Sunday, October 7, 2012

Fear and Hoping in Flint

Another thought-provoking essay from Flint writer Jan Worth-Nelson in East Village Magazine:
The week my husband fell, there were two pit bulls on the loose in our neighborhood.
Or were there?
They were said to be running around loose, "terrorizing some." They were brown and black. They had been captured alive. They had both been shot. Or one had been shot and another ran away. There was more than one pair. They had collars. They didn't have collars. They were on Kensington. Or they were on Court, and then they were on Windemere, and then causing trouble on Interstate 475. They roamed and threatened at 7:30 a.m. and after dark, literally dogging us and agitating our fears.
As one homeowner posted, "Grrr ... all these darn pitbull posts have me terrified."
And in response to a handful of break-ins and home invasions, a number of fine ladies of the 'hood signed up for gun training, an impulse I can barely stand to contemplate.
I do get the urge for revenge. I have my own fantasies of what I'd like to do to some of the petty thugs preying our streets, but REALLY? Is that how we resolve our neighborhood woes — to arm ourselves with little pink Derringers?
 Read it all here.

3 comments:

  1. Women who arm themselves with little guns ("pink Derringers") probably didn't get professional training.

    A professional trainer likely is going to explain that if you're making the commitment of using lethal force to protect yourself, that force needs to actually be lethal...because a lightly wounded bad guy, possibly anesthetized by drug use, may keep coming and may become quite angry. Then you're in even worse trouble.

    So, you obtain the most powerful gun that you can physically handle with requisite safety and effectiveness.

    Or you give in to social change and move to a community that's culturally and socioeconomically homogeneous and can afford enough cops, where whatever the scope of the local drug problems, they're well hidden because folks have enough money and don't need to rob their neighbors to get their fix.

    Or...I'm not sure what other choices there might be that aren't wishful.

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  2. I understand what Jan is saying and all, but shit, if some mofo kicks in my door that sorry S.O.B. might get shot. FPD will take hours to respond. Flint is up for grabs. It isn't all hysteria. Defend yourself.


    I love my civilized, cultured Flintoids, but if it comes between me and some crackhead I can't count on the community showing up in time. If your neighborhood woes involve scumbags crawling through your windows, it might be wise to solve it with a pink derringer or a .357 or a kitchen knife or whatever.

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  3. carry a .380 hollow points a 5 shot derringer .22 hollow points any tine i go to flint i conceal carry licensed. ex marine or should i say once a marine always a marine. if i pull well someone is going to be hurt real bad. flint is a war zone and after 63 years i want to live longer

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.