One has to wonder if there was a little tomfoolery going on at Philadelphia Police Department this morning and afternoon. Wyatt noticed something amiss this morning in the numbers the city was claiming for homicide rates.
The official homicide count in #Philly is 161. Now why would the PPD website claim it is only 153? Fuzzy math, Mayor Nutter?
— Darth Wyatt (@DarthWyatt) June 11, 2012
Huh. Isn’t that interesting? When I went to the city’s reporting website several hours later, the daily reporting numbers of murders were removed completely and the only 2012 data was in PDF form for the week prior. Commence minor Twitter conversation about the city hiding their numbers after they have been on a streak of averaging a murder a day.
Shortly thereafter, the data reappeared; this time it was correct. In all likelihood it was a glitch. It happens on the web. However, given that the separate descriptive text for graphic also disappeared, it seems a little odd. Mix it in with the fact that Chief Charles Ramsey has insisted upon using fuzzy math to avoid acknowledging the rising murder rate during the last three years, it seems the timing of it is a tad too convenient. It’s a city with leaders who say that it’s not fair to actually count all homicides in the final tallies, nor is it reasonable to question their failed campaign promises of fewer dead bodies.
It’s amazing how the city is running at 163 murders in 163 days (there was one this morning not counted in Philly stats yet) with 29 more murders than this time last year still has the nerve to try and convince their residents that homicides are down by nearly 10%.
Under reporting crime is an old story in Philadelphia. Philly was one of the first to under report violent crimes, including homicide, to the FBI starting in 1964 under Mayor James H.S. Tate and Commissioner Howard Leary.
Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo found an eraser so big it even attracted Washington’s attention, by systematically reporting only one crime in ten reported to the PPD. That still stands as the record for a US agency, although several third world agencies top that rather handily. Mali for one, where the ratio is slightly over 16:1.
Stranger
I also hear that Philadelphia is raising the chocolate ration from 30 grams a week to 25 grams a week.
There is a chance that there are simply so many murders happening in their little slice of paradise that they cannot keep up with them.
Every time another one of them has to remove his shoes to continue counting, several of them faint, then they lose track of where they were.