What Have You Personally Witnessed/Experienced To Make You Shun PG County?? (College Park: Valentine's day, apartment complex)

[ChocLot]

OK,

I hate to bring this subject up yet again, but I always think about it when I visit this site, because there's almost always something negative being said about PG County.

To start off, I was born and raised in SouthEast, DC. I moved to Suitland, MD and I now live in Oxon Hill, but am moving at the end of this month to Upper Marlboro. In my ENTIRE 27 years of life, in what many assume to be the WORST areas of MD/DC, I have NEVER been a victim of crime, nor have I ever witnessed a crime.

I've HEARD of crimes and almost ALL were because the victim was involved in drug activities, gangs, etc. Nothing has EVER touched me personally.

I currently live in an apartment complex in Oxon Hill just off of Livingston Road. I've NEVER heard a gunshot. The community is well-kept and quiet. I have no neighbors that are nuisances...in fact, it is very much a community.

So, I MUST ask. For those that advise people to steer clear of PG County....what has the county (or its residents) ever done to YOU? I don't mean just a "feeling" you got, but what have you PERSONALLY witnessed/experienced that made you form your negative opinion (if you have one) of PG County?

[kjg1963]

I'm with you. I'm 44 and have lived here all my life. Grew up in Langley Park, lived in Riverdale, Hyattsville, Beltsville, Adelphi, and now Laurel. I can't think of a single instance of any incidence that made me think that I had to escape PG. Small stuff has happened (car broken into in 1983) and I've seen other people that have had something happen (public fighting, domestic issues), but I've never blamed it on the county. Its the individuals. I might move one day for a change of scenery, but not because I feel unsafe.

[emsgoof]

Being shot at while on an EMS call (by the caller) in Greenbelt.
Walking through Captial Plaza and having two blacks walk up to me and say "Hey whitey, I think we need to feed you to the alligator in the pet store"
Random violence all through the county, and only a hand full were "drug related". Most of it is just animals beating up other animals (I loathe to call them people, because they don't act like it).
I NEVER experienced any of that working in DC, even in Southeast or Northeast.

[fishfister]

I am white and live in a black neighborhood. My neighbors are good people that I am glad to have as neighbors.
Their kids get a little racist and militant but that is something they pick up at school as their folks aren't that way.

I find those that want to tear down the county and start over again - as seen on other threads - to be the most disturbing things I have seen. The majority of them are black.

Crime? You can go to KC or Denver and see the same crime - maybe not at the same percentage rates but I place that blame on the state and county governments.
The residents of this state have to learn to vote for more responsible officials in office.

[dkf747]

I lived in Beltsville and College Park for 7 years. One was an apartment, and the other a rented house. I've never experienced any crime on me personally, but I have watched groups of kids roaming the streets at night that could or could not have been gangs. I don't know. We left 1.5 yeqars ago because of the poor middle school, not really because of crime.

[lscalder]

I live in Upper marlboro in Pg county and Love it. The community is wonderful. Its like a very big family. I feel safe. I have never witness or had anything bad happen to me or my family. I live in a very well organize community where parents are involved in their children lives. I know all my neighbors and thye all know my family as well. I have been into all my neighbors home and vice versa. When one child in the community have a birthday party all the community children gets invited. I love living in the county plus with all the upgrades that been added to the county and coming this year I can not wait.

[jessy0780]

Okay- here are my PERSONAL experiences-

I was robbed at an ATM machine on Riverdale Rd, while there were people in the shopping center who looked the other way.

At the 711 on 450 in New Carrollton (near the metro) I was approached while getting gas and asked if I wanted to buy any weed.

My family's car was stolen from in front of our house in New Carrollton, taken for a joyride, and banged up.

While driving on the Parkway in Riverdale, a man pointed a gun at me. Still not sure why, maybe 70 mph was too slow for him.

Someone attempted to break into our house.

We, along with a neighbor had to call the police several times because the same car would sit on our street and idle, until another car pulled up. Then a man would get out of the car, and go to the other car, exchange something, and then both cars would leave. This happened several nights, until finally a police car drove down the street, and we didn't see them again.

A substitute teacher I had in HS, spent the entire class (Spanish class) telling us (I was one of 2 white kids) how horrible white people are and how they only want to destroy black people, and that black people who are friends with or get into relationships with white people are traitors to their race. She said that there would never be any peace, because true blacks will always hate white people.
A side note- I will always regret putting my head down and not getting up and walking out. To the credit of my classmates, many of them were very uncomfortable, and made it a point to roll their eyes at me so I knew that they thought she was ridiculous. Also, the administrator that my mother called, who happened to black, was furious- and promised that she would never substitute at my school again.

