When I'm BROKEN | Deetranada | #Wattys2017

23

4 weeks later

Ever since Gio got out the hospital Diamond and I have been checking up on him everyday. We put our differences aside and decided to remain friends. We were the only people he associated with other than his mom, so we can't abandon him now. I was walking down the snack aisle with Diamond and Gio. Tonight was game and movie night and we needed some food to go along with the entertainment.

"What about these?" Gio asked holding up some plain tortilla chips.

I nodded yes and watched as he picked up two bags, along with some dip.

"We can make some homemade dip too if y'all want."

Both Diamond and I agreed. Homemade chili cheese dip sounds great. We got the needed items and moved on to the next aisle. As we were turning the corner a man bumped into Gio. He didn't say excuse me or anything, he just looked back at him and then kept walking.

Neither Diamond or I were in the mood to get banned from Wal-Mart so we just let it go. Moving on I pushed the basket, but stopped walking when I noticed Gio was still standing in the same position. I looked over at Diamond who had the same look I did.

"Gio you coming?" I asked.

He didn't budge. There was something about the way he was standing and looking in the direction of the man that just bumped into him. I walked around to face him and he had tears streaming down his face.

I shook him by the shoulder to snap him out of his trance. He finally came to and when he realized he was crying he wiped his face. People were beginning to stare.

"Bruh what's wrong with you? You're scaring me?"

He looked at me then back at the man one last time before telling me he remembers. At first I was confused, but it dawned on me. Something in the way that man bumped into him triggered his memory of what happened that day. At this point I said to hell with these snacks. We need to get home and get his lawyer on the phone.

******

We were all sitting down with Gio's lawyer as he explained to us everything that happened. Pissed was an understatement honestly. Good thing is Gio remembers every officers name so it won't be hard to bring this case to court.

Bennett, Gio's lawyer did a little digging on each of the officers involved. The two that wrongfully arrested him had been under investigation for two other excessive force cases. Due to lack of evidence no charges were filed. They got to go back to work and go on about their racist lives.

The officers who trapped Gio in that room to be questioned also had some shady shit going on, but one in particular had a lot of shit to hit the fan.

The officer who punched Gio in the face name is Officer Tony Goins. His eleven year old daughter was kidnapped and killed two months ago. Ever since then he's been doing an investigation of his own. He worked alongside some crooked cops who didn't care about doing the right thing. All they wanted was justice for his baby girl. It's tragic what happened to her, but what he's doing is wrong.

Turns out Officer Goins has been profiling and illegally stopping black males. He feels like the crime was committed by a black man and he was going to harass every one he saw until the truth came out.

As far as the Good Samaritan that helped Gio, he has since then moved. The cops found out that he talked to police about the bodies showing up in his neighborhood and paid him a visit. They scared the man away and now we don't know where he is.

One thing remains though, when he said "this is the forth black male to show up this month" he was right. Three other black males had been dumped in that neighborhood along with five others in surrounding cities. These cops are crooked and will most likely be brought down. All we need to build a solid case is get in contact with the other black males that were wrongfully arrested and almost beaten to death. If we can do that these cops and maybe the whole department will be shut down.