Major Cities' Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying

WaPo ^ | 07/20/2009

[freed0misntfree]

Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.

The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades. Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides.

[freed0misntfree]

Thank you, Section 8 housing!

[Madam Theophilus]

Not in Cecil County MD. During the last five years, and especially since the start of this year, both murders and burglaries have increased significantly. A pregnant woman was murdered two weeks ago by a 14 year old teen. The local paper has news of at least one break every day. Our house was hit last week. The police told us the crime is being committed by addicts and that the courts will only sentence them to rehab, not to jail. Each time they go through the system they get wiser to crime detection and harder to catch.

[skimbell]

Nobody’s got anything left worth stealing.

[TC Rider]

Sounds like the police in a lot of these cities are adopting the techniques of Rudy in NYC.

In the District, the department creates a weekly "Go-Go report," which details where and when home-grown bands are playing, because go-go concerts often bring together rival gangs, causing violence, Lanier said. There is also a weekly gang report that tells officers which gangs or crews are feuding that week.

Somehow I don't think this involves young ladies in miniskirts and high vinyl boots.

[ridesthemiles]

because the gangs have spread out to smaller cities and towns. Lancaster PA for example, is turing into a gang hell-hole.”

Exactly— Thread here yesterday says Bakersfield has more gang members than ever before and the police are waaaay behind the curve in dealing with the problems.
I have friends who live there. All their lives..they have had their house broken into 2 times in the past 15 months, and they live in a very nice area. Lots of stuff stolen.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Sorry; Weird Al Yankovic reference. I was under the impression that Lancaster was heavily populated by Amish.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/amishparadise.html

Parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," a gangsta rap song.

[ridesthemiles]

The Guardian Angels have enjoyed steady growth across America and around the world these past few years.”

God Bless Curtis.

[MrB]

Or they’re getting too lazy to steal.

[listenhillary]

“My guess is that the inner city thugs have killed so many of their own kind, there’s fewer and fewer of them to commit more crimes.”

Evolution in action

[martinidon]

all of the illegals went home

[McKayopectate]

You see, because they didn’t have health insurance, is why they committed violent crimes, and now that the O has promised it to them... they don’t need to commit crime anymore.

[jwparkerjr]

Could it be that building more prisons and putting more people in jail did what the proponents said it would?

[Hat-Trick]

Next, it will be arming ourselves.

I strongly recommend accomplishing that quickly.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The Heller decision has a lot to do with it I suspect.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> God Bless Curtis.

Amen. He is a great American and a fantastic guy to work for.

[freed0misntfree]

Interesting thought. Actually, I think most states have had to cut back on prison expenses due to budget problems. Even Texas has had to release more prisoners on parole, create drug courts, etc. From the vantage point of the states, the last thing they need is to lock up more drug offenders.

Then again, this article only addresses violent crime.

[achilles2000]

Reasons?

1. The homies know that many more people are armed.
2. Fewer illegals.
3. Big city police departments more or less as a matter of course are lying about crime statistics by not including crimes or reclassifying them.

All of these things are contributing

[OldMissileer]

All the criminals have been appointed as one of Obama’s Czars.

[bobsatwork]

I live near Wilmington, Delaware. All of our TV news comes from Philadelphia. There is at least one "somebody was murdered for no particular reason" story every day. Here's (one of) today's. Police are investigating the slaying of a 29-year-old man who was shot in the chest during a robbery early today in the East Frankford section.