3 ms·

I don't understand why people quote the murder rates as any kind of indication of the city itself. Murders are far and away being committed by people you have

I don't understand why people quote the murder rates as any kind of indication of the city itself. Murders are far and away being committed by people you have no association with to people you have no association with. Are you in a gang? No? You're fine. It's horrible and awful, but the way you've quoted it here is as if your personal likelihood of being murdered has meaningfully changed, when it hasn't (or maybe you rep tre tre crips or something, I don't know your life).

pjscott 5y ago
Murder rates are useful for estimating the prevalence of violent crime, and crime overall, because they're almost always recorded. Compare to something like shoplifting in San Francisco: the number of incidents reported to the police is probably a big underestimate of how often it happens, since the police can't really do much.
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Murder is not a useful measurement of overall crime, considering how disparately (both geographically and demographically) murder is spread through a city. Like I said, if you're not interacting with a gang in a given city, you are substantially less likely to be murdered.
nickysielicki 5y ago
Spoken like someone who truly does not live here. Check out this cool little late night snack place in St. Paul.[1] The idea is a bunch of little food trucks, but it’s all inside so you can enjoy it during the winter, too. What a cute date idea, right? Go out and see a movie, then get some late night tacos. It’s right in downtown, surely it’s safe. Oh wait, it’s not at all safe. Fourteen innocent people were shot because some gang members showed up and opened fire indiscriminately. It hardly made the news. I almost moved to uptown a few months ago and I am unbelievably happy that I decided to move to safe and boring Wayzata instead. I’ve lived in Houston and I never felt uncomfortable about walking around Montrose and Alabama at 1am, and I go to the rougher parts of Milwaukee regularly (Dineen Park), but I’ve never felt more exposed than in Minneapolis. I feel safer in most of Chicago than I do in most of Minneapolis. This was at Hennepin and Lagoon: https://www.fox9.com/news/video-showing-shots-being-fired-during-vehicle-sideshow-in-uptown-sparks-safety-concerns.amp https://www.fox9.com/news/video-showing-shots-being-fired-du... [1]: https://www.truckparkusa.com/virtual-tour https://www.truckparkusa.com/virtual-tour [2]: https://kstp.com/news/3-men-in-custody-shooting-seventh-street-truck-park-bar-st-paul/6266171/ https://kstp.com/news/3-men-in-custody-shooting-seventh-stre...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Just to clarify, are you saying that because one single bad event happened, it therefore means something general about where that single bad event happened? You say you feel safe in Texas?[0] Interesting. 34 people were murdered in St. Paul in 2020 [1]. The population of St. Paul is 311,527 [2]. That puts the murder rate at ~10.91 per 100,000 people. 400 people were murdered in Houston in 2020 [3]. The population of Houston is 2,304,580 [4]. That puts the murder rate at ~17.36 per 100,000 people. Can you please explain to me why you feel safer in a place that is substantially more murderous? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shootings_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shootings_in_Texas [1]: https://www.stpaul.gov/news/saint-paul-police-department-releases-preliminary-2020-year-end-crime-statistics https://www.stpaul.gov/news/saint-paul-police-department-rel... [2]: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stpaulcityminnesota https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stpaulcityminnesota [3] https://abc13.com/houston-2020-murders-murder-rate-police-worse-in/9178057/ https://abc13.com/houston-2020-murders-murder-rate-police-wo... [4]: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/houstoncitytexas https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/houstoncitytexas

pjscott 5y ago

Murder rates are useful for estimating the prevalence of violent crime, and crime overall, because they're almost always recorded. Compare to something like shoplifting in San Francisco: the number of incidents reported to the police is probably a big underestimate of how often it happens, since the police can't really do much.

TameAntelope 5y ago
Murder is not a useful measurement of overall crime, considering how disparately (both geographically and demographically) murder is spread through a city. Like I said, if you're not interacting with a gang in a given city, you are substantially less likely to be murdered.

nickysielicki 5y ago

Spoken like someone who truly does not live here. Check out this cool little late night snack place in St. Paul.[1] The idea is a bunch of little food trucks, but it’s all inside so you can enjoy it during the winter, too. What a cute date idea, right? Go out and see a movie, then get some late night tacos. It’s right in downtown, surely it’s safe. Oh wait, it’s not at all safe. Fourteen innocent people were shot because some gang members showed up and opened fire indiscriminately. It hardly made the news. I almost moved to uptown a few months ago and I am unbelievably happy that I decided to move to safe and boring Wayzata instead. I’ve lived in Houston and I never felt uncomfortable about walking around Montrose and Alabama at 1am, and I go to the rougher parts of Milwaukee regularly (Dineen Park), but I’ve never felt more exposed than in Minneapolis. I feel safer in most of Chicago than I do in most of Minneapolis. This was at Hennepin and Lagoon: https://www.fox9.com/news/video-showing-shots-being-fired-during-vehicle-sideshow-in-uptown-sparks-safety-concerns.amp https://www.fox9.com/news/video-showing-shots-being-fired-du... [1]: https://www.truckparkusa.com/virtual-tour https://www.truckparkusa.com/virtual-tour [2]: https://kstp.com/news/3-men-in-custody-shooting-seventh-street-truck-park-bar-st-paul/6266171/ https://kstp.com/news/3-men-in-custody-shooting-seventh-stre...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
TameAntelope 5y ago
Just to clarify, are you saying that because one single bad event happened, it therefore means something general about where that single bad event happened? You say you feel safe in Texas?[0] Interesting. 34 people were murdered in St. Paul in 2020 [1]. The population of St. Paul is 311,527 [2]. That puts the murder rate at ~10.91 per 100,000 people. 400 people were murdered in Houston in 2020 [3]. The population of Houston is 2,304,580 [4]. That puts the murder rate at ~17.36 per 100,000 people. Can you please explain to me why you feel safer in a place that is substantially more murderous? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shootings_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shootings_in_Texas [1]: https://www.stpaul.gov/news/saint-paul-police-department-releases-preliminary-2020-year-end-crime-statistics https://www.stpaul.gov/news/saint-paul-police-department-rel... [2]: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stpaulcityminnesota https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stpaulcityminnesota [3] https://abc13.com/houston-2020-murders-murder-rate-police-worse-in/9178057/ https://abc13.com/houston-2020-murders-murder-rate-police-wo... [4]: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/houstoncitytexas https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/houstoncitytexas