Opinion: The Deadliest Global City
By Edward McClelland
Chicago likes to compare itself to other world cities, so Ward Room thought it would find out how we rank in violence.
It turns out no one can top us.
Among
what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder
rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and
Sao Paolo.
Here’s how we rank in
murders per 100,000 among cities we consider our peers, based on a
projected murder total of 505 for this year.
Singapore 0.4
Tokyo 0.5
Hong Kong 0.6
Berlin 1.0
Sydney 1.0
London 1.4
Toronto 1.7
Amsterdam 1.8
Paris 4.4
New York 6.0
Los Angeles 7.5
Mexico City 8.0
Moscow 9.6
Sao Paulo 15.6
Chicago 19.4
Tokyo 0.5
Hong Kong 0.6
Berlin 1.0
Sydney 1.0
London 1.4
Toronto 1.7
Amsterdam 1.8
Paris 4.4
New York 6.0
Los Angeles 7.5
Mexico City 8.0
Moscow 9.6
Sao Paulo 15.6
Chicago 19.4
We could be doing
worse: Caracas, Venezuela has a murder rate of 130 per 100,000. But its
undeniable that the Windy City is under seige.
Gun
lovers are gleeful about Chicago’s deadly summer. They see it as a
rebuke not just to gun control, but to the policies of Barack Obama and
Rahm Emanuel.
But
Chicago’s murder rate is not proof that gun control doesn’t work. It’s
proof that, in a country with one gun per citizen, local gun laws are
meaningless.
Let’s look at Tokyo,
one of the safest cities on that list, with a murder rate of 0.5 per
100,000 citizens. Japan’s constitution does not guarantee its citizens
the right to bear arms. Handguns are prohibited. Semi-automatic weapons
are prohibited. Automatic rifles are prohibited. The only exceptions are
hunting shotguns and target-shooting pistols. The penalty for illegal
possession of a gun is up to 15 years in prison. Japan has a population
of 127 million. In 2006, two people were murdered with guns.
Japan
starts with the principle that citizens have no right to a gun, and
forces them to prove they need one. The United States starts with the
principle that guns are an inalienable right, and forces the government
to justify banning them.
The
number-one factor in predicting crime is not guns -- or lack of guns. It
is concentrated urban poverty. Because of Chicago’s history as a
segregated city, we have a lot of that.
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