This statistic is hard to believe
 

Keep up the great job New York. Hard to believe that only 35 so far were committed by strangers. The vast majority of the murders were committed by friends, family and other acquaintances.

__________________________________________________ ____________

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police department statistics became available in 1963.

But within the city’s official crime statistics is a figure that may be even more striking: so far, with roughly half the killings analyzed, only 35 were found to be committed by strangers, a microscopic statistic in a city of more than 8.2 million

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/ny...gewanted=print

:wow:

Edit: I guess defining the word acquaintance is important here....most drug dealers are killed by other drug dealers...etc. But if you take a look around B-more with its 300 dead a year, the vast majority are miscellaneous shooting victims almost guided more by neighborhood the acquaintance.

Why is this hard to believe? It's been well known for a long time that most murders indeed happen among people who know each other.

If you are a bad guy, doing bad things, and hanging around bad people... well, chances are bad things will happen to you. Random murders are the exception, not the norm.

Juan

Sure...Most murders are a result of disputes among friends and family; however, when I think New York I was expecting WAY more murders as a result of robbery and random violence. Then again our Bay Area news is filed with shootings and deaths as a result of random violence usually taking place in Oakland and Richmond California.

You've been watching too much TV, man.

I've never been to Oakland, though I hear it's bad... NYC is not, and has never been, as bad as it is sometimes depicted on TV. :)

There ARE a lot of murders, but - as you stated in that statistic - they are mostly among bad people hanging out with even worse people.

:iagree: New York is a very safe city. There are police everywhere these days, and they have spent the money to clean up many of the bad neighborhoods.

Thanks Ed Norris.

I don't care, its 500 too many.

The NYPD rises to one hell of a challenge every day, and I respect the hell out of them for that, but saying 500 murders a year is like ultra light cigarettes. sorry.
:flame: away. I don't care.

True. We still have a much higher murder rate than most cities in Europe and Asia.

Yes, 500 murders in one year is a lot, but you have to put the number in the proper context. It is 500 murders, or about 1.5 murders per day, in a city of 8.5 MILLION people! And that in a country where buying a gun is almost as easy as buying bubble gum.

Is 500 murders too many when considering those facts? :dunno: