Parenting or BINGO??

The other day the little girl from down the street was over. Her name is Brittney, she's 11 and she's a real sweatheart. A little hyper, but she really looks up to me and comes over on a regular basis. Until this past week I thought it was just something for her to do. When she was over the other night she called her mother (whom I've never met before) and told her I'm at Laura's house and I'll be home at 8, her mother asked to speak to me which I thought was the least she should do considering we've never met. Instead her mother said and I quote "I'm playing TV bingo and it's not over until 9 so I'd really appreciate it if she stayed till then"
I was dumbfounded. Literally speechless. Which as most people know doesn't happen often. I am not a parent, but I am an older sister, and an aunt and I know how protective I am with my sister, brother and neice. I could imagine how protective I'd be of my own child..
At any rate, I took Brittney shopping with me for an hour or so, when we got home we took both the dogs for a walk on the way to taking her home. Well I didn't know that at the end of our street it is litterally "getto-ville" I'm not saying that to sound mean, or sterotype, but it was after 9pm, on a school night and the townhouse complex was full of children from ages 8 to 15 "hanging" out, I triped over two making out in the park on the ground, I almost got ran over by some others on bikes, there were children in the pj's playing in the park, on the walks and I was floored at how many children there were literally on the streets.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but this bothers me.
First of all, what parent in their right mind allows thier child to go to some strangers house? They don't know me, they don't know what kind of a person I am, or what I'm capable of. What kind of parent allows their child to be out late at night (after dark) in an area that is obviously full of crime and drugs and that scares me to be honest after dark? What kind of parent would rather play bingo then spend time with thier child and send that child away to a strangers house?
As I was walking Brittney to her door, cops showed up again. The past week we've seen police cruisers down the end of the street every night, sometimes 2 sometimes 4. This night there was just the van and two officers. Brittney's mother who I thought I would be meeting, quickly came outside yelling at the little girl to get inside right away that she didn't need to know what was happening and she didn't need to see what was about to happen.
I didn't stick around myself to see what was going to happen, I actually called Scott and asked him to start walking down the street to meet me.
I don't know how some of these people are allowed to have children, I don't know why you don't require a license for parenting...
All I know is I think about this little girl, and I worry about her. I worry about her future and what kind of girl she's going to grow up to be with the non-guidence she is getting from her mother. I wonder how this little girl is going to survive in a world full or pressure and hard choices. I wonder where this little girl will turn for answers to questions she is going to have. And more then anything I fear this little girl.