FBI director warns of rising murders in US cities
The Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), James Comey, has warned about a spike in murders in American cities, saying the problem is going unnoticed since most of the victims belong to minorities.
“I was very worried about it last fall and I am in many ways more worried,” Comey told reporters at the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
He made the remarks after being briefed on quarterly murder statistics for about 40 major cities, most of which he said have gone upwards.
“The numbers are not only going up, they're continuing to go up faster than they were going up last year,” he added.
Comey said most of the victims belonged to racial minorities but the media was not paying enough attention to the issue on a national level.
“From the Las Vegas strip, you can't tell that 60 people have been murdered in Las Vegas this year. From the Miracle Mile in Chicago, you can't hear the sounds of gunshots that have killed over 200 people this year," the FBI chief said. “It's again happening in certain parts of the cities and the people dying are almost entirely black and Latino men and we can't drive around that problem.”
The FBI and local police are working together in several cities in order to enhance relations between minority communities and the law enforcement, he noted.
Comey said he was perplexed by the statistics as some cities have not seen any uptick while others are experiencing a shocking surge in violence.
One possible explanation, according to Comey, could be the “viral video” phenomenon that has brought overwhelming public attention to the issue of police brutality.
He said the fear of getting filmed for alleged abuse while engaging suspects may have changed the policing dynamic.
“What I'm talking about is sort of the viral video effect,” he said, adding "I think it is the potential effect of marginal pullbacks by lots and lots of police officers that is changing some cities. I continue to hear that privately.”
The use of force by law enforcement has become the focus of national debate, particularly over high-profile killings of African-Americans by mainly white officers during the last several years.
Citizen and officer videos of arrests and killings have heightened scrutiny of police behavior.
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