An Afternoon Attack

Just in case you're curious why the assignments didn't happen yesterday, it's because my neighbor got robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight about 200 feet from where my friend and I were sitting on my balcony. The actual robbery was just out of view because Lindsay and I thought they were just a couple arguing. Turns out he had a gun and he pistol whipped her in the head, splitting it open, took her purse/phone/keys. We caught a glimpse of him as he ran away, but dammit if I feel like we could have done more. We took the neighbor in and got her paper towels and called the police. When she went out to the ambulance, she accidentally left a gift bag she'd been carrying. Inside was a stuffed bear, presumably a gift for someone, but the outside of the bag and the top of the tissue paper inside was streaked with her blood, which faded bright red to dull black in a matter of hours. I find myself shaken.

I live in a little neighborhood in Norfolk called Ghent. It's about 1.5 square miles of old houses and cute little eateries and a restored movie theater, reminiscent of some of my favorite cities like Seattle and Portland. My street has a wide mall between the two one-way roads, and it's grassy and has great climbing trees. People walk everywhere around here, to the park down the street, to school, to their jobs on Colley Avenue. This woman was just walking home from work at a local salon, in the middle of a sunny November afternoon, and she could have been killed. What the hell, people? What. the hell.

We elect the first black president in our history one week and an innocent woman gets attacked in broad daylight the next week. I just don't understand how people like this can live with themselves. The bastard got away. I don't know if my neighbor (or myself, for that matter) will ever feel safe again.

Please be careful out there, people.