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We have Treatment Centres for Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Boston
However, at Rehab Clinics Group, we appreciate that doing so is often easier said than done. For various reasons, you may have delayed treatment.
You may have also ignored the many signs and symptoms that are associated with drug and alcohol addictions.
As a result, you may now find yourself struggling to cope. You may have become reliant on substances, and you may also have found that your day-to-day life has become significantly impaired as your addiction controls your every waking moment.
Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Is Readily Available
Across the United Kingdom, various treatment providers are on hand to administer drug and alcohol addiction treatment.
However, due to the many stigmas surrounding addictions and a lack of understanding regarding addiction treatment, many dismiss the treatment they need.
Sadly, dismissing addiction treatment sees many in need of hospital treatment. Ignoring addiction treatment has also contributed to the number of people struggling with long-term health complications relating to substance abuse.
Finding The Right Drug and Alcohol Rehab In Boston
As you decide that attending a drug and alcohol rehab in Boston is in your best interest, you may believe that locating a suitable rehab will be relatively easy.
However, contrary to belief, when it comes to selecting a drug and alcohol rehab in Boston, many factors, including the severity of your addiction, the resources available at the drug and alcohol rehab in Boston, the treatment available and whether the rehab is residential or not, must be considered.
For many individuals, the process of finding a drug and alcohol rehab in Boston can be quite off-putting. As a result, many will defer the treatment they desperately need to defeat their addiction.
However, as touched on above, delaying treatment will see your addiction spiral beyond your control. Sadly, this could cost you your life.
If you are struggling to find a suitable drug and alcohol rehab in Boston, we are here to support you. By calling us, we can help you refer yourself to one of our residential rehabs.
Attending A Residential Drug and Alcohol Rehab
Although attending an NHS drug and alcohol rehab in Boston will help you overcome your addiction, you may find that the treatment and support available to you is somewhat limited.
Considering this, it may be in your best interest to attend a residential drug and alcohol rehab in Boston.
While attending a residential drug and alcohol rehab in Boston will possibly not have crossed your mind, doing so will offer you a greater chance of making a long-term recovery.
If you are open to the thought of attending a residential rehab but have found yourself unable to locate a residential rehab in Boston, we can offer you a place at one of our rehab clinics.
Located across the United Kingdom, our rehab clinics include Cassiobury Court, Nova Recovery, Ocean Recovery Centre and Asana Lodge.
Your Treatment Programme
Regardless of whether you attend Cassiobury Court, Nova Recovery, Ocean Recovery Centre or Asana Lodge, when you enter one of our rehab clinics in the United Kingdom, you will be provided with a personalised treatment programme.
Detailing the treatment you will receive during your time in our clinics, a team of medical professionals will create your treatment programme.
To ensure that your treatment programme is personalised to your addiction and recovery needs, you will need to partake in a clinic and recovery plan assessment. This assessment will see you discuss your physical and psychological health with a fully qualified doctor.
As you do so, they will begin to decipher how your addiction has taken a toll on your health and well-being. In turn, doctors will present you with a treatment programme that is suitable for your needs.
Although all of our treatment programmes are tailored to the needs of each individual that enters our clinics, detoxification, rehabilitation, and aftercare support forms the basis of each of our programmes.
Reviewing Your Progress
Irrespective of whether you attend a drug and alcohol rehab in Boston or one of our rehab clinics, the progress you make during your time in rehab will be monitored and reviewed on a regular basis.
At Rehab Clinics Group, you will find that your progress is reviewed every week. When your reviews are conducted, you will have the time to sit with your dedicated recovery support worker to discuss your recovery.
As your time in our rehab comes to an end, your recovery support worker will begin to discuss your relapse prevention plan and aftercare support with you.
Leaving Our Residential Rehab
Like many others, you may find the thought of leaving rehab and returning home to be daunting. You may also worry that you will be at risk of relapsing upon leaving rehab, and you may be concerned that you will not be able to cope alone.
With this in mind, as your time in one of our rehab clinics draws to a close, your recovery support worker will, as touched on above, approach you to discuss your relapse prevention plan and aftercare support with you.
Typically, our aftercare support will see you acquire 12-months of free support, guidance and advice through the employment of weekly group meetings.
If your recovery support worker thinks it may be beneficial, one-to-one cognitive behavioural therapy will also be incorporated into your aftercare support.
Although we understand that you will likely feel a wealth of emotions as you prepare yourself to return home, please remember that you will have continued support.
You will never be left to deal with your recovery on your own, and we will also be on the other end of the telephone should you need to talk to someone.
Call Us Today For Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
Are you ready to put your addiction behind you? Do you dream of a substance-free future? Are you willing to commit to a lifelong recovery?
If you have said yes to the above questions, please call us today on 0800 470 0382 for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.


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In aceasta seara Apple a publicat un comunicat de presa prin care anunta ca Scot Frostall, SVP-ul diviziei care dezvolta iOS-ul, si John Browett, SVP-ul diviziei retail, vor parasi compania anul viitor. Plecarea celor doi vicepresedinti lasa fraiele companiei in mainile restului membrilor echipei de conducere a companiei Apple, astfel ca Jony Ive, Ededy Cue, Craig Federighi si Bob Mansfield vor avea rolul noi in cadrul companiei.
Decizia celor doi vicepresedinti de a parasi Apple poate aduce un suflu nou pentru companie, poate imbunatati serviciile existente, insa in trecut Tim Cook a convins un fost SVP sa ramana la Apple, asa ca orice este posibil si in aceste doua cazuri.
Apple Announces Changes to Increase Collaboration Across Hardware, Software & Services
Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Add Responsibilities to Their Roles
CUPERTINO, California—October 29, 2012—Apple® today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company's world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.
"We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple's history," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The amazing products that we've introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services."
Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple's products for more than a decade.
Eddy Cue will take on the additional responsibility of Siri® and Maps, placing all of our online services in one group. This organization has overseen major successes such as the iTunes Store®, the App Store℠, the iBookstore℠ and iCloud®. This group has an excellent track record of building and strengthening Apple's online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of our customers.
Craig Federighi will lead both iOS and OS X®. Apple has the most advanced mobile and desktop operating systems, and this move brings together the OS teams to make it even easier to deliver the best technology and user experience innovations to both platforms.
Bob Mansfield will lead a new group, Technologies, which combines all of Apple's wireless teams across the company in one organization, fostering innovation in this area at an even higher level. This organization will also include the semiconductor teams, who have ambitious plans for the future.
Additionally, John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook. Apple's Retail organization has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level who will continue the excellent work that has been done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services for customers.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.


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Clouds of Monster Mosquitoes Mob North Carolina in the Wake of Hurricane Florence
Clouds of aggressive nickel-sized mosquitoes called gallinippers have descended on 27 counties in North Carolina, the result of untold numbers of the insect's eggs being activated by the catastrophic flooding caused by hurricane Florence. Unlike most mosquitoes, Gallinippers can lay their eggs in dry conditions, of which can lay dormant for months or years, and hatch when wet conditions develop. The females can be particularly aggressive, mobbing large mammals such as humans or even cattle in order to feed.
read more


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Michelangelo's Mystery Man
While a trip to Italy may not be in your budget this winter, you can now easily satisfy your craving for acclaimed 16th century Florentine sculptures without having to leave the country. The newest guest at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. is Michelangelo Buonarroti's David-Apollo - a work which had previously visited the gallery over a half-century ago, in 1949.
The most recent initiative, "2013- The Year of Italian Culture," coordinated by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, has precipitated the arrival of the marble wonder over the Atlantic, from its permanent home at the Museo del Bargello in Florence, and made it available for Renaissance art enthusiasts in the United States. The idea behind this exhibition is to expose its viewers to the richness of the Italian identity through the country's culture- its art, music, literature, and more.
Buonarroti's sculpture is effective in doing so, namely because of the way in which it extends an invitation to the viewer to ponder the mystery of its subject. The history behind the piece, "finished" in 1530, is well- known. The artist, a supporter of the Republican faction in Florentine politics, was forced to forego his partisanship in light of the growing Medici power. In order to gain the favor of Duke Cosimo I, Buonarroti created the David- Apollo for Baccio Valori, a governor associated with the Medici regime.
The sculpture's role as a middleman for strengthening international relations was augmented after World War II, when it was brought to America to bolster cultural ties between the two countries. However, the identity of this "middleman" has never been confirmed, and for this reason it remains another one of Michelangelo's "imprisoned souls"- one which the artist had almost succeeded in releasing. Were it not for two significant features, the marble man would be liberated from this eternal identity crisis, though this would come at the expense of the viewer's participation in the guessing-game that makes the work so compelling.
The sculpture's "spiraling pose," also known as "serpentinata," is not unusual among works from this time, and therefore would warrant both hypotheses as to the subject. The enigma lies in the unfinished portion of marble under the statue's right foot- is it Goliath's head (as would make sense in the case of the Biblical David) or an ordinary slab of stone? More interestingly, is the unchiseled shape on the man's back representative of the sling of David, Florence's adopted guardian against tyranny, or is it perhaps a quiver, where the Greek deity Apollo would have stored his arrow?
While Duke Cosimo I's inventory supports the former proposition and art historian Giorgio Vasari leans towards the former solution, it is ultimately up to the viewer to decide. Don't delay-take your turn playing detective this season-before the exhibition ends in March 2013.


