Justice Journey
The Greyhound bus station welcomes you to Long Beach, California on a large plaque just under the chrome greyhound dog, all four legs and arms are extended as far forward and backward as possible to maximize each stride toward finishing the race well. I believe this is how Ms. King has responded to the murder of her son Michael K. Green or Blacc Mike, by traveling 72 miles from Perris, California to the Long Beach Courthouse and back for just over two years, two or more days per week. She met many people along the way who listened to her intriguing story. In the Press Telegram story about Michael’s death, Hanna Chu quoted Ms. King saying, “It’s been devastating. I’ve been through a lot dealing with this case” said Green’s mother, Loretta King.”
She refused to allow despair and anguish to overcome her family by staying in constant contact with the prosecutors of the criminal justice system like former Deputy District Attorney John Lonergan and finding strength sent from the heavens above during the most painful moments when Michael was not going to come home to share laughs. Those voids were comforted by phone calls by professional skateboarders who called to check on how she was doing like Antwuan Dixon.
By boarding the Greyhound bus Ms. King had to hold onto something. She looks for a seat to sit. Go with her on the justice journey to gain insight on what it looks like to wait for the slow beginnings of solving the murder case by Long Beach Detectives: Scott Lasch, Daniel Mendoza and Malcolm Evans to the strong and persistent long distance traveling through many cloudy and dark landscapes to finally arrive at the final verdict reached by the jury members in favor of sweet justice. The impact statement she made in front of the enemies who killed her son, yet forgave like the author of forgiveness, was powerful enough to bring tears to those who witnessed the final sentencing.
Ms. King emotionally charged with sorrow in a public courtroom on the 5th Floor said, “All Michael wanted to do was “skateboard around the world”. The black backpack she holds on her way up the Greyhound steps is a keepsake for how her son was lovingly embraced in the close-knit skateboard community of Southern California. The editorial text for Baker Skateboards Skate Video 3 stated, “Baker 3 DVD is the most anticipated video of 2005. We don’t want to give away too much about this flick but Greco and Reynolds parts are quite possibly the best of their career! Featuring the whole Baker team, Andrew Reynolds, Jim Greco, Erik Ellington, Dustin Dollin, Jeff Lenoce, Spanky, Bryan Herman, Terry Kennedy, Brandon Szafranski and more.” Jim Greco coined the skate term “hammer” like a perfect carpentry metaphor to mean the forceful act of slamming down the trucks attached to the sliding, flipping and spinning deck onto a surface and successfully riding away with style and grace. A close friend of Michael’s said, “Mike put it on his phone so when he opened it up, you’d see Hammer City… We droppin’ hammers in the city, no matter where we’re at.”
Gathering around a television to watch a professional skateboard video with your fellow skateboarding friends is like an assembly of sports fans who watch the World Series, Super Bowl or the Olympics. Baker Skateboards wrote, “”Right when skateboarding starts to get socially accepted, we come in and ruin everything. With videos like this around, we’re never gonna get in the Olympics… You can thank us later. Baker Skateboards, the real thing.” The tribute made to Ms. King’s son on the Baker 3 skateboarding video is confirmation to the type of disciplined skateboarding lifestyle Michael lived to be the best he could amongst the gnarliest skateboarders. Immediately following Kevin Spanky Long’s video part is the screen text: “Black Mike Rest In Peace”. The justice journey has many stops along the way and a wide spectrum of people who play an integral role to allow justice to reign over their city, state and nation by making videos like Baker 3.