Reply to Crime on the hill - Charles Allen has got to go

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please stop describing your neighbors, your your fellow human beings, as “criminals.”

These are PEOPLE!

And no one wants to commit a so-called crime.  Rather, these people come from lesser-resourced communities where they never enjoyed the privilege you probably had from birth.

Locking them up for every little alleged crime is not the answer.[/quote]

+1000

No one gets up in the morning and says to themselves “I want to be a criminal. I should go steal a car.”

These are young people of color who are desperately misunderstood by people who’ve they’ve been told their whole lives are better than them because their skin is white. Do you blame them for lashing out?

They need love and they need you to acknowledge your part in the system that put them where they are. Until you are willing to admit that, nothing changes. If you want to know why people get carjacked, look in a mirror. You’re why. [/quote]

I agree with the above with regards to certain populations that some folks in this neighborhood love to complain about. Lots of down on their luck people in my neighborhood who have been impacted by racism their whole lives and it's so baked into everything. Kids who don't feel they have options, folks with inadequate access to healthcare, lots of people with mental health issues related to poverty and racism, which are so intertwined in our community.

But when people talk about crime in this neighborhood, some of us are not actually talking about any of that. Like one of my big issues is that there is still quite a bit of drug traffic on my block and on a nearby corner, and 90% of the buyers have out-of-state plates and I just have no tolerance for that kind of activity. I don't want the young kids getting caught up in that drug activity to get hauled into jail, but there is absolutely no reason for that kind of open drug traffic to be happening anywhere. When I see (which I do, all the time) I also feel confident there are guns in the vicinity, and it stresses me out as a parent. That's how shootings happen. I think we need a combination of more police presence in these areas to deter the drug trade, plus a lot more community outreach for these young kids who need more options. I'm not in favor of more arrests but I don't think we should just turn a blind eye to what is happening or act like it is fine. It is not fine.[/quote]

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