In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#191

Post by Cd00d » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

Melting_Harps wrote: post #49

Spooky23 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That $40k home isn’t so cheap when you make $13k and interest rates were 11-15%. My entire extended family mostly bailed out of NYC because they bought houses for $10-25k in the 70s and sold for 20x in the late 80s. That profit gave that generation a vault up the ladder and the prime the pump mortgage policy made a few rich.

> That $40k home isn’t so cheap when you make $13k and interest rates were 11-15%. With a decent down payment (lets say ~15%) that's still less than 5 years salary even with interest, which would be completely acceptable terms especially since cost of living was way more affordable back then and the population had ~10 million people less than today in the 90s. Just to give you context that's more in population increa…

>With a decent down payment (lets say ~15%) that's still less than 5 years salary even with interest

I recently started a mortgage and the guidance I regularly saw was that your home price should not exceed 2.5 years of your income. And, this is with very low interest rates, esp compared to the 80's.

I don't think I couldn't afford the monthly payments on a house that was 5x our household income, even after 20% down and only 3% APR. Then again, maybe I could, but I'm more conservative with my wallet and prefer to have more cash on hand and other investments.

Your cost of living comparison is apt though. Maybe I'd be more comfortable with my mortgage being a larger % of my take home if everything else were significantly cheaper....

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#192

Post by boomboomsubban » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 5:29 PM UTC

BlackFingolfin wrote: post #147

boomboomsubban wrote: post #46

Not that it drastically improves the statement, but the tagline for the article > a bank was robbed every hour of every day. But the article itself clarifies they mean "each banking day" and the worst year had about seven robberies a day. Still a shocking amount, but not the 24 a day implied.

Moreover, the worst year was 1992, which isn't in the 80ies last I checked...

The 80's still could have averaged one an hour even if the worst year was 92.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#193

Post by wl » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

WillPostForFood wrote: post #106

captainredbeard wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true

Technically legal, but effectively impossible for an average person to get the permit approved from the state. You'd have to be the head of Apple security or something like that. https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms... "De facto banned" for an ordinary citizen is an accurate way to describe it.

More likely scenarios for the issuance of a dangerous weapons permit.

* You're a Hollywood armorer

* You develop or manufacture automatic firearms for government agencies

* You're a security contractor who has been provided automatic firearms as part of a federal contract

* You're a major museum displaying militaria

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#194

Post by Scheherazade » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #120

Melting_Harps wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A bank robbery every hour? More like a reminder that primitive tendencies can revert Society back to its violent mean really quickly and that in turn instilled a need to want to preserve what we have and build resilient communities to that end as we all felt vulnerable to that ever-present danger. The fact that no one speaks to their neighbors now is a stark contrast to my childhood in the late 80s and 90s where ev…

> More like a reminder that primitive tendencies can revert Society back to its violent mean really quickly and that in turn instilled a need to want to preserve what we have and build resilient communities to that end as we all felt vulnerable to that ever-present danger. Or, you know, not live in perpetual fear of society breaking down, which is something afforded to us by thousands of years of progress and innumer…

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”- G. Michael Hopf

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#195

Post by jeofken » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #127

watwut wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people are less violent, less likely to get pregnant as teens, drink less and take less illegal drugs then they use to - all per capita.

> less likely to get pregnant as teens That's caused by providing at least somewhat decent sexual education in schools, although the US is still lacking in mandating sex ed or mandating medically accurate sex ed (=banning "abstinence only").

Are you sure? It could just as well be because of the internet catching our attention so boys and girls don’t spend it on each other like they used to. No evidence for either claim although both sound plausible

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#196

Post by qes » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

Gibbon1 wrote: post #114

npunt wrote: post #65

Whenever the high crime rates in the 70s-90s is brought up I like to remind folks this was likely an aberration with a specific environmental cause (lead), rather than representative of human nature. This [1] is an eye-opening roundup of ~25 major studies that support the lead-crime hypothesis, including comparisons across countries & cultures. The evidence is pretty overwhelming and certainly changed my perspective…

Now consider the lead politics hypothesis. If lead exposure lead to brain damage that resulted in the murder rate tripling, what is that doing to civic politics? Because while that generation has mostly aged out of the higher crime demographic. It's smack in the middle of the voter demographic.

> It's smack in the middle of the voter demographic.

Not just voters, large portions of our representatives are also from that demographic.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#197

Post by hansthehorse » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #166

stordoff wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So there's a fixed supply of legal automatic firearms that normal people can own. Why do people want them? Is it just a hobby, or is there some utility I'm unware of?

I'd say it's a hobby. Bullets are expensive in quantity. A full automatic can chew through $100 worth in just a minute. There are a few gun ranges near me that keep them available to rent. You can relive your A-Team / CoD dreams for a few hundred dollars. Outside of the military they have no utility whatsoever.

Full auto on an M16/AR15 will empty a 30 round magazine in a touch over 3 seconds. A few ranges near me will rent you a full auto AR but you have buy the ammunition from them.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#198

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

maxlybbert wrote: post #164

asveikau wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't looked at data in a while, but I am pretty sure those places are safer than they were in the 80s.

If cities have become more dangerous in recent years, people will notice and change their behavior. It doesn’t matter that today’s cities haven’t matched their historic peak, only that they’re worse than they were ten years ago.

> If cities have become more dangerous in recent years, people will notice and change their behavior.

Dubious.

Certainly, behavior is driven by perception of danger, but whether perception of danger generally tracks with actual danger or not is…less certain.

I know for child abduction and child assaults by those outside of the family that has historically not been the case; and perceived danger has increased as media focus increased despite decreasing actual danger, for several decades in a row.

I don’t see why similar (or opposite, if media focussed shifted away while actual danger increased) trends would occur with other forms of danger.

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#199

Post by tomcam » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

throwaway_dcnt wrote: post #117

EGreg wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait wat? These are legal somehow in USA? Can you please trace how and prove it with links?

Yes, I own a few in fact. Although I don't live in CA. It was quite an arduous journey too, the paperwork was lost twice, once by the local sheriff (who has to sign an affidavit saying he or she vouches for you) and subsequently by ATF who approve the paperwork and send you a tax stamp as proof of this approval. Interesting Americana for an immigrant like myself and I had to get these machine guns just because it is…

You are living the good life, my friend!

Re: In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

#200

Post by tehwebguy » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 7:31 PM UTC

COGlory wrote: post #157

01100011 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, the reason the LA heist in the early 90s was so important was that it showed how poorly the police were armed compared to the robbers. That led to a lot of policy changes, I believe.

I believe you are correct, but the real issue was not the firearms the robbers were using, but rather the penetrating power of the police firearms against the robbers' body armor[1]. Because they were both wearing body armor, the two bank robbers were shot a total of 40 times without being killed. (One shot himself and the other bled to death). Police at that point were mostly using 9mm pistols, .38 caliber revolvers…

Love it when my local police force gets jealous of the most badass robbery ever televised and decides to go full militarization and then the entire country follows suit.