It's actually the commenters that I'm afraid of

The Winnipeg Sun ran a follow up piece today on the still unsolved triple shooting from two years ago here in the North End. I spoke to the reporter Joyanne yesterday for about 10 minutes, which turned into only this quote:

“In life you can’t be afraid of all the ‘what ifs?’ all the randoms,” said St. John’s resident Kali, who asked that her last name not be used. “There was a murder in River Heights the other day, is the rest of Lindsey Street supposed to be afraid? Or course, not.”

The reasons I asked that my last name not be used are many - after all, I am mostly anonymous on this blog too. The biggest reason that I asked that my last name not be used (and I specifically said this to the reporter as well) - well that would be the commenters trolls that flock to our local newspapers like I do to an estate sale.

I've generally stuck with my resolution to not read the comment section of newspapers, but every now and again I get sucked in. Today was such a day (probably because my name was out there for all the world to see). Imagine this, the first comment was from some guy who felt the need to criticize the picture a man was holding of his daughter WHO WAS SHOT.  Ah yes, because that's what this guy needs, yahoos commenting on his family because the picture he was showing of his daughter was the photo proof that the company provides. I think that this dumbass needs to realize that in a neighbourhood where temptation has led many of our youth astray, this gentleman has a daughter that has not only been shot, but has managed to keep her life on track and stay in school. This is a man whose family lives in public housing (or so I seem to recall that the girl lived in the Lord Selkirk Park housing developments at the time) perhaps he doesn't have the money to purchase overpriced prints. Heck, growing up in Charleswood my family often couldn't afford to buy the prints.

Also in the comments was of course someone judging me for leaving out my last name

Gee, Kali...if you're not afraid, why don't you use your last name in this media report? Could it be that you don't wnat the gangs and crackheads to kick your door in because they know where you live after your last name is published?
Nice double standard....

 Let me be clear, I didn't leave out my last name because of them, I left it out because of you and your kind sir. I can't imagine the gangs and crackheads coming after me because I don't think my neighbourhood is a horrible place to live and they want to change my opinion. I left it out because I don't want the newspaper commenters of this world who have nothing better to do with their time then troll the internet for people to bully.

The reason I was attracted to the idea of a blog in the first place was because I felt finally that I found some content that had substance on the internet. Of course there are many blogs that don't have any of that, but in the blogging world I feel like I find discussions by rational people or at least by crazy people who can generally spell and back up their arguments to some degree.

Now, back to the shooting.

This shooting is still unsolved. A triple shooting. My armchair policing initially presumed it was gang/drug related, as is most crime that happens here in the North End. That didn't worry me because I'm not tied in to that lifestyle. However, the fact that it is still unsolved makes me wonder a little bit more if it really was just a crazy gunman on a spree; I can't imagine some little gangbanger not bragging by now about his "accomplishments".  Those are the kind of randoms in life you can't predict. You can't not go to the movies in case someone decides to shoot up the theatre. You can't avoid the mall in case a gang decides to play out their gang war there. Life is filled with all sorts of horrible tragedies that if you try to avoid the idea of every bad thing that has ever happened you will be a prisoner with no life at all.

Of course, I'm not an idiot; I know that more crimes happen in my area than in other parts of town. Education, poverty, mental health and opportunity all play in to that. I do my best to make sure that I don't become a statistic, simple precautions, like perhaps not giving my full name for an article that is likely to have people I don't want knowing where I live exactly that - not all of the crazies live around here.

I wrote a blog post about this time last year, that to date is still one of my most read posts - it's how I was feeling this time last year when thinking about the shootings. Read it here.