Mayor Bloomberg: ‘I don’t think we’ve had a murder in two or three days’

Dylan Stableford
The Lookout

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shared what he considers a small ray of light to come out of the darkness left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

"I don't think we've had a murder in two or three days," Bloomberg said at his daily press briefing on Thursday. "That's some good news."

While it may sound grim, he's right. According to FBI data, 515 people were murdered in New York City in 2011—or 1.41 murders per day, or roughly three killings every two days. That was down from 2010, when 536 murders were recorded in the five boroughs.

The death toll from Sandy jumped to 37 people in New York alone, Bloomberg said on Thursday. That number is expected to rise.

[Related: Citing climate change, Bloomberg endorses Obama]

"Well, at least New Yorkers aren't killing one another," Joe Coscarelli wrote in

Overall, 157 deaths have been blamed on the superstorm, including 85 in the United States.

But while the murder rate in New York City has slowed, looting inspired by the hurricane appears to be on the rise. According to the Associated Press, 15 people have been arrested in connection with looting in Queens since the storm hit on Monday.