” … This March, though, when four teens, aged 15 to 17—three of them girls—allegedly approached 73-year-old Linda Frickey as she sat in her car and forcibly carjacked her, dragging her, trapped in her seatbelt, for more than a block to her death by dismemberment, neighbors in the generally safe area greeted the murder resignedly. “It is disgusting,” said one—but apparently not shocking. A small-scale protest after the near-murder carjacking of another woman a month earlier garnered little official action. Top police officials say now that the city’s half-year murder count is “premature,” and they have further argued that it is “nearly impossible to police … the inability of individuals to settle their differences without resorting to violence.” As murderous carjackings have surged, affluent and middle-class residents, black and white, who once used questionable coping skills such as walking quickly—and fully armed—from their cars to their homes, no longer feel safe even doing that. People are terrified to get gas—even during daytime hours—or to stop at red lights.”
