January 19, 2012
This graphic was in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday, and Philly.com had this well-done map with every Philadelphia homicide since 1988. The comparison to the Iraq war is supposed to “put that deadly toll in perspective,” and all yesterday people tweeted horrified remarks about this comparison. The problem is that the comparison is nonsense. Philadelphia is only “as deadly as Iraq” if only U.S. troops were killed in Iraq during the war. (Who are our soldiers shooting at? Do they just have horrible aim?) Iraq Body Count currently lists between 104,872 and 114,540 civilian casualties during the Iraq War and other sources are higher. By those numbers, Philadelphia and Camden are much safer than Iraq. The Chicago Tribune made a similar comparison, of Iraq to Chicago, a few years back. I guess it’s supposed to galvanize the population into rethinking our violent ways, but there’s no need to make ridiculous comparisons to prove too many people are murdered in Philadelphia. (Violent crime is down nationally, but unless the murder rate is zero it’s too high, obviously.) It’s easier to deal with the horrors of the Iraq war to pretend only a few thousand people instead of a few hundred thousand people, I guess? If American casualties are the only ones that matter and the Inquirer wanted to really hammer the point home, why not go with this: Philadelphia is deadlier than Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945!

This graphic was in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday, and Philly.com had this well-done map with every Philadelphia homicide since 1988. The comparison to the Iraq war is supposed to “put that deadly toll in perspective,” and all yesterday people tweeted horrified remarks about this comparison.

The problem is that the comparison is nonsense. Philadelphia is only “as deadly as Iraq” if only U.S. troops were killed in Iraq during the war. (Who are our soldiers shooting at? Do they just have horrible aim?) Iraq Body Count currently lists between 104,872 and 114,540 civilian casualties during the Iraq War and other sources are higher. By those numbers, Philadelphia and Camden are much safer than Iraq.

The Chicago Tribune made a similar comparison, of Iraq to Chicago, a few years back. I guess it’s supposed to galvanize the population into rethinking our violent ways, but there’s no need to make ridiculous comparisons to prove too many people are murdered in Philadelphia. (Violent crime is down nationally, but unless the murder rate is zero it’s too high, obviously.) It’s easier to deal with the horrors of the Iraq war to pretend only a few thousand people instead of a few hundred thousand people, I guess?

If American casualties are the only ones that matter and the Inquirer wanted to really hammer the point home, why not go with this: Philadelphia is deadlier than Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945!