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No one should have an obligation to avoid discussing bad things that happen in certain urban neighborhoods in DC simply because they may not "improve the area."
This is what I said
"But I wouldn't want to encourage a sense of terror among residents of that area, a sence of terror that is not warranted by the data, and that will not improve the area."
apart from the typo (sense, not sence) I stand by that.
"But I wouldn't want to encourage a sense of terror among residents of that area, a sence of terror that is not warranted by the data, and that will not improve the area."
apart from the typo (sense, not sence) I stand by that.
Until Davis was apprehended, it was his attacks, not the commentary on them, that may have given rise to a growing sense of unease in the neighborhood. Random acts of violent crime have that effect. Putting people on notice of them before he was caught was plain common sense.
Until Davis was apprehended, it was his attacks, not the commentary on them, that may have given rise to a growing sense of unease in the neighborhood. Random acts of violent crime have that effect. Putting people on notice of them before he was caught was plain common sense.
if anyone was not aware of them already, they saw it in this thread before someone who lives in Mclean (and seems to post in this forum mainly to point out negatives about DC) made a connection to other incidents that took place over 10 years ago.
Certainly putting folks on notice made sense - but using it as a basis to discuss the terror of living in an area like this did not.
I lived in Bolton Hill in Baltimore when the "Bolton Hill slasher" was at large. We all took appropriate precautions, but I know that at the time I would not have appreciated someone from say, Ruxton, telling me how scary my neighborhood was. We also did not need the internet to find out what was going on in our community.
if anyone was not aware of them already, they saw it in this thread before someone who lives in Mclean (and seems to post in this forum mainly to point out negatives about DC) made a connection to other incidents that took place over 10 years ago.
Certainly putting folks on notice made sense - but using it as a basis to discuss the terror of living in an area like this did not.
I lived in Bolton Hill in Baltimore when the "Bolton Hill slasher" was at large. We all took appropriate precautions, but I know that at the time I would not have appreciated someone from say, Ruxton, telling me how scary my neighborhood was. We also did not need the internet to find out what was going on in our community.
If you've lived in a region long enough, you make connections that others might not make. If there were a series of random shootings in Queens this summer, a long-timer might make a connection to Son of Sam. Get over it; the forum doesn't exist just so a few posters who want people to live in densely populated areas can flood it with links to upbeat articles about DC. People ought to be able to discuss the positives and the negatives. I need not remind you that I have spent, and spend, far more time in DC than you have or likely ever will, so I draw upon a reservoir of both positive and negative experiences. Random attacks in my old neighborhood fell in the latter category.
Of course, if you are a horse, Petworth might seem like a sanctuary, and the suburbs might seem scary, right now:
Jeb - This debate seems to come up relatively frequently with you. Perhaps it's just a communication issue. Honest question here, but do you know the underlying reason why you have an ax to grind with the city and city living in general? Given your track record on here of always pointing out the shortcomings of DC, it is suspicious that you show up after a long hiatus to bring attention to a potentially psychotic serial killer and draw a connection to the point that crime in the city is still a major issue.
But perhaps it's rooted, like it was with Stars who used to post here, with a bad experience living here in the early 90s back when DC was best described as largely disfunctional, with even more broken schools and little retail (I'd say DC's pretty solid and still growing on the retail front now - City Center should be a boost to that). Such an experience might leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth for city living.
No one's trying to take your chosen lifestyle away or deny that DC still has major issues, but it is perplexing to many of us why you so persistently fight against a vibrant central city that can only help the whole region thrive. It's also confusing why you would oppose having as many people as possible able to use transit or walk, since that reduces traffic on the roads you use and pollution in the air for everybody, while putting more of a premium on subdivision style living to help with property values.
Jeb - This debate seems to come up relatively frequently with you. Perhaps it's just a communication issue. Honest question here, but do you know the underlying reason why you have an ax to grind with the city and city living in general? Given your track record on here of always pointing out the shortcomings of DC, it is suspicious that you show up after a long hiatus to bring attention to a potentially psychotic serial killer and draw a connection to the point that crime in the city is still a major issue.
But perhaps it's rooted, like it was with Stars who used to post here, with a bad experience living here in the early 90s back when DC was best described as largely disfunctional, with even more broken schools and little retail (I'd say DC's pretty solid and still growing on the retail front now - City Center should be a boost to that). Such an experience might leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth for city living.
No one's trying to take your chosen lifestyle away or deny that DC still has major issues, but it is perplexing to many of us why you so persistently fight against a vibrant central city that can only help the whole region thrive. It's also confusing why you would oppose having as many people as possible able to use transit or walk, since that reduces traffic on the roads you use and pollution in the air for everybody, while putting more of a premium on subdivision style living to help with property values.
