Burglaries for the month of October are up 400% over the same month last year, and it’s not clear why, Bryan McKenzie reports in today’s Progress. (It’s also not clear why Bryan McKenzie is writing a straight news piece.) There were 16 reported burglaries in October of ’04, and 62 for the not-quite-done October ’05. Many of this month’s reports are of occupied homes at night, which is the sort of crime that easily escalates into assault or murder.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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This is why my home is protected by a 3 dog alarm system and a Winchester security unit. The idea is that the dogs bark and then I shoot the intruder in the face. Everybody wins! Well, ‘everybody’ in the sense of just me.
You’d have to be some kind of stupid to break into an occupied house in this country. Especially in Virginia, which is one of the gun-totin’est states in America. The odds of running into somebody like me who reaches for the trigger before the phone seem ridiculously high.
i just love hearing the victims of these break-ins say things like, “this is the kind of neighborhood where everyone leaves their doors unlocked.” well, poindexter, is it any wonder then that you and all your neighbors are getting robbed blind? seriously, i could live in a neighborhood filled with cops, and i’d still lock my doors at all times. and what’s the point of leaving your doors unlocked all the time anyway? do you really need to get in and out of your house 3 seconds faster? it boggles my mind.
Jim wrote:
First… Intelligence has nothing to do with crime.
This was explained to me by a friend who has an relative on the police force. ” If they break in after dark, that means they expect that someone is going to be there, and thus intend physical harm to the resident. If it’s a daylight burglary then they aren’t expecting anyone to be home.”
Of course as in any situation there are no hard and fast “rules.”
But personally I think that the testosterone gun toting attitude is just bullshit. It’s going to lead to one of two out comes. The burglar is going to severely injury you (via shooting) possibly fatally. Or you are going to end up in the police lock-up trying to justify your actions. And you will probably discover that your actions aren’t as justifiable as you thought they would be at the time.
As for the 400 (%) percent increase in burglary in the area. I’m also going to chalk it up to the simple fact that Charlottesville and the surrounding county is a smaller – more compact geographical region when compared to other areas. So when something happens here it is felt more widely (at least statistically).
And hey.. that’s only my two cents.
Geography shmeography.
The problem as I see it is the result of a few greater issues that we are all aware of. First, the rising cost of housing and the low availability of jobs with sufficient income is a HUGE problem. People aren’t able to afford buying or renting in their own neighborhoods. They’re either forced to move or sell their home for an exorbitant amount of money. Thus, higher income families or individuals are moving to areas that were previously low to middle income. Second, the psychological aspect of being poor and seeing $400,000 houses around you has got to be damaging. I’m not certain if there is a burglary ring or what, but the city’s policy of increasing property value to drive out crime is clearly not working. All it’s doing is making people more frustrated, more angry, and in a worse place economically and socially.
Developers are constantly building new condos and houses but where are the people to fill them? Where are the jobs for people? The University? Ha! Try buying a $160,000 condo (which is cheap by Cville standards) for yourself on $24,000 a year.
Colton wrote:
I agree entirely with your assesment of the area’s housing market and wage issues. They are valid quality of life issues for this region, and on those issues I share your frustrations. However I’m not willing to chalk the increased burglary percentages up to feelings of social inequity. It’s not and shouldn’t be an excuse to justify the unjustifable.
I think those $400,000 dollar price tags might make the area homes better targets for burglary simply because of the price tags.
However I’m not willing to chalk the increased burglary percentages up to feelings of social inequity. It’s not and shouldn’t be an excuse to justify the unjustifable.
Actually, criminologists will tell you that a sense of separation between social strata — “anomie” — is a major source of crime, if not the major source.. Those who commit crimes come to feel that there’s an us and a them, and committing crimes against them is OK. For example, it’s OK to rob rich folks’ houses, because they have insurance, so you’re not really harming them. If anything, they get all new stuff, so it’s a pretty good deal for them. And if you don’t know anybody with insurance, that sort of justification can seem pretty logical.
TrvlnMn,
You’re not making any sense. First you say that someone breaking into an occupied home after dark is doing it because he intends to do harm to the people inside. Fair enough. Apparantly the intruder already intends to do my family harm. If that’s the case, then self-defense is the only rational option. I can’t count on being bigger or stronger than the intruder. I have to assume that someone breaking into my home at night to do my family harm is going to be armed. Thus the rational thing to do is to pick up the carbine beside me and put a hole through the bad guy. This is pretty much the only practical way of tilting the odds in favor of my family’s survival. Are you suggesting pacifism is going to lead to a successful outcome?
Maybe I would have an unpleasant time explaining my actions to the police. But I’d take some short-term legal troubles over the permanant death of myself, my wife or my daughter at the hands of an intruder who I was too scared to shoot. What would you rather have? A couple of thousand dollars in legal bills or a dead family member?
The truth is that if you shoot an intruder in your own home, you’re not going to be in any legal trouble for long – if at all. It is perfectly legal to defend your home and family under those circumstances. Now if you shoot someone outside of your home, that’s a different story.
