What really started me down this track was an event that happened very close to home. One of my neighbors had their car burglarized. And it got me to thinking what crime was really like here in the Village.

I don't know if you do it, but I find myself going to this map posted on the Sun-Sentinel a few times per month.

What I found was very interesting. Look at the number of crimes reported during the last four week period. Take a look at the map. Not very many incidents (just 19) over the past four weeks. Had to scratch my head as it didn't make sense to me.

I stumbled on this site on the internet this week and, well, I just had to make a few comments.

Looking at this link, you will find a chart that lists, from worst to best, the cities in Florida ranked for crime. The best was Marco Island and the worst was Opa-Locka. Where was Wellington?

Hanging in there at number 39. Whoa! The 39th best city in Florida ranked by crime? We can't be that high can we? Who was better than Wellington?

Niceville, right there at number 5 (maybe I could have guessed that one). Parkland at 12. North Palm Beach at 20 with it's neighbor, Palm Beach Gardens at 23. Wait a minute, Pt. Ste. Lucie is in at 19? You gotta be kidding me.

Who is a little worse? Vero Beach at 58; Jupiter at 55; Key West at 96; West Palm Beach at 132 and Orlando at 142.

Do these numbers surprise you? They do me. So I looked into a little further by clicking on the Wellington link.

Here's our crime rating:

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A 2.7? Worse than average? Why?

Let's look at this (from the website):

Wellington, Florida has a violent crime rate of 309 incidents per 100,000 people. This compares with a rate of 858 in Florida and a rate of 596 nationally. Lower numbers are better, indicating that fewer crimes happen per person in the population.

And,

Wellington, Florida has a property crime rate of 3415.3 incidents per 100,000 people. This compares with an average rate of 5098.0 in Florida and an average rate of 4296 incidents per 100,000 nationally. Lower numbers are better, indicating that fewer crimes happen per person in the population.

These two factors (for 2004) gave us our crime rating of 2.7.

Take a look at those numbers for a second. Using my math, there are 3,724 incidents per 100,000 people. Let's say there are 60,000 people in Wellington, doing the math, hmmmm, that computes out to 2,234 incidents. Divide that by 12 (that would be months in the year, a month being what the chart in the link points to) and you get 186 incidents.

Now I know that there has to be editing on that story, but why the huge difference in numbers? They show just 19 incidents in a month. Where are the rest? What are they? I don't know but it made me wonder about those numbers above and if they were accurate as reported for 2004.

So, what's next?

I have a call in to the Community Affairs office of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. I want to speak to one of crime statisticians about Wellington.

I have a few questions.

Such as, what percent of crime in Wellington is committed by Wellington residents? Do you track arrest records by address? If so, can you tell me the neighborhoods in which the perps live? Are there 50 addresses responsible for the bulk of the crime? Are there 25 addresses? Less than 10? Less than 5?

After all, the crime seems to be clustered into small groups. Why wouldn't the people responsible for the crimes have the same behavior?

I'm sort of curious. Aren't you?

I trust they will call back. If not, I'll call again. And we can find out what's going on with crime in the Village of Wellington.

Stay tuned ...

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Normally I do not respond to comments to my blog entries. And I do not edit them except when you put something in it that promotes your business, blog, or something that may be for your personal benefit.

But I would like to address a few things. Here is the link to the original blog entry and comments.

The basic fact that applies to this is that the young man violated a legal trespass order. You and I have the right to protect our property and with the people we willingly choose to share it. If someone comes to your property and you don't want them there we (you and I) have the right to call the Sheriff and have them removed. That is what the Mall did, pure and simple. I would expect the Mall to do the same thing for anyone, regardless of nationality or race.

My entry only makes a note about the young man's nationality when it applied to willfully disobeying a legal court order and then assaulting a Sheriff's Deputy and comparing his treatment for this act here versus what may have happened in his native country. There was nothing about this comment that was racially motivated or based.

Now, I understand it is interesting how one's personal background affects their view of a set of facts. Their perception is their reality. However my perception is my reality as well and I do not believe I wrote anything that is racist. I merely made a comment on how people are treated differently by the police in two different countries.

That being said, my comments on teenagers were inclusive of all of them ... it doesn't matter if they are white, black, yellow, blue or green. Just how they dress and act as teenagers. And yes, I am including my teenage daughter in this as well.

My great-grandparents emigrated from Italy. When they came here they worked in the coal mines in a company town. If you don't think this type of economic system was discriminatory, click here. This is an experience from our past that few people today have to endure.

Both of my grandfathers worked in those same coal mines ... at an age when today's teens are more concerned with iPods, computers, text messaging and what new clothes they can get from Abercrombie & Fitch.

And my great-grandparents insisted my grandparents learn both Italian and English. I wish this tradition passed on to my dad and then on to me so I could pass it on as well. Learning a second language now is much harder than I anticipated. I do respect and feel proud of American society when people living in this country speak two or more languages.

When they emigrated, my great-grandparents were poor, dirt poor. All they wanted was to try and make the lives of their children better than theirs. Discrimination against Italians in the early 1900's was pervasive. So too for the Irish and every other immigrant community that came to America during the 1800's and early 1900's.

In many places, it continues on today ... usually in a different guise. Look how people treat Mitt Romney simply because they do not understand his religion. Is that fair? Or even American? I'm not a Romney supporter, but I do respect him for standing up for what he believes is right.

My comments were based on something simple ... a "fashion" trend that is present today, with which many people do not feel comfortable, caused a young man to be asked to leave someone's property and told not to come back or he would be arrested for trespassing.

His right to wear that form of fashion ends where someone else's eyeballs begin. Especially if they find it offensive.

You may wish to base this argument, and its unfortunate results, on race, but race has absolutely nothing to do with it.

He was asked not to return. He chose to come back. He knew the outcome. Then he chose to resist and a deputy was struck. The buck stops with him.

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You may have read in the paper, or heard on the news, that a young man and members of his family were arrested at the Mall at Wellington Green. And, now there is talk about racism, use of force, discrimination and lawsuits.

All of this peripheral stuff obscures a simple fact: the young man was prohibited from being at the Mall due to his lack of conformity to the Mall's request to "hitch up his britches." He was told that if he were to return he would be trespassing and the Sheriff's office would be called to enforce the trespass order.

He came, the Sheriff's office was called, responded and attempted to execute the arrest for violating the trespass order. Then things got a little messy.

Maybe there were insults hurled back and forth. I don't know as I wasn't there. But an undeniable fact is that a Sheriff's deputy was struck several times by the young man's family.

Not sure about you, but, in my opinion, when a law enforcement officer is assaulted during the performance of his official duties, they have the responsibility to arrest those who broke the law.

I understand this family is from Haiti. Would they have argued or struck a law enforcement officer there? I think not as the end result would not be an arrest, but rather a beating or even death. If they were lucky, I suspect they would receive serious jail time in one of Haiti's prisons, which would make our maximum security prisons here look like kindergarten.

I really don't go to the mall that often (I'm a guy ... shopping isn't in my DNA), but when I do I am put-off by the lack of self esteem and modesty by many today.

As the father of a teenage girl, I have to think sometimes, what the heck are these parents thinking?

Take a few examples --

The tight sweatpants that have words like "sexy" or "juicy" on the butt?

How about the thong underwear sticking out over those low-cut jeans?

What is with jeans hanging so low that someone's entire butt is above the belt line?

Whose idea was it that wearing "wifebeater" t-shirts was ok as normal attire?

Or that nice woman that lives down the street wearing a t-shirt that says, "Got MILF?"

And please, please tell me why its OK to wear short shorts and a short tank top with spaghetti straps that exposes more skin than is covered?

Don't get me wrong ... I am not some old fuddy duddy or prude ... but come on now people, can't we leave just a little to the imagination?

But I digress ... back to the subject at hand.

The young man's rights end where mine begin. He does not have the right to resist arrest by force. He does not have the right to willfully resist a no trespassing order.

The bottom (pun intended) line is that he broke the law, as did the family. Now it's time to pay the piper.

Thanks to the Mall at Wellington Green for taking a stand and making everyone's shopping experience that much better.

Now, can you get me the number for the woman wearing that "Got MILF?" t-shirt?

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