King Tone on Leading Latin Kings, Love for King Blood, Getting 13 Years (Full Interview)

all right here we go we have activist and former leader of the Latin Kings King tone in the building yeah yeah what's up what's up yeah well uh pleasure to have you cuz I remember growing up I saw the documentary that they did on you in HBO years ago this was in the 90s I believe right yes yes 91 he started Norden he started like 95 96 they came out 2003 okay there we go there we go just a very powerful documentary as someone that was living on the west coast at the time that really didn't know about the Latin Kings at all this was before the internet and everything else like that it was very uh just a very eye-opening documentary and it really showed kind of the complex nature of who you are in your position in their organization yeah you know in any time when you're coming through and uh you make enough to be part of something that's a part revolutionary but Portnoy's because through the historical attacks of getting labeled as a gang from being a social club or group in the days that when we started we had to fight that war so you're automatically criminal is what I'm trying to say when if you took that label or the responsibility to recreate it so you know that that's it's a challenge right it's you know especially when you join something you know that's already has its history sure so let's go ahead and get into the whole history of the Latin Kings so the Latin Kings were originally formed in Chicago in Humboldt Park around 1950 no I don't I'm not sure if that's that late but it they started around the 60s when the Black Power movement was going and when they already had in Chicago the college kids going in the street and in power that's where young Lords was born out of and the rest of the power groups were forming there the Hoover's the Larry's we were all and the kids were coming up at that time so I say it's the sixties really late 60 after the Vietnam War they came back in these were their power groups they started forming to coexist in the nearest neighborhood you know that they you know being Latino was a tough situation so that's really when they started just as a social club around there the 60s I believe well originally it started as a group to kind of protect Latinos and to stand up for civil rights but at one point it kind of started to have a criminal element to it well you know I think criminal element in a poor society so let's say my for my my example King tone wasn't uh didn't I wasn't born King tone King tone was made and created and one of the things that created it was East New York in the 70s and 80s you couldn't have a nickname named bocce so if you bocce in East New York or in the street and you got four sisters like you said I might have been coming home with a little bit of crap black guys so you stop creating what they do in New York you create a label you create a character that like Yoda is a lot different being called King tone then Pachi they want to say or tone in the streets so what I'm saying yeah and I think that's the product and that's in a poor neighborhood that's the quickest way a man that's been caller speak in my time that was the word not educated not empowered you look to these power groups and you look to these people even though the element is slinging numbers hustling the numbers with the Italians run into the spot if it was you know the guy in the duck corner slinging dope a lot of people say but those are criminals growing up in their eighties in the 70s in East New York seventy fifth Precinct Police Officers were selling dope my guys were selling dope so what's the environment I'm learning I'm learning that's the product that gives me a future here and that's the one they're letting into my neighborhood so what I'm trying to say is a product that I think yeah you know criminal enterprises of criminal opportunities are offered to me and people like me when we're in those neighborhoods a lot quicker than a real opportunity like education equality so they're at an element after they killed are greatly like Malcolm X and and Martin Luther King's they got mad at Chicago man like they did in the rides in California burn this [ __ ] down ain't nobody listening now we're the bad guys so that's what's key tone is unique I've learned from them and reading is coming up perception is as good as burning a building as making the city spend money watching me if I'm gonna burn it right so good with it it's a good way to put it yeah well at one point the Latin Kings kind of broke off and there's a lot of different sects in Chicago and then King Gino was the one that started to unite everybody so that's the history of Chicago which a lot of it what is known is I learned it like you reading and in learning and that man now is uh he's as I'm seeing and I'm hearing he's reformed like myself and he's doing great and you know to speak about him on his past but I think a lot of people don't understand that a lot of these power groups like Oscar Lopez who's just been pardoned and brought home from Chicago they were all in Vietnam war those are people were drafted and it was the time after when we started screaming for Rights what I'm trying to say so we had that element that we went and we fought a war for someone and for somebody who didn't love us who we fought for and we came back home and we found out we were still speaks and everything and they was they still giving us the opportunity of equality so when I guess G is done because you know when you come from Vietnam a lot of them came with heroin heroin addicts and stuff so the heroes came back with the cancer they gave them in the wall so and you a new God came out more intelligent more more understanding that those things heroin those things shouldn't be part of us and I guess in Chicago that's when they try to reorganize it from getting lost and trying to find our identity to walk this wall and give us you know things that are respectable to act like men not gangbangers did you know King G no at all personally no I never met him you know I know him through a he's a hero he's uh he's a man and you know uh they praise criminals whose trunk half of this country put a criminal into an office but then when there's a criminal running a criminal enterprise they get surprised well right John F Kennedy his father made all his money through bootlegging which is essentially drug dealing at the time so you know these men I think these men in that time and I think you know you you about my age I'm saying 60s 70s and 80s was a tough time for Latinos Puerto Ricans Cubans cuz you had the black move in you had the white you know like they say simple as black and white goddamn it is not there's something in the middle of that they would call Puerto Ricans they were humans they were crow Mexicans and we were trying to find our identity in this city that's why I love Zulu nation because you will see Porto Rican brothers getting contacted all Cuba libres with their black roots and it gave us this unity to find but I mean actually a Puerto Rican like body or governor or mayor that ran in the 60s that Puerto Rican pride was injured and and we got abused and what I'm saying they fought for that the Geno's these these dudes that came back in Chicago and they see the young lords and all of them as a people said we're not taking this [ __ ] no more man but then in that war finding out after you fight that war you fight you find out that your greatest enemy isn't the black brother isn't that the disciples is the system they won't let us break this this this crazy circle we find ourselves in cuz I try to change it and I fought for it like they did and you find that my greatest enemy was Giuliani and the sister saying a gangbanger can't change he don't supposed to wanna change and guess what we're not gonna let him change so some of us choose to stay in a stinkin thinkin criminal mind because come on some of us become American we come into that part where what we want is greater than the values and I'm just saying that who you are is what you got in this in this country basically a lot for and poor kids to compete with an iPhone 11 and they own the bus and they see that your son got it he's slinging it like it's nothing and he's like wow you know what I'm just saying we got to compete in the Kings lost a way but I mean in the lost the way where we thought that we had to fulfill the role that the poor community provided us and sometimes if you explore there like I did myself you get lost in that world you know what I'm saying and you got to find yourself out of there if you want to you know have a successful future well King Gino ended up getting 30 to 60 years for murder and then he was convicted of I guess trying to to run a drug empire behind bars and they gave him life after that so at this point King Gino is gonna serve out the rest of his days behind bars unfortunately but as you said I guess he's reformed his ways at this point yeah I think if you guys said this is something like that for community now like you just said look what they sent this lord Gino to right for killing and to and as they've been they accused him of doing and he's doing it and he stood up and he's paying for what he's done wrong and he's gone through the programs they make they making him jump through hoops but I remember when I was in Tara Hut and I walked the yard with some cats that were involved in bombing the that the work the World Trade Center beef for the first time I know of cats that crossed the country that were white in new in America in New York that went in forward to town brought him out and 20 years is home he went out he fought against us and because his father had money he went there 20 years in the feds and they didn't put him in ADX Danny bury that cat that's patriotic when you take a cat like that and you show him you never cross us and you bury him no a black leader Italian leader of a gang they deserve ADX they deserve to get 250 years 24 hours