Former Crip Sent to Prison After Sharing Dr. Seuss Parody on Facebook

At the age of 19, Shaquille Lloyd was sent to prison for conspiracy to commit robbery. Five years later, after denouncing his gang membership and completing a job training program, Lloyd was put in a halfway house to prepare for release on parole. But one week before his scheduled release, Lloyd was abruptly sent back to prison due to alleged gang “identifiers” on his Facebook, including a Dr. Seuss parody.

On January 18, Lloyd simply asked if “The Crip Known As Nip” (a parody of “Cat in the Hat”) was in fact a real book, “Word??”.

The parody book cover features Nipsey “Nip” Hussle, a Crip gang member who became a rapper, later praised by the US Congress and President Barack Obama for his community activism.

The Dr. Seuss parody was one of three listed Facebook posts that, according to the Connecticut Department of Corrections (DOC), “shows an active affiliation” with a gang.

On February 17, Lloyd shared a Facebook post from “The Shade Room”, laughing at photos of a guy riding a horse. According to the DOC, when Lloyd expressed his amusement by commenting “Lol fucc out of here” with 2 laughing emojis, he was identifying himself as an active member of a violent street gang.

Lloyd says, “I can’t really explain it. My generation—that’s just how we write on social media.”

In another example, the report says Lloyd wished a friend “Happy CDay” on Facebook rather than “BDay” because “B” symbolizes the Bloods — a rival gang of the Crips.

Lloyd says, “That’s just how I talk,” and that he officially denounced his gang membership two years prior in the prison SRG (Security Risk Group) program.

“Just because I stopped being a Crip doesn’t mean I gotta stop talkin’ to my friends. I’m so used to talking and writin’ a certain way — and I tried to explain to them, there’s nothing harmful about that.”