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The Word, Praise and PRAYER—Our Weapons of Spiritual Warfare makes the Saints Armed and Dangerous! Just when the enemy thought it had won—HERE COMES THE GLORY OF THE LORD SWEEPING IN THE ROOM!👿👊🏽💪🏽📖💃🏾🙌🏼🙏🏽
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:10-11)


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Sam Brown is an ICU physician, and teaches pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
[Note: I do not speak for my employer or anyone else. If you are worried about the novel coronavirus, check the WHO and CDC or local State Health Department websites. As per their instructions, If you think you're infected, self-quarantine and reach out by phone or video chat with your healthcare system to learn where and when testing might be available. If you are seriously ill, then cover your mouth and head to an Emergency Department or Urgent Care Clinic for evaluation and possible hospitalization.]
We appear to be in the early phases of a true pandemic, in which an infection circulates in many countries at a level where you can just catch it at the shopping mall or a rock concert or maybe just touching a doorknob at work and then touching your face. Whether we're there yet or not depends in part on your baseline level of anxiety and/or pessimism; whether we will truly be there soon depends in large part on how aggressively we act now. There are many credible sources (again, WHO and CDC are most important) for the relevant medical information, which I won't rehearse here. Instead, I want to think as a US Latter-day Saint about the human problems that loom large in this outbreak.
Forgetting for a moment how alien it may seem to live in close quarters with the bats in which this specific virus seems to have developed, once they enter human circulation, viruses like this are parasites of our human lovingkindness. To expand their reach, they require that we touch each other, that we stand close, that we embrace, that we minister and love. And not just the kind of ethereal love of late modern cosmopolitanism, but the concrete and relentless loving that takes someone to Church meetings or doctor appointments, that cooks meals for and with another, that tends a congregational nursery full of burbling children, that lays hands and consecrated olive oil on heads burned by fever. These viruses benefit from and exploit every instinct of our goodness and decency.
The best mechanism to limit their spread and the damage they do is to practice what the professionals call "social distancing," which is a clinical euphemism for isolation. The most efficient way to control the spread of the virus is to stop doing the hands-on caring that is usually the best of us as people.
Simultaneously, we live in an age of anxiety far disproportionate in most cases to the actual peril we face. Part of the reason for that anxiety I suspect comes from the fact that we have already been engaging in certain forms of social distancing for a half century or so. We already struggle to find communities outside work, entertainment, or certain special interest groups. We already conduct a large proportion of our social lives via online platforms and mechanisms. We already struggle to understand how we might fit into robust local communities. That isolated anxiety can only intensify if we thoughtlessly approach the social distancing that seems necessary from a public health perspective to stem the tide of this novel coronavirus.
This anxiety and other cultural norms related to the structures of our economy and its social commitment to Darwinism can create a terrible risk to our goodness and lovingkindness that intensifies in a time of crisis. As so often, the vulnerable among us (plus the healthcare workers) will bear the majority of the burden of this pandemic, both medically and socially. This represents a moral crisis on top of a medical crisis. And this is a call for Gospel action.
Rhetoric about how "healthy people will do just fine, and what do we care if a few more old people die than usually die of seasonal influenza?" seems to me to be a Darwinist denial of what is best in Gospel and in us. It is beneath us as God-believers and disciples of Jesus. We are called to care and to sacrifice on behalf of those who suffer rather than to gloat that "it's them, not me." I'm not naïve—I know that there are economic consequences to caution, that preventing pandemic doesn't come free. And I know that soldiers in opposing armies in the culture wars have been exploiting fears and anxieties to advance political agendas. But we are better than all that.
Fortunately, we as Latter-day Saints are good in crisis. The sometimes quaint-sounding millenarianism of our ancestors means that we are ready for pandemics. We've drilled for this our whole lives. When it became obvious that a more robust food storage would be useful to have, my wife sent me to the bishop's storehouse, where I bought cheap, safe food that can last decades. The sister at the register explained to me which Church farms provided which types of food in the #10 cans with practical labels. Costco's opulent shelves were reportedly bare, but we got about a month worth of wheat, beans, rice, carrots, and powdered milk for about a hundred dollars. When I was young, my family got our food from the storehouse for free. Now I'm glad to be able to pay for my part in maintaining community resilience. Following the lead of the marvelous Relief Society, we Saints have long known how to gather, store, and distribute food to those in need. It's part of what I love about our occasional refusal to abide the strict separations of temporal and spiritual that contemporary society hopes to impose on us.
But having a personal supply to weather a month-long quarantine is just the first step. Our duty as Latter-day Saints is to not just undertake appropriate social distancing to help spare the lives of our vulnerable siblings in the human family. Our duty is also to assure that this social distancing does not harm them, does not betray our lovingkindness, our deep humanity. Church is not just a social club; it's not an arbitrary hobby. It is a vessel for our gathering together in the presence of God. For those who participate, especially those for whom secular society has little interest or tolerance, Church participation is a lifeline. However one may feel about God, it is also true that for many people Church is in fact their home base, the source of stability in their lives. We who are hale and hearty and for whom the virus poses at most a slight personal risk have an awful lot of work to do.
What might our Gospel duty look like in coming weeks? I think it will involve setting up video feeds, both for broadcasting sermons in a remote sacrament meeting and for the give-and-take of classes or study groups so they can be managed via telepresence. It means monitoring supplies of food for people who were already homebound or those who become newly so. It means pitching in to community efforts (likely involving a combination of government and private and corporate philanthropy) to get people safely and effectively screened for disease to guide quarantines. It means pitching in where school closures isolate children from needed nutrition. It means intensive ministering visits via telepresence and careful monitoring of our own symptoms to assure that we don't contribute to rapid spread of the virus. Game nights and scripture study over telepresence sound mundane but may be crucial to people who are homebound. We mustn't forget parents of young children who may need multiple levels of reassurance and distraction during quarantine. We may find that our nightly rounds involve dropping food on the doorsteps of families placed into chaos by restrictions in work and school.
I'm not in charge of the Church and no one would or should ever want me to be. I admire and support the men and women who work tirelessly in support the renewal of heaven and earth as officers and leaders within the Church. I also believe that local wards are locations of substantial grace and creativity and there is much to learn as each ward or branch works to find its grace-filled path through social distancing. My sense is that within just a week or two, we in the US should be worshiping via telepresence; Washington state should likely be doing so now. I started telepresence worship this week (we used Facebook Live from a smart phone for sacrament meeting, and it worked great; we're experimenting with Zoom for classes). There's work to be done to figure out how to integrate the technology necessary for telepresence into the lives of vulnerable elders who may not find software interfaces intuitive or useful. There's work to understand how LDS lay volunteers can help to mitigate the ill effects of quarantine for the vulnerable among us. There's brainstorming work to be done to understand how to preserve and develop our lovingkindness in the midst of a viral exploitation of that very goodness. This is why we are God's. This is what mortality is for.
We've got this. Jesus and the Relief Society are with us in this crisis. It'll stretch us, but we've got this. It's time to gird up our loins in courage and determination.


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Time to Get Fit: Summer Workouts from Home
Sun kissed, cool breeze, warm air, bright and sunny. It's that time of year again, Summer is right around the corner!! With covid restrictions easing, it is going to become a poolside summer. However, with social media promoting unhealthy diet culture, it is vital to know how to prevent crash dieting, and hardcore exercises that squeeze every ounce of energy out of you in hopes of bouncing back to summer fitness, which can leave you susceptible to injury. Sometimes we find ourselves discouraged because we don't have a ride to go to the gym. However, there will no longer be any excuses from achieving your goals. Don't make up excuses and bounce back to fitness from the comfort of your own home. Here we provide six at home, bodyweight, free weight, and banded exercises. Equipment needed: free weights, knee bands, yourself, a smile, and the comforts of your own home.
Free Weight Exercises
Goblet Squat:
For a goblet squat, you will need a weight (weight depends on strength). However you can also have a dumbbell modification. Squats are the building blocks of strengthening your lower body. A goblet squat provides many health benefits as well as strengthening. A regular squat can promote back pain, however a goblet squat can prevent spinal problems, ultimately being a safe option. It releases stress off your back allowing for the exercise to target your glutes and quads. It also targets your abs as well because of the positioning of the dumbbell to your chest.
Deficit Reverse Lunge:
For this exercise, deficit reverse lunges call for free weights (weight depends on strength), it can also be modified with just bodyweight as well. Deficit reverse lunges hold many benefits for improving health and fitness. It works your lower body, back, hips, while promoting coordination and balance.
Banded Exercises
Knee banded Lateral walks:
For these lateral walks, you will need an elastic band to provide resistance. This resistance promotes balance and stability in your hips. It not only engages your hips, but also your glutes. This exercise promotes several health benefits. Another one is improving knee strength. If you do the exercise properly, you can improve your balance and stability, overall a win-win.
Knee-Banded Hip Abduction:
The equipment needed for this exercise is an elastic band (resistance of band depends on strength). Knee-banded hip abduction holds many health improvements. As we get older, our hip abductors become no longer what they used to. These muscles are vital in motion as they allow us to walk, standup allow for range of motion. Knee banded hip abduction can promote strength and treat knee and hip pains. This exercise will allow you to keep moving well into your elder years.
Bodyweight Exercises
Side-to-Side Plank:
Pushups- the exercise we have all known to grow and hate. I introduce side-to-side planks. This variation is a core engaged burner without the dread of a push up. This exercise channels three muscles as you work: your obliques are in motion as you move side to side. It also promotes spinal health, eliminating injury possibility. It also strengthens your hips and shoulders, working all three muscles at once. If you struggle with balance, this exercise will promote coordination as well. Overall, side-to-side planks provide many health benefits, so if you are interested, follow the steps below for this firing workout.
