Official Philadelphia Metro Crime Thread (Chester, Coatesville: apartment complex, violent crime, how much)
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I was born in the city, later moved to Bucks for about 23 years(but worked and had my gf(now wife) and family in Philly so I was there on a daily basis for those 23 years. Then moved back to Philly after we were married for another 24 years. Now, family still there, still am there on a daily basis for work.. so you could say I have about 37years worth of adult life in the city.. Damn I getting old You have no more then 8 adult years worth of city experience and your not old enough to even know how a clean city, with fine public schools and low crime even feels. No offense..
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Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername
You grew up in Bucks County.
I grew up in Clifton Heights and have spent the majority of my time in that area from Upper Darby down to Ridley and all through it with the exception of Yeadon, Folcroft, and from Chester westward.
I have family in the city and have been there plenty of times, just like the case is with pretty much every single kid I've known in my life from Delaware County.
You don't know me. I never claimed to be an expert or to have grown up in Philly. You did, and then you outed yourself in another thread as having grown up in Bucks County.
My old neighborhood is slowly becoming an extension of Philly, as is my current one. What about yours?
I was born in the city, later moved to Bucks for about 23 years(but worked and had my gf(now wife) and family in Philly so I was there on a daily basis for those 23 years. Then moved back to Philly after we were married for another 24 years. Now, family still there, still am there on a daily basis for work.. so you could say I have about 37years worth of adult life in the city.. Damn I getting old You have no more then 8 adult years worth of city experience and your not old enough to even know how a clean city, with fine public schools and low crime even feels. No offense..
I'll give you that. I don't know the Philly of back then except through what I've learned and what I've been told by family who lived there back then. You have to acknowledge though that it's something that has happened to every major East Coast city due to issues that still to this day have not even been dealt with or fixed. Plenty of other cities just gentrified the problem away to other parts or completely ignored it altogether so it's not unique to Philadelphia. It also doesn't make it even remotely the most dangerous city in the US nor any of the other things you have said about the entire city. It's a big city, the 5th largest in the US and really if you look at the fact that it's the smallest one in area out of that Top 5, it's much closer to the 3rd largest behind New York and Chicago. Are those cities the most dangerous or horrible because they both have very dangerous and crime-ridden sections? Of course not, and neither is Philadelphia.
I do know what it's like to see it happen though because it's been slowly happening to my old neighborhood for a decade now, though thankfully not like it did in parts of the city itself. When I grew up there, there was a single burglary I knew of and definitely a fraction of the amount there these days, very low crime minus assaults and rare more serious offenses. The schools were also great (Upper Darby still is in my opinion), and it was pretty clean.
Either way, the point is that given that this forum is to help people moving to the city or who just want information to have the most accurate, objective information possible, your posts about the city are detrimental to that. I'm tired of seeing people try to judge Philadelphia and its metro by things that they don't judge other cities by. Other cities lead the nation in murder rate (not just the top 10 cities, the nation) and they're seen as gritty and tough places to live yet Philadelphia leads only the Top 10 cities in population in murder rate (and even then that is after including things that aren't even murders in the total) and that means the city is a warzone, a hellhole, a place that needs to apologize to people.. for what? Those other cities aren't crime-free. Look at their totals sometime. Chicago and New York still have a lot of murders, and the other cities in the Top 10 have no reason why they would have higher murder rates than Philly, Chicago or New York, especially given how huge some of them are, which skews murder rates given that it's per 100,000 people.
I'm getting tired of saying the same things over and over again. This "Philadelphia leads the Top 10 most populated cities in murder rate" thing is so incredibly simplifying the reality of it. What, everybody just forgot about how Chicago and New York were for years? Or about LA's ridiculous amount of out of control violence and the amount of people who carry guns and are out of control out there with no excuse whatsoever for being like that? At least our murderers and thugs are mostly people from rough neighborhoods and we don't have a whole bunch of kids with no excuse for being that way carrying guns and promoting the "thug life".
I'd feel more in danger in a place like California where they have so many out of control people who carry guns because they can't ever back a word of what they say up without one and dream of being thugs on top of the actual thugs they have than in a place like Center City or the Sports Complex to name just two parts.
Philadelphia and its metro has nothing to apologize for. Those other cities I mentioned had everything going for them for decades and still do and yet they had a ridiculous amount of violence and crime in parts for decades. Given everything the entire metro has been through in that time, it should get the same leeway and understanding that those cities got for decades and still get, and it should get the same full view of what those numbers really mean and where they mostly happen.
It's a big city, the 5th largest in the US and really if you look at the fact that it's the smallest one in area out of that Top 5, it's much closer to the 3rd largest behind New York and Chicago. Are those cities the most dangerous or horrible because they both have very dangerous and crime-ridden sections? Of course not, and neither is Philadelphia.
You are right that political boundaries of cities can be misleading, since they are pretty arbitrary and their differ from city to city depending on how the local politics have developed over a given region's history. Just looking at the city proper population makes a city like Boston seem a lot smaller than it really is, and a city like Phoenix seem a lot bigger. Metropolitan Statistical areas (while not perfect) give a better picture of a city's true size, IMO. But Philly is both the 5th largest city proper, AND the 5th largest MSA, so I think it's pretty safe to say it's fairly #5. And it is really nowhere remotely close to surpassing Los Angeles by any measure, and won't sniff that #3 spot unless Chicago keeps dropping LOTS of population. Philly will be duking it out with Houston, Dallas, DC & Miami for that #4 metro slot over the coming years, though.
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I'm tired of seeing people try to judge Philadelphia and its metro by things that they don't judge other cities by. Other cities lead the nation in murder rate (not just the top 10 cities, the nation) and they're seen as gritty and tough places to live yet Philadelphia leads only the Top 10 cities in population in murder rate (and even then that is after including things that aren't even murders in the total) and that means the city is a warzone, a hellhole, a place that needs to apologize to people.. for what? Those other cities aren't crime-free. Look at their totals sometime. Chicago and New York still have a lot of murders, and the other cities in the Top 10 have no reason why they would have higher murder rates than Philly, Chicago or New York, especially given how huge some of them are, which skews murder rates given that it's per 100,000 people.
I agree 100% that Philadelphia does not completely deserve the reputation it has, and that it gets painted in an unfairly negative light my the press, just because it's a lazy sensational story. It's really annoying and pi**es me off. But the whole point of the murder "rate" is that it's the number of murders per 100,000 people, not total number of murders. Total number of murders means nothing without the population number. A larger population does NOT skew the rate. And increasing the land area measured might not necessarily help with the murder rate much either, just because lots of the most dangerous areas are outside of political city limits of many large cities.
And as much as Philly doesn't fully deserve its reputation, places NYC and especially LA (who I think you were maybe projecting some unfair & outdated stereotypes upon in your previous post) deserve credit for having had such dramatic decreases in their violent crime rates over the last 30 years, and having dealt with some pretty tough problems. Philly doesn't need to apologize for anything, but it also doesn't need to make excuses - especially because no one cares about excuses. Philly just needs to make more progress in this area, and I assume everyone would agree about that.
I'd feel more in danger in a place like California where they have so many out of control people who carry guns because they can't ever back a word of what they say up without one and dream of being thugs on top of the actual thugs they have than in a place like Center City or the Sports Complex to name just two parts.
They say they have a "person of interest" they are questioning. Although with the crime I'd say its more like a " creature of interest".
They also have one kid in custody in that Viet Namh veteran assault. If they get those kids involved and don't charge them as adults and hand out maximum sentences they may as well toss the DA off the BF Bridge, the city is finished. But I think Mayor Nutter will demand they set an example here. he really seems to be getting sick of how the city's youth is acting and wants to start a clean up.
They say they have a "person of interest" they are questioning. Although with the crime I'd say its more like a " creature of interest".
They also have one kid in custody in that Viet Namh veteran assault. If they get those kids involved and don't charge them as adults and hand out maximum sentences they may as well toss the DA off the BF Bridge, the city is finished. But I think Mayor Nutter will demand they set an example here. he really seems to be getting sick of how the city's youth is acting and wants to start a clean up.
The PPD has all three in custody, and they're asking for the driver to turn himself (herself?) in now too.
Mayor Nutter has made allusions to an upcoming crackdown on illegal guns. The DA as well has talked about this and has mentioned implementing a mandatory minimum sentence for possession of an illegal firearm. Basically, if you get caught with an illegal gun, you go to jail and there's no "ifs ands or buts" about it. The police force will also add a new Academy class this summer, which will bring some much needed extra manpower to the department.
They say they have a "person of interest" they are questioning. Although with the crime I'd say its more like a " creature of interest".
They also have one kid in custody in that Viet Namh veteran assault. If they get those kids involved and don't charge them as adults and hand out maximum sentences they may as well toss the DA off the BF Bridge, the city is finished. But I think Mayor Nutter will demand they set an example here. he really seems to be getting sick of how the city's youth is acting and wants to start a clean up.
that's really good news... or at least as good as news can be centering around an incidence so tragic. I hope all involved in both crimes are charged to the fullest extent of the law.
Both crimes are especially chilling to me as is the recent post winter classic beating.
I don't know if it's just me but beating someone to death (or near death) is about 1000 times more vile and disgusting than murdering someone with a gun. Especially considering that all three beatings basically had a total absences of anything even coming close to a real motive.
A standard shooting in this city is terrible, but it at least it is normally for a reason (stupid as that reason may be) be it gang, drug, or money related. Plus pulling a trigger is so easy, I can easily imagine that the majority of the morons doing it can't even begin to comprehend the severity of such a simple action. At the very least it detaches the shooter from the actual horrific brutality of murder.
Beating someone to death though, it's so unbelievably sick and twisted I can't even begin to understand what kind of vile individual it would take to commit such a crime. It's not just the simple pulling of a trigger...it doesn't take a fraction of a second, but minutes, to raise your fist again and again... to beat a man until he ceases to be... it's truly chilling.
No matter what happens to these animals they deserve worse.
I really think Nutter has the city's best interest and he is really trying.. But its a jut cause.. Id vote for him again...
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Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy
The PPD has all three in custody, and they're asking for the driver to turn himself (herself?) in now too.
Mayor Nutter has made allusions to an upcoming crackdown on illegal guns. The DA as well has talked about this and has mentioned implementing a mandatory minimum sentence for possession of an illegal firearm. Basically, if you get caught with an illegal gun, you go to jail and there's no "ifs ands or buts" about it. The police force will also add a new Academy class this summer, which will bring some much needed extra manpower to the department.
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Damn I getting old 
You have no more then 8 adult years worth of city experience and your not old enough to even know how a clean city, with fine public schools and low crime even feels. No offense.. 
Id vote for him again... 
