Mother and Child Shot at P and 10th NW

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering where that disturbed “MYOB and STFU” poster is now? Just shameful. That guy needs to be locked up.

I'm here. I think this guy was nuts and doesn't change how I feel at all. They should have backed away and not confronted him. You can be right or you can be dead.

Thank god the world operates by a legal code and not your “street code”.

Except when you're on the street. That's the part you do not seem to get. Sometimes you push the wrong person. The public is just that. The public. You don't know what you're getting. Depending on the response Katie got, the matter should have been dropped. From the neighbor's post, it wasn't. Husband "defended" her. I've seen this before and they just expect to bully the other person because they're oh so right. But sometimes the other person Has a Gun.

You could say the same thing about all the criminals who resist arrest and end up getting shot by police. Sometimes criminals push the wrong cops, right?

This has apparently become some sort of bizarro-world discussion where any mention of realities of city life are turned into fodder for the "CITIES ARE UNSAFE" meme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

Ok, good for you? I'm not sure what your goal is. You can feel good about yourself while acting like a fool and putting yourself and your kid in danger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM's plan for a safer DC.

Defund police, excuse criminal behavior, discourage self defense, victim blame.

"self defense" does not mean "confronting crazed strangers." more often it means "STFU and engage flight reflex." Unless you're trying to make some OTHER point aboul "self-defense" that has nothing to do with your actual chances of staying safe?

DP. They obviously didn’t know he was violent and insane when he initially almost ran them over. How is this hard to understand? Obviously if they knew he was a murderous sociopath with a gun, they would have left him alone.

Yes, I know. But some people are objecting to the idea that you should do anything at all to keep to yourself in DC and seem to think that being street-smart is some kind of moral failing. Including one mom who just yells at anyone she thinks is driving poorly. This is a horrible story and one which should teach everyone to be very careful. Because you can hope for "societal change" all you want, but no vague notion of societal change is going to keep you safe in the actual event.

People are suggesting you shouldn’t do anything at all to keep yourself safe? Where have you seen that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM's plan for a safer DC.

Defund police, excuse criminal behavior, discourage self defense, victim blame.

"self defense" does not mean "confronting crazed strangers." more often it means "STFU and engage flight reflex." Unless you're trying to make some OTHER point aboul "self-defense" that has nothing to do with your actual chances of staying safe?

Take a deep breath.... I was not just referring to this thread, but the general attitude of many posters. But please tell me more, I seem to have struck a nerve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.


+1. Well said.

The follow-on to that thought is that the community will only feel safe confronting the miscreants if they know that law enforcement and local government has their backs to do so, i.e., a legitimate expectation that someone who would shoot a woman and child in this circumstance will be quickly apprehended, prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and then jailed for a long time. One of the problems of systemic racism is that for historic reasons, that expectation----of being protected by the law--has not been met for victims of violent crime in poor black communities. And unfortunately the naive do-gooders on the DC Council like Charles Allen don't really care about that fact. Addressing issues of police brutality and misconduct is meaningless if the other, and I would argue more important, aspect of the American criminal justice system remains broken, i.e, we need to ensure as a society that ANY victim---regardless of socio-economic status or race--receives just protection of the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

+1. There are some bad parents who let other people abuse and mistreat their children. So I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

+1. There are some bad parents who let other people abuse and mistreat their children. So I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

Ok, good for you? I'm not sure what your goal is. You can feel good about yourself while acting like a fool and putting yourself and your kid in danger.

DP. Teaching your children that they should not speak up for themselves when others put them in danger usually has pretty bad consequences for children. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Again, most people are not subhuman violent trash. It’s not reasonable to believe you gotta keep quiet at all times because everyone you come across is thinking about shooting you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can call it cowardly. I call it trying to stay out of trouble.

If you stay home and hide under the bed, then you’ll really be able to stay out of trouble. Why do you leave your house when you know there are crazy people out in the world? Not very street smart of you.

Because I know there are crazy people in the world, I think carefully before confronting someone who has shown me by their actions that they have reckless disregard for people - such as riding their scooter through children playing. And if I do so, and the persons reponse is inline with their other behavior, I definitely shut up. My husband defending me is not going to be helpful. What did the guy expect? The motorist saying sorry I offended your wife???? No one should be shot and certainly not the child but this need to engage may bring unintended consequences as it did in this case. Unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can call it cowardly. I call it trying to stay out of trouble.

