(soft upbeat music) - [Announcer] Hello and
welcome to The Doc Exchange. A Real Stories Podcast, in partnership with The Grierson Trust. Every week, I'll ask a new filmmaker or filmmaking team about
three documentaries connected by a single theme that have made a meaningful impression on their work and life. (soft music) (soft tense music)
(sirens wailing) - This the streets of Chicago man. It's a slave state, man. The United States is a slave state. How you think most of
us got here, you know? They don't give us no jobs. You know, they send us to
jail, put Xs on our backs. Everyday we do things
that we don't want to do but we have to do it to survive. You know what I mean? It's all set up for destruction, man. You know what I mean?
- Exactly. - That's it. It's all set up for destruction, man. - 90% of our fathers weren't there for us. They probably was on dope or
ran off with somebody else. School only took us so far and then it was all on us after that. Either you had a wicked jump shot or you sling crack rock. That was our choices right there. Only positive thing you can do is try to take care of your kids. That's the only thing that's
gonna make you a man out here. - We live in a area where
most of us die young, so we want to really
enjoy that little time that we got here with each other because we never know when we leaving. One group has to be at the bottom and we was just that chosen group. I mean, look at the
neighborhood, this the hood. It's like an ant farm, ant hill, people going to work, coming home, people raising they
kids, cutting they grass. You know what I'm saying? We society within societies here. - Nah, it aint fair at all. It aint fair.
- It was never fair. It was never fair to our ancestors, man. It was never fair. - Don't get it twisted,
I don't sell no drugs. You know, I got a job,
you know what I'm saying? I make it look real easy. You know what I'm talking about? We make it look real easy over here. You know what I'm saying? Aint nothing to it but to do it. So let it be what it is. Let it be what it be. (tense music) - The areas too bad out here. The area is too bad,
there's too much shooting. They just killed three people
over here on Cold last night. It's on the TV. Cold is right here and it was some shooting last night that my granddaughter
had to call the police. But they're shooting
over here all the time and most of the time, the
police don't come over here. They catch you coming out your house or going in your house and stuff. It's just silly and ignorant to me. You know, they divide up the city. The gangs, the gangs and the drug dealer and if they thinking you
making a little bit more than them, they want to come over here and then if you say no, then that's where the
shooting and the killing, you know, it starts. It's all over. It's all over. And they just don't stop and it's just allover money and power. (tense music) - There's only two things that will happen to a young man that decides that he wants to be a drug dealer. He's going to prison or
he's going to the graveyard. Those are his only two options. There's not another option. - It was horrific to sit in a courtroom and hear my son portrayed
as this gangster kingpin. I asked my husband, at
least four or five times, what did he say? Did he say 42 years? Did he say 42 years? (tense music) - Oh I miss him so much. I haven't seen his face
in over five years. Little over five, about five years. It was like, well basically, what did you do for 25 years? Because the only person,
people that get like that you think are murderers, you know, or rapists or something
like that to get 25 years and I was really kind of upset about that. - He was in a gang, he sold drugs. He did what he did. The courts and society
has convicted my son, I'm not gonna convict him everyday. (man mimicking gunfire) (tense music) (gunshots) (woman sobbing) (tense dramatic music) (static crackling) (off air signal droning) (tense instrumental music) - [Man Voiceover] First of all, before I begin this letter, momma, I want to tell you that
you're very special to me and you know that I love you. Thank you for loving me
when I didn't love myself. Really words can't express
how much I love you so I just want to say thank you. (tense music) - [Man Voiceover] Chicago was my home, that's all I know, that's my city. I was a graffiti artist
back when I was younger. I spray painted trains and walls and I stayed out all night. The streets kinda raised me. I was always in the
streets since I was young. - [Man Voiceover] I would always explain that I was a good child. But for hours when I was
supposed to be in bed, I'd be watching and listening to the gangsters in the courtyard where we lived in the Jane Addams. I was fascinated by their lifestyle and I wanted to be like that. - [Man Voiceover] I got
to a point in my life where I wanted to be a drug dealer. It was hard worked but I liked how fast you reaped the benefits. The money I made in Chicago was cool when I first started hustling but as I got older, I realized it was just not fast enough. So I decided, like a few others I know, to take my show on the road. I went to several different
towns in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Kentucky and ultimately laying
my hat down in Rockford. While I was in Rockford, I ran across my stone brother, Duck, and we decided to work together. - [Man Voiceover] At
first it just business but then like, then it
became like classes. - [Man Voiceover]
Rockford was not our home, we were invading someone else's territory. We were foreigners in a foreign land. Like I never thought that
they'd go through so much to put us behind bars. I never thought they'd go through so much to get little old me. - [Man Voiceover] I never
was a good drug dealer but for a long time, I was happy. Because I was one of them
gangsters I fantasized being when I was little, seeing them in the courtyard. Truly in my heart, I do not
regret going to Rockford. (tense dramatic music) - Between about 2001 up through 2005, there was a growing presence of hardened Chicago gang members that were coming to Rockford and taking over the drug business. Word began to spread
about this guy named Duck and members of the Titanic Stones. - We kept hearing this name Duck. That he was from Chicago, that he was putting out a
lot of dope here in Rockford. He was just a young guy but
he had a real reputation. People were afraid of
him, just a little guy. The talk in the street,
informant information was that this group, run
by Duck, Titanic Stones, were trying to take over
the drug trade in Rockford and they were moving real strong. - When they arrived here in Rockford, there was definitely a power struggle. Chicago versus Rockford. We'd have our robberies, our shootings. There have been murders here. - Every so often,
