My Soul Cries Out

Jorge Cornell Sentenced to 28 Years in Federal Prison

Reflections on North Carolinas Moral Mondays, the Conviction and Sentencing of Jorge Cornell, Leader of the NC Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation and the Role of the Greensboro Police Department (GPD)
By Rev. Nelson N. Johnson
August 22, 2013
I have been a strong supporter of Moral Mondays. I was among the first 17 to be arrested. I know that what is going on in our state capital deserves to be exposed as a vicious attack on our democracy, against the middle class, and especially against the poor. It is an abuse of power on the state level. But we have a major abuse of power right here in our city. I am reminded that Dr. King once said an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I am further reminded that Jesus of Nazareth said in as much as you do it unto one of the least of these my brothers (or sisters) you have done it unto me. It is in the spirit of both Jesus and Dr. King that I urge the hundreds of Greensboro citizens, who opposed the abuse of power in Raleigh, to read this epistle and to stand against the abuse of police power in Greensboro. A starting point is taking a clear stand that our police cannot and should not be asked to police themselves. It is simply too much power concentrated in too few hands with too little oversight. Only the people of Greensboro can take the lead to change this. I must admit that I am hurting for my brother Jorge and many like him. I hurt because, for whatever reasons, I and many others were not able to help our police department and the City of Greensboro choose a better way. Weighted down with pain and sadness, when I entered the jail visiting room to see Jorge in the evening of the same day he was sentenced, to my astonishment, he greeted me with a broad smile and an unusually upbeat spirit. He said he was happy, and he told me that the whole cellblock was happy with him.

Jorge Cornell leader of the North Carolina Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) was convicted on three counts of racketeering in November of 2012; he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison on Tuesday, August 14, 2013. When I went to visit Jorge later on the evening of August 14th, my heart was heavy, for I knew with certainty that an innocent man had been convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned. I knew that the Greensboro Police anchored this abuse of power, including years of harassment, provocation, and false charges against Jorge and the young people around him, and finally solicitation of the U.S. Department of Justice to bring RICOH charges against them. My soul is crying out to release this information, to get it from inside of me, for I observed the developments that led to Jorge being imprisoned for 28 years systematically carried out in real time by the GPD. I, together with others, spoke out, held meetings, and met with police and city officials. I did all I could but was unable to stop the police in their determination to get Jorge. I know that his imprisonment has done nothing to reduce crime but has increased bitterness and division. I know that thousands of people in Greensboro have been misinformed and confused about who Jorge Cornell really is. I am also convinced that many knew something was wrong with 18 felony charges brought by the Greensboro Police without a single conviction but were too detached or too frightened by the powers to take a stand. I am ashamed of the Greensboro Police Department (GPD), and I am ashamed of my city.

During our hour-long discussion that evening, I discovered that his happiness grew from three interrelated developments. First, he could have gotten 50 years, but he was given 28 years, two years less than the minimum recommended guideline of from 50 to 30 years. Secondly, he was excited that his community had shown up. Those of us present included two PhDs, several clergy, an experienced civil rights attorney, and two dozen or so community activists and organizers, several of whom spoke with passion and conviction from the witness stand. Thirdly, and perhaps the greatest source of Jorges joy, is his strong conviction that the deeper truth of his case will be revealed and overturned on appeal. There is a biblical passage that says we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. I found myself rejoicing with Jorge. Even the 28-year prison sentence, which will have Jorge physically caged up could not take away the joy of hope yet unborn. Jorge told me that he was overjoyed when the group of diverse people appeared in court and offered a completely different picture of him from that which the RICOH prosecuting lawyers had painted. I wish I could adequately capture the compelling picture painted by the 12 support letters and the testimony of those who spoke to the judge on Jorges behalf. Jorges confidence and up-lifted spirit pulled some of the sadness and gloom out of me. His joy allowed me to enjoy an hour with him, talking not only about the sincere effort he made to help impoverished young people and the good things people said about him in court that day, but also about his girls and his entire family and how he planned to continue his work when he gets out. Jorge saw the developments in court as a sign from God that he would be free in the not too distant future. Jorges story, when properly understood, provides great encouragement. He was born into a family crippled and split by drugs; he lived in several foster homes before being adopted as a 12 year old into the Cornell family. In spite of all of this, he emerged as a young man dedicated to helping the most marginalized youth even as he was trying to redeem the only organization that embraced him and the only organization that he really knew, the ALKQN. Though viewed as a gang by many, the initial purpose of ALKQN was to help uplift the Latino community.

The Jorge that I know reflects a striving towards that revolution of values to which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called our nation in his last years before he was assassination. Jorge was seeking to include and help the most marginalized part of our society. He was not perfect, and he made mistakes. He was a work in progress, but he was sincerely trying. For his efforts he was crushed by local and federal law enforcement powers with the tacit consent of a confused and divided citizenry. We must find a better way. Jorges case is important in its own right but it also provides a window into a much broader picture, a picture about a national mood and rapidly developing trend in the criminal justice industry. Michelle Alexander in her well-documented and compelling 300-page book, The New Jim Crow puts it plainly: What is completely missing in the rare public debates about the plight of African Americans [and I would add people of color) is that a huge percentage of them are not free to move up at all. It is not just that they lack opportunity, attend poor schools, or are plagued by poverty. They are barred by law from doing so. And the major institutions with which they come into contact are designed to prevent their mobility. To put it starkly: the current system of control permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American Community out of the mainstream of society and economy. The system operates through our criminal justice institutions, but it functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control [underline added]. Every justice-loving person should read Michelles book. A good friend of mine, Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, a 98 year-old philosopher and activist from Detroit, in reflecting on the kind of revolution of values (inclusiveness, justice, compassion, etc.) that Jorge was straining toward, said there is a strong counter revolution emerging in this nation. The counterrevolution is very unprincipled and very dangerous. Its defeat will take a lot of courage, cooperation and principled struggle. It took a lot of courage for Jorge to stand against the Greensboro police in a principled way. The police systematically provoked, harassed and brought false charges for over four years against Jorge and the

young people around him that he was trying to help. Police told employers that the young people associated with Jorge were violent, dangerous gang members. As a result, they were fired. impoverished, labeled, and isolated. A paid young police agent was embedded among them, who instigated criminal activities that Jorge stood against. Eventually, these young people were thrown into conflict with each other and some did, in fact, turn to petty crime. I see this as criminalizing young people in order to retaliate against a person who was critical of the police and who was trying to do good work in the community. All of these young people were subsequently locked up for nearly a year under fabricated RICOH charges. During that period, federal officials, with the local police lurking in the background, put tremendous pressure on these frightened, isolated young people, using the pending charges against them to coerce them into lying on Jorge. Beloved this is very unprincipled and dangerous. For those of us in Greensboro it happened on our watch. We are not insuring proper supervision of those who have been empowered to deprive people of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All of us are partly responsible. Grace Boggs goes on to say, Rooted in race, and the search for the American Dream it [the counter revolution] began at the end of World War 11, when white people moved to the suburbs to escape blacks in cities like Detroit which were becoming majority black. Taking with them their schools, their businesses and their taxes, they impoverished the cities and attracted the money of extreme rightwingers like Koch [and we could easily add the Pope brothers in North Carolina]. Graces comments are a generalization and might not apply in the same way to every city in the nation, but they do provide a context that is very, very important. Returning to Jorges case, after character witnesses had spoken in the federal court on August 14th and before his sentence was rendered, Jorge was given the opportunity to speak and express his views for the first time since he was arrested in December of 2011. Jorge was at one and the same time simplistic, profound and, in his own way, eloquent. He spoke with power and humility for some thirty minutes. I am not able to capture verbatim the exact words of Jorge but let me do the best I can to capture some of the words and the spirit of his statement made in Federal Court on August 14th.

When Judge Beaty asked Jorge did he have anything to say on his behalf, standing in an orange prison jumpsuit with a chain around his waist linked to his wrists, Jorge said in a halting voice, yes, I have a lot to say. He said he wanted to present the court with documents to show that there were more than 20,000 pages of Greensboro Police references to him or the ALKQN, some of which would show how systematically and illegally the GPD set out to harass, to entrap and to assassinate him. After some back and forth the Judge said he would not receive such documents, as this was not a re-trial but simply an opportunity for him to share with the court his thoughts and views relative to the sentencing. Jorge publicly criticized his court appointed lawyer for not pressing to get those documents before the court during the trial. He also said that he had several character witnesses present but that his attorney was not calling them. The Judge granted a 15-minute recess for Jorge to consult with his attorney. When the court was reconvened, the attorney called six character witnesses, letters written by some are on our website at www.belovedcommunitycenter.org. I have never seen six people speak with such penetrating clarity, earnestness, and profoundness about another persons work and character. After his character witnesses had spoken, Jorge once again stood to his feet and boldly told the court that he was innocent of all the charges. He said he had not ordered or directed anyone to burn a house, to steal or to attack anyone. He said that many of the young people that testified against him were put out of the organization because they refused to abide by his rules of no stealing, no drug use, and no instigating of violence. Jorge told Judge Beaty and the court that the government had manipulated and frightened a bunch of kids and then pressured them to lie. He said that the people who committed the crimes were given greatly reduced sentences and some were allowed to go free. He said that any crimes they might commit in the future would be on the hands of the government. Yet, he said he harbored no hatred for these individuals who had lied against him. Jorge told of being mistakenly put in the cell with one of the young people who had testified against him. He said this young brother was frightened and trembling. Jorge said he told the young man dont be afraid. I am not going to hurt

you. I know the pressure they put on you, you were wrong, but I forgive you. Jorge looked back his 16-year-old daughter and turned to the Judge and dropped his head sobbing. The court was quiet. After a minute or so, he looked at the Judge and told him that I have no confidence in the government. I believe you are going to give me the maximum. He then said to the judge, but I forgive you. Judge Beaty did not give him 50 years; instead, he gave him 28 years and asked that he be located as close as possible to his family in Greensboro. In the wake of this entire experience, my soul cries out to all my young black brothers and sisters. My soul cries out to the entire black community, my soul cries out to the yellow, brown and white people to urge us to reach out to each other in love, to learn each others stories and rebuild broken relationships, and to mend our fragmented community. Let us all do our parts to make our children and ourselves whole. Your individual efforts make a difference. My soul cries out to former Mayor Jim Melvin and all of the old guard leadership of Greensboro and to my middle and upper middle class white brothers and sisters. Each of you still has an important and positive role to play. Do not brush aside what I have raised and look upon this as someone elses problem to solve. Let us strive to understand our collective predicament and each other in new ways, and then let us work together in new ways. My soul cries out to the broad interfaith clergy. I urge you to dare to take the risk of standing with the most marginalized. Together, we must open up real avenues of new and creative economic possibilities. What the children of historically devastated, impoverished communities need most are parents with work good work that builds communities and provides adequately for their families. It is hard to envision a neighborhood being whole and safe when more than 60% of the adults have no work or are paid much lower than a living wage. My soul cries out to Police Chief Miller, to the leadership of the GPD, and to all police officers. The Beloved Community Center is not your enemy. I am not your enemy. I appreciate the necessity for good police work, and I appreciate the risks that

accompany you in the course of conducting your work. I must emphasize, however, that I am the enemy of injustice, falsehood and biasness. There is a major problem of lack of truthfulness in the internal investigative mechanism and the top leadership of the Department. I do not necessarily expect all police officers to acknowledge or even recognize the problems with the culture in which you are engulfed. My soul cries out, nevertheless, to you to be open to and to join with the call for a Citizens Police Review Board. It will make the GPD better. My soul cries out to my own soul to be still and know that God is God. My soul says to my soul to not become bitter or locked so deeply into my own views that I am not able to hear others or to see their concerns. My soul cries out to hear the voice of God to be strong and steadfast in compassion and justice while not dismissing anyone and, like the Good Samaritan, to see all as my neighbor and strive to be a neighbor to all. Greensboro has been slipping backward for years, even by standards of other major cities in the state. Working together we can change this and become one of North Carolinas truly great cities. Racial wounds can be healed. Divisions can be overcome. The economy can be strengthened from the bottom up. We all need each other to really be whole. But, we all have to change and become better. Finally, let me give you some handles to grab onto that can, hopefully, help pull us together.

1. Come to the BCC Community Table any

Wednesday from 1:00 until 3:00 P.M. This is a public space where all are welcomed and the views of all are respected. We have but one rule with two parts: a) listen deeply and b) speak your truth, whatever it is, but do so respectfully. We are located at 417 Arlington Street in the Downtown Greensboro area. We can be reached at 336-230-0001 or nelsonj@belovedcommunitycenter.org 2. Come to the Third Community Public Discussion on Police Professionalism and Accountability on Tuesday September 10, 2013, 6:30 PM, at Bethel AME Church, 200 Regan Street (near A&T). 3. Share this letter with your networks.