Crime statistics

The article “Homicides Up 15% in Sheriff’s Territory” (Jan. 12) brings to mind what you can do with statistics.

Here’s an example. In a lumber camp, there were 100 lumberjacks, all men. There were two cooks, both women. One lumberjack married one of the cooks. Therefore, 1% of the men married 50% of the women. And so it equates to L.A. Police Chief William Bratton’s pronouncement of reduced crime in L.A. Technically, the numbers are correct. In reality, there is just as much crime as before. It’s just that the LAPD has made its presence known, and the bad guys have moved a couple of blocks, taking their crimes from the city to the county. The city’s numbers go down, the county’s go up, and there’s just as much crime as there was before.

JACK BERKUS

Playa del Rey