Corruption Officer (21 page)

When I arrived the next day for work the jail was already on
lockdown. All of the chiefs and special investigative squads were swarming
around. All the upper brass personnel from all over the island were in
attendance trying to organize the organizers.
 
Being the puny Officer that I was, I just fell
in line to see what
was the occasion for my jail to have this
much company so early in the morning.
 
As
I stood against the wall in the corridor where we normally have roll call I
noticed the K-9 Unit coming through the gate to enter the jail accompanied by
the Gang Intelligence Unit.
 
I was
standing there thinking that the last time I saw this much personnel all at
once in the jail was when…

An Officer next to me, talking loud, interrupted my thoughts
and said to some other Officers who were waiting there also, “Another inmate
was killed last night.”
 
I said to
myself, ‘I knew that it had to be something.’
 
I was told to take my assigned post but to keep the inmates locked in
due to the fact that my “B” Officer would be utilized in searching the whole
entire jail. I heard all the higher-ups saying stuff like ‘we have to take the
jail back,’ ‘these inmates are out of control,’ ‘these Officers are getting
soft’ and so forth and so on. I just chuckled to myself because it was just
like Corrections to rally up the troops after the fact and think that this
aftermath effort is going to in any way stop the inmates from doing the same
thing again today.
 

Here I am on my way to my post which consisted of 60 inmates
with no second Officer.
 
A lot of Officers
complain about Corrections being under staffed.
 
I went to my post and relieved the midnight Officer
who was pissed because it was her kid’s birthday and she had already been told
that she was stuck on overtime and was not going home.
 
After she left, I let Moe out.
 
He was my lieutenant now that Flocko had left.
 
He came up to the Officer’s station and
we took care of business.
 
He gave me the
money he had made for me and the list of what my clients wanted.
 
I had orders for coke, liquor, cell phones and
cooch.
 
As I counted my money Moe said “That’s
wild what happened to ya’ boy yesterday right?”
 
I asked, “Who are you talking about?” half
paying attention because I was busy adding and subtracting.
 
He said, “I am talking about that Tobias kid.”
 
I looked up for a minute and start
thinking, trying to remember, ‘Tobias, Tobias…’
 
Then I said, “Oh yeah you mean the kid from
yesterday.
 
What about him?”
 
He said, “Hey that’s the kid that got killed
yesterday!”
 
I was stuck in my thoughts
and that feeling of ‘Damn, I was just talking to that dude,’ fell over me.
 
I could not believe that shit, here I was
doing a good deed of getting him out of here before he gets killed and he gets
killed in the other housing area.
 
Now I
am wondering how it happened.
 
I am wondering
if he went over there doing the same shit that he was doing while he was over
here.

Officer Z. Jones was the steady Officer of the housing area
that I sent him to and it was kind of ironic that the same thing happened to
her best friend Officer Bryant a while back.
 
I had to find out what happened and I knew that when I went to meal that
I could get all the information I needed from the Officers’ mess hall.
 
If you want to know what’s going on in the
jail or everybody’s business, just sit in there and it will come to you.
 
When I got relieved for lunch I went straight
there.
 
Inside the mess hall was packed.
  
There were Officers from other jails mixed
in with Officers from my jail so the seating was few but I managed to pull up a
chair at a table with the Officers from my jail.
 

It took 1.2 seconds for the Officers to start gossiping
about what happened; each one with their own theory.
 
The first Officer, “I heard that they jumped
him and killed him when he was trying to take over the phones - ya’ know that
was a blood house.”
 
Another female Officer,
“I heard that Officer Z. Jones tried to stop them then they turned on her!”
 
Back and forth they went.
 
“No, that was her steady house.”

“I heard that they didn’t jump her just held her back so
that she could not help the ‘mate that was getting jumped.”
 
The others responded with, “Ooohhhh.”
 
Another Officer
slash
investigator said, “Ya’
don’t want to know what I heard.”
 
Then
he just left that up in the air like he was dangling candy in front of a bunch
of hungry kids and like clockwork they bit eagerly asking the attention seeker,
“Yo’ what did you hear?
 
What did you
hear!?”
 
Now he started talking like he
was on prime time television.

“Well I heard that one of them broads was fucking that
inmate, the head leader that ran that house.
 
The mate that got killed was wilding out and
disrespecting her so the gang banger sicked his goons on him to give him a beat
down and they over did it by killing him.”