somebody comes into power. It's just like anything else in life, you know, any business or any, you know, somebody, something
always rises to the top. There's an epidemic,
essentially what it was. They were shooting a lot of people. (tense music) - Random gunfire was taking place. A lot of it directed
to housing developments in the city. We were having multiple shots
fired during these shootings. There was one particular
incident that took place on Underwood Street on
a Saturday afternoon. There was a running gun battle
in the middle of the street. There were 60 rounds exchanged. There were 60 casings in the street and it was a miracle
that nobody was killed. I mean there were children out playing. The rounds were flying and everything went back to Duck. - Now we're coming up on Central. We're still in the west side
of town here in Rockford. We're gonna go by the
Auburn Street McDonald's were Julio Allen, member
of an opposite gang here in Rockford, was
confronted by Duck Davis and Bradford Dodson. (tense music) - Bradford Dodson, who had
the nickname of Hustler, played the role of enforcer. At Duck's orders at the
McDonald's restaurant at Auburn and Central,
tried to carry out a hit in retaliation for a home invasion at one of the gang's drug houses. They found out Julio Allen was there, Davis gave the order and Bradford Dodson fired several rounds through a plate glass window. - When you got someone firing rounds inside a McDonald's like that, that's unacceptable. That's when I said I want this Duck. This guy has to got to go down. (tense instrumental music) We initiated a federal case. Did an awful lot of surveillance. Following people, watching people, talking to informants. We started to see the pattern and the way they were
selling the narcotics was the same. - It was using different
locations in the city, renting houses. Normally he would have a lady
rent the house in her name. Nobody would live there, they would just use it
strictly to sell drugs. - The endgame for us here was to take the organization as a whole. The Rockford police department had executed search warrants at many of these drug houses and only gotten small quantities of
crack cocaine or heroin. Almost always heroin. And he was never there. He wasn't the one selling it. We were lucky enough to have
a confidential informant who was providing us with
a wealth of information and told us that she had been approached and asked if she would be interested in renting a house on behalf of Duck and the Titanic Stones. - I was selling crack. I was selling dime bags, 20s, eight balls. I mean, I was good at it. I'm not gonna sit there
and say I was good, I just slipped up one
time 'cause I was drunk. I was messed up and forgot to take it out and went to jail and they
found it in the jailhouse. Some people say they aint
scared of going to prison. That's a lie, everybody's
scared to go to prison 'cause I was scared to go to prison. I had to make a decision
and had to make it quick and anybody in my shoes, anything, would probably would
of did the same thing, if you really cared about
your kids, you know? Everybody calling me snitches. Okay, I'll be a snitch. My kids is more important
than any of y'all, any of y'all, anybody. My kids and my family
come before anything. Duck looks like the coolest person, I'm talking about like the coolest person. You look at him and say, oh he's a low, but he's the scariest person. If you get to know him,
you see how he really is, he's a dangerous man in period, ever seen in my life 'cause he's very dangerous. I'm talking about he had
more power than Scarface. That's how I'm telling you. That man was big, big. They would of killed me if I found out I went down. They would of killed me, I'd be dead. I mean, it's a chance I had to take. (tense string music) - Summers coming on now. - Yeah. Gonna get hot, gonna get busy. - You have any time off? 'Cause I gotta bale all that hay. - We still gotta protect the street, too. - I grew up in a small town here, a real small town. Not even in the small town,
outside the small town. Grew up on a farm. Raised beef cattle. When I was growing up, I actually
wanted to stay on the farm and raise cattle and
dad told me the market was going bad with cattle and there wasn't any money in it. So I had to get a job in town. This is where I ended up. - He does have a pretty gait. - Beginning of the case, I was
working on the narcotics unit and my brother was in the gang unit and we were both working both angles of it and Barry came to me one day and said, hey man, I got an idea. Do you think this will work? He told me that he had an informant, and the informant had been approached and asked to rent a house and then the house would
be used for a drug house and they wanted to wire the
house up with video and audio. I said, yeah I think we
can make that happen. - This was where the house was. The house was donated to us. It was scheduled for demolition. There's the spot right there. And it was pretty much
digusting when we got it but they were kind enough to just let us do
whatever we wanted to do. We parked in this driveway and carried lots and lots of carpeting and junk inside. - Well, we chose the
location because at the time the targets that we were looking at were looking for an east side spot. This is our near east
side of town in Rockford. They were looking for
a spot that had alleys, that was pretty much hidden
from the general traffic but could be accessible to somebody that want to get in and get out. - It was boarded up. Every window, every door was boarded up. Inside, the carpet was rotten. The flooring was a mess. All the utilities were not functioning. We would come over in
our undercover vehicles. We would paint, carpet, do
electrical work, plumbing, just totally redo the house. But we added things to it. Video and audio. (soft tense music) - Talking to our technical people, ATF's technical people, we determined in order to
do what we wanted to do we would have to hard wire the
house to our listening post and by hard wire, I mean we needed a cable run directly from that house to wherever we set up a command
post slash listening post. Fortunately, one day we
were in a room talking and a sergeant from
the community relations happened to be in there and he heard the problem and said, I've got just the spot for you. When out, looked at it, it was perfect. (soft tense music) - The factory or command
center that we used was an old model paint factory. From the third or fourth floor, wherever we were, we had a bird's eye view of the house looking north and the command center was set up so that was a monitoring room where'd you have three agents at three separate monitoring stations and then a supervisor in the room and each of those stations monitored a particular room in the house at 1023 Kishwaukee. One or the kitchen, one
