SAN BERNARDINO - City leaders say they share their constituents' deep concern at the recent swell of killings, but they have faith in police efforts to quell the violence.
"It's a virtual epidemic of violence," Mayor Pat Morris said of the city's 12 homicides during May. "We're being pummeled by this aberrant month, although we've knocked the homicide rate nearly in half in the last five years."
Morris noted that the common thread connecting nearly all of the crimes was gangs or drugs, and the Police Department was doing everything it could to combat those problems.
"Everything our Police Department is doing is focused on violent crime," Morris said, including two anti-gang squads, consistent narcotics enforcement and an anti-violence task force that includes parole officers, the Sheriff's Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
The spike in killings has drawn comparisons to the city's homicide-laden past, when police made shirts declaring the city a "murder capital."
But the current atmosphere doesn't merit that, said Councilman Rikke Van Johnson.
"I think this is different, just because of the way it's happened one month," he said. "I lived here back in the '90s when the numbers were high, but this, to me, feels unrepresentative."
Johnson said he was confident police were working hard and pursuing the right strategies, but he doesn't want to downplay the cost of every crime.
"I'm concerned when there's just one homicide, (and) this just blows it off the charts," he said, adding that gang involvement made it particularly dangerous. "That means there's an uptick in gang activity in our city, and when that happens there's a lot of people that get caught up in that. Bullets don't have names on them."
Councilman John Valdivia said he supports the police and wants to give them more resources.
"I completely support our Police Department and Chief (Robert) Handy's decision to make sure we're safe," Valdivia said. "This City Council member will do everything possible to ensure that our officers have the tools they need to keep this city safe."
Handy said police are stretched thin but staffing levels did not contribute to the homicides.
Contact Ryanvia email , by phone at 909-386-3916, or on Twitter@sbcitynow .
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