Quote:
Originally Posted by dbcook1
Richmond looking to end the year down 30 - 35% in homicides from 2021 and most likely lower than the pre-pandemic count of 66 in 2019. Hopefully that downward trend extends into 2023 as well. I don't think I have ever seen Norfolk with a higher rate than Richmond before...
|
Norfolk has never had a higher rate than Richmond. Maybe generations ago, but you can literally go back thru every single year thru the 1960s and can't find a year Norfolk had a higher rate than Richmond, and in most years it wasn't even close. Historically Richmond was one of the most violent cities in US history, many years the murder rate in Richmond was twice to three times as high as it was in Norfolk...
RPD is reporting 54 homicides thru the 27th of November. That's a rate of 23.79, my personal count thru yesterday the 6th was 58 so this just means some of the killings I had have been listed as non-murderous (justifiable, manslaughter, accidental) by RPD...
We'll see what the year-end report looks like, it isn't uncommon for the final announcement that comes out within the first few days of January to have a discrepancy from what the department was reporting through the year. The Times-Dispatch had an online Homicide Report for years that they discontinued sometime between 2016 and 2018, it was a bit more transparent than RPD's weekly reports, which has always been prone to gaps and standstills without explanation (like it's December 7 and we don't have the report thru December 4 yet; for those of us who've followed Richmond crime history RPD has routinely lagged. It's not uncommon for reports to be weeks to over a month behind in publishing to the public)...
The old RTD Homicide Report was very detailed and in almost every case had a murder in the city up online within 48 hours, and it also would say if RTD deemed it justifiable. I miss that tool lol. Like I said I can't remember the exact year they took it down but it was '18 at the latest, don't know why either. It had archived years thru like '04, too...
Richmond going from 90 last year to around 60 or less this year is a major, major W. The city is obviously much safer than it was in the pre-2007 years, the bump of the last few years notwithstanding Rich is
still safer than it ever was in 2006 on backwards. The transformation of Richmond from a community safety perspective is remarkable, people really have to have the insight of knowing what this city looked like and how it was 16+ years ago to have perspective on what is going on now. The last few years in Richmond would be considered the worst years in the history of some cities, whereas in Richmond, a city that peaked with rates at 80 per 100k and had an entire generation at rates above 40 per 100k, the recent rise in murder and violent crime of the last half-decade doesn't even register a Top 25 worst year in the city's history dating back thru the 60s...
As for Norfolk, my count for the year is 56/23.83, even if it's 60, the lead in murder rate is marginal. But if I'm any staffer for the city of Norfolk, any activist for the city of Norfolk, or just any citizen who cares about the health of the city of Norfolk, I'd be ringing all alarms that, regardless how "marginal" it is, Norfolk finishing with more murders and a higher murder rate than Richmond is a huge, huge, problem. I'd be calling for accountability to everyone to see that it doesn't happen again, and yes I'd speak from the angle of this is Richmond we're worse than, murder capital, generations-long crime infested Richmond, we can't allow ourselves to fall into the rut that it took Richmond forever to climb out of. Too many people will die and we owe it to our citizens to take care of their safety as a top priority...
So I'd sound the horn if I'm anyone with a love for Norfolk, which like most places, has seen its crime increase the last half-decade. People point to pandemic upticks, which happened, but violence in the US really started trending up in large cities post Freddie Gray. That happened in '15. That incident catapulted Baltimore into record rates and if you follow it you'll watch many cities start increasing upwards in murders in 2015 and 2016 and 2017...
This was a longer post than I anticipated and it takes me to my next point as now I'm on my ****ing soapbox...
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Boredatwork
