Just a tip: The best time to get yourself killed in the City of Dallas is between 6 p.m. and midnight on a Wednesday, if I'm reading my January-July YTD homicide statistics right, and I'd like to think that I am. (So you can forget what I wrote in May, when Tuesday and Saturdays were the most dangerous dates on the calendar and Wednesday was but a peaceful hump day.) Also, you're more likely to wind up dead, courtesy the wrong end of a handgun, if you're an African-American male between the ages of 25 and 34 involved in the generic "altercation" in a house. Also: Stay away from convenience stores!
Anyway, the Dallas police today will present crime stats to the city council's Public Safety Committee, and it looks like all the numbers, violent and non-violent, are trending down this year -- save for home burglaries, up from 8,403 by this time last year to 8,638. Also not safe: convenience stores! --Robert Wilonsky