If you stay home and hide under the bed, then you’ll really be able to stay out of trouble. Why do you leave your house when you know there are crazy people out in the world? Not very street smart of you.

Because I know there are crazy people in the world, I think carefully before confronting someone who has shown me by their actions that they have reckless disregard for people - such as riding their scooter through children playing. And if I do so, and the persons reponse is inline with their other behavior, I definitely shut up. My husband defending me is not going to be helpful. What did the guy expect? The motorist saying sorry I offended your wife???? No one should be shot and certainly not the child but this need to engage may bring unintended consequences as it did in this case. Unfortunately.

Yes, but you reduce your risk even further if you stay home. You put yourself at risk by leaving your home. That’s on you. If you’re ever a victim of violence outside your home, I hope you remember that you could have stayed home and avoided the situation entirely. But you didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

Ok, good for you? I'm not sure what your goal is. You can feel good about yourself while acting like a fool and putting yourself and your kid in danger.

DP. Teaching your children that they should not speak up for themselves when others put them in danger usually has pretty bad consequences for children. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Again, most people are not subhuman violent trash. It’s not reasonable to believe you gotta keep quiet at all times because everyone you come across is thinking about shooting you.

Let me set you straight: staying out of the way of potentially dangerous people is what you do to project your child. Getting yourself into dangerous situations is not "speaking up" or teaching your child to "speak up." Do you think you live in a Sesame Street episode? Can you honestly not tell the difference between being assertive and keeping yourself away from risk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can call it cowardly. I call it trying to stay out of trouble.

If you stay home and hide under the bed, then you’ll really be able to stay out of trouble. Why do you leave your house when you know there are crazy people out in the world? Not very street smart of you.

Because I know there are crazy people in the world, I think carefully before confronting someone who has shown me by their actions that they have reckless disregard for people - such as riding their scooter through children playing. And if I do so, and the persons reponse is inline with their other behavior, I definitely shut up. My husband defending me is not going to be helpful. What did the guy expect? The motorist saying sorry I offended your wife???? No one should be shot and certainly not the child but this need to engage may bring unintended consequences as it did in this case. Unfortunately.

+100. Some of the people posting her are either disengenous or really sheltered.

[Anonymous]

No one should blame the victims. It was not at all foreseeable that someone would shoot a mother and child over an incident like this, and clearly there is only one person "in the wrong" in this situation--the shooter.

That said, I have learned to withdraw from situations like this one based on my experience - and it's not just my city living experience. I have seen crazy behavior at the parking garage in Bethesda too. Some people are truly unhinged and who knows what they might do. It's just not worth engaging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the people who are victim-blaming are disgusting. It takes a community effort to maintain a decent neighborhood. When the response to jerks endangering children by riding an electric scooter is to say, "Go inside and hide" then you are abandoning the streets to the miscreants. That's how neighborhoods stay unsafe.

+1. Well said.

This.

And to any mother on this thread that hasn't told a grown man being rude to take care around her small children, I call bullshit. We should not live our lives in fear of a crazy person with a gun. I will still tell a grown man who rides his e-scooter too close to my toddler to SLOW DOWN and I will not slink away into my house when my family is treated poorly.

Ok, good for you? I'm not sure what your goal is. You can feel good about yourself while acting like a fool and putting yourself and your kid in danger.

DP. Teaching your children that they should not speak up for themselves when others put them in danger usually has pretty bad consequences for children. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Again, most people are not subhuman violent trash. It’s not reasonable to believe you gotta keep quiet at all times because everyone you come across is thinking about shooting you.

Let me set you straight: staying out of the way of potentially dangerous people is what you do to project your child. Getting yourself into dangerous situations is not "speaking up" or teaching your child to "speak up." Do you think you live in a Sesame Street episode? Can you honestly not tell the difference between being assertive and keeping yourself away from risk?

Yes, now that we know he is dangerous, we all agree everyone should stay away. I don’t think anyone will argue with you there. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

But you can’t always tell who is dangerous by a split-second glimpse or interaction. No one can, not even you.