Hernandez: So we were different in the Berets. So we were getting the Berets together and people always told us there was going to come a time when you guys are going to have to prove yourselves. I cannot tell you where, when, or how. But there is going to come a time when the stakes are real bad. Something is going to happen. I cannot tell you what your mission or cost is but it is going to come. We just did normal things. We tried to meet with the chief of police and stop the harassment, and it started slowing down a little bit. Last time a cop pulled me over, I was wearing a beret and the cop was going to give me a ticket. The people started coming out from the houses and a lady started shouting at the police. He just tore the ticket up and said, “Get out of here.” So they use to carry a ruler and they used to measure my car. We used to get beat up really, really bad, man. I remember one time I had a, it was like 20 of us at the park. We wanted to go for a cruise but we knew what was going to happen. We were like, “man we cannot spend our lives like this just sitting here at the park. We have cars and we like to paint them. We like to show them off.” We cannot even go to the store because it is dangerous. I said, “I tell you what, let’s go take a cruise. Let’s all stick together. If they pull one guy over, we all stop. If they take one guy to jail, they will have to take us all, man. We are going to have to start standing up for ourselves.” Sure enough, we took off and I was like the third one in line. I was looking through the mirror and feeling good. I was feeling good and feeling proud because we were like together, you know. All of a sudden this sheriff deputy pulled up beside me and got on the loud speaker. “Dammit, pull over.” Then he goes to the next car, and then the next one. They guy who was in front opened the window and did like this. Then, the next guy was going like this, so I was going like this. Next thing, I looked in the mirror and everyone was going like this. I was like, awe man. Something is going to happen, something is about to happen, and we are going to stick together and we are all going to jail but finally they are going to hear from all of us. We get up to this light. There is a road coming up on Crane, I mean Clements Street. That is where all the cars went cruising, Clements Street and Grant- they meet up like this. There was one road before we go to the main light. There are a bunch of lights there. I remember that a car came in the front and pull up in front of a car. Then, another police car came and then this guy came and pull over the guy in front, got him out of the car and searching him. Then they got another guys off the other cars. When they came to my car, I refused to get out. I said, “I am not going to get off.” The guys said, “Don’t get off, don’t get off Nick. Wait and see what they are going to do with those other guys. Don’t get off.” And he came over and tried to open my car. I did not have door handles on the car back then because we had shaved them off. The guy was trying to open the door You could tell he was mad. He was running around the car and he went back to the other guys. We were just focused. Then, all of the sudden the deputy moves the car and tells the guy in front to leave, and he tells the other guy to leave too. Then, they all come to me. I said, “Well, I guess it’s time to get off.” And when I get off the car and turn around, like that, there was no one behind me. All the cars had turned on another road. All of a sudden, I was by myself. [laughing] All I could see was this guy coming with a stick and hit me. He threw me on the hood of the car. Then, two more guys came and they were hitting me. They were beating me up on top of the car and then one of them pulled a gun and put it to my friend’s head. I said, “well, what can I do?” Anyway, they put me in the police car. Remember, the sheriff, the deputy, one of the deputies was tell me, “What happened?” So I told him what happened. He said, “That ain’t right. But I have got to take you in. Just hang tight, man. They put you in my car so I have to take you in. I cannot do anything about it.” All of a sudden a lot of rocks were coming in. I guess the guys went and parked their cars and started throwing bricks and stuff. Anyway, so they took off and the took us to the dungeon. It was the courthouse, the old courthouse. And I heard a lot of stories. I had been there before, too. I think when I was 11 years old I think that court house had already been remodeled a little bit. I do not know, they took me in and I never, you know, I had never been in that place, not in that part of the courthouse like that. I remember all the gates, like a dungeon, man. The gates would open up and you had to pull your head down like that, and it went deeper and deeper, like a cave, man. They had all three of us going in and the jailer said, “Are these boys alright?” He said, “Yep, except this one.” And they got me, they headed out for me. He said,” You! Come with me punk!” So they took me.