The South has a reputation of civility: southern gentlemen and southern belles saying “yes sir” and “yes ma’am,” “please” and “thank you.” Especially in the Carolinas. These are places where life is slower, and the people are friendly. So why do we top the most violent states in America?
A new report by the watchdog group Law Street uses the FBI’s violent crime statistics to come up with some frankly shocking claims. In all of America, South Carolina is the fifth most violent state, and North Carolina comes in at number 23. They used murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery for the factors, and used every city that has more than 25,000 people. Which means Myrtle Beach and Rocky Mount are the most violent cities for each of the Carolinas.
One of the factors could be that the Carolinas are growing in population. The census says North Carolina was number 12 and South Carolina number 14 in overall population growth last year. Census data also shows the highest growth came from people over 18, which likely means it’s due to people moving here, rather than birth rates.
It’s worth noting that Tennessee is number one on the violence list, and there’s a huge influx of people moving to Memphis and Nashville. And Florida, with a 19-percent growth rate, is also up there. But places like New York and Illinois, with their millions of people, aren’t.
So our Man on the Edge, Robert Wilder, hit the streets asking: do more people equal more problems?
