Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guest and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through community.
Hello.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: My name is Joey Langford, and I run an organization called cultivate in Nashville, Tennessee. And today I am here in Portland to do a ride along with the ride along podcast. And Alex Stone, so fired up about that and look forward to hitting the streets.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: So buck should be here.
In fact, I think that's him. We can see his feet right there.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Those are big feet.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a big mandeh.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: We call them the Bacasaurus.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: What's up, bro?
You good?
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Good.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: All right, good.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Just got finished loading.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Awesome. Joey.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Joey.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: What's going on, man?
[00:01:31] Speaker A: How's it going? Joey Langford cultivate. He runs farms. He employs felons. They grow food, they make money, and they give a lot of the food back to the community. Yeah, it's really cool gig we're out of.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: It's just south of Nashville. About 15 minutes. Brentwood, Tennessee.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Can you not tell from the accent? Yeah.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Do you need an interpreter?
[00:01:50] Speaker C: No, no, I got. If you got interpreter, I could use one.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: True story.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: I get that all the time, actually.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: It starts to sound a little bit familiar. I'm from that part of the country as well.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: That's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: You don't.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Can't hear the voice, though, and we don't grow them that big there anymore, so.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: That's true. Yeah.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: That could be a dietary problem or something.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: You ready? You ready to ride?
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Yeah, let's go.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: All right.
Let's go. Walk. Where we headed?
[00:02:18] Speaker C: Preferably downtown. Old town, but.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: All right, let's head to old town, then we'll go through downtown.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Cool. Same plan as always, I think.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Anyone we need to check up on?
[00:02:26] Speaker C: I'm still looking for Austin. And.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: And that's a blue.
That's a green.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: It's a green one.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Subaru, right?
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: So we work. We're always trying to get people into shelter because at the end of the day, community transformation is personal transformation.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Right, agreed.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: So we got to get individual people engaged to get into shelters, detox, housing, whatever.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: So we're constantly. We have a list of people that we're constantly working on we. A guy named Russ. I'm not going to mention his last name, but we had him in a hotel for three days, $150 a night. But. But he finally went to detox, so it was. It was kind of worth it.
Thank you.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Now, when you, uh, started this, just a passion that you'd had, security or not just security, but to find out more than just the security part of it, like, what is actually, you know, happening in people's lives.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: We got what makes them, you know. That's a good question. Gosh, no one's ever asked me that because I don't.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: You don't see, in my world, you don't see people that are trying to figure out, like, why is Austin making decisions like this repetitively? And, you know, who are his friends? And how does that influence where he goes and what he does? And how can that make us better, too, you know?
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think if we started when I was in law enforcement.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: I learned right away in law enforcement that, you know, people in government and people in big organizations, they always want some program or organization to be the plan. Right. So there's always these buzz words like housing first. What does that mean? Housing first? So if you come across a homeless person who's like, I'll give you an example. We got a call. We had a guy who was living next to a major retailer, major national retailer, and this guy would go into this retailer and steal $100 to $200 worth of stuff a day.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: So I was asked to go to the property and take care of the situation in such a way that's, you know, legal, ethical, and moral, that would hopefully get this guy away from the retail store. So the retailer's not paying me to be there.
Someone else owns the property this person has a tent on.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: They don't want to get sued. They've been. They got threatened to be sued.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Because they're housing, essentially, this person.
And so, yeah, yeah.
It's always something like this, right?
So I. Since I sent an employee over there, Mariah Gonzalez, she actually runs. She's one of the directors of Portland. She's gonna be running Arizona soon.
I send Mariah over there. Mariah is like, how much time do I have? I'm like, spend the entire day. Whatever you gotta do, we'll get you covered down.
Go, go take care of this. She introduces herself for the first time to this individual and just stays there and has a conversation, finds out the guy's actually from Florida.
He's homeless because him and his wife got into a fight, and he just left one day, right? He's been out. He's been. He got on the bus and went straight to Portland. Oregon.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah. It's never what you think or assume.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. He's the furthest place. He's not drug addicted. Furthest place from California or from Florida. He could go.
So Mariah goes, can we call your wife? He goes, I don't know, man. I haven't talked to her in at least a year.
I don't think she wants to hear from me. She goes, well, can we try?
He goes, you know what? Yeah, sure. Why not?
They call up his wife. His wife's like, I've been praying for you. I want you to come home. We need to reconcile our marriage. He starts crying. She's crying on the phone. Everyone's crying. I think Raya's even crying, right? And so 4 hours later, he's helping Mariah take all the stolen merchandise back to the retailer with the tag still on it.
We're getting him an id card by 05:00 p.m. that day, we put him in a hotel room, and he's on. He's on a train back to Florida the next morning.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: See? It's why.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: To spend the rest of his life with.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Come on. Come on.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Exactly. That guy did not need housing. That guy needed to reconcile his marriage.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: So I realized right away in law enforcement, it's not housing first. It's not shelter first. It's not nonprofit first. It's not corporation first. It's people. We need a people first solution. Every person needs a unique solution.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: And so that's what we do. I told my people, hey, we put it in our training curriculum. When you're out on the street, I want you to know every single person in your area that you're patrolling, get to know who they are, find out what they need. And now we have a nonprofit that goes and follows up. Follows up and meets the need.
And we do this so much, though, that people know who we are now.
So, when we took this property over, there were 27 tents around this perimeter.
There was a major criminal operation on this side and a major criminal operation on the other side of.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: When he says major criminal operation, he means that people were driving in from out of town to buy the narcotics here.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Bike shops. Narcotics, chop shops. Chop shops.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Really?
