There's No Authority In This Maze: F The Police?

Like some others, I'm from the inner city and grew up a delinquent. Add that in with an authoritative father who ran a dictatorship (where my mother's power was second) ...and you have a young person that hated cops and everything they represented. In the African American community (for the majority) cops are seen as the bad people. They are the bad guys. The guys that take away your friends and family. The ones always pushing you around when you're hanging out with friends. The party crashers. The list goes on and on. But when you stop to think about it all...the cops are doing what they are suppose to and most often help us in the end.

On a Saturday night in the hood, walking with a friend of mine, I spit in some grass, a cop sees me, stops me, and before I could punch him in the face or run like hell and hope he didn't catch me gives me a ticket while I was asking myself why the hell was I giving him my real information since I had no ID on me. Was he right? No. The case was thrown out of court when I went in. Was it a part of his job? Yes in a way. Police officers where I'm from have a quota of how many tickets they need to hand out monthly (so they would walk around my neighborhood all the time looking to mess with someone). So of course things like this, repeated harassment while hanging out on a bench or just walking around will cause a mindset of hate and anger towards these people that have nothing but power.

But over time and as I grew in age...plus all the videos of idiots I see online where people resist arrest, yell at and hit officers, or do things that call for an arrest or at least attention, but act as if the cops were wrong...I see why cops do SOME of what they do. Like Dave Chappelle once said "Even though I don't generalize, I do do percentages and averages." So if I see someone with their pants sagging, boxers showing, and walking around the hood or chilling on the block...guess what I'll think of them? Same thing everyone else does...thugs n hoodlums. What belongs to their culture? Drugs, Guns, Alcohol. If you tell me that doesn't describe the current rap/new age hip hop culture, then you're a liar. So I don't blame cops for riding up on a curb to stop me and my friends for walking one late night especially since we did have weapons on us and were looking for revenge for a homie (someone I didn't even know directly) that was jumped and thank God we weren't searched.

So what is my point here:

• You can't win against cops, so why argue and scream and go crazy? You will lose at the end of the day. Why? We give them the rights and power to always win.
• Don't resist arrest...it will only make things worse for you. Even if one of your friends started recording it while you were beat down but didn't show you giving the cop a 3 piece combo.
• You might say F the police now, but I bet when something you can't fix on your own comes up...you'll be calling them for help or assistance (I know I have).
• That "No Snitching" crap is exactly what it is, crap. 48 Hours has taught us all that most homicides have someone snitching. Whether the case is solved or not. Someone (even the thugs) will snitch.
• Being a police officer is a job, not a characteristic. I'm proud to say I have cop friends that are great guys.
• Finally, a lot of the times when someone is arrested or the cops come to break up a party...there is a valid reason for it. Someone had to call them.

 Why do I feel like putting money up...that he deserves everything he gets??

Some Steps Can Be Taken Back: Looking Down On Them

At what point should someone give up the life they came from and improve themselves?? Its easy (when you stop and think about it) to give up on slacking on your school work and getting the grades you want and need for a better life. People are quick to say they are educated and doing something with their lives because they are in college. It's easy to denounce the music of Waka Flacka and Gucci Mane, yet bump it in your car. Its all good to laugh at those not in your situation because you are "progressing" and going to live that good life. But my question to you is....when you're ACTUALLY successful and living the life you were working towards....and you come from a less than good place, so you're even more excited and happy....when do you give up the things you did before?

People say that you can take someone out the hood, but that doesn't mean you can take the hood out of them. I agree. I have been grooming myself for years to be ready for a world I am not use to. A world where I am the TRUE minority and had to show a great example of who I am...but not just for myself of course, but for my people. For many, I don't think it is while in college. I see people doing the same things as they did before without a care in the world. I saw a blog the other day talking about how black people look like thugs when they go out to a club or something...and I agree completely. Guys with the sagging jeans, hoodies, big jackets, flashy jewelry, and that's not talking about the language and the large talk about drugs in the community. Females, don't think you are out of the woods with your clothing that makes you look like sluts ready for any sex partner to come and scoop you up.

But what am I getting at here? I left the hood and I change my style of dress. Been working on my use of vulgar language for years and finally have it down. You have/will never seen me in the flashy jewelry or someone see me going out and mistake me for a drug dealer. Why? Becuase I left that stuff behind. So why is it so hard for others? I would see many groups of African American students hanging out and doing drugs while blasting vulgar music and dressing like they came straight from the block....then be angry when someone puts them in a stereotype. Even with rappers....you will see them hit a certain level of fame and them convert over to being able to make the real money. Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs and Sean 'Jay Z' Carter are two of the richest men in hip hop....well thee richest men really. Totally about a billion dollars by themselves. Crazy, I know. But their income changed....and so did their style of dress. You can still see them dressed up or having on a t-shirt, fitted hat, and some jeans...but what is stopping others from doing this on a smaller scale?

If you leave the hood and claim you're doing it big because you're progressing....why not work on yourself along with working on a future. Keep looking like a hoodlum or hoodrat, and your money will forever be small scale compared to what it could be.

Call me an Oreo or an Uncle Tom....but I'll be waving back at you while living the life you only dream of.

