Freshman on the Hill

Photo by María Helena Carey

Living in Capitol Hill for the past three years has been a real pleasure and a joy.  But there are always moments that rock me to the core — moments that remind me that Capitol Hill is part of a big city with big city problems, and that it behooves me to watch out and keep alert at all times.

The first moment may not sound like much to some, but to me it was very jarring.  I was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue while pushing my infant son sometime during an early summer afternoon.  Two young boys, possibly no older than fifteen, approached me from the side and one of them –inexplicably– screamed in my face as loudly as he could while he stared into my eyes with an expression of naked hatred.  His accomplice laughed and they both ran away.  At the time, I brushed it off as just kids being kids, even though I was visibly shaken.

The second moment happened at a friend’s house, which was under construction at the time.  Her backyard was open on to the alley then.  One day when I was over visiting — with my now-toddler in tow– I happened to look out the second-story that looked out onto the alley and I saw a teenage boy coming into the backyard and approaching the house in a very familiar, natural fashion.  Without thinking it over, I ran downstairs and headed for the kitchen, where I came face to face with the boy, who was in the process of breaking into the house.
He panicked.  I panicked.  He ran.  I ran.  And then I saw about six of his friends also panicking and running out into the alley, yelling profanities as they left.  MPD was incredibly prompt.  They kept checking the alley for several days afterward.

My experiences are relatively tame compared to some of the happenings over the past three years: not only have there been murders within the neighborhood, but people have been mugged and beaten severely.  There have been instances of theft and assault in broad daylight.  People have been shot at in the middle of the day as they carry on with their business.

Sometimes the perpetrator is a total stranger– someone who snatches a purse or a wallet, flees out of the area and may or may not ever be found again.  And sometimes the perpetrators are neighborhood people barely out of childhood, possibly acting out of boredom or anger at society at large.

Although sometimes it seems we can’t stop the flood of break-ins, muggings, shootings, assaults, burglaries and other attacks on the average citizen, incredibly, a quick check of the Metropolitan police’s statistics reveals that this year is not out of the ordinary: as a matter of fact, over a twenty-year period, violence and criminal activity have decreased overall in the District.  What’s more, the Washington Post wrote an article during the summer about how criminal activity has actually plummeted during this year.

In the end, all we can really do is just be vigilant and actively look out for ourselves and one another because, believe it or not, we have it pretty good here in our little corner of the world.