I, Too, Grew Up in the Crime-Ridden Streets of Bethesda, Maryland

“I’m a native of this area. I’m a native of an urban-suburban area. I grew up in a city plagued by gun violence and gang violence and drug violence.” - Judge Brett Kavanaugh, on the second day of his Senate hearings for his nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States”

“…Let me tell you something: I know what Kavanaugh’s talking about. I, too, grew up in the crime-ridden streets of Bethesda.

By day, I was surrounded by drug dealers, pushing their Ritalin from their lockers and marijuana in the student parking lots. Every night, when I came home from lacrosse practice, I walked through streets flooded with white-collar criminals. On the weekends, juvenile delinquents filled the mall: Loitering, shoplifting, carousing — always unsupervised. There was no escape. You could try to call the police, but their idea of handcuffs was a slap on the wrist. The teens answered to no one.”