for the dining room, one for the living room. (tense music) Nobody could guarantee that
after all that hard work that the Titanic Stones wouldn't just say, we're not interested anymore or that they would think something was up. So there were some tense days
leading up to August ninth. - But when I took Duck to
show him that house that day, he loved it, he loved it. I'm talking about, he
fell in love with it. He said, man call that
motherfucking landlord right now and tell him you want it. He said it's low key, it's
off in the back in the alley, it's inches from smokers
to come in from the alley and nobody gonna see 'em. It's two ways come in from the back way. He wanted it. We didn't even use the front door. He wanted it. He was like, tell 'em yeah. So I called it, I was like, Duck wants it. He said he wants it? I said, he likes it. I said he loves it. - Finally, on August 9th, it worked out and within a very short period of time, couple of hours. The keys were turned over and within, in almost
identical short period of time, they're moving in. (door unlocking) - [Man] Come on, come on. - [Man] Where's it go? (soft tense music) (tense music) - We see furniture coming in and Duck and Little Steve and Bradford Dodson and Ambrose Jones. They're carrying couches, they're carrying chairs in and they're setting up shop. That night, they're selling dope. - [Man] Forty? All right. - [Woman] Yeah. (soft tense music) - Putting video and audio in a living and breathing drug house and turning the keys over to the gang when you wanted to turn them over, that had never been done before. It is really an underclass and subculture that most people really never see. I remember a phone call that I received from Barry Cunningham when I wasn't in the monitoring room and Barry's words were, we're
in the hornets nest here. (overlapping chatter) (man mimicking gunfire) - [Duke] Boy don't mess with me. - I'd been working narcotics for many many years and spent countless hours on surveillance. Whether or not it's in the back of a van or a squad car. Sitting back with binoculars watching drug houses or
watching people deliver drugs or purchase drugs. So you always had a good concept of what it was like from the outside. But you never knew what it
was really like on the inside. Well this gave us the opportunity to take an inside seat to that drug house and determine exactly
what was taking place. (man laughing) (man mumbling) - I was here from about
five o'clock in the morning, every morning, until
midnight, two o'clock. Every night. It was just miserable hot everyday, everybody was miserable. Everybody was complaining at me because I was the guy supposed
to be handling the gear and I just couldn't keep it cool enough. It was a learning experience, I think, for everybody there. This was the first time you actually say what
happened in a drug house. - [Man] Man I would smoke it. - They were just living
like regular people live. Watching TV, playing video games, visiting with their friends. Just that normal life was interrupted by selling drugs and playing with guns and counting money. (tense music) - [Man] I would, I would of do that. Man, I would. - If there's not criminal
activity going on, then the court order provides that you have to turn off
the recording devices. Most often, everything that
was going on that house was criminal in nature because there was almost
always drugs around or a gun in the room. Almost everybody was a convicted felon, so everything was criminal in nature. (man mimicking gunfire) (tense music) - [Man] Aight. Joey, man. - [Man] All right, Joey. - I mean, it was a
pretty simple operation. Whoever was in the house at that time, people would come to the door. They knew the majority of the people coming to the door because of the fact that they were dealing with them on a regular basis. I mean they would lay around
all day long on the couch just waiting for someone
to knock on the door, so they could sell dope to them. (knocking at door) (woman sobbing) (man shouting) (woman shouting) (woman sobbing) - [Little Steve] Can't
find my fucking momma in the projects. I don't give a fuck. (woman sobbing) - [Girlfriend] You got an attitude. (woman sobbing) (low tense music) - This group was associated
with so much violence. Once those microphones were turned on and those cameras were turned on, while there was some
relief that it was working, the tension didn't necessarily subside because it became very obvious to us that this gang was for real and the reputation that preceded them was one that was appropriate. (tense music)
(woman sobbing) - The last thing in the
world we wanted to do would bring violence to a neighborhood. I mean, we set this house up. So, you know, God forbid
we brought violence into the neighborhood
and somebody got hurt. You know, we were always
concerned about that that that was something
that we had to keep in mind that we couldn't let it get, we couldn't let it get out of control. (men laughing) - Every evening, the
shit would hit the fan. Can't think of a better way of saying it, the shit would just hit the fan. Several times, they'd
just jump up and say, let's go shoot so and so and you'd just be like, okay, now we gotta stop this and usually they end up talking about it for five minutes, smoking dope, playing video games and forget about it, so you didn't have to do anything, it took care of itself but nevertheless, it was every night. Every night. So it got to be just a kind of a laugh. We'd all wait around for the seven o'clock catastrophe every night. (overlapping chatter) - [Montrell] You stupid. (man laughing) (low tense music) - I didn't find out that
he started selling drugs until I was 17, 16 or 16. I walked in the room and
he was cutting it up, so. And I was just like, I didn't say nothing. He just told me get out the room. Not until the Feds was looking for him we really sat down and had a talk and I was like, Montrell you
need to change your life. I said, there are so
many things you could do. I'm like, you can do things that your other friends can't do. I just found recently some
of them can't even read. You know, he could read, he
knows how to play the saxophone and trust me, I used to
try to like, you know, whatever instrument he used to play I used to try to learn
how to the saxophone, it is hard. All those notes and
all that, it is so hard but his ass mastered the saxophone and can play that goddamn saxophone. I asked him, I said, why? But he said, well I walked in a room and I aint never seen
that much money in my life all at once, I've never
