The administration of Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams said it is “appalled by Newsweek’s misrepresentation of the City of Wilmington.”
The article, with the sensational headline “ Murder Town USA” was based on a visit by a reporter who spent a few days in the city and rode with police.
The author is Abigail Jones a senior writer for Newsweek.
Links to the article were posted on social media and created a lively debate. On the Delaware Business Bulletin’s website, a link to the article was seen more than 37,500 times and generated more than 125 shares.
The story topped the Google listing for Wilmington, Del., as the top news story and clearly posed a PR nightmare for the state and city.
The story was also the focus of an article in the Wednesday edition of the News Journal that quoted excerpts from the story.
“Our city is populated with law-abiding citizens, who work tirelessly to preserve the security and integrity of their neighborhoods. Unfortunately the violent and unlawful acts of a few are what continues to be publicized. To refer to Wilmington as ‘murder town’ is a grossly inaccurate characterization that severely misrepresents the many good-natured residents within our community,” the statement continued. ”Compared to cities like Chicago with 393 homicides, Detroit with 281, Philadelphia with 239, Baltimore with 201, New Orleans with 137 and Washington D.C. with 97, Wilmington, with year-to-date 27 homicides, should never be considered the murder town of America,”
The statement concludes, “In the effort to reduce violent crime, the police department continues to implement the sector deployment strategy in targeted high crime areas, as the newly created homicide unit aggressively works to solve and close open murder investigations. In addition, the City’s new Cease Violence initiative is having an impact in local hot spot areas in Wilmington.”
State Prosecutor Kathleen Jennings told the News Journal in a video clip that the story was entirely accurate.
A look at the homicide figures cited by the city show that Wilmington’s rate, based on population, is higher than other cities, with the exception of Detroit and New Orleans.
Philadelphia has about half the homicide rate of Wilmington. Chicago, which is widely viewed as having a serious homicide problem, would have more than 1,000 victims if it had a rate comparable to that of Wilmington.
