The figures are in:
DETROIT (AP) — [1] In another blow to the Motor City’s tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation’s most dangerous city, according to a private research group’s controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.
The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as “an irresponsible misuse” of crime data.
The 14th annual “City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America” was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI’s Sept. 24 crime statistics report.
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
Last year’s crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city, Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland.
The study ranked Mission Viejo, Calif., as the safest U.S. city, followed by Clarkstown, N.Y.; Brick Township, N.J.; Amherst, N.Y.; and Sugar Land, Texas.
10 most dangerous cities, indeed.
Ah, yes, Detroit…. “De riot” spelled sideways, kinda. Otherwise known as the “Mistake on the Lake”. Anyone who has been to that place of late, as I have been, will not be surpised. As it happens, I’ve got family (on both sides) who live there. Even here in Rochester, we’re within earshot of a few Detroit News/Talk stations (760/WJR and 950/WWJ, to name two) around here, and so I have a better local perspective than perhaps most of the readership does… and I get the impression the crime problem gets underplayed, even on the local media. If the locals were to get the whole of it, they’d be shell shocked in short order, I suppose.
That Detroit should holler isn’t a shock… anyone ending up in such a position is going to claim the numbers don’t really mean what they say, and complain that the people doing the study are liars, etc. (Most criminals claim they were framed, after all) If the whole of their crime problem were to come up on the national stage, the place would be walled off.
But here again, we come down to it, as we have in the past when such studies come out… What is the makeup of the population, and what are the political leanings of the people in those cities? I suggest a little study on your part of the cities in question, along those lines.
Let’s exemplify this with two sets of data:
Amherst, NY [2] for example.
As of the census [3]² [4] of 2000, there were 116,510 people, 45,076 households, and 29,885 families residing in the town. The population density [5] was 844.8/km² (2,188.1/sq mi). There were 46,803 housing units at an average density of 339.4/km² (879.0/sq mi). The racial makeup of the town was 89.28% White [6], 3.90% African American [7], 0.13% Native American [8], 5.22% Asian [9], 0.02% Pacific Islander [10], 0.37% from other races [11], and 1.09% from two or more races. Hispanic [12] or Latino [13] of any race were 1.36% of the population.
There were 45,076 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were married couples [14] living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.01.
Then we come to Detroit: [15]
As of 2000, the city of Detroit was 82.70% African American [16], 12.26% white [17], 0.33% Native American [8], 0.97% Asian [9] 0.03% Pacific Islander [10], 2.54% from other races [16], and 2.32% from two or more races. 4.96% of the population was Hispanic [18] or Latino [13] of any race. The city’s foreign-born population stood at 4.8%.
Come to your own conclusions…. but here’s a hint; this is not an educational issue. This is not a lack of government funding. This is not an issue of race. What we have here is a cultural issue, and by extension, a political one. Ask any of the occupants of the Detroit area how it has come to this, and you’ll hear about how it’s all the government’s fault for not doing enough. It’s all Whitey’s fault. Blame “The Man”. Ask those in the other cities that are doing well, about why they’re doing so well, and you’ll hear it’s because government stayed out of the way, except to punish crime, and ostricize the criminal instead of dealing with it like it was a social issue.