I'm sorry. The young man in the middle, what's your name again?
Thomas. Thomas, how hard was it for you to get this 20-gauge shotgun?
I'm not asking you where you got it. How did you get it?
What are you saying? 60 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
I said I had a gun before that anyway. I had a few guns before. But they're easy to get.
Where would you get -- if I asked you to get me one, will you be able to get me one today?
I could get you one. I know a few spots, like two or three, like he said.
You think that part of the problem -- it's a very complex problem and all the things that the young men here have stated is so true, but these guns are available. This is the second time I've asked the same question, and both you and the young man before you said yes, they could probably find two or three places where you can go get me a gun. There's guns everywhere. Do you think if we had stricter laws on guns that this would also -- and 61 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 more access to safer playgrounds, according to some of the statements you guys have made, that this can help us eliminate the gun violence in our streets?
You know, it's one thing to know that you can get a gun, but it's also another to have the mindset that you want to get a gun. I was talking to a young man who is incarcerated and I asked him what are some of the young people saying that are already in prison, and he says that they all think they have to carry a gun. And one of the young men up here did say he had a gun on him because he felt like he needed it for protection. I guess at some point we need to move -- even when we have laws, it would be good if we could live in a 62 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 society where people didn't feel like they had to have a gun for protection, because then that means everybody is carrying a gun. And when you sit and watch a western and you see everybody has a gun on their hip and this town becomes calmer when the sheriff makes them put the guns away. So we got to move -- I don't know what happened as to why young people think they have to have a gun or a license to carry. We don't want to live in that kind of society. I don't know what we need to do to turn it around, and that's why we want to talk to young people, so you guys can tell us or young ladies can tell us what we need to do, how can we make a difference.
Councilmembers, these are just a few of our young people 63 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 who actually we can go through the 900 young men that we have worked with over the last nine years. Right now we have served 122 and our referral list is ever growing, and for us the real challenge is not that young people are picking guns up but the choices we put in front of them. For example, here's a good example: Five, six years ago there were 20,000 youth jobs. This past summer there were only 5,000 youth jobs. So when you have more thousand young people who don't 14 have summer jobs and you go and allocate 15 a million more dollars for police officers and you put police officers -- more police officers and more unemployed youth, that's a bad mixture. And you have unsafe recreation centers and you don't have internships and you don't have quality things for our young people to do, you're putting a bad mixture together. Therefore, police officers are going to harass our young people, going to be frisking them for all kinds of odd 64 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 reasons. They don't know their rights, young people, so they don't know how to report -- put police unusual behavior with them, and, therefore, you really get young people doing inappropriate things because there aren't quality opportunities for them. And this is what you are hearing with all our young people, six of them who spoke to you. I could have put up all of the others to address you today. And I think what we really need to focus on, as Lamar was saying, you know, we always say there are no jobs. Well, we have to reallocate some of those dollars and create employment. There are things to do in our neighborhoods, clean streets, clean lots. The abandoned houses are doing nothing. I mean, we're really talking about taxpayers' dollars coming back. We really need to look constructively on how to do some of these things so there are quality choices in front of our young people and not guns. 65 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 The last thing I'll say, because I know there's some other young people who would like to come up to the microphone. Those students are not part of Don't Fall Down in the Hood. But the last thing I would like to say is for all our young people, when we address them on a regular basis and I say to them, If I let you out of this room right now, how quickly can you come back with a gun, they all tell me half hour to 45 minutes. It's all over the place, but the choices aren't where can you go get a gun. The choices for us is where can we find you a quality alternative choice so you won't go get a gun and you will have skills to do things other than fighting and looking for guns to do what our young people need to do. And the last point is, Don't Fall Down in the Hood is the only such program in the State of Pennsylvania. As you heard, our young people are saying they have to get in trouble to get to 66 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Don't Fall Down in the Hood. We need more programs like Don't Fall Down in the Hood, whether or not we call it Don't Fall Down in the Hood or not, and we need to do more of this so young people are not getting smeared with criminal records and then we have to ask employers not to ask that favorite question, have you been arrested. It will be null and void if we put quality choices in front of them. So I really am here to say -- that's why I didn't sit up front, because I didn't want to talk too much. I wanted our young people to really express their thoughts to you. But I feel passionately about this work that we do with young people. We are wasting our young people's lives. And I know you as our leaders, elected leaders, are here to help in tandem work. We need more quality choices, employment, better schools, safer playgrounds and certainly safer streets, and police is just not the answer. 67 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm sorry. Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for coming in to share your thoughts with us. I heard some of the things that you described that could help alleviate the need for a gun, jobs and all the things that you've discussed today, but if you were the Police Chief and you had to solve the problem of all the guns, how easy they are to get, what would you do, if you were the Police Commissioner for a day and someone asked you what you think you could do? Now, you described and a couple of the other panelists described how easy it is to get a gun. If you were in charge of the police, what would you do to stop such an easy availability of guns? What would you do?
I really don't 68 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 know, but like we said with the jobs, if people had jobs, they wouldn't be on the street with guns. And like Mr. Archye said how you spend money on all them police officers to get us arrested for having guns, if you put that into jobs and co-op, things like we said, like you wouldn't need all them police officers. You may need less. So I'm really not sure.
I think the police officers is reactionary, is after the fact. It's post a negative situation that have smeared and created difficulties for families and our young people. I think we need to obviously deal with the current situation, but we also need to begin to put in place choices for young people so over time coming from both angles we will be able to solve this problem. We think this is doable, by the way, at Don't Fall Down in the Hood, because we deal with the most difficult 69 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 young people, and when they first come to us, they're quite challenging. When they leave us, they are a typical 16-year-old, smiling, having fun, wanting to have a great opportunity. I think the police officer -- and I know him. We meet and sit in his office often -- needs to do events like this, talk to young people. We all want arrests and talk negative about young people, but infinitely we need many more forums like this where we are talking and listening to young people. They know where the trouble spots are in the neighborhood. They know it. We don't need to send police to harass them and to arrest them. Let's do a little less of that and more of listening and talking and providing choices.
