The real story to LA crime.. (Los Angeles, Long Beach: crime rate, safe area, movies)

[TitosBuritoBarn]

After reading a few threads in the LA forum, I have to say I'm a bit confused. See, a lot of the people who respond to peoples questions seem to almost always mention the crime of the LA area. But is it REALLY that bad? I mean some of the cities that have been listed as places to stay away from have below average crime rates. The thread about Santa Barbara really threw me. Don't go there anymore because one kid got killed? According to the data on this site it was the first murder in several years....in a metro of 400,000! That's pretty good. I am from Omaha, Nebraska put goto school in Ames, Iowa. I tend to keep up with Omaha news while I'm up here and know for a fact that at least 3 teenage kids have been murdered so far this year. All in rough areas but still. Other comments have talked of homeless and drugs and muggings and what not. In my little town of Ames, Iowa, 50,000 people, there is at least one homeless man i know of who goes around to the trash cans on campus and collects plastic bottles to to turn in for recycling money. I live in one of the newer and more affluent parts of Omaha and my car has been broken into on my own driveway. Car stereo theft is not uncommon. Downtown there are quite a few pan handlers...somebody asks me for a dollar every other time I'm down there. Somebody gets shot at least once a week. I remember sombody telling a new resident that the city of La Purente is not a city they want to live in due to it being a little rough. The city-data crime records show it has a crime index of 258, well below the national average of 325. Omaha, my midwestern city that is the size of Fresno, has a suburb known as Council Bluffs (on the iowa side of our metro), it has it's good parts and bad parts and i wouldn't necessarily turn anyone off from living there, but the city-data crime index there is 736! That's double the national average, and, according to city-data, worse than freaking Compton! Public records in the newspaper show people getting picked up for drug possession all the time in both Omaha and Ames...Iowa is apparently the meth capital of....something...the US? I dunno, but the point is, I'm considerably confused. I mean LA is one of the largest cities in the entire world. If LA County and Orange County together decided to secede from CAlifornia and become their own state, it would be the 7th most populous! Some of the suburbs have more people in them than the entire core cities of other major metropolitan areas. Sure there may be a couple people murdered everynight, but per-capita, that is nothing. You apparently have a greater chance of getting murdered in smaller Chicago than LA. Besides, unless I'm mistaken, murders are generally domestic or between gangs, correct? So if I'm minding my own business driving around....northern Long Beach or something, I wouldn't expect that someone would just randomly try to kill me. So I'm just wondering if crime if it's all hype, or does the city-data crime index not account for some things? I've been to LA many times and maybe I'm just not seeing the full picture as a tourist, but, in comparison to many other cities around the nation, LA doesn't seem to have any significantly larger amounts of crime per-capita than anywhere else. I think only three California cities even made it onto city-data's top 100 least safe.

Sorry, that was quite a ramble, but, I mean have you gone or lived in other places where you've REALLY felt more safe than LA? Would you feel more safe driving around in Detroit or St. Louis, for example, the two "most dangerous" cities in the US right now, than the south central or central parts of LA? If you have the common sense to always lock your doors and keep valuables unseen from car windows, should burglers even be at the forefront of your mind, save for the REALLY determined ones? My mind is really caught between what I've heard and what I've seen.

[JerZ]

No one can tell you whether you will or will not be the victim of a crime. Anecdotes are anecdotes. LA was ranked #28 on a Wikipedia list for large U.S. cities in 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._by_Crime_Rate

There are other cities that many people would also loosely term "LA" on this list, which are actually listed separately, hence bringing the LA "area" total higher. This may or may not make a difference to you. Look down the list and see if your city is there.

You can only look at the numbers. Yes, there is crime. LA actually has double the homicide rate (per citizen) of New York City. It is definitely not number one, however, or even in the top ten. What is it you're hoping people here will be able to tell you? Honestly, if you walk into a high-crime area and happen to be one of the 12% who are bound to be killed that day, will it be much comfort to the loved ones you left behind that, hey, you still were only one of 12%--which isn't all that high? Conversely, if you walk through that area and are NOT killed, will this be proof that LA "isn't that bad" after all? Do the research and decide for yourself what risks you are or are not willing to take. How "safe" or "dangerous" LA is, is not a subject that can be definitively answered by anyone's opinion. Only numbers bear it out.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

How "safe" or "dangerous" LA is, is not a subject that can be definitively answered by anyone's opinion. Only numbers bear it out.

