President Trump has claimed that violent crime rates in numerous Democrat-controlled cities are getting worse, and has offered to provide federal law enforcement personnel to help with the problem. Most cities have rejected his claims and his offer, insisting that things are either not as bad as he says, or are in fact getting better.
The mainstream media are downplaying the President's claims, too. As an example, the BBC reports:
President Trump has said the crime rate in certain cities such as New York is "through the roof".
But in many major US cities, including Chicago and New York, violent crime overall is down compared with the same time last year.
Various cities define violent crime in slightly different ways, but it usually includes murder, robbery, assault and rape.
Individual years can fluctuate but violent crime across America has been on a downward trend since the 1990s.
In April and May, violent crime in many US cities declined significantly compared with previous years, due in part to coronavirus lockdown measures.
But President Trump has pointed to a string of murders in certain cities, and homicides in contrast have increased sharply in some areas.
There's more at the link.
The trouble is, all those news reports don't take a major problem into account - namely, the deliberate efforts by many metropolitan police departments, at the urging of their political bosses, to disguise the true crime rate by falsifying the figures. We've discussed that in these pages on several occasions. Two recent examples:
There are numerous reports of the problem, from Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and many other cities. So-called "hate crimes" appear to be underreported nationwide.
Having worked with law enforcement professionals for some years during my service as a prison chaplain, I remain in contact with a number of them. They all, without exception, tell me that things are actually getting worse, not better, despite claims that the rate of many crimes is going down. They universally blame interference from city and state politicians, who want to reassure voters that they're "taking care of business" and that they should therefore be re-elected.
I wish we could get politics out of the picture, and just provide accurate data so that everyone concerned could make up their own minds. Sadly, that's not about to happen. Even so, when we meet this sort of disagreement and conflict over statistics, it's important to ask whether the statistics themselves are trustworthy. Overwhelmingly, the evidence suggests that they're not - and therefore any claims made by politicians that "Things are getting better!" on the crime front are not worth a fig. That applies particularly during times of urban unrest, protest and riot such as we're presently experiencing.
I can only suggest that we arm, train and prepare ourselves accordingly.
Peter
You'd think it would be hard to fudge murder stats, what with those pesky corpses laying about...
ReplyDeleteYou see the same issue in a lot of Western European countries. Like who knows that Sweden is under continuous attack by grenade-wielding thugs? (Crickets... crickets...) Because the media doesn't report what the police and those in power don't want reporting.
ReplyDeleteShootings daily between police and guest workers in France.
The constant rapes and savage disfigurements in Germany and other countries.
Murders galore, to the extend that if the authorities actually counted them, some of our more violent cities could have a run for their money.
It happens all over, in various ways.
Childhood illnesses? Some modern nations still don't report a lot of pre 2yoa deaths that occur.
Pedophilia? You are more likely to be arrested for complaining about it than for doing it. Because too many Euro-politicians (including in formerly Great Britain) have decided that pedophilia doesn't happen 'here.'
And the media is mostly a part of the government or the shadow government, so it doesn't report what those in power don't want reported (kind of like... here in the USA.)
Heck, there's even laws in most Euro countries that make it illegal to disagree with the government's stance on these subjects, and make it illegal to report on what the government doesn't want people reporting on. Like those poor bastiges who got jammed up for reporting the child-grooming scandals, while the child-groomers got off scot-free.
Double-speak. It is alive and thriving throughout the world.
This has been coming...
ReplyDeleteSome years ago, when I was amateurishly comparing crime rates country to country, I discovered that in the US if there were five bodies with bullet holes, that's FIVE homicides. In the UK it was ONE incident, no matter how many bodies there were.
ReplyDeleteThis may have changed by now, of course, but it gave a great deal of insights into why the UK states seemed so much lower than in America.
Also, Great Britain does not record a murder until someone is convicted of the crime, as a murder, rather than a lesser degree of crime.
DeleteKind of like our "non-violent" felons released from prison because they pled down or out their violence.
Kohn in Indy
Also, Great Britain does not record a murder until someone is convicted of the crime, as a murder, rather than a lesser degree of crime.
DeleteKind of like our "non-violent" felons released from prison because they pled down or out their violence.
Kohn in Indy
It's just like Climate "Science" - if the data don't say what you want you simply adjust the data to suit.
ReplyDeleteChicago manages to hide murders and homicides on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteOne death a few years ago was recorded by the coroner as of "undetermined cause" because the months old corpse, found wire-tied to a chair in an abandoned factory, with most of its bones broken with the pipe lying nearby, was in too poor a condition to exclude the possibility that the death was due to exposure or natural causes. Since it was not classed as a homicide, there was no investigation of the death at all.
(From Second City Cop)
John in Indy
Reminds me of Japan. When they find an murdered body and there is not enough evidence to find, never mind charge, a suspect they define it as "human body abandonment" or some euphemism like that to keep the tally down.
ReplyDeleteI blame advertising for the twisting of words. Then the politicians got on board, and now everyone seemingly is playing with euphemism. All to pretend to be smarter than their neighbors. It's funny too to watch and listen when a new phrase enters the social circles and people start using it and pretending like they understand.
*sigh* ... mankind is in trouble