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The broad daylight slaying of a man on a sidewalk in downtown Edmonton again invited the question "Why?"

University of Alberta criminologist Bill Pitt said the city's seventh homicide in eight weeks did little to improve citizens' perception of safety.

“Edmontonians aren't used to stepping over corpses in the morning,” he told the Edmonton Sun.

Pitt warned that there was a cloud over the capital city, and he said all the factors are in place for another deadly year.

He cited an increasing number of newcomers, an abundance of narcotics, continued gang activity and a willingness by many to resort to violence.

“It all adds up to one ugly little situation,” Pitt predicted.

The criminologist also defined his peception of the situation for Global Edmonton.

"It is a big city. It's a growing city. It's a city in transition and it's going to be in further transition for the next few years."

"That's why I'm not particularly optimistic about what's going to happen to our violent crime rate, what's going to happen to our homicide rate, what's going to happen to the amount of drug interdictions that are going to occur in our city."

"This is a city that is a great place to be a criminal in."

However, Edmonton criminologist Kevin Haggerty told the Edmonton Journal a rapidly growing list of homicides should not be used as an indicator of public safety.

Haggerty is an associate professor and director of the University of Alberta Criminology program.

"The problem with trying to evaluate the safety of a city through homicide rates is, in most cases, homicides are done by people (who know) one another," Haggerty said. "It's not a very good bellwether."

Within a week, Edmonton saw three slayings, bringing the number of homicides in 2007 up to seven, compared to five at this time last year and equaling seven in 2005.

On February 16th Chancely Devlin Simpson was found unconscious in a basement suite and died later in hospital.

On February 21st police found David Wong being dismembered in a downtown apartment building.

Two days later, an argument aboard a bus ended with one man stabbed and bleeding to death on a downtown sidewalk.

"What connects the dismembering of a corpse to a fight on a bus? It's hard to generalise," Haggerty said.

But typically, he said, homicide victims – and accused killers – are men in their 20s or early 30s already involved in some criminal activity, such as gangs or the drug trade.

Edmonton saw record numbers of homicides in the past three years (36 cases in 2006, 39 in 2005 and 28 in 2004). Statstics Canada has dubbed the city the murder capital in Canada.

Haggerty said the rate remains low compared to cities in the United States and other industrialised countries. "Statistically we're not dealing with very high numbers."

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel said the city and police service are doing their best to curb violence.

"It's hard to begin to comment on it when people's lives are changed or destroyed."

"Wherever it happens it happens – it happens on a street or it happens on a bus, it doesn't negate the sadness of it and or increase the impact of these horrible events."

"We do everything we can in security to make sure people are safe and we'll continue to do that."

"Sometimes those things happen ... there's nothing you can do about it – it's just an event."

In a separate interview, the mayor revisited his frustration with current laws.

"I would also like to see us get a little more stringent on punishment for those carrying knives – you should ban the darn things."

Asked about city's current record of a murder nearly every week Mandel said, "That's a societal issue that's not going to be corrected overnight and we have to work on that."

He was referring to the recent Enough Is Enough anti-violence campaign, and said it would be unrealistic to expect violence to end immediately.

"The region [has] over a million people, so those challenges are growing and growing," he said.

“The challenge is to make sure the streets are safe, which they are. Edmonton is a very safe city. But when you get into someone’s house, that’s a different story. I’m not sure how any police department can deal with that."

Police chief Mike Boyd said he had reviewed recent homicide cases and noted that almost all involve people who knew each other.

"And I think that's one of the things that Edmontonians are concerned about."

"They're concerned about whether or not they can walk around in their city – go to different places – without being victims of homicide."

"And so it's important for me to tell you that these cases, for the most part, involve disputes."

"There seems to be a common dominator here – a lack of respect for human life, an anger management problem. Alcohol is often involved in some of these disputes."

“These are not about stranger on stranger,” he said adding, “They are definitely not random acts of violence."

Boyd noted none of the killings so far in 2007 involved young people.

The chief was making his remarks just as police were dealing with Edmonton's eighth murder of the year.

44-year-old Stephen Ferguson was shot inside an Oliver-area apartment block and was related to his assailant.

deadmonton - why edmonton? - four murders in ten days

edmonton, alberta – the murder capital of canada