Los Angeles Suburb Heads for Dubious Title: U.S. Murder Capital

[RedEarth]

Compton, California, is a Los Angeles suburb of single-family homes and apartment buildings, crisscrossed by tree-lined boulevards with Mexican food stands and grocery stores on the corners.

It's also a battleground for drug gangs, police say, and may have the highest murder rate in the U.S.

Homicides in Compton soared 72 percent last year, with 67 murders in a city of 97,000 people. That probably outstripped the rate in places such as Camden, New Jersey, that are perennially at risk of being branded as the country's murder capital, says Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, which compiles crime statistics.

Each killing in Compton, which is patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, costs about $1 million to investigate and prosecute, says R. Doyle Campbell, assistant sheriff. The crimes also scare away business, says Jack Kyser, chief economist with the nonprofit Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aLX3pWcp8gv0&refer=us#

[SteppingRazor]

1. Calling Compton a suburb is a bit of a misnomer...

I mean, it's right downtown. If you want to talk about L.A. suburbs, talk about Ventura or something.

Then again, in the L.A. sprawl, such designations are a little meaningless anyway.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

5. Yea,you're right-Compton is NOT what is typically thought of as a "SUBURB"

It's sprawled along the 110 next to Downtown.
And the labeling implies it was recently a "nice place" that been suddenly
over-run with murder and violence !
---not the case.
Anyone who's ever followed "rap" has known about Compton since the 80's.

Maybe "this year" the murder rate's up but it's probably business as usual if you look at the big picture.

And a million dollars to investigate?
damn, those detectives pay themselves WELL!!!

Anyone know how much it costs in NY or New Orleans or New Jersey to investigate one murder?

[SoCalDem]

10. Yep.. it's "city" all the way from LAX to well beyond Riverside

non-stop.. there are many different names along the way, but the cifification never stops..north,south,east..

[SteppingRazor]

17. Yeah... Riverside in the east and Ventura in the west...

And that was back when I lived there, like 15 years ago. Lord knows how bad it is now.

[havocmom]

2. Anybody have crime stats for 80's thru now?

Seem to recall they go up and up the longer a GOP president sits in Oval Office. And they go DOWN when there is a DEM there.

GOP administrations create MORE domestic terrorism, which is what this is. When the system leaves enough people un-invested in it, unrewarded BY it, and without any vision of how they can take care of themselves and their clan, violence will always be the outcome.

The people involved in these sort of crimes, whether in Compton or anywhere else in the US, do not hate us for our freedom. They are boxed in and reacting to it. They are locked out and become more likely to do things they wouldn't otherwise. More will become drawn to gangs which offer some feeling of power to them. The criminals at the top or the economic food chain, those rigging the game and gaming the system from the halls of government are directly responsible for the surge in the criminal activity at the bottom of the economic food chain.

When rising tides only lift the yachts, some of the victims in the water are gonna manage to stay afloat, often on the bodies of their neighbors, and a few will become dangerous pirates, intent on taking a yacht or two.

In the wise words of the gentleman from Arkansas: It's the economy, stupid.

Can we staple that to the forehead of every overpaid talking head on TV and every lobbyist supported hack in government?

The Great Society and War on Poverty weren't total successes, but they sure as hell made things better. The GOP Ownership Society and War on Workers is definitely making things disastrous.

Kill the old folks by making it almost impossible for them to get the meds they need. Kill the young folks by taking their future away from them. Culture of life my ass!

[RedEarth]

3. No, sure don't.......perhaps there might be links in the original post

[killbotfactory]

4. here is a link

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

Serious violent crime levels declined since 1993.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/cv2.htm

[havocmom]

8. Hmmm, declined after Clinton took office

Now rising again.

Thanks, made my point. The GOP promotes conditions in which crime flourishes. DEMS = lower crime. So, WE ARE THE LAW & ORDER PARTY!

[Hermosa Beach Dem]

15. My scientific mind being honest here - check the numbers

Here are the numbers from the first link in post #4, showing violent crime rates per 100,000 people in the U.S. since 1960.....interesting to see that before Clinton, violent crime grew at a faster annual rate under Democratic administrations vs Repubs. What gives - this seems counter-intuitive to me? Another interesting piece of info I've heard that attempts to explain the overall consistent drop in violent crime rates starting in 1991 is the impact of abortion - logic being that those women having abortions were more likely to come from single parent households as well as being not as well off economically. Being born into those conditions, their offspring may have been more apt to turn to crime in their late-teens, had they been born. Interesting to see that someone aborted in 1973 would have been 18 in 1991. So, did abortion have the effect of taking potential career criminals out of the population? Not sure if there's any proven correlation here, but it is something to think about.

year population total murder rape robbery assault
1960 179,323,175 161 5 10 60 86
1961 182,992,000 158 5 9 58 86
1962 185,771,000 162 5 9 60 89
1963 188,483,000 168 5 9 62 92
1964 191,141,000 191 5 11 68 106
1965 193,526,000 200 5 12 72 111
1966 195,576,000 220 6 13 81 120
1967 197,457,000 253 6 14 103 130
1968 199,399,000 298 7 16 132 144
1969 201,385,000 329 7 19 148 155
1970 203,235,298 364 8 19 172 165
1971 206,212,000 396 9 21 188 179
1972 208,230,000 401 9 23 181 189
1973 209,851,000 417 9 25 183 201
1974 211,392,000 461 10 26 209 216
1975 213,124,000 488 10 26 221 231
1976 214,659,000 468 9 27 199 233
1977 216,332,000 476 9 29 191 247
1978 218,059,000 498 9 31 196 262
1979 220,099,000 549 10 35 218 286
1980 225,349,264 597 10 37 251 299
1981 229,146,000 594 10 36 259 290
1982 231,534,000 571 9 34 239 289
1983 233,981,000 538 8 34 217 279
1984 236,158,000 539 8 36 205 290
1985 238,740,000 557 8 37 209 303
1986 241,077,000 618 9 38 225 346
1987 243,400,000 610 8 37 213 351
1988 245,807,000 637 8 38 221 370
1989 248,239,000 663 9 38 233 383
1990 248,709,873 732 9 41 257 424
1991 252,177,000 758 10 42 273 433
1992 255,082,000 758 9 43 264 442
1993 257,908,000 747 10 41 256 440
1994 260,341,000 714 9 39 238 428
1995 262,755,000 685 8 37 221 418
1996 265,284,000 637 7 36 202 391
1997 267,637,000 611 7 36 186 382
1998 270,296,000 568 6 35 165 361
1999 272,691,000 523 6 33 150 334
2000 281,421,906 507 6 32 145 324
2001 284,796,887 504 6 32 149 319
2002 287,973,924 494 6 33 146 310
2003 290,809,777 475 6 32 142 295


Crime annual growth rate
Dem 60-68 8.00%
Rep 68-76 5.80%
Dem 76-80 6.28%
Rep 80-92 2.01%
Dem 92-00 -4.90%
Rep 00-03 -2.15%

[driver8]

6. Suburb?? That's like calling shrubby's home in Crawford "a ranch".

Oh yeah -- a fine suburb to move to so you can escape the crime in the city.

[havocmom]

9. Not a part of L.A. proper, true, but deep in the megaopolis of L.A.

Calling Compton a suburb is definately misleading. It is about as inner city as any hood in NYC. If it takes hours to get away from pavement, the place is hardly a 'burb.

[kat21]

13. I beg to differ. You can easily get to the Santa Monica Mountains -

Palos Verdes Peninsula, Griffith Park (all of which have some good hiking trails) or the beach from Compton in less than an hour outside of rush hour.

[havocmom]

14. "outside of rush hour"

I put no qualifiers in cuz I grew up in the area and know what is there and how long it takes. Let's also add that a lot of folks in Compton don't have the income to spend gas getting to an open space (where the air still has city in it). It is not anywhere near what most Americans would call suburbs.

'Outside of rush hour' is a pretty BIG qualifier. :rofl:

[musiclawyer]

7. Well it's not "right" downtown

But it's not much more than a 20 minute drive in light traffic.

[noonwitch]

11. No way did Compton out-do Detroit

We're #1!

Not that that's really a good thing, but I don't think Compton can even come close to our stats, or those of Miami, NYC or Newark, not to mention many other cities.

[SteppingRazor]

18. Depends... Maybe they're talking per capita...

in which, Compton could easily beat out larger cities

[Algorem]

12. Barbara Bush birfed Bush's sister in Compton.That gotta mess a town up.

[Odin2005]

16. Compton, a suburb?

:rofl: