Mugging here and there

Last week I met yet another girl from Wisconsin named Laura. We were with two other American girls and Laura was telling us how she had just gotten mugged and beat up- the bruises she said, were finally gone. She had been walking home (she stays with a host family) at 4am after having been out drinking. She tried to negotiate at least her keys and maybe something else from the thieves and although she maybe got her key back she also got punched and kicked. When they left, someone pulled up beside her and offered her a ride home, not probably the safest idea, considering all she had left to offer, but he was a kind stranger and dropped her off at her door. On Saturday I ran into the other girl we had had lunch with from Portland while I was talking to a mutual Chilean friend, she was carrying her hand and described to us how the night before she had been mugged and her hand was hurt and she was considering going to hospital. She too was coming home late at night but she lives in our neighborhood rather than a more Chileano neighborhood.

Later at home I told Sylvain I was glad we didn't stay out late, and happy to have him for protection.

I've never seen any kind of violence here, but I've heard a lot about it, Sylvain has a few acquaintances who've been mugged or beaten up, but again it seems to most often take place after late night drinking.

When I first moved to Brooklyn I lived in an unsavory neighborhood with 9 roommates in the most amazing loft I have ever seen. There were 7 boys and 2 girls. The apartment had been broken into just before I moved in when one of our roommates woke up, they left, and just after I moved out it was broken into again and the two other apartments in the building had been robbed before- once they tied the person up who was at home. The building was home to about 25 artists, musicians and photographers, the thieves stole the cameras and Mac computers for the most part. Still, all the boys had been robbed, once by gun-point in daylight right outside the door of our house. One night some of us were sitting around watching a movie, and Marcus came in and asked to borrow someone's phone as he had just been robbed and wanted to cancel his phone and credit cards. He said he simply handed phone and wallet over to the guy when the request was made - but he asked to keep his ID and keys as he was headed to Germany for an art opening the next day and would need it at the airport, the thief acquiesced "sho man, no problem" and he took what he wanted and handed the wallet back.

I always think of that as a somewhat defining New York moment, Marcus was hardly troubled, this was his second time being mugged- he was a skinny gay man, but he took it in stride. The thief was chill, the experience was as ordinary as any transaction made with a teller at Target. Everyone who travels is aware that when you're clearly a gringo westerner you're a target for pick pocketing, otherwise why would you have so many silly-looking bum bags and passport holders you tie onto your undergarments. The idea of getting robbed doesn't really worry me too much, I travel enough that it seems likely I'll find myself handing over my cash at some point, the thing that strikes me as profoundly worrying is the beating that seems to be coming with these transactions. Nothing is so valuable to me I want to taking a beating for it.

I won't even get into the disgrace of happy slapping... If you want to know google it.