Posted on 10/22/2011 10:01:41 AM PDT by RC one
Health care, climate change, terrorism — is it even possible to solve big problems? The mood in Washington is not very hopeful these days. But take a look at what has happened to one of the biggest, toughest problems facing the country 20 years ago: violent crime. For years, Americans ranked crime at or near the top of their list of urgent issues. Every politician, from alderman to President, was expected to have a crime-fighting agenda, yet many experts despaired of solutions. By 1991, the murder rate in the U.S. reached a near record 9.8 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, criminologists began to theorize that a looming generation of so-called superpredators would soon make things even worse. (See the top 10 crime stories of 2009.)
Then, a breakthrough. Crime rates started falling. Apart from a few bumps and plateaus, they continued to drop through boom times and recessions, through peace and war, under Democrats and Republicans. Last year's murder rate may be the lowest since the mid-1960s, according to preliminary statistics released by the Department of Justice. The human dimension of this turnaround is extraordinary: had the rate remained unchanged, an additional 170,000 Americans would have been murdered in the years since 1992. That's more U.S. lives than were lost in combat in World War I, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq — combined. In a single year, 2008, lower crime rates meant 40,000 fewer rapes, 380,000 fewer robberies, half a million fewer aggravated assaults and 1.6 million fewer burglaries than we would have seen if rates had remained at peak levels. There's a catch, though. No one can convincingly explain exactly how the crime problem was solved. Police chiefs around the country credit improved police work. Demographers cite changing demographics of an aging population.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
What is documented doesn't necessarily correlate to the actual number of guns owned. ; )
..it just goes to show you how ****** up this administration is.....they have never gotten their stories straight from the beginning....every week something comes out and the story changes three times by the end of the week.
When a report sounds unbelievable it is most likely skewed reporting. Propaganda aimed at the gullible and/or useful idiots.
“I’m sure it’s something simple like they quit counting certain types of crimes.”
I believe that this is true.
Or, people are becoming too lazy to steal.
I like it!
Increased gun ownership, more concealed carry laws and more castle doctrine laws. Bang!
I’m with you....these are the same people that tell us the recession ended.
I don’t have enough money right now to pay for the gas to get to the next house I was going to burglarize. A bad economy hurts everyone!
“Last year’s murder rate may be the lowest since the mid-1960s, according to preliminary statistics released by the Department of Justice. The human dimension of this turnaround is extraordinary: had the rate remained unchanged, an additional 170,000 Americans would have been murdered in the years since 1992.”
This is excellent news. This is one reason that police have time to solve cold cases, which wasn’t the case in the early 1990’s. Given the bad state of the economy and the occasional riots, it’s even more amazing.
Or, more people are letting the government do their stealing for them.
Roe vs Wade.
Eric Holder’s recruitment drive. They are all working for the Gubmint!
More thugs in prison, a renewed attention to the right to bear arms.
Expect a rise in crime as states look for ways to save money.
Last week, I heard for the first time that the original porkulus #2 money that was given to “states” for jobs had a * attached where the people who got the money could do whatever they wished with 18% of it....?????...many gave raises to themselves while complaining they needed money to “keep” jobs.
That is why we’re hearing more about fire and police now....
It would drop even lower if we reopened state hospitals for the mentally ill and let ICE do their job.
35 to 40 percent of all police departments don’t report their UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) to the FBI nor are they mandated to. We are not getting an accurate figure.
Police administrators might be pressured by city councils to “adjust” crime classifications in order to paint a rosier picture to placate citizens or to entice businesses to come in or stay.
For example, a strong arm robbery, which is using force other than with a weapon to take someone’s property. This is a violent felony. To drop those figures, police administrators might “encourage” their officers to reclassify those crimes as just plain theft. Carjacking, which is a federal offense, might just become a car theft.
Assaults become fights or mutual affrays, with no reporting necessary, especially if one or more victims are not willing to cooperate. It is not uncommon for thugs in the cities who have been shot to completely refuse cooperation with the police. Thus there is no report made or it’s just an incident report that is not reported in the UCR stats.
I routinely interview gangmembers and other assorted violent felons. One of the questions I ask them is if people carrying concealed has changed their habits or made them afraid of dealing with armed citizens.
Nearly all their answers are all something like:
“I grew up around people carrying guns, other gangsters or the police, been shot or shot at, seen many people shot and killed, so more people carrying guns ain’t no big deal. If I think a dude is going to be a problem, I’ll just buck him down first.” These people, and I use that term very loosely, actually think that they have a legal right to self defense if you resist their attempts to rob or assault you.
They consider themselves dead already or living on borrowed time and prison is not fear inducing; rather it’s an inconvenience they feel they are destined to do some time in. Whereas prison for you or I would be life-shattering, for them it’s an opportunity to network, gain reputation and add or advance their skill-sets.
We as a nation are a long way from peace and safety we should have and deserve. Until then, all we can do is continue to be armed, push for reciprocity, push for judicial and prosecutorial accountability and mandate that violent prone criminals stay in jail.
Ending the war on drugs wouldn’t hurt either...
Let’s see...
Speaker of the House: 233k a year, with retirement after five years.
Senate spousal retirement benefits: 65k per year
Doesn’t look to me like the crime rate has gone down at all - embezzlement of public funds is at an all time high.
Didn't Biden say that unless congress passed that Bill that he was going to start holding guns to peoples heads and raping women? Oh, wait, I guess he said that more people would have guns held to their heads and more women would be raped.
Can you imagine the field day the press would have any time this blithering idiot opens his mouth if he was a republican or conservative? Instead, the scumbags in the media just all look upon him as the beloved "eccentric uncle" who says silly things at family gatherings, but nobody really takes seriously.
Mark
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