AMERICAN BOARD OF CRIMINAL LAWYERS

Prior to becoming a Christian I was a very violent and aggressive young man.

I was bad-tempered and ill-tempered; I failed to retain composure and restraint when angry.

I would lose it and use it, contrary to scripture be angry and sin not; (Ephesians 4:26).

I would be angry and sin a lot.

On account of my perpetual behaviour and my notorious B.I.G lifestyle, I am now left with a criminal record amongst a string of convictions, escalating from Handling to Assault; three of which was on Police Officers. Boy, I remember it like it was yesterday.

Walking down Camberwell New Road I got approached by the feds, just one of those routine checks, you know what I mean!

Anyway, as one of the officers steps towards me he gets just that little bet too close.

I happened to be standing right in front of an edge, as I step back I lose my balance; reflexes kick in and my arms shoot out in the hope to prevent me from falling backwards. I've now just gone and grabbed the officer pulling him downwards to the ground with me.

It was an accident, I swear but it sure wasn't taken that way. Before I knew it we were both rolling around on the ground like two kids in a playpen; by this time things were in full swing, literally.

The officer took a swing at me. In self-defence, I swung back knocking the officer out cold. I could go on but its long; you get me.

I have been charged with Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) and Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) with intent, defined by law as a serious physical injury inflicted on a person by the deliberate action of another. Accompanied by intent, however, indicates a determined aim or plan to murder.

I have escaped large sentences, not because I was at large but on account of charges been dropped due to insufficient evidence or the fear to give evidence (False Evidence Appearing Real) because of reprisals, not to mention, Divine Intervention.

The pressure was too much for my parents who eventually threw me out of the family home. I ended up in a hostel in Peckham it was a six bedroom house but soon I was the only tenant left.

The truth is, I beat up everybody in the house.

The Housing Association refused to re-house me; instead they said I could keep the house. I had a six bedroom house all to myself with the Right to Buy.

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have bought the place. I had girls in every room and they were my girls.

I would go from one room to the next until my soul was settled down for the night. Soul Tie, that's another story right there!

Stitched up!

I was just one insecure brother unsure of myself, doing what insecure brothers and sisters do whilst trying all we can to fill that void in our superficial lifestyle.

However, when I became a Christian I began to analyse and look over my life in the hope to add scope and somehow make some sense of my past nonsense, and why it was, that I did, what I did. I wondered, if it was because as a youth I was stitched up, framed by the police right outside my family home in Brixton. Two plain clothes Police Officers (PC H*** and S**** J*******) pounced on me out of nowhere like two hungry hyena that hadn't eaten for days.

After a bit of a struggle on my part and radioing for backup on theirs, they finally bundled me into an unmarked police car. On my arrival at Brixton Police Station I was quickly marched to an awaiting cell, were I was to spend the next few hours of my day.

After smiling for the camera and having my fingerprints taken I was stripped, searched... humiliating to say the least. It was then that I was charged with carrying an offensive weapon in a public place, a blue, it may have been green handled 6inch Dagger (Knife).

To cut a long emotional story short, I went to court, was found guilty and was remanded at Brixton Prison. I will never forget the words spoken to me at the time of my arrest by those two Police Officers.

You know you never had it, we know you never had it, but you Brixton boys think you're hard. If that wasn't the answer to why I was the way I was, maybe it was because I couldn't read or write.

I'd heard somewhere, Many times rage is fuelled by the inability to turn thoughts into words.

I learnt to read in prison, by continuously reading the Bible. I learnt to write by copying my girlfriends handwriting when she used to send me letters.

Look! Whatever the reason for my disposition Satan was trying to take my life.

It was whilst in custody awaiting trial, the Lord spoke to me through Ezekiel 3:17 Son of man, I have made you a Watchman for the House of Israel, therefore hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me!

On hearing this word, with tears in my eyes, looking up to Heaven, I said Lord I dont understand. I closed back the bible and opened it again.

This time it opened onto Ezekiel 33:7. To my amazement, it read the same as the above passage of scripture.

Since his conversion, he has been cursed and struck in the face turning the other cheek, onl

"I said, 'The court has violated every principle that is American.'"

1922. The nation had not seen such a sustained, concerted attack against a legal, if dissident, organization as the one directed against the IWW. Wobblies were assaulted by local police, company gunmen, and vigilantes. Federal troops patrolled the timberlands of the Northwest, raiding and occupying IWW halls, breaking up their street meetings, and holding them in bull pens beyond the reach of civil authority. By 1920, twenty states at the behest of employers had enacted criminal syndicalism laws, aimed primarily at the IWW. In 1922 and 1923, two hundred and sixty-five were arrested in California alone under that act. A life-long Wobbly, Phil Mellman, one of those convicted in California, spent three years and eleven months in San Quentin. "They said we could apply for a pardon. I refused. I said the State of California should ask us to pardon them."

From the set: " Portraits: Social Activists of the Last Century."