Addendum.

Like right after I wrote that blogpost, I was chit-chatting with a (late 50s) (hippie-ish) (upper south) (white) couple who are teachers who just retired, and who had come in through the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now on their way home from a camping trip at a wilderness area nearby.

And, they were saying that they were thinking of moving to the college town that I now live in, so we talked for a while, and I mentioned that I had moved three years ago from the city that I used to live in, and when I mentioned the three recent safety incidents -- I said that I was just talking about them "to friends," rather than saying something about a blogpost -- you would not believe the looks on their faces, that so much disturbing crime could happen near where your regular life occurs.

It's really like the frog-in-boiling-water thing -- which, incidentally, a (middle-aged) (Latina) friend brought up when I was thinking of moving -- that is, that you get normalized to stuff like that, but you better snap out of it and get out before it gets even worse.

Interestingly, too, they were saying that their niece was in college now, and they were interested to see where she ends up, a comment I've heard many older people say lately, since they just don't know where young people can go for decent jobs nowadays.