Quotes
“An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious – just dead wrong.”
“I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.”
Background
Data cited in this article as to crime and fear of crime is available in Violent and Property Crime Rates In The U.S.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Statistics for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council.
Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public Affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former police officer. Retired federal senior spokesperson.
Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Produced successful state anti-crime media campaigns.
Thirty-five years of directing award-winning (50+) public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed thousands of times by every national news outlet, often with a focus on crime statistics and research. Created the first state and federal podcasting series. Produced a unique and emulated style of government proactive public relations.
Certificate of Advanced Study-The Johns Hopkins University.
Author of Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization available at Amazon and additional booksellers.
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Daily news summations on crime, violent crime, law enforcement, and the justice system are offered under “Google Crime News” in the banner of this website.
Opinion
The US Department of Justice released data for 2022 and 2023 documenting the fact that America recorded the largest increase (approximately 44 percent) in violent crime in our nation’s history through the National Crime Victimization Survey.
The overwhelming majority of the media and those who write about crime ignored or belittled it.
When I analyzed this data through articles, the pushback via social media was enormous. I was banned from multiple Reddit groups and called every name in the book by people who embraced numbers offered by the FBI.
Indeed, crimes reported to law enforcement as compiled by the FBI are down and in the case of homicides, they are down considerably.
The problem is that an overwhelming number or percentage of crimes are never reported to law enforcement. There are so many additional factors that make reported crimes unreliable that it would take a separate article to record them all.
No, the National Crime Victimization Survey is not without its flaws “but” it records all crimes beyond homicides (you can’t interview dead people). It has a 50-year history embraced by many as a far superior method of counting criminal activity.
Trump cited the data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Others stuck to FBI numbers.
Fear Of Crime
Gallup recorded a record fear of crime in America. The US and Canada are the only sections of the world (beyond Sub-Saharan Africa) to record reductions in perceptions of safety.
Yet endless national publications ridiculed those expressing concerns about crime as being silly or irrational based on data from the FBI.
Yet Trump expressed concerns regarding fear of crime and Democrats did not.
Progressive Ideology
California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36 on Tuesday, capping a chaotic 10 months of bargaining and wrangling at the state Capitol where Democratic leaders unsuccessfully sought to preserve a decade of criminal justice reform.
Instead, the campaign to increase penalties for theft and repeated convictions for drug possession looks to have won out.
Proposition 36, opposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, reclassifies some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies.
The measure also creates a new category of crime — a “treatment-mandated felony.” People who don’t contest criminal charges after multiple drug possession convictions could complete drug treatment instead of going to prison, but if they don’t finish treatment, they still face up to three years in prison.
Progressive Prosecutors
Per early media accounts, progressive prosecutors are losing most (if not all) of their elections throughout the nation.
Conclusions
I’m not suggesting that Donald Trump is correct in all of his views on crime and Vice President Harris expressed many crime and justice concerns that deserve consideration.
But in the final analysis, on the crime issue, Black and Latino voters along with many others understood that they were being misled, and that made them sympathetic to Trump and his justice issues.
You simply cannot invalidate the feelings of American voters and win. One side embraced those feelings. Democrats did not.
There were endless references to Joe Biden’s campaign being immensely frustrated by progressives trying to push him in directions he did not want to go. James Carville warned Democrats that the party could not ignore voter perceptions of crime.
Violence was a legitimate concern. The public’s perceptions about crime were equally important.
Yet the vast majority of the mainstream media and advocates refused to embrace the data. I assume that any support for rising crime and fear supported Trump’s assertions and they would rather eat excrement than see Trump elected.
Thus we now have Trump as President-elect. We now have a Republican Senate and, in all probability, a Republican Congress.
It’s what happens when data and concerns are ignored. Great job mainstream media and advocates. You just gave the Republicans complete control over the executive and legislative branches.
In essence, you were less than honest and you paid the price.
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See More
See more articles on crime and justice at Crime in America.
Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.
US Crime Rates at Nationwide Crime Rates.
National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
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