As a resident of Los Angeles I can say this is nothing but the typical conservative image of CA - Sure there is crime - but there is crime anywhere and everywhere. Let me put it this way. I have walked unharmed thru LA's Skid Row. I have been viciously harassed in a racist manner in 1) rural California - so no, it's not nice. 2) Colo Springs 3) Texas (El Paso). So no - Iike I mentioned before, found a home and will never leave. And we are the 5th economic power in the world. I have never been or will be back to Colorado or Texas and avoid rural California as much as possible.
Blunt, yes, but it has to be said. Clarifying the truth is not politics. (and back to audio - sorry could not stay silent. - the post above is 100% wrong)
I was going to pass this by, but thinking it over, there are a couple of things that must be said.
I'm anything but "the typical conservative." Appearing to be tolerant with crime in California by saying it's anywhere and everywhere is no better than saying racism is tolerable in California because it's anywhere and everywhere. While both may indeed be anywhere and everywhere, nobody should be sanguine with either situation.
Everyone should be alarmed by an escalation of violent and destructive crime, and particularly in light of what looks like society's inability -- or is it apathy? -- to prevent and address it. Perhaps too many people are like Randy Newman's character in
Old Kentucky Home, whose attitude about domestic violence is, "But I'm all right, so I don't care."
And I'm sad that your attitude about rural California is so negative. Maybe you've never been to Leggett, Coulterville, McCloud, Weaverville, Bolinas, Boonville, Marysville, Cambria, Gualala, or hundreds of other towns and localities (I'm more familiar with what's north of SLO than with your neck of the woods).
It's a lot better to be constructive than to be part of the problem. But the first step is a consciousness of reality, and the current reality is that California has been on a very negative trajectory for decades, and recently experiencing some accelleration. A LOT of people are leaving it behind, unfortunately, but they can't be blamed for making careful decisions for themselves and their families. I hope those of us left behind will be able to keep our home state from capsizing altogether.
