In a short piece saying police are working hard but that there has been no arrest yet in the double murder in the Point earlier this week, TVA quotes retired SPVM inspector André Durocher about the 39 homicides this year. He says he’s struck by the prevalence of deadly shootings and blames the federal government. Note the subhead: Une année meurtrière à Montréal.
So far this year, there have been 39 homicides of which 18 were clearly described as shootings. In a few cases, bodies were found but the stories did not specify how the victims had been killed.
There were also several people wounded by gunfire and many episodes of gunshots heard with no victims turning up.
Not pretty, but not, I think, the worst numbers. But our police have learned that if they keep emphasizing how dreadful things are, they will get more money.
I was looking at the list of cities by size in North America. Montreal is the continent’s 8th largest city by population. Philadelphia, at #10, a city comparable in population, had 562 homicides in 2021 and San Antonio had 160.
Toronto, bigger than Montreal, had 117 homicides in 2021, and Winnipeg, considerably smaller, had 45.
Cities of comparable size in Mexico include Guadalajara with 529 and León with 816.
I’m not saying these numbers from other cities mean 39 killings is peachy. It isn’t. But let’s see it in proportion.
mare 23:10 on 2022-12-18 Permalink
I might be weird but the number of murders has absolutely no influence on how safe I feel in Montreal. In the overwhelming majority of cases victims know their murderer so they are actually pretty ‘private’ events. Mass shootings would worry me, but we haven’t had one of those in a while.
What really worries me however is the number of pedestrians and cyclists who are injured and murdered every year, because the likelihood of that being me or someone I know is much, much higher than the likelihood of being a victim of a ‘classic’ murder.
DeWolf 12:09 on 2022-12-19 Permalink
I was curious about the SPVM’s clearance rate — as in how many crimes they actually solve — and it’s not good. According to Statistics Canada, Montreal has a weighted clearance rate of 29.83 (weighted according to the seriousness of crimes). The national average for major cities is 35.78. And for non-violent crimes? 18, compared to a national average of 25.81.
Toronto is roughly on par with the national average: 37.45 for all crimes and 25.31 for non-violent. So if you’re assaulted or burgled, the police in Toronto are significantly more likely to catch who did it than the police in Montreal.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510018701&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.82&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2017&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021&referencePeriods=20170101%2C20210101
Ephraim 12:12 on 2022-12-19 Permalink
You can’t really compare the US or Mexico with Canada in murder rates. For one thing, they have a LOT more guns in the US. And illegal guns in Mexico (almost all guns in Mexico are illegal imports from the US, see https://www.amazon.ca/Blood-Gun-Money-America-Cartels-ebook/dp/B08HDL3CXG for more information about that. But murder rates have the same problem as we usually talk about with correlation/causation. We need to look at what kind of murder and why. As I have pointed out before police will generally write off as “solved” anything that is gang, drug and mafia related by listing that as the cause. Then we have the societal/family murders. What’s left is the problem, many of which may never be solved, because the lack of relationship… these are the ones that would make you feel unsafe.
Ephraim 12:26 on 2022-12-19 Permalink
It’s difficult to judge solve rates unless there is a standard. Mike and Sarah of You’re Wrong About discussed part of this in this episode https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMTEyMjcwLnJzcw/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC00NzIxNjU3 and basically without a standard rates can appear higher or lower. It’s like the statistic for robbery… is it over the threshold for a major crime versus just burglary? How did they get the value to make that decision? Is the 55″ TV worth what they paid for it, or replacement value or the value on the secondary market?
The same with murder… a murdered gang member, a mafioso or grandma Esther have different values on the police blotter, never mind the ability to get a conviction. And we haven’t even discussed those murdered by police… so was Breonna Taylor originally classified as a murder? Nope. It is often discussed as a killing or a shooting, not a murder. Nice way to classify it, so it doesn’t sound as bad. To this day, no one was convicted of her murder… the justice department charges were for conspiracy related to getting the warrant. No one is in jail for her murder. Brett Hankison is charged with deprivation of rights leading to death and wanton endangerment
walkerp 15:28 on 2022-12-19 Permalink
mare, not weird, I’d say rational.