back to normal
2020-Jun-12, Friday 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI was shot at today. Indirectly, but it's still troubling.
I completed more yard work today and wanted some new food besides what I have at home. I got in the car and drove northwards to a more-distant Cub grocery than the closest one (previously closed due to looting and protests). As I turned off from my neighborhood streets onto a busy road, I approached the small "Handy Stop" gas station near that corner.
Gunshots. People scrambling behind cars several meters ahead of me and to my right. The people doing the scrambling were line-of-sight between me and the puffs of smoke. I assumed bullets heading my general direction. I hunkered down as low as I could get in my car. I know from a previous shootout that my car door will stop typical bullets. I drove on by, avoiding the other cars in their rush to leave the gas station.
I got to the Cub, parked, and looked around my car. No new bullet holes. Hopefully they missed hitting anyone or anything.
But... we're back to normal around here. My work-from-home day on Tuesday was interrupted around 3pm by a scream and then 4 gunshots nearby. I couldn't tell the direction at the time, but I knew it was only a few houses away. I never heard sirens for that one. I was woken later around 1am, though, by sirens passing my house and then stopping near that same location. Apparently that one was just somebody with a hammer.
So, we're back to normal here in the #WarzoneInMinneapolis. We reached bad summer levels of violence here early in the COVID lockdown. We got a temporary reprieve with the riot curfew, since collective attention moved elsewhere for a few days. Now, back to deadly gunfire everywhere.
I'm tired of arguing for better social safety nets and institutions. I am solidly in the camp to defund/disband the police and move those military budgets elsewhere.
And tax the rich. Or eat them. Whichever helps the most.
I completed more yard work today and wanted some new food besides what I have at home. I got in the car and drove northwards to a more-distant Cub grocery than the closest one (previously closed due to looting and protests). As I turned off from my neighborhood streets onto a busy road, I approached the small "Handy Stop" gas station near that corner.
Gunshots. People scrambling behind cars several meters ahead of me and to my right. The people doing the scrambling were line-of-sight between me and the puffs of smoke. I assumed bullets heading my general direction. I hunkered down as low as I could get in my car. I know from a previous shootout that my car door will stop typical bullets. I drove on by, avoiding the other cars in their rush to leave the gas station.
I got to the Cub, parked, and looked around my car. No new bullet holes. Hopefully they missed hitting anyone or anything.
But... we're back to normal around here. My work-from-home day on Tuesday was interrupted around 3pm by a scream and then 4 gunshots nearby. I couldn't tell the direction at the time, but I knew it was only a few houses away. I never heard sirens for that one. I was woken later around 1am, though, by sirens passing my house and then stopping near that same location. Apparently that one was just somebody with a hammer.
So, we're back to normal here in the #WarzoneInMinneapolis. We reached bad summer levels of violence here early in the COVID lockdown. We got a temporary reprieve with the riot curfew, since collective attention moved elsewhere for a few days. Now, back to deadly gunfire everywhere.
I'm tired of arguing for better social safety nets and institutions. I am solidly in the camp to defund/disband the police and move those military budgets elsewhere.
And tax the rich. Or eat them. Whichever helps the most.
no subject
Date: 2020-Jun-13, Saturday 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-Jun-13, Saturday 02:12 pm (UTC)As of 2020 January (image at right), my neighborhood has seen 61 killed, 161 injured, all within 1.6km/1mile of my house since 2014.
Simple gunfire (no recorded injury or death) is more ephemeral. Minneapolis police previously published fixed maps every 2 weeks, but they've gone to ArcGIS and now show only recent numbers (7, 14, 30, or 365 days). It's primarily ShotSpotter technology data, which is automated, since most people here are like me and stop calling 911 after a few years of continued gunfire. Still, though, you can easily see the main cluster where I live (northwest) and the secondary cluster in the middle-south (where the George Floyd murder and riots started).
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=292a52a52b354387a94020db10c19749
As for how this is normal... I blame the consistent prioritizing of rich people concerns and police budgets. For instance, the city in 2020 is spending $193M on police, $109M on Park Board, $50M on Convention Center, $24M on Health, and $15M on Neighborhood & Community Relations. Nationwide, there's still the problem of minimum wage, healthcare costs, the war on drugs, education performance, etc.
no subject
Date: 2020-Jun-13, Saturday 07:42 pm (UTC)Like we talked about your house and you shared your gardening experiences. I just can't believe that this would happen in your neighborhood.
I've never been to the US but from what I read on Dreamwidth and sites like reddit a lot of "public freak-outs" read like they are done by people who are clearly mentally ill and not medicated or even diagnosed. Not to say that mental illness is an excuse for violent behaviour.