Albuquerque crime....
I can't believe how bad the crime is getting there. I listen to the police scanner and I hear at least two armed car jackings a day, I hear shots fired calls, burglaries, and I've heard a few of the homicide calls in the past week. I'll be visiting again in May with my partner, we will be staying in Santa Fe. I was thinking of taking him on a tour of Abq, and lunch at The Grove, but now I'm not sure. I don't like the idea of having my rental car broken into, or getting caught in the crossfire of a road rage incident...We'll see. The per capita crime rate is higher there than out here in SoCal...not good. How are you all coping? It seems so depressing.
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I don't think the crime there is any worse than any other similarly sized city. The problem with listening to a police scanner is that you will only hear such bad news. I see that Pasadena has less than a fifth of the population of ABQ, so even if all things were equal, you'd have a fifth the number of crimes.
I can tell you that I live on the supposedly crime-ridden south side of Santa Fe, and I don't feel in the least unsafe. I do read regular reports of tourists in this city getting mugged, especially in and around the Plaza, our main tourist area. I think the problem is two-fold: one that tourists are almost always very easy to spot, which makes them obvious targets, and two that we have a shockingly large homeless population, and they often seem to be the ones robbing the tourists.
Truly, there is nothing to cope with. Crime is everywhere.
As a side note, in the 1970s I rode the bus from Alexandria, VA to my job at National Airport, and back again. I did shift work so I was often coming home late at night, and needing to walk a couple of blocks to my apartment. Every so often grown men (I'm a small woman) would express shock that I would do so, assuming that I'd be attacked regularly. Never happened. On the other hand, my sister lived in Los Angeles for a decade or so and was robbed several times. 
On greyhound, 56 days on the road from Washington to DC then down to Florida and back through the southern states to California then up the coast to home I saw so many beautiful places in our great country.
My Mom, my older and younger sister, just us, we never had a problem, not one, no scary moments either, we all had a great time.
Can you imagine doing that today and getting away with it?.
I don't know what the answer to what's going on in our Country is or how to make it better.
But I know where to start, take our Country back in November, change a few laws pertaining to guns, change a few laws pertaining to elections and throwing citizens United in the trash is paramount.
Then we can get on to healing the disease that snowballed right around the time raygun took office.
Chicago's Field Museum, The New York Metropolitan art museum, I walked the entire round trip around Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza, the top of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty,the Whitehouse, Arlington National cemetery, two days at the Smithsonian, DisneyWorld, Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach.
The Saint Louis Arch, Savannah Georgia, New Orleans, Dallas Texas, Taos New Mexico, Disneyland, Six Flags, the Queen Mary, etc, etc.....
I've forgotten probably as much as above, 56 days on buses will do that to you.
My Father was on Alaskas North Slope working in the drilling camps, Mom did it all herself, the high point of my young life, and yes she's quite the Woman.
I got to see our Great Country at a time I could appreciate it and understand how big it really is.
So half our vacations were spent just getting to Seattle like the time they re-routed our plane to Adak Alaska to pick up a high school basketball team that was stranded there for a week because of the weather.
Alaska, it's not just a state, it's a flippin adventure.
I should write a book.
BTW I asked Mom, I turned 13 right before our trip so it was the summer of 1972.
How the world has changed.
I visit NM all the time, was just in ABQ in Feb! I stayed in Sandia Heights, and mainly stayed up in that area. I did venture down to Los Poblanos and Sadie's on 4th 
I know to avoid the SE quadrant, especially around Central/San Mateo. Really, I'm more worried about drunk drivers and road ragers, lol. Thanks for the welcome, always nice to meet NM people on here, as I visit often and it's my favorite state outside of CA 
What part of town do you live in?
Do you listen online? And I have to tell you, I like the police here very much--with only one exception in my 12 years of living here.
YES, crime per capita is high here. ABQ is, most notably, the city with the highest rate of car theft in the U.S. according to its population. We have a new mayor now, and the city council recently decriminalized marijuana, so the police don't have to waste time doing paperwork if they find a couple of flowers in somebody's car. They either issue a $50 fine or let the driver go as long as s/he doesn't appear impaired. (I actually heard this on the scanner one night. Cop pulled over a young male and said,"He had a couple of flowers, but he seemed fine, so I let him go." )
One note of caution about listening to the scanner though: The reports that come in via the dispatcher don't always turn out to be as horrific as they sound, and sometimes they aren't true. I hear gunshot reports that come through the dispatcher almost every day, but I'm not sure how many are accurate.
The ABQ police have really cracked down recently. They're increasing the number of officers on the the streets and coordinating with county and state police. The NYC police came here not too long ago and gave ABQ some advice. One recommendation was that if the police follow the car thieves, hijackers, etc., they will find all kinds of other criminal activity. So far, it seems to be working.
It has long been my personal belief (nothing new) that most of our crime comes from poverty and the meth/heroin problems associated with that.
In any case, I don't feel threatened or unsafe living here. I love the outdoor opportunities the place affords, and I love the people. I also like the fact that it's not crowded.
So don't take the scanner too literally. Have you ever taken the tram up to Sandia Crest?