Two Alabama cities -- Bessemer and Birmingham -- rank among the most dangerous places in the United States, according to a post today from longtime Alabama attorney Donald Watkins. America does not seem to have an answer tor its crime problem, Watkins notes, and he cites data that shows many of the most dangerous cities are in the South, and they tend to have Democrats as mayor.
What about other parts of the country? Well, I can attest that the crime picture is pretty grim in at least one midwestern state with which I'm acquainted. Based on my daily perusals of the news, America's intractable problem with crime might be summed up thusly "Things are bad all over."
Under the headline "America’s 10 Most Dangerous Cities; Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama Top the Lists," Watkins writes:
On October 17, 2023, the Epoch Times published an enlightening article on crime in America. Reporter Joe Gomez added an additional factor in his analysis of the crime statistics – the political-party affiliation of the mayors who lead the cities on two violent-crime lists.
Gomez’s article was updated on November 2, 2023. I have summarized the highlights from his updated article here. The crime statistics and charts in Gomez's article speak for themselves. They paint a grim but realistic picture of violent crime in these cities.
Two separate analyses of FBI crime data reveal the 15 American cities that have the most violent crime and spend the most on crime-related costs.
NeighborhoodScout and MoneyGeek used different methodologies to gauge the most violent and costliest crime cities, although five of the cities ended up on both lists.
You might want to take extra care if you find yourself visiting or passing through the five cities that appear on both lists: Memphis, Tennessee; Detroit, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Cleveland, Ohio. How were the lists compiled? Watkins provides insights:
NeighborhoodScout’s report is based on the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents in cities with 25,000 or more people. The data are based on the most recent number of violent crimes reported to the FBI in each city, projections of violent crime rates based on prior years’ data, and the population of each city, according to the company.
MoneyGeek analyzed the most recent crime statistics from the FBI to estimate the societal cost of crime per resident in 263 cities that have populations greater than 100,000.
NeighborhoodScout says it matches crime incident data from "all 18,000+ local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to the specific local communities the agency covers, and hence in which community the crimes have occurred."
The organization considers homicide, rape, armed robbery, looting, and aggravated assault as violent crimes.
How do Alabama and other Southern states fare in this analysis? Not very well, Watkins reports:
NeighborhoodScout's most dangerous city in America is Bessemer, Alabama, with a violent crime rate of 33.1 crimes per 1,000 residents. Bessemer is a suburb of Birmingham, which comes up sixth on this list and second on MoneyGeek's "cost of crime" top 10 list.
NeighborhoodScout lists Monroe, Louisiana, as its second most dangerous city, with a rate of 26.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Monroe sits halfway between Shreveport, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi.
In third place is Saginaw, Michigan, with a violent crime rate of 25.1 per 1,000 residents. Saginaw is about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.
Rounding out the top 10 are Memphis, Tennessee; Detroit, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Alexandria, Louisiana; and Cleveland, Ohio.
Several mayoral races in the above cities are run as nonpartisan elections, which means all candidates are in one pool for voters.
However, all but one of the cities are run by mayors who are either Democrats or are affiliated with the Democratic Party. The lone exception is Monroe, Louisiana, whose mayor, Friday Ellis, is a Republican-turned-independent.
What about the cost of crime per capita? Here is what the data shows:
The cost of crime, Watkins notes, is based on the "direct economic costs of crime to individuals and society."
This includes the medical and mental-health care costs for victims and the damage to and loss of property, and the costs for police and corrections, MoneyGeek stated in its report.
"Aside from the imminent danger of crime, people living in higher crime areas see depressed home values and pay higher prices for crucial needs, including home insurance, renters insurance, and auto insurance," the report states.
What about the rankings? Watkins provides a summary
Ranking No. 1 on MoneyGeek’s list is St. Louis, which has an estimated crime cost per capita of $8,457, according to the finance company. Democrat Tishaura Jones was sworn in as the 47th mayor and the first Black female mayor in the city’s history on April 20, 2021. Her predecessor was also a Democrat.
Ranked second is Birmingham, with an estimated crime cost per capita of $7,900. It's also run by a Democrat, Mayor Randall L. Woodfin, who began his second term as Birmingham’s 30th mayor on Nov. 23, 2021.
Baltimore is the third costliest U.S. city in terms of crime, according to MoneyGeek, with an estimated crime cost per capita of $7,230.
The next three cities on the list are Memphis, Detroit, and Cleveland. Three cities from Louisiana make up the 7th, 8th, and 9th spots—New Orleans, Shreveport, then Baton Rouge.
And rounding out the top 10 is Little Rock.
All of the aforementioned cities have Democratic mayors, except Shreveport, which elected Mayor Tom Arceneaux, a Republican who took office on Dec. 31, 2022, after the time period used by MoneyGeek for its report. The previous mayors, since 2006, were Democrats.
These lists make it look like Democrats are bad at fighting crime. But a closer look suggests America is pretty much clueless in addressing crime problems, no matter where you live, and no matter the poltical affiliation of your civic leaders. Writes Watkins:
Violent crime in the 10 most violent cities is bad and it is getting increasingly worse. Just last week, there was a wild west-style shootout on I-59 near the Arkadelphia Road exit that leads to Birmingham-Southern College. The rush-hour traffic shootout injured four people and shut down the I-59 for hours.
A couple of months earlier, stunning TikTok videos went viral on the Internet when they showed scenes of a Pilot Travel Center near Birmingham-Southern that had been abandoned by employees and looted. The videos showed empty shelves, broken merchandise, and a ransacked ATM inside the travel center, which is located less than a mile away from the college at Finley Boulevard and Bankhead Highway.
Officials in America's 10 most dangerous cities do not have to worry about the skyrocketing violence in their cities because they are usually escorted by taxpayer-funded security details wherever they go. Even though no one is making specific threats against these officials, they know how unsafe their cities are. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens in these cities must fend for themselves.
Finally, none of these cities has an effective public-safety plan to combat rising crime. As a result, violent crime has spiraled out of control in these cities. Shootings and crime-related deaths are a daily occurrence in them, with no end in sight.
Extreme caution is advised when traveling through or visiting in these cities. You must be responsible for your own public safety.
Experience tells me that Watkins is right on target about that. Expecting law-enforcement officers (LEOs) to protect you from crime is an exercise in futility. LEOs are just about as likely to commit a crime as they are to prevent one -- and they are way more likely than the average criminal to get away with it. Here is a scary thought: LEO's have the authority to take away your freedom, your property, just about everything you own -- I know this from firsthand experience. Yet, no matter the setting -- whether they are talking to your face in public or testifying at a distance under oath in a court of law, they have no qualms about lying. They form a "thin blue line" that means they protect each other with gross falsehoods when the chips are down. Do you expect people like that to protect you?
What about that Midwest state I referenced earlier. We are talking about Missouri, and I can attest that the crime picture in the "Show Me State" is grim, too. In Springfield, the state's third largest city (pop. 170,000) recent newscasts have featured the following headline: "Police investigating 4 separate violent crimes in 4 days across Springfield. Note: Springfield's mayoral elections are nonpartisan, but the county sheriff is Republican Jim Arnott, who is connected to some dubious organizations -- such as Protect America Now (PAN) and the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).
These organizations seem to operate under the notion " that federal and state government authorities are subordinate to the local authority of county sheriffs and police. Self-described constitutional sheriffs assert that they are the supreme legal authority with the power and duty to defy or disregard laws they regard as unconstitutional."
According to these loons, sheriffs pretty much make up the law and decide whether they will enforce it or not. Not sure where they got that idea, but it certainly is not from the U.S. Constitution
By the way, Missouri sheriffs take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Missouri." If Jim Arnott truly buys into this CSPOA rubbish, he needs to be impeached and tossed out of office immediately because he is violating his office and neglecting his duty.
In the 17 years I've published Legal Schnuzer, I've exposed dozens (probably several hundred) scoundrels connected to America's "justice" system, and Arnott might be the worst of the bunch. It probably would be a toss-up between, Arnott, Shelby County, AL lawyer William E. "Bill" Swatek, and Homewood, AL attorney Rob Riley.
As for Arnott, I've seen him falsely accuse someone of a crime at the scene of an incident and then watch his underlings lie under oath about the incident, as Arnott sat quietly in the courtroom, seemingly approving of perjury.
And, of course, St. Louis ranks No. 1 in cost of crime per capita, as noted in the graph above.
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