“Charm City,” Part 3: The Lure of the Streets

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[1] This is The Daily.

[2] Today, part three of our series on race and policing in Baltimore.

[3] What happened to a generation caught between a crack epidemic that consumed their parents and the aggressive police tactics meant to fix the problem?

[4] It's Wednesday, June 6th.

[5] I don't see here.

[6] Okay, Toby, which one was it?

[7] Was it on this picture?

[8] No. The one in his room.

[9] In his room.

[10] Can I go ahead and take a look at it?

[11] Okay.

[12] Actually, let me grab my phone.

[13] So the first time I went to visit Toby at her house, we went into this empty room.

[14] She called it Nook's room.

[15] Oh, yeah, this is the one.

[16] Do you mind if I bring it in, you guys?

[17] So the room is filled with all these photos of Nook.

[18] And she tells me to bring out this one.

[19] It's blown up to poster size, and it's this really beautiful photo of seven teenage boys.

[20] And Nook is right in the middle of them.

[21] It was a group of them.

[22] You see the group, right?

[23] All group of them.

[24] On the far left is Fats.

[25] Fat man. Fat.

[26] Fat, fat man. He's the one with the dreads, making a peace sign.

[27] And then next to him?

[28] Razor.

[29] Then comes Razor.

[30] That was Knook's a razor, really?

[31] That was Nook's best friend.

[32] And this one?

[33] That's Raisa's brother Mitch.

[34] Raised his arm kind of casually hung around Nook's neck.

[35] Nook smiling, just beaming.

[36] He looks like someone just cracked a joke and he's cracking up.

[37] And then there's Eddie on the right in a red sweatshirt.

[38] Jim.

[39] Jim, who's wearing kind of a what looks like a varsity jacket.

[40] And Tata?

[41] And Tata.

[42] My big baby.

[43] That's my big baby.

[44] Raisa went, first my son best friend, September 2015.

[45] Then my son went December 2016.

[46] September 2015, Eddie, at 18 years old, was shot in the street.

[47] He's handicapped in the wheelchair with one leg now.

[48] They're about to take that one and off.

[49] Batman, he got killed 53 days after my son.

[50] Tata, the one that's kissing my son, my son kissing right there.

[51] I got off at 10.

[52] By the time I got to my girlfriend, sat on a step, about 10 .30, I got a phone.

[53] called from my son's girlfriend.

[54] My, why you're not at the hospital for what?

[55] I just hung up and went straight to shock trauma.

[56] He was dead when I got...

[57] All I was dead when I got there.

[58] All of two, three, four, five, six, seven.

[59] Out of seven friends, two are in jail, one survived, everybody else died.

[60] It didn't stop there.

[61] So she reaches for this photo album and she opens it up in front of us.

[62] And she starts flipping through, showing us birthdays, family celebrations.

[63] She was killed.

[64] All with Nook and their extended family of friends in their neighborhood.

[65] And so many of them had been killed.

[66] A girl cousin, Desjanei.

[67] Her daughter, grew up together, I got pictures, and I'm going to gather his children.

[68] She was killed.

[69] That was my mistake, May. A cousin named Little Tone.

[70] Another friend named Malik.

[71] I'm going to show you a picture of him.

[72] He was murdered on Pennsylvania every day.

[73] I remember thinking, hold on a second.

[74] What?

[75] I actually couldn't quite process it.

[76] I didn't know how to ask her a question.

[77] I didn't know how to ask her a question about it.

[78] It's bad with that generation.

[79] It's real bad with that generation.

[80] They're killing our babies badly.

[81] This is how.

[82] I mean, it reminds me of covering the war in Iraq and having people die, you know, right under your nose.

[83] You're having an interview and writing a story about a family and you leave them on Friday and come back on a Tuesday and the father's dead.

[84] I mean, that would happen all the time and that's what her life is like.

[85] People are just evaporating and not, you know, old people who got cancer, but 17.

[86] 18 -year -olds, 15 -year -olds.

[87] That's insane.

[88] But they're like in a war or something.

[89] What happened?

[90] I think the town is in a war itself.

[91] Zero tolerance policing was supposed to make life better for Nook's generation.

[92] It was supposed to stop the crime from the crack epidemic that had so tormented Toby and DeVetta's generations.

[93] But obviously that's not how it played out.

[94] Instead, Nook and his friends, their lives were shaped by two forces.

