When there was a gun fight immediately outside our windows, then not a police interview, detailed news article, or care from the community I couldn’t understand how people could be so apathetic.
After living here a year I’ll spell out the desensitization process:
[PS I have much more to say about all of this, but this is just a quick summary.]
In AZ I got crime alert emails. I checked a 3 mile radius around our house. There was mostly stolen bikes or an occasional fight, but I’d say I would have a list of about 8 incidents per week.
In Saint Louis, I have the same brand crime alerts. I have the radius set at 1 mile and I get 2-3 alerts per day with 7-8 incidents each. At first I read them all. Now, I only engage with the alerts within 3 blocks of the apartment–otherwise it’s just too much.
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Something huge and scary happens (a 14 person machine gun fight immediately outside of your windowed loft).
There is no substantial response or follow-up.
The community downplays it (see my Reddit thread on a different post). The loft, police, media all ignore it.
We never found out who/why or what came of it, but now there is a bullet hole in our car.
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We pay for a parking spot within the locked gates. My 1999 car was broken into anyway.
The apartment didn’t tell us if they checked the video, and we don’t know if the person was caught.
It took like 9 weeks for the window to be replaced because everyone has busted out windows. Now that it’s “fixed” we can’t ever roll that window down because it won’t go up again.
We called the police to file a report and 2 officers came by then chatted with us for a long time:
Me: Do you know what happened when there was a shootout here???
LE: When? Naw, we weren’t working.
ME: There’s gunshots a lot around here. I called 9-11 two other times when I heard them?!
LE: Oh yeah, it IS Saint Louis. It’s actually pretty good up North, people there are really part of a community.
ME: Ummm, Reddit said there were automatic guns–do you guys see automatics?
LE: Oh yeah [said like, duh, obviously].
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Then, our storage units in the apartment building were broken into. My $300 Sorrel snowboots, $130 Roxy snowboard jacket, and $100 snowboard/bike helmet were stolen. Among other things.
The apartment did not send a text like they do about parking, we don’t know if they checked the cameras or key fob memory–and they certainly didn’t tighten security in the storage area.
We made a police report, and he came, looked incredibly bored, did not even step onto the property let alone go inside to see the broken storage doors, and didn’t say they would investigate.
Nothing came of it.
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There were more gunshots. When I called 911 they asked if I could SEE the guns. No. OK, let us know…
Nothing came of it.
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At Christmas, a package of hand-knitted scarves and (MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE) homemade peanut butter bon bons was stolen.
The apartment didn’t tell us if they looked at the camera footage or not. And the mail room was not made more secure.
The USPS assured me they had delivered the package and closed the case without doing anything else.
We didn’t even call the police. If they didn’t care about hundreds of dollars worth of belongings stolen, they weren’t going to care about scarves and treats.
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On my email alerts it said someone was raped. IN OUR building! We couldn’t find anything else about it.
We started leaving the loft in pairs, and only during daylight.
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More shooting. And a fight. Should we even bother to call 9-11? I did. Can you see the gun? Yes. Is it being pointed at anyone? Yes, he’s standing on the floorboard of his car, swinging it around at multiple people. But nobody was even sent over (this is 11AM on a Tuesday). No word what happened. I got an email alert and they had listed my call under “sundry.”
We texted the apartments and they asked which cars. We never heard if they looked at the cameras, or if the gunman got in any kind of trouble…
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One winter evening I was closing the blinds at 5PM and the next block over there was a car on fire. I called 9-11 and they said fire was on their way. The firetrucks showed up, put the fire out, and went on their way in less than 30 minutes.
It wasn’t on the news, or the neighborhood app. It was not even listed in my crime alert emails. We have no idea what happened…
Nothing came of it.
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We work from home and around 10AM there was chaotic knocking on the door to our loft. We weren’t expecting anyone so we hung back. A few minutes later someone tried their key. Luckily, we have a security bar wedged up when we’re home. We didn’t know who it was!
We texted and called the apartment management and heard nothing back… For 3 days.
In the interim, somebody used their key without knocking in the afternoon.
Another day, I had gone to bed and was sleeping, and Cool said they used their key again (without knocking) trying to get inside!
At no time did this person/people announce themselves.
Finally, the manager called back and said inspections are in our lease, but he would talk to the guys about knocking. He wouldn’t tell us WHY we were being inspected.
Nobody ever came back.
Nothing came of it.
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I read a news report that a homeless man was sitting on the sidewalk across from the courthouse/DMV/registrar/etc.., etc… (less than a mile from our apt) late-morning, with a lot of people out and about. Someone shot him in the head point blank and someone else posted the video to Twitter.
The case is ongoing.
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That said, when we ordered wedding-type rings and they were not delivered inside of the mailbox, but stolen instead–we didn’t even bother making a police report.
Again, the apartment didn’t care. We don’t know if they checked the cameras. I persistently contacted them, and they told me to file an insurance claim…
Nothing came of it around here though.
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Isn’t it funny after reading that your first sense is to blame the victim? You should’ve known, YOU moved there, why don’t you just move? And maybe your second inclination is to say it’s systemic, or it’s just as bad in other places, or bringing up politics, gun-control. But none of that is helpful. I (everyone) should have an expectation of being safe-end of story.
So there you have it. When so many, many things happen. When BIG things happen. People stop calling the police. Because this event is actually better than that last one. Or they don’t call because they know the dispatcher will mark the call “sundry” or police won’t come out at all, or they’re busier with larger matters. People stop telling their housing manager because it’s made obvious that not only do they NOT care one iota, they’re not going to do anything, and we won’t hear anything back. And you stop reporting to the USPS because they also won’t do anything either. So people learn to live with it.
And that’s not OK.
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