Even TV Hosts Aren't Immune From DC Street Crime

Normally, something like this involving a semi-celebrity that took place well outside the bounds of our hood would go unnoticed here, but considering the recent spike in murders/stabbings/general street chaos I found this to be interesting.

Seems that Fox MSNBC morning show co-host Mika Brzezinski was mugged this morning outside of the DC hotel where she has been staying. In terms of muggings, this one was pretty tame: a man approached her from across the street and asked her for $20, adding that if she gave him money nothing bad would happen to her. She managed to come up with $6, and the mugger apparently decided that the other $14 could wait and took off. Brzezinski was unharmed.

Now, there is a couple of things worth pointing out here. First, this mugger reminds me a lot of some of the panhandlers I have run into in Baltimore who ask for exact change (sample request: "Hey man, you got 84¢?"). I wonder what this gentleman was planning to purchase with his newly acquired wealth--and I wonder if he would have refused additional cash had Brzezinski had, say, $40 in her wallet? Why not just ask for everything she had on her?

Secondly, this happened on a day when our esteemed mayor was making an appearance on the "Morning Joe" show. At the very least, Fenty could have offered to drive Mika around in his SmartCar to look for the man who took her $6. To further his role as ambassador for the District, the mayor could have also pointed out how friendly some of our muggers can actually be. The mugger stereotype is of someone who behaves callously towards others and is willing to commit acts of violence in order to achieve his goal; this one clearly bucks that stereotype, although he did vaguely threaten violence if Brzezinski didn't comply.

Finally, if a TV personality was going to get mugged in DC, why couldn't it have been O'Reilly? Just askin'.