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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Several Journal readers noted how 30 murders out of 34 occurred in the last 4 months, just after the police were laid off.
Haunted by homicides: Flint reaches 34 slayings in seven months, on pace to hit 1986 record of 61
Published: Sunday, August 01, 2010, 1:00 PM Updated: Sunday, August 01, 2010, 4:51 PM
Laura Misjak | The Flint Journal
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FLINT, Michigan — Crack cocaine was only beginning its stranglehold on American cities when Flint had a record-high 61 homicides in 1986.
Now 24 years later, the city is on a pace that threatens to eclipse that mark.
Already this year, 34 people have been slain in Flint — nearly half of whom were left to die in the street with no witnesses and no one willing to talk to police.
There are many theories on why. No real answers.
“There’s honestly no rhyme or reason to it sometimes,” said Flint police Lt. T.P. Johnson, who heads the city’s homicide unit.
Maybe it’s because of the economy.
“Idle time is a devil’s workshop,” said Carl Taylor, a sociology professor at Michigan State University who studies violence in Flint and Detroit and blames the poor economy for a lack of jobs and social programs for young people.
Maybe it’s because of a breakdown in families.
“Nobody has any respect for human life,” said Tina Moreland, whose 22-year-old daughter, Sheena Smith, was killed in April when two male suspects shot into a group of feuding women.
Maybe it’s because there are fewer police.
“We have less police on the street to be able to stop people in cars and check them out,” said Overson Jackson III, whose son DeQuan Baker was shot to death last month. “People are losing their lives.”
Maybe it’s too many things in too many places to really be able to define.
“It is very hard to put a finger on it because there’s so many different factors,” Johnson said.
Mayor Dayne Walling said the city keeps close track of the homicides, and he’s disappointed at the number recorded this year.
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“It’s a major setback that represents a great deal of pain and suffering in the community,” he said. “We’ve had Depression-level unemployment now for two years and there’s a lot of desperation in the city now, so that leads to this sense of insecurity and increase in criminal activity.”
The city has taken steps it hopes will reduce the number of homicides, including a volunteer police corps and a program to target known drug leaders and give them a choice of accepting help and not breaking the law or going to jail.
The 34 homicides in the first seven months is close to eclipsing the total number of homicides last year, when 36 were recorded.
The vast majority of this year’s victims, 27 of the 34, died from gunshot wounds.
All but four of the victims were men, mostly fathers. Slightly more than half — 19 — of the victims were 30 or older.
Ten of them had served time in prison, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Domestic disputes have been blamed in five of the deaths. Two have been linked directly to robbers. One of the deaths — 61-year-old Lionel Neal, who was shot in his home by a stray bullet — is believed to be random.
Often, no one really knows why they were killed. In 14 instances, the person’s body was found in the middle of the street.
Police say arrest warrants have been issued in 13 of this year’s homicides. Five other cases have been turned over to the prosecutor’s office, which will determine if charges should be filed. It is possible some of them could be ruled justifiable homicides.
At Hurley and Chippewa streets is a heart-shaped garden staked with wooden crosses — each engraved with the name of a homicide victim.
Created by Eliezer Church, its founders hope the daily reminders of who already has been lost will pacify the community.
“I’ve seen the hurt in a lot of people,” said the Rev. Raymond Dunlap of Eliezer.
Drugs and crime certainly are factors contributing to the high number of deaths. Taylor said people without money may turn to the drug trade or robbery — decisions that easily can result in homicides, he said.
“More jobs lead to a better tax base. A better tax base leads to more police,” said Taylor.
“Cities just work better when everybody’s working.”
The year got off to a promising start.
After 36 homicides in 2009, Flint didn’t see its first homicide until Feb. 21, when 19-year-old Ryan Ervin died two days after he was shot in the head during an argument.
Police originally recorded their first potential homicide of the year Feb. 18 but no longer believe the death was a homicide. The Genesee County prosecutor’s office is reviewing the case.
The number of homicides sat at four until April 7, when the slaying of a pizza deliveryman was followed by seven more slayings that month and 11 the next.
In the last four months, 30 homicides have been reported.
The record-high number of 61 in 1986 was recorded when Flint’s population boasted at least 30,000 more residents than now. A full quarter of the city’s residents have fled to the suburbs since then.
All but four of the homicides came after the city laid off 46 police officers March 25.
Walling said the layoffs should not be blamed for the homicides.
Violence typically increases in warmer months, Walling said, and that can be related to the lower number of homicides in the beginning of the year.
“The daily calls into 911 are triple during the summer than what they are in the winter months,” he said. “You can’t compare the dead of winter with the middle of summer.”
However, Prosecutor David Leyton called police presence the No. 1 deterrent of crime.
“People are a lot less likely to commit a crime if a police officer is down the street or expected to come by,” Leyton said.
But the prosecutor also blames a no-snitch mentality in parts of the community for leaving police with little information when a body is found.
“People need to be the eyes and ears in their community,” Leyton said. “They need to report it, get a good look at the suspect. ... This whole don’t-snitch thing has got to go by the wayside if we’re going to be successful.”
Last year, Flint led the nation in the rate of people reporting being attacked with weapons, according to a recent Flint Journal analysis of preliminary crime statistics compiled by the FBI.
The number of assaults can be linked to an increased homicide rate, Taylor said. It doesn’t take much for a critical shooting, stabbing or beating to become a homicide.
Officials hope the community initiatives the city is starting, such as the Blue Badge Patrol Volunteer Corps, will help decrease the violence and lower the homicide rate.
“We’re trying new approaches,” Walling said. “We’re working with our state and federal partners.”
Carol Simpson, 57, who lives just a few blocks from the spot where Jackson’s son was killed, said more outreach programs and activities targeting teens are needed.
“They don’t have anything to do,” she said. “So they get involved with gangs and drugs and guns. It isn’t good.”
Read about the homicide victims. |
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Sun Aug 01, 2010 5:40 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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tdimhcs August 01, 2010 at 1:46PM
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Is it just a coincidence that close to 30 of the 34 homicides have happened after all the police officer layoffs in march? The criminals know there are only a handful of officers on the street!
I wish they had the statistics for other serious crimes during that period.
So how much money is wasted on the towing contract, created positions and other unneeded jobs?
Does the mayor and his staff wish for Flint to be the crime capital of 2010? I hope not, but how are we supposed to believe otherwise
Truthseeker August 01, 2010 at 4:17PM
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The article says it all, the lack of officers ARE the reason the homicide rate is so high. The homicides started in April, one week after the lay offs. 30 homicides in four mouths, you have to be kidding me. The Mayor is going to keep spinning this the best way he can because he knows he screwed up. He is still playing these BS games with the police department trying to "break the unions". Come on Mr. Walling, enough is enough. You know as well as everybody else at the city. The police department has been taking the brunt of the city's financial problems for the last 10 years. They are some of the lowest paid officers in the state working one of the most dangerous city's in the nation. WALLING is killing these people with poor decisions. |
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Sun Aug 01, 2010 5:45 pm |
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