Look around you

Legion's Fate has a good post up on what is, at its core, competition for resources.

I don't live in Stafford, but I spend a lot of time there, and the amount of panhandlers and homeless camps here and in surrounding counties [...] has spiked dramatically. The cops have been arresting them right and left, and my guess is because they've been getting more aggressive, but I can't confirm that.

 I haven't looked at hard numbers - the UCR is out there for someone who wants to do the crunching - but from where I sit, violent crimes (robbery in particular, but also assault and assaults labeled as harassment*), property crimes (larcenies, burglaries, and criminal mischief), and fraud (especially counterfeiting) have been steadily increasing over the last few years.

When I started doing this, a robbery (that is, the taking or attempted taking of property by force or threat thereof) was Big Doings. It's become a nigh-weekly event at this point. Burglaries were not commonplace (except in student housing during vacations, but that's another story) - now they seem to be happening several times per week.

Your local police agencies may have a blotter available online; I know mine does. It's worth a skim on a regular basis to see what's going on in your town, and just how much doesn't make the local news-rag.

Look around you. The economy is in the tank and the government is scrambling to keep the curtain closed around the man in the corner. These problems are not going away. The mindset of, "They owe me X" is pervasive, invasive, and contagious.

* - I make a distinction here because "harassment" is not a UCR-reported crime; "aggravated assault" is. It is a well-known way for police departments to juggle numbers to make the violent crime rate look much lower than it actually is.