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I'm Canadian who live in Kitchener Waterloo (a large metro city) and I have never experienced crime. I leave all my doors unlocked and sometimes in the summer leave them wide open. I have never heard gun shots or have heard of shooting
g in my city. Crime here is exceedingly low if not virtually unheard of and there is no such thing as a "ghetto" (even in Toronto) as every area is safe at all hours of the day. There are no muggings, car jackings , home invasions or drive by shootings like the states.
Its really not. 90% of people have never heard gunshots or been mugged or had their home invaded. Its just that many cities have dangerous areas that are really poor and those areas skew the statistics as most crime happens there.
It's more like over 99% of Americans have never been mugged or had their home invaded. The vast majority of violent crime in this country is between people who know each other and often are involved in crime together, such as drug dealers. If you're not involved with criminals your risk of being a victim of a crime is not much higher in the U.S. than in Canada.
And before people jump in with "well what about the innocent bystanders who get killed by a stray bullet from a fight between drug dealers".... that's terrible when that happens but it innocent bystanders are still a small minority of violent crime victims.
It's just that shocking crime incidents get widely reported people and pay more attention to headlines than they do to statistics. That leads to foreigners and even many Americans to falsely believe that everyone in cities like Chicago is constantly dodging bullets or cowering in fear of burglars.
I've noticed a lot of people worry so much about crime and terrorism even though those are tiny risks. Statistically speaking they should be a lot more concerned about car accidents or tripping and falling in the shower.
Last edited by stateofnature; 05-05-2015 at 01:10 PM..
The United States has a very long history of discrimination, marginalization, and disenfranchisement of racial and ethnic minority groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native-Americans among others, resulting in high levels of poverty and crime among these groups.
Many of these groups are often relegated to poverty-stricken urban and rural areas, where services such as public safety in addition to quality public education, jobs, and healthcare are limited and underfunded, leading to low literacy and educational attainment rates, high unemployment, poor health, and police forces that must direct more of their time, money and efforts towards fighting crime as opposed to preventing it.
This cycle of poverty is only exacerbated by historic, now more tongue-in-cheek practices of redlining, employment discrimination, and others that lead many members of disenfranchised racial and ethnic minority groups to turn to a life of crime (à la gang violence) or simply fighting for survival to meet their basic needs, up to and including personal safety.
That's not to mention that the US borders a third-world country, Mexico. Last I checked, the US is the only developed country in the world that borders an emerging country. Aside from the wealthy coastal enclave of San Diego County in Southern California, most counties along the US/Mexican border are among the poorest and, in some cases, most dangerous counties in the US. The list of poorest and/or most dangerous US counties is often rounded out by those located primarily within Native American reservations or in areas of the Deep South with high black populations.
Although Canada has some history of racism and social exclusion, it's nowhere near as severe as that of the United States', largely due to fewer disenfranchised groups whose numbers constitute a much, much lower percentage of the overall population. This means that Canada's population is healthier, wealthier, and better educated than the population of US, overall, and as we know, those that fall into one or more of those categories are more likely to have their basic needs met and, in turn, are much less predisposed to commit crime.
Also, Canada is more of a socialist nation than the US, which is much more of a capitalist society. IMO, socialism tends to foster more national, community, and personal accountability and responsibility than capitalism, which is more of an "every man for himself"-type of dogma.
In a nutshell, that's the reason why Canada and other Anglophone countries such as Australia and New Zealand are much safer, overall, than the United States.
I think what u see on TV is not always accurate, OP.
I live in America and have also never heard gunshots or experienced crime personally. I've never been robbed, stabbed, shot, scammed, etc...
I also live in what is arguably one of America's more dangerous cities (Miami.) Yet, still...haven't come across any drive-bys or robberies....or shootings for that matter.
Not saying the US is more safe than Canada, but rather I reckon 90 to 95% of Americans dont experience much if any crime on a daily basis.
I'm Canadian who live in Kitchener Waterloo (a large metro city) and I have never experienced crime. I leave all my doors unlocked and sometimes in the summer leave them wide open. I have never heard gun shots or have heard of shooting
g in my city. Crime here is exceedingly low if not virtually unheard of and there is no such thing as a "ghetto" (even in Toronto) as every area is safe at all hours of the day. There are no muggings, car jackings , home invasions or drive by shootings like the states.
I'd like to know why the states is so violent?
Actually, there's some pretty serious crime going on in Toronto:
But back to the states - I often leave my doors unlocked. The only time my house was ever broken into was when I lived in Japan - by a Japanese guy, of all things.
The only gun shots I hear are from the shooting range across town. Sometimes I make those sounds myself.
We have no ghettos in my city. There is an area of town that has a more significant crime rate than most areas, but even it's not a ghetto - and like someone else pointed out, it's not so much random crime as it is crime among people who know each other.
I can't remember the last time there was a drive by shooting anywhere near me. Maybe never? Who knows.
A lot of it is cultural. Where I grew up in Appalachia, people are willing to fight at the drop of a hat over things that are minor and inconsequential. Talking your differences out always took a back seat to a brawl. These days, instead of a fistfight, people just turn to their guns, which is even worse.
I'm Canadian who live in Kitchener Waterloo (a large metro city) and I have never experienced crime. I leave all my doors unlocked and sometimes in the summer leave them wide open. I have never heard gun shots or have heard of shooting
g in my city. Crime here is exceedingly low if not virtually unheard of and there is no such thing as a "ghetto" (even in Toronto) as every area is safe at all hours of the day. There are no muggings, car jackings , home invasions or drive by shootings like the states.
I'd like to know why the states is so violent?
Well admittedly you wouldn't have heard gunshots from these:
You really should be careful of posting nonsense just to stimulate ire from below the border. The person calling you out on your cr*p just might be a Canadian such as myself living just around the corner from you in your false nirvana. I could fill these pages with stuff about Kitchener/Waterloo dating back to the police chief getting suspended and fired for siccing his K-9's onto already arrested and handcuffed Hell's Angels/Satan's Choice clubbers.
Whanna play?
Give this chit a rest as you're making a fool of yourself.
I think what u see on TV is not always accurate, OP.
I live in America and have also never heard gunshots or experienced crime personally. I've never been robbed, stabbed, shot, scammed, etc...
I also live in what is arguably one of America's more dangerous cities (Miami.) Yet, still...haven't come across any drive-bys or robberies....or shootings for that matter.
Not saying the US is more safe than Canada, but rather I reckon 90 to 95% of Americans dont experience much if any crime on a daily basis.
Here on City-Data you would think Miami is this crime-infested hellhole!
But back to the states - I often leave my doors unlocked. The only time my house was ever broken into was when I lived in Japan - by a Japanese guy, of all things.
The only gun shots I hear are from the shooting range across town. Sometimes I make those sounds myself.
We have no ghettos in my city. There is an area of town that has a more significant crime rate than most areas, but even it's not a ghetto - and like someone else pointed out, it's not so much random crime as it is crime among people who know each other.
I can't remember the last time there was a drive by shooting anywhere near me. Maybe never? Who knows.
You would think TO has ghettos too because it has a lot of graffiti (the previous mayor wanted to get rid of it and was pictured many times pressure washing walls with graffiti). Usually where there's crime, you also find lots of graffiti or trash.
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