Houston, Texas (KTRK) – The war of words between the pastor and the mayor of Houston over the safety of the city continued Wednesday morning.
Mayor Sylvester Turner addressed the city council with statistics he said prove that Houston isn’t “the most dangerous city in America.”
During a sermon at Second Baptist Houston in August, Dr. Ed Young said Houston is “one of the most dangerous cities in America, if not the most dangerous,” and doubled down on his remarks last weekend.
Turner called this claim of misinformation on Wednesday at City Hall.
“From a sobering point of view, we’re certainly not the most dangerous city in the country,” Turner said.
To illustrate his point, Turner used homicide statistics from the Houston Police Department’s Homicide Division. These numbers show Houston’s murder rate is down 3% from this time in 2021, or 309 this year compared to 318 at the same point in 2021.
It also showed a list of homicide rates in other major cities, and these numbers showed that Houston had fewer homicides than Chicago and Philadelphia. From a “per capita” standpoint, the data shows that cities including Indianapolis, Washington DC, and Baltimore had higher murder rates than Houston in 2022.
Young’s statistics come from Best places, which says it uses FBI data to look into all violent crime in the city. This data is used to assign a number to how dangerous those cities are.
The national average on the site is 22.4, but Houston’s number is 50.4.
Latest stats provided by HPD, Which represents crimes until the end of Julysays violent crime in Houston fell about 5% in 2022 compared to 2021.
Turner only showed the murder rates to the city council on Wednesday and said he will continue to fight anyone who says Houston is the most dangerous city in the country.
“I’m going to make a very strong case, with anyone standing up and saying that Houston is the most dangerous city in America,” Turner said. “It is important for us to refute that.”
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