According to new statistics released on Friday, homicide, rape and burglary are all up in liberal-leaning Atlanta in 2022.
Homicides are up 43% so far this year compared with the same period in 2021, according to the Atlanta Police Department, and are on track to beat last year's 30-year high of 158 killings.
There have been 20 homicides in Georgia's capital city thus far, compared with 14 at the same point last year.
With 37 reported so far this year, compared with 11 at the same time in 2021, rapes are up 236%, police said.
Burglaries have increased 18%, with 229 reported as of Feb. 12, compared with 191 at the same time last year, and shoplifting cases are up 4%, with 164 cases so far this year, compared with 157 at this point in 2021.
After the theft of more than 2,000 guns from vehicles last year, Atlanta police said that ''irresponsible gun ownership'' contributed to many of the shootings this year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Some city officials blamed the crime spike on former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, asserteing that the progressive Democrat didn't do enough to fight crime, and Bottoms said local Republicans were at fault for lenient gun laws and lifting the pandemic lockdown.
''Remember, in Georgia, we were opened up before the rest of the country, even before the CDC said that it was safe for us to open,'' Bottoms told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. ''So, our night clubs and our bars remained open, so we had people traveling here from across the county to party in our city.''
The pandemic ''left a lot of people battered and bruised, not just physically, but also emotionally,'' she said, which led to an increase in personal disputes that could easily be aggravated by guns.
Propelled to his November victory by a promise to tackle crime, new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has pledged to install a combined total of 10,000 new streetlights, security cameras and license plate readers in the city, in addition to hiring hundreds of new police officers.
Police hope Connect Atlanta — a new network of more than 4,500 surveillance cameras across the city — will help investigators address crime. The system will allow officers to access video footage on their cellphones and laptops before they arrive on the scene.
''We're moving from a video integration center to a real-time crime center,'' Chief Rodney Bryant told the Journal-Constitution.
Bryant said he hopes the new technology will make officers more proactive in addressing crime.
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