Kramer’s Korner: Why Does Amarillo Love Crime & Violence So Much?

I don't understand it. Just the absolute pointlessness of it. In all the cities I've lived in, I didn't think Amarillo would be the one that would have the most. It's so baffling to me.

A city relatively small by comparison to other cities, a little over 200,000 people living in it, and I feel like a lot of those people have been involved in some kind of crime or violence in the 806.

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Now when I move, I always look into the city I'm moving to before I do it. It's the smart thing to do right? Everything I had seen about Amarillo wasn't bad. Sure, making the move from Austin to Amarillo was going to take some adjusting, so I kept that in mind.

There was one thing though that had me hesitant, and it was it's crime reputation. Having kids, crime and violence is one of the things I pay close attention to, and it made me VERY hesitant to move here.

Thankfully, we haven't fallen victim to any of it personally, but why is it that Amarillo is so high on the crime scale of Texas?

Between the countless drug busts, assaults, and the crazy amount of driving arrests I've seen due to no insurance or a valid license is full on baffling. Throw in all the catalytic converters that were being stolen and you have a city that seems to not know how to act right.

So what's bringing all this on? Well, I heard some very loud arguing in my house late last night, and by late I mean midnight. It was so loud we could hear it over the TV. I finally decided to step outside and see where it was coming from.

Turns out it was an argument inside one of the houses on our block, and clearly there was some angry family members inside.

Is everyone that lives here just so angry that we don't know how to live or act right? I know families are going to have their moments, we do to. That's fine, but I feel like I've met more people jaded about something here than I have people that are happy to be here.

Is there anything that can fix it? Can we turn the corner to less crime and angry people? I'm not asking for Disneyland happy, but can we at least get ourselves to Wonderland happy? Let's smile more, laugh more, and find the good in Amarillo, not bring the worst out in each other.