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Comment by bilbo0s | Hacker News Reader

To be fair to branchless... Chicago's crime rate is not all that high. It certainly would not make a list of the top 50 crime cities in the US. Or even the top 100.

(http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/t...)

So, I'm thinking, branchless' thought process probably goes something like this... "If Chicago is this bad with crime and corruption... what must the rest of the US be like???"

Having mentioned that, other people are correct as well to point out that not ALL places will have the same level of corruption. Many, many places have far more corruption and crime than Chicago. And many, many places have far less corruption and crime than Chicago. But if you are from Western Europe, the mean level of corruption here in the US may be discomfiting to you.

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30th in murder rate though: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/top-lists/highest-murder-ra...

Murder rate is probably the only statistic that can be trusted. Police are under lots of pressure to make sure crime stats go down, and it's really easy to misclassify or ignore reports for things like armed robbery or rape. A body is harder to hide.

And crimes committed by police probably won't show up either...

Heck, I think the title of this one speaks for itself:

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/29/5850100/chicago-brought-its-mur...

But why stop at the title?

> they find evidence that while Chicago reported 414 murders in 2013 they really had at least 432 through what, if you read the article (and you should) looks like pretty deliberate malfeasance.

> For example, Patrick Walker was found injured and unresponsive in a crashed automobile, taken to a hospital where he died, then during an autopsy they found a gunshot wound in his head and a bullet casing in the back seat of the car. Owing to the fact that he was clearly shot and killed, this was filed on his death certificate as a murder. But the Chicago Police Department has classified the case as a death investigation, making it disappear from their stats.

That's not Chicago, IL in that list though right?

It's Chicago HEIGHTS, IL.

Different city.

And EAST Chicago, IN.

Different STATE.

You have to be careful when you read these lists. For instance, there are a lot of Pine Bluffs in the United States, so you want to be sure that you talk about the right one when discussing murder rates.

But even if you only count the murder rate...

Chicago... the Chicago that we're discussing on this thread... would not make the list of the top 30 as is plainly evident.

there are far, far worse places than Chicago in the US. Lots of them. And there are far, far better places than Chicago in the US. Lots of them.

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