he's old presumed garnishes drunks. and when it was really safe because they were not very aggressive now we have young strong crack addicts who are many times are willing to take a chance at rolling stone to get their money to get some more crack it's a different addition. there's always been efforts to get rid of skid row it was a warning for people who are unable to live in the world and they move good move to try to move again and again but just moved into a different area when big money developers began to revitalize downtown the flop houses got new neighbors and penned houses and high end lofts. there are not many places where the gap between rich and poor is a striking as it is here. literally there is just a block or troops operating those two things and i'm cruising where there's nothing separating those two things trucks for tertian julian over. skid row this is the

new or through my still to back the it would have been rob if people didn't come down to see him to do this while the air without three of you know all this is dirt fields and burnt barrels and they were cut your throat down to your people to come past main street you didn't this was called the pit spec down. to people and told it different for us a whole generation will. just see potential real estate through the ground for it's fear that people are interested not much interest on the people who are on the ground everyone who lands on skid row has a story to tell about how they got there for many it's the last time after losing everything for sun the fall especially turn magic my life you know prior to coming to skid row was. in some ways like most people in other ways it was a little bit different you know i was born in compton grew up there were. five

brothers and sisters lost my dad when i was three my mom when i was fourteen at that point i moved out to california and i was an athlete in high school and decent student and started smoking weed you know at high school at the age of fourteen after my mom passed away yet and still you know i was good enough athletically to earn a full scholarship to university of iowa state university where i was a national champion in track and field and also i was able to go and qualify for the olympic games in eighty four where i actually competed in one of so many medals so at eighteen years old you know obviously going into the olympics a year out of high school was very exciting i had a lot of emotion going on. you know one nine hundred eighty eight i started to experiment with other drugs i ended up you know getting involved with cocaine freebasing cocaine and that was the beginning of a twenty year journey for me as an addict i had lost everything i had lost my shoe

contract i had lost my house i had lost all the financial means that i head was really on the street. sleeping on the street for the first time and actually laying down on the sidewalk you know and trying to close your eyes and next to go to sleep when you're outdoors those are the things as an addict that most people don't really talk about so the first time i came down to skid row i was pretty much our five. i was amazed at the number of english were down here i was amazed and where some of the people had come from. the midnight mission first opened its doors and nine hundred fourteen cents and thousands have passed through its drug and alcohol treatment program. two hundred forty four men occupy this space here at the mission and we're going to go and see . where i got my humble beginnings in recovery this is the residence when you first

come into the midnight mission everyone that comes in has to come through this dormitory first. so this was my bed c three up and you can see this in the this is just the way it was when i when i got here i did a lot of soul searching in this period right here i had to make up my mind whether or not i was going to try to stay sober what the program was for me what i was really doing here you know at forty one years old what are you going to do i mean at that point for me it was either you go forward you know with the other lifestyle or you try to pull back and do something different. any time you fall from grace or you fall from from lofty heights if you want to use that word. it's humbling. the area has always attracted outsiders. some stay for

a. while if it's never. come albert olson but everybody calls me bam bam i'm a punk new yorker my story starts way back when i was a kid unfortunately. nursery school would be my teacher would share i was thrown out of every school with a one two i been seeing elucidating and hearing voices ever since i was a kid i got i'm one of those cases where i'm for i pull schizoaffective i have anti-social personality disorder p t h d i have intimate rage just sort of i have a major nightmare the sort of i also have a gender identity disorder where i'm taking hormones for a transgender issue for sexual reassignment to get my her went down to calling their good spot to some of the first era when it's give. them crack affair that we demand the next block came down here following. two years ago this. only to be two

years for me so i spent a good two years down. the job they got ever do again at their commit suicide next time. so nasty horrible and everything's over the place makes you makes you want to do something with your life size doing this because this is really rough to do this and i went to the service i got from out of the service for bad conduct one thing is really stinks the fact doesn't rain here it doesn't wash the urine in the pool the way it's a smell just gets worse and worse i beat up my mother and my sisters and i took my kid and by losing my kid and everything else i really really really were smart and i was where i first became homeless because i couldn't rationally. deal with where my life had gone i've been electrician for all these years are always worst. back in the mid seventy's through the mid eighty's we didn't call them homeless back then we were emptying our mental

hospitals by basically saying now we have them instead of help you and you can also get on disability so go forth and take care of yourself the predominant population on the row at that time and continues to date are the homeless mentally ill obviously many of them are also involved with addiction and and sometimes you can't figure out which came first and that doesn't even matter the fact is they've got melanoma serious mental illness because the institutions don't exist anymore breaking close down all of those places and they took all the mental people made and they gave it to society and then where do we go you either get committed and get locked in and smoke a cigarette three times a day and when they tell you or you sit on the street you become homeless and you can. point. in many ways it's an open asylum for the mentally ill we don't have closed asylums anymore except for our jails and our

