cities in new mexico with the most crime (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: safe area, high school)

[gemini1954]

Originally Posted by desertsportsman

We left New Mexico three years ago. We didnt want to raise our family there.
Roswell, Alb, Farmington, Espanola, Santa Fe, Hobbs, Carlsbad, Las Cruces, Deming, T or C, Belen, Los Lunas, Bernalillo, and Las Vegas oh yeah Raton, Portales, and Clovis also.
They are all bad.

WoW!!! I can't believe you lived in every city in NM or did you??? I'm
sure your family had a difficult time moving around so much. I always have
believed it is not so much the town you live in its the area of the city or
town you choose to have your home. If you look at the news you will see
crime in every state of the USA. I was raised in Las Vegas, and our three
daughters and they did very well. I feel the bigger the city or state you
move to the crimes are so much worse and you hear ambulances and
police sirens every minute. In Las Vegas I honestly would say once or
twice per day and not even that often.

[gemini1954]

Originally Posted by camesquibel

I agree with Las Vegas being bad. Don't get me wrong, I was born and raised there. Finished all my schooling there and 95% of my family still lives there. I miss "home" but not enough to ever want to move back. Every time I visit I am glad that my children are not growing up in Vegas or the surrounding area. I would rather home school my children than subject them to the morale of some of the other kids. Every time I go down, it seems like the people never change and that they still dress like gangsters and some of these people are my classmates with children of their own too.

It seems as though you were raised in the wrong side of town !!!! It
depends a lot on how you raise your kids. What kind of school did you go
that even your classmates are gangsters. Are you talking about Las Vegas
New Mexico???? I don't think so.

[joojoobii]

I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and I have lived in Queens NY, Camden, NJ, and I now live in New Britain,CT. I have seen crime all my life. These are no little sleepy towns. Having your house or apartment broken into is not an uncommon event in these places. Houses have steel bars on their windows and doors. First floor apartments are very cheap as no one wants to rent them because they are easier to break into. If you want to talk about violence and crime, then take a ride through Camden,NJ. It was named the most violent city in the nation. As a child in Massachusetts I have had 2 neighborhood girls murdered and my friends grandmother was murdered.I have had people I have come to know who work in convenient stores that I frequent, end up murdered.Recently a young couple in my neighborhood were murdered over drugs while their 2 yr old child was sleeping upstairs. People are getting shot every day by drive by's and stray bullets.Drugs! There are so many drugs and heroin addicts that you have to be careful of used needles everywhere. There were warnings about checking payphones for change because heroin addicts were sticking their used needles in them. There's dirty needles on the streets, in play grounds, in parks.Then the gangs came up with this game they played. They would drive around at night with their headlights off, and then they would shoot at the first person to turn their lights off and back on to alert them to turn their lights on. And corruption? Do some research on Boston and New York city, and you'll see some real corruption. Why do I stay here? I have lived in the North East my whole life and I guess I have just adapted to it and accepted it as a way of life. I've often thought about moving to a small town with a lower cost of living down south or out west, but I'm afraid of tornadoes and earthquakes.Lol. Imagine that! I would rather live in this high cost of living, crime infested city and risk taking a stray bullet or risk being raped and murdered on any given day, because of the weather.Go figure.

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by joojoobii

I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and I have lived in Queens NY, Camden, NJ, and I now live in New Britain,CT. I have seen crime all my life. These are no little sleepy towns. Having your house or apartment broken into is not an uncommon event in these places. Houses have steel bars on their windows and doors. First floor apartments are very cheap as no one wants to rent them because they are easier to break into. If you want to talk about violence and crime, then take a ride through Camden,NJ. It was named the most violent city in the nation. As a child in Massachusetts I have had 2 neighborhood girls murdered and my friends grandmother was murdered.I have had people I have come to know who work in convenient stores that I frequent, end up murdered.Recently a young couple in my neighborhood were murdered over drugs while their 2 yr old child was sleeping upstairs. People are getting shot every day by drive by's and stray bullets.Drugs! There are so many drugs and heroin addicts that you have to be careful of used needles everywhere. There were warnings about checking payphones for change because heroin addicts were sticking their used needles in them. There's dirty needles on the streets, in play grounds, in parks.Then the gangs came up with this game they played. They would drive around at night with their headlights off, and then they would shoot at the first person to turn their lights off and back on to alert them to turn their lights on. And corruption? Do some research on Boston and New York city, and you'll see some real corruption. Why do I stay here? I have lived in the North East my whole life and I guess I have just adapted to it and accepted it as a way of life. I've often thought about moving to a small town with a lower cost of living down south or out west, but I'm afraid of tornadoes and earthquakes.Lol. Imagine that! I would rather live in this high cost of living, crime infested city and risk taking a stray bullet or risk being raped and murdered on any given day, because of the weather.Go figure.

