Report: More blacks killed in 2010 in NYC

In 2010, being a young black man meant being at a higher risk for murder in New York City, according to NYPD statistics released Tuesday.

A report on last year's 536 reported homicides by police showed that 67 percent, or 357, involved black victims, up from 272 homicides in that racial group in the prior year. Black men between the ages of 15 and 29 made up 33 percent of all murder victims last year, officials said. Blacks make up 25 percent of the city population, according to the latest data.

At the same time, the NYPD data, which included 19 cases of assaults or other crimes reclassified as homicides from prior years, showed that 60 percent of those arrested or sought on murder charges were black and, of blacks arrested on murder charges, 85 percent of their alleged victims also were black.

The latest homicide trends didn't surprise the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said Tuesday that black-on-black crime is something he and other black clergy are trying to force their community to confront.

"The culture of violence has to be addressed," Sharpton said.

Sharpton and other black clergy met with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly last year to unveil various initiatives to stem violence in the black community.

Andrew Karmen of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice said the trend of black homicides has worsened over the years from a level going back to the 1970s when about 50 percent of victims were black.

"These grim statistics reflect the deteriorating social conditions in New York City's African-American communities: the high unemployment rate, the high poverty rate, the high dropout rate, and the clashes between street gangs whose members -- when shot -- seek revenge rather than cooperate with the authorities," he told Newsday.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the number of white people murdered fell in 2010 to 33 victims, including some reclassified cases from previous years, from 45 in 2009.