In this region, things have definitely
gotten way worse.
When I was small, we could venture
away from home without causing
any worry to our parents because
all these child predators were relatively
an unknown unheard of thing.
Just be home before the streetlights
came on to prevent a butt busting.
Crime as we know it now was
unknown. If somebody got a hubcap
stolen, the neighborhood talked
about it for a year. In high school
the most controversial thing that
happened was a guy brought out
one of the old jack handle/lug wrenches
and was going to bash a guy with
it for vandalizing his vehicle.
Now, there's killings and shootings
and rampant drug abuse and sales
within easy rock throwing distance
wherever you live within 2 hours of
driving distance in any direction.
( had a photo of the shooting across
the street, but it won't post because of
too many something-something, photos
limited to blah blah etc. Just picture
any shooting in your head with a dozen
squad cars and it'll be close enough)