Perception of Safety

(LA River)

This blog entry is a bit unrelated to everything else, sort of. In my endless amounts of spare time this past week, now that school is done, I have been reading, watching movies, and doing endless research. I'm starting to think about the USA again.

(my apartment with a new monstrosity adjacent, picture taken 2008)

Above is a picture of my apartment where I lived from 2001-2006. I loved living in the barrio, where people were real and had a different type of integrity than the superficial, plastic world of Los Angeles which we were surrounded by. This "realness" came from not only from Mexican culture, but also from poverty and a hardship of life. Most of the people on the street worked really hard as gardeners, housemaids, and day laborers.

I lived in happy ignorance there in terms of the safety. Every week, I would bicycle on the LA River and along the beach. I would ride by the projects, where a lot of gangsters lived in the mid-90's. Late at night, what I thought were fireworks, may have actually been...um not fireworks.

I'm reading a book now called The Truce, which is an academic book about the gang warfare of the Oakwood area of Venice, California in the mid-90's. There were and still are 3 primary gangs battling on the westside of Los Angeles. One of these gangs came directly from my street and the Mar Vista Gardens. By the time I got there, the neighborhood was vastly cleaned up, but towards the end, there were some shootings that made me move. (Sorry parents, I don't mean to scare you. These shootings occurred mostly around midnight, when a lot of young guys like to hang out on the street.)

I would find out about these shootings through one of my sixth grade students who lived on the street. She would tell me about who the victims were, how old they were, and how she knew them. And then I would pay attention and see the memorial candles on the sidewalk. It made me very sad and angry. I started attending regular police meetings and talking to the senior lead officer. But most of the citizens attending these meetings were Los Angeles residents who cared more about cracks in the sidewalks and annoying graffiti.

(candles on my street)

One day, some "Hollywood" people were filming a movie "Waist Deep" on my street! I thought it was so cool, but then I found out it was a gangster film, doh! Anyway, I ended up moving to a posher part of town, ironically one block away from where the gangsters were coming from, that were going to my old neighborhood to shoot people.

Now, that I've done more research, I've learned that there have been many muggings on the LA River recently, exactly where I used to bike.

My question is, how much do I live with the probability of life, and just hope that I'm not caught in the line of gunfire? How much do I deal with this until I just give up and move away? How much can I try to improve the system? Is living in ignorance, better than living with too much knowledge? And what about the people who cannot move away?

The truth is, there is crime and violence all around us. Some places more so than others. But, if you do enough internet research, you can probably find out where your nearest perpetrator lives, or what crimes have been committed in your neighborhood in the past week. With neat little bar graphs and symbols for different types of crimes.

I think most of us are living with a type of ignorance that is necessary to stay sane and survive. We cannot let paranoia rule our lives. My friend had lunch with a stranger in Kashmir while being aware of what was going around him, while another family that we know were "escaping for their lives" from the same city at that time. If we dig too deep, we need to know how to handle the truth and be prepared for the situations that we now know might occur. Come up with safety plans, mental preparation, etc. Then weigh the risks. Maybe help to make the world a better place by getting involved.

Yes, India has been bombed a lot in the past year. Does that mean the whole of India is going to suspend their lives and stop taking the trains? No. They will not let terror rule their lives. Is America safe? Some would say no. Does that mean we forfeit our citizenship and move somewhere "safer"? If a country has malaria, does that mean you should never go there? If California is on a major fault line, does that mean no one should live there? I recently have been going to a place in the woods every day, to relax and enjoy nature. I just found out that a leopard is living their with a cub! Um, okay, so do I just never go there again for the rest of this leopard's life? The risk factor says that leopards are afraid of people and give warning signs for you to go away. So, I don't know...how much are you living life if you just stay in your house?

Anyway, here are some pictures of an evening stroll that my friend and I took a few months after the first shooting took place. This is one of the reasons that I love my street! Happy Holidays!!!

PS. My sister just emailed this to me. Check out a CBS "60-Minutes" news video or article about Pete Carroll, the USC football coach, who is working with LA gangs and formed an organization called A Better LA. It looks so inspiring.