Khalid Alexander (Pillars of the Community) on Police Reform, Criminalization & Community Solutions

In this episode of the Buss It Down Podcast, we sit down with Khalid Alexander, Founder & President of Pillars of the Community (San Diego), for a powerful conversation about police reform, criminalization, and how communities can create real solutions for people impacted by the punishment system.  

We recorded this inside Pillars’ upgraded facility and discussed how the system is built to document the worst parts of someone’s life—criminal history, photos, labels—while ignoring the progress people make through rehabilitation, education, work, and community leadership.

We also talk about:

• What meaningful reform could look like
• Why language and framing matter in court and public perception
• How Pillars of the Community focuses on community building, civic engagement, and policy work to decrease criminalization  

This is a high-energy, high-frequency conversation that will challenge how you think about justice, accountability, and humanity.

New episodes weekly. Tap in.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

All right, man. So yes, the one and only is DC4. That's ITS DC4, man. Bust it down TV. You know we're going crazy all the time, man. And um, well, I got the pleasure of sitting here with uh today.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Carl it Alexander Pillars of the Community.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Okay, okay. Pleasure, man. Pleasure. It's not the first time I met you though.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

No, no. I think we first started working when we did uh concert downtown San Diego.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Shout out, man. Hey, and you brought it together. If that tells you anything about what the pillars were, um, you know, this this is this is years ago, man. This is maybe close to 10 years ago. So, I mean, I was younger, probably, you know, uh, in a lot more things, let's say that. And uh, you had me performing with like Big June, a lot, a lot of dope, a lot of dope people uh performed that day. And it was things like that that kind of opened up my mind to like, okay, I could branch out and start working with all kinds of people that I haven't never worked with. So um, that was real dope. That was real dope, man. We'd love to see that, see y'all doing that again.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

No, we appreciated you coming down there and doing that, and especially it was in Horton Plaza, right? So I think the name of that concert was the Document This Conference or something like that. And that's because we're our people, we're used to being documented for negative things. Man. But they never document the positive things that they were doing. Oh, no, no, no. Imagine how many people, how many police, how many other folks were walking around trying to document you for negative things, but none of them were trying to write any of the positive stuff that you were doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, they'll pull you over and take pictures of you to get you documented as a gang member and everything like that, but they're not getting, oh, let me get a picture of you with this certificate or graduation or none of that. Right. None of that. So I understand that, I understand that.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

And that's by default, that's intentional, right? Because you can't lock somebody up for the positive that they're doing. Wow. Uh you can't lock somebody up if you see the full human being. Imagine that, taking a human being and putting them in a cage. Imagine that taking a human being and beating them up and throwing them in the back of the car. Man, we wouldn't let them treat dogs that way. Right. And so what they have to do is they have to create this image. Oh, he's doing this bad, he's doing that bad, she's doing this. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So then you so then you can present all this, and um, anybody that's ever been through the court system, you know that in those times you pretty much scrambling trying to get those positive things together. Because you, hey man, I need some letters, I need that uh that one class I took, the the any any community service hours. And you're right. I mean, if I had the whole portfolio that this is just a human being that possibly made a um a wrong decision or something like that, that would be a better understanding than look at these pictures we have of him. He's a documented gang member for the past 19 years. That's right. Ain't been in trouble in 10 years, though, but he's still they're not interested. I've heard some crazy stories, man, so I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

But they tell you your rights, they tell you that anything you say can and will be used against you. Right. They don't say anything you say can and might or will help you.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Right, right. It will be. That's not what they're looking for. No matter what you say.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

That's not what they're looking for. They're paid to find the worst in you, yeah, and then to portray that as the full human being. Not just as individuals, but entire communities. So you don't even need to say that you're a bad guy. Right. All you gotta say, he's from a bad part of town. Wow. He's from a bad community. Wow. So he talked to a bad guy. Yeah, yeah. Nobody questions it.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah. Okay, so um, and what do you feel like, what do you feel like needs to happen or is happening that's changing that?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

The type of work that you're doing, the type of work that Cuban Mimi is doing with Fat Camp, the type of work that Big June is, is we're recognizing that a lot of the differences that we were told are about our communities from different neighborhoods, from different sets, from different ethnic backgrounds, different languages, that all of those things are actually bullshit. And really what brings us together is us being humans. And so I think San Diego is actually a lot further ahead of the game when it comes to this.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

That was gonna be one of my next questions is how do you feel we measure up to other cities? Because I mean, these initiatives aren't just um city-based. You know, this is a, I mean, I don't know how far connected everyone is, but I mean, for the most part, everybody has their own organization, their own push, their own motto, their own theme, whatever in their respective cities. Yeah. Um, so that's why I was finna ask. How do you how do you feel we measure up against these other cities like a Los Angeles, like a Chicago, like a Texas, like a Florida, you know, these crazy places that we see on the news all the time. I mean, that's right. You know, so that's right.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Well, I mean, the first thing I'll say, the reason we see them on the news all the time when it comes to negativity is because somebody's profiting from that negativity.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

That's the that's the first piece. And that there's probably a lot of people in those neighborhoods that are actually pushing for positivity in the same way that we're doing. Where I think that San Diego kind of stands out is that we have a lot of folks from different parts of town who are willing to work with one another regardless of some of the historical things. And that takes sacrifice, okay. Because we know that the violence in our community doesn't come out of nowhere. They try to tell us that the violence comes out of what clothes you wear or what part of the neighborhood you're at.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

False pretense. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

But there's actually a lot of harm that we have done to one another. And when harm has been done to one another, it's difficult to say, hey, such and such did this type of harm to me, but I want to get together and I work because I want to prevent that harm from happening to people in the future. Um, and I think that that's one of the areas that San Diego really stands apart. The other part that I think that we see in San Diego is we have uh organizations who are under-resourced, don't have enough funds, under-supported, but even though they're under-resourced and underfunded, maybe because they're under-resourced and underfunded, they recognize the need to work with one another in order to help make that change.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Right. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

We have drop-in centers in the coast, we have drop-in centers in the south, right? Where folks are working together and they're telling the city, yo, we need you to support us.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Now you say drop-in center. I know that's a um loosely used word.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So what what would that what is that? What is that? To me, a drop-in center is a safe space in the community where anybody can come and just hang out.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Right? When you're closing rec centers, when schools don't have after-school programs, right? Where are the youth supposed to be?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Unfortunately, they're gonna be on the corners on the streets getting harassed. That part, you know?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

The one other thing I'll say is San Diego is different from a lot of other cities, is that we've recognized that we don't be deserve to be treated the way we're be we've been treated historically by the police. Right. So if you go to any barbershop, if you go to any any salon across the country and you ask people inside the barbershop or salon, have you ever been hassled by police?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Majority of people raising their hands.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But if you ask them, have you ever filed a complaint or what have you done about that harassment, most of the people go and say nothing, right? No hands are gonna go up. Wow. And I think in San Diego, is we're at a point over the last two years of we've we've where we've realized not only do we have rights as human beings, but we have a right to be treated with dignity and respect.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

No matter who's pulling you over, whether they have a badge on their hip, a badge on their chest, and a gun on their hip, they still should be treating us with respect. Right, right, right. Uh and I think that San Diego is really ahead of the game when it comes to that. In other cities, you have a lot of people who've already turned their lives around. Uh, they may have already done long prison sentences, and they're the ones who are saying, hey, this isn't okay. But we recognize it doesn't matter how young you are, whether you're doing dirt in the streets or what you're doing, you still deserve to be treated with respect to still are battles. Of course. And I think that's where San Diego stands apart the most.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Of course. Um, you know, I was actually a part of um a good initiative they were doing in um San Quentin, where they were trying to refrain from getting people called um inmates and everything to incarcerate a person because at the end of the day, just hearing that you are a number, just hearing that you are another statistic and not being looked at as like, hey, you're a person that messed up. Now, you know, of course, you got there's repercussions for messing up. Anybody understands that, but it's the way you're being treated in those times.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Um, so you touching on when you said um about getting pulled over and you know how to handle that and everything like that. I've heard a couple different things, but is it true that okay, if I get pulled over and harassed, I should be like filing a complaint, basically.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, well, I mean, if you if the police, if you treat the police, police or law enforcement with lack of respect or without dignity or whatever, you think they're gonna write you up?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Right. Oh, yeah, for that's a reason too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So why wouldn't you write them? Right. Why wouldn't you write them up? That's one reason. The other reason is if they can get away with writing you up and harassing you without you doing anything in response, maybe you can handle it. Right. Maybe you're cool, but what are they gonna do to your brother? What are they gonna do to your nephew? What are they gonna do with the next generations that are coming up? So we have to say, hey, there's a reason why they don't do this to people in La Jolla. Oh, yeah. Because they know there's gonna be consequences.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, they're gonna follow up, they're gonna write letters, they probably gonna be down there yelling at the at the chief, you know, everything like that. So all of that.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

All of that. So why have we normalized the way that they treat us in the community, right? It's because it's decades that have happened, right? And we've internalized what they say about us. When we say I'm an inmate, we've internalized that I'm not a full human being. Right. When we say uh I'm a documented gang member, or I'm from such and such, we've internalized that when they say that we're a gang member, when they've documented as a gang member, they're saying I'm less than human. Right. We're saying, hey, I might be incarcerated, I might be formally incarcerated, I might be a gang member, I might be active in the streets, but I'm still a human being. But I'm still deserve to be treated with respect like anybody else.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Exactly, man. Yeah, so I dig that, man, and I feel like that's a bit of information for them right there. Can you let them know um not only where to find you on the internet, but I mean, we're in a nice building right now, so where to find you at all, man, if they want to take part in um the things that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Well, I'm not really sure where to find me on the internet. I'm gonna be honest. I'm not good with the social media, I'm there someplace. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

But we can look up maybe pillars of the community.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Look up pillars of the community. Okay. Uh, we have a couple of different spots. One of our spaces over here, right across from the Black Contractors Association from the BCA on on Atkins. Charlie goes by every day. Okay. Uh, you can reach out to Layla Aziz, you can reach out to Cuban Mimi, you can reach out to a number of the folks that work here. Uh right. And we'd love to work with folks and help, you know, again, recognizing that everybody is a pillar of the community. You can't build a house on one pillar.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

You need many pillars. And so we're trying to get as many pillars together so we can build a community that we all can thrive in.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Most definitely. Well, thank you guys for watching, real quick. And uh make sure you guys go follow up, find him, find a center, drop by, play your part, no matter what part of the world you in, no matter what part of the city you're in. All right. And as always, like, comment, subscribe, stay tuned for more. We're gonna have to bring them back, man. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

We are about to bust it down.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Come and live in the rain. You're gonna bust it down.