It was a bad — although in reality it could also be considered a good — ending to a generational celebration of community in the form of Manteca High football.

The multiple gunshots Friday did mar the celebratory evening not of just a century of Buffalo football but of people working together and sharing the ups and downs of life centered around a common interest whether they were part of it in 1926 and are now long gone or are have just become part of a tradition that helps bring people together.

The altercation between three teens outside the Manteca High stadium that brought an abrupt end to the football game when one of the participants opted to fire a gun into the air was not good.

It was good, however, in that no one was injured.

No, the world has not gotten more dangerous.

But we do either have short-term and selective memories or lived part of our lives sans social media and instant communication where ignorance was truly bliss.

As for those weaned on social media, they have never known a world where bad acts are always amplified a million times over when compared to the more overwhelming prevalent good gestures. It’s the reason why social media is so dominate as it plays human emotions like a fiddle.

The world has always been a dangerous place since before the dawn of civilization.

And it always will be a dangerous place given the proverbial genie was never in the bottle.

That said, it has become less dangerous as Manteca grows.

Go back 35 years when the Taco Bell directly across Yosemite Avenue from the Manteca High office was ground zero for affiliated gangs from Modesto and Stockton to gather, especially on Saturday nights.

It was back when community leaders channeled ostriches because that is what the people who elected them wanted.

After all, Manteca was “immune” from such problems, an attitude unfortunately parroted to a large degree today by some smaller nearby communities.

It was an unfortunate stance because ignoring such problems by pretending they don’t exist only makes it tougher for law enforcement and others to do their jobs as well as the community to effectively contain it as much as possible.

Twenty-two years ago this summer, gun shots that almost always thankfully missed human targets were happening virtually every other night for months in Manteca.

They rang out in neighborhoods north Manteca, near Southside Park, and even new neighborhoods south of the 120 Bypass. Gun play between gangs even happened in commercial areas on Main Street.

So, what happened?

Four things.

uDeniers took off their tinted Manteca is Mayberry RFD (rural free delivery) glasses.

uManteca voters adopted the half cent Measure M Public Safety Sales Tax to augment the frontline ranks of police and fire.

uThe community stepped up by rolling out new programs aimed at giving kids an alternative to the life of gangs.

uAnd — it may not be politically correct today — but police worked with terrified Southside residents to ID a gang kingpin who was removed with the help of Border Patrol agents given he was illegally in the country in addition to running a drug ring. (By the way, homegrown thugs back then and today, far outnumbered those here illegally.)

What didn’t change were the small but vocal group of Manteca haters who kept dumping on the city despite things changing for the better. They even whined non-stop about the need to repeal the half cent sales tax despite the fact the 18 additional police officers it made possible allowed the city to push the crime rate down significantly.

Friday night’s gun shooting incident wasn’t a complete abbreviation. On a typical month, Manteca Police handles one such incident that isn’t rooted in domestic violence.

That said, it is far from being the norm.

But it you long for the good old days — such as the summer of 2004 in Manteca — then step up political assaults on Measure Q that has made sure police don’t have to double up in patrol units because cars won’t start or firefighters have to worry about a fire engine “dying” on the way to a medical emergency at El Rancho Mobile Home Park.

Better yet, try to derail the long-needed $92 million police station that some dismiss as a colossal waste of tax dollars.

And while you’ll at it, put the police at a bigger disadvantage by taking away tech tools they use responsibly to catch people who commit crimes and who are only all too eager to commit more.

For even better results aimed at bringing back the good old days, maybe restrict each officer to one bullet that they have to carry in their pocket.

Sounds a bit absurd.

No more so than the gibberish Manteca is a crime ridden dump and assertions that Friday’s night incident underscores their myopic view of the world.

They say speed kills.

But so does stupidity when it comes to how we whine about legitimate public safety expenditures then turn around and howl when crime occurs.