What Burglars Won't Tell You . . .

[Thalassamania]

It is, in many ways, an apples and oranges comparison since here in Hawaii we have a rather commonly reported crime called, "Terroristic Threatening," which, despite no damage being done, is (I believe) recorded as a violent crime.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program uses resident population to calculate crime rates for all states. Hawaii’s has a relatively small resident population, but a large visitor (and non-resident military) population, so crime rates based on resident population are much higher when compared to rates based on the actual number of people in the state.
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§707-715 Terroristic threatening, defined. A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening if the person threatens, by word or conduct, to cause bodily injury to another person or serious damage to property of another or to commit a felony:

(1) With the intent to terrorize, or in reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing, another person; or
(2) With intent to cause, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation.

 

[Paladin]

MDB,
I can see that happening in a liberal state like California, where citizens have few gun rights and even fewer self-defense rights. Here, though, the police fully expect to encounter a lawfully armed citizen protecting himself, his property or the life and/or property of another and they act accordingly.

Just this last November, my wife was in our yard cleaning up her flower beds for winter when a gray squirrel dropped out of a tree and started stalking her and growling. It bared its teeth and was obviously intent on attacking her. She ran for the porch with the crazy squirrel hot on her heels and barely made it onto the enclosed porch and shut the door. The squirrel paced back and forth in front of the door, waiting for her to come out. She came into the house and told me what had happened. At first, I thought she was trying to pull my leg but when I went out on the porch, the squirrel was still there. It was plainly insane (probably from rabies). I went inside and got my youngest son's .22 rifle (I briefly considered getting my 12 gauge but decided that would be overkill and might startle the neighbors a bit). By the time I got back outside, the squirrel had climbed onto the screen enclosing the porch and was gnawing his way through. I stepped out, onto the deck, and held the rifle at a high angle so that the bullet would hit the ground after passing through the squirrel and fired. The bullet went clear through the little beastie's chest cavity and buried itself into the ground. The squirrel then came at me with its teeth bared. The rifle was a single shot and I didn't have a chance to reload. I used the barrel to fend of the attack and knock him to the ground. I then used the rifle but to beat the little booger to death. Three city police cruisers pulled up a moment later. Officers got out of two of them, while the third stayed in his car.

I was standing there with the rifle in my hand (with a bloody gun butt) and a mangled squirrel at my feet. The officers asked me what was going on (a neighbor had heard the gunshot) and I told him. Upon hearing my story, the third cop started laughing so hard, his cruiser was shaking. The other two chuckled and thanked me for taking the squirrel out. Like they said, if that squirrel had gotten away, it might have bitten somebody's dog, cat or even a child. As far as they were concerned, I had done a community service.

Now in spite of coming onto a scene where a gunshot had been reported and a man was standing in his yard with a blood-spattered rifle, the officers didn't even draw their own weapons. But they did get a good laugh out of the whole thing.

 

[Thalassamania]

Different environments call for different responses. I doubt that any of those WV cops would last much more than one shift in a city like San Francisco and, similarly, I suspect that if the San Francisco cops were shifted to WV (or here in the rural Ka'u District of Hawai'i County) they'd serious over-react.

 

[Paladin]

It is, in many ways, an apples and oranges comparison since here in Hawaii we have a rather commonly reported crime called, "Terroristic Threatening," which, despite no damage being done, is (I believe) recorded as a violent crime.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program uses resident population to calculate crime rates for all states. Hawaii’s has a relatively small resident population, but a large visitor (and non-resident military) population, so crime rates based on resident population are much higher when compared to rates based on the actual number of people in the state.
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§707-715 Terroristic threatening, defined. A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening if the person threatens, by word or conduct, to cause bodily injury to another person or serious damage to property of another or to commit a felony:

(1) With the intent to terrorize, or in reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing, another person; or
(2) With intent to cause, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation.

We also have a large influx of out-of-state visitors (tourism is a major industry here). Also, we have three interstates that intersect at Charleston that are heavily used by drug traffickers heading north and west. This helps to skew our crime stats to the dark side as much of the crime in the state stems from this. If an out-of-stater is arrested for a drug crime, the stat goes onto WV's tally sheet and not the state where he came from.

That's what I meant when I said that there are many crimes that are listed as "violent crimes" that most people would not think would be included. A man and woman yelling at each other (with no physical contact or even threatening gestures) can be charged with assault. Not actually a violent crime, but it winds up in the stats as one. So, my assertion stands.

Oh, by the way, according to the Census Bureau, WV's overall crime ranking (by population and from high to low) is 39, Vermont is 45 and Rhode Island is 44. Hawaii is 36.

 

[mdb]

Paladin954: You and Thal are correct. Different response from different places. I grew up in a coal mining town in Eastern PA. The first day of deer season was a school holiday. As you know, coal miners are a bit tough. They deal with danger and dynamite and they don't do well with folks who threaten their family or neighbors.

I did feel fortunate that the SFPD Sgt. stayed calm. He did not seem mad-just surprised.

 

[Paladin]

Different environments call for different responses. I doubt that any of those WV cops would last much more than one shift in a city like San Francisco and, similarly, I suspect that if the San Francisco cops were shifted to WV (or here in the rural Ka'u District of Hawai'i County) they'd serious over-react.

This, my friend, is very, very true.

 

[Thalassamania]

How many hotel rooms do you have in your entire state? I'd guess we have more here on the Big Island alone.

I'll grant you that we are a little short on people driving through from one state to another.

 

[Paladin]

I'll have to do some research to find out just how many hotel rooms we have in the state. Charleston is a major business convention center with hotels/motels on virtually every corner. Huntington and Wheeling are also big convention centers. Motels are scattered all over the state along every highway to cater to travelers. We have three or four casinos with attendant lodging. We have about 40 state parks and forests with lodges, cabins and campgrounds with, perhaps, another hundred privately owned campgrounds. People come here from all over for hunting, fishing, camping, white water rafting (app. half a million per year), hiking (the Appalachian Trail cuts through the state), trail riding (by horse, four wheeler, off road motorcycle or mountain bike), skiing, SCUBA and other water sports, BASE jumping (we have the only bridge in the country where it's legal) and many other sports and activities. West Virginia has a rich past that attracts history buffs and archaeologists from all over the country. I don't remember the exact number of tourists who come here as their destination, but it is up in the millions. Add to that the fact that we lie on a primary corridor used by Canadians and yankees on their way south to the beaches of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, the number of visitors is vastly greater than the number of full time residents. Millions of cars and commercial vehicles transit the state every day.

Visitors to Hawaii must fly or sail into the state and no doubt countless do. West Virginia, on the other hand, is accessable from the entire North American continent by anyone with a vehicle; including bicycles. We even have some who, on occasion, travel through on horseback or on foot. A few years ago, a man walked through on a three year quest to walk from Tierra del Fuego to Ontario.

Due to our open accessability, it would probably be impossible to determine exactly how many people visit our state each year. Most are decent, honest people. Some aren't.

On another note, I was talking to a Florida State Police officer and he told me that criminals in Florida target out-of-state visitors and hundreds of tourists are robbed every year. However, he said that he could not recall anyone from West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky or North Carolina ever being so targeted but lots of yankees are.

By the way, South Carolina is listed as number one in crime rate by the census bureau. Poor guys.

 

[Thalassamania]

In 2008 we had 63,130,133 visitor days, I can not find data for West Virginia.

 

[Jax]

fftopic:

:focus:

One recommendation is to put a bunch of pistol-shooting trophies in a front-facing window. Would-be thieves take that for a warning.