well mayoral candidate a j richardson has something to say about driving under the influence while he is unapologetic about his contention that his campaign was sabotaged by a trumped up charge the night of his arrest he does realize that drunk driving provided the ammunition his opposition needed to derail his campaign his is a cautionary tale for those aspiring to change the system the following are a series of questions that will hopefully shed light on this fascinating individual and the object lessons his mistakes may provide to others a j what was the overall message you wanted to convey in the sixty second time spot you did for  driving while jim i wanted people to really understand and embrace the seriousness of drinking and driving that was all too real for myself to experience and  a very difficult part of my life that i had to adore but i thought of the be a tremendous blessing afterwards and that's the opportunity to show people from your experiences the dangers of it i mean when we look at in two thousand and twelve we had nine hundred fifty four crashes alone that involved under age drinking drivers and it's very it's a huge it's an enormous a serious issue that requires as well as the man it's each and every one of our attention most to the how did this case affect your campaign when you were running for mayor it was a huge blow it was  i would say for the most part to a degree crippled it crippled my campaign a lot of different things that were said surrounding that case which was totally false it was a learning experience i think you know the to struggles in life the trials in life they don't come you always destroy you but for you to learn from them to pick yourself up to me in and of itself it's very empowering and motivating as well obviously you think the media capitalized on the dui charge do you think that race was also part of the motive to a degree yeah i do believe that first and foremost i don't look like your typical candidate you know and with the here and it's had to use and piercings but i'm currently my look my image is current  you know we're we're not living in the days and times of our grandparents and great grandparents and we're living in a land of opportunity and also a land of diversity that represents people from all walks of life and you know as a candidate i embody that and when you embody diversity that and of itself makes you a target and a threat and i do believe it was race but i think it was some other elements that played into that as well write your appearance well tell us what happened that night that you feel was completely false so first and foremost i wasn't found slumped over my stairwell i was awake i pulled over to the side  character they contend you are buddying up to them i mean my pretty pretty out there i think the exact sum was some subservient to the white man some some type of stuff that was said you know i'm from brooklyn and even if you look at the the car and what they were saying you all use a certain you know slower than southern terms i mean i don't know what offended me to most whether it was because whether it was just the fact that what they were saying or the grammar they were using i mean y'all that's not my term i'm from brooklyn we speak differently than that but the whole thing was completely false and unfortunately narrow minded individuals believed it may border into it why would law enforcement have been lying about you i understand all the cops were black was it all because of your unique image i mean i mean whatever you try to do to get out in and make a difference and to fight against the system and to represent all people from all walks of life when you when you out there you know you're contending for the faith when when you when you when you lead by the spirit of god and you're very spiritual that in and of itself can be threatening to people particularly in the african american community there's a lot of self ingrained hate that exists in a lot of african americans throughout the city of pittsburgh they don't know how to fight for lack of a better term rise above the hardships and be productive citizens in society individual as well as collectively so when you have that type of thinking and then when you have someone who is outside of the box that's more of a denmark v c that that it's coming into that makes letting you know listen the former slaves right of the started to rebellion a revote in everything when you have someone that comes into that picture that doesn't have a plantation mentality that's saying you know what i can be educated i know how to talk i know how to conduct myself i don't need no handouts from anyone i'm a child of god i'm created in his image when you have someone like an a j which since coming in saying that not even you going to have opposition outside of that circle you going to have opposition within that circle of love a lot of support from people from different walks of life i mean open older people i just love them so what i mean jeremy go and isaac old person come over and talk to me and he smiled and i give him a hug and to me that means a lot because you know they lived a long time and he saw a lot and they see me as as an emblem of change young people it's a cost to remind of you know what don't let anyone or anything limits you you can rise above your situation you might have been born in the ghetto but the ghetto was not born in you you see what i mean so to me that's a symbol of hope there's a lot of different things that brought me into fruition here and i think god for it because if there was never a time that we have today there would never be no need were you able to get on without a car i mean man you know i think there's no intimate setting where you can be intimate with people then when you're on public transportation so  know i take it all in stride and again isha attitude it's in a relationship is very tedious it can be quite draining my my sons were affected by this is well but in the same token it's empowering to them knowing that you know what in order to to make drastic changes you you have your approach has to be dress you have to think outside the box and you know i have three boys and my dad left me when i was five years old so so what i've learned from him is excrete ism what my children learn is for me is how to stand and fight and that's what they need that's not what just my children need but what all children need they need to know how to stand and fight because there's a lot of entities out there that we must fight against such as poverty high crime dropout rate it's teen pregnancy struggle there's a lot of different things particularly in the african american community and we need to find a gets it seems like you're making good use of your time are you are got i got a poetry book that's coming out so i got my first screenplay i'm writing called redemption songs and it deals with four men from different walks of life and a lot of my  missy for you to look upon but it's just made from four different walks of life who find themselves in a situation of hardship on everyone can see their current place of hardship but they don't know what led them there and we are just so quick  commonality i mean the totally but we as a people we so quick to condemn based upon sight we don't give ourselves the opportunity to engage and be intimate to understand what brought them into fruition and you feel you can do this and you know i give all credit to him i tell people two things i love i love god and i love people and that's what it's about you know and it's in that order you understand we got to look at the nation in the number itself that we started out as a christian nation christian values you know it's time where you look at television and it was purity on television there was purity and media now today's we just lost all type of  this country is good for making money but what about family values what about ethics what about morals what about laws that does not aspect and what makes us who we are like that they're all saying no no person is an island to themselves there's always other people other cultures other cities other mind frames that contributed greatly to the success that we have whether individually or collectively and your underlying message is that there is in fact more commonality than disparity between people from different walks of life totally even in pittsburgh exactly but we choose we choose to highlight you know our differences you know as as as opposed to celebrating our likes what we have in common that's the dangers of it you know and that's why i felt like to a degree i was being targeted  and i still believe that you know to this point in dealing with other issues and dealing with down and being targeted but again it's not going to been me is not going to break me because i know who sent me when and i know my assignment well you know who sent you when you know your assignment you know your outcome so that's what i can smell in the midst of storms of life any particular revelation that apart from your father that was new to contend against you know the purity of the laws of the land we have we have to fight for morals and ethics in america we have to we have to stand up a stand against even if you want to be outcast because they can about it why does the road to destruction now is