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, they would.
These people out of ten were dug in, so they lose their customer base. If you think if they end up getting relocated, their customers don't know where.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Yeah. They can't find them.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Yeah. So they've got to be findable, which means I'm not moving.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Everyone looks.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: Person going bathroom on the street without paying.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
The drug in Africa was called Tick. It was like heroin.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Really?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was the same. They did the same thing, huh?
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Tick.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: It's called Tick. If you go into South Africa and you say tick, they know exactly what you're talking about. The heroin and stuff that's there. Oh, is this like a mission or something?
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Feeding or what?
[00:08:21] Speaker C: Yes.
Yep. They do a lot here?
Yes. This is union gospel mission on the right.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. We partner with them.
They help us get a lot of people in shelter and vice versa. You know, if they need help keeping someone in a. In a hotel overnight before they can transition, getting people to detox, getting someone, you know, they want to get. They want to return home to a loved one.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: I don't mean I.
You know, the finances behind it all baffle me how they can keep it a lifestyle for how many years? But you need to pay for it. Yeah. Just get to pay. That's a.
You know, I don't. There's an. There's an undercurrent to it that obviously, I don't know about.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Ten years ago, it would have costed 70, $50 to $150 a day to be high on heroin all day.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: And currently, you're talking.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: It's twenty five cents a pill.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: You're talking. Yeah. Fifteen dollars to forty dollars now for the same high.
Ten years ago would have been five times more expensive.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Really?
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: For dirt cheap.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It's fentanyl.
It's produced in China.
Dirt. Very low prices. And then it's smuggled up by the cartels.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: And I guess they figure out individually what it takes to keep them at the level they want to stay at. And that's all they do.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Yep. So you're talking 15, $20 a day. That's easy. That's bottles and cans and five dollar bill from somebody out of a window.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Very easy.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: So this is. This is one of my buildings. This has been a constant problem because of the awning.
So we need to ask people not to. We got to go. We got to stop here and contact some folks, ask security and ask them, hey, you can't be against the wall. I need you to scoot out. Great. So we're at one of our properties now. This. The site's become essentially an open market. Open fentanyl market. Okay.
They've decriminalized narcotics here.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:10:40] Speaker A: So people can essentially buy and sell low levels of narcotics for free, and they're not. The police really don't do that much about it. So we have a situation where, number one, someone could be overdosing. So we're going to go check on the general welfare of everyone that's on the sidewalk.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: But when it comes to property rights, people can't be leaning up against the building.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:11:05] Speaker A: So we're gonna talk to them, have good conversations. Right.
Build rapport. And then we're gonna ask nicely if they could not be against the building.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: So what's the distance? What's the distance?
[00:11:17] Speaker A: You're usually 18 to 24 inch.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: So just move out a little bit from the building.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah. But we're also gonna see if anyone wants to shelter, if anyone's interested in. They need resources. We got all kinds of water. We're gonna have some waters in our hands, handing out waters, maybe some cigarettes, things like that.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Yeah, perfect.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: It's all about building rapport.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Pack of cigarettes a minute ago.
You want me to grab water?
[00:11:43] Speaker C: Hi, guys.
How we doing?
We doing all right down there, bud?
I'm Michael.
How are you guys doing?
Doing all right.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: It's always good to have something to offer.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: Can you guys. You guys want a cigarette or anything?
Okay. I got a favor to ask of you, though. I need to clear the doorway. Okay. We got to be able to have access to it. They. They call me and they, you know, they get on my shoulders and such. But we got some water here for you, too, if you guys want some.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: Okay, I can't hear you.
Are you interested in getting into a shelter?
Because I don't have tents on me right now. But if you want to get into a shelter, we can help you with that, depending on what their availability is.
You don't want to get into a shelter here.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: So the main concern is that you can't block the doorway because there are people that work up and down inside the building. So if there's ever a fire, they need to be able to get out of any exit.
But, like, the building across the street, it's all like, that's abandoned.
Right. That's why it has all that wood up.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I get it.
I get it. Okay. Excuse me, real quick. You got it, buddy.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: In the water.
Yeah.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: Hi, guys.
How we doing?
Doing good.
Everybody doing okay? Awesome. Thank you, man.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. One of water, bro?
[00:13:36] Speaker C: No, I'm security.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Police don't look this good.
Will water help? Good.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: How about you?
[00:13:45] Speaker C: All right.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: I ain't got no cash.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Are you sure?
[00:13:52] Speaker C: How you doing, bud?
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Oh, you want. Okay.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Hanging in there, man.
You're doing good.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Hey, we got any food box? We got. We got any food?
[00:14:02] Speaker C: We got some, like some. Some granola bars that are inside.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: I'll be right back. I got.
[00:14:06] Speaker D: Hey, buddy.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Where do y'all get the food? Healthy foods like fruits and veggies.
[00:14:20] Speaker D: They don't have a produce market unless it's Saturday market, do they?
[00:14:25] Speaker B: They have like a fit, like a farmers market or something out here? Huh?
[00:14:33] Speaker D: Farmers market is at Sobeys island or something. But we ain't got no. How are we gonna get out there?
[00:14:38] Speaker B: No, how far is that?
[00:14:40] Speaker D: So they got, like, fresh fruits, you know.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: You know, where I'm from, so it'd.
[00:14:45] Speaker D: Be like the new natural food for.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz I. That's what I grow food in Nashville. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee.
[00:14:54] Speaker D: Oh, you are?
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:55] Speaker D: I'm Willie will, man. I'm from Louisiana.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: You are from Portland, man.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: How are you, buddy?
