My homey, The Big Homie, over at My Hangover went in with the latest published crime statistics for big cities. Detroit, Michigan is the best of the worst, back on top where they belong.
I have never been to another city quite like the ‘D’. The rate of homelessness for African American males is totally absurd. This hyper-realized poverty is what drives the crime rate up. Detroit is so poor that I witnessed a shuttered and derelict Foot Locker store. When Black folks are too broke to buy sneakers then you know that shit is fucked the fuck up over there. Shout to GIL SCOT-HERON on this track…
‘We Almost Lost Detroit’
Here’s the list of the top twenty five U.S. cities if your goal is to live on the bottom…
1. Detroit, Michigan
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Flint, Michigan
4. Oakland, California
5. Camden, New Jersey
6. Birmingham, Alabama
7. North Charleston, South Carolina
8. Memphis, Tennessee
9. Richmond, California
10. Cleveland, Ohio
11. Orlando, Florida
12. Baltimore, Maryland
13. Little Rock, Arkansas
14. Compton, California
15. Youngstown, Ohio
16. Cincinnati, Ohio
17. Gary, Indiana
18. Kansas City, Missouri
19. Dayton, Ohio
20. Newark, New Jersey
21. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
22. Atlanta, Georgia
23. Jackson, Mississippi
24. Buffalo, New York
25. Kansas City, Kansas
A few notes come to mind as I review the list…
you can’t win in KCK (Kansas City, KS).
Chicago didn’t make the list . Thats a good thing.
Orlando stands up!
Shit, I’m moving back to South Florida where it’s safe.
Now that’s gangsta
shout out to dah big homie [||]
I have the slightest clue as to how to feel about my State{Ohio} having 4 cities in this listing…I’m sure there’s some plus/minus with the numbers, but damn…I’m at a loss…
These stats totally just blew my mind (no homo) and confirmed some of my worst suspicions.
Sadly my hometown area made the list twice.
Damn and damn again.
I always wonder about these lists. First of all, what exactly do they base it off of? OK. Published crime statistics. But which ones? Homicides? Robberies? Car jackings? Domestic violence? Rapes? All of the above? None of the above? Options B and C only?
Not to mention the fact that some crimes, particularly ones of a sexual nature, go unreported out of the victim’s fear/shame/embarassment/stop snitching mantra.
It just shocks me that some city like Youngstown, Ohio (excuse me, where?!) made the list and not um…gee…Washington D.C.? Home of international evil-doers and crooked ass cops?
Ambassador,
I agree with you that the list seems curious. I wonder what the agenda of this group that publishes the report is to achieve?
Crime stats like this are usually based on per capita murder, robbery, car theft, assault, rape, and burglary rates and there’s usually a cut-off point for how many total people the city has for it to be considered.
Philly is fucked the fucked up and the situation isn’t going to get better. Police are flooding the streets. It’s a fucking shame city leaders stay looking in the other direction.
And you’re right about Camden.
Also, these crime stats seem aimed at is pointing out how “bad” such areas are, as if these circumstances are the result of citizens and not the terrible laws, government programs and agencies and other oppressive acts enforced by the local, state and federal governments. There is probably very little difference between the 25 worst cities of 1975 and 2007 or the 25 best cities of 1975 and 2007. The government doesn’t give a fuck.
Why is it that I have family in like HALF of those spots on the list? Why are so many of those cities notorious for having a relatively large Black/Latino population?
Hmmmm.
One.
If you take a look what I find interesting about Jersey is the amount of crime spillover from the two cities across the river that frame it (NYC – Newark, Philly – Camden). Having lived in both NYC and Philly and venturing over the Hudson to both cities (Camden was key for liquor runs in college) you see where the real “hoods” of these cities are. Jersey is truly one of the armpits of America. Its where we dump our trash and crime. What I find also interesting about a lot of these cities is that they’re places that were all sustained by some factory or industrial complex that has since moved up and out for better bottom lines. Ironically these bottom lines are a wash though the state pays to house these transgressors that creates these stats yet most benefit from the cheap labor that inmate labor provides (Dallas spoke on this before). The true crime about all this crime is that we we’re spending money in Iraq like salesmen at a Vegas convention, and oil companies post $10B quarterly profits yet where’s the reinvestment in America? The country that founded big business is the same nation eschewing the basic principle of reinvestment to keep their business alive. In this case the business of American business has to be America. But then again America is crime and I guess for America to exist you gotta keep up shit like this…
First of all, I have never been to the top 4 cities on the list but I can’t imagine anything worse than Camden, NJ. To beat that is freakin scary.
