ChiKat

I feel like my neighborhood has been more violent lately. There used to be a lot of muggings, but now all the muggings seem to be at gunpoint. I don't know if this is statistically true, or just my perception.

My response to this has been to prune my purse of anything valuable. My credit card and drivers license are still in my purse, but just one credit card and I have the "cancel the card" customer service number one speed dial. If I do get mugged, I want to be able to hand over my purse without a second thought.

I read an article in the Tribune about a man whose car was stolen:

Holmes grabbed onto the luggage rack and got onto the roof as the van entered the expressway and headed north, according to officials. A witness told police he apparently tried to get into the van through the passenger door. He was then thrown off the van when the carjacker ran him into the barrier at 89th Street.

That is hardcore. And that's the second fatal carjacking I've read about in Chicago in the last month. The first one was a horrible story about a poor woman who was strapping her child into the car seat, only to have some man yank her away from the car and steal the car WITH the baby in the car seat. He eventually fatally shot the baby.

The point of this post is that ugly things are happening in the city. I'm not a fan of Obama, but then he says things like this that make me think that maybe he DOES get it:

"There is a tradition of gun ownership in this country that can be respected that is not mutually exclusive with making sure that we are shutting down gun traffic that is killing kids on our streets. The argument I have with the [National Rifle Association] is not whether people have the right to bear arms. The problem is they believe any constraint or regulation whatsoever is something that they have to beat back. And I don't think that's how most lawful firearms owners think."

[Hayes, Stephen F., "Obama and the Power of Words." WSJ 2/27/08]