Louis Theroux s01e09 Episode Script

Two-six and Silver, guy with a gun.
Guy with a gun? Check that side.
You're good, you're good, you're good.
There he is, right there, right there.
Keep going.
Close the door.
All right.
No, no, no.
He's running, he's got the gun in his waistband.
Over, get over, get over, get over.
Turn, turn over.
Could have got your fucking self shot today, what's your problem? Stand up.
Stand up.
What is it? A 42 calibre.
Pistol.
A 42 calibre pistol? Yeah, he was trying to get it out.
Couldn't get it out.
He was trying.
He was trying to drop it? Yeah.
Yeah.
Either that or pull, pull it on us.
- Why did you have that? - Have what? That gun? I don't have no gun.
This one.
- Huh? - This one.
The one we took out your pocket.
It was in your pocket.
The one you were trying to pull out of your pocket.
They have it on film, dude.
I was with the Philadelphia Police, attempting to understand why the city has one of the highest rates of violent crime and homicide in America.
How typical is that of what you see out here in the rough areas? This goes on every day.
This goes on every day.
- Does it? - Every day, yeah.
Every day.
What do you do if he gets his hand on that weapon? He was gonna get shot, absolutely.
Who by? By me! He kept trying to get it out and get it out.
He probably kept getting hung up with the way he was pulling it out Yeah, he was trying the whole time.
But in a way, then, he should be relieved that he didn't get his hands on it.
He should be relieved that he didn't get it out and he's not dead, yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Most of the violence in Philadelphia is confined to a relatively small area.
Officer Bill Hunter, known on the street simply as Hunter, works plain clothes in Criminal Intelligence in the 24th District.
Although there are a lot of nice areas in Philadelphia, this is one of the more violent blocks in the city.
What kind of crime do you see down here? This is a very high-volume narcotics sale block.
Homicide and violent crime too? On this block, yes.
So what are the challenges in terms of policing a block like this one that you face? - Co-operation.
- Really? Why? This block, I would say, I get absolutely no co-operation.
Why not? I would say most of the blocks I've investigated in this area of the city, I would have a hard time finding many houses on this block that are not involved in the trade.
- Really? In the drug trade? - Yes.
This is probably, believe it or not, the most profitable heroin block in North Philadelphia.
It doesn't look like they're making much money.
The guy who runs it is making the money and he don't live here.
Who lives down here? Oh, there's still people who live here, still good people around.
Not many, but there's still good people around.
Where are you going, Hunter? Are you going inside? Is that blood, Hunter? It looks like blood.
They could've simulated something to make it look like blood.
What does this place get used for? Selling drugs, doing drugs.
There's a whole little downstairs bit as well.
Yeah, I wouldn't go down there now.
There's more blood over here.
It says 666.
Hunter grew up in the area he now polices.
Many of the houses he knew have since become abandoned and been torn down by the city authorities, but he still has friends in the neighbourhood.
Yo, what are you doing over here? All right, man.
- How you doing, all right? - All right.
Not good seeing you here, though.
- Yeah, I know.
- All right? Do you want to talk to him? Will he talk? No, not here on this corner.
I wouldn't want him to talk because I wouldn't want to get him killed.
- He's a heroin junkie.
- Is he? Yeah, I've known him since he was little.
I don't know what you playing, man.
- The big fat guy? - Yeah.
What's his story? He's the drug lord out here.
- Is he? - Yes, he is.
He's the boss.
Of how many blocks? - Maybe six.
- Really? He orders the homicides.
That guy? Yeah, he'll pay someone to do it instead of doing it himself.
Do you get on OK with him? I get along fine with him.
I do, I get along just fine with him.
Do you like him? I have a mutual understanding and respect for him.
If I catch him doing something wrong, I'm locking him up.
But when I'm on the street and if he knows If he was to think that one of his workers disrespected us, or did something in front of us, he would probably have them beaten.
What would qualify as disrespecting you? Well, if they were to either, like, maybe take a punch at us, say something derogatory, he would make sure that that don't happen again.
Cos he knows that if they do that, then we're gonna be back again.
He'd rather us not be around, so he takes the opposite approach with us.
- Garcio.
- Sir.
- William 16.
Mathis.
- Sir.
- Vargas.
- Sir.
- William 17.
Fry.
- Sir.
- Ramos.
- Sir.
William 18.
Prosser.
I was at the headquarters of the SITE Unit, an elite team made up of both uniformed and plain clothes officers.
They're known for using aggressive tactics to shut down the most violent high crime areas.
- William 25.
Hornburg.
- Sir.
William 26, use William 7 with Thomas.
Jones.
Yes, sir.
- Marcell.
- Sir.
Left face.
Forward to your post.
March.
Our main goal is to get guns off the street.
And the guns are being used in the guns are being used in homicides and assaults and stuff, but what's causing them? It's drugs, it's It's hard to explain, because they'll shoot you, these young kids, they will shoot you for anything, for looking at them wrong.
Out here we don't get a lot of help from the community, because it's accepted, like the crime's accepted to some of the mothers and stuff like that.
You have a lot of good people out here in the neighbourhoods too, the older people and stuff like that, that you're out here trying to take back the neighbourhood for, but you'll see mothers come out and want to fight the police cos you've got her son with a gun and drugs, like that's our fault.
