Don’t they always have an answer. The justice department says the only reason the numbers look high is because they were low in 2004. Right….makes perfect sense.

WASHINGTON - The murder rate jumped more than 10 percent among dozens of large U.S. cities since 2004, a study shows, in the latest sign of an end to the national lull in violent crime.

Robberies also spiked during the two-year period, as did felony assaults and attacks with guns, according to the report to be released today by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based law enforcement think tank.

FBI data similarly have shown a rise in violent crime - if not as dramatic - since 2004. The Justice Department says crime was historically low that year.

“Two years’ worth of double-digit increases in violent crime demonstrates an unmistakable change in the extent and the nature of crime in America,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the nonprofit think tank funded in part by the Justice Department, as well as corporations and private foundations.

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