Free Republic

The number of Washington, DC, homicides reached 2003’s record high (248) under President Joe Biden’s prosecutor, police said Monday. The District’s soaring crime impacts local taxpayers and business owners. In recent months, several restaurants closed due to cost and crime. Whole parts of the city are impacted, such as H Street, where many shelves are bare. Below are six key D.C. crime statistics: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, who is responsible for prosecuting those D.C. police arrests, prosecuted only 56 percent of those arrested in 2023 Homicide rose 33 percent in 2023 Robbery spiked 67 percent...

It would be naïve to think that a progressive Chicago mayor could actually reduce the city’s crime numbers during his first 100 days in office, but Brandon Johnson did have a real opportunity to flip the trajectory. Chicago’s crime had already hit its post-George Floyd, post-covid highs in 2022 (see appendix) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had made a major mess of policing and criminal justice. Johnson had a perfect chance to lead, and maybe even bring the crime numbers down.Unfortunately, Johnson has refused to even try to tamp down on crime during his first 100 days. If anything, he’s doubled...

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro made loosening the nation’s restrictive gun control laws one of his administration’s top priorities, much to the chagrin of anti-gun advocates who warned that the country’s already sky-high homicide rates would get even worse if average citizens could keep and (in some cases) carry a firearm for self-defense. As it turns out, the opposite has happened, with homicide rates declining to the lowest level in more than a decade, and now the Associated Press reports that “experts are puzzled” by the fact that more guns hasn’t resulted in more crime. "About 47,500 people were slain...

Chicago's wealthiest citizens are investing millions in its poorest neighborhoods in an attempt to help solve the city's spiraling crime crisis. Billionaire businessman James Crown, who leads the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, has made it his goal to make Chicago 'the Safest Big City in America.' The tycoon, whose family was ranked the 34th richest in America by Forbes in 2020 with an estimated worth of $10.2 billion, plans to leverage his national influence and work with other businessmen to combat crime in the murder capitol of the U.S. Crown introduced his crime-fighting plan Thursday, announcing...

BRATTLEBORO — The crime began and ended Monday. The court arraignment concluded Tuesday. But for residents shocked by this week’s violent death of a local social worker, questions linger. “There’s a wish we have when the unthinkable and tragic happens like this — to find a simple answer,” said Kurt White, vice president of outpatient programs at the state’s largest psychiatric hospital, the Brattleboro Retreat. “But this is not really that kind of thing. These are complicated and complex problems, and there are not simple answers.” And so, many southeastern Vermonters are struggling to process the death of Leah Rosin-Pritchard,...

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set a record in 2022 with 224 homicides for the year, more than double the number of homicides witnessed in 2019. FOX 6 reported that Milwaukee was at 214 homicides as of December 28, 2022, a figure which already doubled the 97 homicides of 2019. Milwaukee ended 2022 with 224 homicides, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted, exceeding the homicides in 2020 or 2021.

There were over 500 homicides in Mayor Jim Kenney’s (D) Philadelphia in 2022, making 2022 the second consecutive year that the threshold of at least 500 homicides has been reached. On Christmas Day, the Philly Tribune reported the city reached 500 homicides and six days later, on December 30, 2022, WHYY noted the death tally had risen to 514.

Take 2 hours, 15 minutes of your time today to watch this documentary by Retired DC Police Homicide Detective Mitch Credle. It details how we lived during 1988-1999 when over 4500 were murdered in the Nation's Capital. Testimony from residents, criminals, then-youth caught up in drugs & law enforcement from those days. Heart-wrenching.

PITTSBURGH — Damon Lincoln’s life was cut short. He died last December on his mother’s birthday, two days before Christmas. “A couple of masked men came with guns. Forced him inside. They started ransacking the house,” said Lincoln’s uncle, Greg Dearolf. It happened in Mount Oliver. Lincoln tried to help his mother when he was shot in the back. The family is hoping reward money will help someone come forward. “We want somebody to come forward and give us some information that can get these guys arrested,” Dearolf said. From October 2020 to January 2021, the Allegheny County Police Department...

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore predicted Tuesday that the city will see more than 300 homicides this year — a level not reached in L.A. in more than a decade. Moore said there had been 266 homicides in the city as of Saturday, representing a nearly 25% increase over the same period last year and surpassing the total number of homicides in all of 2019, when there were 253 killings in the city, and 2018, when there were 260 total killings. Speaking during a virtual meeting of the Police Commission, Moore called the pace of violence in 2020 a...