He just threw it, right?! He just threw it in the gate! He just I got the pack.
Yeah, all right.
Ah! I fucking said shut the fuck up.
Ryan, what was just happening? He was selling drugs out there.
What he did was he took the drugs and he threw them through the locked gate and the guy ran with them up the steps.
Open the fucking door! The police! He's going in.
What happened, Ryan? They tried to flush most of the drugs that he threw up through there.
Check that window.
We got a good bit of them, though.
Flushing them in the toilet? There's still some Yeah, they tried flushing Smell marijuana in there too? Yeah, I saw one or two coming up.
They tried flushing most of it, but he got the crack.
That's the crack there.
This is the marijuana here.
What were you doing out here? This is crazy, man.
I just All I did was came outside to get a cab.
That's it, man.
That's it, I didn't do nothing else.
Like, it's crazy.
Ryan, is this the guy that threw the? Yes, he's the one who Remember when we were standing out there and I said he threw it? He threw it to the guy up there.
So you're saying that the officers? I didn't do anything.
I didn't throw anything, he didn't see me throw anything.
- I didn't have anything.
- We did see you.
We see you out there counting them.
You didn't.
Allall you saw me do was talking to him.
That's crazy, man.
Would you imagine that these two guys are, what, low-level dealers? Yeah, well, whoever this is is probably cutting it up and selling it out of here, he's probably little more than a I don't know.
They're pretty low, they're pretty low, but I don't know whoever's up here, there was a lot of bottles that they smashed out here ofof formaldehyde.
So they could be cutting it up here.
He could be little more than a corner boy, but not much.
A corner boy is a low-level criminal? The corner boy, probably the person at McDonald's makes more money than them.
Spit it out! Spit it out, you're gonna lose it.
Spit it out.
Spit it out.
Spit it out! Spit it out! He's just swallowed that thing.
Spit it out of your mouth.
He's swallowed it.
Turn around.
He's swallowed it.
I heard him go "goop".
What happened was, he came up to Officer Edgar and tried to offer him drugs, so as soon as he tried to stop him and told him he was the police, he ran, took it, threw it in his mouth and swallowed it.
See this, he's got "born" on this hand.
Yeah.
And then "thug" on this hand.
"Born thug.
" Why does it say "born thug" on your tattoos? To me, a thug is just a way of life, you know, like You know, I struggle and everything, you know, so What else? What's gonna happen now? - Are you gonna arrest him? - Can't.
- Why? - He swallowed everything.
Go home, call it a night.
Call it a night.
Do you feel for these guys at all, or are you kind of numb to it? I'm numb to it.
I don't feel for them at all.
I work every day and why should they be out here making the quick buck and, you know, making me chase them and everything else? I mean, I don't feel for them at all.
I've realised that there's hard places you could grow up, but there's a lot of people out here with jobs and just like anything else they can get a job.
But they want to be part of the game and they want to be involved in the thug life and everything else, so they stand out here and hustle and sell drugs.
So I don't feel for them, no.
Even when they get shot? I mean, you don't want to see anybody dead, you know, obviously.
The innocent people that get killed out here I really feel bad for, people that work, people that are just, you know, caught in the crossfire, I really feel bad for them.
People that have killed other people, people that have taken gun pinches, people that have taken drug pinches, people that hurt other people, I mean, I can't say that I really feel bad, I really can't.
I wouldn't I don't want to see it happen, but I'd rather everybody cleaned their act up, yeah.
I was back with Hunter.
Part of his routine is building relationships with all segments of the criminal community, from the top dealers all the way down.
He'd offered me an insight into the world of the street users.
How old are you? - I am 25.
- 25? - How long you been doing heroin? - Since I was 21.
How many bags do you do a day? You do 24 bags a day? That's $240 a day you're spending on dope.
How do you pay for it? Cos that's a lot of money, $240 a day.
Er You're not getting locked up.
I'm not, trust me, I'm a man of my word.
I know how you do it.
I prostitute.
I figured that.
- You're her friends? - I don't know who she is.
What you have in common is you're buying heroin over here on Swanson Street? Um How many bags do you do a day? Um Actually, maybe like one or two.
I just relapsed within the past four days.
Did youyou just copped in the last hour or two? Yes, she was shooting up as we came over.
- Were you? - Er, yeah.
- Yeah.
- How long are you good for, then? Two hours.
And then you'll go score again? Yeah, but I'll score in between if I get money before then.
Like, I'll score before I get sick.
But I'll do, in the next two hours, I'll do at least another four or five bags.
So you have to score again in the next couple of hours? - If I make money.
- Yeah.
You have to make money first? Yes.
I've just spent all my money.
You've spent all your money? Right.
So you have to? Yeah, cos I don't have just a dope habit, I have a dope, crack, coke habit.
How come youyou get high out here? Why don't you just score and then go home and get high at home? The guy I live with, like, he's a older guy, my sugar daddy too, but he kind of a little violent.
So I can't go there now, like, kind of, I don't want to get beat up.
So I stay out here.
We've been looking at what's behind the crime and the homicides - Right.
- here in Philly.
You just got one of the answers.
How does this feed into that? Cos these guys obviously aren't killing or attacking anyone.
Well, they would be responsible for what we saw, burglaries and maybe street robberies to get the money for drugs.
The homicides are the people who run the businesses, fighting over the money that these people are providing.
I mean, it's big business in here.
Like I said, they can be making $10,000 a day.
So, in a way, they're paying for the guns? In a roundabout way, yeah.
But, you know, like I said, I wouldn't consider them hardened criminals, I wouldn't consider them extremely dangerous people, OK? They're people who made bad decisions, bad choices, and now they have to try to survive.
Much police work, even that practised by an aggressive unit like SITE, consists of routine traffic stops for small violations.
Do you have your licence, sir? Don't go for it, don't go for it.
Step out of the car.
Do you have anything on you? - No, nothing.
- No narcotics? If you can do, just step back here for one second.
Put your hands up here.
You stopped him cos his light was out, right? - Mm-hm.
- His tail light.
- His tail lights are out and - Tinted windows? You look on the sides here, those windows aren't supposed to be tinted.
It's too dark.
It's a safety hazard.
We can't see in the car.
You could say that's quite a trivial, quite a trivial thing.
That window's so dark he could've been sitting there with a shotgun, and as soon as my partner walked up to the window, he could've shot him.
We're supposed to be able to see into the car.
What's the report that's come in? Um, it's a shooting call.
We've got about 50 calls on it, though, so He's wearing a grey and white striped All right, guys, back down to the strip.
Somebody might still have a gun on them, OK? Be careful.
Someone might still have a gun, did you say? Yeah.
Stay back a little bit.
What happened, do you know? Yeah, this is the guy and nobody saw him, that's him right there.
It's crazy, man, it's fucked up.
- Do you know what happened? - Yeah, boom, boom, boom.
Do you know what happened? Do you know what happened? No, nobody know what happened, we thought it was a car.
This is crazy, man.
Is she a relative? Yeah, that's her brother.
What happens now? We cordon off the area now, it's a crime scene.
They take the guy that was shot, they take him to the hospital.
- Is he alive? - We don't know.
We won't find out until they get to the hospital and look at the condition of him.
One of the officers is gonna go over there right now and check on the condition, to see what the situation is.
Right now, everybody's looking for different spent bullet casings and the blood trail.
He was lying here when we pulled up.
There's a live round right next to him, where he was.
That could mean he had a gun on him, it could mean that the shooter misfired or something like that.
Is there any lead on what the, um, what the shooter looked like? No-one gave us a thing, information, nothing.
That's consistent too with a lot of neighbourhood calls.
- Really? - Anybody see anything? Didn't anybody see nothing? And that's a problem too.
Hear what he's saying? How many people were out here and no-one saw anything? You'd be asking them, "Did anybody see anything?" No-one saw anything.
No-one saw anything.
Well, how come no-one saw anything? They choose not to.
They've got that whole "stop snitching" mentality and they don't want to say anything.
They think if you tell on somebody that's not a good thing, so they don't see anything.
- Wow! - That's the mentality.
Oh, that male was pronounced, so he had passed away from the gunshot wound.
He was pronounced dead? By the doctors, that he had passed away.
Call homicide and see if we can have the body removed.
Most of the homicides in Philadelphia are committed by and on young men involved in the drugs trade.
I was on patrol with Officer Jimmy Hamilton when he spotted some corner boys he knew.
British TV.
Why do you think there's so much gun crime here in Philly? I don't know, cos they they violating our rights.
- Ask the cops.
- They violating all our rights.
You can't walk down the street without getting thrown up against the wall for nothing.
The officer here was telling me, Officer Hamilton was saying, he booked you two weeks ago for possession with intent to distribute, is that right? - Drugs.
- Drugs.
- I don't, I don't - We don't have to go into that.
I don't know what you're talking about now.
Come on, man.
Would you shake my hand? Seriously.
- No, we don't shake hands.
- Why? - This is not a friendly town.
- Why don't you shake hands? - This is not a friendly city.
- This is Philadelphia, man.
Last year it was known as Killadelphia.
Why is there so much crime and gun violence here? Oh, mother, I don't even know for real.
I couldn't even tell you.
Would you tell me if you did know? - No.
- Why not? You're not supposed to do that.
You're violating code number one, big.
- Which is? - No snitching, never snitch.
Never snitch.
If you had information about a homicide, someone getting killed, would you go to the police and help them? - Why would I? - To help.
You think if somebody kill me, somebody gonna go to the police and say, "I know who killed"? - If I knew I would.
- No, that's you.
Yeah.
Why wouldn't you? You never know how long you gonna live after you do that.
If someone snitched on you or one of your friends, what would you do? - What type of question is that? - No comment, no comment.
Do you know friends who've been shot out here? Everybody's got friends that's been shot out here.
- Yeah.
- Excuse me.
- If everyone knows friends - When's you all leaving? - Leaving Philadelphia? - No, leaving this corner.
- How do you mean? - Like getting off this block.
- In about two minutes.
- Oh, right.
- You want us to leave? - Cops.
I'm glad you all here.
- He got hit.
- You got shot? - Yeah, he got hit.
- You got shot? - He got hit on his neck.
- You got hit with a bullet? - A bullet? - No, a rock.
- Can we see? - Two times, two times.
Do you think the cops are still looking for the person who shot him? - I don't know, are they? - You tell me.
Yeah, I would think so.
