Compton may be the new US murder capital

... and I've been complaining about my stupid ticket... Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Compton, California, is a Los Angeles suburb of single-family homes and apartment buildings, crisscrossed by tree-lined boulevards with Mexican food stands and grocery stores on the corners. It's also a battleground for drug gangs, police say, and may have the highest murder rate in the U.S. Homicides in Compton soared 72 percent last year, with 67 murders in a city of 97,000 people. That probably outstripped the rate in places such as Camden, New Jersey, that are perennially at risk of being branded as the country's murder capital, says Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, which compiles crime statistics. Ouch. And this still being California, houses in Compton are still worth half a million.