Replies

The tone of your post is hostile and out of order. I am certainly not brainwashed as my conclusions have been reached as a result of years of observation and research. The evidence is out there in the public domain. As for global warming, that is an undeniable fact. If you refuse to accept it then that’s your problem. There’s none so blind as those who cannot see.

Regarding the New York Blackout and looting, then yes I concede looting was a problem, but it appears to be the exception rather than the rule. In most areas where power failures have occurred, criminality dropped to zero, so we should look to other reasons than the lack of lighting to explain it. I have lived in Dhaka in Bangladesh, that has regular power cuts - at least two a night - yet the level of criminality is low. The New York case may reflect the level of criminality already present in the community concerned, which in the case of New York, is high. Many American cities have homicide levels comparable to whole nations elsewhere. Furthermore, the disorder you mention probably reflected the level of frustration felt by the local residents in deprived communities of being denied basic amenities for an extended period.

As for global warming, that is an undeniable fact.

No it's not. A large number of actual climatologists will argue that very point. The actual data is anything but clear.

"Illuminating Crime The Impact of Street Lighting on Calls for Police Service Kenna Davis Quinet Indiana University Samuel Nunn Indiana University This study reports on an evaluation of the effects of street lights on crime in several Indianapolis neighborhoods. Crime was measured in terms of calls for police service (CFS). Using a quasi- experimental design, we performed analyses on four multiblock areas, three intersections, and two aggregated address groups. Two control areas were matched to two multiblock areas that received enhanced lighting. Of the nine target areas, six showed evidence of lower CFS volumes after more lighting. We analyzed the mean weekly CFS in the pre- and postinstallation periods. Two lighted areas had a lower mean weekly CFS after installation. The more illuminated target area experienced a greater reduction in average CFS for property and miscellaneous crimes than did the control area."

Home Office Research Study 251 Effects of improved street lighting on crime: a systematic review David P. Farrington and Brandon C. Welsh

The Eight American evaluation studies met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Key features of these studies and their results were summarised in Tables 3.1 and 3.2. Their results were mixed. Four studies found that improved street lighting was effective in reducing crime, while the other four found that it was not effective. A meta-analysis found that the eight studies, taken together, showed that improved street lighting reduced crime by 7 per cent. Why the studies produced different results was not obvious, although there was a tendency for “effective“ studies to measure both day-time and night-time crimes and for “ineffective“ studies to measure only night-time crimes. However, all except one of these American evaluations date from the 1970s. Five more recent British evaluation studies met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Key features of these studies and their results were summarised in Tables 3.4 and 3.5. Their results showed that improved lighting led to decreases in crime. A meta-analysis found that these five studies showed that improved lighting reduced crime by 30 per cent. The weighted effect size in all thirteen studies was substantial: a 20 per cent decrease in experimental areas compared with control areas. Furthermore, in two studies, the financial savings from reduced crimes greatly exceeded the financial costs of the improved lighting. Since these studies did not find that night-time crimes decreased more than day-time crimes, a theory of street lighting focussing on its role in increasing community pride and informal social control may be more plausible than a theory focussing on increased surveillance and increased deterrence. The results did not contradict the theory that improved lighting was most effective in reducing crime in stable homogeneous communities

Actually London and most large cities in the UK have a much higher crime rate then New York, although that may not have been true in the 70's. And the rioting started IMMEDIATELY after the blackout began, making your "frustrated by lack of services" argument ludicrous.