Pop Pop Pop.
It turned out to be a motorcycle backfiring.
But those unused to hearing that sound assumed it was gunfire.
Panic went through the crowd in New York City's Times Square.
There were injuries.
Those of us who grew up in what is now referred to by the cool crowd as "the hood" smirk. We sure as hell knew what the sound of gunfire was and wasn't.
That didn't happen every night.
But once the sun set, there was the possibility of the pop pop pop. That's why normal routines ended as soon as it got dark. You stayed in.
That was pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey. Not that the streets have become totally safe. Mayor Steve Fulup recently installed more surveillance cameras to deter crime.
Growing up anticipating gunfire creates a certain mindset. We were not fearful. Instead we accepted our world as it was. No one expected change. That dark world view tends to hang on.
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