The stabbing loss of life of CashApp founder Bob Lee has prompted feedback perpetuating the notion that San Francisco is harmful and crime-riddled, however knowledge reveals violent crime — particularly homicides — are properly beneath that of many different cities of an identical measurement.
George Tita, a felony justice professor on the College of California, Irvine, believes the notion has extra to do with the profile of these concerned in sure crimes than the precise knowledge.
“When a really excessive profile tech particular person is murdered, it's simply going to get extra publicity than if it was an impoverished particular person in a neighborhood of shade,” Tita mentioned. “It’s simply low-hanging fruit. No person needs to have a look at precise statistics. A lot of the states and counties with the very best degree of crime statistics are in purple states versus blue states.”
Lee died after a stabbing assault within the Rincon Hill space of town. Cops responded to the report of a stabbing early Tuesday morning, in line with a assertion from the San Francisco Police Division. They discovered “a 43-year-old grownup male sufferer affected by obvious stab wounds.”
“Officers rendered help and summoned medics to the scene,” the police assertion mentioned. “The sufferer was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening accidents. Regardless of efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the sufferer succumbed to his accidents.”
San Francisco recorded 56 homicides every in 2022 and 2021, up over 36% from 2019, when there have been 41 homicides, in line with police division knowledge. Regardless of the rise, the variety of homicides in San Francisco is properly beneath that of different cities of an identical measurement, knowledge from the Main Cities Police Chiefs Affiliation reveals.
Indianapolis, for instance, witnessed 271 homicides in 2021 and 226 in 2022. Jacksonville, Florida, in the meantime, noticed 129 homicides in 2021 and 154 in 2022, whereas 204 homicides happened in Columbus, Ohio, in 2021 and 140 in 2022.
Violent crimes in San Francisco, together with homicide, rape, theft and aggravated assault, reached a excessive in 2013 with 7,164 violent crimes, in line with California Division of Justice knowledge. However they've tapered off considerably previously couple of years. San Francisco now falls within the decrease center of the pack compared with a number of cities of an identical inhabitants, in line with knowledge from the Main Cities Police Chiefs Affiliation.
Property crimes in San Francisco, nonetheless, inform a distinct story, as seen in a number of attention-grabbing movies. Although nonetheless properly beneath ranges seen in 2017, town noticed a 23% enhance in property crimes between 2020 and 2022, with spikes in housebreaking and larceny theft headlining the surge, in line with San Francisco PD knowledge.
“Individuals who consider that housing is unhealthy, that crime is all the time up, they consider that primarily based on their world view and dogma and never on information,” Tita mentioned. “All we will do is present unbiased, carefully-constructed knowledge. On the finish of the day, there are some individuals who don’t care concerning the information.”
San Francisco Police Chief Invoice Scott indicated homicides had been on decline earlier than the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, however climbed in the course of the subsequent months, which was a nationwide development, CNN affiliate KPIX reported.
“While you (look) at San Francisco’s violent crime fee in comparison with different cities per 100,000 (in inhabitants), we’re in direction of the underside for main cities,” Scott informed KPIX. “That by no means will get talked about.
“We have now our points with our metropolis,” he continued. “We have now some issues we positively must proceed to work on. We have now these photos that go viral and are posted everywhere in the world coping with drug use and homelessness. These are actual points in our metropolis, and we’re addressing that too. However violent crime? We’re not that metropolis.”
The-CNN-Wire
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