The Long Journey Back..........

I know it's been a long time since I've posted to my Thesis blog. It's been over a year to be exact. Some people might say I'm being a slacker and wasting time but I thought before I post any new research that I've done, I should take the time to tell you about the Long Hard Journey Back to my Thesis. Fall quarter, October 2009, I passed my 45 hour Review feeling on top of the world. This is the professors giving me the right to further develop my thesis research. After the Winter quarter, March 2010 ends and I pass through the week of finals, I get a very strange call from my mom. She tells me that I have to come home to take care of some very important business. When I get back home to Fort Lauderdale, Florida my mom hands me a letter saying that I am no longer eligible to be a registered voter due to my arrest on April 2009 for possession of cocaine and marijuana. I laugh at first thinking this is just an April fools joke, but my mom tells me this is serious and we have to go down to the court house tomorrow to see what it's all about.

My mom and my uncle go with me to the Fort Lauderdale court house as supporters. I've never been arrested before so I didn't even know where to go and who to talk to about my situation. My uncle leads me to the Identity Theft unit there. This was the longest and most awkward walk I've ever taken. Every time I passed by a cop I felt they were gonna throw me to the ground and read me my rights. I felt more embarrassed for my mom than anything because I've never wanted my mom to have to go through the stress of seeing her son as a criminal. My mom, being a single parent, worked long hard nights to make sure my older brother and I had everything we needed. I never wanted to add any extra stress to her. When we get to the Identity Theft Unit, we ask to pull up the case number so I can see who stole my identity and did the crime. It's my COUSIN on my dad's side of the family.

Just a little background information about my cousin, He's been in trouble with the law ever since we were little kids. Always in and out of court and jail, high school drop out, and staying with different baby mommas. He fits the Stereotypical Black Male in every way. As I look down at the mugshot with his face on it. The information at the bottom says Brad Madison and has my date of birth on it. Another funny thing I forgot to mention is that we were born on the exact same month, day, and year. I was born at 1am and he was born at 2am, or something like that. We are technically twins and like they always say there's a good one and a bad one. He's the bad one. Even with this piece of information I wondered how the cops could get it so wrong and not know that he wasn't me. As the cops tell me when they arrested him and brought him in he didn't have any identification on him, so he told them my name and gave them our date of birth. I guess since I've never been arrested before I wasn't in the system and they took him at his word. But I thought why wouldn't they just have someone come in and identify who he was before they put it in the system. I thought they didn't care as long as they had another black man behind bars. They didn't care about an investigation. And as far as my cousin being behind bars, since it was technically my first offense, he only did 45 days in jail. How's that for justice. My cousin gets out early and I'm stuck with a felony charge for LIFE.

Next, I go through the motions of identifying exactly who he is to the police and take fingerprints of my own so that I may be put into the system. I was so scared getting my fingerprints taken my hands kept shaking and the lady kept saying, "just relax." I would say, "I'm sorry it's my first time." I take my fingerprints back to the Identity Theft Unit and they give me a paper saying I'm a victim of Identity Theft and they are working on the case. So I try and enjoy what's left of my Spring Break and breathe a little relief. I try and shake it off as I go back to SCAD for Spring Quarter 2010 classes.