The figures are in. We are talking about the crime statistics for 2008. They
were released today by the Police Department and show what we already knew –
crime was up in 2008. But the Police Department says it wasn’t by much
– at least not much when you compare it 2007. According to their figures,
there were actually 103 murders in 2008. But to them it’s not bad since
it is only a 1.58% increase over the 97 murders in 2007. We stress that in October
the Prime Minister reported at a press conference that there were 77 murders
in 2007.
The motive for 24 of those murders were gang related and motive for another
21 was personal misunderstandings. The motive for the majority of them though
was undetermined.
As for the other violent crimes - robberies increased a marginal 3.4% with
532 robberies reported in 2008 over the 514 in 2007. 1303 burglaries were reported
in 2008 which is a 3.6% jump over the 1256 reported in 2008. Reports of theft
soared 12% to 1,413. Carnal knowledge cases increased by more than 50% –
jumping from the 66 reports in 2007 to 98 in 2008.
In terms of drugs – almost no marijuana seeds were confiscated last year
while seizure of marijuana plants, crack cocaine, and cocaine rose sharply.
Some good news is that there were less traffic accidents in 2008 and 194 firearms
were taken off the street. With that said – firearm theft was up in 2008.
A release from the police pressure describes the year as quote “challenging.”
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