ahhh, my lovely city.
Such a shame.
We have the highest murder rate, just behind Camden (across the river) as having the highest murder rate in the country. Such a shame, for such an amazing city.
Taken from Wikipedia -
Crime
There were an average of about 400 murders a year for most of the 1990s. The murder count dropped in 2002 to 288, then surged four years later to 406.
[43] Out of the ten most populous cities in the United States in 2006,
Philadelphia had the highest homicide rate at 28 per 100,000 people, and is on pace for a significantly worse year in 2007.
[44]
In 2004, there were 5,513.5 crimes per 100,000 people in Philadelphia.
[45] In 2005,
Philadelphia was ranked by Morgan Quitno as the sixth-most dangerous among 32 American cities with populations over 500,000. Among its neighboring Mid-Atlantic cities in the same population group,
Baltimore and
Washington, D.C. were ranked second- and third-most dangerous cities in the United States, respectively, and
Camden,
New Jersey across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States.
[46]
Recently, statistics released in 2006 named Camden the fifth-most dangerous city in the country, representing a minor improvement from its 2004 ranking. Philadelphia now ranked 29th.
[47]
On
September 12,
2007, police commissioner
Sylvester Johnson called on 10,000
African American men to patrol the streets to lessen crime. Johnson, who is black himself, set up the program as a means of countering the city's disproportionate homicide rate of African Americans. Dennis Muhammad,
Nation of Islam official and Mayor John F. Street, supported the project. The city has hit 300 homicides this year, of which 80% of the victims were
African American. The "Call to Action: 10,000 Men, It's a New Day" program is to be initiated on
October 21,
2007.
[48]