[00:15:03] Speaker D: All right. What's up, man? You gonna get some salad sandwiches today?
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Well, I got some granola bars. That's about as best I can get.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Granola bar good.
[00:15:10] Speaker D: No.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: You don't want one?
[00:15:14] Speaker D: You don't have one, man. But I need.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Need some water. You good? Take water, bro.
Now, are you. Can you. Do you think you can get moved in the next hour away from a door? Okay, thanks.
What's your name?
Cat. I'm Alex. Yeah, nice meeting you. Yes, ma'am.
Yeah, I don't blame you. Yep, no worries.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: Who's working on that with you?
[00:15:47] Speaker A: I'm Alex. If you ever need anything.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: I don't know, Anne.
I don't know.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Ann, I got you.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Give him something to eat.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: This is a poncho that you can put on if it starts raining. And these are some Lysol wipes. You mean Spencer, in case you want to wash your hands. And some granola bars.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: I'll take the granola bar.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: You don't need that.
Yes, ma'am.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Oh, dropped one on the ground.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: And that's a. That's a Gatorade.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Is there another water?
[00:16:31] Speaker A: My name is Alex.
Nice to meet you, Tanisha.
How long you been on the streets of where you. Where you stay at?
You need a ride home?
Okay.
Come on, bring it.
I know you could do it.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Nuh uh. I grow food, but you can't. See, I can't put a tomato on a gift card. So I just.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Hey, it's nice to meet you.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: I enjoy growing it.
That part of it. Yeah.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:17:26] Speaker D: There has to be a process along the way for it as well. You helping yourself and wanting it for real. No real talk, man. So tomorrow, if they don't put me in my little tiny house, I might flip out on the ass. No, listen, I'm on the list originally. The first list. She told me the list come out on October 1. Why am I not on that list?
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Who put you on the list?
[00:17:48] Speaker D: Stephanie. But she don't work there no more.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Have you talked to Spencer or Terrence?
[00:17:52] Speaker D: You know, big spence stay at TPI tomorrow. Supposed to go in and talk to.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Who are you from originally?
[00:18:02] Speaker A: You know. You know Big Spencer, right?
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Raised where?
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah. He could get you a great tiny.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Home, bro, what took you to Iraq?
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Military. I promise you, we put like 40, 50 people in tiny homes. How were you in the last like three months?
That's right.
[00:18:21] Speaker D: I. Who they want to go or not?
[00:18:22] Speaker A: You gotta know somebody.
[00:18:24] Speaker D: Say it again.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: You gotta know somebody, Alex.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: How long? How long?
[00:18:30] Speaker A: I know. That's what I'm saying.
That's how it always is.
Hey, you walk up to the tiny home and be like, hey, I know the bouncer I'm with. I'm with the dj. And that's how you get in.
That's what's up. Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker D: You know, nigga need to get off the streets, man, because people is trying to kill my aunt. Listen here, right? Motherfuckers is losing their life every. Oh, yeah, you got assholes everywhere, right?
[00:19:06] Speaker A: So I was over here the other day that this little 16 year old kid started stabbing some guy in the stomach, man, right in front of me. Right over here.
[00:19:12] Speaker D: Yes.
Balloon bottles of rocks and shit from up there, right?
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:19] Speaker D: They try to come arrest everybody on the mic. All right.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: No shit.
[00:19:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: On homeless people.
[00:19:34] Speaker D: Don't go home. Save your life.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: All day. Yeah.
[00:19:48] Speaker D: And why does it have to be that way? Nothing applies to me no more, man. I. I can become anything I want to be, man.
They hate that, though.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah, these suckers hate it.
[00:20:00] Speaker D: But what makes me feel I gotta live in fear? No, I won't. I'll kill your ass. We. And don't worry about going to prison, man. Ain't no death row, eh?
[00:20:11] Speaker A: And there's no death row in Oregon? No, that is correct.
[00:20:14] Speaker D: Abolished.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Well, it still exists, but no one, they don't put anyone on.
[00:20:19] Speaker D: Everybody that was on death row is on main line. The guys that were on main line are in their sales people beating. And you need to know and pay close attention yeah, don't reply.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: It could save your life if it don't apply. Don't reply.
[00:20:41] Speaker D: Doesn't apply. Don't reply.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Motherfucker.
[00:20:55] Speaker D: What time it is? I have no name.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: You are the Portland ghost dog.
[00:21:07] Speaker D: I'm the original. I'm not a ghost talker. I'm what it is. I come from Gangland, homie. I live my life in downtown or the northeast only. Yeah, nowhere else.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: That's what's up.
[00:21:20] Speaker D: That part I stay in my zone.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: I I know you keep it real because you still have your speakers, bro.
[00:21:26] Speaker D: I'm always keeping nine of them. I'll be 50, man, on the first. No bad, g. Imagine that shit a. Yeah.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: You need to get a home, bro.
[00:21:35] Speaker D: Listen, man, you need to know everybody in my circle or dead or in the grave, man, or in prison. Not me, though, cuz. I'm one of the last from the original sandbox, you know?
Fucking earth's been the truth, man. It really does, man. But I want the help. So how can I really just get it right without being misconstrued? Ay, that part was short messages. No, no pay. Meaning what? Help me, mate.
Real shit, man.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Real shit, bro. That's what's up.
[00:22:10] Speaker D: I'm just existing. I'm tired of this shit, man. I want to be living. Mandy, motherfucker chase me down, I will kill your ass a matching that, man, and don't care nothing about it. Lay right there. When the police comes, I killed this fuck ass. They're gonna let me walk in. What? Remember, there ain't even no self defense in Oregon.
