Saturday, May 23, 2015

Space to destroy

Hot Air: "Violent crime “unexpectedly” surges in Baltimore."

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cops are unhappy with the appearance of being thrown under the bus, similar to the fashion in which Big Apple police expressed their displeasure with Mayor Bill de Blasio after the Eric Garner affair.


Poor Baltimore cops. They're really getting a "rough ride."

That's a good Big Apple comparison by Hot Air, except for crime continuing to go down in 2015 in New York City even during and after the police hissy fit.

Eric said...

I heard on NPR the other day that the Census people said that New York had the highest increase in population last year or something. And FAO Schwartz toy store is closing because rents have gotten so high in Manhattan. So things seem to be going in the right direction in NYC.

Baltimore, not so much.

Big Apple Tourism Bureau said...

Big sodas and big liberalism. That's the formula for success.

And if Hot Air wants to call videotaped murders "affairs," that's helpful, too.

Tale of Two Identical Cities said...

That's a good Big Apple comparison by Hot Air, except for crime continuing to go down in 2015 in New York City even during and after the police hissy fit.

Yeah, don't those idiots at Hot Air know you can't mention the fact that cops from two cities didn't like the way their mayors treated them, unless every conceivable metric behaves in lockstep for both cities?

Crime drops, but hurt feelings are up 300% said...

Oh, you can always mention it. It's a powerful comparison point. Let us know the minute you find a second one.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio's public approval hasn't taken an speck of damage, as crime continues to fall. As Hot Air said of NYC's sister city to the south, "Who could possibly have predicted this?"

Hot Air's immediate thought after referring to the New York police protests was this: "And when law enforcement gives even a hint of being tentative, criminals will capitalize on the opening." Except when they do the opposite. But we can't expect every conceivable metric to behave in lockstep, now can we?

Criminologically Correct said...

Ok, try this for a second comparison point:

The number of shootings in the city is sky-rocketing

Killings continue to rise in New York.

What's that? Crime overall is down 10%? Then thank God it's only murders that are rising, and not important stuff like jay walking and selling bootleg cigarettes.

Your posts are up 50% since yesterday said...

From your own Daily News link, O Careful Reader:

NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said six of the 11 additional killings are considered “reclassified homicides,” meaning the criminal deed occurred months or years earlier, but the victim had just recently died.

“The actual increase in homicide incidents occurring this year is five as of midnight (Sunday),” Davis said. “An increase or decrease of five incidents, given the overall numbers, is not considered at this point to be evidence of an unusual trend.”



New York City's actual murder increase was almost only +4 this year, not five. But luckily Eric Garner didn't count as a murder.

As for the New York Post, the "sky-rocketing" numbers in their article are simply chilling, comparing as they do a single week's worth of incidents to the equivalent week from 2014. Or one month of data taken from a single precinct.

If the NY Post had only pushed further, they could have run the numbers by the names of individuals, and discovered a shocking 100% increase per victim.

Keep working that Google, boy. You'll make that Hot Air article look smart yet!

Regassified Bromides said...

Because "reclassified homicides" don't happen in other years, just 2015.

So I'm confused - are the NYPD monsters because they murdered Eric Garner, or solid servants because their spokesman spins to your liking in this particular instance?

A well-regulated minutia said...

Why are you still fighting with your own cited article link?

You should go find the NYPD spokesman and tell him why you're right, and he's wrong. The jerk was clearly "spinning" just to make you look bad 2 months later. That's what makes him a true monster.

Because "reclassified homicides" don't happen in other years, just 2015.

New York City had more reclassified homicides in the first three months of 2015 (six) as it had in all of 2014 (five) or 2012 (four). I couldn't find the 2013 data, because I'm no Google master like yourself.

An un-regulated spin said...

Got it. Solid servants it is.

[there were five] reclassified homicides...in all of 2014.

Sorry, bub "Eleven earlier reclassified crimes were put into the 2014 homicide total, police said."

I'll leave it to you to redo your meticulous math on "New York City's actual murder increase."

Also, let's brush up on those Google skills, 'mkay?

The tale of the crime tape said...

Well, that’s what I deserve for being a wiseass, and for not doing my full Google diligence. However, there’s enough Google comeuppance to go around. Your "Sorry, bub" link is also obsolete, as further searches reveal that “reclassified homicide” numbers are fluid. An updated Newsday article published after the one you hyperlinked-- by the same reporter, just two days later-- reported that there were ultimately 16 reclassified homicides in NYC last year, not the 11 cited in your find. It also says that one of the 16 may get disqualified.

