Where do you really feel safe while traveling in the community? The hardest question to answer now is: where do you feel safe anywhere? Many have contended for a long time that parts of Brooklyn are becoming more and more dangerous – with shootings taking place every week, whether they result in fatalities or not.
With the exception of living on the moon, where it sounds like it
might be very quiet and peaceful, where else could you reside to escape
the terrors of everyday life?
Following the Boston
bombing, everyone – everywhere – was on high alert. With more police
activity and presence in major cities, some residents are starting to
sound like broken records in their assessment of how you “just can't go
anywhere without bad things happening! My goodness!”
Broken records or not, it's 100 percent true – but that goes for
cities all over the United States where streets are plagued by murders,
rapes, robberies and a plethora of criminals waiting and eager to make
the news. So here's a sensible question to ask yourself: where do you
want to live where you're 100 percent clear of danger? In an ideal world, it's where there's no crazy people. But note this:
You could be living in Detroit,
which makes it to the top ten list every year as one of the most
dangerous cities in the U.S. Forbes magazine claims that Detroit has a
violent crime rate of 2,137 per 100,000 residents. With hundreds of
murders documented every year, would you rather live in this violent
city that also has many financial problems? Reports state that this
city’s unemployment rate is also up. It seems living in Detroit would
put you in a constant state of fear, as its run-down streets and homes
are hot beds for criminals. I've never been there, but by reading up on
its condition, and having watched enough crime shows documented in
Detroit, I can draw my own terrifying conclusion.
Take a walk through Newark, New Jersey. Yes, I've heard that Mayor Corey Booker has helped improve conditions in Newark, but I have
visited Newark and was afraid to walk the streets in broad daylight.
When the streets are crowded for blocks and blocks with large groups of
people – and you hear police cars, see cops patrolling streets when
nothing's really going on, how safe can you feel?
Enjoy your freedom Brooklynites! Other countries, including Iran, Iraq, Syria and Madrid, are the central targets of bombings. No one will forget about the bombings in Israel
that took place last year in November amidst the Israel-Gaza conflict.
We're lucky not to hear air sirens go off in our community every night
while explosions go off all around us.
Let's get real! In respect to where you live in New York, how many dangerous things are going on elsewhere in the country and the rest of the world?
While I don't believe that crime is down in our city (because they've
subcategorized many crime types to eliminate the appearance of
skyrocketing numbers), we're not yet abiding by a city-mandated curfew
to decrease crime. Should we? Are we running to bomb shelters? Yes, the
sounds of gunshots at night in any neighborhood are frightening – and
the sounds of police cars make you wonder what the hell is going on out
there. Will you move from every place you live each time there is
imminent danger?
Every “nice” community has its share of bad news – a murder that “no
one” expected and tons of car accidents that shock even the oldest
citizens. Many residents, I think, are just plain naive and want to
believe every place they settle down should be “perfect.” As the Boston bombings proved, your moment of perfection while living in any state can be shattered in a split second without any warning.
My biggest pet peeve is hearing the elderly in our community say, “In
my life, I've never seen anything like this...What's this world coming
to?”
Really? If you're in your 60s, 70s – even your 80s – you've never seen anything like what you're experiencing in this city right now? Come on! I've looked back at some of history's most notorious violent crimes and there are plenty of incidents that prove life is just a cycle of horrific happenings that we have no control over.
Have you forgotten about New York's Mad Bomber George Metesky, who was responsible for the Paramount Movie Theatre bombing in Brooklyn
in December 1956? Six people were reportedly injured when the bomb tore
the theater apart. If you're a senior citizen who is scared to walk
Brooklyn streets, where were you when “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz was on the loose in 1976? Did you feel safe knowing this serial killer terrorized New York City, killing six people? Back then, did you not think the city was a dangerous place to reside?
You don't have to like living in New York, but our tough city hasn't made the list of top ten most dangerous cities in years.
If you're scared of every place you go and can't accept that you're
responsible for your own safety, perhaps you should seek to relocate
somewhere that's not within eyesight of planet earth – after all, isn't
it the most dangerous place to live?
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