If these stats are accurate.
http://www.upworthy.com/what-99-5-of-pe ... ype?c=ufb1 (http://www.upworthy.com/what-99-5-of-people-in-america-will-never-experience-despite-the-hype?c=ufb1)
Ok, well that's all right for the 99.5%.
What about the 0.5%? In a population the size of americas it's going to be a huge number.
I was in that 0.5%. Even in the 0.5%, most of them will get out without too much of a hassle. The number of people who become the victim of a violent crime and receive serious damage from it is even smaller.
This is new information?
Don Henley released Dirty Laundry in 1982. The media reporting on what sells and ignoring what doesn't is kind of old news isn't it?
0.5% is still 1.5 million people, or one in every 200 people.
That's still a small proportion though.
So? We still have 2 million people in prisons and 32 people die each day on average from gun death. You look at other westernized nations and they do not have the crime RATIO we do.
Quote from: "SilentFutility"0.5% is still 1.5 million people, or one in every 200 people.
That's still a small proportion though.
SO? I have been a victim of violent crime. The stupid thing is because I got beat up as a teenager by a gang of bullies, we call that "Oh thats just boys being boys". I still got my nose broken and still suffered emotional trauma because of it. Then on top of that one of the guy's bigger brothers beat me up after that in school because his brother got arrested for it.
I don't care how SMALL you think the numbers are, they are still too high and totally unacceptable. Japan may have half our population, but that population lives in basically one giant city island with virtually NO CRIME at all.
Quote from: "Brian37"Quote from: "SilentFutility"0.5% is still 1.5 million people, or one in every 200 people.
That's still a small proportion though.
SO? I have been a victim of violent crime. The stupid thing is because I got beat up as a teenager by a gang of bullies, we call that "Oh thats just boys being boys". I still got my nose broken and still suffered emotional trauma because of it. Then on top of that one of the guy's bigger brothers beat me up after that in school because his brother got arrested for it.
I don't care how SMALL you think the numbers are, they are still too high and totally unacceptable. Japan may have half our population, but that population lives in basically one giant city island with virtually NO CRIME at all.
Please point out the part of my post that said anything about violent crime being acceptable, or that because the numbers are smaller than I would have expected given media portrayal of crime in the US that the violent crime that does happen is totally fine?
I ended up in hospital with my hand broken (and the bones in it displaced and dislocated), and cuts all up my arm and a huge hit to my head after fleeing an attempted bike theft and nearly being hit by a car (which drove off) when I was 12. My bike was so smashed they didn't bother stealing it. Technically I wasn't physically asaulted but I don't doubt that the 5 of them would have done so if I hadn't escaped and hidden.
So again, expressing surprise at how small the proportion is, and quantifying it as a number of people (1.5 million) which is a lot of people is perfectly valid and in absolutely no way does it imply that crime is therefore a problem to be ignored. Understandable as it may be that you've had a knee-jerk reaction because it has happened to you, there's no need to be so confrontational.
Japan also bases a lot of convictions on forced confessions so their justice system isn't what I'd call ideal.
Still I get a lip twitch when people post stories like this without clarification. It allows people to focus on the percentage rather than the actual numbers. It is still too high. When our crime rate gets to Japans levels, if we ever get our collective heads out of our asses, then and only then will I breath a bit easier.
Most of our problem is that corporate America is causing a pay gap and education gap that is keeping more and more people economically unstable and desperate. We address the pay gap, education and cost of living issues, you'd see less crime long term.
Well, looks like we DEFINITELY need to be packing heat, faaaaaar too dangerous out there...
I'm with you, Shiranu. I don't like those odds. If there's a half a percent chance I'm going to be a victim, I'm busting a cap in somebody's ass.
Quote from: "Jmpty"I'm with you, Shiranu. I don't like those odds. If there's a half a percent chance I'm going to be a victim, I'm busting a cap in somebody's ass.
Thus substantially upping the odds.
Quote from: "Plu"Quote from: "Jmpty"I'm with you, Shiranu. I don't like those odds. If there's a half a percent chance I'm going to be a victim, I'm busting a cap in somebody's ass.
Thus substantially upping the odds.
