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Crime in Birmingham Discussion Thread


kayman

BPD Police Chief?  

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  1. 1. Should Anetta Nunn be fired?

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It now reported there have been 11 homocides in the month of July compared to only 7 homocides that occured in the city last July. This is very disheartening especially considering 1 of the homocides occured in the City Center right outside the Civil Rights Institute in Kelly Ingram Park last Friday. All this will seem to reiniterate is the untrue notion that "Downtown is unsafe" when violent crimes or robberies are very rare occurance in this part of the city.

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  • 3 months later...

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The choice of A.C. Roper as the city's new police chief is one step in the right direction. I believe that Hoover's lost is Birmingham's gain, which is a gain very much needed. We can only hope that Langford will step aside and not do like Kincaid and micromanage BPD.

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  • 1 month later...

I've noticed that most of the killings which happen just about everyday seemed to almost all be random.. what the heck is going on here.. I don't want to hear that every city has this problem.. BIRMINGHAM has a huge problem and what are we doing about it? building a mass transit system and a DOME... what???? DO SOMETHING! You hear more about people in the ham getting riddled with bullets.. the latest when a 88 year old lady and her 40 something daughter were ambushed.. shot to peices... the 88 year old lady lived! Everytime I talk about crime everybody on these forums talk about how safe the areas are.. no.. It is safer to walk the streets in cities 10 times larger than Birmingham all across the country. People wonder why there is such urban sprawl.. just think if Birmingham was dense with 1.2 million people there would be more stray bullets hitting innocent people..

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/inde....xml&coll=2

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Woob, you are overreacting these incidents that have happened in only certain parts of the city. You must also realize that crime is not going to drop literally overnight. Yes, it is bad that Birmingham has seen 5 homicides within the first 2 weeks of the year, but crime rates don't drop overnight. Also one must realize that violent crimes have increase across the board in most large and major cities in the nation, so Birmingham is not the exception at all.

Example: It took New York City, 15 years to see its dramatic drop in the number of homicides to 494 last year, and Birmingham is the same. Also the number of homicides and other violent crimes dropped by 15% in the City of Birmingham last year. Most parts of the city, especially the City Center, are safe during the day or night, and as I've told you about the western parts of Birmingham that are unsafe. I will further elaborate on the eastern portion, those areas are basically Woodlawn, South East Lake, and Gate City. Those are the 3 areas that where all of these "random killings" have occured. Aside from this one incident, all the other murders the victims knew their killers, so there almost nothing the police could do beside just being there at the time of the crime to prevent it. Crimes are going to happen regardless what the police does, and all the police can really do is step up their patrols and become more active on their beat and neighborhoods. I trust Police Chief A.C. Roper is doing all he can with the new tactics that the Birmingham PD is finally able to use since Kincaid has left office since he was such a "do-nothing mayor". Those tactics includes GIS, gunshot detectors, and cameras. You have to realize change takes time, and it wouldn't occur overnight.

Also, one must also realize that violent crimes have are occuring across the metro area, but they aren't highly publicized by the media b/c they aren't within the City of Birmingham. I have seen the crime rates in the cities of Irondale, Leeds, and Moody. In other words, violent crimes are occuring everywhere, but one must have common sense not to be around certain surroundings. Birmingham is far from being this chaotic unsafe place where you can't walk up and down the street at day or night b/c I can, but there are areas of the city that I have pointed out that are bad as they are in all large cities. I really wholehearted believe the local media overblows the crime problem in this city because if they were truly there to inform the community they would talk about the violent crimes that have occured in all parts of Greater Birmingham and the Central Alabama region.

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Woob, you are overreacting these incidents that have happened in only certain parts of the city. You must also realize that crime is not going to drop literally overnight. Yes, it is bad that Birmingham has seen 5 homcides within the first 2 weeks of the year, but crime rates don't drop overnight. Also one must realize that violent crimes have increase across the board in most large and major cities in the nation, so Birmingham is not the exception at all.

