More police propaganda splashed all over the front page of @NYDailyNews.
Stats show "rise" in "random street killings."
The article quotes NYPD stats showing an increase from 3% in 2020 to 5.3% in 2021.
But the article itself also shows why that figure is grossly misleading.
First, the stats only include people "killed on the streets" not the total number of homicides. So you are starting with an unreliable sample. People deemed not to have known each other, perhaps because they were transient, may in fact have known each other.
Second, the actual numbers are exceptionally small. 14 people deemed not to have known each other in 2020, 26 last year. nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-c…
And, critically, when you look at data from a slightly longer period, 2016 to 2021, the number of people who were killed on city streets by someone they were deemed not to know was 6.1%.
By that measure, the percentage actually decreased last year.
It is always more accurate to compare data over a longer period than from year to year or month to month, especially for the years 2020 and 2021 when we have been dealing with a COVID pandemic.
In fact what this data shows is that there was an unusual decline in "random street killings" in 2020 and a slight increase last year that still does not match the average over the last five years.
That would be accurate reporting.
In addition to all of this, I should point out, the headline to the actual article says "More New Yorkers are slain by strangers, NYPD data shows" with absolutely no point of reference, which implies a *majority* of homicides are stranger homicides.
As we know, many people don't read beyond headlines.
And, again, a note of caution, all of these stats come from NYPD.
Calling out @NY1 (@ny1desk) who just featured this article in their "In the Papers" segment without any critical commentary at all.
And *this* is a vitally important part not factored in at all.
Clarification: The data set is in fact all homicides not just people "killed on the streets" but the issue of the reliability of that data remains, because determining relationships between people is not always possible. Some homicide victims aren't even able to be IDed.
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This is one of the worst wrongful conviction cases I have ever seen.
Anthony Sims has spent 24 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. He was prosecuted by the head of Brooklyn's Wrongful Conviction Unit who denied his application for review. cnn.com/2022/02/27/us/…
That ADA, Mark Hale, retired six months ago. He has a long and substantiated record of misconduct. Last year a court dismissed the conviction of Emmanuel Cooper, whose case Hale prosecuted and who had served 25 years in prison. nysfocus.com/2021/09/23/ant…
The *only* evidence linking Mr. Sims to the murder of which he was convicted was the testimony of a former friend, Julius Graves, who is widely believed to have committed the murder. Mr. Graves has since recanted that testimony in an affidavit.
It is depressing, but predictable that @smh editor @BevanShields has appointed @KnottMatthew as its national correspondent on race, identity and culture, when as US correspondent he repeatedly showed a fundamental lack of understanding of race and racism in this country.
.@smh has some amazing Indigenous journalists who are much better writers and much more qualified to write about race in Australia.
So disappointing.
Take this recent article on Robin DiAngelo, which isn't even timely (the book came out six months ago).
He doesn't even consider whether it is appropriate for a White woman to be making $$ from teaching people about race and racism. It's like the question never occurred to him.
Today's @NYDailyNews reports the death of a houseless woman on the subway, notes it is the 8th death in 2022, part of a "grim surge."
What it doesn't say is that hundreds of people die in homeless shelters every year. The subways by this measure are safer.gothamist.com/news/covid-19-…
I'm not posting a link to the @NYDailyNews article because it actually includes a photo of the dead woman.
Most houseless people do live in shelters, but there are very good reasons why people might choose not to. The conditions in shelters are deplorable. Most are congregate settings. They were (still are) a hotbed for COVID.
What is the Kardashain index? It measure whether an academic's social media profile outweighs their academic reputation. web.archive.org/web/2014101100…
It doesn't matter that he is an professor at Harvard Law School. So is Alan Dershowitz.
That someone could understand media report through the lends of law enforcement - even get that there are clear disparities in enforcement - and then conclude that prosecutors don't prosecute nearly enough people, is mind-boggling.
Honestly, while I appreciate the recognition of the symbiosis between law enforcement and media, there is so much that is problematic with this thread.
Crime is a technical legal term. It's not only inappropriate to use casually, it's inaccurate.
If you want to point out that someone should have been charged with a crime, for instance within the Trump administration, you report on that and quote criminal lawyers pointing out that the conduct fits the definition of a crime and past cases where people have been prosecuted.