Good Lord, I find myself longing for the old days when there were some things that even hard core criminals used to do.

It used to be rare for a gunman to wildly shoot at a house when there were kids inside, no matter how bad they wanted to kill the person they were after.

It used to be rare that a robbery victim was harmed if they gave up their wallet, jacket, watch, whatever, without struggle.

It used to be rare that a house would be firebombed if there were "innocents" inside.

It used to be rare that someone would pull a gun in a busy McDonalds in the middle of the afternoon and engage in a shootout when confronted.

It used to be rare that someone would commit a double kidnapping and murder trying to avoid an assault case.

All those things are happening in greater frequency these days. And it's made worse by the fact that we have fewer police on the street to deal with them.