lockdown but cuz in their own neighborhood growing up or there's a story to everything all of that and if you look at the walls all I'm saying to you is look at the harsh punishments you get because you call Lord Gino or your caulking blood but you don't cut you don't get it for the for the Sammy the Bulls you don't get it for them they get their deals they get their breaks so yeah so like I said again I don't know his case I'm younger than him he's he's you know what he's I think he's like me you know as a leader you you take the good with the bad and you take what you didn't you don't and you shut up and you carry your cross because you fought for your people and then you repent for the things you did wrong and you do what he's doing you face the world and you get better he's loving his people his kids so I you know who he was isn't the man I see today I see who you you're not your greatest mistake I could bet you know if I take a picture your whole life after you commit a stupid crime I could find [ __ ] say yo dude that was some stupid [ __ ] you did so what I'm saying some do bigger mistakes to another but I don't know if what they he did or they confused them is is true but I know this is true today that he's a he's a man doing what he's supposed to live in his life and I just I wish him the best because you know you know he deserves to walk around breve and have opportunities to love on people well the the Chicago faction of the Latin Kings was known as the Lord you know from New York right yeah absolutely I'm just saying I just but I just think that the Chicago history of the of the Latin Kings cuz it leads into the New York story Oh Cassie what she said I know what were the well the Latin Kings in general a rumor to have 50,000 members and the Chicago faction was considered the largest Hispanic street gang in the United States the largest expel the large is expected yeah now is the ms-13 right over 18 then it was the Crips right then who was the blood they took my 50 and they gave it to the Bloods then it's a does 50,000 that gave it to thick you see because a gang problem is as good as only if it's the problem they're gonna say they're gonna attack and claim a war against before I was a war on drugs today is the war on gang tomorrow is what was the war but they never took a war on poverty they never got the balls to come out here and say what's making you create these things that you don't come to us who is calling you ourselves the government and the providers on your worst day you could come to us and we could give you a better way than the dope dealer you don't get my point [ __ ] to walk through a welfare building and get coupons give me a package sucker let's go you know I've interviewed a lot of uh you know a lot of gang members over the years I've interviews Crips Bloods gd's biddies so forth and so forth and the one thing that seems to be very different about the Latin Kings is the structure of what you guys laid out you have Cruz [ __ ] Cruz will be a shock collar and og and maybe a couple of his homies same thing with the Bloods gd's have you know their block but no one's ever answering to a higher entity there's no hierarchy but the one thing that that's completely different it seems about the Latin Kings is you guys actually set up an organization where there are heads at the top and people knew what their position was and people had to answer and so forth can you describe how that organization came together from your point of view I thought you would describe in Washington or the White House I don't know is that it like to say that but uh when Martin Luther King marched he marched with structure and with people who knew what was a non-violent march you D just woke up in the church say are we gonna be nonviolent you have to teach him not to be nonviolent that takes people in leaders to be called and to teach people how to do things like when hands up don't shoot I said before where we were training when you create these leaders that started movements to look like King tone to again speaking that they got a say we've seen this structure before we seen the successes could create so all they did was duplicate the enemy structure that they used against them to decide but used it to govern themselves to say if they're gonna say with this we got morals we should do this we should have the right to to speak out we you know what's funny is people think that we're some illiterate or we is a bikers club the Hells Angels other groups I'm just saying is so it's so weird when is the gang is black or Mexican or something like I structures different from the other ones that that's been existent what's different from ours is that we there's people who have structures that's following there's not there's traditions that are believed and I think when you take culture and you say the Black Panthers you see a picture in your mind you see that that's power behind that name so when you protect and you build structures really there was places that we've organized to say this there's Latin Kings here you're not gonna come with your little baton and your little badge and beat the [ __ ] out of us we're gonna fight back here you're not gonna have us in the jail lockdown 23-7 you don't give us nothing no pencils no nothing you don't beat on us the good guy hits back oh here gangster now he hit back now oh he's a gangster he don't want to get beaten no more he's a gangster I'm just saying so structure was the structure for like I said before any social club respect your elders listen to the traditions like imagine now with with all those things imaginative all those indictments our elders that knew what they knew before us like the young Lords went through Co Intel imagine if Martin Luther King and all them left us guys a roadmap of these things and these these trap artists and and gang with doing for that you get what I'm saying falling into the image that's pertain to you but yeah we had structure because structures was demanded in any community absolutely well fast forward to the early eighties there was a Latin King from Chicago named Louis Philippe aka King blood you know so I guess you've gotten some trouble in Chicago and he moved to New York and then once he got to New York he was convicted of killing his girlfriend prison uh-huh uh he had a case he had a murder case forget a murder case yes so he ended up in New York and at that point he actually created a new set of the Latin Kings can you talk about that no I I what I could talk about I think you mentioned in Louis Philippe who's uh he was another man that uh he's from Cuba is Amari Leto his mother father never knew them and when cute Cuba closes Gaynor Fidel Castro send everybody over he landed like you know for most of the kids if you see Scarface it was those times and he went to Chicago not like George II know I don't know his Chicago roots or what he's done in Chicago that but I when I when I've heard of Louis Philippe King blood he was already a gentleman during that time that big and like I said before and i teaching grow up grout that later we'll talk about you are not your greatest mistake all of these men you mention what they've been charged or what they ran into dealing with life in a property state or or she and nobody makes excuses for things we do because none of those many of you go to their case or disrespectful or nine they were remorseful and they took what they had coming now once again what you're not saying for lucid louis-philippe imagine sitting in the courtroom judge Martin is sitting there yeah Billy the Kid did it all these Western good or Bonnie and Clyde there was gangsters in America before the Latin King folks you make movies about them cats you honor them you played them so Louis Philippe cuz he's a lanky he ain't got the bodies none of these cats had a hundred and forty five years forty five years no human contact forty five years no phone call forty to five years no male 45 years that's not a draconian sentence when I'm once again you don't treat traitors like that what is the signal you sending to black and Latino Americans and gangs right this is what I'm saying so if he did wrong and I was down to trying I looked in his eyes and he took his and he apologized but they left no room for repentance they left no room for growth then come on what you faking you get so what I'm just telling you luís Filipe at this some mistakes and you leave is the story where you know what I teach my youngsters who are walking and getting involved in these power groups when you're trying to find out who you are cuz you're already in and you touched everything and you want to make him be somebody big and you go into the graveyard to find out about dead men's bones and talk about the King tones the Lord Gino's and all them don't disturb the [ __ ] bones cuz you didn't live through it you don't know why who told who killed who didn't all you know is what they tell you in the police report and what the DA stories saying the stories usually told by the victor not the loser so I wanted to tell his story I wanted to say he is a man he loved on me he loved like other Mannie he did nobody knew his circumstance do I get mad when he make mistake hell yeah like my mom got mad at me but I know that if they give him the chance to have someone to educate and real of them and rebuild them through this process and that he's never coming home how does saying in that cell what was the signal what what did judge Martin the DA the DA versed I didn't even ask for that judge Martin said no I did so I'm just telling you that imagine the signal is sent to all the people I brought to see that that day to hearing or you support him know what I'm showing my kids is what they do to you when you're a king blood in a ketone and you slit and you mess up what you do is ten times a sin then a man that walks in with ak-47 somewhere in the [ __ ] suburbs and shoots up a [ __ ] Walmart ain't nobody saying [ __ ] and nobody's talking about gun rights ain't nobody's talking who put the gun and louis-philippe his hands and on Geno's hands how the [ __ ] he got there he got a serial number you could trace it to the [ __ ] who solely those dudes we don't talk about cuz like Johnson and Johnson says in his commercial we take care of you from the cradle to the grave we poisoned you with our powder and then we gave you [ __ ] dope what they gave them they sued them they get a day file bankruptcy next you still don't dope I mean we got the president say he gonna find out where is that it's one of your lobbyists you dirty [ __ ] the pharmaceutical companies the biggest dope pusher in the United States of America and you Barry King blood little things in life that make you mad you know who he may met mr. Giuliani the one over there Russia doing over there [ __ ] around being a crook huh well this leads me into your story my story all right sorry when they talk about keep blood a sinner that's still buried alive I get emotional that's my [ __ ] I love him and guess what you want no son never met him never touch them isn't that who Jesus had with a bunch of killers the prostitutes and [ __ ] no-goods y'all hypocrites you hate a crook when he's black and Puerto Rican you love him when he's white and blonde and rich and I'm pissed off about it you lucky and 20 years ago I'll be looking to set something off on Fifth Avenue and do like the young Louis truck just load it with garbage but you see that's what I'm trying to tell you for real the Latin Kings too son was a curse to me save me when I was a crackhead when I was lost when I gave up on the game when I was already disgusted they were my Boy Scouts they with my Marines and if you don't understand you're not from where I'm from well you grew up in East New York yes East New York never around always walk you know right day by freaking Avenue oh did you get off on Euclid and you there I was right on the main strip I'm a strip kid I'm the Avenue God I mean for those that don't know East New York is a very rough area you know home of Mike Tyson and a lot of other so jay-z was the other side we'll call these New York you have bisaya tilde projects you have you have you know you have Cypress Hills that was right down my block that you got all that you know that the avenues is there that was a tough neighborhood tough place to live oh yeah I just interviewed Brian glaze Gibbs who came out of same area and he has quite a quite a serious story as well but you had a very religious mother she was a born-again Christian yes to this day and Jesus I guess your dad your dad wrote for a bakery yes pala Gonia is the best style but is a whole block bakery it's pretty amazing back in the days when the Italians were Italians right yep well I you went to school but I guess you didn't actually know how to spell your own name until you were in high school yeah so so you just weren't oh sorry go ahead in those days you know they used to push us forward but in third grade I already went through something with a certain teacher that to this [ __ ] mr. Chodesh I know his name see that people have impressions in a young man's life before they know it he became a great teacher I think in a principal but when he was with me he looked like he was still learning cuz he was pretty much an [ __ ] and he used to call me names he wasn't supposed to he was a bully at some sort and one day I said [ __ ] you I could be a drug dealer instead of being here be embarrassed by your white ass you don't even know me and some days I talk like that because that's how they used to talk speak why and you got these teachers from the lyla coming and don't want to talk to us and cheaters mistreat us so I third grade already was my mother thought I was in school but you know if you have 56 days on count you could pass those days so 9th grade I'll teach hacks me that's when you needed your little homeroom card and I was on PCP I was in I was already all laying in the streets at that age and she noticed there's a problem here the first person who ever cared enough tax me yo what's up you got a problem so I ran and that's when high school I stopped you're not saying so yeah so I started high school and John first my one was John J up on 7th Avenue down in Red Hook the high school I was in the CJ program they kicked me out and then I ended up in Franklin K Lane East New York and that's where basically already know you know I was already in the streets after third grade I was exploring you know exploring what makes the world turn in my neighborhood well you mentioned the PCP you were also doing crack around that time right no no so when I was younger crack crack was after the agent when I was younger I was pretty much out there slinging like most of us you know we wanted I walk this way the adidas the gazelle is the sheepskin so we were you know we weren't a little marijuana you know we made our money and and at the end what really happened was we were selling right by our parents and we transformed our whole lives transformed and as much money as I made I couldn't get over that guilt my father told me values are more than money I'd rather sell bread then be out there like you looking like that you're getting disowned you get it and trying to coach me in but I was too already gone so I lost my values so in that Miss conscience when I had it all the most I felt the emptiest I said let me see what it is to be the other side of this discord the crackhead in the matter the one that disappears the one nobody talks to no one I was the dealer now let me be the crack here right and I wanted cuz you you you let your family down you let everybody done you know Spanish community and how they were they were tight-knit it and when you fall into that it would it really hurt their pride their Latino pride so I used drugs to drown out all those things that sling in and all that brings that world brings nothing but sad and sorrow death so I've made a choice to smoke and then crack was no joke it was based then you call it crack now because it's the familiar name us ballers used to base as you know the stink of kids used to base the cops used to base the room was the room was further one and all because that time everybody was dirty in East New York well as you're dealing and using with that came the prison time so at what point did you start getting arrested and going jail and juvenile and and so forth well I believe in our 89-86 I have what you call coz I don't call bears just when I started like staying a little while but I've been being picked up brought to the island let go over our from Brooklyn Court but you know as you keep getting them and you get more severe then you find yourself in Rikers Island and busts in you get a glimpse of oh this is what it looked like and by then usually if you're a normal person that shit's just scared the [ __ ] out of you and you don't want to go back over that bridge but when you're me and you're that kid that already tasted it and you say oh that's the next level to make them believe how mad I am and I'm ready I'm hard I'm ready to go I'm scared of what's on the other side of the fence so in about 80 I think 87 88 I went in already a couple of a crackhead bus small [ __ ] cuz I already did my big thing already did the money got my you know my paper felony now I had like four cases [ __ ] cases slinging out there doing the [ __ ] cuz I'm drugged I'm in the bullpens in Rakas island and you see who's weak who's strong you know the story and there was just Latin Kings around already then and you know of course like I tell my kids trying to act like what I thought you're supposed to act when you're in a place like that I know school king bumi decides it I seen you you prove you fire it but you're stupid you really don't know what you want right he knew read this and when I couldn't really say that's why you mad cuz you stupid and I never heard of somebody tell it to me like that you just mad cuz you stupid but you then he gave me the food you come from great people like Lolita LeBron ox ago he told me what Puerto Rico was but my mother and father never took the time because they were so I found an identity in not the Kings in the history of my being told by a Latin King who learned it that way some people joined these groups because they lost and they want to be found some join for protection because they scanned the jail some join whatever I joined because it was what made me fear I read the Bible hundred times I was it on I was in Teen Challenge all that [ __ ] none of that touch me like that man's gracious love when I was in my Lords point and taught me how to read in five days I memorized something never did that in my life he didn't hit me he didn't beat me he was patient he taught me how to do it in rhythm come on black is the knowing of the ancient passing foot huh baby season got no [ __ ] rhythm when you match the song to what really sound a makes when you learn to spell we learn different from that and he took the time to find out how to make me interested in being smart reading books and it sounds like a movie right it sounds like Malcolm X and all of them if you run into the right character like everywhere else mr. Cho dish could have been him in third grade but that sucker was mad at somebody right he probably would want to be the next creative son Brayden ended up being a teacher third grade with Speaks so he was mad at me so yeah man in the island they took me in they clean me up my man [ __ ] who's a doctor now who later works with us in Brooklyn Navy Yard nobody knows what Brooklyn Navy you always like people talk about Broca's Island Brooklyn Navy I was crazy so I got a guy that when I walked in and my man heard it just to show you I was cracked up awaiting my seventh arrest they sent me to 5j cuz I always fought in Ireland so they sent me there and [ __ ] is dances I'm gonna use that's my man cop diesel and he looked at me say yo you're not gonna stay around here like that you want to get a haircut then there was an empty buck next and I said this too is trying me man see you're asleep here power rank understanding of the environment he's pulling me in he's saying you're Puerto Rican you belong here if you go there you're gonna get hurt look you look a little [ __ ] up let's clean you up let's get you ready for what you're in the gods wasn't gonna teach me nobody was gonna you get my point these are men who made an influence on who I was going to become in Rakas Island a greater criminal or a man that finds himself in an identity to come out and [ __ ] King mafia these are great people that had an opportunity to hurt me but help me in my weakest point so yeah that's where I found it I seen it I I studied it I ain't I embrace it to this day I love it I care for it I'm relevant I don't want to be involved I won't be like you I want a million young kids and power groups so here King tone said you could grow up out of that they grow up out of the Boy Scouts they grow up out of college they grow up out of their gangs grow up out of yours it's alright to grow up out of it and then let's help those that are going to go through that process but you as a land King and an elder or blood elder your true G you still then you go home come here son you walk in the wrong road cuz we still there to teach like it was supposed to happen in a healthy community we educate us real heed us like the Nipsey Hussle 's were trying to do like these men that find salvation try to do in the communities that's what I found I didn't want the Kings to be a criminal enterprise I wanted them to be a movement well you join the Latin Kings in prison mmm at what point did you and King blood start to connect cuz you mentioned you never met him in person so but you do you do have some sort of relationship with him yeah we have a relationship but later on at that point I really didn't connect and it was just we knew that why he he was there and why we United and the oppression that was growing more than impression jail powwow because I want to re-educate the power groups with this opportunity to in jail it ain't are suppressing each other for the phones or that that's a sad excuse for the reality of is the power the CEO doesn't do his job he gives the phone book to us he gives everything to us to run while he sits his ass there and he lets us fight for why he's supposed to take care of so my point to is if we racial profile each other in these institutions as Bloods Kings Puerto Ricans black that's why one of them suckers could run a unit of a hundred and fifty of us and we're the baddest of the baddest all of a sudden we become good citizens for them why we chop each other up and when I go into those cages and see that that's not what made me tick Maya made me tick why are we fighting and why can't the weak eat with the strong why can't we make house gangs that support have you been here the longest you get on the phone when it's your turn and as big as you are when you walk in this unit you wait til it's your turn to have seniority if not ain't one of us gonna fight you all twelve of us is gonna beat the blood out your ass and get out of here cuz you're not gonna take from a weak person that's what Latin Kings about that's what Bloods was created for that's what all this was created for but we find comfort in hurting something that's easier to attack than the people who's oppressing us into those places and our decisions so that's what I'm saying there in the island and all that that's what's going on really man you know what I'm saying it's a Miseducation of why we existed or why we fought each other [ __ ] ain't important no more the purpose that I'm trying to teach you is if we won't wait for racial profile each other in the street on there you know the difference we can make maybe in two or three years on the next election by doing safe spaces for power groups doing safe safe passage for the voters whatever hood you from whatever color you from you could well go vote you get my point that's what I want to see in our power groups so I just want to touch on king blood you know before we move on so in New York the Latin Kings started to grow as an organization more and more members they started to swell and then right around 1993 an internal war started a break out in the Latin Kings and I guess seven people seven nine Kings members were killed and there was one murder in particular where a guy was decapitated set on fire and his Latin King tattoo was carved off of his body and his head was never actually been found again King blood was blamed for ordering some of these hits and he got the most severe sentence since World War two he was sentenced to 250 years in prison well then Donald and the first 45 years were to be served in solitary confinement and then 39 other Latin King members got about 20 years each do you remember that time vaguely cuz you know I was on probation coming home and working at that time I was blessed to have the stars blessed me with good leaders when I came home that were running my neighborhood that was a that was well educated and what it did and and understood the situation while I was in with being homeless coming back from jail not being able to come to my mother's house when I came home they gave me the space I needed to uh to progress and and and staying home you know what I'm saying so no like most to use I picked up the paper in the morning and you see that and you see people you love and you care for like what the Christians call for them the coming of the Messiah that was the coming of operation you know king blood and and taking so it's like you go and you come and you see people missing wives asleep in 3:00 in the morning or when she turned around he you know he's not there and I know you're seeing it as all they're getting indicted in the crib but I'm saying the human part of what happens when these indictment comes in these accusation but once again people must understand and this is where I'm going and I don't is an oyster but I'm gonna make sure people understand this he was in Attica in a cell with his letters and phone calls be monitored in their prison like they killed that rape I mean like that rapist killed himself in MCC by mistake and they left alone he was in a Cell there were people copying his letters that means there was people copying keeping and being accessory to murder because if they called one of them suckers and I don't mean as them suckers because they were the victim or the one committing the crime but both of them were suckers to the game because they already made a copy of the letter that's what they accused them right so my point Sheila I just want to see everybody takes out the the other player in the game so what they did let's save the first thing happened right what they did oh wow these guys are real let's see if it happens again but if it was a 16 year old white girl that got put in that situation who ever done where they've ever been another victim where they'd ever been I'm just saying I think they say tional eyes that guy's murder which is God rest his soul man and you know that almighty got him we don't you know sorry I don't know him I just like in the papers or anybody you talk in you hood he's a king or whatever you call a friend or foe like we say like an indictment we don't wish that on nobody that's why we say that could be in and that's why we question justice and was it then who was it really King so what I'm saying a man that was in a Cell got to get accused for seven murders so that means seven people they saying he had to send right that's what they accusing them of so the sender's that came in brought him and tickled the tongue of a [ __ ] up man in a similar situation and came out all they make deals with the DA so that made it righteous confusing confusing [ __ ] for a lot of Latin Kings and plus when these things happen and that's what confused me when I heard the case and that's why I fought and I wanted and I wanted to pursue justice to see if they were dealing with him fairly and it was blind not if I supported or did support that's none of your [ __ ] business that's like voting so you could judge me if I support and redemption and making him want to get again oh then you can't be that good cuz you you believe you get what I'm saying so yeah I think he blooded it to end it there the sentence is draconian man he made a mistake he apologized he's been there how long 98 ya know but remember in 89 he was in Attica that's you so he's been in a shoe a solid test since 89 okay he's been through the programs he's doing everything I don't know what's happening to him but this I know I was in the fence there's a cycle but he's not getting a release so I just have a humanity again right and let's see where he's at let's a pastor let somebody touch him let him love on him let him give him a hug kiss his [ __ ] head cuz if it was your child you'd be wishing somebody get up in there with him regardless what he done that's how I see him you get it and I never met him again so when he started making contacting me is like everybody so when I see you what's up you doing good I hear you getting shocked I hear you change your life you got it not every letter was a letter to somebody about like they make a scene ignorance hate that's not the key blood I knew well the story goes was that while he was on trial he gave the blessings for you to be the next leader of the Latin Kings nice just you're right is that true it's on the court minutes right you know about court ministers and all that yeah a lot of questions we asked I answered and I'm not talking to you I'm talking for everybody many moons ago yeah I think that's what he did in uh I never shied away from that responsibility because if there's a thousand people outside and then the man that they believed them and they loved and they will go anywhere for just disappeared the Christians took him and he named me leader but I was supposed to do had to go down there [ __ ] leave my community I had to suck it up where I