Crime Wave? (Phoenix, Gilbert, Miami: relocate, house, violent crime)

[irwin]

I'm not the one to normally to talk about crime in the area, but I was looking at the stories today on the Republic Online. There have been 5 murders in just 24 hours.

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/glendaleshooting02192007.html (broken link)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0219dead-ON.html (broken link)
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/0218brk-shooting0218-ON.html (broken link)

And now they have found the body of that woman from Gilbert:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0219Hartman19-ON.html (broken link)

I guess my concern is that so much of this crime seems to be happening to middle class people. From back East, crime seemed to be so isolated in the REALLY bad areas and it was primarily dealer-on-dealer. There just seems to be a lot more random violence here. Maybe that is just my perception...

[jlhct]

Originally Posted by irwin

I'm not the one to normally to talk about crime in the area, but I was looking at the stories today on the Republic Online. There have been 5 murders in just 24 hours.

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/glendaleshooting02192007.html (broken link)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0219dead-ON.html (broken link)
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/0218brk-shooting0218-ON.html (broken link)

And now they have found the body of that woman from Gilbert:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0219Hartman19-ON.html (broken link)

I guess my concern is that so much of this crime seems to be happening to middle class people. From back East, crime seemed to be so isolated in the REALLY bad areas and it was primarily dealer-on-dealer. There just seems to be a lot more random violence here. Maybe that is just my perception...

I think its your perception. These are definitely unfortunate incidents, but to say here back east crime seems to be isolated in REALLY bad areas and drug related is just not true.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of crime in the bad areas and thats drug related, but to say that random violence doesn't happen here in the east is just not true. I've heard of more than a few home invasions in NY and CT, and these families seemed to be middle class.

It just says to me that these are just crazy times we are living in and you have to take as much care as possible to protect yourself without getting too crazy.

[irwin]

I guess that is true. And it probably my perception.

I just don't remember murders happening that often in the burbs and middle class areas. It was really more something isolated to really bad areas of the city that you steered clear of.

[jlhct]

Originally Posted by irwin

I guess that is true. And it probably my perception.

I just don't remember murders happening that often in the burbs and middle class areas. It was really more something isolated to really bad areas of the city that you steered clear of.

It's unfortunate things are so crazy these days. I think its a combination of so many different factors. All we can do is to be as safe as we can be, without affecting our everyday lives too much.

[Boatdrinks]

Really? I lived in the DC area during the sniper shootings - that was in suburbia with random, middle class people. Yes, Phoenix had a sniper too, but there was also one in the Ohio area a few years ago. Crime in the east coast suburbs is terrible. and it's everywhere. Columbine school shootings - upper middle class Denver suburb. The recent publicized child kidnappings were small midwest town areas. FL alone is a hotbed of crime, but it goes all the way up the east coast.

Sadly, terrible crimes happen in suburbia all the time throughout the country. Phoenix isn't any worse then any other major city.

[irwin]

Originally Posted by Boatdrinks

Really? I lived in the DC area during the sniper shootings - that was in suburbia with random, middle class people. Yes, Phoenix had a sniper too, but there was also one in the Ohio area a few years ago. Crime in the east coast suburbs is terrible. and it's everywhere. Columbine school shootings - upper middle class Denver suburb. The recent publicized child kidnappings were small midwest town areas. FL alone is a hotbed of crime, but it goes all the way up the east coast.

Sadly, terrible crimes happen in suburbia all the time throughout the country. Phoenix isn't any worse then any other major city.

I lived in DC during the whole sniper thing as well and yes, that was freaky, but the biggest reason it was freaky was how strange it was. Random shootings happen all the time in SE or parts of PG County, but not in Fairfax or Arlington or NW.

It just seems a lot more random here, that is all. There was another story in the Republic about a week ago about random shootings in a complex not too far from where I live down University from Mill. The place caters to students (and certainly not poor students) and looks very nice from the outside. There were six shootings there last year?!? For six years I lived in a building in Arlington (Court House) and there wasn't one violent crime - ever! I don't even remember violent crime within the area. It was a South East problem.

Again, I don't have statistics but here it just seems like the violence is a lot more widespread. Maybe that is why everyone moves out into the desert and barricades themselves behind concrete walls.

[Robin Holland]

Originally Posted by irwin

I'm not the one to normally to talk about crime in the area, but I was looking at the stories today on the Republic Online. There have been 5 murders in just 24 hours.

Wow! I am helping a close friend to decide whether Phoenix is a good place for them to relocate to but after reading through the posts here it seems that there are many, many, many problems in the area.

One of the biggest problems that stands out, amongst others, is the increasing crime in the area that almost appears to be spiralling drastically from the information that I have gathered so far. These stories from the past 24 hours is just terrible.

[Robin Holland]

Originally Posted by Boatdrinks

Phoenix isn't any worse then any other major city.

Yes it is worse than most major cities, but not as bad as Las Vegas, Detroit, Miami and Memphis. That is one of the reasons that crime statistics are compiled so they can be compared to other places for a whole range of reasons, and also to try to improve on it. The information I have learned in the last day or so about the crime in Phoenix, and Arizona for that matter, is truly alarming.

[Boatdrinks]

Originally Posted by Robin Holland

Yes it is worse than most major cities, but not as bad as Las Vegas, Detroit, Miami and Memphis. That is one of the reasons that crime statistics are compiled so they can be compared to other places for a whole range of reasons, and also to try to improve on it. The information I have learned in the last day or so about the crime in Phoenix, and Arizona for that matter, is truly alarming.

Wow - you've read that Phoenix is worse then most major cities? I think Phoenix is #5 or #6 in size, last I read, and I would be really surprised to know that the crime here is worse then it is in the other major cities.

I'm very interested in reading the stats you mentioned. Can you please post your sources? I'm sure other people would be very interested in this info as well. Thanks.

[ilovesun]

I'm looking at moving to the Phoenix area and I've been doing some research on crime and I didn't think it looked that bad-I live in Charleston, SC and our city is at the top of the list for the highest crime per capita in the nation. Our violent crime index is actually higher than Phoenix. Crime is everywhere I think the bigger question is can we walk down the street in most areas and feel safe?