Interesting thing about crime in H NE: it's not nearly as bad as you would think. One of my considerations in moving to this area was the frequency of violent crime, and it's far lower here than in a lot of neighborhoods where my friends live (Shaw & Columbia Heights, specifically).

I don't know why this is, but I do know that I can't walk down H Street without seeing a cop go by at least every few minutes, especially in the evenings. Since H is pretty much a straight shot and the nightspots are all on the street, and not off on a side street, I'm guessing that the crime is lower because it's very easy to patrol. Indeed, the majority of violent and property crime happens a few blocks to the north and south of H, in the neighborhoods, but not out on the street where the bars are. I'm actually more at risk walking the two blocks from Union Station to my apartment than I am walking down H at midnight.

I'd personally like to see cops walking the beat in neighborhoods with nightspots — it could do wonders for lowering violent crime and making folks feel safer.

A friend of mine once argued that there was no gay community, only a set of bars and restaurants and dance parties. I think the effort GLOV has made to come together and the support we’ve received thus far prove that there is indeed a gay community. That we can and will unite to face down homophobia and indignity.

On a similar note, regarding locations of crimes, I wonder whether we can divorce the proximity of hate crimes to gay bars from their general location in the city. Again, we have a lack of controls, here. There aren’t any gay bars in Georgetown, say, so it makes comparison difficult, but I would wager that the area around 9th and U streets, for example, probably had a higher incidence of crime than some parts of the city even before Town, Nellie’s, et al, opened, due to a variety of social factors into which I won’t attempt to delve, and that if gay establishments open in higher-crime areas, increased crime against gay people might be a consequence. I would imagine that there’s more crime at straight bars along the H St. Corridor, NE than at bars on K St. NW for the same reason.

Now before I’m accused of sexism, racism, neighborhood-ism, internalized homophobia, or anything else, let me say that I’m not disputing that LGBT-targeted violence is a problem, and I applaud GLOV and their work. Being the son of a statistician just makes me skeptical of numbers.