Via Margot Hoerner, a LeDroit Park resident and former ANC 1B 11 commissioner, comes a scary tale of an assault in the neighborhood.
I just returned home from a two week trip last night, to find a note on my dining room table from my friend Brad, who was housesitting for me while I was away.
On Wednesday, at 5 PM, Brad was attacked by 6-7 young men, at the corner of 2nd and S Street, who wanted absolutely nothing other than to beat the utter crap out of him. Brad, aside from being a military guy, is also an urban-savvy guy, who said that his instincts never warned him that something was about to happen. On his way to the Big Bear Cafe, half the group rushed him from the front, whereas the other half rushed him from the back. They knocked him down, and then, as a group, stomped on him, jumped on him, and beat him senseless, leaving him with black eyes, thoroughly bloodied and with several cracked ribs.
This incident has left me with so many thoughts:
- This kind of attack is different from a standard mugging - this is a random, violent assault, with no purpose other than to potentially kill someone.
- I am stunned not only that this happened, but that this happened at 5:00pm.
- Am I correct in feeling that the number of assaults and robberies in our neighborhood has increased in the last several weeks?
- What, as a community, can we do? It feels, honestly, that we can't really do anything, remaining at the mercy of these thugs and hoodlums...
My 70-year-old stepfather was supposed to housesit for me while I was away, and at the last minute, Brad offered. There is no doubt that, had this happened to my stepfather, he would have died.
Understandably, Brad packed his things and left my house the next morning. Brad and his family have decided not to buy a house in Washington DC. I have decided to never let my family housesit for me.
As an aside, my work takes me to the poorest, conflict-riddled places in the world. I have spent the last two weeks in Kenya and Tanzania, which are at the precipice of humanitarian and civil disaster because of a four-year drought. A friend of mine has commented on my lack of fear in traveling to these places by myself, and asked me if I've ever felt fear traveling anywhere – and I said yes... I have felt more threatened and fearful living in Washington, DC, than I have anywhere else in the world. I am often stunned at the level of violence and crime that we have come to accept as a given for simply living in this city.
What can we do?
It was a resident on Second Street NW who proposed gating off the neighborhood in part due to the crime that has happened on the blocks encompassed by Bloomingdale, so it will be interesting to see how MPD-5D—and the community at large—responds to this.
4 comments:
This is a very disturbing incident because there appears to have been no other motive than to kick someone's ass.
According to MPD's crime statistics, violent crime is up 10%
in the 1500 foot area around my house from last year. I'm not sure what to make of this since I'm not an expert, but it seems like there is a problem and that it has gotten worse.
I have no idea what effect this could have, but my housemate and I were talking about a NYT article that was about how being able to observe your neighbors (i.e. open shades, close proximity, etc.) is a great benefit to city living. We also noticed that most houses on our street don't have the shades up on their first floor picture windows.
Obviously this suggestion won't solve the problem, but what about a concerted effort to get people to leave their shades up on their first floor picture windows? Bloomingdale has a ton of these huge windows. Presumably people are in their living rooms watching TV or hanging out. It might help deter some crime because from the street it would demonstrate to people that people are home and, theoretically, could see you commit a crime.
What scares me the most about this story is that it happened at 5 PM in the afternoon/early evening. I have noticed that despite those blocks of 2nd Street being sandwiched between the busy avenues of Florida and North Cap, it's generally quiet, and I've rarely encountered people when making my way down to the 90/92 bus stop on the corner of 2nd and Florida.
Stories like this may just scare people away from walking down 2nd Street, and I think the foot/vehicle/bike traffic on 1st Street does a lot to curb this kind of crime from happening.
Pat, I think people keep their shades drawn because they don't want people to see what they have and where they keep it. It would be interesting to see the effects though.
I am so sorry about Brad and am glad he is alive.
That could be true.
Although it's not like if your shades are down people don't think you have stuff. I mean, it's your home. Obviously you have stuff.
It wouldn't be unreasonable for people to shut their shades when they're not home or not downstairs. I was more thinking that 5:00pm beatdowns could be avoided if the homes in our neighborhood seemed more actively inhabited.
Again, I think you raise a good point about people not wanting to showcase their stuff.
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