Birmingham ranked tenth most dangerous city

The question for Birmingham city officials, of course, is why?

From CNN:

For the second year in a row this destitute city of Camden, New Jersey, has been named the nation's most dangerous, according to a company's annual ranking based on crime statistics. ...

The city took the top spot last year from Detroit, which remained No. 2 in the most dangerous city rankings, to be released Monday by Morgan Quitno Press.

The Lawrence, Kansas-based company publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual reference book.

Listed as the most dangerous cities are: Camden, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Flint, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Gary, Indiana; Birmingham, Alabama.

The full list is here. The rankings measure how cities and metro areas compare to the national average in six crime categories - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Details of the methodology used can be found here.