Posted on 12/08/2008 4:13:06 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Detectives believe increase in street violence makes it harder to find suspects
CHICAGO — Despite the rise of DNA fingerprinting and other "CSI"-style crime-fighting wizardry, more and more people in this country are getting away with murder.
FBI figures reviewed by The Associated Press show that the homicide clearance rate, as detectives call it, dropped from 91 percent in 1963 — the first year records were kept in the manner they are now — to 61 percent in 2007.
Law enforcement officials say the chief reason is a rise in drug- and gang-related killings, which are often impersonal and anonymous, and thus harder to solve than slayings among family members or friends. As a result, police departments are carrying an ever-growing number of "cold-case" murders on their books.
"We have killers walking among us. We have killers living in our neighborhoods," said Howard Morton, executive director of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons. "It is a clear threat to public safety to allow these murders to go unsolved."
The clearance rate is the number of homicides solved in a year, compared with the number of killings committed that year. The solved killings can include homicides committed in previous years.
The number of criminal homicides committed in the U.S. climbed from 4,566 in 1963 to 14,811 in 2007, according to the FBI. The clearance rate has been dropping pretty steadily over the past four decades, slipping under 80 percent in the early 1970s and below 70 percent in the late 1980s. In cities with populations over 1 million, the 2007 clearance rate was 59 percent, down from 89 percent in 1963.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Paging president elect Barack H. Obama!
“Snitches end up in ditches” -— Jersey City saying from the 1930s.
I’d chalk it up to a lack of will of prosecuters to go AFTER these criminals. I personally have known several people who were carjacked, sometimes assaulted, once kidnapped, and there was no prosecution even though the cars were recovered with identification of someone else (possibly the attacker or an associate) left IN the car.
Revenue tickets MAKE money for a city. Violent crime COSTS the city. There is prosecution, investigation, and incarceration.
Much easier to bill someone $3,000 for DWI (with no jail time) than to go after a car jacker (and you might even have to provide him with his legal defense). And then there is the lack of will to prosecute illegal aliens in this country.
In NJ, the state supreme court determined that you do not have a RIGHT to expect protection from the police (when you call 911, for example).
To protect and serve? Not hardly.
From the book you linked:
“More people have been murdered in this country between 1960 and 2003 than all the Americans killed in
World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.”
I find that hard to believe.
Michael Savage has also been talking about a lack of prosecution of murders in San Francisco lately. I think he’d going out on a limb grasping at straws in a case he’s talking about in SF right now, but will bring him up as someone else with this take elsewhere in the country.
PS, our jails are “overcrowded” so putting someone in also can mean letting someone out.
I'd wager that this same court wouldn't want you to be able to own a firearm either.... for personal protection. Any outcome that ends with the criminal being held responsible, or accountable for their actions defies liberal doctrine/emotion.
In a country where approximately 1 million murders of innocent children go “unsolved” every year, you have to know that there will be a declining respect for life. We’re on the brink of social chaos.
“In NJ, the state supreme court determined that you do not have a RIGHT to expect protection from the police (when you call 911, for example)”.
That is pretty standard. It prevents lawyers from suing the city every time a crime is committed. Police investigate crimes, they try and deter crimes, but they cannot prevent them.
Just look how many ‘Jack booted thugs/living in a police state” yahoos we have here on FR. Imagine the outcry if they did try and do that.
The FBI keeps stats for how many officers per thousand people. A few years ago for many cities it was one officer per ten thousand people.
So, you cannot expect the right to protection. The Katrina people found that out about government. Big city people find that out about government. Sixty years ago everyone knew that to begin with.
People are starting to wake up again.
“Texas was ordered by Federal District Judge William Wayne Justice to keep prison occupancy at less than 95 percent of capacity.”
Insanity!
The number of criminal homicides committed in the U.S. climbed from 4,566 in 1963 to 14,811 in 2007,
US population has climbed by roughly 1/3 in 45 years.
US population
2008 est.303,824,640 61 percent in 2007
1963 __189,241,798 91 percent in 1963
It’s too late in the day for me to figure it out.
I don't expect the right of protection. When it comes to violent crime, all the police are good for is to show up after the fact, draw lines, and clean up the mess. Having said that, what I DO expect is the government to stay out of my way, and ALLOW me to protect myself, since I'm the one best equipped to do it.
Population increased 60%.
Murders increased 224%!
God help us all!
But it's worth noting that the ultimate Lockean justifications on which our government's existence was predicated include the preservation of life and property.
If the government should fail to provide these basic protections then one must start to wonder why it is worth recognizing as a government, or paying taxes to.
also probably because criminals are more aware of the CSI methods so they are more careful to elminate evidence.
When the JBT crowd here starts hammering the keyboard with their Second Amendment/don't need cops silliness I can't help to point out a gun won't find out who stole your car. It won't process the scene of a burglary. It won't gather evidence to find out who murdered someone. It won't testify in court. It won't drive around your neighborhood at two in the morning. It won't get the crazy drunk driver off the road.
The government in this country provides the best law enforcement in the world. It is consistent nationwide despite the individual problems. The problem stems from government doing too much, not too little.
Your taxes are well spent. You just need to spend less and choke off government where it needs to be choked.
Is this about the Democrats????
/sarc
“In cities with populations over 1 million, the 2007 clearance rate was 59 percent, down from 89 percent in 1963.”
Probably Obama country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.