Yeah. I was going to say like half of the people on the streets that sell drugs and carry guns, 70 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 like they don't even want to do it themselves, but they do it because there's not many alternatives out there for them. And I know this from experience. (Applause.)
Okay. Thank you. You know, I do agree, Dr. Leacock. I think when I was younger, there was probably more opportunities. If we didn't have school, we had a rec center, we had a church, we had some way -- the Boys Club -- where there was some facility that we could go to to talk to someone. And I agree that I think we probably need more programs that are available for young people to go to, because I think they get a lot of attention, support and counseling from programs such as yours, and we need to figure out how they can still get those same services prior to coming to Don't Fall Down in the Hood. And I think with like AVRP and some of those other 71 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 preventive type programs, maybe some of that can happen. But I agree. Oh, one thing. I do want to recognize that Councilwoman Brown has joined this hearing.
Sure. Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I have just a few words and a question.
First I need to commend you, Madam Chairperson, for yet another opportunity that forces us to look closely at violence, but this may be one of the rare instances where I have seen us hear from young people, young people what you believe -- you tell us how we can better serve you with the challenges that you face. And quality opportunities we hear clearly. One alternative I want to see if you are aware of -- and if you are, what your perspective or opinion is -- our Recreation Commissioner realized shortly after coming here that programs 72 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 for young people between the ages of and 17 were basically non-existent. There were a lot of structured programs for children younger than 13, but for teenagers they just were not there. So a number of teen centers have been opened at various rec centers around the City, and it appears that the response has been favorable. Have you been in them? What is your view of them? Do you think they serve a purpose in providing what one of you called which was a safe playground and the like? What is your perspective about that alternative means to providing recreation to young people between the ages of 13 and 17?
I've been in the recreational centers and a lot of them, like they have boxing, basketball, pool and also homework programs or whatever, but a lot of kids when they go to those recreational centers, like I said, they don't feel safe all the time. And I think if you can put like guards at 73 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 7-Elevens and Rite-Aids and, you know, stores, just regular convenience stores, then you can also put people to guard the youths of the recreational centers that go there that shouldn't feel threatened to go there. You know what I'm saying? The people from their own community.
Sure. So what I hear you saying is that the programs are good, but they serve no 12 purpose if you can't be safe while there.
So still the issue of feeling safe and secure to first get in and then while you're there and probably while you're on your way home as well.
I just want to say one last thing -- one more thing, not one last thing. I mean, the Institute has a program at one of the rec centers in Southwest and we were having our Thanksgiving dinner for about 200 young 74 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 people at the location and there was a shooting. They had to lock all the doors while the kids stayed inside. So, yeah, there might be a teen center, but security is vitally important. We need police officers or we need security guards or somebody to really make sure those facilities are secure. And it drives people away. People often tell my staff at the Southwest program they don't want their kids coming there because they heard of a shooting last week. So, you know, a teen center is a great idea, but you got to be able to come and go safely.
Is there any bigger role or broader role for clergy as it relates to the issues we're talking about today, for the faith-based community, period? Is there any interface with clergy in the community where you come from?
Well, yeah. Like a 75 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 lot of things happen in my community, and some things that happen is still going on in my community. Like around the area of Lansdowne Avenue, like they don't really have a recreational center to go to. They have to go through Master Street, toward Callowhill Street, and, you know, those blocks all have some type of larceny against each other. You know what I mean?
Because of whatever neighborhood violence that goes on between those neighborhoods. You know what I mean? And the recreational center is all the way down on Haverford Avenue, which is right in the middle of all of that.
Okay. So to the question, is there a role for the faith-based, the church, clergy 76 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 community?
And what do you think that role could be or should be?
My take in working a lot with the faith-based organizations -- and we had a couple years ago put together a faith-based conference up at the Bright Hope Baptist Church -- I think a lot of time the faith-based organizations have a particular challenge. They work within certain sectors and it's -- someone needs to be able to get them to talk beyond and across boundaries. I know one pastor said to me, you know, I don't have anyone truant in my church, why should I get involved in truancy? Well, guess what? Your church is in North Philly. Kids are truant. So I think it's a certain kind of education needs to equally happen and churches need to go beyond just serving 77 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 their congregation. And I think although it's a good idea that we get faith-based organizations involved, very often they don't go across the boundaries to see kids as a whole. They want to work with who is in their congregation rather than kids, period. Even if you don't go to the congregation, there is a role for you to play.
I think they need to go out to all the communities, because a lot of these people from these communities that go at it with each other, they really don't know each other. You know what I mean? And that's why that they do these things, because they don't know each other and they don't want to get to know each other. And, you know, people, they look at you and think that you look grimy per se and, you know, they want to start yapping off at the mouth and pulling out guns and shooting 78 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 at each other just because you from 59th Street, 60th Street, 61st Street. Because a lot of these things is block based. And it's different in other cities and other states, but right here and right now, it's going on everywhere. You know what I mean? In West Philly, South Philly, Southwest Philly, North Philly, Northeast Philly, it's all the same.
Are you talking about gangs when you say "block based"?
Block based, gangs, the whole nine. It's all the same. Well, but in Philadelphia now, it's a migration point, like I said before in another meeting we had with the Mayor, and it's gangs coming from other states, like New York, Boston, Baltimore, New Jersey and Delaware, you know. And those people are, you know, a lot of the reasons that the city is the way it is right now. 79 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
Talk that through. So they move here from other states, they move to certain blocks and then they recruit?
Yes. It's not that they move here, but either they come and go.
They come, recruit and go. And like I said, I could speak from experience myself, because I wasn't always in Philadelphia my whole life. I was in New York and I was, you know, in tune with the gang situation. And being a part of that, I found out a lot of the things that gangs do, it's different. Like people look at it like it's all about negativity when it's not really about that. But the people that do it now, they look at it because it's being televised and they don't know what they're doing because they think it's a fad now, and everybody just wants to pick up bandanas and pick up guns and start 80 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 shooting at colors when they really don't know what it's about. So basically they just blowing everything out of proportion.
