Important facts:

[conuly]

Last week in NYC, there were 5 murders. I know, because I looked it up during a rather heated discussion with a Lyft driver. (He may think the discussion affected his tip. It did not. The only thing that affected his tip was the fact that the trip from the Island into the city is over $80 one way, and we were of course going both ways. My mother's the one who got us onto that discussion in the first place, and she was enjoying herself, so....)

A bit of quick googling and some rapid calculations suggest that the weekly murder average in 1990 was ~45 per week.

When I gave that first stat, he suggested I meant to say 5 murders per day last week, and expressed disbelief that, no, this was the week's number. I wish to note that even if 5 people were killed every single day in NYC last week, that still would be less than the number killed weekly in 1990, when the population was somewhat lower than it is now.

In a nuanced discussion, which this very much was not, I would of course point out that it doesn't count into the murder rate unless you actually die, and that while crime is overall at MUCH lower levels than in the 70s and 80s, part of the lower murder rate specifically is better emergency medical care.

Comments

[bibliofile]

> better emergency medical care

So perhaps your driver would have been more comforted by comparing rates of attempted murder? (And is that something that's tracked?)

THough in Chicago (the city proper), there used to be IIRC five trauma centers, which are excellent at dealing with things like gunshot wounds. Starting in the 1990s, hospitals started closing them down because (basically, I think) they weren't profitable enough. Now there's only one. And people are shocked, Shocked! to learn that there's only one in the city limits.

[conuly]

So perhaps your driver would have been more comforted by comparing rates of attempted murder? (And is that something that's tracked?)

I don't think so, actually.