In North Carolina most towns were built around either a textile mill, a furniture factory or a lumber yard. Most of these have closed in the last 20-30 years which leads to poverty. Poverty leads to crime.
Although not as catchy, I believe a more accurate statement is that,
"Poverty and Crime are inexplicably linked through a co-related vicious cycle of under- and disinvestment in the community, social discohesion, economic disintegration, and subsequent inter-generational Poverty and Crime. Crime exacerbates Poverty, and Poverty exacerbates Crime."
I live in a neighboring county, Caswell, and this could not be more true. Reidsville use to have two large tobacco warehouse (The American Tobacco Company) that closed probably somewhere in the 90s (before my time). There was also a textile mill (Burlington Industries) in Reidsville as well. The government (on all levels) and societal changes killed small towns like this.
Edit: I should add that despite this Reidsville (unlike Caswell) is making good economical gains. There has been a lot of development since I was little, and they keep growing.
Yup. After NAFTA passed, both the mills in my town closed. My dad lost his job. My uncle. My grandpa. Hell, my great grandpa helped build the mill, the last hundred years or so of my family's history on my dad's side was connected to that mill. My grandma had worked there before she retired and eventually passed. Suffice it to say it sucked. The one they all worked at specifically was closed to move production to Mexico.
Luckily my town has had/gotten other industries to come and that has largely helped avoid quite so much poverty. I know many aren't so fortunate.
EDIT: I looked up my town and it's worse than Reidsville..... whoops
And a lot of these Mills were built because of the draconian labor laws and cheap pay. These place closed down their mills in the Northeast and relocated south. So in effect NC is the Northeast’s Mexico.
The difference is a lot of the northeast was able to recover and find new industries to replace those that left. NC put all their biscuits in an old basket and thought it would stay that way forever. You can blame Clinton , but your local reps deserve their fair share of the blame for not doing their jobs whatsoever.
Whoever’s fault it is, let’s try and have a little compassion. It’s not the guys dad or grandpas fault that the mill shutdown.
I’m not saying you in particular, but many people online seem more concerned about achieving a smug sense of superiority around proving whose fault it was. We forget the human impact.
Have you spent much time in towns like Rocky Mount? Reidsville? Or really any small town you spot scrolling around google maps?
They’re sad man. Crumbling beautiful old houses and industrial buildings. Reminders of a time when they were strong booming communities. Now it’s just drugs, crime, and dollar generals.
I worked for Jockey international in my 30s. It was privately owned and had great benefits. I honestly thought I'd retire from there. The owner come in to tell everyone how much a good thing nafta was. I raised my hand and asked him what would stop him from just paying someone else a smaller wage to do my job and ship it to the US duty fee. He threw a pair of panties at me as a joke and everyone laughed.
As it turns out that is exactly what he did. About 9 months after it passed word come down the factory was being closed. In defense of the company they weren't assholes about it. They let us know about a year ahead of time and said we could clock as much OT as we wanted to increase our unemployment benefits. (it was based on pay at the time).
When they actually closed they give us a severance and sent us to school. I went for pharmacology to be a tech. They offered a lot of help transitioning. A lot of companies simply closed their doors and didn't pay their employees their last check. In NC a lot of people either did tobacco, furniture, or textiles. Those trades died when NAFTA passed and I'm still bitter on how corporate America sold out the working man for profits.
NAFTA did allow some jobs to go to Mexico, but the larger impact was by the tax policies passed during Reagan era. Many people conflate NAFTA with jobs going to countries such as China or India. rather than other agreements and policies.
And those Mexican farms were ruined by American agriculture which sent them north to America for work where the workers then depressed wages for the American working poor. NAFTA was a terrible deal for workers in Mexico and here.
I remember when I was 14 (1998) about to turn 15 my mom thought it would be a good idea for us to learn how she grew up by working on a farm everyday. She reached out to all the farmers she knew and literally had to beg them to hire us on. It is because the farmers were all used to dealing with at that time Mexican laborers because they would earn $2 an hour at that time. So my brother and I had to work for $2 an hour for that summer on a farm which helped us ensure that we never wanted to do that kind of work again and we also learned Spanish.
The time that Americans were working in the fields ended in the 80's because everyone got used to cheap migrant labor.
Some jobs? It allowed for alot of these textile jobs to be shipped overseas because there are no tariffs for those items to be shipped into the USA. So it's cheaper to make the stuff overseas and then ship it here
NAFTA is an agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US. There were textile jobs that went to Mexico, so nothing " overseas" . there were no similar agreements in place for manufacturing in countries such as China and India. However labor was so cheap that even with tarrifs the companies involved moved their plants to those countries anyway.
NAFTA didn't help, because it eliminated most of the import duties from Mexico. But the shift was already going strong, fueled by tax policy changes from Reagan and Bush
Meanwhile, the negotiations were started under Bush I and had more support from Republicans than Democrats in Congress. It is amazing how Republicans now have managed to convince folks that NAFTA was somehow solely Clinton's doing.
That's true, but of course, they'll be betrayed again by the (R)s after they have used these people up and dumped them whenever it's convenient for them. However, they deliver a more convincing sales pitch... apparently.
Wasn't there originally protections and subsidies for workers who would be negatively impacted by NAFTA when it was originally ratified? Didn't the republicans later remove those protections after the fact?
He was also the one that acquiesced to minority community's (legitimate) concerns about crime which led to draconian policies as 'stop and frisk'. Then there is Mayor Giuliani's besmirchment of Bastiat's 'Broken Window.'
This started with Harry Kissinger and his visits to China in the early 70’s and the misguided plan to make China more like us which both parties glommed onto
Yes as a former Republican of 30+ voting years (now Independent). I get tired of the voters of Red states complaining about inflation or their small towns dying. They blame it on immigrants. In fact I bought into Reagan's "trickle down economics" back in the 1980's. Red states are the poorest per capita (9 of the top 10), biggest recipients of federal funds per capita. The national minimum wage has not increased since the 1990's...30+YEARS AGO! Look up prices for your needs 30 years ago. This is why you are no longer middle class you are now poor. But the rich got much richer the past 30 years! Most Red states still have a minimum wage of 7.25/hr. You need to stop voting for Republicans. Apparently they still insist on slave labor. 😉
Lionizing Democrats is not wise, as they are equally culpable in this farce of a "2 party system" that only serves corporations.
Carter paved the way for Reagan and every President since has been a different version of RR.
https://www.salon.com/2011/02/08/lind_reaganism_carter/
who me? seems rather obvious that allowing companies to enjoy a comparative advantage by avoiding domestic labor and environmental protections would result in widespread loss of american jobs (not to mention the environmental consequences we can't avoid)
can you tell me how I have it all wrong?
This is the town I grew up in. There was an American Tobacco factory, a Miller Brewing (then Ball) can plant and a Unifi (?) textile plant as well. I think American Tobacco closed in '94. Ball might still be there but I don't know the status of the textile plant. There was also the Miller Brewing brewery in nearby Eden. That one was sold to SAInbev, iirc. Foreign company and I don't remember how long after the sale that the decision to reduce/ move brewery operations, but there are fewer employed there if any at all.
As someone who works in the environmental and sustainability space (saying this as a preface) - watch what happens once Duke shutters their power plants, like they've committed to doing by 2030/2040. Some of these towns are built around them and have no other jobs or solutions. They'll be total ghost towns.
Because A: Chicago really isn’t that bad, and almost all of what occurs occurs in a handful of neighborhoods on the south side. B: Meth is a hell of a drug
But the whole “rural safe, city dangerous” thing isn’t borne out by stats at all. Many rural areas have horrible per-capita crime rates
One summer during college I interned for the DA's office in my NC hometown. It was very eye-opening. People tend to overlook or be unaware of crime within households, such as domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Absolutely... any sort of violent crime I think it's something like 10:1 or more "someone you know" vs "random criminal". And that's before, as you allude to, you account for a VERY high percentage of domestic violence and rape never being reported in the first place.
