Columbia making gains in cutting crime

[waccamatt]

Apparently, Columbia's progress is short-lived, as the area has seen a total of nine murders in the past seven days, including a second triple homicide.

What the hell is going on???

[krazeeboi]

I think familiarity with the victims was the case with all of the recent murders, with the possible exception of the home invasion.

[803metlife]

This has been a horrible stretch. The perpetrators of both triple murders this week lived with or had close relationships with the people they murdered. I simply don't understand why people settle their differences with violence.

[sonofaque86]

I actually went to school with the two shot on Broad River. Twon G and Showboat. RIP

[CorgiMatt]

But thank goodness that before the triple murder in the city limits, Columbia had had only 3 prior murders in 2006, that according to Bob Coble in a news conference the other day. Unless things get really crazy, we should still be well below the 15 murders of 2005 and the 15 of 2004. I think the county's number of murders overall is still below last year's as well. One is too many, but a skyrocketing murder rate for the world to see on the next list would make it that much worse.

[krazeeboi]

actually there were 10 murders from last sat to today. 2 thriple homicides,1 double homicide and the paper says that it was a murdered person in Lower Richland late friday night. Is it the water?

[waccamatt]

I actually went to school with the two shot on Broad River. Twon G and Showboat. RIP

[Captain Worley]

Jeez, it really has been a bad stretch. I'm used to seeing this more in the summer when temperatures and tempers rise. I was really shocked to see news of a second triple murder...

[CorgiMatt]

I'm sorry, I stand corrected. I used this link to find the Top 25 MSA's...it appears that the Chas-N.Chas MSA was indeed 25th most dangerous. Leave it to the north city to make the whole are look bad. Damnit, that just sucks. Maybe now, Chas won't merge with the north city since that would make it look more dangerous!

[Charleston native]

^ Thanks, Corgi for bringing to light more of my hometown's blemishes. Why do I feel like you're enjoying this? I've noticed that you stay pretty well-informed when it comes to the bad things of Chas.

[CorgiMatt]

^ Thanks, Corgi for bringing to light more of my hometown's blemishes. Why do I feel like you're enjoying this? I've noticed that you stay pretty well-informed when it comes to the bad things of Chas.

[krazeeboi]

I don't have it out for Charleston, but at the same time, I have to say that the city itself has done its fair share to give the metro a non-so-desirable crime ranking. N. Charleston just makes things worse.

[Charleston native]

I know...while N. Chas is basically the crime center of the metro, Chas has now enough stats to show that it is part of the problem as well. This could affect the economic standing in the city. It has so much momentum, but enough news of escalating crime will take away all that the city has gained.

I will say this, 2006 has been a very good year for Cola in terms of its crime rate. However, Richland County needs to step up, especially with the armed robberies occurring just down the street from my house at the Publix shopping center and VAS's JCPenney.

[krazeeboi]

Yeah, a lot of the crime taking place in the area has been outside city limits. However, the city and county need to cooperate to make more of a positive impact.

[sonofaque86]

Columbia and Richland county should combine its police force or something

[Doug L]

Columbia and Richland county should combine its police force or something

[krazeeboi]

^Easier said than done in a state like ours.

But taking a step towards combining police forces, like Charlotte-Mecklenburg County has done, would be a great thing as well.

[Captain Worley]

I think there are plenty of people in the Lower Richland area who would oppose joinging with Colatown, but their numbers are steadily decreasing as the new subdivisions are being built.

[Spartan]

True. Consolidation in SC is extremely difficult. I think Richland may have already tried it, but I'm not sure. I know that there have been three counties have have made an effort to consolidate or at least talk about it since UP has been around, and so far two of them have been successful (Cherokee, Union), and the third will likely fail (Spartanburg) because its next to imposible to accomplish.

[krazeeboi]

Interesting article in today's edition of The State speaks of the unusually high amount of homicides in the area:

A rash of homicides has pushed Columbia

[CorgiMatt]

Interesting article in today's edition of The State speaks of the unusually high amount of homicides in the area:

I guess this is one of the very few positives of SC's restrictive annexation laws; had the laws been more liberal, probably just about all of these homicides would have occurred within city limits.

[erm1981]

Greenville is a smaller city and they did quite well compared to myrtle beach, sumter, and florence....considering greenville city is probably only twice as big if even that.....what about Spartanburg?

[Spartan]

I dont have any specific numbers, but crime in the city (and county) has been higher this year than normal this year.

[sonofaque86]

2006 was the deadliest year since 1978 for crimes. Read Rest Here

Decker Boulevard and Two Notch, Percival and Broad River roads were the Midlands

[krazeeboi]

What a contrast--the city has made progress, while the county hasn't. Can't say I'm surprised though.