It's a Crime ...

Some crime statistics were reported recently in the local newspaper covering my suburb and, basically, three other main suburbs in my area: Bramley, where I live, Sandringham to the south-east of us, Norwood, south-west and Yeoville, south of us.

What horrifies me about these statistics is that I know for a fact that, horrific as they are, many crimes go unreported because it's a waste of time reporting them. When my daughter's friend was robbed in Bramley, he didn't report it. A car stopped next to him, four guys jumped out, held a gun to his head, took his cell phone, went through his pockets, then casually drove away. When my daughter was robbed at knife-point in Yeoville (quite a while back), we didn't report it. I drove around in my car with a "sjambok" trying to find the guy to sort him out myself, but reporting it would have served no purpose. Thankfully she wasn't hurt, just badly shaken.

A woman who is a hawker in Highlands North, just near a major bus stop, was robbed of her daily earnings at gunpoint, by a guy driving a white minibus taxi. Once again, he drove off quite casually, without any fear. A friend of mine, awaiting a bus, spoke to the woman shortly after the incident. She was clearly shaken, terrified for the baby strapped to her back - and devastated by her loss of earnings.

Check out these statistics and draw a conclusion about the state of the environment we live in and try to raise kids in:

These statistics, for April 2008 to March 2009 were published in our "North Eastern Tribune" of Oct. 2nd 2009.(Apparently the second figure reflects the drop or increase from the first figure)

Bramley:

Murder: 12 - 18
Sex crimes: 47 - 44
Robbery (aggravated): 667-739
Housebreaking business: 250-236
Housebreaking residential: 322 - 289
Theft of motor vehicles: 425 - 334
Car jacking: 158 - 229
Business robbery: 93 - 84
House robbery: 93 - 84

Sandringham:

Murder: 13 - 16
Sex crimes: 29 - 38
Robbery (aggravated): 326 - 411
Housebreaking business: 91 - 97
Housebreaking residential: 230 - 290
Theft of motor vehicles: 93 - 80
Car jacking: 104 - 154
Business robbery: 28 - 23
House robbery: 64 - 80

Norwood:

Murder: 4-5
Sex crimes: 39-75
Robbery (aggravated): 524 - 371
Housebreaking business: 107 - 117
Housebreaking residential: 451 - 357
Theft of motor vehicles: 208 - 217
Car jacking: 110 - 62
Business robbery: 35 - 52
House robbery: 88 - 70

Yeoville:

Murder: 20 - 24
Sex crimes: 72 - 121
Robbery (aggravated): 416 - 219
Housebreaking business: 75 - 104
Housebreaking residential: 226 - 228
Theft of motor vehicles: 184 - 143
Car jacking: 54 - 25
Business robbery: 18 - 34
House robbery: 53 - 42

Add all of those together, and you'll have a picture of my local environment.

These areas are no "Manhattans" in terms of population density; they are pretty ordinary suburbs of Johannesburg.