“Sometimes things just gotta play hard.”

The above is a meme circulating among my facebook friends, and it warrants a larger response. Responding individually to these posts has proven fruitless.  This meme is super interesting, because the creator chose a roughneck (or dare I say redneck) -looking fella to get the point across.  This southern-looking dude likely didn’t say this, so they could have chosen ANY person to be the face of the meme, instead of a stereotypical-looking racist.  It would arguably be orders of magnitude more effective if any other character was chosen, instead of this dude.  Anyway…

Let’s assume for a second that this meme isn’t completely rooted in racist intent. It is easily disproven, with a quick google search for those willing to spend 10 seconds researching something before posting.  So, the meme really only represents those who haven’t yet, or are unwilling to seek an alternative story.

Here’s one example.

Willie Green.  Here is part of his story.  I met Willie once.   He was manning the front desk of a company office I was touring in CA sometime in 2008.  Willie was released March 2008, after being incarcerated 24 years for a murder crime he didn’t commit. Our company, which focuses on supporting those who want to break free from a previous life into a new one, hired him right away.  In that sense, Willie was a coworker of mine. However unknown, up to this point.  He was assigned to check people in at our front desk, who were interested in changing their lives for the better. Convicts.  Probationers, Parolees, Drug addicts.  Felons.  Fathers.   Mothers.  Some innocents.  A 57 year old Willie, recently released from spending more than 2 decades of his life in prison, was there to greet them.

He was a kind gentleman, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that his smile was ear to ear, and infectious. He was unassuming and friendly. Competent and meek. He looked free, to me.  Like whatever held me down and occupied all of my energy didn’t affect him.  24 years in self-reflection will probably do that to a person.  I only spent a week with him, but our meeting was memorable to me.  He was quiet, but the most confident person in the room.

Willie was convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. He spent 24 years in a rough CA prison, and after 24 years, he was released, and the judge said that a jury would have exonerated him had they had the full story.

The lone witness came forward 20 years later and said they were high on crack at the time of “witnessing” and that the detectives “helped him identify Green.”  So, Wille got screwed by “the system.”  I don’t know the motives of these detectives. Perhaps it was a desire for a higher clearance rate (cue The Wire). Maybe it was political pressure. Maybe it was just easier to lie and manipulate than work through the case.  Maybe just an honest mistake.  Who really knows? There is a beautiful scene in The Wire (spoiler alert), where detectives are trying to coerce an injured detective to identify her shooter in a police shooting and murder case. No prints and no murder weapons. Just a witness needed, and detective Greggs was at the scene. But, she was unwilling to falsify her testimony, and said, “Sometimes things just gotta play hard,” which is essentially saying that it’s better to let a guilty man go free, than lie about what you witnessed.  Or, step up your investigatory work if you want to convict this guy.

I may never stop plugging “The Wire” so best get on with it.

 

So, Willie doesn’t get any riots.  No signs or protests.  He did 24 years and then said this,

I never asked for mercy.  I only asked for justice. . . . They can’t hurt me no more. I’m free.

Willie represents only 1 case where an innocent man was told he was guilty.

It wouldn’t take long to seek out videos from the “other side” of the conversation, if only to become more educated about the discussion.  It’s extremely false to assume that all police will leave all people alone if we just all followed the law.  This isn’t a dig against law enforcement.  It’s just a reality, right now.  There’s too much evidence out there to the contrary.  I’m not suggesting I know any data or percentages here, but the percentage is certainly greater than 0%, which is the assumption behind this meme.  Innocent people are sometimes negatively affected by our criminal justice system.  Guilty people are too.  Forgery does not warrant a death sentence.

The cure to our ignorance is education.    There is a ton of information out there.  If we are going to have an opinion, I think we have a duty to make it an informed one.