming on the phone for hours in the yard. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying, regular ship. And I actually
(34:07):
was proud, like Yo, and a few of the young
homies that was there, you know, they came to see
me and they was like Yo, like they was mad
that everybody else saying showed something. They like, Yo, bro,
you're doing something good. And it kind of it kind
of changed the trajectory of what I wanted to do.
Like I didn't want to be in the yard no more.
You know, I'm like, Yo, Naw, I'm gonna go to
the pace pert Wram, I'm gonna go teach these dudes.
You I'm gonna go to theater. I'm gonna go do this.
(34:28):
Just the feeling was great. The feeling was great, and
it's just it changed my my thought pat on what
I really wanted to be and what I wanted to
do and who I wanted to be in life.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
That was your first moments of transition. Yeah, that you
know what I mean, going from from the yard to
actually something that you're gonna care about.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Fact, you started caring.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You know what I'm saying, cause that's that's what it is.
It's not like you ain't had no good in you,
like you're fucking minister society and all that.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
You can't to be in jail your rest of your
life and all that.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
No, it was just upbringing and and and and most
of it the U the uh, how you going to
trauma that we go through growing up?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
You feel me fact so so good so so that
that's it took me thirty two years. So at that moment,
I'm thirty two, probably thirty three after I probably won't
make transition. Going through that transition, like and you know,
I started, I started really questioning myself. I started like
for the last for that that was twenty seventeen, so
(35:32):
for the last seven years up until then, I started
questioning a lot of things, like, you know, while a
lot of things was happening to me, and you know,
what's my purpose? I started fasting and all of that
and just really like, yo, what's my purpose? So when
I got that, it was like this is my calling
right here, Like this is this is what this is it? Right?
He is what you want to do? Yeah, this is
(35:53):
what I want to do. And I made a promise
to myself. I was like, yo, when I get out
of jail, I'm gonna teach this to the people in
the streets that may not know what what HIV really is.
Like everybody be like, yo, you caught AIDS. Like you
can't catch age. You catch HIV and you get you know,
AIDS is a is a classification. It's a progression of
(36:15):
having HIV with other things.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
And you know, break that down because these brothers, just
because in the free world doesn't mean that they shouldn't
know about HIV. So you know, knowledge is wisdom. So
we need to we need to, we need we needed
we needed to share some of that so we could,
you know, for the young brothers and sisters out there.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
So it's like, so we go through So in the program,
we used to do something called the Iceberg model. So
the Iceberg model is everybody know that when the Titanic
hit the Iceberg, you only see the ice on top
of the water, but nobody never asks or nobody ever
thought about what was underneath the surface. So underneath the
surface is the ground level. So the ground level is
(36:52):
where everything starts from. So that's the risky behavior, you know,
that's where you come in contact with the virus with
someone that through that may I have it right. So
you might go out, say you go out to the
club or you you and you meet a lady, right
and anybody knows people meet me, meet people out there,
(37:14):
and you hit it on the first day, you hit
it raw because you're in the passion, nobody thinking about
condoms and all of that, and through risky behavior you
come and con you hit it boom. Two weeks later
you might or a week later, you might run into
your man and he like y'all seen you slid off
with shorter yo, I know her man, you got you
go get checked out because I heard she got it.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Ultimately, you know, the first thing you're gonna think about
it this dude hating He probably was hitting it or
he wanted to hit it and he didn't get to
hit it right. But if that's your close confident on
you want, you're right, you're your man's you might take
heed to it and two weeks later, So how what
happens is after the ground level two weeks later, you
may come up with flu like symptoms. So the flu
(37:56):
like symptoms is your body's first warning sign that something
has entered your body that's foreign to you, right, And
so that's so that's the second level of the Iceberg model.
That's the that's the the cute, the initial the acute
initial of point of infection stage. Right there after that
(38:18):
you go to the doctor. Right. So you know, you
get sick, everybody be like, yo, little somebody in the
house probably got gave me a little sickness and all that. Yo,
I've drunk some tig rub myself somethings or whatever, got rid
of it. But you like, you see your man a
game like you ain't got tucked up. You're like, nah,
you end up going see the doctor. You go see
the doctor. They tell you, yo, look, you tell them, yo, look,
(38:41):
I want to take an HIV test. Boom boom. They
explained you know, they give you they posed to typically,
they supposed to explain to you that it's an HIV
antibody test because that's what they're testing for. They tested
for HIV antibodies. They not testing for HIV. You know,
antibodies is the white the white blood cells that fight
off you know, your your immune system, anything harmful that
come to your body, that's what it fights off. So
(39:02):
what happens is you go say, say you went there
twenty days after you had sex with shorty, right, and
they tell you we're gonna take this test twenty minutes
that you used to be twenty minutes now it is
about a minute now. So you take the test twenty
minutes later. It come back negative or non reactive, because
that's how it come back. It come back non reactive.
But the doctor should tell you is look, although it's
(39:24):
non reactive today, you're in something called the window period,
which is zero to ninety days for your body to
build up enough antibodies to arm to render you HIV
positive or negative. Right, so you should come back right,
don't think you're in the claar. That's twenty days. So
(39:44):
now you're getting this knowledge. Now you're concerned, like, yeah,
I'm in the clay. Hold on, you just told me
I might not be in the clare because everybody body
is different. Within the first thirty days, you should be
able to come back with a positive or negative. That's accurate.
But just in case your lifestyle is a little different
than o with people, ninety days is the window period.
So you come back, say you come back sixty days.
(40:05):
You gave yourself forty days you come back, Yo, They
saying Yo's negative still, they say non reactive again, but
they laying you know, look you're still in the window period.
Say you came back on the eighty eighth day. They
tell yo, look you are positive. You are reactive. They
rendered you HIV positive a person living with the HIV.
(40:27):
That's the third stage. The fourth stage is something called
sero conversion, which is Latin. Sero is blood in Latin,
and conversion is basically a change. So in layman terms,
is your blood is changing, but your blood doesn't change.
What happens is is your signs changed. So you go
(40:47):
from your you go from HIV negative to HIV positive.
That's the fourth stage. They supposed to explain to your look,
although you're HIV, we're living in a different time than
in the eighties and nineties when it first came out,
when when it first hit America, the way it hit
America where everybody was wast dying, you know what I'm saying.
So they tell you, look, although you're living with HIV
(41:10):
as of this day, Yo, listen, you gotta change your diet.
You gotta If you smoke, you gotta stop smoking. If
you drink, you gotta stop drinking. If you don't get
enough resch you need to get some rest. You gotta exercise,
but you gotta take this medication to live. You could
live or you could live the rest of your life
out successfully if you do this right here, right, so
they gonna tell you a look, it's two stages, the
(41:33):
fifth and the sixth stage. The fifth stage is called asymptomatic.
Asymptomatic stage is when you're living with HIV but you're
not experiencing or showing any signs of having the HIV,
so you're going about your life like nothing is going on.
We like to call that the magic Johnson stage. Oh yo,
(41:54):
he never had no he had he had it. Yeah,
he tested positive, he was reactive for But that's the
magic Johnson stage where you can go about your life
every day like nothing is going on. It can still
be transmitted though, right. That's the stage five. Stage six
is symptomatic stage. We like to call that. Classify that
as the easy E stage. Number. Four months after easy
(42:16):
found out that he had it, he passed away. So
the symptomatic stage is you're experiencing all signs of being
HIV positive or someone that's living with HIV. So you
got the diarrhea, you got the loss of way, you're
breaking out with leecha with leisures on your arm. You
got the pneumonia. It's one hundred degrees but you cold,
(42:37):
and so on and so forth. That's stage six. Now
according to the CDC, which is the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention in the Land located in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to them, once you a person goes through those
six stages, they're classified as having HIV. And the reason why,
I mean as a having aids. And the reason why
(42:58):
is because you reach the tip of the ice, you're
at the surface, you're above the water now level. Whereas
now you're seeing that you have rendered this head, you know,
and so you have to be HIV positive with a
T cell count of two hundred or less. So the
T cell count everybody, so you produce ten billion T
cells a day, ten billion copies of ten ten ten
(43:21):
billion T cells a day. So if they're saying that
your body have less than two hundred, there's reason for concern.
