Free Republic

Murders have dropped by up to 20% in some major US cities — including the Big Apple — so far this year, according to a new report. New York City has seen a 15% dip in killings in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, the Wall Street Journal said. The five boroughs had 88 murders in that time period, a significant dip over the 104 in 2023, the outlet said.

The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and accusations that Vladimir Putin was behind it have once again raised the spectre of Kremlin assassinations. World leaders and commentators instantly pointed the finger at the Russian president when the news of Navalny's death broke on Friday, with questions around the cause of death fuelled by officials delaying the release of the body. Some have suggested the 47-year-old dissident was poisoned - as he was in 2020 in a previous assassination attempt - while one source inside the prison colony where Navalny died has claimed he was likely killed by a...

While the rate of homicides involving a firearm has increased in Canada, those crimes are not usually committed by people who have a licence for the weapon, according to a Statistics Canada report. “The firearms used in homicides were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing,” said the report, titled Firearms and Violent Crime in Canada 2022. Looking at data from 2022, the report found that around half of the firearm-related murders were carried out by those who had obtained the gun legally (58 out of 113 homicides). “In most firearm-related homicides, the accused...

More teenage homicides were recorded in London last year than in 2022 after 21 teenagers were killed. Of those who died, 18 teenagers were stabbed, two were shot and one was killed after his moped was hit by a car. The number is up on 2022, when 14 teenage homicides were recorded, but lower than the peak of 30 in 2021. It follows the death of 16-year-old Harry Pitman, who became the last teenage homicide victim in 2023. He was stabbed and killed on New Year's Eve in Primrose Hill, Camden, as he visited the park with friends to see...

Washington, DC, recorded in 2023 the highest annual number of homicides the city has witnessed since 1997 despite stringent gun control. According to the Washington Post, 274 people were killed in the city in 2023. D.C. saw a murder rate of 40 per 100,000 residents, making it “deadlier than 55 of the country’s 60 most populous cities, behind only New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis.” Washington, DC, New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Memphis are all Democrat-run cities.

Staten Island secession might not be a bad thing — for New York City’s crime stats. Murders in the “forgotten” borough have surged 129% so far this year over last year, to 16 from seven. Major crimes are up in every category and 17% overall, according to NYPD data through Sept. 10. By contrast, murders citywide are down 10%, to 280 from 311 this year. And major crimes have dipped 0.2%, the data shows.

Six farm murders have taken place in the Two weeks since 90.000 leftist radicals sang “Kill the Boer” in Johannesburg. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa blamed white South Africans for the killing spree. An AfriForum neighborhood watch apprehended four farm attackers outside Pretoria. ... On Tuesday, August 8, the local neighborhood watch of South African civil defense organization AfriForum responded to a farm attack alert in Brits, North West Province, 40 miles west of the capital Pretoria. Local civil defense volunteers were alerted of a vehicle heading east toward Pretoria and established a presence on all roads heading to the...

A man whose prison sentence was commuted by former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in 2021 has been linked to the deaths of four women who were found within three months this year and within 100 miles of each other in the greater Portland area. Jesse Lee Calhoun, 38, was among 41 prisoners whose sentences Brown commuted for fighting wildfires in 2020. Calhoun went to prison in 2019 on stolen vehicle and burglary convictions.

Prior to the bombshell arrest on Thursday of Rex Heuermann over several of the Gilgo Beach murders, the case had been hampered by a series of scandals inside the police department leading the investigation. The disgraced former chief of Suffolk County Police Department, James Burke, was at the center of the storm, which culminated in his imprisonment in 2016 for 46 months for battering a thief who stole a bag from his police car which contained porn and sex toys. Shocking details emerged about Burke's alleged fondness for drugs and prostitutes. He has also been described by colleagues as a...

The sole suspect in the 1982 Tylenol murders was found dead Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune. Tribune investigative reporters Christy Gutowski and Stacy St. Clair, who conducted a long investigation into the mystery, reported that sources told them prime suspect James Lewis died at his suburban Boston home at the age of 76. In Sept. 1982, fear gripped the Chicago area and the country after seven suburban residents died due to taking Tylenol that was laced with lethal doses of potassium cyanide. Copycat killings followed later in the U.S. Lewis was a tax consultant who sent a letter to...

