FBI RELEASES 2010 CRIME STATS SHOWING CRIME NUMBERS KEEP FALLING
Despite a still lousy economy, FBI national crime stats released on Monday show trends still diving.
Here are some highlights:
*Total number of crimes reported: 10,329,135 (1,246,248 violent crimes and 9,082,887 property crimes)
*Most common violent crime: aggravated assault (62.5 percent of all violent crimes during 2010)
*Most common property crime: larceny-theft (68.2 percent of all property crimes during 2010)
*Top three crimes for which law enforcement reported arrests: drug abuse violations (1,638,846), driving while intoxicated (1,412,223), and larceny-theft (1,271,410)
*Total number of arrests, excluding traffic violations: 13,120,947, including 552,077 for violent crimes and 1,643,962 for property crimes (the number of arrests doesn’t reflect the number of individuals arrested—some individuals may have been arrested more than once)
Most common characteristics of arrestees: 74.5 percent of arrestees were male, and 69.4 percent of arrestees were white
*Frequency with which firearms were used in crimes: in 67.5 percent of reported murders, 41.4 percent of reported robberies, and 20.6 percent of aggravated assaults
*Total losses for victims of property crimes, excluding arsons: an estimated $15.7 billion.
As one might imagine, the rates of victimization has also fallen, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which reports that..”the rate of total violent crime victimizations declined by 13% in 2010, which was about three times the average annual decrease observed from 2001 through 2009 (4%)…”
GUNS INTO ART–THE YOUNG ALCHEMISTS OF HOMIES UNIDOS
The above news about the crime drop seems like the perfect intro into this story in the LA Weekly by Sam Slovick about some young artists from the gang intervention program Homies Unidos (started by Alex Sanchez) who have been learning foundry skills as they melt hand guns—all the guns gathered by the LAPD’s annual Mother’s Day gun buy-back—into art.
The particular art piece the young men and women worked on is called the Angel of Peace. It will be presented to this year’s Angel of Peace award winner, Connie Rice, who was selected for the honor by the Violence Prevention Coalition.
Here’s how the story opens:
I could be kicking it in my projects right now,” says Albert Sanchez, intermittently making eye contact and shoe-gazing on the patio at La Fonderie, a bronze and steel foundry on Glendale Boulevard in Silver Lake. “I live in Ramona Gardens projects in East L.A.”
The 17-year-old with shaved head and mustache wears a giant black T-shirt with an iconic cholo tattoo art-inspired graphic depicting a woman’s bifurcated face — one side alive and seductive, the other an exposed skeletal death mask framed by roses formed from hundred-dollar bills. It is presumably a representation of the extremes of fast and hard street life in feminine form, but he might wear it just because it looks cool.
Albert is part of a group of young alchemists from Homies Unidos, a nonprofit gang-violence prevention and intervention organization, who are collaborating with the Violence Prevention Coalition of Los Angeles on the Angel of Peace project to turn metal from guns into art for peace.
“I’m trying to find out about it,” says Albert, who is part of the organization’s leadership program. “They do a lot of good stuff: help out the community, help out a lot of families. I’m trying to volunteer, help others.”
As the group makes its way through La Fonderie, Homies Unidos executive director Alex Sanchez says, “We’re learning something right here.” Indeed, what the group sees is art-induced chaos, with big graffiti murals looking down on craftsmen laboring over half-rendered sculptures, seemingly oblivious to the cloud of dust their work stirs up and to the storm of sound created by the grinders, buffers and other tools.Deep in the foundry’s steamy entrails, 19-year-old Melinda Isordia’s big brown eyes reflect a fiery caldron of molten metal from melted handguns cooking at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit…..
SAN FRANCISCO PUTS MORE KIDS IN FOSTER CARE THAN NEARLY ANY OTHER AREA OF CALIFORNIA—AND WITH LESS THAN GREAT RESULTS.
The San Francisco Examiner has the story.
Here’s a clip:
Although child-welfare experts say that taking kids away from parents often does more harm than good — even in cases of neglect or abuse — San Francisco apparently puts kids in foster care more than almost any other California county once poverty is accounted for.
Not only that, but San Francisco repeatedly places the same children in foster care, suffering the highest rate of foster care recidivism of any large county in the state.
According to data compiled by UC Berkeley’s Center for Social Services Research and analyzed by advocacy group National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, more than a fifth of the children that San Francisco places in foster care and then reunites with their families wind up back in foster care again.
Placing a child in foster care is traumatic to children, even if they’re being taken away from an unstable situation, because the child is being taken away from everyone they know and love, said study author Richard Wexler. In some cases, that is unavoidable, but such instances are rare, he said.
AN APOLOGY ADDS A BITTERSWEET EPILOGUE TO THE INFAMOUS KELO V. NEW LONDON SUPREME COURT DECISION
This story in the Hartford Courant by Jeff Benedict speaks for itself. I’ve clipped from the opening below. But read the whole thing.
If a state Supreme Court judge approaches a journalist at a private dinner and says something newsworthy about an important decision, is the journalist free to publish the statement?
I faced that situation at a dinner honoring the Connecticut Supreme Court at the New Haven Lawn Club on May 11, 2010. That night I had delivered the keynote address on the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous 5-4 decision in Kelo v. New London. Susette Kelo was in the audience and I used the occasion to tell her personal story, as documented in my book “Little Pink House.”
Afterward, Susette and I were talking in a small circle of people when we were approached by Justice Richard N. Palmer. Tall and imposing, he is one of the four justices who voted with the 4-3 majority against Susette and her neighbors. Facing me, he said: “Had I known all of what you just told us, I would have voted differently.”
I was speechless. So was Susette. One more vote in her favor by the Connecticut Supreme Court would have changed history. The case probably would not have advanced to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Susette and her neighbors might still be in their homes.
Then Justice Palmer turned to Susette, took her hand and offered a heartfelt apology. Tears trickled down her red cheeks. It was the first time in the 12-year saga that anyone had uttered the words “I’m sorry.”
It was all she could do to whisper the words: “Thank you…..”
Seriously, read the rest.
REPORTS FROM THE GEORGE BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLE RE: TROY DAVIS EXECUTION
The George Board of Pardon’s and Parole heard what may be Troy Davis’s last appeal for clemency on Monday. The board may not give it’s reply until Wednesday. Davis is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
Here’s the AP story.
Here is from the Washington Post.
The LA Times weighs in here.