US 'suburbs more violent than Iraq'

[deadparrot]

MORE fighting goes on in parts of suburban US than Iraq, according to Australian filmmaker George Gittoes who has just finished a documentary set in a Miami "war zone".

Gittoes' latest feature, Rampage, contrasts life for a family living in the blue-collar community of Brown Sub, Miami, with ongoing fighting in Iraq.

"It is much worse in Miami than it is in Baghdad," Gittoes said in Sydney today.

"There is a sense of people with guns, drug dealers lairing at you ... and being there, I knew I was in a war zone."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20716640-1702,00.html

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. WTF?!?

"So just join the Army. You'll be much safer in Iraq."

[rfranklin]

2. Well, you're talking about the Republican Cuban "exiles" who...

are mentally ill, violence prone psychotics.

[Judi Lynn]

14. All that bombing they were doing led the FBI to name Miami "Terror Capital

of the United States" at one time. Named a Miami street for bomber/mass murderer "exile" Orlando Bosch. Now THAT'S simply unpleasant.

On edit:
Even during the worst drug dealing, bomb happy era, however, no one ever cofused that place for a war zone, not even!

[trogdor]

36. Dude's been watching too much Miami Vice.

[ClintonTyree]

3. I'm sure our troops would beg to differ..........

that's about the most stupid remark I've ever heard. :eyes: There's no limit to stupid I guess. These Reich Wing assholes keep pushing the envelope,don't they? :dunce:

[exploited]

34. Relax people, seriously. The lot of you!

Gittoes is a war artist (painter/film maker) -- you know, symbolism, metaphor etc. -- and here he's simply drawing a comparison. I don't think he's underplaying the Iraq mess. If you've seen his earlier Iraq film you'd realise it's told from US soldiers' perspectives. His work speaks the bleak truth. He's particularly interested in giving a voice to rappers who grew up in gangbanging hoods and then joined the military to escape, only to end up in Iraq.

If Gittoes (actually) claims that the US is more violent, then this outlook is most likely shared by the guys he's filmed in this series. He was so impressed by the talent of some of the rappers that he followed them home to continue their stories, in large part hoping to give them the publicity needed for a break in the music biz. Could it really be true that street life in the "Brown Sub" with these guys is like living in a war zone? I wonder how the local cops describe it?

I can't say either way because I don't live there. Maybe it's just a publicity angle but given the responses here I can't help but see some truth in his words. :P
"Even left-wing Americans ... don't want to recognise the mess they've got in their own backyard," he said.

....... not to mention some truths closer to my home. :blush:
"All of our politically correct laws and things wouldn't let someone like me make a film like this in an Aboriginal community in Australia."

news.com.au on the other hand is just another outbreak of Murdoch pox.

[Union Thug]

4. Whatever. Suburbs? hahahahaha... okay, beavis.

What a messy assertion. First they mention suburbs, then blue collar communities (quite different from 'suburbs') and then they make a blanket statement about "miami". Um, what part of miami?

[sass29429]

5. But but but

if it's more violent here, who is lying to us? The foreign filmmaker that says it's bad here. Or the media trying to tell us how bad it is in Baghdad?

[Cass]

6. Oh sure, car bombs explode on a daily basis in Miami. WTF is this dude smoking??

:crazy:

[rolleitreks]

7. Freaking idiot. It's why Repubs laugh at us. n/t

[Tempest]

9. Are you Australian?

Because the filmmaker is.

[rolleitreks]

12. That explains it. Too much Fosters. n/t

[Tempest]

13. Have to agree with you there

I've been the victim of too many of those lagers.

[Tempest]

8. 14 dead, 16 hurt in mortar attack

Nope, not a U.S. suburb.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[NOLADEM]

10. I wish every jackass who spews this shit would be forced to move from Dallas to Sadr City

Disgusting.

[lakeguy]

11. i didn't know 600k people have died in miami

in the last few years!

[robcon]

15. Bullshit

Sometimes you just know it's bullshit.

[saigon68]

18. ITS TOTAL BULLSHIT

[geomon666]

16. It's true.

I live in Miami and I have personally seen MPD cops kill at least 10 civilians today. Then my neighbor got kidnapped from his house cause the neighborhood gang said he supports the police, they beheaded him.

[gorbal]

24. The sad part about this statement is...

I'm sure there is a real problem with violence in the suburbs, but comparing it to Iraq just makes the issue seem silly when it shouldn't.

[JoFerret]

17. Maybe he is right

on some measures.
Infrastructure, moral and ethical and and family structure is crumbling thanks to GOP and RW policy and inaction.
If his point is that Iraq is a cakewalk then he is wrong. If his point is that American cities and suburbs and rural areas are in deep trouble then he is on to something.

[bleedingheart]

19. this appears to be an effort to minimize the danger in Iraq

by comparing it to gang violence here in the US....

[Dissenting_Prole]

20. It may not be bad in the suburbs now...

just give it a few years.



http://endofsuburbia.com/

[pinniped]

21. I just past a IED and 3 snipers on the way to class earlier.

On the way back, I avoided 5 of those so-called insurgent checkpoints.

[Anakin Skywalker]

22. Jesus Help Us All!

[Rocknrule]

23. WTF?

Things like Columbine happen EVERY DAY in Iraq

[LynnTheDem]

25. rotflmao!!!

Even MFing freepers aren't dumb enough to believe that.

LOL!!!

[Thor_MN]

26. US Suburbs? More likely to find an IUD than an IED...

I've met up with some nasty potholes that threatened to blow a tire, but nothing that threaten to blow up my car.

I'm guessing this guy needs some more experience in Iraq to be able to contrast and compare.

[Mizmoon]

27. I've lived in a US suburb all my life

surivied without body armor, never seen anyone use a gun, never had a tortured corpse of a policeman dropped in the area ever. No IEDs either. Once a guy found a WWII grenade in his basement and the bomb squad took it away, but that's about it.

I'd venture to say the US burbs are nothing like Iraq.

[benEzra]

28. Haven't seen any APC's rolling through my suburb lately, either...

maybe they're cloaked.

I also haven't noticed the Methodists and Baptists blowing up each other's churches around here, but maybe they just rebuild them so fast I don't realize what's going on.

That filmmaker is an idiot. Florida's homicide rate (5.0/100K) is only about 50% higher than Germany's (~3.5/100K, IIRC), and I don't see anybody in Europe comparing Berlin to Baghdad.

[slackmaster]

29. This is not truth or even news - It's HYPE for a movie

:nuke:

[gorbal]

30. Well it's kinda dumb

Sounds like some sheltered, pampered WASP walked into a black neighborhood on the wrong day and got spooked.

[phusion]

31. wow, he's right...

I think they just found a mass grave of 30 beheaded policemen in my neighborhood.

:eyes:

[slackmaster]

32. You should arrange the skulls in a happy face

And spell out "Have a nice day" with the rest of the bones.

Then post pics.

[DiverDave]

33. Oh, Horseshit.

what a fool...yeah, Iraq is safer:eyes:

[Javaman]

35. You know, just this morning as I was driving to work..

I said to myself, "self? there appears to be more than the average number of dead bodies on the street this morning." I thought this odd, but didn't give it much more thought.
As I pulled into 7-11 for my morning coffee I had to avoid the usual severed head, "dang, why don't they clean them up?" I pondered.
Grabbing my coffee from my weapon strewn 7-11 worker, I motored to my job, avoiding one car bomb after another. Boy those things are murder on traffic.
Pulling into my fortified, barb-wired ensconced parking garage, I was given a full body cavity search for bombs or small weapons. I got so pissed because the security guard made me spill my coffee. don't you just hate that?
So up to my cubical I trotted, noticing along the way that the staff looked a little thin. Curious, I plodded over to an office mate and jokingly quipped, "another suicide bombing?", my co-worker laughing replied, "yeah, took out half the office", we both cracked up over that and made a few comments about the slackers being so lucky getting out of work they way they did.
But given everything I have said, I consider myself lucky with a capital "L", why? because of the myriad of things that could kill, murder or otherwise blow me to smithereens, I have a nice hot cup of coffee and you know what? that's all that really matters. :)

[Barrett808]

38. Nice. n/t

[antiimperialist]

37. Did 300,000 US suburbians flee violence?

yeah, that's what I thought.