If you follow my work at the Law Bulletin, you probably read about Exavier Pope, the sports and entertainment lawyer whose harrowing & uplifting backstory was our front page story for Law Day 2014.
Ex and I spent a day together — it started with him talking to students at Hyde Park Academy High School and continued as we visited his childhood home where he lived with his foster mother, toured parks where he played ball, was attacked by gangs and later slept, went to the projects where he nearly sold crack and finally to one of his two law offices, this one at Lacuna Lofts.
While the story was packed with episodes from Exavier’s life — it included a sidebar strictly on his Twitter game — there were a few anecdotes from later in Exavier’s life that we had to leave out of the story. One of them was the story of how Exavier and friends were pulled over in Kentucky when they were in college, leading to Ex spending nearly two weeks in prison for a traffic stop.
In light of the Mike Brown murder, Ex decided to share that story on Twitter. Here it is, tweet by tweet:
This Mike Brown situation got story time written all over it……so here goes….
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
When I was 20 years old my buddies and I decided to go to Black Daytona Beach for spring break. Really only knew 1 guy well. Other 2 no.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
We took turns driving down I-65 from Chicago down Indiana. Then we got to Kentucky. It was then my turn to drive.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Side note: I have always driven like an old man on the highway. That guy who goes the exact speed limit on cruise control.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
No sooner had I taken the wheel we pass a state trooper. He proceeds to follow us for miles. Everyone in the car gets scared. I don’t.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Finally, we are pulled over. The officer shines a bright light into the car, asks for everyone’s ID in the car. Clearly it’s DWB time.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
He drills us on what we are doing in Kentucky. We tell him we are on college spring break. He tells us we should have stayed in the city. — Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Eventually he tells me I have a suspended license. I hadn’t driven in 2 years, and never had a traffic violation. — Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
For some reason, this warrants me being arrested. My buddies follow me to the station thinking we just get a ticket and keep going.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
While I am handcuffed in the back of a car, the officer goes on saying I had no business in Kentucky and should stay in the city.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
We get to the station. Other cops come out. They threaten to throw friends in jail if they stay around to help. Police escort them away.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
So there I am, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Scared as heck. I didn’t know whether I was going in a cell or on a tree.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
They put me in a holding cell, didnt let me call anyone. I was there all weekend until being transferred to a state penitentiary.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
All the holding officers would do was call me City Boy, or Chicago. It was a big joke I was there.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Oddly enough Elizabethtown was the title for a romantic comedy made in 2005 by Paramount starring Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
When I was transferred to state prison, I had to take a super hot shower naked. I was sprayed by a hose with a group of naked men.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
It was extremely dehumanizing. I had to ride the bus to the big jail, eventually landing in a group cell with 20 guys, bunk beds.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
The bunk next to me was a convicted felon who put a blanket over his bunk where he and his play thing would enjoy late nights together.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I had to get up at 5 to eat breakfast, 11 for lunch, 2 for dinner. The rest commissary. Of course they took all of my money before then.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
There were no books to read except coloring books. Seriously.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
We literally had days to go out on the yard and lift weights.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I noticed guards sneaking in drugs, people doing drugs, just all types of things I just should have never seen. And I had to act hard.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Mostly I kept to myself. Not because I saw myself as better, but because I didn’t want to internalize the place.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I literally had no idea when they would release me…on a traffic stop…in State prison.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I would ask them for court dates they would give different answers, most of which were 1-2, sometimes 3 months out….for a traffic stop.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I would cry myself to sleep or in the shower. The shower at least was semi private, but you got out in front of everyone.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Eventually I opened up. I had prisoners feeling bad for me, speaking to guards upset for me. That was a strange twist.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
They did have television. Oddly enough everyone watched WGN. Baywatch reunuions, Braveheart, Soul Train, Jenny Jones.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
One random day, they just said get out….in the middle of the night. I thought it was a set up.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I looked around in the dark thinking lynch party. I just so happened to get a number from a dude in holding earlier for underage drinking.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I spent a total of 13 days in jail.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I stayed at the guy’s place but had to leave before daylight. I then walked 20 miles to a bus depot. My twin sister wired me cash. I left.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I got back to Chicago finally, and sat down, wrote a poem, tears drowning the ink. My last line was about invisible cells we don’t see.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
It was then I probably decided to go to law school. I never wanted anyone to take my power like that again.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I shared my story in light of unfortunate situation involving the death of Mike Brown.I feel there is a demonization of these dead youth.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I want people to know this is not a race card situation. Many of us young black men have faced being literally hunted by police.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Many great people out there who truly serve and protect. I honor them for their work. Many others hunt and attack. I don’t honor them.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Yes, I could go into when I was stuck up with a .38 two blocks from my house as a teen when I declared my disdain for the hood too.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Or I go into how Lou, Perry, Marlon, and other young dudes in the hood I knew were killed in inner city violence.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
So yes, black boys killing other black boys suck.The parents of the teens who shot up the Bud Billiken parade yesterday should be ashamed.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
The point of this story was to illustrate Mike Brown was about to start college. Never had a chance to show the world what he was made of.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
I was in my second year of college when I was thrown in jail 2 weeks for a traffic stop w/o charge. It could have been me.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
The first thought should not be a justication for black criminalization stereotype logic: “did he do something wrong?” for Mike Brown.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Your first thought should be qualifications for elements of a crime, the second, the defenses, if any. No more, no less.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
If your logic starts the other way around, there is a bias affecting your thought process. Thin slicing, as @Gladwell discussed in “Blink”
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
After this Mike Brown situation, all police departments should read @Gladwell book “Blink”. To many lives lost to negative thin slicing.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
Moral of story: get the story before making snap judgments of others made on irrational bias.
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 10, 2014
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