Despite years of decline in violent crime, the first half of 2015 has seen a surge in murder rates throughout cities across the nation,
USA Today reports.
Milwaukee alone, a city with a population of 600,000 that in 2014 recorded the lowest homicide totals in its history, saw those numbers more than double — from 41 homicides last year to 84 so far this year, USA Today says.
According to Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, factors in the surging murder rates were Wisconsin's "absurdly weak" gun laws that ranked only as a misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon without a state-issued concealed carry, a city subculture that affirms deadly violence as a means of gaining status and the growing distrust of police.
"We've got folks out there living in neighborhoods, where ... it's just part of the background noise," said Flynn, USA Today reports. "That's what we're up against."
Milwaukee is joined by multiple other cities, including Baltimore, New Orleans and St. Louis, which each saw a 33 percent increase in homicides. Chicago so far this year has seen the number of shootings increase by 21 percent and the number of murders increase by 19 percent.
Despite the recent increase in violence, USA Today notes that police have made arrests in only 29 of this year's homicide cases, suggesting witnesses are increasingly showing a reluctance to come forward.
"Our clearance rates aren't where I'd like them to be," St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said. "We do have some things working with the feds that I think will start sending a very clear message [to the public] in the next three to four weeks."
The heightened homicide rate across the U.S. comes on the heels of heightened tension between city police and black residents, especially the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer, and the death of Freddie Gray, who sustained severe spinal cord injury while in Baltimore police custody, USA Today reports.
While some experts say 2015's increasing murder rates could be no more than a blip, others such as Peter Scharf, an assistant professor at the LSU School of Public Health, suggests that the increase is due to federal, state and local governments increasingly grappling with tighter budgets.
"One reason may be President [Barack] Obama is broke. Governors like Bobby Jindal are broke, and mayors like [New Orleans' Mitch] Landrieu are broke," Scharf said. "You don't have the resources at any level of government to fund a proactive law enforcement."
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