Rape, drugs, murder, theft and gangs are all a part of any major city, except Joplin.

It seems everywhere I go I’m seeing another “cosmetic thug.” By “cosmetic thug” I mean those who do not know the streets and act tough out of utter foolishness.

As a former San Diegan, I have seen the girl next door get raped, and no one care about it.

I have turned on the television every morning and watched the regular car chases aired.

I have seen the drug runners and the drug users. I have fought and been the thief.

Here, a few bank robberies occur and all of a sudden there is panic that the streets are unsafe. One murder causes sudden excitement in the local media and police department. Though all of these happenings are serious, Joplin knows nothing of the true crimes of the world.

Because of this isolation, some think it’s acceptable to mock and imitate gang members. When someone tells a story of being robbed at gunpoint, someone in the group is going to say, “Oh, I would have got him before he got me.”

Yes, it is possible to get them before they get you, but how many people can actually keep a cool head when looking down the barrel of a Magnum, especially from most of a community which has little, if no experience in this type of situation?

A “bad boy” in Joplin is an oxymoron. These “wanna-be” Joplinites have nothing to be “bad” about.

Joplin has clean walls, not the graffiti native to most cities. Joplin has great people, not the back-stabbers of San Diego. Where Joplin has Sunday drivers, California has California drivers.

Many of my Friday and Saturday nights here include enough challenging looks to make me actually want to give them a reason to look at me that way. Think constipation mixed in with a little heartburn and you will have an image of said lookers. From my experience, macho is bull. Macho can do nothing but precipitate stupidity and destructive behavior to the highest degree.

Joplin has its posers in spades. Somebody will tail you, wanting to start something, and you can almost guarantee if you pull over and get in his face he will back off. I have heard stories of fights breaking out over things as simple as someone cutting someone else off in traffic. Where a simple “finger” would do the job, the offended driver resorted to violence. Other examples I have heard of are of turf wars starting because of the school someone goes to.

What I feel most Joplinites do not realize is most gang members only fight to defend their territory, interests or family. Many Joplin juveniles feel the need to fight just to get attention.

Not only do I get the challenging looks, I see those who try to look gang affiliated. What most Missourians do not realize is that “the clothing does not make the man, the man makes the clothing.” Go to any major city with a reputation dressed as a gangster and you better have the muscle to prove you are.

I can understand it may be the style of the day, but to a former San Diegan, I can’t help but laugh at some of the clothes I see people wearing. Some take it too far by tilting hats every which way, raising a pant leg for no reason, and folding bandanas in some of the more stupid ways I have seen.

When I moved to Joplin, I thought I was getting away from all the machismo, not entering America’s libido.

So for those “cosmetic thugs” driving a tricked out Cadillac or Civic on a Saturday night and you pull up by my car, engine roaring and music blasting, wanting to race, do not bother. I drive a Ford Escort.