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When my wife and I lived in the inner city many years ago, we bought a new car. Whoops. The car was vandalized a couple times. Minor property damage, but still hurtful. We moved to a residential neighbourhood near my wife's school. It was not low income, but "low-moderate." Our car was vandalized and theft-attempts became every few weeks! We fled to the 'burbs, and have been crime free since.
In 1997, I was working downtown. I was walking down a busy sidewalk when a young woman walked out of an office building. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, a fellow on a bicycle smashed into her. She fell hard, as was really slow to get up. The fellow was in a rage, and shouting something at her (not to racially stereo-type, but I couldn't understand what he was saying as it was some sort of middle-eastern language). He took off his heavy bicycle chain, and was about to smash her head in with it, when I grabbed his arm. He came after me. I broke his arm and most of his front teeth. Thanks to lots of witnesses, I was not charged, but the bicycle creep was. The woman was hurt, but only lightly.
The event that impacted me the most was the fellow on the bike. The pure rage that came to the surface, directed at anyone near him, surprised me. I was also surprised at the level of unconcious violence that I was capable of. I didn't think, I just acted. I meant to restrain him, but hurt him seriously. Random violence of this sort is a very rare occurance here, and was the first time I had any exposure to it.
In shock while talking to the police, I noticed that the bastard's blood had ruined one of my Cole Hahn shoes. Then I got MAD. How illogical is that? It was one freaky feeling.
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