Some yes, many no.
How is it that "guys" in Washington disagree?
Crime in big cities of the US is rampant, what's worse is that many crimes go unpublished in our media sometimes the vast majority of certain crimes.
I saw your other post.
Most of the issues you are facing are in fact direct consequence of the free market system, very same system that made The American Dream after WWII possible. You have extremely low taxes, consequently compared to (Western) European standards very poorly developed social network (in terms of social care and transfers, security of employment etc.) and direct consequences of fully liberal system are gangs, inequality, ghettos, suburban poverty and violence. I have never visited USA but have been watching movies, documentaries and reading on the subject for the better part of my life. Not so long time ago you had slavery and only 50 years ago segregation in some states. This is complex heritage that does not exist in that form in Europe and many things can be traced back half a century or century ago. Furthermore, do not forget that USA as a nation is very new and it is a "melting pot" of many other nations while in Europe most countries have large majority of one nation (and single race!) and all others are minorities. In my city there are sites and castles that are 2000+ years old. It is much different situation than living in a country where "old" means 100 or 200 years.
Of course, there are many immigrants from Africa (ex. colonies) in France and a lot of immigrants in UK, so much that they want sharia law zones. However, I do not think that ghettoization is so widespread. You will not see suburban slams with just one group or race in Europe (in Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal...or even my country) The only exception are Roma people (you'd probably call them Gypsies).
I think that you are just seeing the beginning of all these trends. De-industrialization is all over the place, we (The People from the West) decided we will shut down industry, provide services to each other and do some research and produce a bit of know how here and there and some poor people across the globe in China, India or Bangladesh will work for us. USA has paved the way, Europe has followed and in that order we will pay the price. There are ghost towns like Detroit in Europe too, especially in eastern part of Germany (for different reasons though, stemming from unification of Germany).
It truly comes down to lack of education, to poverty, to "thug lifestyle" as 2pac would put it... and it becomes rooted in certain nation or culture.
I think we will see more and more ghettos as the things will progress. The company I work for is a small multinational company (40K employees, part of bigger 80K employee holding) and we work in countries where foreign companies are almost above the law, everything happens smoothly for expats, there is a local "partner" who is in charge to "grease a few palms", isolation between our people working somewhere and locals is complete... we are entering very uncertain future, much different than Keynesian welfare state we all enjoyed in one form or another in 50's, 60's and 70's, future where there will be more emphasis on the power of corporations and corporate-government complex (you've had that for decades!) and much less on race, nation or something like that.
