Even as seasoned as I am, every once in a while something happens that makes me pause. Such was the case last Thursday when I learned late morning that a shooting had occurred in the middle of the night.
Someone used an automatic weapon to fire several rounds into four people, at 2 a.m. Somehow, some way, no one died, and the victims were "found in multiple parking lots" adjacent to the site of the shooting.
News coverage of the incident includes video of a nearby resident recording the gun blasts.
The location where this occurred surprised me: a random arterial corner in Hawthorne, Calif, a suburb south of Los Angeles. I drive through that intersection every few weeks. Hawthorne is a working-class city that is bordered by similar cities on its north, east and south sides, and wealthier suburbs on its western boundary.
It is not necessarily a place I'd expect to see a major shooting.
But in talking with a police officer a few days later, I learned that things have changed in those parts. He said that "Hawthorne used to be a nice city".......but over the last few years, it has become a dangerous place, like so many other areas.
This is becoming common throughout the United States. So many larger cities have declined significantly, and have seen rising crime and violence, as well as increased homelessness.
Inflation has been outpacing wages for a long time, which has lead to anger, financial and other stress and frustration for many. The Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on everyone, and many say that the U.S. hasn't been the same since. Talk that "the world has gone crazy" sometimes leads to theories about life on this planet coming to an end soon, complete with Bible references to signs of "the end times." There is no doubt that we're in a tough point in our history.
One thing has become clear, however: dangerous incidents can happen anywhere, and they do. In other words, it can go down anywhere, at any time.
This is not to say that there aren't areas where crime is more likely to happen - aka "high crime" areas. There are certain sectors of cities that maintain high crime rates over years and decades. But riots have occurred over the last two years in Orange County, the wealthier suburb of Torrance, Calif., and many other places that wouldn't necessarily seem obvious. The same is true around the U.S.: major crimes happen anywhere, and everywhere.
Our shared decline as a nation is also the great equalizer. Safety isn't guaranteed anywhere, and we must all remain vigilant wherever we go.
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