I understand now why Houston denied it. Crack left a residue on everything it touched. Anything could be done to a person associated with the evil substance. I surveyed my community and saw its effects in the way my neighborhood was policed. It was as though the police weren’t satisfied until everyone I knew had been stopped, questioned, searched, detained, fined, arrested, jailed, inconvenienced, awakened in the middle of the night, humiliated. Some would end up beaten, shot, or killed. All of us would be touched.
