My neighborhood has been in the grips of a crime wave. There have been six "gang related" shootings within five blocks of my house, several of the shootings have resulted in casualties but no killings. There was non-gang related shooting in which a young man in a car accidentally discharged his weapon and killed his cousin. There was an on street mugging one house away from min. Two of the gang related shootings happened on my block. None of the shooters seem to live in the neighborhood but some of the victims do.
There is a large public housing complex a dozen blocks away which many people believe is the origin for much of the violent crime.
For the most part I don't feel like I'm in any danger in my neighborhood. The muggers worry me but unless I got caught in random crossfire and a lucky magic bullet were to find me I don't think I'm in any danger of being shot. All the shootings have been committed by and aimed at Black gang members and that's not really my scene, it's like another world that runs beside and parallel to my own.
Unrelated to the violence there is a cluster of Meth users scattered around the neighborhood. They like to steal stuff. Cars, garages, packages on porches and some scooters and motor cycles. I caught someone creeping in my driveway and they scattered while I grabbed shoes and a weapon but otherwise they haven't done me any harm. They did steal my best friends scooter, which was his main source of transportation and was a bummer for him.
I'm more worried about the Meth heads than the gang bangers.
Anyone who knows me well on Hubski knows I pretty generally hate the police but I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised by the ones I've met since I moved into the neighborhood a year and a half ago. They have been courteous, friendly and open to discussing the situation in the neighborhood. They have made some arrests in the gang cases and are trying to grind the meth thieves out of the neighborhood. Same police force as my old neighborhood but the tone of the officers in this neighborhood is totally different form the aggressive dickheads they had patrolling in my old neighborhood.
So how's crime in your neck of the woods? Do you think I should feel more worried by the violence in my neighborhood? If I had a Black teenager I think that I'd be pretty concerned about he or she getting caught up in the crossfire but as it is we are all living in two worlds.
Shit, I live in a poorer part of my county and I sleep with the door unlocked sometimes. There seems to be a colony of homeless people a couple miles away. Virtually no crime but I still hear affluent people talking about moving further away. It's not the crime, poor people just offend their sensibilities I guess.
It's an... Interesting dichotomy. I used to live next to a drug den drug house. There were three drive by shootings when I lived there. Two other stabbings and two more right before and after I moved in/out. What was always interesting to me was that while I lived there, they took the best care of me and my own. We'd walk through and they'd compliments us, move off the street for us. Any request we made they respected and complied with. Once, one of them assaulted the owner of the bar on the corner I worked at. I told him he's good people, and someone came to apologize for him. The dude has been forced to stay a block clear since. It's strange how kind and loyal gang members are to outsiders, when being so violent at the same time. I haven't lived there in over a year, and they still treat me so well.
In the end it boils down to the Two Americas. I wish more people would recognize that it exists.
I don't have a neighborhood right now but the hostel I'm staying at this week is not in a good neighborhood. Right off the highway, lots of dark alleys. But a few streets down is a vibrant bar culture. In parts of St. Louis... it's so weird right now. During the day, black people on the streets feel, I think, sort of "hunted" -- unwelcome (or worse), both in the eyes of the police and generally. We all know why. At night, white people out walking are unsafe in many places. There is certainly way, way less night walking than there used to be. Place I'm staying, I wouldn't even think of going for a jog. Walking home from the baseball game tonight was a stretch, and I'm physically imposing and know how to handle trouble. So the 'two worlds' are figurative and literal, here. It's tragic to witness a once-proud city serving as the battleground for what amounts to a civil war. Good question, cgod. This is an important conversation to have every once in a while; people can learn from reading it and it adds in a different way to the personality behind the username. I remember your last little essay on the local homeless population, some of whom you knew well.
Had a shooting happen right behind my house - crime scene tape on my fence. Two guys shot each over because of a disagreement about drugs. Shit is ridiculous. One guy died, don't know if the other dude ended up living or not. Have a couple bullets lodged in the house, so stray fire does come this way, but it's been years since the last one. The real thing that bothers me is that people seem to want to throw trash away in my yard. I think I may just buy a trash can and set it out there with a sign for all the idiot teenagers that think my yard is their landfill. I'd be more worried about the meth heads too. Makes people more unpredictable and prone to random violence. There's definitely some meth or something going on 2 or 3 streets over, but so far our neighborhood seems to be clear. Most of the really bad stuff drug-wise is over in the white trash area on the east side of town. Any time we have to go over there, I feel dirty just being on the same roads as some of these people. Been thinking about getting a firearm, but they make me nervous, so I've been holding off on that. I think how you feel about your neighborhood is going to be more accurate than anyone else's opinion. You're there experiencing it first-hand, so if you aren't worried, I'd like to think that you've estimated the level of danger to yourself and your family appropriately. If you can honestly say that you're not sweeping anything under the rug in your own mind to make it seem less dangerous, then I'd say you're good to go. Sometimes, though, crime is just random, so taking that into account, you should be ready to defend what's yours. Seems like you have a handle on it.
That's always the best. 1 AM? Why not have a shouting match? Our neighbor likes to drive up and honk the horn at whoever is inside instead of using the mystical cell phone or even some legs to walk the 40 feet up to the house. Doesn't matter what time it is, either. Just rolls up and honks like 4 or 5 times in the span of a minute.