Your parent didn't mention the "best city in the US" though? Per the linked table it seems to be Irvine CA at 0.72 per 100k, which would be below average in the UK or France.

It's not surprising it ranks so low in murders - it's hard to get killed when you're only outside for the time it takes to walk from your parking spot to the shop.

https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Birmingham_homicides_by_year

By comparison, there were 93 murders in 2022 in the West Midlands (the UK region encompassing Birmingham, UK). That's a rate of 1.56 per 100,000 population, which I agree is pretty bad - but it's almost 50x less than the equivalent for the US city.

(source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/288221/number-of-homicid...)

Of course you are now more likely to die from lack of medical care than a murder, so it may not matter too much.