FRAMED....

Have you ever heard of Raimundo Atesiano, class?

No, of course you haven’t. The mainstream media have all but ignored him, and even the local dirtsheets moved on as soon as they could. Raimundo Atesiano is one of the most despicable men I have ever had the displeasure to hear about.

Atesiano was the police chief a few years ago,not far from the Tap Room, out in Biscayne Park. His career was relatively unremarkable, and when he became the chief, he soon seemed to have taken control of the district, bragging to colleagues about a 100% clearance rate on burglaries in the area.

That would ultimately be his downfall. Soon after, Atesiano and three of his team were arrested and later convicted of conspiracy to deprive three suspects of their civil rights. Raimundo, promoted into the position far too soon, said he felt pressured into bumping the crime statistics of the area, so to ensure burglaries were 100% cleared he ordered his men to work outside of the law, and arrest innocent black men who had a criminal history, and then – due to the fact there was no evidence – the reports were altered to say that the suspects had been taken to the crime scenes and admitted to stealing the missing items.

I’m sorry, I called them suspects – I meant victims.

Any man who is framed for a crime he did not commit because of the colour of his skin is a victim.

Maybe that’s why Nightstick thought I was easy pickings. He knows that I had a brush with the law when I was younger and believed one of my students had pulled a gun on me, and he took that and the colour of my skin and – like Atesiano – came to the conclusion that I needed to be punished. Not satisfied enough with the fact that I lost two people I considered close friends in the space of  a year, and spent a large portion of that year imprisoned by a neo-nazi freak, Nightstick decided that I must pay with permanent loss of my freedom.

One of the men that Atesiano framed was sentenced to 5 years in jail in 2013 and then deported to Haiti. Not only was he framed for a crime he didn’t commit but his entire life was changed by the man that did it.

I refuse to let that happen to me, class. I have spent far too long ‘paying’ for sins that others have imposed on me to take this one lying down. This time I remember the spirit of Luther Creed. This time I fight back. I refuse to let Nightstick frame me – another white authority figure taking out his rage on an innocent black man.

The only frame he’ll see me in is the frame they hang my photo in on the wall of World Champions when I take that belt from him at Ring of Dreams.

Maybe if he’s lucky, I’ll send him a copy. A nice reminder that you can’t keep an innocent man down.

And a lesson learned that Redmond Quinn is not to be taken lightly.