DC murders way down...

[Datajack Franit]

Re: DC murders way down...

The District recorded 167 killings -- a 15 percent drop from the 196 slayings in 2005. Prince George's had 134 killings last year, compared with a record 169 in 2005

Last year there were sth like 7 murders in Milan urban area (metro pop. 4 million) with the media calling it a national emergency

Europe

[DanS]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Let's not kid ourselves. DC is getting less violent primarially because of gentrification. The lower classes are being pushed out and replaced by lower and upper class aparment dwellers. Thus the drop in violent crime.

This has a kernel of truth to it, but leaves the wrong impression.

DC had a falling population for 6 decades, but has experienced growth in the last six or so years. While areas are being gentrified, more people are moving in than are moving out.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Asher
DC murders should include Iraqi civilians.

Looking at the statistics in this thread, I bet some US cities are more dangerous than Iraq. That's scary.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DanS


This has a kernel of truth to it, but leaves the wrong impression.

DC had a falling population for 6 decades, but has experienced growth in the last six or so years. While areas are being gentrified, more people are moving in than are moving out.

Yes, that's one of the upsides to gentrification along. The other is it attracts more wealthy people and the city as a whole changes its demographics so that the poorest people can no longer afford to live there and move some where else. Fewer poor people means less violent crime.

[DanS]

It's not that simple of an equation, although that is part of what's happening.

DC has the highest state/local tax rate of anywhere in the country because of the very bad mix of income levels that the city has inherited. With the better mix of income levels introduced through gentrification, the city is better able to care for its worst off.

[realpolitic]

Quite a drop in crime

in 1991, the city had 489 killings
...
Eric H. Holder Jr., a former U.S. attorney who became second in command at the Justice Department, said some of the community-based programs that were launched in the District in the 1990s are paying dividends.

"It's the notion that you get men involved in the lives of their kids, that you have after-school activities, that you work on the kinds of things that tend to breed crime -- poor educational systems, a lack of jobs," said Holder, now a lawyer in private practice. "You've got to be smart when you fight crime, not only tough."

Quite different from Oerdin's toughlove delusions, people have to have reason's to quit drugs, other than a policeman's baton.

Those efforts included targeting high-crime areas

Absolutely, in Silicon Valley, there are several poor neighborhoods where there is little policing, crack deals happen all the time, as well as plenty of robberies to supply addicts money.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Let's not kid ourselves. DC is getting less violent primarially because of gentrification. The lower classes are being pushed out and replaced by lower and upper class aparment dwellers.

Well i could see that in earlier years, when the rate dropped in DC, and increased in PG county, the low rent suburb where many displaced DC residents have moved to. But in 2006 it went down in PG county as well, so I think we have something else going on here.

[Dis]

Originally posted by The diplomat


Looking at the statistics in this thread, I bet some US cities are more dangerous than Iraq. That's scary.

not even close. Do you realize how many people are being killed in Iraq? What's even worse it's happening because of what group they belong to.

Most murders in my city happen between people who know each other. I'm not saying they are right, they most definately are not. But it's either a crime of passion, or a murder because of money or drugs. Very few random killings in my city.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DanS
It's not that simple of an equation, although that is part of what's happening.

DC has the highest state/local tax rate of anywhere in the country because of the very bad mix of income levels that the city has inherited. With the better mix of income levels introduced through gentrification, the city is better able to care for its worst off.

OK, yes that is true. Gentrification does lead to higher property values and thus more property taxes plus the wealthier a person is the more disposible income they have which they pay sales tax on each purchase.

I'm not anti-gentrification as I've seen first hand how it has turned former slums into nice areas here in SoCal but I do think the cheering for the decrease in crime needs to be accompanied with an explination of the economic processes which caused it (for the most part). Still, DC is on valuable land and the market should be allowed to decide how to allocate such a resource even if it means the place becomes to expensive for many people.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by realpolitic

Quite different from Oerdin's toughlove delusions, people have to have reason's to quit drugs, other than a policeman's baton.

Nice way to misrepresent my position. BTW I've seen tough love work in my own city. It's very effective both as a tool to encourage people to reform or at least to stop the state from enabling anti-social behavior. More and more cities are enforcing tough love policies because they work and they're cost effective. That's good news on both fronts.

[DanS]

Somewhat related. From the WaPo...

Gunshot Sensors Are Giving D.C. Police Jump on Suspects
System Can Determine Location of Crime

By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 22, 2006; A01

The crack of gunshots can be heard nearly every night in some of the District's deadliest neighborhoods -- and no longer just by the people within shooting range.

The sounds are being picked up by the police department's newest tool: ShotSpotter, a network of noise sensors that identifies and pinpoints gunfire. Over the past few weeks, the technology has guided police to three homicides in Southeast Washington, and in one case officers got there rapidly enough to make an arrest.

ShotSpotter complements 48 surveillance cameras installed in many city neighborhoods. But unlike the cameras, which are checked after the fact, ShotSpotter gets word to police as soon as bullets start flying -- in many cases before anyone has a chance to call 911. Over the past two months, the sensors, roughly the size of coffee cans, have been hidden atop buildings in many sections of Southeast Washington.

The sensors picked up one of the fatal shootings last Monday, sending an immediate signal to police at their downtown operations center. Authorities raced to the 2600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, where they found the body of landscaper Jose Villatoro, who was fatally shot while he was cutting grass. The swift response led to the arrest of a suspect a few blocks away.

The ShotSpotter technology can identify gunfire within two miles, police officials said. And it can pinpoint, within feet, where the shots were fired from, they said. The system isn't a panacea: It won't prevent shootings and relies on police having the personnel and wherewithal to quickly react. But it has the potential to make an impact.

