[Music] this guy named John came up and just said uh I'd love you to come see our community so he brought us there and I'll tell you I I've lived in Latin America and the third world and have worked in kind of missionary stuff in this country I've never seen anything quite like it it was pretty Raw basically this neighborhood came about in 1942 when they wanted to um do the all the ship building in Mobile Bay for the War World War II that's why they're like Barrack style looking houses then in the 70s se8
housing and so forth started to come in and once it started coming down it it went it went down from there basically and right now it's the most dangerous neighborhood in South Alabama since we've been here we've been here 8 years there's been 37 people shot within 200 yards of our building uh it was powerful so then this relationship has continued and uh usually there's somebody who had been there before who brings more folks [Music] Homeboy Industries has been very successful we're the biggest gang intervention and prevention program in the nation we've been doing this
for already 21 years so there's something right that we're doing well as for me I was asked to come to Alabama and take the opportunity and for me I I felt it as an honor in reality these kids are us you mean it's exactly the same thing right poverty wise gang culture-wise little different right but the way we're raised family structures it's the same thing what the homeboy have expressed and I guess there's been about 11 of them come at this point is they see almost an apathy a total giv up kind of thing that
they are not used to how can I say uh I don't know I I've never seen a place like this you know so really it's hard for me to kind of describe it but it's like a third world country you know shooting raping stealing breaking in piece but hoes rubbing stoes that's doing everything you can mention in the book I just don't like living in a neighborhood like this this feels scary and F and it's like you need protection around here let me tell you my nickname for third wall Del Valley this street we on
right now the very same street my uncle got killed on on the street but around that com I was just L that's not start that's not start getting more into one a gang bang and all that stuff wearing blue flags and all that that was October 15th 2007 and what scares me and also the homeboy Echo this fear is that they're trying really hard to take it to more and more of an LA standard but I think it would even hit us harder here because of the Imp conditions this is it this is where it's
at you know what I mean U the ghetto the um the drug sales you know the this is my life and I accept the way it is you know what I mean and if you're not responsible or you don't have a education you fall deep into this type of of uh life drug sales or in the gang but it's all a dead end all of dead end when that hits them you can see it because it it really does break your heart that these kids are living in these houses that they're living with with these
roads that that that flood and aren't even paved and have potholes I mean there's a there's a poverty here that they're not used to even even from where they come from I remember when they first spoke at our place in the village we had quite a few teenagers there and and when they found out that we were bringing in former gang members they were all excited oh yeah you know they're all like yeah and then when they found out that they were Latinos right they were like oh man those guys are essays and don't know
nothing and and I said I tell you what guys just go in there and listen to their story and then come back and tell me what you thought let's go let's go let's go let's go you know I started selling crack cocaine at the age of 14 years old you know and then eventually I became my best customer you know smoking crack doing methamphetamines I pretty much started gang banging at the age of 12 I heard a car door open and I seen everybody scattered everything happened so quick everybody scattered the same individuals that I
went to school with I had a murder he's from this neighborhood and he's from that neighborhood and I'm from this neighborhood and now I got to go take him out like everything else was exploded and half my thumb the only thing that was left was half my thumb and everything was hanging and all I felt like was my hand was dipped in hell it affected me big time you know I wasn't going to literally kill myself but I wish somebody would pull the trigger on me out of my gang there was 36 of US 36
of us that were in the same click in the same gang and right now as I'm talking to you guys in front of you guys today right now there's two of us left I'd be out there in different neighborhoods and and and and guys would literally just pull out the strap and say hey homie you need to get out my neighborhood and I'd be like you ain't going to pull the trigger and I just laugh at him you know and I and I was just waiting for the trigger to just blow my brains out you
know at the time I had that choice where there is to go back into the destruction to the hate to the frustrations to the resentment to the gang or go this way where I really want to change my life around so much damage that we did out there in the streets and drugs and so on and so forth abusing that lifestyle give back and what you get in return is great smiles and people that that feel your heart and feel your pain you know and you as well theirs live a different life you mean you
have every opportunity you want you have D you know that already Joseph man but it's all right though I mean don't let the mistakes hold you back now you mean try to learn from them man and they grew up through a lot of struggles they memories that they got they similar to our memories cuz we feel the same pain and what the homeboy can bring is we've been there done that and here's why you don't want to do it do they all listen No but the word goes out get up on my face I'm going
get out of your face am I going to get out of your Face's going J he's all smiling and laughing and crap that sounds a little disrespectful I don't know what do you think I look at Anthony and he he he's like hardcore you mean really hardcore he's like he's the one that needs all the attention he's the he could be a scary one so after you kill somebody they came back being took your brother because it ask me that have you ever killed anybody and have you killed anybody and he kept asking me and
asking me the way it felt is like when you put uh lemon on a cut or you put salt on a cut what happens it's like you know say me and while he's asking me the questions the same time inside of me that's what's happening right like I'm like something to be too proud of him but you did something that you're going to have to pay for the rest of your life more than likely you know that that um you know that I feel that that's why my little brother got tooken from me and the
way I took it from him is that he's asking me to glamorize to be like yeah I killed so many guys and this and this is what it's all about when you're gang bang I mean that's the answer he's looking for and I'm not going to give him that answer cuz you killed somebody then they came back you then they kill your brother he's being led by somebody who who has been misled himself and somebody been misled and they're tting the youth and they're tting this is what it's about living right when it really isn't
because in reality this left only has two destinations to it so somebody goes to do the rest of their life in prison is that is he living his life no what's happening to him and I think it's kind of good for me because he's reminding me at the same time that I also need a lot of work to do and I think I lean that from certain people and he's one of the guys that actually does that to me which is to me is it's kind of like a it's a trip to me you how's
this 13-year-old right he's he's making me open my eyes even he's also a teacher [Music] himself like it's more attention around now for the kid to get an understand of what life back and it's about having fun too and not just being serious all the time you see sing a little something B small it was all a dream I used to Up Magazine I have a love a lot of love to give you know I I guess they can they can feel my love and my compassion and and they love that you know and what
child doesn't because it comes from the heart you know um and I know that I would have liked that as as a young kid growing up you know I'll show you how to do it all right you want it black all the way or red red right okay do red now yeah whichever when you want it to be that there go all right thank you huh I was never able to do the things that I wanted to do as a teenager you mean like like um arts and crafts or nothing like that I wasn't like
get away you better M me with that that's the way I would be though you mean why because I was portraying that Macho image I was portraying that mask of showing people something else that I really wasn't yeah right there you go do do it again like the way you're doing it a lot of these kids are only teenagers right now you mean and do you think that they that they live teenage years the red one the red one I'm sorry in their homes the next one is the black one col think of all the
trauma the abuse that these kids have to deal with right the emotional abuse the physical abuse that these kids have to deal with that they haven't dealt with yet let's go got the scissors cut it off that's what light of the religion is working on right now it's to bring those other needs to we could work on them right we could work on them whatever they need to deal with and eventually when they're ready and hopefully they will be one day we'll be ready to send them off to different jobs where they'll be able to
sustain them with me speaking of myself and at the same time is bringing out that inner child in me that I was never able to bring out would you deposit into the life of this youth of today is what you're going to withdraw out of it do they know how to make relationships do they know how to communicate do they know how to keep a friend or are they going to hate and murder I was bookshot before I made them now I'm book book bookshot people come there cuz I obey but now I'm changed so
I like I like people to call me bu B I know myself now it's it's all about kinship it's all about connection it's all about you know linking ourselves to each other and and staying committed to to the to the truth that we belong to each other and then you discover that that that's really powerful in the world that no bullet can pierce it [Music]