Bulgarian Split Squats:
If achieving stronger legs is one of your goals, Bulgarian split squats is the one for you. This leg strengthening single leg squat exercise targets four muscles, calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Because it is close to a single leg squat, it forces your body to fire at all those muscles at once. In doing so, it promotes coordination balance. This is a leg dominant exercise that will boost your energy and strength. If you want to add Bulgarian split squats to your summer routine, then follow the steps below.
My name is Alexandra Silva and I am a junior. I love to eat almonds and pretzels. In my leisure time, I like to play with my dog or watch teen wolf because...


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De mis días perfilando criminológicamente a "El Chapo" Guzmán. #Profiling #701 #Work #Passion #Job #AcuerdoDeConfidencialidadChecked #SecretoDeProfesionChecked 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/QVsu5FiISZ— Mónica Ramírez Cano (@MonRamirezCano) September 8, 2020
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
El Chapo tells a criminologist he has only one addiction.....
79 comments:
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 10:56 AM
El Viejon de pura paragraph. "Guzmán Loera is an old-school boss who respects the word."ReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 10:00 PM
Old school bosses didn't cooperate with the government, put their friends in jail or cry on tv that statement is a personal opinionDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 9:23 AM
@9:00 You watch too many movies, all bosses from all mafias work with the government.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 8:22 PM
@8:23 no they dont. To have goverment ppl on the take and pay them to do a service for your criminal organization or in mexicos case to have the local police basically be a part of the local criminal group is not the same as snitching. Old school bosses in mexico like Ernesto Carrillo Fonseca or Fellix Gallardo or Escobar or Gacha or the Ochoas in colombia they didnt snitch.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:12 AM
The Boss! There will never be another Godfather like Don Guzman.ReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 12:56 PM
This guy is a rat Palma caro and el senior de los cielos are the real onesDelete
Lmao you're a moronDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 3:38 PM
Godfather 😂 lol!Delete
Palma is the best 💯😎Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:11 PM
Don't forget about Arturo Beltran Leyva.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 7:40 AM
LOL "godfather" that lived half of his life in sewers and mountains. Guys from cartels are all bums in baggy crappy clothes. They are psychopaths without any sense of normal life. They all look like shit when Navy presents them after capturing.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 4:32 PM
September 9, 2020 at 11:56 AM.....Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:18 AM
When will Lopez obrador will have the balls to attack the cds? He's letting them go off easy.ReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 12:24 PM
Sinaloenses have been in the drug business for a long long time. A lot of their money is invested/ laundered in legitimate businesses. To attack CDS where it hurts would be to destabilize or even destroy the states economy. So chances are, even though he would like to go 100 on CDS he won't.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 4:18 PM
11:24 The old cartel was cartel de guadalajara cds is actually not that old for a cartel, if we go by names all cartels now a days are pretty new! Now if we talk about individuals tamaulipas, jalisco, colima and michoacan have a lot of old narcos who have invested in leggit businesses, for you to say dont attack cds cause of the economy you pretty much are saying dont attack any cartel!Delete
Amlo wants Chapo back, a lot $$$$$$$Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 5:27 PM
So it's ok to have a different treatment to cjng, cdn, cdg, csrl, huachicoleros, and corrupted now detain mexican politicians. But treat those murdering hypocrites cds like best friends. But because they have money & power. He doesn't want to do shit to them. Ok that makes sense.Delete
Maybe is the same strategy operation GOLPE AL TIMON. Get this cartel disable first and then get the other powerful gang group.
- AnonymousSeptember 11, 2020 at 3:46 PM
@3:18 I understand the old cartel was "Cartel de Guadalajara" but that still doesn't take away from the fact that the key players were Sinaloenses. What I'm trying to tell you is that Sinaloa's foundation sits on drug money.Delete
Sinaloas involvement in the drug business predates the creation of the Guadalajara cartel. My mom was born in the mid 1930's and her uncles were already involved in drug trafficking.
With that being said, a lot of the funds generated from drug trafficking were already being laundered at that time. If AMLO were to ever shut down companies or businesses who launder drug money in Sinaloa he would pretty much be sending the whole state into something far beyond a recession. Do you know how many legitimate jobs are created in Sinaloa as a result of illicit funds! We're talking about farming and agriculture, meat and dairy, supermarkets, pharmecies, restaurants, construction, public maintenance, you name it, Sinaloa uses it as a front to launder their money. I don't want to start throwing numbers around but the percentage is high.. We're talking atleast 60 years of money laundering in that state.
I understand everyone wants to take pride in the region they're from and claim theirs as the best. Judging by the 4 states you mentioned I'm assuming that's where you or your parents are from. I know sometimes it's hard to swallow the facts. I'm not here to argue or justify or say "Sinaloa is the best".
All I'm saying is, Sinaloa is literally a "narco state". The roots run deep. As I mentioned earlier, my mom was born in the mid 30's, and her uncles were already involved. Same goes for many Families from the triangulo dorado region. Think about it, Chapo's dad was peddling drugs, his mom is now 93, so it just goes to show. The same can be said for the Carrillos, Beltranes, Arellanos, Quinteros, Felix and the list goes on and on and on.
Not trying to take anything away from Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan. I'm sure they have some old school capos that nobodies ever heard of. I've been to all three states you mentioned and I can tell you from what I've witnessed, that most people in those states are not involved in the drug trade the way people are in Sinaloa. Take a trip to Sinaloa and you'll see the difference.
- AnonymousSeptember 11, 2020 at 4:09 PM
@4:27 I never said it was ok to treat cartels any different, but, "Segun el sapo, la pedrada."Delete
CDS isn't structured like CJNG, CSRL or any of the other cartels you mentioned. You go after "CDS" and you would only be going after a faction. "CDS" is an association composed of many families, with many of those families working in the shadows, pushing their own product and making their own moves. We're talking about a LOT of families that "make up" "CDS".
GOLPE DE TIMON worked on CSRL because of how that gang was structured. The same strategy wouldn't work on "CDS" because the "structure" if any at that is more complex.
- AnonymousSeptember 14, 2020 at 6:31 PM
3:09 thats how all big cartels work is not just one individual, if you think cds is the only one with that kind of structure you must be new, all cartels need leggit bussinesses to lounder money, why is it so hard for people to understand that?Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 15, 2020 at 2:26 AM
Jajajaja @2:46/3:09 Chinaloas are payasos, fanfarrones, habladores, buchones..Your jefa is from the 30's and your tios were involved in planting mota y goma but you being a Chinaloa will also claim they were moving 100's or 1000's of cuadros de coca when they were barely surviving en el cerro sin luz y comunicación. Fomentar la ignorancia por unos años de "opulencia" en ves del estudio y trabajo honesto no los hace más listos sino unos bueyes con viejas que después andan de palo en palo por tal de sobrevivir. Tantas décadas y la población no salen de la miseria no habla muy bien de la gente movida de tu querido Sinaloa..Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2020 at 1:40 PM
Your right ABOUT SINALOA being a narco STATE.. I live in Phoenix and there is a lot of chinolas here.. MOST were selling DRUGS when I was growing UP.. Those dudes had MONEY but now are ALL deported OR in prison. THAT'S nothing to BE PROUD of.. Moral of the STORY is... "kids stay in school, no FUTURE in selling ILLIGAL drugs" JUST saying..Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2020 at 9:58 PM
@1:26 🤣🤣🤣🤣 The irony... The only payaso here is you. Who said anything about moving thousands of pounds? Who's the one being a fanfarron hablador? Por dartela de muy estudiado you do a great job of making ignorant comments. Te cuelgas de un comentario, y piensas que me coneces? Que sera? Seran celos, sera envidia o sera que tu supuesta sabirudia te cega de tu propia ignorancia?Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:54 AM
If Chapo writes a book I'll buy it.ReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 5:31 PM
If sicario 006 is on the back cover i'll buy itDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 6:21 PM
He DOESN'T know how to read or writeDelete
GOOD luck with THAT 😆
Maybe a picture book?...
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:05 PM
First he needs to learn how to writeDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 10:02 PM
He can barely write his nameDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:54 AM
Wars have also killed thousands of people. Along with those who profit from death.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 12:00 PM
That's a damn lie dude made deals with any crook not to mention he betrayed his own cousins los Beltran and didn't respect people's plazas causes he had protection from the cia or dea or USA governmentReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 12:15 PM
Who knows maybe he would have Been a decent person if he had a decent job opportunity with good payReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 12:39 PM
How is selling drugs and causing wars between cartels is respecting the world?🤔 i also think he had another adiction and that was snitchingReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 1:12 PM
I have a feeling hes gonna play a last ace under his sleeve(with the chapitos) upong leaving office like El Pendejo Nieto did with el chapoReplyDelete
Animo sicarios !ReplyDelete
This is the best part of the article
"Guzmán Loera is an old-school boss who respects the word."
Like el Señor Im also addicted to beautiful women (hey Chivis)
New People 006
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 1:37 PM
Tambien matando viejas o mandando a que se prostitullan es un negocio para algunos.ReplyDelete
No queire decir que es lo correcto hacer.
Este pendejo de el Chapo y sus estupidos seguidores piensan que solo porke una oportunidad se presenta se debe tomar y haci no es.
Y no salgan con que no ay oportunidades legales buenas si siempre lo a habido. Solo que son unoa pinche huevones para tomarlas bola de mierdas todos!
