I’m turning to a local story today. The latest crime figures are out from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and while homicides are down across the state, they are up here in Knoxville for 20007. But, the interesting thing is that crime, overall, is up.
Homicides in Knoxville shot up slightly in 2007, even though Tennessee saw fewer killings statewide, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics released Wednesday show.
The agency’s seventh annual report, compiled from numbers supplied by local agencies such as the Knoxville Police Department and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, indicates that total crime saw a similar increase last year.
Knoxville police reported 27 homicide cases in 2007, including the double-killing of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in January. That’s 28 deaths by violence, up by six from 22 homicides in 2006.
The paper has two nifty maps, one for the county and one for the city, where you can click on the marker and get an overview of any one of the particular murders. I clicked on a few of them, and found little factoids like “stabbed, shot and beaten” That’s for one person’s murder. Some say “shot repeatedly” and some people were stabbed multiple times — like 20, 30, 40 times, as well as being beaten, and shot.
What struck me, as I looked at the individual murders, is the rage exhibited in these killings. It’s harder to see the rage when each of these cases are individually reported, and the number of shots and stabbings isn’t always a prominent part of the story. I can’t help wondering where all this rage is coming from.
The other interesting thing, I thought, is found at the very bottom of the article.
Crime categories showing increases statewide were drug violations, which were up 7.4 percent, and shoplifting, which increased 17.3 percent.
Shoplifting increased over 17%, that’s a huge jump. But, I also believe that this reflects the direction of the economy. Just as last year I said that increased bank robberies was a sign of a crappy economy.
