I don’t post about crime, but I still want to answer: I “think globally, act locally.” Meaning, I realize my impact will be small, but it can still be positive. I volunteer to pick up litter so neighborhoods don’t feel so depressing (shout out to District Cleanups!), which can lead to criminal acts, per the Broken Windows Theory. I volunteer in the parks (Anacostia Watershed Society, Rock Creek Conservancy) pulling up invasive plants (English ivy, clematis, honeysuckle) so the native plants have a chance and so the parks are more attractive to everyone, since green spaces are known to calm people down. And I volunteer with other groups as I have time—ushering at free music concerts (Washington Bach Consort), shelving books at the library, helping on Election Day. And I’m uniformly decent and pleasant to strangers I “meet” when I’m out and about, smiling, reaching something down from a high shelf for vertically challenged people in grocery stores, etc. I pay it forward.

Others no doubt will have other ways to involve themselves in their community, wherever your heart might lead you. The one thing we can’t afford to do is to distance ourselves from our neighbors. I’m not Christian, but I live by “Love your neighbor” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”