Just as we get some sign that CMS might be taking crime and violence in Charlotte seriously, up pops a fantastically wrong assertion from the Uptown paper of record on the city’s crime rate.

Leigh Dyer, who functions as the Observer’s Welcome Wagon for newcomers to the QC, blogs this bit of cognitive dissonance:

I am so accustomed to talking with newcomers who are thrilled to be in Charlotte that my recent conversation with a Manhattan transplant shocked me.

“I have felt more unsafe here than anywhere I’ve ever lived,” she said. “I think Charlotte has a dark underbelly that not many people talk about.”

The conversation was triggered by discussion of the mysterious case of Kyle Fleischmann, who left an uptown bar alone, without any money, and vanished. His story has resonated because most people I know have a story involving drinking a little too much and losing track of one or two of the friends we went out with. His disappearance has many of us imagining the worst.

There are other reasons my friend feels unsafe. A frightening spate of random robberies has been making news. Women walking alone uptown or in center-city neighborhoods are often bothered by aggressive panhandlers. Crime rates have seesawed here. …

…Charlotte isn’t much more dangerous than similar-sized cities. Most violent crimes here, as with most other places, occur between people who know each other. The crime I am most likely to become a victim of is a car break-in.

Charlotte isn’t much more dangerous than similar-sized cities. Bzzzt. Fail.

In fact, Charlotte Magazine did three whole issues on crime in the city this summer, comparing Charlotte to peers like Austin and San Jose — and it turns out that crime is much, much worse in Charlotte.

Remember these stats the mag pulled together from 2005:

City Charlotte Austin San Jose
Population 610,949 680,899 680,899
Homicides 85 26 26
Robberies 3,649 1,182 882
Burglaries 12,783 7,285 4,049
Vehicle thefts 7,098 2,548 5,507

By every measure, violent crime and property crime is high in Charlotte. That is why the city was rated the 10th most dangerous large city in America last year. Other peers with less crime — Louisville, El Paso, San Diego, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Jacksonville.

It is mind-boggling that a reporter with easy access to this kind of info and trying to inform readers about Charlotte’s crime reality could get it so absolutely wrong — even as readers are saying, “You know, Charlotte seems more dangerous than people let on.”

Listen to your gut, not the Uptown spin machine. Charlotte is more dangerous than many cities. The first step to changing that is admitting it.

Bonus Aneurysm: Dyer cannot be serious when she implies that the fact that she left the The Police concert last nite with 15,000 suburbanites and made it all the way across the street to Brixx without incident is proof of Charlotte’s safety. With half of CMPD looking on for the entire two-minute trek.

Good heavens, I’ve come and gone from Redskins games at RFK without incident. Must mean that DC east of Capitol Hill was not a war zone for most of the 80s and 90s. Left a Broadway show, walked the streets of Manhattan afterward — must be no crime in all of NYC.

Talk about living in a bubble.

Update: Should point to this brazen case of a 13 and 14-year-old beating a cancer victim senseless in order to joy ride in his new Audi. They are already free, back roaming the streets of Charlotte.