night, we would make sure it was all right. i raised him, he raised me. and we all we got. you re his older brother. does that make you feel a little more responsibility? it does, but at times, he s been my older brother. more often than not. nah, but in a way, i ve been struggling with an addiction, like crystal meth, man, that is a hell of a drug, man, and i m new to it, and you know what i mean, and i ve seen my brother crying, looking at me like, you re a dope fiend. at times, he plays the big brother role. but there s times he would still clothes and put them on my back. addicted to heroin or whatever, my brother s going to take care of me, period. that s my brother. take care of my back like his. i named two of my kids after him. one has his first name, ezekial, and one is justin. i ve got his name across my back, the only tattoo on my back, and i leave that for a
he s in a pissy ass mood today. he s starting to piss me off. they had a lot in common. they grew up in oakland s foster care system. they had both joined a gang, but dropped out shortly before we met them. and they both told us they were finally ready to give up their revolving door relationship with jail. one of the things about both gabriel and ezekial was their honesty. and i appreciate it. they were pretty honest about their lives. and when i asked ezekial how he made a living, how he used to make a living, he was very forthright and he told me he made a living robbing drug dealers. i only rob dope boys. what you re doing is illegal, so chances are if i do something illegal too, just going to chalk it up to the gang. there s a dangerous aspect to that. do you have any problems with that? i ve been shot. i ve been shot in my face, in my thighs, my back, my ass.
gabriel was honest saying he wasn t sure how he was going to do. but ezekial seemed on a very clear path of having a better life. and this piece goes like this, right? yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah. becoming a father was a big deal to him. he already had a solid job. he knew he wanted to pursue education. and he also mentioned that, you know, he was done with robbing drug dealers and had been for a while. he didn t want to touch a gun again. i can tell you what i want to do. i can t say what s going to happen. if i can get released from here and get hit by a car, you never know. but my intentions, i m not robbing nobody no more. i ain t touched a gun in years. and i won t touch a gun. you know what i mean? i don t got to look over my shoulder anymore, all that [ bleep ] is done and over with. i don t got to worry with the street life. the street life is the farthest thing from my mind. so what can i focus on?
i ve been shot a few times. but, i mean, it s the cost of doing business. i was struck by ezekial s loathing of drugs and drug addiction. i mean, drugs seem to surround ezekial in my ways. i mean, i think i caused a deprivation in his childhood. his brother, who he adored, had a drug addiction, and that really bothered ezekial. my daddy ain t raise no deep fiend. why all of a sudden you want to start using drugs? you going to let somebody else convince you to pay them your money, take out of your children s mouth, so you can poison yourself? that s just stupidity. that s beyond stupid. ezekial can t stand me. if you see somebody sitting there, cutting on theirselves, basically, cutting theirselves and cutting their throat, and you keep stopping them, but he keeps trying to cut himself, it s the same thing as ezekial watching me get high.
affiliations could bring harm to ezekial. they don t play games in oakland. that s the little taliban. we live in al qaeda. they see my brother and try to make an example out of him and i just see his name plastered, i don t know what i would do. make this, so i can finish my card. just days before ezekial was due to leave, we covered the taylor brothers interacting with other inmates in their housing unit. ezekial was making what they call a spread, take a number of commissary items and turn it into a feast for a number of people who want to participate in it. what do you call this? goulash. the same thing you call it. goulash. jailhouse goulash. how about that? so the spread was finished, ezekial called some of the inmates over, so they could all eat. and they were going to say their prayers first. one of the inmates who came over to share the meal is michael souter, a friend the taylor brothers knew from the outside. dear heavenly father, may you bless this food we