I’ve found more published annual totals for NYC reclassified homicides. I will not assume the same precision I assumed yesterday:

2014: 16 (or 15)
2013: 15
2012: 14
2011: 27
2010: 19
2009: 16
2006: 38

You may not like that the NYPD spokesman said five more murders in three months is not considered an unusual trend in New York City, but you can see why it’s the case. An increase of five is equivalent to a rounding adjustment.

The four statistics that best illustrate why Hot Air’s NYC/BAL cop comparison is so uselessly off the mark:

New York City murders, as of May 17, 2015: 115
Baltimore murders, as of May 25, 2015: 108

New York City population: 8,491,079
Baltimore population: 622,104

Crime against statistics doesn't pay said...

You may not like that the NYPD spokesman said five more murders in three months is not considered an unusual trend in New York City, but you can see why it’s the case.

Not that it matters much at this point, but you still haven't faced (or gotten) the fact that spokesman Steve Davis was spinning in a cunning way, by saying, "we have 6 reclassified homicides for 2015, so they shouldn't count as part of the increase."

The hell? The only way you can justify doing that is if you also remove the early reclassified homicides for 2014 too, which he did not do. You can't put a special handicap on 2015 numbers and then compare them to an unrevised 2014.

Math murderers said...

You can't put a special handicap on 2015 numbers and then compare them to an unrevised 2014.

Based on the changing NYC statistics across multiple news articles, most of 2014’s reclassified murders weren’t included until late in the year, with the additions from January 2015 coming super-duper late in the year. Meanwhile in 2015, the early spate of reclassified bodies is higher than average. Late data vs. early data. Comparing the first quarters of these two years pushes the “handicap” in the other direction.

New York’s murder total last year (333) was the lowest since consistent records have been kept. In 2013, the city’s murder total was 335. Those are the only two years officially below 400. Whether it’s +5 or +11, NYC is gliding towards its third consecutive year in the mid-300s. The current body count is 175 fewer than the average during Bloomberg’s tenure, 60% less than Guiliani’s figures, and not even one-fifth what they were under Koch and Dinkins.

Or as the New York Post put it yesterday, “You’re 45% more likely to be murdered in de Blasio’s Manhattan.” The Daily News saw 3 extra killings and wrote: “Some residents fear bloody summer as murders in New York City up 60% for week to date.” No spin there. Not like that Steve Davis.

Q1: If the NYPD is angry and upset about getting “thrown under the bus” by Bill de Blasio, why would their police spokesman distort the numbers in such a way as to make de Blasio’s administration look better?

Q2: If feeling like they’ve been thrown under the bus by de Blasio makes the NYPD “become more cautious,” as Hot Air wrote, and if Hot Air is also right that “when law enforcement gives even a hint of being tentative, criminals will capitalize on the opening, why have only five new murderers taken advantage of this wild west opportunity?

Q3: Why have New York’s other varieties of criminals committed fewer and fewer crimes as the city’s policing became more tentative? Are they afraid to go outside because of the five murderers?

Which brings us back to Hot Air’s foolish equivalency that started all this fractional number crunching. If New York City’s population were the size of Baltimore, its prorated murder count thus far in 2015 would stand at 9.

Of course, that is a heavily inflated total. Four-hundredths of one of those murders would be a reclassified killing. #cunningspin

Updated Update to the Last Update: Back in January, the 16 reclassified homicides from before 2014 were part of that year’s listed total of 332. However, NYPD stats now list 333 murders. There’s no indication whether #333 is another reclassified case, or a 2014 body undiscovered until 2015. All we know for sure is that the New York tabloids would describe the adjustment as “a massive uptick and a frightening trend.”

No one can make you see it said...

I've done all I can.

The man with no answers declines to answer said...

Too bad that's so little.

The NYPD spokesman gave two reasons why the Post's and the News' overwrought interpretation of a fraction of the stats was not something they took seriously. The newspapers' response was to double down on their hyperbole.

You should see if they're hiring.

Well, that was fun. In conclusion... said...

The famously liberal NYPD is out to help its beloved leader Bill di Blasio by hiding the truth: that Baltimore To The North (aka New York City) is awash in blood from its third-lowest murder rate ever. But the cops can't spin away the proof: the handful of killings committed in years past, in psychic anticipation of di Blasio "throwing the police under the bus." Why can't I make you you SEE it?