Too Much Gold

A chopped scene from COUNT TIME

When Lucho leaves, it’s a sad day.

We have become really close, and I think he respects me because I never want anything from him. We’re always there for each other, to just bullshit or talk about yoga. We work out together and I joke around with him about all his gold and make him laugh.

This dude makes money selling phones, dope, everything. He has brothers on the compound who he runs, and they’ll do just about anything for him. He has a watch, necklace, grills for his teeth, all kinds of gold shit. Every time tax returns come around, he sends out money and has a new grill made by a jeweler on the street. It may sound easy, but it isn’t. He pays to have the casting mold smuggled in, bites down on the mold, then has it smuggled back out and sent to the jeweler. Once the jeweler does his thing, it then has to be smuggled back in. I haven’t seen anything like that before, dudes on the compound smuggling in gold teeth. In prison, there are always hold-down spots on your body. The police know about it now, but at the time, they didn’t know about pouches sewn into the crotch lines of inmates’ pants. Lucho keeps his gold in one during our workouts. I joke and call him Goldmember from Austin Powers.

With power and money comes notoriety.

It’s inevitable the eyes of the police and the other gangs are going to be watching and gauging what you have. The next incident becomes a huge thing on the compound. This black versus Latino thing—everything became racial. From my recollection it’s discovered that a black Crip member stole a cell phone from a Latino Sureño, a group of Mexican American street gangs with origins in southern California that has allegiance to the CA prison gang, Mexican Mafia, aka “La Eme.” Once race becomes an issue and numbers become an issue, it just explodes. This could have been avoided if the original Sureño had fought the Crip for his phone. Instead, he approached Lucho and told him what happened. A lot of accusations, denials, and racial slurs follow, and this spreads throughout the entire compound, getting everyone riled up. Discovering the stolen cell phone was then bought by a bunch of guys from Miami who were black made it even more complicated.

Nobody could appear weak by letting that shit go.

The Miami guys don’t want to give up the phone because they paid for it. The Crip member continues to deny he stole from the Sureños. Lucho, who is Mara Salvatrucha, a feared gang commonly known as MS-13, is mad that one of his allied Sureño brothers did not fight, and that it was stolen in the first place. Tensions are high. Crips are allied at this prison with Gangster Disciples and Cut Throats, commonly known as Cut Throat Committee.

MS13 are allied with the Sureños. Because the Crips, Gs, and Cut Throats have a lot of numbers in these different gangs, the Sureños and MS13 are outnumbered. All the different Latino gangs got involved because of politics. The Latin Kings, Puerto Rican Ñetas, and others chose to side with the Sureños to increase the numbers, since it had become racial.

After a bunch of politicking, the wise heads of the many different gangs figure out an alternative action to avoid a race riot. The Sureño member who had the phone stolen, or was being careless, is violated for not fighting once it’s discovered the phone was stolen in the first place. For the Sureño member to gain his respect back, it’s set up for him to fight the Crip member who was also violated for stealing in the first place. The Sureño is also supposed to fight a Miami guy in a second fight to make it right.

All of this is going to happen out on the rec yard, on the handball court, which is a good place because it’s a spot the police are unable to see. A lot of fights happen on the handball court.

When rec’s called, the different races and gangs gather to watch the fight. There’s one fight and then the second, but while the first fight’s going on, when it looks like the Crip is getting the best of the Sureño, Lucho runs in and starts stabbing the Crip. Immediately after poking him, he quickly hands off the shank, and he starts throwing up devil horns, twisting and gesturing with his fingers like a demon, as though he’s possessed. He’s throwing out gang signs and calling out anyone who has a problem with the way he handled the entire situation. I assume that the stabbing was planned prior.

A dead silence ensues.

When he gets no response and no action, he turns and walks down the track and then cuts onto the field where the bleachers are filled with black dudes from Miami. It seems like Lucho doesn’t give a fuck if his gang members or allies follow him or not. Lucho doesn’t look back at anybody, not once. The Latinos are following him, and since Lucho is my friend, I do too. We are about fifteen paces behind him.

Everyone on the bleachers stands up and walks toward us, meeting on the open field. Still walking, Lucho yells, fists balled at his sides, “I’m gonna say this one time. Which one of y’all has that fucking phone?”

A young black dude, unimpressed and smirking, starts to say, “Mannnn, nobody—”

Lucho swings, connects hard, and drops him.

It’s on.

The brawl ends surprisingly quickly, when the bloodied Crip is delivered to the gate by some of his homeboys. The officers immediately close the rec yard but are clueless as to everything else that has happened. It’s crazy. Lawtey wasn’t designed or prepared for shit like this.

You might ask why I was involved in any of this. The thing is, in prison, who you associate with is who you support. Sometimes, simply being friends with someone can put you at risk. If someone takes advantage of your friend or has a problem with them, and you remain friendly with the victimized friend, or don’t back your friend in their conflicts, then it’s as if you’ve been taken advantage of too. Even if you weren’t directly affected, everyone will perceive you as weak, an open target, a pussy, soft, and complicit in your friends’ problems. In a world like prison, where loyalty’s everything, failing to stand by your friends or confront their aggressors makes you a target too. After it’s over, nobody tells the police anything, but they’re determined to lock Lucho up. He remains on the pound for a few days. Eventually, they do cuff Lucho up one day, sending him to the cage up front to be investigated and shipped to another prison’s confinement.

And Lucho is transferred from Lawtey.

Gone.

Mom later sends him stamps and some yoga material for his box time.