November 26, 2008

The Webster's definition of community is a unified body of individuals.  It is also defined as a body of people living together with a common interest.

Many people have debated if Skid Row is worthy of being dubbed a Community.  It is unfortunate that people outside of the Skid Row realm view the people within the community as a plague on society.  Even worse, there are people who are not allowed to sell narcotics in their own communities, due to gang injunctions. So they continue to come to Skid Row to sell poison and exploit the vices of this community for personal gain and furthering the demise of those within this community who are in recovery from a variety of addictions.  These predators do not care that they are peddling the same drugs that flooded inner city communities to capitalize on their feelings of disenfranchisement, and desperation. They do not care that someone's mother, sister, father, or son is in Skid Row trying to get better via the service providers.

But in my walks through Skid Row over the years, I have met people who believe that though they live in one of the most crime ridden areas in this country, they still have pride in this area because it is their home, and they desire safe clean streets.  There are people who live and work down here like any other community.  There are families and parks here, like other communities. 

The unique thing is this community unlike any other it is designed for the rehabilitation of many of its members.  Though this fact exists, gang members do not really care about you rehabilitating, and becoming a unified body of people for the betterment of your community.  Their activities are used to keep you on a continued spiral of self-destruction for their own selfish gain.

Crime syndicates need you to continue in a destructive pattern that many of you are on, even as you in the missions and drug programs struggle to get their lives back.

Over the last two years, many groups have been trying to get you unified about various issues, such as low income, housing, or protesting the police.  However, their efforts have been in vain mainly because their movements are not based wholly on truths.

In this community, we can begin to practice respecting each other's rights to a safe crime free environment.  We can unify and tell these opportunists who come from other areas that their activity is a betrayal to the efforts of people in Skid Row who are trying to get better.  You can unify to use your own voice, so other groups will not have to tell your story, for you.

You can tell your stories, so kids that come down here to sell cocaine and brutalize you cannot only understand the illegalities of what they are doing, but the evil of it as well.  You can unify to help keep these streets from looking like a City dump. 

I want your quality-of-life to begin to improve, now, because it kills me to see the true potential of this community hindered by criminals.

As I stated before, the police are not the answer.  We are only a tool you can utilize to get closer to a safe environment, but truly the rest is up to you.  Without your influence and outward display of a desire for a better community, we will only be able to scratch the surface of crime in Skid Row and that is just want drug dealers want.

I am writing you this letter because you deserve better, for yourselves.  I truly hope it may inspire you to stand for the “right thing,” not what seems “right at the time.”  This can be a thriving community.  Yes, even here you have the power to show the world that anything is possible if we can work together in truth, not rhetoric, slander, or indoctrinated paranoia, which keeps communities and the officers that serve them divided. 

God Bless all of you.  You are always in my thoughts.