Things you learn living in a shady neighborhood

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Trunk Monkey

Trunk Monkey

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In the gas station thread someone made a comment about not having to plan every move like a tactical exercise or words pretty close to that and it got me thinking.

Some of us (I'm positive I'm not the only one) do live in places where going out the front door requires some forethought. Like the thread title says I live in a shady neighborhood, I've been hit up by panhandlers right out side my door, I've found needles in the parking lot and we do have the (very) occasional drive by as well as robberies and rapes in the neighborhood.

Here are a couple of things I've learned

Don't flaunt your valuables. I have neighbors that leave their cars unlocked to save on replacing window glass. I'm not that bad but I do not leave so much as a Wal Mart bag in my car over night.

When we moved in here we moved the gun safe in early in the morning and put it in a closet. When we bought a new TV I took the box to work to throw it in the dumpster.

Mind. Your. Business. I've seen at least 4 deals happen right in front of me this week. I make a point of taking zero interest. I didn't see it, I didn't hear it it's not my business. I was walking the dog the other day I saw two guys start a fight just down the side walk in front of me. I have no need to involve myself in their drama, left turn walk away.

Pay attention to people and pay special attention to people that are paying attention to you. Around here if they're focused on you they're deciding if you're a mark. A couple of weeks back some meth head was walking through my parking lot, took one look at me and made a beeline right at me. About 10 feet away he starts the interview "Hey, what time is it?" My response "Sorry, can't help you." He flips "M**********r you can't tell me what apartments these are?!" (Note the two different questions?) at this point I put my hand on my gun and say "Can't help you man, you need to step." The guy knows I have gun and his response is " Yo dawg you best watch the Fbomb out" before walking all the way around the building and heading back the way he came.

Pay attention to your surroundings. I find homeless people sleeping in the halls or the entries once a month or so. Before I open my door to go out I look through the peephole, before I open the fire doors at the end of the hall I crack them and check the stairwell. I look at the parking lot from the top of the stairs. I reverse the process coming in.

People shoot meth behind our dumpsters ( someone dumped an ATM machine out there one night) I take the trash out in the middle of the day and I pay attention while I'm walking up there.

Last point (and I've said this before) if don't know you I don't open the door for you. When we first moved in several process servers showed up looking for the previous tenant. They were all told to go to the office and verify that the person was gone without me ever opening the door.

Best way to learn situational awareness is to live somewhere you need it
 
Jeeze Monkey, aren't you here in the Denver area somewhere? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.....
 
Another thing I forgot from the OP

I never walk to my car with a bunch of crap in my hands. When I get in before I do anything else I shut and lock the door. before I get my coffee situated or my cell phone on the charger or anything else I lock the door. Then I get the car moving ASAP
 
While I haven't lived anywhere quite that bad, or anywhere close to that bad in many years, I did spend a 4 year period working daily in a place that was quite that bad. (Anyone who's familiar with Baltimore won't have much trouble believing that!)

And yeah, living with that does get into your head after a while. Like animals in the jungle or watermen on the ocean, the lucky and smart make it long enough to develop habits of observation and caution about stuff the inexperienced don't even notice.
Things you just don't do, situations you avoid, places you go at one time of day that you don't go at other times, things you do alone and things you only do with a group. Good locks, covered windows, door peepholes, being as unobtrusive as possible and dressing and acting like you fit in -- like you're just part of the scenery -- not like an easy mark who took a very wrong turn.

I've made some folks pretty mad here before by suggesting that wearing that Rolex instead of a Timex wasn't smart. Or that driving a Ford instead of a BMW might bring less negative attention on you. Sometimes it is good enough to say you should know your environment, then, and try to stay out of places where you'll look like a target, but sometimes it is hard to know.
 
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For some years now I've made a point of NOT living in the kind of places where you're likely to hear gunfire at night - and just taking out the trash might be an adventure... All those years ago when I was young and single/divorced that sort of stuff added a bit of spice. As I grew older I made a point of avoiding it, if at all possible... Once you have kids (and I was 35 when my first one came along) I started making different decisions.

