I just wonder whether we will look back in 12 months time at the "week of hell" and realise that it was actually just a week in which we found all the things that usually go on every week that we don't hear about.
Has it really gotten a lot safer. not counting this unique sort of incident?
http://www.universalhub.com/crime/dorchester.html http://www.universalhub.com/crime/roxbury.html
(I have family in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan)
Generally speaking, the areas around MIT and Harvard are relatively safe, although muggings and petty theft aren't unheard of. Things have been a lot better since they cleaned up Central Square in the 1990's.
Note that the following link only include incidents in which bullets actually hit people. http://www.bpdnews.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Shooting...
This does not, of course, include justifiable homicides.
ETA: So as not to scare anyone remember that in major cities typically between 65% and 91% of murder victims are criminals, and most of the killings are gang related.
I've never even heard a gunshot, and I don't know anyone who ever has.
Generally, Americans do the "Out of sight, out of mind" thing when they hear about violence. They only care when it's happening in situations where they could see themselves.
Kid gets shot walking on the sidewalk in inner-city Camden for wearing the wrong color shirt? Meh, he was probably a gangbanger anyway.
Kid gets shot in Cambridge? Oh no, the sky is falling.
...it is.
More accurately stated I suppose, I had previously thought I lived in a developed area.
The crowd is not "Hate America".
The Crowd is "America needs to get better". The first step to fixing problems in to acknowledge they exist.
I don't know about you, I strive for constant improvement in my life.
Although, I've been there couple of times, yes I totally agree with you. A couple of times in my visit, gun shots plus/followed by siren wails in the distance have had the combined effect of inducing sleepless nights and prayer-mode in me, many times. :-)
I know, I know... crossing the street, swimming, etc., all carry equal risks, but for a lot of people like me, "rat-a-tat" and "bang-bang-kapwing" is great, as long as it is seen on comic books, films and cheesy batman TV serials.
People outside the US have this image of people dodging bullets left and right as they walk down the street.
Then again, I grew up in a very rural area, but guns are - from my perspective - an absolutely routine, normal, everyday part of life. I guess that's why I find it so hard to "get" the mindset of the radical antigunners here, who act like guns are intrinsically "evil" and seem to think that a gun can pick itself up off a table and go out and shoot somebody.
And HN should care - Stata is full of CS people.
Edit: dates
I'd like to tell you what happened next, but I got down on the floor until the commotion ended.
But yes, this was not a common occurrence.
"On campus" is kind of a more vague thing with MIT than with some other schools, since it was in the 1990s and before a very open campus in the middle of a city, with a few major roads running through it.
That being said, there are more objective measures we could use, such as "made The Tech" (outside the police log), which this already has.
http://tech.mit.edu/V123/N17/17shooting.17n.html
The worst part is it happened during pre-frosh weekend, when admitted high school students were invited to visit and experience MIT for a few days.
So this is a bit meatier a problem.
lots more details
EDIT: Comments below me that are pointing out that this is a big deal as far as MIT is concerned....... please refer to the OP's full remarks (and michaelochurch's addendum). I'll highlight a small point from OP's remark:
>> After all, "shots fired" is not an uncommon thing in many cities in the US.
^^^That^^^. I am pretty sure it is unique and uncommon for wherever it is currently happening. I empathise with people there, and honest to God, for someone not from the USA, I would be pretty freaked out if I were to be living there.
But on the whole gun-related incidents are not that uncommon to begin with on a when viewed from County/State/Country perspective -- which the OP wants us to remember and meditate at this point.
P.S: There were some Coursera course(s) also, that actually tackle this point more scientifically. But, now is not the time to be Spock!
EDIT 2: Ahh, I just noticed the timeline on those comments, they are older than my comment. Ooops. I'll let my comments stand, as I feel they summarise the OP's point in some detail, but letting people know, I am aware of my small faux-paus.
I know this from listening to the scanner regularly.
Like so many things, "it depends".
The mid-April week has always had a higher-than-normal rate of manic-type (e.g. spree killings) violence, and there are a lot of theories about it (spring inciting grandeur in unstable men) but no one knows why. Those are very rare, high-visibility events, though. Overall, that time is no more dangerous than any other. (There's only about a +/- 5 percent seasonal difference in violent crime, with summer and December being the worst).
There is a serious problem with HN when stories like this get so many up-votes. This story is against the site guidelines. There isn't anything deeply interesting in the comments.
They do have several hundred non-violent crimes per year.