With 101 Homicides, Newark Nears a Bleak Milestone

[gristy]

NEWARK, Dec. 15 — The flickering votives, the tearful relatives and the angry activists scolding City Hall for the death of a young mother. It was a familiar tableau as a small crowd huddled to mark the killing of Taheerah Sweat, who the police say was shot twice by a man who had taken her out on the town but then left her to die on the chilly pavement after they had a fight.

Ms. Sweat’s killing early on Dec. 10 was the 101st homicide in Newark this year, the authorities said, one body short of a 1995 record, when Newark was buckling under a wave of crack-fueled mayhem.

With three times the number of homicides per capita as New York, Newark remains one of the most violent cities in the country. New York’s homicide rate has edged up this year, but it is nowhere near that of the late 1980s. Cities across the country, including Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, San Antonio and Boston, have seen increased killings, part of a two-year rise in major crimes after a decade-long drop.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/nyregion/17newark.html?ref=nyregion

[Crunchy Frog]

1. Interesting to compare those numbers with the ones in Baghdad.

It's something like 100 a day there now.

And to think, there are still some FReeper types who claim that the level of violence in Iraq is comparable to what it is in several large US cities.

Not that I'm trying to minimize the homicide numbers in this country, which are apalling in their own right.

[gristy]

2. Good point

:(

[Erika]

3. Maybe we need to look at the needs of the U.S. cities

You think? We pay taxes. Shouldn't they be returned to U.S. needs? Do others take preference?