Pelican Bay Riot (15 page)

I filled in the rest of the puzzle for him, “You know he has to accept the war or he’ll look weak and the rest of the crips will look down on him. Plus I weigh about the same as him and it’s not like I’m sending Popeye or Blitz in there to steam roll him.”

Devil reacted, “He could take either one of them.”

I said, “No he couldn’t. Let’s see how he does with me. Everyone wins as a soldier. But if you accept this diplomatic solution it comes with a condition.”

Devil postured in front of the cell. Maybe to cover up for getting maneuvered around and realizing I had the best solution. He asked, “What condition?”

“That if and when I get moved to his cell and we battle. No knives and no yelling from other cells. It has to go down without any disrespect or it won’t keep a race war from happening anyway.”

Devil nodded his head, “You right…If this goes down that way I will get at all the Blacks in the building and tell them not to yell stuff like, GET HIM RED-BONE, and you have your White race on quiet also…”

I watched Devil walk away. He got into the shower.

Hernandez announced, “2 MINUTES LEFT ON THE SHOWER GROUP!”

Chapter 13

The next group to shower was the Nortenos. The same 2 northern Mexicans that came in last night stopped at Devil's cell for a minute then came down the stairs. Naked, except for white boxers and shower shoes, they both looked about 6' and 180 lbs and athletic, but not chiseled, both with bald heads. Down the stairs and walking toward our cell I saw a knife scar on one of them above the NORTENO stamp of ink on his belly. The other one had a trail of stomach hair going through the middle of his NORTENO stamp up his stomach to a patch of hair on his chest with another stamp of ink on his neck, SAN JO. They met 2 other Nortenos in front of my cell where they hugged briefly and talked.

"You guys need anything?"

"Yeah, shoot us some food, stamped envelopes and paper."

"Alright we got you..."

I watched the Nortenos finish their shower and stop at cells to talk to Black inmates along their way back until Hernandez got irritated.

"LOCK IT DOWN! GET IN YOUR CELLS! NEXT GROUP ON STANDBY!"

A couple minutes later of antagonizing Hernadez, they closed their doors on themselves.

Two more cells popped open upstairs and 4 southern Mexicans walked out and came down the stairs. Two more cells popped open downstairs, one was Bat's and the other cell was a few cells down from our cell I couldn't see.

Bat looked extremely focused and you could feel the energy coming off him from a life on the edge as a gangster. He walked with his hands free with his towel folded and wrapped around his waist over his boxers like a championship belt. His dark brown eyes were void of compassion, laser like and penetrating, he focused on Rodriguez's cell and was on his way past our cell.

Damon said, "Straight killer."

Bat's chest rippled with a tattoo in Old English across it, SURENO. His back was just as shredded and a tattoo on his lower back said, CLANTON, a notorious east LA gang. The middle of his back had another tattoo, a depiction of a black hand, the signature of a Mexican Mobster.

I said, "No one's going to be able to kill him without a gun. It looks like he’s on a mission right now, watch closely."

He got to Rodriguez's cell and looked at him for a second, then turned so his back was against the wall on the side of the cell not looking at Rodriguez, his stare was a glare right at Hernandez in the tower.

Rodriguez had his mouth at the corner of his cell inches away from Bat's ear. He whispered in fast Spanish and I couldn't hear the words.

After a few sentences Bat nodded his head once and said one word loud enough to hear, "Alrato."

He turned on a dime with his back to the gun tower and while walking, his hands carefully pulled the towel from his waist and his pace picked up straight to the stairs. Before he passed our cell I saw the outline of an ice pick the size of a pen inside the seam of his boxers. On his way up the stairs he gripped his towel and waistband in his right hand and jogged the stairs 2 at a time and the SURENO on his chest bounced and flexed, bounced and flexed. At the top of the stairs he walked the length of the tier to the showers, and then stepped in.

