Shawn M. Richard
Photo Credit: Joe Budd
“I changed my life around, I’ve been on a different path.”
My name is Shawn M. Richard. I'm 49-years-old, born and raised in San Francisco my whole entire life. I love San Francisco.
When I was 19-years old, I was told by a friend, "Man. There's a lot of money in marijuana if you buy bulks of it." He had a hook up to where I could buy pounds of marijuana and it was cheap. I hook up with the guy and we made a couple transactions and it was real smooth, no problems. He always brought it to me.
It wasn’t the best job, but that was my only way of truly surviving. This was the ‘80s, drugs was the only way to make any real money where I was from.
I'll never forget, it was a Saturday. I wind up getting pulled over by the police. They searched my car, an illegal search, because they didn’t have probable cause. They found the marijuana. I spent two nights in jail. I had a job, I got pulled over on a Saturday and I was in jail for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I lost my job because there was no way for me to call in or anything. It impacted the family tremendously because that’s also how I was paying the bills.
The whole case was thrown out. They had no probable cause to stop me. I had my license. I had insurance. I had no busted tail light. Registration was up to par. They just randomly pulled me over, the only time I ever got pulled over, just because they said I looked suspicious. I spent two nights in jail, bailed out, fought the case for six months, and everything was thrown out.
I was nervous and scared to sell any type of drug afterwards. I changed my life around, I’ve been on a different path. After losing two brothers to gun violence, I started a nonprofit organization called, Brothers Against Guns. For the last 23 years it’s been around working with kids in the community. I teach the kids how to stay away from drugs, do the right thing, go to work.
Kids are going to do what they're going to do, but my impact is to try to keep them on the straight and narrow; keep them positive and keep them focused. I reflect back where I could still be at right now to this day, still in the penitentiary, if I would have never beat that case. I'm blessed to see where my life is at right now. I'm happy with that.
I think that law enforcement has to do a better job of understanding the impact that they made back in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and the ‘90s with the marijuana charges. I think that they can do a better job, but I'm pleased to see that they're making changes to reward the folks that were rightfully wronged and convicted of marijuana charges and they're giving back equity to the communities that deserve it. I'm happy about that.
