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I think this website confirms my suspicions that crime in this Mexican retirement area is less than in most U.S. suburbs of the same size, pop. 100,000.
I don't think it confirms anything. It is a list of victim-reported crimes, that probably represents only a small fraction of all the crimes that occur in the vicinity.
I live in a US city of 60,000 and according to year-end statistics, we average about a dozen crimes (felonies) a day that are reported to and investigated by the police. Most of those don't even get described on the police blotter page of the local newspaper, so a person using only the police-report page would conclude that there is a lot less crime here than there really is.
I don't think it confirms anything. It is a list of victim-reported crimes, that probably represents only a small fraction of all the crimes that occur in the vicinity.
I live in a US city of 60,000 and according to year-end statistics, we average about a dozen crimes (felonies) a day that are reported to and investigated by the police. Most of those don't even get described on the police blotter page of the local newspaper, so a person using only the police-report page would conclude that there is a lot less crime here than there really is.
This is a retirement community. The population is about 100,000 total, which includes 6,000 full time ex-pats and 20,000 winter ex-pats. These people have nothing more entertaining to do than to gripe about everything. The crimes they probably don't report are when the gardener or maid take something. Major crimes they do report. If a major crime isn't on the crime website, the victim will be writing about it on the local forums for days for the rest of us to read.
The crime website gets it's info from police reports, not the newspapers, and the victims' reports to them.
This is a retirement community. The population is about 100,000 total, which includes 6,000 full time ex-pats and 20,000 winter ex-pats. These people have nothing more entertaining to do than to gripe about everything. The crimes they probably don't report are when the gardener or maid take something. Major crimes they do report. If a major crime isn't on the crime website, the victim will be writing about it on the local forums for days for the rest of us to read.
The crime website gets it's info from police reports, not the newspapers, and the victims' reports to them.
It still is pertinent and important information to digest for both retirees and those who live in the Chapala area.
And, as a semi-retiree, I think it is unresonable to say that all retireees have to do is gripe about everything. In our area (Bay of Banderas) retirees make immense contributions, both physical and financial to the Mexican people - because they love this country and its people.
Without their caring work and investment in this country, many Mexicans would not be as well off as they are in this lovely land, which is dependant on tourism and retirees as their numero dos financial resource.
The crime website gets it's info from police reports, not the newspapers, and the victims' reports to them.
I clicked on a couple of the individual reports at random, and one of them said it was NOT reported to the police. Just in the gripe paper.
I'm not disagreeing with anything you say, and I acknowledge that it probably essentially correct. But the source you provided is not valid evidence of the conclusion you have drawn.
I don't lock my house when I go out in the USA, but I do in Mexico. In the US, a whole day might go by before somebody walks past my house, while in any day in Mexico, several hundred people will walk by, and at least one will be an opportunist if he has reason to believe the house might be unlocked. A part of the reason that certain crimes are relatively rare in the US is because a person walking down a residential street in the USA is, by that fact alone, suspicious and subject to vigilante observation.
So, for that reason, certain kinds of crimes are much rarer in the US than in Mexico. For example, petty "burglary" or uninvited walk-in and look-around. These kinds of crimes are often not reported to the police, in the USA and Mexico alike.
When I lived outside a small village in Bolivia, there were strangers walking through my yard every day. In a culture where people have always walked great distances, they take the shortest easiest route, irrespective of fences or private property, and trespassing is an unknown concept. But people have also adopted the policy of taking responsibility for the security of their own stuff, because there is always a tiny few who will take advantage of something that is not nailed down. That seems to be typical in much of the un-opulent world. Even in China, one would get only a friendly nod when walking through someone's fields or houseyards, but that doesn't mean they were not paying any attention to you.
It still is pertinent and important information to digest for both retirees and those who live in the Chapala area.
And, as a semi-retiree, I think it is unresonable to say that all retireees have to do is gripe about everything. In our area (Bay of Banderas) retirees make immense contributions, both physical and financial to the Mexican people - because they love this country and its people.
Without their caring work and investment in this country, many Mexicans would not be as well off as they are in this lovely land, which is dependant on tourism and retirees as their numero dos financial resource.
It's actually so true what you state here, SarahSal : I stayed in Yelapa 2 years ago and I saw that
there were everywhere small posters in English and Spanish asking the expat community for a financial help for an old local lady who had broken her ankle and needed to be hospitalized in Vallarta.
Kudos to the expat (US, CND) community!
It still is pertinent and important information to digest for both retirees and those who live in the Chapala area.
And, as a semi-retiree, I think it is unresonable to say that all retireees have to do is gripe about everything. In our area (Bay of Banderas) retirees make immense contributions, both physical and financial to the Mexican people - because they love this country and its people.
Without their caring work and investment in this country, many Mexicans would not be as well off as they are in this lovely land, which is dependant on tourism and retirees as their numero dos financial resource.
I was going to blow this off but I get tired of the jumping to conclusions. I didn't say that ex-pats do not make contributions. They make many here. It is typical in a retirement community, especially one where people who have never had maids and gardeners before and that gives them even more time on their hands than most retirees, to notice and pick apart all incidences in their lives. If you want to know what is going on in your neighborhood while everyone is at work, ask the retired people who watch everything.
My point was that retirees are not like younger working people when it comes to crime. They discuss it forever sort of like this post.
I was going to blow this off but I get tired of the jumping to conclusions. I didn't say that ex-pats do not make contributions. They make many here. It is typical in a retirement community, especially one where people who have never had maids and gardeners before and that gives them even more time on their hands than most retirees, to notice and pick apart all incidences in their lives. If you want to know what is going on in your neighborhood while everyone is at work, ask the retired people who watch everything.
My point was that retirees are not like younger working people when it comes to crime. They discuss it forever sort of like this post.
Hey, nice to have someone watching your butt while you're at work!
And, this is a thread like any other that sometimes gets beaten to death but this [I think] is still just one page! Are you a cynic or do you just have a problem with retirees in Mexico? Most here have a deep fondness
for this country - and el clima.. The majority are not here because of maids and gardeners.
Why do you make assumptions instead of just reading what is written? I made what was mostly a joke and you have taken that to a whole new level. Have you done a poll to find out that the majority are here because the love Mexico and not because it is less expensive? I wonder how many would head back North if their property taxes were suddenly the same as back home, they had to pay employees the same as up North, and so on. If it cost the same as up North, how many would stay here? I'm interested in your poll.
Foghorn Leghorn: "That's a joke, son. A flag waver. You're built too low. The fast ones go over your head. Ya got a hole in your glove. I keep pitchin' 'em and you keep missin' 'em. Ya gotta keep your eye on the ball. Eye. Ball. I almost had a gag, son. Joke, that is."
Hmmm, interesting response... Most of the folks I've encountered have a place both here and in either Canada or the States.. They are here because it is *WARM*, numero uno - and most, many pay condo fees that include, as you put it the hired help "employees". Those, I know, who do have hired help pay them the going rate based on their abilities. Why is that a problem? If WE weren't here, do you think there would be as many employment opportunities? I believe NOT.. When I think of all the tiendas, retail, restaurants, food stores, etc. - and see both full and part-time retirees and tourists here, I wonder what would happen if WE all suddenly vanished - like that wonderful movie, "A Day without a Mexican'..
No one is trying to invade your country - we just appreciate its beauty, its culture and its people - and as I have proposed before, it might make sense to RAISE property taxes so as to provide needed services for the Mexican people..
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