Currently living in Philadelphia, I will say that unfortunately, the increase in murders in the past year that have helped to secure our position on the list occurs primarily in two neighborhoods….North Philly and half of West Philly, the Bottom. We continue to not value our lives enough to stop killing each other over bullshyt.
There are more colleges in Philadelphia than we can count including Temple, Drexel, UPenn, St. Joe’s, Lincoln,Villanova, Haverford, Swarthmore, etc…and yet, our youth still aren’t motivated because they never seem to make it that far.
The public school system here is worse than anything I have ever seen and I am a veteran of the NYC Public School system…so that’s saying something. If we continue to not invest in our youth, they’ll never exhaust their only other options….drugs and violence.
40 speaks the truth…our “leaders” have turned a surplus into a record deficit in an instant, big oil corporations are posting record profits, but they refuse to put some of that money back into this nations communities.
C.R.E.A.M. makes C.R.I.M.E.
The saga continues…
Dart makes an interesting point that I will try to explore. Are America’s most dangerous cities really America’s ‘Blackest’ cities?
Actually, as I look at the list I feel like unemployment plays the only role in these cities declines. They have a large population and absolutely NO economic opportunity. What is left to help you feed your family? It’s not like poor people can just pack up their shit and move somewhere out of the eye of danger.
Hurricane Starrkeysha, anyone?
^^40 hits the nail on the head.
“America is crime.”
the tide started to turn on US industry a couple decades ago. since that time crime has skyrocketed in the midwest due to abject poverty, through disintegration of the labor movement and lack of living wage jobs, or lack of jobs altogether. At the same time drugs began flowing into the coastal urban centers, driving poverty and crime rates there as well. this is not a coincidence. They saw opportunities over seas that turned US government and business interest away from domestic industry. Instead looking toward international service and trade, and toward getting all up in third world countries’ shits so they could begin providing same industrial produce for pennies on the dollar. the military in vietnam opened up drug traffic routes for heroin, just as weapons traffic to nicaragua provided easy routes back here for cocaine. why would they ever give a fuck about these shit hole countries? the same reason they ever gave a fuck about the shit hole midwest. theres lots of people who dont make money for them selves, but have lots of time on their hands to work so that someone else can make that money off them. every major era of american history has been based off this principle. “relocating” native americans, slavery/agriculture, the civil war, industrial revolution, establishment of the federal reserve and stock markets, build up of military/industrial/prison complex, and now globalization. its all about broadening the pool and refining the technique of disenfranchisement.
btw, buffalo makes the list on the strength of public intoxication and disorerdly conduct arrests at Bills games. im goin up there for the giants game in december, but im really tryin not to become a statistic.
And you DP said that Atlanta was on there from TI’s arrest alone..LMAO
Richmond VA should of been on there with Vick but I guess they excluded the dangers of animals.
“Jersey is truly one of the armpits of America.”
That’s not true at all. NJ is a snap shot of this country as a whole. It has some of the most dangerous cities in the country as well as some of the most wealthy (and safe) places to live.
NJ’s per capita income is one of the highest in the nation.
openheads….let me guess….you’re from Jerzee? 🙂
I’m not dumping on Jersey out of hate, however I find one of the tragedies of Jersey is that it’s become the “Fuck It” area of two of America’s oldest cities. So whereas its also the model of suburbia due to its proximity to these cities, its also caught alot of its bullshit as well. Plus you can’t make left turns there! But I gots love for NJ.
im from jersey. its the armpit.
This is ridiculous. Are there any other two cities that made the list that border each other? I stay in KCMO and it’s pretty damn pathetic that neither Kansas City can do right.
I’m from Jers, too. Southern actually. Aside from being a weed carrier for NYC and Philly, New Jersey suffers from some of the most incompetent/corrupt politicians around. I mean, they put the state gov’t budget into so much debt two years ago they had to shut down the casinos in AC for a half a week, which is outrageous considering how much the state and its employees depend upon it for dough. Dudes can’t even keep open they’re primary source of revenue. What clowns.
Hmmm…Baltimore isn’t in the Top 10 and I don’t know if I should feel glad…or should I think damn what the hell is up with 1 – 11.
Doesn’t it take up lots of time to keep your weblog so intriguing ?