Fort Washington-Bad year, Getting Worse (Hyattsville, Indian Head: section 8, crime rate, school)

[justtitans]

What is going on with this place? First there have been 8 murders this year and now I just heard about kids getting stuck up while walking to school (http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/maryland/students-robbed-at-gunpoint-near-friendly-high-school-091311 - broken link). County Executive Rushern Baker has promised that Fort Washington would finally get a long overdue Police Station off of 210, but there has been no signs of it. What is the hold up?

[EdwardA]

Probably the results of more Section 8 migration into the county.

[FilthyRich]

Yeah I heard about that, and honestly I dont know why

[justtitans]

The hits keep on coming. Again, is this just a coincidence or is Fort Washington becoming a bad place?

Gazette.Net: Fort Washington McDonald’s robbed at gunpoint

Police are asking residents for information in connection with an armed robbery early Monday at a Fort Washington McDonald’s restaurant.
Around 1:30 a.m., two men robbed the fast-food restaurant 996 East Swan Creek Road, each armed with a handgun, said Cpl. Henry Tippett, a Prince George’s County Police Department spokesman.

[EdwardA]

The area is pretty well served by highways so it creates for fast getaway, just a theory. You have to wonder why the crooks didn't do this crime across in Alexandria for example. I've always wondered about that. Is it because of VA's rep for stiff sentences, congestion, policing etc?

[TCR25]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

The area is pretty well served by highways so it creates for fast getaway, just a theory. You have to wonder why the crooks didn't do this crime across in Alexandria for example. I've always wondered about that. Is it because of VA's rep for stiff sentences, congestion, policing etc?

I doubt it. Crime happens in all jurisdictions, it just gets covered differently in different places.

Look at https://www.crimereports.com/ and try narrowing down the information to just robberies and assaults with a deadly weapon for the month of September (just to work with a more manageable data set) and you see more assault reports and about the same number robberies for Alexandria as you do for Oxon Hill and the surrounding area. In Alexandria the robberies stretch along the Duke St. corridor while across the river they're clustered more by the Beltway and Indian Head Highway. Moving further south toward Fort Washington, there're fewer incidents. If you move further inside the Beltway and closer to the District incidents go up. Across the river, if Fairfax and Arlington Counties fed information into the Crime Reports database the Virginia side of the map would probably look worse.

[jmking]

Originally Posted by TCR25

I doubt it. Crime happens in all jurisdictions, it just gets covered differently in different places.

Look at https://www.crimereports.com/ and try narrowing down the information to just robberies and assaults with a deadly weapon for the month of September (just to work with a more manageable data set) and you see more assault reports and about the same number robberies for Alexandria as you do for Oxon Hill and the surrounding area. In Alexandria the robberies stretch along the Duke St. corridor while across the river they're clustered more by the Beltway and Indian Head Highway. Moving further south toward Fort Washington, there're fewer incidents. If you move further inside the Beltway and closer to the District incidents go up. Across the river, if Fairfax and Arlington Counties fed information into the Crime Reports database the Virginia side of the map would probably look worse.

I grew up in PG, Oxon Hill, even lived on Gallatin Street in Hyattsville as a kid. I now live in Fairfax and have for over 20 years and the comparisons in crime in both PG and Fairfax are not even close. Fairfax has the lowest crime rate in the entire DC metro area and I believe it to be true. What disturbs me the most isn't so much petty crime in which Va may have its fair share but armed robberies and above all cold blooded murders. 8 murders in Fort Washington? That is a damn shame.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by TCR25

I doubt it. Crime happens in all jurisdictions, it just gets covered differently in different places.

Look at https://www.crimereports.com/ and try narrowing down the information to just robberies and assaults with a deadly weapon for the month of September (just to work with a more manageable data set) and you see more assault reports and about the same number robberies for Alexandria as you do for Oxon Hill and the surrounding area. In Alexandria the robberies stretch along the Duke St. corridor while across the river they're clustered more by the Beltway and Indian Head Highway. Moving further south toward Fort Washington, there're fewer incidents. If you move further inside the Beltway and closer to the District incidents go up. Across the river, if Fairfax and Arlington Counties fed information into the Crime Reports database the Virginia side of the map would probably look worse.

I grew up in Alexandria and now live in PG, I'm calling BS on your interpretation of the data set. I'll drilldown when I get on my laptop to tell you why.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by jmking

I grew up in PG, Oxon Hill, even lived on Gallatin Street in Hyattsville as a kid. I now live in Fairfax and have for over 20 years and the comparisons in crime in both PG and Fairfax are not even close. Fairfax has the lowest crime rate in the entire DC metro area and I believe it to be true. What disturbs me the most isn't so much petty crime in which Va may have its fair share but armed robberies and above all cold blooded murders. 8 murders in Fort Washington? That is a damn shame.

Exactly one would expect incidents of mugging in Alexandria to be significant. The projects there are situated near Metro you have a dense affluent section surrounding them. Mugging victims would make easy targets.

What the OP is pointing out is murder, deadly armed robberies of businesses etc. We just don't see the same level in Northern Virginia as we do in PG.

[TCR25]

Originally Posted by EdwardA

I grew up in Alexandria and now live in PG, I'm calling BS on your interpretation of the data set. I'll drilldown when I get on my laptop to tell you why.

Please do. I don't claim that site to be exhaustive or perfect, but it's what's showing up based upon data provided by Alexandria PD and by Prince George's County PD. And just to be sure you're looking at the same data set; I was looking at Sept. 1-30 and only Robberies and Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

As we've discussed in other threads, I'm not claiming that Prince George's is perfect or that we don't have problems or more than our share of crime, but I do believe that unfair perceptions color the way the issues are covered to the detriment of the county. I live in Prince George's and work in Fairfax County, just outside of the Alexandria city limits.