RECENT COMMENTS
Robbery and stabbing on 25th Street, more over the weekend
From the RPD’s DAILY CRIME REPORT for Easter Weekend:
ATTEMPTED ROBBERY/AGGRAVATED ASSAULT (STABBING)
4/5/12 10:00 p.m.
1100 block of North 25th Street
A male reported he was stabbed by a group of unknown males who tried to rob him. His injuries are not life-threatening.ROBBERY/AGGRAVATED ASSAULT (SHOOTING)
4/6/12 12:50 a.m.
2500 block of Phaup Street
A male reported he was robbed and shot by two unknown males. His injuries are not life-threatening.AGGRAVATED ASSAULT (STABBING)
4/6/12 12:00 p.m.
2800 block Fairfield Avenue
A male reported he was stabbed by an unknown male. His injuries are not life-threatening.AGGRAVATED ASSAULT (SHOOTING)
4/6/12 7:47 p.m.
1800 block of North 22nd Street
A male reported he was shot by two unknown males. His injuries are not life-threatening.BURGLARY
4/5/12 1:00 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.
1900 block of Redd Street
An unknown person(s) broke into the residence and stole TVs and a safe.
an awfully stabby shooty couple of days
Isn’t the 1100 block of N. 25th the one with the police station? Not much of a deterrent, I guess.
So much of this nonsense. It’s almost weekly you read about a few of these. Just think if they were better shots. Richmond can say all they want about the reduction of murders over the years. They don’t put this stuff in the stats.
Hmmm, just when the headlines this morning on WWBT 12News read: “Violent Crime Down by 21% in Church Hill”…guess we’ll have to take the good (news) with the bad.
http://www.nbc12.com/story/17361711/violent-crime-down-by-21-in-church-hill-neighborhood
Pathetic! You would think we were in Mexico or Bagdad. Steven, you are correct, the violence in our part of town is ridiculous. It is just going to drive people away, wait till some innocent kid or non crime victim gets stabbed or shot. Christ, what are community leaders, parents and law enforcement doing to curb this growing epidemic.So much for building a community for young familes, wake up, its a warzone, people are dying a block or so over from you.
What would drive someone to stab another human being? Funny how we have so many dog lovers iin Chuch Hill, but, do not think twice before we stab, shoot, and traumatize our own. Nice to know we have these depraved folks living in Church Hill, I wish I was a dog…
Let me fix that for you, Tinkerbell:
“It is just going to drive people away, wait till some WHITE PERSON gets stabbed or shot.”
Because that’s about what it boils down to.
Tinkerbell, are you new to the neighborhood? I doubt CH is anything like Baghdad or dangerous areas of Mexico (btw, Mexico is generally a safe country).
Rather than posting reactionary posts about random acts of violence on CHPN, get involved the community and make it a desirable place to live. All of us need to do our part to make CH a better place.
JD #9, thank you. My thoughts too.
Tinkerbell, I know two neighbors who got back in the last few months from tours of Afghanistan, both had previously been in Iraq….and they live in Church Hill. I seriously doubt that they would agree with the comparison to Baghdad. Plus, I know someone who retired last year to a small town on the east coast of Mexico, actually drove all the way there, and he would also disagree with your comparison to Mexico.
An awful lot of over-reaction to this report, IMHO. If this report drives anyone away, I say good riddance. Anyone who moves away or doesn’t move here because of it, doesn’t belong in this particular urban environment.
Trish #8, I hope you are wrong, but I’m suspecting that you are correct.
At #6…you are joking, right?
“wait till some innocent kid or non crime victim gets stabbed or shot”
You think everyone who has be injured isa crime victim or not innocent? Why? If I am reading right, every person above was stabbed or shot by an “unknown” person.
You want talk to “Christ” about something, maybe talk to him about those harbored feelings of racism. Trish has it right. I think you mean, “White person” which even that is an assumption since the above reports do not mention the race of the victims.
