We'll Try Harder This Wk., Honest

Mendokusai applies to more than sex. Here in the United Snakes, no one can be bovvered to kill any more. Figuratively. Nonetheless, from the statistics grab bag, murder is down in the City of Night:

"If you would have [sic] told me 20 years ago that we would go nine days without a homicide, I would have never believed it," Cmdr. Andy Smith said Friday.

At least he's not a sucker.

The most recent homicide in the city occurred Oct. 8 and was the 217th this year. Homicides are down nearly 9% from the same period in 2012, a decrease of 21.

New York City is also in on the act.

Recently, New York City went nearly eight days without a homicide. The stretch was broken when an 18-year-old was killed Oct. 14, local media reported.

But it was the second time in 2013 that New York had seen such a stretch. In January, the city went nine days without a homicide.

On Thursday, Det. Kelle Baitx, who has investigated homicides with LAPD's Newton Division for more than two decades, said he was surprised to hear about the city's homicide-free stretch.

"It's slow here," he said, "It's slow everywhere now."

Last year, the division saw a record low 16 homicides, a stark contrast from the 1990s, he said, when the division would handle more than 100 killings a year.

Is this then proof that Calif. (notorious for its lack of gun regulation) is safer because almost every citizen is both armed & ready to kill at a moment's notice, whether to defend their honor or their place in line at the supermarket? Sure, why the hell not? Just explain why, in gun-grabbing New York, all the dead bodies aren't stacked in the streets like cordwoodpiled up in mounds, Lou Reed-style.

Contemptuous as we are of homo sap, we wouldn't be very surprised if the stats add to less murder only because people were aiming badly, or people were beaten w/in an inch of their lives & remain in grave condition at County-U.S.C. Because no one is going to tell us there were no assaults or batteries for any number of days.