Last night I found out that Tuesday someone was assaulted right around the corner from my place. To say it was shocking was an understatement; seriously, it was for me a blow to my sense of security and peace of mind. Apparently – I tried to find a story on the WaPo unsuccessfully – the person attacked had parked down the hill (this is a one way street with the park on one side and house on the other) and was walking up hill when he was cornered by two guys that pushed him to the ground and took his wallet and cell phone and Lord knows what else. From the email that the president o the block sent, the person went to the hospital, and I ma hoping everything is fine and it was just a scare. But momentarily and for a while I will be uneasy every time I park and walk to my place with a laptop, a gym bag and plenty of paraphernalia needed when one works so far away from home that one carries with oneself half one’s thing every morning.
I am not even going to go into the usual discussion, the two attackers are the “usual” suspects, and that is all. I mean we live in a city and cities are dangerous places. I know that. I also know that it happens everywhere, in Gtown, in Mt Pleasant, in Columbia Heights, everywhere, so no one is free of it, not even the people in Potomac, from what happened there this week. But still, what is one to do, I can not be home at 6 every night locked away safely, I need to go out, swim, come back home, so the answer is to continue one’s life. Even if I have a rational discussion about this, I am still afraid, at least a little bit. I guess time will take the fright away, and in a couple of months I will be able too park and not look for suspicious people. But for the time being, you betcha I have a plan and I will be overtly alert.
3 comments:
Not that it isn't bad, lord knows. But I can say, from 20 years living in DC, that these things happen from time to time. Occasionally the victim dies, which is especially distressing.
Nevertheless, the odds of not being so victimized are entirely in each individual's favor. This was even true in the Bad Old Times when Marion Barry was mayor and we had overlapping crack cocaine and AIDS epidemics.
In those days, the Hubby and I were quite enamored of a book called Places Rated Almanac, which was a compendium of statistics for the 230 or so SMSA's (standard metropolitan statistical areas) in the US. We loved poring through the stats: Who has the most bowling alleys? (Regrettable places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin.) Who has the most rainy days? (Seattle, but Cleveland & Pittsburgh not far behind.) And so forth.
We came to an inescapable conclusion: All interesting US cities had higher-than-average crime rates. The most interesting (New York, New Orleans, Miami, San Francisco, LA) had among the highest rates, in fact. There was virtually no overlap between low crime rates and interesting cities (Austin & Denver were the best in that regard, but even then, their crime rates were soaring compared to mega-dull places like Des Moines).
Times have changed a bit. Crime in general is down. Suppposedly New York is now, statistically, one of the safest cities in the US. Nevertheless, I think that in general the possibility of crime is, unfortunately, part of the price one pays to live somewhere interesting.
Good Answer !!
Yeah I agree with you, it was scary, just because nothing ever happens up my neck of the woods literally.
I made the mistake of reading the WaPo crime blotter thing yesterday. People were getting mugged/beaten everywhere!
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