The Guardian published an editorial criticizing El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for his hard crackdown on the violent gangs that terrorized the Latin nation for years because it does not address the root causes of the violence. The editorial said the government crackdown has resulted in positive results in making the country, once the most dangerous in the world, much safer, leading to historically high popularity for Bukele. People in neighboring countries are now demanding their governments copy Bukele's plan to tackle the gang and cartel problems. Still, The Guardian writes, the peace has come at a high price and...

A man has been arrested and charged in connection with a triple homicide after three relatives were found dead inside a home in Newton, Massachusetts, on Sunday morning, including a couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, officials said. Newton resident Christopher Ferguson, 41, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to one count of murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was being held without bail.

University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger has “no connection” to the victims, his defense team insisted in court documents filed ahead of the former graduate student’s hearing on Tuesday. Investigators in the high-profile case failed to disclose the precise means by which they identified Kohberger, 28, as the primary suspect in the Nov. 13 stabbing spree that killed Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, Kohberger’s defense alleges in the June 22 filing, according to Fox News Digital. “It remains unclear what the police first relied on in focusing their investigation on Mr....

Bryan Kohberger, who has been accused of brutally murdering four University of Idaho students, allegedly broke into the apartment of a female colleague and moved items around as part of an elaborate ploy to manipulate her, according to NBC’s “Dateline.” The 28-year-old Kohberger befriended the co-ed at Washington State University just months before the brutal November murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, the outlet reported. Kohberger broke into the woman’s apartment and jostled things around — but didn’t take anything.

The murder rates in major US Cities have soared more than 10% in the past two years — with most homicides occurring in Democratic areas with soft-on-crime policies. In a study released by WalletHub Wednesday, researchers found that Memphis, Tennesse; New Orleans, Louisana; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, DC; and Detroit, Michigan are suffering from the biggest homicide rate problems. All five cities are led by left-wing mayors. After comparing the rise in murder rates in 45 of the country’s most populated cities between 2021 and 2023, scholars noticed that killings were rising faster in Democrat-led cities than in their Republican counterparts....

A shirtless, babyfaced 12-year-old was led cuffed from a Florida police station to be transported to jail after being charged with a triple murder Thursday night. Christopher Atkins, 12, and Robert Robinson, 17, were both hauled in and charged by the Marion County Sheriff over the deaths of three other minors whose bodies were found earlier this week. A third suspect, Tahj Brewton, 16, is still being hunted by police, who have offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest. In the video of Atkins, who was arrested at his home, he appears stony faced...

Verdict is in on the double murder charges facing Alex Murdaugh. Pundits are opine he is guilty

In the 1960s, 90% of murders were solved. That fell to 75% in 1980, and 60% in 2000. In the year of Black Lives Matter, the homicide clearance rate fell so low that it became a ‘coin flip’.The media reported that only 50% of murders were being solved. What was less reported was that this mainly reflected a drop in solving black murders. Homicide clearance rates for white people have actually improved since the 1980s and reached a high during the Obama administration even as black homicide clearance rates dropped catastrophically.In the 70s, 80% of the murders of black people...

This is a disturbing story, but it runs far deeper than the recent spike in violent crime that has been observed since 2020. National Review reports that an ongoing study of law enforcement clearance rates in the United States paints a picture of a culture where we’ve been heading in the wrong direction for a very long time. The Murder Accountability Project (MAP) has been tracking the clearance rates for murders in America and the rate for 2020 was barely over 50%. There was indeed a steep decline between 2015 and 2020, but the clearance rate in the 1960s was...

A Florida woman who was allegedly shooting at random vehicles driving past her in Orange County earlier this month, resulting in the death of a 27-year-old wife and mother, has been arrested. The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced Friday Angila Baxter, 56, was arrested by homicide detectives for the Jan. 12 death of Nekaybaw Collier. She is charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. The sheriff's office said Baxter claimed she was being followed by multiple people when she recklessly began firing shots at a handful of vehicles and people, striking Collier and killing her. "We extend our deepest condolences...