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A youth services officer’s trust in children saves them from dead-end lives

His mom committed suicide when he was 5 and his father was a gangbanger who spent more time in prison than on the outside with his son. This was the life the boy was born into.

Foster care became his home, but it wasn’t the answer he needed to avoid becoming his father. A relative finally agreed to take him in, but she had one requirement.

He had to join the Jeopardy Program at the North Hollywood police station. He had to make the effort not to become his father. She knew he had a rough early childhood, but it wasn’t too late to save him from gangs.

Somebody just had to care enough to try.

Estefanie  Jimenez was 12 when she decided she wanted to be a police officer. Gang violence was no stranger to her East Los Angeles neighborhood. She grew up in a strong, loving family, but every extended family had one black sheep in it.

Hers begged her not to do what he did, to do the opposite. She joined the police cadet program at Hollenbeck Division and spent six years watching kids headed for gang life graduate from the Jeopardy Program and enter the Cadet Program.

They didn’t all want to become police officers, but they knew what they didn’t want — to become another gang homicide statistic. Last week, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore announced that homicides were up 14% in its Valley Bureau.

“Gang-related homicides represent more than half of all homicides in Los Angeles,” he said.

We’re not winning this war.

Estefaine Jimenez became that police officer she wanted to be — a youth services officer whose job is to get these kids before the justice system does. To mentor the next generation of potential gang members and show them it’s a dead-end life.

You do that with trust, she said. It’s the only way. She knew she couldn’t force the boy whose mom had committed suicide and dad was in prison to listen to her without that mutual trust.

When it comes, it’s a beautiful thing to see.

“One day we were sitting there, in silence, when he actually let out a tear and said, ‘I hate crime.’ I said I did, too. When he saw me getting teary-eyed with him, he let it all out.”

A cop and a kid looking for trust, dropping a few tears together.

From the day that boy was born, he was earmarked for gang life, but it didn’t happen because Estefanie Jimenez became a police officer and showed him a better life.

He’s 16 now, her top cadet, and wants to join the military when he’s old enough. This week, he’ll be one of 20 cadets at the North Hollywood station going to Disneyland because they got good grades in school this past year.

The trip is paid for by the East Valley PALS (Police Activity League Supporter), which has Officer Jimenez’ back. Without PALS to support her, there wouldn’t be special trips and programs like this.

For more information on PALS, and all the great community work the group does, go online to nohopals.com

There’s no easy answer to the gang problem in our city, but we do know with more officers like Estefanie Jimenez we can reach the next generation before the justice system does.

A cop and a kid looking for mutual trust, dropping a few tears together. Works for me.

 

Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.

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