[95] First, by what the drugs and the job losses had done to their parents and the options that they saw for their lives as a result.

[96] But then second, by a policing strategy that seemed to assume their destiny from the very beginning, arrested or dead.

[97] I always don't know that's the cutest tail in the world.

[98] I talk people that now.

[99] I ain't never seen the baby as cute as that baby.

[100] That baby is funny looking.

[101] Big head and real old dog eyebrows and real long I had a little cut over his eyebrow that he died when he was too much.

[102] He had real distinct features.

[103] What did he remind you of what he looked like?

[104] What did he look like?

[105] Me. Me. Oh, my God.

[106] Every day I think about, you know, as a child, he was sweet.

[107] He was adorable, very, very smart.

[108] So it turns out that when Nook was younger, He'd spent several years living with his great -a -a -a -Marion, that's DeVetta's younger sister.

[109] She'd become really successful as an accountant.

[110] And she'd moved out to Baltimore County, like so many upper -middle -class people in Baltimore in those years.

[111] It was a world away from Toby in the city.

[112] We just wanted to give him a better life.

[113] So we asked her if we could, you know, take him and she would be able to come visit him, or she wanted to have him on the weekend whenever she wanted, it was still her child, but we just like to give him a better light and not be bought up in, you know, in the city.

[114] And that's how it became of us having milk in our homes.

[115] Look at these little young girls here.

[116] Let me zoom in, or you're going to close up.

[117] He had piano lessons.

[118] They taught him sign language.

[119] They taught him how to read very early.

[120] I told you he was very smart.

[121] He would pick up on anything.

[122] We had bought him the Fisher Price Recorder.

[123] And he went to church every Sunday with us.

[124] And coming home, he was getting on his recorder and pretend he was the preacher.

[125] And he would be like, let me bless you.

[126] And he would put the little spit on his finger and put a cross on your forehead.

[127] like when they are notch you at the altar with the holy oil.

[128] So that's what he did.

[129] And he would say, in the name of Jesus.

[130] And we just thought it was so cute because it was.

[131] Because that means he's paying attention.

[132] But it didn't last.

[133] Gave him a good life.

[134] We really did.

[135] But I guess it just wasn't enough or what he wanted.

[136] I think about those times with him.

[137] Nook wanted to go back to the city, back to his mom.

[138] And he was a strong -willed kid.

[139] So he moved back in with Toby.

[140] She was working nights as a bartender.

[141] And he was often fending for himself.

[142] This just in, you were looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there.

[143] That is the World Trade Center.

[144] And we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

[145] I showed me this story about the morning of September 11th.

[146] Nook was in this daycare preschool type thing, some blocks away in West Baltimore.

[147] And nobody can rouse Toby on the phone.

[148] The school has to shut down because the planes just hit the Twin Towers and everything's closing.

[149] Oh, my goodness.

[150] Oh, God.

[151] There's another one.

[152] And Nook, who at the time is three, makes his way home himself.

[153] He crosses this big Avenue, Lafayette Avenue, as a three -year -old on his own.

[154] And that was kind of his world.

[155] he had to figure it out for himself and make his own way.

[156] He was a leader.

[157] He was like a leader.

[158] He definitely was a leader.

[159] Everybody told us that.

[160] I ain't anybody love Nook.

[161] You know what I'm saying?

[162] I anybody love Nook.

[163] Everybody loved Nook.

[164] Neek met Nook in elementary school.

[165] All the little kids love him.

[166] Love him.

[167] You get what I'm saying?

[168] He might beat him up, wrestle with him and all that, but he's playing with him.

[169] He's giving that little kid attention.

[170] Some attention, that little kid ain't getting that home.

[171] He'd come outside, see Knuck.

[172] Nuck.

[173] Come on, Shua, let's go to the store real quick.

[174] Get him a dollar, buying stuff from the store.

[175] He was like the pied piper of children in the neighborhood.

[176] Nuck would be sitting there playing with him for a whole hour.

[177] It'd be to the point he'd be playing with one kid.

[178] You turn around, it's 10 kids right there.

[179] They didn't went around the corner.

[180] Yo, Nook ran the corner.

[181] Everybody can't ran the corner.

[182] He planned with all of them.

[183] He was the fun one.

[184] He liked bikes.

[185] All the little kids like bikes.

[186] All right, this is what we're going to do.

[187] Y 'all come outside of the mall.