Blood, Crips, Latin Kings, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, you know, Imperial Gangsters, any gang that you can think of from the midwest to the west coast, all the way back over here to the east coast.
My God. Okay. This is sure an education today for me, that's for sure. We have a group that I really need to get on because they have to leave. We don't want you to go anywhere, but we have to -- we're still going to bring you on, but we have to bring the 81 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 other group on, too.
And I really do thank all you guys for coming in. You don't have to leave, but we have -- (Applause.)
We have Shawn "Frogg" Banks and Rick Kennedy. Shawn is Philly-Wood and Rick is Alpha Media Entertainment Films and David Foster that has a film, a short version of their film called "Close to Death." You can just go on and just begin to talk, and don't forget to state your name and whatnot for the record.
My name is Rick Kennedy, R-I-C-K, K-E-N-N-E-D-Y. I'm CEO of Alpha Media Entertainment. MR. "FROGG" BANKS: Yes. And I'm Shawn, S-H-A-W-N, Frogg, F-R-O-G-G, Banks, B-A-N-K-S, and I'm CEO of 82 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Philly-Wood Entertainment. And my partner and I, Rick Kennedy, in 2005 when we had 380 murders here in the City of Philadelphia, we merged our companies and decided to do a film based on the life-style of not just gangs but gun violence, period. And it was a heartfelt film from when my partner created it, and he came to me because I was in a drug gang real heavy in the early '90s through the JBM era and I was with a gang called the Zooloo Nation, and it took me -- I was kidnapped March 27, 1995. And the thing is, I hear a whole lot of people saying where these guns come from. I'm here to straighten the point, straighten the face with it. It's coming from the government. The government continue to bring these guns in these hoods. (Applause.) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: The thing is, of course, it's a big business in the United States. You can see with the war going on over there, they're not going to 83 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 stop making these guns. (Applause.) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: I had in the possession, I actually had grenades, silences and so forth coming from 3rd and Norris, 5th and Susquehanna. And, of course, we don't make them down there, but I was dealing with business people that was coming into the hood selling these guns. And what we try to portray to these kids, you got to make the right choice. Since we can't stop them from making the guns, we got to get you the mindset not to pick these guns up and show the consequences what a bullet can do to you. (Applause.)
Also, I just want to say that when we was out in the field and talking to a lot of young guys, a lot of the problems come from a lot of arguments, social arguments, being, you know, girlfriend, boyfriend and people 84 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 not getting along. And the problem is also that kids of today do not respect each other nor do they respect authority, as well parents or what-have-you. So also they do not have the knack to strive for something better. You understand what I'm saying? They already settling for less. So the film definitely goes right in your face to tell you the repercussions of what's going on being shot and everything. So you watch the news, you watch the news and somebody had been fatally shot or have gotten shot and you haven't seen the after effects of it. And also, I mean, it plays on him mentally as well as physically, and you have to live through the life after being shot. So, I mean, from that part and from what my partner was saying, there was times that when we was out there filming this film, there was guys pulling up in a car asking if we wanted to buy 85 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 real guns when we was filming it. So guns are definitely there. The gangs are definitely there. And I remember from my time that, like he said, a gang was from like South Philly, West Philly. And I'm from West Philadelphia. There was the Moon gang back then. Young guy that was here talking about Tustin Playground and Haddington. I know them very well. Now you got block to block fighting each other. And they can't get into an argument and say, Okay, I had an argument, to be that. They got to go out and get a gun and now somebody is fatally shot. So the film definitely comes right to you in your face to let you know the problems that we have on the streets, because I think most of the time City Council and the state, they don't know what's going on in these streets, and the young people are definitely crying out and needing help. So that's what we did with the film. 86 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
All right. Good. So we're going to get started? David, did you want to say anything?
My name is David Foster. I play a big role in the movie. I'm also a convicted felon. I was convicted of a firearms charge. But one thing I learned, that I didn't have to carry a gun to protect myself because I believed in God, so I left the guns alone. I tried to do something productive. (Applause.)
I went back to college. At the end of this semester I'll be obtaining an Associate's degree in business. And I'm willing to talk to any of the kids behind me if they want to talk to me about their situation or try to find out the roads that I took and steps that I took to be where I'm at today. 87 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
Great. So we're going to see the film. ) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: Basically right there, this was just a sample. In the movie, of course, the whole movie, we get into -- we show gunshot victims, former drug dealers, showing their wounds, telling these kids why it's not cool to come to these streets, the consequences of selling drugs and picking up guns. And what I try to tell the youths these days, instead of ya'll being out on them corners thinking ya'll hustling, we're the one getting hustled, because when you go back to prison, it's modern day slavery. For every time they lock one of us up, they make money off it. So you can fall. Weak to the street, be a follower, gang banging, following the red or the blue, because 88 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 now you fall into the system. It's always a way out. Excuse ain't but an excuse. I was born in a single-parent home. My mother did what she had to do. My father was a hustler. So when I made those choices, I didn't have to -- my grandmother set a good foundation for what we had in North Philly. And that was just an excuse for me to run and look up to the guy on the corner with the big rims, the big money and all these girls. But on the blind side, a gang is a falsified family. They fed me, they clothed me, they gave me money, but when I was incarcerated and I was in that cell all day, none of my friends was there no 19 more. So the bottom line, if ya'll don't wake up right now and hanging on them Chinese stores, take them hoodies off ya'll head, pull your pants up, look another man in the eye and stop falling for these streets, man. 89 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. ) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: Because it's a dead issue. And tomorrow I've been blessed with "Close to Death" to go speak on Capitol Hill with the Exodus Tour with Bill Cosby to speak for the streets, to speak for the youth and my black community and saying we got to help each other, man. It's nobody fault. When I'm walking down the street, I'm not looking for no other race but my own brother trying to rob me these days, and we got to settle our problem ourselves, because right now the jail doors are open, the schools are closing, we got to use this. This got to be our ammunition to our black males. We got to use this. When you're smoking that whack, smoking that weed and you're putting that gun in your hand, you got a falsified power. You think you could rule the world, but that same gun is going to get you locked up. And when you look at that judge, when he smack that 90 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 mallet and give you 50, 60, 70 years and you're away from your family, don't call home ask for no commissary, don't say you need help, because there's so many programs out here right now that we got for ya'll, man, ya'll just got to make a call, ya'll got to be willing. You can't be no followers. And I was in the struggle. I've been there, so I know it's a lot of peer pressure and it's hard for our youth, but we also need the City of Philadelphia, the Councilwoman, just like these young kids just said today, we need recreation centers. We need to be secure where they need somewhere to go where they could play with computers, play ball, whatever. We need a 24-hour hotline where a lot of these kids don't look up to authority, the cops, because like he said, some of the authority are abusing these kids, taking advantage of their position. So we need like a safe house for these kids need to go to where 91 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 they can also come and express their feelings and learn something. And we got to step up as adults and not only tell them but like we did today, listen to them, and we come to a conclusion where we can't give up on one another, because we're all going to lose this battle. And why we did "Close to Death," because we're all one bullet away from close to death. A bullet don't have no names on it.