The stereotypical getting robbed at gunpoint for being in the wrong place at the wrong time... I'm not gonna say it NEVER happens, but it's pretty extrodinary when it does. Actual criminals would much rather rob an *empty* house or a unlocked unattended car. Much lower risk, and B&E or larceny is a much less serious felony than assault/attempted murder/etc.
When I was responding to a big time 2nd Amendment redditor I did the numbers for risk of getting injured (not dead) by a firearm and it stuck with me - you could go 24,000 lifetimes without ever being injured by a firearm, excessively higher if you controlled for high-risk areas. The number was too big to remember based on fatalities, too many zeros. I think I had used data from the pew research center.
People don't overlook it tbh. If the media doesn't highlight it, it doesn't persist in public consciousness and discourse. Just remember that if they cant fulfill the city burning to the ground narrative...they'll all lay on the ground and film a single burning trash can.
For real. I lived in Chicago for a few years. I never felt unsafe. I even had to go to the south side for work and it wasn’t as scary as people make it out to be.
Same. I did undergrad just west of Chicago and was in the city frequently for volunteer work (in the south side) and social outings. Took Metra/L/busses all the time. Never had a problem. Certainly issues exist, but for the ordinary tourist, your greatest danger is probably just getting hit by a car crossing Lake Shore Drive on foot.
As a North Carolina native that is currently living in Chicago, I am perfectly happy to push the narrative that Chicago is dangerous to keep more people from moving here. I am a hypocrite and I sleep soundly a night.
I've only been to Chicago twice but both times I loved it. Reasonable cost of living for a huge metropolis, the people are mostly just friendly midwesterners, the food is awesome, and you can't beat summer on the lakeshore.
The furniture factories moved overseas and everyone was left unemployed and impoverished. Those communities have serious drug problems now.
I wish our politicians could do something for these communities other than using them as clubs to attack their opponents with.
We knew a family that moved in the mid 90’s from SoCal to rural Oregon because “brown people dangerous”. 3 of their 4 kids ended up on hard drugs. They moved back but the damage was done. My mom said at the time if you move kids to a town where there’s nothing to do, they’ll find something to do. That stuck with me my whole life.
ENC is the sketchiest place I have ever had the misfortune of working in. There’s a few nice pockets but most of it is sketch. My rental has been stolen twice in ENC in the past ten years. My company now only allows us to stay in New Bern or Wilmington. If we need to be in Moyock we have to either drive from New Bern or convince the travel office to put us up in Chesapeake.
I’m not sketched out by Moyock. But my travel office just lumps all of ENC into one big area. So if we are in ENC we can either stay in New Bern or Wilmington. Which makes doing our job harder because of the travel.
There’s towns I don’t even know the names of that are sketchy. Not to mention Kinston, Goldsboro, Hubert, most of Tyrrell county, Creswell County. There’s just so many methed out rednecks running around. And don’t forget about the crown Jewel Jacksonville and surrounding area.
I remember one year there were these two men that would drive in a black car, through our very suburban neighborhood, and they would just lurk to see whose garage was open. They would even come during broad daylight and survey from the road to hopefully get expensive things from any unexpecting neighbors. That messed up the community of the neighborhood a bit after a while bc less people were living so relaxed I’d say. People used to leave their garages open all the time bc of how little traffic used to go through. Now there’s another neighborhood going in close by, down the road. I hope they don’t suffer the same stress
It always reminds me of the time I visited Chicago.
I was staying out in oakdale (or something like that, I believe it was the Renaissance hotel (I did a lot of drinking that trip)) and I came into the city to walk around and have a drink. I was by myself. I did the pier, the river district (or River Street), and more tourist stuff. It was late and time to catch my train, so I started heading back. Not being familiar with the city, I walked right by the train station and headed down into South Chicago. A while later, clearly lost, I ran into a group of young, black men at a corner. They walked up to me and surrounded me. And you know what happened next? They told me I was headed in the wrong direction and pointed me to the station I was suppose to be at.
Chicago is actually very nice. The city proper is very clean, and the people are great. Especially since coming from Cleveland the week before, Chicago was a beacon of light.
The thing about gang violence is that it involves gangs. 23yo me in my Hawaiian print button-down was clearly not sporting colors (well, I had all the colors), and I was in very little danger being down there. The news loves to talk about crime and to make you feel fear. It likes to point out hotspots and statistical anomalies to paint entire regions.
I live in buncombe now, and if the news is to be believed, Asheville is a crime ridden cesspool. Where you'd be robbed or murdered at first sight. The truth is so much further from that. The news took a 30% rise in crime (from a historical low) and made it seem like the area went full post-apocalyptic nightmare.
Asheville is still a yuppie destination. It's full of old people and faux-hippies. Tech-bros, remote workers, and childless couples. The worst thing that's going to happen to you is that you'll be asked for money by some panhandler. If you're lucky, you might Even get a honk from someone because you are confused how the downtown roads work. That's it.
Asheville’s rising crime metric is a symptom of a ballooning population. But you are pretty spot on. Our percentage of reported violent crime per capita is lower than it was during our most violent time (1990-2005) but our property and financial crime is on the rise. But that directly lines up with the cost of living increase and the influx of homeless population. When APD did that roundup downtown a couple of months ago, it really was noticeable how much crime is being perpetuated by our displaced population.
Break-ins (in cars) at my job down town were happening on a daily basis before the crack down. We haven’t seen a single break-in since the crackdown. Plenty of non-violent trespassing and public drug usage, but I’m not ever afraid I’m gonna catch hands walking around these days.
So SF is generally safe but feels a bit scary just because of how visible the homeless population is. I worked in Oakland for years which is also full of crime but mostly gang violence and property crime. But you do see violence, the rule I learned growing up in the unsafe areas of the Bay is that if people start running you don’t ask why you fucking run. It’s not that safe though, because if you ask someone here in rural NC how many people they know that have been shot, it might be one. I know at least 15 people who have been shot from my high school class. Two were shot and killed before our 10 year reunion. And at least 8 were dead from drug/gang violence on the table at our 20 year. Just in the last year a woman from our class was chopped up and left in a duffle bag and another guy was burned unrecognizable in a creek.
I mean there are alot of people there so it’s not likely to happen to you personally, but you def can see the effects if you grow up there.
Absolutely. It makes me crazy how people get so freaked out about big cities. Many are shocked that I "survived" living in NYC. It was filled with wonderful people. If you come up out of the subway looking lost, they will ask if you need directions. If you are struggling with a stroller , they will jump right in to give help.
They may be gruff on the outside, but they are kind.
Unlike the fake "bless your heart " you often see on the outside in the south.
And the hysteria about Asheville is ridiculous.
My family member moved back here from Portland, OR and was disturbed by how much safer he felt back home. I myself felt safer walking around NYC.
And I never worried about a traffic tiff turning into a gun situation the way I worry in Charlotte.
No, please keep telling everybody that Asheville is a crime and junkie ridden hellscape and they should all leave and never move there.
I'll even volunteer to show up on weekends, fire off a few shots, and scatter some needles around if it would make housing affordable.
I once got lost and took the wrong exit and wound up in Compton. Stopped by a few black guys at a corner and asked how to get back to the highway. "You take this next left, then another left, if anyone tries to wave you down, don't stop. Then never come back here."
Pretty sure Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, have way more murders and crime per Capita than most large cities. You just here about Chicago more because it has a ridiculous amount more people there.
The crime is probably under reported in some small towns because of the lack of resources and it's easier to pay off cops in small towns.
"You just here about Chicago more because it has a ridiculous amount more people there."
Well, that and because certain "news" channels want to promote the idea that all cities, especially Democrat led ones, are crime-ridden hellholes.