prisons l.a. county twin towers jail is the largest mental institution in the united states. because we no longer hospital wards are mentally ill so we criminalize them because of their behavior on the streets people were really questioning me like how can you open a place just for people who are crazy isn't that really stigmatized. and i said no i think we're going to be just the most righteous best. center we're going to have the best food we're going to feel like a family we're going to just make it a place people want to come to. so that people had a place to stay at night. by like two thousand and two we had one hundred employees half of them were members we also set up our own permanent housing i came in

contact with some of the most beautiful people. that one could ever know really. really gross. family. you know we cook together we eat together we play cards to gather we sing together karaoke i. deal with all types of people. first never in my life in any place i mean all types of people all types when i decided to come down and. i saw people just like me depression was one of my biggest things. i've been called it is i was seven years old alone that i was a i'm not one of those. i do it in a way every time i do it would say i have no real fibro mitosis. where there are two murders

a girl in and out around the city nurses. my body. i know my health. my body i had my breast. cancer so i'm trying to be strong and i'm trying to be you know you know and just enjoy my life what i have right now what i'm doing right now is. loving myself. or taking care of my business no matter how much pain i'm me and i got to do in. new york london. the whole world is. a further one than the end. of the course that building at the end of the street another one a more transparent society gets the money or the proper tears become we see

military and for. load the flame. the olympic spirit travels with the flame from its birthplace in greece. join james brown for an elemental and a big journey around russia and beyond. where

am i supposed to go. play. is obviously more for the latest because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rape they really needed to buy guns and learn how to use them i'm. sure this is the one

that i want to go away from once again it's the field. of women definitely a target of the gun lobby you don't kill them when the killing money but if somebody with you with this with her. i know to say more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to tell him guns to protect their family and young girls shoot out. so we do have a pink. kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth were clearly not the safest. those homes for forty years but sure. didn't want to go.

stuart. really really be come over to st lucie you know she would have. come from a home very good home. very good home but i want to do st. marks because that's where to see it makes you very wise to life and people. can read right away. bitterness where you just what everybody not i just. paints. those. i was born in the trade a house over here in san pedro my father was in the service in world war two

then i was raised in new mexico where my grandmother was born and from the men. it's a rich and powerful plant in new mexico it and i would put four years altogether in arkansas and i put the last twenty years in hail but arizona. i had my first cats when i was three years old leave and i've been feeding these for over five years. no i had to pay for fifty a month or kept food i couldn't go get to cheap get food cheaper get it i had to pay two and three and four dollars a night for star phone containers anabolic scores like eight dollars for just a few those thing that struck me worst when i saw the skid row was there was no clean fresh water for the birds and kids they let caustic solutions and all kinds of poisons go and cite drugs in the waters to camps on the verge of drinking and no clean food supply for them we should know by now if there's

a bunch of men here to scare food with a lot more contact the ok. kid can't get a sick kid again say it when there's been this now this is a problem the uniform know this no this is the one that had the signs can right here. the month in kitty and it looks like the rattle of the smashed face i got it to him readers. only hopefully will have wore. yellow kill them we once had a lot of red in her war yeah that means i don't care for anything red blue or. womb they'll throw purple piss or because the jets are going to be born knowing that the real man with ransom was muumuu last line moved to last long for various then last night. and guys a psycho will incite them some loner will stay on they come out of it like he sits

around and do nothing all day long and harass the roof sexually harassing. then you are right there was no start from within his own cycle level would anything man was born a tick that lives are ways around that you're not here so no. room to room. just do. i don't like. people to take advantage of oh people. when he was taken advantage over so i intervened and she for good enough that she just kind of adopted me as her fiance and i've been her fiance or since that's been nine years ago but did i start to to like her as a person and i start to understand her who she is right here and her. mental illness with the collection of tray a she she has storage is full of cash like three different ones just completely

piled up to she pay every month nothing but. but that's who she is and i take her just who for who she is and that's why she loves me and i love her for that i accepted that i guess that's how i get my blessings from god. you know because in the beginning was like that but i truly i would defend her with my life if you believe that i'll die behind this will lead you right here. life is. life is a conundrum you could be. so story and everybody down who knows that if they bother her today they're going to have to deal with me so they basically don't bother her at all. they hate that she cares all the chairs. for us and she laughs i swear. richard be a long time to people why you'll get her off the street or why you don't know who she wanted she doesn't want that see people understand she you have to let them be

who they are when she's ready to go inside she'll bortsov you she wants to live on the street just to let her live her slot or should i say live on the street even though she hasn't or. she's a trail like linus there were she go. through even though his mother's will set the money he she gave him he's been on drugs and these people give me wonder and when i have to buy more they keep psyching here. and he almost finished a psychology course in which three years of medical school dropout medical school it cracked like an end up so bad. and now i see that one back to medical school even though he has pancreatic cancer which is really. she is a lot of ways any cause real lot of grief. and ok you know we're fairly well paying for life. well because. this is. i

