Neighbors Still Convinced They Are Protected By Geography

Despite the incursion of reality into their little enclave, they are still sure that they are protected by where they live. Westboro residents recall frantic scene after woman shot by Ottawa police officer | Daily Guardian

You are not protected by your zip code, or whatever the Canadian equivalent would be.

A traffic stop in Ottawa, Ontario turned into a police shooting.

“There was a girl running and a police officer running with a gun after her and he was shouting, ‘Stop, drop the gun, drop the gun,'” [a bystander] said.

The cop ended up firing on the fleeing suspect - though the details of that are less interesting to me. There are several reactions from neighbors that are of interest.

Residents say while they are shaken by the events that took place Friday, they do not feel unsafe.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that in the 21st Century people are worried about 'feeling safe.' I am more interested in actually being safe.

And despite the dose of reality that invaded their "safe space," they are still convinced that they don't need to consider what else might happen.

One home was struck by a stray bullet that shattered the front door window.

“Thankfully, no one was upstairs – it appeared to have ricocheted off somewhere else.” said homeowner Kristen Simkus.

“Definitely a little scary, but the important thing is that this was just a freak event for our street.”

Because if they think about reality, about what did happen and what might happen in the future, they would have to prepare in some way. This happened in Canada, where only criminals have guns, because the law abiding have been disarmed. So I'm not sure what preparations are appropriate, but I am sure that something could be done.

You are not protected by geography. Crime is not something that happens to "other kinds of people" in "other kinds of places." While the statistics governing your risk may change by location, criminals do have cars, and they do occasionally drive to nice areas, to steal nice things, from nice people.

And sometimes when they do, bad things happen to those nice people. You might want to plan accordingly.