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Tag: crime

  • Conservatives on Trayvon

    I’m a little shocked to see so many conservatives (on social media, mostly) not exactly defend the killing of Trayvon Marin, but try and turn the tables or say, “what’s the big deal?”

    I’ve heard or read all of the following:

    1) Zimmerman had his nose broken before he shot.

    2) Blacks kill whites all the time.

    3) Holder is a racist.

    4) We only care about this because the victim was black and the killer wasn’t (see #2).

    5) We shouldn’t judge because we don’t know all the facts.

    6) Actually, the Stand Your Ground law shouldn’t apply in this situation.

    All this talk is insane. What people do not understand is that people are most upset not at the crime or the race of the victim, but because the killer of an innocent teenager hasn’t been charged with a crime!

    Why is this so hard to grasp?

    Sure, some who don’t understand the point are just racist. But most, I think, actually just have such a gut reaction to any perceived liberal issue that they just take the other side.

    If, after all, you think the country is at war with liberals and white-hating Obama and socialists and the 2nd Amendment and national health care, you can’t let your guard down just because one innocent kid was killed.

    Why is it so hard to let your culture-war guard down and say, gosh, maybe the NRA and Republicans advocated a bad law and maybe Trayvon shouldn’t have been followed, assaulted, and killed? And maybe the killer should be charged with a crime, to be settled in a court of law.

    Update: If (like many liberals I know) you haveno conservative friends, see this piece for an example of “not getting it” and to learn what the other side is saying:

    Last weekend in the city of Chicago alone, gangbangers slaughtered ten people and wounded another forty. The youngest fatality is only six years old. The youngest person wounded is only one-year-old. Many of the victim were pedestrians sprayed with bullets in drive by shootings. The national news has said nothing about this.

    So why does one shooting in Florida warrant weeks of national news? Why has there been thousands of articles a day, for the last four days, about one single shooting?

    Almost all of the news items about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin contains a combination of false statements, opinions presented as facts, transparent distortions, and a complete absence of some of the most relevant details.

    …

    I think you will come to the conclusion that the “mainstream” clearly is pushing an agenda. Even when they have to grossly alter and adjust a story to fit that agenda.

  • Procedural versus substantive justice

    There’s a great review of William Stuntz’s book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (which I have but have not read). Stuntz was conservative, just FYI. The review is by Leon Neyfakh in the Boston Globe. Stuntz’s point is that procedural justice is not the same is real justice. And the trend towards the former, encouraged by liberals, has actually screwed everything up. It’s quite convincing, at least in summary form. Neyfakh explains it well, particularly how well intentioned layers have helped screw everything up, with their misguided faith in the magic of procedure:

    At the heart of the book is Stuntz’s surprising argument about how we reached this point: that well-intentioned Supreme Court rulings meant to protect defendants from unfair and discriminatory police practices combined with the harsh laws passed in response to the crime wave of the 1960s and ’70s to produce a system that is merciless, destructive, and above all, unjust.
    …
    Stuntz described it as a chain reaction, set off by the fact that the court had focused all its efforts on procedure, and had failed to impose any substantive limits on what legislators could criminalize and the punishments they could impose.
    …
    In effect, those rights that the Warren Court gave defendants have become bargaining chips, to be traded away by defense attorneys in exchange for shorter sentences.
    …
    The practical result, Stuntz writes, is that the criminal justice system is now anything but local, and mostly indifferent to the people whose lives are most directly affected by it. Poor minorities who live in the urban neighborhoods with the most crime are living under laws passed to please middle-class voters who live elsewhere, and processed by a system built to force a guilty plea rather than determine whether they actually deserve to go to prison.
    …
    “It is the lawyer’s conceit to believe, on some level, that if you can get the procedure to be perfect, that will ensure that the results will be perfect,” said Joseph Hoffmann, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who has known Stuntz since the two of them clerked together on the Supreme Court. “It’s the way most lawyers look at the world….They would say procedural justice is how you get to substantive justice.”

    Alas, the real world doesn’t work that way.

  • You Can’t Blame the Police

    I wrote in the New York Times:

    Much — though by no means all — of the disproportionate rate of blacks stopped, frisked, arrested, convicted and imprisoned is a simple reflection of violence in poor African-American communities. Like robbing banks because that’s where the money is, the obvious reason police focus so much of their attention on the young male black community is because that is where the murders are.

    It’s not politically correct to say so, but reality isn’t politically correct. Over 90 percent of New York City’s 536 murder victims last year were black or Hispanic. Just 48 victims were white or Asian. The rate of white homicide in the city (1.18 per 100,000) is incredibly low, even by international standards.

    This is from a greater “debate” titled “Young, Black and Male in the United States.” What’s odd about these New York Times’s “debates” is that they’re not debates. There are eight people contributing (for no pay) independently of each other, none of whom have any idea what the others are saying. This may or may not lead to good points being made, but it is a bit of shame it’s not a real debate.

    Update: And a few stats that didn’t make it in my piece, for reasons of relevancy and style.

    Leaving aside domestic violence, how many of the roughly 1.3 million white women in New York City were murdered last year by a stranger (ie: leaving out the 34 cases of domestic-related violence)?

    Zero. Zero.

    And 31% of domestic violence murder victims were male. Because compared to other locales, in terms of crime New York has a strangely broad definition of “domestic.” In most places domestic violence means you are or have had sex with somebody. In New York it means living under the same roof.

  • What Kind of Country?

    A very good episode of This American Life. Specifically about Trenton, paying too much tax, paying too little tax, budget cuts, and policing. Notice (what is still denied by many academics) the basic link between cutting police, ineffective policing, and rising crime. Or course it could always be just coincidence. Except it isn’t.

    [thanks to Admiral de Ruiterweg]

  • “We have to be enraged at this point”

    So says, again and again, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

    I’m rarely shocked by murders. Nine-month-old shot and killed by a “stray” bullet? 12-year-old girl killed in similar (but separate) circumstances? 6-year-old critically injured after being shot by a 15-year-old with an AK47 in an attempted carjacking? (OK, that last one did make me do a bit of a double take).

    Horribly, it’s just the same-old same-old. The rest of American A) doesn’t care and/or B) can’t figure out what to do.

    But a 14-year-old (who was on the high-school swim team and in ROTC) killing his momfor not letting him hang out with losers? I’m actually shocked. From the same Detroit News:

    Tamiko Robinson, 36, who was fatally shot — relatives say by her teenage son — as she was sleeping about 3 a.m. Monday.

    Family members say Robinson’s 14-year-old son, who is in custody, shot his mother because he was mad she wouldn’t let him hang out with friends.

    “He just wanted to hang with the thugs,” said Robinson’s brother….

    “He said his mother won’t let him have friends; he said his mother won’t let him bring his girlfriends over; his mother won’t let him stay out until 11 o’clock at night,” Roberts said. “He’s 14 years old.”

    Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine how two people died after their burning bodies were found early Monday on Detroit’s west side.

    Oy.

    Here’s a Fox TV clip where the victim’s brother says what happened.

    Mayor Bing said: “What we are living with today is totally unacceptable.”

    What is the answer?

    Update: Meanwhile I see we areenraged. When innocent white boys get killed. National front page headlines. And please don’t ask why I had to play the race card. Why do we care so much more when the victims are white? We either care about innocent shooting victims or we don’t.

    A lot of people (and a lot of cops) say, “well the black community doesn’t care about black-on-black crime.” Well they do. You just never hear them talk. I mean, have you ever heard of Mayor Bing? I hadn’t.

    I would mention guns. But what’s the point in talking about America’s gun culture and the lack of gun control? That battle is lost.

    As my favorite penguin says:

    Relax. Your paranoid political fantasies notwithstanding, no one’s going to take your guns away!

    Barring some seismic realignment in this country, the gun control debate is all but settled–and your side won. The occasional horrific civilian massacre is just the price the rest of us have to pay.

    Over and over again, apparently.

  • Another Day at the Office (II)

    From Sarah Armaghan in the Daily News:

    Sgt. Craig Bier and Officer Donnell Myers [were] in an unmarked car … when the gunfire started.

    Myers, who was in the driver’s seat, whipped his head around to see Chinloy squeezing off shots from a .40-caliber Glock handgun at some people in front of a store, police said.

    “When Officer Myers looks over his [left] shoulder, he sees the muzzle flash on the firearm as the guy is shooting toward the group,” a police source said. “They were right there.”

    …

    When Myers stopped the car, Chinloy came charging at them – the gun still in his hand, a police source said.

    With their guns drawn and badges on display, the cops ordered the man to drop his weapon.

    The Crip threw his weapon to the ground, police said.

    Bier – who has spent four years of his 14-year NYPD career in the gang unit – and Myers, an eight-year vet with three years in the gang unit, quickly collared the teen, police sources said.

  • What the F*ck?!

    I’m just catching up on the news. Those riots at Penn State? Really?

    There has been lots of intelligent discussion on this matter elsewhere. So I won’t add to that. But I do feel the need to say what’s on my mind: It’s absolutely f*cking amazing what white people can sometimes get away with!

    Or put it this way: Just imagine if this had happened at an H.B.C. like Howard University. The president himself would be blamed and asked to explain and apologize and condemn.

    Or instead of race, think of religion: What if Catholics rioted in defense of priests covering up rape? Hard to imagine.

    Drunk and entitled frat-boy college-sports culture is perhaps the worst strain of mainstream American society that isn’t just tolerated but actually encouraged by otherwise intelligent people.

    But what do I know? I never cared about my school’s teams (except when I was playing).

  • How many strikes do you need?

    You know, I’m against “three strikes and you’re out.” It’s too expensive and doesn’t deter. But the case could be made for “20 strikes and we’ll lock you up till you’re 50” (admittedly, it lacks a certain jingoistic ring). But seriously, at some point you do have to keep “them” (people certain to offend) away from “us” (everybody else).

    The Times reports on a robbery and attempted murder: “Mr. Milton and Mr. Louree are both from Brooklyn and have previously been arrested more than 20 times each.” They don’t really need another chance.

  • Burglary, Guns, and the UK

    One of the thing 2nd-Amendment advocates love pointing out is the England has a much higher burglary rate than the US. Best I can tell this is due the mostly to the publications of one professor.

    The subtext (or main text) of the more guns equals fewer burglaries argument, of course, is that if the government restricts guns (the U.K. has strict gun control laws) then burglars become fearless and break into our home, steal our property, and rape our children.

    In the US, thanks to God and guns, we shootour burglars. Ergo there are fewer burglaries. Hence our properties (and children) are safe.

    Could be true… but I’ve always been skeptical of this line of thought. Mostly because I simply do not believe that anycrime (except public drunkenness, hare coursing, and being pale and chinless) is more common in Britain than the U.S.

    Well best I can figure (looking at those pesky figures we call “facts”) burglary in the U.S. is much more common than burglary in the U.K.

    So why the confusion? Over here in England and Wales (that’s a statistical unit in the U.K., which is really what I’m refering to when I say the U.K.), if you’re trying to get into a property with intent to “cause damage,” that’s burglary. “Attempted burglaries” are counted as burglaries in the U.K. Not in the U.S. In the U.K., you don’t have to steal something to be a burglar. You don’t even have to break in!

    Now I’m not here to tell you which is a better definition of burglary. Frankly, I don’t give a damn. But I do want to point out that the official stats for burglary in the U.K. are going to be much higher than the official stats for burglary in the U.S. because burglary in the U.K. is defined much more broadly.

    In the U.S., a UCR-defined burglary means you broke into a place to commit theft. In the U.S., criminal trespassing as a seperate charge. In the U.K. it’s burglary. In the U.K., even attemptedcriminal trespassing is burglary. That makes a big difference in the stats.

    So what are the stats?

    Each year, according the UCR, there are roughly 2.2 million reported burglaries in the U.S. With 311 million people, that’s a U.S. burglary rate of about 700 (per 100,000).

    According to NCVS (survey) data, there are 3 million burglaries in the US, or a rate of 960.

    In England and Wales, the BCS is the equivalent of the NCVS (in that it’s based on random survey). According to the BCS estimate, there were 745,000 domestic burglaries in the last fiscal year. But get this… and this matters:

    [Just] three in five domestic burglaries involved entry (452,000, the remainder were attempted burglaries) and about two in five involved loss(298,000, the rest being accounted for by burglaries with no loss, including attempts).

    So by U.S. definitions there would be 298,000 burglaries in England and Wales. Given 53-million people, this is a burglary rate of 560 per 100,000, lower than the equivalent U.S. rate of 960.

    Now let’s look at reported crime (the UCR equivalent): “The police [in England and Wales] recorded 258,148 domestic burglaries in 2010/11.” Assuming that same ratio of “2-in-5 involved entry” holds true (and it may not), then by the UCR definition there would be about 100,000 police-recorded burglaries in England and Wales. This is a rate of 200, much lower than the equivalent U.S. rate of 700 per 100,000.

    No matter how you slice it, there is more burglary in the U.S. than England and Wales. And we have more guns. Many more guns. Seems like this matters, especially if you believe that more guns equal fewer burglaries. You’re not going to find supporting evidence in the U.K.

    So what do gun lovers have to say? I don’t know. But usually they comment pretty freely.

  • Irene Crime

    One last bit on crime in New York City during Irene:

    There were about 30 arrests citywide for crimes committed between midnight and 7:30 a.m. during a police tour of duty that roughly matched the duration of the storm’s approach and arrival. (An earlier estimate of 45 arrests — described by the mayor as proving the inherent goodness of New Yorkers — included crimes committed earlier.) Last year, in the same period, there were about 345 arrests.
    …
    The weather played a … direct role in some: When an officer in the Bronx said he saw Davian McCarthy, 28, carrying a revolver in his waistband, he noted, while arresting the man, that the gun had been carefully wrapped in plastic.