Hoho. I see where this thread is going! :Hangman:
Quote from: "Brian37"Still I get a lip twitch when people post stories like this without clarification. It allows people to focus on the percentage rather than the actual numbers. It is still too high. When our crime rate gets to Japans levels, if we ever get our collective heads out of our asses, then and only then will I breath a bit easier.
Most of our problem is that corporate America is causing a pay gap and education gap that is keeping more and more people economically unstable and desperate. We address the pay gap, education and cost of living issues, you'd see less crime long term.
I think we need to do a little more than that. Everyone tip-toes around the elephants in the room, avoiding some glaringly important issues that need to be addressed to put a dent in the problem. I think that ending the drug war is one of the biggies. Decriminalize recreational drugs and release the non-violent drug offenders taking up prison space. Decriminalize prostitution and release those non-violent offenders as well. That should lighten the prison load by about 300,000 plus (give or take) and significantly reduce violent crime on our streets.
Next are recognizing demographic factors. Roughly half of all homicides are performed by young black males killing young black males. Yes I did say that, and no, I'm not in the least bit racist, so back off. See //http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf, page 3. So over a 28 year period, from 1980 to 2008, 52.5% of all homicides in the U.S. were committed by an ethnic group that makes up 12.6% of the population. Hispanics are disproportionately represented as well but don't show on the DOJ report. California has some good demographic stats on it though.
Here's some demographic stats on NYC from 2003-2011 - //http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map. The disproportionate number of homicides for each ethnic group should give us a clue to what's going on. LA has a similar map with a higher proportion of Hispanic on Hispanic homicides. Surprisingly (or not), most murders are intraracial.
This should provide a hint to what the problem is and it shouldn't be spoken in whispers. How about we openly recognize poverty, residential segregation, poor education, and "Thug" culture as major contributors to the problem and aggressively address them?
Good post Jack. What you said, along with tighter gun control and more jobs should really help with the crime.
Quote from: "Plu"Quote from: "Jmpty"I'm with you, Shiranu. I don't like those odds. If there's a half a percent chance I'm going to be a victim, I'm busting a cap in somebody's ass.
Thus substantially upping the odds.
Oh here we go again.
For most people, the odds are even less .5%. Most violent crime is concentrated in certain neighborhoods in certain cities. Living in those areas is very dangerous. Traveling through them at night can be dangerous. If you can manage to avoid them, you probably don't have much to worry about.
Quote from: "Johan"Quote from: "Plu"Quote from: "Jmpty"I'm with you, Shiranu. I don't like those odds. If there's a half a percent chance I'm going to be a victim, I'm busting a cap in somebody's ass.
Thus substantially upping the odds.
Oh here we go again.
A lot of people seem to be thinking this was about "busting a cap in somebody's ass", but this was not an argument about guns at all. This was an argument about fear culture, and striking pre-emptively when you feel you're being threatened.
It doesn't matter how you severely react, if you say "I'm going to strike first if I feel even the slightest chance of being a victim", you're going to be a major cause of violent crime in the world.
And that is actually quite hard to deny. It's a simple fact. Only one of the two sides has to strike for a violent crime to occur. If you're likely to be the one striking, you're going to be the cause of a lot of crime. Don't put the blame on the guy you
think might
maybe strike you.
That kind of attitude is a major issue. It's likely to make things worse in any kind of confrontation.
Quote from: "gussy"For most people, the odds are even less .5%. Most violent crime is concentrated in certain neighborhoods in certain cities. Living in those areas is very dangerous. Traveling through them at night can be dangerous. If you can manage to avoid them, you probably don't have much to worry about.
While true, it is worrying that areas are allowed to become "no-go" areas that are effectively abandoned by the state and wider society and are accepted as segregated from the rest of society.
This is not a problem unique to the US, but I do feel that when areas begin to become like this a solution needs to be aggressively pursued, both a tough, zero-tolerance approach to crime with a lot of visible police presence and a lot of work to address grassroots causes of criminality in the area such as poverty, lack of social mobility, lack of support services and so on.
It is a shame though, that as people living in these areas are typically a relatively small part of the population, and they are also the least educated, they are typically ignored, swept under the carpet and don't have much of a voice. For a large majority of people, these areas are simply be avoided, and problem solved, which is probably why nothing ever gets done about them and the people living there are largely abandoned.