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Safety
I like my neighborhood. I generally feel safe here for the most part, although I lock my car and my home.
And I am angry.
There's a little cluster of businesses about a mile from our home. There's Tillie's Bean coffeeshop, a very nice little place which frequently has live music on Friday nights. I have often gone there to listen to the musicians, and when the coffee shop closes at 10:00 p.m., I'll walk to my car. generally right outside the coffeeshop or across the street, and drive home. Kitty-corner from Tillie's Bean is a laundromat. We've gone there occasionally when we need to launder sleeping bags after a camping trip.
A block further up, towards Hiawatha, is the Cardinal, a neighborhood bar. Never been inside it, myself. Around the corner from that is the 38th street light rail station.
A couple of weeks ago, Fiona went to listen to music at Tillie's Bean with her friend Corwyn. Rob dropped her off, and her friend's mother drove them both home when the coffee shop closed at 10:00 p.m.
A few hours later, at bar closing time, a woman who had been at the Cardinal Bar for a night out with some friends left the bar and walked around the corner to the light rail station to wait there alone for a train. This was at about 2:00 a.m.
A man approached her there and stuck a gun in her back. He forced her to walk back a block with him back toward the laundromat, right past Tillie's Bean. Right past where I park my car all the time. Right past where Fiona was less than four hours earlier that evening. He took her in there, raped her, beat her, and stole her purse.
They caught him. Apparently the woman gave a good eye witness description, and they also had the security tapes from the light rail station. According to the paper, this is the first rape that has been associated with one of the light rail stations.
I take karate and Fiona takes karate. But we won't learn gun defenses for awhile yet. I keep thinking of that unknown woman, imagining myself in her place. Being forced to walk away from my light rail stop. Walking past the bar where she had just been having an evening out with friends, with a gun jammed in her back. Past my coffeeshop. Into my laundromat. Wondering if she was going to make it out alive. And then, after it was over, wondering how she would ever feel safe again.
They caught him. They caught the bastard. I keep telling myself that.
But I'm still wondering, too.
edited to add: There was something in the paper today about him being charged. I was mistaken; he didn't take her to the laundromat, but to a laundry room in a nearby apartment building.
It also said that he knocked out seven of her teeth.
Bastard. I'm glad they caught him.
And I am angry.
There's a little cluster of businesses about a mile from our home. There's Tillie's Bean coffeeshop, a very nice little place which frequently has live music on Friday nights. I have often gone there to listen to the musicians, and when the coffee shop closes at 10:00 p.m., I'll walk to my car. generally right outside the coffeeshop or across the street, and drive home. Kitty-corner from Tillie's Bean is a laundromat. We've gone there occasionally when we need to launder sleeping bags after a camping trip.
A block further up, towards Hiawatha, is the Cardinal, a neighborhood bar. Never been inside it, myself. Around the corner from that is the 38th street light rail station.
A couple of weeks ago, Fiona went to listen to music at Tillie's Bean with her friend Corwyn. Rob dropped her off, and her friend's mother drove them both home when the coffee shop closed at 10:00 p.m.
A few hours later, at bar closing time, a woman who had been at the Cardinal Bar for a night out with some friends left the bar and walked around the corner to the light rail station to wait there alone for a train. This was at about 2:00 a.m.
A man approached her there and stuck a gun in her back. He forced her to walk back a block with him back toward the laundromat, right past Tillie's Bean. Right past where I park my car all the time. Right past where Fiona was less than four hours earlier that evening. He took her in there, raped her, beat her, and stole her purse.
They caught him. Apparently the woman gave a good eye witness description, and they also had the security tapes from the light rail station. According to the paper, this is the first rape that has been associated with one of the light rail stations.
I take karate and Fiona takes karate. But we won't learn gun defenses for awhile yet. I keep thinking of that unknown woman, imagining myself in her place. Being forced to walk away from my light rail stop. Walking past the bar where she had just been having an evening out with friends, with a gun jammed in her back. Past my coffeeshop. Into my laundromat. Wondering if she was going to make it out alive. And then, after it was over, wondering how she would ever feel safe again.
They caught him. They caught the bastard. I keep telling myself that.
But I'm still wondering, too.
edited to add: There was something in the paper today about him being charged. I was mistaken; he didn't take her to the laundromat, but to a laundry room in a nearby apartment building.
It also said that he knocked out seven of her teeth.
Bastard. I'm glad they caught him.
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*hug*