You're not including our brothers and sisters who died in abortion this past year. I would guess that 300,000 human beings were killed in abortion in NYC this past year, that might be down a little. But with the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, there must be more experimentation and more of our brothers and sisters killed in that research. Let's not congratulate ourselves yet.

Does no one question the rise in misdemeanor arrests as NYPD doing job protection? If crime is declining and the role of the police is uncertain in this, shouldn't some police be laid off? Maybe we could educate those black man hanging out and getting misdemeanor records with the freed up budget money.

Makes me want to holler.

the truth,

NOVA : What Darwin Never Knew

you should look for it this week

HJS - No not last night what did I miss?

the truth
i wonder if you were watching PBS last night?

white collar crime is economic violence which hurts our society as deeply as physical violence.

its criminals should be prosecuted and serve time amongst others who have perpetrated violence in any form.

i guarantee this would reduce white collar crime.

as long as some get "country club prisons," it will continue to grow in breadth and depth.

JGarbus??! are you on crack? "The man is BLACK" you sound ridiculous! I know what you are referring to but "the man" in NY is NOT BLACK!

Brian why are you saying Happy New Year??!! It's not even New Years Eve yet! Stop it, annoying!

I find it humorous that the guest credits NY and NJ's policing strategies for the decrease in crime while admitting that crime is down in many cities without any such strategies. Doesn't really make sense to me. I am reminded of Stephen Levitt's theory that the passage of Roe vs Wade may have had a lot more to do with the decrease in crime 20-something years later than any police crackdowns at the time.

Mayor Bloomberg says that readers of the Wall Street Journal don't commit murder.

See:

Sunday, April 19, 2009
Keeping up with Bloomberg and Friends: Stark New Scandals and Is it True WSJ Readers Don’t Commit Murder?
http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/04/keeping-up-with-bloomberg-and-friends.html

Couldn't it be a major factor that virtually everyone now has a cell phone with built-in camera? It is no longer as safe to commit crimes.

Burglary (home, car) and robbery is up 30% in my community!

I also agree with the poster who observed that violent video games can actual act as a virtual reality venue within to release some of the pent up aggressiveness of teen youth.

Brian!

Please mention the fact that the book Freakonomics perfectly explains this with statistical certainty! The very fact that your guest admits that, regardless of the locale, the same trend is being seen, proves that there is NO link between backslapping politicians/police chiefs and this drop in crime!

Haven't the rates of hate crimes spiked in NYC? It seems that overall murders and assaults have declined, but people are still - or are even more - comfortable attacking those who are seen to be the most expendable of society - those thought to be undocumented immigrants and queers.

Definitely Rudi Giuliani's policies were of extreme importance, but another factor often overlooked was the "million man march" where black minority men made a social contract amongst themselves to act more responsibly, but this factor is rarely mentioned.
And now that "The Man" is Black, it is harder to act out against "The Man."
But the old canard that poverty is the main cause of crime has always been debatable. That the poorest areas tend to turn out the most hard-boiled of criminals is probably correct, but the overall propensity towards law-breaking is rather equitably distributed amongs all classes, races, ethnicities and religious groups. Some can just be more sophisticated in their subrosa activities.

smart government.

and YES the cops are told to play with the stats by downgrading everything

I can verify what Jesse says as twice I have hadmy apt broken into in past and much damage caused and police filed a report about those two incidents. Besides we here so many crimes reported on local news and it certainly seems like many more are being reported on local new these past few years.

What about the prevalence and improved quality of violent video games keeping angry young youth angry and violent in a virtual world and off the streets?

I have three members of my family who are presently in the NYPD, and as they explain it to me, Police officers are discouraged from reporting and filling many types incidents. Only the most egregious are actually looked into!

This is a political bubble waiting to burst!

This is further evidence of only one of the many miracles Saint Rudy has blessed us with. His holy presence has even reduced the crime rate across the Hudson and in most other metropolitan areas. Be grateful, ye who were permitted to look upon him!

Kudos to Ray Kelly for achieving this with 5,000 fewer(!) police officers than Giuliani's commisioners had in the 1990's.

And...he has done it so well and without community rancor (whatever happened to Al Sharpton?) that even the boys and girls at the NYCLU realize that they will sound ridiculous by saying that this comes at the expense of a "police state", "rampant civil rights violations", blah, blah, blah.

Can we give someone some credit for doing something well around here?

Oh, and Kelly has kept us safe from you know what as opposed to you know who.