Clearly you have never been to a war zone. There is an elevated amount of urban crime in our area compared to other urban neighborhoods in Richmond, but things ARE getting better. It takes the entire community to make the actual criminals feel unwelcome. So instead of posting some crazy paranoid post about this being a “war” zone take a deep breath and get involved.
Two stabbings, and two shootings in a 24 hour period;yeah right, random acts of violence….wake up Church Hill! I think the references to a ‘warzone’ are realitively accurate, since individuals carry firearms and knives and are willing to use them in an instant in your neighborhood. I think #6 has a point, funny how as soon as a reader subconsiously agrees with something, but has their ‘head in the sand’ about the systemic crime problems in our city, they immediately stress racism.
Compare this to any other urban environment – say, D.C. We still have crime and it would probably be impossible to eliminate it completely, but overall Richmond, and even Church Hill is much safer than most urban centers.
I don’t know the people involved so I won’t make judgments on whether they were innocent victims or not. I do hear the point that #6 is making though. A lot of the crime around (not all or even a majority but not none either) is perpetrated against folks who are involved in criminal activity themselves. Getting mixed up in drug dealing makes it a lot more likely you’ll get shot. Most sensible folks around here realize this is not a game we want to play in and have less sympathy for those who get hurt or killed in drug related incidents.
Again, no idea what the circumstances were in these cases and I doubt anyone else does either. Calling your neighbors racist is pretty awfully un-neighborly. It’s over-generalizing for the original poster to say innocent people don’t get injured but it’s also ludicrous to say that none of the crime victims in recent memory did anything to bring some of it on themselves by associating with unsavory folks.
The racism patrol is also using the same type of reckless generalization too. I don’t think the poster was dividing based on race but rather based on folks who are mixed up in crime themselves vs law abiding citizens. Accusations of racism are unproductive beyond any smugness benefits you may get from casting them. The original poster over generalized and didn’t articulate clearly enough for you. Don’t assume negative intent.
A better way to state the point about innocent people might have been something like “a lot of the victims in the past have been mixed up in sketchy business too. I feel less sympathetic to these folks. Let’s wait and see the circumstances before we say things are out of control. If it’s criminals threatening criminals, no reason to think the law abiding citizens are more at risk.” Most folks whose racism filters aren’t set to the maximum levels got the point anyway.
The war zone comment is debatable. It’s all relative to what you’re used to and varies a lot by neighborhood and time of year. I even remember the head of the racism patrol bemoaning how bad the crime was at times late last year. By the numbers it’s generally nowhere near war zone status but when folks who are used to the suburbs have a couple crimes happen near them in a few day span it can feel like that. We’re far from the most violent neighborhood even in Richmond though.
Tiny, I agree, just wish folks took these crime instances a lttle more seriously, rather than accept them as part of living in the city. It is not a ‘race’ thing, it is a ‘crime’ thing that is blighting our neigborhood, its image, lowering house prices, and forcing folks to question living in Church Hill.
Thank you for putting things into perspective, Tiny.
#FR, thanks, nobody wants to be around people that are willing to kill or assault you, regardless, of your or their race, who the victim is or demographic you are in.
I do not like what is happening in our community, there is nothing wrong with that, I do not want my children, my familiy and myb friends, exposed to violence, gun fire and thuggery.
Crime has no color nor did any of the descriptions list color. I think the point is not about known or unknown victim. The point is that it’s crime and a lot of it is happening on a daily basis. For those that mention get up and do something about it, please let us know what you’re doing so we can join you. I am personally involved in neigborhood groups but would be willing to expand if you would elaborate. For those that mention
this is urban living, if you don’t like it then leave. You are ignorent and contribute to the delinquency of the neighborhood. People move to urban areas for lots of reasons. One thing they don’t pay for or find acceptable is crime, you shouldn’t either.
Church Hill Super Market was just robbed at gunpoint this morning to add another to the list.
