And now a word from a highly trained professional victim...

By Pamela Gerhardt Sunday, January 15, 2006;

"About a year ago, during the week leading up to Christmas, I decided to check out the new Target less than a mile from my home in Prince George's County. We needed something. Sneakers. Toilet paper. And we'd maybe throw in a doodad designed by Isaac Mizrahi.
I knew the store would be crowded, our fellow shoppers a bit harried. My kids, aged 4 and 7 at the time, held my hands as we crossed the parking lot. As we neared the door, a group of 10 or so teenagers headed our way. At the same time, a middle-aged man left the store. The next thing I knew, the young men were on top of the older man, pounding his head. One of them shouted something like, "Don't ever cross in front of us when we're walking." I stood there, clamping on the hands of my children. The older man tried to get up, and when the younger men jumped him again, they all fell into my daughter.
That incident planted the seed of my doubts about where I live -- doubts that were heightened by last week's vandalism of 37 Prince George's County houses."
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If you'd like to read a rather poorly written* tale of how it feels to be a dyed-in-the-wool sheeple, then click into the Washington Post for the full story. People such as Ms Gerhardt see themselves as innocent victims to such atrocities, when in fact they vote for the same protect-the-downtrodden representatives year after year, and buy into the canard that being prey is infinitely more rewarding than fighting back. The neighborhoods didn't change overnight. They gradually eroded to today's conditions because the politicians came to the realization that the criminal element was part of their voting bloc and the liberal element would go along with anything that kept these poor, disadvantaged youths from incarceration.

Anyway, read the whole thing and see if you don't get the same shiver as I. Watching people stand around awaiting the slaughter has always given me the hebeejeebees.

*Pamela Gerhardt teaches narrative nonfiction writing and persuasive writing at the University of Maryland, and is therefore excused from knowing anything about teaching or writing.