New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year...

So far they've analyzed about half the murders in the city. And of those only 35 were committed by strangers. That is in a city of over 8 million people. All the rest are by acquaintances of one sort or another -- intimates, business or gang rivals, parents and children, etc.

Death at the hands of people we know has always been an understated factor in the mental picture of crime. But this does suggest that in New York City at least the sort of anonymous death by violence that bulks largest in our fears of crime has fallen to almost microscopic proportions.

How can this be? Rudy is not the mayor anymore (some would like us to believe he's the only one that can fight crime); guns laws are fairly tight; no impact from the death penalty (New York has not had an execution since 1976. There is currently a court ordered moratorium in effect).

This is more proof that we can solve a lot of problems without the 13th century mentality of some loud mouths.

Permalink| Posted @ 4:49 PM |