Most Murders in 2009: Brooklyn 4 times more than Manhattan

arent the boroughs too big to lump in one group?....what is say br hts vs nice man hoods

does this mean even more brooklyn inventory coming online?

The point is missed here: 451 homicides in NYC in 2009!!!!!! My gosh. Does anyone on here realize the astounding nature of this statistic? This is a 75.9% DECREASE over the last 16 years. And this decrease was realized while the population of NYC grew from 7.3MM in 1990 to 8.3MM in 2009. Once again, NYC ranks as the safest large US city.

In 2008 there were many threads here predicting upward spiralling crime as the economy deteriorated. I am sure those same people will now ignore the fact that crime has continued trending to new record lows in NYC. Around 1990 there were about 2000 murders. Today: 461. Incredible. And even more incredible since the city has more people today.

Not the mention the bullish impact of less vacancies coming open.....

Apt_Boy, I don't see what your point is here. Those are low numbers (and your 4x math is a bit fuzzy) for a city this large. It's also worth noting that some boroughs are much larger than others.

kylewest beat me to it (and much more eloquently).

Brooklyn is the most populous borough so it is obvivous that they will have the most murders. This data means nothing.

Brooklyn has a disproportionate number of true "gang-bangers" who kill each other ----- it's in some of the big housing projects -------- not anywhere near where people on these boards live or travel .....
Overall, NYC is safe, safe, safe ----- safer than the poor towns of Connecticut (Bridgeport, bad parts of Stamford, New Haven, Hartfor) and safer than rough parts of New Jersey.
They got the guns off the street in NYC ---- that's helped all of us.

Hopefully next year will be a better year in NYC e.g. less crime.

poorishlady is correct. Most of the violent crime happens in the "bad" Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Manhattan is a place where nothing ever happens.

I think crime is down everywhere...not just in NYC. It's down across all cities and all regions. So I don't think the drop in the crime rate in NYC will affect r.e. one way or the other.....

It's definitely concentrated in certain neighborhoods.
Many part of Brooklyn is quite safe:

http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map

Actually graffitiframmarian, crime has ticked upward in other major cities and NYC law enforcement community was concerned going into 2009 about (1) the upward trend in other cities we watch, and (2) how to possibly lower crime when it is already "impossibly" low. Not only did NYC go down, but it bucked the trend by not going up. It is wrong to simply ascribe this to "what is happening all over." That's factually incorrect.

In addition, the number of homicides is deceptive. In this entire city of over 8MM people, the number of stranger homicides was something like under 50. That means that of the 451 killings in 2009, about 400 victims knew their killers. Only 11% of the unbelievable low 451 was stranger crime. So if you aren't a drug dealer or friends with people who carry illegal weapons, the chances are something like 50 out of 8MM that you would be murdered in NYC in 2009. That is 0.000006725% chance of being killed by a stranger in NYC. Find me another major US city that can beat that.

kyle is correct. mjmsmith is a zen poet

i would not underestimate the impact of increased gun control.

glamma: I agree, but no one measure in isolation is responsible. There are certain arguments that can be made for a shift in criminal-age population demographics and decline of the crack epidemic. But what has also impacted crime in NYC and nation-wide is NYPD Chief Bratton's implementation of Compstat crime fighting models and the no-broken-windows approach to crime fighting. That is, be vigilent about the small stuff and a lot of the big stuff won't happen. Add to that a massive increase in the number of officers in NYC from the 1970s levels, more effective laws and sentencing tools for prosecutors to put the most dangerous in prison and keep them there longer (some ridiculous amount of crime is perpetrated by an equally ridiculous small number of the most violent people), better use of alternatives to prison programs for non-violent offenders (with problems of alcohol, drugs, anger management, domestic violence), implementation of the sex offense registry ("Megan's Law"), and many other innovations and changes.

So while demographics may play some role, the NYPD and the city's District Attorneys deserve an enormous amount of credit, too.

I agree with you, Glamma and Kyle. A big part of why poor parts of CT cities are more dangerous than NYC is because they haven't clamped down on guns the way NYC did.
NYC's cops and DA's offices got together and said: primary thing: stop the killings. Get as many guns off the streets as possible.
Yes, the increased gun control really made it a lot safer.
About Connecticut: last year there was a gun hand-in event in New Haven ---- you know, you bring in a gun and they give you cash or a gift certificate or something. They were giving out $100 gift certificates to Walmart. Well, there were HUNDREDS of people in line to hand in guns. They had to turn most of the people away because they ran out of the gift certificates!!!
Now, here in NYC, they wouldn't run out of the gift certificates ...............metaphorically speaking.

MJMSmith ---- You made my day. I am taking your line above as "found" poetry, and I am adding on to it. I'm actually a published poet. Is that OK if I steal your line, MJM?
I will post my poem here in the near future ----

It is indeed poetry. She is quoting Talking Heads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNdMc6wGtU

Jiminey Cricket! Thanks, tina. I will factor that in as I continue with my poem. I will cite talking heads AND mjmsmith as inspirations .....