Yes, I know. I even said that. You are still stuck on the macro scale. Start breaking it down into who the violence affects and you might see what I mean. But hey, why bother? Sociology is so boring. Just take a stroll up Benning Road tonight looking for some new friends. Ask the first five guys you see for some candy, and don't forget to mention that you followed the pixie dust there, hehe.
Here is a clue or two -- violence here is largely carnivorous. Also, pride is importnt here and no glory comes from threatening women in the local culture. Perhaps for this reason among others, there is a movement here to make domestic violence unacceptable. In my view, increased DV reporting and better followup does fuel those statistics. On a similar note, do those statistics include vehicular homicide while intoxicated, the state pastime it sometimes seems, but not usually of concern off the interstate? Albuquerque does not have an inner city in the east coast sense of the word. There is also no underclass in the east coast sense of the word. We have illegal immigrants and urban indians, but the former are more concerned with work than crime and even the most troubled members of the latter are not usually violent. Now, if you are young and male you probably would perceive a problem with violence. particularly in certain neighborhoods and if you dress a certain way. I am not certain whether your ethnicity would matter, not close enough to the problem to be sure. It might be more so if you were identifiably mexican or a member of a rival gang. I can tell you that I will leave here (the heart of downtown) at close to midnight when there will be almost nobody around and will walk three blocks to my car with absolutely no thought that some thing bad might happen. At worst a drunk will ask me for a cigarette and I will tell him that I do not smoke. The local hispanic culture here is very very old and often very affluent. There is no animus here for whitey and definitely not violent anger. Minorities (well, majority in the case of local Hispanic New Mexicans) go about their business and are not out looking for people to rob. Both Native Americans and New Mexicans have a tradition of pride in family and in children, and an extended family structure that can step in when a parent and/or child needs help financially or with child care so there are few reasons to need to resort to violence. One crime problem we *do* have is meth but that tends to be rural for the sake of secrecy. When it causes violence it tends to be over business deals gone wrong, and not take the form of people stealing to buy drugs (usually). It is also a feature of the anglo biker community especially, and there too the violence is usually inwardly directed. We do have tweakers and addicts, especially along Central, but in well-defined areas far from the business district and the tourist areas. DC on the other hand, well let's see. For the sake of being done with this tonight not next week, I will limit the discussion to the populations that make me caution people to be careful on Capitol hill at night, and to exercise caution in the areas around downtown. There is a healthy black middle class in DC, quite a few federal and city workers, but they don't live in the Shaw usually, nor at Eastern Market. They tend to be on upper 16th street, in the Takoma and Ivory Coast areas and in some parts of far Southeast, like Marion Barry for example. I know they are there, for the record, since someone will surely point this out to me if I don't detour for that preface. But I am talking about another DC, the one where fourth-generation baby mamas smoke crack in the projects and the teenaged boys who hang out on the corners might in another city, in another school or even family might have been recognized as dually exceptional but in DC were not because their parents were too poorly educated themselves or burdened with worry about rent and food stamps to see it and their teachers were too overworked and often shell-shocked. DC most certainly has an underclass, entrenched and multi-generational, and some of the places its members live are within walking distance of downtown and Capitol Hill. Here are some of the poorest people in North America cheek by cheek with some of the richest, some of the most powerless with some of the most powerful. The smarter members of the population are well aware of the very real inequities and of how disparate their possibilities are if they are a product of the public schools, and even more disparate when they are its rejects, the one smart enough and energetic enough to resist institutionalization. The infrastructure is crumbling, and the housing projects are particularly toxic. Outside of the better neighborhoods the housing is old and lead poisoning endemic. The government was corrupt for decades, and assuming this mayor is better, the best jobs are still out by the beltway, hours away by bus. Come on, the place is well past white flight and well into black flight. Let's see, religious values? To some extent and in some neighborhoods in DC. Very strong here in New Mexico, except in the Anglo community, interestingly. Social status? Readily available to hispanics, and native americans have their own criteria for it. Education? Freely available here, in DC -- not, except at expensive private university not likely attainable by graduates of DC public school. Medical care is accessible here, while DC has a few overworked private clinics. Let's not start on voting rights, either -- it's not a direct factor in crime but I am sure it fuels the sense of grievance to some extent at least. How do you feel you have a stake if you are not even enough of a citizen to vote? Black male teenagers in DC do not think they will live to be twenty five, often with good reason. Teenagers here speak confidently about running for office or joining law firms :) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072202795.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042600631.html I really shouldn't have bothered to write all this up as I honestly did not have the time for it and on the whole the dangers of making statements about class or culture or race far outweigh the benefits. I know better than to think you even read responses to your posts let alone consider their content. Hell, you don't read your own sources. You really are just spouting statistics in an attempt to baffle people with bullshit; the worst sort of politically correct freaking pseudo-intellectual bien pensant. As usual, youare sure your bourgeois platitudes and conventional wisdom are correct and that any available statistics must back you up. Does the fact that Robert of all people says the same thing not give your pause? Dude, he and I agree on hardly anything; why would we manifest the same delusions? Horatio, I feel the need to tell you that the world is much more complex than you imagine. And who knows, there might be an insight here in spelling this out, for me if nobody else. I spoke of despair and desperation and you spoke of crime rates. I spoke of danger and you pulled out the census. That shows the limitations of your world view. To put it in terms that might get through to you, you are attempting quantitative analysis of a qualitative statement. I don't dispute that there is crime in New Mexico, never have. It's not of the same sort of opportunistic type though, I don't think. Around here the criminals become state treasurer and get kickbacks and demand pay-to-play. They have no need for street robbery :) Kids in DC though, a lot of them have nothing left to lose. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/28/opinion/main1845610.shtml On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 7:30 PM, Larry Lyons <larrycly...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Here's another way to look at the data, from 2006. This is a ranking of 300 > MSA's in the US and violent crime rate per 100,000. > http://www.crimetrends.com/id4.html > > location rate per 100,000 ranking > Albuquerque, NM M.S.A. 777.8 32 > Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, 478.2 119 > DC-VA-MD-WV M.S.A > > Shall I continue? > > > > > Nope, you're wrong. The Albuquerque MSA has a higher violent crime > > rate than the Washington DC MSA according to the 2007 FBI crime > > statistics, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_06.html. The DC > > rate only greater when a much wider statistical sampling region is > > included. Then the rate goes up, but the size of the region > > (population wise) becomes much, much larger, and the geographic region > > expands to include the Baltimore area. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:301461 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
