Since I live about 6 miles from the city proper, we have the normal crime. Closer to the city things change for the worse. We knew this going in, so we deal with it. We moved from a village of 700 in the UK to California and the first day they unloaded the big container with our belongings, a guy walked by and grabbed my son's bike. It was a culdesac and I was pretty amazed! Like Ken said about Millinocket, this is the South. Myself and most of my neighbors have weapons of some sort. Wife is pretty good with the 9mm now; we just take things as they come.
The only area where my wife has lived, where there is as much crime as here, is when she lived in the Rampart area of Las Angeles. She was only there for a few months and moved. As for me, I've never lived in a city that has as much crime as here. I just talked to the asst manager of our complex, who was born/raised here. She told me that she has no idea what has happened concerning the amount of crime here. "Sure didn't use to be this bad".
Funny, when we got a new Sheriff and Mayor in 2015, the citizens here really thought the amount of crime here would decrease. At least that was the campaign promise of both before and after their elections. But, unfortunately, it sure hasn't happened. Another shooting last night at a McDonalds downtown. A 18 yr old black dude was shot in the leg after leaving a McDonalds around 11:30. Most likely it was gang related. This is why we won't go downtown for anything at night. We aren't the "downtown" type people anyway.
When I lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, there was a lot of crime, and particularly a lot of violent crime. But I didn't feel particularly unsafe because it was mostly gang or drug related stuff and, unless someone happened to get in the way, there wasn't a problem. I left my keys in my car and rarely locked my doors. Besides, I was a paramedic. Even the gangsters and the drug dealers were nice to me. Long Beach, California was probably the only place I've lived in where I felt a little unsafe sometimes. My house was burglarized once, and I had an intruder another night. Someone tried to steal a car that I had locked in my garage, and which didn't even start with a key (which is why they abandoned after pushing it a couple of blocks down the alley). I didn't feel safe going for a walk at night in Long Beach, but then I lived not far from downtown.
When we had our house in Parker, Colorado, my wife left the garage door open when she went to work. A neighbor seen it open, knew we both worked and kept an eye out. Everything was fine when I got home. Very little crime happened in Parker when we lived there. A few years ago, while living in our current apt., we accidentally left our front door unlocked and partially open. Was gone for about 2 1/2 hours, but everything was fine when we got home. A couple of other parts of this city and our apt would've been cleaned out.
We were robbed once and that was in Chicago when we lived in an apartment. They only took my husband's gun.
Think there's more "fireworks" from guns this 4th weekend so far, than what will be actual fireworks. A parking lot shooting at a weekly motel yesterday morning, down the street from where we have breakfast. The suspect was caught. A home robbery, pursuit, murder, carjacking and suspect caught.........all done by the same person. A two-car shoot-out in the middle of the night, 8 miles north of us. And, still, when we speak to someone here about this crime, nobody knows about it or cares.
Millinocket is not on the way to anything, other than Baxter State Park, and there are only three roads out of here, and one of them ends at the park. Other than homes and camps, there are no places to turn off of any of these roads. Every now and then, someone will rob a store but all they need to know is which direction they're going. Either the East Millinocket PD the Brownville PD, or the park rangers will be waiting for them. Otherwise, they will find them at someone's camp.
My wife did clue me in on........."remember, we don't hear about the crime/shootings that happen in most other cities. So, being it that way, a person could easily think this city is very high with crime/gun violence, when in fact, it's not." She's right, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and others have more crime/gun violence than we do.
A few years ago I checked numerous sources for statistics, and all said current location had a higher rate of violent crime than NYC and LA. And crime here is worse now than it was then.
That's a joke that stems from the fact that Maine has very few east-west highways, so it's not unusual for someone to have to drive 200 miles north to an east-west highway, then 200 miles south, in order to get somewhere that's only fifty miles away. Personally, I like it like that, as it ensures that our secluded places remain secluded. Millinocket is nearly an island though, in the middle of two branches of the Penobscot River which come together in Medway, fourteen miles from here, which involves going across a causeway. It's not enclosed to the northwest, but it's about forty miles to the nearest town going that way.
I kind of have the same problem going to the coast...can't just go straight east to west through mountains I'm guessing so have to go up then over and down. There's two routes but none are straight across. My description is the one I take....I think, I'm bad with directions. I bet I'd save at least an hour or more if it was possible. Wish they would build a road for me.
After what I've read today, two cities I sure wouldn't want to live in..........Chicago and Minneapolis. 56 shot and 11 fatally in parts of Chicago over this past weekend. Boy, law enforcement is really keeping busy in these two cities. And, here I thought Los Angeles and/or New York City was bad. They are, but.