We have a lot of property crime--mostly drug-related. Anchorage has an incredible murder and shooting problem for a city its size, but most of that is drug-related also. Alaska has a lot of weirdos and misfits. I have told people that most of the people who move here are either running to something or running away from something. Our crime rate skyrocketed when the state legislature put in place a copy of some law that originated in Texas--what a disaster!
There was an article on my local news app where the Assistant JSO Chief talks about gangs here in Jacksonville. There are some 30 gangs here, but he said "they aren't the traditional gangs, are smaller in size and not very organized, but do exist." The local rapper that was shot multiple times, and is recovering, is a known member of a gang on the northside of town. The Asst. Chief said that there have been 893 felony gang arrests since 2016 and 266 firearms seized. Now, this statement, made by this Chief, isn't necessarily going to go over very good with the black population of Jacksonville, but the statement is true: "Let me be frank with you (the interviewer), we have not run into any gangs that are outside of the African-American community." IOW, this Chief is blaming all of the gang activity in Jacksonville, Fl on the black race.
The recent rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Mainz/Germany (https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/06/07/murder-suspect-leaves-germany/680137002/) has apparently given rise to a virtually first-time acknowledgement on a major TV-station that the rate of homicide including murder committed by refugees from Arab countries has been rising since 2014 throughout Germany. This statement is qualified by the large number of younger male refugees (aged 14-30) entering the country in 2015 and after. Anyway, that kind of public confession appears to be kind of novel indeed. It confirms what critics of the German policy on refugees were saying at the beginning of the refugee crisis when almost no one would be listening to them. Such a TV-report seems indicative of a changing mood both of the public and parts of the establishment. What has clearly been on the increase in my immediate vicinity are burglaries.
In Fresno we have a lot of Mexican gangs and even Asian. I know Hispanic is the proper term, but these people are from Mexico.
Among Hispanics, there doesn't seem to be any agreement as to terms. Most Mexicans are Mestizos, of Mixed Spanish and Native American ethnicities. Hispanic refers to Spain, and Spain can be viewed as a European invader of Mexico, so it depends on which part of the person's heritage they identify with. A lot of the people in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas preferred to be referred to as Mexicans, even those who were born in Texas, so it was safer to stay out of it altogether.
I just hear Mexican more here than Hispanic. I also hear Latinos and Latinas here...I'm never sure what to use. Although all the restaurants are Mexican.
@Chrissy Cross I have yet to see a Mexican restaurant having a sign out front saying "Hispanic Restaurant"! Frank
@Cody Fousnaugh By saying that, is he not in essence admitting they simply have not yet arrested any Hispanic gang members? Surely, in FL, there must be quite a few Hispanic gangs, no? Frank
Of course one refers to a food and the other refers to a people. However, let's return to the topic of this thread - crime in the city. We have very little violent crime here. There are burglaries every now and then, mostly by the same few kids who everyone knows the names of. They have been arrested several times but are released to rob someone else's house within a few days. Other than that, there are fights, but it's a pretty quiet town. We did have a murder several months ago. Now that Maine has legalized marijuana, a marijuana grower in town was robbed and shot to death. His wife was also shot, I think she died sometime later. Since marijuana is still illegal federally, the take from marijuana growing can't be deposited into a bank without questions, so they kept a lot of money around the house, and his wife was known to brag about it. The shootings were done by a couple of people from North Carolina, one of whom they had hired to do some work around his house.
Wow !! Alaska isn't a place I would have even considered having large crime statistics.. and shootings and murders in Anchorage...who knew?...not me that's for sure! You learn something new every day!!
IMO, when the media employ "crime skyrocketed" reporting, it usually amounts to a very small increase, in reality. Frank
I learned something new about crime. I heard an analyst say that the Medicaid expansion under Obama contributed greatly to the increase in opioid use in the U.S. The guy said it has been discovered that many people on Medicaid are getting government-funded opioid prescriptions for pain, then selling the pills on the street. Who new?