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Thread: In Las Vegas, Rising Murders Strain a Police Force Used to Solving Them

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    In Las Vegas, Rising Murders Strain a Police Force Used to Solving Them

    As homicides here have swelled to 125 so far this year — a 27 percent increase over 2015 — detectives have watched caseloads grow to five or six apiece, and have become accustomed to phones ringing at 3 a.m. bringing more bad news.

    “I’ve got a lot of tired people,” Lieutenant McGrath said.

    The pace of the killings has been relentless, even for veteran detectives, who have seen the number creep steadily upward, from 84 in 2012, and are spending more of their time at crime scenes.

    April was especially violent, with 24 homicides, the most in any month in the city’s history. While the pace has slowed somewhat, the count this year may surpass the 157 killed in 2006. The city’s worst year was 1996, when 167 people were murdered.

    The homicide clearance rate for Las Vegas remains a point of satisfaction for investigators even as they are swamped with cases. Last week, the unit added two detectives to bring the total to 21, in order to help with the caseload, Lieutenant McGrath said.
    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/04...homicides.html
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    Platinum ftpjesus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shizzmoney View Post
    As homicides here have swelled to 125 so far this year — a 27 percent increase over 2015 — detectives have watched caseloads grow to five or six apiece, and have become accustomed to phones ringing at 3 a.m. bringing more bad news.

    “I’ve got a lot of tired people,” Lieutenant McGrath said.

    The pace of the killings has been relentless, even for veteran detectives, who have seen the number creep steadily upward, from 84 in 2012, and are spending more of their time at crime scenes.

    April was especially violent, with 24 homicides, the most in any month in the city’s history. While the pace has slowed somewhat, the count this year may surpass the 157 killed in 2006. The city’s worst year was 1996, when 167 people were murdered.

    The homicide clearance rate for Las Vegas remains a point of satisfaction for investigators even as they are swamped with cases. Last week, the unit added two detectives to bring the total to 21, in order to help with the caseload, Lieutenant McGrath said.
    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/04...homicides.html
    167 was the highest murder count only 20 yrs ago?? Somehow I have a feeling theres a lot of bodies in the desert that might argue with those numbers just saying.. Also I find it ironic that the casino marker law many of us have been railing about was passed around that same time.. hmmm coincidence????

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    I've lived in Vegas for the last 10 years and the problems with crime have gotten progressively worse and moving further west in the city over the last decade. It used to be that most violent crimes were centered in predictable areas of the valley which is fairly standard for most cities but it's gotten out of control in the last few years.

    I live right down the street from Red Rock Casino on the east side of 215 and what was once a safe area has even come to be progressively worse in the last year or so. There's only a few areas of town left you can live in and be pretty assured you don't have to worry that much about things. Unless you are west of 215 between Flamingo and Charleston or WAY on the south side close to the M casino there's a decent chance you can become a victim of some sort of violent crime in your surrounding area.

    My girlfriend has finally convinced me to move the fuck out of Vegas so we just bought a house 40 miles north of Phoenix in Surprise, Az and to be honest I can't wait until our daughter's gymnastics season is over in March to GTFO of here
    Last edited by lvpkr1009; 10-04-2016 at 03:56 PM.

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    Bronze hardeight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lvpkr1009 View Post
    I've lived in Vegas for the last 10 years and the problems with crime have gotten progressively worse and moving further west in the city over the last decade. It used to be that most violent crimes were centered in predictable areas of the valley which is fairly standard for most cities but it's gotten out of control in the last few years.

    I live right down the street from Red Rock Casino on the east side of 215 and what was once a safe area has even come to be progressively worse in the last year or so. There's only a few areas of town left you can live in and be pretty assured you don't have to worry that much about things. Unless you are west of 215 between Flamingo and Charleston or WAY on the south side close to the M casino there's a decent chance you can become a victim of some sort of violent crime in your surrounding area.

    My girlfriend has finally convinced me to move the fuck out of Vegas so we just bought a house 40 miles north of Phoenix in Surprise, Az and to be honest I can't wait until our daughter's gymnastics season is over in March to GTFO of here
    You don't feel safe in your gated community? HOA's probably steal more money then the drug addicts . I would of guessed vegas would have lower crime then Phoenix but granted your 40 miles out . GOod luck on the move.

