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The FBI said violent and property crimes in the U.S. reported to police are dropping despite tough economic times. An FBI report out Monday said violent crimes reported in the first half of 2011 were down 6.4 percent compared to the first six months of 2010. The number of property crimes, including burglary, larceny and vehicle theft, decreased 3.7 percent. All four offenses in the violent crime category — murder and non-negligent homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault — decreased between the first half of 2010 and 2011. The largest drop (7.2 percent) was in cities with populations of...

DETROIT (WXYZ) - It was a deadly night in the city of Detroit. From 6:00 am Friday, August 12th to 6:00 am Saturday, August 13th, a total of fifteen people were shot in the city. Six of those victims died at a total of 9 separate shooting scenes. Mayor Dave Bing's office released the following statement: "Reducing violent crime is our number one priority. Chief Godbee and the men and women of the Detroit Police Department are working around the clock to bring these criminals to justice. Our community must continue to work with us to stop this kind of...

The poverty rate in the United States, reports the Census Bureau, increased to 14.3 percent last year, up from 13.2 percent in 2008, bringing the number of Americans living in poverty to its highest level since 1994. This is not the change for which Obama voters were hoping. But the numbers, while distressing, require some elaboration, because poverty in America isn’t what it used to be. They also raise an interesting question; more on that in a minute. First, the numbers. The official calculation of the 2009 poverty rate was income below $11,161 for an individual, or below $21,756 for...

A man was found shot in the head and back this morning on Chicago's Far South Side, one of five shootings across the city overnight, police said. He was found lying on the ground at about 3:21 a.m. in the 200 block of East 115th Street in the West Pullman neighborhood, said Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines, and was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. There was no immediate information available about the victim's age or the circumstances of the shooting. In other violence: • Shortly before 2 a.m., another man was found with...

WASHINGTON – Crime in the United States dropped dramatically in 2009, bucking a historical trend that links rising crime rates to economic woes. Property crimes and violent offenses each declined about 5 percent, the FBI said Monday, citing reports from law enforcement coast to coast. It was the third straight year of declines, and this year's drops were even steeper than those of 2007 and 2008, despite the recession. There were words of caution from experts. "It's fabulous news, but I would draw an analogy to global warming: Even if you believe the long-term trend is increasing temperatures, it doesn't...

Urban cityscapes uniting large and vastly diverse populations have long been sources of great inspiration, commerce and community spirit, but for as long as they have existed, cities have also been beset by their own dangers. While it's a fair to say no city, where humans interact freely, is spared the scourges of violence and criminal activity, it is also evident that some are far more affected than others. It's a tall order to quantify these problems and rank cities in terms of the most dangerous, particularly in countries so ravaged by conflict and chaos that day-to-day safety is only...

Sometimes what makes a particular story interesting is its source. This story from MSNBC is one of those stories. The most liberal of the lame-stream media is reporting that the more guns owned by private citizens, the fewer deaths due to fire arms. Yes THAT MSNBC. According to the MSNBC.com report, in the 1980s and 1990s, Americans were killed by guns at a rate of about 5.66 per 100,000 population, at the time the concealed-carry movement (carrying a handgun or other weapon in public in a concealed manner) began gaining momentum. The report explains that in the past decade, the...

The year after the Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's handgun ban and gun-lock requirements, the capital city's murder rate plummeted 25 percent. The high court should keep that in mind today as it hears oral arguments about a Chicago handgun ban. Gun controllers screamed to high heaven that impending disaster would follow the court's decision to junk some of the district's gun controls. One of those screaming the loudest was Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who incorrectly predicted more gun freedom would lead to more death and Wild West shootouts. Instead, in Washington, murder rates rose when...

The District of Columbia’s murder rate plummeted by an astounding 25 percent last year, much faster than for the US as a whole or for similarly sized cities. If you had asked Chicago’s Mayor Daley, that wasn’t supposed to happen. The Supreme Court’s 2008 decision to strike down DC’s handgun ban and gunlock requirements should have lead to a surge in murders, with Wild West shootouts. The Supreme Court might keep Daley’s predictions in mind today as they hear the oral arguments on Tuesday in the Chicago handgun ban case. Everyone in DC now knows that murder rates rose after...

