A Week in Watts Page #2

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black hat, and he has

poured dope on the kitchen counter.

Roger.

So now, it's going to be

a race between us opening the door,

him grabbing that board

and running upstairs to flush.

They usually have a cutting board

with a lineup of dope,

ten dollar pieces, five dollar pieces,

twenty dollar pieces.

The buyer comes in,

picks out what they want,

hands the money over and then leaves.

Police. Open the door!

Let's go!

They flushed all the dope,

but we made a pre-buy,

so we have that dope that was bought.

So the charge is going to stay the same.

The sentencing will be the same.

The only difference is he thinks

he flushed it, and he's going home.

He doesn't know that

it's already recorded.

Because of

law enforcement's effort

on cracking down on gangs...

Get on the ground!

Get on the ground!

...they're being more innovative,

such as commercial crimes

and prostitution and human trafficking.

On Figueroa Street, it's well known

that you can go and pick up a hooker there

for pleasure, give her cash

and then be on your way.

In Nickerson Gardens,

because of the demand for crack cocaine

and the effects

of what that cocaine does to you,

we have a different type of prostitution.

It's called crack whores,

and they literally prostitute

just to get enough money

to buy their crack.

Oh, what did she say?

Are you homeless?

Yeah.

How come?

- Huh?

- Why are you homeless?

Why I'm homeless?

Because I refused to be abused by people.

How long you been homeless?

- How long you been homeless?

- Huh?

How long have you been homeless?

About three years,

but I'm waiting for my housing.

I'm on the list,

but haven't got my housing yet.

I'm HIV positive.

The third part we're

talking about is the human trafficking.

Gangs are now expanding into that

where they'll get foster care kids.

They'll give the kids

comfort, food, living

and then pimp them out on the street,

and it's becoming very, very popular.

Gang members will often

get girls hooked on drugs,

and that's a way to kind of

keep a leash on them.

How long have you had HIV?

When I was 11 years old,

I was involved in human trafficking.

Bad people.

Did they make you turn tricks?

Yeah, and undercover cops were in on it.

Anyone who spends any amount of time

in these communities sees drug abusers,

homeless people often

that are milling about like zombies.

- How are you doing?

- How are you doing?

...we are all gonna go up on roof.

Come here.

I'm just asking, you're not in trouble.

When is the last time you got high?

No. I got somebody

holding my basket for me.

They are just by the wheelchair,

and my mother just called.

When's the last time you smoked?

I kicked the habit

because I seen my daughter.

She was right- I seen her

a couple days ago. She's seeing her Daddy.

- Good for you.

- I'd like to go before they get my basket.

- That's a good idea. All right.

- Sounds good.

It's incredibly sad.

If you can just imagine being a child and

seeing maybe your mother or your father

walking around collecting cans

in a neighborhood

so they can get that next

small amount of drugs.

You know,

these people are treated horribly

by the gang members

in these neighborhoods.

You know, again, like I mentioned,

they often times walk around

like zombies trying to get their next fix.

Coming from specifically what we do,

we work the housing developments.

Um, I know we worked Central

which is mostly like Skid Row,

homeless communities, southwest.

You have a lot of different classes.

You have rich class,

you have a middle class,

and you have a poverty class.

More of this area,

southeast where we work,

it's mostly middle class and below.

You don't really have

anything higher than that.

And us working the housing developments,

we're mostly just working with

people that are in poverty.

I went to a homicide about a year ago,

and a young man was walking

down the street wearing headphones,

and he's special needs.

And someone got out of their car

and shot him 17 times in broad daylight.

And he landed right in the gutter.

And I remember responding to that scene,

and his mother came running out,

and the community came running out,

and I remember sitting back and then

seeing the black and whites

and the officers show up.

And I wanted to look in the officer's eyes

to see where their mental state was,

because they're coming up and seeing

this family rush toward this dead body,

and we've got a crime scene to protect.

And as each officer showed up

and they got out of the car,

and I looked at him because I'm thinking

crime scene management here,

and perceptions and the media showing up

and the media air ships are showing up,

and the officers got out of the car,

and they had this look of compassionate

empathy on their face.

And so, when they got there,

I'm like, "Okay guys,

let's get these families back.

We don't need our batons... and every

officer understood what they needed to do,

but at the same time they were

empathizing with the mom

who was watching her son

bleed out in the gutter.

And so, I remember having a conversation

with a gentleman

that was standing outside,

and he says, "How come

none of those cops look like me?"

And he was an African American.

And I looked at him and I said,

"Well, if the community

stops telling their kids to hate us,

maybe more people that look like us

will want to join the police department. "

Put your hands behind your back.

- I didn't do nothing.

- I didn't say you did.

Yes, sir?

We have concerns 'cause you're a juvenile.

Who's the responsible adult

that's in charge of you right now?

Um...

- Chino.

- How old is he?

What's his relation to you?

He's just a homie.

Where were you going to sleep tonight?

At my house.

I was going to go home already, but...

How were you going to get home?

- On the Metro.

- Okay. Would you like a ride home?

She's a juvenile, and under

our department policy and state law,

any juvenile after the hours

of 10:
00 p. m.,

they can't be out on the streets,

and this kid,

she obviously needed to be taken home.

We can't drop her off at a bus stop.

We got to make sure she gets home

and we speak to a legal guardian.

Since we stopped you after 22:00,

which is curfew.

we can give you a ticket for

a curfew violation and you'll go to court,

then transport you home or we can just get

you home and make sure you're safe.

That would be what we'd-

- Yeah, you can take me home.

- Okay.

- Sounds good?

- Yes, ma'am.

You can't find a cop in the country

that doesn't want to help a good kid.

The narrative of law enforcement

is so disgustingly inaccurate.

I think it's important for people to see

what these cops are doing for the youth

despite what they see on the media

and news all the time.

I believe the media pushes it

because it sells.

And it's sexy to have

dysfunction in a community.

And in my opinion, it's irresponsible,

and you can't come in for 30 minutes

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