You just said nobody would say who shot him, so who do you look for? So then you'll also complain that people get stopped "for no reason", quote, unquote, right? But in order to find out who did something, how else you gonna find out but stopping, if nobody's talking about who might have done it? - Do you know who it was? - No.
- Would you say if you did? - No.
- Why? - Cos there's no snitching.
Why? You wouldn't say even if you knew? - No.
- Why? - Just wouldn't.
- He shot you in the back of the neck.
The guy was trying to kill you.
You don't want to see him locked up? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
He's not saying he don't want to see him locked up, he just ain't gonna snitch, he's not gonna point a finger at somebody.
I can't see myself saying, "That's him right there.
" I can't do it.
- Why? - No.
It's not in my blood.
See you, guys.
How typical were those guys on the corner? They're about as typical as it gets.
I mean, that's that'syou know textbook Philly corner mentality.
That's what you're gonna find anywhere.
Of corner boys, like real low-level drug dealers? Absolutely.
It's cool to be like that, and, you know, whether they really believe it or not, especially if they're in front of their peers, they just have to act that way, you know.
And I know there's at least a good percentage of them that don't necessarily feel that way deep down, but they've got to put on that facade to not look like, you know, not look like a punk in front of their boys.
You say this vehicle's north on number eight? Do you have that contact with whoever's following? - That's a negative, sir.
- That's a negative.
Among those assigned to the homicide I'd seen was Hunter.
The victim had been a 19-year-old called Tone and there was already a suspect.
Does she have priors? Yes, she's got five arrests.
The most recent one is for aggravated assault, which is violence, and the prior five are for drugs with possession, intent to deliver.
Is it kind of rare that it's a woman doing it? To me that's what is extra weird.
WellI would say statistically it's usually a man, but when it is a woman it doesn't surprise me.
What's he got? He's got a gun.
He's got a gun right there.
- Jesus! - Don't fucking move! Don't fucking move! Don't fucking If you reach for that gun I'll kill you.
Get on the fucking ground, get on the ground.
Get on the fucking ground! Put your hands behind your back right now.
Put your hands behind your back! You dumb little motherfuck! You dumb little asshole.
- Where you live at? - I didn't pull it out on any of you.
No, no, no, I didn't say you did.
I saw it.
I said it looked pretty real to me.
It looked real enough for me to pull mine out on you.
And if you'd have reached in your stomach, you'd have got shot.
- No, I was just telling the - You listening? - You hearing what I'm telling you? - Yeah.
It's pretty stupid, ain't it? OK? Stand up.
Let's walk round the back of the car.
You ain't committing crimes with that, are you? No, I'm not crying, I got boogies.
No, no, no - you ain't sticking nobody up with that, are you? No, I wasn't sticking nobody, I was kind of Got all the information? Walk round here.
I actually thought it was real and I treated it like it was real.
We got out and it was a fake gun.
I think, er We took his information and we'll submit it to something, see if there's any hold-ups around here with black hand guns, he possibly could be a suspect.
But now our primary responsibility is this homicide we're working on.
If I was to take him in, we'd talk the rest of our night, but since he had good ID on him, if we need to go back and get him, we will.
- He didn't seem that shaken up, did he? - No.
No, he wasn't too afraid, even though when I was gonna run him over - he wasn't too afraid either.
- How come? Well, certain things are accepted out here.
Jump in, watch your head.
Don't "come on" shit, cos you had opened bottles of beer.
And are you smoking weed in the car, yes or no? - What's your name? - George Bush.
Come on, buddy, you don't even look like George Bush.
- You got paid today? - No, I Oh, yeah? How much money you got here? Get on the fucking ground, get on the fucking ground! Just get on the fucking ground.
Get on the ground! - What is this? - Smith and Wesson.
Don't touch me, man, I know my mother-fucking rights.
- I want to see what I'm dealing with.
- Search me if you want.
Search me if you want.
I'm putting my hands up.
Stop resisting and get on the ground.
Get on the ground! PCP, angel dust.
- Yo bro, yo bro.
- Relax yourself.
I'm asking you a question, you, do you live here? - No, I live across the street.
- OK, do you belong here? - Yeah, I've got ID saying - Do you belong here on this porch? - I wasn't standing here.
- Answer the question.
I live across the street.
- First of all, first of all - I live across the street.
Raise your hands up at me again, raise your hands up at me again.
Answer the question.
You want all these dudes hanging out in front of your mom's crib? Answer the question.
Yes, or no? Yes or no? You don't because you won't answer the question, it's common sense.
If this was your mom's crib, you wouldn't want nobody hanging out in front of it.
Ain't nobody hanging in front of the crib.
Ain't nobody hanging in front of the crib?! You all was just walking? Come on, man! You all wasn't out here chilling? Ray was getting a little heated.
What was that about? The guy started becoming a little gave a little attitude and he was just letting him know who's in control.
We're in control, we're controlling what their actions are at this point.
If we let them know that we're weak, they'll walk all over us.
We can't let them do that.
We're a little rough, we have to be rough sometimes, so, yeah.
A little tongue lashing will go a long way.
Was Ray getting annoyed or was that just? - Just an act.
- That was an act? It was just an act.
What about if these guys were just kind of normal, law-abiding youths? And then you might have alienated them.
That wouldn't be the case here.
If you do this long enough, you can pick it out, you'll pick out.
