Fighting Crime in Downtown Los Angeles with Love, Respect, and God
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph recounts how he built community connections and relationships—and changed police perceptions with one profound phrase: "I love you."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:14.1 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, |
| 0:18.6 | the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:22.4 | And to search for The Our American Stories podcast, go to the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, |
| 0:29.0 | wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:32.0 | Dion Joseph is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active senior lead officer in the |
| 0:37.1 | notorious downtown Los Angeles |
| 0:38.9 | District known as Skid Row. He's here to share another story with us. This one begins with Dion |
| 0:45.3 | visiting a juvenile detention center. Let's take a listen. So I go to the first day and I go through |
| 0:51.9 | the gates and they buzz me in and I'm looking'm looking and it looks just like a prison yard. |
| 0:51.2 | You have the Hispanics working out over here. You have the blacks working out and shooting dice over here. And I'm like, oh my God, these kids are going to hate me. And just something in my spirit said, don't worry about just telling me you love them. They brought the kids into the class. Some of them thought I was there to arrest them. I said, calm down. |
| 0:52.4 | I don't even want to know your names. |
| 0:53.7 | I'm here for one reason, |
| 1:13.7 | and that's to tell you, |
| 1:08.8 | I love you. And some of them laughed at me. I said, you can laugh all you want, but I love you, no matter what you do or what you say. I figuratively put down my badge and gun, and I told them my story, and then I made them trust me and then I started bringing in these mentors |
| 1:11.2 | I brought in my wife |
| 1:12.4 | whose brother ended up told them my story and then I made them trust me and then I started bringing in these mentors |
| 1:28.8 | I brought in my wife whose brother ended up going to a prison sadly and I'm talking about |
| 1:36.3 | the impact of your on your family and what they told me was after about several months of |
| 1:41.7 | me doing that and taking them on a tour of Skid Row, their grades |
| 1:45.3 | went up to grade levels and they credited a police officer for it. These are the things that the |
| 1:52.1 | media doesn't talk about. And of course, I don't brag about it. My faith, I don't brag about the |
... |
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