[Elvis]

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog ... the-nation

St. Louis Has the Highest Murder Rate in the Nation

By Sarah Fenske

St. Louis: so pretty, and yet so filled with homicides.

St. Louis' homicide rate in 2014 was higher than any other big city in the U.S.

That's according to newly released statistics from the FBI, which show St. Louis toppling the 2013 champion, Detroit, to become the murder capital of the country. The 159 murders recorded in St. Louis in 2013 give us a rate of 50 homicides per 100,000 residents — which is higher than Detroit's 44 per 100,000 residents.

Coming in third place appears to be New Orleans, with a rate of 38 murders per 100,000 residents.

Baltimore notched 33 murders per 100,000 residents.

Chicago, while leading the nation with the highest total number of homicides, found its number balanced out by its significantly larger population. While recording 411 homicides in 2014, the Windy City had a rate of just 15 murders per 100,000 residents, according to our analysis of the FBI statistics.

Now, it's worth noting that the FBI strongly advises against using these numbers to compare cities to one another. Crime doesn't respect municipal boundaries, and huge swaths of St. Louis may well be safer than cities that didn't make the list. Compiling data year-by-year is also fairly arbitrary. In a (seemingly futile) attempt to discourage such comparisons, the FBI does not sort its statistics by large cities or by homicide rates — we calculated these numbers by going through an Excel download of all the cities in the U.S.

And we didn't look at any cities with a population under 100,000. Had we done so, East St. Louis may well have been the champion — it recorded 27 murders last year, even though its population is just 26,523. That gives the Illinois city a rate of 101 murders per 100,000 residents. Yikes.

It's also worth noting that violent crime is dropping nationwide. It's declined 15 percent across the nation in the last five years, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trust.

Still, the fact that St. Louis is on pace to notch far more homicides this year than the number that earned us a chart-topping ranking in 2014 is hardly reassuring. Stay safe out there, people.

[Elvis]

BTW, in case anyone was wondering, the murder rate in St. Louis is about 6 times higher than it is in Los Angeles...

[TSFH Fan]

I call that place where the Rams play "StD" -- short for St. Detroit. I guess the people from Detroit are going to be offended.

Well, "StD" also refers to this story: http://fox2now.com/2014/12/17/st-louis- ... in-nation/

[TSFH Fan]

On a serious note, this thread fits with the Antonio French thread.
If French just wants to come out and say Slay sucks, I wouldn't disagree.

So there's all these murders and from Slay's office:

The City has taken a comprehensive approach to crime fighting for 14 years, aiming to prevent crime through bolstering quality education options, creating jobs, providing job training and opportunities, and tackling neighborhood conditions that can contribute to criminal behavior;

People can complain about the Rams over the past 14 years, but Slay probably has the Rams beat in the fail department.



Or earlier this year on the number of murders:

Slay, in an interview with the Post-Dispatch, said, “We’ve got a handle on it.” He added, “We are going to get results. We are absolutely committed to that. We don’t give up.”

Complain all you want about Fish coach speak, but people aren't dying because of him.

[RedAlice]

St. Louis has issues. And, keeping the Rams is not one of them.

If you have gone there for a game, it's obvious.

[Rams the Legends live on]

I am shocked they passed Detroit, but wasn't last year they had the Ferguson dealie so it has been to long since I read anything out of that or from that so I have no clue if that added to any additional deaths.

[RedAlice]

I was in St. Louis last year for the pre-season Packer@Rams game. First time ever my guy agreed to go with me to St. Louis. (yes, I was excited to go see a pre-season game - I will go watch my Rams anytime anywhere).

That was when all hell broke loose on the news...that exact weekend. The news made it look like the entire city was on fire. There were warnings up everywhere in the main part of the city.

He's like: this is where your team is?

We watched the local news of that horrible episode and I cried. it was bizarre to be a few miles down from it.

[Hacksaw]

Yeah, look what they did to our team..

[bubbaramfan]

Take a drive through East St. Louis, good chance you'll see a dead body somewhere.

[Hacksaw]

Take a drive through East St. Louis, good chance you'll see a dead body somewhere.

That could be said about east LA too bro. what is it about the east side?