City's homicide toll up this year

There are no drugs or gangs in Louisville. I'm sure they will have someone come up with a new chart or form to fill out so they can say something is being done about the homicide rate at the next liars club, I mean Comstat. But remember just like they say in DC if you take out the murder rate it's a pretty safe town here in Louisville.

I was looking up last week the comstat figures and they had us down for only 36 murders. Incredible!!! They even lie to themselves. I cannot fathom why they don't see this as a problem.

You may be joking (?) about drugs not being at the root of many of the murder cases here and elsewhere in the country. In case you're not, let me suggest factual correlations.

"Kids of drugs", "dope heads", "career criminals", and "gang activity" are the top reasons cited by the LMPD's Chief White and his officers to explain how difficult it is for the LMPD to be effective in crimes of burglary, theft, break ins, home invasions, and car thefts, to mention only a few of the so called "non violent" crimes that are seldom investigated and rarely solved by the LMPD. The percentage of unsolved cases for 2006/7 is upwards of 90%. Hard to believe that in this community 90% of "common criminals" are never caught. In short, if you are or become a victim of any of the crimes aforementioned you are on your own, the LMPD will do nothing, routinely lie and hide behind subterfuges of "too much crime", "not enough resources", and "let the insurance company worry about it." The LMPD is not accountable. Until that changes we're stuck with gross incompetence. The Chief of Police will also state that the problem is with the judicial system, not the LMPD.

Murders are more complicated and the LMPD may get positive press about plans to reduce violent crime, but again, no accountability for plan results exists. Violent crimes have increased every year since the current Chief of Police took over in 2003. In December 2006 the Chief announced his plan, along with the usual game of musical chairs to move officers around different Police divisions, to reduce violent crime by 3% in 2007. The numbers for 2006 were lower than those for prior years. Coincidence or not, a 3% improvement for 2007 would have been great progress. In reality, so far in 2007 the actual number of murders is up by about 27%, and for the full year it will probably be about 75+ murders, or nearly double the 2006 numbers. Again, there is very little that the LMPD can do to prevent murders, but the battle starts with an effective, transparent, and no LMPD BS approach to dealing with the "common" crimes motivated by the desire for financial gain. That is not going to happen until the "common crimes" aforementioned receive full visibility and the LMPD is held accountable. The criminals who break into your home and turn your life upside down know that they are not going to be pursued so they will trade the stolen goods for a bag of dope and go on to the next break-in.