A Crooked Cop, An Innocent Man, And An Unlikely Journey Of Forgiveness And Friendship

This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories.

Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. Up next, we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings, the stories behind them.

Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these many mysteries, these many stories of our precious English language. Today was obviously very rare and the Romans began to use the saying to refer to any sudden surprise. The phrase was first used in writing by Thomas Carlyle in a book he wrote in 1837. The expression over the top sometimes shortened to OTT means to an excessive degree or beyond acceptable limits or outrageous, and it has its origins in trench warfare. In World War One, to go over the top was to charge on foot across open ground from the safety of the trenches. The order was given over the top lads and the best of luck, but few had much luck as they often ran head on into enemy machine gun fire.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, over 58,000 casualties were sustained by the British when they all went over the top. To paint the town red means to go out and celebrate or get very drunk, and it owes its origins to a legendary night of revelry in 1837. There was a man called the Marquess of Waterford, known as the Mad Marquess because of his erratic behaviour, and he went out one night in the English town of Melton Mowbray. The group went berserk on vandalism spree, and they broke windows, pulled off door knockers and smashed flower pots. Unsatisfied with that though, they acquired some red paint, and painted a swan statue, a number of house doors and even a toll gate completely red.

The Marquess later paid compensation for the damage caused, but he had painted the town red and would never live it down. A parting shot is a hostile gesture or remark made while departing, which the person hearing has no chance to respond to. And it's a phrase I've always found interesting. It dates to a military tactic from the 17th century. The Parthians at the time were an ancient race living in northeast Persia, and their army included mounted archers. These archers would ride away from the enemy at full gallop, giving the impression of a retreat.

But as the enemy approached, the archers, who were superb equestrians, would turn and fire arrows backwards with great accuracy. Originally known as a Parthian shot, the phrase was corrupted departing shot by the early 20th century. To pass the buck means to shift blame or responsibility to someone else, and it originates from the game of poker.

Poker became popular in America during the 18th century, and players were always suspicious of any form of bias or cheating. To stop this, the card dealer was frequently rotated during a game, and the person who was next in line to deal was given a marker, which was often a knife. The handles of most knives at the time were made of buck's horn, so the marker became known as a buck. When the dealer's term was complete, he would pass the buck.

President Harry S. Truman famously displayed a sign on his desk that read, The Buck Stops Here, and that gave rise to the expression and made it more commonplace. To pass with flying colours means to have success at a difficult task, and it's a sailing term that dates back to the early 1700s. A ship's flag or banner was known as its colours, and when a ship or fleet was successful in battle and was returning to its homeland, it would sail in with its flag flying high on the mast. This indicated that the ship had been victorious. It had retained its flag rather than lost it to the enemy.

To pass with flying colours was a sure sign of victory. To pay through the nose means to pay an excessive amount for something, and it's got to interesting and strange origins. It dates all the way back to the 9th century when the Vikings invaded Ireland. The Danish had extraordinary harsh tax laws which they imposed on any land they invaded. With the invasion of Ireland, they applied a particularly harsh tax known as the nose tax. The punishment for evading the nose tax was quite perverse. Anyone refusing to pay the tax had their nose slit from tip to eyebrow.

The people had a choice – either pay the tax or pay through the nose. A pecking order is a hierarchy or authority in a group, and it's a phrase that began with the farming of chickens. Domestic poultry maintain a strict hierarchy where the lead hen is able to peck any other, for whatever reason, without fear of retribution. The other hens are ordered beneath the lead hen, and each of them know which hens are lower than them and thus able to be pecked. This cascades down to the lowest hen who gets pecked by all the other hens.