So they test a one drop of blood one cc, right,
that's a that's a ten milligram right out of that
right there, you should have. It's it's eight hundred to
fifteen hundred copies white blood cells and that one drop
of blood. So if your body is coming up with
(43:41):
less than two hundred, something is wrong. Now, say you're
not HIV positive. It might mean that you have sick
of cell or leukemio something something that's not right. But
you know that you HIV because you passed. You tested
reactive for it. So that's how to see. CDC actually
classify as a person that's having eight as they say
you are HIV positive. You gotta be HIV positive and
you have to have a T cell count of two
(44:02):
hundred or less. So then all right, so say you
have more than two hundred T cells right, your HIV
positives A second now, it is a second way they
define you of having AIDS. They classify you as having AIDS.
They say, yo, hey, your HIV positive with one or
more opportunistic infections. What is an opportunist. Opportunist is something
that takes advantage of something. So say, all for example, Yo,
(44:28):
this dude is no good, but he got a million dollars. Right,
I know he no good and he might tell on me,
but I'm gonna go hang out with him, so I
can get a dollar out of him, fuck with everybody
else talking about. That's the opportunistics in your body. So
you HIV positives. So I'm gonna give you a perfect
example of this right here. Say your body was fighting
off hepatitis. Hepatitis. He got a cure now, but before
(44:55):
it didn't. So say your body was fighting off hepatitis. Right,
So your body's fighting off heat. Your body was able
to suppress it and hold it down. Your white blood
cells was able to hold it down for a while. Right,
HIV has intoed your body. Once into HIV into your body,
it makes millions of copies like this. It clones itself
like this a million times over, So a million generations
of your sperm has already been cloned. Now, your body
(45:20):
is fighting off HIV. But HIV is so trick, that's
so tricky that it clones itself to look like the
white blood cells. Its ticket is knocking them off. It's
knocking off the good blood, white blood cells. It's eating them,
knocking wilding them up. Right, So now your body is like,
hold on, what's going on here? What your body going
to do is gonna let go hepatitis, right, to go
(45:40):
investigate what's this new substance right here? When they let
when they when what happens is when they let go
of the hepatitis to investigate the HIV. Hepatitis stab you
in your back and kill you. And that's how that's
how a person actually passes away. So when a lot
of people tell the ignorance, when we be like yo,
people die from a's nah, It's like corona on COVID.
Just now. Now, you don't die from the HIV or
(46:02):
the classification of or the definition of having age. You
die from the other things, you know, which is the
opportunistic infection colication. Yeah, so the pneumonia and stuff like that.
So that's that's something simple right now.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The model appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
You've been home. Question.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
How do you feel about prison reform?
Speaker 3 (46:25):
It's needed, it's needed. Should it should have been it
should have been something, you know, And I'm proud of
everybody that's that's standing firm, that's that's boots on the ground,
that's making their voices be heard and lending it, learning
their stories to why things should change, you know, why
people should like should have second chances. Look at us,
(46:45):
you know second you know people mess up. But that
don't mean you got to be a mistake. You know
what I'm saying. People make people make mistakes, man, But
that don't you gotta forever live it. No, you ain't
gotta be condemned. I'm not.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Since you've been home.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
So since I've been home. I told you I'm a
I'm a prevention specialist. I'm a harm reduction or harm
reduction opioid prevention specialist. That's my nine to five. But
I also have a nonprofit organization a taxies MP named
Troops t r U C three, Inc. Which stands for
Taking Responsibility in United Communities through Education. So that was
something that me and my two cold my two co
(47:23):
founders while we were in Odersville Correction Facility. Two of
us was teaching pace and another one he was in
college John Jay. We came out, you know, we was
thinking about different things on how to have a conversation
about violence and why it was so prevalent and acceptable
(47:44):
to us and not neighbor in the black and brown neighborhoods.
And we ultimately was gonna call it kill the Violence. Well,
my co founder, Vincent Sweeney, he's the one who actually
thought of it he brought it to me while he
was in the pace office, and I'm the one a
year later like, yo, let's do this. I'm like, yeah,
let's do this. I'm gonna put the paperwork together, like
I'm gonna really like And I got to it and
(48:07):
we put the paperwork. So what happened. We started shopping
around to the administration and we brought it to the
dep of Programs, and we brought it to the Libery
and when we brought it to the library and cool
lady we brought it to she read it. She started laughing.
I'm like, why you laughing? She was like, yo, kill
the violence. She like you can't. She like, Yo, these
(48:27):
young kids in here are gonna eat that up and
think that you're talking like kill the violence. Y'all gotta
change that name. And we brought our third co founder
and asked him. We called him the Professor. We brought
him in to read it, and when he read it,
he contacted one of his lady friends out in Massachusetts, like, YO,
(48:48):
what you think about this? We're about to do a
symposium in here. We're gonna holler at life camp Erika Ford.
We're gonna holler at five hundred men making a difference.
We're gonna holler ad snug, we gonna holler gun. What
is it? Something guns down like life uck. We's gonna
hire different organizations to come in and have a converison
(49:08):
because this is what they were combating in the street.
And he came back with it. One day I was
on a visit. He came back. He was like, Yo,
what you think about this face man? And when I
read it to all my bros. Was was coming to
visit me, and I brought them. When I went to
go take pictures, I told him to read it. I'm like, Yo,
read this real fast. I was like, Yo, what if
y'all seen this on a billboard, which y'all at ten?
(49:30):
They was like hell yeah, and these are two dudes
that's not in the streets you know at all. They
seen what happened to me and they went the other
direction because they didn't want to go down on my path.
And I was grateful that I didn't know until those visits.
But they read it. I was like word. So I
started going to the yard, like, yo, look we were
about to do this. I told him, yo, to give
it to our old the one who actually initially thought
(49:51):
of the odd there. He read it. He was like, oh,
now we're on it. And that's how truce was birth.
So what happens is they we were supposed to do
it in to jail. We had everybody signed on, We
had Evercoford and everybody signed on to come in, and
but you were home anywhere and not administration got scared. Yeah,
it always they got nervous because the whole jail wanted
(50:13):
to come. They was trying to figure out how come
every time we was doing something, the whole jail wanted
to attend. They thought it was my gang influence, right,
but they ain't know that not we was just being
being who we are. You know what I'm saying. We
really was trying to change out you was doing.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Anything you did or you was doing that that effect
anything in regards to what you was, what you was
in regards your gang life.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Nah, hell no, because I kept it. You know, I'm
always a person that since I was a kid, I
always kept it averil. I've never like I was like
I always say, I hate a liar. You know what
I'm saying. You know, we lied to save ourselves, but
you just lying, just a lie. You got a lot
of to remember that lie. You gotta remember another lie.
So I always always be me. I'm always authentic, you
(50:57):
know what I'm saying. How did it work?
Speaker 2 (51:00):
The reception was good when you transition and you said,
you know what, I'm not going to the y'all no more.
But you're you're done with the gang?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
How they the reception was good? Probably I don't know
because I was at this time on the GF, but recept,
the reception was always good for me. Like you know,
it was always the bros used to always was be like, Yo,
I'm happy that you doing something positive is giving us
something different. They was actually happy that I was.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Giving youth and to learn absolutely.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Versus Yo, go do this something negative. They actually they
act the young guys and the older guys was like, yo,
thank you. You know what I'm saying. It was taking my program,
like Yo, thank you. Man, were coming to learn this man?
Get out the y'alls. Thope, yeah, so I think you.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Know so you didn't have no issues on that?
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Nah?
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Nah, I ain't.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
I ain't never what what what you what you were
working on?
Speaker 3 (51:47):
Now? So right now we got me and a brother
named Deshaun Kenner. We got award ceremony that we're putting
together to honor guys that came home and change the
narrative for the good, that put the work in while
he was incarcerated and came home and continued that path
to change the narrative and show the world that hey,
(52:10):
we more than just our numbers, our dind numbers, were
more than just our crime or our worst mistakes in life.
So we're putting together award ceremony for that. As far
as my organization goes, I'm in the schools. I'm trying
to get in the in the juvenile detentionis. I'm in
conversations with the juvenile like Ghoshen I should be headed
in we should be headed. My organizations should be headed
(52:31):
in Ghoshan. We're putting together for this summer right now.
I got a theater workshop that is about to come out.
I gotta creative writing workshop that was about to come out.
