Lakewood veteran wants to reenlist via Council
Candidate looks to continue public service & civic career.
By Brian Maquena
May 16, 2022
One Lakewood resident hopes voters give him the chance to continue paying it forward.
It was 1966 when a group of female U.S. Postal Service workers—calling themselves the Postalettes—awarded Gregory Slaughter $250 after completing high school. It helped him through two years of college.
“I was shocked,” said Slaughter about the unexpected scholarship.
After the money ran out, he joined the Navy and deployed to Southeast Asia.
“We ran Cambodian troops down the riverbed into Vietnam,” said Slaughter, who served as a radioman, “Special Forces would lead us in.”
Slaughter’s public service didn’t end there and he hopes to continue such civic involvement on City Council.
Slaughter is running against a 17-year incumbent—Steve Croft—and a Bellflower Unified school board member for Council district 2 in northwest Lakewood. The election is June 7th and mail-in ballots have been sent out.
Disclaimer: The Lakewood Populist is endorsing Slaughter for Council and will have articles on the other two candidates as well.
LAW ENFORCEMENT CAREER
Upon returning from active duty, Slaughter found criminality overrunning his hometown.
“I saw people on Main Street openly selling drugs,” said Slaughter, describing Compton at the time. “I was stunned.”
A 1973 LA Times article describes the city as having one of the nation’s highest crime rates through 1972.
Slaughter said he and some friends volunteered as reserve officers for the Compton Police Department to help improve quality of life.
With money from the GI Bill and an evening job, Slaughter completed his bachelor’s degree and got married. He decided to try for a promotion after working at then-Pacific Telephone Company for a few years.
“That’s how I learned the hard way,” said Slaughter, who says discriminatory policies limited opportunities for most black company workers to two areas predominately African American. “I was trapped.”
Slaughter “decided to gamble,” leaving the telephone company for the Santa Monica Police Department.
Yet despite graduating second in his class at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department academy, Slaughter says he was introduced as an affirmative action officer. The one other black officer was also ordered not to help him.
“I was on my own, but I succeeded,” he said.
By the end of the decade, Slaughter had completed his master’s degree and started a family.
“I was focused. I was young. And, I wanted to make a difference,” he said.
Slaughter retired as a lieutenant after 30 years in law enforcement.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT
The Slaughter family moved to nearby South Gate after their Compton home was burglarized.
Slaughter joined the South Central Food Distributors, a food bank, serving as a board member. He was inspired to get involved due to his eight-person family struggling with food while growing up.
“I didn’t want to see anyone else go through it,” he explained.
He later became a board member at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, finding himself serving alongside attorneys and well-heeled business owners expected to donate money and help with networking.
“I couldn’t write a $20,000 check,” said Slaughter. “I could write a thousand dollar check.”
In 1989, Slaughter made history by becoming South Gate’s first black Councilmember, winning a special election.
“I’ve always been involved,” said Slaughter, who had before served on the city’s planning commission.
While on South Gate Council, Slaughter was instrumental in opening the city’s first Farmers Market, wrote Steve Costley, South Gate director of parks & recreation. He worked with a state senator to help make it happen.
Slaughter also looked for ways to address the city’s financial shortfalls. General Motors’ had shuttered its South Gate assembly plant in 1982 at the cost of 4,300 jobs, while Firestone closed its tire factory the same period.
“All that revenue that was coming in before vanished overnight,” Slaughter explained.
The problem was regional as Southern California by 1992 had completely lost its once mighty car manufacturing industry thanks to Japanese imports. Slaughter and the rest of the city’s incumbents lost reelection that year as well.
After buying a bigger home in Lakewood, Slaughter completed a teaching career at Long Beach Community College. He won a 2009 national award for advising a student club in the American Criminal Justice Association.
“It’s been nice,” said Slaughter about his time in Lakewood. “I always tried to give back.”
The internet is filled with a chronology of his service.
Archived newspaper articles tell the tale of Slaughter getting elected to South Gate Council after vowing to tackle crime, as well as him being spun around in his chair while on the Council dais.
“I thought I was going to die,” said Slaughter, describing the incident that resulted in battery charges being filed against former Councilman Odell Snavely.
The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has Slaughter listed as a member of its Emeritus Council. And a host of former students have praised him online.
“Mr. Slaughter is a hidden gem,” wrote one in July 2008. “He is the reason why I have been successful at LBCC.”
Slaughter said he was honored by the compliments.
“People invested into me and I invested into them,” he said.
The Postalettes scholarship from when he graduated high school has motivated him all these years.
“I had absolutely no money,” said Slaughter, describing his foray into adulthood. “It’s a debt that I could never, ever repay.”
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