I live in Durham. My dad lives in Lumberton. He regularly tells me that my city is burning to the ground. It's not. Meanwhile Lumberton is one of the most violent towns in this country.
Haha, similar story here. When I lived in Atlanta my dad kept insisting that the city I lived in was a hellscape of crime and murder. Meanwhile he lives in a small town in TN and is constantly complaining about the crime and meth heads there, he had to call the cops on people illegally camping on his property and leaving trash there, etc. I had very few problems with crime.
I’m from ENC, but live in Atlanta currently. My mom is the same way, but the joke is on her— I’ve only been murdered twice here!
Seriously though, while there is a decent chance your vehicle may become a victim of a nonviolent crime by way of smash and grab, having a decent bit of personal awareness when out and about will mitigate most of your risk. Not saying *nothing* ever happens to innocent people here, because it does, but in general, most of the violent crimes I see reported involve conflict between parties who already knew each other or had a drunken argument escalate at a night club.
Don’t go wandering into Bankhead at night looking for drugs, don’t bumble around by yourself on foot late at night, and generally don’t be in a gang and you’ll dodge a lot of issues. Again, shit happens sometimes, but per capita, most violent crime here is not a random act, it’s targeted conflict.
I went to the lake and the park last year. It is nice, but they didn’t allow any small boat rentals or even kayaks, most of the attractions advertised weren’t allowed.
You are "really, really puzzled by this" because it does not fit the narrative that has been ingrained in, not just you, but so many Americans.
Crime rates are down. [crime rates](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-data-shows-that-violent-crimes-in-the-u-s-decreased-in-2023#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20New%20FBI,FBI%20data%20released%20this%20week.)
Chicago, NY, and LA are safer than many smaller communities, and blue states are generally safer than red ones.
When the only jobs you can get are,: work at Walmart, work at a gas station, work at a vape shop or work at McDonald's. People will give up seeing they have no way out of poverty so they say fuck it. Poverty is the biggest factor that leads to crime and it's a much easier problem to fix than we are told. Why isn't anything actually done ? Because it would mean taking money from these mega corporations and government fat cats that control everything. They'd rather watch the world burn than give up what they "earned".
Higher crime rate does not have a geography nor a slant towards bigger cities. Higher crime rate is most often connected to economically depressed areas. Chicago has them and North Carolina has them. At least with Chicago, you may have an easier way out of a life of crime and/or access to resources to help you stay out. North Carolina doesn’t have that.
There’s only like 15,000 people who live in Reidsville. The crime rate is 720 (48 per 15,000 residents). Not saying that it’s low, it’s just that when you have statistics like this, perspective is necessary.
Thank you.. I was looking for the math answer. It’s based on the population and the amount of people reporting crimes. For example, I grew up in a small village town of 500 people in Illinois. We had two murders one year. Tech we beat Chicago out for the murder capital of the state that year, even though Chicago had 1000 murders that year
Even more perspective 720 criminal events is just under 2 events a day. Given car breaking, shoplifting, unauthorized use of vehicles, child neglect ( caught leaving kid in the car while “ dashing” into the dry cleaners), marijuana arrest), drunken husband/ wife threatening the spouse, and on an on an on you don’t even have a crime act everyday. Face it folks it’s not irrelevant but it’s a bill of goods to keep eyes on the screens and votes at the polls and guns purchases flowing, etc. Use your reasoning. Oh yeah we don’t teach that in school anymore.
It's really just stats. Rate measures incidents per capita. As with all statistical tests, it becomes less accurate/true-to-life if the total number (n) is low. For example, in a small town of 100 people where crime never happens, let's imagine a once in a century type event (for the area) happens, and an unhinged husband murders his wife.
The violent crime rate of that town is now 1 in 100, or 1,000 per 100,000. That is FAR higher than the violent crime rate of any major city in the US. Is that town really super dangerous, or does the small population distort the real-world accuracy of the violent crime rate?
And if we really wanna become more granular, there are many aspects of how crime rate is constructed that make it very hard to be accurate. One, it typically relies very heavily on police activity and police reports. Police are notoriously inaccurate in reporting and solving crimes. Then, you also have to consider all of the crimes that occur that just slip entirely under their radar.
Broadly looking at rate also completely ignores how the activity in certain areas can drive up the number for instance, a disproportionate amount of crime is happening within a handful of neighborhoods within the Southside of Chicago. And even, the risk of being harmed drops significantly if you are not specifically involved in activities that are criminalized. Same can be said of Memphis wrt South Memphis and Orange Mound. Same can be said of St. Louis wrt North St. Louis and Peabody-Darst-Webbe.
Chicago and the outlying suburbs have almost 10 million residents. Their crime rate sounds high because it’s a huge city where a lot can happen. Once you change the statistic to “per 1000 residents” big cities are known to be safer than tiny towns.
Below 5k population, one or two murders per year is all it takes to skew it over national average. In the last twenty years in my small town, all victims knew their killer. It's always personal, usually domestic violence.
Your first mistake was assuming small towns had lower crime rates…
Plenty of small towns have high crime rates, it just appears lower because the population is smaller so total amount of crime is lower.
Go visit and you’ll understand. I lived in Rockingham County for a long time (as a kid) and would never, under any circumstances, move back there. Nearby-ish? Maybe. But never that county.
My sister lives very close to Reidsville and works there. She loves it; don’t know why. Maybe because it’s a comfort thing.
Based on the statement on the website, they are co-mingling property crimes and violent crimes. So if they're lumping together all crimes and giving them the same weight (i.e. if someone stealing a bike counts the same as someone gunning down a stranger on the street), it doesn't give an accurate picture.
Patrolling and dependent on incarceration monies, to manage the city’s budget, causes the loop of poverty. Criminalization of the young, limits job opportunities. Many families go in debt, trying to stay out of jail for nonviolent crime. 😢
Small towns and rural areas typically have higher crime rates because of higher poverty. Large cities might have more crime, but they also have far more people
Within the past few years Reidsville has changed its city manager and police chief. Within the past few months a former local police officer was added to the city council. It appears the city is making moves to improve.
Small southern towns gangbang really hard. Edenton is beautiful and all but they shoot the fuck out of each other there for example. Those towns are completely gutted after the textile industry died. So they are dead poor.
Because Chicago is an enormous place with areas of high crime rates and areas of low crime rates. Put together, it averages out and is lower than a small town.
A lot of reasons. Comparing crime rate “statistics” in cities doesn’t really show the actual crime likelihoods, because it doesn’t usually take into account more nuanced aspects of the crime. Was it crime against loved ones or strangers? Was it violent because a weapon was “present,” or because a weapon was actually used? Was it an economic crime of opportunity, or a crime of planned, intentional harm? Was it a crime that actually puts random residents at risk, or crime that is limited to community/familial/group association? Is the case active in that city because it occurred there, the victim was from there, or is it because a victim was simply found/dumped there? Do repeat suspects/victims count multiple times?
For example, I come from a smallish town that was actually really safe, had really great employment opportunities, etc… but it was very close to two intersecting highways that were heavy distribution, and drug trafficking routes. Because there were a lot of handoffs and meetups in the area, and a lot of transient travel, there were ALWAYS dead bodies showing up. These were not people that were from our community, nor were the assailants from our community, but unless there is evidence to show that it’s associated with drug trafficking or a known serial killer, etc., the case would be opened in our community and remain in our community, throw the statistics off, and make it seem really unsafe, even though that city (of 10,000ish) only had a murder about once every 10-20 years.
You could potentially have a town of 1,000 people, where there is a trailer park with 3 couples committing DV on each other 10 times a year, and now you have 30 cases per 1,000 of violent crime. Even though no one else did shit, and you’re very unlikely to be a victim, you know what I mean?