     
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      lvpkr1009: Still have yet to figure out what my HOA dues even go for rep

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    Quote Originally Posted by hardeight View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by lvpkr1009 View Post
    I've lived in Vegas for the last 10 years and the problems with crime have gotten progressively worse and moving further west in the city over the last decade. It used to be that most violent crimes were centered in predictable areas of the valley which is fairly standard for most cities but it's gotten out of control in the last few years.

    I live right down the street from Red Rock Casino on the east side of 215 and what was once a safe area has even come to be progressively worse in the last year or so. There's only a few areas of town left you can live in and be pretty assured you don't have to worry that much about things. Unless you are west of 215 between Flamingo and Charleston or WAY on the south side close to the M casino there's a decent chance you can become a victim of some sort of violent crime in your surrounding area.

    My girlfriend has finally convinced me to move the fuck out of Vegas so we just bought a house 40 miles north of Phoenix in Surprise, Az and to be honest I can't wait until our daughter's gymnastics season is over in March to GTFO of here
    You don't feel safe in your gated community? HOA's probably steal more money then the drug addicts . I would of guessed vegas would have lower crime then Phoenix but granted your 40 miles out . GOod luck on the move.
    the idea of a "gated community" in vegas is a joke unless you live in one that has a checkpoint guard that makes rounds. Cars get stolen or broken into all the time in my neighborhood and homes broken into more often than I knew. It wasn't until I signed up for one of those crime alert things on my phone that I even realized how often stuff happens in a mile radius of my house. I've always held true to the notion that if you live anywhere along a bus line then youre fucked. I happen to live right at the end of the bus line and would need to move to the other side of the freeway about a mile to get off of it.

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    Bronze hardeight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lvpkr1009 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by hardeight View Post

    You don't feel safe in your gated community? HOA's probably steal more money then the drug addicts . I would of guessed vegas would have lower crime then Phoenix but granted your 40 miles out . GOod luck on the move.
    the idea of a "gated community" in vegas is a joke unless you live in one that has a checkpoint guard that makes rounds. Cars get stolen or broken into all the time in my neighborhood and homes broken into more often than I knew. It wasn't until I signed up for one of those crime alert things on my phone that I even realized how often stuff happens in a mile radius of my house. I've always held true to the notion that if you live anywhere along a bus line then youre fucked. I happen to live right at the end of the bus line and would need to move to the other side of the freeway about a mile to get off of it.
    only way I would move back is if they get online poker with the ROW player pool.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Rhodes Ranch is a gated community in Vegas.

    http://www.rhodesranchhoa.net/

    Neverwin used to live there. (He lost the home when he went busto).

    He spent a lot of his time in Los Angeles, where he had another home (which he also lost). Someone in the neighborhood must have noticed his absence, broke into his house, and stole everything of value.

    They were never apprehended, and the guards didn't see anything. Either it was an inside job (that is, with the guards' knowledge) or someone in the neighborhood did it, never having to get past any guards. I'm guessing it was the latter.

    Apparently this wasn't a fluke, and was a chronic problem in Rhodes Ranch, and in Vegas in general. I know someone else who lives part time in Vegas who just had their house broken into while gone.

    Vegas also led the nation in car thefts in the 2000s, until finally being passed by another city.

    The murders are especially disturbing, though, as they are skyrocketing. This is part of a growing trend in several big cities around the nation, including Chicago. I believe this is a result of the media/political attacks on the police, thus making it a lot harder for them to do their jobs. Keep in mind that violent crime went DOWN in every major city in the US for 23 years, but that trend ended in 2013 and now it's going the other way.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    The murders are especially disturbing, though, as they are skyrocketing. This is part of a growing trend in several big cities around the nation, including Chicago. I believe this is a result of the media/political attacks on the police, thus making it a lot harder for them to do their jobs. Keep in mind that violent crime went DOWN in every major city in the US for 23 years, but that trend ended in 2013 and now it's going the other way.
    I submit poverty and inequality is the major problem.

    As much as folks want to complain that the politicians and media have handcuffed police efforts, I don't see any change in their aggressive policing behaviors nor any more accountability from higher ups that would hamper them from arresting or shooting people. If anything, states are passing laws giving police MORE power, and a good majority of these cops aren't going to jail, so there's nothing really for them to worry about (except for butthurt feelings). The state and attorney generals, for the most part, have their back.