It was German biologists who were observing this behaviour who coined the phrase pecking order in the 1920s, and it went on to take its wider meaning by the 1950s. A peeping tom is a man who secretly observes women who are naked, and its origins lie in the story of Lady Godiva in the 11th century. She was married to an earl who owned large land holdings, and he imposed heavy taxes on the less wealthy which resulted in public outrage. Godiva disagreed with the taxes and asked her husband to reduce them. Thinking she would never do it, he agreed to lower the taxes on the condition that she rode a horse naked through the streets of Coventry in England. She decided to take up the challenge, and as a mark of respect all the townsfolk agreed to stay indoors, close their shutters, and not watch the highly publicised spectacle.

Everyone kept their word in the town, except for the tailor, Tom. Tom was unable to resist a glimpse of Godiva and peep through his shutters, and a phrase was spawned. And terrific storytelling and great production on that by Greg Hengler. Funny, funny stuff and good stuff.

Andrew Thompson is the voice you are listening to. His book, Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town, read the curious origins of everyday sayings and fun phrases. And my goodness, another chicken story, and we've watched that with our own little chickens. And the hierarchy they have, there's one poor chicken that just takes it from everybody.

And we don't know what to do about it because there's nothing you can. There is a thing called pecking work. These are terrific stories about our English language and where these phrases come from. Greg Hengler is always great job on the production. Andrew Thompson, the stories of everyday sayings. Our English language celebrated here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College. A place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.

Go to hillsdale.edu to learn more. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV. Even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more and Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy.

Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. And we continue with our American stories. It all went down in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan in 2006. Andrew Collins was a narcotics officer. Jamel McGee was a new father of a baby boy. This is a story about forgiveness, brokenness and true reconciliation from two guys who should have been hardened, bitter enemies. Without any further ado, let's hear how Andrew and Jamel's unlikely stories intersect, starting with Jamel. February 8th, 2006 was the day that forever changed my life.

February 8th, 2006, really just another day for me. All I wanted to do was go to the store and get some milk for my son. All I wanted on that day was another conviction. So I caught a ride from some guys that I knew that probably would be up to no good. I had caught a guy with some crack.

He knew a guy with some more crack. So we made a phone call. So we get to the store and this guy asked me to use the phone. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, so I gave him my phone. So I get to the store and I see the vehicle, just like I was told. One guy in the vehicle and another guy comes out of the store.

I'm not sure if he has something to do with it, but I'm going to make sure he has something to do with it. So I'm coming out of the store and this guy's approaching me talking about he's a cop. Where's the dope? I'm like, what dope? I don't have any dope. I ain't got no dope. It ain't my dope. How many times have I heard this before?

That's what everybody says. So I had him lock him up. How could I be going to jail for some drugs that isn't mine?

How is this possible? Trial? He's going to take it to trial the way that I wrote that report? He's going to take it to trial?

What a waste of my time. Well, I wasn't about to plead guilty to something that I know I didn't do. So I told my story and I got my conviction.

And Jamel McGee was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. So Jamel, could you share with us what it was like sitting in jail, sitting in prison, knowing you had 10 years over your head? It was rough. It was painful. I became a different person. I became very bitter, very angry.

I mean, frustrated. I can't figure out why am I sitting here? Why am I in prison? I didn't do nothing.

Why am I here? So with that, I became unapproachable. You couldn't talk to me. I wouldn't talk to you.

It didn't matter who you was. I just didn't have no words for nobody. And then if you tried to talk to me, that's when the problem came in.

I wanted to fight at that point. So in prison, I'm sitting in prison. I'm just going through the motions.

I'm acting out on everything I want to do to Andrew. I'm doing it to other people. So hurt people hurt people. Okay, so I sit here and not knowing, not caring as I was hurting other people because I was hurt. I felt like I had lost everything. There was nothing else that mattered. At this point. So my attitude was I don't care.

So sitting in prison. That's why it's really rough. I was becoming the person you didn't want to even come across. Then I had awakening like I needed something different. I needed to do something different with my life because everything I've done in my life.

I find myself in these very situations. So this one day, three years into my sentence. It's a Bible sitting there on my desk on my table. It's been there the whole time.

