Baltimore Murder Rate Worse Than El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras
The murder rate is higher in Baltimore than in any of three Central American nations that migrants are fleeing by the thousand, citing the dangers of crime, a new analysis says.
According to a study conducted by Princeton Policy Advisors and reviewed by the Washington Examiner, Baltimore has a murder rate of 56 killings for every 100,000 people.
Murders in the city have become a focal point of controversy after President Donald Trump focused attention upon conditions in Baltimore last week.
Princeton Policy Advisors’ study says El Salvador had a rate of 50 murders per 100,000 people, Guatemala had a rate of 22 murders per 100,000 people and Honduras had a rate of 38 murders per 100,000 people.
The White House emphasized this point in a tweet.
“The murder rate in Baltimore is higher than that of Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala — the three Central American nations driving our border surge.Democrats have run Baltimore for 5 decades. It’s time for accountability,” the tweet said.
The murder rate in Baltimore is higher than that of Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala—the three Central American nations driving our border surge.
Democrats have run Baltimore for 5 decades. It’s time for accountability.
Today’s news: https://t.co/xb9E3Be3a3 pic.twitter.com/tDq50ExvWm
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 1, 2019
Trump on Thursday continued his focus on the city, which he first targeted last week on Twitter saying that House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings had done nothing for his Baltimore district despite billions in federal aid poured into the city.
“The homicide rate in Baltimore is significantly higher than El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala,” Trump said during an Ohio rally, the New York Post reported.
“I believe it’s higher than — give me a place that’s pretty bad,” he said.
“The guy says Afghanistan,” Trump said after the crowd responded. “I believe it’s higher than Afghanistan.”
Trump then noted that inner cities across the nation have suffered.
“No one has paid a higher price for the far-left destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation’s inner cities. We send billions and billions and billions for years and years and it’s stolen money, and it’s wasted money,” Trump said.
“They’ve squeezed the blood out of them.”
Baltimore TV station WJZ went to check the murder rate claim.
Although its analysis found some different numbers, the end result was the same — Baltimore had a higher murder rate any of the three Central American nations.
“That Baltimore’s murder rate is higher than the most dangerous countries’ in Central America is frankly appalling on many levels, and as someone who grew up in Baltimore, I believe increased accountability is long overdue,” Princeton Policy President Steven Kopits told the Examiner.
Kopits said Americans “will no doubt be surprised to read that Baltimore has a higher murder rate than the Central American countries whose violence the left has claimed led to the asylum crisis. Central America used to be much worse.”
“As late as 2015, for example, El Salvador’s murder rate was about 100 — almost twice that of Baltimore. But security is much improved across the Northern Triangle countries (one reason we concluded that the asylum surge was caused by a change in U.S. policy, rather than push factors in Central America),” he said.
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