Atlanta: America’s ’second least safe city?’
June 5, 2009 at 6:12 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsThe Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2008 crime statistics, released on Monday, add weight to the argument that, contrary to what some folks in City Hall might’ve said in the past, Atlanta’s crime concerns aren’t about perception but about people actually entering your car or home and taking your possessions.
Although the bureau’s stats show violent crimes in Atlanta decreased 8.3 percent compared to 2007 (that’s good!), property crimes such as burglaries, thefts and larceny jumped 7.6 percent (that’s bad!). That’s quite a leap in just a year and a stark contrast to the 1.6 percent decrease in property crimes enjoyed by the rest of the country.
Real Clear Politics crunched the bureau’s statistics and concluded Atlanta had a 16 percent per capita crime rate, thus earning it the distinction of being the second least safe city in the United States. Memphis, Tenn., earned top honors. San Antonio, Texas, Detroit and Milwaukee rounded out the bottom five.
Celebrate our dubious honor by locking up your flat screens, supporting your local patrolman, and keeping valuables in your car out of sight.
(H/T to Sara for noting the RCP article)
June 5th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
It’s worse here than in Detroit? Even Gary, IN? That’s depressing.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
the next mayor should seriously consider turning the worst neighborhoods in this city into mini police states
June 5th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
The next mayor should install more flagpoles on Boulevard. More flags, more fun! Am I right? I said, am I right?
June 5th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Interesting thing about Memphis and Atlanta is they both dismantled concentrated areas of public housing and spread Section 8 recepients throught the city and metro area, and crime followed those Section 8 people and increased in the areas they relocated to.
June 9th, 2009 at 2:39 am
I feel these statistics are highly skewed. They blatantly said that they based the calculations on city crime with city population. We all know there are more people in Atlanta at all times of the day that do not live in Atlanta. The city has a pop of 500k, of course the crime rate is going to look high when the 5 million in the metro go there or are linked there for some type of criminal activity.
Basically, to get a proper trpresentation of crime in “Atlanta,” one would need to evaluate the crime on a metro basis. Think about why New York was so high on their list. I’m not disputing that it is safe there, but enormous population in the actual municipality of New York City dwarfs the crime rate. Whereas in Atlanta, less than a tenth of the residents live there.
Think About It!