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No, what you see on the news is whatever sells news. If murder is commonplace, then it's not news. If murder is rare, each event becomes a media storm. Read Th

No, what you see on the news is whatever sells news. If murder is commonplace, then it's not news. If murder is rare, each event becomes a media storm. Read The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker. Violence has consistently been on a long downward trend. There may be spikes localized by time or space, but it's doubtful we are reversing the trend on any long timescale or large area. Police can change some classifications here or there, but it's kind of hard to reclassify homicides.

camjohnson26 7y ago
Exactly. 561 people were murdered in Chicago in 2018, 337 people were killed in mass shootings across the entire United States. The media unsurprisingly focuses on the mass shootings because they are unexpected and rare.
- guelo 7y ago
  The mass shootings are terrorism which are designed to terrorize as many people as possible, and it works. The homicide rate in Chicago is largely confined to south Chicago and it has been about the same for years, so it's not very terrorizing.
  - jeffdavis 7y ago
    What you say is probably true, but it raises the question: why always guns? Surely there are other ways to cause death and terror. I wonder if it's because it fits into a narrative? An isolated incident is more easily dismissed or forgotten. Getting back to the main topic, climate change has become a narrative, too, not just an isolated phenomena. Hurricanes, even if mostly random, become part of a larger story. I just finished reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and it got me thinking a lot about narratives. Maybe people naturally have a strong desire to be part of a narrative. Perhaps the hero, perhaps a minor character in a big drama; or, if necessary, the villian.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    South and West Chicago (see HeyJackass.com), and it's very terrorizing, just not to white people. I live in Oak Park, just across the street from Austin. Oak Park is upper-income and heavily college educated, and hosts one of the best school districts in the area. Austin is solidly African American (due to historical redlining), has touch-and-go spots w/r/t poverty, sharply more crime, but also a sizable portion of middle class black families. White kids in Oak Park have almost nothing to fear from Chicago gang violence. The same is not true of black kids in Oak Park --- and we're well integrated --- and extremely not true of black kids in Austin. Kids in Oak Park have, for obvious geographical reasons, friends in Austin and vice versa. Oak Park kids have been shot and killed in parks across the street from Oak Park. It is a huge problem, and one that is easy for policy-types to overlook and downplay because it isn't a problem for white people.
    - camjohnson26 7y ago
      Sad but true. I live in northern Chicago and had to double check the murder rate because it doesn’t fit my experience at all. It’s easy to ignore a problem if it only has a small chance of affecting you.
  - Rebelgecko 7y ago
    >The mass shootings are terrorism which are designed to terrorize as many people as possible Is that true? Last I looked, most mass shooting were domestic violence or gang-related
partialrecall 7y ago
It's not murder that now seems more common in my neighborhood. It's property crime. Vandalism, litering, etc. The media doesn't report on this stuff so much. The perception of a trend comes primarily from my own observations.
- jeffdavis 7y ago
  If homicides are down by a single person, it would take an awful lot of littering and vandalism before I said crime went up. I agree that all crime is something to be concerned about, and that minor crimes are easier to sweep under the rug with creative record keeping. But let's also keep in mind what's really important.
  - partialrecall 7y ago
    Property crime is the most visible and common sort of crime, and it's the sort of crime that has personally impacted me and my friends more than any other sort (I've been the victim of violent crime once, but the victim of property crime more times than I could ever remember.) I think for most people in normal situations, losing sleep over fear of murder is irrational. But concern about property crime is totally rational. It's the difference between a lightning strike and a termite infestation. One is certainly a lot more dramatic than the other, but which is more likely to actually visit your home? >But let's also keep in mind what's really important. Because of the factors mentioned above, I think I'm doing that.

camjohnson26 7y ago

Exactly. 561 people were murdered in Chicago in 2018, 337 people were killed in mass shootings across the entire United States. The media unsurprisingly focuses on the mass shootings because they are unexpected and rare.

guelo 7y ago
The mass shootings are terrorism which are designed to terrorize as many people as possible, and it works. The homicide rate in Chicago is largely confined to south Chicago and it has been about the same for years, so it's not very terrorizing.
- jeffdavis 7y ago
  What you say is probably true, but it raises the question: why always guns? Surely there are other ways to cause death and terror. I wonder if it's because it fits into a narrative? An isolated incident is more easily dismissed or forgotten. Getting back to the main topic, climate change has become a narrative, too, not just an isolated phenomena. Hurricanes, even if mostly random, become part of a larger story. I just finished reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and it got me thinking a lot about narratives. Maybe people naturally have a strong desire to be part of a narrative. Perhaps the hero, perhaps a minor character in a big drama; or, if necessary, the villian.
- tptacek 7y ago
  South and West Chicago (see HeyJackass.com), and it's very terrorizing, just not to white people. I live in Oak Park, just across the street from Austin. Oak Park is upper-income and heavily college educated, and hosts one of the best school districts in the area. Austin is solidly African American (due to historical redlining), has touch-and-go spots w/r/t poverty, sharply more crime, but also a sizable portion of middle class black families. White kids in Oak Park have almost nothing to fear from Chicago gang violence. The same is not true of black kids in Oak Park --- and we're well integrated --- and extremely not true of black kids in Austin. Kids in Oak Park have, for obvious geographical reasons, friends in Austin and vice versa. Oak Park kids have been shot and killed in parks across the street from Oak Park. It is a huge problem, and one that is easy for policy-types to overlook and downplay because it isn't a problem for white people.
  - camjohnson26 7y ago
    Sad but true. I live in northern Chicago and had to double check the murder rate because it doesn’t fit my experience at all. It’s easy to ignore a problem if it only has a small chance of affecting you.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  >The mass shootings are terrorism which are designed to terrorize as many people as possible Is that true? Last I looked, most mass shooting were domestic violence or gang-related

partialrecall 7y ago

It's not murder that now seems more common in my neighborhood. It's property crime. Vandalism, litering, etc. The media doesn't report on this stuff so much. The perception of a trend comes primarily from my own observations.

jeffdavis 7y ago
If homicides are down by a single person, it would take an awful lot of littering and vandalism before I said crime went up. I agree that all crime is something to be concerned about, and that minor crimes are easier to sweep under the rug with creative record keeping. But let's also keep in mind what's really important.
- partialrecall 7y ago
  Property crime is the most visible and common sort of crime, and it's the sort of crime that has personally impacted me and my friends more than any other sort (I've been the victim of violent crime once, but the victim of property crime more times than I could ever remember.) I think for most people in normal situations, losing sleep over fear of murder is irrational. But concern about property crime is totally rational. It's the difference between a lightning strike and a termite infestation. One is certainly a lot more dramatic than the other, but which is more likely to actually visit your home? >But let's also keep in mind what's really important. Because of the factors mentioned above, I think I'm doing that.