Hardball

Footnote: From todays USA today. {{Just goes to show that martial arts and self defense skills are a good investment}}}}




Nine people die in three incidents over nine days in Washington state. In the space of a half-hour in Philadelphia, three men are killed and another wounded in three shootings. The Chicago Crime Commission warns that violent, inner-city drug gangs are expanding to the suburbs.
Crime peaked in the early 1990s. Last month, however, the FBI's preliminary national report for 2005 showed the first increase in violent crime (2.4%) in 15 years. Murders were up 4.8% — 12.5% in cities containing 50,000 to 250,000 residents.

Crime is not increasing everywhere, and in places where crime is up, it's not always clear why. Criminologists cite many factors — more gangs in more places, more juvenile offenders, more released prisoners and more guns. Washington also has given local police more responsibility for homeland security and less support for conventional crime fighting.

David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City cautions against predicting a national resurgence in crime. "The tendency is to think the whole country is moving in one direction," he says. "That's not all true. Chicago is doing better; Philadelphia is coming apart at the seams."

Even with last year's uptick, "it's too early to declare the beginning of a general crime increase," says Thomas Repetto, author of several books on crime.

The FBI statistics, nonetheless, are "a dramatic statement of what's been going on for awhile," Kennedy says. "This issue is resonating in various places all over the country. ... People are at their wits' end."

Especially in midsized cities such as these:

Hartford, Conn.: Political fallout

As young men with guns fought it out on the streets, the governor and the mayor fought it out in the media.

Although overall crime dropped last year in Hartford, murder rose 52% (to 25), aggravated assault 23%. Then in May, 16 people were shot in five days. Many were bystanders, including Kerry Foster, 15, who was killed by a shot from a passing car while playing in front of his home.

Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican running for election in November, mailed a letter to Mayor Eddie Perez, a Democrat, chiding him for not accepting previous offers of help from state police.

Perez got the letter May 31 — a day after the governor's office released it to reporters. The mayor shot back a denial — by fax. The governor returned fire — by e-mail. The mayor and governor's staff finally agreed that state police would help patrol the North End, where groups of young men, loosely organized by streets or blocks, have been killing each other over turf, respect and girls.

Kerry Foster's father, who has the same name, is not optimistic about peace on the streets unless something changes: "These kids have to learn to get along with people they don't know. ... They need a boot camp. Hangin' out? That's the devil's playground."

Jersey City: Cost of crime

It seems anyone in this rapidly gentrifying city can become a crime victim — even the wife of the City Council president.

Sonia Zayas, 52, wife of Council President Mariano Vega, was leaving a meeting downtown the night of Feb. 7. She'd opened her car door and thrown her pocketbook on the passenger seat when a man rushed up, pushed her into the car and grabbed the bag. She screamed, he clamped his hand over her mouth and she tried to bite him. He ran off with the bag.

Zayas was not hurt, and her alleged assailant was arrested later. The incident struck a nerve in a city where violent crime increased 8.4% last year and murders rose from 23 to 38, the most in a quarter-century.

Concern about crime unites longtime residents and the young professionals and other newcomers who fill the shiny office and apartment towers on the Hudson River and the renovated brownstones a few blocks inland. Citizen patrols have been formed.

Fear may be the only thing that could halt the march of redevelopment through this old industrial port. "You don't have to just control crime, you have to control the perception of crime," Vega says.

The police department, chronically short-staffed, has tried surveillance cameras, gun buy-backs and a curfew for minors. Officers also have shifted to high-crime areas.

Mario Moreira, a deli owner whose wife was pistol-whipped and robbed the day before Zayas was mugged, says police are losing the public relations battle.

"I know people who are moving out," he says. "They'd rather move to Hoboken or back to Manhattan."

Milwaukee: Bloody holiday

Police commanders realized this Memorial Day weekend would be a bloody one, department spokeswoman Anne Schwartz says, "when we started running out of detectives to send to assignments."

When the weekend was over, 28 people had been shot. Police union head John Balcerzak said the city was "drowning." Mayor Tom Barrett asked for a "Cease-fire Sabbath." County Sheriff David Clarke announced plans to set up a mobile jail at a park where five people were shot.

Milwaukee has about 200 fewer officers than it did several years ago and more police calls than ever. "People used to settle disputes with their fists," Schwartz says. "Now they settle them with guns."

Officers have been shifted to high-crime neighborhoods. The state is providing $750,000 for emergency police overtime this summer, and city officials plan to spend another $750,000 to hire 40 more officers.

Help can't come soon enough for Steve Jenkins, 17. He found himself staring at the end of a pistol one night on his way home after buying a can of green beans for his mother.

He says the robber got away with about $100, plus the can of beans. Still, he considers himself lucky: "He let me keep my shoes."

Birmingham, Ala.: A mystery

Carolyn Johnson drives the car in which her son was shot to death. She wears buttons bearing his picture. She visits his grave every week. She doesn't know who killed him, or why.

"I wake up every day in a nightmare, and I fight to go to sleep," says Johnson, whose 20-year-old son Rodreckus was killed while parking his car three years ago.

She's one of many people who have lost a loved one in Birmingham, where homicides last year increased 76%, tops in cities with populations above 100,000.

Birmingham's 104 slayings were the most since 1997. There have been 62 this year, up from 45 at this time last year. "If we knew what was causing it, maybe we could take some steps," District Attorney David Barber says.

Religious leaders have placed "Thou shall not kill" signs outside their churches and organized a mock funeral procession through high-crime neighborhoods.

Marchers included Johnson, who formed Parents Against Violence. The group placed signs around the city that ask, "Who killed my child?"

San Bernardino, Calif.: Fear

Sometimes fear of crime is as bad as crime itself.

Last month this city, where murders have increased every year since 2000, was shocked by two deaths: Anthony Ramirez, 11, was shot on a basketball court, and Traveil Williams, 16, was shot in an argument over his cellphone.

This month, lifeguards at city pools walked off the job — over crime fears. A lifeguard had been knocked down trying to break up a fight. Then lifeguards overheard a parent talking about someone bringing a gun to the pool. Lifeguards refused to work until the city provided security.

The brief lifeguard strike is "the best, truest picture of what's going on here," says the Rev. David Kalke, pastor of the Central City Lutheran Mission, which serves an inner-city neighborhood. "The lifeguards know that a lot of the murders have taken place over simple, stupid things, like cellphones."

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The Way of the Warrior is Practice. Daily practice, accumulate practice minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day. {Book of 5 Rings} Mike Brewers 2008 Sit up challenge 44,000/100,000 running balance.(Crunches) Kicks 6,300/100,000