Police. Pull me over. I'm traveling a hurry up. No warrants. Cars insured. I got it. Go away, he says, what do you mean? Shit? Pick up some more bodies on this wagon, please.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:44] Speaker D: That part I'm traveling, eh.
[00:22:46] Speaker C: All right.
[00:22:47] Speaker D: And guess what the police gonna do. Walk away.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Every time.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Every time. Every time.
[00:22:55] Speaker D: Every time.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Spencer. Big Spence, bro, he gets you into a tiny home.
[00:23:02] Speaker D: Serious than a motherfucker, man.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Motherfuckers is losing their life, mandy, man, every day.
[00:23:07] Speaker D: Police ain't doing shit about it, g. They just know who don't get the money. What? Doctors, nurses, police officers to go to a huddle of a meeting. Fuck that shit, man.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Yeah, cops are just trying to get a paycheck now.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:23:23] Speaker D: So, motherfucker, I don't. I don't live that. I'm done with that bullshit. I just lost my mom.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Oh, no shit.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: You know I'm saying, like I said.
[00:23:36] Speaker D: Yeah, it's called imminent danger. No, resort. Last resort. A lot to say. This doesn't make you a star. Yeah, but it lets your ass know, man, who we are.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: Wide open.
[00:23:50] Speaker C: No.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: Help me out on this one, man. I'm serious, bro.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: When's your mom passed?
[00:23:57] Speaker D: Well, 70 some days ago.
78. Imagine that.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Shit on killings worth.
[00:24:05] Speaker D: I got this shit tatted on me, homie. My whole family's gangland.
That's why I say that. And they know it too. Is that what if you. If you don't see your lady, you come over, fuck with me, that's on you.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:22] Speaker D: Chase them down.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: But we're a security company.
[00:24:27] Speaker D: I can do it. I told you, man. Remember, ideas. Ideas.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Remember.
[00:24:30] Speaker D: Identify direction. Educate and achieve success.
That part.
Have a good day, baby.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: God bless you, bro. Hey, I'm really sorry your mom died, bro. I lost my dad.
[00:24:46] Speaker D: Yeah, I ain't got nobody.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: My uncle, my brother and my grandfather in three years.
[00:24:52] Speaker D: I got my soul in my sanity though. That's what's been on. But see, I'm just existing.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: I ain't living.
[00:24:57] Speaker D: I'm supposed to.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: You're not living, bro.
[00:24:58] Speaker D: It's fucked up.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: You ain't living out here right now.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: Motherfuckers been chasing niggas down and shit, bro. I will kill you, man. You don't understand it. That shit hurts, man.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah, damn.
I've seen you what, three times? Yeah, exactly. At least six months.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Man.
[00:25:38] Speaker D: That's why they say aka who donate. Well, what do you mean?
Gotta have humor to sacrifice the pain.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Yeah, you have to.
You go crazy without humor, man.
[00:25:55] Speaker D: Imagine this shit. That's how they say.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Just.
[00:25:59] Speaker D: But if you think you could with me, I'll beat your ass.
But it ain't about that. It's about listening. And if you ain't listening, just go your way.
Cause motherfuckers ain't playing every. Bro, it's so many guns and pistols in there, you know what I mean?
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Like that everywhere, bro up, dog. Yeah, it really is everywhere.
[00:26:23] Speaker D: And how can the police say that? They got a hand on what? Their own damn balls.
They let my cousin bleed out. Talking about, get away from the body. I said shoot at the police. I'm trying to get my cousin to the hospital, man. That's that bullshit talking about they got a cruel to secure the crime scene. No, you don't, motherfucker. Get the guys. They're scary, man. You don't do that. Imagine that valley, all that.
You want to get in the wear? Yeah, a fucking four blocks away they say, put him down now. Man, fuck you, boyden. That ain't cool, man.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:27:02] Speaker D: Secure. What crime scene when all you guys do is leave it?
Yeah, everybody gets treated different, man, racist isn't everything. It's 89.7% caucasian. My mom's a white lady. She's dead now. I don't play the woman. What? 1.9% blacks? I didn't even say everyone else that. Just, guess what. That's bullshit. They're all in, dead, in jail. The procedures on the street is less than hell. Imagine that sucks, man. But when the white people come out holding, yes, they do. They come out.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they do.
[00:27:38] Speaker D: They're beautiful too, as well. Right? But it's still fucked up everywhere, man.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: It is, man. It is time for change.
[00:27:46] Speaker D: It's been time for that, man. It's time for the overlay, for the inlay so we can, when are you.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Gonna get off the streets?
[00:27:52] Speaker D: Man, when I can get myself housing. I'm a street nigga, man. Meaning this. I live my life in the streets. That's why I ain't never. Bro, you don't understand it, man. I live my life when the curb tells me everything, man. I can see them suckers when they hit the corner with they own, bro. I told the one dude, I said, watching me, he ain't gonna never take his hand out of his fucking pocket, man. That's the gang member. He's coming to kill niggas. He did the same thing. So when he walked by me, I saw platypus. I said, yeah, man, that dude had a 60 rounder. He's killing everybody. The guy stayed out of nowhere. Oh, for real? Where was he at? Yeah, he told on himself. Cause I already seen the movement. Yeah, and guess how I seen that? His posture?
[00:28:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that part. Yeah.
How often?
