We'll beat you next year, Doc!

[Harry]

Count on it! :ballbuster:

2008 Most Dangerous Cities/Metros

http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime2008/citycrime2008.htm

The CQ Press released their annual list of the country’s most dangerous cities and metropolitan areas:

Most dangerous metropolitan areas:
1. Pine Bluff, Arkansas
2. Memphis, Tennessee
3. New Orleans, Louisiana
4. Las Vegas - Paradise, Nevada
5. Sumter, South Carolina
6. Florence, South Carolina
7. Miami-Dade County, Florida
8. Lawton, Oklahoma
9. Saginaw, Michigan
10. Little Rock, Arkansas
11. Jackson, Tennessee
12. Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana
13. Oakland-Fremont, California
14. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
15. Brunswick, Georgia
16. Battle Creek, Michigan
17. Stockton, California
18. Flint, Michigan
19. Amarillo, Texas
20. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
21. Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina
22. Orlando, Florida
23. Anchorage, Alaska
24. Texarkana, Texas/Arkanasas
25. San Francisco, California

[shiningbrow]

Wow. You win. And people get mugged two blocks away while just walking the dog. I suspect you are in a relatively safe part of Memphis? Things should be safe here, but criminals travel to my neighborhood because it's nice and there are easy marks like yuppies on the way to the BART with their laptops.

[Harry]

When I tell cops where I live, they go "ooh". I don't think it's so bad, but most everyone else does. At least I haven't been shot at here. Not since last year at least. Last apartment I lived at in Memphis, I was glad to be behind a concrete brick porch. The neighborhoods here are real mixed. That tends to toss visitors and tourists for a loop. I spent the last ten years working in what is one of the best parts of town, but the crime there made folks from cities like Chicago or New York blanch.

[Ergeheilalt]

I'm a little gobsmacked that Oakland to Fremont is considered one big area. I would think there are enough gaps and holes in the Hayward/Union City area that they'd be two separate entities.

[Harry]

Heck, I'm a little gobsmacked that someone thinks Pine Bluff has a "metro area".

[shiningbrow]

The southern and eastern parts of Oakland are the poorest and most crime ridden. From the southern extremities (San Leandro) down to Fremont/Union City area is generally pretty awful. Richmond, north of here is even worse, with drive by shootings and gang rapes. I'm surprised it didn't even make the list.

I do remember the saga of Harry's car being shot. For some reason, the fact that this was a crime related incident didn't register with me. There was a home invasion across the street last year, in which some drug addled guy burst through a door when a young woman was home alone and hiding in her room. She was frightened but not really harmed in any way. The guy grabbed a laptop off the dining room table and left, but the police didn't know the guy was gone for a couple of hours. We saw a bunch of Oakland cops hunched down behind parked cars out in the street and the woman in the house next door called to explain that she and her young son were hunkered down in the bathtub. Eventually they figured out that the guy had gone and one of the neighbors helped board up the damaged door. There are alot of poor and desperate people out there.