RFP Staff
♦Violent crime and property crime are major campaign issues in the upcoming Salisbury City Council election. According to the most recent FBI crime statistics database for cities in North Carolina (2011), Salisbury is a major heavy hitter in both violent crime and property crime. Salisbury stands among the topmost cities of the FBI’s per capita violent crime ratings for cities and towns in North Carolina. These kinds of statistics remind our citizens we live in a very dangerous urban area with an understaffed police department.
Besides our large concerns for the safety of all our neighborhoods, we also note that the FBI city crime databases serve as a major litmus tests of businesses and retail opening in Salisbury. Nobody wants to be murdered, raped, or targeted for an armed holdup or street beating. You can’t hide the FBI’s violent crime statistics or what’s happening in your neighborhood. Anywhere in Salisbury is dangerous at anytime of the day. At night our city becomes even more forbidding. How many of us, our friends, or our neighbors were victimized by violent crime inside our city limits or by property crime? The local media’s crime reports record the daily mayhem and theft that goes on here. Shootings, stabbing, beatings, bank robberies, a train robbery, carjacks, home invasions, major gang activity, break-ins, burglaries, auto theft, metal theft, pawnshop robberies, and stick ups are rampant enough in Salisbury to give our city very bad ratings in both violent and property crimes.
What is violent crime?
Violent crime, according to the FBI, includes the offenses of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
• Murder is the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
• Forcible rape is the carnal knowledge of a woman, obtained forcibly and against her will. Forcible rape also includes assaults or attempts to commit rape by force.
• Robbery is the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by threat of force or violence, and/or by putting the victim in fear.
• Aggravated assault is an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm. Aggravated assault also includes attempted assaults.
What is Property Crime?
Property crime, according to the FBI, includes the offenses of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
• Burglary is the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. Burglary is also attempted forcible entry.
• Larceny is the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
• Motor vehicle theft is the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
• Arson is any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without the intent to defraud.
The most accurate and accepted database for knowing the per capita violent and property crime statistics in North Carolina’s cities and towns is the FBI’s violent and property crime database. As anyone, not in severe denial, will note from these statistics Salisbury ranks toward the top of the most dangerous urban areas in North Carolina. This should come as no surprise to Salisbury’s many victims of crime over the last 8 years and who dwell in fear when night approaches. This most recent database is irrefutable evidence of what is often denied or covered up by city hall. The FBI database for violent and property crime in North Carolina:
While violent crime and property crime has grown over the past few years in Salisbury according to the FBI, here is a city by city comparison of per capita crime in North Carolina back in 2008. Salisbury helps bring up the rear in cities and towns over 5,000 in population. Salisbury is listed in 210th place and is labeled DANGEROUS.
http://crime-statistics.com/north-carolina.htm
You can not hide facts from our citizens, tourists, people considering taking up residence here, and potential businesses and retail mulling over settling here. You can not hide the “bad beef” of our crime stats or our poorly performing local educational system who scores in the lower 20% on the NC ABC Report Card. You can not hide Salisbury’s high unemployment. These 3 statistical nightmares alone will flatten much business and tourism showing up here.
Denial and “not wanting to talk about it” does not work either in Salisbury or in families with major problems. This is why Salisbury has gradually transformed into a lowest rung city. Denial and hype-marketing do not work for the City of the Lie.
The major issues afflicting Salisbury:
