Violent Crime Rising Sharply in Some Cities

Violent Crime Rising Sharply in Some Cities - New York Times
Nationally, the homicide rate peaked in 1991, declined steadily after 1993 and has remained essentially flat since 1999. But in the first six months of 2005, according to preliminary statistics from the F.B.I., the number of homicides nationwide rose 2.1 percent, with the greatest increase, 4.9 percent, in the Midwest. Yet many cities have seen far steeper increases. In Boston and San Francisco the number of homicides last year was at its highest in a decade.
But the police also blame lax sentences and judges who they say let suspects out on bail too easily..."We have people who've done two, three, four, five shootings who are back on the streets," said Kathleen M. O'Toole, Boston's police commissioner. "Unless we have bail reform, unless these impact players with multiple gun arrests are kept off the streets, we won't reverse this problem."