I don’t want to hijack this thread, but I’m interested to know…
So - last month I was in LA and I borrowed my friend’s truck and was driving around. Before I left for the trip, about 20 people advised me to make sure I didn’t wind up in Compton because bad things would happen to me.
So - like what, exactly? I have trouble believing that if I’m minding my own business driving through a neighbourhood on my way to the ShopNSave much of anything is going to happen, even if I am a silly white girl from Canada. Particularly not if I’m in a local vehicle with local plates.
However, I’m here for my ignorance to be fought - what exactly could I have expected if I had wound up in Compton, looking for directions?
The only thing that happens in bad areas is the statistical probability of certain type of crime go up. However, that is still really unlikely for a single trip.
You could try to attract some attention by dressing like a high-class hooker and flaunting yourself for all it is worth, park on the worst street corner you can find, and saunter up to the seediest drug dealer to ask for directions but you have more sense than that. White people drive through those place many, many times a day with no problems even if it is just to pump some pharmaceutical revenue into the local micro-economy. If you need directions, you just ask the nearest old lady or postal carrier.
The point to the previous thread was that there are very few areas in the U.S. where white people are specifically targeted for anything except their money. A little common sense reduces that threat.
Just like you did not want to hijack the other thread, I do not want to hijack yours. But I grew up around Camden, New Jersey and it was well-known there that the police would actually pull over ‘outsiders’ who would STOP at stop signs. Meaning, they wanted you to run through them.
So, I would assume that bad things could happen to any girl in Compton, not just a white girl.
Right - and this is what I figured as well…BUT…it sure seems like a LOT of people think even driving through that neighbourhood is a bad idea.
Is there a chance greater than zero that the truck would get shot up or something? Obviously I’m not going to try to buy drugs (as lame as this makes me sound, I don’t even know how you buy drugs. I’m guessing “I would like to buy some drugs please” would be a touch too direct).
[Fallacy]
Well having never driven through Compton personally, but having driven through some extremely seedy areas of South Phoenix and Westside Phoenix areas during the day I can say with some semblence of empirical data…that nothing much happened to me, so I’d assume not much would happen to you if you do nothing to draw attention to yourself. [/Fallacy]
But this is simply not the truth. Bad things happen to good people all over America. Like the previous poster said…driving into places with higher than normal crime rates can produce higher probability of crime to your person… That being said drive safe.
Listen, I live in a very, very upper class neighborhood in South Florida. I lock my doors when my wife is home, and call her every chance I get while she is driving around, just to make sure she is alright. I worry, no matter what area she is in.
Things happen, anywhere. But in a place with a higher crime rate, it usually means there are more people there who commit crimes. More people who have committed a crime. More people who are more likely to commit crime again. To be a man who is not from there would make it dangerous for him. To be a woman, there are crimes more likely to happen to you in a higher crime area.
Hauled from your car and raped. Definitely possible.
Shot at. Possible.
Mooned. Doubt it, but at least you would get a laugh instead of traumatized.
Listen, once again, as you know there is crime anywhere. But it is well known some areas are more dangerous.
According to Wikipedia Compton has the 47th highest violent crime rate in the country and from what I can tell the highest violent crime rate in all of California. (Numbers are quoted as being based of 2003 FBI stats)
And from here the overall crime rate is slightly higher than average, but the violent crime rate is about 4 times the national average, the homicide rate about 8 times national average and the vehicle theft rate over double. Interestingly, the rape rate is slightly under national average. (2004 info given)
I cannot attest to the accuracy of the figures given in either of these cites.
Basically, Compton is known for being dangerous due to the greatly increased rate of violent crime over the average. While you’re still unlikely to have TERRIBLE THINGS happen to you on one trip, it’s considered conventional good advice to avoid the city if you can, especially if you’re alone.
When I lived in New Orleans, there were obviously a lot of bad neighborhoods and some very bad. The Florida housing project is probably the scariest seeming place I have ever been to in my life. When you are in such places, the chance of getting mugged or robbed in some form goes up. Carjacking used to be popular back in the 1990’s and the still exist and are extremely dangerous. A fellow college student’s father was killed in a carjacking visiting his son at college when I was there. There could be some random bullets from gang violence.
When you go to such places, you do need to alter your behavior. I was always aware at red lights and stop signs and you have to be prepared to move if someone approaches your car in some way. I had someone charge my passenger door one night at a red light and I was gone before he could reach me milliseconds later. You have to walk with confidence and determination and don’t acknowledge anything someone says to you unless it is from an obviously trusted source. You don’t let young males walk near you either. Speed up, slow down, or change your path temporarily. If you need assistance, you select someone from a more trusted demographic (meaning everything from age to sex to occupation).
