Atlantic City's safety questioned
By Chris Doucette ,Toronto Sun
One newspaper in Philadelphia — the hometown of the latest alleged killer — ran a headline proclaiming “Tourist death trap” with a story about the two Toronto women who were stabbed to death Monday.
The latest slayings occurred two years to the day after a man from North Bergen, N.J. was killed in a carjacking.
Martin Caballero was abducted in his SUV from the Trump Taj Mahal parking garage on May 21, 2010. The 47-year-old was driven to a rural area and stabbed to death.
Craig Arno and his former girlfriend Jessica Kisby were recently convicted of murder and will be sentenced Thursday.
A couple was carjacked last fall in the parking garage. Sunil Rattu, 28, was shot dead and his girlfriend was wounded in that attack.
Atlantic City had 12 murders last year and the latest homicides are the city’s seventh and eighth of 2012, which doesn’t sound like much until you consider the city has less than 40,000 residents.
By comparison, Toronto has more than 2.5 million citizens and saw just 45 murders in 2011.
Atlantic City officials are quick to point out close to 30 million people visit the resort town annually.
But a recent study found Atlantic City had a higher rate of violent crimes per capita than any other casino city in the U.S.
In 2010 there close to 900 violent crimes — murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — in Atlantic City.
That’s a violent crime rate of 20.7 crimes per 1,000 people.
Another study concluded Atlantic City’s violent crime rate in 2009 was 388.9% higher than the national average.
The violence-plagued city has been trying to clean up its act in recent years.
With a cash infusion from the state-run Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, Atlantic City has increased the number of officers on foot patrol, improved lighting and installed surveillance cameras in its tourist area and along its famous boardwalk.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/22/atlantic-citys-safety-questioned
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