    Additionally, the pay for being a LVPD cop is low compared to the rest of the country. The median annual Police Patrol Officer salary in Las Vegas, NV is $52,751, as of August 29, 2016....the US average is around $66,000. Chicago's starting cop salary is $43k, and settles at around $61k......and now the rich Chicago people are hiring off duty Chicago cops because cost of living is so high in relation to inequality and crime.

    If you want to hire more cops, especially in a city as dangerous as Las Vegas, there just isn't much incentive for being a police officer despite the benefits and union protections (as well as the scrutiny from these police shootings on social media which doesn't really inspire young kids to want to be cops).

    Gun laws aren't really the issue either here, as one city is in a state which has pretty lax gun laws, and the other has some of the most strict gun laws in the nation. The common denominator, IMO, is inequality.

    Las Vegas has a huge problem with inequality, as does Chicago, who ranks 8th in the nation. While both cities have recovered most of the jobs since the Great Recession, they are still behind most major metropolitan areas in terms of keeping up with population growth, as well as wages keeping up with rising living costs such as healthcare and rents which have hyper inflated in most major cities. Wages and incomes have gone up around 2-2.5% since the Great Recession in Nevada; but that's not keeping up with actual costs of living.

    Despite jobs coming back to Nevada, the poverty level for both state and county have not recovered to 2007 levels, slightly more than 10 percent. That means that wages are just not at the level where people can feel comfortable about spending cash, which fuels economic growth, which fuels better paying jobs and a more dynamic labor market. A good number of jobs created are temporary or in the service sector, and are generally low wage. Nevada has some of the lowest wages in the country. Contrast that to Massachusetts, which has some of the highest wages; while inequality here in Mass is bad as well, our crime rate is no where near these other cities due to more safety nets like robust welfare and unemployment insurance programs, social services, high paying civil service jobs, and public transportation.

    Also, considering the main driver of Las Vegas economy is gambling, which draws folks of a degenerate nature, the fact there isn't MORE violence underscores the fact that the one thing Las Vegas has going for it is that most casino jobs are unionized, which provides benefits and protections that most laborers in the US don't have, giving incentive for locals to work at these casinos and maybe start a small business once they get some scrilla (see vegas1369). But not everyone wants to work in a casino, and I am sure a good portion of Las Vegas residents have credit issues for whatever issue you can choose, which hampers' one's ability to get a job.

    As David Cross once said: "There's a reason people choose selling drugs over working at McDonald's...it's called, "math".

     
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      Sanlmar: Crime is an economic indicator
    Last edited by Shizzmoney; 10-06-2016 at 06:42 AM.
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    Unfortunately, the above argument doesn't match the data in prior years.

    Violent crime declined steadily from 1990 through 2013 in every major city. 23 straight years and crime went down. This included Republican regimes, Democratic regimes, good economies, okay economies, recessions, and even the huge housing/financial meltdown of 2008. Through all of that, crime kept going down.

    Suddenly, starting in 2013, it started to go back up. And it has risen for the past 3 years, with certain cities being worse than others.

    If this crime was a result of economic factors, we would have seen it spike several times from 1990-2013, and we also would have seen it decline at times prior to 1990. Instead, we had a steady rise upwards for decades to the 1990 peak, then a 23-year steady decline through 2013, and now its going back up again.

    Those cycles are too long to be economically related.

    Nobody can say for sure what has caused this spike in violent crime in the past 3 years, but you have to look at what has changed the most in that time, and that's the backlash against police.

    Dubbed "The Ferguson Effect", even some liberals are coming around to admit that it's real, and that it probably has a hand in the rising violent crime rates.

    Police are reporting that thug types in rough neighborhoods are showing them less respect than ever. Whereas the police were once treated with a fearful sort of respect in these neighborhoods, now large groups of people are emboldened to talk back to police and challenge them.

    The sad thing is seeing the trend moving away from what's known as "broken windows policing". The theory behind broken windows policing is that prevention and prosecution of minor crimes in troubled neighborhoods leads to a decrease in serious crimes. It is believed that creating an environment where no crime is tolerated prevents an atmosphere of lawlessness where crimes start to escalate. Cut down on vandalism, public drinking, and public drug use, and the cleaner urban environment is less conducive to crime. "Stop and frisk", another controversial program, is an offshoot of broken windows policing.

