SafetyCreator

( Recent Instagram Post): When crack and its volcanic violence overran my neighborhood, it was clear all I and my terrified, urban senior citizen neighbors had to depend upon was ourselves. I checked on them; answered their phone calls and passed along observations to the police. It was a holding action and ultimately, my neighborhood died. My passion to create safety didn't die with it. This experience was the embryo and nucleus for what eventually became my #SafetyCreation theory: working with people, within their comfort zones, where they live, play and work, to actively #displacenegativity instead of suffering in silence. Faces and places change but the mission remains the same. Have No Fear, Cap Black is Here! wasn't a slogan- it's a battle cry! :)  #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

What does #Potential look like? Your  guess is as good mine! Lol Luckily, others see our #innerselves through  infinite forms of #selfexpression, #manifestation, #creativity, i.e., the endless ways #energy is transmitted and #transmuted. You can't see my Potential but you can see it in action: as professed #SafetyCreation, as passion for #selfdevelopment and as zeal to unite with #likeminds to displace negativity in our community. That's what Potential, mine at least, looks like. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

As heated debate about depolicing by demoralised police departments; episodic mass shootings at schools and even a yoga studio continues, it hammers home a point I've devoted myself to making: Americans must create their own safety! Deep tears are being ripped methodically into our social compact by those who want self-defense, personally and by police, abolished in favor of career criminals who have cheerleaders in think tanks and elected offices across the nation. These tears leave gaping holes in personal and property safety which criminals are happily taking advantage of on a deadly daily basis. Americans facing this Urban Apocalypse of enabling violent crime and disabling vital crime fighting by law enforcement and law abiding citizens must work within comfort zones and the law to create safety amid sanctioned insecurity. As an " UrbanSafetyist, " I'm a combination consultant and safety advocate, working alongside individuals, groups, businesses...

Retail experts always advise that good customer service is also good security. As a professional safety creator at a building frequented by many, greeting them is part and parcel of the safety creation process. It's also the "G" in G.A.P., which stands for, Greeting-Assessing-Patrolling, which describes how I create safety in the building I secure and at events I work elsewhere. A salutation makes someone feel welcome. It also gives him a point of contact for questions- a valuable service for newcomers and seasoned stakeholders seeking answers.  If this someone has bad intentions, it also lets him know he's been noticed. Knowing this can help deter unwanted behavior. It also helps identify individuals worthy of extra scrutiny if their response is hostile or startled in a suspicious manner. Assessing occurs continually while I'm working. It goes hand in hand with patrolling, which is the last part of the G.A.P. acronym. Assessing and patrolling...

Cap Black, Human Sitter: Walking with U While  U Walk Ur Dog. :) Need a professional safety creator to accompany u and Fido on a stroll through Gotham? I offer: *Conversation. *Backup to Shoo Away Unwanted Guests. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist Text 504 214 3082 with ur name, day and time u have in mind. Woof, a Friend's Dog, Says I'm a Good Human Sitter, So It Must be True! :)

https://wgntv.com/2018/11/11/multiple-wounded-in-robbins-bar-shooting-police-say/ Jemel Roberson: Victim of Creating Safety while Black? As a 52 year old professional safety creator  ( consultant and advocate for event organizers and businesses  ) the recent death of 26 year old Jemel Roberson, a suburban Illinois nightlife security professional, at the hands of a responding officer is an especially bitter pill to swallow. As an older Black man, I grieve that a younger one is dead providing a service I've also provided for decades.  When the story first broke, my assumption was he'd detained an assailant in a shooting there and was somehow mistaken for an assailant. This assumption was confirmed by later news coverage and my grief is heightened by reports that witnesses shouted to police that Roberson was working security, in order to avoid what happened anyway. I'm a police supporter. My advocacy has focused on working with them and not serial denuncia...

We live in an era of digital surveillance cameras; facial recognition software; license plate readers; tipster apps on smart phones; actual security robots on patrol and other high tech crime fighting tools. They make the task of safety creation, professional and personal, much easier. I do caution allies who feel these innovations are the only way to save the day that looking out for each other remains the highest technology at our our command. I illustrate my point by underscoring that aside from being a quantum leap in criminal identification, these innovations still can't apprehend suspects. They aren't like the Autobots from the Transformers comic book, cartoon and movie series. Not yet at  least. The simple yet supremely important act of looking out for each other is the highest technology brought to bear against crime. Our sheer numbers as members of the public and potential to displace negativity which innovations can only document and report about can...