I have no idea why this post is in the New Mexico Forums ???

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by gemini1954

WoW!!! I can't believe you lived in every city in NM or did you??? I'm
sure your family had a difficult time moving around so much.

Way to put it gemini......lol.....

[bp231]

any comments on the safety living in espanola or surrounding areas for a swf?? looking at taking a temp job there & am having trouble finding housing

[Tim Rankin]

Originally Posted by tito

Crime is part of any society and is caused by a number of factors, including poverty, lack of education, dysfuncional families, mental illness, genetics, drug abuse, inadequate police protection, corrupted or inadequate justice systems, a materialistic society and many others to numerous to mention. Even in families of criminals some members may turn out to be good citizens. Not everybody in a city infested by criminals are criminals. Even with predisposing factors, people make choices as to how they want to live.
Transplants can have a positive or negative effect on any society, depending on the kind of people that are moving in. If we get an influx of ex-convicts, sure that the crime index is going to go up. On the other hand if we get law abiding citizens, the society is going to improve.

This is all very true.

Another thing to consider is population density. I originally am from the east coast, and I think the sheer crush of people in many of our big cities makes people crazy. A good analogy is an egg farm: Sometimes 4 chickens will be kept in a 1ft. by 1 ft. cage to "maximize profits." Sometimes the chickens are de-beaked, else they would peck each other to death.

Many of our high-density cities are just frustrated people pecking each other to death - on the highways, in the workplace, in grocery store lines. NM is the opposite of this phenomenon. It is the balm, and a shining example of what so many other places could be. DarkFoxFlerb said it well - we need for the deluge to stop, or perhaps never to happen.

When I read these posts criticising NM, I simply shake my head. You know not what you say. It's as if I'm watching a man standing in front of a blue wall, insisting it's red.

[Dr.Munchy]

My Fiancée and I are relocating to NM, most likely Albuquerque or a suburb at the end of the year. I have been lurking around this forum for a while now and after seeing this post I decided to sign up. I currently live just outside of Detroit, Mich where the mayor just lost a huge court case where high level police officers were being intimidated for blowing the whistle on all sorts of corruption, the city has a history of intense corruption since before I was born, some teenage girls shot up a VFW hall a couple weeks ago and the suburb I live in is famous for its racist police force.... I've only visited your beautiful state once but we absolutely fell in love with it and the people while we were there. We are going to take our chances and make the most of our new home despite all the poor postings regarding Albuquerque and NM in general. I bet it's not as bad as a lot of you make it out to be and if by some chance we end up murdered by meth-headed gang members at least our bodies won't lie bleeding in 2 feet of snow! Also... would someone please tell me there are a couple good sushi restaurants in or near Alb??? Thanx, your soon to be new neighbor.

[Tim Rankin]

Hello Dr. Munchy, and welcome [soon] to Albuq. I don't think you'll regret your decision. My personal recommendation for an area is to find a nice neighborhood in the NE Heights in the 87111 zip, or if you have $$$ maybe 87122. Nice apartment complexes in the area include Tierra Antigua, La Ventana and Pavilions - you can google them all. Note: I am biased towards the NE Heights area because I live there!

My wife and I are big sushi fans, although not all New Mexicans are. You'll get many of the same old comments about "I like my food cooked." I can definitely recommend Azuma on San Mateo, as we've been there. There are several other sushi restaurants near the intersection of Montgomery and San Mateo.

[davbetcoo]

It's been 10 years since we lived in NM (and loved it - can't wait to move back someday). At that time, in both Roswell and Las Cruces (places we lived) the OVERWHELMING percentage of violent crime occurred between persons who knew each other. I.e, family or gang related shootings and murders. I think in Roswell there had only been something like 1 murder in 10 years where the assailant didn't know the victim.

So, unless you are closely related to some violent types in your family, or frequent gang hangouts, you will probably not have to worry much about violent crime (break-ins and theft are a different story - depends on where you live, I'm sure).

My point is that simply looking at crime statistics does not always tell the story - especially in a state like NM. We lived there for a long time, and never felt unsafe - even in Las Vegas - though it was durng the day -LOL.