A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Most of us have no clue what’s really happening around us and Nextdoor is a step in the direction of fixing that.

Do you really know what’s going on around your community?

A few months ago, I began using a smartphone app called “Nextdoor,” a social networking service that allows users to connect with people living within their geographic proximity. By now, you all ought to know I tend to have a more positive outlook on social media than the average person, so while I certainly recommend you use social media responsibly and take all necessary precautions to guard your privacy (including partaking anonymously), I also recommend you take advantage of what modern technology offers. It’s really not all bad!

The fact is, our individual perspectives are quite limited. Ultimately, we can only see what’s in front of us and within our own heads. It’s not enough with which to draw conclusions. Go on a ride-along with police officer and you’ll be stunned to see how different the world looks and how much really occurs on a daily basis. Better yet, just watch the local evening news. There’s always something going on. It’s easy, in today’s worship of the therapeutic, to force yourself into thinking none of it’s real and it’s all just fear-mongering from people who seek to profit from the strongest of emotions. Certainly, fear-mongering is a real phenomenon (I’ve written about it), but that doesn’t mean these things aren’t happening. They just haven’t happened to you, meaning they exist only in the abstract to us until they do.

Enough philosophizing. I bring up Nextdoor because it’s an incredible useful tool to see what’s going on around your neighborhood. I live in a fairly safe part of one of the safer cities in the United States. But I’m stunned to see how much crime occurs in my area on a regular basis. In the past week alone, users have reported multiple instances of burglaries, grand theft auto, threats of violence from strangers, attempted break-ins, with the only thing missing being homicides, thank goodness. A number of users claiming to be long-time residents of the area say conditions in the area have gotten worse over the years and I don’t have much reason to doubt them.

Personally, none of this makes me fear for my safety and security any more or less than I did before. However, I’ll say that I was the victim of a theft of items from my car three years ago. Granted, it was partly my fault, as I left the windows rolled a bit too far down to keep the interior of the car on a summer day, but the incident still served as a wake-up call that no place is quite as tranquil as it might seem. When I first moved here, a gentleman from work who helped me move pointed out he’d lived in a house a block from where I currently reside. He recalled having to use a knife to fight his way out of a mugging on a jogging trail behind the house in an incident almost 30 years back. That may seem like a long time ago and maybe it is, but it isn’t ancient history, either. I’ve ran that jogging trail many times and have never felt unsafe while on it, but it is still a place where vagrants and unseemly characters congregate.

Nextdoor also reveals the pervasiveness of the homeless problem. I don’t know where you live, but my area of residence seems to have no place untouched by them. I feel very much for those living on the streets and I often wonder if we’re really doing all we can for them. However, there’s no doubt some of the vagrants are truly dangerous. Even if they’re just out of their minds and pose no actual physical threat, having that many people out of their minds stumbling around is kind of like dealing with real-life zombies. Having people shout at and threaten you has become normalized to a troublesome degree, a sure sign that we either have no solution to this problem or none exist. Whatever this means for our society going forward, what’s for sure is that the problem is likely to get worse.

Oftentimes, I’ll see an incident mentioned in Nextdoor, only to realize I’m familiar with the location the event occurred. It’s a reminder being a victim of crime or bearing witness to it is often a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other night, I went to a grocery store and saw they had hired an armed and armored security guard. Previously, they’d employed an unarmed, unarmed security to guard the store. I don’t know what precipitated the upgrade, but it couldn’t have been anything good. A store typically doesn’t pay for someone with a gun and body armor to patrol the premises unless they felt it was absolutely necessary. Things aren’t just happening all around us, they’re changing, too.

Finally, Nextdoor is a great way to gain insight into what kinds of people live in your area and what their concerns are. Admittedly, I reside in Metro America and my metro of residence is, like most of them, “Blue.” A lot of the users in my area reflect those sentiments. I’ve always believed social media reflects real-life sentiments far more than people let on, especially on the Left. Expressing socially-acceptable, Regime-approved views is easy and hardly takes an act of courage, so it’s no shock social media reflects prevailing sentiments. It’s amazing how much decadence and normalcy bias afflicts the population, but maybe it shouldn’t. After all, as I’ve written in these spaces previously, people can only handle so much drama in their lives. At the same time, it’s nice to see there are plenty of concerned citizens out there who aren’t afraid to notice when things are wrong. “Noticing” itself has become a dangerous act, something which can get you branded as an extremist in under the current political and social order.

Nextdoor is, ultimately, just another useful tool for staying aware and prepared and there’s no crime in doing either. Using Nextdoor isn’t about staying afraid or indulging in paranoia; as I’ve said before, preparedness is about being able to live in peace and without worry. Living without worry without being prepared, on the other hand, is foolishness. If there’s anything Nextdoor has affirmed, it’s that safety, like civilization, isn’t something that happens on its own. It requires constant input and buy-in from people who are invested enough in its success to put their effort into. Nextdoor, along with social media in general, reveals there are far too many people out there who take safety and civilization for granted. Don’t trust these people and, most certainly, do not become like these people. They may seem all high and mighty, comfortable with how things are, but the moment things start to go wrong, these are the people who themselves begin noticing problems with everyone else. He has too many guns! Why do they have so many supplies? That’s not fair! Not once do they consider that when you live by the system, you die by the system. It’s a hard lesson learned only when SHTF occurs, if it gets learned at all.

My recommendation to you: if you want to become better-aware of all the goings-on in your area, download Nextdoor. Again, if privacy is an issue, feel free to use your account anonymously. Nobody’s entitled to know your real identity. Always, use the app responsibly, as in don’t be a troll or use it to harass strangers. Use it as just another tool for preparedness. Remember: your perception of your community may change, but that’s not your goal. Your goal is to be better-informed about what’s happening in it. Most of us have no clue what’s really happening around us and Nextdoor is a step in the direction of fixing that.

In closing, I want to share a few personal safety tips which Nextdoor reaffirmed for me:

• Beware of transitional spaces: Think parking lots, the sidewalk, even just outside your front door. These are the places we’re most vulnerable because our attention is often hyper-focused on a specific task, like carrying items out the door then locking it, walking to your car with groceries, etc. Don’t get caught in no-man’s land by failing to take the time to briefly assess the scene before entering a transitional space. It costs you nothing to do so. Stay off your phone and constantly look and, most important, recognize what’s happening around you. “I didn’t see it coming” is not an excuse, it’s inattentiveness. Nobody’s responsible for your safety besides you, so take ownership!

• Lock your damn doors: One of the strangest things I hear from people periodically is what a tragedy it is that we can’t live with our doors unlocked. I’m afraid I don’t quite understand this pathology, unfortunately. Like preparedness, locking your doors is merely an insurance policy, not an act of paranoia. Failure to do so can be deeply consequential and you cannot control the actions of others. Like my mother says, When the opportunity exists, a thief will always strike. Not all thieves are stone-cold, murderous savages, which makes it even more likely you’ll run into one at some point in your life. That door really is your first and, for some, their last line of defense. Are you so foolish you’d be willing to put your life and your property into the hands of strangers?

  In Nextdoor, someone recently posted a video of their security camera showing a young woman attempting to enter their apartment. The screen door was unlocked, but the front door itself wasn’t. When she realized it was locked, she left. That locked front door was the difference between a close call and a disastrous day. It’s another thing that costs you nothing: secure your residence.

• Do not attempt to engage people who are harassing or threatening you: Counter-intuitive as this sounds, there’s unfortunately nothing more dangerous, at times, than attempting to deal with another human being, especially when they’re clearly not behaving in an orderly manner. Citizen’s arrest is something of a meaningless concept, since we ultimately have the same rights as any criminal. The key to dealing with dangerous individuals is, as always, is early detection and recognition, then taking proactive steps to avoid the danger. Don’t assert your right to live without fear by marching headlong into a situation you perceive as potentially risky. This is called “stupidity,” not “empowerment.”

• If other residents report a certain location as dangerous or problematic, take it seriously: This doesn’t mean avoid the location entirely, though, under certain circumstances, that may be advisable. Rather, factor it into your thinking as you go about your day. If you decide you need to go to a strip-mall that’s increasingly garnering a reputation as a seedy locale, take an extra minute, drive around the parking lot, and see if anything jumps out at you. I’ll say this as many times as needed: it costs you nothing! As humans, we’re constantly in a state of observing, judging, and acting on those observations and judgments, we just don’t think about it. We have access to a wealth of knowledge today, use it!

What about you? What other personal safety practices do you engage in on a daily basis? Do you already use Nextdoor? What sorts of things are happening where you live? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

If you liked this post from We're Not At the End, But You Can See It From Here, why not share? If you’re a first-time visitor, please consider subscribing!