The Enquirer recently ran a piece, “Enduring Grief,” which described the impact of murder on families of homicide victims in Cincinnati.
In one case, Yvette Hooten and her 16-year-old son Mark left their West Price Hill home to meet up with friends in South Cumminsville, where Mark was catching a ride to a job training program at Cincinnati State. Within minutes, he was gunned down by two men who fled the scene and have yet to be caught by police.
On Mother’s Day last year, 20-year-old Brittany Jackson was walking to her grandmother’s house in Pendleton to wish her a happy mother’s day. At 9 a.m. as she walked down Broadway, two men began shooting at each other, supposedly in retribution for another shooting. Brittany was shot in the face and never regained consciousness.
I remember reading the paper last Thanksgiving and noticing that three shootings occurred in our city over two days. One guy was tied up, beaten and shot when three men broke into his home. A woman in Millvale was shot inside her house in front of two children. A 19-year-old man was shot in a bar in South Fairmont.
Since 2000, homicides in Cincinnati have gone from 40 a year to 60; gunshot victims have increased from 67 to 360; gunshot victims at Children’s Hospital have risen from 13 to 41.
According to the FBI’s 2008 Crime in the United States report, Cincinnati had the 12th highest number of murders per capita in the country. Out of 76 large cities, Cincinnati had 21.9 non-negligent homicides per 100,000 residents — only New Orleans (63.9), St. Louis (46.9), Baltimore (36.9), Detroit (33.8), Washington D.C. (31.4), Oakland (28.6), Kansas City (25.5), Newark (23.9), Cleveland (23.5), Pittsburgh (23.2), and Philadelphia (23.0) had more.
Compared to Cincinnati’s 21.9, New York City’s homicide rate of 6.3 is startlingly low – same with Los Angeles at 10.0. In fact, Cincinnati had more per capita murders than New York City and Los Angeles combined. Miami at 14.7, Chicago at 18.0 and Atlanta at 19.7, were also lower than the Queen City.
Cincinnati was ranked the 19th most dangerous city in America out of 393 analyzed, according to City Crime Rankings 2009-2010.
Mayor Mallory likes to talk about how safe this city has become, but a quick glance at the daily newspaper proves that’s not true. The hard truth is Cincinnati has become a dangerous place to live.
It’s incomprehensible to me to equate “zip codes 45210 and 45214″ to “Over the Rhine.”
If this is as bad as the country gets, we’re doing just fine!