It's just more liberal bias pap.
Posted on 08/20/2006 8:55:22 AM PDT by 1066AD
Back to Story - Help US facing wave of murders and gun violence By Jason Szep 1 hour, 26 minutes ago
Analicia Perry was kneeling to light a candle at a makeshift shrine to her brother when she was shot in the face and killed -- four years to the day after her brother was gunned down on the same spot.
The slaying of the 20-year-old mother -- on a narrow street behind a police station in Boston's poor Roxbury district last month -- is one of the shocking examples of a rise in the murder rate across the United States that is raising questions about whether police are fighting terrorism at the expense of crime.
In a shift from trends of the past decade, violent crime is on the rise, fueling criticism of Bush administration policies as a wave of murders and shootings hits smaller cities and states with little experience with serious urban violence.
From Kansas City, Missouri, to Indianapolis, Indiana, places that rarely attract notice on annual FBI crime surveys are seeing significant increases in murder. Boston, once a model city in America's battle against gun violence, is poised to eclipse last year's homicide tally, which was the worst in a decade.
Explanations vary -- from softer gun laws to budget cuts, fewer police on the beat, more people in poverty and simple complacency. But many blame a national preoccupation with potential threats from abroad.
"Since September 11, much of the resources that were distributed to crime-fighting efforts in Boston and other major cities were redistributed to fight terrorism," said Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University.
"The feds had supported after-school programs. They had supported placing more police officers in crime hot spots in major cities. These federal efforts were reduced," he said.
VIOLENT CRIMES INCREASE
A 2005 Federal Bureau of Investigation crime report, issued last month, showed violent crime increasing for the first time in four years in 2005, up 2.5 percent from the year before, with medium-size cities and the Midwest leading the way.
While New York, Los Angeles and Miami still are enjoying drops in crime, smaller cities with populations of more than 500,000 are raising the alarm, posting an 8.3 percent rise in violent crime in 2005. Nationwide, the murder rate rose 5 percent -- the biggest rise in a single year since 1991.
After dramatic declines in murder rates in the 1990s, some cities dropped programs that emphasized prevention and controls on the spread of guns, often citing budget cuts.
"The Bush administration has scaled back funding for federal cops program," said Jens Ludwig, a criminal justice expert at Georgetown University. "From 1993 to 2000 we saw an impressive run-up in the number of law enforcement people patrolling against crime. That has really slowed down."
Of the 57 murders in Kansas City this year, 45 involved guns. "When things start getting out of control, people start shooting," said police Capt. Richard Lockhart.
Police in Indianapolis are clocking overtime after a dozen shootings in less than a week at the start of August that began with a cab driver gunned down. The city has had 71 murders this year, up from 51 a year ago.
WASHINGTON'S CRIME EMERGENCY
The police chief in Washington, D.C., declared a crime emergency in July following the murder of a British political activist in the exclusive Georgetown neighborhood and a spate of attacks on tourists on the National Mall.
Several Midwest cities are on pace for a rise in murders this year, including Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio and Memphis, Tennessee.
"It isn't gang or drug violence, it's just people getting violent," said Mark Williams, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "A lot of them are minor disagreements and people using guns to settle them."
From the expiration of a federal ban on assault rifles to tougher restrictions on databases that identify gun owners, gun laws have weakened in the past five years, said Daniel Vice, an attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
"The top five states with the highest gun death rates are five states with incredibly weak gun laws," he said, listing Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming.
In Miami, while overall crime is down, the use of semi-automatic weapons is growing.
"These things are dirt cheap," Police Chief John Timoney told Reuters, estimating the street price at $250 each. "We have seen these assault weapons being used time and time again by drug gangs."
(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami, Andrew Stern in Chicago and Andy Sullivan in Washington)
Gun-grabbing articles are good for gearing up opposition to the rats during election cycles.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
1066AD HMM? So were you on the home team or the visiting team?
Given that this is a Reuters article, the first thing I would ask myself isn't whether there is an explanation for this but whether anything in this article is true.
this a quagmire... we need to get out of our cities!
Idiots never learn.
Of course, it's always bush's fault
Wow thanks for the impartial and unbiased opinion! Idiot journalist.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
I left in '89, for good. I'm enjoying semi-country living and carrying concealed (Penna CCW) with no problems whatsoever.
what an unbelievably pisssant piece of anti-second-ammendment liberty thieving nonsense. Whatever else you want to call it, it ain't journalism, and it ain't news.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
---The slaying of the 20-year-old mother -- on a narrow street behind a police station in Boston's poor Roxbury district last month---
Roxbury. That's as far as you need to read.
Moronic liberals always think that govt. is the answer. Govt. policies usually drive crime rates. The solution is more of the same, which only makes it worse. Funny how the thugs and illegal aliens never get the blame, it's always a Republican's fault.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
Yes indeed a quagmire of democrats. Take Detroit, I would bet that most criminals in Detroit come from households that voted for the rats.
this article is a joke. a story out of nothing. after murders and violence has been falling for the past decade a little 2.5% increase causes this reporter to panic. they're just trying to sell papers.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
That may be true, but why are Boston and Washington, DC (not gun-friendly cities) the focus of this story?
