Is Tucson a dangerous place

Answer 1

I suppose it's where you live. I'll put it this way. I moved from New Orleans with my job a year and a half ago. I've lived a good portion of my life in New Orleans, both before and after Katrina. I've lived everywhere in New Orleans from uptown, to the Marigny, bywater, and the French Quarter. I was never hastled, robbed, or messed with in all my years there.

I've lived in Tucson for, as I said, a year and a half. Since arriving, I've been assaulted with a giant rock, 23 blows, to the head (hospitalized, three broken bones), had my car vandalized three times, and had someone try to break into my house once.

Tucson has a lot of problems. Number one is illegal Immigration. I'm very liberal and support immigration within the country. The problem with illegals is when they arrive, they are uneducated or undereducated, and it is difficult for them to find work. For that reason and others, many of them are susceptible to recruitment into gangs or crime. Ther other problem is with large amounts of crystal meth addicts in the town. I live by the University, but just north of Grant, between Park and Oracle, are huge pocket neighborhoods where just about everyone is on crystal meth. People on crystal meth have no souls and will rob their grandmothers to get a fix.

These are two problems that I have seen, but there are far more. All Tucson's problems are compounded by the fact that we have a part-time police force. Two of the most recent times my car was vandalized, I kid you not, the police sent me a 'survey' in the mail. They do not write police reports because no police officers will come to the seen as a site witness to write the report. Because of this, the surveys are not admissable, for the most part, as evidence in criminal proceedings or for insurance purposes. If you call the police after 5:00, you get an answering service. The only way you can be patched to a police officer is if you're bleeding or if there is an immediate threat of violence.

The last time my car was vandalized, last Friday, I reported it as harrassment. I begged the 'opeator,' which is really an answering service, to file it as harrassment. He finally agreed. He told me I would hear from a detective within 24 hours. It's now 36 hours and I have heard nothing.

They also laid off 30% of their police force, including patrol, and replaced them with mobile photo enforcement vans. At major intersections they have scale-triggered cameras. A friend of mine got a ticket from photo enforcement for going 5 miles over the speedlimit ... $280. I got a parking ticket downtown, for parking in a permit only zone (even though it wasn't, the sign next to my car said back-in only), ... $70.

So the bottom line is the state is broke. The city is broke. They're more concerned with collecting traffic fines than protecting private property or our safety. But like any place, learn the area where you are planning to stay or live. Learn what resources are available nearby. Check out the neighbors (and the number of children or animals they have in their yard). Like any city, do your research. Just don't expect the police to help you out if you're in trouble.