Friends, one of the biggest stories not being covered by the mainstream media (and there are many!) is the startling, unprecedented rise in murders in our cities. Thousands died needlessly of criminal violence in 2020 in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Los Angeles, and beyond. Democrats like to talk about there being "two Americas": one privileged and prosperous and safe, and one downtrodden and poor and riddled with violence. Well, they're half right. There really are two Americas, but, contrary to popular misconceptions, urban America isn't poor. Per capita incomes there are high, and cities are awash in revenue, compared to rural areas. They certainly suffer from no shortage of government spending. Nonetheless, they are cesspools of violence. That's true for a number of reasons, but high on the list is chronic mismanagement by woke (and usually corrupt) bureaucrats, exacerbated by deeply ingrained hostility to police and the criminal justice system, stoked by politicians for selfish gain. And the simple fact is that Democrats insist on making the rest of America -- our suburbs and countryside -- more like our cities in terms of public policies. That would be the same cities they've already driven into the ground, and from which people are fleeing in droves. And what's equally tragic is that most of the murders in these cities go unremarked by "progressives", because they aren't politically or ideologically useful. I mean, unless you can blame a murder on a police officer or a conservative white male, who cares, right? You can only shake your head at nonsense like this -- shake your head and pack some heat!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/murder-rate-jumps-back-1990s-levels-fbi-data
Stay strapped or get clapped, as my students are wont to say. Of course the push to eliminate getting strapped is nothing more than the push to guarantee that you can get clapped.
ReplyDeleteThough if Upstate NY's response to the SAFE Act is any indication, we may be fine.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Green-Star-Map-05-Feb-14.png
-Lee
My go-to site for solid statistics on crime rates across the nation is "AreaVibes". Type in almost any town or city in The United States and you will find general information about safe and unsafe places in this country. I'm seeing a lot of "F" grades for many places with explanations by local police indicating that increased homelessness combined with increased drug use is a root cause of crime. This includes places across the nation that were once safe with "A" ratings but now get an "F".
ReplyDeleteIn addition, in larger cities, the safest and most unsafe neighborhoods to live in are listed, as well as the type of crimes committed in general and particular. In some cases rape statistics in the same areas are marked as N/A but are very high for theft and property crimes. "AreaVibes" is certainly not the final authority for crime in the U.S. but it is a good site for a well presented overview of crime rates.
The site also tells you about housing prices, climate, and amenities, to name a few pieces of information on any given town.
Yes, Lee -- we certainly can't expect any help from Albany, but the federal courts might have something to say about it if the Dems try to abolish gun rights, and as you point out local law enforcement is mostly on the right side of this issue anyway, and that's critical.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, Ray! For now, the FBI and other federal agencies still publish reliable and objective crime data. They must assume this is safe, ideologically speaking, since the data that contradicts the Left's narratives on crime will never see the light of day, in journalistic terms, anyway.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Those would put up sign like that are the same who would disarm law abiding America. So what do they plan as a response to the criminals this execrable and presumptuous message would invite? Sweet reason? Attack the police and you welcome anarchy.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddyfrom Jack: Surprise, surprise, the hard left knows this! Why could it be that they seek anarchy both for the fun of seeing the destruction of the America they loathe and in expectation of their ascension from the ashes? After all, they have been preparing for just that since Woodstock.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Remember Shakespearean Marc Antony's conclusion to his mass infuriating disingenuous paean to Caesar? "Now let it work. . . !" . Though they probably disdain the Bard, this well describes the attitude of the American left. "We embrace criminals; we have demonstrated that since Attica. They have been our foot soldiers in places like Portland and Seattle! The police are their sworn enemies and so ours too. In the history of enforced Marxism are many examples of our expeditious temporary "united front" with fundamental enemies. EG. China in the 1920s. So it is today with street trash. Do not doubt that when we take over we will deal with them, summarily!
ReplyDeleteGood question, Jack! I suppose they must imagine that social workers and welfare functionaries alone can conquer the criminal underworld. Remember, these are people who believe in the perfectability of humankind, and plenty of other nonsense, so why not?
ReplyDeleteBut as always you close with a ray of hope: the lefties will cleanse the streets at last...once they own them. I feel much better now!
Dr. Waddy from Jack:Some on the left hsve disinngenuously proposed that some police work be taken over by social workers. I think it reasonable to think that the left dominates the field of "social work". We must expect many social workers would maintain an adversarial, disdainful attitude toward the police and would "counsel" their charges to do the same.Giving them police powers would exacerbate criminality and wouldserve the temporarily anarchic intent of the left in clearing the way for totalitarianism.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: In working in close, intense contact with state prison inmates(ie. people some of whom convicted of the worst, most depraved felonies) for 20 years I frequently came in contact with often voluntary staff, with dreamy, presumptuous, "social justice" advocacy, often but not always, without the everyday experience of prison life and work. We even had some of their ilk in the NY State Corrections Dep't state taxpayer and crime victim funded cadre. They were mostly good hearted people uncomprending of the radical left which cynically uses such as them.
ReplyDeleteJack, I have no doubt that many social workers and welfare bureaucrats start out starry-eyed. I find it hard to imagine that they stay that way, however, after daily contact with the wretched of the earth. In fact, if we were to give social workers nightsticks and revolvers, I have a sneaking suspicion that more than a few deadbeats would be eating lead -- probably a lot more than do so now, in the hands of professional police forces!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: It makes much sense to think most bleeding hearts would be disabused of this by intense contact with evil people. But I knew plenty who remained inappropriately sympathetic to criminals and markedly lacking in compassion for crime victims and the rest of the productive, law abiding, tax paying public.Some of them actually consider vicious criminals to be victims of an evil society.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Atelling example of this kind of thinking was Dukakis. He caused a savage murderer "safe"in prison to be given a furlough!! Whut da f... for!? And when that monster went on a predictable rampage he wouldn't stoop to talk the victims OK, no good will there except toward the criminal. Believe me, there were and probably still are (this being NY and a radical as AG)lots of decision makers in the Corrections Dep't who think and act that way. They control hundreds of millions of our tax dollars and potentially our lives with their sickening
ReplyDeletebias in favor of victimizers. Some of them have been in corrections for decades.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: A just society honors and protects and supports the lawful and law enforcement. But the radical left does want a justsociety. It wantsthe anarchy resulting from the freeing of criminals to prey on the lawful and which opens the door for their complete takeover. Naturally it sees criminals as a "revolutionary class" to be ridden to totalitarian power and then easily destroyed!
ReplyDeletefrom Jack: . . . does NOT want a just society.
ReplyDeleteJack, my guess is that those bleeding hearts who remain unfazed by the obvious viciousness of many of their downtrodden and "under-served" heroes in the criminal underworld are the ones who are completely insulated from the consequences of their actions. Luckily for them, the police still create a few "safe spaces" for even blowhards to enjoy.
ReplyDelete