[188] All y 'all are going to have new bikes.

[189] Don't ask where the bikes.

[190] came from but y 'all are all going to have new bikes you know what i'm saying all y 'all might not it might be four bikes out of ten kids it might be four bikes y 'all had to take turns on them but y 'all going to add some new bikes you know what I'm saying stuff like that did that happen yeah teachers will as soon return to your class and gone so repeat teachers you are expected to be at the door greeting them as they arrive Nook was in high school when he was killed.

[191] He was one of seven kids in his high school, killed in little over a year.

[192] Different kids than the ones in the photo.

[193] But Nook was never really interested in school.

[194] Oh, let's hear it.

[195] He's forever.

[196] Love and loyalty.

[197] That's all we know.

[198] This is actually Nook.

[199] She's like, shit crazy.

[200] Because Brazier was just here last year.

[201] Mitch was just here and then we got 10.

[202] But that's how we're doing down self, bitch.

[203] He was never told to say, like, I want to be a police officer.

[204] a doctor.

[205] He liked basketball at first, and then he wanted to be a rapper.

[206] And I won't say what else he said he wanted to be.

[207] It's not nothing illegal.

[208] But, um, yeah.

[209] What was the craziest thing you thought?

[210] You were like, no, no, no, no, he can't be able to.

[211] A porn star.

[212] I mean, in the fourth grade, that's what he said.

[213] I wasn't going to say it, but since you ex, he told his teacher, you know, that he just said around.

[214] Do you know what that is?

[215] When they told me, I was so embarrassed.

[216] He knew exactly what it was like, yeah.

[217] He just wanted to be rich.

[218] I don't know.

[219] He just, he was rich.

[220] I don't know, ex, look.

[221] I have no idea.

[222] So his grandmother, DeVetta, did get him a job in the library one summer, but he didn't take to it.

[223] It was too slow.

[224] He was looking around his neighborhood, and he was seeing pretty much one path to getting ahead fast.

[225] And that was the streets.

[226] We grew up so young.

[227] We already paying attention to these kids.

[228] Watching hustlers outside, watch people outside.

[229] We probably was on the, we was on the steps.

[230] You get what I'm saying?

[231] Watching them, hustling.

[232] Nook grew up watching the young men in his neighborhood and watching their relationship with the police.

[233] He's just watching, okay, so the police came from this way.

[234] He got away and ran that way.

[235] You get what I'm saying?

[236] When you put that in your minds, you get older, you just do the same stuff.

[237] You just put it all together.

[238] I know what to do, what not to do because I was watching so young.

[239] You got them sign.

[240] Long before Nook was actually doing anything illegal.

[241] He had some run -ins with the police.

[242] But then Nook did start selling drugs when he was about 13.

[243] That's what his friends say.

[244] He got with those boys in the photograph.

[245] They had a block where they worked.

[246] And then, to protect it, their turf, they got guns.

[247] We don't got guns because we just little bad kids running wild.

[248] We're trying to better out situation.

[249] I got to keep this gun right here.

[250] that's going to let him know I'm not going for it.

[251] You ain't ready to take what I got because I'm trying better my situation.

[252] If you take it, I'm going to better my situation.

[253] You got what I'm saying?

[254] And then I'm securing my life at the same time.

[255] You got what I'm saying?

[256] It's not just kids just run around.

[257] We just run around with guns shooting, shooting, shooting.

[258] We do all that to protect our life and to secure what we got is all a part of the game.

[259] At some point, we know he started selling heroin.

[260] We know that because of the police report from an undercover sting that ended in Nook's arrest when he was 18.

[261] Today's date is Monday, July 25th, 2016.

[262] Time on deck is 0 .850.

[263] U .C. 526 on Bywalk initiative in the Southern District.

[264] You, I'm going.

[265] What's out?

[266] I'm out.

[267] All right.

[268] How you doing, man?

[269] I'm chilling, man. All right, then good.

[270] That'll be safe out of him.

[271] Oh, man, no, he hated the police.

[272] He hated him.

[273] Why did he hate him?

[274] Because they don't do shit but make our life hard.

[275] We're just trying to get our money and better out of our situation.

[276] I know that me saying that, they're not going to understand, but that's how it is with us.

[277] You know what I'm saying?

[278] From the people outside looking at, we just some misguided kids that probably didn't have no attention.

[279] You know what I'm saying?

