Detroit’s murder rate drops
John sends us a link to the Detroit News which reports that the murder rate in that city is on track to it’s lowest rate in 47 years;
As of Tuesday, 298 criminal homicides were recorded, a decline from 318 at the same point last year, according to Detroit Police. That’s a 6 percent drop from last year and marks the second straight year of declines.
The lowest number of homicides in Detroit in any of the past 47 years was in 2010: 308. Before that, the lowest total was 281 in 1967, the year of the Detroit summer riots.
Taking population into consideration, the murder rate per 100,000 residents is on pace to drop for the third straight year, from 55 in 2012, to 47.5 last year, to 42.6 so far in 2014.
Of course, you might remember that we’ve talked about the new police chief, James Craig, of that who city encourages citizens to protect their homes and families with their own firearms. I don’t suppose that has anything to do with it, though.
Most other violent crimes, including carjackings and robberies were also on pace to drop in 2014, although justifiable homicides are up, from 16 year-to-date in 2013 to 22.
“People feel the need to protect themselves,” Craig said. “Maybe that’s helping drive down robberies: Maybe the criminals are afraid they’ll be confronted by someone who has a gun.”
Maybe so.
Category: Guns
Heck, I’m amazed there’s anybody left in Detroit to murder.
I was going to say the same thing. People still live there?
This guy needs to be the police chief in a bunch of places I think.
The population has changed just a (tiny) bit in the last 47 years.
Gee – good people exercising their rights guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment and defending their lives and property makes criminals think twice. Who’d a thunk it?
Meanwhile, NH in 2013 had its highest murder rate in a decade. 22 murders, for a rate of 1.7 per 100,000. Usually it has been in the 1.0-1.2 range.
Mass is 2.0, MD is 6.4, CA is 4.6, just for comparison.
Yeah, sounds like you guys up in Nanook’s Home (NH) really need some CA/MD/DC/Chicago-style gun control laws, NHSparky.
(For those who are “satire-challenged” and reading this, the above was indeed satire.)
Well, talking to some relatives in law enforcement over here, they sound optimistic that the next year or two will see a more Constitutional bent in California’s gun laws at the state level, thanks to some ongoing litigation. Of course the gay bay and the Los Angeles Mandatory Soft Target Zone will continue to do their own (fascist) thing, which will continue to skew the numbers. Then again, I don’t live, work, or commute within 100 miles of either of those places, so fuck ’em.
Well, at least LA has Malloy and Reed protecting them…
Hey now, the People’s Republic of Maryland has a triple advantage in denial of Constitutional Rights, and both Baltimore and Prince George’s Counties. Remove one of these and watch the other issues fade, just like Detroit’s.
OH GEE WHIZ, y’all mean that the “more guns, less crime” mantra IS TRUE? /sarc Just like the Violent Crime Rates fall every time another State passes a Concealed Carry Law (*WHOOPS!* that’s true, too!), and places with the strictest gun Control Laws have high violent crime rates, places like Chicago, DC, NJ, and Mexico,… AWW SH!T, three strikes, I’m out!!
I wonder if we’ll hear media liberals’ heads explode over this, or will they censor it?
Proud, Illinois was REQUIRED to pass a CCW law in 2014.
They did indeed pass it, but its a waste of paper that it was printed on. The restrictions and requirements for an IL CCW are ridiculous. Not to mention we only recognize a CCW from SC or HI.
Funny that when “pro-gun” laws are passed by states all we here from the anti-gun panty waists is the tired old canard that “blood will run int he streets” and there will be “Wild west shootouts every Saturday night.” You’d think those leftist twits would get tired of being wrong every time. But honesty and integrity have never been strong suits of the anti 2A crowd.
Interesting. I recently did my CPL cert in Detroit.
Michigan has less than 5% of the total population with a current CPL. I’m surprised it’s that low.
(1) Detroit is still an exceptionally violent, absurdly fucked-up city. It sounds like it should be a work of dystopian fiction.*
(2) Urban murder and violent crime rates have generally been steadily dropping in US and across the First World for some time — with cities and countries seeing the same decline despite pursuing opposite policies (e.g., we put more people in prison; Canada put fewer). Anyone who offers “X” as a cause-and-effect explanation is full of shit. And do you want to similarity credit NY’s gun control practices?
(3) Detroit, perhaps more than any major US city, is notorious for cooking the books, in recent times reclassifying between 20-25% of its murders as non-criminal deaths. That Detroit leads the nation in unclaimed corpses is perhaps not a coincidence.