Sammy

BY: COLIN MIXSON
FEBRUARY 11, 2010

BURLINGTON - Sammy was born in Yonkers, NY, January 3rd 1975. He grew up there. He went to a school there called simply 22. He also sold drugs there, marijuana and cocaine among others. He was arrested numerous times, the first for selling drugs to a federal officer.

"I've been in New York State Prison," says Sammy, "I've been to county jails up in Westchester, I did state time down state, which is a maximum. I did a little time up here in Vermont, I did 90 days for my first bid, that was for assault. I spent in Jail, total time, about two years."

Almost seven years ago, in the summer of '03, Sammy moved to Burlington and settled, like many African Americans, on the north end. Whether something followed him, or whether Burlington just doesn't agree with him is not certain. Maybe both. Either way, things haven't changed much for Sammy.

"I was driving and I almost hit this chick, up on Luimos. Basically, she ran out into the street and I pulled over to apologize to her and she started screaming in my face, and I started screaming in her face. The original charge was disorderly conduct, and by the time I went to court, they had brought the charges up to simple assault by menacing. That's, you know, foul language in the middle of the street, a pubic area. It's some bullshit, it's disorderly conduct, but since I was on probation, and the girl pressed charges because she was scared of what I said to her, well, you know."

Sammy was sent to Chittenden County, a.k.a. the Four C's for thirty days. It was a dump. Even after state prison, Sammy hadn't been to any place quite like this. It was foul, the food was terrible, the guards were, "dickheads," the facility had long started to deteriorate.

"It was like hell, thirty days seemed like months," Sammy said. "Everyday was a week, lets put it like that. I didn't know what was going on in the outside world. talking to your girl on the phone, not knowing if she's cheating on you, or not. There's a lot of situations you think about, if you have kids you think about your kids and if they're all right. You think about all the fun you used to have, you can't stop thinking about when you get out, what you going to do when you get out."

That's not to say it really compared to state prison, where you really have to watch your back. There reside the Crypts and the Bloods, the Mietas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arian Brotherhood and the Metrocanos. A vast assortment of gangs that are ever present, constantly harassing and recruiting inmates. You had to link up with somebody.

"I got a lot of family members locked up in state prison that's doing real time, you know, like seven to fifteen. You know what I'm saying, doing life. I knew a lot of dudes in there that I got locked up with. I met a couple of Blood dudes, although I never turned Blood out in jail cause I thought that was a cop-out. You know, you do it on the street. If you join a gang in prison you're just proving that you're more pussy, that you needed a gang to survive. If you can survive on the street, you can survive in there. It's just a hundred times harder. "

Living in Burlington, Sammy doesn't deal in drugs like he used to in New York. However, that hasn't kept him from getting in trouble. Sammy finds himself constantly facing charges of harassment and assault, dealing lawyers and courts, and especially the police.

"I've been pulled over by the police while I was parked, and I was on the phone. The officer told me my license was suspended. So the next day I called the DMV to find out why my license was suspended, because I never got a ticket. They told me my license wasn't suspended, so I knew the cop was just being a racial dickhead, like he's always been to every black person that I know out here."

Throughout his many charges, trials and convictions Sammy has become fluent in recognizing his civil rights. He's never had the money to afford a lawyer, and Sammy's found that court appointee's do little more than, "facilitate conviction."

"New York law is different than Vermont law, but it all falls under a basic guideline and as long as you know how to read you can know what you're in there for and what the maximum penalty is. you can opt out to fight this and know what your case is about it's all about. Studying and reading, that's all it is"

Sammy now has a daughter, and lives with his girlfriend Kelly on Pine Street. He was in the process of obtaining a commercial driver’s license, but that plan was derailed with his latest conviction. He is now, "just happy to be free."