Tag Archives: urban decay

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature – The Series

Posted on February 17, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this series, I trace how a teenage brush with homicide headlines became a lifelong interrogation of justice. From police tape and tabloid “if it bleeds, it leads” narratives to courtrooms, prisons, and the literature that wrestles with guilt, I ask what truth survives punishment. Along the way, I revisit forgotten voices, personal losses, and hard-earned lessons—seeking a language that honors victims, confronts systems, and insists on humanity, story at a time, without flinching. Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Genealogy, Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged being a teenager, Black History Month, Growing Up, juveniles, life sentences, Martin Luther King Jr., murder, Parole, raising black boys, remorse, Segregation, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part IV

Posted on February 16, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I began writing this fourth and “final” installment of “Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature” on Martin Luther King Day. I re-read Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (16 April 1963), not for purposes of this series, but on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism, Streets of Rage | Tagged 13th, 13th Amendment, 1863 Craft Riots, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ava DuVernay, Black Codes, Charles Hynes, Conviction Integrity Unit, Darryl Alston, De Profundis, Dostoevsky, EJI, Growing Up, Gustave De Beaumont, Hillary Clinton, hyperincarceration, Johnson Crime Commission, Jonathan fleming, Kenneth Thompson, LBJ, Letter from Birmingham Jail, life sentences, Loic Wacquant, Martin Luther King Jr., Mass Incarceration, Michael G. Pass, Nuremberg, Oscar Wilde, Post-Reconstruction, prison industrial complex, raising black boys, Reconstruction, Red Summer, richard nixon, Rosewood massacre, Sara Mayeux, school-to-prison pipeline, Slavery, The House of the Dead, Tulsa Race Riot, urban decay, war on crime, War on Drugs | Leave a comment

The Assassination of Dr. King – My first “political memory”

Posted on April 4, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first political memory, at age 7, is the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was too young to remember the assassinations of JFK and Malcolm X, and although RFK would be assassinated later in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, raising black boys, Revolution, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged Andrew Goodman, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Growing Up, James Chaney, JFK, Jim Crow, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Schwerner, Mississippi Burning, murder, Poetry, raising black boys, RFK, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay | 1 Comment

From the American Revolution to the Black Arts Cultural Revolution

Posted on February 21, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

After the American Revolution, most of the defining moments in American history involve or revolve around Black people. Black folk were even involved in the American Revolution, fighting on both sides – the British promised Africans and the descendants of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged 1619, 1619 Project, American Revolution, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Boston Massacre, Camelot, Crispus Attucks, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Growing Up, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nation of Islam, patriotism, Poetry, RFK, Slavery, The Black Arts Era, urban decay | Leave a comment

The Pledge of Allegiance, Little White Lies, and All that Jazz!

Posted on March 7, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

It has been more than 50 years since I was in elementary school in the New York City public school system, yet I remember, word for word, the “Pledge of Allegiance.” At this time, I thought nothing of it, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged Atomic Bomb, Black Codes, Black Power, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Camelot, Confederate States of America, Critical Race Theory, Culture Wars, Great Society, Growing Up, Hiroshima, internment of Japanese Americans, James Brown, JFK, John F. Kennedy, LBJ, Little White Lies, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nagasaki, patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, raising black boys, RFK, richard nixon, Segregation, Slave Codes, Slavery, Thirteenth Amendment, urban decay, war on crime, World War II | Leave a comment

“Life Sentence”

Posted on March 26, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In my post, “The Anatomy of Advocacy – In High Heels,” I mentioned how the successful advocacy of the Ad Hoc Committee on Lifetime Parole was a much longer, untold story. This is another part of the story. In addition … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged Ad Hoc Committee on Lifetime Parole, being a teenager, CUNY Graduate Center, Executive Law 259-j, Jenna's Law, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, juveniles, life sentences, murder, New York State Board of Parole, Parole, Pataki Rule, raising black boys, remorse, The Anatomy of Advocacy -- In High Heels, urban decay | Leave a comment

An American Odyssey

Posted on March 10, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I like a good story, one reason why I like Greek comedies and tragedies, and I fancy myself a storyteller. So, I’ll tell you a story. . . Once upon a time (1973), Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York State … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Mother's Messages, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Elaine Bartlett, Family, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett, life sentences, Osborne Association, Relationships, richard nixon, Rockefeller Drug Law, urban decay, war on crime, War on Drugs | Leave a comment

The Little Giant Comes to Harlem

Posted on March 9, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Yesterday I uplifted my sister, Jeanette, on International Women’s Day during this Women’s History Month. Today I uplift three women I work with. More than 15 years ago I met Dawn Ravella. She was doing amazing social justice work at … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Reentry & Community, Religion, Streets of Rage | Tagged Coming Home, Emmaus House-Harlem, remorse, The Shawshank Redemption, urban decay | 3 Comments

On this day in history, May 4, 1992 — Worst of Los Angeles Riots Ends

Posted on May 4, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The 1992 Los Angeles Riots erupted on April 29, 1992, after police officers who were videotaped beating Rodney King, a black man, during a traffic stop were acquitted of criminal charges. Initially peaceful protests grew larger and turned violent, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged George H.W. Bush, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Los Angeles Riots, raising black boys, Reginald Denny, Rodney King, urban decay | Leave a comment

In the Line of Duty

Posted on October 28, 2015 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The heroes are dead and nothing else matters Under a gray sky the women are dressed in black At the grave site hearing homilies paying homage to heroics Their sobs background music to pontificating politicians Under a gray sky the … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles | Tagged Commissioner Broken Windows, Commissioner William Bratton, Dead of a Police Officer, murder, NYPD, P.O. Randolph Holder, Poetry, police involved shooting, politicians, politicos, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, urban decay | Leave a comment

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