U.S. crime rises as police fight other threats

[villager]

Source: Reuters

U.S. crime rises as police fight other threats

By Jason Szep May 21, 2007, 11:12 GMT

BOSTON - After a night of dancing, Chiara Levin was shot in the head by a stray bullet from a gunfight as she sat in a Cadillac sport utility vehicle. Hours later she was dead.

The killing of the 22-year-old Kentucky native, who recently graduated university with honors, in a tough neighborhood in Boston's Dorchester district on March 24 sparked weeks of outcry in a city where the murder rate neared a 10-year high last year.

Like Boston, many U.S. cities are struggling to stem a wave of violent crime and murder that has raised questions of whether police are fighting terrorism at the expense of street crime, and whether a widening wealth gap feeds the problem.

<snip>

Explanations vary -- from softer gun laws to budget cuts, fewer police on the beat, more people in poverty, expanding gang violence and simple complacency. But many blame a national preoccupation with potential threats from overseas since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

<snip>

Ludwig at Georgetown blames part of the problem on cuts to former President Bill Clinton's signature COPS Program that put thousands of police on the streets. Its funding fell to $102 million in fiscal 2007 from $487 million in 2004 and $1.5 billion in 1998, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Read more: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/features/article_1307126.php/U.S._crime_rises_as_police_fight_other_threats

[Donnachaidh]

1. Crime rate going up -- but the economy is FINE

Spaketh those RW nutjobs hiding behind their gated communities.

[villager]

3. Not only is the economy FINE, but Iraq is obviously a greater SUCCESS with each passing day!

n/t

[AngryAmish]

2. Misses the point - there are more offenders out there

Why did crime drop in the 90s? There were fewer men aged 18-30. These people commit the overwhelming majority of the crimes.

The echo-Boomers now are entering the violent crime ages. As a result there will be more crime.

What cuts crime? Putting folks in jail for a long time who commit violent crimes until they are over 35 (can be cruel and is expensive) and having good metrics on where and when crimes are committed so police can pinpoint their efforts there. Accountability all the way up the chain of command.

(While not proven I think there may be a legal abortion and less crime connection.)

[shrike]

5. There've been a few controversial studies on that question

re abortion and a drop in crime. Researchers tracked statistics after Roe v. Wade. Hypothesized there may have been a drop in crime due to availability of safe and legal abortions: babies not born.

[High Plains]

8. Hmmm, long prison sentences work so well...

that we lead the world in imprisonment, both in raw numbers and per capita, yet we still have violent crime rates that are extremely high.

We might want to look at all those people getting out of prison--about 600,000 a year now--and try to help them re-enter society as productive members. $50 and a bus ticket home doesn't cut it.

[sutz12]

11. No problem....

send them to that halfway house on Comedy Central. :sarcasm:

[AngryAmish]

16. Agreed

I am not stating my policy preferences, just what studies (real studies not based on anecdote)show that work. Unfortunately locking people up for a long time DOES work.

We should help people reenter society. If we don't, shame on us.

[sutz12]

4. You know, I've heard a disturbing ad on radio/TV lately...

It shows a cop, and he says that they are going to be stationing cops around the countryside, at parking lots and intersections, looking for people that don't have their seatbelts on as they drive by, so they can radio ahead to their buddy down the street to pull those rascals over. So, don't worry. They have their priorities straight.

:sarcasm:

[Donnachaidh]

6. They do that here NOW --

I'm in a suburb of Atlanta. The cops hide in a car just outside of a local school, and watch for anyone hitting the school zone going over the listed 25 miles an hour. On one occasion there were no less than 3 motorcycle cops going after people in this 4 block stretch of area, to write tickets. All of it at the end of the month.

Of course, no one paid attention to the ambulances flying to get to the highway, to clean up accidents that might have been prevented if the school cops had been THERE instead of chasing down soccer moms for their quota. :sarcasm:

[sutz12]

10. On another, but related note...

there has been a big stink in Seattle about cops enforcing various BS regs in the topless dance industry. The gist of it is that the cops are going in and spending hundreds of taxpayer dollars on lap dances, groping the girls and propositioning them in an attempt to get them to violate various anti-touching and prostitution laws.

Is it entrapment? Probably. Are the cops enjoying the duty? Take a guess.

Meanwhile, we've had various shootings and other incidents while the cops are 'cracking down on crime.' :shrug:

[Robb]

19. You're right, we shouldn't ask them to enforce school zone speed limits.

:shrug:

[2Design]

7. street crime is terrorism - the rest are mostly boogy man under the

bed created by bush admin

[peacebird]

9. Actually crime is up because economy is down....

[Megahurtz]

12. Exactly. n/t

[Miss Chybil]

13. When the top levels of government use violence to solve their problems,

one can hardly be surprized at the "trickle-down" effect.

[villager]

14. I'm always amazed the "culture of life" folks never get this.

But why am I surprised?

[Roland99]

17. They see it as another elimination of likely Democratic voters.

:eyes:

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Wealth and income disparity is a proven cause of increase in crime

Murder, domestic violence, economic crime, as well as drug abuse, suicide and other forms of self directed violence. Of course, slashing those programs only accelerates the problem.

[libodem]

18. Why blame Clinton?

I've understood that some officers are part of National Guard units and many are pulled away. I think Bush's blatant disregard for human life will have repercussions that will be like the rings from a pebble dropped in a pond. Just wait until our soldiers with PTSD flip out at home. We have seen an increase in our rural state of suicide and take as many others with you as you can type of violence. I think campaigns like 'Shock and Awe' where we indiscriminately bombed a whole county back to the stone age and thumbed our noses at the 'collateral damage' makes life cheap. People are more desperate, the haves and the have-nots more far apart, our police forces drawn down to go with the reserves, Bush's cuts to all things public, and craziness more blatant and less institutionalized. The world is fucked up and it's not Clinton's fault. Screw Ludwig.