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Crime in Little Rock


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  • 3 months later...

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Now that the year is over, did Little Rock break the murder record last year? I know at one point it was on pace to happen.

No, they fell off that pace a couple of months ago. Little Rock finished with 59 homicides -- the city's record is 76 from 1993.

North Little Rock finished with 13 and unincorporated Pulaski County had seven. According to the Democrat-Gazette, there were 84 homicides in all of Pulaski County for 2006, compared with 49 homicides in 2005.

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The increase we saw for the year was similar to that observe in the region and across the nation. Almost every core city saw jumps in the murder rate this year. Even NYC which had a remarkable turnaround and has had fairly low murder rates for a major city had a big jump this year.

The exception seems to be Dallas, which had the lowest number of murders since 1967, when it was a much smaller city.

New LR mayor Mark Stodola is going to make cutting down on crime his #1 issue, so hopefully we'll see some results. How to pay for that is still up in the air.

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  • 2 months later...

Well hell, what was a much improved year came to an end last night.

There were only two murders in all of January and February, putting LR in very good shape compared to last year but in early March there had been two more murders.

All hell broke out last night with four murders. Two murders happened in Southwest LR when two men were gunned down together, another happened at Daisy Bates in the Quapaw Quarter and the culprit fled and ended up being shot by LRPD, making for the 4th.

Every person killed this year has been a minority.

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Well hell, what was a much improved year came to an end last night.

There were only two murders in all of January and February, putting LR in very good shape compared to last year but in early March there had been two more murders.

All hell broke out last night with four murders. Two murders happened in Southwest LR when two men were gunned down together, another happened at Daisy Bates in the Quapaw Quarter and the culprit fled and ended up being shot by LRPD, making for the 4th.

Every person killed this year has been a minority.

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0307/405503.html

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Well hell, what was a much improved year came to an end last night.

There were only two murders in all of January and February, putting LR in very good shape compared to last year but in early March there had been two more murders.

All hell broke out last night with four murders. Two murders happened in Southwest LR when two men were gunned down together, another happened at Daisy Bates in the Quapaw Quarter and the culprit fled and ended up being shot by LRPD, making for the 4th.

Every person killed this year has been a minority.

Still, that's only eight total for the first quarter of the year. I know the "on-pace" stuff is flawed, but that's just on pace for 32 for the year, which isn't bad at all.

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Still, that's only eight total for the first quarter of the year. I know the "on-pace" stuff is flawed, but that's just on pace for 32 for the year, which isn't bad at all.

It's not but it was even better. It won't take many 4-murder days to put us ahead of the pace instead of behind it.

That said, you wonder how many of these murders were by potential murderers. Are we going to see a drop off in murders after last year because the thugs are being purged?

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All four of the "victims" had extensive criminal records. One of the SWLR victims had been arrested last week but was "cited out" of the PCRDF because of space availability.

Ironically, if there had been available space in the jail, he would likely be alive today.

A murder victim is still just that, even if they have a record. Let's just pray we don't have any more nights like that one.

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  • 2 months later...

The murder rate has dropped dramatically this year in LR but not so in NLR. Today marked the 9th homicide in NLR this year (compared to 12 south of the river in a city more than three times its size). Supposedly a gang-related shooting it shut down Main St around 18th for much of the afternoon. Three other people were wounded by bullets.

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  • 1 month later...

UALR's jail study came out today. Basically it endorsed better fiscal planning by the county and actually put a lot of responsibility on Villines and Quorum Court and also recommended a quarter percent sales tax for enlarging and funding the jail as well as some prevention programs.

I hope people get behind this but I have my doubts.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First, I was horrified that two 15 year old "boys" shot a store owner to death - a person they knew - last week. Then Sunday, another minor proceeds to beat a woman in the face for her purse in broad daylight at Wal-Mart in NLR, and then guns down a decent man trying to come to her aid.

I am outraged. I am incensed. I am dismayed at the entire lost culture that have failed these boys. What is the world coming to that children have become animals..completely out of control?

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IN reference to the recent crime, it is my belief that the families of these criminals are to blame. These heathens are raised without a moral compass and are somehow taught that said criminal activity is 'Ok' and acceptable.

It's time for LR and surrounding cities to do something to reconcile the problem.

Not only does this create bad press for the area but it makes such simple tasks as visiting the local Wal-Mart seem unsafe.

Something must be done and soon.

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IN reference to the recent crime, it is my belief that the families of these criminals are to blame. These heathens are raised without a moral compass and are somehow taught that said criminal activity is 'Ok' and acceptable.

It's time for LR and surrounding cities to do something to reconcile the problem.

Not only does this create bad press for the area but it makes such simple tasks as visiting the local Wal-Mart seem unsafe.

