New Orleans Murder Rate Higher than Iraq?

john townsend wrote:

the problem with NO is that for so long you all down there didn't care what went on in the ugly side of town as long as it didn't spill over into the nice side of NEW ORLEANS ..well like a cancer it grew , then you have a tragedy like Katrina and it wasn't able to heal ....how many dirty cops have been busted down there? open prostituion , heck when all those crack dealers fled to houston ..houston didn't want them either and as far as being off topic ,,i thought the thread was about the most dangerous places in the us ,,not to hear someone whine about how horrible there city is ..if you don't like it or can't handle it MOVE

What was one supposed to do with the huge criminal element in NO prior to Katrina? The politicos had a huge subsidized population base to keep them in power. Nagin should've used the same buses they trucked those same folks to the polls in, to truck them out of there before the storm hit. Corruption is right, but the same bought voter base kept the same rotten gov in power for far too long.
It's not easy to give up and run from a city that you love.

"murders" in iraq are a lot harder to measure given the fact that the government doens't have control over much the country. the violent death rate in iraq is likely to be much higher. the government and the coalition forces have a vested political interest in downplaying violence there and he country is filled with unemployed armed men who engage not only in politically motivated attacks but also in common criminality. it seems highly probable that violent crime rates in iraq are much higher than we think.
in fact, american cities are often ranked as "the most violent in the world" simply because many governments dont have the sort of presence that the american government does in its own territory, nor the same sort of police bureaucracy to keep a record of violence. I moved from Colombia to Washington, DC in the mid 90s. my destination was supposed to be the world's murder capital, but to me it seemed like a peaceful garden of eden coming from a place like Colombia. everything has to be kept in context, although what has happend to New Orleans is an absolute tragedy and at no point should the world's wealthiest and most powerful country be satisfied merely with enjoying less violence than iraq, colombia or any other 3rd world country