Free Republic

The nation's capital ended the year with a massive spike in homicides. No, D.C., nor any other major city, is seeing crime levels return to that of the 1990s. Nevertheless, it's a somber statistic for a city whose police force is at its lowest levels in ten years. In all, the city witnessed 162 homicides within its limits, a 54 percent increase (via FoxDC): On the final day of the year, we asked a community leader, a police officer and the mayor about what is causing all of this violence. Paul Trantham, an ANC commissioner in Ward 8, represents one of the...

(STMW) – In the first reported homicide of 2016, a man was shot to death early New Year’s Day in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood on the South Side. The 24-year-old man was shot about 2:20 a.m. in the 4600 block of South St. Lawrence, police said. He was dead at the scene. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the death, but did not release additional information.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The city of Indianapolis is at its highest homicide rate in eight years. The Department of Public Safety says 137 people lost their lives to violence so far this year. In addition to homicides, there has been 412 non-fatal shootings, up 79 from last year, including one Tuesday morning on 29th Street near Rader Street "That's the most terrible feeling that any parent could feel and witness," said Betty Killebrew, the mother of Tuesday morning's victim. "My son was just laying there on the ground saying that he couldn't feel his legs." Killebrew says she was inside...

The single image of LaQuan McDonald for the past six months has been that of a 17-year-old African-American teenager dressed in a red graduation cap and gown. Beyond the fact that he was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer the night of October 20, 2014, only a few facts about the remainder of his life have been reported. /See video at link)

Baltimore isn't just back to 1990s-level homicide rates. It has surpassed them — and with a month and a half to go before the year's end.Given the city's smaller population today, and the stack of killings that occurred in recent days, 2015 has officially become the deadliest year, per capita, in Baltimore history.A man stabbed to death became the 300th homicide victim of 2015 on Saturday, the first time the city has reached that gruesome milestone since 1999. As of Tuesday evening, five more men had been shot dead, pushing the city's per capita homicide rate — based on the...

Baltimore has recorded its 300th homicide of the year. [...] The 300th victim was a 27-year-old man who was stabbed multiple times Saturday and later died. It's the first time since 1999 that the city has recorded 300 homicides. In 2014, the city saw 211 killings for the year. Baltimore crossed the 200 death mark in August. ...

With Saturday afternoon's fatal stabbing of a 27-year-old man in West Baltimore, the city's annual homicide count hit 300 for the first time since 1999, pushing the city across a deadly threshhold once considered a remnant of the past. The latest killing in Carroll-South Hilton continued a surge of violence -- more than a killing per day -- that began in late April following Freddie Gray's death and the accompanying unrest. The spate of violence, along with the city's population decline over time, now has Baltimore poised to hit another sobering milestone: the deadliest year on a per capita basis....

While I was fact checking today's Mises Daily article, I checked some correlation coefficients of my own so I didn't have to rely on Volokh's numbers as my only source.I approached the data a little differently than Volokh did and instead of using a subjective ranking by an organization like the Brady organization, I just looked at the rate of gun ownership in the state. After all, the argument is often that more guns and more gun owners leads to more violence.So, I looked at the correlation between the gun ownership rate (a percentage on the x axis) and the...

Former Texas A&M football player accused of hacking jogger to death in Dallas park Published October 13, 2015FoxNews.com Oct. 12, 2015: This photo shows Thomas Johnson, a former Texas A&M wide receiver whom Dallas police say randomly attacked and killed a jogger with a 'large, edged weapon'. (Dallas Police Department) Dallas police say a former college football player hacked a jogger to death in a Dallas park Monday morning in what authorities said appeared to be a random attack. Police told KDFW that Thomas Johnson, 21, had admitted to carrying out the attack along the White Rock Creek Trail, and...

September was another month of murders in Chicago. We have seen the murder rate – and the attempted murder rate, too – skyrocket in recent years, in Chicago, Baltimore, New York, St. Louis … all homes of half a century or more of liberal policies, all laboratories of Leftist solutions, all booming centers of the modern welfare state and the omnipresent leviathan. How could this happen, we ask ourselves? Why is the murder rate up? Every time a murder or mass killing occurs, the Left immediately aims the focus of the investigation in the direction of the weapon. Was it...