Dead silence followed that statement as we each of them
trying to fathom the reality of that.
 
I
spoke out in disbelief, “Nah dogs I know those Officers up there.
 
They’re not like that.
 
All three of them are stand up Officers, and
we all know that Officer Green don’t take any shit and she will knock an inmate
on his ass all day!”
 
They all looked at
me, some in agreement,
some
just still in their own
thoughts.
 
Another Officer gave his
professional analysis, “I heard that he was m. o. that’s why he was acting a
fool and they jumped him.”
 
Another Officer
asked, “How can you tell that an inmate is a mentally observation inmate?
 
All these fools have problems.
 
Some fake it just to get a lesser sentence.
 
Besides it ain’t our job to diagnose whether a
‘mate is sick in the head.”
 
I responded,
“Well, all I know is that inmates
lie
on their dick
all the time talking about they screwed this female C.O. or that one.
 
So if ya’ ask me that’s a lie.”
 
Then another female Officer asks me, “How do
you know….”

“I’ll be right back,” said Officer Zepa, another ‘copstitute’
that Rains had put on with us.

She had parked her car next to mine and was now getting into
a Mercedes-Benz that was owned by an assistant deputy warden.
 
They were heading to New Jersey to a hotel
after he picked up some money that he was getting from one of the pyramid
schemes that had recently swamped the Corrections Department.
 
Illegal or not, Officers were getting paid
from this.
 
I had gotten off of work and
she had me follow her so that if something went wrong I could see the person
that she was with.
 
They pulled off just
as my friend Trina came and got into my van.
 
She was my Western Union connect that I had
all the inmates’ families sending the money to.
 
She came to drop off some money that she had
picked up for me earlier.
 
I gave her her
cut and she left saying that she cooked and that I could come up and get a
plate.
 
I told her maybe later because I
knew that I still had to go to Lefrak City in queens and then to Brentwood,
Long Island to pick up money. I was about to pull off when my phone rang and it
was Officer Bryant.
 
I answered, “What’s
good, sis?”
 
She said, “Yo’ I heard what
happened to my homie and I am on my way to her house right now!”
 
I said, “Yeah, that’s messed up.”
 
Then she went on saying, “I knew that God put
me through what I went through when this happened to me for a reason so that I
could be there for somebody else.
 
I know
she’s messed up right now because I was.
 
You know they gave me three quarters pay and
disability, right?
 
So I am no longer an Officer.”
 
I said, “No, I didn’t know that.”
 
She went on, “Yeah, that inmate getting killed
messed me up.
 
I couldn’t sleep.
 
I kept seeing his face over and over again.
 
It was crazy.
 
The very thought of me having to go back into
a jail again gave me anxiety attacks but you know Corrections fought me on it
tooth and nail.
 
They tried to make me go
back to work and all that but the minute I went inside the jail I was brought
out by an ambulance stretcher.”
 
I said,
“Damn!”
 
Then I asked, “What ever happened
with your case?” She said, “When it came down to it, Corrections had to admit
to making some mistakes and Fran lost his job but nothing happened to King.”
 
I said, “That’s a messed up situation.”
 
Then she said, “I am on my way over to her
house.
 
So come through.”
 
I said, “Ok, but I have to make a run first.”
 

I was about to pull off when my phone rang again and it was
my moms and she asked me, “Where are you?”
 
I said, “I am in front of the Projects.
 
Why?”
 
Then
she said, “You need to come up here and talk to your son!”
 
I responded, “I can’t right now.
 
What happened!?”
 
She responded back with authority, “You-need-to-come
noooow!”
 
I was quiet for a moment then I
said, “Alright.”
 
After I hung up I
thought to myself, ‘Who she
think
she’s talking to?
 
Hollering at me to come upstairs like I am a
little kid asking her can I stay outside and play.
 
Shu’ I am a grown ass man
and I am going to take my time getting up there too!’
 

So, as I was running to the building, I was wondering what
was going on that was so urgent.
 
When I
got inside the apartment I saw my son putting a whole stick of butter in a
frying pan to cook a grilled cheese sandwich and I noticed my mother standing
in the living room with her hands on her hips.
 
She said to me as I went to sit down, “Ya’
better git ‘em before I do!”
 
I said, “What
happened?”
 
She said, “He’ll tell you!”
 
And then she stormed off into her bedroom.
 
I then turned to my son and asked him, “What
happened?”
 
