I caught a felony case back when I was 20. I won't go into the specifics, but let's just say I was staring at a few years behind bars. Even the plea deal the prosecutor was offering was still a felony and jail time, just a lesser felony and less jail time.

My lawyer had me placed in pre-trial diversion because this was my first offense. In Detroit they allow you to do this until you're 21. This shit happened with me 6 months before my 21st birthday.

I had to go see a diversion officer every week for the first few months, then gradually they would lengthen the time between visits until I'm was done. I had to stay in this for 1 year during which I had to pay some court fees and either get a job working a minimum of 20hrs a week or enroll in classes at a community college or university. At the time I was already taking classes at a community college and was supposed to return to EMU that January.

I completed the program. They essentially expunged my records. I received my fingerprint card from when I was arrested and got a letter stating my record was expunged.

Fast forward to 2013. I was going through the most extensive background check for a job I've ever had to go through (even my job with a DoD contractor wasn't this thorough, and that was an FBI check). Wayne County was taking the longest to get back to the company doing the check. I called them myself, spoke to a manager in records, and she verified that my shit was gone. She could technically still see the incident, but from their perspective it didn't exist and wasn't available to anyone period.

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"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.