[280] We found that attention on that block, that loyalty with who we're on that black with.

[281] And we're just trying to all bat out our situation.

[282] And if we could do it all together, that'd be a plus.

[283] The fact that they are like, say they're enforcing a law that's against the thing that you're doing.

[284] Right.

[285] Like, is that, like, how do you understand that?

[286] I'm doing what I'm doing.

[287] I understand, like, these drugs kill people.

[288] I understand that these drugs fuck up people with life.

[289] I understand that, but I got to get mine.

[290] You get what I'm saying?

[291] At the end of the day, it's all about getting your money and getting out.

[292] I'm going to get my money.

[293] If that person comes, she could be Michelle Obama.

[294] If she comes spend our money with me every day, it's supply and demand.

[295] That's how the world go around.

[296] You get what I'm saying?

[297] I understand that.

[298] so I understand why they lock us up it's illegal but that's life you know what I'm saying everybody that hustle ain't bad people everybody that sell drills ain't bad people everybody that you get what I'm saying stuff like that's not bad people they just come from bad situations and we just try and make them better but the police don't they're not going to understand that you know what I'm saying they just on the outside looking at they don't care if we ain't got no money or We were ready to get evicted and we need this a certain amount of much of money.

[299] You know what I'm saying?

[300] Nook spent some time in jail, but when he got out, he kept going and he was making money.

[301] He bought nice clothes.

[302] He bought a car, even though he didn't have a license.

[303] His Instagram account was full of him holding money, flipping through it, counting it, smiling with giant wads of cash in his fists.

[304] No, because the 20's cheating on a tent, but the 10 cheating.

[305] on the 20s with the fives, but it ain't a lot of fives right here because we just made it.

[306] Everybody want that legal money.

[307] That legal money is safe.

[308] Secured.

[309] The whole objective of illegal money is to make enough illegal money so you can turn it to legal money.

[310] That's the whole objective.

[311] Do you feel like you're close?

[312] Probably not close, but I don't be there.

[313] I keep hustling.

[314] I probably make a enough to get me a house, buy a house in my neighborhood, rent it out to somebody, buy some cars, sell some cars, you know what I'm saying?

[315] Buy laundry mat or something.

[316] When we get there, I know I keep hustling, keep doing what I'm doing.

[317] I'm staying alive.

[318] We started reporting in Baltimore because of Nook's story.

[319] But actually, Nook was the exception.

[320] He was shot by the police.

[321] But those other young men in the photo, most of them were killed by other young men in Baltimore.

[322] The thing about murder in Baltimore is that it's actually really tightly contained to the circle of people committing crimes.

[323] If you were killed in Baltimore last year, the likelihood is you'd been arrested an average of 11 times, which means today's victim is often yesterday's perpetrator.

[324] And what's left is a very unusual situation in America, where in these Baltimore neighborhoods, an 18 -year -old has a one -in -seven chance of dying before he reaches his mid -thirties.

[325] And Nook's friends, they know this.

[326] Death always was surprised.

[327] Nobody knowing death going to happen.

[328] You don't know if this next bullet coming towards you or your homeboy, you don't know if it's going to hit you.

[329] You don't know if you're going to live.

[330] You don't know if you're going to die.

[331] It's overwhelming at the moment.

[332] It's scary at the moment.

[333] but it come with it.

[334] So it comes with the game that we plan.

[335] So it's not scary.

[336] You know what's going to happen one day?

[337] You know that's possible.

[338] You wake up with that thought in your mind.

[339] You wake up, you're in the mirror, you're ready to hit the block.

[340] Damn, I can get locked up today.

[341] I can get killed today.

[342] It's life.

[343] We'll be right back.

[344] There's a kind of eerie feeling when you go to the block where Nook had been selling drugs.

[345] Most days his friends are still there, doing their thing.

[346] You get this sense that nothing has really changed.

[347] There's just a different kid in Nook Spot.

[348] His block was the corner of Calhoun and Pratt that's in West Baltimore.

[349] There's a bodega on the corner.

[350] All the guy's holding bags of potato chips and people kind of milling around.

[351] They said it's very rare, just the longest of other women, I'll be in a murder.

[352] It's 10 days strong.

[353] I just seen that this morning, 10 days without a murder.

[354] 10 days strong.

[355] Like, damn, 10 days here without a murder.

[356] It's probably two weeks.

[357] They could get a month without a murder.

[358] Sheesh.