Never looked at it. Gave my life over to Christ at age 18. Then again at 21 because at 18 I did it for my mom because I wanted her off my back. So at age 21, I really got the grasp of I need a relationship with Jesus myself. So I did that. But this time when I went to jail, I was like, you know what? I'm not going to lean on God for this because I did that all my other times. And this is clear.

It's in black and white. I should be able to just present this or say this and I can get out of here. That wasn't the case. I had no voice. Nothing I said mattered at all.

Period. So I'm still sitting here frustrated. To the Bible sitting here on my table, I grabbed a Bible. Today I just said, you know, I'm going to read the Bible today. Grabbed a Bible, started the first five verses of Genesis. And then my mind just went blank and I was just hit with this message of let it go, let it go, let it go.

And if you're all familiar with it, this time Frozen was not out yet. So I had no idea where this song was coming from, where this thought, this words, where it was coming from. And I wrestled with that like, no, this was done to me. Like, this is my hurt. Like, I need to avenge that. I need to take care of that. I want to put my hands on him. I want to be the one to say I took care of that. So that was my goal for whenever I got home was to find him and hurt him. That was my goal.

It didn't matter when. I was going to do it. So after battling with these thoughts, I'm getting headaches trying to block it out. Okay?

Because I don't want to hear them. I'm trying to put something else in my head to get these thoughts out of my head. So later on, I go out and walk on the yard.

And I'm walking around in a circle. And I just began to reflect on my life, you know what I'm saying, as a whole, as far as I can remember. And I quickly realized that every situation, I had a choice. Before it even happened, I had a choice. But I chose the more convenient, easy way every time.

Which led me to foster care, juvenile, the links, the boys' homes, the prisons, the jails. My decisions led me there. So I'm like, you know what, God, it's your way. I'm tired of being in my way. I'm tired of this. My way hasn't worked all these years.

So I need something different. So I kept walking on the track, and I'm just like, you know what, I got to change. I got to change my life. I got a son. I want to see him. I want to be able to raise him.

I want to be a part of his life. So I got to do something different with mine. So I get back to my cell, and I prayed before I went to sleep. And I was like, you know what, God, I want to wake up tomorrow as if I'm at home.

So I want to live every day after this as if I'm at home. So I got up that morning, and my first thing to do was speak to somebody, which was very hard for me to do. And I came out, and I was just like, all right, hey, first person I saw, hey, how you doing? They're looking at me like, this dude is crazy.

Who is this? But I didn't care at that point what nobody thought. Because I said I was going to go through with this. I'm going to adapt this change into my life.

I'm going to do something different. And boom, I started building more relationships, started talking to people. People was getting to know me, and then they was asking me questions like, man, what was so messed up with you all the many months and years ago?

I wouldn't talk about that part because everybody that goes to prison says they're innocent, yes. So I didn't want to be a part of that. So I was like, nope, just brush that part off. So one of these days, I go to work this one morning, and the people were calling me as soon as I got to work. And I'm like, my attitude was still kind of jacked up. So I'm like, if you want me, you got to come get me. So I got off work, and when I got to the unit, a guy was at the door. I was like, hey, you know what? They've been calling you all day.

You should probably go see what they want. The first thing I thought of was like, man, I definitely go to the hole now for some stuff I done did previously. And I was like, well, time to face the music.

It is what it is. And you're listening to Tramell McGee tell his story, thrown in prison for a crime he didn't commit, set up by an officer, Andrew Collins. He tries doing it one way, the hard way, filled with anger and bitterness. And then one day he said, I had an awakening. I needed to do something different in my life. Their story continues, a crooked cop, an innocent man, and an unlikely journey of forgiveness and friendship, here on Our American Stories. And we continue with Our American Stories, and we've been listening to Tramell McGee, having served three years of his 10-year sentence, a conviction that was based on a setup by a crooked cop, Andrew Collins. Even though Tramell was innocent, he came to the conclusion that it was his bad choices in his life that had put him in this terrible situation. So he decided, well, to do something different with his life. He decided to follow God.

