Not feeling safe at all. Living in the USA since 27 years and will be leaving for good shortly. I lived in Enumclaw for 4 years and in Port Orchard since 15 years. (The rest of the time I lived in Pullman, WA.) I don't recommend any foreigner to live in smallish rural town here. I can't speak for other parts of the USA. The Sheriff of Port Orchard recommended me to arm myself, which I did and I needed it.
I had 3 break-ins in 10 years, the police never showed, wouldn't even take a report. "Mail me the list with what's missing..' I had vandalism almost daily, from broken fence parts, to broken glass and rusty nails in wooden boards in my horse pasture, to smearing my house with food items (eggs and tomatoes) hundreds of stolen plants or orchard trees I planted were killed with bleach by neighbors. My mail disappears regularly, I had to take out a private mailbox. My old dog (Labrador) was sprayed with pepper spray more then once by a neighbor. I was told in both towns to 'pack up and go where I came from', or 'we don't like the German's around here' (I am Swiss.) Last year in May 4 people, 3 men, 1 women attempted to break in to my house at 3:00 am. The police never showed in 40 minutes. I got them to leave waving my gun in their face. Then an officer arrived and asked me if I had the names of these people. I responded they didn't show their drivers license. He said, 'then we don't have a case', 'no names, no case....!'. He also never filed a report. With the help of a friend I was able to get a report filed, a detective showed up since this group committed many hundreds of break-ins in this area. I did a photo line up, but then never heard again. Someone from Port Orchard broke into my bank account, also local, and made 23 purchases before I noticed. They ordered things to a PO Box in Port Orchard. I gave all the info to the police, including the PO Box number. 6 month later the officer called me and said 'what was that PO Box number again?' A bank teller stole $10,000 from my 401K account which was in a money market account, the police wouldn't even take the report. He said, 'nobody in this town has this much money on the account. This is too big for us.' I could go on and on, my list does not end here. Being cheated if I use local businesses, is just one of the smaller daily issues I have to deal with. Frankly, my friends from foreign countries, it feels more like a prison break getting out of this town, then moving away. I never feel anything in Seattle. There I am treated as any person. But beware of rural towns. I will leave the US for good and have no intention to ever return. I will also let my Green Card lapse.