[00:28:39] Speaker D: I'm about to be 50. No bullshit. I've been out of prison 22 years. But listen, it's the only dudes that ain't doing their movement. They sending these kids off the porch throughout. Gorillas don't do that. Tell them something different, man.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: How often do you see Spencer?
[00:28:55] Speaker D: Well, when I'm in that area, last time I seen him, I think he was with his wife and shit, but right there by the chinese market, I had, he had my number, but I don't have that phone no more, so I haven't seen him since then.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: The assurance phone, you lost that?
[00:29:09] Speaker D: No, I got, I got another one. Yeah, you're right. But I, but I didn't go sign up. For what? I buy everything I own. I buy off the streets.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Gee, um, bro, please contact him, man. I need to immediately just say just seven days. You mean just give yourself seven days off the street? Just a week. One week, bro, once you get in.
[00:29:38] Speaker D: My girl, that was what she says. I'm a drug addict. Fuck you, bitch. I'm not. I got a drug habit, man.
I ain't no fucking drug addict, dude.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: There's a difference with a drug addict and a drug user. Now, drug abuser is, man. Yeah, people need to know that shit. And I don't mean to lie. They used to call me loud and obnoxious. Mandy. I live everywhere. In this bitch, in this bar, everywhere.
But. No, I know what you mean. I try to go to the one place it didn't work out. I just, you know. But I know I need it. And I'm ready. I'm being ready.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: I know, bro, we've been talking about this for six months.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: I know.
[00:30:13] Speaker D: You guess what? The system keeps. What? Overlaying me, man.
I tell them I need to get off the street, I'm having problems. Yeah, you know, if I tell them, if I say, man, I'm a servante serial killer that killed serial killers, then what? No, now they want to watch me. So come on, let's go. Yeah, imagine that. Now they want to be technical. Yeah, no, the technical support was when I told you the first time.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: We have a lot of cool music.
[00:30:42] Speaker D: Around, but I'm gonna stay rocking, man, doing my thing for seven days. I'm gonna stay minding my own a helping people out along the way. I give out, I give away everything because I got the two G's in life. I'm grateful and I have gratitude like a mother.
I could whoop a pool a fool's ass by telling him a good story. So on him if he could believe it.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Yeah, real shit.
[00:31:07] Speaker D: Anybody can be beat in life, but I ain't taking no losses, homie. Man, real shit. I need to get off the streets.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: Bro, honestly, bro, he did.
[00:31:17] Speaker D: Bro, honestly, cuz, listen here, I'm the wrong one.
It's all off the movement, man. But if you come over here in my lane, that party ain't no questions asked, because I already said it before to a man.
It's the older dudes from wherever sending kids out to mess with who that part. Those are the ones who need to be helped handle that. The ones who are oppressed in play.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep.
[00:31:46] Speaker D: Got everybody misconstrued in their movements to go out and fuck with somebody to get killed for what a. Listen here, I'm the number one toll tag committee. I run the presidency of what? Having your ass smelling hella shitty?
Imagine that.
That shit ain't cool. None of that is cool. Nothing. Ratification. Just know it. That ain't none of that. Hurt someone, guys. It's not cool.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: I don't.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: I refrain from violence. Know the moment, cuz. I'm just don't know. Yeah, that part. But I appreciate you guys coming out always.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah, please go, man. Like in Chinatown, man.
[00:32:26] Speaker D: No, I know.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Right on there.
[00:32:28] Speaker D: Right there.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: They're only there in the afternoons at 03:00 every afternoon.
[00:32:32] Speaker D: Whoever fucked Renee is late. I don't know.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: In 20 minutes, bro. They'll be there.
20 minutes, bro.
[00:32:38] Speaker D: 20 minutes.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: First and big, big terrace. And Spence.
[00:32:43] Speaker D: You mean first in Coochie, right?
Northeast.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it is, actually.
That's what's up. Yeah.
[00:32:59] Speaker D: Marry my uncle, bro. You know? He's dead now, though.
But I appreciate you guys.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: I appreciate you, bro.
[00:33:10] Speaker D: The name is Willie Will. Never work. Always will.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: No name.
[00:33:13] Speaker D: Yeah, no name.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Willy will.
[00:33:15] Speaker D: Front and back.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Willy will on fresh wheels.
Got you, cuz. I got you, man.
Seriously. Go check out spits, bro.
[00:33:25] Speaker D: Become anything I might. I'm thinking, really, honestly, man. Running from there and do everything right. How they say? Well, how you gonna do it? I'm a petition. Every area you hear, I'm a petition because I got a team. You need to know one thing. If I can bring them out. Oh, yes, I can. Oh, they love no name. Ao yes, they do.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: A yeah.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: That's the easy name on a ballot. No name every. No vote to vote easy, though.
[00:33:54] Speaker D: It's hard as hell because, see, in order to get to know name, four people had to die. For real, you know? But I stay original. Drugs are for sure.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Don't die on the inside.
[00:34:06] Speaker D: You right, you right. I got 50 names, but I always remain the same. A same way I meet you, same way I greet you is the same way I leave you.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:34:18] Speaker D: Always know that. Every day.
Well, remember, ha ha ha.
Meaning fist the cup. I would have been the light, under spirited heavyweight champion in the world.
I know that.
But who says who? Okay, fuck around. Try. Let's do some bam.
50 pounds of psi. Every time.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: Bam, bam.
[00:34:49] Speaker D: Fuck with me, you're gonna bypass stitches and get staples off of a jab.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's hard. Go check out Spencer.
[00:34:58] Speaker D: I am, man. And I'm gonna tell him, you know.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: All right, tiny home for Willy will.
