South Korea is my safe place, Basirat Sani says

I was watching TV with my dad and mom in our South Side Providence apartment, one late afternoon when we heard a sudden knock on the door. Looking outside, we saw the flashing lights of at least three police cars. Yellow tape cordoned off the grassy area next to our building and officers carrying flashlights searched the ground for a fired bullet.

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Before that day, I had only heard about gang-related shootings in Rhode Island’s Southside Providence – stories passed around in school, on the news, and from people in the neighborhood. Although I never knew the specifics or statistics about the crime rate, I remember hearing gunshots late at night, never knowing exactly where they were coming from, and seeing memorials for those killed strewn on street corners whenever we were out and about. It was the kind of thing you just knew was happening around you, but I had never experienced it firsthand. Even though I didn’t feel immediate fear – those shootings seemed so distant, like something you hear about on the news – I always carried a sense of vigilance that had been instilled in me from childhood.

But at that moment, I realized this wasn’t just a story; it was happening right outside our home. I think what added to our fear is that we never even heard sounds of any kind that would have alerted us, had it not been for that knock. I was in high school at the time. I remember the police warning us to stay inside, and that’s exactly what we did. We couldn’t stay in the living room for the rest of the evening, so we retreated to our rooms, trusting that the familiar four walls would still offer safety when dawn broke.

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The constant awareness of violence in America

Afterwards, my family didn’t discuss the incident much. Life returned to normal. But that moment made me acutely aware of how close danger could be. It was unsettling to think that violence could intrude into our everyday lives. What if one of us or a neighbor had been caught in the crossfire while pulling into the parking lot, or if a bullet had found its way into our home? To this day, I wonder if they ever found that bullet and what circumstances led to that missing shot.