2011 Allegheny County Homicide Thread (Pittsburgh, Clairton: middle-class, violent crime, home)

[SteelCityRising]

Introduction: I intend to have this thread be continuously updated throughout the year to list homicides as they occur in our fair County of Allegheny and to discuss these incidents (respectfully) when and where appropriate. I realize the Post-Gazette maintains an interactive homicide map to show the race and gender of victims and suspects, the manner of death, and the locations of the crimes, but I thought having our own sub-forum reference would be handy to start to note where "trouble spots" may be and to discuss what, if anything, could be done to curtail any worrisome trends.

Thus far Allegheny County is off to a violent start, as a man was murdered at 12:55 AM in Clairton.

Clairton shooting becomes first homicide of 2011

DATE: January 1, 2011
LOCATION: 2305 Lincoln Avenue, Clairton
TIME OF INCIDENT: 12:55 AM
TIME OF DEATH: 1:57 AM
MANNER OF DEATH: Gunshot wound.

2011 Tally:

Allegheny County: 1
-City of Pittsburgh: 0
-Suburbs: 1

[h_curtis]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

I realize the Post-Gazette maintains an interactive homicide map to show the race and gender of victims and suspects, the manner of death, and the locations of the crimes...

They do? Where?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

They do? Where?

Interactive map: Allegheny County homicides in 2011

[h_curtis]

You beat me to posting it. Google is thy friend. It is interesting, but most of it is very obvious. Kind of sad to look at it. There are some neighborhoods that don't have murders that I might think would. That part is good. Lots of murders. Such meaningless crap. It is hard to understand. Guess some people just don't care?

[h_curtis]

Here is 2010 for review.

Interactive map: Allegheny County homicides in 2010

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

You beat me to posting it. Google is thy friend. It is interesting, but most of it is very obvious. Kind of sad to look at it. There are some neighborhoods that don't have murders that I might think would. That part is good. Lots of murders. Such meaningless crap. It is hard to understand. Guess some people just don't care?

For me I continue to just be very miffed that the vast majority (if not all) homicides that occurred in Allegheny County in 2010 were over relatively petty, minor, or insignificant conflicts that could have been settled much more amicably and without violence. Details about this morning's homicide in Clairton are still scant, but given the age and gender of the victim, likely race (derived from his unique first name), and the location (in/near low-income housing projects in Clairton) I can probably assume the first homicide of 2011 is also over something very trivial as a carryover from 2010.

In 2010 some people in Northern Virginia colluded to decimate me internally with their avarice and lack of ethics. The thought of violence never once crossed my mind; sometimes the power of the keystroke can pierce much more deeply into someone than a bullet. I "got even" by destroying the reputation of these people the way they destroyed my life in NoVA through semantics.

Of course the large white elephant in the room which will always cause controversy is that by far most of those killed (and killing) in 2010 in Allegheny County were young African-American males. That's purely a factual statement. The "root" of most of the violence here is trying to determine what, if anything, can be done to convince young African-American males that a human life is too valuable to gun down over something that could easily be settled without violence.

[h_curtis]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

Of course the large white elephant in the room which will always cause controversy is that by far most of those killed (and killing) in 2010 in Allegheny County were young African-American males. That's purely a factual statement. The "root" of most of the violence here is trying to determine what, if anything, can be done to convince young African-American males that a human life is too valuable to gun down over something that could easily be settled without violence.

It is a factual statement and the maps show murders by race. I always wanted to see such a map and a breakdown. So much of all the murders revolve around drugs, but this has been discussed here before.

If you took the black on black crime out of this county, it would be a model county for all to see. Obviously it cannot happen and who knows what the answers are, but first defining a problem is a start. Looking at those maps, the problem is defined quite clearly. I don't think there is an answer except to get tougher and tougher on crime.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I don't think there is an answer except to get tougher and tougher on crime.

That sounds nice in theory, but in actuality how is that practical? Most seem to think that throwing more money at the problem or by stepping up police patrols that you can successfully curtail crime. More often than not those are just "feel good" tactics to make the public feel safer when they really aren't any safer (they are just paying higher taxes for peace of mind).

You can't "predict" the vast majority of senseless violent crimes, unfortunately. If we could, then we'd have a police officer on standby at all times prior to a crime occurring. I moved here from Reston, VA, which had a population over 60,000 and had just 1 homicide in the year-and-a-half I lived there (and that was a case of domestic violence). Was that due to excellent police patrols? No. I'd very rarely, if ever, see a police cruiser making its "rounds" in my neighborhood. It was due to demographics. Fairfax County, VA and Allegheny County, PA have almost identical populations, but demographically while the former is home to mostly college-educated and upper-middle-class individuals the latter has a large element of underprivileged minorities clustered in housing projects. Crime can and does occur in affluent areas---the brutal home invasion in 2010 in which almost an entire family in a ritzy Connecticut neighborhood was wiped out is perfect evidence. Crime is much more likely to occur, though, in poorer areas. Ironically those poorer areas can't afford the higher levels of services necessary anyways to combat their own crime problems.

I don't want to get too tangential here as I wanted this thread to stay "open" all year, but in addition to merely reporting the crimes in this thread as they occur it's also important to notice patterns and to think of ways to break these vicious cycles.

[h_curtis]

As much as I would like to discuss more, I agree, the thread is to follow trends of homicide. Not the most enjoyable topic, but lets just hope this year is better than the last.

[bradjl2009]

Once you eliminate murdered African Americans (who in all likely hood who shot by another black person since white-black murders are very rare) there were only 16 murders in Allegheny County last year. That's stunning; it's like there are two different Allegheny Counties.