We drive peoplewe drive by people and we can pick 'em off, and you'll see as the night goes on that the people we drive by and we don't get out and jump out, they're the guys that are OK.
Stay in the car, stay in the car.
Go, Ryan, go, go.
Cut 'em off, cut 'em off.
And pull back.
- You notice anything up there? - Where? Go back, he dropped the stuff as he ran.
Go back and pick it up.
Get up, stupid.
Get up, wake up, wake up.
Wake up.
Yeah.
Yeah, not too smart right now, right? Damn, yeah, right? - Keep quiet and don't move.
- Oh, my God, my momma.
- Relax, your momma ain't here.
- Oh, my goodness.
What did I do? - How old are you? - 19.
- Roll over on your stomach towards me.
- I've chased him before.
Put your right hand straight out.
- Lift me up, lift me up.
- Hey, I've chased him before.
He's a normal out there selling drugs.
No, I just gave the guy a cigarette.
No, we know what you gave him, we watched you.
You did it right in front of us.
Stand up, put your hands on your head.
Hands on your head.
Did he get hit on the head? Why did he go and pass out? - Shit! - I knocked him.
- When he jogged - He hit him.
- I hit him.
- With your elbow? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- Shit.
When he came back running towards me, I went like that.
It's not bleeding.
You stepped out of the house and somebody says "police", and you didn't run, we could have talked to you in front of your house.
But I don't know what was going on.
You understand, I'm scared as shit, I'm onI'm actually coming this way.
If you let me go, I'm gonna go down here and get my charger and go back in the house right now.
That's where I was heading.
My friend asked me if he could buy a cigarette off me.
I'm not gonna sell him a cigarette, so I give him one.
I handed him a cigarette, I walked to the corner, next thing I know, I see a van coming.
I wasn't gonna run at first, but when the "Arrrrr, arrrr," and then everybody started jumping out, my first instinct was run.
These streets is crazy out here, people shooting and killing and shit.
I'm not trying to die tonight, tomorrow or any other time.
- Ray, he's making quite a good case.
- Oh, they always do.
You think it's possible that maybe he's telling the truth? - No.
Why would he run? - He was afraid, he says.
Afraid of what? Since you're being so honest, we weren't yelling "police" the whole time we were chasing you? I didn't hear "police" until we got right You said you're afraid of the police! - I am afraid of the police, I am.
- You keep changing your story.
Why? - I don't like police.
- Why? I don't like nobody - nobody, police, I don't like nobody.
- You sound like my partner.
- I don't need nobody.
But you do understand why these police officers chased? Yes, I know that this is a drug area.
I do know this.
Why did you run? Because around here they have drive-by shootings, random drive-by shootings.
Why would they shoot you, though? They shoot anybody.
They don't care who it is.
Point-blank range, they'll pull the gun out and shoot you, and don't nobody care.
Don't nobody care how old you are, don't nobody give a fuck about you.
Hey, little guy, you got work here? OK, no problem.
Since arriving in Philadelphia, I've been curious to meet someone involved in the higher levels of the drugs business.
In pursuit.
We got two stabbing victims.
Got a doer running from the job.
An opportunity arose unexpectedly at the scene of a stabbing in the 24th District.
Fuck this shit, man.
Watch out.
Back over here.
Everybody back, everybody back.
Over here.
I don't did nothing.
Why you don't talk to some girl who stabbed me? - I didn't do nothing.
- Who stabbed you? Where at? I'm stabbed in my face and in my hands, look.
Look at how I'm bleeding.
- Who stabbed you? - Some girl.
- Someone you knew? - No, I didn't even know who they was.
I don't know who she is, I don't know them.
One of those on the scene was Reds, a known drug lord, who'd been implicated in at least two homicides.
He was high on PCP.
How are you involved? Is this one of your girlfriends? - That's my girl.
- She got into a fight with another girl.
- Is that what happened? - Yeah.
And so what was it over, do you know? - A girl fight.
- Why? Cos they I don't know, man.
I don't know, they fighting over girls.
A girl situation.
- Did you know the other girl, the victim? - Yeah.
- You know her? - Yeah.
- Do they know each other? - Yeah, they're friends.
You're a figurehead on the street in some way? - Yeah.
- They said you own the corner here.
No, I don't own nothing.
I don't own nothing, yo, I don't own nothing.
- Nah, he don't own.
- I don't own nothing.
But do you know why? We're interested in Philadelphia because there's lots of violent crime and homicides here.
- What is that all about? - I don't know.
I'm trying to keep the peace, that's it.
There's a lot of drama round here, there's a lot of violence.
- Why? - The Kensington area.
The Kensington area? That's where we are.
And what's it all about? They're killing cats and everything.
Hallelujah.
They're killing cats for real.
- Killing cats? - Yeah.
- People, you mean? - The people killing cats.
When you say cats, you mean people? Yeah.
They're killing cats.
A call had come in to the police.
A paramedic had identified Reds as being involved in the fight between the girls, and stamping on the victim's head.
What you all locking me up for? Yo, you all's playing games.
- You playing games.
- Not at all, come on.
- Why you playing games? - Not at all, Reds.
- Why you all playing games? - Not playing games.
Yo! How you doing, Reds? Look, I don't want to get recorded, cos I'm suing somebody These girls, I don't even know who the fuck they're fighting over.
