The sad truth is that if you exclude innercity slums, themurder rate in the us plummets to mostly normal levels.
The parent comment is providing a better, more specific grouping that helps shed light on where murders are actually happening in the US and points us towards where we need to focus our efforts if we want to actually change the murder rate in the US. Inner city interventions will result in the greatest improvements to the murder rate, whereas focusing efforts elsewhere has literally zero chance of bringing the murder rate into line with the rest of the G8 because that's not where the murders are happening.
And all that is leaving aside the matter of whether the statement is actually true, as questioned by a number of other threads
In slums you have a completely different expectation of law enforcement and law enforcement presence, social service, education, economy, transportation, etc. In every respect except for lines on a map, slums are a completely different world. "Countries" are an obscenely coarse classification, we should always be open to more fine-grained analysis.
Do you mean levels of murder in peer countries where you've decided to not exclude the "innercity slums" that exist there?
This is actually a serious issue - please treat it as such.
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/IMAGES/crime_mu...
What the heck is wrong with Northern Idaho? Elko Nevada? So Cal's inland empire? I didn't think there was anyone to kill in western New Mexico. The Mississippi Delta also doesn't look like a healthy place to live.
If we excluded Louisiana, the murder rate would probably plummet to mostly normal levels. And it just isn't New Orleans.
Notice that the many of the places with the lowest murder rates also tend to be sparsely populated. What you're seeing is the increased variance that one should expect to see when dealing with smaller sample sizes, not evidence that small towns are more dangerous than big cities.
http://www.textmap.com/offence/vehicular-homicide.htm
I bet we would see more geographic correlation with not too much variation in city areas (e.g., the Delta is still a dangerous place to live, which would correspond to anecdotal evidence). Unfortunately, I can't google up a decent gun homicide heat map.
And the police itself kills an astonishing number of people each year, compared to a any western european country.
Nope. It is both. From dictionary.com "ton" entry:
"7. Informal a. A large extent, amount, or number. Often used in the plural: has a ton of work; gets tons of fan mail."
Also, please provide a reference.
Since you asked politely, here's one. Manhattan, which I don't consider an "inner city slum" had 88 homicides in 2005, 102 in 2006, 68 in 2007, 62 in 2008, etc.
That's comparable to Ireland, Switcherland, Denmark, Austria, countries of 3 to 6 times the population of Manhattan (1.6), and 3 to 4 times the percentage of murders in Germany (adjusted for the 80 million population).
Not only that, but Manhattan is the entertainment center for the surrounding Burroughs and cities, where a lot of violence happens.
This is true in Toronto as well, our "club district" has one of the highest murder rates from people visiting who don't live in the club district.
I don't think Manhattan makes a fair comparison and doesn't disprove the OP's comment.