Crime Down in Chicago? How Do You Know???

Mayor Daley and Joe Moore occasionally do agree, and more often than not that agreement comes in the form of a shared lie. For example, "crime is down" in Chicago. Really? How do you know, Mr. Mayor? How do you know, Mr. Moore? The FBI doesn't even know. The Chicago Tribune ran an Associated Press story today about the 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America," published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. The report, writes the AP, "is based on the FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report" and was released yesterday (November 18). Detroit was named as the "most dangerous city" in the U.S. (again), and although 377 other cities were given their dubious rankings, Chicago was not ranked. Why not? Because, according to the AP story, "The study excluded Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Illinois and Minnesota cities because of incomplete data." Incomplete data. So, the FBI doesn't know how to rank Chicago, because they don't know whether Chicago crime is up or down. So why, then, do Mayor Daley and Alderman Moore pretend that they know? RELATED: U. of C. doctoral student killed A University of Chicago graduate student from Senegal walking to his off-campus apartment was shot and killed overnight in what officials said was one of several violent incidents in the area.