Friday, October 13, 2006

Crime Central

Apparently the LTR and I live in crime central:

The Washington Post analyzed years of police statistics, focusing sharply on crimes this year, and found the biggest share of robberies happening at night and on sidewalks in neighborhoods north of downtown, including Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights and the U Street corridor.

I've never really felt unsafe walking around the 'hood, although my neighbor was mugged up the street a few years ago and some kids tried to steal my bike while I was on it earlier this year. The culprits were teens as are most cited in the WaPo article.

staggering statistic: The DC police solved 17 percent of their cases this year, which is near the average for police departments in cities DC's size. 17 percent! That means if you rob somebody in DC you have an 83 percent chance of getting away with it. To put it another way, I'd have a better chance of snatching a purse and getting off scott-free than getting a passing grade on an algebra test.

Almost Mayor Fenty said crime is one of his top priorities...hopefully he'll do some good. The 'hood is really poised to take off with the news restaurants, shops and Target(!!!) opening on 14th and Columbia (the epicenter of the crime spree, according to WaPo).

Since most of the crimes seem to be committed by kids, getting tough on crime, providing quality education and effective parenting would seem to be a start.

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