2007: Murder at Lowest Number in LA Since 1963 and Murder at its Highest Number in SF (edit this)
The Associated Press has just released that Los Angeles has its lowest murder rate in 37 years (since 1970).
New York’s murder numbers have also fallen and even Chicago’s numbers are slightly down. NPR commenters stated that one of the reasons is that LAPD, NYPD and the Chicago Police Department have been using data of past crimes in creating strategies to reduce their cities’ murder rate.
As reported in the Chronicle, San Francisco’s murder rate is at its highest level in twelve years with 97 deaths. Newsom has conveniently forgotten his 2003 campaign promise to resign if the murder rate had increased during his tenure. Nor has Newsom made any changes within the police department or the police commission to show that he is even paying attention to the City’s murder rate.
No doubt, Newsom’s statewide rival, LA Mayor Antonio Villagroisa is keeping track of San Francisco’s murder rate-in the event that the cross-state rivals run against each other for governor or senator. No doubt that the California Democratic Party is also keeping track of the numbers in measuring Newsom’s weaknesses prior to getting behind Newsom in any statewide races.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:22 pm e
You can be certain that Newsom is “paying attention” to the murder rate, nothwithstanding whether he has made any changes in the police department.
The murder rate is going up in NYC only because it rose by 10 percent in 2006.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:15 pm e
Oh, just close down the SFPD and use the money for affordable housing - that’s the goal anyway, right?