seen it, and I wanted that. That's what he said. I wanted that. (baby crying) - Aint see my great grandma. Yeah, my grandma don't
want nobody to spank it and do nothing to it. This is our little family. Montrell, we love him, too, even though he in jail. - I miss him. - Yeah, I do, too. Let me tell you something
that I told Montrell and everybody else in jail. They did not send for you. This was your choice. They did not send for you. You don't have to do what
you see little Johnny do or little Calvin do. You don't have to do this. I know plenty of people that I knew that was doing things wrong, even since I'd been grown. Did I get out there and do it? No, because I know better. Everybody has a choice. That's including Montrell
and everybody else. You and everybody else. We have a choice. 'Cause you don't have to
do what the next person do. I'm like me. I am my own model and a lot of people talking about these basketball players
and these movie stars they try to portray these
people as role models. They are not no role model. I am the role model in the my house. That's what you should do. Stand up, mother and father and be the role model in your house. (baby crying) All we have to do is just
pray and think positive and everything will be okay. - What you do with the pacifier? Okay, Ms. Chivaun. Yeah, yeah. - That's the first time
a child in my family been on a pacifier. So hopefully he'll be back home soon. The areas too bad out here. (train bell ringing) - And no more of this train. God, I get tired of this train. (low tense music) - If you came to my house
when I was growing up, oh you know it was a holiday. We'd be eating like mad, 24 hours all day, all evening, all night. You could smell the nuts,
the cakes, the pies. We had a big pot of chitlins then you had a big pan
of macaroni and cheese and then you had a big
bowl of potato salad, then you had a shrimp salad and you had fried peach pie. You have the sweet potato pies, custard pies, and great big pot of greens. Great big pot of string beans. Salt pork going all
through these baked beans and strips of bacon on the top. You ever had grits and chicken? Well see, that's what my grandmother would do sometimes just for breakfast. We always had food. My house is my life, the
memories and the things that I used to do there and the cooking and it's nothing like having
something of your own, you don't have to worry about
nobody running over your head and you keep your house clean and your backyard and you
always go out there to cook and enjoy yourself. We were all, might as well
say, raised up in that house. 'Cause the house was
my grandparents house. He was born, he was born there, Latisha and Montrell was born there. Even though it is in a shamble, I feel like I'm at home and I always go over there
to clean up and sweep up. I can't wait to get back over there. When I go over there, I
hate to come back this way. Hyde Park offers so much that the other areas, to me, don't offer. (somber music) - 'Round here, in Hyde
Park, it's always been nice. You rarely hear about crime
happening over here, if ever. But everybody wants to live in Hyde Park because it's quiet, it's considered safe but it's really expensive to live in here. But this is where Darrell, he
really grew up in Hyde Park because I used to live
on 47th and Lake Park and we'll go down there as well. And that's where it all started. The ditching school, the hanging
out with the wrong crowd. That's where it started. Darrell had a chance. He didn't have to make
the choices he made. He had role models. Here's Hyde Park Academy. It's where he went to high school. It would of been a totally
different ball game had I had my act together. I fell prey to the streets. And obviously, you know, he did, too. (knocking at door) - [Man] What's up, man? (overlapping chatter) - [Man] What's that? - [Man] Do that shit right. - [Man] Yeah. - [Woman] How do I get out? - It was interesting and I guess
disturbing at the same time what the customer base was and there were people
from all walks of life. People who look like
they just gotten off work at five, 5:30 and
stopped at the drug house to get their heroin fix. People who clearly were well on their way to becoming heroin addicts. Young people, teenagers,
people from all walks of life. - You'd see the soccer moms
in the minivan getting dope. You'd see, you know, the
hardcore drug addicts. You'd see black, white, male, female, young, old, anything. It was just allover the place. (low tense music) (man laughing) - You know many times your victims are not the best citizens themselves but they're still a victim. How'd they get to this point? They're taking their life in their hands to go to a neighborhood
they know nothing about to walk into a house
they know nothing about. There's guys in here with guns to purchase a little bag of powder. What went so wrong in their lives to put them to that point? And this is a small
part of a huge picture. How big is this drug problem
throughout the world? It's beyond explanation. It's huge. (tense music) (somber music) - The life I had, the
hard part, I made it hard. I had a easy life. I had, my parents did the best they could with what they had. I had wonderful, I have
wonderful, loving parents and although my home semi dysfunctional my parents did everything
in their power to make sure I didn't use drugs. Had I not used, would
he not have sold drugs? I can't say that for sure. He had a huge influence from his father and he wanted to be just like daddy and daddy was a dope dealer. He had no respect for me. I was addicted to cocaine. He had no respect for me. But his father on the other hand, that's who he respected. (tense music) - Duck in the video footage came across as somebody who was always in control. When he walked in, anybody
who was in the house sort of perked up and Duck was there for one reason, which was to deliver drugs and to pick up the
money, most importantly. (tense music) - Duck was in charge and
nobody else knew who Duck knew. Duck had the contacts in Chicago. When he made a transaction in Chicago, no one was allowed to be with him during that transaction. They'd have to wait in the car. He kept that confidential. You know, that was, that
was his ace in the hole with these guys. 'Cause he knew one of them would go out and try to make a contact
with him otherwise. (tense electronic music) - When he needed to re-up
or get more crack cocaine, he went into the city. Duck never drove himself. Most often his driver was Ambrose Jones, somebody was in his
very tight inner circle, somebody he trusted. It was a car that was
in somebody else's name. A big black SUV. We later found out had
a hidden compartment. But he went in and picked it up, brought it back to Rockford, where he mixed it and stored
