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People in Massachusetts think just because a city has a lot of black people (or even Hispanic people) that it’s a bad area which is far from the truth. When people think of Brockton they feel it’s unsafe mostly for that reason which is also far from the truth. It’s pretty racist IMO. I live in MA 2-3 nautical miles from the worst hoods in Boston and have never had a single issue day or night when there and I’ve been there countless times for whatever reasons. And I’ve Talk to people that think your crazy for even stopping a red lights in these areas and it’s completely false.
People don’t really think Chelsea is dangerous, because it really isn’t it’s just poor, Lawrence is generally vowed those same way and Brockton as well.
They are touchy towns but I have never heard anyone genuinely scared of them. Also unlike dat Lowell or New Bedford (the latter is much worse crime wise than Brockton) Brockton has few redeeming characteristics like a vibrant Downtown/art scene, events festivals etc or centers of employment for people to overlook its issues.
I wonder how Harvey IL got so bad. Other then being close to South Chicago and Gary IN, I don't see any other obvious reasons.
Like Gary, Harvey was once a manufacturing hub. It was also home to one of the earliest malls that provided a lot of jobs. Years of corruption, mismanagement of finances- especially in the last 16 years with the soon-to-be- leaving mayor. Not to mention, gang infiltration(as early as the late 1960s), rapid white flight, and then the crack epidemic in the late 80s and 90s determined the fate of the city.
However, what's crazy about most of the recent murders and shootings is that I'm not sure if they are even drug-related or gang retaliations. I follow a Facebook group concerning Harvey and from what I'm hearing there have been a surge of shootings in the last 3 months and some of these cases are involving people (unclear its by gang members) randomly shooting up houses and picking off people to shoot- many don't make it to the news. Last year there was an incident about an arson involving a family whose home was burned by someone throwing a molotov cocktail. Fortunately no one was harmed or killed, but over a dozen people were replaced by the fire. The most recent murder of the 10 year old boy sounds like someone looking to shoot someone. The boy was just visiting family from another town 60 miles away.
Even with this, it is based off of residents of a city, but others from outside of that city can contribute to the crime in that city. A real life example of this that I can think of is where a suburban guy kills his Canadian girlfriend at a hotel within city limits. It gets counted “against” the city in this regard, even though the people involved didn’t live in the city. So, per capita rates can be tricky.
True, but per capita treats every city the same. What you pointed happens, but at a fairly small percentage. What is trickier to take into account is the number of people actually in the city on a daily basis. In cities where there's a ton of tourism and also office workers coming in from suburbs to the city - NYC, Chicago, LA, etc - the stats in certain areas could be even more misleading than they are (i.e. rates would be even lower if this was taken into account).
True, but per capita treats every city the same. What you pointed happens, but at a fairly small percentage. What is trickier to take into account is the number of people actually in the city on a daily basis. In cities where there's a ton of tourism and also office workers coming in from suburbs to the city - NYC, Chicago, LA, etc - the stats in certain areas could be even more misleading than they are (i.e. rates would be even lower if this was taken into account).
That was essentially the point I was trying to make, as not every homicide or crime in a city involves just the people that live in that city.
I lived next to Brockton... it was not a bad town. The elder white people seemed to have a problem it was one of two towns in the south shore above 40% Black (The other being Randolph) ... Brockton was run down and ugly ... but by no means is it a no mans land the way local elders describe it as. Its not a desireable city, but when you compare it to towns in the NYC, Chicago, LA, Orlando, MIami area ... its just fine.
Well, in the Boston area, there are 2 sketchy places, one is Brockton and the other one is South Boston (Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxburry), but in general, Massacussetts is a very safe place so cities like Camdem, Newark, Compton, East st. Louis... Will be 10x worse than Brockton but for MA. resident, Brockton is out of control (and this is a good thing, a very violent place should not be a norm)
Brockton was a nice city but the 2008 crisis killed it... You clearly see in the downtown area that this city used to be vibrant (heck even averaged 2-3 murders a year) but then the 2008 happened... How comes a 95k city does not have a cinema...? But it is surrounded by nice places like Avon, Randolph...
Even with this, it is based off of residents of a city, but others from outside of that city can contribute to the crime in that city. A real life example of this that I can think of is where a suburban guy kills his Canadian girlfriend at a hotel within city limits. It gets counted “against” the city in this regard, even though the people involved didn’t live in the city. So, per capita rates can be tricky.
Good point. I know in MSAs like St. Louis, this can be seen in the difference between the city stats and msa stats. I do believe St. Louis is more of an issue with concentrated urbanized poverty (vs suburbanization of poverty) and small jurisdictional boundaries then anything else.
Last edited by mjtinmemphis; 03-29-2019 at 12:03 PM..
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