[speaker002:] well Hal what's uh what's crime like in Dallas
[speaker001:] well it depends where in Dallas you are there are certainly parts of town
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I would not want to live in
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because it's a situation it is very location dependent
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and there are parts of town here where when they talk about the nightly gunfire
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah in Baltimore we have similar I live on the outskirts of Baltimore and uh we live right outside the city and our neighborhood is pretty much working class people though I'm in graduate school uh I live here because it's close to the university but you know we have uh it it's really funny the only crime we really see
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] is uh just the kids being malicious
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know and I think most of that is because their parents aren't around that make sense
[speaker001:] yeah that uh the what they call the latchkey children
[speaker002:] yeah yeah something like that no one's you know or or fathers are just missing you know so there's no uh no consistency there in the home or whatever there's no one to tell them what's right and what's wrong you know
[speaker001:] you know the suburb I'm in is more of the upper middle class so I think our uh not that we don't have a certain amount of local problems but on the other hand
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh we get the uh affect of the the city and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh the main crimes within the suburb here are the the theft crimes
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] a small number of assaults uh well if we have one murder a year
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] that's probably as many but then you know you go into Dallas and they are unfortunately
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh having murders at a rate greater than one a day
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I think that's we're about the same in Baltimore though um Washington I think is uh close by and you know they experience a lot more I think they definitely have more problems that uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] in in the area what what do you think can prevent crime
[speaker001:] well uh the thing is I don't it's one of those things where if you're a grad student you can appreciate the statistics on unfortunately there are often these correlations that are
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] inverse of what they should be like uh wherever there are more uh criminals there are more policemen but that's which came first
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] but on the other side of it is it's it's basically the the problem is within the in the society and the society's views
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh well since now I'm in my mid forties when I was in grad school or when I was an undergraduate growing up in a more rural area I thought you know crime was was reasonably unknown and just the situation that's developed with the
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] the drug aspect of uh
[speaker002:] yeah I think uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh the pushers the dealers and the addicts um
[speaker002:] yeah I I I think I agree with you there yeah
[speaker001:] because it just was not uh something back in the sixties that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I even had to worry about but I think you know that there is a lot in the society where things have changed uh so it's effected all of us
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah I think they the drug culture definitely has uh is one of the main problems yeah our uh our mayor in uh Baltimore is one of the people that goes on national television and says they should uh legalize drugs
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] because it would eliminate the uh the violence and the uh the under the the market I guess the the hidden market of the drugs and everything that goes along with it that make sense he's one of the big proponents of that he gets on national television and and says that you know so it's um
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and he was a District Attorney before and a prosecutor before becoming becoming mayor so that's a really stranger you know it's a different viewpoint I uh
[speaker001:] you know in a sense I don't I'm not I have real mixed feelings on that because it comes a bit from the angle that the uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh it would certainly be an interesting test
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but the other side of it to me
[speaker002:] what happens if we lose worse
[speaker001:] uh you well the other side is that unfortunately
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] some of the down side and I think if I look back fifty or a hundred years I'd say you know back then there were the opium dens but the thing is if somebody ruined their life
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] uh society didn't try to then save themselves from it they let this person
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] who had ruined it uh become well die or whatever I mean they probably became weakened physically and other things to the point that
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] their life expectancy was real short but now we tend to believe somewhere in the health care system otherwise we need to take care of people even if they have you know physically ruined themselves
[speaker002:] yeah they have induced it themselves yeah that's true
[speaker001:] and so to me that's I uh I would certainly like to see a real test of of making drugs real cheap to see if when you make them available people then don't use them
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh well I think you know they did that in Alaska
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] that that actually Alaska just recently legalized marijuana
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but I never I never heard results or anything like that so I never you know plus that's such a that's not a true um you know it really couldn't be a good test because Alaska's so different than every other part of the country
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know so that but that was interesting you know I I don't crime is one of those things that's uh I I don't know you know the drug culture the uh the um you know I I see it with the kids in the neighborhood just stealing things not thinking anything wrong with it
[speaker001:] yeah well the some of that and of course I'm a baby of the old school but it it bothers me from the fifties on not that I'd remember that much from the fifties but but basically we have so much more of the something for nothing mentality
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh yeah that's true that's true we worked hard for everything that's very true
[speaker001:] and so you know in the there were the sixty four thousand dollar question shows in the fifties but nowadays there's so much on TV where
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] where people seem to have the idea they can get something for nothing of course
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I work with lawyers a lot and I see unfortunately we have this whole mentality that somehow there are these pots of money out there that you can sue somebody and you know there's a million dollars you can have
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh for mental duress or whatever
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but you know the other thing that bothers me in the crime is the uh in Europe they seem to have mentality and drunk driving is a good one is that people are well indoctrinated their society that drunken driving is unacceptable
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and yeah if you're going to drink and you may drink you better have your designated driver in this country and for example with alcohol or with drugs is
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] we don't seem to understand how to handle it as a society to say okay it is okay under these circumstances but if you step outside these bounds the punishment is extreme and we mean it
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that I think that uh the drunk driving has just actually just caught on uh uh and I I I really uh my father was hit by a drunk driver when I was in high school and um
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] that was a very uh that that was an awful three years afterwards you know of recovery and the difficulties
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh everything we did and you know the guy went free because this was twelve years ago thirteen years ago there was no his father was even the uh police chief of the town
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so there was no repercussion at all
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know other than insurance but he was uninsured so uh our insurance paid for everything but it was a very difficult time and and then later this was actually funny my brother and I were picked up by the police for questioning because this fellow had bought a a new car and somebody had taken like a baseball bat to it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and broke all his windows and his lights and his dented it everywhere and they came and questioned us
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] you know and
[speaker001:] but that kind of shows how our attitude toward drinking and driving
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] was uh misplaced for years that you know
[speaker002:] uh-huh yep
[speaker001:] it was an acceptable social behavior
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah very much so yeah that those are some important points yeah I that's those are
[speaker001:] what are what does your city have for gun control if anything
[speaker002:] well see Maryland is one of the most we just voted in uh gun control strong gun control here in the state of Maryland I I think