Re: I haven't laughed so hard in a long time...
I think crime rates have more to do w/ population density. Out where we live there aren't a lot of people to start, and a lot of the people seem to know each other. Not to mention the fathers w/d whoop the tar out of the children for any monkeying around near someone else's property.
Different story in the old neighborhood on the Southside of Chgo where 10's of thousands of people lived on top of each other. Back in the day gangs of us Mickies, Dagos and Polocks were just as devious and destructive as the darker skinned gangs. The big difference was the cops gave us white kids a a pass and locked up the kids on the east side of the tracks.
I once had a customer from Texas who worked for Carl Rove. he told me they took a page right out of Mayor Daley's Sr's book. Da Mayor used to take care of the church's on the Southside -- give them new sidewalks and driveways, new garbage cans, extra police patrols, and exchange the ministers delivered the vote.
This guy from Texas told me his outfit was doing the same thing w/ the Scotch-Irish belt from Appalachia on out to Kansas to put Bush Jr in the White House. And the hot button issue they pushed was that the government was going to come and take their guns and raise their taxes unless they voted for W. And they didn't work on the young people like the democrats do, they stuck w/ the preacher and the elders cuz they knew those youngsters will do what their daddy and granddaddy tells them to do.
I thought it was a waste of time and money until Bush won twice and called Rove "The Architect". And ever since people across WV, southern Ohio & IN & IL, Tenn, Kentuck, Arkansas, Kansas and MO have become a repub firewall.