So, the current death rate in New Orleans is about the same or greater than in Iraq? I'm talking Iraqis in Iraq here, including the people we are shooting and bombing--on purpose--along with all the ones shooting and blowing themselves up.
The worst is that, if it continues steady for six months more, the city would have a 12-month murder rate about eight to 12 times the national average for cities its size, rather than this year's multiple of seven to 10. Three New Year's Eve killings brought the city's murder total to 161 for 2006. Depending on which population estimate is used, that works out to a rate of 60 to 81 killings per 100,000 residents. But two-thirds of the murders were in the last half of the year. The state's most recent door-to-door survey estimated the population at 200,000 down from a pre-storm figure of about 455,000. Using that estimate, the 2006 murder rate is 81 per 100,000 residents. If the figures remain steady, Peter Scharf, executive director of the Center for Society, Law and Justice at the University of New Orleans notes, that would mean a June-to-June rate of 105 killings per 100,000 residents.
I guess D.C. is relieved that another city has taken over the lead.
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