A question can set a chain of events in motion which literally changes reality. The query which is also the title of this post is intended to change reality regarding how safe we are in our persons, possessions and places, both brick and mortar, and at events. I invite people into the safety creation process instead of sell them one way subscriptions to it the way traditional service providers do. While I can and do offer services to clients, I also offer the chance to join me in creating safety which is within their comfort zones and addresses the problem ( s ) at hand. Recently, a friend asked me to accompany her on what turned out to be an interesting quest hunting down her stolen smart phone via GPS on her laptop. She invited me to create safety with her, by being back up and a witness, while she searched for locations where her phone was, including whatever encounters awaited once we arrived. Lately, safety creation for me often starts with a text, social media ...

It is my spiritual and intellectual position that you are infinitely more than a client or a citizen, narrowly defined as someone who can only receive protection services and never offer them. I know that you can be a protection service provider. I know each of you is, to varying degrees, a safety creator and I want to mobilize you so synergistically, you can mobilize other like minds. Active safety creators are invaluable counter balance to criminals who discount residents and businesses as hostages or worse, targets. Active safety creators displace criminals when they mobilize to compete against organized criminals through awareness and action to chase away or ideally, arrest and prosecute offenders. That's why I work with the widest possible range of safety creators: those who feel radiating positive energy is protection enough to a broad middle ground that defines protection as cameras; alarm systems; phone apps; traveling in pairs;  neighborhood watch; social med...

Safe Fun Companion expands upon my event safety creation by offering the same sober, aware presence for party goers usually allied with organizers, staff and patrons. In a occasion-overloaded city like New Orleans, this is a common sense service. As loud music, alcohol, testosterone estrogen and possible recreational pharmaceuticals increase and judgment decreases, it's a very good idea to have a safe fun companion watching your back- without cramping your style. You have a good time while I make sure it doesn't end badly- how's that sound? Cap Black, Safety Creator Safe Fun Companion 504 214-3082.

My Creating Safety Speaking Series is a dialogue where I explore participants willingness to mobilize on this issue and what it would look like. Topics: *What is Your Comfort Zone? * Unseen Neighborhood Watch or Visible  Neighborhood Walk, Citizens on Patrol, which is a Better Fit for You? *Police Partnerships: You and Folks in Blue. **Discussing Unique Incidents or Challenges upon Request. Contact: Cap Black, Safety Creator  504 214-3082.

In my opinion, private sector solutions to crime, despite outnumbering public or governmental ones, pale in comparison to what I call the personal sector. The personal sector are individuals and ad hoc groups operating independent of corporate or 501 ( c ) 3 structures. I also think the personal sector is the vehicle for stakeholders to secure their areas without awaiting rationed services from government and corporations, for profit and otherwise. Old English practices like the Hue and Cry where citizens apprehended suspects on the spot; being a Thief Taker who professionally captured criminals for rewards and Beadles, who secured marketplaces, are prime examples of personal sector initiatives. Television and radio shows took the Wanted posters of the Wild West era and the 20th Century into the personal sector via tip lines like CrimeStoppers and especially America's Most Wanted, starring crimefighter John Walsh. While these platforms were run by corporations...

Coalition building is essential to my professional safety creation process. I shepherd a dynamic where the protection and prevention wings of the community can assist, instead of argue with, each other. It's in this spirit of coalition building that I pose the following question, " Did you create safety today? " It's not meant as an allegation nor a gotcha question to favor one part of the coalition over another. The question sets the stage to highlight the unique contributions each wing offers the community. I'll start with what the prevention wing does, since it's not my particular focus. I'm part and parcel of the community's protection wing but give credit where credit is due. Urban mentors and violence interruptors have deep personal relationships with youth and adults who can easily commit violent crime and conversely, become victims of it due to unmediated disputes. Mentors and violence interruptors are often the only outsiders who s...

Conventional private security, like traditional policing, rations safety out in the form of surrogates acting on behalf of clients and communities. These private and public providers offer broad layers of protection and society would be much less safe without them. As a safety creator, I mobilize the broadest layer of protection, the public, in securing their own businesses and public spaces. We can't afford to await rationing from the private and public sectors when criminals operate in an all hands on deck fashion. Sitting by while your community implodes is a suicide pact many impotent citizens sign with their tormentors. Safe crowding leverages what a " lead, " a safety creator like myself, can do alongside business owners, event organizers, staff, patrons and social media to motivate and organize stakeholders to displace crime in their midst instead of awaiting rationing from elsewhere or even worse, doing nothing. I've been actively safe crowding f...

