Yo, Community ... Let's Talk Crime!
by Valerie Shaw

It's really easy to be active in the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council. There are fewer than 20 people who are active, so you can pretty much name your committee and run with it. [Our crawl.] I'm the outreach chairperson. Since there are only 20 or so stakeholders who show up for any given meeting, I guess you could say that as outreach chairperson I'm doing a lousy job. I try, but I just can't get a grasp on what people want.

Nothing seems to get people excited these days except crime and terrorism. And, frankly, I think the terrorism thing is so imbedded in our collective psyches that it doesn't even get us excited any more.

But Crime…now there's an issue you can get hyper about all day. All month. All year. You only have to turn on the news (any channel), open the paper (any paper), take a ride down Crenshaw and see floral, candlelit memorials to the victims of violence, and you'll pick up on how important Crime is to our city.

After an 18-year-old friend of mine was killed at a Highland Park house party, a community meeting was called by our local C-PAB [Community Policing Advisory Board]. There were about 300 residents and stakeholders crammed into a tiny little schoolroom. People were pouring out the doors, preening to hear from Councimember Nick Pacheco, (14th Dist), Captain Kyle Jackson and his Northeast L.A.P.D. crew.

"So what are you going to do about this epidemic?" screeched one community member.

"Yeah, we're tired of being afraid to walk in our own neighborhoods," shouted another.

The room had all the feel of vigilante justice. Hang 'em high, partner.

No one seemed to hear the police tell the audience over and over, that crime and crime prevention is not just a police problem. It's a community problem. We all have to do something.

After listening to a half-dozen complaints, as the outreach chair of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, I grabbed the floor and butted my way into the dialogue. "The Captain is right," I said. "We can prevent crime by becoming involved--with our at-risk youth, in the schools, in our own neighborhoods, with people less fortunate. We can become active in the Neighborhood Council and other organizations that are trying to make a difference."

Was I speaking Chinese? The room grew silent and then I believe it was the police officers that began to applaud my little pro-activism speech. I was positive that at the next meeting of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, we'd attract some new energy, some new voices.

But at the next meeting I delivered my outreach report to yet another empty room. Instead of joining us, there was a candlelight vigil for my young friend--hundreds of folks with a bunch of signs, chanting their sorrow and their outrage at the vacant ground where he died. The "event" even made the 6 o'clock news. Today there is a $25,000 reward for Efren Diaz's young killer and people are hopping mad about the escalation of gang crime around Highland Park.

Now that L.A.P.D. Chief Bratton has declared a war on gangs there's going to be some real rolling thunder around these parts. My guess is that a lot of parents are going to be surprised when they learn that their little darlings are, if not members of gangs or crews, at least wanna be's. And, boy, will they be surprised at the cost of a good defense attorney these days.

But no one's got the time or the interest in getting active. We'd rather talk about crime. And we will pray about crime--for it to miraculously stop or for lawless youth to find God. We'll march against crime and we'll raise a bounty for someone's killer to be caught. But getting active against crime? Actually doing something more than making a speech, well, leave that to somebody else.

I am, nonetheless, undaunted in my crusade to inspire people to activism. The more apathy I see the more I feel that I have a meaningful role to fulfill in my community, using my God-given set of skills. I know that I make a difference and as Margaret Mead, the late great social philosopher, said:

"Never doubt that a group of thoughtful citizens can change the world…Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."

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For other works by Valerie Shaw please see:

Valerie Shaw
offerings of an urban woman

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