At 28 homicides in Anchorage so far this year, Anchorage is again on pace to break all previous records for number of homicides in a single year.
Another week, another four homicides in Anchorage, but not to worry, the mayor assures us that Anchorage is “a very safe city“, as long as you aren’t a drug dealer out after midnight (or any other time, we might add).
Apparently, the triple homicide that took place at 10am on Tuesday morning escaped his notice.
In calling Anchorage “very safe”, perhaps Mayor Berkowitz was referring to Anchorage making this year’s list of “Alaska’s 10 Safest Cities” according to the website HomeSnacks.net. The website ranked Anchorage 10th out of the 11 cities they looked at. Wasilla’s on-going epidemic of property crimes due to SB91 is the only reason Anchorage did not end up dead last on the list.
Anchorage homicides doubled in 2014, and have only continued to climb since then. At 28 homicides already this year, there is every indication that Anchorage will soon break last year’s all-time record high of 34 murders.
In the wake of a recently released report from the Walker Administration showing an increase in crime throughout Alaska, and the resignation of the Anchorage District Attorney earlier this year, assurances that Anchorage is “a very safe city” ring hollow, at best.
If Alaska’s elected officials spent less time trying to tell us that crime isn’t a problem, and more time fixing the ongoing disaster that is our criminal justice system, we wouldn’t be reading right now about Alaska having again maintained its #1 rank as the state with the highest violent crime rate in the nation.
