Tear Drops And Closed Caskets

I received a call from the mother of a client. She informed me that her son was attempting to stop a fight and was hit in the head. Now he is in the hospital and they do not expect him to live. I extended my sympathies and ask that she keep me informed. And then I tried to put the call out my head.

My client was not a gang banger. He was picked up for having some weed in his car. He was 19 years-old and a sweet kid who was a little slow. Like millions of others, he was born to a life of chaos and destined to struggle.

I have learned to shut my emotions off when it comes to the slaughter of young black men. You see I do triage. I catch them coming into the criminal justice system like wounded soldiers on a battle field. I cannot treat their main wounds, broken family, poverty and mis-education. So I try to keep the system from throwing them away and move on to the next one.

But this call has hung over my soul like rain clouds caressing a high-rise.

I have been listening to Tupac a lot this week. Tupac more than any other figure of his generation represents the tragedy of life on the streets.

Tupac was a classically trained artist who rather than glorified the thug life, rapped of the pain of living a life that you do not choose. Tupac was a street poet, actor, voice for a generation, and a genius. But like Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway before him, he could not control his demons. So he died the young black man's death; by drive-by shooting.

One cannot help but wonder what he would have had to say at 40. We will never know and our culture is less today because his voice is not a part of it.

It is rumored that Outlawz peppered Tupac ashes in a joint and smoked it. I understand the need to try to absorb a loss. I feel it for my client. So Niggers pass the motherfucking joint. Rest In Peace Soldiers.

I know it's hard out there,
with teardrops and closed caskets
It's like that's all we got to look forward to these days
Murders, brothers dying, funerals.....
shit, it's like I done ran out of suits homey
I done ran out of tears
Know we gon' have to do somethin y'all
We gon' have to do something......
Cause I know all these mothers is tired of seeing the same thing
(rest in peace)
Teardrops and closed caskets

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996)

State vs. Pookie Johnson AKA "Lil Stuff"

Judge: The Court now call the matter of State vs. Pookie Johnson

District Attorney: Your Honor this is Assistant District Attorney Jason Bourne representing the state and Attorney Larry English representing the defendant. Mr. Johnson is on for sentencing after having been found guilty of intent to distribute two kilos of cocaine.

Judge: Good Morning Mr. English

Mr. English: Good Morning Your Honor

Judge: Mr. English before I pass sentence is there anything you would like to say on behalf of your client

Mr. English: Yes, your Honor. Your Honor the United States Mayor, former Presidential candidate, and former United States Attorney, the Honorable Rudy Giuliani came out in defense of the 20 billion dollar in bonuses that Wall Street bankers paid themselves after taking 350 billion dollars of government money as good for economy of New York

Judge: Mr. English what the hell that got to do with Pookie Johnson’s case

Mr. English: Well your Honor, Mr. Johnson selling hundreds of kilos of cocaine in the depressed inner city has also been good for the economy. Mr. Giuliani rightfully pointed out that Wall Street bankers bonuses fuel the real-estate industry in New York. I mean who else can afford 30 million dollar apartments. Those bonuses are the bedrock of Bergdorf Goodman and other stores along 5th Avenue. The rest of America may be angry, but New Yorker understand, that so goes the bonuses, so goes New York.

And your Honor Mr. Johnson expresses that same entrepreneurial spirit as Citi and Bank Of America. Mr. Johnson proceeds may be illegal like Wall Street, but your honor, he gainfully employs young black males who have been left behind in this global economy, his taste in jewelry and fast cars have been a savior to those industries in these tough economic times. Mr. Johnson has purchased rent houses all over the city, so he is putting affordable houses on the market.

District Attorney: Your Honor, this is unbelievable Mr. Johnson purchased rent houses to hide money

Mr. English: Your Honor our good DA's criticism of Pookie, like our well meaning President criticism of Wall Street bonuses is misguided. As Mr. Giuliani so rightfully pointed out somebody got to help the real-estate market in these tough times. That is exactly what Pookie Johnson has been doing.

Judge: Mr. English have you lost your mind?

Mr. English: No your honor I just think that Mr. Johnson should be given the same consideration as the CEO’s that have raped the public and private coffers and As Mayor Giuliani said..

Court: Mr. English you are an idiot and so is Rudi Giuliani

Mr. English: Yes your honor

Court: Pookie Johnson, I hereby sentence you to 15 years and I suggest that when you get out, you apply your considerable business skills on Wall Street. There stealing is legal. Court dismissed.

There Is Whoring In The Whore House?

I had doubts from the very beginning of the veracity of some of the ranting by Illinois Governor Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the Federal wiretaps. Next I knew that the juvenile mentality of the corporate media would attempt to tie the scandal to Barack Obama.

I have practiced criminal defense law for the last ten years. Most of my clients are not necessarily bad, they just do stupid things, sometimes totally out of their character. In that sense everyone in America is capable of committing a crime.

But then there are the 25 percent true criminals. The one thing all true criminals have in common is that they are fucking insane. They suffer from narcisssitc personalities so deep that they are capable of committing almost any act. They are often brilliant, charming and delusional in how they see themselves and the world around them.

Blagojevich is a true criminal. When you are under federal investigation. When you have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers to keep the federal government at bay. Why would you talk into an open mike and shake down politicians? Because you are fucking insane!

It is highly dubious that Jessie Jackson Jr. knowing that the governor is demented and under federal investigation would enter into a pay for play deal given his family’s experience with the Feds. After all his father probably has an FBI file longer than War and Peace.

It is troubling that the Feds released Jackson’s name in federal wiretaps and indictment on the basis of Blagojevich rants. This is a classic government tactic to run some bag man to ground to give up someone higher up on the food chain. Even if Jackson’s camp offered to raise governor Elvis money in return for the senate appointment, that is not illegal.

One of the amazing things is the feigned shock of the media at the fact that Blagojevich would be offering a pay to play deal on a United States Senate Seat. From the town aldermen to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, politicians have been engaged in the pay to play game since the beginning of the republic. How do you get the Ambassadorship to London or Paris? You raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the guy that wins the Presidency. Now the media is shocked to find out that there is whoring going on in the whore house.

But then the juvenile corporate media has spent the last week trying to muddy Barack Obama with the scandal. If Obama attempted to influence the governor's pick, that is within political norms. But now the media is implying that Obama must be dirty because he came out of Chicago politics.

We are on the verge of a global depression. Yet, the media is fascinated with a thug governor from a corrupt state. Bernard L. Madoff alone stole fifty billion ($50,000,000,000.00)dollars. How the hell do you steal 50 billion dollars and no one notices. There has to be other banks involved with Madoff. The SEC has said it had credible evidence ten years ago and did not act or did it just turn a blind eye? When Madoff is added with the other looting that took place on Wall Street on a generational scale, Blagojevich looks like a petty street criminal.

Why has Blagojevich and Obama been the lead story the last weeks rather than Madoff and Wall Street. The problem is that the same corporate looters that have created this mess pay the salaries of the talking heads that dominate the national media. Now that it is the ultimate pay to play.

The Devil Gets His Due

The state of Nevada has either locked up a sociopath or the last free Negro in America. Make no mistake that if OJ regular citizen had put a caper together to go get his own stuff back from some business associates, who were as slimy as he , the state would have plea bargained to a lesser felony or even a misdemeanor. But those 10 white and 2 Hispanic jurors brought the tragic life of OJ Simpson to its inevitable Shakespearean end.

I am ashamed to admit that there was something attractive about the OJ of the last 14 years. A black man who played the spook and then without warning spit in his masters eye and went rogue. OJ lived as a mythical outlaw Negro from another era. He fucked white women and even murdered one and her lover. Simpson's denied the Goldman’s their 30 million dollar judgment by hiding out in his mansion in Florida, protected by laws that were put in place to shield mobsters and robber barons.

When he needed money, OJ would just show up at a sports memorabilia signing unannounced and uninvited. He would sit in a hotel room across the street, make a quick hundred thousand dollars by signing footballs and number 32 jerseys, and then go pillage some more. As sick as it was, you had to smile watching OJ riding around in a golf cart with some sick-o-fan with that smile that said "yeah I killed the bitch what you going to do about it!"

The prosecution for armed robbery was payback for walking out of a murder trial 14 years ago. And that was a misuse of the criminal justice system. But on a cosmic level, the Gods must have their payment for a life of debauchery and amorality.

Trifling Ass Negroes

We have travelled far in the Diaspora. On January 20, 2009, we will offer the world what I hope is a truly transformative leader. But lurking in the shadows is the fact that as far we have come as a people, we got so very far to go.

This past week I sat in a tiny jail cell with a client. He pressed me hard on why I could not get him a better jail sentence than twelve years. I pressed back ‘It’s your past that has put you in this position. The two joints that you unsuccessfully tried to swallow are insignificant.” Angrily he pushed back, “But I paid you, I could have got a court appointed lawyer to get me 12 years”. That is always the signal to end the conversation. “What is it going to be, 12 years or life, it is what it is” stating with my most serious face.

Then with the sincerity of a five year-old he said” Mr. English I cannot go to jail, I have nine children” I must admit that as jaded as I have become about our prospects in the 21st century, I was floored.

This motherfucker is only 30 years-old and has nine children. This I know: He has never offered any of his children any financial support. He has never taken one to a park, or read a little one to sleep. He has never looked down from washing dishes and saw almond shaped eyes staring up at him with a smile so warm that it could thaw a glacier and spoke to her in whispered tones ‘what’s up baby girl.” This predatory surf fucker has just dropped nine lives in an inner-city Serengeti and walked away.

Unencumbered by any moral or emotional ties, injecting his off-springs -you raise children- was just some narcissistic bullshit. These nihilistic street predators are always looking for an edge.

He is not unique. In our inner cities, trifling Negroes like him grow like bacteria on an elephants’ ass. The damage that they are doing to their off-springs and our society is devastating. I take no pity that his daddy was as sad a motherfucker as he. You may not choose to be born in a ditch but you stay there out of your own accord.


All of us will not cross the River Jordan.

