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[quote=RcHydro;56438859]'' Also rural areas have the chronically unemployed, underemployed, and people overall not in the best of health.''
Here in our area, there is no unemployment.
McDonalds here is known for being a good place to work. They are trying constantly to find help, but no one is applying as there so many jobs available. They start people at $14 an hour.
It was announce recently that a mine has to hire 500 more people, and underground miners earn up to $100,000 per year.
We have a 3 year old hospital, with a medical wing that is staffed by great doctors who have been here as long as long as 25 years, plus visiting specialists every month. This medical system has won many top awards for highest quality.
Montana's biggest city has only 100,000 people in the metro area. We live in a town of 2,000 people.
Our biggest crime problem in the past year, was two brothers stole a county Pickup. For license plates stole the plates off a parked truck. Caught because the sheriffs office found the truck while looking for the stolen plates.
My cousin and her teenage son and daughter lived in a " dinky little town" and certainly weren't " paranoid"
They never locked their doors because they believed like you said about no crime in their .............."dinky little town "
Late one ne night two thugs from the big city were in their" dinky little town" and realized they didn't have gas money to return home.
They checked 3 houses that were locked. House #4 was not locked.
End result.........beatings ,rape, culminating with 3 throats slashed.
Yes, I attended the funerals.
It is not paranoid to realize that if there are highways leading thru/past your town, you have no idea what criminals are in your town at night or passing thru.
Yeah...I was thinking along these lines too. If you're living rural, you're not as likely to get a fast response when and if you dial 911. It's going to take some time for the sheriff to get out to your place. And if you scream on your 5, 10, 20 acre lot...who's going to hear you? There's good reason to be a little paranoid.
Biggest city in my state is 60,000 people. Our small town has 235 people.
We have lived in many cities back when I was working, each of those cities has a very high crime rate. When we retired, we want to migrate to a small town with no crime.
Sure I guess we are somewhat paranoid about crime, but not about living here. Crime is what happens in cities.
Our doors are unlocked and our keys are left in the vehicles.
I've actually read a number of such things happening, and then it occurred to me--especially in recent years, I have noticed that rural people (not sure if this was "rural" or not) seem to be really paranoid and "trigger happy" about the prospect of a burglar breaking into their house. They seem to have a really inflated sense of the supposed "high crime rate" of their dinky little town.
I grew up in the rural areas myself, but I spent 10 years in the city before returning to the "sticks" and really noticing this phenomenon. Let me tell you, obviously no place is 100% crime-free, but these people in the sticks acting like their dinky little area is some hot-bed of criminal activity, are you kidding me? Try living in a place where murders appear on page B13 of your newspaper and THEN get back to me about the "crime wave" in your area. They have no clue (and again, I grew up in the sticks and am living there again, so this is not some "city slicker talking down to people in the sticks" as much as it appears, I'm more someone who IS a person in the sticks but who also spent time in the city so I have exposure to both).
I say this because, well, to me, besides just being ignorant in and of itself, to me this mentality is what leads to tragedies such as this, people having a very exaggerated sense of crime in rural areas and being too "trigger happy" as well. If I understand correctly, even the NRA, an organization I like by the way, teaches and stresses gun SAFETY and RESPONSIBILITY, they don't just support the 2nd amendment (by the way I support it too), they also stress responsibility.
Paranoia isn't just irritating, it's also deadly it seems, at least on some occasions. Have these people never heard of yelling out "hello" first or the like? THINK before you pull that trigger, THINK.
It's often easier to commit crimes in rural areas because of the lack of supervision -- not as many people around to serve as eyes and ears to the community (as well as less law enforcement). That's one reason that it may actually be safer in some instances to live in a more populated, urban area -- all the extra people supply extra surveillance (of course, it also supplies more potential perpetrators, too, of course, so it doesn't always work that way). But having more people around can dissuade would-be criminals from committing various crimes because the chances of being noticed and/or caught are higher in more urban areas.
It's often easier to commit crimes in rural areas because of the lack of supervision -- not as many people around to serve as eyes and ears to the community (as well as less law enforcement). That's one reason that it may actually be safer in some instances to live in a more populated, urban area -- all the extra people supply extra surveillance (of course, it also supplies more potential perpetrators, too, of course, so it doesn't always work that way). But having more people around can dissuade would-be criminals from committing various crimes because the chances of being noticed and/or caught are higher in more urban areas.
Point-of-Order
If I may injection a sliver of reality into this thread for one moment.
The article in question was from January 20, 2017, in GOLDSBORO, North Carolina.
It's often easier to commit crimes in rural areas because of the lack of supervision -- not as many people around to serve as eyes and ears to the community (as well as less law enforcement). That's one reason that it may actually be safer in some instances to live in a more populated, urban area -- all the extra people supply extra surveillance (of course, it also supplies more potential perpetrators, too, of course, so it doesn't always work that way). But having more people around can dissuade would-be criminals from committing various crimes because the chances of being noticed and/or caught are higher in more urban areas.
