The scariest day of the year is approaching. A ghostly day to pay tribute and remember the dead. The red and signal yellow colors of the trees blend with the mystery and decorations in beds and entrance areas. Preparations for this year’s Vigil, All Hallow’s Eve, have characterized the streets of the American capital for several weeks. Halloween decorations are placed high and low in the cityscape. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news It may seem as if the city has misunderstood Halloween, and decided to celebrate it all year round with real, nasty, scary surprises. When someone owns the streets There’s something about Washington DC. I can’t quite grasp what, but this is not the city I knew ten years ago. Since this summer, I have lived in different parts of the city while looking for a permanent place. At the beginning, I stayed in a hotel in an area where it was not tempting to go out after dark. It didn’t bother me to be approached by people who wanted money while we were waiting for the green light – or white man, as it is in the US. Still, it often felt like an eternity before the red light changed color. The new, sweet fragrance regime was low in the air. Cannabis has been legal for eight years, but not the pills or substances that make the eyelids held up by invisible matches. There was an open sale of illegal drugs right outside the hotel. The rats had a feast in the rubbish bins. The sellers didn’t think it was classy that I was carrying camera equipment while going in and out of the hotel on time and off time. The quarter was their domain. But after a few days we were kind of saying hello, with appreciative nods. Their assessment was probably that I was not civilian police. Police in Washington, DC have more to do now than at the same time last year. Crime statistics show that the number of violent incidents has increased by over 40 per cent. Photo: AP An unfamiliar atmosphere The hotel was located in the center of Washington. Close to the congress and tourist areas. It was an area where dilapidated buildings are demolished. The sales posters promised new luxury apartments next summer. Near the train station, it was common to see glass from broken car windows on the pavements. In the hotel lift, people were staring intently into their mobile phones, with plugs in their ears. The lift used to be a mecca for superficial short meetings – with wishes for a nice day. Now few went outdoors in the evening. The ones I saw were the ones who argued loudly with themselves during the day. Often incoherent. A ballet of emotions and psychiatry. The flight clock, which many new arrivals notice in the first weeks, had been rivaled by the symphony of the emergency services’ sirens. Taxi drivers would not drive in certain districts. They all had a story about why. Earlier this year, a man was shot and killed, and three others wounded, when someone fired at the funeral they were attending. Photo: AP The statistics show that Washington is well on its way to experiencing the bloodiest year in two decades. Most offenses occur where they always have. In poor neighborhoods in the southeast, where the roads are named Good Hope and Martin Luther King. But the capital’s protected west is no longer immune either. Deterrent with wheel lock The guard in our office building always tried to park the car right outside, she said. Then she could follow the cameras. There was a tent pitched on the pavement right by the entrance. Certainly a harmless soul. The gangs, on the other hand, with gold chains around their necks and black bathing caps on their heads, did window shopping. Looked a little too interested into the sooty car windows. The guard said that a car or two could have wheels and rims removed in no time. Therefore, she had bought a wheel lock, which was used on the evening shift. In the district of Georgetown, there is an informal competition to decorate as much as possible for Halloween. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news My old neighbor Dan in Georgetown, the small village-like film set in Washington, closes the wooden blinds before sunset. – To prevent passers-by shooting from the car, he says. I hope he was joking, but the eighty-year-old conveys a discomfort. A feeling that does not need to be rooted in reality, but still limits him in everyday life. He calculates the risk of going out after dark. Dan takes the car himself for what could have been a short, nice walk. He is not the only old acquaintance who has changed his routines. The dogs in the neighborhood are let out during the day. The small neighborhood pharmacy has a bell that you have to ring if you want to enter. It came up after a robbery recently. The shops have put detergents, razors and cold medicine in locked cupboards. These are popular items to steal. It is a gloomy backdrop for this year’s Halloween celebration. Washington is unable to control violence and crime. Photo: Anders / Tvegård Local newspaper Washington Post writes about teenagers who are shot, cars that are stolen or outright hijacked, random people who are robbed and gangs that storm shops during the day. Dan is reading this. And it says that it happens where you least expect it. In the police district to which Georgetown is a parish, the number of robberies has increased by 85 percent this year. Murders in the US capital this year More than 220 people have been shot and killed in Washington so far this year. Serious crime has increased by 41 per cent in one year, according to the police. Here are some of the cases since this summer: A taxi driver, who worked as a translator in Afghanistan, was shot and killed while driving near Congress. A 14-year-old has been arrested for shooting and killing a construction worker when he showed up for work at Howard University. A spectator at a football game was shot and killed in the popular neighborhood of Adams Morgan. A teenager was shot and killed in the afternoon a couple of blocks from the school. Source: Washington Post and Washington, DC Police Chaos in Politics If the city were a person, it would probably spend a lot of time in therapy. It is political chaos. There are many emotional protests outside the state powers. It is the aftermath of the pandemic. The new collective headache appears to be the rise in violence and feelings of insecurity. My always-smoking neighbor Barbara has also changed. I have mentioned her in old letters. She has stopped smoking and found solace in chocolate. Barbara wonders if we are heading back to the bad old days of the 1990s, when Washington was known as the murder capital of the United States. While other big cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago can show better figures than before, Washington is going against the flow. Center of the US capital seen from the air. Photo: AFP – It’s not normal, says Dan. He is happy that the Republicans are making big city crime a main theme in the election campaign. Here in Washington, the municipality and the police have tried to deal with crime with curfews in certain areas. Minors are brought to court as if they were adults. More use of pre-trial detention has been opened up. The initiatives have not had a major impact yet. The criminals are young, they have weapons and are without fear of the consequences. The district of Georgetown is a popular area, known for lavish Halloween displays. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news My former neighbor Barbara thinks organized gangs are behind it. Her theory is that young people are lured by a career path that schools cannot match. – The schools and leisure activities were closed for a long time. Worst of all, she says, as she fishes out a new chocolate from her purse, is that those who misbehave are our own. There is no one else to blame. Other than the pandemic, then. Searching for the root of the problem The reason for robberies, assaults and break-ins is too demanding to discuss in this country, she says. The laughter reveals a former smoker. – They call for more police one moment and want to abolish it the next. An important point that must not be forgotten, says my former neighbour, the now always-chocolate-eating Barbara: Young people were not allowed to socialize during the pandemic. Homeschooling in front of a computer screen did not have the same disciplinary effect. Now there are guns that solve small problems in DC, outside the tourist areas, is the claim. The figures show that over 60 per cent of those prosecuted for carjacking, for example, are between 12 and 15 years old. Minors without the tag. The moment of fear It may be that Washington is struggling more than other cities, since the justice sector here has fewer powers than proper states. This is still a federal district, located between the old northern and southern states. I also look for bright spots. There is one thing that has improved a lot since I was last here. There is, for example, less car honking in the streets. I asked a taxi driver if he had noticed. – Well then, maybe the pressure to switch to green has eased somewhat, he confirmed. The streets have become narrower. Cyclists and kickers compete for space. But for him it was about the concern of how the driver in front would react to a horn. The uncertainty of whether the person had a weapon in the car. In today’s cityscape, you don’t want to provoke anyone unnecessarily. At least not with surprising tricks or tricks.
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The celebration of fear in Washington – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
