The US of A - Petty Crime v Real Crime

When it comes to gun related crime and murder, America excels. Los Angeles has a higher percentage of street gang membership, per head of population, than most (if not any) other cities in the world. The fact that guns are legalised certainly does not help.

Now, it must be stressed that crime in Europe is on the increase too, scarily so. Murder rates in Dublin are nearly doubling on an annual basis. Handguns, although illegal in all European nations can be bought on the streets in minutes (or so I'm informed).

But, what I want to talk about today, in this post, is petty crime in America. Or should I say, the lack of it. As far as I can see, from my experiences, petty crime does not exist in the USA, or if it does, it is at a tiny level.

The first time I visited the USA, I was flying from London, where I lived, to Sacramento, California, via a change of flight in Denver, Colorado. Between the jigs and the reels, we missed our connect flight to Sacramento, requiring a 7 hour wait before we could be accommodated on the next available flight. Owing to this unscheduled delay, I needed to phone my brother in Sacramento, to explain our delay. This was 1987, in the days before mobile phones were widely available, so I had no choice but to use a call box. Realising this was an inter-state call that would cost a few bucks to make from a public phone, I managed to get approximately $10 in quarters (25 cent coins for those of you have never frequented this fascinating country).

Myself and my girlfriend (at the time, let me add), stood in line at a call box. When I picked up the receiver, an automated female voice was asking me to 'select my desired operator'. Now, in 1987, we didn't have a selection of telephone operators to choose from in Britain, or Ireland, whereas this phone had 6 buttons to select from, each one representing a different phone company. I duly selected one of these buttons, thinking to myself that if I had more information readily available, I would know which one offered the cheapest inter-state calls to California. Another sexy, female, automated voice spoke to me, "Thank you for choosing AT&T, where we strive to make your call inaudible", (or some such other bullshit). I was then told by the same automaton to dial my number, which I did. Then I was asked to insert $1.50, which I did.

There was a brief pause, followed by the automaton informing me that my call was being connected, and many more thanks from the AT&T company. By this stage, I felt AT&T must be in some serious financial poop, if it necessitated so much gratitude to me, in relation to a simple phone call. Anyway, I eventually made contact with my brother, and spoke to him for approximately 15 minutes or so. In this time, a line of people was gathering behind me, so I finished off my call.

The moment I hung up the receiver, the phone was ringing - naturally, I answered it. This time, a male (big, big, male, by the sound of it), automated voice told me I owed AT&T $7.50, or some similar amount of cash, as 'arrears of my phone call'. This voice told me to 'insert seven dollars fifty'. I handed the phone to my girlfriend to hear - I thought this was hysterical. Naturally, I hung up, and we walked away, chuckling to ourselves. If the truth be known, we were pissing our pants, imagining if phone companies operated like that in Britain or Ireland. You'd have every phone box constantly ringing, demanding hundreds of pounds of arrears for the missed call.

The next guy in the line to use the phone was a large well suited businessman. He answered the phone, and called after me, "Hey buddy, you owe the phone company $7.50". By this stage, I thought I would need an incontinent bag, my bladder was bursting so much from laughing so hard. A prime example of where trust and honesty in America is obeyed and adhered to, unlike us in Europe.

I don't know if call boxes still operate in a similar function, suffice to say, if they do, then this business model obviously works successfully in the USA.

The other American trust thing that would be blatantly destroyed in Britain and Ireland is, American newspaper vending machines. For those that have never visited the USA, these vending boxes are on every street, in every city and town. They are usually constructed of glass, so that one can see if there are any newspapers available. To purchase a newspaper, one inserts a coin, opens the top opening door, and removes ONE newspaper (there could be up to 100 copies in each vending box), and the closes the lid again.

I love this vending box idea, it's simple and user friendly. Yet, once again, this would simply not work in Europe. If this type of newspaper vending was introduced to Britain or Ireland, one of a few things would happen on day one of its launch, namely:

1. Some lowlife scumbag would put his foot through the glass walls of the vending machine, just for the hell of it, later pleading innocence in court, via his solicitor, on the grounds that he 'was out of his mind on drink'.


2. Some other lowlife would break the entry mechanism, and take a piss on the newspapers, just for the hell of it.
   
3. Another lowlife would break the entry mechanism, steal all of the newspapers, and subsequently sell them to motorists at a nearby set of traffic lights, (whilst his friend would start washing windscreens of the same unfortunate motorist, with a filthy rag, and then demand cash for doing this).

Mailboxes in America, the ones that are at then entrance to houses, usually stuck to a post, are another example of honesty. How much mail is stolen from these? Very little, I guess.

So, petty crime in America is at a very low level, yet serious crime is much higher. Two years after my experience with the Colorado Callbox, (as I like to call this experience), I was in New York, and witnessed the aftermath of a street murder on 3rd Avenue, (in broad daylight). Europe could learn a thing or two from our counterparts. Removing petty crime, and having a zero-tolerant attitude to crime in general, definiely reduces crime rates on an overall basis. Rudolph Giuliani proved this in New York.

The only thing that's still on my mind is this: is that call box in Denver airport still ringing?