Crime

[Deleted]

The topic of crime where I live is big,we have a really high crime rate here. Burglaries,drive by shootings,being fairly common in and around a twenty block area of where we live.
Having just been away on holiday in a place (Miami Beach) where there is also a pretty high crime rate,I am examining more closely my attitude about this and how it effects me or I allow for it to effect me. Closer to home,people I know,who are directly affected by this personally of course, drives it in my psyche pretty deep.Yet,I love where I live,take reasonable precautions,use common sense most of the time,and feel relatively safe. Loved ones who don't live here and are aware of the crime rate,of course feel differently and wonder why and how I live where I do. I am forced to get defensive about it sometimes and resort to downplaying what is really hard core reality.
I grew up in a really,really low crime village/town. I vividly recall the first time I heard the word MURDER used at the dining room table and was intrigued beyond belief because it was so foreign and unfathomable to me and wanted to know more. (A wealthy socialite was murdered in her summer home and of course the gossip surrounding it among the adults in my world was intriguing enough. The crime was never solved btw... ,a real whodunit.)
I take the local hometown weekly newspaper and read aloud the police blotter to my husband, and we laugh at what is considered crime there (mailboxes vandalized,shoplifting, crank phone calls...)
What's the crime rate where you live...is it a major issue for you? Would love to hear some thoughts on this...

[fumobici]

I never, ever worry about crime where I live. It's one of the nice things about living here.

[onlymark]

Crime here is minimal in comparison. There are numerous security guards on my estate but in general there is very little.

[Deleted]

Paris has a lot of burglaries but not much violent crime compared to a lot of parts of the world. Murder is quite rare if you are not in a gangster profession or subject to "crimes of passion"; in other words, almost nobody is killed by a complete stranger.

[tillystar]

London has the usual big city crime: muggings, pickpocketing, card cloning. I just keep safe and sensible, cover my numbers when taking out money and avoid obvious hotspots late at night. It doesn’t worry me.

Burglaries are decreasing apparently as there isn’t much profit in it - no one wants second hand electrical goods anymore, not when the prices are so low and there is always something new and improved.

There is a really high rate of teenage knife crime in London, they seem to drop like flies. One every couple of weeks, some who are not involved in the violence and are just on the wrong bus at the wrong time, or standing in the wrong queue in the wrong trainers.

It worries me terribly for my nephew who is going to be in his teens in a few years and I hope to be out of London when my little girl is older.

[Deleted]

I know I felt safer in NYC then any other urban place I've ever lived. There,the people who lived in my immediate neighborhood all watched out for one another. I could walk to an all night Deli very late at night and felt no threat whatsoever.I was on the fringe of Spanish Harlem,a pretty rough area,go to a bar,if someone even came close to bothering me,the bartender,a tiny woman named "Minnie,"would fend off anyone remotely menacing. Sometimes,she would see to it that I was escorted home.

[bjd]

I have a friend who grew up in the Bronx. He moved to Los Angeles after he finished medical school and said he felt much less safe there.

Crime in French cities seems to be growing, but it's rather the stupid, pointless crime: in Grenoble, a guy being knifed because his girlfriend didn't have any cigarettes when some guys asked her; in Toulouse, muggings and fights, and lots of stealing. But the French burglary/stealing rate has always been comparatively high, according to some statistics I saw.

[bixaorellana]

I read the OP last night, right after Casimira posted, but didn't want to reply immediately because of my ambivalent feelings about New Orleans. If I were able to live anywhere I wished, New Orleans would be on the list because it's such a fantastic city. However, I don't know that I would live there, specifically because of the crime. Having to be conscious of crime means that you've already been robbed of being able to take walks at night, of leaving your house doors open when you're home, and of simply living without having to be vigilant at all times.

To answer the OP: the crime level where I live is nil, there simply isn't any. However, I live in a rural area. In the city of Oaxaca, there are some areas to be avoided at night, and a couple of streets where I've been told not to walk even in daytime. However, that's to avoid purse-snatching, not more violent crime.

Read #1 here for insight into how this city operates. I can't imagine that most cities in the world would continue to function nicely with no police whatsoever.

