The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(05-14-2016 08:00 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  

(05-14-2016 02:03 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(05-13-2016 10:44 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Random shootings are not an uncommon thing in South Florida.

That's something most people say about Birmingham. I'd think about that before I'd say anything like that about another area.

Birmingham actually leads Miami significantly in nearly every crime statistic per capita...and does so on a yearly basis.

http://www.thecomebacktown.com/2015/12/1...n-america/

Its no secret that municipalities of the Birmingham Metro area all have and keep sacred their own little "fiefdoms". This applies to crimes statistics, as well. The Birmingham numbers include Birmingham only while most other "cities" include the metropolitan area which would consider the extremely low crime of the more affluent communities. The Birmingham area does not combine their crime statistics. So, for Birmingham, low crime areas of Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover, Hueytown, Homewood, etc are not factored in. The Miami numbers probably also include Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, and other similar communities of the metropolitan area. The positive side of Miami you see on TV is normally one of those communities...

Also,
http://www.thecomebacktown.com/2016/01/1...irmingham/
"Contrary to popular opinion, the City of Birmingham as a whole is not dangerous. Research shows violence concentrated in “micro” places, rather than in “dangerous neighborhoods.” Blocks, corners, and buildings representing just five or six percent of an entire city will drive half of its serious crime. The good news is that these concentrations create high-payoff opportunities to intervene."

As someone who has had occasion to pour through stats annually for a yearly report, I realized these facts many years ago. That's not to say Birmingham doesn't have its issues, especially over the last couple of years, and it could be that Birmingham crime is comparable to Miami crime, but...

The data I looked at did not include Miami Beach...that was listed as a separate entity. As was "North Miami".

It's great that you can defend Birmingham...since you've lived here...I know many who live in the South Florida area that would have similar defenses.

Which is my entire point.

Greg went to a bar in West Palm Beach. He lived in Delray Beach? Did you check those?


All I know is that my wife has the TV set on local news as part of the morning wakeup, and virtually every weekday I wake to a shooting overnight. It might have been in Bessemer, or Irondale, or Ensley, but damn near every morning of the world I get that before my morning coffee. It's depressing. I don't know if they get counted in the Birmingham statistics or not, but to act as though they don't happen is ludicrous.

I don't say that to point a finger at Birmingham's crime rate. It is simply a fact of my life, one I don't particularly like. I'm not slamming Miami, nor am I pretending that it does not happen here.

I know people who live in the Miami area, and trust me, they tell me that there is no shortage of violence there. Is it better than it was ten years ago? Sure. So?

Here, try this one. I pulled up Miami/Dade County crime stats via Google.

http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/miami/crime/


Note that this same site ranks Birmingham as the 12th most dangerous in the nation and Miami at #63. So, yes. that *is* something that people say about Birmingham, with justification. Miami being ranked well lower does not make the potential for random violence any less real there either... statistically more rare then in B'ham? Yeah, ok... which in no way means that it can't or does not happen in Miami/Dade.

My main point is that no one of us knows what happened to cause this shooting, and that for us to speculate that Greg in some way deserved or attracted it was at best unseemly and at worst it was badmouthing the dead, and doing it to someone who in theory we liked and honored. I hope that his family does not see this thread or the other similar one. It is embarrassing and hurtful to think that they might read this in their time of grief and pain.

(05-14-2016 04:11 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  My main point is that no one of us knows what happened to cause this shooting, and that for us to speculate that Greg in some way deserved or attracted it was at best unseemly and at worst it was badmouthing the dead, and doing it to someone who in theory we liked and honored. I hope that his family does not see this thread or the other similar one. It is embarrassing and hurtful to think that they might read this in their time of grief and pain.

Not all the baseless speculations were bad mouthing

(05-14-2016 04:11 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  My main point is that no one of us knows what happened to cause this shooting, and that for us to speculate that Greg in some way deserved or attracted it was at best unseemly and at worst it was badmouthing the dead, and doing it to someone who in theory we liked and honored. I hope that his family does not see this thread or the other similar one. It is embarrassing and hurtful to think that they might read this in their time of grief and pain.

Speculating that this wasn't a completely random shooting doesn't suggest that Greg "deserved" or "attracted" this event. It simply means the shooter's motive was likely more than he just felt like killing a person that day.

I worked in the projects of Miami during the drug wars and riots of the late 80's and worked in the projects of Birmingham most of the 90's. there were areas in Miami I didn't go into after dusk. with the exception of the three days after the Rodney King verdict there were no areas in Birmingham I was afraid to go to any time of the day or night. I never went into a fast food place in Birmingham that had bullet proof glass on the inside between the customers and cashiers like they had in some areas of Miami.

I'd just as soon this thread went away.