it at his girlfriend's house, away from where he slept
or did his business. (tense music) Anytime one of the drug houses that was being operated was out of drugs, whoever was working would
use the Nextel phones, inform him that they needed more product. And then you'd see
Duck, driven by Ambrose, go over in that Escalade to
the Chestnut street house. Pick up a pack, go to the drug house, drop it off, pick up the money and then take off. (tense music) - [Man] What's going on, y'all chilling? (sirens wailing) - It aint safe around here. It be shooting, fights. All type of stuff. That's how I know it's bad. There's a gunshot bullet right here. That's how much they shoot over here. We were sitting on my couch and all we heard was gunshots. I had to drop on the floor, like oh my God, they is shooting. Like my kids wasn't here. Boys just get to fighting for no reason and I know I'm like, I feel ever since I got shot, I just feel like I'm so terrified of guns, I feel like I know when
they're gonna get drawn. I just jumped in my car like, uh uh, girl I'm finna go. Something happening. As soon as I said that, dude jumped in his car, reversed, almost hit his friend, and just got to shooting, took off. I got pregnant when I was 18. So I was a with him for a few years. I was close with him until he got him another girlfriend. He wasn't no bad person. Like the streets made it seem. He was just out here
trying to feed his kids. People got to make it. So that's what he tried
to get out here and do. He felt like he kids and they had to eat. So I don't think it was wrong. 'Cause it's hard out here and it is. It breaks my heart that I can't see him, like I want to. Yeah. And my kids, they want to
see him and they can't. I don't know. Wish he weren't locked up. He left me with two kids. That's the only thing I
was really mad about it. I had two kids by him then he go get locked up. (somber music) - [Man Voiceover] I first
met Duck in like 96, 97. When our gang was in tour with they gang. They gang was from like 53rd and Harper and you know we from 52nd and Drexel. So Duck used to come down to Drexel and he shooting, he shot at us. And it's like concrete
jumping off the ground, hitting, the shells hitting the cars. Because our two gangs was into it. That's the first time
I even heard his name or knew about him. Man, Duck as a person, he was a caring, he was a caring dude,
you know what I'm saying? Like he would come talk to me
about his girlfriend problems and that's the Duck that I know. I thought he was my friend. (somber music) - Didn't hurt so much for
me as it did for Brandon. He has uncles and he has grandfathers and he has cousins and what not that can help raise him but it's nothing like a dad and he was very young and having, you know, that's all he know about his dad is in and out of jail. - He doesn't look exactly like him but he has enough of the mannerisms and just his attitude. It was a whole like his dad. He's very playful, he's very smart but just does not listen. I worry a lot. There's so much gang activity
and drug activity in Rockford that I worry about both my
grandsons getting involved with the wrong people. I met Bradford, one night my daughter was picking me up from work and she introduced me
to the guy in the car. This is my boyfriend. I didn't pay him any attention. First time I really really, other than seeing him in the car, remember being around Brad is I went over one day and
one of their friend says, Martha, I think you need to know. Jennifer is pregnant. After that day, Brad and
I become really close because I punched him. And after that, I start
taking him to church with me and I just really grew to love him and he was just my boy. - What's up? Yeah. Thank you. We went to the park. We played. A race car. Huh? No. - [Brad] Huh? - No. (Brad laughing) Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. (woman laughing) (somber music) - [Man Voiceover] Yeah, my
son's voice gives me strength, man, when I hear it. It don't break me down, like I don't cry. I be proud when, I'm
proud of that boy, man. When I hear his voice. His voice assures me that like man, I got date deal, you know? When I be able to get on the phone and I can hear his voice and it's so strong and healthy, that give me power to like, yeah I can make it out and still be able to kick it with him. - The severity of the
situation never hit me until at two o'clock in the morning I get a call from the hospital across town that he been mugged. And I'm thinking? Well how did that happen? They said, well we're
taking him to surgery, we'll call you when it's over. Nine o'clock the next morning, they called me that he
was finally out of surgery and I talked to the doctor 'cause I had worked at
that hospital before and he told me that somebody had mashed Brad's hands, just, he said his worst case he'd ever seen. It took him seven hours to
put his hands back together. The hands were mashed flat. The fingers were split and
the flesh was coming through. All the bones down to the wrist. Just mashed. Like hamburger. - If you look at the video footage from the Kishwaukee house, you see bandages on both
of Bradford Dodson's hands throughout that time period and that is from Darrell Duck Davis. What happened was, they suspected, Duck suspected Bradford
of snitching on the gang or of stealing money. Something that went against
Duck and the organization. So Duck gathered up the gang members over at the Underwood drug house. He had Joel Turner hold a gun to Bradford Dodson's head. Bradford Dodson was made to
spread eagle on the floor, all of his clothes off, and Duck took a hammer and he broke both of
Bradford Dodson's hands. - [Man Voiceover] He just
hit my hands three times with the hammers. He busted, it don't take that much to break no hands with no hammer. He hit my hands three times. I told him, I did steal them guns, though. (Brad laughing) I needed cash, quick. 'Cause I wasn't trying to
be around like that, man. I stayed around like because he like really made me come around. When I got out the hospital, he immediately came and got me
from my baby mother's house. When we pulled up to the trap, I was trying to show that I'm not, I wasn't affected by my hands being broke. So I was like, man,
help me move this sofa. You know? So we moved the sofa, even
though it was hurting. I wanted to show them that like, man I'm stronger than what y'all perceive. I was scared that if I tried to leave or if I didn't do what he say, he was gonna take me off somewhere and kill me somewhere. Flat out, you know what I'm saying? I'ma tell the truth, I was scared. I aint want to die. (somber music) (Brad laughing) - Goodbye, grandma. - Okay. - Bye.
- Bye. I'll see you later. I'm going over to Hyde Park.