Something must be done and soon.

We've had opportunity to work with some inner city youth, and you just wouldn't believe the environment most of these kids grow up in...worse than 3rd world. Absolutely inexcusable...there aren't any parents, much less mature adults around. Its a complete and utter breakdown of society....

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We've had opportunity to work with some inner city youth, and you just wouldn't believe the environment most of these kids grow up in...worse than 3rd world. Absolutely inexcusable...there aren't any parents, much less mature adults around. Its a complete and utter breakdown of society....

I didn't realize the problem was that bad. This highlights my pint that something needs to be done to correct to problems. I just completed a Sociology course and learned that a lack of mature parental guidance, education, finances etc. were a few of the societal ills that generally lead to crime.

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First, I was horrified that two 15 year old "boys" shot a store owner to death - a person they knew - last week. Then Sunday, another minor proceeds to beat a woman in the face for her purse in broad daylight at Wal-Mart in NLR, and then guns down a decent man trying to come to her aid.

I am outraged. I am incensed. I am dismayed at the entire lost culture that have failed these boys. What is the world coming to that children have become animals..completely out of control?

Not to mention the similarities with the 17-year old that killed the bank teller in West LR.

It's one thing when we see gang-on-gang violence but it's completely another when we see innocents being killed. This is the worst rash of this sort of violence I remember since the early 1990s when a student was killed at Markham liquor and a young black student at McClellan who has excellent grades and was a top athlete was killed - for wearing Papa John's red when he delivered pizzas.

I agree about this culture that glorifies guns and violence, I don't understand it. Parents aren't around and don't care, everyone looks up to the neighborhood dealers. Studying or even trying in school is "acting white". It makes it so tough to escape to the middle class. It's a small group of LR's black population but they just do so much damage.

These acts all occurred outside of the traditional high-crime areas - way out in rural Saline Co, the Wal-Mart in NLR near Sherwood, and west LR.

I've never felt unsafe my whole life in LR but this time I am a bit uneasy.

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We've had opportunity to work with some inner city youth, and you just wouldn't believe the environment most of these kids grow up in...worse than 3rd world. Absolutely inexcusable...there aren't any parents, much less mature adults around. Its a complete and utter breakdown of society....

A teen gunned down Hollis Williams (a friend and a painter) in Kroger parking lot on Roosevelt Rd little over a year ago. Hollis was 80+ years old and was the only source of income for his disabled elderly wife. The teen thought Hollis had cash on him, but he didn't.

I met Hollis in the early 80s when my parents hired him as the painter on their remodel in Hillcrest. He was always kind and always had a new joke to tell. I never saw him get stressed or agitated about anything. Hollis went on to paint for both of my grand parents, and I hired him to paint my remodel job in Midtown.

Though he was in his twilight years, he did a great job. He still had jokes to tell. I was glad to have introduced him to my wife, who loved him. He was so different than all the other subcontractors we had to deal with.

He had a young guy to help him paint the areas that required scaffolding. Hollis shared that it was very difficult to find decent help due to rampant drug use among the young painters. Eventually, his help stopped showing up. When my remodel concluded, there were a few areas that never got the second coat of paint. I did not attempt to call him to finish, figuring that he needed to do what was best for him and his wife. About a year-and-a-half later, he called me and asked if he could come by to finish his work. He came and painted for two days. There was no charge. That is the kind of guy he always was.

The shooting occurred a few months later.

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Not to mention the similarities with the 17-year old that killed the bank teller in West LR.

I work with the mother of one of the close friends of the boy you are referencing. In your example, how come you didn't include the fact that his family turned him in?

Parents aren't around and don't care, everyone looks up to the neighborhood dealers.

Generalizations like that shouldn't go unchecked. To lay the blame solely at the feet of the parents is unfair. There are plenty of parents who care very much, but not all of them experience success. While there is a correlation between youth violence and single parent households, the combination of poverty, drug abuse, and mass media all have the capacity to influence youth and override good parenting. There are plenty of cases were drugs alone are enough.

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A teen gunned down Hollis Williams (a friend and a painter) in Kroger parking lot on Roosevelt Rd little over a year ago. Hollis was 80+ years old and was the only source of income for his disabled elderly wife. The teen thought Hollis had cash on him, but he didn't.

I met Hollis in the early 80s when my parents hired him as the painter on their remodel in Hillcrest. He was always kind and always had a new joke to tell. I never saw him get stressed or agitated about anything. Hollis went on to paint for both of my grand parents, and I hired him to paint my remodel job in Midtown.

Though he was in his twilight years, he did a great job. He still had jokes to tell. I was glad to have introduced him to my wife, who loved him. He was so different than all the other subcontractors we had to deal with.

