Living with criminals in old-time Phoenix


As much as I've always enjoyed reading about crime, going back to the days when I read Batman Comics, I never really wanted to be around it IRL (In Real Life). I found a nice place to live, in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona called Glendale. And since I love to pedal around, I got to thinking about what it would be like to live with criminals in old-time Phoenix.

Of course, there are criminals in my quiet little suburban neighborhood, let's be clear on that. They're petty ones, the kind that steal bicycles, or cars, so it's wise to lock them up, but it's not like the neighborhood where I lived back in my twenties in California which had the almost continuous noise of sirens, and things that may, or may not have been, backfires from cars. I lived in an apartment complex with some pretty tough hombres back then, and while they may not have described themselves as criminals, or bad guys, they always ducked when the LAPD went by, that sort of thing.

When I look at old photos of Phoenix, I often wonder how much crime happened. Phoenix has never been a "wide-open town", like Tombstone used to be, it's been a place of law and order. There have always been banks, filled with gold, and those places have been guarded. There was also something more precious than gold, water, and the canals were guarded, too. 

But criminals have always been around. They're opportunists, like racoons, and some will just scrounge around taking stuff that isn't nailed down, or protected. When I was a kid, in Minneapolis, most of the kids that I knew would say, "Finders keepers, losers weepers!" which set their path firmly towards being a criminal, if they chose that route. Since I read Batman comics I tended to find things and return them to people, which makes me feel good. I found a twenty-dollar bill on the ground a couple of years ago during one of my walks around my neighborhood, and realized that an elderly lady had dropped it, so I gave it back to her. I get more enjoyment thinking of doing something like that than I would ever get spending money that I didn't deserve.

But of course criminals disagree with me. I've known people who have a LOT more money than I'll ever have who gladly steal from people, considering them "marks" or "suckers". And since my philosophy has always been to "live and let live", I leave these people alone, and I stay away from them, far away. I'd like to believe that they'll get their just rewards someday, but I know that many won't. Real life isn't a Batman comic book, I know!

But it still worries me to see people in old-time Phoenix who left their horses right there on the street, probably with the keys in the ignition!

Image at the top of this post: in front of the Ford Hotel, Washington and 1st Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona
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