patrick.net

Hmm-- no mention of lifting the gun ban as a possible cause for the reduction...

WASHINGTON - The District is about to end 2009 with the lowest number of murders in 45 years. You have to go back to 1964 to find a lower number. Murders in the District are down 25 percent.
Why is this happening? It’s a phenomenon that has generated a number of theories with several different reasons.

In a one on one interview with Fox 5 Monday, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier said it all has to do with focusing on a small group of violent offenders and working closely with the community.

"The first is focusing on those repeat violent gun offenders,” said Chief Cathy Lanier in an interview in her office Monday. "It's a small number of people who consistently carry guns and engage in repeat violent gun offenses. If you can focus on those people and get them off the street that is the number one key ingredient."

The second key component, the Chief says, is a good relationship with the community. Building a trust and delivering with results.

"What they've done to prevent the crime this year is they are giving us information continuously on the list serves, email, calling, talking to the District commander and the beat officer and that helps us put together that intelligence picture."

They are also sending texts, anonymous texts with detailed information.

"I have those texts go to the Blackberry of every command staff member and violent crimes as well so when that tip comes in, the second it comes in, we are all looking at it."

Along with the lower number of murders in the city comes a high closure rate. So far this year D.C. Police Detectives have closed 75 percent of the murders. It wasn’t too long ago 55 percent was considered pretty good in a city the size of Washington.

2009 will be the second year in a row the District has closed more than 70 percent of its cases.

Before beginning the last command staff meeting of the year, the Chief took the time to praise the work of the department.

"This is the finest tuned, well oiled machine I have ever seen in the 19 years I have been here. I have never seen this department work so well as a team."

What concerns the Chief now is the use of PCP. More and more she says her officers are encountering people high on a drug that gives users the impression of having super human strength.

"The potency of PCP is stronger so it's a pretty scary proposition when you go back to when we had the most violence and the highest murder rates it was during the PCP years."

stay/Abe--

So, your theory is that crime would decrease if everyone were armed and the US became the Wild West. How exactly would that work?

In practice, law breakers and thugs are less likely to harass people when they don't know who is armed and who isn't. Gun control elitists and liberals warn of "Wild West Shootouts" or "blood in the streets" however that has repeatedly been proven utterly FALSE. Crime takes a nosedive when criminals fear armed citizens.

In 1991, Roy Innis, National Chairman for the Congress of Racial Equality, noted a connection between anti-gun laws and high crime. He saw that places in America having the most restrictive anti-gun laws also had (1) The most crime, (2) the highest murder rate, and (3) the largest number of ILLEGAL guns in criminal hands.

"In June, 1997, the British Parliament enacted a ban on all handguns. Britain's crime rate soared. The anti-gun lobbyists in Britain had claimed the gun ban would reduce crimes committed with handguns, but the opposite occurred". DEATH BY GUN CONTROL, by Aaron Zelman

Professor John Lott examined the effect of changes in laws to make it easier for decent citizens to carry concealed weapons for self-defense. In his exhaustive study of nationwide data, published in his book: MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME, he found that liberalizing the concealed-carry permit laws resulted in: (1) 8% decrease in murders, (2) a 5% decrease in rapes, and (3) a 7 % decrease in aggravated assaults.

Freedom works.

Oh, did I mention that the murder rate was at a 45 year low after one year of 2nd amendment rights being restored in Washington D.C. (District of Corruption). Or was that just a coincidence?

If criminals had their way, no potential victim of theirs would EVER be armed. What's that tell you?

Honest Abe says

Oh, did I mention that the murder rate was at a 45 year low after one year of 2nd amendment rights being restored in Washington D.C. (District of Corruption). Or was that just a coincidence?

It was a coincidence

Okay - so how does that explain violent crime in England? They gots no guns...