Crime

I have lived in New York City for most of my life. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn is one of the 5 boroughs that make up New York City. Growing up in Brooklyn was not easy. It can be a scary place, but it was my home. Crime is a problem for every city. New York City is no different.

Being heavily populated (19,490,297 US Census Bureau 2008) does not help crime go down in the city that never sleeps. How do supply housing for 19.5 million people? You build project buildings. There is not enough land in New York City to build out, so you build up. New York has the largest public housing system in the country, with 2,600 buildings, 174,000 apartments and more than 400,000 residents in five boroughs (New York Times, July, 2009). I compare the projects to prisons. When in prison you must adapt to your environment in order to survive. The projects are mostly for low income families. You will find people on welfare on disability or unemployed living in the projects. With this type of environment crime is eminent. The projects have long been a haven for the drug trade.

New York City, Crime and Drugs are three words that unfortunately go hand in hand. New York City has played the back drop for many gangster movies; Goodfellas, New Jack City and King of New York, just to name a few. These movies glamorize a crime lifestyle in New York City. When you walk down any block in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island or the Bronx you will see the effects of drugs in these boroughs and their neighborhoods. You will come across crack vials, needles and other paraphernalia. You will also come across the drug addicts. These people are wondering the streets of New York looking for their next fix. There is nothing they will not do for that fix. They will commit all types of crime.

How do these addicts get their drugs? The sad truth is that the main distributers of drugs to the addicts are teenagers. Crime pays if you ask some of these teenagers today. Drug money...