[359] It's cold, and one of Nook's friends is inside the bodega, watching the street through the glass door.

[360] What did he want for himself?

[361] To save his money up and get away for him.

[362] And that was really his main objective for him and his mother.

[363] And when you say get away, meaning, like, leave Baltimore?

[364] I mean, and like...

[365] Just get away, courage.

[366] This ain't forever.

[367] Do you remember him talking about that?

[368] Yeah, we always talk about that we ain't going to be like the older people that we see out there.

[369] Still out there.

[370] Who out there, bro?

[371] So all of a sudden, this police car pulls up.

[372] This creed right here.

[373] Oh, really?

[374] Come see him.

[375] Okay, cool.

[376] But not just, like, slows down and puts on the break and pulls up.

[377] but like screeches up, practically bumping up onto the curb.

[378] I mean, goes from 70 to zero in like three seconds.

[379] What's up, man, man?

[380] And these cops get out.

[381] You're open up with your case?

[382] No, you're a kid.

[383] What you put on me?

[384] We're standing there in the middle of the street in this kind of absurd situation in which they're kind of bantering and they're all kind of insulting each other.

[385] And you can't really tell what's going on.

[386] dime bag of weed on the way through the alley.

[387] Listen.

[388] I know the law.

[389] I take that.

[390] And Nook's friend is just shouting about this litany's of wrongs against him.

[391] Tell him about when you put that stolen bike on me. I was just riding a bicycle and you accused me of having stolen it.

[392] He spent out driving too fast and hit it.

[393] You put me in the back of your police car and took me on a rough ride.

[394] This before Freddie Gray, before they start doing the seat bell shit, because they ain't do that effort.

[395] You did this, you did that.

[396] man down.

[397] You got him on the front page.

[398] You put him up the line.

[399] You don't want to give him to write all the paperwork got to...

[400] Do you see what just happened to his partner?

[401] Your partner, y 'all is stone -cold liars.

[402] The police have no idea who I am and are confused by my presence.

[403] My private investigator right here.

[404] Is that what that is?

[405] What is that right there?

[406] Tape recorder.

[407] She records.

[408] I'm a reporter.

[409] Oh, okay.

[410] Talking about you.

[411] Four hundred, five hundred pills.

[412] No, New York Times.

[413] New York Times.

[414] Okay.

[415] Use Ray blow up.

[416] You know that?

[417] Usry go global.

[418] So you got a private reporter.

[419] That's pretty interesting.

[420] And it's clear there's this long history between them.

[421] Like this is some weird cat and mouse routine that both sides understand.

[422] Y 'all have a good day.

[423] You too.

[424] Yeah, you too.

[425] I got about a hundred videos on my eye club, please.

[426] I got videos on your dumb ass from back in 14, stupid.

[427] No, 15 stupid.

[428] After a few minutes of this, the cops get in the car and drive off.

[429] I'm going to see both of y 'all of a supermacks.

[430] But they didn't really leave.

[431] The car kept buzzing the block.

[432] I mean, really accelerating, like it was like on a racetrack or something.

[433] Going around and around, backing up really quickly, tearing through an alley.

[434] I asked the guys, I said, does this this?

[435] usually happen?

[436] What is he doing?

[437] And they were like, oh, yeah, that's what he does every day.

[438] He patrol us.

[439] You're not supposed to patrol the neighborhood.

[440] He patrolled us.

[441] I swear to God.

[442] And I mean, obviously, this is a place where drugs are being sold.

[443] The police should be here.

[444] But it's just the way that it's happening.

[445] All day, every day, all day, all day, every day.

[446] He, like, pops up onto the curb and tries to spook people.

[447] Like, if you was not right here, he'd be doing so much.

[448] I swear he's, he's dumping on curbs and all that.

[449] Heck, like, he's going to hit you.

[450] And Nook's friends, they're pretty unfazed.

[451] What do you want?

[452] What you want?

[453] Nine, boy?

[454] In the midst of all of this, one of the guys on the corner makes a drug cell.

[455] So it doesn't seem very effective.

[456] And then it kind of occurred to me, oh, this is exactly what we've been hearing about policing in Baltimore after Freddie Gray.

[457] The police, they've been trying to get away from their bad behavior.

[458] But they don't know what to replace it with or what to do instead.

[459] So what's left is this kind of half thing, this winding up of the hammer.

[460] But the hammer never comes down.

[461] And so you have these teenagers openly breaking the law.

[462] The cops still unsure how to police them.

[463] So nothing's really happening.

[464] Drugs are still being sold on the corners.

[465] And the kids who are selling them keep dying.

[466] The four boys in that photograph, they were all killed after Freddie Gray.

[467] Yo, you're going down in the camera, yo!

[468] And then, just like that, it's over.

[469] The cops drive off.

[470] And Nook's friend keeps talking to me about Nook.

[471] You aren't no different from no other kid out here.

[472] We'd be forced into adulthood early because we'd be taking care of ourselves for us.

[473] Like, he wasn't no different from nobody else out here.

[474] And what's a kid like from Baltimore City?

[475] Just trying to get some money.

[476] Stay out the way.

[477] You ain't got no choice but to do it or stuff.

[478] Everybody don't come from a happy home for real, for real life.

[479] Everybody don't come from no happy home.

[480] Some people ain't got no choice but out of it.

[481] You ain't got nobody.

[482] So this would be it.

[483] Like, this really be it.

[484] Some people take care of their whole house.

[485] And they're young still.

[486] Do you think Nook had a choice?

[487] When he was younger, for real, from what I can see and when I was hearing, for real, he really had it all when he was young.

[488] But as he got older, he didn't really, for real.

[489] So he started doing for him and his mother, like, not just him.

[490] So he kind of had a choice, but he kind of didn't.

[491] Kind of sort of.

[492] He had the option, but it's like a strong force that was against him or had a hold of him that he just couldn't let go.

[493] I just couldn't understand it either.

[494] What do we do?

[495] What can we do?

[496] Nook's family thinks he did have a choice.

[497] Nook would probably right now be at Cornell or something like that or some way.

[498] I mean, this was for the most part of family that kept rising, like, Marion, the accountant, or his great -aunt Gina, who built a very successful business.

[499] She got pregnant at 16 and worked three jobs so her son, Maurice, could go to private school.

[500] You know, I drive through the inner city where I used to live at because my business is not too far from there.

[501] And I see some people that I grew up with.

[502] And I'm telling you, and I went to school with a lot of people that picked on me because I didn't have the most nice thing.

[503] And I see them now.

[504] and I have two Mercedes and they're walking and they look like they're about 80 years old and I know I look good.

[505] You know, so it's all about the environment even you get out of it or you stay there.

[506] Some people love the street.

[507] Some people want to do better.

[508] Some people have no choice but to do better.

[509] Some people can't do better because they're not given an opportunity.

[510] Some people, it's teeter in the line and can make the choice can go right, you know, it can go right or left.

[511] And some people just love the street.

[512] Like you have some guys love doing business.

[513] You have some people like, you love what you do.

[514] It's saying some people love the street life.

[515] Some people love being in the mix.

[516] Some people feel more comfortable in the street.

[517] Whether they, you know, whatever, for whatever reason, they feed off the energy of it, the outside, the, the possibility of being murdered, the fast, like selling drugs.

[518] drugs, all the shistiness and the, you got a head, got to be on a swivel.

[519] Somebody's always trying to go, I think.

[520] Some people, it pumps.

[521] It's the heartbeat of their life.

[522] The more I listened to everyone in his life talk, the more I was thinking, kind of a false choice.

[523] It wasn't really a choice for him.

[524] He was a little kid, and he wanted to be with his mom.

[525] And his mom was in that world, and his mom loved him fiercely.

[526] and he loved her too and it would have been unreasonable to expect that he would have stayed living away from her forever so Nook as a little kid chose his mom the streets came with her if you knew your son had a gun wouldn't you call the police did you call the police such a hard question right it's such a hard question at this point and that's bad that that's a hard question that you don't know if you but call the police if your own child had a gun.

[527] I don't feel so bad because guess what?

[528] Why should I tell minds to put his down?

[529] Because Charlie not going to put his down, John not going to put his down, Tracy not going put his down, and they just might not like nook today.

[530] I got to protect minds and I think that's why everybody's seeming so selfish.

[531] You don't know who to trust.

[532] Everybody is scared.

[533] everybody want a gun and everybody that can get a hold to a gun and has a gun.

[534] And what a scared person going to do if they're finger on the trigger?

[535] Boom.

[536] I asked Toby if she thought no cat a choice.

[537] She didn't really answer, but she did say this.

[538] The streets were in or something.

