Previously: When we were last with Gerald in his hometown, New Orleans, he was back out on the streets, running with a new friend, Minew.
You always catch somebody selling guns for 30, 40 dollars. You might get an AK for $150.
It’s just like if I was home today or tomorrow, I could get a gun just like I was going to order chicken. It’s plain and simple. It’s more open down there than up here.
Then, when you a street guy like me, they know. Even the police know. “He got one. We don’t know where it is, but we know he close to one.” Cause they know how I live.
One day this police they call McNeill… I never agree with no police officer, but I agree with McNeill. McNeill was a narcotic police. We call him “Mac”.
McNeill was the type a police he’ll see us shooting dice in the project — and the kids, you can tell when McNeill in the project, the kids like “Hey, Mr. McNeill!” And he come on a dice game, he take all our money, but he don’t take us to jail, he pass it out to the kids. He tell the kids, he say, “Hey! If any one of these guys touch you, you let us know.”
There’s plenty of time, he used to take my money and give it to the kids. I used to holla, “I’m gonna get that little bit right there.” But he was a fair cop.
He was so cool to the game.
And if you go to court with McNeill, this how powerful this dude was, if you go to court with him, you better take whatever they offer you. Cause McNeill don’t walk in the courtroom lying. It’s gonna be the truth, and the judge be knowing that.
I always see him, and he used to always speak to me, “What’s up, Third Ward?” He say, “Don’t think you’re slick.”
And then when he see me and Minew together, he say, “How you two motherf***as come together?”
I say, “Man… That’s my man.”
So we kicked the bobo. Mac, he might a had a few rats out there, but I thought if he messed with rats, he cracked the team himself. He’s like 48 hours, he’s gonna crack it.
I remember one day, we was out in there. And one of our partners was telling him, “Mac, man, shit.”
Mac told him, “If you with me, wah wah wah, that’s your word.”
If you didn’t really know, you’d think he was black. He had more black in him than white boy.
That’s what I respect about McNeill.
He told a few guys, big dope dealers, “When I get ya, I’m gonna get you right.”
I never forget the day he got up Juan Flower.
He had sold a lot of narcotics to undercover police. But he never did know that they had an indictment and a warrant out for him.
He never did know. They had about 37 counts of distribution of heroin to a police officer, but he didn’t know.
So he wind up with 190 years in the penitentiary for messing with the dude, Rev. He was running with a guy called Rail. Rev, like a preacher. Rail was the big man.
Rev was a good guy, but Juan was running for him. He just was really running for the high, cause Rev was making all the money.
But the Feds already know when they come for him. I seen him that morning when they snatched the dude up. I’m like, “Damn. He got hit hard.”
I told Minew, “Man, you gotta watch the Feds.”
He say, “We know who they after.”
But coming back to the story, my man Minew, he was telling me about this dude…
McNeill come to Juan Flower, and told him. He say, “I’m gonna give you a heads up on it. You know we got you under surveillance.”
Mean they wachin’ him.
“We know who you dealin’ from. I hope you know what you just got. Is any day when they drop the warning to come get you and gettin’ you.”
It was a Thursday or Friday back in the back of the projects, in the Caillou an it’s like you shopping in the Mall back there on Friday. Everybody moving. Dope moving. The hookers moving. It’s like the whole project begin to sell.
So, they dropped it, they must have dropped it, come’ got him. He tried to run.
But matter of fact, McNeill told him, “It’s the same bullshit I told you over 10 days ago. So you couldn’t run from it.”
After they had they case, Juan Flower got 190 years. The girl got a life sentence that was with him. Rev got life.
Everybody got tied down. I don’t know the day that they home, or what’s the situation, but I know that’s a lotta time.
After that, Minew was kicking the bobo to me about, “Man, I don’t know if you know Clayton, Sam Clayton.”
To be continued. Anderson’s first book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina,” is available here on Amazon.
