Quote:
Originally posted by dets002
If I'm not mistaken, those justice dept. figures exclude the attacks on the WTC.
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Yes, they don't include 9-11 but NYC is NOT that bad...
Here is a NY Times article-
"Killings Increase in Many Big Cities
By FOX BUTTERFIELD NY Times 12/21/01
Homicides have increased sharply this year in many large cities, a development that troubles law enforcement officials and experts who fear it may signal a return to rising crime rates after a large decline in the 1990's.
The rise in homicides was led by Boston and Phoenix, which had increases of more than 60 percent through Dec. 18, compared with the same period last year, according to police figures in a survey of 18 major cities.
Homicides jumped 22 percent in St. Louis, 17.5 percent in Houston, 15 percent in San Antonio, 11.6 percent in Atlanta, 9.2 percent in Los Angeles and 5.2 percent in Chicago, the police departments in those cities said.
However, even the sharp increases this year leave the big cities far below the peak in homicide in 1991. The rise in Chicago, which has had 644 homicides this year, compared with 612 in the same period last year, means that it will probably pass New York for the first time as the city with the most homicides, though Chicago has 2.9 million people and New York has 8 million.
New York is an exception to the big cities with rising homicides, with 617 through Dec. 16, compared with 651 in the same period last year — a drop of 5.2 percent.
Several other cities also had small decreases, including Washington, with a decline of 6 percent. But in most cities with fewer homicides, the decrease was so slight that experts said it was not statistically significant.
Homicide has long been considered the bellwether crime, the one that most worries the public and therefore the one that police chiefs watch most carefully.
A jump in homicides in the big cities led the crime wave of the late 1980's, and a homicide decrease in the big cities started an eight-year decline in overall crime beginning in 1992.
Charles H. Ramsey, Washington's police chief, pointed to two possible explanations for the increases this year: the downturn in the economy and an increase in family killings after years of declines driven by greater attention to domestic violence.
The economy is the best indicator of whether crime will continue to increase, Chief Ramsey said. (Ed Note: There's a third explanation: Chief Ramsey can't manage a police organization . Why is crime down in other cities?)
"More pink slips mean more crimes," he said. "It doesn't take long before you start seeing that impact at street level."
Chief Ramsey said he was especially concerned about the impact that a prolonged recession would have on poorer neighborhoods and low-income workers. "It reaches everyone; it just reaches them first," he said. "If this becomes long term, believe me, you will see the difference." (Ed Note: If you can't handle the job, chief, quit now and let someone who knows how policing is done take over.)"
OR go to http:
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/region.htm