Crime in Houston is out of control... (Waco, West: neighborhoods, live in)

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare

Houston’s crime wave started before the rest of theU.S. So it’s truly partially it’s own animal. While many of the other cities crime wave started in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Houston’s crime wave started months earlier as Covid-19 started kicking off. In fact Houston’s crime wave is directly related to liberal judges releasing criminals on low bonds for
Violent crimes.

I support Democratic candidates but the evidence doesn’t lie. Of course the trend of people out on bond committing crimes is nothing new but something like 15-25% of Homicides and not an insignificant amount of violent crime have been committed by people on bond in this city. I’ll try to find a link when I have time. Basically the judges are letting violent criminals run rampant, and I’m really not with it.

Revoking the bails of some of these violent criminals will make a major dent in the new crime wave. Especially when you realize that property crime in absolute numbers are still declining so rather than new criminals being made, it’s old ones being more violent, running rampant in the city.

Murder bonds, especially in cases were the victim is a stranger makes absolutely no sense. I would argue all killers are a danger to society and so shouldn’t get bond but that isn’t my job, or area of expertise.

The Galleria robberies and now killing are unique to Houston and the crime wave shouldn’t get swept under the twig just because it’s happening everywhere, now that these following folks home crime has increased by literally 100-1000%.

I apologize again for being lazy and not looking up data, but I seem to recall that many cities during 2018-19 started having upticks in violent crime, Houston being one. It became considerably more widespread in 2020.

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare

Houston’s crime wave started before the rest of theU.S. So it’s truly partially it’s own animal. While many of the other cities crime wave started in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Houston’s crime wave started months earlier as Covid-19 started kicking off. In fact Houston’s crime wave is directly related to liberal judges releasing criminals on low bonds for
Violent crimes.

I support Democratic candidates but the evidence doesn’t lie. Of course the trend of people out on bond committing crimes is nothing new but something like 15-25% of Homicides and not an insignificant amount of violent crime have been committed by people on bond in this city. I’ll try to find a link when I have time. Basically the judges are letting violent criminals run rampant, and I’m really not with it.

Revoking the bails of some of these violent criminals will make a major dent in the new crime wave. Especially when you realize that property crime in absolute numbers are still declining so rather than new criminals being made, it’s old ones being more violent, running rampant in the city.

Murder bonds, especially in cases were the victim is a stranger makes absolutely no sense. I would argue all killers are a danger to society and so shouldn’t get bond but that isn’t my job, or area of expertise.

The Galleria robberies and now killing are unique to Houston and the crime wave shouldn’t get swept under the twig just because it’s happening everywhere, now that these following folks home crime has increased by literally 100-1000%.

This is a great post. If tightening bond restrictions will decrease violent crime, we should absolutely do it. I do think that we have to think beyond that to more meaningful criminal justice reforms down the road. One of the reasons that loosening bond restrictions doesn't work is that it is not paired with more meaningful rehabilitation and community support. It may be misguided to loosen bail reforms without implementing other social supports as well, but long term, it is manageable to reduce crime in other, more meaningful ways.

Most importantly, we need to consider how it is that American society produces so more violent crime than most other developed nations in the first place. Statistically, this is a fact. And if you look at the countries that have higher crime than ours, the common denominator is clear: concentrated poverty. This is slightly different than poverty in general--it has to do with how predominant poverty is in large areas of closely grouped people. The US, by the way, also has a very high rate of concentrated poverty. We have higher violent crime than most other developed nations AND we have a higher rate of concentrated poverty than most other developed nations. And of course our violent crime mostly occurs in places of concentrated poverty. THAT's what needs to change. We reduce our concentrated poverty, we reduce our violent crime. Republicans have no interest in this, and Democrats just want to nibble at the edges of the problem. But to fix it, we have to change our economy.

[Justabystander]

Handguns for all under Gov. Abbott. That is sure to fix the problem, right? Maybe this is what you all wanted, but it sure will make me think twice about visiting the great State of Texas.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

This is a great post. If tightening bond restrictions will decrease violent crime, we should absolutely do it. I do think that we have to think beyond that to more meaningful criminal justice reforms down the road. One of the reasons that loosening bond restrictions doesn't work is that it is not paired with more meaningful rehabilitation and community support. It may be misguided to loosen bail reforms without implementing other social supports as well, but long term, it is manageable to reduce crime in other, more meaningful ways.

Most importantly, we need to consider how it is that American society produces so more violent crime than most other developed nations in the first place. Statistically, this is a fact. And if you look at the countries that have higher crime than ours, the common denominator is clear: concentrated poverty. This is slightly different than poverty in general--it has to do with how predominant poverty is in large areas of closely grouped people. The US, by the way, also has a very high rate of concentrated poverty. We have higher violent crime than most other developed nations AND we have a higher rate of concentrated poverty than most other developed nations. And of course our violent crime mostly occurs in places of concentrated poverty. THAT's what needs to change. We reduce our concentrated poverty, we reduce our violent crime. Republicans have no interest in this, and Democrats just want to nibble at the edges of the problem. But to fix it, we have to change our economy.

I support reforming the bail system to stop the practice of having immediate access to personal financial resources as a means to keeping your physical freedom. That should not happen under the ideals of the U.S. (at least in my rather libertarian perspective). But neither should those who are reasonably suspected of being a violent risk be able to keep their physical freedom during the prosecutorial and justice process. Don't know what the correct answer is, not my area of expertise, just throwing in my potentially worthless 2 cents.

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I support reforming the bail system to stop the practice of having immediate access to personal financial resources as a means to keeping your physical freedom. That should not happen under the ideals of the U.S. (at least in my rather libertarian perspective). But neither should those who are reasonably suspected of being a violent risk be able to keep their physical freedom during the prosecutorial and justice process. Don't know what the correct answer is, not my area of expertise, just throwing in my potentially worthless 2 cents.

Doesn't sound unreasonable to me; I just think we need to address the underlying cause of violence. We do live in a relatively violent society, esp. for a developed nation. In my view, this is because of our much higher than average level of concentrated poverty. This is the thing that breeds violence most consistently, across all countries and it is the thing we have more of than most other developed nations. I don't know why we don't just try to fix that.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

Doesn't sound unreasonable to me; I just think we need to address the underlying cause of violence. We do live in a relatively violent society, esp. for a developed nation. In my view, this is because of our much higher than average level of concentrated poverty. This is the thing that breeds violence most consistently, across all countries and it is the thing we have more of than most other developed nations. I don't know why we don't just try to fix that.

The thing about America is it has always been a violent country. Check some of these murder rates for cities in the earliest 20th century...much higher than today. Places like St. Louis have been a town of serial killers and murderers since Louis and Clark traveled there. We have to look at the time when crime was at it's lowest in recent history in this country. If you look, a lot of crime started to go up in the 70s when manufacturing started to be off-shored.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-wo...on-crime-rates

They have some good info in this article. Bring back jobs from off-shore and the nuclear family, and crime rates would drop significantly.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

Doesn't sound unreasonable to me; I just think we need to address the underlying cause of violence. We do live in a relatively violent society, esp. for a developed nation. In my view, this is because of our much higher than average level of concentrated poverty. This is the thing that breeds violence most consistently, across all countries and it is the thing we have more of than most other developed nations. I don't know why we don't just try to fix that.

I realize concentrated poverty causes a lot of problems, but it has long existed in the U.S. before it became associated with the terrible levels of violence that arose in the 1970s. I have to wonder if it's as much the lack of mobility to move up the economic ladder, or the perception thereof by the impoverished, combined with the concentration of poverty that causes a lot of the issue.

We also need to remember that a great deal of violence happens among people who know each other, often well. People settling disputes with violence rather than just argument or other means. Maybe poverty brings the stress that influences the rashness of this decisionmaking.

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I realize concentrated poverty causes a lot of problems, but it has long existed in the U.S. before it became associated with the terrible levels of violence that arose in the 1970s. I have to wonder if it's as much the lack of mobility to move up the economic ladder, or the perception thereof by the impoverished, combined with the concentration of poverty that causes a lot of the issue.

We also need to remember that a great deal of violence happens among people who know each other, often well. People settling disputes with violence rather than just argument or other means. Maybe poverty brings the stress that influences the rashness of this decisionmaking.

So how is the answer not to eliminate concentrated poverty? I mean these other solutions seem like Tylenol for cancer. It can make you feel better, sure, but the problem is still metastasizing.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

So how is the answer not to eliminate concentrated poverty? I mean these other solutions seem like Tylenol for cancer. It can make you feel better, sure, but the problem is still metastasizing.

I'm not saying that eliminating concentrated poverty wouldn't help a lot with some types of violent crime; I have to think gang activity for example probably thrives in such areas, and school quality seems to be much worse where there's a large concentration of low-income households, which would hinder economic mobility.

It's just that there may be some types of crimes that are associated with poverty generally whether it's concentrated or not (domestic violence perhaps?), and even others that aren't associated as much with poverty at all.

[usc619]

Crime is worse here in Houston than LA, Chi, and NYC. Let that sink in.
213 murders in the city of Houston as of today.