Random Murder Rare

From the New York Times:

"If the average New Yorker is concerned about being murdered in a random crime, the odds of that happening are really remote," Mr. Farrell said. "If you are living apart from a life of crime, your risk is negligible."

I had a Canadian fellow email me about a story I pointed to awhile back. The story was about how some thieves are targeting spendy laptop computers at places like Starbucks where people tend to congregate and work because of the wireless network availability (and coffee!). This guy said that he was essentially scared of America and all of the crime we have here, and that he'd never live here because of all the guns and crime.

Well, we do have plenty of guns, millions and millions of them. But, 99.99% of them don't get used for criminal purposes. And as this article explains, crime has been dropping in all categories, including murder, across the country for the past 10 years. Add to this the fact that random murder is very rare. Murder generally happens between people who have some sort of relationship whether that be family or business or whatever. Where I live, mostly in Oregon, and specifically in Portland I have never batted an eye walking around the downtown day or night. There are a few places I wouldn't go where people buy and sell drugs, but that's just being smart.

So, Canadians and all else who would come to the United States for a visit, come! New York is wonderful, Portland is wonderful. Come, visit, spend money (smile).