A reported 10-percent decline in the crime rate for last year has sparked a heated disagreement over the cause. On the right, the surge in purchases of guns of all sorts since the ascension of Barack Obama to the presidency is hailed as proof that a well-armed citizenry deters crime. “The more likely it is that a law-abiding citizen is armed, the riskier it is for a criminal to attempt to rob or assault him,” said National Rifle Association Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre. “Those who wrote the Second Amendment knew this. Maybe this latest data will demonstrate this truth to...

No one can convincingly explain exactly how the crime problem was solved. Police chiefs around the country credit improved police work. Demographers cite changing demographics of an aging population. Some theorists point to the evolution of the drug trade at both the wholesale and retail levels, while for veterans of the Clinton Administration, the preferred explanation is their initiative to hire more cops. Renegade economist Steven Levitt has speculated that legalized abortion caused the drop in crime. (Fewer unwanted babies in the 1970s and '80s grew up to be thugs in the 1990s and beyond.) The truth probably lies in...

<p>WASHINGTON - Homicides in Washington hit a 43-year low in 2009.</p> <p>Police say the nation's capital recorded 143 slayings in 2009, the fewest since 1966. Police had hoped to achieve the lowest total since 1964, when there were 132, but there were three slayings on New Year's Eve.</p>

In October, after a Chicago youth was brutally murdered, Rev. Jesse Jackson penned an opinion piece in the Chicago Sun Times in which he called for federal "civil rights intervention" in the Windy City. The beating death of 16-year-old Derrion Albert and other youth violence, Jackson declared, was a result of "systematic injustice" in Chicago's poorer neighborhoods attributable at least in part, according to Jackson, to everything from predatory lending schemes aimed at poor residents to the fact that not enough federal stimulus money was earmarked for minority businesses. Jackson's op-ed was an extreme example of a sort of thinking...

Last week, the FBI issued its preliminary 2009 crime report, showing that the number of murders in the first half of 2009 decreased 10 percent compared to the first half of 2008. If the trend holds for the remainder of 2009, it will be the single greatest one-year decrease in the number of murders since at least 1960, the earliest year for which national data are available through the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Also, the per capita murder rate for 2009 will be 51 percent lower than the all-time high recorded in 1991, and it will be the lowest rate...

Quite a promise. More than a promise, it is a formula for smaller government. In my last edition, Safer Streets 101: Only you have the power, I pointed out that only you can make things happen and turn around the idea of bigger government. David Codrea mentioned taking a new person shooting. It's very good advice for several reasons. You learn more about liberty and your sovereignty from gun owners than you ever will from your public servants, including so-called educators. You'll learn more about civics, more about due process, and more about sovereignty from gun owners than from so-called...

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of this year at a time when gun sales were up dramatically is more proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, the Second Amendment Foundation said today. The FBI released data Monday that shows murders dropped by 10 percent from the same period in 2008. Meanwhile, according to data released by the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows that during the first six months of this year, gun sales were up. January 2009 background checks...

When thinking about the mass extermination camps of a holocaust think.. The key to freedom is to be able to have the ability to defend yourself &, if you dont have the tools to do that, then youre...

9 Slain In Bloody Holiday Weekend 2 Incidents Of Murder-Suicide On Friday AloneCBS The violence began around 5 p.m. Thanksgiving eve, when Shannon Moore, 18, was found lying on the ground with gunshot wounds in the hallway of a building at 537 E. 44th St. A witness who saw Moore involved in an argument went to call police, and as he was going to make the call he heard multiple gunshots, Perez said. Moore was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

What vexes me is CNN's constant drumbeat of reports on Chicago crime - and specifically two teen murders - in the very week before the vote and leading right up to the day of the IOC vote. It seemed like CNN was trying to influence the vote to me, even mentioning the Olympics in their segments on the Chicago crime problem. Moreover, CNN failed to mention the crime issue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rio has a huge drug and crime problem called "critical" and puts it in direct competition if not worse than Chicago. With all this why no...

Chicago’s vitriolic West Side Catholic leader and one time Obama spiritual mentor Father Michael Pfleger is known by some as the “white” Jeremiah Wright. Pfleger, who has called Louis Farrakhan a “great man” and Rev. Wright “one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has,” earlier this year thundered about the hypocrisy of fighting a war in Iraq “when we have innocent children dying on the streets right here at home.” At home, meaning Chicago. In 2008 for example, America lost 314 fighting men and women in Iraq while 509 unfortunate citizens were murdered in Chicago. The case this year...

Gunman Still on the Loose; 5 Remain in Good Condition, 1 in Serious Reporting Suzanne Le Mignot CHICAGO (CBS) ― Six people were shot August 1 during a funeral service outside a West Side church. Police say the incident is gang-related. Gunfire erupts outside a funeral, police think they might know why. The service was just starting at a West Side church, when someone opened fire outside – shooting six people. The reverend was shocked to see his service interrupted by that kind of violence. "This is broad daylight and anybody could have been hurt. This is very unfortunate," said...

More Than 200 Shot In Chicago In July At Least 42 Killed And 183 Wounded In Spree Of Violence CBS News Interactive: Guns In America CHICAGO (CBS) ― The air wasn't sweltering and simmering in the unusually cool July of 2009, but a bloodbath still engulfed the streets of Chicago, CBS station WBBM-TV reports. As of July 30, at least 42 people had been shot and killed, and 183 more had been shot and wounded since July 1. Among the injured were a 9-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a UPS driver who was on a break after making a delivery,...

7 Victims In One Attack; Total Of 15 Hurt Over Four Hours CHICAGO (CBS) ― Seven people were shot late Tuesday at Homan Boulevard and Walnut Street on the city's West Side, in one of numerous overnight shootings that left more than a dozen people wounded. At least 15 people were shot and wounded in Chicago overnight, seven of them in a single incident on the city's West Side. In that incident, police were called to the scene of a shooting at Walnut Street and Homan Boulevard at 10:43 p.m. Seven people were shot, according to Fire Media Affairs...

Chicago has the dubious distinction of holding four places on a list of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the nation.Using crime data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NeighborhoodScout.com made a list of areas with the highest predicted rates of violent crime in the United States.The nation's worst neighborhood, according to the study, is in Cincinnati.The study's author, geographer Dr. Andrew Schiller, said the calculation gives people a better way to understand the "climate" of crime in particular in sections of cities."It's better to understand the climate rather than the weather. It's very important to have a sense...

The law-abiding weren't the problem in the nation's capital About a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down 30 years of social experimentation in Washington, D.C., by declaring that the district's de facto ban on gun ownership is unconstitutional. The city's gun laws were so strict that a security guard could not get the permission to own a gun, hence the lawsuit on the constitutionality of the district's statutes. Disarming the law-abiding populace left them at the mercy of criminals. Violence escalated, with homicides at one point more than doubling the pre-ban numbers. With the ban gone, Mayor Adrian...

WASHINGTON - Historically, when the economy heads south, crime rates go up. But in this recession, things are different in the District. The murder rate is at its lowest in nearly thirty years. With more on this, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

In March 2008, Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with eight felonies, including perjury and obstruction of justice. In August, he violated his bail agreement and was thrown in jail. His actions were deplorable for anybody, but Kilpatrick was no Average Joe--he was the mayor of Detroit. Unfortunately for the Motor City, Kilpatrick, 38, is just one ripple in the area's sea of crime. Detroit is the worst offender on our list of America's most dangerous cities, thanks to a staggering rate of 1,220 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people. "Detroit has, historically, been one of the more violent cities in the...

Report confirms aggravated assault down by 36.5 percent. BY ALYSSA FARAH Following a crackdown on illegal immigration, officials in Prince William County in northern Virginia are reporting their numbers reveal a significant decrease in violent crimes committed. The violent crime rate in Prince William County plummeted 22 percent in 2008, according to new reports. In recent years, the county had experienced a steady influx of illegal immigrants that led to its development of one of the most aggressive immigration policies in the nation.

A study finds Pennsylvania again leads the nation in the rate of black homicides. The nonprofit Violence Policy Center supports gun-control efforts. They found in the study that there were nearly 37 homicides per 100,000 black Pennsylvania residents in 2006. Michigan was second and Indiana was third. The report analyzed the most recent data available from the FBI. Pennsylvania has finished first twice in the three years that the group has conducted the study. Co-author and Violence Policy Center executive director Josh Sugarmann says the results show that the role of guns in black homicides cannot be denied and must...

San Francisco’s much maligned homicide clearance rate is in the spotlight as the French government has stepped into a cold case murder occurring in the city two years ago. The inquiry comes on the heels of the “unusual” case of a Jewish activist who managed to fall through to his death via a disabled elevator shaft. San Francisco’s 800 plus unsolved murders rate ranks as one of the highest in the nation.

There's just so much hope and change already taking place in America that it's hard to keep up. The mainstream media is doing an exemplary job of keeping us up to date with news that really matters, such as articles like the Associated Press's "Web site lets women register their inaugural dress" and "Hairdressers Want Chance to Style First Lady." Then there are the penetrating analyses like "Americans rush plans for Obama inauguration," which quoted a 97-year-old woman who had never voted or witnessed a presidential inauguration, despite living just three miles from Washington, because "I knew white people had...

OAKLAND — Barring any deadly New Year's Eve revelry, Oakland is poised to finish with 124 homicides in 2008, three fewer than the 127 recorded in 2007.Regarding numbers, it is not much of a change. But in a city where homicides seem to get more public interest than other crimes and in a city looking for any kind of good news when it comes to crime, it was reason for optimism."I'm the eternal optimist," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday. "Three less is better than three more. But we are not satisfied with that, and we will work harder...

The 71 homicides in 2008 in Milwaukee represent the fewest killings in the city since 1985, a decrease officials attributed in part to improved cooperation among law enforcement agencies and policing focused on the most violent neighborhoods. Although nonfatal shootings also declined from 2007, they accounted for more than 400 victims, a reminder that the homicide total could easily have been much higher. Homicides fell 32.4% from 2007, when 105 people were killed, according to Police Department data. Police do not count vehicle homicides or those ruled justified. "It's an amazing drop," Mayor Tom Barrett said. "It's something I'm very,...

(CNN) -- A controversial ranking of U.S. cities' crime rates indicates New Orleans, Louisiana, has the worst crime rate, while a New York exurb has the lowest. The CQ Press "City Crime Rankings" list named New Orleans its most crime-ridden city based on a reported 19,000-plus incidences of six major crimes -- including 209 murder cases -- in 2007. The Gulf Coast city of about 250,000, still grappling with the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, was followed in the rankings by Camden, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; and Oakland, California. The lowest crime rate was reported in Ramapo,...

New Orleans ranks as the most violent U.S. city, with more than 19,000 reported crimes and 208 murders in 2007, according to a study released Monday. The study published by CQ Press, the book publishing arm of Congressional Quarterly, examined six categories — homicide, rape, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft. The rankings include all cities of at least 75,000 residents that reported crime data to the FBI in those crime categories for 2007. "Based on a per capita basis, New Orleans has the No. 1 crime ranking using FBI statistics," said CQ spokesman Ben Krasney. New Orleans...

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20126503&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

Most haughty Europeans look down their nose at we "violent Americans." They sniff the air at the ugly American and assume that they are, one and all, more "civilized" than we gauche colonials. Look at all the gun violence in America, they say. They tsk. tsk us for the deaths by gun. Certainly they are better than we? Now shocking news emerges out of England this month. It is estimated that 25,000 stabbings have occurred in Jolly, more civilized ol' England in the last 12 months alone. You read that right, there have been 25,000 incidents of knife violence in...

"Overall crime in Fairfax County increased by nearly 22 percent for the first quarter 2008 compared to first quarter figures from last year."... "...Prince William County reported a 19.3 percent decline in crime... attributing the downturn to the hard line the county has taken toward illegal immigrants."

Before Army Sgt. 1st Class Randal Ruby was accused in Iraq of beating prisoners and of conspiring to plant rifles on dead civilians, he amassed a 10-year criminal record documenting assaults on his wife in Colorado and Washington state and a drunken high-speed police chase in Maine for which he remains wanted. Before Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes stabbed an Iraqi private to death with a bayonet, he was hospitalized after threatening suicide in high school, was accused of assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing, and, in the months leading up to deployment, was twice linked to drug use. Before Army Spec....

June 6, 2008: With things quieting down in Iraq (U.S. casualties hit an all-time low in May, 2008), South Africa has regained its position as the most violent country on the planet, with a murder rate of 65 per 100,000 population. The death rate is also high in some other African countries (like Sudan, Somalia and Congo), but those placed don't keep records as effectively as South Africa. The Iraqi rate is now running at about 48 per 100,000. The Afghanistan rate is about 15. India, another area with lots of terrorism (and half of it is from communist and...

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area. Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away. ...

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area. Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away. The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative is the latest crime-fighting attempt by Lanier and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who have been under pressure...

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence. Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by...

CHICAGO -- The weekend has gotten off to an especially violent start, with no fewer than 20 people shot on the streets of Chicago, three of them fatally, from Friday afternoon through early Saturday. About 12:50 p.m. Friday, a girl was wounded in the arm when she and another person were shot at 2714 W. 66th St. A Chicago Lawn police sergeant said two people were shot and "one of the victims,'' a girl, was shot in the arm. The sergeant would not disclose the girl's age. The girl was taken to Holy Cross Hospital. About 3:30 p.m., a 15-year-old...

The police force is committed to make its presence felt when Fiji observes Earth Hour from 8-9pm tonight. Corporate Communications Officer Ema Mua says the force wants to ensure that no one takes advantage of the Earth Hour Initiative to break the law. Mua says the National Operations Command Centre has designated senior officers to look into areas especially towns where criminal activities are likely to occur. “A big number will be patrolling on foot and those who will be on motor vehicle. “We also have the National Operations Command Centre on high alert for that one hour and all...

The racial dimension of Barack Obama's electability problem is now apparent, but no prominent Democrat dares discuss it openly. Similarly expect no discussion of the subject in the major media. The white working class vote I am not referring to the ongoing and intense discussion of The Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a separate problem for Obama. Whether Obama has been, or will be, permanently weakened by his long and close association with Wright, or has soared above it with his Philadelphia speech, is not the subject of these thoughts. Something much simpler than the answer to that question has...

Crime: The number of adults imprisoned in the U.S. has hit an all-time high, a new report says, bringing with it fresh concern about "our priorities." Don't know about you, but we think this is a good thing.The 1.5 million people now in U.S. prisons represent nearly 1% of the adult population — an all-time high, according to the Pew Center on the States. This, Pew says, has led to much higher costs. Last year alone, states spent $49 billion on corrections, an outlay that's been growing at a real rate of 6% for 20 years. Over the same period,...

The front page news of young college students being shot and murdered on campuses across the nation has become sickeningly familiar. The latest mass murder at Northern Illinois University took five students, plus the shooter, most of whom were under the age of 21. We all agree that the senseless slaughter of young people at school needs to stop. On the other hand, the question of how to stop it and why it happens in the first place has seen less collectivity. Nevertheless, it's clear this nation needs to make changes in firearm regulation to try and curb these events...

In a surge of gun violence on Milwaukee's north side early Saturday, 11 people were shot in what police said were three unrelated situations. All are expected to live. The gunmen remained at large late Saturday. In a fourth shooting, two groups of people fired on each other's houses, authorities said. Fire Department medics and doctors at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa hustled to treat the injured, as all the shootings spanned less than two hours, beginning at 1:10 a.m. Common Council President Willie L. Hines Jr. during a news conference Saturday afternoon vowed to work with police to "get the...

Chicago, NYC See 40-Year Low In Homicides Atlanta, Miami Mark Increases In Killings NEW YORK -- Chicago and New York are about to close out 2007 with the lowest number of homicides in more than 40 years, while cities such as Baltimore, Atlanta and Miami have seen killings go up because of what police say is a surge in guns and gang violence. New York City reported 488 slayings as of Friday, versus 596 for all of 2006. The city is on track to have the lowest number of killings since reliable record-keeping started in 1963. Homicides in New York...