Prometheus 6

You're going to get to see criminals are pretty evenly distributed across the races.

One suspect, the lanky, scruffy Komisarjevsky, lived less than two miles from the Petits -- he is the son of a family with a storied history in Russian opera and theater. Hayes appears to have met Komisarjevsky in a halfway house after they were paroled.

The case also generated a broad outcry because the men were granted early release from prison by a parole board that failed to review transcripts from the men's sentencing hearings, as mandated by a widely ignored Connecticut law. "They are saying they didn't have the funds to make the copies," said state Rep. James A. Amann, speaker of the Connecticut House. "It is the lamest and most inexcusable excuse I've ever heard."

Can you imagine "the son of a family with a storied history in Russian opera" in a Willie Horton-style ad?

Connecticut Horror Punctuates a Trend
Violence Rising Fast Away From Big Cities
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 11, 2007; A01

CHESHIRE, Conn. -- Ever since "that night," Kevin Mirando, 13, nervously questions his parents at bedtime: Mom, is the house alarm on? Dad, are the doors locked? How about the windows? When they reassure him that all is safe, he still tosses and turns for hours, unable to nod off until he checks and rechecks the bolts and locks himself. Kevin said simply "I'm afraid" as he stood alongside his mother during summer football practice.

Many are feeling unsafe in this New England community since July 23, when a pair of longtime drug users, released on early parole amid procedural errors in their case reviews, allegedly committed a savage crime that has rocked Connecticut.

The two men are charged with invading the home of a noted endocrinologist, William Petit Jr., 50, severely beating him, sexually assaulting and strangling his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and sexually abusing their daughter Michaela, 11, and killing her and her sister, Hayley, 17. After seven hours with the family, the men set fire to the stately house at the mouth of a quiet cul-de-sac before being caught while trying to ram their way past police cars.

Court records show that both suspects (one of them from a prominent family in the city) have a history of drug use and of serial burglaries to fund their habits. Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, used methamphetamine, and Steven Hayes, 44, had a crack cocaine habit, court records indicate.

The killings have stunned this state known for its staid insurance companies and old whalers in Mystic Seaport, sparking the broadest review of Connecticut's criminal justice system in modern history. But while rare in their scope and viciousness, the slayings, experts say, highlight a crime wave underway in small bedroom communities across America, where statistics are showing the biggest increase in violent criminal activity in years.

Not only was violent crime in suburban communities with populations between 25,000 and 49,999 up for the third year in a row in 2006, but it grew by 3.2 percent -- significantly faster than the nationwide increase of 1.3 percent, according to recently released FBI statistics. By comparison, during that same period, cities with more than 1 million people saw violent crime edge up by only 0.2 percent while rural areas saw a decrease of 5.3 percent. Only cities between 250,000 and 499,999 witnessed similar increases, with violent crime in those areas also surging by 3.2 percent.

It happens as fast-growing suburban regions find themselves coping with more drug-related and, in some cases, gang-related crimes that were once largely considered urban problems. Cheshire, a relatively affluent municipality of 29,000 between New Haven and Hartford, offers a micro-portrait of a town grappling with at least some of those ills.