Here again is Jamell and Andrew. So I go to the counsel office, and he was like, hey, where would you go if you was released today, tomorrow, or six months from now? And I'm like, hmm, probably my grandma's house. He's like, I need an address. He gave him the address, and he was like, well, you got 15 minutes to leave. And I was like, I can leave out your office right now. I didn't ask to come in here.

And he was like, no. The fax machine beeped, and he handed me the paper. And there was a letter from the judge saying my conviction was overturned, and I had to leave the premises immediately. Me letting that anger, that frustration go, God opened the door for me to go. So there was some things going on with my life at that time. I had given my life to Christ at age seven in the back of a church. My uncle, who's only three years older than me, led me to the Lord. I just didn't understand what the heck it meant.

Thank you, Jesus. So I went about my business as a high schooler, as a teenager, as a police officer. The more I was a police officer, the more wrong things I did. The more wrong things I did, the less I felt bad about them. It's a funny thing about integrity like that.

The more wrong things, the less you feel like it's wrong. So February of 2008, I get caught with crack, heroin, and marijuana in my office. And in one day, my life crumbled. All the money that I was making legally and illegally, gone. Friends that I had built, friends who I thought would be there for a lifetime.

Nobody knows a police officer like a police officer. My boy is gone because they were worried about their careers, rightly so. My family, having to see my wife's face when I was trying to explain to her that I just lost my job. The day before, I was top cop in the county.

I was a big deal, especially in my own mind. And in a day, it was gone. So I went on a three-day journey. Day one, got caught. Day two, thought about suicide.

There's no way I can get out of this. Day three, went and saw a pastor. Because on day two, my wife came home from work and saw that I was depressed and said, you need to go talk to that pastor that you've been going to.

Because see, that whole being a Christian thing as a youth, God wouldn't leave me alone. So I called that pastor up and I said, I got to talk to you. He said, yeah, you do.

I've seen the news. So I sit down with him and I tell him, I confessed everything. It felt so good to get it out of me, to finally admit what I had done wrong. And he listened patiently and he said, oh boy, you're in trouble. I remember thinking like, you, sir, are a terrible counselor. I know I'm in trouble.

What do I do now? And he said, where are you at with Jesus? I'm thinking, I just told you where I'm at with Jesus. I am a terrible person, man. I don't deserve him. He said, none of us do. That's the beauty of grace. God's riches at Christ's expense. He paid it.

You don't have to. He said, Andrew, you accepted Jesus as your savior. You've accepted the whole time that he saved you from your sins, but you've never let him be your Lord. Do you want that lordship? I said, I do, man.

I do. This is my lordship, 25 years old, in your office, crying, thinking about suicide. He said, let's pray. So we knelt down there in his office and he prayed because I felt like if I talked to God, he'd strike me dead right there.

I still couldn't wrap my mind around grace. And he prayed for me that God would become, that Jesus would become my Lord. We said, amen. I was bawling and I said, what do I do next, man? I'm a man. There's like a list. There's got to be a list of things I can do.

That's how men operate. List. Give me a list and I'll check off the boxes. He said, read your Bible.

That's it. Get to know your Lord. I was like, I don't know if you ever read that thing, pastor, but it's kind of boring.

He's like, no, man. God did something in you today. He gave me a Bible that was a little easier to read for me from what I grew up in and I started reading. I was blown away at all the little bombs that were going off in my soul about Jesus dealing with people that were just as jacked up or even worse than me. And the longer I was away from police work, the less I felt bad I got caught and the more I felt bad for what I had done.

It's a difference, y'all. So I went to the FBI and I said, look, I want to right my wrongs. There's some things that need to be reconciled.