was the loss and didn't know what I was gonna do I went down I prayed and I said wherever you go we're gonna love you we're gonna remember you we don't have to do as you did America got a pass to you know I mean I finally forefathers should be you could have said to some of them [ __ ] to 145 years in a Cell in them days they were treasonous to against the king I'm just saying they healthy and delicious people in America and I'm not trying to get off group is that they make it seem like because the land Kings had a past we can't have a future America had a past and they got a future they calling the people who own this land immigrants and getting away with it so I'm just saying the King's been labeled we know that we know we've made mistakes the real Kings have tooken it apologize dinner [ __ ] came home and trying to teach our youth hey remember why we really were put into existence it was not to send you to jail was to take you out it wasn't to make quick money it was to give the right to make money and that's what we tried and that's the rebranding I try to teach well 1995 you can come I'm sorry you stay on course oh yeah of course of course so it's 1995 and you become the leader of the Latin Kings in New York how old were you at the time well my 30s mid 30s that was 90 okay and you notice that Inca that's a title some that people use you know we so what we so I like to educate cuz you throwing words around Incas was a dynasty they were one of the strong as it delicious peoples so we just that's what I was teaching rename yourself rebrand yourself learn who they were learn what true traditions who were their gods what did they do but in that sense that that's why they used that name for us it was a prideful name to say he's you know he's gonna help lead us but there was always more people that I felt as a community if you learn my movement was to bring other people on board like National National Congress of Puerto Rican rights and preachy Perez the new Panther Black Panther movement the Nation of Islam National Action Network the Zulu Nation donita's that's what the [ __ ] I was about and not that he wasn't about his sacrifice just gave me a door in the perfect opportunity enlightenment where had an opportunity to lead and to see if we could practice right where we preach what we want what we really wanted to say and that's what I think we that was yeah that's what I was trying when I when I had the power to lead the nation or to give my ultimate advice or the route we should take for a better tomorrow well when you started as leader of the Latin Kings you wanted to move the organization away from violence and crime yeah everybody does that's every other immigrant and every gang in America like you seen the gangs of them the gangs of New York when they were top hats in bowtie it started criminal enterprise then you find your way in America and you get legal and you start learning to live and you make so I'm just saying every every every community and immigrant goes through that evolution the last law usually is written by the first man who broke it I've never heard that term before the last law is usually written by the first man who broke it yeah no guns well well you talked about how being the leader of the Latin Kings and announcing that you want the organization to move away from crime and violence actually became somewhat dangerous for yourself you said now even some of my own people want me out of the way they think I've gotten soft and when I'm not worrying about them I'm worried about Giuliani's damn police they're trying to do anything to send me back to prison so what kind of pushback did you get from the organization with their stance what it wasn't much because like everything once you are once you say what the reach appear as Widow with the people who knew about this thing they started teaching me to watch those around you that become your enemy all of a sudden because they usually Cohen tells those other signs of P would have been infiltrated a court that did something wrong and now are in the process of dealing with they need to give information to take of course like every organization we thought that evolving and moving on to moving from that would not let us to support those that usually in jail in everything think that's the only economy that somebody they believe only a crook or take care of crook you don't get my point when it's really the opposite because if you usually find out and you acts every King who gets indicted or arrested the ones who take care of them are their friends and their family who wasn't in the nation not as bad but the nation carries on so it isn't the crooks and the things that take care you usually after you fall is the legit person in your life that always been there so my point I was telling Majan if the Kings becomes that legit person so that means we could care for you more in a way in there than us doing it was thinking thinking and these are the steps and the painful steps we will have to take to get there and something is growing pain like you learn like you said it's saying things you should have said or being too vibrant too colorful caused anything now you know there was a street interrupters cure violence all this except it's a Facebook the gram I was new I was different the message was Church big loud proud [ __ ] with us we'll make you mad you got my point so that's that's really where where I was heading with it right and I think right around that time is when the documentary was starting to get filmed on you the one for HBO so here you are you're the leader of the Latin Kings in New York you have a little girl who was look like she was about four or five at the time yeah and you're having these these meetings I think in a church where you have all the Latin Kings and they're doing you know you're talking about civil rights and you're talking about Latino pride and one is is doing the award order a you know it was really just a very powerful scene that you actually developed there but at the same time you were being charged with conspiracy conspiracy to sell and distribute heroin yes and you watched the documentary and you're originally on house arrest and the charges are you know the trial is coming up and so forth and then at one point they show a video tape where undercover cop is recording you secretly basically in the middle of a drug deal and at that point your lawyer said well that that's it we have to take a plea deal this is there's no wind with a videotape Ron Kuby is the name of my lawyer good lawyer real master with me to the end always helped me make the best choices that was best to do what justice was gonna try to do to to do the best what we could do with what justice that planned for me well here you are you have this large large organization and you're preaching you know no violence no drug dealing let's turn this organization around but you yourself are actually drug dealing during that time how do you explain that well I'm not gonna explain much but I'm gonna say this that that answers your question the way so kids will learn because they gotta learn right there's a story behind everything the tape you seen and when you filmed and you all saw that I used to work on five twenty Ron Kuby was on the seventh floor I was on the ninth for brian ting before that if you know it years ago I worked for MTV I've worked what I'm saying why I was being indicted I had jobs and as I started getting more involved with the mothers against police brutality and getting really political but losing all those things I gained on parole once I was announced the leader I lost my apartment my mother-in-law threw me out you get it who was the next man on the totem pole living with them around him around my own children I was powerless folks listen still didn't have a license couldn't drive a car couldn't vote was on paper what I'm trying to show you is look at the box I I got in I was poor King tone with all those kids you see screaming and willing to die for me as much as the movement and anybody else that's their brother now cuz I'm King tone they only died for me but in the movement go forward I'm trying to point I'd rather be broke and do what I always knew to take care of myself then send one of them to rob a bank to a Trap House to ruin them that's like I told the judge Reggie in front of her what I learned was like many of veterans that maybe they again a roadmap our great messengers that sometimes the message is bigger than the messenger and the message ain't the bad thing is the man and sometimes the man's need selfishly or really needs him but he still does a bad decision cuz if you act me if I wouldn't make the choice then that I did today to save my daughters and them to have a place to live I would have done 15 years in the shelter with them but my mind at that time there's real king tone acting somebody for [ __ ] money to help me pay the rent see there's the side of the gangster you don't want to know yeah I don't want to betray the broke one the ones trying to fight thousands of followers but yet he broke he ain't got a caddy he ain't wearing chains he's taking the train yeah I mean that was one of the things that I really noticed that documentary is that here you are supposedly this huge gang leader and when you when you look at gang leaders are usually like the Tony Montana's the you know the Frank Lucas is and and they have minks on and mansions and Rolls Royces but you were in a really small dingy apartment with your girl and your daughter and it's I couldn't really understand it at the time so it did start like that I was on the investigation for three years they just the feds everywhere I went there they were and everywhere they were we were and wherever we were we were thrown doubt and who's the one getting thrown doubt really you don't get it so I had my apartment I had my tea but as you have to move every six months and five cases miscellaneous cases [ __ ] cases to build a case to get me out the way but my