- Give me a hug. - Okay. Love you. Love you, boo boo. Bye. - Bye. - What did you eat for
breakfast and lunch? - [Montrell] I had some eggs this morning and for lunch I had a sloppy joe. - Oh, well that's nice. You didn't have no bacon? - [Montrell] No, they don't
serve bacon too often. - Okay. Well I'm so glad to hear
your voice, you know, you're doing fine and I'm doing fine. - [Montrell] Yeah. - We're just trying to make it and trying to look forward and you coming back home with us. And that's all you can do. - [Montrell] This phones finna cut off. - Oh you got to go now? Okay, love you. - [Montrell] I love you, too. - All right, bye. - [Montrell] Bye bye. - [Man Voiceover] It's
funny how my life ended up on the road to self destruction. When I was younger, a kid, I should say around the age
of eight or nine years old, I hated drugs and I hated gangs. I grew up in a house with a mother and an uncle who was addicted
to cocaine and heroin. In the midst of all this chaos, you have my grandmother, who I love with all my heart and soul. She kept a roof over my head,
designer clothes on my back, and made sure I didn't miss a meal. My grandmother provided
for me and my sister the best she could. She even did her best to
teach me how to be a man. She told me stand up for myself. To beat the living shit out of anyone who disrespected me. She always tried to
keep me away from drugs and she always said, boy, you see how that shit got
your mama, your daddy, your uncle looking like skin and bones? Don't you ever fuck with that shit and I remember saying that, the little voices in my head to this day. (somber music) - Oh I miss my grandson very much. He's always been in my life. I raised my children by
myself with no support. My children and my grandkids. That was my choice, of
taking care of them. That was my choice, 'cause I didn't want to see them in the system and I did the best I could to shelter them as much as I could. To shelter them. I am very much surprised with this. Very much surprised and I'm also disappointed
in him being in jail because, you know, as a grandparent, we don't choose these
things for our children or our grandkids. You know, he wasn't raised like this here. I punched the time clock. My grandparents and my mother, they taught me to punch the time clock and I tried to instill this in my kids. You have to work for what you get. I don't know what went wrong. I think the peer pressure, I think getting involved with the wrong type of people. I think that's where it came from. You know, you want to follow the leader. Do what you see everybody else do. This is how I feel as a
grandparent, you know, and I'm hoping that
he'll get through this. - I wonder is it my fault. I mean using drugs. You know, he never seen me
get high or anything like that but as a parent, getting high, I wonder is it, you know, is it my fault? I really feel guilty about this. You know did I start
this, did I start him, you know even, not saying bringing it around him but just the idea of me doing it. Am I the cause of this? - Its an effect, it has an effect on your children. It has an effect on your children 'cause it also had an
effect on me as a parent. So I'm sure it has an effect on him. I'm very disappointed in you all, too and you know I speak frankly. - All right but I've
tremendously slowed down. I haven't had any heroin in two months. I had started back 'cause
I got depressed, again. I really think about this all the time. Am I the reason for this? - [Latisha] No, I mean not necessarily. - I could be.
- You had an influence. - It could be all my fault, still. Yes, it could. - [Latisha] I'm not gonna
let you take the blame for yourself.
- It still could be my fault. - Even though and Dad did everything, me and Montrell still respected you. Never embarrassed to walk down the street, this is my momma. Walking down the street, this is my daddy. Because even though y'all did drugs, you were good parents, you did us good. You didn't beat us. We didn't get raped. You didn't take us to no drug houses. You aint never leave us, abandon us. So don't feel bad. Yeah, you know, you hurt us. But you aint never did shit to us like you know, people could say my momma did this to me. Or my momma let this man rape me because, you know, she was
off drugs and didn't know. - Some children will sell to their mothers or give their mothers heroin and cocaine. That's something Montrell would never do and see, and most parents
expect their children that sells drug for them to
give them heroin and cocaine or to buy that for them. I never asked, I never asked him to buy me any heroin. - He wasn't gonna do it anyway. - No he wouldn't do it, anyway. He wouldn't give me any money
for it or anything like that. He would not do that. But there is a lot of
people expecting their kids, we got family members
that expect they children to buy them heroin and cocaine. I'm still wondering, am
I the reason for this? (somber music) - [Man Voiceover] I used to be ashamed when my mother had to
come up to the school to check up on me or come and get me because I was suspended for fighting or something. I was embarrassed because of how the drugs affected her appearance. One thing I can say about my mother is she never stole from
her family, though, and she always bought me and
my sister clothes and shoes and then got high with
whatever money she had left. I never really once blamed in my head because I was raised to be my own man, I made my own decisions. I still knew right from wrong. No one ever forced me to
sell drugs, carry guns, use guns, fuck somebody up, rob somebody. Any criminal act I did, I did on my own because that's what I wanted to do. (somber music) - I thought I was gonna die
with that pipe in my and, I really did. But I can sit here with confidence and say I'll never use cocaine again in my life. Cocaine is no longer a part of who I am. Hasn't been for a long time. I botched up motherhood. I botched it. I did. Look at, I mean, look where my son is. I remember very clearly, I had been in my addiction
maybe seven or eight years and Darrell said to me, Ma, I know what you're doing and if you go down, I'm gonna go crashing down with you. I didn't hear him. He was crying out to me then, I didn't hear him. I couldn't hear him because I was so deep in my addiction, I could not hear him. I wish I had of heard him. I wish that, I wish I had of heard him. (somber music) - And I got away with it. - My child did not have negligent parents. He wasn't hungry. Didn't miss a days meal. Was not homeless. I wasn't a crack head, his
dad wasn't a crack head, wasn't abusive, none of that. None of the things that society say is the reason why these
children do what they do. They do it because they
want to, number one, and they do it because
someone has incited them. The drug dealers come through and they see easy, gullible, young people and they offer them and it's exciting, you know, the possibility. The rims, the car. I am angry at him for not, I'm actually angry at him for allowing someone to sell him a dream of nothing and I believe that that's what it was. (somber music) - Aint no ten.
