DETROIT (AP) – When Andre Avery drives his commercial truck around Detroit, he keeps his pistol close by.
Avery, 57, grew up in Motor City and is aware that homicides and shootings are on the rise, although before the pandemic they were falling in Detroit and elsewhere. His gun is legal and he carries it with him for protection.
“I remain extremely alert,” said Avery, who now lives near Belleville. “I am not in crowds. If something looks a little suspicious, I’m out of there. “
In Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and even in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Milwaukee, 2020 was deadly not just because of the pandemic, but because armed violence is on the rise.
Officials and some experts say there is no clear reason for the increase. Instead, they point to the social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 virus, public sentiment towards the police after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody and a historic shortage of jobs and resources in poorer communities as factors. taxpayers. It is happening in cities large and small, led by Democrats and Republicans.
Two years ago, Detroit had 261 homicides – the lowest in decades. That year, there were about 750 non-fatal shootings in the city of more than 672,000.
But with just a few days left in 2020, homicides have already surpassed 300, while non-fatal shootings rose more than 50%, by more than 1,124 by mid-December.
“I think the pandemic – COVID – has had a significant emotional impact on people across the country,” said Detroit police chief James Craig. “Individuals are not suing the way they manage disputes. Whether they are domestic workers, arguments, disputes over drugs, there is this speed of using a firearm illegally carried. “
Some 7,000 guns were seized by mid-December in Detroit, with more than 5,500 illegal weapon arrests. There were 2,797 similar arrests last year.
“I haven’t seen a peak like this. But when it is happening in other cities – some smaller ones – what do we all have in common? ”Craig said about the murders and shootings. “That’s when you start thinking about COVID.”
Washington, DC, a city of about 700,000, saw more than 187 homicides this year, eclipsing last year’s total by more than 20. Among the most horrible: a 15-month-old boy was shot to death during a car pass. shooting.
“We are all fed up with heinous crimes in our city,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Crime in parts of the United States fell during the first weeks of the pandemic, when requests to stay home closed deals and forced many people to stay home.
University of Pennsylvania economics professor David Abrams said the crime began to increase in May and June, when initial applications in some states were suspended.
Some people “may have gone a little crazy,” said Abrams. “In late May, George Floyd’s death sparked protests and looting. This led to police reform movements. Any of these things could potentially have affected individual behavior and also the police’s response to it. “
Calls for some cities to reduce funding for police departments may have led some officers to take a less aggressive approach to policing, he added.
What the COVID-19 virus did was to exacerbate all the frustration and anger some black and brown communities were already dealing with, according to retired Michigan State University professor of sociology Carl Taylor. The virus has killed more than 300,000 people across the country, with minority communities most affected.
“COVID was absolutely the trigger for an eternal bomb that exploded in many parts of our community,” he added.
Nowhere is this more true than inside people’s homes. “The COVID crisis and the economic meltdown are forcing people into their homes, creating conditions in which people are more volatile,” said Kim Foxx, Cook County’s chief prosecutor, which includes Chicago. And the most shocking statistic illustrating this volatility is this: The number of domestic homicides in the country’s third largest city has increased by more than 60% compared to last year.
President Donald Trump said the increase in crime was somehow related to massive protests against the police brutality that swept the country this year, but most of those protests were peaceful. Trump also said the crime was concentrated in Democratic-run cities, but there were also spikes in Republican-run cities. Federal agents and resources were dumped in Detroit and several other cities this summer to help local authorities control rising crime rates.
In early October, more homicides – 363 – were recorded in Philadelphia than the 356 committed in 2019. There were 354 murders in New York as of October 11 – 90 more than in the same period last year.
Between January 1 and November 5, 165 homicides were recorded in Milwaukee, the largest since 1991. And in Chicago, after three years of falling homicide rates, the total soared to 739 in mid-December, compared to 475 at the same point as last year.
Even smaller cities like Grand Rapids are suffering. As of mid-December, there were 35 homicides compared to 16 across 2019 and nine the previous year. From January to October, non-fatal shootings reached 200 in the city, which is home to about 200,000 people. In the same period last year, 131 non-fatal shootings took place.
“Is this year because of COVID? The political polarization that we saw? Asked the sergeant. Dan Adams, spokesman for the Grand Rapids Police Department. “This year was a year like no other. I don’t think you can point out any ‘why’. “
It is the same for other medium-sized cities. Last year, there were 18 homicides in Rockford, a city of about 170,000 in northern Illinois. More than 30 people have been killed so far this year, including three on Saturday at a bowling alley.
“As we get to the end of this more difficult year and look forward to the next year, we know that this type of violence needs to stop,” said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara.
___
Associated Press writer Don Babwin contributed to this Chicago report.