Reds, do you know why they're taking you in? No, yo, this is ridiculous, yo, like, it's They fought My wife fought somebody, so I left and I'm in here and I'm trying to find out what the hell is going on.
A witness ID'd you as taking part in the assault, I think.
No, no, no.
They don't know.
I got there late.
So you're gonna call your lawyer? - Yeah.
- Do you want a phone call? Yeah, please.
Can I call my lawyer? My change is in my thing.
By now I'd realised how ingrained it was in many people never to co-operate with the police.
But there were exceptions.
Hunter knew someone whose willingness to give evidence meant she was living in protective custody.
The girl I'm about to meet, all right, she's in and out of this business out here.
About eight months ago, she was on one of the corners with her sister and a boyfriend.
Another male came up and shot all three of them.
Her sister died, the boyfriend died and she lived.
So it was a triple shooting where two people died and one of the people that died was her sister.
Now, since then, I think she's gotten out of it, although I don't think she's totally away from drugs, but I don't think she's involved in the selling of drugs any more.
- How you been, all right? - Good.
- You tell them anything you want, OK? - I wanted to ask you - How you doing? - How you doing? - I'm Louis.
- I'm Jennifer.
- Hunter said - Yeah, I got shot.
- You got shot? - Yeah, and I lost my sister.
- Your sister and a friend as well? - Yeah.
Where were you shot? - I was shot in my stomach.
Yeah.
- Look at that.
How badly hurt were you? I was critical.
- Really? - Yeah.
For what reason were they shooting at you? Because we told them they couldn't sell drugs on the corner.
- So they shot us.
- And do you know who did it? - They caught the person? - Yeah, they caught him.
How did you know him? He was a friend to us.
For years.
You know? And he turned around and shot you? Shot me, then he shot my sister, then he shot my friend.
This is my sister right here.
What was her name? Well, they call her on the street Deedirt.
- Yeah.
- Deedirt? - Yeah.
- Dianne Patrick.
- She has six kids.
- Really? - Six kids, you know? - How old was she? - She was 31.
- She was 31? Mm-hm.
Who's raising those kids now? Well, me and the family, yeah.
The person that shot her and her sister had his family threatening against them if they were going to testify in court.
I've known Jenny since she was a little girl and we're always keeping in touch.
I knew she needed help and I made sure I made her and the kids safe, we got them out of there.
What did he have against you and your sister and your friend? He didn't have nothing against us.
We told him that he couldn't sell no drugs on the corner.
Why did you tell him that? Cos I was living there, I was living on that street.
Yeah, with kids.
Yeah, I mean, I had kids.
And my sister just came home from jail.
What was your sister in jail for? - She was, like - Got caught up with the wrong people.
But she was doing good after she got out of jail, she changed her life, went to church and everything.
And that was enough for them to want to kill those three people? It's a business.
It's a business.
So, Jennifer, will you testify in the case against the guy who shot you? Yes.
Yes, I am.
Mm-hm.
That's my sister, and he shot me, so I'm gonna do what I gotta do.
There he is, right there, he's walking away.
I was out with Officers Bullock and Cassidy from SWA when they were called to the sighting of a man with a gun.
He's running, he's got the gun in his waistband! Over, get over, get over, get over! Turn, turn over.
Ahhh! Turn over.
You could've got your fucking self shot today.
What's your problem? Stand up.
Stand up.
As the suspect was taken away, his friend refused to leave the scene.
You have to get going.
Otherwise we are gonna put the cuffs back on you, you'll be arrested.
.
- For what? - Disorderly conduct.
- I'm not doing nothing.
- You are being disorderly.
This is what we go through every day.
- Every day.
- Fucking cops.
- They out of control.
- Under the ground.
There was a young guy that was taken down who had a little pistol in his pocket, and so, in that respect, it seems to be Yes, but guns is out of control too.
But these cops is out of control - that stop and frisk shit is out of control.
Somebody called about you.
They gave your description, your shirt, your pants, your shoes.
They say Now, I can go ring and let you hear it again.
Yes, we did get a gun.
Show him the gun.
We got the gun.
All right? The problem was, they called about him, his boy had the gun, right? So Were we wrong? We got a gun off the street.
Nownow let's take it let's take it with a different twist now, since you're bringing it up.
Let's say the dude was to start shooting and your little man gets hit, then what? Then I'll get my gun and come and start shooting.
That's the problem that we have.
That's why we're here doing what we do.
So now we've prevented that.
That's it, we took a gun off we took a gun off the street, and we've possibly saved someone's life.
Yeah, y'all saved somebody's life.
Now, if he had shot him, you'd be mad at us.
All right, well, let me ask you this.
- Y'all jumped out on me the other day.
- I didn't jump out on you.
No, I'm not saying y'all.
But I'm saying the police jumped out on me, slapped me onto the ground.
I ain't got nothing on me.
They lock 100 niggers up, they got shit on 'em, they gonna ask me, "What you doing out here? You smoking crack?" I don't smoke crack, I work every day, you know? - All right.
- But you all got me gripped up, got all these niggers gripped up, then it's a big problem.
Ain't no niggers up in here.
Ain't no niggers up in here.
I'm handcuffed too tight.
- Stop moving your arm.
- My handcuff's too tight.
The more you move, the tighter they get.
- Stop.
- Hey, hold up.
- Stop, stop, stop.
- I'm going home.
- No, you're not.
- I'm going home! - You're not.
- I'm going home! This is what you get in America right here.
- Watch out.
- This is what y'all get in America.
What's your name, man? Are you OK? Sarge? - Are you OK? Are you OK? - Yeah.
Yeah.
No problem.
- What, are you all high? - Get in the car.
SHOUTING Will you get in the car? Are you keeping an eye on everything? - Yeah, yeah.
- Why? Just in case something breaks out.
You want to watch people coming in from behind.
- And, er - So it doesn't get out of control? - Yes.
- Does that ever happen? - It does.
- What happens? Bottles, bricks.
Yeah, they'll start throwing things.
- Mini riots? - But they really don't know him, so we're in pretty good shape with him.
He's not from the neighbourhood.
It's like a little war zone, in a way.
- Yes, it is.
- Why? It is.
You know what it is? It's just it's just the way of the nature of the streets.
Like we were saying before, you have all the, er the drugs andlike the man with the gun, he may have been - High? - highon something, and, er, it's just the way of the streets.
And, you know, nobody really cares.
If you notice, everybody's anti-police.
You hear them, "Look at the police, look at the police," and that's one of the biggest problems everybody runs into.
There's a certain level of hostility there.
Yes.
No-one had a good word to say about the police.
- No.
- Why? Once again, we're the establishment and you're stopping them from doing what they want to do, you know? I mean, when you're mopping up the bad guys, how do you make sure you don't alienate the good guys? The good guys aren't here.
The good guys are the ones that went back into their house when they were told.
The ones that want to start trouble are the ones out here mouthing off on the corner.
Everybody's a kerbside lawyer.
- What about the grey area guys? - He ain't here either.
He's back in his house too, when he's told the second time.
These are the people you've got to tell five, six, seven times, and they don't wanna do it, so they get locked up.
I was heading back to base with Sergeant Boon when one last call came in.
- Are we going through here? - Through here and down to the left.
It looks like he hasn't been there that long.
No, no, he doesn't.
We were just here, like the other day, and there was nobody in here.
Can you tell from the smell how long he's been here? - No, he hasn't - He's still fresh.
- Like today, you think? - A day or two.
Excuse me, a day or two, because the weather's still, er, fairly - Chilly.
- fairly cool at night.
Can you tell, umcan you tell what he was taking when he OD'd? - You can see all the wax for the heroin.
- You think it's heroin? - Is this something you see - Quite often? - you see quite often? - Yes.
You know, there Where you deal with all these people who are drug dealers and everything, these are the people who suffer from it.
Back in the 24th District, I'd heard that Reds, the high-level drugs boss, had been released without charge.
The police said he'd never speak to me sober, but I paid him a visit anyway.
So how long did they keep you inside for? Man, they kept me inside for like, like, like, five hours, man.
- Yeah.
- But you know what? I knew I was coming out cos I ain't did nothing wrong.
- Yes.
- You know? Can we see your animals? You said you've got a cow and stuff.
We keep them in here.
But we let them graze out, like, you know, we don't got we don't got the acres, man, but Can you introduce me to your friends? - To my friends? - Yeah.
That's my carpenter.
- Yo, look, he's fixing my house.
- Yes.
How you doing? Louis.
- He's my plumber and everything.
- And these guys? They're just my friends.
We're just ordinary people, yeah, man? They just got us confused, man, for real.
Because, nowwe've been riding with the police, you know that? They've been telling you about us, right? They told me you run things round here and you control the flow of drugs.
No, no, that's wrong, man, that's wrong.
What's the story with your chain? Is thatare those real diamonds? - Yes.
- Are they? How much for something like that? A couple of grand.
- A couple of grand? - Yeah.
If those are diamonds, that must be more than that.
- Yes, it is.
- How much? Probably 24.
24,000, maybe a bit more? Maybe a bit, but gold is higher now.
- How much, then? - Probably like 25.
How do you make your living? What? Look real estate, we sell cars and everything, you know.
Look, this is my daughter right here.
- You know what I mean? - Really? Yes, this is my daughter, she's seven years old.
We're not doing nothing bad, man.
If I ask one of those police what you do, what would he say? Thatthat I'm a thatthat, whatever.
I don't know, they've got their own opinion.
They'd say that you're a big-time drug dealer.
I'm not, man, for real, man.
Look, Ilook, I pay rent.
Why do they have that view of you? Because they see me every day out here and - On the streets, on the corner? - On the corner, but I live right around the corner.
Yeah, man, look, these animals was gonna be butchered.
And I think I did a good deed, I think God is seeing this.
Joel, what's the story with your watch? That watch? Let me see that.
How much for something like that, Joel? Er, I'd take 200.
- 200 what? - 200 dollars.
- 200 dollars? - Yes.
- They know it - Did it cost more than 200 dollars? - Yeah, cost more than 200.
- How much? Couple of dollars.
Like maybe, well, more than, like, 20,000 dollars? - No.
No.
Whoa, no! - What about for the chain? - He paid 100,000 for that.
- No, no! Have you ever shot anyone? No.
No, I never shot nobody.
You know what I mean? I never shot nobody.
Did you ever hurt anyone physically? Oh, you always, yeah.
Iyeah, we always beat people up.
I'm not gonna lie to you, we always fight for family problems, you know.
