Will I die in Compton? (Albany, Chester: crime, diversity, suburb)

[fefeford]

See below for information that may be helpful.

Originally Posted by fefeford

Compton is a town that has an undeserved reputation. Is it inner city ? Yes. Is it largely monority? Yes.

If your intentions are pure and you are there to help the community, you no doubt would be recieved favorably. However, if you are a wigger trying to make a video or a fake and you are just being curious, then no one is going to respect your motivation. By the way, anyone could get killed being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Especially in compromising situations that deal with drugs, gangs, crime etc.... in inner cities that aren't very well supported by our wonderful country.

What are your goals with your desired interviews? Are you comfortable enough in your own skin to deal with blacks to get your project accomplished? I am concerned because you are asking complete strangers, rather than a co-worker, neighbor, or friend. Inlist support from other of like mind. Maybe local government. Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council has a local group called Spa 3 (I believe). Anyway pull up Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council - Home and get the coordinators name. See what she can help you with. i am on their executive council and they do a lot of great things in the local communities all over L.A. County. Los Angeles Children's Planning Concil is both a profit and not for profit organization.

I have a friend that has a golf camp for the youth of Compton and it is quite successful. The kids are great and the Sherriff's department is even involved in the afterschool sports program there. It is at the ARMORY in Compton. The web address is Executives Fore Kids - Compton, California.

I don't believe you are out of your league if you are there trying to contribute to the betterment of the community. I applaud you for your efforts. But do strategize on ways to make the project more clear, planned and systematic. You will be held accountable and responsible from anyone willing to help you. Even if it's grass roots organizations that seem very mom and pop. There will be concerns about your overall engagement in such a project. As well as what you stand to gain from it. I am not from Compton but I am in Compton frequently and know many church members, family and extended family members there. In fact I am on my way there this afternoon.


I never said Compton was largely black. Obviously, Latino's make up most af all of our inner cities in L.A.

Reach out if you need help,

P.S. I just stumbled upon this blog, so I won't be accessing it in the future. Rather write back at my e-mail address.

Fefeford@ca.rr.com

fefe

Originally Posted by sdmlions

So if I drove through Compton would a gangbanger roll up and bust a cap in my a$$? Would I get car jacked or is it safe for me 2 drive through? I wanna take some photo's and do some interviews with people in the street, but I won't if my life is in danger...oh, and i'm white; but not american. Any ideas?

[Burbankhotty]

Why? Why? Why?
If you must do this, put an ad on the internet asking people to agree to meet with you, at a coffee shop or something. Or, have a large camera crew with you.
My concern isn't because Compton is so bad or because you are so white, it's just that you sound.....naive and "gung-ho" if you will. I'm afraid you might look at the wrong people funny.
Stay on the busy streets, don't go into residential streets, don't make eye contact, don't get lost. I'm begging you to take a camera crew, and maybe wear a clown suit.

[yogaroots]

whenever I watch the news, it seems like crime is everywhere here. keifer sutherland got robbed in an exclusive area of la

[soseisthehood]

YEAH, COMPTON IS NICE COMPARED TO WILMINGTON, DELAWARE or The EastCoast period (Wilmington, DE Philadelphia, PA Baltimore MD New York City, NY Trenton, NJ Newark, NJ)
but i stay not too far from compton now!

a few pics of Wilmington:
ok, well since alot of yall are scared lol to go in to the inner city, I'll show you some of my recent pictures I have of Wilmington...I currently live in Los Angeles, CA, but just visited recently!


(Entrance to SouthBridge from downtown)

(some random people selling drugs on the corner over in the West Center City section)

(I noticed like 4 crack heads walk into this abandoned building lol)

(even the hood has beauty, EastSide Wilmington, DE)

(on da Eastside of Wilmington, going up 10th street towards downtown...This building on the right has never been active, and i was born in the '80s, I've never seen it in use!, they need to tear it down, I was surprice to see this house on the left has Stucco exterior, which is hard to find on the East Coast, where i live in CA everything is built from Stucco)

(yes, that is my rent-a-car about to get hit by a ****in' idiot bus driver who was bending the corner at a fast ass speed like he didn't see my damn car...anyways just some more borded up houses on the EastSide, I plan to buy these houses fix them up, and sell them to somebody looking to live in the area, they will be equiped with some things i see in CA that DE really needs) p.s. Im not scared to get out of the car to take pictures lol!!

(another property over on da Eastside that im plottin' on!)

(some of wilmington's new constructions!)

(terrible picture taken on my part!)

(a block on da Eastside, drugs are sold up and down this street)

(the infamous 9th Street aka "IRAQ"...hmmm wonder why?)

(IRAQ)

(East 9th street, better known as Iraq, if you look closely there are people in da middle of the streets sellin' heroin right to people driving through)

(that green light seperates the East side, from Center City or "downtown")

(Downtown "center city", don't get it twisted, you can still get robbed around here!)

(Rodney Square, Wilmington DE landmark, and busport, you can see lil scuffles break out every so often! Its not sweet at all)

(the reason for all the pollution in DE)

(girl on the steps on the Eastside)

(Spruce Street Eastside)

(3rd Street & Harrison HILLTOP Wilmington)

(noisy guy wondering what i was doing on 3rd and Harrison Hilltop Wilmington)

(Market Street, kind of like a Wilmington "south street" if you are familiar w/ Philly)
ok...you guys requested it! So Im bringin' it
THE INFAMOUS RIVERSIDE HOUSING PROJECTS ON THE NORTHEAST SIDE OF WILMINGTON...Home of many Wilmington Homocides!


