The other day I was all set to write a short post about the hyperbolic statement by the chairman of the Parole Board, Gordon Holmes. Mr. Holmes described Dublin today as "becoming like Chicago in the '20s and '30s". Then I read about the high-speed, highway chase and shoot-out early Sunday morning and I thought, well, maybe he's not that far off.
Still, in 1930 Chicago had a murder rate of 14.6 per 100,000 population (note how much worse it was in 1990 than 1930). If Dublin's rate was that bad, we'd have closer to 150 murders in Dublin each year. I don't know the murder rate for Dublin, but there were only 54 murders total in the whole state last year.
So, not quite Chicago 1930 yet, but we're working on it.
