NEW YORK — Before Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan gavels into order a House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday aimed at shaming New York City’s crime problem, he might consider a deep look at the far higher murder rates of his home state.
Ohioans are more likely to die from gun violence than New Yorkers — and the state’s overall murder rate far exceeds that of New York City and of Manhattan alone, a Daily News analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control data shows.
In 2021 — the last year for which reliable data is available — homicides accounted for 8.7 deaths for every 100,000 Ohio residents.
That homicide rate was 73% higher than Manhattan’s homicide rate of 5.0 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Ohio’s statewide homicide rate is 49% higher than New York City’s overall rate of 5.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents, The News’ study found.
Ohio’s homicide rate is also 87% higher than New York’s statewide rate of 4.6 homicides per 100,000 residents.
In an appearance last week on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” program, Jordan, a Republican, lit in to “crazy left wing ideology” that he said makes crime rampant in Manhattan. He blames Manhattan’s crime problems on District Attorney Alvin Bragg — who is also drawing Republican ire over his prosecution of former president Donald Trump.
“You have all kinds of things happening in his [Bragg’s] town that are harmful to families that live there,” Jordan said.
Jordan wasn’t specific about the “crazy left wing ideology” that he implied drives New York crime policy. But gun control is one big area of disagreement between Ohio Republicans and New York City’s Democratic political leadership.
Gun permits in New York remain notoriously difficult to obtain — despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down a 1911 state law that restricted concealed-carry handgun licenses to people with specific self-defense needs.
But in 2021, when that law was still in place with other state firearm laws, New Yorkers saw far fewer gun homicides per capita in 2021 than Ohioans, who under their state’s laws can buy guns without licenses or permits.
Guns were used in 86% of murders in Ohio in 2021, compared to 67% of homicides in New York state, The News’ analysis found.
And in Manhattan, guns were used in 57% of homicides. In all of New York City, guns were used in 69% of homicides.
Easy firearms purchases in Ohio and other states are a chronic problem for New York law enforcement.
Some 93% of the guns used in New York crimes from 2017 through 2021 originated from out of state — a figure that compares to a national out-of-state average of 28%, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach recently told members of New York City’s Citizens Crime Commission.
At his congressional hearing, Jordan plans to present stories of Manhattan crime victims. One of his witnesses is expected to be Jose Alba, a deli worker who was accused of murder after he fatally stabbed an attacker. Bragg later dropped the charge.
Some of the more horrible killings Manhattan residents have seen include the senseless deaths of two NYPD officers in January 2022 at the hands of a shooter who attached to his handgun an illegal multi-round magazine bought out of state and the suspect in a hazmat suit accused of the robbery and killing of a well-liked Upper East Side deli man in March.
Ohio has such stories too — such as that of Unique Pratter, whose shooting death on Dec. 31 made her the 140th homicide victim in Columbus, the state capital, that year. Her alleged killer turned out to be a 14-year-old boy.
Columbus is the nearest big city to Jordan’s congressional district. Franklin County — which includes Columbus — had a homicide death rate of 16.0 per 100,000 people in 2021, nearly three times New York City’s rate, the CDC data shows.
Crime rose in New York during the pandemic. But the most recent NYPD data shows crime in most categories is down significantly so far this year compared to 2022. As of April 9, murders year-to-date are down 9.9%, rape is down 7.5%, burglaries are down 7.8%, and robberies are down 3.5%.
Homicides are down significantly from their pandemic peak. Police counted 438 murders in 2022, a decline of 10.2% from the 488 in 2021.
Data showing Jordan and other Ohioans that their state is more dangerous on a per capita basis than New York City probably won’t change any minds, said Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Jordan’s effort to convince his constituents that New York is a crime-ridden center of chaos will be helped simply because the city’s big population means it has more crime than a small town, Butts said.
“It’s also true of cancer and teenage heartbreak — there’s much more of it in New York than Dublin, Ohio,” he said. “That’s because there are just so many people here.”
“It’s a constant struggle to penetrate all the noise and the confusion,” Butts added, “because people will believe what they want to believe.”