Example: It took New York City, 15 years to see its dramatic drop in the number of homocides to 494 last year, and Birmingham is the same. Also the number of homcides and other violent crimes dropped by 15% in the City of Birmingham last year. Most parts of the city, especially the City Center, are safe during the day or night, and as I've told you about the western parts of Birmingham that are unsafe. I will further elaborate on the eastern portion, those areas are basically Woodlawn, South East Lake, and Gate City. Those are the 3 areas that where all of these "random killings" have occured. Aside from this one incident, all the other murders the victims knew their killers, so there almost nothing the police could do beside just being there at the time of the crime to prevent it. Crimes are going to happen regardless what the police does, and all the police can really do is step up their patrols and become more active on their beat and neighborhoods. I trust Police Chief A.C. Roper is doing all he can with the new tactics that the Birmingham PD is finally able to use since Kincaid has left office since he was such a "do-nothing mayor". Those tactics includes GIS, gunshot detectors, and cameras. You have to realize change takes time, and it wouldn't occur overnight.

Also, one must also realize that violent crimes have are occuring across the metro area, but they aren't highly publicized by the media b/c they aren't within the City of Birmingham. I have seen the crime rates in the cities of Irondale, Leeds, and Moody. In other words, violent crimes are occuring everywhere, but one must have common sense not to be around certain surroundings. Birmingham is far from being this chaotic unsafe place where you can't walk up and down the street at day or night b/c I can, but there are areas of the city that I have pointed out that are bad as they are in all large cities. I really wholehearted believe the local media overblows the crime problem in this city because if they were truly there to inform the community they would talk about the violent crimes that have occured in all parts of Greater Birmingham and the Central Alabama region.

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The outflow of people is the main problem that Birmingham has in my opinion. You have the higher class people moving out because they don't wanna be around the lower class. This leaves all of the lower class people in the city. Of course, I know that they city isn't all just bad parts of town, but I'm talking about the lesser parts of town.

If you have all of the higher classes moving out, the city has less of an incentive to protect the areas that need it most. I think I recall funding for street lights being looked for? That'll do wonders. No sarcasm. People feel safer when they can see most of what is surrounding them.

As for the dome part of this discussion. You might be surprised what it could do as far as reducing crime. Everything in the city that is done, well most everything, not everything, has a direct or indirect impact on the crime rate in the city. This is theoretically speaking of course. But, if you were a criminal, I know sounds crazy but go with me, if you go around defacing the city, killing people, robbing stores, or other various crimes you obviously don't have much pride in where you live right? To me, I love living where I live soooo much that I want to improve it and even pick up trash when I see it blowing across the parking lot, I believe most all of us feel this way right? Depending on how successful this dome is, which is anyone's guess at the moment, it can be a major "object" for people to come together on. Sort of how what the Saints did for New Orleans, not that Birmingham's problem is anything like New Orleans'. But, depending on how successful it is, people will have more pride in where they live and how they treat their city, as well as it's image.

I'm not saying that the dome is some kind of magical fixer upper that will solve all problems, but it could be just one of few things that the city's residents can take pride in. People have more pride in where they live and suddenly you have a group of people that feel less inclined to do things that make the city look bad.

It all sounds a bit weird, I know. But, please, just think of what I'm saying.

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The outflow of people is the main problem that Birmingham has in my opinion. You have the higher class people moving out because they don't wanna be around the lower class. This leaves all of the lower class people in the city. Of course, I know that they city isn't all just bad parts of town, but I'm talking about the lesser parts of town.

If you have all of the higher classes moving out, the city has less of an incentive to protect the areas that need it most. I think I recall funding for street lights being looked for? That'll do wonders. No sarcasm. People feel safer when they can see most of what is surrounding them.

As for the dome part of this discussion. You might be surprised what it could do as far as reducing crime. Everything in the city that is done, well most everything, not everything, has a direct or indirect impact on the crime rate in the city. This is theoretically speaking of course. But, if you were a criminal, I know sounds crazy but go with me, if you go around defacing the city, killing people, robbing stores, or other various crimes you obviously don't have much pride in where you live right? To me, I love living where I live soooo much that I want to improve it and even pick up trash when I see it blowing across the parking lot, I believe most all of us feel this way right? Depending on how successful this dome is, which is anyone's guess at the moment, it can be a major "object" for people to come together on. Sort of how what the Saints did for New Orleans, not that Birmingham's problem is anything like New Orleans'. But, depending on how successful it is, people will have more pride in where they live and how they treat their city, as well as it's image.

I'm not saying that the dome is some kind of magical fixer upper that will solve all problems, but it could be just one of few things that the city's residents can take pride in. People have more pride in where they live and suddenly you have a group of people that feel less inclined to do things that make the city look bad.

It all sounds a bit weird, I know. But, please, just think of what I'm saying.

