South Dallas neighborhood residents will approach me when they see me sitting in my car. They all ask me what I’m doing there and many say they thought I was a lookout for thieves. (I find that funny… A white guy, sitting in a car in a black neighborhood, and they think I’m a thief; “I” would have first assumed me to be a cop.) Their intention is to run me off if I were a thief; it takes very little time for a small group of neighborhood supporters to gather around my car. These people deal with situations themselves head-on.

Had a stranger been sitting on our street, we FIRST would have ignored him for an initial period of time and hoped he would go away. If we felt action was required, we’d call 911; rarely would we approach a strange situation. My neighbors are even too scared to every go out and collect a license plate!

We rely on the cops a lot because they are around. South Dallas residents rely on themselves.