“Since they're not listening to our voices, then why not just go and do something that they will listen to,” thought 18-year-old Joshua Williams. “They will listen when they losing money.”
This was 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Police brutality was rampant. What Williams did next changed everything.
On the night of Christmas Eve, Williams was angry. Michael Brown. Vonderrit Myers. Antonio Martin. He watched cops snatch and handcuff other protesters. Blood pumping, he ran to a gas station, spraying lighter fluid to set three fires.
Williams was charged with two felonies.
In 2015, he was released on parole. But that didn’t mean police killings had stopped. So, he was once again drawn to the streets, demanding justice.
And when he was arrested again, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Behind bars, guards punished him with solitary confinement and verbal harassment. After years of more Black death, Joshua Williams’ December 2022 release arrived.
The system intentionally criminalizes and discards those who rise up against injustice. Before he got out, Williams wrote that he planned to “take the fight directly to the streets again.” And we’ll fight right along with him.