It was too quiet in the cell block. Everyone's thoughts magnified the death tension all the way up the ladder. Rodriguez noticed it as a problem and started a conversation with another southern Mexican in the shower on the bottom tier next to his cell.

"HEY CHEETO! YOU HAVE ANY TOP RAMENS AND BEANS YOU CAN SHOOT ME AND SANO?"

"YEAH...MY CELLIE AND I WILL SHOOT YOU SOME."

"GRACIAS HOMMIE!"

"GRACIAS ATTI!"

Other southern Mexicans caught the hint and more voices added casual conversation to pierce the tension.

Damon said, "You're right, it's going down. The southern Mexicans are going to rush Bat."

I said, "I don't think so..."

Rodriguez yelled out of his cell door. "HERNANDEZ IN THE GUN TOWER LOOKS LIKE A HUNCHBACK WITH NO DICK!"

Another southern Mexican yelled, "FUCKIN PORCUPINE NEVER GETS ANY PUSSY ANYWAY!"

Bat came out of the shower. This time, his left hand had a fist full of towel clamping the front of his boxers. He walked 2 cells down and stopped. With his right hand he grabbed the cell door like he was ready to get locked back in his cell, then yelled, "TOWER!"

The Nortenos were standing at the cell door in shock, then realization, then they scattered around the cell for weapons...

The cell door popped open and Bat used his right hand to yank the door open and was met by both Nortenos.

Bat jabbed a barrage of explosive left handed straight jabs to clear enough room, then rushed inside and closed the cell door. The sounds of heavy punches and bodies bouncing against metal thundered. I saw Bat's right hand flashing downward in a stabbing motion repeatedly and heard a scream of shock from the puncture victim. More thunderous thumping and Bat's left hand was at it again firing jabs and controlling the direction of the battle, then the right hand flashing again followed by more screams. Then the alarm siren started wailing a high pitch that rose and fell and I heard the vestibule door rattle under the noise of the battle. The building guards were already running up the stairs and the vestibule opened enough and the heavy sound of prison guards running entered the building, some holding block guns pointed skyward and others Billy clubs and tear gas grenades. Up above, a scream from one of the Norteno's, "HELP! HELP!" The thumping continued to thunder, Bat wasn't done, but the guards were closing in on the cell, then yelling in front of it, "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" Two of the guards tossed tear gas grenades into the cell and it immediately filled with smoke. "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" One of the guards yelled, "TOWER POP THE CELL!"

The guards started by hosing pepper spray from fire extinguisher sized canisters. The pepper spray mixed with the tear gas blinded the occupants inside the cell. One by one the inmates were dragged out and handcuffed. The 2 Nortenos were covered in blood and were placed on the ground and Bat was shuffled down the stairs with a mixture of their blood and pepper spray covering his body. On the walk toward our cell Bat with a focused grimace from the adrenal war waged said, "I thought that was my cell."

The medics rushed through the vestibule and ran up the stairs. The first Norteno was lifted to his feet and was leaking blood from puncture wounds all over his body, his neck was bubbling, an artery shot. A couple of medics wrapped gauze and tape in circles around his stomach and chest and the Norteno's knees wobbled and he fainted to the ground. He was placed on a gurney sled and rushed down the stairs. He passed our cell and I saw the medic walking along side holding a cloth tight on the neck wound. The other Norteno was lifted to his feet and wrapped everywhere a puncture wound leaked. He waved off the gurney and walked himself down with an army of prison guards.

Chapter 14

The only noise in the cell block came from inmates coughing from the effects of the tear gas and pepper spray. Underneath that noise, every cell’s sink had water running while inmates splashed it on their faces to relieve their burning eyes. 13 Inmate Gang Investigators poured into the building and walked to the stairs without talking. The focused all business looks on their faces exposed the magnitude of the incident further. Then, one of the Gang Investigators radio chirped from his hip, “INFIRMARY…INMATE…DEAD ON ARRIVAL…INMATE…23 PUNTURE WOUNDS CRITICAL…”

The Gang Investigators surrounded the cell, a couple stepped in, then stepped out, then other investigators followed them back inside and took pictures where the other two pointed. They came back out of the cell and took pictures of blood splatter on the cell door, then the ground in a trail a few cells down. Next a couple of Investigators taped the honey comb cell door with yellow crime scene tape in the shape of an X.

