Older, leafy established neighborhood search

[Peter1948]

People do not even realize how safe Louisville is. Because the news is constantly talking about and sensationalizing the murders, many locals think crime is bad. The fact is, Louisville crime is a fraction of crime in other major cities. Louisville has one of the most sensationalist and awful evening news I have ever seen.

BALTIMORE:
Yr Population Violent Crimes Murders
2005 641,097 11,248 269

2006 637,556 10,816 276

LOUISVILLE

2005 623,735 3,896 55
2006 626,018 3,836 50

I am nnot going to do the math, but it doesn't take rocket science to see Baltimore has 3 times the violent crimes and 5 times the murders, even when adjusted for population. The Louisville population, incidently, does not include the whole of Jefferson County, which has a population over 700,000.

From the ONLY reliable sorce of crime info:

Table 4, Offenses Reported to Law Enforcement by State by City 100,000 and over in Population, Illinois-Missouri, January-December 2006 (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/06prelim/t4il_mo.htm - broken link)

Inform about the Uniform Crime Index and why even it may not be as relevant as you think (in short, many if not most crimes are not reported to law enforcement agencies! This is a very important point and criminal theory and why much of how "safe" you feel should really be subjective):

Uniform Crime Reports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This method of reporting crim is better:

National Incident Based Reporting System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The catch is that only 1/5 of law enforcement agencies use this.

[Moreno78]

I guess it's like they say, 'if it bleeds it leads'. Honestly, I don't which is worse, having a media that sensationalizes the number of murders you do have, or having a media/community that is apathetic to them due to the high numbers. Here, when you watch the news, you expect to hear about 2-3 murders a night, especially on the weekends, and no one cares. It's mind boggling sometimes. I was raised in a tough neighborhood in Dallas, but there were always limits to how far things went. 'Bmore' carefull, indeed.

[tomocox]

STX, again, I am sad to read your comparative statistical notes. You have trivialized every death that occurs anywhere. One murder in the entire state, nation, world is too many. It is people with your kind of thinking that says "I give up, let the looney's win." I have been writing here for months to express that our nation is in deep trouble because of that liberal kind of excuse making and acknowledgement. If you cry for peace in the Middle East and for the US to withdraw from Iraq (I am not saying STX does) but then promote acceptance of one American death at the hands of another American, then where does hypocracy truely reside?

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by tomocox

STX, again, I am sad to read your comparative statistical notes. You have trivialized every death that occurs anywhere. One murder in the entire state, nation, world is too many. It is people with your kind of thinking that says "I give up, let the looney's win." I have been writing here for months to express that our nation is in deep trouble because of that liberal kind of excuse making and acknowledgement. If you cry for peace in the Middle East and for the US to withdraw from Iraq (I am not saying STX does) but then promote acceptance of one American death at the hands of another American, then where does hypocracy truely reside?

You sir, are reading too much into me. You are putting words in my mouth! I never recall saying death was ok. Nor murders. Nor crime. Louisville has too much crime. BUT and the big BUT, is compared to other top 100 cities, Louisville is very very safe and has low crime and murder rates. And yes, WLKY and Wave3 are horrible news stations that sensationalize and dramatacize death, among other things. They are almost like tabloid news stations when they advertise things like "Target 32 investigates "is louisville really safe" or crap like that. It is called "making news." People seem to say wow, you really like Louisville. Yes, I really do, but some things I cannot stand are some close minded people around here and the sensational, junky news and paper! Now, why so many murders in America? In this supposed God's country? why do atheist parts of Europe have infinitely less murders? Louisville is one of the safest large US cities, yet it has more murders than world class London. Why? There's myriad reason, but among them are gun law loving conservatives. It is also the violent culture we live in, which is perpetuated by mass media: TV, internet, video games for youngsters. Also, our prison system is largely broken, as most institutions do not rehab, but breed stronger and more hateful criminals. The legal system is awack because lawyers have so much power. Capitalism is great, but oh the ills.

Am I liberal? In certain regards, yes. I see no reason to live in suburbs as it propagates the separation of socieconomic classes that allows the continuation of crime. It creates sprawl, often poor planning, increases traffic, and pollutes our environment. It causes less human interaction. I can understand not everyone wants to live in a downtown high rise, but there are plenty of people overpaying for homes in cookie cutter subdivisions just to be in the "safety" of the suburbs, when there are PERFECTLY fine, often cheaper homes in the city on the SAME size lots with the same amenities.

[Cattknap]

Burglary and robbery seem to be slightly above the national average - these statistics are based on FBI statistics from a few years ago. Crimes against persons are of more concern to me than other crimes.

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[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Cattknap

Burglary and robbery seem to be slightly above the national average - these statistics are based on FBI statistics from a few years ago. Crimes against persons are of more concern to me than other crimes.

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First, those stats are old. From 2003. Second, I don't believe anything I read on the internet that is not from a qualified source. The say they use FBI stats but I am not sure if they do or not. All of those "city ratings" sites have an agenda. I would stick to the FBI stats and compare the cities you are interested in. And, if LOuisville's crime is above the national average, taht is only becuase it is being compared to small rural towns and everywhere. As far as top 100 metro areas go, you will be hard pressed to find too many safer cities.

[Off Topic]

Wow - I've never seen any indication Stx trivialized anyone's death. It seems clear to me that he's just trying to put the crime rate in Louisville into perspective.

And I could not agree more about our local news. Obviously they have to cover these stories and I guess they give them so much prominence because it sells. But I sure wish at least one station would take a loftier approach.

Unless you're a little older, you don't know what you missed. We use to have a ton of respected and competent TV news people here.