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According to accepted legend, Mark Twain once observed "There are three kinds of lies: Lies; Damned Lies; and Statistics." which he attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, but according to my own research is likely to have been a concept for longer and voiced or printed by various people including those mentioned.

My point being that I don't doubt that there can be a way of making the numbers appear to be the other way around, such as comparing urban populations only (there is no rural in D.C.) and I have no doubt that the original article would be based on some such statistical sleight of hand.