First I would like to point out that taking pride in your city’s high crime rate is idiotic (a flaw I have at times been guilty of). But, to Mr. Detroit guy who came up to us last night to inform us that Baltimore is not bad-ass and dainty compared to your city, please know of what you speak. I will concede that I have some small degree of sympathy for your feelings, as I too roll my eyes and yawn when New Yorkers and Philadelphians (two cities that I adore) try to wow me with tales of the scary big city, and the people of Detroit are the ONLY people whose smack talking I’ll entertain in regard to this subject.

Also, I’ll admit that Detroit is in genuinely uglier and has a much better music scene than my little town. But, when it comes down to bad-ass-factor, we’re pretty much matched evenly.

Here are the stats (via city-data.com):

Crime in Detroit (2001):
• 395 murders (41.5 per 100,000)
• 652 rapes (68.5 per 100,000)
• 7,096 robberies (746.0 per 100,000)
• 12,804 assaults (1346.0 per 100,000)
• 15,096 burglaries (1586.9 per 100,000)
• 29,613 larceny counts (3113.0 per 100,000)
• 24,537 auto thefts (2579.4 per 100,000)
• City-data.com crime index = 1003.9 (higher means more crime, US average = 330.6)

Crime in Baltimore (2001):
• 256 murders (39.3 per 100,000)
• 296 rapes (45.5 per 100,000)
• 5,747 robberies (882.6 per 100,000)
• 8,500 assaults (1305.4 per 100,000)
• 10,899 burglaries (1673.8 per 100,000)
• 29,615 larceny counts (4548.1 per 100,000)
• 8,175 auto thefts (1255.5 per 100,000)
• City-data.com crime index = 982.9 (higher means more crime, US average = 330.6)

click images to enlarge: