What's happening in urban Denver? (From June 27th)

I just found out that my neighbor's cat, that I gave to him, was set on fire this morning while in his back alley. I can't even begin to describe how pissed and horrified I am right now. But it's just another incident in a very disheartening couple of weeks.June 15th an apparent gang-banger shot another gang-banger on 35th and Marion (less than a block away from my house).Two days later, I was sitting on my front porch when a thuggish-looking kid walking by threatened to shoot me (posturing as if he had a gun in his back belt) because my dog barked at him once.Then, last Friday, an 8 year-old girl got caught in the cross-fire of an apparent drug and/or gang-related shooting in Curtis Park. (The shooter, Daniel Lujan, gave a downright ridiculous apology: "I never meant to hit that little girl." Not to be confused with apologizing for being a little gang-banger punk up to no good and shooting his gun at the intended target at a public park.) He put himself and his family in jeopardy by being involved in drugs and/or gangs, otherwise he wouldn't have had to fire his gun in "self defense."Then, Early Sunday morning, there was another shooting in LoDo, where a guy involved in some sort of gunfight turned a shotgun on cops--Then, when he got shot by police, his buddy picked up the shotgun and took up where he left off. Of course, even though both the guys shot had criminal records (and were shooting at cops with a shotgun they had in their position in downtown Denver) one of their family members is pointing the finger at police for their death. Get frickin' real people.But it's all OK--Our impotent mayor Chickenlooper called the Denver media together to grandstand about how "violence won't be tolerated in Denver." Our cops are great, and are doing the best they can with what they have, but it's not working Mr. Mayor. We need help, or the city is going to spiral out of control.It's clearly going to be a very busy and deadly summer in metro Denver. (Though it's not just Denver, did you hear about the unbelievable drug-related shootout in Phoenix recently?)What do most of these incidents have in common (and the one in Phoenix)? Drug and Gang connections; and in many of them, illegal immigrants. What is Chickenlooper, the state government, or Jorge Bush, Juan McCain, or Nobama prepared to do about the pervasive gang problem in Denver and across the country?Or, in a more basic sense, What the hell is wrong with these people?Two houses on our block just got flipped and have new, responsible residents moving in. I see joggers, cyclists, and people walking their dogs more and more every week. Cole, Whittier, and Curtis Park have all been voted as "the next hot Denver neighborhoods". And, Chickenlooper is proud to point out that crime is down in Denver.But I've never been more concerned about the current state of our neighborhood's safety and crime situation.