Maybe it's all relative, depending on who you ask

I always read story chat comments on our web site and hear talk of how Shreveport is such an extremely violent city.
I even remember one mayoral candidate last year referring to the city as a future Baghdad during one of those colorful, more entertaining-than-informative forums.

I don’t deny the violence exists and I’ve read the stories we’ve reported about the city's rankings and such. But I guess since I’m from here and lived here practically all my life, unharmed, I never thought it was as violent compared to other cities.

I mean, forgive my ignorance. In fact, enlighten me on something: Is crime in Shreveport really unusually, extremely high, especially compared to cities of the same size or larger? Or is it all relative?