The Most Dangerous Towns in America

Dead city, dead bodies. As rapper Eminem said last year in his infamous Super Bowl commercial, “This is the Motor City and this is what we do:”

DETROIT (AP) — Abandoned and neglected parts of Detroit are quickly becoming dumping grounds for the bodies of murder victims. And authorities acknowledge there’s little they can do.

At least a dozen bodies have turned up in 12 months, many of them purposely hidden or discarded in alleys, fields and vacant houses or garages. Seven of the dead are believed to have been slain outside Detroit and then dumped within the city.

It’s a pattern made possible by more than four decades of urban decay and suburban flight.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the city of Camden was about 20 minutes* south from where I grew up. And even back then, other than driving down the Admiral Wilson Boulevard as quickly as possible to get onto the Ben Franklin Bridge and into Philadelphia, you did not go into Camden. London’s Daily Mail explains why in a harrowing Detroit-esque photo essay on what it dubs “the most dangerous town in America.”

* But then, all of South Jersey is 20 minutes away from the rest of South Jersey.