WEBVTT - Empire on Blood | 7. This Too Shall Pass 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:00.760 Hi. 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.160 There a quick note before we start. Most of you 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:08.360 love listening to ads. I know that, But if you don't, 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:13.480 here's an option. Subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.320 You'll get ten episodes of Empire on Blood the Director's 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.919 Cut ad free and one week early with exclusive bonus content. 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.800 And it's a mere two ninety nine a month previously 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:30.680 on Empire on Blood. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.000 These Days Full names of the record, My name is 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:37.400 Calvin or are you okayme out? I'm back. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.880 When you looked at him, did you recognize him? Yes? 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.600 And who did you see the way. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:50.680 Therefore, discord grants to the defender's motion and hereby vacates 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:51.199 the conviction. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.880 All right, cow, you did it. You did it. 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.840 You are the most persistent motherfucker. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:11.680 And oh good lord. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:12.080 Yeah. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.360 So cal called me last night to ask oh he 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:15.399 did yeah? 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:16.560 His uh. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.280 He's not left his cell in the forty eight hours, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:20.759 and he's turning. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:22.479 Francis was supposed to not. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.959 Risk any any possible problem. He's just packing himself up, 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.399 sitting in his cell and just waiting. Yeah, he says, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.120 I'm staying away from everybody, about talking to anybody. I 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:38.760 asked him how it felt to be in there and 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:40.280 he just said he was so anxious. 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.199 Yeah, how do you sleep? 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:42.480 Right? 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:44.880 Do you think he has even slept? 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.560 That's me in one of Calvin Buari's attorneys, Oscar Michelin, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.360 early morning of Monday May eighth, twenty and seventeen, the 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.160 day Calvin is supposed to be released after twenty two 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.360 years in prison. This passed for a judge in the 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:06.120 Bronx vacated his double homicide conviction as if it never happened. 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.560 Cal is free to walk out of prison. The judge 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:14.079 said so, but paperwork that takes time. So the Department 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.919 of Corrections took him back to prison for the weekend. 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.240 And then in Oscar's car, the phone rings. It's Cal's friend. 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:27.240 She yes, they say, he's not going nowhere. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.480 The judge may have let cal go, but maybe his 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:31.560 past won't. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.320 Why that was a sergeant because they thought I was 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:36.840 on a visit. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.200 I was like, no, I'm trying to see us the process. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.959 And so he looks on the paper and he was like, yeah, 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:43.200 he's here, He's not going away. 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:44.120 Why is that? 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.200 He's not giving me the information. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.400 So here we are in a moment between what should 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.960 be and what is We've gotten to know moments like 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:04.120 this pretty well from Orbit Media. This is Empire on Blood, 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.720 a story of murder, betrayal and a man who fought 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.800 the law for two decades and of a question when 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:24.720 is a man truly free? I'm Steve Fishman. We're sitting 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.639 in Oscar's car in front of the ironically named green 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.720 Haven Correctional Facility. Haven. My ass it's got a thirty 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.080 foot high window is cement wall around it. We pull 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.240 up shortly after ten am after a two hour ride 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:47.280 from the city. What's going on inside green Haven? Who knows? 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:47.720 Yes? 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.800 Hi, my name is Oscar Mitchell. I'm gonna turn it 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:50.640 for Kalabowari. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.280 The issue is that we were Yeah, he was supposed 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.280 to be released today and I want to just double 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.480 check to make sure that everything is all set for 0:03:58.560 --> 0:03:59.480 his release. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:00.760 He got his conviction. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:09.000 To Oscar Michelin and you attorney. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:09.720 I am cal Bui's attorney. 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.320 Yes, concerned? 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.680 And why you would think he's leaving this week. 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:17.919 Because he was? 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:18.240 Uh? 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:19.560 I'm sorry? 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.200 Can I have remotely close to his day? 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.520 What is to be done? We're here, Let's go inside, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.000 try to get this straightened out. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.400 Oh so, just have a seat distreevisits inside. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.640 Do you know when a prisoners released, he would he 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:38.560 come this way? 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.520 This is the only way they could go. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.839 We see ourselves in a gloomy area what passes for 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:49.240 a waiting month A few feet away. Corrections officers, process visitors, 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.200 A handful of us are here. Cal's lawyers, a few relatives. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.640 His god brother, Pam is not here. She and Cal 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.360 are still legally married, but they've grown apart. Cal friend, 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.840 she drove up from Westchester. She's his main support now. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.520 There are also a couple of journalists from the Associated Press. 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.720 Cal will be let go. A judge ordered his release. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.920 It's unconstitutional to hold him in prison, after all, he's 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.360 no longer convicted of anything, but the anxiety it won't quit. 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.120 Cal calls me from inside, maybe one hundred feet from him, 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.719 but several tons of cement and steel separate us. It's 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.919 ten forty six a m cow, cow, How are you? 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:35.479 Yeah? 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.000 I'm all right. I'm afraid to get up out of 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.039 his You know what's going to. 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:40.720 Hold up is? 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:44.960 I don't where are you now? 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:45.320 Are you? 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.240 Are they telling you you're getting outton? 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:48.320 No? 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.800 There ain't nobody even come and tell me anything. And 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.360 I'm talking to people. Everybody know that I'm supposed to 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.760 get out, but nobody ain't come to tell me it's 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:56.359 time to go. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:07.040 The hours pass one, two, three. Finally the paperwork lands 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:11.520 on the right desk, eyes dotted, tea's crossed. It's not 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:16.400 every day someone's conviction is vacated. Then Cal appears in 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.280 the distance, maybe fifty feet away. I can see his 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.919 nit cap through the bars of the steel gate for 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.880 one more minute. He looks like he's inside a cage. 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:30.279 Then the gate slides open. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.160 You see you. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.599 Cal walks out in khaki pants, timberlands, toting a single 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:50.400 canvas bag stuffed with the essentials from two decades behind bars, 0:06:51.080 --> 0:07:00.440 legal documents I find out later, go, oh my god. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:19.720 Daddy came out said, where's everybody? As you're gonna praise 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:20.640 that you can't do the. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.320 Photography, thank you, and if you want to conduct an 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:24.760 interview and. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:29.800 Asking the property, let's go. 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.640 We go out double swinging doors, leaving the guard tower 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:44.360 behind us and the thirty foot high cement wall. We 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.440 go down two sets of stairs into a parking lot 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:55.480 that spreads over a couple of acres. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:08:00.480 Surreal, surreal, man, Oh. 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:21.440 My god, Oh no, we got a bus ticket for you. 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.000 We're not gonna drive. You gotta take a great house. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:23.960 I'm sorry we couldn't. 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:25.560 We couldn't afford it. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.600 I'm sorry about yeah, but it's a good man. You 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.120 could see right by the driver. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:32.280 A call right now. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.920 People don't know, you know, it's like anxiety. 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.440 It's beautiful, man. I never seen this side without the 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:47.840 handcuffing on. That's the beautiful thing about it, you know, 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:53.560 no handcuffs, no shocks. Finally, man, oh, long time coming. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.160 Couldn't come at a better time. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:56.160 Unbelievable. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:02.160 Right. Cal hugs his god brother, he hugs me. He's muscular, 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:08.960 prison muscles. It's a powerful embrace. You did it. The 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.760 prison authorities insist that we leave state property. They don't 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.480 have to ask. Twice. We trooped through the parking lot, 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.960 a small horde, making our way to the shoulder of 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.600 the road. The Associated press hands cow a microphone. 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:32.200 That's what it really. 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.880 It's just like I work so hard to get to 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.240 where I'm at right now, and I finally made it 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.160 the long journey that I took to get to where 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.000 I'm at, and it's still a continuous fight, you know, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.880 because still dealing with the issues that are launcht the 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.920 a office not really worn until mix to their mistakes 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:52.880 and doing the right thing. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.679 I gotta keep my mind and keep. 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:01.640 Pushing Cows on message, hitting his talk point, staying focused. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.679 Of course, he's right. The District Attorney's office has threatened 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.600 to appeal the decision that set him free. He knows 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.199 there might be more coming. And I feel like the 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.559 truth is finally revealing it, so, you know, thank you. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.959 Cal hands back the microphone. She pulls up the getaway car. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.000 My producer Emil, and I jump in with Cal. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:30.800 Okay, see where are we going? 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.760 Well, we want We're gonna ride with you wherever. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.280 The change station station. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:44.200 What's Cal? Looking forward to an iPhone and a bath 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.280 his first bath in twenty two years. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.439 That's that's that's one of sleeping in the bed and 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:56.080 probably getting in the bathtube and then going into a refrigerator. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.120 What I want to to get out? What I want 0:10:58.200 --> 0:10:58.800 to get out. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:07.920 Of such things? Freedom is made. Cow's walked off prison grounds. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.199 But what does it take to feel free? Cal knows 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.520 what I mean from prison. He told me, I just 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.160 can't wait to get in a situation where I'm around 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.320 the people that truly genuinely love me, so I can 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:27.960 just be me truthfully, just be free. And so Cal 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:29.680 he wants to see his. 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.760 Mom, and I'm an knock on the door, let him 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:34.160 have a come downstairs. 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.280 Once she over the door, is gonna be me happy. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.520 Mother's dak. You got an early mother's taken. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.920 But first, Cow's got some errands to run. After the break, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.640 a free man heads out into the world with a 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.880 long to do list and finds more than he bargained for. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:12:09.320 Stay with us outside, we're back with Empire on blood. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.840 So when does an ex prisoner actually shake prison out 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.319 of his bones? I asked Emil mcdalell, Cal's prison buddy, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:23.160 who got his own sentence vacated email served nineteen years. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:29.079 When the judge vegacated my conviction, it was like a 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:30.120 surreal experience. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:31.640 You really can't believe it. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.440 Cal is not going to believe that he's really out 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.439 until he actually steps his foot on concrete and he's 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.720 able to walk in a store with dollars in his pocket. 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:43.880 That's how it was for me. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.520 Yeah, they said, you know you're out, You're going home, 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:50.920 and I'm just still sitting there looking at the judge, 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.559 and I'm just like, Okay, I'm going home. I'll be 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.800 home with my family for Christmas. You know, I could 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.120 be home for my birthday finally after nineteen years. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:00.160 But. 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.440 Until I got out, and you know, my cousin gave 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.120 me like one hundred dollars but in twenties and tens. 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.679 He gave it to me, and I actually jumped out 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:12.800 of his car, went into the store and I was like, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:13.600 I'm out. 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.240 So Email will put twenties and tens in Cal's pocket. 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.920 He's going to take Cal shopping in Brooklyn for sneakers. 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.040 Once upon a time, Cal had wanted air Jordan's. Twenty 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.280 five years ago, he'd started selling crack so he could 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.640 buy them. This time, his hardworking prison comrade says he'll 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.199 pick up the tab. But Cal has a few other 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.680 items to attend to, people, to visit, places to see. 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:43.240 He's a man in a hurry. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.920 Open buzz me in, man, buzz me in. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.760 Email drives Cal to Tracy, Koit's apartment, coming to see trade. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:52.400 Where are you at. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:00.760 That count? 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:05.800 Because you look alive and he was a mess. Tracy 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.079 was for a time one of his main allies on 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.760 the outside, a leading light of the Free count Lady 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.959 that helps fixed all mambo said, man, you know me 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:17.200 and home was going hard. 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.040 She's the first one that picked up the bend of 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.120 the Free Cow fan and waved it the round in 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.280 the rallies stripped. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:24.080 Into t shows. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.080 You know, I assume Tracy might be celebrating Cow's release. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.400 You don't want thisake, right, No? 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.200 I mean she's just hearing from Cal Now. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.360 Off the audio because I got let you let me 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:39.200 miss that moment. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.800 You're walking out of Greenhaven. You ain't want me you 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:42.800 let me missed out. 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.440 You didn't know what Dale was coming. 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.160 Now he was coming out until cal changes the subject 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.560 like a natural born politician, he picks up Tracy's baby 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:53.320 harmit This. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:15:02.040 Man, yes, yes, wood, gorgeous. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:08.200 Ray cal is smiling, loving on harmony the way. It 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.560 seems to me that maybe Tracy had hoped to be 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:11.400 treated me. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.040 Like you. 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:22.760 You soon it's time to go. This has been something 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.040 of a thank you visit to one of the soldiers 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.200 in the Free Cow movement. One of the women they 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.960 came for Cow but worked for the movement price of admission, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:33.040 said you. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.840 Always loved yourself some Calvin, But now now let Calvin go. 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.160 You are not your free man. Now you should think 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:41.000 of me every day. 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:47.000 I'm sure he will. And that's another element of what 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.320 it means to be free, free to play the field, 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.000 to be a player. As Tracy says, I. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.800 Wanted to surprise you. No, that's not how it goes you. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.240 Lucky that I was it lucky. I'm blessed. I don't 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.240 believe in love. I'm blessed. I gotta give him a 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.400 golf definitely always. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:12.360 Fire store right there, good man, so cal visits a supporter. Okay, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:19.120 let's shop for some sneakers on a Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn. 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:23.120 Email and cow head to the Atlantic. Mall, eh god, 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.000 they they do a whole festival for your hold festival. 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.200 They knew you was coming downtown for that's where everybody 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.120 at Look at that, look at it. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.320 Look that's something. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.400 They spend hours going from shoe store to shoe store 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.720 along the way, callent, email, running to people. They know 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:40.800 what they're doing with that. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:41.560 I ain't. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.520 Now you know, I'm all filing for my wrong for 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.920 conviction and all, oh good, I've been here about him 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:48.280 doing good by. 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:50.800 I tell you my old lady to you right now, 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:52.040 I say my old lights. 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:52.440 I did that. 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:53.840 I did thirty three years straight. 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:55.800 That's right, Yeah, thirty three years straight. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.360 You know, look in anyway, they ain't wait five years ago. 0:16:58.680 --> 0:16:59.640 Let this took from shopping. 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:00.240 He just came. 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:02.240 My nephew just came over last week. 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.320 I just took him shop and bought him some clothes, guns, saying, man, 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:06.320 some barbecue, and. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.320 Now I gotta cut out your stay safe. But anything 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.360 to work out for you, all right, you take care 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:12.320 right right later? 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:12.959 All right? 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.120 Yeah, last time I was when I first met him. 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.639 He cut the dude that tried to start man just 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:39.159 being Pattica. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's how I first met him, 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.520 and we ended up going to South Fort. 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.000 He was never my next door neighbor. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:44.680 So it's good. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.520 I knew I was going run into somebody in downtown Brooklyn. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.440 Not just one somebody inside a shop. They bump into 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.119 another guy from the old days. This one did nine years. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:05.159 I've been on being changed. Dramatic, dramatic. I'm talking. I 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.320 remember how first Gale. I remember I went to Green 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:07.920 Niggas mall. 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.040 How I felt when I was giving the phone and 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.160 you know what I mean, Like I was like, okay, how. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:14.200 Y'all doing stuff. I'm painting. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.120 I'm trying to see how you mighty rap, what's cool 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:17.560 and what's not. 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:19.399 I think I had some shoes on. It was like 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:20.520 I thought they was flooding. 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:21.280 It's not the lot. 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.880 Two X cons on a Sunday shopping trip recognized another 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.040 two X cons what the hell is going on at 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.800 the mall. I'm accustomed to running into people, people I 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.119 met at college or summer camp or over a cocktail 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:43.040 at my bar. But this, this vast web of people 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:47.000 linked by the shared experience of prison that's invisible to 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.040 somebody like me. Of course, you read about it all 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:54.160 the time, black men swept off the streets, crowded into prisons. 