Is now a dangerous time to travel to Cozumel?

[cvchief]

Reading her post carefully, it looks to me like Christi is referring to West, TX which is a small community (population around 3,000) along I-35 half-way between Waco and Hillsboro. It's the kind of place where it's pretty durn safe to walk down the street at night. (BTW, most folks from both West, TX and "West Texas" tend to be very nice and hospitable).

I thought they rolled up the streets at night?

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Reading her post carefully, it looks to me like Christi is referring to West, TX which is a small community (population around 3,000) along I-35 half-way between Waco and Hillsboro. It's the kind of place where it's pretty durn safe to walk down the street at night. (BTW, most folks from both West, TX and "West Texas" tend to be very nice and hospitable).

I've lost count of the number of people who have expressed concern for my safety when they hear I'm going to dive in Cozumel. I'll keep on patiently explaining what it's really like.

That actually explains a lot. It makes sense and is a good analogy. My apologies to Christi. Thanks for the logical explanation.

My original point though, that avoiding Kansas City due to the gang crime in LA is a poor analogy remains. According to the FBI 2010 stats, KC has a violent crime rate of 461 per 100,000 people while LA has a slightly lower rate of 442 violent crimes per 100,000. Not only does your safety in one have nothing to do with the other, both are places are dangerous so BTravlin's point may be valid, he just choose a poor set of locations to demonstrate it.

FBI — Table 6

Although similar stats are not available for Coz, I am sure it is nowhere close to either big city.

To those of you who think I am grumpy or like to argue, perhaps you are right. I prefer to think that I take the time it think critically though peoples claims and check the facts rather than take them at face value. News outlets, preachers and fellow posters on SB alike. I think its a good trait, but sometimes it can be overdone. Maybe I crossed the line and if I did so, please accept my apology.

 

[Tigerman]

Reason why those stats is not available for Cozumel is probably because the ammount of violent crimes there (other than possibly bar brawls) doesnt warrant it?

 

[BTravlin]

That actually explains a lot. It makes sense and is a good analogy. My apologies to Christi. Thanks for the logical explanation.

My original point though, that avoiding Kansas City due to the gang crime in LA is a poor analogy remains. According to the FBI 2010 stats, KC has a violent crime rate of 461 per 100,000 people while LA has a slightly lower rate of 442 violent crimes per 100,000. Not only does your safety in one have nothing to do with the other, both are places are dangerous so BTravlin's point may be valid, he just choose a poor set of locations to demonstrate it.

FBI — Table 6

Although similar stats are not available for Coz, I am sure it is nowhere close to either big city.

To those of you who think I am grumpy or like to argue, perhaps you are right. I prefer to think that I take the time it think critically though peoples claims and check the facts rather than take them at face value. News outlets, preachers and fellow posters on SB alike. I think its a good trait, but sometimes it can be overdone. Maybe I crossed the line and if I did so, please accept my apology.

Not to nit-pick but since you like to think critically let's see if this makes sense to you. I originally said you don't avoid Kansas City because of a crime epidemic in LA. These two cities are approximately 1,600 miles apart so you don't avoid one city, Kansas City, 1,600 miles away from another city, LA, because that city (LA) has an epidemic of violence. Now, you say Kansas City has it's own violence problem and you have backed that up with a link. Since that is true, you might want to avoid Kansas City due to it's own problems but not because of LA's problems.

Cozumel is almost 2,000 miles from Chihuahua which is centrally located near the U.S. border so my point was more related to distance.

Okay, I guess I was a bit nit-picky.

 

[cvchief]

Maybe I crossed the line and if I did so, please accept my apology.

I was just ....

 

[Sideways]

As far as crime... I feel safer in Playa/Coz than I do in Southern California, where 3 days ago a maniac killed 8 people in a Seal Beach hair salon. I frequent a restaurant and my dermotologist is in the same lil strip mall. So yeah... I'd say Coz is comparatively safe.

We were also in Playa (actually arrived the day the story broke) when the swine flu scare hit. Only change I saw was lots of bars on 5th Ave. offering "Swine Flu" cocktails.... Oh...and the extra added fun of having to clear the lil medical screening at Cun airport when leaving....

 

[ggunn]

As far as crime... I feel safer in Playa/Coz than I do in Southern California, where 3 days ago a maniac killed 8 people in a Seal Beach hair salon. I frequent a restaurant and my dermotologist is in the same lil strip mall. So yeah... I'd say Coz is comparatively safe.

We were also in Playa (actually arrived the day the story broke) when the swine flu scare hit. Only change I saw was lots of bars on 5th Ave. offering "Swine Flu" cocktails.... Oh...and the extra added fun of having to clear the lil medical screening at Cun airport when leaving....

I was on Cozumel at the time, myself. The only casualty of the situation was the cancellation of my return flight, so I HAD TO STAY AN EXTRA DAY! Oh, horrors!

 

[Mossman]

As far as crime... I feel safer in Playa/Coz than I do in Southern California, where 3 days ago a maniac killed 8 people in a Seal Beach hair salon. I frequent a restaurant and my dermotologist is in the same lil strip mall. So yeah... I'd say Coz is comparatively safe.

Speaking of that maniac, I was reading about him in the news this morning. Some interesting stuff:

"He was so passionate about boats that he began working as a young teen at a business that runs fishing, diving and whale watching tours. He eventually joined the payroll as a crewman, said Don Ashley, co-owner of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. He was popular with tourists and other crew members alike and was incredibly fit, finding time to play high school football and baseball while holding down his job. "He was the most even-keeled, good-natured person. A lot of our groups would say, 'Hey, is Scott going to be on the boat today?' They looked forward to him and the crews, the same thing," Ashley said. "When you put five or six people on a boat, a lot of times it's oil and water and they just don't get along. He got along with everybody."

"In 1991, Dekraai went to work at Catalina Channel Express, working his way up to captain piloting ferries between the mainland and the picturesque haven of Catalina Island. The company accused him of using heroin and illegal drugs to lose weight and he was fired in 2000. His breach of contract and defamation lawsuit were dismissed, according to court papers."

http://news.yahoo.com/california-salon-shooting-suspect-had-rough-life-164735938.html

I wonder how often I was on this guy's ferry on the way to dive Catalina? And now I'll be forever wondering about the guy on the diveboat crew who gets along with everybody, will he mass murder everyone on the boat? Does crewing on a dive boat and captaining a ferry lead one to mass murder. And does heroin really help one lose weight

AFAIK, no Cozumel dive boat crew member has gone on to be a mass-murderer, and for those taking the ferry over, no ferry captain has gone on to become a mass-murdered either (if I'm wrong about either of these statistics, please let me know). Therefore, diving Cozumel is safer than diving SoCal at least in the respect that your crew or ferry captains are less likely to be mass murderers.

 

[mstevens]

does heroin really help one lose weight

You've apparently never seen a junkie.

 

[Mossman]

You've apparently never seen a junkie.

True, junkies tend to be underweight. That's more a function of being too drugged out to care about eating or too poor to afford food after spending all one's money on heroin. For true metabolic assistance with weight loss, it's more expedient (and cheaper) to acquire a meth addiction instead.