Rising crime trend confirmed

[Quixote1818]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Violent crime rose nearly 2 percent last year, the FBI reported Monday in nationwide data that show a slightly higher increase than expected.

The number of big-city murders also increased, by 1.8 percent - the same rate as homicides nationwide. Robberies and arson also rose in large population centers, but the number of rapes and car thefts dropped, FBI data show.

The new numbers confirm that crime rates continued on a two-year upward trend after a relative lull in violence between 2002 and 2004.

The rising crime rates have been a concern for the Justice Department, which earlier this year blamed the increases on gangs, guns and youth violence. The Bush administration has pledged to spend $50 million this year to combat gangs and guns, and is pushing Congress for new laws to let the federal government better investigate and prosecute violent crime.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Crime.html

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I give our fearless leader George W. Bush full credit for this. Clinton in, crime goes down. Bush in, crime goes up.

[BlueJazz]

1. The Bush administration has pledged to spend $50 million this year to combat gangs.

Whoa...50 Million....Boy..That's like 18 Cents for every person in the USA.!!!

Yes Sir..That will get the Job done..I mean, that's like 0NE MILLION DOLLARS for each State!

(or 3 minutes of the Irag War)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. They spend $271 mil a day on Iraq and look what good that has done

It's made their elite contractors richer than they ever thought possible.

Meanwhile it's killed a million people and ran another 4 million from their homes, and destroyed the infrastructure of an entire country.

That doesn't even touch on the fact that it's created more enemies (terrorist) than it ever destroyed.

Personally, I'd rather this crew keep their hands off of U.S. gang activity to be honest.

[tanyev]

16. Didn't Laura solve that gang problem with a few photo ops?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. It was such a success she's now moved on to breast cancer awareness in the Middle East

A good cause, but I don't know how effective she will be there.

I still remember her trip to Israel and Palestine.

[NMDemDist2]

2. people are broke

when people don't have enough jobs/money, crime goes up

[Gormy Cuss]

12. Yes. It's a well established pattern.

Both property crimes (people stealing) and violent crime spike when the economy is bad.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. When poverty rises, so does crime. duh. nt

[ooglymoogly]

6. When folks become desperate and they are at an ever increasing

rate the old maxim kicks in...."Desperate people do desperate things"

[unpossibles]

5. but all the Freakonomics people said it's going down because of abortion!

<puke>

Sorry. Just being a smartass, although that is what the premise is.

[ooglymoogly]

7. my surmise is that like all the other figures coming from this administration

the no's are fudged perhaps on a large scale to keep people from coming to the conclusion that this administration is at fault for the rise in crime which even a blind man can see they are. They need just enough rise to scare people into hiring new armies of gestapo police and limiting freedoms by new restrictive laws to prepare for the coming marshal law.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. And that's not even including White House crimes! nt

[Demeter]

10. Wonder How Many of those Murders Are Political?

So I'm feeling a bit paranoid this morning--want to make something of it?

[High Plains]

9. Not bad on all fronts...

At least we managed to arrest 800,000 people for marijuana last year, 89% of them for simple possession.

[zonkers]

11. 700 thousand arrests. Wonder what they cost apiece? A few thou. would be my guess when you add

up the costs like booking, fingerprinting, computer checks, clerical, court dates, etc. Actually, its probably way more. That would add up to over 1.4 billion dollars a year (a very conservative estimate I think).

[truthisfreedom]

13. But if we stopped arresting them, the price of pot would go down. And that's bad for the economy.

Right?

[AndyTiedye]

14. Arson in a Tanking Real Estate Market?

Nobody could possibly have predicted that. :sarcasm:

[benEzra]

15. I see that the percentage of murders involving rifles declined slightly...

from 2.97% to 2.91%. Probably not statistically significant (it's hovered around 3% for many years, IIRC).

2005 data:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_20.html
Total murders............................14,860.....100.00%
Handguns..................................7,543......50.76%
Other weapons (non firearm, non edged)....1,954......13.15%
Edged weapons.............................1,914......12.88%
Firearms (type unknown)...................1,598......10.75%
Shotguns....................................517.......3.48%
Hands, fists, feet, etc.....................892.......6.00%
Rifles......................................442.......2.97%

2006 data:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_20.html
Total murders............................14,990.....100.00%
Handguns..................................7,795......52.00%
Other weapons (non firearm, non edged)....2,158......14.40%
Edged weapons.............................1,822......12.15%
Firearms (type unknown)...................1,465.......9.77%
Shotguns....................................481.......3.21%
Hands, fists, feet, etc.....................833.......5.56%
Rifles......................................436.......2.91%