Letter to Chief...

The Hearts of my People

To the Head Chief of the Oakland Police Department,

                 I heard the other day that you have a proposed plan that with the amount of ten million dollars from the funding of the government, you plan to hire 10 new officers and also close the gap on gang violence in Oakland; mainly East Oakland, by approaching the 10 most notorious gang members and offering them job training/ classes using the accept the offer or using the stick method. With all due respect sir, there are a lot of life values that life throws that you should take consideration of before implementing the proposed plan that you currently have on your agenda. I will be focusing on 2 that I consider you should have in your mind when it comes to a good way to reach out to these so called “Notorious Gangsters”. Two of the factors that you should look at when seeing the struggles of these people that try to live day by day and what makes them choose that lifestyle are compassion and kinship

                Compassion is one of the first things that should come into the mind of someone when trying to “categorize” the person. It is the whole idea of walking in someone else’s shoes. As simple as that sounds, it is what most of us forget about when seeing another human beings actions. Gregory Boyles, Jesuit priest who works with homeboy industries and wrote the book Tattoos on the Heart ,he said in the book that “The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather standing in the right place”(pg. 72). Most of these people are somewhat chosen to live these lifestyles due to economic and political/social problems that this country is going through, especially in Our beautiful city of Oakland. To feel and reach out to these people, one must first see what is like to live in a particular neighborhood of Oakland; for example, Soborante Park. Also you can’t just say and automatically assume that because the person dresses in a certain way that person is a gangster and is all bad and always commits all the crimes. Boyles quotes in his book from the bible that “I called you by your name. You are mine…” (55). This means that you have to first cross the boundary of the gangster before you categorize that person in your circles. Also, you have to know the person and find out why they are living the way they are at the moment because something made them choose that lifestyle.

           After you do that step, the other thing you have to do and take into consideration is something that compliments it, which is to obtain kinship with them. “With kinship as the goal, other essential things fall into place; without it, no justice, and no peace” (pg187); Father Gregory Boyles expresses the idea of the result of kinship when you make them come to you naturally. We have to let them open up and make them choose the idea by themselves, instead of threatening them with such crazy idea of making them go to jail if they don’t accept them.

             So instead of making they get forced to accept the idea, why don’t we use that funding for creating alternative community programs so THEY can seek out what they like. Especially for our young population that is being exposed to that environment. If you put them something they like in front of them, they will get the idea of doing bad decisions fall behind. I agree that the additional officers will be beneficiary for our city, as the calls for the need of our people are going to be answered faster. But don’t use them for locking up people. Instead use community programs to reach out to these people to plant the seed. And with that, most likely a better Oakland will get created.

                                                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                             A college student who has been exposed to                                                                                   that environment