The Louisville purge never happened according to cops in Kentucky, but some residents swear up and down they heard reports of weird crimes when listening to the Louisville police scanner. But is that something to be concerned about, or is it just normal for the Louisville crime rate?
In a related report by The Inquisitr , last night the so-called Louisville purge had some on social media claiming they had heard real police reports of shootings, men in purge masks, and roving gangs . Police also investigated the higher school student who created the original Louisville purge photo and it turns out he created it as a joke and did not mean to start any panic. The potential for panic has some saying that police would declare martial law if a Chicago purge or a Detroit purge actually took place.
Despite all the rumors and speculation flying about, Louisville police told Time that “they did not see a higher crime rate on Friday” although a “higher rate of anonymous tips was reported, but police said locals went about their business as usual despite the threats of violence.” Louisville Police Sgt. Phil Russell said they had already planned on increasing patrols due to the Kentucky State Fair, but they were also concerned about the potential for a flash mob:
“Due to circumstances that have trended nationally in regards to flash mob violence, in light of what occurred this past spring here, we realize that these things can occur in an instance.”
There was also a leaked FBI report that claimed gangs had attempted to organize such flash mobs this past summer but apparently those plans fizzed, as well.
Due to the potential of a Louisville purge, many residents were listening to the Louisville police scanner that allows you to hear what is actually going on with local police departments. There are multiple websites where you can listen to the police scanner, but Broadcastify is probably the most well-known.
This allowed residents to listen to the police going about their work, and some Twitter users stayed up all night looking for any signs of a Louisville purge. On Twitter, the hash tag #LouisvillePoliceScanner began to trend and people were repeating any instances of crimes they heard over the scanner.
Unfortunately, it’s possible a good number of these horrible sounding tweets were relating real crimes. The Louisville crime rate is above average in comparison to the crime rate for the entire United States and even the state of Kentucky crime rate :
“[T]he per capita violent crime rate for Louisville Metro is higher than the national violent crime rate average by 39.03% and the city property crime rate in Louisville Metro is higher than the national property crime rate average by 41.64%. Louisville’s violent crime rate is higher than the violent crime rate in Kentucky by 130.83% and the city’s property crime rate is higher than the property crime rate in Kentucky by 71.14%.”
Hopefully, the Louisville purge rumors may serve as a wake up call for the violence in their city and prove a catalyst for change.