I got to a family workshop. I want to I'm
putting together a family workshop for my family to have
a conversation about our our our trauma. You know that
a lot of you know, being from the Caribbean, a
(52:51):
lot of times we often are tossed to the side
like it ain't reality, like it ain't real, like it
don't exist, but not, And that's what hurts and this
and this is why things continue to go down the
wrong path. So I want to open their views on
certain things to try to change their their narrative and
how and they look on life too. And help the
(53:14):
kids that that's parents in my family. I passed away
or went to jail. Cool help them. So that's what
we're doing though, man like that. Appreciate you doing. That's
what's up. Man.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Just know that you can always come up here. Man,
this platform is here for you.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
You know what I'm saying. The thing you want to
you know, you want to share and all that or
anything you have anything up, you got anything going on,
Just know you can always come up here as a
dog in the yard and you can announce it. You
know what I'm saying. And and we're here. We're here
to support you in any kind of way. Fact and
I definitely came a long way. Man, you're doing the
right thing.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Anything anything you can need me anytime, you always holler
at t K. If I got to pull up and
all that, you let me know. I pull up I support.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
I mean, yeah, that's I think I appreciate that. And
if anybody you know, and if y'all looking my arm
on Instagram, we r U s C r U C
three underscore I n C at Instagram t r U
C three I n C dot org is our is
our website.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
What's your Instagram?
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Instagram is t r U C three underscore I n C.
That's where I'm at. My My personal is s H
A C H underscore truth truths in So if you're
looking for me, that's what we're doing. But we're in
the streets, man. We were here for the youth. We
want to change, We want to change their lives. We
want to make sure we help them with you not
(54:37):
go down the path that we what we're here for.
Who the better credible message than us? That's right?
Speaker 2 (54:43):
With that being said, you what you know, your boy
pistol P, Dog in the yard?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
What up?
Speaker 4 (54:51):
What up?
Speaker 2 (54:51):
You already know? Is your boy pristol P. Welcome back
to the dog in the yard. First and forwards, I
want to thank me shop for coming through. Keep doing
your thing. He's out there in ouring the youth with education.
You know what I'm saying you know, he comes from
a background of you know, gang affiliated and all that.
For him to be out here doing all that is,
I believe it's a great thing for the young brothers
(55:14):
out there and the young sisters to see brothers like
himself doing great things out there. So we're here to
his support. You man, anytime you want to come up
see me and you know there's no dog and the
y'all got you, my brother. And with that being said, yeah,
you know me shot your boy, pistol dog in the y'all.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Be alive, shout shining alf shot
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hope a south darks a over your mouth.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Right? You less.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Clear?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What up?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
What are you already know? Your boy Pristol Pe walking
back to the dog in the yard. Today we got
meat shocked in the building that seventeen years gang affiliate
at at a young age from Mount Vernon. And with
that being said, let's get right to it. Man, your
boy Pristol Pe dog in the yall?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
What up?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What up?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
You already know?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
What is your boy Pristol Pete walking back to the
dog in the yard. Then we got meat shocked in
the building? Something?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
My brother?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What? So?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
How you been brother?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm blessed man the seven. How you been home?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Been home a year and a month?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Now?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Where you from?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I'm from Mount Vernon, born and raised Mount Vernon, grew
up both sides. Lived in the Bronx most of my life.
But Unt Vernon's my home.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Mount Vernon, shout out to Mount Vernon. So how long
you been home?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
I've been home since aug uh April thirtieth for last year?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
What you been doing?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So? I'm a prevention specialist, but I got a nonprofit
truth and thos UC three, taking responsibility, unite community with educations.
What we do is we in the streets, were in
the schools closer, We in the schools be preventing the
kids from going down the path that we went down.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay, alright, so we gonna get to that. Yeah, we
gonna get to that right now. Is all I wanna
know is just more or less break down to us. Uh,
you know your upbringing, if you have siblings, and uh,
what caused you to get in trouble? And then when's
the first time you went to jail and crossed that line? So?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh the bridge. Yeah, So I'm the fourth child. I'm
from Mount Vernon. I'm the fourth child for my mom,
and I'm the ninth child for my mom and my
for my dad. My mother's trying daddy and father. Father's Jamaican.
My father was married before he met my mom in
(03:26):
the seventies or the sixties whatever, I don't really know
when they met late sixties, early seventies, and then he
got married. He got remarried to my mom and both
of them was in crown, you know, selling drugs. Father
went to the fest when I was a young child. Oh,
(03:48):
the first time I probably was like four years old probably,
and then he went back. He had came home, then
he went back got deported after he got the porter
when I was like eight nine years old. They affected you,
I mean, of course, of course that was when he
got deported. It was the first time that all my
(04:10):
you know, I always tell I really tell him, tell
too many people this story. But remember coming home from
this is the platform. Yeah, I remember when they coming
home from school and my mother and my sister met
me on the corner of my school, like, yo, look
we can't go home. Yeah, because the Fast had took him.
So you know, they took you know, if you don't know,
(04:31):
the Fast take everything, they come and they take everything.
And yeah, so we ain't had nowhere to go at
that moment, like, you know, we had to we had
to regroup. And as a young man, you know, at
that time, my brother was already one of my older
brothers was incarcerated as well, and that took a toll
on me. I'm like, oh damn, you know, fuck yeat
(04:52):
old he was at that time, I was like eight
years old, seven eight years old.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
For sure. You confused the ship trying to figure out
what the fuck going on? What I'm not going back
to my room. Huh and so so, so what was deux?
What was deux for?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
You went to my grandm You know, we went to
my grandmother house as a young cat. So my older
brother that went to jail, the one right above me,
he used to play football, So I started playing football
behind him, because I followed behind him, started hanging out
at my grandmother. I stayed at my grandmother house for
some while while my mother started, you know, my mother
switched jobs. We used to you know, my parents own
(05:30):
the restaurant on Third and third back in the days,
and the record shop. So once the fast kicked in
and took everything, everybody had to regroup. So my mother
started doing nursing and all that, and I started staying
at my grandmother house. Staying at my grandmother house was
my first taste of street life. I was always a
street kid, but that was my first taste of I. Hey,
(05:52):
my uncles is selling drugs. I could do it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
He said, Oh man, this is an opportunity for me
to go out there.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, let me let me do it. Yeah that was
so that was That was around I was around ten
eleven at that time, so young kid. Yeah, so the
first time. But but why from that? The first time
I ever went to jail with cuffs was put on
me was when I was eight years old. Yeah, I
ended up cutting one of my friends, my good friend.
He dad now, but good friend man. I had snuck
(06:22):
out the house. I was on punishment. I snuck out
the house and he went to go wake my mother up,
and I'm like, come on, man, you about to wake
blow me up? Man, come on, man, don't blow me up.
That's that's that was my first time of like got
in trouble. Yeah what you cut him? Yeah, cut him up?
Remember the arrange box cut it back then? Yeah, so
(06:44):
you know that's army fatigue wearing early nineties army fatigue
where wearing I had my army fatigues on had an
army He was angry. Yeah, I was mad. He was
about to blow me up. So I was mad. Two
times he about the first wake my mother up, let
her know that I snuck out the house, right, and
two he beat me up. Yeah I was mad. I was.
(07:05):
I was like, oh he beat you up. Yeah, he
beat me up. He beat because I snuffed him on,
Like yo, don't wait, my moms. I snuffed him and
he beat my ass because he was older than me.
I was I was in elementary school. He was in
high school at the time. Yo, okay, But he beat
me up, so I was waiting for him to come back.
He left, went to his aunt, told his aunt, you're like, yo,
me didn't let me wake wake his moms up because
you know, he snuck out the house. He liket, so
(07:25):
he came back like, I gotta wake u up, and
my aunt Nita, I'm like, you can't do that, snuffed
him again. Man, this time I took the ass whipping,
but he got his blows too, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, so he finally you wind up cutting them.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
He wont them.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I guess charges the.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Son now, so on his aunt. He ended up going
to his house. He going back to his aunt house
on his aunt called the police and they came. But
when the arm was signed for the charges, the aunt
didn't want to press charges on me because she's like
my godmother. She was like a mother to me, and
she wanted to press charges on my two friends as
they was twins. She ain't like them, so she wanted
(08:03):
so she told, you know, they did it. It wasn't him,
they did it, you.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Know, yeah, and showing them what happened.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
That was it my moms. My moms was ended up
and she was able to bring me home. You know,
they put the pans out on you get in trouble again,
you know, you know where.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You're going show, and then when you got in trouble again.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
After that, I was, I was, I was good. I was.
