It has been several months since Joel and I began discussing the increase of crime in our neighborhood. Not only have our neighbors posted signs of armed burglaries, muggings and such in the hood, but there’s been so much more. It seems that at least 2-3 times a week, we’ll hear a full-blown shootout nearby. Sometimes these are clearly fueled by semi-automatic weapons, occasionally automatic, and rarely you’re everyday pistol.
I’m happy to have found someone tweaked the SF Crime Map app so it is cross-platform. A great idea, for filtering on crime in particular locations. However, the implementation, filtering and visualization could use some work. Still, it comes in handy from time to time.
The images in this post are pulled from the stats in my neighborhood. In the past 90 days, my local area has seen 92 offenses. You can check the division offenses in the chart below. Ranges from aggravated assault with deadly weapon to grand theft auto. Wheee!
What made me think of all this was actually not the sound of firearms and other deadly weapons outside my window this time — but a blog post by Matt McAllister about a similar subject, but from the Potrero Hill perspective. They’ve been hearing a lot of "crackling firearms" in the evenings as well. Unlike Matt’s observations, our violence in Bernal is not tied to the change in seasons, daylight savings and kids on summer break. Our violence has been on the steep incline since early this year, perhaps late 2006.
Another difference in our experiences is that Matt is thinking about this in the context of guns, access to guns, gun licenses, etc. While I agree, guns are obviously a core issue here, there are other influences going on as well. To name a few:
- The cost of living and increasing economic polarization within SF
- Lack of living-wage work within the city
- State-sponsored war elsewhere*
- Drugs (or course, drugs!)
*If our country is sponsoring a war without end, doesn’t this kinda give people a free ticket to do the same at home? Especially if they’re already pissed off about life?
At any rate, it seems a collective human illness that will get worse before it gets
better — if it does get better. The infrastructures of our cities and
the diverse threads of our lives are on the verge of collapse. While
the middle east fractures and burns in endless wars, the US elite continue to suck the souls of the lower and middle classes. Though it’s hard to imagine Ralph Steadman topping his own Nixon and Reagan series, I can at least see some beautiful art arising from all of this.
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