I love playing with the numbers!
Oh my god, five hundred homicides! How horrible is that?
But... Crime is down?
Quote:
The city's homicide toll has made headlines around the world, a fact that is proving a challenge to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The total, however is nowhere near the record 790 recorded in 1974.
Emanuel said he's proud of milestones the police department has achieved toward cutting the crime rate.
Crime is down 9 percent overall, the largest drop on record, he said. Emanuel noted the city has torn down 200 buildings in a campaign to eliminate hangouts for criminals. He added that crime this month dropped 30 percent from 2011, one of the biggest declines on record.
The city's homicide rate has been declining for about two decades. In the early 1990s, Chicago recorded 900 homicides a year. Since 2004, the rate has been lower than 500 every year except 2008.
Compared to other major U.S. cities, Chicago's homicide rate is still high, the Chicago Tribune reported.
New York, which has more than twice the Chicago population, had 339 homicides through Oct. 21, a drop of nearly 20 percent from a year ago. Los Angeles reported 238 homicides through Oct. 20, a dip of 1 percent.
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So let me see if I understand this correctly... Homicides are down from a high of 900 a year to 500 a year (and less) due to gun laws. So gun laws do work!