Akron newspaper headline hides sad trend in city crime rate
"FBI stats say Akron fairly safe - Violent crime less than in other cities"
To read the headline, you'd never guess that violent crime jumped 7% in Akron in 2003, fueled by a 23% increase in rape, and 22% increase in aggravated assault (bucking a state-wide and national trend of falling rates).
Upon passage of Ohio House Bill 12, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic whined, "We took guns away from the Wild, Wild West more than 100 years ago,'' he said, "and we're revisiting it. I really think it's a sad day.
"It's a real indication of the wrong direction that the state of Ohio has gone with these right-wing folks down there driving the issues. I cannot believe... the typical soccer moms in suburbia who have helped put these people in office are going to feel good when they go to the nearest Wendy's... and find a bunch of people with guns strapped to their hips.''
One wonders how Plusquellic explains that his city bucked state and nationwide trends and posted drastically higher violent crime rates, all without a concealed carry law he claims would be the culprit of such increases.
Clilck on the "Read More..." link below for more.
Things aren't going much better so far this year in Akron, a city with some of the most stringent gun control laws in the state. The danger is being fueled by businesses who are willingly advertising that their patrons and employees are defenseless by posting "No-CCW" signs.
In terms of per capita numbers, the Beacon Journal consoles readers with the news that they don't have it as bad as their neighbors, noting that "Akron had 601 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Cleveland had 1,325 per 100,000." The paper also brags that the city only had the third-highest number of of forcible rapes, behind Cleveland and Columbus.
North of the border, Detroit enjoyed it's second full year with a concealed carry law in 2003. Violent crime fell another 6%, but the Motor City, like its urban Ohio counterparts, still has a long way to go.
Good news for the nation will soon be good news for Ohio:
Overall, the nation looks to have confounded predictions from concealed carry opponents yet again.
More Americans than ever owned and carried fireams in 2003, and according to the FBI's preliminary 2003 crime report, violent crime rates dropped another 3.2% nationwide.
While the FBI says these are only premliminary numbers, Ohio looks to have had a mixed bag. The good news is that overall numbers in Ohio look to have come down slightly in 2003, coming off a time when Ohio's rate had climbed 5%, while Michigan's recently-enacted CCW law helped lower crime in that state 10.5%. But Akron is not alone to shown troubling signs in 2003. Columbus' murder rate jumped 34%, rapes in Cleveland were up 4.4%, and aggravated assaults were up 4% in Toledo.
According to the Associated Press, the number of violent crimes has been dropping steadily nationwide over the past five years, particularly in the nation's largest cities. The report Monday showed a 6.5 percent decrease from 2002 to 2003 in these crimes in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants.
Decreases were reported in all regions of the United States, with the Midwest showing the steepest drop at 7 percent.
Attorney General John Ashcroft cited tougher law enforcement methods and stiffer sentences for habitual criminals for driving down the nation's violent crime rate.
"Hardcore criminals are paying unprecedented penalties, and law-abiding Americans are enjoying newfound safety," Ashcroft said in a statement.
Yes, Mr. Attorney General, law-abiding citizens certainly are enjoying newfounds safety, thanks to passage of concealed carry laws that continue to influence a steep decline in national crime rates.
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