[syndicate] guilt is fashionable. number of devotees is rising: 872 now, estimated 984 next month

[Michael Watson]

Crime in Oakland (2001):
http://www.city-data.com/city/Oakland-California.html
Oakland's most recent famous son: Tupac Shakur

Iraq - 24,000,000  [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook] 
Oakland - 400,000 persons

If Oakland had the population of Iraq:

5,000 murders
17,000 rapes
127,000 robberies 
170,000 assaults
222,000 burglaries 
785,000 larceny counts
331,000 auto thefts 

stats from http://www.city-data.com/city/Oakland-California.html

84 murders (21.0 per 100,000) 
295 rapes (73.8 per 100,000) 
2,125 robberies (531.9 per 100,000) 
2,826 assaults (707.4 per 100,000) 
3,696 burglaries (925.2 per 100,000) 
13,081 larceny counts (3274.5 per 100,000) 
5,520 auto thefts (1381.8 per 100,000) 

City-data.com crime index = 657.9 (higher means more crime, US
average = 312.3) 

http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2002/08/26/Special_Report:_East_Oakland_Under_Siege.html
Last year at this time, 55 people were murdered. So far this year,
73 people have been killed. Many of the victims -- 41% -- have been
young black men, between the ages of 16 and 30. As Carson watches
the death toll climb, she says police hold the key to stopping the
carnage.

"Bring somebody to justice. There are too many people gone and
there are no answers," Carson said. "If you don't solve it, it
makes it easier for a gunman to kill someone because they know they
won't get caught. And they don't."

So far this year, police have a suspect in just 26% of the
homicides. One look inside the department, and you see the problem:
a backlog of unsolved cases, some dating back to the 1970s. Oakland
has just ten homicide investigators -- half of what it needs -- and
the murders just keep coming.

claudia westermann <media at ezaic.de> wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/international/middleeast/16IRAQ.html?th

At Baghdad Central Morgue

Dr. Faiq Amin Bakr, director of the Baghdad Central Morgue for the 
past 13 years, reels off the grim statistics that confirm to Iraqis

that they have entered what they see as a terrifyingly lawless 
twilight zone: 462 people dead under suspicious circumstances or in

automobile accidents in May, some 70 percent from gunshot wounds;
626 
in June; 751 in July; 872 in August. By comparison, last year there

were 237 deaths in July, one of the highest months, with just 21
from 
gunfire.

--

//

dear New York Times,
you disregard the fact that those being shot now are more guilty
than 
those who were shot last year.

//


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