538: "U.S. Murder Rate Is Up But Still Far Below Its 1980 Peak"
09/25/2017
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

From FiveThirtyEight, a typical MSM handling of the unfortunate statistics released today by the FBI:

The U.S. Murder Rate Is Up But Still Far Below Its 1980 Peak

By Jeff Asher

SEP. 25, 2017 AT 9:55 AM

The number of murders rose 8.6 percent nationwide in 2016, according to the FBI’s newest round of crime statistics, released Monday. There were an estimated 17,250 murders1 last year, up from 15,883 in 2015. The murder rate also rose for a second straight year, but it’s still roughly where it was in 2008, far below the levels of the 1980s and early 1990s.

So, nationally, the homicide rate is up over 20% since 2014, the year of Ferguson and BLM. That’s over 4,400 more dead bodies in the last two years of the Obama Administration than if the homicide totals had simply stayed at the 2014 level for 2015 and 2016.

That is a lot of extra dead people.

The biggest increases in homicides have typically been seen where BLM has had its biggest successes, such as Baltimore and Chicago.

But, that doesn’t matter to the press because the homicide rate is still lower than in 1980 at the peak of the Miami Vice powder cocaine wars and in 1991 at the peak of the NWA crack cocaine wars!

What if the Trump Administration in 2018 launched a huge campaign to roll back car safety and traffic regulations and sent the Justice Department to crack down on local police departments targeting speeders?

And say the number of traffic deaths increased over 20% by 2020, with locations of increased accidents being largely in cities targeted by the Trump Department of Justice and Trump’s affiliated #FastDrivesLegal pressure group.

Would we all be saying, “Well, sure, deaths are up 20% in two years … but they are still down since 1980, so it’s irresponsible to blame Trump”? Would statistical analysts be saying, “Yeah, but no Ford Pintos have exploded on Trump’s watch, so what are you bellyaching about?”

[Comment at Unz.com]

Print Friendly and PDF