CHICAGO — Police departments across the U.S. that have spent years boasting about plummeting crime numbers are now scrambling to confront something many agencies have not seen in decades: more bloodshed.

Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore have all seen significant spikes in the number of homicides this year. The totals are up in other cities, too, including New York and Chicago.

“We’re in scary territory,” said Peter Scharf, a professor at Louisiana State University who tracks homicides in New Orleans.

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Take it for whatever it’s worth. And of course, people are going to want to point fingers as to the reason. And I bet whatever reason you trot out, it’ll be aligned with your biases and agendas. IMHO there’s not enough information yet to definitively say why we’re seeing a spike. But face facts: we are seeing a spike.

And really, while “why?” matters to some extent, in many regards it doesn’t. Because does it matter why someone is sticking a gun in your face? Or does it matter that someone is sticking a gun in your face? Does it matter why this dude wants to kill you, or that some dude is trying to kill you?

So while the politicians try to sort out why, while they try to agenda push, while they point fingers… what are you going to do to keep yourself safe?