[539] It was just like he already, as a baby had this leader edited to you, like this old spirit or something.

[540] Like he's just going to do it his way.

[541] And if it's wrong, he's going to figure it out.

[542] And then he'll do it again on his time.

[543] If it's going to be right down and there, you just can't say nothing.

[544] Just let him do it.

[545] And is she saying all of this, I'm realizing, she sounds proud of him for being a leader in this world.

[546] And could he have say, for example, just like gone to work at the library, for example, like with your mom or something like that?

[547] No, indeed.

[548] It wasn't his personality.

[549] I ain't going to say he couldn't work.

[550] It wouldn't have been that.

[551] That's not him.

[552] That would have never been enough of him.

[553] they're going to drive the spaceship and he is going to the moon and he's going to come back and get us and take us there and the house is going to be built at the end of it I'm trying to tell you it ain't going to be no other way and if it can't be that way it ain't going to be no way.

[554] That kind of stopped me in my tracks.

[555] Here was someone who loved her son so much who admired her son so much but they lived in this upside down land and there were very, very few ways to make it as they saw it.

[556] This was the fastest way, and Nook was good at it.

[557] He was important in that world, a leader.

[558] And she didn't want to take that away from him.

[559] She wasn't going to stand in his way.

[560] And did you resist that?

[561] Before I discourage him, I won't say nothing.

[562] Every thought in that boy mine was to get a head.

[563] Like, so why I take that from now?

[564] Because it's possible.

[565] At the end of the day, We all make choices in life.

[566] And each generation tries to, you try to make your next generation better.

[567] From what my grandfather went through to my mother, my father, to me, to him.

[568] Where he's going to be better than me, and he's having it better than me. So it works on a flip side of the spectrum.

[569] If I was in the street right now, he would be deeper in the streets to me. I could nourish him and raise him just like I am now to be something.

[570] I can nourish and raise him to be in the street.

[571] street just like a mobster can nourish his son to be a better mobster than what he was to maybe get made and go higher and become the boss of the family where as though he didn't make it that makes sense so on the street you can do the same thing intentionally or unintentionally and do you think that's what was happening with toby and miss yeah yeah i mean i don't yeah i just don't think that she foresaw the ending result i don't think she thought it was going to be that Well, I don't think she foresaw that, but I don't think she wanted that.

[572] I just think that's kind of what happened.

[573] Is that Nook?

[574] That's Nook singing.

[575] That's Razor.

[576] Everybody thinks Knook and Razor look alike.

[577] That's Nick.

[578] That's his song.

[579] Show me the bubble Because he can't do the struggle We'll be right back.

[580] Hi, it's Michael Barbaro.

[581] Daily listeners often ask how they can support this show.

[582] The answer is through a subscription to the Times.

[583] It's the journalistic engine that powers the daily.

[584] Times reporting is what makes the daily the daily.

[585] For those who already subscribe, thank you.

[586] For daily listeners who don't get subscribed, the Times is now offering 50 % off your first year, plus your first month free.

[587] It's a good deal.

[588] To learn more, visit n .Ytimes .com slash the daily offer.

[589] That's nytimes .com slash the daily offer.

[590] And thank you.

[591] Here's what else you need to know today.

[592] The results of Tuesday's primary voting in California, the single most important battleground for Democrats trying to retake the House are still coming in.

[593] But as of Wednesday morning, early returns seem to show that Democrats are in the top positions in the key districts where they are hoping to reclaim seats previously held by Republicans.

[594] California's unusual primary system allows the top two candidates to advance to the general election, regardless of party, which had raised fears that Democrats could be locked out altogether in the final round of voting.

[595] Democrats think that California could give the party a third of the seats they need to regain control of Congress.

[596] And just to sum it up, I think we have enough work to do.

[597] for the American people, that we should be here during these weeks.

[598] On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell canceled most of the Senate's annual August recess in a move that could keep Democratic lawmakers off the campaign trail ahead of this fall's elections.

[599] McConnell said the decision would give the Senate time to complete important legislative work.

[600] But the Times reports it is as much a political maneuver that would force nearly a dozen Democratic senators to choose between missing votes in Washington and defending their vulnerable seats back at home.

[601] I hope we'll get greater cooperation, but everybody should anticipate that we will be here as I announced today.

[602] That's it for the Daily.

[603] I'm Michael Barbaro.

[604] See you tomorrow.