Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[amador]

I'm just letting every one know how much of a mama's boy I am so they won't pick on me. Expecially those Lyle and Jack meanies.

 

[Tomasso]

Now that doesn't square with the FBI's new crime data:

It appears not, but in any event you won't find Chicago on either list. The logic of judging a city's safety by the ability of a person to walk through a violent gang infested neighborhood is questionable to say the least. The violence is essentially gang-on-gang and is confined to their respective turf. There are no gangsta drive-bys on Michigan Avenue, Rush Street, Navy Pier, etc.....

 

[tonyb]

Now that doesn't square with the FBI's new crime data:

Flint, MI
Detroit, MI
St. Louis, MO
New Haven, CT
Memphis, TN
Oakland, CA
Little Rock, AR
Baltimore, MD
Rockford, IL
Stockton, CA

Rockford? Wow, who woulda thunk?

Rockford is where eloping couples from Wisconsin would go to tie the knot, seeing how it was right over the border and all. As I understood it, Illinois didn't have the waiting period for marriages the way Wisconsin did (we're talking more than half a century ago now, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the laws have changed since then). I've been through on several occasions over the intervening decades, and I saw nothing there that said "scary" to me.

Gotta wonder what kind(s) of crime these data take into account. I'm assuming they're showing crime rates per capita, and in a smaller city (such as Rockford) one big, nasty, multiple homicide could really skew the stats. I'm not arguing that's the case here, but I'm left to wonder what the explanation might be.

 

[Blackjack]

Please Hollywood, if you don't live here don't tell us what goes on here. You, as they say are talking out of your respective ass sir. Violence that is "essentially" gang on gang is because most youths are in gangs in those areas to stay alive. You are not welcome in those areas, and they will make that clear to you at the end of a gun. The article I posted was referring to major cities with populations over one million, not minor cities. If you lived here I might continue this debate with you, but since your just talking to impress or hear yourself talk I'm neither impressed nor interested in your version of how things are where I live.

 

[jamespowers]

Rockford? Wow, who woulda thunk?

Rockford is where eloping couples from Wisconsin would go to tie the knot, seeing how it was right over the border and all. As I understood it, Illinois didn't have the waiting period for marriages the way Wisconsin did (we're talking more than half a century ago now, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the laws have changed since then). I've been through on several occasions over the intervening decades, and I saw nothing there that said "scary" to me.

Gotta wonder what kind(s) of crime these data take into account. I'm assuming they're showing crime rates per capita, and in a smaller city (such as Rockford) one big, nasty, multiple homicide could really skew the stats. I'm not arguing that's the case here, but I'm left to wonder what the explanation might be.

The population is 156,180 at last count and the violent crime per thousand was 14.5. This included 20 murders. The summary was as follows:
"Rockford has unusually high violent-crime rates for a city of its size. Most notably, the city has the fourth-highest rate of aggravated assault in the country, with 10.5 cases for every 1,000 citizens in 2010. During the same period, 20 murders occurred, almost double the number in 2000. Quoted by the Rockford Register Star in 2007, Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said that he believed the city’s "location worked against [it,]" as Rockford receives traffic from the drug markets in Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee, resulting in heightened rates of violence."
Maybe that travel across the border made it much worse. With an unemployment rate of 13.3% it is pretty depressing.

 

[jamespowers]

It appears not, but in any event you won't find Chicago on either list. The logic of judging a city's safety by the ability of a person to walk through a violent gang infested neighborhood is questionable to say the least. The violence is essentially gang-on-gang and is confined to their respective turf. There are no gangsta drive-bys on Michigan Avenue, Rush Street, Navy Pier, etc.....

Not in the top ten. Chicago is number 77. However, your chances of becoming a victim in Chicago is 1 in 84. Its violent crime per 1000 is 11.81. When you take all crimes together you get up to 57.6 per 100,000. Not exactly a stellar position to be in.

 

[Tomasso]

Please Hollywood, if you don't live here don't tell us what goes on here.

My people settled in Chicago in 1885. I was born and raised on the Near North Side (a stones throw from Cabrini Green) and I went to college at the U of C on the scary South Side. I continue to keep an office and apartment there which I visit frequently. You, on the other hand, are not a Chicagoan but a suburbanite (a great distinction) who it appears is afraid of his own shadow. One thing I despise are people from places like Crystal Lake calling themselves Chicagoans.

 

[Blackjack]

Despise away friend I lived in Chicago for 18 years 79th and Pulaski, went to Bogan and Columbia so don't get self righteous with me. I lived in the suburbs when I was in grade school and moved to CL when I was in my 50's. maybe you should visit a little more often and you'd have your stats a little better pal.

 

[tonyb]

The population is 156,180 at last count and the violent crime per thousand was 14.5. This included 20 murders. The summary was as follows:
"Rockford has unusually high violent-crime rates for a city of its size. Most notably, the city has the fourth-highest rate of aggravated assault in the country, with 10.5 cases for every 1,000 citizens in 2010. During the same period, 20 murders occurred, almost double the number in 2000. Quoted by the Rockford Register Star in 2007, Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said that he believed the city’s "location worked against [it,]" as Rockford receives traffic from the drug markets in Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee, resulting in heightened rates of violence."
Maybe that travel across the border made it much worse. With an unemployment rate of 13.3% it is pretty depressing.

Now I'm wondering how many of those homicides were illicit drug traffickers shooting it out amongst themselves. In a city that size, a jump of 10 homicides over the year before doubles the per capita rate.

I gotta wonder what the suicide rate is in the greater Rockford/Loves Park area. Every time I drive north out of Chicago I mutter to myself, "If I have to pay one more toll I just might shoot myself." And then, when you get so close to Wisconsin you can see and smell it, they get you at one last tollbooth.

 

[amador]

I think I'm gonna hide out with Tonyb in his mother's basement. I think I wet my pants.

 

[Blackjack]

I think I'm gonna hide out with Tonyb in his mother's basement. I think I wet my pants.

Relax, Amador, were just keeping things lively...

 

[amador]

I'm trying to keep things funny.

 

[Blackjack]

I'm trying to keep things funny.

Now THAT, is an excellent idea....

 

[amador]

Then can I have my ball back? Pleeaassee?

 

[Tomasso]

I lived in Chicago for 18 years 79th and Pulaski

Ah, so that's where you get your racist tendencies; a common trait of Southsiders. Though they don't hide their ugliness behind statistics as you do. Look, we get it; you don't like Blacks and Hispanics so you moved to a lily white suburb where you now sit and decry the dangerous city. I truly hope that the drivel you've been spitting out doesn't discourage anybody from visiting one of the world's great cities.

 

[amador]

OK I'm not getting by ball back, am I.

Later.

 

[rue]

Boys... please stop. This is not the place for this.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Yes...just simply ridiculous..and very surprising. Give it a break...

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Gentlemen,....gentlemen!,........GENTLEMEN!!!,.......[video=youtube;vfHISaHqm5o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfHISaHqm5o&feature=fvsr[/video]

 

[Atticus Finch]

Now I'm wondering how many of those homicides were illicit drug traffickers shooting it out amongst themselves...

In the trade, we call such a crime, "Shooting into occupied clothing". We puzzle as to whether we should serve the shooter with a Bill of Indictment or a public service award.

AF