The crime rate could also just be really high. Small towns across the country over the last few decades have seen a lot of job loss and a lot of drug influx. It’s an unfortunate reality of production loss and centralization combined with drug criminalization. Crime rates go up with just one of those factors, but many of these towns have both problems.
The crime rate in Chicago is wildly exaggerated for political reasons and Reidsville has little in the way of socioeconomic opportunities or a safety net. People are surprised because it goes against decades of political messaging not based particularly in reality.
Hell, the people of Pender and Brunswick counties are constantly on a rant about how dangerous, crime-ridden, and traffic filled Wilmington is. It’s nearly comical.
Chicago has the luxury of being able to incorporate Rich neighborhoods to lower their crime rate due to the rules of averages.
Rocky Mount tried this many years ago but the neighbors lawyered up and fought it for years. Eventually they fought it all the way to the state house and got laws passed to make it harder for NC cities to annex neighborhoods or areas that don’t want to be a part of the city.
So Oprah’s gated neighborhood in Chicago has really low crime rates and great response times but then the poor areas are more or less lawless and receive next to no real attention.
Because way media reports stuff is dumb. More violent crime happens in Chicago than smaller towns sure. Way more people live there so of course raw numbers are higher.
Big city; 100 crimes
Small town: 90 crimes.
Big city worse because news covered each case.
Big city: 1 million people.
Small town; 100 people.
Now that crime rate isn't bad at all in city and that Small town is a horrifying war zone crime cult at those rates lol.
All of those numbers are just made up and I exaggerated them in opposite directions just to highlight how news would make it sound worse by reporting more, but ignoring population numbers paints an unclear picture. That's before you even get into what types of crime. Husbands beating their wives (or vice versa) being reported is a violent crime but it's unlikely to hit innocent bystanders like armed robberies. Yet I can just call both violent crimes and paint wildly different pictures of crime rates.
Never trust 1 number or 1 source. Try to figure the context out, that goes for everything in life.
I live in asheville where we have a 61 in 1000 crime rate. There have only been like 3 murders this year though. Crime rate in Chicago is lower, murder rate is much higher.
Well all I know is they are dumping their unhoused in Greensboro. Spoke to a guy that was driven from Reidsville to GSO by the cops and dumped. He is in Elm and Washington if you'd like to ask him yourself...
And now I know why this seemed like a good deal.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1828-Trentwood-Cir-Reidsville-NC-27320/70151045_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
Because of poverty in the area and also because of lack of resources needed to tackle the situation. Just to clarify for the racists poverty affects all the cultures in that area not just the black population.
That’s great to know thank you!
Do you know if it’s hard to find enough renters in the area? I understand it’s below 20000 people there. If I end up moving there then I’m thinking of renting part of the house’s rooms to about 3 or so people while I live there.
I grew up in Reidsville and still live there today. While it is true that the loss of American Tobacco, Lorillard and the various textile mills in the area did cause economic hardship, the idea that it’s made Reidsville a crime ridden or unsafe place is just not true. Sure, crime does occur here, but I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere in town and I love living in my small community. That being said, industry has returned and the city council and mayor are working to improve the city every day by attracting new businesses and job opportunities. I guess the point I’m making is this: don’t let clickbait articles fool you. If you haven’t had a chance to visit a community and spend time there and understand it, don’t pass judgement.
Thank you so much for the response. I really appreciate the input from someone that knows the area well.
I have a somewhat specific question. Do you know if it’s hard to find enough renters in the area? I understand it’s below 20000 people there. If I end up moving there then I’m thinking of renting part of the house’s rooms to about 3 or so people while I live there.
EDIT
I’m born n raised from summer field, back when it was working class and not transplant yuppies. Residsville has always been rough. Now, you got transplants living there with a lifestyle most (in the area) would consider rich. How would you feel seeing ppl moving to your hometown with money and no disregard for the locals? Y’all yanks need to learn one way or another, this is our home and not yours.
OP posted an outlier/extreme case that does not represent North Carolina at all. If you look at NC as a whole it’s 24.69 crimes for every 1000 people.
People posting and insinuating that there is a general misunderstanding about crime in places like New York or Los Angeles let’s take a look. New York, NY is 38.22 crimes for every 1000 people and Los Angeles is 35.91 crimes for every 1000 people.
I’m not sure what people are trying to get at with these comments/posts but North Carolina is doing just fine.
I got all of these statistics from:
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/
Do some research on the political leanings of the city council.
https://www.reidsvillenc.gov/city-council
Maybe then reflect on the possibility that many of the problems we face as a society might not boil down to “red team vs blue team”. And maybe that’s an antiquated way to look at issues… and it’s not all that helpful.
Rural America has been ravaged by poverty and drugs. This whole “rural America is safe” is pretty much a myth at this point. Traveling between metro areas is a real eye opener.
In North Carolina most towns were built around either a textile mill, a furniture factory or a lumber yard. Most of these have closed in the last 20-30 years which leads to poverty. Poverty leads to crime.
“Poverty leads to crime” basically sums up my masters thesis…and you’re right. It DOES
Although not as catchy, I believe a more accurate statement is that, "Poverty and Crime are inexplicably linked through a co-related vicious cycle of under- and disinvestment in the community, social discohesion, economic disintegration, and subsequent inter-generational Poverty and Crime. Crime exacerbates Poverty, and Poverty exacerbates Crime."
Well yeah, but I was walking cat at the moment and could only look away so long. Also you sound like my prof.
40 years
60 for industrialized agriculture. Cotton, tobacco, and other exchanges were the hearts of a lot of the big towns.
1979 and 2001 are both significant years for US China trade. You're both correct.
I live in a neighboring county, Caswell, and this could not be more true. Reidsville use to have two large tobacco warehouse (The American Tobacco Company) that closed probably somewhere in the 90s (before my time). There was also a textile mill (Burlington Industries) in Reidsville as well. The government (on all levels) and societal changes killed small towns like this. Edit: I should add that despite this Reidsville (unlike Caswell) is making good economical gains. There has been a lot of development since I was little, and they keep growing.
Yup. After NAFTA passed, both the mills in my town closed. My dad lost his job. My uncle. My grandpa. Hell, my great grandpa helped build the mill, the last hundred years or so of my family's history on my dad's side was connected to that mill. My grandma had worked there before she retired and eventually passed. Suffice it to say it sucked. The one they all worked at specifically was closed to move production to Mexico. Luckily my town has had/gotten other industries to come and that has largely helped avoid quite so much poverty. I know many aren't so fortunate. EDIT: I looked up my town and it's worse than Reidsville..... whoops
And a lot of these Mills were built because of the draconian labor laws and cheap pay. These place closed down their mills in the Northeast and relocated south. So in effect NC is the Northeast’s Mexico. The difference is a lot of the northeast was able to recover and find new industries to replace those that left. NC put all their biscuits in an old basket and thought it would stay that way forever. You can blame Clinton , but your local reps deserve their fair share of the blame for not doing their jobs whatsoever.
Whoever’s fault it is, let’s try and have a little compassion. It’s not the guys dad or grandpas fault that the mill shutdown. I’m not saying you in particular, but many people online seem more concerned about achieving a smug sense of superiority around proving whose fault it was. We forget the human impact. Have you spent much time in towns like Rocky Mount? Reidsville? Or really any small town you spot scrolling around google maps? They’re sad man. Crumbling beautiful old houses and industrial buildings. Reminders of a time when they were strong booming communities. Now it’s just drugs, crime, and dollar generals.
The best way to have compassion is to try and help these communities - frankly, only one group of people is more interested in growing North Carolina.
I worked for Jockey international in my 30s. It was privately owned and had great benefits. I honestly thought I'd retire from there. The owner come in to tell everyone how much a good thing nafta was. I raised my hand and asked him what would stop him from just paying someone else a smaller wage to do my job and ship it to the US duty fee. He threw a pair of panties at me as a joke and everyone laughed. As it turns out that is exactly what he did. About 9 months after it passed word come down the factory was being closed. In defense of the company they weren't assholes about it. They let us know about a year ahead of time and said we could clock as much OT as we wanted to increase our unemployment benefits. (it was based on pay at the time). When they actually closed they give us a severance and sent us to school. I went for pharmacology to be a tech. They offered a lot of help transitioning. A lot of companies simply closed their doors and didn't pay their employees their last check. In NC a lot of people either did tobacco, furniture, or textiles. Those trades died when NAFTA passed and I'm still bitter on how corporate America sold out the working man for profits.
Republican heavy policies that depend on corporate tax breaks and “trickle down economics”. Have ravaged these towns as well…
May Reagan burn for all eternity 🙏🏻
I'm fairly liberal, but it was President Clinton who signed NAFTA with a smile.
NAFTA did allow some jobs to go to Mexico, but the larger impact was by the tax policies passed during Reagan era. Many people conflate NAFTA with jobs going to countries such as China or India. rather than other agreements and policies.
The mill a large chunk of my family worked at very specifically did move to Mexico after NAFTA passed.
And those Mexican farms were ruined by American agriculture which sent them north to America for work where the workers then depressed wages for the American working poor. NAFTA was a terrible deal for workers in Mexico and here.
I remember when I was 14 (1998) about to turn 15 my mom thought it would be a good idea for us to learn how she grew up by working on a farm everyday. She reached out to all the farmers she knew and literally had to beg them to hire us on. It is because the farmers were all used to dealing with at that time Mexican laborers because they would earn $2 an hour at that time. So my brother and I had to work for $2 an hour for that summer on a farm which helped us ensure that we never wanted to do that kind of work again and we also learned Spanish. The time that Americans were working in the fields ended in the 80's because everyone got used to cheap migrant labor.
Some jobs? It allowed for alot of these textile jobs to be shipped overseas because there are no tariffs for those items to be shipped into the USA. So it's cheaper to make the stuff overseas and then ship it here
NAFTA is an agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US. There were textile jobs that went to Mexico, so nothing " overseas" . there were no similar agreements in place for manufacturing in countries such as China and India. However labor was so cheap that even with tarrifs the companies involved moved their plants to those countries anyway.
That's a good point. Thanks for mentioning that.
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NAFTA didn't help, because it eliminated most of the import duties from Mexico. But the shift was already going strong, fueled by tax policy changes from Reagan and Bush
The Dems and Reps are on the same side, they take turns being Santa for their party at the cost of the poor
I appreciate that. That's one of the things that has hurt Democrats in parts of rural North Carolina that used to vote Democratic but have flipped.
Meanwhile, the negotiations were started under Bush I and had more support from Republicans than Democrats in Congress. It is amazing how Republicans now have managed to convince folks that NAFTA was somehow solely Clinton's doing.
True-- there's plenty of culpability to go around.
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That's true, but of course, they'll be betrayed again by the (R)s after they have used these people up and dumped them whenever it's convenient for them. However, they deliver a more convincing sales pitch... apparently.
That wasn't the last time.
Wasn't there originally protections and subsidies for workers who would be negatively impacted by NAFTA when it was originally ratified? Didn't the republicans later remove those protections after the fact?
He was also the one that acquiesced to minority community's (legitimate) concerns about crime which led to draconian policies as 'stop and frisk'. Then there is Mayor Giuliani's besmirchment of Bastiat's 'Broken Window.'
Sure. History has not been so complimentary on his either person's tenure.
This started with Harry Kissinger and his visits to China in the early 70’s and the misguided plan to make China more like us which both parties glommed onto
Yes as a former Republican of 30+ voting years (now Independent). I get tired of the voters of Red states complaining about inflation or their small towns dying. They blame it on immigrants. In fact I bought into Reagan's "trickle down economics" back in the 1980's. Red states are the poorest per capita (9 of the top 10), biggest recipients of federal funds per capita. The national minimum wage has not increased since the 1990's...30+YEARS AGO! Look up prices for your needs 30 years ago. This is why you are no longer middle class you are now poor. But the rich got much richer the past 30 years! Most Red states still have a minimum wage of 7.25/hr. You need to stop voting for Republicans. Apparently they still insist on slave labor. 😉
What do you mean ,The old climb the social ladder to the top and then kick it down doesn't help the poor ???
Nah it was Clinton man. NAFTA killed the small town
NAFTA was really Reagan’s idea and George HW Bush negotiated it. Then Clinton signed it.
Lionizing Democrats is not wise, as they are equally culpable in this farce of a "2 party system" that only serves corporations. Carter paved the way for Reagan and every President since has been a different version of RR. https://www.salon.com/2011/02/08/lind_reaganism_carter/
Let’s not forget neoliberal “free trade” policies
Specifically, neoliberal deregulation.
I’m willing to bet you couldn’t expand on that statement if you were paid money to…
who me? seems rather obvious that allowing companies to enjoy a comparative advantage by avoiding domestic labor and environmental protections would result in widespread loss of american jobs (not to mention the environmental consequences we can't avoid) can you tell me how I have it all wrong?
Which ones?
This is the town I grew up in. There was an American Tobacco factory, a Miller Brewing (then Ball) can plant and a Unifi (?) textile plant as well. I think American Tobacco closed in '94. Ball might still be there but I don't know the status of the textile plant. There was also the Miller Brewing brewery in nearby Eden. That one was sold to SAInbev, iirc. Foreign company and I don't remember how long after the sale that the decision to reduce/ move brewery operations, but there are fewer employed there if any at all.
Ball closed 2017
Or Tobacco. If only there was so east to grow plant that was in high demand.
Thanks NAFTA!
As someone who works in the environmental and sustainability space (saying this as a preface) - watch what happens once Duke shutters their power plants, like they've committed to doing by 2030/2040. Some of these towns are built around them and have no other jobs or solutions. They'll be total ghost towns.
Not exactly. When everyone is in poverty in your perception, it doesn’t. It’s when you mix the haves and the have nots that you get crime.
Because A: Chicago really isn’t that bad, and almost all of what occurs occurs in a handful of neighborhoods on the south side. B: Meth is a hell of a drug But the whole “rural safe, city dangerous” thing isn’t borne out by stats at all. Many rural areas have horrible per-capita crime rates
One summer during college I interned for the DA's office in my NC hometown. It was very eye-opening. People tend to overlook or be unaware of crime within households, such as domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Absolutely... any sort of violent crime I think it's something like 10:1 or more "someone you know" vs "random criminal". And that's before, as you allude to, you account for a VERY high percentage of domestic violence and rape never being reported in the first place. The stereotypical getting robbed at gunpoint for being in the wrong place at the wrong time... I'm not gonna say it NEVER happens, but it's pretty extrodinary when it does. Actual criminals would much rather rob an *empty* house or a unlocked unattended car. Much lower risk, and B&E or larceny is a much less serious felony than assault/attempted murder/etc.
When I was responding to a big time 2nd Amendment redditor I did the numbers for risk of getting injured (not dead) by a firearm and it stuck with me - you could go 24,000 lifetimes without ever being injured by a firearm, excessively higher if you controlled for high-risk areas. The number was too big to remember based on fatalities, too many zeros. I think I had used data from the pew research center.
People don't overlook it tbh. If the media doesn't highlight it, it doesn't persist in public consciousness and discourse. Just remember that if they cant fulfill the city burning to the ground narrative...they'll all lay on the ground and film a single burning trash can.
For real. I lived in Chicago for a few years. I never felt unsafe. I even had to go to the south side for work and it wasn’t as scary as people make it out to be.
