RIP PIRATES

Early Tuesday morning, the streets of downtown Greenville turned into a crime scene after a drive-by shooting occurred, killing two innocent by-standers. One victim was an ECU student. The other was an ECU graduate and a manager of a downtown pizzeria. Read the story here: http://www.reflector.com.

I think, in general, everyone thinks that Greenville is different from other cities; that violent crimes don't happen there. Living in Greenville for six years, I can't recall hearing about violent crimes that often, more small crimes or student-to-student crimes. It was always, "stay on this side of the tracks, and you'll be okay", or "remember not to walk alone at night." Yet, in the past two years, I've been hearing from my girl friends that Greenville is getting more dangerous. Gang activity is on the rise (last year, they told me that they actually said on the news broadcasts that women should stay inside and lock their doors because an initation stunt was to find and rape as many women as possible in a particular evening), the university is growing, and the lines are being blurred. The last time I went to visit, while we were out, Hannah's car was broken into. Car break-ins did not used to be the norm.

This shooting...it began inside The Other Place. The Other Place is a bar/nightclub that I used to frequent (obviously not so much these days), and knew people that worked there. The pizzeria? It was Alfredo's for the longest time (another frequent stop during our late-night ventures) and still would be if Alfredo hadn't sold it this year and moved to another part of town, to be a more "family friendly" restaurant. With downtown so close to the school, it could've been anyone. It could've been my girls. It could've been worse if it hadn't be "just a driveby."

Events like this remind the Pirate community that we are not excluded from the violence and the negative experiences of this world. We are blessed as a community, that it wasn't a widespread attack, that more innocent people didn't die. It is unfortunate and my heart goes out to the families, friends and other loved ones for the two young men that died, to the witnesses, and to the rest of Pirate Nation. We are strong. We will perservere. And, hopefully, the GPD will find the SOB and give him the just punishment he deserves for taking innocent lives, for CHOOSING to take lives. My head nods to the bouncers and staff at The OP who did their jobs, and protected the patrons inside from what could have been a tragedy had the man decided to open fire inside the bar.

RIP ELB and CAK. RIP PIRATES 6-30-2009.