Map of HOMICIDESon 'the Peninsula' - 2018
(a zoom-able, pan-able map with
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INTRODUCTION : This page presents a map with markers showing the locations of HOMICIDES committed in 2018 on 'the Peninsula'. 'The Peninsula' refers to a peninsula between the James river and York river in southern Virginia --- a metropolitan area including the cities of Newport News and Hampton --- and York County. The Peninsula comprises part of the 'Hampton Roads' area of Virginia. These homicides were reported in a 24 February 2019 (Sunday) article (by Peter Dujardin) in the Daily Press newspaper. One purpose of this page is to provide an example of how a 'crime map' can be created to show the locations of lethal crimes (and potentially-lethal crimes --- including armed robberies and domestic abuse and 'shot-up' houses and cars) for a particular region. The interested person can download and edit the HTML-CSS-JavaScript code of this web page to see how to create similar maps. Another purpose of this page is to help make a case for having more cameras near street intersections (permanently or randomly) --- which can result in many 'unsolved' crimes being 'solved' --- including those cases in which witnesses are afraid to 'snitch'. Candidates for crime maps : 'Potentially lethal' crimes --- such as armed robberies, burglaries, car jackings, rapes, purse snatching, etc. --- could be plotted on a map --- in addition to 'lethal' crimes. These kinds of crimes are 'potentially lethal' because, if things go 'haywire', someone may be killed or seriously maimed. These kinds of crimes deserve as much attention as homicides. The neighborhoods where these types of crimes are most common could be candidates for better surveillance --- including the use of high-resolution cameras at street intersections (like those that can read license plates of people who have passed a toll station without paying the toll). Crowding on the map : Since there were about 50 homicides on the Peninsula in 2018, you can see on the map below that the markers get rather crowded. So for most 'criminally active' urban areas, to make an 'uncrowded' map of crimes, one will typically need to provide maps over limited time periods --- such as by year or by month --- or even by week. This Map and Map-making Links: The map on this page was created by means of HTML-CSS-Javascript code as described on a Notes on Making Crime Maps page (see this link). This map uses the Leaflet Javascript library of functions to easily make these types of 'dynamic' maps --- based on Open Street Map map tiles. If you want more information on making these kinds of maps (with markers), you can try WEB SEARCHES with keywords such as: Enough of this 'introduction'. Below is a map that shows the locations of 47 HOMICIDES reported in 2018 on 'the Peninsula' --- from January through December. (There were many other shootings and stabbings than these --- ones that did not result in deaths. Many of those 'potentially lethal' crimes may be mapped on other pages of this site.) |
Click on any marker to see a pop-up display
of information about the homicide.
To 'pan' the map, 'grab' the map with
your pointer device and drag the map.
You can 'zoom' the map with a
mouse-scroll-wheel or fingers 'pinch' action.
You can re-load this page
to re-center the map.
SUMMARY : The map markers above indicate that most of the homicides in Newport News are within a few blocks of the two main streets that run up the Peninsula --- Warwick Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue. Hence, in Newport News, if one had to make a choice of where to locate a limited number of 'street-cameras', the intersections along those two main streets would be the likely candidates. And if cameras were in short supply, some cameras could be randomly located at intersections near those two main streets --- with rotation of the camera locations every few weeks. The following lists give a quick overview of the 47 homicides in the cities/counties of Newport News, Hampton, and York County --- leaving out street addresses and the names of the victims and 'aggressors'. The '???' on the 'Aggressor:' line indicates that no one was charged with the homicide --- by February 2019. Most of the homicides were shootings. The few that were stabbings are noted below. From data like these, you may be able to see why there is often, in local newspapers, citizen feedback on lethal crimes on 'the Peninsula'. See this collection of quotes, ordered by date. See notes below these lists --- for some other observations.
Newport News:
Note that out of 25 homicides in Newport News, 18 of them (or 72%) did not have a 'aggressor' charged by February 2019. I claim that having more cameras near street intersections (permanently or randomly) would have resulted in many more cases of the 'homiciders' being apprehended --- including those cases in which witnesses were afraid to 'snitch'. Other pages on this site suggest how to maintain and monitor the cameras and their recordings. Note that out of 25 homicides in Newport News, only two were stabbings (8%) --- 92% were shootings. I claim that more needs to be done to keep guns out of the hands of those who have been convicted of (or charged multiple times with) 'potentially lethal' crimes (like burglaries or domestic abuse or armed robberies or 'drive-by' shootings into homes and cars) --- as well as keeping guns out of the hands of those who have been convicted of (or charged multiple times with) 'lethal' crimes (like one or more homicides). Too many times, we read of homicides that have been perpetrated by someone who has been paroled (far too early) from incarceration for one or more lethal (or potentially lethal) crimes. And too many times, we read of homicides that have been perpetrated by someone who has been 'charged but not convicted' of one or more lethal (or potentially lethal) crimes. Note that out of 25 homicides in Newport News, 5 of the victims were females (20%). The only bright spot I can see in that statistic is that, although females are 50% of the population, they generally consitute much less than 50% of the homicide victims. In coming decades, the classifications of 'white' and 'black' (in police reports) will become more questionable as there will be more mixing of 'whites', 'blacks', 'browns', 'yellows' (asians) , 'reds' (native americans = 'indians'), and other 'genetic compositions' (such as real 'Indians') in the population of the USA.
For now, it can be noted that: There was one 'hispanic' noted among the 7 'aggressors' --- and 6 'blacks'.
Hampton:
Note that out of 18 homicides in Hampton, 9 of them (or 50%) did not have a 'aggressor' charged by February 2019 --- versus 72% for Newport News. (Is this an indication that the Hampton police department is more successful in tracking down 'aggressors'??? If so, what is their secret?) In any case, again, I claim that having more cameras near street intersections (permanently or randomly) would have resulted in many more cases of the 'homiciders' being apprehended --- including those cases in which witnesses were afraid to 'snitch'.
York County:
Note that, in contrast to Newport News and Hampton, there seem to be a larger percentage of 'whites' (victims and 'aggressors') in York County. This can probably be attributed to the fact that there is a lower percentage of 'blacks' in York County --- versus Newport News and Hampton. Since there are so few homicides in York County, it might be argued that cost of having many cameras near street intersections in York County is not going to result in a lot of 'solved homicides'. However, there may be enough other types of 'non-lethal' crimes in York County to justify the expense. |
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Page was started 2020 May 07. |