>we don't have violent criminal gangs, almost at all.
On the contrary, we have plenty of violent crime clans (mostly gypsy), they just don't use firearms but have no issue threatening you and your family or beating you into submission with melee weapons or bare hands/feet if you stand in the way of their (mostly) illegal activities while the local police, even when they're not on their payroll, are toothless thanks to the poorly defined laws and they can't, or simply can't be bothered to take much action against them unless they commit some extremely violent acts that get lots of media coverage for which higher levels of government are called for accountability.
On the contrary, we have plenty of violent crime clans (mostly gypsy), they just don't use firearms but have no issue threatening you and your family or beating you into submission with melee weapons or bare hands/feet if you stand in the way of their (mostly) illegal activities while the local police, even when they're not on their payroll, are toothless thanks to the poorly defined laws and they can't, or simply can't be bothered to take much action against them unless they commit some extremely violent acts that get lots of media coverage for which higher levels of government are called for accountability.
My $0.02