Detroit may be the “epicentre” of deadly gun violence in the U.S. — with more murders last year than Windsor has seen in half a century — but it’s not the place that police in the Rose City worry about.
Detroit’s mayor, interim police chief and head homicide investigator held a news conference Thursday to update the city’s 2012 crime statistics. They said overall crime is down slightly but the number of homicides – 411 in 2012 — has surged to one of the highest levels Detroit has seen.
“America has a problem with guns but the epicentre seems to be here in Detroit,” said interim police Chief Chester L. Logan.
“If I had 1,000 more police officers in the city of Detroit, the way things are right now, I don’t know what kind of impact it would have.”
Detroit police said 25 of last year’s homicides were “justifiable,” such as citizens defending themselves from criminals. Three of the justifiable homicides were police shootings.
The number of homicides Detroit police investigated last year jumped to 411 from 377 in 2011, and 327 in 2010. The weapon of choice in the criminal homicides was most often a gun. There were 333 shootings that ended in murder. There were also 33 assaults and 20 stabbings.
But it seems there was potential for Detroit’s murder rate to climb even higher. There were 1,263 non-fatal shootings last year, up from 1,244 in 2011.
“We’ve lost respect for each other, we’ve lost respect for life,” said Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.
“We can’t give up, we can’t give in. We’ve really got to let the small percentage of our population that’s creating havoc in our city know that we’re not going to continue to accept it.”
One of the last Detroit murders of 2012 happened Dec. 30, when a woman allegedly stabbed her eight-year-old daughter to death.
There are no signs of slowing down this year.
In the first few days of 2013, there were at least two reported murders in Detroit, including a cab driver who was shot and killed early Thursday by a passenger. The killer also shot another passenger who was in the taxi. She was in critical condition Thursday.
Those Detroit murders in the last few days almost matched Windsor’s homicide rate over four years. Windsor saw three murders in 2012 and one in 2011, said Staff Sgt. Todd LaMarre with Windsor’s major crime unit. None of them were shootings. Before that, the city went two years without a single homicide.
LaMarre said the highest number of murders on record for Windsor in a single year is 14, in 1977. Since the mid-1950s, Windsor has averaged 4.6 homicides a year. In the last 25 years, the average has been 5.2.
Despite the bleak picture in Detroit just a kilometre away, the city is not what police on this side of the border worry about.
LaMarre said border tightening since 9-11 has helped keep a lot of Detroit’s criminal element out of Essex County. Police here are keeping an eye down Highway 401.
“More of a concern for us is the criminal element coming from the Toronto, Montreal areas, the organized gang activity and members coming down to Windsor from the northeast,” said LaMarre. “We will see the drug activity from organized gang members from those areas.”
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