Reader comments
Salt Lake County murders to jump 50%, Miller says

Perhaps if Rocky were less concerned about bottled water and more concerned about the well being and safety of the citizens of SLC, such a trend would not be.

But this will be Rocky's legacy. One of self gratification and glory at the cost of the people.

Oh, right, blame a mayor for these murders, many of which were domestic. Did he encourage it, give them a weapon, give the incident a thumbs up?

Give blame where it is due: to the people who did it!!!

Seems to me we need more help in stopping crime or slowing the trend as opposed to more help in prosecuting the perpetrators once they've committed the deed.

Murders up? Thank the anti-gunners!

I wonder how many of those victims would still be alive today if not for the successes of the hoplophobes. Their irrational fear of inanimate objects mean that people who need guns won't have them.

I think that I may need a gun. I can be wrong every day for 90 years.

Anti-gunners think that people won't need a gun. They can only be wrong ONCE per victim.

Ask the family of any soldier who died in Iraq, having a gun doesn't always save you.

Don't you sometimes wish the wacky NRA people would just go away?

No, I just wish the anti-NRA wackos would all move to Eastern Canada or Europe where they belong.

I still say that Miller's crystal ball which allows her to see into the 50% crime increase is also telling her to keep asking for the millions of dollars to increase her budget. "assssssk and be verrrrrry ssssssscary and they willllll giiiiiive it toooooo yoooooou." Watch out SL we are going to be very very evil very soon. Better pony up right away.

Worthless dope smoking liberals will never realize that a gun is just a tool to commit a crime. Maybe if liberals stopped buying so much dope the drug dealers wouldn't commit so much crime.

Carroon is a pretty classy leader, I say that as a life-time Republican. He had a chance to take a cheap partisan pot shot and instead handled it like a true leader. We Republicans should be careful about that 4th Congressional Seat. We could see Matheson and Carroon in 2012.

That being said, I don't think that Miller should be beat-up as much as she is. Maybe she should handle her workload better, and with such small numbers the increase of murders this year could be an aberration. Now, if SLCounty had 100 murders last year and it went to 150 that is a serious problem without a doubt.

One note, large populated areas that have seriously reduced crimes have dramatically increased funding for patrol, prosecution and housing. Guliani did this in New York and they would arrest and convict people for small crimes, keeping them out of committing more heinous crimes.

Well said, James. I am NOT a lifelong Republican but I am an SLC resident. Mayor Corroon is a true leader: always willing to listen to both sides of an issue and make a decision based upon what he thinks is best for the people he was elected to represent. And seemingly never interested in picking a fight for political gain. How sad that these traits are so rare and remarkable in a politician that they draw our specific notice. I have every confidence that if he would have felt it possible to do so, he would have allocated more money to DA Miller and her department.

I remember that in the early 90's there was a year that the Salt Lake City Police Department investigated 42 homicides in the city alone. Of course, one's too many, but we need to keep the crime rate in perspective.

If not statistics, how else does Joe Hatch think the DA is supposed to analyze the crime rate?

And by the way, the quote regarding "lies, damnable lies, and statistics" was a flippant, offhand remark made by the great satirist Mark Twain, not a serious-minded quote made by Winston Churchill.

When SLC had a Hispanic police chief, he blamed the increase on major crime on illegal aliens. He said many of the criminals had committed crimes in their home country before coming to the U.S. I think he had it right. Most of the time when I hear of a murder the suspect is Hispanic and "undocumented." I think we need to issue work permits to anybody who wants one unless he or she has been convicted of a crime. No work permit, no work. Anybody who hires somebody without a work permit must pay a $50,000 fine. This would encourage the immigrants who are not criminals to work and would make it easier for us to identify and send home the illegals who are criminals.