Another victim of London violence. RIP mate. 
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Last edited by Beef Oven!; 21-10-18, 12:47. -
The victim and one of the alleged perpetrators were born either side of the release in 1971 of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On". Homicide rates in New York City had been increasing steadily but fairly slowly from the 1940s and then much more quickly from the start of the 1960s to the end of the decade. Two years into the new decade - 1971 - they had escalated to an annual increase of 30%. Violent crime in New York City has been dropping since 1991 and, as of 2017, was among the lowest of major cities in the United States. In 2017, there were 290 homicides, the lowest number since the 1940s. According to a 2015 ranking of 50 cities by "The Economist", New York was the 10th-overall-safest major city in the world:
The dramatic shift in 1971 was characterised by a shift in the choice of weapon. Prior to the late 1960s, the most likely weapon of attack was not the gun but the knife. By 1971, it had become the gun. There was also a significant new upward trend in inter-generational, domestic and localised murder. From 1950 to the middle of this current decade, the population of NYC halved with the most dramatic fall occurring in the decade 1970 to 1980. An investigation into police corruption - the Knapp Commission - which began its work in 1971, had led enforcers to shift the focus to busting high-level heroin and other hard drug dealers rather than policing street markets. The fear was that local action led law enforcers into addiction.
From that article: Gangsters Ruled Out : No one claims to know precisely why New York's homicide rate has risen the way it has. Dr. Michael Baden, the city's deputy chief medical examiner, feels that βit's part of the same thing that's producing alcoholism and drug addiction β a lack of concern for human life.β Whatever the cause, it is clear that homicides are not primarily the work of gangsters. Most occur between people who know each other and they occur indoors, where the police do not patrol and thus have no power to stop them.
I present these as uneasy facts rather than as opinion.Last edited by Lat-Literal; 21-10-18, 12:18.
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