Sometimes you do what you've got to do to survive, man.
Did you stomp on that girl's head? No, I did not stomp on that girl's head, she'll tell you herself.
I did not touch that girl, that's why I came out.
And they locked me up.
But I ain't stomp on that girl's head.
They said I did cos everybody says stuff, but the detectives found out that I was telling the truth and that's why they let me go.
They'd probably say that the witnesses were scared because you command a lot of respect out here on the street and the people would be afraid to testify.
No, honestly, no.
Honestly, no.
Cos, look look, I'm about to leave all of this shit-hole soon.
There's gonna be more worser people than me, all right? And onceand once we Whatever they say, there's gonna be worser people and there's gonna be more problems, you know what I mean? - Out here? - Yeah.
Cos, look everything is goin' good, man, ain't nobody doin' nothing wrong, man.
Look, you see somebody doing something wrong? No.
You think it's good to have someone who controls a bit of the area so he can keep the peace a little? Yes, I think that plays a part in society.
Rather than have smaller little factions fighting each other? Yeah, cos everybody wanna do what every anything, anybody wanna do, and that's when chaos come.
Somebody got to have control of something.
This is only in Philadelphia, though.
For a drug lord, Reds had been surprisingly friendly.
In an area of chaos, he seemed to see himself as a kind of law maker.
The woman suspected of murdering Tone was now in police custody.
I wanted to find out more about Tone's life and how he might have ended up dying at the age of 19.
I went to visit his cousin and the grandmother who raised him.
These are times when me, him and we went on trips That was him with his father.
- Who's gonna give this child back? - That's Tone there? - Mm.
Yes, that's him there.
- Who's that? That's you? - How old are you, Mike? - I'm 25.
Were you surprised when you heard that he'd been killed? I was surprised, I was very It hurts.
Hurts so bad.
This is not no pain that I don't want nobody else to losing somebody.
They have You know, I had him for 18 years, he was 18, so Was Tone, um was Tone getting into trouble a bit? I mean, do you think he was maybe running with a bad crowd a little bit? I don't know what started bothering him, but something started bothering him.
You know.
I never could get through to him, and they gave him they put him in a programme but supposedly the programme, all they did, was take him out and bring him back home, and that And I asked one of the social workers from the city one day, "Why don't we put him away?" You know? Just put him away so he can go to a school away.
- She said, "No, cos he's not a bad boy.
" - Send him away, you mean? - Yeah.
- Why? Because I thought maybe they send him to a home school, you know, he'll do what he has to do.
He wasn't doing nothing bad, he just didn't want to do nothing in school, he just sit there and disturb the teacher and do nothing.
I mean, the reality is, if you have a child at home and you cannot control them, basically the government over here don't want to help you with that issue.
If my son starts getting out of hand - and he's a good kid - I would put him somewhere too because he's more likely to get that education and get that upper hand somewhere where it's more controlled, and where there's more people to watch over what you're doing.
Were his mother and father involved with his upbringing? - No, his mother wasn't.
- At all? - At all.
- Why? That's all she was.
When she turned him over to me, she turned him over with a letter saying she couldn't take care of him, so you take care of him.
Cos his dad is out here, so you take care of him.
She didn't love him? That's what I think.
I think I really can't tell, cos people love in different ways.
So I can't say she loved him or not.
But if she loved him, she loved him in a cold way.
What did I just tell you? Don't do that, see? Ah, you He's crying cos I told him Aaah, poor baby! You poor baby! My poor baby! What happened? Do you know what happened? Oh, someone's come out shooting.
Listen.
Right now it is in the playground - Do we know if he's dead or not? - No, we don't know yet.
We're waiting for conditions from the hospital.
I was riding out on one last call.
A young man had been shot in a playground.
I no longer felt surprised at the pervasiveness of the violence.
In areas overflowing with guns and drugs, and rife with broken families, the path to crime seemed all too predictable.
OK, I got that.
He is deceased.
OK, CI5 now pronounced, 6.
29pm.
You just got a radio a radio call there? Yes, I just got a radio call that the male was unfortunately pronounced dead.
I believe they said he was shot in the chest.
They thought he was shot in the head, but he was shot in the chest.
And he appears to have been shot several times.
Right here you see the strike mark, to the right of the blood.
- See the thing in the asphalt right here? - Yes.
Probably he was put down on the ground and fired a shot.
Shooting downward into him while he was down on the ground.
What do you think it was about? No idea.
No idea, um As you know, you have a hard time trying to find out any information also, because people don't want to say nothing to the police.
As you've heard time and time and time and time again.
No-one wants to speak to the police.
Some of these communities seem so deprived and impoverished, and so lacking in kind of role models of working people in stable families, that it's hard to see how policing is gonna make any significant impact.
Um, policing can make an impact, but it's not just only the police, it's government as a whole.
Whether it be local government, state government, federal government, it has to be everyone together, OK? That'sthat's only my own personal belief.
What do you see as, say, the 10- or 20- or 30-year prognosis? What do you see happening in these communities over time? Cos it's hard to see how they're ever gonna really make significant progress.
I'll be gone and somebody will fill my shoes, you know, just like these people on the corners that are selling the drugs.
They go, somebody fills their shoes.
I'll retire, somebody will fill my shoes.
And it just keeps going on and on and on.