Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Most Dangerous Cities

According to the US Department of State, the ten most dangerous cities in the world in 2011 were:

1. Bogata. Kidnapping and drugs.
2. Juarez. Closing in on 3,000 murders per year. Used to be a fun place to visit when I was in flight school just yesterday.
3. St. Louis. We made the top three! USA! USA!
4. Port-au-Prince. The entire city is literally controlled by criminals. Been there many times, wouldn't want to get caught out after dark without a platoon of Marines.
5. Mogadishu. Banditry and rival warlords.
6. Caracas, Hugo's socialist paradise. It actually used to be a lovely city, now that hostility to Americans is officially encouraged, I don't even leave the hotel.
7. Port Moresby. As if the tsunamis, earthquakes and landslides aren't enough.
8. Grozny, Chechnya. Still rubble after the Russians destroyed it in the 1990's.
9. Santo Domingo. This one surprises me. They'll steal anything they can lift, but I've never felt personally threatened there.
10. Muzaffarabad, Kashmir. When the Pakis and Indians go at it with nukes it'll move to the top of the list.


According to the FBI's annual crime statistics report for 2010 (2011 hasn't been published yet) the most violent cities in America are:

1. Flint, Michigan
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis
4. New Haven, Connecticut
5. Memphis
6. Oakland
7. Little Rock
8. Baltimore
9. Rockford, Illinois
10. Stockton, California

I've been to fifteen of the above twenty cities. I've spent many days in seven of them. I lived for a decade in one of them. I have memories of standing on a hill in Stoney Creek park with my dad and watching Detroit burn during the riots of 1967. One of my best friends lives in St. Louis and I visit him at least once a year. We stay clear of East St. Louis, the rest of the city isn't bad. My job regularly takes me to Port-au-Prince, Caracas and Santo Domingo. I'm surprised New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia didn't make the lists, they've tingled my antennae as much as anywhere else. What they all have in common is a criminal, ghetto culture that's deliberately and actively hostile to Americans and/or whites. I wouldn't live within a gas tank's drive of any of them, even if it meant taking a low-paying job. Things can only get worse as high unemployment rates linger, inflation decreases purchasing power, welfare programs go broke and our leaders all the way up to the president encourage class envy and a sense of entitlement.

No comments: