hey guys! here’s some fun things i learned from this article about Dion Diamond:
he did these sit-ins by himself. like idk about you, but i always thought of sit-ins as organized by groups, what kind of bravery does it take, man
he didn’t tell anyone about it, like he was no glory-seeker about this. his parents didn’t even know until reporters started calling them up like “hey, did you know your son is in jail?
when someone called the cops he’d skedaddle out the back door although he was sent to prison multiple times
the last time he got arrested was in Baton Rouge, and the cops were so sick of him that they told inmates they’d put in a good word for anyone who gave Diamond a hard time. (the inmates didn’t take the bait.)
After his release from prison, Wright obtained his undergraduate degree in 2002, entering law school in 2004 and graduating from St. Thomas University School of Law in 2007. Passing the New Jersey Bar in 2008, he spent the next nine years being investigated by the New Jersey Bar’s Committee on Character before being granted admission to the bar by the New Jersey Supreme Court on September 27, 2017.
On September 27, 2017, Wright became the only person in U.S. history to be condemned to life in prison, secure his own release and exoneration and then be granted a license to practice law by the very court that condemned him.
Wright got his 1991 conviction overturned by exposing the gross corruption and misconduct within the court that convicted him, the prosecutors office and the police force. This allowed Wright to successfully get rid of his life sentence but he remained in prison on numerous other convictions with sentences totaling over 70 years. Wright’s ultimate release came as a result of his cross-examination of veteran police detective, James Dugan. Dugan’s confession opened revelations of wide and systematic misconduct and cover-up in Wright’s case. Then Somerset County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell, Jr., who tried Wright’s case personally was fingered as being the orchestrator of that misconduct, directing police officers to falsify their police reports while he personally dictated the false testimony of witnesses against Wright and made secret deals with defense attorneys to have their clients lie to the jury that Wright was their drug boss and that they had plead guilty and were going to prison, when in-fact, they were never going to spend a day in jail.
Dugan pled guilty to official misconduct in order to escape prison. Wright’s trial judge, Michael Imbriani, was removed from the bench and sent to prison on theft charges and Bissell, after learning of Dugan’s confession on TV news, took flight with federal authorities in pursuit. As police were kicking in the door of his Las Vegas hotel room, Bissell put a revolver to his head and pulled the trigger, committing suicide. Wright’s remaining convictions were vacated and he was immediately released from prison. The charges were dropped and the case against him dismissed.
Wright now works at the Law Firm Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley located in Newark, New Jersey, and is to have said “I went to law school for one reason and one reason only, To slay giants for a price. And if the giant is big enough and the cause is important enough, I’ll do it for free, especially when it involves helping those who cannot help themselves.”
ultimate power move: law your way out of jail and convict the people who wrongly convicted you
i love sir patrick stewart more with each passing day.
See, guys. This is how you do it. Notice the words “Not all men are like that” are never spoken.
He knows men are like that
his father was like that to his mother
he has experienced the pain firsthand, of what it’s like when men are like that
and he never wants men to be like that again and he fights tooth and nail against the men who are still like that
And moreover, he acknowledges his privilege [as an older white male who is famous/well known] and uses it to speak up. He knows what he is, and he never has to say he’s not like those men he fights against—he never says it, his actions speak loud enough for everyone else to see it.
I didn’t know Mr. T pityed fool’s that weren’t woke, but that’s awesome. #respect
“I think about my father being called ‘boy’, my uncle being called ‘boy’, my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being called ‘boy’. So I questioned myself:“What does a black man have to do before he’s given the respect as a man?” So when I was 18 years old, when I was old enough to fight and die for my country, old enough to drink, old enough to vote, I said I was old enough to be called a man. I self-ordained myself Mr. T so the first word out of everybody’s mouth is “Mr.” That’s a sign of respect that my father didn’t get, that my brother didn’t get, that my mother didn’t get.“
In the Italian city of Verona, local street artist Cibo paints colorful wall art full of appetizing food over neo-nazi graffiti (x)
“It’s my civic duty, and my right … honestly I feel like have a right to cover [erase] these kinds of things. Since I’m doing a public form of art, I have to take care of my city and … it’s like my own art gallery. How do you explain a swastika to a child? How do you do it? It’s impossible. It’s a racist message. And it’s not okay .”
Steel Phoenix Studios 