Crime in Fayetteville

[cocothief]

This post will likely get me banned, but I don

[thewizard16]

I don't know how to adequately respond to this, so for the most part, I won't. I will mention that this sort of thing is causing me problems right now. The UofA is viewed as a pretty safe campus and Fayetteville is viewed as a very safe city, so this hurts the image there (making things much harder to spin), it also means our security protocols have to be reviewed with everyone that way we can say we're doing something, as unlikely as I feel an incident is. As for coco, I'm sorry that you feel this way, and I don't disagree with you on all points simply due to some areas I've lived in fit your descriptions quite well, but I do feel that Fayetteville still does not suffer from as severe problems in crime as most areas this size, and unfortunately, I feel that it is a mostly inevitable part of growth.

[zman9810]

First of all I'd like to say that I'm sorry for your personal experience with violent crime- I can't imagine how that must bad of an effect that would have on a person. I know how angry I've gotten about my experiences with property crimes I've dealt with so I'm sure your case is much more deeply felt.

There has been a spate of violent crime lately but I think it is abnormal and the statistics bear that out. Fayetteville and NWA as a whole are still a very safe place and much more so than many metros of similar size. As Wizard said- growth does bring with it some additional problems but overall I think our local law enforcement do a good job of dealing with them. Hopefully this is a temporary wave and when the offenders are caught things will get back to normal.

[edensfall]

Youd be very surprised at what they dont print in the newspaper or show on the news at 10, if you think this place is so secure and safe than your blind, and thinking that is just what the criminals and violent offenders want, now i know taking a stroll through a suburban neighborhood in centerton at night is deffinately not anything like taking a walk through downtown fayetteville and just north of the campus around north st and leverette(spelling?) or just about anywhere in springdale, but none the less, you cant sit there and deny it, its the same as springdale and fayetteville denying our gang problems, atleast rogers is adressing it and trying to do something, while the rest of us just sit here and feel bullet proof, one day itll end up hurting more than just a few people, and when it does everyone will think it came out of no where, when random crimes start occuring more often, thats a sign the more violent random crimes are just on the horizon.

[astrife]

Youd be very surprised at what they dont print in the newspaper or show on the news at 10, if you think this place is so secure and safe than your blind, and thinking that is just what the criminals and violent offenders want, now i know taking a stroll through a suburban neighborhood in centerton at night is deffinately not anything like taking a walk through downtown fayetteville and just north of the campus around north st and leverette(spelling?) or just about anywhere in springdale, but none the less, you cant sit there and deny it, its the same as springdale and fayetteville denying our gang problems, atleast rogers is adressing it and trying to do something, while the rest of us just sit here and feel bullet proof, one day itll end up hurting more than just a few people, and when it does everyone will think it came out of no where, when random crimes start occuring more often, thats a sign the more violent random crimes are just on the horizon.

[johnnydr87]

Black males do commit more crimes than any other segment of the population. However, it's a complicated issue that I'm not sure is worth going into in a forum. A few short points:

1) This type of issue requires active engagement for positive effects rather than villainization of a segment of the population, which can sometimes propel a self-fulfilling prophesy.

2) The blacks who fled New Orleans and resettled in other areas are, in most instances, from very, very low class backgrounds. It doesn't excuse the crime, however it sheds light on the context of the situation. More likely to have grown up in a single parent household, more likely to have been exposed to drug abuse, more likely to have gone to terrible public schools (which are funded primarily for property taxes), etc. Don't let rare encounters with Katrina refugees in your corner of the Ozarks skew your view. (On the other hand, I'm in DC, and it seems every black guy on the metro wears a nice suit.)

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences.

[umpreach]

Granted I've been mostly in Conway for the past two years, but I still can in no way perceive Fayetteville as having "gang problems." I'm not denying their existence entirely, but I'm sure it's relatively minor in comparison to what Rogers is dealing with.

[zman9810]

The suspects in the crime spree have been idenitifed and three arrested. Because of the way the statute reads it could be considered gang activity but the police don't think they are tied to any specific gang in Fayetteville. Sounds to me like a group of idiot thugs that hung out together and gave each the courage to commit these robberies.

Good work by the Fayetteville Police Department- congratulations to them.

NWA Times

[slyder1]

This post will likely get me banned, but I don

[bigboyz05]

This post will likely get me banned, but I don

[thewizard16]

I think it's offensive as all hell for you to just focus on young Black men. You act as if Black men are the only ones commiting crimes. White and Hispanic men commit crimes and crap as well so don't go there.

[ThingsAll2Good]

I believe that crimes are committed by people, not race or religion, etc. Individual PEOPLE make their choices good or bad. You focus on one class and one crime issue in your post ...... check out this site and see who the offenders in your area are! http://www.familywatchdog.us/

I come from a large city and realized very quickly that fayetteville is a great community to be in -- the police and city officials do a great job of protecting the community. It's with the work of these people that draws more here and one of the reasons behind "Keep Fayetteville Funky"! I love the diversity that fayetteville offers... and I support it's growth!

Fayetteville is not a "large city" crime issue.... did you read in your report that the police got the k-9's out!?!? helloo, in a big city the police would have taken a report, handed you a card with a report# on it, said they'd look around and MAYBE have time to get back to you with a follow up in few days! You should feel even BETTER and SAFER about the area now! I LOVE the area even more after reading that!

While you always need to be on your guard no matter where you are/live (i.e walking alone by yourself at 2 a.m.) ... this is a place where I do feel more relaxed and at ease walking, biking, hiking, driving, etc. We have it VERY good here and I know we will continue to enjoy a great community!

[Mith242]

Figures, I have something come up and have to be away and then suddenly things pop up. I don't have time to closely read everything but I'm closing this topic down for now.

[Mith242]

I'm sorry I wasn't around and able to deal with this topic earlier. I can understand being frustrated with crime. But I'm very disappointed this was turned into a racial issue. It's funny how all the crimes committed by white people have somehow been 'overlooked'. As has been mentioned by some, although there have been what seems an increase in crimes, the numbers still show this area is still below average and I don't think it's as bad as what it initially seemed. If I didn't live here and read the first post I'd probably wonder if the if the racist aspects that you sometimes hear about the Ozarks were in fact true. As stated I realize there's some frustration with some of the recent crimes, but really I don't see where this topic is supposed to be going. Trying to make this a racial issue just seems to be displaying ignorance. Surely everyone realizes there are good and bad people of every race and religious background. This may not go over well with some people in the area but I still believe this area needs more diversity. As the metro grows larger an increase of crime is somewhat expected. But I'm pretty sure crime is not growing anywhere as quickly as the actual population growth. Even if the metro kept growing but still somehow managed to stay mostly white, crime is still going to increase. Either way for now I'm going to reopen this topic. I'm back now and I'm going to closely monitor this topic. You want to talk about aspects of crime in general, fine. If you want to try to make this into some sort of biggoted racial issue, you'd best go look for another forum than to hang around here.

[thewizard16]

I'm sorry I wasn't around and able to deal with this topic earlier. I can understand being frustrated with crime. But I'm very disappointed this was turned into a racial issue. It's funny how all the crimes committed by white people have somehow been 'overlooked'. As has been mentioned by some, although there have been what seems an increase in crimes, the numbers still show this area is still below average and I don't think it's as bad as what it initially seemed. If I didn't live here and read the first post I'd probably wonder if the if the racist aspects that you sometimes hear about the Ozarks were in fact true. As stated I realize there's some frustration with some of the recent crimes, but really I don't see where this topic is supposed to be going. Trying to make this a racial issue just seems to be displaying ignorance. Surely everyone realizes there are good and bad people of every race and religious background. This may not go over well with some people in the area but I still believe this area needs more diversity. As the metro grows larger an increase of crime is somewhat expected. But I'm pretty sure crime is not growing anywhere as quickly as the actual population growth. Even if the metro kept growing but still somehow managed to stay mostly white, crime is still going to increase. Either way for now I'm going to reopen this topic. I'm back now and I'm going to closely monitor this topic. You want to talk about aspects of crime in general, fine. If you want to try to make this into some sort of biggoted racial issue, you'd best go look for another forum than to hang around here.

[Mith242]

I don't fully agree with your view on this, but as a moderator that's probably the direction you should be taking with it anyway. I'll say that I don't feel that any one that regularly posts on here has displayed a history of being a "bigot" or racist, and although I do think that this original topic could have been worded much better, I don't think that coco is a racist, bigot, ignorant, or any of the other words being thrown out there that I think should be viewed just as offensively as the implication that all crime is a racial issue.

Personally, I feel this could have been a healthy discussion on WHY crime and racial composition in urban areas often is related, and the socio-economic problems at play (crime often stems from poverty, and lack of necessities or education, none of which are racial issues) that can sometimes affect certain racial groups more than others, but instead everyone got hot-headed and jumped at the issue with emotions worked up and ruined any chance at it being an educated discussion. I'll be clear. I am not a racist by any definition of the word, and I have lived in much more diverse, and much more dangerous, areas than this one. I do know that statistics often will show correlations between income and crime or race and crime (I'll provide links from government agencies if this gets me labelled a bigot), and I do know that race is not the reason that one person is more likely to commit a crime than another person. However, I don't think this forum is ready for a discussion on that since some people here are easily offended, some are upset about other issues at play, and some are so worried about being stereotyped as an Arkansas or Ozark racist, or shedding the old Arkansas hillbilly racist stereotype (never mind that anyone that simply believes that everyone in the ozarks or Arkansas is a backwards hillbilly racist is JUST AS ignorant as anyone that believes that one race is better than another) that their own insecurities have them so scared to discuss something like this that they overcompensate and disconnect themselves from the topic completely. Until there's a healthy dose of maturity distributed to at least some people here, I feel it may be best to just leave this topic closed.