A listing of America’s ‘no go zones.’ And they share one common distinction: they are ALL majority non-white.
In March 2008, Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with eight felonies,including perjury and obstruction of justice. In August, he violatedhis bail agreement and was thrown in jail. His actions were deplorablefor anybody, but Kilpatrick was no Average Joe–he was the mayor of Detroit.
Unfortunately for the Motor City, Kilpatrick, 38, is just one ripple in the area’s sea of crime. Detroitis the worst offender on our list of America’s most dangerous cities,thanks to a staggering rate of 1,220 violent crimes committed per100,000 people.
“Detroit has, historically, been one of the more violent cities inthe U.S.,” says Megan Wolfram, an analyst at iJet Intelligent RiskSystems, a Maryland-based risk-assessment firm. “They have a number oflocal crime syndicates there–a number of small gangs who tend tocompete over territory.”
Detroit was followed closely on the list by the greater Memphis, Tenn., and Miami, Fla.,metropolitan areas. Those three were the only large cities in Americawith more than 950 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people.
Behind the Numbers (We know what’s behind the numbers: race. — Ed.)
Todetermine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI’slatest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime categoryis composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter,forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S.metropolitan statistical areas–geographic entities defined by the U.S.Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies incollecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics–with morethan 500,000 residents.