Fresh Out The Bookings?!?

As you may or may not know, I've been no stranger to handcuffs in my life so far, this last trip to central bookings may just have been the most profound however:

Since my 1st adult arrest (I was a week into 18) it's seemed that everybody always expects ME to know how their case looks. Maybe the glasses scream 'the nerd knows!', fuck it. Now there are always "bullpen lawyers" ready to say "what you here for? .... Oh you gonna do X amount of time." Fuck those guys, they're shook and hoping your case is more serious than theirs so they can go home after the judge is satisfied with enough cases bigger than their shit. Myself, on the other hand, I don't care why anyone else is here but I always get clung to. I'm no giant dude either... but I mean, dudes give up seats, I rock the phone all day type shit (without saying "I'm so and so".) Anyway, this occasion was no different, except for me having a massive tension headache from the day before, so I'm Mr. Security Blanket again. This time though, I heard some shit I hadn't heard as much before, A LOT. "I just want to see my kid(s)." Not so odd you'd think, but its been my experience that most heads just wanna touch the hood again and be free to keep doing what they did before. This time, the amount of minority men concerned about their kids was staggering, considering the stereotypes and location we were in. I won't get into why I was there but I'm talking dudes from the trap house to dudes with bodies to dudes that spit on the sidewalk (yeah, seriously,) and everybody wanted to get back to being 'DAD'. Of course I was one of them, but I knew I was going home soon... so did they LOL. I called home and my kids said "nah, we not worried," my daughter actually said "worry about what? I'll see you soon, I know that, you're superdad!" Off that, I knew no matter what, I was going home ASAP but I digress.

The amount of YOUNG minority males who were active in their kids' lives, regardless of what they did outside of home, was so contradictory to the hype it got me to thinking... "WHY?" Not why are they involved, but WHY THE FUCK aren't we home with our kids instead of in these cells thinking about them. The masses and the media want us to believe the "hood" is full of criminally inclined dead-beat dads. (Fuck dead-beats by the way.) What the hood is full of is people trying to get by. People trying to succeed from a failing position, in a failing community, abandoned by failing systems under failing administrations. In simple terms, shit is fucked up out here yo!

When the average inmate is leaving at least 1 child minus a parent, there's a lot that's going be wrong with the children of tomorrow. Our kids are becoming accustomed to seeing us get arrested, incarcerated, and at worst, gone forever. It's almost like saying it's okay when it becomes so regular. It's not fucking OK. Our children need guidance, guidance away from these spider web ass systems and toward freedom and success. We can not secure our future from inside cells. A boy needs to see what a man is to become one and a girl needs to see what a real man is so that she seeks a real man and not a regret, the same with having a real woman around.

Previous generations fought so that we wouldn't have to. The real OG's didn't want us to be like them, at constant war. They battled against THEM so that we could be free to do US. Instead we're battling US at the benefit of nobody but THEM. This needs to stop NOW. There needs to be a community again. UNITY being the key part of that word. We need to police ourselves instead of being policed. This happens with communication, will, and effort.

Go knock on your neighbor's door and introduce yourself. Be in other people's business from up close, and help them when they need it instead of talking behind their backs. You're raising every child who knows you, step up and be a good parent ALWAYS; whether you have biological kids or not! Organize a community event. Attend one. We can not win the war on our families if we do not become a family as a whole. And by no means be mistaken, this is a WAR against our family structure.
That's the realest shit ever. Think on it.
Damn it felt good to be FRESH outta bookings!

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