Aside for my continuing love of cartoons and super heroes, I don't consider myself to be an innocent or particularly naïve person.
So I can fully appreciate that no town - whatever size, wherever it's located, whoever lives there - is without its crime and unsavoury elements.
Crime, police and court beats were always my favourite assignments at whatever community newspaper I worked for over the years.
There was always something interesting or weird to write about, and unlike the political beats, you always knew who the crooks were and what they were doing.
But you expect a certain, I don't know "level" of crime in a small town, and another in a big city.
When I was a student living in Montreal, money was tight so I didn't always live in what would be considered the most prestigious of neighbourhoods.
I can recall being offered a variety of services - some I had to look up afterwards - by ladies of negotiable intentions just about every Sunday morning I went to buy milk at the corner store,
It was commonplace to see SWAT teams raiding neighbouring apartment buildings at all hours in one "other-side-of-the-tracks" area we used to affectionately call "The Projects."
When I moved to Vancouver, I had to move needles off my back steps to bring my garbage out before heading to the worst part of Hastings Street to do a volunteer radio show.
I'm not trying to get on Oprah or anything, but rather, trying to establish I'm no stranger to crime or the criminal element.
But I have been taken aback (and been affronted, but that's just an aside) by the amount and nature of crime in Squamish lately.
And I'm not just talking about your usual run-of-the-mill drunken Squamish yahoos - of which, unfortunately, there are a great many.
(Seriously folks, alcohol is great up until the point you're standing outside my house at 2 a.m. shrieking angrily at somebody or singing ZZ Top's "She Got Legs.")
No, it's the headlines like "Drive-by Shooting in Garibaldi Estates" that has me wondering when it was I suddenly ended up back in The Projects or The Bronx.
I'm not even sure the Bronx is any worse than anywhere else, really, but I think it's one of those places where the mysterious "they" tell you never to run out of gas.
Presumably, they have really tough gas stations - I don't know.
But a town like Squamish - where my children go to school and you can't go to the store without meeting a couple dozen people you know - should not have drive-by shootings.
Sure, we have a few break-ins, a couple fights on the weekend and some DUIs like most small towns, but when it starts getting into guns and potentially fatal violence, I can't help but wonder what's next?
Maybe times are just changing, but I hope it's just a one-time occurrence.
I still want my kids growing up with innocent cartoons and the naïve ideals of superheroes, not the unsavoury elements of crime.