At first he didn’t say
anything he just stood there bending up a perfectly good spatula trying to
smash his sandwich in the frying pan.
 
At
this time my moms comes back in the living room and sits down and starts
watching T.V. (as if she is not listening to our conversation).
 
I ask him again and this time he tells me that
he got kicked out of school for fighting.
 
I said, “Why did you do that and what were you fighting about?”
 
He said that some kid had teased him about his
sneakers in gym class so he started fighting with him.
 
I am thinking to myself, ‘
Is
this what was so important a little fight at school?’
 
Then I look over to my mother and she is
looking right at me as if she is waiting to see what I am going to do.
 
So I dare not act like making my rounds around
the City is more important than this.
 
I
turn to my son and ask, “What’s the matter with your sneakers?”
 
He says, “They’re old,
Pop
!”
 
I say, “Didn’t your mother just buy you new
sneakers?”
 
And he said, “No, she won’t
buy them or the new video games I want.”
 

“Why?” I asked.

“She’s riffing about me not passing my classes,” he said.

 
“You getting into
fights, getting kicked out of school and you’re failing classes!” raising my
voice, “I can see why you’re not getting anything.
 
She’s right.
 
That’s the way it goes.
 
You don’t
do
good
in school, you don’t get shit!”
 

Now my moms a.k.a. “Ironfist” chimes in, “That ain’t all.
 
He’s back-talking his mother too!”
 
I look at him and say, “What I tell you about
that?”

“I didn’t talk back to her.
 
All I said was that the fight wasn’t my fault
and she said that I talked back to her!” he said.

I jumped up and yelled, “Who are you yelling at!?
 
And he jumped up as well.
 
I came around the table to meet him.
 
He’s a little shorter than me about fourteen
and weighs in at about 270lbs.
 
I am
290lbs.
 
Now I am pissed because this lil
negro
is trying to man-up.
 
My moms jumps up to come between us and I put
my hand up like I got this.
 
I say, “What
do you want to do?
 
I see ya’ got those
q-tips at the end of your wrists all balled up like you’re asking for
something!”
 
Then my mom comes in my face
from the side and starts barking in his defense, “I didn’t call you up here for
this.
 
How are you going to try and treat
him like this now?”
 

Then she said, “You don’t be around him enough to be all of
a sudden beating on him!”

Now I am bugging, looking at Ms. ‘Ya better get ‘em before I
do/come upstairs now’ like, if you didn’t want me to straighten him out then
why did you call me up here!?
 

“What do you mean I don’t be around him?” I said, “This is
my son!”

She laid into me like she had been waiting for this day and
had a speech memorized.

“You don’t spend
no
time with these
kids!
 
All you do is come in and out of
here all times of the night without a care in the world!
 
Sometimes they‘re over here for days and you
don’t even know it.
 
You claim that you
be working overtime but I know better!”
 

Then she mimics me, “
‘This
is my
son!’
 
You don’t even take the time out
to get to know him but now you want to swell your chest up like you have the
right to!”
 
I thought to myself, ‘Why do
I feel like I’ve just been set up?’
 
I
try to come back at her by lying and said, “I do be working overtime so that I
could make up for the child support!”
 
Then
I try to switch the blame, “If his mother spent the money on my kids then he
wouldn’t have to be fighting over sneakers!
 
I am running around here working overtime and
working outside security jobs trying to make it, so that’s why I am not
around!”
 
She’s looking at me but I can’t
look her in her face because I know that she is looking right through me.
 

I am now focused back on my son who’s standing there looking
at me, looking like me with his eyes beginning to tear up and I could tell that
it was not out of fear but out of anger.
 
At this point I didn’t give a shit because of
the lashing that I had just received from my mother.
 
I had to save face so I tried to lay into him
and say, “You’re not a little baby anymore and you need to realize that I am
trying my best to provide for you and your sister.
 
Don’t nobody
have any
money to be throwing around every time you throw a tantrum about some damn
sneakers and video games!”
 
I continued
and said, “You need to grow up and start taking responsibility for your
actions.
 
You need to stop being selfish
and always thinking about yourself!”
 
He then
said, “I wonder where I got that from?” and walked out of the door.
 

Ooohh, I wanted to swing on his ass but I was stuck on
stupid when he said that slick shit!
 
I
then looked over at my mother who was now back to pretending that she was
watching T. V. and I could have sworn that she had a smirk on her face.