Jack wrote:
Just for clarification’s sake, what I meant was that if entering a home after dark, they are prepared if necessary toward confrontation and/or violent action. That violent action might be the burglar harming the resident of the location, or the homeowner harming the burglar. Conventional wisdom (at least as it has always been explained to me) is that in instances when a homeowner with his gun is confronting a criminal, if he (the homeowner) doesn’t pull the trigger right away to shoot the intruder, if they hesitate or are not prepared to shoot the intruder, then the odds increase that the intruder will end up with the gun. And that “most people” aren’t as “prepared to shoot” as they initially think they might be.
In the other places I’ve lived the police always said, “if someone is in your house. Get out. Don’t confront them. And call the police.” Because if you shot and killed, you could guarantee some sort of charges, followed by jail time and a criminal record.
Since the time of my previous posts I have learned that Virginia is far more lenient toward gun owners in this situation than the other places I’ve lived. As the victim of a burglary myself, and the law allowing, yes a dead burglar is far better than harm to my family.
TrvlnMn,
I do agree with you that someone who does not know how to properly use a gun or is not prepared to use it decisively has no business keeping it for self-defense. Probably the most dangerous legal gun owners are the ones who purchase a handgun and then just stick it in a drawer without learning to use it and without drilling themselves on exactly how to make split-second decisions about using it. Those people should not buy the gun in the first place and it is more likely to end up shooting someone in their own family than it is an intruder.
Myself, I do not belong to this group of people. I know how to handle my guns safely. I won’t depend on the ‘get out of the house’ defense because odds are that I would have to get past the intruder in order to get my daughter from her bedroom – and I ain’t running away from my house with my wife and daughter inside. Sure, I’d have my wife call 911 while I’m loading the gun. But even a brisk 4 minute police response is plenty long enough to get killed and for the culprit to run very far away. No way I’m going to just sit there and wait. The intelligent thing is to load up and shoot the bad guy down in the hallway asap.
Sure, it seems paranoid and pedantic to get into all of the specfics of a scenario like this. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s no different than having a fire drill and having a plan for dealing with that. I also keep fire extinguishers all around my house and in all of my vehicles. The odds of dealing with a home intruder are probably about equal to the odds of my house catching on fire. I have prepared for both risks.
By the way, as a pointer to all reading this, do *not* turn on the light when you hear a noise at night. Because when you leave the bedroom to hunt the bad guy down with the weapon of your choice, the lights will be off in the other rooms of the house. Meaning that your eyes are now dialated wrong and you can’t see the guy holding a bowie knife 10 feet away from you while you’re fumbling for the next light switch. Keep the lights off when you wake up and your night-vision will at least match the bad guy’s.
Two years ago I had someone try to get into my home at slightly after midnight while we were home.
My wife called the police. I had my SIG P228 in hand.
It took the police 20 minutes to show up. Thankfully, the person chose to find another potential victim.
The police always tell you to not try and confront criminals. This is BS. This is WHY criminals commit crimes. Our society preaches to us to be “sheeple” and be docile and depend on the cops for protection.
First of all, the police have no obligation to protect any individual. This is indeed supported by a Supreme Court ruling that anyone with a cursory knowledge of Google can dig up.
How the hell are you going to get jail time and a record for a self defense shooting? In pretty much every state in the Union someone entering a home by force while it’s occupied constitues a threat that can be dealt with via deadly force. Certainly, a reasonable person has the God-given right to feel that their life is threatened when they awake to find a stranger standing in their home.
It’s up to the DA to determine if it’s a justifiable homicide. There is no way in Virginia that you’re going to trial if someone breaks into your home in the middle of the night and you shoot them. It’s just not going to happen. Furthermore, it’s important to note that Virginia does NOT have a duty to retreat like some wimpy liberal states. If you are somewhere you are legally entitled to be, and you are not at fault in creating the situation, you can stand your ground in Viriginia. It’s important to note the “not at fault” portion – if you helped instigate the situation you DO have a duty to retreat. Certainly sleeping at home is not instigating anything. “I felt my life was threatened.” As long as a reasonable person would agree (and I think it’s even worded that way) then you’re in good shape.
That is not to say that you’re not going to need a lawyer to CYA. And make no mistake about it, regardless of your justification, the experience will likely change you forever. The whole ordeal will certainly be very unplesant.
Note that it’s never justified to chase an intruder out of your home and gun them down outside. Nor is that the objective. The objective is to survive and protect your home. If the bad guy turns and runs then you have succeeded in your endeavor.
It’s not about being Rambo. It’s about not being a victim. I may indeed get killed in the process of defending my home, but it’s a chance I am willing to take. The odds are in my favor. I have weapons training. I have good equipment. I have knowledge of my home. I have a dog. People who claim that the burglar is going to take the gun away from me are giving these punks and thugs was too much credit. Most of them are no more likely to take anything away from anyone than the average citizen.
Owning a weapon is a great responsibility. It’s not for everyone. Despite the fact that I have a large number of weapons, and carry a concealed pistol most all the time, I may elect – if confronted – to not engage. It’s dependant on the circumstance. I am not suicidal – but I’d like options. If I am car jacked and the guy won’t let me get my kid out of the car – at a minimum I am shooting the tires out of my car. If he’s lucky. It’s about having options other than “being helpless.”
I fully support anyone’s right to be a victim if that is the path they choose. I personally choose to protect my home and my family with whatever means may be necessary.