Nipsey Hussle Was Hailed as a Hero. But to California Officials, He Was Still a Gangster. (Published 2019)
- ️Fri Apr 19 2019
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- April 19, 2019
LOS ANGELES — When a gunman rolled up to Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon Clothing store late last month, the first person to be shot was Kerry Lathan, recently released from prison and there to pick up a T-shirt. Mr. Lathan was shot in the back, before Hussle, the renowned rap artist, was killed.
Days later, Mr. Lathan, using a wheelchair while he recovered from his wound, was arrested and held in the Men’s Central Jail — not because he had committed a crime, but because he had violated parole by associating with a known gang member: Nipsey Hussle.
Never mind that Hussle had been lauded as a businessman and a philanthropist, mourned with a 25-mile procession through the streets of South Los Angeles, and celebrated by former President Barack Obama. Or that he had been killed one day before he was set to sit down with the city’s police chief to talk about reducing gang violence.
Mr. Lathan’s reimprisonment stirred outrage in the city’s black community, where memories of aggressive gang policing in the 1980s and 1990s are still raw. It also brought renewed attention to a system of parole and probation that can land people back behind bars for violating lengthy sets of conditions that can include curfews, random searches and control over where people can live and whom they can see.
After Mr. Lathan, 56, spent 10 days in jail, apparently even parole officials could no longer reconcile Nipsey Hussle the local hero with Nipsey Hussle the gang member. On Thursday, after appeals to Gov. Gavin Newsom by family members and calls to the governor’s office by reporters, the head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Ralph M. Diaz, intervened, and the charges against Mr. Lathan were dropped.
“Although there was a technical violation of the terms and conditions of Mr. Lathan’s parole, after reviewing the circumstances in more detail, C.D.C.R. requested the petition to be dismissed,” a department spokesman wrote.