ABC News has obtained exclusive data that shows the murder and robbery surge that spiked last year has continued in 2006, and in many communities across the country, crime has gotten worse. The Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank that serves many of the nation's police departments, examined the murder and robbery stats in 53 U.S. cities for the first six months of this year.

... In Boston, murder was up a whopping 27.5 percent in the first six months of this year, and that follows a whopping 19.6 percent jump in 2005. In Memphis, murder increased 27 percent in 2005 and 43 percent in 2006....

In Cincinnati, murder was up 25 percent in 2005 and was still up significantly -- 19 percent the first six months of 2006....

What is worrying so far in 2006 is that even communities with relatively low crime, like Orlando, Fla., have seen dramatic increases. There were more murders in the first six months of 2006, 40 so far, than the city ever witnessed in a calendar year. The six-month murder stats for Orlando are up 328 percent compared with last year. More than half of these murders are drug related, according to the Orlando Police Department....

--ABC News

...the budget to support "First Responders" -- police, firefighters, and other local officials -- dropped from $3.2 billion in 2002 to $2.4 billion this year. That's a $750 million cut. The president is also working hard to terminate the major programs that provide federal support to local law enforcement -- particularly the Local Law Enforcement Grants Program and the COPS program started by Bill Clinton. He's making progress. One year after 9/11, local law enforcement agencies received $3.4 billion from Washington. Now they receive only $1.5 billion. How exactly has this made America safer?

--Ed Schwartz in The American Prospect

Oh, and all this is happening despite the fact that we've never had more gun owners, owned more guns, or had more jurisdictions with "right to carry" laws. Er, whatever happened to "more guns, less crime"?

Also, crime traditionally goes down in good economic times and rises when there are economic strains. Bush says we're flush right now; ordinary Americans say they feel strained. What do you think?