Posted on 11/20/2005 10:19:18 PM PST by ncountylee
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- For the second year in a row, this destitute city has been named the nation's most dangerous, according to a company's annual ranking based on crime statistics.
Last year, the distinction seemed to hurt city boosters' feelings more than it harmed revitalization efforts. This time, city leaders are offended by the ranking, calling it unfair.
"We're doing so many nice things now. It's unfortunate that somebody always wants to bad-mouth Camden," Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said.
The city took the top spot last year from Detroit, which remained No. 2 in the most dangerous city rankings, to be released Monday by Morgan Quitno Press. The Lawrence, Kan.-based company publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual reference book.
Camden, a former industrial city across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is known for a history of corrupt politicians, drug-dealing and murders. It has been among the top 10 in the most dangerous city rankings in each of the eight years Morgan Quitno released them. By most measures, it is also among the nation's poorest
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
"St. Louis!"
This was my biggest surprise on the list.
"Low-cost combat insurance, discounted bullet proof vests and bodygaurds, and a free Vote Democrat ball cap."
LOL!
Easy, but worth doing.
"Howard Safir had nothing to do with it."
How do you figure?
Hmmm...just heard on the radio this morning that Detoilet was #2, Flint was #4.
"Since the 1950s, St. Louis City has lost about two-thirds of its population, while the population has increased dramatically in the suburbs, where now the majority of the metro lives."
I'm impressed. Pittsburgh lost half its population during that period of time, and I thought that was bad.
Granted, he wasn't the unmitigated disaster that radical, anti-police leftist media organs like the Voice liked to portray, but neither was he a model for emulation.
He was a semi-competent placeholder who presided over reforms that had already been devised by his predecessor-Commissioner Bratton-which were implemented in concert with Mayor Giuliani.
Compstat, the revival of the Street Crimes Unit, the embrace of James Q. Wilson's "Broken Windows" approach to securing the streets, and the gradual replacement of community policing with a more effective, efficient crime-fighting strategy...
These were all policies that had little to nothing to do with Mr. Safir, who was an utterly unremarkable factotum.
If you want to credit someone for the phenomenal decrease in violent crime in this city, then you should be giving the accolades to former Commissioner Bratton, John Timoney, former Mayor Giuliani, but most importantly, to the average NYPD officer who made it a priority to take back the streets, in spite of pitifully low wages and inhospitable working conditions in many precincts.
" These were all policies that had little to nothing to do
with Mr. Safir, who was an utterly unremarkable factotum."
Couldn't disagree more.
However, in many ways he was a throwback to the bad old days of Tammany Hall.
The appointment of so many unqualified political hacks-many of them extremely radical Democrats who worked against his administration's best interests-was maddening.
Iris Weinshell-Chuckie Schumer's wife-Fran Reiter, that flake who was his first TLC commissioner, and Russell Harding, the useless progeny of a politically and personally despicable creature.
His contemptible, infuriating, base association with the Liberal Party, and its chief malefactor, Ray Harding.
You mention the name "Harding" around my house and there is bound to be trouble.
Just the name itself drives me up a wall.
How the hell could Giuliani-regardless of his insatiable political ambitions-forge an alliance with that loathsome individual?
All I can say is, thank God for Tom Robbins.
Now perhaps Safir wasn't quite as abominable as some of the other men and women who staffed the Giuliani administration's lower depths, but that does not mean he was the reincarnation of TR either.
I was making a reference to the Comic Book Guy's reaction to Springfield climbing to number 299 on the list of America's 300 most livable cities. His response: "Take that, East St. Louis!"
But Detroit is NUMBER ONE most dangerous for cities of 500,000 or more! And Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI M.D., is NUMBER ONE for metropolitan areas! So you Detroiters don't have to take a back seat to anyone!
Camden is number one only for cities under 100,000.
I just KNEW we wouldn't be beat!
Go team!
Los Angeles County #25... LOL
I think we have several cities like Lynwood, Hawthorne, Compton that should have gotten gold, silver and bronze medals from this list.
I think the numbers were played with in that list.
I'm sure all the crime were done by white racists, right?
I wonder what might be a significant common factor among all those most dangerous cities/metros/states. And then I wonder what might be a significant common factor among all those safest cities/metros/states. Hmmmmm. . . .
MERCHANDISING... One legal, the other illegal?
That's OK, Amish. I'm kinda proud to be from Deck's and Looking Glass Prairies. ESL is over the westrern horizon. Belleville, Collinsville and Edwardsville are good buffer towns. Everything east of there is rural until you get Indianapolis.
So how do you feel about Police Commissioner Ray Kelly? Good job? Bad? Indifferent? Politically? And, I must ask, in the tradition of New York's finest...delis..."vot ellllz"?
"I wonder what might be a significant common factor among all those most dangerous cities/metros/states. And then I wonder what might be a significant common factor among all those safest cities/metros/states. Hmmmmm. . . ."
You are hereby awarded a citation from the Thought Police ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.