I never forgot that sort of stuff, though -and the skills needed to operate in that environment... The last twenty years as a fishing guide I've been forced to re-enter that world (or at least drive through it and use some less than secure gas stations -before sunup or after the sun goes down) - just something that's required if you're going full tilt, day after day...

Street life (and all that goes with it....) aren't nearly as interesting to me as it was back when I was a young cop, fascinated by the dark end of the street..... Guess I'm getting older. Everything that Trunk mentioned rings very true in my experience, but I'd never go down that road again willingly....
 
I've made some folks pretty mad here before by suggesting that wearing that Rolex instead of a Timex wasn't smart. Or that driving a Ford instead of a BMW might bring less negative attention on you. Sometimes it is good enough to say you should know your environment, then, and try to stay out of places where you'll look like a target, but sometimes it is hard to know.
Click to expand...

My car is a 12 year old Mitsubishi and I never take my cell phone out of my pocket in public.

I shop at the ARC so I'm good there but the one thing I make sure of is never wearing my security uniform out and about the complex. I have a cover shirt/ non uniform jacket on coming and going and I always leave immediately or go straight up stairs to change before I even check the mail.
 
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Kinda funny you mentioned people leaving their car doors unlocked to keep the windows from getting busted out. Years ago a company I was working for did a job at Grady hospital in downtown Atlanta. Everyones windows were getting busted out. One older journeyman on the job left his car unlocked thinking it would keep his window from busted out. It got busted out anyway.

At the time I was driving a little Ford Ranger. I took everything out of the truck & removed the toolbox from the bed. It was completely clean & empty. When I parked in the morning I would open the glove compartment so they could see it was empty & lean the seat forward so they could see there was nothing behind it. I didn't have any trouble.
 
Of course anything can happen @ anytime, but I'm thankful to not live in that kind of place. However situational awareness is key wherever you are.
 
Good pointers, TrunkMonkey.

The family and I had to move into an apartment about 5 years ago. We ate a LOT of rice and beans to be able to afford a place that wasn't as bad as what you've described. That said, I spent my share of time in less-than-reputable areas as a young man. For a while, I worked as a bartender in a pretty mediocre area. The area wasn't too bad, as long as the bar was open and folks were milling about. Carrying out the garbage at 2 a.m., however, was a speed exercise. We tried to get that stuff out and dumped & back in the building as quickly as possible. Even now, in a totally different line of work, I work downtown, so if I have to put in extra hours, I try to do so early in the morning, rather than late at night.

We're back living in a house in a better neighborhood, but well aware that bad stuff can happen anywhere, any time. Just last week, a young man went door to door, ostensibly to sell us alarm system services. He was probably perfectly legit, but I'm just not going to discuss my security measures with some dude that just walked in off the street . . . :rolleyes:
 
I live in a place like that, although we rent a house so there is a slight buffer compared to being in an apartment complex. I would add something but the OP nailed all the highlights. Don't draw attention, if you get interviewed be the jerk that stonewalls so they go away, and be aware at all times, no matter what. One thing about living in a rough neighborhood, it strips away that gray area. It's pretty obvious who the predators are. The truly friendly carry themselves differently than the interviewing predators. Fake charm is easy to see through.
 
The ne'er-do-wells are spreading out from the city cores. I live in a senior citizen's apartent building in what was a pretty "safe" area and now I'm seeing and hearing more police matters going on... sirens at all hours, etc.

The owners recently gave control of the property to their heirs, who apparently want only the cash flow, and over the last couple of years have been renting to Section 8 people, because the rent is always there. They have also relaxed their age requirements, and some younger folks have been moved in. Most of them do not have jobs, but are on welfare and other programs which allow them to be <ahem> "retired" and prowl around at all hours of the night.

The actual on-site manager has confided in me that she doesn't like the new situation, but there's nothing she can do about it.

