“Crime is climbing at alarming rate. Lots of B&E’s and Pillbillies stealing stuff for fast cash.”
It certainly is climbing along the frontier of the Newark Welfare Reservation here in northern NJ; the raiding parties are getting more brazen as their cities deteriorate even faster (less working people have money to spend subsidizing the zoo). I believe that, more than a larger political vision, is why so many people are buying guns. Here in NJ we’ve laid off thousands of cops (especially in cities, where they were never using their own revenues to pay them); because of the union work rules, the last hired were the first let go, so we now have smaller, older, more expensive cops....
If you’re anywhere near a major through route to and from any sort of urban concentration, a locked cage around the A/C unit or heat pump is a good investment. I know several small landlords who have been hit multiple times, one house hit three times by itself. Always when unoccupied, yep, on a through route. Raiding parties as you said.