Damon said, "They haven't said one word."

I watched a couple of the Investigators scribble notes on a pad for a report and said, "They’re in shock."

Chapter 15

“Homeboy, you know the top of the cell has the same lock mechanism…”

Rodriguez was crouched at the bottom of his cell door where it closed with his thin piece of steel. He found the perfect angle. “Tink, tink, tink…click.”

He stood up with a focused smile and said, “I know, I know, one down, one to go.”

Sano nodded his head, then wondered about Bat and asked, “Do you think La Eme will take Bat’s name out of the hat?”

Rodriguez shook his head no while he set up the makeshift Bunsen burner. “No they’re jealous of him.”

Sano crouched down with Rodriguez and did his part by adding another piece of steel to the contained flame. He held it on the flame for 90 seconds, until steel began to melt and drip. Then he took it out of the flame and held it while Rodriguez negotiated his piece of steel with the bent hook an inch away to accept the dripping steel to fortify it. Then Rodriguez lifted the hooked end and put it in the toilet so the water would harden the newly added steel. After a couple more times of dripping steel and fortifying the hook, Rodriguez said, “Bat will be alright…I just hope he doesn’t catch a life sentence for whacking the Norteno.”

Chapter 16

45 days later…

“Sacramento is finally gone, back to business as usual.”

Damon was talking to me while standing at the cell door watching the cells get popped for showers. I was sitting on my bunk thinking about my release date in 45 more days and the last 45 days waiting for the move to Red-Bone’s cell.

The incident with Bat brought a massive investigation. The brass for the California Department of Corrections in Sacramento had toured the facility as a show for the news. The news ran with the publicity and a representative of the Prison Union took the opportunity to again tell the public that prison guards walked the toughest beat in California. They got their mileage out of it and things were getting back to normal. We were supposed to come off lockdown tomorrow and I was going to move to Red-Bone’s cell in the afternoon.

Since the Bat incident, I studied Red-Bone for every waking hour to understand him better then he understood himself. I woke 2 hours before he did but when he got up he followed a strict regimen. He started the morning by pacing the cell to gather his thoughts, and then hit his knees to pray, and then worked out. His prayer ritual gave me solace that he might be like me, lost in this world but wrestling with his conscience. It also meant that he might keep his word and not try to use a knife for our cell fight. I wasn’t going too.

From brushing his teeth I gleaned he was a left hander, but looked ambidextrous. The way he walked told me he was pretty explosive and probably a basketball player. Just like me. I had to assume he knew how to fight, living the life of an underdog and never backing down, very similar to me in a different way. I did a lot of self encouraging and visualized the 200 plus fights and other wars I’d been in and said my own prayers. Damon broke into my reverie.

“I’ve seen you in action, you will smash that dude.”

Chapter 17

This time Hernadez started the cell count from our cell. He was back to his old tricks and even had a new rhyme to count with…

After passing our cell I got up to watch him.

“STILL”, “IN”, JAIL”,”SAME”, “OLD”, “CELL”,“BUT”,”NOTHING”,”TO”,”SELL”,”GANGS”,”AND”,”DRUGS”,”BROUGHT”,”YOU”,”TO”,”MY”,’”BLOCK”,”UNTIL”,”I”,”DO”,”THE”STATE”,”A”,”FAVOR”,”AND”,”SEND”,”YOU”,”TO”,”HELL”

Hernandez ended at Rodriguez’s cell door and the bottom of the cell looked like it was sticking out a little. I looked closer, Rodriguez and Sano were leaning against the honey comb and it popped open!