People who live in the US might be interested in this: www.neighborhoodscout.com/
If you live in a larger town or city, try putting neighborhoodscoutyourtown into google. Your city may have a neighborhoodscout account, & you'll get more information than you would using the home site.

Casimira, I already looked up where you live: www.neighborhoodscout.com/la/new-orleans/crime/

[Deleted]

I scoped it out Bixa,thanks. But, I didn't look at the real detailed part yet...having a weird day as it is...
We get neighborhood updates from our Neighborhood organization,in a fairly timely fashion. There's some controversy regarding whether or not the NOPD reports are accurate or not...always has been questionable what they want us to know or not...politics as usual.

[cigalechanta]

we have a section of Boston(where tourists never go) that there are alot of shootings by black teen age gangs.

[Deleted]

Jun 25, 2010 21:44:54 GMT cigalechanta said:

we have a section of Boston(where tourists never go) that there are alot of shootings by black teen age gangs.

When I lived in Boston in the 1970's Roxbury was the high crime part of town. Is this what you're referring to Cigalechanta???

[cigalechanta]

Now it's Dorchester!

[auntieannie]

It seems Devon is the safest county to live in within England.

I live in a small city, just around the corner from a rather grotty area, but feel safe anyway.

There is crime in town, mostly alcohol-related (somebody wearing the wrong football shirt colour in town can easily find themselves beaten up for no other reason) and from time to time a serial pesterer of ladies/tentative-rapist will surface. Thankfully usually caught after a few scares and then the town can sleep quietly for another few years.

I haven't had to defend myself, but found my rather tall and solid-looking boyfriend early on after my move from Switzerland. I rarely go out at night and don't get drunk anyway... which does cut the amount of crime I am exposed to.

The nearest big city is Bristol and there it is slightly different. A bit like London.

As for burglaries, my cousin was burgled twice in Geneva, where it was totally clear that the burglars were after cash, jewellery and other easily sellable items. It also seemed to me that they were trying to avoid finding anyone at home. Which was a relief as it had seemed for a while a few years earlier that burglars didn't mean getting violent with people annoyingly living on the premises of the property they were targetting.
Geneva, with its fluid border with nearby France does attract more crime than other places. A friend of mine living a few metres from said border can attest of this reality, unfortunately. Her house also got burgled.

[Deleted]

Some of my neighbors were burgled (by small time junkies), but even though I am living in the classic "target" (last flat on last floor), no one has ever touched my place. I am also the only owner without an armored door, but my door has three big keyholes in it and gives the illusion of being reinforced.

[bixaorellana]

I don't know about now, but when I lived in New Orleans it had gotten fairly common for robbers to not care whether people were home or not, as the robbers were armed. That kind of thing engenders a sort of constant paranoia.

Interesting point, Tilly, about stolen stuff not being worth it to burglars anymore!

Kerouac, I didn't know that location would be a classic target. As a matter of fact, I'd think it would be just the opposite, since a thief would have to penetrate so far into the building to get there, thus would have more chance of getting caught.

[bjd]

In buildings with no elevators, like many old ones in Paris, breaking into a top-floor apartment means that fewer people might go by since they stop at their own floor.

As far as people being home goes -- the neighbour across the street has an annoying yappy dog who thinks the entire (short) street is his territory and barks at anyone going through, and even people who live here. But he is not as efficient in his house. His owner told me a few weeks ago that they had been burgled 4 times in the past few years, and each time the dog was at home, as were his owners, but didn't bark.

[bixaorellana]

I wonder if the dog did bark, but that his clueless owners have long since spaced out his yapping & simply didn't hear him.

My dog makes me feel safe because he's not all that motivated to bark, but will do so if anyone approaches his house.

[Deleted]

Yes, the most unsafe I ever felt living here was the year after one of my dogs died and we didn't get another one until a year later. With my husband off on trips, I was so spooked here alone,although, my neighbors dog is a really good watch dog. I know when someone is not supposed to be out there with this dog.And yet, he knows my friends,I can tell by his bark if it's someone I know.Very ,very comforting to me.