Man who was in jail since 1970 never had a glimpse of modern world — then he went to Times Square
Humans now depend on technology more than ever, and it is hard to imagine the lives people led before smartphones and social media took over our lives. But a man imprisoned for 45 years of his life had a time travel-like experience with his newfound freedom. The digital revolution has the world in its grasp and Otis Johnson, an ex-convict in New York City, remained aloof from all the developments–right from the landscape of a tech-drenched Times Square, people with wires wrapped in, and the overwhelming variety of food items. He opened up to Al Jazeera English (@aljazeeraenglish) about watching the “crazy stuff”, wide-eyed in disbelief at how the world had turned around.
"On the windows? I ain't never seen anything like this before! Look! On the windows? We ain't seen nothing on no windows but people walking by, not no video,” Johnson, then 69, laughed, pointing at the screens in Times Square in the video from 2015. Stepping into the bustling tourist spot at the heart of NYC was a new experience overall. He watched in amazement as the bright neon screens flashed while crowds of people clutched onto their phones. Quick to judge the modern atmosphere and new technology, Johnson, who once worked as a martial arts teacher, noticed how the “majority of the people were talking to themselves.”
“Then I looked closer and they seem to have things in their ears. I don’t know what those things with the phone thing... And I thought to my mind, 'What everybody became CIA or agents?' and stuff like that,” he quipped. Apparently, the people he saw with wires in their ears when he was out, that is the ‘60s and ‘70s, were detectives or agents. He also pointed out that some people did not even care to look when walking on the streets with their phones in hand. “I’m trying to figure out how people do that,” Johnson said, astonished. Amongst other things, the prices of a public payphone also caught his attention. It was only 25 cents when he last checked, he recalled glaring at the $1 sign on the payphone.
Johnson paid a visit to the supermarket and it was a lot to unpack for him. “The funny dinners. Different colored drinks. I started drinking that once in a while,” he admitted. Unsurprisingly, his diet now involved different things than what he ate back in the 1970s. He was particularly overwhelmed by the variety of the eatables, stricken by the peanut butter with jelly in it. “I ain’t never seen nothing like that before.” Although, he was relieved to find one condiment native of his time– Skippy’s peanut butter, still sitting on the modern supermarket aisle. Johnson was rather happy and content to once again have the opportunity to be a part of society. Comparing it to prison, he said it was a “good feeling” being out and leaving it all in the past.
Johnson was arrested at the age of 25 in New York for the attempted murder of a police officer on 5 May 1970. He denied the allegations and maintained his innocence while being incarcerated for four decades of his life. However, after getting released, he missed his family with whom he had no contact. According to Dazed, Johnson was sentenced to 25 to life but was freed after the court ruled that he was jailed on terms of racism, mistaken identity, and the carelessness of the NYPD and authorities.