Quote:
Originally Posted by vid
Unlike Vancouver and Calgary, though, Winnipeg's homicides aren't random gang violence claiming innocent victims. They're almost entirely contained within an impoverished aboriginal population in the north end. Actual random killings like all those shootings at Calgary restaurants lately almost never happen in Winnipeg.
I really dislike the idea of judging a cities safety by its murder rate, though. That's such a small piece of the whole puzzle. Poverty is a bigger issue. In Thunder Bay, most of the crime is committed by a small group of people living at a small percentage of the city's addresses. It's probably a similar situation in Winnipeg. Quite a few of Thunder Bay's latest homicides actually involved people from other communities that just happened to be in Thunder Bay at the time their string of domestic disputes resulted in a murder.
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If you were to remove homicides within a 10 kilometre radius in Winnipeg it would have one of the lowest homicide rates in Canada. The majority of the homicides -and most violent crimes- occur within a certain neighbourhood, and, I might add, within a certain demographic. That doesn't diminish the impact and severity on what that means for the city and people effected, however to paint Winnipeg in a bad light is completely naive.
Winnipeg as a whole is as safe as any city. Even if one were to travel to those select few notable areas, you will find yourself completely safe as long as you don't walk into a drug lords house.
Take a look at the map of homicides for the last three years and tell me if you don't see a physical disconnect. There is a problem, yes, definitely. But it really is up to the citizens of those neighbourhoods to tackle that problem, because as much as we may try, nothing is going to change unless those people want it to change.
But seriously looking at the map, it is as if a giant wall was built around the North/West Ends and Downtown, and people were left to fight amongst themselves. The truth is, there is a very real wall there, only it is psychological, not physical.
http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/features/homicides/
If you look closely, you will see that East of the river has 9 homicides over the last 3.5 years, which represents about 1/3 of the city's population.
Then to the South of the Assiniboine and West of the Red has 7 homicides over that same time span, which represents about 1/3, if not more of the city's population.
St. James is completely untouched, and that represents at least a 1/4 of the population.
That leaves almost 100 homicides in one distinct region which represents a significant minority in the overall population. The most disconcerting part is that because the majority of the city is unaffected, the general populous has a "stay out of the North End" mentality, which heightens the social barriers, causing more and more problems.
People will always tell you upon arrival to stay out of the North End. It isn't true, but it does represent a very disturbing reality.
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