It is no more of a red herring than your conclusions about southerners and rednecks. I lived the majority of my life in the northeast and about a third of my life in the south. While the south has its problems, the urban centers in the north are far more dangerous and amoral than in the south.
I likes rednecks.
I don’t likes bums.
And the overall killings in the South are more colorful, making up for the serial killers of the North. The South can’t go without boasting SOMETHING can it?
(OK, OK, just being silly. But there is something trying about the North that does make people who insist on living there, more serious. Even the killers are more industrious.)