Mail Online: I Grew up in America’s most violent small town

late 1970s pic of house

When people ask me where I grew up, I have a throwaway joke: ‘Pine Bluff, Arkansas—a town so rough that our pit bull got stolen.’Since I was a kid, Pine Bluff has been famous for all the wrong reasons. The headlines are grim: Most recently, it was named the second most dangerous metropolitan area in America after Detroit based on violent crime statistics such as murder, rape and kidnapping. Forbes.com ranked city the seventh most dangerous for women. Walking around gives you a one in 10 chance of being a victim of violent or property crime. It’s also home to an army installation that housed chemical weapons. An X-Files episode where Mulder and Scully are faced with a biological element that melts human skin is called ‘The Pine Bluff Variant’ after the Pine Bluff Arsenal. [. . .]

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