Everyone who knows me, knows that I  am a big advocate for small businesses in Black communities. I can’t knock the next person, but every now and then you have to shake your head. Last week,  right up the street from Booker T. Washington High School, HPD busted Maxwell’s Car Wash on Yale St., for selling marijuana, prescription pills, liquor and raccoon meat. Yes, raccoon meat. We can really think nothing of it because most country folk eat ‘coons,’ but  this is my first time ever hearing of a place actually selling it to people like this.   
Reports state that HPD’s deferential response team raided the business after receiving complaints from neighbors. They found two weapons (one of which was a 12-gauge shot gun) and more than 1,000 prescription pills.Additionally, they were running a gambling shack. On the day they were busted, undercover cops observed high-stakes gambling going on inside a shed in the back. I truly wonder who came up with this birdbrain idea. I know it could not have been solely the owner, because he looked to be about my age perhaps slightly older. Then too, I could be wrong. Nothing surprises me anymore.
 They arrested four males including the owner Michael Maxwell, who claimed it was all lies and said “I got all my permits that go with this place. I am licensed with the city. I pay my taxes.” However, they arrested him for having over 12 city violations.
What would possess someone to try to carry out a full pledge drug ring down the street from a school is puzzling to me. Did they think that they were going to keep this activity going on forever? Better yet, did they think that the people in the neighborhood would just turn a blind eye to what was happening in front of their faces and not care, when children must walk back and forth to school past this establishment. The neighborhood is tired of folks coming in and destroying what they have worked so hard to build. Most of the folks living in that area are older. They must take a stand.
Sadly, some Black folks look at it as “a hustle.” It’s just flat out wrong. The right decision was to wash cars, awful decision to incorporate the other stuff. Back when I was growing up, our hustle was sweeping hair up at my daddy’s barbershop for some change, cutting yards, selling cans and bottles, etc. Young folks these days honestly believes that making quick money will  get them somewhere. And, it will. Directly to jail or the graveyard.  Every action has a consequence, rather positive or negative. When you get what you deserve, what can be said?