XPost: mn.politics, alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, or.politics   
   From: contact@tiffanyhenyard.com   
      
   ajor crimes in the Twin Cities have dropped or stayed steady from last year,   
   though homicides, shootings and car theft remain far above pre-pandemic levels   
   in Minneapolis and St. Paul.   
      
   That mostly tracks with data for the first six months of 2024 that show major   
   crimes are almost all trending down on the national level. In fact, rates for   
   multiple categories of crime have returned to 2019 levels, including homicides   
   — a drop driven    
   by plummeting rates in large cities that have historically had high homicide   
   counts.   
      
   “The world is returning in many ways to pre-pandemic conditions,” said   
   Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, based in   
   Washington, D.C.   
      
   But he also cautioned that “it would be a big mistake for anyone to be   
   waving the victory flags at this point.”   
      
   Homicides and other serious crimes rose sharply across the country in 2020 as   
   the COVID-19 pandemic, fallout from George Floyd’s murder and other factors   
   roiled the nation. The Council on Criminal Justice, which has studied national   
   trends in the years    
   since, released its latest report in July, focusing on 39 cities from January   
   through June of this year.   
      
   Local trends, particularly in Minneapolis, may not be as uniformly downward as   
   national averages because of a “unique set of challenges” here, according   
   to Michelle Phelps, a criminologist with the University of Minnesota-Twin   
   Cities. That includes    
   low staffing at the Minneapolis Police Department, and violence interruption   
   work that has stalled out with high turnover in the city’s Office of   
   Community Safety.   
      
      
   “It does seem like the city was coming into the summer with a lot of   
   instability with the agencies and organizations that are responding to   
   violence in the community,” Phelps said.   
      
   Here’s how national trends compare to local police data in Minneapolis and   
   St. Paul so far in 2024:   
      
   Homicides slowing   
   Violent crime tends to pick up in summer months, and in July, Minneapolis   
   recorded nine homicides, totaling 43 this year, according to a Star Tribune   
   database. A downturn since then now has the city just under last year’s   
   count through Aug. 13. But    
   homicides here remain up by two-thirds from 2019.   
      
   St. Paul is somewhat similar, showing 16 homicides this year compared to 21   
   last year through July, according to a Star Tribune database. That database   
   does not stretch back to 2019, but according to police, who track homicides   
   differently, the city    
   recorded 13 through July that year.   
      
   The fact that the Twin Cities have shown declines in homicides but are yet to   
   return to pre-pandemic numbers is common among American cities.   
      
   Minneapolis   
      
   With shortage of investigators, majority of Minneapolis arsons go unsolved   
   Two-thirds of the 29 cities studied for homicide trends by the Council on   
   Criminal Justice have not returned to pre-pandemic numbers, the report said.   
   The Twin Cities were not included in that study.   
      
   Homicides nationally are down 13% from last year and are just under 2019   
   levels. That’s largely because of significant drops in big cities that tend   
   to have higher homicide counts.   
      
   If the trend holds, a return to 2019 levels would mark a significant   
   milestone, considering homicides jumped by nearly a third in 2020, the biggest   
   single-year leap in U.S. history, according to the Centers for Disease Control   
   and Prevention.   
      
   Meanwhile, the number of people injured by gunfire remained higher in   
   Minneapolis, increasing a small amount from last year through July. In St.   
   Paul through June, nonfatal shootings dropped from last year and are just   
   below 2019 levels.   
      
   Nationally, gun assaults — a broader term than nonfatal shootings — are   
   down by almost a fifth from last year and are about equal to 2019.   
      
   Phelps said the differences between the Twin Cities could be explained by the   
   heavier fallout from Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.   
      
   “There was no other place where I think public trust in the police was as   
   shaken,” Phelps said. “There was no other place where the police   
   department felt more embittered about the protests.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)