"We get there sooner, which means we're more likely to catch the person responsible," Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said. "For an injured person, it can be the difference between living and dying."

The technology behind the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System dates to the 1990s, and police departments in Chicago, Los Angeles, Charleston, S.C., and about a dozen other cities have it or are installing it. D.C. police got the system about two months ago thanks to the FBI, which is footing the bill.

The FBI views Washington as a pilot project; if it is deemed a success, the FBI might provide systems to other areas.

The sensors connect through wireless radio or telephone lines. They are so sensitive that they can distinguish between gunfire and such sounds as firecrackers and car backfires, officials said.

In some neighborhoods, gunfire has become a part of the urban landscape. People don't always call 911; some are uncertain what they heard or unable to say where the sound came from. Sometimes, residents call 911 but police drive around in circles, unable to locate where the shots came from.

Community activist Sandra Seegars, who lives in Southeast, recalled that one night she heard shots in the dark and called police to tell them that the sounds were coming from the east. Police received several similar calls but drove around in vain, looking for the trouble spot.

"Turns out, they were coming from the south," Seegars said. The next morning, schoolchildren found a body between buildings.

The system is running in the 7th Police District in Southeast, which had the highest number of homicides in the city last year; so far this year, 37 people have been killed there. The 7th District includes such places as Anacostia, Barry Farm and Congress Heights, where residents have been clamoring for more police attention for years.

"If it works there, it'll work anywhere in the city -- there's hills, valleys and other challenges in terms of geography," Ramsey said. "I'd like to see it all over the city."

Cmdr. Joel Maupin, who heads the 7th District, said officers get reports of gunfire about four days a week, sometimes several times a day. Capt. Victor Brito, who is in charge of ShotSpotter for the department, said he thinks that officers are responding to gunshots more often than before ShotSpotter was installed.

Police were on the scene within minutes of Villatoro's shooting Monday morning. The 35-year-old landscaper was working at an apartment complex when a man suddenly blasted four bullets into him. Villatoro fell, his grass cutter still humming as he lay on the concrete. When the shots were fired, there were no police officers in the immediate area. ShotSpotter alerted police before anyone called 911.

Scott D'Angelo, who lives half a block away, said he heard the gunshots that morning but did not call police. He said that the sound is frequent in his Anacostia community and that he does not call 911 every time he hears the familiar pop.

"Many times a week, you hear gunshots," D'Angelo said. "You hear them from a distance. You hear them from close up. You hear them all over."

ShotSpotter also led police to the shootings of Andre Pee, 14, and Curtis Watkins, 32, killed just before midnight Sept. 25 on a dead-end street in Congress Park. In another incident, the sensors led to the arrest of a man firing a weapon.

Ramsey said he warns his officers to be extra cautious when they respond to a call from ShotSpotter. "They get there faster than usual," Ramsey said. "The offender might still be on the scene."

Executives at ShotSpotter are talking to city and county officials in Maryland and Virginia, but no local jurisdictions have purchased the technology. The company has been in contact with Prince George's County, executives say, because sensors in the District occasionally pick up gunfire across the border.

Police and FBI agents are hesitant to talk about expanding ShotSpotter in the city. Technicians installing ShotSpotter in Los Angeles and Oakland were shot at by gang members, said Gregg Rowland, the company's senior vice president.

"If we say where they are, people would try to destroy them," Rowland said.

Ron Chavarro, supervisory special agent with the FBI's violent crimes squad, said he wanted to bring the technology to Washington after using it to investigate random highway shootings in the Columbus, Ohio, area in late 2003 and early 2004. The attacks left one person dead and ended with the conviction of a suspect.

The FBI would not specify how much the network costs but put it in the range of "hundreds of thousands," Chavarro said. If the entire city of Washington is wired, the cost could go into the millions, according to ShotSpotter officials.

ShotSpotter Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., sells gunshot tracking devices to police departments, homeland security agencies and the military. Products include hand-held sensors that soldiers can wear on their uniforms or mount on their vehicles.

The technology was developed in 1994, when a scientist took acoustic software designed to monitor earthquakes and used it to detect urban gunfire. A year later, it was used in Redwood City, Calif., a town that had problems with people firing guns in the air to celebrate such events as New Year's Eve. The technology has since been refined, updated and marketed.

In Rochester, N.Y., officials attribute six arrests since July to the use of ShotSpotter.

In the District, Maupin said he has high hopes ShotSpotter will make criminals think twice before opening fire in his Southeast communities.

"Some days, you get gunshots back to back to back to back," he said.

[KrazyHorse]

When I stayed at my parents' home last week I was woken up at 4am on new year's day by the sound of thousands of rounds being shot off by the Mohawks on the Kahnawake reserve across the river. You could see the tracers going up.

[realpolitic]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Let's not kid ourselves. DC is getting less violent primarially because of gentrification. The lower classes are being pushed out and replaced by lower and upper class aparment dwellers. Thus the drop in violent crime.

BTW the rest of the country is experiencing a dramatic rise in crime due to a lack of economic progress for the lower 1/3 of society and due to Bush cancelling Clinton's highly secessful intiatives to put more cops on the streets. Clinton had the feds subsidize cities and counties so they could afford more cops. More cops= less crime. Bush cancelled this program which resulted in fewer cops on the street. Fewer cops=more crime in general. DC beat this trend by continuing the process of gentrification thus removing the biggest class of criminals; the lower classes.

A 2/3 drop is huge! To be able to ascribe it purely to gentification would mean that 2/3 of the poor moved out of town, so there are most likely other factors.

I wonder if some of the rise in crime is caused by the increase in Afgan herion, which the Taliban had prohibited growing.

[Pekka]

So, we have less people than there are in DC area, and we are more dangerous? Oh well. It still smells worse in there.