Monday, February 01, 2010
City On Pace For Record Murder Rate
The City of Indianapolis recorded 14 homicides during the month of January. At that pace, Indianapolis will record 160 homicides by year's end. The highest number recorded in the City was 161 in 1998. The Ballard administration boasted about a significant drop in the murder rate at the end of last year. There is some dispute over those figures. The administration claimed there were 99 homicides in 2009, while others put the figure as high as 105.
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4 comments:
Gary,
It's really semantics, and ridiculous at that. Carl Brizzi himself on his WIBC program near the end of 2009, was using the same number that Bart Lies was reporting, the "homicide rate." The Ballard administration, however, has been using the "murder rate" since that knocks off police-action and self-defense. As pointed out by the Bart Lies writer, police-action only counts for two homicides, and as far as I know, none of them were self-defense. So that still leaves four dead that slipped through the cracks.
I don't know why the politicians have to have 99. 105 is still a reduction, and the Mayor and IMPD should be applauded for that if overall crime went down with the murder rate.
So many home invasions and violent muggings. It sure seems like those are rapidly rising. Five men were attacked by someone wielding a knife just last night in the Circle Center parking garagres downtown. Some parts of the city just aren't safe to be around any more.
It's funny, I found figures quoted last December in the Star, on WIBC and at least one TV newscast - they all had the exact same number as bartlies.
Then one day Indystar pulls a new lower number out (lower than the one they'd previously published, and Ballard starts making the rounds with the same lower number.
Yeah, Greg really wanted a 2 digit number for the year. South Bend Chocolate Co. doesn't have half as much fudge as does Ballard's crew.
We will eventually be forced to accept the reality that police have no effect on the crime rate.
Like global warming, there's too much religion and employment bound up in the belief that police do reduce crime, so the above thesis will be an uncomfortable realization for the bulk of America.
Most of the murders in Indianapolis are related to the sale and distribution of illegal drugs, are they not. Ergo...
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