point is it exhausted me and the judge said it best this had nothing to do with the Kings is what you knew what to do when you were broke it what you did and you went back to your habit and that's what I'm sentencing you for which leads me to other things like Kings don't make nobody do nothing [ __ ] joined a gang when all the scent of gang made me do it that's the first thing I wanted my just understand this had nothing to do with these cats none with the messages she said I commend you I see you really would live in their life but you you trying to eat the wrong way you should have asked you could you know all the choices she said I could have had so yeah I made a bad choice damn it and I stood in front of there and I've other people they've raided and all the money they spent they got me on a conspiracy to be a look by entre drugs because they know I wasn't out there not because I'm better than nobody but I learned from Bloods mistakes and other mistakes so we evolved we grew raucous Island lost our power because we were more in the street than we were on the island that's a good I'm proud of that [ __ ] I want my gang to run to Rikers Island where we could run the we could be in the streets getting entrepreneurs barbershops haircuts that to machines do they'll repeat though the register newspaper we had it all popping empowering the people getting involved with the mothers against bullying so that's what you know I always go back to us cuz that's the original me you get it and that's why I was but when you make a choice and you put in a tight spot and you know people who had choices there always thinks there is choices sometimes you put in that moment where you got to decide now and like I said before welfares money to save my family from getting victim take six months I regret a lot of people are I don't regret I'm again she made me who has no I regret those moments I'm just proud that I learned from them I will regret if I didn't learn from my mistakes you get what I'm saying so that was a mistake I would do it at that moment if I needed that to say what I was trying to say I would have made a better choice well you got sentenced to 13 years yeah and you know I actually cried watching your mother cry when she saw the videotape and the lawyer told her that he's gonna have to do this time and then I watched a little girl walk out of the building crying that seems like probably the hardest part they came with us I guess it was a plea deal at that point yeah Miku B we plead we took thirteen and a half to 151 and I waited to all my co-defendants were finished so I sat in MCC New York extra in the hole so nobody could say my plea would affect their their cases I'm an old-timer to this [ __ ] my naming 6-9 they're saying a face this ain't something you play and you don't got to look to be a gangster you don't have to look what you portrays a gangster that's the first thing you got [ __ ] up we're gonna be look at me i'm pigeon-toed flat feet after these dudes kick my ass on one on one well in the documentary I remember when you were speaking in front of a Latin Kings crowd you said that they offer for you to tell against your enemies and they would carve up your time you know they're like you don't have to tell us your friends but if you tell against your enemies will will make your time go away and you said no I'm not doing that so lesson number two my power groups out there this ain't new to them they've been doing this since the 60s they're professional the FBI will only go in and the doors you open for them a choice you make that's a little choice - you could hurt you later why I'm saying this is the FBI operates different they come at you with an investigation that you don't understand conspiracy wasn't made for Spanish and black kids hustling they're really not organized Shelagh like you couldn't get on time and a place and way to tell them you don't get it they make it organized to fit the RICO Act but we were why they never mentioned money 130 of us and all that they caught why they never because we were poor they didn't want they wanted people to have still the glamour they powerful they scary they got a lot of money it's not the image men and and if Power Group started understanding to stop living up to the hype let's step back a moment let's teach these youngsters that's why I streets are a little wild right now we suffering from this gunplay elders like me haven't stepped up to the bat and say it's okay to squash some of this [ __ ] from the 60s some of their hurts that I left you behind I [ __ ] up I did a drug dealer I hurt the movement I heard the mothers against brutality I heard Richie Perez I heard all my friends with that choice I did three years inside to confinement thinking about that day my whole three years the greatest thing I could tell him is I learned from it and I came in here and I and I mastered and found out to really be on point and situations shouldn't dictate the choice that you make to be the same one you know where it's gonna lead so drug dealing doesn't enter my mind no more you get it it's not an option when a [ __ ] like you bumps me in the Walmart and doesn't recognize that I had a hard day and I'm King Kong and I want to smash your ass I remember myself freedom is not overrated dig that [ __ ] excuse me so sorry you got it I've learned that well you were sent to Leavenworth federal penitentiary yeah there's a nice place comfy and for the first three years you're in solitary yeah what does three years in solitary do to a human being you did all interview someone explained he was saying he went crazy he cried you do all that you know yeah I think Michael Michael Franzese I spent eight years in prison 29 months and seven days in the hole I was in solitary for almost three years Wow yeah they kept me in lockdown and I got to tell you that's not easy you know regardless when anybody says we weren't meant to be solo career we meant to be social yeah we were we did a little research because I really never watched none yet so my man land there was like your toe listen to one of them rows and now then I'm gonna feel like I know dude but anyway I see I heard that one in it he described what happens see that I already was in the state I'm a king I'm King Kong right and now they put you in there right so the mirror is in there your toilets in there and you [ __ ] bunk so you one day just as much as you go [ __ ] you're gonna have to look in that mirror sucker you could sleep for six days thirty two days one day because they're not open the doors you're gonna go over the sink and look in the mirror and you're gonna say are you still King tone are you still that [ __ ] and a lot of dudes never practice doing nothing do we keep you talking [ __ ] doing it in the move in the street then you kick that whole thing you know what kicking I was kicking TV radio sex life power officer smalls vulpes co-defendant that they just let loose in New York if you know the case the Louima case where they put the plunger and MCC New York I used to watch him pace crying there he was gonna hang himself New York City finest get caught with down the way down now you pacing and gonna kill yourself why ain't you the same guy you was in the bathroom sucker that's where you meet cowards cuz the judge or turn a man into wanted to be homosexual the judgement is the hammer he'll change a king tone into a lawyer when he is the hammer he'll turn a young man into a gangster cuz when you walk into a living Worth you better know who you are and you better know what you did and you better know who you did it to so my poor when I walked in and they put me in the shoe I already knew I was King tone I just didn't know what I was gonna do with him and solitude could could make you fall apart each own feces take a light bulb rake it shove it in your eye and pull it out there's nothing like it could make officers drop a bomb in your cell because you put toilet paper they can't count you a sound grenade bomb in a 6 by 12 then it blows up it blows you you don't know what is you don't know what force-feeding is Americans worried about waterboarding across the ocean when that's more than 50 men every night in federal pension engine penitentiary is being tortured in the chute but that side they gangsters they deserve that treatment so I'm just living where showed me that and it didn't break me it like I this Latin so living work was exciting they put me the dog pound the table pound is 60 is high by 40 deep Oh school jail to bunkies and get off the bed the bunk either you know you know what's the first thing really vas King tone as a veteran that I've been to some bids that I told myself what the [ __ ] did you do to be here you remember I supposed to be here yeah I remember when I interviewed Danny Trejo the actor and this may be the interview that you're talking about but he said you know and he was a career criminal in and out of prison and so forth and he said he ended up in solitary confinement at one point for I guess attempted murder of a CEO during a riot and he said when he ended up in there inside of the his solitary confinement cell it said God is [ __ ] in feces on the wall and he said at that point that's when he just looked at his whole life he looked to the mirror and he said okay what am I doing with my life to end up in this room right now well in solid ad there was a riot yeah that happened that was the changing my life well you ended up stabbing a guard I know I know it was alleged that I threw a rock and and Lieutenant he Givens got hit in the head and raped by check or hit kicked he socked a free person gas chamber Henry Kahala kicked a coach gasps Tamra Rock gasps Tina so we were sitting in the hole and kind of kind of feeling that were done and somebody had gotten a [ __ ] and smeared it on the on the wall and he put God sucks in the in a hole and I'm looking at this and I'm sit in this hole and I remember thinking this is what my life has has come to yeah but I have to completely change