C.J. and the streets

C.J. and the streets

My name is Carter Thomson, I lived in the worst gang cities all of my life. It seemed like i was always finding trouble. Ive done every crime known. Murder, drug dealing, robbery. I never really cared until now  that I'm sitting behind bars for the rest of my life at 56 year

As a young black kid at 14 dropped out in my freshman year to sell pot on the streets with a few kids from the block, Derek and Tyrone, Derek was kind of civil until someone messed with his dealing, he was ruthless when it came to business. at 16 he was already knocking out the competition fast. Murder was no question in his eyes. He was doing good, living life to the fullest, family, by the time he was 25 he had a wife and a little boy, he was a little spoiled but he was a good kid, unfortunately when he reached the age of 35 he was brutally murdered from trying to get in the game of selling coke to big time dealers.

Tyrone was a strong skinny kid, he never cared about what people thought about him. He was extremely short tempered, i remember in 8’th grade during the first week of school he fought a teacher because the teacher gave him a dirty look. I thought it was hilarious, i still laugh at it today. Tyrone grew up with a harsh life, his dad was no good, always fighting with his mom, cops were constantly at his house for his parents fighting. When he was 8 he got stabbed in the chest by his older brother for no reason, his brother was just mad and took it out on him, when Tyrone turned 14, his brother and him fought and Tyrone sent him to the ER because he broke a few of his bones. I don’t know what happened to Tyrone.. We stayed in contact for about a year and then letters stopped coming or he stopped writing me, for all i know he could be dead...

Now my life... I grew up on my own, my mom and dad died when i was young. My mom overdosed on heroin and I'm pretty sure my dad died from hustling or gang related problems. I had no siblings, i lived in a orphanage until i was 14, i was adopted by a strange lady, i left home after the first week and never went back. I met a few guys that worked on the streets, they were in a gang. They asked me if i wanted to join and i said sure, i had nothing to lose. At first i was doing little things to show if i was worth being in the gang, robbing stores, people at gun point. passed. i was in after 3 days, and then i was jumped into the gang. I was officially a part of there gang.

And that’s when it all got bad, gang life really is the most dangerous type of life. Every day is survival not trying to be killed. Of course i started at the bottom of the chain, i was a soldier. Me and the two guys who introduced me to it jut drove around all day making sure no rivals were on our territory. Out of the time I put into watching out for gang rivals i never ever saw one.

After my first 6 months i didn’t do much, i was basically lazy in the lieutenants eye, so i was asked to do something else, one of the drug dealers on the block got shot and killer by a gang rival, i was told to go fill in his spot. At first i was scared for my life because what if they came back and killed me? They said no worries, they’ll give me a new piece. So with my new gun i went to the corner and did some business. All i sold was pot and hallucinogenics like shrooms and acid. and they sold FAST. I sold for 3 years after that, I had no complications when it came to the competition. I ran into Derek once and a while, he’d walk by and see me or drive by me and beep.

Until i was 23 years old is when things got really bad, I was no longer a soldier in the gang, but i ruled the whole east side corner, i had 30 street soldiers, and at the time i needed every one of them, Murder was getting worse by the time, Ive had 3 of my soldiers shot up bad, none of them survived. Walking the streets was not recommended, at that time we were basically hiding from other gangs, For six years we were doing excellent, then everything just took a 180. i was forced into murdering anyone who was trying to go on our block. Constant drive bys were repeated almost daily, it seemed like my life was going to end just like that.

My first murder was the most relieving feeling to me, just getting rid of another threat. It was late at night, me and a few of the boys from the hood were in the backyard of Derek’s house, and behind his yard there’s an alleyway, and out of nowhere a group of kids who were about 16 starting yelling random things like “fag’s” and “queers” i turned around and saw one of the kids standing there looking all tough, standing tall and proud with his arms crossed as if he thought he was tough, so i started chasing him down the alleyway and his friends got away, but i tackled him, i punched him in the side of the head and it knocked him out, so me and my crew brought him back to Derek’s.

A few minutes after the incident we tied him up in Derek’s basement to a chair. We duct taped his feet to the floor and his hands behind his back. Then we waited about 5 minutes until he woke up, and before he could ask where he was we were screaming and asking questions, “Who are you kid?! Do you know who we are?!!”.. He looked up in fear, i got in his face and said “you wanna die kid?”. And what he did next made me lose my mind.... He spit in my face. I couldn't believe it. He thought i was kidding. That’s when i said, “Alright wheres the gun?” one of the crew members handed me the gun. I said one more thing to him, i said “You sure you wanna play this way?” and he just nodded and laughed. As if he thought i wouldn’t really do it. that's when i said “night night” and i pulled the trigger right in the center of his eye’s. His eyes opened wide and he gave out one last groan and looked at me, then his head fell back. Dead.... There was a moment of silence throughout the crew in Derek’s basement.

Now the hardest part of it all came up.. What do we do with the body..? we all talked about it and finally came up with the idea with dumping his body in the river, Put some rocks in his pocket and wrap a blanket around him. That’s what we were doing. It was about 1:30 a.m. and no-one was on the streets, we drove fast put precocious so no cop would pull us over, his body was in the trunk already wrapped in the black, taped shut. it was a 10 minute drive to the river which felt like hours. We finally got there and quickly unloaded the body, With no questions we quietly took his body and threw him in the river. But there was a problem. he wouldn’t float.. we had to get him out of the water and walk all the way out onto the dock and we quietly dropped him in the water, no noise was made, he floated down the water and through the murky water he seemed to have disappeared. and that was the end of that.

Then my life was just plain.. filled with worry. The next time i murdered i was caught by the police, they caught up with me and all of my other crimes. I wasn’t paying attention how there was a cop across the street when i opened fired on a guy who tried to Stick me up for weed, i shot three times and two cops ran up to me with there guns out and screamed “freeze!”... I froze in terror. I was trialed for 2 accounts of murder, Possession of guns, Robbery, and illegal narcotics. I have 120 years in prison. But i do have chance of parole. So now i’m keeping to myself in my own prison cell. I’m just trying to stay away from trouble in here, hopefully one day i can get a job in here and show i’m doing good so i have a chance to get out of here and see the world again.

THE END