I was doing a little stealing cars thing, but I
never got caught. I didn't go back to jail. So
I was like fifteen. I was in New Rochelle at
the Metro North, coming back from the I think from
the movie theater or a party or whatever. And it
was a crew of us, my boys and girls, and
we was the Metro North and one of my female friends,
(08:45):
I guess one of the Mexican guys bumped me, but
we was in the midst of a robbery at the moment,
so that didn't really matter to me, you know what
I'm saying. And he was on a different mission. Yeah,
we want a different mission. And the guy must have
bumped me in. One of the females seen it, and
she was mad and she confronted the god and snuffed
them and we had to divert from what we was
(09:08):
doing over there to that, and we ended up going
to jail for that. Yeah, we end up going to
jail that we end up we ended up going to jail.
We went to New Shell Locking and then my mom's
ended up. I had to call my moms. My mom's
ended up coming to get all of us, you know,
she got came and got all of himself for one person.
His mom told him to keep them. Wow. And what
(09:29):
year was this? Oh man, this is like two thousand,
two thousand and one, probably so.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And them all you finally got in some more trouble.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah. So after that, I was just I was in
and out of trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And all that ship, all that ship was pretty pretty.
I had allowed to do with with the fact that
your dad and your mom's wasn't around or you or
you just was it was just it was in you.
You was just a wild from the beginning, or you
felt like that, you know, from your moms and your
pops not and all the all the changes that they
went through. You just you know that should affected you
(10:09):
in any kind of way. What was it that that
triggered you to just go out there?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
They just so I can identify it now as as trauma,
you know, to a to a child. Back then, it
was I just idolized anybody older in my family that
was that was out there. I didn't care what they did.
You was an older figure in my family. I loved you.
Whatever you was doing, I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
You know, the eleven the eleven year old selling weed.
My uncles is doing it. I'm telling them, I'm gonna
go drop it off to the thirteen year old. My
cousin is gang banging. I don't know they gang banging.
I'm bearing red red flags until I'm confronted that hold
on you and I know everything, and they like, man,
you ain't this make it. You don't get out of
here before you get killed.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I eventually turned it at the age of and that
eventually turned blood at the age of thirteen, founding behind
my cousin. I'm not even knowing that I'm gang banging.
To fifteen getting locked up, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
When you're finished it. That's when your first that got
locked up.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Fifty yeah, fifteen originally getting locked up, and then after that,
I just kept getting locked up. Like I was. I
was full fledged playing football. I was fulling playing football,
and then from football. I'm going to sell drugs with
my cousin. I'm gonna go sell some weed with my cousin.
And I was just living a life of a teenager
that that you know, couldn't really say nothing of you really, nah,
(11:31):
I just he.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Ain't had no you know, your parents, they went through
all their own personal shit, so all that trauma shit.
He just was out in the streets.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And so when you went to jail, like almost time
you did.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So when I got off on that one, and then
I ended up getting caught, I ended up. I ended
up getting caught with an ounce of weed in school.
I ended up going I ended up getting locked up.
I did a few days. They bailed me out, got out,
they put me on the they put me in a
drug program. Then I I got shot. I was on
probation for another drug case. I kept getting I just
(12:05):
kept getting drug cases. So I ended up doing a year.
I ended up getting shot up and doing a year
in county jail for being out past my curfew getting shot.
So this I was at I was at this time,
I just turned I was eighteen going on nineteen. I
got shot up in my in Mount Vernon and in
your neighborhood, in my neighborhood. Yeah, when I went to
(12:26):
I was, I was. I had just turned nineteen at
that moment, probably like a month into how many times
I got shot three times?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So wat selling drugs.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I wasn't at that at that moment when I got shot. Nah,
I wasn't even I was just going to pick somebody up.
One of my man's was on the run from the FEDS,
and I was through. I thought I was doing a favor.
I'm like, let me go get them. You're gonna take
them out. Acon is in the neighbor is in the town.
I'm gonna take you out. You're gonna turn yourself in
because the FEDS is kicking anybody throwing And then the
midst of me going to get I end up getting
(13:00):
shot up. Wow. Yeah, I ain't that some ship hunh.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, And obviously should showed you you got shut up
a couple of times, three times, three times, and you
felt about that What was going through your mind? I
mean you're in the hospital now, shot three times. I mean, like,
what's going through your mind? Well, first, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I was surprised I was alive because the last thing
I remembered while I was laying on the ground, was yo,
we got eight minutes to get him to Jacobe Hospital.
He gonna die. So when I woke up, I was like,
you know, I'm dad, Like this is what it looked
like when I realized that. When when I realized that
I was alive, I just you know, like, damn, yo,
who was that? You know? I needed to know who
it was at that moment. But you know, it's just
(13:46):
things that you know, street ship ship didn't you know?
Now you know recollection from now that you know, things
that could have been avoided. I didn't avoid, you know,
or you know, you think you're untouchable because your family
is something, and that's that's why I do what I do.
Now you know the TC's kids that you you know
it could happen.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
No, I gotta have it real quick. You see how
you went over there to you what are your guys?
You was gonna go pick them up? And you didn't realize,
I mean, other driver, beef this that you want you
want to going over to pick them up? When you
get shot up? Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So
ship like that happens. Man, it happens, now, you know
what I mean Uh, so when do you actually went
(14:26):
to jail and did some time?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So when I I actually so after the eight months,
I came home. Four months later, I went on the
police chase. I ended up going back to jail again.
I'm on the island. I'm on the boat in the
island for four months. I got out, first time in island,
first time. No, that's actually I was on the island
for adolescents too. It's my first time there for more
than a few days. I was that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I was that experience going to island quoting the bridge
first time.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
You young and you gang banging it, don't even you're
not even you're not even phase by it. Yeah, you're
not really fade. You're on the cloud.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You're in that cloud where you like you ready for whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, because you thought, you know, you know, as a
young kid, it was always like a badger honor. The
older guys was coming home, goifying these places. So me
being me and me being an adolescent, I'm soaking it
up like a sponge, like yeah that I gotta go there.
And so when you go there's you already got a
chip on your shoulder, like yeah, all right, I'm head.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So it's safe to say, so a lot of this
ship that a lot of these young brothers back in
the days, uh did it was actually a lot of
brothers thought that was coming home, girlfid in prison. You
know what I'm saying, you know, coming home?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It was in the island and all that running the
phone and all that suck representing the block and all
list and all that.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Right, that's the whole fact, and and and that ship
just carry on.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And a lot of brothers, a lot of young brothers
see that, and it's true, you know, and they look
up to that, you know what I'm saying. The back
of the day, it was like starting to look up
to yo. You see Rudy, Yo, you just came home.
You got the stupid waves and all that nigga cock
these are looking crazy and all that world that nigga
looking right and all that pause.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
You know what I mean. Right, that's you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So, and I get it, and I definitely can relate
to what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
So I got out. I got out from that four months.
I got out from that. I was facing the A.
I was I was facing the a one drug felony
for that for narcotics, and we they found some stuff
in the call that really was I end up. So
I was supposed to do two years on that and
I got I turned myself in. I think it was
January third to do to the time they let me
(16:25):
out January fall, right, So when they let me out,
I wentin't caught my case. I went and caught my body.
Right after that, That's when everything just.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Unfolded and it was really in trouble.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, reallygally. Psychologically, it didn't really phase me because I
didn't know no better, you know, mentally, nobody actually, like,
you know, you got people in my family in the
neighborhood that would tell you what you think they think
you should do. But nobody ever explained to me this
is why they saying that, and this is why I
(17:01):
do what I do today. I'm giving you examples of
why you shouldn't go down that path. So nobody actually
told me so in my mind, I was like, all right,
I did what I did and it was wrong. You
know what I'm saying, But I did it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
You know, you didn't really know the repercussions though, you
know what I'm saying, these are the things that you're
doing now you're teaching this young brothers that these other
rep because repercussions. That's why we heard this platform as well.
That's where the platform is built. You know what I'm saying,
not only for our voice to us, for us to
have our voice, but to Oce Showers young brothers and
sisters out there that you know what I'm saying, it's easy.
(17:35):
You go to jail like this, you know what I'm saying,
or get shot like this, or get killed like this.
You know what I'm saying. So so and then.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So yeah, so they so they they made a mistake
and let me out. I ended up catching a body. Yeah,
me and me and one of my men and my
young bros went on a little move. I ended up
killing a dull. Two dudes. One dude get locked. I
guess one dude while I'm in Boston cause I went
on the move. Nobody knew I was on the run
because I never I was a kid that never told
(18:07):
people what I did. So even though I looked up
to my older family members, I never was wanted to
tell him, y I'm gang bang yo, I'm I'm out
here doing this. I kept to myself, you know what
I'm saying, So I told my I told one of
my cousins, like, yo, we usually be in Pennsylvania in Philly,
I said, y'are about to go out of Boston. So while
I'm in Boston I was out there, one of the
dudes that I was with end up getting robbed and
(18:28):
shot up, so kind of spooke me. I'm like, damn,
I'm out here. Let me go back to New York.
So I was supposed to go back to Harrisburg. I
ended up getting locked up. So what happens is one
of my cold of fenders must have got locked up.
And when he got locked up on a probation violation,
somebody told on him. So somebody else got locked up.
You know, you find out all of this later down
(18:49):
the line. So they got locked up, I guess, you know,
one toll on the other. Then they told on you know,
they both told on me so so big. So you
know anyway that while I'm up, you know, so they
saved theirself. That that's that's that's that's pretty much, you know,
to this to this day, you just have to have
to wear it. Yeah, at this point, at that point
(19:09):
in my life, I could be like, yo, you know
what you know, I'm not even mad at you. I'm saying,
shouldn't even have to put you in that situation. I
should have knew better, you know what I'm saying. And
being that we were young, that's because you mature now
you I grew all that.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
But what it is, it is with this fact, so
how much telling me that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
For the day? I did seventeen plus years.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
For the body?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
For the body?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So you went up north? How was the first time?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you went downtown down downstate?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Fact?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
All right? What year was that?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Two January twenty second, two thousand and eight into downstate?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And how was that? What was your experience with that?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
That that that you think the Wyomi depends on in
there all in bookings and Rikers Island or song. That's
that's something completely different right there. And it actually confused
me because I didn't know what I was expecting. Like
I knew people that my older brothers and stuff was
up there, but they never told me what they expect.
So when I got in there, yo, go there, man,
(20:08):
drill sergeants, go there, go there. Everybody got tough faces.
So I'm thinking everybody in here is murderers. So I'm like, damn,
this is what I'm about to be up against right here.
I'm a little dude. I'm like, all right, you know,
gang banging. I still don't really know that our prison
ethics at the moment, but I'm in my mom like,
all right, whatever, you know, I'm ready, Like mentally I
(20:30):
was strong, so I'm whatever. I know. I got a
back end out here.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're gonna face it.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, whatever it is, I'm I'm gonna deal with it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Down stays, they pushing you all over it, telling you shave,
They're telling you turn around, spread them all that. What
was going through your mind?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So defiance at first, it's defiance because now it's like
you my manhood is it? You're not going through all
of that, Like you know, they tell yo, Ben that
I ain't doing none of that. You know, by Holland right,
you could get away with that. You know, you might
get away with it, you know. But up there they
like what and you got dudes that have been through
the system. They're telling you, look, yo, don't get yourself hurt. Man.
(21:10):
Just so the the hair shaving and all that, I
already cut my hair before I went up already because
people already told me they're gonna make you do that.
So my hair was cut around. But nobody prepared me
for the the shower, that cold shower, nobody. Nobody prepared
me for a white striped naked were all going in
that room to take that cold shower, no fast. So
that was a shot. Spray you with the uh, the
(21:33):
pesticides and personage, put it on your on your private
everywhere you got a hair, right, y'all. Wasn't prepared for that,
so that was a shot. Then they quarantined you for
five days and you can't come out yourself, m breakfast, lunch,
and you lock in for dinner. So I wasn't ready
for none of that. So that that was like, damn,
(21:55):
hold on.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
This is how I'm gonna do this these years, these
sec so how much time you got put about it?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I got twenty years for it, so I copped out
to twenty years. They brought it down, they charged me.
They they went from twenty five to fifteen of life,
brought it back up to twenty five life, and I
got them to reduce it to twenty flat, and I
took it right there. Twenty flat. That's what I went
up north with. They put the army. My drug case
got swept with it. Okay, so everything, everything was all
(22:25):
in one okay.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
All right, So you just copped out to twenty years sacks.
So now you got twenty years and where you want.
What's the first jail you went to?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Sing? Sing?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
So?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Entering sing sing? You think you in the streets for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
They don't, That's what I hear. I never've been to
sin z, but everybody that I interviewed, Yo, since it
was like I started, it was like ome I was closed,
so I.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Get to sing sing, got people playing a radio, loud,
smoking drink. It's like it's like you on. It's like
you in the town, but you incarcerated, so it's you know,
you know, mad people there. It's just like anybody happy
down there. It's like it's it's a weird. It's a
(23:12):
weird thing. It was a weird thing down there when
I got down it was weird, but it didn't register
until years later. Like, Yo, they should never send nobody
there just coming up north for the first time too,
because it tricks you to believe that this is what
all prisons is and and it's like that, Yeah, it
was wild down there, man, it was wild. Then I
(23:33):
got shipped off to five points, okay, and you double bunks.
You in a big old cell, double bunk. But it's
not as it's not like sing sing, it's quiet. It's quiet.
Everybody yard is separate. You're not going to the yard
with nobody going besides the people in your block. Sometimes
they split your block and half. You're not going to
(23:55):
the mess hall besides with your block and another block.
So that is you quiet in the in the whole squad.
Everything is military.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Military, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
So it was it was, it was, it was different.
But at that moment for me, it's I'm still confused,
like it's it's because nobody is still explaining to me, Like, yo,
every jail you go to is going to be different, man,
nobody nobody explained that to you. And I was telling
the brother, you know, this is these are the things.
These are the platforms that I have in my organization today.
(24:25):
I have something called prison orientation because when you get
to every jail, they tell you they give you orientation
on the prison, how the prison is rained, but nobody
gives you orientation on how the prison is ranged. Right
on our side of the spectrum. Right, So I'm trying
to teach the kids.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Luck, man, you think you're prepared for that. I hear
y'all saying, y'all ready to do twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, you think that ship?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
You ain't ready for us? Man, you don't even want that.
I don't even want that for you.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You will never be ready for no ship like that. Man,
It's un.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Normal.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's not a normal environment. You feel me. Sure, you'll
never be ready for no jail shit, you know now
if you get accustom to them and you got a bid. Yeah,
But other than that, I mean, you know, so you
did seventeen years out of the or where you where
you did your seventeen years?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
So I was in I was in Comstock twice, great
great medals. I went to sing sing twice. I was
in Attica, I was in Clinton, I was in Auburn,
five points Elmira.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And what you did in your time, what you did
due to the time of there. So in the beginning,
I mean you as a gang member and all that,
how that all worked out for you?
Speaker 3 (25:37):
So so so in the beginning, you know, it's it's
I got to prove I gotta continue to prove who
I am.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And dang very challenging.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It's very challenging because for everything you try to prove,
somebody else trying to prove too. So now it's you know,
it's egos, and it's egos involved. And I eventually got
to green Haven. And when I was in green Haven,
one of my big homies at the time, you know,
I was going to a program with Yale University students
(26:09):
and I had got a few people involved, and he
was like, yo, get me involved. When I got him
involved and he actually seen what it was, he was like, Yo,
won't you get some of the bros out the yard.
I'm like, Noah, where they are. You're like, nah, man,
you gotta gotta get them out the yard, get them
something different to do. I ended up getting my legal
research from through, you know, through efforts of my brother
while he was he's in Chowonga, keep telling yall, get
(26:31):
your legal research, get in there, getting the law library.
You know the law a little bit, but get in
there and get your certificates so you can help other people.
You get the accolades to go. And so green Haven,
I started actually taking MAD program, the yacht program, the
the AVP program, and I started facilitating these programs and
(26:52):
actually change my view on everything. I ended up going
back to the box. When I went to the box
and a poll, you know, police whip you out and
they say you whipped them out.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So yeah, so you got it, you got it.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I got in trouble when I when I left the
police with the police whatever. So it happens as the
Certain team came in. It was a lot of underhand.
It was under It was a lot of all nonsense
going on in greenhad, you know, police bringing this stuff,
and you know what that you know, when that happens,
even though they get caught bringing in shit, you still
getting the blunt of it. So they brought the Certain
(27:26):
Team and at that time they the CERTA team was
introduced to docs you know, to the Department of Correction,
and they came to green Haven. First took the jail
under siege, walked the superintendent out the jail, walked the
all depth of security out the jail, and they was
taking a lot of our stuff. So they took things
that you you know, you had that you really wasn't
supposed to have, like footwear when I was walking around
(27:47):
with Gucci's on prodis on and stuff like that. They
took all of that. So when they took all of that,
I end up going to the package room to get
some regular basic sneakers. I got there, they like, are
you over the limit? I'm like, how am I over
the limit? They're like, yeah, you know what. I'm like, Nah,
I just got all my stuff. So I didn't have
shown it. But it was an officer that came out
out of nowhere like, Yo, you're not gonna tell us
(28:08):
how to do our job. But me being arrogant and
being in a facility like green Haven amongst people that
talk like us, that look like us, that sound like us,
you forget where you at. It's like a single thing
all over again. And that's what happened. I ultimately was like, yo, bitch,
who you're talking to? Forgetting that? Yo, this is an authority,
(28:28):
right head? You know one thing and you and what
was this? This is green Haven?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, and this is a whole different facility.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And you know, it went from one thing. She came
out A dude, one of the male officers came in
that I was alright with. I told him. I tried
to like wing him, like, yo, grab my package. What
I'm saying like it this bitch is wow, you grab
my package and me not really realizing like yo, this
is his coworker right here, like he got a job
(28:58):
to do. I tell him you gave him my back
and shure. He tried to come out and pop on
me and me and him getting it on. Yeah, so
we end up getting it on. And I'm still all
right because I ended up having all I like, I
suppressed them, but they beat my ass after that. They
put me in a wheelchair after that, Like yeah, I
was on bed rest for two days. It woke me up.
(29:19):
It woke me up consciously, like yo, look you bugging
they beat your ass. Yeah, they beat my ass to
the point where I was like, yo, listen, man.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
These are the things that that you are subjected to
when you up north. Yeah, you actually don't know when
the fuck you could come home, cause if police go
out there, you could go up north doing the building.
Police could kill you.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
And that was the thing though.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Man.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
So when when I'm on when they finally when the
when the when the team came in, they seem that
I had them all on the ground. I actually told
the sergeant, I'm like, yo, I'm good, you could take
me back to myself. You know what I'm saying. I'm all,
you know what I'm saying. I still want my package though,
And he was like, damn you ain't. They ain't do
nothing to you. And you know that's like a.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Signals, it's like a disrespect, like we need to go
back on this guy.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, so that they offered me whooped me out. But
while I was in the box, you know, it really
dawned and I'm like, oo, damn man, I don't talked
myself into an ass whooping just now, like it what
the fuck? Man? They gave me my ship, Like I
could have just went back to my unit. You know
what I'm saying. Yeah, like yo, what like Yo, you
gotta change your thought pattern, like real, like you gotta
wake up. They could have killed you just now when
(30:26):
you not even you know, because and I've witnessed that
while I was in Clinton credits, I've witnessed them killed
of course, Like and you know that should have woke
me up, That should have woke you up, but it didn't.
And you know, so I got back to Comstock. What
I went, I went, I went back to CompStat, I
got a reversal. I end up back in Comstock and
they gave me a transfer to go back to sing
(30:47):
sing And this time around when I got to sing sing,
the atmosphere was a little bit different. It was more
people programming. And I ended up while in orientation a
brother by the name of named south Side that I knew.
He had came to orientation. He was facilitating for a
pick the PACE program Prisoners for AIDS counsel and Education
(31:09):
program and he's seeing me. He was like, your face,
you know, because everybody know me by stone face. You
know what I'm saying. So he was like, your face
your signa sign you up for the PACE program? Like
what is that?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
He taught?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Man, I wanted to do no AIDS program. Man, what
I'm saying? He like, nah, bro. I took it and
I actually started. I took an interest in the program,
and it changed a little bit of conversation with me
and my wife because I started learning something that I
thought I knew that I actually didn't know nothing about.
I didn't know nothing about HIV. You know, the stuff
that you hear, you grow up hearing that shit is
(31:41):
all lies. So once I started educating myself on that,
it was different from educating myself with the Yale University
students and the Alternative to Violent projects and the ARM
the arm that the youth awareness programs and all that
it was. It was something different. So it waked up,
It awakened something in me and I started. I took
the basic, I took the Advance, and then I went
(32:03):
for the CJI, which was the Criminal Justice Initiative on
five day training where you got certified from the Department
of Health AI's intituo. And once I got certified and
I started actually facility, I started getting all the homies
and people that was ganging feeling I wasn't that. I knew, like, yo,
come take the program and educate yourself because it can
actually benefit you when you leave from here. And I'm thinking,
and I'm a testament to say it's true because the
(32:25):
job that I have to this day is through that
program right there. Well, yeah, I was able to land
that job, and I was able to get other guys
to come take the program and get them jobs as well,
you know, so you know the pacepall I get, I give.
I give all my kudos to the PACE program.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
And from there and sing saying I got into rt
A Rehabilitation through the arts. So the funny thing with
that is when I own, I draw. So when I
wanted to take that program, a lot of dudes was like, Yo,
You're not gonna get in that program because it's a
staring committee and it's you know, they pick and choose
(33:05):
who they want to be involved. And then I'm like, yo, man,
who's involved And y'all just had him Jamaine Archi. They
was like, yo, Jamaine is one of the staying committee
members on that. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna
go talk to that's big bro right there. I'm gonna
go speak to him and let him know I got
an interest in all I want to be a part
(33:25):
of the art program, and you gotta have a few
you have to have more than one person to vote
you in. And I got into ll TA. Ultimately, I
got into all TA through like three people I spoke to.
They let me in through the art program. From the
art program, I got into the theater program. I got
to act in seventeen seventy six, and my mother and
(33:45):
my wife ended up coming in to actually see me
performing in seventeen seventy six. Wow, And you know, my mom,
my mom and my wife was actually excited, like they
was happy to see me doing something different besides just
coming on the phone for hours in the yard. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying, regular ship. And I actually
(34:07):
was proud, like Yo, and a few of the young
homies that was there, you know, they came to see
me and they was like Yo, like they was mad
that everybody else saying showed something. They like, Yo, bro,
you're doing something good. And it kind of it kind
of changed the trajectory of what I wanted to do.
Like I didn't want to be in the yard no more.
You know, I'm like, Yo, Naw, I'm gonna go to
the pace pert Wram, I'm gonna go teach these dudes.
You I'm gonna go to theater. I'm gonna go do this.
(34:28):
Just the feeling was great. The feeling was great, and
it's just it changed my my thought pat on what
I really wanted to be and what I wanted to
do and who I wanted to be in life.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
That was your first moments of transition. Yeah, that you
know what I mean, going from from the yard to
actually something that you're gonna care about.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Fact, you started caring.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You know what I'm saying, cause that's that's what it is.
It's not like you ain't had no good in you,
like you're fucking minister society and all that.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
You can't to be in jail your rest of your
life and all that.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
No, it was just upbringing and and and and most
of it the U the uh, how you going to
trauma that we go through growing up?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
You feel me fact so so good so so that
that's it took me thirty two years. So at that moment,
I'm thirty two, probably thirty three after I probably won't
make transition. Going through that transition, like and you know,
I started, I started really questioning myself. I started like
for the last for that that was twenty seventeen, so
(35:32):
for the last seven years up until then, I started
questioning a lot of things, like, you know, while a
lot of things was happening to me, and you know,
what's my purpose? I started fasting and all of that
and just really like, yo, what's my purpose? So when
I got that, it was like this is my calling
right here, Like this is this is what this is it? Right?
He is what you want to do? Yeah, this is
(35:53):
what I want to do. And I made a promise
to myself. I was like, yo, when I get out
of jail, I'm gonna teach this to the people in
the streets that may not know what what HIV really is.
