Mark Kirk claims Phoenix the 2nd in the World in Kidnappings.  There is no evidence for this, but there isn’t much evidence for anything he says:


Summing up: “Kidnapping capital” turns out to be a headline-grabbing label; no wonder it caught Dewhurst’s attention. Still, it’s incumbent on him — and news organizations bandying the No. 2 description — to check it out. So far, we’ve seen no evidence that it’s accurate, or even close.

Phoenix has experienced hundreds of kidnappings over the past few years. However, we couldn’t find reliable around-the-planet evidence to confirm that only Mexico City experiences more of them. In fact, experts advise that such rankings can’t be made based on available information. If they could, they speculate, other cities would prove to have more kidnappings than Arizona’s capital.

Punch line: Nothing confirms Phoenix as No. 2 in kidnappings worldwide. We’ll revisit this turf if compelling evidence surfaces, but for now Dewhurst’s statement is False.