Reply ID: guf3

Yo, Paul.

Thanks for studying how inner city youth opine and also thanks for your comments.

Now, for clarity, I am a black male who, at the age of 16, did take the life of a 23-year-old black male who took part in a gang rape of one of my sisters. That whole thing really affected me in ways I could never explain, and one can only imagine the effect my actions had on the victim's family. I ain't capable of killin' nobody after that shit—real talk!

A lot of our generation was never aware that "street level crimes" could be used as a special circumstance to make one death eligible in the event of future accusations—guilty or not. Believe it or not, not all of us are guilty.

What me and my Latino potia Bandito is saying here in this interview is that we, and other inner city youth, are only exposed to one side of the hyper-glamorized street life, and we are now exposing this reality to our next generation of inner city youth who also don't know that just being from a gang can get one the DP (see CA penal code, see Special Circumstance #22). On the streets, we are conditioned into a false idea that since we don't eat people, or are the so-called foreign bomber type, that we are solid. "At street cred level."

Society's reality differs, but our state of mind is locked into street mentality. Around 2006, in California, the laws changed to include Special Circumstance #22. That makes criminal street gang offenses death eligible. But here's the thing: nobody is telling inner city youth about this. And since we are the new generation now housed at death row, it's impossible for us to just sit here and not say something to our own. Will it help? Yep, all knowledge is helpful.

God may need to help those whom target inner city youth with laws based on gaming economic advantage.

—Xzyzst