Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Crime on the corner

It is hard to be upbeat about the neighborhood when crap happens. It is even harder when crap happens right after some other crap. Stoner dog's dad got mugged. A bunch of kids, not the usual crew that usually hangs around, knocked him down and when they discovered he only had $1 in his wallet, threw it back at him. Afterwards, this stoic man of a man, just comes on over to the BACA party after we have done a round robin of introductions and saying what we liked about our block/street/ neighborhood. His wife, who'd gotten there before him, mentioned something that really needs to be said. She said after they were robbed they got a lot of support from their neighbors, some brought over food, flowers, and one loaned them his car. She said if they lived in a big faceless condo they wouldn't have gotten that.
There is no way to smoothly segway back to the corner....
But other news related to our crime ridden corner is that the usual crowd of dealers have apparently taken seasonal jobs indoors. If you haven't noticed it is too cold to hang out waiting for crack heads and other druggies to pass by for a buy. According to the grapevine one of the dealers has taken a temporary job at a large store and is reselling some items on the street obtained with the 5-finger employee discount.

4 Comments:

At 12/08/2005 3:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You HAVE to send his store manager an anonuymous email. And don't initial it either. If you give me the info, I'll do it.
KS

 
At 12/08/2005 8:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It does seem that there is an uptick in crime...the girl accross the road on 4th had her bag snatched as she was entering her house...Also her flatmate was held up with a gun at 5th and R.

almost makes you wish the corner boys were back...at least there was never any robbery/violence when they were around.

anyway..merry christmas.

Jolyon

 
At 12/09/2005 11:04 AM, Blogger Mari said...

KS,
Store in question is a big chain like Radio Shack* and I wouldn't even know where to begin plus I don't have details of the who & what.
But as a PSA I will say to all managers if you have something that is about the size of a finger and worth over $50, like a 1.0 gig chip, make sure it doesn't walk off.

*Radio Shack is used as an example but is NOT the store in question.

 
At 12/09/2005 8:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey all - interesting blog. This is my first time reading it.

I was the one who was robbed at 5th and R by three teenagers. Sad to think that someone 14 or 15 years old would be so bold as to rob someone. The one with the gun was small and so fresh faced. Sad.

My roommate was the one jacked on our front stoop less than a week later.

The police told me there is always a big uptick in robberies between Thanksgiving and X-mas..

I have lived here 3 years - and this is the biggest change in the faces on the corner I have seen. Interesting- wonder what caused it? Over the years there have been changes in the faces on the corner- but there used to be more overlap. One new guy would show up in the mix- while the old faces were still around.

There was also always enforcement of basic mores. The corner boys used to never let drunks harass people, they made sure people's cars were left alone, they were quick to respond when someone needed help, etc. I hope that comes back.

It was most peaceful 2 years ago, but the peace broke the summer before last - lots of gunshots on the corner, etc. Perhaps the monopoly on the market on the corner is over? Maybe there is a new crew? Who knows.

Lets just look out for one another - cool?

P.S. Despite the problems of late I love this neighborhood.

AV

 

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