as a single woman, when choosing a place to live, i try to be careful. i ask around for neighborhoods that are "quiet" and "safe." i want to feel at ease in my neighborhood, in the place where i make my home, even if the rent is a little more expensive. i don't want to be a woman who feels she has to sleep with one eye open, so to speak.
i felt satisfied with my choice here in southern california. i felt like i had done sufficient research about this neighborhood, which is, conveniently, within two miles of where i work. i have felt at ease here by myself.
until this afternoon. i was stopped at the intersection before the turnoff into my apartment complex and noticed a police car tearing into my parking lot. since i was on my way home, i didn't have much of a choice but to follow him.
the police car and two other unmarked police vehicles were parked within 500 yards of my parking space. i saw one cop pull on his bullet proof vest and the other two hovering around the corner of one of the buildings in my complex. as i got out of my car and headed to my apartment--which was, thankfully, in the opposite direction--i turned around and noticed the officer with his hand on his holster, peering around the corner of the apartment.
i rushed into my apartment and deadbolted the door, curled up on my couch, and talked to joseph (we'd been talking on the phone throughout this whole ordeal). after a while, i ventured out onto my balcony and saw one of the police officers take his vest off, get in his SUV, and leave.
i let out a sigh of relief and returned to the comfort of my solitary and safe couch.
@>-->>---
4 comments:
Wow! It's almost like you're living on Riverside...here in Austin, that is. I'm sure you have no real reason to worry.
--O
Patrol cars are often my apartment's parking lot (no bullet proof vests however). That makes me a little uneasy, but not as much as when I lived in Albuquerque (which is a much more violent city than El Paso).
Be safe!
The bullet-proof vests definitely sound a little disconcerting. Did you ever find out what happened? I know what you mean about being a single woman living alone. I often worry that if something happened to me, no one would know for a few days. Glad you were able to be on the phone with Joseph.
At least you know you live in a neighborhood in which the cops are not afraid to venture.
I think you should know as an anthropologist that criminal elements run at all levels of society, even if we would like to think that our social environment is isolated from it (just think - a professor at Penn just got arrested for beating his wife to death).
Nonetheless, police with guns drawn can be disconcerting (although it was much more common in Mexico, so perhaps I am a little discensitized).
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