The number of cops getting zapped is down too.

UCR(this is a PDF)

I blame Bush!!! And I question the timing!!!!

Good news is news too.

Curious that the suicide rate among US troops in Iraq is lower than that of similar age groups in most european countries isn't it...

One would have thought the "stress" and "depression" of being imperialists in a hot area would be higher than living in the peacetime socialist paradise.

Maybe the euros should sign up with the Marines so they won't be so prone to depression and offing themselves.

Maybe the euros should sign up with the Marines so they won't be so prone to depression and offing themselves.

Shhhhhhhh!!

I'm sure the UN is brainstorming a way to steal credit for this as we speak.

'All murder is local'
Yeah, when it's national it's called 'Being at War'
In the mid 90's the FBI and NIJ altered the way that
crime stats are reported. New version placed additional requirements for a crime to count, i.e., a "suspected homocide" would need a more than previous level of evidence to be reported as such. Not suprisingly, crime rates have steadly fallen since then. What a coincidence.

I heard an interview with the guy who created Law & Order (original version). He was a crime scene journo and got to know the homicide police really well. He said that the percentage of homicide victims are killed after using a TV line like "You ain't got the guts..." or "Go ahead and shoot me!" is enormous. Funny, but people who are agitated enough to pull a gun on you in malice might not be the best people to whom comments like that should be directed.

A lot of the killers in those situations would protest "but he told me to shoot him!" when arrested.

Anyone else notice how the AP report bends over backwards to assure us that the drop is not because of Bush but in spite of Bush? (Local efforts, programs targeting guns, even though the economy is bad, etc.)

More bad guys in jail = fewer bad guys out there committing crimes. Whoa! Who wudda thought it?

Whoa.......

Hold on.

Madonna says to change our evil ways or go to Hell....and the crime rate drops?!

The question is...How did Rove get to Madonna?

I don't care what they say, I still ain't leaving the house.

Ed's meds have not kicked in yet. Keep telling yourself that its all a matter of labels, Ed. All a matter of labels.

Nice to see that fluoridation program finally bearing some fruit.

Another factor responsible for the lower murder rate is improved emergency medicine. I have had ER doctors tell me that there are a lot of patients who, 20 years ago, would be murder victims but today are merely victims of aggravated assault and/or attempted murder.

The murder rate is down and its not becuase of gun control or this phonie rehabilitation its becuase more people are armed and we are sending more crinimals to longer sentences and we quit listening to the new age psyco-babble idiotic babbling

This can't be right. There were supposed to be rivers of blood when the assault weapons ban sunsetted a year ago.

The Brady Campaign must very disappointed.

Add a "be" to that.

Okay, that's it. I'm going to call bullshit on spurwing plover. He smelled funny from the git-go, but "crinimals" is over the top.

Clumsy troll, dude.

I had him figured for a drinking man myself.

"I’m not saying this means you can now sleep with the door unlocked, or that it’s now a good idea to tell the wife, “You ain’t got the guts to pull that trigger,” (never wanna play that scene that way, no matter what the rate is)"

What, you couldn't have told me that two weeks ago? Thanks for nothing.

I'm going to call bullshit on spurwing plover.

The points he made are legitimate.

Where is the Left's moral outrage over 16 THOUSAND deaths? We see them freaking out over the 1980 US deaths in Iraq, why are those deaths more of an outrage than the ones here?

Oh wait, those make a political point.

The points he made are legitimate.

The points he makes are banal. He flies over every thread, plops a brain dead one-liner with every third word misspelled, and flaps off to the next one. If he's a troll, he's a bore. If he's legitimate, he's a maroon.

If he's a troll, he's a bore. If he's legitimate, he's a maroon.

You get an "amen" from me, Brother Weasel.

I'd swear he's spam, but I can't figure out what he's selling.

There was an oped in the LA Times this weekend (I'd link it, but ace's censor software won't let me) about prisons and rehabilitation. If you want to read it, Google the title: These jampacked joints don't make you safe.

The article has some standard lefty boilerplate (i.e. "Just locking people up is bad, 'mkay?") and some good points, too.

But check out the end, where the author sez:

...the public needs to understand that criminal behavior is not simply caused by a failure of moral willpower, but results from a constellation of factors, including dysfunctional schools, poor healthcare, single-parent households and the lack of economic opportunity.

Hey ed:

If it were a simple matter of redefinition, then how could that alone cause a steady decline in the reported statistic?

Lets suppose you are right. There is a constant X thousand incident per year rate, but in 1995 the statistic is redefined so that only 50% of those incidents count anymore. So, your incident rate would look like this...

Year Incidents (1000s)
---------------------
1993 X
1994 X
1995 0.8X
1996 0.8X
1997 0.8X
1998 0.8X
1999 0.8X
2000 0.8X
2001 0.8X
2002 0.8X
2003 0.8X
2004 0.8X
2005 0.8X

Instead, a steady decline looks like this:
Year Incidents (1000s)
---------------------
1993 1.2X
1994 1.1X
1995 0.8X
1996 0.8X
1997 0.8X
1998 0.8X
1999 0.7X
2000 0.7X
2001 0.7X
2002 0.7X
2003 0.6X
2004 0.6X
2005 0.6X

It is impossible for a step measurement change to produce a steady decline

All the potential murderers are so busy playing "25 to Life" or "GTA:SA" they don't have time to commit actual murders.

Any thoughts on the derivation on spurwings' name? Causes a painful and annoying brain itch that I cant scratch. OK, back to flinging poo.

Hmm. Spurwing plover.
Spur-Wing-P-Lover

This guy loves the San Antonio Spurs, the Detroit Redwings, and P.

What?
Feck you!
Can you guys do any better?

The points he makes are banal. He flies over every thread, plops a brain dead one-liner with every third word misspelled, and flaps off to the next one. If he's a troll, he's a bore. If he's legitimate, he's a maroon.

Gee, who died and made you Ace? Not every post has to amuse or entertain you. If you don't like brain dead one-liners, talk to Jack and Sean. Only heard their jokes a million times. [sorry guys, just trying to make a point. post what you want.]

Yeah all those rivers of blood that was suppost to have been flowing throught the streets of our cities whan king williams gun ban ended all those liberal columists out there like chicken little claiming all this bull kaka about a higher crime rate but it dont kind of like when KENNISHAW GEORGIA made a city ordenence making everyone carry a gun then its the state of FLORIDA makes a law saying a person can defend themself without fear of being sued by some greedy trial lawyers or sent to prison by antigun city officials and the usial rediclous blabbering by the liberal news media it looks like the New York Times Vulture went down south expecting a feast and is starving to death instead oh i love it when the libeeal news media is wrong in a big way

See, I still don't get him either. Not everything he says is self-defeating like your typical moby-troll posing as a freeper, but everything he says IS mind-numbing. Literally. And he doesn't discuss, he just squawks and moves on. He missed everything in this thread about him. It's like someone's kid brother trying hard to fit in.