US Crime rises as police focus on terror

Nine MSN News Link

Like Boston, many US cities are struggling to stem a wave of violent crime and murder that has raised questions of whether police are fighting terrorism at the expense of street crime, and whether a widening wealth gap feeds the problem.

"We're at a tipping point in violent crime in many cities," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based law enforcement think tank that released data in March showing the murder rate rising by more than 10 percent in dozens of big US cities since 2004.

"What we're seeing over the past 24 months is a new volatility. In some big cities violent crime and murder are up. Some are seeing a reduction. It's a dramatic shift from the past 10 years when it was mostly all decreases," he said.

its interesting to see that all the attention + efforts put into anti-terrorism is actually detracting from the safety and security of your own cities which is the exact opposite of what its intention is.. (to make your cities safer)

according to this recent report it may be keeping terrorists busy but is allowing regular crime to go into a boom period again.

i included that quote because it also mentions crime is down in a few cities, so it doesnt appear to be a nation wide trend. Possibly just regular peaks and troughs in a crime wave graph?

[edit on 23/5/07 by Obliv_au]

Could just be a regular up and down trend.

It could be because in some cities they are putting criminals back out on the street to be the ears and ears of society, and letting them continue to commit crimes unabaited.

Could be a combination, and it might be neither, without more research and stats it's hard to tell.

how are local police fighting terror? i just don't think that makes sense as homeland security and a dozen other government agencies are the ones that work full time to fight terrorism and then funnel their "intelligence" down to the local authorities in the extreme oddity of a possible terrorist threat.

i think these are just more scare tactics to give the police more men and more funding.

[edit on 23-5-2007 by LooseLipsSinkShips]

Originally posted by Obliv_au
Nine MSN News Link

"What we're seeing over the past 24 months is a new volatility. In some big cities violent crime and murder are up. Some are seeing a reduction. It's a dramatic shift from the past 10 years when it was mostly all decreases," he said.

Maybe it's just that some cities have declined as much as then can? The article says for the past 10 years it was mostly decreases, at some point we have to "hit the bottom" and level off (including minor increases).

Violent crime in the US has been on the decline for quite some time. It's great to have these crimes at an all time low but unrealistic to expect these crimes to stop occuring all together. There are just some individuals out there who can't think of any other way to solve their problems and will always be violent and a danger to society.

Is no only cities, right now my small town here in the neck of the woods GA, the city is debating if taxes should be raised due to no only budget problems and lack of funds but also the police department doesn't have enough people to deal with a new wave of crime that is taking our community.

And I do not live in big city.

Well it's not surprising, fighting imaginary terrorists and harassing teenagers are so much more fun (not to mention safer) than chasing actual criminals.