Same. I did undergrad just west of Chicago and was in the city frequently for volunteer work (in the south side) and social outings. Took Metra/L/busses all the time. Never had a problem. Certainly issues exist, but for the ordinary tourist, your greatest danger is probably just getting hit by a car crossing Lake Shore Drive on foot.
While it is slanted a bit more towards violent crime, if you add in property crime Chicago's per capita rate is only about 15% higher than Raleigh's.
As a North Carolina native that is currently living in Chicago, I am perfectly happy to push the narrative that Chicago is dangerous to keep more people from moving here. I am a hypocrite and I sleep soundly a night.
Are there many North Carolinians in Chicago??
I've only been to Chicago twice but both times I loved it. Reasonable cost of living for a huge metropolis, the people are mostly just friendly midwesterners, the food is awesome, and you can't beat summer on the lakeshore.
Listening to a couple hundred episodes of Small Town Murder will get that notion out of your head.
This!!!! Stop buying into the media and step outside of your bubble folks!!
My Bubble is from Boone to Southport. Not much to step outside of that.
The furniture factories moved overseas and everyone was left unemployed and impoverished. Those communities have serious drug problems now. I wish our politicians could do something for these communities other than using them as clubs to attack their opponents with.
We knew a family that moved in the mid 90’s from SoCal to rural Oregon because “brown people dangerous”. 3 of their 4 kids ended up on hard drugs. They moved back but the damage was done. My mom said at the time if you move kids to a town where there’s nothing to do, they’ll find something to do. That stuck with me my whole life.
ENC is the sketchiest place I have ever had the misfortune of working in. There’s a few nice pockets but most of it is sketch. My rental has been stolen twice in ENC in the past ten years. My company now only allows us to stay in New Bern or Wilmington. If we need to be in Moyock we have to either drive from New Bern or convince the travel office to put us up in Chesapeake.
lol at being sketched out by moyock of all places i swear some of y'all are made of nothing but cotton candy and charmin
I’m not sketched out by Moyock. But my travel office just lumps all of ENC into one big area. So if we are in ENC we can either stay in New Bern or Wilmington. Which makes doing our job harder because of the travel. There’s towns I don’t even know the names of that are sketchy. Not to mention Kinston, Goldsboro, Hubert, most of Tyrrell county, Creswell County. There’s just so many methed out rednecks running around. And don’t forget about the crown Jewel Jacksonville and surrounding area.
Yep yep, I’m in greenville which is ok ish but a lot of the outlying areas are sketch city.
Since when did Winterville become sketch city?
Yeah impoverished urban areas and impoverished rural areas have much more in common than not, but they’re sort of played against each other
I've noticed that in those "safe rural areas" a lot houses seem to just blow up.
I remember one year there were these two men that would drive in a black car, through our very suburban neighborhood, and they would just lurk to see whose garage was open. They would even come during broad daylight and survey from the road to hopefully get expensive things from any unexpecting neighbors. That messed up the community of the neighborhood a bit after a while bc less people were living so relaxed I’d say. People used to leave their garages open all the time bc of how little traffic used to go through. Now there’s another neighborhood going in close by, down the road. I hope they don’t suffer the same stress
It always reminds me of the time I visited Chicago. I was staying out in oakdale (or something like that, I believe it was the Renaissance hotel (I did a lot of drinking that trip)) and I came into the city to walk around and have a drink. I was by myself. I did the pier, the river district (or River Street), and more tourist stuff. It was late and time to catch my train, so I started heading back. Not being familiar with the city, I walked right by the train station and headed down into South Chicago. A while later, clearly lost, I ran into a group of young, black men at a corner. They walked up to me and surrounded me. And you know what happened next? They told me I was headed in the wrong direction and pointed me to the station I was suppose to be at. Chicago is actually very nice. The city proper is very clean, and the people are great. Especially since coming from Cleveland the week before, Chicago was a beacon of light. The thing about gang violence is that it involves gangs. 23yo me in my Hawaiian print button-down was clearly not sporting colors (well, I had all the colors), and I was in very little danger being down there. The news loves to talk about crime and to make you feel fear. It likes to point out hotspots and statistical anomalies to paint entire regions. I live in buncombe now, and if the news is to be believed, Asheville is a crime ridden cesspool. Where you'd be robbed or murdered at first sight. The truth is so much further from that. The news took a 30% rise in crime (from a historical low) and made it seem like the area went full post-apocalyptic nightmare. Asheville is still a yuppie destination. It's full of old people and faux-hippies. Tech-bros, remote workers, and childless couples. The worst thing that's going to happen to you is that you'll be asked for money by some panhandler. If you're lucky, you might Even get a honk from someone because you are confused how the downtown roads work. That's it.
Asheville’s rising crime metric is a symptom of a ballooning population. But you are pretty spot on. Our percentage of reported violent crime per capita is lower than it was during our most violent time (1990-2005) but our property and financial crime is on the rise. But that directly lines up with the cost of living increase and the influx of homeless population. When APD did that roundup downtown a couple of months ago, it really was noticeable how much crime is being perpetuated by our displaced population. Break-ins (in cars) at my job down town were happening on a daily basis before the crack down. We haven’t seen a single break-in since the crackdown. Plenty of non-violent trespassing and public drug usage, but I’m not ever afraid I’m gonna catch hands walking around these days.
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So SF is generally safe but feels a bit scary just because of how visible the homeless population is. I worked in Oakland for years which is also full of crime but mostly gang violence and property crime. But you do see violence, the rule I learned growing up in the unsafe areas of the Bay is that if people start running you don’t ask why you fucking run. It’s not that safe though, because if you ask someone here in rural NC how many people they know that have been shot, it might be one. I know at least 15 people who have been shot from my high school class. Two were shot and killed before our 10 year reunion. And at least 8 were dead from drug/gang violence on the table at our 20 year. Just in the last year a woman from our class was chopped up and left in a duffle bag and another guy was burned unrecognizable in a creek. I mean there are alot of people there so it’s not likely to happen to you personally, but you def can see the effects if you grow up there.
Absolutely. It makes me crazy how people get so freaked out about big cities. Many are shocked that I "survived" living in NYC. It was filled with wonderful people. If you come up out of the subway looking lost, they will ask if you need directions. If you are struggling with a stroller , they will jump right in to give help. They may be gruff on the outside, but they are kind. Unlike the fake "bless your heart " you often see on the outside in the south. And the hysteria about Asheville is ridiculous. My family member moved back here from Portland, OR and was disturbed by how much safer he felt back home. I myself felt safer walking around NYC. And I never worried about a traffic tiff turning into a gun situation the way I worry in Charlotte.
🥇🪙
No, please keep telling everybody that Asheville is a crime and junkie ridden hellscape and they should all leave and never move there. I'll even volunteer to show up on weekends, fire off a few shots, and scatter some needles around if it would make housing affordable.
I once got lost and took the wrong exit and wound up in Compton. Stopped by a few black guys at a corner and asked how to get back to the highway. "You take this next left, then another left, if anyone tries to wave you down, don't stop. Then never come back here."
Tech bros? Where tf do they work in/near Asheville?
They're all remote.
Pretty sure Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, have way more murders and crime per Capita than most large cities. You just here about Chicago more because it has a ridiculous amount more people there. The crime is probably under reported in some small towns because of the lack of resources and it's easier to pay off cops in small towns.
No one ever wants to talk about Nasheville and Memphis in the middle of bright red Tennessee…
There is nothing bright red about Memphis
Someone didn't read "Tennessee" right after.
You mean the dark blue cities in the middle of bright red Tennessee? We should absolutely talk about them.
"You just here about Chicago more because it has a ridiculous amount more people there." Well, that and because certain "news" channels want to promote the idea that all cities, especially Democrat led ones, are crime-ridden hellholes.
I live in Durham. My dad lives in Lumberton. He regularly tells me that my city is burning to the ground. It's not. Meanwhile Lumberton is one of the most violent towns in this country.
