Baked Takes Vol. 5
Maybe the real Venezuelan gangs were the friends we made along the way?
Hi!
It’s a Tuesday and I’m not posting a listicle! Surprise! The activated rosin oil I took earlier is giving me a massive case of the yaps—I have so many opinions and remembered that y’all literally signed up to hear them (which, and I haven’t said this in a while, but I’m so grateful for that 💕 genuinely means the world to me and has done wonders for my self-esteem).
I have lived in a lot of cities with Real Crime™️ for the bulk of my life. Like, almost the entire thing save for the last two years. Just for credibility’s sake, I can cite them: born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, lived in Los Angeles (in the Deep Valley at that) for several years after, then Houston, Texas for a year, then New Orleans. Denver is, statistically speaking, the safest city I have ever lived in. So imagine my surprise when people in New Orleans and Jackson are expressing concern for my safety and well-being over the fact that Denver is an asylum city. Ok.
It’s so hard not to be a snarky bitch whenever someone who has had their car broken into five times in the last twelve months shakes in secondhand fear on my behalf because immigrants exist in my general vicinity. I get that a lot of misinformation is being spread online, but half of the people expressing this concern are self-identified pro-immigration progressives. I’m sorry nobody else has said this to you yet, because you desperately need to hear it: get a grip!
Don’t think I’m leaving all the white people who call themselves Colorado “natives” out of this conversation either—y’all are almost worse. You refuse to listen to a bitch who has been around actual crime and who only evaded carjacking bc her car was full of garbage at all times (executive dysfunction came in clutch for exactly one scenario) and pretend like having someone wash your windshield after you shook your head “no” is a violation of the Geneva Convention! Is it annoying? Yeah, I’ll give you that. It’s not a crime though! Get over yourself!
The mayor of Aurora wants to talk about gangs of immigrants taking over apartment buildings (or wanted, rather, as he admittedly backtracked those statements in September), meanwhile, those apartment buildings have been some of the worst in the area due to being owned by out-of-state slumlords for years now. Gangs taking over might actually be an improvement to the current conditions. That isn’t me praising gangs. The conditions are just that bad.
Speaking as a white woman, to an audience that I know is mostly white women: we are not the victims in this scenario. We are not in danger just because there’s been an influx of non-white men. Stop being weird. Stop pretending the narrative isn’t inherently racist. You’re more afraid of being called racist than you are of actually perpetuating racism, and it’s fucking weird. Work on it. Too many WoC have held our hands saying this so I’m gonna be a little less gentle about it.
What do I know though? I’ve only lived in a diverse range of places and seen evidence that the one city willing to cut police budgets was the safest. I don’t think I could cross an entire continent on foot like that, so I have inherent respect for those who did. Denver readers, instead of violently shaking your head no next time someone tries to wash your windshield, try keeping bottled water in your car to hand to them or something. At the very least just don’t be a dick.