[Nexus]

Iraq has a population of 28,807,000, which puts the murder rate at 56 per 100,000.

In 2005, Baltimore had a murder rate of 42 per 100,000

In 2005, Detroit had a murder rate of 39 per 100,000

In 2005, Washington DC had a murder rate of 35 per 100,000

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_08.html

Is it time to cut and run from the quagmire in these cities?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Washington DC is a quagmire!

[SteveMcKing]

Is it time to cut and run from the quagmire in these cities?

Iraq aside, do you really want me to answer that honestly? 'Cause you sure couldn't pay me to live in those cities.

[McGavin999]

Brilliant! Thanks for doing the work.

[xcamel]

Overall, 42,636 (2005) people died in car crashes in the U.S. last year.

Guess we should ban cars too.

[tomcorn]

I can see basic mathematics is not your strong point.

[TET1968]

And the mayor of this murder capitol has been promoted to Governor.

[mathprof]

I live in Baltimore County, but I'm still proud that Baltimore City is just slightly behind Iraq for its murder rate.

The citizens of Maryland, in all their wisdom, just elected the former mayor of Baltimore to be the governor of Maryland. He has an excellent record on crime. He'll also excel in raising our taxes.

[Indy Pendance]

I wonder how many soldiers were killed in Baltimore? Can you adjust the Iraqi rate, minus soldiers?

[ckilmer]

The press secretary for the California Republican Party is the son of illegal aliens who came the USA 35 years ago. In this article he chronicles how in recent years there has been a massive change in the number and kind of illegals coming north. Including a crimnal element that is causing a deterioration in the quality of life of Americans. Consider this article Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily Death toll in 2006 far overshadows total U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, Afghanistan

People have been referring to the Captains Quarters as a rebuke to the assertions of the article. The Captain's Quarters makes the assertion that -- for the numbers to be true -- it would have to be the case that a small number of people were committing a lot of crimes. That is to say far outside the statistical norm for the USA. The problem is that he didn't actually check the federal stats. As it happens it is the case that illegals tend to be very repeat offenders.

Below are some government stats to back up the article's assertioms

From the FBI crime statistics * An estimated 16,692 persons were murdered nationwide in 2005, an increase of 3.4 percent from the 2004 figure. * Murder comprised 1.2 percent of the overall estimated number of violent crimes in 2005. (Based on Table 1.) * There were an estimated 5.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

Illegal Alien Crime Wave

On April 7, 2005, the US Justice Department issued a report on criminal aliens that were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails. In the population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990. They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests. Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

More than two-thirds of the defendants charged with an immigration offense were identified as having been previously arrested. Thirty-six percent had been arrested on at least 5 prior occasions; 22%, 2 to 4 times; and 12%,1 time. Sixty-one percent of those defendants had been convicted at least once; 18%, 5 or more times; 26%, 2 to 4 times; and 17%, 1 time. Of those charged, 49% had previously been convicted of a felony: 20% of a drug offense; 18%, a violent offense; and 11%, other felony offenses. Twelve percent had previously been convicted of a misdemeanor. Defendants charged with unlawful reentry had the most extensive criminal histories. Nine in ten had been previously arrested. Of those with a prior arrest, half had been arrested on at least 5 prior occasions. Fifty-six percent of those charged with a reentry offense had previously been convicted of a violent or drug-related felony. By contrast, under half of those charged with alien smuggling, a third of those charged with unlawful entry, and just over a quarter those charged with misuse of visas and other charges had previously been arrested. The criminal histories of these defendants were generally less extensive: more than 70% had been previously arrested fewer than 5 times. Sources: US Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Security Institute, National Association of Chiefs of Police, US Department of Justice

[TheCrusader]

"Iraqi officials report 16,273 deaths (Murder Rate 56 per 100,000, slightly above Baltimore)"

What does this say, except that America is in grave decline?

Anyway, I cannot believe that the brutal sectarian war raging in Iraq can be fairly compared to any American city's murder rate. Trying to make this comparison is an attempt to obscure reality. Most of the murders in Iraq take place in a few cities, like Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, etc. The only fair comparison is to take any one of those war-torn Iraqi cities and compare them to an American city.

[ArmstedFragg]

Compton, California's 65

[Fresh Wind]

Pre-Katrina New Orleans (2003) had a homicide rate of 57.7 per 100K, higher than Iraq.

[StockAyatollah]

Is it time to cut and run from the quagmire in these cities?

I personally cut and run from Baltimore.

[Silly]

Ouch!

[babygene]

"The United Nations has said as many as 100 Iraqis die violently each day, which translates into 36,500 deaths annually"

"As many as", is very deceptive. This could be correct with one a day or 100 a day.

[doug from upland]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004902.html

Congratulations to New Orleans. In 2003 they were 57.7.

[Lil'freeper]

Is it time to cut and run from the quagmire in these cities?

In the case of Baltimore, yes, absolutely yes.

[SolidWood]

That is lower than I expected and FAR lower than what the MSM and libs want to make us believe. They claim that on average 100 Iraqis die daily... that would be 36,500 deaths in 2006.
Thats more than twice the actual number.

BTW I want to note that the Ministry of Health, and therefore morgues and hospitals, is headed by Sadrists. Their stated goal is a withdrawal of US forces. What better way to achieve this, than to inflate numbers and play into the hands of the left and media. Not saying, this is nescessairly that way, and likely those numbers are true, but who knows for sure?

[Zhang Fei]

My feeling is that they're throwing in garden variety murders along with deaths from terrorist attacks. I wonder what the death rate would have been without the murders.

[furquhart]

That's it? The way the media shows it, you'd think it was in the millions.

Are you saying that fewer people died violently, in all of Iraq, than in a smaller battle of the American Civil War?

More to the point: how many of the 16,000 "violent" deaths were of insurgents?