Here is Gabe Jones of South Apopka, a low level street corner crack cocaine dealer. It is no secret, he admits it, law enforcement knows, everyone in town knows. He does get arrested occasionally but jails are overcrowded and he is non violent so he gets a short sentence and they turn him out.
Gabe has a very long rap sheet but mostly all non violent things. He did serve time for murder but that was long ago for killing a man who beat up his grandmother.
Now I would not give Gabe the key to our house and ask him to water the plants while we were out of town, but he has spoken up for me when someone else began to hassle me.
The local citizenry thinks it is sad that Gabe let his life go this way. They are not happy about the drug dealers. But I have been there when the ladies at the church across the street brought him a plate lunch when they were cooking.
I have been hassled twice on this corner. Once by the Apopka Police Dept. and once by the Orange County Sheriff Dept. Both times I was pleasant and responsive but simply held my ground explaining that I was a photographer, not a customer. I do carry a folder of newspaper articles about my photo series there as well as invitations to exhibits of my work.
When I gave Gabe an archival 8x10 print of this photo, he proudly showed it to everyone around. Then he neatly folded it into quarters and put it in his hip pocket.
