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20/20 had a segment on this kind of thinking. I think it had something to do with scaring ourselves to death. It is a very sad thing to lose a loved one. Especially when the death is a vilolent one. At the same time nationally per 100,000 people the number of deaths has decreased. I know that doesn't make the families and loved ones of those that were murdered any happier to know that. I am not sure what the national statisics are for murder at this time, nor do I have a link to the 20/20 site.
One thing can be said is that when ever you have a free society people are allowed to make choices that have the potential ability to harm others. Sometimes those choices include murder. Many of those safer nations do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy here in this nation. Another problem is that with our current system of law it is harder to hold anyone that commits crime. Punishment has to become more rigid. Those that commit murder need to gain the experience of death. We need to change the way that the appeals process works. Instead of taking many years lets get that down to a year or less. Those that have raped or commited sex crimes against children should go throught the same process. If people know that if they commit a murder, sex crime, or a violent crime that they will be put to death, I bet that the amount of crimes decreases.
I agree w/ In Loving Memory. Tucson is not a safe place, and comparing it to other dangerous cities is pointless. To tell you the truth, my main fears when we lived there were of being run over by homicidal drivers, being shot by the police for no reason, and being gunned down in a road rage incident. And these were just the top three. There are too many parolees in Tucson, too many criminals, and too many trigger happy cops. We found a smaller city in a neighboring state that is much safer. I will not live in fear, and yes, you CAN move away from your problems (if your problems are caused by living in the wrong place). Having lived in probably 20 states I can assure you that every place is different and people are not the same where ever you go.
Tucson is not a safe place, and comparing it to other dangerous cities is pointless. To tell you the truth, my main fears when we lived there were of being run over by homicidal drivers, being shot by the police for no reason, and being gunned down in a road rage incident. And these were just the top three. There are too many parolees in Tucson, too many criminals, and too many trigger happy cops. We found a smaller city in a neighboring state that is much safer.
Just because you didn't understand a point does not mean a point was not there to be made. Enjoy your "safe" town.
"When we foreign-borns call a spade a spade, we're usually advised to go wherever we came from."
I hear ya. I have been living overseas for 9 year, ( originally from Tucson), and that is exactly
what I get when I complain about something. I never have tried telling my host countrymen that I curse the day I moved to their country, it would be interesting to see the reaction.
"When we foreign-borns call a spade a spade, we're usually advised to go wherever we came from."
I hear ya. I have been living overseas for 9 year, ( originally from Tucson), and that is exactly
what I get when I complain about something. I never have tried telling my host countrymen that I curse the day I moved to their country, it would be interesting to see the reaction.
Oh, well! I don't know about you, but I'm not a visitor here and don't feel this way. At this point, the bigger portion of my adult life has been spent in the US, most of it in Tucson, so the country is as much "theirs" as it is mine, whether I like it or not. There are plenty of native-born Americans who think along the same lines on many issues. I pay my taxes like anybody else... Uncle Sam will pester me no matter where I go... so I don't think I'm not entitled to an opinion. Obviously, since I mentioned it, I've heard the reaction in question before. It's a knee-jerk reaction. Even if you know your house is messy, if somebody else tells you it is, you get defensive and aggressive.
Of course you are entitled to your opinion. The "leave if you don't like it" is not just defensiveness, though that is part of it, it is also a reaction to rudeness. You can get a very different reaction out of people, including Americans, just by using tact. If I make a comparison between my host country and the USA that favors the US, I am 100% guaranteed to get a negative reaction. However, just by pointing out the tradeoffs made between the 2 cultures and saying I happen to prefer the one made in the US, I get nothing but agreement and positive reactions.
Secondly, I have seen you in this forum defend Tucson against some of the more negative attacks, is that pure defensiveness? Or, is that a realization that no place can be as bad as some people are making it out to be, and surely a city with one of the highest levels of immigration can't be as bad as all that? Perhaps the analogy holds for country as well.
i was considering a move to tucson and used the high crime area map, i found apartments on craigslist, pulled the location up on the goggle map and then put that map up against the crime area map, it was very disappointing. that nw corridor area is unreal and s tucson as well, what surprised me was you had pockets of higher crime areas all over the city...albuquerque nm was much the same.
i see alot of people saying you have this in all cities, and that is true, but LA is huge
miami, atlanta, chicago,dallas, phoenix huge.....these smaller cities like tucson, abq
memphis, littlerock with very high crime rates seems to me would put a person more at risk just from a #s standpoint...i would walk around new york at night before i would walk around new orleans at night any day.
if you have money you can find a nice area in tucson if you middle or lower middle class...good luck
It is so true, I am from Seattle and spend a lot of time here because my boyfriend lives here. He makes less money as a Quality Assurance Manager at a busy office than I do working at a children's retail store in Seattle as a cashier! The crime is unbelievable, and it is not just in South Tucson! We live North off Glenn and Campbell in a 'decent' area and there is a random meth house three doors down. And a private elementary school next door- nice huh? Dogs bark ALL hours of the day, no matter where you live (we also lived over by Towner off of Country Club before). I have seen people shooting up at bus stops and gnarly hookers in broad daylight. This town is not a fun or safe place: there is very little to do besides walk 4th Avenue and check out Congress. We have to all the museums, the biodome thing, the state parks, Mount Lemmon, and still it is all so lifeless. I guess being from Seattle I forget how lucky I am, until I come to a place like this and realize that not everywhere are locals blessed with natural beauty (but hey- a lot of folks love this desert!) But it is not for me. The weather is too oppressive to do anything outdoors without suffering from the heat, and taking your dog on a mountain hike is out of the question unless you want to risk a spider/snake bite or scorpion sting. There are a lot of safer and more beautiful places to live-the "real mountains" of the northwest can be dangerous but at least there are not spines on every plant along the trail. Also, the cost of living is not much lower than that of Seattle's but the pay rate is MUCH lower. It is sad. Every day I hear about rapes and murders and hit & runs- absolutely crazy!
You are in my prayers and I am horrified at your loss- God bless you and your family.
I am writing this post in hopes to reach those of you thinking about moving to Tucson, AZ. I am not trying to discourage that decision, but I do hope that you will heed what I have to say and consider it – especially if you are moving here with children
was born and raised on the northwest side of Phoenix, AZ. I lived on a main street, and around the corner from a police station. The sound of the sirens became as commonplace as it is in any other big city. My house was broken into, gunshots were rarer than you would expect, but there was still a fair share of crime. When you grow up around it, it seems to just become a part of your life. I accepted it at a young age and moved on. I knew that crime happened everywhere…and Phoenix was a relatively safe place to live compared to other places in the U.S.
Back in the fall of 2004, I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona. With a full academic scholarship and some extra money for spending, I lived on campus and decided not to work. I felt like I was in my own secluded bubble. This was the first time I was away from home – really on my own. I felt safe, and only heard of the occasional attempted rapes on campus, but I didn’t go out at night alone. I didn’t read much other than the UofA newspaper, and I didn’t watch much of the news. I kept up with politics, but that was the extent of my local/national knowledge. I never had any issues while living on campus that first year. I think that blinded me to what was outside of the campus, but it happens to the best of us.
After my freshman year, I moved out into a student rental home with 5 others. We had a decent 5 bedroom house within a 10-15 minute walk from my classes. We lived just north of Speedway…which some of you may have heard is the main drag in town, especially for anyone connected to the University. Not long after living there, we had cops swarming around and blocking off the surrounding areas. Turns out a murder suspect was trying to outrun the cops, crashed into a pole less than a block away from my home, tried to run through an alley, and somehow shot and killed himself by accident. Strange – yes. Did I feel unsafe? Slightly. Anything else happen after that? No.
For the beginning of my junior year, I was accepted for a study abroad program in Spain. I packed up and moved to Alcala de Henares, just outside of Madrid, for 5 months. That being the first time I left the country, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was warned about pickpockets, but really nothing else. After just a short time, I came to realize – and experience first-hand – that threat. I also came to realize that I was comfortable walking alone at any time without threat. I never heard news reports about murder or the like. Five months both in Spain and travelling solo around Europe, never once walking with a knife in my hand in fear of my life. Constantly walking alone through unknown streets actually convinced of my safety for the first time in my life…still aware, but not needing to look over my shoulder with every step.
Coming home from Spain, I felt refreshed and filled with a new sense of self. I was able to sort out a lot of my own issues and revise what I wanted from my life over there. I discarded my pre-med minor and pursued my love for learning foreign languages and cultures. I had seen enough carnage in my life…I worked in a hospital for a while in several different areas. I had assisted in a burn unit and a trauma room. I knew how unfair life could be. I wanted to focus on the serenity and love of life I found in Europe and not on the carnage I had become numb to in the past. I moved into a house with a friend on the south side of Tucson. It was a brand new development – very nice – and we both looked forward to a new experience. After a while I realized that I needed to be on my own, especially after an incident with murder in our community.
I moved into an apartment in central Tucson…near First and Prince. The price was relatively low, and it is a quiet, gated complex. I found a new job at Safehouse, a local coffee shop where I had been a loyal customer over the years. It is located near Speedway and Alvernon. On any given night, you can expect to see more than one police car speed by with sirens and lights going. I sit there and count them on a regular basis…3, 5, 13 even, in one night.
A few months into my lease, I met my neighbor that lived 3 apartments down from me. We quickly realized our immediate and undeniable connection, and we fell in love – the kind of love neither of us ever thought existed. It was that once in a lifetime love that most people never find. We never fought, and instantly became part of a huge family of friends that saw and encouraged how we completed each other and bettered each other in every way. He had just graduated with his associate’s degree in business in December 2007, and was looking for a new job. He drove a cab at night to put himself through school. It paid the bills, and he loved the interaction with people, but he wanted a more reliable income. Three months after we met, we found out that I was pregnant, and this made his job search ever more important to him. He was excited to be a father and actively involved in being at every doctor’s appointments with me. We moved into a new 2-bedroom apartment together on March 1, 2008 in the same complex. We celebrated his 27th birthday on March 3 by going to a concert with a great group of friends. He was a happy man and was looking forward to the great new life we had started together. We were planning on getting married later this year. On March 5, 2008 Tim Royce, my fiancé, was robbed and murdered while driving his cab. It happened a block north of Speedway, in central Tucson. He was shot and killed, his body left in an alley. It was a normal pickup…2 women and a man. He didn’t see anything sketchy about the call otherwise he wouldn’t have taken it. I can only assume they didn’t ask for his money, because he would have given them everything he had. These 3 people are in jail pending trial, and they are all charged with first degree murder, aggravated robbery, and armed robbery. They left his unborn child without the man who would have been an amazing father, his friends without a great friend who would do anything for anyone, his family without a son/brother/nephew/cousin/grandson, and me without the man I was going to spend the rest of my life growing old with. It has left the community in disarray and shock. Granted, the community is doing more than I ever expected to help out in this tragedy, but this shouldn’t be how the community comes together.
Tim was the 17th homicide in Tucson since January 1, 2008. Since his murder, the number has escalated to over 20. I don’t know what’s going on in this town so far this year, but I have never felt so unsafe. Several pedestrians were murdered in February for just walking down the street. In my opinion, this would not be my idea of a place to live if I was in your shoes. But then again, I don’t see anyone on this forum letting you know about the murders and people still missing so far in 2008. I’m not looking for sympathy or pity. I know my life will never be the same. I know this child’s life will be difficult. But if I can save another family from going through planning their child/sibling/spouse/father’s funeral and seeing their body lowered into a grave, then Tim’s murder was not in vein. Please, reconsider your options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philadelphian
I'm a Philadelphian, seriously considering relocation to Tucson. While every tragedy is equally appalling and dehumanizing, the statistics cited are truly a matter of perspective. Here in Philly (where the senseless murder previously referred to in this thread did indeed occur (for "no reason" other than the fact that nationwide we have legions of youths whom have been stripped of their very humanity by this "society") we recorded our 68th homicide of the year this morning. This is a significant improvement over last year, at which time the figure for this date was 95! So you can see that Tucson's murder-rate of 20-to-date, with the qualifier that this represents a significant escalation over recent years, does not strike me as an alarming figure. Of course, in essence, any murder rate is an alarming figure, but as an earlier poster accurately stated, this is the most violent country in the world. I hope Tucson can provide my family with a happier, more peaceful existence.
My boyfriend is from Philly and we are moving there in August to escape this hell hole- the heat alone is nasty! But my boyfriend says the crime in Philly is centralized to certain areas, unlike Tucson where you can hear about murders all over the city. And did you know, speaking of localized crime, that South Tucson has more murders than Camden, NJ? And it is only a one square mile! I guess Tucson annexed it because- I actually do not know! But it is crazy. I recommend an extended visit to Tucson of 3 or more weeks, in the month of August to see if you really dare do it. I would never move here, it is bad enough just visiting! But a lot of people really do enjoy it, so you might be one of those folks! I just like to have more culture other than Native, Latino and white in my neighbourhoods. I am from Seattle and it is widely diverse. Best wishes and have fun in whatever you do!
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calling a spade a spade
