Columbus' Homicide Rate Down; Officials Try To Pinpoint 'Why'

From the Columbus Dispatch: "For 2007, homicides were down significantly in Columbus, despite warnings in 2006 from a national police organization, the Police Executive Research Forum, that a "gathering storm" of criminal violence was approaching the U.S.
Columbus recorded 79 murders last year, a 24 percent decrease, and the first time in three years that Columbus came in under 100."

The numbers are down for a host of reasons the powers-that-be will never acknowledge.

One thing the city needs to do to continue the declining homicide rate, and rank and file street cops know this, is aggressively go after drugs. If you put a big dent in the drug problem, so-called "gun crime" is reduced significantly. Firearm ownership doesn't cause drug use. Illegal drug dealing fosters a dangerous environment where the bad buys need to protect themselves. So they use guns. Get it?

What's more, the city needs to grow a set and push for prosecution of gun use in crimes, instead of constantly allowing firearms charges to be plea-bargained away. Look at what Philadelphia has done. That city still has a huge crime problem, but it is down from where it was. The bad guys are afraid to use guns because they KNOW they'll wind up in jail if caught. There is no plea-bargaining, no second chance. You're done.

For politicians around these parts, however, it is somehow more politically correct to go after guns, rather than drugs. This is the city, remember, where former City Council Member Patsy Thomas stated, during a public hearing on an ordinance to ban competition rifles, that too many people were being jailed on drug charges. Huh? Appointed to the municipal bench last year, "Judge Thomas" was soundly defeated at the polls in November by voters who didn't believe her "tough on crime" message. She learned you can't have it both ways and succeed.

Columbus police on our streets do a fantastic job. But they need more support from posturing politicos to keep up the momentum.