- It's a seven. - Bradford Dodson was an enforcer. Just a brooding, brooding hard case. The shooting at McDonald's, where he did shoot Julio Allen during that dinnertime incident. It was just brazen. (overlapping chatter) - I hitting somebody. - Y'all starting blasting. - [Man Voiceover] From the beginning, when I first even joined the gang, I was being somebody that I wasn't. You know, I wasn't being Bradford Dodson. I was being the Hustler,
they wanted me to be, they one that they said, that they aint like Bradford Dodson. They liked the Hustler. So for all them years, I was being the Hustler, I wasn't being Bradford B. Dodson. I got my hands messed up, bandaged up, I aint got no money. I can't get out of Rockford. We into it with gang
members all over the city, I was just gonna try to find a way to get out all the way. I was gonna make Duck feel comfortable to the part where like
he would drop his guard and then that was when
I was gonna make my move to get away. (indistinct TV in background) (somber music) I boarded the Greyhound bus to Las Vegas. It was like 10, 11 am. August the 20th. I was done, my hand was broke. I got me, I washed the blood off my hands, I had a new start. I was done. I was done. (soft tense music) - Hey, honey.
- Hey, Brad. - Hey, Brad.
- Hey, Brad. - What's up, Brad? - What's up, man? - I cooked the juicy lucys you and I were talking about. And baked beans, the famous baked beans. - Huh?
- Hello? - We still here.
- We still here. - [Man] What do you miss the most at home? Yeah. - [Woman] Well, we know that but on a day like today. - What about changes? What kind of changes have
you made for yourself? All right. Well you know what, you've
already got a second chance. You know why?
- Why? - You're alive. As long as you're alive, you can do better and when you can do better, there's always gonna be some improvement. That's right. So you have to look at it like that. Prisons are too full
of our young black men. You know? Y'all have got to make
better choices for yourself and realize that your family
is your family at home and not the family that you
think is in the streets. Yeah. You still blessed. You're still alive, you're above ground. A lot of people don't get
that chance, understand? Now, make it your mission
to teach somebody else. Maybe you can help somebody
else not make the same mistake 'cause that's what it's really all about. - Daddy.
- Huh? - [Brad] This phones finna cut off. You see how it's beeping? - [Man] Right. - [Brad] The phones gonna
cut off in a couple minutes. I think it's probably like 30 seconds. - Okay, well you know we love you. - We love you, Brad.
- Love you. - Love you.
- Love you, Brad. - Love all y'all.
- All right. Keep your head up and I'll right. - [Brad] All right. - [Man] All right, love you. - Gone.
- Is he gone? - Yeah. - I really hate the way those
calls just end like that because you have things you want to say. - [Man] Claudette? - Huh? - [Man] Why'd you keep the house? - Why do I keep the house? 'Cause I'm planning on
one day fixing it up and I want to have a place for him when he do come home. You know, the area, it's nice. My neighbors is nice. You can't find a neighborhood like this. So that's why I wanna come back. It's surrounded by hospitals, parks, oh and by the way, the president, this is the president, Obama's area. He lives in Hyde Park. This was his room long time ago, Montrell. So, I'm trying to get it back together. So, I don't know if
I'll be able to or not. All I can do is try. I think since he been in penitentiary, I'm not just saying that
'cause he's my grandson, but I think he has changed. You know, I've been a
parent and a grandparent. Yeah, I feel frustrated and I feel mad a lot of time and I feel disgusted
like any parent would be, you know, that's me, I really do. Because he didn't have to chose this and now he realized that
he's made a mistake. He realized it and like I told him, you
aint got no friends out here. I'm your friend. Always talking, my friend, my friend. You aint got no friend. What y'all doing out
there is a money thing, not a friend thing. They don't mix. Them people aint caring nothing about you. The same people will kill
you or have you killed 'cause I know how people are. At least he didn't get on drugs and I'm glad of that. - The investigation lasted
approximately six weeks. To get six weeks out of it was more than we could have hoped for. Duck and a number of
members of the organization drove into Chicago to obtain more heroin. They were under surveillance
in the Chicago area when they became targets
of a drive by shooting. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a second vehicle pulled up alongside Duck and
an individual started shooting. The agents in Chicago had
to immediately take action. Which required them to pursue the vehicle that the shots had come out of. Duck could see these cars
suddenly come from nowhere, he put it all together,
right then and there. He knew he was under surveillance and he suspected other things might be wrong back in Rockford. He then placed a car that re intercepted in the dope house in which he warned the individuals there that he thought he was being followed by federal investigators and that they should get out
of the house immediately. - They scrambled back
to Rockford that night. Ambrose Jones in the SUV and Duck, we later learned, in a taxi. That was when the jig was up, so to speak, and it was time for us
to start making arrests. Which is what we did on September 14th. (tense music) - [Man Voiceover] And all the shootings, all the murders, all the violent things that were starting to happen, like we knew that was coming. Like prison. Know what I'm saying? I knew it was coming but I didn't picture it coming like that. - I would of liked it to have gone longer 'cause I wanted to find
his source of drugs, his supply of money. Find more about up the chain. So I would of liked it to go on longer. Surprised, you never know. Stuff like this should just, sometimes you think
things are gonna be quick and they take forever. You don't know. - After the arrests were made, there were 16 individuals charged. 13 of those ultimately pled guilty and three of them went to trial. The defendants here
received lengthy sentences. The leader of this
conspiracy, Darrell Davis, received a 42 year sentence and that trickled down
to the other members of the conspiracy and like Bradford Dodson receiving a 35 year sentence after trial, Montrell McSwain, a 25
year sentence after trial. The sentences handed down in
cases like this are Draconian. 42 years for Darrell Duck
Davis is a life sentence. He is going to be an old
man when he gets out. When a group like Titanic
Stones get to point where they're that organized