[00:35:05] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Fresh wheels. No name.
[00:35:08] Speaker D: Alex said no name. Aka train. Train.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: You better get on the train, train.
[00:35:13] Speaker D: And I'll be there.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Get on the train. Train. Hey, have a good day, brother. Appreciate you. All right.
You okay, love?
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: You need another water or something?
[00:35:25] Speaker D: Segregate.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: Watch your back. Watch your back.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I got you. I got you.
It's okay, man.
He's here to do a documentary about homelessness. Yeah. It's not personal.
So now what I like to do is post up on my corner. Yeah. Like it like a g. Yeah. And then you just own your block. You just say, this is my block.
You just sit here with your hands like this, and you just look around like you own stuff.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: And you got pretty. You got pretty cool friends, you know, you make. You know.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Compassion wins. A lot of people. Just being generally. Just sit there.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Listen. Yeah.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Your bandwidth for that better than mine is.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Oh, thanks, man.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: How you doing, man?
[00:36:19] Speaker A: So now, like. So now I own the block.
[00:36:22] Speaker C: You want some food?
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: You see how the transition of power.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: Yeah, but how did I move along? It just happens. When you showed up and you started.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Giving stuff away and when people leave. Yeah.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: When they started leaving immediately, they.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Yeah, just in the drug dealer across the street with a lot of vehicle.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: Yeah, and. Yeah, and the one that was here with the lady that asked for the ten or whatever, it just disappeared.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: I turned around.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: I went up there and I turned around, they were gone.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Because as community engagement increases, criminal activity decreases, decreases.
So that's why the civil rights movement works. Because when you own the streets, when you engage, you can change laws and change hearts and change minds.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's interesting to me, to, you know. Well, we were talking about it today, but every person is unique in their story. And no, there's not a one size fits all model for any of this.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: Nothing.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Food, clothing, housing, whatever. You know, it's all individual. And you gotta get to know the person.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: And it's a joy. It's a joy to do, you know, like, it's just a. It is actually, for me, it crumbles so many.
So many things that you think. You know, you're like, no, we just keep going back to the drawing board, you know, every time, every time. Every time.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Every time, you know? Cause the solution can be better.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: It can be better in love. Our love and compassion just needs to stay at a high level. You know, they lead first that way. And so it's unique, man, to see, you know, it started happening almost immediately, you know, even cleaning up.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: Even just picking this stuff up and doing. She's a sweetheart.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Most people on the street. I mean, we're just all people.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And she just left. Like she was telling me she lost her son and all of her grandbabies in a car accident.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: In 2015. And then it just changed the whole trajectory of her life. And I'm like, man, you know, I've got kids.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Something like that happened to me.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: You know, it's.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: Yeah. That would tear me up, man.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Yeah. It's one step away.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Usually every. That's what most people don't realize. I would say almost half of America is literally just a couple of decisions or consequences away from being on the street.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: Dude, I can live. I can live with you there, for sure. I mean, I know, like, the insecurities that I deal with with the upbringing that I've had and the blessing of, like, having the five kids and not having a major traumatic event, you know, perpetrated on me or against me, and still be so fragile. Like you said, one to two steps away. And then consider the stories we've heard out here today and the resiliency you see just for them to be able to stand up and pick trash up.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. And just be able to stay alive.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: The desire to want to stay alive and all that.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: And that's not everybody's story, but, you know, most of them.
Most of them it is, you know.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker C: I'm out of cigarettes. We can run by the yards and pick up more.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: Sounds great.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got all of them at yards.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Hey, I really appreciate you.
Is there anything else you need?
Okay. My name is Alex. If you ever see me, just holler at me. Okay.
We're gonna come back by and check out. Check out in a little bit. We're gonna go get some more cigarettes.
Not on the building, not up against it. This one's fine because it's all boarded up, but not supposed to be against it.
I know.
They make it. They make it hard on homeless people. I was homeless as a kid and an adult, and I know it ain't easy.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: If they would just, you know.
[00:40:16] Speaker D: Take the time to understand that we are people.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am.
[00:40:20] Speaker D: And we have families.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
[00:40:33] Speaker D: You know, they get a lot further.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:38] Speaker D: They treated us like people, not animals.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing your story with us.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: I was homeless with my mom.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: A lot of that resonates with you. Sure.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: It's hard. It's hard, bro. I didn't grow up with my brother.
We were separated.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Well, a lot of that resident. Just because the mom, you know, with the same stuff going on for you, it's got to be.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: We can either.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: Hit the. Hit the restroom. I'll go wherever you tell me.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: All right, but we'll see you in a bit, sweetie.
[00:41:19] Speaker C: What's your name?
Becky. I'm Michael.
Be back in a bit.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Box.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: So gentle as a big, big human. But he's gentle, man.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: Yeah, he's awesome.
You know, we patrol 20% of all the properties down here.
[00:41:42] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Maybe 25. Yeah.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: I didn't know it was that large.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Dense. Yeah. This is our property. We got probably.
So.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: So the people that own this. This property, they pay you to keep this in bounds with whatever regulations? Because I heard you say some. This, you can lean up against the wall. That one, you can't.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: Because is this when boarded or.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: It's boarded. And, you know, technically, you can't lean up against any wall. Yeah, any wall. But what we're trying to do is not allow criminal elements to become ensconced.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: The property back there, for probably a two month period, it became heavily.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Occupied.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we had legit criminal elements straight up, like central american cartels camping out of there.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Take it over.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Take it over.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: I'm going with Mark.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: All right, good talk.
