Study: West Campus among most crime-ridden neighborhoods

[Scottolini]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Honestly, Austin is the wrong place to be looking for organized crime.

I'm not calling you out, but there was a story in the paper today I thought was interesting...

Drug gang moved cash, cocaine through Austin area, records show
Documents unveil inner working of La Familia, officials say.

By Steven Kreytak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 12:31 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
Published: 7:33 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28, 2009

The operation was run by members of La Familia, a violent Mexican drug gang that set up shop in the Austin area in recent years and moved millions of dollars of cocaine a month through town, according to authorities.

Thrash said the group is believed to have smuggled more than 100 kilograms a month into Austin, most of which was sent on to other states.

That's more than $2.5 million worth of cocaine a month, he said.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/...ea-153517.html

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Scottolini

I'm not calling you out, but there was a story in the paper today I thought was interesting...

Drug gang moved cash, cocaine through Austin area, records show
Documents unveil inner working of La Familia, officials say.

By Steven Kreytak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 12:31 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
Published: 7:33 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28, 2009

The operation was run by members of La Familia, a violent Mexican drug gang that set up shop in the Austin area in recent years and moved millions of dollars of cocaine a month through town, according to authorities.

Thrash said the group is believed to have smuggled more than 100 kilograms a month into Austin, most of which was sent on to other states.

That's more than $2.5 million worth of cocaine a month, he said.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/...ea-153517.html

VERY good find! Wow.

[austlar1]

Well, cozy old Austin is becoming a big city, and at some point it is likely to start having big city crime. I never understood exactly why Austin seems so peaceful. Fort Worth is roughly the same size, and it has some really scary crime. Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio all have big violent crime problems. Why has Austin been such a sanctuary? The murder rate is one of the lowest in the country. Maybe being weird has kept us peaceful. Who knows? I think we need to keep the gangs out of town somehow. That won't be easy.

[feconi]

Originally Posted by electricron

You got to be kidding! Just about every article I've read indicates higher crime against property leads to higher crime against persons. If the gangsters don't respect property, what makes you think they respect people?

The "gangbangers" are homeless people vandalizing absolutely everything from walls to mailboxes to trees, breaking into cars, and occasionally, residences (nearly always on weekends and breaks when students are gone). But, there's very little violent crime in the area--look it up for yourself on APD's website. I lived in West Campus for a year and I never felt personally threatened at all in the area, nor does anyone else I know that currently lives there.

Nevertheless, one question I have about this study (having found the original source, which is quite vague) is how the crime rates were actually calculated. Specifically, how did they count the number of residents in the area? West Campus is populated mostly by undergraduate UT students, many of whom may use West Campus as a "campus address" and thus may or may not be counted as a "resident" by their definition--which, obviously, could skew the numbers tremendously.

[Scottolini]

Originally Posted by austlar1

The murder rate is one of the lowest in the country.

It is, but what is interesting is that so far in 2009 the city has had 23 murders, while the Austin metro has had 48 murders thus far. There have been more murders outside the city, but still inside the metro, than in the city limits. Kevin can back-up these numbers, as it's kept track of in a thread in the 'City Discussions' forum.

I'm sure the murder rate is still relatively low metro-wide by U.S. standards, but people are still getting murdered around Austin far too regularly.

[Scottolini]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Well, cozy old Austin is becoming a big city, and at some point it is likely to start having big city crime. I never understood exactly why Austin seems so peaceful.

It has had it before. It still wasn't as bad as other places, but it used to be a lot worse. For instance, Austin when it was much smaller in the 80s and early 90s used to regularly have 40+ murders a year. It even had over 50 some years.

Austin isn't that dangerous, but remember that murders aren't the only violent crimes. Even today thousands occur every year.

http://www.disastercenter.com/texas/crime/13504.htm

[Zerton]

I've witnessed a break-in in West Campus (I was in the apartment playing drinking-Taboo) at that J26 complex. After the cops got there, it turned out that was the neighbor's extremely drunken brother just trying to break things.

I think most of the 'crime' of West Campus is just disrespectful, drunk college students. A friend of mine used to always complain about her flower pots on the windowsill getting stolen.