Homicides Soar in Some East Coast Cities

Source: AP

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities in a bloodstained corridor along the East Coast are seeing a surge in killings, and one of the most provocative explanations offered by criminal-justice experts is this: not enough new immigrants.

.......

Philadelphia is losing one resident a day to violence, recording 196 homicides through the third week of June. That is slightly ahead of the total at this point in 2006, a year that ended with 406 homicides, the most in almost a decade. On the first day of summer alone, six people were killed in Philadelphia in three street shootings.

In Newark, the homicide toll has soared 50 percent in four years, from 68 in 2002 to 106 in 2006. Baltimore had 140 slayings as of June 10, up from 122 the same time last year. Boston had 75 homicides in 2005, a 10-year high, and 75 in 2006. So far this year, there have been at least 30 slayings

.......


The vast majority of U.S. homicides - nearly 90 percent in Newark last year - involve guns. And they are more powerful than ever. The weapons of choice are semiautomatics that can spray dozens of bullets within seconds.

"We're seeing 40, 45 shots," said Richard Ross, Philadelphia's deputy police commissioner. In one recent killing, "I think they fired 20 shots into him. That's remarkable." He added: "For some of these young people, it's the glamour of it. They want to carry on their block."




Read more: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070629/D8Q2M2G01.html

but let's not confuse anyone with facts....

More Katrinas waiting to happen.

another perfectly plausible theory is that immigrants tend to settle in places that offer economic opportunity, and that such places tend to have less violent crime. That does not mean that the immigrants caused the lower crime rate.

edit: spelling

Or, conversely, maybe the lack of economic activity and opportunity in rust belt cities (that have neither high tech nor government defense contracts) cause desperation and violent crime.

ok then what it is ..is ...if they can't build bombs to kill others in other countries then they will go out into the streets and kill each other. So one way or the other they are going to kill someone or at least contribute to it. Too bad these killers don't go kill the right people in high places like HMO CEO's. the corrupt people in the US gov and of course, Ann Coulter.

The sound bite you hear from self-identified conservative Republicans has been that community policing is not a federal matter. Contrast that with the Clinton administration's COPS program, which was focused on community police.

Four years ago, Benjamin Wallace-Wells was already writing about a Bush administration "war on cops."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.wallace-wells.html

Read this section in particular from the link listed above:
The Bush administration's first budget eliminated all direct funding for street cops. The war in Iraq, fought largely without allies, has required the call-up of huge numbers of reserves, many of whom are cops. And instead of using the men in blue as eyes and ears on the domestic war on terrorism, the administration has, in effect, used them as glorified security guards. The federal government's repeated directives to local police to beef up patrols at potential terrorist targets have taken officers away from their regular duties. And because the feds have not paid for many of these extra patrols, homeland security has stretched local budgets even further.

On his Sept. 14, 2001, visit to Ground Zero, the president famously addressed a group of cops and firemen through a bullhorn, from the top of a pile of mangled steel. When someone in the crowd called out that he couldn't hear the president, Bush said, spontaneously: "I can hear you. The rest of the world can hear you." But now many cops feel they're not being heard. During an interview in late July, Richmond's Chief Parker told me he's been "dismayed at the current administration's attitude towards local law enforcement." The administration, he said, has not "seemed to grasp what we face."

sucking off the money for phony "home land security" aka give tax money to cronies and leave the citizens to die.
:grr: