Small Towns No Longer Safest

[ronwill]

Living in a small town may be a good reason to carry. It seems they're the only place crime has increased in 2008.

FBI: Crime falls in US, but small town violence rises

[festus]

This should be a must read!

[Oregon Vet]

Ah, they LOVE their percentages, don't they. They don't mean anything to me or to anyone without numbers.

Just give me NUMBERS.

They state:"
Yet in towns with fewer than 10,000 residents, murders rose 5.5 percent, rape increased 1.4 percent, and robbery 3.9 percent."

Rose 5.5 percent. What does that mean?

Example: There is a small town of 10,000 population that had one (1) murder last year.
THIS year they had TWO (2) murders. Easy to figure percentages on that, isn't it.

Their MURDER RATE increased 100%. That's right, you doubled the murder rare. 100 percent increase in the murder rate.

So, percentages are just shuck and jive figures. Let's see, IF we have 19 (NINETEEN) people murdered in a town with a population of 10,000 or less, then ONE (1) more murder would be 5.5% increase.

Salem, Oregon had 3 murders in 2007, population 151,000 people.

At least we could do something with the numbers if they would give them to us without us having to go look them up.

They lump all the small towns together so they can do % numbers on them. Woopeedoo, they HAVE to lump them together or they don't have enough numbers to do the math.

Why the scare tactics? Well, that is easy to see, it is a LOT better to say: Murder in small towns up 5.5% than to say: Small towns with less than 10,000 population will/might/may have another murder in the next 19 years.

Yeah, they may... they may not, too.

Give us numbers of dead/murdered/whatever. Percentage rates tell us nothing.

[ronwill]

Originally Posted by Oregon Vet

Ah, they LOVE their percentages, don't they. They don't mean anything to me or to anyone without numbers.

I'm not much for statistics either as they can be manipulated to say just about what you want. I found it interesting that the FBI would release info that crime in smaller towns had increased, including violent crimes. While we don't need more reasons to carry to protect our families, this info should be disseminated to show that even rural towns are no longer a safe haven. Everyone should to be aware and prepared.