was sleeping also enjoying a blanket. real close friends. sometimes i still sleep. sometimes inside it reminds me of why the hell out there at the age sixteen. i try to have my so committed to a hospital because i wasn't connecting with other people and healthy way i didn't feel connected to anything i remember feeling very depressed and. i wanted to save the world in myself you know a headache if i go in. i never have to come back out again but they would accept me . they would be

a bad place to be you know i ran away from home at seventeen years old and i actually had a job paid. school. married and. had my daughter my first twenty two. and then my last honor. their father divorced me. at that point i mean. there was nothing healthy about. everything with the stored it. was so restless. i don't know how to do that i don't know how i raised those three girls like that. but he said that my father passed away that hurt me really bad i lost everyone in my life that i cared about they're gone and then happened i came to skid row.

i developed a real bad drug and came and came here. and i really didn't and never thought about it i just know when you are wrong doing rome and doing your most folk and that's what that's what i was going to do. but. that's what i wanted at that time and i said remember saying to myself alas city how long now and keep doing what i'm doing is going to happen because i just knew i was a little from glad as to say enjoy it and maybe dials and your old. grudges me good to me scare me say oh yes use down bring through most turbulent times now the. geos of your situation is too short a mud dish it is a drug addiction crack cocaine also addicted to lifestyle of downtown oh

we're. no one's religious no. ah grew up in compton broadmoor started one horse i was three years old. people forced to have horses in the backyard. i just are going to take them out no i didn't ride in the city. i do a hell of a ride or so i do my. and i don't stand into the whole why you like it so good what you did before when they they spark me yeah that's what i want to know too that i like the smell of the eleven when they spark baseball awarded to the double edged sword. that's how i like horses they sport we decide what my dream would be to live on a ranch. be were horses. just be around smell them walk ride a baby. teach people about. the horses i

believe that. it's all for you know if they get it because of the cost of the rescue so many people you know i love god help. you to get by the wall of wall people up and down the whole black berry and you could hardly walk up and down the street cars could be a valid after everything gone are everybody's either in jail they all went to santa monica or venice hollywood or somewhere else we don't need more channels with people mental institutions and we need more doctors to come down here so the more people pass now sandwiches that's what we really need we need more understanding we need the awareness that we're not told drug addicts three. things impact our central nervous system the environment that we grow up in and that we live in our d.n.a. basically what we're born with our genes and drugs. don't i

mean is the reward neurotransmitter i mean it's what you see and release is from our brain cells when we are sexually aroused when we smell something good that we'd like to be when. we smoke crack the brain of the skids. unmedicated is a wash with go for me more soul don't bring a person from the desert because from. the scripture frank brain cannot filter out the noises the heat. the vibrations the other people talking to you it's all tuning it once so the medications that we give people for schizophrenia reduce the don't for me unfortunately they reduce it too much and they feel dead inside they don't get to feel pleasure anymore.

when. these folks wake up every morning and have to face another day being a stigmatized marginal person in the world and have to make decisions about using street drugs or using prescribed drugs. prescribe drugs street drugs feel better prescribe drugs don't particularly feel better in their hands everywhere is mentally ill people there's always a major mileage or because we need them there it's on medication for self medicate so be it how else would one do it what else would you like me to do i can't even get my mom would answer the telephone what am i supposed to get my medication so get drugs soup on the street. try making. reading the sustainable operation almost on making at him and what you are

advocating him self interests and so that is what you often want in terms has always been the case and had. businesses for hundreds of years without using the label. i think was what got capitalism do it was this notion that economists brought to it which was the idea of profit maximizing. there's a saying you know when you're in the arctic you have feel entitled world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple shit but really she's not simple little. handful of people have

access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is that the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted with the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we've undertaken a unique operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers. this is obviously more for the ladies because it's paying. women wanted to avoid rape they really need to buy guns and learn how to use them i'm. sure this is the one that i want to go with someone to give us the feel of the women are definitely the target of the gun lobby and you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody would you would piss with her. i'm noticing more and more and that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to

own a gun to protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth. were clearly not the safest. birthday or. the location of a boy still remember. how to do that well there is of the ten thousand said you would stop this storm we might be more my people will die.

and the best of the best the first steps of medals are awarded in saatchi as day one of the twenty fourteen winter olympics comes to a close. a team of german skiers and buy athletes reaches out for assistance after its equipment fails and finds a helping hand from the russian opponents who decide to put rivalry aside. street violence and golds bosnia herzegovina protesters clashed with police and said government buildings a blaze amid soaring unemployment economic stagnation and corruption. and a suicide bombing reportedly carried out by a briton in syria the first such attack by a u.k. citizen in the country sparks fresh fears that westerners could pose a threat and they returned home from the war.