Are we safe in NYC?

I have always been interested in sociology. It is fascinating to see how people in different areas interact and the statistics derived from sociology studies can be surprising. This NY Times article talks about the patterns of murders in NY area and presents us with charts and interactive Google map showing where murders happened in 2003-2005. (check out how many people got killed around the block where you live!) People say New York City is actually a safe place to live as most killings happen to people who know each other and who live in socioeconomically depressed areas. This is somewhat reassuring but I'd love to see comparative stats between NYC and others like SF, Chicago, Tokyo London, etc.