Well, this isn't something I expected to happen. Not that I haven't tried over the years, but eventually you just get to the point where you figure there's no point. Some people are just too far gone to be walked back from the ledge.
And then you get surprised.
I mean, I don't really talk to conservatives to change their mind. I'm usually testing the validity of my own position, seeing if it can stand up to questioning and challenging. I talk to them to make sure my own views are gradually growing better and more accurate.
And then finally I get one to actually change his mind. To change his opinion. And further, he asked me what he can do to help. Now what to do?
We'd been going back and forth over the use of profiling. His position, as the position of many conservatives, is that it's perfectly fine. Works with investing, so why shouldn't it work for law enforcement or when you meet someone strange in an alley.
My position is that it's probably about as accurate as flipping a coin if not worse and it's frankly getting people who look like me SHOT and KILLED. Not to mention filling up our jails, and costing us $Billions just to house them.
We'd been going back and forth quoting stats off and on to each other until I finally decided to make the larger point. Abstract stats don't really tell you much when you get down to real world specifics. You might know every available stat involved with two opposing baseball teams, but that's not going to give you the final score before the game is actually played.
You can always be surprised.
I grew up in South Central LA, and I've been working - off and on - in an office located there for nearly a decade. The problem with using general stats is that not every person is a potential predator, it can't tell you exactly who may be a danger. We all have to figure that out, one person at a time. Yes, the hard way. In this area, the problem guys are gang bangers. The thing about them though, is they're mostly a problem to people who they think are other gang-bangers, not the general public.
We had one kid working at our office who was pretty much putting his life on the line just to show up because on our side of the street was a gang that knew him and didn't like him. He'd been shot several times, but on the other side of the same street - he was safe.
It's about the specific time, place and person you may run across - not the generalities. He had to be very specific about what he was doing in order to survive. (His dad was actually a relatively famous R&B singer from back in the day - didn't help him dodge bullets though)
Tookie Williams started the Crips at Jesse Owens Park on Western & Century as essentially a group to defend their neighborhood. When I first heard of them in the 70's they were basically the guys who might take your lunch money. You could tell who they were by the blue rags they would have in their back pockets - so they were easily and clearly identifiable.
In my old neighborhood the gangs eventually started to run the PCP trade. They used to sell right across the street from my house.
Eventually, with about three cars lined up, the first one doing their PCP deal - which at the time was nicknamed "Sherm" - a Police car came around the corner and began to wait at the end of the line. The entire neighborhood could see them, waiting to see what would happened as the minutes ticked by.
So now the question is, what is it he can productively do? I mean mentoring, becoming a Foster parent or adopting an at risk child who'se lost their parents would be very direct. It wouldn't help me, but it might help the situation for one kid.
A larger issue is volunteering for charities providing worthwhile services. Churches or other services that are trying to divert kids away from falling into the drop-out to cell-dweller treadmill.
Then of course there's supporting better public policy. Better police strategies that don't harrass and ostracize the people that need to be able to trust them to get the job of crime fighting done. Better focus and energy in our most at risk schools, rather than slowly siphoning their funds and resources off to private and charter schools, and simply leaving the most difficult and needy students in the worst possible situation.
There are lots of things that can be done, but it's going to take more than a single person - it's going to take a national - moon shot level - effort to turn all this around.
Vyan
2:51 PM PT: I wrote this in a rush this morning, had to get off and let someone else use the computer so it wasn't that tidy. Had a nap and cleaned it up a bit. I've added some of the missing bits like when the one LAPD officer pulled his gun on me. Seemed like a rookie, I made him jumpy. Anyway, that incident kinda fills out why I talk about this so much. It's not that I could've been Trayvon theoretically or in the abstract. I damn near nearly was! If I hadn't been able to keep my head and calm that cop down... poof, no more me.