jca@abnji.UUCP (james armstrong) (01/09/85)
Actually, it is rather amusing to hear people complain about crime in New York City when it is 10th in the United States in violent crime. Admittedly, it is still too high, but New York City is not the location of as high a murder rate as, say, Miami. Do you realize that you have a greater chance of being killed by a handgun in the United States than you do of being killed by terrorism in Northern Ireland? -- She dreams of 1969 Before the soldiers came When life was cheap on bread and wine And sharing meant no shame She is awakened by the screams Of rockets fired from nearby Yet still she wakes into a dream To beat the fear that she might die.
gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) (01/12/85)
> Do you realize that you have a greater chance of being killed by a handgun > in the United States than you do of being killed by terrorism in Northern > Ireland? No, I didn't realize it. In fact, depending on what you compare, it may not be true. In any case it's comparing apples and oranges. On one level, since I'm in the United States and will probably never visit Northern Ireland, the chances are very close to nil that I might be killed by terrorism in that country. On the other hand, since I live in a low-crime neighborhood, the chances are pretty small that I might be killed with a handgun in the U.S. Research shows that most homocide victims know their murderer, and I am not a member of a street gang, nor organized crime, nor do I have relatives with violent tendencies. Terrorism, on the other hand, is more random and not restricted to bad neighborhoods in cities. So if I were a middle-class resident of Northern Ireland, the chances could concievably be greater that I might be killed by terrorism. But for me, the chances of either are pretty slim. I grant you that general homocide rates in the U.S. are higher than terrorist-homicide rates in Northern Ireland. However, terrorism by itself is not a major cause of death, even in Middle Eastern countries. The reason that it gets so much press is that it represents political unrest, and that it means that a small, violent group of people have a highly disproportionate amount of political power. More importantly, homocide gets much more press than other causes of death. Suicide rates in almost all Western countries (including the U.S.) are higher than homocide rates, and there are more auto fatalities in the U.S. than there are homocides and suicides put together. For a student like me, THE most prevalent causes of death are, respectively, auto fatalities and suicides. In short, my answer to the hypothetical question, "Should you be more con- cerned with terrorism or homocides?" is "You probably shouldn't be overly concerned with either one." --- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk
geb@cadre.UUCP (01/12/85)
>Actually, it is rather amusing to hear people complain about crime in >New York City when it is 10th in the United States in violent crime. > Actually, it is amusing to hear people quote such statistics. I am originally from Albuquerque, and lived in Chicago for 8 years. Before I went to Chicago, there was a sensational story in the Albuquerque papers concerning the fact that Albuquerque's crime rate was one of the highest in the nation, including Chicago and NYC. Now certainly there is a lot of petty crime there, and a lot of burglery too, but mugging was unheard of, and in order to get shot or stabbed you had to frequent the wrong bars or the wrong peoples wives. After going to school in Chicago for 4 years, probably about a third of my medical school classmates had experienced personally some form of person-to-person crime, and several of them (out of a population of about 100) were injured. Several others had been present when one of their companions was shot or otherwise seriously injured. All my life in Albuquerque, I had never known anyone who had been mugged. So, the caveat is to ask what kind of crime? Another problem is much of the crime in NY and Chicago goes unreported, since the police have very little interest in it unless someone was killed or a bank was robbed. (Fortunately all I personally ever lost was in Chicago was my car radio. However I narrowly escaped a mugging when two large teenagers sprang out of the bushes while riding my bicycle on the lake front and chased me until I was able to outdistance them. I have also had my car broken into in NYC, on one of my few visits there.)
josh@topaz.ARPA (J Storrs Hall) (01/15/85)
> >Actually, it is rather amusing to hear people complain about crime in > >New York City when it is 10th in the United States in violent crime. > > > > Actually, it is amusing to hear people quote such statistics. > ... Another problem is much of the crime > in NY and Chicago goes unreported, since the police have very > little interest in it unless someone was killed or a bank was robbed. Friends who live in New York City tell me that you should always call the fire dept. (instead of the police) if someone is breaking into your apartment. At least someone will show up. NYC TV pundits have been decrying the public support for Goetz, claiming that "if everyone takes the law into his own hands, the result will be anarchy". Comparing the streets of New York to anarchy is an insult to anarchy. --JoSH
mr@hou2h.UUCP (M.RINDSBERG) (01/18/85)
> > >Actually, it is rather amusing to hear people complain about crime in > > >New York City when it is 10th in the United States in violent crime. > > > > > > > Actually, it is amusing to hear people quote such statistics. > > ... Another problem is much of the crime > > in NY and Chicago goes unreported, since the police have very > > little interest in it unless someone was killed or a bank was robbed. This is true, in NYC, many crimes are not ever reported since it is not worth the hassle, and, the criminal will never get to be prosecuted. The victim will spend more time and money than the criminal will. > > Friends who live in New York City tell me that you should always > call the fire dept. (instead of the police) if someone is breaking > into your apartment. At least someone will show up. Even better call the precinct directly and tell them that there is an officer in trouble. They will be there in two minutes flat. Mark
geb@cadre.UUCP (01/19/85)
In article <257@topaz.ARPA> josh@topaz.UUCP writes: > >Friends who live in New York City tell me that you should always >call the fire dept. (instead of the police) if someone is breaking >into your apartment. At least someone will show up. Yeah, but then they'll have you arrested for a false alarm!
gmm@bunker.UUCP (Gregory M. Mandas) (01/22/85)
[]
Reported on NEWS 4 New York last night:
Felony statistics for NY are:
500,000 Reported
90,000 Arrests
20,000 Trials
13,000 Convictions
(I missed the point as to if it were NY City Stats. or NY State Stats.
Regardless, one would expect the majority of these the State's Felonies
to come out of NYC.)
As far as New York City being number 10 on the crime list. Remember these
numbers are on a per/capita basis.
Point. What point? I just like to bring facts like these to light and
see what the net dose with them.
gmmdel@wuphys.UUCP (Dave de Lake) (01/25/85)
> [] > > Reported on NEWS 4 New York last night: > > Felony statistics for NY are: > > 500,000 Reported > 90,000 Arrests > 20,000 Trials > 13,000 Convictions > Point. What point? I just like to bring facts like these to light and > see what the net dose with them. > i.e. At least 1,000,000 victims probably; one of whom uses an illegal weapon and causes people to say that this is horrifying and uncivilized. Most of these people would probably not say that 500,000, 13,000 and such indicates anything about civilization. Strange??? Dave @Compton Sanitarium