“Spate of brutal killings aside, Arlington crime is declining”

By Nicholas Stix
 


 
That is a real headline, from the Dallas Morning News.

The editor who came up with it had to have done so with tongue planted firmly in cheek, right?

“‘Any city of that size is going to have crimes of that nature,’ said Elzie Odom, Arlington’s mayor from 1997 to 2003. ‘You’ll get people who will come to town and kill a pastor in his own church who was beloved by everyone. Or you’ll get a person who’ll come to town and kill his girlfriend and try to kill her daughter and kill a police officer.

“‘These are crimes that you used to would never have heard of here, but they’re happening now everywhere.’”

Michael Patterson, the son of a mid-1980s’ Arlington mayor, argues that a steady diet of horrific murders is simply normal for a city Arlington’s size (365,000 residents).

“That’s a function of our size, a function of our density. It’s the function of a lot of things.”

The tone of the article is, ‘Arlington has arrived. The one-time sleepy little caf is now a player in the big leagues.’

Such crimes are not a function of Arlington’s “size” or “density”; prior to circa 1960, lots of cities were that large and dense or moreso, without having a steady diet of atrocities. No, “it’s the function of a lot of things,” like:

1. Diversity;
2. Diversity; and
3. Diversity.

According to the U.S. Census, Arlington was 18.3 percent Hispanic and 13.7 percent black in 2000. Don’t ask me why the Census Bureau is providing such old figures in 2011, but given the explosive rise in Hispanic population in Texas (41.8 percent) over the past 10 years, and its much higher rate of increase than all other demographic groups, we can be pretty sure that Arlington is even more diverse now than it was in 2000. (According to CLSearch, as of 2010, Arlington was up to 15.18 percent black, and 24.26 percent Hispanic, increases of 10.8 and 33 percent, respectively.)

Anyone who is either a student of demographics, or has simply been around the block and is honest, knows that the more “diversity” a jurisdiction enjoys, the more horrific murders it will also be blessed with.

Note, too, that it is unlikely for a city Arlington’s size to enjoy a drop in violent crime overall, at the same time that it is suffering a wave of brutal murders.

In any event, this headline is one of my all-time favorites, joining “Headless Corpse in Topless Bar” (New York Post) and “Ford to NY: Drop Dead” (Daily News).

Reader bmerbob commented, “Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how'd you like the show?”
 

Spate of brutal killings aside, Arlington crime is declining
By Selwyn Crawford
Staff Writer
Dallas Morning News
Published 10 April 2011 10:59 PM

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ARLINGTON — A rookie police officer is shot and killed while sacrificing herself to save an 11-year-old child in a domestic dispute.

A young pastor is smothered inside his own church, and his assistant is brutally beaten by a robber who, witnesses say, later laughs about the attack.

The bodies of a young woman and her baby are found inside their Arlington apartment, which is set on fire in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime. Authorities say the woman was fatally stabbed.

While the spate of brutal crimes might go all but unnoticed in many American cities, they shock the senses in this still-suburban community where officials continue to pat themselves on the back after hosting a Super Bowl , a World Series and an NBA All-Star game within a 12-month period.

And, those officials note, despite the headline-grabbing nature of the recent slayings, overall crime is down about 7 percent from 2009 to 2010 and violent crime has fallen, too. Sharp declines continued into the first two months of this year.

But in a city with a population that has ballooned to 365,000, are the horrific attacks over the past few months merely a tragic — but temporary — blip on the radar, or the beginning of an ominous trend that’s about to put Arlington in the major leagues of crime?

“Any city of that size is going to have crimes of that nature,” said Elzie Odom, Arlington’s mayor from 1997 to 2003. “You’ll get people who will come to town and kill a pastor in his own church who was beloved by everyone. [?!] Or you’ll get a person who’ll come to town and kill his girlfriend and try to kill her daughter and kill a police officer.

“These are crimes that you used to would never have heard of here, but they’re happening now everywhere.” [Because "diversity" is blighting everywhere.]

Raquel Faz, 48, has lived in Arlington since she was 7. Now a resident of South Arlington, she admitted that the spate of crimes has given her pause.

“The first thing that came to my mind was I can’t believe it was so close to home,” she said Friday. “Now when I’m outside working in my yard, if I’m home alone, I make sure all of the doors are locked that are supposed to be locked. I think it’s just a sign of the times we’re living in.”

Odom and other city leaders and residents say that while they are concerned about any brutal attacks, the events of recent weeks shouldn’t cause panic in Arlington.

“Of course these are horrific murders, they’re shocking,” Mayor Robert Cluck said. “The police officer was a terrible tragedy, as were the other two.” But “I’m not concerned that this is a trend that’s going to continue. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Arlington attorney Michael Patterson, a former Arlington school board and city Planning and Zoning Commission member, sees change coming, though. His father, the late Harold Patterson, was mayor from 1983 to 1987 and Michael Patterson said the city has changed greatly since then.

“I think it’s probably a shock to those of us who have been here the longest,” Patterson said of the recent slayings. “If Dad were still here, he would be a little frustrated, because he knew Arlington when it was so small. I think it’s indicative of us being one large metropolitan area.

“We should always have high expectations,” Patterson added. “But at the same time, I don’t think we should be so hard on ourselves. It’s naive to think these things aren’t going to continue to happen. That’s a function of our size, a function of our density. It’s the function of a lot of things.”

That assertion is not far off, says Arlington Assistant Police Chief James Hawthorne. With 365,438 people, according to the 2010 census, Arlington is now America’s 50th-largest city — bigger than New Orleans; Tampa, Fla.; St. Louis; or Pittsburgh.

Hawthorne added that Arlington is vastly different from other so-called bedroom communities because of its facilities. The 100-square-mile city is home to two professional sports stadiums, huge tourist attractions, a sprawling mall that attracts 25 million shoppers annually and a major automobile assembly plant.

And, he said, the University of Texas at Arlington has more students living on its campus than any of the other schools in the UT system, including Austin.

“This is not a sleepy, bedroom town anymore,” Hawthorne said. “This is a major city with major city issues. Whether it’s crime, whether it’s education or whether it’s the economy, you’ve got to consider those issues. I don’t think the types of crimes we’ve had recently are any different than the types of crimes you find in other cities of our size.”