So I sat down. They put a stack of reports in front of me and they said, we need you to look through all these reports and we need you to tell us which ones are bad. Highlight the ones that are bad. And I said, honestly, out of these 200 cases, it'd be easier to highlight the ones that are good. My corruption ran deep and I started working it out one case at a time, one case at a time, one case at a time. And one of those cases was Jamel McGee. I opened it up and I said, that's a bad case.

It's a bad case. So because I gave my life to the Lord and because I did the right things, all my problems went away and I've never had another problem since then. No, that's not what happened. I still had to go to prison, y'all. So January 09, I plead guilty. I go to jail. February 09, Jamel gets out. It's like, tag team, I'm in. You're out.

Switch. But the story don't stop there. 2010, August, I get out. I'm passionate about Benton Harbor. I feel like God's calling me back to the community. So I reached out to a pastor of a local church up there and he says, we're having this thing in August of 11 called Hoops, Hip Hop and Hot Dogs H3 outreach event. We want you to be part of it. So I said, I want to be a part of that. So I'm standing in Broadway Park like, OK, where are the people that I need to be reconciled with?

Bring them, Lord. And then all of a sudden I see this man coming at me like he wasn't he was coming at me. He wasn't running, but he was coming at me and he reaches out his hand and it looked like he wanted to shake my hand. I'm thinking, oh, cool.

Reconciliation. He said, you remember my name? And then he squeezed extremely tightly. I said, Jamel McGee. And he squeezed even harder. I got it.

I got the answer right. And I don't know. Y'all can. He's got big hands. He he ain't letting go if you don't want to let go. And he looks down at his son. He said, I want you to tell my son why he missed out on all them years of his daddy's life. I wished you to hit me.

It hurt worse or to hurt less. I said, look, man, there's nothing I can do to make up for what I did. But I'm sorry. I offer you my apology.

He didn't say anything to see the little little muscle in his jaw clenching. I said, you know what? I'm on. I got my daughter here at the park, too. I know. Hey, you know what?

Maybe this will help. I know what it's like to be away from my daughter, too, because I spent 18 months in prison. And he said, I don't give a what you had to go through. And I was like, that was the wrong thing to say.

I was glad he could speak. But then I was like, oh, shoot, because what I did is I took everything away that I just said. I just made all these apologies. And then I just basically took it right away. That's basically saying, yes, there's a problem. But everybody goes through problems.

So it doesn't really matter that much. I'm about to get on a tangent. Jamel, what was that day like for you in the park? I call that the test because that day was.

It was a test. I got out. I got to meet my son for the first time and he wanted to go to this park. He's seen a lot of people standing out there.

I'm an introverted person, so that was not going to happen for me. So I'm like, uh-uh. And he was like, yeah, I want to go over there.

So I didn't want to disappoint him. So I'm like, all right, come on, let's go. And I said to myself, I'm going to stay on the sidewalk and let him run through the park. And walking down the sidewalk, I'm like, I thought I seen Andrew up under the pavilion. I'm like, no, that can't be him. Not in Broadway Park. Not at this park.

This park usually don't end well when it's a lot of people out here. And I know it just can't be him right there. And he turned around and I'm like, yeah, that's him. In my mind, the first thing that popped up was get him. And you've been listening to Andrew Collins and Jamel McGee tell the story of how their lives intersected.

And my goodness, the test is what Jamel called it. When we come back, their story continues. A crooked cop, an innocent man and an unlikely journey of forgiveness and friendship. Here on Our American Stories.

And we return to our American stories. Jamel McGee spent three years in federal prison, and not a day went by that he didn't think about his son we had never seen and the crooked cop who had kept Jamel from seeing him. For most of those three years, Jamel writes in his book Convicted, I promised myself that if I ever saw this cop again, I was going to kill him.

I intended to keep that promise. Here's Jamel and Andrew picking up with the moment the two saw each other for the first time in a park back home. Here's Jamel. In my mind, the first thing that popped up was get him.

Get him. Now he's here. He's in front of you. All that I was feeling in the prison was back on my shoulders.

