Summary

Andrew Brown wanted to be a cop when he was little but instead got into trouble with the police. He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant projects in Brooklyn. His father was mainly absent from his life. Other than some time in jail, he spent his whole life in the area. At nine years of age, Andrew’s mother’s drug problem was becoming a crisis for the family which resulted in his aunt taking custody of him and his sisters for three years. This was during the 1980s when racial tensions were at an all-time high in New York City.

As a teenager, Andrew who didn’t get along with his aunt and returned home to his mother when she cleaned up, became angry and hurt and began to get into trouble. The cops caught him...