Make of it what you want. From the Commercial Appeal:
Memphis and its surrounding counties ranked second in the nation for violent crimes committed last year, according to the FBI’s annual report on crime released this week.
The 2005 data shows the Memphis metro area had 1,197 violent crimes per 100,000 residents last year. That’s up slightly from 1,132 in 2004.
Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons said one reason for the increase in crime is because “we are in a war” with gangs and drug traffickers.
“The gangs are targeting Hispanic residents in robberies and the homicides increased because of warfare between gangs. We’ve seen a crumbling of gang structure and a lot of jockeying for power and as a result people, innocent people, are getting caught in the crossfire — including children,” he said.
The local crime rate climbed in the early 1990s, reaching a peak in 1996, Gibbons said.
Last year, after a welcome break, the numbers began to creep upward again.
“This is a serious situation that must be met dead-on with urgency,” Gibbons said.The FBI and local crime experts warn, every year, that the report should not be used to compare metropolitan areas. It’s a warning that’s ignored, every year, by newspapers, television stations, tourism boards and business associations.
“It is like comparing apples and oranges,” said Memphis police spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins.
For one thing, he said, police agencies in Tennessee use a more detailed reporting system than that used by agencies in many other states. And the FBI report doesn’t fully take that difference into account.
“We haven’t taken a look at the numbers, but you shouldn’t compare cities,” Higgins said.
Tom Kirby, an analyst with the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, said there are other variables that can affect crime rates.
Poor, urban areas, for instance, typically have more crime than wealthy, suburban areas.
“So it is tough to say we’re ranked at a certain number,” he warned. “You have to be careful with the rankings.”
The full article is here. You’ll need a subscription to read it.
I’m torn when I post stuff like this. On the one hand, I fear that I’m affirming the stereotype of “us.” On the other, I think that folks around the world need to realize that the same focus placed on restive regions in (wherever) needs to be placed on urban areas in the US. You wouldn’t believe how many Europeans came running to me during Katrina saying, “Oh wow, I didn’t know it was *that* bad for some blacks in the US.”
Note: The Cosby Show is shown here.:-)
I’m also torn about discussing race here in Europe. I’d made a pledge to myself that I would not talk about it anymore with white folks here, specifically ones born and bred on the continent.
I broke that pledge not too long ago and had a discussion with a friend about how it was for me growing up in Memphis. I poured my heart out about the violence, racism, sexism, other sordid things and their impact. Even mentioned my brother’s murder and how that had affected my life and how I carried myself.
On into the conversation, when the focus shifted totally to my sometimes-less-than-stellar attitude (basically, they said that I needed to be “nicer,” which is true) my friend said, “Rashunda, you’re angry over nothing.”
I was taken aback but didn’t show it. They had listened, but had they *really* listened? Did they not have the ability to link up what I was trying to say?
Then I realized something.
It was unfair for me to even expect them to understand, to even lay that conversation on them.
That’s when I silently gave up and decided to stick to my pledge.
And keep smiling.
Because in the eyes of a lot of folks here, I am angry over nothing.
Comments (7)
I have to second the sentiment of not discussing race with white people in Europe. My experience has been that foks just don’t “get it”. It can turn into a full time job attempting to explain the Black experience in America. I refer to the Black experience, because I do feel that it is one that differs from the majority’s experience and the experience that Europeans are familiar with. Sorry to ramble.
i think i disagree with some of what’s been written. europe, just like america, is not a homogenous mass. some countries are better at talking about race than others. notoriously, france and germany have a poor track record on understanding difference.
however, i don’t think that one can tar the UK with this brush. certainly, it ain’t no paradise here but there is a willingness to have a debate about what britishness is and how it is changing in the 21st century. now i don’t agree necessarily with the terms of the debate (a bit too narrow for me) but this discussion is happening and people want to talk about it.
i think that you guys should perserve. i talk about race a lot. race (i prefer ethnicity myself, but this is for another topic) is a defining characteristic of everyone and african americans in europe have a duty to challenge assumptions and raise folks’ consciousness. how one goes about this, however, is a fine art.
A to the K - > But the dialogue on “Britishness” goes on where? Does your average white male Brit discuss “Britishness”? Does he have to? Unless the term directly concerns him, probably not (I’m speculating here). Also, it seems that it has only been recently that the ethnicity issue has reached the mainstream, somewhat, with the London Underground attacks and the trans-Atlantic bomb scare.
I’m wary of discussing ‘race’ with Europeans, and I’m white - but I hail from Brasil. The things I’ve heard have made me want to slap some people.
Rash… I understand your frustration. People only listen and hear what they want to hear. I suspect the person was not engaging you in an authentic conversation because the subject matter was outside this person’s true realm of understanding. I don’t talk about race anymore with anyone. Life is too short to have my blood pressure raised over the legal limit. LOL! I have found that people of European descent can’t handle a conversation about race, nor do they want to…
I suppose I’m way down the line from Europeans, Y’all’d call me white, even thought there’s a huge chunk of native DNA in me. My cultural roots are rural white Baptist southerner.
I live in Canada. When I got here, I got all the same types of comments Rashunda got over there. “Oh thank god you escaped!”
Everyone wanted to talk about white on black racism, what a huge problem the US south has, oh my.
As soon as someone’s car gets stolen here, the first words out of someone’s mouth are, “Well, they’ll find it burned out on the reserve.”
They treat the natives like dirt in Canada, and have for so long that they’ve created a culture of learned helplessness, drug abuse, and crime to feed the habits. Sound familiar? The government tries to come in like a giant nanny and keep the people helpless.
My brother was murdered too, presumably by a white guy, though they never caught anyone. It affected how I move through the world as well.
Some of it may not be race related, and might be attributed wrongly to race ’cause you view the world through filters created due to awareness of racism. (Before y’all jump on me, Rashunda knows me better than anyone else on the planet, and she knows that this is not being said disrespectfully.)
I used to think everything was a homophobic hate crime. And, like Rashunda, no amount of external bullshit has ever held me back in pursuit of anything.
Swiss people view the world through their own set of cultural filters, and television is the largest influencer of world opinion.
this is a late reply but:
white folks are involved in the debate. because britain is changing, the idea of britishness is changing as well.
first of all, this is not simply a black/white issue. the welsh, scots and irish are involved and making a ‘break’ with what they perceive as a fundamentally english idea of what britishness should be. that’s why there is now a welsh and irish assembly and a scottish parliament. so yes, white folks have a stake in this debate.
second, this debate has been going on since the first significant waves of migration in the 1950s. now that we are on 3rd generation black or asian brits folks are challenging traditional ideas of what it means to be british. all this is cyclical. because of the 7/7 bombings all these issues are being revived yet again.
if we don’t talk about race, if we don’t argue and debate and problematise this issue then racists and xenophobes get to monopolise the discussion.
in the words of primo levi: if not now, when?