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Neighborhood Watch
Since moving from Hackney to Hampstead I have witnessed a gang mugging, a running gun battle and a car repossession. In the space of four days since I moved thats not at all bad. Of course, being that this is north west London there were some details that made these activities very different to the Hackney equivalents
The gang mugging was five little girls in summer dresses with a blanket of goods laid out on the pavement. They ambushed us as we walked slowly towards us and asked if we would like to buy any toys or cookbooks. Proper muggings where they steal your wallet and watch and beat you are easier to endure than five little girls with hopeful expressions trying to sell you Nigella's Saucy Bits.
Further along the same street we saw two teenagers in masks ducking behind walls, peering round. One was carrying a Beretta 92, the other had a smaller Sig or Glock. There was shouting and a flurry of excitement as one fired a few pellets at a third teenager further along the drive. None of them were on target and there was a jeering catcall of "wanker" from behind the protective boxes up the drive. Gun battles in Hackney involve real bullets, real blood and real chalk outlines.
The car being repossessed was a red Ferrari F40. In Hackney it would have been a poster of an F40.
Jun. 5.2007