A majority of America’s 50 largest cities saw their murder rates skyrocket amid racial unrest stoked by liberals and the mainstream media. Thirty-six of of the top 50 cities had a collective 24% jump in homicides this year compared to 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chicago saw the biggest increase, with more than one of every eight murders reported out of all cities surveyed occurring there. From the start of 2020 until July 31, there were 2,240 people shot in Chicago; 440 died, according to the Chicago Police Department. Murder rates also increased in Detroit and Philadelphia, but also...

Chicago saw a dramatic increase in homicides and shootings in the first seven months of 2020 and a particularly remarkable increase in July, reflecting a growing trend in the U.S. that raised questions about potential police reform in major cities. Data released on Saturday showed that Chicago saw 440 homicides between January 2020 through the end of June, a 52 percent increase from the same time period last year (which saw 290 homicides). Shooting victims similarly increased by 51 percent (1,480 to 2,240) and shooting incidents themselves rose 47 percent (from 1,210 to 1,783). Crime tends to increase during summers,...

St. Louis Homicide Pandemic:** In July there were 12 Coronavirus deaths in St. Louis city.** In July there were 47 murders in St. Louis city.There have been 167 coronavirus deaths in St. Louis City this year.And there have been from 143 to 150 homicides in St. Louis so far this year. Homicides are far outpacing coronavirus deaths in St. Louis.Local radio host Mark Reardon tweeted this out on Tuesday. Hey @LydaKrewson I just checked with @SLMPD –they confirm ***47*** murders in St. Louis in July alone.47???!!!!! We’ve had 150 for the year.Meantime in July ****8**** deaths from Covid in...

Father of 19-year-old killed in CHOP says he got condolence call from President Trump, but not Seattle's mayor SEATTLE - The family of a 19-year-old shot and killed at the edge of the Seattle CHOP zone was laid to rest today in Kent. The father of Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. told us, he still hasn’t received a call about his son’s death from the Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkan, but he got a condolence call this morning from President Trump.... "Incredibly, Donald Trump called me," said 50-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr. "The President of the United States called me today....

Los Angeles saw a massive spike in homicides during the first week of June, authorities said Tuesday. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said murders were up 250 percent from May 31 through June 6, and the number of gunshot victims increased by 56 percent during the same period, compared to the previous week. In the past 24 hours, the city recorded four shootings -- one that resulted in a homicide, the department tweeted.

What do you do when your community faces crushing poverty, failing schools, and disturbing homicide rates? In Baltimore, the answer is: Ban plastic bags, of course. Yes, Charm City is saving the world, one plastic bag at a time. The Baltimore City Council passed a citywide ban on retailers’ use of plastic bags at checkout on a 13-to-1 vote Monday. If that weren’t enough, the city will now put a 5-cent charge on paper bags. The legislation now awaits signature by Mayor Bernard Young. If he signs it, it wouldn’t take effect until late next year. Councilwoman Danielle McCray was...

You may not like the messenger, but embedded in the recent political dust-up about the crime, poverty, and despair in Baltimore were some undeniable truths. If nothing else comes out of this latest debate, the bright light is now shining on a very inconvenient reality: Liberal policies have failed the people of Baltimore and inner cities everywhere. As the daughter of a former welfare recipient who spent my early years growing up in government housing, I know the truth of that statement more than most. For decades, politicians have repeatedly promised urban communities good jobs, good schools, and safe neighborhoods....

Latin America accounts for one third of world's homicides, life expectancy dropping in some countries: study. (Full title). The rising number of people being murdered across Latin America and the Caribbean is so high that the life expectancy in some of those countries is dropping, a new study claims. Unlike the rest of the world where homicide rates have generally dropped, statistics in some countries show that the murder rate has skyrocketed in recent years. So much so, that Latin America now accounts for about a third of the world’s homicides. ... more than 2 million people aged 15-19 in...

FULTON, Mo. — Two people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in the death of a developmentally disabled Missouri man whose body was found encased in concrete after he was reported missing from a "supported living home.

In 2018, the Deseret News tracked 78 homicides that occurred in Utah, including 18 at the hands of police officers, more than three times the number from the year before. As is the case for most years, domestic violence was again a leading cause of homicide in the state. The victims of homicide — the killing of one human being at the hands of another — in Utah in 2018 ranged in age from just 4 months to 89 years. Two-thirds of them were shot to death.