Charlie Stross wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jun 20, 2000 at 07:42:24AM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> > Actually, it was me who said the first bit (pre [...]), not John.
> > Locations? Britain (London, Liverpool), Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Naples,
> > Paris. The apathy toward rape incident occured in London. In Rome my
> > father's rental car was broken into and his camera bag was stolen, mom
> > was pickpocketed in Venice....
>
> Rome, believe it or not, is reputedly the car theft capital of
> Europe, outstripping the nearest contending city by a factor of
> three. Pickpocketing is an occupational hazard in _every_ city -- in
> Europe or elsewhere -- that is a major tourist destination.
>
> I can't comment on the rape incident. However I'd like to note that the
> only place I've ever been mugged was San Francisco -- does this mean that
> I should assume all American cities are violent and dangerous places where
> the natives don't give a shit about street crime?
Curiously, the only place I've been victimzed by crime was in SF as well, my
truck was broken into and pilfered on top of Russian Hill.
As to your question: generally, yes. Actually, if you check out the local gun
laws, you'll find the degree of freedom with weapons for law abiding people is
inversely proportional to the crime rate. Also, the number and percentage of
weapons violations that are prosecuted and convicted will have a similar
correlation (i.e. Operation Exile type programs).
My local area, while not a big city, does have over 200,000 people within a 35
mile radius. Most people don't lock their houses or their cars. Our local
homicide rate is lower than most european countries, while our property crime
rate is only a few percent of that typical of european countries.
BTB: I just noticed they found a truck with 48 bodies in it in England. Will
those be classified as 'accidental' deaths or is someone actually going to be
prosecuted for it? Will they now be passing a ban on trucks due to their role as
tools of mass murder?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:13:53 MDT