16,185 murders in 2006

[Martin]

What drives me nuts about reports like these is how they never talk about the REAL reason why it keeps increasing. Either their afraid to, or dont have enough scientific evidence.

They say :

"hmmm..the rate is higher but we dont know why...maybe if we put more police on the streets...hmmm".

Its HIGHER because the lower and middle class people are torturing themselves to make ends meet these days.. Sky high gas prices and other expenses are putting them over the edge. If the only job they can get is McDonalds, and they have to pay $3.50 a gallon to commute...forget about it.

Yet at the same time, the stock market keeps rising and the rich keep counting their money.


Violent crime up again, more murders, robberies - Yahoo! News

Violent crime up again, more murders, robberies

More murders and robberies in 2006 sent U.S. violent crimes higher for the second straight year, the FBI said on Monday, with the increase blamed on gangs, youth violence, gun crimes and fewer police on beats.

The FBI reported that the number of violent crimes nationwide went up by 1.3 percent last year, following a 2.3 percent increase in 2005. That had been the first rise in four years and the biggest percentage gain in 15 years.

The report showed that murders in big cities jumped last year by 6.7 percent. Robberies, an important indicator of crime trends, increased 6 percent nationwide.

Cities with big increases in the number of murders included Orlando and Miami in Florida; Oakland and San Diego in California; Phoenix, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Reno, Nevada and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Even though the higher violent crime numbers had been expected, they still represented bad news for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has targeted violent crime as a top priority for the U.S. Justice Department.

A department study released last month of 18 metropolitan areas cited more violence by local gangs or street crews, a greater prevalence of guns in the hands of criminals and younger, more violent offenders as key reasons for the rising crime rates.

Criminologists agreed with those reasons and also said there are fewer police on the beat. They cited the Bush administration's shift in emphasis to prevent terrorism since the September 11 attacks and funding cuts for programs to put more police officers on the street.

'WAKE-UP CALL'

"The fact that we are seeing these increases several years in a row should be a wake-up call," said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston.

"There's a tendency to think the sky is falling. It's not," said Fox, noting the increases have been relatively small. "We're not talking about an epidemic here."

David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the crime problems appear to be spreading to medium-sized and smaller cities.

He said the emergence of deadly drug crews or street gangs can have a potentially profound impact on a city's homicide or gun assault rate.

Lawrence Sherman, director of a criminology center at the University of Pennsylvania, called it an unusual pattern that murder is going up in some big cities, but down in others.

One possible explanation is that some police departments are doing much more to catch people illegally carrying concealed weapons, he said.

In the FBI report, murders nationwide increased overall by 0.3 percent. The increase in big cities was nearly offset by declines in non-metropolitan areas.

In the violent crime category, burglaries and murders increased nationwide while the number of rapes declined by nearly 2 percent and aggravated assaults fell slightly.

Violent crime went up in every region of the country except for the Northeast. The largest increase occurred in the West at 2.8 percent.

The number of so-called property crimes declined by nearly 3 percent. Burglaries and arsons increased while motor vehicle theft and larcenies and thefts decreased.

Crime goes in cycles like the economy. One problem is that when immigration exceeds at a pace faster than the job market can absorb, some turn to crime.

New Anti-Crime Effort: Will It Work?
June 1, 2007 - Gonzales Announced Steps to Take, Despite Critical Internal Review

To combat national trends that show an uptick in violent crime, the Justice Department announced a series of legislative steps and enforcement action Friday. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the efforts in a speech to employees at the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters.

The effort includes the expansion of the ATF's Violent Crime Impact Teams -- adding four groups to be deployed to Orlando, Fla., San Bernardino, Calif., Mesa, Ariz., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. "Each of these cities has seen an unacceptable increase in homicides or other violent crimes," Gonzales said. "And authorities in each have come forward and asked for our help."

Gonzales also said that an FBI Safe Street Task Force would be established in Orlando. The Department of Justice established the ATF's Violent Crime Impact teams in 2004 in 15 cities, using federal agents to fund the cooperative effort between state and local law enforcement, targeting the most violent criminals in the communities.

MORE

[waltky]

Ready For a 2nd Amendment Debate?...

High Court Has 'Shot' At Right to Bear Arms' Case
November 12, 2007 - Case Could Become Flashpoint over Nation's Gun Laws; Appeals court ruling paves weigh for seismic shift in nation's gun laws.

A U.S. appeals court decision defying precedent on gun rights has reached the steps of the Supreme Court, carrying with it the potential for a seismic shift in laws across the nation. Since 1939, the nation's judges had generally regarded the Second Amendment right "to keep and bear arms" as belonging to state militias, such as National Guard units, not to individual gun owners. But on March 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit interpreted the Second Amendment differently. The panel concluded that it protects an individual's right to firearms and struck down a Washington, D.C., ban on handguns.

Now the justices are poised to announce as early as Tuesday whether they will take up the case. The court's last major ruling on gun rights came in 1939 in United States v. Miller, when the justices said the Second Amendment covers a collective right of militias. For decades, lower courts adopted that view. But judges are no longer in lock step, and today's court might believe it is time, after nearly seven decades, to clarify the law. Whether a majority of these nine justices would view the Second Amendment the same way as the 1939 court is difficult to predict because the court has seldom touched on this area of the law.

In an unusual twist for two opposing parties, the District of Columbia officials who lost in the lower court and the man who prevailed have asked the justices to hear the appeal. Both sides want the justices to clarify the breadth of the constitutional right to bear arms — a topic that has long aroused passions in America. "This is the most significant Second Amendment case to come before the court, maybe ever, but especially since the Miller case," says Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "There are a lot of cities, a lot of states, looking at this. It could affect gun laws across the country. It could end up playing a role in the 2008 elections."

