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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 01:23 PM Jan 2012

Bank Robberies Have Almost Doubled in the Last Year in New York City

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/bank_robberies_up.php

While the general message from the Bloomberg administration has been that crime is down, that people are healthier, that everything is groovy, the New York Times City Room blog reports on a crime increase in one area: Bank robberies in New York City nearly doubled from 2010, when there were 26, to 2011, when there were 44 armed incidents. Of course, this is still nothing like the gritty days of yesteryear (in 1979 there were 319 armed bank robberies). But still! To what do we attribute this increase, which, along with more man-on-bank crime, has brought us cinema-ready villains like the "Bouquet Bandit" (above, caught) and the "Dapper Bandit," a/k/a Dana Connor, pictured after the jump, who is still on the loose?

The Times reports that because bank robberies had actually decreased, in 2010, the NYPD pulled the six detectives from the Joint Bank Robbery Task Force, which "for more than 30 years had handled armed bank robberies in the city."

In the months that followed, bank robberies went up, and the amount of cases closed has decreased by, in some cases, half:

'Of the 44 bank robbery cases last year, 17 were closed by year's end, with 10 arrests (some were multiple hits by the same suspect), for a 39 percent clearance rate. In past years, clearance rates have sometimes been twice that.'
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Bank Robberies Have Almost Doubled in the Last Year in New York City (Original Post) xchrom Jan 2012 OP
People robbing banks may be up slightly tularetom Jan 2012 #1
I've watched a shitload of bank robber movies. Iggo Jan 2012 #2
Or the task force itself... JackRiddler Jan 2012 #5
Oh hell yes! Iggo Jan 2012 #6
Well, the banks have been robbing New York, and the U.S. DeathToTheOil Jan 2012 #3
We went through a spate of bank robberies in Ann Arbor several years ago Demeter Jan 2012 #4
bank robbery is actually an interesting phenomenon iverglas Jan 2012 #7
Many party store and gas stations robberies around here in 2011. sarcasmo Jan 2012 #8

Iggo

(47,487 posts)
2. I've watched a shitload of bank robber movies.
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 01:28 PM
Jan 2012

Check the bank account of the guy who dissolved the task force, know'm say'n?

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
5. Or the task force itself...
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 03:53 PM
Jan 2012

After so many years of service, summarily put out to pasture, treated like shit by the brass, they need to pay spunky grandma's medical bills and tuition for the daughter who overcame a handicap, so who knows better about how to rob a bank than, I see DeNiro and Pacino here, a classic pro-heist movie with lots of race-the-clock tension, oh yes! Box office gold!!!

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
4. We went through a spate of bank robberies in Ann Arbor several years ago
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 03:49 PM
Jan 2012

Robbers jumping off 94 between Chicago and Detroit and not using the ATMs, exactly.

It's quieted down since....there's nothing worth stealing, I suppose.

 

iverglas

(38,549 posts)
7. bank robbery is actually an interesting phenomenon
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 04:00 PM
Jan 2012

Back around 1980, Montreal was the "bank robbery capital of the world". More recently, Vancouver has been the "bank robbery capital of North America". It's not someone one thinks of Canada excelling in.

There are some interesting US facts and figures here:

http://www.popcenter.org/problems/robbery_banks/

and they are reflected north of the border in what I have read recently too, especially regarding rising rates of bank robbery in smaller communities.

Bank robberies are relatively uncommon: only about 2 of every 100 robberies are of a bank. Although violence is rare, employees and customers are at some risk of injury. If nothing else, being victimized can be terrifying. In addition, bank robberies can invoke fear in the community at large, as most are well-covered by the media. And in fact, a distinctive bank robbery such as the fatal 1998 shoot-out between police and two bank robbers armed with assault weapons in Los Angeles can influence public images of crime for many years.

... Evidence suggests that urban bank robberies have been somewhat displaced in recent years; the share of bank robberies in small towns increased from 20 percent in 1996 to about 33 percent in 2002. Still, the majority of bank robberies are concentrated in urban areas. Although this concentration is often attributed to the fact that there are more branches in urban areas, the number of robberies is disproportionately higher than the number of branches. In Canada, for example, seven cities have 30 percent of all bank branches but 66 percent of all bank robberies; in the United Kingdom, London has 10 percent of the nation’s branches but 39 percent of its robberies.

Just as bank robberies are more common in urban areas, bank robberies within a jurisdiction tend to cluster where there are more banks. Branches are often located in groups near retail shopping areas, in commercial districts, and along major transportation corridors. Although individual branches in poorer areas seem to suffer more robberies, this primarily reflects the fact that there are fewer branches in such areas. Bank robberies are actually more numerous in more affluent neighborhoods. In one city, for example, only 3 percent of bank robberies occurred in areas considered as poor.


I meant to make a serious contribution here, but the solution does seem obvious from that: get rid of the banks, get rid of bank robberies.
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