One patron of the Co-op inside building I secure stopped by what I call my, sidewalk office and thanked me for using my fast track partnership with the NOPD 5th District to get officers to her bed and breakfast a few days ago. They were summoned to take a report from two of her guests who were robbed in the French Quarter. Very glad I could assist such a great person and patron. :) #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist Minding Ur Business is My Business!

Be on the lookout for people in strange outfits.  Happy Hero Ween from #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist :) #Superhero Inspired #SafetyCreator for events and businesses.

Pulp novel mystery men and comic book superheroes have always implausibly served as more than entertainment. They were models for emulation, from the bronze superlative of Doc Savage to the Caped Crusader himself, Batman. Obviously, there was the small problem of bringing their fictional realm to the real world where I reside.  For years I pursued vocations with the superhero theme quietly in mind: freelance ( pre-Internet ) writer; civil rights activist; motivational speaker; uniformed security officer; plainclothes loss prevention detective; bouncer; bounty hunter; neighborhood watch coordinator; citizen on patrol and blogger.  Each pursuit was infused with visions of the superhero within me. Then, in 2008, I became aware of the RLSH or real life superhero community. Real life superheroes are men and women, equally inspired by fictional  superheroes, who create iconic identities and do creative crime prevention and homeless outreach. They showed me tha...

Victim is a patron of businesses inside building I secure: At 2:45pm Wednesday, subject ( pictured above ) attempted to rob a woman of her phone and struck victim in the back of the head when she wouldn't release it! His black jacket has a silk screened red roses design on the back!  #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist Minding Ur Business is My Business. :)

Need a Safety Creation Cameo? For few hours of sudden #Super power call 504 214 3082. Last minute assistance for events! #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

Thank you  NOPD 5th District for yesterdays rapid response and arrest of a combative subject outside building I secure.  He was asleep in our entrance and after getting a concerned text from our Board Co-Chair ( I wasnt on property ), I contacted the New Orleans Police Department 5th District. Officers asked him to leave and he began arguing with them to such an extent that he had to be taken into custody to preserve the peace. " If we are going to be quick to condemn police, we should be equally quick commending them! " #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

Been playing Cat and Mouse with a pair of area teen thieves  ( one of whom stole a car and was arrested for it  when he returned to try his luck again ) casing the Co-op and other  Healing Center businesses. Need I add that when caught, under city council mandated decriminalization of juvenile crime, they are released to their parents and not taken to the Youth Studies Center, New Orleans juvenile facility nor the Orleans Justice Center's juvenile wing, except in the most heinous cases- a cheery thought to those dodging harassment and robbery. That said, displacing them, for however long, beats allowing them to steal and intimidate at will. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

UrbanSafetyist practice grew out of my longstanding role as a citizen on patrol, with a healthy dose of security consulting tossed in and rounded off by advocacy where I mobilize stakeholders to participate, instead of spectate. I strongly favor a return to a modern version of the Old English Hue and Cry model of safety creation where people rally to someone's announced aid as a spontaneous, mass civic duty. Social networks like NextDoor and before  the internet, Neighborhood Watch as promoted by the National Sheriff's Association, are definite modern descendants of Hue and Cry. My role is to put the PUBLIC back into public safety, within individuals comfort zones, and the law, alongside police as active partners instead of a passive service provider to service recipient dynamic. If you are a business owner or event planner, let's create safety together! :) #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist Minding Ur Business is My Business!

Person who sexually harassed a female patron Sunday and threatened Executive Director of the building I secure yesterday was detained by myself and someone I'll call, Slammer this afternoon. NOPD was called and arrested him. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

Podcast of my guest hosting, Ringside Politics with a Punch Friday, September 28th, 2018 http://wgso.com/podcast/ringside-politics-september-28-2018/

Today, the General Manager of the Co-op  ( member owned natural food grocery ) inside building where I'm Head of Security signalled that he ended assistance. I immediately went to see what was the problem and he briefed me about how the  gentleman pictured above was drinking hot coffee for sale without paying for it. We approached him as he neared the exit and the General Manager asked the free drinker if he intended to pay for the cup of coffee. The answer was, " No " and I escorted the free drinker out of the building. He is now banned from entering the Co-op nor the building. One sip at a time costs an enterprise, even a nonprofit Co-op, money it can't afford to lose. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