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.200 And here's the evidence. Think of it. One afternoon outside 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.960 Burlington Coat factory in Chucky Cheese. Four black men Email 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.680 and Cal and the two others. These guys randomly meet 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.560 and together they've done a total of eighty three years 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:17.760 in prison. Yeah, Cow was a drug dealer, and maybe 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.560 the too many ran into were criminals as well. Maybe 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.560 they should have all done time. But I've made a 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.000 seven year journey with Cal. I know his case inside 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.399 and out, and I know emails too. The honor student 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.760 sentence for a murder that someone else committed. The system 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.560 feels rigged against people like Cal and email. People like 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.520 Col people like Email. That's how the system viewed them 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.440 as a type, the type of person society is better 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.960 off without. And let's agree society was better off without 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.200 crack dealing Cal on the streets in the theater of 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.359 the early nineties, Cool Cal had a role to play, 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.480 and he played it to perfection. He wore minks and 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.840 drove BMW's rewards for seating a neighborhood with poison. Cal 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.600 he high stepped through falling bodies and his admiring crew. 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.919 They thought he was master of it all. They wanted 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:19.600 to be just like Cal. Cal could have done other 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.760 things with his life. He had the talent, but no 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.160 one in authority looked at Cal and thought there's potential here, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.399 if only it could be redirected. That wasn't anyone's duty. 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.840 Of course, Cal sometimes told me that if only his 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:38.320 father had stuck around, his life might have looked different. Instead, 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.600 for a pair of air Jordan's, which his mother couldn't 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:45.600 afford and which a teenage cow desperately wanted, he turned 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.560 to the streets and there was no turning back from. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:57.520 That ocause you gotta let me know. 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.880 Cal and e. Mel ended up visiting a dozen stores 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.880 in search of just the right sneakers. Cow finally selected 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.879 a pair of sand colored Nike Hirachis retail price one 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:23.080 hundred and twenty dollars. 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:28.160 Yeah, I almosnikus. It took almost all day. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:34.520 But other items on cows to do list lawyers, driver's license, housing, 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.399 visiting HERVs of course, and catch up with people he 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.400 left behind. At one point, Cow visits Jay, another ex 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.719 con who'd been his best friend. They were shot together. 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.480 There's a bond, and Cow visits Pam, still legally his wife. 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.879 They reminisce, laugh, They share a few hours of conversation. 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.440 As for the other friends from the Bronx, friends like 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.640 Jmo or former crew members, callous staying away for the time, 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.880 being too close to the days of murder in Mayhem, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:14.080 days he needs to put behind him. But me, I 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:15.720 stay in touch with the old crew. 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:23.280 Yeah, yeahs, you will pass myself. He saw me, master 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.000 be It's all he's on dr. 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:29.200 Right. 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.640 Dwight Robinson, What is Dwight going through now? 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:36.640 Man? 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:40.760 I hear about it. His trouble his dramas. I send 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.080 Dwight things like Sudoku books, which he tells me will 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.960 prevent Alzheimer's and lottery tickets, which he says can earn 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:52.320 us millions. Once he asked for a porn magazine. Sure, Dwight, 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.480 why not? And as always, Dwight wants news from the 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.840 outside to keep his mind free. Lately he wants to 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.040 know what outfits cal is wearing now that he's out. 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.800 Is he wearing a rolex? Mostly though we talk about 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:12.639 prison nonsense, nonsense, that's the word Dwight uses. There always 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.119 seems to be some craziness happening, some of it of 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:21.400 Dwight's own making, and that craziness it's compounded by living 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.760 out his days in an institution where a body can't 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:25.320 be free. 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:27.880 See I write this information out. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:29.560 Seem to see. 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:37.879 It right, Special Investigator Donkey, okay, all right, tell him 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:40.640 that right now. See that my life is in danger 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:42.880 with these officers here, and I would like to see 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:44.160 somebody as soon as possible. 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.080 Dwight says. The officers are angry at him over the incident, 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.320 his plan to pick a fight with an inmate. He 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:54.680 says it's sided with the guards. Okay, I am you 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:55.560 sure you should do that? 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:55.880 Man? 0:23:56.880 --> 0:23:59.159 You could just I thought about every more is the 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.280 best move plus plus plus. Once I beat them up, 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:05.159 they're gonna separate us. I'm only gonna be locked up 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:06.600 for like thirty days. I'm just gonna beat them up. 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:09.639 I really don't want to hear this. I do my 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:13.960 best not to get pulled into Dwight's nonsense, but I'm 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:18.160