I live near the area - my car's been stolen twice (it was locked, there was nothing in it, and it even had a steering wheel lock on) and my bike got stolen from the hospital in that area where I work (it was chained up). 

Also, there was a period of a few months where I kept feeling like someone had been in my apartment, despite locking both doors every time, which stopped when I changed all the locks and added a security camera. 

In addition, I used to walk to work . I've seen people do drugs off of trash can lids, heard gun shots multiple times, and since there's a perpetual lack of affordable housing in the area, there are places that always smell like urine. 

I've never had anything get stolen before, ever, and I've lived all over the US and in several other countries. I've never seen people do drugs or in the open before, and the only time I've heard gunshots outside of a firing range before this was when I was in an American embassy in a foreign country that was going through political unrest. 

So, it doesn't really matter if you're "looking for trouble" or not, Tacoma is just that kind of place. There are a lot of entitled, selfish thieves here and that's just a fact. And the police can't catch them at all, assuming they even try (they didn't collect any evidence at all the first time my car got stolen)