Corruption is a lucrative business here in America. Not that it isn’t lucrative in other countries, but it’s especially lucrative here. Our government is for sale and the price is not costly. Why do you think crime doesn’t ever go anywhere? As a follow up to my last piece, I found it necessary to double down on my claim that Mr. Trump is continuing America’s tradition of allowing crooks to run the country and make our decisions. But I want to clarify that there is criminality and corruption at every level of government, not just the powerful Alpha males who push the buttons. The everyday citizens who walk the streets protecting our government and keeping the poor in check are just as crooked as the ones who write their checks. And it is very apparent within New York’s recreational drug trade. For my readers who live in the Big Apple I’m sure you have noticed the fact that you can buy weed on almost every street in the 5 boroughs. This is something that became prominent in 2023 following New York’s legalization of weed a couple years prior. Legal dispensaries are now allowed to sell weed and of course my New York corner cutters have found a way to exploit the lax enforcement of weed laws for unlicensed dealers. There was a point in time where it was suspicious how much weed was available in your everyday corner store. It has been a madhouse in that regard for a little over a year now. But of course, things come to an end. The chickens come home to roost.
Over the course of the past couple of months law enforcement has been making huge waves in the crackdown of all of these unlicensed weed dealers. Just in time for an election year, let’s just pretend that isn’t related to this. You see the point I am making is that I have spent thousands of dollars this past year buying weed from some of these stores, and the police have the luxury to walk into one of these stores and arrest anyone they want whenever they want. But they don’t, until they are told to. And I find it funny that recently so many unlicensed stores that have been operating without a hitch for so long have been shut down. This is clear evidence of the corruption I am speaking of, because law enforcement regularly turns a blind eye to crime until it is convenient for them to stop it. Especially as it relates to recreational drug dealing. There are many open air drug-bazaars like Sutphin and Jamaica Avenue where cop cars stay parked, watching hand-to-hand transactions for drugs much stronger than weed. Not to perpetuate those crime stereotypes we see in movies and TV shows, but these things are based on real life. It’s obvious police officers are for sale and that’s why certain areas are still operating the way they are. There’s no reason why for almost a year a majority of these unlicensed shops have been able to operate as if they are real dispensaries and now all of a sudden they are being shut down.
This is how the operation goes. The system allows you to get started, to earn and open up shop (no matter the product.) And they may bother you a bit at first, rough you up hit you with a couple of misdemeanors. But after a while, once your operation is big enough; they leave you alone. They let you eat until there’s enough money for the government to get a big payday from seizing your assets / product. Then they gather evidence that they already had and shut you down. Or they shut you down because someone who was supposed to get paid to leave you alone, didn’t get paid. Or they shut you down because someone with a big enough wallet starts complaining about the chaos. Or they shut you down if a child of status gets wrapped up in the mess. Either way, police officers are not here to stop crime or to protect and serve. They are here to regulate crime and use it to their benefit. As is the agenda of the government at large. Crime is just another sector of business that pays out trillions a year. The same as every other industry. Police officers get paid, judges, lawyers, district attorneys, prisons, and so many more from the illegal trade of goods and services. If they wanted crime to stop, trust me they would have stopped it. Just like when gentrifiers move into the hood and the police do what we’ve seen them do to the unlicensed weed shops over the past few months. They know exactly how and when to shut you down, they just need to make sure everyone’s interests are aligned.
This is not the Wire, this is real life. America has always been grimey and it has always been for sale.
For those who may not be familiar, this song has been playing in almost every car in Black America lately and is a buzzing viral hit. But there is an element to this song that I wanted to break down for you all. The famous catchy line in the hook that all of us love is, “I was bad in fuckin school, now I’m tryna dodge a sentence.” Now this is a simple line, expressing an understanding that most of us are already aware of. Naturally most kids who don’t perform well in school end up making uneducated choices in life and potentially go through the prison system or something of the sort. Of course this is not the case for everyone, but it is understood to be the natural flow of things. But this line is a bit more complex than some of us may realize. This line is exposing a truth about American institutions and how they operate.
There is a direct pipeline, from school to prison for those who are unable to do well. The American school system is designed to mirror the prison system and it weeds out those who follow instructions, test well, and that have the resources to be in school everyday and be focused. The school system does nothing to support those who come from broken homes or have circumstances that will interfere with their studies. They are left behind to figure life out while the “good students” go off to college and join the workforce and what have you. Not to say that everyone from this circumstance is a bad student, but that does represent the larger majority.
We don’t realize that these institutions are intentional in the fact that “bad students” are slated to become “bad adults” and those who were in detention, in-school suspension, and other forms of punishment are more likely to get the adult version of “detention.” I mean I hope you all don’t think this is a coincidence or something. Honestly I can quote statistics and facts about this all day long, but if you use common sense it’s not hard to see the connection I am making.
Kids are “bad” in school for all sorts of reasons. Rarely are they ever attended to or supported in making it to the next level of education. They are just categorized as bad and neglected because schools in America don’t even have enough infrastructure for teachers to tend to the “good” students in a way they deserve. The public school system is every man for themself and for public schools in lower income and predominantly Black neighborhoods you would definitely think you were walking into a prison. With metal detectors at the front entrance who would be motivated to excel in class? When mere children are dealing with adult problems like violence, drug use, and pregnancy how can you possibly focus on your studies? There are no real systems in place to help “bad” students or cultivate any of their talents. They are just placed in the bad category forever and left to be ignored until they end up in a worse institution.
And as you all can probably tell I was not “bad in fuckin school”, but all of the “bad” kids were my closest friends and it hurt my heart anytime one of my guys with behavioral problems were locked up in ISS or detention or worse. Some of my childhood friends have been expelled and even arrested at school. And being blessed with the privilege of having a mother who was a teacher I know both sides of the educational institution. And I know of the few Black educators who work at these schools that care about the “bad” kids they are given very limited resources to actually be able to do much for them. Not to mention, as a Black man in America you do not have to have been bad in school to be dodging a sentence. So you do the math. Peace.
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America is forever grimey