    Believe it or not, liberals are against broken windows policing. They think it's racist, because those arrested for these minor crimes tend to be minorities, or more specifically, black. They feel it's simply an excuse for racist police to arrest and charge black people for minor crimes, thus sending them down a path of further lawlessness.

    I feel that broken windows policing was a big factor in bringing down crime from 1990-2013, especially in New York City, where the hotbed of 1980s crime known as Times Square is now considered vibrant and safe.

    Giuliani's zero-tolerance program was part of an interlocking set of wider reforms, crucial parts of which had been underway since 1985. Bratton had the police more strictly enforce the law against subway fare evasion, public drinking, public urination, graffiti vandals, and the squeegee men, who had been wiping windshields of stopped cars and aggressively demanding payment. Initially, Bratton was criticized for going after "petty" crimes. The general complaint about this policy was why panhandlers, hookers, or graffiti artists should be dealt with when there were more serious crimes to be dealt with.

    The main notion of the broken window theory is that small crimes can make way for larger crimes. If the petty criminals are often overlooked and given tacit permission to do what they want, their level of criminality might escalate to more serious offenses. Bratton's goal was to attack while the offenders are still starting to prevent more serious crime. According to the 2001 study of crime trends in New York City by Kelling and William Sousa, rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly and continued to drop for the following ten years.

    So now we're back to talk of reversing broken windows policing, and the police are constantly vilified and under fire to where they are afraid to do their jobs.

    I don't understand why the small percentage of citizens who are violent criminals are so protected in this country. Most people, even in the ghetto, are generally good and want to live normal, crime-free lives. If you rid society of the small percentage who consistently cause trouble, it's amazing how quickly everything else falls into place.

    I even have seen a version of this in the workplace. I once worked in an office where there were two malcontents who constantly bitched, complained, disrupted meetings with sarcastic remarks, and generally made the entire environment contentious. After a few months of this, I started watching formerly good employees starting to emulate their behavior, and I watched the general respect shown to management plummet. Finally management got smart and fired those two malcontents. Nobody else was disciplined, nor was there any reason provided to the rest of us for their firing. But things immediately turned around. All of a sudden, everyone was positive, meetings were productive, no one was sarcastic/nasty, and management was suddenly in control again. Removing two bad apples changed everything. It wasn't just that people feared for their jobs more. It was just a different environment without those two guys around. Their behavior was no longer the norm around the office.

    I thought to myself at the time, "I bet that's what they've been doing with the community policing models I've heard about."

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    Druff, you keep mentioning "back lash against police"


    well guess what.....

    they fucking deserve it.

    it aint like we're protesting cops that are writing too many parking tickets, no, we're protesting cops who do dumb shit, like kill innocent people, or kill people for crimes that are far from being "capital" crimes worth such treatment.


    so basically what i'm saying is: they're not doing their jobs correctly, and it's happening in staggering numbers. don't want to get fired? don't want to be on social media or the news? then do.your.fucking.job.correctly.

    you seem to think that all this protesting of the racist and killer cops isn't some how justified.

    well it is.
    "Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next."

    George Steinbrenner

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    The sad thing is seeing the trend moving away from what's known as "broken windows policing". The theory behind broken windows policing is that prevention and prosecution of minor crimes in troubled neighborhoods leads to a decrease in serious crimes. It is believed that creating an environment where no crime is tolerated prevents an atmosphere of lawlessness where crimes start to escalate. Cut down on vandalism, public drinking, and public drug use, and the cleaner urban environment is less conducive to crime. "Stop and frisk", another controversial program, is an offshoot of broken windows policing.
    "Liberals" don't like stop and frisk not just because they think it's racist, and a talking point for conservative newspapers....it's because it actually doesn't work:

    But it turns out that the New York Daily News was wrong about its forecasts, which the media outlet’s editorial board wrote in an op-ed Monday that it was “delighted” to admit. Instead of bedlam up in Brooklyn and hell up in Harlem, as the paper had warned would happen as a result of scaling back “stop and frisk,” the opposite happened: “Post stop-and-frisk, the facts are clear,” wrote the editorial board Monday. “New York is safer while friction between the NYPD and the city’s minority communities has eased.”

