Well we should really congratulate ourselves on the good news. Crime in Chicago is 444 deaths to 2.9 million; comparatively Berlin, Germany stands at 79 deaths to 3.3 million residents. Why the disparity, you ask? Interestingly enough while cities like Chicago and New York stand firm at 7 deaths per 100,000 smaller towns like Detroit or Washington average as many as 40 or more per 100,000. In fact DC was the ‘murder capital’ in 2002, with 43 murders per 100,000, eclipsing only Detroit, the reigning champion.

This would not be an issue if a cosmopolitan city like Berlin did not have a low rate like two deaths per 100,000. Cities like DC and Detroit completely dispel the myth that crime, poverty and overpopulation are synonymous with each other. Even in Michigan, the unemployment rate is only 8% in cities like Flint. DC and Detroit typically have the same unemployment rates, so why the disparity?

I tried to get statistics on Beijing, a transient city where 25% of the people do not even truly live there. China has a strict population control policy, in which the populist view is that “Poverty accompanies a higher population growth, which makes a better quality of life impossible”. Interesting, because China has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world.

The only real consolation is that Sao Paulo, a city of 18 million, is one of two cities with a higher rate of homicide per 100,000 citizens, at 60. But Sao Paulo is 26 times as large as the nation’s capital. What gives? The number of guns to each individual here in this country? Honestly, poverty in America is nothing, as compared to the devastation witnessed in other parts of the world, particularly in such super-metropolises as those mentioned in this article. Is it our drug problem, the fact that hard core drugs are legal in some or most parts of Europe? The Department of Justice makes a convincing case for not doing so on their website, but the experience of witnessing death all around you in our ghettoes sends a conflicting message. Cutting dealers out of the loop here in the states would have interesting, yet unclear effects, one of which would be the contradiction of a government willing to profit through the distribution channels of a product that was once deemed illegal to begin with. Pharmaceutical companies would become even bigger, and the “sin tax” for using such drugs as heroine or cocaine could easily dwarf that experienced by purchasers of cigarettes and alcohol.

But this is all hubris, isn’t it. Speculation. Why one of the richest and most “civilized” nations in the Western Hemisphere continues to boast the highest murder rates is beyond me, yet again is very understandable. Whether the situation is ever completely dealt with, is another issue entirely.

As always, excellent articles at Blogger News Network