Thoughts on a night. Or more like a jumble of half-thoughts.10/22/02.

Two of my co-workers and six of our organization's volunteers were standing on a corner in S.E. Washington, DC. for an almost an hour last night, trying to start a volunteer's car with jumper cables.

Two guys approached them, wearing masks, asking for money. One guy had a gun. I was sitting in the back seat of a locked car, with three co-workers, a few feet away. I never saw the gun. But I saw them pat down my friends standing outside.

Then they tried all the doors on the car I was sitting in, and banged on the windows.

"Money!"

They weren't very bright guys. They patted down one of my co-workers who had a cell phone and a wallet in the pockets of his cargo pants but completely missed that stuff. And yeah, I was sitting in a locked car, but show me a gun and I'll probably open the door. They didn't even try it.

Not that we'd been all that bright either, in the first place. Standing around in a pack next to a car with its hood up? Not a good idea.

The two guys strolled away with a couple of wallets and some cash. Three of us tried to call 911, but the phone system put us on hold. On hold? Isn't it obviously an emergency? We got through after a few minutes. The police came, took a report, and stood around in the cold with us while we waited for a detective to arrive. The detective took the same report, again.

We tried calling four tow truck companies for the volunteer's car. All refused to come to that neighborhood. Finally the police called a company that came an hour later.


23:01

song in my head.... sort of

When I got home, I had Dave Matthews Band's "Typical Situation" in my head. Except when I thought about it, I realized I'd inadvertently been changing the words to "ridiculous situation." It was a ridiculous situation, for us. But I guess last night *was* a typical situation for D.C. ... It's disheartening, in a way. I'd been marveling over how clean, orderly and relatively efficient the Metro is. How sometimes the city seems like a small town. How people dress up all neat for work and are courteous enough to hold open doors. It always gave me the illusion that this was a safe place, even in rough neighborhoods. People I've met in those neighborhoods were generally friendly, helpful, good parents.

One other thing I've been thinking about: I always thought drivers were a little nutty when they locked their car doors in dangerous neighborhoods. What's a locked door going to do, I always thought. Now I get it.

One other thing: I always thought muggers were a little smarter than these two appeared to be. I mean, I'm obviously not enough of a criminal mind to pull off a robbery, so anyone with a knack for that must be semi-intelligent, right? Another myth shattered.
08:28

bottom line is...

We shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. We should've gotten out of there much, much sooner instead of waiting around trying to jump a car. We should've left the car there, piled into one vehicle, and left. We had plenty of warning signs that it wasn't the world's safest place.
11:18

10/23/2002 09:24:59 AM

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