That story is not at <i>all</i> representative of the rural US in general.<p>Rural Alaska is a very, very different place with a different population and a different culture where survival and resources are a real, daily concern.<p>Most of the rural US has easy access to running water (parts of the West may be an exception) via a well, and real law enforcement is plentiful. Which is not to say county sheriffs aren&#x27;t mostly crooked, but it&#x27;s generally a genteel crookedness as opposed to &quot;yeah rape is OK&quot; crookedness.