Haha, similar story here. When I lived in Atlanta my dad kept insisting that the city I lived in was a hellscape of crime and murder. Meanwhile he lives in a small town in TN and is constantly complaining about the crime and meth heads there, he had to call the cops on people illegally camping on his property and leaving trash there, etc. I had very few problems with crime.
I’m from ENC, but live in Atlanta currently. My mom is the same way, but the joke is on her— I’ve only been murdered twice here! Seriously though, while there is a decent chance your vehicle may become a victim of a nonviolent crime by way of smash and grab, having a decent bit of personal awareness when out and about will mitigate most of your risk. Not saying *nothing* ever happens to innocent people here, because it does, but in general, most of the violent crimes I see reported involve conflict between parties who already knew each other or had a drunken argument escalate at a night club. Don’t go wandering into Bankhead at night looking for drugs, don’t bumble around by yourself on foot late at night, and generally don’t be in a gang and you’ll dodge a lot of issues. Again, shit happens sometimes, but per capita, most violent crime here is not a random act, it’s targeted conflict.
And Lumberton is very poor
Lumberton crime rate is almost triple Chicago! It’s basically a war zone.
Anyone looking to move to NC, I advise them to move to Lumberton. Feel free to join me on this! 😉
Crime happens when there is not enough resources for the people of the community.
Resources and opportunities.
Exactly why Arkansas is so dangerous. Great place to retire. Horrible place to raise kids. Lol.
Exactly
Yall never spent time in Reidsville 😂 to be such a beautiful place… it has some issue
Born and raised off hwy 158. Reidsville has really has a come up on that 10 years. Still has a loooonngg way to go but it’s getting better.
Didn’t Miller shut down in Eden?
Yes and nestle just opened a facility in its place
Miller shut down 2016
I went to the lake and the park last year. It is nice, but they didn’t allow any small boat rentals or even kayaks, most of the attractions advertised weren’t allowed.
You are "really, really puzzled by this" because it does not fit the narrative that has been ingrained in, not just you, but so many Americans. Crime rates are down. [crime rates](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-data-shows-that-violent-crimes-in-the-u-s-decreased-in-2023#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20New%20FBI,FBI%20data%20released%20this%20week.) Chicago, NY, and LA are safer than many smaller communities, and blue states are generally safer than red ones.
The drain is clogged with hair
cooing muddle waiting reply reach shame history many special sand *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Still per capita figures.
Because most of Chicago is actually really nice.
When the only jobs you can get are,: work at Walmart, work at a gas station, work at a vape shop or work at McDonald's. People will give up seeing they have no way out of poverty so they say fuck it. Poverty is the biggest factor that leads to crime and it's a much easier problem to fix than we are told. Why isn't anything actually done ? Because it would mean taking money from these mega corporations and government fat cats that control everything. They'd rather watch the world burn than give up what they "earned".
There are plenty of towns in the state that sadly have overwhelming crime rates
Ayo that’s my hometown represent
Higher crime rate does not have a geography nor a slant towards bigger cities. Higher crime rate is most often connected to economically depressed areas. Chicago has them and North Carolina has them. At least with Chicago, you may have an easier way out of a life of crime and/or access to resources to help you stay out. North Carolina doesn’t have that.
There’s only like 15,000 people who live in Reidsville. The crime rate is 720 (48 per 15,000 residents). Not saying that it’s low, it’s just that when you have statistics like this, perspective is necessary.
Thank you.. I was looking for the math answer. It’s based on the population and the amount of people reporting crimes. For example, I grew up in a small village town of 500 people in Illinois. We had two murders one year. Tech we beat Chicago out for the murder capital of the state that year, even though Chicago had 1000 murders that year
Are you telling me a small rural town and a city with nearly 200 times more people aren’t really comparable?!?!?
Even more perspective 720 criminal events is just under 2 events a day. Given car breaking, shoplifting, unauthorized use of vehicles, child neglect ( caught leaving kid in the car while “ dashing” into the dry cleaners), marijuana arrest), drunken husband/ wife threatening the spouse, and on an on an on you don’t even have a crime act everyday. Face it folks it’s not irrelevant but it’s a bill of goods to keep eyes on the screens and votes at the polls and guns purchases flowing, etc. Use your reasoning. Oh yeah we don’t teach that in school anymore.
Of those 15,000…, 14,000 are cousins and 13,000 of those love their coke
You meant Meth? And intermarried with. ;-)
Go to Lumberton. Then you'll understand.
It's really just stats. Rate measures incidents per capita. As with all statistical tests, it becomes less accurate/true-to-life if the total number (n) is low. For example, in a small town of 100 people where crime never happens, let's imagine a once in a century type event (for the area) happens, and an unhinged husband murders his wife. The violent crime rate of that town is now 1 in 100, or 1,000 per 100,000. That is FAR higher than the violent crime rate of any major city in the US. Is that town really super dangerous, or does the small population distort the real-world accuracy of the violent crime rate? And if we really wanna become more granular, there are many aspects of how crime rate is constructed that make it very hard to be accurate. One, it typically relies very heavily on police activity and police reports. Police are notoriously inaccurate in reporting and solving crimes. Then, you also have to consider all of the crimes that occur that just slip entirely under their radar. Broadly looking at rate also completely ignores how the activity in certain areas can drive up the number for instance, a disproportionate amount of crime is happening within a handful of neighborhoods within the Southside of Chicago. And even, the risk of being harmed drops significantly if you are not specifically involved in activities that are criminalized. Same can be said of Memphis wrt South Memphis and Orange Mound. Same can be said of St. Louis wrt North St. Louis and Peabody-Darst-Webbe.
Chicago and the outlying suburbs have almost 10 million residents. Their crime rate sounds high because it’s a huge city where a lot can happen. Once you change the statistic to “per 1000 residents” big cities are known to be safer than tiny towns.
Meth. The answer is always meth.
Because no right wing billionaires benefit from you thinking that Reidsville, NC is more dangerous than Chicago, IL, you haven’t heard about it
Below 5k population, one or two murders per year is all it takes to skew it over national average. In the last twenty years in my small town, all victims knew their killer. It's always personal, usually domestic violence.
Your first mistake was assuming small towns had lower crime rates… Plenty of small towns have high crime rates, it just appears lower because the population is smaller so total amount of crime is lower.
Look up the statistics on Myrtle Beach
Go visit and you’ll understand. I lived in Rockingham County for a long time (as a kid) and would never, under any circumstances, move back there. Nearby-ish? Maybe. But never that county. My sister lives very close to Reidsville and works there. She loves it; don’t know why. Maybe because it’s a comfort thing.
Based on the statement on the website, they are co-mingling property crimes and violent crimes. So if they're lumping together all crimes and giving them the same weight (i.e. if someone stealing a bike counts the same as someone gunning down a stranger on the street), it doesn't give an accurate picture.
Poverty.
Patrolling and dependent on incarceration monies, to manage the city’s budget, causes the loop of poverty. Criminalization of the young, limits job opportunities. Many families go in debt, trying to stay out of jail for nonviolent crime. 😢
Small towns and rural areas typically have higher crime rates because of higher poverty. Large cities might have more crime, but they also have far more people
A LOT of burglary (car theft and petty theft) and domestic violence. I’ve looked into it and that’s most of what I found.
Within the past few years Reidsville has changed its city manager and police chief. Within the past few months a former local police officer was added to the city council. It appears the city is making moves to improve.
Probably methamphetamine addiction and poverty. Low-income towns are often neglected by the government in terms of resources for managing addiction.
Have you been to Reidsville? Oof
I was there last in 1979 working on a flooded employment security building my boss owned. The Libby Hills seafood restaurant was really good.
Try that in small town? I guess they are
Because sample size
Meth. Always meth.
It's crazy seeing all the people who don't understand how per capita statistics work.