Like everybody be like, yo, you caught AIDS. Like you
can't catch age. You catch HIV and you get you know,
AIDS is a is a classification. It's a progression of
(36:15):
having HIV with other things.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
And you know, break that down because these brothers, just
because in the free world doesn't mean that they shouldn't
know about HIV. So you know, knowledge is wisdom. So
we need to we need to, we need we needed
we needed to share some of that so we could,
you know, for the young brothers and sisters out there.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
So it's like, so we go through So in the program,
we used to do something called the Iceberg model. So
the Iceberg model is everybody know that when the Titanic
hit the Iceberg, you only see the ice on top
of the water, but nobody never asks or nobody ever
thought about what was underneath the surface. So underneath the
surface is the ground level. So the ground level is
(36:52):
where everything starts from. So that's the risky behavior, you know,
that's where you come in contact with the virus with
someone that through that may I have it right. So
you might go out, say you go out to the
club or you you and you meet a lady, right
and anybody knows people meet me, meet people out there,
(37:14):
and you hit it on the first day, you hit
it raw because you're in the passion, nobody thinking about
condoms and all of that, and through risky behavior you
come and con you hit it boom. Two weeks later
you might or a week later, you might run into
your man and he like y'all seen you slid off
with shorter yo, I know her man, you got you
go get checked out because I heard she got it.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Ultimately, you know, the first thing you're gonna think about
it this dude hating He probably was hitting it or
he wanted to hit it and he didn't get to
hit it right. But if that's your close confident on
you want, you're right, you're your man's you might take
heed to it and two weeks later, So how what
happens is after the ground level two weeks later, you
may come up with flu like symptoms. So the flu
(37:56):
like symptoms is your body's first warning sign that something
has entered your body that's foreign to you, right, And
so that's so that's the second level of the Iceberg model.
That's the that's the the cute, the initial the acute
initial of point of infection stage. Right there after that
(38:18):
you go to the doctor. Right. So you know, you
get sick, everybody be like, yo, little somebody in the
house probably got gave me a little sickness and all that. Yo,
I've drunk some tig rub myself somethings or whatever, got rid
of it. But you like, you see your man a
game like you ain't got tucked up. You're like, nah,
you end up going see the doctor. You go see
the doctor. They tell you, yo, look, you tell them, yo, look,
(38:41):
I want to take an HIV test. Boom boom. They
explained you know, they give you they posed to typically,
they supposed to explain to you that it's an HIV
antibody test because that's what they're testing for. They tested
for HIV antibodies. They not testing for HIV. You know,
antibodies is the white the white blood cells that fight
off you know, your your immune system, anything harmful that
come to your body, that's what it fights off. So
(39:02):
what happens is you go say, say you went there
twenty days after you had sex with shorty, right, and
they tell you we're gonna take this test twenty minutes
that you used to be twenty minutes now it is
about a minute now. So you take the test twenty
minutes later. It come back negative or non reactive, because
that's how it come back. It come back non reactive.
But the doctor should tell you is look, although it's
(39:24):
non reactive today, you're in something called the window period,
which is zero to ninety days for your body to
build up enough antibodies to arm to render you HIV
positive or negative. Right, so you should come back right,
don't think you're in the claar. That's twenty days. So
(39:44):
now you're getting this knowledge. Now you're concerned, like, yeah,
I'm in the clay. Hold on, you just told me
I might not be in the clare because everybody body
is different. Within the first thirty days, you should be
able to come back with a positive or negative. That's accurate.
But just in case your lifestyle is a little different
than o with people, ninety days is the window period.
So you come back, say you come back sixty days.
(40:05):
You gave yourself forty days you come back, Yo, They
saying Yo's negative still, they say non reactive again, but
they laying you know, look you're still in the window period.
Say you came back on the eighty eighth day. They
tell yo, look you are positive. You are reactive. They
rendered you HIV positive a person living with the HIV.
(40:27):
That's the third stage. The fourth stage is something called
sero conversion, which is Latin. Sero is blood in Latin,
and conversion is basically a change. So in layman terms,
is your blood is changing, but your blood doesn't change.
What happens is is your signs changed. So you go
(40:47):
from your you go from HIV negative to HIV positive.
That's the fourth stage. They supposed to explain to your look,
although you're HIV, we're living in a different time than
in the eighties and nineties when it first came out,
when when it first hit America, the way it hit
America where everybody was wast dying, you know what I'm saying.
So they tell you, look, although you're living with HIV
(41:10):
as of this day, Yo, listen, you gotta change your diet.
You gotta If you smoke, you gotta stop smoking. If
you drink, you gotta stop drinking. If you don't get
enough resch you need to get some rest. You gotta exercise,
but you gotta take this medication to live. You could
live or you could live the rest of your life
out successfully if you do this right here, right, so
they gonna tell you a look, it's two stages, the
(41:33):
fifth and the sixth stage. The fifth stage is called asymptomatic.
Asymptomatic stage is when you're living with HIV but you're
not experiencing or showing any signs of having the HIV,
so you're going about your life like nothing is going on.
We like to call that the magic Johnson stage. Oh yo,
(41:54):
he never had no he had he had it. Yeah,
he tested positive, he was reactive for But that's the
magic Johnson stage where you can go about your life
every day like nothing is going on. It can still
be transmitted though, right. That's the stage five. Stage six
is symptomatic stage. We like to call that. Classify that
as the easy E stage. Number. Four months after easy
(42:16):
found out that he had it, he passed away. So
the symptomatic stage is you're experiencing all signs of being
HIV positive or someone that's living with HIV. So you
got the diarrhea, you got the loss of way, you're
breaking out with leecha with leisures on your arm. You
got the pneumonia. It's one hundred degrees but you cold,
(42:37):
and so on and so forth. That's stage six. Now
according to the CDC, which is the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention in the Land located in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to them, once you a person goes through those
six stages, they're classified as having HIV. And the reason why,
I mean as a having aids. And the reason why
(42:58):
is because you reach the tip of the ice, you're
at the surface, you're above the water now level. Whereas
now you're seeing that you have rendered this head, you know,
and so you have to be HIV positive with a
T cell count of two hundred or less. So the
T cell count everybody, so you produce ten billion T
cells a day, ten billion copies of ten ten ten
(43:21):
billion T cells a day. So if they're saying that
your body have less than two hundred, there's reason for concern.
So they test a one drop of blood one cc, right,
that's a that's a ten milligram right out of that
right there, you should have. It's it's eight hundred to
fifteen hundred copies white blood cells and that one drop
of blood. So if your body is coming up with
(43:41):
less than two hundred, something is wrong. Now, say you're
not HIV positive. It might mean that you have sick
of cell or leukemio something something that's not right. But
you know that you HIV because you passed. You tested
reactive for it. So that's how to see. CDC actually
classify as a person that's having eight as they say
you are HIV positive. You gotta be HIV positive and
you have to have a T cell count of two
(44:02):
hundred or less. So then all right, so say you
have more than two hundred T cells right, your HIV
positives A second now, it is a second way they
define you of having AIDS. They classify you as having AIDS.
They say, yo, hey, your HIV positive with one or
more opportunistic infections. What is an opportunist. Opportunist is something
that takes advantage of something. So say, all for example, Yo,
(44:28):
this dude is no good, but he got a million dollars. Right,
I know he no good and he might tell on me,
but I'm gonna go hang out with him, so I
can get a dollar out of him, fuck with everybody
else talking about. That's the opportunistics in your body. So
you HIV positives. So I'm gonna give you a perfect
example of this right here. Say your body was fighting
off hepatitis. Hepatitis. He got a cure now, but before
(44:55):
it didn't. So say your body was fighting off hepatitis. Right,
So your body's fighting off heat. Your body was able
to suppress it and hold it down. Your white blood
cells was able to hold it down for a while. Right,
HIV has intoed your body. Once into HIV into your body,
it makes millions of copies like this. It clones itself
like this a million times over, So a million generations
of your sperm has already been cloned. Now, your body
(45:20):
is fighting off HIV. But HIV is so trick, that's
so tricky that it clones itself to look like the
white blood cells. Its ticket is knocking them off. It's
knocking off the good blood, white blood cells. It's eating them,
knocking wilding them up. Right, So now your body is like,
hold on, what's going on here? What your body going
to do is gonna let go hepatitis, right, to go
(45:40):
investigate what's this new substance right here? When they let
when they when what happens is when they let go
of the hepatitis to investigate the HIV. Hepatitis stab you
in your back and kill you. And that's how that's
how a person actually passes away. So when a lot
of people tell the ignorance, when we be like yo,
people die from a's nah, It's like corona on COVID.
Just now. Now, you don't die from the HIV or
(46:02):
the classification of or the definition of having age. You
die from the other things, you know, which is the
opportunistic infection colication. Yeah, so the pneumonia and stuff like that.
