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Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
With the books finally closed on 2007, we can take an official look at the crime statistics for the year. The Washington Post did so yesterday and found that, as expected, violent crime in the District was up last year as compared to the previous year.
You can view some of the District's 2007 crime data at the MPD's site over here. It shows that 2007 saw 181 murders, up 7.7 percent from 2006, which saw 168 murders. Nonfatal shootings and other gun crimes were also up in 2007.
An increase in violent crime is by no means good news, but we've said it before and we'll say it again -- it is actually important to remember that this is the fourth year in a row that had fewer than 200 murders. The 168 homicides recorded in 2006 was actually a 21-year low. We've come a long way from the early 1990s, when more than 400 people were being killed every year thanks in large part to the crack cocaine trade.
All that said, we can expect Chief Lanier to take some amount of heat for the uptick in violent crime during her first year in charge of the MPD. But will it be enough for her to consider revising her increasingly unpopular "All Hands on Deck" weekends strategy in favor of a new crime prevention scheme? We doubt it -- the strategy did manage to provide big bumps in the number of arrests periodically throughout the year, and at no real overtime cost.
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As a native son of DC and local resident for some 2 score years, I can still recall that glorious day when the City Council all but banned handguns. The year was 1975: The Boss had released Born to Run, everybody was shooting at Gerry Ford, and a couple of dorks registered "Microsoft" as their company's trademark. I was there in the District Building when Harold Hill rolled an upright piano into the Coucil chamber and told us how he sold sold gun bans to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrooke, and by gum, it put them on the map! Then he started banging out that heartwarming tune, "Well, we got trouble! Right here in River City! That's with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "G" and that stands for Guns!" For days, everyone in town was muttering, "River City's getting a ban!" But then he fell for that milf from The Partridge Family and it all went to s**t. Moral of the story: never smoke loveboat and watch The Music Man. You'll get your NRA membership suspended and Shirley Jones file a restraining order on you. Now, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, STAY OUT OF MY LIQUOR CABINET!
Meanwhile, in that other city the US Government is sort of responsible for, the death toll was 480... for December. And that was the good news because it was "...down from almost 900 two months previously and about 2,000 in December 2006.
I'm glad the city is still below it's early 90's numbers, I'm just thinking how it could be worse.
I wonder if the gun ban is overturned (my money's on it being shot down), what effect that will have on the crime stats.
Which brings up the issue of Pete Nickles firing last week the special counsel who was going to argue the city's case before the Supremes. The Attorney General's office sounds like a fun place to work. Sorta like the law version of Melrose Place.
I doubt a gun ban repeal will have much effect on the violent crime stats. The majority of the deaths were in public and drug or gang related. A repeal would only cover firearms in the home. You'd probably get a few dead burglars and break-in rapists but probably just as many dead kids who were playing with unlocked firearms.
Speaking of rapists, some of the posts about bad experiences with It's Just Lunch are just plain depressing. I knew their ads were creeping me out for a reason.
It's Just Robbery!
Does anyone else find it odd that the DC Police Chief lives about 45 minutes from DC in rural Maryland? If Lanier actually lived in the city she's responsible to protect she might be more in touch with what's going on.
Secondly, every article I've ever read about crime rates adds basically the same line:
We've come a long way from the early 1990s, when more than 400 people were being killed every year thanks in large part to the crack cocaine trade.
Does the author know anything specifically about the role of crack cocaine in the murder rates of the 90's?
I can believe crack was a big part of this (maybe most for all I know) but it still seems like people are just as likely to be repeating the same story over and over.
The way it's described always makes it seem like crack explains the whole surge of crime, which seems so simplistic.
Why did crack produce so much more death than all the other nasty drugs that are currently being abused in DC?
Why did crack produce so much more death than all the other nasty drugs that are currently being abused in DC?
Crack was fairly inexpensive, compared to powdered coke or heroin. So instead of making thousands of dollars off a handful of junkies/lawyers, dealers made exponentially more selling more, cheaper hits to thousands of crackheads. Also, instead of having to steal expensive stereos to support your junk habit, you only had to do a few smash-and-grabs and you had enough for your crack fix. Big money was made dealing, which brought more dealers, which brought more gunfire, hence the higher death toll. But as with all commerce, the market eventually stabilized as traffikers killed eachother off and users either died or went clean.
Next week's lesson: the rise of MS13 and the Return of Sweet Lady H.