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[waltky]

Court sides with gunmakers...

Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Gun Industry
January 11, 2008 - A federal court has once again invoked a 2005 law in dismissing a lawsuit filed against 25 gun manufacturers on behalf of nine "gun crime" victims.

The 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is intended to protect the gun industry from politically motivated lawsuits. The Second Amendment Foundation applauded the unanimous decision by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

"The courts, and the American public, realize that manufacturers, no matter who they are, cannot be blamed for the actions of individuals who misuse their products, whether they are golf clubs, baseball bats, automobiles or firearms," said Second Amendment Foundation Founder Alan Gottlieb said.

The lawsuit was filed in January 2000, but according to the opinion written by Associate Judge Michael William Farrell, the 2005 law required the court to dismiss the case. Judge Farrell wrote that Congress, in passing the law, wanted to "prohibit [lawsuits] against manufacturers ... for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms products ..." Allowing the lawsuit to proceed "would, in our view, frustrate Congress' clear intention." It was lawsuits like this one that led to passage of the federal law in the first place, Gottlieb said.

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[waltky]

Gun control before the Supreme Court...

US court examines 'right to bear arms'
March 17, 2008 - THE US Supreme Court will take up the thorny issue of the right to bear arms, an emotional subject that has long divided the American public.

The court's decision - on whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamentally an individual or collective right - is expected to have a far reaching impact on US gun control laws, experts say. The high court has never before issued a ruling on the interpretation of the second amendment to the constitution, which states: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed". At the centre of the case is the nation's capital city, Washington, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country.

Private possession of handguns is strictly banned here, and any rifles or shotguns kept in homes must be disassembled or kept under a trigger lock. Washington government officials say the ban, instituted in 1976, is necessary to keep street violence and murder rates down, and that the second amendment protects gun rights for people associated with militias, not individuals. "I'm confident in our case, and our continued ability to protect residents from gun violence," said Mayor Adrian Fenty upon filing his legal team's brief earlier this month.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case, District of Columbia vs Heller, first argued in 2003 that the DC gun ban violates the citizens' second amendment rights. Alan Gura, the lead lawyer for the plaintiff, questioned the anti-crime impact of the city's laws, saying they have "accomplished nothing except to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms". Interest in the case, originally brought by a federal building guard who carries a handgun on duty and wanted to keep it in his home for self-defence, has been steadily building, as evidenced by the rash of "friend of the court" amicus briefs filed on both sides.

More US court examines 'right to bear arms' | NEWS.com.au

[waltky]

Goin' after the gangs with RICO...

Agencies join forces to tackle violent gangs
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 - Prosecutors will use tactics that took down mob

Federal law enforcement authorities have coupled multi-agency task forces with strategies that once focused on Mafia-era crime syndicates to target national and international gangs, many of which have brought warfare to the nation's cities. With a propensity for indiscriminate violence, intimidation and coercion, some of the gangs are considered security threats. One of the largest is Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, with an FBI estimate of 10,000 members in 42 states, including Maryland and Virginia, as well as the District.

An FBI threat assessment issued in January said MS-13 uses firearms, machetes and blunt objects to intimidate rival gangs, law enforcement officers and the public. Other violent gangs from California to New York include Surenos 13, the 18th Street Gang, the Latin Kings, the Bloods, the Crips and Vatos Locos. Federal officials say these gangs have one thing in common: They commit violent crimes in the name of the gang and for shared profit. For the first time, analysts, agents and prosecutors from various government agencies will work together to try to lower the rate of gang crimes, which include homicides, drug smuggling, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings and carjackings.

Three task forces will develop cases using federal laws to prosecute gang-related crimes. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was enacted in 1970 to fight the Mafia, allowing prosecutors to target "not just individual members, but leaders of the organization," said U.S. Attorney Rod. J. Rosenstein in Maryland, where the law has been used against reputed members of MS-13. The task forces hope to show that the purpose of the gang's racketeering enterprise is to preserve and protect its power, territory and profits through violent assault, killings, threats of violence and intimidation.

Using RICO, Mr. Rosenstein said, "you can have a broader impact on the gang, putting them out of business at least temporarily and, hopefully, longer." The task forces involved are the Gang Squad, which prosecutes national and international gang members; the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC), which analyzes patterns and trends; and the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement & Coordination Center (GangTECC), which develops cases for prosecutors.

Source

[waltky]

Mafia persists in the U.S.

Family fortunes - The American mafia is down but not out
01 October 2008 : Despite sustained law enforcement operations, the American mafia persists.

The Italian-American Cosa Nostra criminal organisation, comprising of a number of largely autonomous 'family' groupings in various locations across the United States, dominated organised crime for much of the 20th century. However, sustained law enforcement operations and a decline in the group's international links have reduced its power. Nonetheless, the Cosa Nostra remains one of the most significant criminal organisations in the US and is expanding its influence via alliance with or the 'taxation' of smaller criminal groups.

In February 2008, 62 members and associates from three New York City Cosa Nostra families were charged in one of the single largest indictments in US history. The indictment contained 84 separate charges, including conspiracy, racketeering and murder, spanning more than three decades.

Despite this, the organisation persists. The prospects for the Cosa Nostra in the US will hinge on whether it is able to continue making linkages with non-Cosa Nostra groups, shift into fraud crime and other non-traditional organised crime activities that are better insulated from detection, and its willingness to settle for a piece of the criminal activity of other groups.

Family fortunes - The American mafia is down but not out - Jane's Country Risk News