New Orleans has U.S. No. 1 murder rate: WSJ

NEW YORK, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Violent crime has surged across the United States since the start of the pandemic, and New Orleans had the highest homicide rate of any major city so far this year, with about 41 homicides per 100,000 residents, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday.

The homicide rate was 11.5 in Chicago, 4.8 in Los Angeles and 2.4 per 100,000 in New York City for the same period, according to data compiled for the first half of this year by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a professional organization of police executives.

Meanwhile, this year to date, the New Orleans homicide rate is up 141 percent compared with the same period in 2019, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission Inc., a nonprofit that works to reduce crime in the city.

Shootings are up 100 percent, carjackings 210 percent and armed robberies up 25 percent. "The homicide rate is on pace to surpass last year's rate, which was the worst since Hurricane Katrina in 2005," said the report.

"Criminologists and law-enforcement officers have cited several potential factors in the rise in violent crime across the U.S., including stress from the pandemic, police pullbacks after racial-justice protests and a proliferation of guns," it added.