Ernest Hancock
Letters to the Editor • Law Enforcers or Peace Officers
The Axiomatic Equation: Economy Down Crime Up Equals More Cops Needed
Crime surge is an inverse function of a down economy, just as the need for more cops is an inverse function of a rising crime wave.
Report of rising criminal activities is alarming. This story was written by CBS News Justice Department producers Rob Hendin and Beverley Lumpkin. See Crime Wave.
“The nation is on the verge of a crime epidemic… The report, compiled by the Police Executive Research Forum, says violent crime across America is ‘accelerating at an alarming pace.’ "
Few people realize, but it is that simple: When the economy is down, crime is up. Be informed of the following study: Crime: Effect of Recession …This study pointed out that: “A recent survey of 233 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum found that 100 departments — 43 percent — reported rising levels of what they felt were recession-related crimes.
“Forty percent said that thefts had increased in recent months, 39 percent reported that robberies were up and 32 percent said burglaries had surged 20 percent.
As frustration and depression over unemployment and money woes rise among middle-class families, however, emotions are heightened and nerves begin to fray. That could trigger increases in domestic violence as people turn to alcohol and drugs to escape their problems.”
The real tragedy does not lie on the rising recession-caused robbery, theft, homicide and murder itself – it is on the scarcity of cops around due to those crazy budget-cuts. And when not enough cops are around and therefore impossible to stop this sour economic-based crime wave, nobody gets the ax but the vanishing cops.
The ratio of police to population in the US is dismal: only about 2.3 officers per thousand residents … In the state of Arizona, “one cop is worn to protect 450 citizens”; in some areas of the state, only one officer for every 1000 citizens.
In West-Coast California, a police officer reported on record that where he worked for 30 years, the population was 4,000,000 with 9,770 cops [409 to 1]; and Florida’s Sheriff’s Office reported that on record, there are only 1.70 officers per 1,000 populations.
Hate campaign against cops in general may be due to personal trauma caused by a few bad ones. But if such personal outrage against cops in general is due to ignorance, education is necessary. The uneducated can start learning this axiomatic equation that when the economy is down, crime is up and more cops are needed.
But I have read a tragedy even worse than this ignorance, there are some very spiteful people “who want to shoot all cops dead” [if I quote it correctly somewhere]. They seem to have this kind of hanging around: Grudgingly tying a rope around their neck and while hanging themselves in a cynical way, enjoy swinging with this terrible idea that if they eliminate cops, there will be no crimes!
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2 Comments in Response to The Axiomatic Equation: Economy Down Crime Up Equals More Cops Needed
I tracked down this report. The gist is strikingly important to understanding what our police problems are all about.
"Some of the police chiefs blame the exacerbation of crime on a ‘thug mentality’ that has been glamorized in music and movies. The sheriff of Las Vegas blames gangsta rap music and its effects on young people. An Arizona chief said some of our youth has become a ‘throw-away generation; nobody cares for them.’
"The study-report finds that the combination of GUNS and YOUTH is the MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR to the surge in violent crime. Many police chiefs expressed alarm about the EASY AVAILABILITY OF GUNS and are worried about legislation pending in Congress that would restrict the federal ATF from sharing gun-tracing information with local police, making it harder to track down the guns used in crimes."
In the first place, the purpose to have guns is not to shoot down the State at a drop of a hat for an imagined wrong [a bad interpretation of the law regulating (licensing) the possession of guns] and gun control is not directed against the right to have guns at home but against criminals who have guns.
Wonderful report! More of this kind is welcome. It’s like a breath of fresh air for the real smart ones – more so for the few civilized ones in FP.com’s Freedom Forum. Like PureTrust who can argue without losing his temper, without using the "f" word, and without resorting to Ad Hominem. Although he has his own reasons for being in the opposite side of the fence hating cops, as a new comer you must know that to encourage important civil and courteous debates, his guts deserve attention, respect and response.
That being said, at the same time please don’t lose sight of the fact that those kill-cops oddballs are in their death-struggle to create a "society" that has no order. Anarchy is a very polite word for it. These few misplaced ticklers or people-mind-tinkers – I mean "thinkers" believed that the United States where they live is no different from Pol Pot’s Cambodia where to kill cops is an inalienable right of citizens under the First Amendment.
That’s the real problem when one does not have a formal education like this guy Larken Rose. To him all Americans who went to school to get an education are SLAVES of the Government. He is the only one who is not a slave – which means that he is not like the rest of us who have gone to school to get a formal education. He is proud for not having any formal education. Americans shouldn’t go to school …This is his Declaration of War against normal life, and against the real world. He seems to be a living survivor of Pol Pot’s world where to shoot cops dead deserves a medal, but found himself dislocated and now living here in America. As you know, preaching to Americans to kill cops is not angelic or just the opposite of what is saintly. My guess is that the police will get to him first and haul him to his safety in jail before the lynching crowd could get their hands on his throat.