my life you know they're just so you know so what made me get through it you know I I learned to one make a schedule but the mirror has to be a daily event talk to myself remind myself what I wanted to do and that's where I started creating in my mind so with Dave Brotherton from John Jay College and Lewis bodies who were part of that church movement they said why don't you do so an interesting tone you ready why don't you start studying the shoe and telling us what it's like and what it looks like well then you start figuring out what you want to do when you get out you see feeding me that hope and those three years I articulated my program grow up grow out safe spaces for power groups forms and formalities that when I got in the street that I could remarket myself and sell myself to the community I let down and apologize and maybe find a voice and a place for us returning citizens at the table to maybe correct some of our wrongs with intervention so the shoe really build me and I don't look chuckles I could have done that home I could have done it in the closet I could've did it in the altar with some pasta with his hand on my head the Holy Spirit I could have done it anywhere but for me it took that shake-up and and for conspiracy to be a lookout to a drug sale Tony you know you didn't really he wasn't a drug dealer you needed money one shot you blew they sold you out and all power groups we've got to remember usually the ones that are in the court telling on you ain't the ones you were shooting at usually your friends well you end up doing three years in solitary and then they let you into general population how much time did you end up doing all together I did I think 9 and 18 months so I did live in worth so what really happens to make a shot from living where they kept flying me every 3 to 4 months I went to Tara hood I went to Lewisburg I've been to Oklahoma I've been to a stell so they flew me and they kept me up I done stops and met people but in 2003 I finally made a compound in USP Pola in Louisiana and I got the opportunity to walk the yard and and now practice after three years being human again learning what what you know what it feels like to be around people and in 2003 2000 I think six or seven date they finally gave me the permission to go down to an FCI Estelle which mean lower security and I breathed because 12 and a half years in a penitentiary with 1500 men 78 percent of them got life sentences and I got a date and I'm the leader so call of a gang ain't none scarier than that so although I live it you got a date and you're in working the pin and you you an idol and your reverence and you got juice and you trying to go home with 12 years you better be getting real articulate and know who you are if you're gonna make it to that door so I started strategizing those three years that I planned my safe space problems I started doing it in prison yards and the water used to get Mac says how the [ __ ] you find the spot I stand in and know what's going on and you keep it safe you get it cuz I knew what everybody in the yard was looking for and I was the guy they trusted where I could have treaties with them and make the best decision for the whole yard instead of a dope bag on deal or this where we could we could fix it and to show you humanity in a USB if somebody cares to be the Reverend to go outside and really talk to him say hey why don't we run things this way how did it feel to walk out of that cell and into the real world it was [ __ ] funny so what you mean the outside wall of the shoe to regular pop know when you finally finish your prison sentence saddest day of my life one of them I got my parents alive you know and everybody I loved thank honorary clothes so I don't know what that experience is but it's the moment leaving there so you do 13 years and you meet people with 30 years 40 years people would hope old-timers that when they hear you got a date stop filling your body with hope and dreams and what they would do if they were going sometimes it get exhausting a good time but they they you know what I mean your dream you're going home so what I'm saying through those years the people that helped me Oscar Oprah's when I was in Tara Hut and they won and I was in beef he stood by my side and these ain't Kings did with people from the community who saw the video and said resize where's GD whatever yeah I [ __ ] with tall he a peacemaker you get it he's about what he says this time and they sent me home from Ohio and Ohio I walked out and I remember about 200 people on the fence and they hold it tight and they made me want to come back ain't that some [ __ ] I was ready to tell freedom [ __ ] I can't leave them behind there's some good people that done they bid deserve to be home that communities have forgotten about and I feel guilty for leaving because as a gangster as a leader as King tone as Bochy some things I shouldn't be here for that's not your business the DA's biz nobody's business but some of them guys deserve to be home with me so at the end of the day that's how it feels it feels like you want to be free but you want to stay loyal and you want to stay with the people who loved you while your family your friends everybody else forgot you so King Kong with 7,000 followers came home without a toothbrush without sneakers without a bag without the movies version of a Cadillac and 1215 Kings in the front screaming with the Hennessy that [ __ ] didn't go down son I had a wife who I never knew who believed in me picked me up and said your new beginning has started today and I understand today so the first day was unique I left my best friends behind and I came to the new world and I accepted it for what it is and I used my my experience and the last look of my buddies who told me tone if anybody who came through this stuff ain't coming back it better be you I took the warning real seriously so I'm trying real hard to today with friends like Clayton Lacey and the people who surround me today I've been pretty blessed to be free till today since 2009 okay so you get out and you actually focus your life on helping people who are still incarcerated and coming out of the system from your position and from your experience how's that whole experience like it's amazing itself so real quickly I I now have a for-profit called Rob growl and what we believe what I learned through my walk in this life was oppression leads to aggression that leads to violence and everybody used to try to help tone either when he was oppressed or he already was violent so I had to come up with an equation a vaccine of how I could penetrate and heal so real quickly I found out if you listen to the oppression self-inflicted imaginary sick or just criminal thinking once you listen you find out the person you trying to help aggression goes down he's been listened to he's been heard and when the aggression goes down I believe is the only teaching moment to avoid violence so there you become a prevention of violence or give information and choices that if he does son it would be something less than violent make sense because we're dealing with the oppression so I put that into practice in New York when I 2009 I convinced my wife at 2013 when I got off parole I've been on parole since 86 2013 I signed and it was the first time that Antonio Fernandez was ever free from a system my wife who's held me down got a great job I said we got to go to New York she said why I said Virginia won't even let me work in Walmart these people want to put me in a program trust to impress and me teach me how to dress and I did 13 years I'm not a dress stupid you get my point that was really not waiting for me but her love but nobody would hire me so I left to New York with her and we moved to New Jersey and I went and I started a program in the corner of Pennsylvania and Atlantic right where I was raising I caused the most harm I did it for a year then I started a program called hot spot in Newark New Jersey and I did that for nine months then I came back to DC where someone that I heard of a new about nuclear lady that works for the youth department for youth and rehabilitation services Glen Lacey who got this credible message of story and I got safe space and we put it together and now I work in a youth facility two of them I got seven returning citizens from 8:00 in the morning to 3:30 in the morning in the jail walking with keys and they open doors and when that kid feels depression thinks he gotta kill himself hurt himself there's a credible messenger with a credible messenger to tell him that too will pass homie don't worry you could finish these twenty we did it and don't believe telling is gonna heal you don't believe this what's gonna heal you is you and pathetic you take charge of what you did you make amends with yourself and God and let's go face this together and we do that in our you facility with 36 kids and 16 are charged as adults we've got all our girls in the community and that's what I do now I open prison doors for our young adults to not be persecuted and treated mistreated because they're young until we tear down every youth facility in this country but we got to start from the inside we got a real education system we heal it with the credible messenger so we could come to an understanding with the community the only way we heal this gun problem is with the community now with the justice system through restorative justice and with guys like me who come home to fix [ __ ] we broke I interview a lot of people on vlad TV and one of the most I think shocking things that I ever heard when interviewing former gang members came from when I first interviewed mr. Caponi who was a sureno gang member and what he told me is when he was younger his goal in life was to do life in prison and to be a kingpin calling the shots from behind the wall for for me so I mean you know what I learned at the end of the day you go to jail you realize like I mean jelly you know jail as a kid growing up Jill was like a