"Oh No He Didn't" City Insider : SF crime is down -- as long as you aren't talking rapes or homicide

Yep, that is how San Francisco's police chief celebrates decreased crime numbers over the first three months of 2010. This from Nanette Asimov in The San Francisco Chronicle:

The bottom line at Chief George Gascon's news conference today was that crime dropped 13 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with last year.

But turn off the slide projector and look at the rapes, robberies and homicides not featured on the big screen. All were higher in the first three months of 2010 than during the same time last year.

Rape was up 33 percent, from 33 incidents last year to 44 this year. Robbery was up 13 percent, from 744 to 844. Homicides were up 9 percent, from 11 to 12.

"We're obviously concerned about it," Gascon said of violent crimes. The increase in rapes could be due to increased reporting, he said. "We don't know."

Yeah, Chief Gascon, it could just be that those pesky women are reporting more rapes this year instead of staying silent. That kind of thing can skew one's statistics. Somehow, I don't think anyone is going to mistake San Francisco for the Garden of Eden.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=61672#ixzz0lgWYOMFp



City Insider : SF crime is down -- as long as you aren't talking rapes or homicide