Last year, a Massachusetts teenager named Philip Chism was accused of raping and murdering his teacher, Colleen Ritzer, after being asked to stay after school to study. Chism was just 14-years-old at the time and a freshman in high school. His murdered teacher was an agonizingly young 24. Ritzer’s body was found in the woods, partially covered by leaves, after being torn open with a box cutter. A letter was placed next to her lifeless form. It read “I hate you all.” Now, after months of prepping, the trial of Philip Chism is finally getting underway. He is being tried...

Deputies responded to a shooting in the town of Inglis, just north of Citrus County Thursday night. Levy County Sheriff's deputies confirm three people were shot along with the gunman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Deputies said the shootings happened around 6:10 p.m. Deputies responded to a residence near the town hall and found two men shot outside. One of the men was dead and the other was transported to the hospital with serious injuries, deputies said...

A gunman opened fire at 10:38 this morning, killing 10 people, while wounding 7 others at Umpqua Community College. Three of the wounded are listed in critical condition, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said during a 4:45 p.m. press conference today. The identities of the shooter and the victims were unavailable at press time. At least 11 had been transported to Mercy Medial Center, according to Mercy spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel, and two of those died. One victim was life-flighted north. As many as 10 victims were dead and the alleged shooter was reportedly killed. Kortney Moore, 18, from Rogue River,...

The gunman in Thursday's shooting at an Oregon community college was a 20-year-old male, Gov. Kate Brown said at a press conference broadcast by KOIN. Police and the superintendent of the state also said the gunman exchanged gunfire with police and that he is dead, though it was not revealed whether he killed himself or was shot by authorities. Police recovered three pistols and one long gun from the scene, CNN reports. At least 10 are dead in the shooting. A source tells CNN that investigators are looking into social media postings from Wednesday night that are believed to be...

Earlier this month armed New Black Panther radicals marched on the Waller County Jail chanting, “The revolution is on… Off the pigs!” A large contingent of Harris County (Houston) sheriff’s office deputies met the protesters at the jail.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Last night Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth was shot dead execution style around 8:30 at night. Goforth was pumping gas into his vehicle at the time. The shooter shot him in the head and then fired several rounds into his body. Breitbart.Texas reported: “A group of armed members of the New Black Panther Party marched on the Waller County Jail Wednesday afternoon chanting...

Vester Lee Flanagan, II, known by his on-air name Bryce Williams, was a Black journalist who fatally shot a white TV anchor and a cameraman during a live interview in Roanoake, Va. on Wednesday. Flanagan shot WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, and wounded Vicki Gardner, the woman the journalists were interviewing. Later, Flanagan, who had been fired from the station in 2013, reportedly died Wednesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His firearm was reportedly purchased legally from a Virginia gun store. ABC News provides an account of Flanagan‘s 23-page manifesto and suicide letter, which Bryce had faxed...

Constitutional Rights PAC Chairman Larry Ward today issued the following statement regarding Planned Parenthood harvesting the brain of a living baby: “The latest video released by the Center for Medical Progress further suggests that Planned Parenthood is a criminal organization, comfortable with ending life and breaking the law. “Constitutional Rights PAC calls on the San Jose, California Police Department to immediately investigate Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda Clinic in response to the testimony of Holly O’Donnell who claims the clinic murdered and harvested the brain of a living baby after a failed abortion. “The taking of innocent human life is...

A 9-year-old girl was shot and killed Tuesday in Ferguson, Missouri, while she sat in bed doing her homework, her family says. "I never in a million years thought that I'd be laying my daughter to rest," said James Bolden, 9-year-old Jamyla's father, KMOV reports. Jamyla's 34-year-old mother was also shot in the leg, but she has since been released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. As of Wednesday night, police had no suspect in the attack, though investigators believe that the shots were fired from close range into the home, which is one block...

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson on Sunday criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, saying they are politicizing issues and using disruptive methods while overlooking some critical issues like homicide by young black males. "I would like them to start paying attention to the carnage rather than making it a political issue," Carson, the only African-American presidential candidate in the 2016 field, told told Fox News. "The most common cause of death for young black males in cities is homicide," added Carson, a retired neurosurgeon. Black Lives Matter protesters have disrupted several campaign events of presidential candidates, both Republican and...

HOUSTON -- A family of six children and two parents were handcuffed and fatally shot in the head at a Houston home by a man with a violent criminal history who had previously been in a relationship with the mother and had a dispute with her, authorities said Sunday. David Conley, 48, was charged with capital murder in the deaths. Conley, who is being held in Harris County Jail, didn't appear at a court hearing Sunday where an arrest affidavit was read. The judge denied him bond....