And We Would Have Gotten Away With It If It Weren’t For You Meddling A2 Residents
The News editorial page attempts to make sense of the alarming violence trend that’s gripped A2 in the past week, with a stabbing on William Street, a beating at the State Theater and a burglary and attempted sexual assault in a Thompson Street apartment. Trying to square these results with the perception of A2 as a low-crime, low-stress place, the News points out that crime is down 2 percent from 2002, which gives some explanation “as to why the city time and again rates as one of the country’s best on quality of life issues.” “Why should I move to Ann Arbor?” an out-of-town friend asks. “Well,” you can now say, “it was better last year than it was in 2002.”
Realizing that the police can’t do it all and continue to bust underage drinkers, the News has some helpful tips for how average citizens can help fight crime. Like “making sound decisions about where they should and should not be at night.” Central Campus rental housing at 4 a.m.? Why not just hold up a “Burglarize Me” sign?
Holy hell! All that would even be news where I live! Unprovoked multiple stabbings, collapsed lungs? Here, even our shootings are usually less violent than that (they go for the legs). I’ll take my violence predictable rather than totally random, thanks — at least those of us not involved in the drug trade can easily avoid it.
posted by Anna on March 28th, 2004 at 3:50 pmBut Anna, that was Monday - everything was all right by Wednesday.
Now if only I could remember where I read an animated discussion about underreporting of crime and how you shouldn’t trust small shifts in trends . . .
posted by Nick on March 28th, 2004 at 4:56 pmReading The News’ crime reporting is very much like listening to a cheeleader try to critique her football team’s secondary.
posted by Leighton on March 28th, 2004 at 6:05 pmNick, you heard that report in one of the White House daily briefings about Iraq
posted by duke on March 29th, 2004 at 6:51 amSo none of you guys were the grad student who got stabbed? Fuck, and I got my hopes up.
posted by detrOIt on March 29th, 2004 at 10:07 amWell, when you’ve lived here for a while you get enough practice at disarming your attackers that you become good at it.
posted by Nick on March 29th, 2004 at 10:48 amMost UM Grad Students come with a kung fu grip.
posted by Alex on March 29th, 2004 at 1:13 pmThe crime REPORTING is generally pretty good, if you read Nash’s stuff. The crime ANALYSIS stories blow.
posted by js on March 29th, 2004 at 2:40 pmjs
Last time I was in Ann Arbor some bobos knocked me down and stole all my homemade marshmallows. And then the police found me bleeding in the gutter, thought I was a bum, and kicked my ribs in. Then this lady who couldn’t see around her giant stroller tripped over me and sent the stroller careening into traffic where it totalled a Hummer. She had the nerve to sue me for endangering her little peanut allergic, Attention Deficit Disordered, mildly autistic, home-schooled, adopted from a Slovakian organic baby farm, already studying for the GRE, mewling turd of a child.
Fortunately the judge was too busy persecuting lesbians who want their own mewling turds to bother with the case. I had to swim back across the river.
posted by torONTo on March 29th, 2004 at 3:51 pmI just picked up the April edition of the Current which is the annual “best of Washtenaw County (excluding all areas outside of Ann Arbor)” issue. As usual, the winners are a little suspect, especially the “Best Blog” winner
posted by James on March 29th, 2004 at 7:07 pmThanks for the best laugh of the day torONTo. Confirm my suspicions please James; I didn’t see Current yet.
posted by Laura on March 29th, 2004 at 7:38 pmWho was it?
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 29th, 2004 at 7:40 pmannarborisoverrated.com
posted by James on March 29th, 2004 at 7:45 pmOh. Well, yay for me!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 29th, 2004 at 7:48 pmYet another indication that AAIO’s message of calm acceptance is winning hearts and minds everywhere.
posted by Nick on March 29th, 2004 at 7:49 pmCongratulations! As if there were any doubt.
posted by Laura on March 29th, 2004 at 9:05 pmIf that many people are reading, perhaps I should be more careful about what I post to the comment section…. By the way Laura, it’s been your turn on the scrabble board for ages now!
posted by Alex on March 29th, 2004 at 9:10 pmoops, Alex, I haven’t received any emails as usual from the scrabble game! sorry, I thought (since I’d been down to 3 letters) that it had just…ended!
posted by Laura on March 29th, 2004 at 10:25 pmtorONTo… glad to see you have been paying attention. And thanks for the chuckle!
posted by whoever on March 29th, 2004 at 10:34 pmReally? Heh. I was told that it was Rob Goodspeed, but I have to confess to not reading the damn thing.
posted by js on March 30th, 2004 at 12:27 amAnd hey, we’re trying to be more inclusive. We specifically changed from Best of Ann Arbor to Best of Washtenaw County because we thought that Ypsi folk were getting slighted.
js
Oh. Well, yay for Goodspeed!
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 30th, 2004 at 1:15 amNick,
you either get good at disarming…
… or arm yourself.
posted by eston on March 30th, 2004 at 1:28 am(AAIO- it was you, GSU came in second.)
posted by js on March 30th, 2004 at 9:11 amjs
I haven’t lived in A2 since 1972, but after reading torONTo’s post, I can see that little has changed.
posted by km on March 30th, 2004 at 5:54 pmAlso, I can’t believe anyone could actually miss Bill Knapp’s; Bimbo’s Pizza, yes, but not Bill Knapp’s. Glad I left when I did!
Neat! Do I get one of those cool certificates like the restaurants get?
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 30th, 2004 at 6:37 pmYeah, of course. I don’t know if they’re framed yet, but we’ll have a printed one for you.
posted by js on March 30th, 2004 at 8:23 pmjs
JS, do you work with a guy named Harvey? He and I worked the phones at the UOM fund drive together this weekend. He got to answer the phone way more than I did.
posted by Alex on March 31st, 2004 at 7:43 amOh yeah. I don’t bother going for the phone when Harvey’s in the office; he always has it by the second ring (usually right as the handset is inches from my grasp). He’s an ad man, can you tell?
posted by js on March 31st, 2004 at 10:54 amjs