Major cities in the United States experienced an increase in violent crime in 2021, official reports indicate today.
The situation became a concern of the White House and this Thursday a visit by President Joe Biden to New York City is scheduled to address the problem, something on which Congress could not agree during successive governments, both Republicans and Democrats.
For example, this Monday the newspaper The Hill exemplified the crisis with the state of Washington (northwest) where, according to 2021 data, there was an uptick in homicides and shootings in the Seattle area, with 88 fatal shootings and 372 people injured by firearms. fire in the county where the Pacific Northwest city is located.
The newspaper contrasted that in 2020, during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, King County reported a record 69 homicides with firearms and 268 gunshot wounds, according to data from the Shots Fired report provided by the Office of the King County District Attorney.
In this regard, prosecutor Dan Satterberg called the spike in gun violence “a uniquely American experience in response to the pandemic,” according to The Seattle Times.
Reports from government agencies say shootings also increased across the country in 2021, with 1,405 shooting incidents in 2021 compared to 1,025 in 2020 and 858 in 2019.
Project Shots Fired data comes from 20 police departments in King County, representing about 79 percent of the county’s total population.
Other reports indicate that during January the main cities of the United States experienced an increase in violent crimes.
For example, a police officer was shot in Washington, DC, and two other officers were fatally shot in New York City, a city where people faced jostling while waiting for city subway trains.
Likewise, in Chicago, one of the cities with the most critical situation, violence with firearms continued to wreak havoc and, for example, during a weekend this month 22 people were shot.
That rise in violent crime with firearms will take Biden to the so-called Big Apple.
“The president is never going to be satisfied or complacent when officers are being shot to death or when Americans have to worry about whether they can safely ride the subway or the bus or even be at work,” the press secretary said. of the White House, Jen Psaki, earlier this month.
According to analysts, the crisis will continue as long as Congress fails to put a stop to the carrying of weapons, in a country where there are 120 of these devices in the hands of civilians for every hundred inhabitants and a total of 393 million. In January 2021 alone, more than two million weapons were sold, a record for a month.