The same creative process which fuels technological and artistic breakthroughs also breaks down barriers to making safety a reality. Safety is an Everyday Commodity. A brief glance at seat belts; surge protectors; child ( sometimes adult, lol ) proof caps on bottled medicine; GPS systems; anti virus software and other protective creations lead to one conclusion: Safety is an everyday commodity.  Its availability is a ray of hope for citizens awakening to the frightening, yet liberating, realization that the rise or fall of their safety quotient rests chiefly in their hands and not those of distant, disinterested government bureaucrats and corporate boards. You Mean My Safety Isn't Somebody Else Responsibility??? Alot of folks who grew up in stable homes and more efficient eras are used to dialing or typing 911 and actually expecting a prompt response by the police. Our current " depolicing " depressed law enforcement culture in many places makes...

Last week, with the help of several businesses and a rapid response by the NOPD 5th District, this sexual harasser and thief was arrested in the lobby of the building I secure. It was a classic professional safety creation scenario where witnesses came to me and I coordinated a response which lead to his capture after a game of Cat and Mouse for a few weeks. He'd stolen a portable speaker and cash from two of our businesses and harassed several female employees. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist

#UrbanSafetyist Tip to Fellow Professional Safety Creators: Let clients say u are doing TOO much and that u need to slow down rather than accuse u of doing too LITTLE and needing to pick up the pace. I just posted this on my UrbanSafetyist Facebook page.

What would eventually become my UrbanSafetyist consulting began by protecting my widowed, maternal grandmother, our neighbors in her peer group and neighborhood association members in the same demographic. They were Black women who'd outlived husbands, Jim Crow, the Axis, and a Cold War but had very real fear of surviving the Urban Apocalypse around them. Stable communities that experienced external discrimination were overwhelmed by internal devastation. In the midst of such carnage I was calling, comforting, collecting information and hitting the streets, first as an advocate and then professionally with employers or alone. Fast forward to 2018 and the city and cast of characters has changed but safety creation remains the same. What I once did for inner city senior citizens I now do for a diverse selection of merchants and nearby  neighbors. Client's pigmentation has largely  changed but my purpose is unchanged. Safety has no color and we have n...

Ejected this banned person from building I secure yesterday. Always unstable and disruptive, this time she held a metal rod. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist 

Lost wallet, Louisiana drivers license and $36 inside, was turned in to me earlier by patron who found it on nearby sidewalk. An hour later I handed it to its very grateful owner! I've returned countless sets of keys; cell phones; laptops; IDs and other misplaced personal items. Safety Creation in this context means being a trusted keeper of folks belongings until they can be reunited. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist #UrbanSafetyist sometimes means Lost & Found. :)

A bartender with whom I worked  recently told me she had a Glock pistol put to her head during an armed robbery inside her current bar. I instantly thought about the last night club my friends and I staffed back home and the chaotic chain of events around it; the non fatal shooting of its former head bouncer; near nightly fights to stop and the eventual murder of another club owner. The other club owner was friends with the couple who had the venue whose wounded head bouncer was replaced by myself and my friends. My bartender friend works at a place not unlike these locales back home- spots where the vibe and sometimes, violence, of urban living are included in the price of admission. Revelry doesn't equate to a cease fire in these areas. If anything, it can unintentionally offer a concentrated dose of what's in the surrounding area. Such angry energy was a fixture of the bar I worked back home whose owner eventually fell victim to that same energy. I'd ven...

I'm quoted in this WWL Radio article: https://wwl.radio.com/ articles/snitches-get- stitches-rare-according-nopd- chief-michael-harrison

" Some of our neighborhoods would be better off with some people in jail! " this often stated quote from #BroAlMims, New Orleans #1 Crime fighter and Mentor, sums up Displacing Negativity, which is SO central to creating safety as  advocacy or professionally. Banning trouble makers from public spaces or having them arrested may not change their orientation, but does change their location! Too many communities ( and homes, schools, businesses and events comprising them ) suffer because hostages don't challenge rampant negativity. Our Prevention  minded allies can work on deprogramming cruiminals. We Protection minded folks focus on displacing criminals on behalf of those whose energy and outlook is infinitely more positive. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist #UrbanSafetyist