Lyseskids,

I am in Middle River. I live in the neighborhood called Hawthorne (behind Gereseback's grocery store) which is off of Eastern Avenue.

The neighborhood has A LOT of gangs and drugs. Typically, during the day, things are quiet. But it's gotten to the point that at night, even some of the gang members won't go outside! Your typical family that is not involved in that life style is usually not affected by them. Typically, the people getting shot are involved in a drug deal gone bad, someone who knows that drug dealer lives in a certain house, has money there, and guns, so the one gang will break into the other gang member's house, or if the gang member/drug dealer they want to shoot is in jail, they might shoot one of his family members because they can't get to the one they really want. So, usually, a regular person like me who isn't in that lifestyle is safe enough here. HOWEVER, in the past year or so, they are breaking into regular people's houses, going through our cars overnight to see if there's something to steal in them. If you lock your car windows, there's a good chance that they will be broken one morning. A month or so ago, a regular boy, not in the drug life, was walking with a book bag on his back that had a video game system in it to go to his friend's house to play videos. He was robbed of his book bag at gun point. A while ago, at night, a drug dealer was shot (he lived, but is paralyzed for life) on the school grounds of Hawthorne Elementary. They are robbing regular people who have nothing to do with the drug/gang life more often just when they are walking down the sidewalks or in parking lots, and more stores are being robbed at gunpoint in my area. A while ago, there was a swat team in my neighborhood to get a man out of a house who had shot someone, then ran into his girlfriend's house and held people hostage in the house. A while ago, a cashier got stabbed while working at the register in Gereseback's grocery store which is at the entrance of my neighborhood. A year or so ago, a regular (not drug/gang related) was shot (I don't remember if she died or what the outcome of her being shot was) while she was taking out her trash. That was really the only time I know of when a drug/gang member missed their intended target and accidentally shot an innocent person here.

We actually lived in another house in this neighborhood years ago, before I separated from my ex-husband. At that time, my kids were younger and one day when my older daughter was riding her bike in the park here. She came home all frantic and said she had just witnessed one man shoot at another man! Around that time frame, I personally sat in my house, looking out the front window and watched my neighbors (who are one of the biggest drug dealers in my neighborhood) a few houses up unload all sorts of guns out of a box truck! I couldn't wait to get out of this neighborhood after I separated from my ex back then. I really didn't want to move back into the neighborhood, but it was the only place I could find in my price range and my daughter's school district at the time that I needed to move a few years ago. So, I did know what I was moving into, but I really didn't want to have to move here, and don't want to stay here any longer than I have to.

I feel like I live in a little mini-Baltimore City.

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