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The two men talk for about an hour. LaPierre explains his criminal record. The coke bust, it was for personal use. The dogfight, he was just a spectator, and it was his first time. He's finally gotten his kids off welfare, and he's trying hard to be a good provider and father. He loves his kids. Loves them more than anything else.
As for criminal enterprises, LaPierre says, he's a gangbuster, not a gangbanger. In fact, he says, he's broken up gangs in Precita Park several times. He's not the neighborhood bully, he tells Sciarra, he's the neighborhood protector.
The conversation turns to less confrontational topics: cars, and how LaPierre loves cars, loves working on them. The two men -- the parvenu and the bully -- are talking like, well, neighbors. Sciarra has been to the belly of the beast. He's relieved, but still not sure whether he'll move into his half-million-dollar house, or rent it out to someone braver and, perhaps, stupider than he.
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