Crime in Mankato region is worrisome

As someone who sees the serious, personal, violent crimes go from police reports to news reports, I am more than a little worried about what appear to trends in violent crime in our region.

I can cite six domestic homicides we have reported in about the last 18 months to two years. This is not something I could have done two years ago.

There was the double homicide in Lewisville, of a mom and her dad killed by the estranged husband. There was the shooting of Svetlana Mundt in front of her children by her estranged husband in Rasmussen Woods.

There was a young mother killed by her boyfriend in Kasota, a young college girl killed by a former boyfriend in broad daylight on Mankato's hilltop and there is a pending case in Blue Earth County Court that is turning in surprising ways in terms of who is guilty, but there was a domestic death.

Then a few weeks ago, we have an estranged husband killing his wife's male friend in Blue Earth, a town about 45 miles south of here.

Recently, another woman was abducted for short time by another former domestic partner. Luckily she escaped.

It's important to point out that these are "regional" crimes, not centered only in the city of Mankato or even North Mankato.

Mankato Director of Public Safety Todd Miller correctly asserts that violent crime in Mankato as well as other crime may be up in 2011 compared to 2010, but it is down from 2006.

He has the data to prove it.  There were 68 aggravated assault in 2006 and 45 in 2011.  There were 46 rapes in 2006 and 19 in  2011, through Nov. 30.

Still, the trend is more than a little unsettling, and we need to think about ways to reduce the risks of these kinds of things happening.