The Commercial Appeal claims that Memphis is number 2 in the nation for violent crime. Detroit scores the top spot. Rankings are based on violent crimes per 100,000 people in cities with at least 500,000 people.
More shocking: Nashville is number 4 on the list. Two Tennessee cities in the top five??
There are two glaring problems with the Commercial Appeal’s list – 1) it doesn’t include Washington, DC (apparently because it’s not in a state), and 2) it doesn’t include St. Louis, Miami, or Atlanta (because their official city limits include less than 500,000 people despite the size of their metropolitan areas.)
Okay, so let’s assume that knocks Nashville down to 8th place – still in the Top Ten, right above Philadelphia (!). How did the Tennessean and the City Paper/Post fail to report on this story at all??
Sloppy reporting all around. Considering just how much newspaper space is devoted to individual crimes, is it too much to ask for a little (accurate) information on the big picture?
- Calvin Rye
Unbelievable. The only sloppy reporting is on this blog. That's the FBI's list, not the Commercial Appeal's. And if you didn't know, the FBI (and Morgan Quitno & St. Louis Univ's crime dept.) always break down rankings based on populations. Sounds like someone is just mad that Nashville has moved up the rankings.
On the other hand, you're right: it's unbelievable the Nashville outlets aren't reporting that the FBI ranks the city 4th. That is glaring.
Posted by: stupid liberal | June 10, 2008 at 02:35 PM
"The only sloppy reporting is on this blog" - and then you *agree* that it's unbelievable the Nashville outlets aren't reporting about it? Um, that's my point. Really sloppy on the local media's part. We agree.
We also agree that it's shocking and appalling that Nashville is so high on the list. Notice the part where I say, "still in the Top Ten, right above Philadelphia(!)"? Yeah, that's because I'm horrified by Nashville's rank (even if I think the list was pretty sloppy).
So, about the list...
The statistics come from the FBI, but the list - as best I can tell - does not. I say that because before I wrote the original post I checked out the source material on the FBI's website.
The report does not include a list of top ten worst cities. It only has raw data on each city. By the way, it was by looking at that raw data that I figured out why Washington (not in a state) as well as Miami, Atlanta, and St. Louis (population inside city limits) were left off the list.
You seriously think those cities shouldn't be considered along side Nashville? Fine, whatever. I disagree.
As best I can tell, that's the only thing we're in disagreement on - so I'm not sure what your problem is with the original post?
Posted by: calvin rye | June 10, 2008 at 03:26 PM