I take issue with a lot of the arguments that Church Hill’s crime is okay. The favorite argument is that so long as there is another more dangerous place somewhere in the country or in Richmond that we can use as an example, then any amount of crime is okay here because we should be happy and complacent because we we aren’t the worst. I think that is a huge disrespect to CH. Is “Church Hill… not the worst/most dangerous place in America” really a slogan we would want to market ourselves with? Is “don’t be the worst you can be” a lesson you would want to teach your children? I don’t care if we are the 10th least dangerous neighborhood in richmond, it is too much crime for the standards I hold my neighborhood to, and for a neighborhood that sure thinks a lot of itself in some other aspects, I think it is a shame and an embarrassment how little we seem to think of our own safety and the image that it portrays to others.
So, Buddy was bemoaning leaving the neighborhood this Christmas, Alex?
Again, many of you are making assumptions of both the race of the victim and the intentions of the victims. Was the woman who was driving down the road on 25th and struck by a stray bullet involved in crimes? No, but she was black. Nothing out of the ordinary was done and no big out cry occurred. Just more black on black crime in the city. Not enough for us to turn our heads.
The reality is that when the black man kidnapped the white baby, it was HUGE news for several days, if not weeks. And yes, during this time, this particular crime hit close to home both because at the moment it appeared random and because it was a child. Having my own children, those particular crimes make me more squirmish. Hence the feeling of not feeling terribly safe in Church Hill in that moment. As more details came out, my perception on it changed. Clearly, I’m still here….going on 15 years. So, I’m not so easily scared off.
All of this is to say, that until we all recognize our prejudices about people and our perceptions based on our prejudices, we can’t work towards a more equitable neighborhood relationship. The reality is that we all harbor racial prejudices whether we want to admit it or not. Ever locked to door when you pulled up to a light and saw a black man standing there who seems a little shady? We have to recognize this in ourselves, even if it means recognizing the bad in ourselves and work to correct it. Just because someone wears saggy pants doesn’t make them a “thug.” Yet, Virginia tries to outlaw sagging pants (what was that 2004?) and why? Because of racism that we quietly harbor in side our selves that we fail to recognize and address.
I’m sorry if this is an uncomfortable conversation for anyone, but until white people begin to address, then the racism in this country will never change.
So, I stand by comment that her comments were made from a place of prejudice.
I’l post this link again and I’m sure no one will read it…again.
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
I also stand by my post that this is no where near a war zone. She is speaking in poorly used hyperbole.
How do I help prevent crime. Reporting it when I see it. Calling the cops when I hear crime happening or see it happening (like the person attempting to break in two houses down in the morning two years ago). By being outside and not locked in my home. Sitting on the porch and playing with my kids. Walking around. Being out and visible.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet the stabbings are all related. And the gun point robberies are all related. One or two people perpetrating crimes in a small span of time. Makes it look like a lot of crime when in reality it is one or two people/groups of people.
For the record, this is what a war zone looks like….
http://www.wbur.org/files/2009/07/0731_iraq-mosque-bombings-620×457.jpg
nothing like church hill.
Not thy neighbor, we are talking crime, not race. I would suspect, you are challenged by what is staring you in the face. It was not until you mentioned race, that this has now become a platform for you insecurities. Obviously, accepting violent crime, is to you, to be accepted and expected in Church Hill. Do not throw race into the equation, this is about community crime, and addressing the fact that we should expect a safer place to live.
You could not be more wrong. You are again making assumptions about my own race, which you know nothing.
Not once have I made excuses for or accepted the crime anywhere in any of my posts. Not once.
In fact, one of these crimes was VERY close to my home. No, I’m not excusing the criminal but I’m also not blaming the victim like you are.
You are full of assumptions in your threads, none of which are true. I’m very secure in my perceptions of race. Something that took much unschooling on my part being from the deep south. I invite you to try the same.