So that's that's something simple right now.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The model appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
You've been home. Question.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
How do you feel about prison reform?
Speaker 3 (46:25):
It's needed, it's needed. Should it should have been it
should have been something, you know, And I'm proud of
everybody that's that's standing firm, that's that's boots on the ground,
that's making their voices be heard and lending it, learning
their stories to why things should change, you know, why
people should like should have second chances. Look at us,
(46:45):
you know second you know people mess up. But that
don't mean you got to be a mistake. You know
what I'm saying. People make people make mistakes, man, But
that don't you gotta forever live it. No, you ain't
gotta be condemned. I'm not.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Since you've been home.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
So since I've been home. I told you I'm a
I'm a prevention specialist. I'm a harm reduction or harm
reduction opioid prevention specialist. That's my nine to five. But
I also have a nonprofit organization a taxies MP named
Troops t r U C three, Inc. Which stands for
Taking Responsibility in United Communities through Education. So that was
something that me and my two cold my two co
(47:23):
founders while we were in Odersville Correction Facility. Two of
us was teaching pace and another one he was in
college John Jay. We came out, you know, we was
thinking about different things on how to have a conversation
about violence and why it was so prevalent and acceptable
(47:44):
to us and not neighbor in the black and brown neighborhoods.
And we ultimately was gonna call it kill the Violence. Well,
my co founder, Vincent Sweeney, he's the one who actually
thought of it he brought it to me while he
was in the pace office, and I'm the one a
year later like, yo, let's do this. I'm like, yeah,
let's do this. I'm gonna put the paperwork together, like
I'm gonna really like And I got to it and
(48:07):
we put the paperwork. So what happened. We started shopping
around to the administration and we brought it to the
dep of Programs, and we brought it to the Libery
and when we brought it to the library and cool
lady we brought it to she read it. She started laughing.
I'm like, why you laughing? She was like, yo, kill
the violence. She like you can't. She like, Yo, these
(48:27):
young kids in here are gonna eat that up and
think that you're talking like kill the violence. Y'all gotta
change that name. And we brought our third co founder
and asked him. We called him the Professor. We brought
him in to read it, and when he read it,
he contacted one of his lady friends out in Massachusetts, like, YO,
(48:48):
what you think about this? We're about to do a
symposium in here. We're gonna holler at life camp Erika Ford.
We're gonna holler at five hundred men making a difference.
We're gonna holler ad snug, we gonna holler gun. What
is it? Something guns down like life uck. We's gonna
hire different organizations to come in and have a converison
(49:08):
because this is what they were combating in the street.
And he came back with it. One day I was
on a visit. He came back. He was like, Yo,
what you think about this face man? And when I
read it to all my bros. Was was coming to
visit me, and I brought them. When I went to
go take pictures, I told him to read it. I'm like, Yo,
read this real fast. I was like, Yo, what if
y'all seen this on a billboard, which y'all at ten?
(49:30):
They was like hell yeah, and these are two dudes
that's not in the streets you know at all. They
seen what happened to me and they went the other
direction because they didn't want to go down on my path.
And I was grateful that I didn't know until those visits.
But they read it. I was like word. So I
started going to the yard, like, yo, look we were
about to do this. I told him, yo, to give
it to our old the one who actually initially thought
(49:51):
of the odd there. He read it. He was like, oh,
now we're on it. And that's how truce was birth.
So what happens is they we were supposed to do
it in to jail. We had everybody signed on, We
had Evercoford and everybody signed on to come in, and
but you were home anywhere and not administration got scared. Yeah,
it always they got nervous because the whole jail wanted
(50:13):
to come. They was trying to figure out how come
every time we was doing something, the whole jail wanted
to attend. They thought it was my gang influence, right,
but they ain't know that not we was just being
being who we are. You know what I'm saying. We
really was trying to change out you was doing.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Anything you did or you was doing that that effect
anything in regards to what you was, what you was
in regards your gang life.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Nah, hell no, because I kept it. You know, I'm
always a person that since I was a kid, I
always kept it averil. I've never like I was like
I always say, I hate a liar. You know what
I'm saying. You know, we lied to save ourselves, but
you just lying, just a lie. You got a lot
of to remember that lie. You gotta remember another lie.
So I always always be me. I'm always authentic, you
(50:57):
know what I'm saying. How did it work?
Speaker 2 (51:00):
The reception was good when you transition and you said,
you know what, I'm not going to the y'all no more.
But you're you're done with the gang?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
How they the reception was good? Probably I don't know
because I was at this time on the GF, but recept,
the reception was always good for me. Like you know,
it was always the bros used to always was be like, Yo,
I'm happy that you doing something positive is giving us
something different. They was actually happy that I was.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Giving youth and to learn absolutely.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Versus Yo, go do this something negative. They actually they
act the young guys and the older guys was like, yo,
thank you. You know what I'm saying. It was taking my program,
like Yo, thank you. Man, were coming to learn this man?
Get out the y'alls. Thope, yeah, so I think you.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Know so you didn't have no issues on that?
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Nah?
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Nah, I ain't.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
I ain't never what what what you what you were
working on?
Speaker 3 (51:47):
Now? So right now we got me and a brother
named Deshaun Kenner. We got award ceremony that we're putting
together to honor guys that came home and change the
narrative for the good, that put the work in while
he was incarcerated and came home and continued that path
to change the narrative and show the world that hey,
(52:10):
we more than just our numbers, our dind numbers, were
more than just our crime or our worst mistakes in life.
So we're putting together award ceremony for that. As far
as my organization goes, I'm in the schools. I'm trying
to get in the in the juvenile detentionis. I'm in
conversations with the juvenile like Ghoshen I should be headed
in we should be headed. My organizations should be headed
(52:31):
in Ghoshan. We're putting together for this summer right now.
I got a theater workshop that is about to come out.
I gotta creative writing workshop that was about to come out.
I got to a family workshop. I want to I'm
putting together a family workshop for my family to have
a conversation about our our our trauma. You know that
a lot of you know, being from the Caribbean, a
(52:51):
lot of times we often are tossed to the side
like it ain't reality, like it ain't real, like it
don't exist, but not, And that's what hurts and this
and this is why things continue to go down the
wrong path. So I want to open their views on
certain things to try to change their their narrative and
how and they look on life too. And help the
(53:14):
kids that that's parents in my family. I passed away
or went to jail. Cool help them. So that's what
we're doing though, man like that. Appreciate you doing. That's
what's up. Man.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Just know that you can always come up here. Man,
this platform is here for you.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
You know what I'm saying. The thing you want to
you know, you want to share and all that or
anything you have anything up, you got anything going on,
Just know you can always come up here as a
dog in the yard and you can announce it. You
know what I'm saying. And and we're here. We're here
to support you in any kind of way. Fact and
I definitely came a long way. Man, you're doing the
right thing.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Anything anything you can need me anytime, you always holler
at t K. If I got to pull up and
all that, you let me know. I pull up I support.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
I mean, yeah, that's I think I appreciate that. And
if anybody you know, and if y'all looking my arm
on Instagram, we r U s C r U C
three underscore I n C at Instagram t r U
C three I n C dot org is our is
our website.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
What's your Instagram?
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Instagram is t r U C three underscore I n C.
That's where I'm at. My My personal is s H
A C H underscore truth truths in So if you're
looking for me, that's what we're doing. But we're in
the streets, man. We were here for the youth. We
want to change, We want to change their lives. We
want to make sure we help them with you not
(54:37):
go down the path that we what we're here for.
Who the better credible message than us? That's right?
Speaker 2 (54:43):
With that being said, you what you know, your boy
pistol P, Dog in the yard?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
What up?
Speaker 4 (54:51):
What up?
Speaker 2 (54:51):
You already know? Is your boy pristol P. Welcome back
to the dog in the yard. First and forwards, I
want to thank me shop for coming through. Keep doing
your thing. He's out there in ouring the youth with education.
You know what I'm saying you know, he comes from
a background of you know, gang affiliated and all that.
For him to be out here doing all that is,
I believe it's a great thing for the young brothers
(55:14):
out there and the young sisters to see brothers like
himself doing great things out there. So we're here to
his support. You man, anytime you want to come up
see me and you know there's no dog and the
y'all got you, my brother. And with that being said, yeah,
you know me shot your boy, pistol dog in the y'all.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Be alive, shout shining alf shot
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