Nothing ever happened to me in New Orleans and maybe that was because I was careful. However, two young men tried to commit armed robbery against me a few years later outside of my rather tony Boston apartment building. They should be about of prison about now if they haven’t already returned. The way you handle yourself in a bad neighborhood should really be more of a general survival strategy. It can happen anywhere. You never know.
I’m wondering if she might be at biggest risk the first time she visits, because people don’t know her from a hole in the wall. I had to go to South Central L.A. once a few years ago, and someone asked me, “Where’s your ghetto pass?” The guy who was escorting me said, “I’m her ghetto pass,” and they exchanged nods and the other guy moved on. If people don’t know why you’re there, they assume you’re a threat.
There are parts of LA that I would never go to alone, especially after dark. South Central being one of them. There are parts of the north San Fernando Valley that black people and hispanics will tell their white friends not to go there after dark and if they absolutely have to for some reason, take a black or hispanic friend with you.
You don’t have to worry much about Compton in the daytime, if you’re just driving through on your way to somewhere else and you know where you’re going on main roads. I’ve done it dozens of times, and I’m as white as they come.
The poverty is staggering (not TJ staggering, but still squalid), and you definitely know you’re not in Bel Aire by the sheer number of crack addicts you’ll see stumbling around, but it’s not as though you will instantly die if you drive in.
Honestly, I think the major thing that’s more likely in “bad areas”, at least as far as on-foot is concern, is getting fucked with. Not only people messing with you for fun, but also the assorted crazies that accompany any lower end urban/suburban area. Dudes asking for money. Dudes running up to you with hypercrinkled pamphlets. The guy leaning against the wall with the most murderous look in his eye, and what we in SoCal call “the stank eye”.
How much experience you have in dealing with these scenarios, and thus how comfortable and confident you are perceived to be has a big part in it.
Are there stats on how much of that violent crime in a given neigborhood is . . . how to put this. . . “internal” violent crime? Like inter-gang trouble, versus “random” violence that happens to people unaffiliated with any particular sectarian group? Like, how much of drive-by shooting is “random” drive-by shooting, as opposed to directed?
I think the main trouble with drive-by shooters here in So Cal is that their aim is so terrible. Really, if you go thru Compton or some other “bad” neighborhoods after dark the biggest risk is that you’ll get shot by ACCIDENT. You won’t necessarily be targeted but there might be shooting going on. I have been in Compton both day & night both alone (as a white girl) and with a white guy and was mostly ignored by the people who live there. But if something unpleasant were to break out (shootings, mostly) I’d rather be someplace else.
Actually, this happened to me along the 3rd Street Promenade while shopping in Santa Monica.
(He was fund raising for something - I don’t remember what. I gave him $10 and he thanked me profusely, blessed me a bunch of times and told me if I was approached by anyone else to tell them I’d already given to “Jack”.)
From the sounds of it, Compton is about the same as East Hastings in Vancouver, or some parts of Victoria Park in Calgary - not a super good place to hang out, but if you’re just passing through and don’t go looking for trouble, most likely nothing much will happen.
My first travel nurse assignment was in New Orleans 1980. The crime rate was one of the highest in the country. The company I worked for housed us in a hotel on Canal Street, right across from the projects. It was the highest crime area in a crime beleaguered city.
I didn’t know that.
After unpacking, I changed into shorts and a halter and went for a run… through the projects. I smiled and waved at people on their porches. I never noticed anyone who looked scary.
When I got back to the hotel, the security guard, who I hadn’t noticed before, stopped me, asking where I’d been. When I told him where I’d gone running, he was gobsmacked. He told me never to do it again.
I ran the same route three times a week the whole time I was there. No one ever bothered me, in fact it got so some people would wave as I went by.
I didn’t act like a victim, so I wasn’t.
My mom and one of her female friends ran out of gas in Compton, in the middle of the night, back in the early/mid-1970s and had to push their VW Bug about 2 miles to a gas station. She said she was incredibly scared and got some horrible looks from some very creepy-looking people but nothing actually happened. I’m pretty sure Compton was worse back then than it is now.
The worst place I can recall being is East Spencer, NC in the middle of the night. We got pulled over and the cops told us to get back to the highway RIGHT NOW and don’t stop at any stop signs.
There are some pretty bad spots in Statesville, NC, too. A co-worker once had me pull up to an old abandoned factory so he could go in and buy cocaine (I didn’t know that was what he was doing until he came out) and some kid maybe 10-12 years old rolled his bike up to my car with a gun in his hand and told me to turn my lights off.
In Boston therewas a rash of smash and grabs. If you were stopped at an intersection with cars in front and behind you, then a miscreant would smash your window with a rock and grab your purse.