On Valentine's Day I was out to dinner at Calvert House, when we heard sirens and saw police and ambulances racing down the road. It turned out that a man had stolen a car, gotten into an accident, tried to steal another car and murdered the man driving it. The man had been out getting Valentines presents for his wife and children. This happened at the intersection of Riverdale Rd, and Auburn Ave. within walking distance of my home.

While pulling into my hs parking lot, a man who was dropping someone off, followed me into the lot and started screaming at me because he thought that I had driven too close to his car. He was a grown man, and I was 17. He called me a white *****, and was yelling all these obscenities at me, which mostly had to do with me being white. He didn't stop until the person in my passenger seat stood up (it happened to be a black male friend of mine). I remember shaking that someone who knew absolutely nothing about me could stand there and say all these horrible things.

A few years ago, I went to Eastpines Liquor store with a buddy of mine. The police officer there told me to stay close to my friend because they were on alert about a man who had raped a youg woman recently in the area.

About 4 cars were stolen out of the parking lot of my hs in one month my junior year.

I walked out of the mall (Beltway Plaza) after watching a movie to see about 3 people down on the ground in handcuffs, with police reading them their rights. I think I was 15.

someone attempted to break into the house just last year, and luckily could not get in

Someone was shot in the face at a graduation party last year on the street behind the house, and 2 houses down. My family had called the police a couple of times that night, because it was after midnight, and the music was blasting so loud that they could hear it inside the middle of the house with all the doors and windows shut. The police never came, until someone was shot. My mom called again when she heard the shot and saw people running up the street, screaming.

The little brother of a girl I went to middle school with was murdered in Capitol Heights last week. He was 25.

These are the things that made me decide not to raise my son in PG County. Again, I know that all areas are not like this, but because of the things I've seen and the school system, I wanted to get into a whole different county. I'm sure people will argue saying that PG County is great, or whatever, but please keep in mind, that just as you are speaking from your experiences, I am speaking from mine. These things happened, I saw them and will always remember them. I grew up there, and lived it. When I post about PG, it's not from the news or reading the paper, it's from being there.

[kjg1963]

Jessy, I would never dismiss your experiences and then tell you how wonderful PG is. I myself have just never lived those things here. However, I would never live in the area that you do. In the early 90's I lived in Riverdale Heights. The area wasn't too bad at that time, but once I had kids I knew I did not want to live in Riverdale, New Carrollton, or Hyattsville. There are definitely good and bad areas of PG. For self preservation, I try to live in the better areas.

[SectumSempra]

I grew up in Fort Washington and felt very safe. But oh yeah.. Ft Wash is one of the safer areas of PG County..... howveer I went to high school with the kids from the worser areas (Oxon Hill for example). But in any case, I was in these areas all the time (family and friends in all these areas) and never experienced anything bad. I've never seen any robberies, drug deals, etc. The only incident i can recall was someone breaking into our house and taking my mom's jewelry out of her jewelry box. But guess what? They caught the burglar.... and the burlgar was WHITE. So for yall wanting to get all racist, crime isn't a "black thing."

Currently I live in New Carrollton, and while I have heard several times that New Carrollton is rough, I have yet to see, hear or personally experience anything bad. I walk to the grocery store down the street and have often walked to the New Carrollton Metro station at night during the summer and have not experienced any probems whatsoever. And yes there are several whites where I live and they don't complain at all....

[ChocLot]

Originally Posted by emsgoof

Being shot at while on an EMS call (by the caller) in Greenbelt.

Did your EMS call have to do with a shooting in the area?

Walking through Captial Plaza and having two blacks walk up to me and say "Hey whitey, I think we need to feed you to the alligator in the pet store"

I'm sorry you experienced this...of course, I would tend to blame the parents vs. the county.

Random violence all through the county, and only a hand full were "drug related".

How do you know this? Did you personally experience this or did you just "hear about it"?

Most of it is just animals beating up other animals (I loathe to call them people, because they don't act like it).
I NEVER experienced any of that working in DC, even in Southeast or Northeast.

I don't discredit your experiences, but the tone of your reply is a bit off-putting and nothing (because your EMS call which is likely to occur in any area where's there's a victim that's been shot [if that was the case]), suggests harm to your physical well-being.