This email was sent out to citizens registered with the US Embassy yesterday:

“United States Embassy

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

May 14, 2009

Warden Message: Increased Crime

The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) is reporting an increasing number of
robberies against UN personnel in Kinshasa, including four incidents
since last week.  Two robberies occurred near City Market, and two took
place on Blvd 30 Juin.  All victims were traveling on foot when they
were surrounded and robbed by groups of people.  All incidents happened
during daylight hours and in open view of crowds.

In addition, the British Embassy reported an armed robbery of a British
diplomat on April 28 when he was walking from the British Embassy to the
Grand Hotel.  The criminals jumped out of their vehicle and insisted
that the diplomat get into their car.  The diplomat refused, but gave
them the money he was carrying.  On the morning of May 2, a jogger was
robbed by two criminals near the U.S. Ambassador’s residence.  

DRC is a high-crime country.  Care should be taken when traveling,
particularly when walking.”

I’m not particularly alarmed—Kinshasa is a city of 9 million people and in any large city there is crime. White people are targeted frequently and this justifies my reasons for not strolling around the city on my own. Yes, my biggest fear is that I’ll be dragged into some policemen’s car and taken God knows where, but I’m afraid of that partly because there is no system in place to respond to emergencies. You cannot call the local police here and expect justice to be served in any capacity, at least probably not without paying them yourself. The USA Embassy luckily has an emergency line that I have in my phone, and if you call it they’ll send out armed troops within minutes to extract you from your situation. Knowing how quickly things can happen here I never leave the house without my phone anymore, even if we’re just walking to the fruit stand half a mile away. Being a dual citizen means I’m backed by the British Embassy too if I requested it.

The irony is that probably because of my extreme caution in the Congo and the limitations that accompany that, I’ve seen worse crimes happen in Berkeley than I have here (but that doesn’t mean they’re not happening in Kinshasa every day).  I live in a diverse, gorgeous, quiet neighborhood in West Berkeley, just a few blocks from the Bay. My neighbor shot my other neighbor one evening, and I came home to a dozen policecars on my block and almost crashed my bike into a cop in my garden holding a two-foot long gun. There were dogs and megaphones and helicopters circling overhead but they did catch him after a day (and what a scary day of waiting that was). There have been quite a few shootings in my little neighborhood since I moved there in July 2008, but they’re all gang-related and I don’t worry that I’ll be a target. Plus, since the shooting on my block, that area of Berkeley is high on the radar of Bay Area policemen so anytime ANYTHING happens they send full forces out. Like the time a crazy woman was wailing in the middle of the street and six cop cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance arrived. I feel safe.

I had no idea what to expect when I came out here two and a half months ago, but I’m glad that I’ll be leaving in two weeks without memories of fear. I’d choose claustrophobia over that any day.

Here’s a couple photos of our set cop, Pascal. We hire him to diffuse any potentially bad situations while we’re shooting. He usually stands at one end of the street we’re shooting on, and Monzon (former national boxing champion) stands at the other. They stop cars driving by and quiet the shoe cleaning kids’ token clapping, and detain any curious passerbys who wants to stroll onto set and have a conversation. He takes his job seriously and occasionally smacks kids across the head or throws rocks at dogs (which I hate), but is always very kind to me. It’s amazing to me that almost all the cops and even military I see strolling the streets of Kinshasa don’t have guns, and if they do, they might not have any bullets. Such things are in short demand, but even though Pascal has no weapons on him the uniform itself is enough to keep people at a respectful distance.