What a lot of people are overlooking, is that it is the same in small towns as in the cities. If the economy is booming, with plenty of employment opportunities for both teens and adults, there is way less crime than in an area with heavy unemployment, lack of opportunities, very low wages, etc. Many people think that if it is really rural, there are no jobs, low pay, lack of opportunity, alcohol and drug use to hide from reality crime, etc.
In some areas this is true, but a lot of the country has small towns that are booming people are working, and crime is very low, with a much higher solve rate than in cities.
the thing about being "paranoid" about crime in rural areas is simply this. when seconds count, the police are minutes away! You are on your own so to speak , so you may have a heightened sense of fear.
the thing about being "paranoid" about crime in rural areas is simply this. when seconds count, the police are minutes away! You are on your own so to speak , so you may have a heightened sense of fear.
I used to spend every summer with an aunt and uncle back in rural, southeastern Oklahoma, basically a suburb of Ft. Smith, Arkansas (about 30 miles away). They lived on 180 acres, about 0.4 miles away from the nearest country road, a road which was sparsely traveled. And the acreage was largely forested, with only a few small areas of clearing. It was a great place to hide or stealthily move about.
My aunt and uncle were caretakers for land owned by a rich New Englander (from Vermont) who made his fortune in the elevator business. I recall never locking any doors or windows at my aunt and uncle's place. In fact, it was common to sleep with the front door open at night (with just the screen door closed). Nothing ever happened, but looking back I can envision how easily it would have been for some nut job or wacko to do something nefarious and/or violent to my family members or to the owner of the property. The nearest neighbors were probably 1/2 mile away -- and then the next nearest neighbor was probably at least that far away. And the nearest town (of about 350 people) was about 5 miles away -- and the nearest real city (population 8,000) was about eight miles away. So it was very isolated.
Coming from Southern California, I was amazed at how open and trusting people in that area were. I was used to deadbolts on doors and locks on windows and alarm systems, etc. And the idea of not locking one's home at night was incomprehensible to me. But serious crime in that part of Oklahoma was rare; plenty of petty theft and drug/alcohol-related crimes, but very little serious or violent crime. It was mostly good ol' boys and ranchers and farmers and the like.
But I look back now and think about how I used to roam those 180 acres at all hours of the day and night -- never thinking about possibly running into any bad elements or running into any trouble of any kind. Plenty of hiding spots for any kind of creep or weirdo to lurk.
I used to spend every summer with an aunt and uncle back in rural, southeastern Oklahoma, basically a suburb of Ft. Smith, Arkansas (about 30 miles away). They lived on 180 acres, about 0.4 miles away from the nearest country road, a road which was sparsely traveled. And the acreage was largely forested, with only a few small areas of clearing. It was a great place to hide or stealthily move about.
My aunt and uncle were caretakers for land owned by a rich New Englander (from Vermont) who made his fortune in the elevator business. I recall never locking any doors or windows at my aunt and uncle's place. In fact, it was common to sleep with the front door open at night (with just the screen door closed). Nothing ever happened, but looking back I can envision how easily it would have been for some nut job or wacko to do something nefarious and/or violent to my family members or to the owner of the property. The nearest neighbors were probably 1/2 mile away -- and then the next nearest neighbor was probably at least that far away. And the nearest town (of about 350 people) was about 5 miles away -- and the nearest real city (population 8,000) was about eight miles away. So it was very isolated.
Coming from Southern California, I was amazed at how open and trusting people in that area were. I was used to deadbolts on doors and locks on windows and alarm systems, etc. And the idea of not locking one's home at night was incomprehensible to me. But serious crime in that part of Oklahoma was rare; plenty of petty theft and drug/alcohol-related crimes, but very little serious or violent crime. It was mostly good ol' boys and ranchers and farmers and the like.
But I look back now and think about how I used to roam those 180 acres at all hours of the day and night -- never thinking about possibly running into any bad elements or running into any trouble of any kind. Plenty of hiding spots for any kind of creep or weirdo to lurk.
It's often easier to commit crimes in rural areas because of the lack of supervision -- not as many people around to serve as eyes and ears to the community (as well as less law enforcement). That's one reason that it may actually be safer in some instances to live in a more populated, urban area -- all the extra people supply extra surveillance (of course, it also supplies more potential perpetrators, too, of course, so it doesn't always work that way). But having more people around can dissuade would-be criminals from committing various crimes because the chances of being noticed and/or caught are higher in more urban areas.
Agree.
I am not paranoid, I don't lock my doors but I live on a dead end chip and tar road off the highway. There are now 6 other properties on my road, 3 of which you can see from the road. My drive is about .20 miles long. So if someone drives up to my house at night that I dont know I have reason to be suspicious. I have 4 big dogs and 2 medium sized dogs and a 9mm handy.
Its another story during the day. I talk to the delivery people, the mail person if they deliver to the house (I have to go out to their car), even strangers who drive up; Jehovahs, someone looking for their dog, someone looking for the owner of a pig, someone lost, etc.
Even a young man walking through the woods next to my pasture barefoot wearing nothing but a pair of shorts until the cops came running up after him.
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