March 11, 2005
Self-Defense and City Pride, All in One!
Walking to the Potomac Avenue metrorail station yesterday morning, this DCist eyed a pink flyer haphazardly taped to a light-post -- nothing too spectacular, spare the message:
Now available...the 'Official' Washington Nationals 'Safe at Home' Bulletproof Vests.These Major-League quality Kevlar vests, with team logos and colors, give sure-fire protection throughout the District of Columbia. And fans coming to RFK Stadium won't need to fear at 15th & C SE or 17th & Independence, where "post game fireworks" can mean Uzis and Glocks.
Prices:
Home Red and Away Blue--$595
Children's Sizes--$395
With genuine player autograph--$1,595DC's been dying for baseball for too long!
This seems less a serious commercial endeavour and more a thinly veiled jab at the District's new hometown baseball team -- and a creative one at that.
D.C. was once well-known as the country's most-murderous city -- there were 454 homicides in 1993, placing the District squarely in the top ranks of the most violent cities per capita -- a distinction that was maintained as recently as 2002 and 2003. But things seem to be looking up, as 2004 saw a decrese in homicides and 2005, to date, is looking to be one of the most peaceful years in recent history (homicides are down 19.4 percent from last year, so far).
Though D.C. has banned the sale and ownership of handguns since 1976, guns of all kinds find their way into the city -- 2,065 were confiscated by police last year alone, and a 2000 report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms found that 97 percent of all guns used in crimes came from outside the city. Though violence seems to be declining city-wide, Congress allowed the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban to expire last September, and some 228 crafty congressmen have even tried to pass laws nullifying the city's strict gun laws. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton once remarked that "The only thing that would cause more murder and mayhem in this city is allowing freer access to guns."
Hmmmm...maybe selling bulletproof vests -- Nationals logo or not -- isn't such a bad idea after all!
What do DCist readers think? Real offer based on a realistic assesment of the city's violent history, or someone trying to make a joke at the city's expense?
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someone thinks they're clever. but they're not.
A few people are pissed about a murder or two in their community. It has nothing to do with baseball.
I beg to differ about the area, with million dollar homes and last Saturday seeing people playing hacky sack, yes annoyingly hippyish, frat boy style hacky sack outside the Potomac Ave Metro stop. This was mostly likely put up by some poor sap from Dulles who is still bitter over the fact that DC got the team instead of them.
Definitely not real. Lots and lots of people were not too thrilled about the idea of the District financing a stadium when the schools are a mess and (as the article pointed out) we still have corners where local crack/heroin dealers are a constant (but uzis?). I suspect the poster hanger is one of those who feels that the city's priorities are out of wack.
Million dollar homes do not a safe neighborhood make. I wonder how long it will take everyone who moves here from Fairfax and Oregon and Idaho to figure that out.
You could triple the money spent on DC schools and they would still suck hard. Dumping additional money into a broken system is akin to putting more water into an empty bucket.
It's all going to leak out one way or another.
Hopefully people will enjoy going to the ballpark 1/10th as much as DC political hacks enjoy looting the public coffers.