Drakeo the Ruler AKA Darrell Caldwell is a 26 year old rapper from South LA who has greatly influenced the rap scene with his unique flow and play on words. In 2018, he was charged with 1st degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. He was innocent, and the way one of his prosecutors, Francis Hardiman, treated him was unjust and seemingly disturbing. I will delve more into Hardiman's wrongdoings and obsession to imprison Drakeo later. Drakeo is being retried and may face life in prison for criminal gang conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle, neither of which he committed. The story of his original charges goes like this: Drakeo drove his rap group, the Stinc Team, to a party in Carson, CA, unknowing of what would happen shortly. When they got there, a shooting broke out killing Davion Gregory, an Inglewood Family Blood, and injuring two others. Jaidan Boyd, a Rollin 40s Crip, confessed that he shot at Gregory while Kellz, also a crip, fired additional shots. Kellz was driven to the party by Drakeo, since he was also a part of the Stinc Team. Jaidan explained he was actively beefing with Davion. Solo, another Stinc Team member, is a key witness to the shooting. He said to the jury that him and Drakeo had no idea what was going on and that they thought they were the ones getting shot at. He said him and Drakeo ducked down when they heard the shots. Clearly, Drakeo didn't commit this murder, neither was he involved and the jury knew that, so they acquitted him of all murder charges. Before the jury acquitted him, Drakeo's prosecutors did absolutely everything they could to incriminate him. Since they knew Drakeo didn't kill Davion Gregory, they tried to accuse him of coming to the party to kill RJ, a rapper he had beef with instead. RJ wasn't supposed to perform, attend, or even be near the party that night. The prosecutors tried to use Drakeo's rap lyrics in a diss track on RJ against him saying he was plotting to kill RJ. Many civil rights activists say this is a critical free speech test and an egregious example of racist and aggressive policing of black men and their creative expression. Adding on, Drakeo and RJ ran into each other a couple weeks after the shooting and squashed their beef. Even more to top it off, RJ filmed several Instagram videos stating he doesn't think Drakeo was trying to kill him. What they had was no more than a simple rap beef, neither of them wanted to actually harm each other. One of Drakeo's prosecutors, Francis Hardiman who I mentioned prior, especially went out of his way to try and imprison Drakeo. Hardiman was known for his ruthlessness and aggression as a cop, and was involved in an unnecessary and possibly race provoked killing of a Latino man in 1995. The prosecutors constantly tried to stereotype Drakeo and the Stinc Team as savage gang members. They never missed a chance to show the jury pictures of the Stinc Team holding guns, and even their mugshots looked doctored to make everyone's skin look darker. Even though Drakeo was acquitted, he was still convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon, so he still went to prison. Hardiman was so obsessed with Drakeo that he got him sent to solitary confinement from something he did not even say. Drakeo posted on Instagram saying he didn't want to rap anymore because Hardiman would use everything he said against him, and people in his comments were threatening Hardiman. Drakeo cannot control his audience, neither did he even influence them to say those things, and Hardiman took it personally. Drakeo clearly shouldn't be in solitary confinement. The jury decided to retry Drakeo for allegedly shooting from a motor vehicle and criminal gang conspiracy. His prosecutors are saying that the Stinc team is classified as a criminal street gang under the California STEP ACT. The STEP ACT states that any ongoing organization of 3 or more people that have a symbol to represent them, pattern of criminal activity, and have a primary activity of criminal acts is a criminal street gang. With this legislative logic, the Rolling Stones and almost any other band with criminal history would be a criminal street gang. With as broad of a definition as this, any rap group could be profiled as a gang. The legal reason Drakeo is able to be charged again for a murder the jury agreed he did not commit, is the criminal gang conspiracy law. This law states that anyone who participates in any criminal street gang and knows that its members engage in criminal gang activity is guilty of conspiracy to commit that felony. First of all, the Stinc Team is obviously not a gang, it is a rap group. This murder was between two whole different rival gangs that Jaidan Boyd, Kellz, and the victim, Davion Gregory were a part of. It had nothing to do with the Stinc Team. We need to free Drakeo from incarceration and bring justice to him and the Stinc Team. If you would like to further educate yourself on Drakeo's case, the following articles are very informative. https://www.thefader.com/2019/07/11/drakeo-the-ruler-murder-trial-los-angeles-report (Very detailed explanation of the case) 

https://crimestory.com/2019/11/22/paint-it-black-drakeo-the-ruler-mick-jagger-and-gang-conspiracy/ (An amazing summary of this case)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsEhLikmkPw (Easy video summary of this case by Adam22) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tb9c6MPNNM (Video about a white man who committed basically the same crimes, if not worse, who got acquitted of all of them)