(if you know anything about wilmington then you know who Jerome "JR" Perkins is, RIP 1979-2005)

(project girls, "F*&% the world!")

(just a homegurl in the projects chillin' on her car)

(if you are one of those white guys or girls scared of Black people, you probably shouldn't come to Riverside, matter fact, if you don't know no one in the projects, don't go...wait to you see the next pic)

(what a buddy or associate of mines showed me in the projects, look at his damn bed!!!)

(more, i made sure their faces weren't in these pics)

(drug money in Riverside, and what you can get if you interfere!)

(just a random guy posing in his project back yard)

(my cousin used to live in this house, stupid pic, just for memories)

(guy on the steps in Riverside)

(a cute girl on one of riverside's back streets)

(Bethel Apartments, pretty much, when u graduate out of the projects, your first stop is here, very bad area, bunch of murders here)

(Wilmington's skyline from Southbridge)

(Southbridge Extensions Housing Projects, very bad area)

(Southbridge block)

(4th street, going towards downtown)

Downtown "Center City" Wilmington


(Front page of delaware's main newspaper NewsJournal talking about city's problems with rival drug gangs and shootings and murders)




(Riverside projects made the paper...again!)





(drug bust)

(Ferris Juvenile detention center, jammed packed!)
Wilmington is directly between D.C. and New York City, alot of DC drug dealers, New York City Drug dealers, Baltimore Drug dealers, Philadelphia Drug dealers and ect. set up new businesses in Wilmington, and also local Wilmington Drug dealers...this makes rivals!

[jessemh431]

Maybe contact a school in Compton, like Centennial High School. You could take pics of the school and maybe students. Maybe a teacher that lives in the area could lead you around town.

Previous poster, are you black? How do you fit in so well to be able to take pics like that? And if your cousin lived in that building, you must have been extremely poor right?

[AshleighCeo]

Ok lol this is funny because I live in compton and to me its not a big of a deal. If you want to do the project, I suggest you just don't wear blue or red. If you want to talk to some people from around the area, some of the most friendly people would be in some of the stores and places like that. Yes walking on the street to a random person might be bad, so I wouldn't suggest it. If your going to walk around on the street, bring a friend with you and try to stay on the main streets. I'd suggest the westside of the city (central to about alondra). But if you want to go farther into the city, then go for it. And to answer the main question, you can die anywhere, not just in compton. These things can happen to you Living in LA period.

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by RomanInSF

Yes, Compton has its bad element. But every race has this level. I wouldn't be caught dead in many of the rural backwoods portions of white America, where it is commonplace to inbreed, sodomize animals, kill for sport, and rape livestock. I wonder how many murders in these remote areas go unreported?

So... this is for effect, right? You don't really believe this, do you?

By the way, I think Wilmington looks pretty nice. Love some of the architecture. Sure, it looks rough in spots, but those are the breaks.

[proteus]

No you won't. Crime is higher there so be aware, but some of its reputation is derived from those who think they're bragging when they say they're from a 'tough' town. Some of Compton's reputation is from poor or formerly poor white folks who need someone to feel better than. So, the crime is higher but, unlike Columbine or Paducah, the violence is generally gang-related and geared to a specific person... usually. You won't find mass shootings of uninvolved people like you will in rural, middle America & serial killing is not an 'inner city' thing. Go. Be safe. Be friendly. Have fun... and don't let Americans make you into a hick.

[jessemh431]

You may be safer than you think according to this article. It says crime has greatly dropped in SoCal.

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[soseisthehood]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

Maybe contact a school in Compton, like Centennial High School. You could take pics of the school and maybe students. Maybe a teacher that lives in the area could lead you around town.

Previous poster, are you black? How do you fit in so well to be able to take pics like that? And if your cousin lived in that building, you must have been extremely poor right?

Yes Im black. and My cousin's mother was poor back in the days, great thing for her she will never see the projects again, and me and my family now live in Irvine Orange county he had alot of furtune in the family, came a long way back I moved from Wilmington, DE (one of the worst cities on the EastCoast if not Camden, NJ) but Wilmington is to Philly, what Compton is to L.A., the little city outside of the big city with more crime, and less police, a hundreds of thousands of drug dealers and guns thanks to port of Wilmington plus consider Wilmington's location, It is exactly in between New York City and Washington, DC, targeted by drug dealers in the surrounding 100 mile ratios of the east coast which means if your a drug dealer who couldn't make it in big New York, you're setting up shop in Wilmington, same goes for if you couldn't make it in DC...same if you couldn't make it in Philly or Baltimore which is just an hour south...Its crazy there, real crazy! Wilmington gangs, NY gangs, Baltimore gangs philly gangs Chester gangs and Jersey gangs...the only crazier place I seen is Camden, NJ, 30 mins. north from Wilmington, DE across New Jersey state line and right across the ben franklyn bridge from Philly. This man got shot with an Ak47 out there (and after he shot off more rounds for about a 10 min. period, no cops showed up), he was dying, the ambulance showed up 2 and a half hours later, under funded city, only had 12 ambulances on call that night...
**** be crazy out there.