NBC Chicago Reports via Atlantic Cities:
Chicago closed out the first 11 months of 2013 with 380 murders, a drop from 474 in the same period of 2012, according to police data. That’s the fewest for any year in Chicago since 1965, according to Adam Collins, the Chicago Police Department Director of News Affairs.
There are two main clearinghouses for crime stats in this country, the UCR (The Uniform Crime Report) and the NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey). The former is collected from police departments and thus only includes reported crime as recorded by the police. The latter is conducted by surveys and sampling and asks people (160,000 per year) if they were a victim of crime. They both can be useful in different situations, though I’m much more partial to the UCR.
Now here’s the thing: The UCR says violent crime in 2012 is down 3% compared to 2010.
The NCVS says violent crime is up 39% in the past two years.
They can’t both be right.
And I seriously suspect the NCVS is wrong.
Update:
I believe in 2015 the NCVS surveyed but a *total* of 260 black male crime victims. For a national sample. (From 20,837 “black only” sampled.) Just 100 black male victims 35 or under? That seems problematic. Weighting is about 2,700 per individual.
Also, blacks are 11% of respondents, undercounts population approx 17%. (whites are overcounted at +5%) And there’s no reason to assume non-respondents/missing data are random. I would assume non-respondents have higher rates of being victims.
By Mike Riggs in Atlantic Cities.
Can we make a new rule for killers?
“Know your victims.”
It may not help the victim, but it does help everybody else.
Update 12:15am: Word is the officer has died. I think it’s safe to assume this is the first MIT police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
My condolences and sincere hopes this situation resolves itself without any other good person being hurt or killed.
Another Update: This is the part that always gets me choked up: “A Wilmington, Mass., police car carrying what appear to be family
members arrived sirens blaring. A few Officers arriving in tears.”
A couple of days agoI tweeted this: A nice ode to Boston, from one of the many who frolicked in The Hub. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/you-may-leave-boston-but-boston-never-leaves-you/275018/
We in American don’t know about “traveler” culture in Ireland and England.
Now I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help but have some respect for people who race horses, harness racing style, down major highways. The full youtube clip has been deleted (it was a long race). But here’s the shortened BBC version.
What is the relationship between (A) number of cops, (B) number of arrests, and (C) crime. When “A” goes down, “B” goes down, and “C” goes up. Sometimes it really is that simple. Here’s the more nuanced story by James Queally in the Newark Star Ledger.
[Tip of the cap to Epichorus.]
I’ve written (sarcastically) how nice it is that in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, some conservatives are suddenly very concerned about black-on-black violence. The actual voiced argument goes that blacks (and liberals) only care about black-on-black violence when it comes at the hands of a white person. Of course that’s not true. Just because you refuse to hear something doesn’t mean other people aren’t shouting.
I wanted to do a post listing some of the protests over the years. Because there really are a countless number of them. But I was too lazy to actually do the grunt work. Luckily, over on his blog, Ta-Nehisi Coates did it for me. It’s worth a look.
And if you’ve never heard of anyof these protests, might I suggest you ask yourself, “why not?” Perhaps you want to blame the media. Or perhaps you don’t care. That’s your right, I suppose. But it’s not your right to say other peopledon’t care just because you’re ignorant.
Off to bumpy start, says the LA Times:
Many of the ex-criminals are not showing up for counseling appointments, some care centers are not being paid and county bureaucrats are scrambling to correct foul-ups that have caused delays.
…
In the six months since, about a quarter of the probationers have been arrested for allegedly committing new crimes, which is below the previous state average for probationers.
It’s kind of sad that one-quarter rearrested within six months is better than average. If any of you could figure out how to lower the recidivism rate, you’d be a hero. I have one answer: WPA-style make-work programs.
Not in Florida. But in Chicago. He is 80 years old. Yeah, the gun was illegal… but still…