Cold crime cases

I came across an interesting story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the correlation between ice cream sales and homicides.

Because it seems that whenever sales of ice cream increase, so does violent crime.

They cite some specifically frozen dairy-related crimes—although nothing that includes actual death. The one that intrigues me involves “looting ice cream in a flea market”, because I’m just, you know, trying to picture a smash-&-grab kind of thing with tubs of rocky road and blueberry swirl.

Of course, they do climb down from the headline by noting that—yes, ice cream sales increase when the temperature rises, at about the same rate that people pissing each other off increases, but while the two are correlated, there’s not a causal factor.

They wouldn’t say that, however, if they cut in line at the Baskin-Robbins store in front of a mother with three kids. Because there would be blood on the floor, but there wouldn’t be a jury in the world that would convict.