In Miami, while overall crime is down, the use of semi-automatic weapons is growing.
Can you say: What's your point?
Most weapons manufactured and bought today are semi-automatic. The anti-gun crowd has tried to demonize the word and the (gun) ignorant media have bought into it.
So crime is down, but the media can still find a cloud around the silver lining!
A blip in a ten year downward trend. The actual number of murders now in the US is similar to the number of murders we experienced in 1965, despite a significant increase in population (and an increase in the total number of guns owned by Americans).
What nonsense. Maybe they should actually INVESTIGATE if they are going to write an article on this. Black on black & brown on black GANG crime is the reason for the increase! Then throw in a few wannabes who are white and it's nothing but trash with no father's and missing mothers. What the hell do they expect when they have no one to raise them?! So much anger and nowhere for it to go. The only way they know how to settle a dispute is with violence.
Well said. It's also the liberal poverty programs that perpetuate the cycle too. Why don't gov't just cut the taxes once and for all and eliminate these programs. Private enterprise would put people to work and most of these problems would disappear.
This is NOT news. It should have appeared on the Editorial page.
The rats are starting the PR machine to get ready for what they hope are November victories.
Oh and I don't know if it's related but that elephant speaks Spanish (I'm sure that's just a coincidence) 
---The irony is the police couldn't be there for that mother even though they were literally around the corne---
Roxbury has been a murder hole since any of us have been alive. I wonder why all the enlightened policies the liberals have come up with haven't fixed it?
Demographics can explain this, but PC stands in the way.
Meanwhile, the NRA provides the means to keep ourselves safe.
This violence is increasing in white Neighborhoods??
"I wonder how much of this reported increase is due to changing demographics,
particularly in the midwest."
All you've got to do is read the newspaper police reports in my
parents' Mid-Missouri town.
An increasing portion of the list of accussed perps reads like the
police blotter for Matamoros, Mexico.
Here in Boston we have the tighest gun control laws in the nation. Yet violence and murders are on the rise. What this reporter and others will never say is that the overwhelming percentage of these murders and shootings occur in the minority neighborhoods and all the guns are obtained illegally. The gangster mentality rules there and people refuse to cooperate with police. More cops on the street will not solve this problem. Nor will stricter gun laws.
This is the result of a total breakdown in values in the black society. No value for life. Its all about your "street rep". Shame on Jesse Jackson and the race pimps for what they have wrought upon their own people.
> "The top five states with the highest gun death
rates are five states with incredibly weak gun
laws," he said, listing Louisiana, Alabama,
Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming. <
Oh yeah? And please tell us which state has absolutely the "weakest" gun laws?
It's that dear little socialist-green-paradise, Vermont!
And what, pray tell, is Vermont's crime rate?
just like everyone else ..... attempting to remain positive.
No, YOU take it........
Illegal aliens, gangs of all ethic stripes, no law enforcement of ethnic neighborhoods...urban areas are battle zones that look more like Baghdad than the US.
The left needs to stop blaming "rising crime rates" on the Second Amendment. With just a little more imagination, they could easily "link" these rising crime rates to "global warming." I mean, as the polar ice caps melt, the crime rate rises. Stop blaming the Bill of Rights.
Blue cities will always have high crime rates.
And the people will continue to vote for the candidates who will continue to push failed programs that call for more taxes which close more businesses which causes rises in unemployment and welfare which causes crime which brings in candidates who say they will vote to get rid of guns which is a failed social program.
Wash, rinse and repeat.
Well if we ended the stupid WOD then resources could be freed up to fight real crime
Nonsense. I went to look at the stats this reporter is quoting. The site says that the states with the highest gun "deaths" are Louisiana, New Mexico, Alaska, and Alabama. Oddly, I doubt that Alaska has a serious black or Hispanic gang problem, so most gun deaths there are probably due to accidents and mishandling of weapons. Louisiana has the highest murder rate in the country. New Mexico has a gang problem in parts of ABQ, but I doubt art dealers in Santa Fe are shooting it out in the plaza.
What I'm saying is that the REASON for gun deaths is very different from one state to another. The Reuters article implies that ALL of the US is in the midst of a gun-crime spree, when actually the gun problem is the worst in Washington, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, ALL cities with gun bans and Democratic governments. Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with it?
Wonder if the FBI still keeps and publishes murder rates etc by race and ethnic origin
Reson d'etre: 'Stop all this war on terror crap, disarm the nation and triple the police force.'
So, if there were no illegl aliens, murder rate would fall by 50% or more? Great reason to stop the illegals? Nah, the FEDS, ACLU, DNC, NAACP would never go for it. To hell with the victims. (Again)
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