The biggest gang bust in New York City history happened in Connecticut, at least for Kraig Lewis. Back in April 2016, SWAT teams came knocking as he was on the doorstep of completing his MBA program at the University of Bridgeport.
Lewis never graduated. Instead, he ended up prosecuted as one of the “Bronx 120” under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO). He ultimately pled guilty and spent two years in federal prison despite no prior record or physical evidence against him. After coming home, Lewis learned of his inclusion on the NYPD gang database. Yet, he was never actually accused of gang participation.
“You don’t necessarily have to be John Gotti [to face a RICO charge]. The gang database [is] surveilling different neighborhoods,” said Lewis. “My neighborhood, for instance, Eastchester Gardens, the gang database is going to stigmatize it… you could be a musician representing your neighborhood and not commit a crime, but since you’re on that database and you’re representing this neighborhood through your music, you’re more subjected to be arrested.”
His story starts in the northeastern Bronx as the son of a nurse and an engineer. What the law enforcement saw as a deadly battleground between rival gangs, Lewis called home. Naturally, he hung out with other young men around the neighborhood. And he made music about it. That was likely enough for the NYPD to enter him in the gang database. But vocationally, Lewis eyed a future in law and boasted grades at Mount Saint Michael Academy to back up such aspirations.
Finding a job after prison was tough. Finishing graduate school was no longer financially tenable. Lewis painfully came to grips with never becoming a lawyer and instead focused on music. His lyrics were used against him so he rebranded his stage name from KayMurda to Bbo Flock and pivoted away from promoting violence.
But as he was figuring out his own life, he provided others with answers. Lewis ended up working in the anti-gun violence world through a group named Release the Grip. There, he helped youngsters broker peace. And in the process, he also helped rehabilitate himself. He left such an impression that students depicted him on a mural. Then layoffs happened. So Lewis returned to music.
Legal Aid Society later picked him up as an organizer. The role soon fashioned Lewis as a prominent champion against the NYPD gang database. Even today, the police tool remains and a probe confirmed 99% of entrants are Black or Brown. Those on the database are not informed when they are entered without filing a public records request and little is known about the NYPD’s formalized methodology for determining what qualifies as gang participation.
For a while, Lewis found himself center stage empowering youngsters against racial profiling through the country’s oldest public defense organization.
“I was all over New York doing the classes, teaching them about the gang database, Know Your Rights [and] youth mobilization, and what that looks like to get a group of youth together and fight for change,” said Lewis. “You know, go to City Hall conferences, come up with a plan, speak at the press conferences. And that also rehabilitated me.”
Then, his work with Legal Aid also fell through. Today, Lewis continues mentoring youngsters and advocating against the gang database in a more unofficial capacity. He also runs a radio show where he platforms young artists, hoping to steer them towards a better future.
And through it all, he continues to pursue his own musical career. While some of Lewis’s contemporaries ended up with similar plights, others made it big time. He laughs, recounting a time when a then-unknown Cardi B appeared on his music video. Still a young man, but with a lifetime worth of experiences, he stays hopeful.
“If you see someone with some potential, and you see them in a bad spot, just don’t give up on them,” said Lewis. “I’m hanging [in there] to have a Kraig Lewis success story down the line. It might not be right now, it might not be next year, but I’m not going to stop working towards that. And anyone that needs to hear from me, I’m open to speaking, and I’m open to helping, and I’m not looking for pay to help.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
Thank you for sharing this Tandy