Who wants to post bail for Afrika Owes…a 17 year old prep-school student (pictured above), who is being held on Rikers’ Island for allegedly running guns and drugs for her boyfriend, who is apart of a 137th street gang in Harlem.
And because Africa refuses to “snitch” on her boyfriend and his crew, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge has rejected Rev. Calvin Butts and Abyssinian Baptist church’ offer to post or reduce the teen’s $50,000 bail.
“The judge does not understand,” Butts said. “The poor man has been confused because he has come face-to-face with the body of Christ. When the body of Christ stands up, it confuses people.”
The prep-school teen is not cooperating with authorities out of misplaced loyalty to her boyfriend, Jaquan Layne, aka “Jay Cash” or simply “Jay” who is said to be the head of the crew; and is the lead name in the indictment. Most of the 137th street crew gang members (including Africa’s boyfriend) are still at large.
Raised in Harlem, NY and a young teen with promise, Africa was a member of Abyssinian Baptist Church and its choir. The Rev. Calvin Butts compared Owes to Patty Hearst, the heiress who was kidnapped by radicals in 1974 and joined her captors in robbing banks.
Hearst spent two years in jail before former President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence and former President Bill Clinton pardoned her.
“If Patty Hearst can have a chance, why can’t we take that chance on Afrika?” Butts said. “It’s not just for Afrika, it’s for hundreds of thousands like her. We have to stand for all of our young people who have been unjustly incarcerated.”
Unjustly incarcerated? Really? Owes is charged, among other things, with holding loaded guns for the gang. Authorities said they recorded a phone conversation in which her boyfriend, alleged crew leader Jaquan Layne, advises her “head shots only,” if she has to use one of the weapons herself.
So Butts and his body of Christ better pray and pray hard, because God upholds that which is “right and just” in His sight.
Conversations Of A Sistah 
