ANTHONY WASHINGTON - PORTLAND, oREGON N'STEP REPRESENTATIVE

My name is Anthony Washington, I'm 41 and I grew up in North East Portland.  I am a former gang member and drug dealer.  I want to share my personal experiences with you.  My mother was only 16 when I came into this world.  She was still a child herself and needed to finish school.  Now that I was here, she needed to support me, and that required her to jump into the work force.  Since my Mom was busy with work and school, my Grandmother, who I affectionately called Momma raised me.  I spent the majority of my time with my Grandmother until I was 11 years old.  My Grandmother was an amazing woman who helped develop and mold me during some of my most influential years.

March 15, 1987, Spring Break, I was a student at Fabian Elementary School.  I didn't know that this day was going to change me for the rest of my life.  I was picked up at the bus stop by my Great Grandfather and my friend Mike.  That's when I received the most devastating, life changing news.  They told me that my Grandmother (Momma) had been murdered.  I took the news really hard.  After all she was my MOMMA.  I felt responsible for her death.  The night my Grandmother was murdered, I was supposed to sleep over, and didn't. This forever haunts me.  My grandmother's death changed me FOREVER.

Being a boy only 11 years old and losing one of the most important figures in my life.  This trauma had me emotionally terminated.  I began running the streets of Portland, to escape the pain I was dealing with inside.  This is when I started selling drugs and accepted the Structural Gang Culture.  It was a way for me to express my displaced anger and find acceptance with a group of like-minded peers.  By the age of 15 I found myself facing a Murder One Case.When I was 15 hanging with acquaintances, and drinking, a conversation/confrontation went all bad.  Another young man shot my dog, and I snapped.  I had already been in a downward spiral since I was 11, and that was the final straw.  Not to mention that alcohol was involved.  I snapped and I shot him.  I found myself running away to escape the system.  It wasn't long before I decided to turn myself in.  At age 15 I was fortunate enough, with the Lord watching over me, to escape being tried as an adult for Murder One.  Until the age of 21 I spent my time at McLaren School for Boys.\