From Winds of Change we see the quagmire that has developed in New Orleans and Pine Bluff, Arkansas:
According to the FBI, they had rates of murder and non-negligent manslaughter comparable to the estimated rates in Iraq right now (14 – 20/100,000 population per year – from Strategypage, with a hat tip to Outside The Beltway).
MSA – Rate per 100,000
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA – 25.5
Victoria, TX – 25.4
Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI – 19.5
Pine Bluff, AR – 16.9
Laredo, TX – 14.7
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA – 14.5
Richmond, VA – 13.6
Does this mean all is well? No. Is this acceptable – in Iraq or in Pine Bluff? No.
I tend to fall into the “things aren’t as bad as Juan Cole, Robert Scheer, and the New York Times say they are” camp, in part, because I keep seeing numbers like these.
If there was a true uprising among the Iraqis, we’d be seeing far, far higher US and Iraqi death rates.
