Danger and Anguish

So last nite found the dogs again running pell-mell down the stairs, barking at the top of their lungs to confront whoever was banging on our door, with Brian and I right behind them. Unlike last time (see January 21st entry on Safety), this time my next-door neighbor and his girlfriend were robbed and car-jacked on their front lawn, not 20 feet from my house. They had just stopped in to get some blankets, because they are sleeping now at their new house. Technically, both houses close on the 23rd but he got early possession of the new house to avoid a double move. Since the bed and much of the furniture is at the new house already, they're sleeping there, but they were missing some blankets. As they were getting in to their car, two guys came out from between the gangway between his house and the house on the other side (not the gangway between his house and mine) wearing hoodies and bandanas over their faces. With guns to their heads, they forced my neighbor to stand with his hands on the hood of the car (à la cop patdown) and his girlfriend out of the car. My neighbor kept telling them to just leave, just leave man, take everything but just leave, don't do anything, just leave. He kept trying to look over at his girlfriend with the other guy, trying to see what he was doing to her. The guy with the gun on my neighbor's temple kept prodding him with the gun, saying shut the fuck up shut the fuck up close your eyes don't look over there. Knowing the .45 was pointed directly at his brains and not knowing what was next, my neighbor wouldn't close his eyes because he thought, well if this guy's going to shoot me, at least I'm going to stare at the sky.

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They came over to our house to cancel their credit cards (both wallets, her purse, her car were taken) and report the loss to the car insurance company.

So Brian and I had already been talking about this house, and whether we can see our future in it, if we can see raising our children here. Um, no. Not already and especially not now. In five years that he (my neighbor) has lived here, including the four that I've lived here, nothing remotely like this has ever happened. It was very flukey in that he doesn't even live here anymore and but for the fact that he needed blankets for the 30' weather we're having, and but for the fact that those guys were about to rob somebody at the bar behind us, and but for the fact that the bar's security had scared them off from that robbery, and but for the fact that my backyard has signs all over the fences saying "Beware of dogs," and but for the fact that his yard is the next yard over and probably looked dark and empty because it was since they're no longer living there, and but for the fact that my neighbor didn't decide they also needed to get some other box of things or something besides the blankets that would have delayed them inside the house for another few minutes, and but for the fact that they took whatever exact amount of time it was in getting the blankets that they came out at the precise moment that these guys were coming out through the gangway then none of this would have happened.

But how cold is it that these guys, knowing the bar employee had just interruped their other crime to stop, rob my neighbor and his girlfriend, and then take the car. I mean, if they just needed a getaway car (which they probably did), they could have just pulled her out of the car, jumped in and left. But no, they stopped and made them go through their pockets and wallets and stuff and then yelled at them for a while and told them to get on their hands and knees and as that was happening, the bar employee -- who had apparently called the cops to report the first attempted crime (presumably, a robbery as well, as who has hoodies, bandanas, and guns on them for the casual stroll about the neighborhood) -- comes to our corner and startles these guys so they quit fucking with my neighbor and his girlfriend and finally just jump into the car and drive off. So my neighbor who has been trying to dial 911 on his cell but keeps getting "We're sorry. We can't answer your call right now, but please hold for the next available attendant" or some crap like that bangs on our door for us to call 911 and right as Brian and I are doing that, a cop pulls up to respond to the previous attempted robbery called in by the bar employee.

So that about summarizes my understanding of what went down. Point is, it was all a series of pretty happen-stance coincidences. Not that that makes them feel any better. And honestly, life in the city can be unstable like this. I grew up in the city with plenty of stories, and even have more recent anecdotes that I could bore my gentle reader with as well. So if we weren't already looking to leave, I'm not sure that this would motivate me/us sufficiently to do so. And we had just started to talk about whether we even wanted to buy in the city, or if we'd move out to the gasp! county. Can't we find a diverse, interesting area to live that is also safe? Or safer? Since we aren't under any pressure and we don't want to do this before the wedding in October, it's more of a hypothetical that just gained a certain degree of poignancy last nite.

So who knows how all this will work out. I want south city and diversity but I also want safety. But what am I willing to sacrifice for the ever-touted, ever-used-as-an-excuse-to-justify-all-sorts-of-unconstitutional- measures-that-aren't-always-effective concept of safety? What is it when we're talking about my life and limb, and that of my future husband and children, vs. something more esoteric, abstract, theoretical? How do I define that? Do we lock ourselves up, close our blinds, shut the world out? Do we install the lights on the porch with a motion detector that Brian and I were just talking about when we got home from Target yesterday, just hours before my neighbor was robbed and car-jacked? Here's a thought: Do we need to react at all? Yes, something as happened. Is a response, immediate or not, required? Are any additional measures or precautions necessary?

I guess we'll have to figure that out.