One youth’s view of the violence around him

As I step out of my lovely home in the seemingly peaceful neighborhood of Parkside, I see things that your average 19 year old wouldn’t see. For example, a lifeless body lying in the middle of the intersection or men having a live shoot-out like an old western movie.

I reside in the city that has been dubbed the second most dangerous city in the United States — Camden. Walking down these streets, almost everyday I see boarded up houses with graffiti all over them like an art canvas, drug dealers on every corner, and yellow tape from someone being murdered hours before.

Almost every day I see the flashing lights of a police cruiser with its earsplitting sirens wailing down the street toward an unknown situation. Camden can be compared to a small war zone or a pharmacy where you can get almost any drug prescribed to you for a low price. There are some places in Camden where I can walk down the whole street and it’s nothing but decaying boarded up houses with drug addicts using illegal drugs on the stoops. In this city, drug corners and drug dealers are easier to find than gas stations.

Many of Camden’s addicts drive in from the suburbs 30 minutes away to the most dangerous places in the city to get a fix. As I drive through this hectic city, as my car rolls over the pot-holed streets, you can see that these addicts are getting their drugs from some of the many drug sets on the corners of Camden’s dangerous neighborhoods. These sets are usually gang related in some sort of way, and sets might have different rivalries with others. These rivalries are often over the color another set wears or respect and in some cases territory. They often end in murder and deceit.

I see many of the city’s youth being engulfed into all the negativity surrounding drugs and crime. Living in this city and being a young person is like being trapped in a tornado of death, poverty and drugs. The other day I witnessed a friend of mine’s house burning down. As a teenager, this reality is very painful. It’s hard because many of the people I know are dealing with different issues, such as friends and family being killed, family involved with drugs or some issues often dealing with poverty. It’s very rare not to come here and not see a person wearing a “rest-in-peace” shirt of a dead loved one or a mural of them on the side of an abandoned house.

Camden is like a jungle. It’s very hard to survive unless a person has the right set of skills and knowledge; either he is prey or predator. This city can make or break a person: once you get in, it’s very hard to get out. Living here, many people feel as though the things they see are a part of every day life, but that shouldn’t be the case. I strive to better myself and to surround myself with people who can better me, and to not be around the pressures and negativity of this city.

Zjustyn Hardison, 19, is a student at Hopeworks ‘N Camden, a youth development organization in Camden, which helps youth get their GED, go to college and earn a job. Zjustyn started at Hopeworks in October and earned an internship with its Web Production team in April. In July he started taking classes at Camden County College.