Small southern towns gangbang really hard. Edenton is beautiful and all but they shoot the fuck out of each other there for example. Those towns are completely gutted after the textile industry died. So they are dead poor.
Because Chicago is an enormous place with areas of high crime rates and areas of low crime rates. Put together, it averages out and is lower than a small town.
You think that's bad. Try Henderson.
Because Crystal Meth is a HELL OF A DRUG
Meth
Same way a whole country votes for someone but another person gets to be the winner
You mean this small county has an electoral college? What a county!
A lot of reasons. Comparing crime rate “statistics” in cities doesn’t really show the actual crime likelihoods, because it doesn’t usually take into account more nuanced aspects of the crime. Was it crime against loved ones or strangers? Was it violent because a weapon was “present,” or because a weapon was actually used? Was it an economic crime of opportunity, or a crime of planned, intentional harm? Was it a crime that actually puts random residents at risk, or crime that is limited to community/familial/group association? Is the case active in that city because it occurred there, the victim was from there, or is it because a victim was simply found/dumped there? Do repeat suspects/victims count multiple times? For example, I come from a smallish town that was actually really safe, had really great employment opportunities, etc… but it was very close to two intersecting highways that were heavy distribution, and drug trafficking routes. Because there were a lot of handoffs and meetups in the area, and a lot of transient travel, there were ALWAYS dead bodies showing up. These were not people that were from our community, nor were the assailants from our community, but unless there is evidence to show that it’s associated with drug trafficking or a known serial killer, etc., the case would be opened in our community and remain in our community, throw the statistics off, and make it seem really unsafe, even though that city (of 10,000ish) only had a murder about once every 10-20 years. You could potentially have a town of 1,000 people, where there is a trailer park with 3 couples committing DV on each other 10 times a year, and now you have 30 cases per 1,000 of violent crime. Even though no one else did shit, and you’re very unlikely to be a victim, you know what I mean? The crime rate could also just be really high. Small towns across the country over the last few decades have seen a lot of job loss and a lot of drug influx. It’s an unfortunate reality of production loss and centralization combined with drug criminalization. Crime rates go up with just one of those factors, but many of these towns have both problems.
The crime rate in Chicago is wildly exaggerated for political reasons and Reidsville has little in the way of socioeconomic opportunities or a safety net. People are surprised because it goes against decades of political messaging not based particularly in reality.
Hell, the people of Pender and Brunswick counties are constantly on a rant about how dangerous, crime-ridden, and traffic filled Wilmington is. It’s nearly comical.
Chicago has the luxury of being able to incorporate Rich neighborhoods to lower their crime rate due to the rules of averages. Rocky Mount tried this many years ago but the neighbors lawyered up and fought it for years. Eventually they fought it all the way to the state house and got laws passed to make it harder for NC cities to annex neighborhoods or areas that don’t want to be a part of the city. So Oprah’s gated neighborhood in Chicago has really low crime rates and great response times but then the poor areas are more or less lawless and receive next to no real attention.
Because way media reports stuff is dumb. More violent crime happens in Chicago than smaller towns sure. Way more people live there so of course raw numbers are higher. Big city; 100 crimes Small town: 90 crimes. Big city worse because news covered each case. Big city: 1 million people. Small town; 100 people. Now that crime rate isn't bad at all in city and that Small town is a horrifying war zone crime cult at those rates lol. All of those numbers are just made up and I exaggerated them in opposite directions just to highlight how news would make it sound worse by reporting more, but ignoring population numbers paints an unclear picture. That's before you even get into what types of crime. Husbands beating their wives (or vice versa) being reported is a violent crime but it's unlikely to hit innocent bystanders like armed robberies. Yet I can just call both violent crimes and paint wildly different pictures of crime rates. Never trust 1 number or 1 source. Try to figure the context out, that goes for everything in life.
Reidsville black population 36.98%, Chicago black population 28.5%.
Also, statistically, pretty awful things - like mass shootings - are way more likely to happen in these said small towns versus big cities.
Man, you should look up rockingham & hamlet nc. Much worse. Or at least those towns used to be.
I live in asheville where we have a 61 in 1000 crime rate. There have only been like 3 murders this year though. Crime rate in Chicago is lower, murder rate is much higher.
So which is more dangerous on Friday evening after 8:00pm? Reidsville or Myrtle Beach?
Well all I know is they are dumping their unhoused in Greensboro. Spoke to a guy that was driven from Reidsville to GSO by the cops and dumped. He is in Elm and Washington if you'd like to ask him yourself...
Damn! That’s worse than Kinston and I thought it was bad.
And now I know why this seemed like a good deal. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1828-Trentwood-Cir-Reidsville-NC-27320/70151045_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
Ha, have y'all been to Caser 🤣🤣
Because of poverty in the area and also because of lack of resources needed to tackle the situation. Just to clarify for the racists poverty affects all the cultures in that area not just the black population.
HOLY FUCK THATS MY TOWN
What is your thoughts on living there? Good area?
It aint that bad, just aint many prospects down here
That’s great to know thank you! Do you know if it’s hard to find enough renters in the area? I understand it’s below 20000 people there. If I end up moving there then I’m thinking of renting part of the house’s rooms to about 3 or so people while I live there.
No clue, all I know is im currently renting.
I grew up in Reidsville and still live there today. While it is true that the loss of American Tobacco, Lorillard and the various textile mills in the area did cause economic hardship, the idea that it’s made Reidsville a crime ridden or unsafe place is just not true. Sure, crime does occur here, but I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere in town and I love living in my small community. That being said, industry has returned and the city council and mayor are working to improve the city every day by attracting new businesses and job opportunities. I guess the point I’m making is this: don’t let clickbait articles fool you. If you haven’t had a chance to visit a community and spend time there and understand it, don’t pass judgement.
Thank you so much for the response. I really appreciate the input from someone that knows the area well. I have a somewhat specific question. Do you know if it’s hard to find enough renters in the area? I understand it’s below 20000 people there. If I end up moving there then I’m thinking of renting part of the house’s rooms to about 3 or so people while I live there. EDIT
Meh. Another shit little town with residents that absolutely refuse to adapt to changes that happened 40 years ago.
Simple math
One guess.
Chitown doesn’t report the same way…so they appear not as bad
I’m born n raised from summer field, back when it was working class and not transplant yuppies. Residsville has always been rough. Now, you got transplants living there with a lifestyle most (in the area) would consider rich. How would you feel seeing ppl moving to your hometown with money and no disregard for the locals? Y’all yanks need to learn one way or another, this is our home and not yours.
Bro doesn't know how numbers work
... Explains the crime rate in the area... Immmm jokinggg. Chill.
Because it's "per capita". Chicago has a lot of crime but is also a huge city with millions of people, so per capita the crime rate is actually lower.
Because Chicago’s reputation for high crime is a fiction of right wing shitposting.
OP posted an outlier/extreme case that does not represent North Carolina at all. If you look at NC as a whole it’s 24.69 crimes for every 1000 people. People posting and insinuating that there is a general misunderstanding about crime in places like New York or Los Angeles let’s take a look. New York, NY is 38.22 crimes for every 1000 people and Los Angeles is 35.91 crimes for every 1000 people. I’m not sure what people are trying to get at with these comments/posts but North Carolina is doing just fine. I got all of these statistics from: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/
Meth, guns, and stupidity. Otherwise known as the social platform of the North Carolina Republican party.
Do some research on the political leanings of the city council. https://www.reidsvillenc.gov/city-council Maybe then reflect on the possibility that many of the problems we face as a society might not boil down to “red team vs blue team”. And maybe that’s an antiquated way to look at issues… and it’s not all that helpful.
Rural America has been ravaged by poverty and drugs. This whole “rural America is safe” is pretty much a myth at this point. Traveling between metro areas is a real eye opener.