Black Guerrilla Family indictees (clockwise from top left) Avon Freeman, Darien Scipio, Darryl Taylor, Deitra Davenport, Marlow Bates, Nelson Robinson, Randolph Edison, Roosevelt Drummond, Ray Olivis, and Zachary Norman
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The DEA's original basis for tying Brown to BGF violence came from a confidential informant called "CS1" in court documents. A BGF member who's seeking a reduced sentence, CS1 starting late last year gave a series of "debriefings" that lasted into early 2009. The investigators say in court records that CS1's information has a track record of reliability, and the story checked out well enough to convince a grand jury to indict and a handful of judges to sign warrants as the case has progressed.
"BGF is extremely violent both inside and outside prison," investigators recounted CS1 saying, "and is responsible for numerous crimes of violence and related crimes, including robbery, extortion, and murder for hire." But "historically BGF has not been well-organized outside of prison," CS1 asserted, and now the BGF "is attempting to change this within Baltimore, Maryland by becoming more organized and effective on the streets." Brown "is coordinating and organizing BGF's activities on the streets of Baltimore" and The Black Book "is a ploy by Brown to make BGF in Maryland appear to be a legitimate organization and not involved in criminal activity," CS1 said, even though "Brown is a drug trafficker" and the BGF "funds its operations primarily by selling drugs."
If CS1 is correct, then Brown is not as he was perceived by his supporters. Could it be that yet another purported peacemaker is actually prompting violence? It happened in Los Angeles last year, when a so-called "former" gangmember who headed a publicly funded non-profit called No Guns pleaded guilty to gun-running for the Mexican Mafia prison gang. It may have happened in Chicago last year, when two workers for the anti-violence group Ceasefire, which uses ex-gangmembers as street mediators, were charged in a 31-defendant gang prosecution.
Brown, with his book and his non-profit organization, wasn't up and running at nearly the same scale as No Guns and Ceasefire, and there's no evidence he was grant-funded. He was only just beginning to set up his self-financed positive vibe from inside his prison cell. But his is the same street-credibility pitch as in Los Angeles and Chicago: redeemed gangsters make effective gang-interventionists because the target audience will respect them more. Clearly, the approach has its risks, and Brown may end up being another example of that.
"It's a dilemma," Powers says of the question of how to prevent additional crimes from being committed by gang leaders who claim redemption and profess to work for reductions in gang-related violence and crime. "It has to be closely monitored." As for Brown's indictment, the lessons remain to be seen: "I don't know if I can make it make sense," Powers says.
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