Violent Crime as Weather
In discussion: a recent violent crime wave, apparently, there's a gang turf war, and there have been 10 violent crimes in the downtown area in the past week.

Now, in Los Angeles, crime is a constant thing. Hundreds of people are killed every year. Here, they talk about violent crime waves like weather. A criminology professor at UToronoto:

"Most weekends are nonviolent. You kind of just have to wait these things out and see," he said.

"If it starts happening next weekend and the weekend after that, that's a profound shift. But one weekend doesn't make a trend."

Wortley said there's always a particularly violent weekend every now and again. In February, he noted, there was a string of four killings in the span of three hours in Toronto. There haven't been any similar cases since then.

"These random events can happen once in a while," Wortley said. "We shouldn't let it paralyze us with fear."

I'm so used to crime being a constant overwhelming wash, that it's hard for me not to read this and laugh. Indeed, a week in which there are 10 violent crimes shouldn't paralyze Montreal with fear. Ten violent crimes is a bad five minutes in LA.
- posted by Unknown @ 8/10/2004 04:51:00 AM