re: Shooting at The Grand Theater - Alexandria

quote:

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Yeah, glad I moved away from the Garden District area. Doesn't help when Alex is down 44 police officers either.

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Not good.

When we left my mom didn't understand why. I told her that we didn't want to be robbed at gunpoint while walking our dog, or feel the need to keep our head on a swivel while on a run. She scoffed and said that crime happens everywhere. I said that's true, but it's much more likely to happen here than most places.

A year and a half later one of these things I mentioned us being paranoid about happened to her in her own driveway.

It took me a bit to remove my paranoia, and it's still there. Our first couple of months up here we were at the capitol, and this guy with his wife and kid came up to us and asked us to take his photo. Being me, I'm immediately on high alert and I'm eyeing the shite out of this guy and our surroundings, thinking someone's gonna pop out and rob us while our attention is diverted. My wife (also from Alexandria) looked at me and we had this non verbal communication of "keep your eyes peeled".

What happened was this: I took the guy's picture as he smiled in front of the statue, he thanked me, and then he walked down the street into the chocolate shop. It was then I realized how insane it was to live with the thought that every interaction you have on the street is nefarious. Not saying I'm not still cautious, but my guard has dropped quite a bit being in an area where I'm not worried that someone soliciting me is gonna rob me for pocket change.