[00:42:36] Speaker B: Yeah, good talk.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: Restroom. Brake on the ride along.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: When it hits you, it hits you. Didn't it mach.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: You asked about the sprinter van. This was my brother's sprinter van. He was a Navy seal. He died in 2017, and I bought this out of his estate.
So we ride in it because we love my brother.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: Is that him?
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Dude there. Seth Stone.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Let me see. Seth the stud, dude, he died defending our country.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: He actually.
He won a lot of medals defending our country. He died because his parachute did nothing. Fully deploy, so jump.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Yeah, in back. Domestic or training?
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Training, yeah. Nine months left on his contract, so.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Bro.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Nine months left on the contract.
Two silver stars, bronze star.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Sort of your hero, huh?
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah, my best friend.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Cause y'all grew up. Same situation. Same.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: I mean, he was older than you.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Two years older. So he looked out for you all the time.
Yeah, all the time.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: A lot of cherished memories, huh?
[00:43:58] Speaker A: A lot of good memories, man.
Yep. Wish I had get those back.
That's why I think helping people so important, you. You know. Cause you never know what's going on in someone's history or their life or their current situation.
You just don't know.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: I mean, just being out here today, you're like. You know, it's just every face has a very traumatic story behind, like, they didn't just wake up and say, you know, I want to go seven years ago, I want to come out here and be homeless.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: One of my favorite lines when we try to get someone into a shelter, I say, I ask them, when you were in second grade and your homeroom teacher asked you, what do you want to be when you grow up?
[00:44:47] Speaker B: You didn't say homeless.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: No.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: I want to be homeless.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: So how did it happen?
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. How did you get here?
[00:44:55] Speaker B: It's pretty cool.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: And that's the story just comes out?
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: And then we typically say, from at that point on, I would, I'll say, hey, well, I want you to live your dream. What's your dream?
[00:45:09] Speaker B: But obviously, there's people up here that are, that are making it available or controlling how it's used and leveraged in people's lives. Do you ever see those people down here?
[00:45:21] Speaker A: So they do come down here all the time. I've witnessed with my own eyes a U Haul truck pull up. What's up at four in the morning?
Open up the back hatch. This is a giant box truck.
Pull out an illegal alien, pull out a tent, throw a tent on a street corner and tell them in Spanish, this is where you live. We're gonna come by every couple days and grab your money.
And there they force them to live in. Live in tents among the homeless, sell themselves and sell dope. That was all dope. Yeah.
[00:45:53] Speaker D: What?
[00:45:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And right now there's a big. Hondurans have moved in, a honduran gang. Right, has moved in. And just two weeks, two, three weeks ago, I was at a meeting, a political rally for a guy who's running for attorney general here in Oregon. And right outside, like, 1516 year old Honduran stabbed this guy in the stomach. And we had, I chased after him with one of the guy from the, that meeting.
And the guy didn't want to go to hospital. He didn't want care, he didn't want law enforcement involved. I mean, obviously, right out in broad daylight. Yeah.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: Right out in the middle of.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Drug deal gone wrong and. Yeah, this is every day here, Bach. I mean, Buck has stories. A lady was stabbed in the neck right next to Buck.
[00:46:43] Speaker C: You see where that person in the green sweater is wearing.
No, to the left. Oh, just to the left of that, in the open space, kind of by that blue bag, was a man who was laying on his back, stabbed in the chest. Yeah, I was first on scene to that one. About two blocks down on the right hand side of the street. I was first on scene to a woman who was stabbed in the throat.
My coworkers have been first on scene repeatedly to incidents like being shot in theme face homicides in front of them, stabbings, shootings, hatchets, knives, machetes, baseball bats.
It's very sad.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: So we got a guy pass out right here. I think we should check on him.
He's in a decent recovery position, but. Yeah, yeah, he didn't move one time where we were at the light of.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: He's breathing. I'll just say hi to him, though.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Hey, my man. You good?
Making sure you're okay. All right? I got you a bottle of water.
Just taking a nap today.
Awesome. Okay, man.
[00:47:54] Speaker C: You want some snack bars, boss?
[00:48:01] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: That's close. You got another pack?
[00:48:07] Speaker A: Sunglasses. So, hey, we just. We stopped, you know, we were patrolling. I was at a light earlier. We saw a gentleman that was passed out. He didn't move at all for the two or three minutes we were at that red light. So we turned back around, checked on him. He seems okay. So not overdosing, at least.
Hey, so while we're out patrolling.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: There's an area called the pit. They recently cleared it. Let's go check that out.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
While we're driving over there, I want to unpack two questions. I think I asked Bach already about the cyclic nature of the same people being in the same place, or are they transient? I know with the people that I work with out of prison that they're very, very transient. So you don't really know how long they're going to be in one place.
Do they move together?
Like, that pack that was by the door, there's four or five that were right there by the door. Are they generally connected together, or will they just get up and split their own separate way?
Does that make sense?
And communities that they've seen to form.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: People tend to move in groups. Those groups, I think. What would you say there's, like, a 21 day shelf life on those groups?
[00:49:23] Speaker B: They're not. They're not long.
[00:49:25] Speaker C: Their loyalty, like, comes and goes. Yeah, but I've seen some people stick together super tight.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Yeah, like Clyde and Alicia.
[00:49:31] Speaker C: Clyde and Alicia together for years.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: She passed out on. She. She didn't overdose, but she was on heroin, and the train took her arm off. Right over here.
[00:49:42] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, she has one arm.