Animo Playboys.ReplyDelete
You can tell Mónica Ramírez Cano is infactuated with El Señor.
#701 Jefe de Jefes ,Jefe de La Sierra,
Im just reading this article drinking some Buchannon del Special Reserve 18, listening to some corridos alterados del Señor and La Gente Nueva.
Every Gente Nueva Special Forces Tier One operator has a special medal and a HK MP5 of 24 kt gold and diamond encrusted with a picture of el Señor !
New People 006
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 2:35 PM
The last real capo not that fake Mayo guy who is always hiding in the caves, there will never be another capo as real and cunning as chapo , he was the last of the good onesReplyDeleteReplies
That "last real capo" is right where he belongs, rotting in a supermax cell where the scenery never changes. The "fake Mayo guy" has never been caught and at least gets to change caves every now and then. They both deserve a lot worse than they are getting.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 9:00 PM
Mayo is probably dead didn't he have a heart attack at some point they probably say he's alive so people can steal fear them. Them as cdsDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 10:03 PM
Right, so cunning that he met with Hollywood actors to make a movie 🤦♂Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 1:13 AM
1:35 PM You don't know anything Capos like Lucky Luciano, Amado Carrillo, Juan Esparagoza Moreno take Note Moreno, Nazario Gonzalez Moreno hint. Are Capos that had so much power they faked their own death and continued to operate behind the shadows. The level of power one wields for the government and the world to declare you dead is something that is on another level.Delete
Chapo was nothing more than a snake hiding in the grass. If he hadn't been as greedy as he was he would have been able to do the same. Mayo might be able to pull that off it depends and from the looks of it Mencho might pull it off. The reports that he has liver or kidney problems might be true I imagine Mencho developed a Heroin addiction that he just couldn't kick or maybe that is what he wants to feds to think.
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 8:18 PM
12:14 all were owned by higher powers, Lucky Luciano was Meyer Lansky's bitch, for example andDelete
Meyer was owned too.
- AnonymousSeptember 13, 2020 at 6:18 PM
7:18 PM Watch the Godfather again. Its all in the eyes chico. I wonder what Pablo was doing in America and who he came to see. Their is wealth on both sides of the tracks. Lucky answered to no one but himself and the advice of the wise.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 2:42 PM
I respect Z 40 for being honest and not trying act like he is some saint.ReplyDeleteReplies
I'm sure he appreciates your respect for himDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 6:21 PM
He is deserving of NO respect!Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 8:19 PM
Zeta chorrienta says he is just a farmer tooDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 3:18 PM
Criminologist is a clown. Those conversations are private and shouldn't be leaked of El Lloron.ReplyDelete
I'm not a cds nuthugger
~ALMO nuthuggerReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:30 PM
Criminalogist's interviews with subjects are not therapy and not protected like therapist sessions are.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 9:29 AM
Well like everyone elseDelete
she will sell her soul for a little money or fame
like your ALMO when he lost his first election and started a riot
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 10:23 AM
2 more years and he's home because of this❤Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 12:21 PM
They're not considered private.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 4:12 PM
11:15 true! Who knows! Maybe you could of been worse than mencho if you ever got involved with a cartel! But the "who knows" dont matter what matters are actions and factsReplyDelete
No mames wey!ReplyDelete
Si vien todos saben que te metiste *chapo* mucha coca.
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 5:36 PM
Don Mayo Zambada is the real godfather el padrino...chapo was just another card on mayos deck of cards and thats the sad truth of all this.ReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 2:31 AM
Lol shut up with that theory mayo doesn't even tell chapos kids what to do let alone tell chapo what to doDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 9:50 AM
Bro can you not realize the cartel is split into fractions. El rey zambada testified that el mayo and Chapo were primary leaders. Arturo, nacho Coronel, and everybody else were sub leaders.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 8:22 PM
4:36 when Amado Carrillo Fuentes told El Mayo to bring him El Chapo's head to prove who he was with, El Mayo went to live with El Chapo, period...Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 15, 2020 at 2:32 AM
@7:22 do you mean VCF after RCF was killed in Cinépolis of CLN?Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 5:37 PM
An astute person is not gonna buy into what she is selling. It's a cat and mouse game and maybe the only truth he told her the entire evaluation was that he is addicted to women.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 6:45 PM
Can we really blame him when his state is full of beautiful woman and The states next to his are also full of beautys.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 6:59 PM
That's a no brainer. Goodness gracious.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:27 PM
10:54 oh, ok Chapo is a swell guy then.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:30 PM
99% of those people killed were scum cartel members like zetas and línea that extort innocents so live by the sword die by the swordReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:31 PM
99% of those people killed were scum cartel members like zetas and línea that extort innocents so live by the sword die by the swordReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:48 PM
What is more natural in this world than for a man to love women?Women are gods gift to us dudes,we should treat them accordingly,fuck all the political shit.Man and womanReplyDeleteReplies
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 8:25 PM
7:48 according to The Highest Authority, THE BIBLE, man lost paradise because of a woman but she still blames the snake.Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 13, 2020 at 1:04 PM
You cant resist can you girlDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 15, 2020 at 9:39 AM
This guy is a narcissits, if you didnt know that a mental illness just like having diabetes or TB. That lady dumb asf too I would of took his shower and put him on a low calorie diet, a ver si sigue diciendo pendejadas! Es adicto al poder y al sufriminto ajeno de las personas inocentes, alomejor por eso queria mucho a su mama tal vez se involucraban en coito insestuoso. Arriba EL Menco Y el Chapo Y todos! pero arriba de una estaca del culo ala boca!Delete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:18 PM
Do you have any info on her interview with Z40???ReplyDelete
Chapo is Michael Jackson of drug trafficking.ReplyDelete
@ 730 Your number is way off. Chapo killed plenty of innocents...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 11:30 AM
Must be one of these morons who have watched Scarface a 100 times.a lot of idiots on here fore sure defending a guy who ran crews of sicarios who would pick anyone up and disappear them
- AnonymousSeptember 10, 2020 at 11:31 AM
Did you march in Culiacan for the freedom and human rights of chapo
Chapo had addiction to LAME ASS WOMEN. Look at his 1 wife that he married while in prison- whats up with that?? You would think theyd be flying in supermodels like the sultan of brunei- but nah, they be banging chicks that look like straight DOG SHIT- He threw it all away for kate del castillo- that says it all- shes like a 6 in la- maybe even a 5ReplyDelete
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Published: 10/11/2015
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Picture 2
J.M. Blackman's Picture Choice: Both
Title: Interference
It was a small town. Small in that way that vacationers love—quaint, quiet and lulled damn near to sleep with its old town charm. People walked to work every day. Neighbors had been neighbors for generations. There were people that could name every resident on their street—along with who they'd married, divorced and who they'd run off with after the fact. The kind of antiquated feel that Nicolas Sparks fans ate up.
But that's not what drew me. I couldn't give a single shit about their charm. It was their ghosts, their malevolent spirits, restless energies that mattered to me. The more unhappy the spirit, the more violent. The more violent, the bigger the paycheck.
And there was a spirit in this creaking town that screamed KA-CHING every time it rattled its death chains.
I could barely wait to strangle every last dollar out of it with its own rusted restraints.
Only problem was: most of my prowess was supported by technology. And these sort of picturesque towns had a fierce aversions to technology. Dust, mugginess, water and more dust. I nearly choked my assistant in the street when she slipped on the glassy water in the square.
If she had lost my MacBook, she would have lost a lot more than her low-paying job.
But she managed to keep her feet, and I managed to keep my temper. Together, we managed to look entirely the part of the outsiders that we were.
It was no bother. I didn't need to fit in with the locals to do my job. So, we sloshed through the town until we found the residence in question: a blushing brick face with wooden trimmings, spilling at the windowsills with fresh ferns. Just enough of the old-world to force my gag reflex.
We found the driest room and set up. It wasn't long before the room was a deathtrap of hot towers, glaring monitors and sensors that were just as expensive as they were sensitive.
Then, I got to work. We didn't need to confirm that there was some big, bad spirit who wanted to stay right where it was. We already knew that. We knew it wasn't looking to move on. We knew it was looking to hang on. I just needed to narrow down the spot to which the spirit was clinging, and essentially clean it. That way there was nothing to hold onto.
"Early 40s male left by his wife," I rattled off, flipping through a binder. "He was poisoned, but survived several days after the poisoning. They found his body a week or so later once the papers and…milk bottles had piled up."
"But he's still here," Sherry said, nibbling at her bottom lip. "Waiting on his wife?"
"More than likely," I murmured. "But she's long dead and if she wasn't, she wasn't coming back here. It's likely she's the one who poisoned him before she ran off."
"So, how do we convince him to go?"
"They've already tried that," I said patiently. "That's why we're here."
Sherry dropped her head to her chest. "We're going to scrub him."
I waited until she looked up for confirmation and greeted her dawning horror with a smile. "Get the gloves."
The gloves, of course, were not ordinary gloves. Neither was what we would be scrubbing with. The gloves were lined with iron—great for dispersing any spirits, nasty or not. And the "scrubbers" were actually ionized batons that we ran across the spots of contingency until there was nothing left. We simply had to find the hotspot and get rid of it.
Standard forced evacuation. It could get ugly--shattered glass, crumbling stone and rattling doors. An assistant or two had been thrown into a wall, but no one had ever been seriously injured. Bumps and bruises that a little time off could heal. Sherry would get over it.
The spirit wouldn't.
