Shootings up in Boston, but not as much as Michael Flaherty says

By adamg on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 2:03pm

On his Radio Boston appearance, Michael Flaherty said that for the first four months of the year, there were "twice as many shootings based on the same time last year."

Boston Police statistics for the period Jan. 1 to May 3 show 88 shootings, compared to 63 for the same span in 2008 - a 28% increase.

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Comments

Why....

By Falcon on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 2:47pm.

....let the truth get in the way of a good line? Still wonder how Flaherty can comment on problems in this city when he has spent 9 years on the council....half of which as its president. At some point I would like to hear what HE has done to make him a worthy Mayor. Leaned on his career as a lawyer today....should that not have led to a question about him making over $150K last year in legal fees? Why can we not find out who his clients were, yet his firm can advertise him being a "player in Boston politics"? Give me a break.

Boston Police up-to-date statistics!!!

By JD2009 on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 4:23pm.

I do not know why you would not use the most up to date statistics in your research.

According to the most recent up-to date statistics http://www.bpdnews.com/Shootings-5-19-09.pdf
shootings within the city of Boston are on the rise.

This is at a increase rate of over 40% and not the 28% as you sugguested they are from last year. Shooting have nearly doubled from last year, as you can clearly see.

I wonder why you would not and what your motive is by using statistics from 19 days ago, when you have the most recent statistics from 3 days ago in your blog when this information was available to you.

Flaherty is on the right page and hands down correct on this issue.

Calm down a bit with the campaigning

By neilv on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 4:33pm.

Take a deep breath and ask yourself if you really think adamg had some nefarious motive.

There are a number of people campaigning on UH lately, but adamg hasn't pinged on my radar for that.

Pretty simple answer

By adamg on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 4:34pm.

Flaherty specifically said "first four months" of this year, so I wanted to compare apples with apples and got the closest stats the BPD had (which was four months and a few days).

I'm not trying to minimize the issue of gun violence - whether it's 28% or 40%, it's a large number.

But it's not double. That would be 100%. Flaherty doesn't need to engage in hyperbole to convince me there's a serious problem.

That's a 40% increase...

By anon on Tue, 05/26/2009 - 2:46pm.

Which is closer to Flaherty's number but still off.