There's an article going around about the political affiliations of mass murderers. It's true - since most of them are committed by young men with mental problems, they tend to the skew liberal. Staid conservatism isn't exactly attractive to the wild-eyed youth of America. But mass murderers represent a tiny minority of the overall murder rate. So let's look at the political environment that gives us America's most dangerous cities (by murder rate), using mayoral party as an indicator.
1. New Orleans - Mitch Landrieu (D)
2. Detroit - Dave Bing (D)
3. St Louis - Francis G. Slay (D)
4. Newark - Cory Booker (D)
5. Baltimore - Stephanie Rawlings Blake (D)
6. Oakland - Jean Quan (D)
7. Kansas City - Sly James (I)
8. Philadelphia - Michael Nutter (D)
9. Atlanta - Kasim Reed (D)
10. Cincinnati - Mark Mallory (D)
11. Stockton - Ann Johnston (D) Also, the city is bankrupt.
12. Cleveland - Frank Jackson (D)
13. Memphis - A.C. Wharton (D)
14. Washington DC - Vincent Gray (D)
15. Miami - Tomás Regalado (R) FINALLY!
16. Chicago - Rahm Emanuel (D)
17. Pittsburgh - Luke Ravenstahl (D)
18. Milwaukee - Tom Barrett (D)
19. Buffalo - Byron Brown (D)
20. Tulsa - Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. (R)
21. Mobile - Sam Jones (D)
22. Indianapolis - Greg Ballard (R)
23. Columbus - Michael Coleman (D)
24. Dallas - Mike Rawlings (D) Even in Texas...
25. Omaha - Jim Suttle (D)
26. Toledo - Michael Bell (I)
27. Boston - Thomas Menino (D)
28. Oklahoma City - Mick Cornett (R)
29. Tucson - Jonathan Rothschild (D) Even in Arizona...
30. Ft. Wayne - Tom Henry (D)
That's 26 Democratic mayors, 2 independents, and 4 Republicans - none in the top 14.
As much as I love guns, the best thing you can do to enhance your personal safety is not to buy a gun, it's to move to a Republican precinct. Even West Virginia - known for its abject poverty and serious issues with meth - has a relatively modest murder rate of 4.3/100,000 population in 2011, lower than the national rate of 4.8.
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- everlastinggodstopper (
ernunnos) wrote,