[00:49:44] Speaker A: We drew by them earlier, but I didn't want to yell at them because I was on this side, but. All right. Hey, so let's go and hop out now. Yeah. Good.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:56] Speaker C: There's a small, like. Like, little bridged area. But what would happen is, is people were busting a hole in the walls and crawling in underneath and sleeping in this, like, cave. Okay. This. This area has been, um, problematic. Like, I've got pictures of people bringing guns out of cars. Yeah, bringing guns out of cars, taking them to tents, coming back with guns. I've got pictures of this coming back to the cars again with guns, and then driving off.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Like.
[00:50:26] Speaker C: Like, it wasn't a hostile interaction between the two, but it was like, do you want to buy this gun? And they were doing this verbal thing back and forth, so.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Yeah, and that area there, too, where the. I see the tarps or whatever. Yep.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: Across the street like that.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: And then under there, where you're telling me.
[00:50:43] Speaker A: So that green container is, like, an area where people can shelter. They can house their belongings, take a shower. A lot of resources will come and go there throughout the day and throughout the week.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: So that kind of led to this being more of a primary campground.
And there used to be more than 100 tents in here.
[00:51:02] Speaker B: Where did they go?
[00:51:05] Speaker A: I was told by a city official actually, today that 19 people out of the 170 or so that lived here actually went to a shelter.
So that's not bad, actually. That's, like, 1213 percent.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: That's not bad.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: No, but everyone else just got moved, displaced. So they. Some might have went to the other side of the river on the east side. A lot of the people ended up on the 405, another highway about a mile or two this way.
[00:51:34] Speaker C: How you doing, man?
[00:51:36] Speaker B: So, likewise.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: You too.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: So, yeah, I mean, mostly displaced.
That's the game when you're talking big money, big government, big slow moving bodies, and organizations that take a lot of time to adapt.
They're looking at small numbers of ratios of people that can get into shelters. Right. They waited a year and a half to do it. They did it in one day.
If they would have taken three months.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: They could have got 50%, 100%. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: So this was the area where the tents were.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: Yeah. But if you go a little bit further, like, maybe through the rock area.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:18] Speaker C: You'll be able to see what we're talking about.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: So this was the pit, and as you can see, they got people working on it now, but probably about 200 people used to live here, and we came here on a regular basis.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: All this, what I'm seeing here.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: Yeah. It's actually scheduled to become a skate park now. Yeah. They think they actually voted for it, like, six years ago, and they're gonna put. They get the budget together. So this is. Will be a skate park in the future. But, yeah, this was called the pit. It's what the street called it. And to about 200 folks live here.
[00:52:50] Speaker C: I don't know the number. There was quite a few. And it would vary from town to time and season to season, but people would come and go and, I mean, there were people down here, they would have barbecues and fires and all sorts of things going on. You know, there was even a volleyball net set up for a while.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah.
[00:53:04] Speaker C: You know.
[00:53:05] Speaker B: What about crime down here?
[00:53:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Was it pretty hectic?
[00:53:09] Speaker A: These buildings. I've been shot at. See that? See how the tip? There's tape on that building right there in that window.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: That's from.
[00:53:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Sort of rounds from some small arms ammunition. Right.
[00:53:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: But you have. Obviously, it's a big difference from the photo that you just showed me to where it's. To where it's at now.
[00:53:25] Speaker C: This has been cleared out.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: And so, yeah, the city came and cleared it, and they put all these boulders here so people can't, you know.
[00:53:32] Speaker B: Tent up or whatever.
[00:53:33] Speaker A: Tent, you know, because it rains for six months out of the year here.
[00:53:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: So they.
Yeah. Awesome. Except somewhere else. They're somewhere else.
[00:53:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Yeah, they're somewhere else.
[00:53:44] Speaker C: Yeah. The distance between connecting these people to the services that they need and their resistance to services still exists.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:51] Speaker C: It's just now, like.
[00:53:53] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:53:54] Speaker C: Now they're somewhere else. Mia, right?
[00:53:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:58] Speaker C: How you doing?
[00:54:00] Speaker B: I can't thank you enough, man, for just.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: Let me be.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: This educational tour today, so much. We don't. But.
[00:54:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, man.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: There's a lot of hurting and a lot of need that goes on down here, and there's a lot of resistance to the offer of it because I think people have been. Had their hands burned so much.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: They've been sort of backstabbed and so and so. And everything fails me and such.
[00:54:24] Speaker A: And such shelters are not always safe.
[00:54:26] Speaker C: The shelters aren't safe. Filled with bedbugs or there's long lists so they can't get in, or it's always full, or it's. I mean, it's kind of like. It's always something.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Sure, yeah.
[00:54:36] Speaker C: Until, you know, until all the dots can come together.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: Joey.
[00:54:41] Speaker D: Problem.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: I'm really glad he came on the ride along today.
I'm excited about the future.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: I mean, to meet a guy who's trying to literally get 50 felons a year on track while feeding the homeless. It's impressive, man, what you do and.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: What Bach does and the other employees are impressive with the compassion that I've seen you do it with today. And I know that's not manufactured. It's something you truly believe is the culture of your corporation. And, you know, it's. It's really cool to see people on the front lines that genuinely love people first and want to know their stories.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: So, yeah, I.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Who knows where it'll go, but I look forward to just continuing the journey conversation.
[00:55:19] Speaker A: Likewise, man.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: Thanks for taking care of it.
[00:55:21] Speaker C: Glad you came out, man. We had a good time.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it is taken care of. Good to see you, too, Buck. Your golden has always been.
[00:55:28] Speaker C: I don't know about golden.
[00:55:29] Speaker A: Golden, man.
Love it.
