HOUSTON — An outreach program intends to use startling methods to steer fearless teens away from trouble in the Houston area.
Operation Outreach will host its annual “Snuffing Out the Smell of Death” program at the Harris County Precinct 7 Justice of the Peace on Cullen Boulevard from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The program is raw and uncensored. Organizer Reggie Gordon, an ex-con and former gang member turned activist, shows graphic photos of teens murdered in the Houston area.
“This is gang warfare,” he told a crowd in video of a past event posted on YouTube.
Gordon targets youth from 10 to 22 years old who are flirting with gangs, probation or worse. One of Gordon’s supporters, minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad, said the program is hardly a ‘Scared Straight’ copycat.
“Normally, you would say if you expose somebody to too much of this (violence), they become numb to it,” Muhammad said. “But in truth, this isn’t a video game. We’re not going to scare this generation straight. But we’ve got to give them straight talk about the consequences, not only to themselves, but what they do to the community and those who they don’t interact with every day.”
Mothers of children killed around Houston in recent years tell emotional stories to wake up those involved in gangs and crime.
“We have to step up in the community and we have to address the sex trafficking and we have to address the gangs and the street crime that’s going on,” Muhammad said. “We have to address that, and we have to be fearless.”
In the past, the program happened inside a Third Ward funeral home. This year, it moved into Precinct 7’s JP court where organizers hope to host their largest crowd in decades. Their goal, though, remains the same.
“Success is saving one of these boys or girls,” Muhammad said.
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