As slow as Birmingham progresses, the city saw its share of growing pains — and regular pains — in 2006.
It’s easy to spot as you tool around the area. Look around and you’ll see construction barriers everywhere, mostly for condos springing up throughout Jefferson County.
Look a little closer and you’ll see chalk outlines, as the murderous rampage of ’05 continued unchecked throughout the year.
A last look at the ’06 …
Annetta Nunn and the deathly hallows: Fairly or unfairly, the police take a beating when crime goes up. The buck stops with Birmingham police chief Annetta Nunn, whose four-year tenure has taken a deadly turn.
Crime in Birmingham is up. Homicides are up. This year will mark two in a row with 100-plus murders — 105 in 2005, 109 this year. The city is third in the nation in homicides per capita. Merchants are forced to hire their own security personnel. “Lesser” crimes — muggings, car break-ins — go unsolved.
A last look at the ’06 …
City on the edge, part 1: The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report paints a picture we’ve feared all along. Updating preliminary stats from the summer, the report shows a 5.8 percent increase in violent crimes in 2005, while nationwide violent crime increased 2.3 percent.
And with 44 murders per 100,000 people, Birmingham ranked No. 3 nationally. It was 20th overall in crimes, with 14.7 crimes per 100,000 people.
We already know murders kept pace in 2006. God only knows what the FBI stats will show for this year.
A last look at the ’06 …
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad cow: The United States’ third ever incidence of mad cow disease came from one in Alabama. Out of a herd of 40. Out of 1.3 million cattle statewide.
The cow was believed to be at 10 years old, born before the 1997 ban on feed containing cattle parts. Scientists announced in June that the cows from Alabama and Texas (discovered in 2005) likely shared the same atypical strain of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, one difficult to detect.
A last look at the ’06 …
Burning sensation: On two fateful nights, nine churches — at least one that had stood for a hundred years — burned in the Alabama countryside. Were the culprits Muslims? Anti-religion? Anti-black? Satanists?!
Turns out that three white college kids from the suburbs of Birmingham got drunk (all underage), killed a cow, stole and torched for fun, for a joke.
Arrested in March, Matthew Lee Cloyd, Russell Lee DeBusk Jr. and Benjamin Nathan Moseley pleaded guilty last week in a federal court, with state court appearances to follow, facing minimum seven years in prison. Upping the stakes were injuries sustained by two firefighters putting out Ashby Baptist Church.
A last look at the ’06 …
Dry run: The troubles began in June, as drought conditions became noticeable with triple-digit highs and farmers in need of aid (rain, too.).
July saw Birmingham moving to restrict water usage to specific days. The voluntary curb remained in effect until the end of September. Rainfall for the year is slightly above average, though the last half of the year has been particularly dry.
Stupid Al Gore inventing stupid global warming.
A last look at the ’06 …
Guilty and guiltier: One served as a health care company CEO, the other as governor. Now they share a jail cell — but can these best buds make it in minimum security? The laughs ensue on “The Dick and the Don.”
Richard Scrushy, so confident he’d wriggle out of yet another conviction, bribed preachers and columnists, continued a television ministry and founded another one to feed African children. Don Siegelman, so confident of his campaigning skills with voters and/or jurors, actually ran for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination while on trial, losing badly in both races.
Have a safe and joyous Christmas! And remember the thousands of members of the American military who can’t be home during this holiday season.
