While I know my current neighborhood is hardly the safest place in the world, the majority of the violence I have witnessed here involved black teenagers and young adults fighting with each other. As a white woman who is friendly but largely uninvolved in my neighbors' worlds, the worst I ever received was some benign drunken harrassment and a few young boys hitting on me. Almost all of my interactions with my neighbors here have been positive, even when I was digging into things some people would rather not talk about.
Seeing articles like this makes me wonder if the same thing will work in my new neighborhood.
I've already spent some time in Southwest. While the street I'm going to live on seems sleepy and quiet, plenty of people (including teenagers) hang out on the stoops just a few blocks over. There is also a very obvious income gap between my section of the neighborhood and theirs. On the one side, multi-story, expensive-looking rowhouses sheltered by tall, old trees and fronted by carefully maintained gardens line the streets. On the other, short, small, identical homes squat along treeless streets with waist-height chain-link fences and clothes lines in the back. My section of the neighborhood is mixed race; the other section seems to be almost all black.
The split in the neighborhood lies along 3rd Street SW, next to the commercial area that includes Safeway, the Metro, the CVS and Bank of America trailers, and the dirt pit that will become the new Waterside Mall. As the NBC article mentions, plenty of teenagers hang out in front of the stores there. I've said hello to them and laughed at their jokes, but I've never questioned them or challenged their right to be there as the police officer did.
When I move to Southwest I plan to start reporting on the area. This means, at a minimum, I will be walking around and talking to everyone I meet, getting to know who lives there, who works there, who hangs out, and what their stories are. Including the teenagers. Inevitably some people will disagree with the articles that come out of these conversations.
Years ago in Texas several of my guy friends realized that they could not stop me from going into places they saw as dangerous. Long before I took a Sociology class or wrote an article, I walked into places others labeled "The Barrio" or "that crack house" just to talk to the people who lived there. My friends' reaction, in typical Texas fashion, was to give me easily concealed weapons and teach me how to seriously injure or kill someone.
Inscription: "(Heart) for Chris with love"I never had to use these weapons, and I stopped carrying them when I started needing to pass metal detectors to get into the libraries in DC. I also stopped carrying them because I don't want to wind up accidentally killing or crippling someone over a misunderstanding or pretty theft. To me, losing my wallet is not worth someone else's life.
On the other hand, I don't want to end up with my hands held behind my back by one teenager as another one beats me up just for walking down the street. Being able to throw the person holding me would be great in this instance, but would having a weapon like a knife, a night stick, pepper spray, or even a gun help? I don't know.
What do you think? Should I start bearing arms and really practicing martial arts again, or are my best defenses being aware, making friends, and talking my way through the situations I find myself in? Do I realistically need to worry about this more in Southwest than in Columbia Heights?
4 comments:
I currently have a fire starter thingy in my purse - it's cause I keep forgetting to take it out. Be careful that whatever "weapon" you have in your purse is legal so if you use it you don't get into more trouble.
Oh, and move to VA...- Brie
I've been living in SW on 4th St. for 2 years and I haven't had any problems (I'm a 27 year old Asian female). However, my while male roommate was twice attacked by really young teenagers who punched him in the face and didn't seem to want to rob him. These incidents were way less scary than what happened to this lady, though - the "attackers" in my roomie's case must have been between 11 and 13 years old, so though they outnumbered him they were relatively tiny. Also, they only punched him once (each time) and then ran away. The first time it happened, my friend whipped out his phone and the cops picked the kids up two blocks away. I should also note that these incidents happened in broad daylight both times. As far as I can tell, they pretty much exclusively pick on white men, though the two incidents you mention here don't fit that pattern.
I think you'll find once you move to SW that the police are all over the neighborhood all the time, sitting in their cruisers. They've also started bike patrols during baseball season. Hopefully they can make some progress, because they seem to be making an effort. I'll be interested to see if you can find out anything about whether this is a gang thing, or what. The police currently seem to think that it is because some housing projects in other parts of the city have been closed and a lot of young people from those projects were moved to Syphax Gardens and the other projects in SW.
If you're looking for teens from the neighborhood to talk to, in addition to the Waterside Mall try the Titanic Memorial in good weather.
There is a Titanic Memorial in DC?
Tracy -- Thanks for the tip and the info about the area!
Melissa -- the Titanic Memorial is located at the very furthest point of the sidewalk by the water in SW. I'll post something more detailed about it later today.
Brie... you know me, big on curiosity and short on common sense. But I'll certainly come visit you out in the 'burbs. :) I'll see if I can find a good link to the local laws on what you can carry, that's a very good point.
Thanks for your comments!
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