Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Douglas Rushkoff Gets Mugged in Park Slope

December 27th, 2006 · 2 Comments

We tend to avoid reading the local crime reports because we simply don’t want to know, but couldn’t avoid writer and lecturer Douglas Rushkoff’s tale of getting mugged in Park Slope on Christmas Eve. He posted an item on his blog about it:

I got mugged at knifepoint while taking out the garbage Christmas Eve at 9pm.

I negotiated with him for my health insurance card – not only because it has my Social Security number and was really hard to get, but because I knew that such a request would humanize me in the mind of my attacker, and make it harder for him to stab me. Such are the benefits of studying human behavior. All I lost was my phone, cards, and money.

Getting a knife pushed into your ribcage now and again is just part of the price we pay to live in a city, and New York is supposedly one of the safer of the bunch. But I have to admit, it makes me question working two extra gigs (I won’t divulge which ones they are) in order to pay the exorbitant rent this part of Brooklyn – when the streets are less safe than they were in the supposedly bad parts of Manhattan where I used to live.

It may just be the humiliation of not fighting back that’s getting me down, but I fear that Brooklyn may be a crock. And with a two-year-old daughter, I feel a strong urge to spend my effort elsewhere.

Ouch.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Anonymous // Dec 28, 2006 at 8:50 am

    Everyone I know that’s been mugged in Brooklyn has been mugged in Park Slope. Maybe because there’s more money there?

  • 2 Douglas // Dec 29, 2006 at 6:30 pm

    Oooh…I’m already in so much trouble for suggesting such a thing over on my blog. They’re saying it’s racist to draw a connection between gentrification by the wealthy and the crimes committed against them.

    But the cops agree with you. It’s the combination of dark streets and mult-million dollar homes that are attracting the best of the muggers to Park Slope.