Monday - October 30, 2006

Crime Capitol Of The USA?

To listen to the news story below, you’d think the Mafia had moved to the Midwest and Tony Soprano was living next door to me. Well, the truth is somewhat different, as we shall see. I know. I live here ....

St. Louis Ranked Most Dangerous City
_{ST LOUIS (AP) - October 30, 2006, 12:08 AM EST}

Just days after the St. Louis Cardinals won the top honor in Major League Baseball, their hometown jumped to first place on a list no one wants to lead: the most dangerous cities in the United States.

This Midwestern city has long been in the upper tiers of the annual ranking of the nation’s safest and most dangerous cities, compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent there from 2004 to last year, when the rate of such crimes rose much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to FBI figures released in June.

“It’s just sad the way this city is,” resident Sam Dawson said. “On the news you hear killings, someone’s been shot.” The ranking, being released Monday, came as the city was still celebrating Friday’s World Series victory at the new Busch Stadium. St. Louis has been spending millions of dollars on urban renewal even as the crime rate climbs.

Mayor Francis Slay did not return calls to his office seeking comment Sunday. Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, a private research and publishing company specializing in state and city reference books, said he was not surprised to see St. Louis top the list, since it has been among the 10 most dangerous cities for years.

Morgan said the study looks at crime only within St. Louis city limits, with a population of about 330,000. It doesn’t take into account the suburbs in St. Louis County, which has roughly 980,000 residents.

- More on the crime wave at NEWSDAY ...

Now, it will help if you reference the map of the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area below. You see that little star? Well, that’s downtown St. Louis and the actual city of St. Louis only covers an area radiating out from there about a mile or two. The rest of that large green blob is sometimes referred to as “West County”, which is where I live.

Now the actual city of St. Louis, as stated in the article above only has a population of a little more than 300,000 while West County has more than three times that. That means 3/4 of the population lives outside the city proper. It also means all the crime happens downtown while the suburbs are perfectly safe. In fact, the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area didn’t make the list at all.

Now why do you suppose that is? There could be any number of reasons but there is one extra demographic that you need to know: the city of St Louis is as BLUE as it gets while West County is solid RED. If you drive into town from the West, you notice a lot of Bush/Cheney bumber stickers, American flags on houses and yellow ribbons everywhere. However, the closer you get to downtown the more you see Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers and “Get Out Of Iraq” signs everywhere. This town has a split personality.

In fact the state of Missouri is a sea of RED with little islands of BLUE in St. Louis, Jefferson City, Columbia and small parts of Kansas City. At night I rarely ever hear a police siren in this area of West County but a few miles away in downtown people are getting killed, raped and robbed? You’d think with all those Liberals living in town with their gun control laws and everything else, they’d be peaceful and quiet. Wrong.

No, things are quiet out here in Red County. Most curious of all is the large majority of immigrants seem to favor the outlying county too. You wouldn’t believe the number of Hispanic, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and Middle Eastern people who live out here - and we all get along just fine. Which is something you can’t say for the weenies downtown. Heck, they probably don’t even like the Cardinals down there.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/30/2006 at 01:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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