14 Murders in 17 Days

You don't have to write the SFist Blotter to notice that we've had a disturbing uptick in violent crime over the last few weeks -- we've now had 14 murders in the last 17 days, with six murders taking place this weekend. Two parents were shot in front of their children on Friday night in Mission Terrace (the five-year-old knocked on doors in the neighborhood until someone came out to help), a man killed his wife and then himself in the Excelsior, and then two men were killed in the Lower Haight Saturday night. We think that count doesn't include the two burned bodies they found this week too -- one woman's body was found Friday afternoon on a pier near Monster Park, and another body was found in a burning building in the Bayview on Wednesday night. (Readers, let us know in the comments if the count includes those two now as well.)

So what's the deal? On January 2, the city had just patted itself on the back for reducing the murder rate in 2006 by 11% over 2005. Well, in today's Examiner, local Republican Art Bruzzone pens a commentary noting that the city has experienced a spike in aggravated assault and robbery-type crimes, and calls for an increased police presence in the city. And, as a commenter on the local chatboard SF Junto points out that while the murder rate may have dropped in 2006 compared to 2005, the murder rate is up 36% since 2003.

Will the mandatory foot patrols help? Let's hope.