A little about Shamar
Shamar Betts is a talented young man who once had a bright future ahead of him. After the devastating loss of his mother at age 12, he encountered many more challenges in his life. It was as if the deck was stacked against him. Nevertheless, he persisted in obtaining his high school diploma, living mostly on his own, and secured his first job working with children as a camp counselor in Urbana, Illinois.
The spring of 2020 was particularly harsh for Shamar. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he lost his job as an after-school leader at the Boys & Girls Club and as a program leader at the park district. He suffered alone in quarantine through the seventh anniversary of his mother's death, and in May of 2020, he witnessed the heinous video recording of George Floyd's murder.
The death of George Floyd impacted Shamar dramatically. He watched a black man, who looks a lot like Shamar, be brutally strangled to death by a police officer who was supposed to serve and protect him. As many black men experience in this country, Shamar had previously had many negative interactions with law enforcement, where he was deemed suspicious and had been judged solely by the color of his skin. Watching Mr. Floyd’s life seep out of him face-down on the street caused Shamar to feel angry, sad, and depressed.
In direct reaction to George Floyd’s murder, Shamar made the most fateful decision of his young life: he put up a flyer on Facebook calling for people to rise up against police violence towards the black community. At the time, he had no idea the impact this post would have on his young life. Turns out, his post was shared hundreds of times, and on May 31, 2020, several hundred people gathered at the Marketplace Mall in Champaign, Illinois. Dozens of businesses were damaged, totaling almost $2.5 million. Yet there were only a few minor injuries caused that day, and no law enforcement officers were harmed.
Shortly after the events on May 31, 2020, 19-year-old Shamar was arrested pursuant to a federal warrant and placed in jail. He has been there since that day.
Shamar ultimately pled guilty to one count of inciting a riot and was sentenced in August of 2021 to 4 years in prison, restitution of $1.6 million, and 3 years of mandatory supervised release to follow his prison sentence. Even though Shamar had no prior record, prosecutors in the United States Attorney’s Office asked for the maximum possible sentence of 5 years in prison and total restitution of over $2.5 million.
Once an optimistic, nature-loving teenager who wanted to build a career helping youth, Shamar spent his 20th, 21st and 22nd birthdays in jail and has barely gotten to see the light of day. He now struggles with his physical health and his diet. Despite all of the hardship that comes along with incarceration, Shamar managed to gain the respect of his correctional officers by treating others with respect, teaching the other inmates sign language and chess, and reading countless books.
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Shamar Betts was finally released from Federal prison on June 13, 2023 - over three years after his initial arrest. Now 22, Shamar finally has a chance to start his life over again. He is still in Federal custody, currently at a halfway house in Peoria, IL, and eventually on home confinement and then supervised release. This is the beginning of a new long road ahead, with Shamar looking for work and stability, friends and allies.
Yet he still owes $1.6 million dollars to the Federal government -- the total sum of ALL damage caused by ALL of the participants on that day. Shamar is still focused on the Black Lives Matter movement, yet he also now considers prison reform to be a major issue that needs attention. Visit his Go Fund Me page to make a contribution to support him and his cause: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-shamar-rebuild-after-arrest-for-blm-protest
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