victory like you get a prize like I kind of wanted to be in job like my dreams like it even sounds crazy as hell but my dreams were like I want to be doing life in prison as a 17 year old kid you dreamed I dream to have life in prison I dream that and to be like a high ranking member calling shots from in jail so you're a kid I was I was loving violence I was loving the streets I was loving the power I was gaining power because I was not just the average I was actually out there putting in work so I would see the power and I was enjoying the power when you hear this out loud it sounds like absolute craziness but you're dealing with kids who look up to King tone and say my [ __ ] what you talking about I'm trying to be what you were I want to have a thousand people cheering my name and be a shot-caller and be a you know be a big boss I don't care about all this other [ __ ] you're talking about right now well what do you tell someone like that and listen I'm not I'm it's the perfect example for a moment right when you die you could be honored like Nipsey Hussle on your community you could remember like 69 now people think I'm comparing the two cuz when told that's not why I'm mad at him I'm mad at him for a long time he knew who he wasn't he knew what he didn't want to do but the capitalistic pig in us of wanting and a lot of likes and a lot of hits I never talked about the kid so what I'm trying to tell him is this like I did the lion Kings when I joined them I joined them I learned I read I understood it and not that it gives them the right to abuse me because I believe if you they say for you and Islam is king should let you go pin is go join Islam if you want to be a Christian you can go the guys let them go so my point is that that leaves though if you real about what you say that one leaves don't make you weaker makes you stronger you don't got to kill a [ __ ] die want to leave go you say to me for two real dudes of doing this and ever so what I'm saying if you're gonna get in this life everything a leading 7-thousand everything ain't in glory like I said I was broke I couldn't get an apartment the fence was always looking at me don't ever think they not even though I was trying to do good so if you play the role sometimes we play the role long enough till we become it so what I'm saying I wasn't King tone the idol till I made them then sometimes the idol becomes bigger than Antonio Fernandez and then you got to face your idol in the face and say I made you and I'm gonna destroy you not the feds not snitching me and you handling this one-on-one the Kings didn't do it - you told your mother didn't do it - you probably didn't do it to you you liked it money and you liked the power and then you'd like to be an activist so be King Kong and do your [ __ ] bed take charge of it except you're wrong and go and then come home so you don't got to hide from your community your family doesn't got to get replaced that's what I hate about snitching they confuse snitching with repentance they're not the same thing so the DEA serves to the community people tell because they changed no people tell because you make a deal justice you're not blind no more you lifted up the [ __ ] blindfold and you cut a deal Jesus never cut a deal with the devil when he told him bow down to me when he went to him three times so how the [ __ ] this justice in America make deals with crooks so that's my point and that's what I tell them when you get in this you made a choice when you come back we'll love you if you end up like blood unfortunately where we gotta try to dig them out or you change your life with a thirty-day big but this not that the Kings isn't the life for you the life for you ain't the Kings to the king recognize and find who they are so when you do come to us our leaders have moved forward and we know how to as power group support one each other in these communities and not fight each other so we could win back what we've lost our freedoms well you fast forward to December 6 2019 which is today when you do a search for the Latin Kings in terms of news articles huh 62 members of the Latin Kings are facing charges and the largest takedown in Boston's FBI history where they found automatic weapons tons of cash I think some missing children were found along the way the Latin Kings are still being portrayed and seem to still be involved as a criminal organization number one do you yourself still consider yourself a Latin King yes I do I do today when I'm ashamed and I'm embarrassed that you got the right to [ __ ] tell me something like this it hurts my movement and many other kings that working hot dog trucks barber shops babysit like queens when they choose this economy over and I ain't judging them so you wanna know what I think so just the world know this is Ketones Facebook and Tony Fernandez so I heard yesterday and it broke my heart and I wrote good morning my people last night I got a call they tell me of the big sweep in Boston Mass I started reading my heart was going 100 miles a minute I was taken back to 1998 raid done to our nation in New York I tell the brothers let's pray that the Almighty keeps them keeps the misled from falling into life sentences he said [ __ ] that tone ain't praying for people who were out there to hurt our traditions and our people I still prayed I don't wish this on any of my friends or foes we must do better than this my people we must not let our once overcome our values when we see money and power over truth and brotherhood it leads to us hurting the nation's grow for years to come out of the group some will break and help bring other groups in the feds win now if we learn from the old saying everything that shines is not gold tested by fire to see if it's real and I learned from my mistakes hope they learn from there's a great leader if you follow the road map shows they were greater followers never forget a leader never gets power he takes it by force or favor if not chosen by the people choose the way you grow in the crown Almighty help us grow from all have a blessed day that's what I told 5,000 people today cuz if I'm gonna talk about a dirty cop a killer cop shooting my kid down I'm gonna talk to the brothers that are misleading my youth to think that this is being a lankey that's what I got to say to them yeah I mean I feel when you look at these groups like the Latin Kings the Crips the Bloods the Gigi's the biddies whoever else when you look at US history the founding fathers would have been labeled a gang if they had lost that war those that have been the criminals those would have been the the gangsters the ones who got a hundred years who got hanged in front of a you know a crowd of cheering you know cheering people that they're gone now and this would be England right now and I've been doing and we replicate them you see where we came from yeah yeah and I think that people like yourself that are trying to take these gangs and move them into a direction of empowerment a voting you know for example if you look at US history the reason why the stereotypical Police Chief is like Sargent own alley is because the Irish at one point were the underclass and they got together and said you know we're tired of this we're gonna vote ourselves in that's why we're gonna put ourselves in public office we're gonna put ourselves as the chief of police and the mayors and so forth the Jews then Irish friends you know everybody found that place ya know all the laws in New York City was built by the first gangs that owned it exactly and I think if that a lot of these gangs were to listen to King tone and see the future of what they can become as opposed to what they are right now you have a much different landscape in America you know my friend Scarface the gangster rapper the former drug dealer is now running for public office in Houston as well as my friend he's like yeah me too me too so it just shows that these former gangsters could come back and use their following and use the love of the people to actually make a difference in the political climate of America and I just wish the best for you man I appreciate the platform and I just wanted to say this to dr. guys you know we gotta evolve we gotta move forward there's violence against each other in Chicago in these main cities the reason they want that crime is we're gonna lose them and and we'll lose another race and another opportunity to empower people to go and let's get right let's get our communities right so you get was a so I'm against that violence not because you know what I see humanity I don't see Crips Bloods and kings no more I can't hurt a cow no more I was killing animals when I came home and I got on my knees to say yo God if I'm gonna kill a cow in a sheep I'll go find Giuliani that's gonna get me out of this I don't want to hurt nothing no more you get it so that's why I'm mad and I'm not perfect but I'm a lot better than the kid who used to sling dope to solve a situation now the credible messengers that's why we call it credible messenger our messages are now credible we just don't got one so thank you for our platform listen out for that and I hope to god that those brothers they got picked up you know that like I said that the Lord protect them and that they learn from the situation like everybody will learn and that they they get home safe well King tone I appreciate you two sharing your story was a very powerful story it's a story of redemption and it's a story of turning yourself around because statistically you should be in a Cell right now for the rest of your life but instead you're out here actually spreading a message and changing lives and I think that's very important all right thank you brother good to see you absolutely man absolutely the best of to you and your family all right thank you

Channel: djvlad

Views: 600,192

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama, King Tone

Id: wQR4ztaVaTk

Length: 97min 51sec (5871 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020