FBI says Maine the safest (Portland, Lewiston: condo, high crime, how much)

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by mainewannabe

...
To the point where you can almost tell when they're machinating the news to reflect how they want the crime to be slotted. Which is very bad as the news is supposed to be the 'eye' to honestly report any events of interest to the public.

On another forum, I was in a debate about a year ago, with a gentleman who is a newspaper reporter in Florida.

What you and I think of as 'news' [ie, honest reporting of events], is not what the system teaches today. Today many things may happen in a city but they must be deemed as 'newsworthy' before they will get airtime. They must be couched in the proper terms to fit the editor's political agenda, and honest or not they must always project an agenda onto whatever is happening.

He and I were going at each other about what is 'News', and he kept insisting that just because something happens it is not 'news'. It takes an agenda, a message, and a method of persuading the public, then you find a story that can be made to conform to that guideline.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by danpv

I agree that statistics don't tell the whole story, but they can be very sobering, for example:

Overall New England’s crime rates are lower than those of the other three major regions of the country according to 2006 FBI stats.

The bad news is that when looking specifically at 2005-2006 changes in violent crime rates per 100K population in the six New England states, Vermont had the greatest increase in murder (up 49.6%), with Maine next at 20.7% increase. Maine had the highest increase in rapes (up 3.7%). Robberies up most in Vermont (44.4%), followed by Maine (up 18.6%). Of four major violent crimes listed (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault), Maine experienced a decrease (-4.5%) only in aggravated assault.

The good news is that New Hampshire had the greatest reduction in murder and rape rates; and Rhode Island takes top honors with the greatest overall decrease in total violent crime rates.

Table 4 - Crime in the United States 2006 (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_04.html - broken link)

The trouble with looking at statistics, without looking at the numbers behind them, is that in cases of low incidence the percentage of change will look much higher, while with higher incident rates a small percentage change can have an alarmingly higher number of incidences.

You can say that between 2005 & 2006 Maine experienced a 21% increase in murders, which seems staggeringly high. But if you look at the numbers you see that the total number of murders was 23, up from 19. Compare that to just the numbers from a single city in other states, such as Boston or NYC or Houston, etc.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Zymer

The trouble with looking at statistics, without looking at the numbers behind them, is that in cases of low incidence the percentage of change will look much higher, while with higher incident rates a small percentage change can have an alarmingly higher number of incidences.

You can say that between 2005 & 2006 Maine experienced a 21% increase in murders, which seems staggeringly high. But if you look at the numbers you see that the total number of murders was 23, up from 19. Compare that to just the numbers from a single city in other states, such as Boston or NYC or Houston, etc.

Good point.

[Petertherock]

The reason there is low crime in New England is because 9 months of the year the weather isn't fit for man or beast. Not even the criminals want to go out in the snow and sub zero weather. Not to mention in the snow it's a lot easy to track the criminals so they get caught.

In the warmer climates it's easier to commit crimes because it's comfortable all year round. Plus, stats are very deceiving. I have found different towns in Florida that have a lot lower crime rate than towns in Maine have and there are of course lots of places in Florida that I wouldn't walk down in the middle of the daytime if I had an M16 and an army with me. But the same could be said in certain areas of Portland and Lewiston too.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Petertherock

The reason there is low crime in New England is because 9 months of the year the weather isn't fit for man or beast.

9 months of the year it is warm and sunny. [during the day time]

???

[Bydand]

Good Lord here we go again.

I wasn't aware that Portland area had twice the winter the County did.

[mollysmiles]

or that you couldn't walk in Portland or Lewiston without an army to protect you....oh, or an M16.....


Peter, there has got to be another area of the country that has a Portland Maine, and that's where you live, because that's the only rational thing that could support most of what you say.

[Bydand]

here is nowhere in Portland, Maine that I wouldn't walk, day or night. Now the simple fact that I am 6'2" 225# martial artist, who loves my CCW license and have it so I can actually carry a pistol if I want to might have something to do with the bit of confidence. That and the fact I used to go to school in Detroit, MI, and Dallas, Texas also gives me an edge.

All of that aside there is no place I can think of that is all that bad in Portland. Nowhere like most larger cities and other smaller cities Portland sized anyway.

[Petertherock]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

or that you couldn't walk in Portland or Lewiston without an army to protect you....oh, or an M16.....


Peter, there has got to be another area of the country that has a Portland Maine, and that's where you live, because that's the only rational thing that could support most of what you say.

Did I say all of Portland? Moderator cut: Let's keep it civil I said certain areas. If you don't believe there are certain areas in Portland that are dangerous you are only deceiving yourself.

[Petertherock]

And as for the months of winter...we get cold weather and frost from October and it doesn't end until May some years. So OK...it's only 8 months and not 9. Sometimes June can be a miserable month and I have been out on the 4th of July having to wear a sweatshirt because there is nippiness in the air.

We have no spring on the coast because the sea breeze keeps the temps at the coast in the 40s with clouds and fog from April until June while you go 20 miles inland and it's sunny and 60s and 70s.