Big-city murders way up since ’04

**Piggybank Cop** · 03-09-07, 02:39 PM

10 percent jump in slayings is ‘no aberration,’ police think tank says
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:18 a.m. ET March 9, 2007

WASHINGTON - The murder rate jumped by more than 10 percent among dozens of large U.S. cities since 2004, a study shows in the latest sign that a national lull in violent crime has ended.

Robberies also spiked during the two-year period, as did felony assaults and attacks with guns, according to the report to be released Friday by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based law enforcement think tank.

FBI data similarly has shown a rise in violent crime, if not as dramatic, since 2004. The Justice Department says crime was historically low that year.

“Two years’ worth of double-digit increases in violent crime demonstrates an unmistakable change in the extent and the nature of crime in America,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the not-for-profit think tank that is paid for in part by the Justice Department, as well as corporations and private foundations.

“There are those that say this is a statistical blip, an aberration,” Wexler said. “After two years, this is no aberration.”

No data from New York

The report surveyed crime rates in 56 large U.S. metropolitan areas between 2004 and 2006, including Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and Washington. It did not include violent crime rates in New York, the nation’s largest city, which did not participate in the voluntary survey. An advance copy of the report, titled “Violent Crime in America: 24 Months of Alarming Trends,” was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The study found:

Forty of the 56 surveyed police departments, or 71 percent, saw homicide rates increase over the two-year period. That translated into an overall 10.2 percent jump in murders. Between 2005 and 2006, the increase in murders was much lower: 2.8 percent.
Robberies rose among the cities by 6 percent since 2005 and 12 percent since 2004. Between 75 and 80 percent of the departments surveyed reported a spike in robberies over the two-year period.
Felony robberies dipped slightly, by 2 percent, between 2005 and 2006, but rose slightly, by 3 percent, since 2004.
Gun assaults saw a 1 percent boost from 2005 but spiked by nearly 10 percent during the two-year period.

How can that be they have such great gun laws and such wonderful politicians?

**gozling** · 03-09-07, 02:47 PM

I know our dept is very high right now
ugh

**Pedro56** · 03-09-07, 05:30 PM

Since this is public I won't even begin on whats happening here.

**Jenna** · 03-09-07, 05:55 PM

So what do you all think accounts for this? It can't just be "people are getting progressively worse," because crime rates declined significantly over the 1990s and have only recently begun to rise again.

**gozling** · 03-09-07, 06:58 PM

here it seems the crimes are done by those sooo young...16-22 or so
I think that speaks for itself... although here alot is gang and drug related.... very few are domestic related but they are definately there too.
Its just called living in a big city that is a HUGE melting pot...
I mean heck.. today I go to a call with a lady waving around a machette... well in Haiti that is totally normal behavior... guess I had to tell her here that its really NOT lol...

**Resident Smart Ass** · 03-09-07, 08:39 PM

i work for a county with 22 cities/towns...So far this year the county has 24 homicides and 17 of them is from one city..mostly gang and drug related.

Last year the county had 150+ homicides and that one particular city alone had 105+ homicides

**BEB** · 03-09-07, 09:00 PM

Living in BFE isn't so bad. More and more I realize how it's not only not bad, its great.

**TXCharlie** · 03-09-07, 11:39 PM

Don't believe everything you read...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...e.1644241.html

Murders fall, rapes rise in '06

Dallas crime down overall, but Kunkle fails to meet goals

11:38 PM CST on Tuesday, January 2, 2007
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas finished last year with the lowest number of murders in nearly four decades, but increases in rapes and business crimes helped keep Police Chief David Kunkle from meeting ambitious crime reduction goals he set last year.

Preliminary statistics show that Dallas logged 187 murders last year, down about 5.6 percent from the 198 reported in 2005. In that year, murders were down 19 percent from 2004.

Overall crime fell 2.7 percent last year.

**Piggybank Cop** · 03-10-07, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by Jenna

So what do you all think accounts for this? It can't just be "people are getting progressively worse," because crime rates declined significantly over the 1990s and have only recently begun to rise again.

If you took out all the gang bangers (pun intended), because they don’t matter the numbers would be quite a bit lower.

**BigDawg** · 03-10-07, 10:15 AM

If the Liberal Lawyers would untie our hands and let us do out job, plus increase the penalties and sentences, then it wouldnt go up.

**TXCharlie** · 03-10-07, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by BigDawg3533

If the Liberal Lawyers would untie our hands and let us do out job, plus increase the penalties and sentences, then it wouldnt go up.

Amen to that - Plus we should build more prisons and jails.

It makes no sense to me to arrest someone and have them back out on the street committing the same crimes on probation or early release because of jail overcrowding.

Because a lot of these small-time criminals commit the same crimes over & over as a livelihood, all that does is provide job security for you, and crowds the court dockets, which makes them have to stay out on bond longer before their trials, unless you arrest them again for something else.