2022-01-28 08:00:00
Baton Rouge and New Orleans were not alone in 2021, with citizens watching daily reports regarding crime, especially shootings and homicides.
Lots of small, medium and large American cities saw significant increases in crime, and this year has started with more of the same.
Chicago led the nation in 2021 with 797 homicides, more than in 2020 and 2019, the most since 1996. That’s going to happen with more than 3,500 shootings in a single year.
New York City has seen violent crime rising the last two years. More recently, some of the city’s subways have become crime scenes, with eight murders in 2021. The Big Apple had more than 1,500 shootings, regarding double the number police recorded a couple of years ago.
According to an analysis released by the Council on Criminal Justice, while the number of homicides increased in 2021 by 5% over 2020, there was a 44% increase over 2019.
CCJ collected information from 22 big and small cities. Los Angeles was the largest. Norfolk, Virginia was the smallest. Among other cities, Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Memphis, San Francisco, Washington and Philadelphia as well as Austin, Memphis, Omaha and Seattle participated in the annual study. Though six of the cities saw a drop in homicides (Omaha, 24%; Seattle, 25%), most of the cities saw increases.
Baton Rouge and New Orleans weren’t part of the study because our police data either didn’t include enough comparable crime information from previous years, or what was available conflicted with data published earlier. CCJ uses incident-level data, which sometimes differs from Uniform Crime Report data.
East Baton Rouge Parish and Orleans Parish had a tough 2021. Two years in a row, homicides increased in Baton Rouge, totaling 149 lives lost in 2021. Two years in a row homicides increased in New Orleans, with 218 lives lost in 2021, the first time the city had more than 200 murders since 2007.
While we look at crime across the nation and wonder what’s going on, what we care regarding most are the places where we live and work, the places where our children and grandchildren live and go to school. We don’t like seeing so much crime anywhere, but we care most when it’s close to home.
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There’s been a lot of attention on violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some experts have attributed it to people losing jobs, folks being stuck inside under local or state mandates, and pent-up desires while under self-imposed or required quarantines. Others have attributed some of it to unrest related to the George Floyd police murder and subsequent social justice anger and concerns.
I’m not saying none of that is true, but there is more to it.
One of CCJ’s conclusions is that police and policy leaders should look at more “violence-prevention strategies of proven effectiveness” and “enact needed police reforms.”
Interestingly, CCJ noted that murder has DECLINED significantly since the 1990s. The 2021 data for the cities examined showed a homicide rate of HALF what it was for those communities 29 years ago. We’re talking regarding 28 deaths per 100,000 in 1993 versus 15 deaths per 100,000 in 2021. In 1994, 424 people were killed in New Orleans.
It’s not as though people in law enforcement don’t care. Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul regularly address crime issues. With meetings and public hearings, it’s good to see so much recent attention on crime in New Orleans by Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Police Chief Shaun Ferguson, District Attorney Jason Williams, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, the New Orleans City Council and criminal and juvenile court judges.
But it’s not enough.
Some of this is bigger than any series of carjackings and shootings. Some of this is tied to larger issues that too often we don’t want to discuss or tie to nightly news crime coverage.
Too many people are stressed and distressed, generally and particularly in the last two years. Too many people are concerned regarding being able to pay rent month following month. Too many people are worried regarding eviction. Too many businesses are concerned regarding getting good employees and too many of the employees and potential employees are scared, concerned that uncaring bosses might fire them because they have to take care of a sick child, making them five minutes late for work.
There’s even more. There are big and small contributors to the problem. We, too, have to help solve it.
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