That basically was my question. As I mentioned I've done the research and the numbers don't correlate with the opinions. People have proclaimed that such and such area has so much crime, but the crime index on that place's particular city-data page says otherwise. I was wondering why that is. I've been getting the feeling from some people's posts that LA is falling to hell with rampent crime when in fact the numbers say that on a per-capita basis no it is not. So I suppose you've somewhat answered my question if I should indeed be looking "all in the numbers."

[Californiaguy2007]

Crime in L.A and other problems of L.A can be overly exaggerated,especially by those who hate the area.

It can also be a bit confusing sometimes of people's definition of L.A,because L.A can be the City,The County or the 5 County Metro Area,so the crime can also vary depending on what your consider as L.A.

Yes their are parts of L.A that I would not live in or even walk through at night,but this is life in every heavily populated area in the Country.

I Love L.A and I never had any problems while I lived there or whenever I visit.

[miracle]

Crime is not the higher in LA city than in many other major American cities, and its significant below in metro Los Angeles than in other metro areas. The problem is that some people want live in big cities with the prices and the calm of small towns, and thats no possible anymore here in the States, at least in those very important economic hubs as Los Angeles.

I never had a serious problem dealing with crime here and I had it in Europe, in New York City and in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Its true more thant a third or the city and inmediate suburbs are crime infected but that happens in every big city in the world, you have only to avoid those areas and will find more than 50 miles each direction of well kept areas, with friendly people and beautiful housing.

[tanster]

Crime seems so bad because of the Media. Movie after Movie Crime after Crime showing l.A (in the movies) Its not so bad i mean 13 million people could handle it. L.A has the most Millionares in a city they could handle it so maybe if you really think cirme Could not be that bad. Probably in the 70s and 80s.

[Californiaguy2007]

First of all my definition of L.A is the 5 County Metro Area,and for a Region this Huge with a population of over 18 million,the Crime really isn't that bad,but yup the Movies and The Media is what gives all of L.A a bad image.

Originally Posted by tanster

Crime seems so bad because of the Media. Movie after Movie Crime after Crime showing l.A (in the movies) Its not so bad i mean 13 million people could handle it. L.A has the most Millionares in a city they could handle it so maybe if you really think cirme Could not be that bad. Probably in the 70s and 80s.

[Yetti0]

Rodney King Riots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots. Someone asked me to post proof. The above will explain. A truck driver from out of state who happened to be passing through in his tractor trailor was pulled from the truck beaten to passing out.. had his clothes ripped off and his body sprayed in paint.. he ended up unconscious nearly dying in a hospital... No one compensated this man for his horrific injuries physicallly and mentally. he was left on the street to die. Google that and Zoot Suit Riots.

[Yetti0]

http://police.berkeley.edu/annual_re...te_charts.html


http://www.streetgangs.com/homicides/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles,_California

[Josh22]

TitosBuritoBarn, here's the thing:

Los angeles is the second largest city in the United states. Looking at the crime scale for Los Angeles itself is completely useless.

FOR example.. West los angeles is a very safe area overall, and can have some places that would rank in a "130 overall crime rating" (the lower the better). But then you can go to South Los angeles, and the overall crime rating for that section of Los angeles could be 1,120 crime rating! But the problem is, the crime rating index will MERGE those two crime rankings together, and then you get an average lower ranking. Los angeles has so many areas (and many safe areas, too), that the safe areas are what bring the crime rate index down. If they where to just rate South Los angeles itself, then the crime rate would be sky-high. But they don't, they take the entire city of 9 million people - that's why the crime rate index is useless. Taking the crime ratings of the safe parts of Los angeles and then combining them with the worst parts of Los angeles - well doing that doesn't really give you a accurate rating, does it? If the city was smaller, then perhaps it would, but the city is the 2nd largest in the U.S.

And speaking of Compton - it has the highest murder rate in the U.S. Per cap it's higher than East St Louis, Detriot, and Camden.

Not all of LA, or surrounding areas are dangerous. Beverly hills is part of Los angeles county, but it's one of the richest areas. There is also Irvine, mission viejo, lake forest which aren't far from LA, and they rank in the top safest in America. Although the dangerous parts of LA are arguably the most dangerous places in the U.S, while the richest parts are some of safest and nicest places to be - so it's really a mix up.