Everything. And now he's in my face. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's time.

Let's get him. So I go over there. I stuck out my hands. I said, hey, you remember me? And he said, yeah, when he said it, I squeezed him.

And in my mind was two things. It was myself again telling me to hit him. Hit him.

What are you waiting on? You're taking too long. Hit him.

Then God was like, hey, God was like, hey, I got this. Get out of my way. I got this. Step out of my way. Let me avenge this for you. I got this.

I can do far more than you ever can. So I'm like, hit him. Hit him. And my son was right there. And I was just like, just explain to my son why I missed out on these years of his life.

Because I'm having a hard time doing it. And I was like, I didn't do something first that the world, everybody thought and knew that I probably was going to do anyway. I didn't do it. And I let him go and I walked away. And each step I walked away, I felt lighter. I felt better. Me too.

And the closer I got to the curve, I began to think, man, that's over with. I'm going to leave that to God where it was supposed to be. I can't do nothing about it anyway. Forget it. I'll never see him again anyway.

There you go. I still see him. But after that, I saw him every day. I could leave the store or be walking down the street or riding down the street on my bike and I would see him everywhere I went. And I'm like, man, God, was I supposed to do something to him? Like, I don't know.

Why am I seeing him so much? And I found that out later, four years after that. Yeah. So I'll pick back up and I'm going to basically, we're going to give you five years, four years, whatever it was, four years of history in nine minutes and forty six seconds. Ready?

Strap in your seatbelts. So I start working for this place called the Mosaic CCDA Christian Community Development Association Association. It has three social enterprises, a cafe, a resale store and a full scale lawn care company. Cafe Mosaic, if you all have ever been there, downtown Benton Harbor. Great place to go get a coffee. So I'm working there as the cafe manager in Benton Harbor, having reconciliation stories with people, feeling like God has called me. This is great.

This is awesome. There's another part of the program called Jobs for Life, where people from the community, maybe they've got felonies on their record, maybe they've never had a job before and they need a little bit of hand up. They don't need a hand out. They need a hand up because they want to do something with their life. They graduate Jobs for Life and then they either get absorbed into one of our social enterprises or they went out and got jobs with community people that we had made contact with. Everybody in Jobs for Life, every student ended up with a mentor.

Anybody putting two and two together yet? One day Miss Princella comes down because she runs Jobs for Life. She says, hey, there's this guy in my class called Zuki. Do you know Zuki? I want to introduce you guys to my friend Zuki.

I said, no, I know the street name. I've heard it, but I don't think I know him personally. Don't think we ever met. Would you be his mentor? God has laid it on my heart that you should be his mentor.

God's funny, right? So I say, you know my story, Miss P. You know what I've done in this city. I don't know if I've affected his family.

Why don't you go ask him what he thinks about it? So, Jamel, in two minutes or less, what did that conversation sound like? Yeah, it was like she came over and I was sitting in class, everybody had a mentor, and she was like, yeah, we finally got your mentor. She was like, yeah, God has laid it on my heart for you two guys to be mentored, mentee.

And I don't know if you guys had any history together, but, yeah, I think you guys should be mentoring. I'm like, OK, get on with it. Who is it?

And she's like, Andrew Collins. And I'm like, no. No way.

There's no way I'm doing that. And she was like, OK, fine, we'll get you somebody else. And I'm like, wait a minute, Miss P. That was my decision. Let me pray on that real fast, because I don't want no more of my decisions to affect my life. This was my decision. So I wanted to be God's decision. So I prayed and I opened my eyes and there's a book on my desk and it was two figures on a mountain that was written in words.

And it was one pulling the other one up. I was like, all right, God, you got it. So it's evident. This is what you want. This is the path you want me to take. I'm going to take it.

So he comes walking through the cafe doors on an hour and a half later. Hey, Jamal, come on, have a seat. So we sit down. I say, hey, I used to be a police officer in the city of Benton Harbor. I did some awful things. If I've ever harmed you or your family, can you let me know?

