New York murders lowest since 1963

[Thom Little]

The crime rate in New York has dropped for the 17th consecutive year, with the fewest number of recorded murders in the city since 1963.

Over the past year, there have been 537 murders, down from 566 in 2004, and a peak of 2,245 in 1990. Rape, assault, burglary and car theft have all tumbled, with subway crime down by five per cent, according to New York Police Department statistics.

New York is now the safest big city in America, while other major cities, including Boston, Houston and Philadelphia, are witnessing soaring crime rates.

Vast areas of the city that were once no-go areas are now no-murder areas. In 2005, eight precincts recorded no murders, including Central Park, which was once infamous for night-time killings.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/02/wmurder02.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/02/ixworld.html

[KurtNYC]

1. Bull

>a peak of 2,245 in 1990

So the 2700+ in the WTC don't count in their statistics!? If they are going to exclude mass murder what ELSE are they excluding from their numbers? I think the answer will be 'whatever it takes' to claim year over year decreases.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Quite possibly. Bloomberg does * amazing* things...

with stats.

According to NY Times (12-31-05): " ... the main police union... charged that precinct commanders felt such pressure to drive down crime that they 'cook the books', reducing the severity of crimes on paper to avoid recording them and reporting them to the FBI."

Recent personal experience confirms this. Car break-in. Three hour wait for cops to arrive. Discouraged by cops from filing report. Drive to precinct. Interrogated as to why I "waited" so long to report the crime (!). Discouraged by desk captain from reporting crime. Evidently this goes on all the time.

Bloomberg's Dept of Ed does *precisely* the same thing with school crime stats. Principals are rated ( Bloomberg took away their tenure. Brilliant!) according to how statistically "safe" their schools are. So...... they tend *not* to report violent incidents.

Whodathunkit?

[Name removed]

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[daleanime]

3. Of course the rate is dropping....

it's a natural function of the aging population. Politics are an important part of the picture, but not everything.