We recently read and heard of local media reports of the bust of a human trafficking and prostitution ring 5 years under investigation by local, state and Federal law enforcement officials.
Not long before, local blogger Ben Holder was criticized by law enforcement officials for bringing public attention to yet another human trafficking and prostitution ring that was operating in some of Greensboro's finest neighborhoods.
Even I've been criticized by local police for publicly suggesting GPD park an officer on the street in front of a known illegal liquor house to scare away customers.
It's not at all uncommon for media reports to tell us of drug busts that were years in the making with law enforcement officials hyping it up as if it were a good thing.
And Allen Johnson of the Greensboro News & Record asks, Can we please talk about black males? in which he asks for solutions to the behaviors that are ruining the lives of millions of young black males across the country.
I can tell you what won't work. Passing laws against problems won't work. Want to make something popular? Ban it.
Allen and I grew up just a few blocks from one another and went to the same high school. We're both the same age, graduated high school the same year. Allen is black and I am white. Allen got out of this hell hole called East Greensboro, I didn't. I've probably witnessed more young black men destroy their lives than Allen but I salute Allen for taking the time to try and find the answer as too many successful African Americans have simply walked away from their old neighborhoods and abandoned their own.
Believe me, white people do it too and with just as much frequency. My kind left me behind. But that's not the point.
The point I want to make is this: growing up on the streets and never seeing consequences for wrong doing leads teenagers and young adults to believe it is okay to continue that sort of behavior. And for a teenager, 5 years is eternity. If a kid gets away with something once that kid will do it again. And if that kid gets away with something for a week it becomes habit. And when kids see others getting away with crimes for weeks, months and even years with what seems to them to be no apparent consequences... Well generations have taught us the consequences of that.
Five years to close down a drug, prostitution or other criminal operation in our neighborhoods is simply unacceptable. While law enforcement officials seek the big bust to feather their caps our neighborhoods and our children, black, white, Hispanic, Asian and others, all suffer. And we're training entire generations of hardened criminals to keep law enforcement in business. If we want to save our youth then we must make them understand there are consequences to living outside the law and as long as law enforcement continues to allow crimes to be committed right in front of young eyes just so cops can polish their reputations these young eyes will only believe what they see.
After all, 5 years really is an eternity to a teenager.