We could walk out here today or tomorrow and without God, who knows, the next step we take just might be our last. So I just hope and pray that ya'll listen to these organizations, these young guys really take heed and not just use this to say we listening, but do something for them, because they are lost. They're stuck. I mean, this is not like when we grew up. This generation is Generation X. A lot of people is counting them out already before they even get a chance to get started. So I'm going to try to be a 92 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 voice for them and through music and entertainment. ) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: -- a "Stop the Violence" video that we will be doing in February throughout the whole City of Philadelphia with all the hottest rappers in Philly. And we finally challenged these rappers and say, Well, can you please change your lyrics for one song, one song. Because rap music and movies are a big influence on this young generation. They look up to these rappers. They listen to what they say. This music brainwash them. And what we trying to do is, we finally did a "Stop the Violence" song where we could talk their language where they can listen to -- you still can bob your head and dance to something positive and make it happen. And I commend you, Donna Reed Miller, for one of the first 93 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Councilmembers to recognize what we was doing. When we came to you, you commended your hand, you put that ink on that paper, and you definitely a lady of your word, and we need more people of your stature. And we can't just blame the Commissioner. ) MR. "FROGG" BANKS: But get together and help these kids, because we're all crying out and we definitely losing this war. It is not Iraq right now. These young guys are carrying guns, man, and they're wearing bullet-proof vests, and over that hoodie, they are nice, smooth gentlemen, but we just got to clean them up, the outside image, who they really are, and make something happen for them.
I believe one of the things that can help the youth for 94 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 today is education and job opportunities. When I came home from prison, I went to maybe 50, 60 interviews and always got the door shut in my face. I never gave up. I say, Okay, if I can't get a job, then I'm going to go back to school so I can obtain more education and maybe I'll be more marketable as far as the job market. Training programs is something that can help. I have younger cousins and they seem to be coming of age where they want to hang out in the street, and I talk to them a lot. I say, you know, If you don't want to go to college, because a lot of people is not college material, a trade. If you want to be a carpenter, okay, be the best carpenter you can and try to learn as much as possible, so when you do one day have kids, that you can support your family, you won't have to turn back to the streets. Because it's very easy to obtain a gun or get a package of drugs 95 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 and go out there and hit the block. And it's a dead-end road. So I think education and job placement and job training is one way of helping the youths of today.
I agree. I think we're all strong advocates of education and employment and job training. We got to keep young people in school long enough, though, to acquire skills and some competency. And I don't think we have the trades in the public schools anymore, do we? Not what we used to, right.
I would like to introduce a program that me and my partner has been talking about. It's Alpha Media and Philly-Wood. We would like to bring some of the kids in to teach them that it's not always that you have to be a rapper, because I don't know 96 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 if these fellows know, but the rapper is the one that get the lowest paycheck. The executive producer, the director, okay, you have a cameraman, you have a script writer, you have so many opportunities besides just being a rapper or a basketball player or a star drug dealer, as they think they are. So we would like to introduce a program to City Council that we're willing to work to bring some of them kids in and let them know, Okay, here's a camera, you have different types of cameras. There's more opportunities in the entertainment business than just being in front of the camera.
Well, you, David, you may not know -- I know Frogg knows, the Recreation Commissioner in the back knows. Actually, Commissioner, these are the young people that I spoke about that said they wanted to help us with the recording studio that we want to put over 97 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 at one of the rec centers and to teach the entire business, not just to be able to record on a disc or a CD or whatever it is, DVD, but the entire business, as you said. So the Recreation Commissioner is on the back row, and I told him about you guys, Frogg, in a meeting, I believe it may have been, last week. So we can work on that project and get that recording studio up and running. And we're hoping that that's something -- let me ask the audience. If we put a recording studio in a rec center, I'm talking about something professional, is that something young people are interested in? AUDIENCE: Yes. (Applause.)
I want to hear from the young people, though. See, most people that clapped were adults. Because we don't want to waste our money. So what do you think? Tell me. Is that 98 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 a good idea? (Some people yelling "yes, that's a good thing.")
All right. Okay. It's not like we have a whole bunch of money that we can just throw away.
Have you guys been able to cost out that kind of facility as far as a budget and what it would take in equipment and set-up? I'm trying to get an idea of what the number is or what the number would be.
With technology today, you can get a big studio recording budget with a small budget, because you don't have to have the adetts (ph). Everything can be ran through the computers or digital. And the same is for film-making. You don't have to have 99 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 a big $20, $30 thousand camera. You can spend $5,000 to get 24-P technology, which looks great when you put it on the screen.
But is there some way either you or people that you work with could cost out --
And then get back to Councilwoman Miller, and we'll try to figure out a way to get some outside resources.
