dc on pace for fewer than 100 homicides in 2012

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DC_HOMICIDES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-23-04-54-14

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The crack epidemic that began in the 1980s ushered in a wave of bloodletting in the nation's capital and a death toll that ticked upward daily. Dead bodies, sometimes several in a night, had homicide detectives hustling between crime scenes and earned Washington unwelcome monikers such as the nation's "murder capital." At the time, some feared the murder rate might ascend to more frightening heights.

But after approaching nearly 500 slayings a year in the early 1990s, the annual rate has gradually declined to the point that the city is now on the verge of a once-unthinkable milestone. The number of 2012 killings in the District of Columbia stands at 78 and is on pace to finish lower than 100 for the first time since 1963, police records show.

"It strikes me probably daily as I ride around the city, or sometimes when I'm sitting at home at night, and it's 10 o'clock and my phone's not ringing. Or I get up in the morning, and I go, `Oh my gosh, I've slept five hours," said Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who joined the department amid violent 1991 street riots. "It strikes me quite often how different things are now."

The drop reflects a downward trend in violent crime nationwide and is in line with declining homicides in other big cities. Though killings have risen in Chicago, New York City officials say homicides dropped to 515 last year from 2,262 in 1990. Houston police reported 198 homicides last year, down from 457 in 1985, while Los Angeles ended last year with fewer than 300 after reporting 1,092 in 1992. Across the country, violent crime reported by police to the FBI fell by 3.8 percent last year from 2010.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

1. If you're one of the one hundred,

it doesn't matter?

[FrodosPet]

2. Detroit needs some of that mojo

The murder rate in 2012 looks like it will be up over 2011, which is up over 2010.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/detroit-crime-rate-murders_n_1951265.html#slide=1097409

Detroit's high crime rate is spurring 40 percent of the city's residents to plan to leave within the next five years, according to a Detroit News poll. And if they could, 50.9 percent said, they'd leave today.

Detroit police officers seem to agree with residents who feel driven out by crime. Unhappy about shrinking staff, a recently instated 10-percent pay cut and 12-hour shift requirements, they held a rally last weekend warning people downtown for the baseball game to "enter Detroit at your own risk."

The exodus is steady. The city lost a quarter of its population from 2000 to 2010 and residents are still leaving, according to new census numbers that show a 1 percent loss from 2010 to 2011. A Detroit data expert believes the population has dropped below 700,000, though population loss has slowed.

[madrchsod]

3. is`t it interesting as the numbers come down ...

the demand for caring "concealed guns" has risen.

chicago`s problem has been a long hot summer of gang warfare over who controls the drug markets across the midwest. the violence has reached far beyond the neighborhoods of chicago.