Cincy Post: Violent crime up 37.1% in Cincinnati

Although touting progress in certain police districts, Cincinnati city council admits that Cincinnati's violent crime rate so far this year is up 37.1 percent compared to the same period in 2000.

In the first 5 months of this year, the violent crime rate has increased by about 12 percent in two of Cincinnati's five police districts: District 2, which includes Evanston, Walnut Hills and Madisonville; and District 5, which includes Clifton, Mount Airy and Northside, while declining slightly in the remaining districts.

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"Crime in this city remains too high," Council Member Pat DeWine said. DeWine is head of City Council's law committee. "The driving factors obviously include individual responsibility, the people actually committing the crimes. But from a policy standpoint, we have tolerated too much disorder in this community for too long."

Cincinnati has recorded 30 homicides this year, the latest last week in Westwood. That puts the city on pace for even more homicides than last year's 64, a 15-year high, and a rate that would outpace Indianapolis, a city twice the size of Cincy (but in a CCW state).

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Perhaps Councilman DeWine (and Cincy's House Reps. Barret, Yates and Brinkman*, who voted "no" on HB12 in March) would care to note the lack of problems associated with a court-ordered Hamilton County-wide three week hiatus on Ohio's concealed carry ban in 2002 (or the one that's been ongoing in Seneca County for more than three months now). Perhaps DeWine will spread the word that billboards just won't work to deter the criminals that are ravaging his city. Perhaps, as chairman of the law committee, DeWine can lead the city council to back efforts to allow the law-abiding citizens of their city a means of self-protection, so that they don't have to face felony arrest and prosecution to exercise a constitutional right.

Click here to read the entire story in the Cincinnati Post.

*Rep. Brinkman's "no" votes on HB12 and HB274, which he says were cast on pro-Vermont-style CCW principle, are still, at the end of the day, "no" votes.