I was afraid we'd see something like this given the state of the economy. Tampa Bay, especially St. Petersburg, has witnessed a spike in violent crime recently. Robberies, shootings, murders, DUIs are all on the rise. In fact the St. Pete Times posted a blog over the weekend about one night of violence. People are on edge and desperate. The rash of convenience store robberies in St. Petersburg can attest to that. Recent employment figures also point to a continuing downturn in the economy.
Other crimes such as fraud and larger scale theft have also seen a spike recently. Midtown St. Petersburg has been hit especially hard with the recent crime wave including yesterday's arrest of Mathew P. Kiernan and Francis Huy Du who face 4 counts each of arson. Police suspect them of setting 15 fires in a two hour period on Sunday.
This isn't good for the Tampa Bay area, especially St. Petersburg whose reputation has improved the last decade.
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