And wow, I knew there was a reason I didn't miss Atlanta!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/22/danger ... index.html

Camden, N.J., named most dangerous city

MOST DANGEROUS
1. Camden, New Jersey
2. Detroit, Michigan
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. St. Louis, Missouri
5. Gary, Indiana
SAFEST
1. Newton, Massachusetts
2. Brick Township, New Jersey
3. Amherst, New York
4. Mission Viejo, California
5. Clarkstown, New York
Source: morganquitno.com

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Camden has been named the nation's most-dangerous city, snatching the top spot from Detroit, according to a company's annual ranking based on crime statistics.

Officials in Camden, which was ranked third last year, downplayed the dubious designation Sunday, saying many steps have already been taken to reduce crime in the city.

"We must give our people jobs, training and opportunity," said City Councilman Ali Sloan-El, who pointed out that Camden's poverty is an important contributing factor to its high crime rate.

Atlanta, Georgia, St. Louis, Missouri, and Gary, Indiana, rounded out the top five in the most dangerous city rankings, which was to be released Monday by Morgan Quitno Corp. The company publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual reference book that will be published next month. Detroit fell to second in this year's list.

However, company president Scott Morgan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in its Sunday edition that he had been unaware that St. Louis police omitted 5,760 crimes from their 2003 crime data. Provided with the correct data, Morgan found that St. Louis would have switched places with Atlanta.

The news wasn't all bleak for New Jersey. The state's Brick Township was rated the second-safest city for the third straight year, behind only Newton, Massachusetts, while the Garden State's Dover Township was ranked tenth. The other communities in the top five were Amherst, N.Y., which had been ranked as the safest city for the past four years, followed by Mission Viejo, California, and Clarkstown, New York.

The rankings look at the rate for six crime categories: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. It compares 350 cities with populations of 75,000 or more that reported crime data to the FBI. Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI in October, were used to determine the rankings.

i had to spend a night in Jersey City about a year ago because our flight got cancelled out of Newark and that place looks sketchy as hell...so I believe it.

Gary still has the per capita murder title, right?

that's clearly wrong. i deliver mail in that town.

proud to see that richmond snuck into the top ten...

From the BBC

Scotland has an average stabbing murders per million people in the population higher than every other European country - except Northern Ireland and Finland.

Statistics released in November last year showed that Glasgow had one of the highest murder rates in Western Europe - higher than in Belfast and double that of London.

When Glasgow was named the murder capital of Western Europe I was immensely proud.

I lived in a little prosperous town in the South of England and it really was boring as fuck. It's much better if nipping round to the shop for some milk is a potentially fatal adventure. It gives life an edge it might not otherwise have.

Luckily then we have a nice mix of mental kids with blades, organised drug cartels and paramilitary terrorists to keep us on our toes. I suppose it's abit like Bogota only the weathers not as nice.

Finland is dangerous? Huh.