and terrorizing the streets, you're left with no choice. Law enforcement is left with no choice but to take them off. He was simply too dangerous and ordered too many violent acts to leave out on the street. - Good morning, thank you. - I'll be back to take your order. - Okay, thank you. I think it's been five years since we really started
a long term investigation of these guys. - Yeah, it's pretty incredible. It's one of those cases, it's the case of a lifetime
that you work, really. You know, this case really
made me proud of you, Michael. When you think about it, you have the generations of the police. A lot of police families. You know, fathers, sons,
grandfathers were the police but the same is true on the other side. The criminal side. I mean, again, I've been around for many years and have arrested grandfathers of people that we're dealing with now. So I've dealt with their
fathers and their grandfathers and it seems like it's just something that just continues on. There are certainly a
lot of success stories and that's not to generalize it, to say that everybody that's been arrested is gonna continue with a life of crime but there seems to be a pattern there that it's very difficult to break from. If you look at them individually, how did they get to that point that they're in a house on
Kishwaukee Street in Rockford, how'd they get to that
point in their life? They're from Chicago, they're young guys. What is it in their life that went wrong? They're born into a family where there might not have
been a father present. Where some of their
mothers were drug users, where they themselves were
just put in a situation that they're almost born to lose. - I think anytime you see a story end where young men in the
prime of their lives go to spend the majority of
their time in federal prison, I think that is tragedy. They weren't much younger than me. Our paths certainly never crossed in life but we had very different upbringings, very different advantages or disadvantages and you wonder if a Montrell McSwain or a Bradford Dodson
was given the upbringing that I had, for example, if things would of turned out differently. - From our standpoint,
these are dangerous guys, we had to take them off the street. We wanted them to go away for the rest of their lives. From the family standpoint, they put aside what they did. That's still their loved one, that's their son or their brother. They love them no matter what they did. I think sometimes it's not only tragic but sometimes it's a relief for them. Because they know what they're doing. Their son or their brother, whoever it might be, they know they're in
Rockford dealing dope. There's two ways out of that. You're going to the penitentiary or you're gonna end up dead. - Everyday that the phone would ring or I would hear the siren, I thought okay, someones gonna tell me come identify your son. Because that was definitely the path that he was going down. I could have been a better parent. I know I'm a better person I've proven that I'm a
better person than that but unfortunately my son doesn't know me in my present state and that hurts me. (somber music) Come on, it's raining. Oh boy. My grandchildren. They're sweethearts. No, no, get in the back. Get in the back, get in the back. Get in the back. Little Darrell's six and Deshante is seven. Wonderful, wonderful children. - [Girl] Okay. - Can you give us a pop? 'Cause we don't got that much money. - Okay, I'll give you some money. They don't know the nature of what has happened. They just know their dads in jail and when is he getting out? Darrell, go sit down. Yes. I'm wanna sit here. You sit over there, please. - [Girl] I want a french fry. - You want some french fries? Okay. Yeah, it's a joy having them. It's an absolute joy. I'm getting a second chance at this. Go to the front and say, excuse me, can I please
have some barbecue sauce, can you do that? No, I didn't ask you. I told her. You want another hamburger? - Hey! (woman laughing) Hey. How you been? How was your trip in? Good, good, good. Granny missed you. Okay, let's go. Don't crack your knuckles. Your daddy used to crack his, too. You see how big this part of his hand is? When you go visit him, when we go visit him this summer, look at this part of his hand. He got lumps sitting on this hand and his hands been through a lot. Aint you hate getting off the phone like I do when your daddy call? - Yeah. - I hate getting off the phone with him. That call just ends so quick, it don't give you a chance to say the last of whatever
you might want to say. - Do he call you a lot? - He do, he calls me, at least three times a month. - He don't call us a lot. He call granny's house. - He calls granny's house? - Yeah but I don't be over there. - I think we should write
a letter to the prison and tell them we want more time. They gonna say, we can't give him too much, we can't give him anymore
time on the telephone. Here, y'all just take him. Wouldn't that be nice? That would be nice. - Yeah. He only got 30 years left, granny? - Maybe so. (tense music) - [Man Voiceover] I'm not mad at the judge and the prosecutors. They, they gotta do they jobs. The gavel was hit, you know the signatures were signed, the jury brought its verdict. It was over with and he sentenced me according to the United
States sentencing guidelines and gave me what he gave me and if 30 years is what it took for me to humble myself, then all is well. - [Man Voiceover] I'm not
being a real good example to Brandon, you know what I'm saying, because if he look up to me, I just hope that he don't
make the same mistakes that I did, you know, and put himself in jeopardy for being away from his children. - [Man Voiceover] I had
a couple years of fun they trying to exchanging in for a couple decades of my life. Now that I look back, we made
a lot of untaxed dollars. So I can see why the
government would be mad and come for us, you know what I'm saying? Of course I regret it,
'cause my family suffering, you know what I'm saying,
my woman's suffering, my kids are suffering, I'm suffering. I get told what to do all day and I'm in this controlled environment. You know, I'm just taking
it one day at a time, planning for the future. (soft reflective music) - I do have a broken heart. Even though they might do wrong and stuff like that. Your children are your children. I took care of my children, I protected my children. My children never had
to go across the street and next door for nothing. They'll you how I treated my kids. My kids was dressed all the
time, were dressed nice, and they were clean. That I saw to it. And my grandkids, no matter what and I do have a broken heart and my heart will probably
be broken for a long time. (kid laughing) I didn't choose this for him. We all have a choice and
he made the wrong choice. (soft music)
This film is called Crack House USA and is from 2010, not 2020.
Very good. Very interesting.
First 5:45 is basically the directors political mission statement for those who want to skip.
deep