But I live in a good neighborhood Part 10

We're living with my Mother-in-law in Kentucky right now, in a fancy gated community full of fancy houses with a fancy HOA (bleh). We're not in the city, and not even in the 'burbs. In fact, we'd have to drive for 10 minutes to get to the 'burbs.

By any measure of the words, we live in a good neighborhood.

Because I haven't done one of these in a while, let me remind you of what this means to some people...

In a "good neighborhood" there is no crime.
In a "good neighborhood" people look out for bad guys.
In a "good neighborhood" you don't need to lock your door.
In a "good neighborhood" you invite strangers into your home (if they have a good excuse).

Basically, when you argue that you live in a "good neighborhood" you argue that you have no cause to worry about any-damn-thing.

Now that we've established that...

There was a string of car break-ins in our "good neighborhood." Sometime after 1 AM, someone went around either smashing windows or simply checking for unlocked car doors. They made off with a collection of wallets, a few iPODs, and a friggin' GUN.

Good job on the gun buy the way, I bet you'll feel like you really saved time not bothering to bring it into the house when the Kentucky PD returns it to you after the murder investigation is concluded.

I KNOW some (many?) people here don't lock their house doors, so I hope those people feel, in order, lucky, wary, then armed.

Just imagine it; posh house in a posh neighborhood, with a fancy gate to keep the riff-raff out, it's friggin' semi-rural Kentucky. Hell, after just describing it, I'm still not expecting it.

It's only natural to expect what has happened in the past. If everything is always fine when you suspect the worst, you begin to ignore the suspicious things. Do that long enough, and you even begin to make excuses for them.

It's terrible that we have to think like this, but the alternative leaves us at the mercy of the worst in our society.

Pay attention to your surroundings, remember that an ounce of caution beats a pound of "Oh my God, I never thought that would happen", and if you want to make our society better... Retire predators.