Coming From Where I'm From

I was born and have lived most of my life in Jersey City, NJ. While I have admittedly had some good times there, my place of residence is far from any one's ideal place to live and raise a family. Undoubtedly, Jersey City has always been a high crime area but recent occurrences have made me question why I don't just pack up my stuff and move anywhere that is far away from there.

Recently, there was a triple shooting mere blocks away from my house with two of the victims dying, one instantly and the other days later in a hospital. The only surviving one is in the hospital in stable condition but is unable to and/or uncooperative in identifying the shooter. Since the shooting happened on a Saturday on a busy street, there were many witnesses but no one is willing to come forward and help bring the murderer of two young men (one a father) cut down in their prime to justice. If that isn't bad enough, the mother of one of the murdered youths was arrested about a week later because she kidnapped a child, locked him in her basement, beat him, and attempted to suffocate him with a garbage bag. Why did she do all of this? Because the young boy's father broke up with her.

Very recently, a 13-year-old boy who was on home instruction was allowed back to school to take a mandatory standardized test and was caught with a gun after he set of the metal detector at the entrance of the building. Is it sad that even elementary schools need metal detectors now? Yes. But not as sad as it would have been if it was not discovered that the boy was carrying a weapon until it was too late. Now the boy is in the Hudson County Youth House awaiting arraignment. Though I am happy that he was caught before he was able to hurt anyone, I can't help but wonder where he could have possibly obtained the gun from and if he will have access to others in the future. But I guess we may never know and no one really cares enough to be bothered by that question because that is a common occurrence when you are coming from where I'm from...