The Scottsdale Republic reports on the Tyrice Thompson murder [Entertainment-district safety focus of mayor-called meetings] that,
On Monday, Lane told 12 News the stabbing was a “bit of a fluke, and a tragic fluke.”
Wiktionary says that a “fluke” is,
A lucky or improbable occurrence, with the implication that the occurrence could not be repeated.
This incident was certainly not lucky, and in no way could be considered improbable. It was, in fact, part of a very disturbing trend.
Lane knew about the dangers of building up a high volume of bar and nightclub business in a confined area as I reported in an article a few days ago [Fast Lane to the Rescue].
In addition to warnings from citizens, Lane and the City Council had plenty of hard evidence of criminal violence in the bar district. There was a stabbing in December 2011 at Scottsdale Road and Camelback (northwestern corner of the bar district). El Paso heavyweight boxer David “El Nino” Rodriguez was stabbed after leaving El Hefe bar in January 2012.
Only three months before Tyrice Thompson was murdered, there was a stabbing at Rogue bar in September 2012. These are just the incidents that made the news, and that I was able to find in about 60 seconds with Google.
Improbable? Fluke? I don’t think so.
Of course, Wiktionary gives a second definition of “fluke” as a parasitic flatworm. Maybe Lane was referring to the bar district as being a parasitic infestation? Or maybe we have a political infestation at City Hall.
UPDATE: I did a little more work with the RAIDS Online information site (“RAIDS” stands for Regional Analysis and Information Data Sharing) and determined that from 1 January 2011 to today, there were 446 violent crimes reported in the ‘bar district’–which is roughly one-sixth of Scottsdale Police Beat 6. These are crimes against persons, including assault, aggravated assault, sexual assault, assault with a deadly weapon, and robbery.