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Old 03-05-2010, 03:41 PM
 
4,536 posts, read 10,579,047 times
Reputation: 4068

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Quote:
Originally Posted by californio sur View Post
You are relating personal experience\ opinion. There are neighborhoods in Van Nuys that are more dangerous than a few blocks away [just like in Rosemead & Buena Pk] but that doesn't reflect the overall area. If crime levels continue to decline year by year the likelihood of being a victim of crime also lowers year by year. If LAPD is lazy about property crime then maybe you could complain to the police station near you. But if stats show that property crime is lowering each year it appears your area is actually safer than you may be aware of.
I do agree that the likelihood of being a crime victim is decreasing, I stated as such earlier in this thread. I also stated that its not enough and LAPD has an internal culture that prevents them from assigning the most officers possible into patrol positions, which is where they are needed. I do believe that if the changes I recommended were made, that LA legitimately could have huge areas that are very safe.

Your notion that Van Nuys is as safe as other LA and Orange County blue collar cities is just entirely incorrect. Van Nuys is just a mess compared to smaller cities in LA County with similiar economic, housing, and demographic stats. Much of this is due to the "opportunity" crime that exists in Van Nuys, and does not exist in those smaller cities.

And actually stats don't show property crime dropping........read the following from Sr. Lead Officers at Van Nuys station:

- official website of THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
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Old 03-05-2010, 08:53 PM
 
1,963 posts, read 5,593,930 times
Reputation: 1648
I don't know about the 1950's but LA is waay safer than the 70's, 80's & early 90's. Remember when all residences had iron bars on their windows and security screen doors? When i was growing up on the Westside our home was burglarized twice and everyone was clamoring for private security guards & organizing neighborhood watch groups.
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Old 01-01-2012, 05:39 PM
 
25 posts, read 49,194 times
Reputation: 19
There were a lot of robberies, rapes and theft in the 1950's, even more than today. Homicides were slightly less. People had false sense of security. Try to walk on Wilcox Ave in Hollywood in the 1950's, and you still had a shady character walking behind you. You had to use common sense back then. I still prefer the 50's over today because of no mentally ills, homeless kids, bums were walking the streets. If they were, the cops/public service people would direct them to social services or cheap rooms there. Hollywood was semi-clean with some litters on the streets, even though the the city cleaning team did a decent job of trying to get rid of litters. The problem was there were no fines if people littered at the time, and that's why you'd see some litters and bottles on the streets. It still was relatively nice at the time. Now, LA is a overgrown dirty hellhole!
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Old 01-01-2012, 06:30 PM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,464,774 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rack of lamb View Post
There were a lot of robberies, rapes and theft in the 1950's, even more than today.
The reason why rape has decreased since the 1950s is that women today are more likely to fight back. In the 1950s women weren't as tough by and large.
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Old 01-01-2012, 09:22 PM
 
Location: Sacramento, Ca.
2,441 posts, read 3,415,173 times
Reputation: 2629
Quote:
Originally Posted by jc76 View Post
Funny when there's good news it's taken with caution. Yet when the bad stuff happens it's accepted with open arms so we can all dwell on it.
Los Angeles could turn into Mayberry and some would say it's a government cover up.
And that seems to be such a hard pill for so many to swallow. Especially for those not from L.A. Just from so many condescending remarks I've read on here, from the Northwest out to the Midwest, it seems that Southern California and Los Angeles are among the most favorite places to hate, no matter what justified facts about its ill reputed image may be exposed.
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Old 01-01-2012, 09:43 PM
 
Location: Sacramento, Ca.
2,441 posts, read 3,415,173 times
Reputation: 2629
Quote:
Originally Posted by Island_OnThe_Land View Post
Well, to be honest what your father "feels" is not the issue....the empircal evidence is what it is. People do have a nostalgia for the 1950's. Life was slower, simpler. So it seems like things were so great.

But SMOG was worse in the '50's, more Americans died in car accidents (per capita), Racism was the law of the land, and if you think the LAPD is corrupt today try the 1950's LAPD!!!!!
And also during those times, the percentage of minority residents was lower so folks like Grandpa felt safer. But once the 'coloreds' arrived, in the 1940’s the white flight began, just like blacks began to vacate South Central in the 80's as Mexican immigrants began to increase. Profiling is still current, as certain ethnicities are stereotyped as undesirable.
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Old 01-02-2012, 05:29 AM
 
457 posts, read 753,860 times
Reputation: 498
Quote:
Originally Posted by rack of lamb View Post
There were a lot of robberies, rapes and theft in the 1950's, even more than today.
Quote:
It still was relatively nice at the time. Now, LA is a overgrown dirty hellhole!
Sounds to me that it was a dirty hellhole in 1950s !!!
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Old 01-02-2012, 05:48 AM
 
Location: Escondido, CA
1,504 posts, read 6,129,026 times
Reputation: 886
Comparing murder rates in 1950s and today is misleading. A big part of the reduction in murder rates is the improvement in ambulance response times and ER techniques. Contrary to what many people think, most murders aren't instantaneous - even among people with gunshot wounds, four out of five make it to the ER and ultimately live to tell the tale. Murder rates may be lower than they were in 1955, but the overall level of violence is considerably higher.

This is, by the way, a universal pattern that played out in all large cities. 1950's and early 1960's were very safe, crime rates started climbing in mid-60's, 70's and 80's were very violent, crime peaked in 1992-93 and has been declining ever since (though crime rates are still high).
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Old 01-02-2012, 08:09 AM
 
Location: SoCal
1,527 posts, read 4,208,547 times
Reputation: 1243
From what it seems, crime rates were very high in the 70's to early 90's..

So what happened? Did criminals all get shot down, did they leave or did they get educated?
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Old 01-02-2012, 11:39 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles, CA
1,045 posts, read 1,967,914 times
Reputation: 690
Quote:
Originally Posted by yowps3 View Post
From what it seems, crime rates were very high in the 70's to early 90's..

So what happened? Did criminals all get shot down, did they leave or did they get educated?
The reasons for the fall in crime remain in dispute (see this link to the Economist when William Bratton stepped down as Chief of Police).

Cops and crime in Los Angeles: Exit Bratton | The Economist


Some of the reasons given include:
1. Better policing techniques (community policing, deploying more staff where crime is high, etc).
2. Changing demographics (fewer young men and more immigrants, as immigrants tends to commit fewer crimes).
3. Tougher Sentencing Laws like California's Three Strikes law which has kept the "bad guys" behind bars.
4. The waning of the crack epidemic which at its peak had a lot of gang violence associated with it.

Perhaps the most controversial explanation was put forward by economist Stephen Levitt: legalized abortion, became widely available in the U.S. in the early 1970's. Encouraged the bad seeds in society to be weeded out.

Did Legalizing Abortion Cut Crime? The Levitt Freakonomics theory critically analyzed. Additional analysis and data by Steve Sailer.
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