I guess its fun for those who feel superior and suggest moving. But the reality is every neighborhood has its problem residents. Its pretty easy to put them on ignore and have little clue as to the going's on. I'm guessing (not really, Charlie has more but can't post it here) we only get the quick over view.
I live in a pretty quiet part of town. We're kind of isolated because we have the Ohio River as a block to the north, a big park to the south. But then I don't hear all the good stuff, even if I keep my ear to the ground. And some of the criminals don't seem to be bad people all the time.
For instance, some drunken fools tipped my concrete donkey on its side. Its a prop from a defunct minature golf course down the way. I've got a fix, but my anvil is buried out in the garage. Anyway, a neighbor and I tried to put it upright last fall. We failed. Then along came a neighbor guy I'd seen many times. He was going fishing and was all loaded down with cooler, bait bucket, poles, tackle box and chair. He looked at the poor donkey (bet Lee's filters would catch the biblical name) on its side and asked why we hadn't put it back upright. We told him we'd tried, but it weighs 500#. He laughed, put down his load, got on the ground and grunted a bit but put it upright. A pretty good guy.
Until Christmas when he got busted for stealing toys from a Marine Corps storage facility. Ruined a bunch of kids Christmas. He's away now...
And the dopehead woman that used to live up the crick (it'd be a creek in civilized society) passed out on pills and booze. Then she rolled her baby off the bed and fell on it. But never woke up. The baby was against a baseboard heater and cooked. The courts decided it was just a terrible accident. She even got to keep her older kids.
I bet everyone here has a child molester living within a mile. The legislatures have decided its not all that bad an offense and the courts generally give them short sentences. When they get out they've got to live someplace. The only places death sentences are given is when you catch them with your grandkids.
Burglars are everyplace. And again the usual sentence is short. And they can't get a job when they get out so they go back to what they know.
And the simple answer is sometimes you're better off with the evil you know than moving to a new place where you don't know the score. Charlie has much better sources for his information than most of us would. The county lockup probably doesn't protect the offenders "privacy" very well. And everyone in law enforcement pretty well knows each other and where they live. Anything in their neighborhood is told, probably in good detail. He would hear things that might not follow strict evidence rules, but are the unvarnished truth.
