Is murder all we have to look at?

            I have lived in the Bronx since I was three. I cannot remember living in any other location; the Bronx is all I know. I also remember my parents telling me that I should not go outside because it's dangerous. I would go straight from school to home, and seeing empty marijuana bags, and needles in the park. There were nights when you could hear gunfire and police sirens all night. And yet nothing big ever happened to me. It was not until I was older that I was mugged for the first time. It was in my late teens that I was jumped for the first time, this should be a sign that it is getting worse to live here, right? Apparently not so, "the borough in 2012 saw just 112 murders, down from 148 in 2011 and the lowest number the borough has seen since 1963." (Johnston Garth)

                Is murder all we have to worry about, when it counts to safety? Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. Seems to think so using this statistic to tell people that the city is a better place to live in now than it was many years ago. What about Muggings? And Assaults? I think that just because the murder rate has gone down, that does not mean that we are safe. I feel that the criminals in the borough are smart enough to know that if they do murder someone the police will work extra hard to catch them. But all petty crimes from muggings and beating are treated with less effort.

                If I was to call 911 to say that someone was murdered, they would probably arrive at the scene of the crime in less than a minute to get my testimony, and search around for evidence. When I called about being jumped they came to my house an hour later saying that they had just received the call. After telling them my story they drove me around the area where I was jumped to see if the culprits where still there (even though I told them that I saw them go to the train station). When they shot at the drug dealer that lived in my apartment the cops where there immediately to investigate and left a patrol car there for two days. They have also been there to arrest several drug dealers in the block I live at.

                I posed the question, is the Bronx a good place to live in? To a fellow coworker and his response was that it was getting there and that in some years it will be. I feel that we need to work harder for that to happen, and to not delude ourselves by saying that because less people are dying, that this is a good place to live in.

Works Cited

Johnston, Garth. " The Bronx Had A Lower Murder Rate Than Boston Last Year!"

 Gothamist. Gothamist LLC. Jan 23, 2013 Web. Feb 27,2013.