I remember the city of Angels as a place where no matter where you went there was a crowd. It is like most large metropolitan centers a place that never sleeps. I was there during the Crack epidemic that ruined the lives of thousands through addiction to the Crack pipe. Women sold their bodies to buy a “rock” people lied,cheated, and stole to feed their addiction to Cocaine. Is there a link between drug abuse and the current state of homelessness and high levels of Black men in the criminal justice system. When a child sees adults who are drug addicted and uncaring about their behavior in front of that child a criminal mentality starts to form in the child’s mind. The line between right and wrong becomes non-existant.

South Los Angeles took a big hit from both PCP and Crack at the same time. No on cared about the increase in gang activity and drug related crime that devastated once stable neighborhoods. The damage continues today when one drives through skid row in downtown L.A. Is it possible that some of these people as children were exposed to drug abuse at an early age, and now see the effects of that lifestyle as their reality. Skid row no matter where it is located always seems to be populated by those who had nothing to lose in the first place. Why is it that the majority are always people of color says a lot about our society as a whole, and those who choose to live on the edges of that society.