Police

A Cloak of Silence After a South Bronx Killing

Benjamin Mueller and Al Baker in the New York Times describe one homicide in the Bronx. “To understand why killings persist in an era of historically low crime, The New York Times is reporting this year on each murder in the 40th Precinct.” This is the kind of in-depth story that informs. If we’re going to improve things, where do…

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Happy New Year

Group reading names of Balto homicide victims. 344 in 2015. Group ask " why aren't more people here?" pic.twitter.com/wOt5U0Hfvj — Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) January 1, 2016

Police

Baltimore Equals New York City in Homicides

I often joked about this, but I really never thought this day would happen. On August 16, both New York and Baltimore had 208 murders. Baltimore has added another 8 since then. I’m not certain about NYC. New York City has 7.5 million more residents than Charm City.

Police

Homicides down in Baltimore (but still up)

You know how all them criminal justice “experts” say it’s inevitable that homicides go up in the summer? Well for at least the second year in a row, homicides in Baltimore are down, June compared to May. After the riot, homicides more than doubled. Pre-April 27, 2015: 0.58 homicides a day. April 28 – May 31, 2015: 1.44 homicides a…

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Police

Deadliest month in Baltimore. Ever.

The Sun reported that this month has been the fifth deadliest in 40 years. Actually, by rate, since Baltimore has fewer people than it used to have, May has been the most deadly month ever. In number of dead, the deadliest months have been: Aug 1972: 45 Dec 1971: 44 Aug 1990: 42 Aug 1996: 39 May 2015: 42 But…

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Police

Life and Death in Baltimore’s Eastern (and Western) District

See Update for more current data More than ten percent of black men in Baltimore’s Eastern District are murdered! Why is this not known? Why is this not discussed with urgency? Why has this been going on for decades? This is from my book, Cop in the Hood. I can’t find it anywhere online. It should be. I’m still honestly…

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Police

Race and justifiable police homicides (III): one a day

[Update: Using better data, the number is more like three a day.] Fact 3: UCR data on justified police-homicides are notorious incomplete. These numbers are an undercount. But given the data we have, as reported (or not) to the DOJ by local police departments, police kill at least one person a day (426 in 2012, to be exact, 30 percent…

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A tale of two cities

Murder in Baltimore is at a four-year high. Murder in New York City is at a record low. Meanwhile, from Justin Fenton’s Baltimore Sun article, in other cities: Homicides across the country Oakland, Calif. — down 25 percent (as of Dec. 12) Philadelphia — down 24 percent (as of Dec. 16) Flint, Mich. — down 22 percent (as of Dec.…

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Zimmerman Trial (2): Justice vs. Stand Your Ground

I received this interesting and thought-provoking email from my friend Alan (bold added): It seems to me that if Zimmerman is convicted of a felony, then the Florida laws are apparently defensible. Sure, a guy is allowed to shoot someone in certain circumstances; in this case such circumstances did not present and so he’s going to jail. The laws did…

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Hospital care and gunshot wounds

A contributing factor to declining homicide. Some more details about what’s gotten better about medical treatment over the past decade. In the BBC.