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I think it depends on how you define "dangerous". Murder? Rape? Robbery?




when it came to murder and assault, from a previous post i stated looking at a couple of cities, and the usa in general, detroit has a higher rate of those compared with the us

alexandria, va has a higher robbery rate than the national average

i am also going to look at camden, which has been mentioned here, philly, and oakland, also mentioned in our hall of crime, and see if they have crimes above the national average

right now, alexandria is over the us national average in robbery, but trails the detroit in murder (2005 stats)
detroit leads alexandria in murder/assault/rape, but trails alexandria in theft (2005 stats)
...just a quick look makes me think that alexandria is way safer than detroit, overall

and many other cities i looked at near me in the bay area, then throughout california, and then around the us were not on the crime radar so they are "safe" per se, per capita, but that does not mean they do not lie adjacent to a really tough area

...and i will see who, among those two of detroit and alexandria (along with let's say camden, philly, and oakland and how they stack up on murder and rape and assault) and then see how they all stack up against the national average

so i will look at five large cities of over 50,000 people, in per capita crime, divided by type of crime and compare it against the us in general

now i feel like i am doing a crime report ;)
 
Pine Bluff, AR
New Oreleans, LA
Dallas, TX
Baltimore, MD
Las Vegas, NV

These are the cities I have either had a brush with some sort of a bad element, or been mugged, or been to some parts that I really just did not feel safe.
 
Five American cities compared against national average

Well, that didn't take long:

1) Alexandria, VA has a higher than national average on robbery

2) Detroit, MI has a higher than national average on robbery, rape, murder, assault, burglary, and auto theft

3) Camden, NJ has a higher than national average on robbery, rape, murder,
assault, burglary, auto theft, and theft (which is every category)

4) Philadelphia, PA also has a higher than national average in all categories vs. the national average

5) ...but Oakland, near me, where we sometimes nickname it the crime capital of the us, actually has a theft rate lower than the national average, but still has higher rates of all other crime vs. the national average

so of the five medium to large to huge cities listed here that had at least one red flag on crime (but all considered major cities of over 50,000 people, actually in this case all cities over 75,000 people), Camden and Philadelphia are both more dangerous in all types of crime than the national average

and while some posters here on this thread have put in a good word for Detroit and Alexandria, neither city is safe as the numbers will tell from 2005 crime statistics (can't vouch for 2004 and before though ;) ... (alexandria having a higher theft rate than detroit and higher robbery rate than the us average, and detroit having a higher rate of almost every type of crime than the us average)

but again, Alexandria and Detroit are safer than Camden and Philadelphia as compared against the national average in 2005 crime statistics

many cities did not compute a measureable amount on crime statistics because they were so low, but few were major metro areas in the US and in general, cities are more dangerous than the countryside
 
Having lived in South American cities, including Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia, the only U.S. (North American) city I've been shot at was in Memphis.
Does this imply that you've been shot at in all those other cities???!!! :eek: Damn, how do you find yourself in those situations?

I think Detriot would be my vote because it was the only city I've ever felt threatened in (and that was in the 1980's). Some parts of the suburbs are very nice, but I remember being in this one section of Detriot that just made my skin crawl.
 
Does this imply that you've been shot at in all those other cities???!!! :eek: Damn, how do you find yourself in those situations?

I think Detriot would be my vote because it was the only city I've ever felt threatened in (and that was in the 1980's). Some parts of the suburbs are very nice, but I remember being in this one section of Detriot that just made my skin crawl.
Tuck and roll. ;) No shots, outside the country. Car bombs, threats, ya, but no shots. Just Memphis. Some kid went all Rambo, in fatigues and camouflage paint, with a rifle and opened up in an apartment complex. I was on my way to the car at about 22:00. So, it was random craziness. Pretty shaky night, though.
 
What's with all the St Louis hate? ;)

Nah, we did "win" the (rather dubious) award this year, but I've actually never really felt that unsafe here. The area encompassed by that study was St Louis city, not the entire county (and thus, surrounding areas that're still referred to as St Louis). It's somewhat misleading.

However, I've never heard the word "safe" and East St Louis (which is actually in Illinois) in the same sentence (unless it's to say "East St Louis is not safe").

We kicked Detroit's ass twice last year :D


Out in the county it's fine (well, with the exception of north county) but there are parts of the area (some parts of the city and east STL) that I wouldn't go if I was armed with AK-47s.
 
We kicked Detroit's ass twice last year :D


Out in the county it's fine (well, with the exception of north county) but there are parts of the area (some parts of the city and east STL) that I wouldn't go if I was armed with AK-47s.

very ironically, when i lived in pacific grove, ca (usa's last hometown as they call themselves), i had a neighbor we dubbed "detroit" and he had just finished university of michigan a year before and then came out to california

...and then he brought his detroit buddy...and all i remember is that he wore combat boots without socks (un-freaking-believable) and he carried around his, uh...AK-47 which he used to clean all the time...kind of scary

...and his feet, after hours in combat boots without socks on a daily basis, were far scarier than the AK-47

acutally, even scarier than A-10 "warthogs" going after tanks in the field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...but stinky feet should deserve its own thread :)
 
I would probably say Detroit or St. Louis.

Chicago is pretty bad too and I've had a couple of bad experiences there.

Meh, I grew up on the west side neighborhood of Bucktown in Chicago during the 80s. I think Chicago USED to be dangerous from 88-95, but they've since seen tons of gentrification. With that being said, I wouldn't stroll in Pullman, Englewood, Or those neighborhoods near west loop.

My girlfriend is from New Orleans, and yeah...I'm a Chicago kid and I ended up in the wrong part of town one night...REALLY scary stuff.:eek:
 
Changing my vote to where I live right now

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