From vandals To Heroes Pt.2

Some of you might have read the previous post, wherein I describe my come-up in the Belgian graffiti scene and how it lead me to spraypaint one of the trainstations in the 2nd biggest city of the country legally. Now, at a more recent graffiti jam I met a guy whose life story just blew me away and I became completely humbled by his past experiences. (In this story I call him Freddy.)

One evening a couple of people (friends and friends of friends) were hanging at his place, drinking and smoking weed. Just fun times, having a little party with some loud music. All of a sudden the cops come knocking, the neighbours were complaining about the loud noise. They walked in and started inspecting everyone, searching everyone present and sniffling through backpacks and clousets. They find drugs in someone's backpack. The owner of the backpack appears to be a minor and tells the cops that the weed belongs to Freddy and that Freddy forced him to smoke it.

Ofcourse this guy is talking out of his ass and Freddy tries to defend himself, but nobody is willing to back him up and confirm the truth. So they arrest Freddy for drug trafficing and he goes to jail for a couple of months. He loses his job, and thus his income. He can't pay his morgage anymore so the bank forecloses on his house and sells it. Freddy is now homeless, in jail and in debt.

Once he gets out, he can't get a job, not even a louzy one because of his criminal record. Bills keep stacking up and he doesn't seem to be able to ever recover from it.
It takes him over 7 years to get back upon his feet and become a self-employed graffiti artist. He went through all of this misery because one guy lied out of fear for the consequenses.
 

And during all this time, he never forgot to smile and he's still a positive person the day I met him.


So kids, using drugs is bad 'mkay? But if you do, make sure you're hanging with cool people that won't turn on you.

Peace!
-Matthew Dawn