The only thing that concerns me about a rec center -- and I guess Commissioner Richard would have to talk about it -- is, it's kind of expensive equipment and we'd have to secure it in a way that we wouldn't want to make that investment and have it either stolen or vandalized. You know how rec centers get vandalized from time to time, and if people know it's 100 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 there -- or do you think that people knowing it in the neighborhood and being active in it would keep it protected? MR. "FROGG" BANKS: Well, definitely. If you get them something in each one of them rec centers in their community and like the gentleman said, if we took some of that money that we spending on these officers, extra cops, and all they doing is locking these kids up and not getting rehabilitated, if you put these same amount of funds, because you are talking about saving lives -- it's no value on one person life -- and if you put security around each one of these rec centers in each one of these neighborhoods, you will have a dramatic drop in crime, because for one, you're giving the kids what they look up to, what they listen to and they could feel a part of something. If you secure that place and take care of each rec centers like we take care of our homes, we will have a whole lot of reduction in this 101 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 crime out here.
If you could just do us a favor and try to get that costed out and get it to Chairman Miller, we'd be happy to try to find some other resources. MR. "FROGG" BANKS: No problem. Okay.
Not only that, I think it would be a great opportunity because if the kids are learning, like engineer, an engineer can make easy 50,000 a year. So if there's a child who came through the community center and learn how to do engineering and then took it and went and got a job placement, that's even good.
And engineering and architecture, it's so difficult to find minority engineers and architects, because of all the work that's done now requires some type of set-aside, which is a good thing, it's very difficult to find local minority 102 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 engineers and architects. So that's a void that really needs to be filled from a professional standpoint, because firms are going out seeking those professionals all the time and just can't find them. So that's something else --
It would be a great way to bring back also the sound of Philadelphia as far as Philly being such -- there's so much talent here, where it will be, okay, we took some guys -- these guys back here basically -- and we gave them an opportunity, okay, to learn all these different trades, and it would be more attractive for artists to come to Philadelphia to record as far as all audio or visual.
Thank you. And I want you to introduce yourself to the Commissioner. He's on the back row. He'll put his hand up. 103 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Thank you. Thank you so much for coming in and showing the video. MR. "FROGG" BANKS: Thank you. I'd like to praise and commend, I thank all the young guys out here, man. I know ya'll can do it. Don't give up. Take heed to everything ya'll heard today and let's make it happen, man. (Applause.)
Aaron Spence again. IDAAY is also deeply involved in our community, and these two young ladies came from King and they wanted to represent their school and the issue that's been a topic that concerns them. And we wanted to give them an opportunity to really voice their concerns that's going on in their school.
Yes. My name is Teena, T-E-E-N-A, Robinson, R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N.
Takia, T-A-K-I-A, 104 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Bond, B-O-N-D.
Okay. You can start. Don't forget to speak directly into the mike. Okay?
We are here to address the problem that we're having at Martin Luther King High School with the school police and to be a part of the solution. The problem that we've been having apparently for the past couple years is the brutality and the excessive force used by our school police officials. We went around the school and got a petition. Two hundred and ninety-eight students feel the same way as we do, that maybe we could get the officers to go through more training or sensitivity training or take out the officers who are abusing the students and who are using that excessive force. We went through a couple of 105 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 steps in making this happen. We didn't really know what to do to make this happen actually, but we started with this petition. And the last situation that we thought we wanted to let happen was with a young man who was beaten, was falsely accused. He was beaten by school police. Go ahead.
Basically what she was saying. Like we just, you know, want the solution. We just want things to change in Martin Luther King and every high school. It's probably not just going on in King. There were a couple of students that felt as though, you know, we wouldn't have any type of outcome if we just stayed in school. So we put together a student walkout. It wasn't to cause any wreckage. It was just to get our point across so that the public will also understand where we was coming from and how we felt. We had a walkout, I believe it was, Friday morning at 9 106 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 o'clock, 9:30 where over 200 students participated. It was maybe seen in the newspaper.
The school officials at Martin Luther King, like the administrators, the principal said that this would not work. So we risked a lot of stuff by pursuing this. And we made the walkout very successful, and that was basically just to get our point across, and now we're just trying to get the solution.
Okay. How many children go to Martin Luther King? How many students are enrolled at Martin Luther King High?
I'd like to get a copy. Actually, Martin Luther King is in my district. I didn't know anything 107 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 about it, anything, until I read it in the paper on Friday. So I'm glad you showed up here. In fact, I sent one of my staff people out to Martin Luther King this morning so we could kind of find out what's going on up there. So you want to make sure you give William all your identifying information -- he works for me -- and a copy of the petition. Do you want to give that to us? Do you have your own copy?
Okay. I'm glad you're here, because as I said, I sent someone to your school this morning, because no one had reached out to us. I had no idea really what was going on other than what we read in the paper. So we're very interested in talking to you further about this.
Okay. Thank you for coming. 108 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Councilman Greenlee.
Just quickly. And I, too, did not know much about this or anything about this until I saw it in the paper. I take it you have at some point in time or maybe not you two, but there's been complaints to the principal, to the administration? What has been, if any, answer that you've gotten?
Friday -- I'm sorry. Wednesday there was a situation, and me and another young lady went to the principal and asked her what could we do and what were our rights as far as how far can the school police go with us, and she said just -- she asked me to get proof for her, maybe a statement or actual physical proof that the students were being abused. I then went to someone who I'm 109 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 close to, a teacher that I've known for a couple years that I found to come really close to him, and he told me to fill out a complaint form or something. Basically I went to a couple of people, and it just seemed like it wasn't going to get anywhere. And I wanted this problem to be addressed immediately for the students at King today and the students for the future who will be at King, who will be attending King.
So William is going to get your information and we're going to figure out what are our next steps.
