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I would never even think about driving my family through south central LA because I don't know enough about the area to make sound judgments about the pertinent safety issues. If I took my family into a bad area and got killed they would ask what that stupid white man was doing down there to begin with.<<<<<

So let's just say you were in So Cal, driving S/B on the 710 Freeway. You plan to take a cross town freeway from the 710 over toward Redondo Beach. Oh, gee, the signs are confusing, and you end up on a different freeway than you anticipated. You get off to turn around, trying to follow the map, and end up cruising the neighborhood where the Watts towers are (I know locals that have done this several times). Then your car, which was in fine shape, stalls out. What to do, what to do. You're deep into gang territory, your car is stalled, and your cell phones don't catch a tower, for what ever reason.

Does this make you an idiot, or did you make a navigation mistake and catch some bad luck? If you did everything in your power to protect your family but ended up in trouble, in this scenario, isn't it different than somebody knowingly heading into a gang area on a lark in a rickety car just to check it out?

I mean, you should have anticipated that the signs might be confusing for a country boy, and been better prepared (two way radio on police frequency, flak vest, weapon with CCW, etc.) Naturally I'm being facetious, but you can see what I'm getting at.

Ain't hindsight grand?? We all wish the Kims had flipped a coin and stayed in Roseburg for the night so they could enjoy the scenery the next morning, but they thought they were taking what looked like a short route to where they were going, where people expected them. Cut the guy some slack, he gave his life after making sure he had done all he humanly could for his family; he felt he still had to do more, so he went for help. Had they all sat there and frozen to death in the car, you would have no doubt been saying "What kind of guy just sits there and lets his family freeze to death for that many days?"

So let's just say you were in So Cal, driving S/B on the 710 Freeway. You plan to take a cross town freeway from the 710 over toward Redondo Beach. Oh, gee, the signs are confusing, and you end up on a different freeway than you anticipated.
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Exactly.

I came very close to that exact situation once in NY. During the period of the big race riots.

Flew to LaGuardia. Since you are from the left coast, you know how the cab deal works at a big airport. You must take the first cab in the line. The first cab was driven by a Chinese guy that must have just got off the boat. All he ever said on the whole trip, over and over and over again was "You know where you want to go? I take you". A real confidence builder.

Destination: Factory in the toughest part of Brooklyn.

I had specific directions carefully written down on paper as to every single turn to make to get there. About halfway, we came to a traffic accident partially blocking the intersection. Big Irish cops directing traffic. Literally hundreds of black people in a very bad humor.

If the cops had made the cab detour, I would have been in deep doo-doo.

I made it, but when my visit was over, the plant owner was so concerned about me that he put me in his personal limo and drove it himself to get me downtown to Macy's, where I was to meet my wife.

A few days before, one of his workers was robbed and stripped to the bare skin on the sidewalk in front of the plant. The even took his underwear. He wore someone's raincoat to get home. There was no way the owner was going to let me ride a cab.

Razor wire around the parking lot. Door between the entrance lobby and the office a steel door with a sliding peephole, like the old speakeasies in Chicago in the days of prohibition.

The posters that are so sure they would never ever get in a spot like that say so only because they have never spent any time outside of their own little corner of the world.

Of course, they will immediately post umpteen posts telling us how well traveled they are, but the cat is out of the bag already and they might as well forget it.

If you have really been around, you have been close to disaster more than once.

Of course, you could have been so ignorant of your surroundings that you did not know it, which is also quite likely.

I had another experience in Chicago that was really bad, but that is too long a story.

I don't go to LA. When I do travel it is with a GPS and at least two of the weapons on my permit. I stay out of places where I can't take care of me and mine. I keep food and water in every vehicle I own. I live at least 30 minutes from the nearest cop. I spend each and every day with the full knowledge that I have to take care of what ever situation comes my way and I'm careful not to put myself and my family in a bad situation.
I wouldn't take off into the middle of a swamp with my family in a canoe without someone there who knew what was going on. I wouldn't take my family for a camel ride in the middle of the desert without proper help either.
I'm a retired Ranger with years of combat experience and a lifetime lived outdoors. It always comes down to the rule of 3's.