I been in and outta them courtrooms so many times, I might as well set up a cot in one of 'em. Name’s Louie, and I’m what they call a con man. Yeah, I’ve pulled my share of marriage frauds out here in sunny California, 'cause a man’s gotta make a livin’ somehow. But let me tell ya, the game’s changed. The young’uns in the prosecutor’s office, they got a taste for blood.
So there I was, sittin’ in the courtroom, waitin’ on another sentence. I’d seen this movie before—different judge, different prosecutors, but the same tired story. This time it was a kid named Danny, fresh outta law school and lookin’ to make a name for himself. To him, I was just a stepping stone.
“Mr. Louis Greene,” he started, all serious-like, “you stand accused of multiple counts of marriage fraud. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty, Your Honor,” I replied, like always. But Danny, he wasn’t buyin’ it. He had that gleam in his eye, like he was gonna be the one to finally nail ol’ Louie to the wall.
“Your Honor,” Danny said, “Mr. Greene has a history of preying on vulnerable women, promising them the world and delivering nothing but heartbreak and financial ruin. He’s a predator, plain and simple.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. Predator? Maybe. But I always gave as good as I got. These women, they weren’t exactly saints themselves. They wanted somethin’ just like I did—usually a ticket outta their humdrum lives. We had a deal, and most times it worked out, until it didn’t.
Danny laid out his case with all the enthusiasm of a kid on his first job. And he had me dead to rights, too. I’d left a trail of broken hearts and empty bank accounts clear across the state. It wasn’t like the old days, where you could skip town and start fresh. Nowadays, they got computers trackin’ every move you make.
But it wasn’t Danny that got to me. It was that speech from Kamala Harris, the new presidential candidate. I caught it on the news in the holding cell. She was talkin’ about takin’ on predators, fraudsters, and cheats—folks like me.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” she said, all fire and brimstone. “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.”
I almost felt a twinge of guilt. Almost. See, Harris, she wasn’t just talkin’ about the bad guys. She was talkin’ about takin’ down a whole breed of folks who thought they could outsmart the system. And here I was, on the wrong side of history, caught in a game that had finally caught up with me.
By the time Danny was done, the jury didn’t take long. Guilty on all counts. The judge, he wasn’t feelin’ merciful that day. Threw the book at me and then some. As they led me away in cuffs, I couldn’t help but think about Harris and her crusade. Maybe my time had passed. Maybe it was time to hang up the con and face the music.
But as they locked me up, I couldn’t help but smile. You see, the game might be over for me, but there’s always another Louie out there, ready to pick up where I left off. And as long as there’s suckers lookin’ for a dream, there’ll be folks like me, showin’ ‘em the way.
Majority of pledged Democratic delegates endorse Harris on first full day as a candidate
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