    This was an inescapable conclusion considering the math, which the editorial board was able to summarize in just a few paragraphs:

    The NYPD began scaling back stops under Kelly before Scheindlin’s decision and accelerated the trend under Commissioner Bill Bratton. As a result, the number of stops reported by cops fell 97% from a high of 685,700 in 2011 to 22,900 in 2015.

    Not only did crime fail to rise, New York hit record lows.

    The murder count stood at 536 in 2010 and at 352 last year—and seems sure to drop further this year. There were 1,471 shooting incidents in 2010 (1,773 victims). By 2015, shootings had dropped to 1,130 (1,339 victims).
    Notice the bold sentence I outlined. If you go into neighborhoods harassing every one left and right, and maybe off a few of those who dare to challenge police authority not because they have a gun or knife on them, but just because they dare to challenge the police's authority.....you aren't going to get cooperation from the neighborhood to call in the bad people who are criminals in these troubled areas.

    (White) folks tend to forget, while these drug dealers and pimps and gang bangers are awful degenerates.....they are also brothers, father, sisters, cousins, and significant others. When (trigger happy) cops are shooting (colored) people left and right, when those in the neighborhood are calling the cops to apprehend suspects and put them in jail/juvenile detention centers, and not shoot them without these things called, "due process" and a "trial", it creates mistrust in the community.

    Trust than wanes each and every single day as politicians on both sides of the isle continue to lie through their teeth as if they work for Full Tilt Poker's PR department.

    I'm of Irish decent, also have family from Belfast. The IRA, and the Catholic communities it represented......and the UK Government and the Protestant families it represented......never actually got around to starting the peace process UNTIL the SAS and the local Northern Ireland authorities stopped harassing innocent non-IRA Catholics and putting up walls everywhere under the guise of "protecting" communities. It was only until then, when the car bombs stopped (that and of course paying off the IRA leaders and making them MPs in the NIRE Parliament....but that's another story for another time).

    I grew up in Roxbury here in Boston. When the Carol Stewart murder happened(cliffs: white guy shoots preggo wife in car, blames it on black guy. 2 weeks later, it comes out he actually killed her to get money from an insurance scheme and he ended up hels'ing himself into the Charles River), my neighborhood became a police state, especially for black men of all classes. Even young teens as myself (white and a son of a cop!), got harassed on a daily basis by police officers at night. Crime spiked, potential witnesses became intimidated by both the gangs and the police, and progress stalled.

    Once the BPD realized that community policing, by engaging with those in the community by promising better programs for housing, job development, and outreach that involved local civic leaders and clergy was a better plan of attack, it showed young people who become disenfranchised in a ever failing capitalist system that there was a way out and even life after prison (either by placing troubled young men in mental health centers and or job retraining programs). Only then, did things change for the better in the city of Boston.

    Granted, that sense of community has waned now, mostly due to gentrification and high rents (including myself not being able to afford the neighborhood I grew up in) pricing out families who grew up in Roxbury as well.......crime has gone down, and while there are still gun shootings and deaths, it is NO where what it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

    Additionally, while Druff is correct that crime waned during booms and busts of previous recessions......2008 was unprecedented. It created a widening inequality and distrust in the system that has created a large pool of non-cooperation as well as a disparity of have and have nots when it comes to not only wealth (which Americans are fine with) but also how they are treated in the court system. Wage disparities, rent prices, health care prices, and overall gaps in median income have never been higher after a recession (which we actually statistically, in terms of income and even unemployment rates, haven't FULLY recovered from unlike previous downturns). And it's widening at a free fall pace, which are why populists like Trump and Sanders boomed in the polls.

    Even people with college degrees are having a hard time getting a job; no wonder all of these white people are doing heroin and meth:



    And it amazes me, that conservatives, who blast Obama left and right on the "fake" economic recovery (and as a leftist, I agree with them!), will then go on and unequivocally deny that this unprecedented era of poverty brought about by Wall St bailouts (Wells Fargo being a recent story Druff just made a thread about), government revolving doors (which result in no executives going to jail; but if you sell a dime bag, your a BLM terrorist!), and corporate greed.....by blaming poor people for their plight...is quite simply, astonishing.



    The problem is the system. The entire fucking thing.

