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Inky incorrectly says 4 crimes were reported at SugarHouse since opening; real number is 22
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Inky incorrectly says 4 crimes were reported at SugarHouse since opening; real number is 22
Filed Under: Casinos | Philadelphia Police
Over the weekend, the Inquirer published an article about crime at SugarHouse, claiming that before Friday's pistol-whipping, "police had received three reports of crime at SugarHouse since the casino's Sept. 23 opening: two reports of theft from cars in the parking lot, and one of a broken car window."
City Paper found otherwise.
According to statistics from the Philadelphia Police Department (see below), there have been 22 reports of crime — not four — since the casino's opening: one robbery by handgun, three reports of theft from cars, two reports of theft that occurred elsewhere, one report of fraudulent conversion, three reports of private-property vandalism, two D.U.I.s, four reports of disorderly conduct, and six reports of trespassing.
This is an especially egregious error given the general theme of the article — that SugarHouse is "one of the most thoroughly policed areas in the city," and Friday's pistol-whipping criminals "defeated tight security." How can you quantify how good or bad security is without accurate statistics?
Two months after the casino's opening, it's too soon to judge security, really. It's also too soon to know if SugarHouse will provide another example of how casinos bring more violent crime to communities, as economist Earl Grinols and others argue.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Holly Otterbein, Gary Ransome, Merilyn Jackson, johncecilprice and others. johncecilprice said: RT @citypaper: Inquirer incorrectly says 4 crimes were reported at SugarHouse casino since opening. The real number? 22: http://ow.ly/3a9tS [...]
If you want to publish clear, meaningful and non-misleading stats - as you advocate - you should provide stats reported in the same vicinity during the same time period in each of the past 3 years. Then the claim that the casino did "bring" crimes to the area can be better substantiated. Standalone stats like this is don't provide even correlation let alone causation. What is the mean and median number of crimes reported in Philadelphia within any comparable area (that is being occupied by the casino) during the same time period? Trends before/after the casino? I would love to learn about the crime and community impact of the casino. I would also like to learn about the "real" economic impact of the casino (other than the stats that politicians/proponents/opponents are touting around). If I know anything about stats (and I do), you can make any sets of stats to look like anything you want. Give me the GIS raw data and I will analyze it for everyone, fairly and objectively.
What a ridiculous comment! The CityPaper blog post is entirely objective. It provides hard data to expose the inaccuracies in the Inquirer article. And it says the jury is still out. (Oh, and I doubt these types of crimes existed at this property over the past 3 years . . . because before the casino it was a vacant lot!)
"Doubt" is an subjective judgement. Crimes don't happen in vacant lots? Where do they find all the bodies in Kensington? Let me show you what you can done with stats. According to the same set of data published above: in the 2 week period between Sept. 28th and Oct. 11th. Only 1 crime (disorderly conduct) was reported at the casino. How many districts can boast that? Let's see some trends. If stats support an increase of crimes reported, then casino "brought" crimes to the area. If not, then it is not substantiated. A snap shot like that is called "statistically insignificant". Like I said, you can't even find correlation without historic data, let along identify causation. Let me just clear this: Inquirer was wrong, but touting 2-month crime stats is premature regardless of over or under reporting. It's best to just report the stats without putting any spin/shade on the issue. By quoting an economist, you preposition the tone of the post.
Your comments don't hold water. You improperly compare a 2-week time period of only one reported crime at this particular address with the amount of reported crime at a "district"? That's ridiculous. And the CityPaper doesn't quote an economist, it questions openly whether the situation at SugarHouse will bear out one of his general conclusions. And it's not "2-month old crime data." It doesn't seem like you have any legitimate complaints about this blog post. You just would've written it differently, which is fine.
Look up the definition for quote. My comments does hold water, the only think this blog post does correctly is to point out that Inquirer posted incomplete crime data. On top of that, crimes reported != crimes committed.
[...] Gets Its Robocall OnThis Moment In DrifterHouse: False Media, We Don’t Need It, Do We?From this crazy-making post on The Clog about The Inky under-reporting crime at SugarHouse: Click to enlarge.“Fraudulent conversation,” indeed. This entry was [...]
Wow, sixphilly, maybe I'm reading your comments wrong, but you seem to me to be really working the defense for SugarHouse. And no one really accused them of anything (yet). I do not find the post anything more than pointing out that the Inky report was wrong and misleading. Four crimes vs 22 over a less than two month period is certainly a statistically significant difference. The difference of four vs 22 over just 54 or 55 days makes the Inky reporter look like she didn't do her own research or she's purposefully interpreting the stats in a particular way. Either of which would make me question their competence as a journalist. It's a difference of once a fortnight vs once every 2.5 days. Your point about whether or not there's more or less crime at the casino than elsewhere in the area is a good question, but the Clog post doesn't speak to that. In fact, they say "it's too soon to judge security, really." Perhaps the post was worded differently before I read it? Because I don't see anything in this post claiming that SugarHouse brought crime/more crime to the vicinity, just a reference to studies of other casinos. But either way, I don't think there's enough meaningful data to make pronouncements yet.
Thanks City Paper for nailing this one down! Might I also add that these are the stats that are reported to police. When Sugarhouse targets vulnerable Asian communities (http://newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/7372-15spcasino&Itemid=&Itemid=11), there's on-going concern that these communities may be fully reporting crimes committed against them.
Clarification: There is on-going concern that Asian community members may NOT be fully reporting crimes committed against them.
Agree with comments of both Paul Boni and Helen Gym here. To collect stats that relate to crime IN the casino is also somewhat misleading, since crimes that are committed BECAUSE of the casino, but OUTSIDE it are perhaps the biggest worry, longer term. Domestic violence, child neglect in the home, fraud, embezzlement all may spring from issues that are directly connected with the casino, yet are not identified in reporting because they occurred way off-site. Time will prove Grinols' predictions to be very sadly true, I fear. These disturbing statistics would be the 'tip of the iceberg'! Wait until that casino has developed a whole new population of desperately overspending people, with family responsibilities that they can no longer meet. What harms will occur then? What crimes will be committed that are not reported by embarrassed families, too ashamed to 'go public'? I am not referring to crimes caused by the blatantly addicted patrons here either! The largest number of people who are harmed by excessive casino gambling are the ones we never hear about...the 'at risk over-spenders'...still 'apparently recreational' gamblers with their innocent children whose lives and futures will be wrecked by lack of money. These parents are not officially addicted yet...they are just depleting the family resources savagely...whilst they deny being hooked on gambling! Biggest crime of all is that the government is apparently condoning it! Who is game to report THAT?
[...] Inky incorrectly says 4 crimes were reported at SugarHouse since ... This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Holly Otterbein, Gary Ransome, Merilyn Jackson, johncecilprice and others. johncecilprice said: RT @citypaper: Inquirer incorrectly says 4 crimes were reported at SugarHouse . [...]
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