Ma'am, we also just wanted to let you know that our -- the person that we're talking about was not the only person that this has happened to. It's been a lot of students, and many students that's here with us today 110 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 has been through it with the police at our school, including the two that's up here, us two. It's a lot going on at King, but it's not -- we're not sitting here saying that it's the principal or how the school is being ran. Just to let you know that. It's not how the school is being ran. It's just an issue that just need to be solved and resolved.
I think part of the situation is how the school is being ran, because I think when the student -- that when you ask who the principal is at Martin Luther King, half the students don't know. I think the principal should make herself be known, go in the police office when people are being detained or arrested or something and observe what the school officials are actually doing inside there. Because no one goes inside there except for the other school police. And I told our principal that I think that she should show up every once in a 111 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 while to observe what's going on, what's really going on inside that control room.
Also, along with what she was saying, she also said something about sensitivity training, which I agree with. And if it's possible, we believe that it should be another camera inside of control, because like she was saying, after you close those doors inside the police control room, students and no one else can see what else is going on. So it's like it's our word against theirs. What can we do about it if we can't prove it?
Okay. So you're saying you have an actual room in your school that you call the police control room?
Yes, the -- oh, no. 24 The control room does not have cameras in it. It's just where they sit and watch 112 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 the rest of the cameras that's around the school.
All right. Well, we are going to get the information and move forward. As I said, I sent someone up to your school this morning because we hadn't heard anything more than what we read in the newspaper, and we are interested. And I understand your issues around administration, training of security officers. And I'm not clear yet on this camera piece, but we'll talk about it. Okay?
We have some other people that need to get up here to testify. We have Kelly Leggett, 113 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 and Kelly is from -- you can name your organization. I know you have something to do with Oxford Street.
Yes. My name is Kelly Leggett. I'm from Oxford Street Committee. And I was wishing that Councilman Ramos was to stay because our area is his district, him and Darrell Clarke, and I seen them leaving.
Well, he can probably hear you up in the office. We have a system where we can hear the hearings in our offices.
Okay. My organization consists of like a third generation of ex-gang members that never moved from down in the same neighborhood. But it was in July of 2006 that we seen that it was a necessity that some of the people that's from the community who the kids -- who we know it's the kids that are doing the violence, we know their parents. We grew up with their parents. So we seen it sufficient enough for us as 114 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 a group to come back together and form some type of unity in the community. And what had happened, we went to the 8th and Diamond area and down in our area, which is Oxford Street, and we communicated with the parents from up in that area and the guys from down in our area, and it kind of stopped. It's been one shooting since that time, and that's been more of a racial shooting over like the pill seller and the drug seller, you know, and crossing territory. But all the same, I wanted to start off by saying that like we know that God didn't make no junk. " They was like, Look, we ain't going down there, they got warrants, they carry guns on the regular, you know. The question you was asking 115 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 some of these young men about could I get a gun after six tries, you know, these guys -- ain't no six tries. You know what I'm saying? And they are really like a group of young adults, not really kids, that's out there. And they not out there like -- I heard some of the young men identify themself that they got caught with a gun, he was carrying a knife to school. These guys is out there for real. They are really out there trying to survive and doing what they doing. I overheard them in the barber shop talking to each other, and one of them was saying, you know, when it come between us, I'm just going to wait until I get you in jail, because it ain't going to be no guns in jail. And that's how their conversation -- because they was getting a hair cut, they was like neutral, but they were saying, you know, yeah, you big with guns, but I'm going to see you in jail, because they know they 116 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 going. You know what I'm saying? So I just came to try to kind of come to terms with the Council to let them know that like -- there's another group that's not in no programs. I asked the one young man, I said, When I go down there, what could I tell them that you would want from them that could help you change to come out the life-style? He said, You know what? He said, Man, the way that they got the system, I didn't have TB when I got arrested and went to jail, but now that I came home after doing my time, I got tuberculosis and I can't even get medical. I can't even get medical on something that I caught in the state penitentiary, and now I'm back out here and I can't even get medical. I can't get food stamps. The way that they have the laws rigged, if you got a drug violation, there's certain stuff that you don't qualify. So he's saying, How are they 117 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 expecting us to live? We can't fill out applications because when we put it on the application so just to get some relief. I try to get some medical and some stamps. They don't have to give me the money, just some stamps. Because he will work the stamps himself. You see what I'm saying? He said, And I can't even get that. So what direction do that send me to? I'm going back to what I know. He said -- like the young man said, that some of them don't want to be out no more. Some of them don't want to have to wear a bullet-proof vest, don't want to have to do that every day, every morning, you know. So there's a lot to be done. And I'm going to sit here and say that like my life hasn't been perfect, but I know God didn't make no junk. So the ones that like we able -- in my group we have an entrepreneurship class. We put on cabarets. We're putting on a bowling 118 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 affair right now to raise money.
Know what we allow them to do? We allow them to come to our affairs and take pictures, you know. It's like being in a drug life and making money every day. To go and get a job at McDonald's and have to work a whole week to get a paycheck, it just don't register to them. So they might only make a hundred dollars or a hundred and fifty dollars, but to come and take pictures, like to go to the Sixers arena at the game for the Sixers and take pictures and be able to offer people that's there to take a picture, you know, at the Sixers game, that's a way of a source of income for them where they still having cash on hand. They really don't have to -- and the atmosphere is something that they're able to adept to, because that's like drug life, that's like that whole life-style. And eventually, you know, then we have to get them to go over to like programs. Okay, now if you want to go down to the game, 119 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 you know, you're going to have to go to some schooling for us a couple hours a day. That's how we're trying to design it. We're just a new organization that just got tired and said enough was enough, so we got to do something. But when I talk to them and I hear them, this is what they're saying, you know. It's a whole catch 22. They have an apprenticeship -- the City of Philadelphia has an apprenticeship program with the Housing Authority. These guys live in Housing Authority houses, but they're not on no 17 lease. How could their mom or their auntie put them on the lease knowing that he's selling drugs? If you get caught, she's going to lose her house. So he can't qualify for the program because he's in the Housing Authority house but he's not on the lease. Right in our community we have like so much construction. It's like 120 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 between 7th Street on Montgomery to Berks, it's like 53 houses being built from the ground up. On Marshall Street, they built houses all on Marshall Street. It's not one member from our community work there. It's only three African American men and one Spanish man in the whole site that works there. Half the guys is from New Jersey working on the site. So I go to the site. I said, Man, why you can't hire -- I got the company name. The lady tells me that the agreement with the City was six percent female, but because she's the owner of the construction company, she filled that void. I said, How could you fill the void when you the owner of the construction company? She told me this to my face. It's supposed to be ten percent minority. I mean, come on. When you look in your own 121 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 community where you grew up at, right -- I'm putting myself as one of them guys -- and they go and try to ask the men, Look, man, I don't know too much, but I'll do whatever you tell me to do, and the guy say, Well, you got to go to the union hall, and you go to the union hall and the union hall say, We don't got no union book for you because you got to give us $700-and-something to get a union book, man, I'm going back to the street. You know what I'm saying? So I don't know what it is exactly ya'll need, because I seem to feel that not just myself up to the point where I really got involved, some other people in this building is in denial. We know what's going on. I'm going to tell you exactly what's going on. They watching the wire, playing the PlayStation in the basement, smoking blunts, and then when they come out, you, me, whoever is in the way, you better not get smart with them. 122 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 My time era growing up, if it was three of us, the police will get out the car, put us on the wall and shake us down, just search us. If they would just search them with them big hoodies and big sweaters on, then at least they have to hide their drugs. At least they have to hide their gun. And by the time they go to run to get a gun to shoot me, at least I got a chance to run away.
But if they carrying them guns on them and say something smart to me -- this is my last and I'm going to shut up: One day I was at 30th and Berks. It's a Chinese store. And I came out -- I ordered my sandwich, I paid for it and I sitting on the steps smoking a cigarette. Two young guys, look like about maybe 14 to 12, turned the corner. He said, Old head, give me one of them cigarettes. And for the life of me, I said -- I wanted to say, Boy, what's wrong? But something just came over me. I just said, Here you go, youngie, and gave him a cigarette. 123 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 Maybe three minutes after that, another guy turned the corner and took a bottle, he like threw it at their feet playing with them. Both of them pulled out guns. When I seen them boys pull them guns out, I said, Thank you, God. I left the food and I just went on home. I'm telling you, something came over me, because I wanted to say something to them, but when I seen them pull them guns out on that guy, I just said, Thank you, God, and I walked on. I didn't even pick up the food. I didn't care about the money or nothing. There's something that we have to do and we're going to have to do it collectively. Not no individual group going to be a miracle, but in our neighborhood, I'm going to tell you, it's been one shooting. We don't know -- I can't take them home. We can't take them home with us, but we got to get them out of the basement. We had a recreation center at 124 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 RW Brown Boys Club. When Katrina hit New Orleans, our community sacrificed our recreation center. When they left, they condemned the building. They took it from us. We had RW Brown Boys and Girls Club on 8th and Cecil B. Moore. It's a familiar recreation center in our community. No one in the community attends there. We have had -- we done a survey for Curtis Thomas. We had recreation 13 centers between Broad Street to Front 14 Street, Lehigh and Girard. We only have 15 three of them that's actively open right 16 now. The same one when you talked about 17 where the three people got shot up there 18 in West Oak Lane, it's 17 recreation 19 centers up there, and that particular one 20 has an ice skating rink right there. And 21 if the City could pay for an ice skating 22 rink for them to skate on, we can't even get our doors open.
Well, that's something that I'm not really 125 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 familiar with. I do know RW Brown Boys Club, though, which is not a City facility, that's private. But that's a good point. And I think that those are things you should talk to those people, like your Councilmembers, about, the specific rec centers. I can speak about the ones in my district that either are open or closed. But I think you touched a lot of excellent points. I also believe that you and your committee of volunteers working with the guys down there on Oxford Street are doing a good job, any time you brought the number of shootings down to just one, and that really wasn't over a personal dispute. But do you really think those two kids would have shot you if you said no to a cigarette? We don't want you to find out. But anyway --
I told you that I'm not in denial. I'm up here. They shooting them for less than that. 126 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
Well, that's true. And I think part of it, too, is, you know, adults just don't challenge anymore. When we were younger, you know how the adults in the neighborhood would boss you around like crazy, and what you did was obey whatever they said.
In the time when you're particularly talking about, I remember hearing them say that like it take a village to raise a child. That has never changed, but it's like the gaps that we're creating by even bringing like that type of, you know, stuff to the table, that's when we creating those loopholes. I'm sure that the whole city really means well. I heard the young man mention Bill Cosby. And I remember in the summer it was like when we really got started, I think it might have been like 272 murders, and Will Smith and them came right on time. But at the same 127 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 particular time, we had offered -- they had offered an invitation to somebody else that I hear them talk about, and they didn't show up until like 400. You know what I'm saying? That's like saying like how can we ask them to like talk it out, to like try to do it a different way, when our City Council people really can't sit down together and talk it out and iron it out and they be going at it? You know, it's like a trickle down, like you dropped something in the water and it just kind of like continuously run. I don't know, man. We have to do it collectively, and I believe it's going to get done.
It is a collective and it's a collective of everybody. It's not just your elected officials. It's everybody. Parents, the schools, the community, it's everybody. That's the collective, because too many times people think it's just elected officials, but it's -- when I heard a 128 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 woman say to me she blamed me for her son's death, I said, Wow, something is wrong here, you know. We have to do it as a collective. That's one of the reasons why we're having these hearings, because we want to hear what people are saying. And today won't be our last day of hearings. This is just the beginning, or one of the beginnings. We wanted to hear from young people and people representing young people. The issues about diversity, diversified workforce on construction projects, the issue of recidivism, people coming out of prison and they can't qualify for food stamps, for housing, for all those kind of assistance, a lot of that came from the state, it didn't come from the city -- or really it came from the federal government, a lot of those rules. If someone is not on a lease in public housing, that's also a federal rule about the public housing issue and 129 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 the funding of those programs. And we thought it's a good program for people that reside in public housing when they can enter those apprenticeship training programs and then they get work on those projects that are happening in -- like on the rehabilitation projects that are happening in a lot of the public housing developments.
Maybe could I say it like this, then? There's no program that's not a good program, but when ya'll sign off, do you check back to see like how -- like the program that you just brought up, the public housing, when you signed off on it -- because I'm saying like we came here and said a whole bunch of riff-raff to get you to just give me the paper, but I'm talking about what I'm doing with it after I get it. That's what we need, the follow-up from City Council to make sure that these funds is being used at exactly what they said they was going to be used for. 130 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971
Well, I've referred people to -- are you talking about PHA apprenticeship, as an example?
I've referred many people to that program, and it works for some. It worked for all of those that stuck with the program. A number of the people that we referred got in and then they dropped out. But it's an okay program. When you say "ya'll," I'm taking it that you mean all the governmental entities?
Right, as a whole. We're not just talking City Council.
No. When you broke it down to feds, you know, I'm saying me, my parents, some of those decisions are the things that we don't have no -- we empower you to look over 131 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 that for us.
I have other people that want to have a turn. And I'm going to contact your friend, because I tell you, they want to sit down, but they wasn't coming here.
Each one of them could have said their name was Donna, it would have been fine. We wouldn't have known the difference.
I'll give it to 132 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 him.
Good afternoon. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Ronald Ryan from the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, formerly with the AVRP initiative that was started by the Mayor of Philadelphia.
I'd first like to start off by saying I'm humbled by this opportunity to sit here in front of City Council and speak on behalf of an initiative that I'm very passionate about and that I truly believe in. I brought this young man with me today because he was one of the very first members that I 133 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 took into -- that I was assigned to and is on my caseload. There's been quite a few issues about the gun violence in our neighborhoods, and what I've learned firsthand is that, you know, a lot of what we do and what we say and how we teach and how we raise our kids, it just starts at home. And because this initiative that the Mayor started, this AVRP program, it has allowed me to not only to monitor this young man in his community but in his home, in his school as well. And there's so many different attributes to why the mentality of these young people have diminished to the point where they feel as though they need to act out on violence at every turn. There's a lot of different contributions to that, and I've heard a lot of them today. I have to say that, you know, because I do go out and make home visits with these young people, that I'm finding 134 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 out that like the services that's needed in the home is like of grave necessity right now. There are a lot of missing services in the home. There are a lot of things that the parents don't have at their disposal, either because they don't know how to access it or because of the other social issues that might be plaguing that household, you know. These kids are coming out of the homes with survival mentalities. They're going out into the streets, into the schools feeling as though like, you know what I mean, they got to survive, because they not getting what they need at home. And then, you know, I come from a background where I had two parents, but at the same time, you know what I mean, there's a level of dysfunctionality I think in every situation. It's all about how you view it. But I can benefit from the fact of knowing that like I made some bad choices, and when I made these choices, 135 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 you know, instead of me being on the road to where I could consider myself a success by society's standpoint, I turned out being a success in another way, because my experience has allowed me to work with these youth. My on-the-street experience has allowed me to understand and have my finger on the pulse of what these young people are really needing today. And that's why I said I'm humbled by this experience. There's a lot of things I didn't know about when I got this job, but I knew I just had a passion to see some people make it. I didn't want to leave no child behind, and I was tired of seeing kids dying out here in the streets. So I didn't have a whole lot of experience and no degrees and all that, but I had a degree in the streets. So I could talk to these kids and I could address some of these issues that they're going through and I can help their parents and understand like I'm the link 136 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 that's going to have to put you with the sources that you need in the community, and my job at PAAN had gave me the opportunity. So Tyrk is one of the kids that I'm so proud to have been able to have helped, because -- well, he can tell you his story, how he came to AVRP. And Adolescence Violence Reduction Partnership is what the initials stand for, because we felt the need and the Mayor, along with other agencies, felt the need to address the kids at an earlier age, which I heard was mentioned earlier. And between the ages of 10 and 16 are the kids that I'm directly dealing with. These kids were targeted. This age group was targeted because we found out that like if we catch them early, then we can prevent some of these kids being adults turning up into the system.
We feel like if we could catch these kids early and put their mindsets in a different frame of mind, give them 137 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 alternatives to negative behavior, that we could possibly like just put a stop to them becoming adult perpetrators and adult victims. So that's all I really wanted to add. I'm a little -- I sat here and absorbed a lot of things today, and I'm grateful that we had this opportunity and I feel good about it, and it's a lot I want to say, but it's not my forum today. It's for them. So I'm going to let him talk. And thank you for listening.
Thank you for your testimony. Please before you start just identify yourself for the record.
Well, the way I got to AVRP was, I used to go a military high school, and when I was going there, me and a couple of my friends, like when I was coming in through the door like security, I ain't have nothing with me, 138 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 but I knew I couldn't get myself on there, so I gave it to one of my mans to get through the front door. So he had stopped myself on that. They thought it was something else. So I get to the lunchroom and like one of my other mans, he gave me his book bag. I forgot -- well, I never knew it was a gun in there. So when he passed it to me --
Yeah. So when I got my cell phone and stuff, I sat down. He gave me the bag. And the security came 139 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 through because they saw me give him -- well, the person a bag. They thought I sneaking something in, which I was. That was a cell phone. So when I got there, they came downstairs and they told me come with them and bring all the bags with me. So when I got caught, I was locked up for possession of a weapon, and that's how I got to AVRP.
You applied for there and got accepted, okay. And how were your grades? How were you doing 140 1/30/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060971 at the time?
I understand because the School District is run differently now because the state took it over, so there's certain rules and regulations they impose, but you couldn't go back to where you were at the military school?
I'm not out of CEP yet. They had kicked me out and I wind up in CEP.
So when are you eligible to go back, if you could go back?