    If you have looting at the top (Wall St), you will eventually have looting at the bottom (the Ghetto).
    Last edited by Shizzmoney; 10-07-2016 at 10:37 AM.
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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    I am willing to concede that perhaps stop-and-frisk isn't a good idea, because it creates an environment where innocent people can be treated like criminals.

    However, stop-and-frisk was a one sentence side note to my long essay in my previous post. As I said, it was an offshoot of broken windows policing, but is not broken windows policing itself.

    New York's long-declining violent crime rate -- one that is currently bucking the national trend of increased crime from 2013-2016 -- is a result of the groundwork laid in the early 90s by Giuliani.

    Take the "squeegee guy" example cited in my previous post. Is it a horrible crime if a guy comes up and starts cleaning your windshield without permission and then acts aggressively to scare you into tipping him? No. But should that have been commonplace in NYC? Also no. See, if you allow this sort of behavior -- where basically the inmates run the asylum -- then it gives the bad element the general idea that they can do what they want. Nobody fears consequence. Minor criminals become major criminals. People who weren't criminals at all start to consider committing crime, as it becomes the community norm. There is a general sense on the streets that the criminals run things, and that your only hope is to simply avoid them or acquiesce to them.

    Instead, Giuliani had the police clamp down on the so-called minor criminals. In the case of the aggressive squeegee guys, they were confronted by police and told to cut it out immediately, or face arrest. Vandals were apprehended and charged. It became an environment of, "You're not getting away with this type of shit here anymore."

    And it worked. Look how quickly Times Square got taken back. Do you think that would have happened with a left-wing, police-stay-in-the-background approach? That was tried for decades, and many parts of NYC degraded into dangerous slums. Now it's markedly safer than it used to be -- so much that it's still resisting the current nationwide trend of rising crime.

    It's very simple. Remove the bad apples from the community, make it clear that all crime will be investigated and punished, and then follow through. Crime will markedly decrease. We saw this for 23 years, and NYC was one of the most dramatic examples.

    The problem with the current vilification of police is that it's amplifying a longstanding problem which, while important to address, should not undermine the work of the mostly good police officers around the country.

    Instead of the proper message of, "We need to root out the bad cops, stop the police unions from protecting them, and hit them for stiff penalties for brutality and corruption", the message being conveyed is, "Most cops are racist, so nobody should respect the police."

    The politically correct left does not want to admit the unfortunate facts regarding deadly shootings in this country.

    Almost all black people killed in shootings in the United States are killed by other black people.

    It is also far more common for a black person to shoot a white person than a white person shooting a black person.

    Police shootings of black people -- whether justified or not -- makes up a very small percentage of black men killed by guns in this country.

    If "black lives matter" so much, why are we not focusing on the reason so many black people are killing other black people? Isn't this the real crisis in this country?


    But oh, wait... what about the economy? Is it perhaps the fault of the rich people and the corporate fat cats?

    I don't buy that. Most violent crime in the inner city is not taking place due to poverty or the inability to get a job. Unfortunately, it's a result of a violent culture which the left is afraid to address, for fear of being labeled racist.

    I encourage you to take a drive through a lot of the small towns in California and Nevada. These places are in the middle of nowhere. Many of them are quite poor. Jobs are not plentiful. Most jobs available are low-paying, with little opportunity for advancement. Are these towns hotbeds of crime? Just the opposite. There is almost no violent crime in these places, to the point where these middle-of-nowhere hick towns have become attractive destinations for families looking to escape the more dangerous environments like Los Angeles.

    Poverty does not necessarily lead to violent crime. Culture glorifying violent crime leads to violent crime. Governments which are afraid to address violent crime also lead to more violent crime. Poverty does not -- at least not by itself.

    This is the reason why crime stats in this country rarely correlate with economic factors.

    I believe that most people living in the inner cities are good, and they wish to live out normal, happy, crime-free lives like the rest of us. We should enable this not by pandering, race-baiting, or ill-advised social spending, but by making these areas safer and removing those who are making it unsafe. This can only be done through a strong community policing model, where it is clear that all forms of crime -- minor or major -- will not be tolerated. That's what worked in the '90s, and that's what we need to get back to.

    With that said, I agree with you that there needs to be far more consequence for corporate criminals, and reform is badly needed there. However, that is a different matter, and I believe it has little bearing on our current violent crime situation.

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