Turnarounds: July 2007 Archives

Jason already flagged this in the Morning Report, but I wanted to go a little more in-depth on Dantae Livingston. He seems like a nice kid, one who could do something more productive with his life than robbing people and hanging around on the corner.

But, as I've learned the hard way, it's not always as easy as saying "I'm out." When you've got friends and family in the gang, you're surrounded by its influence every day. Both your old homeboys and your old enemies aren't always going to be into your attempts to move onto do something new.

Can Dantae do it? I hope so. He's got a lot of things going for him-- his parents are around, his brothers support his decision to get out of the gang and they're moving out of the area that first got him into trouble. And Paul White, his teacher at the West Valley Leadership Academy, seems to have a deep commitment to keeping him on the right side of the law. (As a side note, Dantae didn't mind sharing the names and details of his old gang -- they checked out to make his story seem probable, but White asked that we not publish them to prevent retribution. I don't know if that would have mattered, but figured it didn't push the story forward that much to name the gang, so we agreed to his request.)

I guess we'll see where this all leads. Check back here in the future for updates on Dantae and his family.