Over the Memorial Holiday weekend, I was struck to read about a spree of daylight robberies, all in northern neighborhoods near my Seattle home. According to the article in the Seattle Times, in three separate incidents (it would later grow to five related attacks), individual women were attacked in their driveways, perhaps after being followed home from stores. In each case the women had their shopping bags and/or purses stolen, and at least two of the victims were stun-gunned during the robbery.Part of what struck me was how relatively minor the reaction to this news story was, especially in comparison to how accounts of a similar incident during my time in Cape Town affected the neighborhood where it occurred. The story that was related to me at a dinner party told of a resident of one of the nicer northern suburbs being followed home from the store and then robbed in her driveway. As a result, families all over the neighborhood had changed their routines; they were diligently watching their rear view mirrors, planning errands for daylight hours, and implementing other precautionary measures. This story had instilled a definite fear of victimization, and the threat seemed quite real. We, a gathering of expatriates, all shook our heads, tsk-tsked, and added another entry to our ever-growing list of "ways one can be a crime victim in Cape Town." A very different response than I feel myself having to this considerably dangerous crime spree happening literally mere blocks from my house.
In hindsight, I realize that if my dinner host had the details of where and when this crime had occurred, I did not get them, nor did I see then (or could I find now) a news story about this particular incident. That is not to say that the crime did not happen or that the story is apocryphal, for driveway attacks certainly have and do occur in Cape Town and elsewhere in South Africa (a quick search yielded two accounts of such crimes, from May and September of 2008; I also found an announcement for an ADT "Anti-hijacking/driveway robbery workshop," also from 2008 - "Snacks will be served"!). Rather, I recognize - even more now than before when I was living in the midst of it - just how influential the narrative of vulnerability to an omnipresent and escalating crime threat is in Cape Town, and perhaps throughout South Africa. It is a powerful psychological force that has a disturbing effect on people's daily lives, and, in a place where nearly everyone who can afford to lives in an alarm-equipped home behind walls, gates, and barred windows, shows in our response to the driveway robbery story.
Crime rates in South Africa are certainly high, but I am struck by how important of a role our perceptions and expectations play in how relatively vulnerable or safe we feel in particular places and situations.
