Out east, there's a suburb with a very high percentage of former career FBI and former military officers. I forget even which state it's in, but it's near D.C. Because retirement benefits are fairly generous, and many are married to private-sector professionals, it's a fairly wealthy neighborhood too. No crime problem though. The reason: criminals hope to get old and retire someday too. And they know that robbing that neighborhood is not the way to get old.

Columbia, MD

I like Rambix a lot -- thanks for the pointer. (And not just because he linked to me; I was impressed by his research/writing before I saw that.)

On the other hand, he may be wrong about this being part of the Somali gang picture; the three folks arrested (presumably for this) don't have Somali names. If so (and that's not by any means certain) that's okay -- reporters are legitimately entitled to be wrong.

Joel - I posted an update that addresses your concern.

I'm not surprised -- and am sure you would have without me pointing it out. You do very good work.