I used to carry a flashlight and gun myself when taking ot the trash at night, mainly for four-legged predators. It's in a transitional ag-multifamily area and I'd wave the flashlight around the pastures looking for eyeballs in the night, But now I hang on to my garbage for disposal during the day --without the flashlight.

Don't suggest moving. The higher cost of rental units is also spreading out from the city.
 
Even in rural areas, life is not as pastoral as it once was. Drugs and their users are pretty much everywhere. Anyplace within easy driving distance of 'problem areas' is likely to have visitors looking for easy prey. And there are enough home grown predators to go around no matter where you might be.

It might be worth your consideration to buy a scanner and start listening to the public service (LE fire ambulance and rescue) radio traffic in your area. Even though a lot of the details that used to be transmitted on two-way radio now are confined to cell phones, knowing what happens regularly in your area can be a worthwhile bit of intel.
 
The OP's situation sounds like what my old apartment complexes turned into that I lived in over the years. All of them are very dangerous places to live these days. If you are in the market for apartments, be sure to stay at least a mile or two by foot from any bus routes, or what is called section 8 housing (Texas). Being poor does not make you a criminal. The actual tenants of the apartment are probably OK. It is the other 8 "friends" that stay with them that are the problem. Check out the potential apartments at night, just after dusk. If the place turns into a dope market, stay away. Same thing goes for houses.
 
Great post, and good basic tips, Our area has been slowly going to crap, seems as the older people die and their houses come to market then the new owners rent to section 8 people and the riff raff move in.. and as they say.. "there goes the neighborhood"
 
I carried a badge as a rent-a-cop in White Plains, NY, in the '80s. Fingerprinting and lie detector test was in a private eye's dive in the Bronx. Situational awareness was useful. In the '90s, I tried a lot of cases in Harlem down the street from the Apollo theater, with my cheap prosecutor suit and briefcase. The Man from The Government was not overly welcome. Now I live in New Orleans. I share Trunk Monkey's appreciation of the need to be vigilant. Mercifully, it's been a lot of decades since my home has been in such close proximity to the rougher side of life. Keep up the good fight, and may your circumstances brighten soon.
 
I live in a small town, not technically a town as we have never incorporated, but their is a very bad drug problem around here. I'd say it's probably as bad as the OP describes a 1/2 mile from my house. But I own 40 acres that runs along the road so that puts a little distance between us.

With that said, my situation is different as I know a lot of these people from public school. I can think of several people (10ish) in my graduating class of about t 50 that are in jail for muder or drug dealing.

The whole "don't flash your valuables" thing doesn't work around here. The average income for my county is under 30k a year and I live in one of poorer towns in the county. My 2008 Dodge Ram cost me 17k when I bought it and its probably worth 5 times more than the average vehicle in my town. If you have new work boots and are driving a vehicle made in the last decade when you go to our dollar general (the only store other than 2 gas stations in 5 miles) they will tell you that you're "rich"... if you live in a house (other than gov housing) and not a Mobile home you are "rich"....if you buy food with cash rather than a Gov card, yep your rich.

The thing is everyone around here is armed, and everyone knows it. I don't mess with them because if I do they will likely shoot me, and they know full well if they break into a house when someone is home they'll get shot, if they try to rob someone coming out of a store it's a good 50/50 shot he's armed. Women around get tons of respect from the criminal element simply because they know no one will shoot you quicker than a scared woman, they'll open doors for them and call them ma'am. Some of them are very nice and respectful to everyone. Then 10 mins later you'll see them sitting on a bucket on the side of the road smoking a rock, it'd probably be weird if I hadn't been here my whole life.

So what I'm saying is while their is a lot of crime around here, it's very unlikely to involve you unless you are buddies with the drug community. This community was divided into 2 very different cultures in the 60's, and we are still very different and very separate even though we live right next to each other, we are very good at minding our own business.


What I have learned is if you be nice, be respectful, and mind your own business you'll be ok most of the time but if you kick the hornets nest, a swarm will come out.
 
Don't ignore the kids. The 10 year olds, or younger, are in training. They watch, they wait, and they learn and practice. :cuss:
 
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