Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with my journalistic superiors on this one.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a Real Clear Politics article making the rounds the last couple days that landed on the AJC’s “Most Popular” page this morning, which ranks Atlanta as the nation’s second least safe city, just behind Memphis, TN.

Someone please stop the madness!

It may be an unpopular position amongst a general population who feel less safe than they did a year ago (due in large part to the rash of highly public crimes), to argue against anything that validates our fear…but someone has to do it.

First of all, this ranking is crap for the same reason that so many other city rankings are crap – because every city’s limits and annexation laws are different.  Some city limits span their entire metropolitan area, while others – like Atlanta – are centered only around the city’s core and represent a flippin’ 10th of the metro-area population.  So when “Real Muddy Rankings” reports that they’ve crunched some numbers based on FBI data (which warns against doing such things) and RANKED city crime based on % of their general population, we MUST immediately call BS, or note the disparity and perhaps dig deeper into the data. NOT report on it like it’s a credible study!

Let me be clear, I have no problem with comparing Atlanta’s 2008 to 2007 stats and reporting that property crime is up while violent crime is down.  However, none of the articles I’ve seen actually give priority to this reliable data.  Yes, they note that the ranking is “disputed”, but only after they’ve colored the entire article with the “second least safe” headline.  And then to add insult to injury, they treat violent crime and property crime as equals.  Like they are at all comparable!  Am I the only one that would rather be mugged than stabbed?

Yes, crime is something Atlanta needs to get a better hold of.  Recent cutbacks in law enforcement certainly won’t help improve anything.  But I ask the news media to be more responsible about reporting this data and resist easy, sensationalized headlines.