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| A commuter in the Union Square subway station checks her iPhone, an Apple product highly coveted by thieves in 2012. |
Horrific subway-pushing aside, New York City isn't as gritty as it used to be—and that's a good thing. Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the New York Police Department on Friday for newly released homicide statistics, which show 414 murders in the city in the last year. The number represents both the city's lowest homicide rate in 40 years and a 19 percent decrease over 2011's rate of 515. As an added bonus, six precincts had reported no 2012 homicides at the time of the announcement. Although overall crimes did increase slightly, that was due to a rise in thefts of iPhones and other Apple devices—thefts of non-Apple products are also on the decline.