Comments on: Atlanta Crime Trend Similar To Decatur

By: Decaturguy

Decaturguy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:06:18 +0000

I do think though that criminals get more brazen when they get away with “harmless” property crime for a long period of time. If you bust into enough homes to steal a flat screen TV eventually you are going to bust into the wrong person’s door who might fight back and lead to a shooting. That’s just the odds of a criminal enterprise.

And the fact that the criminals are breaking into people’s homes when they are apparently actually there (as with the 71% increase in robbery in Kirkwood/East Lake) eventually that is going to lead to tragedy.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:11:51 +0000

I guess this all boils down to the line between “violent crime” and “potentially violent crime”. Is there a difference when it comes to public perception? APD thinks so.

APD seems most concerned about dispelling the notion that there is more violent crime then before…since they made such a mess out of the John Henderson murder. The stats for most neighborhoods back up the argument that violent crime is down in most areas of Atlanta, while crimes against property are up.

Property theft is also very disconcerting, but nothing compared to the pit I felt in my stomach after it was wrongly reported that Henderson had been killed “execution-style”.

By: CSD Mom

CSD Mom — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:27:47 +0000

E–interesting article in the AJC. I also noted that neither victim used his/her own handgun to fend off his/her attacker.

By: E

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:59:44 +0000

The main driver of current public perception is the flat-screen tv robberies. While they are apparently classified as property crimes, they are distinctly worse in my opinion than car break-ins or purse snatchings or whatever makes up the majority of that stat. As we have all seen from the videos, they involve multiple people violently kicking in a door and invading people’s homes. This is extremely unsettling, and the fact that it has been going on for months doesn’t help.

Also, DecaturMetro readers might be interested to read today’s AJC article about two would-be robbers who were killed by their victims overr the weekend.

By: rptrcub

rptrcub — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:56:44 +0000

I think we should not forget that property crimes, like burglary and smash & grabs from cars, though not technically crimes against persons, still impact people. I live in Kirkwood and my BF’s car, which was parked in front of my house, was broken into this morning. Granted, he shouldn’t have left the GPS holder attached to his windshield last night (he usually doesn’t) but it still isn’t right and it still sucks. I’m not as scared as much as I’m incredibly mad.