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From Staff Reports
Violent crime in Asheville has skyrocketed 31 percent — almost doubling the national average — in the past five years, according to recent police data.
The one positive trend in the report is a reduction in gun crime.
Asheville Police Chief David Zack told the Asheville Citizen Times on March 22 that the city’s 2020 violent crime rate of 805 per 100,000 people is on the upper end of an increasing trend in the nation’s cities — with more violent crime per capital in Asheville than in New York City and Wilmington, N.C., but less than in Chicago, Charlotte and Fayetteville.
“It’s not just an Asheville issue,†Zack told the newspaper on March 22, “but I think it’s important for us, as a community, to understand that we do have a problem. And the only way you can drive that point home is through those comparisons.â€
A 2021 drop in gun discharge calls and gunshot victims indicated that the Asheville Police Department’s stress on reducing firearms violence is working, Zack told the ACT.
In his ACT interview, Zack termed it a “change in focus,†with adjustments, such as eliminating the drug suppression unit in favor of a new gun suppression unit.
The data was compiled from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Census Bureau and APD numbers.
The update was to be presented at City Council’s Public Safety Committee presentation on March 22, but the meeting — which has not been rescheduled — was canceled by a council member because of a family issue, a city spokesman told the ACT.
Violent crimes include murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, according to the FBI.
“The 2020 national violent crime rate was 399 per 100,000, with North Carolina at 419,†the ACT reported.
Among six cities selected by the APD, New York had the lowest rate at 545, followed by Wilmington, N.C., at 685, Asheville at 805; Charlotte at 916, Chicago at 968 and Fayetteville at 995.
From 2016 to 2020, North Carolina recorded a 13 percent overall violent crime increase. Among the selected N.C. cities, Wilmington saw a 3 percent climb and Charlotte was up 13 percent. Asheville rose 31 percent and Fayetteville, 32 percent.
Zack told the ACT that the Asheville violent crime surge has been driven by aggravated assaults, which are defined as unlawful attacks by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. The actual number of such assault investigations has rised 46 percent, from 295 to 430, in the five-year period of 2017 to 2021, he said.
In pointing out what he termed in the ACT interview as Asheville’s strikingly high gun violence numbers, Zack noted these included 495 gun discharge calls in 2017, 395 in 2018, 522 in 2019 and 652 in 2020. In 2021, that number dropped to 547.
In another set of numbers that Zack told the ACT showed positive change, there were 31 gunshot victims last year. That was the lowest year from 2017 to 2021, which saw a high of 45 people shot in 2020 in Asheville.
Zack linked the reduction to a new smartphone app-based anonymous tip line and increased forensics capabilty, including a $70,000 portable on-screen cartridge scanner to determine whether a gun is linked to other crimes. The equipment is used by only 40 agencies in the country, the chief told the ACT.
There is also the increased focus on crime that has led to 194 stolen firearms recovered in 2021 compared to 100 in 2017, Zack told the newspaper.
But community trust is still something police must work to improve, he said.
The “APD has faced recent low points in this area, with teh 2018 revelation of a brutal police beating of a black resident stopped for jaywalking and the 2020 racial justice protests in which officers fired tear gas into a crowd of peaceful protesters that included children. Demonstrators called for cutting police funding,†the ACT stated. “Since that time, many officers quit and staffing problems have continued.â€
How to solve violent crime surge? Back law-and-order candidates, local FOP president says
Part one of two stories
By JOHN NORTH
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Regarding Asheville’s recently reported 31 percent surge in violent crimes over the past five years, Rondell Lance, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, told the Daily Planet that the only solution involves making changes in the city’s and Buncombe County’s leadership via voting in different officials in the upcoming elections.
In Asheville (including Buncombe), “Prosecution, so often, is based on a political narrative,†Lance said during a March 27 telephone interview with the newspaper.
“Unless there’s a change on the political scene, then these problems will continue. People need to look at who’s running for City Council, county commissioner and district attorney — then look for those with conservative values and law-and-order platforms — and vote for them."
Otherwise, Lance said, “None of this (violent crime surge in Asheville) will change until those who are in charge... change.â€
Regarding the 31 percent surge, the FOP president said without hesitation, “It doesn’t surprise me at all.
“No. 1, (the surge is predictable) when you look at the district attorney (Todd Williams) and court system that’s in place now. The mantra of the court system is to ‘Set ‘em free’ and ‘Let em go.’ They know there’s no consequences of committing crimes. They know they will be dropped. They know the DA’s office is very slack in holding people accountable for committing crimes. And they (the DA’s office) are slack in providing the victims the support that they need when they become victims of crimes.
“The DA’s office is trying to run a social program from the DA’s office, instead of following the laws that are on the books and holding people accountable according to the laws. They are trying to lessen the effects of committing crimes on the criminals.â€
As for why the DA’s office would act as he described, Lance said, “Because it’s the same far left (political) narrative that’s going on across the country. You see in every city with a high crime rate — they have these programs of ‘no bail,’ ‘plea deal’ — everything down to almost nothing… It’s a narrative being put forth across our country They’d rather have chaos.
"As of right now, Asheville can be compared to Seattle (Wash.) and Portland (Ore.)… It’s got the same mindset and framework, when it comes to courts and criminals — ‘Let’s make it easier for people to get out of jail and easier to commit crimes and get away with it.
’“The only way that can work is if you have strong social programs, but we don’t have that here. When a criminal comes to court, and you see they have addiction and mental health issues, the sentence should include punishment as well as help — “instead of just dropping the cases and putting them back in the same situation again... You can’t help them if you just put them out in the street.
“You start like that and it emboldens them to take one more step up†and then another, until violent crime skyrockets.
“The biggest thing, I think, is you’ve got to have accountability for people’s actions.â€
Lance said he would blame the just-reported skyrocketing of Asheville’s violent crime on “(DA) Todd Williams, the shortage of law enforcement officers — caused by the DA’s office — and the ‘anti-law-and-order’ agenda of City Council and the county commissioners), and it’s caused demoralization of those (police) who are (still) working… Their job has been derailed with the city manager (Debra Campbell) telling the police chief (David Zack) to ‘please back off’ enforcing certain laws. Also, the sheriff’s office and their policies and procedures are driven by a political party’s narrative, more than by the sheriff (Quentin E. Miller).
“The DA’s office has expunged everyone’s records… It’s a national narrative by the far left part of the Democratic Party, Black Lives Matter and Antifa,†Lance contended.
Story to be continued in the next edition
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