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Murders in city soar past '06 total
By Tim Eberly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/30/07

With one month left in the year, murders in Atlanta already have topped the totals from the two previous years, and there are signs that killings could keep rising.

As of Thursday, 121 murders had been reported in the city for the year, compared to 20-year lows of 110 in 2006 and 90 in 2005, according to Atlanta police.

Atlanta police blame the rise in murders, in part, on the yearlong absence of the narcotics unit, which was disbanded after the controversial shooting of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in November 2006.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Judy Pal said the department has an eye on the numbers.

"This is something that absolutely concerns the Atlanta Police Department because we were on a downward trend," Pal said.

"The question is: Is it going to continue [to rise]?" said Dean Rojek, a University of Georgia associate sociology professor who has studied homicides in Atlanta for three decades. "All the indications are that it should probably increase over the coming years."

The city is not coming close to bloody years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when homicides topped 200 for five straight years and peaked in 1989 at 246, according to the Bureau of Justice.

But the number of homicides is creeping back toward levels seen between 1997 and 2003, a seven-year stretch when the city averaged about 146 slayings a year.

Pal of the Atlanta police attributed the increase to two factors.

One is that the department spent a year without a narcotics unit cracking down on mid-levels drug dealers.

"We weren't out there being able to make those arrests that are so important," said Pal, adding that drugs and violent crimes go hand in hand.

Another reason, she said, is a gang authorities described as one of Atlanta's most violent in recent years.

Nine alleged members of the so-called "International Robbing Crew" have been locked up, accused of killing at least seven people in a two-year span.

Atlanta police, meanwhile, are making moves to keep homicides down, Pal said.

The department's new narcotics unit hit the streets on Oct. 1, and has seized $700,000 worth of drugs and guns in its first 45 days, she said.


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My comment: At least, we have the sun! 25°C outside on December 12!