

New York City celebrates day without violent crime - Zenst
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20536201

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kkaefer
Reminded me of [http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-celebrates-full-
week...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-celebrates-full-week-without-
deadly-mass-sh,29293/)

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dane
What a beautiful thing to report. A significant reduction from 1990's six
murders per day (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_New_York_City>).

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jmharvey
Does anyone else think it's odd that that link only records 600 murders in NYC
in 2001? I would expect the number to be closer to 3,000.

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ido
If you are talking about 9/11, casualties of war & terrorism are not counted
for violent crime stats.

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skylan_q
In the article, they kind of give police credit for making this happen. What
if it's the war on soda that's doing this?

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54mf
Speak for yourself, I'm _more_ likely to murder someone if I don't get enough
caffeine. ;)

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rdtsc
Someone on Reddit posted that this could just be the effect of victims not
being found, as in the perpetrators got better at hiding bodies.

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derleth
> Someone on Reddit posted that this could just be the effect of victims not
> being found, as in the perpetrators got better at hiding bodies.

The quickest way to support this would be to check the number of missing
persons cases; specifically, check to see if the people who used to get
murdered (presumably young minority males) are now going missing instead.

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magikbum
Um... there was a hurricane... kinda hard to go kill some one when you can't
even leave your house.

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WettowelReactor
Yup, when the massive snow storm hit Baltimore 2 years ago their murder rate
for that month was a historic low. As soon as the snow was cleared the crime
rate returned to normal.

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epo
Have the Beeb given up on editors for their website? The first sentence is so
unlikely to be true, "a day entirely without violent crime", really? I could
perhaps accept this if they added the word "reported". But the following
statement that "Monday was the most bloodshed-free 24-hour period in recent
history" is devoid of meaning, if a spokesman really said this then they
should be fired. "Least bloodshed" has meaning, "most bloodshed-free" is
simply idiotic. And yes, people who talk about "50% less" when they mean "half
as much" are also exposing themselves as people who do not understand what
they are saying. Hmmm, more coffee required.

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sopooneo
I'm with you for the first part, but "50% less" seems to me both clear and
strictly equivalent with "half as much". What am I missing?

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Drakim
If I have 200 units of fish, and the next day I have 50% less, then I would
indeed have 100 units of fish.

Maybe he meant the opposite, "50% more" versus "double"? If I had 50% more the
next day, I would have 300 units of fish, not 400.

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Retric
I think it was a comment about Mathematical Illiteracy. Many people have
little idea what X% more / less actually means.

[http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-
Its...](http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-Its-
Consequences/dp/0809058405)

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coffeemug
_There have been 366 murders so far this year in New York City, compared with
472 at this time last year._

As an ex-resident of NYC, while I applaud the fact that violent crime is at
its lowest point in 50 years, I still think 366 murders per year (with a month
to go) is appalling, big city or not. I'm not sure if murders are equally
distributed across boroughs, but assuming they are, 366/5 = ~73 murders per
year per borough, or a murder per borough every five days.

The goal should be zero, and we shouldn't rest until it's the norm. An
improvement in statistics is great, but I don't exactly see it as a cause for
celebration.

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dagw
_The goal should be zero, and we shouldn't rest until it's the norm._

Wouldn't that lead to a War on Drugs style situation? You'll basically end up
throwing more and more resources and taking away more and more freedoms
chasing smaller and smaller marginal returns.

Instead pick a realistic target that will make you look good compared to other
cities in the world, say 2 pr. 100000 population or about 160 murders, and
work towards that.

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leephillips
I grew up in NYC during the high-crime Lindsay/Koch years. I would apply some
skepticism to crime statistics derived from police reports. While I don't
doubt that violent crime is way down, it's also true that people tend not to
bother to report many crimes, because the police don't seem to be interested.
While I'm sure that most murders would end up in the official statistics, I
know that plenty of assaults, etc. are just never reported.

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Shivetya
they just didn't find that day's body(s).

really, if anything the title of the article is what is wrong with big cities.
Why not celebrate a day in Afghanistan where a soldier or enemy combatant
doesn't die.

It says the same thing, gee, 364 days of something bad.

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stuaxo
I thought it was The Onion at first..

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gadders
They should call it Guiliani Day.

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username3
Sandy

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derleth
> Despite a July spike in homicides, the city's murder rate is on target to
> hit its lowest point since 1960.

> Just a few months ago, residents were living through what one tabloid
> newspaper called the "summer of blood".

And so we see a major problem with news sources.

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brandoncapecci
Sensationalism.

