Update: Philadelphia murders through July 2007
Update: Corrected chart indicating 7 fewer murders for July 2007 than July 2006
Here’s the latest accounting of murders through the end of the month. July 2007 was pretty rough, logging 42 total murders. It was, however, an improvement over July 2006 which saw 49 murders. Here are the latest numbers:
While murders are still up for the year by almost 5%, over the last 4 months the city has seen a leveling off and even a decrease in murders compared with the same period in 2006. The numbers are just numbers, and it’s a challenge to remain optimistic about the situation when kids are shooting other kids for their dirt bikes.
eR0CK said,
August 1, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
I’ve found quite a bit of data in my search, but I was hoping you might have this on hand. Do you happen to have the statistics (I hate using that word when referring to peoples lives) since the start of the reign of Mayor Street?
Do you think the number of murders is in anyway correlated (n any city) with the policies/actions of the Mayor?
I look at what Giuliani did for NYC and I wonder if things would have been different if someone other then Mayor Street was in office. Personally, I think he’s done very little to help our city.
andrew said,
August 2, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
I don’t have those numbers handy, but my sense is that it has been up and down. While Giuliani is understandably trying to take credit for the drop in murder rates for NYC, I think it’s also true that during that same period, murder rates dropped all across the country, and nobody quite knows why. At the same time, NYC grew much much wealthier, which has its own correlation with a drop in murders. At any rate, I don’t know enough about the issue to say that any particular policy could have a direct impact on the murder rate, but I do think it’s probably unfair, for all his other faults, to lay the blame entirely at John Street’s feet.
Dan said,
August 6, 2007 @ 11:38 am
The real problem is that Philadelphia is run by Democrats who have no fear of being ousted from office. John Street is the worst thing to happen to Philly since Joe Carter hit that walk-off in ’93, AND HE GOT RE-ELECTED. You have to place a lot of the blame on the stupidity and complacency of the people of Philadelphia. Schools were terrible, crime was on the upswing, jobs were bleeding out of the area, and still, they blindly re-elect this blundering dolt because big-head know nothing Ed Rendell says go.
Since it has been proven that Republicans have no chance in Philly even when the candidate is far superior to his rival, we will just have to hope that Nutter does a better job than Street. However it doesn’t look promising, focusing the efforts on gun control (less than 1% of all gun crimes in the city are committed with legally registered guns) instead of tougher sentencing and better police work will continue to allow criminals to murder at will, whether it be in the dark alleys or the middle of an over pass in broad day light.