And to be brutally honest, I get tired of defending my neighborhood to the young white people who move in thinking they are doing something great by moving in to a gentrifying neighborhood then finding out there is real crime here and they compare it to a war zone. These ill used hyperbole perpetuate the stereotype of Church Hill has a horrible unsafe place. It becomes tiresome to say over and over “No no, it isn’t unsafe. I don’t like on the bad side.” and so on…when I get the looks of shock when I say I live in Church Hill. And it gets tiresome to come on here and be met by people who are new to the neighborhood, find this blog, see the crime posts and get their panties in a wad that “Oh my gawd, what kind of neighborhood have I moved in to? It is like a war-zone post.”
Of course I don’t accept crime in my neighborhood but I also don’t freak out when a post like this comes out…unless it involves small children. Then it hits too close to home.
And clearly, autocorrect is a bitch. You can make heads and tails of my mistakes above, I’m sure.
Love thy neighbor, you need to ‘cool your jets’ and maybe have a lie down. Call Jessie J to continue your argument, coz I think race relations is the genesis of your use of this blog. Call it what you want, ‘warzone'”, battlefield, Khe Sanh, violence does not appeal to all, and many have different ways of describing it, depending on life experiences and their assumptions as you keep reminding everyone.
@just a neighbor–THIS. There is ZERO excuse for anyone who moves into Church Hill to act like they had no idea there was crime here. As I’ve stated previously when my husband and I were first thinking about moving here I asked around and was told numerous times by numerous people that if we didn’t want to be awakened by gunfire we should look south of M Street, west of 35th Street and east of 21st Street. With the only exception being the robbery of Str8 Out of Philly, which I can see from my place, EVERY SINGLE TIME John lists a crime on the Hill it’s taken place out of the “safe area.” I truly salute people like Rachel Elves, who live outside the “safe area” and work so hard to improve the neighborhood against high odds, but I have nothing but disdain for the yuppies who scream OMG HOW CAN I RAISE CHILDREN HERE?!?! when a simple internet search shows you where the bad parts of Church Hill are. No, I don’t condone crime, but to echo JAN I have to be brutally honest–black on black crime is the incredibily overwhelming majority on the Hill. It’s saddening and disheartening but the truth.
Trish, I share your disdain for people who move here expecting CH to be a crime-free utopia. CH is an awesome neighborhood but it’s rough around the edges and some people just don’t realize this fact when they move here.
@20 – I forgot we have co-chairs for the racism patrol. I should have said Madame Chair to help differentiate from Sir Chair. Nobody’s assuming anything about your race. You’ve dragged your white privilege guilt out enough times that we know by now that you are either white or thoroughly confused. We’re being generous enough to give you the benefit of the doubt.
I also disagree with your assertion that the Christmas slayings and the subsequent kidnapping were sensational only because of the race of the child. It was, as you admit you also worry about in a later post, because it was a child at risk. Many of us have children or know children that are very dear to us. The thought that something could happen to them is a scary one. If the child kidnapped had been black, the hype would still have been tremendous. The timing of it all made it all the more hype worthy. Next time something tragic happens to a black kid (hopefully never though) on Christmas Eve, pay close attention and I bet you’ll surprise yourself. Especially if you can stop assuming the worst about all your neighbors.
JD, and Trish agreed – with the definition of ‘rough around the edges’ being the edges of the area that Trish described. And I have to say, that’s a way bigger area than when I first moved up here over 25 years ago). Back then, I wouldn’t have dared go in some of those areas. So, there is progress over the years.
Example: I worked the polls at 25th and M Sts in the last federal election, and I was surprised and pleased at the number of people who walked over to vote, and even more so at the people I observed just out walking dogs and/or kids in the early evening in that area. Ten or fifteen years ago, that was unheard of.
Trish – your attitude seems to be you would rather get rid of the complaining yuppies and keep the drug dealers, drive by shootings, murders and robberies. I would propose we get serious about crime, which starts with first acknowledging it is a problem. If we decrease crime then the yuppies have less to complain about and everyone’s problems are solved.
But unfortunately until the criminals turn to a life of taking people’s parking spaces, not picking up their dog poop and building apartment complexes that block people’s views, we won’t see any concern from a large part of the neighborhood.