Weeping Mothers

On Monday morning I talked with a client who was captured in Idaho after several days on the run. He allegedly killed his mother-in-law, father-in-law and stepson. After he hung up from me, he went back to his cell and tried to kill himself.

On Tuesday I argued a Motion For Post Conviction Relief that my client had a right to a new trial. Several years ago he went to a club with his friends. While he sat at a bar talking to a young lady, his friends got into a argument and almost came to blows with some other men in the bar. He and his friends then left the club. His friends returned within minutes of leaving and randomly opened fire. One of their bullets struck a innocent 19 year-old bystander killing him. My client was sitting in the car, while the shooting took place. His friends ran back to the car and what took place then is murky.

According to the State my client attempted to run over police officers who had arrived on the scene. According to my client the police randomly opened fire hitting him in the chest and almost killing him and it was only then when the car lounged forward. The State took my client to trial where he was represented by a Public Defender and was convicted of Second Degree Murder. The shooter hired a private attorney and was found guilty of manslaughter. My client was sentenced to life, the shooter got 15 years.

On Wednesday I argued for the life of two clients. One of them who was 35 years old was automatically given life as a third-time habitual offender. I had wept for him weeks earlier –I never weep after a trial- because I felt he was truly innocence of the charges, but my skills had fell short before the jury. There is no greater burden for a criminal defense lawyer than to have a client you believe to be innocent sitting in prison for life.

The other co-defendant was 25 years-old and facing a sentence of 20 to 60 years also as a habitual offender. I argued with passion to the judge not to “throw the young man away” – slang the young hoppers use for life in prison. I argued that 32 percent of young black men will come through the criminal justice system. That we lock up more of our citizens than any industrial nation in the world. I pleaded that I too was once headed for a life of crime, and only by luck did I escape the black man’s mark of carrying convicted felon for life. I argued with all my skills for the judge to give the young man 20 years and a chance at life after prison

The Judge listened patiently and when he began to speak, he acknowledged the power of my words and commended me on my good work at trial. He then recited that my client had been in the gangs since a pre-teen. He had been convicted of a sexual battery on a juvenile, and at trial he had been found guilty of standing on one of the busiest street corners in the city, at ten o’clock in the morning, and fired into a car to kill a useless soul named Donut. Donut wife was in the front passenger seat and his two year-old daughter was riding in the backseat. One of the bullets missed the two year-old head by two inches. The Judge then sentenced my client to 50 years.

A week earlier I had sit on the front porch of a mother and her family who had called me because several days before her son was caught coming out a furniture store at 3 am. The Police officer who had been staking out the store, reported that her son got into his car and tried to run him over. The officer allegedly fired six bullets into the vehicle killing her son. The police waited some 14 hours to notify her and when she arrived at the hospital her son was brain dead. Doctors told her that the fatal bullet was to the back of her son’s head, which would have meant that he was shot while fleeing the scene. The Officer who did the shooting had been involved in two other shootings one fatal and all three incidents allegedly involved a car being used as a weapon. Most police officers go their entire careers without firing their weapons. The Police Chief, who is black, within hours before the Department’s internal investigation had even begun declared the shooting was valid.

This is what I do. I work triage in a war. Only my emergency room is the court room and the wounded of this war are the young black men who are at war with themselves and each other. I rarely save the whole life. I try to turn life into 20 years, 20 years into five, five years into probation.

Over the years I have grown to fear these young men as my grandfather must have feared an encounter with the Klan on a dark highway fifty years ago.

Yet, much of my life the last ten years has been defending them. These young men are not born monsters. We- all of us- raise them to be. We allow their mothers to carry them without proper healthcare. We send them to school hungry and when they become distracted by the hunger in their bellies, or the chaos in their home life, we label them mentally deficient and warehouse them in Special Education. When they enter the Juvenile Justice System there is no real attempt at intervention to remedy the dysfunction that led them into the system in the first place. Instead we begin their rapid mental preparation to spend their lives as a convicted felon or at worst years in prison

While the corporate media is fixated over flags on lapels, or whether Jeremiah Wright loves America, or who loves Israel more, another black male child is being born to a teen-age mother fathered by a worthless soul, who like his father before him will never offer any emotional or financial support. The mother, who was born into dysfunction and will pass it on to the children, will do her best but the social and economic realities of being poor, black, a teenager, and with child will overwhelm her.

One day she will sit on a bench in the back of a court room and weep softly as a judge throws her child away. At the young age of 35 she will take the hand of her grandchild and walk onto the street, she will feel the warmth of the sun on her face and say a prayer in her heart that she will not lose this one.

That evening she will sit in front of her television and in another political race hear commentators ponder on why Candidate A cannot connect with “hard working white voters”. Tears will form in her eyes as she realizes the pains of her life, her children life, her grandchildren life have no place in America’s political dialogue.

What does it say about America that it will allow another generation to grow up in this madness? What does it say about our moral compass that a debate about who wears flag pins is more important than a debate about a genocide that is happening within our own cities?

Maybe history will prove Jeremiah Wright right that God Damns America. We have certainly dammed our inner-cities.