I'd like to apologize for it. And he's smiling at me the whole time. What does this do? Smile. This ain't funny.

I'm trying to be serious. And I said, so once I got done with my little spiel, I said, look, man, what's so funny? And he just shook his head. He said, man, we already had this talk.

I said, we did. He said, yeah, Broadway Park. And I was instantly flashed back to that moment in the park. And I was like, oh, shoot. I'm a Christian now. And I just went to apologize and do I am so sorry.

I felt like God gave me a second chance. I'm so sorry. He said, I know.

And he was like offended. I know. I said, dude, there's got to be something I can do. He said, no, it's over. It's over. You were sorry then. And I trusted that. And I know you are now. You don't have to say it anymore. It's forgiven.

It's done. I was like, dude, can we can we do this mentor thing? He said, I think God wants us to. I think God set this up. I said, man, this is this is blowing my mind, dude.

Like four minutes ago, I'm making chocolate chip cookies. And now this like this is this. Can we pray? He's like, let's pray. So we we bowed our heads right there and we prayed that God would bless this friendship, that God would make basically beauty for ashes that we give to him our ashes.

He gives us back a crown of beauty. And we prayed that. He got up. We said, amen. He got up and walked out because he had an appointment to get to.

And I went to the back and cried like a child because I felt forgiven. And then I was we were meeting every week and I was like, yo, bro, we we need an employee in the cafe and you need a job. Are you do you need a job? He's like, yeah, I need a job. You know, I need a job. I said, well, how about this?

Because what if what if I hire you or what if we hire you and you and are you a good worker? Because if I've got to write you up, things are already tense enough, you know, like. And he did that. He just smiled. His smile is like it breaks down. He's like, no, man, no, I got you.

I got you. And he started working. He was the best worker I had ever seen. I worked so hard.

I've never seen somebody work so hard in that cafe. So every day I say, thank you, Jamel. Thank you so much for putting your all into this. And this is amazing.

Thank you. Do you want to hit me? Maybe like what? I mean, I just want to check.

I just want to make sure because I don't want to be the cash register someday and then just get a big. Oh, I want to make sure I know it's coming. If it's coming. He's like, no, bro, no, we're good.

And now it's like every three or four months, I'll ask him while we're on a plane or something. Hey, we still good. We're good. All right. And listen, we're finding out some stuff about reconciliation as we walk this thing out, because I don't know if you all notice it or not, but I'm white.

I mean, I'm I'm a little darker skin the most, but I am white and he's black. We get this. We get that this speaks to our nation right now.

And we don't think we have all the answers, but we think we have a piece of it. And the piece we think that we're holding on to right now is reconciliation. We met a woman who who said who came down front said, look, guys, I just need you to help me pray because I just need to forgive my mom. She hurt me so bad 18 years ago. And I'm understanding that if I'm starting to treat my child the way she was treating me, because I'm holding on to this.

And we were like, yeah, yeah. Where's she at? Bring her down. Let's let's get her down here.

We'll all pray together. She's been dead for 18 years. She was holding on harboring that unforgiveness for 18 years.

And the person couldn't do anything about it. So apology, forgiveness. But that's only two pieces for reconciliation.

You've got to come together. The more I get to know this man, the more I love him as an individual, the more I love him as a person, not as a black man, but as a man. And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by Greg Hengler and a special thanks to Andrew Collins and Jamel McGee for sharing their remarkable journey. And also a special thanks to Torres Montgomery for sharing the audio of this remarkable story. What a story indeed about big things like forgiveness and reconciliation. And what a stud Jamel is. What a man. The story of so much here about God, about faith, about forgiveness, and ultimately about racial reconciliation and real human reconciliation. The story of a crooked cop, an innocent man, an unlikely journey of forgiveness and friendship here on Our American Stories.