Oddly enough, the dearly departed's hotspot was in the corner of the room we'd set up in. That didn't happen often, but it was a lucky break. We didn't have to go far to get started.
The usual vibrations accompanied our first sweep, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. The howling was within a normal range. So, was the sourceless wind and instant chill. We bundled up and kept scrubbing.
We worked in silence until Sherry gave one of shrillest shrieks yet.
"Sherry," I snapped. "Get it together." I already knew what the problem was. He'd shown himself. Understandable, considering we were getting rid of him. "He has no power here."
"You're wrong there," a voice whispered. Now, that was unusual. Ghosts can show, they can rattle, they can howl. But they do not speak. Ever.
I didn't have time to turn around.
The screens around us blanked. Every beeping, whirring, whistling thing died into a silence that thundered over my stuttering heartbeat. I started to slide to the floor without giving my body permission to do so. Sherry was curled up on the floor. I couldn't tell if she was still conscious, or even alive for that matter.
My eyelids refused, like everything else on me, to listen, and began to close.
But I caught the last message that flashed across the screen:
Like what you just read? Have a question or concern? Leave a note for the author! We appreciate your feedback!
J.M. Blackman is a Language Arts teacher, author rep'd by Gina Panettieri and a feminist. She endeavors to review nearly everything she reads and is a happy wife. She's a SFF enthusiast, loves dark humor, and has an unhealthy need to protect the image of Batman.


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As an Indigenous woman and Community Engagement Coordinator for Reconciliation Canada, Charlene Seward knows that open dialogues are essential stepping stones into a reconciled world in which everyone feels welcomed. We sat down with her to tap into some of her incredible perspectives on social inclusion and racial discrimination.
Can you tell us a little bit about who you are?
I'm a mother, the Community Engagement Coordinator for Reconciliation Canada, and a board member for a non-profit organization called Kwi Awt Stelmexw. They're dedicated to revitalizing the Squamish language through programs such as one based at SFU.
What does reconciliation mean to you?
For me, reconciliation is very individual and personal. Before I could go out and spread the message of reconciliation, I had to first reconcile with myself as an inter-generational survivor, a mother, and as an Indigenous woman in B.C.
Do you ever get asked frustrating questions?
I'd rather be asked a question than have people assume. There are questions that seem a little weird sometimes for sure but I think it's about the reaction to it that's also important. When someone asks me something, I assume their intention is to learn, not to judge.
You're very understanding. Is there something that helped you get to that place?
I'm lucky to have grown up with my parents teachings. They've always told me that other people have different teachings and it's your job to respect that. It's not your job to own it or take it on but when someone tells you something that they believe in, you say "thank you for sharing."
Is there a moment where you felt proud for doing or saying something?
I was on an airplane to Prince Rupert last month and I had this great conversation with the guy beside me. He asked "what is reconciliation?" Growth can happen from just having those conversations with an open mind and heart. It became a really positive conversation. We talked for two hours about the state of Indigenous people in Canada and what Reconciliation Canada does.
What do you wish that people better understood about Canada's colonial history?
I wish it had been a part of the school curriculum earlier. A lot of people don't know about the colonial history of Canada and that's unfortunate because it's really shaped what this country is.
Has Vancity made any impact in the work that you do?
Absolutely. Vancity is the founding partner of Reconciliation Canada so they've been instrumental in the work that we do. Developing the relationship with Vancity has been so meaningful; we've worked closely with many different people and had so much support. There's a sense of community and connection to Vancity.
You're a Vancity member, have you always been with them?
I switched to Vancity 10 years ago. Before that, I was with a big corporate bank because I worked for a big corporate bank. My ex-husband introduced me to Vancity and told me a bit about them and what a co-operative is. The ideals clicked immediately. It felt right.
How do you feel that we can be more inclusive as a community?
I think it's about dropping preconceived notions and conceptions and being honest with yourself. I think it's about the individual because if dialogue can't happen between two people, it doesn't matter what policies are happening. We need to have open dialogue, and be open to rich dialogue.


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Episode 2 Transcript: Scared Straight
[Bus Ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: It's Spring 2017 and I'm on the 733 bus line, heading west on Venice Boulevard. I'm sitting in the back of the bus. It's the early afternoon, and there's nobody else sitting next to me. I'm listening to music on my headphones when I notice an old friend hop on. It's Ivan. And we used to be in the same circles when I used to tag in the early 2000s. Ivan hasn't changed one bit. He's still wearing oversized t-shirts and still speaks from the side of his mouth like he used to when we were teenagers. His hair's still cut really low, too. It's been more than fifteen years since we last saw one another.
Ivan: "Oh shit, what's up man?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We dap each other up and hug. He sits next to me.
Ivan: "Ey……..you still write?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: "Yeah……..I do still write." This is California Love, and I'm Walter.
[Theme music]
[Scared Straight ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I was twelve years old, and I was wearing the grey crew neck sweater and matching sweatpants that the officers had issued to me. My last name was written on the back of my sweater to identify me. In '97, the Scared Straight program met at the downtown L.A. Central Police Station three times a week. Twice a week we had classes, and on Saturdays that's when we had boot camp.
They made us do push-ups, burpees, squats, sprints, and more burpees, and all on the station's hot roof. About two dozen of us, all under the age of 17 were in the program, usually because a judge had ordered us to attend for some crime we had committed. One of the guys was a graffiti legend named Sight, a South Central writer whose name could be seen throughout the city. He was, what writers called, an all-city bomber. His stuff was everywhere.
I was like, "Damn, that's Sight!"
Sight: What I do remember is um — all the cops getting mad at me, screaming at me in my face. The saliva all in my face.
[Scared Straight ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Some people were there for skipping school, fighting, or violating probation. But Sight and I? We were both there for graffiti vandalism.
Sight: I had about 10 or eleven warrants for graffiti, all kind of stuff…
[Door slam, footsteps]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I started tagging with a group of friends I had met in middle school. And once I learned how to tag, I began to go out and paint the streets. Maybe it was all the things I was seeing and experiencing at home that drove me to be as far away from it as possible. My mom had a boyfriend at the time — this white dude — who was unemployed and smoked weed and drank heavily every single day. He was abusive and controlling towards me and my mom. And he and I would often physically fight, which led to numerous visits from the police. Home was definitely somewhere I didn't want to be.
And Sight's home life? It was just as rocky as mine.
[Street ambi]
Sight: Me and my mom were sleeping in parks in the car, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for night. We slept in a lot of back streets in South Central L.A., like Western, Imperial. And then the sheriffs will kick us out.
[car ambi]
Sight: And we'll move on one block over.
[Graffiti ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Graffiti was a lot of things for me. It was an outlet — a way for me to take out the rage, pain, and the hurt I was experiencing at home. The streets and walls, they were basically my therapy.
Sight: I existed when I did graffiti. I existed, and that's why I started doing it, that sense of awakening, rebirth.
[Scared Straight ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: The first Saturday that Sight and I were there, the inmates and guards took turns yelling at us. And he and I smiled at each other the whole time. (AW-HA). We thought they were suckers. Our moms were both with us that day. And we knew the guards couldn't put their hands on us. So we felt safe. And we talked our shit.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Punk-ass cops.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: But Scared Straight? It actually didn't scare me straight. In fact, it got me deeper into graffiti. About two years after I finished the program, I started catching spots with a guy named Aloe. He was pretty well known in the graf world — and the crazy part? He looked just like one of my favorite rappers.
Aloe: Yeah, everyone used to call me Tupac.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: In just a few months, we became like brothers and we joined the same crew.
Aloe: You were young and willing to do graffiti, so I was like, "Hey, we could be besties. And let's do this together."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Aloe's talking like an old head right now, but he's really only three years older than me. He and I spent everyday together painting the city. This means going out and tagging.
Aloe: I remember there were times I'm like, "Uhh, I don't really feel like doing this." You're like, "Come on, let's go." And I'm like, "All right. Let's go." And we would go, and then it's like once we're there, it's like, "Ah, like I'm so glad like I did this." There's a lot of people, too, like I knew a lot of people too and not everyone — like, they'll say, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's go. Let's go." But like who really wants to go, you know what I mean? Who's really gonna go?
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Aloe and I spent a whole summer together. And our bond was stronger than any relationship I've had as an adult. 'Cause he was also unhappy and tormented by his home life. We were just kids, but we understood each other's pain, and how ignored we both felt.
Aloe taught me how to tag on the Venice Boulevard bus lines. We caught spots on the panels and the overhead lights.
Aloe: I taught him how to do everything that he knows.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Shut up!
Aloe: [LAUGH] So you're scribing into a transparent case. So people wouldn't be able to see it. There has to be some way to make what you just wrote pop out into the world. So usually what we would do is we would take like dirt from somewhere.
[Rubbing ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: So we'd lick our fingers and rub the tops of the lights
Aloe: You would smudge that on the spot. The dirt would end up filling the spaces of the graffiti spot that you just caught.
[Scribbling ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Bam.
[Rubbing ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Now your spot is going to be seen.
[Bus ambi]
Aloe: I used to show him like different slap tags and how you write on a slap tag. For those of you that don't know, like Post Office used to have like stickers that people use for mailing. And graffiti artists just go and grab them. They're free stickers. We could just write what we want on them.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We'd sometimes go back to Aloe's house after painting and lock ourselves in his room.
Aloe: Just smoke and drink in there, play music. Lot of Wu Tang. Lot of Tupac.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: All eyes on me
Aloe: Lot of Nas, lot of Biggie. And just write, just write, just write.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We wrote our names all over the city because we felt invisible and it was fun.
