City's Homicides Rise Sharply in August (w/Addenedum)

The now misnamed site, Bartlies, chronicles the City's homicides.  After a slow start to the summer, we have had 11 homicides in the last 2 weeks.  The total has hit 79, a pace to give us 122 homicides for the year.  See here for a list of 2011 homicides.  See here for a graph comparing the last six years.  I think it is great that Bartlies keeps this chart as administrations are prone to play fast and loose with the numbers.

I've never bought the argument that the Mayor or IMPD's policies actually have much of an effect on crime rates.  But when a Mayor claims credit for crime going down, he or she has to take the blame when crime goes up.  Candidate Ballard ripped Mayor Peterson for a high homicide rate, but when it comes to crime on his watch, he wants to use a more narrow category such as "criminal homicide" or "murder."

Note:  Another homicide was added by Bartlies this morning to bring the total to 80:

Averaging 1 homicide every 2.96 days
Expect 123 to die by year's end
■Aug 19, 2011 @ 9841 Gatewood Ct
Toddler dies of blunt force trauma. Coroner rules dead a homicide