Crime in Northpark/Hillcrest/Uni Heights

[barnaby33]

Careful PerryChase, that comes dangerously close to justifying criminal behaviour. All I said is that JG’s assertion is a fantasy, not that I wouldn’t confront a burglar in my home with a gun.

There are lots of places where people are poor on a scale Americans arent even aware of, but not all of them have high crime.

There are lots of reasons why America has higher crime than other places, no one reason is the big reason. Drugs are probably one, but so is lack of education and its attendant economic opportunities.

I was just curious as to other peoples crime experiences here in this part of town. To me the problem is getting severely worse.

Josh

[Diego Mamani]

Perry, I couldn’t agree more about the need to legalize drugs. The current laws actually encourage crime by making drug dealing so profitable. But as Barnaby says, there are also many other factors driving crime.

I don’t agree about poverty causing crime. As the recent corporate scandals show, crime is caused more by loose morals. The probability of being caught and convicted also affects crime.

I’ve noticed that, at least in developing countries, the poorest people are seldom, if ever, involved in crime, except perhaps for pick pockets and purse snatchers. In Latin America, for example, serious crime is often committed by former cops or people who have or could have a “day” job. Which brings us back to the issue of morals. (By “morals” I’m referring to the Golden Rule: don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you or your loved ones).

[Irish]

I agree, for the most part, that if you are held up at knifepoint, you should probably “hand it over” without a fight. The loss of money/property pales in comparison to physical injury or worse. The friend I referred in my previous post agrees too, but she was a bit tipsy and the purse contained a precious gift from her mother !

There has apparently been a rash of street robberies during the last few months in the area just south of the North Park Theater targeting the after-theater-goers. The area is indeed “transitional” as it has been for the past 15 years and spikes in crime have been happening for as long as I can remember. So not much has really changed in my opinion. The neighborhood needs to rally around and become more vigilant and the crime wave will move to another part of town.

One observation I have is that there has been a massive displacement of relatively poor renters in the area as they are forced out due to the “condoization” of many 10-20 unit buildings. Where did all these people go when they were unable to raise the $250-300k for their little apartment ? Could this phenomenon be contributing in some way to the surge in crime ?

[NeetaT]

I have one thing to say. If someone tries to car jack me they will end up in the emergency room with only the ability to blink their eyes. No, I will not give up my $125,000.00 Porsche to someone who does not deserve to be alive. I can not believe what a weak nation we have become. This is all a result of having a feckless legal system. I do not see anything wrong with having security guards possessing MP-5’s posted in numerous positions throughout the city. We all talk about losing freedoms if it were to come down to martial law. What freedoms would you lose? The freedom to commit a crime without being seen? The freedom to steel someones car? The freedom to throw trash in the streets? The freedom to sell drugs? OK, legalize drugs so that the people who do them will get so much that they overdose and purge from our society. Now I’m all for that.

[Borat]

NeetAt, you should move to Kazakhstan. It is like you describe. The Porsche rich mans have machine gun guards to protect against poor mans and gypsy. Very nice!

[Anonymous]

More ‘action’ in North Park/Hillcrest:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070101-9999-1m1dessert.html

Rumor has it that Diane Feinstein carries a concealed handgun:

http://www.urbin.net/EWW/polyticks/difi-ccw.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1490446/posts

Maybe the poor fellow out with his wife would not have been able to get a concealed weapon out in time, but he would at least have had a fighting chance.

“An armed society is a polite society.”

[Diego Mamani]

Europeans always wonder why it is so easy in this country for a mentally ill person (like the murderer at the desserts cafe) to get a gun. I wonder if this is a case of random violence, or whether the murderer knew his victim. They are both of about the same age, the dead man was in the military, and perhaps the killer too; after all, this is San Diego.

If it was random, it alll started with the crazy guy simply staring at his victims. A few years back, my (now) wife and I were having lunch at a Souplantation restaurant, when I noticed a young man staring at us in a very obvious way. Other than our, er, good looks, there was no reason for staring like that; perhaps the fact that we are of different ethnicities may had something to do with it.

This went on for a while, and I was getting increasingly annoyed. Eventually I screamed at him “Are you staring at us?!!” After that, he just stopped staring and that was the end of it.

Had it been some armed lunatic like the guy in the news this week, he may have shot me… By the way, it appears that this week’s victim’s wife was of a different ethnicity too, to judge from her name.

[Author]

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