Another year, another title, another seemingly bodged report based on FBI facts, another sucker punch to Detroit. After losing to St. Louis last year, CQ Press a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc, used FBI crime statistics and elevated my home town to No. 1 – “Most Dangerous US City”. This dubious “score” of 407 to St. Louis’ 406 must be irritating to mayors and crime officials alike, as this has been touted as a gross misuse and inaccurate interpretation of data.

Since moving further into the suburbs, I am no longer toting this crypto-facto-brication with pride. When I went to school and regularly attended events downtown, I fancied myself as a hardened city-dweller. I rarely ever find myself in Detroit proper, save for the two miles that I drive through to get to my home. Now that I live in the bubble of suburbia (granted 500 yards from the border) I wait until people question their own city’s safety. They talk of their crime, and in some cases they have more dangerous cities, but I have aggregated crime data forged into a number on an unregulated scale calling me… a badass in a dangerous town.

The Associated Press: Detroit Declared Most Dangerous US City [link]