In this instance, the reports of the violence in Petworth, prior to the apprehension of the suspected perpetrator, did indeed remind me of past violence in DC. I would not say that those events permanently prejudiced me against DC, but neither have I forgotten when an innocent neighbor in her 20s was murdered in a DC alley, an event that no amount of street smarts could have prevented. Why my mentioning that the Petworth murder brought back some unpleasant memories necessitates a mini-tutorial about urban transit says far more about your need to preach to the masses than anything else. Are people always supposed to stick there heads in the sand and pretend these things aren't upsetting? If such incidents were simply a relic of a long-past era, this thread would not exist.
I am very glad the apparent assailant has been apprehended, and that Petworth residents will not go through what residents of Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights endured. Whether that is due to luck or improved police work matters less than the fact that random, unprovoked attacks in a DC neighborhood have ceased. Now please stop your own, repeated personal attacks on me.
Latest news - apparently there were even more victims than previously reported. One victim was reluctant and embarrassed to come forward at first, which seems hard to fathom until one sees posts such as yours.
In this instance, the reports of the violence in Petworth, prior to the apprehension of the suspected perpetrator, did indeed remind me of past violence in DC. I would not say that those events permanently prejudiced me against DC, but neither have I forgotten when an innocent neighbor in her 20s was murdered in a DC alley, an event that no amount of street smarts could have prevented. Why my mentioning that the Petworth murder brought back some unpleasant memories necessitates a mini-tutorial about urban transit says far more about your need to preach to the masses than anything else. Are people always supposed to stick there heads in the sand and pretend these things aren't upsetting? If such incidents were simply a relic of a long-past era, this thread would not exist.
I am very glad the apparent assailant has been apprehended, and that Petworth residents will not go through what residents of Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights endured. Whether that is due to luck or improved police work matters less than the fact that random, unprovoked attacks in a DC neighborhood have ceased. Now please stop your own, repeated personal attacks on me.
I was actually trying to foster a genuine dialogue and can't even fathom how you could perceive any personal attack in there. We have many, many views on here that are negative, positive, and indifferent to DC, sometimes all in the same post. I can only think of one poster who consistently posts only positive.
I was hoping to move past the standard response of pointing out one or two posts that go against the grain of your general tone to try to get a deeper understanding of motivation and history so I could understand where you're coming from. You seem to be in a defensive mode, though. Oh well. I tried.
I was actually trying to foster a genuine dialogue and can't even fathom how you could perceive any personal attack in there. We have many, many views on here that are negative, positive, and indifferent to DC, sometimes all in the same post. I can only think of one poster who consistently posts only positive.
I was hoping to move past the standard response of pointing out one or two posts that go against the grain of your general tone to try to get a deeper understanding of motivation and history so I could understand where you're coming from. You seem to be in a defensive mode, though. Oh well. I tried.
Very disingenuous, as is typical for many of your posts.
When Malvo and Muhammad went on their rampage in 2002, it was also reported as bringing back memories of the "shotgun stalker" who killed and maimed multiple victims in Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights in 1993:
So too did Davis's random, violent series of attacks in Petworth earlier this month. One can only await the psychological profile that emerges to see if the personal demons that led Davis to commit his random attacks in Petworth were similar to those that motivated Swann. In Swann's case, his psychologists testified that his delusions caused him to shoot people in neighborhoods that were in the process of integrating, which he somehow weirdly associated with "civil rights," and then make pilgrimages to an area of NYC where Malcolm X had lived or preached. Regardless of whether they were, in each case the attacks were random, extremely violent, directed at innocent residents or visitors, resulted in one or more deaths, and took place in a gentrifying DC neighborhood.
Another recent development that keeps Swann's killings in the minds of current and former residents is the fact that he asked just last year for a 12-hour release, citing his improved mental health:
The request was, thankfully, denied, but only after a hearing that had led some to wonder whether Swann might be temporary freed.
I don't know if you lived in any of these neighborhoods at the time the attacks were occurring, but shame on you for trying to minimize how unsettling these serial attacks were to residents, current or former, of a local community. It's not appreciated, and the rejoinder that all these incidents happened back in some distant time when the city was dysfunctional is patently false, so please desist.
^
I never said anything about whether or not one serial killer should or shouldn't remind people of other incidents. That really has nothing to do with extrapolating such incidents to more common types of crime in the city. You're completely missing my point and being excessively indignant and critical. I'm actually not being disingenuous. I'm trying to understand the core reason you have a grudge against DC. It's probably legitimate, or maybe DC just pales in comparison to your experiences living in New York City or in McLean. I was just wondering what it is.
Edit: No need for that last jab, by the way. By any objective measure, the District of Columbia was relatively dysfunctional during much of the 90s. That doesn't mean many people weren't living perfectly happy lives as private citizens, but it does mean there were nearly 500 murders a year, a declining population, and a federal takeover of the local government due to budget issues.
Last edited by Bluefly; 04-29-2012 at 06:08 PM..
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