How Important Is Your Next Decision: What Means The Most To Me

Recently I had a debate with some of my followers on twitter on the matter of Respect. Oddly enough, most did not view the concept of Respect the way I did. For some reason people see Respect as being a common courtesy. But to me, if you give out Respect to everyone, then that dilutes (water down lol) the value of your Respect. Think about it...if I send a good morning text to everyone in my phone book every morning, then people will expect it and its just something that I do. Not something they care about much, just something I do. Then what is the outcome...? The value of my good morning text loses value and richness. It is no longer something special. Its the same with Respect. If I have Respect for every single person I see and meet, then that means that having my Respect isn't a special thing. Why? Because everyone else has it.

Now do I think you should disrespect others? No. Not at all. People should be treated the way that you want to be treated and given common courtesies...BUT.....Respect is not one of them. For me to Respect you, you must earn it in some way. Whether by the way you think, the things you're doing with your life, or even just how you go about things. Actions and Train of Thought are more important things than people let on sometimes. So I hold my Respect very highly. And refuse to just give it to anyone. Other things I'm big on....Loyalty and Trust. Maybe its because I was raised on mob movies as a little kid instead of cartoon movies and family movies. Single digit age range and learning certain values of life from Carlito telling his cousin in Carlito's Way that "A favor will kill you faster than a bullet" or the intensity behind Sonnie telling the bikers in A Bronx Tale "Now yous can't leave". Those are the things that made me who I am today in many ways.

My Loyalty...is golden. Once you have me on your team, I'm there until the end. Whatever you're in need of, I will try my very best to get it for you. Thinking about it, I'm like a dog in many ways. You feed a dog and he will always stay at your side. No matter what happens to that dog....if you're the person feeding him...he will be open to losing his life for you. And that is me. What do you feed me? Your Loyalty. What do I picture when I say Loyalty? A king and his knights. Who's the king? Well this role is interchangeable. When I am thinking about who I have Loyalty for...I'm the knight...and in reverse for those with Loyalty for me. I don't think there will ever be a way to explain what Loyalty means to me. But one thing is for sure, those that call me their brother or close friend....they know how Loyal I am. And know what I would go through to be at their side.

Trust, this is something deep for me. I never saw myself being able to trust people. Mob movie rule number one....never trust people lol. I use to think about my mother trying to kill me at times with the food she made. Crazy? Yeah, I guess. But I have always been a paranoid person. Then more than now. But I trusted nothing around me. Until you've had people running around 40 deep (no exaggeration) looking for you....people following you from class to class to know your schedule.....or even being "Marked" by local gang members...then you don't know why my paranoia was there. But these things happened to me, and the mob movies prepared me, and being paranoid saved my life. So as the situations arose, I knew what to do and made it out with only a hip injury. My Trust, when it comes to females is pretty low also. Its another thing that you have to earn with me. At the very most nowadays, I give a short level of trust to people...and they build/destroy it from there.

I guess its a no brainer why I was called General by every single person that knew me (outside of my teaching experience) from the end of my high school years to the end of my college career. Yes that includes many of my professors lol. And anyone that didn't call me such.....were dis-communicated expeditiously. So if you ever have the honor of being Respected by my, Trusted by me, and having my Loyalty....then there is nothing you can't ask for and nothing you can't achieve. Because I will be there to push and support you.

My favorite General:

 The Honorable General Robert E. Lee

Fought for the wrong side, but did it well

Outlasting several Union generals during the Civil War

And became a known icon for the Civil War

Can You Climb?: "Belonging Feels Good....But Having Respect Feels Even Better"

Its 539am...and I just finished watching 'Redemption' with Jamie Foxx. If you don't know what it's about...its about Stanley 'Tookie' Williams being on death row. He is considered to be the founder of the Crips street gang and later convicted for the murder of four people. While on death row he began writing kids books about gangs and taking initiative to stop gang violence with gang truces and speaking to kids. His work became international. One year nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, then the next year winning the Nobel Prize for literature.

Why does this matter to me?? Well I was in a gang. Like I said before...at a young age I was trouble. From trespassing to get to our after school hang out, breaking house windows, jumping other kids, and to pulling out a knife on a kid to stab him, but boy was he fast lol. Lets just say my parents we regulars are my school. Always having to leave work to come get me for some reason. But I had to make sure it was known that I wasn't backing down from anyone. Then after elementary school? Things got worse. I was fighting every other day. In my neighborhood, in the school, after school. What confused me though is that I never started any of these fights. People would just come to me and try to begin pounding....so I did the same. My mother always said to fight back. So why not do it to the best of my abilities.


High school became worse lol. Fully joined a gang and was in different Blood sets. Wont even go into the things I did. But my excuse....."I'm a product of my environment"...."Its not a gang, its a family"...."Its just a part of who I am" lol. All excuses though. I was lying to myself. But do I regret any of it? Yes. But its not what you think. I had many interventions called for me by coworkers and friends. Telling me to stop because of the chances of death and all the kids that looked up to me being that I was an athlete, a coach, and a counselor with kids. None worked though lol. But the thing that struck me the most is when they told my mother and they told me she cried. I kept it from her all along. And I hate making my mother cry. Did I quit then? Nope. Not until my own sets turned on me over some drama. Guess there's a life lesson in there. Would I do it again? Yeah.....but not in a smarter way....just the way I did it. Sometimes you have to burn your hand to learn not to play with fire.