Yep. I Work near Spri gfield, MA and try to avoid many parts of that city on a good day.
Stay away from any street named Martin Luther King Blvd.
My niece is a nurse in Springfield.In fact,just the other day...at her son's birthday party...I had to read her the Riot Act regarding her walking to her car if she happens to be sent home from a shift late at night.I had to impress upon her the importance of having an escort for the walk to her car.
I had to ride the J-train through Bedfort-Stuyvestant (Brooklyn) and take the bus through South Jamaica (Queens) on the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Lucky to get home before dark, I suppose. A white friend of mine was on the same bus shortly after an innocent young black boy (literally true) in the neighborhood was killed by an exceptionally reckless NYPD plains clothes cop. A mob attacked the bus and broke all the windows, but passengers were otherwise unharmed. The attack on the bus was not reported in the news. The cop was acquitted based on an insanity plea, but the hospital discharged him a year later saying he was clearly not insane (just evil).