Linwood Rudy Williams, a notorious drug lord from Baltimore who is serving 130 years plus life in prison for operating one of the most violent drug rings in the city’s history, speaks to rolling out exclusively regarding the recent news of the six officers in the Freddie Gray case being charged.
During his two decades of incarceration, Williams has devoted his time to reading, writing and teaching youth that crime is a genocidal trap and not the answer. He is currently working with Gangster Chronicles, a media platform that gives current and ex-convicts the ability to share their stories, put an end to mythologies by unveiling hidden stories and reach the youth through various forms of media such as books and documentaries.
Williams penned the Gangster Chronicles novel called Power Moves. Here, the former infamous gang leader from Baltimore shares his reactions on the news and the entire situation in Baltimore.
As a former drug kingpin who ruled the streets of Baltimore, do the riots surprise you?
No, not at all. Though I’ve been in for 25 years, my ears are to the streets and from what I hear from dudes just coming in, the police have absolutely no respect for the people in the Black community. How they hog-tie them and make them sit on the ground for hours before taking them to jail is reminiscent of the humiliation and abuse inflicted on the Blacks of South Africa by White policemen back when Whites ran it, and quite similar to the abuse inflicted on the “enemy combatants” held by the U.S. in Cuba, absolutely shameful and atrocious. The commissioner of the police should be tarred, feathered and ran out of town to L.A. where his predecessors imported these Nazi procedures from. The Black community does not have one genuine friend or champion inside of City Hall. Not one. They need me out there; I would put a stop to this abuse, neglect and apathy. I’m sick of it. I would also create a local branch of KARZ [KIDS AT RISK], a subsidiary of Gangster Chronicles.com that takes young Black men off the streets and train them to be productive members of the Black community.
What is your take on what has been going on this past week?
The police are murdering our sons and daughters simply because they know that they can get away with it. But this time they bit [off] more than they can chew. That’s why they are calling in any and everybody to stop the people from holding them accountable for the murder of Freddie Gray. Normally when professional athletes and sports players speak out against the police killing Black people, they are scorned in the media and told to shut up by the establishment, talking heads and opinion makers who don’t respect them or their views. However, now that the city has lost control, you see them pushing professional sports players out there on the front line to quell the righteous rage of the Black communities throughout the nation, after decades and decades of neglect, abuse and police violence. However, I would caution these jocks who long ago abandoned the city: don’t just speak out against the actions of the communities without speaking out against the cops and the politicians who support and protect the murderous police in their crimes. I’m not saying all policemen are rogue agents; I mean the bad ones.
What advice do you have for young people who committed crimes in the course of protesting? Talk about the consequences and alternatives.
Even though your rage and your cause is justified, don’t rely on anger; anger is a false friend. It will betray and abandon you every time. Create a nationwide political movement to end police violence, murder and abuse and solemnly commit yourselves to carrying it out. The goal is to apply immense political and financial pressure on the politicians and the business community to get them to clean up their houses and get rid of the criminals in their ranks.When this blows over, don’t just go home or back to your college campuses and daily lives and forget young Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and hundreds of thousands of others whose right to life were snuffed out just for being Black.
Make organized protest a lifetime commitment and never let up or let evil win by simply waiting you and your anger out.
