No surprise in this economy that the Redding Police Department’s mid-year crime figures would show that crime is on the rise. But the hard times apparently are making people punchy.
Aggravated assaults were up 26 percent in the first half of 2009, as compared to the same period the year before. RPD recorded 274 aggravated assaults during the first six months of this year, up from 217 a year ago. Those assaults (and a 100 percent increase in homicides, from one violent death to two) contributed to an overall increase of 9.7 percent in violent crime.
You’d think property crime would be up at a time when Shasta County has double-digit unemployment, but overall property crime was down 2.87 percent. Robbery was down 21 percent.
Here in Redding, we don’t want your money or your car. We just want to punch you in the head.
To see all of RPD’s informative report, click here.
- Speaking of crime, did you see the story out of New York City about the bank robber who knocked over the same East Village bank twice? His girlfriend worked there and fed him information to help with the heists. The kicker? The robber was a rookie police officer with the NYPD. The Times has the full story here.
- Another hot day or two in the North State, then we’re supposed to have an unseasonably cool weekend, so start making those outdoor plans. High temperatures are forecast to be in the 80s, and we might even see a stray sprinkle on Saturday.
- Gina Albano of Chico is the happy new owner of a water-wise yard after winning a landscaping makeover in a recent raffle by KIXE-TV. The landscape was designed by horticulture students at Shasta College and implemented by Alan Woodward and WLMS Landscaping. Nearly 5,000 people entered the drawing.
- What I’m Reading: “Volk’s Game” by Brent Ghelfi, a thriller set among the criminals and spies in modern Moscow. Gripping so far. Before that, I enjoyed Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, “Gone Tomorrow.”
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