Character Profile: Eric Williams

From the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn, to the war torn landscapes of Iraq and Afghanistan to the overwhelming splendor of planet Garian to the brutal wind-blown plains of the prison moon Tyrin, Eric LamontWilliams has known war, suffering and violence.  He could have been content just being an average citizen with a career and a family, He could even have sought out his fortune as a pro basketball player, but the universe had other plans for him.

His teen years in Brooklyn were not necessarily idyllic, but they were good ones.  Eric lived modestly with his brother DamionWilliams, sister Christina Ford-Williams and his mother Jean.  The Williams boys (as they were referred to) were known throughout the neighborhood and were well respected.  That respect increased when their mother decided to take the helm of block president and advocate for a clean streets program that landed her in a partnership with the nearby 79th precinct. 

Jean's activities in the neighborhood won her a great deal of awards. It allowed her to meet with city dignitaries and also allowed her to create numerous events such as Christmas shopping bus trips for the area, block parties and also literary events for children.  Eric gladly pitched in to assist her in any way he could.  He enlisted his sometimes rebellious brother Damion as well as long time childhood friends, Luis Lopez and Roderick and Derrick Banks.

It was a good time for Eric, between his college prospects and his mother's events, he would divide his free time between the basketball court and the barbershop owned by ex-cop and family friend Ivan Hernandez.

Those late teen years were filled with good memories and good people, but as he entered his early 20s, Eric Williams grew restless and wanted something more, something more than the streets of his youth.  With his mother's blessing, he joined the army.    Saying goodbye to family and childhood friends, he took his first steps out into the world.... and met it's hostility indirectly and head on.

Events were swirling around him, they were distant at first, but soon the swirling winds of the world would sweep him up into a global and eventually intergalactic conflagration.

No sooner had he enlisted, than the drug gangs swept into the section of Brooklyn Eric had just left.  the streets quickly became dark and bloody and were there were once block parties and barbecues, there were now shootouts and fiends and empty crack vials.  The ugliness that was the crack scourge had infested Bed-Stuy.

Eric's mother met the fiends head on and redoubled her efforts to make their neighborhood a safe haven from fiends, dealers and thugs.  At the same time, the horrific events of 9/11 took place, compelling the world to take a stand against a hideous ideology.  While Eric's mother did her best to confront the drug evil back home, Eric was serving in Iraq.  His unit scored the biggest trophy of the war: the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Even overseas, the future Cleaning Crew leader kept in touch with his mother as well as with Luis Lopez who kept him informed of the situation back home.  Luis had unsettling news for Eric: the drug dealing punks had gotten bold enough to confront his mother Jean and had warned her about speaking out against their activities. 

A year later, Eric Williams returned home for a visit.  A block party was thrown in his honor complete with a color guard, music and all the usual festivities.  Surrounded by family and friends, the war veteran was having the time of his life--until the punks showed up.

A handful of gang members representing a large drug crew, demonstrated their arrogance and audacity by crashing the block party.  Although Luis Lopez and other party goers managed to defuse the situation without violence, the gauntlet had clearly been thrown.  The young dealers considered that street their turf and let the war hero know that sooner or later, they would be taking it.

Within weeks Eric Williams was back overseas, stationed in Afghanistan this time and on the trail of the world's most wanted terror leader.  It was there that he received the horrific news. 

One of the street punks had decided to put a scare into Jean Williams by torching her home on Kosciusko Street.  The punk was told that the home was empty at the time, but didn't bother to check. That horrible miscalculation cost a brave woman her life.

The war veteran was home within days.

At the barbershop owned by Ivan Hernandez, the childhood friends had united to decide what to do.  Eric of course, already had a plan of action.  That is when Ivan Hernandez decided to assist in anyway he could.  As an ex-cop, Ivan still maintained close ties to the men he worked with.  His knowledge of streets, his connections with the NYPD as well as his ability to get "material resources"  would prove a valuable asset. 

Eric Williams allowed himself a few days to grieve and then he put his plan into motion.  As far as he was concerned, there was no need to fight a war overseas when there was one taking place on the streets of every inner city in the United States.  As far as Eric was concerned, the streets of his childhood neighborhood were dirty, and they needed cleaning.

Over a span of two months, Eric Williams, his brother and his childhood companions systematically took apart two drug crews which were currently fighting for control of the Bed-Stuy territory.  The "Cleaning Crew" as the newspapers had decided to call them, harassed gang members, burned down stash houses and put a physical hurting on the young jackals who had decided to claim the streets as theirs using the same violence and intimidation they dished out.

From the back of Ivan's barber shop, the ethnic vigilantes researched, planned and executed their war against the drug scourge and their bosses.  As word of their activities spread, the young men would be contacted by neighborhood merchants, citizens and groups whose neighborhoods needed "cleaning"

In a three year span, the Cleaning Crew battled Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, Jamaican Drug posses, the Italian Mob, Chinese Tongs and any number of criminals, crooked politicians and even a gang of corrupt NYPD robbery crews.

Eric was focused, unrelenting and to a fault unwavering.  On many occasions, the black street warrior questioned himself and the continued need of a war that would probably never end.  But whenever he doubted himself, he needed only to close his eyes and see the faces of all those victims he was not able to help, and the doubts would go away.

He was without doubt the day he first heard of the name Franklin "Cash"Cook, a middle man from Texas whose job it was to create a foundation for a ruthless Mexican drug cartel in New York. He was well on the way to defeating that group and putting Cook in the ground...but the universe had other plans.

Now Eric Williams and his companions are participants in another sort of struggle, one with intergalactic implications. But although the faces are alien and the battlefields are distant, there are still innocents and victims, and the warrior from Earth will do whatever is needed to put an end to the violence and scourges that would claim them as well. 

After all, even on another planet, there are bound to be cities, and those cities have streets filled with the dregs of the universe..and those streets may need cleaning.

Comments

[Tanaya Davis]

Great character profile of Eric! I am looking forward to reading the second novel!