Sight: I existed when I did graffiti. I existed.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We painted freeway overpasses: National Boulevard, Robertson, Crenshaw. We painted billboards on Venice Boulevard. We painted at the Belmont yards, the L.A. River, and the motor yards. We were everywhere. But our names rarely stayed up for more than a few days.
For four years I tagged, and for four years a white guy named Joe Connolly painted over our spots. 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. This guy, Joe, made it his mission to buff out tags using paint and equipment he had purchased himself. Seeing him buff out my throw ups wasn't a good feeling, because creating that art took a lot out of me. Like this one time, when I spent an entire night doing a piece with large bubble style letters on a rooftop near Pico and Robertson, and it was gone the very next morning. And I knew it was Joe. And it wasn't just us, it was all of us. There was a whole city of kids putting up spots, trying to be seen, and then this white guy named Joe would come out and erase us again.
Joe was definitely a villian. It felt like he was our villain.
[Scrubbing ambi]
Joe Connolly: You could write all day long but you're never going to get up in the morning and see your shit 'cause it'll all be buffed.
Joe Connolly: "You couldn't even read the sign earlier. You could not read the sign."
Joe Connolly: My name is Joe Connolly. They call me The Graffiti Guerilla, among other things.
Joe Connolly: "Look at that! Isn't that beautiful? I mean, it's not like it was the day they made it. But it's nice. Isn't that nice looking?" Scrubbing sounds fade under.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Joe was a one man anti-graffiti unit. You may have seen his infamous sign up at Pico and Fairfax. It says:
Joe Connolly: Graffiti no longer accepted here. Please find a day job. Thank you. 1993. Joe Connelly, The Graffiti Guerilla.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Joe used to chase us out of the motor yards and paint over our spots. We all thought he was a city employee, but really Joe acted alone.
[Sounds of painting ambi]
Joe Connolly: After the King riots, a neighbor organized up. The building was still burned out, trees didn't want to get planted. All these people want to fix the neighborhood. Helicopters were everywhere.
So I went to this meeting, and they had all these things that people — they wanted people to do. There's only like 7 or 8 of us there. So I'm sitting there and I'm thinking I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not volunteering. I mean I'm working seven days a week. I got two little kids. I'm making money. I'm not...
So they said uh graffiti was the last thing on the thing. They said, "You're taking graffiti." I'm like, "Yeah, cool. That'd be excellent. 'Cause there's no graffiti around." I go out the next day. And I start driving around. I'm like, Oh my God.
Joe Connolly: "Kay, we out, right"?
Walter Thompson-Hernández: It was late summer 2000. Aloe and I spent a night catching spots all over the Westside before going back to his house to chill. And then, at 4 a.m., I got a weird craving for Hawaiian Punch. So we decided to walk to Ralph's.
Aloe: And then you took a streak, and then for some some stupid reason I was like, "Hey, let's record this." And I took this video camera that I had.
[City ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We didn't make it to the store.
[Marker scribbling ambi]
Aloe: We cross the street, and you decide to start tagging on a trash can. And my dumb ass – instead of looking out, looking back – I'm looking in through the lens at you, and –
[Police radio ambi]
Aloe: Police pulled up on us.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: The cops handcuffed us, made us sit on the curb, and then separated us for questioning. I was already on probation for a previous graffiti offense. I thought I was for sure going to juvie.
The cops says to me,
Voice: "What's your name?"
Back then, I hadn't started also using my mom's last name, Hernández. So I said, "Walter Thompson" and the cops were like,
Voice: "That's not your name."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: They thought I was lying to them. They thought Walter Thompson sounded like an eighty-year-old white dude's name. And, now that I'm thinking about it, they were kinda right.
Aloe: I remember them asking me about that.Voice: "So what's your friend's name?"
Aloe: And I was like, "Bezoe." [laughing] 'Cause I'm not trying to give up your name. I didn't know what you said. So I was like, "Bezoe." And the cop was like,
Voice: "Stop fucking around."
Aloe:I was like, "I don't know. I don't know his name." 'Cause I was like, "Maybe he's not gonna give his name."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: So Aloe and I start laughing at the cops for not believing me. But the cops? They didn't think it was funny. They got mad, and they got frustrated –
[Car door]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: And put us in separate cars and took us back to the station. I went home after three hours. But Aloe? He was there for almost 3 days.
[Spray can ambi]
Sight: People can just know me as Sight. S-I-G-H-T.My mom kicked me out when I graduated from high school. She kicked me out because she felt she couldn't afford to take care of me anymore. So here I am thinking I'm about to get ready to go to community college. Nope.
I used to sleep in my homie's garage. I used to sleep in the garage with the dog right here on Normandie and 76th, 'cause he couldn't let me stay in his house but he was like, "Hey, I got a garage." And me and sometimes me and the dog would fight over who would sleep on the couch.
That's where graffiti really kicked into high gear because I was out, depressed, lonely, hungry. And this is the only thing that kept my spirits up, letting that trauma out, doing graffiti.
There's a human need to express yourself. Unfortunately, the lower classes and the impoverished don't have the spaces and the walls to just be creative. They don't own nothing. They can't write on their own apartment building, they gonna get kicked out. They don't have a house to do it in the backyard. So where they gonna do it at? The streets are they canvas.
[Graffiti ambi]
Ambi of Joe scrubbing graffiti fades under: "Look it: they got stars, and they got — they got can control. It's popping at the top. This is somebody that's been in the game for a while. This is nice."
Joe Connolly: Once I started noticing it and all that, I got interested in it. And then I started studying it and going out mainly with taggers.
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti: "Isn't that some shit?"
Joe Connolly: I said, "Look I just want to travel with you guys." They're like, "Oh, fuck you stupid white boy." I'm like, "Okay. Well, I'm gonna learn about this no matter what." I said, "I just want to learn."
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti: "See that? See where it's skinny and it goes up like that and it pops right there with that little circle? That's called 'can control.'"
Joe Connolly: There's nobody, I don't think there's anybody in the world that gets graffiti like me. I don't-I don't-it would take a lot.
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti: "Oh, man. Look at this. This stuff is–this is stuff on top of stuff on top of stuff."
Joe Connolly: A lot of people get — they don't get that graffiti has to start with all these tags, and then it moves to a throw up and then it can be a mural, then it can be a burner, it can be a — a production, you know, and so only a small amount of people are gonna be able to get the art side of it, the real art side of it, whatever that might be and then make a living at it, and that's cool. But if they aren't allowed to tag, they won't get there, and the world would really suck if we didn't have graffiti.
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti: "I mean okay yeah some of this stuff takes a while to get to. But if you get out every day it takes no time."
Joe Connolly: I don't get excited by graffiti. It doesn't bother me that it keeps going up. It has to go up, otherwise the artist can't emerge, and they should be entitled to emerge. I mean it's-it's-and a lot of them their stories are interesting to hear.
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti: "Well, kind of can read it."
Joe Connolly: So why would I keep painting out graffiti if-if I enjoy it? Because A) they have to do it. 2) They expect it to get painted out. And 3) kind of gives them a fresh canvas to keep going.
Ambi of Joe cleaning graffiti fades out
Walter Thompson-Hernández: It all sounds like bullshit to me, too. How could somebody love graffiti soooo much and spend every day destroying it? It just doesn't really add up — right? It sounds like something he says in front of taggers so that he won't get beat up.
Voice: "Hey, Thompson. Your mom's here. You're out."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: After getting arrested that night with Aloe, I changed my life. My mom was the reason. She picked me up from the station at 6 a.m. And it wasn't the first time. But there was something about that night that was different. She looked worn out. She looked like a mom who had no more fight in her. I was really tired of disappointing her. I was afraid of her being afraid for me. And I knew I had to change things up.
Aloe: I remember trying to call you, and like you were avoiding me. And then I finally got ahold of you, and then you said something like, "Oh, I'm just kind of busy right now." And I was like, "You? Busy? For me? What the fuck's wrong, what's going on right now?"
[SFX of answering machine: "Please leave a message after the tone." Beep.]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I stopped answering his calls.
Aloe: Yeah, like you pretty much ghosted me from right there.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I started going to class again.
Aloe: It was just like, yeah, what the hell, dude?
[Answering machine: beep]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I started playing basketball again.
Aloe: So I'm getting teary as I'm s-saying this right now.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: And I quit weed and stopped drinking, too.
Aloe: After that, I just-I think I couldn't find anyone else to really connect with. And then I actually started getting more into like fighting for some reason. I was never like a big fighter, but all of a sudden I'm like Mr. Macho Man, and I want to fight everybody.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: My best friend and I wouldn't see or talk to each other for 17 years. It was one of the hardest choices I ever made. Because I left friends behind who I considered family. And it hit the hardest when I'd see their names on the walls and not my own. It felt like they had carried on with their lives and forgot about me. And it was harder because deep inside I knew that it was something that I brought upon myself.
I left a world where I was completely seen only to re-enter a world where being seen wasn't guaranteed. And for a 14-year-old, it was all really confusing.
I wanted to change. And soon the entire L.A. graffiti world would also change.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: By 2006, Sight had briefly stepped back from graffiti. He was no longer homeless, but his mom was. He was working to save money to buy his mom a home because he wanted to rescue her from the parks she was sleeping in. He was going to school at a community college and working two jobs.
Sight: And my grandmother was like, after she saw how productive I was and how serious I was, she was like, "Look, why don't you just live here?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: About the time I walked away from graffiti, what used to be a misdemeanor offense was now a felony. Graffiti artists started doing hard time for their art. Some people in L.A. referred to this time as a "Terror Campaign." It's when taggers' homes were reportedly being raided like they were drug dealers, or members of a violent gang.
Sight: It was a perfect sunny day at South Central L.A., as Ice Cube would say, and a couple days before Thanksgiving, 2006.
Sight: You hear loud bangs on the door. I'm-I'm in the bed neked, asleep. My auntie go open the door. I told her, "Don't open the door. I don't know who that is." She opened the door anyway.
[Police raid]
Sight: Police come in looking like they're in war gear. There's like seven, eight of them. They got assault rifles with beams coming out of them.
They pull me out, and into the main den. And they're like, "Where are the drugs, and where are the guns?" I'm like, "There is no drugs and guns here. You got the wrong person. You guys raided the wrong house. There is no drugs or guns." They're like, "Where is the guns and the drugs?"
They're tearing up the whole house. They put some shoes on me, no socks. Pants, no belt. Shirt. Handcuff me.
[outdoor sounds]
Sight: They walk me outside. They got a whole neighborhood outside watching. You know how nosey people be.
[Car door closing, car starting and driving away. SFX of police station and white noise]
Sight: They took me down to the Sheriff's station in um Watts, and they were high-fiving, man. They were high-fiving. They were like, "Yeah! We got this dude. We've been looking for this dude forever." I'm like, "Wow." And through my head I'm like, "I didn't know graffiti was this serious." If I knew graffiti was this serious, then I would have not have been messing with it.
Sight: They get me into an interrogation room. I don't know no law. Sit me down.
[folder dropping]
Sight: They sit down a folder of paperwork about 6 inches tall, all photos of stuff I did in L.A. And they open the folder, they show me pictures. I'm like, "Dude, this is all, stuff is all, stuff is old, dude." They were like, "If you date these to a more recent date, we'll let you out today." I'm like, "For real?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: But it wasn't for real. Sight was charged with multiple counts of non-violent felony vandalism. He says the evidence he signed ended up being used against him in court. According to him, they had him date pictures of his tags to a more recent time, to land within the statute of limitations. Sight was facing around 30 years in prison. So he did what he had to do and took a deal for eight years and eight months. His sentencing was just part of the city's draconian anti-graffiti movement. And multiple hometown heroes like him were arrested.
Archival: City attorneys say it's about time taggers are treated like criminal gang members.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: In '09, then-LA City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich, had a mission to go after writers. He and his staff began to gather street-level intelligence, and prepared injunctions targeting graffiti crews.
While Sight was in prison, a lot of taggers reached out to him to provide support, including one he didn't know that well...but who I used to be really tight with.
Sight: Aloe wrote me while I was in prison. I met him only once in person on the Venice bus. I never hung out with him like that.
Aloe: He went to he went to prison for something that we were all doing. Like we-that could have been any one of us is what I'm saying. So it's like, you got to pay respects-respect to him.
Sight:For him to only meet me that once or twice and then want to be like, "Hey, I'm gonna reach out to this dude." All I can say is graffiti did that.
Aloe: We wrote together every yeah like three weeks or so.
Sight: What am I doing, how's everything going?
Aloe: Just trying to see where his mind was at.
Sight: It felt good, man. I felt like I wasn't alone and I felt like graffiti is bigger than what, it's more than what people think it is.
I was in there for about five years 'cause I was like good behavior. Fire camp. All that stuff.
And then he was like you know, I think a year or two before I got out, he was like, "I'll-I'll pick you up from um prison." And he did that. He picked me up, got my first meal, took me down to Venice Beach.
[Ocean sounds]
Sight: Breathe in the salty air, hear the crash of the ocean, put my feet in the water. It was good, man, but I felt-I felt broken. I felt vulnerable.
Sound of Joe showing off his cleaning supplies fades under: "This is just all of our stuff to get rid of that-that graffiti. We think. We think this is all we need. We're not 100% sure."
Joe Connolly: Well, the city, you know they-they I hate to say it. They killed my kid. To this day they never apologized about that.
He went on a school field trip and-and uh died in a drowning incident. They had told all of us there was gonna-there was never gonna be any swimming up there. The way it happened and all the things that happened in the city, the city could have helped me, and they never chose to help me. They chose to desert me. They've never said, "We're sorry about your son." That's-that's I think one reason why I stay in graffiti abatement is because I'm not able to fix my life because you can never control...it's like trying to herd cats. You can't control shit.
So I can control graffiti, which makes people's lives better. So for me it just, I spent probably a small fortune on it, but it really saves me mentally.
Joe showing up cleaning supplies back up
Walter Thompson-Hernández: By 2015, I was working as a journalist, and writing about race and identity. One day, I received a call from a childhood friend, Niki, telling me about the company she had just started in Compton. Niki's company was primarily hiring undocumented workers and formerly incarcerated people – two groups of people who live with the most stigma. I walked inside of the lobby and saw a framed newspaper article featuring a black man standing in front of a graffiti wall. I took a step closer and he looked really familiar. I took another step forward and noticed that the wall read: S-I-G-H-T in big and bold letters. It was Sight. "Oh, damn. That's Sight from Scared Straight."
"Do you know, Sight?" I asked Niki.
"Sight?" she replied. "Yeah, he works here. He's actually in the back driving the forklift. Let's go see if he's back there."
What are the odds?
The three of us went out to lunch that day and we began reminiscing about Scared Straight and graffiti. Something told me to ask Sight about Aloe because there weren't a lot of other black graffiti artists, so what do I have to lose? "Aloe?" Sight quickly replied. "Yeah that's my boy." And my jaw dropped to the floor. "Give me his number," I said.
I called him, and nobody answered.
I went home after lunch, and later that day received a phone call from an unknown number. I answered and this mysterious voice asked: "Hey, is this Bezoe?" Aloe and I met up a week later at Urth Caffe in Downtown L.A. I was nervous and I was scared. Because even though a lot of time had passed, I didn't know how he felt. Maybe he felt abandoned by me.
When I saw him he didn't really look like Tupac anymore. He now had a fro and he tattoo sleeves half way down his arms. Honestly, he looked like he had been through a lot. But he still had the same charming smile and that same laugh.
Aloe: [laughing]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: So much had happened since we last saw one another. He had gotten married. He had survived two drug overdoses. He was vegetarian. And, of all things–like of all the things in the world–he was studying to become a lawyer. A lawyer. We talked about our families, about food, and our friends. And towards the end of the night he looked at me and said he had something to give me.
Aloe: I was just like, "Hey, do you remember this?" And I remember your face was just like, wow.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: He handed me a slap tag — remember those post office stickers he talked about earlier? Well, I had filled this one out the same night we got arrested. Before that weird Hawaiian Punch craving. This slap tag had our names on it. It said Bezoe, it said Aloe, and it said our crews. And he had kept this one slap tag–through the years, through everything.
And now I have that slap tag. And it's one of the most important things in my life.
Meeting up with Sight and Aloe prompted me to go see what our old nemesis, Joe, was up to. Maybe it was closure that I was seeking, I don't know. So I found Joe on the internet, I contacted him, and I spent a few days with him.
Walter: How you doing, Joe?
Joe: I'm good.
Walter: I'm Walter. Nice to meet you.
Joe to dog: Hey!
Walter: She's good? She's a pit mix huh?
Walter Thompson-Hernández: It turns out that Joe hasn't changed. He's still covering up graffiti, and he's still doing it for free. I was wrong about Joe. This dude really surprised me. He lives in South Central with his wife and cares for an abused pit bull. I really expected Joe to greet me at the door with a red MAGA hat on but he didn't. He does have an award from Trump, though. For graffiti abatement, of all things...
Tape of Joe showing off his award: "President Trump. Best guy in the planet for community-in the state of California. 40 million people and I'm the only one that's got one of those in the state of California."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Anyways, Joe actually hates the government.
Tape of Joe Connolly complaining about the government: "These people don't give a shit about our people."
Walter Thompson-Hernández: What he means are everyday people -- working class folks and especially people of color. And Joe's also really into fitness: he's an avid bike rider, and a former football player from the Southside of Chicago.
Joe Connolly: Rudy, that fucking guy stole my story.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: What do you mean he stole?
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Remember the film Rudy? The classic?
Joe Connolly: That motherfucking guy stole my story.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: How?
Joe Connolly: That was my thing, man. I wanted to be a walk-on football player
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Where? At Notre Dame?
Joe Connolly: At ND.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: And then what happened, Joe?
Joe Connolly: He got there three years ahead of me and took my shit. Craziness.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Oh, well. Here we are.
Joe Connolly: Yeah, here we are.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: I decided to bring Joe and Sight together because I wanted them to talk about how they perceived one another.
Sight thinks Joe was part of the problem, you know, just another white dude who was a part of the system to lock up black and brown people. Joe, on the other hand, had never met Sight, the human. He buffed out a lot of his pieces, but he didn't know the man. He thought Sight was just another dude from the 'hood who got caught up in the system. So I invited them both to my aunt's house to talk because it was a neutral space. I wanted both of them to feel as comfortable as possible.
I mean, I really didn't know what was gonna happen. Sight's like, you know, somebody who is really chill and really mellow, but–
Joe Connolly: Sight! Get your ass in here!
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Joe's kinda out there.
Joe Connolly: Let's talk! Come on! How are you, man?
Sight: All right
Joe Connolly: So you still putting shit on the walls?
Sight: Yeah, yeah.
Joe Connolly: Are you really? That's good. I like that.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: They sat at my aunt's dining table and talked about what they agreed on...
Sight: Graffiti, when you're when you're looking at the outside of it is ugly, it's horrible. It's this and that. But once you...
Joe Connolly: Get in.
Sight: Step foot into that world, it's a whole nother-a whole nother perspective on the matter. You will never be able to relate unless you hang out with graffiti artists or are a graffiti artist. You will never be able to relate. It will just be judging from the outside in.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: And Sight wasn't messing around. He came ready. He even reached out to the graffiti community on facebook to see if they had any questions for Joe.
Tape of Sight reading a few questions ending with "But that's Cal Trans…"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Some of the questions were really angry. Sight told Joe he was really hated.
Sight: A lot of people plotted on you. Uh, they plotted on your family.
Joe Connolly: Wow.
Sight: A lot of people went after your kids secretly. I can't say who.
Joe Connolly: Ok.
Sight: And so it's almost similar to like, I don't want to say it...
Joe Connolly: Say it.
Sight: ...I don't want to be disrespectful but like, you know how a cop goes out and shoots a kid or arrests kids. Um...and people feel that pain forever?
Joe Connolly: Yeah.
Sight: This is-it's kind of like the same.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: It seemed like the news that people went after Joe's kids really affected him. Especially since Joe had lost his son. He was physically shaken, and he really let down his guard. Joe revealed a different side to him that people weren't used to seeing. It didn't feel like a performance anymore. It felt like we were finally getting the real Joe.
Joe Connolly: After I lost my son, I lost my grandmother, my parents, my brothers, my in-laws, my sister-in-laws. A lot of artists, a lot of people I knew, a lot of people in my community. I mean, there was a time in, like, '99-'07/'08 where there was a lot of funerals. There was just so many funerals and it just, I mean, it's-it's a lot. And so I just-and then with a lot of things that mainly with my son, and there's still fallout from that, which is now almost-it's almost 21 years. You know and-and so I then I just really became a loner.
Sight: I don't mean to cut you off.
Joe Connolly: No, no, no.
Sight: You know, I've-I met a lot of different graffiti artists, and um at least about 1000 of them that I know or more have the same story as you, or similar.
Joe Connolly: Yeah.
Sight: And I'm listening to you. I'm listening to you. And what people don't know and people forget is any kind of painting is therapeutic.
Joe Connolly: Yeah
Sight: Um painting, doing art activates one side of the brain that helps heal trauma.
Joe Connolly: Yeah
Sight: You've been through some trauma. I feel that the more-the longer that person paints reflects how much healing they need and how much the ther-therapy that that painting provides. I still do it because I still suffer through trauma.
Joe Connolly: Yeah.
Sight: That has not been rooted yet, uprooted, so...and I see it in you. You might not be doing graffiti, but you are painting over it.
Joe Connolly: Oh, yeah.
Sight: Yet it is still in a way therapeutic and provides a sense of relief. And the other side of that it's fun. It's competitive.
Joe Connolly: It is fun.
Sight: And there's some people that are game. And some people that are not.
Walter Thompson-Hernández: In that moment, I think Joe finally felt seen and heard too. He wasn't the in-your-face Joe, the wild Joe, the ra-ra-ra Joe, you know. He was soft. And gentle.
And Sight? I'm pretty sure he felt the same way, too.
People see walls with graffiti on them and think that the people responsible for the tags are criminals. But It's hard to know that there's a whole life behind the spray paint that emerges on the wall. And to be real, it's impossible to see the things that people are dealing with at home. It's already hard enough being a teenager. But imagine not having a way to express yourself. That's really hard. Some see it as property damage. But what about the damage people are experiencing in their own lives? Each piece of graffiti is a window into someone's life. Sometimes though, the window is hard to see through because there's writing on it. But each window and each wall tells a different story. The walls are the first thing I see when I travel to a new place. They tell me everything I need to know about where I'm at. They alert me of danger, tell me who lives in that community, and who I need to be aware of.
[Bus ambi]
Walter Thompson-Hernández: Let's go back to that bus. Spring 2017. I'm on the 733 bus line, and we're heading west on Venice Blvd. I'm sitting in the back of the bus. It's the early afternoon, and there's nobody else sitting next to me. I'm listening to music on my headphones, when I notice an old friend hop on. It's Ivan. And we used to be in the same circles when I used to tag. Ivan hasn't changed one bit. He's still wearing oversized t-shirts and still speaks from the side of his mouth like he used to. And his hair is still cut really low. It's been more than fifteen years since we last saw one another.
Voice: "Oh shit, what's up man?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: We dap each other up and hug. And he sits right next to me.
Voice: "Ey……..you still write?"
Walter Thompson-Hernández: When Ivan asked me if I still wrote, I paused. Because, the truth is, nothing's really changed. I am still writing. I'm just not writing on walls or buses or freeways anymore. But, I'm still writing to be seen.
"Yeah…" I told Ivan. " I do still write."
The lead producer for this episode is Elizabeth Nakano.
Supporting Producer Tamika Adams.
Our Editor is Arwen Nicks.
And our Senior Producer is Megan Tan.
Our Sound Engineer is Valentino RiveraOriginal music by Andrew Eapen.This episode was written and reported by me, Walter Thompson-Hernandez with help from Elizabeth Nakano.
Angela Bromstad is our Executive producer.
For more information on this episode of Scared Straight, go to LAist.com/CaliforniaLove.
California Love is a production of LAist Studios.
I'm the host Walter Thompson-Hernandez. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate you.
[LAist Studios Sonic ID]
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.


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In keeping with statistics from the Journal of the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters, in case you are age thirty to fifty-five, your possibilities of turning into disabled are two to a few instances better than your possibilities of dying.In case you are thirty-five years previous, you've a 50:50 probability of experiencing a incapacity lasting final three months or longer earlier than you retire. One in seven staff will change into disabled for greater than 5 years earlier than she or he reaches age 65.Many individuals mistakenly imagine that the federal government or Employee's Compensation pays them an revenue in the event that they change into disabled. Really, greater than 80% of the individuals who apply for Social Safety incapacity advantages are rejected. Social Safety doesn't pay advantages for partial or short-term incapacity. Your incapacity has to both final a 12 months or be anticipated to final a 12 months earlier than you possibly can accumulate Social Safety. Employee's Compensation pays provided that you had been injured on the job and advantages are sometimes restricted to some years.Your medical insurance will cowl your hospital, physician and different medical payments, however you'll nonetheless not have a wage. Lengthy-term care insurance coverage solely covers payments from nursing houses or assisted care heart. Incapacity insurance coverage, nevertheless, doesn't pay payments. As a substitute the insurance coverage firm offers you cash frequently. It's designed to switch your wage so that you just and your loved ones is not going to expertise monetary hardship throughout any interval when you're too sick or injured to work.What must you search for when you're shopping for long run incapacity insurance coverage? First, the insurance coverage firm itself ought to have a prime ranking from Moody's, A.M. Greatest, and Customary and Poor. These companies price firms by way of capitalization, development, earnings and different indicators of monetary stability.Secondly, you must ensure you perceive the phrases of your coverage. Some insurance policies require a ready interval earlier than you begin receiving advantages. For instance, your coverage might have a six-month ready interval earlier than advantages are paid. On this case, your advantages would start six months from the time of incapacity.The ready interval is commonly referred to as the elimination interval. Selections often vary from 30 days to 720 days.Search for a waiver of premium provision. This implies if you happen to change into disabled, you'll not must maintain paying in your incapacity coverage.What are the situations for renewing the coverage? For those who're coverage just isn't mechanically renewable, the insurance coverage firm has the correct to cancel it.Fee interval choices are one other consideration. Some insurance policies will solely pay for a sure time period, typically for under two years. Different insurance policies final a lifetime. The preferred insurance policies pay advantages till you attain retirement age, when you possibly can start to gather Social Safety funds.Most insurance policies have a residual incapacity clause. For those who endure a incapacity, fairly often you'll return to work part-time at first. Or since you had been off work for some time, it might take you time to construct your small business again to the extent it was earlier than you grew to become disabled. Your insurance coverage ought to present revenue for each these eventualities.Examine over the coverage for a recurrent disabilities profit. A recurrent incapacity is one which occurs after you get better out of your authentic incapacity. Your insurance coverage ought to waive a brand new ready interval and/or not require proof that the 2 disabilities had been associated.If you purchase incapacity insurance coverage, you purchase it in accordance with your revenue degree. The more cash you make, the bigger the good thing about your coverage. However you additionally must determine that your revenue will rise as you become old. Because of this you need a future enhance rider or computerized enhance rider. These riders assist you to maintain your coverage however enhance the quantity of your advantages based mostly in your elevated earnings as you get older.If you purchase your insurance coverage, sure elements will have an effect on your worth. You'll pay much less for the insurance coverage if you happen to determine to switch 50% of your revenue as an alternative of 80%. You additionally pay much less if you happen to go for an extended elimination interval. The insurance coverage firm elements in your present well being and should exclude preexisting situations. Girls and people who smoke might pay extra for incapacity insurance coverage as a result of they make extra claims than non-smoking males. In case you are in a high-risk job, your coverage might value you extra.Incapacity insurance coverage insurance policies might be complicated. It's at all times finest to sit down down with an expert insurance coverage agent to debate the phrases of the coverage collectively and to ask questions till you utterly perceive the main points of the coverage quotes being offered.