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Los Angeles recorded an increase in every violent category in 1980: murder up 27%, armed robberies 20%, burglaries 16%, rape 10%. Moans Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates: "It was the worst year ever in my 32 years as a police officer." Miami police, embattled by drugs, Cuban exiles and racial friction, admit they are losing the struggle against crime even with the addition of some 100 state troopers sent into Bade County to help. Homicides in Miami surged 60% in 1980; robberies rocketed 80% upward.
Atlanta's 60% black population has been terrified by the wanton and unsolved slayings of black children. President Reagan last week announced that the city's request for an extra $1.5 million, on top of nearly $1 million in federal funds already approved, would be granted to help carry on the investigation of the killings. Twenty bodies have been recovered, but the potential number of victims grew to 22 when the name of Joseph Bell, 15, who had been missing since March 3, was added to the list. Atlanta has a worsening problem in other crimes as well. The city's black police chief, George Napper, who has a Ph.D. in criminology, sees his job in grim cartoon-like terms. Says he: "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember your purpose is draining the swamp."
Houston and Dallas also are outdoing their brutal past, setting new violent crime records. Washington, D.C., suffered an 11% rise in homicides. New Orleans has replaced Houston as the nation's most murderous city, with a rate of 23 per 100,000 in the first half of 1980.
What scares much of middle-class America is that violence and stealing are breeding almost as fast in the suburbs as in the inner city. As more and more husbands and wives hold down jobs, their unoccupied homes make tempting daytime targets for burglars. The high price of silverware and gold jewelry adds to the lure. The thieves are often the unattended sons of working couples who, say police, steal to keep up with the rising cost of marijuana. Arrests for violent crimes in the suburbs climbed 7.4% in 1979.
Violent crimes in once tranquil rural areas also increased by 13% last year. "Many residents now live in fear of returning to an empty, isolated home," says Sheriff Robert L. Howard of Tompkins County in upstate New York. "The open-door policy of a decade ago is gone." The fact that almost everyone knows his neighbor has long been a protection in the countryside. Murders, muggings or shootings have not notably increased, but house break-ins and auto and farm-equipment thefts have risen dramatically. One definite trend: thieves from urban areas ranging hundreds of miles to loot rural homes.
In some of the small energy boomtowns of the West, crime rates are climbing wildly. Rifles hanging from the back windows of pickup trucks have become special targets for thieves. In Douglas, Wyo. (pop. 6,000), a four-year-old girl wandered from her house and was found stabbed and strangled. Said Douglas Police Chief Kyle Sowell: "People realize that murder is now something that just doesn't happen some place else. It was a crime against everyone. It's drawn the whole community together."