By Jose Nunez
Re “Who Knew There Was an Election? Why Keep It a Secret?”
[Editor’s Note: For the information of followers of the Compton mayor’s race – including the letter-writer below – it will be decided two weeks from today, June 4, when former Mayor Omar Bradley meets newcomer Aja Brown. In the 12-way primary last month, Ms. Brown finished first with 1887 votes, 91 more than Mr. Bradley, who had 1796.]
Thank you for taking the time to reply to the last email that I sent.
Being a member of the Compton community and living in this city, I have yet to find out who has won the election for mayor, or if there is even a declared winner at all.
I'm concerned for this city in the future if we do not get things going.
The fact alone that the average age of most residents of Compton is very young is something we should take advantage of.
But the lack of progress is seriously affecting this city in many ways. The renewal of the contract with the County Sheriff's Dept. has been a negative.
Being a resident, I have been harassed by the sheriff’s deputies for driving home and “looking like trouble.” I hope some kind of balance is resolved with that issue. From what I have seen with these deputies, they drive up and give rides to these working ladies, and that is not cool at all.
I've also even caught images of Parking Enforcement people asking for their numbers to “get in contact with them later,” which is totally absurd in many respects.
Don't get me wrong. I am not just saying any of this to complain. These are issues that are faced living here.
As we mentioned earlier about this mayoral campaign, I saw the effects of a community literally going out of its way to sabotage a female running up against corruption.
Seeing this made me feel that this city has not been willing to move forward by having elements that held progress down in this city from the get-go.
If Ms. Aja Brown would have gotten closer to this, I am sure the whole block would have voted for her. It seems we were left out and not even counted in voter turnouts. I vote, man. I take an interest in my community, and I never got a chance in the April 16 election. That is what made me utterly upset about this whole ordeal. Because if these folks do not come up with a legitimate plan to move this city forward, maybe they aren't the folks we need.
I hope you did get a chance to send my initial email to whomever won this mayoral election. Since that date, as a member of the City of Compton, I volunteered at Compton High School as a baseball coach to give those guys hope in the Moore League. The league wanted to exclude Compton High for several reasons. They just have not been developing good teams. They lose by scores like 21-0. They also stood up to umpire criticism during a game where he was talking smack to families of some Orange County school about how our high school baseball players in the City of Compton do not know how to throw a baseball.
This is where I'm coming from. I took pride helping these kids, showing them a culture that would give them a discipline in life that they could use to their benefit.
I mean, these things are absurd to deal with on many levels, especially with the youth in Compton who don't get a chance because this city provides nothing but a negative stereotype.
Mr. Nunez may be contacted at Josenunez20@gmail.com