He had a young guy to help him paint the areas that required scaffolding. Hollis shared that it was very difficult to find decent help due to rampant drug use among the young painters. Eventually, his help stopped showing up. When my remodel concluded, there were a few areas that never got the second coat of paint. I did not attempt to call him to finish, figuring that he needed to do what was best for him and his wife. About a year-and-a-half later, he called me and asked if he could come by to finish his work. He came and painted for two days. There was no charge. That is the kind of guy he always was.

The shooting occurred a few months later.

Thanks for sharing that.

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I agree with Apork. I've never felt unsafe in LR before, but the murder at the Wal Mart really hits home. I was at that exact store 2 days earlier, and would hope that I would've reacted the same way that the victim reacted when he witnessed the woman being assaulted.

Like architect, I've also spent considerable time in the inner city working with kids. The overwhelming majority of them are great kids at heart, with obvious talents, intelligence, and potential. However the majority of them spent the day surrounded by negative influences. One or no parents, no discipline, no responsibility, etc. I would imagine that I would've turned out much differently had I by chance been born into this environment.

I don't think these are random acts of violence by inherently bad people. It's a progression of encouraged behavior over several years, and there nothing the legal system can do but treat the symptoms. There's no silver bullet that will change this behavior other than responsible citizens becoming active in the lives of these kids at a young age and providing a positive influence for them.

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I work with the mother of one of the close friends of the boy you are referencing. In your example, how come you didn't include the fact that his family turned him in?

Generalizations like that shouldn't go unchecked. To lay the blame solely at the feet of the parents is unfair. There are plenty of parents who care very much, but not all of them experience success. While there is a correlation between youth violence and single parent households, the combination of poverty, drug abuse, and mass media all have the capacity to influence youth and override good parenting. There are plenty of cases were drugs alone are enough.

Generalizations are just that..generaliztions. But the lack of a coherent family is FAR and away the fundamental problem here. A strong family unit can overcome poverty, though we cannot discredit how signficant that is either.

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I work with the mother of one of the close friends of the boy you are referencing. In your example, how come you didn't include the fact that his family turned him in?

Generalizations like that shouldn't go unchecked. To lay the blame solely at the feet of the parents is unfair. There are plenty of parents who care very much, but not all of them experience success. While there is a correlation between youth violence and single parent households, the combination of poverty, drug abuse, and mass media all have the capacity to influence youth and override good parenting. There are plenty of cases were drugs alone are enough.

The generalizations fit a pattern that's obvious to anyone. There are exceptions, and the kid that killed the teller was one. His family was different not only because they turned him in but from everything I've heard they were just wonderful people and did nothing but try to help the kid until finally they were forced to disown him because of his crack habit. His father was a champion for the disabled.

You know as well as I do, though, that my generalization applies to more than 80% of the serious violent crime in LR. Most of these kids committing murders didn't have the benefit of growing up in a traditional two-parent household with caring parents. In extreme poverty that's just a rare thing. Most families with two working parents, even at low wage jobs, can get out of the very worst neighborhoods. They won't live in Chenal or the Heights but they can get away from the crackhouses.

Did anyone else read about the woman that was arrested the other day in SWLR for leaving her young children (all under 6) alone for days at a time with no food in the house and she admitted to police that she was out prostituting herself and doing drugs. Those poor kids were set up for a life of crime from the very start.

The real generalization that needs to be avoided the unfortunately thought process that black = crime. There are too many good people in LR who are subject to stereotypes because of some bad eggs like these.

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Generalizations are just that..generalizations. But the lack of a coherent family is FAR and away the fundamental problem here. A strong family unit can overcome poverty, though we cannot discredit how significant that is either.

If this is going to be about 'Crime in Little Rock' then what about the underage drinking, abuse of prescription medication, illicit drug use in the white community. Rape is a violent crime. What about the use of the date-rape drugs in this community?

I have two daughters. I shutter when I think about what our family is going to have to go through when she hits her pre-teens through 25 or so. I have two good parents, upper middle-class and I made good grades. But, I went through a long period of time when I was invincible and didn't hear a thing they said. During this period in my life, I could have easily killed someone behind the wheel of a car. A white guy shot at me and three friends in WLR because we were throwing pebbles at a girls window to try to get her to sneak-out.

Son of LR city director charged after fatal accident in Oregon Is this a product of absentee parenting or poverty? http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx...851&rss=315

Architect, you got it right when you said, "Its a complete and utter breakdown of society." But , it is affecting families of all races in the U.S.

I am asking for some balance in this topic, Crime in Little Rock... If you are going to make a generalization about a group, then say so... If you're going to post about "Crime in Little Rock," then it is your responsibility to make sure this doesn't become a place to kick minorities.

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