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BPD STEPS UP ON THE SOUTHSIDE AND CITYWIDE STINGS

The 50 Birmingham Police officers and federal agents spend the whole day Friday conducting a citywide zero-tolerance tackling crime on all levels. The campaign is dubbed "Taking Back Our Streets", and in past sweeps the police busted 687 criminals, towed 96 vehicles, and 72 guns.

Also the BPD South Precinct is stepping up their patrols big time on the Southside, Five Points South, Highland Park, and Glen Iris. This as a result of the residents and business owners calling for the police to increase patrol and visibility on the Southside, and particularly after the 2 homicides and increase in robberies and violent crimes that occurred last fall.

I'm glad to see that Chief Roper is able to so many of these things, and hopefully these efforts will pay off. Also with the use of more tools such as the cameras, the shotgun sensors, and the proposed use of GPS tracking of hot spots.

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BPD STEPS UP ON THE SOUTHSIDE AND CITYWIDE STINGS

The 50 Birmingham Police officers and federal agents spend the whole day Friday conducting a citywide zero-tolerance tackling crime on all levels. The campaign is dubbed "Taking Back Our Streets", and in past sweeps the police busted 687 criminals, towed 96 vehicles, and 72 guns.

Also the BPD South Precinct is stepping up their patrols big time on the Southside, Five Points South, Highland Park, and Glen Iris. This as a result of the residents and business owners calling for the police to increase patrol and visibility on the Southside, and particularly after the 2 homicides and increase in robberies and violent crimes that occurred last fall.

I'm glad to see that Chief Roper is able to so many of these things, and hopefully these efforts will pay off. Also with the use of more tools such as the cameras, the shotgun sensors, and the proposed use of GPS tracking of hot spots.

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Mayor Langford has made the announce during the State of the City address at the Harbert Center that he plans on having BPD hire 50 new officers. I applaud him for taking the initiative towards getting more police offices on the beat across the city, but how exactly are he going to fund this? I would recommend using some of that money appropriated toward the multipurpose facility, but he seems so jung ho on the constructing this facility to want to reallocate it for more important uses. :unsure:

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  • 2 months later...
I think having an open downtown... not with ambush spots makes for a safer downtown..if downtown is the safest place in the bham metro area.. then count me out moving over there.. I've taken trips with my father in law through downtown.. he's an electrician... everyone I talk to over there tells me not to ever go downtown by myself.. you're actually saying that crime is lower in Birmingham than in areas like hoover or gardendale?
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  • 1 month later...
Some people refuse to fly despite the statistical fact that riding on highways is significantly more dangerous than flying. Somebody warning you about downtown doesn't make it unsafe even if it makes you feel unsafe. Myself, I have an irrational feeling of insecurity on fiberglass extension ladders. Your father in law probably doesn't have that problem.

As for our old buildings, those are valuable to Birmingham insofar as they contribute to the architectural ensemble which makes the city what it is. As more of them are renovated and reused as residences and gathering spots they will probably attract enough night-time activity to interest the criminal element. My prediction is that in 5-10 years the perception of crime downtown will be reduced even as its actual rate of incidence increases. I expect both trends to be mild.

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12 shootings over the weekend... one of them really scares me... these thugs bumped a mans car from behind.. when the guy gets out to talk to or I dunno I heard he may have had road rage.. well the guys that hit him shot him in the knee and robbed him in the street... that is just scary..
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  • 1 month later...

Well, the homicide problem was doing well so far so good, but apparently this week it made a turn for the worse with 6 homicides occuring with the past week alone. The most distrubing ones was that associated with the incident that occurred in the parking lot of Banana Joe's on the Southside. A 16-year-old getting into the club, apparently having access to alcohol, thrown out of the club, and getting into a fight and later shooting killing 2 people and injuring 2 more in the process around the 3-4AM in the morning. This just doesn't bode well for the city's largest nightlife district or the area's attempts to reestablish itself as a safe area of the city to not worry about crime.

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Well, the homicide problem was doing well so far so good, but apparently this week it made a turn for the worse with 6 homicides occuring with the past week alone. The most distrubing ones was that associated with the incident that occurred in the parking lot of Banana Joe's on the Southside. A 16-year-old getting into the club, apparently having access to alcohol, thrown out of the club, and getting into a fight and later shooting killing 2 people and injuring 2 more in the process around the 3-4AM in the morning. This just doesn't bode well for the city's largest nightlife district or the area's attempts to reestablish itself as a safe area of the city to not worry about crime.
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