Larry Chandler
“I think it will be a good facility if the community comes out, and we work together as a people in the neighborhood. Without the help of the community, it’s not going to work?”it’s like us against the police. So if we work together, it can work.”

 

Jenetta Johnson
“Well I don’t know exactly because it’s a little early to tell, but I think it might make a difference if they are on their job doing what they are supposed to do. I think it will make a difference and help clean it up because the West Side is coming back. It is a long time coming. I was born and raised on the West Side, right down from the “low end” as they called it at one time around Oakley. If they are on their square and do what they are supposed to do, then, yes, it will make a difference.”

 

Rose Allen
“It will work with the community if the police officers are not only in a new facility, but are being trained on how to cope with the people who are in the streets. That their mentality is not that everybody is low-class and underprivileged and not street-smart or education-smart, but that we are treated with respect and dignity. And once they get this training and then the community comes together to also show them respect, the overall community will be a better place to live.”

 

Constance Hobbs
“I feel that it will be better for the community. I think we’ll have more [of a] relationship as far as the police is concerned?”that is if the police is open with the community. What they are promising, hopefully, that will be acknowledged and done.”

Mattie Johnson
“Sure, I think so, definitely, if we cooperate with our police when they come to see whatever the problem is when they are called on. But it’s up to us in our neighborhoods because the police are there to assist us in our effort to make our community better. It’s our responsibility. It all begins in the home. The police or the mayor can’t make the people do right in your house or in your neighborhood. You’ve got to do that. They can assist you and help you, but it all begins at home to keep our neighborhood up and respect one another and cooperate with the police and that will make the whole community better.

“And a very important thing we want to remember and the police to remember, is that it is very important that they come when we call. You call them and you need them and they show up 45 minutes later and then the offender or whoever have time to be on the other side of town. We need them to come when we call.”

 

Angela Evans
(Nu World Ryders)
“I believe that the new facility will help the relationship between the community. It puts them right in the center of where everyone is. If police are open to making plans with the community and helping people and not only in the station but outside, within the community, that’s going to be the only way. The police have to be open to change and open to having relationships with the area and the people in the area.” (Nu World Ryders are a group of young motorcycle riders based out of Maywood.)

 

Tabatha Johnson
(Nu World Ryders)
“I do feel the new facility should help community relations in the needed areas, as long as the police, the C.A.P.S. program, and all the other community-based programs use the facility for change and help and not just incarceration and punishment. The police should be open to other communities, and people should be able to come here and have meetings. We should be able to come here and find out what it’s like to be a police officer, and that way it might change the perception of the police officer to our youth.”

Robert Seaberry
(Nu World Ryders)
“I think the relationship will be OK as long as the community respects the police officer and the police officer respects the people of the community?”as long as everybody looks out for each other. I appreciate them putting up the new facility. That’s nice because there are some things that need to be taken care of. But as well, community relations need to be OK between [us] and them.”

 

D.J. Rell
(Nu World Ryders)
“If everybody just come together as one, I guess the whole world would be better. It’s not all about black and white. It’s about human beings. So my thing is respect people. Treat everybody as one.”

Annie Crump
“I feel this new facility will improve the relationship between the people and the police?”one of the reasons, because the police would be more visible in this area and people who are on the corners won’t be so ready to stand there because they know the police are circling in the community. I also feel that community groups like block clubs and other groups would be able to meet in the meeting rooms here in this facility and that will help them, and they will go out and tell the other people how they were greeted at the door and how they were treated in the building. If treatment is great, that will improve the community relationship.”