Monday, October 02, 2006

Violent Crime Moves To Duluth

I'm not sure why they're reporting so late in 2006, but the Duluth Police advise that violent crime in the city rose soared from 2004 to 2005, as the Red Star reports: "Violent crime rose 32% in Duluth in 2005".

DULUTH - Reports of violent crime in Duluth increased 32 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to the Duluth Police Department.

Crime overall went up as well, a 20 percent increase during that same period. Authorities blame the rise on a decrease in community policing efforts and an influx of drug dealers from outside the city.

In 2004 there were 423 drug crimes reported in Duluth. That number more than doubled in 2005, to 920.

"We have seen a large increase of drug dealers coming into the community," said Roger Waller, who retired from his post as police chief over the weekend. "We've seen an increase from small-time dealers to high-level, big-time dealers."
Not a pretty picture, that.

I think this trend mirrors what is happening in the Twin Cities metro area - drug dealers and other criminals moving in from elsewhere. The question, of course, is: why?

It's hard to believe that the MSM, particularly the Red Star, doesn't have the resources, desire, or curiosity to investigate and track the path the criminal element takes to get to Minneapolis and Minnesota as a whole. Wouldn't it be helpful to know where they come from, why they're here, and what keeps them here? How can we fight the problems if we don't understand the enemy?

The Red Star and other leftist media often accuse the president as being uninformed and incurious, but what could be a greater example of uninformed incuriosity than the MSM's non-investigation of Minnesota's criminal pipeline?